From: whisper@garden.WPI.EDU (Robert Johan Enters)
Subject: Another Whispered Tale
Date: 4 May 1994 16:07:17 GMT
Okay, to compensate for last Non-CP story, here some more CP stuff.
Part of it appeared some months ago, but has been touched up a bit,
and now finished, so to refresh, I begin with the first part here.
Nariz (1/7)
The trid-screen flared to life, and a uniformed female
appeared in the expensively worked chrome holographic display
case. As she opened her full mouth to speak, her metallic teeth
flashed in the glaring light of the remote recording room.
"This is commander Shi-Lahr, ser. The director requests your
presence at the Duhr-Fhengg building soonest. He is displeased at
the resistance his plans have met in the streets. We need more
support from the dark side of society. The director will want you
to do something about that."
I shrugged my foggy head in an attempt to clear it from too
much sake, and shoved the beautiful naked whore who was draped
all over me off of me, so I could move. I struggled out of bed,
and grabbed my blue silken robe around me.
"Of course commander. You can tell the director to expect me
to be at the palace by tomorrow morning."
"Thank you ser Nariz. I will see you then."
As the connection closed, the display died, and I scowled
darkly at the fast fading image. I began muttering annoyedly to
myself while scoping around the spacious room for things I should
bring with me for the trip to the continental americas. I cast a
glance at the oriental girl who was still completely under from
the after effects of the drugs she took several hours ago.
"I will see you then. Bitch. Didn't they ever tell you there
is a fraggin time difference between Kyoto and San Fran? It is
vulkin four a.m. here. What is this drek anywayz. They can't
vulkin handle the shadow dwellers for a week without my
assistance."
'Okay', I thought to myself. 'Got to be there by tomorrow
morning. Flight on the fastest shuttle I can get will take, ohh,
four hours. That gives me about sixteen hours to prepare. Lemme
see. What do I have to do.'
I set my alarm, and went back to get some more precious z's.
By the time the alarm went off, the oriental girl was awake,
what was her name again? Oh yeah 'Gin Blossom'. At least that is
what she said it was, and what she tasted like. Heh heh. She
looked at me in that smile I can't resist and I thought to
myself, what the heck, I have some time, and she is already paid
for, by the company. Heh heh.
After an exhaustive hour of fun, I disentangled myself from
her warm embrace, and pulled myself together and towards the
shower. Gin Blossom yawned deeply and stretched out luxuriously
on the large bed. She got up too, and threw some gauzy white
silken robe on. When I got out of the shower, she was sitting
attentively by the side of the bed, waiting for me to choose the
clothes I would wear today.
I chose a snazzy rayon blouse of the latest in Parisian
fashion, and some flashy purple dress pants. A real leather
jacket completed the image with some real crocodile shoes. I
smiled at myself in the large mirror and looked at Blossom who
was peeking over my shoulder. She gave a nod of appreciation. Off
course she would, I thought with a grin.
Though previously pissed off at being so rudely awakened, it
would be fun to again work the streets. Ah, the rush of adrenalin
when things don't go as you planned, and the satisfaction when
you make it all work anyways. Vacationing out here in the Nippon
Steel arcology at Kyoto was a definite necessity every once in a
while, but still, I could not do without the tensions and dangers
accompanying the dark side of society. I packed the gear I would
need on the trip, and called my body-guards when I was about
ready. The girl left when my body guards had arrived outside. She
told me to call her when I was in town again, and she knew I
would. She was extremely competent and sexy. One of those
rarities trained from birth to serve the upper ranks of corporate
hierarchy.
I closed the large steel doors to my apartment with a slight
feeling of sadness. It had been too short. Oh well, the company
called, and I would run to do their bidding. My guards were a
nondescript bunch of suited men and women. You could not tell
from casually looking at them, but all were wired up to their
eyelids, and specialized in one kind of killing people or
another. I myself did not even pack a gun. At least not on me
personally. I did have one predator in my little briefcase, but
did not expect to need it. Not yet anyways.
The large limo of western EC make stood ready, doors held
open by more guards. Yeah yeah. Fuchi International valued its
premier Mentad Master of Assassins quite highly I am proud to
say. It is so good to be valued. I slid into the leather seats in
the back, and was accompanied by two of the guards. The others
followed in two accompanying limo's. I turned my attention
towards the on-line computers, and asked it for the newest news
on the stock market. Ahh it is so good to often know what is
going to happen to different companies before others do. I mean,
not like the company doesn't pay me enuff, but it never hurts to
have an extra couple million nuyen on hand, you know what I'm
saying? If they knew of my existence, Forbes Magazine would
probably list me up there among the top ten-thousand richest in
the world. But then again, there were more people like me.
The limo weaved its way through the afternoon traffic, and
crawled ever closer to Kyoto International Airport. Arriving
there, I stepped up to the nearly deserted gates for those who
did not need to wait in line with the masses. Two CEO's from
Matshishita Corp and their body guards were in front of me. My
and their guards eyed eachother fiercely and subsequently ignored
eachother as though the others were less competent than they. I
just smiled at the display, and waited patiently for the old
geezers and their drekhead security goons to get their act
together and proceed.
A few minutes later I walked across the noisy tarmac toward
a private shuttle, surrounded by my own security squad. We
boarded without further delay, and began our trip to San
Francisco. On the plane I did some playing around on the stock
market. One of my operatives had glanced some info in one of
Namurita Securities databanks on some project that was near
completion. It should hit the markets in several days, sending
their failing stocks back up. I bought several thousand options,
and then wandered the public nets for some time. Not being a good
decker, I left the illegal stuff to others better equipped to
meet that challenge. Suddenly I saw on my DOW-monitor that Sukhoi
stocks were rising. Ahh. Another one of my little side deals
coming to fruition. My favorite decker had spotted that one.
Bless her. Had to time the selling right on that one.
--
____ ____ Whisper, not only the president of D. S. I., but also a member.
\ -||||- / "Jesus saves... and takes only half damage...................."
