CD & EA 1.7 - The Team

Another day, another chapter. Thanks a lot for the feedback on the earlier chapters, everyone. I appreciate it! I hope you're enjoying the story :)

-Plum

“Sit down,” Vikker said, pointing to the side of the booth across from him. Juliet glanced to her right, taking a quick glance at the other two occupants—a muscular, young woman with buzzed, blonde hair and an older man, thin as a rail with the tell-tale jitters of a low-end twitch job, some kind of nerve or tendon enhancement. He was bald, though it looked voluntary, as Juliet could see short black stubble over his head. She was just starting to take in the tattoos on his head and neck when he nodded and pointed to the seat next to the girl.

“Right,” Juliet said, sliding into the booth. It could have held a dozen people, so it wasn’t crowded. Blondie slid to the side, making it easy to make eye contact with everyone.

“So, you’re a hacker, huh?”

“Well, I have some hacking skills—data retrieval and security circumvention. I’m a much better welder than I am a netjacker.” Juliet used the term she’d heard in VR shows and from sensationalist citizen journalists when they reported incidents that happened to people way above Juliet’s social strata.

“Uh-huh, well, we don’t need a welder. Can you crack one of these?” Vikker touched a button on his square data terminal, and a 3D hologram of a door appeared above it, projected by a recessed lens. The image rotated and then zoomed in onto a data pad next to the door. A moment later, the image zoomed again, and the serial number filled the screen.

“Angel?” Juliet subvocalized.

“Yes, Juliet. That’s an access keypad used by many Helios subsidiaries. It has a dozen known exploits, but most of them have been patched . . .”

“Well?” Vikker asked, drumming his fingers on the table.

“Just a minute,” Juliet snapped. “I’m looking through my shit.”

“As I was saying, it depends on how up-to-date this company’s security patches are. It could take me anywhere from ten seconds to forty-five minutes to open that door. Forty-five minutes is if I have to crack it cold with no exploits.”

“Almost got it, just hold on,” Juliet said aloud, then subvocalized, “What are the odds we can open that door in under five minutes?”

“I’d give a seven in ten chance,” Angel replied.

“All right, here’s the deal,” Juliet said, looking Vikker in the eyes. “I’d say there's a seventy percent chance I can pop that door in under five minutes. The outside, worst-case scenario is that it would take me forty-five minutes.”

“Forty-five fuckin’ minutes?” The girl laughed. “Get the fuck outta ‘ere. Looks like I can go to that party tonight after all. Get out my way, girl.” She started scooting toward Juliet, but Vikker held up a hand.

“Chill, Ghoul.”

“Ghoul?” Juliet asked, and it was her turn to chuckle as she glanced at the woman. Her laugh died in her throat, though, when a humming, four-inch vibroblade was suddenly in Ghoul’s hand, and she snarled, exposing pointed, chrome teeth.

“Something funny, bitch?”

“Chill, Ghoul,” Vikker said again, with more emphasis. Ghoul snarled but stopped moving, staring at Vikker now. He cleared his throat and turned to Juliet, “So, assuming shit goes your way, what’s the fastest you can crack that door?”

“Five seconds.”

“Juliet, I said ten . . .”

“Quiet, Angel,” Juliet subvocalized.

“Well, shit, why didn’t you say so?” the shaven-headed guy said.

“Odds of it being that quick?” Vikker asked.

“Two in ten,” Juliet said, though she had no idea. Angel remained silent, respecting Juliet’s last command.

“So why the big fucking difference?” Ghoul hissed.

“Well, it depends on how good these guys are about updating firmware and applying security patches. Only so much can be automated because Helios—that’s a Helios security pad, so I’m assuming we’re dealing with them or one of their subs—keeps their local nets offline. Right?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Vikker nodded, turning to lock eyes with Ghoul and the other guy, nodding to each of them and waiting for them to nod back. “Okay, we’ll give it a go.” He reached out a hand, and Juliet noticed, for the first time, that he had little plastic or maybe alloy tubes sticking out beneath his knuckles. When she reached to take his hand, they were pointed right at her face, and she wondered what they were for. “Like I said, I’m Vikker, and this young man,” he chuckled, “is Don, and, well, you met Ghoul.”

