Technobabel by Stephen Kenson

Author:Stephen Kenson [Kenson, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy, Contemporary
ISBN: 9780451456991
Google: HOrKP4B0XGgC
Amazon: 0451457110
Publisher: RoC
Published: 1998-01-15T07:00:00+00:00

16

Shadowrun n. Any movement, action, or series of such made to carry out illegal or quasi-legal operations.

—World Wide WordWatch, 2058 edition

Like a silver shadow, the gossamer-winged sprite skated through the glowing neon towers of the Boston Matrix. The gleaming chrome surface of her icon reflected the virtual light of the gridlines and other icons around her in sharp, twisted reflections, a testament to her programming skills. Here was a decker to be reckoned with. Other denizens of the Matrix would know the sprite’s markings and recognize her as a fellow predator, someone not to be fragged with. Those who did not have the wisdom to see her for what she was weren’t likely to see her at all. She was a shadow, a ghost in the machine.

As Ariel sped through the telecommunications grid of the metroplex toward the Mandala Technologies system, she hoped the price her team had paid Milo for the local telecom number she was using was worth it. Her scanner programs were online and sending out invisible feelers along her path, prepared to warn her of any hidden dangers or software traps she might encounter. Ariel found her pulse rate increasing, the pre-run adrenaline surge starting to hit her. This was what most deckers lived for: the rush of preparing to break into a protected system, to test their skill against the skill of the programmers who’d built the system’s defenses and to lay their lives on the line that their skill and their hottest programs could beat the defenders’ skills and their coldest ice. A game with the highest stakes around.

With a blur of movement through the datastreams, Ariel arrived at her destination. In the real world, her cyberdeck connected with the LTG number she had entered, and her passcode programs went to work to provide the key to open the door Ariel needed to get through. There was a tense moment where she was uncertain if the programs would work, or if the system would recognize her as an intruder and send out an alert. Bits and alphanumeric characters flashed before her eyes in the virtual world of cyberspace as the two systems negotiated and haggled back and forth before Ariel was able to step into the back door of the target system. She breathed a sigh of relief and started looking around.

It had been a gamble, but it paid off. Ariel’s first scouting of the Mandala host system had made it abundantly clear that it was possible to get in. Ariel was proud of her skills as a decker, but she knew her limits. She was one of the best ice-breakers in the biz, but there was no way she was getting inside a system that looked to be protected by some of the best Fuchi had to offer. Fuchi was the corporation when it came to Matrix technology, and their ice was some of the best in the business.

Ariel told her boss that she’d never get in via the front door of the system without being detected.

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