The tapping of black high-heels on marbled floor echo down the long stretch of a PetroChem megabuilding hallway. Various corpos and office employees going about their day scramble to get out of the woman's way walking with a brisk pace over to the elevator.
She enters with a straight face... once the doors closes... she begins to hyperventilate. She puts her hand over her mouth and posts the other on a wall... trying to catch her balance. The extreme anxiety she feels builds in her stomach as she starts to gag... Doing her best to gather herself... taking deep breaths and getting her shaking under control. Her daily ordeal feeling heavier today for some reason.
As the elevator door opens she walks out with confidence and sees the executive stood with his back toward her... leaned up against his desk, smoking a cigarette and looking out into the Night Cityscape.
"Status report." The man says in a deep monotone, taking another drag of his smoke.
"The blast site has been completely combed through and overhaul clean-up starts tomorrow. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything of note found on site... several of the eye-witnesses we had went on the run as soon as we made contact. Typical.. but not ideal."
"The board can thank the company's public reputation for shit like that." He scoffs. She continues.
"We still have a couple of them. One of which is probably the most valuable of the entire bunch. Hes asking for a big payday for what he knows... typical Night City street scum... fishing for a fucking eddie on shaky ground."
"We don't have time to waste on this shit. Pay him."
"Yes sir." She responds. Taking a moment to join the executive by his side... Her hands clasped behind her back looking out into the Night Cityscape.
"Shit like this is too often looked at as a simple write-off... completely disregarding the fact that at this magnitude the fallout can snowball or cascade... spending too many years at the top makes you comfortable... when you're comfortable... you're careless... and complacent. Never forget that." He concludes as he takes another drag.
"Yes sir." She responds with a slight bow of the head.
"Whoever did this... isn't done here... can't be done here.. I just know it." He concludes as we see Zaunya laid unconscious on the bed back at the apartment.
The door to the room slowly slides open as they see Audrey plugged into one of Zaunya's nuerosockets.. trying to diagnose and tend to her. She glances over her shoulder to see Brian and the kid enter..
She doesn't react.
Brian glances at the kid whom returns the look slightly confused. He silently gestures the kid to go over there and help as he said he would. The kid hesitantly approaches slowly.
"H-Hey.. uhm" He says in a softened tone clearing his throat. "May i..?" He asks gesturing toward Zaunya... Audrey looks at him skeptical but unplugs and moves out of the way. The kid reaches for Zaunya's head but Audrey quickly snatches his arms violently forcing him to stop... making him jump slightly. She gently moves Zaunya's head into position for the kid... moving her long black hair out of the way. The kid jacks into one of Zaunya's neuroports while she lay unconscious and begins to scan her. His Kiroshis glowing blue and flowing with code.
After some time passes, he speaks in a serious tone.
"There's... a lot of holes in the ice... Looks to me like not the best patchwork was done. Most of the problems i'm picking up derive from her sandy but there's a few other things going on. Her chrome definitely isn't... consumer grade but considering how much there is she'll need some serious work on her ice." Brian glances over at Audrey who returns the look.
As the kid's eyes flicker blue, flowing with code he notices several things that give him an instinctual reaction of surprise that he couldn't mask quick enough. Audrey picks up on it... almost as if he saw something he knows no else could've seen. The discovery catches him off guard as he unplugs and clears his throat again.
"That should uhh... get her stable."
"What did- you do..?" Audrey asks looking over at him.
While he responds... she glances at the kids neck and gets a clear, up close look at a small, very subtle tattoo sitting near his nuero sockets that simply reads: "NTK". The realization causes Audrey to open her eyes wide in shock.
"The work shes had done on her is... f-fuckin' preem to say the least." He stammers with a nervous chuckle. "Holy shit.. I mean... i've never even seen chrome like that. Its like... all no-cat." He whispers to himself in awe before continuing. "Her hardware is solid but the soft is... just not up to the same standard at all really. Had to do a bios scan.. refine some of the-" He abruptly stops as he looks over at Audrey quickly stand up staring straight at him.
The tension in the room suddenly increases.
"Impossible.." She whispers under her breath... it grabs Brian's attention as he stands leaned up against a wall with his arms crossed. The kid also looks over at Audrey nervous and confused.
"What is it." Brian says uncrossing his arms and coming off the wall.
Audrey speaks... eye still locked on the kid. "One of my clients and close friend BugBear... one of the best damn runners I know... A few weeks ago we were hangin' out and she was droning on and on about this unknown runner building a heavy rep. Raiding Cytech and MiliTech data fortresses for sport... and just doing random unpredictable hacks on various sectors of the city; Serious plug head level runner stuff... power grids, Biotechnica black labs, Confidential Trauma Team platinum client specs, you name it. She told me they'd penetrate then just... leave... doing no damage.. stealing no data... Only thing they ever left behind was a calling card in the ice... NTK." She says as she points over at him. "She said only runners with a specific skillset are able to decipher the abreev."
"The fuck is NTK...?" Brian asks
"Netty The Kid." She says with a tone of discovery while giggling.
"Hah... I bet none of those code fiends would've ever guessed that its ACTUALLY a fuckin kid." She concludes while smirking... resting her back against her chair as Brian approaches... standing behind Audrey's shoulder with his fists clinched staring daggers at the kid.
"H-Hey... I don't want any trouble." The kid proclaims in a serious tone as he puts his hands up.
Brian responds as he steps forward past Audrey. "Then you've come to the wrong place."