Neon District: ALPHA (The Neon District Trilogy, Book 1)

by Chad Campbell

  He summoned the artificial intelligence search agent. “Xandra.”

  “Yes, Mr. Knowone.”

  “Please run a search for the username of KingSleaze11. What was the most recent Net Code address he was operating with?”

  “I’m sorry, source unknown,” Xandra replied

  “Shit, looks like I’m gonna have to find another way.”

  He made a hand motion toward the base of the desk and a holographic keyboard manifested. He began typing a number of sequences at lightning fast pace. After about a minute, he stopped. “There you are, Mr. Slavo.”

  Caiden appeared to have found what he was looking for. “Nice try. Masking your real Net Code address was smart, but you can’t hide that from a hacker like me,” he said triumphantly. “Net Code address Ab.43.ZZ! This matches the one I found earlier from 2ofTheSame!”

  The riddle, the username, the police report, and the Net Code address confirmed Caiden’s theory. All he needed was visual proof; something that would prove that 2ofTheSame was related to the twin girls who went missing a year ago. His gut feeling linked them somehow to the brothel and Slavo. Executing the plan was dependent on the success of the Prime-1 bank job.

  “If everything goes according to my plan, Slavo will be in dire need of funds soon enough. He’ll use his resources at the brothel to ensure he regains at least some of the money he will end up losing. That’s where I come in.”

  The darkness of night began to loom. One o’clock was soon approaching. Standing, Caiden took a deep breath and shook off his nervous energy.

  “Time to go.”

  He put on his helmet, went to the garage, hopped on his beloved jet black hypercycle and rode off into the moonlit night toward the borough of Nova Central, where Prime-1 Bank was located. It felt like the ride took longer than twenty minutes. Maybe it’s the nerves? Maybe because my life is on the line? But this is nothing new, he thought to himself, distressed.

  Driving further into the city meant driving further into an inexplicable madness characterized by neon lights, violence, sex, poverty and luxury. A whirlwind of vices had a stranglehold on the massive city he called home. I would be the guy to get caught up in something as crazy as this, he thought. The fluorescent dazzle of the holographic billboards reflected off the fiberglass of Caiden’s smooth aerodynamic motorcycle helmet. Inside the helmet, the navigation display indicated that the bank was near.

  CHAPTER 3

  ---usr/systems/server-x/INFILTRATE PRIME-1---

  Nova Central, the busiest of the five boroughs in the city and home to most of government buildings spread throughout its landscape. The tallest of the skyscrapers also resided in Nova. Zonos and Neon Tower stood at a lengthy one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five feet and one thousand nine hundred and fifty feet, respectively. Naturally, the spectacle of these monstrous structures attracted the attention of tourists, worldwide. Moving through Nova Central at any time was difficult, as it was always lively and bustling with activity.

  Wisely, Caiden parked his hypercycle four blocks away from the bank and up against a brick wall in the alley. He pulled a fabric cover from one of the small utility containers intelligently and sleekly designed within the curvature of the bike. It appeared to be a cover of some sort. As soon he placed the cover over the bike, it disappeared. This cloth was no ordinary cloth; it was a chameleo-ware fabric he purchased on the black market. Only the military-police were authorized to have such a piece of equipment.

  The alleyway was dimly lit, grungy, and run down. There were old broken neon signs from abandoned stores flashing on and off. Voices could be heard off in the distance and they echoed between the hollow walls of the dully lit alleyway. It was hardly the kind of location any sensible pedestrian would think to venture down late at night. Making his way toward the main road ahead, he seamlessly blended in with the busy moving crowd. Nimbly shifting through people, he made his way to the bank. The streets were electric with energy. Hordes of partygoers were heading to the bars, clubs, and small-time sex chambers on the strip. The street was littered with empty liquor bottles, confetti, and other types of paraphernalia. To say the strip encouraged people to party hard would be an understatement. Many were already high from heavy recreational drug use, screaming, fighting, and laughing wildly at anything and everything. By sound alone, they seemed less human and more hyena in comparison.

