Beneath Meta's central megalith, home to the oligarchs, bastion of their technological might, a river flowed cold and fast. Massive culverts expelled the arcology's treated effluent into the river, while upstream a network of pipes and pumps drew water into the Centreon's vast internal reservoirs to be processed and purified.

Part of this network had a special purpose. It was a closed-loop cooling system for the Cortex, presently being taxed due to Wagner's herculean efforts to bring his plan to fruition.

Wagner fussed over a last bit of code he planned on injecting into Nic's Netpod. He had made some minor changes to Nic's code while surreptiously adding a separate piece of his own. The code needed to be small, simple, elegant and effective. It was very difficult to design in all the features Wagner wanted his code to have considering the size and time constraints. The Netpod technology also had it's limitations, there was only so much he could do.

He endeavoured to craft the code in such a fashion that it would be able to leverage other systems in order to complete it's goals, but what he put most of his faith in was the author of the original code. Unbeknownst to Nic, his long time desire to break into the secure inner network of the Meta systems was only hours away.

Wagner's thoughts drifted, vivid memories of a home in a neighbourhood devoid of neighbours, empty houses, some boarded up, some burned out, lining the deserted street. It was so long ago, but frozen in memory, it felt like yesterday.

At one time it was a beautiful, bustling area full of life and happiness. Summer barbecues, manicured lawns and the noise of children playing outside. That had been life in the neighbourhood. His child, Erik, was invariably one of the kids running through the streets and yards, day in, day out. But that was before Erik grew sick. The home inside was cluttered with books, binders, research papers and other evidence of Wagner's current obsession. The cure.

Clocks on the walls sat dormant, unwound, their hands frozen at some arbitrary point in time, they had been collecting dust for months, their purpose seemingly irrelevant in these difficult days. The sickness in the house seemingly mirrored by the malaise of the world outside.

The main floor master bedroom was closed off from the rest of the house, the rarely-entered room now used for storage and little else. Two sofas in the great room provided sleeping quarters, one sofa currently occupied with his sleeping child. A shotgun leaned against the wall by the front door, a revolver on the coffee table, testaments to the changing times. Wagner had no use for such implements his entire life, now he kept them close. Always.

Visible from the front window, dark smoke rose high to the west...

Wagner was jarred from his thoughts as the door locks cycled and the positive pressure fans spooled up to counteract the pending decompression. He quickly verified all his work was in order and initiated his own secure wipe of several files he had open. The doors completed opening and Niles walked in scowling, apparently he had not recovered from his earlier disappointment.

"Wagner, I trust you have good news for me." He said.

"On both accounts I feel that I can offer you some positive news. I have done all I can do with the Netpod, the wipe routine that was run on it was very effective, I recovered a second small fragment and managed to decrypt both of them, but the resulting data is nonsense, I do not see how it could be of any use."

"What kind of data?" Niles inquired.

"I could not say, my guess is that it is corrupted or something proprietary. I have never seen anything like it, I cannot debug it or reverse engineer it without knowing more about the architecture it runs on, which I suspect could be a virtual machine of some kind. I just don't have those kinds of resources, especially with the current lockdown in place."

"Well, you're going to stay locked down, my people can take it from here." Niles pocketed the Netpod. "What of the other project I left you with, do you have anything for me?"

"Yes, on reviewing the data I believe I understand the problem. A subject can interrupt the sequence if they become aware of the process and have a strong enough memory to concentrate on. This girl suffered a recent trauma and that event provides the kind of anchor one would need to break the sequence. She also appears to be strong-willed, for lack of a better term. She was almost immediately aware of the process that was under way and was able to maintain focus outside her mind, to something in the physical present. Quite remarkable really."

"I'm glad your amused." Niles sneered. "So our profile on her was inaccurate, she is not a prime candidate."

"Not exactly, she would be a perfect candidate if it wasn't for her recent traumatic experience. That said, she is still the best candidate out of four and with some adjustments I think you will get exactly what you want."

"What adjustments?"

"There are a couple, first you need to change her perception, administer a mild psychotropic agent prior to running the sequence. That should help break her hold on the present reality and make her more prone to accept the dream-state without fighting it. The second thing is you need adaptive sequencing to counteract any variance induced by the subject latching on to memories that are not indexed. That way even if they are able to break out of the sequence, you can carefully lead them back."

"How?"

"For example, you have them reviewing a memory of a day at the beach with family. They break out to a memory of loved one's funeral, you manipulate that memory so they see a friend at the funeral that they have a strong bond with, then do a real-time index of those memories. Find in those memories, one with a group of people that may include either family members, or the beach, push and reindex. Continue the process until you can link a person directly back to the day at the beach and then push. If they break out again in the same manner, you replay that series to get them back on track, in a loop if necessary, until they allow the desired memory to play out in full."

"Real-time index? We don't have the processing power for that."

"I do." Wagner said.

"You can do this?"

"I can, but-"

"But what?" Niles asked.

"Let's talk about Erik." Wagner said, now that he held something to leverage with.

Niles sighed. "I should have known this was coming."

