CHAPTER 10. GIA

Looking at Mr. Yegor Tochinov, Gia felt like a frog in front of a snake, all her strength was spent on hiding her fear, appearing independent and defiant. This Russian asks what her strength is. She has always believed that with friends and partners to be completely honest, but now the rules of the game have changed, and nothing bad would happen if she does not lie - even silent, that she is able to influence the devices in reality. But let her know about the virtual.

- On the Internet, if I go into the virtual through a simulator instead of a computer, I can influence the code with my mind.

- And what happens? - Tochinov asked, licking his eyes with impatience - oh, and unpleasant man!

Like he doesn't know, like he was not told!

- Your man Serge should have told you.

- Our man? - Tochinov raised an eyebrow, and his surprise did not look played.

Gia did not look away, nor did Mr. Yegor.

- Why did you conclude he was ours? - Tochinov asked.

What if he doesn't know that Serge gave Bao's number through the questgiver? But, if this Serge is not in league with Mr. Yegor, then who is he? How does he know Bao's number? And isn't he playing a double game? After hesitating for half a minute, Gia told him. Tochinov listened silently, not a muscle on his face, only the right eyebrow, or rather, the right brow rises with each word she spoke.

- So this Serge knows our every move," he said when Gia was silent. - While we know nothing about him. The prank is very Satoshi Nakamoto. But I am sure he is dead!

- You saw the corpse? - Gia asked. - Technology has advanced so much that even if a body is lying in a coffin, it doesn't mean anything.

- That's true, Gia. However, I have seen the results of the autopsy, which were provided by a man very reliable, who gave his life for the idea. And just because this mysterious Serge helped us doesn't mean he's our friend. Nor was Satoshi's friend or even partner the Alliance representative he turned to for help.

- And Max? Surely you know who the man we hacked the Magnosos with was.

For some reason, it was very important to Gia that Max not turn out to be a traitor.

- He's an enthusiast, and he didn't betray you. The guy is twenty-seven, confined to a wheelchair, with infantile cerebral palsy.

I wish I could exhale a sigh of relief now, but no, longing clutched my throat. After thinking a little about poor Max, who had lost a friend in her face, Gia switched to her hacking activities and exclaimed:

- But how did they figure me out? I didn't break the rules of conspiracy!

- I'm not competent enough to answer that question," Mr. Yegor answered honestly and threw up his hands. - It was the MANGA agents who hunted you down, we snatched you out from under their noses.

- And you do not suspect Bao that he also leaks information to the metacorporation? I mean, Bao's the one puppeteering, pushing us to do certain things.



- Bao is dependent on me. He would lose a lot if he did that, and we keep an eye on his relatives, who can be used as leverage. It's a pity we don't have my adopted daughter with us, she would quickly analyze the facts and draw conclusions. Did I understand correctly that you agree to cooperate with us?

Gia was silent for half a minute, digesting what she heard and massaging her temple with her knuckles. She hadn't come to anything specific, she'd always had a hard time making a choice.

- "With us," she said, "is who exactly, and what we're going to do. - And I'd also really like to free my mother, because through her they will put pressure on me.

Mr. Yegor continued to act like a boa constrictor - calm and consistent.

- I would like to free her too, that woman in her day put everything on the line for you to live. And I intend to bring you together, because you are pieces of the same puzzle, and you didn't just wake up at the same time. It is our first priority to understand why Satoshi sacrificed an invaluable life to save you. As you can see, it's not just me who's concerned, but MANGA, and the metacorporation, and thus the ruling elites, have no interest in your existence.

The frightened little girl who lived in Gia's mind wanted madly to believe in anyone. She was lured by hope - new allies represent a powerful force, they will guide and help her get her revenge - and she is ready to run to her, clasping her eyes.

- And her mother--she might know where the others are.

Mr. Yegor sighed-as if he'd let off steam.

- Unfortunately, Gia, we're fragmented, and we have far less power and leverage than the same MANGA. I'm sure your foster mother is in no danger. And I want to believe that there are no moles among my people who will give the enemy information about your whereabouts. But they will try to get to me to see if Maria is with me. Therefore it is safer to move to my northern residence in Russia. The only way to get there is by air.

Gia used to dream of buying a mining farm in northern Russia... Be afraid of your dreams!
- Where is your residence? - asked Gia, she had an idea of what Russia was like, because she was studying geography, looking for a place for future farms to have permafrost - it would help save on cooling the processors that heat up from intensive work. But it turned out that because of the cold the same electricity supply would also be a big loss. All these subtleties seemed complicated to Gia, and she shelved the idea.

- In the Sakha Republic, in the north-east," Tochinov answered. - Giya, you're not an easy girl, and you'll find a lot of interesting things there.

Somehow fatigue immediately set in. In a couple of days has happened more events than in her whole life, she wanted to lie down, cover her head with a blanket, do not think about anything, do not solve anything.

