So maybe I should just call DHS . Even without Alice Gu, they could shut down Alfred in five minutes. Rabbit gave the possibility the serious thought it deserved… about two seconds' worth. And then a big grin spread across his concept of face.

Rabbit was full of ideas. And there was one that had been pounding on him since the moment he'd broken into Alfred's milnet. Besides having the greater intellect, I now have the physical advantage ! Alfred was on the scene with very low latencies, very high bit rates, and more hard data. Nevertheless, he was stuck in his little room and all but one of his mechs were topside. But the "Elder Cabal" was still down in the labs. True, they were not in the GenGen area, but they were still reachable at the end of a fiber link. And hello, what's this ? The slightly-overweight-Chinese-ninja princess. She was definitely not part of the original plan, but bless her, there she was. What a strange and marvelous girl.

Back to business. He was already preparing contingency plans, contingency documents. And if I'm very careful, very quiet, I can sneak out along the fiber, tell Robert and Winnie and Carlos and Tommie the right stories. And then I'll have my own physical hands .

What Alfred was planning might go beyond Grand Terror. But that same power in my hands… well, that could be glorious fun !

26

"I told you my planning would pay off! Didn't I?" Tommie Parker stood knee-deep in the remains of the library book collection. The shredda towered behind him like dirty snow, flakes as big as your hand. They had found the Librareome storage at the back of Max Huertas's cavern, just where Tommie had said. It was stored in rows of sturdy cargo containers labeled "Rescued Data." The containers had been no match for Tommie's cutter. He had flooded the floor with the contents of "A-BX." This had been most of the fifth-floor stacks. It seems so much smaller when it's in shreds , thought Robert.

Tommie waved at the drifts of shredded paper. "You guys ready to start with the glue? This will jam Huertas's operation up the wazoo. And where's your reporter guy? I haven't seen Sharif in a while." He went around, handing out spray cans.

Finally, he seemed to notice his pals' silence. "We don't really need Sharif, do we? I mean, we've got our own record." He lifted the laptop in its sling.

Robert looked at Carlos and Winston. Winnie gave a little shake of his head. So none of them had heard from the Mysterious Stranger. "Sure, Tommie," Robert said. "That's — "

"That will be fine, Professor Parker." Sharif's voice from Tommie's laptop. "Perhaps you could have Professor Gu act as cameraman?"

They untangled the laptop from its sling, and the voice directed Robert around to the side. The voice was very picky about where it wanted the laptop pointed, across the edge of the shredda, almost in line with their path into this vacant hall.

Then Robert noticed letters painting silently across his field of view. It was sming… and the letters were green.

Mysterious Stranger — > Robert: Hey, my man!

Mysterious Stranger — > Robert: Ah, ah, ah! Be discreet. We don't want Alfred to know I've come back to help you.

Alfred ? thought Robert, but he kept quiet.

No one else seemed to notice the Stranger's arrival. Tommie walked back into the drifts of paper, tossing them up in the air, squirting them with his spray can. "Is the camera getting this, Robert?"

Robert looked down at the laptop's screen."… Yes."

Any other time, the effect of Tommie's aerosol glue would have been a showstopper. He threw another armful of loose shredda into the air, and sprayed a mist of glue. Where mist and paper met, the page fragments were suddenly tumbling as one. The mass drifted slowly to earth. Most of the frags never actually touched the ground, but hung permanently in the air. Tommie laughed and pushed at the hazy something. The ensemble of scattered papers rocked back and forth, like bits of fruit in invisible Jell-O.

Tommie whooped. "Try it yourselves. Just don't squirt each other." He threw another armful up, and another. Arches of paper and mist grew around him.

Robert hung back, playing cameraman.

Mysterious Stranger –> Robert: Look where Alfred has you pointing the camera. See the light? Coming out of the dark?

There was a tiny pool of light, someone running down the steps into the Huertas cavern.

It was Miri. The girl came pounding across the floor shouting, "Robert! Robert!"

Tommie and the others turned to watch, openmouthed.

Miri came around the edge of the shredda. She was gasping for breath.

Winston looked her up and down and then looked at Robert. "This is another Gu, isn't it?"

"um, my granddaughter."

"I thought we agreed to keep this among ourselves!" Winnie's glare was as good as any high-tech messaging: You're going to ruin this for all of us .

But Tommie was more astounded than any of them. "How could she get through security? The cops should be all over."

"No, no." Miri managed to speak between gasps for breath. "Must call police!"

The laptop had its say, too: "Pay no attention to this child. Remember why you are here."

Robert shoved the laptop at Winnie and reached for Miri. "How did you find us, kiddo?"

Her arms went around his middle. "It was Juan and me, and — " She hesitated, looked up at him with her eyes wide. Gone was her usual assurance. Horror looked out. " — somebody's using you, Robert. I think they maybe, maybe killed Juan!"

"Not so," said the laptop. "Uh — " The voice hesitated.

Mysterious Stranger — > Robert: Heh. Alfred put ForgetIt gas ir your belt boxes, and now he's wondering why you're still standing.

"Gentlemen," the voice resumed, "I advise you to remember why you are really here."

Tommie had come out from his fountains of paper. His spray can dangled unnoticed from his fingers. He looked at Carlos and Winston and Robert. "Yes, what is it that we're supposed to remember? Why are we really here?"

Carlos and Winnie wouldn't look him in the eye. Carlos mumbled something in Mandarin.

"We did what we thought was right," Winston said.

Yes, each our own vision of what was right, but… Juan murdered ? He looked back at Tommie. "We tricked you, Tommie. Someone else is behind this."

Tommie walked back to the pile, kicked aimlessly at his masterpiece. "But… I thought I had my touch back." He glanced at Miri and seemed to be putting together all the inconsistencies. His shoulders slumped. "Okay. I was an old idiot. Who was boosting me along, Robert?"

"I don't know."

Mysterious Stranger — > Robert: I could tell you. Maybe I will someday.

Apparently, Winnie and Carlos were not seeing the sming.

Miri's chin came up. "We've got to get word out."

And the laptop said, "It's not safe to move. Stay where you are."

Mysterious Stranger — > Robert: Actually, I would recommend the same. But right now I'm peeved with Alfred. Do what you please, my man.

Tommie Parker looked off into the emptiness of the Huertas cavern. He was shaking his spray can, almost an idle gesture. "The gear we planted in GenGen, I thought I made that. Me, the big genius. It could be anything… bombs, poison, some kind of takeover hardware. But we're at the north edge of the complex." He waved at the wall that loomed from the dimness just beyond the shredda containers. "That overlooks Sorrento Valley. There are some old entrances. We could have used them instead, except my research said the alarms would be harder to disable — but now I don't care if busting through them sets off alarms!"