"I need some assurance that you'll let Erik go, I have done everything you have asked and I can make this work for you."

"I will release him as soon as this new process of yours gives me some results. If it does not work, your son remains where he is." He threatened.

"It will work. However, you will have to tie the SC system directly back to me here, it cannot go through the abstraction switches, that would induce too much latency. Is that acceptable?"

Niles paused as he considered the risk of giving Wagner control of the SC environment. "Well, I think I can manage the risk of you doing something stupid." He finally said with a smirk. "How long do you need to set this up?"

"Everything is ready on this end, I just need a connection."

"Excellent, I will arrange to run another sequence as soon as we can get everything setup. Wait for my message."

"Be sure to make arrangements to release my son."

"If this works, he will be released to you, just make sure it works." Niles walked away, initiating a communication channel to the technician in charge of memory extraction, using his communication implant. "Booth, get your team together and get the system back online. I'll send you details on some changes we are making as soon as I get back to my office." He proceeded to his private elevator and returned to his office to prep for the next extraction.

Meanwhile, at the MCSF headquarters for the elite Epsilon Special Forces regiment, Daniel Carrington was using his high level clearance to monitor Abi's status and that of her friends. He frowned as he read, all four were being scheduled for extraction, he tapped the display pulling up the extraction orders. They were to be escorted to the MemEx Lab for another attempt to recover information from Abi's memory. Daniel rubbed his jaw, this was not a good situation, he thought. This did not give him much time to put a plan together to get Abi out of there. He could not draw on but a few Epsilon resources, and even if he could free her from her immediate captors, escape from the building would not be a trivial undertaking.

He could trust maybe two of his lieutenants and he certainly did not have time to make any arrangements for transport. This was not the way he liked an operation to be put together, no assets, no resources, no prep time. He logged off his system and went to find his lieutenants, he would have to formulate some kind of plan.

Daniel detoured to the armory and paused in front of the armorer's kiosk. He knew he would never make it into the MemEx lab with even a sidearm, let alone any real hardware. He also would not be able to sign out any weapons and stash them somewhere without their integrated locator beacons alerting the armory staff that operator-less weapons were not properly secured.

"Can I help you Captain?" The armorer in the kiosk asked, noticing Daniel had been standing there for some time. "Going to put in a little range time again?"

"No Sergeant." Daniel shook his head. "Considered it, but I really need to get caught up on some mission research, as you were."

"Yes sir."

Daniel continued down to the barracks to find his best lieutenants. Eventually he found them in the gym, running hand-to-hand combat drills. Paladin one-three and Paladin nine were both products of the MCSF Enhanced Combatant program, as was Daniel. The two were sparring full-contact but as Daniel approached they both ceased and snapped to attention. Daniel did not speak, nor did his lieutenants, but nonetheless a conversation ensued. As with all members in the Epsilon combat group, they had implants that allowed the Command and Control officers, like Daniel, to communicate with the combat operators - the Paladins.

'At ease, men.' Daniel began. 'Fall out, kit-up and meet me in my office in 15 minutes. Bone knives only.'

'Yes sir.' They answered in unison and left immediately. Daniel also went to get his gear in order.

The com-link implant allowed for greater tactical awareness, Daniel had the ability to aggregate situational awareness from all his linked combat operators. The two Paladins are his closest and longest serving operators and he has come to trust that they will execute his orders without question as they are designed to do. Daniel knew these two would have his back every step of the way, but it was still only three men. Daniel realized he would essentially be coming up with the plan on the spot.

* * * * *

Abi awoke with a start, a technician from the lab was shaking her vigorously, she was still very much under the effects of the sedation.

"Take this, it will counter-act the sedative." The tech handed her a mild psychotropic. She took it without question. "Let's get going, you have another appointment at the lab."

"Wha' fer?" She slurred.

"No questions, just walk." He ordered crossly.

Not long after, Abi found herself back in the lab, she was leaning hard on Miller, still far from sober. She was beginning to feel a bit peculiar, but she was not sure what it was. Henrik was already there overseeing the system initialization, micromanaging his technical staff very much to the point of their annoyance. Henrik needed to make sure this session ran without any issues or errors, failure could be a career limiting outcome. Or worse.

"Has the Cortex uplink been configure?" He inquired to one of the techs.

"Yes sir, the link has been established and tested."

"Have all the fail-safe measures been put in place?" He asked, referring to Niles orders that in case of an emergency they could instantly sever the link to the Cortex.

"Yes, we had MiST engineers in here, the switching gear has been fitted with a small explosive charge, we can detonate from our consoles." he advised.

"Okay. How big is this charge?" Henrik asked nervously.

"Don't worry sir, the engineer said you would just hear a sharp crack, it's just enough to take out the power supplies. It's overkill in my opinion, we could just shut it down manually." He handed Henrik the remote detonator.

"I think Niles is more comfortable with this solution."

"Understood."

The detainees again stood together in a line with two guards apiece. Trey and Sean talked quietly.

"I don't like this man, look at her, she's a mess." Trey nodded toward Abi.

"I know. They doped her or something."

"If they hook her up to the thing again, they're gonna kill her."

