When I woke again, the sun was coming up. At least I assume it was - it was getting lighter outside, though the sun was invisible behind the orange-grey murk that blanketed the sky. We were still on the Northway, probably somewhere between Lake George and Albany, to judge by the traffic and the eight-lane highway. Joe was awake, too, and had taken over control from the Tank's autopilot. Max was also awake, looking somewhat more rumpled than he usually did, but still neater than I usually did. Jack was still curled up, asleep on my shoulder.

"Morning?" I inquired.

"Yup," Joe replied, then observed, "You're awake. How 'bout Sleepin' Beauty back there?"

"Uh... Jack's still asleep, I guess. Does that mean we have to find a prince to kiss her?"

"Why don't you give it a shot, Prince Charmin'?" Joe asked.

I could feel myself turning red to the tips of my ears, but managed to keep my voice light as I replied, "I'm afraid she'd turn into a frog."

Joe laughed, saying, "Nah, but she might turn ya into a newt."

"I'd get better," I answered, in a bad British accent.

Joe laughed again, then turned serious. "What're we plannin', with this whole CeNYDEx deal? You have any ideer?"

I sighed. "Not really. We probably ought to stop somewhere and make some sort of plan. Then we'll have something to fall back on when winging it doesn't work out."

"We could do our plannin' on th' way," Joe suggested.

"We could," I replied, "except that we don't know where we're going, exactly, 'cause we don't know what we're doing."

Joe shrugged. "Old rest area up here. I can stop there and we can do some plannin'."

Joe was as good as his word, bringing the Tank to a stop in the turnout, rumbling over the random urban debris that lay scattered around the rest area. The place looked long abandoned, and the big green sign that announced "FACILITIES CLOSED" was full of bullet holes. As the Tank lurched to a halt, Jack stirred and opened her eyes.

"Why're we stopped?" she asked, blinking sleepily as she looked around.

"We're doing a little planning of strategy," Max informed her.

"Oh," she replied, sitting up and stretching. "I thought we were just going to do what we tried on CI."

"Well, we could," I said, "but the situation is completely different."

"Is it?" Jack asked. "We're trying to get them off my back, same as before, and in order to do that, we have to get some leverage on their bossman."

"Yeah, and we're probably going to have to search their system to do it. Their system's not set up the same way as CI's, though, so our plan's going to have to be different."

Jack shrugged. "That's tactics, not strategy," she pointed out. "Max said 'strategy'."

"I humbly apologize for mis-speaking and misleading you," Max said.

He looked so contrite that Jack giggled and said, "Sorry, Max. I was just being picky." She paused, then added, "Okay, we've got to do some planning. Anybody got any bright ideas?"

I shrugged. "We ought to start with the situation, I suppose."

"Right," Jack said. "What do we know? Tom, what kind of info did you get from your friends back in Burlington?"

"A basic system map, addresses and descriptions of the major access points, a street address for their installation..." I said, recalling what I remembered from my brief scan of the data as I'd downloaded it. I quickly browsed through it to find anything I'd forgotten, data flowing rapidly across my retinas. "Also a couple of spysat photos of it," I added. "Taken by... well, by the National Weather Service."

"Amazing what you can do with a weather satellite," Jack observed.

"So the question is, how can we use all this information to help us gain entry?" Max asked.

"Wait," Jack said. "Take it back a step farther. Do we really need to get in?"

"That's th' assumption we've been operatin' under," Joe pointed out.

"Well, yeah," Jack agreed, "but that doesn't mean that it's correct. We need to find out something on them. If we can do that just by hitting their system, there's no need to try to get into their building."

"Wait," I interjected. "Another thing. Do we really know who we're after, here?"

"We're after CeNYDEx," Jack stated. "I found that out last night, remember?"

"No," I replied, "I mean, who, specifically. We're not after the whole company, just whoever's hiring people to come after you."

Jack shrugged and replied, "So we need to find out who's in charge, then. Their president, or CEO, or whatever."

I started to say something else, but Max spoke first, saying, "No, Tom's right. These things don't work quite in that manner. It's a little thing called `plausible deniability'. Their CEO wouldn't order anything like this, and, in fact, probably doesn't know more than vague details about your situation, if he even knows that much. He probably has an unofficial assistant or two who have the job of taking care of the corporate interests by any means necessary. They would be the people we're after. If we were to discredit or take other action against the boss, they'll have a new one installed within an hour, and the people who are after you will be doing exactly the same thing working for the new boss."

Jack nodded. "Okay, so we have to find out who's in charge of their covert affairs, or whatever."

"Mr. Johnson, he's called in the trade," Max put in.

"Right," Jack replied. "I knew that, I think. Anyway, we have to find out who he is, and how we can nail him. Any bright ideas on how to do that?"

No one spoke.

