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looked out into the night. Somewhere out there was the person she had met in the computer network. Standing alone in the apartment, Ali didn’t know whether she hoped for or feared a repetition of that meeting.
    The lounge was a large room, furnished in zinc-white and ice-blue. Hi-tech appliances were built into three of the four walls. The fourth held a giant window of polarized glass with a serene view of the residential district. The Belgravia apartment complex was located in one of the most expensive, exclusive areas of the city. It was named after an equally exclusive region of Old London, long since lost under the developing city. Now when Ali looked at the apartment she couldn’t help thinking that this was what she stood to lose if her secret was ever discovered. She tugged anxiously at a strand of her ash-blonde hair, reminding herself that no one except for the stranger in the network knew the truth.
    None of her friends could possibly imagine that she could be a Hex. She was pretty, popular, and rich. And she was a member of the largest clique in school because her father was a well-known media magnate and could afford an apartment in the Belgravia Complex where the rest of the clique lived. Bob Tarrell owned five newsfeeds and seven holovision channels. He had a reputation for working and playing hard, which was why he was hardly ever at home. Tonight Ali had no idea if he was working late at the Tarrell Corporation or out with one of the null-brained starlets he liked to date. But even though her father was often away he was a generous parent. Ali had unlimited money to spend on holovid parties, shopping excursions, and visits to Arkade, the district’s recreational complex.
    Now that there was less and less open land available, places like Arkade held parks, zoos, swimming pools, and skating rinks: every activity was catered for. The parkland that had survived for centuries within the heart of London was now swallowed up by the industrial buildings that hugged the ground while the city soared into the sky. The ancient river was forced to flow underground to make room for the bases of the skyscrapers. With the land disappeared, the old buildings, even the medieval Tower of London, survivor of historic sieges, had fallen before the inexorable march of progress. Older people complained that the city had swallowed up its own history. But Ali, like all her friends, was only interested in the future and she intended to be part of that future.
    Her chief ambition was to become a holovid director, a career for which she considered herself eminently suited. She had her future planned out and liked to fantasize about the fame and fortune she would have some day if everything worked out. Turning back, Ali turned off the computer terminal with a decisive snap. From now on she intended to use it only for homework assignments like any other kid. If she didn’t act like a Hex maybe those abilities which were so burdensome to her would just go away. Ali shook her hair out with a smile. Her reflections had restored her confidence. She had no intention of letting the CPS take her away, whatever the anonymous stranger might think.
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    As Raven and Ali withdrew from the net, information continued to fly between computer systems. The data pathways, invisible to anyone but a Hex, spun a complex web across the city, linking it to other cities, other countries, other continents. From the most basic public terminals to the vast computer systems of world governments, almost everywhere was linked to the net. Its tendrils stretched out to encompass facilities in the most far-flung areas, but here and there were blank spots, places the net circled but did not touch.
    In a blank, white room without a computer interface, or any other furniture except a plain hospital bed, a boy stared up at the ceiling. Unaware of Raven’s existence, he was praying for her success, for the success of any