The street vendors now must absolutely love me solely by the amount of food I bought. Even using the cyberdeck uses bioelectricity and it consumes a lot of calories, similar to high level functioning of the brain.
I have come to the definitive conclusion that Jig Jig did not have the best fill, but at least it was good enough to push down. A few thousand calories felt about right. Long day.
I sent a picture of everything I ate to Sasha to irritate her. That worked especially well as she was out working some gigs, hasn't been able to even write, and I just received screams as a response. Absolutely furious. That's what it's all about.
Using public sources I finally found a public article from last year about Arasaka Academy. Narrowed down the possible "Tanaka" to four people in the picture, then two, then one. Public NET space is a really tough place to navigate. And Arasaka didn't make it easy to find out who was who.
Final conclusion was reached with the help of SC. It confirmed that Tanaka was the dumb looking older man with a lot of visible EMP threading on his face and parted hair.
And now I had to do a silly experiment and get his photograph in the corner of my vision at 80% opacity, just to activate SC to give me more insight.
My synthetic stomach calorie consumption approximation gave out an alert that the target of 4000 calories has been reached. But the projected nutritional values are still low, especially in amino acids.
With that I finished the last teriyaki and stood up, slowly going back to Vik's. I grabbed a can of still Real Water along the way from the vending machine. It went in the pocket.
It has been two hours since I left and it should be enough to get David fully patched up and be asleep after the full swap to his new cybernetic eyes.
The level of access to David systems while he is under is a good opportunity. Installing the software I need on him is only possible after Vik does his diagnostics. His technical ability regarding the system health was too high to ignore. I'd rather do this as occasionally as possible.
From this point I could go through Misty's Esoterica, but I would prefer not to just to avoid another sales pitch.
Getting back I grabbed the grenade left in the trash and carried it with me down the stairs to the clinic. Slowly and carefully stuffing it into my pocket.
Accessing the cameras I carefully waited before entering. The security system here was less than ideal, but it did its job. It's one of the first places I learned to access using the Raven Microcyber Mk.2.
It was deadly silent as David lay there lightly snoring. Vik nowhere in sight.
Most of David's clothes were folded on a nearby table, leaving him barechested and bandaged. The gun was sitting on top.
I began recording a loop. Deciding that two minutes is enough I looped it back for the time being. There was a good looping point where David appeared to be in the exact same position, down to a breath.
Entering, I approached David and took out my personal link and inserted it into David's neck. At this point his hair was all over the place as he turned and mumbled in his sleep. Vik loaded him up on medication.
Accessing the central operating system using the neural link is much easier than doing so remotely. The security Vik installed as a compliment was also a thing I analyzed deeply. So it proved to be not an obstacle. It prioritized a formidable layered approach that prioritized detection over speed, but it's proven to be inadequate against newer methods of intrusion, as Sasha happily showed to me many times.
Good instinct for a ripper working in Jig-Jig. Patients came in with compromised systems more often than not. But its security wanes the more you share it.
It took 8 seconds. And now everything David had was mine to browse through.
He unsurprisingly didn't have many things. Mostly miscellaneous programs and documents.
I took a quick copy and put it all under quarantine for now. Don't want anything involving BDs on my system, even if Vik cleaned up. The only thing to avoid was the unfinished text he was writing to me about the incident.
And now I had to plant the multifunctional tracker. The cred chip I gave him was a minimal intrusion solution that is counted on a slower approach.
A few hundred lines embedded in the calling function subroutine. It would read as standard telemetry to any normal scan. Location every six hours, neural activity flags if they spiked past a certain threshold, a brief system health summary. And then added future support if David gets a biomonitor like me, notifying me of any critical condition, which added even more load where I had to account for different models.
The dead-drop address it pushed to was three layers removed from anything connected to me. There are plenty of subnets across the city that people use for these purposes, sometimes even multiple at the same time. Yoko has proven that fact, mentioning that she tries to monopolize them, deleting all other backdoors.
And now using the terminals that I installed the viruses on myself, I could transfer the data. Not fearing anyone scarier than Yoko or her associates would get a hold of it. There is room for negotiation with her.
The slow process of recompiling the kernel and rebooting of the systems began.