- Do you really need my consent? - she wondered.

Mr. Yegor grinned.

- Let's just say it is important to me.

- Then consider it yours," Gia smiled unhappily. - And let's hope that your residence is really safe.



- You'll see, I think, and you'll appreciate it. But I should warn you right away: I won't be able to spend all my free time with you. One more thing. For conspiracy in public, until we get to the residence, we will pretend to be a couple in love. I have a reputation as a heartbreaker, and that's convenient: no one will be surprised when a new girl shows up.

The blood rushed to her cheeks, and Gia pressed her palms against them.

- "You needn't worry," he said in a conciliatory tone. - The women you meet are not my wives or lovers, but coworkers, who do not want to advertise their activities.

What kind of residence is he in? My imagination pictured a multilevel base behind a ten-meter concrete fence, with machine gun towers along the perimeter. Such residences, according to Hollywood directors, belong to drug lords and other criminal elements. And is there not a single mole among the dozens of employees who would report the new girl?

Or will they report when Maria shows up there, and another exotic woman in the harem of a lustful alpha male is commonplace?

Before she left for the airport, Gia's makeup artists worked on her again, but now instead of a layer of makeup, they applied a subtle mask to her skin, slightly lifting her cheekbones, widening her face, making her lips much plumper - so no identification system would identify her. To finish, Gia wore lenses that mimicked Dream's, and her eye color turned lilac.

The dress visually raised her waist, and the heels and platform shoes increased her height, which was already quite small. When she took Mr. Yegor under her arm, she was even a little taller than him. Playing escort girl, Gia leaned on the outstretched hand as she stepped out of the limousine and touched her lips to her bristling cheek. Mr. Yegor put his arm around her waist and led her toward the ramp of the private jet.

Gia smiled and turned her head, looking for the cameras, which immediately lit up in red. They were all over the place, and that knowledge made her uncomfortable. I wanted to believe that the professionals had done their job well, and Gia would not be identified.

Even on the plane, looking at the receding airport and the swarming forklifts, she was afraid to exhale, as if an interceptor plane was about to appear and tell the pilot to land. But no. The plane made a semicircle over the ocean and flew to a place where Gia had never been and where she did not plan to go in the near future.

She spent the entire time of the flight snuggled up against the porthole. She gaped like a child at the toy mountain ranges, at the snow-covered peaks in the distance - it was the first time she had ever seen snow in real life! If Gia had ever been to any continent, she had no memory of it, and thought her world was limited to the Philippines. Now down there was probably China. More specifically, Tibet, which to this day holds many mysteries. Or not China, but to the north bordering India was a mountainous little very closed country, what's its name...

Russia, where we were going, is an uncharted, dangerous country, populated by wild beasts. And what a lack of greenery in the mountains! They were some dead, alien. It felt as if Gia was changing the world, not the country. Comfortable and prosperous - on the hostile, where she no one, with her can do anything, and no one to stand up for her. She and Tochinov haven't even signed a cooperation agreement! That piece of paper would not solve anything, but at least there would have been the illusion of security. Now her life hung on the word of honor Mr. Yegor, and a word is nothing, a sound.



Despair set in, and Gia forced herself to think about something else. At least about the beasts in Russia, which might have mauled in the jungle ... No, the northern jungle was called something else. She glanced at Mr. Egor, absorbed in some book, and voiced a question, realizing belatedly that she distracted an important man from something important with his nonsense.

- Taiga," he answered, looking at her with his glasses down on the tip of his nose.

It was an effort not to pull her head back in her shoulders under his leaden gaze. With a shrug, she smiled:

- Getting used to it.

He nodded, closed the book, and stared intently.
- Gia, I understand that you've been through a lot, and now you have to trust a man you've never seen before. I promise that I mean you no harm and make your stay in my country as comfortable as possible. Do you believe that?

Gia shrugged her shoulders, thinking she looked so pathetic that he noticed her fear and began to comfort her.

- Well, think, if you were up to no good, why would I explain it to you? We're doing the same thing, and I'd like us to be a little more than friends-no, not friends-partners who can trust each other.

Paranoia whispered that in fact it was simple: an ideologically motivated employee was more useful and productive, so it was right to make him feel welcome. While Gia was afraid of Mr. Yegor, although he told a lot about his life, his adopted daughter Maria, his ex-wife and his Italian partner in the UK, who should take her safely out of the country and bring her to Russia.

He was also sure that Manga had technology that influenced people's minds, and most likely control was through augmented reality lenses, so he strictly forbade Maria to use them.

- Thank you for your understanding. - That was all she could squeeze out.

Gradually Gia switched to the thought that if Mr. Yegor was right, and she could influence the virtual reality, then she was able to track and disperse malicious programs. And that's a theme! I wanted to go into the Dream right now and make a mess of it!