D.\\S.//I. "Life is a bitch......And she's got a critical case of PMS...."
\/ The Whisper Of The Net (whisper@wpi.edu) a.k.a. -=# Neuron #=-
From: whisper@wpi.WPI.EDU (Robert Johan Enters)
Subject: Whispered Tales Continue
Date: 6 May 1994 17:25:18 GMT
Okay, here more of the story, last time on the net got around only to
posting the first part, rest coming now....
Nariz (2/7)
Some three hours, fifty five minutes later and sixhundred
thousand nuyen richer, the shuttle began its final approach at
San Fran International. I felt good. Then I remembered I would
first have to see that pompous 8 hertz brain of a director. How
that fool had ever risen so far was beyond me. I guess that at
some point reliability and loyalty counted for more than
competence. Well, I didn't give a chip. One more year and my
contract ran out. I would retire the corporate slavery thing, and
become a free-lancer. Probably would have to dodge some corp
goons for some time, until they gave up when none of their razor
heads returned alive. Heh heh. But business first.
At the airport, more limo's were waiting, and the sun just
began to come up. We all boarded the cars, and were whisked off
to the large glass and plasti-steel triple tower building deep in
the centre of the city. The Duhr-Fengg. How did they ever come up
with THAT name. The streets were deserted, it was still too early
for most people to go to work. Lowlife's, drugheads and homeless
were the only ones moving around sluggishly on the sidewalks. By
the time we got to our destination, the first corp securidudes
began clearing the streets of the dregs of humanity, so that the
corporate sector would look nice and be safe for the sarariman
rush at eight.
When we exited the stretch jags, we were greeted by just
such a 'clean-team' exiting the Duhr-Fengg. A security dudette
led us to the Mr. Director's office. I had been here before, but
they had refurbished the building recently, and changed all the
offices around. Presumably because they wanted a change of
scenery, personally I knew it was because the lay-out of the
building had become too widely known. After three of Fuchi's
prime deckers had been 'recruited' from this building by runners
purportly contracted by Cyrix Cybersystems, the security of this
building had become the laughing stock of the pacific sprawl
corporate hierarchy.
I noticed they had done a good job of turning this place
into a fortress. Nice camera networks, badge-checkpoints,
maglocks, palm-locks and eye-id's, and unobtrusive guards
everywhere. Finally we got to a long hallway, with softlight
columns along the sides of the walls. Nice sterile grey colours,
and a large double black door at the end, with the corporate logo
in gold painted in the middle. Even before we got near the double
doors, they swung open soundlessly, and two huge razor-heads
stood at each side, the menace in their mechanical eyes
communicating I was to go on alone, and leave my security detail
out here. I nodded to my guards, and they relaxed slightly.
Officially they were contracted by Fuchi and loyal to the
company, but I paid them more than the company, and treated them
better. If push came to shove, they would fight Fuchi security
rather than turn on me.
Inside was your average unimaginatively imposing high
corporate suit office. Large black desk with inbuilt computer and
full communications systems. Large comfy fakeleather chairs, a
conference table with several more chairs off to the side, a
little cabinet with assorted drinks and drugs for relaxation, and
ugly modern art on the walls. One wall would probably open onto a
large trid screen, and such standard tricks. The Director sat in
his chair behind the desk, and waved me in expansively, as he
tried to greet me around a large cigar. I took his mumblings to
be something along the lines of 'come in and have a seat'.
I set my nicest fake smile on my face, and went over to the
chair opposite of the Director, and sat down, declining his offer
for a cigar.
"Hello Mr. Director. What can I do for you today?"
The fat slob grinned at me, and the hunted look in his eyes,
and signs of drug abuse told me he was in trouble and needed me
to bail him out. As usual.
"Well, Mr. Nariz. See..... I have this <puff..puff> small
problem." He said still slobbering at his cigar.
"You see, the board is not satisfied with my efforts at
making this building impenetrable. You saw what I did neh? You
like it? Good security neh?"
I nodded my agreement there. After all, the poor excuse of a
sumo-wrestler had done a pretty good job there. The fat oriental
continued on.
"Not enough they say. Security measures good, but not
enough. Fuchi lost much face, much honor, by loosing those three
deckers, neh? Have to get them back, is what the board says. Have
to extract them back from Cyrix or kill them to teach traitors a
lesson. No one leaves the fold of Fuchi unless Fuchi lets you,
neh?"
At this he looked pointedly at me. The board knew I would
probably try to leave them at the end of my contract. I had
repeatedly refused to extend the contract. This was supposed to
scare me into staying or something? Hey, if they needed ME to
deal out such punishment, how could I be afraid of them eh? The
Director continued.
"I try to contact shadow-runners, but they not know me. Not
trust me. I offer huge sums of money, but still they not trust
me. That is what I need you for. I want you to organize the
extraction of our stray brethren." He looked expectingly at me.
His career depended on my ability to get him his deckers back.
I grinned at his situation. Inside I thought 'serves you right
drughead', but openly I said.
"Of course Mr. Director. That shouldn't be too much of a
problem. It would be expensive..."
Immediately the director sprung in.
"That will not be a problem. Money available. Give you
account for expenses of five million nuyen up-front. It is VITAL
we teach Cyrix a lesson. They have been aggressive across the
board. As a secondary mission, you will also try to steal data
and destroy equipment at their facility."
"Hmm. Sure. Nema Problema. You have the credstick? And what
kind of time-frame we talking about?"
The director fumbled in a small drawer under his desk, and
produced a shiny aluminum credstick and rolled it across the
large desk. I caught it as it fell off the side of the desk on my
end.
"Here is the creds, and I would like to see all three freed
within a month's time. If that is no problem to you."
"Of course not. You got any clue as to their whereabouts? I
could find it all out myself natch, but why bother if the
knowledge is already here?"
"Two of the deckers, Mr. Villefranche and Mr. Peng, are kept
at the L.A. Cyrix Parks Arcology, we have no idea where they are
holding Mrs. Tanaka."
