Background for Cool Darkness

	Sinclair was one of the first people to develop electromagnetic 
devices and weapons.  He created the first series of needlers and gaussian 
weaponry and has been creating state-of-the-art weaponry ever since.  
The Sinclair K2 is a single hand-held needler that is not-so common 
among well armed groups or people of the lower class.  It uses longer 
needles than the K1, a single-hand needler that uses 3" needles, 80 per 
four inch mag.  These needles are 5" long with a 5" mag holding 50.  It's 
wider than a K1 and is used primarily for penetration and power against 
armored individuals.  Most K2's are semiauto while the K1 has on-the-fly 
switching from semi to full auto capabilities.  Cerated, armor piercing 
and explosive needles are available into the military, security and black 
markets.

	Polymetals are alloys of metals that have polymer composites 
fabricated into the material at the time of final molding.  This allows for 
improved chemical and physical properties of the material while 
improving its strength and the ability to keep a sharp edge.  It also aids 
in reinforcing materials such as strengthening armor plating and 
bullet-proof jackets.

	The story takes place somewhere around 2030 in a fast growing 
suburb of Philadelphia.




				Cool Darkness
					by Matthew Carpenter



			Chapter 1 : Mark of the Huntress	

	"Awe, shit.  Man this is too much for one night" Dave sighed.
Five hours on the net after a full day's work at the office was enough
for a 24 hour day.  He slouched back into his recliner and turned on the 
built in massage, pulled the plugs from his system and blankly stared at 
the ceiling.
	"Too bad you still got a few hours before it's over."  He loosened
his tie and unbuttoned the top button of his white shirt.  A midnight
snack should be good he thought to himself.  He sleepily stood up 
between rolls of computer paper and electronic cables snaking through 
the small den of his apartment in Philly.  'Thank god the lights are off or 
I'd really have a headache.'  Dave walked out of the room, still thinking 
over the latest ideas from work involving the net connections between 
North America and Europe.  'Goddamn bureaucrats think they know 
everything.  Hell, they probably couldn't even tell if I changed their 
comm links from DC to LA.'  The walk to the refrigerator was short.  The 
light from inside blinded him shortly since it was the only light on in 
the house.  'I wonder what Cryon is up to tonight.  They haven't been 
going out as much lately as they used to.'  A thought that sounded like 
something was getting ready to go down, but with no background.  They 
haven't done anything lately that would hint to it.  He didn't like that.
	He pulled an open jar of pickles out of the frig and a container of 
mustard, opened the bread drawer and got a loaf of old bread that was on
the brink of molding.  Some meat and a bag of chips followed.  He sat 
down at the small round table next the to kitchen entrance and began 
making a sandwich.  He took a bite.  'Damn thing is getting stale.  I 
wonder how Nick is doing?  The last time I talked with him must've been 
2 weeks ago.'  He swiveled around in his chair to a wall panel and entered 
the code for  a direct telecom interconnect.
	The video jumped up and Nick's tired face showed up on the 
screen.
	"Nick, how you doin' man?" squawked Dave getting ready to take 
another bite out of his sandwich.
	"Dave...Do you know what time it is?"
	"Yeah, but I couldn't sleep.  What's up.  I haven't.."
	Blink.  Blink.  A monitor light went on.  Someone's at the door, 
thought Dave.  'Who the hell would come at a time like this?'
	"Hang on, someone's at the door."
	"At this time of night?"  It was too late.  Dave was already up and 
heading for the door.  Opening up another panel, the lights went on and 
Dave spoke through the intercom mic.
	"Who's there?"
	The monitor light blinked again.
	"I said who's there!?"  'No answer.  No answer.'  Something's up.  
He began walking away from the door.  
	"Get out Nick.  Somethin's up!"  yelled Dave from across the room.
	"What's going on over there Dave!?"
	THUD..THUD.  CRACK!  Dave's door popped partly open as the 
bottom hinge cracked out of the door frame.  THUD..THUD..SMASH!  The 
top hinge nearly exploded open with force as the door toppled to one 
side, rendering the computer and physical locking mechanisms 
completely ineffective.  Dave scurried backward as a large man slowly 
walked into the apartment, stepping on the discarded door.  Dark short 
hair and a dark skinned face sat on top of a set of shoulders and a huge 
frame as he pulled something out of his dark, tattered overcoat.  Dave 
turned to run towards his den when a silent shot was fired into his left 
leg.  
	"Aaauuuuu!" screamed Dave as he fell into the table where he had 
just begun his midnight snack.  The telecom monitor flicked off as Dave 
moved to face his attacker.  He side slouched into his chair, holding his 
leg.  A needle stuck out of it by about an inch, leaving a small circular 
blood stain forming on his dress pants.
	The man walked up to Dave shooting another two silent shots into 
his leg, making him scream in pain.  A large hand wrapped itself around 
Dave's throat and began picking him up.  His face reddened and his eyes 
began to bulge as he was suspended in mid air by his attacker's 
suffocating grip.  His grip was hard, almost too hard as Dave reached up 
with both hands to grasp it.
	"Who the hell are you!" Dave spit out having more difficulty 
breathing.  The light from the room was in his eyes so he couldn't see his 
enemy's face.  He didn't remember running into him before, he was sure 
of that.  A shot was fired at the control panel on the wall, but not by his 
attacker who had put his gun down on the dining table.  Another shot 
and the panel exploded in an array of sparks and flames.  A final shot 
was fired at the lights which exploded out, darkening the apartment 
once more.  Dave flinched from the spraying glass.  He was lifted a little 
higher as his assailant's other fist flew into Dave's lower ribs, making a 
noticeable cracking sound as it shattered a few, knocking the wind out of 
Dave.  He was then turned around and thrown into the opposite wall of 
his den a few feet away.  His attacker turned around to pick up his gun, 
which gave Dave a little time to move out of the way by crawling into his 
den amongst the electronics and wires.  Two more shots were fired 
directly into his leg as he was almost fully in, leaving him immobile 
from the pain with only the sounds of heavy footsteps echoing toward 
the den's entrance.
	The split, mangy tails of a cheap grayish-black overcoat dangled 
at the ankles of Dave's pursuer.  Combat boots and a dark cat burglar's 
baggy suit shown underneath the opened coat, as a Sinclair K2 was being 
placed back in it's shoulder harness, then covered by the thick fiber-
metal mesh coat.  He couldn't see a face or even a head from his 
encumbered position on the carpeted floor.  Dave just stared at his large 
enemy, unable to move from the pain in his cracked ribs, and the 5 inch 
needles sticking out of his left leg.  The only taste from his interrupted 
midnight snack away from the net was of blood.
	"Next time, don't fuck with Nestroth, Dave" came a quiet but stern 
female voice from the doorway; the type that could be sweet if it didn't 
send a shiver down your spine, but would scare the hell out of you if 
caught in a dark alley on Halloween.  
	Dave tried looking past his pursuer.  He knew that voice, he knew 
it from somewhere.  Nestroth gave him a hint, but there was no match.  
Not with that female voice.  It just sounded so familiar, but then again it 
didn't.  He just couldn't place it.  He had run into Nestroth a few times 
trying to break a few systems, but he'd never tangled with them, at least 
not to his knowledge.  Every time he had run into them, they either 
kicked him out or he got out himself.  He knew Nestroth was not one to be 
messed with, anywhere.  Anyone who did normally either was found 
dead or never found.  That didn't help Dave's thinking as he stared at his 
victor with only the thought of death running around in his head.  'If 
only I could think of what got me into this in the first place' Dave 
thought to himself, hoping for a chance to get out of it one way or the 
other.
	A hand slapped against the left shoulder of the overcoat.  Slowly 
and with enough coolness to chill ice, he moved to one side of the 
doorway without losing sight of his prey.  Blue and red streaks of light 
shined in from the neon streetlights through the opposing windows, 
leaving less to be hidden in the not-so-well kept apartment.  A few 
computer screens flickered and with the outside light, showed the 
mounds of electronics and scrap papers lying all over the small room.  
An athletically slender female figure covered only with a skintight body 
suit and a pair of stainless steel spiked heels, entered the room with the 
finesse and grace of a cat, and noticeably the cunning of one as well.  
Her slender body left little to the imagination as she snaked towards 
Dave.  Shiny metallic nail polish glistened on her fingertips in the 
sporadic changing lights.  Her footsteps made no noise as her spiked 
heels sank into the thick carpet and almost pierced through the material 
underneath.  Her bodysuit was mostly black with the exception of a dark 
red artistic line running across the main body of it, creating fading 
curls of color along an arm and the opposite leg.  Her hair matched the 
entire outfit; dark and slightly long, but not touching her shoulders.
	"Stand up shithead" she hissed walking to within inches of his 
pale face.
	"I..I...I can't.  My leg.." he whimpered.
	"Just do it or I'll have Nemesis stand you up whether you like it or 
not!"
	Remembering his encounter a few moments ago with 'Nemesis', 
he painfully began to bring himself up to a hunched over position, still 
holding his leg in pain.  He looked near her fearing the consequences of 
eye contact.  Blood trickled from his left leg and stained his business 
pants as he favored the other leg; the polymetal needles still sticking out 
of his leg.
	"Last night will be the last time you go after Cryon, Dave.  Do we 
understand each other?"
	"I didn't go against Cryon last night, honest I didn't" he sputtered 
back.  Sweat beads were forming on his head as her hot breath touched 
his face, while she pushed her face within an inch of his.
	"Don't bullshit me Dave.  Nestroth ran into you last night while 
going against Cryon and you fucked us up!  Don't make me..".
	"I haven't run into Nestroth in weeks and that was only an 
accident, really.  I don't want any trouble with Nestroth.  Come on, 
they're too big for me" he shakingly replied.  "Hell, I don't even know 
you guys.  That's how long it's been since I....".
	Backing away from his face, she retracted a set of 4 inch claws 
that lay at her waistside which had gone unnoticed until now.  Her 
eyebrows still in a devilish frown.  Her breathing still calm.  Her lips 
tight with fury, contrary to Dave's sweating, pale face.  A dark red stain 
was forming on his white shirt where Nemesis had punched him earlier.
	Raising her hand, "You may call me Slash" was her only reply as 
her claws extended to a solid 7 inches, and left his head lying next to his 
crumpled body as the blue light shined off the blood dripping from her 
otherwise spotless weapon of choice.  The only sound was a distant 
humming from the changing neon lights, and a grinning Nemesis.




