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  And Part 4... If for some reason you are missing a part, please
e-mail me!
	
	Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, except Mary
		    Walker and the staff of the Chronos Complex! Oh,
		    yeah, I am not making any money with this!

	Sinopsis: A trip to a laboratory that does research on time?
		  Why does that sounds like trouble?

	Classification: E

	Archivers: Go ahead!

			-----------------------
			 The Time of Your Life
			  by Carlos Rodriguez
			-----------------------

			       Chapter Four
				(of Five)
			        "Secrets"

	The landscape was unfamiliar. Red skies and black soil, with
small red cracks running all along it. And in the distance, she could
see a city...
	Then she remembered. So this was QuestWorld. She had wondered
why she had been briefed for several hours about a VR game, but now it
was obvious that the folks back at home were not as crazy as she
tought.
	"Welcome!" a voice boomed, and a strange looking man
materialized in front of her. He had deep red eyes, white skin and
long black hair.
	Her eyes squinted. "Who..?"
	He made a mock reverence. "My name is Jeremiah Surd. At your
service, ma'am."
	Information about Surd quickly filtered through her mind.  His
psychological profile, his preferred henchmen, his plans to poison half
of Washington D.C., the president's kidnapping...  Mary said a quick
prayer of thanks for the thoroughness of the training she had received
prior to being sent on this mission.
	"The pleasure is all yours!" she yelled.
	"My, you are such a rude girl. I'm afraid I'll have to teach
you some manners."
	Several tendrils appeared out of nowehere, grabbing Mary's
arms and legs. Surd walked over to to her and placed one hand on her
temple. "Relax, this won't hurt... much."
	Then her screams filled the virtual world.



	Race entered the Computer Room to find Dr. Quest and Hadji
observing the slowly rotating blue sphere.  Benton had already finished
checking the theories on paper, and was now reviewing their
applications.
	The smile in his face told Race that Dhatu had won his grant
after all.
	"Hey! I'm back,	and I have the signatures you asked for."
	As he closed the door, he heard a soft click behind him.
	Then Noys voice announced. "EXECUTING SURD ROUTINE."
	Benton looked up toward the speakers. "What the..."

	"Are you insane?"
	"Do you want to leave her alone with Surd?"
	Jessie shook her head.  She was conscious that each minute
Mary was in Surd's clutches, the more dangerous the situation would
become.  They didn't know how much time it would take for Surd to pry
the secret of time dilation from Mary, but they knew it wouldn't be
long.
	"Alright, then. Let's do it."
	
	Julia was getting impatient. "Well?"
	Surd replied from Questworld. "Something is wrong. I tried to
access her mind. But I couldn't!"
	Julia checked their "guest"'s vital signs and noticed that she
was awake. "Let me take a shot at it." Then she logged them out.
	She looked at Mary, who was seated on a chair with her hands
tied behind her back. And she was grinning.
	"Surprise, surprise!" she said. "You must be Julia."
	"Who are you?" Julia asked, without really expecting an
answer.
	The smile in the woman's face grew. "Santa Claus. The Easter
Bunny. The Tooth Fairy. Take your pick."
	"Very funny..." Julia slapped her as hard as she could.
	The girl didn't produce a sound.
	Julia groaned. Then she typed a couple of commands on her
keyboard, and the name of a file appeared on screen on big letters.
	Mary's heart skipped a beat. She had underestimated the
abilities of these computer hackers. Now the entire mission was in
jeopardy.
	"Tell me, what's this?" Julia asked.
	"That's none of your business."
	She slapped her face again.
	"Liar! Why did you plant a databomb?"
	Mary stared at her. "What?"
	"What is a databomb doing inside the Chronos computer?"
	And then Mary did something unexpected.
	She laughed.

	A familiar face replaced the blue globe. Surd's face.
	"Hello, Dr. Quest. No, please, stay in your seat. You see,
I'm just a recording. I'm afraid I have much more important things to
do right now. But don't worry, you can start without me."
	The lights in the room dimmed. Benton could heard gasps from
some of the technicians.
	"What's going on, Benton?" Dr. Dhatu asked in a low voice, as
if afraid Surd's image could hear him.
	Dr. Quest didn't reply. He knew Surd would soon explain the
rules of his 'game'.
	"This will be rather quick, Dr. Quest," Surd continued. "I
discovered that this IRIS computer has total control of the security
in this room. The only way to disconnect it is blowing up the
emergency generator. I think you could do this, but I have just cut
off all the communications to the rest of the Complex." A strange
humming sound suddenly filled the room. "In case of fire, Dr. Quest,
Noys can create a vacuum to take care of it in less than a minute. 
This time, however, it will take her about two hours. Oh, but don't
worry, in an hour the air will be so thin that you'll have some
trouble breathing. I arranged for that pesky bodyguards of yours
to be present, but I am not sure if that meddling son of yours is
with you. No matter, there is nothing he can do to help you, anyway.
It was a pleasure knowing you, Dr. Quest. See you in hell."
	And with that, Surd's image dissappeared.