“Good to meet you, Juliet,” Don said, holding out a long, wiry arm, twitching noticeably, over the table. Juliet squeezed Vikker’s hand, then released and grabbed Don’s. He smiled, and though his hand was much warmer than anyone’s skin she’d ever felt, he gave her hand a steady squeeze. Juliet let go and turned to Ghoul, and she smirked, exposing a long, silvery canine.

“Well met, then,” she said, scooting back to her original spot.

“Right, good to meet you,” Juliet nodded and turned back to Vikker. “So, any details on the job?”

“Yeah, we’ve got a couple of hours before the time is right. We can go over a few things with you. First of all, you’ve seen the security panel. You know this is a Helios sub we’re . . . visiting tonight. You good with that? If not, this is your one and only chance to bail with no negs.” He touched something on his bulky data terminal, and it hummed briefly.

“Juliet, we’ve just been cut off from outside net traffic,” Angel said in her ear.

“I’ve got no love for corpos. In fact, Helios is kind of on my shit list today, so yeah, as long as we’re not fucking over some little guys like, well, like anyone not corpo, I’m good.”

“Yeah, Helios hasn’t made many friends since they bought up most of the city, hmm?” Don asked, grinning at Juliet. He had dark lines and angles tattooed on his cheeks, making his smile look like it was going from ear to ear. That, added to the fact that he was so thin—basically a skull with a layer of skin on it—made him look decidedly scary to Juliet.

“Truth,” Ghoul said, holding out a thick fist decked in rings for Don to bump.

“All right, so we’re all good with a little anti-corpo action. Good.”

“I mean, it ain’t like we’re corpo rebels or nothing; we’re just giving ‘em a little bloody nose while we make some bits.” Ghoul drawled, dragging her pointed, metallic fingernail along the top of the table.

“I only do this kinda job if corpos are the target, and you know it, Ghoul,” Don said, frowning at the stocky woman.

“Whatever. We all have our motivations. The important thing is, we’re all good with this, right?” Vikker looked from Don to Ghoul, and they nodded. When his gaze came around to Juliet again, she nodded too.

“In theory, anyway. I still don’t know what we’re doing aside from bypassing a door we aren’t meant to go through.” She sat back in the booth and smiled at Vikker, and he grinned in return.

“Right, okay, here’s the deal. You heard of Garcia LTD?”

“I’ve seen their green trucks around the city. Some of them are tow rigs.”

“Right. They have an exclusive contract on maintaining Helios corporate vehicles. I got wind, from a friend of a friend, that the Helios mail fleet is due for battery overhauls next week. Garcia is sitting on a shipment of brand-new lithium-air battery cells. We can’t move that much product, but if we take enough to fill the back of a van, we’re looking at a nice payday.”

“Lithium-air,” Juliet breathed while she nodded. “Expensive.”

“Right. And this subcontractor, used to dealing with vehicle maintenance, doesn’t have the kind of security such a pile of tech warrants,” Don added.

“Okay, so what’s the plan?” Juliet leaned forward, surprising herself at how easily she’d accepted the idea of committing a major theft. She’d played by the rules most of her life; she’d even given her sister hell for getting caught up in the gang shit that got her arrested. What was the deal? Had she changed something about herself when she’d inserted that stolen PAI or had she just opened her eyes. What had following the rules gotten her? She was barely scraping by with the rent for a shitty one-room apartment—rarely having enough money to eat more than protein squares.

“Show her the camera layout,” Ghoul said, her voice low and scratchy but no longer hostile.

Vikker touched a few icons on the data pad’s interface, and then a projection of a warehouse-style garage with a large fenced lot floated above the table, slowly rotating. As it moved, the cameras on the corners of the building and fences began to glow with a golden halo, making them easy to pick out. “This is fresh intel; I double-checked yesterday. Those cameras need to be put on a loop. You said you aren’t much of a netjacker, which makes me think you can’t netwalk. That right?”

“Angel?” Juliet subvocalized. She had a good idea of what went into netwalking, and she was pretty damn sure she couldn’t do it—not without a lot of wetware upgrades.

“He’s correct. We don’t have the interfaces or the synaptic upgrades you’d need for a full-body network interface.”

