The days passed quietly. There were times when John thought he was going to get something to do again, and instead turned to studying a few tutorsoft programs he had managed to pick up by less than legal ways.
It was the middle of the day when his commlink started beeping with a call. Out of boredom of something to do, John answered the call almost right away. Just as he had hit the 'Talk' icon, he noticed the call was coming from Tabby.
A feline face showed up on the commlink. "We're burning daylight kid," Tabby said quickly, "and I've got a Johnson who's getting back in the game. His name's Falcone, and he needs a team out at his ranch in four hours. From what I've heard it's just some cleanup work so pack light and get moving."
"Yeah, sure!" John said excitedly. Though her words suggested something boring, he had already learned that work in the shadows was hardly boring.
His commlink beeped with a file upload from Tabby, and John accepted it. It was a map plot from his location, if he was on the street, to a place called the Horse Trot Ranch.
"Be there at six." Tabby said, "And you don't wanna be late." Her face disappeared from his commlink.
John cussed to himself. The distance he had to cover meant that he had to leave now. He hoped he might have a chance to hack a taxi on the way.
Through one of the access tunnels he knew about, John was soon on the surface streets.
"Hey, kid!" John heard someone call as he walked down the street. Wondering if it was directed at him, he looked up to see who was yelling.
It was Hunter as she pulled up next to him on her motorcycle. She slowed to keep pace with him as he kept on walking.
"You got a job?" she asked, "Or are you out for an afternoon stroll?"
"Work at a ranch." John told her, not quite sure how much he should say.
"Horse Trot?" she asked him. "Got a call for there too. If that's the place, hop on. Can even stop for food, too, so you don't have to eat on the run."
John took three steps before he noticed she had stopped. Figuring she was on the level, he walked back and climbed onto the motorcycle behind her. She had, after all, given him a ride the week before and had made no effort to follow him into the tunnels.
They rode on in silence, stopping to hit up a Street Pizza stand for some food. After a meal of two greasy slices of pizza and a half liter of cola they continued on. After passing under Stapleton Airport's runways, a few minutes later they reached the checkpoint just north of the I-270 and highway 85/6 cloverleaf to enter the Sioux sector. The UCAS border was marked by a six meter high wall made of plascrete, and was topped with razorwire, monowire, and bristling with a variety of sensors. The border guards barely gave them a look as they were let through with the rest of the traffic, passing underneath a large archway that stretched over I-270 just before the highway 85/6 onramp.
Once over the cloverleaf and past the northern on/off ramps for I-270 there was a similar six meter high wall, though it looked less impressive without the razorwire or plethora of sensors. Like at the UCAS border checkpoint they passed underneath an archway that stretched across the highway, though they got more of an evil eye from the Sioux guards they did nothing.
The rest of the trip, mostly heading north, was quiet and uneventful.
Tabby certainly was not kidding when she said the job was at a ranch. The smell of horses and hay wafted across the afternoon air despite the smell of exhaust from Hunter's motorcycle.
The stretch of land north of Denver that made up the Horse Trot Ranch was by no means the same as it was at the turn of the century. The ranch itself started at East 120th Avenue and ran north to East 144th Avenue along Washington Street, and pushed a kilometer and a half east towards Colorado Boulevard. More than a hundred homes, the streets within, and more had been wiped away for a carefully sculpted and tended landscape to look like naturally untouched rolling hills. It was not like there would have been a lot of people to complain about the destruction of a few neighborhoods if the area had been hit by the VITAS plagues about fifty years ago.
About the only land features that remained from what was once a stretch of suburbia were the two lakes near the center of the ranch.
For John, there was no sense of familiarity from the ranch or the lay of the land. Even the smell of the hay, as nice as it was, held no familiar feel to him. John figured he had never been to the country or a ranch of any kind in the twelve years of his forgotten life.
Valkyrie was already there, having driven her pickup truck there. John and Hunter exchanged pleasantries. A few minutes later Billy arrived on foot, grumbling.
It was precisely 18.00 when the doors to one of the smaller stables opened and a human stepped out. He looked Arabic to John, with short cut black hair and swarthy skin.
The man waved to John and the others, motioning for them to come over.
Once they were close enough so no one would have to yell, the he said, "I am Hafiz. Come, my friends. Mr. Jaron will be speaking with you in the rear stables." He turned and led them to the back of the stables.
Jaron Falcone was seated in a stainless steel wheelchair. "Thank you all for coming." he said, "I apologize if I am short with you, but time is of the essence right now. A package dear to my business was forcefully removed from the ranch earlier this morning. Your job is going to be to retrieve said package and return it to me. I'll pay you each one thousand now, and six thousand more when you are done."
"Seven thousand?" Billy asked, sounding genuinely insulted.
"I'm in." John said without hesitation. Considering it was twice what he got paid last week he wondered if next week's job was going to pay fourteen thousand.
"I'll take the job." Valkyrie said.
"C'mon, we can do better than chump change." whined Billy.
"Not with negotiation skills like that." Hunter said sharply. "Count me in too."
"Afraid you can't get more?" Billy asked.
"If you like, Hafiz can show you to the gate and I'll pay the others your share." Jaron said rather sternly. John noticed a stone cold glare from the older man that sent a shiver down his spine.
Billy actually looked cowed by the paraplegic in the wheelchair. It was surprising considering that Billy probably weighed more than Jaron Falcone, Hafiz, and the wheelchair combined.
"Good." Jaron said, paying them the one thousand nuyen retainer. "Now so you can do your job.
"The package is Jonathan Belenkiy, a mid-level executive with Ares in charge of the R&D department for personal arms and armor." An image file of Jonathan was provided.
