CHAPTER TWO
Running on the Edge.
Downtown District,NightCity
0700 Hrs, Earlier That day
Kaena Murphy's alarm clock had gone off at 5 am that morning and she had woken up with a stretching yawn; a consequence of putting in another late night surfing the Net.
Getting out of bed she padded over to the bathroom ,brushed her teeth and splashed her face with cold water from the faucet underneath the bathroom mopping off her face she looked at herself in the mirror,Kaena saw herself as an above average beautiful woman with reddish brown hair,straight nose,high cheekbones,soft full lips and striking blue this in addition to her athletic 5'6" frame got her a fair bit of attention walking down a busy street,Mainly the once over from men and jealous glances from other women but the few men who had decided to make a pass at her upclose had noted something else as cranial nodes and the microcircuitry veins that gave off a silver glow ,clear evidence of cybernetic implants.
The men usually lost intrest after seeing this, not that it bothered Kaena all too much, getting involved with someone who didn't run with the same crowd she did was as dangerous for her as it was for them due to one particular reason Kaena Murphy is a Netrunner.
Leaving the bathroom, Kaena slipped out of her nightwear into her exercise gear and grabbed a few protien bars from the fridge and started munching on didn't go for large breakfasts,doing her morning extreme running would be rather difficult if she did and speaking of which she'd better get moving.
Stepping out of her apartment, she made her way to the nearest hoverbus station and boarded the next one to her favorite startoff Kaena was standing on the rooftop of a highrise building that was 20 floors up from the streets had finished her deep breathing and stretching exercises now all that remained was for her to decide where she wanted the run to end.
"I think T9 should have my package ready by now and the cafe is a good place to pick up the latest info'." Kaena said,thinking out loud.
With that decision made, Kaena turned to the west then tensed her body like a coiled spring and took off in a running sprint towards the edge of the rooftop,building speed with each step until she vaulted into the air.
For a moment time seemed to stand still as the dual forces of Kaena's forward jump and the ever present law of gravity competed for control of her usual,the law of gravity won.
Kaena is falling...cartwheeling her arms and legs for maximum enough...Kaena lands on the opposite roof,bending her knees at the last moment to absorb the impact into a forward roll and then she's on her feet again,pumping her arms in leap of faith had kicked the andrenaline into her system,now she was gonna keep it there.
Kaena moves through her urban obstacle course over the rooftops, executing various maneuvers along the way.A 'tiger vault' over a low barrier,the running wall climb to the top of an inclined ceiling and then sliding down to the other side.
The final destination was in sight now and Kaena was digging in deep for the strength to make the last leap of her arms and legs for momentum, Kaena made the jump over to the last rooftop with a front flip and landed with a skidding halt.
Kaena rose to a standing position,breathing in precious muscle in her body ached with a dull throb but Kaena sucked it forged her mind but it was Extreme running that forged her body.
"No pain ,No Gain Kiddo."
That's what her mentor would've said if she were had been a little while since Kaena had allowed herself to think about her time as an apprentice under 'Spider' or about her time in the Orphanage and the NightCity streets after all seemed so surreal,like it all happend to somebody else and she was watching it on the news or reading it on the Net.
"Hey you! You daydreaming again?"
Kaena's thoughts snapped back to the present with a turned to see a middle aged man standing beside an open doorway of the Roof was fairly tall(Taller than her anyway) and dressed in a blue overall with all manner of tools and gadgets sticking out of the hard sole boots on and a red baseball cap pulled low,T9 cut the picture of a man who was handy with machines.
"It took you a whole five minutes longer to get here than it did last time 're getting slow darling." T9 said with a smile on his face that made him look younger than he really was.
"Hah! Says you old man." Kaena replied while partially zipping down the front of her exercise top to increase air circulation and further aid her body in cooling down.
"Old Man! I'll have you know that i'm still young enough to get busy with a pretty little lady like you darlin'." T9's eyes made a slow ,deliberate trail from Kaena's face down to her neck before resting on the soft swell of her cleavage.
"Eeww! I take it 're not just old,you're a dirty,sex crazed pervert!"
T9 broke out into a bout of laughter and Kaena joined him with smiles and giggles.
"How are you doing Ka'? You're here to collect the NetKit right?"
" it ready?"
"Sure is,I'll get it packaged for on down to the cafe and check back with me at the tech lab in a little still remember my access code right?"
"Yeah i do,i'll be right back."
Kaena and T9 both used the rooftop access way to exit the roof but while T9 ducked through another door to ready her package,Kaena proceeded to the NetConsole Cafe on the ground floor.
The Cafe was full of customers at thier various consoles surfing the Net,watching videos and chatting with thier friends waved to the the Cafe attendant who knew of her friendship with T9 then moved to an empty booth opposite two other customers that Kaena easily identified as Netrunners from thier cranial nodes,Micro circuitry veins and the subject of thier animated discussion.
"I'm telling you Trask it's the truth,they're making a new one."
"You're so full of shit the hell are you so sure?"
"Cuz another buddy of mine is friends with this chick that's banging an Arasaka Exec'.One night he gets really stoned an' starts running his mouth off about how the New Dreadnought Prototype is almost he's gonna make enough creds to buy her stuff to last a lifetime."
Despite the earnest tone of Buzz's voice,Trask remains skeptical.
