Double Bait (Stone Blade Book 2)

by James Cox

  Now at a different datamart Robin inserted her access card and powered up the terminal. This time she inserted her bandit chip. The machine paused, verified that the card still had money then booted from the chip. Robin first activated the datamart's security logs and monitors. They normally activated on powerup and lots of warez would notice if they failed. Robin had no concern for them since she stubbed all of her logging and security processes. If queried they would report no unusual activity or whatever Robin cared to furnish.

  With plenty of access, a good pipe and a locally-unmonitored connection Robin began her serious work. She downloaded all her favorite warez, all the ones she'd used for burning and a plethora of others: port snatchers, spiral tunnels, data hiders and general utility warez.

  As the files transferred Robin loaded her chip image into memory and put some custom touches on it. As she worked she gained an appreciation for the attraction burners had to their pastime. The basic image didn't take up a lot of memory and the new modules more than tripled its burn potential. Tweaking them into shape took the rest of her download time and sparked ideas for more changes to the next image.

  Robin checked her chrono and walked into the building. She couldn't help a smile. The public side of the CA building was much nicer and more welcoming than the other. Spacious rooms and open hallways invited visitors into the various offices there. Robin followed three women to her destination.

  Some of the others talked but most didn't. Only women occupied this room; Robin placed some older than herself and others younger. About half wore haunted expressions, the rest ones of interest.

  "Good evening ladies." A distinguished lady took the podium at the front of the room. "My name is Rita Jasworth, welcome to my class. I'm very glad to see each one of you here. If you look in your desks you'll find name tags. There is no registration for this class and we don't keep records but I need to call you something." Jasworth smiled. "As for me I'm just Rita."

  Jasworth dimmed the lights and activated a holocaster.

  "As you can see the reported cases of rape and assault against women are frightening. Some years are worse than others but I won't be satisfied until they are zero. I hope you will help me make that happen."

  After a few more statistics and some explanations Jasworth deactivated the 'caster.

  "Before we start I am required by law to relate some legal statutes. Basically they boil down to this: the techniques I teach can maim or kill. Do not use them unless you are in fear for your life. That said let me add this: if someone tries to assault you or rape you you are in fear for your life. Put him down. Put him down hard! Put him down to stay. That's what this class will teach you."

  Robin hid her smile.

  ***

  Robin inserted her chip into the datamart terminal and booted it. Today would count! She had a hardcopy map showing the apartment she planned to rent and several likely businesses around it. Once the terminal cleared with the logs and dogz automatically configured - she was proud of that - she began her search.

  Success! All but one of the businesses had a netsite, if minimal in some cases. She located the first and started her burn. The site had primitive security, even a clickpuppy could own it within thirty seconds, but it also had nothing whatsoever of interest to most burners. She matched the system's data protocols automatically and scanned it. She could probably take its credit balance but she resisted that temptation. Security here might be negligible but the bank's to which it subscribed would definitely not be!

  Burning, owning and modding the site took seventeen minutes. Satisfied that it would perform as required she cut a cheap door and left. Another forty-six minutes and she had three more done. She took a quick stretch-and-soda break. Another hour and a half sufficed for the rest of the sites. It all seemed too easy. Now she felt a stab of anxiety. Perhaps, she thought, the CA waited outside the datamart for her to emerge. That thought troubled her until she realized something: no burners would attack what and where she did. Her needs and theirs differed by parsecs. Furthermore any burners attacking as she did would certainly cover their tracks. As she did. She relaxed.

  Robin walked into her third business with an attempt at optimism. The first two had no interest in her. She knew the first place would hire her instantly and when it didn't she felt the same of the second. Still, she planned accordingly.

  This business, a restaurant named Burnline's, rested in the cheap trade district and sported a non-holographic sign and exterior that had both seen better days. Four customers sat at the bar and another pair shared a table. None of the staff looked busy. Not good.

  "Help you?"

  "I'm looking for a job," said Robin.

