We left the office on foot. Our favorite restaurant was within walking distance of the office, it was just unfortunately in a place you didn’t leave your vehicle, or anything else, unattended. Kitsune town was a maze of magical oriental architecture, lit up by hundreds of holographic art displays and neon ads. Some people would probably find it odd to find such a neighborhood right outside of the downtown area, but since the Kitsune underworld controlled the area, and rivaled many of the local corporations in power, no one was going to complain.

It only took about five minutes for Kass and I to make it to the entrance of Kitsune town, which was a subdued, red, torii gate which stretched over one of the roads. Beyond that, was a riot of noise and color. Street stalls selling every manner of food, and good lined the side streets, pagodas suspended over the street by magic, and two-story tall ads for the newest brain injected film all fought for my attention as soon as we stepped inside. I tried to ignore them all but, like usual, I couldn’t help but stop and inspect the occasional stall that caught my attention.

Kass obliged me, and even stood guard while I browsed. She knew how quickly I could get distracted, and how important it was to stay on guard, so she slowly chaperoned me through the first couple streets, until we reached our destination, Kitsune Udon.

Unlike the surrounding buildings, which were either built in a traditional style, or designed to stuff as many people together as space allowed, Kitsune Udon was a small restaurant, with privacy screens between the booths, and noise-cancelling tech. A lot of people came to discuss business, but I just loved the atmosphere, and the food.

As soon as we stepped inside, a slim, white-furred Kitsune woman came shooting out of the back, a smile on her face. Unlike many of the other Kitsune around the area, who liked to accentuate their beauty with either traditional, or low-cut clothing, our host had on Jeans, a loose T-shirt, and a leather jacket. “Talia! Kass! Good to see you! Are you here for food, or business?” she asked brazenly.

“Afternoon Renia, just a private table to start,” Kass replied. “Talia forgot to feed herself today, and since we just finished a job we thought we’d treat ourselves.” I blushed slightly. It probably wouldn’t be so embarrassing, if Kass didn’t use the phrase ‘forgot to feed herself today’ every second time we came. Even if it was true.

Renia nodded, and led us to a booth in the back, slightly isolated from the surrounding tables. “I assume you want the usual?” she asked as we sat down.

I nodded excitedly, then leaned a little closer to Renia. “And come back after we’re done, I may have some business for you then.”

The kitsune grinned for a quick moment, “You got it,” she said, before quickly retreating from the table.

Kass slumped down into her seat. “Please tell me you aren’t planning on doing work while we’re here. We just finished a job,” she said, casually propping her head up with one hand.

“Just a quick look!” I promised, as I pulled out the shard Lanivia gave me. “If we need information this is the best place to get it, you know that.”

“Fine,” Kass pouted, “but once we leave here no more work for the rest of the day. You promised one day of rest after every job.”

I nodded excitedly, took a quick look around, and slipped the data shard into the port on my neck. Although I could have just absorbed the information straight into my brain, using my neural rig, I brought the files up on my optics. Usually, Lanivia provided an excessive amount of information, possible server defenses, information on the dungeon master, access points; The works. This time, all she provided was a brief file containing the single access point, a brief description of the objective, and the reward. I frowned as I ejected the shard.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“What? Is there something wrong with the contract?,” Kass said with a small smile. When I didn’t reply, her smile fell. “You’ve never rejected a contract before, what’s wrong with this one?” she asked.

I slipped the shard across the table, allowing Kass to take a look herself. After inserting it, and looking vacantly into the air for a couple seconds, she ejected the shard and shook her head. “If this had come from anyone besides Lanivia, I would have passed it off as a joke. An unmarked access port, no information about the server security, and a reward that has about four more zeroes at the end than anything we’ve tackled before.” She sighed, “You want to investigate, don’t you.”

“According to Lanivia it’s not a corp, or government server, but the security is so tough she can’t provide any information? Of course I want to investigate,” I replied.

“Fine. I don’t think Lanivia would throw you into a brain scrambler without warning, but we’ll still check to see if Renia has any information,” Kass paused, “and you’re still taking tomorrow off,” she said sternly.

I nodded animatedly in response. As we were talking one of the servers came over and placed our order at the table, before disappearing back into the kitchen. The rumour was that all the staff here was permanently deaf, to prevent any secrets from being leaked. I didn’t think Renia would go to those lengths, but temporary magic? I could see it.

As soon as I got my hands on it, I started shoveling down my raman, while Kass slowly ate her spicy curry. “Tomorrow is movie night,” Kass declared. “The classic cinema is running a matinee, we should go.”

“Let me guess, horror,” I replied between mouthfuls of soup. “You just want to comfort me while I’m cowering in terror, and sneak in the occasional smooch.”

Kass’s smile widened a little. “Guilty as charged. You got to choose date night last time, so it’s my turn, and I say horror movies. It’s not often we actually get to go see one, since you hate the brain injection films.”

“You never know what sort of shit the corps will try to sneak into those injections,” I mumbled. “I may not enjoy horror like you do, but fair is fair. I did drag you to that terrible cyber art display last week.”

“You should have known it was bad when it was sponsored by Cybertone,” Kass replied lightly, “I’ve never seen such a bad attempt at subliminal advertising.”

I giggled, as I spooned up the last of my soup. Just as I pushed the bowl away Renia slipped into the booth next to me. I hadn’t even noticed her until she appeared, but that was pretty par for the course for the sneaky fox.

“Business?” she asked, excitedly.

I quickly exchanged a glance with Kass, who nodded. “Yeah, we have something. Can you dig anything up about this endpoint?” I asked, quickly jotting down the address on a napkin before passing it over.

Renia only glanced at it for a moment, before her face fell. “Enough to know it’s not worth trying,” she said defeatedly. “I don’t know who controls it, but every couple months someone tries to penetrate the defenses, and bounces off it. Hard. I can’t even tell you what the defenses are, because it seems to shift daily.”

“But it’s relatively safe, right? No brain bursters?” I asked excitedly.

Renia turned to look at me for a moment, before rolling her eyes, “No matter what I say, you’re going to try and penetrate it anyways, aren’t you? You can’t resist,” she sighed. “No one has burned out on it, to the best of my knowledge. Just some mild mental trauma from the beating the security summons caused.”

“I don’t have anything else to do…” I started.

“And even if you did, you can’t resist the mystery,” Kass finished. She sighed, and slid a credit chip over to the kitsune.

“I didn’t do anything to deserve payment this time,” Renia said quietly.

“But you still provided a service,” Kass replied. “If you don’t think you deserve a commission this time, you can credit us the next time.”

Renia looked at Kass for a moment, before palming the chip and standing up again. “It was nice doing business with you, like always. Take care of yourselves, I’d hate to lose two of my best customers,” she said with a wink, before disappearing into the back again.

“A server that changes every time it’s accessed, that no one has succeeded in penetrating? I can’t wait,” I whispered to Kass over the table. When I saw her expression, I reigned in my excitement a little bit. “After movies and cuddles of course.”

“Of course,” Kass replied, with a small smile.