You grab Zero by the collar and pull him into the nearest alley. Sirens whirl on the main street and voices are calling after you. You don’t look back, that’s the way it’s done in this kind of life. Just keep running.
Zero talks to you while you run. “Listen man, in case we get separated you need to know something about that datafile. Behind the encryption is a hidden security mechanism – virus. Whatever you do, don’t open it.”
You go cyber to intercept police communications, hearing a dozen radio calls at once as well as seeing Zero and yourself on a video feed produced by an overhead drone. You tell Zero about the drone, he turns and aims his gun, and the feed disappears.
“No use,” you say to Zero. “We’re surrounded, man.”
“Find the perimeter weak spot. I’ll get us through.”
You use the radio communications to create a map in your mind of all the police units in the area but before you can pick a route you detect a jammer and suddenly you’re pulled out of cyber. Your brain feels like it’s been frozen. “I’ve been cut off.”
A handful of officers and two bots emerge from the haze and go after Zero. He takes one of the them down before they hit him with a taser and force him to the concrete. Your nearest weapon is a metal pipe sitting on a dumpster. Of course, if you could pull yourself back into cyber you could easily hack the bots. But it’d only work once, and you’d need cyber to get yourself out of there.
Pinned to the ground, Zero looks you in the eye. “Darcy, help me!”
TIME TO CHOOSE.
SAVE ZERO (Go to chapter 6)
OR
LEAVE ZERO BEHIND (Go to chapter 7)
ns 172.69.58.192da2