Alex stared at the message from the wireless detection software.

“Forty connections detected? What does that mean?” Kateri demanded.

“It means that in this immediate vicinity, there are forty people connected to a wireless signal broadcasting from an unknown access point somewhere in this area,” Dad said in a slightly strained tone.

“Where would the signal be coming from?” Kateri asked.

“Hm. Did you see anyone carrying in a parabolic antenna?” Dad asked.

“Sort of like a large satellite dish?”

“One of the guests did have an awful lot of luggage,” David said.

“My guess is that the unknown access point is a satellite connection, and that’s what they’re all using to connect. A private satellite network they set up in the hotel.” Dad glanced out the window. “Or maybe in the woods.”

“So forty people using a private satellite network. And the bizarre thing is,”

Alex said, mentally checking his reservation book. “We only have thirty-nine guests checked in.”

This sank in.

“So chances are that our guests,” Dad said slowly, moving the mouse over his screen, “are all techies.”

“Or cyberthieves.” Kateri supplied.

They all continued to gaze at the monitor. Forty unique wireless connections. And thirty-nine guests had arrived in masks. And possibly someone else was in the woods, with a satellite dish, helping them all to communicate.

“The oddest thing,” Alex murmured, “is that we can’t tell if this is an emergency or not. Yet.”

“Maybe you should call that FBI agent, just to see what he says,” Kateri suggested.

“Not a bad idea,” Dad pulled out his cell phone. “Rats. No service.”

Alex immediately checked his again. “Okay, mine’s still off too. Dad, someone’s running a jammer.”

“Use the landline,” Kateri said, getting to her feet.

But when Alex picked up the hotel phone, it was dead.

“I’m going to guess that whoever disabled the internet connection cut the phone lines too,” Dad said.

“But it wasn’t cut when we were down in the basement a few minutes ago,”

Alex said. The two men looked at each other, and thought the same thing.

Alex ran to the family living quarters and grabbed a bokken from the weapons wall. Kateri followed him. “What are you doing?”

“Going to check the basement for rats.”

“You’re crazy.”

“Stay up here.” He shrugged off the red jacket and pushed the blade of the wooden sword through his belt loops, figuring that the chances of his looking like a medievalist fool were diminishing, and hurried to the basement steps.

He opened the door softly, and looked downstairs. The lights were on.

Stealthily, he sidled down the steps. He heard someone moving about below, and, drawing his sword, mentally prepared himself.

When he reached the bottom, he saw that the utility room door was propped open. Inching his way towards it, he could hear someone. When he peered in, he saw a large heavy-set man wearing an albino Wookie mask crouched in front of the main circuit board for the hotel. The hairy head turned when Alex came in, and immediately the man drew a semi-automatic.

Instinctively, Alex brandished his sword, but he was aware as he did so that he had chosen to carry a non-lethal weapon, and that the man had the upper hand.

“Get back against the wall,” the man rasped.

Alex obeyed, but didn’t relax his two-handed grip on the sword.

The Wookie came closer, fiddling in his pocket. He pulled out a pair of handcuffs as he came through the door into the hallway and advanced on Alex.

“Put down the toy sword,” the voice came through the mask. Alex fixed his eyes on the gun. Definitely not a toy. Deadly, gleaming blue steel.

“Come on, move it!” ordered the man, motioning from side to side with the gun, and, staring at the gun, Alex caught a glimpse of a white dot on the side of an angled metal switch. In a second, he realized what that meant. The gun’s safety was on.

It would only take a second for the man to click it off and fire, but Alex seized his fraction of an advantage and swiftly swung his sword, simultaneously lunging out of the line of fire.

With a crack, his wooden blade landed on the flat of the man’s hand. The man roared in pain and dropped the gun.

Alex reached down for the gun, and in a split second recognized he’d made a mistake as the Wookie launched forward. Shoot.

Next thing Alex knew, he was flat on the floor with the big man on top of him, and he had lost both his sword and the chance of grabbing the gun.

Snarling, the man punched Alex in the side with his good hand.

Alex twisted around, trying to get out from under the man, but the Wookie pushed his fat stomach right onto Alex’s face. Unable to breathe, Alex gasped and tried fruitlessly to free his nose and mouth while the man grabbed at Alex’s arms. Realizing he was about to get definitively pinned, Alex decided to squeeze himself further under his opponent. With a violent effort, he pushed himself downward, towards the man’s feet, evading the man’s brawny arms. Yelling, the man tried to regain his hold on Alex, but Alex, wriggling ferociously, popped out from under the man’s side and tried to scramble to his feet. But the Wookie grabbed him by the legs and tackled him again, causing Alex to trip and fall, this time on top of the handcuffs.

