Free Unmasked by Kate Douglas Page B

got me booted out of the program, cost me the grant, and the rest of my scholarship. I’m just about out of cash.” He held up the beer Dink had brought him. “Thanks for this, by the way.”
    “Well, fuck.” Dink glared at him. “They were wrong, Mac. You know he stole your work. I still think you should fight it.”
    Mac forced a quick smile. “Thanks, man. Unfortunately, Phil had the notes, not me. In his handwriting. My originals are missing. Even the floppy disks are gone, so there’s no reason to believe me. Besides, his uncle’s the dean of the department.”
    “And Bennett’s a lying turd.”
    “I agree, but it earned him a clean shot at the grant we were competing for.” Mac shrugged, but he couldn’t let it go. When he lost his access to the campus computer lab, he’d lost his only link to the new World Wide Web and contact with other software developers. His scrapped-together computer was too limited to test the programs he hoped to design, the ones he knew could bust him out of obscurity.
    Right now, his future was totally fucked.
    Keeping his back to Bennett and the redhead, Mac finished off the rest of his beer and shoved away from the table. Then he carefully stuffed his notepad in his backpack and looped the pack over his shoulder.
    Dink tossed back his beer and rose as well. “Not so fast, brain-boy. You’re coming with me.”
    “Where?” Mac folded his arms across his chest and gave Dink the kind of stare that generally intimidated most guys.
    Except Dink, who just laughed. “Don’t try that ‘death to evildoers’ look on me, big guy. My computer crashed. That’s why I was looking for you. I want you to retrieve a paper I just finished. Gotta have it for tomorrow, man, or I’m screwed.”
    “That I can probably do.” What threw Dink for a loop was usually a simple fix for Mac. He loved computers, and with the way technology was improving, it was obvious the twentieth century was going out with a bang.
    Mac intended to be part of the explosion. He’d built his own system—and Dink’s, for that matter—from scratch, but Mac’s wasn’t anywhere near as fast as the computers in the lab on campus. He needed faster, more complex equipment to accomplish his goals. It was so damned frustrating, living in Silicon Valley, where everything was happening at warp speed, being aware of so many new innovations, and yet stuck on the fringes without the equipment he needed to handle his ideas.
    Shit. Just one more thing totally out of his control.
    He glanced at the bell tower marking the center of the campus he’d thought of as home for the past seven years, and fought back a surge of anger. The dean had accepted the project Phil Bennett turned in, decided Mac was lying when he accused the bastard of theft, and then had the balls to say they’d let him drop out of the postgraduate program rather than formally charge and expel him.
    He’d lost his scholarship and access to the lab. Lost any chance of qualifying for the grant he needed to continue his work. Lost everything because that little weasel had somehow stolen his project, lied about it, and gotten away with it.
    Even worse, the incident was going on Mac’s record. A black mark against his name, against the honor and integrity he’d always valued so much. No matter how bad it got, he’d never compromised. Never. Now this.
    Why the fuck was it always an uphill battle? He was so damned tired of fighting life on his own, but other than Dink, he’d been alone since the foster care system booted his ass out at eighteen. The academic scholarship to the university had saved him. Until Bennett screwed him over.
    If he could just get his life in order, maybe things wouldn’t look so damned bleak, but now—right now—it all sucked.
    Big time.
     
    * * *
     
    “Dinkemann, you are such a horse’s ass.” Mac kept his voice down as he stopped to throw a blanket over Dink’s prone form on the couch. He stood over his sleeping buddy,