Big Bill turned to Heaberlin. "What kind of work have you done?"

"Just game programming."

"Which one?"

"You ever hear of Death Rope?" Heaberlin asked.

"Hell yes. D-R kicks ass."

Eric cut in. "Mike wrote the prototype for Death Rope in three days."

Big Bill frowned. "What? By himself?"

Eric nodded.

"Bullshit," Big Bill replied. "That's hundreds of thousands of lines of code. Physically impossible."

"Not for him." Eric looked at Heaberlin. "Did you bring your interface?"

"Yeah."

"Throw it away. I've got an upgrade." Eric turned and walked away. "It'll take what you can do to a new level."

Heaberlin stared dumbfounded as Eric walked through a door at the other end of the corridor. Big Bill watched Heaberlin.

"What?" Big Bill asked.

Heaberlin held up his hands. "Never thought I'd be working with the guy who designed my nervous system."

"Well, you'd better get used to being amazed. What's up with the circuitry jazz?"

"I had a degenerative nerve disease. Something really rare.

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