David did his best not to jitter, watching the people passing through his limited view of the street, but his heel kept tapping the ground as he sat there, waiting for something to go wrong.
Charter Hill wasn't a place where Edgerunners were supposed to be. He could feel it, even when he was stuck in Falco's car. It was too clean. Too nice. No trash, no hobos, no nothing. It felt like he had a target painted on his back, somehow.
It was easier when he'd been in an Arasaka Academy uniform. It had felt like he blent in better, even if he still felt like he stuck out like a sore thumb. He had passed through the area in the past, when he took the long way back from school, usually to avoid a shootout. Or when-
-her eyes focused, tears drying on her cheeks as she pointed up, unaware of the car pulling up to her left. "My son at Arasaka Tower, top floor, I can just see it!" Before turning to look at him, eyes tired but filled with love so earnest he had to look away-
…When his mom was too busy to drive him.
David realized that he'd frozen up, and quickly shook his head like memories were water. Now that it had been almost a month since the crash, it was getting easier and easier to keep thoughts like that from rising up and locking him in a trance. He'd get over it soon, maybe after a few more weeks. Hopefully less.
He couldn't help but snort. Top of Arasaka Tower. As if he was going to try and sit anywhere near Katsuo. But hey, maybe the penthouse suite of Palm Tower would be good enough.
A moment passed before his face tightened. Shit, even thinking in that way felt like he was disrespecting her memory somehow.
The sound of footsteps coming closer to the alleyway he and the rest of the crew were waiting got his attention, and he straightened up. At the sight of Maine and Dorio he grinned. "Took ya long enough." He called out.
Maine snorted, and looked over the rest of the crew with a critical eye. Lucy and Kiwi were in the back, smoking by themselves, while Pilar was messing with his Cyberhand, watching a tiny flame flicker where the end of his middle finger would normally be. Rebecca was lost in her own little world, eyes golden with a book of some kind, though her eyes lost her glow once she noticed Maine was present.
"Alright." Maine said, folding his arms as Dorio kept an eye out. "Pilar, you ready to get us in?"
"Been ready for the past half-hour." He flicked his middle finger back to normal and stood up straight, pushing his back out.
"Good." Maine looked over to Kiwi. "Any updates?"
"Lucy wants first crack at Tanaka's subnet." She drawled, casually leaning against a wall.
Maine looked over to Lucy in askance, and she looked back with a serious expression. "I'm going to be the one doing the penthouse infiltration anyways, and Kiwi's going to be busy with the building security. We've got a few hours until the security guard is swapped out, so we might as well make sure we find what we're looking for."
David hardly knew what they were talking about. As far as he was concerned, the two of them were basically magic. Either way, Maine gave a nod after a moment of thought, "Sure, if you're ready to run without a tub."
"No problem with me." She stated quietly.
Maine turned his attention to the rest of the crew. "Any last-minute objections?" He asked, scanning over the rest of them.
David gave a determined shake of the head as Maine's face briefly turned to him.
He'd drilled the plan into his brain over the last few days. Pilar would be the one to break them in. The actual tower that they were hitting had only one entrance only accessible by biometrics or intercom, but the tower was connected to another building across the street with a staff entrance that Pilar was certain he could lockpick his way through.
Once in, one of the netrunners would hack into the escalator to let them into the basement levels, where the security was. Once there, David, Dorio and Kiwi would bust in before they could sound an alarm. Dorio would stay with Kiwi while she kept an eye out for any trouble.
Meanwhile, David would go with Maine and Lucy over the bridge to the building nearby, where they'd go out a window. Maine would throw Lucy up to the penthouse rooftop garden, and she'd disable Tanaka's personal security systems and let them in.
David would be backup in case Lucy got into trouble, but if that was the case, chances are they were busted. Rebecca had been considered for the role, but David's Sandevistan edged out over her experience. Rebecca's… enthusiasm probably didn't do her any favors.
The plan got more fluid once they were in Tanaka's penthouse. Hopefully they'd find what they needed on Tanaka's computer, and they'd unplug it and run, along with any goodies Pilar managed to grab, but who knew what they'd actually find?
Maine seemed satisfied by what he saw in the faces of the crew, grinning. "Alright." He announced, tugging his chance down to give them a grin. "Let's rob that sonnuva bitch blind."
----------------------------------------
Her heart thrummed in her chest as she clambered her way up and over the ledge. From here on out, the survival of the operation was on her. Stay out of sight, set off no alarms, open the door for the rest of the crew-
Lucy lunged for cover behind a display of foliage as she heard the buzz of miniature rotors come closer, keeping as quiet as she could, barely even daring to breathe. Depending on the security package, home security drones could be set off by any number of things. Foiled home invasions were a regular on the screamsheets, and sometimes they none-so-subtly flaunted the capabilities of this or that premium package. Unregistered heat signatures, the sight of unfamiliar faces, there were even headlines of intruders being filled with holes for talking aloud.
And like hell did she escape Arasaka just to become another statistic for an advert.
A message flashed at the edge of her vision as she pursed her lips, giving it only the slightest bit of attention.
- - -
Maine: how's things going? need backup?
Lucy: lemme focus
- - -
She waited as the sound of rotors grew closer and closer, taking drawn out breaths that even she could barely hear, prepared to scuttle. The monowire in her wrists was tensed, ready to lash out at any moment. Destroying the drone would be the last resort, but if it was that or being filled with bullets, she knew which option she'd pick.
The drone hovered nearby, almost as if it knew someone was there, almost as if it was searching for her, but she held still, waiting for her chance, fists clenched tightly.
Then, its rotors began to grow quiet as the drone moved away, and Lucy peeked out from behind the corner. The world seemed to flash black and white as she looked at the drone and focused, demanding access into its systems. The drone's ICE held against her for a handful of seconds under her attention, as it slowly got further and further away, but she had plenty of time.
First its alert protocols were disabled. Then, after she was sure no overarching network had noticed her intrusion, the drone's battery suddenly surged, overloading its systems and sending it crashing to the ground in a patch of grass.
Kiwi would have had the tools to render it blind and deaf, and probably jam its gun on top of everything else. In comparison, Lucy had a hammer, but who said you couldn't wield a hammer with finesse?
