Undercover Ops: Ch. 02

Undercover Ops: Ch. 02

Cassidy's apartment had a spacious underground garage. Tucked into one corner, she could park her bike and drag her various tools down with her. She blessed Max's forethought once she began to install the security features on her bike. Like herself, they were not only lethal but entirely self-contained. Should someone attempt to steal her bike, they could be stunned, captured, killed, or, as a last resort, the entire bike could be set to explode. Once or twice, she returned to her bike to discover the light electrical discharge had been released. It was a simple warning that all but the most dedicated thieves took to heart. She'd never needed the stronger devices.

The installation had been simple, once the bars were removed, although somewhat time consuming. The combination of devices were tricky to coordinate. She could have saved some effort by simply assembling everything upstairs and bringing it down for install, however Cassidy did not like the thought of leaving her new bike only to the security of the garage, even if she had designed and installed that as well. Additionally, it was considerably easier to dismantle the security precautions when it was a single package. By installing the components separately, anyone who attempted to disengage them would need to pull them out one by one. The likelihood of missing one rose dramatically in that event.

Cassidy sat back heavily as she managed to wrangle the last piece into place. She laughed as she suddenly realized how tense her back was from crouching for hours on end. From wonderfully sore, to simply sore and tense, to perfectly relaxed, to tense once more and all in less than twenty-four hours. And the day was young yet.

She sighed and contented herself with some stretching exercises to work the worst of the knots out.

"Maybe I should try to hire Sven away from Max? Set him up here to work on me every night when I get home."

It was a great thought but, like the beach, she knew it would only breed slovenliness. Besides, a rival could always try to use Sven to get to her. He was big and probably pretty strong but those skilled hands did not move like a fighter's.

Even as she began to feel a little more loose, her phone chirped. A glance told her it was Wolf. "Hey Wolf. How's it going?" Wolf was a fellow Operator. Unlike Cassidy, he worked as part of a regular team. He was one of the best drivers she had met, but his inability to fight his way out of a paper bag had held him back for years. Finally he fell in with Silent Skills, one of the best IO teams out there, and found his nitch. All of the members of his team were near the best at their own bag of tricks so his lack of martial skills proved little hindrance. He could fire weapons from mounts like the master he was, but put one in his hand and you'd end up ducking for fear he'd shoot you in the back accidentally.

"Bad! Have you seen Shade recently? No one's been able to get a hold of her. We've tried both of her numbers, the board and even the trackers on her equipment. We haven't seen her in a couple of days!"

Cassidy had never heard Wolf this near to hysterics. It was understandable really. Shade was the group's resident hacker. After a few assignments together, the two decided to try dating. That had been three years and two apartments ago. The two were about as close to being married as any IO would allow themselves to be.

"Hey, Wolf, calm down man! Take a few deep breaths and give it to me slowly. You say it's been two days since anyone's seen her? Where was she going? Out to round up info for a mission?"

The thought of one of the city's best hackers simply disappearing was unnerving. Although Shade, like Wolf, was under-skilled in close combat, she was a decent shot with the pistol she kept hidden in her boot. Anyone trying to get the jump on the mouse of a woman would be in for a surprise.

Secondly the failed trackers strongly implied that someone had removed them. Otherwise her team should have found the equipment in a pawn shop or dumpster somewhere, if not on her. Most disturbing was the fact that she had failed to even leave a message on any boards. Cassidy had seen the girl use a basic touch-tone phone to leave a fully coded message on a cyber-board before. No message meant she was somewhere away from technology, which meant someone was holding her or she was dead.

Wolf's very audible breaths rang across the phone before he continued, a little more in control.

"We're between jobs right now. Nothing coming up that I know of and the boss says he hadn't discussed anything with her. She wandered out just over two days ago, in the morning, to get some basics; groceries, toiletries, that sort of thing. When she wasn't home by the afternoon I was getting ready to read her the act, figuring she'd decided to hack someplace just for fun and forgot to send me a message. When she wasn't back that evening I began asking the others of the team. By yesterday morning I was afraid she was cheating on me. When she didn't show last night... I just know something's wrong!"

Cassidy sighed. The Silent Skills were the only team she would even consider teaming up with. Occasionally she called on Shade when she knew she had a particularly difficult computer to break into. In those times Cassidy would go in and connect a long-range transmitter which allowed Shade the hack from the relative safety of her apartment.