"We've already examined the security footage." Jaron told them, "It's clear that three women, elves or humans, entered the grounds just before five o'clock this morning. They were all wearing light body armor and tribal masks. We didn't know Belenkiy was missing until we got the ransom demands at nine o'clock.
"Around eight thirty this morning," Jaron continued, "the security host was hacked. Security protocols kept the footage from getting deleted."
This struck John as odd. He wondered why the team's hacker would have broke into the node almost four hours after the kidnapping instead of having already broken in before to nullify the security before the other three even got there. At this point, John said nothing. Especially because Jaron was still talking.
"The ransom note itself also said that if I don't pay, they will not only kill Belenkiy but also spread the word around that I chose to let the executive die."
"And I doubt Ares would do any more business with you after that." Hunter said.
"Precisely." Jaron said sharply. "That's why I'll give you each a bonus of one thousand if you figure out who the blackmailer is."
"How're you to pay him?" John asked.
"The money goes to an account in the Zurich Orbital Bank." Jaron told them, "and is due by 9am tomorrow morning."
"I think that's good for a start." Hunter said, "Can we take a look at his room?"
"Of course." Jaron said, "I expected you might, so it's been sealed since we found him missing. Hafiz has a key and can show you there."
No one spoke as Hafiz guided them through a twisting path to Belenkiy's room, which was one of several in what appeared to be a small, one level, cookie cutter apartment building. There was an audible click as Hafiz disabled the door's lock for the team.
At first John thought there was nothing wrong as he stepped past Hafiz into the room. Then he remembered that the room was supposed to have been occupied by a corporate executive. To him that meant the room should have been as neat as a pin, whatever that meant.
The room was a complete mess. Drawers were pulled out and clothes strewn everywhere, and the mess continued into the bathroom as well, with the contents of Belenkiy's toiletry bag spilled across the counter.
There was also a lingering smell in the air that John found odd.
"Patchouli." Valkyrie said, walking towards the bathroom. "Stuff reeks."
John walked around the room, but he really had no idea what to look for. Only Valkyrie seemed to dislike the smell of patchouli, and he really could not find anything wrong with it. It was not long until he felt a signal from a device. He traced it to a pocket watch that was sitting on the nightstand. Next to the pocket watch was a stylized pair of glasses.
"Knife in the wall. Nice." commented Billy.
"Anyone find anything else?" asked Hunter.
"Nothin'." Billy said, sounding disappointed.
John handled the pocket watch, looking it over. "Yeah, a commlink." he told them. "It's been shut down, though." There was an odd sensation from it as it pinged him. When he replied to the ping it seemed to rebuke him.
"Nothing much else here." Valkyrie said as she stepped out of the bathroom. Only now did John notice that the room, though not properly built for someone of Valkyrie's size, was not entirely too small for a troll either.
"Try hacking it." Hunter said, "Might be something useful inside."
"I dunno." John said hesitantly as he sat down on the bed. "It keeps pinging me like it's wanting something. I hack it I might fuck it up."
"What's the worst that can happen?" Hunter asked.
"Okay." John said softly as he relaxed on the bed and let his mind sink into the virtual world.
Belenkiy's commlink looked like a geodesic orb of gold plates floating in the gray void of the matrix. Not liking the look of the firewall, John called up some help to break through.
First was a data sprite, a kind of semi-intelligent bot program that he had compiled and registered earlier that week. It was with a few beeps that the sprite faded into existence. It looked like a human skull, but without a jawbone. Instead of an empty right eye socket was a cybernetic camera with a red lens. It had a single manipulator claw extending from the left socket of the jawbone, and where the spinal cord would come from were half four mechadendrite cables ending in a variety of different plugs and sockets.
Next was a crack sprite. It too was a semi-intelligent bot program that John had compiled and registered, and had given him quite a headache in the process. Where the data sprite was specialized in finding and manipulating data, the crack sprite was one that could break its own way through a firewall. This one looked similar to the data sprite, being a floating skull with no jawbone. Instead of a single manipulator claw it had an arm with a sharp drill and a second arm with a circular saw blade coming from the left and right jawbone sockets. It had no cybernetic camera eyes, but it had four odd cylinders implanted equally around the parietal bone of the skull with a metal banded wire running from each into the left eye socket. Its right eye socket was dark and empty, and it too had four similar mechadendrite cables dangling from where the spinal cord would be.
John had to think about what he wanted the sprites to do well beforehand. First was to task the data sprite with augmenting his stealth form to help prevent any detection. Before the sprite could begin he tasked the crack sprite with augmenting his exploit form to help him break through the firewall of Belenkiy's commlink.
The data sprite floated around behind John's icon. Two of the mechadendrite cables snaked under John's arms and across his chest to plug themselves into his shoulder blades. The other two penetrated John's icon at the shoulders and snaked their way down his arms. The skull itself floated just over his right shoulder.
The crack sprite extended two of its mechadendrite cables down John's arms, coiling around once to plug themselves into the back of John's hands.
Wasting no time, John slammed both hands into the golden orb that was Belenkiy's commlink, sending sparks of data to fly off into the void. It felt rock hard and resisted him just the same. It felt like the crack sprite's mechadendrites pushed out of his fingers to help tear apart the fragments of data from the firewall while the data sprite brushed those same bits of data aside and away from the commlink. Visually it looked like a circular disk grinder chewing its way into concrete.
With a second hard push John could feel the firewall giving way, breaking apart into rubble as he tore through like an alien parasite breaking out through someone's ribcage.
