ZEROGROUNDS

[HeyGayzelle]

The prismatic neon glow of city lights and vid-billboards converge into an impressionistic palette of soft hues in the evening sky of Irinas City. Moving through a crowded portside market, Tanya Walker holds a straight line as she makes her way down an alley with a black satchel strapped to her back. At the end of the alley lies a sagging wooden stall cordoned off with a filthy beige curtain. Tanya approaches the decrepit stall and pushes aside the thin barrier of soot-stained fabric. She then looks down at the bald middle aged man with yellow vat-grown transplant eyes sitting at the overburdened formica desk in the center.


"Hey, Hsin. Got anything good for me tonight?"


Hsin doesn't raise his glance as he scrolls through some incomprehensible spreadsheet on his tablet. A moment later, he rests the tablet down as he digs through a drawer on his desk and produces a slightly bent metal rod, the chrome polish stripped off to the bare metal near the tip.


"That brake lever you were looking for last week. Found one at the scrapyard the other day."


Tanya picks it up and rotates it a bit as she inspects Hsin's find.


"Was hoping for something a little better, to be honest, but I guess it's this or nothing. Put it on my tab?"


Hsin looks up at her, his skepticism amplified by the sharp clarity of his yellow eyes.


"No way, Tanya. Last time I give you something on credit, I wait two months for you to pay me. You've got no more credit here."


Tanya shrugs her shoulders indifferently as she rifles through her bag and removes a cheap-looking maroon box of vacuum-molded plastic adorned with mismatched buttons, dials, sliders, rocker switches, and ports.


"Well, all I've got on me is this thing. Apparently it's a Xiaohuo Emperor V. The guy said these things were clones of the Aegis Paragon 780 decks. Won't turn on, so I had to take his word on that. Still, this thing might be a dated first-gen piece, but I'm damn sure it's worth more in parts than a fucking brake lever."


Hsin gestures to the empty folding chair on the other side of the desk.


"That's fine, we can part it out here, unless there's something else you want."


The chair creaks as Tanya lowers the weight of her body into it.


"I know you're good, but I can't say I want to sit here and watch you part out an entire deck. Just make it worth my while this time."


Hsin takes the maroon deck and puts it on the desk.


"Suit yourself,” he says.


Hsin then gets up and goes digging through some plastic crates, eventually producing a power supply, two sticks of RAM, an old white and red headset held together by thick strands of duct tape, and a six-pack of some cheap adjunct beer in small jade green cans.


Hsin then adds the brake lever to the pile and asks, "That good enough?"


Tanya inspects the objects on the table for a moment and answers,


"Almost. Got anything else to sweeten the deal?"


Hsin responds by opening the junk drawer on his desk and adding an almost featureless stick made of brushed stainless steel. Compared to Hsin's other offerings, it looks pristine.


"What the hell is that thing?" Tanya asks.


The left side of Hsin's lip curls downward a bit before he responds.


"No idea. Somebody dropped it off here yesterday. Probably just a flash drive or something. Didn't try it out, not sure I even want to hook it up to my deck. Might be worth something, though. You want it?"


Tanya looks over the haul and thinks a few seconds before responding,


"Yeah, sure. I need to head back to my place anyway. Go ahead and wrap it up for me."


Hsin nods as he seals the pieces in a large anti-static plastic bag. Tanya takes the bag from Hsin and throws it in her satchel. A small gust of wet air blows into the stall as Tanya pulls aside the curtain again.


"Take it easy, Hsin" she says as she steps back out into damp alleyway.


After exiting the stall, Tanya makes her way towards her motorcycle, a battered decades-old sport bike with a weathered matte gunmetal grey paint job. The bike comes to life with a throaty rasp followed by a metallic rattle as Tanya activates the ignition and twists the throttle. She lightly accelerates through the alleyway before crossing over into a congested city street. The rain and road spray coat her in a fine layer of grit as Tanya transitions onto the thoroughfare leading home. The leviathan image of the Zedat tower is reflected in Tanya's amber mirrorshades as she twists the throttle harder and starts weaving through the endless sea of human-operated and automated traffic that fills the tiered roads of Irinas City.

