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  “You’re not quite ready for the Skyton Invitational,” he said playfully.

  Kathryn’s cheeks turned slightly red as she regained her balance.

  “Okay, so I’m not the most coordinated person on the planet,” she answered. “But as my dad always says, brain beats brawn every time.”

  “Will the two of you stop joking around and get to work!” Kristi’s voice trumpeted in their ears. “This is not a game. Lives are at stake.”

  Conor and Kathryn stopped short.

  “You are both acting like a couple of little kids,” Kristi lectured them, obviously annoyed. “Keep your minds on your work! Alex and I are counting on you to do your job and to do it right.”

  “Sorry, we will be there on time, don’t worry,” Conor answered for them both.

  Kathryn shrugged her shoulders and, directing her thoughts toward Conor, asked, “What is her problem?”

  “I heard that,” Kristi announced sternly. “Now you two listen to me. You have a job to do. Get serious!”

  Conor nearly burst out in laughter as Kathryn stuck out her tongue and made a face.

  “She can see that,” Conor stated as he turned his back on Kathryn and started crawling down the air duct again.

  “I don’t care,” Kathryn answered. “I don’t like her. She’s always picking on me.”

  “She’s just worried,” Conor answered.

  “There’s nothing to worry about,” Kathryn replied. “I have everything under control. I always do.”

  Justice Casseday strutted around the crowded room, slapping everyone on the back as if they were all long-time friends.

  “This is a great day!” he repeated over and over again. “No one can stop us now!”

  Dee Sanders held three videopapers over her head, each proclaiming the certainty of Michael’s election to the Court.

  “A toast,” Justice Brandix announced, holding a glass high into the air. “A toast to the next Justice!”

  The room fell silent as Brandix spoke eloquently of Michael’s explorations and discoveries. He continued on and on, extolling Michael’s virtues. Michael forced a smile and acted as if he was listening, but Brandix’s voice drifted off into nothingness as his thoughts focused sharply on their plan.

  “Conor and Kathryn should have reached Casseday’s vacation home by now,” Michael thought to himself as Brandix continued his oration. “Alex should reach the Interstellar Court’s main computer array any moment now.”

  The room erupted in cheers as Brandix ended his speech. Justice Casseday rushed up to Michael’s side and gave him a big bear hug.

  “My boy,” he announced loudly enough for everyone to hear. “You and I are going to be great friends. Great friends! You will remember this day as long as you live.”

  Michael forced a smile and thought to himself, “So will you.”

  Flashing counterfeit Interstellar Court credentials, Alex walked past the three security guards stationed in the courthouse’s lobby and by-passed the body scanners.

  “If we get elected,” Alex thought. “The first thing that we are going to do is fire this building’s security chief.”

  Knowing that the Court’s main computer array was housed on the 44th floor, he headed for the closest turbolift. Exiting on the 44th floor, he was surprised how easy it was to find the right room. A large sign with an arrow pointing to the right was just outside of the turbolift. It read, “Computer Mainframe.”

  “How stupid can they be?” he thought, turning to the right.

  He soon found himself standing in front of a door marked, “Computer Mainframe, Authorized Personnel Only.”

  Placing his counterfeit security pass against the door’s entrance pad, the door vanished. Inside, an elderly security guard sat behind the receptionist’s desk playing a video game on his wrist transponder. He was not armed, nor was he paying any attention to the door. He waved Alex in and went back to the video game.

  The computer array sat in the middle of a cavernous room lined by scores of auxiliary computers on one side and private, enclosed workspaces on the other. Two technicians were huddled around one of the auxiliary computers, engaged in a heated debate over the best way to repair it. They paid no attention to him as he headed for the nearest workstation. Alex carefully avoided eye contact. The building’s security footage had already been swapped out and, given that he had dyed his hair black and was wearing a temporary mustache, it was unlikely that anyone would recognize him later. But there was no sense in taking any unnecessary chances. Fortunately, other than the two technicians and the inattentive security guard, there was not another soul in sight.

