“Yeah, I know someone like that,” Hank answered, “Name’s Kassidy, doesn’t really have any qualms ‘bout smashing open archives, lady ain’t cheap though.”
I nodded my head, I expected to have to pay for the work. I just needed Hank’s help finding someone I could trust not to rip me off or rat me out. If he knew someone I could deal with, my job would become a whole lot easier.
“Do you know if she’d be open to making a deal like that, helping me crack into an archive, a company one?” I asked.
Hank nodded affirmatively, “Hell yeah, she likes the challenge, plus, with her little vendetta against Red Door, she may even give you a discount, Haha.”
“Vendetta?” I asked.
“Yeah, think she's some sort of activist or something.” Hank responded offhandedly.
With a few taps at his phone Hank shot a message out to the woman in question, receiving a response a few minutes later. Hank relayed her response.
“She says she’s interested but wants to meet you first, says she wants to know more about your ‘whole deal’.”
“Like what I want her to do?” I asked.
Hank nodded his head side to side, “Yeah that too, but I think she is more interested in meeting a bot that is trying to mess with Red Door. You’re not exactly any everyday kinda guy my man.”
I hadn’t seen any other bots around the city yet, except small cleaning ones. I had briefly looked at information on robotics when researching the world, but it seemed robotics and A.I. was still an underdeveloped field, most technology focusing on enhancing human capabilities.
People were cheap and abundant, advanced electronic machines weren't.
Hank gave me Kassidy’s number and told me where and when she wanted to meet. The location she had selected was a VR café, I would meet her sometime that night. I thanked Hank and went to prepare; I had a little girl that I had to explain to why she wouldn’t be able to come with, please make this easy.
----------------------------------------
Kassidy danced past the last attacker, the amateur swinging widely with his blade, the whole move terribly choreographed. She dropped low to the ground and swept her leg out in a half-circle, tripping the assailant to the ground. With a dull thud the person fell, then was fell upon by the woman, a knife piercing underneath their jaw, severing the jugular.
Kassidy stood up, the figure below her dissolving slowly into pixelated dust, floating off into the air.
“VICTORY!” an electronic voice boomed out from seemingly everywhere, the world fading into black.
Kassidy unplugged the VR cord from the back of her skull, the world blinking to life through her electronic eyes. The same eyes flicking to a notification in her U.I., a message from Hank, what’s he want.
He had someone who needed help breaking into a Red Door archive. A humanoid bot named C-13, needed some info on test subject facilities to solve a personal matter, a picture of the machine was attached.
A bot? Kassidy thought.
Kassidy pondered this for a moment, it was rare for a bot to do anything more than basic tasks. Sure, there were some advanced war machines and supercomputers that could think and adapt, but they were the exception, most definitely not the rule. For a bot to seek out a ‘personal matter’? Unheard of.
Kassidy connected a different cord to the back of her head, running a search using the picture she was sent, her various augments helping her to fly through thousands of databases in moments, some illegally accessed, most illegally accessed.
Nothing? What are you? She thought, as no search was returned with positive results.
Kassidy had little reason to deny a chance to screw with Red Door, but she wanted to meet this strange bot. She typed out a message to Hank, offering a meetup.
A message returned a few seconds later, the bot would come.
Kassidy checked the time; she had some hours before the meeting.
She changed cords to enter VR again, selecting a time compressed robotics class, covering both A.I. and machinery.
The bot had piqued her curiosity.
----------------------------------------
“It's not fair! I want to help find Tom too!” Paris yelled back at me, the injustice of the situation making her face red with anger.
“It’s not that easy Paris, I don’t know this person, it might be dangerous,” I explained, “I promised to keep you safe, so I'm keeping you safe.”
“You promised that you wouldn’t leave me,” the little girl shouted in response, “How do you plan to keep that promise if I don’t come with you!”
I rubbed my hand across my face, I had promised the girl, but this was different. I could control whether or not she was endangered in this case, I would choose to keep her safe. I didn’t know how to convince the girl. She wasn’t coming though, that, I had decided.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Just let me come!” The girl said again, her eyes now threatening tears, “Please!”
My heart broke a little, hurting at the girl’s pain. I steeled myself.
“No.” I declared, “You are staying here with Hank, I'll be back later, stay put.”
With that I turned and walked out of the room, regretting it every step of the way. A faint sense of déjà vu hitting me as I did so, having made a similar choice in a past life.
I continued walking.
Hank met me on the ground floor, I spoke to him briefly, letting him know that I was heading out, asking him to keep an eye on Paris.
Hank agreed.
I thanked him and left the building, breaking into a jog. I decided it was best to go on foot, the truck too recognizable if things went south.
I ran though the confetti rain.
----------------------------------------
Paris lay face first on her bed, crying into the covers. She felt like a baby, only babies cried. She wasn’t a baby, but she couldn’t stop the tears.
She was alone again, she wanted to go with Cee, she wanted to help find Tom.
She knew it was dangerous, she knew this place would be when she decided to come with Cee. It wasn’t right for him to leave her behind. Her sadness quickly turning into anger.
A scream was muffled by a pillow, Paris breathed in then out, screaming again.
It didn’t take long for her to exhaust herself, her throat sore and scratchy.
A knock at the door.
“Paris? It's Hank, you want to come downstairs? We can watch cartoons if you want?” The man’s voice coming through the door, muffled.
He’s talking to me like I'm some baby, Paris thought to herself, looking at herself though, she admitted she looked like one.
“No thanks. I think I’m gonna play CyberRunners tonight.” Paris shot back.
