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Part two: "Preparations"

Article: 1006 of alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo
Subject: Silk and Steel, part two
Date: 1 Nov 92 21:07:10 GMT
Lines: 445
 
Silk and Steel, Part two: "Preparations"
Copyright October 1992 by Jay B. Brandt, all rights reserved
 
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In part 1, Shadowcat demonstrated the use of Aki's "Monks Staff" by luring
an attack from three would-be rapists from a go-gang, and using the staff's
hidden weapons to defend against them. Her partner, Argus, recorded the
whole encounter to videochips with a set of Rigger remotes.
--------------------------------------------------------------
 
--------------------------------------------------------------
Rats scurried down the streets of the Seattle Sprawl. At every alley or
doorway, they paused, sniffing, looking, seeking something, but not finding
it, and moving on. Eventually three of them entered a dead-end alley. There
was movement there. In the warm glow of cooling engines on a trio of
cycles, two go-gang members were going through their saddlebags. There was
more movement, and the rats dispersed as a third biker entered the alley,
and the humans hid themselves. The rats also hid. One rat climbed into the
dumpster. Another rat climbed a pile of crates up onto a fire escape. The
third rat buried itself in trash at the back of the alley. The rats began
to wait too, and watched their human counterparts.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Argus sat in the back of the Nissan-Plymouth minivan, parked outside one of
the clubs in the Seattle Sprawl. All the windows were darkened to
full-opaque. The tally lights on his Rigger console provided the only light
in the vehicle. A thin black cable of optical fibers, about 5 mm in
diameter, spanned from a jack on his console to the Cyberlink on the back
of his head, under his short queue of dark brown hair. What he saw was
split into six panes, like looking at a channel preview on an entertainment
centers main screen. 
 
The first view, in visible light, showed a young woman from behind. The
camera angle was very low to the ground, almost touching the pavement, and
was slowly moving to keep pace with her. She was about five and a half feet
tall, with curly shoulder-length brown hair. Her clothes were a skintight,
black silk outfit with a scarlet silk wrap-around miniskirt. Argus thought
to himself "Shadowcat, you sure know how to pick an outfit. You look like a
fantasy girl straight from the House of Blue Lights." She was also carrying
a featureless black staff that was as tall as herself and about an inch and
a half in diameter. The staff was the product that their arms maker and
current client, Aki, was so proud of. It was the weapon he had hired Argus
and Shadowcat to demonstrate for the Yakusa.
 
Three other panes showed a filthy, litter strewn alley, illuminated by
infrared light. In the foreground of one was the edge of a full dumpster,
beyond which he could see the head of a go-gang biker. Another pane, at
ground level and partially obscured by a piece of trash, showed a view from
the back of the alley, revealing two more gang members and their bikes. The
next pane, which was apparently at or near the source of the infrared
illumination, showed the scene from above, through the floor grid of a
rusty fire escape.
 
The fifth pane showed him what the girl must be seeing, as it moved
smoothly along at head-height, bobbing only slightly as she walked, and
turning with her gaze. She was now approaching the alley where the Bikers
were waiting in ambush. 
 
The sixth pane showed Argus' own view of the Rigger board in his van and
it's controls. His hand reached out to brush a slider, and the view from
behind the girl rushed forward, as the mechanical rat ran right over her
foot. This was their pre-arranged signal that they had found an appropriate
group of assailants, who looked as if they would attack. The view tumbled
and righted itself as she knocked the remote away from her, to a position
at the head of the alley. That was to be her signal that she understood,
and was aware of the probable direction that the attack would be coming
from. They had both agreed not to communicate directly until this part of
the mission was over.
 
He touched another control, and the visual panes unlocked. As his attention
shifted from one view to another, the panes shifted in position and size.
Each one always showed him what the remote saw, but they moved constantly
to center and enlarge the views that he felt mattered most.
 
