Secrets Of New Forest Academy Part 14

"As blue leader," Min said, "I have to watch out for my team." He strode up to Spencer, who stood clutching his handkerchief.

"The Academy isn't a place for hide-and-seek, Spencer. You need to start thinking of how your actions will affect the group," Min said. "Behavior like this jeopardizes everyone. And I cannot let that happen." Min pulled the blue handkerchief out of Spencer's hand and let it fall to the floor. "I'm requesting a team change for you, Spencer."

Chapter 26.

"You can sit right by me!"

The teacher suddenly stopped talking, and Spencer froze as he leaned over to whisper something to Daisy.

"I'm not going to ask again," Mr. Lund said. "Lunchtime is over. You two need to stop talking or I will separate you."

Spencer sat up rigidly, aware of everyone on the combined blue and red teams staring at him. If only Mr. Lund knew what he was talking about. It was so much more important than the afternoon history lesson the teacher was giving.

Spencer and Daisy had been deciding how to tell Director Garcia about Slick. The problem with the janitor had escalated much higher than an ominous warning from a dumpster prisoner. Slick had attacked them ... twice!

Mr. Lund resumed his lesson. Spencer glanced at Jenna, secretly hopeful that she might pa.s.s him a note to get his mind off the problems. But Jenna was paying attention to the teacher.

The cla.s.sroom door opened and Mr. Lund stopped talking again. He was growing impatient with all these distractions until he saw that his boss, Director Garcia, stood in the doorway.

"Welcome, Director." Mr. Lund gestured for Garcia to take command of the cla.s.s.

"I'll only be a moment," Garcia said. "I'm here to make a change in the blue team."

Spencer felt his heart thumping. He glanced over at Daisy, who sat biting her pencil. Min took a quick look over his shoulder at Spencer.

"An anonymous request has been made for Spencer Zumbro to leave the blue team," said Garcia. "We don't often get requests, and we rarely choose to honor them. But after much deliberation, the committee has decided that this one should pa.s.s."

Spencer glared at the back of Min's head. For as smart as that boy was, he sure didn't know the kind of danger he was creating by separating Spencer and Daisy.

Director Garcia reached in his pocket and pulled out a new handkerchief. "Spencer, please come forward and claim your new team."

The handkerchief dangled in Garcia's hand, wrinkled and unappealing.

It was brown.

Spencer shuffled forward, turned in his blue cloth, and took the brown one. He was dead, for sure. If Slick didn't get him, Dez and his gang certainly would. Spencer took one last look at his old teammates. Daisy's eyes were saucers and it looked like she'd nibbled off half of her pencil. It was some consolation that Jenna had a frown on her face. But Min refused to make eye contact.

Spencer followed Garcia into the hallway. At least this would give him a moment alone with the director. Now was probably his best chance to talk about Slick. But as Garcia pulled the cla.s.sroom door shut, Spencer froze.

Slick was standing near the drinking fountain, wiping the shiny metal with a rag. The greasy janitor held up a hand. Director Garcia took the gesture as a wave and greeted Slick with a nod. But Spencer knew what the janitor was really doing. Slick was showing off his bandaged finger. It was a discreet threat, but Spencer got the message. If he said a word to Garcia, Slick would be waiting for revenge.

"Good luck with your new team," the director said, ushering Spencer into another cla.s.sroom. Garcia poked his head inside just long enough to introduce Spencer as the newest brown team member.

Dez stood up, a huge grin on his face. "Old buddy! You can sit right by me!" The brown team members pa.s.sed Spencer down the aisle until Dez took him by the shoulders and plopped him into a desk.

"Welcome to the team, Doofus," Dez said as the teacher resumed the lesson. "Brown team is the toughest, baddest team ever!" Dez's whisper was anything but quiet. "First of all, brown is a rockin' awesome color! Just think about how many cool things are brown."

"I'm not sure," Spencer said. "Are you referring to mud or ..."

"Never mind." Dez shrugged it off. "Let's just say that being on the brown team will protect you from a lot of things-atomic wedgies, wet w.i.l.l.i.e.s, spitwads-just to name a few. But that means you have to do what I say." Dez made two fists and b.u.mped them together. "Trust me. You don't want to get on the brown team's bad side. We're not just a bunch of tough guys, you know. My team is smart, too."

"Like what? They all know their times tables?" Spencer said.

Dez nodded gravely. "And division."

Chapter 27.

"This one's got a virus."

It was an hour after dinner, and Director Garcia had given all the recruits a bit of free time in the computer lab before lights-out. For Spencer, it was a much-needed break from his new team.

The whole dynamic of the brown team was different from the blues. It wasn't a matter of brains. The brown team recruits were plenty smart. But they were conniving. Dez was having the time of his life, but Spencer could see what was really happening. The browns were using Dez: learning his tricks, keeping him around as a scapegoat. For now, they let Dez rule the roost. But if the need ever came up, Spencer had no doubt that the brown team could easily outfox the bully.

Dez didn't like the brown group to sit apart. He'd forced Spencer to eat dinner with the browns. But when Spencer saw an open computer next to Daisy, he quietly slipped into the seat.

Escaping the browns wasn't Spencer's only motive for sitting next to Daisy. This was his chance, as good as any, to send an e-mail to Walter Jamison.

Spencer nudged Daisy to get her attention. She turned away from her computer to look at his. "Read through this," Spencer said. "Tell me if you think I should add anything."

Daisy scooted her chair closer, took control of his computer mouse, and began reading. Spencer stood up, looking around the computer lab to make sure that no one else was rubbernecking a peek at his e-mail.

