Well Intentioned Misdirection / 1 /

"What do you want the lines to run tomorrow, Blink?" Switch asked as they got into position above the Concession. They were in Raven Rock, one of the more digitally affluent districts of Clifton. So as Switch gestured to their surroundings Blink could easily see the holographic headlines of at least six different news stations. "Two members of the Cyber Gang Console Ghost were caught trying to break into a Concession? Or worse, despite the best intentions of the Security Force, two members of Console Ghost died during an attempted robbery of a Concession?"

"Not really." Blink said with a sigh. She checked the strap for her laptop again. More to avoid her brother's glare than to make sure that it was secure. "I'm just not sure about this guy we're relying so heavily on. What do we really know about him? How do we know he won't just surrender?"

"He won't." Switch said as he took off his coat and tucked it away between a vent shaft and the access hatch. Blink took a moment to admire her brother's inked technology.

The digital tattoos covering his arms were inactive, just sitting there in an artistic pattern of bars and dots. Blink knew all too well that when her brother activated them that those bars and dots would spin, vanish, or glow in hypnotic patterns.

His target would be completely open to suggestion. Blink had seen her brother use the tattoos to hold a prisoner in place, to disorient enemies, and control the battlefield. In the case of Jonathan Bassett, Switch had used his tattoos to make Jonathan mirror his actions and switch places with him. The hypnotic effect also gave Switch power over their memory. It was wholly his choice if they were able to remember the exchange.

Blink strapped a stun gun to her left leg. "If he does, we are screwed. Especially with Legend making us go nonlethal for the last few weeks, the Security Force has it out for us for those headaches you keep leaving them with."

"They should be grateful we're leaving them with a pulse, but I get where you're coming from." Switch agreed as he used an energy knife to cut through the lock on the access hatch. "Though, if he does, we won't have a chance to worry about it. There will be a squad of Security Force members here within a minute."

Blink helped her brother lift the hatch lid off, twenty feet below was the floor of the Concession's main storage unit. Once the lid was out of the way, Switch gestured at the opening and said, "You're up, sis."

"Thanks." Blink knelled down at the opening. She closed her real eye, relying solely on the cybernetic one. Through it she could see the faint signatures of heat left by the laser grid across the inside of the hatch.

They looked like ghostly prison bars. Switch handed her the energy knife and Blink lowered the tip through the grid of trip lasers. They were begging her to set off an alarm, to redirect their beam so that a ruckus was sent through the system. Once she cut the wires to the grid's control box, an alert would still go out. At this time of day, with their planned distraction, a power fluctuation on the access hatch of a Concession should be the least of the Security Force's worries.

The alert would go unnoticed whereas an alarm would still result in a response. Blink cut the wires, she watched as the warmth from the lasers faded away, and then she retracted her hand. Switch got his energy knife back and then they went back to hooking up their harnesses. Once they were ready for the descent, they waited at the edge of the access hatch. The plan hinged on Jonathan Bassett doing what he was told.

Around the time that Blink and Switch were looking in the general direction of the Raven Rock Lift, Jonathan was making his way to the upper level of a parking garage. He was glad they had given him a change of clothes before sending him out. The black jacket and pants let him blend in to the sleek and dark culture of Raven Rock more easily. This place was leaps and bounds cleaner than Bleak Barrow.

The shock between the two cultures was drastic. Even though they were only separated by a few hundred vertical feet and a layer or so of concrete and piping, Raven Rock was the success that Bleak Barrow reached for. While there was still dirt, while there was still disparity between the physical and the digital, Bleak Barrow hid that behind holograms and sleek design. It was a collection of grays, blacks, and metals. The people that walked the streets were no different.

In a black jacket and pants, Jonathan was similar enough to not draw any eyes. He couldn't stop for a conversation or slip into Concessions without being questioned for not belonging, but he could keep moving without being harassed. In Bleak Barrow, you could tell what someone did just by looking at them. You could tell if they were discarded, unfortunate, or there for a reason just by a quick inventory of their clothes and their demeanor. In Raven Rock Jonathan found it more difficult to make that distinction.

Everyone looked the same, especially from his vantage point in the parking garage. They were black specks moving across a gray and metal surface. Beyond the fashionable benefits of his clothes, the armor plating in the jacket made him more secure and the tools that Console Ghost provided would surely save his life. There was only one thing Jonathan had asked for; his service pistol. He had been denied the request. Blink said he would get that back after this test. Blink said a lot of things.

Across the courtyard from the parking garage was the Lift; a glowing pillar of light, a giant pneumatic tube without the tubing or the air pressure. The Lifts were marvels of technology. Even in the current day nothing else like them was being constructed. They were used for transporting cargo vertically throughout Clifton. It worked like a magnetic hover pad, without the pad. Everything that went into the Lift was charged with energy that then lifted them up as if they were on a string. More set of magnets and energy ports lay above the Lift bed, one set for each stop. Depending on which one was activated, the Lift could take it's user up one level or all the way up to Arcadia.

The designers made sure that no Lift could make the journey from bottom to top in one swoop though. Raven Rock was the furthest one could get from the Tunnel City Lift and the Raven Rock Lift was one of the few that could take someone all the way up to Arcadia. The ingenuity of the Lift, the fact that this one could carry someone up to the top, and the risk that that presented to those who liked to keep the common folk below them led to Lifts being extremely tight with security.

Jonathan had taken a moment to stop on one of the lower floors of the parking garage. He did a headcount on the Security Force at the Lift. Eighteen members, all armed and armored. Beyond that he knew there would be another six members on reserve and there were probably two or three specialists somewhere in the mix that he did not spot.

Jonathan was relieved when Console Ghost gave him the freedom of deciding his plan of attack, instead of just being dropped into the fight like Blink had mentioned. It gave him a moment to plan. A moment to realize where he would be attacking. A moment to pray that no one would get up after he knocked them down.

Console Ghost let Jonathan know through Blink that casualties would not be tolerated. If Jonathan was as skilled as he seemed, he should be able to stir the hornet's nest and get away clean. What Jonathan did not say and what Console Ghost left alone was what would happen if the Security Force began using lethal measures. The plating in his jacket would hold up to a service pistol, but a rifle round would damage the plating after one or two strikes.

With a smile, Jonathan finally reached the top of the parking garage and began to hot-wire a slim black hover car. He sent a message to Console Ghost's generic chain as he broke in. He requested reimbursement for the owner of the vehicle. It would not survive the encounter. As far as he knew, the message was received and funds would be transferred.