Zoe rode toward her houseboat considering who else she could ask for the information she wanted. Slicing the police network for the information had been her first choice, but not one she wanted to pursue unless she had no other options since her preliminary probes had been quickly squashed. Evidently the network’s security had been upgraded.

Zoe knew she could slice the network quick enough, but the speed and reaction when she siphoned Cynthia Rockford’s investment account had scared Zoe to her core. So, she had decided it be better to take the time to properly slice into networks without leaving a trail, well, without leaving a true trail in the future. Which left her with asking people for help.

She had thought that Claire would be the only person she would need to turn to, but that didn’t pan out the way she hoped. Thankfully, Zoe knew people that worked for the police force. She would call Terr’s girlfriend, Kerri O’Malley, since he was just a cadet when she got home.

*

“Hey Kerri,” Zoe greeted the orc police officer.

“Hi Zoe,” Kerri returned the greeting. “If you’re wanting to get some shooting in this evening, you’ll have to go alone. I’m working an extra shift tonight.”

“No, I’m not in the mood for shooting today,” Zoe said. “I’m going to cut to the chase.”

“Ok.”

“What I was wondering is if you could do me a huge favor,” Zoe said.

“Depends on the favor,” Kerri replied.

“Can you get me whatever information the police have on my cousin Jimmy’s murder?” Zoe asked.

“Just what would you do with that information?” Kerri asked instead of answering Zoe’s question.

“That’s my concern,” Zoe replied.

“No. I need to know what you would do with that information if I could get it for you,” Kerri retorted. Zoe had never seen the friendly policewoman so serious before and hesitated to reply. Kerri’s eyes widened slightly before she said, “You want revenge!”

“I… yes,” Zoe admitted.

“Zoe, I consider you a friend and will tell you just as soon as we have someone in custody, but that is all,” Kerri said. “Let the detectives do their jobs.”

“I don’t…”

“We’ll get them,” Kerri assured Zoe.

“I don’t trust the police to find the people that did it,” Zoe said in a near whisper. “Jimmy was in the mafia after all.”

“Zoe…”

“Kerri, I’ve heard some of the police are perfectly happy to let the criminal elements destroy each other as long as things don’t spill out into the public too much,” Zoe said.

“That’s… that’s true for a few bad apples,” Kerri admitted quietly.

“Then help me,” Zoe pleaded. “Please!”

“I can’t Zoe. If I were to give a civilian case information, being fired would be the least of my worries,” Kerri replied. “I promise I’ll talk to detective Gruber in the morning about this.”

“Thanks Kerri,” Zoe said after an awkward silence.

“I’ll call you tomorrow after I walk with Gruber,” Kerri promised.

“Ok. I’ll talk to you then,” a dejected Zoe replied before disconnecting the call. She understood Kerri’s point of view and didn’t blame her for not risking jail time or whatever, but it still hurt to be turned down again. Zoe got off the couch, changed into some running gear, and went for a run.

*

Feeling better after her run, Zoe sent messages to Newt, Vee, Akari, Haru, Abby Dalton, and Memphis inviting them to lunch stating that she wanted to ask a favor while cooking spaghetti for supper. She hoped the other couriers had heard something about Jimmy’s death, especially Akari and Haru, whom she knew had ties to the yakuza.

“I made too much,” Zoe mused to herself after eating and patting her stomach. She put the leftovers in her fridge. “I’ll just eat spaghetti again for a couple of nights until it’s gone.”

Zoe busied herself with cleaning the kitchen and her living room before going up to the roof deck to watch what few stars she could see. Abby and Memphis declined her invite, but the others accepted. Zoe lost herself in thought just gazing at the night sky when she saw a flash of light followed by a boom coming from the direction of Central Park. The lights in some buildings went out.

“Must have been a transformer,” Zoe muttered. She looked over at some of her neighbors’ boats and was pleased to see they still had power. Zoe leaned back in her deck chair and looked back up at the sky. A few seconds later, she bolted upright. “That gives me an idea.”

If she was going to go after a killer, Zoe needed something that could disable, if not kill them fast. That meant her prank and non-lethal daemons wouldn’t cut it. Nor would her P750. Zoe pulled up her list of daemons.

“Hmmm. Hailstone, Hailstorm, and Plague have potential, but aren’t exactly lightning quick,” Zoe told herself. She then snapped her fingers. “Aha! Shocker is lightning quick though.”

Zoe pulled up the daemon’s code. After half an hour of studying the code, she figured it would be best to just modify the program instead of writing something new. In fact, it would be simple to remove the limiters that made the daemon non-lethal or at least change the parameters so that it could produce lethal volts.

“I wonder how many slicers have done what I’m about to do,” Zoe mused before checking the net. Indeed, others had modified the daemon and wanted exorbitant prices for the modified daemon. She shuddered as the wind picked up. “Brr! I should have showered and changed into something else instead of wearing my running shorts and a t-shirt out here.”

Zoe got up and headed inside. She turned on her coffee maker and went downstairs to take a shower. While in the shower, she decided to change the limiters instead of erasing them, so the daemon could be lethal or non-lethal depending on the user’s desires. She also decided to see if she could make it jump from one system to another

Zoe fixed herself a cup of coffee after her shower and put on some warm pajamas before sitting on her couch and starting to alter Shocker. She turned on her music streaming service and smiled as an old song came on.

“Thunderstruck is such a good name,” Zoe said to her coffee while deciding to use it for the altered Shocker daemon.