Gameprey

then, wondering if he’d gotten out of the veeyar in good shape.

The vidphone rang again.

“Yes.”

“Are you all right?” Matt’s voice would have sounded calm to most people, but Maj knew him well enough to hear the tension in his words.

“I’m fine. How are you?”

“I survived. Have you figured out what just happened?”

“Someone crashed my veeyar and invaded my system,” Maj replied. “Unless you have any other ideas.”

“No. Although I think the guy on the dragon wasn’t the only person online.”

“You’re talking about the demonoid.” Maj had already reached the same conclusion. “The question is, did the demonoid invade my system or the dragonrider’s?”

“My vote is for the dragonrider. I find it interesting that the demonoid concentrated on us rather than the dragonrider. Maybe the demonoid was there to protect him.”

Maj considered that, relying on the intuition that usually let her get to the bottom of problems. She’d been told her skills at recognizing the underlying conflicts in situations involving people and events were sometimes uncanny. “I didn’t get that feeling.” She glanced at the computer, watching as the files cycled through. “I’m going back in.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“No.” Maj climbed back into the implant chair. She felt anxious, ready to get off the vidphone and find out what was going on. She kept flashing on the confusion and concern that had filled the dragonrider’s face. He didn’t know. He had no clue I was going to be there. Eyes that blue can’t hide the truth. She shook her head at herself. And maybe you’re getting too mushy. “I’m sending two files your way. One of them is an audio file of our communication with the dragonrider. See if you can get it interpreted.”

“Leif,” Matt responded without hesitation.

“That’s where I’d start,” Maj agreed. Leif Anderson was skilled in a number of languages. He’d definitely be able to get them down to a short list of possible dialects if he couldn’t translate the transmission himself. “I’m also sending a copy of the Net address. I thought Mark could trace it.”

“I’ll get it over to him.”

“I’ve got to go,” Maj said.

“Don’t keep me waiting,” Matt said. “Get in and out quickly. And if Mark can find you, we may be along.”

“I will.” Maj lay back in the implant chair and felt the teeth-tightening buzz of connection. She let out a deep breath, then jumped into the Net.

She experienced a moment of freefall, saw the cerulean blue sky splash into place around her, then fell. The Striper formed around her, drawing together in a sparkling pattern that hardened into a ceramic and steel shell. The wind’s battering force went away as the familiar feel of the jet’s internal vibration filled her. She gripped the stick and kicked the thrusters in.

Since the instruments didn’t acknowledge the dragon’s presence, she whipped her head from side to side, hoping to spot the creature or its rider. Her optimism dropped immediately when she saw the craggy desert below instead of verdant forest.

Where had the dragonrider gone? Maj continued searching, knowing that wherever he was, he was definitely in some kind of trouble. She wondered if he knew it.

Nervous energy filled Gaspar as he looked down at the girl in the implant chair. He stood in Maj Green’s room, dressed in a shimmering, blue leather bodysuit that symbolized the masking utility he used to evade the room’s sensors. The room was equipped with holo projection equipment that would allow a Net visitor to virtually drop in on Maj, actually sit on the furniture like they were there.

The masking utility was one of his own programs and allowed him to enter the room and observe without being seen. The program also allowed him to interact with the room’s holo projection programming to access the veeyar in operation in the room. He couldn’t control the individual veeyar, but he could ride along.

He gazed down at the girl, thinking that she was pretty. Her brown hair was pulled back in a braid, and she was dressed in jean shorts and a red knit shirt. She went shoeless, relaxed in the room.

“Query status: finished,” a computer voice whispered in his ear. Even though he was in the girl’s room, he knew the masking utility would keep her from hearing the exchange.

“Report,” Gaspar commanded.

“Green, Madeline, age seventeen,” the computer said without inflection. “Brown hair, brown eyes.” It continued with the particulars from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, adding her address in Alexandria, Virginia.

She’s younger than I am, Gaspar realized with a start.

“Her father, Martin Green, is a tenured political science professor at Georgetown University,” the computer went on. “Her mother is Rosilyn Green, owner of a computer business. She has one older brother, Rick, and a younger sister, Adrienne. Madeline Green attends Bradford Academy, where she is an honors student pursuing studies in—”

“Enough,” Gaspar said. He didn’t need to know everything about her, and probably he already knew too much. So did Heavener.

He placed his hand on the lineup chair and sensed the data flowing through the connectors. At present the girl was accessing her own veeyar and the Net, but she was also open to the Bessel Mid-Town Hotel’s programming through the telecommunications uplink she was using. With the mask utility in place and the parameters he’d adopted, Gaspar was part of that programming.

“Where are you?” Heavener demanded over the audlink.

“In her room.”

“What is she doing?”

“She’s back in her veeyar.”

“Why?”

“I assume she’s looking for Peter.”

“She won’t find him.” Heavener’s voice sounded uncertain.

“I don’t think so.” Gaspar wished he could leave the room, could leave the girl alone.

“Make certain she doesn’t find him,” Heavener ordered. “Scrub the files you can from inside the system. I’ve got a team en route to the room.” She disconnected before Gaspar had time to reply.

He felt sorry for the girl then. He knew what Heavener’s team would do when they arrived. Silently, knowing she was as doomed as he was, he closed his eyes and flowed into her veeyar.

4

“Hi. You’ve reached Mark Gridley. I’m not here at the moment. Ping me with your address, and I’ll get back to you.”

After leaving a message, Matt touched the IM icon for Leif Anderson next.

“Yeah?” Leif’s voice sounded groggy.

“Matt. Catch you at a bad time?”

“I was asleep. A nocturnal thing a lot of mammals that aren’t wired for the Net are prone to do. At one point, it was all the rage. What do you need?”

“There’s been some trouble.” Matt copied the audio file Maj had uploaded, then held out his hand and a tiny silver ear icon dropped into his palm. “Are you presentable?”

“By the time you get here, I’ll have run my fingers through my hair and wiped the sleep drool from my face.”

Matt followed the telecommunications link from Maryland to the New York City apartment where Leif lived with his parents. The apartment building was one of the tallest in the Manhattan area. Moonlight shimmered off the