Chapter 19 - The Vipers Nest
Discarded metal
Chapter 19 - The Vipers Nest
"Corpos are experts in the art of deception…"
Mark is sitting on the sofa in Exec Nova's office, he looks nervous and feels very uneasy.
Exec Nova is sitting in front of him, she has a soft and reassuring smile on her face.
"You did well, Mark. We are receiving the position of the implants, we can track them down." She says with a quiet tone in her voice.
Mark looks confused.
"I don't understand… I saw them disable all the trackers… How is it possible?" He says without looking at her.
Mark wonders what is happening, he is pretty sure that Pulse scrambled all the implants' trackers in front of him.
"It's not making any sense…" He thinks to himself.
"We have protocols they aren't aware of." Exec Nova says confidently.
She looks at him, waiting calmly for him to relax.
Mark slowly calms down, convincing himself that there are probably a lot of secret techs psysoft is working on that nobody is aware of.
"Tracking protocols might be one of their secret projects." He thinks to himself as he looks back at Exec Nova.
"We will prepare a strike team and I want you to be the leader." She says.
"Me? Why? Is it a new job you are offering me?" He asks with a surprised look on his face.
"Your experience with CTIG is valuable for us, Mark, if you want it, you could have a bright future in our corporation." She replies.
Mark keeps silent and thinks about her proposal, he does not want to leave CTIG, it's like his family, but the budget cuts happening makes him wonder about his future.
The governments all over the world seem to lose their influence, what's happening in New Paris is actually global.
Most of the public services are slowly being taken over by corporations, who seize the opportunity to gain more power.
"I will need to think about it…" Mark breaks his silence.
"Of course, just know that we will take good care of you if you decide to work with us fully." Exec Nova says as she stands up, inviting him to do the same.
Mark nods and stands up, following her lead to the door of her office.
"I will inform you when the strike team is ready." She says as she opens the door of her office.
"I will give you an answer within the week, I have to make things clear with my superiors at CTIG." Mark says as he extends his hand for a handshake.
Exec Nova softly grabs his hand.
"Of course, Mark, it's a big decision, I understand you." She says as she gently shakes his hand.
He releases her hand and walks out of her office, his head is full of thoughts about their conversation.
He walks toward the elevators at the end of the corridor, he doesn't wait too long before the doors open and he gets in.
"Corpos all over the world are making their moves to seize power, the governments are showing signs of weakness… The wolves are getting ready." He thinks to himself while the elevator goes down.
Finally it reaches the ground level and Mark walks through the exhibition room till he reaches the big front doors.
He exits the Psysoft tower wondering if it's going to become his new life, a corpo life.
As he almost reaches the side of the road to take a cab, he receives a new message on his neural implant.
He sees it's from PTL and opens it right away.
"We need to meet… It's important… " The message says.
"That girl is really weird… She has a way to choose the worst moments…" He thinks.
He pauses for a second, considering what he should do.
"It might be worth checking… " He thinks out loud.
He quickly composes his answer to her.
"Same place?" sent…
The answer is almost instant and is nothing more than an OK emoji.
Mark hails an automatic taxi and quickly climbs in. He jacks in and transfers the location to the automated vehicle, as well as the fare.
It's late in the morning and the roads are fairly empty.
The vehicle goes easily through the light traffic of the corpos districts.
The decor starts to change, huge tall buildings give space to tree lines as they enter the park area.
Finally the car stops at the same place Mark met PTL the first time.
She is sitting on the exact same bench.
As Mark gets closer, he sees that she is already connected to the scrambling device. He quickly connects to it too and sits next to her.
"What's the urgency?" Mark asks her.
"The implants you lost in the commons, I followed their signals until they got scrambled." Sophia says.
"Psysoft says they managed to track them anyway." Mark cuts her.
"No, they don't… They are lying… The signals went back online on their own… I followed them." Sophia explains.
"What? What does it mean?" Mark asks with confusion in his voice.
"It means that whoever scrambled the signals, decided to reactivate them… They want to be found… " She explains.
"No, no way… I saw the guys, they are careful… Why would they do that?" Mark continues.
"In the commons, they don't play by the same rules… They could be aiming bigger than just a pair of military grade eyes…" Sophia says.
Mark thinks for a moment, remembering the hit squad Exec Nova wants him to lead.
"Exec Nova is sending a squad after the implants and she asked me to lead them…" Mark tells her.
"I'm aware, I managed the order… It's the most advanced tactical squad Psysoft has… It feels like it's not a recovery mission but a search and destroy one… " Sophia explains.
Mark stays silent, trying to process the new information. One thing is clear now is that Exec Nova isn't telling him everything, which was to be expected.
"I have to talk to Harris… Thank you for your valuable information, Sophia." Mark says.
"Mark, I need to ask you for something in return…" Sophia says.
"Yes? What can I do for you?" Mark asks.
"Ethan Thompson, if you find anything about him, let me know, please." Sophia pleads softly.
"The guy who helped with the heist?" Mark looks surprised.
"Yes, I need to know, he was working for me… I feel responsible." Sophia answers.
"I understand. I will tell you if I find anything." Mark says as he disconnects from the device, he nods at Sophia and walks away.
