Free Maxwell Huxley's Demon by Michael Conn Page B

. Individually, t hey blend in and make it to the front of the school as the bell rings . M orning classes let loose into the school grounds. A screaming mass of kids spill past Max. Some head for playgrounds, others line up for some reason by a door back into the school, other s eat snacks while they run, some kids seem to just run randomly . Chaos . We play at our school. But not like this. Compared to this , everyone at my school is calm, subdued.
    While Max ponders that, a male teacher wearing a suit comes out of the school. W e have an hour at most befor e we get picked up. Think.
    Max looks around and easily spots Walker, Virginia, and Naomi. He just looks for the only kids standing still with their mouths hanging open as they stare at the other kids. He gathers them and takes them to a set of bleachers across the school field . Hidden from view, t hey sit in a circle under the bleachers .
    Walker opens his laptop and boots his reader. “Signal strength is good here.” Walker wr ite s and commit s ne w code .
    When they commit code it’s pushed out to the nearest infected processing space and then spr ead farther by other electrons.
    “So . . . those t wo are smart, I know how smart,” Virginia tells Naomi while pointing at Max and Walker . “ You’re not as good as they are at coding. S o how did you hijack what they did without having someone help you ?”
    “I didn’t hijack anything, ” Naomi says, “ I just changed the keys.”
    “ Hmpf .” Virginia look s unconvinced. “W hy are you here?”
    “I just wanted out like you did.”
    “I don’t believe you , I still think—”
    Max touches Virginia. “All s he did was copy what we did and change it a bit. Walker made everything. Naomi just saw an opportunity and—”
    “Oh, shut up, Max!” says Virginia. They all fall silent and listen to Walker typing.
    Later, Max hands Walker the phone. “ I finally got it working. Can you h ack in what you have so far? F i rst thing , make the p rotons alter the SIM card ID every time we make a call. Can you do that?”
    Walker nods and connects to the phone. “But in order for a call to work the SIM ID has to be valid AND approved by the carrier.”
    “ I t only has to be approved by the towers, ” Max explains. “J ust get ‘a pproval ’ proton s and e lectrons onto the nearest tower—got it? ”
    “Uh-huh.” Walker types f aster. “Anyone have any food?”
    Virginia throws a granola bar at him , bouncing it off his head.
    They sit in silence for a while , watching the school kids. These kids are free, that’s the difference. “So does anyone know where we are?” Max asks.
    “We’re on the west coast of northern BC , Canada . A t wenty hour drive from Vancouver . 850 kilomet re s straight line from Seattle, Washington. One and a half hour drive north to Terrace, which has the nearest airport. Three and a half hours to Prince Rupert. Rio Tinto Alca n is the largest employer here. They mostly make a luminum and have a large pier and railway line on property . . . what?” Naomi stops talking as the rest of them stare at her .
    “That is . . . quite . . . uhm . . . detailed, that’s all. Thank you though,” Max says.
    “Canada, ” says Virginia, “ I’m with Walker on this one. W hat are we doing in Canada? We think Walker is from South America ; Naomi is probably from Ireland or something . I gotta be from Japan .” Virginia turns and looks at Max. “ And y ou’re from the planet Krypton, right? So why would they bring us to Canada? ”
    “ Remote locations are hardest to escape from , and Canada is loaded with remoteness. W e need to get to a big city as fast as we can , and t here’ s no fast way from here to a real city. I have an idea but we are gonna have to get lucky. Time’s up Walker , ” Max says. “We need to get moving.”
    Walker types faster.
    “Where to?” b oth girls ask in unison. The school yard is quiet now with most kids inside.
    “See that RV across the