"You're kidding, right?" The disbelieving decker asked after his discussion with his teammates. "You actually want me to hack the university, in fact all the colleges and universities in the area, looking for the name Artie on the strength of some nutbar's flimsy 'he musta been'? Hell, why stop there? Why not just ask me to gather every mention of the letter A first, and then narrow it down later?"
Lug and Hamon shared a look before the dwarf said, "Well we didn't wanna start out dat way, but now dat ya mention it, ya know da poor slot's name mighta been Arthur...."
"....Or Art...." Hamon continued.
".....Arturo....." Lug added
".....could be a last name...." Hamon said.
".....or even a field of interest, like an art professor....." the dwarf weaponsmith pointed out.
"All right! All right! I get the point. You really don't have anything at all, but ya want me ta drop what I'm doin so I can wander through the matrix......"
"No, no, kid. Not at all. You can keep dumpster divin to yer heart's content." Lug said with mock sincerity."We just got this little project for ya when yer done. We would never ask ya ta give up something as interesting as makin holos of garbage bags for anything as boring as running the matrix......"
"Ok. I surrender." Mouse said holding up both hands. "Let me grab a shower and I'll get started."
As the decker left the conference room for the living quarters on the second floor of the warehouse, Itami came in looking for him.
"Where's the kid?" he asked Lug.
"Getting cleaned up. We found a lead for him ta trace down through the matrix. You need him?"
"Naw. Just wanted ta tell him I think he's doin ok." Itami responded. "Kid's growin up."
"Yeah," Lug agreed. "Startin ta find his own voice. Good ta see. Where's Sensei?"
"He left a note." Itami said. "He went ta do somethin with da holos of da dingus, came back and den went out ta see somebody else. He won't be back fer a couple a hours and Doc just called ta say dat he won't be back tonight. Somethin about refusing to let the artifact out of his sight. Sounds like Mouse is gonna be tied up for a while and I got a drone with a flaky vid system dat I gotta overhaul. What you guys doin?"
"If I know my partner, he'll be runnin out ta see a certain elf babe security chief," Lug said, referring to Hamon's growing romance with Tanchacti Springbreeze. Hamon gave a sort of shrug of confirmation and Lug continued, "while I was thinkin dat a long walk through the neighborhood might give me a chance to do some more legwork, being a tricky little dwarf." This last was rather pointedly aimed at Hamon who gave a slight smile as he too departed to get cleaned up.
"Owen!" Seka exclaimed wrapping her arms around the phys ad's neck. "It is soooo good to see you, " the curvaceous elf woman breathed as she plastered herself against the reluctant man's frame. "Don't I get a kiss?" she pouted as Owen refused the invitation of her upturned lips.
"Hello, Seka" Owen said as he kissed her forehead and skillfully disengaged himself. When she was about to protest this treatment, the phys ad caught up both her hands in his and looking deeply into her eyes said "You don't want to make it harder for me to visit, do you?" As he kissed her hand he said, "Please, Seka. You know I cannot play this game. May I see the great lady?"
After a moment's consideration, elf magic user said, "Oh, very well, spoilsport. But you don't know what you are missing."
"My lot in life to live in ignorance, my lady. Shall I wait here?" Owen asked as he continued standing at the door to the Talisman shop.
"Oh, don't be silly. Go wait in the parlor. I'll fetch Madame M." Seka said as she vanished through a beaded curtain.
Owen made his way through the narrow hallways of the shop, idly studying the collection of oddities that crammed the shelves to overflowing. He entered the parlor to find Katya coming out.
"Owen!" she exclaimed with genuine joy in her voice. Her jade green eyes sparkled as the beautiful red hared norm woman looked at the phys ad. "How have you been? It's so good to see you."
"Katya. It's good to see you, too. I've been fine." The phys ad said as he opened his arms for a hug. As delighted as she had been to see him, there was a reserve and almost a stiffness to the hug which Owen noted without understanding. Far from demanding a kiss as Seka had, Katya almost seemed embarrassed or guilty over the physical contact. "How is Sayla?" she immediately asked.
Although puzzled by the reaction and frustrated at his own cluelessness to its cause, Owen covered his confusion and replied: "Sayla's great. She's back in the Tir now. Some kind of training/testing cycle, but last I saw her she was fine."
