Step 1.8

The unexpected surprises in my life were getting old.

I went around to the front of the house, checking the street and surrounding buildings for anything. My stun gun stayed behind my back, one hand gripping the handle while the other covered it. Every car I didn't recognize, every face I didn't know, and every little sound sent jolts through me.

Who is it? Who came for me?

My worst fears stood at the forefront of my mind. Someone found out I was a tinker. Someone bad. Someone who might hurt Dad to get at me.

Dinah's a cape.

Had to be. No way she tracked me through mundane means. Veda deleted all the footage. She never heard my name, let alone where I lived.

Empire?

Reconciling that crying little girl from the mall with the Empire didn't work in my head. Either Dinah could act with the best, or she hadn't been acting.

I got my powers in the locker. Did she get hers in the mall?

"Veda. Are there any networks around my house that weren't there before?"

"No."

I didn't discount anything. Leet hid his network from Veda too until I hardwired a wireless receiver in.

It's only been a few days. Were her parents already members? Isn't her mom the mayor's sister? Shit. Or the Empire grabbed Dinah first and made her find me…and Dad's in the middle of it.

"Should I alert the authorities?"

"I—I don't—" Fuck.

To call the cops or not to call the cops. If someone really came after me, wanted to hurt me or Dad to get to me, what real choice did I have? Against anyone who really wanted me I might as well have a paintball gun. They'd just send more guys than I had shots. And capes…all I had for that was the beam saber, and I didn't like my odds against anyone with a gun.

Calling in the cops would be the only choice.

Then everyone would know.

"I don't know…" They might hurt Dad if I call the cops. "I-I'm going to go in, Veda. If you hear anything, then yes. Call the cops. Tell them it's Ma-Saber Girl and I need help, but only if something happens."

"Understood."

Skipping over the broken step, I cracked the door slowly. A TV blared in the background, and Dad sent me a greeting from the kitchen.

"Dinah's in the living room," he said.

My eyes skipped over her at first to find my dad. To actually see him and know he didn't have a knife to his throat. He stood in the kitchen over the stove. I didn't hear what he said as I closed the door behind me. As soon as I saw him unhurt I turned my attention to Dinah.

I walked up to her with a crooked smile. A bad attempt to appear non-threatening. She wore a familiar yellow sundress, and seemed completely content sitting on the couch sipping cocoa. She didn't look good; pale skin, and bags under her eyes.

I stepped between Dinah and Dad. My stun gun moved in front of me, but Dinah kept sipping her cocoa. I didn't want to shoot her. Dad stood right there in the kitchen, and I didn't know if her power let her master people. Maybe she wasn't even in the room, or had goons somewhere nearby I couldn't see.

"Dinah."

She tilted her head at me, her face turning quizzical and still.

The news report played behind me. I didn't look, but I listened long enough to gather the basics.

"—that they would not allow the United Nations to dictate their internal affairs. The CUI has repeatedly ignored economic sanctions passed to curb their nuclear policy, and—"

It didn't seem related to anything in my house at the moment. Not that China's nuclear program didn't scare me, but unless they launched missiles in the next few minutes, more pressing concerns occupied my interest.

Dinah spoke in a low voice, one Dad couldn't hear over the news. "You're different."

"Different?"

"The you I saw was different."

Well that's not cryptic.

My lips quivered. Fear mixed with anger. "I—"

Dad walked into the room, and my mouth snapped shut. My gun came apart into two pieces, each going into a different pocket. "Did you apologize, Taylor?"

"Y-Yeah."

"It's okay, Mr. Hebert." Dinah looked down at the plates of fish Dad set on the coffee table. "We mixed up where to meet."

My dad nodded. "Appointments are important, Taylor, especially if you want to do something like tutoring."

Tutoring? "Um. Yeah. I know." I spoke quickly, uttering whatever thought came to mind. "I didn't mean to mix it up. The whole thing just came together so fast. I wasn't really ready for it?"

