New Gods for Old – No Faith Required. (part 1 of 2)

1

Harry's head ached - a lot!2

The noise in the main precinct was like Babel squared. To Harry, it seemed as if the whole world was shouting in his face. The cop that had pulled him out of the drink tank didn't even bother to try to speak but just dragged him by the shoulder and pointed to one of the booths off to the side of the main hall. 3

"Okay bum - get dressed, you're sprung." the cop told him, once the soundproof door was shut behind them. With a sneer he slung the box with Harry's meagre effects and clothes down on the tiny table.4

Harry wanted to ask how this had happened - he'd been expecting another slapping. When the cops had picked him up the night before, they had been looking to pin a robbery on him, even if he had been too drunk to walk.5

Harry was silent. For if nothing else, the last few years had taught him when to speak and when it was wise not to ask questions. He dressed as quickly as the shakes would allow and followed meekly as the cop led him back to the 'out' desk. 6

"Well about bloody time! What you do, stop off for a lard break, fatso?"7

Harry winced. The woman was stunning, her red hair tied back in a pony tail, her tight silver suit revealing a slim muscular figure, but you just didn't talk to cops like that and especially not on their own turf!8

"Hey - shut it bitch! Less you want to swap places with your boyfriend here." the cop snapped.9

Harry didn't see quite what happened but the next moment the cop had one hand twisted up his back and was standing on tiptoes, his chin lifted up on the corner of a platinum credit card.10

"This card belongs to William Baxter; he wants me to use it to take this drunk from you, to him. Now can you handle it lard arse? Or do you want me to call the Commissioner to help you out?"11

The cop paled. The Baxter Brothers were not people you wanted to be noticed by, crossing them would not only be bad for the career but bad for the life expectancy. "Okay, okay, sorry - fast track it is."12

Harry was amazed how quickly the paper could be sorted when the will was there. "So what does Bunter want me for?" he asked, as they left the noise behind on their way to the car park.13

The woman gave a short snort and peered at Harry for a moment. "You don't like living very much do you? Bunter?" She shook her head.  "My name's Slate and Mister Baxter didn't explain why, just told me to come get you - okay?"14

"Oh, just another lackey - the way you handled the cop I thought you might be a bit more." Harry sighed.15

"Because I work for the Baxter's it doesn't make me a lackey and besides, what right does a sad old drunk like you have to criticise me?" Slate was stung by the crack.16

Harry sucked his teeth. "None, I guess…"17

"Over here." Slate led Harry over to a new Crammer Electric town cruiser. "That was pretty wimpy, I expected a little more… fight, from the man who once had both worlds by the balls."18

"Fight? Why, do you want to give me a hiding too? I know what you are, I won't fight you."19

Slate smiled. "So what am I Harry?"20

"A bodyguard; probably enhanced, reflexes, strength, sight; that suit is k-sar, bullet and laser proof, that doesn't come cheap - which means you must be pretty high up the pecking order."21

"The Square." Slate told the car and then turned back to Harry as they drove off. "Very good." she clapped. "That cop would have saved himself some grief if he'd had your eye for detail, but then you were married to one of us, weren't you."22

Harry didn't want to cry - not here, not now, but he felt the lump rise in his throat and his eyes about to betray him at the very thought of Grace. "Can we stop for a bottle?" he asked gruffly.23

"Not a chance, you've been dry for twenty four hours and, I'm just here to say, that's the way you're going to stay." Slate sung the phrase from the old standard. "At least until William has seen you anyway."24

Harry stared out the window at the fading light as they sped up town, trying to stop the shaking of his hands from showing too much.25

"A five and a half year bender - that's just got to be some kind of a record you know." Slate chuckled, then shook her head. "What would Grace say if she saw you like this?" She gestured at Harry's dirty, bedraggled clothes and matted beard.26

"She'd kick my arse across town and I'd love every moment of it, but that's the point, she can't, she's bloody dead!" He collapsed back into the seat, his short burst of anger evaporating swiftly, leaving him even more down than before. "Just get this over and let me get back to my bottle."27

"Did the two of you really take out an AI?" Slate asked, as if Harry hadn't spoken. "I saw the film but I didn't know enough to tell how much of it was true."28