He thumbed the contact for the scrambled communication line to Aki. "OK,
Aki-Sama, it's going down. Can you see everything OK on your screen?" Aki's
calm voice sounds in his inner ear. "Hai, Argus-San. The screen you set up
appears to be working well, but is rather confusing. You really see things
this way? Unbelievable."  Argus understood the arms merchant's discomfort.
After the operation for his Rigger wetware, the first time Argus linked his
vision into several moving remotes at once he puked his guts out. Motion
sickness. It took him a month to get to where the shifting view didn't
bother him. It took another year of training to be able to walk and behave
normally while the images from his remotes shifted in his vision. Most
people found it extremely disorienting. "Hai. You get used to it. After a
while you even miss the extra information when you aren't jacked in. The
vidchip recorders are getting a stable view from each camera remote, so we
can edit them as we choose after the fact, to present them to your
clients." Aki now sounded slightly nauseated. "Ah, eh, Argus-San, could you
re-lock the positions of the images on my screen?" Argus just chuckled.
"Sorry Aki-Sama, that's a direct feed from me, and I work best this way. If
you want to watch, you'll just have to sit back and enjoy the ride."
--------------------------------------------------------------
Argus observed and directed his remotes as Shadowcat acted willing to give
in to the sexual demands of her assailants. She unsnapped the wraparound
skirt and tossed it in the face of the biker with the rifle on his back and
a machete in his hand. "Well, that ought to distract him for a moment."
mused Argus, as he adjusted his remotes for a better view. "Hmmm. And the
crotchless leotard with her legs spread like that will definitely distract
the other two." Shadowcat flashed into action at last, as the would-be
rapists dropped their guard. Her staff whipped up, catching the one with
the rifle squarely between his legs. Argus chuckled to himself. "Right on
cue. Good choice. Get the one with the gun out of the action for a while
first."
 
She speared one rapist with the German-switchblade spear point hidden in
the tip of the staff, disarmed the other with one of the two swords
concealed in the other end of the staff, and nailed that one in the leg
with a drugged shuriken as he tried to cut and run. Meanwhile Argus kept a
wary eye (quite a few of them, in fact) on the third biker. As the man
recovered and unslung his rifle, Argus opened the mouth of the rat-shaped
remote closest to the gunman. Argus aimed the tranq dart gun barrel in the
mouth of the remote toward the biker, and the camera view for that pane
gained a cross-hair sight, centered on the biker's left eye. But Argus held
his fire, giving his partner a chance to finish the job without
interference from him as a backup. The pane with Shadowcat's view spun to
face the remaining biker as he shouted for her to drop her weapon. Argus
saw the aiming laser from her sword paint a dot on the gunman's neck, and
relaxed, closing the mouth on his remote when he saw her dart hit home.
Then he had to make the remote scramble out of the way to avoid being
fallen on by the last thug. 
--------------------------------------------------------------
Argus said to Aki, "Well, they weren't very good, were they? Sorry 'bout
that. She hardly raised a sweat." But Aki sounded pleased. "No matter. They
were deceived by my staff, and underestimated how well she was armed. That
is what I wanted to demonstrate. She is to be commended for obeying my
orders to hold back her rage against their kind and not kill them. If they
had died, it would have cost the Yakusa much more to keep the local
officials quiet." Argus had to grant that Aki had a point there, but he was
still uneasy about the decision. "Do you think your clients in the Yakusa's
Dark Brotherhood will buy your proposal based on that simple a
demonstration? We could find a more challenging target." "Hai. If presented
well, they should indeed 'buy it', as you put it. No further combat is
necessary. Contact me again when you are ready to make the final
presentation." A slight click indicated that Aki had severed the connection
at his end.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Aki reached over and turned off the vidchip recorder that he had attached
to his monitor. He said quietly to himself "Yes, Argus-San they will 'buy
it'. If all goes as planned, your final presentation will be the final
thing they see in this life." He held up the vidchip and examined it. "And
this small recording shall ensure your silence as to my part in the
matter."
--------------------------------------------------------------
As Argus filmed the cleanup, he made a list of the bikes, weapons and other
resellable equipment, and called in a salvage crew to take everything of
value from the site. On a whim, he ordered the crew to even take the
biker's clothes. If they survived the night, unarmed and undefended, there
would be a lot of embarrassing explanations to be made to their fellow
go-gang members. If they didn't it would not be traceable to them. He also
focused a visible light minispot from the remote on the fire escape onto
the faces and tattoos of each of the three go-gang members, and recorded
close-up images for further reference, if needed. Who knows, it might prove
useful someday to know who those vermin were.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Shadowcat turned the staff into a scaling ladder, climbed the wall at the
back of the alley, and turned back to face Argus' cameras. Drawing up the
monk's staff, she danced through a kata on top of the wall. A good dramatic
finish for their presentation. Finally she laughed, resheathed the swords,
and touched the spot in her mind that opened the comm.-link with Argus.
"Well partner, how did it look? Your little friends down there get a good
view of the show? Think our clients will buy the product?"
 
