What Lana didn't know because the trees were unable to tell her was Duff worked for Pucket. His job was to watch her, learn about her vulnerabilities, and see if she was a good candidate to be sent off with all the other special people with no backing. Was her ability strong or weak? He was instructed to record her after the second portal outing as much as he could. Duff was in her homeroom class as well.
As part of her learning process, she had copious notes. She kept them secure on her at all times so getting them was too difficult but watching her write with cameras was not with miniaturized technology. The trees just thought they were insects.
The cameras had only recently been used so they have only discovered what she's working on, not what she already knew. They had seen her do things but not with a clear explanation of how it worked. The camera just needed to keep being used.
If only her damned bag was not insect-proof, they could have gotten the books out and scanned them. Instead, they had to do it the hard way, watching her with the books and watching her to see if they could blackmail her and force her to talk. The thought running through Duff's head was, could this blond boy be used to get to her? Why didn't she practice more of the things she wrote down?
After Duff returned from the doctor's office, he went back to recording her and uploaded the footage that night.
As usual, Paul was informed there was a change to Lana's file. After reviewing it, he decided he'd take care of this issue in his own way.
The next afternoon, there was a knock on a door at the top of the second-year building. Pucket listened for the response before opening the door and walking in. Major Cruciatus waved to the front of his desk with an angry expression on his face.
"I'm going to cut straight to the chase. I went to look at the footage of our little friend today and the recording was nothing but static. I suggest you figure this out and fix it. Here is a new camera. There won't be another one. Now leave!"
An hour later, Pucket was on the roof of the first-year building. He had invited up a level 0 boy named Duff to have a friendly conversation.
Pucket slapped Duff across the face, "I offer you protection and this is what you do to me? The video was all static. Explain this!"
Duff was crying, "I don't know. I checked it before I uploaded it and it was clear. She was performing all kinds of moves, and I had her writing in her book. She's working on some new move. She thinks she's got it figured out and plans to try it in a few days when she has enough time to do it."
Pucket handed him the new camera. "You better not screw up like this again. Get the footage."
Around the same time, Paul had been waiting for her, just doing menial tasks before getting engrossed in something exciting once he was done with this talk.
"You may want to sit down for this."
She did as she was bid at the seat he provided her by his desk.
"I decided to look at your file last night and I found videos of you."
"Excuse me???" She was shocked.
"I fixed that in my own way but there is someone watching you and making videos of what you're doing. May I suggest you take a few of these devices," he handed her a bunch of small square-like devices, "place them in various places around your tree as well as other places you visit frequently. I suggest you include one each in your lab and your little bedroom. You don't want that footage getting out…" Her face went red.
"In addition, take these oomlauts with you. When you place them, state the location you place them. They are cameras and listening devices that won't be blocked by crappy military technology. My family makes them and it is inferior to what I can make. Mine are something that cannot be bought even on the military market."
"We need to find out who is behind this and how to stop it and get you protected. I know the person who uploaded the footage is someone named Duff from our class. I suggest not confronting him. Bring all these cameras to homeroom tomorrow and I'll place one on him."
Lana was in shock at what she was hearing and thankful to have Paul at the same time.
"Thank you, Paul. I owe you a lot of meals!"
"Before you go, take this Model Super kitchen with you. I'll have another one ready in a few days, but I keep forgetting to give you this one. If you like it, we'll need a commercial for it as well."
Lana nodded, took the kitchen and headed back to her room.
Lana realized November 29th was coming and they needed to prepare for Chekof's birthday. They all got together two days before to determine location, presents and such. Since he spent so much time in his room and didn't seem like going out was fun for him, they decided his room would be it, nothing fancy. A nice meal. Blaine would arrange takeout so Lana could work that much longer in her lab. Saturday, Blaine took her shopping for gifts.
Lana spent Sunday morning preparing things for Chekof's surprise birthday. The books said werewolves couldn't eat chocolate, so she decided to make strawberry shortcake. At lunch time, everyone converged on his room bringing gifts and food, all wishing him happy birthday. Soon after they got there, lunch arrived.
While everyone was eating, Chekof whispered into Lana's ear, "today is not my birthday. I gave the military false documents but thank you."
He smiled brightly at her and she returned it.
After they ate, he opened his presents and was quite pleased these strangers welcomed him in this way. He thanked everyone for being so thoughtful. Then Lana served the strawberry shortcake. Everyone was happy and enjoying themselves. Chekof was asked to choose a movie for them to all watch together, Karlen excused himself to return to his roof.
"Anything by Andy Sidaris is fine," he said.
None in the room had ever heard of such a person so he had to show them where to find these movies. Blaine chose one at random, having no idea what they were getting ready to watch. Next thing they knew, half-naked women who were well-endowed in the chest area were running down a beach in slow motion carrying guns. Blaine slapped his forehead.
"I should have guessed," he chuckled.
The other guys had their eyed glued to the TV, with the exception of Almin who was watching Kattie's reaction to all this. Blaine smiled hoping one day he would have the courage to finally approach her.