“Yah.”
“A delivery trolley brought clothes for you. I’ve put them on a chair just outside the shower door.”
“Thanks.”
“I’ll go back in the other room then.”
I’d been sitting on the shower floor, but now I forced myself to get up. I washed off the fake blood, got rid of the dye and makeup from my hair and my skin so I looked myself again, got the clothes from outside and dressed. Finally, I threw the old overalls I’d been wearing into a garbage chute. I was in the habit of being as frugal as possible, but it would be impossible to get all the blood out of them.
When I went back into the living area, I saw Nathan was staring at his mosaic of screens. He dragged his attention away from the multitude of flashing images and turned to look at me.
“I’m not being callous, Jex. I told you that I couldn’t watch what happened, but Hawk will be fine once he’s had medical treatment.”
I didn’t reply, just dragged a chair over to sit next to Nathan, and gestured at the screens. “What is all this stuff?”
“I’m following the chase for the Reaper, studying Game training texts, and reading things about the history of Game.”
“All at once?”
“Yah.” Nathan frowned. “The more I learn, the more I realize how lethal a rogue Game Tech could be, particularly one who’d worked on the original design phase of Game. We’ve got to catch the Reaper before...” He broke off. “Hawk!”
Nathan pointed in excitement to one of his displays. It had zoomed in on a map, and a dot was flashing.
“Has he activated a spy eye?” I asked.
Nathan shook his head. “Since we lost Hawk, Unilaw have been using facial recognition software on all their surveillance camera images to watch for him. There were a couple of false alarms earlier, you can imagine how many black-haired boys are wandering around in blue overalls, but that flashing dot has just changed from amber to green. That means it’s been confirmed as Hawk.”
“Where is he?”
“He’s just got into a pod at a main transport interchange. Unilaw are tracking the pod itself now. Look, you can see the green dot is moving.” Nathan grinned. “I’ve managed to get a live feed of the information coming in for the Unilaw team leader. It’s amazing what people will do when I use the magic words, ‘Hawk says.’”
Nathan leaned forward to tap his controls. “With luck I can ...” A new display appeared, this one showing a skinny kid in blue overalls getting into a one-person pod. The clip only lasted a couple of seconds but it was definitely Michael.
“The Reaper’s controlled Game droid doesn’t seem to be with Michael.”
“That droid’s been deactivated,” said Nathan.
“Did the Reaper use another fake identity number to control it?”
Nathan pulled a face. “Yah. This time the identity number belonged to a six-month-old baby.”
“Let’s hope Unilaw doesn’t arrest the baby,” I said bitterly. “It’s lucky that the Reaper didn’t use the identity number of an adult in Game, because they’d have been blamed for the bombing.”
“The Reaper couldn’t use the identity number of someone in Game. If the Game data integrity system spotted two different people using the same identity number, then all sorts of alarms would start screaming.”
Nathan paused. “I’ve been trying to work out how the Reaper is managing to use fake identity numbers to do things. It’s a lot harder than you might think, because identity numbers are controlled by the Game security system. I think the Reaper must have helped design that security system and left himself a back door.”
“What’s a back door?”
“If the Reaper helped design the security system, he could leave himself a weak spot. His own secret way into the system. A back door.”
I thought about that. “I don’t know nearly as much about these things as you do, but the Reaper being able to mess around with the Game security system sounds bad to me.”
“It’s incredibly bad.”
“Can we find out who designed the Game security system?”
“The Game Techs have given me access to a mass of Game information, but nothing about the security system. They’d want to keep that secret from ...”
Nathan was interrupted by a soft buzzing noise. He turned to look at one of his displays. “Unilaw Reception say they have an incoming call for you, Jex. It’s player Odele Thorpe Scott Matthys, resident of Coral.”
“Agh. That’s my mother.” I buried my face in my hands. Why did my mother have to call me at a moment like this? I couldn’t face discussing my father’s death with her right now. Not when Michael was in danger and might die too. I couldn’t explain about that to my mother. I couldn’t even explain what I was doing at a United Law facility.
I looked up sharply. “How could my mother know I’m here? She should be calling my phone, and I left that back in the long-distance carriage. Nathan, accept the call!”
Chapter Eighteen
An image of my mother appeared on the screen in front of me. Her long, sea-green hair cascaded round her perfect face. Her eyes were a dark emerald colour, and there was a hint of mermaid scales around her hair line. In my earliest childhood memories, she’d been a dryad on Nature. Her hair had been the reddish-brown of autumn leaves then, and floated around her head like a halo, but her eyes had always been exactly the same green.
“Happy birthday, Jex,” she said.
I glanced at another of Nathan’s screens to check the date. “It’s not my birthday until tomorrow, Mother.”
“Well, that’s close enough. I’m sorry I didn’t contact you about your father, but it would have been a difficult conversation.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but she lifted a delicate webbed hand to stop me.
“Let’s forget all about it.” She hurried on, sweeping the issue of my father’s death aside. “Your boyfriend just called me. You hadn’t told me you had a boyfriend. You should tell your mother about these things.”
