Nic was bent over a workbench in his lab soldering small transistors onto a circuit board. His Netpod beeped, but in his preoccupation, he ignored it. He had yet to setup all his sound profiles, so everything made a beep, the same beep, whether it was a priority matter or not. As such, the device beeped constantly and Nic was far too busy for interruptions.

He had received the new fuser for the printer, but it did not work out of the box. Instead of sending it back, he opted for troubleshooting the problem himself. It was a nice break for him to do some work with his hands, and the work took his mind off the myriad of other things that were troubling him of late. The Netpod beeped again. He took a sip of tepid coffee and made a face. Katherine clung to some rafters overhead, snoozing quietly. Nic fished through the drawers of a small parts organizer, seeking the right part. The Netpod beeped.

"Dammit, I'm going to throw this thing in the toilet." He cursed, picking up the device. At his touch the screen came alive, the display read:

Jupiter Ascension. Tunnel up. Listener online.

Nic blinked and shook his head slightly, not quite believing what he saw. Tripping as he moved from the bench, he stumbled to his workstation and began verifying the authenticity of the connection. The message included a small file which he transferred to his system, it was a program which would allow him to connect back to the Netpod through the tunnel, in command mode. The present connection was designed to deliver the message and the file, once disconnected it would be lost and the Netpod would not attempt another. More than one attempt would indicate something was amiss. He ran a quick integrity check and found the file had been changed, which gave him pause.

"Katherine? Can you come down here, I need some crypto assistance." He called up to her. She woke instantly from her repose and crept down the wall silently with cat-like grace. Nic connected her up to his systems and started feeding her data.

"The file has been altered, can you verify the encryption?" He requested, it was but a moment later his answer came back, displayed on his screen. The encryption was good. It did not make much sense, but it was definitely his Netpod on the other end of the link, but it was hard for Nic to comprehend that someone would have not only discovered and decoded his trojan, but reconstructed it and repackaged it. It made him very nervous, for the first time in a long time Nic felt like he had met his equal, someone on the other end was every bit as skilled as he was, perhaps more. He disconnected the link.

"Katherine, run a full diagnostic on the firewall."

She chirped and dutifully began running batches of tests.

Nic stabbed a pen at a piece of paper as he was wont to do when a challenging puzzle presented itself. He tapped his console and brought up the locator application which tracked the Netpods at all times. Just as it had been since the morning of the KTI debacle, all Netpods indicated no contact. For a moment he thought maybe Erik was trying to contact him again, but why would Erik do it through the Netpod, Nic wondered. He dismissed the thought.

Katherine chirped, Nic looked up at the display - all security systems passed, the firewall was functioning as per design and Katherine had even swept the intrusion detection logs for anomalies and found nothing.

Nic decided to try to run the file, but first he brought a number of geographically dispersed proxies online in an attempt to obfuscate his identity and network location. He figured he may be able to discern the location of the Netpod if he initiated the connection, but he knew there was a risk that the person or persons on the other end would be able to do the same. At this point though, he just wanted to find his friends and help them out if he could and this was his only opportunity, he felt a bit reckless.

"Katherine, I want you to monitor this link when I get it setup, if you notice any indication we are being back-traced or probed, kill the connection."

She chirped, affirming she understood her task. Nic strung together a dozen proxies from across the globe, utilizing systems he managed for industries as well as systems he had access to through more nefarious means.

"Well, this is it." He said to Katherine, taking a deep breath and executing the file.

The proxies added latency, so the connection was far from instantaneous, but eventually the tunnel came up. He launched his Netpod command console and waited for all the features to populate as they verified functionality. It looked like only a small subset of features were available to him. One feature still active was the eavesdrop capability, he enabled it and put on a set of headphones.

"Katherine, see if you can verify that this is really my Netpod."

"...she's not resisting as much this time." Nic overheard.

Who? He thought. Resisting what? He continued to listen. He could hear banter and technical jargon, several voices using words like index, sequence, memory stabilization, it was rather nonsensical out of context.