"Okay. Two at the brain-park, and one unknown. Shouldn't be
too much of a problem. I'll get right on it."
I pocketed the credstick, and made my way out, bowing and
smiling pleasantly. All faked natch. I could get so much more
done if I did not have to clean up the drek of other people's
stupidity. I had told Mr. Director thousands of times this
building was not secure, his own security chief, that uniformed
bitch Shi-Lahr, even told him several times, but he kept whining
about the costs, and his profit margins being so slim as they
were. Yeah, well now it is going to cost him a lot more.
--
____ ____ Whisper, not only the president of D. S. I., but also a member.
\ -||||- / "Jesus saves... and takes only half damage...................."
D.\\S.//I. "Life is a bitch......And she's got a critical case of PMS...."
\/ The Whisper Of The Net (whisper@wpi.edu) a.k.a. -=# Neuron #=-
From: whisper@wpi.WPI.EDU (Robert Johan Enters)
Subject: Whispered Tales Continued
Date: 6 May 1994 17:26:26 GMT
Nariz (3/7)
As I walked through the building, on my way out, I bumped
into Shi-Lahr. Think of the Devil. It could not have been
coincidence. She looked at me with a wry smile on her face,
reminding me of the state she contacted me in last morning. Yeah,
you had your fun bitch, now what do you want.
"Hello my dear Shi-Lahr, how are you this morning?" I said
instead.
"Well well, if it isn't mister sleepy head himself. So, what
was that talk all about?" She said sweetly.
Hey don't rub it in, okay? She didn't know? She is the
bloody head of security here! Need to know bulldrek.
"Oh. Our Mr. Director has a small problem he wants me to
fix. Nothing special." Was all I said. Hey, professional ethics
you know? I can't tell her if he doesn't want her to know.
"Hmm." She said eloquently. "Sure. Wouldn't have anything to
do with the three steals neh?"
I looked at her with a look that said 'are you kidding me?',
but she did not fall for it.
"Off course you are." She said. "I understand. HE does not
want me to know eh? Well that is okay. Just let me know if there
is anything I need to know, or if there is anything I can do to
help eh?"
I looked at her dubiously, but she appeared to mean it. What
was this deal of being all so agreeable all of a sudden. She
always hated me for my illegal activities before, but now she is
even offering to help me? I guess this 'small problem' will
affect more careers than just the Director's. Or does she want
part of the credit? You never know these days. Could of course
also be both. Or something completely different. Everything was
possible, in these days when the meddling hand of a corporate
exec reached farther than that of most absolute monarchs.
I mumbled goodbye, and a thanks for her help, still a bit
befuddled. Must be that damn jet-lag. I knew I should have taken
those drugs. But nooo. I had to stay 'clear' headed for the
Director's meeting. I hastened my step to my motorcade, and as
soon as I was inside my jag, I pulled a small drug-gun from the
small box, and selected two small vials from the fridge. I
quickly injected myself, and settled down to relax and let the
drugs take effect. I felt better already.
The cars began to move. They knew where to go. I had a
special mansion just outside the sprawl, an hour's ride away.
>From there I would be able to conduct my operations. I thought it
over. Five mil. Not bad. Not bad at all. I could get quite a team
assembled for that much. Good Muscle and Brain don't come cheap,
but I had plenty cred to waste. Even Fuchi Sec would help me if
needed. Yeah, biz definitely looked righteous.
During the ride I informed my core-crew at the mansion of
our mission. The line was secured, over a sat owned by Dark
Savants International, a paperwork corporation I possessed. The
core crew would already have a preliminary list of prospective
employee's. Extractions were tricky biz. You had to get in and
out physically. Getting in was not the prob. I never is. But
getting out without getting geeked. Now there's the tricky part.
There was no way in hell we would be able to reach quarantine
quarters without alerting guards.
Quarantine quarters was where they would most likely be. We
would have to make sure natch, but that is usually where they put
newly recruited staffers. Just in case they decided to have a
change of heart. We would need some muscle that had done such ops
before. The third one would have to be found period. That would
mean a lot of snooping around the Matrix. We would need some good
net-runners for that. But first things first. The extraction of
the defectors whose presence we knew. We should be able to
accomplish that within the week if all went well.
Finally we pulled up to the large iron-grilled gate. The
gate opened on our approach, and six heavily armed men in
military gear waved us through from positions in and around the
gate-house. We drove up the pleasantly landscaped way to the
mansion proper, nicely disguising the various laser snoops, body-
capacitors, and other lethal traps and alert triggers. Left and
right we passed several outhouses and annexes. Several of those
had been turned into barracks for my own little private merc
army. Off to the right, on a nicely manicured lawn, stood five
helicopters. Two regular commercial heli's and two heavy assault-
choppers and an old yet still very effective Cobra 2020 stolen
from a military site.
When the motorcade arrived at the front gate of the mansion,
three of my finest friends and employees stood waiting. Ser
Rhavash, a lawyer originally from India. He looked after the
estate when I was not here, and handled all my legal cases. He
was one of the nastier lawyers in the sprawl in the field of
financial matters. Then there was Ser Du-Pont. No relation with
the chemicals giant, but an ex officer in the Legion Etrangere.
We often resorted to calling him Dew-Point. He oversaw house
security around here. Last but definitely not least, Ser
Hernandez, or Cindy. Our console-girl, decker extraordinaire. One
of the best not in the corporate fold. She went by the name and
personality of Soulcatcher when traversing the Matrix at the
speed of thought. We rescued her from a situation somewhere in
the Boston part of the eastern sprawl.
I stepped out into the by now glaring sun, and walked up to
them, embracing them one after the other. I kissed Cindy
passionately on the mouth.
"Ahh. It is good to be back again. You know of the
interesting problem we have been posed. I already took the
liberty of transferring our cut of twenty percent to our
accounts. We are all a quarter of a mil richer now, so let us get
to work and earn it." That last with a wry grin. We all knew we
were not into it for the money, but rather for the fun. Of course
the money was good to have, but none of us were really what you
would call strapped for cash.