 

[Tice]

ZG


Milus droned over his hunk-o-junk computer, running a hand along his developing stubble. It had been a long day, and his debilitated corneas ached from the strain of looking at the device. Normally, he'd link up to his run-of-the-mill cyberdeck, but after a mental clash with some den-dwelling idiot, he feared that it'd be a risk putting himself under the same strain today. His new apartment joinee, Tanya, was out on one of her scraphauls. Normally, he'd do it himself, but she was a hell of an engineer, and could probably do better without him there.


His living conditions sucked, but he did get it free. After being blacklisted, he stole the identity of one of the IT guys back at M-Core, using his ID pin to run some knockoff tracer. Buying it under his name, Milus lived under the guy's alias: Mark Donahey. Course, Tanya knows his real name, but as for the Big Brother eye in the sky, he was just another tenant. Milus took a drag from the bland, bitter coffee, the beans a weekly ration from the overarching government. He brought his fingers to his forehead, rubbing the area to sooth the pain. Finally, he'd lift himself from his metal chair with a groan, turning to the living room. Each apartment in the blacklist block was uniformly the same; dull, drabbish grey walling, tiled kitchen with rudimentary essentials, and furnished bedrooms. The living room was originally bland, the carpet stained since before Milus moved in, but a pockmarked couch, afflicted by weather from when it was first out on the street when Milus found it, sat along the wall perpendicular to the door. A small table was in front of it, serving as a dining table as well. Personal effects were strewn, some Milus's, others Tanya's. A picture frame, metallic and rusted, held a photo of his past wife, Matilda. Milus took the frame for a moment, looking at it, before moving into the kitchen.


He'd spread an overhead cabinet out, pulling a store of bread rations down. He'd end slice two even pairs, putting ham in both. He'd take both in hand, placing one in the fridge for Tanya, and began eating the other. He moved back into the living room, sitting down in a cautious manner to avoid upraised springs in the cushioning. He'd bring his tablet-bracelet up, sending a message to one of his 'Friends'.


-"Bringing in haul soon; any requests?"


After a moment's respite, the tablet lit up, displaying:


"A car antenna, if you have one"-


-"Brucie boy, are you building an illicit radio? That's bad, mister."


"I have sinned! Doesn't matter, it's none of your business. I'll pay a week's worth of ration cards"-





-"I'll live without extra food. Message me when you're willing to pay"


Milus sighed, closing the tablet on his wrist with a swipe. He definitely considered having extra food around, but figured that Tanya would know the real value of whatever junk she finds.


Though it felt as though he only dozed for a moment, Milus woke to the sun near-setting. He unbolted the door, expecting Tanya to be home any moment. He went to the kitchen and quickly sat back onto the couch, opening the bottle of illicit beer he got from his little stash behind the stove. He drank from it gingerly, enough to wash away the stress of today's data transfers. He had an inkling that his 'client' was a corporation, and probably pissed some white-hat wannabe script kid. He rose, turning off the computer, noting that the virtual world is just as dangerous as the streets. The computer sputtered and whined for a moment, almost like a dying animal, then stopped, cutting off all connection to the blacklisters with a computer. He thought of Tanya, and for a moment worried for her safety. He resigned that notion; she'd kick his ass for it. Chuckling to himself, he took another drag from the bottle.

 

[HeyGayzelle]

At the street level of the Zedat tower's residency district, Tanya stands with her arms crossed, waiting for the aging elevator system to make its long voyage down the cylindrical glass tube in front of her, one of many in the enormous arcology. Once the envy of the business world in Irinas City and abroad, the tower now stood a cracked and stained ruin, dwarfed by the enormous headquarters of contemporary business giants such as Omros-Korbin, Genecom, Jiang Industrial, and others. A sorry-looking group of strangers gather at the elevator doors alongside Tanya as the soft ambient music resonates thorough the lobby, being piped pipes through the thin, tinny-sounding speakers placed throughout the cavernous lobby.


