Ian & Stuart's Australian Mac: Not for Sale/Another.not.for.sale (Australia).iso/hold me in your arms/clarinet/22

Internet Message Format | 1994-09-30 | 37KB

From inferno.mpx.com.au!metro!news.cs.su.oz.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msuinfo!uchinews!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!news.uoregon.edu!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!usenet.cis.ufl.edu!mwhid Fri Sep 30 21:48:14 1994
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From: [e-mail] (Michael C Whidden)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo
Subject: Puma Chapters 21 and 22
Date: 30 Sep 1994 01:26:30 GMT
Organization: Univ. of Florida CIS Dept.
Lines: 667
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <36fpg6$[e-mail]>
NNTP-Posting-Host: minnow.cis.ufl.edu

Send mail to [e-mail] if you want the whole Puma series
so far... Chapters 1-22.  There should only be a couple more
chapters after these.

This work is by Ken Stone.  Any comments should be
sent to him at [e-mail]

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 21

       Over the sound of the screaming turbines echoing through the
cargo area of the aerodyne, nobody heard the sound of the handcuff
links breaking. First Rhondo's, then Tara's. Back at the bunker,
the Arasaka personnel who had captured them had mistakenly
identified Tara and Rhondo as fully organic humans. That, of
course, was one of the design features of their CyberSystems bio-
borg bodies. While their total lack of regular cyberwear was
surprising for people in their occupation, it was not impossible,
so the Arasaka personnel had cuffed Tara's and Rhondo's hands
behind their backs with standard issue handcuffs, then put them on
the first aerodyne returning to the Arasaka towers.

       Now with their hands free, the pair of CyberSystems agents
tensed themselves, waiting for an opportunity to strike. They knew
they were likely to get only a single chance. Linked mentally, they
plotted their next move, bouncing possible outcomes off each other,
discussing which one of them would be the better pilot, or even if
they should hi-jack the craft, pilot and all.
       They let their eyes casually wander over the interior of the
vehicle, noting the placement of the weapons locker at the rear,
the two open doors, one each side of the aerodyne, and the narrower
door that connected the cargo area to the cabin.
       In the cabin of the aerodyne were two crew, one at the
weapons console, the other piloting. Two other security officers
were in the back of the aerodyne with Tara and Rhondo, one facing
towards them, an SMG across his legs, his hand resting casually on
the pistol grip. The other was standing, looking out through the
open side door, maintaining his balance by gripping a rail on the
ceiling with one of his hands. His submachinegun was slung across
his back. Both men had pistols in leg holsters.

       Tara and Rhondo knew all too well that CyberSystems was
really no match for the vastly larger resources of Arasaka. By
comparison, CyberSystems was a small business. Fortunately for them
the battle was localised to anything dealing with the missing
cyborg. If Arasaka extended their interests, CyberSystems would
fall.
       Both Tara and Rhondo knew CyberSystems did not have the
resources to attempt to rescue them, especially after the loss of
the team at the bunker. And Tara and Rhondo were meant to be their
primary agents, so if they were outmatched, there wasn't a lot
CyberSystems could do.

       The AV four was approaching the central business district of
Night City. That Tara and Rhondo could tell, just by looking out
through the open side doors of the craft. Their destination was no
secret either. This AV was crewed by men wearing the uniforms of
Arasaka's Night City security division.
       Under half an hour ago, the forces of Arasaka had attacked
the bunker openly and with considerable force, decimating all
defences CyberSystems had in place. Combat lawyers had then marked
the boundaries of the site, eventually presenting Tara and Rhondo,
who by this time they had determined to be in charge of the
CyberSystems contingent, with legal documents proving Arasaka's
claim to the land. Undoubtedly the documents were either forged or
backdated.

