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Academy teams had followed Mr. McCoy. He’d gotten on the grounds with a false ID at the entrance in Kota’s car, claiming to be a parent dropping off a student. He’d driven in one of the male students, dropped him off, and proceeded to walk around, like some of the other parents, keeping an eye on the students.
How he had gotten in didn’t matter. They caught who they wanted.
Silas refocused on Dr. Roberts who was speaking now. “And what of Silas Korba? Let’s not forget why we’re here.”
“Well, Theo is being taken care of,” Kevin said. “I suppose under the circumstances, considering the extremity of the situation, Silas should determine if he should give up a favor or not. I don’t have a reason to suggest a specific number.”
Eyes turned on Silas. This was a critical moment. You had to be totally honest with your performance. The distraction of talking about Miss Sorenson had actually eased a lot of the guilt he’d had, and brought him back to reality.
Sang wouldn’t approve of being dishonest, jaded by guilt.
“I’ve got four favors,” he said. “I’ll give up two. One for slacking on paying attention to my own family, and being a reason for requiring others to join in. The other is for at the very end, when I probably should have called you all sooner. In waiting, I put at risk the Academy and those who were getting involved on the scene.”
“That sounds accurate and reasonable,” the skinny man said.
“I approve,” said the kid.
“I approve,” said the woman.
“I highly approve,” said the man with the glasses.
Kevin turned to Dr. Roberts. “Two favors sounds fair.” He turned to Silas. “But don’t be so hard on yourself. Wanting to take care of your own business is only natural, and something we all struggle with.”
“It’s why we’re in this together,” Dr. Roberts said. “So we don’t have to do it all on our own.” He nodded to the five and then turned to Mr. Blackbourne. “Is there anything else we need to talk about?”
“Not at this time,” Mr. Blackbourne said.
“Then this trial is over.” Dr. Roberts smiled, and gave a thumbs up to the team. “Great job guys. Thanks for coming in. Don’t forget about Miss Sorenson.”
“We won’t,” Kota said.
Silas agreed. As the Academy members started to disband, North and Silas lingered behind.
“Hey,” North said. “So you did decide to stay. I was sure you’d convinced yourself to tell them you should go home with Charlie.”
“Aren’t I home?” Silas said. He did a side glance, looking at his friend’s face. “Isn’t that what you were telling me?”
“I tried,” North said. “You didn’t agree with me then. What made you change your mind?”
“I don’t know,” Silas said. “Sang, I think. She needs me.”
North’s dark eyes lit up. “So she did get to you? Good.”
Silas snapped his head around, turning partially. “What? You told her?”
“Of course I did,” North said. “What was I going to do? Let you leave when you didn’t deserve it? You were being an ass.”
Silas grunted. He couldn’t deny that. Maybe part of it was that he was ashamed what trouble his own family had caused to his team and to the Academy. He didn’t want to believe he deserved a chance when he felt he was the one who had messed up.
He knew he had to work on that. Guilt was heavy to carry. Sometimes, you did have to let go.
“Sang does have a way of convincing me to do things,” Silas said. “You know, I asked her out.”
“She told me,” North said.
“I know you like her,” Silas said.
North nodded slightly. “I do.”
“I didn’t mean to...I mean I asked, she could have said no.”
“She wouldn’t have,” North said. “Actually, we should talk later about this. Mr. Blackbourne is going to want a meeting with all of us soon.”
“Why?”
“Because of Sang, and because of the introduction, and because if we don’t do something soon, we’ll lose her. It’s why Kota’s fighting this.”
Silas nodded. “I was worried about that, too, but we can’t deny an introduction. It’ll make it look worse.”
“We know,” North said. “Which is why we’ve got to pull ourselves together. We’ve got to come to an agreement.”
They were behind everyone else waiting out their turn to descend down into the building. Kevin was the last to leave, along with the kid. They must have arrived together, with Kevin driving him to where he was supposed to be now. When they were beyond the doors, Silas turned to North. “What agreement?” he asked.
North turned on Silas. “You know I love her.”
Silas stared at him, waiting him out. N
orth was always blunt with him, but somehow Silas had expected him to say more. When he didn’t continue, he let the information sink in. He’d worried this would happen, although he didn’t know North felt that strongly about her. “So you do have a problem with...”
“No,” North said. “I don’t. But I’ve got a feeling she...cares strongly for me, too.”
Silas sighed. Maybe Sang was too good to be true. She was a good girl, but the way she seemed to hesitate around him at times, it made him wonder if she really liked him.
He couldn’t deny how he felt though. When she wasn’t around, he thought normally, but the moment she was there, he was watching her. He was listening to her. He loved when she talked.
He loved those quiet moments with her, when they were alone, together. He opened up more with her than most of the members of his own team. He never had a problem talking with them, but he never talked much anyway.
Sang was different that way. She was quiet, too, a lot of the time, though he’d learned getting her alone, helped her open up more. She was finally being vocal among the group, joking and laughing with them.
Silas shook his head. “She said yes to me.”
“Could you...” North started to say and then stopped. “You know, I’m not the only one.”
Silas shook his head again. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“You and I need to talk,” North said. “But I want to run something by you right now. I want you to think about what just happened here.” He motioned to where the trial had been held. “Today, the Academy insisted we bring Sang in. This time, we can’t back down. We can’t hide her anymore.”
“I know,” Silas said. “It’s why we were worried before. But she likes our team. And if I’m dating her...well...”
“Not too long ago, Mr. Blackbourne and I visited a multi-dog team that had one bird,” North said.
Silas stood taller, pulling his hands from his pockets. That sounded like good news. “Yeah?”
“They all fell in love with her, and they share her now,” North said. “All the guys married her. They live happily ever after that way.”