"So how was your stay at the Kyoto Arcology eh? How much
REST did you get eh?" Said Dewpoint with a snigger.
"Very funny. Why don't you tell me what you got for me for
the coming op. And Cindy. Any info on our missing Mrs. Tanaka?"
Cindy answered first.
"Nope. Zilch. Nada. No trace. Either damned good hidden, or
not present at the Cyrix arc. Ah found traces of our otheh two
target's whereabouts, and they seem to be held in the Q-Quahtahs
as you thought. Anyting special about our Mrs. Tanaka? Whutz her
specialty? Whaz she do like? Might'n help mah search y'know?"
Dewpoint spoke.
"I have a good list of peoples for you. Among them a gang
who have perpetrated a steal once before in the Cyrix arc. Also a
whole street gang down on its luck we might be able to use as a
diversion when we are coming out. And then several other
specialists. I wanted to hire a team of three other deckers to
aid Mrs. Hernandez in her search for Mrs. Tanaka's location as
soon as possible. The rest can wait until we have a better attack
plan laid out and know what we need."
I answered.
"Good thinking. We have to find our Mrs. Tanaka as quickly
as possible. We only have a month's time. More than enuff if we
know where to go, but... Let's not take any chances. Contact the
deckers and have them flown in soonest."
"On Mrs. Tanaka's specialty. Hmm. From what I understand
exactly the same as the other two. They were all three working on
some revolutionary sim-sense technology. Not anything I would
understand."
"Dat's strange. Wha would they take her to anotha place? If
they worked on da same project, Ah would think they would put da
team back togethah. They put da othah two back togethah, wha not
Mrs. Tanaka?"
"Well, we'll talk more inside." Gotta look out for the
radiation ya know. Sucks having no Ozone layer anymore. Stay out
in the direct sun unprotected for more than twenty minutes, and
you have a guaranteed cancer rap. Supposedly Arctic Tech and Du-
Pont are working together on a scheme to reinstall a new ozone
layer, but the governments of the world cannot agree on a proper
finance share. Oh well. At least the Chem's and Biotec's make
tons of money off of the sun-protection industry, and we wouldn't
wanna ruin their profits now would we?
--
____ ____ Whisper, not only the president of D. S. I., but also a member.
\ -||||- / "Jesus saves... and takes only half damage...................."
D.\\S.//I. "Life is a bitch......And she's got a critical case of PMS...."
\/ The Whisper Of The Net (whisper@wpi.edu) a.k.a. -=# Neuron #=-
From: whisper@wpi.WPI.EDU (Robert Johan Enters)
Subject: Whispered Tales Continued
Date: 6 May 1994 17:27:24 GMT
Nariz (4/7)
Inside the house, wires traced everywhere. Would have been
too expensive to redo the entire house to accommodate for all the
IS and 'smart-house' stuff. Wouldn't wanna wreck a perfectly
preserved 19th century house anyways eh?
We headed for the lounge, and settled in comfy chairs.
Rhavash took off, excusing himself that he had to follow the Hang
Seng closely. He had some deal going on. What else is new. One of
the servants went around asking us what we would like to drink,
and returned shortly with the drinks.
"Soo. How's the sprawl been this last week. Anything
spectacular happened?" I started off.
"Sides the Cyrix bust, not much. Had a serial killer tha
offed a few media starlets, but he got caught before he could get
his fifth victim. Nomura Securities' computah core got invaded,
but word has it tha intrudahs were tracked down, the stolen data
taken back, and tha intrudahs geeked." Answered Cindy.
Some more tidbits were traded, and small talk made. Finally.
"Okay, let's get down to biz."
I sat hunched down in the darkened van. Listening to the
steady rain fall on the metal roof, and splattering off the small
antenna dish. Time to prep. Du Pont switched on the
communications gear of the van, but kept everything as dark as
possible. Small old black and white low radiation tv screens
flared to life, and showed annoying static. Small status LEDs
blinked a friendly green on large boards. The labels were
unreadably in the relative dark, but we knew exactly what each
one stood for.
"I'll go in now and get you your video feed."
Having said that, Cindy jacked in. It took a few minutes,
and suddenly, the screens showed the images from various security
cameras inside and around the Cyrix Park Arcology. Du Pont and I
put on our head phones.
"Team A come in please..."
"Yeah. This is Cory. We can see the guards at the entrance.
No prob there. Long as you can keep the alarm from going off.
Were ready to rush in soon as the guards drop."
"You worry about your problems, we worry about our own. Team
B..."
"Alex here. We are across the street, behind some cars. We
can see Cory's positions. Our snipers are ready to take care of
the guards. I hope your technomancer's lock-breaker will work."
"Team C.."
"Choppers stand ready."
"Team D..."
"Me and da boyz stand ready to do our part."
Good. They had better. It was always tricky to hire on an
entire gang, and pay them in weapons up front. But hey. They
would make a great distraction once inside the Brainpark. Cyrix
guards would have their hands full dealing with the random
violence from the gangers. Hopefully they would miss the
purposeful movements of the extraction and support teams. Luck
was with us in that both Villefranche and Peng were quartered in
the same suite. That sure made things a lot less complicated.
"Team B. Drop em. Team A, rush the gate."
The snipers used silencers. The guards fell as though coming
off a wet-wired trip. From our little screens we saw Alex's face
come into view at the gate's terminal, and insert the code key we
acquired from our technomancer. We held our breath's a prolonged
second, then we heard the synthetic voice coming in through the
mike Alex was carrying.
"'Access granted. Welcome Mr. Ahiru.'"
I groaned inwardly. Trust the humor of that drekkin idiot
techie to encode the fake key with the id of Cyrix's CEO. Well,
that would sure surprise their logs eh?
"Team B in."
