Neon Dust [Progression Cyberpunk]

35 – Second Thoughts

Tony looked at the message, frowning. It seemed too far-fetched to be true. What were the odds? He messaged Addie:

Tony: What do you mean? He was the one trying to lower the property value? So it was Boxer?

Addie: I guess…

Tony: Ballsy to use his real name for a job like that. Guy must think he's untouchable.

Addie: Do you think we're in trouble?

Tony thought about the question for a minute, then shook his head, replying:

Tony: Nah. If he recognized you, that means he knew you were the one fishing around for the story back when it happened. If he wanted to get back at you, he would have by now. Besides, no way he leaves you with his daughter if he plans to put a hit out on you… us.

Addie: Speaking of fishing around, I feel like we should try to dig around here a little. Aren't you curious what a guy like that's up to? I mean, we still don't know what Boxer had planned with Royal Breeze! How often are we going to have a chance like this? We're alone all day in a high-ranking Boxer exec's private home!

Tony groaned and turned to look out the window. He should've known that'd be her reaction. Addie had been a journo long before she was an operator. Curiosity was in her blood, and if he tried to rein her in—if he vetoed poking around the apartment—she'd resent it. Would she forgive him? Sure. But, hell—he was just as curious about what kind of dirt they might dig up. Information was a commodity, after all, and they had a business to run.

Tony: If we do this, we do it smart. We can't leave any trace because, as you just figured out, that guy knows who you are—probably me too if he stops to think about it.

Addie: Agreed. What's your suggestion?

Tony: We need to get control of this AI or at least make it blind to us. I think we should bring Glitch on board. I'll talk to her. You go and spend some time with the kid and make sure we don't seem suspicious. I'm sure he's checking in on the cams.

Rather than type a response, Addie picked up the plate she'd been preparing for Clementine and walked over to stand beside him, looking out the window. "Wow. It really is something, isn't it?"

Tony nodded, turning to watch Addie's face as she peered out over the city. She leaned forward, her mouth slightly open as she looked down toward the tiny cars and people on the street below. Tony pointed toward the next building over, the roof of which was a good hundred stories below them. "See the drones?"

"Oh! They're so far below us!"

"Yeah, doesn't seem like anyone does much patrolling up this high. Maybe the corps have rules against it."

Addie tapped her nails on the plate as she contemplated. "I think that's probably right. Lots of high-power corpo execs living up on these top floors." She shrugged. "Well, I'm going to go spend a little time with Clementine."

Tony nodded. "I'll patrol." As Addie walked toward the hallway, he said, "Inez, make this window opaque again." The glass instantly shifted to a creamy white that matched the paint on the neighboring walls.

Tony walked around the room, then into the kitchen and past it, into the service hallway. He found a laundry room, and when he opened a closet beside the laundry machine, he almost drew his pistol and started shooting—a woman was standing there in a traditional and rather revealing maid's uniform. When she didn't move or open her eyes, Tony realized he was looking at Inez's servitor unit. "Of course she looks like something out of a bad doll vid."

He clicked his tongue as he ran his gaze over the closet, past the synthetic woman's body, and to a metal rack behind her. There, he saw a glossy black cube with a pair of cables plugged into the back, one thick and black, and the other filament-thin and yellow. He was pretty sure that would be the server deck for the residence. He looked up, studying the little room from corner to corner. He didn't think there was a camera in there. He closed the door, then reversed course, meandering toward the front door as he sent a message to Glitch:

Tony: Hey, up for a spur-of-the-moment gig? You can put a pause on that other thing I asked you to look into. I'll pay your daily rate, but if this nets us any loot, we can split it three ways.

It was early yet for the netjacker, so Tony wasn't expecting an immediate response, but she surprised him:

Glitchwitch: What kind of gig? I didn't feel like going out today.

Tony: Ember and I found ourselves in a surprising situation that might mean a payoff down the line. Only thing is, we're being observed by a residential AI and about a hundred cams. You think you could jack the system?

Glitchwitch: Can you access the main deck?

Tony: Yeah, I think so. But how? I don't have a data jack. Don't think Ember does either.

Glitchwitch: Is Humpty with her?

Tony snapped his fingers, grinning, as he walked past the front door.

Tony: Yes!

Glitchwitch: Get him plugged in, and I can hop through the remote link we set up for the other job. The AI will know when he's jacked in, but my daemons should be able to subdue it pretty quickly. One of them is designed to jam comms almost instantly, so, with a little bit of luck, we ought to be able to keep anyone from noticing.

Tony: Can do. We'll message you when Humpty's in place.

###

When Addie walked into Clementine's room, she found the teen girl sprawled in her reading chair, lazily flipping the pages of an ancient-looking book. It was a paperback with a picture of a girl pulling back a bowstring on the cover. "Knock-knock," she said, pushing the door wide enough to slip through.

Clementine looked up, wrinkled her dark brows—a stark contrast with her ashen hair—and said, "Why do people say that if they've already opened the door?"

"Say what? Oh, 'knock-knock'? I don't know. It's kind of dumb, huh? My dad always did it when I was younger, so I guess I just accepted it."

