Cyberwitch Academy: Learn or Burn

Chapter 87

"What the hell are we doing on Canvey anyway?"

Vash calls out to nobody in particular while she rifles one of the many containers scattered around the cavernous interior of this old Gas Holder. But there is no echo, I notice as the walls are lined with soundproofing.

Mel steps out of a tiny house. One of the four little wooden and glass cottages propped up on concrete blocks arranged like a tiny village around the central fire pit. Typical Weaver safe house, extravagant, expensive, even when it's meant to be a fox hole. One day I'll find out where all the money comes from. Not today.

"I don't know where we're going until we arrive, kids. We're a cell. The less we know the less we can give away if we get caught."

I'm too excited to really listen. I have a computer for the first time since I left the Republic of NYC. I've been banned from using the internet since I set food on this godforsaken Island. But now the Weavers have decided I'm less dangerous with a traditional laptop than I am with the Rhizome, and they've given me a very expensive deck to play with.

"So why are we still on the run? I thought they shut down the hunt."

I know they gave me this tech partly to sweeten the deal because I'm wearing an ankle bracelet transmitting a live feed of my rhizomatic data straight to the Gap. They're monitoring the Glitch. I actually don't mind; I'd rather know I'm not gonna melt down and kill my coven sisters before the Weavers can intervene. But I don't tell them that.

"The restricted technologies act hasn't changed Ty. We're still very much illegal. They're just reconsidering their approach to policing us. Canvey Island is the last place on Earth the Republic of London would come looking for us. Canvey is a fortress, and the people here hate witches more than anyone."

I'm running back and forth between my new computer and the cooking station Vash set up for me. I got a big old pot of beans on an induction hob plugged into a gas generator. Not gas like petroleum but liquid propane, Vash tells me. Vash is now trying to get the heating online. We're all wearing massive coats.

In any case, Ursula is still a target for every Scav, Corpo, Merc and Puritan in London. She's a trillion-dollar experiment.

Still not really listening. I got a sweet program I'm cooking up. Still working on my Tinker Bell project. Trying to refactor her as a sidekick, or whatever they call it, a familiar to follow me around the Gap.

Then I smell the sound of something burning. Shit. The beans.

"Still a trillion-dollar idiot. When's dinner, Ursula?"

Goddamit. I'm trying to find the button to bring the temperature down. I realise they're all just standing there, looking at me.

"It's not my fault!" And it's true, I never even saw a cooker that couldn't tell when it was burning food. Goddam museum tech in a Weaver Safe House.

Priya laughs, and it goes right through me. I feel cold chills down my spine. I feel the ankle bracelet spring into life, nobody would feel it without the implants I have. But I sense it, listening to my nervous system.

"No, nothing ever is." Ty mutters.

And I look at them. Thinking all they ever did was try to take advantage of me. Now the twins are back with Grandma. They're free. No case against them could stick. They can go back to a normal school. Dad still has no idea where I am. And I'm following these idiots.

Screw these hopeless vagrants and their dopey cult. I'm going back to Manhattan where I belong.

But I don't say any of it. Because it isn't true. I need them so much it makes me feel sick. I can't leave now; I've come too far. I want to know more. I want so bad to go back to the Secret School. I want to make it up to these guys because I know I've hurt them all.

"You're right Ty." I can hear the collective sigh of relief.

"I'm gonna fix it. I promise. I'm gonna make the best beans you ever had in your life."

And take the pan and work it clean. Scrubbing the burnt parts out of the bottom. And I'm talking to myself happily, while I summon up shivers to seek out information about cookers, about beans, about potential alterations to the molecular structure of beans, about taste buds and flavour and aroma and the psychology of eating, and I'm planning a script for an AI that can cook the greatest beans humanity has ever known.

"You know my mom made the greatest beans ever. Maybe I have it in me too."

I pretend not to hear Vash groaning.

Then suddenly she shouts with joy. "Heating is on!"

Mel is by my side, puts her hand on my shoulder and grips me hard.

"Ursula, stop. Let beans be beans."

And I immediately start crying.

"I don't want to lose you guys, I'm sorry I put you through so much."

Mel takes me into her chest for a deep cuddle, her strong hands cupping my skull.

"You're anxious. We all are. Waiting for this phone call."

And I realise it's true, this whole time I've been driving myself crazy trying not to think about it, the decision whether or not I can be readmitted to the Secret School.

But something clicks. And we sit down and eat together. And we chat and laugh and joke. And I'm not scared anymore.

Then the message comes.

I'm back in.

We'reall students at the Cyberwitch Academy again.