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

by Chad Campbell

  “Uh oh, what did I do now?” he asked himself as he took the call.

  “I’m surprised you called me so soon. What’s up?” Caiden asked.

  “Caiden, I sincerely hope you are well. How are those beautiful girls?” Wizard asked, referring to the twins.

  “They’re just fine,” he replied.

  “Good. I’ve been thinking about our escape from Red Rabbit. In particular, that strange tracker we had to shake off. Something’s been bothering me about it and the familiar signal it gave off. And you also mentioned that you ran into a man named ‘Dr. Stein’, correct?” She said.

  “Oh yeah, that creepy old guy and his enhanced body guards I ran into in the alley. What about him?” He replied.

  “I would be very, very wary of that man. He is extremely dangerous. I believe that he and the tracker are somehow connected,” she alleged.

  “Hmm, that seems totally random but I will definitely look into it. I’ve been intercepting the traffic on Zonos’s main network for some time now. Their network is littered with red flags and I’ve been hacking their databases regularly, implanting relay nodes at every viable juncture for easy and secure re-entry that only I know exists there. Anything worthwhile I find, I broadcast to my followers on CWR. Somebody’s gotta know the truth,” he said.

  “Remarkable. How receptive are your followers to these leaks?” Wizard asked impressed.

  “It’s been a tough sell; a lot of people are unsure of how to process the information. A lot of this shit is difficult to accept as truth. And now that I think about it, there’s been some chatter about Dr. Stein Volda on CWR before. He had an unsettling vibe, now that I recall. Made my skin crawl. I’ll let you know what I find out about him and if he’s linked to the tracker,” he said.

  “That would be very wise. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, but I will anyway; lay low, be careful, and get some sleep. You look like shit. Can’t go messing up that model face of yours,” Wizard teased.

  “Eh, a face is a face,” he flippantly replied with a grin as he ended the holo-call. He then decided to call the twins.

  “Hey there, wanna earn your keep?” he asked in jest.

  “You, asshole! You left without saying goodbye!” Nami yelled.

  “What do you mean ‘earn our keep’? You think you own us now or somethin’? Just ‘cause you have us locked down, you think we’re your employees?” an annoyed Hitomi chimed in.

  “Whoa, whoa! I’m only kidding! I thought we were all on the same page. Chimera is still looking for you guys and it’s better to be hidden and safe, right? And look on the bright side, at least you aren’t being forced into paid sex like before,” he bluntly replied.

  “We would’ve given you sex for free if you were here with us now!” Hitomi angrily stated.

  “I’m flattered, but seriously, I really do need your help,” he replied.

  “Whatever. What do want?” Nami said.

  “Remember how we were being followed by that tracker while we were escaping last night?” he asked.

  “Yeah what about it?”

  “I want you guys to look into a man named Dr. Stein Volda. I think he may’ve had something to do with it,” he told them.

  “Oh yeah, that weirdo scientist guy and his freaky bodyguards you were telling us about. You really think he sent that thing after us?” Hitomi asked.

  “I dunno, none of this really makes any sense. Check his profile for anything out of the ordinary. I’ve been keeping a close eye on Zonos for quite a while, so I know their systems and how to hack into them. I’ll send precise instructions for entry and a custom VPN program for you to use. Encrypt whatever information you find on him, and send it to me when you can,” he instructed.

  “Fine, I guess we’ll help you, if we must,” Nami teased.

  “Is everything okay with you? Is there anything else we need to worry about?” Hitomi asked. It was scary how well the pair could read his mind. It seem like his inexplicable dark cloud of worries was visible to them.

  “No, nothing at all,” Caiden replied.

  “Okay, so when are you coming back?” she asked.

  “Not tonight, I have some stuff to do,” he replied.

  “Stuff to do? Like what?” Hitomi asked.

  “Vantz is dragging me to club Cosmica tonight,” he grumbled.

  “What? You’re goin’ to a club to have fun? I’m totally jealous! I wish we could do something like that,” Nami said.

