Part One: Crossing the Guard
Chapter One
The Meet
La Maison D'IndochineDowntown, Seattle
March 10, 2059
8:00 pm
"You ever figure that it's not worth it?" Lenny asked as he buried his nose in his glass of wine.
"What're you talking about?" His companion, a magician who called herself Shard, replied. "What's worth it?"
Lenny afforded himself a slight grin. His eyes wondered from his glass to Shard. She was dressed in a dazzling gown of crossing colors and glittering stones. It allowed for a low cleavage that almost revealed too much to be sociably acceptable. The cost of something like that would have probably set him back several months. Shard's hair, a brilliant blonde in color, was knotted up on her head in a traditional Japanese style. The style revealed the sharp point of her elvish ears and the sparkling earrings that dangled like lost jewels. She wore a lot of makeup for the meeting. Her eyes were a bright emerald green and highlighted with a ruby shade. She had also puckered her lips with a shining red that seemed to demand attention from anyone who passed their table. Lenny wasn't surprised at her appearance. Shard was like that, flamboyant and flashy whenever she had the chance. At times she was more of a club hopper than a well-trained mage. Fortunately she had enough sense to know when to be a show-off and when to forget the flashy clothes and wear something more practical.
This is different. The two of them were in one of the most exclusive dining establishments in all of Seattle. The La Maison D'Indochine, a very upper corporate establishment that offers elegant dining in traditional surroundings. Most menu choices feature deluxe French and Vietnamese food. The exorbitant prices reflect the quality of the food, the beauty of the surroundings, and the restaurant's reputation among the corporate executives as a secure place to do business over a delicious, relaxing meal. The building it is housed in is not all that big on the outside. However the inside was absolutely beautiful. The building is lavishly decorated. Expensive chandeliers hang from the 20 foot-high ceiling and art pieces adorn the walls. The establishment also has a strict dress code, formal wear, and does not allow any kind of weapons inside. Probably a the main reason why the meeting was scheduled here.
"I'm sure Riggs and maybe Smiley would've loved to be on the inside. The two of them have been complaining about not having anything to eat since this morning." Shard commented, bringing Lenny out of his trance-like train of thought.
"Huh?" He shook his head as if to bring the world back into focus. "What did you say?"
"Nothing."
"No, I heard you. Bring Smiley in here?" He looked around again at the calm atmosphere and gentle music being played by a small group of musicians with violins. "I think he'd try to get in with the band over there."
Shard gave a slight laugh. "Probably would."
A conservatively dressed woman approaches the booth where Shard and Lenny are. She's Japanese by her looks, in her mid-thirties despite whatever amount of cosmetic surgery she has had. Her dress is a corporate dinner suit, tight grey jacket that hugs close to her body and a conservative skirt also in grey. An appearance that sharply contrasts Shard's. She is carrying a small briefcase in her left hand.
"Konichiwa" She said in traditional Japanese greeting. "I'm pleased that you could all arrive. My name is Mrs. Johnson." She took a seat that had been reserved for her and picked up the menu. Her eyes glance at the pair at the booth. "I'm sorry, but I was expecting more."
Shard looked at Lenny who smiled. He learned forward and spoke to the Johnson. "Not to worry, their all here, Ma'am."
"Absolutely fragging right we are." Riggs' voice came over the commlink earplug in Lenny's ear. He tried to sush the obnoxious dwarf without acting foolishly in front of Mrs. Johnson.
"My name is Lenny." He introduced, offering his hand in a light handshake. He nodded with his head to the elf. "This is my partner, Shard."
"How do you do?" Shard replied, offering a handshake as Lenny had. Mrs. Johnson gently took both of their hands and glanced back down to her menu. For a moment, Shard wondered if she had taken the word partner that Lenny had used in the wrong way. She knew that the Japanese were quite hateful towards metahumans. That was one of the reasons why Lenny had elected to only have one other member of the team present during the meet. The rest would be outside keeping an eye out for trouble.
"Would you like to order any drinks before we continue with our business?" Mrs. Johnson asked politely as a waiter came up with a datapad, prepared to take their orders.
Lenny recognized the waiter as the one that had served him his drink before. He held up his glass toward the young woman. "Just another glass if you please."
Shard smiled. "A Bejing Root."
The waiter took Mrs. Johnson's order, a dry Martini, and hurried off. She returned within a few moments with their drinks. Lenny nodded and was about to pull out his credstick when Mrs. Johnson motioned at him.
"That won't be necessary," She paused for a second as if attempting to find the words. "Lenny-san. This business lunch will be taken care of by my employer's account."
Lenny nodded and replaced his credstick. He was somewhat shocked that a Johnson was going to buy them drinks. That was something that normally never happened and was almost unheard of.