			Cool Darkness
				by Matthew Carpenter



		Chapter 2 : Welcome to the Jungle

	"Enter Password" spit the computer controlled lock of a small 
warehouse on the other side of town; the dirty side of town.  Trash lay all 
around the alleyway and the light blowing smog that seems to inhabit 
the entire city rolled by, bring papers and dust with it.  Slash entered the 
neural code embedded into Nestroth's security ROM chip, implanted into 
her skull, and took her security card back as the graffitied, grayish 
metal alley door unlocked.  She walking in just as smoothly as she had 
done entering Dave's apartment, with Nemesis behind her shutting the 
door with the echoing thud of a vault.

	The semi-lit corridor weaved to the right a little bit.  The corridor 
was surrounded by old wooden crates piled on metal warehouse frames 
slightly beginning to rust from the humidity of the city air.  A metal 
catwalk lingered just above Nemesis' head as they walked into the open 
meeting room of Nestroth.  This was one of there meeting places.  One 
that was used after the fact.  The whole warehouse was only 50 by 50 feet, 
but it was perfect for their purposes:  small enough to be unnoticed; 
large enough to be useful.  There was a bar on the opposing wall from 
the entrance.  A pool table, a few TV's, a bar and a stereo made up the 
majority of the hall while the computer links and weapon banks were 
closest to the left wall.  Everything a person could want after a job, while 
still maintaining some security to the place.  A glance around from Slash 
produced a few scanners locked on them, verifying who's who.  A guard 
armed appropriately watched from the right catwalk that continued 
around the entire warehouse.  Dressed in normal street clothes, he raised 
his gloved right hand as a sign of hello to Slash.  She slightly nodded 
hello and continued looking around.

	A few desks were scattered around the room with paperwork, 
blueprints and other 'necessities' on top or laid out on built in desk 
monitors.  A medium sized man with an open white jacket, yellow shirt 
and nice slacks looked to be jacked in at one of the desks in a lounge 
chair.  The only thing was there was no cable.  A metal band with 
blinking LEDs wrapped around the back of his head connecting his two 
ports, but weren't connected to anything else.  His eyes blinked and he 
raised his head from his propped up arms to notice the two.  A few lights 
flashed on and off on his headgear and he raised his right arm to the 
back of it.  A few seconds later, the two sides of the device connected to 
his ports popped off and he placed the gear down onto the table.  A small 
stretch and a wipe of the eyes and he stood up reaching for the beer in 
front of him.

	Slash walked towards him as she noticed out of the corner of her 
eye, Nemesis going to a sofa on the far side of the room to throw his 
jacket down.  

	"So what did you bring me?" he asked, not changing his blank 
expression.

	"Merry Christmas , Nebulus" Slash retorted in a painfully sly tone 
of voice and a slight grin as she pulled Dave's head out of the black bag 
she was holding.

	"Not bad.  What else did you bring me?" Nebulus asked raising an 
eyebrow, taking another drink without removing his eyes from her.

	"The last time he said he ran into us was a few weeks ago" she said 
dropping his head into the disposal system next to the desk without a 
thought or a look.  "He denied going after Cryon last night.  He died with 
his story in tact so either he was one devoted liar, or he was too scared to 
make up a fake story.  In any case, we've got copies of his records for the
past two months including his work on the international nets and his
individual activities around the sites."

	Nemesis had put his coat down and returned to the discussion.  
Standing about half a foot over Nebulus, his body was highlighted from 
the lighting array suspended from the ceiling by chains.  His skin was 
very dark brown with tints of gray that seemed even darker behind 
Nebulus' white jacket.  His black tank top showed off his large muscles 
that had obviously been enhanced through drugs.  His black hair was cut 
in a spiked military fashion and he still wore his shades, even though 
the lighting inside wasn't that illuminating.

	"Or else he was there and tried to make us believe he wasn't.  You 
should've pulled more info out of him before you killed him.  Now we 
don't know what's going on" retorted Nebulus.  He slouched back into his 
padded chair and enabled the foot rest.  He closed his eyes, running his 
hand through his military style blond hair only to let out of a frustrated 
sigh that was meant to be heard.  He leaned back with his eyes closed as 
the other two members of the group who had been at the bar the whole 
time, came up to the table.

	"Hey kids, how's it goin'?  Did you and Davey-boy have fun 
tonight or what."  It was Zlik.  Slash hated his humor, especially when it 
wasn't in taste.  He walked closer to her side egging her on with his 
cock-eyed smirking that drove her nuts.  "Come on, tell old Zlik what 
happened baby."

	"Knock it off Zlik.  Why don't you take you and your filthy street 
'garb' somewhere where I can't smell it." darted Slash, eyeing him with 
one of those 'Don't push me looks'.  "We got enough problems without 
your nonsense."  Zlik was from the streets and probably will always be 
there as well.  He grew up there, hangs there now, and will forever have 
a name with those who have long purple hair that hangs to one side.

	"Goddamn skinny son of a .." murmured Slash.

	"Cool it children" snapped Nebulus, opening his eyes and 
furrowing his brow again.  "Jack, what do we have on the nets for the 
past few hours from Dave's area?"

