The Ragdoll Sequence Box set

by J P Carver

  “Oh, he couldn’t make it?”

  “Nah, he had too much to do.”

  Chris nodded. “Well, good to see you’re following in his footsteps. What’s your father’s name? Maybe I’ve met him.”

  “Eh, rather not say, he hates me trading under his name in these places. Bit of a stick up his ass about pharmaceutical companies.”

  “No, I can totally understand that. To be honest, not the biggest fan myself, but it pays the bills,” Chris said with a forced laugh. “Guess Ragan still has a thing for medical men. Hey, we should all get together, have dinner or something.”

  “Oh, we’re boring to hang out with. He’s always studying and I’m so busy with my job—” I cut myself off when Marcus jabbed me with his elbow, but it was too late. I’d gone too far with the lie.

  “You got a job? Where?” Chris asked, surprised.

  “Oh, I'm working part time… consulting.”

  His brows raised. “That’s… surprising. Computer security?” I nodded. “Well, anyone who hires you will be safer than any other company. She’s smart, but she’s insane when it comes to computers. Did she tell you? Can make them do things you wouldn’t believe.”

  Marcus smiled with a look to me. “Yeah, I know all about her talents. Keeps surprising me with new ones though.”

  I could feel the blush rise in my cheeks and I looked away from both of them, annoyed that I couldn’t do anything about how my body responded. I took a deep breath and turned back, looking for an excuse, but Marcus had already started working on one.

  “Oh man, my feet are killing me. Did she make you dance all night too when you were together? I don’t think I have a heel on these shoes anymore.”

  Chris and Kale both laughed, and I joined in. “Not my fault you’re so out of shape,” I said.

  “Yeah, yeah, rub it in more. I’m not the one that brought those ice cream bars last night. You know I can’t resist that stuff.”

  “You’re reminding me more of Chris now.” I turned to Kale, it was Chris’s turn to feel embarrassed. “Does he still have trouble controlling himself? He was handsy as hell when we dated.”

  She grinned and looked to Chris. He went to say something, but she talked over him. “He has his moments, but I don’t mind. I love his touch on me.” She wrapped her arm around his and seemed to be doing her best to make me jealous. There were lingering feelings, but nothing I couldn’t contain, especially with Marcus beside me.

  I shrugged and pushed against Marcus’s arm. “To each their own, I guess. I better get this big baby to sit down before he starts really whining.”

  “We should totally get some cheese, too” Marcus said, and I laughed and groaned at the same time. Chris and Kale both chuckled and said their goodbyes. Marcus and I made it out of the crowd and sat down in the first set of empty chairs we found.

  “Man, that was painful,” I said and rubbed my hand along my cheek.

  “You dated that guy?”

  “Huh?” I said looking over, and found Marcus leaning forward, his hands folded together between his knees. “Uh… yeah, for a little more than a year.”

  “Gotcha. We’re in the door, right?”

  I narrowed my eyes. He was going cold again. “Yes, we’re in and I haven’t seen Chris in three years. I haven’t heard a peep from him in almost as long.”

  “No need to explain. Was weird, that's all.” He turned tired eyes to me. “I’m not playing your boyfriend if we run into him again.”

  “It’ll be fine,” I said and scanned the crowd, looking for Merigold or Sera, but they were both missing. “Is your dad really a surgeon?”

  “Before he retired. He’s still practicing medicine in his home clinic, but he’s mostly given it up.”

  “You guys close?”

  He sat back. “I don’t really want to talk about this with you. Let’s get back to the job at hand, huh? Ziller, you better be there instead of washing your hair for the fifteenth time today---whatever man, was joking—all right. All right, sorry. Jesus. Ragan cracked the lock, but she’s concerned about how easy it was.”

  “Goddamnit, Crow, tap me in with them already.” Crow giggled and in a moment I head Ziller in my head.