The sculpting of Belenkiy's commlink was like a business office, and it was as big of a mess as his room at the Horse Trot Ranch. Files in the form of various paper documents were strewn about in a chaotic mess. John looked around for any kind of response. By the time the sprites tasks ended, there had been no action, so he figured he was in the clear.
John went for the security settings of the commlink first, mostly because he wanted to know what it was doing with those pings. In addition to a mess of user name and password information what he found was that the commlink was waiting for a response from a particular tag. John noted the details of the tag in the commlink in his goggles, then proceeded to pick up and examine the various data files that were strewn about to see why Belenkiy might have been taken. He found some data on research projects Ares was but nothing else. Was it some new guns the kidnappers were after?
There was a single door to the office space of Belenkiy's commlink, which led to a large room filled with many doors and a kind of dial floating in the middle of the room. Turning the dial shifted the room greatly, allowing for access to more sets of doors. One in particular John noticed was labeled 'Ares R&D'. His first attempt to pass through resulted in him walking into a wall. Trying one of the user names noted 'Ares' and the password, and John was able to pass right on through.
John was connected straight into an Ares host, and it looked like he was deep inside one of their research and development nodes. The sculpting looked a lot like Belenkiy's commlink, except a lot neater. Chances were there was a staff of a dozen or more who also had access to this node likely were cleaner with the files. No other user icons were about, so John took his time in checking out other files. He found an incredible amount of interesting data, and had it copied to his commlink. When that was done he edited the files themselves to remove any traces they had been accessed recently, and logged off. The only data he left behind was in the access log itself, which John could not edit because of Belenkiy's authority. That did not matter, really, as key bits of data like that seemed to disappear within a day anyway. It was not something John could really explain. Any potentially compromising data just seemed to vanish.
Back inside of Belenkiy's commlink, John did the same to erase any trace of his activities, then logged off.
Groaning with a bit of stiffness, John sat up on Belenkiy's bed.
"Welcome back to the living." commented Hunter.
"What'd I miss?" John asked.
"I've made some calls," Valkyrie told them, ducking as she stepped back into the room, "and it's a team called the Black Cats that did the job."
"C'mon. It's Aztlan and you fuckin' know it." Billy declared, holding up an obsidian knife. "This was stuck in the wall, you know."
"After you dove in I found a black feather under the pillow." Hunter told John.
John thought for a moment, trying to remember why the feather sounded familiar. Then it hit him, recalling a news byte he had read about a Koshari hit where a bunch of black feathers were left behind. "Couldn't it be Koshari?" asked John.
Valkyrie shook her head. "It's all wrong for Koshari. This's a crow's feather, not a raven's feather. And the Koshari don't decorate their feathers. They just leave raven feathers behind." John did indeed see a strip of soft brown leather tied in a simple knot around the shaft of the feather that the fomori held. As for whether if it was a crow's or raven's feather, John had no idea how to tell the difference.
"How good's this contact?" asked Hunter.
"Very good when it comes to birds." Valkyrie said. "He's a talismonger for one. He's gotta know feathers and such. Also said it's a way of counting coup for the leader of the Black Cats."
John did not have a chance to ask what counting coup was.
"Then I say we track down the Black Cats." Hunter said, "But first, what'd you find in his 'link, Cypher?"
"Some weapons data." John told them, "From what I could get from Ares, he's some kind of gun maker."
"Gun maker?" Billy asked.
"Prob'ly weapons R&D." Hunter reasoned. "No sense kidnapping a guy that makes guns…"
"But a guy that develops them?" Valkyrie asked.
"Could be worth a lot." Hunter said.
John figured this was where the ransom came into play. "Great, so where do we start?" he asked.
For a while no one said anything. John kept looking from one to another, wondering who would speak first. He had no ideas, so he kept quiet.
"Something wrong, Billy?" Valkyrie asked.
Billy did look a little fidgety, though maybe this was because everyone was now looking at him.
"Well, I know of a place the Cats hang out at." Billy said. He sounded reluctant to say anything at all.
"Well?" pressed Hunter.
Billy sighed. "It's a bar called the Hardpan. But fuck that, let's go hit those Azzie squatters!" He held out the obsidian dagger like it was supposed to mean something. John had no idea what Billy was going on about. He also wondered where these squatters Billy was so insistent about were at.
"Ah." Hunter added, "Shit. We'll have to leave Cypher here. He can work the blackmailer angle."
"What!" John cried, jumping off the bed, "No fuckin' way I'm stayin'!"
Valkyrie shook her head. "What's the deal?"
"Amerindian watering hole." Hunter told them, "A kind of 'locals only' kind of place. We," she indicated to Valkyrie, Billy, and herself, "can expect trouble. Cypher, well, I don't think there wouldn't be person there that wouldn't chase him right back out."
"I'm part Amerindian." Billy countered, "And I already know the bartender there. Sandy'll talk to me. She'll tell you to fuck off, if she even speaks to you." He puffed up his chest, sounding rather proud of himself. John wondered just how big that Amerindian part was when his skin looked about as white as a Scandinavian's.
"Yeah, sure thing, skinhead." John returned.
Billy growled, and it looked like he was going to strike John. Hunter intervened by getting in between them.
"I'll sit outside for all I care, but you can go fuck yourself without me if you leave me here!" Cypher told them.
"Say what?" asked Hunter, looking like an upset mother.
"Fuck yourself. I'll walk." John told them.
"Then you won't get paid." Billy said matter-of-factly.
"Dunno 'bout you, but I still got rent money." John told Billy.
"Will you behave?" Hunter asked.
"If I can come along." John answered immediately. Then he realized she was not just looking at him.