"You've covered all the bases haven't you." It was a statement rather than a question. "Nobody on the street has heard anything either?"

"Nope. I couldn't ask most of our informants, trying to keep this low key. Bossman doesn't want anyone knowing that the best team out there managed to lose a member without even knowing how!"

Cassidy nodded absently. It made sense. They couldn't go out to find her without losing cred. In their business that amounted to professional suicide.

"Cas. I know I can't afford your usual fees but I was hoping I could hire you to find her. Bossman won't let me keep looking for more than a day or so."

"Can't let you keep looking Wolf. It's not a question of 'won't'. The longer you're looking the more it appears that your team can't even keep track of one of its members. That looks bad."

She heard a barely audible agreement. Good, that meant he was finally starting to think like an Op. rather than a husband who's wife was missing.

"But if he can't let you keep looking for her, what makes you think he'll be any happier that you're asking me to do it for you?"

"I told you I can pay you whatever the two of us have saved up."

"Stop." She heard his mouth click shut even over the phone. His breathing was beginning to even out. "This is Shade we're talking about. If something's happened to her I want to know about it too. Besides, the five of you are about the closest thing I've got to friends. Don't worry about paying me, but I'll want to get together to discuss the whole thing with all of you. Besides, you still haven't explained how me looking for a lost IO is any better than you looking for her when it comes to your team's image?"

"Actually I have thought about that one, even ran it by Jackson. You can claim we've had a falling out and you're looking for her to collect on some old debt. That way it looks like she's gone into hiding rather than us losing her. If something has happened, it also gives you an in to any group or whatever that has her."

He was either refusing to accept that Shade was dead, or simply neglecting to mention it. Given his obvious state of turmoil probably better that he was avoiding the thought. Cassidy nodded again, quickly cursing herself for forgetting he couldn't see the action.

"That makes a lot of sense. Look, I'm going to do some legwork. Meanwhile I want you to talk to Jackson and fill him in, then gather Silvie and Darien. I want to meet with everyone before I start just in case everyone has a little piece of the puzzle and we can figure it out before I start putting out her name. Okay?"

"Will do Cas. And Cas?" There was a deep breath in his pause. "Thanks."

"Just tell 'bossman' what's up. I'll be over in an hour or two to brainstorm."

She hung up too quickly. The thought of Shade missing or dead was heartbreaking. Cassidy often thought of the woman almost as a younger sister. They had known each other for years. Much of her own hacking skill had developed from the advice and tutoring of the girl. The two had begun talking on a cyber-board and didn't realize they lived in the same city until months after. Cassidy was fairly sure Shade became an Op following her example. And now she was missing.

Cassidy looked over at her bike. The security features were fully installed. Installing the weapons and reattaching the skid bars could wait until later. She wouldn't need the hardware to go visit the team. She quickly collected her wayward tools and stacked the guns and bars on top of the tool case before rolling the whole thing over to the elevator. A quick glance back confirmed she had everything and the area was passably clean. That there were no extra pieces lying around comforted her. The bike would be safe at least.

Back in her apartment she left the tools, almost negligently, by the door. She would need them soon enough when she finished the upgrades. She looked around the room, noticing for the first time that it didn't match. The walls were a light blue and went well with the off-white cabinet of her entertainment system. She smiled briefly as she looked at the dark green couch where she and Merritt had sat for hours talking the night before. All of that could have been blended smoothly but for the hideous yellow chain in the corner.

She went over to the chair and flopped into it. It might be an eyesore in the room, but it was incredibly comfortable. She sank into the soft cushions. The wood underneath was firm enough to hold her upright but there was more than enough padding that she could barely feel it. The chair had been with her since her earliest memories and she was loath to relinquish it.

Besides, it's the only place I feel comfortable enough to hack from.

She reached over to plug a cord first into the outlet on the wall then into the microcomputer resting in its unofficial home between the cushion and arm of the chair. Most jobs, like the one the night before, she needed little more than an e-pad to retrieve the information she was hired for. Her microcomputer contained very advanced hardware and software, comparable to many supercomputers and networks. Cassidy had obtained both her own and Shade's gear from her street agent. Shade in turn made sure both were installed with the latest in Intrusion Countermeasure Breakers. ICBs were the programs hackers could use to cut through the security on the megacorps' computers. Cassidy would be lost without them. Shade was able to 'hack on the fly', recoding the very computer to eliminate security, but even she preferred to use the ICBs as a shortcut.

