Page 74 of Jinxed

‘I’ll make sure he doesn’t cause any trouble,’ says Kai, who is the first of my teammates to recover.He has a scrape on his arm from his altercation with a panther, but a big goofy grin on his face – as if heenjoyedit. That’s Kai for you. He grabs Carter under the arm and frogmarches him from the room.

Now I have to trust that Mr Baird can find a safe place for Jinx and me. Somewhere far from Eric Smith’s reaches. Until we can get hold of Monica and she can sort this all out for good.

‘Comeon, let’s get out of here,’ says Tobias. He’s got one arm around Ashley, who is bleeding from a scratch along her hairline, the other arm supporting River, who is getting shakily to his feet. I nod.

‘I couldn’t have done it without you guys,’ I say, with a smile to the rest of the team. I squeeze Jinx in my arms, ready to walk out of there – and to safety.

But, to my horror, Jinx bolts.

ICAN ALMOST SENSE IT BEFORE HE DOES IT. The tensing of his small electronic body in my arms, the way that his ears twitch – left and right – his whiskers taking in the surroundings. I instinctivelyadjust my grip, trying to hold on to him tighter. He can’t do this now. We’re so close to being safe. Mr Baird is waiting for us outside. Every moment we stay at Moncha Corp is another moment we are in danger.

But Jinx leaps from my arms, able to wriggle out of the tightest grip that I could muster.

‘Jinx, no!’ I shout out loud.

Tobias and the others shout after me in confusion. I sprint afterJinx who darts through an opening I didn’t even realize was a sliding door. It slams shut just as I cross the threshold. I’m separated from the team now, but I can’t look back – not when Jinx is running away from me. A strangled cry escapes from my throat, and I drop to my knees with the momentum of trying to keep up on the slick hardwood floor. Jinx nips through another door. If I don’t hurry,I’m going to be the one locked out next.

I scramble on the floor, hurtling myself down the hallway. But the door slides across before I make it there. I slam my hand up against the glass and I see Jinx stop and stare back at me.

‘Don’t leave me again,’ I cry out. ‘I just got you back.’

>>I’m sorry, Lacey.His voice is soft inside my ear.I need to find out who I really am.

‘But you belongwith me,’ I say, my eyes welling with tears. I want it to be true so badly.

>>It’s all been leading to this.

What do you mean?

>>Ever since I was hit with that blaster, I’ve been looking for a way back here.

My mind flashes back to the hole in his side when I found him. Caused by a blaster. That’s one mystery solved, but it brings me no satisfaction.

>>When you passed by me in the ravine, I knew you could be my way back here. You’d just had your leash installed. I used a proximity signal to find out more about you. I learned you had the skill to fix me. I ran through all the possibilities, factored in all the variables, examined every permutation... In the end, it was simple. I could see the path that would lead me back to the heart of Moncha HQ. No one would suspect the baku of a first year student. The hacking was easy: Getting you into Profectus, getting you on to the right team, getting a wild card place so you’d be in the arena. The things I didn’t factor in were the black marks. But you rescued me. And now I am so close to finding out the answers my vast databases couldn’t solve.

You... used me?

He flicks his tail. >>I need to know who I am.

I nod, even thoughit hurts every fibre of my being.

And then he spins around and, in a couple of bounding leaps, is off beyond my sights.

I think I hear a siren from behind me. Maybe Carter managed to alert Moncha security. Jinx might not think that he needs me, but I’m not going to leave him until I know that he is safe. How can I find a way to follow?

>>I can open the door for yousays a polite voice. Slick.I’d almost totally forgotten about him.

Slick crawls out of my pocket and on to the door’s lock. One of the beetle’s front legs disappears into the keyhole, and in a few moments he breaks through the security.

‘How did you do that?’ My jaw drops. I’m sure that’s not standard for a beetle baku.

>>My code has been adjusted by a Miss Zora Layeni to add some specific features and update some of my applications. As a result, I am excellent at picking locks. She wrote in a message: ‘So you never get locked out of your cave ever again’.

My throat feels tight. Zora did this for me as thanks for fixing Linus. I’m so shocked, I could kiss him. He vibrates with happiness. The door clicks open and I’m through.

Then, I stop. It’s like I’ve travelled through a portal and out into... suburbia?It’s like a set on a movie studio lot. I appear to be on a street, lined with trees either side that can’t possibly be real – the ceiling above us looks like open sky, but I know it has to be an illusion. I turn back towards the door – the only thing that looks out of place. Otherwise, I could be outside and back in time.

‘Jinx?’ I call out tentatively.

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