“I really can't blame you, Jet,” I said. “I might have done the same. I wasn't exactly sober enough to be consulted, anyway.”

Are you there, Satasha?

The words appeared suddenly among the debug information on the access pad. It scrolled past as quickly as she noticed. Satasha wiped a drip from her nose and rapidly swiped back. Imagined, right? Had to be.

“Is – is that it?” the Secmaster asked. He seemed terribly unsure of himself today. Not particularly suitable for his position. Satasha wondered how he would make excuses for it later.

“- and now is the time to remove you,” said the echoing voice of Dee-Prime.

Ace hadn't spent much time thinking about what the Raid sim was under the hood. Even after Dee explained its purpose it still felt abstract. Distant. It was still the game she'd been playing for years, right?

I took a deep breath and tried not to think about the havoc going on in my – in Persephone's – servers. Tried not to think about how much this was going to cost me, financially and in reputation. This was quickly turning into a struggle for survival. Not a struggle for our lives, but for the structure of our society.

Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt.

I woke up slowly, blearily, and with the vicious beginning of a hangover. How long had I been out?

As soon as Slaiton was out the door, the Secmaster whipped it closed and turned to Satasha. “Okay, seriously. What the hell is going on?”

Slaiton was yelling at her. “What the hell are you thinking, casually chatting with that AI? Don't you have an ounce of sense?”

Satasha thought she did. She used sense on quite a regular basis. .

A moment later, everything could move again. But the momentum had been lost. On both sides, apparently, as all their attackers retreated. Ace guessed Jet was as confused as they were. She wondered if she could get El to sneak a rez in on Zee.

“Holy hell!” Gee exclaimed. “That was too damn close! Stay fast, Ace!”

“I'm trying! This is -” Ace began. She had to break off to focus. This wasn't just hard. It was weird.

“Okay,” Slaiton said. He shut the door behind him, leaving Whent, Satasha, and himself in a barely-lit closet of a room. “So I just made a promise to a possibly insane AI that I have no idea if I can keep.”

“Your little voice program isn't being particularly helpful,” Slaiton growled. “Are you sure it isn't just some voice assistant you tapped into?”

Jet righted himself. The pounding had stopped as quickly as it started.

“Um. What?” he said. Such an eloquent way to drop back into the conversation.

“Explain to the dimwits, please?” Gee said.

Jet resisted the urge to crank up the speaker volume. This room was supposed to be secured, but he'd still rather not be heard in the hallway. The problem was Hellard. Who knew someone that small could snore so loud?

“I see,” Dee said. “I understand now.” Her avatar turned to look at Jet.

“Um. What?” Jet asked.

“Explain to the dimwits, please?” Gee added.

“That was too easy,” Gee said. He sounded genuinely disappointed. Ace was just glad she'd been able to give her carpal tunnel a break.

Ace slugged back another Spike and wiped sweat off her forehead. That was seriously on the first tier? How much harder could this get?