  The workspace featured a computer, keyboard, and screen, all hardwired directly into the mainframe, and, most important of all, privacy. Plugging Michael’s computer snooper into the computer, he waited for it to retrieve the necessary passcodes. The snooper was the most advanced and expensive firewall breaker on the black market. Its programmers claimed that it was the best ever constructed. It cost over 100,000 credits, but it was worth it. Cracking into the Interstellar Court’s main computer array wasn’t going to be easy.

  Alex waited impatiently as the snooper executed a long series of entries probing the array’s firewalls, looking for vulnerabilities. Like two evenly-matched, heavyweight boxers slugging it out, the snooper attacked the array’s firewalls, bouncing off one firewall after another until finding an opening only to be thwarted by newly established firewalls designed to counter the attack. Slowly but surely, the snooper dug deeper and deeper into the government’s filing system, initially exposing non-critical personal files, then non-critical government files, and then sensitive personal files. Having found the files needed, the snooper established its own firewalls to prevent the array from stopping or recording what it was doing. Realizing that the snooper was accessing restricted files, the array started to pull power from the Consortium’s electrical grid and signaled its intent to destroy both itself and the snooper if it did not withdraw. The array readied a backup program to keep the Consortium’s defense grid operational if it had to self-destruct.

  The snooper vibrated, signaling to Alex that it had secured the passcodes to Justice Casseday’s personal and financial files.

  “Kristi, are you there?” Alex asked in his mind.

  “Yes,” Kristi announced. “Did you get them?”

  “Yes,” he answered. “The passcode for his personal file is fifty-four red-eye. That’s numeral 5, numeral 4, r, e, d, single dash with no spaces, e, y, e. The passcode for his financial files is seventy-six blue-eye. That’s numeral 7, numeral 6, b, l, u, e, single dash with no spaces, e, y, e. You got that?”

  “Yes,” Kristi answered. “5, 4, r, e, d, single dash, e, y, e, and 7, 6, b, l, u, e, single dash, e, y, e.”

  “Confirmed,” Alex replied.

  Alex removed the computer snooper from the computer, placed it into a pocket, and headed for the door. The security guard did not look up from his game as Alex left the room.

  Conor pressed his face against the air vent. He could see most of the office through the narrow metal slots. It looked more like a library than an office. It was lined on all sides with floor-to-ceiling wooden bookshelves packed solid with antique paper books and stacks of electronic data cards and disks. A very large, wooden desk with a protective glass top was located near the room’s center. The Justice’s personal computer was centered on the desk. A wooden chair, with a well-worn, blue, cloth-covered cushion, sat invitingly next to the desk.

  “I don’t sense anyone,” Conor stated using telepathy.

  “Any robocameras?” Kathryn asked.

  “The room is clean,” Conor answered. “But, just to be safe, remember not to speak out loud. Just continue to think your thoughts. Okay?”

  Kathryn leaned forward, placed her right hand on his, and answered silently, “Okay. Let’s go.”

  Conor nodded as the eight screws securing the air vent to the wall began rotating counter-clockwise, pulled away fro
m the air vent, floated through the vent’s slots, and into Conor’s shirt pocket.

  “That is just too awesome,” Kathryn gushed. “You have to teach me that trick one day.”

  “It’s not a trick,” Conor answered as he slid his fingers through the air vent’s slots, pushed it out from the wall, and pulled it back into the air duct.

  Placing the air vent onto the air duct’s floor, he continued, “Let’s make this quick. I will go first. Remember, no talking.”

  Conor landed, feet-first, on a thick, beige carpet. Kathryn nearly tripped over him as she landed next to him, favoring her right leg. Conor walked over to the room’s only door and listened.

  “There’s no one in the hallway,” he announced.

  Kathryn slipped on a pair of transparent detection-proof gloves, sat in the Justice’s chair, and touched the computer’s on button. As the computer screen flickered to life, she keyed in Casseday’s personal passcode, just as Kristi had instructed her to do, and his personal files appeared on the screen. Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she keyed in three new entries, each implicating the Justice in a conspiracy to launder government contract kickbacks through several of the Justice’s financiers. Closing that file, she entered Casseday’s financial passcode. The screen filled with a long list of financial accounts.

