The question was an important one in both our minds, of course. The megacorporations' little demonstration was like a cop's warning shot. As I'd been taught at the Lone Star Academy, a warning shot's always going to provoke a reaction. Sometimes it's the one you want—abject surrender, when the perp you're chasing realizes you could have put a round into his ten-ring. Sometimes it's the exact opposite—a kind of "Oh yeah? Well, frag youl " response that turns into a blazing firefight. I couldn't shake the worry that the high muckamucks of the Corporate Court hadn't given much thought to the second possibility.