"Janet, I never never destroy for sport. Only for commerce." He leaned across his desk, picked up a folder marked "Harper, N," and then tossed it over to Janet. destroy for sport. Only for commerce." He leaned across his desk, picked up a folder marked "Harper, N," and then tossed it over to Janet.

"Archaic, I admit," he said, referring to the paper documents, "but 100 percent secure, I assure you." Janet nodded. "Dr. Harper will be our voodoo doll," he continued. "The more pins and needles we can shove through her eyeballs, the more pain Justin will feel."

Janet leaned over, grabbed then opened the folder, and rifled through some of the notes. Nothing too serious, she saw. A few minor indiscretions in college. Certainly nothing that would damage Neela's reputation or bring the wrath of Cord down on Janet's office. Then she noticed a small memo atop a contract. It was from Hektor's office, and it was addressed to Kirk Olmstead.

"You asked Kirk to go after her contract?"

"Yes."

Janet nodded. "No contract. No protection. We can mess with her. Brilliant." Then, "Why give it to Olmstead?"

"Because he'll fail, of course."

Janet again looked puzzled.

"So why would he take the risk?"

"Because," answered Hektor, "I made it sound like a good idea. His His idea." idea."

"But can it actually be done?" she asked.

"Of course not," barked Hektor. "The contract's damn near iron-clad. That Mosh McKenzie is not one to screw with. You fuck with him, you'd better hope you've got some limbs you won't mind losing. He made that contract."

"So basically you want Kirk to screw up."

"That's the plan. Not too big a screwup, but it all adds up in the end."

Janet said nothing, working out all the possibilities. It was a skill she'd honed to perfection in her slow and steady rise up the GCI corporate ladder.

"You do realize," she offered, now more than ever wanting to be seen as an asset to the man seated before her, "that any attempt to make a run on Harper's contract will alert Dr. Harper and Mr. Cord that you know of their supposed weakness for one another ... I mean, why else do it, right?"

Hektor nodded, again unmoved. "Janet, I want them to know I want them to know that GCI suspects them. Fear does not work against ignorance or certainty. It creeps in and festers with possibility. Let them wonder what that GCI suspects them. Fear does not work against ignorance or certainty. It creeps in and festers with possibility. Let them wonder what we we know; what we'll do with our knowledge. Let them wonder if we'll tell others of Dr. Harper's perversions. Let know; what we'll do with our knowledge. Let them wonder if we'll tell others of Dr. Harper's perversions. Let them them worry. It'll make them paranoid and unhappy. In return Justin will get in an attack which you'll help funnel directly to its intended target." worry. It'll make them paranoid and unhappy. In return Justin will get in an attack which you'll help funnel directly to its intended target."

Janet looked up from the contract she'd been perusing. "You."

"Me," he repeated, nodding. His eyes were cold and his lips parted, in a caninelike threat.

"Fine, Hektor. But I'll need some sort of excuse for why I'm not doing my job when word of your audit gets out."

Hektor nodded in agreement. "If anyone asks, tell them that your hands are tied."

"Because?" she asked.

"Because, my dear, there's almost no redress against an unincorporated man."

6 Open and Shut

Justin woke up feeling better, or to be more precise, calmer. He scanned his immediate environment. The room was an almost exact duplicate of his old office's antechamber, a place he'd often go to take catnaps during his long workday. The small, ornately paneled space had wall-to-wall bookshelves, a small fireplace-now lit-and one standard twin-sized bed that he was lying in. If they're going to mess with your biology, best to wake up in a familiar place If they're going to mess with your biology, best to wake up in a familiar place, he thought, not that it'll make one iota of difference not that it'll make one iota of difference. Justin yawned and stretched out his arms. He wasn't sure what to expect from the procedure even though he'd been told. But he'd been so conditioned to coming out of any "anesthetic" experience both groggy and somewhat disoriented-especially in his dying days-that the mere fact that he now wasn't made him feel ... well, slightly disoriented.

It had been Neela's idea to have him go in for some aging therapy, and after some discussion and research on his part, Justin agreed. But he insisted that they do the procedure back in Boulder, again for comfort and familiarity. It was not difficult to arrange, and GCI, feeling the sting of both the public and its stockholders, felt it impolitic to deprive him of the facilities he preferred. He got himself dressed, took one last look at "his" room, and went out to the waiting area. Neela was sitting in a floating chair busily scanning something in her DijAssist. She looked up as she heard Justin enter.

"I feel fine," he answered before she could ask. "In fact, I feel better, no, not the right word, more centered, than before."

