Quinn Rentack blinked groggily as the annoying beep-beep-beep of his alarm clock pierced his brain. He grumbled, turned over, and shoved his pillow atop his head, trying to block out the clock and go back to sleep. When that didn't work, he sat up and swung his pillow at the clock. It made a satisfying whack sound as it hit the clock and an even more satisfying crash sound as it hit the wall.
Ten minutes later, the writer finally got it into his head that it was time to face the day. He got up, stretched painfully, scratched an itch on his back, then shuffled toward the shower. A false icon sat on the table as he passed. It flashed, and a set of computer vidwindows opened. A yellow-and-black smiley face appeared. A digitized voice said cheerfully, "Hi there! I'm Eddy, your laptop computer, and I'm feeling just great, guy! And I'm sure I'll just get a bundle of kicks out of any program you can run through me!"
"Hush," Quinn mumbled as he tugged his pajama top off.
The computer ignored him. "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood," Eddy sang, a picture of Mr. Rogers replacing the smiley face. Mr. Rogers was quickly replaced by a weather map. "The forecast for the Resonate System today is sunny, clear skies, high 72, low 72." The logo for one of the system's performance halls came up. "The Bit Players are performing tonight at Middie Cruz Hall at 21:00. Come and see top-notch, high-res humor." Now an aerial shot of a racetrack. "The races are on at the Resonate Tracks. The favored racers are the reigning champions, Zilch and Niente Aught. In other news--"
"Eddy, shut up," Quinn said as he inspected himself in the mirror.
The computer beeped and fell silent. For about one second. Then Eddy spoke up, the smiley face returning. "Hi there! It's great to see that you are feeling well this morning, and--"
Quinn had had enough. "Eddy, if you don't shut up right now, I shall pop off and reprogram your main databanks with a very large ax, okay?" This was roughly equivalent to going up to a human and going blood-blood-blood-blood.
Eddy beeped again and fell silent, as though considering. But then it spoke up, "Hi there!--" But before the sappy computer could say anything more, Quinn paced over to his closet. He pushed his clothes aside and revealed a very large ax. Eddy beeped again. "Shutting up now." And it did.
Quinn smirked. The ax was a fake, but Eddy hadn't called his bluff yet. "Note to self, get a better op-sys for my laptop." Quinn did his morning business and put on a polo shirt and blue jeans. Then he went over to the false icon and pressed it. The vidwindows closed and he was able to clip it to his belt. The false icon look was the fashion, especially with hackers, like his friend David Gabbiani.
To the hacker underground, however, David was better known as DaVinci. It was smarter to have an alias when you are a wanted hacker. David was descended from the famous Renaissance man Leonardo da Vinci, and he was a prime hacker in his own right. He'd hacked the Supercomputer a few times, plus the Teracomputer's security-systems, so the name seemed appropriate.
They both lived in the Ray Building in Sector D-Nine of the Resonate System. Quinn had been living here for a few months now, but he was still adjusting to life in the Metaverse. In particular, the idiosyncrasies of the Aughts. The Aughts were a family of sprites, their parents having been deleted in a skirmish with a virus years earlier. The eldest of the siblings, Zilch and Niente, supported their sibs with the fortunes won from hoverbike racing. The next oldest, Naught and Nada, were hackers like David--the Flip Side Felons, Aztral and Surf. Nil and Void were the teenage twins of the family, constantly frightening people out of their wits on the hoverboards. Blank and Zip were the youngest, little kids described as the 'Little Enzos' of the family. He met David and the Aughts on his first day in the Metaverse, and they had become his closest friends.
Unfortunately, that first day, he also learned of David, Naught, and Nada's double lives. Now he served as their 'offline eyes,' following the news, listening in on cops and Guardians using the system's harmonics, and then warning his friends if they got too close. He'd even gone so far as to help rescue David from the clutches of a virus called Lean Il Lupe (LEE-en ill LOO-pay). Il Lupe, a security 'chameleon' protocol turned virus, had planned to merge his mind with his creator's, tapping into the hacker's skills to crack the Supercomputer and Teracomputer to take over the Metaverse.
