It was clear as vodka in a crystal glass: CyberCorp's directors were hell-bent on enacting their sick plan to suck everyone into their backyard paradise. With everyone inside their universe, they'd control the world--not just business, but everything. They killed Mandy for that, because they thought she knew too much. They'd do the same thing to me.

If I didn't take it to them, first.

Drake's glaring into the night, my ally in this insane crusade, eyes blue as ice, as death.

"When we go in there," he says, and his voice is like the toll of funeral bells, "I am sparing no one. Nothing. You understand this, Jack?"

"I understand."

"Then stay back. You won't stand a chance against perimeter security. Once we're in, give me cover. I can take bullets most of the time, but half the guards are armed with Tesla coils and they've got EMP in there, too. You have a weapon?"

I draw out my semi-automatic and it gleams like fangs in the darkness.

"You'll need more than that once we're in. Ammo runs out; here," he pulls something out of his coat, hands it to me. At first it looks like a black flashlight, but as the angle changes I realize what it is. A sword. Four feet long and straight as destiny. When he turns it to the side, I don't even see the blade.

"I don't know how to use this," I say.

"The blade's a matrix of supermagnetized microscopic particles. It's only about a hundred molecules thick, but it can cut through substances outside its matrix with the most tenuous force. You don't need to know how to use it--just point and swing."

I hold the blade in my hands, watch as its surface dissapears when I angle it right. It's light as hell. Not my style, but who knows. I slide it into the sheath he gives me--looks like black leather, but the inside's treated magnetically to prevent it from peircing through.

With the semi back in my hands, I'm ready for action.

"Let's go."

To CyberCorp