*****
Xander sat with his elbows on the table, massaging his temples as he watched the new Network team argue over entrance techniques. Four hours, four fucking hours they had been at this, and they were still no closer to a decision. There was a chance that he was going to kill someone in a minute if they didn’t get their shit together. Xander’s beautifully styled auburn undercut was a thing of the past; two hours of tugging his hair in irritation had done that. Dragging his hands down his square face, he leaned forward, resting his forehead against the table. Still they argued.
I love my job, I love my job, Xander repeated over and over in his head. He had hoped that he might have found the time to go home and have dinner with his wife, but at this rate, he would be lucky to make it home for breakfast.
Once upon a time, he had been one of these people, stumbling around in the dark trying to figure out how everything in the Seraphim Network worked. He hoped and prayed that his team hadn’t been this much of a nightmare. Compared to this, his team had taken to the job like a duck to water. He, Caitlyn, Venom, Taz, and Mateo had been an almost flawless team. After four years of operation, they knew each other's skills and styles like the back of their hands. At this moment, he really missed being an actual operative.
A year ago, they had gotten their promotion to a third tier team, only a few weeks later, they were sent on a job infiltrating a corps subsidiary service when everything went wrong. Somehow they had managed to trigger a security alert that Venom had missed, and before they knew it, they were being attacked by guards. Mateo hadn’t made it out alive. Xander would never forget dragging their dead teammate’s body out of the altercation. That had been the end of it for their team. Mateo’s death had been too much for them to cope with. They had tried a couple of jobs, but the team just didn’t work anymore. Venom was hired by the TechPit, Taz joined requisitions, Caitlyn was pregnant at the time so took some time off, and Xander had come to work with the new recruits. They all still talked and went for drinks from time to time, but since Caitlyn had given birth to Xander’s daughter, they didn’t have the freedom they once had. He greatly missed their close knit group.
“Ok, enough is enough. You three need to get your shit together and pick an entrance strategy already,” Xander said, pushing himself to his feet, “You have been going around in circles for a little over four hours now. You need to use your information and pick which way you think is best. When you start doing jobs that are time sensitive, you can’t fuck around like this. I’ll be back in twenty minutes, and you better be ready by then.”
Xander left the three shocked-looking team members in his wake and headed out of the office, closing the door firmly behind him. Usually he was a cool headed guy, but sometimes when he missed family moments with Caitlyn and Keira, he found himself a lot more irritable. Heading down to the kitchenette, he turned on the coffee machine and leaned against the side. Extracting his comms, he sent a quick message to Caitlyn informing her of the situation.
“Evening, Blue. How’s the new team coming along?” came a voice from the doorway. Hearing his codename, he turned to see Leander, one of the fixers, heading into the room. Xander narrowed his eyes at the man. Leander knew too well the issues he was having with this particular group. Xander’s mission reports from the last two jobs were enough to show that.
“No improvements. They are all skilled individuals, but I’m thinking you may need to split them and combine them with new teams. They just aren’t bonding like they should,” Xander explained. His job was to tag along with introductory teams and make sure they were able to do their jobs. If everything went wrong, he was then in the position to complete the job itself to make sure important data wasn’t lost to newbies screwing up. In his time in this position, he had seen a lot of prospective candidates but also a lot of screw ups.
“I’ll start having a preliminary look at any other teams that may be having similar issues or any new candidates that we have,” Leander said as his face creased in thought. The fixer’s job was a hard one; they were in charge of matching operatives to jobs and being a point of contact with the Network. They worked long hours but were an essential part of operations. Leander was young in terms of fixers. He had only been with the Network a year but had shown an aptitude for the position.
“It would be a good idea,” Xander responded. He hated having to give a bad review of a team or of an operative, but if he lied about their ability, he could just end up getting someone killed. Having Mateo on his conscience was enough.
“If you can write a report and get it to me as soon as possible then I can start the ball rolling,” Leander said with a nod. “Anyway, my desk calls. See you soon, Blue. Oh, and you have something on your shirt.”
Leander nodded towards him as he turned and exited the kitchen. Xander glanced down at himself, a nice brown mark on the white shirt that clad his average form. Today was not going well. He glanced at the time in the corner of his AR glasses and groaned a little. Ten minutes had passed, and now he had to go and deal with the team again soon.
With an irritated, sigh Xander made for the locker room. Tearing the white material from his toned chest, he grabbed out the spare he stored there. He took a moment to look at himself in the mirror—dark bags under his brown eyes, his tanned skin unusually pale. He needed to fucking sleep, but until then, he needed to return to the team. Hopefully, they actually had some plan of what they were going to do. If not, he had no idea what he was going to do about them.
Chapter Two
After her brief nap, Venom actually felt a lot more refreshed than she thought she would. A full night’s sleep would have been better, but beggars can’t be choosers. It hadn’t taken her long to get ready and make her way down to OwnPlace. With drinking on the menu, she had chosen to leave her car behind. A DUI was something she really didn’t need right now; there were much better things to be spending her money on.
