Breathe in, breathe out.

Shen Cong strained to picture what a deep breath felt like, trying to get himself back into the state he had just been in.

A moment ago, when the thought of drawing a deep breath had crossed his mind, a thread of sensation had suddenly arisen in his paralyzed body. That single thread had delighted him beyond measure, because it meant a connection was forming between his body and the Vajra Fortress.

Before this, while nerve-gold was deteriorating, nothing he tried could get the Vajra Fortress to make any connection with his body.

He had not expected hope to rise so abruptly at the most despairing moment of all.

That thread of hope drew him the way a flame draws a moth, and it killed off any thought of going to the Eastern Theater Command. He meant to seize hold of that strange thread of feeling and stake everything on it.

"When I unconsciously drew that deep breath, it triggered a peculiar connection between the Vajra Fortress and my body. That connection must be the Superbrain setting off some kind of fluctuation in the Firestarter grains, and the nervous system in my body answering it. All I have to do now is find the frequency of that fluctuation, and I can reproduce the moment!"

"Quiet. Quiet now…"

"Loosen the feelings, settle the mind, slowly — breathe in, breathe out…"

Shen Cong had spent this past month and more uneasy, oppressed, tense and on edge, and now that he wanted to relax it was anything but easy. But he was very good at hypnotizing himself, telling himself over and over inwardly that he had found the right road and that the turning point was almost in reach.

Bit by bit his mood loosened. A wave of fatigue came over him, and once again Shen Cong found himself wanting to yawn.

And at that instant the flash came a second time.

Clearer than the first.

A flash of light, all at once.

Cutting the pitch-blackness open!

Shen Cong started, threw off every trace of fatigue, and his spirits…