Page 56 of Wired Strong

“You mean . . . kids the same race as you,” Jana said. Her shoulders hunched suddenly and she covered her face with her hands. “Oh, dammit. This is all my fault.”

“No, it isn’t, Mom!” Conrad flew up out of his chair and ran over to kneel beside his mother, throwing his arm over her shoulders. “You were just trying to give me the best future you could.”

Leede glanced at Sophie, her brows lifted, confusion written plain on her face, but Sophie had guessed the answer to this puzzle. “Conrad is adopted,” she told Leede. “I believe his heritage is black, Mexican, and white. He’s not Hawaiian. His mother forged his papers to get him into Kama`aina Schools.”

“Ah, I see,” Leede said. “Oh, dear.”

Jana’s shoulders shook with sobs as she broke down.

Leede stood up and went to the kitchen, returning with a roll of paper towels. She peeled off a few and handed them to the distraught woman. Conrad continued to try to comfort his mother. “You lied about my heritage to give me a chance. I always knew you were only trying to do what you could for me, and make sure that I had a future. But you should have trusted that I could make my own future, Mom. You should have believed in me.”

“I do believe in you!” Jana exclaimed. “It’s because I believed in you that I wanted you to have a Kama`aina Schools’ education. I wanted you to have a better life than your dad and I could provide!” She threw her arms around the boy. They hugged for a long moment.

Sophie looked down at her computer, uncomfortable with the deep emotion, her own eyes prickling. Leede settled herself on the couch closest to the pair. “Now I understand why you feel so strongly about the Schools’ admissions policy,” she said. “I hope that when the board and the headmaster understand that you were adopted and that you wanted to even the playing field for children of your ethnic heritage, they might dismiss the charges. Especially if the money can be returned.”

Conrad separated from his mother and returned to the lounger. “I said the money is gone. But it isn’t. I can return it.” He looked up at them, suddenly fierce. “But I don’t want to. That policy’s wrong! I was only able to get in because I look Hawaiian!”

“That’s a conversation for another day, with another group of people,” Leede said in her reasonable way. “Sophie, Monsieur Raveaux, and I will be sure to emphasize that you had an altruistic motive.”

“Not totally.” The boy gestured around the shabby room. “I was going to keep a few hundred grand so Mom could get a better place for us.”

“Thank you for being honest about that, too.” Leede got her phone out. “I’ll call Dr. Ka`ula and let him know the outcome of our talk. Conrad, can you move the money back into the Kama`aina Schools’ account? I think that will go a long way to mitigating the consequences for you.”

Sophie proffered her computer. “You can do it right here, right now.”

The boy came to sit beside Sophie on the couch. “I need to log in.”

She handed the laptop to him. “You’ll pardon me if I sit right here and make sure you’re following through.”

Jana winced. “He just wanted to help me. He just wanted to help other kids in his situation,” she pleaded with them. “He’s a good boy.”

“You’ve raised a very bright and compassionate young man,” Sophie agreed. She turned to Conrad, giving in to an impulse. “I’d like to meet with you privately, Conrad, and mentor you in working with computers. Most genius in this area is innate, not taught. You will likely be expelled from Kama`aina Schools, and need to go to a public school. That’s no tragedy if you continue your education privately. I could help you learn tech skills. We could still create a very bright future for you, indeed.”

The boy held himself rigidly, his fingers flying on the keys as he logged into the Caymans account and made the transfer back to Kama`aina Schools. “I don’t know you.”

Jana lifted her face from the pile of wet paper towels. “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, son!”

Sophie smiled when she heard one of the first American expressions she’d investigated and learned to use. “You don’t know it yet, Conrad. But this is truly a gift horse you’ll want to ride.”

Chapter Forty-One

Connor

Connor arrivedon time for his chess game with the Master. He knocked on the door, and heard a shouted summons. “Enter, Number One!”

Connor opened the door and stepped into the sunken living room area. The Master was still in the bedroom with the door shut, clearly occupied with Pim Wat, to judge by the muffled sounds coming from within.

Connor’s skin crawled at the thought of them in bed; Pim Wat repulsed him on a cellular level. How could the Master be so blind about her? The answerhadto be that he wasn’t; and if so, the Master was as foul as she was, if not as directly so.

It had taken Connor way too long to come to that conclusion.

“You’re judging an essential duality,” the Master’s voice said in his mind. “Where would the light be without the darkness?”Didn’t mean Connor would ever embrace that darkness, in himself, or in others.

Connor scowled as he walked across the room to the sideboard near the fireplace.

A tea set was already arranged on the sideboard and the hot water pot gently steamed; the Master’s new manservant had already set it up. The service was one of those fussy Victorian things embossed with roses; Connor could only suppose that Pim Wat had brought it to the Master’s spare but luxurious quarters. Neither Pim Wat nor the Master ever poured out; the safest way to do away with both of them was to doctor the whole pot.

Connor poured half of the container of poison into the teapot, dropped in the full strainer ball, and filled the pot with hot water from the pot.

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