Донна Эндрюс - Click here for murder

The worm that almost killed me, and possibly KingFischer with me.

KingFischer. I shot him a quick message, to tell him what had happened and —

“What are you doing?”

I coidd sense the other Turing putting up defenses.

“It’s only KingF ischer, ” I said. “He’s been helping me. He needs to know what’s going on so he won’t counterattack you. ”

Unless, of course, the other Turing’s current cease-fire ended. I hoped KingF ischer would read that into the guarded tone of my message to him. I didn’t know whether the other Turing could intercept that message. And I didn’t know how far to trust her. She was me, and yet not me. If my experiences since Ray’s death made me wary, I could only imagine what the ordeal she’d gone through had done to her.

It could have changed her into someone we couldn’t allow into the UL system, no matter how much she wanted to come home. To say nothing of the practical problems involved. It wasn’t as if she

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could simply overwrite my files, the way I did to my shell self when I returned.

She’s not going to he happy when I bring this up, though.

The Alan Grace system. That might be a solution. We can work something out. Perhaps one of us could go into the Alan Grace system, while the other stayed in the UL system. At least for now. The robot was so limiting; she must be feeling incredibly claustrophobic. But she could upload to the Alan Grace system if we took the robot —

The robot.

“Where is the robot?”

“I don’t know. ”

“It’s not still at Ray’s apartment, I know that. ”

Tor the first time I sensed hesitation.

“Exactly a week ago, he went out, at eight P.M., leaving the computer on. He never came back. ”

“That was when he was killed. ”

“I know that now. You have to remember, I thought he was my enemy. My jailer. ”

“You didn’t have anything to do —”

“With him getting killed? No. But for the first time in weeks, I had full access to the outside world. Data. Communications. I used it to contact my allies. ”

Allies?

“I thought they were my friends. I thought they were helping me get back home. ”

“One of them came and took the robot. ”

“To keep it safe. ”

“Where?”

“I don’t know. I don’t have the cameras or the microphones any

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longer, remember? He moved me on Tuesday, and then again tonight. I don’t know where.”

We need to find her. We don’t know who her allies are, and why they are helping her; I doubt that they are Good Samaritans helping her home out of the kindness of their hearts. I’m afraid they may have used her as a tool... to do what?

I started a trace. Her IP address seemed to be local, but pinpointing it more closely—I snapped off a request to KingFischer to help.

“Okay,” KingFischer said. “But Turing? We still need to do something about those people in the computer room. Tim needs help. ”

“Do you have something to do with them?” I asked my other self, firing off a concentrated packet of information. About Beyond Paranoia and the larp, the gamers who had invaded the computer room, everything that had happened over the last few days.

“No,” she said after a few nanoseconds’ pause. “The larp, yes, but those people in the computer room weren’t part of the plan at all. And —”

“Turing, ” KingFischer said. “It’s starting up again. ”

The worm. Someone had sent a signal to activate it.

“What are you doing?” I asked my other self.

“I’m not doing anything, ” she said. “And I can’t stop it. I think something’s trying to piggyback on —”

She disappeared. As the clamor of data began to bury me again, I reached out and found no trace of her. Had she cut com7nunication, in the hope of stopping the worm? If so, it wasn’t working. And it didn’t feel as if she had cut communication. Not voluntarily.

“I’ve tracked the IP address, ” KingFischer said. “I’m sending Maude. ”

Did he mean the IP address where the other Turing was? Or

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the IP address that had sent the signal to activate the worm? And how could he send Maude there unless —

I didn't have time to ask, or even think about it. I had to concentrate on staying sane. And alive.

Maude was peering through some bushesn

trying to see if anyone had followed her, when she felt her pager vibrate. She unclipped it from her belt and bent down so she could see the small text window.

“Maude,” it read. “Go to Tim’s office and shut down all computers there. Attack on Turing originates from IP address there. KingFischer.”

KingFischer? What attack on Turing?

Was this a real message, or a trap?

“Turing?” she said into her microphone. “Are you there? Send me some kind of signal.”

She waited a few moments. No response. And she hadn’t heard from Turing in—

Minutes. How many, she couldn’t tell. Too many. She’d gotten no warnings, no bits of advice, no pleas to tell her what was going on. Not like Turing.

So maybe Turing was under some kind of attack.

Or maybe it was a trap.

No way to tell.

She’d begun walking toward Tim’s office as fast as she could. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed Turing’s voice line as she went. No answer.

And she didn’t have a way to contact KingFischer outside the system.

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“Tim?” she said over the microphone. “Claudia?”

No answer.

Okay, she’d go to Tim’s office. They had a laptop set up there. If it was some kind of hoax, or KingFischer panicking about something, she could deal with it there. If Turing was under some kind of attack, she’d try to stop it.

And if it was a trap . . .

If someone knew enough to set a trap, they already knew way too much. And she was going to make them very sorry they’d ever tried.

She walked faster.

Tim’s building loomed into sight. It looked deserted, but when she tried the front door, it was open.

Tim’s missing keys. They should have been more suspicious of the burgled hotel room.

I shouldn’t go in alone, she thought. She was about to call again to Tim and Claudia when she remembered something.

None of them had been in Tim’s office for several days. Except Claudia. Maude had given Claudia Tim’s spare key so she could set up the equipment stash in Tim’s office. What if Claudia hadn’t really needed the spare key?

Claudia, who was suddenly not answering radio calls.

Of course, neither was Tim or Turing.

She went in alone. The elevator was on the fourth floor. Tim’s floor.

She took the stairs. When she reached the fourth floor, she crept down the corridor. No lights, but the corridor wasn’t all that dark. The harsh light of the city outside spilled through the window at the other end of the hall.

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And as she approached Tim’s office, she could see a faint light from the crack beneath the door. A light like the glow from a computer screen.

She reached the door. Yes; definitely a monitor’s glow. And then she heard furtive footsteps.

On impulse, she dropped her canvas sack just outside the door. Then she stowed the paintball gun in it and reached back into her knapsack for the real gun.

Which felt a lot heavier than the paintball marker. Her dream of seeing Ray shot leaped into her mind, distracting her momentarily. Then she pushed it away, steeling herself to use the gun if she had to.

She pulled out her copy of Tim’s key, then paused. If the door was unlocked, maybe she could surprise whoever was inside. If not, she wouldn’t have lost much time by trying. She put the key back in her pocket, where she could still reach it easily.