Lost Rain
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Outrun - Chapter 144
🕑 Added 2024-09-16 22:04:00 +0000 UTC”Are you sure?” I asked. This was… well, it wasn’t exactly a failing point but I had hoped he would help out.
I put down my tools and pushed a button. A servo whirled into action, pushing the mechanism out and into motion. Just when I thought I had it working, the gears stuck on the track. Needs more grease. Maybe move some of the gears too. It might pull some of the pressure off.
”Yeah. Thank you, Zuku, but I’m getting out. I’m not- I’m not built for this field of work.” Feras said.
Honestly? It was probably for the best considering his track record. “No problem. You really getting out?”
”Yeah… I’ve got some contacts. I’m thinking about getting in on the other side of the business.” Feras sighed. "Who knows? Maybe in a few years, I might even make it as a fixer or fence."
I glanced up from the door mechanism I was working on. It was heavily inspired by not only the speakeasy's well-crafted automatic door but also the hidden door that Hope and I came through into the Underground. With it all set up, I’d have a hidden door that blended in with the rubble perfectly. As I've stood by before, the best kind of security is the kind that no one notices.
I checked the time and shook my head. Crazy how easily it passes by. “I’ve gotta go. Duty calls.”
“Chek. Well… I’ll see you around.” He hung up, leaving me to look down on my mechanism in thought. I wrote a few notes down before leaving all my parts to the side and moving on to my other toys.
It was my Listener's turn. I really wanted to fix and upgrade the device. I’d need it soon, after all. I’d been inspired when reading all those books to level Tech about how I could improve it. Other than swapping out the battery system to give it far more power, I also swapped out the antenna to have a superior boost to the signal. It was a bit longer than I would've liked, but shortening it even more would make the change redundant.
That, combined with a Signal Booster I built up using some scavenged parts, would allow me to be much further away from the Listener and still able to pick it up. I noticed at the school it was quite a hassle having to be so close to pick up its signal, especially since the Listener didn’t have a recording function. For now at least. Maybe when I got tools to get more into micro-electronics I'd look at adding one in.
The sound wafer was also fixed up for better sound quality. I reworked a lot of my old designs with new, better techniques to better capitalize on capturing sound. Some other ideas were to use lithography and etching to better design what I wanted at a microscopic scale, but unfortunately, I didn’t have the tools for that kind of thing.
By the end of my tinkering, I turned my Listener into three-quarters of its size with a far better battery. It would also have far better sound quality, better range, and a better signal with the caveat of being inside of the booster’s range.
Of course, there were still a lot of things I wanted to change, but I didn’t have the time nor resources. Goals for the future though were to make it BugHound proof, which might be impossible, shrink it down further, upgrade the signal again, and integrate some more stealth tech into it to make it even less noticeable.
I finished up on my work table and moved to the bathroom. It took a while and far too many tutorials, but eventually, with far too much makeup and some gel-like silicone, I made a semi-decent look for myself. I looked less like Shiro, and a bit more like Mira. It was definitely a bit overkill, but I didn’t want any chance of getting recognized. It was why I wanted to bring in Feras in the first place. Although he was quite unreliable, he had the capability to be a good grifter.
Hmm… I wonder what Skill this kind of disguise falls under. Would it be concealment? Or something else? Concealment makes the most sense, but also I’ve always looked at it as hiding stuff on my body.
Anyway, I was off to the races. I slipped into my uniform this time around: the nicest pants I could find in my closet and one of the school’s blouses. I also pinned the Lunar Courier Service badge to my chest. Lunar Courier Services, after all, were my in with the Cold Moon Solutions.
I tied my hair into a loose ponytail and slipped on my old slasher’s hat as I headed out the door. This time around, I wasn’t packing anything too serious. Just a knife and gun, which were fairly typical, hidden under my coat.
I rode over on my bike, parking far enough away to make tracking me through cameras a major pain in the ass. Not that I was expecting to get tracked or anything. It’d been eight years; I highly doubt anyone would put two and two together.
