YEAR: 25

Braheton City, Central Tharsis, Mars

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An hour later, Alex dropped back onto the riverbank, never so glad to be feeling the ground beneath his feet. The climb had been both harder and easier than it appeared from below: easier because the larger beams were more than wide enough to walk on, but difficult because once among them his perspective wildly changed. He'd had to stop and study the architectural rendering several times after getting "lost."

Ric ran over to meet him, abandoning his lookout position further up the bank. "What in God's name happened up there? You disappeared into thin air."

Alex looked up at the bridge. Yes, it must have appeared that way from the ground. When he'd finally found the spot denoted on his father's drawing, he'd discovered not an empty space between beams but a solid sheet of galinium alloy with a holo generator attached. Smaller beams ran across to brace the larger ones. When he looked to his left, he could see the hidden structure duplicated on the opposite side of the bridge. A design flaw. He wondered if his father had been responsible, then felt guilty for the schadenfreude he felt at the notion.

Alex explained the situation to Ric, then reached into his pocket and pulled out the holochip he'd found glued to one of the "invisible" beams.

"More data?" said Ric. "This really is like a treasure hunt."

"We'll have to bring it back to the dorm to view it. It's coded to our family holodisk."

"How can you tell?"

Alex handed him the tiny chip. "See the orange S? He put that on there. He modified our disk to only accept certain chips, and to reject Feed transfers. I guess now I know why."

"Aye, well," said Ric, handing it back, "your da was certainly a thorough man."

"Yeah." His free-spirited mother had often teased, sometimes outright criticized Ben about his paranoia regarding security and privacy. Alex, until this moment, had agreed with her. Now he wasn't sure what to think. All he knew was that climbing up a bridge in the middle of Braheton had better have been worth it, because he was out of ideas.

As soon as they got back to their room, Alex hauled the family holodisk out of the drawer he'd thrown it into last month. Then he stood still for a minute, the disk in one hand and the chip in the other. It occurred to him that he'd only really been free of his father for seven months; now Ben was back to calling the shots. Could he stop it now by simply refusing to watch what his father had left for him, or did his legacy run too deeply for that? Alex wished the first were true, but all signs pointed to the latter.

"Would you like me to give you some privacy?" asked Ric, misinterpreting his hesitation.

Alex shook his head, making his decision. "No, it's fine." He inserted the chip and the disk auto-activated, throwing a hyper-realistic, life-sized holo of his father into the middle of the room. He wasn't sure what he had expected, but it wasn't this. Even Ric seemed unsettled, stepping back as though to keep himself out of reach of the man before them.

"Christ. Did your da make professional holo features on the side as well?"

Alex didn't answer, because he couldn't speak. For the first time in over a year, he stood face to face with his father, and the emotional impact was far greater than he'd have predicted. I'm not ready, he thought, but it was too late. Ben Sharma grinned at him and began to talk.

"Hi, Benji," he said. "I suppose you're wondering what the hell is going on."