Neon District: ALPHA (The Neon District Trilogy, Book 1)

by Chad Campbell

  “Maybe Vantz is right; I should probably take a quick break”.

  With the NeuraVisor removed, the flickering lights of the holographic computer screens reflected off his golden eyes and lightly tanned skin. Caiden ran his hands through his unkempt pompadour haircut, and got lost in his own thoughts as he fixated on a blank space of the adjacent wall in his room. It was the perfect canvas for intangible thoughts to manifest. His breathing slowed as he began to flutter in and out of consciousness. This chair’s way too comfortable, he thought as he burrowed into his chair. His eyes soon closed.

  ***

  Deep in the darkness, a voice echoed, bouncing off invisible walls as it closed in. It got closer and closer, then a bright light flashed. There was a woman with a blurred face who was on one knee in front of him.

  “Is this some sort of dream? What’s going on here? Who am I?”

  “Caiden! Honey, listen to me, okay? I’m going to use this scrambler device now. It may sting just a bit, but when you awake up you will know what to do. A mother’s love never dies, Caiden. Don’t forget that. I love you.”

  “Wait, Mom, wait! I don't understand!”

  The bright light flashed again, followed by the sound of the whistling wind until, suddenly, it stopped.

  ***

  Caiden gasped for air. His vision was blurry upon his abrupt awakening. His heart was beating out of his chest and beads of sweat trickled down his forehead.

  “Shit, I must have fallen asleep.” Only ten minutes had passed. “It's that stupid vision again. Why is it always that vision? What does it mean?” Caiden mumbled to himself.

  Mulling over this recurring dream, Caiden then took a deep breath and eventually put his NeuraVisor back on and logged back into CWR. He returned to the odd post he was studying prior to the interruption from Viana. He somehow managed to make sense of it and he ended up decoding it, unlocking a hidden link within the post. The link appeared untouched by anyone else. It was somewhat surprising, considering the sheer popularity of the post, that no one appeared able to solve it. He clicked on the new link and was presented with a strange riddle. This time it was written in plain text. Two of the same locked in a cage. Provided the luxuries of losses we’ve gained. Peering the windows, we solemnly weep, wishing our freedom would sooth us to sleep.

  Befuddled at the bizarre nature of the post, Caiden looked it over one more time. He then posted a comment. This is simply a riddle of human captivity, imprisonment, or a lack of freedom. Nothing more nothing less. And whatever in captivity is one in the same or somehow similar to something else I guess. As soon as he posted his comment, he was sent a request for an audio chat. There was a red icon on the popup that indicated it was urgent.

  “Hello? Hello?” The voice crackled through the transmission. There appeared to be a lot of interference on the connection. The voice became nearly unrecognizable, marred by static noise. “VseR, right? You’ve sol—the rid—”

  “Hey, I think something’s wrong with your connection. Who is this?” Caiden asked.

  “Please, help!” The voice crackled through and then suddenly cut out. The chat closed due to a poor connection.

  It was a rather strange sequence of events. The odd, complex code, then the hidden riddle, and then the person tried to contact the man who cracked their mysterious post. He ran a search on the avatar, and it was a two-headed dragon. There was no indication of who it might be. Caidenwas able to discover the user’s Net Code address; Ab.43.ZZ. He was determined to get to the bottom of it when he received another encrypted message request on a private channel for an audio chat.

  “Looks like a job request.” He peered at the username in question, “Username KingSleaze11, huh? Not so subtle, are they?”

  The avatar of KingSleaze11 was the naked upper torso of a female with ample assets and a blank comic book conversation bubble for a head.

  “Looks like we have another weird customer looking for business. Let’s see what they have to offer.” Caiden accepted the chat request, and a window with KingSleaze11’s avatar popped up with a volume icon in front of it, indicating that it was an audio chat only.

  “Is this the heralded people’s champion and hacker extraordinaire, VseR?” the voice asked.

  “Yeah, so they say,” Caiden replied.

