Mehmet was nowhere in sight.
Katherina went over to the escalator that led from the entrance up to the floor above. She got off at the fiction section on the second floor and went to stand at the railing so she had a view of the vestibule below. Her heart was still pounding from the mad dash on her bike and she noticed that she was sweating. She fixed her attention on a group that had just come in, but they turned out to be a bunch of students headed for the comic book section.
'This way,' said Mehmet's voice behind her.
She turned to see Mehmet moving towards the escalator that would take him up to the next floor. He was wearing a grey hoodie. She noticed that he was limping, and when he turned his head to make sure she was following, she saw he was wearing sunglasses that didn't quite cover the bruise over one eye.
On the third floor he went over to a terminal that was suitably tucked away between the bookcases.
'What happened?' Katherina asked when she came up to him.
Mehmet sat down with a grimace. 'It'll be easier if you see for yourself,' he said and started tapping away on the keyboard.
A picture of a room showed up on the screen. The image was fuzzy and not particularly well lit, but there was no doubt that it was Mehmet's flat. Even though his living room had never been especially neat, it was clear that something was very wrong. The furniture and boxes were all jumbled together, with the contents strewn across the floor. The desk had been turned over and the monitors that used to sit on top were nowhere to be seen.
'That's what it looks like right now,' muttered Mehmet. 'We have to go back to last night to see why.'
Underneath the picture was a row of buttons with symbols, like on a videotape player. Mehmet clicked on the button to rewind. A time indicator in the upper right corner began counting down. The image was the same, but Katherina could see that the light coming from outside was changing. The counter went faster and faster, and suddenly there was a lot of movement in the picture.
'There,' said Mehmet and clicked on the play button.
On the screen they could see that Mehmet's living room had been restored to its normal appearance and Mehmet himself was sitting in front of his monitors.
'This is right before it happened,' he said.
The pictures showed Mehmet working at the keyboard. He was bobbing his head rhythmically to some tune they couldn't hear. All of a sudden he stood up and stretched his arms in the air as he did a little victory dance.
Mehmet cleared his throat. 'Well, okay. That's when I cracked the school's security system. Good thing there's no sound.'
He clicked on the fast-forward for a few seconds and then on the play button again.
On the screen Mehmet was back in front of his computers, but he stood up abruptly and looked towards the corridor. Through the open doorway they could see boxes cluttering up the floor of the hall. Mehmet went over to the door, but at the same instant a figure appeared behind him and hit him on the back with some sort of club. Mehmet staggered a few steps forward but managed to turn round before the next blow came. He fended it off with his arm and then threw himself at the person, who flew backwards and crashed into a pile of boxes. That gave Mehmet enough time to grab one of the golf clubs from his collection of prizes and he delivered a blow to the chest of his assailant. In the meantime, two more figures entered the living room from the hallway. They too were armed with clubs, and Mehmet had to defend himself from all sides. He was struck numerous times, once on the shin and several times in the face, but he fended them off as he backed out through the garden door.
In the library Mehmet shifted uneasily in his chair and turned to glance around.
On the screen one of the intruders tossed aside his club but pulled out a pistol and aimed it at Mehmet, who raised his hands. But as he stepped backwards he was lucky enough to topple over a stack of crates piled up close to the door. Two quick flashes issued from the barrel of the gun, but by then Mehmet had already got up and out by the garden door. Two of the assailants struggled with the boxes blocking their way while the man with the gun fired yet another shot through the windowpane towards the garden.
'That's about all,' said Mehmet sadly.
On the screen the burglars gave up the pursuit and vented their frustration on the contents of Mehmet's flat before leaving.
'Are you okay?' asked Katherina, putting her hand on his shoulder.
'I'll be fine,' Mehmet replied. 'Just a few scratches.' He pointed at the image of his ravaged flat. 'Those bastards.'
'Did you manage to find out anything about the school?'
'Of course,' said Mehmet and smiled for the first time. 'I'm about to download the last bit right now.' He glanced around. 'Let's switch to a different terminal.'
They got up and went towards the escalator.
'These terminals aren't good for much,' he said. 'But from here I can go through the library's server and access… well, just about anything.'
'If you say so,' said Katherina.
They took the escalator up to the fourth floor.
'It wasn't easy to get into the school's server. Not exactly what you'd expect from a school,' Mehmet whispered along the way. 'But I guess it's not what you'd call a normal school, is it? At least I don't know any other school that has that kind of security monitoring and can react so quickly. In fact, I don't know of anyone who can trace a hacker in such a short time and even send out a bunch of thugs while he's working.'
On the fourth floor they found an available terminal and Mehmet sat down and started typing. The screen went blank and then slowly filled up with symbols.
'What did you find out?' asked Katherina.
'I finally got into their security system and found the class lists,' he began. 'As I said, a strange school. It looks like they have their own grading system. All the kids have an RL value, whatever that means. Anyway, I ran the list of student names against the airline passenger lists and got two hits on the same flight as Jon.'
'Only two?' said Katherina in surprise. 'Are you sure?'
'A hundred per cent,' replied Mehmet. 'But then I tried the private charter companies. Even though they don't operate regular flights, they still have to enter passenger lists.'
'And?'
'There have been two departures during the past week. Each flight carried twenty-five passengers who either attend or have attended the Demetrius School. Of all ages.'
Katherina sighed. 'Fifty,' she said, sounding dejected.
'Plus a few more,' Mehmet added. 'There were a few passengers who aren't on the lists of students. Approximately ten others.'
'Can you print out the lists?'
'Of course,' replied Mehmet. 'You can have names, addresses, even photos if you want. At least of the students.' He got up. 'We're going to have to change terminals again.'
They found another monitor at the opposite side of the floor. A moment later photos and lists began scrolling down the screen.
'But now I think it's time for you to giveme something,' said Mehmet. 'You can start by telling me what the hell is really going on.'
He took off his dark glasses and looked Katherina in the eye.
'It's one thing when the two of you get mixed up in something, but when it starts affecting my business and my health, I think I'm entitled to an explanation.'
Katherina nodded. 'And I'll give you one,' she said, 'but not here.'
Mehmet gave her a dubious look.
She shifted her gaze back to the class lists.
'Stop,' she said, pointing.
With the press of a button, Mehmet stopped the scrolling on the monitor.
'Back up a little,' Katherina told him.
A photo appeared on the screen, showing a dark-haired boy. It was an old picture, but his crooked, arrogant smile was unmistakable.
It was Pau.
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