Memories End Read Online Free PDF

rumblings of Immortal Riot or the frantic synthbeat of DJ Finger.
    Relieved but still suspicious, Felix twisted the knob and threw the door wide open. Tech was seated at the largest of the office monitors, the hood of his oversize sweatshirt raised and his hazel-eyed gaze fixed intently on the display. Diminutive Marz was across the room, his brown hands buried in the innards of a processor case, installing some unidentifiable piece of hardware.
    “Felix,” they said in unison, loudly enough to be heard over the noise of a portable air-conditioner set on full blast and a quartet of ratcheting fans, which were blowing strongly enough to whipFelix's brimmed cap from his head, send it zipping around the office, and nearly out the open window.
    Felix managed to snatch the cap in midflight. Then he glanced around. The console—which in most offices would have been a simple affair of processors, flat-screen monitors, and assorted input devices, but under Tech and Marz's charge had come to resemble a NASA technical station— looked conspicuously serene. No official interrupt-warning icons were pulsing from the screens, and Tech's headset sat neatly on the padded seat of the dentist's chair from which the kids accessed the Virtual Network.
    “Why is it like winter in here?” Felix asked, pulling his jacket closed with one hand.
    “Cool air makes you more productive,” Tech said.
    “Says who?”
    “We heard it on the news,” Marz explained, trading quick glances with Tech. “A special report.”
    “Then why's the window open? Or are we trying to make all of Manhattan more productive?”
    “The report stressed just the right mix of cool and
fresh
air,” Tech explained.
    “Uh, huh,” Felix said, planting his tongue in his cheek and nodding.
    Casually he began to inch toward the wall switch that controlled the fans. The sight of Marz's widening eyes confirmed his suspicions. Tech saw what was coming and flew from his chair, hoping to reach the wall switch first, but Felix had thejump on him. No sooner did he throw the switch than wisps of acrid white smoke began to curl from beneath the edges of the console, two of the monitors, and one of the keyboards.
    Felix's stomach sank. “Not again!”
    “It wasn't our fault!” Marz said. “Not all of it, anyway.”
    Felix stared at him, slack-jawed. But before he could ask what it was this time that wasn't their fault, fists began to pound against the office door.
    Felix whirled.
    “Network Security,” someone shouted from the hallway.
    “Closed for lunch,” Tech yelled. “Come back later.”
    The pounding continued, forceful enough to rattle the glass panel. “Open up, McTurk.”
    Marz had leaped from his chair and was suddenly at the office window. “Quick!” he said. “Building ledge to the window-washers’ scaffold. I've seen it done in movies.”
    “Are you crazy?” Tech said. “That's the first place they'll look!”
    “McTurk!” a second voice shouted from the hallway. “Don't force us to get a warrant.”
    “Yeah, force them to get a warrant,” Tech said. “Force warrant! Force warrant!”
    Felix glowered at him, then gestured silently for Marz to shut off the air-conditioner. When the machine's noisy compressor had wound down, Felix moved to the door and opened it.
    A fire hydrant of a man shoved a badge in Felix's face as he stormed into the office followed by anequally stout woman. Both of them were dressed in the gray uniforms of Network Security— syscops.
    The man put his stubby hands on his hips and ordered Felix to take a seat. Tech and Marz were edging toward the open door when the woman stepped in their path, blocking their exit.
    “Hello, McTurk,” the man began. “This is my partner, Sergeant Policks.”
    “Still walking the cyberbeat after all these years, Sergeant Caster?”
    “That's
lieutenant,
McTurk.” Caster slammed his hand against the air-conditioning unit. “You have a permit for this thing?”
    “It's more like a piece