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CHAPTER 7
BLACK AND BLUE
1
They all looked at the woman, waiting for her explanation. Michael wanted to get up
and run, but he knew they might never get another chance to learn anything if he did.
“He’s been here before,” she said. “I assure you my rewalls are solid. That man
wouldn’t dare cross me, considering I saved … one of his most cherished … Tangents
from Decay.”
Her odd pauses almost made Michael forget they were in danger. He knew that all
Tangents eventually went through Decay—an articial-intelligence program that
complex and that lifelike, with such realistic intelligence, couldn’t last forever before its
very existence began to contradict its instincts. The research showed that it always
started with essential elements in the Tangent’s life disappearing for no reason—its
articial memory lost its ability to “ll in the blanks.” Then weird things started
happening to its “physical” body. The manifestations supposedly varied from Tangent to
Tangent. But once the signs got too bad, became obvious to players, the programmers
would shut them down. Kill them.
Ronika’s voice pulled him back to the present.
“… wouldn’t be around this long if I hadn’t cleaned out its coding and basically
rebirthed Kaine’s prized Tangent. That’s not easy to do without erasing its memory, not
to mention that the whole thing is illegal. Kaine owes me. He supposedly spent years
developing that specic program. I didn’t know then what I do now about him, but I
will say, I probably still would have done it. It’s always good to have friends—and
enemies—in your debt.”
“He doesn’t seem the type to care if he betrays an old friend,” Michael pointed out.
“Also, he’s been trapping people inside the Sleep. He’s ruthless, and I don’t think we
should stick around to see what he does.”
Ronika eyed Michael carefully. “Then you are most welcome to leave.”
“She won’t help us anyway if they’re friends,” Bryson said.
“Friends?” Ronika repeated, saying the word as if the concept was foreign. “He paid
me a ridiculous amount of money. I’m no friend of any gamer. Only an associate. All I’m
saying is that what I did for him involved a rare talent of mine, and he wouldn’t dare
risk jeopardizing its availability in case he needs it in the future.”
Michael didn’t feel much safer, but they had to start prying. Sarah seemed to have the
same idea.
“Look,” she said. “We don’t have that kind of money. Is there a way we can earn
information from you?”