Matt darted back and forth across the glowing landscape, whizzing around through several major nodes to keep anyone from backtracking him.
Okay, he thought, no more putting it off. He held up Caitlin’s communications protocol — with his modifications — and activated it.
His course to Caitlin’s virtual mansion was becoming almost familiar now. Here’s where he’d skim the edge of the government’s virtual domain….
Matt came to a dead stop. This was one of the changes he’d put into Caitlin’s program. It had been a nasty enough shock when he’d found himself locked out of her system. Cat had done that on the spur of the moment, scared by his questions. He didn’t think she could hack into the government’s systems and come up with nastier surprises, but she did have a friend who was a computer genius. It wouldn’t hurt to be cautious.
Sorting through his icons, Matt chose the tiny binoculars. From here on in, he was going to scout out his route. His program scanned the constructs ahead, trying to find anything that looked like a disguised security coding.
Matt smiled. Nothing.
He slowly continued on the route that Caitlin had given him, still checking for computerized watchdogs or virtual guards. At last he reached the edge of the grounds that surrounded the glowing copy of Mount Vernon.
Everything still looked clean.
Matt dashed for the wall that held the secret trapdoor to Caitlin’s veeyar. But instead of crashing into it again, he braked sharply. Then, holding Cat’s earring and his message in his right hand, he began slowly pushing it into the wall.
His tinkering with the communications protocol worked! Instead of crashing the program, the virtual wall in front of him seemed to give way. His tampering wasn’t perfect. Matt felt as if he were shoving his hand through clay or soggy sand. But he was able to get through and leave his message in Caitlin’s veeyar.
At first, Matt had planned to head back home and get some rest during the two hours he’d have to wait. But he changed his mind, deciding instead to keep an eye on the glowing Mount Vernon. After all, Caitlin and her friends might get together to give him a fatally warm reception. If he kept the virtual mansion under observation, he should be able to spot their preparations.
Long minutes crept by, but nothing happened around the Corrigan mansion.
At last, a muted bleep! sounded. Matt had preprogrammed the warning that midnight had arrived.
Just as he started forward, a figure came through the wall — Matt saw an angry Cat Corrigan. Her hands were balled up in the pockets of the loose jeans she wore, and her bright blue eyes sparkled with fury.
“You threatened me!” she accused. “Who do you think—”
Matt interrupted her. “What do you think your pal the cowboy was doing with his six-shooter? Or the frog with the sword? Or your large sparkly friend with the great big fists? This isn’t a one-way street, Caitlin. You guys asked me for something, and I delivered. Don’t think you can blow me off now.”
Cat’s defiant act disappeared. Now all that confronted him was a scared kid. “We’ll go see the others,” she said. “But don’t threaten them! They’re half over the edge as it is. One push, and they’ll do something really stupid.”
“Why are they half over the edge?” Matt demanded.
But Caitlin only turned big, fear-filled eyes toward him.
He shrugged. “Okay, no questions — at least till I’m all the way in.”
Caitlin held out the black skull that would take them to the other virtual vandals. Matt took her hand, hoping the lightless icon wasn’t a symbol of things to come.
They hurtled wildly across the Net. Matt wasn’t sure, but he thought they bounced along a different route from the one they’d taken the last time.
But their destination seemed the same — the small, featureless white room where the other three members of the group stood waiting for them.
At least they didn’t have their weapons out.
The cartoon cowboy tilted back his ten-gallon hat. “Feller that pushes as hard as you do ought to have something to back it up,” he said ominously.
“Right,” Matt said. “I wouldn’t want to get you srdit.”
“Durn tootin’,” the cowboy said. “I rile up real easy.”
Matt allowed himself a small smile. His studying had paid off. Srdit was the word many Balkan nationalities used for “angry.” The cowboy’s instant recognition showed that he spoke one of those languages.
Gerald Savage shook his big jeweled fist in Matt’s face. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t squash you like a bloody bug,” he demanded.
“How about honor?” Matt asked. “You people who are rolling in dough always talk as though you’re better than other people, because you have honor. That means you’re supposed to pay your debts—and make good on your promises.”
“I made no promises—” the big frog began.
“Your loud friend there did,” Matt said. “‘If you want to run with us, you have to show what you can do’—that’s pretty much what he said. So I showed you — I got CeeCee into Sean McArdle’s veeyar — someplace where your rich-kid connections couldn’t get you. And what do I get in the way of thanks? The door slammed in my face.”
He glanced over at the scowling cowboy. “Not very pravedan, is it, Tex?”
The cartoon cowboy began to nod, agreeing that it wasn’t fair, then stopped. “’Fraid I don’t comprende what you’re sayin’ there, amigo.”
Matt decided to go for broke. “Come off it, Serge. You gave yourself away when I spoke Serbo-Croatian before. I don’t think your Idiom Savant program automatically translates all languages.”
He rounded on the other proxied-up kids. “Then we have the frog swordsman — it must take a pretty warped sense of humor to see yourself that way, Lucien.” Matt twisted the knife a little, thanks to the research he’d done. “But you prefer to be called Luc, don’t you?”
His chest was tight as he confronted the looming, jeweled proxy. “And you, with your British slang and the loud way you hate the Irish. Who else could you be but Gerry the Savage?”
The room was quiet, except for the sound of sharp, sucked-in breath.
Matt had never seen Cat Corrigan’s eyes bigger, bluer — or more scared.
He plunged on, before they pulled themselves together and killed him. “You asked me what I’ve got to back myself up. I think I just showed you. When I came in, I wasn’t sure I’d gotten you all. But it looks like I managed to hit the nail — on each head.”
Matt held up a hand as Gerald Savage lumbered forward. “I haven’t told anybody—yet. But there are files out in the Net, ready to be opened if, say, something happened to me.”
The big jeweled figure turned its anger on Caitlin. “How did he get it out of you?” he demanded, his voice grating. “How?”
“She had nothing to do with it!” Matt shouted. “I rounded you all up with data searches. It was easy enough — if you knew what to look for.” He spread his arms. “What more do I need to do to show you that I can pull my weight in this bunch?”
Lucien Valery switched from his frog to his swordsman shape. “Why should we trust you?” he asked, his lip curling.
“For the best reason of all,” Matt shot back. “Because now you have to.”
He looked at the four unmasked thrill-seekers. “I gave you everything you asked for — and a bit more, I’d say. You guys think you’re something special — well, maybe not.” Matt took a deep breath, still pushing. “You can be found — so why not face facts and make me a full partner?”