“Your teachers are raising a stink.”
“I can’t go to class anymore. I just can’t.”
“And you missed our last appointment.”
“I didn’t. … We had an appointment?”
They were seated in the computer room. Colin hated using the house equipment, with the sticky keyboards and the hostile looks that tracked him. He was an oddity now, even among the Sojourn House residents. The place that once had been his refuge had become just another cage. The confines of his room were growing ever tighter. He came down occasionally when the other students were in class. Wandering from room to room, returning now and then to the screens. Whenever he was working downstairs, he used three computers. This allowed him to run the calculations from two different directions and follow the market graphson a third. He saw Arnold studying the minute-to-minute updates in stock prices, and started to swipe the screen clean. But then he decided it didn’t matter.
“What is this, Colin?”
“A project. For school.” It had not grown any easier to lie. Despite how almost all his life was centered upon the secrets he dared not share. Not yet. But soon.
Arnold insisted they go for a walk. “Maybe we were in error, letting you start university so soon.”
The daylight hurt his eyes. He went because at least he could breathe clean air. “No. It’s great.”
“It doesn’t look great. It looks like the pressure is about to crush you.”
“Everything is new, that’s all.”
“Braxos came to see me. He wants to know if you’re still registered as a student here. He says he’s about to give you a failing grade.” When Colin responded by laughing out loud, Arnold’s tone hardened. “This is serious, Colin. I’ve explained the situation. But you need to show up.”
“I’ll sit his exams. All of them. But no classes.”
“You don’t have the right—”
“I can’t attend them anymore. I just can’t.”
Thankfully, Arnold responded by changing the subject. “Professor Fremdt says he is going to recommend you be matriculated in the fall.”
Colin knew he had to respond. “That’s great.”
“You don’t sound happy.”
“It’s a lot right now.”
“I can see that.” Arnold stopped beneath a vast cypress. “Will you try to get some sleep? And look at your clothes. They’re falling off you.”
“I’ll take better care. I promise.” He watched Arnold walk away, the man bowed beneath new worries. Colin wanted to race after him, confess. Instead, he forced himself to turn away. Walk back to the house. Climb the front stairs.Draw up his calculations once more. Reenter the electronic hurricane of his own making.
Fifty-three days after Lucretia Vaughan followed his instructions and took a long position on their stock, the gaming industry’s two major journals both broke the story. Their specialists had been invited to take part in beta testing the new project. Legend’s new game was, in their mutual opinion, nothing short of sensational.
In the eighteen days that followed their online announcements, the stock went from a dollar and eleven cents per share to six and change.
When his ongoing calculations raised the first red flag, Colin was almost glad to call Lucretia and order her to sell. Sell everything.
Twelve minutes later, Roland called him back. “Are you sure this is the right move?”
“I am. Yes.”
“I’m only asking because theJournal’s online news feed is singing Legend’s praises. I have it up on my screen as we speak.”
Colin was hunched over the straight-back chair in his bedroom. He could hear the other students moving back and forth along the downstairs corridor, carrying their evening meal to the dining table. Colin had not realized another day had almost ended until he noticed the smells. They made him nauseous. He knew he needed to eat, but he wasn’t certain he could keep anything down. “That’s why we’re selling.”
“Expand on that for us.”
“Who is with you?”
