Chapter 18 - Flirting With Danger

Discarded metal

Chapter 18 - Flirting With Danger

"Adrenaline makes you feel alive…"

Pulse is sitting on the sofa of the bar area of the electronic shop that the BinaryGhosts use as their HQ.

He receives a message from Mark and reads it.

"Is this guy serious?" he thinks to himself.

He composes a reply: "Same place, tonight."

And he sends it right away through his agent.

He stands up from the sofa and fixes his clothes up.

"The guy brings us some military grade goodies tonight." He tells Gloria, who is connected to one of the holographic screens.

"Good, don't forget to deploy Syntex on HellsBells network before the guy shows up." Gloria says as she keeps her attention focused on lines of codes scrolling on the screen.

"I will go there now to do it, will keep you updated, G." Pulse says as he walks to the front entrance.

Gloria waves at him without looking at him, she keeps scrolling the seemingly infinite lines of codes.

Pulse walks to his motorbike, puts his hand on the front panel and the holographic display appears.

He mounts the bike and pulls on the thrust, making the bike's engine roar like a wild lion.

Pulse's vision gets information directly from the bike, GPS markers, mini map of the city, etc…

The bike zaps out of the parking lot and zig zags through the traffic of the commons streets.

It's the end of the afternoon, early evening, workers getting home after a day of hard labor mixed with party goers, street vendors and the occasional gangsters.

The everyday routines of the residents of the commons of New Paris.

Pulse is too accustomed to even pay attention anymore, born and raised in this environment.

The bike speeds up and moves quickly between cars.

He slows down before arriving at the gate leading to HellsBells parking lot.

Guards recognize him and they let him pass without checking him.

The BinaryGhosts members are regulars and well known at this hackers club.

Pulse stops his bike close to the front entrance and dismounts.

Kent, one of the guards at the front door waves at him.

"You are here pretty early today." he says as he shakes hands with Pulse.

"Yeah, some biz will come down tonight." Pulse tells him as he passes the door.

No further questions asked, Kent knows clearly what's going on at HellsBells, he has been guarding the front door for years.

The ambiance inside is quieter in the evening, at this time the music is more chill and few regulars are already populating the bar area.

Pulse goes straight to one of the rooms at the back of the club.

There's a circular sofa surrounding an holographic screen in the middle, a small table against the back wall and several holes in the wall used as shelves with bottles and glasses.

Pulse slides the shard with Syntex's code inside the holographic screen and a loading bar appears.

50%... 60%... 70%... 80%... 90%...

The power goes out and comes back in an instant.

"Transfer complete" appears on the screen.

"Execute?" followed by a yes and a no.

Without hesitation Pulse selects yes and Syntex's face appears on the screen, rearranging itself.

"Good job, Pulse, I have full access to the network." the voice of Syntex comes out of the holographic screen.

"Great, I will remotely connect to the network so we can be in communication at all times." Pulse tells Syntex.

Syntex's face looks like it's stabilizing on the screen.

Pulse connects his neural link directly to the network wirelessly and Syntex's face disappears from the screen.

"Time to make myself discreet" Pulse hears Syntex's voice directly.

"Excellent, that Mark Spencer will be here soon." Pulse talks to Syntex directly from his agent connected to his neural implant.

"I can give you access to HellsBells cameras." Syntex suggests.

"Great, so I can track him as soon as he arrives, never know if he decides to show up with some company." Pulse says.

He receives a notification on his vision asking him to accept the connection to video feeds, he accepts and receives all the cameras' visuals.

He notices Mark as soon as he enters HellsBells.

Mark looks nervous on the video feed.

Pulse sends him a message to guide him through the club and as soon as he receives it, Mark walks in the direction of the back rooms.

Pulse follows Mark's movements on the cameras' feeds that he receives directly on his eye implant, making sure he came alone.

Mark enters the room and Pulse invites him to sit on the circular sofa.

Pulse takes out a square device with slots and jacks in, Mark does it as well.

He remembers the similar tech Sophia Patel used to scramble their communication.

"OK, we are good, so what did you get for me?" Pulse asks Mark.

Mark doesn't answer but pulls out a small box and puts it on the small table at the center of the sofas.

Pulse grabs the box and opens it.

"Military grade Meditech eye implants… These types are pretty rare in the commons." he says as he takes them out of the box and checks them out.

Syntex's voice speaks directly to Pulse: "There's something strange about this individual, I can clearly scan his exoskeleton, it's military grade, standard with government operatives… but he has a brain implant that I cannot scan at all."

Pulse looks quickly at Mark before looking back at the eye implants, trying to keep calm.

"What the hell does that mean? I thought you were extremely advanced!" Pulse says mentally to Syntex.

Mark looks more nervous as he waits for Pulse to finish examining the implants, unaware that he is in the middle of a conversation with an advanced AI.

"It means that he has a secret prototype in his head, an implant that I cannot scan, this man is probably more than just a government operative." Syntex answers Pulse.

Pulse nods.

"I can scramble these and even find a buyer for you…" Pulse says out loud while he puts the eyes back into the box.

In the same movement, he pulls out his gun and points it at Mark who instinctively raises his hands.

A line of sweat runs on the side of Mark's face.

"Shit… Why the gun?" he asks Pulse.

"What do you have in your head?" Pulse asks calmly.

"Shit… Shit… Shit… how does he know?" Mark thinks to himself, trying not to panic.

"You must be either extremely stupid or extremely powerful, to dare to come to the commons with a prototype in your head. You might as well put a target on your back." Pulse continues, still keeping a calm voice.

"Well… You have me at gunpoint… So I guess I'm stupid…" Mark answers nervously.

Pulse chuckles.