"It was all bullshit! The whole bloody thing! They didn't have a clue what they were talking about, we… we…" Harry couldn't get past the 'we', thoughts of Grace sending his mind spiralling down into the bottle again.29

"Yeah, I was told that, so what did happen?"30

Harry groaned. "I don't want to think about it. Just leave me alone!"31

"No can do, the Baxters' want you, the Baxters' get you." Slate shrugged. "And from what I've heard, Tanaka has feelers out for you as well."32

"Oh shit! Shit! They have everything I ever had; I don't have anything left to give them." Harry tried to keep the whine out of his voice, but didn’t entirely succeed.33

"We're here. Don't get out; I'll come around to your side."34

Harry shuddered. Slate looked nothing like Grace; Grace had been shorter, broader in the shoulder and black. Yet they way she moved and the way her eyes searched, they could have been clones.35

It was only a short walk from The Square to the Baxter Building but Slate was like a watchful cat. There were hardly any people in the streets of the business sector and none of them gave the pair a second glance.36

Soft music drifted up from an ally as they passed and Harry glanced wistfully down towards the bar but Slate gripped his shoulder and steered him on down the street.37

"How they doing?" Slate asked the minder on the door.38

He shrugged. "Not so good from what I hear, is this him!"39

"Yep, Harry Fowler - The Legend."40

Whatever else Harry was, clearly to the heavy on the door he was a great disappointment. "Shit, they must be a lot worse than I thought." he snorted.41

Slate took Harry up to the inner office. The office was opulent, deep pile carpet and the best solid wood furniture. The large man sitting behind the desk rose as they entered. He was immaculately dressed in a conservative dark suit, his black hair and sallow skin gave him a Mediterranean look. 42

"Harry! Well done Slate. So how have you been old fellow?"43

"Just get to the point Bunter and let me get a drink." 44

William Baxter shook his head, not even seeming to notice his hated nickname. "Same old Harry. Okay, to the point, I want you to activate the Golam."45

Harry nearly laughed but it came out as a staccato cough. "Oh is that all, what do you want for dessert - the moon? Besides, you always believed that the Golam was no more than a statue conjured up by the AI's."46

"You're right, fair comment but one of my people swears he saw it move and even if no one else has heard it speak, I'm willing to trust what you told me. I need your help Harry - Torro has me by the short and curlies."47

Harry looked as if he had tasted bitter aloe. "And that means what to me? Everything you have here you got from me, besides it's been years, you probably have cyber jocks that could run rings around me now."48

William Baxter sighed and studied his nails for a moment - Slate thought he was trying to keep his temper but when he spoke his voice sounded sad, rather than angry. "I don't think so, you were always the master. With Grace watching your back and Candy watching your front there was never anyone else even in the same league." William swallowed. "I know Torro and I never said it but we both know how much we owed you - then when Grace……"49

"I don't want to hear it! You think I care that you and Torro jumped into my shoes while they were still warm, or that my two lieutenants couldn't agree and are now squabbling kids! I don't want anything except a bottle, so why don’t you tell someone who gives a shit?" Harry flopped into a chair like a puppet whose strings had been cut. "Just give me a bloody drink and you two can sod off to hell in your own way."50

"Take him to the farm tonight - try your wonder cure on him and put him in the Correlation Matrix tomorrow; if you think he's strong enough."51

Slate nodded and took Harry by the shoulder - he didn't resist.52

"Do your best Harry. I don't want it all I swear, just parity with Torro. You taught us that Harry, remember - Torro asked you why the two of us, I never forgot, you said, balance."53

Harry looked up and for a moment seemed to have a gleam of strength in his eyes but then it was gone.54

"We don't have much time Slate, a few days, a week at the very most."55

Slate nodded her understanding.56

Jacob Baxter came in when Slate and Harry had left. "So what you think Bro?"57

"Not much chance; he's not the man he was, but what else can we do? Better start the escape plan, but don't activate it until I say so - and let Brian know."58

Jacob grimaced and left his elder brother to brood, while he went to warn his younger brother they were about to take a long nosedive.59

Slate landed the helicopter at the pad on the roof of the farm and led Harry down to the rooms below.60

"You need a good night’s sleep - drink this it'll help."61

Harry could think of nothing but a bottle. He could feel the seal break in his hands, that slight resistance then the snap. He could smell the aroma rise to his nose as he lifted the bottle to his lips and the warm course down into his stomach. The cold, acerbic and bitter bite of the drink Slate gave him came as a shock.62