Dad looked between us for a second. Did he believe that? Actually, he might.

Tutoring. That's a good lie.

"I didn't know that interested you. Extra credit?"

I nodded. "Yeah…I need it to make up for some missed projects."

"Those girls who—" He glanced toward Dinah and stopped himself. "Well, your mother would be happy." He looked to Dinah and said, "She was an educator."

"I know."

"Do you need to go home any time soon, Dinah?"

"My mom and dad know where I am. Dad's gonna come get me at nine."

"Well you're welcome to some dinner while you're here."

"Thank you Mr. Hebert."

Dad stood awkwardly for a minute, rubbing the back of his head and glancing around. The kitchen, the front door, the back door, the stairs. He turned a few different ways before finally settling on a direction.

"I'll leave you girls to it."

As soon as Dad reached the top of the stairs the stun gun came back together in my hands.

Dinah set her cocoa down and started eating the fish.

She didn't respond to the weapon pointed her way. I sat after deciding my attempt at being threatening and scary wasn't working. I glanced over my shoulder every few seconds to see if Dad came back. Dinah didn't talk while she ate, and I didn't want to eat.

The news kept playing on the TV. I'd missed the end of the report on the CUI. Instead, the screen showed a table of people talking about Relena Peacecraft.

"She's a college hipster in a fancy suit."

The screen showed a picture of her in the top left corner. A pretty girl with soft features, ice blue eyes, and long dirty-blond hair. Her suit was fancy. One of those old aristocratic style ones with the neat ropes and the big buttons. Crisp, with a sort of white-blue color and gold trim.

The commentator on the other hand was an unpleasant-looking woman. Not ugly. Just unpleasant. She seemed to have this permanent sneer cast on her face.

"I don't know why we entertain her little jaunts around the world. The Sanc Kingdom isn't even a real country."

One of the other commentators started to speak, but she snapped at him and continued her rant.

"It's some little corner of Sweden left over after the Simurgh finished with them. The whole place should be quarantined!"

"She's mean," Dinah said. "She gets fired next month for harassing an intern. Maybe."

I raised a brow. "Maybe?"

"Some things I see don't happen. Like meeting you at school. That didn't happen. You don't go to school anymore." She finished her food and drank some more cocoa. "I can't go to school anymore either. My head starts hurting. It's really hard not to ask questions."

We returned to our silence for a moment. The report continued, some other nasty-looking person ranting at the woman now about how unfair she was being. I tuned whatever that was out.

"How did you find me?"

"I asked."

"Asked who?"

She shrugged. "I asked and I saw."

I frowned. "What do you want?"

She shrugged again. "I asked what was going to happen to me, and I saw you." She raised her head, and I noticed the cup in her hands shaking. "You're there a lot. Sometimes on a street. Or in the room with the snake man. One time you had a scary mask with lots of bugs. Another you didn't have any mask…but you're there. I look at me and I see you. Mostly."

"You came to my house because you see me?" She nodded. "You don't want anything?"

She stared at the floor for a few seconds before saying, "Help."

"Help?" My help?

She nodded. The facade she'd put on since before I arrived collapsed real quick. The calm on her face crumbled into confusion and fear. "I don't know what to do…I see things and—and it's too much. I don't…"

Tension I hadn't even noticed flowed out of my shoulders. My breathing slowed to a more steady pace, and everything seemed to cool down a bit. I'd been so hot. Setting my gun under the table, I sat down on the floor across from Dinah.

Stupid paranoia.

"You could have found some other way to ask." A slight edge remained in my voice. "I thought—I don't know. I thought you wanted to hurt my dad, or me. Or that someone was making you do it."

Dinah apparently never considered that. She swallowed, and did that thing where a guilty kid hangs her head and starts getting real interested in the floor.

"I didn't mean to…"

Deep breath. "I just freaked out for a bit there. Give me a second."

Her power lets her ask and see things?

"So let me get this straight. You can ask a question, and your power shows you...what? The answer?"

