The young Indian man sat in the overstuffed chair skimming through the most recent Tech Digest catalog. Sadhur sighed wistfully at the new Nakamura cyberlimbs. He set the magazine down and slowly flexed his left arm, watching it carefully, listening to the familiar soft whirring. As he stood, he sighed and wished for the hundredth time since the job that he had remembered to pick up the DataFlex swtich.
“Still pining over that stupid switch?” a grating, nasal voice asked from across the room.
“Yeah ... I'm gonna go on a walk, clear my head. Didn't think you'd be up yet...”
“Yeah, well I am. And I'm hungry. When you come back, you better bring some food with you.”
Sadhur nodded and walked thoughtfully out the door. No matter how hard he tried to steer them away, his thoughts kept going back to the job. He'd gotten a call from Paddy No Thumbs, his fixer, saying a Mr. Johnson needed someone to hack in to the shipping computer at a distribution warehouse and nab the shipping logs for the last three months. Sahur thought it was an odd request, but a job's a job and his pockets had been nearly empty for three weeks. He agreed to the job and met with the rest of the team the next day. They turned out to only be two other guys: a net runner named Lindon and a big mook calling himself Freddie. None of them knew much about the job, but Lindon seemed to know the most, so he was voted the leader.
Lindon's first order of business was to establish the payscale for the job. Since he was orchestrating and planning everything, he'd take 50% of the cut. The rest would be split even between Sadhur and Freddie. Lindon then called for a list of assets. Freddie seemed to own a small arsenal of questionable legality. Sadhur had a van and a MacKenna DataFlex 76 switch. Armed with this knowledge, Lindon quiclky formed a plan.
“Sadhur and Freddie, you infiltrate the warehouse as part of the janitorial staff, while I--”
“Why a janitor?” Sadhur interrupted.
“Think about it, numb-nuts. No one will ask why a janitor is going in to the control areas. Wherever there's people, there's trash cans that need to be emptied and desks that need to be dusted. Push a trashbin around and you can get anywhere.” Freddie grunted and Sadhur nodded. “Right, once you're in, plant the switch behind an operator's console, splicing it in to the network wire. The switch will initiate an outbound tunnel through the firewall so I can skate in and grab the data. While I hack in, you two make sure no one touches that switch. I'll signal you when I've got the data, then you get back in the van and pick me up at the library.”
Things were going well. They had knocked out two janitors and taken their pass keys. No one said anything as they walked in and straight to the ops center, until the guards got curious and started asking why the janitors were spending so much time “cleaning” one room. Sadhur stuttered, trying desperately to think of a response. Freddie drew his pistol and started firing.
Everything happened all at once. Sadhur ducked behind a cubical wall. The three guards drew their pistols. The one Freddie hit was on the floor and didn't look to be getting up any time soon. Sadhur heard the technicians duck under their consoles. He saw Freddie take a shot in the shoulder and spin with the force of it. The next shot hit the bruiser in the back and he fell face first to the ground.
“Freddie!” Sadhur called. He poked his head around the corner while waiting for an answer from Freddie. The standing guards had their pistols trained on Freddie's prone body, advancing slowly. The fourth slowly pulled himself to his feet. Sadhur could see the bullet hole in the man's shirt: dead center on his chest. Freddie was a good shot, but there was no blood. “Shit!” Sadhur cursed under his breath.
He gave up on expecting an answer from Freddie and ran for the door, keeping his head down as best as he could. He heard two shots ricochet around him. Sadhur stopped behind a steel pillar and considered his options. He'd have to run almost three meters in the open to get to the emergency exit door. Or he could turn himself in and hope the rent-a-cops would go lightly on him. They might turn him in to the actual police and he'd have a stay in jail for a while. Or they could kill him and call it self defense. Either way, Lindon would get all the money. He decided to take his chances and head for the door. Steeling his will and focusing his remaining energy into his legs, he bolted. Shots fired all around him, and Sadhur was glad he sprung for the reflex boost last time he was under the knife. With half a meter to go, he dove for the door, counting on his momentum to carry him into the push bar and swing the door open whether he was injured or not. He hit the door. He was safe. He was going to make it. As he took his first step into the night air, his weight shifting to his right foot, a lucky shot caught him. The bullet tore through his calf, ten centimeters above his ankle.
Sadhur stumbled, the pain jolting him instantly from his elated sense of freedom and back to the harsh reality of the world. He fumbled for a pain blocker stim and slotted it in the chip socket on his neck. The pain blocker allowed him to forget the agony of each running step and let him focus on weaving through the parking lot. He made it back to the cleaning van and drove the library to pick up Lindon.
“Jesus! Good thing this is your van. There's blood everywhere!” The hacker had of course been watching through the security cameras. He grabbed the shipping manifest and set the delete routines running before logging out as quickly as he could. Lindon was waiting out front of the library and got in to the driver's seat as Sadhur slid over, curling up in the passenger seat. The pain blocker was wearing off, as Lindon drove back to the safe house.
“Freddie dead?” Sadhur asked through racking sobs of pain.
“Seems to be. At least you made it.” Lindon chuckled.
Several hours, and two heavy bandages, later, Sadhur's head cleared enough for him to realize he left the switch behind.
“Is there anything else, sir?” a bubbly female voice asked.
“Huh?”
“Is this all you're buying?”
Sadhur looked down at the counter in front of him. He had apparently walked to the minimart and gone shopping on autopilot while thinking about the job. He found two sandwiches, two bags of chips and a six pack of beer on the counter. “Y—yeah, that's all.”
“That'll be 27.20?” Somehow, she made this statement a question. Sadhur turned his attention from the food to the check stand girl. He half expected her to be smacking bubble gum while bouncing to an unheard rhythm, but instead found a pretty face with a vacant stare, framed by short blond pigtails.
Sadhur handed her his credstick and bagged up the food.
“Have a nice day?” she asked while handing the cred stick back. Sadhur nodded and walked back to the apartment.
“Bout time you got back!” Lindon greeted him from the overstuffed chair.
“Yeah ... how long till we hear from Paddy?” Sadhur was looking forward to getting away from Lindon and back to his life.
Lindon jumped up, ignoring the question, and started rooting through the brown paper bag before Sadhur had a chance to put it on the table. “What'd ya get?”
“Nothin, just some sammiches and beer.”
Lindon chuckled. “Good. I like you, kid. Might just keep you around.”
“Gee, thanks.” Sadur spat, taking a beer and flopping into the overstuffed chair, reclaiming it.
Lindon took a sandwich and a beer and sprawled on the couch. “You lost your tail before coming back here, right?”
“What?”
“Your tail. Surely they had someone following you after you robbed the place.”
“Uhh.. “
Lindon sat up. “You did rob the store, didn't you?”
“Why would I do that? Aren't we keeping a low profile?”
“Yeah, we are. But I know for a fact you have no cash, and I thought you'd be smart enough to not use a credstick. That'd pop up on the grid and give your location to anyone who's lookin' for ya.”
“Uhh... right ... “
“You didn't use your credstick, did you?”
Sadhur contemplated his beer.
“You did!? You stupid --” Lindon threw his beer at Sadhur. Thanks to his enhanced reflexes, the bottle missed its intended target and hit the wall behind him. Lindon reached for another bottle. Sadhur tipped his back and drained half the bottle in one slug. “Oh well, it's not like they know where we're hidin ... Still, better move on soon.”
“How long till we hear from Paddy?” Sadhur asked again.
“Should be soon. Eat your sandwich.”
Sadhur slowly drank his beer in silence, nearly finishing it before falling asleep in the chair. Lindon ate quickly and lay back on the couch, pulling his cyberdeck on to his lap.