Chapter 15 - Sophia Patel
Discarded metal
Chapter 15 - Sophia Patel
"To climb the ladder, you shall never look down…"
Sophia and Mark are still sitting on the bench, both connected to the small cubic device.
"Patel? What are you doing for Psysoft?" Mark asks her.
"I'm managing a small team of cybersecurity experts…" She answers.
It makes sense to him, earlier when he was sniffing around Psysoft's network, he found traces of her logins under the alias PTL.
"I need to find Ethan, he is my only lead… I need your help…" He says.
Sophia stays silent for a long moment, she readjusts her big framed glasses before starting to speak again.
"I don't know how to help you, Mark…" She answers.
Mark looks at her straight, wondering if she got his name through his connections to the Psysoft network.
"How do you know my name? You got it from my access to the network?" He asks, puzzled.
"No… I mean yes…" She stutters.
"Sophia, you need to stop playing games with me!" He says while staring at her.
Their conversation happens entirely inside their neural connectors through the cubic device.
Sophia tries to avoid his stare, she acts more nervous than before.
"OK… OK... I have to tell you…" She pauses for a moment, trying to gather herself.
"I didn't really know who you are, but your name appeared on some secured files that I had to archive…" She explains.
"What files? What are you talking about?" He pressures her to reveal more.
"I didn't know you were a real person… I thought you were the codename for a special project…" She tries to explain to him.
Mark looks lost, trying to make sense of what she is telling him. He knows that his synthetic brain comes from Meditech, but how could his name appear on some secret files at Psysoft.
"Sophia… It doesn't make any sense… I'm a soldier… Why does Psysoft have my name on some secret files?" He tells her.
Sophia seems to be frozen in time, trying her best to stay composed but she is so nervous that one of her legs starts shaking.
"I… I looked in the files… Meditech provided the hardware… Psysoft made the software…" She says as she stares at him, waiting for his reaction.
"What? Do you mean that you know I have a prototype in my head?" He asks her as he stares back at her.
She doesn't answer but nods nervously.
Mark takes a moment to make sure he understands well. Meditech has built his synthetic brain but Psysoft has worked on the software and Meditech kept it a secret.
He starts to get a sense of paranoia coursing through him and stares at the ground.
Sophia breaks the silence.
"Mark… There's more…" She says hesitantly.
He shakes his head and looks back at Sophia.
"More?" He asks.
"Yes… I'm not sure if it relates to you or to the case… But I found research files in Psysoft's network about cyberpsychosis… They are trying to induce and control it in test individuals…" She says hesitantly.
Mark thinks for a moment, he doesn't remember he ever had any symptoms of cyberpsychosis.
At his last check up, Anton mentioned the special links his brain has made with his synthetic one and how he can access functions in a way that exceeds their expectations.
Despite him turning into a sort of machine, he feels very much human and that's probably why he has no symptoms of turning cyberpsycho.
"Thank you for letting me know, Sophia. I never had any symptoms of cyberpsychosis." He says to her.
She nods slowly.
"Mark… I hope you can keep everything I told you secret…" She says.
Mark puts his hand on her hand resting on her leg but she gets a jump scare. He quickly pulls his hand away from hers.
"I'm sorry…" They both say in tune.
"It's OK… I was just trying to let you know that you can trust me… I didn't mean to scare you." he says.
"I understand… Thank you… And please never contact me when we are on Psysoft's ground… Use this shard to connect with me." She says as she hands him a shard.
He takes the shard and she nods at him as she disconnects herself from the cubic device. Mark does the same and stands up from the bench.
She waves at him and quickly walks away.
Mark looks at her leaving and tries to gather his thoughts, cyberpsychosis, joint secret projects between Meditech and Psysoft… That's a lot to swallow.
The number of people he can trust are suddenly falling.
"Who else knows? Anton… For sure… Haaris… probably… Exec Nova… She looked like she chose me for the case…" His mind is racing.
"The case… Sophia's device… It's a scrambler… Mostly used in the commons… Favorite toy of hackers…" His train of thoughts is slowly giving him the lead he was looking for.
He walks away from the bench and gets out of the park, then orders a car to take him back to CTIG HQ.
He is thinking about asking Spike about his knowledge of the gangs from the commons.
A self-driving car arrives at his location, he gets in and it drives away. The background is slowly changing, from the park-like area to the high-rise buildings of the corporations.
After a 40 minute ride through the corporate districts, the car stops in front of CTIG HQ and Mark gets out.
He heads inside the HQ and walks toward the cafeteria. It's almost time for dinner, Spike will probably be there.
As soon as he arrives, he sees him sitting at a table eating his dinner. Mark grabs some food and goes to sit with him.
"Care if I join?" Mark asks.
"Sit, I wanted to ask you about the case you are working on. How does it feel to be a detective?" Spike asks ironically.
"It's… Interesting…" He says, trying not to say too much.
"I might need infos from you, what are the biggest gangs specialized in hacking in the commons?" He continues.