	"Nothing to my knowledge.  The whole sector's been quiet since 
he got off" replied Jack in a gentlemen's voice, standing next to Nemesis.  
Actually, he stood underneath Nemesis.  He was very short and stocky, in 
fact he was getting on the fat side.  That's the problem with netrunning 
all day and all night.  Jack was the type of individual who got so hooked 
into the system that if he had his choice, he would never get out.  Unless 
of course he had to.  But that was never.  That's how he got his name, 
Jack.  Constantly jacking in and out of the nets, only to get back in as 
soon as possible.  He gambles with everything he gets into and most of 
the time, if and when rarely caught, he barely makes it out without 
being traced or ICEd.  But that's how he wanted to run his life:  on the 
edge, at least from the perception of the net.

	"Get me updated on Cryon ASAP, Jack, and make sure they're not 
screwing around with our side of the board!" demanded Nebulus.

	"Sure thing boss" replied Jack, still in his business shirt, business 
appearance, and business attitude.  Hey slowly walked away from the 
group and reached another desk a little distance away from the informal 
meeting.  He picked up the same headgear as Nebulus had and put it on, 
eventually peering off into space, or cyberspace as the case may be.

	"What the hell is that thing he's got on his head?" questioned 
Slash, a little perturbed that she hadn't been updated on the new tech 
yet.

	"It's an experimental wireless connect between your ports and a 
jack in site.  But like I said, it's only experimental, so it doesn't leave this 
room" explained Nebulus, calming down slightly.  "We stole the idea and 
some of the design from Cryon.  The rest came from industry with the 
holes filled in by Jack and his tech buddies at Nortech."

	"He's still working there?" asked Zlik, wising up a bit.  The party 
began to disperse, each individual going there own way.  "Awe screw it 
man" snobbed Zlik heading for the corridor leading to the alleyway.  The 
metal door slammed shut once he was out and the room was dead quiet 
with the exception of the echoing metallic slam of the door.  Everyone 
that wasn't jacked in was still looking at the corridor that Zlik just 
walked through.

	"When the hell is he going to get a life and stop being a street 
bum!?" complained Slash.

	"He's one of the best street informants I've ever known, Slash.  
Just get off his back" grumbled a low, direct voice.

	She turned around, looking at Nemesis who never had a lot to say.  
"Is that so.  Then why does he always dress like he's still on the streets?"

	"Because he is."  With that Nemesis grabbed his coat from the sofa 
and proceeded to follow Zlik's exit, never loosing sight of Slash.

***************

	"Don't let her get to you man, she's just bein' a bitch tonight 
cause we didn't get what we wanted from Dave" said Nemesis after 
catching up to Zlik.  His shades were still on even though it was 
approaching two in the morning.  The two of them walked for a while 
and finally made it to the noisy part of town.  The bars and joints 
stretched for a few blocks and never shut down as long as it was dark 
outside.  This was the night spot; where everyone came who was anyone, 
at four in the morning that is.

	"So what happened with the job with Dave?" asked Zlik.

	"We took him out well, but Nebulus wasn't impressed with the info 
we got from him.  I think Nebulus thinks someone's out for us.  Hell, it 
wouldn't surprise me, that's for sure."

	"At least it would make life interesting for once."

	"True."  They walked side by side down the sidewalk towards there 
favorite spot - Black Oil.  The only place on the strip that was almost 
pitch black dark inside and that served the hardest drinks, only.  It was a 
nice place.  The bar was always packed and the back rooms always full.  
It was mostly inhabited by deckers, samurai, informants or people just 
there for business.  Frankly, the bar wasn't even built to be a bar, but 
that never surfaced in conversation.

	Zlik was almost as tall as Nemesis, but a hell of a lot skinnier.  His 
tattered street clothes, long purple hair and terrible street accent set 
him apart from his companion.  A little harassment from the local girls 
and a few psychos that were missing more than a couple of brain cells 
made the trip seem normal.  The streets were cluttered with garbage and 
debris from the riots a few days ago.  Most of the street lights were out or 
on there way to go out.  Most of the cars on the streets had a few bumps 
or bruises, many having broken windows or shattered lights.  The alleys 
were filled with drunken street people sitting in the wall crevices and 
dealers making their nightly pay.  It might be the summer, but for some 
reason the night was a little cooler than normal.

	Before long, the Black Oil neon sign was a few doors down.  A 
small crowd had formed out front of the closed doors of the place with 
people just hangin' out.  A little pushing and shoving and the two got 
past the crowd of people who wanted to look cool by the bar, but didn't 
want to go in.

	Past the doors, the bar was dark as night.  Smoke filled the air and 
seemed to hover like a cloud just above people's heads.  There was just 
about enough room to walk around the place without hugging each 
other in the process.  A pool table could be spotted across the room in the 
far right corner from the foyer landing where Nemesis and Zlik stood 
side by side, each looking around for someone or something.  Most of the 
people here were dressed to kill.  The styles ranged from very slick to 
very sleazy, but all with the intent to intimidate.  The bar was centered 
in the middle of the place, raised a step above the floor to make it a little 
more formidable for stools.  It was nice, though, compared to the others 
in town.  All the walls were old fashioned wood with paintings and 
electronic art scattered around.  At least there was no graffiti on the 
inside of the joint.  Looking around produced a second floor of mostly 
wooden tables surrounding the outside walls of the place.  Round 
hanging pool lights hung from the ceiling with most of the lights either 
broken or turned off.

	Zlik started down the half flight of stairs without noting Nemesis' 
intentions for the evening.  But that was his style.  He grew up on this 
side of town, was one of the first to come to the bar when it was first 
opened, and will probably be one of those who are killed in it as well.  
Nemesis watched him slowly push his way toward the far side of the bar 
and begin talking with a few friends that normally were found here 
after midnight.  Nemesis, on the other hand, slowly made his way to the 
opposite side to watch a game of pool before going to the bar for a drink.

	"So what's new on the streets" questioned the guy slowly 
drinking a Toxic Rum next to Zlik, his long bleached hair almost 
touching the tip of the glass during each sip.

	"Depends on what side of the tracks you're from."

	"The down side."

	"Cryon is on the move again and no one knows what's going on."

	"I thought they weren't screwing around on the nets yet?  Last I 
heard, they weren't going after any company takeovers or anything" he 
said with a concerned yet questionable tone of voice, still just looking at 
his shot.

	"Their RAD just jumped and their in the market.  Nestroth's 
chasin' the rabbit so make sure the field is clear" noted Zlik.  He hated 
discussing names in company, but that was life on the streets.  "How's 
you're girl friend?"

	"Which one?" he asked in disgust.

	"Charles."

	"Watch your back.  Deckers are out tonight and it's gonna be a 
while until sex is as good as it used to be."

	"Who's spreading the disease?"

	"Mogul's back."  Spotting an old girl friend across the room, Zlik 
got up from the bar and began his way towards her, noting his friend 
with only a tap on the bar before leaving.  Information and friends are 
two different things when it comes to who's chasing who.  Anyway, most 
of the 'friends' that you make in a place like this can't be trusted further 
than the shot they drink from.

	'Mogul is back' thought Zlik on his way across the bar.  'This is 
not good.  The last time they were back proved to be a challenge in more 
ways than just survival.  Mogul was one of those groups that just looked 
for conflicts with other groups.  Nestroth normally didn't mind 
competition when going after a company or something like that, but 
when a gang gets involved with business, business gets bloody.'

	"Hey sexy!  How's it goin'!?"  yelled Zlik.

	"Well if it isn't Zlik.  I haven't seen you here for a while.  Where 
the hell you been hiddin' out lately?" replied Shiela.

	"I've been around.  You sure look awful different since we went 
out last year.  So who you datin' now babe?"  Her black leather clad body 
and curly-long, dyed black hair contrasted to her old street image of 
baggy pants and oversized shirts.  Her face was even more pale now.  Her 
appearance almost was of the dead instead of who he remembered her to 
be.