Long ago, the Zedat corporation touted the merits of AI composers that could interpret the emotions of guests and patrons, dynamically writing music in real-time to soothe their minds in lieu of recorded music. But now, some decades later, the Zedat building's AI composer known as Leopold had hit a recursion loop and could now only produce the same eight-bar passage over and over. As Leopold hits the tonic chord for the third time over, the elevator finally makes its way down to lobby level with a long pneumatic hiss. As the doors slide open with a heavy creak, Tanya and the small horde of blacklisters silently crowd into the elevator. The stale odors of machine oil and human bodies mingle together as the elevator moves back up again through the large cylinder of glass. From a distance, the elevator shafts looked acceptable. But up close, it became obvious that they hadn't been cleaned in years. A cloudy mineral film from weather and pollution coated the outside the glass while dark smears of brown oil covered the interior. Little by little, members of the crowd exit to their respective floors. After some time, Tanya arrives at her floor and steps out into the large hallway of identical doorways leading to identical rooms. As she approaches her room, she removes a card with an NFC tag and quickly waves it in front of the door. Locks click as the LED on the old door handle switches from red to green and she enters the drab apartment.


Tanya removes her grime-covered orange jacket and drapes it on a door handle. She meets eyes with Milus as she makes her way across the living room.


She says, "Man, I am hoping you had better luck than me today. I flipped that busted off-brand deck, but Hsin was not having it today. Looks like everything good had been picked over already. Guess times are thin for the other scavengers out there too. Like, it's good to know that if we go bust, the management is going to be going after Mr. Donahey and not us. But if we want to keep living here for the immediate future, things are gonna have to turn around one way or another."


Tanya takes one of the green beer cans from earlier and slams it against a countertop with enough force to break the sealed nitrogen capsule inside. Condensation forms on the can as it cools down to someplace between lukewarm and cold. She flips the tab and takes a deep swig from the can.


"You're not looking too hot yourself, either. Burning the candle at both ends?"

 

[Tice]

With a grunt of recognition as Tanya enters, Milus would put the bottle on the sordid table in front of him, and reply-


"Candle's burning bright, too. I busted my ass trying to do some info transfers between the usual clients, and I have a feeling it may have been one of the last. The pay is getting shallow, and less jobs are being posted. Either people suddenly lost the need to move information off-the-books, or another servicer is doing it better than I."


Changing the subject, Milus would ask-


"Did Hsin have ANYTHING useful?"


During the last sentence, Milus would gesture to her satchel, then mutter, "Dinner's in the fridge."


Milus would speak in a hushed tone, having no faith in his neighbors. After all, it took only a bit of intuition, and one could breach the sacred privacy of his domain and steal his scarce valuables. His computer was, in fact, one of the few on the story, as far as his knowledge went.

 

[HeyGayzelle]

Tanya hands over the dirt and oil-streaked satchel and makes her way to the fridge, trading the five remaining beers for the thin sandwich in the dented old refrigerator before making her way back towards Milus and taking a seat. Tanya reclines back in her chair a bit as a loud mechanical rumbling can be heard elsewhere in the building. The lights dim for a brief moment before returning in force. The low-light vision mode in her mirrorshades kicks in just as the lights do. She lets out a sigh of exasperation as the amplified light is beamed into her retinas. A second later, they return to the default setting and she returns to her train of thought.


"I guess it wasn't a total loss. Finally got that replacement brake lever for my bike, so I'm hoping this should be the end of the sticking issues I've had with the last one. I think the lenses in that headset might be real glass, not polycarbonate. Sometimes vintage collectors eat up that shit up. The rest just look like some cheap components. Might as well just take whatever you want from there, might not even be worth selling anyway."


Tanya then gives the cheap can of beer a few taps with the nail of her middle finger as she continues.