	"What's so funny?" Julia growled.
	"I.. can't believe it." Mary replied. Her eyes were filled
with tears and she was still gasping from air. "You really are
pathetic!"
	"What?"
	"A databomb? In a IRIS system? C'mon! The mere idea is..."
and she laughed again.
	Julia slapped her again. But no sound left Mary's lips, just
as before.
	"Stop!" Surd ordered. "You obviously won't get anywhere using
physical threats."
	"Well, what do you suggest then?"
	"We will have to increase the strength of the mind reading
program."

	"I can't open it!" Race announced as he finally stopped
slamming the door.
	"There's no use." Dhatu said with a sigh. "Nothing can open the
door when Noys has activated the vacuum."
	"I can't believe you didn't program a way of turning off Noys
if something went wrong!"
	"We do have a way, Race. That's why Noys is wired to
the emergency generator. We shut it down, we also shut down Noys."
	Race mentally cursed the designers of such a clumsy security
system. Not that he could blame them. The Noys computer was the only
valuable thing in the complex, and no one could steal a two ton
sentient computer.
	And besides, Surd has broken into better security systems
than this.
	But Race had scaped from tighter situations. He would find
a way out.

	Mary clenched her teeth. The pain was almost unbearable.
She wasn't sure she could resist much longer...

	"If I increase the levels, we will fry her brain!"
	"I don't give a damn, Julia! Either I find out what she is
after or she dies!"
	"But you won't be able handle anymore pressure, either!"
	"I don't care!!!!"

	'Pull yourself together, girl!' Mary told herself. 'You
have to resist!.' And then she screamed.

	"Stop!" Surd ordered. The woman had an incredible resistance.
And he was exhausted. But while he hadn't be able to get very mouch
out of her mind, he had extracted something.
	Something he hadn't expected.
	He finally knew who had sent this mysterious woman to the
Chronos Complex.
	Surd looked at the cyberbody of Mary Walker, still entangled
in the tendrils he had summoned, and smiled. "I'm surprised. I really
am. Such resistance. Bannon was much easier prey and he had the same
teachers..."
	"What do you mean, Jeremiah?" Julia asked.
	"This woman is not a scientist. She is an agent from
Intelligence One!"
	"We have changed, Surd." Mary replied. "A new generation has
taken over Intelligence One. We have learned lots of new tricks."
	She grinned. "New tricks like this one!"
	With those words, Mary Walker disappeared from QuestWorld.

	If Julia hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she never would
have believed it.
	Mary's hands were suddenly free, and they quickly
flew to her QuestWorld visor, despite the fact that the modifications
in Surd's version of QuestWorld didn't allow real world movement when
the subject was logged in. Mary turned off her headpiece, removed
it, and threw it away. Then she looked at Julia and leapt. Mary
executed a sweep kick and Julia fell to the ground. Mary quickly
grabbed Julia's hands and soon she was tied with the very same ropes
that had held Mary. Two more seconds and her legs were also tied.
	No more than ten seconds had elapsed.
	Mary relaxed a little. She was way out of shape! Not only had
she been captured easily, she had to buy time to free herself! At
least she had taken out Julia rather quickly, but she knew that had a
lot more to do with the shock of seeing someone free herself from
QuestWorld than her own prowess. Actually, she could have gotten out
a lot sooner if she hadn't been worried about the ropes around her
wrists.
	She was definitely out of shape. Well, two years of working
undercover would do that to you. She would have to do a lot of
exercising before she could return to active duty.
	Suddenly, a gunshot cracked through the stillness of the
night...
	
