Chapter Five: The Promotion Line

Lin did not celebrate. He pointed toward the ambulance. Emma had recorded the remote command. Its doors shut, but hundreds of celebrating supporters blocked its exit. The last ten minutes lasted a season. Jules stopped a shot with his face; Sami rose from cramp to make one more tackle. At the whistle, Baptiste knelt in the mud. Saint-Denis had reached the promotion playoff. In the dressing room Lin vomited blood into a sink. For seven minutes he could not remember his mother's voice; in its place came fragments of Idriss's childhood. The system warned that the forced switch had caused neural contamination. Another load might permanently confuse his memories.