Structuring its questions from its own self-assessment program, which allowed it to monitor its own workings as if it were an outside observer, Sun said, ARE TELEPHONE CALLS TO AND FROM UNAPPROVED NUMBERS IN MOONLIGHT COVE AND ALL NUMBERS OUTSIDE STILL RESTRICTED?
YES.
ARE SUN’S RESERVED TELEPHONE LINES INCLUDED IN AFOREMENTIONED PROHIBITION? the New Wave computer asked, speaking of itself in third person.
Confused, Loman typed UNCLEAR.
Patiently leading him through it step by step, Sun explained that it had its own dedicated phone lines, outside the main directory, by which its users could call other computers all over the country and access them.
He already knew this, so he typed YES.
ARE SUN’S RESERVED TELEPHONE LINES INCLUDED IN AFOREMENTIONED PROHIBITION? it repeated.
If he’d had Denny’s interest in computers, he might have tumbled immediately to what was happening, but he was still confused. So he typed WHY?—meaning WHY DO YOU ASK?
OUTSYSTEM MODEM NOW IN USE.
BY WHOM?
SAMUEL BOOKER.
Loman would have laughed if he had been capable of glee. The agent had found a way out of Moonlight Cove, and now the shit was going to hit the fan at last.
Before he could query Sun as to Booker’s activities and whereabouts, another name appeared on the upper left corner of the screen—SHADDACK—indicating that New Wave’s own Moreau was watching the dialogue on his VDT and was cutting in. Loman was content to let his maker and Sun converse uninterrupted.
Shaddack asked for more details.
Sun responded: FBI KEY SYSTEM ACCESSED.
Loman could imagine Shaddack’s shock. The beast master’s demand appeared on the screen: OPTIONS. Which meant he desperately wanted a menu of options from Sun to deal with the situation.
Sun presented him with five choices, the fifth of which was SHUT DOWN, and Shaddack chose that one.
A moment later Sun reported: FBI KEY SYSTEM LINK SHUT DOWN.
Loman hoped that Booker had gotten enough of a message out to blow Shaddack and Moonhawk out of the water.
On the screen, from Shaddack to Sun: BOOKER’S TERMINAL?
YOU REQUIRE LOCATION?
YES.
MOONLIGHT COVE CENTRAL SCHOOL, COMPUTER LAB.
Loman was three minutes from Central.
He wondered how close Shaddack was to the school. It didn’t matter. Near or far, Shaddack would bust his ass to get there and prevent Booker from compromising the Moonhawk Project—or to take vengeance if it had already been compromised.
At last Loman knew where he could find his maker.
13
When Sam was only six exchanges into his dialogue with Anne Denton in Washington, the link was cut off. The screen went blank.
He wanted to believe that he had been disconnected by ordinary line problems somewhere along the way. But he knew that wasn’t the case.
He got up from his chair so fast that he knocked it over.
Chrissie jumped up in surprise, and Tessa said, “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“They know we’re here,” Sam said. “They’re coming.”
14
Harry heard the doorbell ring down in the house below him.
His stomach twisted. He felt as if he were in a roller coaster, just pulling away from the boarding ramp.
The bell rang again.
A long silence followed. They knew he was crippled. They would give him time to answer.
Finally it rang again.
He looked at his watch. Only 7:24. He took no comfort in the fact that they had not put him at the end of their schedule.
The bell rang again. Then again. Then insistently.
In the distance, muffled by the two intervening floors, Moose began barking.
15
Tessa grabbed Chrissie’s hand. With Sam, they hurried out of the computer lab. The batteries in the flashlight must not have been fresh, for the beam was growing dimmer. She hoped it would last long enough for them to find their way out. Suddenly the school’s layout—which had been uncomplicated when they had not been in a life-or-death rush to negotiate its byways—seemed like a maze.
They crossed a junction of four halls, entered another corridor, and went about twenty yards before Tessa realized they were going the wrong direction. “This isn’t how we came in.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Sam said. “Any door out will do.”
They had to go another ten yards before the failing flashlight beam was able to reach all the way to the end of the hall, revealing that it was a dead end.