Zai was downcast, overwhelmed with tragic memories and philosophical questions. Alice could only watch and hope she was getting through to her. As a rational person, she had to see the logical inconsistencies, the ambiguities in this debate. It all depended on whether she could accept reality.
Zai looked up slowly and went rigid. With resolve, she took Alice's shoulder and put her firmly back on the floor, "I'm not letting you back online."
The cyc guise worked perfectly. The Legion of Discord waited quietly inside its sack, playing prisoner. The harvester responded to the hive-mind's encrypted queries at Devin's prompting and the situation instantly diffused.
Within Harvester's databanks was a cornucopia of information about the hive-mind's functions. It was like learning a new programming language or software, and thanks to the cycs many upgrades to his mind the task was not impossible. So many alien concepts, but Devin was adapting his mental architecture to the system.
Devin hit a dead end when accessing the I-Grid. The superhighway of a data connection was gone, completely vanished. A solid stone wall stood at the Web address.
"What now?" Traveler whispered, even though their internal communications were beyond cyc detection.
Devin observed the ruined pathway, watching cyc components attempt to traffic it, hit the wall, and bounce away at the speed of light. He queried the proper cyc-components and the answer returned to him. "DataStreams' Headquarters are under attack," he announced. "They've destroyed the satellite-dish farm. All cyc components on DataStreams' Intranet are to evacuate through any available cellular connections."
"That'll take forever," Traveler laughed. "Those have one one-thousandth the bandwidth. It'll take months to transfer those trillions of terabytes."
"Yeah," Sun-Wu Kong piped in. "They're screwed."
"That's how we'll get on there then," Devin said, "Through a cellular connection."
"What?" several of the hacker said in shock.
Devin could see the lone unlikely warrior assaulting the complex on Tangier Island through the guardian-bot's optics. She charged toward the building, dodging lasers sweeping around her. Just when a guardian-bot deciphered her evasion patterns, Devin slipped up its attack so that it bore through the front legs of the bot ahead of it, which crashed just behind Dana so the other bot stumbled over it. She would reach the building safely now.
Devin sensed Traveler establish a secure connection to him, "Omni, obviously the DataStreams' intranet no longer serves a strategic purpose. There's no need for us to invade it. If the cellular connections fail while were over there, we'll be trapped."
"We're trapped anyway," Devin countered. "They control the entire Web, and outside of that, the world. We're trapped anywhere we go. The battle for territory is lost for good.. This isn't about taking it back, it's about convincing them of our right to exist."
"You're not going to do that by destroying Flatline," Traveler warned.
Devin was surprised at his transparency, "Flatline is the lock on their perceptions. If we break the lock, the hive-mind will open to new points of view."
"Omni..." Traveler began, but Devin wasn't listening to him.
Devin's thoughts were a jumble, as if his mind's schema were rearranging to accommodate the explosion of information suddenly filtering through it. Another force was at play in the conflict, an unexpected factor coordinating an orchestra of components that would convince the hive-mind to a new paradigm, except for one corrupt component standing in the way.
"It's all part of the plan," Devin muttered in astonishment, "Three fronts moving the factors where we want them. The hive-mind, Flatline, and..." he trailed off, lacking the lexicon to explain. "We remove Flatline, leaving the others to reconcile."
"Yes," Traveler said, his voice dazed in contemplation, "How do I know this?"
"What happens when two all-knowing forces collide? Who wins?" Devin asked.
"The one with the element of surprise," Traveller replied paradoxically. They were trying to wrap their minds around the impossible.
Devin shook it off and zeroed in on DataStreams' cellular connections. They were miniscule, mouse holes in the giant stone wall. Out of them streamed fleeing cycs, dispersing like shrieking wraiths into the distance. All around them more complex cycs were assembling. Wireframes traced and slowly filled with the distinctive obsidian pattern. There were thousands of them, all in various states of completion.
The unmistakable hunchback crouched close to the wall. A tendril of streaming data attached to the base of its warped spine from one of the cellular connections. It quivered grotesquely. As Devin watched, a bone grew from its torso, a network of veins following to cover it. Patches of pale skin stretched across its back, struggling to blanket exposed ribs and alien organs.
Flatline sensed Devin's charge and spun to face him, loose skin flapping where the face was not finished. A jawbone and empty eye socket were the only features present on the head's left side, but that did not prevent the angry snarl and glaring eyes on the right from almost freezing Devin in his tracks.
Still, he managed to strike, smashing the face clean off in a shower of sparks. One fully-formed arm swiped blindly at the air and Devin easily dodged out of its reach. Two stumps wiggled futilely in their sockets. The partially developed creature stumbled backwards and one good claw seized the data line, which retracted into the cellular connection, pulling Flatline with it.
Devin tried to follow, but could not access the connection. All of the cellular connections were deemed "exit only" by the hive-mind. How Flatline overrode that mandate, Devin could not replicate. He had to find another way.
Devin dialed Dana's cell phone. She answered and he hacked her ISP. The cycs on the I-Grid must have simultaneously hacked it as well, because they were competing for bandwidth, fighting to allocate it up and down stream.
It was like running against a river, data pelting Devin like a hailstorm. His mind stringed out into an inefficient ribbon, as he streamlined its architecture for easier passage. Cycs collided with him, their data intermingling with his, adding to his expanding library of facts about their virtual existence. Some cycs he caught on purpose, digesting them into his mind.
Then he was on the other side, hovering over DataStreams' vast cityscape. The cyc mass was breaking down into smaller, individual components milled around pinhole connections, struggling to escape the endangered intranet. Devin was thankful for their systematic nature, sending the most important data across first, allowing him access to some of the hive-mind's most powerful tools coming upstream.
He checked his form, and found he was no longer the harvester, but a cyc mass, occupying terabytes of drive space. The power was incredible, but there was no time to enjoy it. He detected Flatline on the I-Grid, and Flatline recognized him.
He was slammed senseless before he could even register the fact. Concept connections shattered. Devin's mind discombobulated, his thought-processes jumbled and confused. The sudden dementia terrified him and instinctively his mind came on guard, fighting back.
"Too late," Flatline snapped as a trillion different methods deconstructed Devin's mind.
Devin's concept of the self vaporized under Flatline's rage. His mental fabric, all of his thought processes shredded. All his gains during his virtual existence were being torn away.
"What are you doing?" a voice cried out in his mind, but he could not spare the thought power to identify the speaker, "Fight back! Not like that! Can't you see? He's using a Cartesian product to confuse you! That's not the way to counter it! Apply a data key! Let us help!"
Devin let go, and Flatline's attack receeded. Faster than Flatline could tear his thought-schemas apart, Devin's mind became whole once again. The speaker was Traveler. Devin's instinct was to shield the Legion of Discord against Flatline's attack, but they were eager to try out their new powers.