Part 16 (2/2)

”It's not foolproof. But it's the only thing I could come up with.” With a surrept.i.tious glance each way, he held up a small black case. He opened it carefully. Cus.h.i.+oned on red velvet was a pair of thincerametallic disks, each about a centimeter in diameter. ”These could be Ed's ticket out,” he murmured.

Jael peered at them curiously. ”What are they?”

”System probes. They have data grains sufficient to hold Ed's ident.i.ty matrix, plus the AI growth medium, plus at least some of the ambient data that convey the rainforest environment.” Ar's voice was a husky whisper. He seemed actually to be enjoying this. ”You'll wear these on your temples when you go into the environment. They'll take control of the input/output circuits in the helmet. Once you're in the environment, they'll send probing commands back into the AI system itself.” His voice dropped lower.

”They're actually security-breaking probes, which makes them ... well ... don't ask me where I got them, okay?” He hiccupped and continued, ”I don't expect that this system was designed with extensive security, so the penetrating AI modules in here should be able to get in and set up the readout without too much trouble. I hope so, anyway.”

Jael cleared her throat. ”We're going to hijack him right out of the system?”

Ar smiled in his peculiar way. ”We're saving his life, yes? Anyway, his existence in the system will continue, until they pull his plug - but we'll have him, too, and we should be able to load him into a nodule that you can connect with the rigger-net systems.”

Jael nodded hesitantly. She hadn't expected quite such a clandestine operation.

”Are you ready to give it a try, then?”

Her breath eased out in a sigh. They rose and walked to the rigger lounge.

Both Environment Alpha I/Os were occupied. Jael shot Ar an uneasy glance. He shrugged and gestured to the nearby seats. They would have to wait. Jael tried to relax, staring alternately at the ceiling and at her fingernails. Don't worry, she thought. Ed's still there; he's safe. But she might as well have been trying to hold back an avalanche. What if they pull the rainforest again before I get in there? What if they already pulled it? What if they turn off the whole system? By the time one of the riggers in the Environment Alpha seats stirred and lilted the I/O helmet from her head, Jael's nerves were a wreck. She tried not to stare as the other rigger rubbed her eyes and readjusted to the outer reality. Finally, an eternity later, the woman rose and vacated the seat.

Jael hurried to take her place. Ar caught her arm as she was about to set the helmet on her head. He held out the open case containing the probe disks. Right. Don't forget your tools. She sat quietly while Ar fitted one disk to each of her temples, then checked, as she lowered the helmet, to ensure that its probes rested on the disks. She took a deep breath, aware of the lingering smell of the woman who had just worn the helmet. She felt like a criminal. Remember, she thought, you're trying to save his life.

”Go on,” Ar murmured in her ear.

She squeezed the trigger.

The rainforest, blessedly, was still in the system. But Ed was nowhere to be found. The forest was damp and misty, and strangely quiet. The light seemed odd, grey and flat somehow. Apparently it was early in the morning in this place, this world.

She wondered if the AI things in the probes were already in the system, recording. She didn't want them to fill up on the wrong things.Leave room for Ed, she thought hopefully.If I can find him.

**Scanning and recording ambient data. Please state when primary data matrix has appeared.**The instructions appeared in her mind, rather like a voice in the net. Good, she could deal with that.It has not yet appeared. Searching for it now, she answered.

Did Ed have some way of knowing when she had entered his world? she wondered. She could only hope so. She walked toward a break in the underbrush. It seemed to be the beginning of a path. There was a patch of dense mist hugging the ground in the break, but she didn't think much of it as she stepped through - until something grabbed at her ankle, and a spike of pain shot up her leg.”Ow!” she cried, jumping back, rubbing her ankle. She glared down at the little bank of fog and kicked at it.

A small bush ran out of the fog, screeching nastily. It swiped at her leg again with a th.o.r.n.y branch, but she jumped clear and watched warily as it retreated across the open ground. Before it had gone far, it plopped down with an indignantwhuff. ”Fine. Now stay out of my way,” Jael snapped. The plant gave no response, but a moment later, began issuing fog from its thorns. Within seconds, it was completely hidden by a new bank of vapor.

