by John Helfers
“I’m in,” said the third intruder, another human that’d set up a small odd shaped box near the register. He’d donned a pair of goggles and AR gloves—dude was interfacing with the shop’s PAN through a home-make comlink.
So they were hacking into the shop’s network. But why? It was a coffee shop. The only thing they’d find was an inventory list, payroll records, and maybe what next week’s soy-drek of the day was going to be.
Kazuma was moving again and I followed him, hoping like hell none of them noticed the motion behind mister hacker. It wasn’t that I couldn’t defend myself—I was pretty good with my Colt Manhunter. But I had no idea if Kazuma here was armed, could shoot, or how bad he’d been hit. I also didn’t know what kind of weapon mister hacker had. The fact these guys were hitting a shop bright and early on a Tuesday morning, full of customers and witnesses, was just a little crazy.
He moved behind the coffee shop’s counter and to the right, just past the employee john and kneeled in front of what looked like a blank part of the wall. I kept myself low on my knees, my Colt aimed at the back of mister hacker as Kazuma held up his left hand in mid-air. It looked to me as if he were playing an invisible piano—but I knew he was logged into the Augmented Reality of the coffee shop’s PAN.
I didn’t see a commlink on him anywhere, no wires, so I assumed he’d done the mod thing and converted his data-jack to a wireless receiver—internal ‘link. And since I didn’t see any goggles or shades—I assumed his eyes were cyber-enhanced as well.
Now see? Why would a young, good-looking kid like this do that to his body? Me? There wasn’t an artificial piece of hardware anywhere. Not even a data-jack. Never had a need for it. Yeah, I’d used the commlink and goggles rig now and then so I could get a taste of what AR might be like—having advertisements, e-mail and calls always in the peripheral of my vision.
And you know what I thought about it?
Crap. My mind stayed busy enough without all that shit being dumped in there on a continual basis. The Matrix was easier today to access than ever before—I’d never liked VR back then and I sure as hell didn’t like it now.
There was a click and the door popped open. I pulled it out just enough to shove him inside, then piled in behind him.
The room was little more than a four-walled coffin, complete with an empty desk, an old data-jack outlet in its surface, and several brown, unmarked boxes. A broom, mop and apron hung on a nail behind the door.
I closed the door as quietly as possible. Kazuma reached out with his left hand again and tapped invisible keys. He was favoring his right arm where the bullet had apparently went through his shoulder.
Abruptly he waved at the air with his left hand and then collapsed hard against the wall. When he moved I saw a bright smear of blood he’d left behind. I holstered the Colt and coaxed him into helping me remove the messenger bag and jacket. Kazuma unbuttoned the front of his shirt and winced as I peeled it back from the wound.
Yep—right shoulder was a bloody mess. Reaching into the right pocket of my coat, I retrieved an old penlight I’d gotten from a client a few months back—self-charging little tool. Wasn’t sure how I’d lasted this long without it—especially with my aging eyes.
He winced and closed his eyes as I pulled material out of the wound, but kept quiet. Turning his face away, I got a good look at his profile and noticed his hair had shifted, exposing a long, slender ear.
“You’re an elf.”
“Is that a problem?” His voice was surprisingly deep.
“No—it’s just that Naomi didn’t mention that.” Now I was sure he wasn’t her nephew.
His eyes opened at her name and he turned his head to look at me. “You’re Derek Montgomery?”
I gave him my best smirk. “Is that a problem?”
He almost smiled. Almost. But then schooled his features into something a bit more stoic—which of course looked strange on his face. I’m not a judge on guy’s looks. Especially when it’s common to polish up one’s appearance cosmetically these days. But looking at Kazuma—I’d say he was kinda too pretty for a guy. Being an elf and Asian—that was a double whammy. Androgyny was the curse of being both.
There were more shouts on the other side of the door and then a scream.
