Page 258 of Light Leech

“Zeg, what’s your problem?” Boyband grumbled.

“I wasn’t hungry a minute ago, but the need to feed is starting to hit me.”

“Eat her teeth when you’re done then.”

She winked at him. “If you insist. Alright, alright, back to work. Parkie was able to uncover a plethora of her encrypted searches, but they lack clarity, as do her messages with outside parties. What I can tell is that Sanna and her have contradictory histories, so I’m sure Shanna was an actual person, not a construct for the sake of her machinations. She met with Shanna a few times as an applicant for teaching history and was offered a job at Water Hills, which she then declined.”

“Why?” Boyband asked.

“The application was under another name. Looks like she had the qualifications–fabricated or not–but had no intentions of staying. She must’ve used that to read Sanna’s personality for this whole show. Give me a sec.”

She looked up on a call. “Parkie babe, one more thing. I’ll buy you a double premium pack. You plug? Pulse. Separate this false identity from the real Sanna and see if you can find anything on her elsewhere… really, that fast? Were you expecting me to call? Of course you were, you sick shac. Hiding anything else? No? You sure? Pulse. Chat later.”

“What was that about?” Boyband asked.

“Sanna is being held in a private therapeutic center.”

“Private my ass,“ Boyband scoffed.

“Exactly. We bypassed the screen Kalacia set up and the real Sanna is set for release in two days with a diagnosis of fix-induced amnesia. Zeggin’ neurocrawler set up everything for a perfect escape to make it look like she was never there.”

“Should we tell the school?” Naoma asked.

“Zeg ’em,” Boyband said. He looked at me. “David after this?”

I nodded. “Denji, where is he, by the way?”

Denji furrowed his brow and glanced at Ralia. “Your friend made me lock him away.”

Ralia laughed. “You can’t expect me to let that freak waddle around bothering me to kill it all day. Now can we focus again, please?”

“Fine,” Boyband said. “But does it at least say what she wanted with me?”

“I don’t know. Could be you, Petya, even Naoma. Probably Naoma if one of those assassins went for her. Signing up for an official visit puts you all on the map. Who is to say she wouldn’t have struck you somewhere else?”

“Did she bring Veren along?”

Ralia scowled. “Not sure. I can’t find anything about her.”

I laughed at Boyband. “You think she just lucked out finding that freak in there?”

Boyband flipped me off. “Then what do you think, shac?”

“I think she’s in with San-Kalacia somehow.“ I looked at Ralia. “Anything else you can find?”

“Not on Veren. Not even a hint.”

“Hmm, can you at least check Water Hill’s data for PTA members? I get that they probably have too much info on the students and such, but people working with kids should at least have their names out in the public, right? I mean–”

“Found her,” Ralia said.

“Pulse. Anything… off?”

“Looks like she’s a legit member. Has a record that proves Sanna didn’t just bring her in for this job, unless she used a lightguise as well.””I doubt it. Her face retained her features enough when it split and expanded into that… thing. What else?”

A list of accolades that don’t really mean anything. ‘Student recognition active coordinator.’ Guk like thaaaaaat… huh.”

“What?”