But I did see an avatar of T-Bug once in Yoko's cyberspace. T-Bug was a force to be reckoned with, but she wouldn't give a shit unless it meant anything to her.
///81%.... 85%.... 99%....100%... COMPILATION COMPLETE. INITIATING SYSTEM REBOOT///
I closed the connection and pulled out the wire, letting it slowly climb back into my arm.
I then walked back to the entrance and stopped the loop the moment it would start back up.
Entering back again, I took a long look at David and quietly approached the storage area in the back. Opening a storage container I took out two IVs, under the influence of which I had the most strange dreams. And it was simply a nutrition and hydration package. Vik had tens of these.
Then, a catheter. And an anesthetic injector.
Going back out I transferred enough funds to cover the Kiroshis, the treatment and the borrowed IVs. Vik would understand if I explained it.
I almost tuned out the stupid corpo face in the corner of my vision, but then reminded myself that I likely needed to get more concentrated for SC to do its thing.
Then a first ping from David arrived as his system sprang back to life. The delay was not awful.
Oh, right. I walked over to David and placed the can of water next to him.
Getting back to my car I browsed through the mess that was David's recounting of the events, which involved many unnecessary details.
[UNSENT — DRAFT — LAST EDITED 22:51]
///
okay so you wanted everything so here it is
Tanaka Katsuo is the main one. same class as me, third year. his dad is literally on the academy board, like a senior position, I've seen him at the big events. we never spoke but I saw other executives approach him with respect, sort of
the others are Junho Park, Elias Varro, and this guy everyone calls Fuse, Shen something, I don't actually know his full name. their parents are sucking up to Tanaka's. dont know about others, but Junho Park's parents work marketing.
last thursday we had an argument. they pushed around but it was nothing, im sure you
I took the long way out after third period. down past the Koi building and through the maintenance passage that runs behind Memorial Park. I left the gun in the thick bushes by the second service gate that morning because you can't bring it through the front scanner. then I took it back right after school
and then I walked to the route I usually take. they were already in the passage when I got there. all four.
I was already against the wall before I understood what was happening.
I didn't swing really. I covered my head and tried to wait it out. they went for my face specifically
stuff about the scholarship. stuff about my grades. how long I'd last. I stopped listening because I've heard all of it before and none of it was new
then he said something about my mom.
I'm going to write this down because you said write everything but I'm writing it once and I'm not going to
he said she went out doing what she was good at.. then others laughed and Katsuo said something about the car, about how CHOOH2 burns, about whether she had time to
I don't
I don't know exactly what I did to get them off me. I just was up and moving and Jun was on the ground and I don't remember the moment between those two things.
I hit Katsuo with the barrel across the side of his head. He went down.
Fuse came at me and I hit him twice, collarbone and then again lower. He backed off.
Junho was already gone.
Katsuo was still on the ground. I don't know if I broke something or he just decided to stay down.
Katsuo got up and saw the gun and I began
///
I reread it a couple of times and I felt anxious.
It happened in Memorial Park. There is an absurdly high chance of it having a camera. It's literally a corp's yard.
David clearly was trying to conceal that he got angry as shit and did all of it without thinking straight, so he beat the shit out of them.
I can understand that. But it doesn't explain the core of the issue at all.
I vaguely seem to recollect that David originally caused an issue while using his BD wreath in class. It could be a completely separate issue here, since they specifically brought up Gloria Martinez by David's account.
And since there is no exceptional cyberware tolerance shown by David, there is no willful ignorance from Arasaka. The only saving grace is that he didn't shoot. All the bullets are still there.
I… uh… fuck. I'm going to throw up. I feel sick. Search and Copy, is it your doing?
Attempt.
Stop for now. Whatever you are doing, do it later.
Leaning on my shoulder using the nearby graffiti wall I tried to gather my mind again. And my strength slowly returned. Stupid, annoying shit.
People around me give me a side eye.
And the issue with David was caused by the viewing of the XBD of the cyberpsychosis of James Norris. Yeah it was…
Forget my bitching, SC. I totally had that name forgotten up until now.
Swiftly opening the interfaces I searched for any records of the incident with James Norris. There was none that would suggest he went cyberpsycho just yet. If MaxTac were to be deployed, it would be at least a passing line on the news. Now I have to plan for his cyberware extraction, somehow.