  “Wow!” Kathryn exclaimed to herself. “This guy is rich!”

  “Make the transfers,” Conor’s voice filled her mind.

  Kathryn typed in six transactions.

  “I hate this,” she complained. “Transferring credits to these financiers makes me sick. They are already filthy rich. Plus, I know some of these guys. They are entitled whiners if you ask me. First in line whenever a government contract is available, and then they complain the loudest when it’s time to pay their taxes. While I am in here, why don’t we transfer some credits to some charities? I can think of several very deserving ones. Casseday would never notice. Come on, what do you say?”

  “Sorry,” Conor replied. “If we can access Casseday’s files, so can Relcovic. He would know right away that it was a setup if any of the credits transferred today were traced to a charity. Casseday would never give credits to a charity, unless that charity was doing something for him. The last thing that we want is to have the director of an honest charity come under criminal investigation because of what we are doing here.”

  “Alright, I know that you are right,” Kathryn conceded reluctantly. “But giving credits to those financiers makes me sick.”

  Chapter 21

  ELECTION DAY

  Kathryn and Conor chatted away aimlessly at the kitchen table in Alex’s apartment, happily sharing a large dish of strawberry ice cream topped with a generous portion of whipped cream. Dee and Kristi shared the sofa, watching a huge viewing screen hung on the living room wall. A reporter named Darlene was interviewing the city’s Mayor, who, the reporter noted proudly, just happened to be her older brother. The Mayor, sporting an “I Voted Today” button on his lapel, boldly predicted a record voter turnout. The news ribbon scrolling across the bottom of the screen showed the latest vote tally. Michael was in the lead, but Clark remained within striking distance, followed by Vesperie and Hunt. Alex paced nervously across the living room rug, rubbing his hands together as if they were cold. Michael was sound asleep in Alex’s spare bedroom, snoring softly.

  “How long is this going to take?” Alex asked for the third time as he continued to pace across the living room. “Having Michael here makes me nervous. I still think that we should have stayed at campaign headquarters. There are over a dozen security guards there and all of them are well-armed. Plus, with all of the robocameras hovering around headquarters, no one would be stupid enough to try anything.”

  “Stop worrying,” Dee answered. “Your objection is noted. He needs to rest. There is no way he can rest at headquarters. That place is a madhouse. Besides, no one knows that Michael is here.”

  “This is taking forever,” Alex responded. “How much longer?”

  “You know how it works,” she answered. “As soon as two-thirds of Rylyn’s adult population has voted, the remaining third, and everyone else across the Consortium, has three standard hours to key in their votes.”

  “How many have voted so far?” Alex asked.

  “Sixty-two percent,” Dee answered.

  “How far are we ahead now?” Kathryn asked from the kitchen table.

  “Michael has 55 percent of the vote,” she answered. “Clark has 30 percent and, even though they have dropped out of the race, Hunt has 9 percent and Vesperie has 6 percent.”

  “So, it looks like it’s over,” Kathryn stated, turning her attention back to her ice cream. “There’s no way that Clark can catch us now.”

  “Probably not,” Dee answered. “But I learned long ago that you should never take anything for granted, especially an election. Always expect the unexpected. That is what I always say.”

  Just then, someone knocked on the front door, hard. Alex raced across the room and grabbed the laser pistol hanging off of a wooden peg by the front door.

  “Open up in there!” an angry voice shouted from the hallway. “I know that you are in there! Open this door at once!”

  Michael woke up and shouted from the bedroom, “Who is that?”

  “I don’t know,” Alex answered. “But I’m going to teach him some manners. No one pounds on my door like that!”

  “Wait!” Kathryn shouted, bolting for the door. “Don’t shoot! It’s my father!”

  Kathryn pressed the door’s exit pad and took a step back as the door disappeared.

  Kathryn’s father rushed into the room, grabbing her arm.