"That's good. Why don't you have a seat. I'm sure that Madame M will be right down. I've...uh got to put the kettle on. Bye." Katya said as she quickly made her way out of the room.
I've known them both exactly the same amount of time, Owen thought, and when I first met them I thought they shared the same mind. They know about Sayla but now one tries to jump me as soon as I walk into the shop and the other acts like I've got HMHVV.I've got no idea what it means.
While preoccupied with his thoughts about Madame's two beautiful assistants, Owen missed Tabatha's entrance. The cat quickly rectified this situation by jumping into the the phys ad's lap purring loudly and nuzzling his hand.
"Well, princess," the phys ad said as he started to scratch behind the cat's ears, "It's good to see you, too. Your treatment of me hasn't changed. Let's hope the great lady feels the same......."
"What are you hoping for young man?" The authoritative voice asked from behind him. When Owen started to rise the ancient hand on his shoulder kept him in his seat. "Don't disturb the cat." the old woman said quietly as she moved around the table to her accustomed seat.
Every time! The phys ad thought, Combat sense, Compound training, years in the shadows watching my back and this old woman manages to sneak up on me every time!
The joy in the old woman's face as she looked at her visitor was in sharp contrast to her words. "I should be very upset with you, you young scalawag. It has been far too long since you stopped by to see me. On top of that, if I weren't so fond of your pretty face, I would be quite sharp about the social gaff of visiting without giving me proper time to prepare." As the phys ad started to make his excuse the old woman held up her hand and said "Now you hush. I said I should be upset, not that I am. In fact, I am so delighted to see you that I may even forgive your breaches of etiquette, provided, of course that you give me a full and detailed history of everything that has happened since last I saw you, BEFORE, you explain what problem has brought you here."
"But Madame...." Owen began.
"Tut, tut, tut, young man. I am not so old or foolish or vain that I have forgotten how short memory is for the young. It needs a spark to revive it and I have no doubt that, as attentive as you might like to be, you come back to a poor old woman when you need answers, not company. Now, now. If you hang your head like that I can't see your pretty face, young man."
Looking up at the sparkling eyes of the small woman in the paisley print dress and black shawl, Owen thought. By the powers, she is a formidable person. Wisdom, perception and knowledge all backed by an awesome sense of power. She must really have been something in her day. And the killer is, she's absolutely right. I've thought about visiting a dozen times, but it wasn't until I needed something that I acted on the impulse.
"Madame, how can I look you in the eye when you have dissected my inconsiderateness with such scathing accuracy. I am sorry, I should have called, I should have come by sooner, I......"
"Oh, dear boy, you are a charmer." the old woman said with a chuckle. "You make me feel like a young girl again, surrendering so openly. It's quite perfect to give the female the victory in questions of proper behavior but not one male in a thousand carries it off with your style. Delightful. You are forgiven for your past sins. Shall we have some tea before you entertain me with the tales of your exploits?"
When Owen dipped his head to acknowledge who was in charge, the old woman rang a delicate crystal bell and almost immediately a tea service was wheeled in.
"Well if you insist on standing over me, which by the way, I consider insultingly bad form, you can at least make yourself useful." Pietr said "Get me Constantanides' Compendium, Tucker's Lost Artifacts of Lore, A treatise on compulsion spells, (I think it's McBride,) and uhm....oh yes, get me Hurd's Ancient Mysteries. You'll find them on the top three shelves on the west wall. Use the ladder."
"Anything else while I'm about it?" Doc asked. "Perhaps a floor that needs waxing or some silverware that wants polishing?"
"Listen, old chum, I'm simply looking to speed the investigation." Pietr fired back "If your participation is too burdensome, I will happily retrieve my own research material, it will simply involve a greater expenditure of time, effort and consequently cost....."
"Ah, forgive me, friend of my youth, I failed to grasp the possibilities of service discounts." Doc replied. "Of course if it will be mean a nuyen or two of savings, I will cheerfully fetch and carry for you. If you would only be so kind as to direct me to the side of the building first bathed in the sun's rays...."
"And why, pray tell, is that of interest?" Pietr asked.
"Well, I would assume that, despite the fabulous splendor of any building you choose to grace with your presence, the sun, rising in the east, would strike the side of your abode on opposite side of the house from the West wall."
"Over there, smartass. The books you want are over there" Pietr responded with a grimace.