"As I said in my message, I have a business venture to offer you." Mrs. Johnson cleared her throat politely. Lenny tapped his finger twice against his ear. A signal to the rest of the team outside to quiet down and listen in on their commlinks. "I represent a party who would like to gain research into a field that is monopolized by another firm. My party wishes to acquire information from this firm no later than the 12th of this month. That will be in two days. My party is willing to compensate you handsomely for such a sort timeframe." The way she used the word firm suggested that it meant a rival corporation. Not the first time that Lenny had heard the anagram used. "The opposing firm is low to mid-level, with somewhat lax security profiles and is located in a decaying neighborhood. The information is stored on a computer system, requiring the skills of a programmer to extract." Lenny couldn't help the smile that crossed his lips. Programmer was a term she was using for a decker. "However the information is stored on an offline system, requiring the programmer to be physically present at the terminal. The compensation is to be in the sum of forty thousand nuyen on certified credstick for each member of the group. That is all that I can tell you at this time. Do you accept these terms?" She looks expectantly at Lenny, however she doesn't seem to pay much attention to Shard.
Lenny leaned his hand against his ear. "What do you think." He said to no one in particular.
Over the commlink there was a buzz of words that were garbling together into complete nonsense. Shard could hear it too as her earplug filled with distinct voices. Several times she could hear the eccentric samurai, Smiley, rise his voice above everyone else's. Then there was the calm, deep noise that came from Gideon, an ork mercenary who was out in the group's Bison. Younger sounding words came in later. This was the voice of Nightsky, a physical adept who was across the street. His was probably getting tired of the gibberish that was filling his ears. Finally Riggs came over the link clearly and said that everybody outside agreed.
Lenny spared a quick glance to Shard who nodded back.
"We're in. There will be seven of us. Forty-thousand each comes to two-hundred and eighty. We require fifteen percent payable up front." He replied sternly letting her know that these conditions weren't negotiable. "Now tell us some more."
Mrs. Johnson nodded. "I agree to your terms and pleased that your are interested." Her slim hand slide inside the briefcase she brought with her. In a moment she had a Pocket Secretary out and put it in the middle of the table. "This Secretary contains all the specifics of the venture. It also includes a number to contact my once the venture is completed."
"Does it have a name of the opposing firm?"
"Yes as well as some information on the site and a number to contact me once the venture is complete."
Lenny reached across the table and picked up the secretary. He handed it over to Shard. "Now the down payment. Fifteen percent."
Mrs. Johnson pulled out a credstick from her briefcase and a small device normally used to check the viability of credstick. She slotted the stick in one end and then removed a second stick and placed it parallel to the first. A few buttons were typed and the stick was handed over to Lenny. He took the stick and once again handed it to Shard to slipped it into a Verifier of her own. A green light beeped on the device showing that it wasn't a fake. Over forty thousand nuyen had just switched hands.
"If there is nothing else I must be on my way. I have a meeting in twenty minutes." Mrs. Johnson said as she stood from her seat and straightened her skirt.
"No, nothing else." Lenny replied.
Mrs. Johnson didn't smile as she turned away. She made a direct line for the main doors and walked out them at a brisk trot.
Lenny tapped his commlink. "Got her?"
"Yeah, chum." Gideon rumbled. "She just came out the front door. Got an Elite pulling up to take the pretty suit away."
"Anything else?"
"All clear."
"Let's pack it up. We're coming out." Lenny said as he stood and politely pulled Shard's chair out for her.
"There's something I don't understand, Lenny." Shard interrupted.
"What's that?"
"You told her that there was seven of us."
"That I did."
Shard looked at him oddly. "Incase you forgot to check, there's only six."
"Ah-ah." Lenny waved his finger at her. "We're going to need another person for this. I figure we can get in touch with someone who knows what their doing."
"We're going to need a decker?"
"Unless you know of any of us who sprouted that kind of know-how."
"Sorry, but I don't." She thumbed the pocket secretary that was given by Mrs. Johnson. "What else do you think's on this?"
"I don't know, but there's only one way to find out." He motioned her out the door. "But not here, shall we go?"
As soon as Lenny got into the Bison that Riggs commanded he had the credstick and the pocket secretary scanned. The chance of either one of them having a bug were pretty good. Sort of a way for Mrs. Johnson to keep tabs on them. Both bug scanners turned up nothing, but they didn't drop the paranoia any. There was always a chance they could've missed something. Riggs was soon babbling about having someone track them. A few minutes later he switched on the van's ECM system which played hell with the commlinks and telephones. It was only after some extensive convincing and a threat to throw the dwarf out the window that got him to shut the system off.
"But what if, chummers, what if?" Riggs babbled as turning his head around so sharply that he threatened to pull the rigger jacks out of his temple.