"Okay, first things first," I said, after a reasonable period of silence. "We need to find out who this guy is. We can hit the CeNYDEx system and search their databases for anyone who might be connected with the attempts on Jack. After we find out who he is, we can worry about what to do to him and how."

"Sounds good," Jack agreed. "Are you going to hit them, or should I?"

"Both might be better," I replied. "From the information I've got here, it looks like pretty secure system. A couple steps up from what I'm used to dealing with, anyway. We need Matrix access, though..."

Max cocked a finger at the graffiti-covered public 'com booth that sat a dozen meters away on the other side of a strip of dead grass.

"Oh. Right," I said.

"Shall we?" Jack asked.

"It's as good a place as any," I replied.

Joe and Max glanced at each other. "We'll make sure no one drops in on ya," Joe said.

We all climbed out of the Tank. As we strolled towards the 'com booth, Max stopped, turned, and said, "Whoops. It seems we have company."

The rest of us turned to look. There was a vehicle rolling bumpily towards us - a sleek, low-slung Eurocar Westwind, painted pale blue and white, with a security company logo and the words "City of Albany" on the side. The red light bar and the gatling cannon covered by the translucent retractable fairing above the right front wheel confirmed that it was a security vehicle. The low sports car seemed to be having a little more trouble with the debris that cluttered the pavement than the Tank, with her heavy off-road tires, had had. The Eurocar pulled up behind the Tank, and a pair of cops, both human, both wearing official-looking black flak-jackets, got out. They flanked the Tank, one passing her on either side as they moved towards us.

When they were at what I suppose they thought was a safe range, the one on the left spoke up. "We're with Albany Security. Would you mind telling us what you're doing here?" he said, in an official voice.

"It's a rest area, isn't it?" Max replied. "We stopped to rest." He casually stretched, rolling his shoulders, causing his massive musculature to ripple and bulge, and yawned, showing his pointed teeth and twenty-centimeter tusks.

The cops looked somewhat taken aback by this display. They didn't quite step back, but I could see them considering it, especially after they realized that they were in range of the troll's long arms.

"Um... well, yeah," the cop responded, his Voice of Authority wavering slightly. He got it back under control after a second, adding, "Well, perhaps you'd better be moving along. This rest area's closed."

"It's just the facilities that're closed, isn't it?" Jack asked, innocently, gesturing towards the run-down and thoroughly spray-painted buildings.

"Well..." the cop allowed. "Perhaps you'd better be moving along anyway."

"S'right, officer," Joe said. "We don't wanna make any trouble fer ya."

The cops moved back, letting us get back into the Tank. Joe started her up and rolled away, merging smoothly with the traffic on the Northway. The Westwind followed us, but got hung up waiting for an opening in the constant stream of cars. The little sports car was still sitting there, crouched at the end of the on-ramp like some frustrated predator, when we lost sight of it.

I quit craning my neck back, looking for the copmobile, and asked, "Okay, now what do we do?"

"We still need to find a place where we can use the 'com," Jack stated.

"How 'bout findin' a cheap motel room with a 'com?" Joe suggested.

"Around here, if it's cheap, it's not going to be a room," Jack replied. "It'll be a padded coffin... without any 'com."

"Okay, so we'll find an expensive motel room," I answered. "All we need is the 'com."

Joe shrugged and guided the Tank off the interstate at the next exit. We wound up in narrow, dirty streets that ran between faceless buildings. Joe's driving never faltered - I think he had the Tank's automap in his head the same way I had a couple meg of goods on CeNYDEx in mine. After a while, we emerged into a strip - six lanes of pavement separating two rows of motels, fast food joints, and service stations. Joe picked out a motel, apparently at random, and pulled into the parking lot. He took a space some distance from the main entrance and stripped his rigger jacks off.

"You two," Joe said, his index and middle fingers pointing at Jack and I, respectively, while he rummaged through a compartment under the middle of the Tank's dash, "go get th' room." He found what he was looking for - a fat wad of scrip, held together by a rubber band, which he tossed to me. "Give any name y'like... desk clerk'll assume th' obvious," he leered at us, and we both blushed, "an' ya won't raise any suspicions. Y'can let Max 'n' I in th' back way."

I tucked the wad of cash into my inside coat pocket and hopped out of the Tank. Jack came around the other side and joined me, and we started walking towards the front door of the motel. Halfway there, Jack slipped her arm around my waist and moved in close, walking with her hip pressed against mine.

I glanced at her, slightly surprised, and she whispered, "If we're playing the part, we might as well make it believable."

I nodded silently and threw an arm over her shoulders, which quickly turned into a hand on her shoulder because she was too tall for the arm over her shoulders to be comfortable. When we entered the lobby, the room clerk - a bored young lady lounging behind a filthy counter - gave us a knowing and indifferent look.

