After talking to the Jugg, I made a decision. The time has come. Cybercorp is a menace to everything on this planet, and they must be stopped, at any cost. There’s too much mystery, too many unknowns, and too many conspiracies, and all the roads lead to one place – and it sure as hell isn’t Rome. Something big is going on at CyberCorp and it’s up to me to figure out just what the hell that thing is, and then put a stop to it. It’ll be tough and I probably won’t succeed but the possibility is there that if I play it right, take the right chances, meet the right people, it’ll all open up to me. CyberCorp may be an international behemoth, but the one thing they don’t expect is an old private eye with a debt to settle. And Jack Fenix always collects.

Something moves on a rooftop above me. The shadows shift oddly, displacing the light in strange ways. The sounds don’t seem to fit the action quite right. I’ve been in the business long enough to know when someone is following me. I whirl around in the night, looking for any sign. Nothing. No one. Maybe time to try the overt route, then. “Come out you bastard!” I yell. “I know you’re following me!” Still no response, no more shadows, no out of place sounds. Whoever it is, this guy is good. “Come out here or so help me God, I will you fill you with so much lead –“

A voice interrupts me from the darkness. “We can’t have that, now can we?” It’s a male voice, familiar and yet . . . different. And then it hits me.

I know who it is . . .