Part 8 (1/2)

'Well, I do,' said Bob.

The Doctor showed no interest at all in this. He knelt next to the coffee table, peering at the Eridani's plastic toy. He turned it over in his hands, examining the configuration of the coloured rings. He tried moving them; they slid over each other, forming new patterns. He took odd-looking tools from the pockets of his suit and poked and prodded the device.

None of us had the slightest idea of what he was doing.

I followed Bob outside to the bridging box the grey-green box squatting on the corner of the street. 'I'm kind of hoping we find something in here,' he said. 'I don't wanna have to climb the pole.' I hoped so too. I could already see a couple of Bob's neighbours peering out of their windows at us.

The box turned out to be unlocked. Bob put down his crowbar and used his socket wrench to persuade the door to open for him. A moment later we were peering at a panel of wires and terminals that routed phone calls to every house in the street.

Bob unlatched the panel and let it fall forwards. Tucked behind it was a linesman's test set: a phone receiver that could be attached to any line by wires and clips. 'They often hide them here; he said. 'Since n.o.body's using this one, I'll just borrow it for now.'

He put the panel back in place, and ran a finger over the terminals until he found his own line. 'Oh, c.r.a.p,' he said.

'There we go' The wire pair for Bob's house was marked with thick red crayon. I'm no electrician, but even I could see there were a couple of wires attached to it that didn't appear anywhere else on the panel.

'That's not the same as the tap Mondy used,' I told Bob.

'He had a six-inch chunk of metal he said was stolen from the FBI.' And yet it was clumsy and obvious. If this was Mondy's work, he was trying to warn us that we were being watched.

Bob muttered something about skinning cats. He disconnected the offending wires from his home phone, and attached them to one of the other wire pairs in the box, apparently at random.

Back inside, Bob reported his find. Peri said, 'We can't stay here, can we? Somebody knows we're here.'

Bob sat cross-legged on the sofa, still clutching the crowbar, with one hand pressed to his fair hair. 'She knows.

She must have tracked us down.'

I said,'How do you know it wasn't Ma Bell who tapped your phone? Or the police?' But no-one took any notice of me.

'But how?' said Peri.

Bob poked the crowbar at me. 'You talked to her.'

'That was before I tracked you down,' I reminded him.

'I'm not about to inform on you to anyone. I'm here to cover the story; not to make it.'

'I'm sure Miss Swan has many ways of garnering information,' said the Doctor. 'Whoever placed that tap, Peri is right. Pack your things, Bob.

That night we drove to Baltimore, arriving close to midnight.

We crowded into the single available room at the motel, the staff lugging a spare bed into the room for me. I unfolded it and sat down. There were two singles and a double bed. Bob spread his bags all over the double bed, marking it as his territory.

Peri lay down on hers without taking off her clothes. I don't think it was modesty; we were all terribly fatigued.

I'd peeked in the trunk of Bob's car. He didn't just have his bags of computer equipment; there were a collection of neatly labelled plastic boxes which looked as though they always lived in the trunk. Computer parts, or tools, I a.s.sumed.

He shook his head. 'In case of nukes,' he said. 'Computers will be worthless after a nuclear strike. It's water and freeze-dried food and stuff.'

'Stuff?'

'Oh, you know. Torch and candles. My tent. Some pots and pans. A camp stove. First aid kit. Tool kit. A chemical toilet. Things like that.' Bob went on munching, unaware that we were all staring at him.

I was reminded of Mondy's stash: he'd once confided to me that he kept a pack of supplies in a disused building somewhere near his mom's house, phone equipment, running shoes and more kosher snax. He had memorised a map of his neighbourhood. If he ever heard the heat en route on his police scanner, he could vanish for days.

Mondy. Swan had got to him. He knew most of what was going on in the hacker and phreak communities at any given time: he was the obvious person to contact and ha.s.sle for details. And she had plenty of leverage over him.

Maybe it was the only way Mondy could think of to warn me. He might even have called the cops and told them someone had been fooling with the bridging box in Bob's street meaning himself.

I just wanted to believe the guy was still on my side.

Bob, as usual, had no trouble dropping off. The Doctor didn't seem as though he was planning to sleep; he sat cross-legged on top of his covers, apparently meditating. I closed my eyes, but didn't fall asleep just yet.

Peri tossed and turned. Understandably, she didn't seem too comfortable sharing a small room with three men. Finally, she whispered, 'Bob's really enjoying this, isn't he?'

The Doctor opened his eyes. 'Even as a young man he relished the thought of an emergency to deal with,' he said.

'As a child he probably played at being Robinson Crusoe.'

'This isn't a game,' said Peri. 'I've had about as much of this as I can take.'

'An entire world's safety may depend on our actions over the next few days. You're part of that work, Peri, and not for the first time.'

'This isn't an adventure,' she retorted. 'This is more like a nightmare. Like a screwed up version of normal life. I can't do this much longer. I mean, here we are back home this is my big chance just to go back to living a normal life.'

'Peri, said the Doctor softly 'you're thinking of leaving?'

'Yes: she said quietly.

He hesitated. 'You're tired,' he said. 'We're all a little fatigued.' Bob indicated his agreement with a wall-shaking snore. 'Let's talk again in the morning.'

Peri said, 'OK.' But from where I was lying, it sounded as though her mind was already made up.

We had driven past Swan without even realising. In her navy coat, she would have been an anonymous, dark figure walking in the snow. I don't think any of us even noticed her.

Swan watched us go. She waited until the police were finished cruising up and down Bob's street, looking for whoever had been tampering with the bridging box. She waited a little longer in case the telephone company sent someone to check things out. Then she walked up to Bob's front door and let herself in with the key Mondy had provided.

Inside, she snapped on the lights. She had brought a flashlight just in case, but it would look far more suspicious to the neighbours than a few lights around the house. Inside her mittens she was wearing black cotton gloves. Despite the burglar gear, she wasn't here to steal anything. Unless you count privacy as something that can be stolen.