April by Mackey Chandler Page A

tail, or cluttered parks to site a dead drop. Everything on M3 was neat and cleaned and watched. Being systematically sneaky looked like a great deal of work. Especially if you didn't have the resources of a government or huge corporation, helping you behind the scenes. All the characters in the stories, could drop in their office and pick up fake documents and ingenious devices, as easily as she could get a new pair of footies.
    The best thing she could see happening, was a compact and unofficial alliance of Heather, Jeff and herself, agreeing to work together and not worry about recruiting others yet. The three of them were not without resources. Passively waiting and hoping it worked out OK was not her style. She just hoped Heather and Jeff would be willing to work with her. She really couldn't think of any other potential allies.
    She did something that made her feel a little dirty, but it was too important a resource to ignore. Heather and Jeff would not be on a board like My Boss, which she knew had some listings for her dad, but they might be on some gossip sharing boards, that rated small businesses or individuals. She configured a search for Don't Go There, The B*B*B, B*Bunderground, Run!Run!Run! and a few that even school kids used like, Only Your Best Friend, The Date from Hell and All Da Dirt. After she sat looking at the search field a minute she added her own name, her brother and Jon.
    It had been months since she had looked at the posts and polls for her dad or herself. Some of the remarks about her dad had hurt more than her own. Yet even the ones that plainly said they didn't like him, held a grudged respect, even if it was put sarcastically by calling him a Boy Scout.
    Posts about her tended to say she was too nosey, which she simply took to mean she wasn't sneaky enough about her snooping. But she felt good about one that said she knew where all the bodies were hidden, if you could pry it out of her. That's not so hard, she thought. Just have some decent information worth swapping!
    Heather had more entries than she did and, April could see there were more of them starting a little over a year ago, when Heather had started to really get a mature figure. There were entries about her electronic skills three years back, but a lot of the newer ones were snotty little digs, about why a major developing hunk like Jeff Singh would spend so much time with such a plain unexciting person like Heather. It was amazing how much of it was petty sexual jealousy. She still hoped puberty wouldn't make her stupid.
    April covered her own breast in an appraising hand. She barely had to cup her hand to mold the shape. If her LET doctors were right it would be a long time before she saw any change. Unless, taking so much after her dad instead of her mom, she just never got real big.  In either case it would probably be a long time before people posted snide comments about her appearance, unless they snipped about her as taking too long to develop. That would be silly with a LET patient. One poster noted Jeff hung out with Heather, because he was too smart to enjoy being around shallow, unintelligent people of either sex and too polite to tell them so. April approved of that post.
    Her dad didn't approve of these boards and refused to look at them. She wasn't going to give too much weight to these gossip boards, but if any had been completely at odds with her own opinion, she'd have tried to find out why.  Jon's ratings, both personal and professional were different. She certainly had no other friends or acquaintances described as 'hiding sudden death in both hands'. Several posts suggested he was 'unyielding' and plain old stubborn, but never fickle or undependable.
    Her brother saddened her because people were starting to catch on to him. One suggested he might require a signed contract before going on a date - if he ever did anything for fun. Another simply said - "Have your lawyer prepare the contract."  Not one accused