She waved a reproachful finger at me. “I don’t understand why you’re at a United Law facility, or why your boyfriend was calling me. He insisted it was vitally important that I give you a phone number and ask you to call him to talk privately, but you mustn’t do that if you have any doubts about him.”
She hesitated before speaking again in an anxious voice. “I know there are some people who appear charming to begin with but then become frightening. If this boy is one of those people, he may try to manipulate you with emotional blackmail and threats to make you stay in a relationship with him. He’s probably involved me to add extra pressure, he may get your friends to talk to you as well, but you mustn’t give in.”
I was stunned. This was the first time my mother had ever referred to what she’d gone through with her ex-boyfriend on Ganymede. She hated to think about unpleasant memories, let alone talk about them, but she was doing it now because she was worried about this situation. From her viewpoint, it must look as if a strange boy was trying to force me to contact him, and I’d been driven into taking refuge at a United Law facility.
I’d never been sure that my mother had any real feelings for me, but now I knew that she did. She was afraid I might be in danger, so she’d forced herself to mention a dreadful time and give me a warning.
“There’s no need to worry about me, Mother,” I said. “I’ve just accidentally lost contact with my boyfriend and I want to talk to him very much.”
My mother gave me the number, and then hastily vanished back to her sea world of gentle beaches and coral reefs. Of course she’d be eager to end this call, but she’d hopefully call me again soon. Next time she’d be able to talk to me without mentioning my father’s death or unpleasant memories.
“Hawk must want us to call him using a secure, encrypted link,” said Nathan.
He had our outgoing call active in seconds. Michael’s weary face appeared on the screen. He looked exhausted and strained, but he was alive.
&nb
sp; “Jex! It’s really good to see you in one piece. Hello Nathan.” Michael gave a heavy sigh, took something from a carton and bit into it. It looked like one of those awful sandwiches you got from vending machines.
“It’s good to see you too,” I said. “Surveillance spotted you entering a pod. Why haven’t you activated a spy eye?”
“I didn’t want anyone hearing this conversation but you two,” he said, “so I bought a phone from a vending machine. I’m sorry about involving your mother, Jex. She didn’t seem very happy about me contacting her, but I didn’t dare to call the Unilaw facility or anyone connected to the investigation on an unsecured link. This was the only way I could think of to get my new phone number to you.”
“Don’t worry about that,” I said. “I think it’s helped the situation between my mother and me. More urgently, Nathan has had an idea. He thinks that the Reaper helped design the Game security system and has left himself a back door into the system. That’s a way ...”
“I know what it is,” interrupted Michael. “That explains how the Reaper plans to ... Well, never mind that now. I need to ask the Game investigation team for help. My problem is that I need a team of Game Techs with very high authority, but I have to make sure the Reaper isn’t one of them. How can I do that? Asking them to exclude the original Game designers could alarm the Reaper.”
“Remember that we worked out why the Reaper attacked Avalon,” said Nathan, “It was the first Game world to be created without the involvement of any of the original Game designers. You could ask for a team of Game Techs who worked on the design of Avalon. If the Reaper heard about that, he shouldn’t be alarmed but confused, thinking that you’re following some misleading clue about the Avalon bombing.”
Michael’s tired face managed a grin. “Well done, Nathan! Avalon’s designers should have very senior ranks by now.”
He abruptly ended the call, but within a minute another image appeared on the screen, showing the interior of a standard one-person pod with Michael lounging on a seat. I noticed a rough bandage was bound round the top of his left arm. It was heavily stained with blood, but he could still move the arm because he used his left hand to drop half a sandwich back into its carton before speaking.
“Surveillance, can you see and hear me?”
The voice of surveillance echoed slightly. “We can see and hear you, Hawk. We’ve been tracking your pod’s progress through the transport system, but we couldn’t see you until you activated the spy eye.” There was a note of reproach as she said the last few words.
“It was too risky for me to activate a spy eye earlier,” said Michael. “A lot has been happening. I need you to get a team of Game Techs to help us. They should all be members of the original Avalon design team.”
There was a pause before surveillance replied. “We’ve made the request to the Game investigation team.”
“Patch the Game Techs into the spy eye channel as soon as they’re ready. Jex and Nathan, are you in channel too?”
Nathan tapped the screen. “We’re here.”
“Good.”
Michael retrieved his sandwich. He had time to finish eating it and have a drink before there was a new female voice on the channel.
“This is the leader of your requested Game Tech team.”
“Welcome,” said Michael. “I know I don’t look like it at the moment, but Unilaw can vouch for the fact that I’m Hawk. I called for defrost and managed to get recruited by our bomber. Now, how large is your team, did you all work on the design of Avalon, and are you somewhere safe from eavesdroppers?”
“Twelve, correct, and correct,” said the Game Tech. “Is Avalon likely to be attacked again, and should we evacuate its population?”
