The Boarding School

The Lucas Brothers

Katelyn Stone

Katelyn jumped at the gentle knock at her door. She slid off her bed and opened the door to Scott. She opened it wider and he came in. "What's up?" he asked lightly. She'd called him earlier that morning and begged him to come, so despite his tone, he was well aware the situation, whatever it was, was not light. Katelyn stared at him. "What?" he asked, his voice adopting a tone with a bit more seriousness.

She opened her mouth, but hesitated. Was there a good way of putting this? If there was, she was failing to think of it. "Hugh contacted me. The troops he's associated with is a county militia led by a Heinen and Knowles." She paused. Scott waited expectantly. "DC made a move on the county and abducted several of their elected leaders. Hugh wants to rescue them."

Scott began to shake his head. A small smile was painted across his face and a shallow laugh erupted. "First off, I don't see what I can do to help. Second, this is grossly illegal."

"Scott, I saw Damien." His smile disappeared. "He was here the other week while Hugh was here. I contacted him, too. He's coming. He's going to help."

Scott shook his head again, "I don't understand. Help with what?"

"Heinen wants their address to the county to be aired. DC will try to block it, and Hugh thought between you and Damien, you could override them. Could you?"

"I could try." Scott had his computers set up and was already working on the problem when they heard a tap on the door. Katelyn opened the door and Damien came in. Scott looked up. For a second, Katelyn could have sworn his eyes became glassy, but at the same instant he grinned, his eyes becoming small, and stood. "Hey!" he came over and reached for his brother.

"Hey," Damien greeted him breathlessly, welcoming with disbelief Scott's hug. The two embraced for several seconds before releasing each other. "Scott," Damien began.

Scott shook his head, "I'm just glad to see you again."

Damien nodded, "Yeah. Yeah, I'm glad to see you, too, little bro."

"Hah!" Scott shook his head, sitting back down at his laptop, "I think I'm taller than you are now."

Damien sat down, too, and took out his equipment, "No way."

"Yeah, definitely," countered Scott playfully, typing on his computer. "Did you talk to Hugh?"

"Yeah, the mercenary," his brother replied, his voice indicating distaste, "Essentially what we need to do is prevent DC from taking the address off the air."

"What about getting it on the air?"

"The merce gave me a contact in the county. I contacted her before I came here. She told me there are several local stations that are willing to air it and a buddy of mine is working on getting some contacts with national stations to see if we can use their channels."

"No national station will let you use their channel," Scott declared without doubt, shaking his head.

"No," Damien agreed, "but we aren't exactly asking." Scott's face broke into a smile and he laughed. Despite the gravity of the situation, Katelyn noted an air of brotherly playfulness with them. She'd always remembered how fun it was to be on a team with the Lucas brothers. No matter how stressful the situation, they always seemed to keep things cheery and positive. Of course, they'd never had their lives threatened either. "You know you aren't as secure as you think you are? I have programs running inside the national network."

"Did," Scott corrected Damien's attempt to poke at him, "Past tense is appropriate, because I was on the team that booted you out and fixed the firewall. You and your friends won't ever be getting past it, by the way."