3 Step Into My Parlor

Yata

Saturday May 15th 2088

Cyberspace

Shadow//NET

12:13PM

Cyberspace was a world of wonders to my eyes. It was a place where everyone could be anything they wanted to be with just a simple cord attacked to the jack that connected each person into it. All it took was a single cable or wireless jack and our minds were inside cyberspace. Most people knew Public//NET. Public//NET was the public series of networks and servers known to the common user. They were usually packed with ordinary people who wanted to escape reality without the dangers of BTL labs and their inherent risk of brain damage. If the average wage slave wanted to cheat on his wife, Public//NET's LovR app was the first place he would look for possible partners. LovR was a virtual dating app made for avatars to mingle and date each other in hopes of finding love in the real world, but most people just used the app for virtual hookups. If a group of social outcasts wanted to escape from a world where they were weak and helpless to a world where they could become heroes of some fictional world, they would either be playing the Legends of Corel'Thas or Hero Universe apps. In some cases, dividing their time between both. LoCT was a popular fantasy game. Think swords and sorcery with cyberbrain controls and you've got the right idea. Hero Universe was pretty much the same crap except with superheroes set in the early 21st century. But people like me didn't play the apps on Public//NET the way the developers intended.

Instead, we roamed Shadow//NET where we fought, hacked, and stole to prove we were the best deckers in all of cyberspace. Usually, we would hack servers for data we could sell for credits. But sometimes, two or more deckers would have beefs with each other. Sometimes, even Shadow//NET would be shaken to its foundations. But there was a cabal of deckers who basically kept the chaos of the networks organized. If Public//NET was a downtown area, Shadow//NET was the underbelly. I usually came here to test my skills against other up and coming deckers to see who could copy data from the public servers and transfer the payloads first. However, this afternoon, I was after something more valuable than simple transaction histories and VR logs. I was after secure information on Libra Industries delivery schedules and personnel files.

My handle was Merle_Byrne#7805, but those who knew me gave me the nickname 'Birdie' because my avatar was an actual recreation of a raven. Just an ordinary, inconspicuous raven. Some people liked to use animal avatars and I was no exception. I simply chose this avatar because it was smaller and harder to spot than most others. But this fateful afternoon would prove most disturbing for me.

"Step into my parlor, said the spider to the birdie," A female voice called out to me. "Or as your friends call you in meatspace... Yata."

It was unsettling how she knew my real world name. So unsettling that I couldn't say a word, so I simply turned around to see her avatar. It was a spider that was roughly the size of a human coated in black hairs with a white design on the back sac. It was none other than the famous decker known as Arachne. She had a reputation for getting even the most guarded information with relative ease, and her black widow avatar would often be the last thing an enemy of hers would see in cyberspace. Some rumors say her cyberdeck loadout had repurposed ICE programs that killed other deckers. Others say she simply figured out a way to permanently lock a user from ever returning. I believed she simply DOXed her rivals to local corp sec with the data she controlled. But what worried me most was the fact that I was in her sights. And when most deckers saw Arachne, it was too late for them. I tried desperately to load my emergency exit program in hopes of getting away from her, only to see that it was locked, much to my dismay.

"Don't run away, little birdie," She said in a mocking voice. "I'm simply here to make a deal with you."

"To what do I owe the pleasure of your presence?" I asked. "Clearly I must've pissed off someone powerful enough to warrant you showing up."

"It's not who you have pissed off in the past that got my attention, Birdie," She replied. "It's who you are going to piss off that caught my eye."

Arachne crawled sideways twice. Her arachnid mandibles looked like they were ready to snack on prey, and her eyes seemed focus on making my avatar the next meal of hers. The most shocking part is that the line between Mr Johnsons and our team's briefing room was designed to be secure. Maybe this was a sign that we needed to destroy the table and buy a new one. And perhaps move our hideout to a different location as well. I knew plenty about cyber security, but even a tech illiterate plebeian like Quince could figure out that we were compromised on Mr Johnson's end.

"I already know about the package your team was hired to intercept last night," She continued, her mandibles tapping together in a seemingly sadistic delight. "Your client really wants that package. But he cannot have what he doesn't deserve. I will tell you what that package is as long as you promise me two things, Birdie."

"And what exactly are these two things?" I asked

"First, you must speak of our conversation to no one. Not even Mr Hatchet. If I have even the slightest clue that you tipped off the rest of your team, I will personally make sure to hinder this mission. And by hinder, I mean outright prevent by any means necessary."

"What else?"

"The other thing is that you must, under no circumstance, allow the client to get his hands on the package. If I find out that Mr Johnson has whatever he paid for, your entire team will suffer."

I wanted to question the validity of Arachne's threats, but someone of her reputation and decking prowess figuratively had my meatspace body by the balls from where she stood. She knew the name behind Birdie. My friends. My enemies. If she wanted to, she could have every other merc in the city on a manhunt for us. So my only option to keep the rest of the team safe was to play ball with Arachne's demands, then plan to screw Mr Johnson over without having Ray beat the crap out of me. At this point, I had no idea what was worse. Neither the possibility of retribution from Ray's fists nor getting my whole team captured by Remus Sec were appealing options. But Arachne was making me decide between outcomes where the odds were against my favor.

"You have until next Friday to decide the fate of your squad." She said. "If you choose to accept, I will explain everything. But if you refuse, then you have just made enemies of the entire city."

For the first time in my life, I feared another decker this much. I thought back to the job my team was hired for as I jacked out. There appeared to be something about this package that everyone wanted. Sadly, I was starting to have second thoughts...