UNDERCOVER - Dark Fire Data (Book 3)

Part 20 - I am not your father

While we stuffed ourselves with pies we continued our discussion about how Murga had found me and where he might have gone. Licia switched on her computer intending to search for Dark Fire Data.

The computer started up normally but it immediately switched to a game featuring Yonnie and Treeka. 

'Hail, great lord Ziff Dion,' the girl with the black face and green hair said. 

 'You again!' I gasped. 'Who are you?'

'I am Yonnie and she is Treeka.   We are the daughters of the Mother of All Things.   We tried to join you on the Titanic but we found it is before the beginning of time.' 

 'How did you know that?' Miguel asked. 'Did you two shunt us on to the Titanic?'

'We cannot move before the beginning of time,' Yonnie said. 'before the mother of all things.'

 'It is a mystery,' Treeka added. 

 I looked at Miguel and Licia.   Miguel made a monkey face.   I sipped my hot chocolate. It burned my tongue.

'Pray why are you silent, great Lord Ziff Dion?' Treeka asked. They were still looking out of the screen but they couldn't see me. There was no web camera. 

 'Stop calling me great lord,' I snapped. 'Everyone calls me Ziff . . . How do you know who is speaking?' 

 'You are testing us great . . . Ziff? We recognize your voice.'

My mind was spinning. How did they know about the Titanic?   Were they for real?   Or were they nut cases or religious fanatics. 

 'Where are you now?' Licia asked.

'Everywhere in the World Wide Web and afterwards in the World Shell, Your Imperial Bossiness Licia Hu.' 

 'Don't call me that!' Licia snarled. 'It is insulting. And, what are you doing on my computer?'

 'Our abject apologies, your Imperial . . . We are trying to find our great mother and you are her disciples so you must know where she is.'

 'I mean, what is it you do?' 'We protect all the great work of our mother, the Mother of all Things, and we correct errors in her work like denial of service, trojan horses, spam, viruses, worms and glichacos.'

'How did your mother get to be the Mother of all Things?' Miguel asked innocently.

 'That is the greatest of all mysteries,' Treeka and Yonnie intoned together.

'But Great . . . Ziff,' Treeka said, 'there are video movies about you from the future. So you must have been the first creation of our mother. You must be our father.'

Miguel laughed nervously and I swallowed too much hot chocolate. I coughed so hard hot chocolate sprayed out of my nose. It was several seconds before I stopped coughing. 

 'Your mother did not create me!' I spluttered.  'And I am not your father.'

Miguel made another face and I started coughing again. Licia switched the monitor off and found a box of tissues. 'What are we going to do about this?' she asked. 'Yonnie and Treeka show up every time I turn on my computer. How did they know we were on the Titanic?'

We had no answer to that question but we kicked around several implausible possibilities until Licia threw us out.  Miguel and I left with her admonition, 'Don't forget to wash your socks.' 

 I found Grandma in the upstairs apartment normally occupied by our landlord, Mr Eric Bragg, but now inhabited by Grandma's friends Beryl and Emma. I was greeted by Pacman dancing around madly while growling in his squeaky falsetto and wagging his minuscule tail. Beryl joked that was the only way she could tell which end was his head.

Grandma looked at me and sniffed. 'I think you need to wash your socks.'

 'I need to eat first.' Emma passed me a plate with a large slice of apple pie.

'So,' Grandma was saying to Rico, 'where's that irresponsible nephew of yours?'

Rico laughed. 'Jeremy? Oh, he's graduated from sidewalk snow plowing to the big trucks. He got his truck licence last month. His boss has a contract to move snow to the snow dump.'

'Well that should keep him busy,' Grandma chuckled, 'we've had more than enough snow for this month. I hope January is better.'

By the time I had finished the apple pie, I could hardly keep my eyes open, so I stumbled downstairs and very thoroughly brushed, flossed and rinsed my teeth with anti bacterial mouthwash before collapsing onto my bed. I forgot about my socks.

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