High Energy Collision [Completed]

Chapter 33 - The King

"Come on, don't be naïve. We know she's clever. Why should she use her real name?"

Viola's face was still in the make-up she had worn at the restaurant and Mean still thought she looked like a clown.

They had all met up in Mean's room for a debriefing, and Viola had just found out that there was nobody at the journalism and media department called Sarah or Sara or Sari or anything of that sort.

"Look on the bright side... at least we know we're looking for a she," Mean suggested.

Viola inhaled sharply, not hiding her annoyance.

"That doesn't mean anything, if we don't have a proper name. For all we know, she could be enrolled under a boy's name."

Mean frowned.

Damn it.

"Do you think a guy like Cameron would call her a she in that case? He's a foreigner."

Viola shrugged.

"Don't forget that his family has been stationed here for years, he has attended school here. He is fluent in Thai. And besides... Most Westerners aren't that ignorant anymore."

"Most maybe, but he's a douche..."

With a sigh, Viola let herself drop next to Mean on the bed. Mean was glad that Plan was sitting on the other side of him, at least, and that everyone in the room now knew about them, so there was no need to hide anything.

He would have an axe to grind with her, later, anyway. About her brother; who was back to his disinterested self, barely invested in their quest once more.

"Look, Meanie. I want it to be easy, too. I want it to be one of the female students, too... but we can't afford to discard the option. She is clever. We know that. And she apparently was clever enough to keep safeguards up even against her own stupid club members."

"At least we can be reasonably sure that she's after Mean," Rose threw in, "Cameron is an idiot and it was tedious sitting through a date with him – but it was obvious that wanted to impress me and he's too dense to lie at that moment."

Mean nodded.

"I suspected that before; that she's after me. All of her articles were targeting me indirectly, even if they were not about me... except the last one, maybe. Maybe... maybe nobody was named, because she wants to pin it on me eventually?"

Viola glared at him.

"Mean... if you suspected that, why didn't you tell me?"

He glared right back.

"As if you ever tell me everything you're doing. Is it true what he said," he nodded in the direction of Vic, who looked like he was half asleep on Mean's desk chair from boredom, "that you asked him to check if I was gay?"

"Can we focus on the Black Hand problem?"

For a moment, Mean contemplated throwing everyone out... everyone except Plan, of course, and just discuss this with him alone.

Here he was, finding out that his best friend had played him, at the same time as he was finding out that the scary leader of Black Hand was after him personally.

Damn, he needed Viola in that fight. But he also didn't really trust her at the moment.

He could accept that she collected information instinctively and played her games, that was just something she did – but inciting her brother to act creepy with him, whether Vic had misinterpreted Viola's request or not didn't matter, and having him insinuate he would go after Plan... when she suspected that he had a crush on him... that was just... too much.