  The man looked at her dully. Robin returned his scrutiny. His name tag read 'Reggie' and he would have been handsome except for the vacant look in his eyes.

  "C'mon." He led her to the back of the store to a small cubbyhole of an office. A stern-faced woman sat behind a desk covered with papers.

  "What," asked the woman sharply.

  "I'm looking for a job," said Robin.

  "Probably. Any experience?"

  Robin shook her head.

  "Criminal record? Drugs? Rutted-off exes?"

  Robin shook her head at each.

  "Slib." The woman handed her a form. "Fill this out and sign it."

  Completing the application took ten minutes. When Robin returned it the lady had a biometric scanner attached to her datapad.

  "Prints and rets. Checking 'em shouldn't take long."

  Robin gave her print and looked into the scanner while the lady fed her application into a form scanner. Before long the terminal beeped.

  "Hmpf," said the lady, "You are clean. Samantha Taw. That what your friends call you?"

  "Sammi."

  "Slib, Sammi. I'm Maxine. Don't rut me around, show up on time and don't lose my regulars and we'll get along fine. I have an opening from morning to mid afternoon. Be here at seven tomorrow morning and I'll have someone train you." She handed Robin a card. "Take this to the Vestorama on the corner. I'll supply the uniforms, you keep 'em clean. That goes for you, too. You show up juiced and we will have words. Any problems?"

  "No ma'am."

  "Polar. I'll see you at seven sharp."

  ***

  Robin sat at her terminal and took a deep breath. This was her chanciest move so far but by no means her last. She entered Burnline's via her back door and began a search. Per her instructions it logged and cached any activity relating to Samantha Taw, the identity Robin planned to make her own. She burned the information to a chip and erased everything she left on the restaurant machine.

  Separating and classifying the data took mere minutes. Robin wanted the biometrics Maxine took and she found them. Then, with a savage smile, she broke the CA transfer encryption scheme.

  Robin felt a rush when the task terminated. By what Thomas said many burners and crackers met their downfall trying to break CA crypto - any CA crypto. Very few had the luxury of before and after data packets to dissect, though. She hid the data on her movie chip, powered down and cashed out her card.

  En route to her next datamart Robin planned her moves carefully. Once there she purchased a ten-uni card, booted to her chip and set the machine to browse newsmods for the last week. With that underway she isolated plenty of memory and began working the CA crypto into a spiral tunnel. She couldn't make it match a true CA tunnel but its crypto rating would match or exceed it. Next she incorporated the raw crypto into a gooey grapple and a thermal worm generator. Although she didn't have a payload for the latter, yet, she might soon!

  Robin rebooted her terminal. This time she informed the loggers to report her previous activity. She needed all the pipe and all the processor she could get. Working beneath the loggers she connected to the first two businesses where she applied. Neither showed any great activity. Better! Using the better of the two machines - not by much, she thought - Robin set up her spiral tunnel. Once it settled she constricted i
ts apparent pipe to half its actual size. Next she connected to the second machine.

  Robin connected her tunnel to the CA. After a long eighteen seconds it responded with a standard pubinfo screen. She smiled inwardly: the CA machine accepted her tunnel at a high level of security. She navigated to the area containing declassified information on old crimes and queried Joseph Hilarrie.

  Robin vaguely remembered Hilarrie's run for Prime Minister. Although he promised everything to everyone and received a lot of popular support his campaign failed. Halfway to election his long list of crimes surfaced and, although he denied them the prosecutors had no trouble proving them. Even with the trials in progress he tried to continue running only to end up in GC two weeks after he lost the election. The terminal cleared to the first of many screens full of documents.

  Robin started a transfer of one of the documents just to keep the connection active. While it ran she connected the second machine to the CA but without any encryption. As she suspected the CA machine supplied its own and it took up almost a fifth of the pipe. Once that stabilized she again queried the Hilarrie files. This time she paged through the screens until she found a very large file.

