Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 96 (Patreon)

Nox

“It’s nothing like you’ll find anywhere else. It’s not some shock jock gore shit. This is an edgerunner, doing a real gig. A professional!” He commented practically slapping his bag as he talked the guy into it.

“Yeah kid I know. I heard about the Boat Heist.” The man offered, rolling his eyes as he looked around. He wasn’t the first customer Nox had that hadn’t been super comfortable buying pedaled BD’s, X or otherwise, off the street from a street kid.

But Nox had prime shit now. Motoko’s BD’s were unique enough that word of mouth got around. It wasn’t everyday someone could feel an actual professional at work.

Nox was super thankful that Motoko had wanted to hide her body and shit from the BD. It let him sell to people that wouldn’t buy a BD from a teenagers perspective normally.

“Well I got one here for you. As well as the back log of that Edgerunners other works. Some are pretty low key, but I assure you, once you finish you will know what it’s like to be a-”

“An Edgerunner. I’ve heard your push already kid. Just show me what you got.” The older man demanded and as Nox held out a copy of all the BD’s he thought he could push on the older guy. Eddies and Shards traded hands, and the man disappeared. Leaving Nox with an easy couple grand.

He loved this shit. The Boat Heist had been on the news, so he could easily push for high end XBD prices for it. And that led to people wanting more of Motoko.

Money was flowing in, more money than he had ever expected.

As always he made a note in a program he kept on his agent of how much he made, and how much he would owe Motoko for her cut.

It was small time honestly. Motoko barely even noticed when he sent her updates on how well everything was going. Judy his only other person he had to pay mostly just wanted him to bring her more caffeine.

The eddies were just flowing in, and Nox was even considering hiring a guard just to make sure no more trouble happened.

*Ringing*

Judy? He thought hearing the call and checking the caller ID.

*Hey Jude, what’s up?*

*FUCK!* He winced, at the loud noise. He had an internal agent now. A very useful piece of chrome he had purchased with some of the profits, but it meant he couldn’t lean away from the phone. *THE FUCKING FUCK NOX. FUCK!*

*Jude?*

*UGH. I can’t believe I did this shit! Nox you are so lucky you’re a Mox. If you weren’t I would be kicking your ass right now! Motoko’s last BD was fucking! Fuck. My heart literally won’t stop fucking pounding, and I can’t get the feeling of literally… Fuck… At least she warned me first. But I need bigger warnings than this!*

*Hey, Hey Jude. Calm down, what’s going on?*

*Ugh. Motoko dropped a new BD on my desk.* And at that Nox was cheering literally jumping in the air and whooping audibly as he rushed to pack his shit.

New content! Fuck he was gonna make more eddies! Running into that beautiful girl was the best thing that ever happened to him in his entire life!

*I’m on my way! Did you finish it?*

*Yeah I fucking finished it Nox! I wou- Sorry.* Judy went quiet for a minute. *I’m still dealing with the aftershocks of the virtu, I still feel angry. Just come by, and bring me a few cans. I’m out thanks to editing this bitch.*

*On my way Jude. On my way.*

She hung up and Nox was whooping as he ran down the street. He was going to jump in his crappy car that he had bought with the eddies and run it all the way to Lizzies. Everything was going perfect today!

—--

“Rip and Tear. Until it’s done.” His mouth formed the words even as he was gasping for air. His head still hurt, and his ribs ached, but everything else just felt like fire and hate as he glared down at the last Scav. At the last monster he had ripped apart.

The transition was sudden like the BD cut off in a weird spot and suddenly Nox was Nox. He wasn’t a murder machine glaring down at the corpses of the fucking SCAVS! No he was laying on his back with Judy looking over him.

“Fuuuuuuuuck.” He whimpered, despite the pain being gone. The rage and anger and hatred, but it left his nerves feeling raw as he rolled off the chair and nearly face planted. He was gasping for air he realized, and he wondered for a moment if he was going to be sick?

“Yeah. I may need to tone that down a bit.” Judy offered. He had shown up and she had been twitchy and quick to anger and now he knew why. He felt the same way, but there was also… He rolled over and just laid on his back. Sucking in air and letting the cool floor of Judy’s workshop cool him down.

“Jesus fucking christ.”

“Yeah.” Judy replied and even handed him a soda as she stood over him. “You alright?”

“Just processing. I wasn’t… Is Motoko okay?”

“I called her. I could only stay in the virtu for like a minute before I pulled out at first. I called her then. She sounded normal. Apologized and stuff. Still not sure if she is actually…”

“Yeah… Yeah… Fuck.” Nox had felt the cool calculated control Motoko exuded probably more than anybody. He sold the damn BD’s after all. He watched them often enough to make sure he could explain them to buyers.