  “—I hope it would be easy, it’s a stupid lock.” Ziller said, his fuse already lit and burning quick. It was about burn even quicker.

  “Yes, a lock that I couldn’t touch so I had to break in through the local network. When was the last time you ran into one of those being on, Ziller?”

  “So the admin is a lazy dumbass. Look, it’s a way in and we gotta take it. We don’t give up on a job—”

  "Don’t you lecture me, you bastard, or I’ll cancel every hair appointment you make for the next six months."

  “You two are assholes, leave off my grooming habits already. Hell, both of you could learn something from me, especially you, Plot.”

  “All right, kiddos, let’s bring this down to a simmer, huh? Sweetheart, was it the ease of the lock, or did something else spook you?” Jankiee asked.

  I looked at the door, could see it past all the people who were still dancing. It felt wrong. I couldn’t quite put into words, but the thought that I should walk away from it gnawed at the back of my head. “A bit of both… I don’t know.”

  Ziller sighed. “You know I trust gut feelings more than most, but I need more than that, girl. Give me something and I’ll call this whole thing off and we’ll find another way. If you can’t—”

  “No, I get it. It’s our one shot at their network and finding out if the source is Rentena itself.” I looked at Marcus. “I need you keep watch… from here.”

  “W—what? Are you being dense? Remember what happened last time you went off on your ow—”

  “Shh, just wait. Two of us at that door will draw a lot of attention and since I’m the only one here with a neural that can crack into the network, I gotta be the one to go. I only need a few minutes. I’ll be in and out as quick as I can.”

  “What about cameras? With you in that dress they’ll pick you out the moment you step from the crowd,” Marcus said.

  “I got that covered,” Nina broke in. “Merigold has been dropping little packets of her camera obfuscation tech around the room while dancing with Sera. I’ve been working on putting together a loop around that door since Plot and Jankiee mentioned it. Shouldn’t be hard to get into the cameras through the links.

  “All that just hurt my head when I tried to put together,” Marcus said and Nina laughed. “But I trust you can do it.”

  “I got-chu, my man.”

  “You better, it’s my ass on the line here,” I said.

  “Don’t worry, it’ll be fine,” she said with a hint of amusement. “Ooh… hey, what’s an I/O error mean?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Shut up, Crow.”

  Marcus danced with me back to the door and only stepped on my foot once. It took a second to unlock the door again and in the next I slipped through. Merigold found Marcus as soon as I left and danced with him as they made their way back.

  The room's walls were a light grey, almost blue. The lights were white, but dim. It looked like an old storage area of some sort and a thick layer of dust-covered everything. A desk with its front against the wall stood to my left, old tech littering the top. There were a set of stairs to the right, footprints showing in the dust, heading up.

  Someone had used the stairwell recently which pushed my unease to a new level. I hurried toward the desk and sat down in the leather chair. It squeaked and fell back, almost sending me to the floor. With a curse, I stood and pushed the chair away and started my search.

  I tried not to get the dress dirty, but it was an impossible task as I found the access port in the wall under the desk. I lay down and took the wire from my wrist. The connector I had for my wire was wrong and so I had to angle it just right in the port to get a connection.

  “Everything going all right in there?” Marcus asked, his tone back to being concerned. “I have to say, I
don’t like this.”

  “You never like any of my plans.” I said as I tunneled through the network, hoping to find Rentena servers on the other side.

  “You’re one to talk, any plan I have you shoot down without thinking about.”

  “No, I think about them, they’re just terrible plans.”

  “None of yours are better. See exhibit A: right now.”

  “Yeah, but I’m also not a jackass.” I found the port I needed and cracked into it using an exploit in the software that used the port. On the other side I found password protected shares and other open shares. There were twenty-three serves on the local building network. Hundreds more through the site-to-site VPN. “I’m in. Crow, can you piggy back in on my connection and give me a hand sifting through this mess?”

  “Busy with the cameras still. I’ll get Jankiee on the line, though.”

