A Murder Of Crows {7}

Our last class let out and I slumped back in my chair. Outside, it was raining heavily, the sky dark and visibility extremely low.

I got up and gathered my stuff, shoving it in my bag. I still had some time before Kieran carried out his plan. I'd have to use that time to work on homework in case this job turned into a late night one.

I turned to leave and almost ran into Jamison. He caught my shoulder before I could hit him and gave an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, didn't think you were going to turn around so fast," he said.

"Well, I did. Out of my way," I said, gesturing him aside.

"I take it I can't change your mind about dinner?" he said.

"No. I told you I'm busy today," I said.

He stepped aside, but followed me out of the classroom. "I'm going to be pushy about it. I feel bad about yesterday's dinner. I know it was a little boring."

"'A little boring' is pretty generous," I said.

"Oh, harsh," he said with a whistle. "True, but harsh."

I mentally sighed as Val came into view, waiting at the door. Cole was next to her, the two of them talking even as Val's eyes searched the hallway.

She caught sight of me and waved me over. Jamison followed me to the two of them.

"I knew you'd just charge out into the rain, so I brought an umbrella," Val said, waving it in my face.

I pushed it away. "It's rain, Val. It won't kill me."

"He's got a point," Cole said.

"You're not walking back in the rain without an umbrella," Jamison said to Cole. "I'll walk you back if I have to."

"You're all such freaks about a little rain," I said. "Fine, Val, let's go. I have a lot of work to do tonight."

"Come on, Cole. We have a meeting," Jamison said. "I'll see you later, Cor."

"Mhm," I mumbled, pushing the door open and heading outside.

Val hurried after me, popping the umbrella open as we stepped out into the rain. We started for the dorms, kids running all around us to escape the rain.

"Are you ready for tonight?" Val said.

"Of course." I put my hands in my pockets as we walked. Hopefully the sound of the rain thundering against the roof of the building Kieran would be at would help hide any noises his target made.

The rain would also make it harder for him to keep a hold on his target, though. Hopefully Kieran had thought all of this out. He was smart, sure, but the only way to stay ahead was to think of every possibility, every advantage and disadvantage.

Val and I reached the dorms and went inside. Val grabbed my arm before I could head for my room, instead pulling me towards Kieran's room.

"I don't want to deal with him," I said, stumbling along after Val.

"Too bad! It's about time you see how he gets away with being a Collector without his face being seen," Val said.

I figured Kieran used something to hide his face. Even in the dark, if he got close enough, he'd be seen and recognized by Crowe Academy targets. But I had no desire to ask questions and get more involved than I needed to be. If it didn't deal with my safety and anonymity, it wasn't my business.

Val stopped in front of Kieran's door and knocked on it. He pulled it open, scowling a little at the sight of us but letting us inside anyways.

Mia was sitting on his bed, twisting her hair back into a ponytail. She had a raincoat lying next to her, and Kieran had one hanging over his chair.

"What do you want?" Kieran asked.

"Show him," Val said.

Kieran went over to a bag and pulled it open, taking something out. He turned, holding the object up so I could see it.

It was a mask, just a simple thing. It was white, with black cloth over the eyes and a red slit of a smile. At the corner of the eye was a "C".

"Now will you get out?" Kieran said, tossing the mask back into his bag.

So that's how he hid his face. A mask, no doubt given to him by the Doctor judging by the "C" near the eye. I bet all the Collector's wore them to hide their faces. I'm sure the dealers wore similar masks to hide theirs.

"What was the point of showing me that?" I asked Val.

"We'll see you when you get back, Kier," Val said, pulling me out of the room. She shut the door and pushed me down the hallway.

We walked in silence back to my room. I unlocked the door and let us in, shutting it and locking it again.

"He doesn't see them as people. The masks are to hide their faces from their targets, but also from the Doctor. He knows who they all are. But he doesn't care," Val said, sitting on my bed. She flashed me a smile that gave me chills. "We're all just his pawns, Cor. You're worried about Kieran's decision making and his ideas. But you should be worried about the Doctor and what he has planned."

Her smile faded back into the friendly one. I sat down at my desk, not looking at her.

