Sergeant Motoko Kusanagi waited patiently, the black
haired woman laying stealthily on top of a rooftop.
The intense young woman would occasionally raise a set
of binoculars to her blue eyes and survey the Genom
Tower in front and above her, studying the movements
of vehicles and personnel going in and out. She had
been perched here for several hours and was prepared
to continue to wait, as long as it took.
'I almost wish I had been able to specify an exact
time for the Knight Saber's attack,' Motoko thought
wryly, 'but I think that'd make them suspicious.' Two
days ago she had finished transferring the funds
through shell accounts and various alias, receiving
confirmation that the raid on Genom's research wing
would go ahead today.
In Motoko's professional opinion whomever was running
the Knight Sabers was a professional paranoid. Just
contacting the Knight Sabers had involved some fairly
ridiculous steps, and whoever was running the
organization had used some of the best computer
evasion tech she'd ever seen. Even Motoko herself was
having a difficult time tracing them, and she had the
latest bleeding-edge tech in software and hardware.
'Makes me glad I'm working with them,' Motoko
admitted as she got up cautiously, moving over to
where her cache of equipment waited. A modified
briefcase, loaded up with arms and ammunition, her
covert entry gear, explosives and finally a glider
module. She sorted it all with half her attention then
smoothly packed it all away once again.
"Movement on the perimeter," the voice came in on her
ear plug, Motoko's tap on Genom's communications
working perfectly, "unidentified vehicles on the south
fence."
Motoko moved to the edge of the roof, pointing her
binoculars to take in events around the south side of
the facility. A big, older armored truck barreled
along the road, ignoring the speed limit as it ran
through the twilight. Suddenly it swerved towards the
main gate, racing towards the guard's shack even as
the men fled.
BOOM!
The vehicle obviously contained explosives, there was
no other reason the gate would have gone up so
spectacularly. Even as debris rained down Motoko was
on the move, grabbing her briefcase even as she
listened to the chatter on Genom's security system.
'They're all racing right to the explosion,' Motoko
thought wryly, 'how amateurish.' Clearly the blast was
intended as a distraction, and the Genom personnel
were falling for it easily. 'Too bad I don't know the
Knight Sabers' frequency,' Motoko mused as she pulled
her back pack on and raced for the steps downstairs,
'I'd love to know where they're really going in.'
Disregarding that thought Motoko reached the
elevators and headed down to street level even as she
adjusted her uniform cap. The borrowed Genom security
uniform fit her body perfectly, the identification she
had perfectly matching the corporate design the
company used. Blending in with the other security
personnel she used the chaos to get by the outer layer
of defenses and into the facility.
'So far so good,' Motoko thought as she entered the
massive Tower, nodding to a young man still at his
security post. The key to this sort of deception was
confidence, voice and manner utterly convincing those
you dealt with that you belonged.
Another squawk of static as she listened in to the
security network and Motoko smiled slightly. "Unusual
activity on the East side, I...." the woman started
then she was cut off by a burst of static, a very
familiar tone.
'Jamming the internal systems,' Motoko smiled
slightly, now knowing where the Knight Sabers were
probably going in.
The eastern side of Genom's Tower was primarily
devoted to R&D, and was therefore likely the location
of her target. With the Knight Sabers publicly
attacking she could quietly make her way over to the
main computer room, try to find out what was really
going on.
Using her false security passes Motoko made it to the
computer center without too much difficulty, logging
in with an illegally acquired and expensive password.
'This job has been hard on my budget,' she thought to
herself as she typed away, 'I still don't know how I'm
going to pay the other half of the Sabers' fees.'
Disregarding that thought Motoko scrolled through the
files, swiftly working her way through subdirectories
until she found the janitorial files. A casual look at
Genom's budget documents had shown a suspicious amount
of money going in there, far more than they could
really use. An earlier cyberdive confirmed her
suspicions, and even showed her how to access the
data.
