CHAPTER 3

Sam opened his eyes for the second time since returning to the grid; again the room was alien and dark and lined with neon strips, the walls flickered into life with a soft white glow as he sat up on the bed. Sam had expected to be forced back down on to the bed with the pain in his shoulder but he could barely feel anything there, willing himself to glance down at his shoulder he found the wound almost completely healed, he wondered to himself how long he had be unconscious and then his thoughts turned to Quorra, he needed to find her. Through the door and into the corridor outside Sam began to feel a familiarity with the place as if he had walked through it before, it was as if he was trying to remember a dream. There were voices in the distance, muffled by another door at the end of the corridor it sounded like a sermon with gusto or a rallying of an army. The door opened in front of Sam as he approached it; Gate's familiar voice filled Sam's ears as he drank in the sights of the room, he hadn't seen anything quite like it on The Grid before.

To Sam the room looked like the interior of a cathedral, rows of seats, one in front of the other filled with Programs leading to the front of the room, the walls and ceilings decorated with neon. Gate stood at the front of the room behind a pulpit projecting his voice throughout the vast space, neon pipes of a majestic organ behind him; even if the organ were being used Sam would still have been able to hear Gate. Sam listened intently before Gate and the listening Programs realised him. Everything Gate said seemed to Sam like the plot of a really bad video game; the evil of CLU had been overcome many cycles ago, the city expanded and a period of peace had been enjoyed by all until evil rose up once again; throughout Gate's sermon Sam tried to keep from rolling his eyes numerous times. He was so lost in the clichés of Gate's sermon that he barely noticed Gate had begun talking to him personally.

"Son of Flynn… Sam Flynn. What threatens The Grid now is something that no Program or User has seen before; it is more than a rogue Program, more than a Master Control Program… it is something else… an evil with a familiar face, an evil that is all seeing, all knowing and everywhere like an entity we have dubbed it; The Ghost of The Grid." Gate's voice was sullen and carried all the gravitas it needed to make Sam pay close attention, he knew a task was at hand and like the plot of a really bad video game it was up to him to fight the new evil and return peace to The Grid, he would need to terminate The Ghost of The Grid… whatever that was.

By now all the listening Programs had turned to face Sam, some were awe struck and simply stared at Sam without blinking, others had bowed their heads while others had clasped their hands together in prayer. It was obvious Gate was still excited to see Sam and be in his presence but this was different; Gate was smiling as he had done before when Sam had first met him but Sam understood that smile now; Gate saw Sam as a saviour and the smile was for a misplaced certainty of faith in Sam that he would be able to defeat the Ghost of The Grid. A silence passed as the Programs continued to honour Sam's presence; locking eyes with Gate, Sam asked the only question he needed to ask.

"Where's Quorra?"

Sam continued to try and shake the feelings of familiarity that were invading his mind as he walked through the corridors of The Sanctuary, he had never seen it before but it felt as if he had lived there for a large portion of his life. As they waked Gate continued to talk to Sam; telling him that The Ghost of The Grid had powers beyond any Program or MCP; it had the power to overwrite the minds of those it came into contact with. The Sanctuary was one of a handful of newly erected edifices around The Grid, for reasons unknown to Gate or any other Program, The Ghost of the Grid's powers were unable to penetrate their walls, hence the name Sanctuary. For now Sam didn't push the ins and outs of what Gate was telling him, he knew that any questions that were answered would only give rise to more questions each more complicated than the last, he hadn't the time right now to worry about a ghost on The Grid; he only had time for Quorra.

The room Gate and Sam had entered had been as big as the last and the one before it and the one before that. The four Programs from earlier that had stood over Sam as he had collapsed were now at Quorra's side as she lay motionless on the ground. Quorra's interface filled the room, her programming filling most of the room like a series of holograms and each of the four Programs were working ceaselessly to detect and delete the corruption within her. Sam opened his mouth to speak but heard Gate's words before he could make a sound.

"The Ghost of The Grid is a double edged sword, Sam. It can re-write the programming of anyone who comes into contact with it but upon its arrival to The Grid, I can only describe it as a blessing and a miracle. I lived in the city and while there what I can only describe as a wave of light on the wind passed over me and suddenly I knew so much. I knew your name and felt as if I had known your father personally even though I had never met him. Alongside all of this data I also learnt everything about her, how to interact with her interface… I learnt how to heal. Then the darkness descended on The Grid and I was drawn here. There are others dotted around The Grid who were drawn to other places where they felt safe, each of them also harbouring new found knowledge of The Grid. Since then I have rescued as many Programs as I could and gave the sanctuary and taught them the ways of healing."

As he listened to Gate's words Sam began to feel the crushing weight of the task the lay before him. Time moved faster in the Grid and three years outside of it on earth had been countless cycles in the Grid itself, enough time for it to become corrupted again. Sam looked at Quorra, her data slowly turning to blue from the orange and red corruption.

"What befell her is… elegant. We have worked ceaselessly on her for months now; we will be able to heal her but it will take more time. It will give you enough time to learn what you need to know in your absence from The Grid for so long."

"I didn't come here to fight an unseen enemy; I came here to escape from my world. I'm not an angel or a deity or a God, I'm just a man who thought he could change the world just like my father believed that he could do but my world didn't want to be changed. I see that this world has changed but I don't know if I can save it." Sam found his voice to be as sullen as Gate's; he hadn't spoken out loud of what had happened back in his own reality and saying it now made him feel a crushing degree of helplessness.

"Knowledge was not the only gift from The Ghost of The Grid's wave of light, Sam. Faith also rose out of the horror and fear of the life we lost to its power. Your father had faith; the same faith in you that I have in you. Faith is a powerful weapon as is fear or an Identity Disc in the games. We all have faith in you Sam and here, faith is power. Stay with her Sam."

Sam watched Gate leave the room. Sam turned his attention to Quorra; the beautiful unconscious ISO. He hated seeing her like this; it reminded him of three years ago when she had been attacked in The End of Line club where she had lost her arm. It had been his father that had healed her; he had faith in his father but for some reason he felt that same faith in Gate and the Programs that were allied to him. Sam kept his eyes on Quorra remembering the happier times outside of The Grid before it all went wrong.