"That's why you became a kicker, isn't it? Because of him?"
"That's what Hiro thinks, like I worship him or something. But he's actually an advertisement for not being famous. It turned him into a big snob."
Miki laughed. "You don't have to run your brother down, Aya-chan, just because he's a big face.
We don't hate kickers - we just don't want anyone kicking us."
"Yeah, I get it." Aya shifted on her board, aligning the button camera again. "But a lot of people would love to see us surf, wouldn't they?"
"Yeah, but then everyone would start mag-lev surfing, and the wardens would get involved."
Miki shook her head. "We have to keep this trick ours. You understand that, right?"
"Of course!" Aya insisted, but Miki was still frowning. Maybe it was time to switch gears. "By the way, thanks for sticking up for me."
"No problem. Like I said, I trust you."
Aya turned to study the wall closely, the nervous trickle starting in her stomach again. "Yeah. But I still owe you one."
A tapping sound came from ahead, and they both looked up.
It was Kai, striking the wall with her flashlight as she slid through the air. Her blows echoed down the tunnel, the stone sounding as solid as a mountain.
"So that's our plan for finding the secret door?" Aya said softly. "Banging on the wall?"
"Do you think they could program smart matter to sound like stone?"
"Probably," Aya answered. Ren always said you could program smart matter to do practically anything. It was one of the big inventions since the mind-rain, like AI and internal eyescreens, innovations that the Prettytime had postponed for centuries. "But why would they bother? Whoever made that door wouldn't expect anyone to walk around down here looking for it."
Miki tapped her own flashlight against the stone - it sounded like solid rock. "So if it hadn't been for us mag-lev surfing, no one would ever have found that door." She smiled. "Maybe it's like the Youngblood cults say: Being crim can change the world."
Aya turned toward her, making sure the button cam had a shot. "And how does finding this door change the world?"
"Well ... I guess that depends on what's inside." Miki tapped the stone. "I mean, what if there's something really scary hidden down here?"
"Like a secret toxic waste dump?" Aya smiled. "Think how many merits the Good Citizen Committee would give us for uncovering it."
"Don't say that too loud, Aya-chan. Kai hates merits even more than fame." Miki tapped the wall again. "But thanks for mentioning toxic waste. That should distract me from the unscheduled train I've been imagining."
"Hey, Eden!" someone called. "Come here!"
Ahead, a small cluster of Girls had gathered around a section of the wall, all tapping with their flashlights. Aya and Miki glanced at each other, then urged their boards farther into the tunnel.
As they grew closer, Aya listened hard. Was there was something hollow about the echoing blows?
"Let me past, Nosey," Eden Maru's voice came from behind her.
As Aya slid aside, she saw the device in Eden's hands and her heart began to race. It was a matter hacker.
This wasn't just tricks; this was really illegal. Matter hackers could reprogram smart matter any way you wanted - there were whole buildings you could hack to the ground if you were crazy enough.
And all she had was this stupid button camera. Shots of an illicit matter hacker would be a total eye-kick.
Aya peered ahead into the darkness, hoping that Moggle was lurking somewhere close. She was dying to check for a signal, but her eyescreen's flicker would be a dead giveaway in the blackness of the tunnel.
The cluster of Sly Girls parted for Eden, all eyes on the small device in her hands. She pressed it against the wall, fingers running over the controls.
After a moment, she nodded. "This is it. Stand back - there could be anything behind there."
"Or any one," Miki murmured.
Aya thought of the inhuman figures again, their strange faces and long, thin fingers. "But those body-crazy freaks were just storing something down here," she said. "Nobody lives in this place."
Miki shrugged. "I guess we're about to find out."
A humming filled the tunnel as the clever molecules of smart matter began to rearrange themselves - the wall rippled, its texture changing from rough stone to the pearly sheen of plastic. The door's shape came into focus, a rectangle the exact size of a mag-lev cargo door.
Then the wall began to peel aside, one layer after another, like water sliding across a flat surface.
Just as it had the night before, the air tasted tremulous, like a thunderstorm was coming.
The tremors traveled along Aya's skin, as if the matter hacker was changing her as well...
The last layer slipped away, and the door stood open wide before them. A long hallway stretched out ahead, lit with an orange glow.
"Now this is very sly," Kai said, and stepped inside.
THE HIDDEN
The Sly Girls dashed ahead into the mountain hideaway, everyone wanting to be the first to discover what wonders were hidden here. Calls and laughter filled the air, echoing from the bare stone walls.
Aya couldn't see a single right angle, just arches and rounded corners. Every few meters, oval doorways led away to more winding halls, an undulating maze cut into stone.
"Well, whoever lives here is definitely moving out," Miki said.
Aya nodded. The main hallway was crowded with equipment and storage containers, a disorganized jumble covered with a fine layer of dust.
"Maybe we should look for those big metal cylinders," she said. "Those were the only things they were moving in last night."
"As long as whatever we find isn't alive." Miki gestured toward a bunch of work chairs crammed together in the hallway. They were the wrong shape - too high and narrow, suited for some inhuman form.
Aya shone her flashlight down at her feet. A meter-wide path of metal studs glistened from the stone floor, leading straight down the middle of the main hallway. "That's to give hover-lifters something to push against. Anything heavy would have to go this way. Come on."
The two of them followed the metal path with careful, silent footsteps. The arched doorways revealed empty rooms, dust patterns on the floor showing where furniture had been removed.