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Background for Cool Darkness
Sinclair was one of the first people to develop electromagnetic
devices and weapons. He created the first series of needlers and gaussian
weaponry and has been creating state-of-the-art weaponry ever since.
The Sinclair K2 is a single hand-held needler that is not-so common
among well armed groups or people of the lower class. It uses longer
needles than the K1, a single-hand needler that uses 3" needles, 80 per
four inch mag. These needles are 5" long with a 5" mag holding 50. It's
wider than a K1 and is used primarily for penetration and power against
armored individuals. Most K2's are semiauto while the K1 has on-the-fly
switching from semi to full auto capabilities. Cerated, armor piercing
and explosive needles are available into the military, security and black
markets.
Polymetals are alloys of metals that have polymer composites
fabricated into the material at the time of final molding. This allows for
improved chemical and physical properties of the material while
improving its strength and the ability to keep a sharp edge. It also aids
in reinforcing materials such as strengthening armor plating and
bullet-proof jackets.
The story takes place somewhere around 2030 in a fast growing
suburb of Philadelphia.
Cool Darkness
by Matthew Carpenter
Chapter 1 : Mark of the Huntress
"Awe, shit. Man this is too much for one night" Dave sighed.
Five hours on the net after a full day's work at the office was enough
for a 24 hour day. He slouched back into his recliner and turned on the
built in massage, pulled the plugs from his system and blankly stared at
the ceiling.
"Too bad you still got a few hours before it's over." He loosened
his tie and unbuttoned the top button of his white shirt. A midnight
snack should be good he thought to himself. He sleepily stood up
between rolls of computer paper and electronic cables snaking through
the small den of his apartment in Philly. 'Thank god the lights are off or
I'd really have a headache.' Dave walked out of the room, still thinking
over the latest ideas from work involving the net connections between
North America and Europe. 'Goddamn bureaucrats think they know
everything. Hell, they probably couldn't even tell if I changed their
comm links from DC to LA.' The walk to the refrigerator was short. The
light from inside blinded him shortly since it was the only light on in
the house. 'I wonder what Cryon is up to tonight. They haven't been
going out as much lately as they used to.' A thought that sounded like
something was getting ready to go down, but with no background. They
haven't done anything lately that would hint to it. He didn't like that.
He pulled an open jar of pickles out of the frig and a container of
mustard, opened the bread drawer and got a loaf of old bread that was on
the brink of molding. Some meat and a bag of chips followed. He sat
down at the small round table next the to kitchen entrance and began
making a sandwich. He took a bite. 'Damn thing is getting stale. I
wonder how Nick is doing? The last time I talked with him must've been
2 weeks ago.' He swiveled around in his chair to a wall panel and entered
the code for a direct telecom interconnect.
The video jumped up and Nick's tired face showed up on the
screen.
"Nick, how you doin' man?" squawked Dave getting ready to take
another bite out of his sandwich.
"Dave...Do you know what time it is?"
"Yeah, but I couldn't sleep. What's up. I haven't.."
Blink. Blink. A monitor light went on. Someone's at the door,
thought Dave. 'Who the hell would come at a time like this?'
"Hang on, someone's at the door."
"At this time of night?" It was too late. Dave was already up and
heading for the door. Opening up another panel, the lights went on and
Dave spoke through the intercom mic.
"Who's there?"
The monitor light blinked again.
"I said who's there!?" 'No answer. No answer.' Something's up.
He began walking away from the door.
"Get out Nick. Somethin's up!" yelled Dave from across the room.
"What's going on over there Dave!?"
THUD..THUD. CRACK! Dave's door popped partly open as the
bottom hinge cracked out of the door frame. THUD..THUD..SMASH! The
top hinge nearly exploded open with force as the door toppled to one
side, rendering the computer and physical locking mechanisms
completely ineffective. Dave scurried backward as a large man slowly
walked into the apartment, stepping on the discarded door. Dark short
hair and a dark skinned face sat on top of a set of shoulders and a huge
frame as he pulled something out of his dark, tattered overcoat. Dave
turned to run towards his den when a silent shot was fired into his left
leg.
"Aaauuuuu!" screamed Dave as he fell into the table where he had
just begun his midnight snack. The telecom monitor flicked off as Dave
moved to face his attacker. He side slouched into his chair, holding his
leg. A needle stuck out of it by about an inch, leaving a small circular
blood stain forming on his dress pants.
The man walked up to Dave shooting another two silent shots into
his leg, making him scream in pain. A large hand wrapped itself around
Dave's throat and began picking him up. His face reddened and his eyes
began to bulge as he was suspended in mid air by his attacker's
suffocating grip. His grip was hard, almost too hard as Dave reached up
with both hands to grasp it.
"Who the hell are you!" Dave spit out having more difficulty
breathing. The light from the room was in his eyes so he couldn't see his
enemy's face. He didn't remember running into him before, he was sure
of that. A shot was fired at the control panel on the wall, but not by his
attacker who had put his gun down on the dining table. Another shot
and the panel exploded in an array of sparks and flames. A final shot
was fired at the lights which exploded out, darkening the apartment
once more. Dave flinched from the spraying glass. He was lifted a little
higher as his assailant's other fist flew into Dave's lower ribs, making a
noticeable cracking sound as it shattered a few, knocking the wind out of
Dave. He was then turned around and thrown into the opposite wall of
his den a few feet away. His attacker turned around to pick up his gun,
which gave Dave a little time to move out of the way by crawling into his
den amongst the electronics and wires. Two more shots were fired
directly into his leg as he was almost fully in, leaving him immobile
from the pain with only the sounds of heavy footsteps echoing toward
the den's entrance.
The split, mangy tails of a cheap grayish-black overcoat dangled
at the ankles of Dave's pursuer. Combat boots and a dark cat burglar's
baggy suit shown underneath the opened coat, as a Sinclair K2 was being
placed back in it's shoulder harness, then covered by the thick fiber-
metal mesh coat. He couldn't see a face or even a head from his
encumbered position on the carpeted floor. Dave just stared at his large
enemy, unable to move from the pain in his cracked ribs, and the 5 inch
needles sticking out of his left leg. The only taste from his interrupted
midnight snack away from the net was of blood.
"Next time, don't fuck with Nestroth, Dave" came a quiet but stern
female voice from the doorway; the type that could be sweet if it didn't
send a shiver down your spine, but would scare the hell out of you if
caught in a dark alley on Halloween.
Dave tried looking past his pursuer. He knew that voice, he knew
it from somewhere. Nestroth gave him a hint, but there was no match.
Not with that female voice. It just sounded so familiar, but then again it
didn't. He just couldn't place it. He had run into Nestroth a few times
trying to break a few systems, but he'd never tangled with them, at least
not to his knowledge. Every time he had run into them, they either
kicked him out or he got out himself. He knew Nestroth was not one to be
messed with, anywhere. Anyone who did normally either was found
dead or never found. That didn't help Dave's thinking as he stared at his
victor with only the thought of death running around in his head. 'If
only I could think of what got me into this in the first place' Dave
thought to himself, hoping for a chance to get out of it one way or the
other.
A hand slapped against the left shoulder of the overcoat. Slowly
and with enough coolness to chill ice, he moved to one side of the
doorway without losing sight of his prey. Blue and red streaks of light
shined in from the neon streetlights through the opposing windows,
leaving less to be hidden in the not-so-well kept apartment. A few
computer screens flickered and with the outside light, showed the
mounds of electronics and scrap papers lying all over the small room.
An athletically slender female figure covered only with a skintight body
suit and a pair of stainless steel spiked heels, entered the room with the
finesse and grace of a cat, and noticeably the cunning of one as well.
Her slender body left little to the imagination as she snaked towards
Dave. Shiny metallic nail polish glistened on her fingertips in the
sporadic changing lights. Her footsteps made no noise as her spiked
heels sank into the thick carpet and almost pierced through the material
underneath. Her bodysuit was mostly black with the exception of a dark
red artistic line running across the main body of it, creating fading
curls of color along an arm and the opposite leg. Her hair matched the
entire outfit; dark and slightly long, but not touching her shoulders.
"Stand up shithead" she hissed walking to within inches of his
pale face.
"I..I...I can't. My leg.." he whimpered.
"Just do it or I'll have Nemesis stand you up whether you like it or
not!"
Remembering his encounter a few moments ago with 'Nemesis',
he painfully began to bring himself up to a hunched over position, still
holding his leg in pain. He looked near her fearing the consequences of
eye contact. Blood trickled from his left leg and stained his business
pants as he favored the other leg; the polymetal needles still sticking out
of his leg.
"Last night will be the last time you go after Cryon, Dave. Do we
understand each other?"
"I didn't go against Cryon last night, honest I didn't" he sputtered
back. Sweat beads were forming on his head as her hot breath touched
his face, while she pushed her face within an inch of his.
"Don't bullshit me Dave. Nestroth ran into you last night while
going against Cryon and you fucked us up! Don't make me..".
"I haven't run into Nestroth in weeks and that was only an
accident, really. I don't want any trouble with Nestroth. Come on,
they're too big for me" he shakingly replied. "Hell, I don't even know
you guys. That's how long it's been since I....".
Backing away from his face, she retracted a set of 4 inch claws
that lay at her waistside which had gone unnoticed until now. Her
eyebrows still in a devilish frown. Her breathing still calm. Her lips
tight with fury, contrary to Dave's sweating, pale face. A dark red stain
was forming on his white shirt where Nemesis had punched him earlier.
Raising her hand, "You may call me Slash" was her only reply as
her claws extended to a solid 7 inches, and left his head lying next to his
crumpled body as the blue light shined off the blood dripping from her
otherwise spotless weapon of choice. The only sound was a distant
humming from the changing neon lights, and a grinning Nemesis.
Cool Darkness
by Matthew Carpenter
Chapter 2 : Welcome to the Jungle
"Enter Password" spit the computer controlled lock of a small
warehouse on the other side of town; the dirty side of town. Trash lay all
around the alleyway and the light blowing smog that seems to inhabit
the entire city rolled by, bring papers and dust with it. Slash entered the
neural code embedded into Nestroth's security ROM chip, implanted into
her skull, and took her security card back as the graffitied, grayish
metal alley door unlocked. She walking in just as smoothly as she had
done entering Dave's apartment, with Nemesis behind her shutting the
door with the echoing thud of a vault.
The semi-lit corridor weaved to the right a little bit. The corridor
was surrounded by old wooden crates piled on metal warehouse frames
slightly beginning to rust from the humidity of the city air. A metal
catwalk lingered just above Nemesis' head as they walked into the open
meeting room of Nestroth. This was one of there meeting places. One
that was used after the fact. The whole warehouse was only 50 by 50 feet,
but it was perfect for their purposes: small enough to be unnoticed;
large enough to be useful. There was a bar on the opposing wall from
the entrance. A pool table, a few TV's, a bar and a stereo made up the
majority of the hall while the computer links and weapon banks were
closest to the left wall. Everything a person could want after a job, while
still maintaining some security to the place. A glance around from Slash
produced a few scanners locked on them, verifying who's who. A guard
armed appropriately watched from the right catwalk that continued
around the entire warehouse. Dressed in normal street clothes, he raised
his gloved right hand as a sign of hello to Slash. She slightly nodded
hello and continued looking around.
A few desks were scattered around the room with paperwork,
blueprints and other 'necessities' on top or laid out on built in desk
monitors. A medium sized man with an open white jacket, yellow shirt
and nice slacks looked to be jacked in at one of the desks in a lounge
chair. The only thing was there was no cable. A metal band with
blinking LEDs wrapped around the back of his head connecting his two
ports, but weren't connected to anything else. His eyes blinked and he
raised his head from his propped up arms to notice the two. A few lights
flashed on and off on his headgear and he raised his right arm to the
back of it. A few seconds later, the two sides of the device connected to
his ports popped off and he placed the gear down onto the table. A small
stretch and a wipe of the eyes and he stood up reaching for the beer in
front of him.
Slash walked towards him as she noticed out of the corner of her
eye, Nemesis going to a sofa on the far side of the room to throw his
jacket down.
"So what did you bring me?" he asked, not changing his blank
expression.
"Merry Christmas , Nebulus" Slash retorted in a painfully sly tone
of voice and a slight grin as she pulled Dave's head out of the black bag
she was holding.
"Not bad. What else did you bring me?" Nebulus asked raising an
eyebrow, taking another drink without removing his eyes from her.
"The last time he said he ran into us was a few weeks ago" she said
dropping his head into the disposal system next to the desk without a
thought or a look. "He denied going after Cryon last night. He died with
his story in tact so either he was one devoted liar, or he was too scared to
make up a fake story. In any case, we've got copies of his records for the
past two months including his work on the international nets and his
individual activities around the sites."
Nemesis had put his coat down and returned to the discussion.
Standing about half a foot over Nebulus, his body was highlighted from
the lighting array suspended from the ceiling by chains. His skin was
very dark brown with tints of gray that seemed even darker behind
Nebulus' white jacket. His black tank top showed off his large muscles
that had obviously been enhanced through drugs. His black hair was cut
in a spiked military fashion and he still wore his shades, even though
the lighting inside wasn't that illuminating.
"Or else he was there and tried to make us believe he wasn't. You
should've pulled more info out of him before you killed him. Now we
don't know what's going on" retorted Nebulus. He slouched back into his
padded chair and enabled the foot rest. He closed his eyes, running his
hand through his military style blond hair only to let out of a frustrated
sigh that was meant to be heard. He leaned back with his eyes closed as
the other two members of the group who had been at the bar the whole
time, came up to the table.
"Hey kids, how's it goin'? Did you and Davey-boy have fun
tonight or what." It was Zlik. Slash hated his humor, especially when it
wasn't in taste. He walked closer to her side egging her on with his
cock-eyed smirking that drove her nuts. "Come on, tell old Zlik what
happened baby."
"Knock it off Zlik. Why don't you take you and your filthy street
'garb' somewhere where I can't smell it." darted Slash, eyeing him with
one of those 'Don't push me looks'. "We got enough problems without
your nonsense." Zlik was from the streets and probably will always be
there as well. He grew up there, hangs there now, and will forever have
a name with those who have long purple hair that hangs to one side.
"Goddamn skinny son of a .." murmured Slash.
"Cool it children" snapped Nebulus, opening his eyes and
furrowing his brow again. "Jack, what do we have on the nets for the
past few hours from Dave's area?"
"Nothing to my knowledge. The whole sector's been quiet since
he got off" replied Jack in a gentlemen's voice, standing next to Nemesis.
Actually, he stood underneath Nemesis. He was very short and stocky, in
fact he was getting on the fat side. That's the problem with netrunning
all day and all night. Jack was the type of individual who got so hooked
into the system that if he had his choice, he would never get out. Unless
of course he had to. But that was never. That's how he got his name,
Jack. Constantly jacking in and out of the nets, only to get back in as
soon as possible. He gambles with everything he gets into and most of
the time, if and when rarely caught, he barely makes it out without
being traced or ICEd. But that's how he wanted to run his life: on the
edge, at least from the perception of the net.
