Location: Room 759, Ray Building, Resonate System (David's Room)

David Gabbiani was troubled by the non-presence in his head.

Ever since the temporary merging with the virus Lean Il Lupe almost a year earlier, there had been a minor link between the hacker and his accidental creation. They couldn't read each other's thoughts, but they could sense the other's presence when they were nearby. David had learned to ignore the nagging presence in his mind.

Now, abruptly, it was gone. Just gone, as if it had never existed at all. It unnerved him. The part of David's mind that believed in the metaphysical belief that everyone had a bad side was especially troubled. He liked to think that the little nagging itch from Lean's link was the manifestation of his bad side. With it gone, David felt like his bad side had somehow escaped from its leash.

His sunglasses glinted with green light as he turned this over in his mind. It also worried him because just before he lost that link, intense pain from Lean had been transferred over it. The virus had been in incredible pain before his...what? His death? Disappearance? He didn't know what to classify it as. But he wasn't about to go to Omega-Cragis and inquire.

Location: Room 953, Ray Building, Resonate System (Quinn's Room)

Quinn Rentack was in a very good mood.

He had just gotten word from his contacts in the Industry. They were very happy that he had approved the holoplay of Game Over. To thank him, they had paid him a handsome sum, in the range of 3.6 million credits, and promised him a small share of the profits from the holo. Martin O'Brien even wanted him to come to the shooting site so he could act as a consultant. Quinn had to get back to him for that. He had a new novel to write.

It was going to be another Detterick Noble novel, this one to be titled False Miracles. It featured the return of Game Over's villain Gene Deuce, and a dangerous cult that sought the end of the world. Quinn was certain it would be as popular as the first two.

To be sure, he was still worried that nothing had been done about the obvious involvement of TruPharm Incorporated in the killing sprees of Elim Faraday, Fra il'Rena, and Rania not more than three weeks earlier. The Government appeared to be satisfied with the conclusion that the killers were operating alone and that they had simply been in a case of temporary insanity. To be sure, it was unfortunate that they had killed themselves, but aht serat.

Quinn gritted his teeth at that. Stupid Arlington Road Syndrome. They wanted to believe that they were safe with no large conspiracy in the background. It irritated him. This was the sort of mentality that had turned him into a government-hating columnist in the first place. He was just lucky he was on good speaking terms with Al Mark and Cal Hostan. He didn't want to be in their way when they got angry.

Also, he was unsure about what to make of David. He'd been acting strange ever since their return from Great Codex. Perhaps it had something to do with this 'Lazarus' character, or Klaus Lans, as the public knew him. Klaus Lans, founder and president of TruPharm Inc., the world's most prominent racist recluse, and the secret leader of the hate group called the True Force. According to David, Naught, and Nada, Lans and David had once been colleagues. David had created TruPharm-Net, the local-access-only intranet for the pharmaceutical company that made it impervious to long-distance hacking.

This, in addition to his strange behavior, made Quinn less eager to trust him. The Aughts seemed content to accept his story, but Quinn wasn't. There was something else at work here.

Location: Classified, True Force HQ

Fate would have it, the 'something else' was looking over its newest agent. The agent was a pale man, ashen gray in color. He was human, that much was true. His eyes stared blankly, but if someone looked closely enough they would see glittering circuitry leading into the irises. He was bald, and cybernetic implants protruded from his skull. One, on the left side of his head, extended a short antenna into the air. His right hand was a robotic prosthesis, fingers clenched into an impenetrable fist.

The cyborg turned his head to gaze at its commander. She smiled cruelly. "I want you to find somebody for me," she said.

/Yes,/ the cyborg replied.

She tapped a console, and the information was uploaded into the cyborg's brain. He closed and opened his eyes. The commander went to a table and handed the cyborg a fearsome looking weapon. The cyborg looked at it.

/Recognize: Blaztek 'Gunclaw' Repeater Rifle. Four .30 caliber barrels, one .60 caliber-equivalent pulse launcher in center. Four-pronged 'claw' surrounding .60 caliber barrel./ The cyborg turned the Gunclaw over in his hands, then added, /Optional feature: claw-launcher./

"Very good," she replied. "Use this to eliminate the target."

/Yes./

The commander tapped the console again, and a screen lit up with the target's face on it. "And who is this?"