Alex whispered, and his face disappeared from view. Shapes
of his teammates blurred past. On another monitor, I saw them run
across the well manicured lawns of the Park Gardens, towards the
low structure housing our targets. They took up positions on
either side of the door of the building. Alex took out the key
again, and signalled to the camera from where we were tracking
him. Now it got tricky. Taking control of the outside camera's
was no prob. The inside ones, was another matter. Our presence
would be impossible to withhold from Cyrix security people once
we entered the building. Time for a distraction.
"Team D. Do your worst."
Soon a horde of gang bangers rushed inside the still open
gates, and began shooting around, shortly after Cindy released
our control of the camera's. We wouldn't wanna attract attention
that pro's were also involved now would we. It did suck having to
rely on audio only tho. The street rocked as the gangers blew up
the gate, just for kicks.
Outside the van, shooting began in earnest, interspersed by
the occasional grenade or rocket explosion. The gangers were
doing good. Nice to know they upheld their end of the contract.
Now hope the extraction teams are quick enough to get out before
the gangers retreat. The cover should be useful. Back to the
mikes.
"Hey Boss. Alex here. Got in nilpersp. Downed two obnox sec-
goons. Are in the hall leading to the arboritum. Where next."
"See a sign that sez 'loading dock'?"
"Yah."
"Thaddaway."
"Sure thing Boss."
Du Pont had a micro of the blueprints to the building. Cost
us quite alot, but hey. It had better be worth it eh? He was
messing around with the controls, and brought up the correct
grids. We had traced a path through rarely used service tunnels
and passages. One, these were the least looked at, and two, there
was the least traffic there. We heard the sudden stutter of a
SMG, and the sound of a body falling.
"Alex?"
"Frag. We ran into a maintenance guy. Geeked the li'l
drekhead. Hope noone heard us."
"Same here. Hurry up man."
Du Pont kept giving them instructions, until they reached a
branch of tunnels with one leading towards the quarters where our
quarry was.
"Okay. You will be about a hundred meters to the left of the
door of our soon to be guests. Their door number is A-11-C-5X.
There are almost surely guards in that corridor, so come out
firing all you got, covering both ends."
"Yah. I know my biz boss. Nema Problema."
Shortly the sound of gunfire again graced my ears. This time
from multiple weapons, and sustained. Sounded like there were
more guards there than we expected. Drek.
"Alex? Whats goin on?"
"....<snap crackle pop>... seems they were evacuating our
friends. About ten nastily armoured Cyrix-Secs. ...<explosion>...
We pinned some down to our right. Benny is getting our friends.
But. Ehh. Seems we kinda winged them in the firefight. Hope the
goods are still valuable damaged?"
I rolled up my eyes. Can't these fuckups do ANYTHING right?
"How damaged is 'winged'?"
"Uhm. One is kinda gonna havta miss his right leg, the other
looks rather messy. Outcold, but still breathing. Covered in
blood, but not all his. Canna say boss. Will havta get them back
to that meditech of Cory's. Hey, YOU sed to come out guns blazin
and all. Anywayz I'll slap some tranq patches on and any other
stuff I can find in my medkit. We're outta here. Beginning the
retreat now. Benny can handle dragging both our friends. His HMG
got scragged anywayz."
"Okay. Sending in Cory and his gang to meet ya inside the
exit. Kay?"
"Yah. On it."
--
____ ____ Whisper, not only the president of D. S. I., but also a member.
\ -||||- / "Jesus saves... and takes only half damage...................."
D.\\S.//I. "Life is a bitch......And she's got a critical case of PMS...."
\/ The Whisper Of The Net (whisper@wpi.edu) a.k.a. -=# Neuron #=-
From: whisper@wpi.WPI.EDU (Robert Johan Enters)
Subject: Whispered Tales Continued
Date: 6 May 1994 17:28:24 GMT
Nariz (5/7)
Cory and his people rushed the buildings entrance, and
secured it quickly. This was the easy part. The hard part was
gonna be the run from the buildings back to the outer gate,
across an open grassfield. That was gonna be tricky. Then Sanchez
came online.
"Hey bossman. Me and da guyz are buggin out man. We done our
share. I lost a bunch of good people man. I'm zippin while I
still have some friends left. Nice doin biz with ya. See ya
around man. Sanchez out."
Great. No cover from that bunch anymore. Pressing them to
stay would do no good. It would only make our rep bad with the
other gangs. Seems like we'll have to try the choppers after all.
Flying choppers into arcologies is tricky biz. Attracts too much
attention ya know? So far, the police couldn't care less. But
when heavy weapons appear on the scene, so does the cops. Well,
drek. Not much choice now do I.
"Team D?"
"Yeah. Alisha here. You want us to come to the rescue?"
"that's the general idea. We need you there ETA ten minutes.
Can do?"
"No way. Need at least fifteen. We are on our way. See ya in
fifteen boss."
Shit. We would also have to evac with the choppers. I looked
at Cindy, who was now sitting behind the drivers controls of the
van. She looked back questioningly. I simply nodded.
"Hold on guys" Cindy said. "Were goin in."
I quickly grabbed the mike.
"Yo Vance. Were goin in. Follow us."
Behind us, another black van blinked its lights once, and
its engines started, just as Cindy kicked ours into gear. Our van
rushed through the destroyed gate, and the sound of the van
crunching over pieces of gate rattled loudly through the cabin,
as pieces of metal bounced off the underside. Cindy parked the
van between the LZ and the entrance to the main building, and
Vance quickly followed suit. The other van burst open, as our
backup people jumped out, guns flaring. They quickly took up
positions behind the shelter of the vans, and began shooting at
any Cyrix-Sec head that showed itself. Vance remained inside the
van, and was operating the gatling on the roof to deathly effect.
I winced as bullets hit our van solidly, and prayed the armour
would be enough. Just hope the corpsmen don't get their hands on
any grenade launchers yet. I tried to raise Alex once more.
"Yo Alex. Where are you at?"
"We have the entrance in sight. Coming out soon. Hows the
sit outside."