"A thousand thanks, oh pathfinder extrodinaire" Doc said with a smirk, and congratulating himself on being the winner of the exchange, went off to find the books.
With a night on his own and little to do, Lug wandered into Whitey's. When he saw that Christie was tending the bar, he grinned and hustled over to a stool. The bartender's face lit up when she saw her latest customer.
"Lug!" she exclaimed, "How you doin?"
"Fine Christie, fine. Did I mention I like your hair that way?" Lug asked.
"Yes, but I never object to compliments, even if they are repeats." The woman said with a grin.
"Well, in that case, let me say that you are the best looking tap puller I've ever met." The dwarf responded.
"Thank you, kind sir." Christie said as she set a draft on the coaster in front of the dwarf. After a moment's consideration she continued, "But, uhm, this isn't really like you, Tiger. Somethin up?"
The silence that greeted the question as Lug floundered for an honest answer made the woman's heart sink. "Hamon's not......"
"No, no, no. Hamon's fine." Lug assured her. "You thought, because I was alone and..... " when the woman nodded, the dwarf shook his head. "Well, he's fine, fine, but...uh... well, you remember last time I was in here you asked me........"
"I asked you if he was taken, if he was seeing anybody, and you said no"
"Well....uh....the situation has changed and....." Lug left the sentence incomplete as he waited for the bartender's reaction.
After a full minute of silence, Christie said, "So you figured you'd build up my ego a bit before squashing me with the news, huh?"
Hearing the tone of voice Lug sputtered "No! I really do like the braid and you are the best looking bartender I've ever seen. I mean, I wasn't lyin or nothin....."
"But you did want to cushion the blow" The bartender demanded with hands on hips.
"No, I really think you're pretty and....well, yeah, but ....I mean, I couldn't go out of my way to be blunt with somethin that might hurt a chummer's feelings....."
"So you admit it!" The woman said accusingly.
"Well......I guess so, but......."
"I think it was very sweet of you, Lug" Christie said with a sunny smile. "Very sweet and considerate. Thank you." Leaning across the bar she grabbed the dwarf's ears and pulled him into a long firm kiss. When she broke off the kiss and moved down the bar to deal with another customer, she left one stunned and thoroughly confused dwarf.
Mouse, having found and disabled the tracers built into the programs resident in Zixx's deck, was using it to sail through the matrix. He was thrilled with the clarity and detail afforded him by the more expensive and more elaborate piece of technology. The consensual hallucination called the Matrix had a vivid textured quality that he had not appreciated while decking with more primitive machines.
As his happy cartoon mouse icon flew threw the black field of the matrix, Mouse concentrated on his strategy. He knew that he wouldn't be confronted with much black IC in the university's system, but from the few times he had been there in the past he knew that the trace and dump safeguards were only exceeded by the armies of tar babies that littered the system.
Makes sense, I guess. He thought. Doesn't do to kill off hordes of students because they misbehaved with their decks. Better to catch them and charge them as if they vandalized their dorm rooms. Squeeze a few more creds out of daddy because little Johnny did something naughty with the university's property.
Arriving at the university's icon, appropriately enough a "campus" of ivy covered gray stone buildings, Mouse activated his sleaze utilities and transformed from a cartoon mouse to a spindly human female. His/her gray hair in a bun, glasses perched on the end of his/her nose and clutching a yardstick as he/she hurriedly marched into a building, resembling nothing so much as a dreaded spinster teacher from grade school.
"You there!" the spinster exclaimed sharply, accosting a bright yellow smiley face bouncing down the hall, "Stop right there! Who do you think you are, bouncing thr........" when the ball turned red, tripled in size, split horizontally to reveal an impressive number of pointed teeth and launched itself at the decker. The spinster was instantly gone, duplicating the effects of a jack out. The angry red ball went back to being a yellow smiley face ball and bounced away. Seconds later a duck icon waddled up and addressing the area where the spinster teacher had last stood asked "Haven't been here in a while, huh?"
After several seconds (an eternity in the matrix) Mouse faded back into sight saying "Aw, c'mon, ya mean my jackout doesn't scan actual? Drek!"
"No your jackout was very high res. Scammed the hapster which is subzero because his code is righteous. No, I copped the trickbox because the spinster is like ancient. Glommed that you'd have cover against the blow off. The spinster must have hit the Tau board like 2 months ago, RL. You ever scammed a plug head into coughing up his goodies with that babage?"