She slipped out from behind the planter box, keeping an ear out for the whirring of servos and the hum of systems as she made her way down from the rooftop garden, keeping her head down in case someone happened to be looking in her general direction. It was little defense, considering the fact that the walls were only waist-high, so all she could do was hope that she was quick enough.
There were three Wyvern drones and two R Mk.2s, but they hadn't managed to figure out their patrol patterns during the pre-mission prep, beyond the fact that one of the Wyverns kept an eye on the rooftop garden. Which meant that was the easiest obstacle down. Joy.
Lucy crept down the stairs, watching the glass wall and sliding door leading into the penthouse interior carefully, ears strained. Slowly, she got closer and closer to the wall, watching for any sort of movement, and when she didn't notice any, she burst into a dash, rushing for the only bit of cover available, a half-bench-half-planter which barely counted in her mind.
She peeked her head out, searching for the camera system the floor plan they had pointed out, catching sight of a hint of movement after a few moments of hurried searching.
Breaking into the local subnet and tearing apart the security would take total focus. She'd be insensate, utterly helpless-
-mismatched eyes peering down at her as she laid there. A gun pointed at her head. Gasping for air, desperately trying to move, the burning pain in her wrists-
She shook her head, glaring at nothing. She'd be fine, she just had to be fast. Ten seconds- no. Five. And she'd be done.
Lucy let herself drop, falling into herself, diving into a world of black and white lines and bars. She made her way to the security camera that she knew was there, seeing it come into focus as she got "closer", a blot of orange surrounded by stark white, wireframe features. She pushed a hand inside, suborning its relatively weak security, and then two, before pulling it open and seeing what it saw, as well as all the connections it had to the rest of the cameras.
They numbered nearly a dozen in total, and she began flipping through them, directing their attention with her newfound control over them. And as she saw the drones and patrolling androids, she used her newfound awareness of them to make connections, demanding access, scrambling their communications and then burning them out with their own systems.
All except for one. Where was that last Wyvern?
She flipped through the systems again, heart in her mouth. She didn't know if coming across the disabled remains of other security would be enough for it to put out any sort of alert, but the Tanakas were rich enough, they could easily shell out for something sufficiently clever or paranoid.
As she completed her second pass, a thought occurred to Lucy, and she pulled herself out of Cyberspace, freezing as she heard the sound of buzzing getting closer. She scooched herself urgently to the side, as a Wyvern drone made its way to the edge of the roof to her right. All it had to do was turn, and she'd be seen.
It never had a chance to. Her intrusion drilled into and through its firewall in a matter of seconds, triggering a devastating system overload that burnt out its microcircuits.
Pilar might complain later, but fuck him, she wasn't risking her skin for his tech-fetish.
Lucy let out a shuddering sigh as she let the adrenaline pass through her system. Close. Too close. But that was it. They were in. She had the private security network under her control. The bots were all down. Kiwi had the rest of the building security under her sway.
Now, all that was left was the home stretch.
She got up, making her way into the penthouse. Despite the cold Night City air vanishing, she still felt goosebumps all over her skin. There were sightlines everywhere. Giant windows were everywhere, giving her a view of the city well beyond any she'd seen before, but on the flipside made it feel as though half the city was watching.
How the hell could anyone live like this? Was Chairman Tanaka so stupid he actually thought that the glass being bulletproof would offer any safety, or was he so high on his wealth that he never even considered the question?
Whatever. The sooner they were out of here, the better. Lucy made her way to the intercom near the front door, and after a little puzzling, fired off a message.
- - -
Lucy: penthouse clear. ready to buzz you in.
Maine: preem work as always. we're making our way to the front.
Maine: hit it.
- - -
She tapped a few buttons before opening the door and waiting, folding her arms. She wanted a smoke to calm her nerves, but she fought the urge. If a smoke detector was the thing that screwed this op after everything else…
Well, Maine would probably kill her, if she didn't throw herself off the edge of the building first out of shame. Though, her will to live was stronger than that, so she'd probably have to avoid him instead. The elevator was the only way down, so she'd have to hide and wait for them to spread out and look for her. Then again, Maine would probably be smart enough to leave someone guarding the elevator-
The elevator dinged, drawing Lucy out of her recreational plotting, before opening and disgorging a grinning crew. "The floor is ours." Lucy announced, waving a hand behind her. "Have at it."
"Any reason the lights aren't on?" Pilar asked, looking around, his monovisor providing just the slightest hint of illumination.
"Besides the obvious?" Kiwi dryly cut in.
Pilar sighed. "Shit, fucking hate having to work in the dark." He muttered, flexing his long, golden fingers.
Rebecca hummed to herself as she looked up, an unusually thoughtful look on her face. "Well, if anybody's looking, it's not like there being a bunch of flashlights shining everywhere is going to be any less suspicious than us running around in plain sight, right? Corpos like Tanaka use people like us as deniable assets sometimes, don't they?"
"And 'sides, aren't we supposed to comb the place for data?" David cut in, raising a hand. "I'd hate to leave a shard behind or something."
Lucy knew for a fact that the only reason that Rebecca had spoken up was because she had terrible night vision, but the two of them raised a decent point. Her eyes flickered to Maine, who glanced at the light switch before making his decision clear by flicking it on.
The penthouse blinked into life, illuminating the art on the wooden walls and David's growing shock. "Whoa." He muttered under his breath.
She could see why he was impressed. The place definitely looked like the personal sanctuary of a high-end corpo. Everything was clean, polished, smooth and spacious like nothing else in Night City. The finish on the walls, the carpets, this level of luxury was new to her, and apparently new to David too, judging by the way he gawped.
Only Maine seemed unaffected by the view, speaking up to snap everyone out of a daze. "Fan out, we're looking for any sort of data storage. Computers, shards, hell, if you see a braindance wreathe, check if there's anything in it. We've got time, but that doesn't mean we should waste it. Now come on!" He clapped Pilar and David on the back as he walked past, turning slightly sideways to fit past the door.
At his command, the rest of the crew got to work, Lucy followed them into the living room, where everyone split up. Maine seemed to pick a door at random and started exploring, while Pilar went up to where one of the wall turrets was concealed behind a wall panel. "You got this thing under control?" He asked, jerking a thumb at the panel.
