"Believe what you like." Babel smiled wearily. "It doesn’t matter either way. I know I encountered a vast .. . ‘ intelligence ’ is the only word I can give it, during my initiation, and it told me I had to do this to protect the technomancers from being exploited by the megacorps. Or worse yet, turned into lab rats so the corps could figure out how our abilities worked. What I didn’t know was that this ‘intelligence’ was just as manipulative as the megacorps, if not more. It’s vast, Lanier, more than any of us can imagine. We’re nothing to it, like ants crawling in and around its home. To be used as it wants, then stepped on."