       Rhondo smiled to himself. He knew that Arasaka were going to
extract no more data from the bunker than he had. He also knew that
the data may still be there, which was why he had been forced to
make the decision he had made. Even Tara had agreed. If this data
was so important to Arasaka, it was even more important that it be
kept from them.
       Left with no other choice, Tara and Rhondo had played their
wild card. The little Russian nuclear reactor. With the control
rods out, and the controls smashed, it would not last long. The low
level of fuel remaining and the good design of the containment
areas would severely limit the explosion. Very little would escape
the bunker. The publicity would do Arasaka no good either.

       Through the open door, Tara could see the towers of the
Night City offices of Arasaka. Two concrete and glass structures
rising from the city circle, the pollution tinted reds of the
rising sun reflecting from its polished windows.
       In the background, Tara could hear the sounds of the radio,
the voices clear, but lacking in dynamic range. Something was said
about the reactor, and she leaned forward to hear better.
       The news wasn't good, not from Tara's point of view anyway.
Despite the damage, the reactor's fail-safes had still kicked it,
and the Arasaka technicians had managed to shut it down safely.
Tara passed the bad tidings on to Rhondo mentally, though, in a way
she was glad their attempt had failed.

       The Arasaka towers filled their entire view out the right
side door now, as the aerodyne moved in to land. Tara thought to
Rhondo "Now or never. We won't have a chance once we're on the
landing pad."
       After a brief exchange of thoughts to coordinate their
actions, the pair attacked. Tara took the standing guard, while
Rhondo went for the other, a closer, and more immediate threat.
       Moments later, one guard fell from the flying AV, his legs
broken and a bullet in his back. Tara spun around, the pistol she
had liberated from the guard's holster in her hand. Rhondo was
still struggling with the other guard but was in no immediate
danger from the man, so Tara turned her attention to the two up
front.
       After she had pumped three slugs into the weapons officer's
head, she slipped through the gap between the front seats, jamming
the barrel of the pistol into the neck of the panicking pilot.
       "Jump!" she demanded.
       The man glanced into Tara's determined blue eyes, then
opened the door beside him and flung himself out. One of the
landing pads on the roof of the Arasaka towers was only twenty feet
below. He liked his chances of surviving the fall better than
trying to resist the wild girl. Even as he was falling, he heard
the gun fire again, though whether it hit him he didn't know,
because distracted, he had not prepared for his landing. The impact
left him unconscious.
       Tara grabbed the joy-stick, guiding the AV away from the
towers, and down, as a hail of bullets pummelled the side of the
craft. She slid into the vacated pilot's seat, then glanced into
her mind's eye to see how Rhondo was faring with the other guard.
She was rewarded with Rhondo's view of the man's broken body being
thrust through the open doorway. She felt the aerodyne shudder as
the body of the man bounced off the landing skids.
       "Come up front and man the mini-gun." Tara though to Rhondo.
       After sending the corpse of the weapons officer to join his
mates, Rhondo settled into the seat, firing up the targeting
systems. Already there were two aerodynes tailing them.
       "As for field testing our bodies, this little mission is
giving our systems a pretty good shakedown, isn't it." Tara
commented dryly to Rhondo as she guided the craft around a
building.
       The voice of a man interrupted them. Glancing around for the
source, they discovered the radio transceiver and scrambler set
into the instrument panel. That wasn't surprising itself, but the
scrambler being active was a bonus. Immediately to the left of the
scrambler was a monitor screen that was filling with map data and
coordinates.
       Tara flew the aerodyne around the corner of a tower,
spinning it one hundred and eighty degrees and slowing it to a
steady hover. The first of the tailing aerodynes flew straight into
Rhondo's field of fire, and before either the gunner or pilot could
react, a stream of armor piercing shells pummelled their craft,
shattering turbine blades and destroying external fittings such as
antennas, lamps and video cameras.
       Smoke coming from the damaged turbines, the craft fell
rapidly towards what would be a messy end on a city street filled
with the first wave of corporate workers on their way to their
places of employment. Another smudge on Arasaka's name.
       "As soon as they get positive ID on which craft we've
commandeered, you can be assured they will shut down our systems
via this net link." Tara commented to Rhondo as she let the
aerodyne rapidly drop several storeys before she guided it between
more city towers.
       "I'll try get it off line." Rhondo responded, preparing
himself first to shut down the link, then second, to destroy any
antennas he could reach to ensure that no back-up systems could
receive such a shut-down signal. As he glanced at the monitor,
searching for the menu option he required, he realised the
significance of the data it bore.
       "Remember these coordinates." he said urgently, then
repeated them mentally for Tara. "These guys have located our
'borg. Let's go get her."
       "Okay, but let's lose this AV first." Tara replied
desperately, mentally counting the seconds she had been in
possession of the thing. Rhondo had not taken the net link off
line, and every moment more they stayed in the air, the more
dangerous it was. Once Arasaka had shut down the pilot interfaces,
and had the craft on auto, there would be no way out, short of
jumping from the airborne craft.
       Spotting a suitable location in the streets below, Tara
guided the craft down.
       The aerodyne settled into the dirty service lane behind a
row of four and five storey buildings left over from the previous
century, blowing up a cloud of discarded food wrappers and other
assorted litter as it did. Moving from the cabin, Tara and Rhondo
quickly equipped themselves with weapons from the aerodyne's
weapons locker.
       As the turbines were winding down, the pair jumped from the
craft. They ran along the lane, trying the doors. The third one
swung open and they ducked inside, cutting through the kitchen of
what appeared to be a Chinese or Vietnamese restaurant.
       Ignoring the cries of the irate cleaning staff, they rushed
through the building, letting themselves through the front door of
the establishment and onto the street.
       Neither paused for bearings, breaking into a determined run
the moment they were on the sidewalk. Assault rifles slung across
their shoulders, pistols in their hands, broken handcuffs jangling
on their wrists, and running at speeds sustainable only by the
enhanced, they stood out in the morning shuffle. Most people moved
from their paths merely out of self preservation.
       They were fairly close to their hotel, and with the inner
city traffic snarls, running was the most efficient method of
travel. Once at the hotel, they could grab a couple more pieces of
equipment, report back to base, and then take the company AV seven
across to the location. With any luck, they would be able get there
before the Arasaka extraction teams secured the cyborg.