Why did it have to be Sprocket?
I got into my car, dumped the IV bags into the passenger seat and pressed the ignition.
Tanaka's face still stared at me in the corner of my eye.
Let's hope this all works.
…
I got into my old little room in the Sprocket and Wires and barred it in for the night. The workers did a good job.
The gun is at my side, Sprocket's arms are in the room. The cameras are on standby.
The car door is rigged with a grenade. Nobody gets it but me.
Inserting the specialized reinforced needle into my arm I slowly lay down feet to the door, adjusting the rate to match approximately 5 hours. I took up the image of the Arasaka Academy board member and stretched to cover the entire half of my vision at 90% opacity as I burned it into my brain.
The liquid slowly dripped into my vein and I injected myself with the anesthetic.
The feeling of profound tiredness washed over me within minutes. The biomonitor signalled another series of warnings as the drug did its job.
Show me what to do, SC.
…
A bright flash of light washed over my face, but the regulators accounted for that. Who even gave a driver's license to that creature? It's a street, not a cave.
How long is he going to take? I swear each time it takes longer and longer.
I again began tapping out a tune on the steering wheel of this limo. Can't wait for the off time. Stupid Arasaka rules say that we can't listen to music. It's Eidolon, for God's sake.
Another lowlife peeked into the backseat of the limo and the camera alerted me. I stopped tapping.
Go away, choom.
My vision flashed as the security system initialized and forced me to watch the entire perimeter.
A bum came looking around the front and saw me, then ducked and crawled away, still in the view of the camera.
I hate coming to this place. My head hurts just thinking about what would happen if they found out about these trips. My contract forbids me even thinking about changing to Militech or any other big corp.
Maybe a request to transfer would work. I heard that Eidolon is expanding her personal security. That would be amazing. Just to look at her every day…
The door flew open and big boss Ken Tanaka himself walked out looking like a kid, smiling creepily as he carried a plastic bag.
Fuck. Too fast.
I quickly got over to the console and opened the limo door as he approached.
The car shook slightly as he plopped his fat ass on the seat. And I initiated the sequence of locking the car back up again. Damn protocol.
"Come on, let's go." Tanaka-sama said.
"Yes sir." I responded, quickly getting ready to leave.
The engine roared back to life and I sped off into the night.
I dared not look at the back, but I know better than to disturb him while he is in a good mood. There is only one way to get up in this life, and it's to find your place and go up steadily.
"Shit!"
My vision blackened and I almost lost control of the car, weaving to the sidewalk and running over a trashcan.
The sound insulation made it better, but the whole car felt the impact.
"What is the matter?"
"Trash spilled onto the road. It's nothing." I assured my boss.
"Hmm." He responded. Thank god it's his pleasure day.
I rubbed my forehead with my palm as I tried shaking off the feeling.
What is the boss's pleasure day?
It's when he meets with Jimmy Kurosaki, picking up new scrolls. Some vile stuff, but I doubt I can afford it.
I slowed down the car considerably.
Where was I just?
Watson's Northside, 1420 Daniels Street, Unit 4B. It's—
How often do I go there?
It's uh… twice a month. Usually a Friday. It's uh… what's going on?
My whole body went numb… need to….
"Tanaka-sama?" my speech slurred.
"What? If it's about that music I had—"
The blinding light of an approaching freighter truck filled my vision and it blurred into a kaleidoscope. The blaring sound? Why so loud?
Death. Again?
…
"BWAAH!" I sat up suddenly, ripping the catheter out of my arm.
My ears had a slight ringing to them as blood rushed to my brain.
I ran my hands over my body to check for injuries. The biomonitor showed no signs of any abnormalities.
///HEART RATE 130 BPM. RETURNING TO BASELINE///
What the fuck? I'm fine.
"What was that!?" I blared out.
I was just—? No, I am in the workshop room. Like I was. Everything is still in its place. Cameras didn't alert me. Door is untouched.
Looking over at the empty IV bag, the thought struck me. Did it work? Was this it?
The picture of Ken Tanaka was gone, and instead I saw a text document in the middle of some process.
My eyes were shaking and I quickly read the information. Could it be?
