City of Walls: Chapter 4

"Huh…I'm still not getting any readings." Carl said. He walked up to the girl crumpled on the street, and nudged her with his foot. He bent down and the green glow that encircled her head flowed through the air to the young man's head.

          "Genie, it looks like she ain't got any nanos for me to take."

          "What do you mean? Everyone's got nanos." She replied tersely. Genie came closer to Carl's side, anger etched in the muscles of her arms. "I need more nanos!" She wrapped her hands in Carl's shirt, pulling him closer.

          "Hey cool it!" Carl broke Genie's grasp on his shirt with a simple sweep of his arm. "You know this is as tough on me as it is on you. It's not easy for any of us. Bruce needs 'em or else he'll..."

          "Wus goin' on ova der?" Bruce, the first modrpunk called from his post, where he'd taken cover once again.

          "Bruce and I will dump her over on 14th. It'll be hours before she wakes up or anyone finds her. Look for her ID." Carl instructed Genie with a pat on the shoulder. He trotted over to Bruce "Hey man, she doesn't have any nannites." The grizzly face Carl spoke to seemed to cave in a bit. Carl quickly interjected, "did she say anything to you?"

          "She wus poor. Jus a messenger. Mebe she deliverin' somethin', we cud take it an sell it." Bruce's voice trembled as he spoke to Carl.   "She ded say she'd give us wuut she cud."

          "Alright my man! That's good thinking!" Carl responded in a light hearted voice. "I'll get right on that. You keep an eye out here." Bruce's mouth drew itself out in a slow smile as Carl made his way back to Genie.

          "You get anything, Genie?"

          "Ya. She's Tara Harrison, a level 3 living in a level 4 deck." Genie shoved the data card into Carl's hands. 

          "Well that kinda explains her lack of nannites. She's gotta be pulling some strings to be living in that building." Carl continued examining the card. "It doesn't say anything about relatives." He snapped the card in half then crushed the remaining pieces under foot, rendering the ID useless. Lowering himself onto his knees, he began removing the netlink devices from the girls arms and hands. Genie began undoing the clasp of the girl's necklace. Holding the data crystal in her right hand, she reached for her ear with her left. On the cartilage of her outer ear was a standard control module with 6 small gems encrusted in it. With a touch to a purple gem, a yellow glow emitted from her fingertips and enveloped the data crystal. When the yellow quickly darkened to a dark amber, Genie tightened her hand into a fist.

          "Little brats got an firewall process running."

          "So she does have something valuable in there!" Carl smiled at Genie, and slowly put his hand on her fist. "Allow me my dear, no need to work yourself into a sweat."

          "Ladies don't sweat, they glow." She held on to the data crystal for a moment more, then dropped into Carl's hand.

          "You always glow radiantly." Carl said with a half smile and a short bow. Genie blushed and smiled back, then turned to walk back to her hiding spot in a building across the street.

          Carl turned back around, facing Bruce's direction, "Hey help me carry her over to 14th and I'll get started on cracking her crystal." The first modrpunk that Tara had encountered once again appeared from his hiding place. He did as Carl asked, lifting Tara in his arms from the ground. Bruce lumbered off to the edge of their territory, with Carl following them.

          While walking, Carl held the crystal tightly in his left fist. The green glow slowly drifted from his eye to his fist. Once it encircled his fist, he made a motion, like peeling a banana, with his right hand. The air around his left hand shifted from green to an intense blue, then back to green and a small beep was heard. He opened his fist, leaving his palm facing upward and a holopad appear. On the pad was a breakdown of the crystals storage capacity and a list of its contents.

          "Bruce my boy, we could be hitting it big. One massive, highly encrypted file, and some small fry stuff. I'll check the small ones first, then devote all of my nannites to cracking the big one." He pointed at the first item listed, titled Invoice, on his holopad and a small menu popped opened. The first option was Display, and the second was Scrap. He pointed at Display, and a second holopad appeared on the right side of the first. Carl's eyes darted back and forth, scanning the info on the page.

          "We just got new netlink set!" Carl said to Bruce with a smile on his face. Bruce paused his trek and turned to look down at Carl.

          "Wud dat halp me?" Bruce asked, his face unreadable due to his modifications. Carl brought his hand to his mouth and began chewing on the knuckle of his right index finger.

          "I hadn't thought about it before,"He stopped chewing his finger, but kept his hand near his mouth, "but we might be able to do something with it. We can have two, if we take her old one before we use this invoice to get the new one. I know a guy who could do it for us." He paused and didn't speak for some time. "Yeah, he'll do it, I gotta talk to Genie about a favor, but she won't mind. Set the girl down and start gathering all her jewelry. We'll sort the baubles from the useful stuff later." He turned again to the glimmering screens hovering above his left hand. He lowered his hand from his mouth then pointed to the second item listed on the first holopad. It was titled, SOA.