Argus had the rat closest to her make a clumsy attempt at a bow. "Good show
Shadowcat. Got it from four angles from my remotes, plus a personal view
from the minicams in your hair clips, in both IR and visible light. But I
still say if you'd go for a set of Zeiss-Icon eyes, we could make a good
haul on the simstim market too. You'd be a knockout!" 
 
She snapped back, suddenly cold and angry, "We already had that argument.
No go! I told you, I draw the line at the Cyberlink, head-phone and
cellular modem I need to run my Cyberdeck and communicate with you. No more
implants! I like my body just the way it is." 
 
Argus chuckled, "OK lover, OK. Aki says the Brotherhood will undoubtedly be
pleased. We'll show it to them at Virtually There, as soon as I alter the
video chips to disguise your identity. Now clear out of there and get
jacked in. The clean-up crew's already on the way to pick up the scumbags
bikes and other gear for resale. Any need to call in the ghouls for
terminals?" 
 
She looked down again, calmer now but still with a chill in her voice. "I
don't think so. One of them has a pretty bad gash in the groin, but his
buddies should wake up in time to get him help. Assuming, of course, no one
offs them while they're tranked. Well, that's their problem. Good karma for
them to be the helpless ones for a change. OK, I'm out of here. Meet you at
the Chatsubo, on Friday?"
 
"Will do Shadowcat. See ya there. Argus out."
--------------------------------------------------------------
Argus jacked out of the main console and snapped the connection from his
Cyberlink into place on the Rigger jack in the dash of the van. As with the
smaller remotes, the controls and sensors of the van, once connected to the
computer interface surgically implanted in the back of his head, became
extensions of himself. As he drove the van out of the neighborhood, he
stopped once, briefly, a few blocks down from the alley. Four large rats
darted under the van. They were not there when he drove off. He reached out
with his mind and turned off the short-range recall beacon that they had
homed in on. When he got back to his base, he would get them out of the
wire racks hidden under the deck of the van.
--------------------------------------------------------------
As he drove back, he pondered over the details of this contract. Should be
a simple enough piece of biz. Argus had dealt with Aki twice before, to
purchase weapons from the old Japanese man, and the hardware Aki had
provided on both occasions had been flawless. Shortly after Argus had
teamed up with Shadowcat, Aki approached him with this job. He said that
the Yakusa's Dark Brotherhood, an organization similar to the legendary
Ninja, had split into two factions. One wanted to abandon all traditional
weaponry, such as the swords and shuriken, in favor of firearms,
explosives, and cyberware. The other faction insisted that traditional
weapons and non-enhanced martial artists still had a place in the shadows.
Aki was of the latter faction. He said that chemical sniffers, metal
detectors, and other weapons scanners could still detect the minute amounts
of explosives in the ammunition. Most cybertech shows up easily on a
scanner or a visual search. For truly undetectable attacks, well-trained,
normal martial artists, without cyberware, armed with variations of the
traditional swords and other weapons, made of polycarbon with monomolecular
filament edges, were the true heritage of the brotherhood. Aki said
Shadowcat would be perfect for the demonstration. She was a black belt in
several styles, had no cyberware combat enhancements, and was unknown in
the Sprawl. If she could take on several random opponents in a live
encounter, armed only with Aki's staff and traditional weapons, that would
give Aki the leverage he wanted to convince the dark Brotherhood to adopt
his updated traditional weapons. As a cost saving factor, and to emphasize
the traditional approach, her staff was to be equipped with high-quality
Japanese laminated steel blades, rather than the new monomolecular filament
edged ones.
 
