This is Rom from the Packrat Sprawl making waves and coming to you live and direct from the underground jet jockey area in Haven 15 which used to be a parking garage. We are 4 floors down and in the depths of the soul deep where the hacking happens. Come follow me as we take a tour with Jazz, the leader of the Jazz hacker guild who has been nice enough to give us the walkabout.
Rom with his unkept mowhawk and dirty tan trench coat followed closely behind Jazz who was wearing all black down the ramp onto the lower level of the parking garage. The hackers had taken over this area and made a deal with the Zone Police. They wouldn’t come down here. The only people with jurisdiction in the soul deep was the Psi Faction and their clandestine psychic operatives who had contacts among hacker groups and the hacker guilds themselves. Jazz ran the fourth level of soul deep. He wanted to show off his jocks. The soul deep was serious. You wanted something illegal, wanted some information without being tracked, wanted to buy someone or something you shouldn’t you could possibly find it on the soul deep. There was a data messenger hanging out on the ramp below smoking a cigarette who nodded to Jazz as he passed with Rom. The data messenger was wearing the typical military styled jacket with a sweater with a hood and cargo pants with combat boots and stim implants on his cheek. He had an optical sensor over his left eye. The two of them acknowledged each other but there were no words. The unspoken gesture enough to get the job done. Rom watched the data messenger closely. He chucked the cigarette and went walking back up the ramp to the surface.
Jazz brought Rom around the corner on the bottom level and they walked farther into the deep. There were psi synch devices lined up at the walls facing each other with jet jockeys seated and navigating the grydscaen jacked in, some with senso gloves and headgear on. Jazz motioned to Rom to keep up as he walked to the back where there was a station in the middle of the floor surrounded by computers and hardline terminals with three trackers at the rig watching over the jockeys.
“Come on over, let me show you a rig,” said Jazz with his spiky hair and bright eyes that seemed to glisten in the dim light in the dark. He maybe had star shine done on his eyes thought Rom which would make him able to see in the dark. Rom wasn’t about to ask but the way his irises shined gave it away. Rom walked over to the central rig area as Jazz put his hand on one of the tracker’s shoulders. The tracker looked up with his shaved head and a long braided ponytail coming out of the top of his head. He was wearing a mesh shirt with safety pins on it and black leather pants. He had tattoos up and down his arms and his hands were stationed on the rig sensors with a keyboard in front of the 4 monitors. The two other trackers were watching over the other jocks.
“Cowboy, what we got?” asked Jazz and touched the keyboard bringing up the log on one of the terminals. Cowboy, the rigger with the ponytail started in.
“I got Sysco19 on the SenseNet and Make152 is up in the judicial network on a job trying to find dirt on the Corporation’s intellectual property litigation. Also Tiny is looking into dirt on some CEO’s mistress for the wife, small fry but it is a paid gig,” said Cowboy as he cycled the screens so Jazz could see on the monitor.
“Show me what’s hot,” said Jazz.
“Righty oh, we watch Sysco,” said Cowboy as Jazz pulled up a chair and pushed Rom over to it. Rom sat down and Jazz pushed the chair in tight next to the rig so that Rom could watch Cowboy on the deck.
The technology near the rig area glowed brightly, the monitors against the dark room. Rom looked over to the side as Cowboy pointed at Sysco in the chair. He had on senso gloves and was engaged in the gridscan. The projection encircled the chair and was a virtual reality view of the network. Rom turned back to the rig as Cowboy brought up the view feed. Jazz spoke up.
“The riggers or they are also called trackers watch the jock fly through the grid, track for Zone Police cyber security and keep their trail clean.”
“Does the rigger ever get caught? What about the jock?” asked Rom.
“You get caught in my deep I kick you off the deck,” said Jazz.
“Jazz doesn’t mess around,” said Cowboy and punched some keys on the keyboard. He kicked a command up to the host. A message came back from the system noting that Sysco was still clean, no trace on him.
“How do you become a jock?” asked Rom as he swiveled the chair around and directly watched Sysco directing in the field. He was moving his hands in the senso gloves navigating his way through the virtual reality view.
“Being a jock is seriously underground. There are ways to get into it but most of them are hard to find. I test my jocks. They get hired based on what they are able to get after passing my test. I don’t just want anyone down in my deep,” said Jazz.
“Heads up,” motioned another of the riggers as Cowboy again went back to focusing on Sysco. There was a Zone Police cyber security trail close by. Cowboy could see the red blip on the rig but they were not on top Sysco yet. Cowboy expanded the distraction field that would send a white noise filter around the target and confuse them.
Rom watched on as suddenly the rig lit up with about 20 red blips.
“They are on you,” called out Jazz watching the deck.
“They can try. I am elite. Give me 15 seconds and we are out of there,” said Cowboy.
“Sysco, ghost them…” called out Cowboy who didn’t respond. Rom turned around and watched Sysco move his arms violently and the digital projection raced forward. Alarms started coming up on Cowboy’s rig.
“You are off the deck you get caught,” said Jazz warning Cowboy.
“Not a problem,” said Cowboy and started pounding on the keys.
The red blips were descending on Sysco’s avatar in the virtual reality view. Cowboy frantically typed out more commands and suddenly the blips started to disappear exploded off the screen. Rom watched as one by one the red blips dropped out or veered off in another direction leaving Sysco on his own.
Suddenly the screen was empty with only the avatar for Sysco in the grid.
“I told you…” said Cowboy.
“Yeah, you came awful close,” said Jazz.
Rom looked back over at Sysco who seemed unphased by the whole thing and kept hacking.
“Come on that’s enough,” said Jazz to Rom and pulled him out of the chair.
Rom followed as he was pulled back up the ramp.
“Come on I wanted to see the score,” whined Rom as Jazz led him up the three flights and back to the street.
“No, that is it. I am no enemy of the Packrats but the Jazz hacker guild needs to keep its secrets.”
Jazz smacked Rom on the arse and walked back down below into the bowels of the soul deep. Rom watched him go and took a step into the street disappearing into the crowd.
He went back to the Packrat Sprawl to the radio room and got on the wire. He had a radio show to record for Packrat Underground.
So much for Jazz. I had a feeling he wasn’t going to show me anything but it was worth a try. Maybe I can meet him at his guild and get a better look see at his operation. If he doesn’t off me first.
All Hail the Packrat Code!