Lucy rolled her eyes. "Give me a sec." She scanned the wall, quickly finding a connection and digging into it. She studied the data coming in for a moment before speaking up. "I can't put you on the whitelist, but I can fry the electronics."
"Which ones?" He asked, rubbing his chin.
Lucy shrugged. She wasn't a techie, and for all her finesse, a hammer was a hammer.
He grunted in annoyance. "Fry it. I'd rather be safe than sorry."
"Can't you fry it just a little?" Rebecca called out.
"I'd rather not be filled with holes, Becca!" Pilar yelled back with an unamused expression.
"Sounds like a bonus to me!" She cheekily replied.
Lucy rolled her eyes, before overloading the turret's systems. "We've got a few others if I burned out anything vital. Just let me know and I'll take another one out." She turned to Rebecca. "But maybe don't yell."
Rebecca stuck out her tongue.
Off to the side, David was looking at a cabinet quietly. Lucy watched as he picked up one of the framed photos on top, considering it for a moment, before placing it face down and shaking his head. He noticed her gaze and winced before turning away, pulling a drawer open and looking through it hastily.
He was still nervous around her, as expected after she'd helped bait him in for Maine's ambush. They'd spoken only a handful of times after the fact, in short bursts of conversation, usually related to one job or another.
She'd considered him as a resource on Razzle's intentions, but by the time she'd realized that he could be a useful source of information, they'd already become quite close. Now, approaching David risked him letting Razzle know that she was looking into him.
Lucy didn't feel like speeding up whatever timetable the corporate agent was working on, nor did she feel like putting herself at the top of whatever list he might have. So she stayed far away from him as she examined other sources of information first. Hopefully, Tanaka's data would be the clue which would let her piece together a plan of action.
"Hey guys, check this out!"
Everybody turned their heads to where Rebecca had called out, giving each other glances before making their way over. They saw Rebecca standing next to what looked like some miniature aquarium, with… something inside.
"What the hell is this?" Rebecca pointed at what looked like some sort of… rubbery disk? Lucy squinted as she looked closer, trying to figure out what she was looking at. She froze as an inhuman eye suddenly opened up and peered back at her, eight sinuous tendrils unfolding from its body, swaying in the current. It shifted back against the wall, before its hue suddenly shifted color to be the same as the wall behind it.
"Oh what the actual fuck." Rebecca snarled in revulsion, leveling her Carnage at the fish tank. "Okay, I dunno what corpo biolab this thing came from but I am not letting this thing escape and lay eggs."
"Becca, chill. It's an octopus." David leaned in, studying the thing through the glass.
Rebecca blinked. "Oh, like the flavor?"
"Yeah, like the flavor." David said, leaning back. "I learned about these in school. It's a type of fish. Didn't think anyone would have one as a pet, though."
Lucy and Rebecca squinted at him. "What kinda school teaches you about that sorta junk?"
David opened his mouth as if to say something, before visibly reconsidering and looking away. "Ah, it's not important." He muttered sheepishly, walking past them. "I'm going to go look for an Agent or something."
Rebecca jabbed her side. "Hey, Lucy. You got deets, don't you? Spill."
She considered it, before shrugging. Why not? "Arasaka Academy, though he's suspended for getting into a physical altercation with Tanaka's kid."
And hadn't that been a mindfuck of its own. That little factoid and all the little details had been entered into her notes on this whole clusterfuck, but she doubted that Razzle had zeroed Tanaka because of that.
Lucy shook her head as Rebecca made a sound of astonishment. Why was she even wasting her time here? "Excuse me." She muttered, stepping away from Rebecca as she started looking for Tanaka's personal devices.
Tanaka's place was huge. What did a family of two even do with all this space? And all these rooms? Lucy made a face as she opened a door to reveal… a liquor cabinet? Who even needed one of these?
Heavy footsteps announce Maine's presence. "Luce. Found something." He called out. Lucy followed him over to what looked like some sort of office, with a few shelves filled with more decorative items than documents. A terminal sat on a desk, awaiting her attention. "Can you crack it?"
"Let's see." She sat in the office chair and pulled out the jack from her wrist, before connecting it to a slot in the side. She sank into the system, and immediately felt the resistance of the terminal security.
It wasn't anything too complicated, and that immediately set off her alarms. Tanaka hadn't been easy to get ahold of. The man had a level of paranoia that was healthy for an Arasaka corpo executive, and he didn't scrimp on his security in the slightest. A trap of some kind? Maybe.
Lucy resurfaced, turning to Maine. "Looks easy. Too easy. Get ready to pull me out if anything goes wrong." As he gave her a resolute nod, she called out. "Kiwi?"
"Already keeping an eye out, ready to cut the line in case you kick the hornet's nest. Careful, though. We don't know what kind of cybersecurity Tanaka's got for himself." Kiwi answered, sounding bored.
"I'll be careful." Lucy promised, before diving back in.
This time, she went slow. The defenses weren't much, but she wasn't going to let herself trip up at the finish line. She made her way into the system, looking around the local storage. She kept a lookout, looking for any signs of Black ICE, or any sort of security measures, but the system was quiet.
As she went through the files, a frown slowly appeared on her face. The documents were mostly memos and the occasional expense report, with a handful of pictures and videos sprinkled throughout, and not a single one of them was encrypted. The most sensitive data she found was a collection of Braindances authored by JK, which she was less than eager to poke through.
There was an email chain back and forth from the principle of Arasaka Academy about David that she copied, but nothing that seemed like it would interest Faraday.
It took a few minutes to search through everything, and she emerged with a sense of frustration and confusion. This didn't feel right.
"Find anything?" Maine probed, looking over her with concern.
"Nothing." She felt hot, like she'd been in the sun. "I don't think this is what Faraday's looking for."
"Mhm." Maine grunted as he glanced off to the side, probably checking the time. "Let's see what everyone else found."
The answer was not much. Pilar had been busy with the turrets in the walls, but he'd found an Agent that had a few interesting tidbits, including the schematics of a new pattern of Gorilla Arms and a few notes on an upcoming military contract, though details were scarce. Rebecca had a few pieces of art that might be worth something to the right collector, though it was doubtful that they had the room. David had apparently found a small library of shards in the kid's room, but they all turned out to be XBDs. He didn't say anything, but his face screamed embarrassment.
