|
October 10, 2045.
Dear Anastasius Foch,
This letter finds my crew at a turning point. As Robert Frost said, 'Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by, -- And that has made all the difference.
It would prove to make all the difference.
We join them again late in the evening on Friday August 11th. Kazure had been on the speakerphone with his Controller recieving a mission entailing diplomacy at an upcoming 3M Gala' dinner and banquet. To help him on his mission he was to use two Skips (Skill Chips): a sociological/geological database chip with economic and political information on French Guinea, and a diplomatic chipa circa 2045.
Zona had taken on the task of performing a normal cybernetics systems check on Kazure, who had come into the clinic for this express purpose. It would pay off the debt Shark owed him for helping to rescue Spydr and take down the terrorists from the previous day. During his examination Kazure was dressed down to his briefs, and when Zona plugged into his data-jack she was amazed at what she had seen. From here on out her memories would come back to haunt her. The cybernetics of Kazure were at the cutting edge of technology, and worst of all, his PROGRAMMING would force him to execute thost that proved to have knowledge of them, should they reveal it to him. Zona managed bring her horror under control, for at that moment Shark entered the clinic and appraised things.
He saw an Asian man on the exam table, Zona in her lab coat, and millions of cred worth of new diagnostic equipment. He told me he tried to remain calm. "Zona, what is this?" he asked.
She responded as she saw fit, "It's Kazure, you know that."
He then got fuming mad on the inside, but did not show an ounce of it. Going over to her and putting an arm on her shoulder, he gave a short but to the point speach on accepting large donations from unnamed persons, as they may want certain things in the future. 'Be sure of your source' was the lecture title. Afterwards Zona, I think, agreed with him and would be more careful in the future.
Things would continue to get weird for Sharkman as he moved around the city on errands of his own device. Observers on the street corners and sidewalks would watch him as he passed. Even going so far as being there on route as it changed. This did not make him happy.
Back at the Compound, Mo had called Spydr, whom he was hopelessly infatuated with and asked her if she would join him for a candle lit dinner. In France. At the top of the Eifle Tower. Besides the obvious talent the boy had for Decking, I would go so far as to say he will have balls when he grows older.
Back at the Clinic, Shark was asking Zona about Kazure's cybernetics while admiring his tattoos. The tattoos were obviously Yakuza and the design was made up primarily of the symbols for Vengence and Revenge. It also sported a large, ornate dragon with the symbol for Loyalty in it's mouth. But back to Zona's analysis of his Cybernetics; she confessed that she was not familiar with half of it and he was worth more to the team dead, than alive. That disregarded, Shark wanted to know if she could perform the chip changes. She just nodded, knowing that that was the easiest thing in the world to do. Then as the chips were going through their boot-up procedure, Zona and Shark, 'made use of the semi-private room' as Shark likes to say.
With the operation completed and everyone dressed, Kazure left and went to his apartment, and Shark and Zona went to her apartment. On the way, Shark noticed the Universal Military guy who had watched the TTI Corp at The Web, following them. Henceforth this individual will be reffered to as the UM (Universal Military) guy. Shark took actions, and lost him.
The majority of the preceeding actions took place in the early morning hours of Saturday the 12th, but when the true morning arrived - just after sunrise - everyone was at he Compound enjoying a real breakfast. It was a rare occasion to get Shark out of bed before noon, but Zona managed and he came downstairs for breakfast. When they arrived at the large dining table, everyone was there except Spydr. I was engaged with Mr. Dollar, my confidence man and funds appropriation manager over matters of finance and future used goods, but we finished up and then I excused myself. That was unfortunate, for I did not get to see Spydr make her grand entrance. She was late to breakfast for the express purpose of mischief. For weeks she had been attempting to sneak up on Shark all to no avail. But today would be different, she took a path through the kitchen.