After decoding the conversation in his head -("No, your illusion was believable. It fooled the happy ball which makes it very cool because he is a skillful decker. I suspected that if you were using a trick that old you'd have a back-up. The gambit you used is so old that it was actually posted to the chat boards 2 months ago. Have you ever tricked a decker into revealing ID information with that old ploy?"- Mouse responded- "You're right. Haven't been here in a while. Didn't know the trick was so well known. Got any suggestions on what I do now?"
The Duck icon suggested "Enroll. As soon as your ap is in you've got a tracking number. If you've got any heat that temp will get you close enough to start really decking. IF you're any good that is." Having answered the question the duck waddled off in pursuit of it's own business before Mouse could even say thanks.
A short time later, having adopted the persona of an applicant student examining course descriptions, Mouse asked for and got several MP's of data from the public nets about the faculty and staff in the news. At first surprised by the availability of the data, Mouse soon realized that the University was in competition just like the corps. If a potential student wanted to know about famous professors it was in the university's interest to make that data easily available, because the competition certainly would. Mouse released some smart frames keying on Art, Arthur, and Arturo, and sent others to look at departures of significant figures over the last 5 years. While the frames were busy with their assignment, Mouse found himself amazed by the huge number of corporate grants, scholarships and endowed chairs. It reads like a corporate who's who!The decker thought, everything from the groundskeeper's shed to the chair of the philosophy department is paid for by corp money. I wonder how long this has been going on.
Before Mouse could delve any deeper into incestuous relationship between the corporations and institutions of higher learning, a smart frame, wearing the form of an small furry mouse scampered up and dropped off a piece of cheese. Paydata already? Mouse thought as he examined the crumb. When he saw what was inside he thought Paydata indeed. Retasking his smart frames with the new data in mind he jacked out with his assignment complete 4.7 seconds later.
Wait 'till the guys see this! he thought as he moved to the conference room.
The Shadorat and shapcano. Together again for the first time! This serial continues at Winterhawk's Virtual Magespace. To read Chapter 6 click here.
This story is copyright of the author. Shadowrun is a Registered Trademark of FASA Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Used without permission. Any use of FASA Corporation's copyrighted material or trademarks in this file should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks.
Lug and Hamon shared a look before the dwarf said, "Well we didn't wanna start out dat way, but now dat ya mention it, ya know da poor slot's name mighta been Arthur...."
"....Or Art...." Hamon continued.
".....Arturo....." Lug added
".....could be a last name...." Hamon said.
".....or even a field of interest, like an art professor....." the dwarf weaponsmith pointed out.
"All right! All right! I get the point. You really don't have anything at all, but ya want me ta drop what I'm doin so I can wander through the matrix......"
"No, no, kid. Not at all. You can keep dumpster divin to yer heart's content." Lug said with mock sincerity."We just got this little project for ya when yer done. We would never ask ya ta give up something as interesting as makin holos of garbage bags for anything as boring as running the matrix......"
"Ok. I surrender." Mouse said holding up both hands. "Let me grab a shower and I'll get started."
As the decker left the conference room for the living quarters on the second floor of the warehouse, Itami came in looking for him.
"Where's the kid?" he asked Lug.
"Getting cleaned up. We found a lead for him ta trace down through the matrix. You need him?"
"Naw. Just wanted ta tell him I think he's doin ok." Itami responded. "Kid's growin up."
"Yeah," Lug agreed. "Startin ta find his own voice. Good ta see. Where's Sensei?"
"He left a note." Itami said. "He went ta do somethin with da holos of da dingus, came back and den went out ta see somebody else. He won't be back fer a couple a hours and Doc just called ta say dat he won't be back tonight. Somethin about refusing to let the artifact out of his sight. Sounds like Mouse is gonna be tied up for a while and I got a drone with a flaky vid system dat I gotta overhaul. What you guys doin?"
"If I know my partner, he'll be runnin out ta see a certain elf babe security chief," Lug said, referring to Hamon's growing romance with Tanchacti Springbreeze. Hamon gave a sort of shrug of confirmation and Lug continued, "while I was thinkin dat a long walk through the neighborhood might give me a chance to do some more legwork, being a tricky little dwarf." This last was rather pointedly aimed at Hamon who gave a slight smile as he too departed to get cleaned up.
