That, or just give up. Go into hiding, just hide from the burning shame. Yes, he, Derek Ronald Vandeveer, was a phony-baloney security expert for an agency that didn’t even exist. But it wasn’t like he could return to his previous life. What had happened to Mondiale and their competitors . . . that wasn’t a "bubble." That was a train wreck on top of an avalanche. He, Derek Vandeveer, was part of the worst destruction of wealth in human history. Men he knew and trusted, corporate visionaries building a new and better electro-world, were out on bail. The very guys who used to drop by his lab in Merwinster in their pressed slacks and cashmere sweaters, to ooh and ahhh at the prototypes. Their second homes were auctioned off by bailiffs. Their trophy wives had vanished off the fashion pages into dry-out tanks.