Ellie wandered aimlessly through the mall. Room after room passed in an uneventful monotony. Finally she had wandered as far as was possible, she sat down on the dusty floor and stared into nothingness. She felt numb, empty.

Since Jack had been taken she often spent her days like this. What else was there to do? She lent against the wall behind her and closed her eyes, giving in to the emptiness. The painful abyss. Vaguely she heard stomping feet and someone calling her name. She didn't get up, what was the point? They'd go away eventually and if they didn't they'd soon give up trying to find her. Behind closed lids she heard the strange sound of clomping feet. She took no notice. Behind closed lids she vaguely registered the sound of course voices. She still stayed still. Behind closed lids she felt the gentle vibrations of the floor as the strangers came toward her. She still ignored them. Behind closed lids she felt an arm hold her in a vice grip and roughly pull her up. This time she opened her eyes; they were bright with confusion.

She was met with the masked faces of Ram's elite security. Without hesitating she began to struggle but the guard's grip on her tightened bruising it.

"Let . . . Let go of me!" she screamed at them her voice a mixture of anger, indignation, and fear. She still was unable to free herself. Desperate now she flailed about like a wild thing, any limb she could move she did. Her crude attempt must have caught a few Technos because faint curses came from around her. Blinded by tears she couldn't fight them for long, in seconds she was restrained by several hands.

Ellie stumbled as they dragged her across the mall. She could feel the pitying gazes of the Mallrats on her but she ignored them. Her mind was set on one answer and she shouted the question all through the city until she was thrown in a dark room in the hotel, where she collapsed in tears.

"What did I do?"


The figure walked past Ellie's prison door, careful to hide itself in the shadows. It didn't know why it had come here, its plan had a very fragile balance the slightest glitch could ruin it completely and months of planning would be wasted. But it couldn't help itself. It smiled a bittersweet smile, it didn't want to put Ellie through this but it was a necessary evil. It wouldn't be for long the figure told itself. Soon it would all be other and done with. Every last bit of it. Forever.


Jay was done with a hard day of work and was eager to rest. He flopped down and his bed and closed his eyes, willing the world to fade away. But sadly no matter how much he wanted to sleep his brain would not let him. He tossed and turned until finally he opened his eyes in frustration. He turned over once again facing the simple black night stand. Like most of the rooms in the hotel his was furnished with the cold, simple, ultra modern, standard Techno furniture. His night stand was nothing special. Identical to the other thousand or so other Techno personnel at the hotel (and even a few virts) owned, even Ebony had one. It was perfectly normal. But for some reason as Jay looked at it he swore it was surrounded by some strange electrical aura. It called to him, the strange current reached out to his hands, making them tingle with the temptation to open it.

Quickly he turned over and forced himself not to think of the night stand. But this temptation was still there . . . lurking in the back of his mind.

"The only way to rid yourself of temptation is to succumb to it."

Ebony had said that to him once. Of course he hadn't agreed with her, it had been just another thing Ebony had said that gave him that off putting feeling. The feeling that she wasn't or at least hadn't always been the Ebony she was around him. But as always he had shaken it off, so she wasn't exactly like him, that's why he loved her. His thoughts wandered back to the night stand. He knew that while the treasure inside them still worked he'd never be able to sleep. Slowly he reached across and opened one of the two small drawers in the black wooden piece and brought out glasses that glinted with a silver malice in the light. He held them in his hand. The tingled was back again, urging him to put them on.

They were a bad idea. He knew they were. Logically he knew this, he knew that he should walk over to the window and throw them out, he knew that then he could lie down and get the sleep he had so wanted a few minutes ago. There'd be no nagging in the back of his mind, nothing to distract him, nothing to disrupt his life or his relationship with Ebony. He knew all this and yet he couldn't do it. Slowly he raised the glasses and put them on. Ebony definitely hadn't meant this when she had talked to him about temptation. Strange how things worked out really....