Somewhere in the depths of the mirrors, Dodger saw something move. It was distant and furtive. There was nothing in the apparent chamber to account for the fleeting glimmer.
Analysis programs received abort signals and new instructions were entered at a frantic pace: Cut and Run, Stand by for Execution.
He reached across the room, battling Sam’s hands away from their poised position above the Allegiance cyberdeck. He keyed in the run code and punched “Execute”.
The chromed mannikins in distant reflections winked out. The vanishing images continued through closer and closer planes of reflection at an ever-accelerating pace. The last images vanished, and with a pop, Sam’s icon dematerialized from the node.
Dodger was alone with what moved in the mirrors.
How he knew he wasn’t sure, but he was certain that it was coming closer.
His finger stabbed the “Execute” key.
His own reflections began the fugue of vanishing. The presence reacted, moving closer as well, racing the disappearing Dodgers. Its masking chrome dropped, the ebon boy raced around the room as though moving the icon itself might give his reflections the speed they needed to escape the presence. He felt the other nearing, but dared not look back. It was almost upon him as the last reflection vanished.
Pop.
He was panting and bathed in sweat, but he was safely back in the real world. He jerked the datacord from his jack. Sam was looking at him, bewildered. He didn’t know enough to be scared.
“What was that?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it before. In fact, from everything I do know, it was impossible.”
“But you got us out, anyway.” Sam pulled out his jack and tossed it on the counter. “I guess it doesn’t matter what it was. We got what I wanted, and now that we’re out safely, they can’t trace us.”
“So it would seem.”
“The headache is worth it. I’m sure now that Renraku didn’t order the killings. If the feathered serpent had been working for them, its medical data would have been in that file.”
“They could have hired it for the occasion.” Sam shook his head. “I don’t think so. Not if they wanted to stay legal.”
“Pray tell, why not? The contract courts would have let them invoke a termination clause on Hanae and yourself. The villains who rule there rarely check too deeply into whether said employee was really sufficiently valuable to warrant such a clause. Renraku could easily create the fiction that you were both important enough.”
Sam looked discomforted by the idea that his former corporation might do such a thing. “No. They wouldn’t do that. Even if they did, wouldn’t the Dragon have to be part of the corporation? Everyone knows that the courts are scrupulous about proper form during the invocation and execution of such clauses. The law states that any actions taken against the renegade must be taken by bona fide corporate officers.”
“The beast could have been a bounty hunter.”
“The law also says that bounties must be set and registered in court. You yourself found out that there was none.”
“Alas, Sir Corp. The legal record does not always match reality.”
“I won’t believe there was an unrecorded bounty,” Sam said, shaking his head vigorously. “Renraku wouldn’t dare risk the sanctions for disregarding the regulations, especially since I didn’t take anything. The cost would be far too high.”
“You seem well-informed on the law concerning these matters.”
“Let’s say that I recently had a sudden awakening of interest in the legal status of corporate runaways. I thought the knowledge might have a bearing on my future.”
“As it has.” Dodger shifted his chair back and stood. Placing a hand on Sam’s shoulder, he said, “With this run against Renraku, you have stepped fully into the shadows. You are now divorced from the corporations. I strip thee of the name Corp and formally dub thee Twist.”
“Thanks, I think.” Sam looked taken aback. “I guess we did O.K., huh? At least I no longer have to worry that Renraku is after me and I don’t feel guilty that the other guy took something out, making me an accessory to his theft. Like you said before we decked, if there had been a theft, the whole system would have been on alert.”
“Be not so sure that it wasn’t.”
Sam frowned, then offered a tentative smile. “Why not? I used to work there. Remember? There was no alert.”
“Then you can tell me what those mirrors were all about.”
“No, but I can tell that them were some glitches in the system. Stuff like the fuzziness in the medical datastore. You know, resolution problems. The mirrors were probably some kind of diagnostic subroutine.”
Dodger didn’t buy it, but there was no point in saying so. The phenomenon was obviously well beyond Sam’s appreciation as a decker. Sam also didn’t appreciate Dodger’s concern.
“Whatever was going on there won’t matter. I don’t think we’ll have to go back. What we learned tells me that the murderers are somewhere outside Renraku. That’s where we’ll have to do the rest of our looking.”
“First,” Dodger said firmly, “we get some sleep. You may take the first shift in the bed, Sir Twist, for I have some thinking to do.”
Actually, he had some worrying to do. Not just about the puzzle of the mirrors or the riddle of the murderers. Sam’s reaction to the Matrix wasn’t normal. Dodger had gotten a look at his datajack when he was checking Sam out on the Allegiance. The port cover had the maker’s signature: Soriyama. That name proclaimed it as one of the most expensive pieces of tech Dodger had ever seen. No street doc or hack corporate implanter had done that job. It had been put in by the best, a real cutting-edge cybertechie and there should have been a flawless man-machine interlace. Sam’s headaches were anomalous, strange enough even without the limping icon. Could the two be connected?
There was more to Samuel Verner than met the eye, cyber or otherwise.
23
“Sherman, take a look at this!”
Cliber’s shout brought Huang running to stare at her console screen. His eyes widened with excitement.
“Signal conductivity and virtual memory increases simultaneous with multi-tasking crashes, Huang muttered. “Where were the crashes?”
Cliber touched a key and highlighted the locales on the architecture construct.
“Hmmm. Intrusions in progress?”
“None on report. I’ll run a check,” said Cliber, even as she applied herself to the keyboard.
Hutten crowded in to view the display.
“What do you make of it, Konrad?”
The systems engineer looked perplexed. “OMDRs operating beyond spec. A full three banks of 77206 chips at maximum capacity, but the Haas biochip’s barely above maintenance cycle activity.” He shook his head. “I don’t know. It doesn’t match any of the expected parameters.”
“Exactly.” Huang beamed. His infectious grin spread to the other two. “We’ll need to confirm it.”
“I’ll start a full diagnostic.” Hutten returned to his own station and jacked in.
From her position at the door of the research lab, Crenshaw watched and heard all. The technical details meant nothing to her, but the excitement of the researchers communicated quite a bit. She had picked a lucky time to pass through the lab on her daily observation tour. If something significant had happened, she would report it to Sato immediately. Perhaps she could claim that her intervention had motivated the laggard team, thereby improving her standing with the Kansayaku.