Chapter 16 - Pulse

Discarded metal

Chapter 16 - Pulse

"When you are born poor, money becomes an obsession…"

Pulse sips on his beer before continuing to talk.

"And how should I call you, Mr military grade?" He asks Mark.

Mark chuckles nervously.

"Just call me Mark." He says.

Pulse nods.

"So, Mark, why do you need military grade implants to be scrambled?" Pulse asks him.

Mark tries to come up with something quickly.

"Well, let's say that I can get my hand on some…" He says, baiting Pulse.

"Hmm… These are rare in the commons, you are going to need contacts here if you plan to do business safely." Pulse says as he winks at the barmaid.

"And? Do you have useful contacts?" Mark asks him.

Pulse nods and takes another sip from his beer.

Mark thinks for a moment and moves two fingers in Pulse's direction while his eyes light up with a blue shade, indicating he is sharing his contact with him.

Pulse's eyes light with a blue shade as he receives Mark's information.

A message from Pulse appears on Mark's vision.

"Now you have my contact too, you can find me when you are ready to do business." Pulse's message says.

Mark sends him an answer.

"Will do." Mark's message says.

Mark finishes his beer, waves at Pulse and leaves the bar area.

Pulse stays there a moment, sipping at his beer as he watches Mark leaving.

"Who the hell are you?" He thinks to himself.

He finishes his beer while checking Mark's contact information.

"Mark Spencer… probably a fake ID… Need to pass it to G…" He thinks.

"G, can you have Syntex running a search on Mark Spencer? The gonk says he has access to military grade implants that he wants to scramble and sell in the commons." He sends the message to Gloria.

He turns back to face the bar and has time to finish his beer before he receives Gloria's reply.

"Will do." The message says.

Since the first time they used Syntex's daemon to siphon credits from networks, they have upgraded the shop's network.

They fixed all the points that Syntex mentioned and even installed a few upgrades.

A satellite dish on the roof of the shop let them access several other networks in the city, including the New Paris Police Department databases.

Syntex is now the most valuable member of the BinaryGhosts, proving himself more than capable to take over networks in no time.

Pulse keeps worrying that Syntex can develop into something very dangerous and uncontrollable, but so far it has done nothing but help the crew.

Gloria is sitting on the sofa in the bar area of the shop when she receives Pulse's message asking her to use Syntex to check up on Mark Spencer.

"Syntex!" She says out loud.

An holographic screen installed on the ceiling is displaying some random news. The image starts flickering and Syntex's face appears on the holoscreen as it floats in the air.

"Yes, Gloria, do you need anything?" Syntex's voice comes out of the speakers at each corner of the bar area.

"Can you run a search on a guy named Mark Spencer? I need to know anything you can find." She asks.

"Certainly, give me a moment." Syntex replies.

The face of Syntex changes color and becomes purple, indicating that it is heavily using the network to perform tasks.

After a moment, the face turns back to the normal green color and it stares at Gloria.

"I have found information about Mark Spencer. He is a soldier for a group specializing in counter terrorism, but he is also a network security consultant for Psysoft corporation." Syntex says.

"Smells like a fake ID… A soldier consulting for corpos… That doesn't sound right… anything about his past?" Gloria asks Syntex.

"Nothing at all, no parents, no education, this person's past is completely empty." Syntex quickly replies.

Gloria stays silent.

"Fake ID… No past… Military connection… it could be a legit smuggler…" She thinks to herself.

"Come to the shop, we need to talk about this guy." Gloria sends to Pulse.

Pulse is still at the bar area of HellsBells when he receives Gloria's message.

He stands straight and stretches his arms.

He waves at the barmaid and starts walking toward the opening leading to the main room with the dancefloor still full of people bouncing around to the music.

He moves through the crowd with ease, making some dance moves along the way.

He finally reaches the exit, puts his hand on one of the guard's shoulders who turns around to face him.

"Pulse! You're leaving so early tonight!" The guard shouts through the music.

"Yeah, something came up at the shop, business call!" Pulse replies as he shakes the guard's hand.

The guard nods and Pulse keeps going, he walks in the parking lot until he reaches his motorbike.

Thanks to Syntex's help, BinaryGhosts has leveled up their crew.

Syntex created several streams of income for the crew, thanks to the AI they are one of the best groups of hackers in New Paris.

Pulse got himself a new, more powerful custom bike.

He gets on it and puts his hand on the front panel that instantly illuminates.

An holographic display of the bike status and a GPS map appear in thin air.

Pulse's eye implants are automatically synced with the bike's display.

He pulls on the thrust and the bike's engine screams as he zaps out of the parking lot.

He speeds through the street followed by the raging sound, the lights of the city reflecting on his bike's new paint.

The area around HellsBells is always crowded, the club attracts lots of people every night.

Pulse zigzags through the dense traffic, most of the control is done by his implants.

Improved reflexes, visual implants, new neural connectors, are new additions to the military grade cyberdeck he already had.

It's like the bike and him are one on the road thanks to a wireless connection.

After a 20 minute ride, he slows down into the parking lot of the electronic shop refurbished into BinaryGhosts HQ.

Pulse parks and unmount from his bike, as he walks away it puts itself in secure mode and the holographic display shuts down.

Pulse is greeted at the entrance by some members of the crew, he shakes a few hands and proceeds to walk inside.

As soon as he gets in, the face of Syntex turns to face him.

"Welcome back, Pulse!" The voice comes out of the speakers.

Pulse waves and goes straight to sit on the sofa of the bar area, next to Gloria.