"I know, Trey. Don't you think I realize that."

"Stop talking!" A guard intervened, slapping Sean in the back of the head. Three men entered, Sean noticed them right away, something about one seemed vaguely familiar but he could not place him. They had different uniforms from the others, one of them marched up to Abi, who's head was lolling a bit like a tired child. Her took hold of her jaw and looked at her.

"Da-" she started, but he quickly squeezed her jaw so she couldn't complete what she was going to say.

"What is wrong with this one?" Daniel asked the guard closest.

"She was sedated after the previous extraction attempt, it has not wore off yet." The guard informed.

"She's also been given a psychotropic to aid in the sequencing." A nearby tech chimed in.

"I see." Daniel replied.

"Leave her alone, you're hurting her." Sean warned. Daniel stepped down the line and stopped in front of Sean. Nearly the same height, the two stood nose to nose for a while before Daniel spoke.

"It does not look like you are in any condition to be standing up for her. I advise you keep your eyes forward and your mouth shut for the duration of this event. If I have to come back here and speak to you again, I can assure you it will not go well." Daniel warned, giving Sean an icy stare. Somewhere in the room a technician snickered.

Sean eventually lowered his gaze. There was something about this soldier, Sean got the feeling he was an extremely dangerous fellow. Dangerous, yet familiar.

Niles entered, "Are we ready for another round?" He asked rather gleefully. "Everything in order, I expect?"

"Yes," Henrik answered "everything is in place and ready, the system has been configured as per your documents from Wagner and the link to the Cortex is live, but firewalled. Say the word and we can open it up."

"Is our subject prepared?"

"Yes, she was administered a small dose of the agent you requested, less than twenty minutes ago. It should reach peak effectiveness any minute now."

Niles noticed Daniel and his men, "And to what do we owe the honour, Captain? I was not aware you would be joining us today."

"The Epsilon group is very interested in the results of todays test, we are hoping we could use the MemEx on POWs and other foreign combatants captured in our operations. Live memory extraction could yield significant raw intelligence, without the need for other coercive methods. How long with this take? I have a meeting with my CO in half-an-hour."

"You'll make your meeting Captain, and you will have something quite interesting to share with your colonel as well, I should think." Niles boasted. "That is, unless Henrik fails miserably again." He said giving Henrik a disdainful look.

"Sounds good, sir." Daniel replied. "My men and I will do our best to stay out of the way." He turned to his men and they moved to the wall near the entrance as a unit. Nearby the detainees were being bullied by the guards as their restraints were being removed and stowed.

"On your knees." A large guard ordered the group, they all complied without hesitation. Sean turned to get another look at Daniel, but the guard gave him a sharp slap on the head. "Eyes forward, no talking." The guard turned to Daniel with a smirk, "Gotta keep them inline." Daniel nodded, not saying anything.

For a second Sean thought he might know Daniel from school, perhaps a guy on another varsity team he would see in the gym or the arena or something. The guy looked so familiar, maybe someone he recently caught a fleeting glimpse of at a grocery store, or getting off a pod he was boarding. Dammit, he thought, where do I know this guy from?

The hum in the room began to grow louder, technicians made their last minute adjustments to the equipment and found their seats at the workstations.

"Status?" Henrik asked the technician in charge.

"Green light, sir."

Henrik looked over at Niles, Niles nodded.

"Open the firewall, let's get the Cortex connection up."

The technician punched in a few commands, "We have the Cortex assets online and active. Sequencing servers are now coming up."

Wagner uploaded new sequencing code to assist in the memory extraction efforts as promised. Another technician initiated the signal generator cycle and the silvery hand unfolded, extending down toward Abi on it's long, ghastly appendage.

The receiver antenna rose up from the floor as it did the last time, everything was going by the numbers, until a small piece of code Wagner uploaded to the sequencers executed and the signal generator, not quite in position yet, surreptitiously transmitted a brief signal, a signal with a very singular purpose.

The Netpod still in Niles pocket, activated by that signal, came online as did its nearband radios. It scanned the room for a usable connection and found one provided by the MemEx antenna, Wagner's addition to the Netpod then executed and formed a network bridge between the systems in the MemEx Lab that Wagner had access to, and the remainder of the systems he was firewalled out of. He now had control.

Wagner had a direct network connection to the secure network and he immediately started a search for Erik. He also coerced one of the technician's consoles into executing the code fragment on Nic's Netpod, which injected itself into the Centreon network. Once on the Centreon systems the code split into two distinct processes, one was a self-propagating virus that worked it's way deep into susceptible systems and waited, the other piece travelled from system to system seeking out one that had the required connectivity to the outside world that would allow it to tunnel out and notify Nic.

Wagner was now committed to the plan and had to maintain the facade of willing participant in the MemEx process. The young subject, secured to the chair and drugged, lay there with eyes wide, frightened. Despite Wagner's objection to the process and the high probability the sequence would be deadly, he had to proceed. The sequence began. Abi's living, breathing, coloured reality faded to a white world without depth or definition. A cloudy, whitewashed nether where your consciousness was cleaved and your soul laid bare.