  Further down the street was a police blockade. It appeared that they were conducting a haphazard raid on an apartment building nearby. The majority of people on the streets were completely unfazed by the shady police activity; too wasted to care for anything other than their own high.

  There was a small mob of protesters closer to the blockade causing a ruckus and lambasting the perceived over-aggressive actions of the Psi-Corp military-police; the abhorrent ‘bloodhounds’ of Zonos Inc. In response, a few officers that were equipped with anti-riot shields blocked their path and asserted their position with the aid of an armed AI assisted crowd control hover pod. There was even a minor scuffle, resulting in the arrest of a few protesters, which turned into an all-out brawl.

  Dumbasses, Caiden thought as he shook his head in disappointment. The night air was soft blowing, caressing his cheekbones as his face was tense. His eyes were intense, his brow curled and folded. He was nervous, yet focused.

  Across the road was the Prime-1 Bank, guarded by four large security guards, each armed with oversized pistols and body armor. Their helmets covered all but the lower half of their faces. They were assisted by a large Psi-Corp military grade surveillance drones called a Hover Surveillance Drones, or HSDs. These HSDs were two by two meters in size. It utilized four rotor blades safely encased in an aerodynamic design. HSDs come in a variety of sizes and different utilities. The type accompanying the guards was armed with two pulse laser rifles on each side and a bio and retinal scanner in the middle of the machine. Caiden fixed his hair and pulled his hoodie as low as he could over his eyes as he walked up to the entrance.

  “Excuse me, sir. Where’d you think you’re going?” grunted a guard.

  “Um, I’m a last-minute replacement Calvar employee for clean-up crew tonight,” Caiden replied, disguising his voice. He then tapped on his watch which displayed a holographic ID for the fake persona he created.

  “Lupin Trice, huh? Strange name.”

  The Hover Surveillance Drone ran a biometric scan on Caiden and confirmed his ID.

  “Okay, checks out. Pass through the door on the left, near the rear of the building,” the guard confirmed.

  “Uh, thanks, sir,” Caiden replied meekly.

  He followed the guard’s directions. The exterior of the building harbored a distinct design. One of the more prominent architects of the city was given free range to shape the building however he liked, just as long as he complied with the needs of the bank. It stood at fifteen stories tall. It was a rectangular shaped building, but with rounded edges. Its structure curved around corners as opposed to sharp angles like other traditional buildings. Most of the building was constructed using a unique deep sea greenish-blue glass. It was reinforced four times over, and could withstand the strength of a hurricane. The neighboring holographic ads and billboard signs lit up the glass breaking into magnificent fragments of refracted dancing light. The light and glass gave the unique building a remarkable reflective shine and beautiful shimmer, especially at night. Where there wasn’t glass on the building, was a pristine white concrete finish. The white concrete was interpolated with the glass, giving this building a reputation as being one of the most unique architectural designs in all of Neon District.

  As he entered the building, Caiden realized he was the first person on staff to arrive. This turned out to be an ideal situation for him. Making haste, he searched for the locker with his fake name on it. While changing into the uniform, he scoffed at its apparent lack of aesthetic.

  “Man, these clothes are pretty shitty, but whatever,” he chuckled.

  Part of the uniform was a h
at with the Calvar logo in front. Caiden placed it low over his eyes, making sure the brim would cover as much of the top half of his face as possible, as he stuffed his regular clothes in his backpack.

  Slowly walking out of the locker room and into the service hallway, he noticed two HSDs. Their surveillance patterns were relatively simple to follow, and so he memorized their location and range of movement. He cautiously carried on down another hallway, making note every detail he could in case he needed to use it to find an alternate escape route.

  From the hallways to the lobby, the building’s interior showed a great emphasis on meticulous detail and elegance. One could easily mistake the interior design of the bank for something more, like a modernized castle for a king and his royal family. Each hallway brought its own unique scent to Caiden’s olfactory senses. Some were fresh pine, others were like a new car scent. The entire building smelled ‘new’ to say the least.

