They didn't really talk on the ride over to the middle torus. V was feeling the pre-op jitters, like in Konpeki. Her stomach twisting into the same knots she'd felt when she and Jackie had ridden the elevator to Yorinobu's penthouse—and to the moment that had forever changed her life.

Lucy had rented out one of the executive cars so they could go over the plan again without eavesdroppers. No listeners, no kinks, no spook-shit in here. Pure privacy in an age where pure privacy was a luxury only the rich could afford. "When you get to the security checkpoint," Lucy told them, "they'll have you jack your personals into the system. Those forged SIDs I got you will get you through their scans, no problem. But it's on you guys to remember the roles you're playing, so don't fuck up your cover-stories."

Ayako was sitting beside V, her tabi-boot exojacks kicked up on the hologlass table. Advertisements for Rainbow Dolphin and other luxury brands scrolled in the glass. "You forget anything, I'll remind you," she assured V, folding her arms behind her head. "But you want me to work any 'runner voodoo, you'll need to hardwire into a system. The neural matrix I'm hangin' out on is only designed to receive wirelessly, not send."

"Kinda dumb it's only one-way," said V.

"Dumb?" said Ayako, and looked at her like she was dumb. "Would you want a fuckin' AI able to wirelessly connect with any systems in its proximity?"

V's mouth pressed into a thin, hard line. "Right," she conceded, feeling stupid, "y'gotta point." She paused. "Engrams are AI," she reminded herself, nodding.

"Of a kind," said Ayako. "Takes fucktons of data to become the kinda AI you're thinkin' 'bout. Code complexity out the ass."

"So you're sayin' engrams can become the kinda AI NetWatch scares people with?"

"Sure," said Ayako. "Look at Alt, what she did to Mikoshi. Aggregated all that code and incorporated it into her own. Got real complex , her."

V found herself wondering, then, if Johnny even existed anymore. Had he just become another script in Alt's code-fabric, like all those other engrams in Mikoshi? The thought chilled her. Somehow, V decided, that seemed so much worse than just existing as an engram. At least engrams were independent, or thought themselves as independent anyhow; and to her, the illusion of freedom sounded better than whatever it was when an engram was absorbed.

"Y'ever wanted to become one?" asked V suddenly. "An AI, I mean." As a netrunner, she could see the temptation in something like that. But as a person who enjoyed life outside the Net, V didn't personally find it appealing, shackling herself to cyberspace like that.

"'Course," said Ayako, honestly. "Who wouldn't? Other than you. But I get why you wouldn't. You got Judy, your whole life ahead of you now."

"Y'wouldn't worry 'bout losin' yourself?"

"Already lost myself, Val," said Ayako. "Arasaka took me away, years and years ago. Sent me on a suicide mission got me fried."

"Wanted to ask you 'bout that," said V. "'Bout your time with 'Saka, I mean. Know bits and pieces, but wanna know more now that it's just us."

"Met Juan while I was still netrunnin' for 'Saka in the Black Clinics." She smiled, something genuine in her expression. "Flew out to Phoenix to see him 'round the time I started workin' on Relic. Best time of my life. I fucked him three days into the trip."

V tried not to laugh, but it was hard. "How'd y'manage to give 'Saka the slip?"

"I didn't. They knew I was there. Repoware, remember? I enjoyed more privileges than the other 'runners 'cause I was a 'Saka by blood. Was Hanako who convinced Yorinobu to let me go on a 'vacation' to see the Grand Canyon."

V chuckled. "Didja actually go to the Grand Canyon?"

"Me and Juan did," she said, drawing her legs up and hugging her knees, her heels deep in the couch's pale upholstery. "Full of fuckin' trash and radioactive water. Wish I coulda seen it back in Buster's day. Buster told me he'd gone there once; said it was beautiful." Ayako put her chin on her knees, watching the tinted window opposite them. The train was loading onto the spacelift now, a huge turntable encased in steel and tempered alumino-silicate glass. The spacelift rotated slowly, the view panning over space, over the bright cyan curve of the Earth. "Wasn't too long after that they threw me into the thick of the Relic project. Hellman personally asked for me on his team. Was enlightenin'. Learned a lot, copied some data, later stashed it in the Mikoshi Partition. Whole reason I was able to build the chips, improve on them. Made a copy of the blueprints."

"Chips? Thought it was just the one," said V.

Ayako looked like she'd let slip something she shouldn't have. She didn't speak for a few minutes, like she was debating with herself whether or not to keep talking. "Had to practice, get it right," she said, finally. "Made two. Mine, and Juan's."

