Chrome Symphony - Chapter 1

It was raining fairly hard when Atlas rushed through the lobby and entered a rather upscale-looking bar. He took a look at the sign. It read, "Velvet Room".

This wasn't really his kind of place. He was, however, here on business. Having run out of options as far as jobs available to someone of his background, Atlas had turned to mercenary work. He couldn't complain; he was adept at this kind of thing. Negotiating, on the other hand, was more nuanced and he could stand to refine his skills in this area.

Atlas made a quick visual scan of the room. He knew the types of people here - wealthy bosses of the underground and all manner of those who closely affiliated with these types. This wasn't exactly friendly territory, but Atlas knew how to keep things low key.

Finally, he saw the faces of the people he was there to meet. He gingerly walked over to their table, surprisingly unaccosted by the security there. It seemed they had been told to expect him.

Sitting down at the table, Atlas greeted the well-dressed men. "Raining like hell out there. I'm honored you called me here tonight. Awfully nice joint you have here."

His potential clients looked him up and down as he took a seat. Atlas surreptitiously took notice of their gazes and decided to be more direct. "Gentleman, shall we talk business?"

Something caught the corner of Atlas' eye. It was a silver-haired girl - the spitting image of the popular idol Eclair Antares. He wondered why someone like that would be working in such a place. Shaking off the distraction, he continued light conversation with the bosses, having his direct approach to business temporarily deflected.

Shell was finishing her daily records-filing duties for the day. She had repaired several breaks in the fiber optic lines below street level and submitted the details of her day's work.

All in all, today was a typical day at EMAcorp. Shell was one of the main technicians working in the area around EMAcorp's headquarters, which meant she sometimes had to venture into the bad areas of town. This didn't faze her much. While she was small, she could maneuver extremely quickly and disappear before any trouble could start. In fact, earlier in the day while she was testing one of the wireless transceiver units, a couple of thugs started to harass her. In the blink of an eye, she was gone, along with the broken wireless unit. After the thugs lost interest in her and the valuable wireless transceiver, she repaired the unit and locked it safely in the utility box atop one of the many service poles along the "line' - the border between the wealthy business district and the shady area in which the criminals often did their business.

As she was packing up her tools and heading back to her small apartment nearby, her supervisor stopped her in the corridor.

"Shell, the higher ups have a special job for you."

Unsurprised by the late notice - as this was typical right after working hours ended - she shrugged. "Sure. What's up?"

"There's a... special client... that needs some repair work done on their private network. This is a very confidential work assignment so you're going to have to do a lot of paperwork prior."

Shell nodded. "Yeah, let's get that out of the way so I can see what they need."

In Shell's mind, the documents appeared, having been sent over the wireless network. Without moving a muscle, she quickly scanned the text and digitally signed them.

"Ok, then," her supervisor added, noting her signature as he watched his tablet, "you're cleared for takeoff."

Shell chuckled at the silly metaphor. "Right, where's the job located?" she asked.

Her supervisor looked at his tablet again. "Oh, are they serious?" he said, looking a little shocked. "They've got you working down in the mob district... at the... "Velvet Room" lounge.

Shell shook her head. "Wait. Are you sure that's the right place?"

"Yes."

Her supervisor paused a moment. "You know we're not sending you alone, right? The client themselves requested two techs for some reason. Some old geezer's going to be handling the software side of things."

Duncan was standing under an awning, dodging the rain.

"It's really coming down. Looks like I'm going to get a shower if I don't want to run late," he muttered to himself.

Duncan wasn't used to having to make house calls. Most of his information security and hacking work was done remotely. The 'net was his domain and often his eyes and ears as he would sit in his dark room surrounded by monitors - which were largely unnecessary due to the fact that normally used his cybernetic neural interfaces for everything.

This time, however, he had to venture out into the elements and into the bad part of town. Duncan really hated this part of town... the drugs, prostitution, the violence and robberies all repulsed him. The comfort of his own home office was the only place he could keep a clear head as he munched on donuts, guzzled coffee, and listened to ancient eurobeat and techno while earning a living performing security audits and patching vulnerabilities.

"The Velvet Room, huh?" he said, remembering where he was going. "Sounds like a sw***y joint for how run down the rest of this area is."

As he entered the bar, he wiped his large metal boots on the mat, taking care not to mess up the expensive-looking carpet. Clearing his throat, he called out to one of the barkeeps, a small, silver-haired girl that looked oddly familiar, though Duncan couldn't quite place the resemblance.

"Ma'am, I'm here to perform some software security work on one of your computer systems. I believe a technician from EMAcorp is supposed to be here as well."

The girl looked at him for a moment and then beckoned him toward the back of the bar in the direction of a large double door.

"Roger, dodger. Just tell me what I need to do," he replied to her gestures.

As far as Elise could tell, it was another typical day in City N, if you ignored the fact it had been raining buckets for the past few hours. Her own umbrella leaned behind the bar, where she'd left it conveniently out of sight. She was a little wet, in spite of the teflon coating most of her suit, but she could keep her composure. Nobody would really be seeing her below the waist, anyway. Worst comes to it, she'd just slip off to the back and change.

The Velvet Room was its usual quiet self. The rowdier crowds tended to avoid the place, which isn't to say it didn't see its share of rough customers. The place staked its claim on low-key lighting, quiet jazz music, and a focus on a relaxing evening, rather than the louder, more raucous clubs that populated other sections of the street. Enough of the regulars were the sorts who brought their own security that fights were rare, but if they were, Elise's job description could double as "bouncer."

The actual clientele tended to run through a large cross-section of the less savory segments of society. Upper-crust organized criminal types, corporate fronts who either liked the ambiance or needed a neutral location to conduct business with the other patrons, all the way down to anyone who walked in off the street. If someone had the cash and was of age, she'd serve them, as long as they stayed in line. Every evening tended to be an interesting mix of patrons, and that's one reason she loved the job. People were interesting. Sure, she didn't get to be a fly on the wall for the really important stuff, but she still got to see and hear bits and pieces of everyone's interesting lives, working a joint like this one.

She glanced up from the bar as a man rushed in, still dripping from the rain. She made a mental note to break out the mop, later. Typical merc, from the look of the men he'd sat down with. Not a singe bit of chrome on him, from what she could see, so...maybe not so typical.

A bit later, an older gent with enough antique 'ware to be a museum piece approached the bar. "Ma'am," he said, "I'm here to perform some software security work on one of your computer systems. I believe a technician from EMAcorp is supposed to be here as well."

Elise looked him over for a few moments, and continued to wipe down the bar with a clean towel. "Usually, the big corp types go for one of the private rooms in the back. I think EMA booked one for the evening." She gestured toward the double doors that stood in the far wall, past the rest of the booths and tables. "You won't need do much, just go buss the intercom outside the door and announce yourself." She pulled up the log for the private rooms on the building's local 'net, and let it flicker across her field of vision for a few moments. "Looks like you'll want room 2. First on the right."

Shell entered the bar a short time later, after Duncan had passed through the large double doors to the back. She walked up to Elise.

"Hello, I'm from EMAcorp regarding your computer network issues. I've been sent under a special agreement."

Shell had been quick to run under the awnings of the various shops on her way to the bar. She didn't have far to go but wanted to avoid getting drenched on the short trip. Her hair had still managed to get wet, however.

"You wouldn't happen to have a towel handy, would you?" she asked Elise as she followed her to the bar.