Another employee in the level turned away from his terminal. "Hey! Who killed the antivirus and the backup script?" he exclaimed.
"That would be me! Sorry!" Clu said loudly in response.
Clu turned toward Jet again and said: "The first experiment was a success. Now get my computer on the roof."
Jet stood up from his chair and looked around, to see if anybody was laughing at him. "Okay, whose idea is it?" he asked. "Where's the hidden camera?"
"This is serious business" said Clu. "My next experiment will be on a much larger scale, and a telefrag explosion would be... bothersome. Of course, if it does not bother you..."
"Um, yeah. No problem. I'll get your stuff moved." finally said Jet.
The computer and laser were taken to the roof, and Clu successfully digitized, brought back and duplicated a computer and a digitizing laser.
The next Monday, at noon, a huge crowd had gathered around the ENCOM tower, rhythmically calling Kevin Flynn's name. That was the release day of OS12 Second Edition, and everybody had been told that it would have been an unprecedented introduction.
For a while, everybody kept looking at the tower's roof, then, like a wave, people started turning and pointing toward another direction, in the sky.
Something big and bright, far away, was flying toward the building. It was Clu, flying a lightjet with the light ribbon activated for effect. At a certain distance from the tower, the lightjet derezzed, while Clu, in his program outfit, opened a lightchute and landed precisely on the roof. A thunderous applause exploded from the crowd.
Four megascreens, one on each side on the ENCOM tower, were switched on. They displayed a close-up of Clu's face.
"Whoo! What a ride!" exclaimed Clu, while the crowd started calling Kevin Flynn's name again.
"Oh, by the way," he continued, "this 'first-name/last-name' thing is so formal. Why don't we call each other with our Internet handles? I'm Clu."
In the crowd, some people started laughing, but were silenced when Clu resumed his speech.
"Today, we're releasing OS12 Second Edition, the operating system that will solve all your security and piracy problems. Which is a big deal, but not the reason we are here."
People in the crowd looked at one another, perplexed.
"As you may have noticed, I have not aged a day since the last time you saw me. Twenty years ago, I asked you to think of a world with no diseases, old age, wars, famine or death. Stop thinking. That world is here! A world where nobody ever dies or gets old, a world where you can go from Washington to Hong Kong in a matter of seconds, a world where users and programs live and work together as one people! This is my gift to you!"
In the crowd, people again were perplexed and asked each other: "What's he saying?" "Is he nuts?"
"And now, let the fusion begin!" was the conclusion.
At that very moment, the digitizing laser on the roof shot a bright blue, whirling, pulsating column of energy toward the sky. Mere seconds later, a recognizer erupted out of it and started flying above the crowd. This was different from those in the Grid: a fine purple mesh, with intensely bright purple spots, had been added to its central section.
The first recognizer was soon followed by another, and another, to a total of ten. Finally, Clu's carrier, the Rectifier, came out of the column of energy.
The recognizers stopped above the police cars at the outer edges of the crowd, then, following a gesture from Clu, fired energy blasts from their new mesh modifications, simultaneously. The police cars exploded, while the crowd was now panicking.
Not even a minute later, police and military helicopters started crowding the sky. Another gesture from Clu and the Rectifier emitted a spherical pulse wave that hit the helicopters. Immediately, their blades stopped and they crashed to the ground.
Clu smiled, satisfied. That was only the beginning.