Disharmony (27 page)

‘Yeah,’ Georgia said. ‘Aren’t you two supposed to be villains? Don’t you want to go and do something illegal?’

‘Actually,’ said Luke. ‘I just want to go shopping for some new clothes.’

‘Yeah,’ said Zac. ‘So we’ll be leaving now.’

‘Thanks for everything, Georgia,’ said Luke.

Georgia walked over and opened a kitchen drawer, then she turned and began digging with a fork into the cake.

‘This is great,’ she said, chocolate on her lips. ‘You guys haven’t had any.’

‘We’re good,’ said Zac.

‘Well, you don’t need to leave right now, anyway,’ she said, grabbing another forkful of cake. ‘There are heaps of clothes upstairs – they’re my brothers’. They’ll never know they’re missing. They won’t want them by the time they get back anyway.’

‘Where are they?’ said Luke.

‘Boarding school.’

‘Why aren’t you at school?’ he said.

‘Well, I am,’ said Georgia. ‘I’m tucked away nicely at boarding school. Out of harm’s way. That’s what my parents think.’

‘Why didn’t the school tell your parents you’re missing?’ said Zac, arms folded.

‘Because my parents wrote them a lovely letter explaining that I’ll be away with them for the winter.’

‘But
you
wrote it?’ said Luke.

Georgia smiled widely.

‘Now what’ll it be?’ she said. ‘Cake first or clothes? You don’t want to go outside today. It’s pouring. Plus, I’ve got the latest Halo game.’

Georgia led them up the stairs to the third floor.

‘Those are my brothers’ rooms,’ she said, pointing to two closed doors. ‘Help yourselves.’ She kept walking, pushing
open a door that was part of a double set. Luke glimpsed Elizabeth Bay through the opening. That had to be one hell of a bedroom, he thought.

‘This is mine,’ she said. ‘Stay out.’ She stepped in and closed the door. But before they could even look at one another, the door reopened.

‘Oh,’ she said, black pigtails swinging with her sudden reappearance. ‘That door –’ she pointed a black fingernail at the far end of the corridor, ‘– is off-limits. That’s my older brother’s room. He’s away at school too, but he’s kinda – ah, funny about people touching his stuff. So stay out of there. Otherwise, have fun. I’m going to have a nap. I find sleeping when it’s dark such a waste of the night. Later.’

She pulled her door closed again.

‘She’s crazy,’ said Luke. ‘She just said she wanted to play. We could take off with anything.’

‘I think we should go,’ said Zac. ‘I don’t trust her. Who lets strangers walk around their house while they sleep?’

‘Well, I think she’s right,’ said Luke. ‘It’s freezing out there. And I’m in no hurry to take off. I mean, it’s best that we lay low a while. I know we’re not going to be broadcast on
Australia’s Most Wanted
, but it can’t hurt to stay off the streets for a couple of days.’

‘A couple of days!’ said Zac. ‘I thought you wanted to find your sister?’

‘Well, I’m sure Georgia’s got a great online set-up. I was going to head to the library to do some searching, but I bet I can get everything I need right here.’

‘I think we should go back to my house,’ said Zac. ‘They could know more about where your sister is. What can you find online?’

‘You’d be surprised what I can find online, Zacster,’ said Luke. ‘You take that room, I’ll take this one. See if you can find some clothes to fit your skinny arse.’

Luke emerged from the bedroom wearing the coolest jeans he’d ever seen, brand new Adidas sneakers and a badass hoodie. Zac was waiting impatiently for him outside the door, dressed in similar gear.

‘Not bad,’ said Luke.

‘Can we get on with it?’ said Zac.

‘I wonder where the computers are.’ Luke moved across the carpeted hallway and tried the door next to the off-limits room. He pushed it open.

‘So cool,’ he said. ‘You have to check this out.’

They stepped into a study wrapped floor to ceiling with bookshelves. Hundreds of books filled three walls of shelves, with a ladder waiting nearby to take the happy reader right to the top of the stack if there wasn’t enough available within reach.

But it was the fourth wall that made Luke hold his breath. Five computers: the latest Apples, all widescreen, two touchscreen, and all of them in sleep-mode, blinking quietly, waiting for him to wake them. Who needed books? So far, there was nothing he had ever wanted that he hadn’t been able to access online.

‘Let’s get to work,’ he said to Zac, cracking his fingers.

‘What about Georgia?’ said Zac.

‘What about her? If she has a problem with us using this stuff, she’ll tell us.’

Luke took a seat and randomly stabbed his fingers into the two keyboards closest to him. The machines whirred
efficiently, flashing into life.

Zac plonked down next to him, scowling at the two Siamese cats who’d just sashayed through the door.

‘I don’t like it here,’ he said.

‘Yeah? Well, that’s getting old,’ said Luke, typing rapidly.

Within seconds he was negotiating the Births, Deaths and Marriages website. Using one of the hundreds of false IP addresses he’d created before being locked up, he registered as a random civilian.

He clicked Next, Next, Next, as screens popped up, informing him about privacy policies, security information and blah, blah, blah. Finally, he arrived at a screen he was happy with.

Enter a name and date range, the website invited, cursor blinking.

M-o-r-g-a-n M-o-r-e-a-u, he typed. 1947–1997. That should do it, he thought. That made his mother any age up to fifty when she died. If his brother was born in 1997 he would be fourteen now. The thought of having a younger brother sent a teensy thrill flashing through his stomach, surprising him. He hit Enter.

The website shot up a warning screen.

