Part 9 (1/2)

'No,' she said, 'I meant, could you drive to the airport?

I'm kind of out of practice.'

'Oh. Sure.'

We wove over slushy roads through morning traffic. 'Seems like the boys are leaving you out,' I commented, watching Peri out of the corner of my eye. She had put the pa.s.senger seat back a little and stretched her legs out. 'Forgetting about you while they play with their computers.'

'Oh, this is pretty standard,' said Peri, bitterly 'The Doctor always knows more than I do about everything. He's a lot older than I am. He's travelled a lot more. He's even finished college. You should hear him lecture me on how there's so much I could learn from him! Could learn, if he ever bothered to tell me anything!'

'Seems like being the Doctor's sidekick is hard work,' I said.

'It sure is, sometimes. Sometimes it's great. You get to see things n.o.body else has ever seen.'

Peri seemed happy to have someone to talk to though from time to time I noticed her catching herself before giving too much away. She didn't let it turn into a one-way interview: she wanted to know all about my American dad, why I'd decided to come back to the States when I grew up. 'I've had some bad fights with my stepdad,' she admitted. 'But we still talk. We're still friends. I guess I'm lucky'

At the airport we tried to call the motel, just to check on the Doctor and Bob, but the phone line was busy. 'Figures,'

said Peri.

'Guess I should call my dad anyway' I said. 'Wish him merry Christmas and that.'

Peri looked stricken. 'It must be tough being away from your folks like this.'

'No... no, actually, it's OK. They won't be worrying about me. You go ahead and make that call.'

'See you at the newsagent in a few minutes.'

As soon as Peri was out of earshot, I called Mondy's beeper. It never failed: a few minutes later, he called the other end of the looparound pair we always used.

No sense in wasting time. 'Did you talk to Swan?'

'Ah, shoot,' said Mondy. 'like I had a big fat choice.'

'You little b.u.g.g.e.r,' I hissed.

'You know what she did?'

'I shudder to think.'

'She put everything back the way it was, Chick. My credit rating. My record. My phones, mazel tov phones, mazel tov. I have my life back.

Wasn't that worth a teensy weensy bit of data?'

'Yeah, well, you chucked me in the deep end, mate.'

'Look, Swan doesn't have enough info to get Rob into real trouble. Trust me. She's just trying to get you guys to panic, to make a mistake.'

'I don't think it's gonna happen. The Doctor's really careful.'

'So are you, man. Stay careful. Listen, you know you can't tell me anything now.'

'You bet I know!'

'I can't give away something I don't know. But she can still find things out, things you wouldn't believe.' We both knew what he meant. 'Try and stay out of it, Chick. Really don't get involved.'

It was already the middle of the night in Melbourne. If I had actually called my Dad, he would have slammed the phone down before I could contaminate it.

The Doctor and Bob were having a whale of a time The Doctor set up his Apple II in the motel room, plugging the modem into the phone socket. They had a list of email addresses, people Swan had mentioned the Eridani device to.

Judging by the content of the messages, they were fellow collectors, people she was hoping to swap goodies or bits of information with to increase her collection of legal and illegal technology. (What I had seen at her house was only a fraction of that collection.) So while we were at the airport, the two of them were merrily breaking into email accounts all over the country, reading more and more messages as they put together the same information Swan had. And, quite probably, in the same way she had. Unlike her, of course, the Doctor and Bob were prompted by the purest of motives.