"Owen!" Seka exclaimed wrapping her arms around the phys ad's neck. "It is soooo good to see you, " the curvaceous elf woman breathed as she plastered herself against the reluctant man's frame. "Don't I get a kiss?" she pouted as Owen refused the invitation of her upturned lips.
"Hello, Seka" Owen said as he kissed her forehead and skillfully disengaged himself. When she was about to protest this treatment, the phys ad caught up both her hands in his and looking deeply into her eyes said "You don't want to make it harder for me to visit, do you?" As he kissed her hand he said, "Please, Seka. You know I cannot play this game. May I see the great lady?"
After a moment's consideration, elf magic user said, "Oh, very well, spoilsport. But you don't know what you are missing."
"My lot in life to live in ignorance, my lady. Shall I wait here?" Owen asked as he continued standing at the door to the Talisman shop.
"Oh, don't be silly. Go wait in the parlor. I'll fetch Madame M." Seka said as she vanished through a beaded curtain.
Owen made his way through the narrow hallways of the shop, idly studying the collection of oddities that crammed the shelves to overflowing. He entered the parlor to find Katya coming out.
"Owen!" she exclaimed with genuine joy in her voice. Her jade green eyes sparkled as the beautiful red hared norm woman looked at the phys ad. "How have you been? It's so good to see you."
"Katya. It's good to see you, too. I've been fine." The phys ad said as he opened his arms for a hug. As delighted as she had been to see him, there was a reserve and almost a stiffness to the hug which Owen noted without understanding. Far from demanding a kiss as Seka had, Katya almost seemed embarrassed or guilty over the physical contact. "How is Sayla?" she immediately asked.
Although puzzled by the reaction and frustrated at his own cluelessness to its cause, Owen covered his confusion and replied: "Sayla's great. She's back in the Tir now. Some kind of training/testing cycle, but last I saw her she was fine."
"That's good. Why don't you have a seat. I'm sure that Madame M will be right down. I've...uh got to put the kettle on. Bye." Katya said as she quickly made her way out of the room.
I've known them both exactly the same amount of time, Owen thought, and when I first met them I thought they shared the same mind. They know about Sayla but now one tries to jump me as soon as I walk into the shop and the other acts like I've got HMHVV.
While preoccupied with his thoughts about Madame's two beautiful assistants, Owen missed Tabatha's entrance. The cat quickly rectified this situation by jumping into the the phys ad's lap purring loudly and nuzzling his hand.
"Well, princess," the phys ad said as he started to scratch behind the cat's ears, "It's good to see you, too. Your treatment of me hasn't changed. Let's hope the great lady feels the same......."
"What are you hoping for young man?" The authoritative voice asked from behind him. When Owen started to rise the ancient hand on his shoulder kept him in his seat. "Don't disturb the cat." the old woman said quietly as she moved around the table to her accustomed seat.
Every time! The phys ad thought, Combat sense, Compound training, years in the shadows watching my back and this old woman manages to sneak up on me every time!
The joy in the old woman's face as she looked at her visitor was in sharp contrast to her words. "I should be very upset with you, you young scalawag. It has been far too long since you stopped by to see me. On top of that, if I weren't so fond of your pretty face, I would be quite sharp about the social gaff of visiting without giving me proper time to prepare." As the phys ad started to make his excuse the old woman held up her hand and said "Now you hush. I said I should be upset, not that I am. In fact, I am so delighted to see you that I may even forgive your breaches of etiquette, provided, of course that you give me a full and detailed history of everything that has happened since last I saw you, BEFORE, you explain what problem has brought you here."
"But Madame...." Owen began.
"Tut, tut, tut, young man. I am not so old or foolish or vain that I have forgotten how short memory is for the young. It needs a spark to revive it and I have no doubt that, as attentive as you might like to be, you come back to a poor old woman when you need answers, not company. Now, now. If you hang your head like that I can't see your pretty face, young man."
Looking up at the sparkling eyes of the small woman in the paisley print dress and black shawl, Owen thought. By the powers, she is a formidable person. Wisdom, perception and knowledge all backed by an awesome sense of power. She must really have been something in her day. And the killer is, she's absolutely right. I've thought about visiting a dozen times, but it wasn't until I needed something that I acted on the impulse.