"So let me get this straight,This buddy of yours gets his prime intel from some airhead hooker and you swallow it hook,line and sinker? Even if i believed you,what good is it to us? The Arasaka Corp databank is protected by top grade Black ICE ,ain't nobody but nobody gets past that kinda last time i heard of a runner messing with that, he ended up that how you wanna end up?"
Buzz absorbs his friends words with a deep sigh "Nah,i guess you're right but you have to admit a runner putting the specs for the new Dreadnought Prototype up for grabs would make one helluva payday."
"Take my advice Buzz,Keep your dayjob at the Mall and stay away from Arasaka Corp,you'll live longer that way in this on,let's go get a beer."
Trask and Buzz promptly make thier way out of the cafe leaving Kaena who has overheard thier conversation with quite a bit to think about.
Hmmm...it might be something and it might be nothing but i guess a little research won't activated the NetConsole in her booth and typed the key words 'Arasaka Corp' and 'DreadNought Prototype' into a Data SearchEngine which came back with 1,345,980 clicked on the first result and was taken to a Network News 54 page with a bold headline
'ARASAKA CORP UNLEASH NEW WEAPON'
Under this was a picture of what apeared to be a large sophisticated weapon in the middle of a speedreading through the writeup on the page,Kaena was able to learn that the Dreadnought was a bipedal walking tank that was first put to use during the South America Cyberwars and quickly gained a reputation as a harbinger of the end of the war,Arasaka Corp made a killing on sales for thier new weapon as it became a prize item for Military Goverments,Militia groups and generally all manner of individuals who instigate,love and profit from war.
Kaena closed the NetPage with a worried sigh,if there was anything the world didn't need more of it was weapons of logged out of the NetConsole and made her way back upstairs to T9's tech lab,tapping the access code into the door lock she strolled in to lab to meet T9 at his workstation.
"Here you go Darlin',all nice an' ready." T9 said handing over the package "I rigged it so that even a walking tinman like your partner can use the way,How is that chrome head doing?"
It was easy to tell from T9's attitude that he really had a thing for Gibson.
"He's just fine and by the way, he loves you too." Kaena replied smiling.
T9 responded by simply rolling his eyes in disgust and turning his attention to a gadget on his workstation.
"Hey T9 ,i wanna ask you somethin'.Have you heard anything about Arasaka Corp developing an upgrade to one of thier weapons? Something called the 'Dreadnought'?
T9 stopped fiddling with the gadget in his hands and his eyes suddenly had a faroff look in them but it only lasted for a few seconds.
"Nothing more than what you've probably heard already from your Netrunner , rumours but nothin' solid." T9 suddenly raised his eyes and fixed Kaena with a quizzical look "Why do you ask? You thinking of makin' a Run at Arasaka Corp?"
"No i'm 's just that i thought you might have heard somethin' solid from your old techie buddies."
T9's voice now had a rough edge to it "I'm an independent now Kaena,You know reason i left the MegaCorps is becuz i don't like 'em and i don't much hang out with folk that work with 'em."
Indeed, hence T9's somewhat tense relationship with Gibson,a MegaCorp decided to let it go at that,she had probed far enough for one day.
"Thanks again for the NetKit, i'll make the payment into your account as usual."
T9 tipped his baseball hat in salute "Glad i could help."
With the package tucked under one arm,Kaena was halfway out the door when T9's voice stopped her in midstep.
"Hey Ka' ,you know that ol' sayin' ,about people 'running on the edge'?"
Kaena still had her back to T9 and she didn't answer so he continued.
"The thing with people like that is sooner or later they either fall off or they get cut."
Kaena suddenly found her mind transported to a memory from long ago.A moment between a young apprentice and her 's reply came forth,not just from her mind but from the depth of her heart.
"I'm different from those 'people' T9. I'm not running on the edge..."
Kaena turned her head and locked eyes with T9 "i AM the edge."
Without waiting for a reply Kaena walked out the door with T9 watching her leave,the expression on his face was a mixture of worry and awe.
The sun was high in the sky now as Kaena made her way from T9's cafe to a hoverbus station to catch her ride home.
In her apartment ,Kaena laid out the package and ran a complete security scan on the NetKit for wasn't that she didn't trust T9,she did but crosschecking was something she did by force of habit.
"Check,Crosscheck then Triplecheck, Kiddo."
Another mantra handed down to her by Scan came up negative for Malware and Kaena finally stripped off her exercise gear then had a cold shower before cooking up a little lunch for herself.
With a full stomach, Kaena settled down in front of her flatscreen TV and browsed the channels.A music channel showed that the Rockerboy songs 'Chippin' In' and 'Never Fade Away' were still top of the charts,a second channel decried the rising crime rate in a notorious area of NightCity and the third was running a story on Zetatech Corp.
It seems investors in the company were on edge due to rumors of an alledged Cyberattack on the Global HQ of the company in NightCity that brought all it's activities to a grinding PR Officer had issued a statement refuting the allegations but the Corporations stock had plummeted to an all time low.
Kaena switched off the TV and walked over to reached for her alarm clock and adjusted the alarm for later in the evening when she would upgrade Gibsons NetWare before have a sparring session with Him.
The only thing that bothered her now was that Gibson had a habit of being made a mental note to herself to call Gibson and remind him of thier appointment then settled into bed for much needed rest,it was going to be a long day.
