ONE HUNDRED NINETY-EIGHT: United
198
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“Torsten, I want to thank you for warning me about the dangers of the Mind Writher. I didn’t let it kill me, as you advised.” Aparna, grinning, held the unitard she’d been wearing over an arm as she followed Torsten to the cleaning cabinets in one corner of the MPE faculty lounge.
“What’s this?” Morrison Waker, in Little Snake form, swiped away the footage he’d been viewing. “Did Writher get a special mention when you were all havin’ fun without me earlier?”
“He just mentioned that it was capable of moving very quickly and unpredictably,” Hale said from her seat at the small table across from Morrison. She looked toward her husband, who was flipping through a magazine that had coffee rings from at least two different cups on the cover. “He was concerned it might catch us by surprise. I wasn’t caught by surprise, were you?”
“No! Thanks to the warning, I was on my guard against that dangerous Meister. Scary student, you have there.” He paused. “Lexi could even kill an instructor with that thing.”
The Zhang-Demirs’ straight faces fell apart as soon as Morrison guffawed. Aparna was cackling while she hung up the cuffs that went with the suit.
“I don’t suppose it would help my cause to point out that there were a few more students than Lexi involved?”
“That’s right,” said Aparna. “So many students united for a common goal, willing to sacrifice themselves…what horrors do you commit during your regular classes to provoke such a response?”