This is Rom from the Packrat Sprawl making waves and coming to you live and direct from the Soul Deep, the jet jockey area in Haven 15 of the Echelons where the illegal hacking goes on underground. Want to buy an organ, off a spouse, steal someone’s identity – you can find it here in the Soul Deep. But you got to be righteous to get in. Jazz doesn’t screw around. We are subversive today making a call in to Jazz, the leader of the Jazz hacker guild on his turf. The Soul Deep isn’t for the weak at heart and you don’t get in unless you “get in” if you get my drift. Some serious crap goes on down here. I have my sights on a minister today, want to take him down but I need the Soul Deep for that task. Come on, follow me in. Lets see what we can see.
****
Rom zipped around the corner off Astor into the parking garage in the middle of the way off the alley. Cars no longer took up residence here. No the Soul Deep as it was called was where the jet jockeys roamed the virtual view of the gridscan. Rom had business today. Work for Packrat Underground, his subversive website and radio show. He was on a mission to take down Kitazawa, a minister in the Parliament that was working to enact a law to arrest homeless youth on the streets. Where did the homeless youth have to go at night? The streets were their only solace. Take that away from them, they had nothing. The minister had been petitioning other ministers and had gotten others to vote for the new legislation. At the moment the vote was 89 for the bill and 60 against. The tide was set to swing tonight as Kitazawa held a fundraiser to get the required 93 votes to push the legislation to his side and shut down the opposition. The law was discriminatory. Homeless kids had nowhere to turn and no one advocating or them. Rom was about to stem that tide and had put up a petition to the public to stop the hemorrhage of votes from those opposing the bill. He didn’t think the petition would do any good but it was something to try. He had not signed his name to the petition just used an alias that would fly under the radar. He had about 1000 names so far but that was a far cry from getting anything accomplished. The ministers were crooked was what Rom thought. By taking down Kitazawa he could stand up for the homeless of which he knew the ins and outs of the streets intimately. He took the trek down the ramp down three stories to the fourth level of the Soul Deep where he knew he would find Jazz at this time of night.
Rom walked up to a barricade with a booth. There was someone manning the station. The guard eyed Rom thoroughly and then stuck out his hand. Rom rolled up his sleeve showing his right forearm.
“I need a card to get in and a name,” said the guard.
“All you need is my signature and that is all you are going to get.”
“No name. No in.”
Rom shook his head.
The guard raised a scanner with a red light.
Rom stuck out his arm with his hand up. The guard looked at him funny. “Just scan it. Don’t be an arse.”
The guard moved the scanner over Rom’s forearm and it read back a signature on his computer in the booth. The screen chimed giving him the go ahead for the person engaged now.
“Alright you sort. Those are some fancy electronics you got there,” said the guard and waved Rom through.
“Thank you!” Rom replied sarcastically and bowed his head with a flourish of his hand and walked forward past the booth and down the ramp about 5 meters where he could see a hulking bodyguard with a machine gun glaring at him. The bodyguard looked Rom over and waved him forward taking a hand off the gun that was slung over his shoulder and nodding. Rom walked on wary about what would be down here at this time of night. He passed people in black leather, a skinhead in a biker vest and someone with blue hair all roaming around in the Soul Deep. There was someone at a little table with a tattoo gun who was etching a design of a dragon on a man’s back. The tail of the dragon stretched down his right arm. Another man in the corner was shooting something into his veins with a long needle. Rom gritted his teeth as his own arm started to ache remembering that he himself had not had a hit of neurocyne or any psi inducer drug for the past few days. His body ached for it as he saw someone indulging. He rubbed his arm and kept on.
Rom was looking for a hook up and he needed Jazz for that. He rounded the corner off the ramp and walked into the area. There were psi synch device chairs lining the way with jet jockeys hooked into the gridscan. He eyed Jazz at the setup in the corner where he could monitor all the jet jockeys on this level. Rom walked up to him slowly a little wary as Jazz could spook easily with what he had going on down here. The Zone Police usually stayed away but every now and then one of them would venture down this far into the dark and confront Jazz and make him answer for his jocks. Jazz usually lied his way through the inquiry but it was any moment when the Zone Police might raid and take him down. Jazz kept a low profile otherwise keeping to his hacker guild and staying off the streets unless a jock needed him to engage. Rom walked up to Jazz leaned over the deck with four keyboards and six monitors hooked up. Rom skated behind the barrier and took up behind Jazz’ shoulder. He reached out and touched him turning him around.
