Black and White: Hacking by Night

Sirius heard one of his many phones buzz fishing into a box to find which one had interrupted his people watching. He found it, a message from Sy. Staring at it a moment and back at one of the monitors. He blinked slow, before beginning a message. “I might have a guy. Would need to see the tech first. Set up a meeting. Somewhere inconspicuous but public. One message left on phone”, it read as he hit send, and turning his attention back to the bank of screens wondering where to look next, or if he should just check the Flesh Pit again.

Sy hadn't expected an answer so soon, but since she was utterly unable to sleep, she yawned and started dictating a reply. “Aight, but wanna keep outta sight. Know a watering hole couple doors over from Sam’s, got some booths in back. Be at the left one at 3 PM. Cya there.” She chucked the burner back onto the nightstand and turned over.

The next day Sirius knew he had to be out. He hated being out when the sun was up. The night didn’t bother him quite as much since he was already used to the dark. But he had to meet Sy, the tech head was one of the few people he didn’t hate enough to screw over in some way. She never did him wrong and never gave him reason to dig anything up on her. He wasn’t into helping too many people out with dangerous games like this, messing with custom body mods made at home. But he’d help her, she was sure to know some direction to point him to get info. I bit of the old ‘you scratch my back I scratch yours’. Putting on shoes for the first time in two weeks he walked out the door, locking all 8 locks on his door and walking to the cafe near Sam’s shop. He was nearly blinded by the daytime sun. When he walked in, it was obvious his feet hurt and he was ready to get this over with.

He found Sy sitting in a small, grimy cafe, in an even smaller and grimier booth in the back. The place reeked of stale beer and she smelled like sweat and burnt metal. At least their seats were pretty secluded, and the bad blipcore music playing could disguise their voices a little, even though the place was practically deserted. When he sat down, she grinned, giddy with anticipation. She wasn’t crazy about the pale and somewhat haughty boy, but he knew his stuff and he tolerated, possibly begrudgingly, her running her mouth. “‘Sup S? Thanks for bravin’ the sunlight on ma behalf. Gonna be owin’ ya one if ya got a guy for this.” She patted a small bag on the chair next to her.

Sirius took a seat across from her. His eyes scanning the place a little. “It’s no trouble. I needed to shop anyway.” he said, telling half a lie. “Okay so what are we looking at here?” he asked. “I have to know that I am not helping you hook something up to launch a nuke or something crazy like that. I might not be too into the status quo law but I wouldn’t be too happy being radioactive dust,” he added. “And depends how you want it hooked up. I don’t really have a brain guy anymore. Got caught a week back trying to hook up a synthetic aphrodisiac something or other to a guy trying to get with women who said ‘No’. I might hate cops but in this case I say good.” he waved his hand. “But arms, legs, torso business I think I can do that if you aren’t worried about a few scars, and I figured you aren’t,” he said taking a drink. Every word was a bit scratchy like this is the first time he’d spoken in quite some time and every word threatened to make his throat a desert.

“Nah I think we good there,” she said with a chuckle. She fished a glove out of her bag, a small network of fine wiring running across the palm. A few tiny processors and small, flat scanning components were crudely sown to the glove and functioned as centerpoints in the network. “I put this bad boy together maself,” she said. She kept her voice lower now, and glanced around now and then to check out the environment. “Can scan any surface for any hardware with a pulse, know’m’sayin’? Worked out the last kinks this mornin’. Y’can try it out if ya want, jus’ hook it up to ya eye plug and run the program. But I want this embedded, the tech, ya dig, not the glove, in ma left hand. An’ I can handle a few scars.” She rubbed her left hand with her thumb, looking at it strangely. “I know this is fine enough tech to do a skindeep embed, I made it for that purpose, ya dig.”

Sirius shook his head to the idea of trying it. “All the same I will pass on the offer. I trust you not to blow us up.” he shrugged, “I’m only letting you know about a few scars because despite my guys doing their job good, they sometimes have to cut a few edges off. Making sure their bosses don’t notice to many supplies going missing. He might have to cut a few corners on patching you up, thinner layers of biogel. Meaning a bit of scaring, no more than a solder burn, or a cut from a wire stripper but might be a dozen of little nicks.” Sirius explained. “You explained what it does, but what’s it for? If you don’t mind me asking?” he questioned. “Don’t worry won’t use it against you. Unless you do me wrong and I know you won’t.” his time suggesting that he should be smiling but wasn’t quite getting here.