"Get me updated on Cryon ASAP, Jack, and make sure they're not
screwing around with our side of the board!" demanded Nebulus.
"Sure thing boss" replied Jack, still in his business shirt, business
appearance, and business attitude. Hey slowly walked away from the
group and reached another desk a little distance away from the informal
meeting. He picked up the same headgear as Nebulus had and put it on,
eventually peering off into space, or cyberspace as the case may be.
"What the hell is that thing he's got on his head?" questioned
Slash, a little perturbed that she hadn't been updated on the new tech
yet.
"It's an experimental wireless connect between your ports and a
jack in site. But like I said, it's only experimental, so it doesn't leave this
room" explained Nebulus, calming down slightly. "We stole the idea and
some of the design from Cryon. The rest came from industry with the
holes filled in by Jack and his tech buddies at Nortech."
"He's still working there?" asked Zlik, wising up a bit. The party
began to disperse, each individual going there own way. "Awe screw it
man" snobbed Zlik heading for the corridor leading to the alleyway. The
metal door slammed shut once he was out and the room was dead quiet
with the exception of the echoing metallic slam of the door. Everyone
that wasn't jacked in was still looking at the corridor that Zlik just
walked through.
"When the hell is he going to get a life and stop being a street
bum!?" complained Slash.
"He's one of the best street informants I've ever known, Slash.
Just get off his back" grumbled a low, direct voice.
She turned around, looking at Nemesis who never had a lot to say.
"Is that so. Then why does he always dress like he's still on the streets?"
"Because he is." With that Nemesis grabbed his coat from the sofa
and proceeded to follow Zlik's exit, never loosing sight of Slash.
"Don't let her get to you man, she's just bein' a bitch tonight
cause we didn't get what we wanted from Dave" said Nemesis after
catching up to Zlik. His shades were still on even though it was
approaching two in the morning. The two of them walked for a while
and finally made it to the noisy part of town. The bars and joints
stretched for a few blocks and never shut down as long as it was dark
outside. This was the night spot; where everyone came who was anyone,
at four in the morning that is.
"So what happened with the job with Dave?" asked Zlik.
"We took him out well, but Nebulus wasn't impressed with the info
we got from him. I think Nebulus thinks someone's out for us. Hell, it
wouldn't surprise me, that's for sure."
"At least it would make life interesting for once."
"True." They walked side by side down the sidewalk towards there
favorite spot - Black Oil. The only place on the strip that was almost
pitch black dark inside and that served the hardest drinks, only. It was a
nice place. The bar was always packed and the back rooms always full.
It was mostly inhabited by deckers, samurai, informants or people just
there for business. Frankly, the bar wasn't even built to be a bar, but
that never surfaced in conversation.
Zlik was almost as tall as Nemesis, but a hell of a lot skinnier. His
tattered street clothes, long purple hair and terrible street accent set
him apart from his companion. A little harassment from the local girls
and a few psychos that were missing more than a couple of brain cells
made the trip seem normal. The streets were cluttered with garbage and
debris from the riots a few days ago. Most of the street lights were out or
on there way to go out. Most of the cars on the streets had a few bumps
or bruises, many having broken windows or shattered lights. The alleys
were filled with drunken street people sitting in the wall crevices and
dealers making their nightly pay. It might be the summer, but for some
reason the night was a little cooler than normal.
Before long, the Black Oil neon sign was a few doors down. A
small crowd had formed out front of the closed doors of the place with
people just hangin' out. A little pushing and shoving and the two got
past the crowd of people who wanted to look cool by the bar, but didn't
want to go in.
Past the doors, the bar was dark as night. Smoke filled the air and
seemed to hover like a cloud just above people's heads. There was just
about enough room to walk around the place without hugging each
other in the process. A pool table could be spotted across the room in the
far right corner from the foyer landing where Nemesis and Zlik stood
side by side, each looking around for someone or something. Most of the
people here were dressed to kill. The styles ranged from very slick to
very sleazy, but all with the intent to intimidate. The bar was centered
in the middle of the place, raised a step above the floor to make it a little
more formidable for stools. It was nice, though, compared to the others
in town. All the walls were old fashioned wood with paintings and
electronic art scattered around. At least there was no graffiti on the
inside of the joint. Looking around produced a second floor of mostly
wooden tables surrounding the outside walls of the place. Round
hanging pool lights hung from the ceiling with most of the lights either
broken or turned off.
Zlik started down the half flight of stairs without noting Nemesis'
intentions for the evening. But that was his style. He grew up on this
side of town, was one of the first to come to the bar when it was first
opened, and will probably be one of those who are killed in it as well.
Nemesis watched him slowly push his way toward the far side of the bar
and begin talking with a few friends that normally were found here
after midnight. Nemesis, on the other hand, slowly made his way to the
opposite side to watch a game of pool before going to the bar for a drink.
"So what's new on the streets" questioned the guy slowly
drinking a Toxic Rum next to Zlik, his long bleached hair almost
touching the tip of the glass during each sip.
"Depends on what side of the tracks you're from."
"The down side."
"Cryon is on the move again and no one knows what's going on."
"I thought they weren't screwing around on the nets yet? Last I
heard, they weren't going after any company takeovers or anything" he
said with a concerned yet questionable tone of voice, still just looking at
his shot.
"Their RAD just jumped and their in the market. Nestroth's
chasin' the rabbit so make sure the field is clear" noted Zlik. He hated
discussing names in company, but that was life on the streets. "How's
you're girl friend?"
"Which one?" he asked in disgust.
"Charles."
"Watch your back. Deckers are out tonight and it's gonna be a
while until sex is as good as it used to be."
"Who's spreading the disease?"
"Mogul's back." Spotting an old girl friend across the room, Zlik
got up from the bar and began his way towards her, noting his friend
with only a tap on the bar before leaving. Information and friends are
two different things when it comes to who's chasing who. Anyway, most
of the 'friends' that you make in a place like this can't be trusted further
than the shot they drink from.
'Mogul is back' thought Zlik on his way across the bar. 'This is
not good. The last time they were back proved to be a challenge in more
ways than just survival. Mogul was one of those groups that just looked
for conflicts with other groups. Nestroth normally didn't mind
competition when going after a company or something like that, but
when a gang gets involved with business, business gets bloody.'
"Hey sexy! How's it goin'!?" yelled Zlik.
"Well if it isn't Zlik. I haven't seen you here for a while. Where
the hell you been hiddin' out lately?" replied Shiela.
"I've been around. You sure look awful different since we went
out last year. So who you datin' now babe?" Her black leather clad body
and curly-long, dyed black hair contrasted to her old street image of
baggy pants and oversized shirts. Her face was even more pale now. Her
appearance almost was of the dead instead of who he remembered her to
be.
"Nobody special. He's right here." She turned around and pulled
on the shoulder of a large man standing behind her talking with a small
bunch of guys dressed in the same black leather attire. He turned
around to face Zlik. "I told you he'd be here honey" she said looking
directly into Zlik's eyes with a devil's grin only Glasya could wear.
"So this is the mighty Zlik of Nestroth!" he said taking a step
closer and shoving his glass into Shiela's hand. "Don't tell me you've
come back for seconds with her MATE!" He might be a little drunk, but
he was definitely pissing Zlik off with his attitude; one of the few things
which Zlik didn't tolerate.
"Where the fuck did you pick him up Shiela!? Pirates Are Us or
Assholes Anonymous!!!?" attacked Zlik with his irate attitude aimed
directly at Shiela.
"Good-bye Zlik" was her only monotone reply as her grin turned
sour and she retreated towards the bar, walking behind her man.
"Oh, fine, walk off with a nice good-bye babe! Hey, don't forget
your beer belly bozo here bitch!" yelled Zlik not moving from his
position. His attack was still muffled by the crowd around them. No one
paid any attention to quarrels like that, anymore.
Giving a daring glare in her direction, his neck was violently
grabbed by Shiela's lover.
"She picked me up at Mogul, you shitty piece of street slime. How
do you feel about that, Dick!?" Zlik's eyebrow's raised instantly at the
thought of what he was in now, just in time for a double sided dagger to
be thrust into his stomach by his adversary. His mouth dropped open
and his eyes shut from the pain. His body almost being totally supported
by the hand still clenching his neck, making his breathing more
difficult. The knife twisted in his side and his brow furrowed more until
all he could do is scream out in pain. The crowd around him began to
notice the action, but it was too late. His back began to arch and his
knees started bending slowly as the life drained out of his body, staining
his shirt, and began to form a reflective puddle on the floor underneath
him.
"MOGULLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!" screamed Zlik, thrusting his right
elbow outward. An old fashioned quick release snubnose appeared in his
palm and directed itself towards the chest of his killer. Four shots were
fired before his body crumpled to the bloody wooden floor, his right arm
sticking straight upward with the gun still resting in his palm. He was
soon followed by his killer to the floor. His leather armor lined jacket
not enough against good old Teflon II coated ammunition, bringing him
down nearly on top of Zlik. Their blood staining each other's body. The
crowd going silent momentarily to see who was involved this night
while the bartender called the cops, then resuming with the normal
discussions of the evening. Another night, another death. Pretty
normal for nighttime in Philly, or any major city for that matter.
Shiela slowly made her way to the entrance and existed alone,
mingling with a few others who didn't want to be around when the cops
showed up to collect the bodies. Nemesis, too far away to do anything but
watch his friend die, and hear the gunshots at the last moment, kept and
eye on her and followed her out of the establishment. He'd met her a few
times before, but never really got to know her. He never really liked
her in the first place. Trusted would probably be a better word. Now he
knew why. Mogul on the other hand meant something, something very
serious. Mogul was a gang that ran a last year and tried terrorizing
certain underground groups. Nestroth was one of the groups that
brought them down. Unfortunately, they didn't wipe them out
completely.
Shiela began down the strip and soon turned into a known
alleyway. Nemesis followed, cautiously surveying his position. He
started into the alley, but she was already gone. Impossible. The alley is
too long and he was too close to lose her that fast. He didn't like it. He
didn't like it one bit. A few more meters in and he stopped, switching his
cybernetic retina implants from night vision to thermal infra-red
sensing. He walked a few more meters with his jacket loosely buttoned.
He finally stopped completely and looked around. As he looked up he
caught a glimpse of part of a person who must have been peering out of
a window from above. More likely sighting him in, which he confirmed
with another retina switch to ultraviolet reflective, picking up the faint
outlines of a needler rifle.
"Nice try, Nemesis" came a voice that echoed through the alley. It
was Shiela all right. Nothing mistaking that slyish voice. He turned
around, obviously out of position. Two men, however, were between him
and the streets, and the alley behind him meant dealing with his
airborne sniper. His right hand slowly snaked towards his jacket.
"Don't even think about it asshole." The two men in front of him
took out their weapons, pinning him in. "You go back to Nestroth and
tell them we're back, Nemesis. And, by the way, give Nebulus this
message!?" Two needler shots were fired from above into his shoulder.
He immediately sank to the ground and crashed into a trash bin, holding
his 'injured' shoulder. "You take that to Nebulus!"
The two men in the alley put their weapons away as they made
their way back to the streets. Nemesis lay there for a few minutes until
he judged the situation as relatively safe to move. He removed the
needles from his jacket, simulating their penetration and induced pain.
He walked out holding his shoulder. He walked out without his friend.
Heading back, passed the bar, gave him only one thought: Mogul is back
and Cryon is on the move. What the hell is going on?
Cool Darkness
by Matthew Carpenter
Chapter 3 : The Finer Things in Life...Just Got Worse
"And here is the room where the hunter/killers will be operating
from, General. Each station will house one person and the collective will
send necessary information to the GN-12 over there" pointed a research
engineer for Cryon who was showing General Stark the first labs that
would be used in Operation Revolt: a joint military/government
operation headed by members of the CIA, NSA, and USAF Electronic
Security Command. Behind the glassed in walls of the studio-like lab, the
tour of the labs had come to an end for one of the leading officials in the
implementation of the operation, as well as the leading researchers,
programmers and engineers of Cryon and Nortech. General Stark
standing out by being the only one not in a normal suit with visible
hardware and ports.
"Very impressive, Dr. Rudenburg, very impressive." spoke
General Stark looking at the GN-12 comp. "Just how fast is that computer
and will it give us instantaneous time to react if a priority is at hand?"
"It's a 10 teraflops machine packaged in a secured housing that
will be able to handle hundreds of users without slowing down a bit. The
computer has been programmed specifically to handle that type of a
situation, should it arise. With the latest advances made by Nortech in
the human/computer interface field, the computer will be an extension
of everyone working in the nets as well as off them. The operation will
begin as scheduled in two weeks. You can be assured of that!" he stated
with a grin as if he had sealed a done deal. "If you come this way, we can
move onto the final discussion of the networking reorder program and
how we will integrate each level of defense as the time arises."
The glass panels they were behind separated them from the most
diabolical security system ever created by man. Each station consisting
of a 'coffin' where men would be connected into the computers and nets
24 hours a day kept alive with a revolutionary new life support system.
The General stood there for a last glimpse of the entire project. His
decorated chest rose and fell deeply with every deep breath. 'The
teraflops computers. The neural links. The net connections and security
systems. So it all comes down to this.' the General thought to himself
giving the place a once over, then moving on without a change of facial
expression.
"So this project will enable us to monitor all of the Milnet sites
and government linkup locations at any given time from anywhere,
right?"
"Exactly. The hunter/killers will be spread out over the nets and
gateways, constantly monitoring and tracking any conspicuous netters
or runners as the case may be. All the info will be processed here and
we will be able build case files on perpetrators, or eliminate them if the
risk is too high."
"Sounds good to me. We're practically fightin' a war on the nets
as it is with all the netrunnin' that's been goin' on in the past few years.
It's about goddamn time we got the hardware on our side to stop these
punks" said the General. His brow was more furrowed than before,
remembering the numerous break-ins into his department alone over
the past five years. "Goddamn kids" he quietly spoke to himself, looking
ahead with great anticipation for this project. 'Just wait until we fry
'em' he smirked.
A few days later, a bare-chested dark-skinned bodybuilder was
curling more weight than normal in front of a mirror at the local gym.
A 'fake' medical bandage was taped to his left shoulder, giving him an
incentive to pump more iron. His biceps bulged every time the curl bar
was lifted above waist level. 'I'm gonna kill Mogul, 18. Kill Mogul, 19.
Kill Mogul, 20.' "Goddamn!" he said putting the bar back on its bench and
flexing in front of the mirror. He looked over himself with confidence.
A full four hour workout finished again. 'Lookin' hot man, lookin' hot.'
A cool sweat covered most of his unclothed body. His spandex shorts
noticeably wet as well. He looked over his sculptured grayish tanned
muscles until his gaze made it to his shades. The dark purplish reflection
in the mirror of his glasses spawned a frowning brow from Nemesis.