	"Nobody special.  He's right here."  She turned around and pulled 
on the shoulder of a large man standing behind her talking with a small 
bunch of guys dressed in the same black leather attire.  He turned 
around to face Zlik.  "I told you he'd be here honey" she said looking 
directly into Zlik's eyes with a devil's grin only Glasya could wear.

	"So this is the mighty Zlik of Nestroth!" he said taking a step 
closer and shoving his glass into Shiela's hand.  "Don't tell me you've 
come back for seconds with her MATE!"  He might be a little drunk, but 
he was definitely pissing Zlik off with his attitude; one of the few things 
which Zlik didn't tolerate.

	"Where the fuck did you pick him up Shiela!?  Pirates Are Us or 
Assholes Anonymous!!!?" attacked Zlik with his irate attitude aimed 
directly at Shiela.

	"Good-bye Zlik" was her only monotone reply as her grin turned 
sour and she retreated towards the bar, walking behind her man.

	"Oh, fine, walk off with a nice good-bye babe!  Hey, don't forget 
your beer belly bozo here bitch!" yelled Zlik not moving from his 
position.  His attack was still muffled by the crowd around them.  No one 
paid any attention to quarrels like that, anymore.

	Giving a daring glare in her direction, his neck was violently 
grabbed by Shiela's lover.  

	"She picked me up at Mogul, you shitty piece of street slime.  How 
do you feel about that, Dick!?"  Zlik's eyebrow's raised instantly at the 
thought of what he was in now, just in time for a double sided dagger to 
be thrust into his stomach by his adversary.  His mouth dropped open 
and his eyes shut from the pain.  His body almost being totally supported 
by the hand still clenching his neck, making his breathing more 
difficult.  The knife twisted in his side and his brow furrowed more until 
all he could do is scream out in pain.  The crowd around him began to 
notice the action, but it was too late.  His back began to arch and his 
knees started bending slowly as the life drained out of his body, staining 
his shirt, and began to form a reflective puddle on the floor underneath 
him.

	"MOGULLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!" screamed Zlik, thrusting his right 
elbow outward.  An old fashioned quick release snubnose appeared in his 
palm and directed itself towards the chest of his killer.  Four shots were 
fired before his body crumpled to the bloody wooden floor, his right arm 
sticking straight upward with the gun still resting in his palm.  He was 
soon followed by his killer to the floor.  His leather armor lined jacket 
not enough against good old Teflon II coated ammunition, bringing him 
down nearly on top of Zlik.  Their blood staining each other's body.  The 
crowd going silent momentarily to see who was involved this night 
while the bartender called the cops, then resuming with the normal 
discussions of the evening.  Another night, another death.  Pretty 
normal for nighttime in Philly, or any major city for that matter.

	Shiela slowly made her way to the entrance and existed alone, 
mingling with a few others who didn't want to be around when the cops 
showed up to collect the bodies.  Nemesis, too far away to do anything but 
watch his friend die, and hear the gunshots at the last moment, kept and 
eye on her and followed her out of the establishment.  He'd met her a few 
times before, but never really got to know her.  He never really liked 
her in the first place.  Trusted would probably be a better word.  Now he 
knew why.  Mogul on the other hand meant something, something very 
serious.  Mogul was a gang that ran a last year and tried terrorizing 
certain underground groups.  Nestroth was one of the groups that 
brought them down.  Unfortunately, they didn't wipe them out 
completely.

	Shiela began down the strip and soon turned into a known 
alleyway.  Nemesis followed, cautiously surveying his position.  He 
started into the alley, but she was already gone.  Impossible.  The alley is 
too long and he was too close to lose her that fast.  He didn't like it.  He 
didn't like it one bit.  A few more meters in and he stopped, switching his 
cybernetic retina implants from night vision to thermal infra-red 
sensing.  He walked a few more meters with his jacket loosely buttoned.  
He finally stopped completely and looked around.  As he looked up he 
caught a glimpse of part of a person who must have been peering out of 
a window from above.  More likely sighting him in, which he confirmed 
with another retina switch to ultraviolet reflective, picking up the faint 
outlines of a needler rifle.

	"Nice try, Nemesis" came a voice that echoed through the alley.  It 
was Shiela all right.  Nothing mistaking that slyish voice.  He turned 
around, obviously out of position.  Two men, however, were between him 
and the streets, and the alley behind him meant dealing with his 
airborne sniper.  His right hand slowly snaked towards his jacket.

	"Don't even think about it asshole."  The two men in front of him 
took out their weapons, pinning him in.  "You go back to Nestroth and 
tell them we're back, Nemesis.  And, by the way, give Nebulus this 
message!?"  Two needler shots were fired from above into his shoulder.  
He immediately sank to the ground and crashed into a trash bin, holding 
his 'injured' shoulder.  "You take that to Nebulus!"

	The two men in the alley put their weapons away as they made 
their way back to the streets.  Nemesis lay there for a few minutes until 
he judged the situation as relatively safe to move.  He removed the 
needles from his jacket, simulating their penetration and induced pain.  
He walked out holding his shoulder.  He walked out without his friend.  
Heading back, passed the bar, gave him only one thought: Mogul is back 
and Cryon is on the move.  What the hell is going on?




			Cool Darkness
				by Matthew Carpenter



	Chapter 3 : The Finer Things in Life...Just Got Worse

	"And here is the room where the hunter/killers will be operating 
from, General.  Each station will house one person and the collective will 
send necessary information to the GN-12 over there" pointed a research 
engineer for Cryon who was showing General Stark the first labs that 
would be used in Operation Revolt:  a joint military/government 
operation headed by members of the CIA, NSA, and USAF Electronic 
Security Command.  Behind the glassed in walls of the studio-like lab, the 
tour of the labs had come to an end for one of the leading officials in the 
implementation of the operation, as well as the leading researchers, 
programmers and engineers of Cryon and Nortech.  General Stark 
standing out by being the only one not in a normal suit with visible 
hardware and ports.

	"Very impressive, Dr. Rudenburg, very impressive." spoke 
General Stark looking at the GN-12 comp.  "Just how fast is that computer 
and will it give us instantaneous time to react if a priority is at hand?"

	"It's a 10 teraflops machine packaged in a secured housing that 
will be able to handle hundreds of users without slowing down a bit.  The 
computer has been programmed specifically to handle that type of a 
situation, should it arise.  With the latest advances made by Nortech in 
the human/computer interface field, the computer will be an extension 
of everyone working in the nets as well as off them.  The operation will 
begin as scheduled in two weeks.  You can be assured of that!" he stated 
with a grin as if he had sealed a done deal.  "If you come this way, we can 
move onto the final discussion of the networking reorder program and 
how we will integrate each level of defense as the time arises."

	The glass panels they were behind separated them from the most 
diabolical security system ever created by man.  Each station consisting 
of a 'coffin' where men would be connected into the computers and nets 
24 hours a day kept alive with a revolutionary new life support system.  
The General stood there for a last glimpse of the entire project.  His 
decorated chest rose and fell deeply with every deep breath.  'The 
teraflops computers.  The neural links.  The net connections and security 
systems.  So it all comes down to this.' the General thought to himself 
giving the place a once over, then moving on without a change of facial 
expression.  

	"So this project will enable us to monitor all of the Milnet sites 
and government linkup locations at any given time from anywhere, 
right?"

	"Exactly.  The hunter/killers will be spread out over the nets and 
gateways, constantly monitoring and tracking any conspicuous netters 
or runners as the case may be.  All the info will be processed here and 
we will be able build case files on perpetrators, or eliminate them if the 
risk is too high."

