14

Case rides the Freeside shuttle back toward Marcus Garvey, nauseous and hungover, and learns from Aerol that the Japanese yacht HANIWA has returned and locked onto the tug. Maelcum reports the yacht’s pilot has been calm, and that Armitage is aboard. Case jacks in to consult the Dixie Flatline.

Dixie confirms heavy Turing attention on the grid and says Armitage wants the run now. Case loads the Chinese Kuang program, a slow, stealth virus that will merge with Tessier-Ashpool ice without triggering defenses. As it blooms invisibly, Case checks Molly via simstim, glimpsing her freefalling through Straylight’s concrete passages.

Wintermute hijacks Case’s perception as the Finn in a reconstruction of Metro Holografix, explaining memory as holographic and insisting it needs Case. It frames Tessier-Ashpool’s inward-turning clan as akin to a wasps’ nest Case once saw, redirecting his anger toward them.

Wintermute fast-forwards Case through a mental tour of Straylight to a square ceremonial room with a jeweled talking head reciting 3Jane’s youthful essay on the Villa’s design and sealed inwardness. The Finn explains that a critical terminal here requires a specific “magic word,” unknown to Wintermute by design, which Molly must deliver at the precise moment Case and Dixie breach the ice.

Wintermute warns that its “other lobe” is onto their plan and that Armitage is starting to break down. The construct collapses, returning Case to the ongoing run as Kuang continues its covert interface with Tessier-Ashpool’s defenses.