The Conflagration of Darby Skelm. The SKELM Chronicles: Reprehensible Deeds of a Detestable Scoundrel, #2

Open mouths, empty heads, big bytes. The Dido is a dead whale welded to a Soviet satellite. It shouldn't fly. Neither should Darby Skelm, but here he is, riding a bioluminescent coffin into the digital underworld because his dead wife won't stop screaming from inside a firewall. Creusa wants answers. Darby's fresh out. All he's got is a quantum-static spork, a guide named Echo who speaks in ruins, and a river that charges admission in memories he can't afford to lose.
Past the three-headed malware. Past the queen who trades in expired meaning. Past the grief that knows his name better than he does. Every layer down costs something he'll never get back. The underworld doesn't care if you survive. It only cares if you pay.