There was a soft hiss as Motoko pulled out the link
cable from the back of her neck, then she plugged in,
accessing data as fast if not faster than human
thought. The military artificial intelligence project
was buried in with several other black project files,
some of which Motoko made note of later for possible
blackmail purposes. Speed reading she found the
location, pleasantly surprised to see the module that
she was looking for had indeed been moved to
headquarters before her abortive raid on the R&D
facility a few days ago.
Brian J. Mason's personal notes made Motoko smile
wryly and shake her head. "Our Ministry snitch reveals
that they're sending in a retrieval agent," he wrote,
"but I'm confident that we can send her home in a
bodybag."
"Overconfident, maybe?" Motoko mocked, though she
wished that Mason had actually listed the name of the
snitch. "Of course," she murmured, "that would have
been too easy."
Motoko downloaded all the relevant data, including
internal maps of the facility then plugged in a virus
of her own devising. A Trojan-horse type it would
wait, quietly, until someone else accessed the AI
project data then cascade through the system, wiping
random data as well as destroying everything on the
project.
With a grunt Motoko unplugged, accessing the security
net as she did so. Just from the motion sensor feed
she could see the chaos that the Knight Sabers were
causing in another part of the facility, coupled with
the frantic and confused radio communications from the
security staff. Even more amusing the security
cameras in the area were showing looped footage from
some concert, not what was going on in the building
itself.
'The Knight Sabers' hacker has been busy,' Motoko
thought as she strode calmly by the racing, confused
figures, keeping her own expression remote enough to
discourage conversation. Her research had shown the
woman in the pink armor was both capable and
dangerously unpredictable, much like most hackers.
"Where are you going?" the tall, purple haired woman
frowned at Motoko entered the elevator with her,
studying her warily.
'Madigan,' Motoko recognized her from briefings,
'possibly third in the hierarchy in Genom, maybe more.
Ambitious, but not quite as clever as she'd like to
think she is.' Looking up at her respectfully Motoko
answered, "Security post f-23, ma'am, the chief is
concerned the attack may be a feint of some kind."
"He really doesn't think that the intruders could
penetrate to F level?" Madigan asked her
disbelievingly.
'She doesn't even know that the attackers are the
Knight Sabers,' Motoko thought with a grim pleasure.
"I don't think he wants to take chances, ma'am."
"Fair enough," Madigan acknowledge with a sour smile.
She stopped the elevator on the right level and Motoko
got off, feeling the woman's thoughtful gaze on her
back.
Walking as coolly as possible Motoko strode down the
hall, trying not to rush until the elevator doors
closed. 'Did she wonder,' Motoko thought as she headed
for the lower level bunker, 'or are the other rumors
about her true?'
Security post f-23 was manned by a boy who could only
have been in his twenties, if that. "Ma'am?" he
blinked as she approached. Scratching his head he
muttered, "I didn't think it was time for me to be
relieved...."
Whack!
The karate chop dropped the boy to a puddle on the
floor and Motoko stepped up to the control panel. Her
earlier 'dive had gotten her the codes, and with a few
quickly pressed keys she was inside. The lab was
cluttered, finished and incomplete projects scattered
about but she was focused on one thing, the square
data module sitting on a table nearby. It matched the
images she had been given, as did the code numbers,
'Mission accomplished,' Motoko thought as she stowed
the module in her pack, 'now I just have to get out
with it....'
The floor shook beneath Motoko and she grabbed at a
table for support. The sounds of battle, explosions
and she raced out into the hall, gazing around her in
pure disbelief. Badly organized security forces were
trying to organize a defense, but it looked like a
lost cause already.
'They couldn't have actually gotten this far in....'
Motoko thought in disbelief.
The doors to the elevator shaft blew out and the blue
armored figure emerged, arm cannon at the ready Right
behind her a green armored woman, then two more took
up positions as they readied themselves for battle.
'The Knight sabers are here and I'm dressed in a
Genom security uniform,' Motoko thought. There was
only one thing she could think to say, "Crap."
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