Chương 96: Book 2 - Chapter 19 - Checking-in

Rather than heading straight home, and having to explain to everyone why I was limping slightly, Sharron and I headed directly to the Family's headquarters. I'd forgotten how much of a fortress it was, a huge, squat, metal brick stuck in between the various mega buildings topside. I directed the truck's autopilot to slip into the massive parking garage alongside the structure, Thankfully I didn't have to drive myself, I wasn't confident I'd ever be able to make it in without smashing into something.

As soon as the truck came to a stop a couple people ran out of the building to meet us, a man and a woman. They weren't samurai, as far as I could tell, they were well groomed, and dressed in fancy suits; They looked like corpos. I jumped out of the driverseat, and stared at them suspiciously, until Sharron rounded the truck to join me.

"Stop intimidating the staff Teddy."

"Why are they here?" I asked her, not taking my eyes off the duo, who were now shuffling from one foot to the other uncomfortably.

"You know you could ask them, instead of staring at them like a rabid dog. They're here to help," she said before glancing over her shoulder at the pair, "Right?" The man jumped in surprise, "Yes ma'am, I'm Antonio and this is Vanessa, we've been assigned to assist you while you're here."

"Right…" I muttered.

"Why are there two of you? Even if you recognized my truck, I wouldn't need two assistants," I asked suspiciously.

"That was Mirage's idea," the woman replied.

"He didn't think you'd come in by yourself, and apparently Miss Humboldt was living in your building, so he expected you to bring her when you came." I narrowed my eyes at that.

"Of course he did." I continued staring at the pair for another few seconds, until Sharron stepped behind me and bopped me on the head.

"I told you, stop trying to intimidate the staff," she said, before stepping over to the pair.

"Thank you for coming out to meet us. We have some samurai related business today. We encountered a civilian with a samurai grade weapon, and are investigating where it came from. Can you arrange a list of any weapons lost, or sold, to outside sources please?"

"Can you tell us where it was encountered, that may help us narrow down the search," Vanessa asked.

"I was shot with it. In the undercity," I replied. I admit it came out a little more snarky than I wanted, but I didn't really regret it much. Antonio paled slightly, so Sharron stepped between the two of us.

"And she's grumpy as a result, you understand, right?" The man nodded quickly, then glanced at his partner. Vanessa's eyes unfocused for a few moments, then she nodded.

"Follow me please." She stepped up to the door, followed quickly by her partner. As our small group entered the maze of corridors Vanessa explained, "I could look up missing weapons here, but sales information is normally restricted, to protect the privacy of the samurai in the city. These records can be unsealed if there are exceptional circumstances, like weapons being used against other samurai."

"What prevents another samurai from asking their AI to just pull the information from this database of yours?" I asked, as I trailed behind the group.

"Not much, honestly. The information is encrypted with class III tech, but that really won't keep a protector AI out. It does alert some of the AIs of other Family members, so if someone DID attempt that, they'd need to explain themselves to Broodmother and the others," Vanessa replied. She didn't miss a step, or even glance back, as she was speaking. I wasn't sure if she had practice, training or was naturally cool, but she really didn't seem to have problems speaking to samurai.

As soon as she finished speaking she stepped up to a door, which looked identical to the dozens of other doors we'd passed, and swiped an id card she'd pulled from her pocket. The door opened into, what I could only describe as, the lair of a madman. The walls were covered in old paper maps of the city, each filled with pins and linked by an intricate web of string.

Every available surface, desk and floor, was covered in old books, tablets, and disassembled computers; It was so bad, I wasn't sure I could step in there without disturbing something. Finally, in the back corner, sitting in on a beanbag chair back against the wall, was a man. He had wild, unkempt hair, shooting out in every direction, a Hawaiian shirt and shorts, and an unfocused look. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Sharron looked at the room and sighed.

"Zetta, I thought you were taking care of yourself."

"Reason for visit?" he asked in a robotic fashion.

"I was shot," I replied, staring at the zombie in the corner.

"Acts of attempted murder, terrorism or other such crime are handled by the Calgary police department, please report the incident…"

"By a class I weapon," I added angrily. Almost instantly the man's vacant stare faded away, and he looked at my little group in surprise for a few seconds.

"Hey Humboldt, long time no see. What brings you to my neck of the woods."

"I GOT SHOT BY A CLASS ONE WEAPON." I started moving into the room, intent to throttle the guy, when Sharron grabbed me.

"Sorry little lady, didn't hear you. I was in the mesh and had automated responses on. You want access to the sales database, according to the message Vanessa sent me." He frowned for a moment, then glanced up at me.

"You the girl that's setup in the undercity? Teddy?"

"Yes. That's right," I replied warily. I was slightly confused by his complete change in attitude.

"What the hell is the mesh?" The two of us stared blankly at each other, me in confusion, him in bewilderment.

"You know… the vast virtual world where everyone lives as an avatar, and data is currency? The next great frontier where information is worth more than gold?"

"She didn't have proper augs until a month ago, Zetta." He shook his head, "You poor, poor child." I wanted to smack him again, but before I could he stood up, walked over and held out his hand.

"Sorry, I should really have introduced myself, I'm Zettabyte. I specialize in data management."

"You can specialize in data management as a samurai?" I asked skeptically.

"Well, I didn't know you could specialize in weaponizing plush animals, until I heard about you either. It seems the only thing that limits samurai is their imagination, assuming they have enough points." He cocked his head to the side for just a moment.

"I've instructed Athyna to give your AI access to both the missing hardware, and sales databases. I hope you'll find what you need." As he turned, and started walking back to his beanbag chair I checked, "Nyx, any hits?" None. It's strange… Across the entire Family network there's no match for that weapon. Not in active use, lost or sold.

"So a third party? Like myself?" The Family doesn't have your exact catalogs, but they have shots of your equipment from a distance, and MO to compare to. There's a small file on all samurai in Family cities, affiliated or not. I can't find a partial match anywhere. I frowned for a minute, only to notice that Vanessa and Antonio were looking at me, and Zetta was chuckling to himself in the corner.

"What? I'm talking to my AI."

"Most samurai subvocalize, or have a mental interface to talk to their partners," Zetta explained from his seat.

"Yeah, well, I normally have a three foot fuzzy interface walking around behind me, so I never bothered with that shit." He just smiled wider, "Touche""Nyx, summarize please. No known samurai means, what? Out of town or undiscovered samurai supplied the weapon?" Exactly.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa…" Zetta bolted upright, "you're saying we have a freelancer trying to fly under the radar, and sell weapons, in town?"

"Maybe?" I said with a shrug.

"The weapon I was shot with doesn't match any known signature."

"Wonderful. I need to report this to the others. We don't mind freelancers like yourself running around, but a loose cannon selling weapons? That we need to keep an eye out for." He groaned, then shoved himself back to his feet.

"And that means meetings. There goes my afternoon." He stepped across the room, knocking over the various piles of shit, before stopping before my little group.

"Humboldt, it was nice seeing you again," he said, shaking her hand.

"And Teddy, nice to meet you," he said, shaking mine.

"Sorry I can't be more hospitable, but I need to inform the others and investigate myself. Can't have some samurai selling weapons to random people. I'll let you know if we dig anything up, can you promise you'll contact us if you do the same?" I nodded.

"Wonderful. I'll talk to you both later," Zetta said, as he squeezed past everyone then booked it down the corridor.

"Apparently this is a bigger deal than I originally thought," I murmured.

"Where the fuck did Guiding Light find this guy?"