  “Great! The name’s Slavo.” Slavo’s voice reeked of arrogance and deceit. “I have a proposition that may be of interest to you should you choose to accept my offer.”

  “Only if you’re willing to divulge the details,” Caiden asked.

  “Let’s just say this is a request for redemption,” Slavo slyly replied.

  “Okay, what do you want? You have sixty seconds,” Caiden shot back.

  “Straight to the point; I like that! I am requesting that you hack into the Prime-1 Sovereign Bank’s security system. They have digital assets in upwards of seventy-five million Creds. We need someone to develop an undetectable evolutionary algorithm based virus that can quietly siphon the digital funds from Prime-1’s super server, and wire the funds directly to an offshore account of our choosing.” As Slavo was speaking he sent a holographic image of the bank account number and sort code he wanted the funds to be transferred to onto Caiden’s screen. The sort code indicated that the money was to go to a private Enzen Banking account.

  “My team has been hard at work trying to develop their own virus, but none of their developments were strong enough. We had no choice but to turn to you,” Slavo explained.

  “Ha! Hacking Prime-1 Bank Headquarters is digital suicide. They have one of the most sophisticated digital security systems ever heard of. Not even I would mess with them! Not to mention the only way to manipulate anything of theirs is to physically access one of their on-site terminals. A virus would only be good enough for a diversion, but it wouldn’t get you your money on its own. Sorry but I’ll have to decline. Too risky for me,” Caiden replied.

  “Hmm, I’m sorry to hear that. But it’s interesting, you know. Considering that no ordinary person would have such intimate knowledge of their security systems without having attempted to at least test out how strong they were in the first place,” Slavo replied.

  “What are you implying?” Caiden scoffed.

  “You think this is a game? Hm? Did you really think with all your popularity on CWR that someone wouldn’t be profiling you? Did you really think you could cling to the illusion of your ‘anonymity’? Caiden Nyx?”

  Caiden, shocked and taken aback, couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He was always thorough when covering his digital footprints. Panic set in.

  “You’re probably wondering how I, of all people, know what I know about you Caiden. We’ve been planning this heist for quite some time. We have kept watch of the top five hackers on CWR. None of them came close to you and your abilities. But no matter what we did to get a hold of your file, we were always a step behind. You were most certainly a ghost, a mere figment of our imagination. There isn’t a single picture of you anywhere online! Some of us were beginning to wonder if there was even a real person behind your illustrious CWR profile, or if you were nothing more than an AI construct. That is, until the CWR system admins made a server switch of their own. I'm sure you remember when they did that. You seem like the type of guy who would. See, for all of your impressive work in your data management and erasing your digital tracks, you forgot to take care of your data transfer from the old server to the new, right when it happened, my friend,” Slavo remarked.

  “Bullshit, there is nothing on me in the new server. I was sure to erase those footprints.”

  “Caiden, Caiden, Caiden. Of course, not now. There was only a small window of time when the switching of servers took place. But you simply weren’t fast enough. So, you will do this job for us. And, as promised, you will be paid handsomely for it should you succeed. A million Creds up front, and another million after the work is complete. If you refuse again, I’m sure those Psi-Corp dogs would love to sink their teeth into a big fish hacker l
ike you. Hell, they'll probably arrest you before I get to you. So, it looks like you only have one choice. Mine,” Slavo stated menacingly.

  “I suppose you expect me to just waltz right into the bank and just walk out with their money?” Caiden asked.

  “I trust you will find the best way to infiltrate this bank, Caiden. The lives of you and your good Hybrid buddy, Vantz Marling, depend on it. I know some ZOBE fellas that would love to crucify a wealthy Hybrid like him at the drop of a hat,” Slavo callously replied.

  “The Prime-1 digital security systems do a routine check and update a new system-wide security patch every forty-eight hours. It is during that time when they are most vulnerable. Their update cycle is happening at one o’clock this morning. That gives you approximately twenty-three hours from now to formulate your plan, access their terminal, and get my money! After you complete the job, you will contact me to confirm everything. If there’s even one slip up and you fail, you’re as good as dead. Chimera relishes in clean up duty, if you catch my drift. Don’t fuck this up!” Slavo yelled as the private audio chat was abruptly cut. Caiden went to check his CWR funds account and, true to his word, Slavo had deposited the first million Creds.

