THE OUTLAND

167

The bottle was slowly emptying, and with it the viscous stupefaction receded, which seized from the moment of awakening - praise to Ware, I performed most of my "exploits" on the machine simply because once upon a time the mechanisms of hacking and bypassing systems were brought to automatism and the complete exclusion of mental process. Even writing a batch file was once a big problem, but now...

Was the game worth the candle? Was the risk worth the time? Unknown. But the security forces’ carriage didn’t fly up to the cafe doors with a screech of brakes, they still didn’t tie me up, the handcuffs didn’t click on my wrist with an almost paralyzing clang. So the bet was justified? Odie was tried, sentenced, but because of the deal with the investigation, all the sins, it turns out, were written off?

Here was a smart move. When my loss is discovered - and it will happen sooner or later without any doubt - they will start looking for Rob and his trace in the city, and not a proxy identit