They were gathered in the living room, sitting on couches and chairs in a circle around their findings, which had been piled up on the coffee table. The only one not sitting was Pilar, who had begun work on pulling the HMG out of the wall. The paneling had been disassembled and removed, and his torso was halfway into the wall.
Maine folded his arms as the report wrapped up, considering. He was grinding his teeth, which was never a good sign. Finally, he spoke. "Alright, we've got an hour and change still. Where haven't we looked? Has anyone tried checking outside, maybe? Or the roof?"
"Outside's too exposed, and there's no way that Tanaka's dumb enough to keep any kind of secret out in the open, especially if a neighbor can just look over from their penthouse and see." Kiwi drawled. "Hell, they probably work in the same building."
"Don't you have a job to be doing?" Maine retorted, his irritation plain.
"I've got eyes on the elevator and the fire exits. The second they open up, you'll know." Kiwi answered, her tone suggesting she was rolling her eyes.
"Maybe we can start pulling up carpets. Or checking behind the paintings. Who knows? Maybe we'll find a safe." Rebecca spoke up, trying to distract Maine from the Netrunner.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"Well, it's not like we have any better options." Maine grumbled, scratching his jaw. "You four check the interior. I'll check the exterior." He ordered as he stood up. "Pilar, we can worry about the HMG later. Mission first."
"Just a sec." Pilar called out, rotating his torso. "Huh, why's this going…" He trailed off, before scooching deeper in.
"Pilar…" Maine growled, a warning in his voice.
"Yeah, yeah, just give me a minute, I think I got something."
"You got a minute and then I'm dragging your ass back out." Maine warned, folding his arms.
Pilar didn't reply, instead twisting himself even deeper. After a few moments, a grunt, and the clattering of tools, Pilar spoke up again, his voice taking on a thoughtful tone. "Hey, Maine. The floor plan says there should be another turret hidden nearby, right?"
Maine frowned as Lucy checked the blueprints. "He's right." She confirmed, looking back at the techie.
"Yeah, well. Is there?"
A beat passed. Lucy turned to scan the wall, and after a moment, she spoke up. "No. Not that I can see." When she turned back, she realized everyone was looking at her.
"Thought so." He shimmied his way back out, his mohawk somehow not disheveled despite the tight fit. "Maine, I'm gonna need a hand."
Maine gave an affirmative grunt as he uncrossed his arms. Pilar made his way over to a section of wall, monovisor flickering orange as he hemmed and hawed, pacing back and forth. After some time deliberating, he tapped a section of wall that looked like any other. "Grab here and pull to the right."
Maine strode forward, cracking his knuckles, before digging his fingers in and tugging. The section of wall began to creak, sparks flying from somewhere behind the panel. Maine's Gorilla Arms seemed to strain with the burden, synthetic muscles bunching up as he struggled.
And then, with a mighty heave, the wall slid open with a crashing sound. Maine grunted in shock as he backpedaled a few steps, before he caught himself.
"No way." David whispered in awe.
Lucy felt her stomach drop.
A small room, just big enough to stand in. The walls, floor and ceiling were made of solid metal. There was a desk, a terminal and an office chair, with a server rack filled with drives sitting nearby.
The rest of the crew stepped up, their expressions varying degrees of disbelief.
"Jackpot." Rebecca whispered under her breath.
Maine's face was split with a feral grin. "Good job, Pilar."
The techie had his arms folded as he leaned against a wall, doing his damnedest to play it off. "Eh, no biggie. Just did my usual thing." He said, examining his nonexistent nails with farcical disinterest.
"What's it look like?" Kiwi asked, a note of interest in her voice.
"Like a miniature Data Fortress." Lucy replied, struggling to keep the dark tone out of her voice. "And I'd bet every eddie I had it's got the black ICE to prove it."
"You can break into it, right?" Maine asked, glancing at her.
Lucy pursed her lips. She'd tangled with worse, but something about this setup rubbed her the wrong way. A single server rack wasn't enough to run a particularly large piece of net architecture, but you didn't need a lot of net architecture to load something nasty inside.
But this was the biggest break she'd gotten yet. If this didn't have what Faraday was looking for, what Razzle had killed Tanaka for, what the hell would?
She could wait for them to transport it somewhere safer, dive into whatever the hell this was with Kiwi by her side, but if she did that, Kiwi would only learn about how valuable what they had firsthand, not the danger they were really in, and though she trusted the older netrunner's judgment, the order in which she learned those two things would likely be the difference between a friend and a body.
She just didn't have the evidence to back up anything she said. Even the slightest slip-up would be disastrous, she needed to do this alone.
Her knuckles were white as she took a deep, shuddering breath. She could handle this. She had survived the old net. She'd escaped Arasaka. She was one of the best damn netrunners in Night City.
"Of course I can." Lucy promised, stepping into the room, pulling out a jack and plugging it into the terminal. "Just… gimme a few minutes. And stay clear."
She realized something in her tone must have been off as Maine looked at her with worry. "Shit." Maine said, before straightening up and glancing at his HUD. "We've got fifty minutes left tops. Luce, start searching, we'll keep a lookout."
Lucy gave what she hoped looked like a confident nod, before she dove into the black.
----------------------------------------
Cyberspace was different for everyone. It had to be, because everyone's brains were different. How your mind interfaced with something that didn't line up with any of your five senses was something that every Netrunner had to figure out for themselves.
During her lessons, Kiwi had described her experience with net infrastructure like climbing a tower. With every "level" you went up, you'd find something waiting for you. Password-protected doors, Black ICE, files, and so on.
What Lucy felt instead was a sensation like weightlessly sinking into water, diving deeper and deeper into "rooms" composed of white lines and shapes, surrounded by empty black void. The data fortress seemed small, compared to some of the infrastructure she'd infiltrated in the past, but appearances could be deceptive in cyberspace.
The moment she fully dove in, she immediately felt the presence of sensors, waiting to be tripped. As she levelled out in front of the white architecture, she gave it a glare.
If they'd put in a trap, then chances were they were guarding a way in. Finding a way in would be the first step, dealing with the consequences would be the next. She reached out and projected her intent, and what looked like a featureless wall opened up, showing a corridor filled with shimmering white lines.
