Free Tron Legacy by Alice Alfonsi Page B

finally in our possession!”
    Clu gestured to a point a few decks above where Sam and his father hid. A light appeared, illuminating the ship’s bridge. Kevin’s disc was up there. Clu had mounted it on a high-tech pedestal as if it were a sacred object.
    The disc was glowing. Active. ready to lead Clu and his army through the portal and out into the real world.
    “Unlike our selfish creator, I will make Flynn’s world open and available to us all!” Clu bellowed. “In that world, our systems will grow. There our systems will blossom!”
    Clu raised his hands over his head. “Together, we have changed this world. Together, we can change the new world, too. So I ask you. Are you ready to receive your command?”
    The massive Black Guard army nodded in unison. “Yes!”
    “Maximize efficiency,” Clu commanded. “rid the new system of imperfection! rid the new system of the users!”
    Cheers erupted from the Black Guard. The vibrations were loud enough to shake the catwalk under Sam’s boots.
    Sam exchanged a horrified glance with his father. rid the new system of its users, Sam thought. But “users” are humans.
    Clu wants to rid the world of people!

“WE HAVE TO GET YOUR DISC!” Sam whispered, feeling almost frantic now. He pointed above them, to the shining object displayed on the ship’s bridge.
    “No,” Kevin quietly replied, refusing to even look at it. “We must beat Clu to the Portal. You can shut him down from the outside.”
    But Sam pointed out the army assembled below them. “Even if I make it out, by the time I find Alan Bradley, you’ll be long gone,” Sam said. “The disc is the only way!”
    Kevin considered his son’s words.
    “Come on, dad. We can do this.”
    But once again Kevin shook his head. “If we go now, at least maybe you can get out. At least there’s a chance.”
    “What about everything you created?” Sam asked.
    “It’s just a program, Sam!” his father responded, finally losing his cool. “It can all be rewritten. You can’t. It’s not worth your life.”
    “What about you? What about Quorra?” Sam asked. “You said it yourself, dad. Some things are worth the risk.”
    Kevin blinked in surprise. His own words had come back to haunt him.
    “I’m not going back alone, dad.”
    Before his dad could argue, Sam took off toward the bridge—and his father’s disc.

    THE MOMENT SAM EXITED THE ELEVATOR , he was attacked by two Sentries. He hurled his disc at one, derezzing him instantly.
    The other swung his disc. But Sam ducked in time and gripped the Sentry’s legs. With a heave, he tossed the armored guard over the rail.
    Three more Sentries appeared. A warrior in action, Sam quickly reduced them to pixels. Then he crossed the bridge and stood before the pedestal. The disc glowed with an inner radiance. But as Sam reached for it, Counselor Jarvis rose in front of him.
    “Stop!” Jarvis shouted.
    Sam raised his disc with threatening fury, and the cowardly program shrank backward.
    “At least I can say I tried to stop him,” Jarvis muttered to himself.
    Sam returned to the pedestal. But he was back in Jarvis’s face a moment later. “I came with a girl—a program,” he said. “Where is she?”
    A door opened. Sam saw Quorra standing there. He rushed forward to meet her.
    That’s what Rinzler was waiting for—he stepped out of the shadows, surprising Sam.
    “Sam! go!” Quorra shouted.
    Instead, Sam faced Rinzler. dropping into a crouch, he reached behind him with his left hand while he raised his disc with his right.
    Rinzler drew his own disc and split it. With a quick flick of his arm, he fired off the first. The toss was aimed directly at Sam’s head.
    Sam deflected the first throw with his own disc, but the move left his torso exposed.
    Rinzler smiled as he shot his second disc. The razor-sharp edge was coming right for Sam! He was going to be cut in two!
    That’s when Sam brought his left hand forward. It was holding his dad’s disc!
    Sam