  “Well you guys won’t be locked up in there forever. Soon you’ll be free to do what you like,” he said as the twins faces lit up with excitement. “Oh hey, have you guys started training with the self-defense programs I left you yet?” he asked.

  “Yeah, we have! I didn’t know you knew so much! It’s great; Hitomi and I are already sparring together,” Nami replied.

  “Wait, what? Sparring already?” he asked, astonished.

  “What? Is there something wrong with that?” Hitomi asked.

  “No, not at all. You guys seem really into it,” he replied.

  “Oh yeah, definitely! It feels kinda like we’ve done this before somehow. I can’t really explain it. I guess all we needed was the motivation to actually do it,” Nami said.

  “Look, I gotta go. Got some research to do on my end. Hit me back when you find something on Stein. Later!” he said as he closed the call.

  Their fast progression shocked Caiden. Clearly, there was something special about those peculiar twins from Rune Village.

  CHAPTER 9

  ---usr/systems/server-x/PIVOTAL PROCEEDINGS---

  The apartment became uncomfortably quiet after Vantz and the girls left. The past few days had been peculiarly lively. The silence took some getting used to. To distract himself, Caiden decided to do more research on the nano codec. The upload status bar was still running, and it was almost forty percent complete. I guess I still have some time before it uploads to all my systems, he thought to himself. Instead of wasting time staring at the walls in his room he decided to log on to CWR to pass the time.

  Before CWR’s neural synchronization completed, he noticed an encrypted message in his inbox. He clicked on it and instantly recognized the email user. It was from the famed hacker and influencer, ‘Queenalona’.

  Dear esteemed VseR,

  I hope that you are well. I am holding a secret conference deep in the dark of the net with the other kings of CWR. We are hoping you will attend as there are pressing matters that need to be discussed and would benefit from your input. I know you choose not to attend these meetings, but this one is different and it would be great to have you there.

  Your Friend,

  Queenalona

  Guess I can’t avoid it any longer then. Time to dive into CWR and check out this meeting for once, he thought to himself. Caiden reclined in his chair. He grabbed his NeuraVisor and initiated access into CWR. Neural link; one hundred percent. Sensation nodes; one hundred percent initiated. Net consciousness awareness; one hundred percent. Body at complete rest, syncing was complete. Full body sensory transfer to the digital world; successful.

  No drug could ever compare to the sensation of connecting to CyberWave Republic. The thrill of navigating the deep web using the power of his mind gave him a rush like no other. His consciousness experienced a digital high, contorting his reality and allowing him to essentially merge and become one with the system, in a way. A ring of light appeared in the dark around his feet. With each increment, billions of pixels methodically came together to form his slick shinobi body armor suit avatar. The trademark moving code in the shape of motorcycle helmet was the last formation as the ring of light went above his head and then disappeared. VseR was back in CWR.

  He felt like he could absorb all of the information the vast digital frontier could offer. He felt invincible there. I wonder if it’s like this for everyone, he thought. It was time to find the secret source code for the meeting location. Caiden decided to change the color of his smooth body armor suit avatar fro
m a gunmetal grey to a shiny onyx. The streaming lights of code that formed the city buildings interacted with an indigo sky made from other people’s custom coded graphic designs. Some clouds were made entirely of advanced GIFs, others were made from psychedelic video files, mimicking a piece of the ever-changing color of the digital sky.

  The city streets were lit a glowing a soft blue, yellow, and magenta. Multiple users’ avatars walked the digital streets of CWR, en masse. It was unusually busy at this particular time. I wonder if the heavy user traffic is some sort decoy code implemented by Queenalona. There were plenty of Psi-Corp Special agents, especially from the CSSA, i.e. City-State Security Administration, posing as regular users of CWR, looking to take down cyber criminals and underground drug rings. It would make sense for her to be extra cautious.