You cannot search for any person born after 1909 due to privacy considerations.

Luke snorted in frustration and read on to learn that accompanied by three forms of identification, he could personally attend the registry office, and then they would assist him with yada yada yada.

I don’t think so.

He began typing furiously, navigating out of the program and into the one-zero world he loved so much. The world
of logic, of cold, clever code, where emotion was irrelevant, irrational, completely useless. Perfect.

This was his favourite place. And it loved him right back.

‘Where did you learn how to do that?’ said Zac, watching reams of digits scroll the screen before them.

Luke had forgotten Zac was even there.

‘Foster parents three,’ he said, tabbing, scrolling, typing. ‘They liked the welfare cheques, but not me so much. She worked for Telstra, though, and she had unlimited download access. So they left me alone with the laptop. They liked it when I was quiet.’

‘But how did you learn to do
that
?’ said Zac.

Luke pulled himself from the moment to consider his flying fingers. Sometimes he wondered how he could do what he did online. Most often, though, he just did what he did and thought about that.

‘Um, I just kind of understand it,’ he said.

He couldn’t explain that the numbers made beautiful patterns for him, artwork that he loved to explore and manipulate. And that the security that people set up to try to encrypt their data, lock down their sites, restrict access, were irresistible puzzles to him – challenges that he became obsessed with until he had broken through.

‘And I met some people online,’ he added, aware of Zac gaping at the screen. ‘They kinda showed me stuff too.’

Those faceless hackers had been his only real friends, but they stayed that way only when they stuck to speaking about code. Once they began posting about birthdays and ballgames and current affairs, he blocked their mail. If they were smart enough to break back through his lockout, he resumed the friendship, but only on the proviso that they
kept their gossip for their girlfriends.

He’d moved in with foster family number three at age ten. By eleven, he was mentoring the hackers who’d taught him the basics.

‘Ah, here we are,’ he said. ‘Their admin area. That’s much more helpful.’

He again typed his mother’s name, linking it with the name she so kindly gave him at birth – Lucifer Black Moreau. A hyperlink to his birth certificate popped up immediately. He had that already. He wanted to know the names of his siblings. He set up a search for all children registered to his mother. The results were almost instantaneous.

‘Oh my God,’ said Zac, watching closely.

Eight hyperlinks had popped up.

Luke flopped back in his chair. He had
eight
siblings? He’d always been alone.
Eight?

‘There,’ said Zac, pointing. ‘That would be her: born 1996. The same year as us.’

Slightly dazed, Luke clicked on the link.

‘Samantha White Moreau,’ read Zac, now peering over his shoulder. ‘The Empath.’ He spoke the words with awe.

Luke quickly scanned the dates within the other links.

‘Are you sure you got your fairytale right, Nguyen?’ he said. ‘There isn’t a link for 1997, the year the so-called Genius was supposed to have been born.’

‘It’s not a fairytale,’ said Zac, frowning. ‘I don’t know what it means that he’s not listed there. Maybe he wasn’t born in Australia. Your mother could travel anywhere she wanted, you know. I have no idea why she used a mortal hospital to give birth to any of you in the first place. I mean, she
was
a witch.’

Luke spun his desk chair around, aiming to smack straight into Zac and send him flying. Instead, with one backwards bound, Zac was already on the other side of the room. Where he stood, palms out.

‘What?’ Zac said.

‘My mother is a WITCH?!’ Luke shouted.

Zac coloured. ‘Oh, didn’t I mention that before? I just thought you knew. I mean, everyone knows that Morgan Moreau was a very powerful witch.’

Luke buried his face in his hands and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath.

‘Zac?’ he said, through his fingers.

‘Yes, Luke?’ Zac was sounding extra polite.

Luke raised his head.

‘Would you mind, in future, not presuming that I know anything about anything that you couldn’t find in an encyclopaedia?’

‘Witches and elves are in the encyclopaedia.’

‘Okay then. How about this?’ said Luke, speaking super-slowly. ‘Any pieces of information that you think an ordinary mortal might not be familiar with, would you mind letting me know about it? Especially if it has to do with my
family
!’

‘’kay,’ said Zac. He cleared his throat. ‘Um, but Luke …’

‘Yes, Zac?’

‘You’re not an ordinary mortal.’

‘Thank you, Zac. I think I’m beginning to get that.’

Luke turned back to the screen. The world in there made a lot more sense to him. Well, it used to. He stared at the hyperlinks.

‘Hello, brothers and sisters,’ he said, and began clicking the links.

Samantha hunched in a booth in the British Airways business club lounge with her knees up on the seat, a resting place for her chin. She half sat on her
Ride it like you stole it
bag, her only luggage, worried someone would take it if she fell asleep. She was bone tired. Beyond exhausted. She felt she’d aged ten years in the past ten hours. But she knew there was no way she could fall asleep with so much going on inside her head.

Besides, she had to board her flight at 0830 hours.

Samantha had never told the time by the 24-hour clock before. She’d never been in a club lounge. She’d never been to an airport. And she’d definitely never been on a plane.

A cheery attendant bustled past her table, removed her empty apple juice glass, and gave the table a quick wipe. The woman was Gaje – cleaning up after her! The attendant had been past five times already in the few hours Samantha had been here, and still she could not comprehend it. She dropped her feet to the floor, worried she’d be in trouble for having them up there.

‘Thank you,’ she said to the woman.

The woman smiled and moved her trolley to the next table.

Samantha tried for a return smile, but didn’t make it. Right now, she doubted she’d ever smile again.