Doctor Who_ Blue Box Part 9

'No,' she said, 'I meant, could you drive to the airport?

I'm kind of out of practice.'

'Oh. Sure.'

We wove over slushy roads through morning traffic. 'Seems like the boys are leaving you out,' I commented, watching Peri out of the corner of my eye. She had put the pa.s.senger seat back a little and stretched her legs out. 'Forgetting about you while they play with their computers.'

'Oh, this is pretty standard,' said Peri, bitterly 'The Doctor always knows more than I do about everything. He's a lot older than I am. He's travelled a lot more. He's even finished college. You should hear him lecture me on how there's so much I could learn from him! Could learn, if he ever bothered to tell me anything!'

'Seems like being the Doctor's sidekick is hard work,' I said.

'It sure is, sometimes. Sometimes it's great. You get to see things n.o.body else has ever seen.'

Peri seemed happy to have someone to talk to though from time to time I noticed her catching herself before giving too much away. She didn't let it turn into a one-way interview: she wanted to know all about my American dad, why I'd decided to come back to the States when I grew up. 'I've had some bad fights with my stepdad,' she admitted. 'But we still talk. We're still friends. I guess I'm lucky'

At the airport we tried to call the motel, just to check on the Doctor and Bob, but the phone line was busy. 'Figures,'

said Peri.

'Guess I should call my dad anyway' I said. 'Wish him merry Christmas and that.'

Peri looked stricken. 'It must be tough being away from your folks like this.'

'No... no, actually, it's OK. They won't be worrying about me. You go ahead and make that call.'

'See you at the newsagent in a few minutes.'

As soon as Peri was out of earshot, I called Mondy's beeper. It never failed: a few minutes later, he called the other end of the looparound pair we always used.

No sense in wasting time. 'Did you talk to Swan?'

'Ah, shoot,' said Mondy. 'like I had a big fat choice.'

'You little b.u.g.g.e.r,' I hissed.

'You know what she did?'

'I shudder to think.'

'She put everything back the way it was, Chick. My credit rating. My record. My phones, mazel tov phones, mazel tov. I have my life back.

Wasn't that worth a teensy weensy bit of data?'

'Yeah, well, you chucked me in the deep end, mate.'

'Look, Swan doesn't have enough info to get Rob into real trouble. Trust me. She's just trying to get you guys to panic, to make a mistake.'

'I don't think it's gonna happen. The Doctor's really careful.'

'So are you, man. Stay careful. Listen, you know you can't tell me anything now.'

'You bet I know!'

'I can't give away something I don't know. But she can still find things out, things you wouldn't believe.' We both knew what he meant. 'Try and stay out of it, Chick. Really don't get involved.'

It was already the middle of the night in Melbourne. If I had actually called my Dad, he would have slammed the phone down before I could contaminate it.

The Doctor and Bob were having a whale of a time The Doctor set up his Apple II in the motel room, plugging the modem into the phone socket. They had a list of email addresses, people Swan had mentioned the Eridani device to.

Judging by the content of the messages, they were fellow collectors, people she was hoping to swap goodies or bits of information with to increase her collection of legal and illegal technology. (What I had seen at her house was only a fraction of that collection.) So while we were at the airport, the two of them were merrily breaking into email accounts all over the country, reading more and more messages as they put together the same information Swan had. And, quite probably, in the same way she had. Unlike her, of course, the Doctor and Bob were prompted by the purest of motives.

Bob stirred some coffee into his chocolate milk and sucked the muddy result through a straw while he watched the Doctor at work. Every so often the Doctor would ask him a question, checking some technical point. Bob would gush an answer with far more information than the Doctor needed.

They were deep inside a university on the west coast when the messages started to come. As well as sending email anywhere in the network, you can send a short 'msg' to someone else on the same system, a sort of internal mail. The Doctor had tiptoed in: he took a snapshot of the computer's current list of users, then altered its 'who' command to show that list instead of actually checking who was online. He was, in short, invisible. So he was suitably surprised to be challenged:

h.e.l.looo! Who have we here?

'Don't answer it,' said Bob, putting down his mocha milk.

'There's little point in putting our heads into the ground,'

said the Doctor. 'They can obviously see us.'

'Then let's get out,' said Bob nervously.

Cat got your tongue?

The Doctor had already typed the who command. There were only four users logged on that Christmas morning: the Doctor, a couple of sysadmins, and zydeco.

The Doctor opened the file he had edited to disguise his entrance to the system. Sure enough, there was no record of zydeco's login. 'It's another hacker,' he said. 'And what a coincidence they should happen to be on the same system as we are this merry Michelmas morning.'

Bob gulped. 'Swan.'

Amused, the Doctor typed:

Good morning. Are you working your way backwards through the dictionary?

You can run, replied Swan, but you can't hide.

'Oh please,' said the Doctor aloud.

No matter where you go, typed Swan, whenever you pick up a phone or dial into the net, I'll find you. You may be able to hide from the authorities, but you can't hide from me.

Speaking of the authorities, replied the Doctor, they could be very interested in your connection to the death of one Charles Cobb.

'Who he?' said Bob.

'Just one link in the chain of people who brought Swan her little collector's item.'

Nothing to do with me, said Swan. I'm not threatening you. We should work together together.

You won the first round. I respect your skills. Let's combine our talents and our information. We'll both benefit.

The Doctor hammered out, You don't have the slightest idea of what you're dealing with, do you? What did you think that device was?

Did you run any tests? Take any precautions?

Tell me what it is.

You're like a little child who finds a detonator, said the Doctor. Take my advice: just this once, leash your curiosity before anyone else gets hurt.

Now you're threatening me.

The devices are the threat. Go back to.

your hacking and phreaking and leave well enough alone.

No more messages came from Swan.

Two.