       The doorman at the hotel where Tara and Rhondo were staying
recognised them as they approached, though he was surprised to see
their unkempt appearance and the weapons they were openly toting.
His mind cycling through the correct procedures for situations like
this, he decided in this case, the most appropriate action would be
to open the door and step out of their way. He murmured the
customary greeting as they rushed past. At least, he noted, they
had lowered their weapons before entering.

       Tara and Rhondo went directly for the first elevator that
had its doors open, punching in the floor two below their own.
Keying in the security sequence, Rhondo programmed the elevator to
go express to the floor he had chosen, then moved to the side of
the car and prepared his assault rifle. Tara was pressed against
the opposite wall, her assault rifle also ready.
       As the doors opened they tracked the growing gap with the
muzzles of their weapons, ready to fire. No one was outside the
doors. Tara moved quickly through the doors, checking both ways,
Rhondo following her the moment he saw all was clear through her
eyes. He moved to the door to the stair-well, listened, then
finding it quiet, he opened it and slipped through.
       Reminded by the sight of the stairs before him, his mind
briefly flipped back to his first adventure with Tara, when they
had escaped from the body bank together. Badly wounded, they had
crawled down such a flight of stairs to get away from their
captors, only to have their captors come in after them.
       Cautioned by the recollection, he moved in quietly, checking
all directions before climbing up the stairs. Below him Tara ducked
into the stair-well and carefully closed the door behind her. She
made her way up behind him. He began to climb the next flight of
stairs when suddenly Tara's voice rang out in his mind.
       "Stop!"
       "What is it?" he thought back quickly glancing around for
the danger, his weapon ready.
       "Sam. I'm picking up Sam. There is someone in our room."