"No. Not an answer." She raised her head a little. "Pictures. I can watch them move if I want, but I don't like that."

"That's how you found my house?"

"When you weren't at school I asked where you were. In one picture you were talking to some teenagers. In another you were talking to your computer, or talking to Miss Militia at the PRT buildin—"

"What? Why was I talking to Miss Militia?"

"I don't know. I only see pictures. There's no sound. Are you joining the Wards? Everyone on PHO says you hate Armsmaster."

"I don't hate Armsmaster. He's just kind of a jerk and—No, wait." She saw me talking to my computer. She saw me talking to Veda. "So you came here why?"

"I didn't know which of the other two places you were. I decided to wait here."

She could ask a question, and get a vision, only apparently she also saw things that weren't real.

I knew a lot of thinkers came with weird limits or quirks in their power. Appraiser in the Protectorate gave predictions in color codes. Seeing things that weren't real seemed a bit extreme as a limit though. Almost like Leet's 'one of a kind' requirement.

"I don't know what you want from me Dinah. Help with your power?"

She shook her head. "I don't like the me's I see when you aren't there."

"You said I'm always there."

"I said a lot." Dinah's face paled. "When you aren't…Are you joining the Wards?"

She clearly expected one answer to that question. I felt a little bad saying, "No. I'm not."

"Why?"

"Reasons."

Dinah cocked her head to one side. I didn't understand the weird look she got. Her eyes began twitching, looking left right up and down.

Seizure? "Dinah?" I reached across the table, almost ready to tell Veda to call an ambulance. "What are you—"

Her episode stopped and she sat back up. "Oh. Sorry. She's mean."

"Who's mean?"

"Shadow Stalker. That's who the black girl is, isn't it?"

"You saw that?"

She nodded. "The two of you don't like each other. Usually." She gawked slightly. "Except for the pictures where you kiss."

Kis—

Were I more juvenile I'd have asked my power for the formula to brain bleach. Make out sessions with Sophia weren't an image I wanted to remember. My power gave me something anyway, but building a brainwashing machine felt like a one way ticket to the Birdcage.

No way I ever k—do anything like that with Sophia.

"You don't like the heroes?"

"I-I'm just disappointed. It's not for me."

Dinah nodded. "Okay then."

I'm getting tired of awkward silences.

"I don't know what you want from me, Dinah."

She hesitated, staring ahead at the wall silently. Then, "I don't want the bad pictures."

Dad stayed upstairs, but I didn't know how long that would last. I got up and retrieved some of my books. How long since I'd last studied? A while, I figured. Told myself I'd get my GED as soon as possible, and then I got all caught up in tinkering and being a hero.

I hadn't cracked a book open in weeks.

For her part, Dinah seemed eager to have something to focus on. I questioned if every day of the rest of my life would be so chaotic. In the span of a half hour, I went from panicked planning to save my father from kidnappers to teaching a twelve year old algebra.

"I don't really need tutoring," she said.

"Yeah but we told my dad that's why you're here. Gotta sell it now."

"I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's alright."

"If you're not joining the Wards, what are you going to do?"

"I'm still going to be a hero. Just on my own."

It's easy to forget how to do things when you don't do them for weeks. I got stuck on one of the practice problems, my pencil tapping against the page as I tried to remember how to calculate polynomials.

"You're never on your own," she said.

My pencil paused. "What?"

"You're never on your own. There's others. People in masks. Boys and girls. Different ones. Lots of them."

"You saw—" I sat up straight. "Who?"

"I don't know. Some of them probably won't happen. Lots of stuff I see doesn't happen. Like the Wards. I've seen you with them."

Why would I be with the Wards?

"You talk to Armsmaster and Kid Win a lot," she said.

"Talkin—Wait. Do you see their faces, Dinah?"

"No."

Yes.

"You can."

She bowed her head and shrugged. Taking up her pencil, she continued the problem in front of her.

Just like Veda.

"Don't tell anyone, Dinah. If villains find out you can see their faces easily, they'll come after you. Understand?"

