Sang's Freedom (Original And Rewritten)

Chapter 40: Kota

-Chapter 40: Kota Lee's POV-

Mr. Blackbourne had informed our team of the situation regarding Mr. Hendricks this morning.

The knowledge of him having photos of girls from his school under lock and key disturbed me greatly, and why would he have Sang's picture so soon? When had he taken it?

I lowered my eyes to the basic geometry textbook I covered seven years ago. This school was a damn nightmare. I couldn't take any advanced courses. The material was made up of lessons I had already learned, and the pace that we went through the content was glacial at best.

It took all my strength not to drop my face on my desk and groan.

Mr. Blackbourne told me to treat this year as a refresher for my studies, but after one week, I knew that I would have to be taking several classes on the side between missions and my newfound time with Sang.

Sang.

Just the thought of her did something to my heart. The sight of her all bruised up and not being able to do anything had been haunting. I haven't been sleeping well, not that it mattered when my education consisted of this tripe.

My phone vibrated and I propped up my textbook to hide my soon-to-be texting self from the teacher.

Not that it mattered.

Mr. Clark was asleep at his desk anyhow.

Victor!: The fact that the principal has pictures of Sang makes me nervous. I'm putting up cameras in his office, can you get out of there to help? Luke is preoccupied.

By preoccupied, I knew he meant Luke had a class with Sang. If I was in class with her, I wouldn't leave either.

Me: Yeah, that shouldn't be a problem.

I dipped out of class and no one so much as glanced my way. Victor was leaning up against the brick wall outside the door. His arms were crossed and his eyes were dark with determination.

"Hendricks left his office about four minutes ago. You'll never guess what class he went to."

Sang's. Hell, this could be much more serious than anticipated if he was blatantly stalking Sang above all the other girls he had taken pictures of. "Luke and North are in her class. We are at school. Hendricks cannot do anything here."

Victor shook his head as we slipped through the halls. Lucky for us, the receptionist had taken an early lunch and we were able to get into Mr. Hendricks' office without any witnesses, and then Victor was breaking out his black duffle bag.

He wired the place so that we would have a video feed and hid a few well placed bugs.

"Are we doing phone taps?" I asked as Victor's nibble fingers worked the feeds through the room.

He nodded. "Couldn't consider ourselves professionals if we didnt."

I smiled at that, and a few minutes later we were diving out the office window as Mr. Hendricks approached. Victor and I ran like ninjas across the field and into the school parking lot before Victor pulled his laptop out from his duffle bag.

"We did well," he breathed as the computer came to life. He accessed the mainframe, bringing up a black screen as he entered in a page of binary code. "Annnnd, we're in."

The screen became filled with several camera angles of Mr. Hendricks office. From our vantage we could see the entire room.

Currently, Hendricks was seated at his desk facing his computer, and what was on the screen had me choking back bile.

"This is not good," Victor murmured as we looked over Mr. Hendricks detailed background check of one Miss Sang Sorenson.

There was almost no information on her. No birth certificate. No prior electronic school records. No social security number. No license. No state ID.

"How is this possible?" Victor pulled up a new window, starting his own search. A moment later he was shaking his head again. "She's a ghost, Kota. Sang Sorenson doesn't exist."

His words had my blood run cold. If the Academy found out...

"She doesn't have anything on her. No medical reports. No dental records. Doc must not have officially checked her in on Tuesday so as to not notify Sang's family so...yeah, there's nothing. Her parents don't even claim her on their tax returns."

"Why would they be hiding her?" I asked. My own father beat the hell out of me for years and he had never taken the time to hide it like this. Was Sang their own personal punching bag, or was something worse going on? Did they touch her?

"I'm...not sure. I don't think Sang is an illegal. One moment." Victor sent everything he had over to Mr. Blackbourne, along with links so he would be able to access Mr. Hendricks video feed. "I'm not sure what they have to gain, really. It will put Sang in quite the predicament in a few months when she turns eighteen, or when she tries to apply for a job..."

"Unless the Academy gets to her first."

"She would be invaluable. A ghost bird, almost eighteen years old. She could become anyone."

"She would be a chameleon, just like her hair." My stomach clenched. "We would lose Sang. The Academy would promise her the world."

"The Academy would promise the world, but what would it cost her? Everything. All that girl wants is to be normal, and if she joined up, that's something she would never be...Plus, Sang promised she wouldn't leave. She promised, Kota."

"She didn't know about the Academy when she promised. We didn't know she was a ghost bird."

Victor closed his laptop. "I don't think Sang should know about any of this. She's family now. We already have to protect her from her parents and Mr. Hendricks. I think this would be too much for any person to handle."

I had to agree with Victor.

If I found out my principal was stalking me and I couldn't call the police because my parents were abusing me, and it also turned out that I didn't have an identity, and then a secret organization wanted to recruit me, I might be a little overwhelmed.

"So, we keep this quiet?"

"Sang's ghost status, that's between you, me, and Mr. B."