/// FILE: LOG_2075_02_27_DRV.TXT ///
/// STATUS: CRITICAL CORRUPTION ///
/// LAST SAVED: [TIMESTAMP OVERFLOW] ///
/// ATTEMPTING RECOVERY... ///
[RECOVERED FRAGMENT 1]
s̷u̷n̷l̷i̷g̷h̷t̷ ██ ███ b̷r̷e̷a̷k̷ t̷h̷e̷ n̷i̷g̷h̷t̷
I'̸m ̸a s̸h̸a̸d̸o̸w ██ y̸o̸u̸ c̸a̸n̸'̸t̸ ███ f̸i̸g̸h̸t̸
e̷n̷i̷g̷m̷a̷t̷i̷c̷ ██ e̸i̸d̸o̸l̸o̸n̸ ███ c̸a̷m̸e̸ a̸l̸i̸i̸i̸i̸v̸e̸
_ _ _
y⃠o⃠u⃠ w⃠a⃠n⃠t⃠e⃠d⃠ ██ f⃠a⃠m⃠e⃠ ███ b⃠u⃠t⃠ I⃠ ██ w⃠a⃠n⃠t⃠ y⃠o⃠u⃠r⃠
...limo. ███ always the same. b⬩ck seat. don't l̷o̷o̷k̷.
plea$%ure day. that's w█at he c\\\\alls it. scrolls.
OH
[RECOVERED FRAGMENT 2]
jimmy kurosaki. n⃠a⃠m⃠e⃠ s⃠t⃠i⃠c⃠k⃠s⃠. t⃠
[RECOVERED FRAGMENT 3]
1420 DANIELS STREET
UNIT 4B
WATSON — NORTHSIDE
(repeats)
(repeats)
(█r█e█p█e█a█t█s█)
[RECOVERED FRAGMENT 4]
twice a m⃫o⃫n⃫t⃫h⃫. █lwa⃢ys Fr⃢i⃢d⃢a⃢y⃢. ║lways night.
last visit: [ꝀꝀꝀꝀꝀꝀꝀꝀ]
next visit: [ꝀꝀꝀꝀꝀꝀꝀꝀ]
[RECOVERED FRAGMENT 5]
exchange: pl⃦a⃦s⃦t⃦i⃦c⃦ b⃦a⃦g⃦ i⃦n⃦. scrolls out.
b̴o̴s̴s̴ KEN TANAKA
[RECOVERED FRAGMENT 6]
hit a t⃒r⃒a⃒s⃒h⃒c⃒a⃒n⃒. b̷o̷s̷s̷ d̷i̷d̷n̷'̷t̷ c̷a̷r̷e̷. pleasure day.
[RECOVERED FRAGMENT 7]
driv€r rul€$: stay █n veh█cle. camer█s on. ignore the b⃢u⃢m⃢s⃢. never l⃢o⃢o⃢k⃢ █n the b⃢a⃢g⃢. never ◬◭◮ ask.
/// END OF RECOVERED DATA ///
/// FILE INTEGRITY: 19% ///
/// CRC CHECKSUM: FAILED ///
"What the—?"
Copy.
You wrote this file? Last time you did that it was much more comprehensible?
Copy. Limit. Time.
I quickly glanced to see the time and total time of sleep just surpassed 6 hours, which is much less than expected. But the results are mindblowing.
Despite the high file corruption I still got so much information. And adding that I vaguely remember the dream, it makes it even more amazing.
It had uh… sunlight… no. Still goes by real dream rules? I cannot quite get the details. But I don't need to. SC did the job for me. Even as far as recording it.
You're welcome.
Save your words. I plan to do the same again tomorrow. I wonder if the sleeping agent contributed positively or negatively to the process. One thing I can say is that I'm starving. Which was to be expected.
The time was past sunrise, at 7:13 am.
Slowly standing up I noticed that the ripped out catheter caused my vein to bruise quickly. I didn't even feel it.
I slowly took a few steps around the small room, checking if my body felt all right after all. It did.
Approaching the door I heard distant and muffled speech just outside the shop, as well as a couple of heavy metal bangs. Customers?
There shouldn't be. Unless it's about the lawsuit about the damaged cars. I think I can tell them to fuck off and legally I'm in the clear.