"Well?" she asked Billy.
"Alright, but I ain't ridin' with him." relented Billy.
"Hey, can I get a copy of that security footage and hack?" John asked Hafiz.
Hafiz pulled out a commlink, and after a little bit he asked, "You understand discretion, yes?"
"Yeah." John muttered, "No sharing beyond us, no MeFeed or the like, shit like that."
"And?"
John sighed. He felt like Hafiz was treating him like he was as big of an idiot as Billy. "Ares doesn't know it exists. And same for any clients here."
Hafiz cracked a small smile, and John's common use commlink chimed with an incoming file transfer. He accepted, but routed the data to his higher end commlink. Once the transfer was complete he gave the contents a brief once over, and noticed that some of the data included the access logs from when the hacker broke in that morning. "The hacker's ID's in this?" John asked.
Hafiz only nodded.
"Thanks!" John told him with a smile.
Hafiz followed John and the others as they went back to their vehicles. They were also given a commcode they could use if they found any details.
Though it was just over thirteen kilometers south of the ranch, it took almost an hour to get there. Saturday night traffic was picking up early and every single traffic light seemed to be against them. Hanging on to Hunter on the back of her motorcycle, John opted to look through the security camera footage. He found it strange that three women were recorded entering and leaving the grounds, but nowhere was Belenkiy to be seen.
John then opted to make a call of his own, opening up an ARO to contact a guy who went by the handle of 'Merlin'.
"Merlin's Antiquities." said an icon of a blue robed wizard, with a gray beard and matching blue pointed hat.
"It's Cypher." John said.
"Hey kiddo! How's it going? Needing more ammo already?"
"Naw. Just doing a job for an old guy named Falcone." John said.
"I remember a guy with that name. Older gentleman in a wheelchair?" Merlin asked.
"Yup."
"He's a straight shooter." Merlin said, "Good rep, so you can take him at his word."
"Good to know."
"Yeah, but from what I hear there's a decker out there trying to dig up dirt on Falcone. HammerJack's his name, I think."
"Decker?" John asked.
"Old word for a hacker." Merlin told him. "Back in the day when you'd have to use a cyberdeck as big as you are, and find a someplace to jack in to actually hack."
"Sounds harsh." John commented.
"Yeah, but he's an old timer." Merlin said, "I don't know what happened to him, but he's really spacey."
"Know anything about an Ares guy named Belenkiy?" John asked.
"Ah, so there's the job." Merlin said. "Belenkiy. Belenkiy. Name sounds familiar, but I can't think of anything right now. I might know someone who does."
John keyed up five hundred nuyen and sent it to Merlin. "I'm supposed to send you cash to pay the other guy, right?" he asked.
"Something like that." Merlin said, accepting the transfer. "It'll take some time, though. I'll call you when I've got the details."
"You with us, Cypher?" he heard Hunter ask.
"Huh, what?" John asked, sitting up. "Oh, sorry. Was talking to a guy I know about Belenkiy. Gonna call me back later." He noticed the call had already ended.
A while later Hunter pulled into the parking lot of The Hardpan. From the smell of the air from algae tanks and water treatment plant nearby it was a wonder that there were as many jeeps and four-by-four trucks already there. But then, if they stank like Billy did as he and Valkyrie walked over to them, then he could understand.
"So, what's the game plan?" Valkyrie asked.
"Simple." Hunter said, "The three of us go in and talk with Sandy while Cypher sits out here and waits."
John frowned at the thought, but kept his mouth shut.
As the others walked into the bar, John climbed into the bed of Valkyrie's Gopher. To pass the time he opened up an ARO to a free matrix game site. A few minutes later his commlink beeped with an incoming call.
"Sorry for taking so long." Merlin apologized right away.
"Well, we're still looking for him." John said.
"Well, he's been on a fast track up the corporate food chain." Merlin said, "Too fast, in fact."
"Ex… Extr…" John said, trying to find the word.
"Extrication." Merlin said for him. "Maybe. My contact didn't know for sure. Did have something else that might be helpful."
"Oh?" John asked.
A file transfer request popped up, and John accepted the file from Merlin. When he opened it there was nothing but raw data.
"Frequency and ID of a tag that's implanted in him." Merlin said.
"He's got a tag implanted in him?" John asked. He found the idea of having something like a spy bug implanted inside his body repugnant.
"Apparently a lot of Ares execs have unique tags implanted in them." Merlin said, "Supposed to make security less of a hassle for them."
"So I can track him down with this?" John asked excitedly.
"Yes you can, but not if he's taken into a static zone." Merlin told him. "There's a lot of Denver that's still not covered by the matrix."
"Got it." John said, already trying to figure out how to interpret the frequency code into something he would understand. "Thanks for the help." he said, ending the call.
"Well, what do you know?" John asked himself. He got as comfortable as he could in the back of Valkyrie's truck at let his mind sink into the depths of virtual reality.
First thing John did was access the details on Belenkiy's tag to start tracking it down. It was a hard start for the first minute in trying to perform this kind of a search, but after a few more minutes had managed to get it narrowed down to a roughly fifty meter radius. Checking an overview map turned up a few buildings in the area. A little bit more research revealed the most likely one a place called DIY Storage.
Bringing his mind back to the real world, John saw he was still alone in the parking lot. With some time to kill he decided to look up 'counting coup'.
It was not too long after when the others came out of the bar. The women did not look too pleased, and Billy looked really pissed off.
"What happened?" asked John.
"Billy decided to light up a joint." Valkyrie said. She helped John out of the back of her truck.