Kazuma looked at the door and I noticed just a flicker of panic in his expression. “We need to call the PCC—”
Ooh. I waved my right hand at him to stop. “Let’s not get too hasty, okay? I’m sure local authorities can handle this.” It’s not that I had a problem with the PPC cops—my problems were more interlaced around Lone Star—but I wasn’t in the mood to deal with any sort of authority at the moment.
He frowned at me. I noticed he had dark green eyes, not dark black-brown like Naomi’s. And I also noticed with a slight shock that they weren’t enhanced; these were human—or rather elven—eyes.
I looked at both of them. Cyber eyes—though you could buy the newer enhancements with life-like cosmetic qualities (mostly used by kids who were doing it behind their parent’s backs)—always had a tell-tale sheen about them. Not like an animal’s eyes that went red or silver in bright light—but more of a different hue. A signature that I’d always used as a marker. It let me know they were seeing things I had no access to.
This kid’s eyes didn’t have that. They weren’t cyber.
So—how had he seen the shop’s AR? Or even been able to tap this room’s security? Unless he had on a pair of those smartlink contact lenses. That could account for the green tint to his eyes.
“I’m going to check on our friends outside.” He leaned his head back on the wall and closed his eyes.
“Hey—Kazuma,” I tapped his cheek. He looked incredibly young and he was looking incredibly pale. With a wound like that and no medical treatment—elf or human—he was going to go into shock. I wasn’t a doctor, and I sure as hell couldn’t play one in the trid. “Hey—look at me.”
He blinked slowly and his expression looked—familiar. Only where had I seen that look before? Not on his face—but someone else I’d known a long time ago. It was the expression of someone being in two places at once.
“They’ve dismantled the auto-security call-out,” Kazuma said, though his expression didn’t change. “Looks like they’ve already hacked into the main control. Damnit—the ECCM’s still working, but it looks like they’re not trying to jam the main signal.”
I was still wondering how he was seeing this—so I reached out and moved his hair away from the sides of his temples. There was no datajack. Nothing. Not even a scar where one had been removed. I would swear he was accessing remotely—but was he in the Matrix? I didn’t see how—most of the time if a decker was submersed in VR then they weren’t accessing their meat sack except to breathe, much less speak.
How the fuck was he doing both? “Do you have security clearance for this server?”
He nodded slowly. “I do now.”
What the hell did that mean? Was the kid hacking his way in? Well, he was Knight Errant and he’d known about this room—which made me think he was either pretty high level or he’d worked in the sector before—maybe even for the PPC. I figured I’d ask him later—after we kicked these assholes out.
“Kazuma—can you figure out what they’re after?”
“I don’t—” He frowned, and his full, lower lip trembled. “How could they know this? I didn’t know that door existed on this server. Ponzu—track sinister seven, subsection 66.77-pop2. Find out where that thing is going.”
Ponzu?
Wasn’t that a sauce?
Kazuma blinked rapidly as he looked up at me. He was shaking. “I—I’m cold.”
“Shock.” I glanced around. There was nothing in here that I could use as a blanket—except my coat. With a sigh I stood and removed it, careful of my weapon and laid it over him. I really needed something to staunch the bleeding—but the wound was a through and through—a hole in and a hole out. The wound was bleeding steadily and if we didn’t ge
t out of here soon, this kid was gonna expire.
And then I’d have Naomi to contend with. That was not how I intended on ending this little venture.
As I tried to fasten his coat around him as a bandage my hand pressed against something hard and ungiving. I pulled the coat back and found a hidden back holster around his middle containing a Fichetti Security 600. I slipped it out and checked the magazine as Kazuma’s eyelids fluttered. Fully loaded.
I nudged him and held the gun up. “Can you use this thing?”
He squinted at me and nodded. “Yeah—I can use it. My Grandfather taught me.”
Grandfather? Was that supposed to mean something? I held it out. I wasn’t surprised a Knight Errant techie boy had a weapon—I think I was just slotting him into a stereotype and suspecting he had a katana hidden somewhere. “Think you can use it now?”
