It was a shame not to use this wiz hardware to go Matrix surfing, but Andy understood the necessity of taking care of business at home first. He jacked in and fed the data files down from his headware into the cyberdeck. Manipulating copies on the machine would protect the originals if something happened to the data while he was trying to crack them. As he dumped, he felt a relief as if he had gotten over a head cold and was finally able to breathe freely again. He knew that the space in his skull hadn’t changed, but it felt like it nonetheless. The file icons glistened before his virtual eyes, offering him a choice between the files he’d taken himself from the Telestrian matrix, and copies of those recovered from what Yates had stuffed into Andy’s headware. They were all armored in encryption and none offered any easier entry than any other. Picking one at random, he marshaled his cutter software and went at it, trying to break through the protective shells.