"But they're not always the same."

"What?"

"Sometimes they're different."

"How did you find that out?"

"I asked 'who is the snake man.' Usually he's a guy. Really skinny with dark hair. One time he was a girl, though. A tall one with blond hair and green eyes."

How? "I'd still keep it to yourself. Just in case."

"I will. Rory told me about the unwritten rules once."

"Rory?"

She got flustered for a moment, like she said something she wasn't supposed to. "My cousin. He likes capes."

"I've never heard of unwritten rules."

"No going after secret identities. No killing. No rape. That kind of thing. The unwritten rules."

It made sense with startling speed. How many times did a cape actually die in a fight? Unless it involved the Nine, or Hookwolf, I'd never really heard of it happening. Maybe Lung?

No examples came to mind.

I never thought about it before, but yes. It made complete sense. Why didn't villains or heroes unmask each other? I had Veda sure, but anyone with enough dedication could figure out who their arch-rival was.

"So the snake man is either a skinny guy or a tall girl?"

"The girl is nicer. Still mean, but she smiles and laughs. The guy is creepy…he hurts me sometimes."

I'd have frowned, but my brain was back to working out the issue of Dinah's power. Showing her contradicting things didn't make sense. Why do that? Maybe she ended up with a short straw like Leet, but I never heard of any cape with a limit like Leet's. Either Dinah was that unlucky, or…

If I actually got into the Wards maybe I'd talk with Armsmaster and Kid Win a lot, but I'd never…

Except it wasn't that farfetched. What were the odds that Sophia would be there, and recognizable to me? If she'd been in costume I would have never known. Probably. Five minutes before. Five minutes later. If I never saw her there and realized who she was that night, I might have stayed. Kept talking about the Wards and told Dad so I could join.

That's not what happened, but if it did I might build that armor.

Possible but not what happene—Possible?

I got up and went to the kitchen. Our change jar always ran low, but we usually had a quarter or two around. I picked three out of the jar and returned. "I want to test something."

Dinah set her pencil down and watched the coins. I raised a book and flipped them one by one. Each clacked against the table and rolled against the page before stopping. Two heads and a tails.

"Ask how many are heads and how many are tails."

Dinah's head tilted, and her eyes rapidly moved for a second before she frowned. "All of them?"

"What do you mean, all of them?"

"I mean…I see all of them. Heads. Tails. All of them."

I need more than that.

"I'm going to go up to my room in five minutes. What am I going to do?"

She asked. "I don't know. You don't go upstairs sometimes. You stay here. Other times you go talk to your computer, or your dad."

It can't be that simple.

I couldn't think of a way to prove it. Not anytime soon. Time and testing might provide the answer one way or the other, but that didn't help Dinah or me at the time.

Is it random or…

"What if I were to go over to the Rig and tell Armsmaster I'm sorry for storming off on him?"

"He yells at you."

"That's it?"

She seemed as surprised as me. "That's the only picture I see…That's never happened before."

"What if I go upstairs and tell my dad I'm a cape?"

"Um." She used her power, and I waited while she looked. "A few things. Usually with yelling. In one he looks really scared and doesn't say anything."

Only one result of going to Armsmaster, but several for telling Dad the truth.

I thought about it and nodded. I didn't really see myself going and talking to Armsmaster like that. Possible, but so far-fetched. Dad on the other hand? I debated telling him the truth all the time, in myriad ways.

"Dinah. What do you think your power does?"

"Shows me things?"

"No I mean, why does it show you things."

"I don't know. Because it's a lame power?"

"No…I don't think it's a lame power, Dinah. What you're seeing…What happens if I finish my armor and take it out on patrol in four weeks? Tell me as many images as you can see."

"Armor?"

"Yeah, armor. Like Armsmaster has. With a shield and my beam saber."

She asked and described fifteen different pictures. She saw more, but only caught some of them. Too many to remember all of them, she said. In some, nothing happened. I patrolled and didn't find anything. In one I fought Skidmark. In another I fought Hookwolf. Three different times. In two I died, and in the first I lived.

