Jak Koke: Stranger souls

Burnout was the obvious choice.

Lethe moved up close to the falling cyberzombie and entered his body. He possessed the mind and flesh of the man who had been Burnout. And by the time Lethe realized the magnitude of his mistake, it was too late.

It was way too late.

A midnight blue-tinted sky darkened to black in the east. A hot wind, stirred up by the helicopter blades, stung Ryan's skin as he climbed back inside the hovering Hughes Airstar. He was tired and in pain from the fight with Burnout, but he couldn't stop yet. He had to get the Dragon Heart back. Pain shot in bolts up his legs as he sat next to Nadja. He clenched his teeth against the pain, too fatigued to use magic to channel it away.

A calm sense of purpose filled Ryan. An almost surreal understanding of who he was and what he must do. His indecision gone. Dissipated into the night. "Dhin," Ryan said. "Take us down to the bottom."

"Now?"

"Now! And power up a search light so we can see." "Jane?" came the ork's voice over the speakers, "do I trust him?"

It was Nadja who answered. "Yes," she said. "Do it."

Dhin complied a few seconds later, sending the 'copter into a plunge. "Got the spotlight on," he said, "but can't see him."

Ryan stood and looked out the side door. The Snake River was about ten meters across at the bottom, flowing slowly, a black-glass surface in the darkness. The canyon walls rose precipitously from the surface of the water, no ledges or outcroppings in sight. But the spotlight could illuminate only a tiny circle, and Burnout could have fallen anywhere. He could be under water; he could have been swept downstream.

Ryan shifted his focus into the astral. The river lit up with life, algae and fish and bottom plants. But he could see no sign of the cyberzombie. If he had come this way, Ryan

should be able to see a slight shift in the astral, a trail of pollution like a bad odor left by Burnout's passing. He should also be able to sense the Dragon Heart if it was close. And where was the spirit, Lethe?

Ryan saw no astral trail. He felt no Heart, and Lethe was nowhere to be seen. Ryan sensed nothing.

After an hour of searching, Dhin called back, "We're running low on fuel."

"Thanks, Dhin," Ryan said. "Take us back up. We'll try again in the light."

As Dhin brought the machine up the canyon and over the rim to the compound, Jane's voice came over Ryan's wrist-phone. "Can I talk to you?" she said.

"Hoi, Jane. Sorry about whatever I said to you back there."

"It's blank memory," she said. "Forgotten."

"Thanks," Ryan said. "So what do you want to chat about?"

"I need a favor."

"Name it."

"It requires that you enter the Matrix and meet a friend of mine. Alice." "Oh?"

"You can use the 'trode rig that Axler has," she said. "I'll explain everything after you're in."

Ryan wondered just what Jane was scheming, but decided not to question her now. "Will it take long?" he asked. "I'm beat."

"Not long," Jane said. "And I promise you'll like what Alice has planned." Then Jane's voice cut off.

Dhin set the helicopter down, giving wide berth to the ruined hull of Nadja's jet, which still burned on the end of the airstrip. Axler and Grind stood near it, checking the fallen security guards for signs of life. Ryan felt a wave of sadness as he watched. It was his fault that those people had died. Because of my weakness, he thought.

Because I lacked the strength to heat Roxborough, Burnout killed those people and took the Dragon Heart.

Ryan had failed, but not completely. He had beaten Burnout. He had overcome Roxborough. But all that seemed empty without the Dragon Heart. Until he got it back, he

would feel like he was letting Dunkelzahn down. Like he was letting himself down.

That was why he wouldn't rest until his mission was complete.

Thomas Roxborough dreamed he was in a real body.

One minute he was sitting at his virtual desk, analyzing productivity numbers. The next minute, the walls of his mansion were dissolving, their planar uniformity splitting in constituent bits and floating away on an invisible current.

He floated in a void, his consciousness drifting. Then he felt his body around him, sensed every detail as though he were inside actual flesh. He felt the delicious rise and fall of his chest as he breathed, the gentle sensation of sprinkling rain on his face. The smell of cigarette smoke. So close, so real it could not be denied.

At first he thought that Meyer had performed the spirit-transfer without telling him. Or perhaps I just forgot that the ritual had been scheduled, Roxborough thought. But then he wondered where he was. Which body he was in. He opened his eyes.

Skyscrapers towered above him, their facades all blue glass and mirrors, reflecting the city's street lamps. There were no sounds of traffic, but he heard the whisper of the falling rain and the soothing rush of wind through the buildings.

Roxborough stood up and surveyed his body. It was a form he was used to even though it had been many years since he'd been inside it. A large belly protruded over his waist, his naked flesh a pasty white, covered only by a threadbare rug of black hair follicles. His feet and bones ached dully from the exertion of standing up. He was in his old body.

"Hello, Rox," came a voice he recognized. A voice that belonged to a woman who had plagued him on and off in the Matrix since the Crash of '29.

He turned to look at her-a medium-height human woman leaning her shoulder against the scratched plexiglass of an old-style phone booth. Her blonde hair was cropped at the shoulder. Her eyes were the blue color of oceans; Roxborough could almost see the sparkle of sun off the water when he looked at them. She wore black jeans and a white cotton halter, and a cigarette rested between the fingers of her right hand, smoke from its tip curling up along her arm.

"Taking up smoking, Alice?" Roxborough said.

"Yes," she said, taking an exaggerated drag from her cigarette. "After all, it can't kill me."

Roxborough laughed. "Very humorous," he said. "So where am I?"

"Welcome to Wonderland," Alice said. "But you can call it Hell." "Whatever do you mean?"

"I mean that I've finally given you your wish," she said. "A real body."

"How did you-" Roxborough stopped as a man stepped up next to Alice, coming from behind the phone booth. The man was tall and well-muscled, but his movements were jerky and not quite natural, as though this was a simulacrum instead of a real person. It was Ryan Mercury.

"Hello, Tommy," Ryan said, calling Roxborough by the name Father had used. "I gave Alice the access codes to get into your system." Ryan tapped his forefinger against his temple. "Many of your memories are in here," he said.

Roxborough stared at Alice. "What have you done?"

"I've trapped your consciousness," she said. "Quite simple once Ryan gave me the codes I needed. I've also reconfigured your own system so that you'll never be able to get back inside. Escape is quite impossible, I'm afraid."

"But why?"

Alice took a final drag on her cigarette and flicked it into the street. "I want to torture you," she said simply. "I want you to know what I went through after the Crash. You know what it feels like to be a prisoner, but do you understand what it's like to be thrust into a world completely out of your control? Where you don't know the rules? Where the most innocuous things can kill you?"

"It wasn't my fault, Alice," Roxborough said. "It was

merely bad luck that you were in my system when the Crash virus flatlined you."

"I'm still gathering evidence. Ryan can't remember the specifics of your involvement with the Crash, but suffice it to say that I think you're full of drek."