Artificial Absolutes (Jane Colt Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

invented teleportation yet. They’d figured out how to tunnel through the space-time fabric and send communications through hyperspace. How hard could it be to dice people into molecules?
    Actually, that sounds horrible. Never mind.
    Bored, she eavesdropped on two businesswomen in the seats across from her.
    The large woman with a pompous face sniffed. “It’s ridiculous . They treat us like criminals, making us prove our identity with DNA and other such inconveniences. I wish they could simply round up those cybercriminals—what do they call them again? Demons?—so we can vote remotely and save precious time!”
    Her companion, a thin woman with a stylish haircut, sighed. “It’s such a waste that the best programmers are just overgrown children. Did you hear about what the Gag Warriors did?”
    “No! What happened?”
    “Well, there was that political commentator… I forget his name, but he was very influential on the Net… Glen! Paladin Glen!”
    “What about him?”
    The stylish woman leaned toward her companion as though telling a secret. “He’s not real. He’s a fictional character created by the Gag Warriors. That’s why his face is always obscured in videos and his voice always sounds disguised. It’s not to protect his identity; it’s because they’re computer-generated!”
    The large woman sputtered in disbelief. Jane mentally echoed her sentiments. As someone who detested Paladin Glen, she found it funny that he and his bizarre opinions were a Gag Warriors prank. She agreed with the stylish woman that it was an awful waste of intelligence.
    All hackers are freaking yahoos . Why else would they call themselves “demons”?
    “The airtrain is about to depart. Destination: Quasar Bank Corporation headquarters. All aboard, please.”
    A handful of latecomers rushed onto the train as the scarlet warning light blinked. One last man in a black suit dashed on as the doors closed, barely making it through.
    Jane recognized him immediately. Tall and square-shouldered, a picture-perfect figure who could have walked right out of one of Quasar’s ads. Clean cut, clean shaven, wavy locks kept at a fashionable length. What a tool. Yup, that’s my brother.
    “Devin!” The train gave off a loud ring at the same time, drowning her out.
    Jane lived in the same building as Devin and worked at the same office, but she rarely saw him unless she scheduled something. He worked much longer hours than she did, so she was surprised to see him on her usual commuter train.
    As the train started moving, she approached him. “Devin?”
    Devin typed furiously on his slate, engrossed in whatever he was doing.
    “Hey, Devin! Hello?” He was still caught up in that freaking device, so Jane snatched it. “Devin Colt! This is your sister speaking! How are you today?”
    “What?” Devin looked confused, then annoyed. “Pony, give that back.”
    “I think I outgrew ‘Pony’ about ten years ago.” Jane looked at his slate. He’d been in the middle of an instant message conversation with someone with the Netname Corsair. Topic of discussion: robots. Apparently, there was one that could solve riddles. “Robots? Really?”
    “It’s not your concern.” Devin took the slate back.
    Jane raised her hands sarcastically. “Sorry. Didn’t realize your robot discussions were so private.”
    “They’re not.” He folded the slate and put it in his pocket.
    Jane plopped down in the seat beside him. “What’re you doing here? I never run into you on the morning train.”
    “Just running late. How are you? How’s work going? What are you doing today?”
    Jane sighed. She sometimes felt as though she and her brother had run out of things to talk about. “I’m-fine-work’s-fine-not-much-meeting-Adam-for-lunch.” She strung her words together in a bored monotone.
    Devin nodded. “Good.”
    “So… how’s Sarah?”
    “Good.”
    The train arrived at the Quasar platform, and the doors opened. Devin pulled his slate