/Recognize: Rentack, Quinn. Priority Target. Objective: death./

Location: Naught & Nada's Hacking Parlor, Resonate System

Naught fiddled with a stylus pen as he looked at the data streaming across his computer screen. He was bored. Hacking TruPharm-Net was a thrill, but he couldn't exactly do that anymore. Not from the Resonate System. TruPharm-Net was a local-access-only network. That meant you had to be in the Great Codex System to hack the system, and that narrowed down searches fairly well.

Nada was content to do minor hacks for now. Nothing could top TruPharm-Net as far as she was concerned. Hell, they'd made the front page of the Mainframe Manifest: FLIP SIDE FELONS CRASH TRUPHARM NETWORK. That was as far as she went. She would not try a risky hack like that again.

Naught now worried about how he was going to top TruPharm-Net. Some people hacked to cause a little chaos. Those were people like the infamous Sagittaria, who had crashed millions of servers in a single day. Fortunately, Sagittaria had died shortly after that black day in a government raid. Some people hacked in line with the Underground's beliefs--to better the lives of the repressed. That was people like the great Orion.

Then there were people like Naught, who liked to hack for the sheer thrill of it all. TruPharm-Net was big, but he needed something bigger. Something grand, that would guarantee his place in hacker history forever. Something like...

Naught dropped the stylus and grinned.

"What better way to humiliate TruPharm," he said to himself, "than to hack their net from outside Great Codex?"

It shouldn't be that hard, he reasoned to himself. David still has a Hacking Parlor there. No doubt he has a minor link there, so I can hack into that, and from there I can hack TruPharm-Net.

Like taking candy from a baby.

Location: Classified, True Force HQ

Lazarus nodded to Dr. Archer. "So Cato is in pursuit of his first target?" the True Force leader asked, his cybernetic eye glowing faintly.

"Yes, sir," Dr. Sarah Archer replied. "I even took the liberty of arming him with a Blaztek Gunclaw."

"Ah, yes," Lazarus said. "The new prototype. If everything works out, we can arm the rest of our soldiers with them."

"The True Force has to become more public," Dr. Archer said. "Otherwise no one will flock to our cause."

"Of course," Lazarus agreed. "But first we must eliminate the infidels. This means starting with...with...that traitor's friends!"

"DaVinci?" Dr. Archer asked.

Lazarus made a choking hiss. "Don't ever mention that name!!" he roared. "After we finish with him, we can deal with the viral bastard that took out my eye!"

"Oh, I don't think he's going to be a problem," Dr. Archer murmured to herself.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Lazarus leered. "'Cry "Havoc!" and slip the dogs of war!' The base constructs of the Metaverse will learn who their true masters are!" He stormed out of Lab Thirteen to his office, leaving Dr. Archer to smirk to herself.

"Indeed, they will learn who their master is." She smiled cruelly. "Indeed."

Sarah Archer left Lab Thirteen and took a transport to her grand apartment half a system away. There, she shed her white lab coat and doffed her green turtleneck. Beneath, she wore a sleek sleeveless garment adorned by a faux icon. But her icon did not feature the boring bitmap that most did. Hers was golden with a black symbol on it. The symbol was an upward-pointing arrow crossed horizontally by a short line. It was a stylized zodiac symbol of Sagittarius. Archer then removed her work pants and revealed an equally sleek pair of pants. She shook out her hair, and it bounced into its normal curliness.

She opened a drawer and slipped on a headset. She carefully inserted the earplug into her ear and positioned the microphone in front of her mouth. She then moved the VR monocle over her eye. She grinned viciously as she opened her computers. Archer ceased to be; Sagittaria replaced her.

She cackled and tapped a button. A high-frequency signal bounced out of her computer and contacted her associate. Within seconds, the form materialized in the room. Sagittaria checked her chronometer. "You're getting slow, Elogin."

Sagittaria and Elogin looked identical. Elogin had pale cream-colored skin and wild gray hair. Her eyes constantly shifted colors. Her outfit was comprised of what looked to be a bikini top of black-green color and shimmering dark pants. Her fingers were longer than they should have been and ended in sharp claws. When she smiled, she exposed sharp teeth.

"I was several levels down," the Class-17 virus explained. "Polishing off a meal."

"Hmm," Sagittaria said. "Was he tasty?"

