Free Tron Legacy by Alice Alfonsi Page A

you’re here,” she said calmly, and then she whispered, “good-bye.”
    “You don’t have to do this,” Kevin said.
    But Quorra took off. With preternatural speed, she bolted and then leaped on top of the cargo crates. Rinzler followed. But Quorra moved so fast Rinzler couldn’t catch her.
    Jumping from crate to crate, Quorra headed for the throne ship. When she hit the access ladder on the ship’s outer skin, she climbed the rungs to reach the airship’s upper deck. Then she shattered the ladder with her baton so Rinzler couldn’t follow.
    When he saw that the ladder had shattered, Rinzler paused—but just for a moment. Then the enforcer drew the disc from his back and split it.
    He leaped onto the hull of the rectifier. With a metallic clang, he plunged the discs into the vessel’s hull. Using the disc’s sharp edges the way a mountaineer would use spikes, he climbed all the way up to the bridge.
    Sam watched helplessly as Rinzler overtook Quorra.
    “We can’t just let her go!” Sam cried as Quorra was dragged into the rectifier.
    “We have no other choice,” Kevin said. “Come on!”
    Sam followed his father to the end of the docking bay. They were in the off-loading zone now. Programs awaiting processing were stacked like fireplace logs.
    Sam watched while a huge, spinning wheel emerged from the ground. A conveyor belt began feeding programs into the wheel’s path. The whirling disc held them and then twirled each program once. Then it spit them out on the other side, each program now clad in identical military uniforms and armed with a war disc.
    “It’s a reeducation chamber,” Kevin said in horror.
    “And Quorra’s going to wind up like one of them if we don’t save her,” Sam pointed out. They had to do something. Now.

    CLU STOOD ON THE rectifier’s hangar deck. He was about to address his elite Black Guard when Rinzler interrupted. Annoyed by the distraction, Clu faced his enforcer. He was surprised to find that Rinzler had a prisoner.
    “Where’s your disc?”
    Quorra’s silence was his answer. Clu touched her cheek with a gloved hand. “Where is Flynn?”
    She still said nothing.
    “Never mind. I have something special in mind for you.” Clu pushed Quorra aside to address Rinzler. “Take her away. And find them.”
    Rinzler seized Quorra’s arm.
    “I’ve seen what users are capable of,” Quorra cried. “You don’t belong with them, Clu!”
    Clu ignored her furious charges. When Quorra was gone, he composed himself and ascended the podium. rumbling cheers from his elite Black Guard greeted Clu. He began to speak.
    “Together we have achieved many things,” Clu said. “We’ve built a new world. Created a vast and complex system. Maintained it. Improved it. rid it of its imperfections!”
    Rousing cheers greeted Clu’s words.
    “Not to mention rid it of the false deity who sought to enslave us…” Clu paused and smirked as he raised his eyes skyward. “Kevin Flynn, where are you now?!”
    Hidden away, Kevin heard Clu’s cry. He was dying to answer his treacherous creation. But he remained silent. He knew they had to stay hidden if they wanted to continue living.
    Unfortunately, the more Clu talked, the more difficult it was for Kevin to listen. Clu’s voice sounded like his own voice. Clu’s face looked like his own face. But the words that echoed up from the hangar were not his words or his thoughts. They were twisted conclusions from a corrupted mind, full of arrogance and hatred. They had nothing to do with Kevin’s vision…
    Or did they? he found himself wondering. After all, I created Clu. Is some part of me like him?
    “There was a time I believed this was all there was, all we were capable of,” Clu declared as he continued to lecture his troops. “But I’m here to tell you that you’ve been kept in the dark too long.”
    Clu raised his hands. “Fellow programs, let there be no doubt. Our world is a cage no more. The key to the next frontier is