How It All Goes Down
- Elise believes the existence of Ronnie's syn-app means that Ronnie is still alive.
- Elise sends her syn-app into the program to talk to syn-app Ronnie.
- Little Ronnie gives Elise a flash drive.
- Yes, there's a flash drive inside a flash drive. Flash drive-ception.
- Whatever is on the virtual flash drive begins uploading itself to Ajay's real tablet.
- But suddenly, virtual monsters show up in the program. It's being hacked.
- Syn-app Ronnie fights off the hackers to buy them time.
- As soon as the file reaches 100%, Ajay shuts down his tablet.
- At that very moment, the power goes out across campus.
- Will powers his tablet back on, and his syn-app says, "You should have let me run that security check" (35.91). Why is it optional if it's so important?
- The syn-app ejects the bug that crawled into the tablet a few chapters ago.
- Will suspects Lyle sent it in from one of his canisters. But how did he get it?
- They'll have to figure that out later. It's time to open Ronnie's file.
- It's a video of Lyle in the auxiliary locker room.
- In the video, a mystery man shows Lyle how to open a window into the Never-Was and store a creature in a canister.
- The Bald Man is there, too. And he's carrying a metallic box that says "The Paladin Prophecy" (35.144).
- Good thing the bad guys are into clear labelling. We bet their Tupperware cabinets at home look flawless.
- The gang decides to track down Lyle, so they head to his room.
- But it's empty. Lyle has beat feet.