       For a long time, Sam had been stalking the men in the room
of his mistress, always being careful to avoid being seen, but
keeping the intruders in view whenever possible. Recording what
they did, he kept one man in his targeting sights at all possible
times. He had five shells in his clip. Three more than he needed.
       Sam moved along the dresser, positioning himself so that
both of the intruders were within his field of fire. All he needed
was the word from his mistress. He watched as the two men, both
dressed in black business suits, the uniform of the corporate
operative, tried again to access the data in Rhondo's computer.
       It was then that he felt the familiar presence of his
mistress, faintly, as if she was at his edge of perception, but
distinguishable from the background electromagnetic noise.
       Immediately he had confirmed it was her, he sent his
warning, telling of the two intruders. For several seconds he
waited. He could feel her conversing with Rhondo, but could not
understand the exchange. Then came the first of the commands he was
waiting for.
       First he sent the images his mistress requested of what the
men were doing. Then he sent several views of the room, confirming
that there were only two men inside. He felt her conversing with
Rhondo again.
       More seconds passed, and Sam re-established target lock on
one of the men and memorised the best potential target lock on the
other. He moved his tail, so it would be clear of the back blast.
He was ready.
       And finally the authorisation to fire came. Confirmed. Kill
the two intruders.
       He launched the first shell, then realigned himself to his
second memorised target, adjusting to allow for the man's reaction
to the sound. He launched the second shell before the first had
struck.
       Sam's targeting was good, the explosive micro-shells causing
fatal injuries to both intruders. He moved to the edge of the
dresser, then jumped across to the bed, so he could cover the
fallen men, just in case.

       With Tara seated out of the way on the steps, where she
could communicate with Sam, Rhondo moved to the door exiting the
stair-well. After final coordination with Tara, he was ready, a
pistol in one had, the other on the handle of the door.
       "Go. Go. Go" came Tara's signal, and Rhondo burst thought
the door, squeezing off several rounds at the two men he saw. Both
men were already reacting to the sounds of explosions coming from
within Tara and Rhondo's room, so they were more vulnerable to his
attack. The first fell against the door and slid to the floor,
dead, while the second managed to squeeze off a single shot before
Rhondo put several more slugs into him. The man dropped to his
knees, blood soaking into his clothes from some of his wounds.
       Noticing the man's hand suddenly tense, Rhondo emptied the
pistol's clip at him then ducked back into the stair-well as a
volley of slugs embedded themselves into the door frame.
       "Borg." he thought to Tara as he grabbed his assault rifle.
       When Rhondo was ready, Tara had Sam fire one of his micro
shells at the hotel room door, the resultant explosion hopefully
having two effects. It would create a diversion, with any luck
distracting the borg long enough for Rhondo to get off several
clear shots. Also it would make a hole in the reinforced door that
Sam could either shoot or climb through, should his assistance be
further required.
       Rhondo leapt through the stair-well doorway at Tara's
signal, ducking low, rapidly taking aim, then firing the entire
clip at his target. The 'borg had indeed reacted to the small
explosion created by Sam, and was facing towards the door of Tara
and Rhondo's room when Rhondo attacked. He did not have the
opportunity to act again, as the slugs tore through his face.
       "All clear out here at the moment." Rhondo stated, "So lets
move before their back-up arrives."

       In under two minutes they were on the way to the roof of the
hotel, where their AV seven was parked. They had the weapons and
reloads they needed, Rhondo's computer, and Sam, in his customary
place, clinging to Tara's arm. They also had the identifications
they had taken from the bodies of the Arasaka operatives. There was
a chance these could be used for leverage.
       Tara called the head office as they went, filling them in on
the situation. No further order were awaiting them.
       Rhondo covered Tara as she used Sam to check the way to the
landing pads was clear. The diminishing image of an aerodyne was
the only sign of the departing Arasaka team. They moved onto the
landing pad, doing a final sweep to check the roof really was
clear, before going to their AV seven. The pilot was nowhere to be
seen. Neither was the second AV seven, the one CyberSystems had
fitted out as a fighter.
       After checking the craft over for sabotage, the pair climbed
in, Tara immediately initiating the start up sequence. As the
turbine speed built up, they harnessed themselves in.
       A minute later, they were airborne, and flying towards the
coordinates Rhondo had learned from the Arasaka transmission.

