Cyberpixies

By CJ Moseley

Life had always been fairly normal for Max Carter. Well, fairly normal for an orphan who had been raised by hippy grandparents.

All he wants for his 13th birthday is a phone or maybe a laptop, like all his friends, but the Olds aren't really the type to buy either for him. Imagine his surprise then when his other Grandparents show up, and bring him a lot more than he expected.

Not only does he have a phone, and a laptop, but he gets a present from his parents that is going to change his life, forever.

This is the first book in a new series that mixes humour and fantasy with computer science, written by British Indie SF Author CJ Moseley especially for younger readers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jul 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9780244320676

Book preview

Cyberpixies

CYBERPIXIES

By CJ Moseley

Lulu Ebook Edition 2017

Copyright © 2017 by CJ Moseley

ISBN: 978-0-244-32067-6

You can contact the author at his website http://www.cjmoseley.co.uk or on twitter @CJMoseley

The right of CJ Moseley to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Cyberpixies is a work of fiction that references pop culture. Names, characters, companies, places, events and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental or intended to be satirical.

All rights reserved.

To my sons, Jack and Alex, because they asked to read one of my books.

Chapter 01: Thirteen Candles

Chapter 02: Crash and Burn

Chapter 03: Going Viral

Chapter 04: A Little Too Creative

Chapter 05: And Home…

Chapter 06: The Yves

Chapter 07: Somethings...

Chapter 08: Cyberpixies

Chapter 09: Myths

Chapter 10: Hobart’s Truth

Chapter 11: The Third Phase

Chapter 12: Atomics

Chapter 13: Usr2

Chapter 14: Audio-Video

Chapter 15: The Theft

Chapter 16: Digging At The Roots

Chapter 17: Evidence

Chapter 18: Heist

Chapter 19: Posted

Chapter 20: The Army

Chapter 21: A Dish Served Cold

Chapter 22: A Quick Brew?

Chapter 23: By The Numbers

Chapter 24: Models

Chapter 25: Variables

Chapter 26: Climbing The Tree

Chapter 27: Geet and the Olds

Chapter 28: Conditional Branches

Chapter 29: In The Library

Chapter 30: Data, Objects & Functions.

Chapter 31: World Wide Web

Chapter 32: Syntax and Language

Chapter 33: The Highs and Lows of Lunchtime

Chapter 34: Dark Clouds

Chapter 35: UR N Trbl

Chapter 36: Trains of Thought

Chapter 37: Through Town

Chapter 38: The Truth

Chapter 39: Home

Chapter 40: The Raid

Chapter 41: The End

A Note From The Author

Chapter 01: Thirteen Candles

Today is his thirteenth birthday, have there been any signs?

There is nothing on social media, in the news, or on governmental sites. What should we do?

"Keep watching, today is the day, I am sure. How there’s been no sign of him yet is a mystery. Maxwell must be out there somewhere."

We will continue the search with the agreed parameters.

Expand the search, check all Max’s who create accounts today, and any that receive birthday wishes.

Are you sure, my User? That will be a rich search, worldwide in scope, there will be many false positives, and it will consume a lot of bandwidth.

Bandwidth be damned, we must find him.

Yes, sir! We will expand the search.

--//--

Hey, Max! Happy birthday Dude! Dave Brockhurst called from by the green school gates, causing the whole gang and a few others to turn and grin in his direction.

Max died a little inside from everyone staring, but smiled and waved, Thanks Dave.

Dude?! Really Dave? Dude? Hey Max, happy birthday, man, James Murray laughed, playfully shoving Dave aside with an open hand on his shoulder.

Dave danced and hopped, swinging his arms to catch his balance, What’s wrong with dude? Have you not seen ‘The Great Lebowski’?

Max smiled as James looked puzzled, Is that the bowling one?

Alhasan Malik grinned, leaned forward, and said, Happy birthday, Max. Get anything good?

