“So there we were,” said Silver (and Flint was rolling his eyes already), “the ship struggling against the wind of regulations, fighting to turn bow-first into the wave of data, when Billy was swept overboard” (and now Flint was avoiding his gaze, curioser and curiouser). “All the bootleg treasure in the world wouldn’t help the ship stay upright, and HMS Copyright was patrolling the coast, so streaming into the Bay was out of the question.”

“Spare me the suspense, Silver — if we sank along with the Napster then we wouldn’t very well be here now, would we?” Flint shoved his stool away from the bar in disgust, and Silver shrugged philosophically; now the fangirls’ attention was all his, if he could only reclaim it...

“... so there we were, caught in the biggest torrent I’ve ever seen...”