Merlin's Curse

CHAPTER 21: Behavioral Oddity

Journal Entry #6

Alex!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I found Excalibur!

Ok, probably not what you think. A magical sword would be soooo cool, but I think this might be better. I bought a wireless brain harness and dubbed it Excalibur. Because I'm a wizard with her on my head.

Merlin the Wizard!

And I can't stop smiling. Zahir and Isa keep teasing me. They think I'm in love. And they're not wrong. But they are because every time they see me, they ask, "How's Gwendolyn's finest gentleman?"

Don't get me wrong. I like Gwen. But I'm 11. And she's kind of mad at me right now anyway. Do you ever get easily distracted? Well, she thinks I have ADHD. Bad. Maybe I do. Or maybe I just have a lot on my mind.

Like literally!

I mean, can you imagine what it's like to have instant access to anything on the internet when all you have to do is think about something? CRAZY fun and cool and sometimes kind of scary. At one point, I was thinking about Fydor and his creepy black spider tattoo. The next thing I know I'm being bombarded with frightening images of Russian Mafia. Because apparently, a tattoo of a spider crawling up it's web is symbolic of a Russian man choosing a life of crime!!!

Fydor's a criminal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, maybe not. I don't have proof—but he's a wanton criminal jerk. He freaks me out, and now...I'm terrified. I had to power off Excalibur after that. Not just because of unwanted nightmares. But because I was exhausted. Running three neural streams simultaneously is draining. I tried to spin up a fourth neural link and didn't come close.

Not enough frizzle. And Sooo hard!

Three's my limit, and even that doesn't always go well. Just ask Gwen. It's like riding a bike uphill while texting and having a conversation with someone on a bike next to you. Try not to crash. Because that's exactly what happened after my first night of using Excalibur. I missed my morning classes.

All of them.

Scientists call the phenomenon working memory capacity. And no, I didn't look this up on purpose. Excalibur's just amazing that way. Like Fydor and his spider. Or like Gwendolyn and...uh, never mind.

And little G...he's not so big on me. But he did say he tried to wake me up. Of all PCs, G said I took something from Pharmacist Hayes. When I asked G about Preston—the boy who died—he mostly stopped talking to me. He's like a tiny dark cloud wandering The Breakers. And I know why. Kind of.

I hacked Headmaster Hayes account.

Bad idea...I know. Maybe I should get a spider tattoo. Whoa, Alex...relax! I'm kidding. I like to think you're worried about me. Hope that's ok. But trust me—I never want to see a needle again in my life.

But I found out Hayes and Dr. McKenna are working together. And not in a good way. You remember how sick I got after the hybrid shot? A lot of PCs got sick. I think maybe something more than a vaccine was in those shots.

The only logical reason for Dr. McKenna to be involved is the X-chip.

But that's crazy, right? I mean, she is a doctor. So maybe that's just how the academy gets their medicine. But Hayes is licensed, too. And I can't help but think that maybe the X-chip has something to do with Preston's death. And Liam jumping off his desk in the middle of class. And my shocking nature.

Maybe even my wizardry.

But I don't know who I can trust. So I've been probing and scanning—a LOT. Especially Luke. He never got sick from the hybrid shot. He's also the new hero of DOOM because they won the BrainTech Hack event. Now their squad is miles ahead on the leader board. And Luke is happy. Sooo happy. Even Anila apologized to him for being so mean. And Zahir won't stop talking about Luke. How he must be a prodigy like his father. How they're going to build the greatest tech dynasty in the world.

And Luke this and Luke that.

But I know the truth. Luke knows the truth, too—and most likely Professor Atlas, even if he has no proof. After Luke thanked @makesomenoise for the help, I deleted the account and message thread. That's enough for me. That and seeing Luke finally emerge from DOOM's war room at 6am. The entire hack team surrounded him, patting him on the back, high-fiving him, and Fydor—glupyy, spider-armed Fydor—wrapping his hairy-legged arachnid around Luke like newly anointed best friends.

At least now I know Luke doesn't know anything. But I had to be sure. Maybe I'll get lucky and we can go to the beach together again sometime—find another seashell for my collection. Maybe one that isn't so knobby.

I checked out Jupiter, too, just to be safe. Other than over-aggressive parents who control every detail of her life—including her summer trip abroad, which is only happening if her squad doesn't finish in last place—she looks to be in the clear. At least now I know why she's so intense. And Fydor...other than his evil spider of crime, I can't find anything on him. He doesn't communicate with anyone. Not a single email or text message to anyone outside of the academy.

Super strange, right?

I checked out Bergen, the other squad leader as well. He has a perfect life. His father sends a weekly email to him. His text threads are full of heart emojis from his mom. And a loyal girlfriend checks in with him on the regular. I couldn't find anything on Professor Atlas or Professor Kaz. I think they're too paranoid to use school resources for anything but school.

But I'm running out of time.

Because Liam had another behavioral oddity. Last week, during DOOM's dance practice, he pranced his way to the top of a table and did a 360 spin into another Superman leap. No one caught him this time. He's lucky he didn't get hurt. Not badly, anyway.

Everyone thinks Liam is just being Liam—goofy and weird and looking for attention. Because he turns his episodic craziness into jokes. But he tells Luke everything—like when he whispered to him after a similar incident in our Cyber Security class. And on one of my hacks into Luke's laptop, I enabled his camera and saw them together in their dorm room. Liam was in tears. He doesn't know what's happening. And he's scared. But he made Luke promise not to tell anyone, so he won't get kicked out of the academy.

I'm worried sick about Liam.

Because I asked a number of other PCs about Preston, and several mentioned him acting strange for a couple of weeks before he died. When I asked Randall during a break at our dance practice, all that happy sunshine he radiates clouded over in an instant. I think he's been living in the eye of the storm since Preston died.

Not anymore.

The rest of practice was a disaster. Randall fell on his spins, went right when he said left, and missed most transitions between moves. Other PCs kept asking him if he was ok. He finally cancelled the session and blew out of the room like the hurricane-force winds upending his life.

But like G, he didn't tell me a thing.

And I can't find anything on BrainTech about the X-chip being tested or the possibility of illegal human trials. I hacked DOOM's hack. That was super fun—covering my tracks from both DOOM and BrainTech. Nothing but dead ends. If Dr. McKenna is up to something, she's probably smart enough to keep the trials off book, and in her case—off server.

The Skin Wars event is tomorrow. And I'm out of time. Or rather I think Liam is out of time. So I tricked G and Randall into a meetup tonight—just the two of them. The message I sent said: We need to talk. Don't tell anyone. 9pm tonight...where it happened. Don't reply!! And delete this message! Only they each thought the other PC sent the request.

They both showed up with ghostly faces—sickly pale. And droopy shoulders. Even Randall who normally has perfect posture. When I stepped out from a thicket of bushes they almost ran.

Until I yelled, "I know what happened!"

Ok, I lied. But not really. Because my working assumption is right. Preston didn't fall off the cliff. He hopped the fence and dove off—full send, Superman style.