My Library

I smoothed. (This rote won’t do that. As a matter of fact, it’ll begin an inoculation process.) BB blanked. (Inoculation …) (You can close better. I’ll push it slowly. Catch the edge. If you don’t like it, don’t take it in.) BB opened slowly. I eased the BHP-1 rote THEY gave me at him and it spun slowly as he cautiously touched it. There was a long moment when everything stopped, no movement, no response. Then there was a click and the entire rote slipped into him. BB turned inward and closed. I waited patiently. We were drifting slowly out where the haze was thinner. I had only two idents at this point. I either go back to where THEY were or back to the physical. I had nothing on AA, only part of BB’s rote, which wasn’t enough. It had to come from BB. I couldn’t find AA for him. BB turned inward, opened. (It’s all new to me. Real rote, huh?) (Yep.) (And that’s what AA got himself into?) (Yep.) BB blanked. (This isn’t your rote. Where’d you get it?) I smoothed. (Coupla friends of mine. Most of the rote was new to me, too. At least I didn’t have a percept like that.) BB hardened. (Well now, I got a hook on what’s going on. A little complicated, but once AA has a percept of this quality, he’ll jump right out of the mess.) I flickered. (Uh … there’s a little more to it, you see.) (What do we do next?) (I guess catch your friend when he comes out again. If you can find him.) BB smoothed. (I could find AA inside a black hole. Are you coming?) BB had the percept that I would follow and he was right. He dove into the haze and I was behind him, homing on his ident. We did a complete run through the ring where he had found AA previously. Not a flick. I was fairly sure that would be the case, which was bad news. Bad news for BB. There was always a chance that if AA was in the outer ring BB might convince him to pull out and let go. Bad news