The kitchen and dining room are divided by a small serving window. She had walked in and the window was open to her delight, otherwise sneaking up on him would have been impossible. She alighted to the rail and slowly lowered herself to the floor while Shark talked on with Kid Stealth. Kid did not give her away, nor did a single peep of noise. With two more steps she was behind him, and the moment of truth was at hand.
Shark then turned the tables on his ambusher, "What do you think you're doing, little miss stealth?"
Spydr just stood up walked over, and pretended like nothing was amiss. "Oh, just getting breakfast. Ya know."
Shark looked at Kid Stealth and mumbled, "Aww, shit," then turned around to face kid. "Where were you on that one jerk off?!?" Shark's look was incredulous; Kid Stealth might have smiled.
An old friend of Kazure's implanted personality called and informed him of the Gala' banquet at the 3M archology for the unveiling of the new EBM Quad-MicroM 555 Processor. Really just an excuse for corporate types, underlings, demons, and powerbrokers to have a get-togther. Kazure had met him at The Web, "Two Turns South of Hell" was playing.
But back to things downstairs. After breakfast everyone retired to one of the lounges or rec. rooms that the Compound has. Shark noticed that Zona appeared in poor spirits, somewhere between pouty and, as Shark said, on the rag, Shark told me in the days to follow. But since he rarely understands their, or her, moods he just gave her some distance. Spydr was there as well, and were some of the other Solos. Zona was reading a book; Spydr was talking with Shark about the upcoming B&E; and the others were playing six-player James Bond 'Knight Knave' on the Nintendo HVIT.
At 1345, Shark was sitting in the living room with Zona waiting for Spydr to show up so they could call Mike. Spydr was still reeling from her missed atempt that morning and would not walk away un-satisfied. She was off doing something, and was on her way into the living room to call Mike, when she saw her opportunity. The only problem was that Shark was looking in her direction, and his peripheral vision would notice her. Then inspiration struck; Zona was sitting off to Shark's other side and if Spydr immitated her voice, Shark would look that way long enough for her to slip by. She coughed softly to herself to check her voice. Then she threw her plan into motion. Shark looked over at Zona, asked "What?", and in no time Spydr was behind him. Zona answered, "I didn't say anything," which Shark thought odd, but wrote it off to her poor mood. He was back at his gun magazine as Spydr crept up behind him. Would she risk setting off his reaction response and ending up clawed? Hell yes.
Spydr raised her arms out to each side and slapped them down on his shoulders. Shark jupmed in his chair, was on his feet and had spun around to face his attacker. At some point he realized it wasn't an assailant so he just turned around and looked at Spydr. Her grin was like a Satyr; Shark's like the Cheshire Cat. All he could say was "Fuck me."
At 1400 hours they called Mike from the secure vidphone. He looked the same, as did the fake background. He went on to inform that it was on the 106th floor of the 3M archology, room 73, and that there would be a gentleman there to meet them. This gent would give them an item, and then they would be free to leave. Floor 106 is a sub-managerial floor, like all the rest above 75. each was monitored and every five had a rapid response team. The information was sensitive they were told, and that they had until friday of the next business week to get it.
Shark proceeded to question him on any involvement with the Arabs he had. Spydr was sure he was lying in some way about his involvement. Mike then made a number of interesting statements. "I don't agree with the slaughter of innocent people," when asked about the gunning down of the hostages, but then he made this comment. "Humanity as a whole can only grow if some is trimmed."
Neither Shark nor Spydr were happy with these mutually exclusive answers, but stuck with the job anyways. Shark agrees on the standard one half of a million nuyen; Spydr does not. She asks for one half of a million in info on Zona "Rosa" to be handed to Shark upon completion of the mission. Mike says certainly, and that he wished he could portray the same selflesness. Shark's jaw just dropped, he would not have guesed this in a hundred years. I must admit I was nervous, thankfully I was just outside the door. Finally they closed the connection.
