It is an illusion of ease. Hunter was worn out and burned out, with no reserves and battered by the constant artificial stimuli in her brain. Her blood was flooded with stress hormones her exhausted organs could not properly process. She had not slept. Humans need sleep, but it was not in the protocol for a direct neural interview because it had never been a problem before. Neith tries to imagine nearly a day and a half fighting inside her own brain against an enemy who could not be beaten or evaded: a war of attrition in which Hunter was both the beleaguered defender and the battlefield.