“So did I,” Michael responded. “When I was in the Hive, fighting it out against Weber and her own version of a KillSim, I saw it, saw the connections, saw how it worked. I mean, I understood it enough to send her into another person’s mind and terminate the connection.” He paused. “It killed her.”

If he’d expected rebukes, they didn’t come. Bryson actually started to pump a fist before he stopped himself.

Michael continued. “I think if we hook up, we can dig into the code of this place. But we need to dig deep. Deeper than ever. I know this is the heart of Kaine’s program. With all of us working together, we can find it, dissect it, and blow the thing apart. You guys in?”

Helga gave a firm nod. Gabby said yes with her eyes, not a hint of doubt there. Bryson gave two thumbs up.

“Let’s do this the old-fashioned way,” Michael said, stepping closer to Gabby and motioning for the others to move in. “We’ll hold hands, keep a solid connection between us. Let’s stay in constant communication. I wanna do this fast, and I don’t want anyone to be alone in case trouble comes.”

“Trouble?” Bryson repeated. “You expecting trouble from you-know-who?”

“He’ll understand” was all Michael said. He knew he should explain his plan to Kaine first. Things would go much better if they really did stay on the same side, but Michael didn’t want to burn any more time. “We can only do what we can do, right? He’s not here.”

“You’re just bursting with confidence,” Bryson said. “Look, man, if you think this is the thing to do, then I’m in. Let’s get it over with.”

“Come on, then,” Michael responded, holding out his hand. Bryson took it. Gabby took the other. Then Helga joined in to complete the circle.

“Seek and destroy,” Michael whispered as they closed their eyes.

6

Down, down, down they went, sinking into the code. It felt to Michael like slipping into a warm bath, a comfort after the awkward conversations with his friends. Blades of grass became lines of symbols, trees became towering blocks of data, the castle a jumbled mess of letters and numbers, the sky awash in that purple haze that so often represented the most basic formative programming of the VirtNet. Michael felt the reassuring pressure of Bryson’s and Gabby’s hands, felt the links between them all. They combined their skills and knowledge and began to dissect the massive amount of information in which they found themselves.

An hour passed. Two. Three. Michael kept a timer within his files, knowing how prone he was to losing track of minutes and hours when he was in the zone. He didn’t want to go too long without a break or they might make errors.