All in all, it was not one of their finer missions. But they had succeeded, at the very least. The second Gargantuan had been neutralized, and whatever operation the Blue Vipers had been involved in at the mine had been shut down. Though at the same time, their shortcomings were quite tangible as well. The most information they had gleaned from their journey was that there were possibly more Gargantuans out there, and that the Blue Vipers were in the business of capturing and supplying them to various buyers. And worst of all, Kierra and Helen had been injured.

Kierra had woken on the drop ship during the return journey, but Harold's eyes were on Helen, who was convulsing on the floor, drenched in sweat and muttering incoherently, as if she were having a nightmare.

Harold wondered if that was how he had appeared when he had had his nightmares, which had persisted through the entire week.

It was not a pleasant image.

Thankfully, Helen had only been hit with the barest minimum of toxin—a single droplet that had caught at her cheek; the rest had spattered her suit, which, like Harold's, had prevented it from seeping through to the skin.

The moment O'Riley touched down in the schoolyard, Harold picked her up and they moved as quickly as possible, hurrying out of the ship and towards the Medical Wing. The ship wasn't usually allowed beyond the gates, because of all the noise it caused, but Helen needed treatment now. If a few students had to be disturbed for that, so be it.

Jimmy and Harold raced towards Nurse Alloway's office, Harold vaguely aware of the other two behind them. When they reached the office, Jimmy pounded on the door.

There was the sound of frantic scuffling inside. Then the door opened, and Nurse Alloway's face appeared, shocked and bewildered.

"What is going on out—" She froze, her honey-brown eyes sweeping over Helen's shaking figure in Harold's arms.

"Get her inside," she said firmly, standing back and directing them in. Harold steered into the room and over to one of the beds; he registered vaguely that another was occupied, but he didn't have time to spare to check by whom.

"What happened?" said Nurse Alloway, pulling her hair back into a night cap while Harold laid Helen gently across the bed.

"It was this—creature," Jimmy said. "A mutant salamander, that produced some kind of glowing toxin."

Nurse Alloway quite clearly didn't have a clue what they were talking about, but didn't ask any further questions. She simply rushed to pick up a syringe, similar to the one she had used on Harold, and prepared to draw another blood sample.

"You," she said, pointing at Ezra. "Go find Mr. Adams, the Biology teacher. And you"—she nodded at Kierra—"Mr. Girvan, please—"

"No need, I'm already here, Lucille," a gruff voice said, and they all turned to see Mr. Girvan stumping into the room, dressed, oddly, in his usual teaching gear rather than regular nightclothes. "I suspect the whole school heard the drop ship land. What's going on here?"

"From what I've been told, Ms. Barnham was exposed to an unusual, and extraordinarily powerful toxin."

Mr. Girvan looked past her at the still-quivering Helen, his face quite impassive. But his voice was sharp as he next addressed Jimmy and Harold: "Another Enhanced animal?"

Both nodded.

"Mr. Adams is currently sitting inside the teacher's lounge," he said briskly. "Hale, Morris, tell him that I need to see him in the Sick Bay at once."

Kierra and Ezra nodded and moved towards the door; Kierra cast one last, sad look at Harold before her mane of blonde hair vanished around the corner.

"And you two, back to bed."

"What?" Jimmy demanded, looking incredulous.

"Not a chance!" Harold said fiercely. "We're staying here—"

"No, you can't, Farwell," Mr. Girvan said, and Harold was so thrown by sudden, unexpected gentleness of his voice that he could not immediately respond. "As much as you may not like it, the people here need to work without distractions. And in any case, you two need rest. I can assure you that Ms. Barnham is in the best of hands. So, please report to your Dorms for the time being. You will receive an update tomorrow."

Harold looked at Jimmy. He looked equally upset, but both knew that they couldn't stay. Slowly, wordlessly, they exited the room.

He and Jimmy began a slow trek along the corridors, the door of the Medical Wing closing behind them. They stopped and stared at the door, with the image of a long staff entwined with a single snake carved into the door.

"She'll be okay," Jimmy said, clapping a hand on Harold's shoulder; his fingers were quivering.

"Are you trying to convince me or yourself?"

Jimmy sighed. "Both?"

Harold nodded and put his hand over Jimmy's. A few seconds passed, then they started along the path again.

Harold's last comforting thought as they turned away from the Sick Bay was that, as Girvan said, Helen was in very capable hands. As they emerged onto the next corridor, Mr. Adams himself, their Biology teacher, came hurtling towards them, his bathrobe flying behind him, his eyes wide, and his feet halfway out of his carpet slippers. He dashed by, leaving behind him a strong smell of coffee.

Jimmy and Harold exchanged looks with raised eyebrows.

