Free Hacker by Malorie Blackman Page A

let me keep the money as long as I told them how I did it!’
    ‘David!’ Mum interrupted.
    ‘Oh, all right! Maybe that’s not quite true,’ Dad replied. ‘But what gets me is that I work at the bank and so I must be guilty. They even think they know how I did it. Beth told me they reckon I set something up in my checking software. So it’s David Gibson off to prison, and throw away the key. But I didn’t do it. I DIDN’T DO IT! I’m so angry I want to hit something.’
    ‘I know, David,’ Mum soothed. ‘Calm down, dear.’
    ‘I can’t,’ Dad sighed. ‘I’ve been caught in a trap and if I’m not careful I’ll end up in prison with no one but you and the kids giving a damn about me.’
    I walked away after that. I couldn’t bear to listen to any more. I trudged downstairs and out into the garden, feeling very scared.
    * * *
    ‘Vicky, I’ve been looking for you all over the house,’ Gib moaned as soon as he saw me.
    ‘You should have looked out here then,’ I replied, not bothering to look up from the listings Gib and I had been going through earlier and that I was looking at now.
    It was late evening. The sun was getting low in the burnt orange-red sky and the garden was still and peaceful. Usually on Saturday evenings I went around to Gayle’s or Maggie’s house. We’d go to see a film or go on a pizza crawl, but today I hadn’t felt like it. I’d spent the whole afternoon thinking and reading through the listings.
    ‘We can’t use Chaucy’s PC,’ Gib said, flopping down beside me.
    ‘Why not?’ I frowned at Gib. ‘Won’t he let us use it? Did he change his mind?’
    ‘No, it’s not that,’ Gib sighed. ‘Once I’d explained to him why we needed it, Chaucy said we could use it whenever we wanted to. But he said his router is playing up so we’ve got no way of getting onto the Internet to connect to the Universal Bank computer.’
    ‘You didn’t tell Chaucy the whole truth, did you?’ I asked, shocked.
    Gib frowned at me. ‘Of course I did. Why not? He’s my friend. He won’t tell anyone.’
    ‘But … but …’
    Just thinking that Chaucy knew about Dad made me go cold all over. It would be just another thing for Chaucy to grin at me about.
    ‘You had no right to tell Chaucy our business,’ I said furiously.
    Gib’s frown deepened. ‘Listen, Chaucy’s my friend, not yours. I’ll tell him what I like.’
    ‘And Dad is your real dad not mine, so this whole thing is none of my business,’ I concluded. I hadn’t meant to say that – I swear. It just slipped out.
    ‘I didn’t say that,’ Gib said quietly.
    ‘But that’s what you meant – if I remember yesterday’s little speech correctly.’
    My voice was lemon-bitter. Now that it had been brought out into the open, I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I had no real aunts and uncles. Just some very distant cousins who lived in America whom I’d never even seen. My close relatives were those I’d acquired when I’d been adopted. Neither my real mum nor my real dad had any brothers and sisters. And now, more than ever, I wished with all my heart that they did. I’d never felt so lonely. Picking up the listings I went indoors.
    ‘So what now, Victoria?’ I asked myself. I sat down on the sofa in the living room and leaned my head back, trying to think. It seemed to me that no matter what I did, Gib would never accept me. I’d never be a part of
his
family.
    But if I prove Dad didn’t take that money then I’ll belong. Then Dad will want me to stay and maybe Mum too, I thought. I mean, that wouldn’t be my only reason for wanting to prove it, but it could be one of them.
    But now I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to belong. Much as I loved Mum and Dad, they’d never be my
real
mum and dad.
    Did that matter? Surely it was up to me to decide where I fitted in? If I said the Gibsons were my family, who could contradict me? The opinion of anyone outside the family wasn’t – what was the word? – relevant. And