rounded the last corner. Sure enough, the corridor angled upwards and ended in a single metal door that would lead them directly onto the arena stage. Jara had not expected this last approach to the stage to be unguarded. But when she saw the three people standing in front of the door, she gasped and snapped on a PokerFace 83.4b.
Serr Vigal, the preeminent neural programmer.
Len Borda, High Executive of the Defense and Wellness Council.
And Natch, master of the Surina/Natch MultiReal Fiefcorp.
32
Jara took an awkward step backwards, tripped, and fell neatly into Horvil's arms.
She didn't realize that Len Borda was so tall. He towered over the rest of them like a thin rock pillar, his bald head its capstone. Anywhere in the world, she would have recognized his dour face instantly, whether or not he wore the Council's white robe and yellow star.
Jara tried but could not shake her head clear of historical vertigo. Standing before her was the High Executive of the Defense and Wellness Council himself. The man who had led the world's most feared military and intelligence organization for fifty-seven years and counting. The man who had personally sparred with giants like Lucco Primo, Kordez Thassel and Marcus Surina. The man who had singlehandedly defeated the Economic Slump of the 310s. The man who had mastered the intricacies of his post long before Jara was born.
She thought of all the wild and unverifiable rumors she had heard about Len Borda over the years. The secret interrogations ... the hidden fortresses ... the pitiless military strikes ... the all-pervasive network of spies and snooping programs. And now that face was directly in front of her. Were the firm grooves on the man's brow a manifestation of evil intent, as the libertarian drudges contended, or merely the chiseled remnants of nature's implacable forces?
The High Executive barely noticed her presence. 'I will speak to the crowd,' he said to Natch in a gravelly basso profundo. 'You have ten minutes.'
Jara glanced at the fiefcorp master. At first glimpse, Natch appeared calm and collected, dressed in a sharp navy-blue pinstripe suit. Only someone who had studied his every pore and wrinkle ten thousand times could tell he was tottering on the brink of collapse. She detected traces of the stimulant program QuickPrep 49q on his face. 'I need twenty,' Natch said firmly.
'Twenty then.' Borda's tone of voice left the impression that twenty minutes was what he had been after all along. He waved a hand, and the door to the arena stage slid open, bathing him in the spotlight.
Jara mustered all of her courage and spoke to the retreating high executive. 'What about all those troops out there?' she cried.
Borda paused and gave her an unyielding look. The look of a man who could pinpoint her precise location, down to the minutest degree, in the orgchart of the universe.
The analyst felt a hand on her shoulder, and turned to find Serr Vigal. 'Jara, the Council is here for our protection,' he said gently. 'It was Natch's idea.'
She gaped at the neural programmer, uncomprehending. 'And ... Margaret?'
'She'll be fine,' replied Borda. 'Unfortunately.' The high executive continued through the doorway and disappeared onto the stage. The door closed behind him.
Natch was already huddled with Horvil, listening intently to the engineer's instructions on how to operate the MultiReal program. There was no time to break down all that complexity into bite-sized pieces; Horvil was speaking pure calculus at this point. Natch gave no sign he understood the formulas his old friend was reeling off.
Jara turned to Serr Vigal. The neural programmer looked exhausted, and his eyes were full to the brim with concern for his protege.
'Natch was hit with black code,' said the neural programmer in response to her unspoken question. 'He just woke up a few hours ago.'
'The Patels?'
'Maybe, maybe not. He doesn't remember very much.'
The fiefcorp master and the engineer were now dashing around trying to find a conference room with SeeNaRee capabilities. Quell happened to show up at that precise moment, and he quickly led them to an out-of- the-way door under the stage. Natch, Horvil, Jara, Quell and Serr Vigal rushed in and found themselves standing at home plate on the baseball diamond again. Horvil conjured up a ball and a Kyushu clubfoot, then tossed them to the fiefcorp master. Natch took a deep breath, threw the ball skywards, and swung.
He missed.
He picked up the ball, chucked it in the air, and missed again.
On the fifth attempt, Natch finally connected. But the bottom edge of the bat barely nicked the ball, causing it to limp towards first base and roll to a stop in the infield.
'I can't get this fucking thing to work, Horvil!' cried Natch, flush with rage. 'Didn't Ben's people hook those programs together? What the fuck have you all been doing these past few days?'
'Benyamin's team got the job done,' said Quell, doing his best to ignore the fiefcorp master's slight. 'I tested the program myself.'
The engineer patted his boss's virtual shoulder. 'Just as you begin the swing, you've got to reach out with your mind towards the Possibilities interface and make sure you don't-'
'Never mind,' Natch said gruffly. 'There's no time. I'll figure it out. Jara, show me the script.'
She did. Let me do the presentation instead, she almost said. I'm ready, I've had a chance to experiment with Possibilities 1.0 in the past few days. But Jara could see the iron resolve in Natch's eyes, the single-minded insanity that kicked in whenever he was backed into a corner. Her little catharsis at the museum withered, wormlike, into the dust. It was inevitable. Natch would never turn down a chance to perform in front of an audience of this size. As she had predicted, he would either deliver a perfect presentation, or die trying. Jara wondered fleetingly how the living, breathing audience upstairs compared to the invisible audience Natch had been playing to in his head all those years.
'Jara, tell me whether the auditorium can handle all these calculations,' said Natch suddenly. His eyes were yellow and coyote hungry. 'Tell me we're not going to cause a hundred more of those infoquakes.'
'Well, the Surina people think that-'
'I don't want to hear it! Tell me yes or no.'
The bio/logic analyst pursed her lips for a full three seconds in thought. She had never hated Natch more. She had never found him so irresistibly sexy. 'Yes.'
'Good! Now go find Ben and Merri. The three of you comb the crowd and find the most sickeningly sweet little girl on the face of the earth. I'm talking five years old, pigtails, the whole thing.'
'They don't allow anyone younger than eight on the multi network, remember?'
'Fine, eight years old then. But not a day over eight. Tag her spatial coordinates with a beacon so I can find her. Horvil!' The engineer saluted briskly, looking as if he were ready to give his life for the cause. 'Go find a workbench. I need you to do the quickest programming job you've ever done in your life. We've got a couple of alterations to make.'
'What did you have in mind?'
Natch spouted off a few polynomials. Horvil turned to the Islander, who nodded. 'It can be done,' muttered Quell. 'Maybe.' Seconds later, the three of them bolted out the door and down another hallway.
'I've never seen him so frightened, Jara,' said Serr Vigal, as the two of them walked back towards the stairs and a door that would take them into the audience. 'I don't think I've ever been so frightened for him either.'
Jara wrapped a comradely arm around the neural programmer's waist. Nobody would have mistaken Vigal for a young man, but he seemed to have aged twenty years in the past few weeks. 'I'd be frightened too if I got shot full of black code,' said Jara. 'But don't worry, Vigal. He's already survived one attack, and with all those Council officers swarming through the arena, I doubt anyone would be stupid enough to try another.'
Vigal gave her a curious look. 'I don't think you understand. Natch isn't afraid of another black code attack. He's still worried about the first one.'
'You mean ... ?'