“Yeah, that’s right.” Juliet shrugged. “Sorry.”

“Well, any way you can handle these cameras?” Vikker looked from Ghoul to Don and raised an eyebrow as if to say, “What’s the deal with this noob?”

“If you can get close enough, we can wirelessly connect with the Aurora specs. I can confidently say we should be able to initiate a loop. I give it seven in ten odds,” Angel added helpfully.

“Easy, Vikker, I’m just thinking.” Juliet tapped the table absently for a minute, looking at the projection, then said, “Those cameras at the corner—they’re panning left to right every twenty-eight seconds. If you drive by slowly, I’ll hop out when it’s blind. I think I should be able to initiate a loop wirelessly from there. If I’m not fast enough, my specs will scramble my face—I’ll just act like I’m a drugged-out party girl while I’m working on it.”

“You sure you can do it?” Ghoul asked, reaching out to rest her palm on top of Juliet’s fingers, stopping her drumming. Her hand was cold and heavy, and Juliet pulled hers back, intertwining her fingers on her lap.

“Eighty percent chance.” She shrugged. “That’s the best I can promise.”

“God, I wish Yamo was here,” Ghoul said with a sigh.

“Well, he’s not, and he won’t be out anytime soon, so be glad Juliet was ready to go on short notice,” Vikker growled, apparently getting tired of the grousing. “All right, assuming you get the cameras done, Ghoul and Don will handle the watchmen at the gate. That done, we’ll pull the van in, you’ll bypass the door, and slip inside with Ghoul. The two of you will make your way along this route,” again, he tapped the data deck, and a new projection appeared, displaying the interior layout of the warehouse and garage. An amber path with arrows showed the way from the security door to the other side of the building and the rolling garage doors.

“This one accurate, too?” Juliet asked.

“Eighty percent. It’s based on the manufacturer's prefab specs of those buildings.”

“I handle any interior security, and you bypass anything we don’t know about,” Ghoul said, picking up where Vikker had left off.

“You guys keep saying ‘handle.’ We’re not killing people, are we?” Juliet asked.

“Not if we can help it. Non-lethal rounds and tranqs—the name of the game. Why get Helios up in arms about dead contractors?” Don said.

“Cool,” Juliet said. She knew Angel would help her with directions, so she didn’t try to memorize the map, but she made sure she had a good general idea of it. “What then?”

“Then you guys open the door on the right, we pull in, load the batts, and off we go, each of us a good bit richer.” Vikker sat back and tapped the cube-like data terminal, turning off the holo display. The air buzzed in Juliet’s auditory implants, and Angel displayed a network icon in her AUI, indicating they weren’t being blocked anymore. “Let’s have a drink—a toast to our first time working together, hmm? We’ll have time to sober up before we head out.”

“Sure,” Juliet said.

“Now you’re talking,” Don said, and Ghoul just thumped the table with her hand, smiling and sitting back.

“My PAI’s doing the order. What you want, Juliet?” Vikker asked.

“Uh, something hoppy. I’ve only been able to afford cheap shit lately.” She smiled, and then a thought occurred to her. “Hey, can I ask you guys something without causing trouble?”

“Oh? She’s getting juicy already? What’s the dirt? Who you throwing under the bus?” Don asked, leaning forward with a leering grin.

“Jus’ ask, girl,” Ghoul said, leaning over the table, a half grin on her face, showing off her sharp silver teeth.

“Well, I know you guys found me through ‘Doc Sack,’ right?” She looked at Vikker, and he nodded.

“Well, he’s paying me, and I’m just curious how much I’m losing on this deal going through him.”

“Oho, shit!” Don laughed, scooting further back into the booth.

“Now I see why you were worried about asking,” Ghoul chuckled, her throaty, scratchy voice betraying genuine amusement. “Asking about money—payday—on the first job?”

“Just tell us what he’s paying you, Juliet,” Vikker said, “and I’ll tell you if he’s being fair or not.”

“Ten k, minus some money I owe him.”

“Yeah, he’s screwing you,” Vikker laughed, glancing at the others. They laughed too, but surprisingly, it was Ghoul who reached out to squeeze Juliet’s shoulder and gave her a genuine smile.