Now, Cassidy wasn't going to hack anything, but she would rather have the security features installed on her computer where she would be logging. Although there was nothing illegal there, it was frequented by hackers and IOs alike and she preferred her anonymity among them. Being the best meant all too many of those would either try to prove themselves against her or try to befriend her in hopes of catching some of her 'glory'. She sighed as she logged in, setting the display to projection rather than the miniature monitor attached to the device.

Glowing green letters flashed to life mid air. "The Gutter!" Under the title in smaller, but no less brilliant letters was the warning. "Enter at own risk!" The Gutter was a board devoted to IOs, hackers and all manner of subcultures that flourished under the oppressive reality of the 'unified' world. Initially the megacorps attempted to shut the rogue site down, knowing it full of inflammatory information. Time and again they failed to breach its security or even discover its broadcast location. Quickly they altered tactics, flooding its bandwidth until it crashed, repeating the tactic every time it reappeared. The cyber war raged for a few months before the corporations called a truce. Somehow, all of the dominant megacorps and the mysterious owners of The Gutter managed to get in contact and hammer out a reasonable compromise, acceptable to all and liked by none.

The entire site was broken down into two levels. The main board was accessible to all and held little or no information the corps would find incriminating or revolutionary. The corps were likewise free to patrol this section to verify the status quo, removing anything they considered to break the rules. The second layer was hidden, requiring at least rudimentary hacking skills to access. This was the board that hackers and IOs alike could use to share information they felt needed to be distributed to their fellows. The megacorps, of course, had hackers who could access this level but they had no more authority there than anyone else. Often it was, in fact, used to contact IOs for preliminary contact on assignments. Cassidy's 'work number' was posted on the boards for just that reason.

Unknown to all but a very select few, there was actually a third layer to The Gutter. For many years Cassidy had not been among those few. It wasn't until her skill had grown large enough, and her reputation for integrity strong enough, that the shadowy owners had approached her with the knowledge. Later she brought Shade to the owners' attention and she too had been allowed access. Both women were forbidden from telling anyone for any reason. It was here that the select few would store copies of all information they had obtained from the corps in the hopes that some day there might be enough to return the monstrosities to a manageable level.

Cassidy only needed the second layer for her purposes at the moment. While she lacked Shade's skill, she was considerably better than any of the remaining members of the girl's team. Cassidy was fairly certain they knew the real nature of the site but failed to access it. In moments she was in, anonymous where even most hackers would leave a signature trail. Pushing aside her usual curiosity over the latest corporate gutter-gossip she went straight for the boards. With a search string she found mention of Shade's alias. Unfortunately none of the posts by her were newer than three days old and there were no messages waiting for her in the usual safety spots. Shade and Cassidy had designated certain forums and threads where either could leave a quick message of any kind that would simply mean "I'm in trouble."

The lack of communication confirmed her growing suspicion. Either she was dead or kidnapped and kept away from any kind of electronic device. She still hoped for the later but suspected Shade had finally run afoul of someone beyond her capabilities. She stared at the projection while she wondered over her next step.

I could post a missing person bulletin.

Idle fingers punched out the nexus of the thought as she pondered the exact phrasing. How to phrase it without revealing Shade's alias to The Gutter? Cassidy couldn't think of a way.

Suddenly the display wavered before it shifted fully. Confused, Cassidy looked more closely and realized her accident. "Missing person" shined from the search string parameters where her fingers subconsciously placed and entered it. The air before her flooded with posts. Many were incredibly outdated, however she was surprised by the sheer volume that originated within the last month. As she began to sort through them she realized that a majority of search engines would never have uncovered this bulk of messages. Cassidy designed the program herself, cross-referencing a high-end search engine with a thesaurus. The resulting program could take any string, consider all possible ways to enter the meaning and then search for them.