"What happens if I finish my armor and take it out on patrol in four weeks with the GN blade?" I drew a picture of it for her.

Nine pictures, and she saw them much faster than the first time.

"It's easier to see pictures I've already seen again," she said. "Some of them didn't change much."

Of those nine, only two with Hookwolf, and in both I managed to live. In one I even captured Hookwolf after severing his limbs with the blade and striking him hard in the chest.

Dinah winced after she finished speaking, her hands rising to her head and rubbing her temples.

"Dinah."

"Headache."

"Does that happen a lot?"

"When I ask too many questions. Or when I try to watch a picture move."

I nodded. Thinking over what I'd heard and seen, it made sense. How many pictures did she see? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? Dinah saw everything. All possibilities. Everything that could happen.

The human brain, even with powers, couldn't process all of that easily. That's why everyone called mind reading impossible.

Too much information.

"Your power is strong, Dinah." She raised her head to meet my eyes. "Difficult, but strong."

On the surface it might seem useless with all the false positives. No way to know which pictures were more or less likely, or even which ones simply weren't possible in the possibility where Dinah possessed her power. Someone with time could sort them though. Figure out commonalities.

Veda could do that.

If Dinah helped me, I could actually make plans that worked. I'd know everything that can happen.

I felt bad for thinking that. Dinah came here because she was confused, and because for whatever reason I showed up a lot in her life. What did that mean? Fate or destiny? I never thought of those things before. I started to now though. She noticed me enough to pick me out of however many pictures she saw for herself.

I can't use her like that.

Taking a deep breath, I mulled over my words. "I think you should join the Wards, Dinah. They can help you more than me."

It wouldn't be fair to steer her off just because of my personal issues. Whatever my grudges were, they were mine, not hers.

"No."

"No?"

She shook her head. "Joining the Wards…bad things happen. Usually. The snake man gets me. Or everything just goes black. Can I be with you? Your team is nicer…I smile in those ones more than the others."

"Dinah. I don't—"

The doorbell saved me from all the ways I didn't know how to respond to that. Dad came downstairs and greeted a tall man with broad shoulders. He wore a nice suit in navy blue. My dad looked like a complete opposite in a plain oxford and jeans.

They shook hands and my dad introduced himself.

"Danny Hebert. Taylor's my daughter."

"Jim Alcott." He smiled and stepped inside. "I was a little worried when Dinah said her tutor lived in the Docks, but this neighborhood isn't nearly as bad as I expected. Oh no offense. Sorry I—"

"It's fine." Dad smiled and shrugged. "I know what it's like. The Docks aren't what they used to be."

"True enough." He smiled and embraced Dinah as she approached him. "Did you learn anything, Sprout?"

"Yes." Dinah managed a smile, but I saw it was just a forced mask.

She's miserable.

Of course she was. It hadn't even occurred to me until that moment that she saw me d—She sees herself die. She sees herself miserable. My hands balled at my sides, nails digging into the palms.

"And you must be Taylor."

I rose slowly, introducing myself to her father. He looked me over in the way a father looks at an older girl associating with a younger one.

"And what did you teach my daughter today?" He said it in an assessing but warm tone.

"We just did some algebra," I said.

Mr. Alcott nodded. "Dinah's always struggled with math. Takes a lot of focus."

"Um. Yes."

"Are you good at math?"

"I was." I flinched. That probably wasn't the answer he wanted. "I—Some things happened that hurt my ability to get my work done. Personal things. I'm trying to get my grades back up."

And now I'm lying to Dinah's dad. Wonderful.

"We should trade numbers." I glanced down at Dinah. "It's easier to talk that way. Usually."

When they left I stood in the doorway to my house in a daze. Dinah saw me die. She saw bad things happen to her. Her power showed her images of I didn't even know what, and I just used it without thinking. My tinker fugue scared me, but it beat watching endless streams of images that included my own suffering.