"What's that?" Clementine peered at the plate.

"I made you a snack. Do you like PB&J? Well, in this case, it's nut butter and orange marmalade—all I could find in your fridge."

The girl sat up, closed her book, and wedged it into her chair beside her leg. "Mother never lets me eat bread."

Addie pulled the plate back, her mouth forming a small O of surprise and sudden embarrassment. She hadn't even thought of that! What if she had allergies? "I'm sorry! I can fix you something else. There are some apples in the fridge and trail mix in the pantry, and—"

"No! I want to try it." Clementine reached for the plate, but Addie held it out of reach.

Stolen story; please report.

"Do you have an allergy?"

The girls snorted. "Please. With my nanites? No, I'll be fine." She flexed her fingers open and closed, and Addie gave in, handing her the plate. Clementine picked up a triangular-cut sandwich half and took a big bite from the center. As she chewed, her eyes widened and she smiled. "So good!"

Addie sat on the edge of the bed, facing her, and watched as the girl went to work on the rest of the sandwich. She let her gaze drift over to the bookcase and said, "I'm so jealous. I love real books, but I've never seen so many all in one place."

Clementine arched an eyebrow. "Really? We have twice as many at my mom's place."

"Twice?" Addie clicked her tongue, shaking her head. She sent Humpty to the shelves so that he could get a close-up vid of all the book spines.

"What's he doing?" Clementine asked, watching the drone as it slowly warbled back and forth.

"I'm taking a vid of those spines so I can fantasize about my own library someday."

"Oh my gosh!" The girl laughed, stuffing the last part of her sandwich into her mouth. As she chewed, she mumbled, "I guess I take things for granted. Want to take one of them?"

Addie felt her cheeks flush as she furiously shook her head. "No! I couldn't. Besides, it wouldn't look good. Your father might wonder what else we walked off with."

Clementine sighed, tilting her gaze up to the dark, glassy lens of the security array in the corner of her room. "I guess that's true. Nosy Inez is always watching."

Addie was about to say something commiserating when a message came through from Tony:

Tony: Hey, can you message Glitch? She wants to use Humpty to jack into the residential server deck.

"How'd you get into security, anyway?" Clementine asked, sliding her plate onto the little desk near her chair.

"Oh, I guess it all started when I met Shepherd." Before the girl could ask a follow-up, Addie sent a message to Glitch:

Addie: Hey, sis! What do I need to do with Humpty?

"He's really intense, isn't he?" Clementine asked.

"Oh…" Addie frowned, wondering how honest she ought to be. "You could say that. He's good at what he does, and he's seen… a lot."

Glitch: Yo, Ember. Just open his port for me. Then, I guess, follow Tony to the server deck. He said he found it.

Clementine leaned forward. "He's really cute. I mean, even with that rust-tech eye."

"It's not rust-tech!" Addie frowned, surprised by the vehemence of her knee-jerk response.

"Whoa, sorry! I didn't know you had a thing…"

Addie ignored her for a moment, sending a response to Glitch.

Addie: I'll send Humpty with Shep. I can do whatever I need remotely, but I have to stay with our, um, principal.

She cleared her throat and focused her attention back on Clementine. "No, I'm sorry I snapped. I think you and I just have different definitions of decent cyberware." Addie touched her hair as she spoke, eyeing Clementine's perfect, luxurious curtain of silken tresses.

"Oh." The teen touched her hair and shrugged a little. "Yeah, I suppose you're right. Living with my mom, sometimes I forget how expensive things can be. Anyway, I wasn't trying to be insulting. I read a lot of books that feature tough, scrappy heroes from the mean streets. That's where I heard the term; I've never actually met anyone with 'rust-tech.'" She held up her fingers, making air quotes as she said the term.

"Well, I have. If your dad lets you out of this apartment and you get to spend any time in the Blast, you'll see plenty of it." Addie stood up and pointed to Humpty. "Since I'm hanging out with you, I'm going to send Humpty to help Shepherd patrol."

"Oh…" Clementine looked at Humpty and watched him hum to Addie as she opened the door. "Do you think something could really happen? It seems like my dad's paranoid to me."

Addie shrugged. "Corpo execs tend to make a lot of enemies." When Humpty slipped through the door, she closed it and sent a message to Tony:

Addie: Humpty's coming to you. Just get him to the server deck and let me know. I'll do the rest.

Tony: Roger, boss.

Grinning at his response, Addie turned back to Clementine. "What about your mom? Does she work for a corp?"

Clementine made a dismissive sound, flopping back in her chair. "She doesn't work. My grandpa is kind of a big deal with Fischer, though. So…" She trailed off a little sheepishly.

Addie sat down, nodding in understanding. Fischer Corp was one of the largest industrial manufacturing corporations in the Americas. "Trust fund?"

"To put it lightly."

"I'm surprised you don't have your own permanent bodyguard."

Clementine smiled and arched one of her eyebrows. "Are you applying for the job?"

