Amber stood in the middle of the room, directly opposite Jack. Her hands were clasped together by her stomach to keep herself from fidgeting, but occasionally she found herself repeatedly smoothing her coat and had to force her hands back into position. From time to time she watched Jack's chest, to make sure he was still breathing, then realised she was holding her own breath. It was at these times, when she had to remind herself to do as simple a thing as breathe, that she once again became aware of what else was going on in the room around her. It wasn't comforting. The first thing she noticed of course was the awful sound of those Zoot voices; they were enough to drive someone insane. She had managed to block them out eventually, each time she became aware of them, but they were still giving her a headache. She turned around, so she wouldn't see the monitors out of the corner of her eye, turning away from Jack at the same time - she felt guilty but there wasn't much she could do for him right now - and saw Ram. He was vigorously pacing the floor in front of her, from wall to wall, apparently lost in his own thoughts, as she had been. Amber wondered how long he had been doing that, how long they had both been doing that. Neither of them had spoken since they had both been concerned about how calm Jack appeared, but she didn't know how long ago that was. It seemed like hours had passed but it must only have been a matter of minutes. Still, it was a wonder they were here at all - she had expected the computer to have finished making the virus by now. Hopefully the fact that it hadn't was down to Jack. That would mean that he was doing something, that he was still there and not trapped in cyberspace somewhere. She turned her head to check on Jack, hoping for even the smallest sign of activity, but he was still the same.

As she turned back, she noticed that Ram had stopped pacing and was now looking at her. 'Any change?' he asked. She shook her head, and Ram went back to pacing the floor. Thinking he had finished, Amber started to turn back to Jack, but the Techno still had more to say. 'I don't like this!' he snapped, still pacing and making angry gestures with his hands. 'Something's not right! I just…there's nothing I can do!' Clearly frustrated, he stopped pacing, coming to a halt by a desk. He banged both of his fists down on the desk and then just stood there, leaning against it, with his head down.

Amber jumped at the sudden violent outburst. 'Keep quiet, you might disturb Jack!' she said irritably. 'Besides, violence isn't going to solve anything here!'

'No?' Ram replied, dragging a swivel chair out from under the desk and sending it careering into the wall as hard as he could. 'It seems to be working pretty well for me right now!' The chair bounced off the wall and rolled back towards him, toppling over at his feet. He stood staring at it for a moment, then picked it up and sat down in it. 'I'm sorry' he said, pushing his palms against his knees and closing his eyes in an effort to remain calm. 'You're right, I shouldn't have done that. I just can't stand all this waiting, you know?'

'I know' Amber said. 'It's getting to me too. We just have to try and stay calm.'

'Like Jack?' Ram quipped. Neither of them laughed.

Just then, Amber caught something moving out of the corner of her eye. Looking towards the door, she saw through the small glass panel that the lights in the corridor outside were flickering, just for an instant then it was as if nothing had happened.

'What is it?' Ram asked, noticing the look on Amber's face. 'Are Lex and Slade back?'

'No, nothing like that. It was just the lights outside flickering. Do you think it means anything?'

Ram opened his mouth to reply but nothing came out, as the lights in the room they were in suddenly went out. The monitors on the wall crackled and went dead one by one, silencing the Zoot voices and plunging the room into darkness apart from the light from the corridor coming through the glass panel, and the computer Jack was hooked up to - the only one still working. That monitor too had lost its Zoot face, and its blank screen created an eerie pool of light, with Jack in the middle, the flickering red lights on the headset increasing the creepy effect. Worse, Jack was now smiling. Amber felt butterflies in her stomach when she saw that smile. It reminded her of the grins on the Zoot faces. She felt Ram rising out of the chair and looked up into his face, just about noticeable in the poor light. He looked worried.

'I, er, I think this means something' he said.

'Yeah, I can see that, but is it good or bad?' Amber mused.

'I wish I knew.'

At that moment, the lights in the room came back on. Amber and Ram both blinked, adjusting to the light. The monitors on the wall flickered back into life, but now showed only a fuzzy grey screen, not the Zoot faces.