"You okay, Kiddo?"

"Y-Yeah."

I stepped inside and closed the door. "Sorry about that, Dad."

"She said the two of you met at the mall."

I froze, looking him in the eye and dreading that Dinah told him the truth. I didn't see why she'd do that, but the fear remained.

"She said you helped her find her mom."

"Um. Yeah. I did."

"Is that how you got hurt?"

"N-No Dad."

"It's okay if you did."

"I didn't!"

Why is he grilling me on this?

"We can talk about it."

"I'm fine, Dad. I don't want to talk about it. Why are you pushing this?"

I followed him into the living room. He picked up the dirty plates from the coffee table, momentarily glancing over the books. Once he moved away I gathered them, wondering why he wasn't saying anything.

"Dad?"

"Sorry Taylor…We just don't talk that much. I was hoping to change that after everything but I'm still…"

My heart sank a little. How much did I talk to him? Not much. I spent all my time advancing my plans. Talking to Veda. Working on this and that.

It's not that I wanted to ignore him, but I lost track of where he fit in my life.

Everything else always seemed so pressing. And to be fair, it's not like he put much effort in. Even after pulling himself back together in the weeks after the locker, we still seemed to be drifting through our lives.

And apparently I'm still bitter. This day has been too long.

I didn't want to leave things like that.

Say something. Anything.

"I saw Mom's grave today. I mean…I didn't go to it but I passed the cemetery. Kind of an accident."

Dad's smile looked more sad than happy. "I miss her too, Kiddo."

He held out a dish and I took it. We cleaned the plates and dried them together in silence. I didn't know how to talk to him anymore… I don't understand him anymore. All the lies and covering for myself made everything so fake.

What else could I do? If I told him he'd push for the Wards, and I would sooner die than be on a team that called Sophia a hero. Especially now. They might take away Veda, or destroy it. And Dinah? She seemed pretty sure bad things happened to her if she joined the Wards. How to even begin to deal with that…

It hurt. "I'm going to go get ready for bed. It's been a long day."

"Okay Kiddo…"

Upstairs I exhaled and collapsed onto my bed.

"Is everything alright, Taylor?"

"I'm okay Veda…It's just a lot of stuff all at once."

I got to experience triumph for all of an hour before a whole bunch of stuff just spiraled together. Tinker fugue, Dinah, Dad.

"Did anyone get around to Uber and Leet's base?"

"Yes. The PRT arrived with Protectorate Hero Armsmaster to clear the building."

"And the idiots?"

"No report of any arrests."

Take it or leave it.

"I'll drive everything over to the auto-shop in the morning. Unload it. Clean the place up. Then I can take care of everything at the bank."

Sitting up, I retrieved the stack of notebooks under my bed. I'd fleshed out the design over the past few days when I found the time. I'd build it now. It might take a few weeks for some of the components, but I'd build it.

"What of Dinah Alcott?"

Ugh. "I don't know. All she seemed to want…I'm still not sure. I think I've figured out her power, more or less, but what exactly she expected to happen I don't know."

"Will you allow her to join your team?"

"I don't really have a team, Veda. I mean there's you, but we're not much of a team."

"Is her power not useful?"

"It's so useful," I admitted.

Learning to lip read would get around one weakness, and experience could probably teach her to recognize which outcomes weren't possible for her, or maybe refining the questions she asked to narrow down the number of irrelevant pictures she got.

I set my notebooks aside and got ready for bed. I wanted sleep badly enough to just collapse, but Dad might wonder. When I finally laid down, I felt ready to just black out and wake up around noon.

Not that I could, but the thought—

"Taylor. Someone is hacking into my servers."

I shot up instantly and scrambled to the computer. "Who?!"

"Unknown."

Pulling up the feed from Veda's program, I started watching. No one should be at Winslow so late in the day.

The user entered Winslow by brute-forcing the crappy security, and instantly got funneled into the virtual boxes Veda used to hide its presence. Someone might notice something off about that initial switch. Might chalk it up to a networking quirk.