  As soon as the first document finished Robin directed her heavy connection to the same large file. She sent a download request through both connections. A few seconds later it started and Robin acted! She fired her gooey grapple down the secure connection. As she hoped it found a fork. Working with furious speed she extended her tunnel to the fork itself, synchronized with it and widened the pipe to encompass all of its data. She plugged a blank chip and directed her terminal to burn to it.

  Robin sat on a bench down the street from the datamart and lit another 'stick. Although she appeared relaxed she was anything but. She had a copy of her bandit chip but she didn't want to lose the one now active. She finished that 'stick and lit another one and the CA made no appearance. The download should have finished by now but she'd give it plenty of time, just in case. She returned to the datamart only long enough to terminate her connections and retrieve her chips; she didn't bother cashing in her card. She walked down the street, bought a cup of tea and sat to enjoy it. The CA still did not appear.

  Robin relaxed at the library terminal, finally allowing herself to believe her scheme might work. She had an access card, by law free but no external access, which suited her need perfectly. She also saw at least fifteen others working at terminals. Even better. She booted to her chip and found no dogz and only minimal loggers. Perfect! She thought she might even be able to gain unpaid external access but she decided to save that for later.

  Eleven minutes later Robin owned twenty-one other terminals. She shimmed them so the people using them wouldn't notice the memory or processor she isolated. That took a deft touch but the warez on her chip served her well. She squirted a small-AI polycryptor to each, smeshed them and started them on the CA files on Hilarrie. While it ran she browsed a few professional journals.

  By the time the polycryptor finished Robin had long digested lunch, the sun was close to setting and she was ready for dinner. The smesh took a long time to break the first bits of transaction encryption but again Robin had the un-encrypted data packets from her spiral tunnel and the encrypted ones from the standard tunnel plus data from the fork that fed both. She also felt the rush again! Thomas knew a few burners who cracked the second level of CA encryption but very, very few.

  Robin thought hard on her next move. She wanted to start immediately but decided against it. She needed to tweak her warez and that required time. She grabbed a light dinner at a cafe and stopped at a datamart close to it. By the time she finished night had fallen and aged so she made her way quickly to her motel.

  ***

  Six forty-five the next morning found Robin outside Burnline's, which still hadn't opened. She stood, working on a 'stick and fidgeting with her uniform. Two minutes later a battered hover settled behind the building and Maxine and Reggie emerged. Maxine lifted an eyebrow at Robin as she unlocked the door.

  "You're early," she said.

  "I... I need this job."

  "Fair enough. You eat breakfast?"

  "Well..."

  "First rule. Eat a good breakfast before you show. I'll feed you on your first break, this time, but you're gonna need plenty of food to keep you going. I'll have chog ready in ten. You're training under Jasmine." Maxine checked her chrono. "She'll probably be here four or five 'till."

  With that said Maxine entered the building. Reggie had finished locking the hover and he shambled in.

  "You're new," he said slowly.

  Robin nodded.

  "Don't mess with my grill."

  Robin nodded again and he entered the building. His eyes looked a little less vacant but not much. She just started another 'stick when a lady wearing a uniform walked up lighting a 'stick of her own.

  "Hi. You the new girl?"

  "Y-yes."

  "I'm Jasmine. Jacobs. Call me Jas."

  "Sammi Taw."

  "Pleasure to meet you."

  Robin shook the hand Jacobs offered, no small amount overwhelmed. The other lady wore the same shirt and slacks Robin had but closer tailored to her leg and open to show more of her bosom.

  "You ever waited tables," asked Jacobs.

  "N-no."

  "College girl?" Then, when Robin didn't reply, "Hey, darling. It's squelch to me." She smiled hugely. "Maxine wants you trained and I'm ruddy good at that." Here she winked. "First of all..."

  Jacobs put her 'stick between her lips and began adjusting Robin's shirt. She undid the top button and would have popped more but Robin fidgeted and she stopped.

