The knight turned to look at Andy, stepped toward him, raised the sword. There was nothing Andy could do. He was frozen as the virtuality around him flickered. His mind was flickering, too. Then he was gone but not gone, whirling away from the black ice knight and lying, panting, in the console chair. He was out, and not out, all at once. Away from the virtual ready room, yet still standing beneath the electron skies; spiraling away from the secret places through open cyberspace among streaks and stars of data, yet blinking meat eyes at the faces of a troll and a man. Out of the Matrix and falling back down into his sweat-plastered, limp body, yet already there, although simultaneously standing, frozen, watching the knight raise his sword of fire. The duality tore at his mind and overwhelmed him.