He nodded and reached out with his left hand and grabbed it. “Why?”
“Because we have to get out of here, that’s why. If I understand what you’re saying, those jack-heads out there are looking to steal this server—why I don’t know—but that means they’ll be trying to bust down this door any minute and I’m not sure—”
“They’re not after this server,” Kazuma said and he cleared his throat. He also sat forward and took in a deep breath. He tried not to wince from his shoulder and I noticed he wasn’t using his right arm at all. “They found a back door I didn’t know was there—it was probably written in by the coder for this server’s original service before it was re-purposed. But they got an Agent in through that door. I’ve sent my own program after it.” He swallowed. “I’m afraid it’s trying to hack into Horizon. Baka.”
I wasn’t going to pretend I fully understood what he was saying—but I was knowledgeable enough to know that using an Agent to hack into an outfit like Horizon was gutsy. “I’m not sure how they can find a link between the two PANs—”
“Horizon owns this city block as well,” Kazuma said as he winced. He was honestly fighting to stay with me. This kid had guts, I’ll give him that. He nodded to the wall behind him. “This is part of a redundancy system—an off-line backup for Horizon’s client list. It was scheduled to be taken off-line next month and remove the node.”
There was more shouting from outside the door, and I thought I heard the siren call of a local authority posse. Great. Things were about to get heated. I looked back at Kazuma. “Are you saying there’s a way for them to hack into Horizon by using this PAN?”
Kazuma nodded. “Yes—I’m—baka—” he jerked and his eyes closed again. At the same time there was a barrage of foul language from the other side of that door.
Nuts. I couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying—I was blind. If I had my commlink I could hack the shop’s security system myself—but I didn’t. I eyed the bag on the suit jacket. But if Kazuma did…
I grabbed up his bag and rummaged through it. As I suspected—inside was a Novatech comlink and a pair of gloves and shades. I pulled them out and slid the gloves on, then slid the shades on. They were blank—no image. I took them off and checked the commlink.
It was off.
I looked at Kazuma—if the link was off, how the hell was he accessing the PAN? Was my first guess that he had an internal ‘link, right? Which meant he was using his own secured PAN to chase after the hackers?
That was just stupid on several levels—having an internal ‘link nowadays—especially since the Technomancer and AI scares was just stupid. If someone listening to all the drek out there about Otaku Nightmares being Technomancers didn’t see a physical commlink they’d kill this kid. Straight up. I’d already read about too many “mistakes” like that in this crazy-ass world
The other problem was if the Hackers noticed him and fought back with any sort of attack—like a black hammer or even some sort of databomb—he was gonna suffer some serious dumbshock from running hot sim. I switched the commlink on, set the protocols, and discovered the commlink’s ID wasn’t his, but someone named Hitori Tetsu.
Ah...Tetsu. The missing sister?
With a shrug I donned the goggles again, connected to the PAN, and was instantly barraged by the daily specials (which correlated with Kazuma’s assessment that they hadn’t tried to jam the signals) as well as a flooded inbox of email, texts and coupons available from PRADA international.
PRADA huh? So—the Tetsu family was well off. Figures.
Even as I looked around the room I still saw the desk and a small pop-up window identifying the type of datajack and the IP address. The damned thing even informed me what company manufactured the broom and a red blaring message warned that the mop had a known defect in the rotary connection.
Wow...what a rush. And then I looked at Kazuma.
And got nothing. Not even a PAN identifier or ID.
Now—I wasn’t completely savvy on the latest wireless craze that’d pretty much rerouted the world in the past seven years—but I had been paying attention enough to eek by. Had even set up my own PAN and had my commlink spoofing alternate IDs from a data-set I’d bought with good nuyen.
But from what I understood, an active PAN should show some sort of ID to it.
Or was his on private or something? Either way—it was time to apply a little of my own hacking skills.
I heard the yelling outside through the door and grabbed up one of the ear-buds from the shades and stuck it in my left ear. Now I could hear as well as see all the craziness being picked up by this ‘link.
