Part Four: No Innocence
Chapter One
Family
Lakewood Center
Tacoma, Seattle
April 16, 2059
3:15 pm
Tart frowned as she studied the reference book. She reread the instructions the seventh time in as many hours. She had been trying to install a hitcher jack on her cyberdeck. The jack would allow another person to tag along with her in the Matrix. It looked like she had done everything right. All the connections inside the deck had been made and the jack's self-setup software had run its course. Tart had checked the software just to be sure it worked. Still, every time she plugged herself into the deck it did not register the presence of the hitcher jack.
"At least Hector was kind enough to find me an installation guide." She said, mainly to herself as she sat alone in her apartment. She flipped through the small instruction book at her feet. Its glossy plastic paper shined brightly whenever it caught the light. "For all the help it gives."
She double checked the way she attached the hitcher jack's pod on her deck. It looked okay to her. She ran through the installation steps again, but failed to find any faults.
"Maybe it's in the software. Everything else is fine."
She plugged the jack into her head and opened up the setup file for the hitcher. She ran the program again, but still did not receive a confirmation from her deck's MPCP. She opened her eyes, experiencing double-vision at first, and read over the installation guide again.
....Beep-Beep..........Beep-Beep.........Beep-Beep.......
Oh, not now. Please. Tart pulled the jack out her head. She did not feel like talking on the phone. She did not feel like talking to anyone for that matter. The previous week had exhausted her. The past three days had been spent in bed happily sleeping away her aches and pains. Tart had visited Shard the day before. She was still in the hospital since the group had finished their last run. The doctors talked like Shard would have to stay for quite some time, but she was doing better. Tart felt sorry for her and tried to visit her as often as she could.
Tart wrapped the datacord around her cyberdeck and slid it onto the couch. She forced herself to get up and wonder into the bedroom where the telecom was. The telecom was still beeping insistently. She stopped on her way to the phone and got something to drink from the refrigerator. She opened her drink and sat on her bed. The telecom screen had the words "Incoming Call" blinking across the screen.
She answered the call. "Hello?"
Her sister's face appeared on the screen. "Sure took you long enough to answer, Lori. What's wrong with you? Has answering your calls become to much of a responsibility for you?"
"Sam?" Lori looked surprised. She had called her sister the week before, but the conversation did not go well. The last thing that Lori expected was to hear from Sam so soon after what happened before.
"Yes, that's right little sister, it's me." Sam's eyes narrowed and her features were clenched up in disgust. "It's Samantha. I'd say that you were expecting a call from your boyfriend, but I know that you'll never be able to get one."
That was a low blow and Tart knew it. Tart always had problems with relating to people. She did not talk much and was very reserved before she fell into a life of running the shadows. Many of her old teachers had labeled her as pathologically shy. Samantha, on the other hand, was completely opposite to Lori. Samantha was the prom queen when she graduated and was very popular at the University of Seattle. Lori always thought that her parents looked down on her because she wasn't the success that Samantha had become.
"I'm sorry, Sam." Tart said in a quiet voice. "I wasn't expecting you to call me."
"I expected the number that you gave me to be false anyway. Try to imagine my surprise when you actually answered the phone."
Tart glanced away trying to avoided eye contact with Samantha.
"What's wrong now? You don't have anything to say for yourself?"
"Well I-"
"Be quiet, Lori. All you want to do is make excuses." Samantha scorned.
Lori didn't reply, but nodded her head slightly.
Samantha straightened herself up. "It must be nice to live in that little apartment and play with your computer all day. I bet its nice not having worry about anything."
"If you say so." Secretly Tart wished that she could tell Samantha about everything that she had went through last week. She wished that she could tell Samantha about the Matrix work that she had done or the trip down Highway 90 that had nearly scared her to death. At the same time Tart knew that Samantha would not believe her.
"I don't suppose it's occurred to you that your mother is in the hospital." Samantha said sharply. "You haven't even called to ask about her."
Tart perked up a little at the mention of her mother. "In the hospital?"
"Yes, Lori, the hospital. If you bothered to call me once in a while you might know that without having me to tell you."
"What hap-......" She struggled with the words. "Happened?
"Like you would care. It's all your fault that she's there anyway." Samantha said. "The doctor called in some kind of depression."
"Depression?" Tart repeated.
"That's right, Lori, depression. They admitted her two days ago, but I guess you would know that if you had bothered to call. She won't eat and refuses to bathe. She sits and stares out the window. She won't talk to anyone." Samantha spat the words out harshly. "I'll give you just one hint why's she like that."