His head is full of new information to process, he starts to understand the complexity of the situation he is in.
"I have to check with Haaris… These corpos seem to play a weird game… " He thinks to himself as he walks away from the park and hails an automated car.
It takes him half an hour to arrive at CTIG HQ, the familiar surroundings appeases him a little.
He walks through the corridors and is greeted by familiar faces. It doesn't take long for him to reach the captain's quarters.
He knocks at the door, thinking about all the things he has to tell Haaris.
"Come in!" The loud voice of the captain is heard behind the door.
Mark opens the door and comes in.
He stands in front of Haaris' desk in a salute position. The captain salutes back and invites him to sit.
"Mark, it's good to see you." Haaris says.
Mark quickly sits and starts talking.
"Captain, there's a lot going on at Psysoft that I don't fully understand…" Mark tells him.
"I see, lay it down on me, son." Haaris says with a familiar and reassuring voice.
"I made contact with a group of hackers in the commons, I baited them with some military grade implants given by Exec Nova… they took the implants and made them untraceable but Exec Nova ordered me to lead a squad as she says they managed to track the implants… " Mark explains to Haaris.
The captain's look changes and becomes more stern as he absorbs all the information.
"These fucking corpos…" The captain mutters.
"They are up to something… Listen, son, you will accept to lead the squad but relay the info back to us. I will lead a team to cover your ass." Haaris tells Mark.
Mark says nothing but nods, satisfied to have people he can trust to cover him.
Captain Haaris dismisses him, Mark gets out of Haaris' quarters and walks to his room.
He lays on his bed for a moment, thinking about the message he should send Exec Nova to tell her that he accepts to take the lead of the squad.
"Exec Nova, it's with great honor that I accept your offer to lead your squad." Mark sends it to Exec Nova.
Her call comes in quickly, displayed on Mark's vision. He accepts the call.
"Exec Nova." He says.
"Mark, I'm pleased about your decision, you have made a good choice. Let me tell you more about the mission." Exec Nova says.
Mark keeps silent and lets her brief him.
"We have received Intel about the location of our implants, they stopped moving once they reached an old abandoned warehouse in the commons. It's a known location affiliated with a local gang, they call themselves The Scorched." Exec Nova explains.
"OK, so we are dealing with a gang, not surprising." Mark says.
"It's actually quite surprising, The Scorched are well known, they never cross paths with Corpos directly. They heist other gangs in the commons but never target corpos." She continues.
"Wait, so why do they have your implants?" Mark asks.
"We don't care, we will make an example for the rest of the gangs in the commons. If we show weakness, it will spread like a wildfire and other gangs will follow and think they can take from corpos. You understand?" Exec Nova asks.
"I think I do. It won't be a search and retrieve mission… But more a search and destroy one, am I right?" Mark inquires.
"Call it the way you want, but I will give you the best squad and a very simple mission." Exec Nova says.
Mark keeps silent for a moment, trying to assess the situation.
"Mark! Are you having cold feet? The task is too high for you?" Exec Nova breaks the silence.
Mark gets back into the conversation.
"No, not at all. Gangs are just scums anyway…" Mark says.
"I'm glad that we are on the same wavelength. Do this one mission well and I will spoil you. I believe in you, Mark." Exec Nova says.
"May I get more Intel about the team, the target and all?" Mark asks.
"Of course, I will give you special access, you will find everything you need. Come back to me with good news, soldier." Exec Nova says as she hangs up the call.
Mark instantly receives a notification that grants him access to a secure network of Psysoft, without hesitation he connects to it.
His vision changes and now displays the structure of the network.
The whole network is similar to the one at the Psysoft tower but after a moment he realizes that it's a network only used by special operatives.
He gets automatically guided toward a section that shows active operations and he sees one called implants recovery.
He enters it and gets instant access to all the Intel concerning the operation.
He browses the warehouse plans, network structure and known individuals from The Scorched.
"Screw me… How did they already gather so much Intel… " Mark thinks out loud.
He continues to browse for a while when curiosity sends him to the squad files, he has access to each individual composing the squad.
The squad is made of ex-soldiers, all heavily modified with military grade implants he barely heard about.
"These are killers… CTIG operatives are kids compared to them… " Mark thinks to himself.
Demolition experts, assault specialists, elite runners, Mark keeps browsing the files. They contain every detail, the types of implants, the skillsets of each member.
Mark starts wondering if he can even lead these guys, they would probably do the job without him anyway. He shakes the thoughts away and focuses on the targets.
The Scorched are led by a goon named Blazer, he is helped by two lieutenants, Clash and Pyrox. They are the primary targets to eliminate.
Mark studies everything he can, possible network entry points, and so on. Everything he can think of is within the files, like his work has been pre-prepared for him.
"Corpos are more organized… No wonder that they are taking over everything… " Mark thinks as the rest of his day is spent in the files.
Slowly the sky turns darker and day becomes night.
That night, Mark got little to no rest, organizing himself and planning for his first operation as a leader.
He struggled with his own thoughts of betrayal and power shifts again, until exhaustion took over him.
Finally drifting away into sleep.
A night of empty dreams.