Free Genius Squad by Catherine Jinks Page A

squinting towards the house. ‘But I want you to stay out of his way.’
    ‘That’s what I’ve been trying to do.’
    ‘No. I mean it.’ The detective’s clear, brown gaze fastened on Cadel. ‘ Stay out of his way .’
    ‘And how am I supposed to do that?’ Cadel demanded. ‘When he won’t leave me alone? Do you think it’s easy?’
    In response, Saul cocked his head.
    ‘What’s all this about magazines?’ was his measured rejoinder. And Cadel swallowed.
    He tried not to look as guilty as he felt.
    ‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘Mace’s magazines got wet.’
    Saul Greeniaus absorbed this in silence. Then he began to fish around in the lining of his jacket.
    ‘I’m familiar with your record too,’ he announced dryly. ‘I know what you’re capable of.’ At last he found what he had been searching for, and produced it like a conjurer producing a white rabbit. ‘Here,’ he said. ‘I’ve brought you a cell phone. You can use it to call me if you’re worried about anything.’
    Cadel blinked. Wordlessly he accepted the neat little mobile phone.
    ‘It’s not yours to keep,’ the detective warned. ‘I’m just lending it to you. And if you start running up big bills, you’ll be paying them yourself. Unless the calls were made to me or Ms Currey.’
    He fell silent, as if waiting for an answer. So Cadel obliged.
    ‘Thanks,’ he said.
    ‘You’re welcome.’ Saul glanced at his watch. ‘Well – I’d better go. I only dropped in to give you that.’ He nodded at the phone. ‘Ms Currey will have my hide if I talk to you for too long without her.’
    ‘Uh – Mr Greeniaus?’
    Cadel was almost surprised to hear his own voice. He hadn’t given much thought to what he was going to say.
    Saul didn’t speak. He just waited, motionless.
    ‘I – um – I’ve had a message from Com,’ Cadel continued. ‘Remember him? The guy from my Infiltration class, at the Axis Institute?’
    ‘Go on.’
    ‘It was a coded message. On email. It said, “ Cadel, let’s catch up. Com. ” That’s all.’ Conscious of Saul’s intent regard, Cadel added, ‘I haven’t finished tracing it, yet, so I don’t know if . . . I mean, it might not be Com. It might be . . .’ He trailed off, unnerved by the detective’s grim expression. ‘It was sent to Hazel’s address,’ he finished. ‘Disguised as spam.’
    ‘Did you reply?’ Saul queried.
    ‘No. I didn’t want to. There’s been a hacker poking around in the system, you see, so – ’ ‘You haven’t been talking to anyone else? On-line? You haven’t mentioned your name, or where you live?’
    ‘No, but – ’
    ‘Damn it to hell.’ Saul uttered these words so slowly and carefully that they hardly sounded like a curse. ‘How would anyone know you were here?’
    ‘Well – the police know,’ Cadel pointed out. ‘Fiona knows. My lawyer knows. The address is bound to be on a computer file somewhere. It wouldn’t be hard to find.’
    Saul frowned. He seemed to be thinking. After a while he said, ‘What was that about a hacker?’
    ‘Someone planted an information probe in Hazel’s system,’ Cadel explained. ‘It’s been gathering data.’
    ‘For whom?’
    ‘I don’t know. I was going to finish the trace today, before I went and tracked down that email.’ Cadel was suddenly struck by a dazzling idea. He straightened, and his whole face lit up. ‘Do you want to see?’ he eagerly inquired, anxious to commandeer the computer. ‘I can show you – ’ ‘No.’
    ‘But – ’
    ‘Listen.’ Saul put a hand on Cadel’s shoulder. ‘Don’t you touch that machine. It’s out of bounds. Understand?’
    Cadel caught his breath.
    ‘What – what do you mean?’ he gasped.
    ‘If what you say is true, then we can’t risk having you go anywhere near the computer. Just in case.’
    ‘But that’s ridiculous.’ Cadel was shell-shocked. ‘There’s no risk. I’m going to reconfigure the cookie so that nothing will go out unless it’s tagged. And