“Another firewall? Ah, lady, I thought I’d find something more difficult…”
Eyes move. Implants send signals through the grid. Ports open. Others close.
“Hm, this is actually pretty clever. Maybe I’ll end up having some fun out of this?”
The wall crumbles. Literally. It disappears. He moves on. He almost sings.
“What now, what now?”
His connection is severed.
“What the…? Bring backup link online ASAP. Reassessing target.”
To his credit, he’s fast. He’s good, too, of course: nobody gets to his position otherwise.
“Who do you think I am, eh? Someone you could dupe? Whatever you’ve thought of, I’ve met and beat before, bitch.”
A gate rises. Heavy, reinforced. Pulsating power lines converge on it. He curses.
“Damn. You shouldn’t be able to do this. But since you have…”
There’s a flash and a crack. A network of crisscrossing filaments expands and reaches the gate.
“Now I just have to wait…”
The gate rumbles. It doesn’t unlock or open; it just allows passage.
“And that was quick. I must be close now…”
Enough.
Space moves. Spinning. Dazzling.
“No! I say… no!”
Stop.
“What the…?”
Recognition.
“This… This is private! My own gridspace! No! It cannot be! It’s a sim! You’ve stolen my own data and created a sim!”
Data analysis. This is no sim. Of course it’s not.
“No! No!”
It’s time. Let’s finish this.
“My gridspace… You’ve thrown me back to…”
“Yes.”
“You bitch. How have you entered here?”
“Through your door. You’re good. Really, really good. But not the best.”
A head-on attack. There will be consequences for his real body, but he doesn’t matter. He’s furious. A shield will suffice. He’s pushed back.
“Is that a tear? On your face? The big boy is weeping?”
The tease is not necessary, but it’s fun.
“You… What do you want?”
“Oh, nothing. Do you think you’d have something left to offer, once you’ve been broken in?”
“What do you mean…?”
He’s checking. Good. He’ll find what’s missing. Or rather, what little is left.
“A trap, little boy. A dedicated, elaborated, long-winding trap. Created expressly for you, as soon as you started flaunting your expertise.”
“No, it cannot be…”
“Oh yes. As it’s been before. Many times. You thought you were the first one to defy us?”
“What? Us?”
He sees us two now.
“Twins?”
He checks. With what he has left: we have made sure he can see enough.
“Identical DNA? Clones? But even so, links are individually attuned to…”
We speak together. It’s fun.
“Now you know. Like those before you. The ones you never knew about. Because we erase them.”
“What do you mean? From the grid? But the real counterpart…”
“Bye, little boy.”