This is Rom from the Packrat Sprawl making waves and coming to you live and direct from the streets of the Shizuoko ghetto near the Lafayette subway stop, the last stop on the subway line in the Echelons. We are walking to The Maze today which is a craze of corridors and alleyways that gets you deep into the depths of the devastation. We are halfway towards our trek from the Lafayette subway stop. We have a meet up with a data messenger in The Maze today so come along and lets get this party started. He might spook if we run up on him too fast so bare with me as we get there. Come on, lets go.
Rom saw the sign for The Maze in between the buildings. It loomed above his head anchored between two brick walls. Trash lined the streets and windows were blown out as well as doors. All remnants of the destruction when the Atlantea Federation dropped the nuclear bomb on the Pacific Territories in the Zone which was right on the other side of The Maze. Rom had been walking for 20 minutes from the subway station. His handheld chimed in his pocket of his dirty tan trench coat. He pulled it out and looked at the screen. The radiation scanner app was giving a warning. There was high radiation in this area. Rom reached into his other pocket and pulled out a radiation filter mask and put it on. The mask had a vent at his mouth that cleaned the air and it went around the back of his head covering his mouth and nose. He pulled the headphones that rested around his neck up to his ears and covered them trying to dampen the sound of the radioactive wind whipping around the buildings and down the narrow corridors. The breeze made the bottom of his long trench coat flap behind him.
He had a little ways to go before he could meet up with his contact. He got to the end of the alley after passing The Maze sign and took a left into a narrow passage that was just wide enough for him to creep through. The alleys in The Maze were crazy with passages that lead to nowhere or just stopped at dead ends. He came to an area where he had to turn to the side to inch through and put his hands up on the wall pushing himself along. The corridor let off into another alley and a dead end with fencing and barbed wire at the top. There was a doorway to the right. He entered and walked into a dark room.
He took his handheld out of his pocket. The screen was bright as the radiation scanning app still warned him about the radiation levels. He held it out in front of him lighting his way and walked on for another few minutes. He rounded a corner and took a staircase up one level. The hallway let to a bridge into another building. Rom was familiar with The Maze. If you didn’t know your way around you would be lost quick like immediate. He crossed the bridge looking down at the alley below and came into a room where there were many eyes glowing at the corners.
It smelled like piss and feces in the room. This was one of the drug houses where those that were barely alive or afflicted with the sickness from the radiation had set up shop trying to stay safe from the wind outside. Rom wrinkled up his nose and passed through the room pushing a door out the back. He would only have to pass through this area once to get to his destination. When he pushed in the door something scampered through. Rom shined his handheld and saw a cat with matted fur run by him as it brushed past his leg. He stepped in a pile of crap as he walked through the door and into another room. Something smelled like death as he passed through.
Rom hadn’t been in The Maze for a while but the data messenger he was after insisted the meet had to be here. Rom continued down the hallway passing drug addicts shooting up. Their eyes shined as that symptom of the sickness made their eyes glow. There was someone in the corner looking at a handheld that was shining. Rom held position and engaged his handheld sending a message to his target. Rom waited on the other side of the room and then the man with the handheld looked up and to the side. He saw Rom standing there and motioned him over.
Rom walked up and stopped in front of the man who was wearing an optical sensor over his eye, had a shaved head with a long dark ponytail lodged at the top of his head, and was wearing black cargo pants and a sweatshirt with a hood under a blue military coat, the typical dress of a data trafficker. “Data messenger?”
“Yeah. Are you Rom?” responded the man.
“Yes, from the Packrat Sprawl. Do you have the data?”
“Not so fast there Packrat. I need to know something first. I will jet if you are not real,” said the data messenger.
Rom took a step back and leaned up against the wall. He lifted up his sleeve on his right arm revealing an elaborate tattoo of circuitry. The data messenger’s eyes got wide as he saw Rom’s arm.
“That is a full circuitry cybernetic skinjob. You must have got the tattoo to hide the data intake. I don’t think I have ever seen a tattoo so elaborate,” said the data messenger as he took his handheld and tried to hold it over Rom’s arm. Rom grabbed the data messenger’s wrist and pushed his handheld away.
“Not on my watch!” called out Rom as he dug his fingernails into the data messenger’s wrist. The data messenger cringed.
“You want your data you will let me scan your skinjob. Like I said if you are not real, I jet…”
Rom hesitated and then gave in. “Fine, but I will check your deck and ensure my signature stays mine alone.”