She projected herself forward, focusing on not tripping any of the sensors as she went through. The lines distorted around her as she progressed, shaping narrow gaps into more vulnerable open spaces. Slowly, an ache began to build up in her skull, and the chill of the void seemed to give way to warmth. A reminder of the conditions she was operating under.
Managing the strain of processing the sheer amount of data that was constantly pouring into your mind was the most important part of being a Netrunner. You needed cyberware to even try it without your brain burning itself out, but if subjected to enough stress, the chrome could overheat trying to compensate for the information overload. On top of that, the body's nervous system was also overclocked by the process of transmitting the data. In extreme cases, it would take minutes before the blood of a Netrunner would begin boiling in their veins. A nightmarish fate that any Netrunner would do everything in their power to avoid.
Netrunner suits helped moderate the temperature of the body, but nothing beat a bathtub filled with ice in terms of keeping the body cool, as uncomfortable as it was.
Lucy could barely even remember the full spectrum of cyberware and implants that she'd had chipped into her by Arasaka. Data transmitters, processors, built-in cooling, all to make her the most effective Netrunner she could possibly be. But even she had limits.
Fifty minutes wasn't much time to work with. She didn't have to rush, but she didn't have the time to wait for her body to settle before moving on, either. The ice bath was usually overkill, her suit and implants were more than enough to keep her alive through nearly everything she'd been through.
But it definitely wouldn't be enough to keep her comfortable.
She pushed past the corridor and dove deeper, searching for the next room. Quickly, she found herself in front of another obstacle. And another.
On and on it went, from puzzle-locked doors to obstacle courses, tests of reflexes and skill which slowly but surely added to the strain of her headache and the feeling of warmth circulating throughout her body.
But none of it managed to actually stop her. She'd seen too much in the old net for anything man-made to keep her out for long.
It was in yet another room like any other that she found herself suddenly unbothered. The space around her was silent. No corridors lined with whirring teeth, no walls crashing into each other seemingly at random, no vortexes of screaming code shifting around in some demented approximation of a patrol. Nothing.
Just a cache of files, waiting for her perusal.
Lucy stopped and waited for the other shoe to drop, taking advantage of the much-needed reprieve, but even as she strained her senses as much as she could without compromising her safety, nothing seemed to be out of place.
She carefully drew close to the files, searching around in suspicion, before beginning to dig in.
She began opening file after file, quickly searching for what she needed. There were records of shipments and payments, personnel rosters and reports, and more. The reports she quickly scanned over, trying to find out what they represented.
The information that came through was confusing, to say the least.
Tanaka wasn't only an exec at Arasaka Academy, he had fingers in research and development as well. He'd been responsible for helping direct funding and obfuscating the flow of it in order to cover up the existence of... something related to cybernetics and pharmaceuticals.
It wasn't clear what, exactly, Tanaka had been supervising the development of, only that it had been under development for almost two years, now. In the rare cases where the end product was described directly, the name was blotted out, and the descriptions were vague enough that they could have applied to nearly any piece of technology. What she did know was that billions were being poured into this project, and that wherever it was being kept, it was heavily guarded and kept under heavy wraps.
Out of habit, Lucy copied the files to her cyberdeck, but her mind was busy trying to put together the implications of what she was seeing.
A highly secretive, highly funded R&D project, kept under such tight security that even though the reports were kept under proverbial lock and key in a hidden room in the supervising executive's penthouse, the name was still scrubbed from existence.
This was big. Huge beyond her wildest dreams. This had to be what Faraday was looking for. Or at least some of it.
Lucy's heart was thundering in her ears as she sucked in a breath, trying to calm herself down. They were in deeper shit than she'd ever dared to imagine. No wonder they were being stalked by some sort of cyberassassin! They'd been poking around one of Arasaka's deepest secrets!
Fuck.
Fuck.
Thoroughly shaken, Lucy began searching through the rest of the files, trying to find any scrap of information that could help them get out of this situation. She tossed aside report after report, trying to find anything, a hint, a scrap, an error in the system.
The only thing she could imagine was finding something else that everyone would be satisfied with finding in such a hidden place, schematics for a prototype cyberlimb, blackmail on other Arasaka executives, a deed to a nickel mine in the middle of nowhere, something, anything but what she'd found.
She tore open the last file, scanning through it to see that it was some sort of list of names and ID numbers. It was unlike any list of personnel she had seen before. The information was focused far more on their physical condition, and the list included far too wide of an age range to be a typical employee roster.
She wanted to read everything more thoroughly, but her time was running out. Lucy grit her teeth and delved further.
The black roared past her ears, and the white streaked past the edges of her vision. It was quiet, so quiet here. Silent in a way that only made her pulse pound harder.
God, it was too much for her. She needed to talk to someone about this. To figure out what she was supposed to do. Maybe Kiwi? If she saw this, she'd have to understand. Kiwi of all people had to be smart enough to know that some risks just weren't worth it. That sometimes a clean break was more valuable than any promise of payment.
She shook herself out of her reverie, focusing back on the task at hand. There had to be something else here. Something that could save her. Something that could save all of them-
Lucy stopped dead in her tracks.
Beneath her there was a vast, yawning pit, dark and deep. It was barred by a crisscrossing grid of seething white lines, crackling with code and energy. It was a door. A massive, deadly test of her skill and willpower.
But there was nowhere to go but down, and she couldn't afford to waste time.
She took a breath to steady her nerves. Then another to steel her resolve.
And with one final breath and a thought, Lucy plunged headfirst into the abyss.
The grid was a nightmare. Thousands of individual lines, all connected and humming with energy, all ready to tear her to shreds if she slipped up. It was a testament to the power of her mind, her skill and the tech built into her skull that she wasn't already dead a dozen times over.
Lucy didn't bother thinking about the possibility of a mistake, instead forcing herself deeper and deeper through the latticework. Her mind was focused even as it struggled to keep up with the demands being placed on it, and the cold void was replaced by a simmering heat.
One wrong move, and the grid would rip her apart. One tiny mistake, and she'd be a cloud of digital particles floating in the ether, or whatever the hell happened to a Netrunner's Icon when their nerves burned themselves out.
