East River Savings and Loan looked just like any other bank Zoe had seen. Even the layout was practically the same as corporate owned banks. For some reason she had expected it to look different since it was owned by the mob and was a tad disappointed that it wasn’t different. The only difference was the guards. These guys were more attentive than the low paid corporate stooges Zoe normally saw and were dressed in suits instead of uniforms.

“Are you the courier with Mr Capone’s data?” one asked as she looked around the bank. She raised her sunglasses and placed them on her head.

“Yes,” Zoe answered. “How did you know?”

“You have that courier look about you,” the man replied shrugging his shoulders. Zoe saw the grip of his gun in its shoulder holster as he shrugged.

“Really?” Zoe asked giving the guard a questioning look and gesturing to herself before gesturing to a couple other women wearing similar clothing waiting in line. She was wearing jeans, her new favorite boots, a t-shirt, jean jacket, and backpack. Zoe felt she looked more like a student than courier.

“So much for cultivating an air of mystery and wisdom,” the guard complained. “Sal sent us your picture and said to expect you soon.”

“Why would he do that?” Zoe wondered not paying the guard any mind.

“Probably because you’re the one that will be making these runs from now on,” the guard said making Zoe jump. Noticing how she reacted to his voice, the guard asked, “Are you alright?”

“Yeah. Just got lost in thought for a moment. So, who gets to receive this data I’m carrying?”

“Mr Wilcox in the second office on the right. The first office is Miss Smith’s. She’s the loan officer,” the guard replied.

“Thanks,” Zoe said before walking towards the indicated office.

*

With nothing else to do for the day, Zoe had decided to head to Zachary’s Hardware and Software in SOHO to see if the elf had any cheap system cleaners or anything else that would catch her eye. Sure, she could have bought a cleaner off the net, but sometimes, it felt good to just walk around a store.

Zachary glared at Zoe when she entered his store. Zoe coughed to keep from laughing. “Remember me, huh?”

“Yes! And your prank too,” Zach replied. “I should kick you out of here.”

“Don’t be that way,” Zoe said giving him a smile and closing the notice that someone was attempting to slice her. “I just finished what you had started.”

“I smelled rotten eggs for the rest of the day!” Zach said.

“Is that why you’re trying to slice my system?” Zoe asked as she eyed the Cerberus behind the counter with him. All three heads of the MR construct growled at her.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Zach replied looking away as the attempt ended.

“Uh huh. Let’s just let bygones be bygones, alright?”

“Fine. Are you here to tease me or buy something?” Zack replied.

“Depends on what kind of system cleaners you have,” Zoe answered. “I need something that can wipe my secure storage.”

“Why would you want something like that?” the shop owner asked.

“Does it matter?” Zoe countered. “I’m a paying customer or will be if you have what I want.”

“I suppose you’re right. It doesn’t matter to me why a courier would want to wipe their secure storage space. It’s just odd and I’m curious,” Zach said.

“You know what the old saying is about curiosity and the cat, don’t you?”

“I do,” Zach laughed. “You’ll want Broom.”

“What’s Broom?” Zoe asked.

“A corporate level cleaning utility that wipes data from any storage medium,” Zach answered.

“How much is it?” Zoe inquired.

“A hundred credits and I won’t negotiate,” Zach replied.

“Fine. Send it to me,” Zoe said sending the credits to the store’s account. A moment later, and Broom was scanned and being installed. Zoe pointed at the Cerberus. “What’s with the Cerberus?”

“You can see him?”

“Yeah…”

“Huh. I didn’t expect couriers to care about VR, MR, and the like,” Zach said. “Anyway, the Cerberus is a guardian daemon. It’s sort of like an Avenging Angel but is designed to guard midsize systems or shops about the size of mine.”

“Ah. I guess it can be combined with other guardians,” Zoe said.

“Yup. That’s if you want it for larger systems. Want one?”

“No thanks. I’ll stick with my Archangel.”

“Don’t blame you,” Zach replied. “Just a moment. I need to take this call.”

Zoe nodded her head and looked around the store for a couple of minutes. She was now prepared in case anyone tried to use her as a delivery medium for anything bad again and could get rid of it. She would deal with the fallout of a failed delivery if or when it came to that.

“Zoe, want to make a couple of runs for me?” Zach called out.

“Depends on what you want delivered and where to,’ Zoe replied. “I won’t go to any Bratva controlled location.”

“Bad experience with them?”

“You could say that.”

“Well, these two places aren’t Bratva controlled. They’re spas in NOHO and Tribeca. As far as I know the Bratva doesn’t have anything in those corporate neighborhoods at any rate,” Zach said. He turned to a shelf behind him and removed two data crystals. “You just need to deliver these two crystals. They’re the same program, so it doesn’t matter which shop gets which crystal.”

“I’ll do it for 100 credits per run,” Zoe said. Then she added, “Paid up front.”

“I can go through a transport company cheaper than that!” Zach exclaimed.

“Doubtful unless they’re not paying their couriers above the cheapest rates, which means they are all newbies or not good at the job,” Zoe countered. “Besides, I’m here and you don’t have to schedule a run or wait for someone that might not show.”

“Ok,” Zach replied. He then grinned. “I’ll send the normal fee to Cartier Transport.”

“Fine,” Zoe muttered swiping the crystals and putting them into her backpack. She walked to the door knowing she would get paid as Henri sent her a message confirming she would get paid for the runs.

“I think I just got you back for getting me back,” Zack said smugly as he sent Zoe the spas’ addresses. He laughed as Zoe flipped him off and stormed out the door.