22.
After a quick shower for the both of us, we arranged ourselves back in the library with a pot of good strong black tea.
Tess had draped my robe oh-so-strategically over her marvelous body, and I was back in sweats.
She had already taken down a big tumbler of water so she could sip a little more reservedly at her tea as she thought how to begin her story.
"I'll say this, Mister Ben Lee, you've certainly caused more than a little shakeup in my world."
"To be fair, I think I'd win the prize for having their world shaken up."
She laughed, but there was concern in her expression.
"Dammit, Ben. I really didn't know how this all way going to go. Okay. So, here's the big picture. I used to be on the Board of Directors here at... Well, I suppose I should call it the Bright Hall Academy now. I rather like the name change, by the way, and all the other changes you've been making. Being on the board was nice. I was able to serve without being in town permanently, so it didn't impact my day job."
I leaned back, getting the impression that this wouldn't be the first bombshell Tess was going to drop that evening, but deciding to hold off on my questions.
She paused, as if waiting for me to interrupt. Then she smiled.
"I was... removed from my position several years ago. The specific reasons aren't important right now, but, well, the main thing is that Melissa Sten found out about my little trick. She was... is one of the most brilliant people I've ever known. She wanted to figure out how it worked... biologically, physiologically. I agreed, but then her methods went a little too far. And that's saying something. I'm no saint, you know that much about me. But Melissa... She... well, she thought that the key to the whole thing was to be found in the brain chemistry of the individuals involved. She decided that I was too important to risk, but other people? She said she just wasn't getting the data she needed. She wanted to do more... invasive examinations. We had a falling out. I refused to be involved in the... vivisection that would be required to get the data she said she needed."
Telling this story was taking a toll on Tess. She paused to sip her tea with slightly trembling hands. I was convinced that there were a good many details being left out, but I wasn't sure whom she was trying to protect.
"Anyway, she had a good deal of clout on the board. She isn't that great about reading people. I think she assumed I could be pressured. It wasn't pretty. I haven't been back here since."
She looked out the window. It was totally dark out, but it was as if she could see the whole town.
"So Melissa knew about the trick." Tess nodded and sipped tea as I talked it through. "Makes sense that she would leave whatever cushy job she got in Seattle to come back then. Mr. Grant is her little minion, and he must have gotten in touch with her, and got whatever he used to spike my drink from her. Convoluted, but makes a sort of sense. That also explains the experiments that he's been using on the students."
"Experiments?"
I filled her in on the details of what had been going on and what I saw the previous night from the camera in the campus nurse's office.
"That's what I had expected. It seems like she is continuing her experiments, trying to synthesize the trick, with some success too. Back when I was working with her, she never had anything so effective. But something must have gone wrong with the mickey that they dosed you with. I don't think she would purposefully take the trick away from you. On the other hand, that might make you safer. If you don't have the trick, then there's no reason to bleed you or crack open your head."
"Well, that's something, anyway."
"Does she know you've lost it though?"
"I don't think so. The way Mr. Grant was talking on the phone, it seemed like he wanted me back in the hospital. I guess I would be more accessible to them there?"
"Yeah. So that will need to be step one. Sten and Grant need to be convinced that you've lost the trick. That should make things a little less dangerous, but it also might let us get you back on campus, which would be important for our next steps."
"Important for what? I mean, I'm not lying, I'm happy to have you here, Tess, but what are you planning? Why are you actually here?"
"Ah. That's another part of the story." She looked at me and smiled weakly. "I was the one who got you hired on here. I was completely stunned when I met you back at your old school. Imagine it. I had never in my life run into anyone else who had the trick, but there you were, right in my son's school. One little 'pop' and you're pushing my buttons like I've never imagined. I don't deny that all that time with you was a lot of fun, but also, I had to be sure it was real. You never asked what I did as a job, did you?"
"I did ask. You never told."
She chuckled. "I'm with the FBI, well, more or less. Ever since I left here, we've been trying to find a way to arrange a closer look at the good Dr. Melissa Sten. She has quite a long and sketchy history: fraud, extortion, embezzlement, and a good deal of other stuff we don't know too much about. So, when I found you, I found a way to lure her out."
"So I was bait?"
"Yes. I imagine you'll hate me, but you were too perfect to pass up. Didn't you wonder how everything happened so quickly and easily? The hiring, the interview? The previous principal was awful. All we had to do was expose some of his more egregious legal liabilities and they had no choice but to fire him immediately. Then I was able to encourage the board to hire you on."
I stayed silent, trying to think this through.
"And it's worked. You brought her back. She's running her experiments, and if all goes well, we'll get you installed back as principal and Sten and Grant bundled off to prison."
"For what? What can you arrest them for?"
"Ever wonder what is going on at the spa? That's the reason I had to come and visit you so quickly. Things didn't go well for her up in Seattle, and she's in a bind. She got in deep with some dangerous folks, and I think she's decided that the way to clear her accounts is to make a big sale."
"The students?"
"The students. What you heard Grant talk about fits with the information my team has been putting together over the past weeks. They have to be working on another version of the synthetic trick that's designed for the victim, and that's probably going through the spa workers. She's promised a group of young docile virgins to a truly horrific group of individuals. I think that's probably the reason you're still around."
"I'll take the fall."
"You'll take the fall. But if she doesn't have your trick, I don't think she can make her new synthetic trick. She may have the students, but they won't be as docile as she's promised."
"This is way too much for me to process. You're FBI?"
She chuckled again and had a bit of trouble swallowing her tea.
"That's the part of this that you can't get your mind around?"
"No... maybe that's the least absurd part of this. I guess I should be relieved. You'll be coming in and taking over then?"
"Well, I am with the FBI, but it's not clear how much support I'm going to be able to call on. I can't be seen here at all, and we need a lot more evidence before I am going to be able to convince my side to bring people in and round folks up."
I leaned back and sighed.
Tess stood up and stretched.
She looked at her watch.
"Dammit. I need to be out of here in a few hours. Can I get some sleep before I leave?" Then she smiled wider. "Can I trust you not to take advantage of a defenseless naked woman in your bed?"
"I would love to take advantage of your defenselessness. But if you need sleep that's fine. The nurse is showing up tomorrow morning, so I need to be suitably groggy. I'll skim through the videos in the basement."
She rewrapped the robe around her and started toward the door.
