Raven by Sue Loh

Author:Sue Loh [Loh, Sue]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Susan Loh
Published: 2020-05-19T23:00:00+00:00

Day Five

Survival Mode

Fireball sat in the guest chair in Mom’s little office with her hands sandwiched between her knees, waiting for the verdict on her maybe-not-so-crazy speculations about the current situation.

“So,” Mom said, her hazel eyes neutral, “you think maybe the Old Man is drumming up business by hacking into the systems of potential clients, then extorting money to fix the mess he caused.”

Fireball’s shoulders slumped. “Yeah, when you put it like that it sounds pretty lame, huh? I mean, Noob was the one who suggested it might be the Old Man, and it’s not exactly extortion if you’re being paid for services rendered, but...”

Mom finished the sentence for her. “But it’s a pretty skeevy way of doing business. You think maybe there’s a chance it’s a coincidence? That someone else is doing this, but we’re getting business out of it ’cause Cinzento is good at what it does?”

“Well, yeah! Of course it could just be coincidence. I’m probably totally off base. I just... I just wanted to bounce this off someone I trusted. A grown-up I trusted.”

Mom’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t trust Carver?”

Fireball’s face felt tingly. “Of course I do. But if I take it to Carver then it’s, like, official or something. I felt like I needed more... you know, more.”

Mom nodded. “I see. You wanted a reality check. That’s a good impulse, kiddo. Go with it. I’m glad you chose to confide in Noob, too. For both of you.”

Fireball wrinkled her nose. “Why both of us?”

Mom shrugged. “I’m glad he turned out to be someone you could trust. I’m glad you made him feel more like one of the team. Kid’s had a hard time of it.”

“Yeah. He kind of opened up a little about that, too. So... d’you think I should tell Carver about... you know?”

“I would, if I were you. Couldn’t hurt.”

Fireball contemplated that as she wandered out into the dining hall. Cricket, Books, and Noob were at the Raven table, so she went to set her Pad down there before she hit the chow line.

“Have a nice chat with Mom?” Noob asked, his eyes expanding on the question.

“Yeah. Very positive. Mom’s cool. Always gives good advice. Carver too.”

“Cool,” said Noob and went back to his oatmeal.

That was about the extent of their communication until they were back in the Raven lab, going over the documentation Hack had downloaded to their test box. There was a lot there, so they divvied the code up into discrete chunks and began poring over it.

Cricket was the first to find the point of entry Hack had used to infiltrate FuBarCorp. As they’d suspected, it was during the ReGen process. One unit of Hack’s core code rode in with the initial handshake and another on the concluding one.

“But that can’t be enough to upload an entire program of this complexity,” said Books.

He leaned over Cricket’s shoulder, peering at her screen. Fireball was convinced he’d used the opportunity to sniff Cricket’s hair, which made her wonder what sort of perfume or shampoo was marketed to goths.

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