'More muscles, more killing power!' He picked the bar back up and
curled another 10 reps, just to let the thought sink in, real deep, still
counting by how many times he was going to kill Mogul. He looked back
at the mirror, breathing a little heavier than before. His eyebrows now
making a "V" shape in his forehead. 'That's it! It's personal now, Mogul!
You're MINE!'
He swiftly grabbed his bag and headed out the front of the gym
into the warm summer afternoon. His workout might be over, but his
adrenaline was running high at the moment. Flashbacks of Zlik and him
being together for the first time. Hitting the bars, scamming
information, working with Nestroth. Then the memory of the bar came
back to him. He saw the pain going through his friend's face. He saw
him stare death square in the face and then take his revenge before
letting death take him. And then, the only thought that entered his head
was of Sheila. "BITCH!"
"Hey, Nemesis!" A slap on the chest broke him from his day
dreaming. "Hey, man, you there today!?" asked Nebulus, catching him on
his way down the street.
"What do you want!? I thought you never came out in daylight?"
retaliated Nemesis.
"Hey, calm down. I was just coming up to see you in the gym and
work out for a little while."
"Then why are you in clothes that normally aren't seen outside of
a club?"
"OK, so I wasn't going to work out. I was going to watch you"
Nebulus said with a grin. "Come on, let's get outta here. My car's right
over here." They walked together towards the car, but Nemesis stopped a
few steps away. The whole thing was still eating him away, and Sheila
was still in his head.
"I don't think so; I'm really not in the mood right now, Nebulus."
"Look, I know you're upset about what happened to Zlik, we all
are, but there's work to do."
"I don't care about work right now, damn it! All I care about is
taking Mogul down once and for all and NOW!" yelled Nemesis, becoming
more furious by the moment.
"Look asshole, I don't give a shit about how you feel or what you
want to do! There's work to do and I need you in one piece. Now get you
fuckin' ass in my goddamn car before I slice that rinkly stomach of
yours open!" Nebulus retaliated pulling out a double sided rigid blade.
The two just looked at each other for a second or two. Finally,
Nemesis moved towards the car, shouldering into Nebulus just to get a
little frustration out on his way to grabbing the door. Nebulus moved out
of the way slightly, but ran the blade against Nemesis' stomach anyways.
Nemesis just opened the door, loudly threw his bag in the back and
slammed the door shut, letting his built-up anger go up in smoke.
'Goddamn son of a bitch' he thought to himself as Nebulus got in the car
and started driving away from the curb.
"Didn't hurt a bit I bet, did it?" asked a frustrated Nebulus.
"No."
"How many layers of that shit have you put in you now...what are
you up to four, five, twenty one or so..?" kidded Nebulus.
Nemesis smirked. His anger obviously starting to fade with the
thought of his friend's humor. "Only four. Anymore would make it look
unnatural. And it's not shit, it's reinforced synthetic skin."
"Unnatural. You're only the one person in my life that I've ever
seen with gray skin. And a bodybuilder at that. I thought you never put
anything into your body that wouldn't help you grow muscles?"
"It doesn't go into me; it's just sewn on the top five or so layers of
skin."
"Great. A bodybuilder that has four layers of reinforced Kevlar
Type II skin sewn into his skin so he's not only stronger than everyone
else, he also has skin that's tougher than an alligator's." The trip was
silenced from then on by Nemesis' straight face and Nebulus' concern
for what was going on with the nets. Reality came back too quickly.
Turning towards the west side of the city, Nemesis could tell that they
were going to Nebulus' apartment.
'What the fuck are we going to his house for?' Nemesis asked
himself looking around. The surrounding buildings, annoying traffic
and light smog offered no answer. Soon the apartment complex was up
ahead. Solar collectors sat atop the six story box shaped complex, soaking
up as much sun from the hot day as possible. An underground parking
garage door swung open as the car passed the entrance into the
driveway, allowing them access to Nebulus' traditional parking spot:
directly opposite of the door on the far end of the garage. Nemesis
grabbed his bag and the two went up to the third floor apartment,
getting in with the standard code key card. The gray polymetal door
swung open and the two entered the foyer. Thick light colored carpet
covered the floor of the spacious apartment. Nemesis walked into the
living room directly in front of him and looked out the full window at
the nearby city. 'Pretty sad' he thought to himself, putting his bag down
on a nearby sofa. Nebulus followed and sat down, turning the TV on.
"So what the hell are we doing here anyways?" demanded
Nemesis, still staring out the window.
"The others will be here soon enough. Like I said, there's work to
be done."
"Then why don't you tell me just what the fuck is going on then,
if it's so goddamn important!?" he retaliated spinning around to face
Nebulus. Nebulus sat there for a moment, still watching TV. The volume
was low enough it might as well have been off. The spokesperson from
ESPN was finishing a remote assignment to California on the discussion
of the new steroids, the ones that had no physical or mental side effects.
"So, are you going to start taking the new steroids to help
improve your strength? I heard they can't hurt you at all." Nebulus said
still watching TV. Without receiving a reply, he turned to face Nemesis
who was still waiting for an answer. "All right. Jack got word today
from one of his friends in Nortech that said that Operation Revolt was
scheduled to begin in two weeks."
That hit a soft spot in Nemesis' pissed off mood. 'Two weeks. Holy
shit. I didn't think they were going to be ready for at least a few more
months.' His mood switched from anger to passive worry, convincing
him that sitting down was a good idea after all. 'How the fuck did they
get that far ahead without our knowledge?'
Nebulus went back to watching ESPN's coverage of body building
which quickly grasped part of his companion's attention as well. Within
fifteen minutes, the program was nearing it's end when a message from
the front panel sounded "There is a visitor at the front door." Nebulus
got up and turned on the video monitor which vividly showed Slash and
Jack.
"Who is it?" he asked anyways monotonely.
"Open up, Nebulus." came back Slash's cool voice.
"Lookin' good Slash." He verified their presence with another
window on the wall panel, displaying the thermal image of two people
standing in the hallway outside his apartment door, taken from a sensor
array strategically placed outside his room. The door opened, and the two
entered the room.
"Don't you wish." said Slash as she walked past Nebulus in her
civilian attire: short heels, stockings that almost showed under a short
summer skirt, and a tight sleeveless top. Jack followed her in, looking
very concerned with the present state of affairs. Being an employee of a
company that his 'computer group' was about to attack and disable, put
him in a very bad, not to mention stressful position. The door slid shut
behind him and locked with an advanced security lock that also included
locking out telecom messages.
Jack put himself in his normal office chair that sat at the near
side of the couch, placed there just for him. Normally it was used as a
foot rest or end table, but Jack always sat in office chairs, no matter
where he was. Slash made her way to the cushy chair on the far side of
the room that was within arms reach of Nemesis' side of the sofa.
"I'm really sorry about Zlik, Nemesis. I want you to know that."
said Slash in a very sincere tone of voice.
Nemesis gave her his thank you look and quickly moved to face
Nebulus who was sitting back down on the sofa to address the group in
one of their most important meetings of the year.
"Thank you all for coming on such short notice. I hope this
hasn't complicated your jobs, but like I said, this is very important.
Yesterday, Jack came to me with a very important message a friend at
work had given to him involving Cryon's initiative, Operation Revolt.
Jack, would you please brief the group on that matter?"
"I received the following message from one of my contacts who
keeps me informed on information with this project. As you know, we
were going after the project just for the capabilities to stay online 24
hours a day. But this changes things completely. The message says:
1- OR to take over nets. Hunter/killer
group to use LSS to keep punks off nets.
MIL/GOV//MIL/GOV/unknown-deadly -3
The reason why this changes everything are the hunter/killer
groups and the involvement of the government and military. This is one
of the first times that the government and military have gone after
totally securing the nets. To begin with it will be applied to the
government and military nets, but I think it will eventually spread to
even the simplest network interface on the local level, purposely
designed to keep unauthorized personnel out, period. They are playing
for keeps this time. I think the answer to the question about why has
Cryon been going after other companies and mil sites is right here as
well. They've been breaking into places left and right as a testing
ground for what they can do and how effective their system is. We've
been watching the whole damn project run it's prototypes and beta tests
all along. The people that were in the tests are the ones we will be up
against when the game begins, if this project succeeds in starting on
time." He ran his hand through his thinning hair. His shirt collar was
long unbuttoned and his tie loose. "This puts me in one awkward
position, but that's why I got with you guys in the first place. This
project will essentially shut down the nets from the outside, and I can't
see anyway of getting around it."
"Yea, but they can't KILL you. I mean, all they can do is find out
who you are and where you're getting in from. That's old news I
thought." attacked Slash. She knew her way around net tech and was
pretty up to date on the present state of it, but what she hated the most
was not being informed on what was out there and this put a noticeable
hitch in her tone.
"With the new system, there's no telling what they can do. They
could decide not to attack you, trace you back to your deck. From there
they could get every bit of information on you without you knowing it.
Set bugs. Implant viruses. Build cases about you. Contact others to see if
you have any weaknesses. Destroy your personal file and plant a virus
to destroy every copy of it you launch. Who knows. These guys are
playing hardball and they're playing for keeps!"
The room was completely silent with the exception of a thousand
thoughts of concern coming from each person sitting there.
"Well, I guess this means that Mogul is on the back burner"
sighed Nemesis, folding his hands together in his lap. A few grins
appeared quickly looking to relieve the stress of the room.
"We need a plan of attack to begin with" said Slash slouching
back in her chair, allowing the bottoms of her stocking to show without
concern. Nemesis was the first to notice and the only one to stare,
unnoticed of course. His CRI's zoomed in on one area, trying to get a
closer picture. 'Business is business, but pleasure is pleasure' he thought
to himself. He never could grasp cyberspace that well and couldn't
concentrate on it that much since he had never jacked in before and
probably never would.
"Fine. First: Jack, you need to keep gathering as much info as
possible from the nets and from work. We need to know what we're
going up against and when. Second: Slash, I need you to assess Cryon's
security. Work with your security company to get into the place and see
what you can dig up. Third: Nemesis, I need you to resecure all of our
sites, systems, apartments and personal gear. I want to be ready for
anything that hits us, either from Cryon or Mogul. Also I need you to be
our street info man. There probably isn't much on the streets now, but I
want to get as much of a jump on this as possible. Also, keep a close eye
on Mogul. Keep them out of range, but don't overextend yourself without
backup, and only under extreme circumstances. Cryon takes priority
until further notice. Meanwhile, I will make contact with some of the
higher ups I know and will converge all info to you all. Keep all
information pertaining to this thing as secret as possible. Don't use the
nets at all and make sure you're not being tracked!"
The meeting soon broke up, each person going their individual
way. There was nothing more that really needed to be said, or could be
said. They needed more information and without it were dead in the
water. Nebulus walked back to the large window in the living room and
looked out at the city below. It was getting late in the afternoon, but
work was just beginning. 'So they've finally come up with a way to shut
us out, huh. So it's all come to this. And if ICE weren't enough. Now I
have to combat another person on the net who is playing Mr. Security
Officer, standing between me and my objective. That is, if they ever get
into the nets! That's it. We'll have to kill the project before it even
becomes operational!'
Five days had passed and the group was together once again, this
time to compare information. If nothing else, they were all more
worried and more intense with every move they made. Here was a
technology and a capability so revolutionary in the field of computer
security that it could wipe out the majority of cracking that goes on
within any and all nets.
The four sat around one of the tables in the back room at Hot
Kicks, a private club owned by Nebulus on the better side of town. It was
an almost middle class joint, if there was a middle class any more. If
there was it was called surviving with a little more. The joint was classy.
It was where all the sophisticated people went who wanted to see live
nude dancing and strippers that wouldn't make you vomit. There was
both male and female entertainment as well as artwork, decks,
holographics, laser shows and live or holographic music. It was a
hangout for artsy types, social groupies, or horny people. The room they
were in was behind all the glitter and glamour of the place. It was the
business area of the joint.
"Well, I guess I'll be the one to start things" spoke Jack, eagerly
wanting the meeting to begin so that he could get as much of a jump on
the project as possible. Being the netrunner of the group, he needed as
much prep time as possible, and the most info as well. "The project is
still scheduled to start on time in nine days. The beta testing that has
been going on over the past four months, has included over 25
businesses, 20 military installations, and 10 government sites. Successful
cracks were made in all cases and successful defense routines were
completed without problems. The people who will be in the nets will be
on life support for one month at a time. They will be receiving fluids,
muscle stimuli and other necessities while in the nets. They will be
connecting into the nets through a large comp that I suspect is a
supercomputer, but have not yet confirmed. With this type of computing
power, they will be able to bring a lot of software into the nets with them
and will be able to be monitored from outside, while still maintaining
contact with the others in the nets. ICE could never touch the killing
power that this could produce" Jack finished with a seriously straight
face.
"Cryon's physical security is very tight. My security firm is
presently supporting ten positions within the company, none of which
are located near this project. Security systems and facility maps are
located within the main system there, and should be breakable without
much trouble, once you get past the outer systems. I can arrange to have
two of our special tactics team help us with the break in. They're
specifically trained for this sort of thing and we have no records of them
at all."
"Yea, but can they be trusted?" darted Jack, obviously feeling the
pressure of breaking into a place this big, and going against an
operation of this magnitude.
"My people are loyal to me. As long as we keep them from the
truth and don't have them go all the way in, we should be ok. In any
case, they are expendable if problems arise. Are there any other
questions?" challenged Slash. She wouldn't have come up with the idea
if she didn't think it weren't safe, and she hated people who attacked her
judgments.
"All right.....Nemesis" called Nebulus, keeping the meeting in
order.
"All security systems and meeting places have been tested,
verified and put on maximum alert sequences. If anything even comes
close to messin' with our stuff, it'll be eliminated. The word on the street
is nothin'. This project is the quietest one I've ever heard of. Nobody's
even heard of it yet. Mogul is still around, but they don't seem to be
movin' anytime in the next few days. They're mainly getting contacts
and settin' up sites. All personal gear has been maintained and weapon
banks are in full, working condition. They'll be ready when the time
comes to jump."
"Last but not least, the big guys will be comin' into town on the
day the project is implemented. Hotel reservations were made months
ago and security teams have been assigned from the normal companies.
I scrounged some extra cash in case we needed anything to further our
chances of survival. This one's gonna be the big hit for this year, that's
for sure" said Nebulus moving to the front of his chair and putting his
arms down on the table.
"What is that supposed to mean?" asked Slash.
"We are going to attack this project before it can be implemented
and we're gonna go into Cryon to do it."
"Are you nuts!? There's no fuckin' way we can attack from
within Cryon!" bitched Jack, standing up to contest the whole plan.
"If we let them into the nets, we're dead. They win, we loose.
They will be more powerful than ICE ever could think of being. You
should know that, Jack" Nebulus retaliated disgustingly as if talking to a
high school punk that never learned to think with an open mind.
'Great. He's already starting to crack and the fun hasn't even
begun' thought Slash looking disappointingly at Jack.