"The taste will pass in a moment and you should sleep."63

Harry woke the next morning to Slate shaking him. "Come on Harry, your big day - back to the front, but first I think a shower and a shave. You smell like a dead skunk." Slate threw herself down on Harry's vacated bed.64

"You going to sit there and watch me?" For the first time in a long while Harry noticed how dirty and smelly he was.65

  "Emmm, yup. Why, are you shy?" 66

Harry slipped out of his clothes. Apart from the night in the drink tank, he couldn't remember the last time he'd changed them.67

"That's a fine set of bruises you have."68

"Cops think that a good thumping is a cure for drunks - or perhaps they just enjoy it." 69

The shower felt good and with a shock Harry realised he hadn't thought about a drink since he'd woken. 70

Slate gave him shorts and a robe to wear as he emerged. "No clothes yet, we have a little work to do first." Slate was surprised how much better Harry looked just for being cleaned up. His face looked less lined and his hair brown rather than the slick, near black, it had been.71

In the room across the passage Slate made Harry sit on a stool while she attached electrodes to his head, chest, back, arms and legs. She then gave him exercises to do while she watched a computer screen.72

"You amaze me; I don't think I'd be in such good shape after all those years of abuse. Next stop, some cool casuals for you and breakfast."73

"It's time." Slate announced as they finished eating.74

Harry's hands trembled and he thought of a bottle as they approached the cyber 'coffins'. "Slate, I don't think I can do this."75

"Sorry, you have no choice, only easy way or hard way."76

Harry climbed in. "Come with me?"77

Slate shrugged. "I've never been."78

"Please."79

Slate thought for a moment, the farm was as secure as it could be made and there was nothing she could add to that so…"Why not."80

Harry showed Slate how to put on the headset, then taking a deep breath, closing his eyes, and trying to stop the shake in his hands, he slipped his own on.81

The sullen grey sky was like coming home. 82

"Wow! This isn't what I expected - are you smaller?"83

Harry smiled. "This is the land of the mind; you have a slightly enlarged ego so…  Don't sweat it, Grace was the same…" Harry stopped in mid-sentence, he had mentioned her name and not been swept away by emotions.84

"So what do you see?" he asked Slate, to change the subject.85

Slate shrugged. "A sombre landscape, heavy skies, grim, except for that mountain. It looks like Fujiama, what is it Harry?"86

Harry smiled. "They say everyone sees it a little differently but that fits with what most people see - the mountain? That's Candy."87

"My God! That's what you took out!"88

Harry didn't appear to be listening. "She could make herself appear differently if she wished but she has always looked like that since we've been here anyway. No! Take out Candy, it's unthinkable!"89

"But an AI like her?" Slate persevered.90

"Not like her," Harry shivered. "But yes, of her kind, but we had help." 91

Harry smiled. "A very, very great deal of help."92

"So, show me what you can do then - The legendary Harry Fowler!" Slate challenged.93

Harry shrugged and waved his hand.94

Without any transition they were on a warm beach. Slate could feel the sun on her bare arms and glanced down to see she now wore her favourite bikini. A large wave rolled up the beach and gave a deep drawn out sigh at having to return to the ocean again. There was no seam of unreality. Every sense told her she was on this lovely sun-kissed beach, the blue sea and cloudless sky before her.95

Yet even as she shook her head in awe, the sea was gone.  She was standing ankle deep in snow. Even through the thick furs she was wrapped in, the howling wind sent chills into her bones. She pulled the broad hood tighter to her face as the wind whipped up a snow devil. The forest before her looked petrified, encased in ice and snow. The lonely howl of a wolf sent a shiver down Slate's spine.96

Slate could still feel the cold for a moment and yet now she looked down on a busy urban street. It was as if she was on a bridge over the road, for the traffic sped below her but the platform or bridge she stood on was invisible as were they, apparently, for no-one in the street gave even a glance their way. 97

The ground was a pastel shade of blue and a few small fiery red clouds scudded across a violet sky. In the sky, as large as close hot air balloons, hung three huge moons. The scene couldn't have lasted for more than a few seconds and yet it left Slate gasping and took her longer to realise she was back under the leaden sky.98