  Blackmail huh? What a bastard. He should know better than to blackmail a professional hacker. I have some countermeasures of my own too, Caiden thought to himself with a sinister look on his face. This was the sort of thing that comes with the territory. Oddly enough, he began to feel somewhat at ease. He had already devised a plan to infiltrate Prime-1 Bank during their initial conversation. He had ulterior motives of his own that he planned on executing once the job was complete.

  “Checkmate, Slavo.”

  Caiden rested for an hour after his conversation with the gangster. Upon awakening, he took to his NeuraVisor and logged on to CWR. This time he began researching Prime-1 Bank to see if it had any outsourced services for maintenance or cleaning. He came across a janitorial company called Calvar Cleaning Services. Looking further into their file, he found that they had an extensive business relationship with Prime-1 that went back twenty years or so. It was the perfect way to infiltrate the building. Calvar Cleaning sent out workers to the bank five nights a week to do building wide cleanings and upkeep. They staffed ten employees a night to cover the entire building. The cleaning company had been suffering a great deal of employee turnover in recent months, so they were constantly in need of new employees.

  Caiden successfully hacked Calvar’s Human Resources database and located the names of the employees who would be working the graveyard shift that night. He reassigned a member of staff, then added himself to the list of night shift workers under the name of Lupin Trice. A popup on the employee website indicated that all employees were required to put on Calvar attire at the locker room of the Prime-1 building, making the infiltration of the Bank as an employee a relatively simple one, with the mere push of a button from Caiden. After hacking the Calvar employee database, he then developed a virus to use as diversion for when the time came. All that was left to do was wait. The last thing Caiden wanted was to jeopardize his friend’s life.

  “I can’t fail this. If I do, I’m dead.” He nervously laughed to himself. “What a shit show.”

  The orange morning sun began to seep through the blinds, causing him to squint. He let out a long yawn, stretched, then crawled into bed.

  CHAPTER 2

  ---usr/systems/server-x/PREPARATIONS---

  Five hours of sleep later, Caiden awoke, fully refreshed. His chronic insomnia usually didn’t allow him any more sleep than that. As a result, his body had become accustomed to the short hours, without any noticeable effects on his functionality. He engaged in his usual morning routine; a two-mile jog, followed by an intense session of meditation and Kata training to keep his skills sharp. Since his youth, he had shown to be an extraordinary athlete. He had always been a fan of old martial arts films. His martial arts interests eventually led him to his sensei, Takamura Ao, at a boarding school he and Vantz attended as teenagers. Takamura taught Caiden and Vantz a dangerous blend of Hapkido and Muay Thai that he personally dubbed ‘Muaykido’.

  In addition to ‘Muaykido’, Takamura taught them both to be proficient with a number of different weapons. Caiden took a liking to the practices of the sword, while Vantz enjoyed using the Tonfa. When he was younger, Caiden was a magnet for the wrong type of attention, getting into plenty of fights and winning them all. Most of the fights were to defend Vantz, as he was an easy target because of his family’s wealth and his overly outgoing personality.

  Takamura’s teachings drastically altered Caiden’s abrasive temperament. The valuable lessons he learned allowed him to deflect and tame his anger through discipline and clarity of the mind. Caiden continued these practices, as they were a means to cope with his inherent unrest and deep-seated anger. Vantz, on the other hand, had tapered off from his practices in favor of the pursuit of the ideal bachelor lifestyle. Vantz had gone to his classes for the day and his date, Viana, was nowhere to be found. She was probably enduring her morning walk of shame.

  After his routine, Caiden grabbed a quick breakfast and returned to his room to review the specs of the virus he developed. Caiden was also a student at the same university as Vantz, but decided to put his classes at the Advanced College for Technological Studies on hold so that he could focus on his freelancing and other side projects that he deemed more important. His life as a premier hacker helped him amass a pretty penny and a great deal of notoriety on CWR. Most of the Creds he earned, he had saved, or invested. He would rarely spend any money on anything he dubbed useless. He had always showed an impressive aptitude for forward thinking, as well as a great knowledge of technology and science.