"It was an old sprite," Elogin said. "He got stuck in my teeth." She probed her teeth with a claw.

Cato is going to eliminate Renatck, Sagittaria thought to Elogin.

I don't want him to kill DaVinci yet, the virus sent. I want to torment him for a while.

Naturally, the hacker sent. But let him stew for a while before you have Cato pick him up.

Naturally.

Location: Gateway Complex, Resonate System

The portal transport official checked the pass of the customer before her. She compared the picture a few times, then nodded and handed it back. "Thank you very much, Mr. Elder. Enjoy your stay in the Resonate System."

The person calling himself Charles Elder nodded sharply before moving on. He was wrapped in loose clothing and wore a hood that shielded most of his face from view. This was mostly to hide the cross tattooed on his forehead and the implants on his skull. His prosthesis was wrapped in the clothing hanging off his gaunt frame, further masking him. The Blaztek Gunclaw was in several pieces, all undetectable by scanners.

Cato marched away from the transport complex and parked himself in an alleyway, where he removed the Gunclaw pieces from his clothing. It took him two minutes to put it back together, and then Cato secreted the rifle away in his clothing.

The cyborg assassin turned his gaze east, toward the Downtown District. According to the news, Quinn Rentack was meeting with the producers of the Game Over holo there. He would intercept Rentack there.

Location: Gargery Restaurant, Resonate System

"So what do you think about the script? Honestly," the first producer asked. She was a thin woman with brown hair. She had highlights in her hair, furthering her (in Quinn's opinion) cheap appearance.

"Honestly?" Quinn asked. "I think you did a very good job adapting it. The scenes involving Deuce are a bit weak, but if you get a good actor for it, he could make up for that."

The second producer, a male sprite with orange skin and green hair, handed Quinn a datapad. "This is our tentative casting call. What do you think?"

Quinn took the proffered pad and looked it over. "Yes. Yes. I like what you've done here." Then he burst out laughing. "Oh, my. Nate Carter for Bobbo Bosworth? Oh, that's so well cast I can't help but laugh!"

The female producer smiled. "Thank you. I felt that would be good for a laugh. We've contacted Mr. Carter, and he says he'd be delighted to play Bobbo."

"Perfect," Quinn said. "What about Deuce? I see you haven't cast him yet."

The male producer nodded. "That's going to be tougher. Some of the names you see there are potentials, but none of them are quite right for the role."

Quinn looked down the list. "Todd Bunsen is good. If I could be there when you shoot the first Deuce scene, I could give him some pointers."

The producers shared a look. "We'd have to clear that with O'Brien. He can be controlling sometimes," the man said.

"But there shouldn't be any problem," the woman added. "I've been friends with Martin for quite some time, and I've heard he loves your work. He should be glad to have your input, Quinn. I can call you Quinn, right?"

"Of course," Quinn said.

"Well then," the man said, "is there anything else you'd like to add?"

Quinn looked over the script pad and the other pads that he'd been given. "I think you might need some good effects for the Det Noble hacking scenes. Remember, he uses the VR set to do his hacking."

The male producer nodded. "I thought that was one of the best parts of the book. We're trying to get AKS Productions to help with that."

"That's good!" Quinn said. "They're some of the best."

The female producer sat up straighter in her chair. "Quinn? Are you expecting someone?"

The writer blinked. "No. Why?"

"Because some man just walked in, and he's looking straight at you."

Quinn swiveled his hoverchair around to see the man in the doorway of the restaurant. He was gaunt, wearing loose wraps and a hood. Two eyes glittered beneath the hood, and his right hand, wrapped tightly in the cloth, reached into his wraps.

{Quinn! Get out of there!} a voice screamed in his mind. Quinn rocked back from the voice. It wasn't his. {He's going to kill you!}

Quinn saw the mysterious man grip something in his cloak, and that's when Quinn's alarms went off. He turned to the producers as he saw the butt of a rifle emerge, then shouted, "Get down!"

Quinn dove out of his chair, feeling the brace on his legs clack against the floor and rolled as hard as he was able under the table. The rifleman fired, and a sharp pulse slashed through the back of his chair and set the tabletop on fire.

