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and which had rendered his lower body useless. Even for the techno wizards at CARPA, fixing snapped spines was still some way in the future.
    The buzzer to Pete’s quarters sounded and he heard a voice on the intercom.
    â€˜Hey, Pete, my man!’ It was Tom.
    â€˜Let him in please, Sybil.’
    The door slid open and Tom wheeled in, seated in his motorised wheelchair. Walking beside him was Josh Thompson, the team’s tall, dark-haired encryption expert.
    â€˜How you feeling?’
    â€˜Fit as the proverbial fiddle,’ Pete replied, a trace of his Geordie accent just discernible in his voice. He stood up and did a little dance. ‘See.’
    â€˜Promise me you’ll never dance like that again, Pete,’ Josh deadpanned.
    â€˜So, you two here for a reason?’ Pete said, tilting his head slightly.
    â€˜Tom wanted to show off.’
    â€˜It’s not showing off. It’s passing on information,’ Tom retorted. ‘I’ve got the CyberLink to work.’
    â€˜You have? That’s excellent.’
    â€˜Thank you, thank you,’ Tom replied, nodding and twirling his hands in the air as though accepting applause.
    â€˜What was it again?’ Pete asked.
    â€˜Oh, for God’s sake, dude.’ Tom sighed heavily. ‘I’ve been working on it for three months. It’s pure genius.’
    â€˜Is this the gizmo that allows you to hook up with any computer and get inside it as though it were a real object?’
    â€˜Super-hacking, dude. It’s called super-hacking. It’s...’
    â€˜Even I know more about it than that,’ Josh interrupted, frowning at Pete.
    â€˜All right, all right. So, it’s worked, yeah?’
    â€˜Yes, it has worked, my friend. I just had a quick stroll around the Pentagon’s mainframe. So cool.’
    â€˜When you say stroll...’
    â€˜Look, it’s like this. Every computer in the world has a virtual counterpart, or cyber twin, if you like. Think about it. On the web there’s every piece of information about any computer. The manufacturer has its design spec, the very components that went into making it, and their serial numbers are all online. We can find its IP address in a flash. We know who operates any given computer, where it is in the “real” world. And naturally, every piece of software running on it and every piece of hardware attached to it.’
    â€˜Yeah, but that’s a lot of information. Most of it irrelevant...’
    â€˜No, nothing is irrelevant. Every jot of knowledge about a computer helps build the cyber twin.’
    â€˜And Sybil does that?’
    â€˜Of course. It would be impossible without a quantum computer.’
    â€˜And a genius like you, Tom.’
    â€˜Yes, well that goes without saying.’ Tom grinned.
    â€˜So, you hacked into the Pentagon?’
    â€˜Super-hacked, Pete. Learn the term, dude. There’s a big difference. No more machine code, no more finding passwords or breaking through firewalls. I just walked in, had a little nose around, got what I was after and left. Not a trace of a cyber footprint. No one knew I was ever there.’
    â€˜Actually, that is pretty impressive,’ Pete admitted, looking at the young computer whiz with genuine admiration.
    â€˜Yeah, and it would be even more impressive if it came with a little humility,’ Josh said and sat down.
    â€˜I don’t believe in humility,’ Tom replied.
    â€˜Obviously.’
    â€˜What you got there?’ Pete asked noticing a rolled up magazine in Josh’s hand.
    Josh handed it to him and he opened it out.
    â€˜Now that’s what I call fame,’ Tom said.
    It was a copy of Time . On the front cover was a picture of the six members of E-Force. Tom was in his chair at the front, and the others, wearing their cybersuits, stood or crouched around him, each staring at the camera with serious expressions. Over the picture it said: ‘MEET A