"Pretty bad. Miscalculated on the ETA of the choppers. We
will have to hang in there for another ten minutes. Get yer butts
behind the vans. You'll see them in front of the main entrance to
the complex. Hurry man."
"On the way boss."
I looked outside towards their side entrance, and saw them
come out a run. Benny was carrying two shapes slung over his
massive shoulders. Cyborgs can be so useful. As they ran for us,
fire erupted from an upper level, and two of our guys went down.
Attil, another cyborg, rushed through the bullethail, and dragged
them to the relative safety behind the vans. Vance shifted his
gatling to the spot, glass shattered, screeches could be heard,
and bodies fell down. Good shootin Tex. Our guests looked pretty
bad. Our own guys were already dead. What a waste of good people.
I tossed out two rocket launchers that I brought in our van, as
well as an ancient .50 LMG with several large ammo-belts. Benny
grabbed the LMG and the belts with a nasty gleam in his eyes. One
of our fallen had been his blood-brother.
I looked around me in the van, and saw Cindy. She was back
in the matrix, plugged in to confuse the cops as long as
possible, faking passwords and permits for our flying cavalry. As
far as anyone knew, they were just coming to bring some exec to
the Cyrix Arcology. Nothing special. Du Pont was playing with a
third rocket launcher.
"We'll give ourselves a little breathing room." He said with
an ugly grin.
Du Pont went outside the van, and got together the others
who had grabbed the rocket launchers, and spoke with them
briefly. Suddenly they all popped up and let loose. Three trails
snaked out towards the main entrance building. Fireworks galore.
The explosions shook the vans mightily. Silence reigned for a
minute or so. Good thing we had extra ammo in the vans. We were
running low even so. The gatling was silent. No ammo, no dice. I
raised our cav again.
"Hey Alisha. Get some fire under your asses okay. We have
the sit under control now, but I think Cyrix is mighty pissed
now. They'll have special ops people ready and here soon. We have
good people, but not that good ya know?"
"Yes boss. Workin on it sir. Where you gays at anywayz?"
"We are behind two vans that are getting peppered with
machinegun fire. We have two down wounded, two dead. Almost all
of our guys and girls with minor bulletwounds, but still up and
firing."
Three more minutes for cav to arrive. I shouted it to our
people. Cyrix was getting serious. A battleroid appeared through
the rubble of the main gate. Drek. Three rockets converged on it.
July fourth then and there. No dice said the roid. It came
straight on. Frag, we need that gatling. Benny screamed loudly,
and jumped up, firing madly. The large explosive slugs peppered
the roid, and it staggered under the impacts. The roid fell. We
cheered. Benny stopped firing, and the roid got back up. A nasty
one. Then Cory's technomancer pointed some weird device at the
roid. EMP gun. Good thinking. Snap crackle and pop, the roid went
down hard.
Behind them, heavily armoured Cyrix elite troopers had come
up tho. Benny went down, his cybered body shredded with armour
piercing. Not much left of him. The vans suddenly were so safe no
more. I dragged Cindy down to the floor of the van, just as
bullets ripped right through it. I heard a grunt from behind the
other wall, and as we crawled out of the disintegrating van, we
saw one of Cory's girls leaning slumped against the wall of the
van, most of her face missing. Then several more slugs came
through, and her body exploded in a red shower off the van's
side. Hyper Frag. I knew extractions were never simple, but this
was ridiculous.
--
____ ____ Whisper, not only the president of D. S. I., but also a member.
\ -||||- / "Jesus saves... and takes only half damage...................."
D.\\S.//I. "Life is a bitch......And she's got a critical case of PMS...."
\/ The Whisper Of The Net (whisper@wpi.edu) a.k.a. -=# Neuron #=-
From: whisper@wpi.WPI.EDU (Robert Johan Enters)
Subject: Whispered Tales Continued
Date: 6 May 1994 17:29:22 GMT
Nariz (6/7)
Then the air filled with the sweet sound of our choppers.
They came in swooping low, firing their guns and missiles as
though there was no tomorrow. That sure stopped Cyrix's troopers.
Dead. Heh heh. While the two attack choppers continued to fire
missiles into the Cyrix Arcology, we boarded the old large soviet
troop carriers. All were accounted for, and we bugged out. Minus
four of our people that is. Drek, that sure sucks eh? Four dead
to get two back. Man this biz can sometimes be screwed up.
Our phalanx of five choppers flew low over the streets, and
as added insult, Vance set off the self-destruct bombs in the
vans. Boom. Nice touch. A large fireball rose. Semtex is soo
cheap. You can do so much with a lot of it. We had to get away
fast. Our pilots roared the big machines feet off the ground.
Sure scared the hell out of a biker gang. All went scattering
around like ping pong balls as we blazed around a corner straight
into their path. Cindy was back decked in. No police yet. Seemed
her muddling had paid off. At least something that went
completely right. Without pursuit, we could head straight to our
safe house. There people waited, ready to hide these choppers in
large barn-sheds.
We all got out and went inside the house. We all crashed, as
meditechs rushed at us to treat the various wounds incurred. I
had to place a call tho.
"Hello. Mr. Nariz here. Private line with the Director
please."
The trivee screen changed, as the fat, still half sleeping
hideous form of our esteemed Director appeared.
"This better be good." He grumbled, groping around himself
for something off-screen. He found it, and his hand appeared with
a drug-gun. He injected himself, and his eyes cleared
considerably.
"Yes sir. We got Villefranche and Peng. Peng will need to
visit a bodyshop if he wants to be able to walk again, and
Villefranche will also be hospitalized for a week or so, but we
have them both. Cyrix Arcology is pretty wrecked. We sure lost a
lot of equipment, and we will be needing some more creds soon. We
are still looking for Mrs. Tanaka. No clue where she's at so
far."
The Director looked at me as if I were mad.
"Is this a secure line?"
'Moron' I thought. Would I be talking to you like this if it
weren't.
"Yes sir. It is."
