The heavy taps of black high-heels rapidly stomp one after the other across a marble floor. Various corpos throughout the halls doing various tasks and carrying on conversations quickly realize who she is and move the hell out of her way. Some bow their heads in respect while others offer a nervous smile with wavering eye contact. The woman makes her way through the long, wide PetroChem megabuilding halls to an elevator that scans her before opening. As the elevator rises with a gradual hum, the woman once again takes the moment of privacy to hyperventilate; Catching her unstable fall by posting her hand on a wall... struggling to catch her breath.
Often our moments of privacy are where we allow ourselves to be our most vulnerable... in the life of a corpo on this level however... vulnerability tends to be more of a lover's mistress.
She quickly gathers herself before taking a final deep breath... stabilizing the shaking in her hands by clenching her fists tightly. The emotionless gaze in her eyes take over as the elevator dings open... concluding again what feels like her daily ordeal.
"What's the status on the site clean up." The waiting executive says gazing out of the wall sized windows.
"Finished sir. Its to be re-purposed into a parking lot for the new hires as requested."
"Good... and the paid informant?"
She pauses briefly before responding.
"He's given us a lead on a truck he reportedly saw fleeing the area soon after the explosion. He had been just out range of the blast site and saw a black Colby Butte with 2 occupants drive past him in the direction he was driving in."
"Is that really it? Are you fucking kidding me?" His tone sharp.
"Not quite. Out of curiosity he followed the Butte out to the city border. Said it took off into the East Badlands before he stopped following. Not really too many locations out there they could've scurried off to."
"Get a team out into the dirt to track it immediately... make sure they're discreet when they take off... remind them that this off record. Have them hit every location of interest we have out there... if no one else in the city saw anything then that means anyone who did is going to be out in the wastes. In the meantime, have research dig into the 'E.P.V' database. Not the common one... too many hoops to jump through... the extreme personal vendetta database. Return to me with a report on what names show up. We currently have scop for leads... no clear pattern, no clear lead up, no clear motive... may mean the lack of a pattern IS the answer." He concludes as he takes another drag of his smoke.
"Yes sir." She says with a slight bow of the head before a pause.
She lives in the brief calm of silence for a while stood behind him before gulping. She strongly hesitates before speaking... the tension in the back of her shoulders gets heavy.
"There's... uhm.. another issue sir."
He glances over at her without saying anything.
"I've been informed through one of my points of contact that the board of directors may have a 3rd party investigating the explosion."
A dead silence takes back over the already quiet office.
"What." He says in a dead tone quickly looking over at her. The sudden snap startles her... she does her best to not show fear.
"Its... unconfirmed but there was a significant shift in street security detail over the past few days. Several full units along with an entire investigation team have been consolidated to one in house entity for a 'black' project here in the city. Some of ours believe it to be an auditor."
The dead silence lingers... the tension in the air tight enough to strangle an iron neck.
He clinches his fists tightly and slowly walks over to his desk... the tapping of his dress shoes echo throughout the spacious office.
He hunches forward... resting his fists on it without a word. The woman nervously stands at the opposite end awaiting a response or... whatever was coming next.
"I'll see you at the upcoming briefing... we'll discuss this then." He replies with a clenched jaw. Feeling the weight... the vague feelings of shifting tides and control slipping away. Often inhouse with corporations... strikes aren't delivered with weight and noise... they're silent... sharp... delivered before they can even be felt. The statement from the board up at the top is clear...
There is now doubt.
He grits his teeth and bares it in the moment.
"Yes sir." She says in slight relief with another bow of the head before quickly rushing her way back to the elevator.
As the elevator closes and heads down, the executive still hunched over his desk breaths heavy in and out... shades of his humanity bubbling to the surface in private. As the anger builds, he slams his fists onto the hardwood desk causing a loud crack and bang... leaving it crushed in half.
The woman breathes a sigh of relief as the elevator gradually hums down.
Brian stands across the street a block or so away from the hideout smoking a cig, pacing back and forth occasionally glancing at the building and up every street. Zaunya silently watches him do so as its clear the two have had several intense conversations before this moment and are taking the time to gather themselves. The streets are cold... wet with scattered puddles and sparse street lighting as the occasional pair of headlights slowly roll by on a late night.
"Point is.. I trust her more than anyone I know... she'd never willfully put me in danger... put us in danger-"
"-And how can you be so sure Zaunya. huh? What if she just fucked up and made a mistake?"
"She's already saved your life once Brian... mine more times than i can even count... let's just... see what they turn up in there." She says looking over at the hideout that blends in with the rest of the spattering of smashed together architecture.
Often times in the city streets... it can be misunderstood that the later it gets, the more dangerous it becomes... however the opposite is true. Even the psychos of society turn in at some point... leaving this eerie... peaceful quietness filled with stray ambience and freeway whitenoise. Intimidating to some... and to others... warming... like home.
The heat of the hideout has been recently turned on gradually warming the space as a cold breeze lightly pushes up against the windows from outside. BugBear leans up against a wall with her arms crossed... her eyes glowing red and flowing with code, casually running a jammer. She watches Netty plugged into one of Audrey's neuro sockets as she lay there unconscious on the couch of the living room.
"Its outdated code, trust me... back when i originally checked it out-"
"-Its fuckin' not outdated code, I'm tellin' you. Its old but its still dormant. Easily triggerable if someone has a mind or reason to do so. The warehouse explosion wasn't long ago so they probably haven't started reachin' this far yet... but point is they can." Netty responds cutting her off.. "jesus.. what the fuck even is this shit...?" He says to himself under his breath as his eyes glow and flicker blue, flowing with code.
"Honestly I can't even remember how many times I went in, tinkering around trying to find different ways to remove that shit. Did some digging into the source code once upon a time... combed through a bunch of it used to operate a piece of tech like that. Info was all over the place with a flood of various specs... Couldn't find much in terms of installation let alone removal... and this ones clearly corporate grade... so its not gonna have deets just lying around to catalogue through." BugBear says before walking over to the coffee table to grab her pack of smokes.
"Yeah, that's what i'd assume you'd get with somethin' like this if you try to remove it... when they hardwire shit like this its done with the expectation that there'll never even be a removal so I wouldn't even try... but replacing it however.." He says in a tone of discovery causing BugBear to catch on to his point... she looks over at him impressed.