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Book 2 Chapter II - Gadget's Discovery

Chapter 12 - Gadget's Discovery

Gareth stormed into the bank and rushed past O'Hara so quickly he was almost knocked flying.

"Waat de 'ell?" the Sergeant yelped, stumbling and grabbing hold of the nearest table to keep his balance. "Whut's gotten into ye, boy?"

"Sorry, O'Hara, no time to explain!" Gareth shouted over his shoulder as he ran towards the entrance to the base.

The sergeant shook his head in disbelief. "Someone oiught t' do somethin' aboyt dat young cub. 'E, o' all people, shud know th' rules aginst runnin' in th' buildin'."

Lacey sipped her tea as she filled out form after form of paperwork. Jackson had had to contact HQ (the main InGEN headquarters on the planet Crysyr) about David/Lucius. InGEN rules stated that if an alien criminal was sheltered by an InGEN base, the leader of that base must provide an account of why he thought it safe to provide shelter to that person or face legal action. Jackson had been as vague as possible, because, as he'd confided to Lacey, he thought Lucius was quite justified in his actions and the father had been the real criminal.

HQ had sent him a Mount Everest of paperwork to fill out and return to them. Jackson had taken one look at the pile and suddenly developed a severe headache that left him incapable of completing them, so Lacey was having to do his job. That, added to the deaths of Dani's parents in a house fire and the mysterious disappearance of Dani herself, was giving her a headache.

The door was opened with such force that it flew back and hit the wall with a resounding crash as Gareth rushed in. Lacey looked up and gave her younger son a death glare that made him freeze in place for a moment. It didn't last.

"I went over to Dani's house and the police told me to go away, but I told them who I was and they allowed me to have a quick look around the garden - they wouldn't let me anywhere near the house itself -"

"Quite right. I'm amazed they let you anywhere near the place in general," she said disapprovingly. "I'll have to have words with the chief of police about that. How can he run an investigation when he lets children run all over the evidence?"

Undaunted, Gareth continued, "Just as they were about to tell me to go home, I saw something in the middle of a flower bed, and when I took a closer look, I saw it was a wrist comm. So I put it in my pocket and brought it back here."

He held out object in question. Lacey forgot all her objections to her son's behaviour as she stared at it.

"That's it, all right. Take it to Gadget; she's in the computer room with David."

~~~~

David almost jumped out of his skin when Gareth charged in. He glared at the boy. "Thank you very much for making me lose my train of thought. What did I just say?" This was directed at Gadget.

"You said that the hacker got access to our system by blocking the system's defense mechanisms," Gadget said almost mechanically, her entire attention focused on what was in Gareth's hand. "Is that...?"

"Edward's wrist comm.? Yes, I went over to Dani's - ummph!"

David had jumped up and crossed the room (which was thirty metres wide) in about five seconds, and was now holding Gareth's mouth shut. "Be quiet, you fool!" he hissed, looking around with an almost frightened air. "They might be able to hear us!"

This was a most alarming thought, and all three looked around the room as if expecting to see people surrounding them and listening to every word they said.