V blinked, surprised. "Juan had a fuckin' biochip?"

"Yeah. Made it for the same reason I made mine," said Ayako. "If somethin' ever happened to Juan, he'd have his engram, could come back. Baked a modified Soulkiller program into the chip. Automatically creates an engram when it's slotted. You die, reboots with that backup copy of you." She looked at V. "Saboru shouldn't be the only one who has that kinda privilege. These corpos got enough—took enough—from us, and now they wanna stick 'round indefinitely so they can keep takin' and takin' until there's nothin' left? Fuck that, and fuck him." Ayako frowned, put her feet down on the hardwood. "This shit would've never happened if Americans ain't forgotten who we were. We were rebels. Revolutionaries. Our forefathers launched a fuckin' war over goddamn tea and overthrew a king's rule." She stood up and flung her arms out. "And now we just sit on our asses, jerkin' it to porn BDs, gettin' fatter and fatter off scopdogs made from fuckin' locusts and lab-slop while the corporations keep takin' more and more from us with impunity. So I took a little somethin' back from 'em." Ayako turned to face her. "We're due for another revolution, Val. It's time to overthrow the king, because we are well-fuckin' beyond tea."

"Jesus," said V, "no wonder Johnny liked you. You sound like him."

"Johnny Silverhand was a fuckin' visionary," said Ayako. "His problem was just a lack of resources. But me? I got resources."

"Ayako, what's Sam gotta do with any of this? Make it sound like we're marchin' to war."

"We are marchin' to war," said Ayako. "Uncle Sam is just the start."

The spacelift stopped, the lightrail sliding on its induction track into the middle torus. Beyond the window, V saw the factory-works: a jumbled sprawl of corporate buildings and industrial complexes lit up like vast stages by halogen flood-arrays. She saw logos for Arasaka, Biotechnica, Zetatech, EBM, Kang Tao, Microtech, Dynalar Technologies, Raven Microcybernetics, Kiroshi Optics, Militech. The train slid to a stop in Militech's sector of the torus. Lucy said, "Get your gear on. I'll be on wire with you guys."

V changed into a mil-grade Militech netsuit, double-checking that the neural matrix was still firmly taped to her chest before slipping into her Samurai jacket. "Think y'really should be wearin' that, calabacita?" asked Judy, zipping herself into dark green techie coveralls, Militech's logo emblazoned on the back and breast-pocket. She clipped a debugger to the pocket. "The jacket," she added helpfully, pulling on a Militech cap.

"S'replica. For all they know, Jenny Jett's a Samurai fan." She grinned and put on a mil-grade infovisor.

"Somethin' else in the bag for you," said Ayako. "In the shard-case at the bottom."

V raised an eyebrow, then stooped, dug around in the bag until she found it. She opened the case, saw an OS shard in there, its surface filigreed in red and black nanocircuitry. "Operatin' system?" she said, and looked at Ayako.

"My Masamune's," she said. "Made a copy of its OS since the actual deck fried with me." Ayako folded her arms across her chest. "Real shame, 'cause a big deck woulda been better. More versatile and robust than one of these shitty OS shards you like usin'. But it is what it is."

"Holy shit," said V, smoothly slotting the new Masamune OS in her head. Her Kiroshi's ran some diagnostics, then started installing the OS, checking for incompatibilities, copying her programs, data, and Castlebreaker to the new OS. DONE flashed across her visual field in monospace. "Goddamn, you're spoilin' me," she said, and grinned. "A netsuit, new deck, a sword. Tryin' to make me the new you?"

"Somethin' like that," said Ayako, smiling. She leaned against the wall. "I'm makin' you the netrunner you need to be. You'll know what I mean when the time comes."

Panam came over, dressed identically to Judy. "Okay, Lucy's got a connection that will smuggle our weapons into the security sector."

"What 'bout our special carryin' privileges?" asked V.

"They don't apply here," said Panam, shrugging. "Apparently, they do not appreciate their civilian contractors packing iron while on the job."

"Well, whatever," said V. "Gotta new deck loaded with toys, comes down to it."

"Remember," said Lucy, "when you reach their mainframe, jack into their subnet and destroy the DHC with Castlebreaker. Don't attempt to jack in and destroy it elsewhere if you wanna avoid deep-frying your synapses."

"Got it. Then make our way to the Restricted Zone," said V.

Lucy nodded. "And from there, to the maintenance access that'll take you to the facility."