Contents
Book Four: The Trap — 15.
Overview
Stu Finger delivers Colin from the caves and taunts him with a revelation: Arthur’s blood at death was holy and would have sufficed. Finger says Arthur wept for Colin, not himself. He prophesies that trolls will dominate the emerging online world. Colin, wounded and exhausted, returns to the briars.
Summary
Stu Finger guides Colin out of the chasm, carrying the laptop Colin used as payment. Finger easily boosts Colin through the crevasse beneath the boulder. Colin, battered and armed with the Cree hi-thrower, emerges alone as Finger lingers below, shifting back to his derelict guise.
From the crack, Finger offers a cutting secret: Colin never needed the vial of saint’s blood. He could have taken the blessed blood that leaked from Arthur as he died. Finger adds that Arthur’s final tears were for Colin, not for himself or a distant love.
As Colin, aching and bloodied, says goodbye, Finger delivers a final warning. He claims the world of thought on computer screens already belongs to trolls like him and thanks Colin for building it. Finger’s laughter follows as Colin pushes into the thorns and twisted whips of the briars, continuing his path wounded but resolute.
Who Appears
- Colin WrenExits the caves injured with a laptop, hears Arthur wept for him, and presses on into the briars.
- Stu FingerTroll guide; reveals Arthur’s blood was holy, says Arthur wept for Colin, and foretells trolls ruling the online world.