As I looked around, I found a pop-up that told me there was an access panel to the left of Kazuma. With a grunt I moved over him on my knees and then felt along the wall. Two pushes and the pressure plate disengaged.
The opening revealed a slate gray surface with several lights flashing in what looked like random patterns. There were also two datajacks to the right. Reaching over his legs, I pulled up the bag and looked for cabling.
No cabling. What I did find was a small prescription bottle for some hi-test painkiller. The label tag opened a new AR window before my eyes. Kazuma Tetsu’s name showed up as the prescription recipient. His address flashed up as well. 1000 miligrams of Nano-profen. Wow. That was strong stuff. What was he taking it for?
“Derek,” came Kazuma’s voice to my left.
My left? Kazuma was to my right. But when I looked at him he was still sitting with his eyes closed. With a pounding heart I looked to me left.
There was something there—visible only in the shades in a third AR window. It was Kazuma—sort of. But he looked more like a trideo anime character than a person. His hair was bright red and he still had the ponytail. He wore a tight fitting black suit with a high collar, and the handle of a katana jutted up behind his right shoulder.
Now that was stereotypical.
His eyes were large and green and bent up on the ends like a cat.
“Kazuma?”
He nodded. “Matrix icon,” he said. “You’re wearing my sister’s comlink.”
Oh great. I didn’t even want to know what this commlink’s persona resembled.
I nodded to him. “It was the only one you had in the bag.” I kept looking at him, but the AR windows didn’t give me any more information. Not even a handle. “You care to tell me how the hell you’re doing this? I mean—you got an internal ‘link?”
Kazuma’s cartooned face smirked. “No, I don’t care to tell you. I should have told you to put those on sooner—makes this much easier to work in VR and solicit your help. I found the Agent they sent to the Horizon node—and I destroyed it.”
I was impressed. Confused as hell but impressed. “So—this is good?”
“Yes and no,” he smiled. “In truth the Agent was seemingly benign, with little to no security to it—but when I destroyed it—some sort of other program triggered and it followed me back here. The hacker noticed the blood trail leading to this room.”
Oh.
That was bad.
He held up his right hand and an animated keyboard app
eared beneath his fingers and he reached up to an animated AR window. “I’ve been able to infiltrate their equipment and I’ve locked the outer doors.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You did what?”
“They can’t get out that way.”
“And the authorities can’t get in.”
He nodded. “I know. I sent a message via KE to the locals—PPC—telling them a KE security agent was inside and working on delivering the criminals. They’ll keep the corner surrounded until everything is secured inside.”
Oh good grief. “Kazuma—you’re losing a lot of blood—”
“Which is why I need you. I can’t concentrate on too many things right now—or I’ll fade—lose consciousness. So I’m going to have to let go of the door when they hack it. I’ll be semi-conscious and that’s all I’ll need to work. You’re gonna have to stall them. Use my hidden gun holster and let them take the Colt.”
I was about to protest.
“They’ll think they’ve disarmed you. I’ll need you to hide Hitori’s commlink—I don’t want them to find it. There’s a storage compartment to the right of the panel. Put it in there and I’ll lock it.”
Uh huh. As I watched and listened to him I was starting to get a suspicion I didn’t like. “Kazuma—does KE have a monitor on you? I mean—will they sense your vitals and send a wagon?”
“They do have a tag—but it can’t read me right now.” He smiled. “My commlink is in the pocket of my jacket. You’ll need to pull it out.”
Ah! So he did have an external commlink. I moved to his jacket and fished inside the pockets, finding it hidden inside the inner breast pocket. It was a Novatech model as well, slim line.
It wasn’t on.
I looked back at him. He smiled. “Turn it on.”
My suspicions came to an ugly head just then. This kid was accessing the PAN as well as the Matrix—or at least a small part of it with no commlink. I moved back and sat hard on my ass. “Kazuma—are you—?”