Tart lowered her head. She didn't want to face her sister, but she could not bring herself to hang up. "It's not my fault."
"Yes it is, Lori! It's all because of you. It was hard enough when she lost dad, but you had to go with him. Mom still thinks your gone and it's tearing her up inside."
"No, you don't understand." Tart pleaded. Several months ago Tart's father had tried to leave Fuchi by stealing some access codes. He was planning to use the codes as a bargaining chip to buy him and Lori a new life with MCT. Unfortunately things did not work. Lori's father was killed by a Fuchi recovery team. Lori had apparently died as well, but that was only an illusion that Hector created. There was no telling what Fuchi would do if it was revealed that Lori was still alive. The codes that her father had stolen went out over the Matrix and cost the company a great deal of money in the process. When it came to a corporations pocketbook they could get very dangerous. "If they knew-"
"They nothing." Samantha scorned. "It's just a game your playing to run away from everything."
Tart closed her eyes. She was starting to think that giving Samantha her number was a mistake. Hector had warned her that faking death was a one time thing. If she let herself be known there could be trouble from Fuchi. It was best that her family believe that she was dead, but Lori missed them so. Especially her mother.
"Your own mother is in the hospital and you won't even come to visit her." Samantha was unrelenting. "What kind of daughter are you? What are you thinking?"
"It's for the best this way." Tart pleaded, remembering what Hector had told her. He said that it was best to stay hidden.
"The best?" Samantha had the look of disbelief. "Mom's sitting in a hospital having to be feed through a tube." She was shouting now. "You have the nerve to tell me that's for the best?"
"Sam, you don't understand what happened. You don't know-"
"I know enough, Lori, you little mouse. I know that if Mom knew you were okay she'd be a lot better. She won't believe me when I tell her. She won't even talk to me anymore."
"But-"
"But nothing!" Samantha slammed her fist down on the telecom. The impact made the picture shake for a moment. "You leave Mom to rot in the hospital and you don't even care."
"It's not like that, Sam!" Tart heard her voice rise. "I don't have a choice. You don't know what could happen."
"I know that one look from you could help Mom get out of the hospital. I know that you are off somewhere in your own little world not caring about what happens to her." She huffed. "And you won't even come to see her! God, I wish you were dead so I wouldn't have to deal with you like this!"
Tart shut her mouth. She'd never heard Sam talk like that before and it scared her.
"Whenever life has been a little hard on you, little sister, you've just put the plug in your head and danced away from it. Every time Mom wanted to take us shopping you brought out that stupid computer and plugged into it. We were never able to spend time together because of you! Because Mom didn't want to leave you alone. It's was all your fault! Why couldn't you have never been born?"
Tart felt tears well up behind her eyes. "Yeah, well....."
"Well what?"
Tart wiped her eye with her hand. "Well maybe I don't need you either. Maybe I wish you were dead too! Maybe I-" She stopped herself, finding it hard to say the words that popped into her mind. "Maybe I don't want to see Mom!" She blurted.
Samantha was at a loss for words. Lori had never spoke against her before. She was always so shy and submissive. It was shocking to see Lori this way.
Before Samantha could reply Tart disconnected the call. Samantha's picture flickered, then vanished from the screen. Tart stared at the blank telecom for a moment. The flush of anger that she felt a moment ago retreated inside her. It was suddenly swallowed by the overwhelming sense of guilt.
"Oh, no." Tart said to herself. "What did I do?" Her voice sounded shocked and confused. The tears that had been hidden behind her eyes started to creep out. "How could I have said that? Why did I say it?" She yelled at the telecom.
Tart put her head in her hands and let the tears fall. All she wanted to do was sit there and keep thinking everything would to turn out okay.
"Maybe she'll call back." She tried to convince herself. "Sam will call back I know she will. She won't let me alone just at that. She'll call back." She glanced at the telecom, but no call came. Her eyes became fixed on the device. "She'll call."
A minute passed and no call came through. Two minutes went by with silence. After the fifth minute the stillness of her apartment was getting to her.
"She'll call back." Tart repeated.
The telecom beeped and Tart brought her head up with a deep sigh of relief. She click the call through without noticing the icon at the bottom of the screen.
"Sam!" She said with an excited thrill.
"Sam? I don't think so, Tart." Hector's warm features appeared on the screen.
"Hector?" Tart was startled and wiped the dampness away from her eyes. "I'm sorry, I was expecting a call."