"And then there's the beer. Don't think it's going to help our money problem, but it might help my sobriety problem."

 

[Tice]

Letting out a loose chuckle, an almost unfamiliar sound in the Zedat complex, Milus would lean over and lift the package, the couch groaning from his movement, then undo its mutilated strap. He'd then would rummage through the satchel, separating parts he recognizes from the more mechanical side of things. Dust would clot the table as he pulls his cut from the junkpile. He then stops, an inquisitive look crossing his scarred face. Lifting up the bland, clean steel stick, he'd ask-


"What the hell is this? Looks like an expensive bit of nothing."


He rotated it over, noting the USB porting on the underside.


"Is it some kind of flash drive?"

 

[HeyGayzelle]

Tanya slides her chair a bit closer as she casually cracks her knuckles and smirks.


"Pssh, my exact words to Hsin! "What the hell is that thing?" He didn't know. I didn't know. And from the sounds of things, you don't know either."


She pauses for a moment to take another draft from the thin beer. Somewhere, a faint hint of hops and malted barley can be tasted among the oily sea of cheap corn and rice based adjuncts, probably aeroponically grown with accelerated nutrients in some hermetically sealed lab maintained by automated harvesters. A setup like that probably bought a suit some nice condo at a swank, upscale joint like Villa Calcidore or the Willow Chalet, maybe even a capsule apartment at that Twin Spires space station they built so Xavus Militech could post up there and claim international sovereignty, avoiding both their business tax obligation and the cybersecurity restrictions placed on new airborne drones by the International Telepresence Systems Consortium. There was no end to the insane shit corporations would do just to improve their bottom line; or the shit they could do just to teach those below them their place. None. But that's what having money meant: options, power, security, doing whatever the fuck you want and never having to think of the consequences. And it's this thought that brings Tanya's mind back from the Twin Spires, back from the Willow Chalet, back to her dingy, shitty apartment in the middle of some dead megacorporation's headquarters.


"Yeah, to be honest I was just trying to push it a bit to get a little something more. Hsin's not exactly the biggest fan of me right now, and sure, I get it, he's trying to run a business, but I had to get rid of that thing. I mean, what was I supposed to do, fucking eat it? I can punch a deck, but I'm no console cowboy. There's probably someone in this city who has a use for a cheap, busted first-gen deck, but it sure as hell ain't me, and if anyone knows who, it's Hsin. So that's it; that thing is what you get when you have no options and you try to push your luck."

 

[Tice]

Milus would mull over his thoughts in the ensuing silence, resting his chin upon his propped fist. What profit can be made here? Salvage? Some vintage collector? Was it perhaps some corporation's plaything? If so, how the hell did Hsin get it?


After a bit, and a last draught of the nasty, I'll flavored booze, Milus replied-"Luckily, we got a console cowboy here. I'll plug this shit up and pray it doesn't infect my system."


And with that, he alit from the cushion, the couch groaning its pleasure in his weight removal. Walking to the junk computer, he inserted the drive, and started the device, it rumbling like a snoring bear as his screen lit up. Opening the drive's file, he found a document, with nothing other than a link-


ADRS/:/ZEROGROUNDS.net





ADRS was a term applying to a relatively remote branch of the internet; Milus got most of his runner jobs there. His palms began to glisten with sweat as his nerves amped up, and he then connected to the link. After looking to the site's layout, a series of tables with many different subjects, ranging from contraband trade, hitman services, and underground marketing, to info streams, connected to many corporations' servers. It was free, allowing anyone to view and interfere a business's doings.


ZEROGROUNDS was the fight for the blacklisted.


In theory.


"Tanya, you need to see this." He said, in a urgent, pressed tone. Hell, he was scared.

 

[HeyGayzelle]

Tanya stands up and walks over with some urgency, her expression masked behind the large reflective lenses set in front of her eyes. She bends over a bit and tries to take a look.


"What have we got here..."


