CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 2027 9:36am
(00:05:51:28)
Fifteen minutes passed before Marcus decided something was wrong and Mike wasn’t coming. Fifteen minutes he wasn’t getting back. He resisted the desire to push the button a twentieth time. He resisted the urge to shoot the panel open with his rifle. He barely resisted the desperate need to scream.
His light’s power supply had dwindled by half. He couldn’t help but laugh. Here he was in an artificial environment with a virtual light in his hand. Everything that light illuminated was artificial, just so much software updating impulses flashing through his brain. With all that sophistication, all the firepower he carried in his hands, his flashlight couldn’t last as long as any cheap light he could buy in the real world.