"No doubt from a lucky fellow named Sam? Nice to know that your getting out more."
Tart managed a dull smile.
"I hate to disappoint you by calling."
"It's okay, Hector." She assured.
"I might as well try to make it up to you. You doing anything for the next hour or so?"
Tart shook her head. No.
"That's good because I've got a little something that I want you too look up for me."
"Sure, Hector." Tart quietly replied.
"I'm sending you a file now. I need some information on a Shiawase project that ran in Boston a few years ago."
Tart checked her display on the right corner of the telecom screen. A file had just arrived in her mailbox. The display also showed that it was encrypted. That did not surprise her since Hector had a habit of encrypting everything he sent to her. That included the conversation that two of them were holding now.
"The specifics are in your mail. The name of the project and what not needs to be found."
"Okay, I've got the file." She confirmed.
"Good." Hector smiled. "I can pay you pretty good your this one, too. The exact price is on the file I sent you, but it is around two thousand." He shrugged. "Seeing how I disappointed you when I called I thought I should offer you something else, too."
"Oh? What's that?"
"Have you ever heard of a node called Shadowland?"
"Shadowland?" Of course she had heard of it. It was a board filled with actual runners and metric tons of information. Information that she would normally have to dig through heavy ICE in order to find for herself. It was real too, not some wannabe site on the Matrix. The problem was that the server Shadowland used was constantly moving around. That made it hard to find. "I've heard of it, but I've never been able to find it. They also host Hacker House too."
"Well, Tart, you're in luck. I got a few friends who run the system. I'll be able to hook you up with a set of decryption codes and a LAN that's currently being used. I thought it would help out in the future."
She smiled. "Thanks, Hector."
"It's no problem. I've also contracted this bit of work out to a few other deckers. It is a pretty diverse group. The individual deckers will use different means to find the same information. That way I'll get the information I need and have it confirmed from a number of different sources." Hector explained. "When you've got it, just email it to my regular number. My new system should automatically transfer the funds and the codes for Shadowland."
"Okay, I will." Tart said.
Hector ended the call.
Tart was left staring at the blank screen again. It made her feel sad and lonely. Her apartment was quiet and eerie when she was home alone. This made it worse. The only difference was that now she had a job to do.
The cyberdeck was laying in the floor where she had left it. She retrieved the deck and went back to the bedroom. She placed the datacord to her jack and attached the lead to her telecom before settling back on the bed.
It took her a moment to push he thoughts aside. She did not mean what she said to Samantha. She wanted to call her back and explain it to her, but she was afraid. She didn't want Samantha to hang up on her. She also did not want to get into another argument like before.
Tart took a deep breath and let it out slowly. It helped to steady her nerves before she took the plunge in the virtual world of the Matrix. When she was ready, she hit the connection key and her conscious mind left her body.
The physical world was replaced by one that gleams with bright lights and streams of raw data. Tart opened her eyes to this world. She always loved what she saw here. There was no pollution or garbage lingering in the air. It was fresh and clean. At least that is what her ASSIT told her.
Her Matrix persona took form. In the Matrix she didn't appear as anything special. Her persona was in her own humanoid shape, but with a few changes. Her eyes glowed a brilliant white and her skin was constantly changing through a series of dull colors. The body of her persona did not appear solid, but more like a flowing liquid. She liked it this way. It meant that she was running quiet when her persona appeared like this. The easily adjustable body would form itself to the shape of the Matrix around her when she wished.
Once she had orientated herself, Tart downloaded the file that Hector had sent her. She read through the objectives and filed them away.
Hector wanted her to find information on something called "Project Ridgecrest" that Shiawase had run a few years ago in Boston. Hector wanted all sort of information about the Project. That is, Hector's client wanted the information. Everything from financial records to planning.
Tart shrugged. It didn't look that interesting to her, but she would still do it.
She accessed the Matrix from her home and jumped onto the world wide web that connected all of the computers. Her run would start in the simplest of ways. First she took a moment to route her signal through half dozen hosts. When Tart was satisfied that she had made a literal maze with her datatrail she punched up a directory for the Shiawase Corporation. It was public access so it didn't take Tart long to find what she was looking for. She inputted the LAN of the Boston office into her persona. Within the blink of an eye she was sliding down the virtual highways at the speed of light. She went from Seattle to Boston is less than a heartbeat. Not bad travel time for a girl who could barely drive a car.
