Chapter Thirty-Three - SharpRunner1902

We woke up early enough the next morning for Sharp to confirm with Mark that he didn't need Sharp to come in that morning. He seemed used to his couriers being the sorts of people that dropped in and out of the job. We did get news that Derek was back on the job properly, though he was taking things slow and keeping to safer, less burdensome deliveries and was also helping Mark in the office with paperwork.

He was recovering from that gunshot well, but still had some postoperative convalescence to get through before he would be ready for proper work.

In any case, once we got through that call, Sharp and I took a long shower. I still didn't have cleaning products for cat fur, but we made due with some water and softer shampoo for now. I needed it.

And then... we returned to bed.

The night had been long and rather rough on both of us, and we clearly needed some more rest. I was pushing it as it was. My body was still very much juvenile, I needed sleep. Or so I told myself as I laid down next to Sharp's warm body and fell right back asleep.

By the time I woke up some hours later, I wasn't feeling nearly as damp. "Good morning," Sharp said.

She reached down and ran her hand down the length of my back. I almost told her off for it, but it did feel nice. "We should find a grooming kit," I said.

Sharp giggled. "We can add it to the list."

I nodded. "Today's going to be a big day," I said.

"It is?" she asked.

"It is. First, we're buying a computer of some sort. We don't need an advanced deck, just something better than a phone to connect to the internet with. Then we're going to get you access to my apartment. I've been thinking about it, and... I can enter your biometrics into my personal apartment. We don't need you to rent a separate space."

"Oh," Sharp said. "Thank you? Is that something we can just... do?"

"Certainly. Then we need to make it to my apartment. We're going to want to create a Solonet account first, however, and use it to stash the money we have in a secured banking account."

Sharp yawned, then moved me aside so that she could sit up on the edge of the bed. "Okay," she said. "So a big day of shopping and such, and then... a new home?"

"If we make it there by tonight," I said. It was a good ways from the city. Obviously we were going to take a train to the town, then take an autocab from the station to my place. That'd take a solid hour, however.

I generally liked the separation between my home and Boston Two. It was safer that way. It was surprising how often gangs and the like would simply refuse to move out of their neighbourhoods.

"First, we need to meet with Paris and let her know that we won't be working for her anymore."

Sharp tensed up. "I can't do that! She needs me for a shift today!"

"And how do you think we're going to get everything we need to do done if you're going to be here working a shift? Do you think I can lug that bag full of cash all the way to the nearest bank on my own?"

Sharp groaned and flopped back onto the bed. "Maybe... tomorrow?"

I narrowed my eyes at the galling laziness, but... well, it wasn't smart to rush. "Fine."

Sharp grinned. "We still have hours before work starts! Let's get that computer and do the banking thing?"

That was a sensible idea. Sharp got dressed in her Sunday best, which were still too close to rags for my liking, then scooped me up into her arms and we were off. Our first stop was a place to grab some semi-decent electronics.

We could have gone to any old retail place, but those tended to piss me off. The computers they sold were half bloatware by mass. I didn't need to have Sharp spend the next week deleting pre-installed spyware and mucking around with operating systems to remove the constant pop-ups that came with that kind of system.

No, instead I decided to take on a slight bit of risk and I led Sharp across the city towards Cambridge. The area had several large universities and colleges, many of them technical in nature. That did mean that there were more stores selling basic electronics, laptops and tablets and the like, but there were also a few stores hidden away in that area that sold things directly to netrunners and hackers.

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Those kinds of places were usually paranoid, and for good reason. They sold to people who were often on the wrong side of the law and jailbreaking systems was... questionably legal.

The issue in closing them down was that a good portion of the netrunning community relied on these shops to function, and in turn the city needed its netrunners, as did every corporation out there. So, a blind eye was turned towards the shops as long as they kept their heads down.

It took us a solid hour to find a decent one that very specifically wouldn't ask any questions. Not even a peep about our Solonet account or any ID. With Sharp wearing her courier jacket, they probably assumed she was being sent out to grab something on someone else's behalf.

It was a sensible enough thing to assume.

The shop we snuck into was long and narrow, filled with racks that pushed into what little walking space there was. We found a selection of refurbished laptops at the rear, then picked something that was right in the intersection of not too expensive and not unusably old.

A wad of cash was handed to the shady older man at the counter later, and we had a working machine.

Now we just needed an internet connection.

Fortunately, Cambridge had more cafes than a poor neighbourhood had dollar stores, and it wasn't hard to find one that was pet friendly and which had wifi. The hot chocolate that Sharp ordered was exorbitantly expensive, but it came with whipped cream, marshmallows, and a dusting of cocoa powder.

"Alright," I said. "Now we just need to make you a Solonet account."

"Is that hard?" Sharp asked as she fiddled with the laptop. It had a few things pre-installed, but they were innocent enough. A browser and some basic programs, all we'd need to set it up to our liking later.

"It shouldn't be. Go onto the main page from your browser, yes, that's right. Ah, we need a secure browser, so we need to download that first... good, now while that's downloading, order me something too. Maybe some milk? There has to be some sort of pastry that's cat friendly here, right? They have seventeen types of milk."

I got a snack and ate it while resting on a table made of recycled pallets. Sharp got us the browser we needed, along with a few extra bits and bobs, and finally got onto the Solonet. From there, we opened a fresh account.

There was some arguing over names. I veto'd KittyLover and CatPetter, but I wasn't able to prevent her from avoiding any sort of pun.

The SharpRunner1902 account was born.

It took another half hour past that to use the Solonet account to open an account on a digital bank. It wasn't as secure as I'd want, but it was a start.

"Okay," I said perhaps an hour later once we were all set. "Now we just need to deposit the cash in our digital account and we're done. Fortunately, we happen to know a courier service that we can trust. Mark can take care of the transfer for us."

"I'm gonna text Jenny my username!" Sharp said. "Ohhh, there's a leaderboard."

I walked up and sat on the keyboard. "No," I said sensibly. "We don't need you hooked on the idea of seeing numbers go up when all it means is that you're going to risk your life even more. Contact Jenny if you must, you do deserve that reputation and more, but don't get fixated on these leaderboards."

Sharp pouted, but it had no effect on me.

She did finish her hot chocolate and packed up. A few minutes later, we were riding our way back to the Bloody Bat.

One more night at the bar, and we'd be out of there.

I was looking forward to it. So many luxuries had been left behind when I turned into a cat. I suspected that Sharp wasn't quite ready for it all, but it would be fun to see her trying to get used to a soft mattress and a limitless shower whose water was actually warm.

***