"We'd like a room for a day," I told her.

She eyed us both, then said, "Fifty nuyen," and went back to buffing her nails.

I dropped fifty nuyen in scrip on the counter. She glanced at it, then said, "We don't take cash."

I laid down another ten-yen on top of the five of them that already graced the counter, then slowly added more. When there was a hundred nuyen total, the clerk scooped it up and made it disappear, then slid a keycard across the counter. "Room 131," she said. "First floor, on the end."

I thanked her, and Jack giggled, in a manner that put me in mind of cheerleaders. The girl ignored us both, her eyes traveling to a telecom monitor in the far corner of the room. We headed towards the end of the motel. As soon as we were out of sight of the lobby, Jack dropped her arm and said, "Sometimes I wonder if acting like that will permanently affect my brain."

I laughed and replied, "I doubt it."

Max and Joe joined us as I was carding my way into room 131. The place was tiny - maybe three meters on a side, with ceilings that made Max stoop - and contained nothing more than a bed, a telecom, and a small table.

Joe looked around and said, "Home sweet home."

"'Com sweet 'com," Jack corrected, heading for the telecom. She sat down on the floor in front of it, powered it up, sought out a datajack, and plugged her deck in. I sat down next to her and plugged my own deck in. "Any last minute suggestions, advice, or plans?" Jack asked. "Anyone?"

"After we jack, I'll give you the data I got from my friends at ThoughtWorks," I told her. "Might be handy for more than one of us to have it."

"Right," Jack agreed, then took a deep breath and began to chant softly. It sounded Latin. She traced a symbol on the top of her deck with one fingertip, then lifted the jack to her temple and jacked in.

I glanced at Joe and Max again, then jacked in myself. The world spun for a moment, then steadied down to a generically decorated node. I half-expected bar codes and black block lettering saying "SYSTEM ACCESS". Jack's cybercat form waited for me. Seeing her, I remembered the data I had for her, and began to drag it up out of storage memory.

"Here," I said, when I was done. "Now you know as much about where we're going as I do."

Jack took control of the datablock and downloaded it quickly - much more quickly than I'd been able to. Faster decks do have their advantages.

"Great," she said. "I think I might have felt better being ignorant. We'd better get moving before someone traces us."

That reminded me that we were in enemy territory now, even before we got anywhere near their main system. The lines we were using belonged to CeNYDEx, and they could track us far more easily here than they'd been able to over CI's lines. And they'd been able to track Jack well enough over CI's lines to send a hired suit after her. I wouldn't have been surprised if there were alarms going off somewhere at that very moment.

"Right," I replied. "We've got to do this fast and slick."

"There's no other way," the cybercat replied, lightly, and began to move. I followed her, sliding through the LTG, zeroing in on CeNYDEx's coordinates.

Their system looked impressive. It was a mountain of steel looming up from the datascape. The Grid warped around it, all the lines coming together to form a single massive trunk that flowed into a gaping cavern mouth at the base of the mountain. This was the center of the net - at least of this portion - and everything came together here. From the peak of the mountain, another broad dataline shot heavenward. That would be the link to the RTG.

I checked my headware memory (an odd sensation, the data displayed on my retina overlaying the artificial image of the Matrix, but one I was used to), then said to Jack, "If our sources are right, that," - I indicated the giant trunk line leading into CeNYDEx's system - "is not the only way in. There should be a maintenance access somewhere, so they don't lose the whole fragging Grid if their front end goes down."

"Right," Jack replied. "I think I've got it."

I followed her as she drifted down the dataline, the one we were on joining with others to form the main trunk. Just short of the point where everything was swallowed by the cavernous maw of the mountain, a single slender dataline separated from the rest. Jack followed it, and I followed her. It brought us to another entrance to the mountain, a low, narrow tunnel blocked off by a heavy iron grate. I almost switched into combat mode to check out the grate, but caught myself in time.

"I'm going to have to disable the combat mode switch on my deck one of these days," I commented to Jack.

She looked back at me, then grinned (not a pleasant expression - there were all these sharp teeth... I think her upper canines were supposed to be hypodermics), and said, "So that's what happened to you before. Switched and your deck hung?"

I nodded. "Looks like we're going to have to get through that," I said, turning back to the problem at hand. "Access ice?"

"Barrier, I think," Jack replied.

"That's tougher," I replied. "You're right, I think."

Jack contemplated it for a second longer, then asked, "Are you ready to go?"

I brought up a stealth program, then said, "I think so."

Jack's image fuzzed to insubstantiality, and she drifted forward, slipping like a mist through the grate. I activated my program, hopefully making the ice believe that I was a routine error-checking program, and slid towards the grate. It must have worked, because I made it through. The dataline beyond was dark, long, and narrow, but we slipped down it rapidly, the walls blurring and losing detail as I exceeded my deck's ability to process the incoming image data.

