Hacker

by Malorie Blackman

  ‘Stop moaning,’ Gib ordered.

  ‘What about Mum and Dad? Weren’t they worried about me?’

  Gib shrugged. ‘They believed Aunt Beth’s story about you not feeling well and wanting to stay at her house for the night. Mind you, Mum was all for coming round here to get you but Aunt Beth managed to dissuade her in the end.’

  ‘I bet she did.’ I frowned. ‘Well, I’m not calling her Aunt Beth any more. She’s no aunt of mine.’

  I waited for Gib to say something clever about Aunt Beth not being my real aunt in the first place.

  ‘She’s no aunt of mine either. Lying and locking you up like that,’ Gib replied. ‘So what happened? Am I right? Did you find out something important?’

  ‘I found out something all right. I found out that ejones stands for Elizabeth Janine Jones. Jones was Aunt Beth’s, I mean Beth’s maiden name before she got married the first time. That’s why next to JONES, E in the staff file, the user name is given as SYSTEM. Eric doesn’t have any other account but the SYSTEM account. He doesn’t need any other account. And, of course, Aunt Beth’s name wouldn’t be down as ejones because that’s not her name any more. She’s down as bcarter – for Beth Carter. Not ejones. And do you know what they’ve done? She and Sebastian have fleeced seven million pounds from Universal Bank.’

  ‘Seven million … You’re joking,’ Gib said, astounded.

  ‘No I’m not. I just wish I knew what their next move was going to be. I don’t know where they are. It’s too early for them to be on their way to the airport. Their plane doesn’t leave until four this afternoon.’

  ‘Four o’clock? How do you know?’

  ‘I saw it on their tickets,’ I shrugged.

  ‘Thank goodness for that,’ Gib whistled. ‘When they both left so early, I thought they might have a morning flight. We’ve still got some time then. Come on. Let’s go home, you can get tidied up and then we’ll go to school and wait for Chaucy there.’

  ‘What about Mum and Dad? If we go home now, they’ll want to know why we aren’t at school,’ I pointed out.

  ‘Dad’s taken Mum to the antenatal clinic. They’ll be gone all morning,’ Gib smiled.

  ‘Hmm! And why do we have to wait for Chaucy? When did you speak to him?’

  ‘Earlier this morning,’ Gib said. ‘His mum was a bit annoyed that I phoned so early, but she let me speak to him. I told him about you being here and that something strange was going on.’

  ‘Did you have to do that?’ I asked.

  ‘Of course. I needed his help,’ Gib replied, as if it was the most logical thing in the world. I almost envied him. He found it a lot easier to ask for help and confide in people than I did.

  ‘His help with what?’ I said.

  ‘To follow Beth, of course,’ Gib replied.

  Chapter Thirteen

  ‘I DON’T UNDERSTAND. What d’you mean?’ I asked, baffled.

  ‘Well, Sebastian’s car wasn’t in front of the house when Chaucy and I got here, so we thought we’d had it. Then we saw Aunt Beth through the front-room window and, luckily for us, Sebastian turned up about ten minutes later. He went into the house and then he came out carrying one big suitcase and a little one. At first I was scared that they were both going to the airport for their flight to Rio and then what would we do? But Sebastian got into his car by himself and drove off. About ten minutes after that Aunt Beth … that is, Beth came out of the house. She walked off down the street and Chaucy followed her.’

  ‘Why didn’t you follow her?’ I asked.

  ‘I was going to until Chaucy pointed out that he had less chance of being spotted. Beth doesn’t know him. Besides, someone had to see what had happened to you.’

  ‘You needn’t make it sound like you’d rather have had your toenails pulled out,’ I sniffed.

  ‘I’m here, aren’t I?’

  I couldn’t argue with that. I smiled.

  ‘Yeah, you are. Thanks! So where’s Aunt Beth now?’ I asked.

  ‘How on earth am I supposed to know that?’ Gib said. ‘That’s the whole reason why Chaucy’s following her. We figured she was going somewhere first, before heading for the airport. He’s got his mobile phone on him so I told him to phone me or you when he could.’

  ‘Yeah, it was a stupid question,’ I mumbled. ‘Put it down to the rotten night I’ve just had!’

  ‘Let’s get cracking,’ Gib said. ‘We’ve got a lot to do.’

