The Book of Firsts

Fifty-Seven

Tuesday brought me Bran, cross-legged on the couch, frowning at his laptop.

"Homework? Or another financial crisis?"

He glanced at me, touched the keyboard, then turned the laptop in my direction. I looked at a screen full of grey on black, and leaned closer to try to work out what I was seeing. The video was so bad I couldn’t even be sure it was a person.

"I’m guessing this is Tomas, but where is it, and what the heck is he doing?"

"It’s the tent set up down by the sports field for the Student Council to use tomorrow. Rin and Kyou are down there now, trying to work out the what part."

"Nothing yet," came Kyou’s voice, and I realised that Bran had a call on speakerphone.

"Waiting until after you’ve fallen into the trap to report to the police is very noble," I said. "Tomas will be pleased."

"We merely stand on the edge of the precipice," Kyou replied. "Tossing in stones, watching for leviathans."

"We’re looking for a reason to actually call the police," Rin said. "We can be forgiven for installing cameras in places we will be, but we need something a touch meatier to explain why we’re so sure some vague blurs at two in the morning are important."

"We were stupid to not use an infrared camera," Kyou added.

"The tracking software might make matters completely obvious to us, but unless we want to admit to it, all we have at the moment is a barely visible blur that we happen to know is Tomas."

"If we can’t find anything, let’s backtrack his route," Rin said. "One of the places he stopped last night must be a private rental of some sort."

Bran tapped the keyboard again, bringing up a map of the city, and we watched a dot tour half a dozen places over a period of several hours before returning to a residential distract, standing still until well after midnight, and then heading for the school.

Bran ran through the map route again, marking the places Tomas had stopped. I tried to picture the area, which wasn’t all that far from where I lived, but I wasn’t familiar with the building names on the screen. Bran finished, and the recording again showed him approach to the school, spend a bare minute in the tent, and then head back to the residential district.

"Zoom in more and play back the bit after the tent."

Bran glanced at me, then restarted the recording.

"What’s there?" I asked, touching a point on the screen.

"Where?" Rin immediately asked.

"Go out the south exit of the sportsground, follow the path to just short of the fence, and then go about ten metres to the right," Bran said.

"Please don’t be trolling us," Kyou said. "I’m starting to tire of triple-checking everything I eat. What did you—oh. A bin."

"It could just be GPS wobble," Bran said. "But it looks like he headed there."

"If it’s been emptied, I might start pulling my hair…" Rin muttered, just loudly enough for the phone to pick it up.

"How to see inside is the question," Kyou added. "One of those covered, cabinet-types."

"Try…good, it’s not locked."

There were interesting noises, and then Bran’s phone displayed a video request. He touched the screen, and we were treated to an inner view of a plastic-lined bin containing several crumpled cans, a banana peel, and a small pot of something transparent and brown-tinged, with a paintbrush still sticking out of it.

"So, we know he’s painted something," Kyou said. "And if we can find what it is, we can tell the police we spotted it, and went looking for evidence, which will explain our sudden interest in waste disposal."

"Stay here," Rin said. "I’ll check."

"Be careful."

Bran dialled Kyou into the call, and we all waited as Rin went back to the tent.

"Found it," Rin said, only a minute later. "The front rim of the chairs have been painted with something. If I wasn’t looking for everything brown, I’d assume it was just weathering."

"I’ll call school security," Kyou said. "And ask them to send someone down in a low-key way. Hopefully Martin will successfully keep Tomas distracted, and he won’t know we’ve spotted it."

"Take down the spy camera," Bran added, and cut the call. He closed his laptop lid, then leaned back and closed his eyes.

"You look tired," I said, slipping my shoes off and curling into a corner of the couch.

"Not punching him is exhausting."

"Will other members of the Student Council be using that tent, or is it just you three?"

"Primarily the Executive, but everyone will be in and out. We’re all signed up to different events, so will trade off on taking care of the various duties. You sound like you’re also considering hitting things. Because Lania might have been impacted?"

"Yes. Not least because it’s an escalation. He targeted you individually, and maybe gave me an opportunistic shove, but a trap not only for the three of you, but anyone who works in that tent? So dangerous."

"The pile of props in the theatre was also something that took out bystanders, even though Rin was sure to take the brunt because of his height. But, depending on what that brown stuff is, I agree this is more serious." He cracked his eyelids enough to look at me, then closed them again. "If the police manage to not excite the whole school, and we somehow get to tomorrow with Tomas thinking his trap is still in place, I’ll invite Meggan to have a rest in the tent."

"Good plan," I said. "And maybe necessary, unless he was stupid enough to leave fingerprints."

"I’m fairly sure the route he took is a blind spot in the school’s monitoring." Bran shifted restlessly, then sat up again and reached for his phone, scrolling through several screens impatiently. "Nothing on the forums about Rin and Kyou taking a sudden interest in garbage. They must have had the sense to not stay right up by the bin." He sent a text message. "I’ve suggested they ask security to guard the evidence, and have the police not show up until lunch is over."

"And here I was thinking the Sports Carnival would be relaxing."

"You’re just audience. Bring popcorn. What events are you signed up for?"

"1500. Like I said, relaxing."

He snorted. "I take it you’re not planning on winning?"

"I’m not sure I could—there’s some very sporty girls in this school. But I admit I’m not planning to try. Are you three competitive against people other than each other?"

This produced a purely arrogant curl to one corner of his mouth, a tiny dismissal of the entire concept of rivals that weren’t Rin and Kyou. Then he tossed his phone down and reached for one of my feet, pulling me toward him. Since this week was the beginning of Summer uniforms, he could then run his hand up to my bare thighs.

"No long skirts next year."

"I don’t have any non-school skirts, so you’ll get your wish."

"Go shopping."

I smiled, but shook my head. "I am very unlikely to wear short skirts to classes. My chosen field is still relatively male-dominated, and I have no interest in wasting my time on the inevitable harassment from idiots who think clothing is an invitation."

"You really think wearing jeans will stop you from getting hit on?"

"Hasn’t so far," I admitted, wriggling as he tugged at my underpants. "Still not going to be buying any micro-minis."

Bran tossed my pants away, but then paused to study my face. "Bridges make you compromise," he observed.

Reminded that this was a very smart boy, I nodded. "Yes. I particularly want this engineering physics course above all others because it has a strong focus on innovations around the physics of large structures." I shrugged. "I don’t know how conservative she’ll be, and there’s limits to how much I’ll censor myself, but I don’t have any reason to make my dream professor’s first impression of me be all about my legs."

"She might appreciate them," Bran suggested, taking a firm hold of the legs in question.

We got down to the serious business of losing clothing, remembering only very late that it was supposed to be a standing challenge. Sadly, a text from Rin brought Bran’s mind back to Tomas and traps before we could embark on a second round, and I decided not to try to win his attention back.

Besides, I was distracted myself, and checked the forums constantly for the rest of the day. There were no rumours of police visits, just bets on who would win what event. I decided to get up a little earlier tomorrow morning, and make a lot of popcorn.