Stormbreaker

with the white spinning back for a good angle on the yellow. One thousand three hundred pounds plus another two hundred when he dropped the yellow immediately afterward. Sayle could only watch in disbelief as Alex pocketed the green, the brown, the blue, and the pink in that order and then, down the full length of the table, the black.
    “I make that four thousand pounds exactly,” Alex said. He put down the cue. “Thank you very much.”
    Sayle’s face had gone the color of the last ball. “Four thousand…! I wouldn’t have gambled if I’d known you were this bliddy good,” he said. He went over to the wall and pressed a button. Part of the floor slid back and the entire billiard table disappeared into it, carried down by a hydraulic lift. When the floor slid back, there was no sign that it had ever been there. It was a neat trick. The toy of a man with money to burn.
    But Sayle was no longer in a mood for games. He threw his billiard cue over to Mr. Grin, hurling it almost like a javelin. The butler’s hand flicked out and caught it. “Let’s eat,” Sayle said.
    The two of them sat at opposite ends of a long glass table in the room next door while Mr. Grin served smoked salmon, then some sort of stew. Alex drank water. Sayle, who had cheered up once again, had a glass of expensive red wine.
    “You spent some time with the Stormbreaker today?” he asked.
    “Yes.”
    “And…?”
    “It’s great,” Alex said, and meant it. He still found it hard to believe that this ridiculous man could have created anything so sleek and powerful.
    “So what programs did you use?”
    “History. Science. Math. It’s hard to believe, but I actually enjoyed them.”
    “Do you have any criticisms?”
    Alex thought for a moment. “I was surprised it didn’t have three-D acceleration.”
    “It’s not intended for games.”
    “Did you consider a headset and integrated microphone?”
    “Of course.” Sayle nodded. “They’ll be available as accessories. I’m sorry you’ve only come here for such a short time, Alex. Tomorrow we’ll have to get you onto the Internet. The Stormbreakers are all connected to a master network. That’s controlled from here. It means they have twenty-four-hour free access.”
    “That’s cool.”
    “It’s more than cool.” Sayle’s eyes were far away, the gray pupils small, dancing. “Tomorrow we start shipping the computers out,” he said. “They’ll go by plane, by truck, and by boat. It will take just one day for them to reach every point of the country. And the day after, at twelve o’clock noon exactly, the prime minister honors me by pressing the start button that will bring every one of my Stormbreakers on-line. At that moment all the schools will be united. Think of it, Alex! Thousands of schoolchildren—hundreds of thousands—sitting in front of the screens, suddenly together. North, south, east, and west. One school. One family. And then they will know me for what I am!”
    He picked up his glass and emptied it. “How is the goat?” he asked.
    “I’m sorry?”
    “The stew. The meat is goat. It was a recipe of my mother’s.”
    “She must have been an unusual woman.”
    Herod Sayle held out his glass and Mr. Grin refilled it. He was gazing at Alex curiously. “You know,” he aid. “I have a strange feeling that you and I have met before.”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “But, yes. Your face is familiar to me. Mr. Grin? What do you think?”
    The butler stood back with the wine. His dead white wad twisted around to look at Alex. “Eeeg Raargh!”
    he ;aid.
    “Yes, of course. You’re right!”
    “Eeeg Raargh?” Alex asked.
    “Ian Rider. The security man I mentioned. You look lot like him. Quite a coincidence, don’t you think?”
    “I don’t know. I never met him.” Alex could feel the danger getting closer. “You told me he left suddenly.”
    “Yes. He was sent here to keep an eye on things, but if you ask me he was never any bliddy good. Spent half his time in the village. In the port, the post office, the library. When he wasn’t snooping around here, that is. Of course, that’s something else you have in common. I understand Fraulein Vole found you today…” Sayle’s pupils crawled to the front of his eyes, trying to et closer to Alex. “You were off limits.”
    “I got a bit lost.” Alex shrugged, trying to make light of it.
    “Well, I hope you don’t go wandering again tonight. Security is very tight at the moment, and as you