ZEROGROUNDS

[HeyGayzelle]

"CEO's office, huh? That might be a tall order," Tanya says as she mulls over the prospect for a moment. "True, at the very least, that part of the network should have reasonably high-level access, maybe only second to whatever the in-house cybersecurity security specialists get."


A hint of uncertainty in Tanya's voice can be heard as she continues, "But still, CEO's the last person I'd want to come across. Sure, someone low-key like an office grunt, maybe an intern or whoever runs the custodial drones around here, we could probably count on them to keep quiet if it came right down to it. But someone like a CEO? They might have a nice golden parachute out of this disaster; maybe some seat on a board of directors elsewhere. It's after hours, but still..."


"I'm not totally sure I like the idea, to be honest. But at the same time, we've got no other leads. So if you want to go for it, then I guess I'll come with."

 

[Tice]

"It might be our only lead, far as I know. Otherwise we're just beating around the bush. And yeah, it's risky, but so is the entire point of this pulljob. If the hard drive is there, it's there. If not, we move on. Plus, I don't plan on barging in there arms open, I'm smarter than that. I need time, though, if that hard drive is connected to a physical security system in case of removal. I don't plan on poisonous Teflan gas or explosives, but alerting the skeleton crew of security isn't a fun prospect."


With a sigh, he'd then add,


"Besides, that'll be one dedicated CEO if he's still mingling around this late. I know this isn't a fancy-ass, politician pocket lining megacorp, but the man is probably an egomaniac to match and has no time for 'common work'."


Milus would swing the tablet around, bringing up the outline of the floor.


"The problem is those big 'ol boxes in front of the door. Optics put 'em as several hundred pounds altogether and it's the only interior way to the office."

 

[HeyGayzelle]

"To be honest, I was pretty surprised by how easy it sounded in the brief," Tanya says before a tinge of disappointment fills her voice, "but I guess it wouldn't pay shit unless there were some difficulty involved."


To a certain extent, Tanya is a little relieved to know that the night hasn't yet turned to bloodshed, though she couldn't quite shake the feeling that she was still somehow degrading herself by digging around, looking for a some drive that, considering its incognito status on the network, might as well not even exist as far as Sunshine is concerned. And who the hell just drops half a ton of boxes in front of an office door, even negligently?


Recollecting her thoughts, Tanya looks through the office and hallways again with a slight sense of renewed interest. After a moment, she says, "Well, I guess we're going to have to get them out of the way one way or another."


A hint of concern can be heard in Tanya's voice as she continues, "We are pretty close to the warehouse, but that could prove risky in its own right. Maybe we could find something to move it, but it's just as likely that whatever we use might be logged on the network. Could have some kind of forensics detection, maybe just some tagging system that logs when and where it was used. So if we go that route, better be prepared."

 

[Tice]

Milus felt the creep of doubt entering his cerebral cortex, lacing his words like a poison.


"We're at a damn standstill, then. It's odd that the contractors don't want me to pull data digitally. Now THAT, I can do. Is there a jack or something that could give me some leverage on the boxes, move 'em one at a time? I doubt the tools are logged."


Milus wore a pair of slickened Xien gloves, made of a material that is chemical, fire, and water resistant. They were popular around the underworld for their uncanny ability to mask forensic data, as though the producers had illicit purposes. After all, the gloves don't just spawn in the contraband market.


He'd look to the arrangement of the boxes, muttering-


"I wonder what's in them. And who blocks a door instead of locking it? Seems fishy. Could just be paranoid, I suppose. As for the warehouse, let's not go there yet, I can't isolate the camera feed in there and it makes me tenacious."

 

[HeyGayzelle]

Tanya agrees, though she is visibly displeased by the specific nature of their agreement. "Yeah, guess we're out of luck until the boxes are out of the way. Good call to stay out of the warehouse until we know exactly what we're walking into there, though."


