Vicious Vicky and the Case of the Digital Rat: Part 3

WELCOME TO CYPRESS CREEK: A NEW COMMUNITY FOR A NEW PEOPLE

            Vicky rolled her eyes at the animated AR sign as she drove into the apartment complex. The Evo-owned “transhuman” community always irked her. Mostly because she found the AR displays of satyrs, changelings, and whatever the hell else dancing around almost as annoying as ditzy personality software.

She parked her bike and accessed the node of the main entrance door.  Medium security that would keep out amateurs and moderately talented hackers. Vicky couldn’t help but smirk as the door slid open a minute later with a cheerful voice bidding her welcome. She was going to rub this in.

Luckily for her, Vicky didn’t run into any other residents by the time she got to the door. She dialed a number on her commlink.

Joey “Carwash” Buckley answered. His tusks didn’t do much to hide his sleepy features. Not to mention he didn’t have a shirt on and his hair was messed up. Well, what else could you expect at eight in the morning. “Yeah...? Oh hey Vic.”

“Hey Joey. Open up.”

“Shit…give me a minute.”

After two minutes the maglock of the apartment door clicked open. Vicky strode in. “You know, you really should get better door security. I…” Vicky stopped when she spotted a very leggy ork woman hastily putting on a jacket around her arms. This was going to be awkward.

Joey emerged behind the woman dressed in a plain white t-shirt. “Er…Vicky this is Jackie. Jackie, this is my boss.” Vicky smiled and nodded at the woman who smiled back. She mumbled some sort of greeting then kissed Joey and quickly hurried out of the room.

“You know,” Vicky said as she watched the woman leave. “I’m not a tusk-chaser but that one’s got some legs on her.”

Joey grinned and brought up an AR menu for his household drone. “Picked her up last week at the Inferno. We’ve been hitting it off pretty good. You want some coffee?”

Vicky nodded and sat on one of Joey’s couches. “Sure. So a real life goomah, huh? I thought you only went for the Matrix versions.”

“Nothing like finding out your virtual girlfriend is a real sixteen year old troll with a hard on,” Joey said, rolling his eyes.

Vicky had to laugh. “I’m assuming you’re not talking about the one that’s on his head. Still.... if I didn’t know better, I’d say my favorite techno was going native.”

Joey grinned. “Fat chance. I just wanted to expand my horizons, that’s all.” He sat on the opposite couch and eased back into it. The drone came back and gave him a cup of coffee which he sipped at eagerly. “So what’s so important you got to go pissing on my love life?”

The drone handed a cup of coffee to Vicky who took it. As she drank the coffe she regaled Joey with the tale of Nicky Caps and Barry Coins. Joey shook his head after she finished.

“Fuck… You sure about this? I mean who says that Caps went rat?”

“Roseena said so.” Vicky glared at Joey just long enough to end that discussion. “Plus, he’s gone to ground. Nobody can call or email him. His commcode is dead as Dunkelzahn.”

“So why me? Why not…”

“Because,” Vicky said, interrupting him. “Caps lives in the Matrix. He may not be a techno like you but you probably have a better idea how he operates than I do. Plus you two were chummers weren’t you?”
            Joey looked uncomfortable as he set his mug down. “To hang out at the VR clubs and cathouses yeah. Couple of VR games. Friendly, not friends really.” He shrugged. “He likes anime girls in his cathouses and he likes support roles in VR shooter games. Don’t know if that helps.”

Vicky gave him an impatient look. “No idea what hole he might have jumped into?”

“Not really. I…”

The two were interrupted by a household drone that popped out of a container on the side of the couch that Vicky was sitting on. She watched the small bot as it began to travel around the apartment, vacuuming diligently. Vicky stared at the thing as it zipped to and fro.

Joey laughed. “Just my robo sweeper Vic. You probably brought enough dirt with you to get it moving.”

“I figured as much,” Vicky said, still watching the drone.

Joey glanced at the drone then back at Vicky, his smile fading. “Something wrong with it?”

“Actually,” Vicky said. “It just helped me figure out how we’re going to catch our rat.”

Vicious Vicky and the Case of the Digital Rat: Part 2

            Most of the time the tight security at Dynamix, Inc., the wholly owned Family subsidiary, made Vicky feel more safe than annoyed at the inconvenience. At three o’clock at night, though, annoyance beat out safety hands down. The guard, the son of a Made Man Vicky knew, scanned her stealth RFID tag outside the meeting room. He waved her in.

            The conference room looked rather plain but it had some top notch security. Astral ward, sound proof blast doors, top of the line white noise generator, and a faraday cage to kill any wireless traffic, in or out. It was only used for the most sensitive meetings, and this was one of them. She saw her three fellow capos and her boss the sotto capo when she walked in. Damn it all to hell, she was late.

            Heartless Harte, sotto capo and Vicky’s boss, waved a hand at an empty chair. “Sit down Vicky,” he grumbled. “Let’s get this fucking show on the road.” Vicky sat.

