Tracy
“Out in the hall, now!” Beth pushed herself to her feet, leaving Tracy in a lump on the floor.
Tracy got up to follow her, but when Beth gave her a look that said, “Stay here,” Tracy sank back to the floor and did her best to look pathetic. That involved putting on the puppy dog eyes that her dad fell for every time.
Erlek humphed and shuffled into the hall. Phil followed, and Beth brought up the rear, shutting the door behind her. But just before she did so, she poked her head back through the doorway to say, “Don't worry. Everything will be fine.”
Tracy wasn't worried anymore, because she spotted something on the ceiling that made her smile. With some quick thinking, she had a revised two-part plan.
Beth's voice carried through the closed door. “…only place we're taking her is home.”
Then, there was some mumbling. Tracy was dying to know what was being said about her, but the computer was just sitting there, hers for the hacking. That was part one of her new plan. Tracy situated herself in the chair, and within seconds, she had logged in using the password she stole from Phil. Her first selection—Sleigh Routes.
When she opened the file, a little box popped up, asking whether she wanted text or graphics. She chose graphics and hit enter. A map of the world filled the screen, with the land divided into colored sections. Her own region—Florida, Georgia, and Atlanta—was purple. And within her region, there were several dozen colored lines criss-crossing the entire area.
At the bottom right corner of the screen was a button that said, “Mouse over for more information.”
“I don't care what you think.” That was Erlek. “You are coming with me, and so is that little nuisance.”
The doorknob twisted, and Tracy froze, her heart pounding in her chest. Would they notice the screen if she turned around and blocked it with her body? She was about to do just that when she heard Beth's protest and Erlek's hand being yanked from the door handle.
“Ouch!” the elf cried.
“You will convince Walt to give us more time,” said Beth, “or I'll tell him what you did last Thursday in toy storage.”
“I didn't break that many toys.”
“Five Leappads, two bicycles, and a Furby!"
"If you do that, I'll tell him about the time you…"
Tracy was still for a moment more, but when it seemed the argument was continuing, she sighed with relief and continued her task. She hovered the mouse over the Orlando area, and a text box appeared.
Name: Eugene Albert Blankenship
Region: East Orlando
Number of Houses: 708
Santa Command reloads: 5
So the guy who delivered presents to her house was named Eugene? Couldn't they have picked a guy who sounded more, well, Santa-y? Then again, if they were fooling the whole world, what did names matter? Santa was all about the look, and as long as the guy had the white beard and red suit, no one would know a thing. From what Phil and Beth had said, even Eugene didn't know it. His memory got wiped every Christmas.
Tracy's head hurt just thinking about that. She'd seen enough Star Trek to know that when people started messing with the mind, things got ugly. Did he forget other things too, like his wife's name, or his grandkid's birthday, or what he had for breakfast? Did they replace his memory with things that never happened, like a bad dream? And most importantly, did it hurt? It had to, considering Beth's reaction.
For the first time, Tracy realized she might not be safe after all. Beth seemed nice, and Phil seemed harmless, but they had a boss. And from what she'd heard, Walt wasn't a jolly guy in a red suit. He was someone to be afraid of.
“You have thirty seconds to get her or I'm calling Walt!” Erlek's voice boomed through the door.
“Oh no!” Tracy mumbled to herself. She moved the mouse to close the file, but instead of clicking the x in the corner, she moved her hand to her pocket instead. Her goal had been to find out the science behind Santa, and that hadn't changed. If she didn't get out in time, and they did manage to wipe her mind, she was going to need proof.
She pulled the turtle shaped zip drive from her pocket, plugged it into a slot on the computer, and started dragging files over to it. While the computer was transferring the third file, she got an error that said her drive was full.
“Oh no!” Tracy opened her drive, selected a bunch of files she'd downloaded at home from some video site, cut them from her drive, and moved them to the desk top. She was in such a hurry that her finger slipped, and she accidentally clicked one open. A string of numbers and letters filled the screen. She frowned. That certainly wasn't the TV show she downloaded. With no time to think about her messed up program, she closed it back up and started dragging files again.
The computer didn't like the next file. It was so big, a box appeared on the screen showing the slow, slow, slooow progress of the transfer. Tracy glanced toward the door. Phil, Beth, and the…creature were talking too low to hear again.
“Come on.” Tracy drummed her nails on the desk, and then because she thought it couldn't hurt, she took a couple of other Santa files and dragged them over to her zip drive too, hoping they'd just queue up and save her a little time.
A loud buzz came from the computer. The hard drive whirred loudly, and the mouse froze in place on the screen.
“Uh oh!” Tracy tapped, then pounded on the keyboard. The whirring sound got louder and a bright red light came on inside the computer tower. She glanced toward the door, but thankfully no one else seemed to hear it. She tapped enter a few more times, and then it happened.
The blue screen of death.
Tracy bit off a scream as she read the words on the screen.
A problem has been detected and your operating system has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. Beginning dump of physical memory.
And then a second later…
Dump of physical memory complete.
“No!” Tracy cried. “No! No! No! No!”
She pounded the keyboard, but nothing happened. The blue screen sat there, taunting her.
“Fine,” Beth yelled from the hallway, “but you need to let us talk to her first!”
Then, the doorknob turned.
Tracy yanked her turtle out of the computer and enacted part two of her plan.