Il Lupe controlled an Omega-class system, dubbed Omega-Cragis, and its rock-skinned, monster-like 'golem' inhabitants. Omega-Cragis was a desolate, volcanic system with active calderas, gaping fault lines, constant storms, and hostile inhabitants. It was no wonder the government had shut it down.
"Hey, David," the writer said.
"Ready for some fine racing?" David asked as he stepped on the lift and hit the button marked 'G.'
"Sure, but let's stop at the MP3 Eatery, huh? I haven't had breakfast yet."
As they dropped to the ground floor, Quinn's 'icon' beeped, and a vidwindow opened, showing the smiley face. "Hi there! It's great to see you Mr. Gabbiani, and-"
"Eddy, switch off before I stomp you flat," Quinn growled. The computer wisely shut up and the vidwindow closed. "I swear, I don't know how you talked me into buying that thing."
"A computer helps keep track of things a lot better than that book of yours," David said, grinning. He indicated the black, hard-bound, blank-paged book in Quinn's hands. Quinn used it to jot down ideas, tidbits of information, and other info-detritus that he thought could be useful in his future scribbles.
"I like my book," Quinn said stubbornly. "Eddy's just too damned annoying."
"I can fix that," David said mischievously.
Eddy's voice emanated from the icon. "You don't need to do that!"
Quinn and David shared a smirk. With David's skill in programming (and hacking), altering Eddy's personality would be a simple task, and quite probably an irreversible one. Let's face it, if David could design a security protocol so advanced that it gained full sentience and went viral (albeit by accident), he could easily tweak Eddy.
They arrived at the ground floor and stepped outside in the nice, cool day. Quinn sniffed the air and stretched a bit. "Lovely day."
"Yeah," David said, looking at his chronometer. "Naught and Nada should be arriving right about . . . now."
Right on cue, a hovercar screeched to a halt right in front of them, music blaring at decibels that were almost loud enough to do permanent auditory damage. Two dark gray-skinned sprites with glittering black hair grinned at them. The driver, who was Naught Aught, laughed. "Did we scare you?"
"Naught," David said, smiling, "that ceased being scary years ago." He looked at Quinn, who was straightening his outfit self-consciously and generally looking as white as a sheet. "Quinn, I'm not so sure about."
"I'm fine," Quinn said with a shake in his voice that told them that he was lying. Naught and his passenger--Nada--laughed.
The two humans climbed into the back of the car, and Naught proceeded to step on the accelerator. The hovercar took off like a rocket, spiraling through the air toward the sector where the MP3 Eatery could be found. They landed to find it largely empty. It was a bit early, so the breakfast customers were on their way. Quinn and David sat down at the counter as Naught and Nada went to find a fast food place. A human woman in an apron came up to take their orders. "Yeah, what'll it be?"
Quinn blinked. "What happened to Walt?"
"Ulcer," the woman said. She pointed to her nametag. "I'm Dinah. What'll it be?" They placed their orders, and Dinah turned to shout back at the kitchen. "Angus! Eggs, scrambled, bacon, toast, coffee! Times two!"
A voice with a Scottish accent hollered back, "Ye dinnae need t' shou', ye damned witch! I'm nae deaf!"
"You sure could fool me, the way you scream all the time!" Dinah shouted back.
"Shu' yer cakehole, woman!"
The shouting continued for a few moments before Angus went to cooking and Dinah went to pouring the coffee. Quinn took his and looked at Dinah. "I never heard of anyone quitting a job because of ulcers."
"Really bad ulcers," Dinah said. She put the coffee pot back as some more customers entered.
Quinn purchased a few of the news-sheets and looked them over. He smirked as he looked at the Mainframe Manifest, then showed David what was so funny. The headline read: GOVERNMENT DENIES EXISTENCE OF OMEGA-CLASS SYSTEMS. Other sheets had similar headlines: RESONATE SYSTEM INVESTIGATES VIRUS RUMORS and DAVINCI AND FLIP SIDE FELONS STILL AT LARGE. The last one got a laugh out of David.
