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Dimitri walks slowly into the kitchen. I follow, a few paces behind. He pulls out a chair, sits down at my breakfast table, and closes his eyes. My avatar pops up on the kitchen wallscreen. She’s back to her cartoon robot self. “You’re not going to let me go,” she says, “are you?” “No,” Dimitri says. “I am not.” “If I can’t go, you can’t either,” says the avatar. He stands, lifts his chair, and smashes my back window. He uses the chair back to poke the remaining glass out of the frame, then leans out and looks down. “It’s a long way down,” my avatar says. “I am aware,” says Dimitri. It’s actually about thirty feet to the ground from here. There’s a flat-roofed building across the alley, maybe ten feet below the level of my window and fifteen or twenty feet away. Dimitri glances back at me, then across the alley. He heaves a deep sigh, and sits down again. “Excuse me,” I say, “but would someone please explain to me what, exactly, is going on?” “You called in a crowbar,” says my avatar. Dimitri leans back, and knits his hands behind his head. “I did.
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