I

“The Big One,” Hiro says.

“It’s exactly what we were afraid of,” Juanita says. “Rife’s revenge.”

“Headed for the amphitheater. Where all the hackers are gathered in one place. Rife’s going to infect all of them at once. He’s going to burn their minds.”

Raven’s already on the motorcycle. If Hiro chases him on foot, he might catch him before he reaches the Street.

But he might not. In that case, Raven would be on his way to Downtown at tens of thousands of miles per hour while 1-liro was still trying to get back to his own motorcycle. At those speeds, once Hiro has lost sight of Raven, he’s lost him forever.

Raven starts his bike, begins maneuvering carefully through the tangle, headed for the exit. Hiro takes off as fast as his invisible legs can carry him, headed straight for the wall.

He punches through a couple of seconds later, runs back to the Street. His tiny little invisible avatar can’t operate the motorcycle, so he returns to his normal look, hops on his bike, and gets it turned around. Looking back, he sees Raven riding out toward the Street, the logic bomb glowing a soft blue, like heavy water in a reactor. He doesn’t even see Hiro yet.

Now’s his chance. He draws his katana, aims his bike at Raven, pumps it up to sixty or so miles an hour. No point in coming in too fast; the only way to kill Raven’s avatar is to take its head off. Running it over with the motorcycle won’t have any effect.

A security daemon is running toward Raven, waving his arms. Raven looks up, sees Hiro bearing down on him, and bursts forward. The sword cuts air behind Raven’s head.

It’s too late. Raven must be gone now-but turning himself around, Hiro can see him in the middle of the Street. He slammed into one of the stanchions that holds up the monorail track-s perennial irritation to highspeed motorcyclists.

“Shiti” both of them say simultaneously.

Raven gets turned toward Downtown and twists his throttle just as Hiro is pulling in behind him on the Street, doing the