Shiawase's icon for it's Boston Office took the form of a large nuclear plant that dominated part of the Matrix. It was hard to relate physical size to the structure, but it was gigantic. Thousands of icons moved in and out of the nuclear plant. Most of them were small, boxy figures. These were users who did not operate through a syberdeck with an ASSIT. These people were wage slaves using a table top computers. They did not have the flexibility that Tart enjoyed.
Tart penetrated the outer shell of Shiawase with the aid of a sleaze program. It enabled her to blend in with the Matrix space around her and flow through the walls of the massive building. Her program was good enough that it let her pass right through the Green-Rated access level. It took a moment to orientate herself once she was inside.
Virtually, she was standing in the heart of a massive hallway that was lined with doors. Tart sighed at the representation of the megatons of digital data. She called up a small window in her field of vision and loaded a browsing utility. She put in a few keywords from the file that Hector had sent her and engaged the search.
A large electronic eye suddenly appeared before Tart. She recognized the eye as a Probe IC. It was white by nature, meaning that it was not a serious threat to her safety. However, the Probe was capable of calling in some nasty customers if it decided that there was an intruder present. Tart hoped that he sleazing program would keep her hidden from the Probe's scans.
"Identifiy user." The Probe related emotionlessly.
So much for sleaze, Tart thought to herself. She quickly brought her backup program online. Her persona switched its shape to a boxy icon representing a secretary.
"Elliot, Janice. Employee number: 1556-4413B." Her icon replied methodically.
The Probe seemed to eye her for a second, deciding wether Tart a validate employee or not.
"Carry on." The Probe instructed before fading back into the sea of data.
Tart let a sigh. She was able to fool the Probe this time, but if she failed her file search again she would have to face the IC again.
This time her browser came back with a link. It was located in the planning sector of Shiawase. The file was fairly secure, but she was able to get to it. There was an encryption on it, but that to was bypassed.
When Tart opened the file she found it contained the specifics of the Ridgecrest Project. Apparently it was a land deal that took place in 2057. It involved buying out a residential housing zone and putting up a large research center. The file contained a list of names, times, and contractors for the construction as well as a day-by-day progress report. The project had been completed early in 2058.
Tart saved the file directly to her headware memory for safe keeping. She also noticed a reference to financial records. She followed up the link.
After breaking through another set of encryption codes, Tart found that she was staring at a manifest for the project. It showed how every dime was spent. Everything from building materials to overtime charges. Tart downloaded this file too.
While she was scrolling down the long list of payoffs for the project she noticed an unusual entry. A person named "Gallagher" had been paid a considerable sum of money, but the information related to it was classified. The information was held in another, more secure system. Tart thought that this was important information that she could use. So she started digging and immediately hit a Orange level access node.
The file was also heavily locked. Her first attempt to get into the file met with defeat. The "Gallagher" records must hold something important to be so tough to crack. A warning signal flashed from her deck. She had activated a trace on her signal.
Tart performed a quick scan for the trace that she had alerted. Apparently the IC was active, but it was searching for her datatrail. She had time. Tart tried to get into the file again, but was met with defeat.
Now Tart was becoming worried that she was making too much noise in her investigations. That Probe that she had alerted earlier was probably scanning for her again. The trace was also running hot, but had not locked on yet.
Third time is a charm because she opened the file. Sadly, decking into the file did not make her feel better. The file was encrypted like the one before, but this one looked far more complicated. She started her download anyway. She could decrypt it offline.
Suddenly Tart's sensors sprouted a warning. The trace had locked onto her signal and was running its cycle. She was ready to cut and run once the download was complete because she remembered what happened the last time she got traced. At the same time she made a note to herself to find an easier way of losing traces in the future.
The file finished downloading. Tart stored it in her headware memory. She was about to go through her logoff procedure when the electric eye of the Probe returned.
"Intruder detected......Intruder detected....Intruder detected..." It wailed.
Tart gave up her deception. It was useless now. It did not matter anyway because she had the information she needed and was ready to leave.
"Primary Intrusion Countermeasures Activated." The Probe informed as it kept its eye locked on Tart's persona.
The virtual space around Tart seemed to shimmer for the briefest of moments. Then the node she was in shutdown. The system looked like it was closing down around her. The space around her started to crackled with energy. The Probe moved away to a high vantage point as another IC was brought online. This IC was by no means as harmless as the Probe. Its appearance was marked with a brilliant flash of light and a sound like rolling thunder.
Before Tart hovered one of the meanest looking ICs that she had even encountered. It was a gigantic ball of lightning that was literally dripping with energy. Bright bolts of electricity were anchored to its form as it prepared to engage Tart's persona.
