He was frustrated. And angry. The ebon boy folded his cloak around himself. Dodger jacked out, and the boy vanished from the Matrix.

Dodger stared down at the datajack. He couldn't fig- ure it out. There should be more connections than he could follow in a day. The circle of druids they chased were prominent people in England. At least the ones whose names they knew were prominenta151highly placed businessmen and -women or members of the aristocracy, whose everyday lives were matters of pub- lic record.

The Hidden Circle was living up to its name.

Why couldn't he make connections? Secret societies rarely managed to avoid leaving a trail, especially in these modern times when no organization functioned without some computerization. Magical organizations were usually even easier to track down; their membersrarely comprehended the intricacies of the consensual hallucination that was the Matrix, that hypothetical pseudoreality that was a second home to Dodger. In the Matrix, a good decker should be able to trace the connections between people and organizations. And Dodger knew that he was better than good.

These druids, despite all their magic, were a techno- savvy bunch. There was not a hint in the Matrix that any of them were more than they appeared to be in the mundane world. He had not even been able to learn the names of the unknown members of the Hidden Circle. Without records of the Circle's organization, he couldn't tell who among the contacts of the known Circle members were also members. Looking for reg- istered druids was no real help. Many practicing ma- 150.

Robert N. Charrette gicians didn't bother to comply with theRegistration Act, and the members of the Hidden Circle seemed likely can- didates for such an act of civil disobedience.

From the absence of data, he might have given up, believing that there were no other members. But Sam insisted that there had to be more, and Hart had backed him up. They said that a druidic circle was three times three. The runners had names for six of the Hidden Circle and two of those were dead.

The Hidden Circle was too well hidden. Three weeks and Dodger had gleaned next to nothing.

There had to be another way to track them down.

A soft hand slid along his shoulder. He knew that touch, and it triggered a rush of memories he strug- gled to suppress. The past was the past.

"No luck?" Teresa's tone made the question a state- ment.

Dodger didn't bother to answer. She knew him well enough. Having seen his expression when she entered the room, she would have had her answer. Helooked over his shoulder; she had come alone.

"Pray, tell. Where is our chaperone?"

"Chatterjee is downstairs."

With a slim-fingered hand, she slid away the Fair- light cyberdeck and perched on the edge of the desk.

Her slim hips spread slightly under the pressure, edg- ing the hem of her skirt higher on her thigh. In his memory, he felt the exquisite smoothness of that graceful arch. His eyes traced the familiar curves up until he reached the equally familiar lop-sided smile of amusement. Her eyes sparkled.

"Have something in mind?" she asked.

He stood and reached out his hand to caress her cheek. Memory blurred with current perception as if there had been no gap. She slid from the desk and into his arms.

151.

"I thought that meat was a drag on the electron spirit."

" 'Tis true."

"I've missed you.""And I you."

"Estios would not approve."

"Estios can ..."

She hushed him with a kiss. The moment seemed an eternity.

"Dodger, why didn't you stay?"

"Why didn't you come with me?"

There were no words to say, for they had all been said before. He had no new answers that would mean anything. They held each other closely, entwining the rhythms of their hearts. Her voice was muffled by his shoulder.

"Some things never change. They only fall apart when things around them change."

"It need not be so."

"Are you so sure?"

"No." He wished that he were."Neither am I. What's to become of us, Dodger? I thought that I'd be able to work with you without re- membering. I'm not as strong as I thought."

"You have more strength than I."

"Liar."

"Is our fate to be the doomed lovers, then?"

She hugged him harder instead of answering.

"I would not compromise you with Estios," he said.

"I would not let you."

That wasn't the answer he wanted to hear.

An unwelcome sound intruded on them; Chatterjee was coming down the hall. For an elf, he was making a lot of noise. Did he know?

Teresa heard the other elf as well. She moved almost as quickly as Dodger. By the time Chatterjee walked -----------------152.

Robert N. Charrette I.

through the archway, Dodger was back in his chair and Teresa was sitting demurely on the desk.

"The keyboard was quiet, so I came to see what progress you had achieved. You have information?"

Chatterjee asked.

The frustration of the flesh was bad enough. Dodger didn't need to be reminded of how little he had achieved in the Matrix as well. "Nothing new."

"Estios will not be pleased."

"Tough," Dodger snapped. "That slick is never pleased unless he's got his butt ..."

"Dodger!" Teresa's voice was suitably chastising, but Dodger caught a hint of her quirky smile.

So, the lady has not been totally wooed by the party line.

Chatterjee remained unperturbed. "Your personal evaluation of any member of the team is irrelevant.

However, your lack of results is pertinent anddistress- ing. It limits our course of action too much. I had been informed that you were a decker of exceptional com- petence."

" 'Tis a fact. For the moment, however, 'tis also a fact that there is no joy in the Matrix."

"You have exhausted all avenues?"

"All? A decker of my 'exceptional competence'?

Hardly. 'Tis true that I have run all of our current leads to ground. Beyond confirming that the younger Neville is dead, we are no nearer to them than we were on the Solstice."

"Without their full circle, they are weak," Teresa said.

"Yet not weak enough," Chatterjee said. "The op- timal result would be their complete dissolution, but reduction beyond the ring of three should be sufficient for present purposes."

"One cannot 'reduce' the unknown effectively. We are no closer to naming all of the Circle than we were 153 three weeks ago. And without knowing all of their identities, we dare not move against those we have identified."

