Ghost in the City

Chapter 204

*Thanks again for watching over me.* I called out as I slipped down into the Netrunner Combat Zone through the bar-like entrance.

*Hey no problem. You bought food. So I’m just hanging around. Besides, it’s still interesting.* Malcolm confirmed and I nodded.

I had come to earn some XP. Or try to. I had maybe burned some bridges a bit too much trying to get every ounce of XP I could get last few times.

So I was planning on taking a different tact.

I slipped into a booth and like I expected, when I put my name up for combat. No one seemed interested.

That wasn’t entirely unusual though. Not everyone wanted to fight everyone. So I had to put up something a little extra.

*Reward: 1 hour code debugging assistance.*

Then I settled in. Most of the time people put up eddies if they were really new, or information. Some put up hacks, or things. But every netrunner I had run into had some deep desperate need to debug their code.

It didn’t take long before I got a message.

I laughed at the question and responded honestly.

*Ghost in the Shell: Exactly what it sounds like. I debug code as a side gig. You can check with Yoko if you don’t believe me, she’s never complained about my work.*

*Vortex: I will.*

And the chat was closed. I shrugged and settled in. Answering a few questions from similar messages, but an hour passed without any hits.

Then I got a response.

*Vortex: Okay. Yoko confirms you aren’t a rezzer. I got a program I’ve been tinkering with.*

*Ghost in the Shell: Tell you what. I’m looking for something specific. I’ll look over your code, win or lose, in exchange, I want you to spam any Daemons you have at me.*

*Vortex: Okay what’s the scop you’re selling here?*

*Ghost in the Shell: Not Scop. I’m working on something, but I need more practice against every type of Daemon I can find. You can think of it like debugging. I’m trying to find the weaknesses in my skills.*

*Vortex: You know what? I don’t care what scop you’re shoveling. Yoko vouched and I need a set of eyes on my code. Deal.*

I smiled as the request for a duel went through.

Excellent.

It seems a bit of honey was all I needed to get the flys to show up.

—--

I raced around smiling as another group of Soldier Daemons came around the corner.

This had been a really good idea, not just because I was getting XP, but because I had come up with a really interesting thought.

My Yurei Hack. I had originally came up with the idea to fuck with people, but you know what it would be extremely effective against?

Daemons. I would need a few adjustments, but Daemons weren’t smart enough to realize what they were attacking wasn’t a real netrunner!

Once this was over, and once I finished debugging whatever Vortex wanted, I was going to spend some time updating my hack. Making it a bit more flexible would be nice.

I turned and started uploading [HEAT Bullet Mk.01] over and over, the tiny fire balls appearing, waiting for me to launch them.

Then as I was hitting the maximum I could handle, I sent them all off at once, and the Soldier Daemons were smashed apart.

*250 XP Gained.*

*250 XP Gained.*

*250 XP Gained.*

*250 XP Gained.*

Hehehe!

I moved on. Vortex might be willing to upload Daemons into the server while we fought, but she was still being aggressive too. She wanted this match to end.

A moment later where I had been was hit by an AOE virus, and the whole place started melting for a few seconds. But I was long gone, and I could hear her grumbles over the server audio as I moved on to harass her a bit more.

—--

I blinked as between one moment and the next I was out of the server.

Huh. She had actually managed to launch an attack that hit me. It was another large scale attack. She was good at them, that really surprised me. I would have to adapt some better defenses just in case someone like that tried to do it again.

Either way, this had been entirely worth it. After a long list of XP alerts I had earned it.

*250 XP Gained.*

*Level up achieved!*

*One Stat Point Gained.*

*One Skill Point Gained.*

It had been what distracted me enough that I hadn’t moved fast enough.

I stretched as I walked out of the lobby room and back into the bar like server level. There Vortex was already waiting for me, looking like she was going to attack me at any minute.

“Relax Choom, a deals a deal. Good hit by the way. I got distracted.”

“Hmm. Well come on then. Let’s use a private room. And don’t you dare start the clock until we actually start!”

I just raised my arms at the woman with glaring red eyes and gave her a calm down gesture.

Geeze did everyone just flake on the net when they made a promise?

I entered a small side room, and it was a cozy little lounge. I could feel the security on the space, and I took a moment to look it over before nodding. It actually was pretty safe as long as someone wasn’t watching through your line, like Malcolm was.

“Here’s the code. It bloats and fails to run after a certain point.” She said, sounding pissed, and I just nodded as I took her data transfer, ran it through every security check I had before being satisfied it was safe, and popping it up in a test environment.

“Hmmm.” I muttered as I looked it over. Nearly instantly seeing the problem.

Vortex was shit at coding.