"Yep," Harold said, as they started moving again. "The best hands."

Harold had not thought he could fall asleep, given everything that had happened mere hours before, but he was wrong. He dozed off immediately upon lying down, and stayed there until the sun began to rise.

He glanced over at the alarm clock. It read 6:32. Jimmy had not shown up to wake him up this morning.

Harold climbed out of the bed with a sigh. This was how it was at Helix. Students could go on potentially life-threatening missions all the time and yet, they still had to face classes the next morning. Groaning and muttering bitterly, he fished out a clean suit of undergarments and strode to the bathroom.

Jimmy was not there, either. Which meant he must already be at breakfast. Jesse, the janitor, was not waiting outside to warm the water, having been sent on a short "sick leave" a few days before after expressing his deep infatuation with the vice-principal, so he had to shower under the regular cold water. It was not as bad as he had thought it would be. In fact, it was actually quite pleasant.

When he had finished, his mind clearer than it had been all morning, he returned to his room to gather his books. He stopped to survey himself in the mirror: the deep wound caused by the salamander's tail had closed at last, but the skin was still dark and sore-looking, yet he still couldn't feel anything there.

First the gorilla, then the hornets, now this. The fact that there were more of these appalling creatures out there was both infuriating and frightening.

He stocked his bag with the necessary books and exited his room. On his way to breakfast, however, something else caught his attention. A faint scuffling noise could be heard coming from behind one of the doors. That was odd, thought Harold, given that most of the other boys on the block had either all gone to breakfast or were still in the showers. He edged along the corridor, listening intently, until he stopped just outside the door from which the noise was coming.

It was marked 306. Daniell Cullen's door.

Harold knocked, but the door creaked open a little at his touch. It was already open.

"Danny?" Harold said, stepping into the room. It was empty, and the sound of movement had suddenly stopped, but the room was in a state of total disarray, as if a small but violent storm had passed through. Drawers had been pulled out, books, clothes, and other items were all strewn across the floor, and the window was open.

It made no sense. The room was utterly deserted, yet he was sure he had heard something moving seconds before he had entered....

"Hey!"

The sudden shout startled Harold, who whirled around. A small, thin boy of sixteen, with straggly ginger hair and freckles, Daniell himself was standing at the doorway, gazing around in utter disbelief.

"What did you do to my room?!"

"Me? I didn't do anything," Harold said. "I just heard a noise and checked it out."

Daniell's demeanour changed so fast that it was downright alarming. Where seconds before he had looked stunned and angry, now he looked almost...afraid.

"What did you see?"

"I—what? What do you mean?"

"Just tell me what you saw!" Daniell repeated, sounding a little hysterical.

"Nothing!" Harold said, alarmed. "Okay? Nothing."

Daniell seemed to relax a little, though he still looked shaken.

"Are you all right?" Harold asked. "Do you need help cleaning up—"

"No!" Daniell said quickly. "I mean—I just realized, this was probably some stupid prank from the other guys." He gave a short, forced laugh. "It's nothing. I can clean up by myself. Thanks anyway."

"Sure," Harold said, watching him suspiciously. He didn't buy for a second that Daniell didn't know what had happened, or that it had merely been a prank from "the guys." He edged past him towards the door, then turned around one last time. "And you're sure you don't want any help?"

"Positive." Daniell smiled. "No, you go on down to breakfast, and I'll deal with this. I wasn't that hungry anyway." And he shut the door.

Harold stared at the door for a few more seconds, then he set off down the corridor, turning over the encounter in his mind.

He had always known Daniell to be a bit odd. But this was different: Harold was almost certain that he was afraid of something—or someone....

"Agh!"

Harold jerked back to his senses. He had rounded the corner, lost in thought, and crashed right into Jimmy, knocking him over.

"Sorry," said Harold, helping him back to his feet. "You all right?"

"Yeah, fine," Jimmy said, dusting himself off. Harold, however, noticed almost immediately that he wasn't. There were dark shadows under his eyes, which were tinged with pink: typical sign of a sleepless night.

"No, you're not fine. What happened? And where were you?"

Jimmy sighed. "Fine. I was waiting outside the Med Wing. I wanted to see Helen."

"Did they let you?"

"No," Jimmy said bitterly. "Girvan turned me back, said he'd 'let us know of any updates whenever he could.'"

Harold gritted his teeth. "Looks like all we can do is wait. Breakfast?"

"Please," said Jimmy, and they started towards the canteen again.

"So, what were you thinking about?"

"What?"

"When you bumped into me. You looked lost in thought. What's up?"

Harold spent the rest of the journey explaining about his odd encounter with Daniell, and the state of his room before he had arrived, finishing just as they arrived at the canteen. They collected their trays, then sat down at their usual spots.

