‘Okay, people,’ Skater announced after popping in her ear buds and activating her comms. ‘I’m in position. So who’s ready for some fun?’

‘Can I please remind you’, came her father’s voice in her ear, ‘that this is an important mission and you’re supposed to be acting responsibly. You’re not there to have fun.’

Skater rolled her eyes. ‘Dad. I’m stealing a computer from a university. How, exactly, am I supposed to do that responsibly?’

‘And anyway, Pete,’ Morgan chipped in. ‘Committing crimes is fun, as you well know.’

‘Whose side are you on?’

‘Mine, of course,’ Skater added quickly. ‘As always.’

‘Enough,’ Captain Mackie barked, and the chatter immediately stopped. ‘Let’s get to work. Mobile, are you set?’

‘All set,’ Skater replied, in her most responsible-sounding voice.

‘Evac One?’

‘In position,’ Pete answered. ‘Ready to go.’

‘Evac Two?’

‘All systems green,’ Morgan said.

‘Technical?’

Silence.

‘Technical?’

‘That’s you, Leo,’ Skater added, helpfully.

‘Yeah, I know,’ came Leo’s flustered voice. ‘Just hang on a sec. I need to…do a couple…of things here.’ There was a long pause. ‘There. All sorted. Sorry, I mean, Technical standing by.’

‘Good. Mobile, you can go ahead and power up the glasses.’

Skater pressed the tiny pad on the side of her sunglasses that switched them over to interactive display mode, and information began to appear across the lenses as built-in microprocessors identified everything she was looking at.

‘I have video,’ Leo announced. ‘Signal’s clean and image is good. Just give me a quick three-sixty.’

‘Okay,’ Skater announced as she spun slowly around. ‘So welcome to Mars Minerva University. Here I am inside the main campus atmosphere dome, where someone has taken some quite pretty Terran gardens and dumped a load of ugly great buildings down on top of them. And as you can see, the place is triple-bursting with people.’

‘It’s the start of term,’ Leo replied. ‘Hundreds of new students. Which is why we chose today for our mission. Now try not to turn your head so quickly. Make your movements slower and more flowing, otherwise the cameras won’t be able to keep up.’

‘Okay,’ Skater replied, flicking her head quickly from side to side. ‘So not like this then?’

‘And try not to talk so much. You’ll draw attention to yourself.’

‘Right, because no one else is doing that, are they?’ She panned around slowly again, giving Leo a view of the nearby students. ‘Take a look. Half the people here are talking to their phone screens or eye slates and no one’s looking at them as if they’re mad, bad, or on a secret stealth mission.’

‘Mobile!’ Mackie interrupted.

‘Okay,’ Skater said, dropping her voice. ‘Once we’re inside I’ll shut up and be serious. And talking of inside…’ She looked up at the glass-walled building directly in front of her, and almost immediately her sunglasses identified it. ‘According to my super specs, this ugly blue diamond is the Department of Engineering and Computer Sciences. That’s our building, right?’

‘Right,’ said Mackie.

‘Although technically it’s an icosahedron, not a diamond,’ Leo added.

‘Whatever that may be.’

‘It’s a twenty-sided regular polyhedron.’

‘Well good for it. Do I care?’

‘I’m just trying to be helpful. Anyone who was actually a student there would know what shape their building was, that’s all.’

‘Don’t push it. I can hear you smiling, brainbot.’

‘Come on people,’ Mackie cut in. ‘Time to focus. Save the joking for when we’re all back home. Mobile, off you go. And remember, as long as you act like you know what you’re doing, no one’s going to bother you. Not for the moment, anyway.’

‘Got it,’ Skater said and took a deep breath. ‘I’m going in.’

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