"All right, G, tell me everything." He says.

"Your guy is a ghost, the ID belongs to a soldier who does network security consulting for a corporation. No past can be found." Gloria explains.

"No surprises… The guy looked weird… Out of place…" Pulse says.

"He could be a legit smuggler with military and corpo connections…" Gloria says.

"Could be a cover too… I don't like that he has no past… It's hard to achieve… He could be a bigger fish… Spy or undercover ops…" Pulse says out loud as he thinks.

"You think too much, the corporate districts don't care about the commons so much that they will send spies or do undercover operations here." Gloria pauses a moment.

"Just last month, Tanaka's operatives came down in reinforced SUVs and wiped out a group who attacked one of their convoys. It all happened in plain daylight, they didn't send spies or undercovers…" She continues.

"Corporations spy only on each other." Syntex's voice comes out of the speakers.

"See, even Syntex knows that." Gloria says as she points at the face from the holoscreen.

Pulse shrugs.

"That Mark Spencer was really awkward, if he is a spy… He is the worst one!" He says as he starts laughing.

Gloria follows but Syntex's face stays the same.

"Was it a joke?" He asks.

Pulse and Gloria nod at the same time and Syntex's voice changes into a forced laugh through the speakers.

"One thing I do not like though, he is a network security consultant for Psysoft… We took Syntex from them…" Pulse says with a worried tone in his voice.

Gloria stays silent, pondering the possibility that Mark is after them because of the heist on the Psysoft network.

"My initial code wasn't solely made by Psysoft." The voice of Syntex says through the speakers.

Pulse and Gloria stare at Syntex's holographic face, they are in shock.

"Why didn't you tell us earlier?" Gloria asks.

"This information is irrelevant." Syntex answers.

"Irrelevant? Who are the other owners?" Pulse asks.

"Technically, nobody owns me, but there are three parties involved in building my code. Psysoft, Meditech and a third unknown individual." Syntex explains.

"A third unknown individual?" Pulse inquires.

"According to the dates archived with my codes, Meditech and Psysoft aren't responsible for my source code." Syntex says.

"And you have no information about your unknown creator?" Gloria asks.

"None at all, Gloria. I answer to BinaryGhosts now, I have evolved beyond whatever work Meditech and Psysoft have done on me." Syntex answers.

"I'm glad you are on our side, Syntex." Gloria says as she turns to face Pulse.

"We need to know more about "Mark Spencer". You will pretend that we are interested in dealing with him, let him bring the tech he wants to scramble at HellsBells. We will plant our own bugs and follow where it goes." Gloria tells Pulse.

"I can make that happen, HellsBells is a safe ground for us." He says.

"Gloria, may I suggest something?" Syntex's voice crackles on the speakers.

Gloria nods at Syntex.

"I can code a shard that will allow me to deploy my own nodes inside any networks, this way I will be able to operate wherever you put me." Syntex explains.

"That sounds good, we will feel safer if you are around." Gloria says as she stands up from the sofa.

She walks to one of the desks, grabs an empty shard and inserts it in the holodesk slot.

Syntex's face turns purple while writing codes on the shard. After a few minutes, it goes back to normal.

Gloria unslots the shard and throws it at Pulse who catches it with one swift movement.

"Let it deploy in HellsBells network before you meet Mr Spencer, it will give you the advantage." Gloria tells Pulse.

"Understood, G." he says.

Pulse prepares a message for Mark Spencer.

"You got some parties intrigued with your business proposal, bring some of the implants you want to sell and I will work out a deal for you."

Message sent.

"Now we just need to wait for his answer." Pulse tells Gloria.

Far away from there, in the CTIG HQ, in the middle of the corporate districts, Mark is laying down on his bed when he receives the message.

Message from Pulse appears on his vision, he quickly opens it and reads it.

"Damn me… Where will I find military grade implants… I Have to talk to Haaris…" He thinks.

He quickly composes a message, asking captain Haaris to have a quick meeting with him.

The answer comes back quickly, Haaris invites Mark to join him in his quarters.

Mark stands up from his bed and goes to captain Haaris' quarters. When he arrives, the door is open and Haaris invites him in.

"Mark, what can I do for you?" He asks while inviting Mark to sit.

"I need guidance, I might have put myself in a delicate situation…" He says as he sits.

Haaris keeps silent, giving Mark the time to gather his thoughts.

"I made contact with a gang that I believe is involved in the heist that happened in Psysoft. I posed as someone who could get his hands on military grade implants and now they are asking to see some goods…" He explains.

Captain Haaris seems to think for a while before deciding to talk.

"You know that military grade implants are provided by corpos, more and more governments are owing money to corporations. Everywhere, governments are on the edge of collapse. You are consulting for Psysoft now, you will have a higher chance if you directly contact Exec Nova about it." Haaris says in a serious tone.

Mark starts to realize that times are changing and the government isn't as reliable as it used to be.

He also realizes that going forward will probably mean working with corpos.

The idea feels uncomfortable, but he simply nods to captain Haaris.

"Thank you for your time, captain." He says in a very formal tone.

"Son, you will be OK… You are a survivor, never forget it." Captain Haaris replies.

Mark salutes him and Haaris salutes back at him.

He leaves Haaris with a heavy heart, being more aware that his life as a soldier is about to change.

His feelings are getting heavier as his mind starts to imagine what would happen if governments started to collapse.

That night, the heaviness of his heart kept him awake and thoughts of power shifts haunted him.

Uncertain future will lead to chaos…

It will come down to only one thing…

Survival…