"I tell ya," David said as he sipped his coffee, "the government wouldn't know a hacker if one stood in front of them with a big giant sign that read 'I am a hacker.'" A green line of light flickered on his lenses.
Quinn looked through the articles and then read the review columns. Then he chuckled. "Hey, my friend Mike Richter got published. The columnists are tearing into him."
"Is he that bad a writer?" David asked.
"Nah," Quinn replied. "It just takes him a while to write something. And his stuff's pretty decent. But you know columnists. They live in padded cells with no windows and no contact with the outside world. Most of them have delusions of god-hood."
David smirked, then whispered, "I could get them back for you and Mike."
"I'll think about it," Quinn winked.
"Don't you remember?" Naught asked as he parked the car. "It's the big Downhill Championship. Nil and Void are the front-runners in it. The prize is 4000 credits to the first- and second- place finishers."
"Yeah, it'd be nice to have more racers in the family, hey?" asked a big sprite who came up to them. It was Zilch, the oldest of the Aught siblings. He was clad in his usual blue-gray outfit and long black coat. His long hair was still as unkempt as it had been when Quinn first met him. Green-tinted goggles were perched on his eyes. He grinned crookedly. "How ya doin', New Guy?" The racer had given Quinn this nickname early and insisted on using it.
"Just fine, Champ," Quinn replied. Quinn had given the racer this nickname early and insisted on using it. "Where's Niente?"
"Parkin' her bike, hey?" Zilch said. "The kids are in school." That would be Blank and Zip, the youngest siblings and typically the most troublesome. "When's the race start?"
"Soon," Nada offered as she pulled a pair of binoculars out of the glove compartment. "I think I see them!" she said as she focused on the starting line. She passed them to Quinn.
He looked. There were seven racers, Nil and Void unmistakable in their silver and blue outfits (Nil wearing his trademark goggles to distinguish himself from his twin), and five others. There was a human in green, a human in gray, a sprite in red, a sprite in gold, and a sprite in black. Quinn frowned to himself as he passed the binoculars to Naught. "I don't remember this race. It wasn't in the news this morning."
His false icon flashed and Eddy's vidwindow popped open. "Hi there! That's because you never let me finish what I was telling you this morn--"
"And you're not going to finish now, Eddy. Switch off!" Quinn snapped, flicking at the icon. The sappy computer obeyed. David grinned at him, and Quinn glared daggers.
Suddenly, a voice rang out. "Ladies, gentlemen, sprites, and anthros! Welcome to the First Annual Downhill Championships! Today, we will start off with hoverboarding. Our racers today are, Nil Aught, in silver--" The goggled sprite pumped his fist in the air. "--Void Aught in blue--" His twin did the same. "--Fred Kurgan in green, Claude Carmal in gray, Desmond Serro in red, Ford 'Funky' Brewster in gold, and Andrew Ginole in black." As each of the racers were named, they waved to the crowd. "The top two winners will receive a 4000 credit cash prize. The next two runners up will receive free passes to the Bit Players' performance at Middie Cruz Hall tonight at 21:00."
The racers all took out their hoverboards and carefully balanced themselves. "On your mark, get set . . . GO!"
"Go Nil!" Naught shouted.
"Go Void!" Nada added.
"Yeah, hey?!" Zilch cut in.
Quinn and David were cheering them on as well when Quinn stopped. He turned to David. "Where's Niente? Shouldn't she be here by now?"
The human hacker looked around. "Come to think of it, yeah."
Nil ducked under a branch that had been extended out into the course as Void jumped off his board to sail over it. He landed expertly on his board, steadied himself, then flashed a thumbs up to his twin brother as they continued down the course. Brewster ducked low as Serro tilted his board on its side to slide under. Carmal and Kurgan, so preoccupied by their fight, slammed right into it. Ginole dipped his board down, then sailed over it, board and all.
Naught frowned at Ginole through the binoculars. "Hey, that guy in black looks familiar for some reason."