"I know we're all pawns. The Doctor isn't the only one pulling strings," I said.

Her smile grew. "The strings are starting to get tangled, huh?"

"Better watch yourself. Never know when they might tangle right around your neck," I said.

She shrugged her backpack off. "Homework, right? We have some time to kill. Better make sure we're punctual on this job, though."

So we turned and started our homework. But I couldn't stop thinking about our conversation.

We all assumed the Doctor was the one pulling all the strings. But was he?

He wasn't the one forcing me to stay in this business. He might think he owned me, but I was stuck in this mess because of someone else.

It was all just pulling strings, but the more people we threw in the mix, the more confusing it all got. With Jamison and Cole tossed in now, strings tangled into a web, and sometimes it was hard to tell who were the spiders and who were the flies.

Alright, alright, thinking about that now wouldn't do me any good. I had homework to finish and a job to do. I had to focus.

Val and I worked side by side but silent, our minds a million miles away from the work in front of us. I kept checking the time, knowing I couldn't be late for this.

As it neared the time, I put my work away and got to work getting into the camera feed. As it popped up on my monitor, I turned on my other two and brought up the feed on them too. With the store in my view, I took out my headpiece and turned it on.

"Kieran?" I said, wondering if his was on yet.

"Thought you were going to be late."

Yep, his was on.

"I have visual," I said, making myself comfortable in my chair. I didn't know how long this would take.

"Just focus," Kieran said.

I could've just muted Kieran so I only had to warn him and not listen to his business, but I was admittedly curious to see how this would go. So I turned the volume up a bit, glancing over to see Val had her earpiece in even though she wasn't even part of this current operation.

She noticed me looking and shrugged. "I'm curious."

"Aren't you always," I mumbled, letting my eyes fix on the monitors in front of me.

It was pouring rain out, and the coffee shop only had a few people inside. One person was on a laptop, and another was reading a book, so they probably wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. Two older woman sat and talked at one table. A teenager was sipping a coffee and texting.

The security cameras didn't have any sound, so if anyone noticed anything happening outside, I'd just have to pay attention to their body language to catch it. Val was also watching the screens, so if I missed something, she'd hopefully catch it.

It was about two minutes before I heard a car door shut. I took a slow breath, letting my eyes focus on the visuals in front of me while my ear strained to catch any sounds from the earpiece.

"Brayden Razy?" It was hard to hear Kieran's voice over the sound of the rain.

Brayden must've replied, but I only heard a muffled voice over the sound of the rain, no identifiable words. Dammit. So much for the drama.

Val also looked disappointed, scowling a little. I turned the volume of my earpiece down, not caring about Kieran's threats or his speeches about how the Doctor didn't take kindly to being shorted on his money. Right now he was playing the part of a Dealer, but it wouldn't be long before the Collector slipped out and the beating started.

"Kid texting alone at the table might leave soon," I mumbled to Val. They'd just slipped their phone into their pocket and their eyes kept straying to the door.

"I wish I could hear Brayden," Val said with a sigh as Kieran's voice slipped into that cold, emotionless tone. He was making his usual threats, things I'd heard a million times.

There was a knock on the door that startled me out of my focus. I looked over my shoulder in confusion. Val was in here, Kieran and Mia were on their Collector job. Who the hell else would be knocking on my door?

The knock came again after a moment and I met Val's eyes before looking at the monitors. I shrugged and turned to face them. Whoever it was would just have to take a hint.

"Cor?"

"I have literally never wanted to kill myself more than I do right at this moment," I informed Val.

"Kieran can still hear you," she said.

"Kieran, I know you're busy beating the shit out of some random kid, but I have literally never wanted to kill myself more than I do right at this moment," I informed Kieran.

Kieran didn't reply to that, but I heard a particularly pained yelp come through the earpiece, so I was assuming Kieran took out his irritation on Brayden instead. Hey, rather him than me.

"Cor!" Jamison's voice came again, louder this time. "I can hear you in there."

"Of course you can. It's my room, I live here," I called back.

"Let me in. I have something for you," he said.