	"Sounds good to me.  We're practically fightin' a war on the nets 
as it is with all the netrunnin' that's been goin' on in the past few years.  
It's about goddamn time we got the hardware on our side to stop these 
punks" said the General.  His brow was more furrowed than before, 
remembering the numerous break-ins into his department alone over 
the past five years.  "Goddamn kids" he quietly spoke to himself, looking 
ahead with great anticipation for this project.  'Just wait until we fry 
'em' he smirked.

******************

	A few days later, a bare-chested dark-skinned bodybuilder was 
curling more weight than normal in front of a mirror at the local gym.  
A 'fake' medical bandage was taped to his left shoulder, giving him an 
incentive to pump more iron.  His biceps bulged every time the curl bar 
was lifted above waist level.  'I'm gonna kill Mogul, 18.  Kill Mogul, 19.  
Kill Mogul, 20.'  "Goddamn!" he said putting the bar back on its bench and 
flexing in front of the mirror.  He looked over himself with confidence.  
A full four hour workout finished again.  'Lookin' hot man, lookin' hot.'  
A cool sweat covered most of his unclothed body.  His spandex shorts 
noticeably wet as well.  He looked over his sculptured grayish tanned 
muscles until his gaze made it to his shades.  The dark purplish reflection 
in the mirror of his glasses spawned a frowning brow from Nemesis.  
'More muscles, more killing power!'  He picked the bar back up and 
curled another 10 reps, just to let the thought sink in, real deep, still 
counting by how many times he was going to kill Mogul.  He looked back 
at the mirror, breathing a little heavier than before.  His eyebrows now 
making a "V" shape in his forehead.  'That's it!  It's personal now, Mogul!  
You're MINE!'  

	He swiftly grabbed his bag and headed out the front of the gym 
into the warm summer afternoon.  His workout might be over, but his 
adrenaline was running high at the moment.  Flashbacks of Zlik and him 
being together for the first time.  Hitting the bars, scamming 
information, working with Nestroth.  Then the memory of the bar came 
back to him.  He saw the pain going through his friend's face.  He saw 
him stare death square in the face and then take his revenge before 
letting death take him.  And then, the only thought that entered his head 
was of Sheila.  "BITCH!"

	"Hey, Nemesis!"  A slap on the chest broke him from his day 
dreaming.  "Hey, man, you there today!?" asked Nebulus, catching him on 
his way down the street.

	"What do you want!?  I thought you never came out in daylight?" 
retaliated Nemesis.

	"Hey, calm down.  I was just coming up to see you in the gym and 
work out for a little while."

	"Then why are you in clothes that normally aren't seen outside of 
a club?"

	"OK, so I wasn't going to work out.  I was going to watch you" 
Nebulus said with a grin.  "Come on, let's get outta here.  My car's right 
over here."  They walked together towards the car, but Nemesis stopped a 
few steps away.  The whole thing was still eating him away, and Sheila 
was still in his head.

	"I don't think so; I'm really not in the mood right now, Nebulus."

	"Look, I know you're upset about what happened to Zlik, we all 
are, but there's work to do."

	"I don't care about work right now, damn it!  All I care about is 
taking Mogul down once and for all and NOW!" yelled Nemesis, becoming 
more furious by the moment.

	"Look asshole, I don't give a shit about how you feel or what you 
want to do!  There's work to do and I need you in one piece.  Now get you 
fuckin' ass in my goddamn car before I slice that rinkly stomach of 
yours open!" Nebulus retaliated pulling out a double sided rigid blade.

	The two just looked at each other for a second or two.  Finally, 
Nemesis moved towards the car, shouldering into Nebulus just to get a 
little frustration out on his way to grabbing the door.  Nebulus moved out 
of the way slightly, but ran the blade against Nemesis' stomach anyways.  
Nemesis just opened the door, loudly threw his bag in the back and 
slammed the door shut, letting his built-up anger go up in smoke.  
'Goddamn son of a bitch' he thought to himself as Nebulus got in the car 
and started driving away from the curb.

	"Didn't hurt a bit I bet, did it?" asked a frustrated Nebulus.

	"No."

	"How many layers of that shit have you put in you now...what are 
you up to four, five, twenty one or so..?" kidded Nebulus.

	Nemesis smirked.  His anger obviously starting to fade with the 
thought of his friend's humor.  "Only four.  Anymore would make it look 
unnatural.  And it's not shit, it's reinforced synthetic skin."

	"Unnatural.  You're only the one person in my life that I've ever 
seen with gray skin.  And a bodybuilder at that.  I thought you never put 
anything into your body that wouldn't help you grow muscles?"

	"It doesn't go into me; it's just sewn on the top five or so layers of 
skin."

	"Great.  A bodybuilder that has four layers of reinforced Kevlar 
Type II skin sewn into his skin so he's not only stronger than everyone 
else, he also has skin that's tougher than an alligator's."  The trip was 
silenced from then on by Nemesis' straight face and Nebulus' concern 
for what was going on with the nets.  Reality came back too quickly.  
Turning towards the west side of the city, Nemesis could tell that they 
were going to Nebulus' apartment.

	'What the fuck are we going to his house for?' Nemesis asked 
himself looking around.  The surrounding buildings, annoying traffic 
and light smog offered no answer.  Soon the apartment complex was up 
ahead.  Solar collectors sat atop the six story box shaped complex, soaking 
up as much sun from the hot day as possible.  An underground parking 
garage door swung open as the car passed the entrance into the 
driveway, allowing them access to Nebulus' traditional parking spot:  
directly opposite of the door on the far end of the garage.  Nemesis 
grabbed his bag and the two went up to the third floor apartment, 
getting in with the standard code key card.  The gray polymetal door 
swung open and the two entered the foyer.  Thick light colored carpet 
covered the floor of the spacious apartment.  Nemesis walked into the 
living room directly in front of him and looked out the full window at 
the nearby city.  'Pretty sad' he thought to himself, putting his bag down 
on a nearby sofa.  Nebulus followed and sat down, turning the TV on.

	"So what the hell are we doing here anyways?" demanded 
Nemesis, still staring out the window.

	"The others will be here soon enough.  Like I said, there's work to 
be done."

	"Then why don't you tell me just what the fuck is going on then, 
if it's so goddamn important!?" he retaliated spinning around to face 
Nebulus.  Nebulus sat there for a moment, still watching TV.  The volume 
was low enough it might as well have been off.  The spokesperson from 
ESPN was finishing a remote assignment to California on the discussion 
of the new steroids, the ones that had no physical or mental side effects.  

	"So, are you going to start taking the new steroids to help 
improve your strength?  I heard they can't hurt you at all." Nebulus said 
still watching TV.  Without receiving a reply, he turned to face Nemesis 
who was still waiting for an answer.  "All right.  Jack got word today 
from one of his friends in Nortech that said that Operation Revolt was 
scheduled to begin in two weeks."

	That hit a soft spot in Nemesis' pissed off mood.  'Two weeks.  Holy 
shit.  I didn't think they were going to be ready for at least a few more 
months.'  His mood switched from anger to passive worry, convincing 
him that sitting down was a good idea after all.  'How the fuck did they 
get that far ahead without our knowledge?'

	Nebulus went back to watching ESPN's coverage of body building 
which quickly grasped part of his companion's attention as well.  Within 
fifteen minutes, the program was nearing it's end when a message from 
the front panel sounded  "There is a visitor at the front door."  Nebulus 
got up and turned on the video monitor which vividly showed Slash and 
Jack.  

	"Who is it?" he asked anyways monotonely.

	"Open up, Nebulus." came back Slash's cool voice.

	"Lookin' good Slash."  He verified their presence with another 
window on the wall panel, displaying the thermal image of two people 
standing in the hallway outside his apartment door, taken from a sensor 
array strategically placed outside his room.  The door opened, and the two 
entered the room.