Another factor in offering them the job was that Shadowcat and Argus also
both had Cyberlinks, and Argus had -business contacts- at 'Virtually
There'. They were to use these contacts to present the demonstration vids
to a council of members from both Yakusa factions. Aki said this was to
eliminate any bias from the factions for his involvement. He would not be
identified as the originator of the staff or the proposal unless his
faction won. As a secure and neutral meeting place, the presentation would
take place in the Matrix construct for the 'Virtually There' VR/Simstim
clubs. 
 
'Virtually There' had been founded in the last decade of the twentieth
century, when the first virtual reality interface hardware and software for
computers became readily available. The early interfaces were crude
compared to today's standards. You accessed the computer generated,
animated simulation of combat games or science fiction adventures by
strapping on a heavy helmet with video monitors in front of your eyes,
putting on a set of headphones for audio feedback, and wearing gloves and
other devices that allowed you to control the virtual environment. The
animation was often crude, and the response time slow, but you could do
things in VR that were impossible anywhere else. Clubs sprang up in malls
and arcades where people off the street could rent access to equipment they
could never afford. When the first surgically implanted Neuro Sensory
Transmission VR interfaces became available, the market went wild. Anyone
with an NST jack could directly access simstim, the simulated stimulation
of a complete sensory experience, with a fidelity impossible with
non-surgical, strap-on interfaces. You could now see, feel, smell, hear and
fully experience what a simstim actor or actress had done, right down to
the emotional overtones of the experience. Then the Cyberlink was invented,
and the interface became two-way, with the ability to reach out and control
the shared illusion of the Matrix and other computer generated environments
directly with your mind. With the necessary training and 'wetware',
implanted software modules added to the increasingly complex surgical
interface, you could plug yourself into the controls and sensors of any
vehicle or telecheric remote, 'Virtually There' was part of it from the
start, and rode the tidal wave of success, offering the latest tech and
entertainment offerings at prices any chummer could afford. They also kept
up with development in external VR interfaces, offering the virtual world
to those who couldn't afford or refused to submit to the surgery necessary
for implanting an NST jack or a Cyberlink. Many of the commercially
available interfaces for vidchip players, simstim players and Cyberdecks,
surgical or non-surgical, came directly from their pioneering research.
 
Now 'Virtually There' had clubs in most of the Sprawl cities, where anyone
could, for enough nuYen, plug into a secure access port for the Matrix or
access studio-quality simstim. If they didn't have a Cyberlink or an NST
jack, they could rent top quality strap-on VR interfaces, and even secure
the services of a Decker, who was a trained computer operator with a
Cyberlink, to ride with them as a Matrix pilot. This would also allow Aki
to include in the meeting several high-ranking Dark Brotherhood members who
were overseas, or who had no Cyberlinks. 
 
The Matrix construct at 'Virtually There' was their greatest selling point.
You could access it from any of the 'Virtually There' clubs worldwide, or
members could access it with their own surgically implanted pass-key
wetware from anywhere with Matrix access. Without that wetware key, the
Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics, referred to by Deckers as ICE,
prevented unauthorized access. It was even rumored that they employed some
highly illegal Black ICE, which could kill the Decker that tried to
circumvent it. They were -very- serious about the privacy and security of
their clients. The only way in from the Matrix for non-members was the
'front door'. There you underwent intense security checks, even more so
than in the clubs, and had to pay for the services by direct credit
transfers. As at the clubs, there would be no questioning of who you were
(or weren't), or as to the nature of your chosen services, but it was made
very clear that -nothing- would be tolerated that could harm a legitimate
member or guest of the club. 
 
