Created G.H.O.S.T. System - A Cyberpunk Story

Trace installed the last of the sensors and began testing the system. It was a good thing that no one had stolen the packages after he had been captured. After he got back, he had found them inside the door of the warehouse. More than likely, Monroe or one of the others had brought them inside when they came by to check on the place.

Either way, everything was now installed and plugged into the security system he was setting up. Now, he would be alerted anytime someone showed up, and he would be able to tell who it was. There wouldn't be another opportunity to sneak up on and take him unawares.

"Thanks for keeping her new NetConnect in working condition while I was gone," Trace said to Deckard as he settled into his chair down in the basement.

"It wasn't easy," The man replied through his digital avatar. "Those boxes weren't meant to be used for so long. But the extra time with it did allow me to perform additional changes to its firmware that I believe she will find useful."

When they had initially come over, that was one of the things she had made sure to grab. Her current one was giving her ever more trouble. Despite that, she had been so worried about him the last few days that she had pushed it from her mind. With it now in hand, Sevorah would be installing it in her neck that night.

"How goes making the new OS you were working on for them?"

"Progress is slow, due to its complexity and as I'm only working on it every once in a while," Deckard told him before changing the subject. "Are you going to start putting all those data prisms in place for me to examine now?"

He nodded. "As long as you have properly separated all access to the ports inside virtual environments. I don't want to risk anything potentially troublesome getting out from these just in case."

That man on the screens nodded. "I know, everything has already been setup for all the ports on the right side of the server. The ports on the left side will remain outside the virtual environment for now."

"Alright, I'll start placing the data prisms in a few minutes." Trace yawned and tiredly got to his feet. "How are things going with your mother?"

"They're not at the moment," The man groused in annoyance. "Every time I think I have started making some progress with her, suddenly she goes quiet for a while, and everything has changed when she comes back. Working with all those personalities at the same time is impossible, and unfortunately, I can't work with or concentrate on just one of them, either."

The two continued talking as he pulled the data prisms from the bag and placed them in the server.

"I'll replace these with the next batch in the morning. Have fun, and don't forget to get some sleep as well." Trace paused his boot on the first of the steps going up to his apartment. "I'm sorry about your mom, Deckard. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help."

"I will, but at this point, I don't see how, not without going into space or securing a direct line of some sort to her."

"Have you tried that?" He asked, leaning against the wall of the stairwell. "Have you tried accessing her through Koarden Enterprises? Surely they must have a direct connection to her, right?"

Deckard was silent for several moments, his avatar frozen in place. "No, no, I haven't. That never actually occurred to me, but it's a good idea."

Trace yawned again. "Right, well, I'm heading to bed. Night."

***

Deckard had some interesting items waiting for him when he made his way down to the basement the next morning.

"Hurry up and swap out the data prisms for new ones!" He was told excitedly once he stepped into view. "Also, can you get captured more often? I know you haven't looked at what is on these, but you grabbed an absolutely ridiculous amount of highly valuable data."

"What do you mean?"

The screen Deckard used to display his avatar, along with the screen for Trace's desk computer, began displaying different schematics.

"What in the-?"

"Those data prisms, yeah, when you copied everything from each computer, you literally copied everything. We now have the plans for over a dozen projects they were working on. I estimate that only a couple of them are complete enough to actually be built. However, that is only from these data prisms. You still have a lot more for me to check and work through."

Trace began laughing at how ridiculous the situation was. With how advanced most of the items he was seeing were, it was unlikely that he would be able to make them himself anytime soon. A few of the parts could be outsourced to different companies around the city. Programming the components could be done by Deckard, and it looked like he had also managed to grab the code they had already completed.

Any item or component beyond that would need to be salvaged from something else or made from scratch. Which meant buying far more advanced 3D printers, CNC Machines, and other equipment. He wasn't sure he wanted to spend that sort of money merely to create his own version of something stolen from G1gl3Myte's company.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"There is one more thing," Deckard began as Trace swapped out the data prisms for fresh ones. "When I said you copied everything, I really did mean that. These also include each of their internal messages."

"What are you getting at, Deckard? Did you find something in one of the messages?"

The man waited until Trace finished exchanging the data prisms before replying. "Yeah, you could say that. It's only a couple of hints and bare mentions, but I need a favor from you."

Trace stilled at his unusually solemn and serious tone. "What's going on Deckard? What did you find?"

"Those mentions, they were of my mother. The scientists were gossiping among themselves, and it seems as though there have been rumors about Koarden Enterprises manipulating the steel goddess."

"Ahh," He began to understand. "Well, we talked about establishing a direct line to her through them last night. This just makes it more urgent."