The neon lights of OwnPlace’s sign flickered and went out for a second before coming back to life. Venom took a moment before descending the stairs to the basement bar located beneath a laundromat and a series of beat up looking apartments. The perfect spot for a seedy hacker bar. Venom pushed the door open and was greeted by the scent of stale beer and cigarettes. It seemed OwnPlace hadn’t changed a bit since she was last here. They used the same AR wallpaper, lines of ever changing codes fading from blue to green and back again—just in case people didn’t already know this was a bar for hackers. The furniture had seen better days; duct tape was a crucial part of the place’s decor.
Having been to one of the competitive challenges here before Venom knew where to go. Ignoring the main bar, she headed to the back of the room where there was a single door with a man leaning beside it. Venom stopped in front of the door and went to grab the handle when the man leaning against the wall grabbed her wrist.
“Where do you think you’re going, Miss?” the man asked, looking down at her. Venom narrowed her eyes at him and wrenched her hand from his hold, crossing her arms over her chest.
“I’m here with Fenric,” Venom replied simply. She couldn’t believe she was riding someone else’s coattails to get in here. Had she fallen out of the loop that much? In the last year, she had focused almost entirely on work within the Network. Outside jobs working with the hacker community just seemed too dangerous, especially when she had a legitimate job that paid her for what she did best.
In response to the name drop, the man opened the door and pointed down the stairs. Venom didn’t hesitate. The sounds of excited voices carried up the stairs; it seemed like there was a good turnout tonight.
At the end of the stairs, there were large red letters spray painted on the dark walls: ‘The Colosseum’. Hackers were generally arrogant fuckers; comparing the mental warfare they participated in with the Roman theatres of war was a drop in the ocean. Venom was no different. In a world dominated by technology, hackers were the things to be scared of. Physical prowess was all well and good, but
it couldn’t compete when someone could delete your life in an instant.
‘The Colosseum’ was nothing compared to its namesake, but a small dimly lit room with six aged chairs edging the room. Each had a Nexus Gateway setup. A mass of bodies was in the center, overcome with excited chatter. One of the walls listed the accomplishments of the regulars, competition winners, and general graffiti. Her name had been here once, but that was a long time ago. The other walls were encompassed by AR screens showing the crowd the ongoing battles of those strapped into the gateways. Lines of code translated to cinematic images for others to watch. This time it was two men sprinting the length of the library as they raced to a data package.
“Venom… Venom,” came a shout from the crowd. Her head snapped around to see Fenric pushing his way towards her; a confident smirk lit his face and brought a fire to his amber eyes.
“Y’alright, Fenric,” Venom responded nodding to him as he came in closer. Even in this crowd she could pick out the nuances of cologne that he always wore. The man looked good, smelled good, and was a general assault on the senses. It was a shame he was an arrogant prick. She was, too, but that didn’t mean they were suited.
“Oh, the competition has been heating up tonight. A lot of good hackers out in force. I hope you brought your A game,” Fenric said, his eyes dancing around the screens.
“When don’t I?” Venom responded confidently. Cheers erupted around the room. Venom’s attention shifted straight to the screens to see what was happening in the dreamscape.
A dark haired avatar dressed in some kind of old school ninja wear was trapped against the wall by three large spikes erupting from the library shelving. Nitrex was his name, a data delver by trade. He had obviously triggered the system’s Nexus security. The more the avatar fought, the more the spikes pressed into him. Pixelated hands groped feebly at the spike as Nitrex tried to free himself. The fight wasn’t going well.
Suddenly there was an aggressive beeping from the Nexus Gateway. Nitrex’s vitals were plummeting! He started to seize, a hideous rattling erupting from the stage as his body jerked against the well used seat. The room went silent as they watched the organizer begin the emergency jack out procedures. Nitrex was going to suffer a nasty hit of Neural Feedback, but if he stayed in the system, it was going to kill him. The machine powered down, all of Nitrex’s screen going black.
Using Fenric’s shoulder as a prop, Venom got up on tiptoes, trying to get a view of what was going on at the Gateway. Nitrex’s skin was pale and waxy, beads of sweat running from his temples. More worryingly, there was a trail of blood from his ears, and his eyes were closed. After what felt like an eternity, Nitrex took a huge breath, his eyes flicking open and a complete look of panic engulfing his face. Another cheer arose from the crowd. Venom released the breath she was holding. Neural Feedback was a bitch, but at least he was alive.
“I’m glad I didn’t bet on him now,” Fenric said with a slight chuckle. Gambling at these events was a usual affair. People needed a vice; drinking, taking drugs and gambling were the top three. Any way to escape the reality.
“You would have lost a pretty buck,” Venom said, looking at the betting boards scrolling over the screens. Nitrex was a big name and therefore had a lot of money bet on him. Venom glanced over to see two men supporting, but mainly lifting, the hacker from the Gateway and into a side room, no doubt to help him recover.
“So let me grab you that beer,” Fenric insisted as he made off through the crowd to the bar.