  *                     *                           *

Chapter 22

       The girls of Menagerie clustered around, examining Niko. One
moment she had been strapping the brace on her leg. The next she
had leaned back, and apparently fainted. Her face was relaxed, and
there was the hint of a smile on her lips.
       Detecting some UHF activity, Lambda Heather folded out her
wings, which incorporated a sensitive antenna array designed by
Bunny and Mainie. The readings and graphs were fed into her cyber
optic nerves by the processors in her scanning equipment. Once the
frequency and signal strength were noted, she triangulated for the
source. Admittedly with an antenna array only eight feet wide, her
triangulation skills were not as accurate as specialised the
tracking equipment used by the corporations, but in this case the
limitation was negligible. The signal strength and clarity
indicated the transmission was very close, so she wasn't surprised
when she discovered that Niko was the primary source.
       After recognising a second transmission, a little more
scanning located a second source, though this one was distant, and
due to signal ghosting, its direction indeterminate. The signal
level suggested a range of only a couple of miles.
       "She's transmitting." Lambda relayed her findings to the
others.
       "What band?" Mainie asked. Behind her, China pulled her
pistol, and aimed it at the apparently unconscious girl.
       "She's on the UHF band." Lambda replied, then gave Mainie
the exact frequency.
       Mainie ran through her mental list of band usage before
replying. "What an odd frequency! That band hasn't been used for
some time now, legally anyway, so I doubt it's corporate. It used
to be set aside for industrial use, though nowadays it's off
limits, set aside for some proposed repeaters."
       "Huh?" Lambda suddenly interrupted Mainie's last word. "The
signal has gone." She paused, as in deep thought for a few moments,
her wings adjusting in minute increments several times.
       "What is it, Lambda?" Bunny asked, recognising Lambda's
expression.
       "I'm picking up faint signals in the same band as the
cellular repeaters used by the telephone network. It's definitely
coming from her." She pointed at Niko. "She's frequency hopping,
sometimes on two or three frequencies at once, and only ever there
for a moment."
       "Is she in the net?" Anna asked.
       "We could look." Mainie suggested, then remembering the
condition of her deck, she cursed. "I'll grab my spare. Hang on.
And China, don't shoot her till after we find out what's going on,
please!" she stressed.
       Mainie rushed from the room, Anna following her. China
slipped her pistol back into the waistband of her shorts and
waited.
       The sisters returned, a little breathless, a couple of
minutes later, a bulky cyberdeck, assorted wires and memory chips
in their hands. Niko's slumped position hadn't changed in their
absence.
       Quickly Mainie connected her deck to the phone socket, wired
its video output to the monitor screen in the room, then settling
next to Niko, prepared to jack herself in. Anna looked on
nervously, her fingers already closing around Mainie's interface
cable.
       "Okay. Watch." Mainie said to the others, pointing at the
screen.
       She jacked in.