  “Hey, sweetheart, having a good time?” Jankiee said, his rough voice somehow calming.

  “Best time in months, gramps. I found a flaw in their database program and got connected. Just a general user, but to get anywhere I’ll need admin or root to the research server. Any tips?”

  “Let me look through that noggin of yours,” he said, and I watched as he took control of the top level of my neural. The feeling made me shiver and a bit sick to my stomach. I never could get use to someone else in control of my setup. “Hm, yeah… they’ve done some work here to keep things locked down. Almost impressed. They’re using one of my old tricks to hide the server from the users and just have the shares open without mounting them. Give me a few.”

  I laid back and let him work, trying to take in what he was doing. Watching someone like Jankiee work was not something I got to do every day.

  “Mother of pearl, really?” he grumbled. “The idiots.”

  “What?”

  “They’re just idiots. It’s a mess in here, they got traffic going in all different directions. Reused passwords between servers, contact numbers that are easily spoofed. This is what corporate IT has become? I retired just in time.” A ringing in the background came over the phone and he answered. I couldn’t make out the conversation, but when it ended my neural displayed the research server with access to all the folders.

  “Goddamn, that was fast,” I said and Jankiee laughed.

  “Told ya, they’re idiots. Plus, I don’t got time to play around too much. This should get you what you need.”

  “Thanks, Jankiee.”

  “Any time, love. Be careful.” He signed off, and I dug through the files.

  Rentena were running about a hundred different research branches, each working in different fields. Cancer drugs. Testing of super viruses. Weight-loss pills. Common cold cures. The list didn't seem to end. I wasn’t smart enough to understand all the research I saw, but I knew enough to find the nodes of information I needed.

  “There you are,” I said when it opened on my display. The folder share had been closed out six months ago, but the last access to it was less than two weeks ago. Someone was still looking into it. I copied down the files to my local drive and looked at the accounts that had accessed it.

  My heart skipped a beat. The account name was Chris.Loper. There could be another Chris Loper, I told myself even as I looked through the list of users and found none. “You gotta be kidding me. Shit. Crow—” My voice caught in my throat at a sudden shock of pain in my thigh.

  The pain shot up and into my chest. My fingers were numb and everything went out of focus. Tiredness over took me and I struggled to keep my eyes open as someone pulled me out from under the desk. They were a silhouette under the dim lights of the ceiling.

  “Wh—what?” I mumbled but got no answer. I was losing consciousness and my vision blurred as the silhouette bent down and another shock of pain appeared in my neck.

  With my last bit of thinking, I sent a message to every contact I had in my list. "Help—someone — "

  Three

  Horror Movie

  Groggy and sore, I woke under bright lights. When I tried to sit up, I realized I was strapped to a table.

  I had seen enough horror movies in my time to know this was not a good place to wake up to. I turned my head from side to side, trying to find some kind of landmark of where I was, but the walls outside of the bright lights were covered in shadows. Sweat broke out across my skin as fear consumed my thoughts.

  With two deep breaths I calmed enough to try my neural. Nothing but static. Whoever had me here had taken the necklace and bracelet off. I cursed as I looked down. The bastard had ruined Sere’s dress and that, for some reason, pissed me off more than being kidnapped.

  “Figured it would be a few more minutes before you woke,” someone said from the darkness, the voice being masked. “But that just means we can get started a little earlier.”

  “Who are you?”

  The person made a tutting sound. “Now, now, I think you can tell which one of us will ask questions and which will answer them.” A hand came to rest on my inner thigh. They wore gloves and their touch was freezing. “I have many, but first, I’d to know why I can’t get a read off your I-dent chip. Seems strange that a woman that looks like you would take the chance of burning out your brain.”

  “If you’re gonna kill me, just get it over with,” I said and hoped they wouldn’t.

  “Kill you? But you’re such a font of information. Someone has caught onto my little tryst, which is a problem. I need you to tell me who you are and what you’re doing here.”