The crowd started to thin as people drifted off to claim their winnings from the betting booth or grab a drink from the bar. Venom leaned against a pillar, watching for anyone she knew. The scene had changed a lot in the last five years. A lot of the good hackers she had known were either dead, imprisoned, or had just completely vanished. Thinking on it, she realized she was one of them. Since joining the TechPit, she had completely removed herself from the scene and even before that. Joining the Network had encompassed her life so fully that nights like this suffered. It was weird to think she wasn’t even known as Venom. She had been plain old Riley back then. It had been Xander that gave her the nickname Venom.
A thought occurred to her. Scanning the lists of challenge participant names, it wasn’t hard to find the one she was looking for. CausticBitch, her current tag handle. Realization struck. He had thrown her into the ring as an unknown, which meant the gambling odds were severely stacked against her. When she had been here before, she had operated under a different handle, but she had shed that when she started operations at the Network; she needed a fresh start in so many different ways. Anger flared within her. A hacker’s reputation was everything, and having the odds against her just looked bad.
When Fenric returned to her, she wheeled around, capturing his shirt in her fist and slamming him back against the pillar. A look of surprise came over his pretty face.
“You are using me,” Venom growled through gritted teeth. “Have you seen the odds stacked against me? I look like a fucking noob.”
“Hey… hey… calm down. Yes, it looks bad, but just think how good it will look when you overturn that and hammer the other guy into the ground,” Fenric responded with a smirk. The asshole had this all planned out. “Look, V, I know how good you are at what you do, and I know how much better you are than the joke they’ve paired you with. I’m gonna place a huge bet on you while you’ll get the thousand dollar prize and the rep for it.”
“Why the hell do you need money that bad?” Venom asked through gritted teeth. She was well aware of his paycheck as it was the same as hers.
“Look, I got myself into some trouble with a guy, and I need to pay him off. Come on, V, I’ve never asked you for anything, and I never will again… I promise,” Fenric explained. His amber eyes reflected his desperation at the situation. Venom pulled back from him and crossed her arms over her chest. It had been a stupid move for him to get himself in that level of trouble, but she found herself impressed at the plan he’d cobbled together. She shook her head at him and looked back to the gathered crowd.
“Alright… fine. But you fuck with me again and understand I will end you,” Venom threatened, enhancing her ire with repeated jabs to his chest with her finger. It aggravated her even more that he laughed.
“Ok, my little caustic queen,” he said with a grin as he placed a bottle in her hand. “Oh, I got you something to help with the match.”
She felt the nudge to her hand and looked down to see a small baggy with a single pink pill in it. She flipped it over and took in the cartoon brain imprinted on one side. Venom took recreational drugs from time to time, everyone did, but this wasn’t one that she recognized.
“What is this?” she asked, looking to Fenric for clarification.
“You haven’t tried this yet? Damn, girl, how out of the loop are you?” Fenric joked, swigging from his beer. She was going to hit him. If he wasn’t careful, she was going to plant her fist right in that chiseled jaw.
“Quite, apparently. Fenric, answer the question,” she demanded through gritted teeth.
“It’s NeuroPep; most of the guys call it Neep. It’s perfect for the fully immersed. I don’t know the chemical ins and outs, but it speeds up your brain, letting you work just so much faster,” Fenric explained. Venom turned the pill over between her fingers.
“You’ve taken it before?” she asked.
“Yeah, many times. It’s a high and a half. Shit, I’ve been on it at work before. How do you think I got that commendation from Micah? I was high as all hell,” Fenric said with another laugh. “All of the participants are on it. You want to give them the edge?”
Well, that was enough for her. Sometimes you needed something chemical just to take the edge off everything. Xcite was her usual drug of choice, but she was always up for trying something new. She took the pill with a gulp of beer and turned her attention to the next match that was being lined up. She found herself analyzing every movement, every thought, waiting for any sign tha
t the drug had kicked in.
Watching the screens as the second match began, she started to feel some kind of effect. Every thought seem to pass faster, and the world around her seemed to move so much slower than it should. By the time the match had finished, she could feel the tremors in her hand, which only got worse if she stayed still. Her foot tapped furiously as her eyes flickered around the room, taking in every detail. The shout of the crowds was so loud, so deafening, but invigorating.
“Ladies and Gentleman, hackers and technophiles. New faces and the old shit stains. Our third match of the day is an interesting match up: DataKing versus CausticBitch,” came the announcer's voice through the room’s sound system.
Hearing her name called caused a shiver of excitement to run through her. She started to step forward through the crowds when she felt a hand clap on her shoulder. Wheeling around, she came face to face with Fenric again. He looked as cocky and confident as always.
“Alright, Venom, you can do this. Just focus and do what you do best.” Fenric grinned as he shook her shoulders. She nodded back and took a deep breath before heading to the announcer.
The announcer looked like he was in his early thirties, but with the accessibility of cosmetic surgeries these days, he could easily be pushing fifty. His skin was tanned, showing he spent a lot of time outdoors, but the wrinkling around his neck and eyes showed he was definitely older than he looked. His pale brown hair was thinning a little around the temples. Venom shook her head a little; her focus was all over the place. One minute she was flipping all over, and then the next she was staring at the tiniest details. Like the fact the announcer had a few drops of blood on his horrendous teal blue patterned tie.
Caustic (The Seraphim Network - Everyday Series Book 1) Page 2