It took half a minute of dismantling the barricade before I opened the door. I heard a distinctly loud voice in an argument.
Accessing the camera system I checked each one in quick succession. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody.
Is the outside camera offline? Great sign. I went back to pick up a gun and chambered a round.
I approached the gate control and began slowly opening it, having my gun at my side. Fuck all of you. The voices were much more clear.
"Oh? Look at that! I told you, you fucking gonk ass, that there are people here!" a piercing voice screamed.
Rebecca? The fuck is she doing here? It's definitely her.
As the gate reached eye level, she looked at me and pointed with her finger. She had her battle gear on, and her colorful cyberarms were fucking giant. And her big jacket held her comparatively oversized mint green and pastel pink handguns stuffed in there.
"Oi. Who the hell are you? We are looking for Caelen." Rebecca squatted to see me.
"Damn, you look like shit, man. Heh." Pilar chimed in, leaning forwards towards me as the gate opened.
I don't know what to do. What are they doing here?
"Shop's closed. Get the fuck out." I responded, using my Rafael voice. My hand gripped the handle of the gun tighter. I stopped the opening of the gate just before it would reach over my shoulders.
Pilar straightened his back and began walking away from me.
Rebecca stepped in, placed her huge hand under the gate and pushed it up a few feet, causing a metallic screech from the door mechanism.
"Where is Caelen? You his buddy or something?" she said casually, looking around, especially at the car. Her hands were still on the gate.
"No." I responded, which I thought would warrant some reaction.
The next moment I heard the banging of a car door and the engine starting just outside.
"A little higher!" Pilar screamed.
"Gotcha, bro!" Rebecca answered and stood on her toes, suddenly launching it upwards with such force that it almost broke.
She is ignoring me.
I twisted my body to hide the gun on my right side, and raised the barrel slightly.
"Caelen!? Rafael? Whatever… come help!" came from outside.
Sasha?
The truck rolled in truck bed first, with Sasha lying on top of a pile of hastily secured netrunner equipment with a full netrunner chair as the throne. Rusty chains and duct tape. Sasha waved slowly as she lay upside down. What?
I lowered the gun.
I just stood there with an open mouth for a few seconds, trying to come up with a guess.
Pilar peeked out as he was backing in towards the open space between the car lifts.
"Here we go! Perfect!"
The weight of the truck made a big indent in the newly epoxied floor and ruined it. Those guys were really working hard on it.
"Help us unload. Or no. Call Caelen. Yeah." Rebecca began bossing around as she walked around inspecting the space.
Sasha groaned and arched back so much she almost fell out of the chair of the moving truck.
"Ugh. It's him. He's just being a dick. He resleeved his face." she said, totally giving out my identity.
I just noticed that her clothes were damaged with what looked like burn marks.
Rebecca did a double take as she looked back at Sasha and then at me. She suddenly became angry and scowled at me.
"It's you! You sneaky-" Rebecca started winding up as she approached me.
Oh, shit. I preemptively dropped my gun on the floor, releasing my right hand and raising it slightly. With Sasha here, I'm sure there is some reason for all of this.
"-son of a bitch! The fuck is wrong with you? I was this close to painting the wall with your brains!" Rebecca said, holding her thumb and finger an inch apart.
That's way more friendly than I expected.
"Why are you confused, man? Didn't you get the messages?" Rebecca asked, now back to looking around.
At this point, there was no threat to me. I turned off the voice modulator.
"Let me see…"
I opened the logs and saw 23 messages. They were all counted as already read 40 minutes ago, as well as 3 calls that were put on ignore.
David had written to me, Sasha did, as well as an unknown number, which by the excessive use of emojis I could say was Pilar. One thing at a time.
SC?
There was no response. But I doubt there exists another way my messages are being counted as already read. And it already proved it can interact with my software. Security against that needs to be implemented. Today.
At this point Pilar killed the engine. And Rebecca was approaching my Quadra. I quickly turned on all of the lights remotely.
"Hey! Don't touch it!" I called out.
"I'm just looking, though. Not a big deal." Rebecca said while approaching the side.
"It's rigged to explode if you open the driver side door." I explained.
Rebecca yanked her hand back like the car was radioactive.
"That's fucked up."
"Well, I didn't really think of visitors."