Thanks Al, the Olds gave me a book of fairy tales that used to belong to my mum, which was nice, but… Max shrugged.

You did not just call ‘The Great Lebowski’ that bowling one, did you? There’s bowling in it yeah, but — Dave turned on James, that’s like calling ‘The Great Escape’ that Nazi one!

Nah, that’s that Motorbike-jumping-the-barbed-wire one. The Nazi one is ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’. Thought everyone knew that, James grinned.

I— What?! Why am I even friends with you? Dave grumbled.

You’re not; we’re both just friends with Max. Besides, that movie’s an eighteen. No way my folks would let me watch it — You’ve probably only seen the TV cut anyway. So, Max, did you get the phone you wanted? James asked.

No, he got given a book. Like, who reads anyway? Al answered.

I thought you read the Koran? Dave asked.

Yeah… Well, that’s different. That’s religion, Al replied.

Bad news about the phone, but I’m glad I didn't get you a Google Play card now, James said and handed Max an envelope, Happy Birthday, Max.

Oh, thanks James, Max laughed as he ripped the envelope open and pulled free the birthday card. He found a ten-pound note sticking out of the card, and quickly pocketed it before opening the card and reading the weak punchline inside.

Sorry about the card, my Mum found it, Dave said as he pressed an envelope into Max’s grip.

Max ripped the plain envelope to reveal a football themed boys card. He laughed, That is really, truly rubbish, thanks Dave.

Then he opened it and caught the twenty-pound note that tried to escape. He met Dave’s eyes.

Dave grinned, Yeah, to make up for the derpy card.

Al shrugged, "Sorry, my Dad said birthday cards and giving presents, is makruh, or Bid'ah. Therefore, I don't have a card or anything. A good Muslim does not wish someone a happy birthday either, apparently, but I know that’s rubbish because my Aunt always Skypes us on Dad’s birthday and she wishes him blessings. So blessings to you Max. "

That's alright Al, I understand. Olds be weird, Max grinned.

Well, look here lads, what have we got here then? A birthday princess? a new voice said, behind Max.

The gang all froze, smiles vanished as they looked behind Max.

There was a giggle, Good one, Kyle, another voice laughed.

Max turned slowly, he could feel his good mood getting flushed away by an approaching birthday swirly, or worse, "What do you want, Kyle?"

Oh, Max. How kind of you to ask. Seems my mum forgot to give me enough money for my lunch today, and I thought, what with you being so rich, you might share the wealth a little, Vile Kyle Hyssop smirked, surrounded by his own gang of enforcers and criminal wannabes.

Why would I do that Kyle? Maybe your mum thinks you’re getting a bit fat and doesn't want you to eat so much, Max snapped, getting a laugh from his friends, and drawing a smirk from some of the bullies.

Least I got a mum, you ain’t, have you? And you ain’t going to have any money after, neither, Kyle snarled.

He stepped forward raising a thick, meaty fist. Max flinched, expecting the punch.

Kyle chuckled, Yeah, that’s what I thought, hand it over.

Leave the kid alone, Hyssop, Rick Murray, James’ bigger brother said, stepping between them, It’s his birthday, he can go a day without you hassling him. I’m surprised at you, Pete. Helping Kyle shake down year nines of their birthday money, seems low even for him.

At over six feet tall, Rick towered over the squat fifteen-year-old bully, and the scrawny thirteen-year-old Max. He looked into the group of bullies, all year elevens, and all bigger than Max and his friends.

Peter Ford, at the back of the bullies, blushed and stuttered, Carter called Kyle fat, and was waving money around when Kyle hasn't got enough for lunch today. That’s all that happened.

Kyle is fat, wouldn't hurt him to skip a meal or two, and as for waving money around, looks more like he was waving cards and ripped envelopes around to me. Have you wished Max a happy birthday yet, Kyle? Rick grinned.

Kyle blinked like a cat, No, I didn’t.