Screams started up as the rifleman tried to aim around the people who were running in fear across his vision. Quinn reached for his chair and pulled at the panel on the base of the chair. His energy shotgun slid out. Clutching it, Quinn propped it up on his legs and aimed in the direction of the assassin.

The producers stood up on their seats and jumped to the booth behind them. Quinn waited as he heard the rifleman approach. ~~That's it, just a little closer...~~ Quinn thought.

{Don't sit around! He's too strong! Run!} It was that voice again.

~~Who the hell are you?~~ Quinn wondered as he awaited the rifleman's approach. Just a little closer...

But the assassin fired again, and destroyed Quinn's chair. The assassin aimed a gun Quinn had never seen before directly at his face. Instinctively, Quinn pulled the trigger on his shotgun. The pulse struck the cloaked assassin dead-center-body-mass and sent him flying back into a table. Quinn laughed. "That ought to do you in."

{Don't be so sure.}

Sure enough, the assassin was getting back up. Only his clothes had taken any punishment. The hood had fallen away, revealing a hawk-nosed man with ash gray skin and blank eyes. A green cross was tattooed on his forehead. Cybernetic implants protruded from his skull. The assassin raised the rifle with that odd-looking bayonet and aimed again.

But this time two pulses came from the assassin's left and sent him flying off his feet and through the wall. Two more pulses followed and pounded the assassin through the next wall. Two sprites that Quinn knew all too well came into view.

"Hey, Quinn," Tomasi said. "Lemme help you up." He grabbed Quinn and held him under one arm while he aimed a handcannon through the hole in the wall left by the assassin. Rollo held another cannon and watched the hole carefully.

"Tomasi?! Rollo?! What the hell?" Quinn swore as he tried to aim his shotgun, but that was rather difficult in his position. "What are you doing here?"

"Saving your User ass, what's it look like?" Tomasi said. "Don't ask. I'll explain later."

The Exley brothers beat tracks out the door of the restaurant as the assassin slowly picked himself up from his landing site. Tomasi skidded to a halt as he looked around for the Mid-Level access. Spotting it, he and Rollo dashed toward it. The assassin lurched out of the restaurant behind them, raising his rifle.

Rollo looked back and shouted, "Dodge!" He and Tomasi dodged to the side as a salvo of energy rounds flew past. They started moving again as the assassin strode forward to get a better shot. Quinn bent himself at the waist and aimed his shotgun toward the assassin. The bouncing from Tomasi's running made it hard to maintain it.

Quinn scowled and fired. The pulse hit the cyborg in the shoulder and knocked him down, but he was getting back up quickly. Quinn grimaced. "What is this guy? The Terminator?"

"No!" Tomasi said. "His name's Cato. He works for True Force!"

"Cato?" Quinn repeated. "That was the guy that helped David escape from Lazarus!"

"Yeah," the redheaded Exley said, "but Lazarus and Dr. Archer turned him into a cyborg assassin. As you can plainly see."

"Dodge!" Rollo called again. They jumped out of the way of Cato's shots, then started running again. They were three-quarters of the way to the access. If they could get to the Depths, they'd stand a better chance of hiding from Cato.

Location: David's Room

David was napping when his icon beeped. He groggily sat up in his bed and put his sunglasses on. He grunted and shuffled over to his desk, where he opened his computer. A line of code flashed red. Instantly David was awake and shifted to DaVinci-mode. Someone was hacking his Great Codex links.

DaVinci set up his shut-down protocols and zeroed in on the source of the hack. When he found where this lamer lived, he'd call the Guardians in on his ass. It wouldn't be hard. He did this once before when he worked for TruPharm. That was how he'd met Naught and Nada.

He sent some static into the other hacker's connection. That would slow him down while he traced the connection. And just to be on the safe side, he shut down his links in Great Codex. If the other hacker did get through, there wouldn't be anything for him to find.

The trace program was working. DaVinci squinted at it. It was a local system. That was good. It meant the trace would work faster. He set up his own hack program and started to hack the other's computer.

"Let's just see who you are," DaVinci said to himself.

Who it was happened to be Naught, as Aztral, trying to hack DaVinci's link in Great Codex to hack TruPharm-Net. He frowned at the slowdown in his computer and set up ghost connections to speed it up. He didn't pick up on who was stopping him.

