Cyber's Escape Read online

  “You’ve got your skin patch to cover up the cerebral implant. Everything else is internal. As long as you keep that hidden, you should be able to keep them from learning about everything, right?”

  Cass gave half a smile. “That’s the plan, at least part of it, anyway.”

  “What else is there, Cass? Is there something you’re not telling me?”

  “There’s one more problem that most people outside the enclaves don’t know about. We keep it a secret to make sure we can catch people who might try to infiltrate our communities.”

  Shelby’s puzzled frown prompted Cass to keep going. She had to tell Shelby eventually. “Shel, the enclave perimeter has security systems and an impenetrable firewall that sounds an alarm when any Mantle-connected device or person crosses the boundaries of the community enclosure. I’m afraid that’s going to be my downfall. I’ve tried searching the Mantle for alternatives in my spare time, but I’ve been unable to discover anything that can help me.”

  “You should go back to the Bizarre, Cass. I’d be willing to bet someone there can get a workaround figured out for you.”

  Cass nodded. “That was my initial thought, too. I plan on going down there tonight. The problem is, I wouldn’t even know who to talk to. Do you know of someone there who might be able to help me?”

  “Remember the guy who created your skin patch, Frederick? He might be able to help you. He’s mastered the physical way to cover up an implant. You can’t be the first person who’s needed to hide it from detection systems, too.”

  “That’s not a bad idea,” Cass said. “My parents come to get me tomorrow morning, sometime after ten o’clock. I don’t have much time.”

  “You should get down to the Bizarre sooner rather than later then.”

  Shelby looked off into space for a second. Cass realized she was checking something online via her implant.

  “It’s already 4 p.m. They may already be closing up by the time you get there. I don’t know how many of the vendors will stay late on a Friday like this. You have to hurry, Cass.”

  Cass didn’t want to end her conversation with Shelby. They talked so infrequently now. “All right, I’ll go. Promise I can call you later?”

  Shelby shrugged. “I’ll see. My parents wanted to do something just the three of us this evening. There’ve been family and friends over nearly every day since the funeral. Today’s the first day we’ve had to ourselves. Mom thought it might help us adjust to the new family dynamic without Eric if we did something together tonight.”

  Cass smiled to be supportive, even though she didn’t feel it inside. The challenges Shelby’s family faced were ones she couldn’t even fathom. She certainly didn’t want to get in the way of their family healing from the violent loss of a son and brother. This might be the last chance to talk to Shelby for a while, though.

  Cass knew she’d be unable to talk with her girlfriend much at all once she got home with her parents. The enclave’s security firewall worked both ways. They blocked unwanted things coming and going.

  Cass smiled in spite of her disappointment. “Well, try and call me later when your family is finished with whatever outing your parents have planned. I’ll make sure I’m awake whenever you call.”

  “I’ll try. Bye, Cass. Good luck at the Bizarre.”

  “Bye, Shel,” Cass replied. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  The screen went blank. In Cass’s mind, the blankness extended inside her as well. She wondered if Shelby would call her later or not. Managing their relationship at a distance like this was more difficult than she’d imagined it would be.

  Cass had wanted to hold Shelby close to her and go back to the way it was before for two weeks now. She couldn’t endure being away from her for nearly two more months while on their winter break.

  She pushed the gloomy thoughts away and reminded herself she needed to get downtown to the Bizarre, the underground marketplace for cybernetic enhancements. It was a fantastic resource and Cass had already considered going there for help with her problem.

  Shelby was right, though. It was getting late on a Friday afternoon. Some of the vendors would start packing up to go home before too long.

  Cass grabbed her purse from the desk and left to head downtown. It was time to find a way past the Sapiens restrictive cybernetics firewall.

  The driverless auto cab dropped Cass at the curb across the street from the alley leading to the Bizarre’s entrance. She checked traffic and then crossed the road, heading down into the alley between two apartment buildings. She reached the steel door on the right leading to the marketplace and pulled it open. The metal stairwell echoed as she descended to the abandoned underground parking garage.

  Cass chuckled when she reached the bottom and stepped out into the open space filled with tables and stalls. It was funny to think of coming here by herself. The first time she’d come here, she’d been frightened of everything about this place. She was new to her cybernetic enhancement and didn’t trust people in the cyber human community the way she did now. She’d had to fight past all of the prejudices she’d grown up with. Along the way, she’d learned there were people just like her who wanted to live their lives, enhancements and all.

  Cass crossed the garage, walking down the rows of tables hoping the vendor known as The Skin Doctor was down there in his usual spot. Shelby had been right about the vendors packing up for the night. A bunch of the stalls were starting to tear down early. She saw more than a few vendors packing up their wares in bins and totes and rolling them towards the freight elevator at the far end of the garage.

  Cass hurried down the last aisle towards the far corner. That was where Frederick, also known as The Skin Doctor, had set up his booth when she was here the last time. A wave of relief washed over her when she saw him standing there talking to a woman with a cybernetic arm similar to Shelby’s.