It really isn't possible to make such a mass of people docile without technology! The bloody lenses of the damned Manga are the answer! And Gia is the only one capable of dispelling the mojo. Imagination drew a picture of how, after her work, people would wake up in the morning and be horrified at what had happened to them...

You wish! They wouldn't even notice the change in themselves.

The familiar sensation of a mouse scratching at her head appeared, and then the strangest thing happened: it was as if her vision was bifurcated - Gia was looking through both her own eyes and the eyes of someone else, in her head there was the static of a badly tuned radio, with some indistinct mumbling intermingled in it. She shook her head, but the feeling did not disappear.

It was as if someone was trying to break through an invisible membrane. But who? From where? Gia shook her head again, as if trying to shake out the unpleasant sensation. It didn't work. But the paranoia subsided, a male voice as if whispered that Yegor Tochinov - a friend, and he tells the truth.

For a moment thoughts crept in about his own mental health, but Gia pushed them away - she felt safe, and did not want to part with the feeling.

And beyond the porthole the treeless mountains became lower, replaced by the desert of Mongolia, brownish-yellow and monotonous. It stretched on and on, little by little green patches of vegetation began to appear. The farther to the north, the more green patches appeared. Ten minutes of flight and orange patches of sparse vegetation were rare, a dark green carpet stretched below, as if a velvet veil had been thrown over the ground. Occasionally low cliffs and winding ribbons of rivers came across. It was a bleak landscape, harsh, not at all like the Philippines or India, and my shoulders twitched involuntarily, and Gia glanced at Mr. Yegor. Perhaps as stark as the man sitting beside her, who, though looking away, was watching her intently with his sideways eye.

The forest stretched from horizon to horizon, with occasional small settlements and lines of railroad tracks crisscrossing the forest.

- The town we would be landing in was called Tynda. We get into a helicopter and fly north. The only way to get there is by zimniqu.

The interpreter ignored the last word, and Tochinov explained:

- That is, when the snow falls, the rest of the year the roads are impassable slop.

- Safe place," Gia nodded, looking at the boxes of houses in the approaching town, quite small, if not backwater. It seemed that if someone new came to a town like this, everyone would know about it, and certainly Mr. Yegor's trusted people would know about it.

- In principle, it should be snowing by now," he said thoughtfully. - But the autumn is surprisingly warm this year.

Only when the plane descended did Gia notice the bald trees, like she'd only seen on TV, and there was no grass, and the airport looked more like some kind of cattle yard. There were no modern high-rises, either. And this is mighty Russia, which frightens everyone? She did not ask Mr. Yegor so as not to offend his homeland. Surely there are modern cities in Russia, just now it is necessary to sit back in this backwater.

When the landing gear touched the takeoff, Gia clutched the armrests, fighting the feeling of unreality of what was happening. She wasn't here, she was just asleep, in her house, in her bed, and if she opened her eyes, the illusion would dissipate, her mother would drop by and invite her to the table...

Her mother, who was not her mother at all, and her beloved father represented the Alliance and was going to sell Gia.

The pilot congratulated him on his successful landing and wished him a safe journey. Mr. Egor hovered over Gia's seat, muttered:

- Here we are, honey. Come on up. The greeter will bring you your coat now.
Gia leaned on the outstretched hand and followed toward the exit, embracing her supposed beau.

The ramp smelled cold, like a freezer. A man in a hat and a jacket came up, greeted Tochinov, handed his companion a brown fur coat of some animal, Mr. Egor helped her put it on, Gia went outside and immediately jumped to the waiting minibus - the cold was unaccustomed to her.

The helicopter was at the other end of the airport, where small aircraft were lined up - not a single normal flight!

Hugging her, Mr. Yegor spoke:

- It's a pity that your acquaintance with Russia started from this town, my country is very beautiful.



Gia faked a smile and muttered in English:

- Not a problem. Next time you will show me Moscow.

She too was flying in the helicopter for the first time, it almost touched the tops of tall trees with its belly, it was noisy and uncomfortable, because she could not escape from the northern jungle, it was so huge. An uninhabited island is probably easier to leave.

After half an hour of flight, woodless hills loomed; when the helicopter passed the closest one, Gia saw a settlement behind a barbed-wire fence: long wooden houses surrounding two modular, bright blue buildings.

As the helicopter descended toward the clearing where another similar one stood, Maria couldn't help her disappointment:

- This is your residence?

Tochinov was silent, waiting for the landing. Gia stared into the overcast sky. Speech denied her. A dozen wooden barns and two blue modular two-story barracks and this is the residence of the Russian oligarch, where she would have to live? She expected to see a palace, swimming pools, fountains...

Mr. Egor helped Gia down, she wrapped her coat, licked a snowflake that had fallen on her nose, and stared at the four snow-white dogs with black noses and ponytails running toward her. My sneaker-clad feet were freezing and my feet ached. The dogs ignored the guest, squealing, swooped down on the owner and almost knocked him down, begging for their portion of affection.

