Free The Institute (Falling Ash Chronicles #1) by Kira Lynn Farnsworth Page B

before blinking at me.
    “You missed out at lunch,” Mike said. Startled I’d straightened. I had missed out? Had he not heard about the drama that had happened in the Mission Hall?
    “Oh?” I questioned.
    “Yeah. Chardonnay’s hard drive crashed. She lost all of her work for the past week,” he said, grinning. All innocent, but I saw the devilish gleam in his eyes. I snorted, guessing the ‘accidental’ hard drive crash wasn’t so accidental.
    “Should have backed up her work,” I said.
    “She did,” he said, his lips twitching. “On a USB. Seems it got corrupted.” I gawked incredulously at him.
    “Did she blow a gasket?” I asked.
    “Oh yeah. It was great. You could see steam coming out of her ears,” he said, grinning. I laughed outright, pressing my hand to my stomach at the unexpected release. The pressure I’d been feeling seemed to lift.
    “Divine retribution. It sounds like fate has it out for her,” I said jokingly. Mike laughed.
    We sat for several minutes in companionable silence. I caught him glancing curiously in my direction several times, saw the question in his eyes, but he didn't say anything. Finally I couldn’t stand it anymore.
    “Well?” I burst out.
    “Well what?” he asked innocently.
    “Aren’t you going to ask me where I was?”
    “Nope,” he said, startling me for the second time. He shrugged. “I figure you’ll tell me if you want.” I fell silent for a moment longer, thinking on it. It felt nice, having a choice. Not feeling pressured to spill everything. When it came down to it, I realized I wanted to tell him, in spite of Meredith’s warning to the contrary. I wanted to tell somebody the truth, at least the parts I felt safe sharing. I still wasn’t ready to divulge what Tim had shown me. I wasn’t sure if I ever would be.
    I leaned in, gesturing for him to do the same. I didn’t want the little ears around me to listen in. I started to talk, beginning with reliving Canda’s death. Mike nodded and listened, breaking in every now and then to ask a question or for clarification. When I finished talking he sat back, a contemplative expression on his face.
    “It’s too much of a coincidence not to be connected,” Mike said. “First there’s talk about a mole, and now our targets know they’re targets practically before we do.”
    “My thoughts exactly. Something’s going on and I for one want to know what,” I said. The screens on the other side of the room flickered on, halting the conversations around the room. That was unusual. The screens normally never turned on in the evening. I straightened in my seat, twisting to view the screen. Meredith’s grim visage filled the screen. Erik stood just behind her to the right, Ezekiel to the left.
    “Attention, students. I’m sure many of you have heard rumors of the mole at the Institute,” Meredith said. The chatter around me rose, then fell again when loud ‘shushes’ came from several of the students. “It has been confirmed that we do have a traitor in our midst. They claimed their first victim this afternoon.”
    You could have heard a pin drop. Every student was paying rapt attention to the screen, waiting for the rest of Meredith’s message. I know we all had one question on our mind: who was the victim?
    “A group of our students were ambushed. Three were critically injured. One of them, Sarah Chandler, was killed.”
    A stunned silence fell over the cafeteria, broken by a shriek. Our heads swiveled as one to see Chardonnay stand up. Shock and grief passed over her face before she spun around, fleeing the dining room.
    I could have sworn I saw tears in her eyes. I fought the urge to go after her, reminding myself she wouldn’t want my company. She didn’t like me, wouldn’t want my sympathy, but no one deserved to lose a friend like this.
    I couldn’t leave her on her own. No matter what she’d said to me, I couldn’t do it. I came to my feet, offering Mike hasty goodbye before I left