by J P Carver
“At least someone with a brain will be around.”
“Kind of you to say, darling,” Jankiee said, his voice like old static on the line. He was the oldest member of the Stars, a White Hate who retired after years of helping corporations hide the terrible stuff they did behind closed networks.
He was like a lookup table for problems. I couldn’t count the amount of times I was stuck and he had an answer for me in a few minutes. “Once you’re inside, I’ll get you what you need to crack through their systems and get you at least admin access, if not root.” He took a sip of something. “As long as we get this done by eleven. The little lady wants me to watch her shows with her and ain’t no way out, sadly.”
“Just love timelines on missions,” I said and looked back to Merigold. “We’re gonna have to move quick, we only got Jankiee for a few hours.”
“That’s more than enough time.”
I shrugged, pretty sure that it wasn’t.
Two
A Cracking Dance
The night had a chill to it. I pulled my jacket tighter and looked over to Marcus. We were sitting in the back of Sera’s car and he hadn’t said a word since we got in. Which was fine as Merigold and Sera were talking enough for all of us. Some of it, I wished I couldn’t hear.
Fifteen minutes later we pulled up to the largest building for blocks. It was gold and grey in the darkening evening, a spectacle of a building for a spectacle of a company. Rentena was one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and they flaunted it like a sixteen-year-old girl with a new holopalm.
“I’m getting itchy just looking at it,” Marcus said, and I jumped a little at his voice. “Think I’m allergic to terrible people.”
“Surprised you don’t get itchy every time I’m around.” I grinned, but he didn’t return it. Instead, he reached up and hit Merigold’s chair.
“Hey, you’ve been here before, right?”
“Years ago. Sera comes here far more often than I do.”
“You make it sound like I I enjoy coming here,” Sera said. Her long red-orange hair was in a tight bun at the back of her head and she adjusted it as she pulled the car to a stop. “But yeah, I’m here a lot. Why?”
“Well, the party will be somewhere like a ballroom, right? That will be far from their central network which Doll and I have to get into. How far away is the nearest access to it? Like offices and stuff?”
“Not that far, the ballroom is a recent addition, and they had to remove a bunch of office floors for it. It’s basically in the center of the building.”
Marcus turned toward me. “Think there’s a chance they left some connections in the wall?”
I shrugged and looked at the building. “It’s possible, would make things a lot easier. Let’s wait until we get inside. We’ll have better data.”
“If there isn’t, we're gonna have to jump floors. That’s gonna draw a lot of attention,” he said more to himself than to me, so I didn’t respond.
The car continued through the roundabout and stopped at the front doors. Merigold was out first, followed by Sera. The back door opened and Marcus got out, stopped, and held out his hand. I stared at it for a moment and then looked up to his face. He was facing the building and the crowd of people.
I took his hand, and he helped me out of the car. A breeze ruffled the champagne colored dress around my legs and caused goosebumps to run over them. Whoever thought it was a good idea to have an event take place at the end of November was an idiot. I wanted to rush forward into the building, but there was a line and so I resolved to suffer as I stood behind Sera. Her dress was shorter than mine, her calfs exposed to the cold. My teeth chattered as I moved closer to Marcus.
“How the hell aren’t you freezing?” I said to Sera who was busy having her ear nuzzled by Merigold. “I can barely feel my legs.”
“Years and years of having to dress up for events like this. A doctor's job these days is more of a political position than it used to be.”
“Yeah, when you take a political position as a doctor,” Merigold said and Sera narrowed her eyes. “What? When was the last surgery you preformed? Besides, you know you love dressing up for these things. You’re a whore for the attention.”
“Only when you’re here so I can make you jealous,” Sera said, her voice going low, seductive, and I saw Merigold shiver while a grin folded into her cheeks.
“I do love it.” She grabbed Sera and pulled her into a deep kiss.
“Jesus, get a room you two,” Marcus said, and I laughed as I was thinking the same.
They broke apart and Merigold turned to face him. She reached out and put a hand to his cheek while he stared her down. “We could probably get a two room discount.”
“Really? You need two rooms? I figured you’d spend your time together,” I said and swatted her hand from him.
“Well, with you in that dress and the way Sera always looks, we’d take down a few walls before we're done. But, I assumed you two would want your own room.” She grinned, her tongue caught between her teeth.
“Stop teasing them, Meri,” Sera said and stepped forward. A man in a suit met us at the door. He was tall and not use to greeting guests. He didn’t even look at anyone, just had his hand out.
“Tickets?” he said, staring intently at his omnipad.
“Here you are, my good sir,” Merigold said and handed over her and Sera’s tickets. He let them through and we stepped up next.
“Tickets?”
Marcus handed over ours and the man stared at them for a moment and then scanned them. He seemed to get what he expected and gave us a nod. “Go on.”
Merigold and Sera waited for us. As soon as we were through Merigold hooked her arm with Sera’s and pulled her into the building. I glanced at Marcus and saw his elbow was out just enough as an offer. I sighed and took it.
“We could start skipping and pretend it’s the yellow brick road. The floor is shiny enough.” The words came out deadpanned from him.
