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Back then he’d played with his hands, developing the i hi Physically playing Touching the building blocks of progra to reach into their essence and read their origins, understand the bigger picture of what they used to be a part of

He’d been a part of Lifeblood Deep Literally No one was more qualified to do this than Michael

Piece by piece, he examined He deduced He built He manipulated

He played

Time sped by, Michael oblivious to it He was lost in the fun of the prograht’ve worked forever, his body back in the Coffin weakening until even that device couldn’t keep hi

A tap on the shoulder snapped hi?" Sarah asked

He waved himself around to face his friend She seemed weary but satisfied Bryson had drifted off in the distance, his enthusias his An indecipherable shadow looiant whale were ot a lot," Michael answered, returning his attention to Sarah

"Me too I think it’s tiuess we can’t do that here Put our heads together, then"

"Sounds good"

They flapped their way toward Bryson, the insane-bird dance bringing smiles to their faces

By the time they were finished, Michael’s entire body ached and his sto It had taken both ether, and he was starving Such was the nature of the Sleep Yes, the Coffin would feed him the nutrients he needed, keep him alive and fairly healthy But that didn’t et to the point where he’d kill a rooical code extended farther than Michael could see It was a beautiful, beautiful thing, and the three of the the details of what they’d learned onto their own NetScreens so they wouldn’t forget And so they could share it all with the VNS once they returned to the Wake

Michael clicked off his NetScreen As fun as the process had been, he was done Officially done There wasn’t a molecule in his body that didn’t ache for food, only before settling down for a long nap

"I can’t believe this guy," he said, aluess I can understand why Kaine wants to be hu to wipe out half of the VirtNet doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to et?" Sarah asked "Why he wants to be huonna be dead in a hundred years In the Sleep, he’s iht? He could live forever"