Justin Llor, a.k.a. Chance, cautiously looked around the node. The decor was styled after 17th century Japan, complete with rice-paper walls with dragon scrollwork, a sword rack holding a paired set of katana and wakizashi, and a stand displaying a full suit of scaled armor and helm. The bamboo desk setup in the middle of the room was where he found the scroll.
The scroll was a datasafe of information that he had been hired to copy. His previous attempt to access the file had resulted in the scroll bursting into flames and quickly igniting the entire node. Chance had disconnected himself before the IC security could respond, but even still his biofeedback filters had reported an alarmingly high spike of simsense levels from the bomb that would have left him sick for weeks. But that's the risk you take when connecting through hot-sim VR. "Analyze the scroll once more, Nina."
The little demon girl nodded and yelled, "Haruka!," as a tiny fireball shot out from her hands, exploding in a puff of black smoke when it hit the scroll. Nina was a pilot program running on Chance's commlink but her icon in the node was of a small demon with dark red hair, black wings and a long prehensile tail that ended in a heart shaped spade--Nina liked to throw fireballs. "Nothing to report, it looks safe to access."
Chance tabbed through his active nodes and watched the scenes flash by quick as thought: a practice studio with his bass and sound equipment, a bar room with flashing neon lights, a bedroom with a waiting elf, several video games, and finally the node he wanted with the aerial view of Seattle.
In a virtual glass box high in the sky, Chance looked down on the other runners who showed up as flashing red dots. He selected them all and sent a message to their comms, "I'm copying the file, be prepared to get out of here."
"About damn tim--"
Chance tabbed back to the scroll room to access the file... and got decapitated by the katana that slashed through his icon's neck. An IC program had animated the suit of armor and taken the sword from the rack.
"Nina, get the file!" Chance commanded as an intense heat passed through his simsense with another slash of the katana. He launched an armor application and the skin of his icon turned to black and white marble. He could see Nina blasting fireballs at the scroll, "Haruka!, Haruka!, Haruka!". He sent a quick warning to the rigger to get ready as he ran an attack program at the IC to buy Nina time.
"Got it!" Nina shouted and logged out of the node in a puff of smoke.
Chance tried to follow but the IC had jammed his connection open and he couldn't log from the node. The IC was using the suit of mail as his icon and judging by the pieces that lay on the ground, was almost crashed. He renewed his attack until the armor lay motionless.
Chance disconnected from the node and broke his hot-sim link; instantly his head felt like he had been drinking all night at the Devil's Doorstep. He switched on his AR link and Nina winked into existance. She flew around the back of the van, holding a copy of the scroll and launching victory fireballs in the air, "Haruka! Haruka!"
The rigger looked back at him as they sped away in the van, "Did you get it this time?"
The hacker smiled. "Yeah, we got it. Let's go collect our nuyen."
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