Chapter 17 - Deception

Discarded metal

Chapter 17 - Deception

"In a world of lies, deception is king…"

The morning finally arrives for Mark, who spent a restless night.

Despite his thoughts of chaos and power struggles in the world, everything seems the same when he gets up.

He goes through his morning routine before setting off to Psysoft tower.

His ride is fairly smooth, the morning traffic isn't very dense today and he is lost in his thoughts the whole time.

"If corpos take the power from governments, what will happen to the world…" He thinks to himself while watching through the car window.

The driver pulls him out of his thoughts as he pulls over in front of the tower.

"We are here, sir!" He says.

Mark nods and transfers him the ride fee before going out of the car.

He walks through the small plaza that leads to the front entrance of Psysoft.

He goes through the doors like he is already a regular and walks straight to one of the corner elevators.

He lines up with other employees, patiently waiting his turn to get in the elevator.

"If the corpos control the world… Will this be my new life… It already kind of is…" He has a hard time controlling the influx of thoughts in his head.

As soon as he enters the elevator his face is scanned and his name joins the small list on the elevator panel.

After a moment a voice comes out of the elevator panel.

"Mr. Spencer, you have arrived at your floor, have a nice and productive day." the voice says as the doors open.

Mark rushs through the doors and is greeted by Claire, the receptionist of the floor.

He waves at her and continues his way to his office. He enters and sits at his desk, trying to recollect his thoughts.

"That Pulse guy… I need to get my hand on military grade implants… Can I pull this off… I have to talk to Exec Nova…"

He starts composing a message.

"Good morning, I need to meet you regarding the investigation, I made contact with an individual in the commons that I believe is somehow involved." He sends her.

It takes a moment for Exec Nova to send her reply to Mark.

"I'm in my office, you can come now." the message says.

Mark let out a sigh before standing up from his desk and leaves his office. He walks back to the elevator he took earlier and waits for it.

It doesn't take long for the doors to open and he enters the elevator. The camera scans his face and it starts going up.

Finally the elevator stops and the doors open on the corridor with a reception desk next to Exec Nova's office door.

Mark walks out of the elevator and the receptionist salutes him.

"Mr Spencer, you are expected." She says as she signals him to go inside.

Mark nods and enters Exec nova's office.

Exec Nova is sitting on the sofa.

"Mark, please come take a seat and tell me everything about your investigation." She says while motioning him to sit on the sofa opposite to where she is sitting.

Mark nods nervously and proceeds to sit on the sofa.

"Thank you, Exec Nova." He says as he sits.

"I think the investigation goes well, but I took a step outside of my comfort zone… I made contact with a sketchy individual in the commons that seems to be well connected and he scrambles implants safety protocols for a price… I believe Ethan Thompson got his implants scrambled in exchange of his network accesses." Mark pauses a moment to let her digest.

Her face gets a more stern look before she starts speaking.

"You did good, but you need to understand that we don't need to be undercover in the commons, if you have enough proof we will send a strike team and recover what is ours." She says while looking straight at him.

"But… I can't be sure we can recover your property… I believe that the best approach would be to infiltrate…" Mark says.

Exec Nova leans her back on the sofa and looks like she is considering Mark's suggestion.

"You are taking a bold step, Mark." She says calmly.

"I like that. Are you willing to take responsibility for this operation?" She asks him.

Mark feels like he is really stepping out of his comfort zone, thoughts of governments collapse and power shifting to corpos are surging in his mind.

"If the world is changing, I have to change with it…" He is thinking to himself.

"I can take responsibility, but you let me do it my way…" He says boldly.

Exec Nova gives him a small smile.

"You know that you still report to me, if you go down that path, CTIG can't know. Are we clear Mark?" She says while staring at him.

Mark nods, knowing that now he will have to play by corpo rules.

"Good, so what do you need from me?" She asks.

"The contact in the commons asked for a sample of military grade implants, I think he is testing me." Mark says.

Exec Nova nods as she stands up and walks to her desk, she leans over it to reach a drawer. She takes out a small box and walks back to the sofa.

She hands the box to Mark.

He opens the box and inside there is a pair of cybernetic eyes in prestine condition, they look like they just came out of a lab.

Mark recognizes the type, CTIG operatives are all equipped with these military grade visual implants.

"Consider these a token of my trust in you, Mark. I will make the necessary arrangements for you to get a budget for your operation. From now on consider yourself an undercover agent for Psysoft… The only agent that operates in the commons…" She seems to think about the last part of what she just said.

"it might actually give us an advantage on other corporations…" She thinks out loud.

Mark starts to feel that the corporations power game is running deep, he knew about industrial espionnage and data theft between corpos, but it usually stayed in the corporations districts.

Exec Nova taking that step in the commons makes him wonder which other corpos are already playing that game.

"Maybe it's a good time to go see Anton…" He thinks to himself.

"Well, Mark, I wish you good luck in your operation." Exec Nova says as she stands up and extends her hand to shake his.

Mark stands up too and shakes her hand.

She smiles and guides him to the door.

Mark's mind is racing as he walks back to the elevator.

"I need more Intel… Things are easier at CTIG…" He thinks to himself.

Working for corpos makes him nervous, at CTIG he would get clear objectives and orders, with corpos it feels like he isn't safe…

There are power plays everywhere, employees trying to climb the corpo ladder will plot against each others.

Secrets are kept, coup are prepared in the shadows.

On his way back to his office he receives a message from Claire, the receptionist from his office floor.

He opens it and reads it.

"Mr. Spencer, I have set up for you an account with funds allowed by Exec Nova, you will have to come see me to activate it." the message says.