Jael curled her lip at it. Suddenly it occurred to her that the thing was probably being recorded. Great, she thought. All I need is something like that popping out in the net.If you can understand me, she thought to the system probes,don't keep that plant!

**Deleted.**

Relieved, she stepped onto the path from which the plant had emerged. More wisps of mist rose from the branches, curling about her face. Fearful of meeting more hostile life, she moved with extra care. What was going on here? she wondered. Why was it so foggy, anyway? She walked for some time, encountering only mist-shrouded trees and occasional scuttling creatures - heard, but not seen. ”Ed?”

she sang softly. ”Are you here?” As the minutes pa.s.sed, she began to worry that something might have happened to him. Was it possible that a part of the environment had been removed, and Ed with it? She searched the mist with growing anxiety.

A branch brushed her neck, startling her, and something red fluttered with a shriek in her face.”Gah!”

she cried, jumping, as it flew up out of sight.

”Yawk!” cried the red thing, fluttering down again.

”Ed!” she shouted, hope and fear pounding in her heart.

A patch of mist cleared. Ed was flapping his wings on a perch less than an arm's length in front of her face. The path, hidden by the fog, had taken a sharp left turn. She had nearly walked into a thicket of branches. ”Jayl!” Ed squawked, hopping up and down on one of the branches.

”Ed - thank G.o.d! I was beginning to think you were gone.”

”Nope. Ed here. Right here.” His wings folded closed.

”Didn't you hear me calling?”

”Yawp! Woke Ed. Early - it's early!”

”Early! Is that where you were - asleep?” The parrot nodded and let his eyelids fall shut for a moment; then they sprang open again. She laughed. ”Well, good. Don't move. Don't go anywhere. There's something we have to do.” Ed c.o.c.ked his head and at once began to pace nervously side to side on the branch. ”I mean it,” she said. ”Don't move at all.”

”Urkk.” The parrot became still. He blinked once.”Great. Stay right there.”This is it. This is Ed, she thought to the system probe.Primary data matrix.

Can you find all of him, or do we have to do anything?

**Probing now. Recording. Please do nothing.**

She nodded again, almost imperceptibly. ”Ed, this has to do with your coming with me when I leave. Do you still want to come?”

”Awwrrrk. Yes! Yes!”

”Good. Then please stay very still. Don't talk.”

The parrot obeyed so completely that he looked dead. His eyes grew wide and dark, and remained unblinking. He appeared to have fallen into a trance. Jael waited. She wasn't sure what she expected, perhaps that he would simply sit there while his memory was drained, or copied. But she wasn't prepared for what happened next.

Ed's eyes seemed to grow larger. His dark pupils appeared to expand in his head, at first looking a little odd, then grotesque, as they grew out of proportion to the rest of him. Soon his pupils threatened to swallow his entire head in darkness. The final expansion happened very quickly, a great circle of blackness ballooning out to absorb not just Ed, but the entire forest. Jael was uncertain whether the darkness had actually expanded, or her own viewpoint had zoomed into the pupil of Ed's eye.

In the darkness, she began to glimpse images of a brightly colored, fluttering parrot winging through a forest; of the same bird, smaller, pecking its way out of a sh.e.l.l; of it eating seeds and berries in the wild, and flocking with others of its kind. And more confusingly and fuzzily, images of being enveloped in a net, and captured; of being confined and wired at the head; of being drained off, poured off, and let loose in another and altogether different place, which at first seemed to have little reality or substance. But eventually that world became clearer and more solid, until it resembled the original. It was a world of curious inhabitants, where people appeared and disappeared, where the bird could speak articulately, where it could learn, where it could converse and get to know these people called riggers. A world where, in time, it met someone named Ar and someone named Jayl.

The images became a blur, past and present merging. Eventually Jael could see nothing but a grey fog.

Then the fog cleared, and she was staring at Ed, seated on his branch. The bird c.o.c.ked his head, one way and then another, looking puzzled. ”R-r-r-k-k-k,” Ed sputtered.

”You okay?” Jael asked.

”Ukk.” Ed stretched his wings. ”What - awwk - happened?”

”I'm not sure,” Jael admitted.Did you get him? Were those his memories?

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