And then, without warning, she was through.
Her mind was throbbing with the strain, and she knew that she'd need to take a break as soon as possible, but she was through.
An empty black void engulfed her. The emptiness seemed to stretch out for miles in every direction, and the silence was deafening. Lucy couldn't help but feel like she was swimming through a sea of nothingness, with no land in sight. Even the white lines and shapes that composed the rooms above seemed far away and distant.
For a moment, she floated there, letting herself relax, taking a breath as the strain slowly bled from her body. It felt almost nice, compared to the chaos of the grid.
And then a growl shattered the silence.
"Lucyna." ID-Lock Acquired
Lucy snapped to attention, a sense of dread flooding through her. She whirled around to see something like a face, canine in shape, with it's luminous eyes utterly transfixed on her as it growled in its grating, metallic voice.
"Lucyna Kushinada." ID-11-161-9830
...Life was never fair, was it?
She lashed out with a wave of her arm even as heat surged through her, sending a pulse of distortive data into the hound's face. It flickered for a moment, before its features realigned and it snarled, the sound ringing through the empty void.
Lucy drew back, readying herself, and the beast launched itself at her, jaws snapping. She tried to dodge, but as she jinked to the side, another snarling head suddenly burst into existence, and its jaws closed on her right arm.
Her heart seemed to rock in her chest, and pain exploded through her arm, but even as the beast shook its head back and forth, ripping the limb free, she couldn't spare the attention. Her biomonitor was already blaring a warning about a sudden spike in blood pressure, and the heat seemed to intensify, threatening to boil her brain.
The first head charged, and Lucy threw her weight backward, narrowly dodging the lunge. Before she could recover, the other head struck again, lunging for her left arm, but she managed to unleash a burst of static that forced the monster to rear back.
When a third head drew itself out of the darkness, Lucy didn't hesitate for a moment. She tore her mind out of the net, her eyes shooting open and her body shuddering in her chair.
"Lucy, you good?" It took her a moment to realise that it was Maine who had spoken. He sounded more anxious than she'd ever heard him sound in her life.
Lucy just stared at him, turning her gaze to the door where everybody was staring at her. Her chest was heaving, her lungs struggling to draw in enough air, and she could hear the blood roaring in her ears, a painful reminder of how close she'd been to disaster.
What could she possibly tell them? How could she explain that there was a monster waiting for her in the subnet? That they needed a plan right fucking now?
The words seemed to catch in her throat. "We need- we need to leave." She turned to the terminal and yanked her link out, her hands shaking.
"What happened in there?" Rebecca demanded, concern mixing with confusion on her face. "Did you find something?"
"Doesn't matter." Maine cut her off, his tone all business. "The Netrunner says we go, we go. Kiwi. Dorio. Get ready to delta." He strode over to the server rack. "This have what we need?"
Lucy managed to force her mouth to work. "Yeah it- it does."
"Good. We'll talk when it's safer. Pilar! How do I get this thing out of the wall?" Maine demanded, placing a hand against the rack as he stared at the backside.
"Lemme have a look." The techie's tone was grim as he crouched down next to Maine and examined the back. "I think I see the power there, but I can't see a way to disconnect it-"
"Something's wrong." Kiwi suddenly cut in, her words coming out clipped. "I'm seeing something intruding into the subnet, and it's triggering the security measures. I'm delaying the alerts, but I'm not sure how long I can stay in."
"Shit!" Maine snarled, before wrenching the server rack to the side. "Pull the plug on this thing! Kiwi! Jack out now and get to the car!"
Pilar grabbed ahold of a thick line connecting it to the wall, tugging it fruitlessly. Muttering colourful expletives, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a knife, sawing through the wire as fast as he could. "C'mon, c'mon..." He chanted to himself.
"Move it!" Rebecca shoved him aside, before reaching into her pocket and pulling out her Omaha, her finger already on the trigger. In a split second, the sound of charging energy culminated in a sharp snap, shearing the wire in half.
Maine lifted the server rack up and tucked it under one massive burly arm. "I've got it! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!" He roared, and the team began rushing to the door, guns in hand.
As they poured out into the entryway and Maine slammed the elevator button, Kiwi cut in again. "We're out of the building, but the subnet is lighting up. They're coming."
"I know." Maine growled. "Falco, where are you!"
"Thirty seconds out. Coming up to the front doors of Palm Tower!" The Nomad's voice was steady, like a rock amidst the rising tide of panic.
The elevator chimed as the doors opened, and they all hurried inside, as Maine slammed his fist against the button for the ground floor.
Entirely inappropriate soothing elevator music began to play as Maine pulled a Militech Crusher out from his waistband, checking the safety. "Had to be something. There always has to be something." He muttered to himself, before he looked up at Lucy, his eyes hard and serious. "Lucy. What-" He bit his tongue and shook his head, tight-lipped. "Nevermind."
She couldn't help but finger her own sidearm, a sleek purple Unity. All of a sudden she felt trapped in the confined space, and she was sure she could hear the sound of footsteps in the distance, growing closer with every passing moment. She watched the number on the elevator screen tick down far too slowly, brain still buzzing from her earlier ordeal.
An arm jabbed her side, and she turned her head to see Rebecca looking up at her with a reassuring smile. "Big Mook was worried we were going to lose another Runner. You shoulda seen him when you were under. Thought he'd keel over any minute."
Lucy turned to stare uncomprehendingly at the side of Maine's head. His jaw was clenched and his brows were furrowed, but he kept quiet, and that silence spoke volumes.
The elevator stopped, and the team burst out into the lobby. They drew the shocked attention of a pair of rich fucks sitting in couches nearby, but the two of them were ignored as the group made a beeline for the door.
"Falco, ETA?" Maine demanded.
"Ten seconds. Get to the entrance!"
The Nomad's car skidded around the corner as Maine shoved his way past the front doors, and it barely had the time to stop before the back and side were flung open.
The crew piled in with enough force to rock the car, and Falco wasted no time in slamming his foot on the pedal. The tires screeched as he pulled away from the curb, and the last thing Lucy could see of Palm Tower was the Arasaka logo shining on the side, before the vehicle tore around the corner and the mocking symbol vanished from sight.