The vast sea of information is hard to interpret, like trying to read a newspaper through an electron microscope. A few choice pieces catch her eye: a file name that suggests design schematics from Hyonu Systems, other listings suggest information about the size and composition of security reports at various factories and warehouses, and others still suggest detail dossiers on a variety of persons...and perhaps non-persons as well. Names like Delphi.Core, Sona/Proto, and Tera:Beta suggest something inhuman. A grisly night vision photograph of a shabby, long haired man hooked up to cyberdeck lying face down in a pool of blood scrolls past, the strained, contorted posture of his arms and back indicating a Grand Mal seizure. It is then that Tanya notices the tip of the man's tongue laying severed on the floor. Detailed MRIs of brains displaying a variety of internal trauma go by. One appears burned almost consistently throughout. Another has a small wound that runs straight through the brain stem, severing the autonomic nervous system. An aerial photograph shows a group of three slumped over in a bullet-ridden car as a sentry wearing a large set of mechanized armor emblazoned with the Teradyne logo stands nearby.


She takes a moment to find the right words, but there are none.

 

[Tice]

"This...this is horrid."


Some people had placed dark, sickening ads for cannibalistic sites and necrophiliac chatrooms around most of the gruesome photos. One had a family of three, one daughter, all deeply Italian. Their names were tabled below, and why they were killed. The family were strung by hooks embedded in the ears. Milus shudders as he imagined the girl's screams. He then clears his throat, saying-


"Do we take a job?" He'd say, in unease.

 

[HeyGayzelle]

Tanya silently walks towards the window in the apartment, the heavy soles of her worn black boots thumping ominously with each step. She looks outside for a moment, moving her gaze from the neon lights adorning the buildings at the street level in the vicinity of the Zedat building, then bringing it upwards towards the reflective black pyramid housing the Tanaka Corporation headquarters, then moving towards the large chrome pillar of Bell-Shedov Biosystems, and then the twisting parabolic helixes of the Suntech Limited building. Tanya loses her focus as the sheer breadth of Irinas City overwhelms her.


"...I don't know. We've barely got any money. No other options. This...us...being blacklisted. Every day is a struggle, that's no doubt. It's hard, and things are probably only going to get harder from here on out."


She turns away from the window and faces Milus again, approaching him slowly.


"And maybe I lost part of myself when I ended up here. Hell, who didn't? But this situation right here, being unable pay rent, maybe ending up on the streets, all of that shit still beats being dead."


Part of Tanya considers looking around for something quick and simple, no bodies, no mess. But deep down, she knew it would never be just one job, and the collection of photos provided a number of unsettling answers about what the endgame of this particular career would look like.

 

[Tice]

Milus looked at her hidden expression, her tall frame silhouetted by the nightlife of the expansive city. Vid-boards dazzled her in color, and finally, Milus said-


"Look, you need rest. I'll grind the cyberdeck tonight and try to find some simple job. No killing, no guns...just labor."


He gestured to her bedroom, and turned to the computer, the screen lighting his pale complexion like a flashlight under the chin.


"Hell, maybe I'll find the same clients wanting some data transfers. We don't even have to leave."


But in the back of his mind, like an itch, he doubted anything would be that simple.


He pulled the chair in, readying the deck to his neural jack. His implant was made for this strain, handling smaller task routinely as he did the dirty work. It was a gift of M-Core back when he did the computer security. He thought back to the appalled expression of Matilda when he came home with it.


Milus, it's a damn eyesore.


Oh, I know. My hair will grow over it in time.


It just...bothers me. They drilled into your beautiful mind and put a corporate monopoly in there.


It's for Jerren, Hon.


The child in question stuck his 6-year old head in, saying


What is, M-Daddy?


Nothing. It's far past your bedtime.


He quickly departed, giggling with innocent glee only children possess. Milus would take his wife into his arms, saying-


I'll be gone for a few days. I have a job.


Another? This doesn't feel right; what are you doing?


Just some data transfers.


Speaking in a quieter tone, he'd say-


My employers are an honest pharmaceutical corporation, they agreed to get the treatment for Jerren. After I do this last job.


