At the church. Me, Karina, R8PR.

“Nope,” R8PR says flatly.

“Not even a hint?” I ask. “A cryptic statement?”

“I have my ways, and so do you,” he says. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be of much help with your Cybermancer stuff, but I was very busy with a few errands. That’s all I care to say.”

“I tell YOU everything…”

“Is that so?”

“Well…” I am sure R8PR would be smirking at me if he had a mouth, because he caught me red-handed at my occasional omission of certain important life events.

“The good thing is that you two stopped the Cybermancer’s primary accountant, leaving the group essentially leaderless. They haven’t been too relevant recently, but I imagine this was the finishing blow.”

“Really?”

“One option is most of them throw in the towel, going legitimate or retiring altogether. The other option is, now we have an unknown number of lone wolf Cybermancers whose motives and goals are a mystery, and could strike at any moment without coordination.”

“I like the first option more.”

“There’s something I wanted to bring up,” says Karina. “I’ve been thinking about it ever since we went to the Data Farm.”

“Oh, how was that by the way? Is it everything it’s hyped up to be?”

He sounds like my sister. “It had a good robot at the reception desk.” RIP, DODF.

“Anything Jones-related?”

“Well…”

“That’s what I want to say,” Karina interjects. “Remember, Jones was talking all about the Ascendants thing she brought up?”

“Yeah,” I say.

“So, the Ascendants are probably some super evil group that are doing… something, but we have no idea of what except that the Dreamtech helmet things were going to be part of it. Well.. what if the Cybermancers are tied in somehow?”

“I doubt it. The Cybermancers have been around for a really long time,” I say. “They aren’t really relevant anymore. Moonslash would have been much more powerful if he had access to the same stuff as Mayor Epstein and his crowd.”

Karina shrugs. “But what if the Ascendants have been around a really long time too? I guess it’s just weird to me that some dude who could buy data files for $80,000 and go around hacking people’s robots like nothing could go mostly unnoticed. Maybe there’s… another coverup or something.”

“Hmm… Very interesting points,” R8PR says. “Food for thought.“

“The Data Broker was offering a file on Jones, actually,” I add. “It was a full $200,000, but I have to wonder what may have been found already.”

“Probably less than you think,” he says. “If you two haven’t found a trace of her, I can’t think there’s anyone else anywhere close.”

“Awwww, that’s so sweet,” Karina says.

“I’m just stating the facts. You two are good sleuths.”

Ugh. Again, stop sounding like my sister all the time.