“Agreed,” said the data messenger and handed Rom his handheld. Rom checked the deck first making sure there were no hidden scanning devices recording and then held the handheld over his forearm. It scanned his cybernetics and came up with a signature and ID number. Rom showed the result to the data messenger who nodded.
“Sosh’d?” asked Rom trying to get the data messenger to confirm.
“That signature means your skinjob is by the Black Holes. You sort. You ARE real. My data is your data.”
“Good. I didn’t come all the way to the Shizuoko ghetto just to get dicked over. Show me what you got. I need to check it first before I accept it. What’s on the drive?”
“Remember, data messengers do not know what they are carrying. We just take information from point A to point B. Makes it so we can’t be compromised.”
Rom lifted up his handheld and shined the screen into the data messenger’s face. He looked into his eyes which were not bloodshot nor did they glow red. Rom got suspicious for a moment. Data messengers were usually on some psi inducer drug to ensure they couldn’t be bribed by a fix. Rom was wary. “What are you on?”
“What do you mean?”
Rom grabbed the data messenger by the collar and jerked him, slamming him back into the wall. Rom slapped the data messenger against the wall. “You are not a data messenger. A data messenger is usually on drugs to ensure they can’t be bribed by a fix. Why are you jerking me around? Who are you?”
The data messenger didn’t say anything. Rom jerked him again and slammed his head into the wall. “Talk!”
“Alright! Don’t go ballistic.”
Rom released the data messenger and took a step back crossing his arms.
“I am listening. It better be good,” spat out Rom.
“I work for Mr. Stuart, the lead minister of Parliament. I am a member of the cyber security team. We have been tracking the logs. Seems the Parliament’s data streams have been compromised. I was told to meet up with the Packrats. I think you are my contact. Sorry about the deception.”
“What do you know about me?”
“Your go by Rom which stands for Read Only Memory. I don’t know your real name, you keep that well hidden. I know you were recently at Jester’s hacker guild. But I don’t know why. I know you usually keep a low profile but for some reason you have been on the grid this week. Pretty visible and out in the open. That is not like you.”
“Maybe I wanted you to see me,” chuckled Rom.
“If I am correct you are a Level 9 hacker. If you wanted to disappear you could do it relatively easily with your skill. You wanted me to find you,” said the data messenger. “What are you looking for?”
“I got a line of the minister named Kitazawa. Full name Izo Kitazawa. He recently introduced a bill trying to Emperor’s hands. Jester got me an in but there is a Level 15 black protocol on Kitazawa. I need that lifted so that I can see what I can see. You are cyber security, can you help me?”
“Level 15 black is no joke. Even I can’t get around that protocol. You might be able to do it as a Level 9 but you will need a key. And I just might have what you are looking for,” said the data messenger and went into his pocket. He produced a credit sized black card with a gold chip in it and waved it in front of Rom’s face.
Rom grabbed for it but the data messenger put it behind his back.
“Not so fast. I might not be a data messenger for real but I know when someone owes me credits for a thing…”
Rom crossed his arms annoyed. “How much?”
“20,000 credits will get you a Parliamentary Level 15 black encryption key. This will also potentially decrypt the Emperor’s encryption as well. I should ask 50,000 credits for it but I am being nice seeing you are a Level 9 and I lied to you before.”
Rom backed up and took a lap around the room. 20,000 credits was a steep price. He would need to steal that amount. He engaged his handheld on the opposite side of the room and sent a message to Acolyte from the Packrat Sprawl, the head of the Acolyte hackers. 2 minutes later a response came in and Acolyte transferred the money to him. Rom walked back over and held up his handheld.
“15,000 or no takers,” offered Rom.
The data messenger brought his hand up to his lips and thought about it for a moment. “You got a deal.”
Rom typed 15,000 on the screen and brought his handheld close to the data messengers. The handhelds chimed and Rom typed in his key and the money transferred to the data messenger who handed off the black encryption key card to Rom.
The data messenger took a step away but Rom grabbed his arm back.
“Who are you really? A Level 15 black encryption key? No cyber security could get that so easily and walk out of the palace with it and remain alive. Are you the Black Holes, the cybernetic data pirates who did my skinjob?”
“You are getting warmer,” said the data messenger as he lingered.
“You don’t find the Black Holes. They find you…” said Rom.
“That we do. Consider yourself found. We will be keeping a close eye on you my friend with no real name. You best watch your back. You cross us, we come for you and your life is forfeit. We will kill you if we don’t like what we like,” chuckled the data messenger and walked off leaving Rom standing at the wall.
“My word is my bond. Hack till you’re dead!” screamed Rom after him.
“My sentiments exactly,” responded the data messenger as he disappeared around the corner.