90% of this program was frankensteined together with other code. “Okay I’m going to pause your timer here.” I said and she twitched as I looked away from the code. “Gonna be honest this is a mess of code, so you got two options. I can either start fixing it, from start to finish, which I’ll doubt I’ll finish in one go. That means you’ll need to fight me again in the arena another time. Or I start highlighting and giving you advice about errors I’m seeing and you can try and use that to fix it yourself.”

“Can you actually fix it?”

“This is… Some kind of skimming code right? To-”

“Hey! Don’t fucking talk about it!” She snapped and I raised my hands.

“Okay choom. I’m a professional, and I don’t care what you do with it. Yes I know how to fix it.”

“Then do it. I’ll throw daemons and nukes at you as much as you want.” She snapped, and I just laughed.

“Alright let me get started. You want my commentary or for me to just get at it?”

“Just do it.”

“Alright.”

—--

“So what’s the deal with Vortex?” Malcolm asked and I shrugged.

“Pretty sure she’s trying to skim eddies out of some machine. Maybe she works at a bank or something.” I offered. “She had the machine code in the program, but I’m not going to stick my nose into it.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Gotcha.” He offered and then to my delight offered me a plate of still warm noodles.

“Thanks choom.”

I dug in and the two of us chatted for a while as we ate, but my mind and eyes were on my stat screen.

Level 21

Body 9(17) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 8.

-Athletics 7

-Street Brawler 8

-Annihilation 5

Reflex 9(15) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 6.

-Blades 8

-Handguns 8

-Assault 8

-Driving 7

Intelligence 13 (14) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.

-Breach Protocol 12

-Quick Hacks 9

-Programming 13

Cool 10

-Ninjutsu 10

-Cold Blood 8

-Rockerboy 9

Technical Ability 8 (12) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.

-Crafting 6

-Engineering 7

1 Stat point.

8 Skill point.

Perks.

Ambidextrous Blades 2

Quickdraw Handguns 2

Gun Nut Assault 2

Parkour Athletics 2

Grappling Street Brawler 2

Drive By Driving 2

Cat-like Athletics 5

Cool Nerves Cold Blood 2

Danger Sense Ninjutsu 2

Wall Breaking Breach Protocol 2

Cyber Security Quick Hack 2

Recoil Reduction Annihilation 2

Cyber Ninja Ninjutsu 5

Fearless Chill Cold Blood 5.

Improvised Weapons Street Brawler 5

Parry Blades 5

Robotics wizard Crafting 2

Drifting Driving 5

Rapid Reload Handguns 5

Design Wizard Engineering 2

Rifle Ace Assault 5

Ghost touch Breach 5

Perfect Musical Memory Rockerboy 2.

Debug Programming 2

Siren Song Rockerboy 5

Hacking Wizard Quick Hacks 5

Inspired Programmer Programming 5

A.I. Whisperer Programming 10

Slam Fire Annihilation 5

Enduring Builds Crafting 5

Robotics Engineering Engineering 5

Strong Breach Breach Protocol 10

Ninja Running Ninjutsu 10

Cyberware:

Arasaka Corporation Cyberdeck ‘Shadow’ Mk.4 *Adaptation ‘Shadow’ Mk.4 0/0*

Kiroshi Mk1 *Adaptation Kiroshi Mk1 1/2*

Militech Condor *Adaptation Militech Condor 6/6*

Arasaka Smart Link System. *Adaptation Smart Link 0/0*

Arasaka Ex-Disk *Adaptation Ex-Disk 0/0*

Militech-Armalite Ballistic Guard *Adaptation Ballistic Guard 1/2*

Serano Air-Groove Ankles *Adaptation Serano Air 1/1*

MoorE Titanium Bones (Shoulders, back, and ribs. +Legs, Pelvis, and Ribs.) *Adaptation Titanium Bones 0/2*

Biotechnica Muscle and Bone Lace *Adaptation Muscle and Bone Lace 0/0*

Arasaka ODA Neural Link Mk3 *Adaptation ODA Mk.3 1/2*

Dynalar Sandevistan Mk.2 *Adaptation Dynalar Sandevistan 1/4*

All in all it looked pretty good.

That stat point was calling me, and there was no point in holding onto it. Last time I had leveled Intelligence, so this time it needed to go into Adaptation. That was the deal. I instantly put one into my Sandy.

Dynalar Sandevistan Mk.2 *Adaptation Dynalar Sandevistan 2/4*

I didn’t feel any different right away which was a bit unusual, but the Sandy itself wasn’t some massive piece of Cyberware, it was just a chip that unlocked functionality, so it would only really make a difference when I used it.

“Well that was fun.” I told Malcolm, and he looked at me for a moment before laughing. “I liked when she made the world melt.” He offered and I scoffed.

“That was such an overcompensation! She could have made it more targeted and got something out of that!”

“I thought it was nova.” He offered and I scoffed.

