“You know what.”
“Yeah,” Bubbles said, and then she frowned, utterly lost. “What?”
I took a deep and cleansing breath and prepared myself to patiently explain to them that phrases likedo not engagewere specifically invented with little brothers in mind.
CHAPTER 16
Code Word: Flirt
My reward for making it through the rest of lunch and Mr. Corkin’s class without making any kind of scene (or being sent to the office) was my sixth period: computer science, also known as free time on the net. The administration at Bayport High was somehow completely unaware of the fact that all of the students were members of the computer generation. I’d hacked into the Pentagon at the age of thirteen, and though my classmates were significantly less skilled in that department, they were connoisseurs of MySpace and Facebook, so a lot of what this class professed to teach us, all of us already knew. Our first few weeks had been devoted to Microsoft Office. Now, we’d moved on to the ins and outs of designing websites.
Really, they shouldn’t have even called the class “computer science,” because “how to use a computer” would have been a much more appropriate title. Not that I was complaining. I’dfinished my website the first day and had been able to spend the past week surfing the net and accessing the high school’s most guarded databases.
Leaning back in my chair, I swiveled side to side, debating how best to spend my free time today. What I really wanted to do was dig up more information on the TCIs, or hack into the Big Guys’ mainframe to see if there was anything they weren’t telling us about yesterday’s explosion, but I knew better than to give in to temptation on that front. I was good, but I was also smart enough to know that using a public computer to do that kind of thing wasn’t the best idea. High school computer labs aren’t exactly the most secure places for any kind of data transfer. This is especially the case when the heir apparent of the Law Firm of Doom is sitting at the computer next to you.
I glanced at Jack’s monitor, wondering what he was working on, and his website assignment stared back at me. Between the moving graphics and the handmade font, it was definitely a step up from what most of our class was making. In fact, given that he’d actually put some effort into it, there was a distinct chance that it was better than mine.
And—be still, my heart—the site appeared to be dedicated to classic rock, proving once and for all that Jack was not afflicted by musical tastes capable of causing me massive amounts of psychic pain.
JACKOFDIAMONDS:
Like what you see?
The message popped up on my computer screen. I looked from the screen to Jack. He kept his eyes locked on his ownmonitor, but even from a limited side view, I could tell that he was biting back one of those smirky smiles.
How in the world had Jack Peyton gotten my IM name? Besides the rest of the Squad (all of whom had obtained it from the file the Big Guys had developed on me before I’d joined up), no one at school knew my IM name. I could count on one hand the number of people I’d given it toever,and none of them were Jack.
JACKOFDIAMONDS:
Speechless, Ev?