"So?" John asked as his feet hit the asphalt.
"All Sioux bars are non-smoking." Hunter said just before she slipped her helmet on. "Anyway, we got a meeting with the Black Cats in two hours."
It was over an hour to get to a golf course, and along the way Hunter privately told John about Billy's indiscretion in lighting up a cigarette of marijuana while in the bar.
After reaching the golf course, and not parking too close to avoid the surveillance drones, it was another half hour of walking to avoid those drones. The meet itself was apparently in the golf course's parking lot. As long as the wind blew away from Billy there was a pleasing smell of cut grass.
"So who're we meeting again?" John asked after they had been waiting for about ten minutes.
"Kyra, leader of the Black Cats." Hunter said.
The two hours were not up yet when a woman rode into the parking lot on a motorcycle.
"I see two spirits with her." Valkyrie said softly.
Propping her cycle on the kickstand, she looked about before stepped closer. She was about as tall as Hunter, with a similar build but tighter bust, and distinctly Native American features. Her black hair was pulled tight into a bun, and her eyes were quite obviously cybernetic.
Checking the time, John saw it was just after 21.00.
John received a text from Hunter. It read, "Any signals?"
"Táku cha yachin he? Nituwe he?" Kyra asked. John had no idea what she just said.
Already John was feeling the WiFi around. He fully expected the other Black Cats to be around as backup.
"Let me handle this." Billy said, stepping forward.
John could not help but groan when he heard that. He also managed to find a signal that was not part of their network that felt like it was coming from Kyra. "I found one." John texted back to Hunter, but kept feeling around.
"I know you understand English." Hunter said, nodding once, "And we're here to talk about Belenkiy. That's all."
"What do you know of this… Belenkiy?" Kyra asked in slightly accented English.
John grinned when he saw Billy's face, a combination of shock, dumbfounded, and 'fuck you' all rolled into one as he glared at Hunter. He had also isolated and identified Kyra's commlink. Its access ID did not match the one that had broken into the Ranch's network. The singular signal also felt weaker, thinner, than John expected.
"Cypher?" Hunter asked, not giving Billy a second look.
"Uh, yeah. Well, the Black Cats got caught on vid breaking in." John said, "And recorded again on the way out. Belenkiy is the only person missing, you left your signature feather in his room, and if the Cats have a hacker she's an idiot."
Kyra glared at John. "You don't know us." she snarled.
"Hacker breaks in after you do, gets caught and didn't wipe the security feed?" John asked back, "Thought I was nice in saying you just didn't fuck it up. On top of that the guy's tagged. I've already tracked him down to some place called DIY Storage."
The look on Kyra's face told John he had gotten a lot right. He began working on her commlink, trying to force a virtual hand through its firewall.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Kyra told them.
"We should've just hit their place." groaned Billy.
John managed to force his hand through the firewall of Kyra's commlink.
"You just go ahead and do that." Hunter said, "But you'll be doing it alone."
A quick look at the list of subscriptions in Kyra's commlink showed nothing else was connected to it nearby. If she had anything beyond her obvious cyber eyes, John did not know. It also meant that he could not pull the same disappearing trick on her that he had done on Billy last week. The thin signal he was feeling was a single channel of audio coming from the microphone in Kyra's commlink. He sent a text to Hunter telling her what he found.
"So what do you want?" Kyra asked, looking as tense as ever.
"Well, you kidnapped an Ares exec," Hunter said, "and there's parties concerned about what you're going to do with him."
"Nothing." Kyra told them.
"You're not holding him for ransom?" Valkyrie asked.
"What ransom?" Kyra asked back.
"You damn well know what ransom, bitch." snapped Billy.
"Cypher, would you?" pleaded Hunter.
At the speed of thought John was through the pitiful firewall of Billy's commlink, the same exploit he used last week working again as he barged his way through. Unsurprisingly everything was about the same as he had last seen it, so he uploaded a copy of his Negator program, isolated Kyra and had it erase her from Billy's sight.
"Son of a…" cursed Billy as he lunged at John.
"Fuck!" John yelled, ducking away from a wildly thrown punch. As quickly as he could he had the Negator program edit out everyone else from view. John figured Billy was very stupid when it came to electronics when there were ways John knew to counter this trick.
"Calm down!" yelled Hunter.
"Hell no!" Billy yelled back, lunging at her.
Hunter lashed out with a vicious snap kick, planting her heel full force into Billy's stomach. He quickly doubled over and collapsed.
"Don't mind him." Hunter said with an unusual calmness. "If we fight, you'll know it."
Kyra did not look appeased.
"You didn't place any ransom?" John asked.
"We never made any demands on him." Kyra told them. She looked dead serious.
"So, what exactly were you paid to do with Belenkiy?" Hunter asked.
"Take him. Do nothing to him. See what he says. Return him the next day. Report back to Johnson." Kyra told them rather curtly.
"She's telling the truth." Valkyrie said. "Whole time."
"Bullshit." gasped Billy, still trying to catch his breath.
"Yes, she is." Hunter added. "Now please shut up while I call in."
Kyra looked rather edgy as she glanced about while Hunter made her call. It certainly was handy being able to think your conversation straight through a commlink without actually having to say anything.
"Cypher, can you connect Kyra to the call?" Hunter asked.
"No prob." John said, grabbing a data line from Kyra's commlink and slinging it into Hunter's commcall. It took a moment for Hunter's commlink to accept the connection.
Kyra looked rather shocked when she found her commlink suddenly in a conference call.
Everyone waited in silence as Kyra told Jaron Falcone the exact same thing she had told them.