  Funny how this place isn’t very well secured. These guys are too lax with their security detail, he thought to himself. He arrived at the lobby of the bank. It was massive; the ceiling was as high as the building. The lobby was accented by pearl-white marble floors that reflected even the flickering lights. The main elevators were reinforced crystallized glass. They were located behind the front desk. Also, behind the front desk, was a thirty-foot-tall light grey marble wall that housed a glowing magenta sign that read ‘Prime-1 Banking Headquarters’, along with multiple holographic screens of stock and financial analysis that reported live data in real-time. Surprisingly, there were even a few employees walking around on the floors above, most likely pulling all nighters or working late shifts. Caiden put his head down and casually walked across the lobby, making his way toward the signs for the server terminal room.

  As expected, the server room was located on the other side of the building, a few levels up from ground floor. Caiden walked through the door and took the service elevator. Exiting the elevator, he looked to his left and saw the pathway to the server terminals. As he got closer to the access point, he saw that there was a keycard required to get inside. He then activated his holographic watch display and began to scan the keycard access point for any holes in its security code. His initial assessment of the lax security did little to quell the growing paranoia that was beginning to slowly eat away at his nerves. It also didn’t help that he was only accompanied by the eerie of the quiet hallways. Several seconds passed and he overrode the keycard panel. The terminal door slid open and he softly stepped inside. He breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

  Caiden took notice of the sheer size and setup of the room. It looked like a showroom for exotic cars, strangely enough. There were over a dozen server racks that could hold at least fifteen to thirty servers each. These server racks were accompanied by custom built supercomputers, with large holographic monitors that took up most of the additional space. It was perplexing to see so many powerful machines being housed in a bank. It would be more fitting to see these pieces of equipment at a fortified data center. Something felt off to him about the entire setup. But there was little time to mull over his observations.

  There were more HSDs quietly humming along above him, scanning the area. Caiden cautiously took cover behind the wall next to him, intently studying their monitoring scope. When he felt confident enough, he made his way toward the nearest server. The entire room was dimly lit by the screens and lights of the servers, as well as the supercomputers. With it being the early hours of the morning, there was no need for the overhead lights to be on. It was chilly inside, mostly due to the central air conditioning unit providing cool air to prevent the servers from overheating and to keep them operating at optimal levels. From the looks of the room, Caiden surmised that this was mostly an automated functioning area, as the signs indicated that the room only allowed a few personnel in there at any given time.

  He opened the door on the server rack closest to him and pulled out one the many slide-mounted servers inside. Caiden took the USB drive with a reprogrammed microcontroller from his pocket and inserted it into the server. Within seconds, his exploit had worked. The entire security system went haywire. The lights on all the servers changed from blue to red, indicating a breach in the system’s security. The hover cameras began malfunctioning and rotated in a continuous three-hundred-and-sixty-degree motion as their video feeds cut in and out.

  The database authentication system was temporarily compromised just as Caiden planned. The employee’s computer screens pulsated with nonsense, alternating between lines of gibberish code and a humorous message simply saying, “You have been hacked. Have a nice day!”Shortly thereafter, the alarms went off and the lights switched from regular halogen lighting to red in the hallways, offices, and reception. It was chaos at the touch of a button. He proceeded to hack the financial reserves of the bank, initiating the transfer of the seventy-five million Creds. Seconds passed and Caiden was typing at an inhuman speed. This was a dangerous job and would be something only he could pull off. Time kept ticking, the transfer was up to sixty-five million Creds. His pupils dilated, his heart rate increased. Caiden’s fingers were typing even faster now. Finally, the status bar on screen read “CR 75 000 000. Transfer complete”.

  He began to disconnect from the server when suddenly a voice belted out, “Hey! What the hell are you doing?”

  “Shit!” Caiden mumbled to himself as he was rushing to gather his belongings.

