I ran down the corridor, breathing heavily. I had lost her. My chest heaved, and a sob cracked its way through my chest and up my throat. I thought furiously through the desperation that threatened to consume me. There was no way to regain her. She was too far away, they would know exactly where I went, and I would lose her again, whatever I did. They knew me too well. They knew my credit cards; my cell phones; my IDs; my cars; my relatives; my friends; the friends of the friends of my friends; the cafe that I couldn't remember the location of, that I had visited in New Zealand last year. God, their file on me was so thick that I could probably hide a cat in there and they wouldn't notice a difference.

The thought pulled me up short. The file. Of course. Why hadn't I thought of it before?

I picked the right hallway, a little behind me and left, and sprinted full-force down it, listening for pursuit, though I knew there wouldn't be any. The idea that I would be here, of all places, wouldn't enter their wildest dreams... and with their "accidental" power outage, their cameras wouldn't hand that idea to them.

I owed Sergei a lot for that stunt.

I almost ran past the door before I realized which it was, and almost tripped getting in the door. The console was sitting in its customary blue haze of light, mounted prettily on the wall, even where no one would admire it. They always loved everything to be perfect. I ran my eyes over the blank walls - an unnecessary caution - before stepping up to the sensor plate. I ran my fingers swiftly over the slick screen. Familiar territory and years of training now led me right to my goal, hopping through systems and networks. I finally located and opened the white icon and spread my file over the screen.

It was all there. Even I hadn't realized how long they'd been tracking me. Her. Us. Together. Everywhere. Memories filled my mind and were echoed visually on the glowing panel. Here was every place we had ever bought coffee together, ever asked to use the phone, every theater we had attended, every single phone call either of us had ever made, the transcripts of each captured conversation. I slid my fingers over the display, separating - caressing - the items.

God, it was my life, all there on that screen: she was my life. She made each aspect unique, and there she was, arrayed in a thousand memories before me, irrevocably tied... her life making mine.

And she was gone.

My heart started cracking, but I forced the thought away with all the resilience I could muster. I made my fingers work, slipping all the items together, and quickly coded the brief but powerful text that could- would save me.

Please, let it save me. Let it save...

...and then my entire life was gone, with one click. Hope began slowly spreading in my chest as I rapidly checked and cross-checked the systems, scanning and re-scanning the archives across the networks for anything else I missed, any records of copies made.

There were none.

I was free.

And now all I had to do was get it back. All I had to do was find her again.