Looking up he could see the towering presence of the SentiNet network architecture. Glowing neon giants loomed up over the horizon displayed by the goggles he had chosen to represent the digital space of the business world to his eyes. He scanned around the various menus and representations presented to him from his current position. Not yet inside the actual SentiNet systems, he was peering over from the publicly accessible network that hosted most corporate networks and arranged them for view by a quasi-geographical layout. The three dimensional world of light and sound was mostly a mirror of the physical world but with odd contradictions in places and entire hidden networks where the shadowy underworld administrators could be found, networks placed in the hidden cracks of the greater grid. For the operators and visitors in the hidden networks location was not as important as anonymity.
Paulie had recently been performing surveillance of one of these slightly criminal networks and it was an unpredictable series of events taking place during his search which had led him to believe that not all was as it seemed in the SentiNet grid. His intuition was in fact telling him that something very foul was taking place just beyond the boundaries defined by the computer systems whose output was being filtered through his goggles.
Goggles were not the only method of access available for connecting to the massive global networks and it was even rumored that out on the cutting edge a person could find expensive prototype technology which allowed a user to connect most of their mind to the network, experiencing sight, sound but beyond that smells, touch and even taste sensations. These were just rumors and Paulie didn't have a budget for bleeding edge prototypes nor did he have the connections, he thought, to obtain such high profile equipment.
He did feel that he had a competitive advantage with his current configuration due to having worked for several months modifying the software which drove his system's display process. One of his contacts was a young student of computing who was coaching him on the finer points of terminal modification. For instance, he could now alter the logos the networks displayed to him on an individual basis using his gloves and this allowed him to perform actions like quickly running decryption scripts on certain visuals in order to spot things like hidden notices and back door entrances.
The modified software did not make Paulie a full-blown network professional like some of the news reports discussed quietly waging a street war against each other in the virtual world. It did put him ahead of the pack by at least a stride and also allowed him to locate the key locations which the users he was tracking took to be their playground. He imagined that given enough time he could decipher the advanced tools these young men and women used to blast around the network like wild animals digging through a vast forest valley.
Working with what he had available resulted in a sometimes frustrating but mostly functional desktop computing system with attached goggles, gloves and scanner to register his body's movements and translate them into data which was then relayed to the network in order to generate the virtual environment which was intended to "feel" as much as possible like Paulie was wandering through the remote servers in person. The technology had been slowly advancing from a previous state of being mostly based on transferring documents languidly through bulky browser exchanges to a more lively and rapid succession of small messages being bounced back and forth through the networks to terminals. If you desired you could interact with other users who were browsing resources in the same area as you. Or you could simply drift along quietly alone with the vast resources and databases waiting for your requests.
Today he worked quickly to perform an analysis. He felt that time was of the essence and he might be pursued by more than one party of undesirables. His goals were simple, search the front of the SentiNet systems for clues of a hidden access provided to those in the know and then do his best to find a method for gaining access himself without setting off too many alarms or summoning dangerous thugs to the door of his office. His suspicion was that certain members of the staff were the victims of a plot to rob them of their time and money, and his client may be somehow a target as well.
The beginning of this search had been a somewhat mysterious encounter with his new client who was apparently concerned for their safety. He had been hired initially to perform some routine surveillance on the client's employer and determine if there was any foul play. He had worked in the past with clients who had been in similarly frustrated positions. He knew the business world around him could at times be a harsh task master and it was a part of his work that he enjoyed being able to reveal wrongdoing on the behalf of his employers.
Initially observation of the office complex and the connected computer networks had not come up with much material to work with. For all that he could see the business was a legitimate investment company which was composed of a mixture of salaried employees and contract workers who did things like travel to remote locations and assess the value of businesses which the company's investment teams deemed potentially valuable targets.
In his experience Paulie had observed that the criminal types typically revealed themselves, and it was his keen observation of protocol and procedures which netted the most returns. If he could remain patient and observe the business operations from an objective standpoint he would eventually begin to feel the ebb and flow of activity and odd or disruptive behavior patterns would then stand out.
This job had quickly become different as the normal indicators of foul play and blips on his moral radar had been all but gone. He could not imagine that any company of this size would be fully crime free. There was nothing in the company's past to indicate trouble from wayward employees and the day to day operations were virtually spotless. This business was too good to be true and that element was what disturbed him so greatly. It was almost as if the employees never thought of fraud or trickery and the company's influence somehow quelled completely those basic desires and drives which get people in trouble. Was it possible that working for this company was simply such a constructive experience that even the most basic desire to pull a fast one on your employers had evaporated?
There was a certain strained feeling of wrongness that came to mind as he began to review the details of the company's founding as reported by their public relations network. Every big business had a margin for losses and there was always at least some low level interaction between frustrated employees or simply thrill seekers whose goal was to earn a little money on the side while attempting to stay out of sight. Every skyscraper filled with working-class earners and headed by highly paid executives had its secrets and hidden paths. The lack of any misbehavior put Paulie on edge.
The client had become convinced that someone at the company was looking through their personal files without their permission and possibly company thugs had been in their home while they were away. There wasn't any proof but the sincerity of the request and the consistent pay had pushed Paulie forward. Without any real hard evidence it had been several long and slow weeks of gathering information, hunting for that solid lead.