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door.
    “Where are the boys, Mr. McTurk?” Fidelia said, her voice dripping with malice. She advanced a step and planted her hands on her hips. “Well?”
    “Boys?”
    Felix turned to where Tech and Marz had been sitting only moments earlier, then cut his gaze to the office closet. Frowning angrily, he walked across the room and pulled open the door, sending the two brothers tumbling to the carpet.
    “You mean these boys? The ones who were supposed to be working on a case for me but decided instead to take a joy run into the EPA's Network construct?”
    “You must have us mixed up with the other boys,” Marz said.
    “We were only trying to scarf some of your violations,” Tech explained, getting to his feet.
    “Well, nice going,
Jesse,”
Felix said, using Tech's actual name. He gestured toward the cyberconsole. “Your help's not only brought the EPA down on my back, but Network Security, too.”
    “It was all my idea,” Marz said, stepping forward.
    Tech punched his brother gently on the arm and gave him a “no way” look.
    Fidelia Temper scowled at Felix. “I know you think you're helping Jesse and Marshall by employing them here. But I will not tolerate your doing that at the expense of their education.”
    When neither Tech nor Marz would meet his gaze, Felix looked at Fidelia. “No teachers conference? No snow day?”
    She shook her head. “I want them back in school this moment!” She turned and stamped out of the office.
    Felix shot Tech and Marz a withering look. “When are you two going to wise up?”
    “Tomorrow,” Tech said, offering a Scout's honor salute.
    Felix compressed his lips. “Not soon enough. You're not flying for me anymore.”
    Tech's jaw dropped. “Felix, you don't mean that. You need us. You don't even
like
to fly.”
    “That's beside the point,” Felix said, waving his arms about. “Look at this mess. I'm ruined!”
    “We can have the system back up and running in no time,” Marz said.
    “What, so you can make another illegal run into the Motor Vehicle Bureau or somewhere?” He studied them for a moment. “How'd you get past EPA security, anyway?”
    “You don't want to know,” Tech said.
    “New software we got from the Warehouse,” Marz said sheepishly.
    Felix held his hands to his ears. “I don't want to know.”
    “Told ya,” Tech said.
    “Felix,” Marz said with sudden enthusiasm. “Something bizarre happened on the run. First, this program gremlin landed on the Baron's wing.”
    “Even Marz didn't see it coming,” Tech added.
    “Then this shadowy thing called Scaum appeared out of nowhere—”
    “Not out of nowhere,” Felix interrupted. “You were breaking into the EPA. What did you expect security to do, announce itself with balloons and fireworks?”
    “Nuh-uh,” Tech said. “The EPA uses standard-issue security hounds. Now, all of a sudden, it's deploying security shadows? Besides which, Scaum wasn't like any security sentinel I've ever been up against. In fact, I'm not even sure it was a program.”
    “Behaved more like a neural net,” Marz said, nodding.
    “But the weird thing is that the gremlin saved me from Scaum. And that isn't even the half of it. I was—”
    “Enough!” Felix said, holding up his hands. “But, Felix, the gremlin said I
freed
it. What if it was kidnapped?”
    Felix stared at Tech in theatrical disbelief. “You're listening to some reject game-world gremlin now?”
    “I'm not saying I believe it,” Tech said. “It was all happening so fast…” He turned to Marz. “Play him the download, bro.”
    Marz took his lower lip between his teeth and shook his head. “We lost it when the system crashed.”
    Tech blew out his breath in exasperation, then swung back to Felix. “The gremlin even thanked me.”
    “Good,” Felix said. “Then case closed.”
    “But—”
    Felix held up his hands again. “Listen to me— both of you. I've warned you about wasting what little I pay you on street software. Those