A man and a woman, both wearing white hooded jackets, stomped briskly behind the dogs. Tochinov shooed the dogs away, greeted the arrivals, and introduced Gia as the new programmer.

"I guess living in these conditions is still better than dying altogether," she convinced herself, looking at the nearby log cabin, blackened by dampness.

Asking to be left alone, Mr. Yegor led Gia to the center, to the two rovers standing by the bright blue two-story buildings.

- Is there even Internet here? - she asked pitifully, glanced around the helipad, found four cameras cutting off the perimeter, everything else was out of range.

- Let me show you something first, and then you can get upset. Or you won't. Okay?

The snow, meanwhile, had fallen thickly, and Gia stretched out her arm to let snowflakes fall on it and leave droplets. Along the crumbling asphalt they reached the center. There were forty meters between the blue buildings, an entire deserted square. Tochinov nodded at the far one.

- That's where you'll live. - He looked at the one they approached. - And here...

Gia idly scanned the structure with her abilities and gasped in surprise: the whole thing was a huge mining farm. Thousands of processors, combined into a conglomeration, were calculating and seemed alive to Gia. She was partly them, feeling the life-giving current in the wires, seeing the code symbols changing at breakneck speed.

Mr. Yegor stomped to the threshold, shook the snow off his short-cropped hair, entered the code, and opened the door with a massive key-no electronics.

- I think you'll appreciate this.



Gia already appreciated it, sprawled over the wires, found the source of power - a radioisotope thermoelectric generator installed here.

She followed Tochinov inside, already knowing what she would see, passed through the anteroom and as if she found herself inside a microchip: processors, connected in a huge network, were arranged in five rows above each other and in many rows on the floor.

- The permafrost solves the cooling problem," Tochinov commented. - Summer here is short, a month at most, and only during this time air conditioners work, but otherwise fans work. As soon as the temperature rises above twenty, the automaton is triggered.

Gia sighed enthusiastically, turned around, smiling.

- Wow!

She hadn't just seen a million-dollar farm, she was it, she was her own among those processors, and she felt safer than ever.

- I have a staff of programmers working for me, all of them here. You can join them if you want.

Life didn't seem so dull anymore. I could do a lot of things, and for the first time, without hiding from the people around me. Not only that, you could ask for help, share your ideas. Maybe things were not going so badly?
Her temple tingled, her vision began to bifurcate again, there was background noise through which a man's voice tried to break through, and she was knocked out of her perception; she could no longer feel the processors and could not concentrate. The voice in the back of her mind was definitely wanting something from her. An unpleasant hunch crept up on her that it was madness. The voice, when it got stronger, would order her to kill Tochinov or someone else.

What if in the time she's been having fun in the Dream, thinking she's bending donators over, she's picked up a virus that's hacking into her brain? Sounds fantastic, but there's no other explanation. Should I tell Tochinov so he can show her to a psychiatrist?

As if hearing her thoughts, whoever was sitting in her head went silent, but continued to look at her through her eyes.

- Is something wrong? - Tochinov became alarmed, and Gia switched back to the processors, dissolved into them, until Mr. Yegor shook her off. - What's the matter with you?

She shook her head.

- 'Sorry, I was thinking. This," she spread her arms, "is fantastic.

- Not only my facilities are here, but my partners' equipment as well. The settlement is based on an abandoned village, there are no unnecessary people here, and you can not be afraid of anyone.

- No need to pretend to be in love? - Gia was pleased.

- Yes. Only if guests come, and that happens, too. You're quite safe here.

Gia immediately turned her attention to the exciting subject:

- How many mines are there in a day? I can't even imagine. I myself dreamed of having a mining farm, even calculated how much and what was needed, but it was not profitable, tangible profit is obtained only if you play in a big way.



- Yes, gone are the times when a single person could earn on crypto.

- And what do you mine, and on what exchange...

And again a headache. Gia rubbed her temple and finally heard the voice that tried to break through a little earlier:

- Gia, tell Mr. Tochinov that Maria needs help. It's important! Her...

The voice broke off. He didn't order anyone to be killed, he didn't mean any harm. After the fantastic things that had happened to her, Gia allowed the thought that since she could command the devices with her mind, why wouldn't someone be able to broadcast thoughts at a distance?

She mentally turned to that person, asked what had happened to Maria, but got no answer. She looked at Yegor Tochinov, read the question in his gaze. And how to say? "I hear a voice in my head, and it told me that Maria is in danger." Or go in from afar: when to expect Maria, is she doing well, has he been in touch with her for a long time?

Perhaps that's what he should do:

- How long before Maria is expected? When was the last time you had contact with her?

- She is now leaving the UK on a barge and is at sea, there is no contact with her. I was in touch with a trusted person before she left. - He looked intently. - I suspect you asked for a reason.

