The day it all started I knew before the first bell that today was The Day. I just knew that today was the day because of how it started. I was in year 12 at Twin Oak Ridge Academy and I had an issue with one of my teachers. For whatever reason we disliked each other as soon as we met on my first day at Twin Oak three weeks ago. It would, perhaps have been missed by the other students, but I was not like them. I was, truth be told, both better and worse than my follow students.

However the sign was as I said, very small and fleeting. However the sign was there, instead of the usual scowl that he wore when looking at me there was the quickest flash of victory. I knew that whatever the day held, I was just done. Done hiding behind the meek exterior that I had used to cloak myself, my true self that is. I was in the closest sense of the phrase to literal a wolf in sheep's clothing and I was done running. I was going over to the offensive and in a big way. The second sign came mere minutes later when I spotted the head cheerleader looking at me. I knew that look, though usually I had seen it on the faces of my troops, the men and before that boys I had lead. I knew that she was evaluating me and the possibilities I presented as a solution to her problem.

To her the fact that her boyfriend had cheated on her again was the last straw as I knew the teacher's actions later was going to be for me. I knew that today she would come to me. I was prepared for this day, I had been carrying the small package I had the note in in my pocket since I had learned she found out about her boyfriend's final disloyalty. I knew that she would be intrigued by the cryptic nature of the note. The short message was as follows. 19.30 tonight, Lions' Den. Lions' Den was the most well know pub in the town and was always used as a meeting place on neutral ground for all manner of people, from the captains of industry, such as they were in our town, to the cops meeting informants to gangs and the three mobs on the occasions they needed to meet. I knew she would know what the message meant, the question was would she show up. I would wait to pass the message till the proper time to execute the brush-pass. I had chosen this method as a signal to her that I wasn't like the other students.

The final straw for me was the teacher ridiculing me over the “completely baseless, flawed and totally wrong” answers that I gave on a test he'd just given and on which he was delighted to inform me, speaking to the whole class, I had received a zero on as I answered all the questions wrong.

The only issue was that he was totally wrong on all the supposed answers that he used as the “correct” answers to the test. I knew that because the subject of the test in question was the just ended war in a land on another continent, the events that preceded it, the causes of the war and the course of the war.

The reason I knew that his answers were so wrong is that I had started fighting that very war as a child-soldier. My service in that war was to defend the large village I was living in at the age of 12. That was even before the war really started. And I had first served in a kind of militia and then in the regular forces of the rebel government which had proved victorious. Hearing him talk in his supercilious way about events I had witnessed and massacres I knew were the crimes of the oppressive government I had fought, bled and nearly died to overthrow as the work of the rebels was bad enough, but I was, barely, able to control the rage I felt. But then he described the unit I had served in, and then commanded, a vicious, heartless and merciless death squad that had slaughtered innocents.

He never finished his final sentence on the subject as I surged to my feet, snarling and advanced on him. I was snarling in a language I knew he spoke and that none of my classmates did. I could see the fear and shock on his face and as I stalked to the front of the room. Every eye was on me and I knew that the students in the two adjacent classrooms would hear me but I no longer cared. I stormed out of the class and stalked down the hall in the direction of the deputy headmaster's office. I spotted her coming out of the lavatory and passed her the note. I knew that the case was just heavy enough to let her tell that I had dropped in in her pocket as I passed. From the look on her face one of surprise and she started to speak as I let go of the case and spoke in a low growl.

“Not now, I have business that needs attending to. Later.” To my surprise there was the faintest hint of my command voice in the growl. That was the voice I used during my time in uniform.

Once I arrived at the deputy headmaster's office I took several deep breaths and then entered the office. Having calmed down enough I spoke in a clipped but not harsh voice to the secretary in the front room.

I only waited a few moments before the deputy headmaster came out and we talked in his office. I was calm now, but I also resolved in what I would do. Soon the school would be buzzing with the events of this morning and I told the deputy head I would be back to school tomorrow. I had business to attend to. I left and went straight to the police department's headquarters building and laid the ground work for tomorrow, I would be sending Elisabeth Tompkins to see the chief tomorrow. The rest of the day to the meeting was occupied with insuring that I was ready for that meeting and its consequences and I selected my best suit, and drove my sports car, a Smithson Rattler.

I arrived at Lion's Den half an hour early and waited. Either Elisabeth would come or she wouldn't. I had a feeling she'd show.