Jazz jumped not ready for the contact. He wiped his brow. “You spooked me. I wasn’t expecting you so early.”
“Needed to get here fast. The minister is excellerating his activities. The vote has already started on the floor of the Parliament,” mentioned Rom.
“What are you into today? Packrat Underground has been a little silent the past week. I thought you went dormant. The Zone Police after you?” asked Jazz and motioned Rom forward. “Lets set you up in a chair and get you situated. I don’t want to be on the Parliament long. The Zone Police monitor that channel on the gridscan.”
“Not a problem. Lets see what we can see,” said Rom and followed Jazz forward from behind the terminal.
They walked into the area with five psi synch device chairs with the armrest and footrests, a head mount over the chair and wires hanging from the ceiling. There were five jet jockeys in the area already hooked into their chairs navigating the virtual reality view of the gridscan. Jazz motioned Rom to the chair at the end of the row facing another set of jocks. Rom sat down and settled in. He raised his sleeve on his dirty tan trench coat and exposed the cybernetics on his arm. There was an intricate tattoo on his right forearm of circuits than hid his cybernetics that he had procured from the Black Holes. The Black Holes were no joke. They processed and developed cybernetics and nanomachine technology all illegal and on the black market. You didn’t find the Black Holes, they found you but only after you were worthy or did a righteous hack. Rom settled in as Jazz pulled a wire from the ceiling and attached a biopin leveling it at Rom’s arm. Rom pulled back his sleeve and put his arm out. Jazz flicked a switch on the psi synch device and pulled a light from the armrest which glowed blue. He scanned Rom’s forearm with the light and it revealed an intricate set of cybernetics under his skin glowing blue with the circuitry.
“That is definitely a Black Hole job you got there,” said Jazz as he eyed the circuitry under Rom’s arm. There was a small bio intake at his wrist and Jazz took the biopin and pushed it through Rom’s skin into the intake as Rom cringed from the pain. The intake itched as it was engaged and Rom scratched above his wrist.
The chair woke up and lights came on around him as Rom saw the 3D virtual view of the gridscan, the network of everything come up.
“Where are we off to so that I can calibrate the synch device?” asked Jazz.
“Parliament vote 1-12-15 is on the docket today. The website for the vote can be found on a search,” said Rom.
“Let me see if I can find it” Jazz motioned and stepped behind the psi synch device chair and engaged the keyboard to the side of the armrest. There was a monitor attached to the chair with a few lines of green text against a black background as the chair registered Rom on the grid. Jazz watched it parse Rom’s cybernetics and did the search. The virtual reality view that Rom could see surrounded the chair. Rom put his hands down on the armrests and rested his right palm on the navigation device which had a joystick and some keys that he rested his fingers on. The naviation would move with his fingers as they adjusted the view. Rom put his index finger over the joystick and then grabbed on and moved the view. The gridscan raced forward as if trails of headlights rushing by on an underground highway. It jerked as Rom moved his fingers navigating the view. There were barriers in place as he moved through the grid.
“The Pacific Territories Parliament put barriers up this time. I guess they don’t want hackers accessing the vote,” said Rom as he watched the view around the chair.
“Whatever just ghost them. The ministers and the hackers working for the government can’t stand up to you, a Level 9 hacker. Their security measures you can ghost in your sleep” said Jazz as he continued calibrating the machine.
Rom closed his eyes for a moment and let his cybernetics feel the gridscan as he moved forwards racing through the view. He ran up on an area with a bunch of white noise and stopped in front of it.
“I got a barrier ahead. Seems the ministers are trying to protect something,” said Rom.
“Give me a minute. I will get past it for you. Unless you want to blow it on by?” remarked Jazz.
“No you handle it. I want to save my intrusion for the good part. Don’t want them knowing I am in here yet.”
Jazz kicked a command up to the server and it made the view in Rom’s vision go blurry for a moment. A bunch of white noise came on the screen as a wall formed in front of his avatar. Rom hesitated for a moment as the wall seemed to buckle and then exploded into crystal shards before him and he went through continuing his journey into the Parliamentary systems as the intrusion Jazz had set executed.
Jazz crossed his arms and just watched the data pass through the logs as Rom continued forward.
The next five minutes it was quiet as Rom moved through the virtual reality view. Jazz noticed a red blip appear on his screen. He watched it for a while as Rom moved up on the government network. “Be careful. I think I see trails. I got a blip just registered. Nope we got two. Watch your back.”