"My God! How do you do that?"99

"As you rightly said, I was once considered the master. I had better get off about Bunter's business, you should… It looks like we have company."100

Slate looked across to where Harry was pointing and realised the company was as bizarre as Harry's scenes. The leading figure looked like the film version of a vampire and just behind loped a huge three headed dog-like creature. A figure that Slate could only think of as a gargoyle brought up the rear.101

Slate moved forward to cover Harry.102

"No, this is my territory Slate. Stay behind me."103

"Mr. Tanaka wants to know what your doing here - who are you granddad?" the vampire sneered, when they had approached to within about ten meters of Harry and Slate.104

Slate stared over Harry's shoulder. Something about the three felt wrong, although she couldn't she what it was, but the voice was more like a street punk’s than a master of the undead’s.105

Harry took a step forward and stared at them but said nothing.106

Despite Slate's enhanced reflexes she didn’t see clearly what happened next. The punks seemed about to spread out, but before she could even move, let alone shout a warning, Harry burst into action. One moment the three were before him, the next, Harry was standing over their bloody dismembered corpses.107

Even to Slate, such a brutal attack without any warning seemed unwarranted.108

Harry stepped back but didn't take his eyes from the bodies. A moment later the parts of the vampire's corpse twitched and then swiftly came back together.109

"You Bastard old fuck! You freaked 'em. I'll get….."110

Before the vampire could make good his threat Harry moved forward. The vampire shrunk down to the size of a bug, which Harry then unceremoniously stomped on. He moved back and regarded the small blob of blood on the ground. Nothing happened for a long moment and then the corpses and the small blob seemed to just fade away.111

"Bloody hell Harry, are they really dead?"112

Harry shrugged. "Yes and no. Right now, three bewildered kids are climbing out of cyber coffins somewhere, but cyber jocks tend to live for the time in and they can never come back now - their cyber egos are dead so… Maybe your bullets are kinder in the long run.” Harry shrugged. “Then again, they may have a happy long life as something else, cab driver, carpenter, I don't know… but I somehow doubt it. They weren't very good thought; did you notice how they didn't look quite real? The fur of the dog looked like plastic and the vampire's colour was pretty poor, sloppy work."113

"Could you make yourself look different?"114

Harry smiled, then seemed to expand like a balloon blowing up. He stood for a moment towering over Slate, a massive figure. Thor or Vulcan, but unlike the three he'd just bested, Slate knew he was the real thing. She felt she really was in the presence of some god from mythology. Then Harry was back. 115

"It only requires a little practise but why bother? It takes effort to maintain a good image and as you saw it can be undone by somebody else so…" Harry shrugged and held a hand palm upwards.  "That's why I have never worried about it. You had better get back and I'll go and see what I can do for Bunter. I'm surprised he's got himself in such a fix if that's the standard of people Toro has working for him though. Feel yourself back in the coffin, reach up and take the headset off."116

Slate nodded, and then disappeared as she broke the link.117

Harry smiled and then diving forward changed into an eagle. With strong beats of his wings he flew off into the gloomy sky.118

Slate stood by the side of the cyber 'coffin' for a moment, watching Harry's arms and legs twitch, 'running' she guessed, then went to get a drink.119

Before Harry was even half way to the Golam, he turned aside and headed towards Candy. He was high enough that he could look down on the top of the mountain and see the lake that covered most of the flat area of the peak. He spiralled down to the centre and regaining his normal shape, sat down. Although the lake looked just like water, including moving ripples, it was as hard as glass. 120

Within a few moments a soft orange glow spread down through every part he was touching.121

"Ngama? Is that really you?" Candy's mellifluous contralto seemed to come from all around him. "I was beginning to think that despite all the evidence you had been destroyed. I was preparing to send a ptar into Earth Prime to find out what had become of you."122

"I'm sorry, I was lost for a while… and somehow I manage to avoid the one place that could help me." Harry shrugged and shook his head - he knew that Candy could see him. "The web held then? And Gargarharth?"123

"Gone, as if he had never been. The weft came very close to breaking but Hargash endured and we were able to re-weave and stabilise it in only a little over one Earth year. We all grieved for your loss but at the last I mapped her and she is with me now."124

