Read Online Alias by Tracy Alexander - Free Book Online

that moved to order.
    Time to get serious.
     
    I spent the whole of the next day waiting for Dan to show up. I had no appetite but forced a wrap downat lunchtime so Mum didn’t fuss. The butterflies in my tummy were more like bats. I couldn’t concentrate on anything.
    Come on, Dan.
    When I eventually found him playing EVE , we had a bit of banter about his geography trip at a residential centre in Wales, and then I suggested we meet at IRC channel #angeldust.
    more private
    I could tell he liked the idea.
    Dan joined us on #angeldust to find we were planning a botnet. In fact, only two other members were real, the rest of the virtual gang were all me. It was a cute trick – being eight people at once. It meant I could guide the conversation.
    this is a closed group – you are a guest – I typed.
    OK – that was KP, aka Dan.
    unless you pass a test – me.
    we all had to do that – nearly got me arrested – me, as someone else.
    are the 5000 bots my test? – typed Annacando.
    I made it seem as though everyone had passed an initiation to become a bona fide member of #angeldust, but deliberately didn’t issue one to Dan, although it was clear he’d have to do one. He obliged by asking:
    Like what?
    we’ll have to come up with something – I typed.
    Grooming is a slow process, if you do it right. Icouldn’t just chuck in the idea of a drone. It had to come out in its own time. His expectation was that he’d have to hack something – that was enough to be getting on with.

18
    Dan got himself a girlfriend! Bad timing as far as I was concerned, because he was much more interested in seeing her than playing with me. He still popped up online most nights, but not till late and not for long. There was another annoying thing in his life called GCSEs. I tried not to stress too much. When the moment was right, I’d bring up the initiation. In the meantime, as I was meant to be a boy, I pretended to fancy girly girls with skinny legs. He said I should go out with a flamingo and that I was shallow. His girlfriend, Ruby, bit her nails and wore sloppy jumpers. She sounded hideous, but what did I know?
     
    ‘Do you want to come over later?’ Lucy asked in physics, a couple of weeks after I first introduced Dan to IRC #angeldust.
    ‘OK,’ I said, because it was better than waiting for Dan again . Not that I’d wasted the time. I’d found an American community college that had a drone-simulation programme and a pathetic firewall. Thanks to a lot of late nights, I was a fully fledged UAV pilot – or would have been if anyone had known about me.
    Lucy’s mum was pleased to see me.
    ‘Stay for supper, Samiya. The table’s far too empty these days with the boys gone.’
    I couldn’t see any reason not to.
    We talked universities.
    ‘You’ll be in your element at Cambridge,’ she said. ‘I remember meeting you when you were about eight and being astonished at how smart you were even then.’
    ‘Thanks,’ I said, wondering if my memory of how she’d quizzed me about my Yemeni roots wasn’t entirely accurate.
    ‘Lucy can’t decide where to go,’ she said.
    ‘That’s because they all sound the same.’ Lucy tucked her straight brown hair behind her ear – it fell straight back onto her face. Mine had grown back into the non-style I used to have before my mission to be the same as everyone else.
    ‘I still can’t believe you’re doing engineering, Lucy. You can’t reliably refill a stapler,’ I said. Her mum laughed.
    ‘Luckily they don’t ask for an A in use of stationery,’ said Lucy.
    ‘It’ll be all boys,’ I said.
    ‘I hope so. If I don’t get a good degree, at least I’ll find a man with one.’
    ‘Lucy!’ Her mum pretended to be shocked.
    They were more like friends. So different from Mum and me. Our house was like a B&B – all perfectly polite, but strictly business.
    I got home at about eight to find that Mum and Dad had gone to the pub, like most Fridays. Dan came online at nine,