Rom acknowledged the warning and continued on.
****
A cyber security agent in the royal palace in the City from the basement of the Parliament was watching the grid. He had been monitoring the view for the last hour watching to ensure nothing hindered the vote the ministers were about to cast. Nothing was on the screen until an avatar showed up. The agent watched it carefully not wanting to be surprised by some hacker in the grid.
He motioned the other agent who was sitting next to him. “I am registering something in the grid. Can you check make sure no one is supposed to be on today?”
“Sure, give me a minute.” The other agent looked at a clipboard and flipped the page then engaged the computer to the side wheeling his chair over. He brought up the schedule for all the activity in the system today and didn’t see anyone supposed to be in sector 12 of the Parliamentary Voting System for the vote. “No, we are clear. No one is supposed to be monitoring today.”
“Then we must have an intruder. Lets watch it for a while.”
****
Rom continued his progress towards the Parliamentary systems. Jazz spoke up as he saw another blip enter the area. “You definitely got a trail.”
“I am tracking on a low frequency. I want them to pick me up. It is just a rogue for now,” said Rom as he manipulated the psi synch device with his cybernetics. He relaxed his hand as he maneuvered the navigation device under his fingers.
“I got two trails now. You best be careful. I think they are on to you,” mentioned Jazz.
“Nothing I can’t handle. The vote is still underway. I will run up on them in the next few minutes.”
Rom came up to a wall of code in the virtual reality view. Zeros and Ones flipped by quickly as green text in his virtual view. Someone had put up a block to his avatar. The numbers churned past quickly changing with each second, each number replaced by another as the bits flipped by.
“You got a block ahead.”
“I see it. Let me take a detour.” Rom gripped the joystick and jerked it to the left navigating around the barrier. The wall moved to block him but Rom was just too fast. He made his way around the cyber security agents who put up the white noise screen to stop him. If it had been any other hacker, he would have got in the code wall but Rom was elite. No cyber security was going to get him with such a simple countermeasure.
Jazz spoke up as he saw the wall fall off the view. “Good job. Ghosted in no time. You should be in within another few minutes. Must be newbies on gridscan intrusion patrol today.”
Rom wasn’t taking any chances. He brought his other hand up to his forehead and separated his fingers splitting the view. He raised his right hand off the navigation device and switched the view with his psi letting his movements of his fingers lead him now. His hands were in knit fingerless gloves that were slowly unraveling, the strands of knit yarn jutting out between his fingers in black. The gloves were frayed at the edges near his knuckles and at his wrist just barely covering his hands. He touched the tip of his index finger on his right hand to his left palm and the view split once more. He ran up on a door in the virtual reality view. There was a countdown clock in front of him in the vision.
“What is it counting down?” inquired Rom.
Jazz interrogated the view from the keyboard on the back of the psi synch device chair and got an answer. “How long the vote is in effect. You have 15 minutes left before the vote winds to a close. You better hurry up if you are going to do something.”
Rom didn’t have a lot of time. A view of the vote appeared in front of him as he slapped his hands together and went up a level in the system trying to get around the door which was a security access point. He blasted to the level above and then brought his hands fast down to his knees infiltrating with a touch of his thumbs into the grid and the voting system. The vote tally displayed which was projected in front of his eyes. There were 92 votes in the majority for the measure. Rom had to act soon or he would lose the vote with that 93 threshold and the advantage would be lost.
Jazz brought up the vote on the Newsfeed screen next to the psi synch device which showed the tally from the Parliament floor. There were two more ministers casting their vote. “You best hurry up or it is all over. They have one more vote till they hit a majority and your homeless kids are going to be out in the cold.”
“Not a problem. I am already in. Just give me another 10 seconds to execute the script. Rom tapped his fingers at the cybernetics on his forearm and accessed the memory banks with the skin contact. He had written a script earlier in the day that would affect the voting system and downloaded it to his sin job. He triggered the script and kicked it up to the Parliament’s servers. A countdown began to display in his view as the program loaded into the system.
Another minister cast his vote to oppose.
****
The cyber security were watching the grid. They could see that there was someone in the system but they didn’t see exactly where the avatar was coming from. The one agent tried to feverishly run the logs trying to find out what was going on.
“I can’t seem to pinpoint where the intruder is. It seems like it is everywhere.”