Gia stiffened and said, looking at the floor:

- I have a feeling she needs help.

Tochinov took her by the hand and led her out of the room into the street, looking her in the eyes.

- More on that point.

- Maybe I'm going crazy," replied Gia, not taking her eyes off, "but it was as if someone appeared in my head and told me in a man's voice that Maria is in trouble.

You believed it, didn't you? He's going to call the ambulance... but who's going to call the ambulance?

- I can't read minds and predict what will happen, as if someone whispered to me," she shrugged, and Tochinov exhaled heavily, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

- Okay ... Let's say. Wait.

He reached for the radio, hanging in front of the door, and in a commanding tone uttered:

- Rashidov! Trace the location of barge "Alanya"... Urgent! Putting all business aside. - He stopped talking and turned to Giya. - Let's check too... Now to the essentials. You've seen the farm, now it's time to show you your apartment.

I do! I don't believe it. Smiling, Gia followed her new benefactor, took her time round the all-terrain vehicle - not just an off-road vehicle, but a flat, tracked, beady-eyed one. I wondered if she could drive it, if any special skills were needed, or if being able to drive was enough.

- If what you said is confirmed, it means that one of your people contacted you, perhaps, he contacts not only you, and collect you here will be easier than I thought, - began to reason aloud Tochinov. - Then perhaps it will become clear why you are so dear to Satoshi and what you should do.



- Why are we so dangerous to MANG? Isn't it because we know that the metacorporation is dangerous to everyone?

- Not impossible.

The door to the second blue house also opened with a regular key, which was odd. Gia crossed the threshold and felt as if she had entered another world. The building looked government-issued from the outside, but inside there was a spacious hall, decorated with marble tiles, and the marble stairs were lined with palm trees, so familiar and familiar to her.

- Your wing to the left," said Tochinov. - There's a one-room apartment there, each forty-two square meters in size. If... when you get together, you live there. I live upstairs. On the right wing of the first floor are the staff I invited, in particular the programmers. If you want, you can meet them, if you don't want...
A walkie-talkie rattled in its holder at the entrance, and Tochinov nodded at it:

- It's a local means of communication. We don't use cell phones for security reasons. - He stepped to the walkie-talkie, took it in his hand. - Tochinov here!

It was spoken so loudly that Gia could hear every word:

- You asked to know about the barge! It is in Brest...

- What the hell is this nonsense? - Mr. Yegor barked, and then added a word that the translator would not translate. - How can she...

- In Brest, France, in the port," said the interlocutor.

- Is it passing?

- Standing... in the port.

Tochinov burst into an angry tirade. Since the interpreter was silent, Giya assumed that it was swearing. Waiting until the flow had dried up, she timidly inquired:

- "Shall I go to my place? Will you show me my apartment?

Mr. Yegor's eyes flashed lightning and his fists clenched, but he managed to answer kindly, covering the radio with his hand:

- Sure. Let's go. - On the way he continued the conversation on the radio: "Find out the reason for stopping.

- It's not possible," they murmured guiltily. - You know that yourself. There is something else. They say all the southbound ships have been stopped... And northbound. All the ships from England are stopped.

Gia's cold. Was it really that serious, and was MANGA really afraid of them? Or just a coincidence? If afraid, it means they have something to hide, and the survivors of the experiment could confuse the plans. Tochinov said that they seem to have learned how to influence the mind through the lenses of augmented reality, but he did not say that one hundred percent. The whole civilized world uses them, which means that they are programmed. If so, telling people the truth is useless-if they hear it, they won't believe it.

And if the Mangosos found out that the children survived and opened a hunt, it means that they are afraid that they might not only find out the truth, but also seriously harm the corporation. Maria has analytical powers, Gia influences the devices and the virtual, and the guys? One, let's say, can tap into other people's minds and broadcast thoughts, but the other?



They're all exactly like "X-Men." But instead of a sense of self-importance, Gia felt fear. She was being hunted not just by the police of one country, but by the corporation that commands the world! And who is protecting her? How powerful are the faceless ones? Tochinov, here, is a real oligarch. But there are hundreds of such oligarchs behind Manga. If they find out that the children are here, they'll sneak over here, and if not, they'll use a nuclear warhead.

Thoughts flashed in a split second, Mr. Yegor only had time to swing open the door to the left wing of the corridor. Behind it was a spacious hallway with a sofa surrounded by palm trees. Tochinov did not go far, opened the nearest apartment, letting Gia pass.

The inside of the dwelling was all right: a kitchen-living room with modern furniture, no worse than it had been at home. At the thought of the house my heart sank, I remembered how the man died, whom Giya thought her father. Mom...

She was so deeply in thought that she flinched at Tochinov's loud voice.

- So the voice in your head was telling the truth after all. It remains to find out who was speaking. Could you make contact with him?

