Operation Tenley Read Online Free Page B

Beach!”
    The school bell rings.
    Tenley looks over her shoulder, affording her a peripheral view of the Frisbee heading straight for her. She blows out a quick breath and watches as the Frisbee heads off in the other direction … until something even bigger comes flying toward her. A boy. She steps back just before he lands on her. The boy hits the cement with a hard thud.
     
    The screen froze.
    Pennie looked pale.
    “Now your Lordships,” the Higher-Up said without turning the lights on. “If we slow this same scene and magnify the Frisbee, this is what we get.”
     
    The Frisbee, just before reaching Tenley’s head, comes to a complete stop, hovers, flips over, and zooms out of frame in the opposite direction.
     
    The lights returned.
    “It was me!” Pennie blurted out. “I used my iWind to interrupt the Frisbee’s trajectory. It was heading straight for my client’s left cheek. I should have let the Frisbee stay on its course. Seeing it again, like that, up there, I can tell that it was not, well probably not, an attack by Mother Nature. It looks more like, you know, normal daily activity, which I know we are not meant to interfere with. I’m a rookie your Fairships, I guess I overreacted. It won’t happen again. I’ll take the penalty.”
    Laraby frowned over at her. She was talking a mile a minute. The Higher-Up frowned at her too and then clicked on his tablet.
    “Give us a moment, Fair One,” he said.
    “What’s your problem?” Laraby leaned into her while the Higher-Up and the Fairships conversed in a huddle. “Why are you talking so fast?”
    “I’m not. I wasn’t.” Pennie tapped her feet.
    “Unfortunately,” the Higher-Up turned back to them. “Despite what you’ve just told us, we cannot find any evidence of your tools being used either, Fair One penn 1 .”
    Pennie stood. “What? No, I definitely programmed the iWind—”
    “Sit,” Lady Fairship said. “Perform the deep memory excavation,” she instructed the Higher-Up.
    “Your Fairship,” he argued, “may I remind you that the deep memory laser uses five hundred times the USE that review lasers do. I would suggest that we don’t waste supply on smaller matters.”
    “She’s lying,” Lady Fairship turned to Lord Fairship. “We cannot have Fair Ones telling lies. This is a perfect example of what I was saying at our last meeting.”
    “I’ll allow it.” Lord Fairship nodded to the Higher-Up.
    Pennie sat forward. “Please don’t waste the USE on me.”
    “Sit back, Fair One,” the Higher-Up told her.
    A red dot appeared on Pennie’s prefrontal cortex.
    “Fair One lara b3 , you may now leave,” Lady Fairship said.
    Laraby stood. Pennie glanced over at him but this time when she moved, intense pain shot through her forehead. “Good bye, Fair One,” Laraby said, before turning to the Fairships and bowing. Without another word, he walked out from under the spotlight.
    “Laser’s ready,” the Higher-Up said. “Fair One, please state your identity.”
    “ penn 1 .”
    The same scene they had all just watched started over again.

7
     
    Fair City
     
     
    “It appears as though the client has discovered her element.”
    “I can explain,” Pennie said.
    Lady Fairship’s lips curled into a snarky smile. An image of Tenley Tylwyth blowing away the Frisbee remained frozen on the screen.
    “How long has she been aware?” Lord Fairship asked.
    The Higher-Up tapped his screen. “It looks as though her first usage was at six months old.”
    “ Six months ?” Lady Fairship gasped. “The client has known since she was a baby ?”
    “Show us, please.” Lord Fairship sat back in his seat.
    The screen blipped on again.
     
    A baby sleeps soundly in her crib under a mobile of sparkling fairies. For a moment, nothing happens. But then, the baby rolls onto her side and loses her pacifier. She starts to fret and stir. She locks eyes on the pacifier and blows out a quick breath. The pacifier starts to rock back and