Pilar walked over from the truck, wiping his hands on his pants. He looked at the Quadra, then at me, then back at the Quadra.
"So if I just… touched the handle…"
"Grenade lever wired to the door latch. Open it, lever releases, three second delay, explosion."
"Three seconds?" She looked up. "That's generous."
The thought didn't cross my mind, but three seconds to someone like her would be enough to get away safely.
"I didn't make the grenade."
"Cool." He said, and immediately reached in.
"Pilar!" Rebecca screamed in irritation.
He stopped his hand an inch from the handle, grinning like an idiot.
"Kidding. Relax, Becca. I got a sense of humor."
"I'll disarm it if you want to look inside." I said.
Pilar then looked through the windows, seeing my hillbilly boobytrap.
"Why only on the driver's side?"
"I only had one grenade."
"Oooooh." came from Pilar and Rebecca at the same time.
Then a quiet "Broke." came from Rebecca.
Looking around I saw Sasha moving around, still on top of the stuff in the truck bed.
Sasha was still upside down in the truck, trying to untangle herself from the netrunner chair.
"Can somebody please get me out of this thing? I'm really tired and I'm losing feeling in my left ass cheek."
I walked over and grabbed the edge of the chair. Pulled. The whole thing shifted, chains rattling, and Sasha slid out like a drunk eel, landing on her feet with a stumble. I caught her by the shoulder. The smell of burnt plastic really hit hard at that moment—her hair had been singed.
"Steady."
She looked up at me. Her eyes were shaking slightly.
"Wow, you smell and look like shit."
"Likewise. So, what's going on? I didn't read a thing."
Sasha gestured to let her go and she stretched and yawned.
"Biotechnica. They found me and raided me. And details…" she yawned again, "read the messages, dummy. I wanna lie down."
Wasn't Yoko supposed to keep track of these things? It seemed like her capabilities were quite limited. And I wasn't targeted just yet.
Now two corpo related problems at the same time, which with SC there is always a possibility. With time it became more precise.
"How did you know I was here?" I asked as she walked away towards the shelf with the tires.
Sasha gave a small smile.
"Check your car."
I clasped my hands over my mouth and looked at the ceiling.
"Genuinely… why do you do these things?"
She quietly took off the tires from the stacks and moved on top of them. Impromptu bed.
"You started it."
Steps behind me approached. Rebecca.
"Here." she said.
I turned around and she held my gun by the barrel, which had previously been on the floor.
After a moment I took it back, ejected the magazine and cycled the chamber to get the round out. I caught the bullet in the air and put it back into the magazine.
"Dude. Is your software glitchin' or something? You shoudda known we were coming." Rebecca asked.
I put the magazine back into the gun and then placed it on the truck bed.
Pilar silently walked past and began slowly taking out equipment.
"Well, last time you tried to kill me."
To be fair I was drunk and naked in her bed without me knowing why.
Pilar carried a server stack with wires dangling behind.
"C'mon, help me out. I'm not slaving away alone. I was working THE WHOOOOLE NIGHT AND YOU-" Pilar whined.
"Shut up." Rebecca retaliated, and then began explaining to me. "You did make sure Sasha came out alive when we were too far away. So it's… ugh… forgiven. You are still a major fuckin' weirdo. Don't try that shit again."
This whole time Pilar was making noises in the background.
"I don't mind!" Sasha blurted out, clearly already half asleep.
"Gotcha, appreciate it. Just give me a second." I said and momentarily began scrolling through my notifications.
For the time being I ignored Sasha's messages, because if she is here with us she is safe enough. But I didn't know what David was up to since I left him with Vik. And the message he left 20 minutes ago was…
"What's up? I will be training with Vik if you want to find us. He said you know the address."
Ok. Thank fuck.
"WORK PEOPLE. WORK!" Pilar shouted and loudly banged the corner of the netrunner chair base against the floor, making an indent in the fresh and malleable epoxy.
I'm sorry Jake, you worked so hard yesterday. I ran over and picked up the corner from the ground.
"Hold on, I'm on it." Rebecca said.
Rebecca joined in, jumping onto the truck and pushing it down from above with her big arms. The truck's suspension buckled and screeched.
"That's not helping!" I called out.