As he arrives at his office floor, he sees Claire behind the reception desk.

"Ha, Mr. Spencer, I just sent you a message." She says with a smile.

"Yes, I just saw it, how should I proceed?" He asks her.

"Please jack in." She shows him the slot on the reception desk.

Mark pulls the cable from behind his ear and slots it in the reception desk.

"You will receive a notification that you need to accept." She says.

Mark receives a pop up notification on his vision, asking him to accept the ownership of the new account.

He accepts and a process bar starts.

"Perfect, Exec Nova also prepared this for you." She says as she slides a small box across the desk.

Mark opens it and there's a shard in it.

"It's a wireless connector, it simplifies things for you when you need to interface with networks." She explains.

Mark nods and inserts the shard in a slot on his neural implant plate.

He receives a confirmation and starts to see the wireless networks available straight on his vision.

"Useful…" He says as he checks the different networks available on the floor.

Claire just looks at him with a smile before she starts talking again.

"If you need anything, you have my contact, Mr. Spencer." She says.

Mark nods and walks back to his office while getting familiar with the wireless connector, browsing the different settings available.

As he sits at his desk, he starts composing a message for Anton, the engineer in charge of his regular check-ups.

"Hey, Anton, I may need your expertise with some implants, when is a good time for me to drop by?" He sends him.

He then starts the holoscreen on his desk and realizes that it has a direct wireless access. He decides to try to connect to it and flawlessly he gets direct access.

He starts browsing the news of the day, the usual things are covered.

The government reducing budgets allowed in various public services, including NPPD and the military.

Corpos stock market rising and falling, Psysoft stocks are doing good but it's not the most influencial corporation in New Paris.

Tanaka and Meditech seem to be competing pretty hard on several domains, they are both producers of military grades implants.

Mark isn't familiar with Tanaka's products but he is well aware about Meditech secret projects as he is the carrier of one of their prototypes.

At this moment, he receives Anton's reply.

"Hey Mark, I'm at the lab right now, anything wrong?" the message says.

"Nothing wrong, I will come by, expect me soon." Mark quickly replies.

He disconnects from the holographic screens and turns it off before he leaves his office.

Mark goes out of Psysoft's tower and grabs a cab to Meditech's lab.

As soon as the cab drives away, Mark looks at the Psysoft tower disapearing in the distance, surrounded by bigger and taller towers.

He gets a feeling of danger, as if he is drown into this world without his consent.

He starts to feel like his choices are limited now, however good Exec Nova has treated him, he can't help to think that she has other motives.

Mark is brought back to reality by the cab driver.

"We are here, sir." He says.

Mark nods and transfers the ride's fee before heading out.

As Mark arrives in the lab, he is greeted by Anton who invites him into one of the small rooms that serve for his regular check-ups.

"So, do you need me to check up the prototype?" He asks.

"No, I think everything is fine. Can you check these for me?" Mark says as he takes out the small box with the pair of eye implants inside.

Anton grabs the box and opens it, checking the implants.

"Hmm, these are Meditech's, it's from a line we make for the government operatives, they are pretty standard military grades implants. Anything particular you want to know?" He asks Mark.

"Does Psysoft have distribution rights for them?" Mark asks.

"Psysoft? No, they don't distribute them, but they make the software integration, they come from there?" Anton inquires.

Mark nods, not wanting to say too much, his feeling of paranoia makes him doubt who he can really trust.

"Is that all? You could have ask me over comms… Is everything good at CTIG?" Anton asks.

"Yeah, things are changing though, you probably heard about the budget cuts." Mark says.

"Yeah, tough times for the government, few corpos are helping but if you want my opinion… That might be power moves." Anton whispers to him as if he didn't want to be heard.

Mark nods as he slowly closes the box and puts it back inside his pocket.

"Everything is good with the prototype?" Anton asks as he holds Mark's head and moves it to the side to check his neural connector.

"What the fuck is that?" He says suddenly when he sees the wireless connector shard and unslots it.

"Mark, the prototype has a built in wireless connector, who gave you this crap?" He says as he throws it into a bin next to the desk.

"Hum… It's from Psysoft… I thought…" Mark stammers.

"Man, never randomly slots stuff in your ports, the prototype has a pretty good protection but you can still get infected by bugs and shit. Let me run a quick scan." Anton says as he grabs a device from the desk and invites Mark to slot in.

Mark pulls the cable from behind his ear and slots in.

The scan runs for a minute.

"Good, you are clean, be careful next time, if you aren't sure contact me straight, anytime." Anton says as he unslots the cable and gives it back to Mark.

He takes it and it slowly rolls back behind his ear.

"Thanks, will do." Mark says as he stands up and shakes Anton's hand.

Anton stands up and accompanies Mark back to the elevator that leads outside of the center.

Mark leaves the center and heads back to his office at Psysoft.

As soon as he sits on his desk, he tries to access his synthetic brain, his vision blurs and he is thrown into the dark as he closes his eyes.

Some options appear on the black backdrop and alongside with the memories playback features he now notices wireless network connectors.

He activates it and suddenly he is able to see all the wireless connections of his office floors in the exact same way he did with the shard.

He opens his eyes and the options overlay with his vision, showing him the strength and positions of the various signals he can receive.

As he fiddles with it, he remembers Anton's words and his paranoia arises again.

"I can't trust anybody… I don't even know who else is aware that I have a prototype in my head…" He thinks to himself.

He brushes it off and decide to send a message to Pulse.

"I have goods, when can we meet?"

Message sent…

His mind is racing.

"I'm really doing this…"