I headed for the door, pausing momentarily as I flicked on Aetherial Perception. A wall of distorted Aether surrounded the place, ancient-looking symbols marked all over the wall in a constantly distorting pattern. A ward, maybe? Magic security wasn’t my forte, but I’d done enough research to know some basics.
Not that it mattered. I couldn’t tell what kind of effect it had. For all I knew, it could be some kind of mystical wall that blocked all but those who had the passkey through. Or it could just be a ward to scan for weapons? There's no telling. Well, there is a telling. The runes probably told what kind of effect they had, but there was no telling for me.
Regardless, the ward looked half-active at best. I got a sense of ‘powered off’ as I watched the patterns going across the ethereal wall. Maybe they only activated it fully at night? That threw a wrench in some of my plans.
I stepped forward as if I hadn’t seen it, playing off my pause as a deep yawn in case I was already under watch. Never could be too sure, especially where magic was involved.
I stepped into the door, immediately catching the attention of the two Adept guards. The woman on the right smiled at me. “Welcome to Cold Moon Solutions. If I could ask you to hand over any weapons you may have on yourself? They’ll be returned upon your exit.”
”'Course.” A bit weird they were asking me to disarm. Most corporations, especially declining ones like CMS, typically wouldn’t bother. It was a pain in the rear. Regardless, I passed over the pistol and the knife. Probably could’ve snuck them by, but all the unknown magic put me on edge.
The woman’s corporate smile stayed on her face as she slid them down a chute off to the side of the room. “Locker 43, miss.”
The other Adept stepped over to me and pulled out a wand from a holster with several of them at his hip. I couldn’t help but tense up as he waved it toward me. He tried to do a corporate smile like the woman, but his smile caught weirdly on his teeth as if he was barely keeping back saliva. I don’t want to judge him by his looks, but, well, the cannibal vibes were strong.
“Nothing to worry about, dear. Just a standard scan.” The man waved his wand as his eyes lit up with a faint blue glow. He looked me over, pausing momentarily on my hand in confusion. The hand where Corvid’s tattoo sat. I flicked on Hidden Hands momentarily as a faint freezing sensation came from the hidden tattoo. The man’s eyes glazed over slightly as his eyebrows eased up. “Clear.”
I moved past the two, noting the interaction down. Definitely a scan for magic- or at least some kind of effect similar to Aetherial Perception. I flicked my own Perk on and looked over my hand. Even with Hidden Hands active, I could still make out the gentle waves of the Aether coming from the back of my hand. Was his magic just weaker than my Perk, or could I sense it easier since the tattoo was on me?
I pushed it to the back of my head, instinctively putting on an honest smile as I approached the front counter. “Hello.”
”Hi!” A girl worked the counter, her head bouncing to the music with only one earbud in. She put on a cheerful smile as she rolled over to me in a chair. “Welcome in. How can we help you?”
”I’m here as a representative for Lunar Courier Services. My company would like to set up some Net Architecture to secure a Domain.” I put on a suave confidence that I didn’t necessarily feel as I looked over the counter. I counted no less than three panic buttons scattered around. Two of them had marks of the Blue Crusade, which wasn’t too outlandish. The third was just a small, inconspicuous button.
“No worries! Let me check if anyone is free… just a moment.” The girl wheeled over to a terminal and tapped away on it. A few moments later she slid back over to me. “Alright, Daniel Danvers, one of our sales representatives, can meet with you! He’ll come down and get you in a couple of minutes.”
”Thank you!” I nodded my head and moved over to a waiting area of a lobby. As I sat down, I pulled out my phone and acted as if I was playing a game. In reality, I took the opportunity to photograph the entire lobby area. There were devices scattered around that I’d never seen before that I'd need to look up. Even the windows had faintly glowing runes inscribed into them.
While the magic security was strong, the tech side of things was rather weak by comparison. The few devices I recognized outside of those from Mystech were a couple decades old. The most advanced feature was several turret mounts hidden in the floor. That all being said, I had no doubt a Netrunner was on staff running security. The cameras looked too active, and with how much magical security was pumped into this place it wouldn't surprise me.
