This is Rom from the Packrat Sprawl, making waves and coming to you live and direct from the alleyway behind a cyber café in the Echelons near the Shizuoko ghetto. The fallout is high today and the Newsfeed was warning people to stay off the streets. I have my mask on covering my mouth and nose made from the protective substance from the SenseNet. It will provide some protection from the toxic particles in the air. Luckily I took my iodine pills for the morning since I was able to procure onesies from the drug dealer Wraith on the street last night but I only have a dose for the day. Tomorrow I am once again going to be without my daily dose of radiation medication.
I am not proud of myself today. When I went to Wraith last night, I also bought some neurocyne, a class 6 narcotic psi inducer drug that helps to control the aegis or manifestation of psychic power. Ever since the government hauled me in, erased my memory and experimented on me against my consent I have been having trouble controlling the aegis. It flashes as a light over my hands that I can’t control. This is the manifestation. I have to be extra careful on the streets because the Zone Police and their patrols will haul you into headquarters, lock you up and send you to the kedek mines for hard labour if they see your aegis active on the streets. A lot of psychics in the slums can’t afford neurocyne to control the aegis. The Zone Police round up people every day. When I am panhandling in front of Tram and it happens I have to leave and hide down the alley or return to the Packrat Sprawl until I can get control of it, or take a hit of neurocyne.
Neurocyne, like I said is a class 6 narcotic. You want medial grade and not that street crap that is mixed with toxins and other things. I get mine from Wraith since he tests all his stash and I can guarantee it is genuine. I don’t know how he gets away with selling it on the streets since sale is illegal and you need a license to carry neurocyne and a prescription to buy it. I can’t afford to go to the doctor so I have to get it from the streets. A vial of neurocyne which will last about a month costs 5000 credits. This is way more than I can afford. Wraith sells one shot needles which I just bought two yesterday. Those are cheaper at about 200 credits each. I need to panhandle for at least 6 hours to afford that if the people on the street who pass by and throw me change are generous. In a good week I can make about 800 credits panhandling. Last week I was not so lucky. I only made about 300 credits. It is either food or iodine pills most of the time. The neurocyne is a luxury.
Luckily the Viceroy, Lino Dejarre has signed a law from the ministers that allows for roaming food trucks that drive the Echelons starting at 4:00PM and go to curfew at 6:00PM. You can get a free hot meal of noodles and vegetable broth or a curry bun for free as long as supplies last. I have seen riots at the food trucks before when they run out of food. The Terror Hack puts out the food truck routes daily and the trucks change it up so more people have access on any given day. I usually get food from the food trucks on Friday since they are in the area, otherwise food is scarce. Dumpster diving is one of my main activities when it comes to food and the convenience stores throw out packaged food from the beginning of the week like sandwiches on Saturdays so you can usually find something if you get there in time for the trash dump. Personally I like the one restaurant trash can off Astor which dumps lunch leftovers like clockwork at 4:00PM. They usually have some meat slivers available. Sure you have to fish through the trash which can get dicey at times since dumpsters are only picked up once a week. But for me it works fine. Today is Friday, so it is food truck day for me which is a special treat.
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Rom retreated down the alley and hid in the shadows near the wall. There was graphitti in front of him with the Packrat logo. He pulled the ends of the clear thin package open as it peeled back exposing the long glass needle with a cap on it. Rom dropped the plastic package on the ground and extracted the needle pulling off the cap. The neurcoyne in the tube glowed a lavender purple colour showing off its potency. Rom rolled up the left sleeve of his dirty tan trench coat exposing his arm, an armguard hugging his forearm in russet leather with criss cross ties holding the ends together. He slapped the vein at the inside of his elbow and held his hand down waiting for the vein to protrude so he could see it through the skin. He kept his hand down for about three minutes as the vein started to show slightly. He brought his arm up and angled the neurocyne syringe at the vein and pierced the skin. He pushed in the pin at the end of the syringe as the needle delivered the drug. It was slow going as he wanted to ensure no bubbles came through into his vein. He lingered as the drug emptied from the syringe and then pulled the needle out and capped it once again putting it in his pocket. He shouldn’t reuse needles but he couldn’t afford a set of new. He would keep the needle and hopefully be able to save up enough panhandling to purchase a vial of neurocyne off the street at a later date. His hopes off actually being able to do that were low as panhandling was not a lucrative way to make money in the Echelons as most people who resided there also lived in poverty.