In the MemEx chamber, Abi was reliving her undersea vacation. It was life-like, Daniel beckoned, his childhood voice rang in her ears. She complied, they ran off together down one of the many hallways, their parents calling after them. The shocks seemed dulled as they raced through her. Her friends looked on, watching her body writhe and shake, one arm had freed itself during a spasm and now hung in a grotesque lifeless manner from the side of the chair. Her nose again, bled freely.

"Stop!" Sean yelled, his voice shaking. "I'll tell you what you want!"

Nic knew that voice, although he had never heard Sean scream in such a way, but it was definitely Sean. Something was very wrong, Nic's blood ran cold. He started the nearband scanner, which immediately starting picking up some anonymous devices and CITs, as well as some implants. Nothing presented itself as overly useful and worth attention though.

Back in the MemEx, Niles strode over toward the prisoners in his confident, airy manner and addressed Sean. "What is it you'd like to tell me?"

"Anything you want to know, just stop that machine, it's killing her."

"You know what I want, the fifth member of your group."

Nic noticed the nearband scanner now picked up Sean's auditory implants, he opened the channel.

"Sean it's Nic." He spoke into his mic.

Sean momentarily stunned, hearing Nic's voice in his head.

"Sean, what the hell is going on? My Netpod picked up your implants, do you have my Netpod?"

Sean's mind raced, he had not seen that Netpod since the interview they had when they arrived. Did Niles have it on him? He tried to think of a way to communicate with Nic without giving anything away.

"I'll tell you about Nic, that's his name, he's a bio born, this was all his idea. Don't kill Abi, please turn off the machine." Sean plead.

A chill ran down Nic's spine, his stomach churned. He could not let Abi die, not for him.

"A bio-born was the mastermind behind this?" Niles balked, incredulous. "How is that even remotely possible? Offering lies will not save your friend and when we are done with her, we will suck the truth from every last one of you."

"Stall him Sean, but do what you have to for Abi. Tell them whatever you have to." Nic told Sean.

Nic reviewed the available options at his command, it did not leave him with much. He looked through all the nearband connections again, but nothing looked promising. He slammed his fist down hard on the desk.

"Dammit Nic think!" He said out loud, Sean overheard.

Another voice came over the channel, only audible to Nic. It had a bit of a hollow machine quality to it. "Nic, this is Wagner Kroener, I believe you may have met my son."

"Wagner Kroener?" Nic replied. "But how is that--"

"Nic, there is very little time," Wagner cut him off impatiently. "for your friends and my son, all of whom are in grave danger. I think we might be able to help each other, if we work together we might be able to help all of them."

"I'm listening, but make it fast." Nic replied.

"The MemEx lab, where your friends are now runs on a system that I currently have considerable control over. I can send misleading data to the technicians' terminals so that their adjustments to bring the system back inline will create a catastrophic failure of the power relays in this room, which will stop the extraction process. At that time I will be able to isolate the room from the rest of the Core network, so that no alarm will be raised. You will have to infiltrate the network, find my son, help him escape and provide safe haven for him as long as you can."

"I can't infiltrate the network, I've never even been able to get close." Nic argued.

"Untrue, your device has infiltrated the network and it has already deploy thousands of it's little agents." Wagner countered, referring to the worms that were, even now multiplying and spreading through the Centreon's systems. "I modified them to make them harder to find and eradicate, I know what their payload is, so I implore you not to trigger them until my son is safe. The man named Niles has your device, you need to get your friends to retrieve it and connect it by hardline to one of the workstations in this room, then you will have a direct connection to their secure network. There are two possible systems on the network that they could use to imprison my son, I am transferring details now. Crack those systems and free my son and I will do everything I can to aide in your friend's escape."

"Is this the only option?" Nic asked.

"Yes, your friend Abi will not survive the MemEx process much longer, the Soul Capture array was not designed for this purpose, it has been debased by these men for their own sick purpose. However, used like this, I assure you it can be very deadly. Nic, we are running out of time."

"Okay, okay. I can only communicate with one of my friends though, what do I tell him?"

