For an instant, genuine emotion flashed across Dumas’s face.  He didn’t want to link with the club’s security system.  He didn’t want DEE to find out how horribly wrong everything had gone.  From the very beginning, it had argued against putting the tracker on Mari, and maybe it had been right.  Maybe they should have just left things alone.  If they had, Dumas could still believe that his Mari was a full and real person, despite her occasional blackouts.  He could still believe that he wasn’t a monster, despite occasional hints to the contrary.<br/><br/>“I’d rather not,” Dumas protested mildly.  Turning around, he started back toward the door through which he’d just entered.  “I think I’ll just go home and get some sleep.”<br/><br/>But the door had already closed.  And even when Dumas got close enough to touch the thick metal, it didn’t automatically slide open for him.  Under normal circumstances, this would have triggered a fit of kicking and swearing.  However, in his dazed state, Dumas just stared quizzically at the barrier.  Emergency lockdown?  Why were they in emergency lockdown?<br/><br/>The answer to that became clear when another hologram materialized in the room, looking upset and scared -- an interesting glimpse of what fear might look like, if it ever appeared on the actual Dumas’s face.  “No one is going anywhere until I find out what’s going on,” DEE insisted.  Then, pointing at the room’s only chair, it echoed Chester’s earlier command.  “Sit.  Jack in.”<br/><br/>Surrendering to the pressure of numbers, Dumas did as he was instructed.  And, having surrendered, he made no attempt to shield his recent memories from DEE.  Not that trying would have done any good.  Dumas had quickly learned that he couldn’t build a wall high enough, or lock a vault tight enough, to keep DEE out.  The security system could even go places that Dumas himself had difficulty accessing.<br/><br/>In the room itself, the expression of DEE’s hologram shifted from disbelief, to anger, to deep sadness.  “Fuck me,” it whispered softly to itself.  Then it looked at Chester.  “She doesn’t know yet?  No one’s told her?”