"Okay, we're done here." Hunter told them. John could feel the data line between their commlinks fade.
John ran two fingers over his right ear.
"You sure about that?" Valkyrie asked.
"We've still got the hacker angle to deal with." Hunter told them.
Kyra only nodded before she returned to her motorcycle.
Figuring that Billy was going to behave himself, John closed and deleted the Negator program in Billy's commlink. He followed the others as they left, leaving a small image file in Kyra's commlink where he hoped she would find it before cutting the connection.
They met up at their vehicles, but neither Hunter or Valkyrie looked like they were ready to head out.
"So how the fuck do we track down this hacker?" asked Billy.
"Didn't he leave any trace behind when he hacked the Ranch?" Valkyrie asked.
"Just an ID." John said.
"Well, shit, can't you just use that?" Billy asked.
John sighed. He had forgotten about that.
"If the guy's smart he's already changed his ID." Hunter said. "And if he's got his 'link off, the ID's as good as useless anyway." John had thought of this just as Hunter told everyone.
"So we've got absolutely nothing to go on?" Billy asked.
"No, we first check into Falcone." Hunter said. "Whoever's got a grudge against him could be it."
John sat down against the back tire of Valkyrie's truck while the others talked. Billy seemed rather adamant about just going back to the Ranch to get paid. The repeated counter argument was that they needed Belenkiy to do that, and unless Billy wanted to deal with all four of the Black Cats by himself, that was not going to happen. Billy seemed pressed still, even despite the fact that Valkyrie kept reminding him that Kyra had two spirits with her.
Fortunately John did not have to wait much longer.
"Greetings old boy," came a hollow sounding voice from Billy's commlink, something that sounded as if it were also being carried across a chasm before it reached a microphone, "we need to talk about how badly you've just been screwed by a man named Falcone."
"What the?" Billy went, utterly confused as he looked at his commlink.
"What's he talking about?" Hunter asked.
"Good," the voice continued, "now that I've got your attention, meet me in one hour. Room three-one-four-one of the Hub's Avatar Assassin Guild Hall. VR only. The name's Void, you'll recognize me." And that was it.
Right away John started looking up the Avatar Assassin Guild Hall.
"Well, you'll have to do this one without me." Valkyrie said.
"Don't even have a sim?" Billy asked in a childish tone.
"Ever get a clue?" Valkyrie bit back.
"So then it'll be the three of us." John said.
"Where'd he say to go?" Hunter asked.
"Avatar Assassin Guild Hall." John said. "Looks like the node's located in the Hub."
"Uh, yeah. Good luck with that." Billy said.
"What?" asked Hunter with that disapproving mother tone of voice.
"I said good luck with that." repeated Billy.
"What the fuck you talking about?" asked Hunter. "You've bragged about being bad ass in VR, so what gives?"
John wondered where this bragging came from, or what would have made Billy think he could be bad ass at anything matrix related with crap software and shit for hardware.
"Maybe they kicked him out?" John asked, "You know, like, forever?"
"Look, I can't go there, alright?" Billy cried.
"Then we'll wait here while you do your thing. You can use my truck." Valkyrie said.
John climbed into the passenger seat and made himself comfortable before letting his mind slip into the depths of matrix's virtual reality. From there he searched out the address for the meet with Void.
The Avatar Assassin Guild Hall looked like some kind of eleventh century cathedral in its architecture inside and out, built out of white granite and illuminated by the sun from the outside through large stained glass windows. Huge double doors represented the portal where users entered. Despite the ancient look of the place, the icons of the users within were largely far from the period.
Particularly John's icon, that it looked like a full suite of military grade body armor, complete with full helmet, and all black in color. Worn over the armor was a contrasting beige robe, with a pair of pistols at his sides, and a sheathed long sword at his back. He figured he could make himself look like a robed knight instead, make a little effort to fit into the period of the node's sculpting. Considering the number of other users' icons that did not, he opted not to bother. Especially when one user looked like he or she was a robot that had walked right out of a Gundam program.
Hunter was right beside him, and her icon was also just as outlandish. She appeared to be wearing full power armor from some kind of super science fiction, orange and angular, with a red breast plate and domed helmet. Any face the icon might have had was obscured by a green V-shaped visor. Oversized pauldrons covered the shoulders, and the right arm was a literal cannon from the elbow down. John figured it was a representation of an attack program, just as his pistols were an attack form. Whether or not she had such a program loaded would be impossible to tell.
John mentally made sure his stealth form was letting his icon be seen as he entered the node. It was a good thing, as an icon appeared in his field of view giving him a rundown of rules for the node, which included no stealth based software.
"So why do you think he can't come here?" Hunter asked.
"His commlink looked like it was decorated by a three year old." John told her. "Maybe they got taste in icons?"
"Could be." Hunter mused.
"I'm sorry, who are you asking about?" asked another user. His icon looked like it was from the period, wearing a white robe with the hood drawn, dark brown leather gloves, and a pair of daggers at his waist.
"Sorry, we don't know what his name here is." Hunter said.
John pulled a strip of data out from his left hand, a file that simply contained the access IDs of Billy's commlinks. "Here's IDs I know he has."
The other user took the data file. "Ah, yes, him." he said with a chuckle. "Banned forever. Broke a dozen rules here, annoyed everyone, and tried getting around the ban. Idiot used the exact same icon the second time."
"That's all we need, thanks." Hunter said, walking away.
John sent a request for the node's rules as he followed Hunter, and quickly looked over the file when it popped up. He found more than a dozen that he figured Billy would not have given a shit about. A lot of the rules just seemed like common sense stuff that any decent person would follow. But then Billy was not exactly a model example of a decent person.
