A few hours before, I was in Alex's office. He was looking at a map on a big screen. It was a picture of my old school.
"This is the Eden Academy," he said. "It's a big place. My father's company wants to buy it. But we're having problems. Someone is making a mess. Our systems are getting hacked. We are losing a lot of money."
He looked at me with serious eyes. "We need someone to go inside. Someone who knows the place. This is not a quick job. It's a long-term mission. You have to go back to school. Be a student. Find the person who is doing this. Find the problem from the inside."
He pointed to the screen. "You will be our ghost. Can you do it?"
I looked at the map. The place of my nightmares. The place where I was called 'Bhosty'. The place where I ran away from. My hands were tight. I had to go back. But this time, I wasn't running away. I had a job to do.
Now, a few hours later, I was standing a mile from the school. The monocar was a clean bubble, a stark contrast to the dust and blood of the wilderness. I held the new phone Alex had given me. Aura's voice, a calm, synthesized whisper that only I could hear, was already speaking in my mind.
"Scanning perimeter. Many security layers here. Face locks, motion sensors. This is like a fort, not a school."
"I know," I thought back. "I used to live here."
Alex had dropped me off a mile from the campus. The plan was to be a ghost, a silent observer. But as I walked closer, the silent campus changed. Two of Pariaha Industries' vans were surrounded. A group of men in black, all armed, were trying to break into them. They were fast. They were professionals.
My heart was beating fast. I had two choices: walk away and do my job, or help.
"Balen," Aura said calmly in my head. "The men are very good fighters. They are not normal robbers."
I didn't listen to the warning. The way they moved made me angry. They were like the bullies from my past, just bigger.
"Aura, tell me how to beat them. Find a weakness."
"Okay. I am scanning. Man one: his neck is open. Man two: he is low to the ground. You can hit his leg. Man three: he can't see his right side."
I moved. I didn't have a weapon. I was the weapon. I came in low and fast from the trees. The first man didn't see me. I hit his knee, and he yelled. He dropped his weapon. I spun and kicked him in the chest. He fell to the ground. The second man turned. He had a metal stick. He swung it at me.
Aura's voice was fast: "Warning. Very dangerous. Hit his wrist." I moved under the stick. My hand hit his wrist, a quick twist. He dropped the stick. I did not stop. I hit him two times, fast. Just like Elen had taught me. He fell down.
The last man was different. He had a knife. He looked angry. Aura's voice was calm in my head: "He has a standard knife. User Balen, be ready. Three, two, one..."
I moved before the last word. I stopped his knife with my arm. It hurt. The blade cut my skin. I used the pain to get angry. I hit his stomach very hard. He stumbled back, trying to breathe. I kicked his knee, a move from Elen. He fell down. I stood there, tired, breathing hard. The small cut on my arm hurt. This was real.
The drivers of the van, two of Alex's guards, came out. They looked at the men on the ground, then at me.
"Who are you?" one of them asked.
I did not answer. Aura's voice, a cool voice in my head, gave me the last piece of the puzzle. "I am scanning their phones. They are connected to a secret network. The network is inside Eden Academy."
My blood felt cold. The problems, the attacks... they all came from my old school. The place I ran from was now a place for bad men. And I had to go back. Not as a scared boy, but as a ghost on a mission.