Free Maxwell Huxley's Demon by Michael Conn

they squint in the sunlight and hurry around the corner of the bakery building. Max is surprised how hot it is. They must have come a long way down off the mountain for it to be this hot.
    “ OK , so this is Kitimat, first thing we need . . .” The four of them stare at the town around them . Distracted by being in a town for the first time, Max forgets what he was going to say . They walk along in silence.
    Naomi breaks the silence. “D’you think they have a candy store here?”
    “I want to see a regular school.” Max turns to Walker. “Did you hack and enable wireless on everything?”
    “Yup, ” Walker says as he scans up and down the street.
    “Uh m, Walker , I know we decided to take the d igging bars, but you’re gonna have to leave them .”
    “ Aw , man .” Walker lays them down beside the curb.
    “It’s a lot dirtier than I thought it would be,” Naomi says. “I thought cities were clean, why did I think that?”
    “ I thought a city would be bigger . . . and less smelly, ” Max adds.
    “I want to go to a diner,” Virginia says. “With a jukebox, and chrome, and order a malted.” Tears well up in her eyes , and she turn s away from the others .
    Max doesn’t say anything, but he knows what they’re all thinking. I want to be a regular kid .
    ---
    They pick a direction at random and walk . The street is dry, mostly empty of cars and people, and lined with s mall industrial building s . It’s hot. They walk to the first intersection and pause. Looking over her shoulder, Virginia says, “Where to Max?”
    “Left? ” Max shrugs. “ Water is that way. I like water. Let’s go left. ”
    Halfway down the block Naomi stops and puts an arm on Max’s shoulder . “M ax . . .” He looks over at her . “Max , look at the cars on this street.”
    Max glances at the cars.
    “N otice anything?” Naomi says as Walker and Virginia carry on.
    “Uh, I see twelve cars and one van, all with roof racks, two Alberta plates, various colours, mostly old, rusting, worn out, except for that one. ”
    “ Ya except for that o ne. ” Naomi points. “Black and shiny, totally out of place.”
    Max looks at the black car two blocks down, heading slowly in their direction. With it pointed out to him, he sees how it stands out. Like a shark swimming in the surf . “ Walker . Virginia. Come back, ” Max calls ahead . “ You need to see something .”
    Virginia rolls her eyes. “Seriously?”
    “That car, the big black one . . . let’s back track and try to find another way downtown.” They turn back, walk half a block , and move into a side street hoping to catch another road downtown. As soon as the car is out of sight Max says , “Run!”
    They quickly spread into a line with Virginia at the lead, Walker and Naomi together, and Max lagging behind. “In the alley on the left. ” Max hears the squeal of car tires behind him as the others disappear in the alley he pointed to. He knows the black car has turned the corner and is closing in . Wasting time on a look back , Max see s the car picking up speed.
    Tick.
    Max runs as fast as he can. His mind accelerating . The neutrons will be the footprint. The p rotons carry the process es. Each lone p roton will seek a new pro cessing space, repelling other p rotons , eventually all processing spaces will be full. Osmosis. The 2 nd law of thermodynamics will kick in. The e lectrons are data or informa tion, but which? Max runs.
    Turning in the alley , Max sees that Walker and Naomi are on top of a concrete wall that blocks the far end . Virginia is standing at the bottom of the wall , waving at Max . He thinks she is saying something, but his ears seem to have stopped working. H e only hears his heart beat and his breathing.
    Tock.
    Protons will r oot themse lves and “call” the electrons. Neutr ons will authorize. Left spin e lectrons will accept command s. Right spin e lectrons will trigger command execution . Max looks over his shoulder. The shark turns