"You really came here without backup?" Pulse asks while scratching his head with the gun.

"Yes… No backup…" Mark answers.

"Who do you work for?" Pulse asks.

"Shit… I'm burnt… My undercover operation didn't last long…" Mark thinks to himself.

With a gun pointed at him, he decides to go with honesty.

"I'm a CTIG operative…" He says.

Pulse stares at him.

"CTIG… you guys seldom operate in the commons… So what the hell are you here for?" Pulse asks.

"I… I have been hired by Psysoft to investigate a robbery that happened in their network…" Mark explains.

"He is looking for me." Syntex tells Pulse directly in his mind.

"He doesn't look like he knows what he is looking for…" Pulse answers Syntex.

"Do you know what has been stolen?" Pulse asks Mark.

Mark shakes his head.

"I think Psysoft is toying with me, all I know is that their secret vault was raided with the help of one of their employees, they are very secretive about it… Can… Can you lower the gun? It's making me nervous…" Mark answers with his hands still in the air.

Pulse lowers his gun and lets it rest on his lap.

"Corpos can't be trusted, they sent you naked in a wolf's den. What kind of chrome is in your head?" Pulse asks.

"Shit… This… I got into an accident and woke up in a Meditech lab… they built a synthetic brain to sync with what was left of my natural brain…" Mark explains to Pulse.

"Thank you for your honesty, but now you understand that I won't help you do business in the commons, right?" Pulse says to Mark.

Mark nods and extends his hand to grab the box with the eye implants inside, but Pulse raises his gun again.

"Nope, they stay here, consider them as your safe passage out of here." Pulse says while waving his gun in the direction of the door.

Mark slowly unslots from the device, stands up and walks to the door with his hands up in the air. He slowly passes the door and disappears.

Pulse grabs the box and drops it in the inside pocket of his jacket.

"This guy is just a corpo goon…" Pulse thinks to himself.

"It doesn't make any sense, if Psysoft was really trying to recover me and they knew BinaryGhosts were behind the heist, they would have sent a strike team already." Syntex tells Pulse.

"You are right, that Mark Spencer got to me by luck, it's new that a corpo sends individuals undercover in the commons." Pulse replies as he follows Mark on the cameras.

Mark quickly navigates through the club and disappears when he is out of the range of the cameras.

"The thing he has in his head though… What information could you get?" Pulse asks.

"Almost nothing, something was scrambling my scans from within his head, whatever type of synthetic brain he has, it's very advanced and made to be stealthy." Syntex answers.

"I should talk to Gloria about it, we should keep our eyes on this guy, in due time he may become a big score for us." He says as he unplugs from the device and disconnects from the club's network.

He gets up, gets out of the room as he conceals his gun back in his jacket.

Pulse walks through the bar area and waves at a few regulars he knows before heading toward the dancefloor.

At this time, the music is louder and more rhythmic, the dance floor is crowded with people dancing to the beats.

Pulse moves through the crowd and exits the club, at the door he meets again with Kent.

"How was business?" Kent asks.

"Not bad, I got my hand on a pair of military grade eye implants from Meditech, fresh from their workshop." Pulse say as he puts his hand on Kent's shoulder.

"No shit? Are you selling?" Kent asks.

"Gotta pass them through G. First." Pulse says as he slowly walks away from Kent.

"Tell her I said hi." Kent shouts as Pulse walks away.

Pulse waves at him and keeps walking to his motorbike.

He gets on it and does the same ritual for turning it on, hand on the front panel, screen appears in thin air.

Pulse pulls on the thrust and the bike roars like a wild beast as it storms out of the parking lot of HellsBells.

Traffic is more dense than when he arrived but thanks to his implants connected to his bike, he zigzags between cars effortlessly.

It doesn't take him long to get back to the electronic shop refurbished into the BinaryGhosts HQ.

He parks his bike near the front entrance and hurries inside.

Gloria is sitting on the sofa at the bar area of the shop.

Pulse goes straight to her and throws the small box with the optical implants inside on the table.

Gloria grabs the box and opens it to check the implants.

"OK, not bad, talk." She says to Pulse while he is sitting down on the sofa next to her.

"The guy is weird, he has some sort of prototype brain inside his head that Syntex couldn't scan. He also admitted working for Psysoft to find who stole Syntex from them. Now the interesting thing is Psysoft didn't even tell him what was stolen." Pulse explains.

"What? Why would they send a guy with prototype hardware in the commons? No strike team… That's not how corpos usually operate…" Gloria says as she keeps checking the eye implants.

"Meditech military grade eye implants, not easy to find…" She continues.

"This guy is connected with Meditech, he mentioned that the prototype in his brain was made by them." Pulse says.

"So the guy is a CTIG operative, tinkered by Meditech and working for Psysoft…" Gloria says as she thinks about it.

Pulse stays silent.

Suddenly Syntex's face appears on the holoscreen that is on the small table facing the sofa.

"Gloria, Pulse, I managed to connect our HQ's network with HellsBells' network, I have complete control over their operations." Syntex's voice resonates in the room.

"Good, for now hide your presence, we don't want to take over, our relationship with them is good." Gloria orders Syntex.

"Understood, I will remain hidden in their network and keep monitoring." Syntex says.

"So, what do we do about Mark Spencer?" Pulse asks.

"We have to keep him close, if he is willing to do business in the commons, with what he is packing in his head, we better be the ones to benefit from it." Gloria says.

Pulse nods to Gloria's orders.

Gloria keeps checking the eye implants, she can see her reflection on the glassy surface.

Thoughts run wild in her mind, military grade implants, corpos changing their game plans and mysterious prototypes…

BinaryGhosts are ready to flirt with danger…