"You were asking a question," says Keene, settling back on his rock and looking to Alex. "about winnable battles. Let me first tell you what is not a winnable battle: a head-to-head fight against a Technocratic corporation when you don't have a game plan outside of trying to play a game of `keep away'. Perhaps I just wasn't here when this all started, but were any of you going to clean the Node and do something with it before Hyperion came along? I heard it was corrupt for the longest time."