Victor pressed a couple of keys. The screen cleared, then filled up with Walter Friedbinder’s biography.
“Now, what should we do with him?” Victor started typing again. Every now and then he gave a little snort of amusement. Finally, he turned on the printer, printed out the document, and handed it to Nancy. She started reading.
Walter “Twinkletoes” Friedbinder, the new headmaster of Brewster Academy, has one of the largest collections of soda bottle caps in the United States. He has earned degrees in both Fahrenheit and Celsius and is a founding member of River Heights’s Flat Earth Society. Dr. Friedbinder’s research into loose-leaf notebooks and the effects of heating them in oil led to his famous discovery of the fried-binder. . . .
Nancy laughed. “Victor, what have you done?” she cried, trying unsuccessfully to scold him. “This is terrible!”
He pretended to be hurt. “I thought it was pretty good for the spur of the moment.”
“But—but what if somebody sent this out, without noticing the changes you made? Mr. Friedbinder would probably fire them!”
“No problem, Nancy.” Turning to the keyboard, he entered a couple of commands. “There, I’ve restored the original version. I’ll show you.”
The printer began chattering again. When it stopped, Victor ripped off the page and handed it to Nancy. Scanning it quickly, she saw it was a straightforward, unaltered press release about Walter Friedbinder. She folded the two pages and put them in her shoulder bag.
“Very impressive. Can you really get into any file in the school computer?” she asked. “Even stuff like student records?”
“Just about,” Victor boasted. “Figuring out the access codes is my hobby, the same way some guys customize cars, or play video games, or collect weird road signs.”
Nancy shook her head. “Aren’t you running a big risk, though? Changing people’s grades is really asking for trouble.”
“Wait a minute,” he said, holding up a hand. “I never said I was changing grades, just that it wouldn’t be that hard to do.” He pointed toward the file folder on the desk. “If I was into changing grades, do you think I’d still have that D from last year’s English class on my record?”
“That’s a point,” Nancy conceded. She was about to ask Victor more questions, but the bell in the hallway started to ring.
“Wow! I can’t believe it’s lunchtime already.” Victor turned off the terminal and gathered his books. At the door, he looked back. “Thanks for the English lesson,” he said. “I actually understood some of it. Hey, could I interest you in getting a burger after school? With me, I mean. My treat.”
Nancy thought quickly. Victor might well be behind the grade-changing scheme. Even if he wasn’t, he seemed to know more about the computer system than anyone else around. “Okay.”
“All right! I’ll meet you in the parking lot around three.” He flashed her a quick grin, and then he was gone.
Nancy found herself smiling. She couldn’t help liking Victor, so far. In the past she’d learned the hard way that—well, even bad guys could have charming smiles.
All the students were probably down in the lunchroom by now. This would be a good time to check out some of the other classrooms.
Nancy shut the door to the learning lab behind her. Checking each classroom, she made her way down the second-floor hallway.
Half the school was on the first lunch shift, so many of the classrooms were empty. Nancy was looking for rooms with computers, places where the mysterious E-mail message might have been sent from, and also a place where the hacker—if it turned out to be a student—could sit, undisturbed, to work his or her grade changes.
Suddenly she stopped. Alone in a classroom with three computers was a short, petite girl with shoulder-length dark hair held back with a headband. She sat working on one of the computers. When Nancy’s shoe scuffed the floor, the girl jumped and turned around anxiously.
“Oh! You scared me!” she cried, seeing Nancy in the doorway. The girl wore an oversize purple sweatshirt over loose-fitting corduroy pants. Her surprised expression quickly changed to one of annoyance as she asked, “Are you looking for something?”