Most of the recent messages said something to the degree of "So-and-so hasn't been around lately", "has anyone seen So-and-so?" or "So-and-so is late checking in" rather than "missing person". No one, except possibly the owners, had time to check every forum and thread so most users relied on search engines or favorite forums. The barrage of posts came from too many different forums with too many different phrases to have been noticed! There were, however, two common elements; all of the missing were IOs of varying skills, and virtually all came from in or around Cassidy's own city.

Cassidy reached over to hack in to the third tier when a warning light appeared in her display. Someone was trying to infiltrate her microcomp. Before she even had time to attempt countermeasures the light flared out and a text file, with message, appeared on her screen.

"Cassidy! We have been hoping to see you... IOs are going missing, but you have just discovered that... We wish to help in any way we can if you are searching for the meaning of this... -The Owners"

In addition there was a small icon added to the lower right corner of her display; a small black cat. The icon was the calling card of the owners, fair warning that everything done on the computer was actively being monitored.

She responded by typing in the text file. It was the only communication possible with the Owners. At the end it would be closed without saving and they would purge the RAM, a truly untraceable conversation.

"I intend to find out what's going on. I logged in to find out if Shade had left any contact here. She's missing too. At this point I presume dead or, well, captured."

There was a long pause. The only indication the Owners were still there was the cat. It yawned, turned a few circles and collapsed in a heap, little letter "z"s drifting up from its head.

"This is dire news... If her security could be compromised... You will pardon us if we hope it was a random attack rather than directed... If they could know who she was..."

Cassidy sat bolt upright. It was the first time there had been any indication that anyone was equal to the near mythical Owners.

"Pardon if I'm surprised. I knew she was elite, but are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"Yes..."

Cassidy slumped back, the soft cushions provided no comfort.

"One way or the other I will find her. When I know more I'll make sure to pass it along. But for now is there anything you can tell me?"

The cat's head raised suddenly, seeming to stare straight at Cassidy.

"Unfortunately very little... We can transfer to you a compilation of the messages you searched, distilled to names and dates of those missing, along with locations disappeared... Unfortunately there are very few of those... That should save you some time sifting through all of that..."

The cat looked up at the list of posts that still hovered above. A file appeared almost instantly in the background of her display.

"Thank you. You had that waiting?"

"Yes... It took a moment to add Shade to it but otherwise we've been hoping you would log in..." There was a short pause as Cassidy's display flickered and the file opened in tandem with the conversation file. "We weeded out the disappearances outside of your greater urban area... Also any older than about three months or ones with confirmation of the status of the IO in question... A number of the posts above are actually responses making assurances of the person's health or lack thereof..."

"Very thorough, thank you. There aren't nearly as many as I was beginning to fear." Cassidy paused a moment in thought, scanning the list with half her attention while thinking on the ramifications. All total their editing brought the list to a much more manageable fourteen people. "This has you worried doesn't it?"

"Yes, it does... Please remember, from a certain perspective we too are IOs which means we could very well be subject to, or targets of, whatever events are unfolding..."

A pattern caught Cassidy's eye. "Most of these are women! Not quite all but close enough."

In truth there were a couple of names she didn't recognize and quite a few more she barely knew. The ambiguous nature of aliases made gender assignment difficult but she was fairly certain only two of the missing were men. Of the names she did recognize the relative skill levels ran the gamut from complete 'noob' to masters of Shade's caliber. There was a sniper, two drivers, three hackers and a handful of combats among those she recognized.

"Aside from that no real pattern."

"Agreed... Even the order they disappeared has little or no meaning... All of them had completed assignments within the last month but that's to be expected from someone in your line of work... If they hadn't they would have stood out considerably more..."

"You know this doesn't give me much to go on. But I will find them. Or at least find out what happened to them and make it stop."

"I know Shade was something of a friend but if there is any question of funds needed..."

Cassidy began typing before the sentence was finished. "Stop. I suppose she is a friend. About the closest thing I have at any rate. Money is no real concern to me. So this is very definitely personal. And every last bit of information I dig up on this is going straight here for your records. Even if the media would put this out, they're not getting wind of it. At least not from me."

"Understood and accepted... however do not hesitate to ask if you wish to split any peripheral expenses with us... These people are our livelihood, our agents and our family..." There was a short pause before the icon of a compressed file appeared next to the first file the owners sent. "This contains all of the messages relating to the people on the list... At the very least it gives you a contact name for each of them, including any you may not know... Anything else you can think of that we can provide you know where and how to reach us..."