Once inside, the Matrix Construct included customizable environments for
many kinds of interactive encounters. Anything from a business conference,
to a formal Japanese tea ceremony, to a Roman orgy, to a 'live' interaction
with fictional characters could be arranged for, with any number of
participants. All with full sensory feedback. The participants could have
their own appearance, or could appear in any form or gender they wish, to
hide their identities or experience their fantasies. Members could even
retain their own special spaces within the construct, if the right price
was offered. A less well-known function of the clubs was the providing of
-very- descrete meeting places for discussions of a -sensitive- nature.
That was why Argus and Shadowcat had paid the stiff membership fees. It
gave them a secure place to do biz with high-class clients that would never
dream of leaving their corporate arcologies or the heavily patrolled
safe-zones in the better districts of the cities. The Club always charged a
10% handling fee for -business- transactions made there, but asked no
questions as to the legality or nature of the deal. But the high-end
clients they could only do biz with there also paid a hell of a lot better,
so the fees were worth it.
 
All in all, this contract should be a simple enough bit of biz. Demonstrate
a product, film it on vidchips and make a business proposal. Hell, it was
almost legit. Do the work, collect a whopping fee and go home. We don't
even have to kill anybody. Still, something about the deal just didn't feel
right to Argus. He was worried that Shadowcat was too overconfident. She
was new to the shadow-world of street samurai and Matrix cowboys, and still
didn't grasp what the gritty underside of society was really like. It was
all just a glorious game to her. He also thought there was a chance that
the punks she fought or the losing faction in the deal might want to get
back at her. That's why he planned to alter Shadowcat's appearance in the
vidchips, before making the presentation. Just in case. And he was edgy
because he had never dealt this closely with the Yakusa before. He knew
enough about them to realize he and Shadowcat could be in a world of shit
if anything went wrong. They paid great for good work, higher than any
other client he had ever had. But the price of failure could literally be
murder. Well, Aki was the client, and he seemed pleased so far. Probably
just getting jumpy, but you couldn't be too careful.
 
He pulled  up to a covered garage, keyed his access code, and drove in, the
heavy steel doors closing behind him. Time to get to work on phase two.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Shadowcat settled in on a futon next to her Cyberdeck, and got ready to
jack in. 
 
As was usual for her since the day two months ago when she dropped her
legit identity, the image of her that others would see in the Matrix was
not her own. Instead they would see the image of her blonde-haired older
sister, who had performed under the stage-name Cherri Howe. It showed her
as Cherri had appeared at age 20, in a simstim she had starred in about a
year before she died. Cherri had played the part of a tough lady private
eye in that one. Sure, it was a grade B production, but it was a start to
what her agent kept insisting was a career that 'would really be going
places.' Shadowcat had liked the show, even if it was corny and unoriginal.
She had adored her big sister, who had been eleven years older than
Shadowcat. More than anything else in the world she had wanted to grow up
to be a glamorous simstim starlet like her big sister. Today no one even
remembered Cherri. Her vids never got wide distribution, and her simstim
roles were not the kind that stuck in the mind of the public. But someday,
someone was going to react to that image, and she might be able to get a
lead on what or who really killed Cherri. Cherri's family life was not a
matter of public record, so there shouldn't be much to connect her with
Shadowcat. Her parents had disowned Cherri when she gave up the secure corp
contract her family had arranged for, to seek a career in simstim. Cherri
created a new life, and her only contact with the family after that was
with her little sister. As far as her agent or anyone else knew officially,
Cherri was an only child, and an orphan. The money and vidchip letters she
sent to Shadowcat had been set up to go through a series indirect deposits,
sealed courier drops and blind accounts, 'to protect her investments.' If
anyone questioned Shadowcat's Matrix appearance, she just claimed to be a
die-hard fan of the little-known starlet.
 
