Four thirty-three

Chapter 7

Next Monday, at 7, on his way to Edward Chen's lesson, Brett saw Katie in one of the corridors. She gave him a smile and a light pat in the back.

"Oh, don't look so glum. You'll be alright, don't worry. His bark is far worse than his bite."

Brett huffed and kept walking to his lesson. After some more convincing from Katie, Chen had given in and agreed to be his teacher. She'd even managed to convince him not to force Brett to go to beginners' string class, but to schedule a shared lesson with only one other student. This was a very usual thing, not only down there; even Brett, when he was a flute student, used to have most of his lessons with two other children.

If he had to be honest to himself, Brett was rather glad he wasn't going to be all alone with Chen. The guy could be rather intimidating, and seemed to have quite an easy temper. Brett had been surprised to see him so worked up over one more student -so surprised that he hadn't been able to refrain from telling Ibo all about the encounter that night, at dinner.

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"Well, no wonder he was angry", Ibo had said while chewing down his meatballs. "I mean... he's... got some stuff going on right now." He shuffled in his seat, suddenly uncomfortable. "Also, he's supposed to have his hours cut down, due to him being in the military and all that."

Brett had nearly choked on his water. "Chen's in the military? Wait, no, that's not my question. There's a military?"

"Well, yeah, durr. Who do you think rescued you and all those people in that prison you were at?"

So many things had happened these past three days, he hadn't even had time to ponder who had actually come to his rescue and why. Come to think of it, though, it was true that Katie had mentioned something in passing the other day, but he'd been so overwhelmed at the time, that piece of information had slipped right past him.

"So this military thing... they rescue people from government's prisons?" Brett had asked.

"They rescue people, they steal instruments kept by the government, they defend the Conservatory... tons of things. Hey, where do you think those meatballs you're eating come from? Seen any cows around here?" Ibo'd laughed.

"You mean to tell me that they go up there and steal enough food to feed 7 000 people?" Brett suddenly felt guilty for eating two servings of spaghetti at lunch.

"Most of it, yeah. I mean, we have some underground greenhouses, and most vegetables and cereals come from there, also beans and stuff. Earth musicians work on them, they are very well kept. Oh, and they've managed to have some... I don't know the name for them, these pools where you breed some fish, then fish them, and they also keep some chickens. But other than that, yeah, this is all food from outside."

"So they must go out very often."

"Yeah, they go on raids every week or so. But it's only four or five people at a time, and they keep it low."

"So, Chen is part of those... what did you just say, raids? That's why he gets a cut in his teaching hours? Because he goes outside all the time?"

"Yep."

Brett had started to fiddle with his meatballs. "That sounds dangerous." For some reason, he'd just lost his appetite.

Ibo, seeing the concerned look on his face, had smiled at him. "Hey, don't worry too much about it. These people are good. Like, good good. Most of them are great musicians, they train every day, and they rotate, so a person does not have to leave the complex two weeks in a row."

That had done nothing to ease Brett's suddenly churning stomach. "How many people are there in the military?"

Ibo had shrugged. "I don't really know. There's the people who take part in the raids, then there's people working in intelligence and strategy, there's the trainers, and I believe there are actually a few who have been sent abroad to bring back exiled musicians so they can join our forces. So it must be quite big. But we don't really know exactly what they do or who's really part of it."