\+/ Tales From Night City \+/ Chapter 37 - Heavy Rep
You hear the tapping of black high-heels on marbled floor echo down a PetroChem megabuilding hallway. You see various corpos and office employees going about their day and scrambling to get out of the way of the woman walking with a brisk pace over to the elevator. The woman enters the elevator with a straight face.. the elevator door closes and she begins to hyperventilate. She puts her hand over her mouth and posts her other hand on a wall in the elevator to maintain her balance. The extreme anxiety she feels builds in her stomach as she begins to gag. Doing her best to gather herself after taking a deep breath and getting her shaking under control. As the elevator door opens she walks out with confidence as she sees the executive stood with his back toward her, leaned up against his desk, smoking a cigarette and looking out into the Night Cityscape.
"Status report." The man says in a monotone before taking another drag of his smoke.
"The blast site has been completely combed through and overhaul clean-up starts tomorrow. There wasn't anything found on site...several of the eye-witnesses we had went on the run as soon as we made contact. Typical.. but not ideal."
"The board can thank the company's overall reputation for shit like that." The executive scoffs and says.
"We still have a couple of them. One of which is probably the most valuable of the entire bunch. Hes asking for a big payday for what he knows...fuckin' typical Night City street scum."
"We don't have time to waste on this shit. Pay him."
"Yes sir." The woman responds as she joins the executive by his side with her hands behind her back looking out into the Night Cityscape.
"Shit like this is too often looked at as a simple write-off... completely disregarding the fact that at this magnitude the fallout can snowball or cascade... Spending too many years at the top makes you comfortable... when you're comfortable you're careless and complacent. Never forget that." The exectuive says as he takes another drag.
"Yes sir." The woman responds with a slight bow of the head.
"Whoever did this... isn't done here... can't be done here.. I just know it." The man concludes as you see Zaunya unconscious on the bed of the apartment.
The door to the room slowly slides open as Audrey is plugged into one of Zaunya's nuero sockets.. diagnosing and tending to her. She looks over her shoulder to see Brian and the kid enter.. she doesn't react. Brian glances at the kid whom returns the look slightly confused. Brian gestures the kid to go over there and help as he said he would. The kid hesitantly approaches slowly.
"Hey..uhm" The kid says in a softened tone. "May i..?" He asks gesturing toward Zaunya. Audrey looks at him skeptical but unplugs and moves out of the way. The kid reaches for Zaunya's head but Audrey quickly grabs his arms violently forcing him to stop and making him jump slightly. Audrey gently moves Zaunya's head into position for the kid while moving her long black hair out of the way. The kid jacks into one of Zaunya's neuro sockets while she lays there unconcious and begins to scan her. After some time passes, he speaks in a serious tone.
"There's a lot of holes in the ice.. Looks to me like not the best patchwork was done. Most of the problems derive from her sandy but there's a few other things going on." Brian glances over at Audrey who returns the look. As the kid's eyes flicker blue while running with code he notices several things that give him an instinctual reaction of surprise that Audrey picks up on.. however he does a great job of masking his reaction. Almost as if he saw something he knows no else has seen. The discovery catches him off guard as he unplugs and clears his throat.
"That should uhh... get her stable."
"What did- you do..?" Audrey asks looking over at him. While he responds, she glances at the kids neck and notices a small and subtle tattoo that sits near his nuero sockets that simply reads: "NTK". The realization causes Audrey to open her eyes wide in shock.
"The work shes had done on her... the hardware is solid but the soft is... just not up to the same standard at all really. Had to do a bios scan.. refine some of the-" The kid abruptly stops as he looks over at Audrey quickly stand up staring straight at him.
"Impossible.." She says in a whispered tone under her breath which grabs Brian's attention as he stands leaned up against a wall with his arms crossed. The kid also looks over at Audrey nervous and confused.
"What is it." Brian says uncrossing his arms and coming off the wall.
Audrey speaks as she stays focused on the kid. "One of my clients and close friend BugBear... one of the best damn runners I know... A few weeks ago we were hangin' out and she was droning on and on about this unknown runner building a heavy rep. Raiding Cytech and MiliTech data fortresses for sport... and just doing random unpredictable hacks on various sectors of the city; Serious stuff... power grids, Biotechnica black labs, Confidential Trauma Team platinum client specs, you name it. She told me they'd penetrate then just leave... doing no damage.. stealing no data... Only thing they ever left behind was a calling card in the ice... NTK." She says as she points over at him. "She said only runners with a specific skillset are able to decipher the abreev."
"The fuck is NTK...?" Brian asks
"Netty The Kid." Audrey says with a tone of discovery while chuckling.
"Hah.. I bet none of those code fiends would've ever guessed that its ACTUALLY a fuckin kid." She concludes while smirking as Brian approaches and stands behind Audrey's shoulder with his fists clinched while staring daggers at the kid.
"Hey.. I don't want any trouble." The kid proclaims in a serious tone as he unplugs from Zaunya's neurosocket.
Brian responds as he steps forward past Audrey. "Then you've come to the wrong place."