“Nunya b-” Biz, she had wanted to say, but she swallowed it back. She didn’t intend to be that crude with him, not if he knew someone to help with this. “Sorry, habit. I gotta get some info from a place that don’ tend to give it up. This’ll be ma key to da backdoor. I ain’ gonna snitch if shit goes tits up tho’, I don’ do that. That enough fo’ ya?”

Sirius placed his hands on the table. “Good enough for me.” he said. leaning forward a bit. “Here is the deal.” he said. “I got a job I need done. Info that’s not on any server or any bank I can find. I need info on the make of someone’s implant. Some mod job, don’t know what it does got a few ideas though.” he shook his head. “Rambling sorry. But that little toy of yours could help me out. I need the info to help myself, help a friend, pull one over on someone who has gotten a little to power happy. I want to fix that. Balance, eye for an eye. Whatever you want to call it. You agree to help me, I help you? Sound fair? I will even forward you the clicks you need, and take you to my guy.”

“Sound like a deal t’me,” Sy said, smirking. “Sounds too easy, almost, in fact. There a catch? For one, is this a guy who’ll be happy to get scanned, or is it gon’ be a hostile?”

“Won’t be pleased that’s for sure. But I ain’t going to make you do it alone.” he said. “Do you need contact with that thing or…” he waved his hand. “can you remote scan him?” he asked, “That’ll make a difference in the distraction.” he said.

“I only played around with it a bit,” she said, “But I don’ need no physical contact. Still need t’get fairly close tho, don’t think I can do a detailed scan at more than, I dunno, 5 metres or so. An’ an implant scan, tha’s always detail work innit?”

Looking around the cafe a bit Sirius leaned in a bit closer. “Look I’m gonna just be honest here. And you know this ain’t my MO. I’m scanning a pig.” he said, “Doing some wrong, shady shit. I know I can’t stop him but I can fuck with him.” he finally dropped his more calculated demeanor. “I don’t need every detail or every line of code, I just need to see the most recent changes to what he already has. Officers at his level can’t get ‘new’ mods but if the changes to the old ones are undetectable enough the higher ups never notice the changes. I just need some numbers to I can make a few changes of my own.” he said. “I can find you a new job something that will pay less but still get you to the surgery eventually, if you don’t want in. I get it, messing with the fuzz is bad for business. I can promise you they won’t find you if you just go with my plan. But again if you don’t want any of this trouble let me know now. Because I will need a new idea of what moves I should make.”

Sy thought for a minute. “Tell you what, what I gon’ use this for, hella lot more dangerous than scannin’ a pig I reckon,” she said. “So yeah, no prob. Shit, if the pig’s into massage or some shit, would be even easier!” She snorted laughter, thinking about massages and the slums and their unlikely combination. “Nah seriously tho. Surgery, then scannin’, I imagine? Be easier if he can’t see I’m packing.”

“No of course, that was the plan. We need to hid all our doings the best we can.” he said, “Despite the fashion sense around here a glove with wires is sure to draw some attention especially with what I got planned. We can meet to night, and I will take you to the clinic my guy works at. Shower up, and dress a little better, if you don’t have clothes I can scare something up for you. We’re going to a nicer clinic then one in the slums and the dreads are fine, but we got to look presentable. I will need to to play a long a bit too. Keep the gate watchers from asking to many questions.” Sirius said, confident like he was somewhere between that he’d planned this for weeks, and/or was a total mad man and was ready to wing it at any moment. He finished his drink. “You know where I live.” he said before sliding out of his chair. “See ya tonight babe, have a good day at work.” he said not loud enough to get anyone’s attention, but if anyone heard they’d figure it was just some date. Making for an alibi if anyone asked questions.

“Fo’sho hon,” she said back at a similar volume, catching on immediately. “I’mma wear that thing ya like for ya tonight!” She stifled laughter, leaned out of her chair and blew a kiss after him, waving enthusiastically. Waiting until he was out of sight, she packed the glove back into her bag with care and waited 10 minutes before leaving the bar as well, waving her battered Clickbox over the register as she passed. That went better than expected, she thought. And if all I gotta do is dress up tonight and scan a pig later, that’s practically free. She turned a corner and headed home. Plenty of time to play with her new toy later. Right now, she really needed a shower.