	"Don't you wish." said Slash as she walked past Nebulus in her 
civilian attire:  short heels, stockings that almost showed under a short 
summer skirt,  and a tight sleeveless top.  Jack followed her in, looking 
very concerned with the present state of affairs.  Being an employee of a 
company that his 'computer group' was about to attack and disable, put 
him in a very bad, not to mention stressful position.  The door slid shut 
behind him and locked with an advanced security lock that also included 
locking out telecom messages.

	Jack put himself in his normal office chair that sat at the near 
side of the couch, placed there just for him.  Normally it was used as a 
foot rest or end table, but Jack always sat in office chairs, no matter 
where he was.  Slash made her way to the cushy chair on the far side of 
the room that was within arms reach of Nemesis' side of the sofa.

	"I'm really sorry about Zlik, Nemesis.  I want you to know that." 
said Slash in a very sincere tone of voice.

	Nemesis gave her his thank you look and quickly moved to face 
Nebulus who was sitting back down on the sofa to address the group in 
one of their most important meetings of the year.

	"Thank you all for coming on such short notice.  I hope this 
hasn't complicated your jobs, but like I said, this is very important.  
Yesterday, Jack came to me with a very important message a friend at 
work had given to him involving Cryon's initiative, Operation Revolt.  
Jack, would you please brief the group on that matter?"

	"I received the following message from one of my contacts who 
keeps me informed on information with this project.  As you know, we 
were going after the project just for the capabilities to stay online 24 
hours a day.  But this changes things completely.  The message says:

		1-     OR to take over nets.  Hunter/killer
		group to use LSS to keep punks off nets.
		MIL/GOV//MIL/GOV/unknown-deadly     -3

	The reason why this changes everything are the hunter/killer 
groups and the involvement of the government and military.  This is one 
of the first times that the government and military have gone after 
totally securing the nets.  To begin with it will be applied to the 
government and military nets, but I think it will eventually spread to 
even the simplest network interface on the local level, purposely 
designed to keep unauthorized personnel out, period.  They are playing 
for keeps this time.  I think the answer to the question about why has 
Cryon been going after other companies and mil sites is right here as 
well.  They've been breaking into places left and right as a testing 
ground for what they can do and how effective their system is.  We've 
been watching the whole damn project run it's prototypes and beta tests 
all along.  The people that were in the tests are the ones we will be up 
against when the game begins, if this project succeeds in starting on 
time."  He ran his hand through his thinning hair.  His shirt collar was 
long unbuttoned and his tie loose.  "This puts me in one awkward 
position, but that's why I got with you guys in the first place.  This 
project will essentially shut down the nets from the outside, and I can't 
see anyway of getting around it."

	"Yea, but they can't KILL you.  I mean, all they can do is find out 
who you are and where you're getting in from.  That's old news I 
thought." attacked Slash.  She knew her way around net tech and was 
pretty up to date on the present state of it, but what she hated the most 
was not being informed on what was out there and this put a noticeable 
hitch in her tone.

	"With the new system, there's no telling what they can do.  They 
could decide not to attack you, trace you back to your deck.  From there 
they could get every bit of information on you without you knowing it.  
Set bugs.  Implant viruses.  Build cases about you.  Contact others to see if 
you have any weaknesses.  Destroy your personal file and plant a virus 
to destroy every copy of it you launch.  Who knows.  These guys are 
playing hardball and they're playing for keeps!"

	The room was completely silent with the exception of a thousand 
thoughts of concern coming from each person sitting there.

	"Well, I guess this means that Mogul is on the back burner" 
sighed Nemesis, folding his hands together in his lap.  A few grins 
appeared quickly looking to relieve the stress of the room.

	"We need a plan of attack to begin with" said Slash slouching 
back in her chair, allowing the bottoms of her stocking to show without 
concern.  Nemesis was the first to notice and the only one to stare, 
unnoticed of course.  His CRI's zoomed in on one area, trying to get a 
closer picture.  'Business is business, but pleasure is pleasure' he thought 
to himself.  He never could grasp cyberspace that well and couldn't 
concentrate on it that much since he had never jacked in before and 
probably never would.

	"Fine.  First:  Jack, you need to keep gathering as much info as 
possible from the nets and from work.  We need to know what we're 
going up against and when.  Second:  Slash, I need you to assess Cryon's 
security.  Work with your security company to get into the place and see 
what you can dig up.  Third:  Nemesis, I need you to resecure all of our 
sites, systems, apartments and personal gear.  I want to be ready for 
anything that hits us, either from Cryon or Mogul.  Also I need you to be 
our street info man.  There probably isn't much on the streets now, but I 
want to get as much of a jump on this as possible.  Also, keep a close eye 
on Mogul.  Keep them out of range, but don't overextend yourself without 
backup, and only under extreme circumstances.  Cryon takes priority 
until further notice.  Meanwhile, I will make contact with some of the 
higher ups I know and will converge all info to you all.  Keep all 
information pertaining to this thing as secret as possible.  Don't use the 
nets at all and make sure you're not being tracked!"

	The meeting soon broke up, each person going their individual 
way.  There was nothing more that really needed to be said, or could be 
said.  They needed more information and without it were dead in the 
water.  Nebulus walked back to the large window in the living room and 
looked out at the city below.  It was getting late in the afternoon, but 
work was just beginning.  'So they've finally come up with a way to shut 
us out, huh.  So it's all come to this.  And if ICE weren't enough.  Now I 
have to combat another person on the net who is playing Mr. Security 
Officer, standing between me and my objective.  That is, if they ever get 
into the nets!  That's it.  We'll have to kill the project before it even 
becomes operational!'

***************

	Five days had passed and the group was together once again, this 
time to compare information.  If nothing else, they were all more 
worried and more intense with every move they made.  Here was a 
technology and a capability so revolutionary in the field of computer 
security that it could wipe out the majority of cracking that goes on 
within any and all nets.

	The four sat around one of the tables in the back room at Hot 
Kicks, a private club owned by Nebulus on the better side of town.  It was 
an almost middle class joint, if there was a middle class any more.  If 
there was it was called surviving with a little more.  The joint was classy.  
It was where all the sophisticated people went who wanted to see live 
nude dancing and strippers that wouldn't make you vomit.  There was 
both male and female entertainment as well as artwork, decks, 
holographics, laser shows and live or holographic music.  It was a 
hangout for artsy types, social groupies, or horny people.  The room they 
were in was behind all the glitter and glamour of the place.  It was the 
business area of the joint.

	"Well, I guess I'll be the one to start things" spoke Jack, eagerly 
wanting the meeting to begin so that he could get as much of a jump on 
the project as possible.  Being the netrunner of the group, he needed as 
much prep time as possible, and the most info as well.  "The project is 
still scheduled to start on time in nine days.  The beta testing that has 
been going on over the past four months, has included over 25 
businesses, 20 military installations, and 10 government sites.  Successful 
cracks were made in all cases and successful defense routines were 
completed without problems.  The people who will be in the nets will be 
on life support for one month at a time.  They will be receiving fluids, 
muscle stimuli and other necessities while in the nets.  They will be 
connecting into the nets through a large comp that I suspect is a 
supercomputer, but have not yet confirmed.  With this type of computing 
power, they will be able to bring a lot of software into the nets with them 
and will be able to be monitored from outside, while still maintaining 
contact with the others in the nets.  ICE could never touch the killing 
power that this could produce" Jack finished with a seriously straight 
face.

	"Cryon's physical security is very tight.  My security firm is 
presently supporting ten positions within the company, none of which 
are located near this project.  Security systems and facility maps are 
located within the main system there, and should be breakable without 
much trouble, once you get past the outer systems.  I can arrange to have 
two of our special tactics team help us with the break in.  They're 
specifically trained for this sort of thing and we have no records of them 
at all."

	"Yea, but can they be trusted?" darted Jack, obviously feeling the 
pressure of breaking into a place this big, and going against an 
operation of this magnitude.

