0000.0.3

The door to Velsi’s building glided open and I stepped into the lobby. Lights along the floor showing me the way to a bank of elevators; the door waiting for me.

“How close are we?” she asked, not waiting for me to get all the way into her condo. I took in the pourstone walls. The glossy black floor.

“Closer,” I said. “Weird stuff is happening, and that usually means you’re over the target. I’m all out of options, which is why I came here. My place is torched. Got sold out by a buddy. Figured you might want to keep me alive long enough to keep helping you out.”

She rose from her chair and walked to the counter for her cigarettes. She lit one with practiced efficiency.

“Ok,” was all she said.

I was wired up and casting into my virtual antechamber for my next run. The door drew itself into existence and I stepped through into the main hub of NullState’s public access node. There’s always enough traffic that provides enough cover.

I walked over to the portal wall and found where I was going. Archives.

The plan is to comb the archive and look for a hyperlink to the fractal directory. Take the long way and fewer people would notice.

Nailed it on the first try. Some days are good like that.

“User ~Rand-1.684.955.506 has logged in” splashed across my vision. What the fuck?

Indicator lights lit up the sides of my display. Rand, whoever it was, had control of the rig. I panicked, trying to stop them before they booted me from the system.

Every process I called to my fingertips fizzled out. Nothing would execute.

I wasn’t going to get booted. I was locked in.