"The voice said to log into room thirty-one forty-one." Hunter said. "There's a portal for private rooms over there."
John and Hunter made their way through the foyer to one of several recessed doors. In the center was an icon that looked like a combination lock of four dials made from carved stone. John spun the dials to match the number 3141. Upon touching the submit icon the portal opened up for them. The firewall felt like soft cobwebs brushing over him as he passed through it on a public access account.
According to the message, Void's icon certainly was not hard to find. Amongst the user icons was a floating black void that looked like it was sucking in bits of other nearby icons. John moved over to the floating void.
"You called about a man named Falcone?" Hunter asked.
It almost looked like the void actually turned around. "Maybe." he said, his voice the same sounding hollow style as from the comm call. "Not quite who I expected."
"Well, we're it." Hunter said.
"Well," Void said, "you're in a whole lot of trouble working for Falcone."
"I'm always in trouble." John countered, his voice sounding like a chorus of a dozen people talking in unison but not in tune, "Tell me something new." He started a trace on Void's icon.
Void chuckled. "Nothing's free." he said, "I can help, but it'll cost you twenty-five hundred."
"You're asking, but all we got is piss and wind." Hunter said. "For all we know you could've seen us pull up at Falcone's place and scanned a commcode."
"You're playing a dangerous game." Void returned. "Falcone's prepared to screw you over if you fail."
"We always risk a Johnson planning to screw us over." Hunter said, "Comes with the job. You should know that as well as any of us."
John felt a little nervous when Hunter said that. He had honestly not counted on something like a Johnson doing anything like that. Of course, this was only his second real job and he still had a lot to learn.
His heart skipped again when the trace on Void resolved itself, pinning his physical location at Union Station in the Hub. What excited John was that the access ID that came with this information was the same that had been recorded by the Ranch's logs at the time of the break in.
"Maybe, Void," John said, "but at least I'm not sloppy enough to get caught in a node."
"What're you talking about?" Void asked.
John could feel a tendril of data gently snaking itself around him, blurry like wet ice and almost as subtle as a spider's web. Right away he threw a spoof at it to redirect at it, and could feel the trace become substantially scrambled.
"At least I'd change my access ID after a fucked up job." John answered.
"What are you getting on about, Cypher?" Hunter asked.
"Void's at Union Station." John said, "His access ID's the same as what hacked the Ranch this morning."
"Then the deal's off." Hunter said, turning to leave the chat room.
The web of data began to tighten around John's icon again.
"Isn't tracing a user against the rules here?" Hunter asked.
"I think I saw that in the rules." John said. He had forgotten about that when he started tracing Void.
Hunter turned back, her left hand holding her right arm just below the shoulder. The barrel of her hand cannon split evenly into four pieces with a metallic snap-click. "I let you slide once on it, cut it out or there's gonna be a fight." Hunter growled.
John pulled one of his pistols, but put his other hand on the hilt of his sword.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Void said.
"Blast him." Hunter said.
John expected a beam or some kind of futuristic particle blast to come from her hand cannon. Instead it was a missile that exploded with so much disruptive code that it briefly washed out John's vision.
Instead of shooting Void, John opted for something a little more dramatic. With his sword in both hands he leaped at Void's icon, plunging it down like a knight of old piercing the skull of a fallen dragon.
"Fuck civility, just log off!" were the last words John heard just before her icon disappeared.
John did more than just log off from the chat, but cut himself off from the matrix entirely. No signal, no traffic, no nothing.
"You okay?" Hunter asked him.
"Yeah." John answered, "Just making sure Void'll have a hard time tracking me."
"Get yourself a spoof chip." she said. "Can make it a lot easier."
Opening himself back to the matrix was a welcome relief. Right away he slaved his commlinks back to his mind.
"So what's up?" Billy asked.
"Void's 'bout as smart as you." John answered.
"Say what?" Billy asked, his voice pitching up a little.
"Void tried to scam us for knowledge." Hunter said, "Claimed Falcone's gonna screw us over when we get back."
"No way! We did the job!" Billy cried.
"Chill, will ya?" John asked. He ignored the others while Hunter tried to explain things. Instead he brought up Tabby's commcode to give her a call.
"Hey kiddo." came Tabby's voice. She was sounding less than cheerful, but it was also after midnight now. "How's the job?"
"Partly done." John said, "But I need to know if you know a couple people."
"What kind of people?" Tabby asked, sounding a little clearer of mind.
"First's a guy by the name of Void." John said. "Seems to be fucking around with Falcone."
"Uses an icon that looks like a black hole?" Tabby asked.
"That's the guy." John told her.
"A real space case." Tabby said, "Always runs VR hot, and you can't seem to pin him down on his sources."
"Not much help." John said, "Already met the guy. A real whack job."
"Who's the other guy?"
"Goes by the name HammerJack." John said, "Heard he was diggin' dirt on Falcone."
"Yeah, the two got history." Tabby told him, sounding a bit sleepy now, "Been hangin' 'round Union Station lately. Nice public place to search the 'trix."
"Union Station?" John asked excitedly. His mind started racing, like when putting a puzzle together and you suddenly find five pieces that all fit together. "I traced Void to Union Station not ten minutes ago!"
"Wait, you thinking…?" Tabby started to ask.
"Ya think Void and HammerJack are the same guy?" John asked. "This Void guy seemed to have a beef on Falcone. Tried telling us he was gonna fuck us over, and all."
"Could be." Tabby said, "No such thing as coincidences in this game."
"Got it! Thanks!" John said, ending the call.
