Memories End by James Luceno Read Free Book Online

been surrendered for safety.
    Daredevils and reality-show contestants had replaced explorers.
    And more troubling to Tech, movies, TV, music, and computer games had been made tame, except for the stuff being turned out by rebellious artists headquartered in the Wilds of the Network. Attempts were even being made to housebreak the final frontier—cyberspace—by monitoring the movements of frequent flyers and installing filters and security booths at nearly every entry port and grid intersection.
    The only upside of all this was that the world had become dependent on technology, and the more you knew about computers, digicams, and bar codes, the easier it was to circumvent all the rules and regulations. In the Network, Tech and Marz had discovered all the adventure they had sought in vain in the real world—domains almost beyond their dreams, sites catering to every thinkable fantasy, and a vast underground community of hackers and cyberjockeys, entry into which didn't depend on age, gender, how fashionably you dressed, or how skilled you were at playing ball.
    Two years earlier they had responded to an on-Network help-wanted ad directed at cyberjocks with a talent for finding missing data. The ad hadbeen placed by Felix McTurk, an adept and one-time successful data detective who had found himself falling behind the technological curve, mainly because of his fear of cyberflying. Felix had given the brothers a series of tests, which they had aced, and—sight unseen—had ultimately offered them jobs. When he realized that he had hired two teenagers, however, Felix had withdrawn the offer. But he had been so impressed by Tech and Marz's skills, he had started giving them occasional assignments. Before too long they were spending more time at Data Discoveries than they were at school or at the group home.
    Felix was well meaning but he just didn't understand life on the edge. He saw Marz as a budding cyberarchitect, and Tech as an executive data manager. But Tech wanted more from his future than the promise of steady money. He craved excitement. Felix was in danger of becoming one of those people who settled into a groove as they aged, and Tech was determined to help him avoid that fate—without sabotaging Data Discoveries in the process—if he could manage it.
    When Tech realized that his thoughts had begun to trail off into daydreams, he retrieved the notebook and woke it up. He was halfway into a second sentence for the essay when Fidelia Temper's shrill voice found its way through the room's closed door.
    “And another thing,” the group home counselor was saying, “there'll be no more TV time in the common room until you demonstrate to me thatyou can pick up after yourself and lend a hand around here for a change.”
    Marz rapped a code on the door and Tech told him to come in.
    Marz gave him a secret smile as he entered. Most of Fidelia remained in the hall, but she craned her thin neck through the doorway far enough to direct a suspicious look at Tech.
    “Working on your extra assignments, Jesse?” she asked, fairly basking in the question.
    He peered at her over the laptop's screen. “I live for homework.”
    She ignored the remark and glanced around the room in dismay. “You know, we used to have a name for places like this.”
    “Power spots,” Tech said.
    “Mad-scientist laboratories,” Marz chimed in.
    “Pig sties!” Fidelia said with high-pitched indignation. “And let me tell you something. If you care at all about your futures, you'll stay as far away from that data detective as you can get.”
    “Better a dead end with Felix than a future with the Bride of Frankenstein,” Tech muttered.
    Fidelia opened her mouth to reply, but words evidently failed her, and she slammed the door.
    Tech frowned, but Marz's smile only broadened.
    “Marz…” Tech said quietly. “I know that look. Spill it.”
    Marz fished a minidisk from the breast pocket of his T-shirt and held it between his thumb and