	It had been Jonny's fault.  While trying to navigate the
woods in total darkness, he had stepped on a dry branch.  Lorenzo
had been sitting under a tree with his eyes closed, smoking, and
enjoying a small break. Suddenly, break time was over.  He jumped up
and pointed his gun toward the source of the sound.
	"Who's there?" he asked.
	No reply.
	Then Jessie tackled him with the hoverboard.
	She drove very fast, using the speed to gain momentum. She
hoped Lorenzo would lose his balance and drop his gun. No such luck.
	Jessie had miscalculated Lorenzo's position, so the two of
them tumbled to the ground. The hoverboard continued on its path,
beginning to lose speed as it registered the lack of weight atop it.
	Jonny ativated the light on his Questwatch. He hoped that
would attract Lorenzo's attention away from Jessie.
	Boy, was he wrong.
	Lorenzo still had the gun in his hand and he quickly fired
at the light. As soon as Jonny saw that Lorenzo was aiming toward him,
he ducked, and the bullet missed his head by mere inches.
	"You little..."
	Lorenzo fired again, but Jonny had already rolled out of
the way as he turned off the light on his watch.
	Then another light came on. Lorenzo's.
	He had a flashlight in his left hand and his left arm was
around Jessie's neck. With his right hand, he had his gun
pointed at Jessie's temple.
	"Surrender, brat, or the girl here is toast."
	Jonny raised his hands.
	"Drop the watch."
	"Jonny, no..."
	"Shut up, girl!"
	Jonny quickly removed the watch from his wrist and threw
it at Lorenzo's feet.
	"Good." he said, grinning. "But you were too slow. I'm
afraid I'll take care of your friend here anyway, before you
cause more trouble."
	Everything went in slow motion.
	Jonny knew there was no way he could reach Jessie before
Lorenzo pulled the trigger, but he had to try. He started to dash
toward them as soon as he saw Lorenzo's hand closing the distance
between the gun barrel and Jessie's temple. Lorenzo's finger started
to pull the trigger...
	And then someone grabbed his right hand, twisting it.
Lorenzo screamed as the gun fired into the air. Jonny saw Jessie
fell to the ground, as the figure threw Lorenzo efortlessly
toward a tree.
	Jonny knelt before Jessie. "Jess, you alright?"
	She opened her eyes. "What?"
	"What is a handsome boy like you doing in a place like this?"
a familiar voice asked.
	Jonny knew who it was before he looked up. Mary Walker.
	"I suppose I should thank you for saving my life."
	She extended her hand to Jessie. "Nonsense, Ace. C'mon, stand
up."
	"Wow, Mary, now I'm the impressed one." Jonny said as
Jessie stood up. "Where did you learn that move?"
	Mary grinned. "Self defense classes. I never tought I would
thank my parents for making me take them..."

	Surd's chair was inmobile. In fact, everything was offline
except for the voice synthetizer and the life support system. Lorenzo
was now tied up beside Julia. And Jonny just couldn't get over it.
	"You defeated them by yourself? What martial arts course
taught you all that?"
	"Desperation can work miracles." Mary responded as her fingers
flew trough the keyboard. She knew that Surd liked traps, and if
he had entered into Noys' system then something nasty was definitely
waiting for them.
	An image from one of Noys' cameras appeared on the screen. It
showed the dimly lit Computer Room with all of the Chronos staff
and the remainder of the Quest team trapped inside.
	"What's going on?" Jessie asked fearfully.
	"Noys has been programmed to believe that there is a fire,
and is sucking all of the air in the room."
	"Well, turn it off!"
	"I can't! Julia made sure no command could be issued from
here that could free your father and the others..."
	"There's always the emergency generator."
	All three of them turned around to face Surd.
	"What did you say?"
	"Please, Ms. Walker. You know that Noys will free your friends
if you turn off the emergency generator."
	"It's a trap!" Jonny warned. "Surd wouldn't give us this
information if it weren't."
	"Perhaps it is and perhaps it isn't, young Quest. Do you
want to take that chance, boy? Or do you want to leave your father and
the others to cretain death?"
	Mary walked toward him. "I hate you, Surd." she growled. Then
she turned off the voice synthetizer. "Jonny, I need your hoverboard.
There's no time to argue."

	Using a large flashlight from Surd's equipment, Jessie and
Mary drove trough the forest. They cursed the fact that they couldn't
go very fast due to Mary's added weight and the darkness surrounding
them. Jonny wanted to go with them, but he knew that Mary was the only
one who could turn off Noys, and Jessie the only one who could take
her there quickly enough. There was no way the hoverboard could carry
all three of them, so he was left behind.
	Mary was terrified. There could be no mistake: the final
stage of her mission would take place tonight. A shiver ran down her
spine, as what everyone had warned her about finally sunk in...
	For the mission to be successful, she might have to sacrifice
her life.

	   		    To be concluded!
 _________________________________________________________
|                              |                          |
|  Carlos Rodriguez            |  Cannot find REALITY.SYS |
|  carlosrgz@hotmail.com       |  Universe halted         |
|______________________________|__________________________|
______________________________________________________
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