  VseR drifted through the endless sea of users, observing both them, and the changing digital city, searching for any clues that would lead to the secret meeting. To his right, down an obscure backstreet, he noticed a small beacon of light flashing off in a strange sequence. He ambled past the other users toward the light and as he approached it, the beacon stopped blinking and turned green. As it did that, a glowing green door descended from the sky right in front of him. He looked around to see if anyone else was watching, then turned the knob and walked through. He was in a strange hallway filled with naked women. This some sort of sex simulation program? Naw, couldn’t be. There’s more to this than their appearance, he thought to himself

  After a quick analysis, he deduced that they were postured to act as makeshift doors, each leading to individual pathways. As he stepped forward, the women’s hands extended. Each step he took left glowing footprints. Unsure of how to proceed, he changed his visual feed to safe mode and scanned up and down the entire hallway, hoping to understand the complex coding required to create such a transitional node. He noticed a unique encryption on every piece of digital matter in this room. He thought back to when he opened the email officially and recalled a specific marker that was designed to temporarily embed itself to his avatar.

  The reason why he even saw the strange light beacon in the first place was because of that marker. It was specifically designed so that once it embedded itself to a CWR user, only they could see its source code and anything else encoded onto it. This was indeed the work of Queenalona. Gotta give it to her, she’s always been a cautious one, almost as much as me, Caiden thought to himself. With his visual feed still in safe mode, he located a flashing light on one of the women-door’s hands. That’s it, right there. That’s my way to the meeting, he thought.

  That level of caution and discretion eliminated the threat of unwanted spies or unauthorized users breaching the code and finding the source location of the meeting; an excellent way to fend off the prying eyes of the law and any other unwanted user. He grabbed that woman’s hand and a bright light encompassed everything around him. When the intense flash of light subsided, he found himself in a vast, infinitely dark space with only a small blip of light shining in the distance.

  Knowing that walking or floating there would take an eternity, he decided to accelerate at lightning speed toward the small light. The closer he got, the more things came into view. He finally arrived at the source. The light that shined from the distance was a singular overhead lamp and a streaming wall of protective coding. The protective wall of code allowed only those who received invitations to the private meeting to enter. The user would be identified by the embedded marker from the invitation. Any unauthorized user that somehow made it past all the other security protocols and tried to enter would be force-logged out of the system, unable to access CWR for twenty-four hours and experience partial, temporary memory loss from the incident. Caiden passed through the wall without any problems. Sat at a table, were a handful of notable and notorious hackers, movers and shakers, well known in Neon District and especially CWR. Red Ice, Vanes, Kane, Queenalona, Raker, Moonshot, and a new one he didn’t recognize. He scrolled his eyes over to the unknown avatar and prompted his visual information feed. It showed the name ‘Che le Che’. Hmm, interesting. The moment he zapped into the protected room, everyone at the round table paused.

  CHAPTER 10

  ---usr/systems/server-x/MEETING OF THE DARK KINGS---

  “Holy shit, if it isn’t the god of hacking himself, here in the digital flesh. The almighty VseR, people. Bask in his holiness,” Red Ice sarcastically announced.

  Red Ice was a pain in the ass, and his avatar was fitting; it looked like a demon with red scaly skin, black leather biker jacket, prehensile tail, and a constant burning flame for a head with dark shades. Ice and VseR found themselves on opposite sides of jobs quite often, with Ice drawing the short end of the straw every time. VseR calmly sat down at his assigned chair. The host of the meeting, Queenalona, was next to him. Her avatar was that of a woman with chrome skin, a nearly featureless face, considerable cleavage, blue hair, and a white dress. She was the most suited to host the meeting as she had a knack for maintaining control and keeping everyone else on track.

  “VseR, I must say, it is an honor to have you here. We are very glad you decided to attend,” she said, pleasantly.

  “Thanks,” VseR replied.

  “For security purposes, let us all synch our minds together to use the encrypted chat feature. Now, shall we proceed?”

  They began the encrypted chat.