We emerged into a sub-processor which, according to my system diagrams, should be deep within the CeNYDEx system's front end. I checked the node out, trying to orient myself to the map in my head that overlaid the "real" image of the Matrix. I came to the conclusion that we were in the right place.

"That dataline should lead into the main part of the system," I said to Jack, indicating one of the lines out, "and that one should lead back to the public part of the system and the RTG access," I added, indicating the other.

"Agreed," she agreed. "Maybe we should check to be certain, though."

I shrugged. "Go ahead."

She slipped into the line back to the public system while I waited for her. When, after what I considered to be a reasonable amount of time had passed and she still hadn't returned, I began to get a little worried. I waited a minute longer, then headed into the dataline myself. At the far end of the line, ice in the form of a portcullis opened, allowing me out into the SPU beyond. Jack was waiting there, and, as I emerged into the node, she lunged towards me, claws coming out.

Startled, I instinctively began to bring up defensive programs, but Jack's attack wasn't aimed at me. A handful of razor-sharp claws tore through cyberspace on either side of me. Her attack programs slammed into the two halves of the portcullis, locking it open with a continuous stream of fake input. I blinked at the fur-and-metal feline face that had suddenly appeared inches from my own.

"Back up, quick," Jack said, urgently, "before this thing figures out what I'm doing to it."

I backed up. When I was clear of the ice, Jack followed me through, releasing the program as soon as she was clear of it. It snapped shut immediately. When we were back in our original SPU, I turned to look at Jack, expecting an explanation.

She obliged. "You were right. That was the public access. Unfortunately, the access is one-way. You can't get back here without going through that ice. I think what we just pulled is the only way to get through without raising an alert - my first attempt to deceive the ice didn't work, and I didn't want to risk trying again." She paused for thought, then added, "At least, I hope we didn't raise an alert."

"I hope so, too," I replied, grimly. "This system's going to be tough enough even without an alert out." I sighed. "Oh, well. Onward."

Simultaneously, we turned towards the only dataline remaining that we hadn't tried. Jack got there first, by virtue of a faster deck, but I wasn't far behind. The line led to another sub-processor, this one an analysis center for maintenance data (according to my sensor programs, at least). I picked another dataline based on gut feeling and the map in my head. It was the right choice. This one led out into a main datastream - a series of high-bandwidth SPUs and datalines imaged as a huge, round tunnel.

There was quite a bit of data traffic through the nodes - dozens of constructs in an astonishing array of different formats. The amount of traffic seemed to be picking up as we watched. I queried my deck for the time. It was a little after eight. That explained the increase in traffic - the morning shift would be just starting work, taking over duties from the smaller night shift.

The relatively large amount of traffic was a plus for me and Jack. Our persona programs were more likely to go unnoticed in a node already full of other data constructs. Also, datalines with high levels of valid traffic would probably have less security to get in our way, because security also tended to slow down the stuff that was supposed to be going through.

Accordingly, Jack and I dropped into the stream of traffic, merging with it seamlessly. We moved quickly and smoothly down the tunnel along with the dataflow, heading in the direction that our maps told us was the interior of the system. Before long, the tunnel forked into three slightly less broad tunnels. We paused so I could check my map and see which one we needed.

I don't know whether it was simply that we stayed in one place long enough for someone to get a lock on us, or if we attracted attention by dropping out of the traffic flow for that moment, but I can only assume that that was the moment that whoever'd been tracking us through the Grid found us again.

A disembodied voice intoned, "Attention all personnel. A security alert has been declared. All non-essential security personnel please clear the system." As it began to repeat, barrier ice closed off the three branch tunnels, as well as the majority of the little side tunnels that led off into the fringes of the system.

"Fraggit," Jack said. "I think we may be screwed."

I brought up my attack program, raising my shimmering broadsword. "Not yet," I replied. "Now it gets fun."

"You have a warped idea of what's fun," Jack told me.

Legitimate traffic had faded to a halt, leaving us alone in the main tunnel. Then, from the middle of the three branch tunnels, a solitary figure emerged, the barrier fading momentarily to allow him to pass through. It was a flat black, featureless, stylized humanoid, moving with a grace and speed that told me that his deck was at least a notch above Jack's.

"Heads up!" I called. "Corporate decker at twelve o'clock!"

Jack pivoted to face him, her claws sliding out. She analyzed his speed as quickly and automatically as I had, then said, "I'll hold him. You clear us an escape route."

Then he was upon us. Jack moved to meet him, forestalling his first strike with one of her own, then shifting to avoid his return strike. As they skirmished cautiously, each trying to get the feel for the other's style, I turned towards the nearest of the branch tunnels. I struck with my broadsword, hammering in one attack after another on the barrier portcullis that blocked it. The portcullis went down, and I called to Jack, "Jack! We're clear!"

