"True," Bal-Simba said. "It is something. I only wish I knew what."
Six: QUEST COMPANION
Good help is so hard to find nowadays.
Craig paused at the foot of the stairs and went over his spiel again. He wanted to get this just right, otherwise Panda would think he was crazy.
For two weeks he had visited Judith every night, even missing two Friday gaming sessions in a row. Slowly and patiently he had worked the story out of her; where she had gone and what she had seen and done.
It was unbelievable. It was fantastic. Except that it made sense. When you put it together with other little things over the last year, it had to be true!
The exultation grew until a lump rose in his throat from sheer joy. There were other worlds where magic worked! It wasn’t all just game scenarios and science fiction. Those places really did exist and you could get there from here! He shivered again at the wonder of it all.
Only-now he needed help.
Out on the street the traffic rushed by unheeded. Craig stared unseeing, while he went over his dilemma one more time.
Somehow he had to find a way to open that door into the other world. He wanted that more desperately than he had ever wanted anything in his life, even, he realized with a guilty start, more than he had wanted his mother to live. But he had to have a Quest Companion, someone to help him push that door open.
Who? He had spent most of the last three days going over possibilities and the list was disappointingly small. When you got right down to it, Craig realized, he didn’t have any close friends except maybe Judith.
The gamers were the only people he actually knew. But he really didn’t like them much and most of them thought he was kind of strange. Besides, they couldn’t help him. The thought of Joe or Howard as Quest Companions on a real quest was silly and the rest didn’t know enough about computers.
There were the others, the ones he met in the shadowy neverland of bulletin boards in his secret identity as Skullslayer, the master hacker. But he knew as little about them as they did about him. It would be embarrassing to confide in someone and then have it turn out to be a pimply faced thirteen-year-old.
There was one whose real identity he did know. A year and a half ago Panda had taken the unusual and dangerous step of contacting him in person. He was such an outtasight hacker that he’d discovered Skullslayer’s identity and found that he used to work as a part-time operator in the University computer center. Not only that, he knew that Craig’s password and login were still active!
The stuff about the virus, that had been an accident. Mikey had explained it all to him the night he showed up at his apartment and wanted help to cover it up. At first he’d been scared that Mikey was going to turn him over to the FBI, but Mikey just sort of mentioned in passing that he knew a lot about Skullslayer and of course if he was picked up he’d have to make a deal to save his own skin. Just this one favor, Mikey had promised, and we’ll be square.
Actually it was a thrill and kind of an honor to be involved in something as big as the Jesse James Virus. So in a matter of ten minutes, from his living room, he had hopelessly muddled the trail that led from the out-of-control computer virus back to Panda.
They’d never met in person again, but they had become good friends over the BBSs. Craig followed Panda’s exploits with admiration and more than a little awe. The guy was not only good, he was, well, daring. A dozen times or more Panda had boldly gone where no hacker had gone before, coming up with phone numbers and access codes to some of the most outrageous systems.
A woman with a bag of groceries in either arm came up the walk from the parking lot. She stepped off the sidewalk to pass well around Craig, eyeing him suspiciously as she did so.
She’s gonna call the cops on me. Well, he couldn’t delay any longer.
The name on the door was "Michael E. Baker," but Craig knew everyone called him Mikey-like in the cereal commercial.
"Panda? It’s me. Skullslayer."
There was a muffled "just a minute" and the sound of a lock turning.
The door opened a crack and a blue eye peered out.
"You alone?"
"Yeah. Just me."
The door closed and then opened wide.
Mikey was shirtless and barefoot. He was several years older than Craig, but Craig was already beginning to bulge and Mikey was lean without being skinny. His blonde hair was cut surfer style and wire-rimmed glasses hid mild blue eyes. While Craig looked like a computer nerd, nothing suggested Mikey Baker was one of the most accomplished hackers in Silicon Valley.
"Come on in." He turned his back on his guest and strode back into the apartment.
"Nice place," Craig said as he closed the door behind him. The living room was furnished in modern chrome-and-leather furniture. Brown leather that complemented the beige carpet and the darker brown drapes. One entire wall was taken up with an elaborate entertainment center, including a big-screen television that was playing soundlessly. It was fairly neat for a hacker pad. No printouts, no posters, no stacks of books and magazines, just the day’s newspaper on the floor by the recliner and a couple of empty beer cans.
Mikey went back into the kitchenette and opened the refrigerator. "Want a beer?"
Craig plopped himself down on the leather-and-chrome sofa. "No thanks." Then he saw what was on television and his jaw dropped.
A luscious brunette was squatting before a man who was hung like a horse. The man’s pants were down around his ankles and the woman was completely naked. The camera closed in tight on the man’s crotch and the woman’s mouth.
"X channel," Mikey said as he came back into the living room with a beer in his hand. "Satellite feed."
"Wow. I thought you couldn’t get those here."
Mike smiled. "They’re up on the satellites if you know where to look."
Craig watched the action on the screen some more. "Wow."
"How’d you find me?"
Craig tore his eyes away from the television.
"The day you-uh-came over to my place. I got your license number." He shrugged. To any true system breaker the rest was obvious.
Mikey grunted. "Pretty cute. So what brings you here?"
Craig tore his eyes away again.
"You know Judith Conally?"
"No."
"Well, I game with her and…"
Mikey grinned. "Is she a good fuck?"
Craig colored. "I never… I mean, I don’t know her that well."
Mikey’s grin got even wider. "So if she’s not a good fuck why play games with her?"
Craig stopped dead. That was the thing about Panda. He had a way of derailing your train of thought. And you could never be quite sure when he was kidding.
"Well, she’s in the hospital, see? She had a real bad accident. I’ve been going to see her and sometimes she, like, talks, you know? Like she doesn’t know what she’s saying.