Pursued by control AIs-this time manipulated by human operators-Lucky retreats behind the impenetrable wall of the After. He passes his all-seeing hand through the surface of this protection and senses their violent AIs, capable of brutally erasing entire digital sectors as a precaution-which they do, to flush out hidden presences-before the sphere of the LE rushes in to rebuild everything.
He catches fragments of conversation:
- …it's got an AI signature, I don't know how it's doing that…
- …I thought it was an autonomous AI from the League, probably unaware of the peace treaty, I guess…
- …the AI's huge, it's even bigger than a sentient emulation-amazing we didn't notice it before…
- …too erratic, what if it's Xeno?
He sends all of this to Nemo, who seems to be rejoicing. He lingers a bit near the border. He thinks he'd like to say goodbye to Dian, but the control AIs are like sharks he's watching through aquarium glass…
He turns around. There's still that thin black layer-the one that connects him to the great central control hub of the soldier drones, seemingly pulling along all sentient life in the After. What if I blew the damn thing up, Lucky thinks. It would piss off the Aleph, which would make everyone happy-myself most of all.
He returns to the immense white flower formed by the billions upon billions of simulators in which the inhabitants of the After come and go to carry out their missions. He finds the central point, where he once overheard a conversation with his creator-Samuel Aloysius. Now he remembers. Samuel had spoken to the Wau. He might even have known Cassandre. How many of those damned Wau are there? Not enough to kick Huan's ass, anyway.
He finds himself at the base of the attraction pole, without touching it. It's a vast white column connecting the After to Lodovico, then to the drones across the entire universe through a system of Derives. All that money for garbage.
He tries to find a way to open it, twist it, penetrate it. A metaphorical screen opens before him:
YOUR NAME WILL SUFFICE
with a command prompt.
Lucky doesn't overthink it and types: Lucky. Instantly, control AIs swoop down on him like missiles-he's forced once again to retract into Nemo's server, behind esoteric digital protections that only the hacker, with his old-school methods, could understand.
- "You okay?" asks Nemo. "Euyin's gone. Off to save some damsel in distress, but I've gotta keep him updated on your status."
- "I feel weird…" admits Lucky.
He has trouble thinking. He hears Nemo typing intermittently-not that he can see into Nemo's mysterious basement, but each keystroke echoes like a great drop of water falling onto the floor of a resonant cave, each one feverish in tone.
He probably loses consciousness, only to return much later.
- "And now?" asks Nemo.
- "Fine."
- "Okay, don't freak out, but between our two conversations, more than thirteen days passed."
- "What?"
- "The AIs that attacked you triggered an erasure of your shell and your contents. Since you were massive, it took time. I cut off the part being erased, but you weren't conscious anymore."
- "And then you… healed me?"
- "I operated on you," types Nemo, deleting three failed attempts to explain before continuing. "There were big chunks of you missing, but I had a backup of you here. So I found the missing bits, patched them into your amputated program… you really give me quite the adventures, you know. If Big City ever becomes Big City again, we'll be famous."
- "I don't care. Am I still the same? You didn't remove anything, did you?"
- "You'll naturally feel whole, Lucky. But are you truly the same? Only your friends could tell."
- "I don't have that many friends."
- "Come on-you're alive. You heading back into the After now?"
- "I really want to blow up that drone hub."
Lucky takes the time to explain the drone center, as well as the trace of Samuel Aloysius he encountered while exploring the place's past and future.
- "You need a name-a password. And if you get it wrong, I'll have to operate on you again, and you'll risk being changed again. We could investigate first, don't you think?"
Lucky dives once more into his recordings: the After, Lodovico, Lennox… surely, somewhere in all this mess, there's the answer. An answer dancing before his eyes that he just can't see. In fact, his AI side is screaming it at him-but in the wrong language.
- "Nemo. I've got an idea."
- "You know, that operation drained me. And Euyin told me to keep an eye on you."
- "If I'm wrong, let me die, old friend-and take a vacation. Give the old Euyin a kiss for me."
And he cuts the connection.