He knew that Motoko was a killer. Absolutely unhesitatingly murderous when she wanted. The facade of her chipper happiness disappeared when it was time for her to kill.

But now he wasn’t sure what the real Motoko was.

Was it the nice teenager that would help out a boy getting beaten. The cold calculating Solo?

Or the Monster of rage and hate hidden within?

“So yeah. That’s a thing.” Judy offered as she took a long sip of her drink. “I’m thinking of sicking Rita on her.”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll never get the feeling of brains out of my nails.” She told him and Nox had to agree. He had seen a lot of XBD’s. That was definitely the first time someone had stuck a thumb through someone's eye.

“It was fucking preem though.”

“It was the most uncomfortable virtu I have ever edited.” She retorted instantly.

“Preem work.”

Judy just laughed as he ignored her complaints. She wasn’t really mad. Judy might pretend all she wanted, but she loved BD’s and XBD’s as much as anyone. Hell he still slipped her some of the shit coming out from the big names so she could rip it apart and see what they had done. Improve her own craft. She’s a connoisseur.

And he had caught her a few times just enjoying a BD here or there.

“Fuck. I’m gonna sell that BD.” He muttered realizing what he had on his hands.

“Not until after I tone it down a bit.”

“Don’t. Leave it.” He decided. He would explain that it was more raw than normal. It was better this way. No one would forget the BD… “The Only Thing They Fear Is You.” Nox had come up with the names of all the BD’s Motoko had dropped off until now. But fuck, if she had come up with the best name possible for this BD.

Anyone who scrolled this BD was going to feel like it was the damned truth.

—--

My agent ringing in my head woke me up in the middle of my nap.

“Blargh?” I asked aloud as I blinked my eyes and sat up. I had spent the entire previous day playing with Hiromi, traveling the city shopping for clothes and just hanging out with my choom. Then I spent some of the night doing some debugging work that Yoko had set up for me. Getting through some of the backlog of service requests that were piling up in my inbox.

But now it was early-late. And I was actually muggy. Not something I usually deal with.

Realizing I hadn’t actually spoken into my Agent I shook myself and did it again.

*Hello?*

*Hermanita, It’s Jackie! Sorry about calling you so late, little choom, but I have a problem, and I need a netrunner. Uh I already tried Bug but she cussed me out. Can you help?* Jackie blurted out, and instantly I could tell he was stressed. Talking too fast, and almost stumbling over his words.

I blinked as I tried to process the question before grunting a bit as I rose up. *Yeah, Jack, I can help. What’s the deets?*

*I got a computer system here that has information I need, but I can’t get in. I’ll send you the address?*

*Sure I’ll be on my way.*

*Thanks Hermanita.*

I rose to hurry and get dressed. Noting that Jun was sleeping in his bed so I went stealthy so I wouldn’t disturb him.

Slipping out of the apartment I rushed down the stairs using the movement to get my blood pumping to help wake me up.

I hated being groggy, but I wasn’t going to blame Jackie. He had called me!

I raced across the street to the parking garage. Jackie actually relied on me! I was inordinately happy about the fact.

I checked the address and set it to my GPS and started driving, actually going a little faster than normal through the city.

—--

The address took me to an old warehouse in Santo Domingo. I pulled up to the open gate and frowned.

Multiple vehicles were inside, and I could see dead bodies lying on the ground.

Not just that. Some of the bodies were wearing armor. Orange Armor. Kang Tao? What were Kang Tao gonks doing here? What was Jackie getting himself into?

I parked and turned off the engine.

Time to move.

The chainlink fence protected a dirty lot, covered in old garbage including a fire pit and some old ratty chairs.

Obviously the abandoned lot had been taken over. Now the question was, what was going on?

I slipped through the gate, staying in cover from the sightlines of the entrance to the warehouse that had its bay door open as I came up on the first normal body.

Tino? I checked the markings and it was the same sort of tats and markings a tino might use, but it wasn’t quite right. The body was wearing a bandanna around the neck with a weird symbol on it.

Offshoot street gang? Maybe just a few Tino kids forming their own gang to fuck around? But why the murder? Kang Tao being involved was a bit much for what I would expect from a street gang.

I looked over the wounds and  frowned.

Big rounds. Five rounds center mass. Someone took this kid out brutally. Kang Tao hadn’t been interested in talking.

Burya now firmly in my hand, because this was sketchy I rushed up to the warehouse's entrance, peeking in.

It was empty except for a Kang Tao Van parked in the back.

But there was a light on in the back office. I glanced around, then did it again to confirm the lack of any cameras.