"Tell him to be ready to act, and if he wants to save his friend, now is going to be the time to fight for her."

Nic opened the channel back to Sean, "Sean, I don't have time to explain, but we have someone on the inside who is going to help you escape. He is going to sabotage the power relays in that room you are in, that would be the time to act. One of you has to get my Netpod from that Niles guy and plug it into a workstation in there."

Sean could not even respond, there was no way to pass the message on to the others and even if he could, there were eight guards, three military guys and a handful of technicians, regardless of the distraction he would not even be able to overpower a single guard in his current condition, he. He looked across the room at Abi, this is the second time he had to endure witnessing her torture at the hands of these men. He looked up at Niles, at his smug look of self-satisfaction as he waited for Sean to provide him more details on this bio born menace.

Despite the overwhelming odds, Sean promised himself that when the opportunity came, he'd personally wipe that look off Niles face. He took a quick look over at Trey and Miller, he hoped they would follow his lead. He knew Trey had been in a fair number of scraps over the years and Miller had been competing in martial arts since he was a child, in a fair fight each could hold their own, but the numbers were not in their favour, this would be nothing like a fair fight. Sean put that out of his mind and concentrated on his only goal, getting his hands on Niles.

Nic brought up another command console, one that controlled all the worms now crawling through the Core network. He tied it into the same tunnel he had open to the Netpod and waited. Wagner sent inaccurate data to the technicians' consoles and as expected, they began adjusting the MemEx system power supply accordingly. It did not take long for this cycle to bring the relays close to a critical condition, Wagner disabled all the failsafes and alarms and waited for the inevitable.

* * * * *

Abi got off the Pod, things seemed distorted, the world was askew, the snow hitting her face seemed hot and she knew it shouldn't. In the ferocity of the winter storm, she felt hot, uncomfortably so and wished to remove her jacket, but she found she could not command herself to do so. The once vivid memory now appeared washed out, she felt so tired, she wanted to just lie down in the snow and sleep. The scenery faded grey, it was snowing, she noticed how quiet is was, how peaceful. Fading... fading.

Black.

"Alarm on her vitals, sir, we are losing her." One of the technicians advised Henrik. Henrik quickly crossed the room to inform Niles.

"Sir, we are losing her, we'll likely lose her before we get full extraction." He said.

Niles thought for a moment and looked down at Sean. "Run the full sequence, go to 104 percent on the signal if needed. We can keep her CNS viable with the CIT connection."

"Sir?"

"You heard me, max it out, even if she expires keep going, we have successfully retrieved data up to 107 seconds post-mortem. Make it happen, or you might find yourself in the chair next, we can always use fresh subjects for calibration."

"No!" Sean exclaimed. "You said-"

"I said nothing - for all I know you've be giving me half-truths and bullshit." Niles turned to Henrik who was still standing there with a dumbfounded look. "Proceed with the sequence! If it kills her so be it."

Henrik hastened back to the bank of workstations. He instructed the team to proceed, urging them on. He willed them to succeed, so much was at stake for him now. Failure this time would mean more than a black mark on his official record. He tried not to think about it.

Silently, stealthily, Daniel and his men each unsheathed a Bone knife, and hid their hands from view.

Made of advanced composites, the Bone knife was deployed only by Paladins. Few even knew of it's existence. Virtually undetectable, it was a favorite of the elite soldiers when they needed to get a weapon into a secure area. Extremely light and razor sharp, in the hands of a Paladin it was an efficient and fearsome weapon.

Daniel knew to save his sister he was going to have to move soon, but he had a similar dilemma to Sean and that was a matter of numbers, plus he knew if anyone tripped a panic alarm, the lab would be swarming with guards in no time.

"Attenuation nominal." A tech sounded off. "Ready for max gain."

"Coming up on 98 percent." Another responded. "Capacitors holding, ninety-nine... one-hundred, one-hundred-one, one-hundred two, close the relays."

A deafening crack, like a small thunderclap exploded in their ears as the relays blew sending a shower of sparks across the room. An access panel flew from it's mount and passed within centimeters of Henrik's head, and stuck in the wall behind him. All illumination went out. Blackness.