This guy might not know how to fight, but he knows how to use his weight. Alex pushed himself up on his elbows and with a fierce twist, smashed the Wookie in the face with his right elbow, changed direction and grabbed the Wookie’s arm to shoulder-roll his opponent over and off him. The Wookie landed flat on his back with a crash, and a relieved Alex jumped to his feet and lunged for the gun—only to be stopped by a wrenching pain in his wrist. Stunned, he glanced down and realized that during the grappling, the Wookie had snapped the handcuff on his left wrist. Now the masked man had Alex chained, and was holding the other cuff in both his meaty hands.

Desperate, Alex tried to snatch at the gun with his free hand, but it was just a few feet too far away. Quickly the Wookie yanked hard on the cuffs, and Alex, thrown off balance by his reach, went down. The big man kicked him in the side, and bent over to pick up the gun himself, but Alex kneed him in the gut.

When the man stepped back, gasping, Alex regained his feet. With a roar, the big man swung Alex around into the wall, out of reach of the gun.

Winded, Alex tried unsuccessfully to jerk the cuff out of the man’s hand, but the Wookie still wasn’t letting go. He tried to pull Alex closer, but Alex swung away, circling him, avoiding the metal support pole in the center of the basement room.

Alex was thinking fast. If I can get the cuff out of his hand, I could loop it around my own fist and use it as a brass knuckle. That might be enough to give me a slight advantage. But the Wookie had a good grip on that cuff and was angling himself to pull Alex into a headlock.

Let me see if I can use that weight of his against him. Alex tugged on the cuffs, and the man tugged right back. Hoping to throw him off, Alex pushed his cuffed hand suddenly towards the man, and the man predictably pushed right back at him. Seizing the moment when his opponent was off balance, Alex aimed a quick blow at the nerve cluster of the man’s forearm. He struck, hard.

The man let go of the cuffs and fell—but unfortunately Alex had misjudged both his own position and the man’s weight. The Wookie-man plunged right into him, crushing Alex to the ground for the third time. Stars flared up in his vision as he lay stunned on the floor.

The Wookie creaked to his feet, using Alex’s stomach for help. Vaguely Alex became aware that the man was dragging his hands together. The handcuff snapped around Alex’s other wrist. Captured, Alex realized he had only one last chance to defeat him. And I’d better not mess up this time.

He pulled up his knee and simultaneously grabbed a handful of the furry white Wookie mask with his cuffed hands, yanking it downwards so that the man’s forehead made contact with Alex’s bent knee. The man howled, and Alex furiously smashed the man’s head down on his kneecap again.

With a whimpering groan that sounded strangely in character, the man sank to his knees and wavered.

“No,” whispered Alex, but too late—the man collapsed right onto Alex’s stomach, a dead weight.

Handcuffed and trapped beneath his fallen opponent, a breathless Alex struggled to get free. He looked up and saw Kateri standing on the cellar steps, her face white as her uniform.

“May the Force be with you,” he managed to say.

She ran to him. “It looks like the Force is on you.”

Alex stifled a laugh: his ribs hurt too much. “Yeah. I’d be much better if this particular Force was not with me. Can you check to see if he has the handcuff keys in his pocket?”

Fortunately, Kateri found them after a quick search and unlocked Alex’s wrists. Groaning, Alex pushed his fallen assailant off him with Kateri’s help.

“Cuff his hands together around that metal support pole over there. Thanks.”

She started to, but glanced at Alex with a queer expression on her face.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

He put a hand to his head and felt a wet mass in his hair. Somewhere along the line, he’d gotten a gash on his head. It wasn’t large, but it probably looked bad. Head wounds bled a lot. Quickly he pulled his gray polishing cloth out of his pocket and mopped up the wound, glad to have the cloth on hand.

“I’m okay, thank God. But we’re not out of this yet. In fact, it’s barely started.” Shaking his head to clear it, he got to his feet and retrieved his sword, and the gun. The handgun was heavy, and he checked to see if it was loaded. It was.

A chill went down his spine. The gun was loaded. This guy could have shot me.

Why didn’t he?

He stared at the unconscious masked man. “Was he carrying a wallet? Any ID?”

“No. Seems to me that they’re pretty concerned about keeping their identities secret,” Kateri said, indicating the mask.

“Yeah,” Alex said, regarding the Wookie face. Suddenly in a burst of curiosity, he yanked off the hairy mask. Beneath was a bearded, red-haired man who looked vaguely familiar. The man mumbled, but didn’t regain consciousness.