Nebulus got up from his seat and walked over to Jack, who had
walked away from the table to unbutton his shirt even more. Slash and
Nemesis looked at each other with that 'Oh, great' look, knowing each
other couldn't wait for the action.
Nebulus put his hands in his baggy pants pockets as he stood next
to Jack. "Look. I know you're in a really bad position if anything goes
wrong. But you're in it with us and you know you want to go through
with it. Just relax and take an anti-stress pill and calm down. I need you
in one piece to pull this off from the inside or we're not going
anywhere." He walked away knowing that Jack wouldn't let him down.
Every now and then when they did something big, Jack was the one to
get nervous. He was great on the nets and could crack more than most,
but his nerves were made of shit until the actual time came to work.
"So where's my woman, Nebulus?" asked Nemesis jokingly.
"Julia is downstairs waitin' for ya' in the dressin' room."
"Julia this time, huh." Since the meeting was essentially over,
Nemesis decided to go play, leaving the group behind to drink or do
whatever they wanted to.
"How pathetic" mumbled Slash as her combative partner left the
room. He paid no attention to her comment, as usual.
Cool Darkness
by Matthew Carpenter
Chapter 4 : Pawn to Rook 4
"How the hell do you expect me to come up with that kind of
security information by tomorrow morning? There's got to be a dozen or
more hard locks on that place, not to mention getting around ICE"
complained Jack, trying to make Nebulus understand the tight security
at Cryon.
"Jack, take a chill pill. So it'll take a few more hours than normal.
Just get it done as soon as possible. We need as much info as possible so
we can pull this off."
"And what if we can't? Why the hell is getting this stuff off line
so important anyways? It's not like we're trying to protect every
netrunner in the country." Nebulus dropped a few tablets on the desk
the two were sitting at. Jack watched them rolled around on a pile of
computer paper until they spun around and stopped toward one edge. By
the time Jack looked up at Nebulus, he had already walked away,
thinking about something else. To Nebulus, nothing was impossible. It
was just a matter of coming up the right plan of attack.
"Shit" mumbled Jack to himself, picking up the two pills.
'Probably only iron tablets' he thought putting them in his mouth and
downing them with the Coke sitting on his desk. 'Everything must be
duplicated. All security systems must be located and analyzed. Personnel
and schedules must be analyzed. What a fuckin' bitch!' He jacked back
into Cryon gathering the last bit of information that was necessary to
invade as he always called it.
A few hours later, the group was together once again for last
checks on the plan of attack. The meeting place was the same warehouse
that Nemesis and Slash had gone to after taking out Dave. Kind of ironic
since it is usually a place to go after the fact. It quaintly went along with
Nebulus' ego, though. Good for dealing in the black markets; bad for
dealing with friends. But then again, they all did live on the edge just
for that rush of adrenaline. For Nemesis, that was his drug of choice.
"So are we gonna go in and tear this place up or what" Nemesis
said loudly sitting down at the large meeting table that was probably
designed to be a stretch dining room table. It had been refinished and
had a monitor array placed into it so that it took up most of the table face.
He placed his combat boots up on the table and faced the head of the table
where Nebulus sat.
"Pig" joked Slash, sitting across from him.
"So who are your friends, Slash?" asked Nemesis, gathering a
straight face, ready for business.
Slash turned to her right where one of her two 'friends' were
seated. He was dressed in almost all black leather, with a black hair cut
resembling Nemesis' with a gold earring to top it off with style. "This is
Aberdon. And she is Donna" pointed Slash, looking at her other friend
who was sitting next to Nemesis who noted her long stocking-clad legs.
Her miniskirt and skimpy top left little to the imagination and much to
be desired, at least as far as Nemesis was concerned, who was becoming
aroused as his eyes caressed her legs very slowly.
"And what do you do for a living" he smirked eyeing her over his
shoulder, getting as much of a lookover as he could get away with.
"Looks like I'll be coverin' your ass macho man" she replied with
a nasty tone of voice, never letting her intimidating facial expression
change.
He laughed. He laughed sarcastically loud. "So where do we stand
on info?" he said dropping his bullshit like a mercury weight.
"We've got most of the blueprints for the place in question
including security and surveillance systems, piping and electrical, and
nets. Security schedules are being analyzed by the comps still and tap in
sites are being assessed as to hard connects" came back Jack who sat at
the other head of the table. He touched the table screen a few times and
a general blueprint of the main floor and grounds came into view. "This
is the general layout of the place, he said adding mini windows of the
basement levels. The target site is on the absolute bottom floor of the
building, and it's pretty heavily guarded and secured. It's going to take a
lot to get to it" he said with a little worry. He was getting used to the
situation and finally excited about the job, but still slightly intimidated
with the size of the operation. It was the largest job he'd ever done and it
was one of the few that involved both people on the nets and in the
physical objective site.
"Piece of cake" confidently spoke up Aberdon.
"Yea? So how would you attack it!?" attacked Slash. Nebulus sunk
a little deeper in his chair, awaiting this test.
"Once the electronics are secure, a team will go in the rear
security zone by entering this loading zone, here" he said pointed to a
grid on the monitor. "From there, one of us will take over that physical
security site to control the area. From there, whoever's runnin' will lead
the group through checkpoints by disarming systems and allowing them
to enter secured sectors. Any guards can be removed by our new
security guard and diverted temporarily. Then it's just a matter of
pullin' things together. Piece of cake."
"Not bad...not bad" spoke Nebulus, sitting back up in his chair.
"Almost like we had talked about earlier." Putting his elbows on the
table, he glanced over the prints one more time. The room was silent.
All eyes were on Nebulus since he had the final say on the plan. He stood
up and took off his jacket, placing it on the back of the chair.
"But it won't work. The security layout would never get you past
the main gate. Cryon doesn't accept night deliveries. No one goes in or
out after dark, period" said Jack, standing his ground against a plan as
simple as that. "So the question is, how do we get to the dock without
being noticed at all."
"Sewer system. It's the oldest trick in the book, but I bet you it
would work" said Nemesis.
"Don't be stupid. A company like that isn't dumb enough to leave
their pipes clear" snapped Slash, expecting more from an experienced
front man.
"Yea, but all the outside pipes aren't connected to the inside pipes.
They're all for rain, not sewage. Look. There's not one connection from
the building pipes to the outside pipes. In fact, it looks like all the inner
pipes go down to the basement and out the bottom of the structure
through smaller pipes into an underground piping system I would guess.
There's a man hole near the docks that I bet connects to the city sewers"
pondered Jack, getting more intrigued with the possibilities of actually
pulling this stunt off.
"Check it out. Make sure they're clean and that the pipes are
large enough for men with equipment to get through. If it is, we'll go
with it. I had a similar idea to the one proposed. I'll pose as a guard and
help the team get through each level of security. Nemesis, get me a wish
list of equipment to get the job done. Then you and Aberdon get the stuff
ready. Slash, you and Donna look over every micron of this plan and
make sure it works. Make detailed notes on everything we will need to
know about this place. Jack, continue working on info and breaking
systems. Also, get the ROMS ready to write to with the info Slash gives
you. Meanwhile, I'll get some party favors. Aberdon and Donna, you are
staying with us until this is over, understand!" commanded Nebulus.
This was it. If there were any questions, now was the time to bring it up.
Once the plan was set, it was set. There were no objections.
August 21. Friday, early morning. The humid air hung stagnate
outside the metal door of a warehouse in the shipping district. Launch
Site 13 as it was called. All missions were started here. This one was just
bigger than most. Usually, it was mainly netrunning to get information.
This time it involved flesh and blood almost more than fiber optic cables.
Nemesis stood outside the door waiting for the rest to arrive. He looked at
his watch. '3:49. One minute to go' he thought. A lone docking light far
away painted a soft, white brush stroke of light across his bare chest and
the warehouse behind him. 'Forty seconds to go.'
The dull hum of a van came from around the far side of the
warehouse, moving slowly along the gravel drive. The headlights were
turned off as the garage size door of the warehouse began to open,
spilling an ambient light onto the gravel. Nemesis opened the personnel
door behind him and walked through closing it behind him and locking
it. The black beaten up van crept past the open garage to turn around
and enter backwards. The garage door began to close as Nemesis walked
up to the back of the van and opened the doors with a sharp creaking.
The gang was here.
"Right on time" he said.
"Time to party" said Slash being the first to get out of the crowded
van. Everyone in the back were sitting on A3 cases that were unloaded
first by Nemesis and Aberdon. Stacking them sideways to each other,
Nebulus brought the pass card up, giving the privilege to Donna who
aggressively ran it through the bar reader of the first one she came to.
The green light on the handle block went on and an internal lock
disengaged with a soft pop. She opened it up and everyone looked in.
"My, my, aren't we gonna have fun tonight" glowed Slash looking
at the case full of explosives.
"C4-type II, IRAPM's, concussion bombs, hand grenades,
hey....where's my grenade launcher?" joked Nemesis looking at Nebulus.
"Look in case two. Each one of you has a personal case that is
openable with that card. Everything you need is in there. Merry
Christmas kids."
"How much did this cost you anyways?" asked Slash with a grin.
"After I told them why we were going in, they practically gave it
to me just to secure their other investments. To answer your question,
no you can't keep it" he replied with a grin that stretched from ear to
ear.
The transformation began. Everyone began getting their clothes
on and their body armor secured. All of the smiles had left by the time
4:00 AM rolled around. Weapons were checked and rechecked.
Ammunition and explosives were properly attached and weapons slung.
Jack had already disappeared into the basement of the place; a secret
room under the floor where the master comps were located. The comps
sucked power directly from the power station that was not more than a
quarter mile away. That way the general power loss could be attributed
to humidity or any other stupid, unexplainable phenomenon.
"On line in one minute!" yelled Nebulus from his makeup case.
Everyone was already ready, checking each other over. Nebulus jacked
in quickly checking on Jack's status.
"On line!"
The four got side by side. The seriousness and concentration
hung in the air almost as thick as the humidity. Beads of sweat had
formed on every one's forehead. Foot steps were heard from the far side
of the warehouse and Jack soon appeared out of the homemade wooden
office, heading towards the group.
"Are you ready?" questioned Nebulus.
"Comps are set. Once you get in, you'll have less than 10 minutes
to complete the job, which in this case is plenty of time. One minute to
secure the desk. Two minutes to get to subbasement 4. One minute for
diversions and gaining access. Three minutes for setting the bombs and
getting out. That leaves you with one minute to blow the place and two to
get out" said Jack.
"And that's worse case scenario, right?" asked Nebulus, hinting
that Jack was underestimating their abilities.
"Yeah. In reality, you'll probably do it in half that time, so just
keep me informed of where you are and everything will go OK. I'll be
able to track you anyways, so don't worry too much."
"All right. See you in a few then."
"Good luck, and if everything goes wrong, I'll just blow the net if
I can. That way, any system assignment will be destroyed."
"Good deal. Lets get going" said Nebulus looking back at his
group. Dressed in solid black from head to toe stood the attack team.
Expanded honeycomb titanium armor plated Spectra 3000 body armor
hugged every curve of their bodies, protecting them from most
firepower out today. Explosives and equipment was strategically secured
to the armor for quick, but easy use. After a quick checkover, they took
their seats in the back of the van with Nebulus navigating and Donna
driving. It took twenty minutes to get there. The corporation had a
large complex just outside of city limits. An old apartment complex had
been renovated and made into an employees park which housed
thousands of people. The six story concrete apartments stood above a not
so beautiful street that had it's fair share of crime, vandalism and street
gangs. The van was parked in an alley just out of site of the complex.
"Comms on. Mic check" said Nemesis. Everyone donned their
small headset/mic. Nebulus had a lapel mike with a single ear speaker
that had been placed under the fake skin of his disguise that finished the
security officer uniform he wore under his wet suit.
"One." "Two." "Three." "Four." "Five." the group replied in order.
"Sounding good everyone. Jack, check in" came back Nebulus.
The line was dead for a second. "God here. RYLAC."
"How can he hear us?" asked Donna looking over at Nebulus.
"He wrote a program to interface his deck with a comm system. It
shows up as a two-way speaker in his environment. Sync watches on
4:56 on five, four, three, two, one, mark." Watches were synced.
"Injection time people." Each person, including Nemesis, took out a small
packet that contained three vials with needles. Nemesis took out the first
vial which contained a clear liquid and injected himself with the
adrenalizer, designed as a short term super steroid with little side effects.
The first needle was placed back and the second vial was injected in the
same area of the arm. This one was a sense and reflex enhancer
designed by the military. It would give them better combat reflexes
when they needed it. This was followed by a third injection of a pain
killer. It was designed to not activate until a large amount of pain was
inflicted, then it just temporarily deadened the area's nerve system.
Designer drugs, designed for combat. Perfect for terrorist raids.
"5:00. Time to go people" said Nebulus fastening his wet suit shut.
Face masks were put on, covering everything but their eyes, and
equipment and weapons were gathered. The five exited the van silently
and moved over the man hole located a few feet from the van. A quick
jimmy with a bar and the lid slid over with a low screech. A quick look
around and Nebulus was the first in, followed by the two newbees as
Nemesis viewed it.
"I hope we can trust these two!" firmly whispered Nemesis to
Slash, who gave him her look of approval before jumping in. Within
seconds the whole team was in the sewer system. Pipes lined the old
concrete and stone walls. The water level was only thigh deep so it didn't
prove to be very cumbersome.
"You checked this place out OK, right 3?" asked Nebulus over the
comm.
"Two gates were cleared. Everything is a go."
Night vision glasses allowed easy travel through the system for
the first fifty or so feet until voices were heard from behind. Everyone
stopped. Aberdon, who was trailing, turned around, crouching to the
water level. It sounded like kids. Then it was as two street punks stuck
their heads down into the sewers looking for the vanished group of
strangers. One reached a hand down below his head, visibly carrying a
flash light. Before he tuned it on, two silent needler shots were fired and
the bodies of two dead kids splashed into the water below, creating a little
wake that was eventually felt by the assassin.
"Too bad" said Nemesis leading the group once again through the
small cavern. "Let's go." They traveled through the sewers with very
little trouble. The tunnels were relatively flat and the footing was still
firm due to the recent construction of Cryon some 10 years ago. Nemesis'
night vision led them on until the man hole cover was reached near the
loading docks of the company. "God. How does the weather look?" asked
Nebulus, who had unzipped the top part of his suit after reaching the
ladder which led to the surface.
Jack had been in the net for some time now, checking on
programs, root operations, and watching out for ICE. "Security checking
will be done in one minute" came back Jack.
'One minute. Come on. Hurry up' thought Nemesis, quite eager to
get this job started. The adrenalizer was beginning to take effect.
Watches were being checked until the second before the security
program checker was finished, exactly 5:10 AM.
"Go" said Jack. Nebulus had already shed his wet suit and Nemesis
had slid the man hole cover out of the way while being covered by
Donna. Nebulus was the first out, quickly running up to the docking
door. He was quickly followed by the rest of the group who crouched by
the sides of the door, waiting for Nemesis to put the cover back on. He
finished and regrouped with the team who had taken off their glasses to
allow their eyes to adjust to the indoor light emanating from the door.