Rick grabbed Max’s shoulder and pulled him forward, Well, no time like the present.

Max tried to back away, Rick stopped him and nodded.

Kyle’s eyes burned with hate as he said, Happy Birthday, Carter.

Good. Right, run along then lads, bell’s about to go, Rick said.

Thanks Rick, James muttered as he turned away.

Rick replied with a wink. Max and his friends headed into the school.

I, for one, am completely fed up with Vile Kyle. In fact, I’d go as far as saying the whole school is pretty sick of him, Dave said, once he had established that Kyle and his mates were not right behind him.

Yeah, James agreed, The guy is a prize nozzle.

Good thing, your brother turned up, Al told him.

Well, it saved my birthday cash. By the way, thanks guys.

They stopped by their lockers and dropped off some of their books and stuff. Then they headed up to registration. There was the usual nonsense from the various clubs and so on, as well as the tedious calling of the register, before the bell rang again.

Max sighed, he had Computing next.

For most kids in year nine, the class was easy, but for Max who lived with his rather eccentric Grandparents, it was almost impossible.

He had no real experience with electronics, and certainly not the instinctive understanding of his friends. They never understood why he couldn’t remember web addresses, or how to copy and paste, or how to zoom the screen. For them, using the school computers and tablets was easy, fun even, for Max it was torture.

He got up and left the Form room, everyone else laughed about some YouTube video they had seen. Max spotted Kyle Hyssop lingering in the corridor, who looked back at him with smile that said, see you later, Max.

Happy birthday, Max, Max whispered under his breath and shoulders slumped, he shuffled off to his first lesson.

Chapter 02: Crash and Burn

Computer science did not go well.

About half way into the lesson on Internet Communications, Dave sent him a Happy Birthday message across the network. Max clicked on the bin to delete it, but after the message was gone, the computer went crazy. The screen scrambled and became flashing colours and filled with random letters and symbols. Then it locked up entirely. No matter what Max did, he couldn’t get anything to work. He put his hand up.

Mr. Green, the ICT teacher, was quite angry. He said that Max had done it deliberately, ordered Max out of the seat and tried pressing some combination of keys on the keyboard.

The machine went to a black screen then a loud crunch noise came from somewhere inside it.

That’s it Carter, you’ve broken it! Get away from any computers. I don't know what you did, but you can explain yourself to Mr. Pale! Mr Green yelled.

He made Max stand in the corner for the rest of the lesson, while everyone else worked through the tutorial.

Max spent morning break waiting with Mr. Green to see Mr. Pale the Head-Teacher.

Mr. Pale had listened to the story, and then asked Mr. Green if he had any idea what Max might have done to the computer.

Looking quite smug, Mr. Green answered, Well, he might have installed a virus, or somehow killed the kernel, or perhaps sent some sort of static shock to the CPU, but honestly I don’t know.

Mr. Pale had looked at Max for a moment before replying, "Given Mr. Carter’s test scores, and general ability with anything logical or technical, do you really think it likely that he has become some sort of super-hacker on his thirteenth birthday?"

Mr. Green admitted it was unlikely.

Well then, Vincent, unless you are claiming discovery of some sort of mutant computer gene, I suggest that we let Mr. Carter head off to his next class, Mr. Pale had said, with a twinkle of humour.

The two teachers muffled voices raised with anger after he closed the door, but the school secretaries were in the office, so Max didn’t stop to listen.

He caught up with his mates, just as they headed into Mathematics. He didn't even manage a groan this time.

He took his seat silently, and hoped, not for the first time that the lesson would either make sense, or that he’d fall into a time-warp and skip the whole thing.

He had no such luck.

Mr. Hobart waited for everyone to settle down and then launched into the lesson.

Dave leaned across to Max, Have you got any idea what he’s talking about?

Max shook his head, Not really, wait did he say, algebra. Didn't we already do algebra; it's the one with letters that might be numbers isn't it?