The Director relaxed visibly. We talked some arrangements
for cred transfers and such, and disconnected. I mulled it over.
Strange that we couldn't find anything on the Tanaka witch. What
was so special about her that no word of her whereabouts could be
found anywhere. Something ain't right there. Well, no sense in
worrying now. Tonite, we celebrate a succesful run, those that
survived that is.
The next day, found us all in preparations to go our
seperate ways. The hired guns had taken their payment, and were
gathering their gear, we were packing up in order to return to
our San Fran mansion, and dig around the matrix for our missing
Mrs. Tanaka.
"Ah canna understand why da Tanaka woman wasna wid da
othahs." Whined Cindy for the hundreth time. A full week spent
snooping around, found no trace of her anywhere.
"Hmm. Well, some famous dude once said something on the
order of, if ya cant find something somewhere, it has to be
somewhere else." Cut in Du Pont.
"No shit sherlock. Whaddaya mean."
"Well. All indications are, that Mrs. Tanaka is nowhere to
be found at any corporation we checked. There is one we didn't
check. Fuchi itself."
"Aww. C'mon. Be serious man. Why would they kidnap their own
people?"
"Well, we know there has been a lot of friction between the
director and others. Among the others is our good friend Shi-
Lahr. If anyone is able to keep security related info from the
director, it is her. With the help of one of the vice prezzes or
someone like that. Makes sense?"
"Nah. Not really. But then again. Ahm not the person to talk
politics wid. I'll check it out. Just in case y'know."
"You do that."
Wonder of wonders. Several hours later, Cindy walked into
the study of the mansion where I had been enjoying some real
brandy, and was musing over possible next options. She had a look
of disbelief and wonder on her face.
"What is it dear?"
"Ah canna believe it. Tanaka is being held at the Duhr Fengg
itself. She never left the building. She is bein kept in one of
da sensory dep holdin tahnks operated by that Shi-Lahr slitch. Ah
caught some stuff muckin around. Tha filez of tha optic membanks
for da cameras that caught the initial abduction were altered. Ah
managed ta find how and managed ta delve up some deleted
backups."
"And? What really happened?"
"Interesting viewing. That's fer sure. Shi-Lahr had some of
her trusted liuetenants involved in tha defense that day capture
Tanaka under tha guise of goin aftah the Cyrix people. Musta
known ahead ah time about tha Cyrix gig. Canna find out who she
worked wid. Musta been some big guys."
"Hmm. Call in the others. This poses a possible problem."
Yeah. A bigger problem than I ever anticipated. Even before
Cindy could leave the room, Du Pont came bursting in. He looked
worried. I was scared shitless.
"What happened Dewpoint. Tell me. What is going on."
"Had a call from Hsi-Hsia. Told me he was there when it all
went down. Shi-Lahr killed the Director. She also killed the Vice
Prez, and blamed him for the death. She claims she killed the
Vice in self defense, when she saw him standing over the dead
body of the Director. Bulldrek. Hsi-Hsia was doing a special
sweep of the office for bugs. The Director suspected something
was up. Too late."
"Shit. Who is the next Director? Isn't that that snake
Melchoir De Castille. Damn. What else did he tell you."
"Their move was precipitated by our finding some data. They
had a trace on Cindy, must've been. The last Hsi-Hsia heard
before he bugged out to warn us was that their next move is
against us. Guess they don't like to leave loose ends. They'll be
coming for us soon. Within the week. We're dead man. No one can
hack it out alone against a corp."
"Shit. Nowhere to run either huh. They are fraggin
everywhere. Drek."
It was Cindy who came up with the brilliant plan. We would
make a stand. Hire a whole army of mercenaries to defend the
mansion. Then in the heaviest fighting, we would all 'die'. In
reality, we would just make a run for it. Simple. Same kinda
trick the corp tried with Tanaka. We knew what they did wrong.
They left traces. We would not. We would be better prepared. It
would work. It had to.
--
____ ____ Whisper, not only the president of D. S. I., but also a member.
\ -||||- / "Jesus saves... and takes only half damage...................."
D.\\S.//I. "Life is a bitch......And she's got a critical case of PMS...."
\/ The Whisper Of The Net (whisper@wpi.edu) a.k.a. -=# Neuron #=-
From: whisper@wpi.WPI.EDU (Robert Johan Enters)
Subject: Whispered Tales Continued
Date: 6 May 1994 17:30:21 GMT
Nariz (7/7)
The next day, our troops began trickling in. Among them our
old pals Alex and Cory and their highly trained people. I had
never seen this many street samurai, cyber-ninjas and
technomancers put together. Traps were put everywhere. Our
technomancers went all out. They had the proverbial field day.
The fighting was expected to be vicious. We had already caught
word the police had been warned by Fuchi to stay away from our
area. That was definitely a bad sign.
The following few days were filled with anxious waiting.
People jumped at the least sign of trouble. Two street samurai
cut eachother up so bad they had to leave for a hospital when
they mistook eachother for corp-sec dudes. The choppers were
ready for dustoff in seconds. The mansion had become a munitions
dump and barracks. The troops amassed here numbered literally in
the hundreds. Two hundred forty seven to be precise.
I wandered around the central comm room. Screens flashed
info at us from all six walls in the hexagonal room. Soft voices
murmured throughout the room, checks and commands flowing in a
constant stream. The camera's showed almost all spots of the
mansion grounds, and those surrounding it.
I felt trouble was here before it happened. I felt a stab at
my gut, and I knew it had begun. Radar began beeping. Choppers
inbound. Then the camera's pointed to the outside perimeter went
blank one after the other. General alert was sounded, and the
first rounds were already being fired outside. Cindy was already
here. Dew-Point and Rhavash came running inside within a minute.
The grounds rocked with explosions. Our choppers were in the
air, engaging the Fuchi helicopters. From our comm gear things
seemed to go well. Casualties were light on our side, and
extremely heavy on the enemy side. But these were just street
gangs and other trash, thrown at us to trip the traps and see
where our positions were. Soon the real fighting would begin.