Tanya draws a few steps closer and tries to give the out-of-place boxes a few scans with the various AR filters on her mirrorshades. The results are totally unhelpful; just a jumbled mess of vague patterns. Considering how unlikely it seems that such sloppily-packed boxes would have been lined with fairly high-end security shielding, she chalks it up to the fact that the last several firmware updates for her optics - forced firmware updates, mind you - have essentially rendered many of its filters and settings totally useless. The night vision setting had mercifully been spared, but at this rate, Tanya would probably be better off without them than with by the end of the year. She makes a note to upgrade to something reasonably modern once they manage to pull some spending money. Hsin sometimes had nice new-off-the-shelf finds of flagship gear from a year or two ago, but with any luck, she might be able to shop around this time.


"Maybe it was something that blocked the door instead of someone. Maybe some kind of automated laborer drone with a forklift or something?"

 

[Tice]

"If an automated laborer did this, it's either VERY bad or was tampered. I don't want to give you a computer lesson right now, but those laborers do the job they were assigned in specific areas and never waver from there. No, we're looking at an intentional blocker. My lenses aren't giving me any info about the contents inside based on the serial number or manufacturer. Almost like they are trying to keep these under wraps. Try opening one if you can."


The boxes weren't cardboard, but made of a more durable material. Cardboard was tossed out with last generation's fashion, replaced with Grip-Tec, a material made of several different fibers, real cheap, and extremely durable when it comes to harm. Some tools exist for opening it, though cybernetic security measures aren't uncommon with the establishment's tools, making it much harder to open one illicitly.


Milus once again thought in the silence back to Resl. The man was engraved in his memory for so long, he could recognize him amidst a packed crowd with no strain. He mulled over whether or not he should've, or could've, taken the cleaner job. He COULD, but the fact that he even considered it horrified him.


He wasn't unaccustomed to murder, after his service in the Gulf. What truly bothered him was his enjoyment in the death of Resl. Perhaps it was only because of his hatred, but it still felt immoral. He never spoke to Tianna about his family or his past much. He simply told her when she moved in to 'Donahey's' apartment that he was once married to a woman named Matilda, but no more. Leave her to decide what happened between them. Divorce wasn't uncommon, part of the long list of scandals politicians carry. He never told her anything of Jarren; it was only months after he was listed and his son dead that she had been as well. His son's death truly rocked him, a potential greatness in the world snuffed like a candle in the rain. At this thought, Milus wrung his hands, gripping his wrist. He should tell her at some point, he thought. Not now, but soon.


Resl was a lucky man.

 

[HeyGayzelle]

Tanya puts two of her hands on one of the flaps and tries to get a tear going, but she can feel the slightly tacky synthetic Grip-Tec texture even through her riding gloves. The flap has a strange consistency to it that somehow simultaneously feels both pliable and brittle. But Tanya can tell that the narrow flap would cut through her gloves, and probably her hands, before she would be able to break it under her own strength.


"So you think this was tampering? No shit, huh." Tanya says with a mild lilt of confusion. At the very least, she's a little pleased to hear that they aren't just cleaning up after Sunshine's lazy mistakes. But still, this meant that someone had a vested interest in keeping others out. Apparently they didn't have the most trust of the in-house cybersecurity measures as well.


Tanya returns to her train of thought and says, "Alright, so I guess we're going to have to move this one way or another. The way I see it, we've got two basic strategies. First one is, we get ourselves some kind of tool to break these down, or something to move them. Either one could be tricky since we decided the warehouse is off-limits for the time being since we haven't scoped out the security there."


Tanya's confidence noticeably wavers as the continues, "Second strategy is we just get something that can push or pull really hard and just try to knock 'em down. Maybe all at once, maybe one by one. Now, we do have the bike still parked on the alleyway there and I imagine we wouldn't have to look far to score a pair of chains. Naturally, I can foresee a number of ways that this could go bad in a rather big way. But, still, when you get right down to it, how subtle can we be in resolving this particular problem one way or another?"