Little Brother - Masha

Well... Masha certainly is an interesting character! She is introduced (by name) at the end of the book. At first, she works against Marcus and basically blackmails him into cooperating with her. She claims that she knows who he is. She also claims that she too was there the day that the bridge was blown up. Like Marcus, she was taken hostage by the DHS. Instead of being released, she was kept and made to infiltrate the system and act as a spy on the Xnet. Marcus actually figured out that there was a spy quite some time earlier. It was because of this that he made the even secret-er secret network. Masha's motives for contacting Marcus are that she signed up to help bring down terrorists, but instead is being forced to bring down dissenters that she agrees with. For this reason she makes a plan to escape. Along with threatening Marcus, she offers him passage to safety along with her provided that he help her by creating a distraction. For the distraction, Marcus goes back to his LARPing roots and creates an event at which Xnetters dress up as vampires and "bite" each other. It is at this event that Masha and Marcus finally meet.

As it turns out, Masha is the girl from the very beginning of the book with pink hair. She was the leader of the other team playing Harajuku Fun Madness. Just like at the end, she blackmailed Marcus and his friends then by taking their picture and threatening to turn them into the truancy agency if they didn't relinquish the clue. Later, she uses this picture to entice Marcus into leaving with her and leaving Ange behind.

Though they are technically on the same side of this "battle", Marcus and Masha have very different ideas of how to go about getting what they want. Masha wants to leave and hide until the time seems right to act. Also, she would always act secretly and anonymously. She tells Marcus that it's better to be a fighter than a martyr. I think this shows that she thinks about herself above others. Marcus, on the other hand, believes in standing your ground and fighting for what you care about. This is clearly shown in the book as Masha runs away while Marcus stays and publicly opposes the DHS. I think this shows that Marcus puts the well-being of others and justice above self preservation. Though they are fighting for the same thing, their fighting methods are radically different.

I think that Masha has a knack for knowing people's weaknesses. She is able to find out what their motivations and fears are and use them to her advantage. In the beginning of the story she used Marcus' fear of getting busted and was about to succeed when the bombs went off and chaos ensued. Later, she uses his fear of being identified as M1K3Y to blackmail him. Though subtle, she also threatens Ange as well. She succeeds with this and Marcus does help her, though things do not go as they plan. After they escape the crowd, she uses Marcus' desperation for rescuing Darryl to her advantage, forcing him to go with her.

After Marcus steals her phone and escapes, Masha is not longer actively in the book. As they are both "underground", Marcus sets Masha up with Zeb. Even though she is not actively in the book for long, she is what gets the ball rolling for the final showdown between Marcus and the DHS. Masha is responsible for the vampire "party", which leads to Marcus being on the run, which leads to his re-capture by the DHS. Although the ultimate antagonist of the story is the DHS, Masha acts as a more tangible sub-antagonist that Marcus would seem to actually have a chance at overcoming. In the end though, she is just another ally of Marcus' who happens to have different ideas on how to achieve their goals.

-Lina >.<