Addie giggled. "If…" She had to admit the idea of hanging out with a rich girl as down-to-earth as Clementine sounded kind of fun. "If I didn't have so much going on with Shepherd and our other… projects, I'd be tempted by something like that. You seem pretty cool."

"Oh, that's just because you caught me on a good day. I tend to have at least one meltdown a week." Clementine's sly grin made it hard to tell if she was joking. She picked up her book but pointed to her shelf before opening it. "Want to read something while you're here, at least? I mean, there's probably time for you to read a smaller one." She jumped up and ran her fingers along the spines, settling on a thin book. "This one's really romantic and—oh my gosh—the food descriptions… You'll be so hungry after reading a few chapters!"

Addie took the book and looked at the cover. It featured a woman with long, dark hair, red lips, and an old-fashioned dress. She was in a kitchen with many well-detailed items on the counter—chocolate, spices, herbs, flour, eggs. The title was Like Water for Chocolate. "Laura Esquivel? I've never heard of this one, but sure, I'd like to check it out. You don't care if I read while I keep an eye on you?"

Clementine beamed at her, clearly pleased that Addie hadn't rejected her suggestion. She flopped back into her chair and said, "You better read! I'll feel weird if I am and you're not."

###

Tony watched as Humpty burbled up to him, gliding along near the hallway's ceiling. "All right, buddy, follow me." He walked back to the kitchen, got a glass from the cupboard, then poured himself some kind of pink, pulpy juice from the fridge. With the glass in hand, he walked back toward the far end of the apartment, past Clementine's bedroom.

When he reached the end of the hall and the locked, double doors there, he made a show of taking a drink, coughing, and "accidentally" dropping the glass on the marble floor. It shattered, and the juice splashed all over the place, even under the doors to the primary suite. "Dammit!" he said, turning to walk briskly back to the kitchen. Again, he made a show of looking for something, as if he meant to clean the mess himself.

After a few moments, though, he stopped, cleared his throat, and said, "Hey, Inez?"

"Yes, Shepherd?"

"Did you notice I broke a glass in the hallway?"

"Yes. Would you like me to help with that?"

"Yeah, actually. I think I'd better stay focused on security."

"Of course. It's not any trouble."

While they spoke, Tony walked toward the laundry room and the AI's servitor closet. He'd just entered the room when the closet opened and the synthetic maid stepped out. She looked a good deal more lifelike now that Inez was piloting her. Her eyes, far more lifelike than many synths', settled on Tony's face, and she spoke in the same voice that had earlier been emanating from the hidden speakers in the residence. "I'll have that mess cleaned up in short order, Shepherd."

Tony nodded, watching as she retrieved an electric mop from another closet and strode away, her shoes clicking on the marble as she went. Earlier, while he'd been waiting for Humpty, Tony had set up a comm channel between him, Addie, and Glitch, and he immediately subvocalized into it, "The server closet is empty. Now would be the time to make our move."

"I'm ready," Addie's voice said, as her name flashed yellow on Tony's AUI.

"Okay," Glitch replied, her name flashing pink, "connecting to Humpty. Ember, you need to plug his data jack into the deck. Do you see it?"

As Humpty quietly drifted over to the empty closet, Addie replied, "I see it." With a soft snick, an aperture on the bottom of his egg-shaped housing opened up, and a little mechanical arm extended out of it, tipped with several different prongs. "Are you ready, Glitch?"

"Ready. My daemons are locked and loaded. This should work, but there's a small chance the AI will have a chance to issue an alarm. Are you sure you two want to risk it?"

Tony frowned. "How small?"

"I'd say five in a hundred."

"This could mess up our rep, Ember. We're working for this guy."

"But we're watching his daughter—that was the job."

Tony chuckled. "I mean, you can justify anything, but the fact is, we're definitely not living up to our end of the contract by taking over his AI and breaking into the locked areas of his house." Tony wasn't sure why he was objecting so much now as opposed to earlier when he'd been all for digging around. He supposed it was the less-than-certain chance of Glitch's success. He didn't feel bad about screwing over a corpo exec, even if he was a client, but he didn't want word of it to get out. Reputation was everything in their game.

To his surprise, Addie seemed to be on the same page. "I think we ought to rethink this. Let's take a beat and not rush; we've got all day."

Glitch couldn't keep a touch of irritation out of her voice when she replied, "Seriously? You guys got me all heated up for nothing? What if we just—"

Her voice cut out as the lights flickered and went out, pitching the room into blackness. Tony's eyes compensated, but then red-tinted emergency lights came on, and a soft chime sounded from a hidden speaker. "Alert: a power spike has been detected. Residential AI unit Inez 4.31 is offline and attempting to reboot."

Growling, Tony looked at his AUI, focusing on his connection status. All his frequencies were crossed off—he was being jammed. He reached down and lifted his shotgun. He smiled when he saw Humpty drift over, performing a small loop. "Oh, good. You're still here. Well, get ready, Ads. I think we're about to have company."

When Humpty did another loop, signaling that Addie had heard him, he smiled grimly and started down the hallway. "You stay with the kid; I'll head to the door."