	"My people are loyal to me.  As long as we keep them from the 
truth and don't have them go all the way in, we should be ok.  In any 
case, they are expendable if problems arise.  Are there any other 
questions?" challenged Slash.  She wouldn't have come up with the idea 
if she didn't think it weren't safe, and she hated people who attacked her 
judgments.

	"All right.....Nemesis" called Nebulus, keeping the meeting in 
order.

	"All security systems and meeting places have been tested, 
verified and put on maximum alert sequences.  If anything even comes 
close to messin' with our stuff, it'll be eliminated.  The word on the street 
is nothin'.  This project is the quietest one I've ever heard of.  Nobody's 
even heard of it yet.  Mogul is still around, but they don't seem to be 
movin' anytime in the next few days.  They're mainly getting contacts 
and settin' up sites.  All personal gear has been maintained and weapon 
banks are in full, working condition.  They'll be ready when the time 
comes to jump."

	"Last but not least, the big guys will be comin' into town on the 
day the project is implemented.  Hotel reservations were made months 
ago and security teams have been assigned from the normal companies.  
I scrounged some extra cash in case we needed anything to further our 
chances of survival.  This one's gonna be the big hit for this year, that's 
for sure" said Nebulus moving to the front of his chair and putting his 
arms down on the table.

	"What is that supposed to mean?" asked Slash.

	"We are going to attack this project before it can be implemented 
and we're gonna go into Cryon to do it."

	"Are you nuts!?  There's no fuckin' way we can attack from 
within Cryon!" bitched Jack, standing up to contest the whole plan.

	"If we let them into the nets, we're dead.  They win, we loose.  
They will be more powerful than ICE ever could think of being.  You 
should know that, Jack" Nebulus retaliated disgustingly as if talking to a 
high school punk that never learned to think with an open mind.  

	'Great.  He's already starting to crack and the fun hasn't even 
begun' thought Slash looking disappointingly at Jack.

	Nebulus got up from his seat and walked over to Jack, who had 
walked away from the table to unbutton his shirt even more.  Slash and 
Nemesis looked at each other with that 'Oh, great' look, knowing each 
other couldn't wait for the action.

	Nebulus put his hands in his baggy pants pockets as he stood next 
to Jack.  "Look.  I know you're in a really bad position if anything goes 
wrong.  But you're in it with us and you know you want to go through 
with it.  Just relax and take an anti-stress pill and calm down.  I need you 
in one piece to pull this off from the inside or we're not going 
anywhere."  He walked away knowing that Jack wouldn't let him down.  
Every now and then when they did something big, Jack was the one to 
get nervous.  He was great on the nets and could crack more than most, 
but his nerves were made of shit until the actual time came to work.

	"So where's my woman, Nebulus?" asked Nemesis jokingly.

	"Julia is downstairs waitin' for ya' in the dressin' room."  

	"Julia this time, huh."  Since the meeting was essentially over, 
Nemesis decided to go play, leaving the group behind to drink or do 
whatever they wanted to.

	"How pathetic" mumbled Slash as her combative partner left the 
room.  He paid no attention to her comment, as usual.




				Cool Darkness
					by Matthew Carpenter



			Chapter 4 : Pawn to Rook 4

	"How the hell do you expect me to come up with that kind of 
security information by tomorrow morning?  There's got to be a dozen or 
more hard locks on that place, not to mention getting around ICE" 
complained Jack, trying to make Nebulus understand the tight security 
at Cryon.

	"Jack, take a chill pill.  So it'll take a few more hours than normal.  
Just get it done as soon as possible.  We need as much info as possible so 
we can pull this off."

	"And what if we can't?  Why the hell is getting this stuff off line 
so important anyways?  It's not like we're trying to protect every 
netrunner in the country."  Nebulus dropped a few tablets on the desk 
the two were sitting at.  Jack watched them rolled around on a pile of 
computer paper until they spun around and stopped toward one edge.  By 
the time Jack looked up at Nebulus, he had already walked away, 
thinking about something else.  To Nebulus, nothing was impossible.  It 
was just a matter of coming up the right plan of attack.

	"Shit" mumbled Jack to himself, picking up the two pills.  
'Probably only iron tablets' he thought putting them in his mouth and 
downing them with the Coke sitting on his desk.  'Everything must be 
duplicated.  All security systems must be located and analyzed.  Personnel 
and schedules must be analyzed.  What a fuckin' bitch!'  He jacked back 
into Cryon gathering the last bit of information that was necessary to 
invade as he always called it.

	A few hours later, the group was together once again for last 
checks on the plan of attack.  The meeting place was the same warehouse 
that Nemesis and Slash had gone to after taking out Dave.  Kind of ironic 
since it is usually a place to go after the fact.  It quaintly went along with 
Nebulus' ego, though.  Good for dealing in the black markets; bad for 
dealing with friends.  But then again, they all did live on the edge just 
for that rush of adrenaline.  For Nemesis, that was his drug of choice.

	"So are we gonna go in and tear this place up or what" Nemesis 
said loudly sitting down at the large meeting table that was probably 
designed to be a stretch dining room table.  It had been refinished and 
had a monitor array placed into it so that it took up most of the table face.  
He placed his combat boots up on the table and faced the head of the table 
where Nebulus sat.

	"Pig" joked Slash, sitting across from him.

	"So who are your friends, Slash?" asked Nemesis, gathering a 
straight face, ready for business.

	Slash turned to her right where one of her two 'friends' were 
seated.  He was dressed in almost all black leather, with a black hair cut 
resembling Nemesis' with a gold earring to top it off with style.  "This is 
Aberdon.  And she is Donna" pointed Slash, looking at her other friend 
who was sitting next to Nemesis who noted her long stocking-clad legs.  
Her miniskirt and skimpy top left little to the imagination and much to 
be desired, at least as far as Nemesis was concerned, who was becoming 
aroused as his eyes caressed her legs very slowly.

	"And what do you do for a living" he smirked eyeing her over his 
shoulder, getting as much of a lookover as he could get away with.

	"Looks like I'll be coverin' your ass macho man" she replied with 
a nasty tone of voice, never letting her intimidating facial expression 
change.

	He laughed.  He laughed sarcastically loud.  "So where do we stand 
on info?" he said dropping his bullshit like a mercury weight.

	"We've got most of the blueprints for the place in question 
including security and surveillance systems, piping and electrical, and 
nets.  Security schedules are being analyzed by the comps still and tap in 
sites are being assessed as to hard connects" came back Jack who sat at 
the other head of the table.  He touched the table screen a few times and 
a general blueprint of the main floor and grounds came into view.  "This 
is the general layout of the place, he said adding mini windows of the 
basement levels.  The target site is on the absolute bottom floor of the 
building, and it's pretty heavily guarded and secured.  It's going to take a 
lot to get to it" he said with a little worry.  He was getting used to the 
situation and finally excited about the job, but still slightly intimidated 
with the size of the operation.  It was the largest job he'd ever done and it 
was one of the few that involved both people on the nets and in the 
physical objective site.

	"Piece of cake" confidently spoke up Aberdon.

	"Yea?  So how would you attack it!?" attacked Slash.  Nebulus sunk 
a little deeper in his chair, awaiting this test.

	"Once the electronics are secure, a team will go in the rear 
security zone by entering this loading zone, here" he said pointed to a 
grid on the monitor.  "From there, one of us will take over that physical 
security site to control the area.  From there, whoever's runnin' will lead 
the group through checkpoints by disarming systems and allowing them 
to enter secured sectors.  Any guards can be removed by our new 
security guard and diverted temporarily.  Then it's just a matter of 
pullin' things together.  Piece of cake."

	"Not bad...not bad" spoke Nebulus, sitting back up in his chair.  
"Almost like we had talked about earlier."  Putting his elbows on the 
table, he glanced over the prints one more time.  The room was silent.  
All eyes were on Nebulus since he had the final say on the plan.  He stood 
up and took off his jacket, placing it on the back of the chair.