It was silent for a moment, the only noise being the downstairs speakers resounding through the building.
“Okay missy, your loss!” Hank joked back, the sound of his steps slowly distancing themselves from the door.
Paris had thought of a plan, she knew where Cee was going, she had been listening when Hank told him where to go. She was going to meet him there, the worst case scenario, Cee sees that she can handle herself.
It was foolproof.
Paris took a handgun out of one of their boxes, tucking the weapon into her waistband. She peaked her head out the door to her room, she ducked back quickly as a couple walked past into a room farther down the hall.
Paris’s heart beat in her chest.
She stuck her head back out the door, the hallway was clear, she stepped out. Sneaking down the stairs to the club’s main floor she looked for Hank. She spotted him patting a man on the back as the man threw up in a corner.
Paris took the chance and darted for the door, hiding behind the various patrons as she did so, a few saying ‘hi’ when she passed.
She said ‘hi’ back.
Paris reached the door and popped it open, racing out into the street, the way to the café engraved in her head.
She started her trek.
----------------------------------------
“Isn’t that the girl the lieutenant put a mark out for?” the officer said, nudging his partner who was busy haggling with a noodle stand.
“What?”, the other officer looked over at the girl, his face glowering a second later, “Crap. Call it in.”
The initial officer pulled out his phone, pressing a few buttons and putting it up against his head.
“Sir, sorry to bother you so late, but I just spotted that girl you marked last week.”
Only the bustle of the city could be heard as the man on the other end of the phone spoke.
“Yes sir. Will do.” The officer said as he hung up the phone.
“So?”
“We are supposed to follow her, come on.”
----------------------------------------
I reached the café in short order, the small shopfront hiding a relatively massive array of VR booths. The room was backlit with black lights, a poor choice considering the floor had a sea of glowing stains. I avoided those spots as I walked down the aisles.
I found the private room me and Kassidy were meant to meet in, the doors passcode being sent to me moments before. I tapped the code into a keypad next to the door, the sound of the locks bolt sliding open.
I walked in.
“Hello there.”, a feminine voice sounded out from behind me.
I whipped my head around at a figure standing behind the door. I dropped into a defensive stance.
“Ooo, very nice responsiveness,” The figure said, stepping out of the shadow, “You must be real impressive on the inside.”
The woman, whom I assumed to be Kassidy, stuck her hand out towards me. Relaxing my posture, I took her hand, shaking it.
“Kassidy, I’m C-13, but most people call Cee.” I said.
The woman leaned close to my face, looking deep into my eyes.
“A nickname? How cute.” she said.
I released her hand, taking a hesitant step back.
Who was this weirdo?
“Yes. I suppose. I was told you could help me get into a Red Door database, is this true.” I asked, eager to finish my business with this woman.
Kassidy threw herself down into a VR rig, ignoring the helmet and plugging a cord directly into her head.
“Let's talk in here,” she said, her eyes rolling back in her head, “I can control who listens in better there.”
Her body went limp, fully immersed in the fake reality.
I looked over at one of the other rigs in the room, lowering myself down into one I sat down in the odd banana shaped apparatus. I felt for the cord Kassidy had plugged into her head, the computers in my mind telling me of a socket I could connect it to. Hesitating only a moment, I did so, the world shifting to the roof of a skyscraper instantly.
“Welcome to the top of Vegas.” Kassidy called out, standing on the ledge of the building.
“Where are we?” I asked in amazement, the sensation of wind whipping against my face while artificial sunlight warmed me all too real.
“Like I said, top of Vegas, Red Door’s main building here, the view is pretty isn’t it.” the woman responded.
I looked out over the city, the entirety of it laid out before me, the lowest levels of the city blocked out by an artificial cloud. The whole scene giving the illusion of a city built in the clouds.
“It is.” I said.
Kassidy’s head tilted at my words, “Amazing.”
“Sure is.” I affirmed, a bit confused on her infatuation with the view.
I faked a cough, “Well, about that database...”
Kassidy hopped down from the building’s edge, a table and chairs appearing before her. She took a seat and gestured for me to sit as well.
I did so.
“I can get in easy,” she said, “My question though, is why do you want to?”
I thought a moment, deciding to trust the clearly insane woman, “I’m looking a friend, a kid that was taken from his home outside the city.”
“Ah, another kidnapping,” the girl nodded solemnly, “I can help you out, wouldn’t want to wish my fate on others.”
I tilted my head, “You were taken by Red Door too?” I asked.
Kassidy nodded her head, “Sold actually, momma didn’t want me more than she wanted to get high so there I went. Ten years I worked for those bastards as an indentured servant before I worked off my debt.” She spat out the last words like they were venom.
“I’m sorry.” I said, the unfairness of the situation resounding with me.
Kassidy laughed, “Oh geez, empathy too! You really are the whole package.”
The woman raised her hand before I could respond to statement, “One last question though, before I give you what you need.”
“Yes?”
“Can you fight?” Her voice cold as I was ejected from the simulation.
The room hadn’t changed, Kassidy still jacked into her machine.
A knock rapped out on the door.
I ran over to it, swinging it open quickly, prepared for anything.
Paris stood on the other side.
“Hey Cee! Look! I made it here all by myself!” She stated proudly, a toothy grin on her face.
I looked past her, several dozen men in armor tearing people out of VR rigs, the Red Door logo plastered all over them.
I pulled Paris into the room, shutting the door quickly, locking it.
I kneeled down to look the little girl in the eyes, her face shifting to concern.
“Paris, Things are about to get really bad. I need you to hide right now, cover your ears.”