Lost Boys by Orson Scott Card Read Free Book Online Page B

don’t let anybody smoke around the machines. Fouls them up. Like pouring Cokes on them.”
    The kid didn’t let anybody smoke around any of the machines?
    â€œWhat’s your name?” Step asked.
    â€œMy parents call me Bubba, I was baptized Roland McIntyre, but I kind of think of myself as Saladin Gallowglass.” He glanced back over his shoulder at Step and grinned. “You ever play D&D?”
    â€œMy brother tried to teach me Dungeons and Dragons one time, but after five hours the game itself hadn’t actually started.”
    â€œThen he’s a piss-poor dungeonmaster, if you ask me, no offense of course since he’s your brother. A good dungeonmaster can get you into the game in half an hour and make it move along like you were watching a movie. Almost. Here’s your office, by the way.”
    It was an empty room. They had known he was coming, and there wasn’t even a desk inside.
    â€œThey had a desk in here but I made them move it out,” said Bubba Roland Saladin Gallowglass. “I told them you weren’t here to write prissy little maiden-aunt letters to your nieces and nephews, you were here to write manuals and for that you needed a full computer setup, complete with a word processor and at least one of every computer we do software for. So they’re coming in this afternoon to put up a computer counter like the one I’ve got here. This is my office. You’ll be sharing with me till yours is ready, if you don’t mind.”
    Step walked into hacker heaven. Two desk-height counters ran along both the long walls of the room, with a couple of shelves above them. The lower shelf held monitors for a half-dozen computers, and the upper shelf held books and papers and stacks of disks. And the counter itself was crowded with 64s, a couple of VICs, a TI, a Radio Shack Color Computer, even one of those crummy little Timex computers. Also an old monochrome Pet, which was apparently used as a word processor. And an Atari, with Hacker Snack up and running in demonstration mode. Except that the demonstration mode was supposed to have the game at level one, and this one was running at level twenty.
    â€œYou broke into the code,” said Step.
    â€œI like to use the game as a screen saver, because everything shifts on it. But level twenty has the prettiest colors.”
    â€œThat was copy-protected six ways from Tuesday.”
    â€œYeah, well, it was a ten-minute job to break the scheme and another hour or so to disassemble the code.” Bubba Roland Saladin Gallowglass looked proud of himself, and Step couldn’t disagree with him. Step was a pretty good programmer, but this kid was a true hacker, a boy genius of code. And somehow this same kid had the authority to make Eight Bits Inc. remodel Step’s office.
    â€œWhat’s your job here, anyway?” asked Step.
    â€œOh, I just hang around and do some programming. I’m really supposed to be a student at UNC-S, but I’m sort of between semesters right now.”
    â€œSpring break?”
    â€œYeah, for about a year now. I tried taking computer classes but they wanted to teach me COBOL, if you can believe it. Had to have FORTRAN or I couldn’t graduate. Like making you study dinosaur anatomy in med school. A bunch of us are going to Richmond for the David Bowie concert this weekend. Want to come?”
    Flattered at the invitation, Step had to decline. “We’re still unpacking, and I’m more into good old-fashioned American rock and roll. Bowie’s too disco for me.”
    â€œOh, he’s past disco now. He’s past glitter, too. He’s sort of in punk mode.”
    â€œYeah, well . . .”
    â€œI think of my D&D character, you know, Saladin Gallowglass, I think of him as looking like David Bowie. Or like Sting.”
    â€œSting?” asked Step.
    â€œWith the Police,” said the kid. When Step still showed no sign of