Page 69 of Class Studies
Ashe stroked his beard. “Natural, I think. It’s hard to tell with those wood glasses he wears.”
Saffron shifted. “I think he’s Rimmed. Brown rimming, brown eyes, brown glasses, to keep people guessing.”
I’d no idea. “So, we don’t know. If he’s hiding it, what does that mean to us?”
“At the moment, fuck all.” Ashe finally flipped over the fork and stabbed his chicken breast. “But if he’s looking out for students, why the fuck invite an MA agent? And an average one at that.”
I frowned at my sandwich before taking another bite; the bacony goodness tasted flat.
The double tritone blared, and I shoved the rest of lunch in my mouth. We dispersed outside the main door. Ashe wrapped his arm around my waist, glaring at the other two before whisking me off to Moral Philosophy. I rolled my eyes.
“I can’t reserve shit,” Ashe said. It took me a minute to remember he was trying to find a place for Operation DUMP. “Magic sensors are even in your room, and DUMP will be a massive spell. It will fucking trip them. I figured we could do it outside, but it doesn’t just ‘snow’ in Alaska. It fucking dumps.”
I nodded, looking at the almost whiteout windows.
Ashe followed my gaze. “It might be time to tell Beryl. He’ll know a spot.”
I vehemently shook my head. “He and Nitis are not getting along well, and I don’t want to worsen their friendship, and he’s got too much on his plate.”
To my surprise, Ashe didn’t fight me. Instead, he pulled me to him and kissed the side of my head. “You’re the opposite of fucking evil, Kitten. I wish I could make Officer Keres see it.” He relaxed his arm but didn’t let me go. “What will we do then?”
I tugged on my braid. “I don’t know.”
But I did.
Alchemist Blickenstaff knew everything. I just needed to approach her the right way without giving her the opportunity to snare any of my guys in her web.
Once again, I was on my own.
* * *
Mercedes and her friends scowled at me as we entered Moral Philosophy. I skirted behind Alrick and b-lined it for my usual spot with Ashe at my heels.
The foghorn blasted, and Teddy Tederwinkle cleared his throat instead of Doctor Roy. I blinked a few times. We were just talking about him at lunch. With an annoyed twitch, I remembered his visit before my dinner with Saffron’s parents. He told me he was guest lecturing. He also offered me a job, except he hadn’t invited me to be a leader in his reenactment….so he couldn’t offer me a job?
Something wasn’t adding up.
Teddy Tederwinkle introduced himself before spreading his arms wide. “Now CBASIC is a great trust model, but idealistic.”
I flattened my lips.
“And by idealistic, I mean lacking an understanding of the complex nature of the human mind.” Tederwinkle tapped his forehead. Like the last time he lectured, his gaze swept the class, constantly engaging all of us. “Communication, Benevolence, Alignment of interests, Similarities, Integrity, and Capability are all great things, but they all rely on the person you’re speaking with, to be honest not only to you but to themselves. Everyone in this room, I’m sure, has an example of when they said they could do something and couldn’t.” He took a deep breath. “A time you thought something was the same, and it ended up not being the same. And, of course, a time you lied without meaning to.”
Once again, I swear his gaze rested on me for a second too long.
“Today, we’re talking about the ancient proverb: ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend.’ A similar phrase has been found in a Sanskrit treatise on statecraft, the Arthashastra, which dates to around the fourth century BC. The exact meaning of the modern phrase was first expressed in the Latin phrase, ‘Amicus meus, inimicus inimici mei,’ which had become common throughout Europe by the early 1700s.” He paused with an arched eyebrow. “I see some glazed-over eyes. I’m trying to get across this point: the concept is old and fundamental to our very nature.”
It wasn’t my imagination when his gaze landed on me this time. Ashe reached for my hand, and I took it, breaking eye contact with Tederwinkle. The recruiter continued, rattling off facts before bringing up a map and giving us historical examples.
“Now,” he said after his short lecture concluded. “I’m breaking the class into two teams.” He took out two decks of oversized cards, the back of one solid red and the other blue. “Each person will take two cards. One card is a role you must play to the best of your ability. The second card is an item. Most of the items do little things to other items in the game or nothing at all. BUT, one item is a bomb.” He grinned. “At the end of class, whatever team has the bomb will lose the rest of their rations for the day.”
The class burst out in outrage. “That’s not fair!” “What does this teach us?” “We can’t lose rations because of the luck of the draw.”
“Calm down,” Tederwinkle raised his voice and waved his arms.
Slowly, the class did.
“None of this is the luck of the draw.” He pointed around the room. “It’s all deception, communication, and teamwork. The roles you have will tell you how to interact with your peers. You can not tell anyone your role, but you can talk people into showing you theirs and vice versa. Every time you show your role, you exchange items with the person and know more about them to judge who they are. This is how the bomb gets passed around. You decide who to trust or not.” His face broke into a wide, unfriendly smile. “To make things more interesting, whoever has the bomb at the end of class will get double their remaining rations on their gem.”