The Book of Masks (Abridged)

The Biggest Secret in the School

"YEAH, I CAN KEEP A SECRET," you reply.

He eyes you carefully, then nods. "Come on, then."

He leads you outside and steers you next to one of the portables. He looks around, then slouches against its corner with his arms folded. "Hang loose while we talk," he says, and his lips hardly move. "You know, just two guys killing time, 'cos there's nothing interesting to do."

You can't relax, not with him talking like this. "What's the deal, Ioeger?"

He keeps his head still, but his eyes shift back and forth, left to right, and over your shoulder. He twitches your shirt and pulls you close. "You know that Black and Patterson and them have that room up in the gym, right? You know the room I'm talking about."

You numbly nod. This can't be the secret, because everyone in the school knows about the loft over the boys' locker room, accessible from the space above the bleachers. The place where Gordon Black and Steve Patterson and those few people that they deign to show favor to can hang out, at any time of day and any day of the week. The place they take girls, even when classes are in session, where they can make out. Where they can take their clothes off and make out hard.

No, that's not the big secret, because even though Black and his friends don't boast openly of it--the administration wouldn't allow that--they know that everyone else at Westside knows about it, and they don't pretend not to gloat about it.

"Okay," says Carson. "You remember Hutchinson and Carr? Connor and Justin, I mean?" You nod. They were seniors last year, since graduated. Nice guys, but a little wild. "Well, this is something that they found, or they knew about, or that someone showed to them, like they showed to us."

Your guts coil in anticipation. Connor and Justin got in lots of trouble with lots of people. You're not surprised they had secrets. And it appears that Carson is enjoying teasing this one out, for he holds your eye awhile before he speaks again.

"There's ducts up in that loft," he finally says. "They run down through the walls, and into a little room back behind the gym showers. There's a key to that room. And just like Gordon and them have a key to the loft--and the jocks have had a key to up there ever since the Jurassic--well, guys like Carr and Hutchinson, and like me and James--" He grins. "Well, we've got a key to that little room."

"Holy shit," you gasp. "Are you saying--?"

"Yep, and keep your voice down. There's a little trick of the acoustics, and if you sit in that room and keep really quiet--because the acoustics probably go both ways--you can hear everything that goes on up in the loft. Clear as a bell."

"Everything?"

He nods, and then grimaces. "Best when it's talk, because no one likes it when Gordon and Chelsea are feeling romantic, and when it's Patterson and--" He makes a face and shudders. "We only use it when we're feeling really curious. Or really pissed off."

You look over your shoulder at the gym. "So which are you feeling?"

He grabs you and pulls you close. "Listen, I'm doing this for Jenny. She doesn't know about the ducts. Only me and James do. And now you do, and if word about it gets out I'll make sure that Black thinks you were down there listening and jacking off while him and Chelsea were--"

"Alright, alright," you gasp.

"Yeah. Jenny would kill to know where James and me get some of our information," he says with a grim smile. "It's one of the few things we get to hold over her. But I'm telling you because--" He bites down hard on his lower lip. "Because something funny is going on with Javits--"

Your eyes pop. "You're the one who told me to stop being paranoid!"

"If I'm paranoid, it's about something else," he snaps. "No, I wanna know what Black and them think of what Javits did, wanna know if they think it's funny."

"It was just a normal breakup," you say, and feel slightly dizzy at the corkscrew turns in Carson's intimacies. "You know what an asshole Javits is."

"Didn't you hear what I told you?" he hisses. "I told you that me and James use that place. Not together, usually. One of us has to keep Jenny distracted, and that's what James is doing now. You ever noticed how it's not always both of us out front at lunch?" He gives you a meaningful glance. "Where do you think the other one is?"

You feel the blood drain from your face. "You heard something. Today, or yesterday."

