continued to chirp sopersistently that it sounded as if a dozen clocks were going off.
“Mr. McTurk?” another woman's voice said above the racket. “Mr. McTurk, can you hear me? Are you all right?”
Felix's eyes snapped open. Momentarily discombobulated, he found himself still strapped into one of Virtual Horizons’ flight chairs. All around him people were speaking furious hellos into incessantly ringing cell phones and glancing in enraged puzzlement at beeping pagers. No one seemed to know the parties at the other end of the connections or the phone numbers being displayed by the beepers.
Felix realized with a start that Worldwide Cellular had been dazed by the data extraction Gitana had engineered. He could only hope that Cellular's cybertechnicians hadn't tracked Gitana's coconspirator to Virtual Horizons.
Judging from the way his forehead and ears felt, someone had torn the visor from his face and yanked out the audio beads. The motion-capture vest was open, as was his now-buttonless dress shirt. The tour technician and a worried-looking Ms. Dak were standing over him, preparing to press self-adhesive electrodes to his chest and neck.
“Mr. McTurk, what happened to you?” Dak was saying, her own designer visor dangling around her slim neck.
Felix fought down nausea and fingered the chair's positioning switch to raise himself upright. His shaking hands waved aside the electrodes. Thesullen-looking technician helped him onto the couch while the other tourists continued their futile attempts at silencing their cell phones.
“Our pilot says that you
disappeared,”
she whispered, just loudly enough to be heard.
Felix forced his eyes to focus on his wristwatch. Twelve minutes had elapsed since Gitana's assault on Worldwide Cellular. Ms. Dak caught the gesture and said, “I'm sorry if we seem so confused, Mr. McTurk, but I assure you that this has never happened before. Our pilot insists that someone else was navigating for you in the Network.”
“I don't know what you're talking about,” Felix said.
The technician eyed him with suspicion. “You were gone before we even reached InfoWorld. I saw you flicking the joystick back and forth.”
“That was just nervous twitching,” Felix said. “I have a fear of flying.”
“Our pilot is one of the best in the business,” Dak said quickly. “He claims that he had you one minute and that the next minute you were gone. Exactly where did you go, Mr. McTurk?”
Felix crossed his arms, as much in defense as to get control of himself. “You're the experts. You tell me.
Dak adopted a conciliatory smile. “Please don't get us wrong, Mr. McTurk. We're not suggesting it was your fault…”
Felix pretended to be miffed. “I certainly hope not.”
Straightening her glistening smile, she said, “Inform Network Security.”
Chapter 7
Harwood Strange twisted the top from a bottle of flat room-temperature soda, poured three glasses, and carried the drinks into the front room of the apartment, where Tech and Marz were still puzzling over the coded information Mystery Notes had conjured from the minidisk. Strange had been dismayed to learn how easy it had been for the brothers to locate him and had insisted on knowing everything about Felix, Data Discoveries, and the illegal run into the EPA.
“So Cyrus didn't show up until
after
you had launched Subterfuge,” Strange said.
Tech set aside the tasteless soda. “If you're talking about the gremlin, then, yeah, it didn't appear until after we unzipped Subterfuge.”
“Well, of course, I mean the gremlin,” Strange said, laughing. He lowered his tall frame into an old armchair, atop which were perched two calicosand a tabby, all three of them purring up a storm. “Cyrus and the gremlin are obviously one and the same.”
Tech frowned. “How is it that obvious? Cyrus is a person. And what I saw was a gremlin.”
“Perhaps the gremlin you saw was merely Cyrus's cybercraft.” Strange sat back, eyes half
“Mr. McTurk?” another woman's voice said above the racket. “Mr. McTurk, can you hear me? Are you all right?”
Felix's eyes snapped open. Momentarily discombobulated, he found himself still strapped into one of Virtual Horizons’ flight chairs. All around him people were speaking furious hellos into incessantly ringing cell phones and glancing in enraged puzzlement at beeping pagers. No one seemed to know the parties at the other end of the connections or the phone numbers being displayed by the beepers.
Felix realized with a start that Worldwide Cellular had been dazed by the data extraction Gitana had engineered. He could only hope that Cellular's cybertechnicians hadn't tracked Gitana's coconspirator to Virtual Horizons.
Judging from the way his forehead and ears felt, someone had torn the visor from his face and yanked out the audio beads. The motion-capture vest was open, as was his now-buttonless dress shirt. The tour technician and a worried-looking Ms. Dak were standing over him, preparing to press self-adhesive electrodes to his chest and neck.
“Mr. McTurk, what happened to you?” Dak was saying, her own designer visor dangling around her slim neck.
Felix fought down nausea and fingered the chair's positioning switch to raise himself upright. His shaking hands waved aside the electrodes. Thesullen-looking technician helped him onto the couch while the other tourists continued their futile attempts at silencing their cell phones.
“Our pilot says that you
disappeared,”
she whispered, just loudly enough to be heard.
Felix forced his eyes to focus on his wristwatch. Twelve minutes had elapsed since Gitana's assault on Worldwide Cellular. Ms. Dak caught the gesture and said, “I'm sorry if we seem so confused, Mr. McTurk, but I assure you that this has never happened before. Our pilot insists that someone else was navigating for you in the Network.”
“I don't know what you're talking about,” Felix said.
The technician eyed him with suspicion. “You were gone before we even reached InfoWorld. I saw you flicking the joystick back and forth.”
“That was just nervous twitching,” Felix said. “I have a fear of flying.”
“Our pilot is one of the best in the business,” Dak said quickly. “He claims that he had you one minute and that the next minute you were gone. Exactly where did you go, Mr. McTurk?”
Felix crossed his arms, as much in defense as to get control of himself. “You're the experts. You tell me.
Dak adopted a conciliatory smile. “Please don't get us wrong, Mr. McTurk. We're not suggesting it was your fault…”
Felix pretended to be miffed. “I certainly hope not.”
Straightening her glistening smile, she said, “Inform Network Security.”
Chapter 7
Harwood Strange twisted the top from a bottle of flat room-temperature soda, poured three glasses, and carried the drinks into the front room of the apartment, where Tech and Marz were still puzzling over the coded information Mystery Notes had conjured from the minidisk. Strange had been dismayed to learn how easy it had been for the brothers to locate him and had insisted on knowing everything about Felix, Data Discoveries, and the illegal run into the EPA.
“So Cyrus didn't show up until
after
you had launched Subterfuge,” Strange said.
Tech set aside the tasteless soda. “If you're talking about the gremlin, then, yeah, it didn't appear until after we unzipped Subterfuge.”
“Well, of course, I mean the gremlin,” Strange said, laughing. He lowered his tall frame into an old armchair, atop which were perched two calicosand a tabby, all three of them purring up a storm. “Cyrus and the gremlin are obviously one and the same.”
Tech frowned. “How is it that obvious? Cyrus is a person. And what I saw was a gremlin.”
“Perhaps the gremlin you saw was merely Cyrus's cybercraft.” Strange sat back, eyes half
Similar Books