“Just monitor it and I can see if I can shut it down,” said the other agent who tried to get a lock on the avatar.
“I can’t seem to find it either.”
The two cyber security guards tried but failed to stop the intrusion. The one got on the phone alerting the Parliament’s administration office that there was activity in the grid.
The administration office told the security not to worry about it, that their systems were secure.
The security on the phone was doubtful but he followed the orders of his superior and dropped it.
****
The program from Rom’s cybernetics took effect and the tally for the vote soared.
“I see it changing,” said Jazz as he watched the monitor on the psi sync device’s systems and kept looking at the Newsfeed monitor slapped against the wall. The view was of the floor of the Parliament with the ministers in their seats around the mahogany desk and podium in the middle of the room. The seats were arranged in a circle with a table in front of the lead minister’s seat. The table had a voting machine on it and each minister when their name was called came up and tallied their vote. The lead minister Mr. Stuart was in his seat watching the proceedings as the master of the room called the minister’s names individually.
Rom slapped his hands together again and then brought his right hand down to the navigation device and grabbed onto the joystick. He pushed it forward and the program he had loaded started to deliver its payload. A cube opened up in the virtual reality view as the top of the virtual box opened and then a torrent of green bits, zeros and ones poured out of the black cube flooding the screen. The voting tally numbers on the screen of the Newsfeed changed suddenly as the program took effect and the vote reset. The vote tally jumped to 125 against, all of a sudden.
****
Minister Kitazawa was in his office watching the vote on the Newsfeed with a minion by his side who supported him in any endeavor.
“We are almost done with the vote. The proposal should pass in the next few minutes,” smiled the minion as Mr. Kitazawa brought his hands up to his lips and clasped his hands. He was nervous as the Newsfeed was set with a delay of 5 seconds on the tally on the voting floor to ensure that nothing unseemly was broadcast and that the Newsfeed had control of the satellite view into the Parliament floor.
Kitazawa watched on as the final ministers tallied their votes. The anticipation of his bills passing made him nervous. He was so close.
****
“You best hurry up there are only a handful of ministers left,” announced Jazz with a wave of his hand. He stepped to the front of the chair and Rom could see him right outside the virtual projection that surrounded him. The virtual reality view around the psi sync chair was projected by the machine and showed the view of the gridscan with its network of access points, conduits, servers and IP addresses. Everything had its corresponding avatar in the virtual display in red, white, green or black. It was like viewing a game simulation.
“Don’t ride me,” said Rom as he implemented the last steps of his plan.
The final ministers went in to deliver their votes. Rom pushed the enter key on the navigation device on the psi sync device and the vote tally jumped to 165 opposed with 92 for the measure. The buzzer went off in the Newsfeed announcing the end of the vote and Mr. Stuart from his seat at the front of the Parliament hall banged the gavel down on the desk. The Newsfeed view changed and brought up a large red title on the screen that read “counting final vote” as the final vote count with the for and against numbers displayed in white on the screen overtop video of the room with the ministers.
Rom watched the view carefully as his program executed the last few lines of code and changed the vote yet again. The Newsfeed screen changed and broadcast a white boarder around the display marking the final vote count as the journalist announcer came on the line and stated that the proposal had been defeated 167 against to 92 for.
Jazz came out from the behind the psi synch device and lifted his hand. Rom slapped his palm over his head from the chair leaning forward.
“At least now those homeless kids don’t have to worry about getting hauled in for hard labour in the kedek mines. You get sent down there your life is as good as over. Those mineral deposits are deadly with the kedek energy and the radiation running through the air in those mines,” said Jazz.
Rom pulled the biopin out of his arm and let the wire hang from the ceiling over the chair.
“Just a little step even if we can’t defeat all the ministers at once. I know the streets. These kids have it hard. We need to stop anything that would get in their way to survive. Living in the Echelons as a non-citizen is harsh. We don’t need anything making it harder. The ministers don’t care about people in the Echelons all they can think of is their pockets and the bottom line of the Corporation and the SenseNet. They are not looking out for those in need only what the Elite and their bank accounts can get out of it,” said Rom.
“You are right about that. You best get moving. The Zone Police are due for another look see in the next half hour,” said Jazz pulling his cuff back on his sleeve and checking the large timepiece at his wrist. There was a countdown clock on the display and a warning that the Zone Police were do for a check in 28 minutes. “I don’t want you down here when they come.”