"Then we'll deal with it then." Lenny spat back. "Now shut-up and drive."
"Where too?"
"Take us over towards the Boise in Auburn. We'll hold up there for a while to get things straightened out."
Gideon, a massive ork with a heavy build and a metallic right arm, glared at the secretary that Shard had brought in with her. She hadn't been inside long before he took the device away from her. He passed a bug scanner over it, then switched it on. It brought up an open file right off.
"Looks like the J is making this all too easy." Gid said as he flipped through the large file. "She's put together a lot of information on this place. We got a corp name, address, even a fragging map."
"Map?" Lenny thought to himself. "Much detail to it?"
Gid studied to layout for a second. "Blueprints." He rumbled. "Going to take some time to get to know it."
"Yeah, figure the Mrs. could've sent a nice cake with it too." Smiley said. The slightly odd samurai was sitting on a small bench seat with a wide smile plastered on his face and a pair of cheap sunglasses perched low on his nose. He was wearing an armored long coat with a button on the outside that read Have a Nice Day. "I would've settled for the free drinks she gave you two. By the way, Shard, nice dress."
Lenny undid the tie on his suit and settled into the passenger seat. "We're going to need a decker for this." He stared back at his comrades. "Unless any of you got a datajack and a half-million nuyen deck?"
"Sorry, chum, left it in my other pair of undies." Smiley gloated.
"What're we going after?"
That question came from Nightsky who was sitting in a bucket seat near the back of the van. He was a timid sort, uneasy about getting mixed up in any standup fights and he hated being exposed to the open for too long. He wasn't very tall, no more than 1.6 meters. Yet he was amazing quick and in his prime with any hand-held melee weapon. His real name was Michael something. He was the youngest of the group, fresh from a gang in Redmond. One thing that Lenny admired about him was that he didn't mess around when it came to dealing with people. He either walked away or put someone down, hard.
"Datasteal." Lenny replied. "Shard, fill everyone in. I've got to make a call." He turned around until he was facing out the front windshield. Quietly he pulled out his phone and started dialing a number.
Shard plucked the secretary from Gideon's massive hand. The flipped through the files for a moment and spent a few minutes reviewing the map that had been included. Only then did she start to explain things in earshot so everyone could hear her.
She spoke softly and clearly so she wouldn't be misunderstood. From the information on the secretary it was clear that they were going up against a corporation called ParaTek. Mrs. Johnson wanted to group to make their way into the company's research center that was in Ft. Lewis. There in a place labeled on the map as Lab 2 they were to allow a decker to access the mainframe system and download the paydata they were after. A file labeled Rankers 120 was their objective. There was a small list of keywords that could be used to find the file on the Matrix. It seemed simple and straightforward.
Riggs snorted loudly when Shard finished. His prominent nose making considerable noise despite the passing traffic. "It bloody well looks like we're going to need a decker for sure. Don't suppose anybody's got one in their back pocket?"
"I might have that already taken care of." Lenny said from the shotgun seat. He folded up his handset phone. "I just got off with the phone with Hector. He might know of someone he can get to go along with us." Hector was a fixer that knew most members of the group. It was Hector who brought the majority of them together for this run. He had also setup the meeting with Mrs. Johnson. "There's a decker out in Tacoma that's just moved into the biz. Hec's going to let them know that he's got a job up with us."
"Great, another greenback. This guy better not be fogging his rep. Last thing I want is to get into that research site only to find out he doesn't know what the frag a datajack is." Gideon cursed.
"Hector wouldn't set us up with some halfscan. This decker's been doing some snooping for him for weeks. That gives them a little experience." Lenny defended. "Hec said he'll send the decker by the flat in Auburn in a few hours."
"That's skippy and all, fearless leader." Smiley waved his arms about. "But my gut tells me it's time for some munchies. I say we raid a Stuffer Shack before we hit Boise. I can't think on an empty stomach."
Before Shard could say anything, Gideon cut her off. "Smiley's got a point. We're going to hit plenty of problems over the next day. Hunger might as well not be one of them."
Lakewood Center
Tacoma, Seattle
8:40 pm
Lori's telecom buzzed so loudly that she could hear it from the shower. There was only one person it could be. That fact alone might upset her since he'd interrupted washing her hair. Still, she couldn't sit at home all day and do nothing. Money had to be made someway. She found a towel and wrapped herself in it before clicking on the call, making sure that the video feed was off.
"It's Hector." A male voice came over the line. "Tart, you there?"
She sighed and she knew that Hector could hear it. "Yes, I'm here."
"Problems?"
"No, I'm okay. Why?"
"You've got the vid-feed off. That normally tells me that there's something wrong."
