Virtual Vandals

Serge had actually been wounded and was down to his last two bullets when the cops had arrived. James had fled in inglorious retreat, along with his gang. An all-points bulletin was out on them.

The other gangbangers had tried to vanish, but police, Marines, and Net Force operatives had rounded up most of them. Some of the Buzzards had held onto their guns, others had ditched them, but one thing was sure. The gang’s fighting force had taken a major hit this evening.

Captain Winters came over to Matt. “Our people are finding unbelievable things on those wired-together hard drives,” he said. “But then, there were a lot of things in this whole case that I’d have never believed.”

It wasn’t much of an apology for not listening to Matt’s early theories about the virtual vandals. But frankly, it was more than Matt had expected.

“Then, on the other hand, I would never have expected you to take such an irresponsible, dangerous… downright stupid course of action,” Winters went on. “Single-handedly going undercover with no backup and no way to communicate — who do you think you are? The Spawn?”

“Captain, I left a datascrip with everything I knew on it. It had everything I found out—” Matt began, but Winters cut him off.

“If you only knew how many gravestones that could be carved on! We found your file after you went AWOL from school, Hunter.” He gave Matt a glare that could have melted steel. “It was useless because Falk and the other vandals had already disappeared. The real nitty-gritty stuff that we’d need to save you, you didn’t find out until you were a prisoner, now did you?”

“But I did escape, Captain,” Matt pointed out. “I used the training I got in Net Force Explorers to get out of there.”

“Oh, yes, I heard all about your adventures from Woronov and Valery while they were being patched up.” Winters hesitated for a second. “And from Ms. Corrigan.” He shook his head again. “Some of those lamebrain stunts — you’ve certainly proved one thing, Hunter. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, especially if you’re trying to apply it.”

Winters sighed. “I guess there’s only one thing to do about it. We’ll have to sign you up for advanced Net Force training, if only to keep you off the streets.”

“Sir?” Matt couldn’t believe his ears. Advanced training, or “boot camp,” as the Explorers called it, was usually reserved for guys years older than he was. It would probably require his parents’ approval. But he thought he’d be able to convince his mom, and she’d talk to his dad.

“Thank you, Captain,” he said.

“Don’t thank me,” Winters told him. “By the time you’re through, you’ll probably think you’re going through the tortures of the damned. I’m just hoping it takes care of all that excess energy you seem to have.”

Matt could feel his face getting red. “Nothing happened between Cat — Caitlin — and myself.”

“Nothing, huh? Other than getting kidnapped and shot at? I see that you decided to protect her once you knew she was involved in this mess.”

Matt shrugged, his face going redder. “I did what I thought was right — at the time.”

“So did Luc Valery, I guess,” Winters said shrewdly.

“Yeah. I saw him talking to Cat. He finally made up his mind about whether he really liked her.”

“Not that it will do him much good,” Winters said. “The Valerys and the Woronovs will all be returning to their respective countries. Mr. and Mrs. Savage have already brought young Gerald’s body home. The State Department is hard at work pulling the necessary strings. And unless I miss my guess, Senator Corrigan will probably lock his daughter in a closet until she turns about thirty.”

Matt gave a ghost of a grin. No more pictures of Cat Corrigan in the society holos. That would be a switch!

“We do have a promise, however, that she’ll testify — if it becomes necessary.”

That made Matt grow more serious. “What’s going to happen to Rob Falk?” he asked.

Now it was the captain’s turn to shrug. “He’s in custody, under continuous observation so he won’t…do anything to himself. Certainly, he’ll have to face a psych evaluation. The tech people here tell me he truly is a genius. But he planned some pretty terrible things—”

“And did a few — including murder,” Matt finished grimly.

Captain Winters didn’t disagree. He simply started talking about another subject. “I think the Federal Government is going to start taking more of an interest in these ring-town gangs. They’re a problem for other cities besides Washington.”

“And that will probably be the only visible result of everything that happened,” Matt said.

“After State, the Justice department, and a couple of other agencies — including Net Force — are done, I suppose so.” Winters looked at Matt. “Were you expecting a medal?”

“No!” Matt said, surprised.

“Then look at it this way. You helped avoid a four-way international incident, saved a lot of people from some very rough treatment at the hands of the Buzzards…and kept some very nasty technology out of some very dirty hands. Unfortunately, only a handful of people will know what you did to avert a major disaster.”

“And in return, I get a chance to bust my butt in advanced training,” Matt said.

Captain Winters nodded. “The best possible punishment for success — it’s the Net Force way. You got a problem with that, Hunter?”

Matt found a slow grin creeping across his face. He shrugged. “I guess I can live with it, Captain,” he said.