“Technomancy of the simplest sort. Keep watch.”

Dodgers icon dropped its mask and an ebon hand flourished a matte gold case. Slim fingers snapped open the lid and delicately removed a tool. Kneeling before the flickering wall of alphanumerics as though before a lock, Dodger inserted the slim instrument into the flow. After a few minute adjustments. he selected another tool, slipping it into the flow to use with the first. A careful twist of the wrist and the symbols slowed, their color pulses becoming longer. Another twist, and they slowed further and further, until they froze.

“Which file, Sir Corp?”

“I need to scan them.”

Sam’s icon stepped to the wall and placed a hand on the seemingly solid light. The chromed head bowed as if in deep concentration and file names flickered briefly as a fairy fire fled across them. After a minute, the glow steadied and highlighted one of them. “That one.”

The ebon boy nodded and adjusted the angles of his tools. The wall moved again, sequences rippling past until the chosen code lay under the position of his hands. He returned the tools to their case and it vanished under his cloak.

Dodger extended his hand into the wall. It disappeared into the light as if cut off at the wrist. After a moment, he withdrew it. He held a fat green book. Dodger flipped quickly through the pages. “No serpents.”

Sam sighed.

Dodger tossed the book back through the wall and tapped twice on the glowing file code. The alphanumerics of the wall resumed their manic rush, but their clarity was reduced.

“Dodger. I think we’d better get out of here.”

“What is it?’

“I don’t know. I just think that we might be pushing our luck if we stay.”

Dodger’s suspicions were roused by Sam’s sudden concern, an indication that he was withholding information. He reactivated his masking program. “Very well, but I’ll lead. We shall move faster that way.”

They did, indeed, move faster, retracing their route toward the exit, until Dodger pulled up suddenly. He gazed in shock at the walls of the node they had just entered. Vertical slabs of mirror reflected their icons to infinity. It was uncanny, unprecedented. What made it worse was that Dodger’s reflection showed the jet outline of a boy crouched under a shimmering cloak and the markings of Sam’s chromed mannikin were dark pittings in the smooth surface. Dodger felt uneasy. He had never encountered anything like this node in all his years of running the Matrix.

Fingers flew across the keyboard, improvising programs to analyze the nature of the hardware in which their programs were operating.

Somewhere in the depths of the mirrors, Dodger saw something move. It was distant and furtive. There was nothing in the apparent chamber to account for the fleeting glimmer.

Analysis programs received abort signals and new instructions were entered at a frantic pace: Cut and Run, Stand by for Execution.

He reached across the room, battling Sam’s hands away from their poised position above the Allegiance cyberdeck. He keyed in the run code and punched “Execute”.

The chromed mannikins in distant reflections winked out. The vanishing images continued through closer and closer planes of reflection at an ever-accelerating pace. The last images vanished, and with a pop, Sam’s icon dematerialized from the node.

Dodger was alone with what moved in the mirrors.

How he knew he wasn’t sure, but he was certain that it was coming closer.

His finger stabbed the “Execute” key.

His own reflections began the fugue of vanishing. The presence reacted, moving closer as well, racing the disappearing Dodgers. Its masking chrome dropped, the ebon boy raced around the room as though moving the icon itself might give his reflections the speed they needed to escape the presence. He felt the other nearing, but dared not look back. It was almost upon him as the last reflection vanished.

Pop.

He was panting and bathed in sweat, but he was safely back in the real world. He jerked the datacord from his jack. Sam was looking at him, bewildered. He didn’t know enough to be scared.

“What was that?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it before. In fact, from everything I do know, it was impossible.”

“But you got us out, anyway.” Sam pulled out his jack and tossed it on the counter. “I guess it doesn’t matter what it was. We got what I wanted, and now that we’re out safely, they can’t trace us.”

“So it would seem.”

“The headache is worth it. I’m sure now that Renraku didn’t order the killings. If the feathered serpent had been working for them, its medical data would have been in that file.”

“They could have hired it for the occasion.” Sam shook his head. “I don’t think so. Not if they wanted to stay legal.”

“Pray tell, why not? The contract courts would have let them invoke a termination clause on Hanae and yourself. The villains who rule there rarely check too deeply into whether said employee was really sufficiently valuable to warrant such a clause. Renraku could easily create the fiction that you were both important enough.”

Sam looked discomforted by the idea that his former corporation might do such a thing. “No. They wouldn’t do that. Even if they did, wouldn’t the Dragon have to be part of the corporation? Everyone knows that the courts are scrupulous about proper form during the invocation and execution of such clauses. The law states that any actions taken against the renegade must be taken by bona fide corporate officers.”

“The beast could have been a bounty hunter.”

“The law also says that bounties must be set and registered in court. You yourself found out that there was none.”

“Alas, Sir Corp. The legal record does not always match reality.”

“I won’t believe there was an unrecorded bounty,” Sam said, shaking his head vigorously. “Renraku wouldn’t dare risk the sanctions for disregarding the regulations, especially since I didn’t take anything. The cost would be far too high.”

“You seem well-informed on the law concerning these matters.”

“Let’s say that I recently had a sudden awakening of interest in the legal status of corporate runaways. I thought the knowledge might have a bearing on my future.”

“As it has.” Dodger shifted his chair back and stood. Placing a hand on Sam’s shoulder, he said, “With this run against Renraku, you have stepped fully into the shadows. You are now divorced from the corporations. I strip thee of the name Corp and formally dub thee Twist.”