  Frederick smiled at Cass as she approached. “If you give me just a few minutes, my dear, I’ll be with you as soon as I can.”

  “No problem,” Cass replied. “I can wait.”

  The woman talking to the former plastic surgeon smiled at Cass and continued her discussion. “So, you can come up with a reliable covering or glove that will hide my arm?”

  “I can. There are some challenges though.”

  “Like what?”

  “The larger the surface area I need to cover, the harder it is to get the skin tension right. The elasticity of normal skin is different than what I use in my materials. Over time, a larger covering will start to sag in certain stressed areas like the wrist and elbow. The smaller the sleeve is, the easier it is for me to create and repair if necessary.”

  “I need this job, Doc. I need to make money to feed my children. They won’t hire me if they know I have a cybernetic arm.”

  “If you wear something with long sleeves, I should be able to make something that goes up your forearm almost to your elbow. That will cover up everything in view as long as you keep your sleeve down. When do you need it?”

  “As soon as possible. I have an interview on Monday.”

  Frederick looked up at the ceiling and tapped his chin. “Hmmm, I can probably make that work. I won’t have it for you until Monday morning, though. I need to use the larger 3-D printer I have at my house. Meet me here first thing. I already have the measurements on your arm. There might be a few last-minute adjustments that need to be made, but I can handle that before your interview.”

  “Thank you, Doc. You don’t know what this means to me.”

  “I do, which is why I am making an effort to get it done faster than I normally would be able to. Things have gotten more difficult for us in recent weeks. It seems as if the supporters of Sterling Noble and his cronies have become more open in their persecution of us in spite of what happened here in the city a few weeks ago.”

  The woman nodded with understanding. “I would have thought they’d back down and keep a low profile after the horrible things hi
s followers did. Let’s hope things settle down soon. Anyway, I’ll be back on Monday. Have a good weekend and thank you.”

  The Skin Doctor smiled and nodded at the woman then turned to Cass. “It’s Cassie, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” Cass replied, as she reached out to shake the former doctor’s hand. “You helped me with a skin patch for my cheek to hide my implant.”

  “Is there a problem?” He reached up to tilt Cass’s head to one side and studied the side of her face, searching for signs of any issues.

  “Oh, no, everything’s fine with that. It’s excellent work, really. It’s just that I am getting ready to go home for this semester and will be living there for almost two months over winter break. I’m afraid that my family might detect something.”

  Frederick snapped his fingers. “Oh, that’s right. I’d forgotten your family were Sapiens Movement members. You have to go home and live inside one of the enclaves, right?”

  Cass nodded, a grim look across her face.

  Frederick frowned. “That poses a problem, doesn’t it, because you need a way around the security protocols.”

  Hope filled Cass. He understood her situation, so he must have a solution. “You act like you’ve done this before. Do you have a way around the enclave security firewall?”

  He smiled. “You’re not the first person who’s had to go into one of the enclaves while hiding who they were. There are always alternatives. I can’t do it, though. That type of hack is far beyond my meager programming skills. I’ll have to put you in touch with somebody with the ability to install a custom firmware update for your implant. Are you okay with that?”

  The blood drained from Cass’s face as she blanched at the idea of someone tinkering with the cybernetic programming interfacing with her brain. That particular option hadn’t occurred to her.

  “Is that really necessary?”

  “I’m afraid it is. You need new firmware installed to enable your implant to cover its AI signature and electronic serial number so it looks like any other dumb computer interface, like a typical tablet. The enclave will just think it’s a standard piece of electronics and let you pass without a problem.”

  “Will that in any way diminish the implant’s functionality? Mine isn’t just for cosmetic purposes. I had an injury and it performs vital functions in my brain.”

  “Derek will be able to figure that out. That’s one of the reasons I wouldn’t even attempt working on it. Ordinarily, I’d just tell folks to shut down the cerebral interface entirely and go dark while crossing into a location like that. In your situation, you need a complete hack of the system. Derek’s a good fellow and he does excellent work. Oh, and don’t be afraid of his initial demeanor. He’s a bit eccentric, but mostly harmless.”

  Cass wondered what that meant. She needed this upgrade to go home, but the whole thing sounded more than a little shady.

  “I’ll send you the details directly via my implant to yours. I also just sent him a message copying you on it so you two recognize each other when you get there.”

  “Are you sure he’ll be home?”

  Frederick laughed. “Definitely. He never goes outside. He doesn’t trust anyone. That’s a good thing, though. His paranoia is what makes him such a genius.”

  A signal pinged in Cass’s head. A new message appeared with an address and a name, Derek Cross. She nodded. “Got it. Thank you, Doctor.”

  “Good luck going home, young lady. When you get back next semester, make sure you come by and let me know how things went.”

  “I will. Take care and enjoy the upcoming holidays.”

  He nodded and turned back to continue his work on something inside the small 3-D printer behind him. Cass crossed the garage back to the stairwell and left the Bizarre heading back up to the street.