'Did Jack do all that?' Amber asked incredulously.

'It certainly seems that way.'

'So…that's a good thing, right? He's got control of the system, he can activate the sprinkler in the lab now.'

'Perhaps' was all Ram would say.

Amber went over to her friend sitting in the chair and knelt in front of him, taking one of his hands in hers. 'Come on Jack' she smiled, her eyes tearing up. 'You can do it.'

'Look!' Ram said, pointing at the wall of monitors, where a picture had appeared on each of the screens. Amber got up from where she was kneeling and went to stand next to Ram, blinking away the tears so she could see more clearly what was going on.

'At least it isn't the Zoot faces again' she said, as her vision returned to normal. 'But what is it?' The screens seemed to show another part of the hotel, an empty corridor.

'Usually these monitors would show images from the security cameras. Maybe they're just starting up again now that the programme is no longer in control' Ram said, sounding doubtful.

'Wait, there's something there!' Amber exclaimed, as a figure made its way unsteadily halfway along the corridor before collapsing on the floor.

'It's Lex!' Ram sounded shocked.

'Something must have happened in the lab!' Amber cried. 'Jack's trying to warn us, he must be!'

'Maybe. Listen, I'll go check it out, you stay here and keep an eye on Jack.'

'But I don't know what to do!'

'You don't have to do anything. I didn't want to tell you this before but, if he fails, there's not much point taking that headset off. If it looks like he's in trouble you can take it off if you really want to, but it'll be kinder to let him go the way Mega did than to let the virus get him.'

'Well, in that case, it's a good job he's not going to fail, isn't it?' Amber stood looking at him defiantly.

'Yeah, whatever, look I'll be back soon. Just don't touch anything, ok?'

Amber watched Ram leave the room, and waited until she could no longer hear his footsteps running down the corridor, before sitting down at one of the desks with her head in her hands, and beginning to cry.

Neither of them had noticed that Jack's smile had softened since Amber had touched his hand.

Since shutting down the voices, Jack no longer felt that everything was passing by him too quickly. It had taken several tries, searching for the right room, and then locating the source of the voices, but now he felt as if he could do anything. There was still a part of him, tucked away somewhere, that kept telling him that something was wrong, that he should be concentrating on finding…something, but he ignored it. There was also something else. Something that felt like him, but somehow wasn't. Every now and then, this third part kept blocking him, whenever he tried to follow a path. Sometimes he could force his way through, but increasingly he found that he had to find an alternative route. It was as though he was somehow fighting against himself, but he kept sensing anger from the other part, as if he was somehow intruding, but that couldn't be possible, could it? Every time he felt something, whether doubt from himself or anger from the other, the second part of himself - the part that was tucked away so he could be free to explore his systems - seemed to grow stronger. Whatever it wanted, it seemed important, but he didn't take orders.

Suddenly, he saw something, like a window to somewhere else. A corridor. About to discard the image, he paused, as a figure started moving in from one edge of his vision. Intrigued, he continued watching. The figure had long, dark hair and seemed vaguely familiar, even thought that couldn't be possible. As the figure fell to the ground, he prepared once more to delete the image. All of a sudden he felt a connection with something else and everything changed. Startled, he could no longer hold on to the image and it disappeared. He remembered everything. He was Jack, and he was inside Ram's computer programme. The connection he had felt was Amber. She was holding his hand and talking to him, but he couldn't speak; he felt trapped within his own mind. The image! That was Lex! He was in trouble, somewhere in the hotel. Somehow, Jack realised he must have stumbled across the hotel's surveillance system. Now, if only he could find that image again. Concentrating, he trawled through the files until he found what he was searching for. He hoped it wasn't too late. He sent the image to the screens in the room he sat in, outside wherever he was now. That was all he could do for Lex, but hopefully the others could still help him.

It was then that Jack realised that Slade had been with Lex. Where was he? He knew he didn't have much time. He still had to find the sprinkler system, and turn on the one in the lab, but first he had to check on Slade. He began to search through the files in the surveillance system once more.