My beleaguered partner broke off the engagement and streaked towards the open gateway. Her move caught her opponent by surprise, and he lost a moment or two before reacting. That gave us a head start, but no more. The corp decker's deck was still faster than Jack's, and considerably faster than mine. Consequently, the other decker caught up with us before we'd managed to get far. When it was obvious that the decker was going to catch us, I turned to engage him, bringing up my shield utility as I did so. Rather than stopping to help me as I'd expected, Jack kept going, putting distance between herself and the corp decker. I backed away from the black humanoid figure as quickly as I could while keeping my shield in position to protect my own addressing and firing shots around it at the corp decker. Most of my shots struck an invisible shell around the other decker's persona icon and dissipated in trickles of lightning - the enemy decker's shield program.

My shield soon splintered, then disintegrated, under repeated strikes from the corp decker's glowing hands. As my shield went down, I launched a rapid series of feints in an attempt to keep my opponent back and delay him in striking at my now exposed persona. Meanwhile, I was dragging another copy of my shield up from storage memory as fast as I could. The two procedures, of course, interfered with each other, causing both the load to take longer and the attacks to be launched slower.

At that moment, Jack streaked out of a side-node dataline that the corp decker and I had just passed and launched herself at him from behind. His defense protocols apparently weren't adjusted to protect properly from attacks from behind, because Jack's claws produced ragged streams of incoherent data from the corp decker's persona, rather than dissipating into sparks as mine had.

The corp decker half-turned to deal with this new threat, and didn't realize his mistake in time to prevent me from cancelling my load procedure on my shield and allocating all my resources to an attack on the exposed addressing he presented to me. More static and snow exploded from his persona as my broadsword slashed across his back. He finally got control of his surprise, and, rather than turning back around to face me, he backed off sideways, getting us both in front of him. He raised his hands. They drooped, elongated, growing and stretching into two large black blobs that detached and quickly formed themselves into large black mastiffs.

I finally got my shield up, and had it ready to block the attack of the summoned corporate ice when the first of them lunged at me. The other headed for Jack, and the corp decker went after her as well. I nailed the black mastiff with a solid attack, causing it to move back and reconsider the direct approach.

While it was doing so, I called, "Mirrors!" to Jack, and pointed at the side tunnel she'd emerged from. I fired off my mirrors program and lunged for the side tunnel, leaving the mastiff worrying at one of the simulacrums my program had created. Jack feinted at the corp decker, brought a slash down across the back of the mastiff facing her, then did a quick disengage. Her mirrors program activated as she was moving away from them.

Jack always has to be different. Where most deckers' mirror programs, like mine, create multiple false data constructs with all the external properties of the persona program, Jack's did something to blur her addressing. There was only one of her, she was clearly visible, but it was impossible to tell exactly where she was, or even generally where she was. If my description of it sounds strange, I can only say that watching it happen was even stranger. It got still stranger when she moved.

While the corporate decker and the mastiff stumbled about determining where Jack wasn't, I realized that my own mirrors program wasn't going hold the other mastiff forever, so I turned and darted down the tunnel at my best speed. After a minute, Jack caught up with me. At least, I can only assume she did, because she went from being nowhere definable to being right beside me.

"Where are we going?" she asked, without slowing down.

"I have no idea," I replied.

We blew into a new node, where the only available datalines were protected by access ice. I didn't bother trying to spoof them - I simply brought my broadsword slashing down across the structure of the one that happened to be in front of me. Jack hit it with her claws and it went down. We dived into the open line.

After the second access ice we went through in this manner, Jack observed, "You know, we're leaving a trail a blind turtle could follow."

"I don't think we could lose them, regardless," I responded, taking a random turn. "We just have to hope we can stay ahead of them long enough to get something accomplished."

"Why not just jack out and try again?" Jack asked, as she tore her way through a barrier ice.

"They've been warned now," I replied. "We might not be able to get even this far next time."

"So we just go until they catch us and crash us?" Jack inquired.

"Yeah. Maybe if we wreak enough havoc in here, it'll distract them from hunting us in person. Or maybe we can find what we're looking for before they can catch us."

We slammed through access ice and into a datastore. There were no other exits, just a collection of data, defended by pair of snaky-looking and, by my estimation, relatively tough guardian ice programs.

"Dead end," I said. "This isn't the node we want, is it?"

Jack paused, scanning with her sensor programs. "No. Just a routine data storage facility. I think we're in completely the wrong wing of the system."

"Figures. Well, there's no reason to mess with our snaky friends here, then," I replied.