"What are they doing?"

"Accessing files."

And random files at that. Teacher records. Grades. Administrative correspondence. Were they not looking for Veda at all? I didn't buy the coincidence.

"Can you trace—" I stopped myself. "No. If we try to trace them and they find out, they'll know something is up."

"They seem unaware of my presence."

Hope it stays that way.

I waited and watched. Eventually they started making copies. Some disciplinary records, then some of the nurse's files. It seemed random until the hacker copied their first student file. Then another, and another, going down the register alphabetically.

"Student files…Why is someone taking student files?"

"Unkno—Rhetorical question?"

I smiled despite myself. "Yes."

They got to Emma's file before it occurred that mine would inevitably be copied. Were the rest just a screen to get mine, or was I being paranoid again?

Safe is better than sorry.

"Veda, can you remove the pointer to my file?"

"Yes."

"Do it."

The hacker copied Andrew Headden, went straight to Lensie Heckroth, and then on to Sophia Hess. No Hebert. I exhaled softly. No pointer, and as far as the system knew, the file didn't exist. Veda could restore it later.

"This is low-end hacking…using a script."

A good script, but a script. Everything executed too smoothly and methodically to be a person. I debated the risk, and then nodded to myself.

"Veda, trace the connection."

"Tracing. Connection originates from a VPN server in Portland, Oregon."

"Can you get past the VPN?"

"Hacking VPN server necessary."

Why is someone taking the student files? Me?

And if they wanted me, wouldn't they stop after not finding my file?

The last few times I assumed someone was coming after me I ended up being wrong each time. I didn't see any way for anyone to trace my cape activities to Taylor Hebert. Veda deleted the footage at the mall. Captain's Hill was far away from anywhere I frequented, and they obviously weren't looking for Veda.

Without Veda the whole hack might go unnoticed.

Cut the connection?

I ruled that out. It would give Veda away, and whoever it was would just try again from another VPN and be more prepared.

Keep tracing. Figure out what they want.

"Do it."

"Accessing."

"Only the hacker, Veda. We're not gonna go spying on everyone else's business, whatever it is." Lines need to be drawn.

"Accessed. Tracing."

The mystery hacker took the last student file, and then copied a few records from Blackwell's computer before leaving Winslow entirely.

"Did you get it Veda?"

"IP address routes to Boston."

"Another VPN?"

"Yes." Veda gave me the address. I didn't send Veda after that server. There could be dozens of VPNs being used by a good script. We'd broken into the first one, and that meant we at least could track what the script was doing. "The same address is now accessing records at Prince and Fourteenth Street."

"Prince and Fourteenth? That's Clarendon." I tapped my keyboard and told Veda to follow them into Clarendon's computers. I quickly coded a masking script, one that could hide Veda's presence from the other intruder. "Same thing as at Winslow?"

"Yes. They are copying administrative records, disciplinary files, and student records."

What is this?

"Is there anyone important at Winslow or Clarendon? Someone famous?"

No. All the famous kids in Brockton Bay either went to Arcadia or Immaculata. Clarendon and Winslow were bottom of the barrel institutions, the latter more than the former. After the hacker finished in Clarendon they went after Immaculata as well. Veda and I watched as they left that system and moved on to some of the middle schools in the area.

"Why not Arcadia? They skipped it. The High School and the Middle School."

The Wards.

"They don't want to take files pertaining to the Wards so bad they avoided Arcadia entirely. Or higher security maybe."

"Sophia Hess attends Winslow," Veda said.

"Yeah but people don't know she's Shadow Stalker. Most people just assume the Wards all go to Arcadia. The New Wave kids too. So they're either avoiding them, or avoiding the security around them. Either way, they don't want to be noticed so someone's up to something."

After the middle schools the hacker moved on to elementary, and after they finished, cut their connection. I sat and stared at the screen.

A sigh escaped my lips.

"This is my life now."