They came at him hard, in concert, pushing at his mind for things he’d already given them, hurting him.

So he fought.

They were six and he was one, but he’d been using Nexus longer than any of them, maybe longer than all of them combined.

Rangan activated the defenses he’d built, raked them with the Nexus disruptor he’d copied from his first time in ERD custody, struck out in brute force with his mind against theirs, struck out to stun them, to confuse them, to turn them one against the other.

And in the end they beat him down. Too many of them, too few of him. Too much of the sedative in his veins, in his brain.

He showed them everything, everything he’d already told them, everything they already knew.

Just some sick joke, he thought. Just an excuse to torture me.

But the minds felt frustrated. They felt disappointed. They’d honestly thought he was lying, that he’d given them the wrong codes. They’d expected to find something new.

They pulled it all from his mind again, twice, three times, four times, pushing him every which way, looking for a deeper layer of knowledge, looking for some sign he was still deceiving them. Then they gave up, and one by one the minds disappeared.

He heard a door open and the sound of shoes against a tile floor. Then they were gone. Rangan lay there shivering, feeling helpless and violated, wondering if now they’d pump the lethal solution in through the IV needle, finish him off since he was obviously so useless to them.

Then it dawned on him.

They didn’t have the real codes. The ones he’d given them didn’t work. Which meant that… Which meant that Kade, or maybe Ilya, or someone else, had changed those codes before releasing Nexus OS. Which meant that Rangan wasn’t a traitor. That he couldn’t be even if he tried.

The first laugh bubbled up out of him from nowhere. Then another, and another.

They’d done it. They were beating the motherfucking ERD! Just a bunch of kids, but they’d done it!

He was laughing uncontrollably when the orderlies came for him. He kept laughing when they pulled the needle out of his arm, kept laughing as they wheeled him back to his room, kept laughing as they pulled the hood off his face and pushed the gurney into corner.

Fucking hilarious!

Chapter 46: Lo Prang

46

LO PRANG

Sunday October 28th

The guards frisked Sam, searching for weapons. And like the last set their frisk was thorough, careful, taking no risks on their master’s safety.

After the frisk, Lo Prang kept her waiting. Minutes crept by, minutes she could be using on her way to Burma, on her way to Sarai and Aroon and Kit and…

Half an hour after she arrived, one of the guards nodded.