Daniel and his men moved, their retinal implants granting them improved night vision. Two of them struck with deadly precision just as the emergency lights kicked on. Henrik looked on in shock as two guards crumpled to the floor and Daniel's lieutenants moved on the remaining guards. Daniel's target had half-turned when the relays blew inadvertently deflecting Daniels strike. The two were now locked in a fight to the death, the guard quickly deployed a baton.

Sean reacted slower than he planned, being stunned temporarily by the small explosion. He realized he no longer had two guards on him and the one left had a very loose grip. Ignoring his pain and with all his remaining strength he lunged up from the ground at Niles, breaking free of his guard and grabbing Niles by the lapel of his very fine suit. Sean buried his large fist in the side of Niles jaw, dropping him to the floor, but before he could throw himself on top of Niles, the guard grabbed him by the shoulder, spun him around and landed a sharp palm-strike to his solar plexus sending Sean sprawling to the ground gasping. Trey and Miller, free from their remaining guards, who were busy fighting the Paladins, joined the fracas tackling the guard that had knocked Sean down.

Henrik stood, mouth agape, near the workstations, frozen. Half the technicians bolted for the door, only to find it sealed. Niles, coming to his senses yelled, "Kill Wagner's connection! Henrik!!" Henrik snapped out of his daze and pulled the remote from his pocket and pushed the button, a loud crack sounded and smoke rose from a stack of network gear. Wagner was cut off.

Niles rose to his feet, only to be dragged back down by Sean, who had regained his wind. The two wrestled, but even injured, Sean's youth and athleticism prevailed and he soon gained the mount and began to rain down punches. He likely would have continued punishing the bloodied Niles, perhaps killing him, but Sean noticed Abi, still strapped to the chair and his priorities changed. In the midst of the ongoing battle around him, Sean left the battered oligarch and hobbled over the the chair and began ripping away her restraints.

"Abi! Abi, can you hear me?" he yelled frantically pulling at the belts and buckles. Behind him, the melee continued.

Daniel handily disarmed his opponent, breaking the guard's arm in the process, before driving his knife home. Trey and Miller continued to fight with their guard, a rolling brawl that spanned the length of the room. Miller clung to the guard's back working for a choke hold, trying desperately to submit the large man, while Trey and the guard traded punches.

Out of nowhere, one of the lieutenants appeared and in a single motion broke the guard's neck. Without saying a word, he then extended his hand and helped Miller and Trey up. The room was dead silent, Niles was out cold on the floor, Henrik stood still paralyzed by the crowd of cowering technicians.

"What do you want?" Henrik asked with a quivering voice. No one answered him.

Sean looked up, "Trey, that guy has Nic's Netpod on him, grab it." he instructed. Trey rifled though Niles pockets, quickly finding the device.

"Got it!" Trey said holding it up.

"Plug it into one of the workstations."

Trey went over to the row of computer, roughly pushing Henrik aside, and patched it in. "Done."

"The rest is up to Nic, I guess."

Daniel approached the chair to check Abi, he comlinked Paladian nine as he did so. The lieutenant approached the table, produced a small device and passed it over Abi a couple times. "Her vitals are good," Daniel relayed the information from the Paladin for the others to hear, "but she'll be out for quite a while. Until she's awake we won't be able to assess if her mind has been damaged by the process."

Sean still had not placed the face, "Who are you?" He asked. "Why are you helping us?"

Daniel looked down at Abi with a sombre look, brushing hair gently from her face, "My name is Daniel Carrington, she's my little sister, I had to do something."

It all came rushing back to Sean, the picture in Abi's flat - it was Daniel, but he was suppose to be dead. "Abi told me you died."

"It's a long story and something we don't have time for right now, take this," he said, handing Sean a small data storage module, it will explain things when you have time. "We have to move now, you aren't free yet. I have an idea, but one of you will have to carry Abi, obviously not you."

"Trey," Sean called out. "Can you carry her?"