You Must Remember This

Chapter 26: The Syndicate

Ms. Liu wisely suggested that Alan wait in her classroom for a bit until the kids outside stopped menacingly loitering—some were even her students! Alan seemed oddly calm after his initial outburst, quietly reading his book and doing his homework while Ms. Liu sent a flurry of panicked emails. As much as she had initial reservations about the celery juice plan, considering it childish at best and entrapment at worst, when the scheme began working she was forced to admit that the school had a problem, and short of bringing in the drug dogs and doing random backpack searches, this maybe was the next best thing. Alan has little to say about this last point, insisting he "had absolutely zero regret—if even one of my classmates becomes better, I will regret nothing."

"Speaking of charitable deeds, and this may not be for me to ask, but how much did you profit from this? Clearly you had enough surplus material to hydrate Ms. Norris weekly."

"Well, without going into the particulars, what supply expenses we had were covered by the school, and when on average you're selling for $20 a vial, let's just say that our club won't need to do any more food fairs."

"You keep the profits?" Ms. Liu looked again at the crowd outside, who she now realized probably owed a few hundred total to the boy inside her room gleefully chattering away.

"We asked Dr. Kurtz and he left that entirely to our discretion."

"And was this before or after you realized how much you were scamming your classmates for?"

"At that point we were only at a few hundred." Ms. Liu suspected then that Alan was somewhat more interested in the money—Alan could recount in great detail the biggest heists—and the artifice of the scheme than any sort of moral underpinnings.

"So given that you've made a bunch of money, why didn't any of it go to the school? Do you realize how many new computers that could buy, or how many of our printers run out of ink on a daily basis?"

"In a democracy, the government is the people," Alan explained. "We're people, aren't we? So we might just as well keep the money and eliminate the middleman." Ms. Liu grimaced, finally understanding Alan's twisted morality, and continued her interrogation:

"So all of this is meant to protect democracy?" First he nodded politely, and then his face broke into that radiant and understanding smile, as if they'd been in ecstatic cahoots on that fact all the time. "I have to admit, Alan, I never would have thought of it that way before. But do you think all of your compatriots outside still staring at us think the same way?" Alan did not waste any precious energy in turning his head:

"No, I don't think they would."

"And why is that? Is it because they don't believe in democracy?"

"Exactly that!"

"I suppose I can't argue with your conviction. As much as this conversation fascinates me, I think I'll refrain from further comment until our weekly staff meeting. When the people outside get bored and leave, I should probably drive you home just in case they still have a bone to pick with you. You'll have a great story to tell your mother—would you want that?" Alan checked his phone for emails, only seeing one from Frank that read plainly "This will pass. Just know that you did the right thing."

"Thank you."

Pranav was thankful he had largely avoided any backlash from the recent events. All he could really do was congratulate himself on a job well done, and laugh along with Frank after Alan told them how he had narrowly escaped with his life.

"You always exaggerate, Alan. It can't have been that bad," Pranav told him confidently.

"No, I'm serious! There were these big kids, all standing around Ms. Liu's door! She was there, she can tell you herself!"