Harry shook his head. "I had forgotten, I hoped at the time you had managed to do that.  I was stunned and when I came to myself, all I could think of was Grace's broken body. Do you remember that conversation we had about corporeal transfer?"125

"Of course."126

"I think it's time. The two are fighting and one is close to defeat, it would be a good time…." Harry tailed off.127

"I agree, we have wasted some time but we have succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. We could not imagine this calm before Gargarharth was removed. The others wanted to continue without you but it would have been too difficult. What would we have used to interface? When do you want to come through?"128

"Soon, it will take me a few hours to reach the house."129

"Very well, I will be watching for you. It is wonderful to have you back with us Ngama. The others concur and send you their well wishing."130

Harry put the palm of his hand flat on the glass-like water of the lake and watched the orange glow spread. "It is wonderful to be back! I feel well for the first time since Gargarharth."131

Harry flew back to the entrance.132

Slate was waiting for him as he sat up in the 'coffin'. "Well? How did it go? Did you save the Baxter's?"133

"Not yet but I think it's possible; can you get him on the phone?"134

"Sure."135

"What the fuck is it now!" William Baxter snapped without looking around at the screen.136

"It's Slate, Mister Baxter. Harry want's to talk to you."137

"Oh, sorry Slate, it's pretty hectic here. Harry, talk to me." 138

"I can do it by two o'clock this afternoon, but I need some help and some money."139

"Are you serious? We're almost out now. What do you need?"140

"I can freeze Toro out. I need ten thousand in cash and transport out to Carditon. To Nydac Computers - I want some special hacking bits."141

"Done, can you see to that Slate. Yes, yes I'm coming, wait up!" William shouted at someone out of camera, and then shrugged at the screen. "You're our last hope Harry; I can hold him until tonight but then I'm going to bail."142

"Two o'clock - watch and learn." Harry didn't raise his voice but it had grit in it.143

William was startled by the change in him. He looked like the Harry of old and there was a definite touch of iron in his voice and eyes. William promised himself once this was over, one way or the other, he would spend a little time with Slate. He didn't know how she could have turned Harry around so quickly but he'd like to find out.144

"We have time now; so tell me what really happened with the AI you took out." Slate said, as they left the farm.145

Harry sighed. "Grace and I were just the last straw that broke the camel's back. In the film they made it look like we were the main ones but we did almost nothing." Harry shook his head and sighed again. "The scientists claimed the Correlation Matrix was a product of the old net and that the AI's had grown up around nexus points in the web, but the truth is the AI's predate humans. They were around when we were rats running from dinosaurs. Thousands of years ago something happened to Gargarharth, that was the AI's name.  Candy tried to explain to me what it was but it's very complex - I guess you could say he went mad. 146

The other AI's tried to help him, for thousands of years they tried to help him recover but he was beyond all their help, yet the lines of force link them all. They even know each other’s thoughts, well mostly. His madness threatened to poison the whole CM. The AI's, in desperation, tried to remove him from the network but the forces required threatened the very fabric of the matrix itself; which would in turn, destroy all of them. 147

For over three thousand years the stalemate endured, until we arrived. Candy and I were friends from the first time I went in… for various reasons," Harry gave a dismissive wave of his hand. "Anyway, Candy saw the possibility; we were one small factor Gargarharth could not predict. 148

One of the other AI's saw to the lines of the matrix while the rest of them, made all the moves and counter moves they had run over in theory. Grace and I just supplied the last unexpected push. Even then he was able to catch her and I was thrown out. It was a bloody sight closer than that stupid film made it look."149

"So, they aren't really artificial intelligence's at all then?"150

"They aren't animals. You’re right though, the term is meaningless, but their name for themselves takes a week to say, so…"151

The conversation lapsed and Harry was not sorry; his story had stirred up many more memories than even his new found strength was comfortable with.   152

Slate pulled the four-by-four into the kerb where Harry indicated.153

"It's that bungalow just across there. I think it would be best if you stayed here Slate; they aren't strictly legal and they can get very jumpy around strangers. Give me about twenty minutes and if I'm not out, come and get me, okay?"154

Slate stared for a moment at the house. It didn't look like a hive of technology, or anything else. It looked more like it had been deserted. "Are you sure that's the place? Perhaps they left while you were out of it?"155