We backed out of the datastore. As we were turning to select another dataline from its parent node, one of the black mastiffs exploded out of the line we'd originally come in on. It lunged straight at Jack. I brought my broadsword slashing down its side as it passed. Jack hit it with her claws just as its jaws closed on her. They were both obscured momentarily by a spray of white noise, then they separated and circled each other, static drifting from rents in their code. I moved in and hit the mastiff again. That finally got its attention. It turned to engage me. Jack pounced on it, her feline jaws closing on the back of its neck, severing a critical loop. The mastiff writhed, its self- repair subroutines trying to patch the damage, then it crashed, exploding into a cloud of random bits.

"We'd better hurry," I urged. "If this one's caught up with us, the others can't be far behind."

"Give me a minute," Jack replied. "Those things have a nasty bite."

"So do you, evidently," I observed.

As we spoke, she was busy pulling herself together. Her persona program had taken a solid hit, but she seemed able to repair most of it.

While she was doing so, I turned and used my broadsword to open another dataline for our use. We slipped out through it, then through two more nodes, where we came to a junction - an SPU with eight datalines leading out to different areas of the system. Jack picked out one of them, apparently at random, and began to raise her claws to take down the access ice guarding it.

"Wait," I directed.

She turned to look at me, waiting.

"Maybe we should try deceiving the next couple of access ice. There's no reason to make tracking us easier than we have to."

"I said that six nodes back. You said we couldn't lose them." Jack replied.

"No, you just said we were leaving a trail. And we probably can't lose them, but maybe we can get a little farther ahead."

As I spoke, I brought my deception program up from storage. Jack evidently did the same, because when I activated it and plunged through the waiting ice, she followed. The next ice was a formidable barrier ice, which we took using our stealth programs and a lot of luck.

That brought us out of the cramped, low-bandwidth, specific use nodes we'd been in, into a spacious subprocessor. There were broad datalines coming in from either side of us, and directly in front of use was an access ice imaged as a pair of huge, oaken doors. In front of the doors was the huge, silvered crystal shape of a dragon.

"I think," I said, "that we want to go through there."

Jack nodded. "Yes. But that's black ice," she observed, as the dragon began moving towards us.

Its charge started slowly, but rapidly gathered terrifying speed. As it bore down on us, Jack raised her arm, and that wave of nothingness that I'd seen before washed out and over the dragon.

It didn't appear to faze it.

I brought my broadsword around in a last slash, knowing that there was no way that I could stop the lethal ice before it hit us. My attack slid off its scales, producing no visible damage, as the dragon came down on us in a rush of scales and claws, its jaws slamming shut - to miss by a narrow margin.

It turned, targeting Jack. I lunged at it, hammering attacks in as fast as I could, probing for some weak spot in its almost flawless defense routines. It ignored me, its massive head striking out at Jack. At the last moment, she dodged, shifting addresses laterally. The dragon's head followed, crystalline teeth clashing together just behind her. It drew its head back for another attack.

Just then, I found a weak spot and drove in a probing attack, which did no serious damage, but did get the dragon's attention. A dragon's attention is not generally a good thing to have. It pivoted, bringing its huge, streamlined snout to bear on me. The head dived at me. I was panicked enough by the prospect of imminent death and just confused enough by the unpredictable snaky motion of the dragon's head that I dodged the wrong way when I dodged, into the attack. Oddly, the dragon's attack adjusted for my motion, and missed by the same margin it had missed Jack by. Though the ice's features hadn't been programmed for expression, its body language and motions still unquestionably conveyed confusion as it drew its head back for another attack. I began to get a glimmering of what was bothering it.

When it lunged at me again, I was confident enough in my hypothesis that I didn't try to avoid the strike. It helped that I was certain that dodging wouldn't help, regardless. The dragon missed again, by the same margin, in the same direction. I slashed at its face as it drew back.

"Jack," I called. "I think you confused it so it doesn't think we're where we really are."

She backed away from where she'd been clawing, with limited success, at the dragon's flank. "You mean we can just ignore it, and it'll keep missing us?"

"Probably," I replied. "But I think having black ice following me around, trying to kill me, would kinda ruin my concentration." I flinched as the dragon snapped at me again. "Besides, there's no telling how long the effect will last."

"It should be permanent," Jack said. "Though it might not be... I haven't done enough experimentation with these spells yet to be able to say for certain. I guess we should just take the thing down while we still can."

It was kind of pathetic after that. Jack and I joined forces and concentrated our attacks on the dragon's weak points. It continued to try to attack us, and continued to miss by the same margin. After a brief while, the dragon's defense routines went down. I finished it with a single broadsword blow to the heart of its main routine. Its crystalline scales shattered, and the ice dissolved into static, then nothingness.

"I would," I observed, "have preferred to defeat it in a fair fight."

"I'm just glad it was it, and not us, that went down," Jack replied, turning her attention to the huge doors.