Yeah, we did algebra, Dave said, and put his hand up.

— year more complex formulae, such as these examples, called— yes, David what is it?

We already did algebra, sir, Dave said, which drew a few giggles, and some groans from the rest of the class, What? Well, we did.

Mr. Hobart pulled one of those faces that teachers have to pull for reasons of sanity from time to time, as he very slowly and carefully said, Yes David. As I was just saying you’ve looked at the basics of formula and algebra before, but it gets a lot more complicated from here on in — And people, please try to listen when the flappy hole in the bottom of my face is making noises; the whole teaching process tends to work better that way.

Dave slumped down in his chair blushing hard across his neck and ears, How was I supposed to know what he was saying, he muttered.

"Jesus on a unicycle, David! Shut up and listen; that’s how you are supposed to know what I’m saying. I literally just covered that. Pay attention, all of you, especially you, Maxwell! Yes, you, Mr. Carter. Look at me properly, sit up, and pay attention. Right, where was I?"

James lifted his head slightly from the textbook and said, Infinite series and binomials, sir.

Ah, thank you Mr. Murray. Yes, we won’t get to them, this year, but we will be headed in that direction. Right, first we'll have a little reminder on the algebra you have already covered, for the benefit of masters Carter and Brockhurst.

There was a groan from the rest of the class, and then Mr. Hobart asked them to turn to a page of the textbook and start working.

Max and Dave struggled through the first couple of questions.

Right, you should have had plenty of time to answer those, what has anyone got for the first, yes Regan?

Regan Fairchild said, X equals six.

Okay, anyone else get anything different? Yes, Geet?

Geet Kashyap smiled at Mr. Hobart as she said, X equals four, sir.

Alright, show of hands, how many of you got four?

A few hands went up, James and Dave included, Max didn't stir.

And six?

A few more hands joined Regan’s.

Mr. Carter, what did you get?

Um, X is equal to… Um… Two and three-eighths?

Are you asking me or telling me, Max?

Sir?

Never mind, if you got four along with Miss Kashyap, well done, as that’s correct, you may read chapter 8 and make a start. Everyone else, I guess we should review how to work these, again. Max, can I take a look at your working, please.

Max held up the book.

No, bring it up here, Mr Hobart sighed.

Max sighed right back and shuffled to the front of class, and handed over the book.

Mr. Hobart looked down at the scribbled workings. Then he looked up at Max, Wow, I’ve got to say Max, I have no idea what you were trying to do here. Right, everyone not working, pay attention, we’ll work through the first problem together.

He wrote the equation out on the board and handed Max the marker, Right what do I mean when I save solve for X, Max?

You want to know what X is? Max grunted.

Right, but what does that mean? What do we have to do to find X? Hands down class, I want Mr. Carter to get this.

I don’t understand, sir. I mean X is right there! Max pointed at the X in the middle of the formula.

There were some chuckles from the class.

Yes, it is, but we want to find the number that X stands for. We want to change the formula so X is on one side of the equation and everything else is on the other side.

Oh, right. Um, we can take X over here, by dividing both sides by X?

Mr. Hobart grinned, Okay a bit long winded, but it will work, so do that then, and write out what it looks like, please.

Max squealed the pen around the board, Like that, sir?

Mr. Hobart glanced over, Yes, perfect, okay… David, what’s the next step?

Dave obviously panicked he looked at his own work and then stared at the board, I took the eight across, sir.

So you divided both sides by eight? Mr. Hobart asked.

Dave shook his head, No sir, I took eight from both sides, so that side had a zero and that side a minus eight.

What do you think Max? Was he right?

Um, I think he should have divided it, like I did for the X, and then we could turn the whole thing upside down, to put the X and the eight on the top and the two on the bottom.

Show us what you mean, Mr. Hobart said, watching the class.

After some more squeaks and squeals, he glanced back smiling, So Dave, what is X?