"No, that's the place." Harry smiled. "Twenty minutes, tops."156

Slate handed over the money and Harry crossed the street. Slate didn't see who opened the door although she was watching carefully. The inside seemed dark and the door was only opened enough for Harry to slip inside.157

Harry had a job to push the door open because there was so much junk mail pilled up behind it. He was well aware of Slate watching him. He pushed the door shut and sighed; he'd made it safely. "Candy I'm here."158

"Ngama, take a breath and hold it. Stand as still as you can."159

For a moment Harry was surrounded by a glowing aura, then slowly over the course of about thirty seconds he faded and with a small pop disappeared completely. The dust on the floor swirled around in a small eddy for a few moments then stillness settled over the room again.160

Slate was not the most patient of people and after ten minutes she headed for the house. She peered in at the window but could see nothing inside; it was almost as if it was one way glass. She tried the door and for a moment she thought it was locked but then it moved. Slate stepped into the room and cursed. The house was just a shell, no internal walls, no ceiling and no Harry! She ran to the back door but it wouldn't budge and when she looked more closely the door didn't even have hinges. It was just a fake. Slate was totally confused, for the windows too had turned out to be frames that couldn't be opened, nor could she find any other way out and yet Harry was gone. Finally after a last check she headed for the door and saw the wad of cash on the top of the pile of junk mail by the door. Harry had slipped a short note into the band that held the money - 'Sorry, but be at Baxter building before two, all will be forgiven - thanks for your help. Harry.'161

"Son of a bitch!" Slate told the empty room. 162

"Where the hell is Harry?!" William greeted Slate back at the Baxter building.163

Slate explained what had happened at the house.164

"Jesus, we're screwed!"165

"I'm not so sure, look." Slate showed William the note and the money. "I was thinking on the way back up; Harry said he was going to Nydac Computers."166

"So?"167

"It's an anagram, Nydac - Candy."168

"What the fuck does that mean?" William snapped impatiently.169

"I've no idea but I don't think it's a coincidence. What's the time?"170

"Five to two - but there's nothing he can do now - we're stuffed!"171

"Might as well wait five minutes then." Slate raised an eyebrow.172

William sighed and nodded. "Let's go and have a look then but I find the sight of the board pretty depressing."173

Slate had only been in the control centre a few times and had taken little interest. Down one side of the room were many cyber coffins but the lids of most now stood open, unused. The front wall was a huge screen that looked like a massive oriental board game, with a swath of blue and red dots and a few yellows. As Slate looked at the board she could see the red dots outnumbered the blue three or four to one and in almost all cases the blues had at least two reds quite close to them on each side.174

"See, the bastard has us closed down and the few independents he's left on have promised not to help us. There's nothing Harry can do, maybe if we'd found him earlier; we just didn't see Toro coming until it was too late."175

"Oh my God - look!" One of the operators at a terminal was on his feet and the room that had been a buzz of conversation before, was suddenly silent.176

As Slate watched a red dot winked out then another and another. It was as if there was an invisible line moving diagonally across the screen and as it passed the red dots winked out.177

There was a long moment, punctuated only with gasps as they watched all the red dots vanish from the screen. "Oh my God! Harry did it, it's impossible, yet he did it!" William's eyes were wide with surprise. "Dan check HIS traffic flow, quick, shift your arse!"178

One of the operators at the front tapped away at his station. "It's true Boss!" he gasped. "Tanaka's down to nil."179

Suddenly everybody in the room was talking at once and 'impossible' was the commonest word.180

"Shut up!" William shouted. "We don't know how long Harry can hold this. Get your arses into gear; shift the backlog!" 181

The room became a hive of activity as the operators went to work.182

William walked down to the front followed by Slate. "How long to clear the back up Dan?"183

Dan shrugged. "Hard to say boss, we've never had the matrix to ourselves like this - hours rather than days. How could it have been done though? Nobody has found a way to shut out people, and they had control. I find it hard to believe my eyes."184

William nodded; he felt the same way. He stared at the board expecting any moment that the red lights would reappear.185

For the next few hours the work in the room was at fever pitch as they re-established contacts and reduced the waiting patrons.186

"William, do you think it would be a good idea to get some blocks into position, in case Tanaka gets back in?" Dan suggested when the worst of the backlog had been cleared.187