“Yeah, except the wizard we’re off to see is far less friendly.”
“At least we’ll be able to take a peek behind the curtain,” he said, a faint hint of laughter finally showing in his voice.
“You’re such a dork,” I said and fought the grin.
“Sort of comes out when I’m hanging with you… I’m okay being a dork when it gets you to laugh.”
I looked up to see that he was looking everywhere but at me. He went to apologize, but I held up a finger in front of his face to shush him as we entered the hall. It was one of the nicer things someone had said to me in years and I would not let him ruin it.
“Thanks,” I said and then turned back to the room we entered. To call it large would do it a disservice. It had to be at least a city block long and almost as wide. A gold glow covered the room and the lights were bright, but not harsh.
There were people everywhere, a sea of expensive suits and lavishly colored dresses. Weaving between them were men and women dressed in black and carrying trays. It looked like something out of one of Ziller’s old movies.
“Jesus, this is nuts,” I said and looked to Marcus as he stared at the display in front of us. “If we weren’t here for work, I think I’d have to get drunk just to deal with all of this.”
“I work better when I’m drunk,” he said.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” I said as we made our way to Merigold. She and Sera had already made a beeline for some haggard-looking woman carrying a tray of champagne glasses.
“You guys made it in, right? No problems?” Nina asked, her voice felt like it echoed in my head. I grabbed hold of Marcus’s arm to stop him.
“Yeah, no issues.”
“And your neural?”
I booted the system completely. With it up and running the glitzy room seemed to come even more alive with the amount of electronics in the walls I picked up. The place looked like a fortress. “Working, but this will not be easy,” I said and looked at Marcus. “You up?”
He nodded. “Impressive stuff.”
“That’s one word for it. Let’s mingle for a bit. I’ll let me neural run a scan and see if we can find any places that will give us the access we need.”
Marcus looked to the side as if listening to something only he could hear. “Ziller said to be careful, they’ll be looking for scans.”
“Tell Ziller that I know what I’m doing and there is a reason he isn’t on my line,” I said and left for the refreshments table.
“He got the message,” Marcus said as he hurried to catch up.
“I found something,” Marcus said as he came up next to me with a plate of food about thirty minutes later. I stole a cracker with some kind of cheese and veggie on it.
“Other than the food trays?”
“Ha-ha. I was walking the room with Jankiee on the line while getting this awesome plate of food. Some of this stuff is like a couple hundred for a few ounces. I don’t see why, it tastes like crap any—”
“Marcus? Focus.”
He stumbled his words and then took a breath. “Right, sorry. We were looking through the old network setup of the building with plans he had from years ago. They turned most stuff off, but I think I found an open link.”
“Great, what’s the bad news?”
“Why do you think there’s bad news?”
I stared at him until he sighed.
“It’s on the other side of a locked door and I can’t tell if it's active and just locked down or if it’s open.” He tapped his neck. “Still the simple stuff in here.”
“Well, my scans are coming up empty, so at least there's an option.” I looked for Merigold and Sera and found them surrounded by a few men who were trying, and failing, to chat them up. I stifled a laugh as Merigold held up a finger to one guy, reached over with her other hand and grabbed Sera from another guy, and pulled her into a sloppy kiss. The guys didn’t seem to get the hint. In fact, it made them double their efforts.
“Crow? You still on?” I asked.
“What do you need, oh Raggy-one?”
“For you to knock that off.” She laughed. “Send Merigold a message. Plot and me are gonna look around an opening he and Jankiee found. Hopefully things won’t go sour, but if it does, tell her to clear out.”
“Raggy…”
“I have Plotigan here to help me. I ain’t lone wolfing it.”
“Fine. But be careful.”
“You know me,” I said and heard her give an annoyed huff. I turned back to Marcus. “Okay, show me where.”
“Well, that’s where the second problem comes in.”
“Which is?”
“The door is over there.” He gestured with his shoulder toward the full dance floor. Couples of all types were swaying to the soft music. “The door is past them and we need to crack into it. Pretty sure we’d get noticed if we walked over.”
I shrugged. “We’ll have to dance, I guess.” He stared at me. “You… you know how to dance, don't you?”
“You do?”
I looked away to the room and nodded. “Yeah, my dad taught me when I was little.”
“Never would have guessed,” he said with a warm smile that faded. “But no… I don’t know how to dance. Lots of lessons over the years, but none stuck. Two left feet here.”
I sighed. “Dammit… all right, fine.”
“What—”
I reached down and took his hand before thinking about it. I paused with his hand clasped in mine and then pushed away the feelings of embarrassment and the twist in my stomach before taking him with me into the crowd.
We stopped about half-way across the dance floor and I turned to him. I placed his free hand on my waist. “Your hands roam and I’ll make it so you can’t ever boot your neural again.”
He nodded, but couldn't look me in the eye. “Got it.”
I squeezed his other hand and took the lead. “It’s easy, just move with me—ow!” He had stepped on my foot. “Also, watch where you’re stepping.”
