"Closing in. We lost that cam."
"I think you picked up another one, then. Look at the windows."
Aya frowned. "What windows?"
"Any windows," Ren said. "They're all the same!"
"What are you ?" she began, but as they slipped out from beneath the meditation pool, a broad, old-style mansion sprawled out in front of them, its windows glowing with wallscreen light.
All of them were flickering togetherhundreds of windows darting from light to shadow in unison, all tuned to the same feed.
"Uh-oh," Frizz said. "Do you see that?"
"Yeah." She swallowed. "Everyone's watching one feed, which almost never happens, unless " "Either Nana Love just got engaged," Frizz said, "or exactly one hovercam is shooting us."
Aya turned her head, scanning the air around them. Finally she saw it: another paparazzi cam a few meters away, its tiny lens focused directly on her face.
"Crap," she said.
Then she saw the swarm, dozens more hovercams sweeping in from every direction, in every shape and size. Clouds of them maneuvered together, whipping through turns like schooling fish.
"Just go, Aya!" Frizz shouted.
"Blind them, Moggle!" She leaned forward, shooting straight toward Shuffle Mansion.
Moggle zoomed along behind, its night-lights pointed backward on full, the pursuers' lenses glittering like firework weeping willows across the sky.
By the time they reached Shuffle Mansion, the swarm was catching up, wrapping around them, shooting from every angle as she dropped toward the mansion steps.
"Good job losing them," Hiro said dryly, turning to the door. "Let us in, quick."
"I apologize," the door said. "But Shuffle Mansion is a secure building."
"No kidding," Aya said. "That's why I'm here. I'm declaring um " "Legal residence," Hiro prompted. "Apartment thirty-nine."
"I'm declaring apartment thirty-nine as my legal residence. And requesting full privacy!" she said.
"Oh, and by the way, I'm Aya Fuse. Um, hi."
The door paused a second, ruby jitters of laser flickering across her face and hands. Over her shoulder, a wall of hovercams was gathering, all screeching to a halt at the privacy limit. A few skidded too close and instantly dropped from the sky. Serious privacy was Shuffle Mansion's trademark.
The door opened with a soft shushing sound.
"Declaration accepted," it said. "Welcome to your new home, Aya Fuse."
The windows framed the city's skyline like a painting, gathering vistas of the sea, the mountains, even a glimpse down into the big soccer field. The views were perfect Except for all the cams.
There weren't as many now that the chase had ended, but a few dozen still lingered at the fifty-meter limit. Aya could see the curve of the privacy barrier in the way they wrapped across the skya literal reputation bubble around the mansion. Even Moggle had to wait outside, because the halls were privacy-monitored as well.
Aya waved, hoping Moggle could see her.
"Close windows," Hiro ordered from where he squatted on the floor.
For a second, Aya wondered why the room didn't obey himthen grinned.
"This is my room, Hiro! You can't tell it what to do."
"Rooms," Ren corrected. "Plural."
Aya laughed, turning her platforms frictionless to skate across the apartment. The arm-spreading luxury of space followed her everywhere, especially the walk-in closets waiting to be filled. Aya had already stuffed her slime-spattered party dress into the hole in the wall, and she wore new shoes and a Ranger coverall with internal heating, built-in water filters, and countless pockets.
It was also slime-resistant.
"So you don't mind those freaks looking in at us?" Hiro asked. "They can watch the feeds too, remember?"
"I guess so." She sighed, waving the windows opaque. "Maximize privacy and security."
"Yes, Aya-sensei," the room said.
"Did you hear that?" she said, spinning in place. "The room keeps calling me sensei!"
"You are top one thousand," Ren said. He was stretched out on the floor, staring up at the chandeliers, both eye-screens glittering.
"Top twenty," Aya said. In fact, all four of them were sensei nowthe others had been swept up in her reputation spiral.
"Let's all agree that Aya's quite famous, shall we?" Hiro said. "Now can we get back to business?"
She skated to a halt and shrugged.
"What business, Hiro? Tally should be landing soon, then we do what she says."
"You mean you don't want to kick any of this?"
Aya rolled her eyes. The mind-rain had happened after Hiro had left school, so he'd missed all the lessons about Tally Youngblood. He didn't seem to realize that once she got here, everything would be okay.
"We wait for Tally before we decide anything," she said. "We're safe here, right?"
"Looks like it." Ren rapped the opaque window. "Hey, room. What's this made out of?"
"A layer of artificial diamond blended with smart matter and electronics," the room said.
"Designed to protect residents from fame-stalkers and nano-snoops. Impossible to penetrate."
"We should have come here first," Hiro said. "But you guys had to go sense-missing over doing exactly what Tally-sama told you."
Aya snorted. "You wanted to go back to the bash, Hiro! Do you really think a bunch of pixel-heads would have saved me?"