  “Your mother and I have been going crazy trying to find you!” he shouted. “You have been missing for a week! You should have called! What is the matter with you? Don’t you ever think of anyone but yourself?”

  Kathryn pulled her arm from his grasp and shouted, “Stop that! You’re hurting me!”

  “You should have called!” he repeated. “We were worried sick. You could have been kidnapped, murdered, who knows what.”

  “I am not a child!” Kathryn shouted. “Can’t you see that I am fine? I’ve been working on the campaign. Sleeping at campaign headquarters. Everything is fine! Can’t you see that I am doing something important here?”

  Kathryn’s father grabbed Kathryn by the arm and pulled her toward the door.

  “You are coming home with me right now young lady,” he stated angrily.

  Kathryn yanked her arm free.

  “No!” she shouted. “I’m staying here!”

  Kathryn’s father tried to grab Kathryn’s arm again, but Alex jumped between them.

  “Enough!” Alex shouted. “This is my home, not yours! Calm down. Both of you. Right now!”

  Kathryn’s father pushed past Alex and directed his wrath at Michael who had just entered the living room.

  “And just what have you been up to?” he demanded. “Turning a man’s daughter against him. Keeping her away from her home and her family. Doing who knows what with her! You ought to be ashamed of yourself! She is just a child.”

  “Alright,” Michael stated, trying to calm him down. “Let’s just catch our breath, okay. As you can see, Kathryn is fine.”

  “Maybe, maybe not,” Kathryn’s father stated. “It’s not like her to just get up and disappear. I want to know exactly what has been going on here. And I want to know more about your apprentice over there. I ran a complete security scan on all of you and he came up too clean. No infractions. No warnings. Nothing. He’s way too clean. I did some cross-checking and made some inquiries. His file indicates that he attended a Bay Shore High School, majoring in Interstellar Space Exploration, but the headmaster there does not remember him. Seems a little odd, don’t you think, that he can’t remember a young man who supposedly graduated with highest honors just a few years ago and landed a job with a future Interstellar Court Justice. It just does not make any sense.”
r />   “He was home-schooled,” Michael answered without missing a beat. “As you know, home-schooled children must register with their local district school system, even if they don’t attend classes there. The headmaster should have known that Conor was home-schooled. But don’t worry. Once the election results are finalized, I will make certain that he is made aware of his error.”

  “Yes, I’m sure that you will,” Kathryn’s father answered, knowing that the headmaster was going to lose his job. Turning his attention back to Kathryn, who was standing next to Conor, he asked, “What have the two of you been up to?”

  Conor put his arm weakly around Kathryn’s waist and stated, “We’ve just been spending some time together, working on the campaign, Mr. Jordan. I guess we got caught up in the excitement. We didn’t mean to worry you. Honest.”

  “I have been with them all the time,” Kristi added. “The two of them have never been alone, if you know what I mean. I’m sorry, Mr. Jordan. I thought that Kathryn had contacted you. It has been pretty crazy around here. That’s why we are over here, away from campaign headquarters. Michael needs a rest and a chance to work on his acceptance speech. In fact, Kathryn’s been such a help that we have offered her a permanent job, as one of Michael’s assistants. We were just talking about her salary, weren’t we Michael?”

  “Yes,” Michael answered, taking her cue. “I think Kathryn would make a wonderful assistant and, as you know, assistants to Interstellar Court Justices are provided a very nice salary and full government benefits.”

  Mr. Jordan frowned, wondering where all of this was leading. Looking Michael in the eye, he asked, “How much is very nice?”

  “Her starting salary will be 95,000 credits a year, plus free room and board in the Capitol Complex,” Michael answered.

  “That is a lot of credits,” Mr. Jordan stated, obviously impressed. “Especially for such a young girl. In fact, that is almost as much as I make.”

  “Really?” Michael responded, faking surprise. “What an amazing coincidence. I just want to impress upon you how much I appreciate how helpful your daughter has been to us, and how much we value her work. She has a very bright future in front of her, and, as you know, I am going to be in a position to open a lot of doors for her during her career.”