"It's very rare for hackers to form gangs in the commons, they usually don't survive long. Solo hackers will be hired by big gangs, safer for them. Why are you asking?" Spike answers.
"I'm not sure if it's a lead, but it seems the psysoft guy who gave his access that led to the heist, he wanted to scramble the signals of his implants and as far as I know this is tech from the commons." Mark explains.
"In that case you will want to check HellsBells, that's the hacker's nest of the commons." Spike says.
"HellsBells…" Mark repeats.
"Yeah, just don't go around telling you are CTIG, as you can guess they hate cops or soldiers, so be smart." Spike advises him.
"Yeah, I will go undercover… Thanks, Spike." Mark says as he finishes his dinner and stands up.
Spike nods at him and stands up too.
Mark heads back to his room and lays down on his bed. There's a panel with slots on the wall next to his bed to access CTIG's network.
He pulls the cable from behind his ear and slots it in the panel. In a second, he jumps in the network and launches a query for HellsBells, returning some files from the archives.
Mark starts browsing the files and finds useful information about the place. Floor plans, local gangs protection, notorious hacker's aliases and even a few incidents that happened in the past.
It's barely 9 pm right now and the idea to go there is lurking in his mind, titillating his curiosity.
"Fuck it… It's probably stupid but I have to go check it out… Worst case I will get a beer." He thinks as he unplugs from the panel.
He stands up from the bed and gets changed.
He wears regular jeans, a hoodie with a leather jacket.
He orders a car and gets out of his room.
As he arrives outside of the HQ, the car is already waiting for him, he quickly gets in and the car starts.
It drives through the corporate districts until it reaches one of the guarded gates that leads to the commons.
The car gets scanned and one of the guard signals to keep going. The car passes through the gate and the background changes immediately.
The streets of the commons are more crowded with more vendors scattered everywhere, more cars on the road, and the neon lights of the city shining on them.
Mark starts to wonder why an employee of Psysoft decided to give up the corporate life for a life in the commons.
After what Sophia Patel told him at the park, it seems that the corporations are playing some very sketchy games.
"When so much money is involved… What's right and what's wrong?" He thinks to himself.
He gets pulled out of his thoughts as the car arrives at the gate of the HellsBells parking lot, guards check the car and let it in.
The car stops in front of the doors of the club and Mark gets out.
The building isn't tall but it's massive, Mark remembers the files he accessed at CTIG, the club is an ancient assembly line refurbished into a nightclub.
He walks toward the front double door and is immediately stopped by a massive guard.
"Never saw you before, are you going to make trouble?" the big guard says with his hand on Mark's chest.
Mark shakes his head.
"How much will it cost me to get in?" Mark asks.
The strong guard laughs as he steps aside to let him pass.
Mark looks at him with a puzzled look on his face.
"Hurry before I change my mind and give you the newbie entrance fee." The guard says while shaking his hand in the air as to make Mark move faster.
Mark nods and walks in.
The loud electro music is beating up the place, as Mark enters the first room, a crowd is already bouncing on the dancefloor.
He tries to move through the crowd to reach the back wall, from the floor plans, it should lead him to a bar area.
Lasers shoot all over the room in rhythm with the music.
He passes through the door and arrives at the bar area, it's quieter with fewer people drinking at the bar and at some tables.
He gets to the bar and a barmaid gets to him, she has purple hair tied in two braids that fall over her shoulders.
"What's your poison?" She asks Mark.
"Give me a beer!" Mark answers.
She nods and gets him a bottle of beer that she puts on the bar counter.
Mark grabs it and starts to sip on it, looking around the room.
"You are looking for something?" The barmaid asks him.
He turns back to face her.
"Yeah, maybe you can help me, I have implants that need to be scrambled, do you know someone who could help?" He asks her straight, making sure she isn't the only one to hear.
She moves closer and leans on the counter to get closer to him.
"What kind of implants? Regular or military grade?" She asks him while checking him out.
"Military grade." He says straight.
She backs away a little as she keeps checking him out. Mark takes another sip at his beer, waiting for her to say something.
Suddenly, he feels a tap on his shoulder and slowly turns around to face a tall and thin guy wearing a hoodie over his head.
"Military grade, hu?" He says.
Mark nods with his beer in his hand. The thin guy moves closer to the bar and leans over it, giving a sign to the barmaid.
The barmaid slides a beer on the bar that he catches, he turns around and sips on it.
"Not a lot of people can scramble military grade implants in the commons…" He says.
Mark looks at him straight.
"I have a feeling that you know someone who can…" Mark says.
"If you have Eddies (Eurodollars), I might know someone." The thin guy says.
Mark smiles softly.
"If I want to scramble military grade implants, that should tell you I have enough credits to get them in the first place." Mark says with a wink.
"Fair enough, Name's Pulse, Nice to meet you." Pulse says with his hand extended for a handshake.
Mark grabs it and shakes it.
At that moment he starts wondering if he was right to come… Military grade implants can attract too much unwanted attention…
The wrong kind of attention…