Gia shrugged.

- I don't know if I can. I thought I was going crazy, and I didn't seek dialogue.

- I see. Stay here for now, we have everything you need to live here, even a modern laptop with a reliable browser and VPN installed, no one will find us - my guys did their best. By the way...

He took off his outerwear and walked to the bedroom, sat down at the computer desk, opened the laptop and commented on his actions:

- There is one man, Gennaro Panzutto, who is in charge of the safety of Maria, who was on the stopped barge. I will try through him to find out what happened and somehow influence the situation. Although if the barge has been stopped by order of Manga, it is unlikely to help my girl. The stakes are too high. - He stared blankly at the monitor. - But if it gets out that Gennaro betrayed me... Well, I think you should know.

Maria sat down on the huge double bed, hardly suppressing the urge to collapse on it and pass out for several days. She thought that she should advise Tochinov on how to create an encrypted channel in the messenger, but it seems that he is doing quite well without her, since he has a staff of programmers, and probably the best of the best.

One minute and he was already calling someone on his Telegram. The interlocutor, obviously the same Gennaro, answered immediately - not by video link, of course - in his voice.

- Is something wrong? - The interpreter reproduced his question in a mechanical tone, but there was anxiety and excitement in his voice, even if Gia did not understand the words.

- That's what I want to ask you," Tochinov barked. - "The Alanya was stopped by the French when you said it was safe...

- How? - barked now the interlocutor. Gia tried to understand what kind of language it was, but did not identify it. Some kind of European.



- I want to know how," said Mr. Yegor more calmly. - Find out what happened at once, it's your area of responsibility, or else...

- Don't threaten me, though. It's not the first day we've known each other," Panzotto's voice rang with metal.

- If anything happens to my daughter...
- I'll answer with my head," said the interlocutor unhappily. - Stand down! I'll deal with your question.

Tochinov passed out and turned to Gia.

- Do you think he's lying? It may well be, if he was pressed against the wall, and at stake life and freedom. But to leak information about Maria on the "Alanya" could also his inner circle. After all, the Camorra is an organization with no boundaries.

- What was that? - Gia cautiously asked.

- A decentralized criminal group, uniting many clans of varying degrees of influence. Someone from Gennaro's entourage might have reported a suspicious lady on board. And if an APB is out on her, that's it. Maria is taken, and we can't get her out.

Tochinov stood up and began to pace the room. Gia felt uncomfortable sitting in the presence of such an important person, and she went to the window. Everything in the room was decent and tasteful, and outside the snow was melting and turning to slush, stretching a brown-gray village as far as the dark wall of woods surrounding it on all sides.

- Everything here is yours," said Mr. Yegor. - Use it. And the laptop is yours. There's an Internet connection. We can set up a simulator for Alter Dream if you want-" He paused. - You're not too tired, are you? It would be interesting to see what you can do in the virtual world.

- You need a simulator, or glasses, or lenses," Maria said, suppressing a yawn, as she wanted to use her abilities consciously now. - If you control the character with a mouse, it won't work.

- Demonstrate? - Tochinov looked intently, as if oblivious of Maria.

Jimya shrugged her shoulders:

- I see no reason to refuse.

Tochinov walked to the door, saying as he went:

- I'll arrange for a simulator to be set up for you.

Left alone in the ringing silence, Gia fell on the bed and closed her eyes. It was beginning to get dark, a pre-dawn grayness crawled into the room, and the dark corners of the room were alive with dread. Mr. Yegor's company was more pleasant.

But you did not have to wait long, there was a knock at the door, and two young men, a European and an Indian, brought a simulator of the same model as the one Gia had at home. Tochinov came in last, thanked the guys, waited for them to leave, and handed Gia his glasses.

- As long as you don't need Internet access. We two characters will enter an isolated world, and you'll demonstrate the power.

- Perfect," Gia said, animated, and scanned the laptop, the simulator, and found nothing suspicious. - Will you enter through the augmented reality glasses, too?



Tochinov shook his head.

- I'll see what happens on the screen.

- Are there any mobs there? - Gia asked, putting her feet into her shoes and sensory gloves. - Well, monsters and nepis... I mean, different non-game characters.

- It's all there. It's a snippet of the full game. You go into a cave where there are bats and worms. You have to kill them and get out to the village. So don't be scared, it will be dark.

Gia snorted, wanting to joke about what scares the hedgehog, but she bit her tongue in time - after all, Mr. Yegor is a respectable man, a big boss, indecent to express himself like that in front of him.

Putting on her glasses, she immersed herself in the world, opened the virtual door and found herself in the damp darkness. The walls of the cave gleamed wetly, the silvery moss radiating a faint glow. In the distance, droplets dripped from the height: zen... zen...

Gia concentrated on the fact that this reality was virtual, that is, an alternation of zeros and ones, and felt like a cave, that is, a space mottled with symbols.