       Mainie emerged in netspace and found herself surrounded by
blackness, apart from the faint glowing of unused grid lines. The
place where Niko should have been in the net, only inches from
where she had appeared, was vacant. There wasn't even a trace
running off to where Niko's icon was.
       Mainie tried running several detection programs around the
area, but these failed to show the slightest trace of Niko. Even
the most advanced software detected nothing. Mainie became
convinced that Niko wasn't jacked in.
       Mainie thought back to the first time she had seen Niko in
the net, in that fleeting moment while she herself was being iced.
Niko's icon had appeared to be a perfect representation of her
physical body. And that was a very bad way to keep your realspace
identity a secret. Mainie's own icon was of a fox. Sort of a family
tradition really. Her mother's icon had been a Japanime lady with a
fox tail and ears, and her fathers had been Basil Brush, a fox
puppet from a video show from the previous century.
       At the moment the icon of the fox was alone in the area of
netspace, save for some fuzzy black edges of a storm caused by
local line noise. Mainie stared into the storm for a few moments,
the patterns becoming clearer now that her deck was devoting time
to processing the spurious data instead of just passing it over as
random garbage. Allowing her mind's eye to make patterns and
pictures out of the swirling patterns, she found herself looking
into the blurred eyes of a familiar shape.
       Panicking she jacked out, then ripped the interface cable
from her neck mounted socket. "Hell. That hunter that blasted me
before is still waiting in there, hiding in a pocket of line
noise." Mainie squeaked.
       Regaining the control of her vocal cords, she continued.
"There was no sign of Niko in there. None that I could detect, and
certainly nothing the hunter could pick up either."
       "Perhaps..." Bunny began. "ah, forget it. It couldn't be
that either."
       She crouched down beside the apparently unconscious girl and
gently shook her by the shoulder.

       Someone was trying to attract Niko's attention in real
space. She could sense them shaking her body, though it felt far
off and detached, unlike the full sensations she was currently
feeling through the playbeing's elaborate nervous system.
       Carefully she set up sub-processes in her first realm,
assigning them the basic task of keeping the link to the playbeing
open, even if she wasn't concentrating on the playbeing at the
time. That way, if either she or the playbeing moved again, she
would not loose contact with Dyne.
       She informed him that she had to return her attention to
those around her back at Menagerie, then shifted her concentration
from the third to the second realm.

       "You're awake?" someone asked.
       "I was never asleep." Niko replied, finding the inquiring
voice belonged to Bunny.
       "Why were you transmitting?" Bunny asked, cutting straight
to the point.
       "Oh. I was talking to my Darling." Niko responded. "His
cyberdeck was transmitting. I guess I must have been too." She
thought of Darcy's comments on the subject, and the danger of
someone else being able to triangulate her position from the
signal.
       "What about now?" Lambda asked, her wings spread wide.
       "I'm not connected with his deck at the moment. I stopped as
soon as we realised it could be traced." Niko answered.
       "But you are still transmitting. A low level signal on the
cellular bands." Lambda insisted.
       Niko shrugged. "I don't know how it works." she stated. "I
am staying in contact with Darling though, but not through his
cyberdeck. Through a terminal instead. Is the signal traceable?"
       Lambda shook her head. "I doubt it."
       Mainie interrupted, tapping her fingers on her cyberdeck.
"You weren't in the net. Not that I could see. Or the hunter, for
that matter."
       Niko shrugged. "I was there. Still am, though I'm not
concentrating on it at the moment."
       "But the hunter..." Mainie voice rose. "How did you get past
it?"
       "I didn't even notice it." Niko admitted. "Where was it?"
       "Right there!" Mainie pointed to the relative position in
real space. "Hiding in a pocket of line noise."
       "Hmm. I'll have a look." Niko stated, and before the others
could stop her, Niko slumped forward.

