When Jessica was little and visiting her grandparents in the city, her grandfather had taken her to a shop where hundreds of television screens occupied the back wall. This was bit like that, only each screen displayed a different channel, representing a node in the Exchange network, and the maelstrom of light connected all of them.
How can we talk to those people?
We can’t, or I don’t know how to do it. Communication requires a two-way response, a second able mind. All we can do is upset the system, and hope someone traces the signal back to Barresh. Are you ready?
Jessica was dimly aware that she still stood in the street, and that all this took perhaps a fraction of a second. The pearls still crackled around her feet. She grabbed as many strands as she could reach.
I’m ready.
The l