"Everybody okay?" Falco questioned as he wove his way through traffic.
Lucy could see Maine do a quick headcount. "All here and accounted for." He assured, before turning his attention back to the crew. "Kiwi, Lucy, you good?"
"Just a little shaken, but otherwise, fine." Kiwi responded, taking a deep breath and running a hand through her hair.
Lucy gave a jerky nod, her fingers digging into her arms. "Yeah. I'm good." She lied.
"Alright, now what the fuck was that?" He demanded, turning his attention to her, before wincing and pulling back as he set the server rack down.
Lucy grimaced, the memory of the beast flashing before her eyes. She desperately tried to think of a cover story, but nothing came to mind. Her mouth opened wordlessly before the truth began to spill, out of her control. "I found what Faraday was looking for. It's big. Really big. Arasaka is pouring billions into a blacksite research project, and they don't want anyone knowing about it. We need to hide! We need to get out of Night City, and… and-"
"Wait, slow down." Falco interjected smoothly, his hands creaking on the steering wheel. "Billions?"
"Yes. Billions." Lucy stressed, her voice steadily growing louder and more frantic as she gripped the seat. "I copied the files, I'll show them to you later. But right now, we need to lay low and figure out what the hell we're doing next. If anybody finds out what we know, there's going to be corporate death squads after us!"
"Okay, okay. Take a breath, Lucy. We'll get somewhere safe." Falco assured.
"There isn't going to BE anywhere safe!" Lucy snapped. "Tanaka thought he was safe and look at where that got him! We need a plan, a place to hide out until the heat dies off-"
"Lucy, calm down." Maine ordered. "There's nobody following us. We've got the data Faraday wants. We'll figure out what to do with it later, but for now, you need to take a breath."
She took a deep, shuddering breath, and her fingers tightened around her forearms, digging into her flesh. Think. She needed time to think.
"Shit." She heard Falco hiss. "Everybody brace!"
Lucy felt her gut flip as her eyes snapped to the road. Suddenly, she could hear sirens getting closer. The car swerved violently as a police cruiser appeared from behind a corner just scant metres ahead, barely not hitting them head-on.
"Somebody must have called in some favours." Kiwi muttered, glaring at nothing as gold light glittered in her irises.
"That's fucking it!" Rebecca shouted, pulling her Carnage off her back and setting it on the floor. "Pilar! Where's my HMG!?"
"We both know you can't fire that thing without a brace, Becca!" The techie yelled back. "Use something smaller, and aim for the tires!"
"No need.' Maine stood up. "Give it here. I'm trained for this shit."
"Fucking- here!" Pilar heaved, and the giant of a gun was shoved in between the front seats and into Maine's hands.
As Rebecca squawked out a demand for him to be careful with 'her baby' and Falco tried to keep them from careening off the road, Maine pushed open the rooftop hatch and stood up, steadying the barrel on the roof.
Everybody only had a moment to plug their ears before a din of thunderous gunfire ripped through the air. Lucy could barely hear the cruiser behind them swerving and crashing, only identifiable by the sound of the sirens shrinking into nothing.
"Got 'em." Maine called out, a grin on his face.
"Keep an eye out. I'm seeing a whole squad of badges lining up for more." Falco tersely called out.
"Why. The fuck. Are they so goddamn persistent?!" Pilar griped, has hands digging into his scalp.
"Doesn't matter. Get ready for a shootout!" Maine called back out over the sound of the HMG revving up.
"Lemme in front! I can't shoot from back here!" Rebecca demanded as she forced her way into the passenger seat, much to Pilar's discomfort.
"Lucy! Kiwi!" Falco barked out, his eyes locked onto the road ahead as the car rocked around them. "Can either of you do anything about the badges?"
"Working on it!" Kiwi responded, her focus entirely on her cyberdeck.
Lucy pushed through the migraine, trying to focus her mind and force her heart to stop pounding. The strain had already done a number on her, but she could probably manage a few lines of code.
Her awareness pushed into cyberspace just as the sound of sirens grew piercing. The world seemed to become see-through, the rumbling and swaying beneath her muted and distant. All around her were signatures, some flying past rapidly, others keeping pace from behind, and she focused her attention on the latter. In front of her, Kiwi's Icon gave her a glance that might have been concerned before turning towards the pursuers behind them.
In unison, they got to work. The systems of a car were not that far off from those of a security drone's, even if there was a uniquely foul combination of motion sickness and feverishness worming through her gut as her body began to overclock itself to keep up even as it shut itself off from the physical world.
Lucy brought her hand down, delivering a sledgehammer-like blow into the ICE of one of the pursuing cruisers, identifiable by the stronger security compared to the other vehicles around them. She tried to suppress the growing feelings of nausea as her intent forced its way past firewalls and encryption, delivering a demand that the car's systems would burn out from trying to accomplish.
The signature didn't immediately disappear, but she felt her connection to it grow faint, slow at first, but then rapidly until all that was left was a blip. Maybe the crunching sound that seemed to emanate from the disappearing Icon was a conjuration of her overworked mind, or maybe it was an echo from her organic ears. Either way, she turned her attention elsewhere, satisfied that at least one cruiser had been taken offline.
She noticed the signatures thinning out one by one as she gathered her strength and waited for her systems to cool. Some in an instant, likely subject to one of any number of fiery ends. Others seemed to fragment and fade until there was only an echo of their presence, like one which Kiwi was working on. A quickhack passed through the connection between the senior netrunner and the vehicle before it vanished, and her Icon staggered in relief.
"None of my quickhacks are meant for cars!" Kiwi spat across their connection. "My brain's going to boil in my skull at this rate! I'm messaging the others, they're on their own for now!"
Something caught Lucy's attention as she prepared to respond, new connections blazing to life, connections that felt awfully familiar.
An Icon appeared, it's form that of an asian man in a red and black netrunner suit, glaring in their direction. "'Saka's here!" She called the enemy netrunner out out, preparing to parry whatever he planned to do. Attacking him was a lost cause. Even if Kiwi and her weren't running themselves ragged with everything else, corporate netrunners were well defended, kept safe by their high-tech stations filled with life support, cooling, server-bank backing and who knew what else.