Focusing his mind back to the real world, John saw that the others were still arguing about Void.
"I'll pay the guy myself!" Billy declared, "Just call 'im up and I'll send the cred!"
John just shook his head, smiling big all the while.
"What you grinnin' at?" Billy asked angrily.
"Made a call and put two and two together." John answered, "Ya know the answer to that?"
"Four." Billy grunted.
"Nope." John said, still smiling.
Billy growled.
"Could you just tell us?" asked Valkyrie. "I don't really wanna knock him out."
"I called a guy earlier about Belenkiy. He told me about a decker named HammerJack that was digging around about Falcone." John told them.
"So?" Billy asked.
"My other call said HammerJack's been doin' data dredging on Falcone from Union Station." John said, "That Void guy was also at Union Station, and he's the one that hacked the Ranch this morning."
"I don't get it." Billy said.
"I told you this Void guy seemed to be really pissy about us working for Falcone." Hunter said. "And how'd you know that, Cypher?"
Valkyrie only shook her head
"I traced him while we were talkin' at the Guild." John said. "His ID matched the Ranch's hacking."
"Shit." Hunter said with a sigh. "So you think this HammerJack and Void are one in the same?"
"Just a coincidence." muttered Billy.
"Surprised you know the word." remarked John.
Billy just sneered back.
"Yeah, gotta agree with Cypher." Valkyrie said, "Seems too much to be just a coincidence."
"So what're we gonna do?" asked Billy.
"We go back and report to Falcone." Hunter said.
The ten odd kilometers back to the Horse Trot Ranch were in silence. Along the way John thought about the whole deal with Belenkiy. Why go through the trouble to kidnap him only to do nothing to him and send him back the next day?
Then he remembered Merlin's comment about Belenkiy's fast climb up the career path. In a school or some kind of competition there would have been a lot of questions if someone performed too well or too fast. What if Ares was wondering about Belenkiy's fast promotions?
"Hold up a bit, please." John asked Hunter after they had gotten to the Ranch.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Been thinking about this whole thing." John confessed. "What if Ares hired the Cats?"
"Thinking a little too much, huh?" Hunter asked.
"Could do something else while I'm hangin' on." John told her.
"True." Hunter said wryly. "So thinking Ares is testing him?"
"Yeah, maybe I'm over thinking things." John said.
"Lemme ask Val." she said.
Billy did not even seem to notice he was walking alone as the women talked. In fact he was the first to reach the stable and turned to look back at them, giving a 'what the fuck' kind of look.
John did not get a chance to hear their opinions when Hafiz opened the door for them. Jaron Falcone was waiting for them inside.
"So, I hope you have more news?" Falcone asked.
"Ever hear of a hacker named Void?" Hunter asked.
"Void?" Falcone asked back.
"Maybe HammerJack?" John asked. "It's the same guy."
"HammerJack I know." Falcone said with a scowl.
"Well, he's the one who hacked you." John told him. "He tried ex… ex…"
"Extorting?" Hunter said.
"That's it." John said, "He tried extorting us."
Falcone nodded. "I'll take care of this." he told them. He then waved his hand like he was using an AR interface, and John saw a transfer of seven thousand nuyen come to his commlink. "Job well done."
Taking his time on the way back out, John sought out Belenkiy's commlink. Still having the access information he was able to log in easily. He scripted up a rather easy note file about Ares testing him, left it in an easy to find place, and set the commlink to go back into whatever secured standby mode it was when he had hacked into it.
They all then parted ways once they were out on the streets. Well, almost as John accepted a ride from Hunter back to near his home in the UCAS sector. Along the way he did some research into the motorcycle she had, though came up with a few different names and similar models.
When he finally got home, John peeled off his goggles and some of his clothes before collapsing on his bed.
It was late afternoon before John woke up again. Without opening his eyes, or even climbing out of bed, he reached out mentally to his commlink to give Merlin a call.
"Merlin's Antiquities." a man answered.
"It's Cypher." John said.
"Hey," the man said, "how's the job?"
"No sweat." John told him. "And I got is a sweet prize for you." He copied what looked like a picture of a very interesting looking handgun and sent it over to Merlin.
"Nice." Merlin said, "But that's not exactly new."
John pulled up some of the details and forwarded them to Merlin.
Merlin whistled. "Now this's different. Just how much you got?" Merlin asked.
"Specs on a few dozen weapons." John answered, "Including a really odd shotgun." He sent an image file of it over.
"Nice." Merlin commented when he looked the picture over. "I assume you've got the details on this one, too?"
"Yeah." John told him, sending over a few details on just how much data he had acquired.
"Shit, you got a lot." remarked Merlin. "I know a lot of people that'd be interested. I'll pay you twenty thousand for the lot."
John felt as if he had been struck by lightning. "Deal!"
The transfer was simultaneous, though John kept a copy of the data for himself.
"Holy shit." John heard Merlin mutter, figuring the fence was skimming through the data now. "Anything you'll be needing while you got me on the line?"
"Could use a set of wheels." John said, "Thinking about a motorcycle."
"Like a Suzuki?" Merlin asked.
"Here, like this." John said, forwarding over a picture of a motorcycle similar to Hunter's.
"Looks like a Contrail." Merlin said, "A twenty-sixty-nine model, I think. Don't have any right now, but I've got something nearly like it in the back."
"How nearly?" John asked.
"It's called a Katana-11," Merlin told him, "made by Yamaha. The model's a twenty-seventy, faster than the Contrail, but it took a hit to handling. It's also got a lot of space to trick it out, just like the Contrail. But it'll need some work, though."
"Okay. I'll take it."