I’d show him Nova!

My hacks would be far superior!

—--

“Hey choom!” I greeted Rebecca as she arrived and she was grinning happily as she entered the apartment.

“Sup Strings.” She greeted back and hefted the duffel bag on her back through the door which had me grinning.

“We’re just waiting on Hiromi. She apparently had a big thing for us.” I explained, and Rebecca nodded as she headed over to the couch and flopped back, dropping off the duffel bag and reaching to grab some of the snacks I had spread out.

“Yo Becca.” Ichi called out looking away from the game that Ichi and Malcolm were both playing with.

“Sup chooms. Who’s winning?”

“Me!” Malcolm cheered out as suddenly Ichi’s distraction cost him a round.

I rolled my eyes at the boys breaking into a scuffle and instead continued to wait.

It was time for Section 9 to take on another gig. Hiromi said she had found something, and so we were all gathering up to take part.

I rested sitting on the back of the couch watching the boys play, and Rebecca eventually jumped in fighting for a turn as well. Then finally the door opened, and Hiromi walked in. She was dressed up in her corpo attire, looking like a miniature Arasaka Corporate stooge as she stalked around the couch and then to everyone's amusement she stepped up onto the table in the center

“I just got out of a meeting with Padre, and we have a gig. And it’s gonna be a nova one.” She said and I clapped to show my appreciation which had her blushing a bit in embarrassment, from my teasing.

“Alright Crush, don’t leave us all waiting, what’s the deets?” Rebecca demanded and Hiromi glared at her for a moment. Obviously she didn’t like the interruption to her little performance.

Also that nickname was still weird.

“Fine. So Padre needs someone removed.”

“Assassinated.” I cut in, and Hiromi stalled a bit as she was caught off guard.

“What?”

“Assassinated. You shouldn’t use euphemisms when talking about work like that.” I explained frankly. “We get hired to do a job, and we shouldn’t shy away from what that really means. After all. Removed, and Assassinated are two different things.” I really didn't want to end up having some confusion on what a gig actually was some day. Best to be clear.

“Pfft. God Motoko! You’re such a gonk! Fuck yeah. Tell ‘em straight Crush! We assassinate gonks in this house!” Rebecca added cackling.

“That’s right!” I said and then looked at Hiromi who was looking irritated.

“Okay fine. Assassinated. Does anyone else have any critique about my explanation of the gig?” She asked the room which really, was just a mistake on her part.

“Yeah, can you hurry up?” Malcolm said instantly, and I barely moved out of the way as Hiromi charged, and launched herself at Malcolm.

—--

“So Padre hired us to Assassinate someone that is causing trouble. In this case, we are hunting Miguel Hernandez. Here’s his dossier.” Hiromi continued, her sharp corpo outfit a mess as she and Malcolm had rolled around as they tussled.

I looked over the information packet, which was familiar enough, and there wasn’t anything that interesting…

Oh wait.

“Huh. He’s a rich boy?”

“Worse, he’s a rich boy with a father that wants to protect him.” Hiromi added, and a second file was sent over to us, and after scanning it I opened it to confirm.

“Animals.”

“That’s right. He’s got an entire squad for bodyguards, at his home up in North Oak.”

“This seems like it could be hot. What if the father wants revenge?” I asked and Hiromi smirked.

“That won’t be an issue. Padre is also putting out a hit on the old man, so while we take care of the son, the father will also be removed.”

“Nasty.” I mumbled, but nodded, that seemed like Padre… “So… That means we’ll have looting time?” I asked and Hiromi nodded. “That’s right. With the father flatlined, and us taking care of the son, we’ll have time to go through and acquire some additional resources.”

“Did Padre say when the father would be assassinated?”

“No.” Hiromi added. “Only that it was part of the plan, when I pushed him on the dangers involved.”

“Okay in that case, let’s start building up a plan… Malcolm? I think you’re going to be integral here.”

“What? How?” He asked and I grinned.

“You’re going to be our camouflage.” I explained simply. Time to get this going.

—--

North Oak, was the hollywood hills of Night City. Full of million eddie mansions, and celebrities around every corner. It wasn’t a place a bunch of street kids could just walk around without worry. Which is why Malcolm’s Caliburn was actually important.

With his car he was able to drop me off near the target's compound without anyone caring. Then Ichi and Hiromi worked in tandem. Ichi’s truck set up on the side of a street, with Malcolm driving down the road close to it, while Hiromi had picked up an actual video camera from somewhere to sell it all the more.

Anyone noticing the kids would think they were just rich brats making videos of their parents Caliburn.

So they wouldn’t notice the fact we were set up up the street from Miguels mansion compound, that would let us see directly into it.

Rebecca was set up for an emergency hiding in Ichi’s truck with full equipment, the HMG’s could be pulled over and she could start firing into the compound in case they caught me or something.