"So you think he was lying?" Jimmy said.

Harold shrugged. "Definitely sounds so to me."

"But...why?"

"I don't know. I got the sense that he knew exactly what was going on, but was too afraid to let me find out."

Jimmy stared absently at the other end of the room, chewing his meal. At last he said, "But what could he be afraid of? That if whoever actually trashed the room got caught they'd do something to him? Or if it was reported and someone did a search they'd find something he'd rather keep private?"

"You mean like you and your Board?"

"Exactly. The Academy doesn't permit us to carry certain things inside the walls. Maybe he had something like that—and maybe someone else knew that he did—and they tried to steal it."

Harold took a long draft of his orange juice, pondering. It sounded plausible enough, but....

He frowned, trying to reconstruct the image of the room he'd seen that morning in his mind's eye. Clothes, books, and other personal effects scattered along the floor; drawers open, contents spilling out of them; the half-open window.

All of it had looked deliberate. As if someone had done it just for the sake of it.

The open window bugged Harold. He was sure—completely sure—that he had heard noises coming from the room just before he had entered. Had the saboteur escaped through the window when he detected Harold's presence? And if they really had been looking for something, then what? Had they found it? And, this troubled Harold most of all, if not, would they return for another search?

"Real mystery, isn't it?" he said absently.

Jimmy hummed, gnawing on his chicken bone.

Classes went swiftly and smoothly that day. Harold even found himself paying attention to what was being taught in History for almost a half hour before he fell asleep again. Then when the bell rang to signal the end of the school day, he roared in glee along with the rest of his peers.

Another stressful week, finally over. Between everything that had happened with the Gargantuans and the Blue Vipers, it had been an exceptionally awful few days, and that was saying something.

Jimmy and Harold deposited their bags in their rooms, then went off to visit Helen. By now, they must be able to hear the promised update.

"And where do you two think you're going?" were the first words that greeted them when they reached the Medical Wing.

"We want to see Helen," Harold said defiantly.

"Yes, I'm sure you do, Mr. Farwell," Mr. Girvan said. "But as I explained to you both earlier this morning, that is impossible. At least for the time being. Ms. Barnham's condition is improving, but she is in no shape to host visitors just yet. It is plain that you dislike waiting, but that is all you can do at this point."

Harold gritted his teeth.

"But, you did save me the trouble of coming to find you, at least," Girvan went on. Harold quirked an eyebrow.

"Ms. Hale and Mr. Morris have already given me a detailed report of all that went on last night. They wanted to save you the trouble, I suppose. The information that the Blue Viper gang is trading these...creatures, is troubling, to say the least.

"But again, we are conducting our own investigation as to whom these potential buyers may be. Depending on what we find, you may have another mission coming up. That is, if you're willing. Given that you have had...less than pleasant encounters with these 'Gargantuans,' I wouldn't be surprised if you no longer wish to—"

"Of course we do," Harold said fiercely.

"Absolutely," Jimmy added, nodding vigorously.

Mr. Girvan smiled, but it was not his usual smug expression. "No less than I expected. You will receive more information on this—and on Ms. Barnham's condition—in time. You will simply need to be patient. Now, move along."

As irritating as the thought was that they couldn't see Helen yet, Harold went about the rest of the day as casually as he could. He glimpsed Kierra and Ezra a few more times before dinner, but neither party seemed interested in offering more than an acknowledging smile or nod.

After dinner, Jimmy and Harold returned to their rooms. Harold cast a lingering look at Daniell's door before closing his own and tossing himself into bed.

He immediately noticed something was wrong. His pillow was much lumpier than usual.

He pressed harder against it to smooth it out, then rested his head on it. It was still uncomfortable. Harold let out a noise of exasperation and began to punch the pillow into a more comfortable shape. But it was still lumpy.

"What the—"

Harold sat up and probed the pillow with his fingers, trying to determine what the problem was. It felt normal enough, so why did—

Harold froze, his brow knitting together. What was that? His fingers patted the area again. There was something oddly solid there. He pulled the pillow into his lap and began to probe around the inside of the pillowcase. Something hard and smooth presented itself to his touch, and he yanked it out.

It was an enormous blue-grey book, with no illustrations or writing on the cover, and it was definitely not his.

Utterly bewildered, Harold opened it. The first page was completely full, obscured by lines written in a messy scrawl, as were a great many pages after it. Harold couldn't read it. At first he thought it was simply because of the poor writing. But then he realized...it was written in a different language.

Harold flipped back to the first page. Larger than anything else the person had written, and highlighted in a squiggly cloud, were the words: Midèn kai ápeiro.