  The vulnerability for the Prime-1 bank job was going to disrupt the security infrastructure to the bank’s system, and simultaneously trip the alarms of the building as they utilized the same subnet. Someone was going to be fired for overlooking this. The caveat, was that it would only work for one hundred and twenty seconds, giving Caiden a small window of time to hack the bank’s financial reserve account for the seventy-five million Creds.

  Once the Creds were successfully extracted from Prime-1 Bank, Caiden designated the funds to go through five different dummy accounts before it reaches Slavo’s account. This way, it would throw off anyone trying to track the movement of the money. Slavo’s account was attached to the private bank, Enzen Banking. They were notorious for taking clients with a reputation and had somehow managed to avoid any criminal implications in their dealings with their disreputable clientele.

  Caiden had planned another part of his payback with Slavo’s Enzen account once the money arrived after the job was completed, but he needed some more information in order to build a proper procedure. He decided that he needed to figure out Slavo’s backstory.

  “Slavo, Slavo, Slavo. Let’s take a little look at your background, shall we?”

  He logged back into CWR under a throwaway username called ‘Mr. Knowone’, and proceeded to hack into the Psi-Corp Police department in search of Slavo, to see if he had a record. Unsurprisingly, Slavo had a laundry list of misdemeanor and felony offenses; domestic violence, witness intimidation, murder, racketeering, fraud, theft, illegal Cybernetic transporting, and drug and human trafficking charges were on his record.

  “Highly decorated, aren’t we?” Caiden said to himself as he reviewed Slavo’s file. Simply put, Slavo beat every single charge against him due to his strong ties to the powerful and fearsome Chimera Crime Syndicate.

  It appeared that Slavo had been appointed as the man in charge of Chimera’s extremely lucrative sex slave trade business on the black market a little over a year ago. They ran The LoveMaars brothel in the BlackLight District, ironically the most dangerous borough in the entire city. The LoveMaars was a luxurious twenty story high rise building, styled as a VIP only hotel. It was located on the west side of BlackLight, wedged between both the Nova Central and Cosmica Districts.


  They claimed to have the most beautiful women and catered to the largest high-profile clientele base in the entire city of Neon District. Only the big spenders could afford even the least expensive of women in their stable. Word of mouth had it, that top level executives of Zonos Inc. had been linked to the brothel as frequent customers. This speculation led to a massive political firestorm in the media and further cemented their corrupted status. This scandal did nothing to ease the growing tensions between them and the people of the city.

  “The LoveMaars is known to net anywhere from five hundred thousand Creds to one million Creds a week? That’s ridiculous money! And it looks like the Psi-Corp police are in on it somehow. Chimera’s gotta have at least a quarter of the force in their back pocket,” Caiden said to himself as he continued to research.

  There was an additional police report attached to Slavo’s file. It was a story about a woman and her husband that were killed in a murder-suicide, with Slavo labeled as a key witness. The majority of the details on the report were digitally redacted, making it difficult to piece the entire story together. In the report, Caiden learned that the woman was the mother of twin daughters, aged sixteen at the time of the incident a year ago. There was nothing that indicated their current whereabouts in the profile, other than a small detail that alleged the twin girls were the ones behind the murder. But the statement was speculative, and no other reports followed on that assumption.

  “Hmm, too many details amiss. Not to mention Zonos Inc. officials being linked to the brothel. There’s gotta be some sort of link between the two.” Reviewing all of his findings again, he recalled the strange post he read earlier from the user 2ofTheSame on CWR. “The riddle about captivity. The strange person who reached out to me right after. The Net Code address I found. The brothel. The fact that there is nothing more on the twin daughters of the slain woman, not even death certificates of theirs. The common denominator in most of these situations is Slavo. If I can link all these together I may be able to see a bigger picture!”