The darkness of the warehouse no barrier to my optics I rushed in. Using the weight bearing struts to stay in cover as I raced to the back. The Van was empty front and back, the back door was even open. Slowly I crept up to the office window to peek in, and relaxed, almost sighing in relief.

I quickly called Jackie after confirming he was just sitting in a chair waiting.

*Hermanita you here?* He asked as soon as the call connected as I watched him physically rise up from his chair.

*Yeah just outside the office you are parked in. I’m coming in. Didn’t want to startle you.* I added, gave him a second before I opened the door and walked in.

“Whew you’re sneaky as always.” Jackie said, chuckling as he sat back down.

“Fuck Jackie! You’re hurt!” I snapped, rushing in as I noticed the blood rolling down his shoulder.

“Just a flesh wound Hermanita. I’ll be fine.” He said trying to calm me, but the way his left arm was hitching meant that was a lie. I almost went off on him, when I noticed it.

The dead Kang Tao body in the corner.

“Jackie? What’s going on?”

“One of the fuckers that killed the kids outside. They were just gonk kids. Didn’t deserve this shit.” Jackie hissed, the big man usually easy going honestly furious as he walked over and kicked the body.

He was already very dead Jackie.

“What were Kang Tao doing here?”

“The kids… The Red Piratas, Red Pirates. Just a small group of kids fucking around, klepping shit they shouldn’t have. Danny… He lives near me, I’ve boxed with him a little, just you know taught him how to punch. Kid doesn’t have a papa.” Jackie was quiet for a moment before shaking his head.

“He gone?”

“Yeah. I saw him outside. He’s the one who called me for help. The Piratas klepped a vehicle only to find out it’s owner was Kang Tao. It was a corpos car, there was something in the trunk. Danny realized how hot it was, but couldn’t just dump it… They had taken the car on a joy ride. Everyone knew who had klepped the ride.” Jackie sighed, rubbing his face tiredly.

“So Kang Tao came to get it back. Without mercy.” I added and Jackie nodded.

“I need to find out where they are Hermanita. Can’t let this one stand. Not even the corps can just walk into Tino territory and flatline our boys. Even Padre agrees. This is too far. So I called in some backup, but I’m stuck at step one.” he said, pointing with his good arm and I figured it out.

There was a Kang Tao armored case that had a laptop inside sitting on the office desk. Blood along one side of it told me how Jackie had gotten it. It was on, but obviously needed a password as it was stuck on the login page.

“Okay I’m putting things together.” I said as I walked over to the laptop.

“Knew you were the right call. Fast on your feet.” He complimented me, I just snorted in amusement, as I checked the laptop. I wasn’t even his first pick. Don’t think I had missed that he called T-Bug first.

Then I frowned. Dangerous.

“This is gonna take a bit. The security on this thing is dangerous.”

“Okay Hermanita. Just… As fast as you can. I need to find out where they ran. Can’t send Danny on without the men who killed him following behind…” Jackie grunted in anger as he glared around the small office.

In the quiet of the office as Jackie brooded, I was working my way into the laptop.

No way I was sticking my personal link into a port on this thing. Just looking at it I could see the massive module on it’s side. Basically it was a Black ICE port. You stick your link in without the right codes it tries to fry your brain. Probably melts the laptop hard drive along with it.

So instead I was relying on Ghost Touch. A few key presses caused the OS to enter a diagnostic mode.

Then I basically started poking the system using wireless connections. Sending connection requests, that would be denied, but the laptop would still need to accept a few bytes of code to verify if it was an allowed connection.

Over and over, I sent tiny bits of data through, that would all be stored in the same processing node to verify if it was a legit connection. The laptop normally would have dumped the data after dismissing the connection, but if I sent the data over a slow enough bandwidth causing the computer to assume it was a connection error, so it would save the data as it constantly tried to gather enough information to accept or deny, the data would be saved.

And slowly a virus was put together that would add in access information.

“Hermanita?”

“Gonna take a bit Jackie. Don’t rush me. I’m going as fast as I can.” I mumbled, never tearing my eyes from the laptop as my vision was filled with data.

I was literally writing a virus in real time as I sent bytes of it into a new system. A virus that would then need to put itself together after.

I heard it then, as I was going an engine rumbling into the lot. An over tuned absolute monster of an engine.

Also I recognized that noise. A Kusanagi?

“Jackie? If I need to move away from this I’ll lose progress.”

“No worries Hermanita, I said I called in some backup yeah? The fucking calvary is here.” Jackie said with a laugh as he stepped out of the office behind me, but I was focusing on getting into this system.

Stupid Kang Tao Security.