“I know who he is,” Kateri whispered. “I’ve been seeing his picture on the FBI website. He’s William Radnor Gaston. One of the top wanted cybercriminals in the country.” She took a deep breath. “I think we’re looking at one of the cyberthieves.”

One of the cyberthieves, Alex realized. He swallowed, feeling his wound and bruised ribs, and tried again to breathe normally. And the other thirty-nine were upstairs. And his family was trapped on a mountainside, far from help. With no cell phones. And, from the looks of the sliced wires in the panel, no phone lines and no internet.

He scrambled to his feet. “We’ve got to get the police.”

Kateri joined him. “It might be harder than you think. Your dad’s been trying to get onto that satellite network, but it’s pretty well secured. He’s pretty sure they’ve got something set up in the woods. And there are quite a few men just hanging out at strategic places in the parking lot.”

Thirty-nine cyberthieves. Surrounding the hotel, hemming them in.

“Right.” Alex steadied himself on the metal pole, thinking fast. “Through the woods. It’s the only way down. Come on!”

They raced upstairs. “Your mom won’t be able to make it down the mountainside,” Kateri said breathlessly as they hurried to the living suite.

Alex had already realized that. “We’ll send Sam and David. The rest of us will stay here and hold them off.”

Back in the living room, all of the male members of the family had taken their individual swords from the weapons wall. Alex quickly told them what had happened and what should happen next.

“I bet they’ve got a person watching each of the exits. But there’s the pool fence.” He glanced out through the window at the eight-foot-high iron rail fence that surrounded the back of the hotel. “That might not be guarded. Sam and David, can you make it over the fence, quick?”

“No!” exclaimed his mom, just as Sam and David both said, “Yes.” She argued, “Alex, they’re too young! And if these people are armed…”

“Mom, the guy downstairs had me under gunpoint, but he didn’t try to shoot me: I suspect he—or someone in charge—wanted to take me alive. I admit, it’s not much to go on, but since we don’t have much to go on, let’s assume the others will act the same way.” He took a deep breath. “I’ll create a diversion. I’ll go straight out the front door and try to make a break for one of the cars. I bet they’ll try and stop me. Maybe they’ll capture me, but at least it might let Sam and David get away. They can get into the woods, run down the mountain, and call 911 as soon as their cell phones are clear.”

His mom’s face crumpled, and she looked down at her shriveled legs. “If only I were healthy,” she whispered. “I’d get over that fence myself. But now I’m just a burden…”

“Stop that!” Dad said firmly, squeezing her shoulders. “For better or worse, Kitty. In sickness and in health. And we’ve made it this far. If we’re going to be hunted down and shot—or not shot—I’d rather the boys get out if they can.

And I’ll go down defending my bride, to the death if necessary.”

Mom blinked at him and managed a smile. Dad said, “We’ll barricade ourselves in the back room, and I’ll keep trying to break into that network and jam their communications. It's encrypted, but I'm going to keep trying.”

“I think you two should keep the gun,” Alex said, handing him the captured handgun and giving his mother a quick kiss. “Wish me luck.”

“The luck of the O’Donnells,” his dad said solemnly. “And our prayers.”

Alex glanced at Sam and David, who looked soberly back at him. “Okay guys? Remember your training: ‘A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must desire life like water and drink death like wine.’”

Sam pushed his blond hair out of his eyes and nodded, but David just checked his sword blade with a slight incline of his head. Alex took a deep breath, hoping he didn’t look as nervous as he felt, and glanced around.

“Where’s Kateri?” he said suddenly.

“Right here.” She appeared in the doorway, holding the white-furred Wookie mask in her hands and wearing a strange look on her face. “Who were you quoting just now”

“G. K. Chesterton. Why?”

She shook her head and muttered something that was obscured as she slid the Wookie mask over her face.

“What are you doing?” Alex asked as she tucked the strands of her black hair inside the mask and straightened her white uniform.

“Hoping to confuse the enemy,” she said, her voice muffled by the mask.

“And maybe find out what’s going on.”

Kateri’s heart was racing as she slipped out into the lobby, sweating slightly beneath the white Wookie mask. She was carrying Mr. O’Donnell’s cell phone and tried to walk nonchalantly, like a guest in the hotel on vacation.

She crossed to the breakfast area and tried to think of what she could do that would seem normal. Noticing that she’d already prepped the coffee machine for the morning, she flipped it on. Yeah, she’d make some coffee and wait for something to happen. Sam and David, weapons in hand, had already stolen out to the pool area. She hoped that no one was watching for them out there. And Alex was waiting to make his move.

