"Whatever you can give me, sir, I'd appreciate it."

"If, as you say, Special Service has removed you from the investigation-why are you interested?"

The question surprised Derec. He hesitated uncertainly. "Well… I think we'd all like to know what went wrong, Senator. I thought you'd appreciate the input. Besides, I think this pertains directly to the future of Phylaxis. But beyond that, it seems pertinent to Senator Eliton's work."

Tarpin nodded slowly. "Mmm. Very true. I'll see. "

"Thank you."

The screen went blank, leaving Derec with an odd, displaced feeling.

Why am I interested?

"We have something matching up," Rana said.

Derec hurried back to the console. On the main screen, columns lined up. As he watched, lines from each became highlighted, then isolated to another window.

"Maintenance…" Derec read aloud. "Maintenance… maintenance… maintenance… all the exit pathways are mirroring to maintenance communications?"

"That's what it's looking like. But the signals are not transmitted."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean they are strings of code going through the RI and routed back to the relevant site," Rana explained. "They're one-to-one. Something at the pathway site is injecting code directly."

Derec stared at the configurations on her screens. "There's no routing… no buffer…? It's as if something is directly attached to the physical node. ".

"Doesn't make sense, I know, but that's what it's showing."

"We have to get in there and look at these components."

Rana laughed sharply. "Before Imbitek rips them out? Good luck."

Derec drummed his fingers. "They can't. The Calvin Institute has to supervise removal of the positronic components-satellite systems and all."

Rana pursed her lips, but said nothing.

Derec rapped his knuckles impatiently on the console and headed back to the comlink. "And so should we." He punched in a code.

"Calvin Institute. How may I direct your call?"

"I want to speak to…" He hesitated, licked his lips, and sighed heavily. "I wish to speak to Ariel Burgess, please. Tell her it's Derec Avery from the Phylaxis Group."