"Madame, how can I look you in the eye when you have dissected my inconsiderateness with such scathing accuracy. I am sorry, I should have called, I should have come by sooner, I......"
"Oh, dear boy, you are a charmer." the old woman said with a chuckle. "You make me feel like a young girl again, surrendering so openly. It's quite perfect to give the female the victory in questions of proper behavior but not one male in a thousand carries it off with your style. Delightful. You are forgiven for your past sins. Shall we have some tea before you entertain me with the tales of your exploits?"
When Owen dipped his head to acknowledge who was in charge, the old woman rang a delicate crystal bell and almost immediately a tea service was wheeled in.
"Well if you insist on standing over me, which by the way, I consider insultingly bad form, you can at least make yourself useful." Pietr said "Get me Constantanides' Compendium, Tucker's Lost Artifacts of Lore, A treatise on compulsion spells, (I think it's McBride,) and uhm....oh yes, get me Hurd's Ancient Mysteries. You'll find them on the top three shelves on the west wall. Use the ladder."
"Anything else while I'm about it?" Doc asked. "Perhaps a floor that needs waxing or some silverware that wants polishing?"
"Listen, old chum, I'm simply looking to speed the investigation." Pietr fired back "If your participation is too burdensome, I will happily retrieve my own research material, it will simply involve a greater expenditure of time, effort and consequently cost....."
"Ah, forgive me, friend of my youth, I failed to grasp the possibilities of service discounts." Doc replied. "Of course if it will be mean a nuyen or two of savings, I will cheerfully fetch and carry for you. If you would only be so kind as to direct me to the side of the building first bathed in the sun's rays...."
"And why, pray tell, is that of interest?" Pietr asked.
"Well, I would assume that, despite the fabulous splendor of any building you choose to grace with your presence, the sun, rising in the east, would strike the side of your abode on opposite side of the house from the West wall."
"Over there, smartass. The books you want are over there" Pietr responded with a grimace.
"A thousand thanks, oh pathfinder extrodinaire" Doc said with a smirk, and congratulating himself on being the winner of the exchange, went off to find the books.
With a night on his own and little to do, Lug wandered into Whitey's. When he saw that Christie was tending the bar, he grinned and hustled over to a stool. The bartender's face lit up when she saw her latest customer.
"Lug!" she exclaimed, "How you doin?"
"Fine Christie, fine. Did I mention I like your hair that way?" Lug asked.
"Yes, but I never object to compliments, even if they are repeats." The woman said with a grin.
"Well, in that case, let me say that you are the best looking tap puller I've ever met." The dwarf responded.
"Thank you, kind sir." Christie said as she set a draft on the coaster in front of the dwarf. After a moment's consideration she continued, "But, uhm, this isn't really like you, Tiger. Somethin up?"
The silence that greeted the question as Lug floundered for an honest answer made the woman's heart sink. "Hamon's not......"
"No, no, no. Hamon's fine." Lug assured her. "You thought, because I was alone and..... " when the woman nodded, the dwarf shook his head. "Well, he's fine, fine, but...uh... well, you remember last time I was in here you asked me........"
"I asked you if he was taken, if he was seeing anybody, and you said no"
"Well....uh....the situation has changed and....." Lug left the sentence incomplete as he waited for the bartender's reaction.
After a full minute of silence, Christie said, "So you figured you'd build up my ego a bit before squashing me with the news, huh?"
Hearing the tone of voice Lug sputtered "No! I really do like the braid and you are the best looking bartender I've ever seen. I mean, I wasn't lyin or nothin....."
"But you did want to cushion the blow" The bartender demanded with hands on hips.
"No, I really think you're pretty and....well, yeah, but ....I mean, I couldn't go out of my way to be blunt with somethin that might hurt a chummer's feelings....."
"So you admit it!" The woman said accusingly.
"Well......I guess so, but......."
"I think it was very sweet of you, Lug" Christie said with a sunny smile. "Very sweet and considerate. Thank you." Leaning across the bar she grabbed the dwarf's ears and pulled him into a long firm kiss. When she broke off the kiss and moved down the bar to deal with another customer, she left one stunned and thoroughly confused dwarf.