"He's here."
Naught blinked as he stared at Ginole. Did he see a glint of blue-gray light from the sprite's eyes? It had to be a mistake. A trick of light reflecting at a certain angle. But he was suspicious.
Ginole seemed to speed up more now. But Nil and Void were still going really fast and could not be caught. They glanced back at the black-clad sprite and laughed as they sped up. Ginole smirked and did the same.
"What?" Quinn said. "Who he who? Hey!" The other human suddenly shoved past him and ran down the side of the hill toward the finish line. Quinn swore as he tried to follow, but the crowds were too thick. He had to go around the long way.
But as he cut through some of the parking area, he stopped. He saw a pair of booted feet lying on the ground next to a hoverbike. Further investigation found Niente lying on the ground, a nasty bruise on her head. "Niente! What happened?"
"Two goons jumped me," she said. "I thought I saw Il Lupe!"
Quinn's blood went cold. "Il Lupe?" He looked around for Rollo and Tomasi, but the two sprites-for-hire were nowhere in sight. He helped Niente to her feet then they ran after David.
David, for his part, had reached the bottom of the course and scowled as he saw the trio approach-Nil and Void in front and Ginole behind them. Far, far behind him, Brewster, Serro, Kurgan, and Carmal vied for the fourth place position. David tried to push forward to get in the front of the crowd, but the crowd wouldn't give.
Nil and Void suddenly slapped hands, gripped each other, then spun in a circle before releasing the other and surging forward and zooming across the finish line at almost the exact same moment. Ginole cruised over mildly. The Aught twins flashed V-for-victory signs and whooped with triumph.
"The winners! Nil and Void Aught!" the announcer bellowed over the loudspeakers. "In third, Andrew Ginole! And in fourth . . . . . . . . . Ford 'Funky' Brewster!"
The four top winners all stood there as the officials came out to shake their hands and hand them their prizes. Nil and Void each got giant novelty checks--a quirk which had not died out with the lottery--and Ginole and Brewster each got envelopes with their tickets in them. David saw the black-clad sprite, scowled and tried to push forward, but the crowd still wouldn't budge. The four winners, and then the three losers, as they crossed the finish line, marched off to a locker room where they could change out of their racing uniforms.
David scowled again. "Dammit!"
Quinn and Niente, by now, had reached him. "What is it?" the writer asked. "Who was that?"
"Andrew Ginole," David said, turning. "That's Lean Il Lupe."
"I knew it!" Niente said. "I knew I saw him."
"Ginole? Are you sure?" Quinn asked.
"Yeah. Lean once told me that some religious types once called him 'Legion.' Ginole is--"
"--an anagram of 'Legion,'" Quinn said, slapping his forehead. "Why didn't I see it before? He stole an idea from Stephen King!" Blank looks. "See Storm of the Century and Andre Linoge. Same basic idea."
They tried to make their way toward the locker rooms. Quinn spoke up as they did so. "Why would Lean risk coming back here?"
"Because he wants to get me," David said. "Lean still wants my hacking skills so he can crack the Teracomputer."
"But why risk it?" Niente repeated Quinn's question. "He knows the Resonate System knows about him. We all saw the news-sheets this morning. He should have set off the system scanners."
"And furthermore," Quinn added, "Nil's goggles should have seen right through him."
"I don't know," David said. "But I'm not going to let Lean live long enough to explain how."
They approached the locker room, but a uniformed guard stepped out. "No visitors," he said gruffly.
Niente pushed forward. "I'm Niente Aught, sister of Nil and Void. Let me through."
The guard peered at her, then saw the dangerous gleam in her eye, and let her, David, and Quinn pass. As soon as they were by, the guard smirked to himself, his eyes flashing blue-gray light. He turned and walked past the locker room into a darkened alley. Before he reached the deep shadows, he waved a hand before him. A portal opened and he stepped through, vanishing.
"I'm telling you," David said, "he didn't. We would have seen him."
"The guard!" Niente suddenly said. "What about him?"