“That shouldn’t be necessary,” said Michael. “The one absolutely vital thing is that your rogue Game Tech doesn’t find out what I tell you or what we’re doing. He’s trying to blow up another server complex. Our new precautions prevent him from using a delivery trolley to plant the bombs, so he’s sending me to plant them myself.”
He gestured casually at the floor in front of him. “I’ve got four bombs with me. I’ve been told the transport stop for the target server complex, and the code to let me into the storage unit there to get a buggy. I’ve been told the paths to follow to get to the server complex. I’m supposed to be there, waiting outside the force field, in ...”
Michael glanced at the time on the pod guidance display. “In exactly forty-seven minutes. At that point, the bomber is supposed to send me the security code for the force field. Once I’ve used the security code, I’ve got two minutes to enter, plant the bombs, and get out before the force field closes again. The bombs are timed to explode fifteen minutes after that.”
“You don’t intend to plant the bombs?” The voice of the Game Tech leader had lost the standard calm, polite manner, and sounded close to panic.
Michael grinned. “I’m not playing along with the bomber that far. I’ll drop off the bombs somewhere on the way to the server complex.”
“The new security arrangements require three gold status Game Techs from different departments to authorize requests for force field security codes,” said the Game Tech leader, in a despairing voice. “If the bomber can still obtain them, then he must have multiple gold status co-conspirators among our ranks.”
“I believe there’s only one Game Tech involved in this,” said Michael, “but he may have a way to get past the security checks. I need your team watching for him to access the force field security code. I believe the access should be recorded on an audit trail?”
“That is correct,” said the Game Tech leader.
“I expect the bomber will try to delete the record of his access from the audit trail as soon as he’s got his security code. Will you be able to copy the information before he can delete it?”
“That is correct.”
“Then we should be able to get the bomber’s true identity number. Once you’ve proved who he is, then immediately call whoever you need to arrest him. We won’t need to hide what we’re doing after that.”
I tapped the screen to let me speak. “Michael.”
“Yes, Jex?”
“The Reaper might have put a spy eye on your buggy so he can watch you planting the bombs. If he sees you stop and abandon the bombs on the way to the server complex ...”
Michael groaned. “You’re right, Jex. I’ll have to take the bombs with me as far as the force field. When the Reaper sends me the force field code, I won’t use it, just dump the bombs and drive my buggy away. With the protective force field still active, the bombs won’t be able to damage the server complex when they explode.”
I gnawed anxiously at my bottom lip. “I strongly suggest you drive away at top speed after you dump the bombs.”
Michael laughed. “I certainly will. I don’t want my head blown off.”
He turned off the spy eye. Nathan and I sat in silence after that, watching a screen display the green dot that marked Michael’s position on a map of the transport system. After a while, Nathan leaned forward to get a closer look at the dot. “Has the pod stopped?”
“Yah. Michael must be getting out now, and collecting the buggy. We won’t hear anything more from him until ...”
We both turned to check the time.
“Sixteen minutes to go,” said Nathan.
We watched the minutes and the seconds tick away. I was bracing myself for something to happen at the end of those sixteen endless minutes, and jumped nervously when I heard the voice of surveillance speak before that.
“Two minutes.”
The Game Tech leader replied. “We’re ready.”
Sixty slow seconds later, surveillance gave another time check.
“One minute.”
I started counting seconds. I’d got to eighty-one before anything happened.
“We can see an authorized request for a force field security code,” reported the Game Tech leader. “Second authorization received. T
hird authorization received. Copying audit trail and checking identity numbers of ...” She broke off.
An image from a spy eye appeared on the screen in front of me. Judging from the way the picture was jolting around, Michael had stuck the spy eye to the buggy control panel ahead of him, and was driving along the path at top speed.
“I’ve dumped the bombs,” he gasped. “Any luck identifying the bomber?”
“That is correct,” said the Game Tech leader, in tragic, mourning tones.
“One of the original Game designers?” asked Michael sympathetically.
“That is correct.” The Game Tech leader didn’t ask how he’d known that. She was too traumatized to care. “All three authorizations came from the same person, but they had different department numbers.”
“The bomber has a back door into the Game security system,” said Michael. “He must have been using that to change his department number between the authorizations. You’re taking steps to arrest him?”
“That is correct.”
“It’s awful for them,” murmured Nathan. “The Reaper was one of the first guardians of Game. Knowing he betrayed the trust the players have in us, deliberately killing those under our care, is ...”
I noticed the betraying shift, as Nathan changed from referring to the Game Techs as ‘them’, and said that significant ‘us’ and ‘our’. I turned my head to look at him, saw his expression, and hastily faced away again. A moment of pain like that deserved privacy.
“I assume you’ve worked out what server complex I was supposed to destroy,” said Michael. “What Game world was the bomber attacking this time?”
“Your target was Celestius,” said the Game Tech.
Michael flinched. “The Reaper sent me to bomb Celestius! My own world. My own family.”
“That is correct.” The Game Tech paused. “I regret to inform you that we have failed to apprehend the bomber.”
“Why? What went ...?”
Michael’s voice was drowned out by a loud explosion, and the screen went black.
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