"You've been more then helpful already. Especially considering I didn't know I would need this level of assistance to begin with."

"Not a prob... -Owners Clear." The black cat stood and cocked it's head at her before winking and disappearing.

Cassidy slumped back in the vulgar chair while her microcomp rebooted as part of the memory purge. She ran through the list once more in her mind. There really was no connection between the various people on the list. She was almost as certain that at least one of those names would turn out to be completely unrelated to the situation she was following. Part of her hoped it would not be Shade. After all, then she would simply be working on one large mystery rather than two. The part of her which recognized the organization required to capture, disable or otherwise incapacitate that many unrelated IOs within the time frame desperately hoped that Shade was in no way involved.

Cassidy sighed, pulling herself from the too comfortable chair. It was time to meet with the Silent Skills and relate what she had already learned. Hopefully they might have some clue of where to start. She was confident, as she downloaded the files the Owners sent her, they would be able to solve this growing mystery. Hopefully before anything serious happened to Shade.

* * * *

The five lounged in the living room of Wolf's condo apartment. Despite the relaxed poses, there was an almost palpable tension pervading the room. Jackson was nothing like the standard IO team leader. He was rather short, at 5'6", excessively heavy and had almost no cybernetic or bionetic implants. To top it all off, literally, he was heavily balding. He was never what corporate agents expected when they set up a meeting with the leader of the best IO team in town and probably this part of the country. While his pacing was the only movement in the room, he exuded the most relaxed presence.

Darien sat on the couch playing with a microcomp. In the absence of Shade he was the team's hacker. Each member of the group had at least one backup in another member of the team. Darien was purely rank amateur when it came to hacking but he was the best they now had aside from Cassidy herself. His skills were acceptable when breaking in to standard security files but that was about it. He came very highly recommended when Jackson announced the need to replace a fallen member. Darien along with Jackson, primarily performed combat duties, however he was also responsible as backup for Shade or Wolf should one fall stricken during an assignment.

While some might expect a man who spent the entirety of his missions lying prone, watching events unfold through a sniper scope, and eating doughnuts to be grossly overweight he was possibly in the best shape of anyone present, Cassidy included. The secret of his fitness was the routine he maintained. Even while on a mission he would jog in place or back and forth all the while holding the rifle and scope rock steady.

Sitting with Darien on the couch was Silvie. Silvie was everything you would expect of a demolitions combat Op. Cassidy often felt herself trying to shrink inward when in the presence of either of the women of the Silent Skills. However where Shade had a lithe, almost fae, quality to her beauty, Silvie exemplified the power and presence of the Amazons. She was pretty, yes, but underneath her beauty, and the abundant bionetic enhancements, lay confidence and conviction. If not for Cassidy's reputation and skills, she would never be able to measure herself against either of these two favorably.

Wolf stood by the window. The young man was nothing but gangly limbs. Cassidy had yet to figure out how anyone could trip walking across a fresh paved parking lot, yet be able to handle sharp, water-drenched curves at one hundred and eighty miles an hour without so much as breathing heavily. She walked over to him on entering, wrapped an arm carefully around his shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze for comfort. Even at her lowest strength he winced. It wasn't a testament to his weakness but rather the sheer power hidden under her false sheath of skin. His hands continued to grip the sill with white knuckles as she moved to the unoccupied chair.

"It's worse than you thought." Wolf paled instantly at Cassidy's pronouncement. Darien and Silvie looked at each other in concern while even Jackson raised an eyebrow, a telling gesture from the composed man. "I don't have any more information about Shade yet, yet mind you, but I was able to find out quite a bit more."

Cassidy placed her e-pad on the table in the center of the room and connected it to a port on the side. The projected display was almost as high quality as on her microcomputer but that was expected from a central entertainment studio.

Jackson moved to the edge of the table to crouch when the two files sprung into the air above. Darien and Silvie likewise leaned forward in curiosity. Only Wolf remained stationary. He knew he'd get the highlights from the dialogue and was too worried to sit facing everyone. Besides he knew from experience he wouldn't spot anything in the files that someone else wouldn't spot first.

"I checked The Gutter before I came here, to make sure she hadn't tried to leave a message there for either you or I. Although I did spot these," she waved, motioning the compressed file of messages, "the Owners were kind enough to provide a sorted and compressed version of what I found. In addition they gave me the other file."