"Leave it at the door and go away," I said. I nudged Val, nodding at the monitors. The teen was starting to pull a jacket on. I lowered my voice a little so Jamison wouldn't hear me. "Kier, someone's getting ready to leave."

Jamison knocked his fist against the door again. "Come on, Cor. Let me in. I promise I won't bother you for long."

"You've already bothered me enough. Go away," I said.

We watched as the teen headed for the door. Val leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms.

"He's leaving now, Kieran," she said, also keeping her voice low. She glanced at me. "Go deal with Jamison. I'll handle the monitors so he doesn't see."

"I don't want to deal with Jamison," I said.

"He's stubborn. He's not just going to leave," Val said.

I knew she was right, but it still pissed me off. I reluctantly got up and Val began typing at my keyboard. I pulled my earpiece off, muting it and shoving it in my pocket. I'd just have to trust she'd make sure Jamison didn't see anything incriminating.

Actually, this could be good. That Brayden kid would tell the cops the time of the attack, and Jamison himself would be able to confirm that Val and I had been at the dorms when the attack was happening. That might buy us a little time and innocence.

I unlocked my door and pulled it open just a crack. "What do you want?"

Jamison nudged the door open with his shoulder, ignoring my irritated expression. He held up one of the carry-out containers from the dining hall.

"You said you'd be busy all night. If you won't come to dinner with me, I figured I should at least make sure you'll eat dinner at all," he said.

"Did you bring me anything?" Val asked, looking over her shoulder. The monitors now showed only an old essay I'd done two weeks ago.

"I didn't know you were here," Jamison said as I took the food from him.

"I like to work in Cor's room. His monitors are so useful," she said, pulling up an article on one monitor and a textbook PDF on the other. "Besides, he could use a little company."

"I don't want either of your company," I grumbled, setting the food on my desk.

"Sorry, wasn't trying to bother you. I just wanted to make sure you ate something tonight," Jamison said.

"Well, now I have food. Goodbye." I gestured to the door.

Val whacked me in the arm. "Thank you," she said, speaking the words slowly. "Can you repeat after me, Cor? Thank you."

"Why would I say thank you? I didn't ask him to bring it," I said.

"If a cute boy brought me food, I'd be saying more than just a thank you," Val said, shaking her head at me.

Jamison just smiled a little, but I could read the cockiness in it. No surprise there, though. He was a boy with looks, brains, and a position of power, no matter how ridiculous of a high school position it was. Those things certainly fed into an ego over time.

"You don't have to thank me, that's not why I did it," Jamison said. He trained that smile on me, cockiness disguised as sincerity. "I can't have my go-to note taker getting sick."

"My health is working perfectly fine. So is my door, which I'd be more than happy to show you if you'd just step out into the hallway," I said.

"I get the hint," he said, putting his hands up in surrender and backing towards the door. "Then I'll see you tomorrow. Don't work yourselves too hard. Bye, guys."

I happily shut the door in his face and clicked the lock. By the time I'd turned back around, Val already had the security camera footage back up on the monitors.

"I'm eating this," she informed me, pulling the top off the take-out container.

"You're picking at the scraps. I'm eating it," I corrected her, pushing her hand away and picking up the fork Jamison had put with it.

"He was trying to make sure we were really here. He was making sure you weren't lying about being busy," she said.

"Thanks, I was definitely too stupid to figure that obvious fact out by myself," I said, putting my earpiece back on. "Kieran, that was Jamison. He's checking on us. I don't know if he'll check your room."

"He has no reason to," Val said. "That doesn't mean he won't have someone check it, of course. But I doubt he'll check for himself. Even if someone does check the room, Kieran isn't signed off campus. He can just claim he's in one of the study cells in the library."

"Just focus on the job. It's Kieran's problem to come up with a lie to cover his ass," I said, and heard another pained yelp from the other end of the earpiece.

So we watched the monitors, warning Kieran if anyone was leaving. It was a little before it went silent on Kieran's end, the rain suddenly cutting out and a door closing.

"We'll be back," Kieran's voice grumbled before it went silent completely.