William smiled. "Of course, I should have thought of that. Get the cyber jocks hooked up everybody; we have a clear field." 188

The blue dots had only just begun to increase and move on the 189

board when they too began to wink out. "Harry you bastard! Stop it!" William shouted.190

In the course of the next few minutes all the blue dots disappeared, and then too the yellows winked out, leaving the board a very unsettling blank. 191

"It's gone - the entrance is gone!" said one of the cyber jocks as he sat up in the coffin.192

The gentle breeze ruffled the acer leaves and sent fine ripples running across the clear water of the koi pond. The sun hadn't long risen but it was warm on the patio. Toro Tanaka sipped the bowl of tea his daughter had handed him. He could just hear the whisper of raised voices from the operation centre. None of his people could even offer a guess at how they'd been closed out, but it was less important now Baxter was out as well. Toro knew in his heart who it was and wished he'd thought to look for him before Bunter. It was unusual for him to be slower thinking, and he didn't like the experience.193

Akio, Toro's daughter jumped as a figure stepped out from behind the rockery.194

"Greetings Toro, it has been a long while." Harry told him in flawless Japanese.195

"Hello Harry, I was expecting you to call - but on the phone." Toro replied in English. "How did you get in here?"196

"Your English has improved Toro."197

"Thank you; we have been doing quite a bit more business with the west in the last year." The irony was clear in Toro's voice. "So what do you want Harry? To let us back in, I mean." Toro sniffed. "I was sure you were gone and even when I thought back to old times, I had convinced myself that we were you're equal - wishful thinking I guess."198

"You always were quicker than Bunter and perhaps a little less greedy but you just can't work with people. You have a need to be the chief, you wanted it all even when I was teaching you," Harry smiled.  "And you nearly did." Harry waved a hand at the operation room.199

"How did you get in here Harry? My security is really rather good."200

"Nowhere is safe now Toro - take the bowl Candy, Toro's finished his tea."201

Even before Harry finished speaking, the bowl vanished from Toro's hand. "As to what we want, it is for you to be in a cyber coffin in exactly one hour from now. I know the entrance is gone but I'll take you through."202

"No way Harry, I may not be safe here but I'd be less safe in the matrix."203

"The paper Candy." A newspaper appeared in Harry's hand, which he handed to Toro. "That could be how tomorrows paper looks."204

The story on the front page was all about Toro; listing various dubious practises that he had used to eliminate competition and series of bribery charges, with names and dates. "That, coupled with never having access to the matrix again, feel like changing your mind Toro?"205

"Perhaps, you should rethink your position Harry; you still have to get out of here again."206

"A threat, Toro? Don't you realise yet? We are trying to help you despite yourself, watch." Harry seemed to fade, for a moment he was transparent, like a ghost. Akio gasped.207

"Don't worry my dear, it's just a trick.  Now I'm going to see Bunter, it will be the three of us, just like old times. You can say what you like but I promise you if you are not ready and waiting in a coffin, you had better find yourself and honest job that doesn't involve the matrix! You will be stripped of all assets and never allowed to use the matrix again. Now, since you say leaving is a problem, watch." 208

Harry was gone.209

William Baxter was less collected than Toro had been and it was a few minutes before Harry could speak.210

"It's your own fault Billy; we did nothing while you were getting down the outstanding work but once you started getting aggressive…" Harry shrugged. "Besides it's not important any longer, you will be ready in a coffin in forty minutes."211

"Come on Harry, give me a break. We got you straight again, you owe us."212

Harry nodded. "That's true, I do but I tell you frankly, if it had been my decision I would have dumped you and Toro and set up a new syndicate but Candy has other ideas. That's what you're both coming into the matrix to hear. Toro was reluctant too but if you take a glance through this," Harry handed William a thick wad of papers. "And just keep in mind you will have no further access to the matrix if you refuse, I think I'll see you there."213

William's face paled as he began to read. The document seemed to list every dodgy deal or illegal act he had made over the last five years. The tax problems alone would be a nightmare. "How did you get this Harry, some of this not even my brothers knew about?"214

"You've been watched; want to know what you had for tea last January twelfth? What you said on the phone and to whom, two years ago today? It's all listed, now don't let me down, thirty five minutes and counting." Harry was gone even as his words died in the air.215