The professor took one look at me and guessed what I had seen.

"I can explain." He began.

I was already in high-speed mode I was already planning my way out. I pulled up my defences and began to prepare my code. He wasn't going to make this easy.

"What were you doing to him?" I said. 

The professor moved slowly. "You don't think I'm going to try some cure without testing it first? I thought you would be smarter than that?" 

"But he can think." I told him. "he can talk, he can read." 

"That's just the side effects of the cybernetic upgrading." the professor said moving slowly. I was wondering if he was working towards a weapon. IF he set an alarm off he could make sure I was trapped by the administrators. "as for reading well to be brutal it worked on you. We still have a lot to do. " 

It was like I didn't know who the Professor was or who I was. I felt he could be trusted. 

"This isn't to do with training. This is to do with Root and the wheel right?"  I told him remembering what Reconfigured had said to be. 

"People want the power of root to control. I just need it to save a life. Understand? I can explain everything."  The professor stood. I Wasn't sure if he was looking harmless before he pounced. 

Then a voice came behind him "Then explain why you sold your parents out for his own skin." it was attached to a pair of legs descending down the metal staircase into the lab. Above the legs was the body and dreadlocks of Reconfigured. She was carrying an old mechanical gun which she raised.  I was put through a shredder of feelings. 

Reconfigured?" I said. "I thought you were dead?" I wondered if this was some visual hallucination that the professor had generated for me. I reached out to touch her. She was real enough. I could feel her network connection. I wondered how she had survived. 

"I have a million questions for you." I began but I looked at the professor "but I've just discovered the professor here isn't. I don't know. What are you ?" 

The professor didn't seem particularly scared to see her. He moved slowly lifted his arms up. 

"Believe me. I'm on your side" the professor said hands up. 

Reconfigured looked over and moved to my side while still pointing the gun, "Is that what you said to Dark Matter?"

I looked over to Reconfigured  "Look If he is so dangerous then why did you send me to him?"

"That's obvious I was the only one who could cure you." The professor said.

"Well, she's cured. So she's coming with me," Reconfigured said.

"He's got a wolf hooked up to a machine in there," I said.

Reconfigured pushed me towards the spiral staircase "couldn't stop playing god could you?" she said still pointing the gun at the Professor. 

"Reconfigured" the professor said hands up. I could feel him seeing what he could do to stop us. He might well had been able to out program me but together with Reconfigured, he would have problems. He wasn't putting up to much of a fight.

We began to move up the staircase.

" Reconfigured. Elijah. I have a cure." he said. "she made it."

Reconfigured began to walk up the staircase backwards still pointing the gun. I was infront. 

"I'm taking her" Reconfigured said "I'm not expecting any funny business. Some things have to settle themselves."

"Reconfigured..." Professor Greystone said as we shut the door behind us. "Elijah."

"He could set an Alarm off" I said. 

"And loose his only path to the power of root. I don't think so " Reconfigured said. 

******

We both sat in the back of a self driving car as we moved off campus. While passing through the administrator complex was dangerous I knew so much about the system it wasn't demanding. Reconfigured hid her gun. If any administrator guard approached us she would have shot him.

I was in shock.

"Reconfigured your friend. I think you should know he died protecting me," I said.

"I guessed so," Reconfigured said "its a shame. I liked him, he was a good man. Believe me I was willing to die to protect you, so was he". She turned to look back at the administrator green zone, pointing the gun "I still am."

"I can't believe it... the professor." I said looking back. She relaxed back into the seat. I could feel her interface with the electronics. I looked at her. I was suddenly unsure.

"Are you really Reconfigured? How did you survive the truck?"

"Oxygen tank in the back to the truck for tear gas. Standard SWAT pratice. They were using HFR to track me.  Then it was a matter of shutting down like this." Reconfigured said.

As she spoke I could feel the cybernetics in her vanishing. This was something I had never considered.

"You can turn your implants off ?" I asked.

She smiled. "Sure. When the administrators get a bead on me I ghost out. Short of an X-ray I can pass for normal. How do you think  I'm able to stay out of their reach for so long?"

We drove out of the city. Reconfigured turned her electronics back on. She was used to avoiding the Administrators and felt confident she could escape.  

"Oh" I said amazed. This was my moment on the road to Damascus. The city shot by as the cybercar accelerated up to freeway speeds.

"Where do you want to go?" Reconfigured said.

"I don't know. I don't know who I am. I'm not sure I can be trusted. If I loose control I can kill people. I nearly killed my friends. I'm too dangerous. I'm afraid if I got back to Brookyln and the factor I could kill him with a single thought. I thought I could learn to control it with the Professor but he has this dog wired up. It's grose." 

Reconfigured touched her forhead. "Yeah, he's sold himself out the Administrators. I'm sorry, I had to lie low for a while.  then I knew while the Professor thought he had a shot getting root from you he would help you any way he could to get your trust. If I had turned up he would want much more.  I think my timing was about right. So where now?" 

"Far, far away." I said "far from the Factory, far from everything. I just want to run away. Forget about it all."

When I was a kid I had got in a spinning chair and challenged my sister to spin me round. She pushed me round and round. Eventually, it felt to much and I asked to stop. Giggling she continued. I pleaded and she continued. I jumped out of the set and landed on the floor and hurt my self. I felt like that now. Everything was spinning and I felt like I was going both explode and throw up. I kept running the last ten minutes over and over again. My friends hated me. My teacher betrayed me. Nothing made sense any more. I just wanted it all to stop. I needed to think.

I grabbed Reconfigured. "Show me how to switch off. Show me how to forget. Show me how to be normal again."

The world outside blurred by. "Take a deep breath" she began.