Tart did not let the looks of the IC slow her down. From the way it appeared she guessed that it was a Sparky Intrusion Countermeasure. She could not make out which version, but a Sparky was a very dark Gray IC. A Sparky like this one could overload a deck's power supply and feed the deck's MPCP and the decker random jolts of electricity. It was even capable of hitting with a lethal dose which would kill a decker instantly. Some of the newer versions could bypass the deck altogether and hit the decker with a full electrical zap.
Tart dumped her sneaking persona back into storage and called up her combat wear. Immediately her persona's appearance was altered. Instead of the fluid-like girl of the sleaze and deception programs, the persona changed to appear far more lethal. The skin hardened and changed into a deep red color as the armor program came online. Her body became more sleek and looked more dangerous. The fingers and feet were elongated to sharp razors and her hair became a nest of sharp quivers thrown back in a fiery fashion. All these changes took place as part of her attack program.
A quick check with her sensors told her that the trace was still after her. Though it was taking it longer to find her jackpoint because of all the different hosts that she had routed through.
The Sparky lite up its outside shell. It was preparing to attack. Lightning streaks filled cyberspace and criss-crossed the node.
Tart's mind felt like screaming when the bolts of raw energy collided with her persona. Her deck took crippling damage, but was saved from crashing by the armor utility. Her persona's sleek, diamond skin now appeared burnt and scorched in several places. Tart felt like blacking out, but forced herself to stay conscious.
That Sparky was tough. To make matters worse it looked like it was going to hit her again. Tart knew that she would not be able to withstand another attack. She had to make sure that the Sparky did not get the opportunity again.
Razor sharp spikes erupted from her persona's head. Visually it looked like a hundred or more little spears were about to dig into the ball of lightning. As the ball was penetrated, it leaked brilliant light and electricity from its wounds. Tart kept hitting the thing as it tried to obtain a lock on her persona. With a final blow the ball lightning was carved in half. There was a brilliant flash of light that signaled the program crashing.
Tart allowed a moment to congratulate herself, but she could not hang around long. Her deck was seriously damaged and she was feeling more than a little dizzy from the experience.
Sensors went off again. Tart directed her full attention to it and discovered that there was another persona making its way to her. A corporate decker no doubt. Plus the trace was still running hot on her heels.
She couldn't stand up to the corporate decker and she knew it. Not in the condition that she was in. That trace was still running as well. She quickly initiated a logoff sequence. As soon as she was clear from the Shiawase LAN her meat hand reached up and pulled the datacord out of her head.
Her vision immediately blanked and returned to a swirling image of her room. As Tart sat up on the bed she immediately became dizzy. The room started to spin around and quick circles before her eyes. It was a nauseating sensation. She put her head between her knees and breathed heavily for a moment.
"To close." Tart said.
The screen on her telecom told her that the trace was unsuccessful. It looked like she had cut off her signal before it could finish its run.
An aching pain still throbbed at Tart's temples. Apparently she had yanked the datacord a little too soon. The action had given her a mild case of dumpshock.
"Any closer and that ICE would have crashed me." Tart plugged into her deck again and ran a subroutine. The routine downloaded the files from her headware memory and stored them in a email to Hector on his secure number. As she sent the mail she could not help, but think how strong that Sparky was. If it had crashed her system it would have probably feed her a lethal electric shock. One that not only would have fried her deck, but turned her brain cells into something vaguely resembling warm Jello.
Tart would have hated for that to happen. Not just because the fear of death scared her, but because of what had happened with her sister. She didn't want to leave this world after the words that she had spoken to Samantha. It wasn't right. Sam would either end up hating Tart for the rest of her life, or feeling guilty about the whole thing. Either was it wasn't a very pleasant way to be remembered.
Quietly she dialed a number on the telecom. After three rings Samantha picked up.
"Hello?" Sam said without looking at the screen. When she say that it was Lori her expression changed. "Oh, it's you."
"Hi Sam." Tart started. "Look, I just wanted........I wanted to say that I'm sorry for what I said. I was wrong and you were right. I should be doing more to help."
Samantha didn't reply. However, she didn't look as angry as she had before.
Tart took a deep breath and repeated herself.
"I'm sorry for everything."
Like this chapter? Then go on to the NEXT CHAPTER. Had enough of this story? Try going back to the Fiction Index and find something else. Thoughts, rants, comments? Email me and tell what you thought about it.