DaVinci, meanwhile, punched through Aztral's meager security systems (meager to DaVinci, anyway) and accessed the personal files. Then he had to smile. "Naught, you impress me." He picked up his comm and dialed Naught's number.

"Naught," Aztral said.

"Dude, shut down your computer, and stop trying to hack my links in Great Codex," DaVinci said.

Aztral sputtered. "How'd you know?"

"Don't you think I'd keep track of this sort of thing?" DaVinci said. "I don't want lamers or wannabes hacking my stuff. I just didn't think you'd try it."

"Shows how much you know," Aztral said. "All right, fine. I'll stop. But, man! I was damn close!"

"Not really, man, but hey, nice try. Catch you on later," DaVinci said.

"Right. On the flip side," Aztral said before he hung up.

David shook his head as he observed Aztral shut down his computer. Once this was accomplished, David took down his security protocols and shut down his own computer. "Well, that was a nice diversion."

Location: Downtown District Depths, Resonate System

Elsewhere, Quinn, Tomasi, and Rollo had managed to get down to the Depths of the Downtown District, with Cato fast on their heels, still wielding his Gunclaw. Tomasi had strapped Quinn to his back, and clutched his handcannon nervously.

"So why did you guys save my hide?" Quinn asked as he cocked his energy shotgun.

"The boss told us to," Rollo said as he ducked back behind the corner as Cato fired.

Quinn turned his head to look at Rollo. "'The boss'? Come on, Lean's dead, you idiots! Even David says so."

"Then explain why he's been talkin' to us in our heads," Tomasi said.

"What?" Quinn asked.

{That's me.} It was the voice Quinn had heard just before Cato attacked him in the restaurant.

Quinn blinked. "Lean? Why the deuce are you helping me out?"

{Well, when you consider the fact that the virus who consumed me turned Cato into that thing, it's really quite understandable,} Lean's voice said.

Quinn shook his head. "That's too much for me to absorb." He reached for his pocket, then muttered. His new position on top of Tomasi's back made it difficult to bend at the waist to get to his comm. "Rollo! Could you get my comm out for me? Maybe I can call in some reinforcements!"

"Like who?" Rollo asked as he plucked it out for Quinn.

"Like Niente," Quinn replied. He dialed the appropriate number and waited, momentarily leaning back on Tomasi to fire at Cato.

"Yeah, what is it?" came Niente's usual surly reply.

"Niente! It's Quinn! I got some trouble!" Quinn shouted over the din of the Gunclaw's firing.

Niente dropped the surliness. "What's the problem?"

"True Force sent a guy after me! Believe it or not, but Rollo and Tomasi saved my hide. I'm down in the Downtown District Depths. Hurry up! The hitman's getting better shots!" Quinn said this last part after a pulse spanged off the wall above his head.

"I'll be right there!" the biker promised as she hung up.

"Help is on the way!" Quinn said as Tomasi jogged away from their hiding place to get better cover. Quinn, facing backward, fired his shotgun at Cato, knocking him down again. He got a thought and closed his eyes. ~~Hey, Lean, any information that could be of use?~~

{It depends. What do you want to know?} the disembodied virus replied.

~~Well, why don't our shots do anything to Cato?~~

{Cato's skin was augmented so it's as tough as Rollo and Tomasi's. In addition, I believe his skin was soaked in permacover, you know, that resin that hardens things?}

~~I know what permacover is!~~

{Cato's endurance is also hyped up.}

Quinn nodded. With that permacover in his skin, Cato could take a lot of punishment before he'd start to bleed. The Exley brothers, while they could take a few hits themselves, couldn't stand up as long as Cato could. The only option they had was to keep knocking Cato down and hope something happened that would keep him down long enough for them to get away.

Cato raised the Gunclaw and thumbed a different trigger. The odd-looking bayonet in the center of the barrel suddenly opened. Four spikes circled a much larger barrel, which now began to glow. Quinn's eyes widened. "Shit! Down!"

Cato fired the .60-caliber-equivalent, and the resulting pulse threw the three like rag dolls. Tomasi landed atop Quinn, trapping him beneath the sprite's massive body. Quinn struggled to pull himself free of the straps holding him to Tomasi, then looked up to see Cato aiming the Gunclaw at his face.

/Recognize: Quinn Rentack./ Cato's voice sounded artificial, but still vaguely human. /Priority Target. Objective: Death./