Private Lives

how old Dorpff was or what he looked like as long as he was up to the job. But Megan wasn’t sensing a comfortable level of competence about this man. He was in over his head and going down three times — almost before he even started.

We’ve got to do something, she thought. With this clown running things, the Explorers won’t last a week!

4

The crew that Megan liked to think of as the “D.C. Nine” got together after the surprise Net Force Explorers meeting to talk. Matt Hunter’s virtual workspace was as crowded as the O’Malley living room had been during the broadcast of Winters’s interview — although, thanks to the miracle of Net technology, the visitors didn’t have to worry about having enough chairs to sit on or space to park them in. Megan, Andy Moore, Maj Green, David Gray, Catie Murray, Daniel Sanchez, and Mark Gridley floated among clouds and stars around the unsupported marble platform Matt was using as a desk these days.

The non-Washington members of the group were a bit later linking in. Leif was in New York City, but he appeared virtually in Matt’s space soon enough, rubbing the sides of his head as he took his place in the crowd. P. J. Farris was in Texas with his father. He was the last to “arrive,” dressed in the boots, brush-popper shirt, and blue jeans he often wore when he was on his family’s ranch.

Even though Matt was the one who had invited everyone in, Megan started the ball rolling. “I can’t believe anybody here is happy with the dimwit they brought in to replace the captain,” she said.

“Tell us about it,” Maj grumbled. “Why would they bring in somebody so wet behind his ears? From the way he shot himself in the foot just by opening his mouth today, you have to wonder what he was like on the firing range.”

Megan was in no mood for joking. She came right out with what was on her mind. “We’ve got to do something to get Captain Winters out of trouble and send Agent Dork back wherever he came from.”

“It’s just for a little while,” Matt pointed out.

“Yeah?” Megan shot back. “Then how come nobody mentioned exactly how long that ‘little while’ would be? If this was going to be an open-and-shut sort of investigation, wouldn’t somebody have given us an estimated time of completion? And even though Winters tried to pass it off as a pain-in-the-butt standard annoyance, I noticed that ‘Hangman Hank’ Steadman didn’t lighten up. He looked about as serious as a hearse throughout the whole thing.”

“Megan, you’re making it sound like Winters is going to be fired,” Mark Gridley protested. “My dad would never—”

Megan cut him off. “A week ago, you’d have told me your dad would never have suspended the captain.”

Mark opened his mouth, then shut it.

“So what are you suggesting, Megan?” Andy wanted to know. “You thinking of sending nasty e-mail to Jay Gridley? That would be kind of cool — trying to flame the head of Net Force—”

“For however long you got away with it,” David, the usual voice of reason, cut in. “I figure the FBI would be knocking on your door in about fifteen minutes.”

“I don’t think that’s the way—” Matt began.

“So we’re just supposed to sit like statues while Captain Winters gets crucified?” Megan demanded. She rounded on Mark before he could even speak. “And don’t try telling me about how he’ll be protected. The minute Tori Rush put the story on Once Around the Clock, it became political. And everybody knows how politics runs in this city.”

“Okay, then. What can we do?” Leif Anderson asked sarcastically. “Are we supposed to turn the reign of terror from whatsisname — that McGuffin guy — to this news-babe instead?”

Megan didn’t have an answer, and Matt jumped in. “Now, wait a minute!” he said. “The captain asked us specifically to leave McGuffin alone. If we do anything to a network newsperson, it will just make matters worse for Captain Winters.”

“But we’ve got to do something,” Daniel Sanchez said. “Maybe you guys can afford to blow off an adult who believes in us — who listens and tries to help out. I can’t.”

Megan glanced at this unexpected ally. She knew that Daniel had a tough family situation — a lot rougher than anyone else in this group. But he had a point. Most of the kids in this room were able to depend on their parents and some of their teachers in a pinch. But none of the kids had enough adults they could count on to back them in a tough spot that they could afford to lose one.

Even Matt was silenced by Daniel’s words. He thought for a second, and a glimmer of an idea began to form. “Maybe we can do something to show that we back Captain Winters one hundred percent,” he said. “Even the captain couldn’t complain about us showing our opinion of him — as long as we don’t go after someone else.”

“That sounds good, but I don’t think it goes far enough. The HoloNews network headquarters is up in New York,” Leif said. “Maybe I can poke around up there and see what’s going on.”

“I want to help, too,” Mark Gridley unexpectedly spoke up. “I could try to get into Dad’s files and find out how the investigation is going.”

“You sure you want to do that?” David Gray’s expression was serious as he looked down at the Squirt.

The younger boy merely nodded. “Yeah, I know. Spying on the head of Net Force. It’s probably fairly high on the ‘not a bright idea’ list.” Mark’s round, tanned face suddenly tightened. “But even if I get caught, what’s Dad going to do to me? Especially when I tell him why I did it. I’m pretty sure it’ll be all right, as long as we don’t try anything nasty.”

Megan looked around at the others, strong emotion momentarily robbing her of her voice. She cleared her throat. “That’s not going to be enough,” she finally said. “None of it is. I’ve been doing some research on Hangman Hank. He used to be with the FBI until he was brought into Net Force about a year ago. Apparently, one of the higher-ups in the FBI thought at the time that Net Force’s internal affairs needed tightening up. You know how it is. Computer types never look buttoned down enough to government bigwigs. Or, more likely, maybe the FBI just wanted to get rid of the guy. Jay Gridley’s tried to get him moved somewhere else, but the man’s got good connections. He’s a political appointee, the kind that’s tough to get shed of. Anyway, this guy’s never been a field agent, even in the FBI. He’s always specialized in internal security and investigations. And he always gets something on the people he investigates. It’s his theory that nobody has clean hands. And maybe he’s right. You can’t be out on the streets as a field agent and run things one hundred percent by the book all the time.”

The others didn’t say anything. But she could see from their faces that this was something they’d already heard or at least suspected. After all, how many times had they jumped into action because the hands of Net Force were officially tied? Even though they knew he was innocent, Captain Winters could be in serious trouble if the Internal Affairs department decided to go on a witch hunt.

“With Steadman on your case, if you’re lucky, you either wind up humiliated or with a wrecked career. If you aren’t lucky, you end up behind bars. And he’s going to go all-out on a high-profile case like this one.”

“We’re with you,” Leif said. “What can we do to help?”

She blinked, hoping to hide the tears that suddenly sprang to her eyes. “Do you think the piddling stuff we’re offering to do will really help?”

Megan didn’t allow herself to wait for an answer. Choking back her frustration and fear, she cut the connection and vanished from Matt’s space.

Seconds later Matt floated open-mouthed in his virtual workspace, staring at the spot where Megan had stood.

“Well,” Leif said, “that was a bit more exciting than most of our after-meeting get-togethers.”

“Even more exciting than most meetings I’ve been to,” Mark agreed. He made a production of looking at the virtual watch on his wrist. “Maybe I should be heading out, too.”

“You really going to do what you said you would?” Andy Moore asked.