Jazz stepped out from the chair and pulled the biopin off the wire hanging from the ceiling and put it in his pocket.
“One more step forward if only by a little,” said Rom.
****
Minister Kitazawa slapped the desk in his office when he saw the final vote tally for his proposal with the white border on the Newsfeed screen. “How was it defeated in the last minute? We were up in the vote.”
“I don’t know. The Emperor was opposed to your vote. Maybe he got some additional support on his side,” confirmed the minion.
“They stole that vote. I need to get the Zone Police to round up those homeless kids and get them off the streets.”
“Those kids have nowhere else to go, minister Kitazawa. What do you want them to do?”
“I don’t care about them. They are inconsequential. All that matters is that the vote comes down on my side.”
“But what about the needs of those kids on the streets? The Echelons are draped in poverty. If we take the one safe place those kids have away their lives will be dire.”
“I could care less. All we need to care about is the citizens in the City. Those scum in the Echelons don’t mean anything. Put a new proposal on the table. I want another vote in the next few days. The more homeless kids we send to the kedek mines the more money I get in my pocket. Each head brings in a fee from the edict ZenZen signed from the Triumverate. The Corporation gets a share of the profits which gets me more dividends for my stock. This is a business.”
“This is the government,” the minion’s voice cracked as he tried to quell his alarm.
“I could care less about that. It is about my bottom line,” warned Kitazawa.
“Be careful, Kitazawa. If other minister hear you talking like that…. You will be called in front of the Triumverate tribunal again.”
“The Elite government can’t touch me. ZenZen is on my side. The Emperor is crazy thinking he can stop the rule of the ministers. This is our game and our floor. We hold sway in the Elite. Not him or the ministers on his side. Just get me another vote! The Emperor Ameliano Dejarre is just a kid. I can run rings around him with legislation he will never see coming.”
“Lino, the Emperor is a formidable opponent. You best plan out your strategy carefully.”
“Don’t question me, minister. You best watch yourself or I will have your job.
“Yes sir. Sorry for speaking out against you. My apologies,” said the minion and left Kitazawa’s office worried his job was on the line. He went back to the Parliamentary pages offices and got on the phone with the lawyers and proceeded to work on a second set of legislation that would reword the bill so it could go to another vote without seeming to be the same topic. The minion sighed as he started on his task.
Mr. Kitazawa pulled his red jacket off the back of the chair at his desk and locked up. He was assaulted by a reporter in the hall outside his office with a cameraman. The reporter held out a mic and cornered Kitazawa asking him about the vote. After the 2 minute interview, Kitazawa called the car and was on his way home when he got a page from the Odio Sacralis building at Baskin Hall. A secret meeting of the governing counsel whose sole purpose was to block the Emperor and stand by those members in its secret society had been called. Kitazawa called up to the driver to change direction and take him to the Odio Sacralis building.
****
Rom got up from the psi synch device and went to leave the jet jockey area as a Newsfeed broadcast came on. It was an interview with Kitazawa talking about the proposal that had just been defeated. Jazz watched with Rom at the back of the psi synch device chair with Kitazawa blasting the ministers that had voted against the bill.
Rom frowned and Jazz caught his anger. “We can go back in when the next vote comes up,” said Jazz.
“No, I am going to take Kitazawa down once and for all. He can’t think he can come after the streets and get away with his nonsense. People are starving in the Echelons and he could care less about us. All he wants is money lining his pockets.”
“If I remember correctly, the members of the Corporation board get a stipend for every homeless youth rounded up after curfew and sent to the kedek mines,” said Jazz. “What are you going to do?”
“I am going to sick the Black Holes on him.”
“That is serious. The Black Hole data pirates are no joke. They come up on you and you just might disappear.”
“It is time for Kitazawa to answer for his crimes. I want him.”
“You best run that by Faid, the leader of the Packrats before you engage.”
“Faid will back me up. He has to. He supports Packrat Underground,” said Rom.
“Just be careful. Kitazawa has the support of the Zone Police behind him. What do you have?”
“I got a whole bunch of Packrat hackers at my disposal. If I wanted to, we have an army that can launch an intrusion the likes of you have never seen. I am going to take Kitazawa down once and for all,” said Rom.
“You have my support. The jet jockeys and the Jazz hacker guild are at your disposal when you need.”
Rom raised his fist in the air and screamed, “Hackers Unite! Hack Till You’re Dead!”