“You’re new. It’s expected. Doc Sack moonlights as a fixer, so he’s taking a big cut. People could argue that he’s taking too much, but you’re an unknown quantity—other people would argue he’s giving you a chance, and you should just suck it up and do the work.” She winked at her and sat back.

“If you pull this off, and we don’t have any problems, we might work with you again. If we do, I’ll send you the contract directly. Cool?” Vikker smiled and stood, walking past Juliet to open the door. A woman in a silver leotard stood there with a tray of drinks, and Juliet had to do a double-take when she saw her face.

“A synth,” she breathed, and the woman turned to her as Vikker took the tray.

“First you’ve seen?” she asked, then gestured to her pink, plastic face, “Sorry for the distraction—I’m saving for some upgrades.”

“Sorry for staring,” Juliet said, suddenly embarrassed. “I’ve seen others, but, well, you look pretty high-end.” It was true—the woman was nearly identical to a human aside from the missing flesh on her face and the plastic seams where her limbs and neck met her lithe body. In fact, if she’d made an effort, she could believably say she was a cybernetically enhanced person.

“Thank you!” The synth’s eyes flashed with pink hearts, and then she turned to saunter away, shaking her ass in a very human fashion.

“Seriously? You live under a rock?” Ghoul asked as Vikker put a drink in front of everyone.

“No, I mean, I don’t know why it surprised me when I saw she was a synth. It’s just . . . ahh fuck it, I don’t get out much, all right? Been working that grind for a while now, and I mostly see my apartment, my job, and the streets in between.” Juliet picked up the cold beer bottle and read the label, “Hop Explosion?”

“You said something ‘hoppy.’” Vikker picked up his glass, filled with amber liquor, and held it up. “To a fruitful evening!”

“To getting rich!” Don said, lifting his mug of dark ale.

“To new friends!” Again, Ghoul surprised Juliet by lifting her shot of clear alcohol and holding it out toward Juliet in a salute.

“I like that,” Juliet said, smiling at Ghoul. “To new friends.” They all lifted their glasses and drank, and that kicked off an hour of laughing, telling stories, and, accompanied by groans from Ghoul, two more reviews of the plan for their heist. Vikker wouldn’t entertain any suggestions for “just one more drink,” and just as he’d said, they were all well sober by the time he scooped up his data cube and announced that it was time to get going.

“Where’s your ride?” Don asked Juliet.

“In the lot,” Juliet gestured toward the front of the club.

“Well, this place is open ‘til four AM, so might as well leave it here. We’ll drop you after the job,” Ghoul said, taking Juliet’s arm and steering her to the left, deeper into the club. “We’re parked out back. Thicker than Water is friendly to operators—once the door guys know you, you can park back here, too, and avoid the crowds.”

“Oh, cool,” Juliet said, allowing the shorter but much sturdier woman to lead her through the hallway, down a short flight of stairs, and out a set of metal doors inscribed with the word “EXIT” in glowing neon paint.

A tall, highly augmented man stood next to the door, with chrome and wire legs that came up to Juliet’s chest. He stooped to stare at them, his red camera lens of an eye whirring as it focused on each of them, but he didn’t say anything, just leaned back and nodded. One long, metallic hand resting near the handle of a stun baton at his belt.

“That’s us,” Vikker said, pointing to a blue van with a sloping roof and aerodynamic front end. It didn’t boast any windows other than the windscreen, and Juliet could see the tires were the after-market, self-repairing ones that Fred used to go nuts over when he’d pull a set off a scrap job.

“Nice,” Juliet said, walking toward the rig. “Great tires,” she said, turning to Vikker as the trio of operators followed her toward the van.

“You’ve got a good eye. Spent a pretty penny on those, but not as much as I did on the h-engine. She’s faster than she looks,” he said, running a hand over the baby-blue paint.

“I like that you don’t have any windows. Any plating under that paint?”

“Not yet, but that’s the long-term plan. I want this baby to be bullet-proof.” He pulled his short black coat back to get at his pocket, where Juliet figured his key fob was, and she caught sight of a heavy, black handgun strapped against his side. Suddenly the gravity of what she was up to hit her, and she felt like a goldfish that had somehow made its way into the ocean. These people were heavy hitters—they meant business, and she didn’t doubt they’d done plenty of illegal things in the past.