  “Came for the party, stayed for the horror movie set.”

  “Cute.” They moved beside me, an obscure silhouette. I wondered if they were using some kind of masking tech on their body, or if it was just the lights. I could just make out their blue hands and what was in them sent a chill down my spine. Another needle. “Have you tried the drug you were looking into? Is that why you came snooping?”

  The needle slipped into my arm and I felt the liquid enter as a searing pain up into my shoulder. I tried to hold back the pained sound, but it came out in a whimper which the person just chuckled at. “You’ve done drugs in the past, the signs are still there.” Rubber traced the scars along the crook of my arm. “But not for years. You cleaned yourself up. Good for you.”

  The drug hit like a freight train filled with elephants and sent my vision to stars. My heart thudded in my chest and my entire body went tingling and numb. It felt like I could fly. Breathing became a chore, but that was somewhere else, happening to someone else.

  I knew the feeling of being high, but this was almost orgasmic. I struggled against my bonds as the world warped and shifted, the bright lights now covering my entire vision.

  “Let’s start easy, huh? What’s your name?”

  “Ra—ra—rag-- ” I couldn’t get enough breath to speak and the person cursed.

  “Might have over done it there a bit. Figured you still had some kind of resistance built up, but that looks like a no.” Another shot and another bit of sweet pain that just mixed into everything else. “Let’s bring you down from space and just let you orbit for a bit.”

  The second shot made everything feel wrong. I was dropped out of the high and fell back into my body. The light turned to a pinprick leaving me in shaded blue and black. I groaned and felt tears burn at the edges of my eyes at the loss of the thrill.

  “Oh, don’t worry, I’ll let you ride that high until it kills you. But first, I need answers, sweetie.” Hands were on my arm, my breast, my stomach, the sensations strange and unpleasant. “So, what were you looking for?”

  “I—I think you have—” I swallowed hard, “—a pretty good idea.”

  “Do I? Then tell me what I’m thinking.” The hands squeezed some part of my body, pain mixed with pleasure, but I couldn't tell where they were touching. The drug heightening the sensation to where it all bled together. “Come on, give me an answer.”

  “The drug—ah—I was looking into the drug.”

  “Razopine? Nortisam? What
drug?”

  “The—stop, please—” They let off just enough for me to catch my breath. “The new drug, the one on the street—everyone is using—”

  They moved away from me, a few curses following them. The mask broke slightly, but not enough to tell if it was a man or a woman. “Why? How did you find out where it came from?”

  “Sources…”

  “Who?”

  I shrugged. The world was still dark, but there was movement in the shadows, demons of enormous size that made Samhain from Autumn Sin look like a mouse. This trip was quickly turning bad. “I don’t—I don’t remember.”

  They were on me in the next moment, fingers digging into my skin until it felt like they pierced it. I screamed as they pushed against my stomach, the silhouette now a terrifying creature from some nightmare. “Stop! Please!” I yelled, my voice cracking. The pain was overwhelming to the point I could do nothing other than experience it.

  “Tell me who wanted you find out about the drug. Who sent you?”

  “A woman—” I said, trying to get my mind in enough order to form a lie. “She—hired me. Her son—he died of—please…” they left off just a bit, but enough that the fog cleared from my brain. “She hired me to—to find out where it came from.”

  “So you came looking at Rentena? Isn’t that a leap?”

  “Had suspicions.”

  “Who else is working with you?”

  “No—no one.”

  “What about that guy you were hanging on? Was he working with you, or is he just too stupid to know what you’re here for?”

  I thought of Marcus and wished he would come looking for me. He was right, this had been a stupid idea. “Rented—just for the night.”

  “You paid for him? You got ripped off.”

  I gave a choked laugh. “N—not really.”

  “So he doesn’t care?”

  I shook my head and felt another shock of pain in my arm. “Then I need nothing more from you. Enjoy the high while it lasts. New batch, just perfected it.”