"Precisely," Chatterjee agreed. "You must inten- sify your endeavors."

Dodger folded his arms and stared at the ceiling.

"Let Estios intensify his."

"He already has," Chatterjee said.

. He would have. Always going one up. Fragging slick.

"Then when he returns with usable data, I shall use it."

Chatterjee frowned. "Time passes."

"What matters time to an elf?"

"Flippancy is inappropriate. Estios prepares for ac- tion and we must all be ready to move if the arcane reconnaissance results in useful data. Even if the sha- man learns something of worth, it will be unlikely to have much pertinence with regard to your Matrix ef- forts. I suggest that you immediately pursue whatever avenues remain open.""Verily? Then I suggest that you ..."

"Dodger," Teresa warned.

Dodger sighed. Baiting Chatterjee wasn't worth up- setting Teresa. "Perchance I shall try a blind shunt; some of the data we do have should serve as hooks."

"Explain," Chatterjee ordered.

So ho, Squire Chatterjee. Must you now acknowl- edge that the Dodger may indeed be of exceptional competence? "A blind shunt utilizes a sophisticated series of mask and camouflage programs that render transparent a decker's presence in the Matrix.

Unfor- tunately, the technique leaves the decker vulnerable as well, but what isn't seen by intrusion countermeasures is not attacked by such defenses. While cloaked, the decker waits; for to take active measures is to destroy the illusion of transparency. The hooks are data bits to which the decker attaches his invisible persona, -----------------154.

Robert N. Charrette waiting for the data to move. The assumption is that the hook will be taken legitimately into a place where the decker cannot gain entry through conventional hacking. The procedure takes time, but I don't see anything else to do. Mayhap we shall be lucky."

Teresa reached out and laid her hand on Dodger's arm. He could feel the electricity through his leathers.

She didn't seem to care that Chatterjee was watching.

"Dodger," she said. "Don't do that. It's too dan- gerous. A blind shunt could drag you into heavy ice."

"Fear not, fair maid. The Dodger has not yet met the ice that can trap him."

He was lying, of course. He had been trapped by icea151once and only once. It was an experience that haunted his nightmares. But he didn't need to fear a repeat of that experience. The artificial intelligencea151 if that's what it really wasa151that controlled the deadlyice lived locked away in the Renraku Matrix, and he was never going to enter that terrible black pyramid again. No matter how slick these druids were, their deckers couldn't be playing in the same league as the megacorp that controlled most of the world's public data structures. He would be safe from anything he would encounter.

Teresa's eyes bored into his, her expression flicker- ing with an emotion he couldn't read. Her hand left his arm as she stood. Had she read the lie?

"Yet," she said softly.

Dodger was sure she hadn't intended him to hear.

18.

The man entering the room was not a man at all.

He went by the name Hanson, and looked like a man to the unaided eye, but Andrew Glover knew better.

Glover had assensed Hanson when he had first shown up bearing Hyde-White's letter of introduction, and Glover's exercise of his mage sight had shown him that Hanson was not human. What Hanson was remained an open question; Glover had never before seen such an aura or astral image. There were no astral imagefiles, no aura records to consult that would reveal what kind of metahuman Hanson was.

The fat, old man could not have failed to penetrate the illusions cloaking the metahuman from the ordi- nary eye. So why was he recommending a nonhuman like Hanson?

Hyde-White had sworn the same oaths as the rest of the Circle, dedicating himself to restoring the rightful monarch and purifying the land. Such purification ap- plied not just to the pollution but to the corrupting influence of metahuman genes as well. Glover's an- cestors had fought to preserve British purity against the influx of the less advanced races. Their struggle seemed petty compared to the battle he fought against the scourge of mutated humanity that threatened to overwhelm even the debased blood of the lower classes.

Metahumans were little better than beasts, and Han- son, with the bestial aspect he presented astrally, was clearly one of the worst kind.Hyde-White was devious, but he was also a practical 156.

Robert N. Charrette I.

man. Like all well-brought-up men of his class, he understood the nature of the underclasses. Just as Glover himself did. Which was, of course, the answer.

Hanson would only be a tool, a resource to be used up and disposed of when he was no longer useful, That made sense. It was only an unpleasant necessity that required Glover to deal with Hanson personally.

Hanson seemed unaware of Glover's distaste for him.

Or, if he was aware, he was indifferent. Either way suited Glover. Hanson's repugnant presence was a temporary annoyance, one more burden to bear in the furtherance of the cause."They are ready," Hanson said, "Then we should not delay."

Glover swept past Hanson and entered the room. In its center five people lay bound. They were dregs cho- sen from the flotsam of the metroplex, three of them orks. They were a far cry from the pure bloodlines of the sacrifices in Neville's ritual. Glover personally found such submen repugnant. There would be no room for them in his resurrected Britain. The mongrel half-breed foreigners who made up the rest of the sac- rifice were little better, but what they were was un- important. It was what they represented that mattered.

Power.

Such sacrificial offerings had given their energy to aid the Circle, restoring the power lost by the deaths of Young Neville and Fitzgilbert. Even without the full nine, Glover could feel that their ritual workings were stronger, and Hyde-White had suggested that they would grow stronger still. Each completion of the cy- cle would double their power. It was an added benefit that they could purge the land of such misfits whilethey gathered strength to restore it.