In the lobby, everything looked absurdly neat and deserted, so much so that Kateri felt reality was out of joint. Aside from the handcuffed man in the basement and her mask and throbbing heart, everything might be normal at the Twilight Hills Hotel. The summer evening sun was sinking into the western ridge of the mountains. The floor tiles were gleaming, newly washed by Sam and David. The pavement of the parking lot looked smooth and undisturbed in the fading light.

Alex, his bloody face and rumpled black dress shirt a stark contrast to normality, strode into the lobby and looked around, sword in hand. He had tied the gray cloth around his head like a pirate’s bandana. Even though she was pretending not to see him, she noticed he had switched the bokken for the katana—his real, lethal sword. Dimly, she recalled that he had said several times that he wouldn’t use that sword unless he were prepared to kill someone. Seeing the sword made her realize how dire their position actually was.

Alex put a hand on the door’s metal handles. For a moment, he looked out at the still twilight. Then, whistling a tune that sounded vaguely Irish, he pushed open the door and stepped outside.

A strong desire to live combined with a strange carelessness about dying.

“Hey! Excuse me!”

Midstride, several yards from his car, Alex paused, sword in hand, and turned. There were five masked figures outside, some of them hanging out by the shrubbery and smoking. But Alex noticed that now they were hurriedly butting out their cigarettes as one man, dressed in a Freddy Kruger mask and gloves, came forward swiftly towards Alex. Sword at the ready, Alex eyed the man’s gloves and wondered if there was a chance the embedded knives were real weapons. But they looked like rubber ones.

“Yes? Can I help you?” Alex said courteously.

The man halted a safe distance from Alex’s blade. “Nice sword,” he said.

“Yeah, thanks,” Alex said. “I’ve just got to run out. Anything you need?”

“Actually, there is,” said another man wearing a Joker mask, stepping forward. He was a tall, thin man, wearing cargo pants and a tight black shirt that revealed his biceps. Deftly, he reached into his pocket and pulled out two slim metal cylinders linked by a silver chain. “We need you to stay right where you are. Sorry, you can’t go anywhere.” He swung the cylinders in a tight circle, and flipped one back over his shoulders.

Alex took a deep breath and bellowed his signature battle cry that was Sam and David’s signal. “SAC-RA COR!”

As he guessed, several people who had apparently been standing in the woods came running towards him. They halted as the Joker advanced on Alex.

The dark green hair of his mask sticking out in every direction, the Joker flipped the nunchucks forward and twirled them with an expert hand. They looked heavy and dangerous, and even Alex’s katana seemed frighteningly slender by comparison.

Kateri, her eyes fixed on the men surrounding Alex, heard someone else coming out into the lobby and turned with a start. Two more masked figures holding cell phones were approaching.

One was a blue-faced alien with long white hair, and the other was some sort of superhero Kateri couldn’t place.

“Has it started already?” the alien asked in what was clearly a woman’s voice. The superhero, probably a man, shrugged. Kateri made an incoherent movement with her shoulders.

The alien girl picked at her mask. “Can’t wait till I lose this. The whole gaming charade is so lame.”

The superhero gave a hollow laugh. “I’ve never actually even played a video game. Spend all my time on mainframes. Had to nip this thing from eBay.”

The alien chuckled. “Yeah, database reconfig is my thing, not timewasting.”

She turned to Kateri. “But I have to say, I like your ‘Planet of the Apes’ look.”

“Thanks,” Kateri said, straightening her white cotton uniform.

“Do you know what we’re supposed to be doing? I’ve been waiting for instructions from Admin.”

“Admin wants everyone to remain in their hotel rooms until further instructions are given,” Kateri said in her most authoritative voice.

“Really?” The superhero said, holding up his phone. “That’s not what I read.”

Kateri lifted her chin beneath the mask and decided to keep bluffing.

“Remember why we’re here, and who we’re after. Someone’s been jamming communications. Sending out incorrect updates. Admin told me to stay here as the fail-safe.”

“Oh,” the man said, sounding surprised. “Do you know Admin?”

Again, Kateri gave a noncommittal shrug. “I have instructions to tell everyone to remain in their rooms until the signal is given.”

“Oh!” said the alien and the superhero together. They both began sidling out of the lobby. “We’ll just go back and wait then,” said the alien.

“What should we wait for? What’s the fail-safe signal?” the superhero asked.

Kateri tried not to hesitate. “I’ll be going from door to door with further instructions.”

“Right then.” Both the masked figures hurried from the room and Kateri turned away from them, trying not to breathe too hard. She gave a fleeting glance towards Alex, then hurried into the hotel office as fast as she could.