Nebulus entered. He quickly walked down the hallway and turned left
towards the security desk that monitored that side of the complex. The
security guard at the desk came into view and stood up as he approached
the desk.
"Who are you and what are you doing in this section of the
building?" the guard asked in a not so calm tone of voice. Obviously the
security had been upgraded for Operation Revolt.
Nebulus walked around so that he was next to the guard. "We've
got a problem in section 5" he replied bringing his arm from behind his
back. He thrust his hand forward into the guards throat, knocking him
out with a stunner. The guard shakingly fell to the floor and was kicked
under the desk. TV monitors lined the panel in front of him that had
four jack in sites.
"God this is one. Secure all personnel sensors and override all
subsystems in this section to me" spoke Nebulus outloud into his comm
mic.
Jack looked down onto the gaming board on the
table in front of him. An elaborate table top created like
an old model train scene had been transformed into a
World War II battlefield. Moving armies in Eastern Europe
moved on the forest-like layout depicting the different
programs going on. He immediately spotted the correct
security program that monitored the security personnel's
heart rate from individual sensors mounted on their
watch bands. He touched his finger to a spot near the
army foot soldier representing the algorithm and blinked
into the battlefield in front of the corporal with his
superuser privileges and general's uniform. He
immediately attacked the young soldier with his bayonet-
tipped M1 rifle and fought him down to the ground where
he thrust the nine inch bayonet blade into the soldiers
chest, terminating the program's operation. He returned
to his chair in front of the table again, this time wearing
a replica of Patton's uniform. "Done" was his reply to
Nebulus.
"Team in" ordered Nebulus who took control of the video cameras,
freezing them onto walls. He jumped into cyberspace with his God given
superuser access to check for personnel in the area. A map of the floor
came up with personnel locations and details. He jumped out, routing the
ground floor and the first three basements to the monitors in front of
him.
The team quickly arrived, hauling their over-and-under
weapons, and party favors with them. A quick look at the monitors and
Nemesis was off first seeking the entrance to the elevators. Slash took
off after him, followed by the two others right behind. The corridors
were lightly painted and had industrial carpet lining most of the halls.
A few more turns through the halls and the group came to a halt behind
a wall, separating them from the two security officers stationed at the
elevator.
"One. Problem at elevator" whispered Nemesis into his mic.
"Security at elevator 4, sector 6g : move promptly to sector 5g and
report back in to gate on arrival" announced Nebulus, speaking into the
security's comm. The guards looked at each other for a moment,
questioning the command from their security base.
"Request secure ID verification" came back one of the guards.
"ID hold out 764421 confirm" replied Nebulus, reading the code
from one of the monitors. The guard motioned to his partner and the two
walked off towards sector 5g, watching the offices as they went. As they
moved out of site, the lights indicating that the elevator was moving
down turned on. The group stayed still.
"One. Someone's on the..." spoke Slash.
"Team. Backtrack to stairs. Take first flight down and move
towards sector 2." Donna spun around and headed back first, frantically
leading the group. If they were caught now, the show would be over
right then. The stairs soon appeared in a side corridor and were entered.
The heavy fire-proof door was shut with a soft thud and Slash was the
first to go down the concrete stairs. The walls were solid white and were
dimly lit by night security lights.
The door to the first subbasement was reached and opened. Slash
peered around and saw no one. The walls were only four feet tall in this
sector. Offices were separated by a few grids of these as far as she could
tell by the dim light. Shadows snaked down the halls, carving light into
odd shapes and strokes by the bookcases and supporting pillars. The
team entered the floor and proceeded right along the hallway.
"No guards until the elevator" spoke Nebulus into his comm. The
team hugged the right wall, silently treading down the hallway,
stopping every twenty feet to check to make sure no guards were
walking rounds within the offices. Just because the security monitors
didn't show any guards, there was no absolute guarantee.
Sector 2 was finally reached. Nemesis looked at his watch.
5:11:43. Just a bit behind schedule, but nothing significant enough to
worry about.
"Let's take the stairs from now on" whispered Donna. "That way,
they can't track us."
"Forget it. The elevator's right nearby" darted Nemesis
continuing on in the general direction of the elevator. 'Who the fuck
does she think she is! This is my plan and my attack. She's just along for
the ride!' They reached the corner of the hallway in front of the
elevator.
"Watch out! There's..." trailed Nebulus.
"One. What's it like?" asked Nemesis, itching to get into a fight
right about now.
"Hold it right there! Don't move!" yelled a guard from behind the
group. They slowly turned around as two more guards came from the
elevator area. They all had on armored vests and carried high caliber
handguns, all pointed at the group. "Sidney, call into base and notify
them to send more people!" commanded the first guard, still pointing his
gun at Slash. "Drop it now!"
Nemesis faced the two guards that had come from the elevator and
slowly started to pivot around towards Aberdon who was right behind
him. Slash and Donna began to put their weapons on the ground,
crouching in anticipation.
"Base, this is" spoke a guard into his comm.
"Now!" yelled Nemesis, laying down a spray of needlers at the two
guards in front of him. Aberdon spun around in Slash's direction
cutting the first guard to pieces with an array of silenced hard
ammunition. Three guards now lay dead on the floor, their blood
staining the carpet underneath them.
"I told you we needed armor piercers" spoke Nemesis at Aberdon.
"Anything less, wouldn't have killed them."
"Too bad for standard armor vests. Next time, wear something
better than that" scoffed Slash grinning over the dead bodies.
"Team, what's up?" asked Nebulus over the comm.
"Thanks for the warning, one. We just waxed three of 'em"
replied Nemesis, dragging one into an office room. The other two were
placed under the desks in one of the nearby offices as well in hope of
temporarily concealing their presence.
The elevator door was opened and the group entered, pressing the
button for subbasement 4 on the panel. The doors shut and the elevator
began to move down.
"Guards in sector 2DD, report to sector 4DD immediately" spoke
Nemesis into the security comm. He looked back at the monitors,
bringing up the bottom two levels. 'More guards at the key points. More
security blockades to bypass. Shit. Guards are moving in on the elevator
in sector 2DD.'
"One, this is God. Security ID failed. They won't listen to you
now. Presently blocking communications to other sectors."
"What the hell happened" asked Nebulus getting quite pissed by
now that the plan was getting fucked up.
"The security is tighter than I thought. Out."
The elevator stopped, but it wasn't at subbasement 4. The team
looked around and at the panel, trying to find out what was wrong.
"Team, this is God. Break out of the top hatch and find another way back
into the building. Security is on to you."
"Shit!" yelled Nemesis very mad that the plan had failed.
"We're still in so don't fuck up!" yelled Slash.
"Everybody, get back!" yelled Aberdon, pushing the group to the
opposing side of the elevator from the doors. He aimed his grenade
launcher from under his gun, and fired at the floor, just under the doors.
"NO!!!!" yelled Slash. Before she could do anything about it, the
grenade impacted on the floor and exploded filling the cabin with fire,
smoke and a shock wave that threw everyone to the floor. The far side of
the floor blew out destroying the lower part of the doors as well. Slowly,
Slash looked up to view the damage, her ears were ringing from the
blast. Black smoke filled the cabin allowing almost no visibility.
"Two. What the hell can you see?" she asked Nemesis, pulling him
to sit up.
He switched his eyes to infra-red and then to ultraviolet, trying
to get a better picture of the cabin. "The floor's about half gone and the
doors are severely damaged." The cabin swayed a little in the elevator
shaft as the team began to regain itself.
"One this is three. How the hell do we get out of here!" screamed
Slash into her comm. The earphone just buzzed; the diaphragm
completely shredded from the shock wave. "One this is three, come in."
Nothing. "Shit! We're cut off! Why the fuck did you blow the elevator
like that you moron!? You killed the goddamn comms!" she yelled
throwing her comm to the ground.
"Wait. Elevator ladder. Come on" said Nemesis venturing into the
grayish-black smoke, his mask temporarily giving him a filter to breath
through. His adrenaline pushing him onward, Nemesis crouched near
the hole and reached out for the rung of the ladder nearest to him.
"God, this is one. Secure fire alarms and all security sectors not
in this area. I want my team to be shut off from everyone else. We've
lost communications with them."
Jack stood up from his playing board and
proceeded to another one : another level of security. He
sat down at the second board dressed in a Civil War
General's uniform. The gold braids from his blue epaulets
dangled near the surface as he closely looked over the
terrain. He found where he wanted to be and placed his
finger at the spot only to appear there instantly.
He stood in the Union Army's camp under overcast
skies looking around for the program he wanted to kill.
"Young man, come here!" he yelled in a northern accent
at one of the messenger boys.
"Yes sir" the boy said breathing hard from
carrying messages as he stood at attention in front of
General Jack. His weathered uniform and tattered pants
could hardly be classified as a uniform, but yet it worked
well with his position.
"Where can I find the lad who's carryin' the
message about the fire?"
"That'd be me, sir. I'm sorry I haven't gotten it out
yet, but they blocked my normal way out and I can't get
by."
"Why don't you give the message to me and I'll
make sure that it gets out, son" he said holding his gloved
hand outward to the young boy.
"But sir, I.."
"Now, son!" he commanded, lowering his voice to a
thunderous growl.
"Yes sir." he replied giving Jack the message. He
looked confused with the order, but was not about to
disobey a general.
"Now git goin' kid." The boy turned slowly around
and then started to walk off looking for another problem
to report. Then he collapsed about ten feet from Jack as
his head exploded from the .50 caliber flint lock pistol ball
that pierced the back of his head. No one paid attention as
they were not programmed to monitor his operation. He
landed face first into the muddy ground as Jack put the
gun back in it's holster at his side and blinked out of the
board, leaving the message to be erased.
Nebulus had yet to be nervous, but he wasn't exactly calm
anymore as he found the remote sensing information and popped it up
on the screen of one of his monitors. After a little searching he changed
the monitors to display the motion sensor and thermal sensor
information from the different floors. 'Elevator shaft. What the fuck
are they doing in a goddamn elevator shaft?' he thought to himself.
"Hold it right there, mister!" yelled a guard from behind Nebulus.
"Don't move, don't even breathe!" The guard and his two counterparts
slowly walked around, surrounding him at the guard desk. "Do you
really think we were that stupid!?" asked the guard.
"Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my sector?"
confronted Nebulus, unfamiliar with the uniforms. The guards were
decked out in military-style commando garb, carrying heavy caliber
rifles and explosives.
"We're the other half of the security that you didn't take into
consideration in your plan. Now shut up!"
"Hey! There is no other side of security that I don't know about!
Now put those guns down before I notify security and make this a big
mess!" ordered Nebulus, standing up to face the leader of the group who
stood on the other side of the security desk across from him. 'Shit.
Heavy bore weapons, needlers, grenades and explosives. They really are
military. Lieutenant DeGrace. Oh, shit...' he thought to himself as his
eyes looked down to the ground in front of his adversaries' boots. A
single hand stuck out underneath the desk.
"Mistake number one, asshole. Now sit down" said Lieutenant
DeGrace. He slowly gripped the arms of the chair and sat down, hoping
that the commandos wouldn't take notice of what was on the monitors
yet. 'Come on Jack. Call me. Call me.'
"One this is God."
"One is dead" was his only reply. The monitors blinked out and
Nebulus' comm went dead as one of the commando's behind him grabbed
him by the throat and forced him to the ground backwards, shoving a
needler into his throat as his head firmly hit the floor.
"Your body armor won't protect you from this, now will it"
sneered the commando, living for the fight. Nebulus just laughed, and
continued to laugh sarcastically until he was silenced with the butt of a
gun against his head.
"The hunt is on" spoke the Lieutenant into his comm.
"Damn. Now what the fuck am I supposed to do?"
Jack talked to himself in the net, surrounded by the
playing fields and game boards of the blue lit room. "Wait.
Who took him out?" He moved from board to board
checking all the different systems that were running,
personnel marks, timelines and on. With a single
thought, twenty more boards came into play on the
ceiling above his head. It was just like the feet of the
tables were nailed to the ceiling. "Ah, I love tesseracts!"
Jack announced with a smile as he changed perspective
and jumped onto the ceiling to view the new playing
fields : thermal and motion sensors of every floor in their
sector. "Time for some fun!"
By now the team had climbed down the elevator shaft ladder to
within sight of the fourth subbasement. Nemesis lead the way down
with Donna, Slash and Aberdon following closely behind. Their weapons
slung and both hands holding onto the ladder, Nemesis pondered what an
easy target they would be if anyone would open one of the doors and find
them there.
"Team this is God...God....God..." echoed one of the speakers in the
shaft. Slash looked around, trying to find the source without any luck.
"God, where are you!" Slash yelled, clinging onto the ladder, not
allowing herself to look down.
"I can't hear you, but I know where you are. Keep going and
hurry up. One is dead so get out as soon as possible."
"Shit!" screamed Slash. The reality of the challenge was at hand.
'Have we come this far only to be finished off. Goddamn it. I knew it was
too big!' she thought to herself, as they descended closer to the elevator
door.
They reached subbasement 4 in no time and stopped to gather
their weapons for an assault. "Guys, we're one minute behind schedule.
Since Nebulus is out, I say we just take out everything in our way and get
out in the same manner" Nemesis said, looking back up the ladder. 'Nice
ass, Donna. We'll have to fuck when we get out of here.'
"Let's do it!" snarled Slash. 'Pay back time. Now the fun begins.'
As the team climbed away from the door, Nemesis pulled out a
magnetic explosive and secured it to the doors, sliding down the ladder in
time for the doors to be completely destroyed. Aberdon was the first into
the hall. The doors were shredded onto the floor nearby and the bodies
of two guards lay among the scattered debris. A quick look around and
the shielded doors were closing quickly, locking the area out due to the
explosion. The team reassembled in the hall.
"Team, this is God. I can talk you through to the strike zone. Go
forward to the first door and I'll open it!" he ordered. The team took off.
Jack looked onto the master board for the sector, viewing what was going
on. "Enemy on other side, door opening now!" he yelled into the
microphone next to him on the table. The team crouched next to the
walls as the door slid open. Four guards were waiting just like Jack had
said, and were soon disposed of by a sneak attack of needlers and hard
ammo as the door opened. They ran ahead down the hall, now lit by
security lights. The concrete walls and hard metal doors concealed labs
and computer rooms by the dozens as they continued down the straight,
tiled hallway.
"Six guards commin' from the right hallway!" yelled Jack.
Nemesis and the team slowed down and slid next to the facing wall of the
hallway. "Shutting blockade" said Jack as the solid metal shielding door
fell into place, locking the guards out of range. The group continued on.
Running towards the next intersection, Nemesis veered towards
the left hallway. They turned into the hallway, only to be stopped by a
solid door, again. Slash and Donna ran back a few steps, watching their
backs.