"Yeah, we heard something on Monday that really makes this Seth-and-Cindy business smell funny." He puts his arm around your shoulder and draws you close. In your ear, he mutters: "Chelsea's been putting the screws to Gordon to break Seth and Cindy up, and Gordon's been resisting. On Monday they had a huge blow up over it. After school, Gordon was bragging to Patterson and Jason Lynch about how he told her to go to hell, and they were egging him on. They were all, Screw that bitch and She can't tell us what to do and-- Lotta testosterone, let's just say." He releases you. "And now today, this morning, Javits dumps her, and dumps her hard?" His eyes narrow with skepticism.

You blink rapidly as you try to process it all. "So that's why Jenny was so sure Chelsea was behind it," you murmur. Carson grunts. "But there's what Kim said-- And we saw Seth and Kendra together on Saturday," you object.

"I don't care," Carson says. "I do want to know what Black and Patterson think of Seth's antics. Because-- Well, because I'm a nosy asshole, and because I'd love to share it with Jenny and tease her some more about me and James's 'inside information'."

"So you don't think it's doppelgangers."

"No, Will," he says with withering acidity. "It's not doppelgangers. And that's why I want you along, so you'll know too."

* * * * *

He leads you to the gym, but he goes in first, after telling you to count slowly to sixty before following. You catch up to him at the showers, and after warning you to be absolutely silent, he leads you around a corner to a small maintenance area. There's a small metal door, no more than five feet high, in one wall, and Carson carefully unlocks it and summons you inside. He pulls the door to after you're both crouched down inside a narrow, dark, dank passage running between the walls of the showers and of the gym proper. There's a duct, plunging from darkness above before disappearing through the floor. A bit of roughly cut metal covers a hole in the duct; it is held in place by some crude clips, and Carson carefully removes it. Almost as soon as it's away you hear voices. They echo hollowly, and they are distorted enough that you can't tell who is speaking, but their words are clear.

"--change of roster."

"Easy enough to handle once Steve's on board. He's for Tony, right?"

"He's on another job or something. I haven't talked to him since--" The voices overlap, drowning each other out briefly, before one rises over the other. "--not arguing. This place'll be better than using a bathroom, I know that."

"So what's the complication? Dave's in, right?"

"Last I heard, yeah. But I don't think he's picked anyone out."

"So give him Patterson in the meantime. I mean if Tony's--"

The voices cut off, and there's a thump. "Something wrong?"

Carson rests a hand on your shoulder, and your heart jumps. Did you make a noise?

"Punch this moron for me." You can't be sure, but it sounds like a new voice. Has another person joined them?

"Why, what did I do?"

"You feeling your oats? You keep it under control, too. I know having a new body can go to your head--" Again, individual words drown beneath a babble.

"--keeping in character."

"There's keeping in character and there's losing yourself in character. Take a page from me."

"I don't see any difference when I see you in class." The voice sounds sulky. "And shouldn't you be--" More overlap.

"The point is that we aren't doing this because we like the way things are around here. We're doing it for our health. And if we can make things healthier for people who don't get swapped out-- And if that doesn't sound like a good reason, you two should still get used to being nice to some of the poor assholes that-- been hassling. You're gonna have friends there."

"Like who?"

"Well, Dave for one--"

"I mean--" More overlap, that simplifies only on a lone word: "Interesting."

"Yeah. Now, this guy here and his girlfriend. That was a scene. It gonna cause any problems?"

"Patterson was pissed. I-- Black was too. Long-term, it's a good thing for me, 'cos Chelsea wanted them busted up anyway."

"Really?"

"Hell, yes. Speaking of Chelsea, she's a prime candidate, isn't she?"

"It's not a market, Jack. If someone wants to become Chelsea Cooper, we can swap 'em out. If not-- Does it matter that you're porking the real girl?"

"A replacement would be easier to deal with." A phone tweets. "Hang on."

"So, you have access up here now?"

"Not till we make a new Steve Patterson. You got someone lined up to replace him?"

"I told you, it's not a market. I guess I could take over for--"

"--about him?"

"He wouldn't notice a few lost days."

"You two better beat it. Steve's coming over."

Silence falls, and after a minute Carson replaces the metal cover. Out in the maintenance area, you look at each other palely. "Will," he says, "I want you to tell me everything you remember about that book."

Maybe you should wait until you can tell Carson and Caleb both.