"I'm glad," she replied, "but still kicking myself for having overlooked it. I mean, we just woke you up at the default age."

"Hey, you woke me up. That's what really matters."

"True enough," Neela said, getting up from her chair. "I think we were more focused on that than anything."

"Well, other than a few adolescent outbursts, no real harm done."

Neela's thoughts drifted to Hektor. I wouldn't be so sure I wouldn't be so sure.

They'd planned on spending the rest of the day doing a little shopping, but after being hounded by the media and cornered by fans, they spent the bulk of the afternoon in their hotel rooms. They made arrangements with Mosh and Eleanor for an early dinner and tried to relax. Neela felt a good night's rest would be in order given what she knew Justin was in for the following day.

"So what's the L.A. thing about?" asked Justin, reclining on an overstuffed La-Z-Boy he'd had the room create for him.

Neela couldn't help but frown every time he clambered in and out of the huge, retractable monstrosity.

"I'm telling you, Neela," he said, putting his arms behind his head, "you ought to try this baby out. It ain't no ergo chair, but it does have its redeeming qualities."

"I'm sure it does," she answered, halfheartedly. "Maybe later."

Her face became more serious.

"Tomorrow we visit the museum."

Justin's smile faded, too. He stared up at the ceiling for a moment.

"You sure?"

"Yes. I believe you're ready."

"OK then, you're the boss."

Justin had done some research on virtual reality museums as well as the dictates they were predicated on. He knew this much: The museums represented a set of dictates so fundamental to the development of present-day society that a single visit was considered a rite of passage. He also knew that no one ever visited twice. Partly on Neela's advice, but mostly because he didn't have the time, he'd avoided learning more. Apparently, the L.A. museum had made special arrangements for his visit, and it was therefore critical that they arrive at a specified time. Since Justin had insisted on flying his new car rather than taking a t.o.p., Neela insisted that they leave by 9:00 A.M. That, she assured him, would allow them plenty of time to arrive at the required hour.

Justin had two reasons for not wanting to take the t.o.p. First, he wanted to fly his own car. Second, he felt like having a good old-fashioned road trip, especially given the pressure he'd been under with the trial. Too many weeks in the spotlight and with the specter of going to visit a place that seemed shrouded in gloom. Neela didn't seem to mind, because it not only gave her the ability to talk with Justin at length, it also wouldn't take that much longer than traveling by t.o.p. They agreed on the specifics, and Justin made arrangements to have the car fly itself out from New York City and meet them first thing in the morning.

The big surprise for Justin was that hardly anyone drove anymore. People traveled, of course, but except for a few nostalgia towns like Boulder, they simply didn't put four pieces of rubber on the pavement and the pedal to the metal. When he had thought of the future it was always with flying cars, but he'd also imagined huge elevated roadways that were twenty lanes wide and filled with futuristic vehicles driving on self-repairing, ever-expanding road systems. Instead he found ... nothing. Mile after mile of wilderness with not a speck of blacktop in sight. Outside of the cities there were no freeways, no highways, and no roads. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Why build a road when there were orports and flying cars aplenty? But it was still a shock to leave the cities of the future, with their gleaming facades, their towering-above-the-clouds spires, their millions of flying vehicles, and find unadulterated wilderness just a few miles away. On the other hand, he had to admit it was beautiful. The land that had been left to itself had pretty much become renewed. He smiled at the thought of all the environmental wackos who used to be on him like white on rice. They were now, of course, pushing up daisies, never having lived to see their dreams of a green planet fully realized.

Talking with Neela, Justin had learned that most of the wilderness he was looking at was in fact owned, and that essentially ownership meant extracting what valuable resources there were and leaving the rest alone. It also seemed that the notion of living in the boonies stopped making sense about a century prior to Justin's revival. With the perfection of nanotechnology, rustic, outdoor getaways-or whatever "boonies" fantasy a person happened to have-could be created ... in the city ... in a building ... on whichever floor was available. And all on the cheap. Certainly cheaper than trying to live outside of a city. So the strange truth was that a planet of over twenty billion people was now mostly empty.

Flying his car was much easier than Justin had imagined. The vehicle flew itself, but anytime he took over control the autopilot disengaged. It only reengaged at those moments it realized a complete novice was at the helm. Though the car was traveling at approximately 1,600 mph, it felt as light and agile as a paper airplane tossed high into the sky. The wide windows afforded unadulterated views of vast, empty land, open tundra, magnificent mountain ranges, and sinuous rivers. And a slight detour to Arizona allowed Justin to realize a dream he'd always had as a boy-flying into and through the Grand Canyon like a bat out of hell.