"God, we got a door" yelled Nemesis, knowing that he wouldn't be
heard anyways.
"Incoming!" yelled Slash as a squad of commandos came down the
hallway in full force. Donna opened up and let out a spray of hard
ammo, hitting a few, but having little effect.
"Shit! They're armored!" she yelled as the two men got in
position. Scraping fire bounced off the walls around Donna as she fell to
the ground, trying to get out of the way of the action.
"Now!" yelled Aberdon. He and Nemesis ducked around the corner
with their weapons, laying down fire. The commandos taking cover
against some of the walls that led into other hallways began putting
down another layer of ammo at the two. Donna jumped out a little to
thrown down a flash mine. She was nicked by two rounds in the chest
and fell backward just as the mine exploded, sending up a high intensity
flash explosion. Slash jumped out just as it went off and fired two mini-
grenades which impacted directly above the cowering attackers.
Aberdon and Nemesis took off down the hallway after the commando
position and engaged themselves in the fight by firing at the
commandos at point blank range. Taking a few hits each, they pressed
through the group until they were out of ammunition. The smoke from
the grenades had cleared and there were only a few more left. Nemesis
picked up the nearest one and slammed his fist into his face, crushing
every bone from the impact. The commando grabbed Nemesis' arm just
as he was thrown into the wall behind him and forgotten about as
Nemesis' attacked his next victim. Soon the floor was littered with
bloodied camouflage, their broken armor not strong enough against
specialized armor piercing rounds. Slash and Donna joined the two men
in the middle of the battlefield.
"Now this is what I call a fight!" yelled Nemesis allowing his
adrenalizer to get the most of him.
"Military commandos. Looks like we underestimated Cryon a little
bit. Let's move" said Slash, leading the team back to the door. Reloads
and armor checks were made. Scrape marks in her armor were only left
in Donna's chest where she was hit.
"5:14:39" said Nemesis.
"Team, God here. Door opening in 2 seconds."
"It's about goddamn time" hissed Aberdon. The door slid upward
surprising the group who was ready for anything now. Another squad
of commandos were lying on the ground, as if they had collapsed.
"Nerve gas is great isn't it" came Jack's voice over the speakers.
"That boy's crazy" blurted Slash. They relaxed their weapons
enough to start running down the hallway towards the last blockade.
Jack watched intently at the movement of the team from within
the computers. "OK. Alarms deactivated. Explosives deactivated.
Communications deactivated" he spoke to himself. He constantly went
over the area again and again in a split seconds making sure that
nothing would go wrong once the team was in place.
The last blockade was passed without any problems. Labs with
built in windows now lined the concrete substructure. The halls were
relatively dark, but shadows from the security night lights lined the
walls.
"The lab should be up around the next corner" cautiously spoke
Slash to Nemesis who was running side by side with her in the wide
corridors. Weapons pointed forward, they slowed to a brisk walk to
within inches of the intersection that led to the target site. 'There's got
to be a squad here' repeated Nemesis in his head. 'Come on, let's go, let's
go!' anxiously thought Slash, ready to get the job over with.
"Intruder is using armor piercers. Stop them at all costs. It's up
to you, McGletspy" Lieutenant DeGrace's voice came over the military
comm to the guards posted out front of the labs for Project Revolt.
'Time to start the show' thought Nemesis to himself. He pointed to
his eyes while holding a flash mine in his fingers. Everyone
understood. They took their positions around each other, ready for
attack as Nemesis slid the flash mine smoothly across the floor in the
direction of the target. A second later, Nemesis' polarized CRI's viewed
the four guards decked out in armored gear and heavy bore weapons as
the flash mine went off, not too far from their position in front of the
metal lab door. Heavily armored in urban camouflage, Kevlar II body
armor and carrying anti-terrorist attack gear, the four commandos
opened fire immediately after the flash dimmed. Their anti-radiation
goggles protecting them from the burn of the mine allowed their
weapons to pinpoint Nemesis' head in their sites, only to miss by his fast
reflexes.
"Four in armor!" yelled Nemesis over his shoulder while bringing
his gun up for an assault. The barrage silenced for a millisecond.
"Get back!" screamed Slash, pulling Donna with her. A
minigrenade exploded on the corner wall and was followed by three
more that left more shrapnel than damaged concrete.
"Hold this" said Aberdon shedding his equipment pack,
containing some of the explosives. "Let's do it!" he yelled, throwing two
grenades into the hallway. Right after impact, he and Nemesis began
the attack by charging into the intersecting hallway to face the
commandos head on. Spraying needlers and hard ammo, the firing line
pressed forward towards the commandos. Without time to react from the
grenade, the commandos began taking damage as the onslaught
continued on. Their armor being torn away from the ammunition, the
guards soon fell to the ground without an escape route. A quick release
from one of the commandos launched a minigrenade at the line. Moving
out of its way, Aberdon and Nemesis lost position as the grenade exploded
behind them. Unsatisfied, however, Nemesis took control by directly
attacking one of the commandos in close combat. Weakened from the
fire fight, the commando fought to gain balance as Nemesis picked him
up off the ground by the throat, throwing his gun to the side for the
challenge. Kicking with his bloodied leg and grabbing with his hands,
the commando fought until Nemesis slammed his fist into his face. The
anti-gas goggles exploded under the pressure. The commando went limp
in Nemesis' hands as he pulled his fist out of the commando's face,
leaving only a crushed and bleeding lifeless body to slump to the ground
with a release of his grip. One other commando ran towards Nemesis, but
was cut short as Aberdon gunned him down, finding weak points in the
sides of his armor. Nemesis reached down towards one of his kills of the
day to get another weapon in time to head kill one of the other guards
preparing to fire on Aberdon. Weapons pointed at the head of the
remaining one, Lieutenant McGletspy.
Panting from the adrenaline rush, Nemesis lowered his barrel to
walk closer to the Lieutenant. The Lieutenant's leg and chest were
bleeding from needlers. He held his chest with his hand under his shirt,
provocatively looking at the approaching Nemesis.
"Eat me mother fucker!" yelled the Lieutenant, holding in his
now exposed hand a death mine : a high explosive that personnel carry
for hopeless situations.
"Get out!" yelled Nemesis, running backwards and diving for the
nearest intersecting hallway only a few steps away. Aberdon let out a
few rounds into the Lieutenant's skull but not in time to silence the
mine. A millisecond later, it erupted into a ball of fire, engulfing
Aberdon. A cloud of fire flew down the corridors, running over the rest
of the party that had taken cover by kissing the ground. The shockwave
from the blast echoed its anger down the corridors until the fire itself
had died away. Slowly Nemesis pulled himself up off of the ground.
Putting out a few fires that had started on his suit, he gradually made his
way back to the battlefield.
Donna and Slash stood at the tip of a large blood pool. Aberdon's
body was now in six pieces, his extremities lying on the ground near
him. Blood stains and body parts cluttered the ceiling, walls and floor
where the commandos had been. All their bodies were now soaked,
burning and scattered all about the hall. Donna moved over to Nemesis
and handed him her gun.
"Gimme your K1 and let's get this over with" she softly spoke.
Nemesis' large hand took hold of the grip and pointed it towards the
facing locked door. He let loose a minigrenade which exploded,
destroying the locking mechanism on the door. Donna turned back
around towards the door only to be handed Nemesis' K1.
The lab was lined with liquid beds and computer terminals with
the large computer in the back. The whole room was barely large
enough to contain the ten beds. The group got straight to work laying
down the explosive packs and detonation arrays around the beds and
supercomputer.
"Sync check" said Nemesis as the last one was placed down.
Donna took out the detonator and confirmed that they were all properly
synced.
"5:16:12. Time to move" said Slash, exiting the room first. Donna
put on the last pack containing the party favors and left last, detonator
in hand. The trek back down the halls was fairly simple. Their boots left
a trail of bloodied bootprints from the last battle as they jogged down the
hallways. The thought of where was Jack was on everyone's mind since
they had had no contact with him for the past few minutes. A few more
jogs to the left and right put them back at the stairwell.
"5:16:49. Let's do it" said Slash looking at Donna. Nemesis went
into the stairwell and proceeded to go up a flight and a half, checking
for more guards. Slash followed, but not as far since she was Donna's
backup. Donna was the last in and shut the door until only her hand
with the detonator was sticking out, making sure that the structure
would not interfere with the detonation.
"Here we go!" she yelled up the stairs. 'Do it' she told herself as
she pushed the trigger button down and pulled her arm in quickly.
Donna began running upstairs as the explosions in the lab rocked the
basement in a stunning blaze of fire and thunder. Sonic blasts blew out
many of the windows as it ran down the hallways only to be followed by
clouds of fire that engulfed everything in site. Multiple explosions could
be distantly heard as the team regrouped on the third subbasement level
and continued upward toward the main floor.
"Watch it!" yelled Slash as they made their way to the bottom of
the first floor's stairs. An infrared antipersonnel mine was seen on the
wall next to one of the bottom stairs. A look skyward showed the
explosive sitting, waiting for it's target to come through it's invisible
trip line. Carefully stepping over the trip line, Nemesis led the way to
the top door. 'This is just too easy of an escape' he thought to himself
remembering many other raids whose exit was much tougher than it's
entrance. He unfastened two grenades from his armor and proceeded to
throw them into the hallway, shutting the stairwell door quickly behind
them.
"Grenade!!!" yelled a guard from inside the hallway. Nemesis'
guess was right. The two exploded relatively at the same time. Nemesis
quickly entered the smoky hallway and proceeded to fire at the four
commandos who had taken posts on opposite sides of the stairwell door.
Slash and Donna soon jumped into the hallway, taking posts on either
side of Nemesis, guarding against additional intrusion. A few quick looks
around only produced the four dead bodies on the ground. Nemesis
reloaded.
The party turned right from the stairwell door and proceeded
with caution to the next intersection. They moved slowly with their
weapons pointed straight ahead, searching for the way out while still
knowing that they had to return to the original entrance to not only get
out, but to also find out what happened to Nebulus. The first intersection
was clear.
"Donna. String a mine across here" ordered Nemesis who
continued to move on. Donna handed the mine to Slash who plastered it
to the opposing wall while Donna strung the device across the
intersection.
The lights began to flicker on and off. Then the siren was heard.
The team stopped to look around. The electronic whirring of the fire
alarm filled the entire hallway with its annoying tone. "Code 1 fire alert
in subbasement 4. All personnel must evacuate these premises
immediately" spoke a recorded voice from the speakers that Jack had
been using previously. 'Why the hell are the alarms going off if Jack
had control of the situation?' questioned Nemesis.
"Jack must be out as well" said Slash. "Let's get the fuck out of
here!" The team took off down the hallway. It was time to leave Cryon
once and for all. The operation had taken long enough. Half of the team
was either dead or taken out of the picture somehow.
"Donna. Give me your gun and start preparing some party
favors" yelled Slash taking Donna's gun. Donna took off her pack and
sorted through the explosives and grenades, ready to hand them out
when people needed to die. Passing another intersection, the team saw
the back of the chair at the security desk. Nemesis waved his hand back
at Donna and she put in it a high explosive, enough of a bang to destroy
the room.
"Hey man, catch!" yelled Nemesis. Nebulus turned around only to
see the explosive heading his way. The guards hiding behind the walls
still had their guns pointed at him if he screwed up. But then, what else
could he do. The team stopped their advance and Nemesis shot two
minigrenades into the room. Nebulus jumped from his chair and
sprinted towards his team as the grenades went off and the explosive
landed on the chair. The team took cover just as gun fire was heard, but
was soon silenced by the deadening thunder of the explosive as it
completely destroyed everything and everyone in the room.
"Glad you still know what you're doin'" said Nebulus looking at
the team.
"We figured something was up, so I decided to make sure no one
was in the room" replied Nemesis.
"There may be more guards down the hallway."
"Let's go." Getting up once again, the team continued down the
hall and fought through the fire and debris of the security room.
Finally advancing down the final hall, Nemesis emptied his gun of
minigrenades and destroyed the entrance door and hopefully
everything else that could attack them. Donna dropped off the party
favors and they carefully exited the docking entrance. Nemesis was first
away from the entrance and proceeded to move aside the manhole cover.
The group got into the hole and Donna, being last as usual, pressed the
detonator, igniting the explosives left in the pack. The docking area of
the building erupted in fire and exploded sending debris everywhere.
But, the team had already begun the trip through the sewers. The job
was over. It was time to go home.
Sitting in the van on the way back into the city, no one talked.
The van took a corner and drove by the Cryon building, getting a good
look at all the police and fire department personnel who were attacking
the multiple fires in the building. The deep color of fire offset the light
grayish color building in the morning light. The sun had just started to
come up, but was still pretty early before daybreak. They soon turned
into the city, taking their masks off.
Cool Darkness
by Matthew Carpenter
Chapter 5 : A Thorn in Paradise
"So what the hell happened in there?" questioned Nemesis
looking towards the front of the van in Nebulus' direction.
"I was watching you more than I was watching myself" told a
disgusted Nebulus, completely shamed by his performance or lack there
of.
"At least you know a sign when you see one. What happened to
Jack?"
"What do you mean, what happened to Jack" rudely snapped
Nebulus who turned around to give Nemesis the evil eye.
"We lost him before we got to the strike zone. Where'd he go? I
thought he was supposed to follow us all the way out."
"I don't know. Maybe he bumped into ICE or something. Why
don't we get back there quickly and find out" Nebulus pointed out to
Donna who pushed her foot into the floor, accelerating the van as she
drove on into the city.
Not soon enough for Nebulus' liking, the van pulled in front of
the garage door of the warehouse. Nemesis calmly hopped out of the
back door of the van and proceeded to open the door. The van came to a
quiet stop with the garage door crashing down behind it. The lights
were still on; the office door to the underground comps was still shut.
"Jack! Hey Jack! Where the hell are you shit-head!?" yelled
Nemesis, feeling a little funny about the whole situation. Walking to the
back of the van, he picked up his rifle and proceeded to walk towards the
office door. He was followed by Nebulus and eventually Slash, who had
had enough of Jack's clowning around. Screwing around on the nets is
one thing, but leaving a team in the thick of a job is another.
They approached the office door and found it still locked from the
inside. Nebulus walked over to a nearby desk, reached into the top
drawer and picked up a magnetic key. He returned to the door and
inserted the flat key into the slot just under the door handle which
produced a soft pop as the lock disengaged. Nebulus opened the door and
the group peered in. The office was still the same : a few file cabinets, a
metal desk with a wooden, rocking office chair, a single light at the desk
with another one in the ceiling, and a small hand comp sitting at the
right of the desk.
'Nothing is missing. Everything is cool...except' thought Nebulus.
"Jack's gone."
"What!?" wined Nemesis in disbelief of wherever Nebulus had
derived this idea.
"The chair's here. He should be sitting in it down in the room"
stated Nebulus loosing his cool.
"Bullshit. He and I changed that last week 'cause he wanted a
padded chair so his butt wouldn't hurt so much" slapped Nemesis.
