I was happy to change over to Glory again. Isn’t it funny how fast we get used to something better?

Here we had Precious, and a month ago, she was the most powerful cyber board on the planet, and, well, my precious.

The one possession I valued the most. And now I had Glory, and Precious was not so precious anymore.

I did not spend much time reminiscing about that though, at least not at that time. Instead, I prepared the cyber chair I had inherited from the tech-head, thinking that this thing was functional but not quite what I was used to. The one I had built for myself in Seattle was significantly better at keeping the muscles from aching.

And I had not even made a cyber suit that would fit me. Sure, so far I had only relatively short sessions in cyberspace, a day at most, but still, it was something that I would have to rectify soon.

And so I started my combat dive, and after the obligatory playtime, I made my way through the matrix via a bridge through the cluster. That reminded me that I would have to find a way to get new bridges established.

Brooklyn’s matrix presence was no different from the other parts of NYC that I had already visited.

Large amounts of bling, glitter, and decay if you knew where to look. When I arrived at the Shieldwall facility.

It was not hard to identify, as it was a cooky cutter corp data structure. A Jupiter Intelligence design if I was right.

Yes, it had some broad strokes of corporate identity, but again it was run-of-the-mill.

If you saw one of the B-class corp net presences, you saw them all.

Jupiter was a descent A-class computer corp. Essentially they existed because Burgmeister, Dalgon, and Kawamoto needed some small fry that they could point towards to avoid monopoly allegations.

Yes, everybody knew it was fiction, and everybody knew that the tiple-As did not care an iota about what the public thought, but the politicians did care about public opinion and demanded the fig leaf from their corporate overlords.

And so a couple of dozen local and regional players were allowed to operate.

Still, A-class cyber security had the nasty habit of surprising the unwary jack. Anybody halfway sane would be very conscientious if they made a combat dive at a Burgmeister, Dalgon, or Kawamoto system.

Those were downright evil. But now and then, the bank warmers could get something right, and you really don’t want to be the jack that realizes that while the unexpected ICE fries their brain.

So, while I activated my stealth utility I released my sniffers. The reaction was not something I did not expect but on a completely different level from Berardino’s data compound, and the less was said about Walker’s excuse of cybersecurity, the better.

Yes, the sniffers were nearly as stealthy as my avatar, but not quite, and within a couple of seconds the activity monitor began to ramp up. And I had gotten so spoiled by the lousy security I had encountered here.

Fine, Max’s security was only easy because it was my system he used, but still, this was the first time since coming to NYC that I had to actually work for it.

And so I immediately switched the sniffers into passive, hoping that that was enough for me to identify the ICE that Shieldwall was running. Sadly I was disappointed in that. Yes, the activity monitor was distinctive.

But it had been customized so that I could not identify its build. Virtually rubbing my chin, I loaded all the data I had on Jupiter’s ICE models.

The first thing I noticed was that anything from this decade needed some specialized, i.e. proprietary and expensive, hardware.

Typical behavior. Cybersecurity corporations integrated some customized, and patented, IC in their design that the most modern software ‘absolutely needed to function’. Or, as we from the darker side of the web called it, they needed a token that allowed the software to work.

I could also surmise that they had used the newest software suite when they updated the hardware the last time.

After all, there were only two reasons to update the hardware. Either it was physically damaged, or the customer wanted the newest software.

And usually, the older software did not accept the token from the new hardware.

That made the choices one of three suites.

Yes, whoever ordered the system might have mixed and matched, but honestly, that was unlikely. Three suites, between four and six versions of each. 15 options in all.

I placed the versions that had already been updated in 34 as low probability, the same with the newest versions. This was, as Warden had told me, a tertiary facility. Those usually don’t have that much important information, and as such were not updated all that often.

All that meant that I placed my bets on one of three suites.

The basic suite that they called Metis after the innermost Jupiter moon was essentially the bare bones of a security suite. Not quite consumer-grade, but not far from it. Geared mostly towards the Mom-and-Pop store or the small bar or such, I decided it was rather unlikely.

