The Maplethorn Initiative (Book 1, The Maplethorn Series)

Exposed & Erased

"Hello?" Luther Gates had clearly just been woken up and was not at all happy about it.

"Mr. Gates?" Keegan asked in a passable—if cartoonish—impression of Benjamin Bensen.

"Speaking," the counselor snapped. "Who's this?"

"Why this is Dr. Bensen, of course!"

"Bensen? Why the hell are you calling me at home? And since when do you call me mister?"

Keegan cleared his throat. "Sorry. I know it's late."

"Yes, it's late. What do you want?"

"I need you to meet me in my office as soon as possible."

"Drexler and Kinsler are back. I assumed you'd want to know."

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Yeah. Yeah, I do. Where are they now?"

"In my office."

"Don't do anything until I get there."

"Of course not," Keegan said and returned the phone's handset to its cradle.

"Are you sure we can trust him?" Cam asked.

"The doc said room thirteen was a—what did he call it? A private arrangement between the commandant's office and medical."

"So?"

"So, Bensen admitted he lied to Gates about sending me to Keel," Keegan elaborated. "That means Gates isn't part of the dirty doctor's master plan. I think if we show him what's going on under his nose, he'll go kick some asses on our behalf."

"You really think he'd do that?"

"You've met the man, right? He lives to ass-kick."

Cam turned to Tober. "The weeks you spent running around here invisible, did you see anything that made you think Gates and Bensen were buddy, buddy?"

"Those two hate each other," Tober drawled. "Mr. Gates only sends kids to Dr. Bensen as a last resort."

Cam gave a small nod. "That's good enough for me."

"Plus, Gates was in Dodson's vision, so he's gonna be here either way," Keegan said, putting his feet up on the doctor's desk. "Might as well have him on our side."

•  •  •

Half an hour later, there were two sharp knocks on Benjamin Bensen's door, and Luther Gates let himself in. He found cadets Kinsler and Drexler standing at attention in front of the doctor's desk—both out of uniform.

"Where is Dr. Bensen?" Gates demanded.

"Not here, sir!" Keegan barked.

"Oh, he's not here?" the counselor asked, feigning civility. "Thank you for clearing that up, cadet. Where is he?!"

"Downstairs, sir," Cam answered meekly.

Gates ran his tongue across the backs of his teeth. "You boys are in a whole lot of trouble. You know that, right?"

"Yes, sir," Cam and Keegan said together.

"No one knows what happened to Cadet Sunderland. There are all kinds of..." The counselor paused. "Crazy theories I keep hearing, but none of them sound crazy enough to be the truth. So, which one of you is finally going to enlighten me?"

Tober cleared his throat.

"Sunderland?" Gates' eyes bulged in disbelief. "How did I not see you there?"