Nunchaku. As the Joker came forward, Alex gripped his katana with both hands and held it out in front of him at the ready, his mind racing through martial arts theory. He’d fooled around with flail weapons, but had never encountered them in a serious fight. What do I know about nunchaku? First strike and defensive weapons, used to block and trap. And technically, flexible weapons trump bladed weapons.

…Okay. Guess I don’t know much.

Guess I’ll have to find out what he knows first.

He locked his eyes on the center of his opponent’s body as the Joker circled slowly around him. Alex tried to back himself in a corner by the cars, and determined to swing the instant the man made any move.

I’ve got a 28” blade with maybe a three-foot reach. He’s got a reach of about two feet with those clubs. So theoretically, I should be able to get him before he gets me.

The Joker whirled his clubs with such force that his fellow attackers took a step or two back. Alex managed to keep his blade steady as the Joker flipped back the club over his shoulder and advanced again.

Seeing an opening, Alex raised the blade to strike when suddenly the Joker lunged forward, whipping the nunchaku at Alex’s wrists with smashing force. In surprised agony, Alex dropped his sword, but, desperate not to be disarmed again, he snatched and caught the wooden handle before it hit the pavement, dropping and rolling to barely escape being hit on the back. Alex swung up to his feet, gripping his sword even tighter, breathing hard, his hands flaming with pain.

Are my fingers broken? He couldn’t tell. For a fleeting instant, he dropped his eyes to his fingers. The Joker noticed and laughed beneath his mask.

“Did I give you a finger fracture?” the masked man taunted. “If I were you, I’d put that sword down. And then I won’t hurt you too bad.”

Alex took a deep breath. Kateri was depending on him. His whole family was depending on him. Every moment he could delay the cyberthieves in their attack on his family gave Sam and David more time to get to the police.

Okay. Got to make sure I swing wide. Don’t let him get that close to me again.

Alex swung. The Joker leapt back, snapping the nunchaku into a shield and blocked his blow. Then he struck back again, but Alex easily avoided it, now that he knew to keep his wrists away from the twirling flails. He thrust again, and the Joker swung.

Crack!

His blade thrown back by the power of the blow, Alex swung around and regained the ready position, only to stare in horror at the end of his sword. Six inches of the blade had snapped off. The advantage of his reach was almost gone.

This is not good. Not good at all. And the Joker was advancing, the rubber mask leering as he snapped his chucks into a shield again. When Alex swung, the Joker raised his arms, wrapped the flails, and neatly caught the blade in its iron grip. The sword blade was trapped.

Metal squealed against metal as the Joker and Alex closed, Alex fighting to twist his blade free from the chains. The Joker laughed. Alex drove a side kick into the man’s leg, and then followed with another into his ribs, pulling the sword violently in the opposite direction. The blade swung free, yanking the nunchaku out of the Joker’s hands. As Alex swung his sword around to regain his balance, the jagged tip raked the Joker’s pants, slicing the fabric and digging into the skin.

If my blade had been longer, I’d have sliced his artery, and he’d be in trouble.

Alex met his opponent’s gaze, and saw the same thought in the Joker’s now-fearful eyes.

The Joker retreated to the protection of the others, clutching his bleeding thigh. Taking advantage of the distraction, Alex ran through a gap in his attackers.

“Stop or I’ll shoot!” someone shouted, but Alex didn’t stop. He tried to make a break for the driveway, but two figures with guns, Jar Jar Binks followed by a ninja, emerged from the woods and blocked him. Alex skidded and turned towards the hotel, slamming through the glass doors into the lobby. Amazingly, no one fired.

In the office, Kateri was ransacking the contents of the desk, trying fruitlessly to search through Mr. O’Donnell’s computer debris. Where is it?

Where is it?

In agony, she stared at the humming computer screen, wishing that she had extended her cleaning activities to Mr. O’Donnell’s jungle of an office.

Suddenly, she blinked. The cursor was moving on the screen. On its own.

Slowly, Kateri took the mouse and opened a text box. She typed: 

CKTC?

There was a pause, then the cursor clicked on the box and typed: 

Kitty’s Kat frend?

She typed,

Where is the emergency locking key?

In a second the answer came back:

Purple keycard=Top upper drawer

Gasping in thankfulness, she dug through the mess of junk in the right hand drawer and at last she spotted it: the purple plastic card.

Grabbing it, she typed frantically,

Going to lock some doors.

She hurried out of the office just in time to see Alex disappearing into the hotel kitchen, followed by several masked men. More men were hurrying across the lobby, and some of them were waving guns.

Her heart in her mouth, Kateri ran for the doors, pulled them closed and slid the emergency keycard through the slot, locking them.

Then she rushed down the hallway to the guest rooms, ignoring the banging and shaking on the doors behind her.