Rom walked to the front of the alley and disappeared into the crowd on the street moving towards the door of the cyber café. He pushed inside onto rows of computers at the walls, a high counter at the back and a few tables in the center with patrons talking. There were about 30 computers in the room. Most were occupied. 10 minutes of online time on the gridscaen cost you about 100 credits but you could get a lot done and the machine IP addresses cycled so it was hard for the Zone Police to track what occurred on each machine. This cyber café called Noise was affiliated with the Hack tech and ware nightclub so the hardline terminals had the same setup.
Rom went to the back counter where there was a pad on the wall. It would allow him to synch his handheld and get any new patches from Hack that were open source. It would also power his handheld up through the kedek cell in about two minutes giving him a full charge. He checked his device which was down to 30% power and angled it at the pad putting the back of the handheld against it. The handheld synched and a charging message came on the screen as well as a few prompts that allowed him to accept the new patches or not. Three patches came in and he accepted all of them as his device charged up. He watched the progress bar as the charge went to full power and then pulled the handheld away.
Rom glanced around the room until he found a spare terminal and went over pulling out the chair and sat down. He pulled his credit card out of his pocket and put it in the slot on the machine which ripped off 100 credits for 10 minutes. That would be enough time for him to log into the Packrat Underground website and leave a message to his followers. Packrat Underground was a subversive anti-government website that helped hackers coordinate ops against the government as well as protests. There was an opposition meetup scheduled for tonight after curfew and he wanted to let his hacker followers know that they could get the online feed as well as the logistics for the physical meeting place. He went to the Underground website and logged in as admin.
He was not online and in his site for 2 minutes when two Zone Police officers walked into the door of the café. Rom quickly closed the window and opened a search engine on the gridscan and cleared the browser history.
The one Zone Police officer called out to the room. “Everyone up. Back away from the terminals. Take your hands off the keyboards and put them on top your head.”
Rom got up slowly and stood behind the chair, leaving his credit card in the terminal slot and putting his hands on top his head. The second Zone Police officer started roaming around the room looking over the shoulder of each person to determine what they were doing on the gridscan. The officer walking stopped in front of someone and leaned over his shoulder staring at the site he was on. He quickly saw an anti government slogan and grabbed the man’s hands off his head and cuffed them in front of him.
“Anti government sentiment and propaganda is illegal. You will be taking a trip down the Zone Police headquarters. You will be fined after you see the judge,” said the officer and dragged the man to the middle of the room. The other officer started to pace the room and came over to Rom who was looking down at the floor. The officer leaned in and put his hands on the keyboard and checked the history on the machine. There was nothing as Rom had already cleared it. The screen was at the search engine.
“Did you clear the history on the machine?” asked the officer accusing Rom.
“No, I don’t know how to do that. I was just trying to find out where the food trucks will be this evening,” said Rom innocently lying.
The Zone Police officer waved to the proprietor at the back of the café behind the counter. He came out from behind and walked over. The Zone Police officer whispered to him and the proprietor leaned over Rom’s machine and went into the log files.
Rom glanced at the proprietor who winked at him before he leaned down and started typing. The proprietor kept at it for a few moments and then stood back up. “Nothing on this machine. He was just in the search engine. He didn’t navigate to anything.”
“Alright. I am watching you. Keep out of trouble,” pointed the Zone Police officer at Rom and walked back to the middle of the room. “That goes for everyone here. I catch you on an anti-government website, I will haul you in for questioning.”
