The Genius Wars by Catherine Jinks Read Free Book Online

within the colours and the shapes. She had an eye for repetition, and a nose for anomalies. Her view of the world was purer than his, and therefore more attuned to the underlying rhythms of what she saw.
    But he wasn’t meant to be communicating with Sonja. Not directly. Even an encoded text message was out of the question, because Saul wanted him ‘off the grid’. ‘No electronic exchanges,’ the detective had warned. ‘If there’s something important you want to tell her, I’ll pass it on myself. In person. It’s the safest way.’ He’d then hesitated, before adding, ‘Prosper might already know where you are. He might have had me followed. But that’s okay, because you’re in a secure facility. The important thing is that he doesn’t find out what you’re thinking or doing. The less information he has, the better. Don’t you agree?’
    It had been impossible to
dis
agree – especially when confronted by Saul’s strained expression. Cadel had therefore pledged that he wouldn’t use either his phone or his laptop to make contact with Sonja. Instead he’d scribbled an encrypted note, which Saul had delivered to Judith’s place.
    Cadel sighed. In the circumstances, he could hardly email the CCTV files to Sonja – and he knew that Saul would
never
agree to give her the disc. Not without official clearance, which probably wouldn’t be forthcoming. Someone up in the higher ranks of the Commissioner’s office didn’t like the idea of kids becoming involved in police investigations. That was why Genius Squad had folded. That was why, instead of being employed in a useful investigative role, Hamish had been put on probation, Sonja had received an official warning, and the Wieneke twins had simply … well, they had simply disappeared.
    Cadel wasn’t too worried about the Wienekes. They were both pretty streetwise (especially Devin), and Lexi was always popping up on cryptanalysis websites, because she just couldn’t leave an unencoded cipher alone. Cadel had established that she was moving between Sydney and Brisbane, using a lot of Internet cafes. He had also spotted her in somebody’s Facebook snapshot, which had been taken in a bar full of grinning young party animals. So she was clearly getting on with life, despite her disappointment over the end of Genius Squad. And if she wanted to do this without police interference, Cadel could only sympathise. In fact he had carefully refrained from alerting anyone to her activities – except, of course, Sonja. ‘If the police are so keen to get hold of the twins, they can do their own legwork,’ he’d informed his best friend. ‘It’s not
my
job to run online surveillance checks.’
    All the same, he couldn’t help wishing that Lexi and her brother were still around. For the first time ever, he was regretting that Genius Squad hadn’t survived. With Genius Squad’s help, he would have had no trouble solving the mystery of Prosper’s reappearance.
    But the squad was now defunct. And Cadel was all alone, with no network connection and no access to official databanks.
    He might as well have been working blindfolded, with one arm in a sling.
    I’m missing something
, he decided, as he peered at the scene in front of him. He had a niggling sense that the answer – the key – the
pattern
– lay right under his nose; that everything he needed was already there, among the blurred figures frozen on the computer screen.
    Leaning closer, he tried to interpret the look on Prosper’s face. It wasn’t easy. It wouldn’t have been easy even if the picture had been clearer; Cadel would still have had to fight the nausea that invaded his stomach every time he was exposed to Prosper’s chiselled features and loose-limbed form. The last time they’d met, Prosper had been armed and dangerous. He had put a gun to Cadel’s head. And Cadel couldn’t shake off the memory of that cold, deadly weight sitting against his temple.
    Not that Prosper would have pulled