“Why?” Hunter asked.
“Because I think I just found a list of targets.”
“Targets?” I repeated. “What, like for assassination?” Chloe nodded. “Let me guess, Drakes?”
“Worse.”
Hunter and I blinked at her. “Worse?”
“They’re at least used to it . . . This list is for human targets.”
Hunter looked vaguely nauseated. “A hit list?”
“Dawn placed bounties on a lot of important people,” Chloe said. “Hart. Kieran.”
Hunter instantly reached for her phone and started to text.
Chloe bit her lower lip. “Oh.”
“What?” Hunter and I cried at the same time.
“Your grandfather,” Chloe explained, wincing.
“He’s on a hit list?” Hunter gaped. “I have to warn him—”
“No,” Chloe interrupted softly. “Hunter, you don’t understand. He’s the one who sent the e-mail.”
Hunter stared at her. “That’s not possible.”
“It’s his IP address,” Chloe said miserably.
“Check again.”
“I already—”
“Check again.”
Chloe checked three more times. “I’m sorry, Hunter.”
“You can’t possibly think he’s Dawn,” she said, starkly. “That doesn’t even make sense. And he would never hurt Kieran.”
“He didn’t write the e-mail,” Chloe agreed. “He just passed it on. There’s one IP that pops up way more frequently but it’s bouncing off a bunch of other places. That has to be Dawn. It’ll take me a while to pin her down, even with Connor’s help.” She clenched her jaw. “We’ll figure it out. I promise.”
The lights blinked off suddenly and then flicked back on with such intensity it was like a physical slap. Spots exploded behind my lids every time I blinked, as if I’d been staring into the flash of a camera. The lights went out again. Each of our cell phones rang and steel bars clamped down over the window. “Now what?” I asked as a red emergency light blinked over the door.
Hunter and Chloe exchanged a grim glance. “Lockdown,” Hunter said.
“What the hell is lockdown?” I asked.
“Usually we get speed drills, to test our response times for escape. Red light means this is something else,” Hunter explained, going to the small window and peering out. “All I can see is the roof from here,” she said, sounding just as formal and stern as Kieran had sounded the first time I’d met him. School training was taking over. “But the UV lights aren’t on, so this isn’t a vampire attack.”
Chloe’s keyboard tapping became violent. “Signal’s down too.”
Hunter kicked the doorstop out of the way and yanked the door open. I felt my way along the counter, less sure of myself in the shadows. Chloe snapped her laptop shut and slung the case over the shoulder.
“Bathroom duty and creepy fascist midnight drills,” I muttered, following them down the hall. Red lights blinked at all the windows and along the walls. “As if regular high school isn’t bad enough.”
Doors opened, ninth grade students peering out fearfully. Hunter paused. “You know what to do,” she called out. “Get your kits and meet at your assigned exits.”
“I don’t think this is a test,” Chloe whispered.
“I know,” Hunter whispered back. “But they’ll only panic if we tell them that.”
A girl our age came out of her room, wrapped in a purple bathrobe. “Not another drill.” She sighed.
“Not quite,” Hunter replied between her teeth. “Keep an eye on them while I find out what’s going on, Courtney.”
“Hey, I’m the floor monitor here, you’re just my assistant.”
We just kept walking. Her door slammed shut. A girl squeaked and scrambled back into her own room, also slamming the door. The rest of us just naturally followed Hunter’s lead, even when she kept repeating that she didn’t know what was going on either.
“Keep it together,” Jason told his group. His flashlight beam swung over the faces of very young, nervous-looking boys.
Students milled about in every common room as we made our way downstairs.
“I thought Chloe had all the drills mapped out,” Jenna asked as she fell in beside us.
“This isn’t on the official list,” Chloe explained in undertones. Jenna immediately reached for a stake.
“What do we do now?” I asked.
“Speed drills lead us out the side, through an obstacle course in the basement. Fire drills just lead right out to the front lawn,” Jenna replied. “This one appears to be leading us nowhere.”
“Can I have your attention, please.” It wasn’t a request. A man’s voice cut through the chatter. He stood by the front doors, wearing vampire fangs tipped in gold on a chain. Huntsman.
“That’s weird,” Jenna whispered. “They’re way out of their jurisdiction.”
“We have entered lockdown for your own protection,” he continued. “Please return to your rooms immediately and await further instructions.”
“Where’s York?” Hunter asked, confused. “He’s always in charge of drills and evacuations.”
“He’s busy, Miss Wild,” someone else replied, coming down the hall from the common room. Since she wore the standard Helios-Ra field gear, Hunter backed down. I could tell she was still desperately trying to figure out what was going on though.