When, after two attempts by each of us to deceive the access ice went unrewarded, the ice refusing to budge and very effectively blocking our progress, Jack said, "Fraggit. Let's just do this the hard way," and struck out at the door with her claws. I shrugged and brought my broadsword down across the door. It took a little while, but, with the black ice that normally defended it already crashed, we were able to wear away at it unhindered. The door's security procedures finally splintered, and it crashed.

We moved into the node beyond, a huge, vaulted chamber of steel and stone, with a gleaming diamond suspended, spinning, just above the middle of the floor. Jack's sensor programs confirmed what I'd already guessed. "The CPU," she whispered.

I turned to Jack, grinning. "If we can get a copy of the system map, we can locate what we need on that, and come straight in after it next time."

Jack nodded. "Display system architecture, redirect to file," she ordered the CPU.

"Insufficient clearance, activating intrusion countermeasures," the diamond responded.

"Oops," Jack observed, as a humanoid figure came into being, sketched out by beams of light from the diamond.

"Blaster ice," I said, relaying the information from my sensor programs.

The blaster ice was vaguely trollish - a small torso and legs, no neck, and massive shoulders and arms. It lunged at Jack, one massive paw rising to slash down at her, then stopping, poised in the air. It hesitated, seemingly torn by indecision, then its head pivoted and it caught sight of me. I brought my shield up just in time - the ice seemed to have no reservations about attacking me. My shield stopped most of its strike, but still, the universe rolled over once before my interface got the incoming data sorted out properly.

"This thing packs a nasty punch," I observed as I struck out at it.

Jack hit it with her claws and it pivoted, targeting her again. One massive paw went up, then dropped without striking. The other went up, quivered, then dropped again. Something clicked inside my head.

"Jack," I called. "It's blaster ice - designed to take out decks. They want your deck intact... they must have given it orders not to attack you."

The troll-thing started to turn back to me. Jack hit it again, and it pivoted back to her, quivering in the way ice will when torn between two imperatives.

"Great," Jack said. "I'll keep its attention. You get the data."

"Display system architecture, redirect to file," I ordered the CPU, displaying security codes that I hoped would lead it to believe that I was the corporate decker. A beam of light flicked out from the CPU, and a file began to materialize in it. The ice attempted to go around Jack to get me. Jack interposed herself between us, then struck out at it. It shifted backwards to avoid her attack, and she used the opportunity to move forward, herding it away from me. It tried to go around her again, and gained a little ground before she interposed herself again. The CPU was almost done writing the file, and I turned to begin my download.

Then an order came from behind me. "Security override! Cancel and delete."

The CPU stopped writing and the file vanished in a wash of light. I turned - or half turned. That was as far as I got before a moving shape hurtled into me. My shield splintered and dissolved. I continued to spin, moving away from whatever it was that had hit me, striking out at the appropriate addressing with my blade, though I was still unable to tell what it was. My blade kept the thing at bay until I was able to get my persona program's senses realigned.

My assailant was the remaining mastiff. I struck out at it again - it dodged - and looked around, taking stock of the situation. The corp decker had finally caught up with us, and brought his little pet with him.

"Nice party you've got going here," the corporate decker said, in a flat, unamused voice, as he moved in on Jack. "You dancing with that ice or what?"

As the decker came in range, Jack slashed at him, the feint keeping him back for a moment, then brought her other hand up in a gesture that was somehow familiar. Raw chaos boiled through the node for a moment, then was gone, taking the corp decker with it. Jack wobbled, corrected herself, wobbled again, then faded out.

"Drek!" I cried, then steadied down to fend off an attack by the mastiff. If Jack was still alive, I had to come through on this one for her. If not... well, I simply had to assume that she was.

I slammed the mastiff with my broadsword, then realized that the troll-thing was heading my way, too. I figured that it wouldn't have any compunctions about burning my MPCP into slag if it could, so as it closed, I circled, getting the mastiff between me and it. The troll paused, and I took the opportunity to fire an attack past the mastiff, slashing across the troll's chest. The mastiff turned, lunging at my belly. I slid out of the way, I know not how, and, turning, caught the mastiff right in the face with my sword. It turned towards me, trying to snap at me with a head that was split from muzzle to shoulders, then it exploded into a cloud of bits.

I dodged again as the troll closed with me again, striking out with its massive paws. I wasn't entirely successful - one of them struck me a glancing blow. Even its glancing blows were nasty - my field of view narrowed and lost resolution as some of my graphics processing subroutines crashed. The troll came plowing towards me again, and I smoothly slipped past it, my broadsword darting in to score some light damage on it.

I considered my position. The troll could dish out a lot of damage, and could absorb plenty as well, but I had the edge in both reaction time and maneuverability. I figured I could take it if I was cautious and stayed on the move.