A mob rumbled in the darkness, a chugging sound, and Gia searched herself, but found no weapons, not even an inventory. What was she going to do, beat them with her bare hands? And experience pain, however muted? There was no time to think about it: a man-sized maggot shot out of the darkness at her like a spring, its head topped with two rows of teeth and tentacles with suction cups.

With a shriek, Gia kicked it, tossing it aside. Then she rolled back and remembered that, with her abilities, hitting mobs wasn't necessary. Concentrating, she felt the worm's body, imagined it becoming a beautiful yellow-brown butterfly, and the mob began to change. But it didn't turn out to be a beautiful butterfly: Gia had no visualization skills, and the butterfly's body was asymmetrical and thick, with wings of different shapes and sizes.

Thinking she was getting some kind of freak, Gia freaked out and fantasized about the butterfly's pouty pink lips instead of a trunk, the kind women with bad taste make for themselves.

Concentrating on space again, Gia saw rather than felt the light behind the thick stone, reached for it, imagined the stone melting, spreading, forming an exit from the cave, where she immediately stepped, squinting against the bright sun. She headed toward the nepis in the village, and then a blond young man, Gore, ran up to her, speaking mechanically:

- What you have done is impressive.

Gia stared at him, thinking it was a non-piss, because people don't talk like that, but she soon realized that the system was simply reproducing the typewritten text that Mr. Yegor had written.
- How do you do it? - he continued.

Few people played from a laptop, everyone preferred simulators and lenses - they created the effect of presence in the game, the feeling was completely real. Mr. Yegor's character stood there, trembling slightly, his lips moving and his face unemotional, while the simulator conveyed the full range of the player's emotions.

- I just want to, and I can," she smiled and turned toward the stumpy, withering oak, imagining the sap flowing down the trunk, the leaves coming to life and the huge orange flowers unfurling from the acorns.

Obeying her wish, the oak began to transform.



- Can you make it rain? - Gore asked.

- I don't know. - Gia stared at the sun, imagined it being obscured by clouds-it didn't work. She mustered her will and attention and imagined storm clouds- heavy, leaden clouds-but they never came. - It didn't work. Apparently, because it's not in the code. So it doesn't rain in this fragment of the world.

- I see," Gore nodded. - But it's still impressive. Can you spray me? - He spread his arms and closed his eyes, like he was about to be executed.

Gia just imagined that he was being dispersed into atoms - Mr. Yegor's character seemed to explode, splashing sand, and ceased to exist.

Gia wished she could get out of the game and feel herself in the simulator. She took off her gloves first, then her glasses, and looked at Mr. Yegor: he was looking at her with delight.

- You don't know what you can do with your powers! - he said with a gasp. - Like the Dream, for instance!

Wouldn't it be interesting to go in there and see if the system reacted as a danger to her? She'd sold the dildo sword without any trouble at all, but that was before the ability had been awakened. Could a program affecting consciousnesses through lenses do any harm? Theoretically, given the new inputs, it could.

- You have to think it through," she explained her silence. - I don't know if the security systems will let me in, or what will happen to me when I'm detected. Is there a doctor here?

- Of course," Tochinov nodded. - A therapist and a surgeon all in one.

Gia fiddled with a shot to the temple and muttered:

- Still, I'm tired. I'd like to discuss with your programmers how to enter the Dream as safely as possible, because the Dream lenses are dangerous to use.

- You'd better not get tired! I don't want to rush you. We'll sleep better in the morning.

- Have you heard from Maria? - Gia asked, sincerely, because she wanted to meet her distressed sister. She hoped that when she saw her, everything would be right, her memory would awaken, that damned experiment and her life before it would be remembered, her new sense would be strengthened and her wings would spread. What if Gia had just been kidnapped from her parents, and they had no idea that their daughter was alive?

And again came thoughts of her mother being tortured in the hospital by the mangosos. Mr. Egor said that she worked at that base and took the children out, for such treachery - death penalty or life... To tell her at least that her adopted daughter is alive and all is well - what if she worries?

- We need to deal with this issue more closely, - said Tochinov tone of executioner, reading out the sentence. - Get some rest. When you have a clear head, we'll think of a way to get you safely into the Dream.

Gia nodded, looked longingly at the bed. As soon as the door behind the oligarch closed, she jumped onto it, face down on the pillow, and closed her eyes. Just as the negativity gripped her arms and legs and the first images of sleep appeared, a second shot to the temple awakened Gia. She felt nauseous and sat up, rubbing her throat.



Her head ached as if someone had pierced it with a steel needle from temple to temple. A buzzing sound rose up inside, as if the plane was going into hypersonic speed, and her eyes were blurring.

The last thing she needed was to stain the velvety dark green carpet on the floor...

...Desmond. I live in Washington, D.C. I'm a telepath. Gia, please let me in, a lot depends on it!

