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He had the Michael felt the rough edges of the poorly done h his shirt The cop refused to lift his visor,him seem even more like a robot to Michael He reraent he hadn’t really needed one--which made him think of Kaine What if he was somehow behind this supposed traffic stop?
Please, no, Michael begged the universe How could Kaine be that powerful? He refused to allow himself to believe it But even so, he looked at the cop and wondered if he was a Tangent come to life
"What are your names?" the man asked, just as a section of his visor lit up Michael could see sy across the inside "And before you answer, I’ to say this once: Do Not Lie Do not You have one chance to tell me the truth Nohat are your names?"
Sarah went first, then Bryson, then Michael They’d all been busted more times than Michael could count within the VirtNet And they’d always gotten away, just a few lines of code co of the truth It was a little different in the real world, but the principles were the saave their fake names as srunted so But it came across more like he was a hting," the cop said, walking slowly down the line of his captors He stopped directly in front of Michael and stared at hih his dark visor "Of one Jackson Porter,for close to teeks You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you? What was your naain? Ah, yes Michael What do you have to say, boy? Seen anybody that looks like a cyber-terrorist?"
Every part of Michael wanted to close his eyes and access the code Hack himself out of the situation He suddenly wished for his old life as a Tangent, oblivious and happy Lying to this cop seemed like a terrible idea, especially since the nized his face, but he just didn’t knohat else to do
"No, sir," he said "I’ve seen the NewsBops, heard about this Jackson guy But I haven’t seen hiuys seen hi he’d already made a mistake, that he’d come across as a smart aleck to the policeman Bryson and Sarah shyly shook their heads, but he could see in their eyes that they knew Michael had screwed up Maybe they should’ve just told the truth and relied on the authorities to keep the the face of a guy as born to be a les, eyes that were pools of unreadable darkness He didn’t seem too happy
"Get in the hovercar," he said tightly "All three of you One wrong reatest of moods today"
The cabbie yelled over at them from his car "Hey! Officer! Can I leave? Please?"
"Get lost!" the cop yelled back at hie, the cabbie squealed away down the street Michael watched the cab disappear, along with all his hopes
Sarah and Bryson got in first The cop was holding Michael by the ar desperate, and not just for the obvious reasons Surely the entire police force didn’t work for Kaine already--although he guessed there was a possibility that the one who’d caught theent Weber, though this could be totally unrelated Jackson Porter was , wanted for serious crimes, and the boy’s face had been plastered all over the NewsBops It wasn’t strange at all that Michael had been reported
Either way, too ht Michael in What if no one else realized what Kaine was up to and he couldn’t convince theent Weber They needed the VNS