I froze, making a quick calculation on booking it over turning to face the man. Eventually, my rationality won out over my fight-or-flight instinct and I turned back. “Sir?”
“Next time, don’t put it out so fast, chek? I won’t tell if you won’t.” He smiled and took a drag of his cigarette. The smoke came out pitch black and actually smelled kind of good compared to the cheap one I used. At least, for a cigarette. It was still terrible, but the Neo-Jokers sure knew how to make them.
“Thank you, sir.” I dipped my head and entered the building.
Infiltration successful. Getting in was almost pitifully easy amongst medium corporations. They toed the line of easily infiltratable security and being so small everyone knew everyone. Such a thing definitely wouldn’t have worked at Ajay’s where the guy knew all of his workers… or maybe not considering how vain he seemed…
It definitely wouldn’t have worked at somewhere like Mystech or Raijin where their security had security. Most assuredly not Sentinel. The place was practically para-military. Maybe Medtech? They were essentially a massive hospital, so it wouldn’t be impossible…
Anyway, I was in. Now came the complicated step of finding the right ID. I had talked to Feras about it this morning before he went back to sleep, and there was a high likelihood the IRF scanner was linked to the Artoras employee database. I needed someone who looked similar to me, at least enough so as not to raise any suspicions.
I slipped out of my jacket, covering my chest with it to hide the fact I had no apparent ID. After that, I walked around the hallways, keeping my head down to avoid cameras and passing by groups. I kept up a calm, casual walk that looked as if I knew where I was going.
Passing by a man, I snuck my hand by with Stalk, Hidden Hands, and Lethargic Presence active. Without anyone around noticing in part to their varied yawns, I swiped his badge and clipped it onto my shirt as a temporary measure. Thankfully, they weren’t the kind of IDs with photos. Just names, department codes, and a few other pieces of information.
Now came the difficult part, finding the right person. With the new badge, I became a lot more confident and took the stairs up to the second floor’s offices. I walked around, nodding to a few people as I went and holding the same dead smile most of them forced. No one stopped me or tried to talk to me; everyone was too busy living their own lives to care.
After turning down a few halls and following the directions of several signs, I arrived at the cubicle farm where dozens of employees were sitting at their desks working on various things. I checked the nearby placard on the wall; External IT Department.
I didn’t immediately walk in. I peeked through the cubicles, looking for a good target as I took in the offices on the edges of the halls. A guard passed towards me, and I started to move. Standing around would only look suspicious. I immediately entered the cubicle farm and headed towards the back.
Checking each one, I found someone that looked kind of like me, if I actually ate well, was taller, and older. If asked, I could play off as going to a sculptor. Preem. I ‘tripped’ into her cubicle, hitting the ground just in front of her with a light thunk. I twisted on the ground, further going into her cubicle.
The woman instantly bolted out of her chair like a pack of Dune Walkers were after her. Then, her brain kicked into gear and she offered me a hand with the same dead smile most corporate drones had. “Oh dear! Are you alright?”
I may not be around corpos much, but I could read between the lines. By her stilted words and aggravated smile, she really meant ‘get out’. I took her offered hand, leaning on her as I swapped my badge with hers. “T-thank you! Sorry for the trouble.”
After that, I calmly exited the cubicle farm and headed for the stairs. Easiest heist of my life. Corporate drones just made for far too easy marks, especially after being let into their building. They were like sheep all gathered into a pasture for me, the wolf, to consume to my heart's content. ‘Course, breaking into anything important here would be incredibly difficult with the shepherds- I mean security, but simply snatching an ID? Child’s play.
Getting out of the building with my loot was even easier. For the most part, the security was here to keep people out, not in. I easily slid past the guards and exited out the front door, all while keeping my face obscured by my hat. After this, I really need to invest in a feature scrubber. They were pretty expensive luxury items, but not having to worry about cameras catching my face and the Crusade tracking me down would be more than worth it.
I got back to my bike and started the drive towards Ajay Insurance. As I went, I had my PA call up Feras. Like a gonk, I forgot my bag…
“Hello? Who is this?” His voice came across my commlink.
Right… I forgot to give him my number. “It’s me.”
He yawned loudly and there was the sound of rustling clothes. “Ah yes… you… you still haven’t given me your name. You know that, right?”
“Are we on a name basis?” I asked as I switched lanes and passed a particularly slow truck.
“We’re practically living together, so yeah?”
I growled into my headset. “Way to make it sound weird. Fine. Zuku.” Not to self, Shiro is very bad at making names up on the spot. I literally just took the first part of my last name, Tsukuyomi, and changed it a bit.
“What’s the issue now?”
The sound of a faucet turning on came across. “You just don’t seem like a Zuku… whatever. To what do I have the pleasure of your call, Miss Zuku?”
“You want more Rayn?”
“Always.” His reply came quickly, nearly cutting me off.
I nodded my head. A desperate desire for more Rayn had already been noted, but it was good to see I was right. Probably to pay off his debt, however much that is. “I’ll up your pay. Grab my bag and meet me at Ajay’s. I want you to do overwatch.”