I pulled my earpiece off and shoved it in my desk. Val stretched over the back of the chair and checked the time.

"He spent a good amount of time on that Brayden guy. Must've had some anger to work out," she said, the smile on her face hinting that she knew something I didn't.

"You're so damn frustrating," I said, pushing the take-out container at her. "I'm full. Finish that off and throw it out."

Kieran would no doubt come to my room when he and Mia got back. I left the security footage and turned all my monitors except my main one off.

"We have alibis for tonight's attack, at least," I said. "Maybe Jamison and Cole watching the two of us is for the best. We're the ones who are never missing when an attack goes down."

"But they might catch on to that and send someone after Kieran and Mia to monitor them," Val said. "It's mostly Kieran they're suspicious of."

"Why, though?" I said, already knowing she wouldn't give me much to go on. Val liked holding onto information as a control piece.

"They have a history," Val said, as frustratingly vague as ever. Her smile grew at my expression. "Ask Kieran, if you're really that curious."

"Curiosity doesn't translate into suicidal. I'm not that concerned about it," I said.

Still, a history dark enough to make Kieran a prime suspect in drug-related assaults? I could deny my curiosity to Val all I wanted, but I couldn't lie to myself about it.

We waited in silence for a while. Val was on her phone, and I was scrolling through news articles from the town for any sign of the drug problem.

My door handle shook and was followed by an aggressive knocking. Val got up and unlocked the door, letting a soaking wet Kieran and Mia in.

"Well?" Val asked, sitting back down.

"The problem is handled for now. I want you to let Brayden know if he refuses to cooperate, we'll target his friends and his reputation," Kieran said to Val. He pulled his blood-stained gloves off and shoved them in his bag. "I'll meet with the Doctor after school tomorrow. He wants to talk to me."

"About?" Val said.

"Private matters. But I better be able to tell him the Brayden situation is fully under control. Get it done," Kieran said.

"Yea, yea, it'll be done," Val said.

"Jamison came while we were monitoring the security cameras. He didn't see anything suspicious, but it's going to be a pain if he keeps bugging me while I'm working," I said. "It was probably a coincidence, just him checking to make sure I was really in my room. But you still make sure no one slipped anything about the attack tonight."

We weren't the only Crowe students with ties to the Doctor. Far from it, with how big of an operation he was running. But the Doctor generally didn't mingle his "employees", probably to keep the risk of exposure down if someone got caught and decided to give up information, or in case someone was dumb enough to cross him and sell out anyone they found to be part of his schemes. Only our group should've known about the attack tonight, but if the information had slipped through the cracks and somehow reached the Crows, that would be bad.

"Look into their conversations online. Emails, any phone calls they made before the time, whatever. If someone is leaking information, I'll make sure they leak blood while they're at it," Kieran said.

Mia twisted her hair around her hand, water dripping all over the floor. "It was probably just a coincidence."

"We don't assume that in this line of work. We make sure we're secure," Kieran said. "Jpeg, check everything."

"Yea, I'm on it," I said moodily, getting to work typing at my keyboard. I should've just kept my mouth shut. Now I'd made more work for myself.

"I'm going to shower," Kieran said, heading for the door. "Val, send those warnings to Brayden. Jpeg, let me know what you find."

He left the room, and I was surprised Mia didn't follow him. The two seemed to be inseparable sometimes, seemingly drawn together by their shit attitudes and never ending teen angst.

"Hairbrush," Mia said, holding her hand out to Val.

Val pulled a hairbrush out of her bag and handed it to Mia. Mia fixed her hair, and I didn't bother to tell her to quit soaking my floor. She might look slender, but I knew that girl could beat my ass so hard that my great-great grandchildren would still feel the pain of it.

"I'll walk back with you," Val said, standing up and taking her brush back from Mia. "See you later, Cor. Or, and check that take-out container before you trash it."

She and Mia left the room, talking in quiet voices. I furrowed my brow and picked up the take-out container, inspecting it.

"Oh, my god," I groaned, dropping it into the trash.

But it was too late. I'd already seen Jamison's note stuck to the bottom.

Hopefully you'll let me buy you dinner for real some time.