She paused to look up and suddenly realized all eyes were on her. Even Wolf spun at the mention of the Owners. Throughout the room she received stunned, uncomprehending looks. Cassidy turned to lock eyes with Wolf.

"She has to have told you she regularly talks to them! Oh, for the love of 'dren she gets together with them weekly online!"

"I thought that was just an excuse!" All accusing eyes had turned to Wolf who was clearly as surprised as the rest of his team.

"She knows them, they know her and respect her very much. I introduced them quite a while back when I was still orphaning the girl."

She turned back to the others as Wolf staggered to a chair and collapsed. If Cassidy didn't know him so well she would have suspected he'd been drinking rather than naturally clumsy Although as he passed by she conceded the possibility he had been trying to drown his worries.

"But that's not why they dropped this to me. Apparently I've been negligent checking the boards recently. They were already hoping to see me because of this."

Cassidy opened the digest file and everyone continued to stare. Jackson was the first to make it to the end of the list and understand what he was seeing. "All of them!?" The others looked briefly at him before returning back to finish reading. One by one their eyes grew wide and turned to stare at Cas.

Cassidy met each one of them in turn. "I already told Wolf I'd find Shade, one way or the other." The young driver flinched at the expression but she refused to pull the punches when the importance was now magnified. "All of these people have been reported missing on The Gutter and the Owners have practically begged me to look into it. Likely I would have anyway but with Shade involved there was no question I would."

"How could no one have noticed?"

"Who are they all?"

"What can we do to help?"

Only Jackson remained silent, waiting for the initial outburst to die down. "Every single one of them is an IO aren't they?"

Cassidy just nodded. Looking around she almost laughed. They were beginning to master the utterly stunned look.

"How many of them do you recognize, even if it's only a name and not the person behind it?"

Jackson glanced again at the list before returning her level gaze with his own. "Nine I think. Likely they're the same exact ones you recognize."

Cassidy nodded in agreement. "Twelve actually, but four of them are relative noobs." She turned to look at Darien and Silvie. "I was hoping you others might help with the rest."

Jackson cut in before his team could speak. "I only spotted one noob. What we need to know is what two you don't recognize. We could play twenty questions otherwise and still not help each other."

Cassidy pointed to the third and eighth names on the list. Silvie nodded.

"The second's a face. Prettyboy, not much of a fighter but he can charm his way in pretty much anywhere there are women present."

Jackson simply raised an eyebrow while Darien and Wolf burst into laughter. Silvie's dark skin heated with a blush.

"It's not like that! I've never met 'im! Jus' heard 'bout 'im." Losing the battle of embarrassment to the men, she turned desperately to Cassidy. "He really is supposed to be irresistible." Cassidy nodded sympathetically before shooting the others a glare. Within moments the younger two had stifled, although not completely overcome, their mirth.

"So no one knows number three?" Heads shook around the room. "Ok, so I'll have to run a check on that handle. Otherwise any info you can give me on these people, whether I know it or not, could be important. Also, in the second file are the messages announcing their missing status in various ways. I'll need any info I can get on the posters and all responders. Those will be where I get the most intimate details. Also I might be able to triangulate a search area."

Jackson nodded. "We'll divide up the list and each search for three people."

Cassidy was already shaking her head. "No can do." The look he gave her in return was almost a glare. "Look, I appreciate the offer and I'm not trying to be a glory-hog. It's just that if two teams are out there asking, especially if they've got potentially every name on the master list then whoever's behind this is gonna scurry down and not come back up. We might lose not only the ringleader but also all of them," she waved at the list casually, "in the process."

Jackson nodded slowly. "That makes a good deal of sense. But listen, once you find the place we want in on the raid."

Cassidy nodded. "I can live with that. Though I'm probably going to go incognito. There's always a possibility that everything'll go south and I'll have to take them down in a hurry. Otherwise, I'll be sure to call on you, and possibly even one or more of the other teams attached to this list. I'm the best at snatch and grab but none of us alone are really equipped to handle a full scale siege should it come to that."

"So let's handle these one at a time." Jackson looked over at his team members. "You might want to settle in boys and girls it's going to be a long one.

Copyright 2006, By Deathlynx