The decision to have him watch over the area while I did my thing was entirely impulsive. I didn’t want to pay him just for grabbing my bag. To be fair, having an overwatch was never a bad idea necessarily. Who knows, it could save me- No! Don’t jinx yourself, Shiro!
My PA brought another phone call up. Nael. I immediately hung up on Feras and answered him. “Hello?”
“Hey, kid.” His voice held the usual smooth warmth it usually did. “How are you holding up? Been a while since you checked in.”
I laughed lightly. “You know me… just living the dream. I got a new apartment, and I’ve been running all over the city for work.”
“Nova! I know you’ve been wanting to move out for a while. It's good you’re getting out from under the Fang’s thumb. And thanks for sending over that couple.” He paused, and I could almost picture him scratching his beard. “Hey, it's almost been a month since I installed the Phantom. How’s it been treating you?”
I dodged a car barrelling down the road. A second later I stopped entirely as a Crusade Cruiser blitzed by me with its siren on. “Alright. It’s got a few issues, but nothing too bad.” Other than almost melting my brain out of my skull. A minor defect, all things considered.
“Preem stuff, eh? It’s about time for you to head to Advent. Do you want to come with me? I’m headed there anyway to catch up with my friend.” His voice got slightly quieter. “I’ll be with you in a moment.”
Good ‘ole Nael… he must think I’ll be nervous about heading to a corpo lab. He’s right of course. Corporate labs freaked me out. Thankfully, it was only a corporate lab and not a hellish Savant lab. I hope I never have to stumble across one of those. “I- I appreciate the offer, but you don’t have to.”
He typed away on something in the background. “Alright. If you change your mind, just let me know.”
“Thank you. I’m in the middle of something, but I’ll head over in a couple days.”
My PA notified me a text message had come across. “I sent you Advent’s location. Just ask for Doctor Fodisa and tell him I sent you. Good luck, kid.”
“Cya.” I hung up the call and finished my drive to Ajay Insurance.
Feras arrived a couple minutes later as I waited patiently amongst the crowd. He handed me my bag and shook his head. “I-I had a hard time deciding between the three bags in the apartment…”
I slid it on. “Well you grabbed the right one…” I pulled him aside and set up a channel for our commlinks. “Post up somewhere nearby.”
“Right.” He headed towards the Neo-sea food place we had been to the last time.
I shook my head and entered an alley. After a couple of twists and turns, and scaring off a couple street rats, I found what I was looking for. A manhole cover sat in the middle of the alley.
Reaching into my bag, I grabbed the multitool and used it to pry the manhole cover up and out of the way. Once it was moved, I slid down into the tunnel system. It was old, but not nearly as ancient as the Underground had been. The area was relatively newer, at least forty or so years compared to the centuries-old stuff buried beneath the surface.
Still, it was cold, damp, and reeked quite a bit. There were several areas where it looked like homeless people had shacked up at one point, but they had long since either died or left. The access tunnels were very cramped with pipes of various kinds running this way and that.
There was barely enough room to squeeze through for a normal person, so I was able to walk around mostly fine. Yeah, that stung…
I pulled the blueprint of the tunnel system into the forefront of my mind and headed for the utility access point for the building as I pulled out a lockpicking set from my bag. It had been a long time since I had used them, but my skills from B&E’s were finally coming to play.
It was rather easy to get to, though I didn’t immediately head down the right tunnel. I stopped just at the entrance and took a deep breath. According to the blueprint, there was a camera watching over the entry to the utilities. It was far newer than the surroundings, and it had been part of the city’s attempts to halt crime.
I released the breath and activated Blackout, completely ignoring the fact I had told Mira I wouldn’t use it again. It was just too useful, especially for times . I exploded into action, racing down the tunnel. It was rather short and ended in a barred door with the camera looking down the tunnel just above it.
In a matter of seconds, I reached the door. I immediately crouched down and fiddled with the tumblers using the lockpick. Before my chrome eye could even heat to an uncomfortable level, I unlocked the door and entered the small utility room for the building Ajay Insurance inhabited. Once I was in, I shut off Blackout.
The camera was new, yes, but it had a fixed arc, so I didn’t have to worry about being spotted here. It was more of a keep honest person honest type of deal, just like locks. They worked but acted like a paper wall for anyone who actually wanted to get by them. Heck, the camera probably didn’t even have good ICE protecting it. A Netrunner would be able to get in even easier than me.
I thought about the blueprint again and slowly whittled down the various switches, pipes, valves, and panels till I narrowed down what I wanted; the Node access port. The actual access port itself was covered in a mesh and locked with a key, but the wires coming out of it weren’t. A bit more looking through said wires, and I found the one for the office that Ajay Insurance took up.
I immediately set to work isolating the line and then pulled a tapper from my bag. It was a bit annoying, but I managed to use the multitool to drill the small device into the wall just next to the line so that the firing pin sat right over the access wire. Preem.
The tapper should hit the wire, not stopping the flow of access entirely, but interrupting it with each tap. For those using the Net, it should seem like random drops in quality. I threw everything back into my bag, pulled out my deck, and made sure everything was set up. I set the tapper to hit the wire at random intervals to better sell the idea.
I activated Blackout once more and headed for the door. It was time.