Tracy Tam: Santa Command by Krystalyn Drown Page B
Authors: Krystalyn Drown
Tags: Science Fiction And Fantasy, Christmas, Holidays, Snow, santa claus, middle grade, North Pole, Chinese American, ethnic, diverse book
Ads: Link
like a bad dream? And most importantly, did it hurt? It had to, considering Beth's reaction.
For the first time, Tracy realized she might not be safe after all. Beth seemed nice, and Phil seemed harmless, but they had a boss. And from what she'd heard, Walt wasn't a jolly guy in a red suit. He was someone to be afraid of.
“You have thirty seconds to get her or I'm calling Walt!” Erlek's voice boomed through the door.
“Oh no!” Tracy mumbled to herself. She moved the mouse to close the file, but instead of clicking the x in the corner, she moved her hand to her pocket instead. Her goal had been to find out the science behind Santa, and that hadn't changed. If she didn't get out in time, and they did manage to wipe her mind, she was going to need proof.
She pulled the turtle shaped zip drive from her pocket, plugged it into a slot on the computer, and started dragging files over to it. While the computer was transferring the third file, she got an error that said her drive was full.
“Oh no!” Tracy opened her drive, selected a bunch of files she'd downloaded at home from some video site, cut them from her drive, and moved them to the desk top. She was in such a hurry that her finger slipped, and she accidentally clicked one open. A string of numbers and letters filled the screen. She frowned. That certainly wasn't the TV show she downloaded. With no time to think about her messed up program, she closed it back up and started dragging files again.
The computer didn't like the next file. It was so big, a box appeared on the screen showing the slow, slow, slooow progress of the transfer. Tracy glanced toward the door. Phil, Beth, and the…creature were talking too low to hear again.
“Come on.” Tracy drummed her nails on the desk, and then because she thought it couldn't hurt, she took a couple of other Santa files and dragged them over to her zip drive too, hoping they'd just queue up and save her a little time.
A loud buzz came from the computer. The hard drive whirred loudly, and the mouse froze in place on the screen.
“Uh oh!” Tracy tapped, then pounded on the keyboard. The whirring sound got louder and a bright red light came on inside the computer tower. She glanced toward the door, but thankfully no one else seemed to hear it. She tapped enter a few more times, and then it happened.
The blue screen of death.
Tracy bit off a scream as she read the words on the screen.
A problem has been detected and your operating system has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. Beginning dump of physical memory.
And then a second later…
Dump of physical memory complete.
“No!” Tracy cried. “No! No! No! No!”
She pounded the keyboard, but nothing happened. The blue screen sat there, taunting her.
“Fine,” Beth yelled from the hallway, “but you need to let us talk to her first!”
Then, the doorknob turned.
Tracy yanked her turtle out of the computer and enacted part two of her plan.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Santa Command—Main Frame
December 25 th
0140 hours
Phil hovered behind Beth's shoulder as she opened the door. He had no idea what she was going to tell Tracy. This was about as bad as things could get.
But when the door was fully open, he saw the frozen computer. He also noticed that the girl was nowhere in sight, and he realized things were about to get a lot worse.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Tracy
Tracy barely fit into the crawl space above the ceiling. When she first spotted the hatch, she assumed it was like her attic back home, large enough for her to walk through without ducking her head. Instead, Tracy found it difficult to even crawl. The floor was made up of narrow strips of plywood with nothing but the drywall of the ceiling and fluffy white insulation on either side of it. Tracy had no choice but to follow the path laid out by the boards. Because of the pipes and cables running across that path, she had to sometimes stretch out on her belly and wriggle
For the first time, Tracy realized she might not be safe after all. Beth seemed nice, and Phil seemed harmless, but they had a boss. And from what she'd heard, Walt wasn't a jolly guy in a red suit. He was someone to be afraid of.
“You have thirty seconds to get her or I'm calling Walt!” Erlek's voice boomed through the door.
“Oh no!” Tracy mumbled to herself. She moved the mouse to close the file, but instead of clicking the x in the corner, she moved her hand to her pocket instead. Her goal had been to find out the science behind Santa, and that hadn't changed. If she didn't get out in time, and they did manage to wipe her mind, she was going to need proof.
She pulled the turtle shaped zip drive from her pocket, plugged it into a slot on the computer, and started dragging files over to it. While the computer was transferring the third file, she got an error that said her drive was full.
“Oh no!” Tracy opened her drive, selected a bunch of files she'd downloaded at home from some video site, cut them from her drive, and moved them to the desk top. She was in such a hurry that her finger slipped, and she accidentally clicked one open. A string of numbers and letters filled the screen. She frowned. That certainly wasn't the TV show she downloaded. With no time to think about her messed up program, she closed it back up and started dragging files again.
The computer didn't like the next file. It was so big, a box appeared on the screen showing the slow, slow, slooow progress of the transfer. Tracy glanced toward the door. Phil, Beth, and the…creature were talking too low to hear again.
“Come on.” Tracy drummed her nails on the desk, and then because she thought it couldn't hurt, she took a couple of other Santa files and dragged them over to her zip drive too, hoping they'd just queue up and save her a little time.
A loud buzz came from the computer. The hard drive whirred loudly, and the mouse froze in place on the screen.
“Uh oh!” Tracy tapped, then pounded on the keyboard. The whirring sound got louder and a bright red light came on inside the computer tower. She glanced toward the door, but thankfully no one else seemed to hear it. She tapped enter a few more times, and then it happened.
The blue screen of death.
Tracy bit off a scream as she read the words on the screen.
A problem has been detected and your operating system has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. Beginning dump of physical memory.
And then a second later…
Dump of physical memory complete.
“No!” Tracy cried. “No! No! No! No!”
She pounded the keyboard, but nothing happened. The blue screen sat there, taunting her.
“Fine,” Beth yelled from the hallway, “but you need to let us talk to her first!”
Then, the doorknob turned.
Tracy yanked her turtle out of the computer and enacted part two of her plan.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Santa Command—Main Frame
December 25 th
0140 hours
Phil hovered behind Beth's shoulder as she opened the door. He had no idea what she was going to tell Tracy. This was about as bad as things could get.
But when the door was fully open, he saw the frozen computer. He also noticed that the girl was nowhere in sight, and he realized things were about to get a lot worse.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Tracy
Tracy barely fit into the crawl space above the ceiling. When she first spotted the hatch, she assumed it was like her attic back home, large enough for her to walk through without ducking her head. Instead, Tracy found it difficult to even crawl. The floor was made up of narrow strips of plywood with nothing but the drywall of the ceiling and fluffy white insulation on either side of it. Tracy had no choice but to follow the path laid out by the boards. Because of the pipes and cables running across that path, she had to sometimes stretch out on her belly and wriggle
Similar Books