  Do I run or do I find another way? He thought to himself. Caiden made a critical mistake by failing to override the keycard access to lock the door behind him when he first entered. The guard had arrived too quickly for him to do anything else.

  “Um, I’m so sorry! It’s my first day here, I-I was told to go to the south wing of the building for clean-up crew and got lost!” Caiden exclaimed.

  “Hands in the air! Show your Holo-ID! Now!” the guard demanded as he edged closer.

  He noticed the guard was armed with only a shock baton. He was pointing it at Caiden. He could feel the heat from the electric current surging through the baton as the sparks tickled the surface of the skin on his hands. He cautiously hit the display on his watch to show the fake Holo-ID while slowly raising his hands in the air.

  “Lupin Trice? With Calvar Cleaning?” the guard asked, showing relief.

  “Yes, that’s me. I’m so sorry, I had no idea where I was going,” Caiden said while acting flustered and frazzled.

  The guard fell for the act and began to relax a little. Without a second thought, Caiden rushed him, throwing a vicious left elbow to the bridge of the guard’s nose. A loud cracking sound resonated on impact as he sent the guard flying backward, crashing into a server rack. The shock baton shorted one of the servers as soon as it made contact. Caiden was surprised at the unbelievable brute force from his strike, looking at his hands in awe. He refocused, and took off toward the room’s exit. When he reached the door of the server room, the lights returned to soft yellow glow and the HSDs resumed their monitoring. He heard the guard’s shaky voice call for backup.

  As he left, he locked the server room door from the outside, ensuring he would keep at least one pursuer off his tail. He turned the corner and dashed to the elevators, the sounds of footsteps and grunts from security guards got louder. He turned another corner and heard a guard instruct the others out front to look out for anyone suspicious leaving the building. With the brim of his hat low over his eyes, he made sure to duck away from any HSDs to avoid any facial recognition scans. Instead of the taking the elevators, he pressed the down button, then darted to the utility stairwell to throw off any other pursuers. Leaping down flights of steps, he landed each jump as quietly and quickly as an Olympic gymnast.

  He approached the door at the bottom of the steps with extreme caution. He pushed it open and slowly poked his head out into the hallway; it was empty. He was close to the lobby. Before making a dash for it, he checked the large area for any movement. He took advantage of the lull and dashed across lobby. He slowe
d from a sprint to a brisk jog as he made his way down the hallway. The locker room was empty once again; it was frighteningly quiet.

  He immediately began to take off his Calvar Cleaning Services disguise and placed it in the locker. He put his clothes back on and pulled his hood over his head, he then silently made his way toward the exit of the building. He was finally safe outside, and was overcome with relief. The streets were still lively and filled with people. Caiden walked among the shadows until he blended in with the crowd, completely avoiding the four guards at the front of the building. He peered back at the bank one more time and saw several additional guards sprint toward the front of the building to join the other four.

  Holy shit! Glad I got out in time. They appeared to be looking for Caiden, but he was in his regular attire and was in the thick of the crowd, too far away to be noticed. To them, he was nothing more than an apparition. After maneuvering through the busy streets, Caiden reached the dark alleyway where his hypercycle was located. Making sure he wasn’t being followed, he looked around one more time before removing the chamleo-ware cloak, and hopping on the bike to leave. He was exhausted, not from physical over exertion, but from the overwhelming fear of being caught and the psychological thrill that consumed him. With a victorious smile, he revved the engine, and rode off back toward his home in the BlackLight District.

  Upon his return, he was surprised to find that Vantz was wide awake. “S’up man? Where did you run off to, you sly dog, you?” Vantz asked with one eyebrow raised.

  “Felt like taking a ride. Been in front of my computer screens for too long,” Caiden replied.

  “At two in the morning, bro? Yeah, you getting tired of working on your computer? All of your enthusiasm and time dedicated to CWR? Oh, what has this world come to?” Vantz said with a dramatic flair.