The Anathema by Zachary Rawlins

Sun in line. Her candidacy should pass easily.”
    “I bet Anastasia will support her – you know she’s had her hooks in Margot for years now. That vampire is as close as you can get to recruiting a Black Sun member in good standing into the Auditors. But you know that, so I’m going to assume you also know what you are doing.”
    “Don’t I always?”
    “Sometimes. What about the Program? We’ll need a new instructor.”
    “We can have Alice do it, at least for the time being. She needs something to do. And she could run the Program in her sleep.”
    “Gaul! She’s barely even recovered physically! I’m not sure she’s ready for this sort of thing yet…”
    “We don’t have the luxury of waiting for Alice to feel better. We need to accelerate the process. Working with the students will help her. Nothing like a return to where she started to jog the memory, eh?”
    “Cut the crap. You don’t know where Alice started anymore than I do. Moreover, you know she’s unstable right now. So, why do this?”
    Gaul tossed his pen down in frustration, and then they both froze and stared at it, the only concrete evidence of him losing his temper. He didn’t really know what to make of it, except that it had been an exceptionally long day, in what seemed like a whole lifetime of long days.
    “Manpower, Rebecca, what do you think? On a good day, I have three Auditors available for fieldwork, since I need you here. The job was difficult enough when I had six,” he said, speaking deliberately. For some reason, it felt important that Rebecca understand him. “I need the bodies, Rebecca. I need soldiers.”
    “And you still think I should be here?”
    “I think you are the only reason this school doesn’t fall apart. Moreover, I need Alex Warner combat-ready as soon as possible, and I need him to turn out like Alice Gallow, not like Mitsuru Aoki. I’ve already arranged for the appropriate training for Alex, but I need him to stay in one piece during the process. In lieu of better options, you are the woman for the job,” Gaul explained, seeing no use in sugarcoating. “Though I have to admit that it was interesting, watching you in the field again. Time and working with children have done nothing to mellow you, I see.”
    “Triage is bloody work,” Rebecca said, stubbing out her cigarette. “To the issue at hand. What about Eerie?”
    “Well, I was thinking of suspending her, but since she lives at the Academy, I suppose that field study would be a more appropriate – what? What is it?”
    Rebecca looked at him, eyes wide.
    “I’m serious… what about Eerie? Where is she?”
    “I sent her outside to wait with Mrs. Bennett. What do you mean?”
    Rebecca opened the door to the outer office, spoke a few cheerful, urgent words to his secretary (who, for no reason he could understand, took Rebecca’s side in everything), then thanked her, and returned, looking glum.
    “Eerie told her we were finished, and that she had to go back to class,” Rebecca said, clearly exasperated. “She left as soon as we sent her out there. Obviously, she figured out what was going on. You, on the other hand, are a terrible precognitive.”
    “Why would she do that? And where would she go?”
    “I don’t know. Use that fancy computer in your brain,” Rebecca said without a trace of humor in her voice. “Check today’s lecture schedule. Where is Alex right now? And please tell me that he’s in class…”
    Gaul reached without moving, taking hold of the Etheric Uplink that followed him everywhere he went, a lattice of information, a psychic fishhook embedded in his brain. The data he wanted spilled out from the Academy servers like waking to a bright light, his mind flinching reflexively at the flood of data.
    “Alex used his keycard fifteen minutes ago at the main gym,” Gaul said woodenly, his voice simply another tool to be manipulated, rather than an organ operated by instinct.  Speaking was always challenging when