Eventually, a rather tall man in an expensive-looking suit exited out of an elevator. He had black hair slicked back with grease. He stopped by the main counter momentarily before heading over to me. “Hello, I’m Daniel Danvers. If you’ll follow me up to my office, miss…?”
”Kyzen.” I momentarily blanked on the name as I put my phone up.
“Miss Kyzen.” The man nodded and offered a handshake. I took it as we headed off for the elevator. As soon as we stepped in, the man started talking business. “I couldn’t find any records of Lunar Courier Service in my brief check. Will this be your company's first time registering a Domain?”
I checked out the elevator. From what I gathered from the building’s blueprints, there was supposed to be a basement, and yet the elevator’s panel didn’t have a button for it. It did, however, have an extra unmarked key slot. Suspicious.
”Ah, yes. We’ve been word of mouth for a long time in Triton. The boss wants to set up a location in Aythryn City though. I hope that isn’t a problem?” A cross-Node search was quite a bit more time-consuming and expensive than just a quick run-through of Aythryn City’s Node.
The man shook his head, pausing momentarily as the elevator dinged. “Not at all, Miss Kyzen.”
We returned to somewhat silence as I followed him into a long hallway. A painting hung at the end of the hallway, depicting a charismatic old man. I couldn’t help but feel my mind clog up slightly. His hair was slicked back as a roguish charm twinkled in his eyes.
Although I was just meeting the eyes of a painting, I couldn’t help as a door seemed to open in the back of my mind, exposing memories I thought I’d long since buried. Grandfather… the scar over my eye throbbed severely, bringing me back to focus. I sped up slightly as I looked away, catching back up with Mr. Danvers.
We entered an office area off to the side of the hall. Mr. Danvers held his office door for me and then sat down at a desk. “Please have a seat.”
I sat down across from him. I needed to be alone to do any more intrusive looks… hmm… if I do anything too obvious, it’ll definitely raise some suspicions. Cold Moon Solutions seemed to have become quite paranoid. It was also why I was hesitant to bug Daniel’s office. Not only would I probably not get anything useful out of it, it would point in my direction if it was found.
”So, what kind of Domain are you hoping to set up? We offer full architecture and daemon integration…”
We chatted for a while as I awaited my opportunity. I had to make up quite a few things, so it wasn’t exactly a stress-free environment as I tried to keep track of what I said. Most of it was about the specifics of the Domain that Lunar Courier Services wanted to set up.
“Okay! If you’ll allow me a couple of minutes to do some calculations, I’ll get you an estimate.” The man threw on his corpo smile as he started tapping away at his terminal.
I stood from my chair. “I hope you don’t mind if I run to the lady’s room?”
“Of course not… do you need me to show-“
”I saw it on the way in.” That, and it’d be quite a bit harder to get what I needed to get done with him around. And it's not like I wasn’t aware of where everything in the building was thanks to the blueprints. “Thank you though.”
I left his office, already planning the most roundabout route to the bathroom as I prepared to discreetly bug everywhere I could.
Comments
Lost Rain
I fixed everything. This chapter was a reveal, so the overtness was very much intentional.
Gardor
"It’d been eight years; I highly doubt anyone would put two and two together. " I can tell you're doing the slow reveal, and seeding hints along the way, for how she's related to this company. I'm just annoyed by the overt way it's always alluded to, especially given that we got like, three explicit paragraphs on the actual history of the business a chapter or two ago. Nothing constructive about this criticism, straight whining for whining's sake. her head booming to music with only one earbud-> bobbing? Bouncing? I don't think her head is actually being loud. Kyzen.” I barely managed to get a name out-> why? Did she not have a name picked out? I'm sorta leaning towards this being a "I was super emotional" situation, which I feel is both not well enough depicted given the other meanings, and also part of my first complaint of being too ham fisted. Also I don't think a random employee asking for her name is enough to make her get that emotional, unless...did she know this guy? She didn't have a surge of emotions with the other three employees she talked to. "I choked out around the sudden knot in my throat", is my begrudging suggestion.
