“It’ll do,” Rafe says. “Pour me one. We’ll be at Acheron in twenty minutes.”
That seems impossibly fast. Then again, so does the speed of the dark terrain passing beneath them, and the speed of Dez’s changing world. She reassures herself that if this jet can get her to the Rocky Mountains in twenty minutes, it can get her back to her family just as fast.
She pours two glasses and passes one to Rafe. When they clink, he meets her eyes. “To your brother.”
Goose bumps rise on Dez’s arms. “To Mo.”
They drink. It’s smoother than anything she’s ever slid down her throat. And it takes a much-needed edge off.
“When was Acheron founded?” she asks Rafe. She’s been researching film schools for years, and it’s strange that she’s never come across the one she’s about to enroll in.
“Ages ago, though we’ve changed buildings more recently.”
“Film has only existed for about a hundred years.”
Rafe fixes a stare at her. “Actually, Edison invented the kinetoscope in 1889.”
“I know that,” Dez says. “And the first film,Monkeyshines, was made in—”
Rafe cuts her off: “1890. Are you trying to outnerd me, Dez? I’ll let you win, but there are far more fun games we could play. All you need to know is Acheron is the first of its kind, the only of its kind.”
“The first film school was founded in Moscow in 1919,” Dez counters.
Rafe laughs under his breath. “Let’s just say we’ve been flying under the radar.”
“How many students are enrolled?” she asks.
“One hundred. And fifty graduated last term. So, the class you’ll be joining will number fifty, too.”
“Are they also being rounded up, fly by night, in private planes?”
He smiles at her. “I doubt any of them are having this much fun.”
Dez draws her knees up to her chest. Picking at the hole in her maroon Dairy Barn slacks, she realizes something distressing.
“My bags,” she gasps. “I left them on the tarmac—”
“Relax.”
“I don’t have any other clothes!”
“There’s a reason I didn’t remind you to pick up your bags,” Rafe says. “Acheron isn’t like other places. You’ll see.”
“I don’t want to wear my Dairy Barn uniform on my first day of class.”
“I don’t want you to wear it either.”
“My computer—”
“It was a piece of shit, Dez.”
It was. But it was her piece of shit. “All my files are on it.”
“I know,” Rafe says condescendingly. “It’s the only way you know how to work. But laptops aren’t allowed at Acheron. They’re for idiots.”
“What am I supposed to work on?”
Rafe laughs. “When you see your new equipment, you’ll forget laptops ever existed. Besides, every byte on that crappy computer has already been uploaded into the Acheron database.”