Milus snapped back to reality, and to his computer, looking down at his wrist-tablet's background. It was of Jerren and his brunette, slim wife. His eyes welled up, and he wished he had the visor to cover his face.


"Go on, rest up, Tanya."

 

[HeyGayzelle]

Tanya turns her head back towards the window once more for a brief moment, seeing faint streaks of lightning pulsing through the overcast night sky before being drowned out by the controlled chaos of the city lights. The soft booming of distant thunder resonates throughout their massive artificial hive.


"I guess I'll try."


Part of Tanya expected to hear the businessman-like answer of "sleep on it" from Milus, but to hear it after seeing the nightmarish images from the darknet pages felt macabre to her. Yet he was still right to say that she wasn't in any condition to do much now. She walks towards her quarters and tries to get some sleep.

 

[Tice]

Milus scrolled through the job listings, rubbing his eyes in weariness. He eventually found a hitjob, which was out of his normal comfort zone, but this one was a bit personal to him. It was Resl Douglas, mid-age, brown hair, and a scrawny build. The darkness of his eyes pierced Milus once more, as he was the man that offed his family when Milus was blacklisted. Bastards always his their tracks. Yet, Milus blamed himself for their deaths. If only...


He rested his head in his arms, letting a few unmasculine sobs loose, thanking God Tanya was asleep.


He denied it; he was no killer. However, a job in his particular tree caught his eye.

External Data Rob

Simple task. Take the hard-drive of Sunshine Llc. and deliver it to a specified site. Will discuss pay and details with employee.



​

Milus considered the task; sure, those places are top-notch security, but Sunshine is decrepit and riddled with staff losses. He had a bit of knowledge about the external systems, and Tanya would help with any trouble they encounter.


He'll mention it over breakfast.

 

[HeyGayzelle]

The night is filled with dreamless and restless sleep for Tanya. By the time she wakes up for good, the sharp numerals on the HUD of her mirrorshades read "9:23." Hints of sunshine faintly penetrates the nested corners of the apartment, the first signs of natural light in what seems like forever.


Not entirely awake yet, she groggily makes her way back out to the kitchen and living area of the apartment.

 

[Tice]

Milus would have plates of rationed bread softened to be an excuse of a pancake. It was horrid, but it was better than gnawing on a dry end.


He'd wait for Tanya to settle down on the couch, then said-


"I got a small task, like I promised. I didn't take it yet; figured you should look at it first."


He would've asked if she slept well in different circumstances, but this was Zedat; rest is a figment of an imaginary mind. He had his aged duster on, his dark tunic and low-calibre pistol under his right shoulder, being left-handed. His plate was already cleared, a good deal of natural light brightening the mood in a minimal way.

 

[HeyGayzelle]

Tanya sits down and digs into the improvised pancake. The stale square of refined starches is aggressively bland, tasting as artificial as the room they're sitting in.


"What have we got?


She asked, but she wasn't sure she wanted to know. The terrifying images revealed on Milus' screen yesterday make her suspect that whatever work Milus found must also contain some dark secret. But seeing as she had never even hear of the site until yesterday, the small possibility remained that it perhaps it wasn't all hackers having their brains fried by seeker AIs, or people being shot and strung up execution-style.

 

[Tice]

"A small heist, inside Sunshine LLC. I'm not a fan of busting into it, either, but I'm assuming the pay is good."


In fact, he had no idea. He has yet to reply to the post. It could be a damn sting.


"They stated that we needed to deliver the drive at a to-be-decided area. I'm assuming they'll fill us in over the GROUNDS."


He paused, giving her room to think, then said-


"Are you in?"