Io, named after the first of the Galilean moons, was a much more likely possibility. It had not only a firewall and an anti-virus like Metis, but it also had barrier ICE, hunter ICE, and watcher ICE. It would not have any hunter-killer ICE, however. It was geared towards midsized operations and lesser important outposts.

The third option was Leda, and you guessed it, it was named after a Jupiter moon as well. The first of the Himalia group.

This was the big one of course. Leda had everything but the kitchen sink, which was optional. It did also cost more than four times what Io did cost.

I quickly eliminated Metis. It was extremely unlikely that any corp would use that suite, and even if they did, a quick analysis showed that it was irrelevant. Anything I would use against Io or Leda would work just as fine against Metis, if not better.

That left two options, Io and Leda. I knew enough to say that I probably had to do with Io, but in my line of work, probably is a very powerful, and very dangerous word.

If I was wrong… well in the best case it would just become a much harder job. More severe consequences were more likely though.

The most likely outcome would be that I triggered some tripwire and scuttled the job for the others. That was by the way the most likely outcome if I choose Leda and it was Io.

The worst outcome would leave me fried.

Accordingly, I read deeper into what I had about the two suites. It was a bit unfortunate that I had not yet encountered Jupiter-tech. Not surprisingly as they were one of the local providers in the USA, and nobody hired an internationally accredited hacker to break through something like that.

But that left me with a bit of a disadvantage right now. Yes, I had the data on the suites. Heck, I had the source code of the suites, that was how we in the Abyss knew that the need for new hardware was a simple ‘is chip x present’-query, but that did not mean I knew how it behaved.

Fortunately, I was using Glory, and at 240:1 I had quite a bit of virtual time to learn, and I had Warden helping me with that.

Finally, after roughly 25 hours, of virtual time, fortunately, I had not only a way to discern between Io and Leda, but a way to beat the respective activity monitor as well.

The adaptation of my ghosts to identify the model was done in virtually no time, literally and figuratively in this case.

The barely perceptible apparitions drifted through the barrier ICE and placed distributed themselves around the system, just before the sniffers I had already launched activated once more for a few milliseconds.

Yes, it riled the security system back up, but it was so short-lived that it was manageable, and the reaction gave my ghosts desperately needed data on what system I had to do it with exactly.

A short analysis of the reaction pattern showed me that I had been right in my assumption that they had gone with Io.

With the adaptation of my pattern simulator, I could now slowly move into the structure. Naturally, I adapted my sniffers in the same way, and let them run, carefully, through the network.

No, I did not expect some valuable secret or anything of great worth at all. But it was good practice to vacuum all the data in reach if one was to enter any corporation system.

The need to keep it below the alarm threshold made it a bit slower than usual, but at that time I had yet to gain full access to the system and could give neither myself nor my bots increased privileges.

I would persevere though. This was not the first time I had to sneak into a system. It was unusual that I could not afford any alert, but still, nothing I hadn’t done before, and this time I had Warden supervise the bots, which did speed it up quite a bit.

The outer layer of the system contained semi-public information and the interface systems between the building and the matrix. It was nothing where a hacker could do much damage, and I spent only as much time in there to find the gateway to the deeper layers.

And as expected, I found the external firewall. The files I had on the Jupiter technology were spot on, and I was quickly able to find an open port to go through.

In the second layer, it got a bit more interesting. Here, I found the personnel files of the clerical staff, the low-level thugs, and the low-level intranet. Along with a gaggle of hunter-ICE. It took the form of a night-guard-cutout. Very… boring. Nothing wrong with that, considering that there are not all too many jacks or queens in NYC who could be better defended against with more creative designs.

And yes, from the purely technical point of view what representation some ICE projected into cyberspace should not matter, if the underlying technology was capable enough. But we had the subconscious mind of the hacker putting its hat into the ring again.

