She reached Jessie’s room and opened the door. Something big and green shot through the air at her. She ducked, barely able to keep from screaming.
Thump!
The big green glob bounced off the wall and kept flying. She retreated into the hall and watched the cicada going crazy. Stupid Jess had left her window open and the bug had flown inside. She watched it zigging and zagging around the room. It wasn’t one cicada but two, one on top of the other as if they were glued together.
Yuck, thought Grace, they’re doing it.
She hurried across the room and opened a second window and ran around waving her arms. Finally the mating cicadas flew outside. She closed the windows and ran downstairs. She was too creeped out to stay upstairs.
In the kitchen she poured herself a glass of milk and took two Oreos out of the bag. She sat at Mom’s alcove and went on the computer. As always, she checked her e-mails first. She had four new messages. Her eye caught the third one down. “Cutest Sloth in the World! Watch this!”
Grace opened the message. The text read, “Watch this and die laughing. He is sooooo adorable!” A hyperlink was printed below it.
Grace positioned the cursor over the hyperlink but didn’t click right away. Jess was always warning her and Mom about getting dangerous stuff in their e-mails. Never open an attachment, she told them, if you don’t know who sent it to you. Something inside it could mess up your computer.
But a video about sloths? They watched tons of videos on YouTube about sloths.
Grace double-clicked on the hyperlink and was taken to the video. She watched, giggling as a baby sloth did its best to crawl out of a child’s crib, gripping the slick wooden slats, climbing up a little, then sliding back down to the mattress and lolling on its back. The camera zoomed in as the sloth yawned, and Grace burst out laughing. A teenage girl reached into the crib, picked up the sloth, and cradled it to her chest. The sloth laid its head on her shoulder, eyes staring at the camera, wet nose sniffing contentedly.
Grace thought about Fluffy, her hamster. He’d been a climber, too, though he didn’t yawn. Still, her heart ached for him. Jessie said Fluffy was only a furry rodent and he didn’t have a personality, but Grace had loved him all the same.
She watched the video again and then once more after that. She decided she wanted a sloth. A three-toed South American tree sloth.
Before logging off, she forwarded the video to Jessie. Smiling, she went upstairs and crawled into bed.
Even Jessie would love the sloth.
If she ever got home…
67
“Do you know him?” Jessie asked.
“Rudeboy”? Linus scratched his beard. “Why should I?”
“I mean, do you at least know who he is? Like his name?”
“He’s Rudeboy. That’s all. No one knows his name. I imagine his parents do, and his close friends, but to us…no clue. That’s how he’s able to do what he does. You know, making service attacks on Amazon, shutting down the navy’s mainframe for two hours, wiping half the hard drives of the biggest oil company in Saudi Arabia.”
“Then how do you know he’s at DEF CON?”
“He’s won Capture the Flag seven years running. He has to defend his title. Of course he’s there.”
Jessie pulled up the DEF CON website. It showed a skull-and-crossbones pennant and gave the place and dates. “Crap,” she said. “It ends tomorrow.” She looked at Linus. “When do they play?”
“Play what?” asked Garrett.
“The last day,” said Linus. “Capture the Flag begins at eight in the morning. They want to make sure everyone’s still hungover.”
“How long does it take?”
“As long as it takes. Eight hours. Ten. Depends on who has the strongest team.”
“But you said that Rudeboy solved the hack in five minutes,” Jessie retorted.
“Yeah, the hardest one, but there’s a bunch more.”
“Why didn’t you go this year?”
“I’m teaching. I can’t just cop out and fly to Vegas.”
Jessie pulled up the website for Bergstrom International Airport and checked the flight schedule. “The last flight to Las Vegas leaves at eleven. It’s already ten-thirty.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” said Linus, waving a concerned hand. “You’re not going to Vegas.”
“Who says?”
“Yeah,” said Garrett. “Your mom isn’t going to let you just go there alone.”
Jessie shot him a venomous look.
“It’s not that,” said Linus. “You’re not signed up for DEF CON. You have to register for the conference, and then you have to qualify to play the game. They don’t let just anyone into the competition. You have to be part of a team.”
“How much is it?” asked Jessie.
“I don’t know,” said Linus. “I think I paid eight hundred bucks last year. But that’s beside the point. Didn’t you hear what I said? You don’t have a team.”
“What about yours?”
“I told you, I’m not playing.”
“Don’t you know anyone who is?”
“Sure. But-”
“Call them. Tell them to let me play with them.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Why not?” Jessie double-clicked on the flight number to bring up all the details. Her heart jumped. “It’s delayed!”
“What’s delayed?” asked Linus.
“The flight.” Jessie realized she was shouting and told herself to get a grip. It was hard to be calm. For a second she believed that it all might just work. She would go to Vegas. She would play on the team with Linus’s friends. She’d help them win it and afterward meet Rudeboy, who would solve the mystery of the unknown code in the drop of a hat and tell her who had hacked into her mother’s phone. Jessie would figure out who had killed her father. “I’ll pay the fee,” she said. “I’ll pay for your ticket. All you have to do is come with me and introduce me to your friends.”
“I can’t go, Jess. I’m sorry.”
Jessie held out her phone. “Call them. Please. I won’t embarrass you.”
“Jess, your mom will kill you,” said Garrett.
“Fine,” said Jessie. “As long as it’s after we win.”
Linus continued to shake his head. “How long is the flight delayed?” Jessie swallowed. He was considering it. Linus was actually considering it. “It doesn’t say.”
“Jess, you’re not serious,” said Garrett.
“Shh.” Jessie called the airline and navigated as quickly as possible through the automated directory. It took two minutes before a human being picked up. “I’m calling about Flight 2998 to Las Vegas. I see it’s delayed.”
“That flight is closed. Boarding is about to begin.”
Jessie turned away from the others, bowing her head. She began to cry. “My father just died. His name is Joseph Grant. He’s in Las Vegas and the police need me to help them answer some questions. They think he was murdered. Please, ma’am. It’s a family emergency. I have to get there. I don’t know what else to do.”
“Hold one moment.”
Jessie lifted her head and stared at Linus, her cheeks dry. “Half of being a good hacker is social engineering, right?”
Linus nodded.
The airline representative returned to the line. “Hello, miss. There are two seats remaining. Will you be traveling alone or with any family members?”
Jessie covered the phone. “If I beat him, he’ll have to meet me.”
“You can’t beat him,” said Linus.
“Why not?”
“No one beats Rudeboy. That’s why. Besides, you don’t even have a hacker name.”
“I do, too.”
“Oh yeah? What?”
“Tuffgurl. Two f’s and two u’s.”