Neela laughed at her companion's sheer glee.

"Well," she smirked, "I guess there's still some elevated hormone levels to be dealt with."

"Oh no, you don't," he answered, mouth agape in adolescent awe as the craft skimmed a small patch of rapids along the Colorado River. "They're right where I want 'em."

"Well, if you like this," she answered, seemingly bored, "you'll go Alaskan when you hit the canyons of Mars. They make the Grand Canyon look like a scratch in the sand."

"Hot damn!" Justin said, banking up a steep curve. "How 'bout we go now?"

Neela's nonanswer was all the answer he needed. He shrugged, realizing his little side trip was over, pulled the car up and out of the canyon, and pointed it toward L.A. At the speeds they were traveling, it only took a few minutes to arrive.

The car slowed down appreciably as they entered the city limits.

Neela watched as Justin took in the new and improved City of Angels. "How does it look?" she asked.

"It's big, spread-out, and not very tall," he answered. "Hasn't changed much at all."

It hadn't. After the Grand Collapse those who were able headed north to the Alaskan Federation. When the world eventually got its bearings back on track, California no longer held its allure. After all, weather, one of the state's main claims to fame, was now technologically influenced on an almost regular basis. The state's other claim to fame, entertainment, had left such a black mark on society that there were those who, like some of the Jews who'd escaped Nazi Germany, refused to ever step foot on its soil again. Neela had explained to Justin that the placement of a virtual reality museum in L.A., the flashpoint of the VR plague, had caused such an uproar that some people were still arguing about it.

When they were within range of the museum, Neela told the car to descend into a parking area near a large, well-manicured square. As it came to a soft landing, she gave Justin an "are you ready for this?" glance. He answered with a nod. They slipped out through the vehicle's walls and walked toward the main park. Once there, they came upon an oversized, elaborate entrance made of stone, metal, and thousands of pieces of crushed computer motherboards. The gate was at least ten feet wide and twenty feet tall and had the words IT'S NECESSARY spelled out above in wrought iron. As they passed through the entrance they made way for a group of twelve students heading out. The students, Justin could see, appeared to be about seven or eight years of age and were accompanied by two adults. It looked like a school field trip, except that none of the children were smiling. They were so lost in thought that two of them even had to be gently redirected from hitting the side of the gate. They shuffled their feet as they walked by, barely noticing the media stars in their midst. Justin waited until they were out of the park and turned to Neela.

"Justin," she tried to explain, "our world came about from the collapse of the old world, but that world fell in such a horrific fashion it came very close to the destruction of all civilization as we know it."

"What does that have to do with those kids?"

"Everything."

They walked for another hundred yards along a gravel path, with only the sound of the grinding rocks beneath their feet to interrupt the silence. A large building appeared over the horizon. The structure appeared to be collapsing upon itself. Huge sheets of glass and metal were jutting out in different directions, seeming ready to fly off at any moment. There was no courtyard to speak of; rather, the large, discombobulated edifice was sitting in the middle of a huge pit void of any foliage. Storm clouds surrounded the compound. Justin and Neela descended a flight of steps leading into the vast hole in the ground.

The entrance was a wide opening at the pit's base. The wall surrounding that opening was made of marble, and on that marble, engraved in three-foot-high letters, were the following sentences:

I. A CULTURE THAT ACCEPTS VIRTUAL REALITY.

ACCEPTS DESTRUCTION.

II. THAT WHICH A HUMAN SHOULD DO, DO.

III. ACCEPT NO REALITY EXCEPT REALITY.

IV. ABSOLUTE PLEASURE CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY.

V. NEVER FORGET.

Neela waited while Justin read the inscriptions. She also wanted to give him time to absorb them.

"Behold," she said, "the famous Virtual Reality Dictates."

"Impressive," replied Justin, standing back and taking in the scarred yet pristine landscape.

Continuing their earlier conversation, she added, "We wait until the children are old enough to understand and remember. The age is different for each child, but it's usually between seven and nine."

"How old were you?"

"Seven," whispered Neela, momentarily looking like one of the children they'd just seen exiting the park.

"What's this place supposed to do, Neela?"

"It's supposed to show us the price paid by society when it takes away responsibility and replaces it with pleasure."

"Well, that sounds awfully Puritan, don't you think?"

Neela didn't answer. She seemed somehow entranced by the building. Justin realized that she hadn't even heard his question. She just stood there, staring-a victim revisiting the crime scene. Neela took a breath and indicated that it was time to enter.