Free Academy 7 by Anne Osterlund Page A

face not to react to her claims.
    She flicked her fingernails. “My parents say we should all be on the lookout for spies, in case the Trade Union sends someone here to infiltrate the Alliance.”
    Her habit of quoting her parents annoyed him. As far as he was aware, the Enteras had inherited their position of standing, not earned it through some special insight. The planet of Entera had been named after the current family’s ancestors, who had funded its initial exploration, not completed it themselves.
    “The spy would have to be a hell of a flyer to navigate the entrance to the Spindle,” said the boy in the blanket. “Even the best pilots in the universe would think twice about entering that moving black tube.”
    Murmurs of agreement filled the hall.
    “Besides,” said the boy, “I don’t see what the Spindle has to do with the computer lab break-in.”
    “Obviously the Council thinks there’s sensitive information in the school database as well,” said Yvonne, finally negotiating her way past him. “I assume they know. So we’re all in lockdown until Zaniels can prove nothing’s been compromised.”
    “You mean until Livinski tracks down the culprit,” said Dane.
    “No.” Yvonne closed the remaining gap between him and herself. “Dr. Livinski already knows who broke in. It doesn’t take a high A.E.E. score to figure out that only one student had access.”
    What was that supposed to mean?
    She gave him a smug smile. “Xioxang was here this morning to arrest her.”
    Her?
    “Who?” demanded Dane, a cold suspicion slowly filling the pit of his stomach.
    “Don’t be naïve.” The slender girl curved her blood-red fingernails around his arm possessively. “We all know which student has the best tech skills on campus. Zaniels even gave her an access code to the lab.”

Chapter Eight
    ACCUSATION
    AERIN FAILED TO HEAR THE DOOR OF THE EMPTY basement room click , but she knew she was locked in. The cement floor, blank walls, and stark, stained ceiling all closed inward, pulled by the magnetism of her own fear. She felt her mind and body shut down, her muscles tighten, her limbs grow rigid. The dim light crumbled to darkness, blackness seeping beneath the inner layer of her skull and the outside of her cranium.
    Whether Xioxang would return, she did not know. What she did know was terror, the bone-numbing terror of being cornered. Would they send her back to Vizhan and the slow torturous death of a runaway? Or would she face prison? Aerin knew little enough about Allied legal justice, but she knew prison was worse than death. Slave owners sent you there if they thought you were hiding something. And the screams that echoed from the cells were the screams of torture victims. No one ever came out alive.
    She should have run, should have avoided capture at all cost, should not have followed Xioxang over here to the Great Hall in a useless stupor. How much did he know? Had he known everything before arriving in her dorm room? Or had her late-night adventure tipped him into doing a background check? No answers came. Only the blackness. And the knowledge that she was trapped.
    Time became an enemy. She could not sense it. Or track it. Or force it to an impenetrable halt. It lurked relentlessly out of reach.
    Until a tussle of sound crept along the ridge of her awareness, then shifted. “You should think about the circumstances in which I found her.” The sharpness of Xioxang’s voice sent a chill beneath Aerin’s flesh. He must be standing guard outside the room.
    “I have no say.” The second voice vibrated under strain. “If the files have been tampered with, the solution is out of my hands.” Aerin could not help but shudder as she recognized the second speaker: Mr. Zaniels, the one teacher she had almost trusted. So he, too, served as her jailer.
    Again darkness swallowed her whole. Seconds or minutes or hours passed, her face and feet going numb before dialogue jolted back into her