If the ICE did not impress the jack or queen, their utilities worked so much better, that it was almost comically. On the other hand, if the ICE made the hacker subconsciously think it is something they have problems with, they will have problems. Honestly, I’ve never encountered a Burgmeister, Dalgon, or Kawamoto system where the hunter ICE was something so uninspired.

What I did not find, though, was the gateway to the next layer. I grew more and more frustrated while I searched through the inconsequential drivel of employees. It just wasn’t there.

A few hours later, I gave up and snuck out again, into the first layer. It was obvious that I had missed something, but I was pretty sure it was not in the second layer.

So unless Shieldwall had two independent networks with separate matrix access, it had to be in the first layer.

It was not unusual to find distinct subnets behind the second layer, the first firewall.

It was unusual that the subnets branched off the first layer. But that was where I found three additional, camouflaged gateways. Three to be exact. I had become a bit impatient by now. After all, I had wasted nearly two virtual days already, with nothing to show for it except three gateways that somebody did not want to be found.

And now I had to play the old game of door one, door two, or door three. Just that I had no handy host who would show me the right answer.

That left me with simply trying to find the right answer, and of course, wasting even more time. It couldn’t be helped, I had to find the system administration to give myself the credentials necessary to alter the communication protocol.

After that, I had to find the communication system, to not waste any time when the others started their job.

Don’t get me wrong, this was nothing that I had not done dozens of times, but usually, when somebody hired Spectre, they had a pretty good idea of what they wanted, where they wanted it, and that such things took time.

In other words, usually, a job like this would begin with a thorough casing of the joint, looking into people working there, looking for weak points, investigating who had the necessary credentials, and trying to get them from them.

And yes, most Abyss-dwellers had done a cold infiltration like this at one point or another, and I was no exception but that did not mean I liked it.

The first of the gateways led me straight to the communications system. Good to know where to find it when I was ready to use it.

Well, it was not the communications per se, it was the technical department. It would give me access to their vehicle park, their fusactor, their algae tank, their shooting range, their workshop, and their armory.

All useful things to get access to, but until I got the privileges for it, I couldn’t access anything here, without triggering an alarm. And that was without taking the hunter ICE into account.

The second gateway led me to the systems of the mid-level execs that managed this branch, and their communication to the corp-brass. Again, interesting, and again, if I would not need to avoid any signs of my passing I would probably have snooped around for a bit.

As it was, I placed a few watchdogs and moved on to the third gateway.

From the getgo, it was clear that this was where I needed to go. Instead of security by obscurity, this gateway had real barrier ICE.

Yes, it was only the equivalent of a toll bar, and it was fairly easy to circumvent, a.k.a. finding the open ports and sneaking through, but they also had a couple of watchdogs in it.

Again whoever set up this system had created an utterly unimaginative avatar for them. Just a couple of guards with guard dogs. From experience, I knew that I had to turn their attention somewhere else, or my stealth might get compromised.

For that, I launched a noisemaker, a basic bot that simulated abnormal activity in one of the nodes. Higher quality systems would not have the watchdogs on the firewall react to something like that, but Io was not a higher quality system. It was barely mediocre and lacked the resources for enough watchdogs to not fall for this trick.

If it had been a better system I would have resorted to some white noise, reminiscent of a voltage spike induced fault, into one of the closed ports.

Unusual enough that it had to be investigated, and such diverting the attention of the watchdog enough for my subconscious to let me sneak by, but not more than a single line entry in the log.

Fortunately, I could get away with the easier method that left no lines in the log. It was unlikely that it would make a difference, but in this situation, it was better to be safe than sorry.

Once I was past the barrier ICE I began to slowly investigate the subnet. It was, as expected the subnet of the sys-admin. There were of course the various directories and policies found in any system with more than a handful of users.

Nothing special, in other words.