Then my mind was changed for me. "Attention all personnel," the disembodied voice intoned. "The system is going down. Please jack out. You have one minute."

Great. Only one thing left to do. "Display system architecture, redirect to file," I ordered the CPU, for what I hoped was the last time.

As it began sketching out the new file again, I went after the troll. It swiped at me and missed, thrown off by the fact that I was moving towards it, not away. My broadsword bit deep, leaving a trail of random garbage in its wake. The troll was completely unfazed, and brought its other paw down at me. I disengaged and shifted past the troll, ending up behind it. It turned to face me again, and I moved around it, trying to stay behind it.

"Forty-five seconds to system shutdown," the voice informed anyone who was listening.

The CPU was done writing the file. Now came the hard part. I feinted towards the troll, then fired off my mirrors program and dived for the file, as the troll slammed a devastating attack into the empty addresses where I would have been if I'd followed through with my attack. I grabbed the file and began the download. The troll destroyed one of my decoy constructs with a single blow of a massive paw and turned to target another.

"Thirty seconds to system shutdown."

I checked the progress of my download. Half done. The troll had taken out more than half of my decoys. I wasn't going to be done when he came after me. I sighed and began to bring a new copy of my shield program up from storage. It came jerkily, as it was sharing my already low bandwidth with the download headed the other direction. I finally got it, though. The troll destroyed the last construct and turned on me. I activated the shield program.

"Fifteen seconds to system shutdown."

The troll closed.

"Ten. Nine..."

I brought my shield up as the troll slammed in its first attack. The shield held, but barely.

"Eight. Seven..."

The troll's other massive paw came down on the virtual oak of my shield. The shield buckled this time, and some of the force of the attack got through, rattling my world. I kept the tattered shield in position and stubbornly continued the download.

"Six. Five..."

The troll smashed a fist into my shield again. The shield splintered, its protective subroutines ripped to shreds by the troll's attack programs, and my persona program took the remainder of the damage. I lost the ability to access about half of my active memory. I let it go, concentrating my resources on finishing the download. There was nothing I needed now in memory anyway - it was all or nothing now. I dumped my attack program and mirrors program out of memory as well, using faster active memory to take the final part of the file.

"Four. Three..."

The disembodied voice relentlessly continued its countdown. The troll raised his paw, preparing to drive one last attack into my now-defenseless persona program.

"Two..."

The end-of-file marker came whipping down the line, and I scrabbled for my datajack.

"One..."

The troll's paw came down. My fingers found the data cable, and I jacked out. Troll, CPU, and all spun away into nothingness, to be replaced by a dingy motel room which was also spinning uncomfortably. I fell over, landing flat on my back, staring up at the ceiling and wishing it would stop rotating. After a bit, it steadied down, so I rolled over onto my hands and knees, then rose to my knees.

My first thought, after the immediate physical discomfort, was worry. "Jack?" I gasped, quickly looking around for her. "Are you okay?"

She was over in the corner by the small sink, sloshing water in her mouth. She spat it into the sink, then replied, "I guess I am now. I came up puking my guts out." I glanced down at the carpet where she'd been sitting when we jacked in. She caught the glance and added, "I made it to the sink first, fortunately."

"What happened to you, anyway?" I asked. "And what'd you do to the corp decker?"

Jack leaned back against the counter and ran her fingers through her bangs for a moment, then said, "Well, I figured the odds were a little high for my tastes, so I tried to take the decker out with magic. For some reason, the spells I usually use against virtual targets don't work properly against persona programs. I'm not sure what the problem is exactly, but I think it has something to do with the spell having to affect both the decker and the deck to be really effective. I don't remember if I explained this to you before, but the magic interface for my deck is basically a pipeline I can send other spells down. It's usually a light spell for changing optical signals, but that particular spell isn't effective against decks, so I used my hellblast instead. I expect his deck's a pile of slag now, and his next-of-kin are probably collecting death benefits."

That explained the "what", I guess, if not exactly the "how", so I moved on to my next question. "What happened to you, though?"

Jack looked slightly embarrassed. "I overestimated my ability to juggle spells. I almost lost control of the hellblast, and trying to get it back, I lost control of my interface. I managed to get that back, but lost the spell tunnel in the process, then lost the deck interface again grabbing for the spell tunnel, then everything went away and I woke up here diving for the sink. I was just hoping I held on long enough for the spell to take hold."

"It did, I guess," I told her. "The whole node turned inside-out and the decker vanished like he'd never been there. I took out the decker's pet puppy and managed to avoid the ogre- beastie long enough to get the download."

Jack grinned and flashed me a thumb's-up. "Successful run, then."

Max interrupted our self-congratulation by saying, calmly, "If you two are done with your discussion, you might be interested to know that there are six heavily armed samurai outside, who seem to have no intention of letting us leave this room free and alive."