One Is the Loneliest Number by Diane Duane

Author:Diane Duane [Duane, Diane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science fiction, young adult, adventure
ISBN: 9780425164174
Goodreads: 20869
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
Published: 1999-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

He was staring in horror at an eight-foot-tall wall of weather-beaten wooden boards, where ancient flakes of paint clung like scabs on an old wound.

The mural was even more faded in full daylight, but David could read the letters painted under the almost-obliterated picture.

Willie-Boy died here.

This was the same site as last night’s nightmare sim!

scheduled for demolition and rehabilitation, the area had been virtually deserted.

Police had responded to calls about the shooting and found the body. Checking out the area, they’d come across a place where someone had been camping in a ruined building. According to the report, it didn’t sound like a homeless person living rough. Cops discovered a sleeping bag, supplies of food and water, and a laptop computer with heavily encoded files.

A search of the usual fingerprint files showed that the deceased hadn’t had a police record—and offered no hope of quickly identifying him. The coded computer and Washington location suggested a foreign connection to some—could the dead man have been a spy?

David’s thoughts immediately swung to Slobodan Cetnik. Could this somehow be connected to him?

Ridiculous, a nervous voice insisted from the back of his mind. This has nothing to do with you.

Except that I saw that alley last night, David thought. / ran down it and was shot… .

He wished he could dismiss the nightmare images skittering around his brain as just a bad dream. Could he have imagined the download, the whole tormenting episode of the chase? Could he have dozed off on his computer-link couch?

Or could someone have somehow recorded and downloaded the dead man’s last moments? There was the crash … and the feeling in his gut when he’d seen die image of the wall across the alley.

David read on to find a quote from one of the cops who’d found the hideaway. “It was a good enough place to live, for a rathole. The guy had even managed to hack the electric company and get power.”

Hack. Encoded computer. The dead man was a hacker.

A sick churning began again in David’s gut. He turned off the computer and headed back to the living room. “I have to go out for a little while, Mom,” he said. “Gotta talk to Dad.”

He went downstairs and out of the apartment building, setting off for the neighborhood park. Sure enough, there was Martin Gray, playing catch with James and Tommy. The game was not preparation for a career in the major leagues. In fact, it looked like more of a chance for the younger guys to run back and forth yelling, ‘To me, Dad!” “No! To me, Daddy!”

Instead, Dad lofted a high blooper in David’s direction. David snagged it on the fly, then walked over to hand it to his father. “Dad, do you have a minute? We have to talk.”

Martin Gray took the ball and tossed it to James. “You guys take over for a minute— gently!’ ‘

Then he turned to his oldest son. “What’s up, David?”

“While you were working last night—” David stopped and tried a new approach.

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