  Yes we have, I thought. The only trouble was, Chaucy was doing most of it.

  ‘Maybe we should phone the bank and at least tell them what Beth and Sebastian are doing,’ I suggested.

  ‘Oh yeah! Like they’re going to believe you and me,’ Gib scoffed. ‘We’re kids – and not just any kids, but David Gibson’s kids. Of course they’ll believe us!’

  ‘I think we should at least try. We need help and it might get dangerous.’

  ‘Vicky, as you were so fond of telling me before, we’ve still got no proof. Without definite proof, no one’s going to take us seriously.’

  ‘Then we can tell Mum and Dad,’ I insisted.

  ‘By the time they get back home from the antenatal class, Beth and Sebastian will be on some Brazilian beach somewhere and that’ll be that,’ Gib said.

  With a sigh, I gave up.

  Half an hour later I’d had my shower at home and had changed my clothes and wolfed down a huge bowl of cornflakes. I was starving. We tried phoning Chaucy’s mobile, but we just got the answering message. I was a bit freaked and gave Gib a worried look.

  ‘He’s fine. He’s probably just on the Underground or something and can’t get a signal.’

  Then Gib and I had to run to school so we wouldn’t be too late. All we could do now was wait for Chaucy.

  Time crawled by on its stomach. Half an hour passed, then an hour – and still no Chaucy.

  At breaktime Gib came up to me in the corridor. He looked about as worried as I felt – which didn’t help. In fact, it made me feel worse.

  ‘OK, face-ache! Where is he?’ I asked Gib.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Gib snapped back.

  I glared at him. ‘I knew it! I knew you should never have left Chaucy to it. Anything could’ve happened to him,’ I ranted.

  ‘He’ll be all right,’ Gib said doubtfully.

  ‘What if Aunt Beth saw him? What if she met up with Sebastian and they both saw him? What if …?’

  ‘Hold on …’ Gib protested.

  ‘No, I won’t hold on. We should never have involved him in the first place. What if …?’

  ‘Look! Nothing’s happened to Chaucy,’ Gib interrupted. ‘He’s probably still following her, I told him to stick to her like glue!’

  ‘You … you don’t think they might have switched to an earlier flight, do you?’ I asked doubtfully.

  Gib stared at me. ‘Nah! They’d have left together then … wouldn’t they?’

  ‘Of course they would,’ I decided firmly. ‘We mustn’t panic.’

  ‘Vicky, don’t do that to me!’ Gib said, his hand on his chest over his heart. ‘What I don’t get is if they’re not leaving until later, why’d they set off so early? Where d’you think Sebastian was going?’

  I shrugged. ‘I wish I knew,’ I said unhappily.

  Gib shook his head. ‘I still can’t believe it. Aunt Beth and Sebastian. They’re supposed to be Dad’s friends. Chaucy wouldn’t do that to me! I mean, how could they? Especially now when Mum’s pregnant.’

  ‘Mum being pregnant has nothing to do with it,’ I said. ‘They saw a way of making a lot of money and they went for it, that’s all. You know what grown-ups are like. A lot of them only care about money. Nothing else matters but having it and making it and getting more and more.’

  ‘Well, they won’t have it for long.’ Gib’s eyes narrowed. ‘When Chaucy gets here, we’ll go to the airport. We can work out a plan of action on the way there.’

  ‘If Chaucy ever gets here,’ I said.

  My next lesson was
double art. It might as well have been double Dutch for all the notice I took. When at last the buzzer went for the beginning of the lunch break, I was the first out of the art room. On my third circuit of the corridors, I spotted Chaucy and Gib deep in conversation. I headed straight for them.

  ‘Where on earth have you been, Chaucy?’ I said angrily. ‘I was worried sick.’

  Chaucy grinned at me. ‘Were you?’

  My face started to burn.

  ‘It’s not funny, you moron,’ I said coldly. That wiped the smile off his face.

  ‘There’s no need to be like that,’ he protested.

  ‘Never mind her,’ Gib interrupted. ‘What happened? Where’s Aunt Beth? Tell us everything.’

  ‘I’ll tell you all about it on the way to the airport,’ Chaucy replied.

  ‘Aunt Beth isn’t already there, is she?’ I asked, panicking again. ‘It said sixteen-hundred hours on the tickets.’