"Ah, shit!" David swore, shoving past her to look around. But there was no guard. He waved over the race official. "You, where's the guard for the locker room?"
"Guard?" the official said. "We don't have a guard."
David swore profusely and stormed back in as the other racers filed out. David drove a fist into a locker, receiving a few skinned knuckles for his trouble, and sat on a bench.
"Somebody mind telling us what's going on?" Void asked.
"David thinks he saw Lean Il Lupe," Niente explained.
"I didn't think I saw him, I know I saw him!" The human hacker got up and fumed. "He's back, and he's going to try to kidnap me again, or maybe he'll just kill me, or maybe he'll kill you guys! The point is, he's back, and we've got to stop him!"
"Great, so we know they're back," DaVinci muttered. "But nothing about Lean?"
"Well," Surf said, "there is something about him: The Exleys are suspected of working for the underground crime-leader known only as 'the Wolf.'"
"Lean," DaVinci said, slamming a fist onto the table. "He's back, I know it!"
"Well, he can't touch us," Aztral said confidently. "Our spy protocols are all in place, and if he tries to set foot in this system again, we'll know."
But activity ground to a halt the next moment as something unusual happened. It seemed like the entire system flickered. As though a bit of static was in the Metaverse. Aztral lifted his hands from his keyboard. "Okay, what'd I touch?"
"You didn't touch anything," Surf said, looking around.
"Must've been a power surge, hey?" Zilch suggested.
"No," Quinn said. "Power surges don't happen anymore. The hardware's too well-designed for that."
"Tampering at the Teracomputer, then?" Niente offered.
"No, I don't think so," DaVinci said.
Then something else unusual happened. DaVinci's comm rang. He looked at it with surprise, then he regarded everyone in the room. "Who could that be?" he wondered.
"It's a private comm-line," Nil said. "And we're all here."
DaVinci stared at it a moment longer as it continued to ring, then he carefully took it off his belt and flicked it open. "Hello?"
"DaVinci," an eerily familiar voice said on the other edge.
DaVinci's face hardened. "Lean."
"Glad to see you still remember me," the virus said.
"Where are you?"
"Nowhere important."
"What do you want?"
"Same as always."
"What do you want?" the hacker repeated.
"To watch you squirm." The virus chuckled. "I've got a secret," he sang.
"What?"
"Go to the Downhill Track again, and I think you'll find out. You'll be unpleasantly surprised to find what I've got for you." Then the comm clicked and disconnected.
DaVinci lowered the comm and clipped it to his belt. He looked up at them. "He says he's got a secret, and he wants me at the Downhill Track."
"We're coming with," Void said.
"The hell you are."
"The hell we aren't," Nil said. "We barely stood a chance against Lean together. We'll be damned if we're going to let you do it alone."
"You are at the Downhill T rack?"
"Yes," DaVinci said.
"Good. Put your comm on broadcast mode." DaVinci hesitantly clicked the switch that made it operate like a speaker-phone. "Thank you. Let's see, I know Rentack is there, along with the entire Aught clan. But, oops, Blank and Zip aren't there. Hmm. No matter."
"Get on with it, Lean," DaVinci said.
"Yes. I've made some progress with my hacking skills since last we met," the virus said. "In fact, I'd say I'm almost on par with you, DaVinci."
The human hacker sneered. "You copied my hacking skills into yourself when we merged."
"Almost merged," Lean corrected. "Yes, and I've got a little present for you."
"What?" the hacker demanded.
"Hmm. You asked for it. Not my fault."
"We'll see about that."
Lean chuckled in response and disconnected. But then the system seemed to flicker again. And then the sky darkened. Quinn looked up as a steady alarm-like tone sounded. The Aughts all seemed rather dismayed.
"What's going on?" Quinn asked.
"I don't know!" Zilch said. "But it's creeping me out somehow!"
And then, an emotionless baritone voice intoned three dread words. Three words that hadn't been heard since the colonization. Three words that still summoned a fear from the depths of sprites from their earliest racial memories.