The Leveller by Julia Durango

phone,” I tell him, keeping my voice as low as possible, and wait until I hear Moose’s signature greeting in the background.
    â€œHow’s tricks, Nix?” he mumbles through what sounds like a mouthful of something. Peanut butter Pop-Tart, if I know Moose.
    â€œListen,” I say. “I’m on a job and don’t have much time. You guys need to stay off any and all nonreg frequencies until you hear back from me. Don’t sell any more or give any out either. It’s important.”
    Chang and Moose don’t say anything for a moment. I imagine them looking at each other, silently assessing my strange request.
    â€œLook, Nix, it’s a holiday weekend, Christmas in the MEEP,” Moose finally says. “That’s big business for us. Half the high school’s texting us for overrides.”
    â€œWell don’t give any more out,” I insist, trying not to raise my voice. “Look, you guys, I’m not messing with you. It’s dangerous. No more hacks.”

    â€œWhere are you, Nixy?” Chang asks.
    â€œCan’t say.”
    â€œYou’re working for Diego Salvador, aren’t you?”
    â€œWhy would you say that?” I snap, inwardly cursing the Spock-like Chang and bracing myself for the checkmate I know is coming.
    â€œOne, you don’t have a great-aunt Martha. Two, my uncle is a janitor at the airstrip. He saw you and Vic board a Cessna Mustang this morning. And three, how else would you have inside information about the hack frequencies?”
    â€œWhatever, Sherlock,” I say. “Just do what I ask . . .
please
?”
    â€œAll right, we’ll comply,” Chang says, though I hear Moose groan in the background. “But you have to bow out, Nixy.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œDon’t do it, whatever Diego Salvador is asking you to do.”
    â€œWhy not? It’s good money, Chang, and I’m already here.”
    â€œSo I was right,” he says.
    Damn. I just gave away my hand like an idiot.
    â€œThink about it, Nixy,” Chang continues. “If Salvador has hired
you
for a levelling job, that means no one else—not even his best programmers—could get the job done. Something’s not right about that. You need to walk away.”
    â€œBut it’s his
son
,” I say, figuring I might as well let the whole mewling cat out of the bag. Chang will figure it out sooner or later, just like he always does. “He’s run away inside the MEEP and left a mess behind him.”
    â€œThen let Diego Salvador go in and find him. It’s their mess, not yours. Let them deal with it. This is none of your business.”
    â€œChang’s right,” says Moose, his voice serious now. “Let those rich people sort out their own problems. You need to come home, Nixy.”
    I sigh. “Look, guys, it’s nothing I can’t handle. And besides, Salvador employs both my parents. Just lay off the hacks until I get back, okay? I’ll even split some of my paycheck with you. Gotta run.”
    â€œNixy—” Chang starts, but I hang up before he can say anything else.
    It’s showtime.

SIX
    OKAY, SO WYN SALVADOR LOOKS LIKE A SLEEPING ANGEL, IF ANGELS are hot guys with long lashes and lips that beg to be kissed. This irritates me, as I’d rather he sported a jerk face when I give him the takedown he deserves.
    An older woman sits at his side and smiles at me sadly. “He is a handsome boy, yes?”
    I can’t help but smile back at her. This must be Mama Beti, and she is, quite frankly, as adorable as her name. She wears a flowered cotton sundress and a matching yellow wrap around her head that shows off the fine angles of her face, the coffee-with-cream color of her skin, the deep brown eyes and long lashes. Both the Salvador men—father and son—obviously inherited their looks from this woman.
    Mr. Salvador, Kora, and Dad are all