       The hunter was easy to see. For Niko anyway, its form clear
in the patchy randomness of the simulated line noise it was
throwing off. Remaining invisible, she moved so she was behind the
hunter, where she found the hidden data stream she knew it would be
sending. Tracing the almost invisible threads of the data stream
past a few initial routing changes, Niko found herself heading
towards the CBD. No surprise there. She didn't doubt it ran to
another place just like Solutions Inc. It would be acting as some
form of buffer between her and the people behind this whole
operation, giving them legal and perhaps physical safety by
isolation.
       Carefully Niko merged herself with the data stream,
receiving images sent by the hunter from one direction and control
signals from the other. She let the data pass through her
unhampered, moving along with it, following the trace, all the time
studying and gathering what data she could on the function of the
control signals.
       The stream led Niko to a small data fortress, so dark a grey
it was almost indistinguishable from the blackness of unused net
space, and opaque so nothing that happened within would be noticed.
It was nestled among the bases of the glowing data towers of
several major corporations. The fortress stank of another staging
area like Solutions Inc. Dark, hidden and by itself, too small to
be a major threat, but enough of these seemingly harmless
fortresses scattered thought netspace and sharing a common goal,
would provide a worse foe than the concentrated power of a major
corporation.
       It was then Niko realised what she was really looking at. A
root system. Dirty and under the ground where it wouldn't be
noticed, but feeding nourishing information to its parent
corporation. The gleaming corporate data towers were no more than
the trunks of the data trees, their legitimate business
transactions forming the branches. And underneath all this, it was
the root systems that mattered. Stolen information, blackmail,
bribes, and knowing exactly what was happening out there behind the
neon towers; all the information that had no place in the pristine
fronts these corporations presented was moved and stored in this
dark side of the net.
       Niko was not impressed. She felt she could do without the
opposition and hassle she was experiencing at the moment. Why
couldn't she have stayed dead the first time? she asked herself.
The underlying decay of twenty twenty society left this afterlife
tasting bitter, and after less than a day too. Well, now that she
was alive again, she was going to get the most from life she could,
she told herself. And if that meant unsettling those that chased
her, so be it. Perhaps it was time an individual stood up against
them.

       Disguising and identifying herself as an image data packet
to the code gate of the data fortress, Niko passed through and into
the processing area beyond. She watched the icon of a netrunner
processing the several images before her in the queue. She smiled
to herself as she scanned the area, transferring snippets of
information to her first real memory for further processing.
       The netrunner grabbed Niko's data packet and passed it
through the decompressor to check the image in the same way he had
checked the others before it.
       Niko allowed her icon to solidify, as if it were no more
than the captured data she was pretending to be. Immediately there
was great excitement, the runner calling the attention of others
working similar hunter probes in other areas of the net.
       "I've got her!" he exclaimed. "A good solid image! Look at
it!"
       His supervisor studied Niko's form for a moment then nodded.
"Sure appears to be what was in the brief." he nodded. "Send a
priority packet containing a copy to the hub."
       Niko remained silent, watching the process, wondering and
hoping that perhaps she might be sent on further up the root
structure until she could face the corporation behind this. To know
for sure it was Arasaka... To be in a position to do them some
serious damage...
       It was only then that she noticed the look of stunned horror
on the face of the netrunner. A moment later she realised why. He
had tried to copy her image to send on to the hub, but the copying
software had failed, leading the runner to realize that he was
looking at Niko herself, in the flesh, as it were.
       Game over. Niko thought to herself. A pity though. She would
have liked to go further, right into the heart of her enemy. Oh,
well, it was not to be, she sighed.
       As the runner turned to raise the alarm, she struck out at
him, destroying the software that allowed his mind to interact with
the net. It wouldn't harm him, but it would leave him feeling
somewhat disoriented back in real space where he had suddenly been
dumped, with a cyberdeck that was utterly useless until more
software could be installed. Niko didn't see any point in killing
the runner this time.
       The next work station in the data fortress that Niko  chose
to target was the communications feed back to the hub, the parent
data fortress, elsewhere in the net. Blowing the feed away would
prevent the alert from being passed to those higher up the tree.
She blew the code away without reservation. As the net
representation of the feed disintegrated, Niko discovered that the
feed was also the netspace pointer to which the data fortress had
been hooked. With that destroyed, the information, the structure,
everything, was without reference, and rapidly and violently tore
itself apart, blowing off in tattered shreds into the surrounding
space, fragments of rogue code flaring as they hit the self defence
measures of the surrounding fortresses.
       Her own point of view lurched sickeningly, and after a
moment of confusion, Niko realised she was again looking out of the
playbeing's eyes. Reorienting herself, she discovered that she had
been slung over someone's arm and was being carried.
       Glancing around revealed she, and the person carrying her,
were in a small stainless steel room with a low ambient light
level. A pair of doors immediately in front of her slid open.
Beyond the doors, lit by floodlights, was a cat-walk leading out to
a platform on which sat Ryu's car. The same vehicle in which she
had initially been rescued.
       Turning her head, she looked up at the person carrying her.
It was Dyne, as she had expected.
       "Darling?" she asked. "Why is Ryu's car here? Is Ryu..."
       Dyne glanced down at her as she strode across the cat-walk
towards the machine. He smiled a little, a hint of affection in his
expression.
       "Ryu." he said after a moment's contemplation. "Was that the
name of the man who owned this?"
       Niko nodded her playbeing head.
       "Well, unfortunately he died, like everyone else at the
camp." Dyne paused. "Almost everyone, anyway."
       Niko's heart jumped, then, disappointed, she realised Dyne
must be referring to her own survival.
       "Then you did go to the camp?" Niko asked, glumly.
       "It took a bit of doing, but I managed to locate it." Dyne
stated. "A pretty gruesome find. Though it was lucky for the girl I
did, though." He helped the playbeing into the vehicle, then
climbed up onto it himself.
       "Girl?" Niko asked, hopeful again.
       "Yeah. A woman really. Looks like a kid."
       "Stormie!" Niko exclaimed. "She's alive?"
       Dyne nodded his head. "Full of holes, but she'll live."
       "Oh." Niko voiced, suddenly sad.
       Dyne looked at her, puzzled. "That doesn't please you? I
thought you'd be glad she'd live."
       "I am. Very. But Ryu, the owner of this car, he was her
husband. So, in a way, she's only half survived."
       "Oh." Dyne mirrored Niko's sentiments. "Well, I hate to
sound like a heartless bastard, but unless there is anything
important you need to say, I'm going to start this noisy pile of
scrap. I'm coming to get you before Arasaka turns us into a half
couple."
       "Take care." Niko responded. "Arasaka knows where I am."
       "No surprise there." Dyne muttered, placing his finger on
the starting button of the vehicle.
       "I'd better get back to Menagerie." Niko stated. "See you
soon."
       Dyne nodded toward the playbeing in response, and Niko
noticed there was a gentleness in his eyes that seemed so out of
place in this ruthless world into which she had woken.
       As Dyne started the v-eight, Niko passed the control of her
link with the playbeing back to her first realm subroutines, then
switched her consciousness back to realspace.