"Yeah, I already began probing at their security." His avatar ground its teeth and spat angrily to the side. "I wasn't serious at first, but once I learned this, I began to seriously try and breach their firewalls. The ICE they are using is next level, despite that I did manage to get a quick glimpse inside and it's pointless.

"Everything is properly air-gapped. Mega-corporations take their security properly. I can't access anything from the outside. I'll need to physically go inside their building and create a connection for me. Something that won't be detected or broken."

Trace frowned thoughtfully. "We were having problems coming up with a decent method that would allow me to sneak inside the Vinna-Kwoi building. Now you want me to sneak inside a building that is even more secure, and I wouldn't even be able to count on your help that time?"

"Yes?" Deckard answered doubtfully, suddenly remembering the problems they had been facing.

He groaned and slid to the lumpy floor of the basement. "This is going to be a problem. My stealth suit only works on the visual spectrum, Deckard. I might be able to tweak it so it can spoof infrared for short periods. But I don't have any ideas for dealing with everything else."

"Hopefully, I'll come across something in the rest of these data prisms, because I agree. That is a problem. One I don't have a solution to at the moment."

"As sad as I am to say it, there is nothing we can do about it for the time being," Trace muttered, his head hanging low. "For now, at least, I won't be able to do anything against your family's corporation." He was silent for a moment, thinking. "Have you thought more about going the legal route, announcing that you are still alive, and just entering through the front door?"

With this latest revelation, he doubted it would work, but it was an option.

"I've thought about it, but all my accounts have been removed from their servers. It was one of the things I did manage to check last night." In other words, with his accounts removed, they had denied another part of his existence.

Since he was in a braincase, it was exceedingly hard to prove his identity without those accounts. His DNA records had been linked to them, and any remaining records would be hidden deep in their restricted servers. There was little chance of them giving anyone access to them, and as such, no chance of him proving his identity. Even on the remote chance he did manage it, they would likely require him to show up in person, or braincase, and the odds of him leaving again were slim.

Meredith would have to get involved, but she was currently compromised. No, this was an issue they would have to solve on their own, somehow.

"Can you find any blueprints for the building?" Trace asked after he had been sitting there helpless for a few minutes. "Maybe we can find another way inside or even an outside tap on the connection we can use. They aren't using the city's internet connection to talk to Meredith, so they have to be using another method. We just need to figure out what it is and where it is located. I bet you anything she required her connection be piped into the corporation's private servers.

"How else would she keep an eye on everything? It might not be getting much use these days, depending on the damage they have done to her. Still, I doubt they went through the effort of disconnecting it. They wouldn't have had a reason to."

If they could find the source of the connection, then they could skip several of those steps entirely. Otherwise, they would need to work their way through the network and the different translation layers.

"Sounds complicated, but it's the first step. I'll see what I can find."

Trace slapped his thighs and stood. "I guess I better get to work and start on a few projects in the meantime. Got to earn some money and tweak some gear after all."

He sat at his work desk and spun in his chair as he remembered one last item. "Right, before I forget. Don't be mad, but I gave Sevorah's old mentor a limited portion of the system. It was just the mental help section so she wouldn't go cyberpsycho, but yeah, sorry, I know you didn't want it spreading."

Deckard's avatar angrily put his fist through the thick CRT monitor sitting on the desk in front of him, slightly mangling his cyberware hand. Those old monitors had been built tough.

"It's a matter of control, and not letting the nanites get into someone else's hand where they can be perverted." The man said angrily. "Or have you forgotten what they had been trying to do with that poor bear?"

"That bear is part of the reason I decided it was worth the risk," He countered. "Face it, Deckard. With the abominations out there, the corporations already have all the samples of corrupted nanites they could want. Do you honestly think they haven't figured out how to make them by now? Fixing their corruption is a matter of programming, not design. It will happen eventually. It's just a matter of when, not if."

Deckard's fingers tapped rhythmically on his desk for several long seconds, before he eventually nodded in reluctant agreement. "I'm not happy about it, but you might be right." His fingers abruptly stopped. "Has it helped Sevorah's mentor at all?"

"Um, it is still too soon to tell, I think, but at the very least, she hasn't tried to tear her limbs off."

"Hmm, the nanites are my mother's project. I never interacted with them much outside of programming them. That is to say, only my mom can access their firmware and certain other features at their core. All of the programming that I performed, I can change."

Trace tilted his head curiously, unsure where the other man was going with this. "What are you saying, Deckard?"

"Well, Ko is getting close to creating her own clinic, right? What if I made a special batch of nanites for her? Ones that needed to be injected, and couldn't replicate, that destroyed themselves after… I don't know one or two weeks, and only contained the mental aspect of the system. It would be even more specialized than what you did for the mentor, but also more controlled."

"You're talking about taking the next step in the beta-testing process?"