  ‘She stopped a taxi and asked to go somewhere. I didn’t quite catch the name, but it wasn’t Heathrow Airport,’ Chaucy replied. ‘Maybe she went to meet Sebastian somewhere first. We’d better get going though. They must be on their way to the airport by now.’

  We all turned around and headed out of the school gates – making sure we weren’t spotted by any of the teachers.

  ‘So what happened, Chaucy?’ I asked, as we walked down the road.

  ‘Do you mind if I get a sandwich or something first? I’m starving,’ Chaucy replied.

  ‘Get on with it, Chaucy, before I strangle you!’ Gib warned.

  Chaucy was loving every moment in the spotlight.

  ‘Well, I started following your aunt as directed …’

  ‘She’s not our aunt,’ Gib interrupted.

  ‘I’m only calling her what you two call her,’ Chaucy said.

  ‘Get on with it!’ I begged.

  ‘I followed Beth to the train station and I hopped into the same carriage as her. I made sure she didn’t see me though. I sat in the set of seats behind her, but where I could see her when she got up.’

  ‘Good move!’ I approved.

  Chaucy smiled at me, but this time I hardly minded.

  ‘Anyway, we got off at Blackfriars about thirty minutes later. She walked through the station and I followed her. I should’ve got danger money for that bit. I was pushed and crushed and flattened by millions of rude grown-ups rushing to get to work. If I had to go to work each and every morning, I wouldn’t be rushing,’ Chaucy said scornfully. ‘I didn’t like that bit at all.’

  ‘Chaucy …’ Gib warned.

  ‘All right! Keep your shirt on.’ Chaucy frowned. ‘Oh yes! Anyway, your aunt, I mean Beth, then went to another platform and hopped on a – what do they call it? – a City Thameslink train? We had to wait a while for that one so I had to hide out of the way. When the train finally did arrive, I almost got my head chopped off leaping on to it. A couple of stops later, Beth got off at Farringdon. I almost lost her then because a really snotty ticket collector looked closely at my travel pass and saw it didn’t take me into the city. So he hit me with a penalty fare! Twenty quid! Lucky I had my emergency fund. When I finally got out of the station I was turning my head every which way trying to find her. Lucky she had on that huge white hat or I would have lost her for sure. But she was still well ahead of me. I had to run to catch her up. It was really exciting. I felt just like James Bond!’

  ‘Where was she going?’ I asked eagerly.

  ‘I’m getting to that bit.’

  Chaucy was being even more infuriating than usual. I had to breathe really deeply to control my temper.

  ‘Now what was I saying? Oh yeah! Beth walked for a couple of minutes and stopped off at some bank along the way. She was only in there for a few minutes. When she came out again she carried on walking, before turning right into some street called Hatton something. Then she walked into a jeweller’s shop.’

  ‘A jeweller’s?’ I said, puzzled.

  ‘Yep! The whole street was full of jewellery shops. Nothing but jewellery shops – and parking meters. I didn’t pass one cake or sandwich shop! Oh yes, there was this big white building called The London Diamond Club just up from the jeweller’s she went into.’

  ‘What was she doing in there?’ Gib asked.

  ‘I couldn’t exactly go in and ask, could I?’ Chaucy said. ‘I stood at the window and watched through the door. Beth spoke to some man behind the counter and handed him a piece of paper. He disappeared through a door at the back of the shop and came back a couple of minutes later, carrying a small blue box …’

  ‘Did you see …’

  ‘What was inside?’

  Chaucy shook his head, regretfully. ‘I was too far away.’

  ‘How small was it? The size of a shoe box? The size of a matchbox?’ I asked.

  ‘About the size of my spider box,’ Chaucy replied after a think.

  ‘That doesn’t help me much,’ I pointed out. ‘I haven’t seen your spider box.’

  I shivered at the thought of Chaucy keeping spiders in a box. No doubt he kept them in his bedroom. That was just the kind of nasty thing he would do, too.

  ‘It’s about that size.’ Gib put his thumbs and his index fingers together to form a rectangle.

  ‘Then what happened, Chaucy?’

  ‘Well … Beth opened the box.’ Chaucy shook his head with frustration. ‘If I could just have got a bit closer …’

  ‘You couldn’t see anything at all?’ I asked.