Hiromi’s ‘Camera’ was actually giving me a real time look from the air of where the Animals were so I could make my attempt at infiltrating the place.

It was actually a lot tougher than you’d expect.

The mansion had its own security room, and its own group of patrolling robots. Along with the Animals all over the place. It was a lot of security for a residence.

But it wasn’t enough. I was pressed against the side of the outer wall, well outside any view of the cameras, and just sitting in the shadows as I waited.

Then at the perfect moment, as a Robot passed by my location giving me a minute or so until the next patrol, I picked up the Tachikoma from my lap and gave it a toss over the top of the wall.

I smiled as I heard it land safely in the bush, and then closed my eyes, giving me the Tachikoma’s sight.

Crawling out of the bush I followed in the path of the Robot, tiny legs skittering quietly after it.

Hmm. But not that quietly. I’d have to get some better rubber friction pads for the feet to quiet the movement even more. I noted it to myself for later and then focused.

There was a side door the animals were leaving open as they came and went. That would be my entrance point.

As the Robot walked past it, I pushed the Tachikoma to the side and waited.

Hiromi’s camera that I was watching out of my left eye showed me what was about to happen.

An Animal stepped out and stretched. Massive muscles stretched over Chrome and biotech, and drugs anything and everything they could get to pump themselves up. They finished stretching and walked on.

The Animals weren’t the most alert. Most of them were either working out, pumping iron, or just lazing around it seemed. But actually doing their job was left mostly to the robots.

From their point of view, they weren’t there to find the enemy, just to fight them after they had been found. Which was perfect for me, because they weren’t ever going to find me.

Tachikoma slipped inside the open door and I had it shift over to hide under a coffee table quickly. As the room wasn’t empty.

A few Animals sitting around, this was the room they were coming in and out of, and it showed. Their stuff lay all over the room, but I ignored that because I had what I needed.

We had been watching them for a few hours, so I had their approximate numbers. And here were the rest of them, at least I’m pretty sure.

Which meant. I could infiltrate the building to try and get to the security room, while knowing where almost all the Animals were.

*I’m moving in. Give me another pass.* I called out and grinned as I heard the sound of the Caliburn roar up the road, attracting attention away from the back of the compound. I rose and leapt, clearing the edge of the wall, and landing in a crouch on the other side. I had already hacked into the camera systems, so I should be mostly a blur, but I still needed to try and access the security room as soon as possible.

I didn’t wait long, and moved, running straight across the small side path and then up, climbing up onto the second floor, and using the inbuilt little bar area to hide me from the front of the house as I crept over towards the door that would lead me inside.

Sliding the door open I slipped in, and instantly rolled behind a plant to keep myself hidden from the people on the bottom floor. The mansion had an airy main room, and I could be seen from the bottom floor if I wasn’t careful.

Which is why I slowly crawled along the carpeted floor towards the door I needed to access. Security room was hidden inside the main office.

I reached the door without any issues, and slipped inside, before rising up and brushing myself off.

Now to find the security center. It was somewhere in here. I glanced around. High end office, everything was expensive but not wood. Meant to look wealthy, but not actually reach that point. One wall had all sorts of little awards, and diplomas? Ah. I see, they were work commendations. The guy was a corpo after all.

But I found the door across the room. No way to access it, just a door shaped outline in the wall. Scanning around I didn’t see any readers, or set up. So either the man had no access to his own security system, it used some weird off location unlock system, or there was something else.

I wasn’t seeing any obvious cords or cables with my scans, but that wasn’t unusual. Kiroshi Mk.1’s could only do so much. Instead I walked over to his desk. Rule of overconfident bad guys they’d have some switch on their desk right? I checked all over, but didn’t find anything, and there was a nice desktop system, but it didn’t have the actual tower. There was a section where he could place a computer in and hook it up to the system.

I looked around, not seeing any other option to open the security room.

Dangit.

I walked over to the door again and just looked it over, trying to find something. Why not have an extra scanner? If the access point was his attached computer, what happened if his computer stopped working? He’d never get inside his security room again.

I reached out and rested my hand on the hidden door and stilled, as it sort of shifted….

I pushed harder and it slid back and then sideways opening the office to the small security room with a server for the security system.

“He opted for the mechanical door?” I asked myself breathlessly, because that was the stupidest thing I’d ever seen! There wasn’t even a lock! It was just a facade door? This guy for all that he owned a big mansion was cheap!

Shaking my head I entered in, and within a minute had taken over the entire security system. There would be no alerts to NCPD if there were any problems, and more importantly, it gave me direct access to all the Animals, Robots, and Miguel who was currently pacing around in one of the main rooms.

*Alright everyone. Get ready. I’m in.*