A new voice called out behind me.

“Who’s the kid?” A woman's voice behind me asked and Jackie responded a moment later.

“Motoko. Good kid, she’s a netrunner. And a Solo. She’s hacking into the Kang Tao system to find out where they ran off to.”

“Fuck Jackie. You got some street kid to try and break into corp sec? You might as well just put a bullet in her head now. Or not I guess, The fucking kid isn’t even plugged. How is she supposed to Breach?”

I ignored the woman, even if I really wanted to turn around and give her a piece of my mind, but there was only one way to really shut someone up.

Do something they already dismissed you from being capable of.

The virus was coming together. I was sending the data that was basically restructuring the data in the laptops node that would activate once it was complete.

“Hey, easy Hermana! Motoko isn’t some scop kid. I’ve done gigs with her. I told you I started working with a solo for Wakako’s gigs yeah? Well that’s her.”

“Fourteen? Fuck me. Seriously a little TC brat?” She suddenly said, and I realized she must have scanned me. Pulling up my data.

“Like you have much room to talk there Hermana.” Jackie suddenly teased and since there was an almost echoing silence I could tell Jackie was getting glared at.

“Jack you know I got your back if you need it, and hell going after Kang Tao for that piece of tech you said the kids found is something I’m all for. But it looks like they’ve already cleared off. I’ll help cause some trouble for you, but I can’t storm a Kang Tao office.”

“I know, I know Choom, just give Motoko a bit, she’ll find out where those fuckers went and we will track them right down.”

The womans scoff only told me what she really thought of that.

“I’m in.” I said suddenly as I stood up and stretched. Fuck that took forever.

“What?”

I turned around to face Jackie and his choom only to blink.

I knew that face.

I fucking knew that face!

I went cold, to keep myself from wanting to immediately spaz out.

V.

That was female V. Standing in front of me in a corpo suit was definitely Female V. The red hair, the shaved left side. Even the EMP threading was the same going from her cheeks up over her eyes.

“You’re still on the login screen. How is that in?” She demanded, instantly harsh and criticizing.

Wow she was a total bitch.

Was it weird that I always loved that about her while playing the game?

I smiled.

“Username: USUCK, all caps. Password: colon uppercase-D.” I took a step away and waved at the laptop earning a surprised look before she walked over and typed away.

The Kang Tao login screen gave way to the actual desktop.

“Fuck me.” V Whispered as she quickly hit an icon on the desktop and a bunch of future excel sheets popped up. “Oh I’m taking this.” pulled a shard out of her socket and went to plug it in.

“Hold up.” I demanded stopping her from putting it in.

“What?” She demanded a glare and a twitch of her hands that told me she had stopped herself from striking out at me. Hair trigger much?

“You put that in, and they will notice. Right now the access isn’t being deleted because it’s not doing anything. Find out where the stuff we need is first.”

To my surprise the woman continued to glare at me, as if she was deciding whether to listen or not.

“C’mon V. Padre gave me a gig to hunt these pendejo’s down. Gig first yeah?” Jackie backed me up, and smiling at the woman in that way of his.

“Fine.” She grunted and instead started typing away as she pulled up a program that after a few moments of watching her navigate made me realize it was dispatch information.

Who went where. It was limited to this group though. Which was actually good security.

“I got them. They are at a drop site that Kang Tao like to use. Whatever it is they found Kang Tao want to get it out of the city. We aren’t too late, but we have to move.” She looked over her shoulder to Jackie, her red hair hanging over just one side of her head blocking her face from my sight before Jackie nodded, throwing her a thumbs up, earning a scoff but only then did she plug the shard she had into the laptop.

It began trying to download anything and everything it could.

“Alright while this downloads Jackie, go grab the Kang Tao Van, we can use it to get close without them realizing their chooms are zeroed.” V demanded even snapping a finger at Jackie to get him to move.

“Aye Hermana, I’ll get our ride.”

“And find a medkit before you bleed out you dumb fuck gonk!” She yelled suddenly, and I could hear Jackie chuckling a little.

They were so cute! If I didn’t already know they weren’t into eachother like that I would absolutely ship them.

“Alright kid, time to clear off.” V said suddenly reminding me she was also a turbobitch.

“What, you don’t want a netrunner backup?”

“Don’t know you. Don’t need you.” She said instantly. “Clear off.”

I thought about it. Considered arguing, but in the end I turned and walked out with a smirk on my face. I don’t remember agreeing to work for her either, Jackie was my choom so it wasn’t like I was just going to let him head into this kind of shit without some backup. Walking through the warehouse and then out into the dirt lot, a splash of color caught my eye…

Yeah. That could work.