Lori shook her head. "It's okay, Hector, I just stepped out of the shower. What did you call me for?"
Hector paused for a second. A small burst of static came over the telecom for a second as he engaged an encryption system. A green light on a small black box attached to the back of Lori's telecom blinked rapidly. It was decoding the call as it came in. "I've got some good news for you."
"What do you want me to find this time?"
"Excuse me?"
Lori pulled over a small stool. One that she could set low enough on so that Hector would only see her face. "I've been working with you for months now, Hector." She switched on the video feed. "You always want me to find something. What is it?"
Hector smiled. His graying hair and deep lines in his face made him appear older than he was. "I mostly pay you grass clippings I know. I have a better offer for you this time. This is mainstream. It's your choice if you want to take it or not."
Lori chewed her lip. "What do I have to do?"
"I got a team who's on a run. They need a decker, someone who's good enough to help them out. I told them that you could handle it. You'll probably be spoofing security and a little research as normal. I don't know exactly what they got hired for. It's not safe to talk about that on an open channel." Hector smiled, trying to comfort her. "But I'm told that you'll get forty-thousand for this. That's a lot of nuyen. Which suggests that either the job they're on is high-risk or very important." He shrugged. "Or both."
Lori hesitated, not sure if she wanted to commit to anything that would get her hurt or, worse, killed.
"I know the leader of this group. Chummer of mine named Lenny. Real upstanding kind of guy. I know a few others too, but not as well. I kind of pulled them together for this hitch. They're all professionals and know what their doing."
"I'm not sure about this." Lori admitted. "It's a lot different than running errands for you."
Hector shook his head. "Don't go sour on me, girl. It's no more dangerous than anything else. Besides, your not going to go very far with the small bits of datarunning that I can give you. If you want to make a dent in the shadows, and get the SOTA tech, then you got to pull these big jobs. If you want danger all you got to do is walk outside and get mugged. This way you at least get paid for it."
Lori chewed her lip again, a sign to Hector that she wasn't sure yet. It was easy to read her. Hector had learned from their first encounter that she was a pathologically shy person, but she was very bright. She had some up with information that none of his other young deckers had.
"Look, Tart, I've known Lenny for a long time. He takes care of his people and he knows exactly what he's doing. I know you could use the money. Hell, pulling this off is only going to help your reputation."
Lori was tempted a little more. The idea of having the money for new equipment to upgrade her deck and new programs to research made her mind wonder at the possibilities. Finally, she gave in. "Okay, Hector, I'll do it."
"Excellent, Tart. Trust me, you'll be just fine."
She gave a thin smile. "I hope so."
"Don't worry." Hector comforted. "I'll give Lenny a call back and let him know what you said. In the meantime, I need you to get your gear together and meet up with the rest of the team."
"Meet them?" Lori swallowed hard. She had always been a little scared about meeting new people.
"Sorry, but you can't run this one from home. There's no other way."
"Okay." She sighed.
"I've got an address for you in Boise, that's a neighborhood in Auburn. Just go up to the door and give it a knock. Tell them that I sent you over and they'll let you in. Oh, and one other thing."
"What's that?"
"Identify yourself as Tart. Don't use your real name."
Lori could help, but give a little smile. "I thought that Lori Michelle Collins didn't exist anymore? I thought she was dead?"
"She is, Tart, she is. I arranged it that way." Hector convinced. "They're not going to come after you if they know your dead. They found the body and, with a little Matrix help, identified it as you. Still, don't go around using your name. It's a giveaway."
"Okay, Hec. Tell Lenny that I'm on my way."
"In the Jackrabbit?"
"Yes, that's all I have, remember?"
"I just wanted to make sure. Lenny's got a bit of a paranoid rigger who takes things a tad too seriously sometimes. I just need to let them know."
"Okay, fine." Lori said and reached for the cut-off switch on the telecom. "I'll talk to you later."
She ended the call and sat back on her stool. For a moment she sat there, not knowing what to do. Her mind ran through half a dozen things she had to pack and tried to think of what to wear. She would definitely be bringing her cyberdeck, programs, and wear something that would give her at least a little protection on the streets. Still it seemed that she was forgetting something. A nagging thought that she couldn't cure. Finally she remembered and stepped into the bedroom of her apartment. She pulled open her nightstand drawer. Inside rested the Ceska light pistol that Hector had convinced her to buy. She hated guns and wasn't too good at using them, but it made her feel safer knowing that she had it.
She sat on her small bed and laid her head back against the soft sheets. It felt so warm and comfortable. What she would give to lay here all night and not have to worry about going out. Sadly, she had to leave the relative safety of her home. There was rent due and programs to upgrade. She still didn't like the way that she was going to have to do it.
Quietly, she muttered to herself. "What have I gotten myself into now?"
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