Then shouts went up from along the comm-net. Tanks were on
the way. Along the mansion grounds, the walls and fencework were
trashed as tanks penetrated the perimeter. Rocket launchers and
those HMG's capable of firing depleted uranium slugs came into
action. Soon the tanks were gone. But the damage they had wrought
was substantial. The top floors of the mansion were ablaze and
demolished. Luckily we were holed up in the basement levels.
Then Fuchi Heavy Forces appeared on the scene. Our hired
guns fought well, but one after the other surrendered or were
killed. From those camera's still working, we saw over a thousand
Fuchi HF moving in. They were supported by several bioroids. One
after the other, bunkers fell, or people came out with their
hands high. Smoke filled the mansion grounds. The choppers had
been shot down a while ago.
Then automated Mansion Security took over. Over a hundred
FHF went down. Lasers pierced the air, and anything else, bullets
zinged around, and grenades exploded. One by one, auto-guns were
destroyed or ran out of ammo. The laser batteries overheated, and
shut themselves down. Time to bug out. The four of us were left
with only six of our most loyal bodyguards. The rest was dead or
dying, or had already surrendered. The house above us was a
shambles. We counted on them taking awhile to dig through the
rubble at us. We should have some time.
We ran through the concrete corridors, deep under the
mansion floor. Finally we came at our destination. A secret room.
Only myself and Cindy knew of it. We had built it ourselves, from
plans raided from a company, whose computer core subsequently was
destroyed, and all info lost as far as they were concerned. It
was a veritable teleporter. The receiver was in a little known
house in the Bahama's. It was probably the only one in operation,
though word was that Imperial Dynamics had progressed quite far
in research along these lines.
We had set up everything in the lower levels to explode
after we left, leaving no trace of where we had gone. Twenty dead
bodies were already laying around, to be found and mistaken for
us, and anyone with us. All went according to plan. We would do
it. We would actually get the best of a corp.
Suddenly, Rhavash took out his weapon, and shot our six
bodyguards. Cindy, Du Pont and me looked at him aghast.
"What have you done! What is that good for!"
Shouted Du Pont. Rhavash laughed. He pointed his SMG at us
now.
"Die you bastard!"
Screamed Du Pont, and he brought up his own SMG, and shot
Rhavash point blank. Bullets thudded into Rhavash's body, but he
didn't go down. At this distance, this couldn't be armor. At
least he would have gone down. What the fuck. Rhavash laughed
again. He looked at us with a smirk on his face.
"You really thought you could outsmart a corporation eh? Did
you really think we were unaware you would have some ace up your
sleeve? Did you really think we wouldn't be prepared for that?"
I looked shocked at him.
"Rhavash! How could you. After all these years of
friendship! You betray us to the corps! How much did they pay you
Rhavash!"
Rhavash laughed again.
"Actually, I am not Rhavash."
Rhavash put the hand not holding the SMG to his face, and
tore at it. Beneath a metallic gleam appeared. A Duplicate! They
replaced Rhavash with a Cyber-Duplicate! Drek. Game over.
'Rhavash' pointed the gun nonchalantly at Du Pont, and shots rang
out. Du Pont went down in a shower of exploding flesh and blood.
The thud of his body falling rang loudly in my ears. I was in
shock. As if in slow motion, I turned to Cindy, and looked at her
in dismay. She looked transfixed at the mangled body of Dewpoint.
She sobbed uncontrollable.
Emotionlessly, the Cyber-Duplicant turned its weapon on
Cindy, she looked at the gun as though uncomprehending her fate.
She stared dumbly at it, and raised her head to look at the
unhuman face of the bioroid, eyes filled with the hope this was
all a nightmare, and Rhavash would suddenly some out and say it
was all a joke. She still had that hopeful look on her face, as
her body jerked with the multiple impacts of the slugs from the
robot's gun. Jets of blood gushed out of the back of her body,
splashing the concrete wall. She fell face forward, her body
slumped over that of Du Pont's.
My mind raced in circles. I reacted without really thinking.
I kicked at the gun, and managed by some luck to dislodge it from
the surprised bioroid. I punched the self destruct for the
charges throughout the basement, and dashed for the waiting
teleporter. The screen beside the platform showed the teleporter
to be ready for input, and I stepped up to the pad, hoping I
would be in time. The bioroid was faster. He rushed the controls,
and began hacking at the circuitry.
My hopes were dashed when the screen blinked and read
'malfunction, unable to disintegrate subject matter'. Drek. I
still had my gun. Bullets flared again. This time it was me
hitting the bioroid. Pieces of skin flaked off the cybernetic
frame, as I emptied my magazine. Then in a gesture of impotence,
I flung the small Ingram at the robot. It caught it, and crushed
it in it's left hand. 'Rhavash' laughed again. It just stood
there.
"Aren't you going to kill me too! You bastard. Piece of
shit!"
The bioroid laughed again.
"No need. This place will blow up in three seconds. Why
bother."
I looked at the thing in horror.
"Fuck you!.........."
The basement blew, sending a huge explosion of dirt and
concrete up, killing many Fuchi personnel busily digging at the
foundations of the destroyed mansion. The explosion rocked the
area, and was recorded as an earthquake of 2.9 on the richter
scale by the Los Angeles Earthquake Warning Center. The media
reported it as a Fuchi Forces training accident. A munitions
depot blew, killing over six hundred. The unfortunate accident
claimed amongst others the life of the famed Shadow-Master, Ser
Nariz. The loss was considered unfortunate, especially so
shortly after the deaths of the Director of East Coast
Operations, and the Vice President of Fuchi Cybersystems
International.
--
____ ____ Whisper, not only the president of D. S. I., but also a member.
\ -||||- / "Jesus saves... and takes only half damage...................."
D.\\S.//I. "Life is a bitch......And she's got a critical case of PMS...."
\/ The Whisper Of The Net (whisper@wpi.edu) a.k.a. -=# Neuron #=-
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