Change of Climate

Untitled Part 5

London had been on the Cheltenham campus plenty of times in her life. She'd never been to the dorms, though, because ten-year-olds didn't have a reason to go to dorm rooms.

The Cheltenham dorms were exactly as she'd expected, though. They were gross and cramped and crowded and they smelled.

"I can't believe you didn't want to live here instead of at your parents' house," said London drily, following Quinlan as he negotiated a mess of indeterminate provenance in the hallway.

Quinlan glanced over his shoulder at her with a flash of his quick bright smile. Then he knocked briskly on one of the dorm room doors.

"Yes!" called a voice from inside.

Quinlan interpreted that as come in, apparently, because he pushed the door open.

The dorm room made Quinlan's room look like the neatest place on the planet. What was wrong with boys? London wondered. If her father had kept his lab this messy, she would have never even known that it had been ransacked.

"Quinlan Meade!" exclaimed a boy who was slumped in a beanbag chair playing a videogame that he barely looked up from.

"This is Dev," Quinlan told London.

Dev looked up at being introduced to someone, and then his eyes widened. "And you brought a girl here!"

"Don't let him fool you," Quinlan told London. "Dev is a total ladies' man."

Dev snorted, pausing the videogame and giving them his full attention. "You must mean Adam, who I have not seen for days."

"So he's not here then?"

"Not here. What can I do for you two?"

"This is London," said Quinlan.

Dev looked at her. "Like the city. Hi."

"Hi," said London.

"She is in need of a super-talented hacker person," explained Quinlan.

Dev beamed. "And you brought her to me! Excellent! I'm touched, Quinlan!"

"I knew you would be."

"So what do you need, City Girl?" asked Dev.

"I need to get into this USB drive," said London, handing it over to Dev. "It's password-protected."

"Okay," said Dev, standing up and walking over to his desk. Which held...a regular-looking laptop. London thought maybe he'd have an entire wall of computers set up or something. But nope. Just a laptop. "What's it got on here? Grades?"

"Dev. Would we bring you something as unethical as grades?"

"Hey." Dev shrugged and plugged the USB in. "It is not for me to pass judgment on people. I am God in name alone." Dev looked at London. "My name means God."

"Okay," said London, not sure what to say to that.

"He thinks that's a line," said Quinlan. "It's not a line. Back off her, okay?"

"Territory claimed," said Dev.

"I'm also not a territory," retorted London.

Dev said, "Right. Sorry." And then after a pause, "I am sorry. I didn't mean anything by it."

"You'd probably do better with girls if you didn't refer to them as territory," said London, irritated, because she had been through a hell of a lot and she hadn't signed on for this. "Protip."

Dev didn't say anything in response but ducked his head a little bit in a way that seemed embarrassed. Quinlan gave London a look that was difficult to read, half-apologetic and half-chagrined and half-annoyed and half-admiring. Which was way too many halves.

Dev's fingers were tapping over his laptop keys in a furious flurry and white numbers and letters, all of them in nonsensical strings, were washing over a black background quicker than London could parse them. And then, suddenly, Dev said, "There you go. Got it," and sat back. "Here's the contents of your USB drive."

It was a string of numbers. Just a string of numbers.

"Wait, that's it?" said London.

"That's it. The only thing that's on there," Dev confirmed.

"Is this, I don't know, computer language? Does it translate into words?"

"Nope," said Dev and shook his head. "This is what's on your USB drive. These numbers."

Quinlan was texting them into his phone. "Thanks, Dev," he said. "I owe you."

"No, this one was definitely on the house," Dev said, taking the USB out and handing it to London. "Listen, I'm really sorry. I hope it was helpful."

The opposite of helpful, thought London. But all she said was, "Thanks."

o>TN