 

[HeyGayzelle]

As she continues to chew it over, both the offer and the food, she can visualize how things might go down. Gaining access to the lights and security system seemed like it should be the first order of business. Tanya wasn't prepared to go in guns blazing and start piling up bodies, nor was she prepared to go in and completely trash the place. But under a cover of darkness and with at least part of the security system on hold, Tanya could at least see herself getting in and getting out with no mess. She didn't like the idea of not knowing where they were supposed to be delivering this, but the both of them had seemingly dealt with far more difficult tasks, presumably for less pay, in their own respective lines of work.


When she can speak again, she responds, "Yeah, I guess so."

 

[Tice]

With a nod, Milus rose from his seat, sending a one word reply to the job listing. Almost immediately, details followed. He'd read it aloud, hushed so that others do not hear besides then Tanya.


"Employee will be rewarded with the copy of the drive. This includes Sunshine credits-low value, yes, but we will transfer a year's discount on Maka Technology products."


Thinking to himself, Milus would let out a grim chuckle, saying-


"This is a damn corporate job. Sunshine must be some rat-ass competitor. The pay could be better, but Hsin might want the discount for himself. I'll see if we can milk the weasel after we're done. Assuming you're in, of course."


While speaking, Milus subconsciously ran his hands over his cyberdeck, as though it was a child in his arms.


"I'll prepare a script to buy us some time in Sunshine."


Oh, if only things were different, he reflected.

 

[HeyGayzelle]

While the prospect of being soliciting some darknet crime board only to find herself doing some corporate grunt work fills Tanya with a strange sense of existential dread in its own right, she knows they would have no trouble flipping a year-long discount license on Maka gear if it came right down to it. The Aspire 4 microdeck would still be a desirable budget piece for at least the next 3 months, no doubt a nice "upgrade" for some other destitute techie in the Zedat building. Some money could even be made through buying in bulk and flipping them, but that would take credits they didn't have. Not yet, anyway.


"Pretty sure Sunshine is really on the ropes. Parent companies seem really eager to distance themselves, so I wouldn't be surprised if they're trying to break ties with them through some contract technicality. Maybe they've got some "reasonable diligence" clause that could be invoked if some criminals happened to break in and take something."


And then she tilts her head a bit.


"Then again, that means Sunshine employees know they're on the chopping block. They've got no skin in this game. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if they handed it over if we just asked nicely."

 

[Tice]

"Is that our approach?" He'd ask, thinking of a plan B if it went south. In any case, he wanted a thorough knowledge of the place and its layout. Otherwise, he'd be blind in that building. It was then he realized the difference in physically taking a material object out of another's property and doing the same over a deck. He could get arrested, or killed. He thought back to the ZG photos, and knew a warning when he saw one. Still, money is more than a need than a want in Zedat.

 

[HeyGayzelle]

"Probably shouldn't count on it," Tanya adds before taking a short breath.


"But still, this job sounds like it's firmly in "small time" territory. Don't think it would be too hard. This isn't Fujiwara-Tang or Outerlight where the production lines have neural biometric scanners loaded with black ICE that'll fucking kill you dead if it thinks you're somewhere you shouldn't be. Just hitting the lights and crashing the infrared plugins on the cameras may suffice here."

 

[Tice]

"Good point. I could do most of that over the GROUNDS before we set out this evening. I'll head with you to Sunshine incase the hard drive is encrypted."


Milus was honestly a little relieved by Tanya's confidence in the task. It made him feel a bit less paranoid. He got out of the desk chair with a groan, extending to his full six foot length. A few bones would pop as the sudden movement extends them at a rapid pace.


"You know what I miss? Fucking soda." He'd say, with an envious, dreamy air to it.

 

[HeyGayzelle]

"Might as well get whatever info we can beforehand, though I guess there won't be any way of knowing how accurate it will be until we actually get there," Tanya adds.


"Being on call to help with any decking could definitely prove useful, but somehow I doubt that are going to be any nice bonus prizes to be found there"


Tanya adjusts her posture a bit, resting her ankle on her other knee.


"Besides, sounds like another party is going to handle the delivery. Fine by me so long they make good on the payment. Maybe they don't even want us digging through it. Guess we'll just have to see what kind of info we can get first."