There was scarcely a moment before Lucy felt her ICE begin turning away surges of information and probes meant to expose vulnerabilities. She deflected what little threatened to actually break past her defences as her body began to heat even further, thinking quickly.
For all that he was untouchable, the Arasaka netrunner's assault was blunted by distance and medium. The man was doubtlessly far away, tucked safely into their work station in an office building or corporate tower, and whatever he was using as a proxy couldn't handle as much data as two professional netrunners on-site could.
The signature of the Arasaka netrunner was hard to decipher, but if they could figure out which system he was using as a proxy-
A metallic, inhumanly low growl interrupted her thoughts, and Lucy froze in place, her mind grinding to a halt. Shock gave way to dawning horror as she turned her attention to the connection that had just opened up.
Three pairs of bright white eyes seemed to illuminate her as they zeroed in on her presence. Three maws snarled as flame licked their razor-sharp teeth, and three massive, monstrous, canine heads materialised out of the digital ether.
Before her stood the beast, its entire being focused entirely on her. A chorus of robotic snarls rang through the void, echoing her name. "Lucyna." ID Detected
Kiwi's Icon jerked, and she whirled her head around to stare at the new arrival, eyes wide. "What the- What did you-?!" Before understanding dawned on her eyes, and she whipped her face towards Lucy. "JACK OUT! NOW!"
Lucy tore her mind free of the net, her body suddenly cold as the sensation of the beast lunging for her vanished. The world swam into view as she fought the urge to hurl, looking around her vision settled into something resembling stillness. Gunfire rattled in her ears, along with shouting and Rebecca's maniacal laughter.
Her eyes shot open in surprise as she saw the back door suddenly flash open and shut in a blur of yellow. David's steadily solidifying form slumped on the ground as he gasped for air, "I think I got 'em!"
A pair of explosions rang out, and she saw Maine shift to look down, one of his massive hands roughly mussing up his hair. "Yeah you did! That's the last two cruisers! Falco! We got any more coming?" He called out to the front over David's complaints.
"Looks like the last of them." The driver's steely voice confirmed, his eyes golden in the rear view mirror. "I think we're clear!"
Kiwi snapped awake from where she was slumped in her seat, and looked around wildly. "There's a drone!" She shouted to the others. "Find it and shoot it down!"
"What?" Maine called back, sounding befuddled before his head snapped up as he ripped his shades off. "Where!?"
"I see it!" Rebecca yelled out, "Keep her steady, Falco!"
"Already on it." To his benefit, the car stopped turning from side to side as much, though the pedal remained stuck to the floor.
The string of expletives from Rebecca didn't cease, however. "Can't get a fucking angle! Pilar! Grab onto my legs!"
"What? The hell are you-" The window to the passenger's seat slid down, and Pilar's demands for answers were interrupted by a shocked scream as Rebecca pulled herself up and halfway out of the car. "God- damnit, can you try and be careful for once!?"
The solo ignored him completely as she raised her pistol, scooting out more and more until the only parts of her inside the car were below her knees. "Come on, come on…" Lucy faintly heard her murmur, barely audible over the sound of the engine, before a slew of gunfire echoed out. "Drone down!" She cheered.
Pilar let out an aggrieved growl as he wrenched her back into the car. "You gotta tell me before pulling this kinda shit, Becca!"
Lucy wasn't sure when she started breathing again. Everybody's eyes darted back and forth as a sudden silence filled the car. But no matter how much they strained their ears, or how many times they looked over their shoulders, there was nothing there except the sight of passenger cars and a few scattered buildings passing by as they approached the edge of city limits.
There was the sound of a low chuckle. And then a full blown belly laugh. Maine clutched his gut as he roared with laughter, his shoulders shaking. Everybody in the car started as their leader slowly but surely devolved into a hysterical cackling mess.
"Maine?" Dorio tentatively broached.
"WE WIN!" Maine roared in victory. "YOU HEAR THAT, FARADAY? WE FUCKING WIN! FUCK YOU, NIGHT CITY!"
As if an invisible signal had been given, the tension that had filled the car drained out. David whooped as he threw his fists up into the air, shortly joined by Pilar and Rebecca. A smile broke Dorio's stoic facade as she relaxed into her seat, shaking her head at her output's wild celebration. Falco chuffed as he shook his head, seeming bemused by the joy that had infected his ride.
Even Lucy couldn't help but sag in her seat a little, relief rushing through her. For a moment, even she dared to feel as though it was over.
Her attention was caught by Kiwi as the pale woman curled up slightly, eyes squeezed shut. "Fuck." With shaking hands, she reached into her jacket, pulling out a cigarette. "This job took a decade off my lifespan, I swear..." She muttered as she placed it in her mouth and lit it, sucking in a breath of nicotine. Her eyes caught on Lucy's, and her expression turned solemn.
Lucy swallowed, and slowly began to open her mouth, but Kiwi gave a minute shake of the head, and her eyes briefly shone gold.
Kiwi: later.
Maine gave one last cackle before he ducked back into the back of the car, his back slamming into the cushions as the seats creaked underneath his cybernetic bulk. "Falco, where're we headed?"
Falco hummed thoughtfully before responding. "There's going to be a lot of eyes looking out for us for a while, but I think we can sneak back into the city proper from the North. I'll need to swap out the licence plate first, though. That, and get some shuteye." He glanced at the rear-view mirror, making eye contact with Maine. "It's been a long day. For all of us."
"Got a place in mind?" Dorio questioned, turning away from where she had been watching transmission towers and windmills pass them by.
"Think I know a few." He chuckled, turning his attention back to the road. "We'll get some rest, give the runners some time to go over the data, and put together a plan for what comes next tomorrow. How's that sound?"
A chorus of approvals rang out, and Lucy's eyes darted to Kiwi's in the same instant the senior netrunner looked her way. Kiwi gave a single, slow nod as she stared into Lucy's eyes. "Sounds good. We'll need some time to figure out what's the play, anyways."
Lucy resisted the urge to gulp, and nodded.
The sound of the rest of the team chatting amongst themselves and the rumbling of the car faded into the background as she leaned back into her seat. Lucy tried to ignore the feeling of dread settling into the pit of her stomach as she tried to get comfortable.
Because no matter what the rest of the crew thought, they weren't in the clear.
Not by a long shot.