Mouse, having found and disabled the tracers built into the programs resident in Zixx's deck, was using it to sail through the matrix. He was thrilled with the clarity and detail afforded him by the more expensive and more elaborate piece of technology. The consensual hallucination called the Matrix had a vivid textured quality that he had not appreciated while decking with more primitive machines.
As his happy cartoon mouse icon flew threw the black field of the matrix, Mouse concentrated on his strategy. He knew that he wouldn't be confronted with much black IC in the university's system, but from the few times he had been there in the past he knew that the trace and dump safeguards were only exceeded by the armies of tar babies that littered the system.
Makes sense, I guess. He thought. Doesn't do to kill off hordes of students because they misbehaved with their decks. Better to catch them and charge them as if they vandalized their dorm rooms. Squeeze a few more creds out of daddy because little Johnny did something naughty with the university's property.
Arriving at the university's icon, appropriately enough a "campus" of ivy covered gray stone buildings, Mouse activated his sleaze utilities and transformed from a cartoon mouse to a spindly human female. His/her gray hair in a bun, glasses perched on the end of his/her nose and clutching a yardstick as he/she hurriedly marched into a building, resembling nothing so much as a dreaded spinster teacher from grade school.
"You there!" the spinster exclaimed sharply, accosting a bright yellow smiley face bouncing down the hall, "Stop right there! Who do you think you are, bouncing thr........" when the ball turned red, tripled in size, split horizontally to reveal an impressive number of pointed teeth and launched itself at the decker. The spinster was instantly gone, duplicating the effects of a jack out. The angry red ball went back to being a yellow smiley face ball and bounced away. Seconds later a duck icon waddled up and addressing the area where the spinster teacher had last stood asked "Haven't been here in a while, huh?"
After several seconds (an eternity in the matrix) Mouse faded back into sight saying "Aw, c'mon, ya mean my jackout doesn't scan actual? Drek!"
"No your jackout was very high res. Scammed the hapster which is subzero because his code is righteous. No, I copped the trickbox because the spinster is like ancient. Glommed that you'd have cover against the blow off. The spinster must have hit the Tau board like 2 months ago, RL. You ever scammed a plug head into coughing up his goodies with that babage?"
After decoding the conversation in his head -("No, your illusion was believable. It fooled the happy ball which makes it very cool because he is a skillful decker. I suspected that if you were using a trick that old you'd have a back-up. The gambit you used is so old that it was actually posted to the chat boards 2 months ago. Have you ever tricked a decker into revealing ID information with that old ploy?"- Mouse responded- "You're right. Haven't been here in a while. Didn't know the trick was so well known. Got any suggestions on what I do now?"
The Duck icon suggested "Enroll. As soon as your ap is in you've got a tracking number. If you've got any heat that temp will get you close enough to start really decking. IF you're any good that is." Having answered the question the duck waddled off in pursuit of it's own business before Mouse could even say thanks.
A short time later, having adopted the persona of an applicant student examining course descriptions, Mouse asked for and got several MP's of data from the public nets about the faculty and staff in the news. At first surprised by the availability of the data, Mouse soon realized that the University was in competition just like the corps. If a potential student wanted to know about famous professors it was in the university's interest to make that data easily available, because the competition certainly would. Mouse released some smart frames keying on Art, Arthur, and Arturo, and sent others to look at departures of significant figures over the last 5 years. While the frames were busy with their assignment, Mouse found himself amazed by the huge number of corporate grants, scholarships and endowed chairs. It reads like a corporate who's who!The decker thought, everything from the groundskeeper's shed to the chair of the philosophy department is paid for by corp money. I wonder how long this has been going on.
Before Mouse could delve any deeper into incestuous relationship between the corporations and institutions of higher learning, a smart frame, wearing the form of an small furry mouse scampered up and dropped off a piece of cheese. Paydata already? Mouse thought as he examined the crumb. When he saw what was inside he thought Paydata indeed. Retasking his smart frames with the new data in mind he jacked out with his assignment complete 4.7 seconds later.
Wait 'till the guys see this! he thought as he moved to the conference room.
The Shadorat and shapcano. Together again for the first time! This serial continues at Winterhawk's Virtual Magespace. To read Chapter 6 click here.
This story is copyright of the author. Shadowrun is a Registered Trademark of FASA Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Used without permission. Any use of FASA Corporation's copyrighted material or trademarks in this file should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks.
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