Virtual Vandals by Tom Clancy; Steve R. Pieczenik

Author:Tom Clancy; Steve R. Pieczenik
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science & Technology, Law & Crime, Action & Adventure, Mystery & Detective, Virtual Reality, Computers, Fantasy & Magic, Fiction, Science Fiction, Computer crimes, Baseball, Security, General, Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 9780425161739
Publisher: Berkley Pub Group
Published: 1999-02-01T04:12:30+00:00

12

What do you think I can do? a frantic voice screeched inside Matt’s skull. Savage has all the advantages in a fight. He’s bigger, stronger, and he can hurt people in veeyar. I can’t.

Hurt People…The mental words seemed to echo as Matt grabbed Caitlin by the arms. “I’ll try,” he said, “but you’ve got to help me.”

“Help?” Cat was almost babbling. “How?”

“Give me a hand.” Matt went to the wreckage of Sean McArdle’s virtual desk, hauling out a large, splintered slab of wood. Caitlin joined him as he dragged it to where Gerry Savage was single-mindedly strangling the Irish ambassador’s son.

“Okay,” Matt panted. “I’m letting go. You make this fall on Savage, then jump on it.”

“Me?”

“You can hurt him—I can’t,” Matt yelled. “Now, just do it!”

He released the piece of wreckage. For a second it wobbled. Then Caitlin threw her weight against it. The heavy wooden desk fragment seemed to fall in slow motion. But Gerry the Savage didn’t even seem to be aware of it—until it landed across his back.

Savage felt the impact, even through his jewel-tough skin. He screamed in pain, then screamed again as Caitlin leapt onto the piece of wreckage now pinning him.

Grunting, Savage levered himself around. One good heave freed him from the wooden wreckage—and sent Caitlin flying.

Matt managed to catch her and keep her on her feet. But his eyes were focused beyond Savage, on Sean McArdle. The Irish boy scrambled up, one hand on his throat. The instant he realized he was free, he vanished from the veeyar.

Turning to resume his unfinished business, the Savage made the kind of noise lions do after being cheated out of a kill. “You let him get away!” he screamed, his voice thick with blood-lust.

Fists clenched, he advanced on Matt and Caitlin.

“Trashing a veeyar is one thing!” Matt shouted. “Killing someone is another!”

“However it happened, he’s out now,” Luc Valery said. He and Serge had finally stopped their vandalism at Savage’s scream and run to join the others. “Security will be here any second.”

Serge didn’t even comment on that. His cartoon cowboy proxy was simply gone, like a blown-out candle flame.

The thought of consequences finally penetrated Savage’s fury. “Right,” he finally said. Then he jutted a finger at Matt. “But I’m not done with you.”

The British boy vanished; then Luc winked out.

Cat grabbed Matt’s hand. “Let’s get out of here.”

He let Caitlin do the piloting, wondering if they’d wind up back at Bradford’s chem lab again. Instead, they popped up in another library.

“Library of Congress,” Cat explained. “Even at this time of night—or morning, they get a lot of queries.”

“Saves on the phone bill,” Matt said.

They bounced through a series of heavily trafficked Net nodes until they arrived at last at Casa Corrigan.

Matt noticed, however, that Cat landed them on the virtual lawn outside the replica of Mount Vernon, not in her own veeyar. Somewhere along the way, she’d shed her Madame Dracula proxy. It was a teenaged girl who faced him—pretty, disheveled…and very scared.

“Thanks for doing what you did,” Caitlin said.

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