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But there was one thing evenBryson and Sarah At least one of theeneral area where they lived With Jackson’s account coht be a while before Michael dared access the Net again

A line of bright light slashed across his NetScreen again, wider this tier Random numbers and letters flashed, then vanished Kaine--it had to be Kaine--was now throwing his full force, trying to sabotage instead of hack Michael knew the signs from his oork over the years He pushed back with a flurry of codes, not sure if he could do it again

Instinct took over He searched and searched, digging through the archives of Lifeblood, the gah scores, dates, event logs The i to her death off the Golden Gate Bridge flashed in hisup froaent Weber had said so, anyway--and there had to be one snippet of real-world infor up froital existence of poor Jackson Porter

Three slashes of searing white light burned across the NetScreen, wiping out the path Michael had been digging through the code Once again, nu the screen in a rush of round Michael swept it aith a last-gasp code that was absolutely illegal The screen cleared once more and he jumped full-bore back into the Lifeblood data archives, his eyes stinging with tears fro so hard

Sweat beaded his forehead, ran down his temples, slicked his skin as he worked Lifeblood’s code was coood--he’d been part of the code itself He dug and searched, looking for any background files he could find on his friends Personal information was sacred in the virtual world Sacred

He could sense Kaine’s efforts to crash his syste down on hi it as best he could, Michael swaamer’s file with all of its experience points laid out like folded laundry on a bed Everything looked fanized so much of what he saw before hiamer’s side

It was Sarah

The pressure intensified The characters on the screen ju he’d never seen before The upper-right-hand corner of the screen glowed, a bulge of light foriant blister Michael found the location-file, seared it into his memory Sarah He’d found Sarah She was real Relief and so close to happiness swelled within his chest

And then everything caht flashed across the screen Acting on instinct, Michael reached up and squeezed his EarCuff, but he kneould do no good The NetScreen stayed where it was, though it had lost its crisp shape, its edges blurry Numbers and letters swirled, barely identifiable behind the barrage of blinking lights There was a loud buzzing sound Michael tried to lean back, tried to escape the pulsing screen, but he hit his head on the wall behind hi popped, followed by one last explosion of blinding light Michael closed his eyes and turned away, saw spots swi in the darkness Sweat drenched every inch of his body Then the buzzing stopped, replaced by the distant honking of horns, the skittering of debris as wind pushed it across the alley

Michael opened his eyes Of course turning his head had done no good--the NetScreen hovered before hi The screen was black, hite-lettered words filling the space:

YOU SHOULD’VE FOLLOWED MY ORDERS, MICHAEL WE NEED EACH OTHER