I hit a bit of luck when I found out that it all ran on an Envision Server 37 OS. Ralcon had gone the same way that had been pioneered by Microsoft long before the great war and built an easy-to-use, relatively affordable standard operating system, with an accompanying office suite and all the utilities around them. It was their main cash cow.

But like Microsoft and their Windows, Ralcon and their Envision pandered mostly to the work computer market. Cheap, low-effort machines, spit out by the thousands. As such, they did not put much work into making their system secure. They couldn’t really as their main selling point was the ease of use.

And with the server software being 11 years old, it had quite a few known exploits. Yes, officially Ralcon still supported it with security patches. But they had stopped serious work on it six years ago.

That made it possible for me to give myself superuser privileges. If I had to break into the Io database directly, I would have had bigger problems. It would not have stopped me, but it would have taken me longer.

As it was, as a superuser I had direct access and could read out the database credentials. Which in turn enabled me to give myself full hidden access to the whole system in this Shieldwall branch. Many people think it should be harder. And in a way they are right. It could be significantly harder. But for that, they needed to make the access more or less hardwired.

As always, security and ease of use were on opposite sides on the scales. Sysadmins cost money. Corporations don’t want to pay for every single third-tier branch having its own sysadmin. This meant that one sysadmin had to take care of several branches.

With good security, this one sysadmin would have to travel to every single branch for any little burb the system has.

Essentially, there is only one industry that has that good security, the banks. All the others make do with credentials and remote access, which opened the doors to somebody like me.

The very first thing I did after getting full access was to install one of my rootkits that would give me access even if they somehow found my hidden account. Equally routine was to start downloading everything they had here. I mean, why not, when I am already here? Again it was unlikely that I would find anything really interesting, but it did cost me nothing, and Warden could sort through it just fine.

With that done, I moved back to the comm system. Time to take a closer look here. I quickly found the standing orders for Yang's guard detail.

I was a bit surprised that they always send the same two guards with him. Usually, such jobs are rotated. But whatever, I did not know enough about that matter to really think about it.

What did confuse me more was that they had a biomon each as well. Most corporations treated guards as ablative meat after all, not worth even a decent funeral if the fecal matter hits the fan.

Even more confusing was that their comlinks and biomons linked them directly to a ready company of fully equipped and trained Shieldwall-soldiers. Not the thugs they usually employed but the real stuff, with heavy armor, heavy weapons, fully encrypted short-range com, and so on.

To explain my confusion, one of those soldiers did cost enough to equip, train, and salary to pay for a dozen of the thugs. And here they were paid to sit on their behinds and be ready on a moment's notice to jump into an assault skimmer and lay hell into somebody. The assault skimmer costing even more than the company, by the way.

I simply could not see any sense in this arrangement. And when I looked into it some more I got another nasty surprise.

For some arcane reason, the company subnet was protected by a hunter-killer. If I had stumbled into here without first securing the sysadmin access that could have been bad™. With Glory, it would have been unlikely to be really dangerous, at least for me, but it would almost certainly have blown the op for the others.

As it was, it simply accepted my credentials and ignored me, except when I ordered it to erase my presence from its logs.

What I did not get though was the reason for the company. There were some references to something called Perfect Pleasure and verbal orders, but that was it.

Slightly frustrated I gave up, and simply inserted the little remote-controlled bomb that would shut down Yang’s guards' communication.

And then I moved out of the system and started to surface.

Back in my body, I stretched for a bit, but as a combat dive, it was not too bad. Only 13 minutes in real-time. I went to the others, who were in a VR session, and so I sighed, plopped myself onto one of the chairs, and connected to their VR. They sat around a table with the map data of the area displayed, talking about how the third try had been better than the second and the first.

When I made another chair appear they all looked up.

“Hey red. Are you done?” Natalie smiled at me when she said that, so I think she was in a good mood.

“Yes. It took a bit longer than I would have liked, but it’s done.”

Mark frowned.

“What do you mean longer? It has been what, an hour?”

Christine slapped him on the back of his head.

