Knight laughed. "How gracious of you to notice. Still, that's off the subject. What I had in mind has to do with the disposition of your Gavilan stock."

Knight paused, then shook his head. "Something a bit more permanent. In exchange for the hasty return of your pet muscle boy, I thought maybe a two-year non-retractable voting proxy wouldn't be too much to ask."

The strain in Nadja's voice was evident, even if Ryan couldn't make out the words.

Finally, Knight said, "Very wise choice, my dear. This conversation has been notarized, and if you would be so good as to give the code for your retinal scan, we can make it legal and binding."

Knight hit a button, then grinned up at the screen. "My dear, I would suggest refraining from trying to void this agreement by claiming it was made under duress. Not only will I tie you up in corporate court for years, negating your access to the stock, I will also make sure you-"

Knight's grin widened as Nadja spoke. Then, "Well, my dear, I'm glad you see the sense of sticking to the agreement."

Four quiet beeps sounded from the telecom, then Knight looked up at one of the trolls. "Get this trash his clothes and gear, and deposit him at Dunkelzahn's mansion."

As Ryan felt the cuffs being pulled from his wrists, Knight returned his attention to the telecom. "Of course, my dear. We'll have to do this again some time. It's been ever so much more enjoyable than our usual sparring matches."

He cut the connection and turned to Ryan. "Don't even think about reprisals, Mercury. I respect you enough to know how determined and ruthless you can be when given the chance. However, you're in way over your head dealing with Alice and Roxborough. Do yourself a favor and forget them."

Ryan smiled. "We have something in common after all, Knight."

Knight looked offended. "And just what would that be?"

"We both have a long memory. You really should kill me now, because I'll never forget, and one day, out of the darkness, your worst nightmare will come calling."

Knight laughed softly. "Have a wonderful evening, Mister Mercury. Considering the circumstances I believe you'll find yourself in very soon, I doubt you'll have time to worry about petty vengeance."

Ryan just continued to smile at him until the big trolls led him out of the room. They returned his clothing and his wristphone, then drove him in an armored stepvan to the mansion.

Alice looked over at the flesh blob that was Thomas Rox-borough. His disease had nearly run its course and his organs were coming apart. If he didn't get help soon, he would die.

Roxborough had other problems as well. His head lay across an elaborate chopping block that was situated on a huge stage surrounded by gardens of white roses and a deck of royal guards. A huge, ugly guard with a hood over his head wielded a gigantic axe.

Alice grinned her Cheshire grin. "So it comes down to this," she said. "Do you have any last words?"

"Alice!" Roxborough bellowed.

The executioner swung the axe behind his head.

"David denies killing Dunkelzahn, and I can't find any concrete evidence that ties him to the explosion."

"He had motive."

"He had some interesting things to say about that, too."

The axe rose in a wide arc over his head.

"Alice!"

"He said you were responsible for the Crash, not Dunkelzahn. Just as I suspected originally. For some reason he was reluctant to tell me."

The axe fell.

"Stop, stop! I admit it. I had something to do with it, but I wasn't alone.".

The blade made a clean cut through Roxborough's neck and struck the wood chopping block with a resounding thunk! Roxborough's head fell onto the wooden planks and rolled over next to the fading cat.

Alice smiled down at him. "I thought you might have more to say."

"I'm still alive," said Roxborough's disembodied head. "I'm still alive."

"Surprise! Now finish your little confession, and I'll let you live a few moments longer."

Roxborough grimaced. "Okay, it begins way back with my corporation, Acquisition Technologies."

"Yes?"

"It was a small corp, but we had a drek-hot programming department. I ran it, and David Gavilan was my top code maestro."

Alice drew breath through her sharp teeth.

"Dunkelzahn had very little to do with the corporation except that he owned a small portion. Until one day, I learned that the wyrm was planning to hire Gavilan away from us. This started a little corporate data war.

"I instructed my programming team to come up with the most deadly computer virus ever constructed. My intention was to destroy the data cores of Dunkelzahn's Gossamer Threads Corporation. Nothing more. Gavilan worked on the project, everyone did."

"I don't believe you."

Roxborough's disembodied face wrinkled into a pained grimace. "Finally, the truth and you don't buy it."

"What happened?"

"We tried a small corp first to see if the virus would work. We unleashed it on Effexx Studios and it destroyed them completely. At first we were overjoyed, but then something happened. It was a complicated program, self-replicating, self-correcting, all that. It got out in the old Internet and infected hundreds of computer systems."

"I remember," said Alice. Perhaps, she thought, this is finally the truth.

"It was an accident, don't you see? We never intended to hurt anyone."

"What happened to David?"

"Dunkelzahn met with him to discuss moving to Gossamer Threads, and he saw the virus in David's mind. Dunkelzahn knew what we had done and he convinced David to quit Acquisition Technologies and go to work for the UCAS government to fight the virus. The rest of us were busy trying to hide our involvement, and with all the computer systems crashing, that wasn't too hard to do."

Alice looked at Roxborough with pity. "You deserve your fate," she said. "You deserve to be a brain in a bottle. But I never did anything wrong. I came in as an innocent…"

"Look, I'm very sorry. I helped fund Echo Mirage. We all fought the Crash virus."

"It mutated and grew into something else, did it not?"

"I don't know."

"Is it still out there?" Alice asked.

"Honestly, I don't know."

Alice faded herself out of Wonderland and into the shining city.

Roxborough's cries fell away into the distance. "You can't leave me like this. I'm a disembodied head, for Ghost's sake.','

Alice ignored him. He was still alive. He should be thankful.

Ryan stood on the street, a chill wind playing through his hair, and looked at the mansion. The Dragon Heart was near, he could sense its power calling out to him.

Nadja, I hope you 're all right.

Carla Brooks had arrived a few minutes earlier and had surrounded the perimeter of the mansion grounds with sec troops. She was around the other side now, getting an infiltration plan worked out in case Ryan was unsuccessful.

His wristphone beeped. He looked at the tiny screen to see Alice's liquid blue eyes. "This is not a good time, Alice."

Alice gave him a sad smile. "I'm sorry about circumstances, Ryan," she said. "This won't take long."

"Go ahead."

"I have new information that Damien Knight never thought Dunkelzahn was responsible for the Crash. Knight did not have a long-burning hatred and probably didn't have a strong motive to kill him."

Ryan just shook his head. "Now you tell me."

"I sincerely apologize," she said.

"I'll want to discuss this further," Ryan said. "But now is not the time."

Alice nodded. "Agreed."

Then she was gone and Ryan took a moment to center himself. He remembered his interrogation with Quentin Strapp. Strapp had grilled him, had made it look like Ryan could have killed Dunkelzahn, and Ryan had done the same thing with Knight.