Back at the dorms KC declared she would be getting some shut eye before we had to get up for our late night misdemeanors, she slipped into her room muttering a "goodnight" as she went.
I on the other hand had to contend with my room mate. A short blonde girl she was a little older than the other students, but not yet old enough to be called "mature". She certainly didn't behave like a mature student, she was already drunk by the time I got to my room and spent a good hour complaining loudly at the injustice of having to share a room when she had thus far been granted one all to herself. I couldn't blame her, I would have preferred to share with KC but we were lucky to get the rooms we were giving coming into the semester so late. I sat in silence at my tiny desk with books open pretending to study. A copy of the school map and a few photos of the doors KC had taken slipped between the pages so I could check out the security. For the doors with windows that I could see through that was simple enough, I could step through anything provided I knew where I was going, but the other doors would be trickier.
KC had wisely decided to take photographs which showed the college notice boards as well as the doors, that way if we'd been caught it would look like we were getting to know the school. I grew bored trying to figure out the door locks, some had key pads, others used fobs, and one looked like it was unlocked through retinal scan, pretty heavy stuff for a college campus. Instead I turned my attention to the notice boards in the photos as my roommate fell into a heavy, and loud, slumber.
It looked like the school was doing excellent work in the fields of computer research, some areas were historic, the recreation of old games and old software to learn about the history of computing, another board showed the school's achievement in languages, coming fifth worldwide in something called "Translation Trials" I briefly remembered during my flight school training that some of the extra curriculum groups had been centred around language, you weren't to use comm. software as it was considered cheating, but instead had to rely on brain power alone. Another board showed a trophy, the image too out of focus to read the tiny writing of the panel at the front, but there was a screen shot on the board showing a tall proud elf holding the trophy. The banner reading "School of Etiquette" I almost glossed over it to the next photo before something caught my eye.
I stopped dead
I rummaged through the photographs trying to find another shot of the blurred image, but nothing, I cursed softly. I brought out my palm pad and logged on to the college network, the screen reminding me that curfew was passed. Luckily the curfew seemed to only include being on the premises after an allocated time and the system still let me log on.
I looked up the School of Etiquette, an annual competition; the Neo Tokyo College had never won the event but came second last year when Ms Falkan had taught the class, it was Ms Falkan in the photo, holding the silver trophy high with a gracious smile. There was just one problem. That wasn't Falkan in the photo, it was Scathe.
"What do you want?" hissed KC as she opened the door, her hair dishevelled, wearing a short blue shift that barely concealed her lush curves. She looked at me up and down, dressed in sweats and an oversized t-shirt I was barefoot, I thrust the pad under her nose and pushed her inside, glancing across to her room mate's bed and pleased to see it was vacant, I shot her a questioning glance "the bint is out with her boy friend" she supplied, clearing her eyes to look blearily at the photo "What am I looking at?" she asked
"Do you recognise the elf in the photo?" I said, KC peered at the screen and shrugged
"Looks like Ms Perfect Tits to me" she said "we know she's connected with Engen and as such to the college, why is this important?" she yawned loudly and stretched
"This says Ms Falkan, not Elherin Farthro" I told her
"Maybe but if she's a runner she was probably using an alias" KC looked tired and confused
"Look closer" I told her, she did so, obviously struggling, I decided to put her out of her misery "the Elherin Farthro we were introduced to had brown eyes" I said "at least to start with, but later in the café in Vegas her eyes were green" my brain finally having caught up.
"Trick of the light?" KC suggested, I groaned, she looked too tired to keep up but I persevered
"This woman has blue, and . . ." I paused and flicked the palm pad to the next screen to show the picture of a beautiful elven woman, platinum hair and deep green eyes, she was stunning
"Who is this?" KC asked
"That is the real Elherin Farthro, and what's more she died, over a year ago" I panned the screen to show the headline, the real Farthro had been shot to death outside her home, the killer had never been caught. KC was suddenly alert
"So if this is Elherin Farthro, and Scathe looks like this Falkan chick then who hired us?" she asked
"I'm more interested in the why" I told her
"So do you think its cosmetic surgery?" she asked looking between the photos
"More likely a shifter" I said
"The same one from the Kabal?" she asked "I thought that was a guy?"
"It was, but maybe there's more than one . . ." I trailed off, the answer suddenly hit me, the thoughts that had been trying to grab my attention since the café finally came into focus.
"What?" KC asked impatiently
"There's only one shifter!" I said excitedly "it's the same one, they can shift sex!"
KC didn't look convinced "shifters are stuck to their gender" she said "I thought that was common knowledge"
"Maybe they are for the most part" I said "but maybe some can shift however they want" I said "in the Kabal Eleanor said that the Ethan imposter was waiting for her in her room, but if her room was warded against men then . . ."
"Then the imposter had to be a woman shifted to look like a man" KC finished catching up "in order to get through the barrier"
"We were hired by the same shifter that probably tried to kill me in the Kabal" I said
"But we still don't know why" KC pointed out
I sighed "At this point I don't really care the why, I'm more interested in letting the team know and getting out of here, let Lathain and Torrin know what we've . . ." my voice suddenly lost as my mind caught up. "Torrin" I said
"What?"
"It's Torrin" I said "It's all about Torrin, it must be"
KC exasperated stopped me, I hadn't realised I'd been pacing "Chill for a second girl, what's about Torrin?"
"Everything" I said "Don't you see, the attack on Clearwater was to drive him out of hiding, but that failed, they started to go after the people Torrin worked with to flush him out of hiding. They figured that if they could lure him out then they could crack the rest of Clearwater. The virus and chip were a means to peak his interest, bring runners out to find him; they knew if they attacked Clearwater openly then he would have to show himself. That's why they hired Lathain, he's an associate, and if anyone was going to find Torrin it would be Lathain or me and . . ."
"Oh god" KC whispered "Ghost, we led them right to him" She scrabbled to her bedside pushing aside her makeup cleaner and book, almost knocking the lamp from the bedside "Damn!" she hissed
"What?" I asked
"My comm. unit" she said looking at me wide eyed "thieving cow of a roommate must have taken it, it's gone"
"We need to tell the guys" I said "we have to warn them"
"Does that pad of yours let you access communications?" she asked. I was already flicking through the menu, the comm. button greyed out. I hit the button anyway but the curfew message appeared
"Locked out" I said. KC meanwhile was throwing on jeans and some shoes; she pulled a pistol from beneath the bed sheet. Grateful that it too had not been taken or tampered with.
"We're leaving" she said throwing me a pair of boots "we need to find a comm. and quickly" she pointed to the closet
"There's another gun on the top shelf" she said as she searched under the bed for more ammunition, I opened the closet and bit back a scream as a body slumped towards me hitting the ground as I jumped back. Dead lifeless eyes look into nothingness
"Is that?"
"My roommate" KC said "guess I know who really took my comm." she muttered, leaning down to push the dead girl's eyes closed "let's go"