Juliet had heard about people like these. They might go by “operator,” but people on the other side of the glass had different names for them: bangers, mercs, corpo-rebels, cyberpunks. They were people that did questionable shit, got into fights with each other and corpo-sec, and famously died young. “What the fuck have I gotten into?” She hissed to herself as she walked around the van to the sliding door, waiting for Vikker to pop it open. Her palms were sweating, she could feel her heart racing, and Juliet wondered if there was a way for her to bail out then and there.

“Chill, girl,” Ghoul said, silently coming up behind her and slipping a strong, cool hand around her arm, just above the elbow. “We know you’re new. This is scary stuff. We’re not going to let anything happen to you tonight, all right? I’m sorry I pulled my knife earlier—I didn’t realize how green you were.”

“Yeah, um, it just kinda hit me, that’s all. I’ll be all right,” Juliet said, forcing herself to take a deep breath through her nose.

“That’s it. Breathe. You’re fine, Juliet. EZ PZ stuff tonight. Trust me.” Ghoul said, her low, scratchy voice barely more than a whisper.

“We good?” Don asked, coming around the van as the door silently slid open, revealing two rows of black, neo-leather seats.

“Yeah, we’re good. Just reviewing with Juliet how I like to move through tight spaces—so it’s me in front, got it, Jules?”

“Right, uh, follow you, got it.” Juliet took another deep breath, and if her face hadn’t been so wan and her head so light, she might have smiled at Ghoul.

“Take it easy, Ghoul. It’s common sense,” Don said with a laugh, and then he was in the van, having hopped in and slid to the far end of the bench seat faster than Juliet’s eyes could track him.

“Get in back, Jules. Practice your breathing techniques—I don’t want you freezing up on me in there,” Ghoul said, pulling her toward the van, and Juliet let her, actually finding the pressure of her grip comforting. She clambered into the back seat and sat there, gathering her thoughts as the others got settled and Vikker fired up the engine with a whoosh, followed by a low throaty whine as the hydrogen combusted, charging the van’s twin turbines. They sang together, quieter than an old petroleum engine but much louder than a fully electric setup.

“Sounds fucking tough, Vikker,” Juliet said from the back, her admiration of the van’s powerplant momentarily taking her mind off her doubts.

“Wait ‘til he stomps the accelerator, something he finds an excuse for no matter how short the trip,” Ghoul said with a chuckle.

“Don’t begrudge a man his simple pleasures,” Don chimed in.

Before Juliet could reply, Vikker straightened the van out on the road outside the club, and suddenly it lurched forward, and Juliet found herself sucked back into the cushions, her stomach doing flips in her belly. “Holy shit!” she cried, never having felt that kind of torque in her life.

“Haha!” Ghoul laughed, and then she howled, a long ululation that sounded both gleeful and savage.

“You’ve got batts too?” Juliet called out as Vikker relented, slowing the van to a semblance of street-legal speed.

“Oh yeah, two banks. The h-motor is great for top speed and range, but the batts help it get that liftoff.”

“I nearly pissed myself the first time he did that,” Don laughed.

“Yeah, I get the feeling!” Juliet said, nodding, and it was true—her heart was still thudding from the adrenaline of the surging acceleration, and she laughed again, wondering if Vikker had done it on purpose to help her steady her nerves. If so, it had worked. She couldn’t focus on her earlier fears if she wanted to; she was so pumped.

“All right, team, get your game faces on!” Vikker called back into the van. “We’re twenty-three minutes out from the target. I’ll park with eyes on the site, so we can pick the perfect drop-off position for Juliet. Juliet, the ball’s in your court—if you can’t do the cameras, we’ll pull out.”

Suddenly Juliet’s nerves returned with a vengeance, and she rubbed her moist palms on her thighs, willing her jeans to soak up the sweat. She looked from Ghoul’s pale face, limned by her yellow buzzcut, to Don’s leering tattoo mask, to the back of Vikker’s head, his neat, military-style black haircut, all she could see of him. Everything seemed surreal, Angel, the job, her part in it, and this bizarre team she was now a part of. “I’m in it, though,” she said softly, then more loudly, “Sounds good, Vikker. I have a good feeling about the cameras; don’t worry.”