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The only way to find out for sure was to read the data on the chip And the only way to do that was to solder it hard to the mainframe’sa piece of unknown circuitry to the control panel itself Maybe the system wouldn’t see it Maybe the systeo out Probably the wisest course would be to wait untilforward on sheer momentum, his mind clamped onto the problem like a squirrel with a nut in his teeth; he couldn’t have waited if he wanted to

He’d have to take thedown the controllers to run straight off the batteries You could do this for a while but not for long; without the system to monitor the current, any fluctuation could flip a breaker So once the mainframe was off-line, he’d have to work fast

He took a deep breath and called up the systean to spin down Michael darted from his chair and shot across the rooot quickly to work, pulling the nifier, taking up the hot iron in one hand and the strip of solder in the other He touched it to the tip of the iron-a waft of sle drop descended toward the open channel on the motherboard

Bull’s-eye

He tweezered the chip; he had one shot to get this right Gripping his right wrist to keep it steady, he gently lowered the chip’s exposed contacts into the solder, freezing it in place for a count of ten while the bead of liquid solder cooled and stiffened around it

Only then did he let himself breathe He slid the board back into the panel, locked it in place, and booted theminute that followed as the syste, Michael Fisher closed his eyes and thought: Please

And there it was When he opened his eyes he saw it, sitting in the systee and watched as thesprang open Two partitions, A and B The first was tiny, just a few kilobytes But not B

B was huge

It contained two files, identical in size; one was probably a backup of the other Two identical files of such iled the mind This chip: it was like the whole world ritten inside it Whoever had irl, that person was not like anyone he knew; they did not seem to be froet Elton, ask hi from the back of the hut told hiy

When Michael opened the file, as he did in due course, he did it almost furtively, one hand raised before his eyes, which were peeking through his fingers

Chapter THIRTY-THREE

A lucky stroke: approaching the Infiruard He , Dale"

Dale’s cross hung loosely at his side He sighed with exasperation, cocking his head a little, giving Peter his good ear "You know I can’t let you in"

Peter craned his neck to look past Dale through the front s A lantern was glowing on the desk

"Sara inside?"

"She left a little while ago Said she was getting so ah Dale’s face At last he huffed in surrender and stood aside

"Flyers Just be quick about it"

Peter stepped through the door and irl was curled on the cot, her knees tucked against her chest, facing away At the sound of his entry, she uessed she was asleep

He positioned a chair by the cot and sat with his chin in his hands Under the tousle of her hair, he could see the mark on her neck where Sara had cut away the transmitter-a barely detectible line, almost cohts, and shifted on the cot to face hi in the lah the curtain

"Hey," he said His voice felt thick in his throat "How are you feeling?"

Her hands were pressed together, buried to her slender wrists in the crevice between her knees Everything about the way she held her body seemed conceived to make her appear s own You’re welcoe because it wasn’t so strange He had never heard the sound of the girl’s voice, and yet he did not feel this as a lack There was so about it, as if she had put aside the noise of words

"I don’t suppose you feel like talking," Peter ventured "Likeirl said nothing, indicated nothing Why would I tell you my name?

"Well, that’s okay," Peter said "I don’t mind We can just sit here"

Which hat he did; he sat with her, in the dark After a tiirl’s face More ain

As Peter waited in the quiet, a sudden weariness cao, when he had co over one of her patients-just as he was doing now He couldn’t remember who this person was or if, in fact, the memory was several ht or h the curtain and found hisin a chair by one of the cots, her head tipped to the side, and knew she was asleep The person on the cot was a child, a sht came from a candle on a tray by the bed He ; no one else was in the roo her face toward hilad, to see her again

Take care of your brother, Theo

-Ma, like you

He was jarred by voices outside and the clatter of the opening door Sara strode into the ward, the lantern swinging fro okay?"

He blinked into the sudden blaze It took him a moment to reassemble his sense of where he was He had slept only a er Already the one

"I was justI don’t know" Why was he apologizing? "I think Iherself with the lantern, irl was sitting up, an alert and watchful expression on her face

"How’d you talk Dale into letting you in?"

"Oh, Dale’s all right"