“You idiot, we are in VR. We are four times faster. So it was more like 15 minutes. But yeah, that was super fast, why do you say it was longer?”

I snickered.

“You have 4:1 compression. I have 240:1. For me, it was more like a bit over two days. Of course, a big chunk of that was learning about the system they use. I did not have the pleasure before.”

They all nodded at that.

“Ok, I would be a bit unhappy as well if I had spent that much time on something.” Mark leaned back in his chair before he continued.

“But you are done, and that’s what is important. So it will be a few hours before they send somebody to investigate.”

I shrugged.

“It might be shorter. And when they come investigating it will probably be the company of soldiers they have at the ready.”

Natalie’s eyes narrowed, and she looked at me intensely.

“Wait. Go back a few steps. Why shorter and what company of soldiers?”

“It might be shorter because the guards have biomons as well, and those are monitored in the facility. I can fool it for some time, but how long depends on how attentive they are. And I found out that it is directly linked to a ready company of Shieldwall-soldiers. I haven't found out why they pay for a company of that.”

They all looked at me, obviously displeased. For a few long moments they all were silent before Darren began cursing:

“Shit! Fucking perfect. I knew it was too easy. It’s a fucking mousetrap. And we nearly walked into it. Ok, folks, back to the start.”

Now I was seriously confused. What was a mousetrap? I mean, yes, I knew what a mousetrap was in normal daily use. But those things are at best a bit painful for a human, and only if they are inattentive. Nothing to curse up a storm about.

“Uh… sorry, but what is a mousetrap? Why are you so angry about it?”

They all chuckled, even without much mirth. Christine took mercy to me in the end:

“What we call a mousetrap is a situation where some bait, in this case, Yang, is dangled in a way that provokes a reaction. The ruthless fucking bastards that set it up want to have somebody kill Yang and the guards. So that they can come in with their company of soldiers and shoot everything to pieces.”

Understanding dawned on me. “Oh, so Sandoval wants to have a reason to shoot those streets to shreds? They have somebody kill the hookers just so they have a pretext to kill more of them? That is so… messed up.”

Natalie growled.

“You can say fucked up. We all think that. And we nearly walked into that trap.”

“Yes, but you would have gotten out of it. The hookers? Not so much.”

Darren knocked onto the table.

“That is irrelevant now. We have to think about what we do now. Do you have an idea what this is about?”

The last sentence was directed at me, but I could just shrug.

“Not really. They had a few references to verbal orders. Obviously, those are not in the system. Otherwise, there was a link to something called Perfect Pleasure. But that’s all. Except that they have an assault skimmer ready for the soldiers.”

“FUCK!”

We all stared at Christine when she burst out with that curse.

“I’ve heard of Perfect Pleasure. It is a joint venture of Sandoval, Shieldwall, and a couple of other smaller corps. It is a small chain of whorehouses, but they use… “ she shuddered visibly, “sorry, they bought a few clone templates from Panacea, and use the clones as whores. Males and females. And they slap a slave collar onto them as soon as they are decanted.”

Clones? Enslaved as soon as they come out of the tube?

“But… how do the clones develop any personality?”

Christine shook her head.

“They don’t. That is the problem. They have a VI remote controlling them. And from what I heard, they show as much reaction as a bot. Needless to say, most people prefer to use real hookers.”

Kate rubbed her chin.

“And they decided to use a mousetrap to have a pretext to thin out the ‘natural’ hookers? And some people wonder why so many view corporations as soulless evil.”

Darren rapped onto the table again.

“Again, we have to think about what we do now. I mean, yeah, we can geek Yang, and be gone before anybody learns about it, but I am pretty sure the clients won’t be happy about the results.

So what now?”

Natalie lifted her hand a bit.

“I will call Awadah and have him ask the client directly. If they still want the hit, we can do it. If they want it differently, we will have to look into it.”

The others murmured their consent. I did just sit there and observe.