Shark had lifted Spydr off her feet in a titanic hug of appreciation and was spinning around to give Zona the good news. Instead of seeing her smiling, happy face as he had anticipated, he saw her head back on the chair and her eyes rolled up in her head. He quickly put Spydr back on her feet and raced to Zona's side, even using the accelerated reflexes he saves for combat. He checked for a pulse, but that is about where his medical knowledge ends. Being an effective delagator he called for me. Spydr was at his side now, equally concerned. I entered stage right, a barely adequate time later; this type of reaction is what I was afraid of. After administering sedative, I had Shark bring her upstairs to my chambers, where he placed her on the couch. Shark wanted to stay at her side. I told him it would interfere with treatment, and that I would see that she understood he wanted to be there. Reluctantly he went dowstairs.
Whilst heading towards the stairs he was intercepted by Mo who told him the events of his cyber-hack. Someone was looking for the team. Him, Mo, Spydr, Kid, Zig, Zag, Gator, Pick, and John were all being searched for. Shark asked him to email a parts list to a Cyber-Doc Spydr had recommended, and Me readily agreed. Mo again told him about the searches. Shark said he would take it under advisement and headed towards the liquor cabinet.
Roughly midway to the house of hops, Spydr walked up to him and expressed her concern. But she took Shark's silence as the hint it was that he wanted to be alone for now. She stated he could talk to her anytime and then informed him she would be scouting the 3M Archology tonight. Shark asked if she needed him or any of the guys as backup. She said she would be fine. Things were almost tense. But she departed, and he took up his course for the wet bar.
After reaching the chilled fermentation, he pounded down two beers and went for the couch. Kazure called and they discussed the mission in vague terms, Shark hates cell phones you see: security risk. So that was short and he again set about getting wasted despite the conspiracy to prevent it.
Some time after Shark's meeting with Mo and the other disturbances, I came downstairs to see Shark sprawled out on the couch with just his diving trunks on and the bandages over his two gunshot wounds. He was halfway through a new bottle of Napoleon Brandy, and not quite three sheets to the wind. Despite his intoxication we talked. About Zona, about this Mike guy, and other sundry things. It was now that I told him about the 3M gala' banquet meeting.
Do not bother asking if I was going; I set the whole thing up, and of course asked my two deadliest and most trusted associates. Kid Stealth and Sharkman looked on social gatherings with a love/hate tint to their cyber-eyes. It was an opportunity to look at the hordes of Sheeple that inhabited the plexes, and gawk at their opulance and her-like behavior. It also gave them a chance to get a good view of the food-chain; from the top looking down. This being the words of Sharkman from the first time I took him to such an event. Since it made them happy, I was glad to invite them. I asked him, he said yes; I had asked Kid Stealth and Spydr somewhat earlier. He didn't mind.
We will end with the events surrounding Spydr's sneak into the Archology. Returning back to her apartment to gather the tools of her trade, she quickly prepared. Public transportation got her to the vicinity, where she activated her intruder suit and disappeared from sight. She began by circling the Archology and casing who came and went; then choosing one door she timed the entrances and exits. This allowed her to slip in undetected, and make her way up to Cubeville. In a bathroom she subdued a nameless Corp and using the subduee's clothing and nametag she tricked security and got up to the one hundred sixth floor. Spydr quickly found the room quickly, but since it was just after midnight there was no one there to meet her. She availed herself by searching the office, but the desk was locked and she didn't want to set off any unnecessary alarms. With nothing to do but wait now, she had a seat in a chair and began to take short naps. Come morning she arose and eagerly awaited the arrival of Mr. Unknown.
At approximately 0630 a gentle man walked in and when confronted by Spydr, he stated he knew nothing. Mike likewise wasn't answering his phone. The guy behind the desk proceeded to get really drunk, and then finally shot up with about six derms. Just as all the toxins are flowing in his bloodstream he had a moment of clarity and Spydr noticed a subtle but definite personality change. He then proceeded to blow his brains out with a revolver.
Spydr was aghast, and stood in shock as wailing alarms pounded her ears.
Sincerely,
Richard Raven
Also, F2-E7-WF-XP-77-51
|