  ‘Nothing,’ Chaucy said sadly. ‘Then Beth came out of the jeweller’s with the box and hailed a taxi. Like I said, she asked to be taken somewhere but I didn’t catch the name.’

  ‘Hmm!’ Gib said.

  We looked at each other, deep in thought.

  ‘Why would she go all the way into the city just to pick up some jewellery?’ Gib asked. ‘She could get jewellery anywhere around here.’ We walked in silence as we tried to figure it out.

  ‘Hatton Cross,’ Chaucy said suddenly. ‘That’s the name of the street.’

  As if the name of the street would help us!

  We were almost at the tube station when I remembered where I’d seen the name Hatton Cross before.

  ‘Chaucy, I thought you said you and Beth ended up in the city?’ I asked with a frown.

  ‘We did,’ Chaucy replied. ‘The street was just off Holborn Circus ’cause that’s where we walked down to afterwards before Beth caught a taxi.’

  ‘Don’t you mean Hatton Garden – pillock!’ I said. ‘Hatton Garden is in the city. Hatton Cross is out by Heathrow.’

  ‘That’s it!’ Chaucy pointed at me. ‘Hatton Garden!’

  I shook my head. Really!

  The sunlit platform was practically deserted. I hated travelling by tube. All those dark tunnels and being so far underground. Thank goodness this station was out in the open. Somehow the sunlight made things seem a little less desperate. I’d had enough of being cooped up to last me a lifetime. I looked around again. There was no one immediately near us, but I still eyed the two other travellers on the platform with suspicion.

  ‘Let’s go over this again,’ said Gib softly, even though we were alone. ‘Beth and Sebastian got seven million pounds from Universal Bank …’

  ‘Which is probably in that big suitcase you saw,’ I said.

  Gib nodded before he went on. ‘And they’re about to skip to Rio with it. Why did they put that million pounds into Dad’s account? What was the point of it?’

  ‘To stop Dad’s checking program from being run,’ I said.

  ‘To get your dad out the way,’ said Chaucy.

  ‘To get everyone looking at Dad and away from them,’ said Gib.

  ‘Any or all of those reasons,’ I said. ‘If Beth knew she was going to write a program to nick some money then she’d have to test her program at some point and she’d have to plan when she was going to take out the money and how she was going to get at it and all sorts of other things. It’s not the kind of thing you
can do overnight.’

  ‘What I don’t get is why Universal Bank don’t know about the seven million yet,’ Gib said. ‘They knew the next day that that one million had gone missing.’

  ‘Are you sure they don’t know?’ Chaucy asked.

  Gib nodded. ‘Eric from the bank would’ve phoned Dad straightaway if the bank had lost more money. When we went home this morning, there was no message on the answering machine. Unless … unless Beth and Sebastian are taking the money out today.’

  ‘Of course!’ I breathed. ‘That must be it. Maybe that large suitcase that Sebastian had was empty. Maybe he was going to pick up the money.’

  ‘That makes sense.’ Chaucy sounded surprised. ‘If I was about to skip the country, I wouldn’t take the money out until the last possible moment, in case something went wrong.’

  ‘Besides which, they couldn’t take it out any sooner,’ I said. ‘The bank would’ve been on to them. But if they got the money transferred immediately after this morning’s batch job had finished, the bank wouldn’t find out that something was wrong until after tonight’s batch-job run.’

  ‘So you really believe they’re going to leave the country with all that money?’ asked Chaucy. ‘I mean, that’s an awful lot of money to carry.’

  I had to admit, Chaucy had a point.

  If only there was someone we could tell,’ Gib said with a sudden burst of anger. ‘They mustn’t get away with it.’

  ‘But we’ve still got no real proof – only the listing and the ejones name against the TIMETRV program in the batch library listing. By the time we get someone to listen to us and check it out, Beth and Sebastian’s plane will be on its way back from Rio. Without proof – like the money they’ve stolen – no one will believe us. Not against two grown-ups. I mean, who’s going to believe us if we say Beth, of all people, is running off with seven million of the bank’s money?’ I said glumly.

  ‘Then let’s work out what we should do next,’ Gib said. ‘And we’d better think fast. We haven’t much time.’

  ‘We’ve got to stop Sebastian and Beth from getting on their plane,’ Chaucy said.