"Huh!?!?"
"Come on" said Nemesis entering the room and pressing the
correct sequence of keys on the hand comp to enable the elevator to the
comp room. Slash moved the chair out of the way as the plate under the
leg area of the desk slowly began its decent into the comp room. Within
10 seconds it had hit bottom, about 12 feet below in the concrete dungeon
where Jack roamed.
"Jack. Hey, Jack..you down there!?" yelled Slash. No answer.
"He's probably still in the nets. He'll never respond like that"
spoke Nebulus.
"Well there's only one way to find out" said Nemesis as he hang
dropped from the desk edge into the dark pit.
"Don...hunnn....you moron" Slash sighed under her breath. 'He
never thinks about traps.' "Watch out for traps." Nemesis never heard
her voice; his concentration on where he was and not what people were
doing topside. He pivoted left in the direction of the comp room. The
corridor to the room was normal sized with a low ceiling. The walls were
made of cold concrete that still flaked grit when rubbed against. It was
dark with a few streaks of light coming from the room, barely lighting
enough for someone to see. Nemesis changed his eyes to night vision to
see that was up with Jack.
'All right Jack, where the hell are you man.' He peered into the
comp room. The two main comps on the far wall were humming as usual,
the short ceiling making them look larger than normal. He walked
further into the room. The four workstations were still running with
their monitors running lines of info across them constantly. 'Jack.
Where the hell are you.' He lowered his rifle. In fact he lowered it until
the barrel almost scraped the ground. He stood completely erect and
walked over to the wall where the control panel was. A single touch and
a second panel came up. He closed his eyes as he turned the ceiling light
on. His eyes were switched back to normal vision and he opened his
eyelids.
"Come on down, guys!" yelled Nemesis as he looked over at Jack
who was still slouched in his padded chair, still jacked into the nets.
"What's the deal!?" yelled back Slash.
"He's here. Still in the net." The elevator platform began to move
back up and in no time the rest of the team minus Donna was in the comp
room. "I guess he's still in the net."
"What the hell's he still doin' in there?" replied Slash quite
disgusted at Jack now that he was still here and had left them in Cryon.
"He must've run into something." sighed Nebulus looking at his
foot as it tapped lightly on the concrete floor. 'What could he have run
into? ICE? Naw, couldn't be. He's too good for that. Then again... Naw,
he must be screwin' around or somethin'. But why would he leave us in
Cryon to go screw around somewhere? I wonder if they got this thing up
and running before we got there. Or what if they had another site, or if
we attacked the wrong site! Couldn't be. We planned this thing to
perfectly to hit the wrong site. Yeah, sure.' he thought to himself,
especially after how badly they fucked the whole deal up. 'Well, there's
only one way to find out.' Looking up he said "I'm goin' in" and started to
walk towards the workstation next to Jack's.
"What! You can't be serious. Let's just pull the plug and get him
back" screeched Slash.
"Yeah, right. And possibly loose him forever. He might be into
something serious, and there's only one way to find out." replied
Nebulus, putting a wireless jack next to his ports.
"I thought you could track someone like that for cryin' out loud!"
"We'll see about that." With that he sat in the chair and jacked in,
wireless of course.
"Well, let's get them prepared for a long trip. I can't see them
coming back any time soon" softly spoke Slash. She and Nemesis turned
to the one cabinet that had little components and things in it. The door
was opened and two IV's were taken out by Slash. She walked over to the
two and began to get Jack ready for insertion. Nemesis in the mean time
began preparing the two nutrient bags. In no time, both Jack and
Nebulus were outfitted with medical nutrient bags that fed into their
system. That way they at least wouldn't dehydrate.
Nebulus stood up from a kneeling position on the
asphalt street of an unknown city. It was dark, actually
gray in color and the clouds in the sky were moving very
fast. The surrounding buildings stood like monuments
compared to Nebulus' small body. A little piece of
newspaper skipped by along the ground behind his feet.
The long street he was looking down seemed to go on
forever. The city was completely deserted.
"Strange" he told himself outloud. "Oh, well, let's
get going." He began walking in the direction of the first
gate to get into mainstream cyberspace. A few steps and
he leaned forward to the ground and shape changed into a
sleek black sports car, one of the new European cars that
can top 300 mph. Fat tires, no rear view mirrors; kinda
like an old Countach he thought to himself as he squealed
his tires and flew down the streets.
"Great. Traffic jam already." In the near distance
he could see lots of people trying to get into the gateway.
"Always a bunch of jerks who don't know there way
around the block yet." With a glance skyward, he pulled
off the ground and moved a story or two above the rest of
the traffic. Flying over the crown was fun. The first
gateway was breached easily and he soon got back onto
the road and cruised into the highways, the internet
highways that connected to everywhere in the world, and
then some.
After only a little time, his speed began to slow.
Actually he began to slow immensely, eventually coming
to a complete stop. 'What the hell is going on?' he thought
to himself, checking all of his systems. Then he began to
shape change back into a person, except he hadn't chosen
to do so. 'Somebody's taking control of my environment.'
Then he began to fly backwards, completely out of
control. He fought to stabilize and he tried to stop, but
eventually was thrown back into the crowd of people
waiting at the gateway entrance. With an additional
thrust, he was tossed into the crowd, landing on the hard
asphalt just like everyone else had.
"What the hell is going on!" he yelled at the top of
his lungs as he stood up, wiping himself off. The area
around he began to change and soon he was standing on a
computer generated grid. No streets. No buildings. Just
grids. He continued to look around, finally running his
identifier program. In a few seconds an arrow appeared
pointing in the direction off to his right, toward the
gateway. He started to push his way in that direction,
searching for Jack. The gateway soon became clearer to
him as it was a large billboard sign which read :
The Cyberspace Mob now rules the nets
Pay to Enter. Pay at your OWN Risk
"What the hell is going on, here!" he yelled.
"Oh shut up up there you asshole!" came from
someone behind him. He turned around to see who the
hell was yelling at him in a crisis like this.
"Fuck you buddy!" he yelled back, not knowing
who had yelled at him. He continued to push his way
towards the front. Eventually he got within a few
hundred feet of the gateway and recognized Jack only a
few steps in front of him.
"Jack, what the hell is going on here man!?" asked
Nebulus as he reached his companion.
"What the hell are you doing here? I thought you
were still in Cryon."
"I was. We got back already. What the hell
happened to you?"
'Take a look. One second I was in, the next I was
pulled out by these guys. Do you believe this shit. They've
taken over all the surrounding gateways and there's no
way in or out to another gateway."
"What do you mean. You can't even break it?"
"No one can" explained Jack in a sorrowful tone of
voice. "I've found a few friends here and they can't break
it. Whoever made this isn't working for the government,
military or a company. This is straight from the
underground. All I can figure is that it's written in a new
AI language that actually learns who you are and how to
keep you from getting into the gateway if you haven't
paid."
"You mean to tell me that someone is holding the
gateway hostage?"
"Yep. The funny part is that no one has any idea
who could've pulled a stunt like this off. This is beyond
professional. I can't even tell where it's coming from."
The two stood around almost as lost as everyone else. It
was getting more crowded as time went on and eventually,
Nebulus had had enough.
"Get a site set up so we can start attacking this
thing from the inside out."
"Yeah right" replied Jack completely disgusted
now. "Don't you think I've tried it already in about a
thousand configurations, only to get tossed back without
getting any further into the system. I told you once you
moron, the more you do the more it understands about
you, which means that it can stop you easier every time
you try something new."
"So how do we get the fuck through" blazed a
beyond frustrated Nebulus.
"So what should we do now?" asked Nemesis, peering towards the
elevator. After standing there for ten minutes, his patience had run out
and a bar run was the first thing that ran into his head. "I know. How
about some Black Oil?"
"That dump. Naw, I'm not in the mood" casually replied Slash.
"How about Hot Kicks" she said with a sly grin growing on her face as
she looked into Nemesis' eyes.
"You gotta be kiddin' me. We don't fit into a place like that."
"That doesn't keep you from screwin' every chic with big tits,
long legs, and stockings pulled up to her crotch that works there now
does it?" she kidded pulling him towards the elevator.
"Jealous?" he asked with a smirk.
"I'm coming in my pants just thinking about you" she joked as
they stood on the elevator platform. She pressed her hand against the
wall where a hidden panel was and the platform began to rise.
Topside, they walked out of the office to find Donna sitting in one
of the office chairs in front of a desk off to the side of the warehouse.
"Everything OK with Jack?"
"Who knows. Nebulus went into the matrix to fetch him" replied
Slash. "Hey. We're gonna go to a bar. Wanna come?"
"Sure. But first, where's my money?" she said getting back down
to business.
"Nebulus handles that and he is preoccupied right now." Donna
wasn't too pleased about this. In fact she was getting quite pissed off as
she stood up to face Slash. "Chill woman. It's not like we're gonna forget
you. Jeez."
"Hey. A job is a job. Now it's done and I want my money!"
"Look honey, you ain't gonna get paid until he gets out of the nets
so why don't you just pack that bitchy attitude of yours away and chill
out until he is free. This job ain't done until we're all back and we got
two in the nets!" snarled Slash, frowning her brow.
Nemesis looked on at the 'cat fight' as he called it between the
two. 'Wait a minute.' He looked at Donna's forehead. 'Zoom in. More.
There. Now look at that. Sweat. And it's not even hot here, either.' He
moved his gaze down to her hands. 'Same thing, and even a little
twitchy.' He panned back up to her chest which was expanding and
contracting a little faster and larger than he would've expected. He
switched his eyes to IR, trying to get a thermal scan of her body. To no
avail, the combat suit that she still wore blocked most of the signals
coming from her body and canceled his experiment.
"All right. Chill out. Why don't you take a shower and get
changed and I will pull Nebulus out in time for him to pay you. Then we
can go to the bars. OK?" stated Nemesis.
"Where the hell am I gonna..."
"There's a shower in the bathroom over there" he said pointing to
a door along the office wall, "and your extra clothes that you brought are
still in the van, right?"
"Don't EVEN think about pullin' somethin' stupid, Nemesis" she
warned with a glare. Nemesis didn't move and didn't loose eye contact
until she turned around to get her stuff out of the van. Slash took his
arm and turned him to fact her.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" she scowled in a low
voice.
"Trust me."
By now, Jack and Nebulus had jumped in and out of
cyberspace at least a dozen times, trying to trick the
gateway or get past it somehow. Each time they would
bring in different attack programs and loose them just as
quickly as the 'Cyberspace Mob' would find them and
erase them, or make them unusable. There were now
about five people in a group around Jack and Nemesis; all
of whom knew each other through one facet or another.
"So where do we go from here?" sighed one of the
guys.
"We have to find another way around it.
Everything we've tried has failed. Period. And I can't see
any way around it" said Jack.
"So the cybermaster Jack has finally met his
match. How interesting" stated Nebulus, getting more
excited at the prospect of what seemed like the ultimate
challenge.
"I wouldn't say that so soon. It's just going to take
some time to figure out how to get around it" replied Jack,
letting the comment fly over his head.
"So where are we?" asked one of Jack's friends.
"Simple. We can't get past without paying, which
is completely absurd. We know it's not being done by the
government, military, a company, Mogul, Nestroth and a
few other groups. But that leaves a lot of names that,
although I can't figure who could've masterminded this,
could be responsible for it" stated Jack.
Someone else spoke up. "Well, attack and defense
programs don't work. It can tell who we are and seems to
know our strengths and weaknesses. Camouflaging
doesn't help since it kills that first. I don't think if we
sent ICE against it it would even work."
"What! Are you nuts. How the hell would you SEND
ICE after it. There's nowhere to keep it connected to to
run it" heckled another.
"Yes there is and that's exactly what we're gonna
do" spoke Jack, standing up and pacing around in a very
small circle. "We can attach it to the gateway itself. It's
identifier must still exist or we couldn't have gotten here."
"Yeah, but it'll already know how to kill ICE."
"Yeah, but I know a way to make it so they can't
track it or disarm it" ecstatically spoke Jack. "Everyone
jump out and meet me at my comp room in 1 hour."
Donna came out of the bathroom wearing a short mini with tights
underneath it, highlighting her legs with black spandex. Her wet hair
left trickles of water on her leather short jacket that covered a tank top.
'Switch to IR. Focus and zoom on chest area. Just as I thought.'
"You definitely look sexy tonight, woman" yelled Nemesis from across
the warehouse. He hopped off the desk he was sitting on and approached
her.
"So where's Nebulus with my money, macho man?" she said with
a smirk in her smile.
"This way, my lady" he said, raising his left hand, palm up, to take
hers as a rightful gentleman should. She placed her right hand in his
with a flirtatious smile. He slowly started to turn around and Donna
began to take a step forward to accompany him.
Quickly, Nemesis spun back in her direction, landing a bone-
breaking fist in her stomach. Instantaneously, she fell to the ground as
if life had been sucked out of her. She laid on the ground in a fetal
position, holding her stomach, completely unable to breath from the
attack. Nemesis looking over to Slash who was sitting at a desk, giving
her the signal. She rose from her chair carrying a needle. Nemesis
reached down and gripped Donna's jacket firmly by the shoulders and
ripped it down her arms so that they were bare from her shoulder to her
elbow. She winced in pain, still unable to breath. Nemesis reached his
hand up and received the needle from Slash.
"Nighty night, my little spy" cooed Nemesis with a devil's grin, as
he injected her with the tranquilizer.
"Nighty night, bitch" spit Slash.
Cool Darkness
by Matthew Carpenter
Chapter 6 : A Slap in the Face
"Whew. Man oh man. This one's gonna hurt" said a sweaty
Jack as he faced his sidearm, Nebulus. He stood up and staggered
over to the bathroom stall that was on the other side of the
elevator to relieve himself. Nebulus just sat there rubbing his
eyes. After a few seconds he stood and walked over to the elevator
platform and momentarily waited for the chair to come down.
"Where the hell you goin'?" yelled Jack from the stall.
"I'm gonna check on the others and tell them what's up.
We're gonna need some info from the streets and fast ...." he
trailed off in his own thought as the chair arrived. He sat down
and got to the office floor in no time, listening to Jack rant and
rave about what he had just said. Nebulus' brow was furrowed,
now, and time had taken it's toll on him. He walked out of the
office to notice the van was missing. "Goddamn, stupid son's of
bitches!" he yelled, spinning around to look at the whole
warehouse. "Those dumn fuck's! If it's the last thing I told them
it's to stay put! Jesus!" he fumed slamming a fist into the desk he
began to sit at. A thousand swear words ran through his mind
and his head began to throb. Closing his eyes, he sat back in the
hard wood chair thinking about the job, running his fingers
through his hair. 'Of course, we first had to fuck the job up.
Then we actually had to run into this damn mob. Who the hell
would dare to be a mob on the nets. Who would have the
capabilities. Hmmmmm. "The government" his eyes flashed
open. "Nah. Couldn't be" he said to himself with a quirky smile
that almost gleamed with getting the answer, and then laughed at
it's stupidity. "But it would be the perfect front to run us
down....legally. Well, kind of. Shit."