       Immediately Niko felt the tension. Guns had appeared in the
hands of the members of Menagerie, though none were pointed at her.
That was a relief. Her relief was short lived though, because she
could hear the faint whine of distant turbines. Lots of them.
       Mainie noticed Niko was alert again. "We thought the hunter
had got you." she stated, visibly relaxing.
       Niko shook her head. "It couldn't see me. Mind you, they had
the area staked out pretty thoroughly."
       "How did you evade it?" Mainie began, wondering what evasive
software Niko had used.
       "My secret." Niko answered.
       "You're damn lucky, especially with you running around with
an icon that looks like your real body does." Mainie added, almost
as if she was scolding Niko.
       "Oh, that's not my icon!" Niko exclaimed. "My icon is the
Angel."
       A hush fell on the room, and once again Niko was the center
of attention of all in the room.
       "The Angel...  of Cyberspace... ?" Mainie asked cautiously.
       "U-huh." Niko nodded.
       "Shit." Bunny interjected in a most un-ladylike manner as
the severity of the situation made itself perfectly clear for the
first time.
       "Get yourself ready to move." China suggested, interrupting.
"I case you haven't noticed, your friends have  come to play."
       China passed Niko the pistol she was holding.
       "Do you know how to use..." she began as Niko took the
weapon, rapidly checked it over and prepared it for action with
fluid precision that rivalled even China's own skills.
       "...obviously." China answered her own unfinished question.
"Obviously."

  *                           *                             *


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All feedback appreciated. Ken.
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Puma is copyright Ken Stone 1994.