Holmes, Mckee, Egg, John and Pauline step out of a manhole 10 meters above the Australian wilderness. They set up camp by a brook in a Eucalyptus grove and decide to launch an attack on their enemy through the Overworld.

John says that perhaps their enemy is an AI. Egg tells him that's obvious, and starts exercising - jumping in the air, swinging from trees, etc. Henry enters the Overworld and tries to 'hack' their enemy, scanning incoming/outgoing communications to and from the ruined city VR. He doesn't find any outside, localized units that the VR is communicating with. He decides to pause the VR. Realizing that the Overworld is a distributed system, he tries to prevent the VR's signals from propogating, until it slows down to a stand still due to lack of processing resources. Much hacking takes place. John supervises, and tries to spy on the enemy's VR, to see if they are detected. He feels someone 'watching' him, but the enemy doesn't show awareness of the hacking.

Meanwhile, McKee walks to the source of the brook (a small spring), and Pauline tags along. McKee notes that although Pauline has her familiar scent and perfume, she doesn't seem to be sweating as much as one would expect.