  Red Ice:So, Queenalona, what are we here for, really?

  Queenalona:We all know that for a while, this city’s foundation has been rotting for years. VseR has consistently made it a point to highlight these shortcomings via his work on CWR. It would finally appear that many are taking heed to the message.

  Raker:We already know about the bullshit. People’s raised awareness here in Neon District doesn’t prove jack shit. Most us are still too broke, too high, or too numb to do anything about it.

  Moonshot:Raker, let her finish.

  Queenalona:Thank you Moon. Hate crimes against Hybrids are becoming more frequent and extreme thanks to ZOBE. Their dangerous discriminatory message is spreading faster than anyone could have imagined.

  Vanes:Wasn’t there some incident not too long ago that happened in Blue Emerald District? A couple innocent Hybrids were killed and they did nothing wrong, right?

  Raker:Oh yeah, I do remember hearing something about that. I actually heard that Psi-Corp did a piss poor job of covering up the whole thing and have been reluctant to call it a hate crime due to lack of concrete evidence. As if there isn’t a disparity between Purebreds and Hybrids already.

  Queenalona:Exactly. It is after events like these that I’ve seen a change in the dynamic of the people, especially those who follow me. The outcry is reaching a fever pitch. For the first time, people plan to take action and to seek answers. Now is the best opportunity to strike.

  VseR:We can’t forget about Zonos government law, as well. They play a major part in this problem. Not only are they allowing ZOBE to run wild, but Chimera’s also increasing their activity and I have a feeling that Zonos and Psi-Corp have something to do with it.

  Red Ice: Speaking of Chimera, I heard they got severely fucked trying to work with a hacker from CWR. Heard they lost over seventy-five million Creds as a result!

  Moonshot:Holy shit! Chimera must be pissed. I wouldn’t want to be that hacker, by any means. They must have a massive price on their head. Did they reveal the name of the hacker?

  Queenalona:Negative. Word on the street is they don’t want to release the name for fear of a hit on their already damaged reputation.

  Vanes:I also heard that The LoveMaars lost their top earning girls, too! Either they have incredibly shitty luck, or someone is out to seriously fuck with them.

  Red Ice:What? I planned to go there next week! I finally saved up enough money for The Exotics. Heard they’ll fuck you till you can’t stand no more.

  Queenalona:Could you be any more repulsive, you savage? Anyway, because of the recent unrest I’ve star
ted thinking about some things. Like, how could we, as fairly well-known figures in CWR, use our influence to deliver some sort of shake-up and provoke some sort of change? I was thinking we could organize a protest rally in front of the statehouse for starters.

  VseR:Unfortunately, we are one of many byproducts of the corruption that Zonos produced. To try and start a revolution, coup or revolt of any kind in real life would require more than hacking databases and exposing stories about things that are supposed to be hidden from public consciousness. We would need the people’s support in real life, not as lurking supporters on CWR. Simple protesting isn’t going to fly with a government like Zonos, I promise you that. I heard about a protest tha took place a few weeks ago in Nova Central and it ended with skulls getting cracked. Psi-Corp doesn’t give a shit about protecting people. Their sole purpose is to enforce. They’ve been making that pretty clear for quite some time. For us to make any real noise, we would need to be the ones who do the skull cracking for once. But brute force alone still wouldn’t be enough. We would need a multifaceted plan that attacks them from all angles. Economically, politically, digitally, physically, and most importantly, socially.

  Moonshot:Hmm, Vser makes an interesting point. Can’t say I disagree. Hey, speaking of Psi-Corp, I’ve been hearing some troubling rumors about them on the streets for a while now.

  VseR:What’d you hear?

  Moonshot:Well, first, I’ve been hearing that Zonos has lifted the ban they previously set on the COGLIMS, at least in private, and are using those damned devices on the Psi-Corp Force. And secondly, I’ve been hearing for some time from a number of people that the Psi-Corp force is made up entirely of clones! Can you believe that shit?