Dave said, Four, sir.

Correct, oh and Max the whole thing could have been done in one step, can you see that way now?

Max stared at the board, Oh, yeah, I could have just divided both sides by two at the beginning.

Right, maybe there’s hope for you after all. Go and sit down. Oh and I’ll take the pen back, thanks. Okay everyone, stop what you’re doing and we’ll work through another one on the board that isn't in the book.

He laid out a much more complicated formula on the board. The X was buried deep inside brackets, with a square root sign over it, and a two on the bottom.

Okay, so anyone want to suggest how we start? he asked the class.

Geet Kashyap raised her hand, Double both sides, square both sides, divide by three, and then square root both.

Right, but I asked how we should start, not get the answer. David, care to walk us through what Miss Kashyap just said?

Do I have to, sir? Dave asked.

Yes, and for that you can come up and do it in front of everyone. Come on, here’s the pen. Get going.

Dave fumbled around the formula for a bit, before he forgot what Geet had said, and got tangled up in the equation.

Are you stuck David? Mr. Hobart asked him. After Miss Kashyap practically gave you the answer, too.

It’s alright for her, sir. Geet’s Indian, they like invented maths, Dave joked, and maths is genetic.

There was a cold silence.

Mr Hobart sighed, Well, by that logic Maxwell should be just as good as Geet. His father was a maths genius. After we went to university together, and he beat me in every single exam, he created a new encryption algorithm, and with a few friends founded UrSec.

Max raised his hand.

Yes, Max?

You knew my dad, sir? Max asked, apart from his Grandparents this was the first time he’d ever heard anyone say that

Mr. Hobart looked a little nervous, Yes, Max, but—

The bell rang, Mr. Hobart glanced at his watch, as the class hurried to pack their stuff up Well, that’s that, do the questions on page 34 before the next lesson.

The class groaned.

Careful or I’ll add page 35 as well. Run along now, Mr. Hobart finished.

Chapter 03: Going Viral

Imagine Hobart knowing your dad! Weird, huh? James said as they left the classroom.

Weirder than weird, said Dave, That was like a creepy pasta.

Al shot Dave a strange look, but Max said, It was a bit strange, I wonder why he never mentioned it before? Two and bit years seems a bit of a long time to wait before just dropping it into conversation.

Al nodded, It is strange that he chose today, if he knew your father, might he also know today is your birthday? Could it be that the information was some sort of present?

James laughed, It’ll be coincidence, not some kind of birthday conspiracy.

Max nodded, Yeah, besides the school knows it's my birthday, so the teachers might know that anyway. In some schools they get all the kids with birthdays up in an assembly at the start of the day, because embarrassment is the gift that just keeps giving.

I don't know, it was well weird, Dave commented.

The made their way to the dinner hall and joined the queue for food.

Is it me, or is the line really slow today? Max asked, as they waited outside.

It is moving rather slowly, wonder what the choices must be; are they all good, or more likely, all bad? James mused, before he held his hand out and looked up, Surprised it’s not raining...

Then another voice interrupted him, Carter! An’ your ‘ickle gang… I wonder if you’re gonna be as lucky this time. I don’t see Minty anywhere, do you lads?

Max groaned as he recognised the voice.

Give it rest, Kyle, James sighed, then noting the three bullies properly asked, Are you sure you want to get into this without Dustbins and Ford as back-up?

Shut up, Mini-mints, said John Richards, one of the thuggish bruisers who hung out with Kyle.

On Kyle’s other shoulder, Barry Cooper chuckled, Yeah, Mini-mints. Good one, John.

Junior mints, you idiots! I said call him Junior Mints, Kyle snapped at his friends, putting both in a darker scowl than normal. Anyway, this is nothing to do with you, Murray. Carter owes me money.

Max snorted, I do not!

Sure you do, Kyle growled, "You owe me the money you didn’t give me this morning. Plus