Falling, falling.
Jane-in-the-box plummeted into the digital vortex. Her persona pulled apart into its constituent data bits by the tornado of light and static. A whirlpool of purple threads- lightning without thunder. Only the deep hiss of random patterns.
Then it was gone, and Jane found herself standing on a street corner. She was in her physical body, her real body- thin as a rail, skin and bones, unwashed brown hair matted like a bird's nest on top of her head. She felt frail, her bony knees threatening to buckle as she nearly collapsed to the ground. She needed food and a shower.
What happened? Where am I?
Tall buildings of concrete and mirrored glass reached up into a night sky around her, but there was no traffic on the city street. Street lamps illuminated the sidewalk, reflected in silver streaks that rose up the chrome windows of the buildings. But there were no people. Only Jane, a gentle breeze, and the absolute silence of the vacant city.
Abruptly, someone touched her shoulder.
Jane spun to see a young woman, human, about twenty-five years old with shoulder-cut blonde hair, fair skin, and ocean-blue eyes. She wore black jeans and a plain white halter top. "Sorry to startle you," she said, taking a drag on her cigarette. "Welcome to Wonderland. I'm Alice."
Jane took a step back. What the frag? Wonderland was a Matrix legend. I'm still jacked in.
The virtual reality around her was so real that it was indistinguishable from reality. An ultraviolet space. She could even smell the cigarette smoke. Jane had heard rumors that UV spaces existed, but had never experienced one. She
hadn't given the rumors much credence, and she'd never believed in Wonderland-the infamous place inhabited by mysterious constructs and lost data.
Jane looked at Alice. "Are you slotting me?"
Alice laughed. "No," she said. "I'm not 'slotting' you."
"Did you…" Jane began. "Were you the one-"
"Who saved you from Rox?" Alice said. "Yes, that was me. I like you, Jane. I like what you're doing. But I hate Rox even more. Do you remember the Crash of '29?"
"I was too young to deck then," Jane said. "But I know about it."
"I was part of Echo Mirage."
"What?" The members of the Echo Mirage team were the first to use direct interfacing with computers. The first deckers. They were the guinea pigs who did battle with the virus that crashed the worldwide computer network back in 2029.
"I was in Rox's system when I encountered the Crash entity." Alice's voice broke momentarily. "What happened?"
Alice steeled herself, her physical appearance seeming to grow more dense, if that was possible. She took a slow drag on her cigarette. "Never mind," she said. "It's simple really. I hate Rox, and I like you. I didn't want him to get you just then."
Jane didn't know what to say. "Uh… thank you."
Alice fixed Jane with a hard stare, her sea-blue eyes crystallizing to a frozen gray. Jane found that she could not move to look away.
"I did not rescue you lightly," Alice said. "It took a great deal of effort, and much sacrifice. Rox's system is one of perhaps five in the world that are protected from me. For the present at least."
Jane found she could not respond.
"In return for saving your life, I will ask something from you in return," Alice said, then a smile graced her lips. "Not now, but in the future."
Alice's smile hovered in Jane's mind, endearing and attractive, but haunting, overpowering, and not to be denied. "Goodbye for now, Jane-in-the-box."
Alice's words whispered in her mind for several seconds
after the silent city had faded around her. Then Jane was back in her riveted steel box, and the image of Alice's smile had dissipated. Wonderland was gone, and Jane wondered whether the shock of her encounter with Roxborough had induced a hallucination of the whole thing. It had been so real, like nothing Jane had ever seen on even the most detailed of sculpted systems. She hadn't known she was even in the Matrix.
"Jane!" came a voice through one of her links. "Do you copy? Jane, where the frag are you?" It was Axler.
"I'm here," she said, bringing herself back into focus. "Give me the status."
"Status is that we're fragged up in the yin-yang down here. The helo went down. I was hoping Dhin had switched to Plan B, but I can't raise him, so he must've gone down with the helo, and we're pinned down so we can't make the T-bird."
Jane scanned her other feeds, seeing Axler's mistake immediately. "Stand by, Axler," she said. "I'll have you out in nanos."