The Itus Institute

Chapter 7

The time I spent with my parents flew away so quickly that it seemed like no time had passed at all between the phone call and waving them away. Once I had seen the resident nurse, a man who seemed hideously overqualified, I walked through the school with them, barely stopping to look at the classrooms and facilities, I noted that everything was high tech and brand spanking new but my attention was on my parents, I wasn't letting what might be the last time I saw them go. I did notice however that we stayed very much away from certain areas, we avoided a staircase leading down to some kind of basement like it was infected with the plague and skipped out random rooms on our visit.

The school was enormous, but the place that stood out to me among all of it was the gym. It was full to bursting with self defence kit, stuff I would have killed to be able to train with, even I couldn't keep a smile off my face at the simulators and animatronic dummies, I was itching to try them out. But I quickly remembered my place and a scowl etched itself onto my face when I noticed Redbridge looking.

My parent fell in love with the place, signing the contracts with ease before saying a teary goodbye, promising to see me at the end of the week.

"I love you sweetie, have fun. But remember, don't feel pressured to stay, if you don't like it or you're not comfortable then you leave. No questions asked. All I ask is that you try it and see how it goes."

And then they were gone.

And I was dragged straight back into the conference room and plonked down right next to James. He grunted in acknowledgement, already looking like someone had socked him in the balls and I sighed, knowing this couldn't be good.

"Welcome to the Itus Institute Alycia. As I'm sure you've guessed already, we are not simply a school, we are an institute designed solely for the purpose of spotting talent and training and producing-"

"Spies?" I cut in, revelling slightly at the look of annoyance on Redbridge's face as I ruint his speech "Yeah, I gathered that much. There's no way you'd have gotten my information so soon without a genuine clean connection to the government and their databases. Your hired help look military, very clean cut and freshly shaven and they actually follow orders, not the kind of goons usually hired by typically less respected organisations, they're government issue, as are the guns in their pockets."

I could practically feel James's eyes rolling next to me. But I ignored it, choosing instead to glare at the man and ask jauntily "So what now? I clearly don't want to be here and neither does Jamesy boy, what are you making him do?"

Redbridge sighed deeply, looking ten years older as he slowly sat down. "Your desire to be anywhere but here had produced a problem. You are far to valuable to go to waste and far to intelligent and good at escaping," his eyes flickered to James who scowled harder "to be kept against your will. Luckily, James here has something to prove to us, having let you escape repeatedly, he needs to show us that he can handle an asset and you need to be... handled."

I had to restrain myself from punching the guard as they slid the metal cuff around my wrist, knowing I'd only be restrained using less amiable methods if I did so. Nevertheless, I couldn't stop my jaw clenching or my hands forming tight fists as the other cuff was attached to James' wrist.

"Until we are sure you are safe and do not pose a threat you will be spending a lot of time with Mr Carter here and don't even talk to me about toilet and shower breaks. I don't care how you sort it but the handcuffs stay on." he threw a key across the table and it landed between me and James. Neither of us moved to pick it up, our arms stuff and our jaws clenched. "Your room key." Redbridge said as he passed by us, "Enjoy."

And then he was gone.

................................................................

It took us at least ten minutes to even move, I think we were both trying to get our tempers under control, focusing on breathing and nothing else but eventually I reached out my hand and picked up the key, watching James' shoulders slump as he let out a deep breath and massaged his forehead. I felt a pang of guilt for the kid, I had kind of messed everything up for him since the moment I arrived. But it wasn't enough for me to let him sit around moping all night.