>From: v103pdt5@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Lucia Fabbozzi)
Subject: To live and die in L.A.......
Date: 14 Dec 90 14:10:28 GMT




Lines of data to the horizon...Cowboys entered this alternate universe at their
own risk...Their fire-flash presences barely noticed by the massive incandesence
of the interstellar combines...Across one intersection,flashed a double pulse of
energy.Ryker was leading,his special talent in cyberspace that of a bloodhound.
The minute traces of memory,the electronic odor of a certain data stash were all
he needed to home in.DarkAngel was riding shotgun.His talent,as always,was
muscle.Grid warriors were rare,because almost none had ever lived to retirement.
Whereas cowboys lived to ride the currents make no waves,Gridders took on the
heavy shit for fun.

They had been hitting this run for three days.The search was for the three
accomplices to the Knight in the Congo.Two had been found,but the third had
twisted his accounts between 12 zaibaitsus, and it was a bitch to track.Or so
Ryker kept complaining.As he scanned the records of an East German bank, a
shadow fell over him.Black ice, as the probe from Mitsu-Genen came in to find
out who was knocking on the back door.Shit! Ryker backed out slow, trying not
to disturb any more systems.The whole bank must be a front, which means they had
just been made....unless...


DarkAngel circled the AI probe,cursing to himself.The thing was no mere probe,
but a destroyer arm,straight from the M-G cores.He wouldn't be able to assim-
ilate it at all.Hoping there were no self-detonaters,DarkAngel extended his pen-
umbra, just a sort of tap on the probes "shoulder".It reacted automatically,
orienting on him, and darkening to black.In a picosecond, it would strike.The
gridwarrior waited until its systems reached critical mass, then hit MAX FORWARD
Slamming into its power center,he almost lost consciousness right there.Fight-
ing the jolts of blackslag crashing his shell,DarkAngel opened his core and
sent 33 gigawatts coursing through the destroyers nerve centers.The power
overload continued to build.Just as he was about to scream from the pain, the
systems crashed.The probe went completely dead, releasing his core.Slowly the
warrior uncoiled his penumbra and backed away.


To Ryker the battle lasted 1.1 seconds.The probe turned,Darkangel hit it with a
brilliant explosion, and then backed away, victorious.The probe turned complete
ly opaque and shattered.Ryker cruised up and got the others dazed attention."We
gotta go man,Turing will be cruising by after a smashup like that."Slowly, they
threaded their way through the banks standard defenses, which snapped shut
behind them."You got the data?"Ryker nodded."Believe it,baby.Its all encoded,
but a couple rounds with the Plexer and we'll have it."


A brief dizzying feeling of vertigo, and the disconcerting thud, as your mind
slammed back into your body.Where did all this meat come from,was a question
the DarkAngel always asked himself, in the first seconds after logging out of
cyberspace.Running his hands through long sweat-drenched hair, he stumbled to
the cooler.Pulling out a liter-jug of water, he drank it all in one continuous
gulp.Ryker sighed, as he pulled the trodes off his forehead.The aftermath of
coming down from run,always left him melancholy.Transferring the data to the
decoding Multi-plexer comp, he turned to watch the other with amusement."Your
getting old,man.I can't how long it took you to axe that probe.'Could've had
lunch."DarkAngel grinned as he threw the empty water bottle at him."Lunch?
Thats your ass,buddy.YOU would've been lunch, if not for me.I do admit the
systems seem to be getting better armored.I'll have to work on that."Just then
the vid-phone rang........





******************************************************************************


The DarkAngel



"Don't count me out till you see the box going in the ground..."