The case of the death of Thane del Neev was still open. She didn't consider it a failure as she wouldn't stop until she found the guilty party and ended them.Her destination tonight was an apartment in a building next to Central Park. She'd be staying there during her visit.She would meet her client in a seventeenth-floor suite after dropping off her carry-on luggage in the apartment the Council kept for these purposes.Minkah watched the city out the window and marveled at how much it had changed since she'd last visited.When the taxi finally stopped before the building, she paid the driver and got out. She stretched her tight muscles as she panned her eyes around. She noticed a small sign across the street indicating the Metropolitan Museum of Art was nearby. She hoped she might get a chance to visit while she was here, but the mission took precedence. Her eyes tracked all nearby motion, and before she got dizzy from the sheer volume of it, she set off across the sidewalk and wen

His mind returned again and again to that first night. He knew everything hinged on the attractive stranger who had tried to take Stanley's place in their group of friends, Henry Gable.Roger had been suspicious of him from the very beginning, and now it seemed he may be at the center of the conspiracy. He had to be connected in some way to the large, horned goat-legged monster he'd seen in the hospital room. However, the night Roger got close enough to get a good look at him, he appeared human.That was also the night Roger got a taste of his first monster. It had been like nothing he'd ever tasted, and he wanted more. He'd encountered the recluse next, and aside from another filling meal, he got himself a permanent base, a means of transportation, and some pocket money.He'd used the bicycle to ride all over the city to hunt for his meals. He already knew how to travel through the city to avoid big brother's video surveillance, so that skill came in handy.Tonight, he was close to t

The opening shrank a little, then a channel formed in the crowd before it, allowing several Silver People to pass between them and go through. They began pulling the Glass People into Eden, picking the smaller ones up and carrying them inside only to come back for another. The larger ones were just dragged. The Silver People were so fast they began collecting their loads from Earth's side to rush inside. They quickly cleared the area before the rip. Then they just stopped, and another group of Silver People rushed in from projecting the field to take over ferrying the new Glass People through the tear. They were quickly making a dent in the number of Glass People waiting in the large open area, but the rip began to shrink.While all this was happening, the news anchors were speculating madly about invaders from space.The drone camera was knocked out of the sky, and the news channel video feed switched to the long-range camera outside the city, which just caught the tail end of the je

"I'd love to get that shield spell for my pack and Mary," Roy sighed.Ignoring Roy, Camila got Henry's attention once more. "You came in for this afternoon's meeting with the Directors? Why don't you take a nap in the interim?" She gestured to her couch.He was sorely tempted, but he had a few things he had to take care of, and he'd promised to set aside time for Siobhan for whatever she needed. "I-I can't. I'll try to take a nap at lunch, and I'll go home directly after our meeting. I-I should get started." When he got a nod, he stood and headed for the door with his head down.Camila looked to Roy then unlocked the door before Henry got to it. He went through and closed it behind himself. He gave Felix another nod then headed to his office. He sighed in guilty relief when he saw Marisa wasn't at her desk as he really wasn't up for another conversation. He unlocked his office door, stepped inside, and locked it behind himself before dropping his ass in his seat. He leaned forward to

"Wait, you're saying the application has access to the hardware's system-level commands?" Yasmin asked with a frown."Only for the actual transmission and receipt of data packets through the network interfaces. The app is responsible for managing the flow of data through these cards. If there are unaccounted data bits in the stream, that's something the application will identify and act upon," Henry indicated."That's not feasible! It would add way too much lag to the interfaces!" Laurence Franklin insisted.Henry grinned at the group. "Does this mean we've reached the demonstration portion of the presentation?"The three techs were all frowning but eager to see Henry's outrageous claims go up in smoke.Henry walked the group over to the test rig. "This is a blade server I purchased and configured for running the firewall application. The specs for this are in the data packages I've prepared for you. This configuration is optimized for the demands of the application. You can't scrimp