  She signaled for an auto cab via her connection to the Mantle. The address was all the way across town and Cass wanted to hurry. It was already getting late. The sun had set while she was down inside the marketplace.

  Cass buried her apprehension at heading to one of the rougher sections of the city at this time of night. She had no choice. She had to get this installation over with before her parents arrived the next morning or everything would fall apart.

  Chapter 3

  When she reached the address Frederick gave her, a little voice in the back of Cass’s mind found it amusing she’d been so afraid of the inner-city neighborhood surrounding the building housing the Bizarre. Apparently, she had no idea what a genuinely rough neighborhood looked like.

  Now she did.

  Trash filled the gutters on either side of the street and all of the buildings on both sides were run down and in ill repair. Someone, or a group of someones, had broken out a lot of the windows at street level.

  Based on the broken windows and the way the doors hung off some of the hinges in the building entrances, Cass assumed most of the buildings were abandoned in this area. That included the four-story row-home in front of which she now stood.

  Cass took a deep breath. She couldn’t afford to be squeamish or let her fear rule her. Cass hesitated before starting up the broad stone steps leading to the front door.

  She dialed in her ocular implant to enable night vision capability. Everything took on a greenish tint. She could see much better now. Even the darkest corners of the hallway visible through the broken window in the upper half of the door stood out clearly to her enhanced vision.

  Cass didn’t have to worry about the door being locked, because there was neither lock nor door handle. Both had been broken off. It looked like someone had forced the door open at some point with a crowbar or some other tool. She gripped the splintered wood on the door’s exposed edge and pulled it open with ease, stepping inside.

  There were no lights visible in the interior. In fact, it didn’t appear there was any working power in the building at all. That didn’t matter to Cass, though. Her cybernetic eye easily compensated for the low light levels. She saw not only what was visible in the normal light spectrum, but also in the infrared and ultraviolet ranges as well. Navigating in the dark was no problem for her.

  Cass looked around the first floor of the dilapidated row home. She didn’t see anyone or any signs of habitation. Each of the rooms was strewn with trash and debris. It appeared that people might stay here from time to time, based upon the empty food containers amidst the garbage, but no one was present right now.

  Cass stopped searching the first floor and started back towards the front of the building to climb the stairs to the second floor. She stopped when she heard a voice coming from behind her.

  “Who’s up there?” A man’s voice called. He sounded far off in the distance. Based on the burst of static Cass heard along with it, whomever it was, spoke to her over a hidden speaker somewhere on the first floor. “I can hear you walking around. Who are you?”

  Cass turned around. The voice came from the rear of the house. Cass headed down the hallway towards the area that was formerly the kitchen. All of the appliances had been ripped out. Even the sink and pipes had been removed. It had all probably been sold for scrap metal.

  A door was ajar in the corner and she noticed a dim glow of light coming up out of it. The light had definitely not been there before when she poked her head in earlier during her initial search.

  “Dammit, I asked who’s up there?”

  It came from the open doorway.

  Cass moved to the door where she saw steps leading to the basement. She decided to answer the mysterious voice. Maybe this was Derek.

  “It’s me, Cass Armstrong. Frederick should have sent you a message about me coming to see you?”

  “Yeah, I got the message. I’m not sure what you want from me, though. I don’t like visitors.”

  Cass almost turned around and left. Only her fear of what her parents would do when her secret was discovered held her in place.

  Summoning the courage to stand up for herself, she cleared her throat and said, “I need your hel
p, Derek. I come from a Sapiens Movement enclave. My parents are coming to pick me up at school tomorrow and I can’t let them find out about my implants. You have to see me. I have nowhere else to go.”

  Cass pulled open the basement door and stood at the top of the stairs waiting for an answer.

  After standing there for what seemed like forever, the man on the speaker answered her. “Fine. You can come down. I make no promises but I’ll hear you out. Pull the door shut behind you. I don’t need anyone else poking around down here.”

  Cass stepped into the stairway, starting down the steps. She pulled the door shut behind her until it latched, then turned and continued downstairs. The dim glow of light came from beneath a door at the bottom of the steps.

  Cass opened the door and entered a basement filled with multiple lifetimes of forgotten belongings, trash, and broken furniture. She scanned the room but found no sign of the strange man she was here to see.

  “Derek? Where are you?”

  “Cross the basement until you find another door. Your enhanced vision should be able to see a sliver of light under it.”

  Cass froze. How did he know about her cybernetic eye? This was more than a little creepy and for the second time she almost turned around and left.

  If Frederick was right about this guy, he might just be paranoid enough to scan people coming into his nest, lair, or whatever he called this place. Fear held Cass back for a few seconds from going any further alone. She stood rooted to the spot while she gathered her courage.

  Gritting her teeth, Cass walked across the basement, weaving around the old furniture stacked down there amidst the piles of refuse until she came to the door Derek described. Mounted next to the door was an old circular car stereo speaker. An ancient handheld camcorder from a previous century was wired to a bracket above it. The camera’s red light was lit.