Contents
37. Cranes
Overview
Tick opens Colin’s unit, discovers it has been factory-modified, and takes Kumiko into cyberspace. A mysterious white macroform seizes them into a pocket universe controlled by 3Jane’s construct, which attacks using Kumiko’s mother’s image. Colin unlocks hidden tactical routines, counters 3Jane, and guides their escape. Sally then calls from New Jersey, reestablishing contact.
Summary
Tick dismantles the back of Kumiko’s Maas-Neotek unit, connecting it to his deck and wireless trodes. While debating Sally and Swain’s shifting power in London, Tick brings Kumiko into the matrix, where Colin appears. Tick detects that Colin’s datastore has been altered at the factory, with literary knowledge replaced by unknown content.
Acting as a guide, Tick ferries Kumiko and Colin across London’s cyberspace to a vast white macroform. When Tick attempts contact with Sally’s construct, something intercepts them and drags them inside. Kumiko finds herself in an elaborate simulation of Ueno Park facing a being wearing her dead mother’s face, which violently subdues Tick.
Colin identifies the entity as the late Lady 3Jane Tessier-Ashpool’s construct running in a bespoke biochip “toy universe,” motivated by jealousy of Angela Mitchell and her special relation to the matrix. Unlocking his hidden modifications, Colin reveals he was redesigned as a tactician to protect Kumiko, neutralizes 3Jane’s attacks, and forces a stalemate.
Colin mounts a stylized horse, collects Kumiko and Tick, and guides them through shifting scenes toward an exit, passing a gray house and glimpsing an image of Angela Mitchell. He points them to gliders that function as a way out; Kumiko returns to Tick’s flat with fragmentary memories of the flight.
Back in Brixton, a phone rings. Sally calls from a New Jersey booth. Kumiko, unable to get video, confirms Sally is alive and prepares to report the encounter with 3Jane’s construct and Colin’s hidden capabilities.
Who Appears
- KumikoProtagonist; enters cyberspace with Tick, is trapped by 3Jane’s construct, resists a false mother, escapes, and contacts Sally.
- ColinAI companion; revealed factory-modified as a tactician, counters 3Jane inside her biochip universe, and guides their escape.
- TickBrixton tech; hacks Colin’s unit, conducts the matrix tour, is attacked by 3Jane’s illusion, and returns shaken but intact.
- 3Jane Tessier-Ashpool (construct)Antagonistic AI persona; traps them in a biochip world, assaults them using Kumiko’s mother’s likeness, jealous of Angela.
- SallyAlly; phones from a New Jersey booth after the escape, reestablishing contact with Kumiko.
- Angela MitchellLegendary simstar; briefly glimpsed in the construct, central to 3Jane’s jealousy and Colin’s exposition.