She didn't really know much yet about what happened to her sister. Thirteen
years ago, she knew her sister had run into the less beautiful side of a
simstim career. Before that, Cherri had always worked the 'dry dreams'
market, strictly non-pornographic material. Shadowcat had a complete set of
those vidchips and simstims, which her sister had sent to her. Then the
bastard that was her agent talked Cherri into crossing over into the
'wet-dreams' market. The first few roles Cherri had in porn-stim apparently
weren't all that bad, and the money was better. Cherri was able to increase
the deposits she was making to the trust fund she had set up for her little
sister, to pay for her education and buy her a Cyberlink when she was old
enough. She also set up a life insurance contract with Shadowcat as the
sole beneficiary. Shadowcat finally got her hands on one of Cherri's
porn-stim years later, after Shadowcat turned 18. She wasn't shocked, but
she couldn't understand how Cherri had ever been convinced that this would
help her simstim career.
 
A year after Cherri went into wet dreams, Shadowcat was notified that 'her
benefactor' had died. There were no details, just a death certificate
stating something vague about a 'work-related injury' and a two million
nuYen settlement from her life insurance, which went straight into
Shadowcat's trust fund. A few of the local shock-news programs made a
poorly substantiated claim that Cherri Howe had been raped to death, but
dropped the story for juicier news after a few hours. Shadowcat thought
they just might be right. She didn't believe for a minute her sister's
death was an accident, but she couldn't prove anything. She was only ten
years old, and felt very alone.
 
When Cherri died, Shadowcat was being groomed for a corp job as an
Artificial Intelligence programmer. To get into the AI field, you had to
start early. Cherri had always told her that the real money in simstim was
in being a tech/producer, using custom AI software to enhance and edit the
raw simstim cuts, and you couldn't do that without damned good skills as a
Decker. Now Shadowcat knew she had another use for those skills, that if
she was ever going to learn the truth about how her sister died, she would
need to be a top-notch Decker to ferret out the real information. So she
had thrown herself into her classes with a will, and soon rose to the top
10% of her class.  She also had a hunch that the people who caused her
sister's death might play rough once she started asking serious questions,
so she started training in the martial arts, giving that as much attention
as her classes. In school and in the dojo, they had complemented her on her
determination and dedication. They didn't know what drove her. 
 
Last year, she decided she was ready. She had earned black belts in Kung-fu
and Ninjutsu. When she earned her Black belt in Ninjutsu, her Sensi called
her Shadowcat, because she moved silently, and with an almost feline grace.
He said she reminded him of one of the Nekoji, the cat-people of Japanese
legends. She liked the name, and kept it when she discarded the rest of her
identity. She had enough skill as a Decker to write and plant a data worm
that would erase all records of her existence within the corp she worked
for. She tracked down an extraction expert named Argus, and hired him to
'make her disappear.' In the high visibility of her corp job, she could
never find the information she wanted. She had to get outside the system,
so she could work on the same level as the shady characters that she
believed had killed Cherri. Two months ago, in a flurry of activity that
was still unclear to her, Argus had pulled it off, and left evidence behind
that she had died in the extraction attempt. They even found a body with
dental records that matched hers in the wreckage. She never knew how Argus
had arranged for that, and wasn't sure she wanted to know.
 
She felt a rush of excitement wash over her. It was just like in the
action/adventure simstims that Cherri had made. Here she was, a lone girl
in the shadows, seeking revenge against a faceless foe. Argus always said
she still had stars in her eyes. But hadn't she just bested three thugs all
on her own? She laughed. After this job, they would have plenty of funds to
pay for her search. She jacked in and joined Argus in the conference room
they had arranged for in the construct at 'Virtually There'.
--------------------------------------------------------------
 
--------------------------------------------------------------
Text, all characters (especially Aki, Argus and Shadowcat), and the
'Virtually There' chain of simstim/VR clubs, all Copyright October 1992 by
Jay B. Brandt, all rights reserved. Please use them only with my
permission. 
 
Comments, criticisms, and suggestions are requested.
Please send them to me via e-mail at <JBrandt@AAA.UOregon.edu>
--------------------------------------------------------------
 
Well folks, there's part 2. What do you think? Lets hear some comments.
 
Shadowcat