Rocky skimmed the sales packet the NetWatch agent had pushed across the table. It listed "solutions" like a vending menu, each with a price tag.
[NetWatch Basic Network Security Package]
[Includes: data-fortress ICE reinforcement]
[Price: 5,000,000 eurodollars per year]
There were higher tiers, each stacking more features and higher fees. In short, pay more, get more. The most expensive package he saw hit the tens of millions per year. Rocky figured that still was not NetWatch's ceiling. Those "public" tiers were sized for city-scale companies like Ascension Technology. For true megacorps, the number would be astronomical.
He glanced through the rest and shut the window. "Honestly, pretty average."
"If these do not satisfy Ascension," the agent said smoothly, "NetWatch can also provide custom enterprise protection."
"That is not my point." Rocky looked up. "Why does NetWatch think Ascension needs your protection at all? You know we cooperate with Arasaka. Why assume we would buy from you? Arasaka sells similar services. What makes you so sure our ICE was not contracted to them already?"
Arasaka's business reached into every profitable space: security, finance, and manufacturing. If Arasaka could do it and the numbers worked, they did it, including external ICE builds. Given Arasaka already covered parts of Ascension's security, anyone would assume they also handled the fortress.
Which told Rocky something. NetWatch had already "touched" Ascension's perimeter and learned that Arasaka was not behind the ICE… whatever NetWatch's reason for touching it was.
The agent heard the hard edge in Rocky's tone. He did not bluff. He did not bother to act surprised. He just smiled and offered the official line.
"Mr. L, NetWatch maintains safety across the Net. In special circumstances, we inevitably interface with corporate ICE. We are never malicious, and we never illegally exfiltrate company data. You can trust our reputation."
People who knew the game would laugh at that word. NetWatch's access and mandate let it pull evidence and intelligence from data fortresses whenever it wanted leverage. That leverage was the source of its power and the reason many local corps resisted NetWatch's control. Even if NetWatch contributed to building and maintaining the Blackwall, it still behaved like a larger, legal, well-packaged Voodoo Boys.
Rocky had not been interested before. After the pitch, he liked them even less.
"Sounds pretty on paper. Pass. Also, you keep tangling with the Voodoo Boys and somehow still have not wiped them out. Hard to take the 'largest network security org' seriously when the results look mid."
"The Voodoo Boys are not a typical gang," the agent said. "NetWatch still lacks the physical location of their rezo agwe subnet. That is the obstacle. If our plan does not satisfy you today, I will not press. NetWatch remains your best option for this incident. If you change your mind, contact me."
He left the rest unsaid: in their experience, Ascension could not stop a serious Voodoo Boys incursion. They expected Ascension to come back to the table later.
What he did not know: the Voodoo Boys had already tried Ascension's fortress and paid a brutal price. And the "insurmountable" rezo agwe issue was not a mystery to Rocky. From missions in the game timeline, he knew where the Voodoo Boys' most secret base sat: through the hidden room behind their church, down into the abandoned maglev tunnel. That was where they probed the Blackwall. rezo agwe's physical servers lived there.
"Do not worry about NetWatch," Rocky said. "We will handle the Voodoo Boys ourselves."
After he saw the agent out, Rebecca finally got her wish to head to Pacifica with him.
…
Pacifica
Bati Hotel
Placide stood over a spread of screens and gave the order. The Voodoo Boys' runners linked in and dove. Telemetry showed a standard connection. Feedback said they had begun to work on Ascension's ICE and reported a successful entry into the data fortress.
Then one runner's brain cooked to black charcoal in his chair.
The room went silent except for the fans.