Contents
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Overview
Case and Maelcum reach 3Jane’s domain, where Hideo ambushes them and wounds Maelcum. Riviera confronts them, but 3Jane arrives with an injured Molly. Hideo, blinded by Riviera’s lasers, still hunts Riviera through the dark. Molly reveals she poisoned Riviera. With time running out, the crew forces 3Jane up-axis toward the lock they must open.
Summary
Case and Maelcum race a failing service cart to 3Jane’s underground sector. After the cart dies, they proceed on foot past Riviera’s gruesome holos. Case warns Maelcum about Riviera’s fletcher and Hideo, the ninja bodyguard. In the pool area, Hideo ambushes them with arrows, wounding Maelcum and disarming the Remington.
Riviera appears with Molly’s fletcher, while 3Jane rolls in an injured Molly in a Victorian bathchair and orders Hideo to treat Maelcum’s wound. Case presses the urgency: Wintermute and Neuromancer are moving to merge, describing Neuromancer’s beach construct. 3Jane connects it to Marie-France’s formative beach in Morocco.
When Riviera fires, Case dives; Hideo counters by pinning Riviera’s hand with an arrow, disarming him. Riviera then blinds Hideo with concealed chest lasers. Despite blindness, Hideo retrieves his bow and pursues Riviera into the dark, as 3Jane explains Hideo’s Zen training to fight without sight.
Molly, freed from a restraint sphere, reveals she dosed Riviera with a designer compound that will progressively paralyze him. 3Jane confirms medical signs match. Molly shows her blades and injured leg, while Maelcum readies the shotgun to control 3Jane.
The group squeezes into a tiny elevator, Case holding the Remington under 3Jane’s chin as Maelcum carries Molly. 3Jane claims she lacks a key to the target room due to a complex mechanical lock, but Molly states they have the necessary key. Checking her implanted clock, Molly marks 8:25 PM GMT—about five minutes left—as the door opens at the axis of Straylight.
Who Appears
- CaseDrifting from overdose, negotiates with 3Jane, reveals Neuromancer’s beach, drives the team toward the axis under tight time.
- 3JaneArrives with Molly, orders Hideo to aid Maelcum, links the beach to Marie-France, is forced up-axis toward the lock.
- HideoAmbushes with arrows, wounds Maelcum, is blinded by Riviera’s lasers, then hunts Riviera by practiced blind Zen archery.
- MollyInjured and restrained, gets freed, reveals she poisoned Riviera, confirms they have the key and the countdown is tight.
- Peter RivieraConfronts with Molly’s fletcher, is disarmed and then blinds Hideo with chest lasers; flees, already doomed by Molly’s poison.
- MaelcumWounded by Hideo’s arrow, retrieves the shotgun, carries Molly, and helps force 3Jane into the elevator toward the axis.