The two Zone Police officers left with their captive and exited. Rom stayed with his hands on top his head for another minute as the proprietor engaged him.
“I support your efforts. Be more careful. I did see your access to an anonymizer application but that was it. If you are going to access Packrat Underground as I know you are the leader of that group, I suggest you do it from the Hack nightclub. Their security is better. These cafes even though Hack affiliates with them don’t have the security the nightclub has. Next time be more careful so I don’t have to cover for your arse.”
Rom took his hands off his head and thanked the proprietor for protecting him. He pulled his card out of the terminal and left the café as the proprietor walked off. He would have a little bit of a haul to get from the Shizuoko ghetto up to the Hack nightclub. There was no subway stop in the Shizuoko ghetto in the Echelons. He would have to walk.
He started on his trek which took about 30 minutes and made it to Hack. He flashed his handheld which had the Packrat logo and the bouncer let him inside with no issue. Rom was only 16 which was too young to enter the club but he was well known and had a fake ID that he could show to get him access. The bouncer was familiar with him and Hack was a hang out for Packrats. Rom walked up the back steps to the second floor, he walked to the hacker job board before he would proceed to the hardline terminals in the back of the room. The board listed hacker jobs on white cards. There was a blue card on the board which meant there was an action coming up tomorrow. Rom pulled the card off the board pulling out the push pin and looked at the back. All that was listed was an IP address and a scan code. Rom scanned the code with his handheld and put the card back on the board. He looked at the information from the scan as he walked to the hardline terminals and picked out his space in the second row. There was trance music spinning from the DJ and multiple hackers were going at it on Hack’s terminals. Rom settled in and accessed a black site before he went to the Packrat Underground subversive website. He logged in and put out a message about the meetup. It took him five minutes to finish the message. He kicked it up to the server and then logged out. His handheld started getting messages the minute the post went live. It was people confirming they would attend.
Rom had about an hour to wait before the meetup which would happen after curfew. He wanted to get there early as he would be coordinating with his friend Mips who was another Packrat who supported the subversive anti-government cause and helped Rom plan actions sometimes.
Rom stood up pushing the stool in and went on his way. The meetup was close. He would get there on time. His handheld chimed and it was a message from Faid, the leader of the Packrats who wanted to know if he had everything ready for tonight. Rom replied that everything was set. The meetup tonight they would be planning an action to take place at the Gateway Zone Cross and hopefully hose up the subway system into the City. There was logistics to plan and everything had to be coordinated. Rom walked the streets looking down at his handheld as he looked at his notes. He arrived at the meetup location early and pushed aside a tarp and went in. There were a few people already gathered all in various levels of homeless, looking disheveled.
Mips walked up to him and inquired. “Are we ready for tonight? You are on in 15 minutes.”
“Everything is set. I hope we get a large crowd tonight,” answered Rom.
“Your message has been getting out there even though the Elite government is still attempting to shut you down.”
“That is why the emails change and the site moves locations daily. Why the radio show changes its broadcast signal for every show. They can try all they want to take me offline. I will stay one step ahead of them. Their cybersecurity teams lack the skill and hacker knowledge of the Packrats. I am a Level 9 hacker they don’t have the tools to hack me.”
“You better hope you are right. Come on you better get up there. The room is starting to get full. People are gathering.”
Rom moved to the center of the room and stood at the front as people gathered at the corners and sat down on the floor in the middle of the large abandoned warehouse.
Mips walked into the middle of the room and brought his hand up silencing the crowd of about 100 people. “Welcome to the Packrat Underground meetup. Rom is here to talk about the next op. Listen carefully. The action is planned for next Friday. We will need the entire week to plan and get everything ready. Rom, it is all yours.”
continued next week….
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All Hail the Packrat Code! Hackers Unite! Hack Till You’re Dead.