“Sorry—I—”
“I get it. Go with the music and move with me. I’ll get us over to the door, but then I’ll need you to take the lead while I work through the lock. You think you can do that?”
He nodded, but his eyes were at our feet. I moved my hand from his shoulder and tapped his chin up. “Up here, don’t stare at our feet. If you have to glance down, fine, but keep your eyes on me.”
His face was red when he straightened and I couldn’t help but find him being flustered kind of cute. Okay, a lot cute. He looked so out of his element but was trying hard to keep up. “You’ll get it — ow—we’ll take it slow.”
A few minutes into the dance he stopped stepping on my feet, but they were already painful from the times he did. He wasn’t too bad once he got comfortable being so close together.
We danced through the crowd which was much harder than I thought it would be as some people acted like they owned the little space they were in. We pushed our way through and danced on the edge of the dance floor, the door in sight.
I scanned the lock. A generic digital lock, nothing too fancy, but not being able to touch it made it hard to crack into. I glanced at the door and then back at Marcus. “Ready?”
“No.”
I stepped up onto his feet and placed my chin to his shoulder. He froze and my heart skipped a beat as I breathed him in. That smell of him was there, under the cologne and the fruity smell of my perfume, the scent was what I could only call forest-like. It was calming. “I need to concentrate so I can’t dance at the same time.” I took his arm and put it around my waist. “Don’t you drop me.”
“G—got it.”
“Pull yourself together,” I whispered against his cheek just to be an ass, and he jerked back from me. I laughed. “Seriously, what’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing.”
“Right…” I put my chin back on his shoulder and booted a few programs.
Most locks were on a network, like everything else. They talked to each other, reported back to a central location, and were a pain in the ass to do anything to if someone was watching the system. Someone was always watching the system. I started slow, looking for a local network hole.
There was a guest network up because cutting off network access was a good way to start a riot. Rentena’s IT weren’t idiots, they separated the entire guest network from everything else and it probably had its own lines so there was no jumping networks.
But locks were dumb and even after being connected to a network they would still broadcast their own local network to other locks. The network was normally disabled by the administrators once they installed the locks, but someone had missed this one, same as they had missed the access port that was still running.
Most of the time I’d be excited that I had found something, but it also felt almost too simple. Like it was a setup. I did what I could to make the risk as little as possible, but it came down to a choice on whether to take the chance and try the access port or to walk away. I unlocked the door and stepped back from Marcus. He was glancing around the room and doing a pretty good job at not being obvious.
“How’d it go?” he asked, not looking at me.
“Feels sketchy. They left the local lock network online.”
“That’s good, right?”
“Well, yeah, but it's too easy, isn't it? Everything else is—”
“Ragan?” I jumped a little at the sound of my name and turned to my right. I found a man dancing with a young dark haired woman. She wore a beautiful green dress and jewelry with small emeralds. The man was dressed simply by comparison, a suit that looked a lot like the one Marcus wore. But as I took in the man’s face a jolt of surprise ran throughout my body.
“Chris?” I squeezed Marcus’s hands and felt him try to pull free, but I need the stability he was providing and tightened my hold. I hadn’t seen my ex in at least three years. He had a slight beard growing which I had always through made him ten times more attractive, and th
ere were flashes of gold and silver on his wrist and fingers.
“Jeeze, I knew it had to be you, only woman here leading her date.” His grin sent a quiver through my gut. His eyes turned to Marcus, and he stepped from the woman and held out a hand. “Hey, I’m Chris.”
It took Marcus a second to free his hand from mine and he shook Chris’s without looking away. “Marcus.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to bother you guys, but I had to say hello to Ragan. We… we were a bit of a thing a few years ago. Man, I'm sorry, this has gotten awkward.” He gave me a frown. “I’m glad to see you landed on your feet.”
“Y—yeah, I guess I kind of did,” I said and the woman he was with placed a hand to his arm.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Kale. Ragan, this is my wife, Kale. Kale, this is an old friend of mine, Ragan.” He said and motioned between us as he spoke. Kale stepped up and held out her hand, the bracelets on her wrist sparkling in the light.
“A pleasure,” she said, and I felt the chill in her voice and couldn’t blame her for it.
“Same,” I said, and we shook for less than a second. I turned to Chris. “What are you doing here, anyway?”
"Could ask the same of you." Another smile and another jump in my gut. I wanted to punch him. “I was invited this year.”
“Chris is a researcher here, he worked on that new pill that’s coming out, that one that cures most of the common mental health issues.” Kale tapped her temple as she talked.
Chris sighed and shook his head. “It doesn’t, but it’s a big step in the right direction.”
“That’s a jump, from ER tech to Rentena researcher,” I said.
“A lot can happen in three years. So, how d'you get here? This would have never been your scene before.”
I stepped back and hooked my arm around Marcus’s. “My—my boyfriend got tickets. He’s in his first year of medical school—”
“I got them from my father,” Marcus said, but seemed reluctant to do so. “Ragan is not his biggest fan, but he was a surgeon so got tickets. He gave them to me and we made an evening of it.”