Since the misadventures in England last year, he had sought out any information on the mysterious Matrix entity that he believed to be the artificial intelligence created by the Renraku Special Directorate. It had reappeared, very briefly, during the affair with the renegade druids known as the Hidden Circle, reminding Dodger of its terrible and fascinating existence. At the time he had feared that some faction involved in aiding or fighting the Circle was managing the AI, but so little had come of its actions that he had begun to wonder. His cautious delvings—and the less-cautious blunderings of other deckers excited by Dodger’s own panic—had uncovered very little. The fragmentary data that passed for clues was more often apocryphal than authentic. Though he had begun to think the apparition within the druids’ computer architecture a phantasm of his own creation, born of fear and anxiety, he hadn’t abandoned the search. He wasn’t sure why. Perhaps Sam’s stubbornness was rubbing off on him.