The voice is back! Surely now it's worth relaxing and letting the guy settle into his brain. Gia relaxed, smiling from ear to ear. She lay back and closed her eyes. Calmness spread over her body.

- Desmond, are you one of ours, the victims of the experiment?

- Yes, I am. Then there's Maria, you've heard of her, and Luca. Get Egor Tochinov, he's the only one who can help us!

Gia rushed down the corridor to the second floor, jerked the doors, pounded on them, looked around, found the red-lit cameras, and shouted:

- Mr. Egor Tochinov! I need you urgently!

While she was thrashing around, Desmond was telling her everything he knew about Maria and Luca, about the quantum computers and the carrier Luca was supposed to steal and take off the island.

Gia ran out into the street and almost turned to ice: she would have to get used to the fact that she couldn't get out of the building that easily, she had to get ready, get dressed. I found Mr. Yegor coming out from behind the blue building with the mining farms, and I called out and gestured for him to hurry up.

- It's hard for me to keep in touch from a distance all the time, it's breaking up.

- I can't go any faster, you see," Gia exclaimed, later realizing she was voicing her thoughts.
- What's that? - interrogated Tochinov, approaching the threshold.

- Hurry up! The voice came back... Well, the one who knows about Maria. The guy's name is Desmond, he's..." Gia realized that she had blurted out in her excitement, and stopped talking until Tochinov entered the house. - He wants to talk to you!

Climbing the stairs to his second floor, Mr. Yegor reported what he had learned:

- There is no information about Maria. The barge is stopped, like many other ships, the crew does not communicate, the people of Gennaro Panzutto, the one responsible for sending the Mafiosi, cannot find out anything. My agents in the enemy camp have no information either. Apparently it's so classified that the matter is being handled by MANGA's own security service. I don't know how they will cope, there are simply not enough of them to check all the planes and ships.

Tochinov opened the door to the corridor, from where he immediately strode into the unlocked office, waved at a leather chair, inviting Gia to settle in. The voice in his head fell silent, either missing or Desmond was listening to Tochinov.

- Not missing," Desmond immediately retorted, and spilled everything he knew about Maria: she had been picked up by the border guards along with other illegals, beaten, searched, transferred alone to another boat, taken away, and locked up in an unknown place. Gia relayed the information to Mr. Yegor.

Tochinov, listening, leaning against the table, pounded the wall with his fist.



- Nothing adds up. MANG agents wouldn't act like this! They would not have beaten and searched her, but would have tried to finish her off and get rid of the body as soon as possible. Sounds like a common kidnapping! - But then they wouldn't have slowed everyone down-not enough power to do that.

- The Alliance intervened? - Gia surmised, chilling. - They know about us, too, you know.

Tochinov rubbed his chin and nodded.

- It looks like the MANGA must have tracked her down, like we tracked you down. Or Panzutto has a mole. But it's better this way, there's hope she'll at least stay alive.

- There's another guy, Luca," Gia reminded her. - He's in one of the Virgin Islands, where MANGA is conducting an experiment... Developed a virtual for a quantum computer, the beta testers are immersed with a capsule and become zombies. That's what Desmond says, I'm just passing it along.

- And what can Luka do? - Tochinov asked. - What abilities does he have?

- He has the power of controlling the body, he can speed up the metabolic processes, fall into anabiosis, run the fastest and so on," said Desmond, and Gia voiced his words without getting out of bed. - He's been instructed to take a host, but no one has explained what it is. Gia, all hope is in you.

- The Virgin Islands, you say? - Thinking, Tochinov pressed his lips together. - There are hundreds of them. Which one is it on? Anglo-Saxon or Spanish? If it's the former, it'll be damn hard to get him out.

Mr. Yegor livened up, spoke emotionally, like a teenager, and began to resemble not a boa constrictor but an irritated cobra ready to lunge.

- I'll ask him for details," Desmond answered, Gia said. - I'll ask Maria, too. А! I remember! They took her off the barge and onto a P 302 cutter.

- That's something. Something to work with...

It was as if a thin string had broken in Gia's head - Desmond was gone from her mind. Her heart was racing, but Gia only noticed it now. She looked at Mr. Yegor, and he looked at her. Despite her best efforts, no connection with Desmond could be established.

A walkie-talkie rattled in the hallway. Cursing, Mr. Yegor went to answer the call, Gia followed him, frozen at the exit of the office. A shrill voice came through:

- What-what? How did they know where to find me? Who the hell is this...? They didn't introduce themselves? Information about my daughter? - Again Gia's translator refused to translate the angry tirade. - I'm coming.

The front door slammed.

Gia's mind wanted to rush after Mr. Yegor, who had learned something about his daughter and rushed to find out the details, but her tired body did not want to move unnecessarily. Gia decided that if Tochinov knew anything, he would share it with her first, so she lay on her back. Her eyes closed by themselves.