Bad For Business

"Xander, do you have it?"

The frantic voice in my head let me know Cara was worried. Jacking into cyberspace was a regular day for me, but this time, everything was different. The job was sketchy, to say the least, but we needed the money, and the corpo who hired me didn't give too many details.

"I do," I said, sounding as reassuring as possible.

If I had to be honest with myself, the prospects of getting out of this alive were slim, and it frightened me. I leaned against the railing that overlooked the Mountain High City, or Old Denver, as some older folks called it. The cloudy night sky glowed as much as the city as the neon lights and traffic lit it up. Part of wish I could see the Rockies, but smog, darkness, and the ever-present glow of neon would forever prevent that unless I left the city.

It was beautiful and one of the few cities in the Corporate States of America with semi-clean air. This was one of the few days I didn't need a respirator to breathe. My heart raced, knowing this may be my final breath of fresh mountain air. The job turned sour quick, but I managed to get the job done and escaped with my brain unfried.

"Do you think we've been set up?"

There she was again. In my head because of the comm implant. It was a necessary thing these days as the government constantly monitored communications. Most implants were hackable and easily scanned, but mine was second-hand tech grafted to my brain from a doctor in a less-than-sterile basement.

I remember my head hurting for days, and the drugs he gave me were useless. The surgery went well with no complications considering where I got it. I got the added benefit of filtering ads as I walked through the city. Usually had to pay to ignore those, but for once, my head was silent, except for Cara's voice echoing into my skull.

"We definitely were set up. I can't prove it, call it gut instinct, but the corpo knew we were edgerunners when he contacted us. I think we came off as too desperate," I said, shifting my stance and scanning the city for corporate or law enforcement drones.

The corpo or corporate man smiled while Cara and the others negotiated the deal. That should've been the first red flag. It creeped me out, and I didn't want to risk my brainwaves to snatch corporate secrets for an ink pusher. My crew needed the cash, and I'd been itching to get back to netrunning.

"He told us everything was planned and ready for us. Xander, what went wrong?"

Cara kept everyone in the gang informed. She was our central comm expert. I didn't want to tell her, but she had to know. Hell, the whole crew needed to know, as their lives depended on it. The deal wasn't finished, as I still needed to deliver the dataset to my contact.

"Fuck, Cara, it was good at first, but after I was in, the corpo agents found me. It was like they were waiting for me. It's bad news, Cara. You gotta tell the others to run."

"Run? Shit, Xander, maybe we should've left an offering to Gibson before letting you jack in. Did you see the information in the dataset you took?"

A hovercar passed by, forcing me to step back to avoid getting caught in the wake of its movement. It was a long way down to the streets, and unlike the net, I was a regular meat puppet that would get splattered upon impact at this height.

I stuffed my hands in my pants pockets as they got cold. "Yeah. It wasn't corporation secrets, but government ones. It seems they are targeting netrunners with a new virus. This will fry so many of us just for being inside, and they're trying to lock us out without a pass to avoid the virus."

"Xander, you need to get out of there. Are you at the rendezvous point?"

The care in her voice didn't ease my misgivings over this situation. "Where would I go? If you remember, the corpo tagged me, and they'd know where I went, and I'd surely be dead when they found me."

"I know a scrubber, and he can take off that tag. The information needs to be released. So many lives are now dependent on the information you got. Fuck that corpo!"

As much as I agree, corporate men or corpos knew what they were doing, especially this one. A scrubber would cost a small fortune, and there was no reason to believe the scrubber would get me clean before any cronies showed up to take me into custody.

I was only a few blocks from the rendezvous point and had a short time to spare before I made it there. "I copied the dataset but could not send the copy anywhere, and there wasn't enough time for me to do so."

"So, you're saying that the information we could use is floating around on the net for anyone to grab?"

"Not exactly. It's hiding as your favorite flower. Take a VR tour of GenCon, and you should be able to find it," I said.

"Are you heading to the rendezvous? Xander, please don't go. We can help."

"Sorry, Cara, but everyone's lives are more important than mine. Find the copy and save the others. I'll be fine. Use me as a distraction," I said, picking up my pace.

I turned the corner, and the big-time corpo that hired me stood next to his vehicle, all smiles and feigned politeness. "Xander, I half expect you to be late. Any trouble retrieving the dataset I needed?"

I flashed my best smile, even though I wanted nothing more than to strangle him with my bare hands. "Nothing I couldn't handle, Mr. Dorn. Have the credits been processed as promised?"

"Processed and ready to transfer upon you handing over the dataset," said Mr. Dorn grinning again.

Fuck, does this man ever not smile? I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small disc. Physical data was safer to transport in today's digital world. It made for some exciting courier jobs for my gang.

Mr. Dorn dropped his smile and pulled out an SB8 Plasma Pistol. "There is one thing, Xander. It seems the dataset was copied, but no one knows where it's at. You wouldn't have any idea how that happened, do you?"

"Xander! Run…"

It seems the corpos were onto me. The tag he put on me did more than trace my location in the net and everything I did. Well, if that ain't a bunch of third-rate upgrades. Cara was right, I needed to get out of there, but I knew this was a dead-end for me.

The others have scattered, and the HQ is purged. Run, Xander, I'm sending you coordinates, and we'll scrub you on the run if we have to.

"Mr. Dorn, it seems we're at an impasse. As much as I'd like to stay and chat, I'd like to go home and relax."

He pointed the pistol at chest level and smiled. "The dataset, if you will."

"Sure." I tossed it in the air toward him and took off running. A plasma blast hit the wall near me, and I ducked to avoid the shrapnel. After a few minutes of running, I stopped to catch my breath. He didn't follow, which was good for once. At least I got lucky for once.

A loud humming sound filled the air. I glanced up to see a dozen drones headed my way. "Well, fuck me."

***

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