He opened the top desk drawer and took out a few plastic
bottles of pills. He popped a few in his mouth and downed them
with a flat can of Coke that had probably been there more than a
day.
"What's the matter with you!" yelled Jack from the office's
entrance. "How many times have I told you not to get drugged
before you jack in. Especially now. What the hell do you ..."
"Oh shut up and take this!" said Nebulus throwing a bottle
to Jack. He caught it with a rattle and looked up very disgusted
almost in disbelief at what Nebulus was implying. "Relax, it's
caffeine. It'll wake you up."
"I'm not tired" replied Jack walking towards Nebulus. He
screwed the cap off the bottle and put a pill in his mouth. He
reached the table, putting the closed bottle down and picking up
the can of Coke.
"That's been there awhile, you know" muttered Nebulus.
"I know. I opened it last week" he said with a smirk.
Slash had been driving the van through the back streets of
the city for about ten minutes until she came to the designated
spot Nemesis had told her to go to. The tall buildings surrounding
them sent shadows out to swallow up the surrounding sidewalks,
almost requiring a street lights to light up the broken and
graffittied walls that surrounded them.
"So where the hell do we go from here?" she asked, leaning
over her shoulder to get a glimpse of Nemesis' back. He was
leaning over Donna who was still out cold. Her arms were tied
together with unbreakable plastic ties that were laced from her
wrists up to her elbows. Her hands had turned pale from lack of
blood in her hands. Her legs were tied in a similar manner, one
that Nemesis found a certain liking to.
"There should be a garage door around here somewhere
that has the word 'Ixzer' graffettied on it in red" replied Nemesis
who had turned to look out the front windshield. "Just go slow
and we should be able to see it better."
"I can't see a goddamn thing with Ixzer on it" whined
Slash, getting quite frustrated with the whole secretive situation.
'First you don't tell me where we're going, then what we're doing.
You dumb shit! I don't see why I ever listen to you.' She slowly
eased her foot on the accelerator and let the van drift down the
alleyway, nearly scraping the sides of it on one of the buildings.
"Stop here. Turn the engine off" spoke Nemesis in a
hushed voice as he popped the sliding door open and slowly
began to push it out of his way.
"What's the silence for man? I don't see any Ixzer."
Without a reply, he jumped out of the van, landing his
combat boots on the broken asphalt and turned around to scoop
up the still unconscious Donna. Throwing her over his shoulder,
he walked in front of the van and stood in front of the garage
door. Slash got out and stood behind him still unsure of what was
about to happen. 'Switch to UV.' Ixzer appeared on the door, just
as he had said. He slowly moved to the wall on the left side of the
door and allowed Donna to slide from his shoulder, landing
soundly on the concrete with a thud.
"Well I see we're in a good mood today" smirked Slash
getting a kick out of Nemesis' behavior. 'He's finally back to his
old self' she smiled to herself, looking down at Donna. 'Bitch.'
Her smile was broken as the wall Nemesis was touching broke
open and a small camera appeared in front of his face. She took a
step back, getting into a combat stance. Her claws extended
instantly. He never moved.
"Enter password" stated a speaker originating from near
the camera.
"Zephia 12 Luther Mia" replied Nemesis. The camera
disappeared as the wall rebuilt itself, hiding the broken area. A
couple of loud noises came from within the garage and the door
slowly began to open. Nemesis bent over and scooped up Donna's
body and began walking into the garage. Slash followed a little
hesitantly behind her companion, still with her claws out and
ready. She really hated being uninformed.
"Stop right there!" came a deep, husky male voice from
within the darkness of the garage. The two of them had barely
gotten ten feet within the building.
"Who's there!" yelled Slash from behind her companion.
"Nemesis. How's it goin' mon?"
"Not too bad Doc. Got a little present for you."
"Another hooker. Don't you know I gave them up for
lent?"
"No hookers this time. A tinker toy to take apart."
By now, Slash was completely confused. 'What the hell is
going on? How is this guy and where the hell is he?' she thought
trying to look into the darkness.
"Do we get to have some fun this time?"
"You got it."
"Bring her in." The lights flashed on, slightly blinding
Slash for a second. The garage door immediately slammed down
into the concrete that startled the always calm Slash.
"Will someone please tell me what the fuck is going on!"
yelled Slash at the top of her lungs. Nemesis turned around
slowly eyeing her weirdly.
"Slash, meet Doc. He's a techie friend of mine. He likes to
take things apart and see how they work." He turned towards Doc
and began walking in his general direction. "Doc, this is my
friend Slash. She's with Nestroth" he said pointing a thumb in
her direction.
"Hey ya sexy" he said looking her over. She looked him
over back. He stood almost as tall as Nemesis, but had black hair
down to the middle of his back that flowed as he turned around to
lead Nemesis to the door behind him. He walked with a limp to the
left side and had a cybernetic left arm as well. 'He must've gotten
into something' thought Slash to herself as she began to follow
the two men towards the door, her claws finally retracting. It
was unlocked with a pass card and led to a set of stairs leading
downward. Doc led them down. Nemesis bumped Donna's head on
the door frame. Slash just had to let out a small laugh at that.
They arrived at a another door that lead into a cybernetics
lab, or something that looked like one. Donna was placed on the
medical table in the middle of the room. There were tools of all
sorts lining the walls and hanging from the ceiling. Off to the
left side were large tools for more heavy equipment, including
what looked like a modified military gatlin gun.
"I take it you like weaponry, sweetie?" smirked Doc seeing
Slash look the gun over. She looked at him with an anticipated
smile that said yes. "Hmm. Maybe I'll let you take her for a ride
tonight." He turned towards Nemesis who was cutting Donna's
bonds with one of Doc's molecularly sharp blades.
"So what the hell's with this chic anyways?" asked Doc.
"She worked with us on our last project, but she's got
something in her chest that I think is a bug. It's the only thing
that explains why we ran into shit."
"How do you know?"
"Look at her under IR. You'll see something really black
there."
"So you want to cut her open and see what we can see?"
"Let's see if she will talk first." The two men took her arms
and legs, cuffing them to the four corners of the table securely.
Doc took out an antidote for the sleeping chemical Nemesis used
on her, and injected her with it. In a few moments she came to
trying to wipe her eyes with no luck from the restraints. She
looked up to see Nemesis looking right into her face. Doc was
busy putting on a surgeon's hat, mask and gloves. 'Interesting
difference from the mechanics suit there Doc' Slash told herself
as she too walked towards Donna.
"Who are you working for Donna?" asked Nemesis in a
very calm voice.
"What the hell are you doing? Untie me at once, you
moron!" she screamed back testing her restraints.
"I don't think so sweetie. I think you set us up, which is
why you've got a bug in your chest. So why don't you just tell us
what is going on" he said politely.
"I'm not working for anyone. And I don't have anything
in my chest you, idiot! Now let me go!" she screamed. Doc walked
around and attached two electrodes to her head and turned on a
scanner that monitored certain parts of the brain for
brainwaves. "What the hell is that? Who is he?"
"Donna, I'm only going to ask you one more time, before I
cut your chest open and find out what the hell you have in there.
Now, tell me, who are you working for" he said in a very deep
voice that began to frighten Donna even more. His frowned brow
made her look at him with wide eyes, fearing that he was serious.
She thought for a moment, and then just made her eyelids very
narrow and matched his frown with hers.
"Fuck off bastard" she replied in a low tone. Nemesis bent
down until his face was less than a centimeter away from hers
without changing his expression.
"Have it your way, my dear." He moved his lips down to
hers and gave her a small kiss on the lips. She didn't kiss him
back. He withdrew his face from hers, standing straight up, and
removed the electrodes from her head. "We won't be needing
these" he said tossing them to Doc. He looked back down at Donna
and saw the fear in her eyes, yet also saw her determination as
well. He moved his right hand up to his left shoulder and quickly
sent it flying across Donna's face, slapping her cheek so that the
side of her face bounced off the table. Blood began to trickle
from the corner of her mouth as she turned to glare back at
Nemesis whose facial expression still had not changed.
"You asshole. I'm gonna kill you, you son of a bitch!" she
screamed. Starting to violently pull on her restraints, she yelled
and screamed until Doc had had enough.
"Time to put her to sleep, I think."
"Not this time. I want her to feel this" snarled Nemesis.
Donna barely caught what he said and gasped a little in
anticipation. Nemesis nodded to Slash who was getting a kick out
of the torture being induced by Nemesis. 'It's good to have him
back' she thought to herself. She walked to Donna's right side
and smiled at her. Donna only caught a glimpse of her out of her
peripheral vision. Stroking her stomach, Slash began feeling
Donna's lower ribs and stomach. Then raised her strong arm and
let the side of her fist slam into Donna's stomach, just below her
sternum. Donna sucked in her breath and pulled at her cuffs as
her face turned red from her breath being knocked of out her.
She finally relaxed a little and began taking short breaths.
Nemesis stood above her head still and pulled her jacket
away as much as possible from her chest. He then reached into
her top and in one swift pull, ripped the top of it and her bra
open. She struggled underneath him to no evail as his hands
went further down to grab the divided material at the edge of the
tear. In another pull, her top was in two and he pulled the parts
to the sides to reveal her bare chest and white breasts. Her
nipples were slightly hard from her treatment, something that
Slash took note of. She slowly caressed both of Donna's breasts,
allowing her touch to become rougher as her claws extended a
few inches from her fingertips. Her slight smile of playfulness
changed to a devilish grin as she moved her fingers to the
underside of Donna's breasts and pushed her claws into the skin
below them. Not wanting to be outdone by what was sure to be
effective torture by Nemesis, Slash began to drag her claws down
towards Donna's navel.
"Now who are you working for Donna?" asked Slash now
enjoying the fun as well.
"Nobody! I swear I'm not working for anybody!" she
screamed. Tears were now running from her eyes as she tossed
her head from side to side. Slash only pushed in harder until
blood coated much of her lower stomach.
'I've had enough of this shit' thought Nemesis as he
reached over for the molecularly sharp blade he had cut her
bonds with. He placed the edge of it next to the tendon in her
right peck. Slash reluctantly pulled her claws out of Donna as
she saw what Nemesis was about to do. "Donna, why did you set us
up. Tell me or you will regret it" he spoke in a stern voice after
waiting impatiently for an answer.
"Go to hell!" she yelled. The pain and realization of the
situation, finally breaking her.
"Fine. Slash put a gag in her mouth. I don't want any of
her childish screams to hurt my ears" he said. Slash complied by
stuffing a dirty rag in her mouth and stepped back as Nemesis
began slowly cutting the tendon in her peck. Her screams were
muffled by the rag, but her tears and struggling movements only
made the pain worse. The tendon finally broken and Donna let
out a ear-piercing shriek as the tears rolled down her face freely.
"That's enough, Nemesis" said Doc as he came over to
Nemesis who was getting ready to start on the other shoulder. He
placed the end of a silver device that looked like a gun to Donna's
throat and pulled the trigger. She jerked and then collapsed to
the table, unconscious.
"Making her squirm is not going to get the info you want
man."
"You know how much I hate people who stab me in the
back."
"Let's just get what you came for and forget about it, all
right?" spoke Doc in a soft tone of voice, a little shocked by the
whole situation.
"You're the doc. Let's see what's in her chest." He removed
the blade from her shoulder and stepped back as Doc began to
stop the bleeding in Donna's stomach with a laserstitch. After
removing the gag in her mouth, he began working on stopping
the extensive bleeding from her shoulder. To Nemesis' wishes, he
finally cut into her chest with a scalpel. Doc brought over a few
instruments to determine just where and what the black box in
her chest really was, then began to go after the prize.
"Jesus Christ! This thing is really in her. Someone really
did a good job on her when they put it in." Doc continued to try
and get a better look at the black thin box that was lodged under
Donna's sternum, near her collar bone. "How the hell could she
breath for cryin' out load?" The frown on Doc's face spelled a
tough job, and probably one done by a pro. He continued to open
her up enough to get at the box and finally cut the thin metal
rings that were securing it to her sternum. A soft digital pulse
emanated from Donna's direction, and then a hushed pop silenced
all sound in the room. Her head and body jerked slightly and
then went limp again. Her heart drastically slowed until coming
to a complete stop within seconds of the diminished sound.
"Damn" softly stated Doc, keeping his hands still.
"What?" questioned Slash and Nemesis almost in unison.
"Shoulda known. Oh well. Let's see what we can see." He
slowly pulled the box out from under Donna's sternum, not
bothering to put her back together more than letting the torn
skin slide back into place. Taking the box over to the sink, he
removed most of the blood from the box with a damp towel and put
it under a lamp to get a better look at it. 'Edging at the sides, not
too tough. No markings, no noticeable points, oh hey, there's the
trigger mechanism' he thought looking at a very small silver
line down the inside of the clips. Nemesis and Slash becoming
bored with the subject at hand, retired to opposite sides of the
room to lean on the walls, waiting for something to come out of
the box that would give them a clue to Donna's true loyalties.
Doc picked the box up and moved it over to the work table
and placed it on a ceramic flat plate that was situated under one of
his analyzers. Within a few minutes he had run IR, UV, X-ray and
a few other tests just to see what was in the middle of the black
box. He then took a small tool and began wedging the corner of it
open until the lid popped up. Slowly, he lifted it off and revealed
the small transmitter board that the X-ray scan had shown.
"So what do we got?" gruffly asked Nemesis, still
pessimistically leaning on the wall.
"Transmitter box. It essentially controlled the bomb.
However, it could have been triggered by someone else with some
form of an electronic signal."
"So she had a fail safe in her, huh?" he said moving closer
to Donna again. He brushed her cheek with his index finger and
moved his face close to hers. "You got outta this easy wench" he
whispered to her. Standing up, he moved over to take the box in
his hand. "So can you figure out who made it or who could
detonate it?" he asked looking at Doc.
"Maybe. It'll take some time."
"Contact me in the usual way in one day" replied Nemesis
as he handed the box back to Doc and motioned Slash to following
him out the door.
"What about your woman?"
"Oh yeah." Nemesis grabbed a nearby trash bag and
worked it over Donna's head and torso after removing her bonds.
He scooped her up so that she was crunched upside down into the
bag and then proceeded to head up the stairs.
As Doc verified the garage door closing from his wall
monitor he dialed into his telecom and waited while the security
codes played their game before opening a screen.
"What is it?" came Nebulus' tired voice.
"We've got a few problems."
"So what the hell are you going to do with her?"
reprimanded Slash as she drove into the next alleyway.
"Pull up next to that dumpster over there?" The van
stopped and Nemesis pulled Donna's body out of the van, throwing
it into the dumpster without a care. He returned to the van to
fetch a can of gasoline and proceeded to pour some of the can's
contents onto Donna's body. He returned to the van and picked
up an old oil rag. Lighting it, the van began to move away as he
threw it into the dumpster and slid the van's side door shut.