  "You need to show off your goods, sweetie. You got a thermal shape and you need to use it!" Jacobs adjusted her own shirt a bit. "Even the married ones like looking at the catalog, hon. You give 'em a thrill, they'll give better tips. First rule: make the customers feel good. Do that and they'll appreciate it. Second rule: make the men feel good unless they're with a woman. In that case you talk to her first. Don't make her think you're poaching, or even interested. Got that?"

  Robin nodded, eyes wide. Jacobs finished her 'stick and motioned Robin to do likewise. She took out a large packet of breath chews, popped one in her mouth and gave Robin one. Then she took out a bottle of perfume, spritzed herself and then Robin.

  "Third rule: you want to look good. To look good you gotta smell good, too." She showed Robin the perfume. "This stuff's cheap and it smells decent. Fresh. Clean. You look good, you smell good and the customers feel good. They feel good and..." She looked at Robin expectantly.

  "B-better tips?"

  "Six-sigma solid! Since I'm training you I'll be getting those today. Probably tomorrow and the next day, too but you should be on your own after that." She checked her chrono. "You ready? Maxine probably has chog ready now. That's free to us so drink as much as you can. Strong as she makes it it'll keep you going when things hot up."

  When Robin walked in she saw Reggie running a cleaning scrape meticulously over the surface of the grill. Maxine already had canisters and boxes pulled out of the cooler. The smell of strong chog permeated the air. Jacobs poured a cup for herself and Robin. After time for one sip they both walked into the main room and began preparing to open.

  As Jacobs worked Robin strove to absorb everything she did. She worked much slower but at least Jacobs and Maxine didn't criticize her. Much. When they opened the doors at seven-thirty a rush of customers flooded in and Robin soon found herself flagging. Still, she made it through and, as promised, Maxine had a breakfast waiting when they took a break.

  "Not bad, Professor," grinned Jacobs, "We're doing pretty flaming well, tip-wise. You gonna make it?"

  "I think so."

  "Well don't worry about it. This really is the life, y'know? You can take your college and I'm sure it was lots of fun, but really, what good is it? I went to Trade Academy for a semester, did you know that?"

  Robin opened her mouth to reply but Jacobs starte
d again.

  "No blather. They gave me the basics and all sorts of predictor tests. All through the semester. Y'know what they said I should be? Secretarial and office management. Secretary. Me!" Jacobs took a swallow of chog before continuing. "Not this girly, for truth. Sitting at a desk all day, showing my goods with no tips. Have to torque the boss for a promotion? Truth? Or worse, sitting behind a terminal mushing fractals all day. What's the point of that? No, girl, life is meant for living!"

  Robin tried to keep pace through the lunch rush but she slowed. Maxine glared at her frequently but said nothing. Robin tried her best but Jacobs still had to help her toward the end.

  "Don't worry, hon," she said when they took a break, "You gotta learn. I know that, you know that and Maxine knows it, too. Don't let her worry you. This is a pretty good orbit here. Hades of a lot better than prison, no blather."

  Jacobs laughed at Robin's expression.

  "Pure truth, Sammi. I did six months. It was a long time ago, though. Back when I was young and dumb. My boyfriend and I did some Metazan cinko. Yeah, I said Metazan. Expensive as hades. Problem is they spliced in some red rage. I had a righteous good ride, six sigma, but my boyfriend went suborbital. Beat me, broke some things then went after some CA duffers. I didn't hit the rage but the CAs still charged me as an accessory." She shrugged, "He and I broke up after that."

  Robin nodded, shocked at Jacobs' frankness and nonchalance.

  "Flames! That went quick." Jacobs once again gave Robin a breath chew and hit her with perfume. "C'mon, doll. Won't be long now!"

  Robin worked on legs leaden with pain. Finally, blessedly their shift ended and they sat at a table with tea, rolling silverware.

  "You did good, darling," assured Jacobs, "I trained some that didn't even make their first shift. Your legs are hurting, aren't they."