Spencer took a few casual steps to block his computer from view of the other students. Jenna watched him from the end of the table, a half smile on her face. They hadn't seen each other for a few hours, and apparently, Jenna missed looking at him. Spencer accidentally made brief eye contact. Before Jenna could see his face redden, Spencer turned back to Daisy.

"It's good," Daisy said. "Send it."

Spencer sat back down at his computer and gave the e-mail one final read.

To: [email protected] From: Subject: Academy in danger Dear Walter: New Forest Academy is not safe! Roger Munroe is gone. He's been replaced by a BEM worker named Slick. He tried to get us twice already, but we got away. Please send help from the Rebel Underground ASAP.

We still have our cleaning supplies, so we should be able to defend ourselves from Slick if we have to.

Spencer and Daisy Spencer clicked the Send b.u.t.ton and waited for confirmation. The Internet seemed painfully slow. Suddenly, a pop-up appeared on the screen.

MESSAGE FAILED. UNABLE TO SEND. BLOCKED DOMAIN.

"Daisy," Spencer said. "Look."

She glanced back at his computer. "What happened?" She took control of the mouse and hit the Send b.u.t.ton. The same pop-up appeared. "Go get help," she said, pointing toward the media specialist.

"Yeah, right!" Spencer whispered. "The first line I wrote says the Academy isn't safe. We can't let anyone see this." He tried to send the e-mail a third time, but the pop-up multiplied.

"Why won't it send?"

"The page is blocked," Spencer mused. "Someone must not want us to send an e-mail to Walter."

"I bet it was Slick," Daisy said. "He used to be the Academy's computer technician, remember?"

Spencer clicked on the computer's menu and pulled up the control panel. "We've got to get through." He browsed through tabs and folders, frantically looking for some kind of web filter.

The media specialist stood up, and Spencer hurriedly closed out. Did she know that he was trying to hack the system?

"One more minute," she announced. "Please wrap things up and shut down your computers for the night."

Desperately, Spencer clicked Send once again.

MESSAGE FAILED. UNABLE TO SEND. BLOCKED DOMAIN.

Students were logging off and powering down their computers. They headed toward the door of the lab, conversing casually.

"Maybe something's wrong with the computers," Daisy said. "Looks like Min's got some kind of virus."

Spencer turned to where Daisy was pointing. Min's computer screen showed hundreds of numbers separated by commas and dashes.

"Min!" Daisy whispered. "We're having computer trouble too! What should we do?"

"Trouble?" Min said, logging off and shutting down without delay. "I was programming a computer game." Of course. Min didn't just play computer games, he made them. "It's a physics-based puzzle game. Should be quite entertaining once I've finished."

Spencer glared at Min. How could he seem so unsympathetic? Min didn't care at all that he'd gotten Spencer transferred to the brown team.

"Maybe you can help us," Daisy said.

"No!" said Spencer. "We don't need his help!"

"We might not get another chance to send this!" Daisy said.

"Send what?" Min asked.

Daisy pointed to the computer, and Min took a step closer. His dark eyes scanned the pop-up. "The site is blocked," he said, commandeering the mouse.

"Don't read the e-mail," Daisy blurted.

Min scanned the address. "The filter won't allow you to send e-mails to a janmail account."

"We need to," Daisy said. "It's very important. Can you get it through?"

"You want me to hack through the Academy's security firewall?"

"Hack? Isn't that what they say when a cat coughs up a hair ball?" Daisy made a grossed-out expression. "I don't want you to hack up anything. I was just hoping you could send that e-mail."

Min shook his head, black hair bouncing. "That could get me expelled from the Academy."

"You haven't even been accepted yet," Spencer happily pointed out.

"Then getting expelled would certainly ruin the odds of my acceptance." He folded his arms. "I decline."

Spencer was trying to control the frustration he was feeling. "Forget it, Daisy. Min's just selfish. He doesn't want to help someone from a different team."

"This has nothing to do with teams," Min said. "It is simply a question of ethics."

"This has everything to do with teams!" Spencer said. "That's why you requested for me to get traded. You thought I was ruining the blue team's chances-your chances!"

"That's not true," Min said.

"Then why'd you do it?" Spencer said. "You thought I looked better in brown?"

Min suddenly dropped into the chair and took control of the mouse. Spencer looked at Daisy, not even trying to mask his surprise at Min's sudden compliance.

In just a few seconds, Min had found the source of the blockage. "It requires an administrator pa.s.sword to disable the firewall. It will take me a few moments to overwrite it. We'll have to restart the computer for it to take effect."

"Wow," Daisy said. "You're good."

"Did you ever think I wasn't?" Min typed a few letters and numbers into the keyboard.

"All right, you three!" the media specialist called. Spencer looked up, trying to mask the guilty look on his face. "Computer time is past over."

All the other recruits had set off toward the dorms, leaving Min, Spencer, and Daisy alone. The media specialist started toward them. "Turn it off."

"Hurry," Spencer urged. Min was typing furiously.

Daisy backed away from Min and Spencer until she reached a different computer. "This one's got a virus!" she shouted to the media specialist. The distraction was enough for Min to quickly restart Spencer's computer.

The woman approached Daisy. "What's wrong with it?" the specialist asked.

Daisy pointed. "The screen's all black."

"That's because the computer is off, dear."

Spencer's computer rebooted, and Min opened the e-mail draft and clicked Send.

YOUR MESSAGE HAS BEEN SENT.

"Sounds like a bad virus to me," Daisy said, trying to keep the woman's eyes away from Spencer and Min. "A virus that turns the whole computer off?"