            There was not much formality to a meeting in the Finnigan Family, so Harte jumped right in. “Got bad news for all of us. Barry Coins got picked up by the feds about two hours ago.” Vicky felt like she had been slapped in the face. Barry “Coins” Ozark was an uomine d’honore, a Man of Honor, as far as the family was concerned. He had been laundering Harte and his capos money for fifteen years and had enough dirt to send a dozen Made Men to jail… if not one or two of the capos sitting in the room.

            Christina “Lollipop” Reynolds, who ran the crew that Barry Coins was part of, said, “You can’t be serious? Barry COINS? If he flipped we’re all completely fucked!” She stared at Harte like she just found out he molested a five year old. “How did I not know about this? I mean, really, what the fuck?” Lollipop was a pretty woman , with almost no biosculpting , but had a demeanor as sweet as acid. Sometimes the Family loved ironic nicknames.

            Heartless Harte made some soothing gestures trying to calm Lollipop down. “Easy Chris. I got some contingency plans for Barry Coins so trust me. He ain’t flipping.”

            The old timer of the group, Firehawk Boyle, chimed in. “Hate to bring this up then Skip but if Roweena's not worried about Barry Coins then why are we here?”

            Hearte scowled. “Barry didn’t flip but someone flipped on him. Roweena’s got a lead on who it is, which is why she got me to arrange this thing.” Harte paused as he looked at the four capos. “We’re pretty sure it was Nicky Caps.”

            If Barry Coins picked up by the feds was a slap, Nicky Caps being a rat was a punch to the gut. Caps was the programmer of secure complex nexi that the Family used for its operations. He also, as far as anyone could tell, lived entirely in the Matrix. If he was turning on the Family…

            Hearte continued. “Current theory is that Nicky is leaking out just enough information to keep the feds happy, but we need to plug this leak before it starts flooding the basement. I want you to go out and hit the streets and find out what you can.” He stopped his speech long enough to turn to Vicky and just begin to stare at her.

            Vicky felt every head follow Harte’s as they looked at her. Nobody said anything but if you lived in the Family long enough, you knew what was on everyone’s mind well enough. Vicky looked after Matrix operations of the Family. Nicky Caps lived in the Matrix. The other capos would do their parts but it would be Vicky’s job to track the bastard and show him how the Family protects its own.

            Vicky casually tapped the conference table and smiled. “I’ll find him. I know just the guy.”

Vicious Vicky and the Case of the Digital Rat: Part 1

            “Incoming phone call Vicky! Incoming phone call Vicky!”

            Vicky DiStefano sleepily pawed at the augmented reality window trying desperately to shut off the painfully cheerful voice. Alicia had programmed the house node to inform them of calls with some rotten personality software she thought had been adorable. Vicky hadn’t paid much attention to the damn thing during the day but at two in the morning it was difficult to ignore.

“Incoming phone call Vicky! Incomin…” Vicky finally hit the “answer” AR button shutting the alarm off. Firehawk Boyle's face appeared in a pre-recorded message. Another capo was calling her at an ungodly hour. This couldn't be good.

            “Hey kid, sorry to wake you up, but we got trouble." Vicky scowled. She hated being called "kid." Boyle went on, oblivious to her irritation. "Call me back as soon as you get this,” Firehawk’s gruff voice informed her. “Very very urgent if you know what I mean.” Vicky’s head fell back and hit her pillow just struggling to hold on to another few precious seconds of sleep.

            Alicia stirred next to her. With a sigh, Vicky threw off her covers but perhaps with too much force. Alicia mumbled something incoherently as Vicky felt around for her slippers. “Vicky? Vicky is that you?”

             “Yeah, it’s just me. I got a phone call.” Vicky stood up and stretched.

             “Now? This hour? Again?” Vicky couldn't see her girlfriend’s face but she could picture the annoyed and petulant look on her fine elven features well enough.

            “Now. This hour. Again.” Vicky brought up an AR window telling a drone to prepare her Synergist Line business suit. “It’s business sweetie. I can’t…”

            Alicia sat up in bed this time turning to her. She impatiently brought up an AR window of her own to turn on the lights. “Business? At two in the morning? That’s some bullshit. What is it this time?” She crossed her arms and stared daggers at Vicky behind a mass of messy golden locks.

            “Some shit going down in L.A.” The lie came out easily but by now, lying was just as natural as breathing to Vicky. “Anyway, bullshit or not I got to go.”

She got up and walked to the closet, her feet shuffling on the floor. Vicky liked Alicia’s bedhead too much to look back at her. It would make being The Bitch that much harder. She took the suit from the drone.

            Despite having her back turned, Vicky could feel Alicia’s scowl behind her. “Tell them you took the weekend off. We were supposed to go to Dante’s tomorrow night!”

            Dante’s. Damn it. “I’ll try to make it back. No guarantees though sweetie,” Vicky said as she put the skirt on.

            Alicia gave a loud sigh and laid back down.  She turned her back to Vicky with so much anger the bed practically groaned. “Turn off the lights when you leave,” she said.

            Vicky hesitated as she buttoned up her blouse. A half dozen soothing speeches came to her mind before she remembered what Firehawk had said. Urgent. Very very urgent.

            “Yeah, okay.” She took her suit jacket from the hanger then checked to see if the Viper Silvergun she kept in it was loaded and secure. It was.

“See you later.” Vicky turned off the lights.