	"But it won't work.  The security layout would never get you past 
the main gate.  Cryon doesn't accept night deliveries.  No one goes in or 
out after dark, period" said Jack, standing his ground against a plan as 
simple as that.  "So the question is, how do we get to the dock without 
being noticed at all."

	"Sewer system.  It's the oldest trick in the book, but I bet you it 
would work" said Nemesis.

	"Don't be stupid.  A company like that isn't dumb enough to leave 
their pipes clear" snapped Slash, expecting more from an experienced 
front man.

	"Yea, but all the outside pipes aren't connected to the inside pipes.  
They're all for rain, not sewage.  Look.  There's not one connection from 
the building pipes to the outside pipes.  In fact, it looks like all the inner 
pipes go down to the basement and out the bottom of the structure 
through smaller pipes into an underground piping system I would guess.  
There's a man hole near the docks that I bet connects to the city sewers" 
pondered Jack, getting more intrigued with the possibilities of actually 
pulling this stunt off.

	"Check it out.  Make sure they're clean and that the pipes are 
large enough for men with equipment to get through.  If it is, we'll go 
with it.  I had a similar idea to the one proposed.  I'll pose as a guard and 
help the team get through each level of security.  Nemesis, get me a wish 
list of equipment to get the job done.  Then you and Aberdon get the stuff 
ready.  Slash, you and Donna look over every micron of this plan and 
make sure it works.  Make detailed notes on everything we will need to 
know about this place.  Jack, continue working on info and breaking 
systems.  Also, get the ROMS ready to write to with the info Slash gives 
you.  Meanwhile, I'll get some party favors.  Aberdon and Donna, you are 
staying with us until this is over, understand!"  commanded Nebulus.  
This was it.  If there were any questions, now was the time to bring it up.  
Once the plan was set, it was set.  There were no objections.

	August 21.  Friday, early morning.  The humid air hung stagnate 
outside the metal door of a warehouse in the shipping district.  Launch 
Site 13 as it was called.  All missions were started here.  This one was just 
bigger than most.  Usually, it was mainly netrunning to get information.  
This time it involved flesh and blood almost more than fiber optic cables.  
Nemesis stood outside the door waiting for the rest to arrive.  He looked at 
his watch.  '3:49.  One minute to go' he thought.  A lone docking light far 
away painted a soft, white brush stroke of light across his bare chest and 
the warehouse behind him.  'Forty seconds to go.'

	The dull hum of a van came from around the far side of the 
warehouse, moving slowly along the gravel drive.  The headlights were 
turned off as the garage size door of the warehouse began to open, 
spilling an ambient light onto the gravel.  Nemesis opened the personnel 
door behind him and walked through closing it behind him and locking 
it.  The black beaten up van crept past the open garage to turn around 
and enter backwards.  The garage door began to close as Nemesis walked 
up to the back of the van and opened the doors with a sharp creaking.  
The gang was here.  

	"Right on time" he said.

	"Time to party" said Slash being the first to get out of the crowded 
van.  Everyone in the back were sitting on A3 cases that were unloaded 
first by Nemesis and Aberdon.  Stacking them sideways to each other, 
Nebulus brought the pass card up, giving the privilege to Donna who 
aggressively ran it through the bar reader of the first one she came to.  
The green light on the handle block went on and an internal lock 
disengaged with a soft pop.  She opened it up and everyone looked in.

	"My, my, aren't we gonna have fun tonight" glowed Slash looking 
at the case full of explosives.  

	"C4-type II, IRAPM's, concussion bombs, hand grenades, 
hey....where's my grenade launcher?" joked Nemesis looking at Nebulus.

	"Look in case two.  Each one of you has a personal case that is 
openable with that card.  Everything you need is in there.  Merry 
Christmas kids."

	"How much did this cost you anyways?" asked Slash with a grin.

	"After I told them why we were going in, they practically gave it 
to me just to secure their other investments.  To answer your question, 
no you can't keep it" he replied with a grin that stretched from ear to 
ear.

	The transformation began.  Everyone began getting their clothes 
on and their body armor secured.  All of the smiles had left by the time 
4:00 AM rolled around.  Weapons were checked and rechecked.  
Ammunition and explosives were properly attached and weapons slung.  
Jack had already disappeared into the basement of the place; a secret 
room under the floor where the master comps were located.  The comps 
sucked power directly from the power station that was not more than a 
quarter mile away.  That way the general power loss could be attributed 
to humidity or any other stupid, unexplainable phenomenon.

	"On line in one minute!" yelled Nebulus from his makeup case.  
Everyone was already ready, checking each other over.  Nebulus jacked 
in quickly checking on Jack's status.

	"On line!"

	The four got side by side.  The seriousness and concentration 
hung in the air almost as thick as the humidity.  Beads of sweat had 
formed on every one's forehead.  Foot steps were heard from the far side 
of the warehouse and Jack soon appeared out of the homemade wooden 
office, heading towards the group.  

	"Are you ready?" questioned Nebulus.

	"Comps are set.  Once you get in, you'll have less than 10 minutes 
to complete the job, which in this case is plenty of time.  One minute to 
secure the desk.  Two minutes to get to subbasement 4.  One minute for 
diversions and gaining access.  Three minutes for setting the bombs and 
getting out.  That leaves you with one minute to blow the place and two to 
get out" said Jack.

	"And that's worse case scenario, right?" asked Nebulus, hinting 
that Jack was underestimating their abilities.

	"Yeah.  In reality, you'll probably do it in half that time, so just 
keep me informed of where you are and everything will go OK.  I'll be 
able to track you anyways, so don't worry too much."

	"All right.  See you in a few then."

	"Good luck, and if everything goes wrong, I'll just blow the net if 
I can.  That way, any system assignment will be destroyed."

	"Good deal.  Lets get going" said Nebulus looking back at his 
group.  Dressed in solid black from head to toe stood the attack team.  
Expanded honeycomb titanium armor plated Spectra 3000 body armor 
hugged every curve of their bodies, protecting them from most 
firepower out today.  Explosives and equipment was strategically secured 
to the armor for quick, but easy use.  After a quick checkover, they took 
their seats in the back of the van with Nebulus navigating and Donna 
driving.  It took twenty minutes to get there.  The corporation had a 
large complex just outside of city limits.  An old apartment complex had 
been renovated and made into an employees park which housed 
thousands of people.  The six story concrete apartments stood above a not 
so beautiful street that had it's fair share of crime, vandalism and street 
gangs.  The van was parked in an alley just out of site of the complex.

	"Comms on.  Mic check" said Nemesis. Everyone donned their 
small headset/mic.  Nebulus had a lapel mike with a single ear speaker 
that had been placed under the fake skin of his disguise that finished the 
security officer uniform he wore under his wet suit.

	"One."  "Two."  "Three."  "Four."  "Five." the group replied in order.

	"Sounding good everyone.  Jack, check in" came back Nebulus.

	The line was dead for a second.  "God here.  RYLAC."

	"How can he hear us?" asked Donna looking over at Nebulus.

	"He wrote a program to interface his deck with a comm system.  It 
shows up as a two-way speaker in his environment.  Sync watches on 
4:56 on five, four, three, two, one, mark."  Watches were synced.  
"Injection time people."  Each person, including Nemesis, took out a small 
packet that contained three vials with needles.  Nemesis took out the first 
vial which contained a clear liquid and injected himself with the 
adrenalizer, designed as a short term super steroid with little side effects.  
The first needle was placed back and the second vial was injected in the 
same area of the arm.  This one was a sense and reflex enhancer 
designed by the military.  It would give them better combat reflexes 
when they needed it.  This was followed by a third injection of a pain 
killer.  It was designed to not activate until a large amount of pain was 
inflicted, then it just temporarily deadened the area's nerve system.  
Designer drugs, designed for combat.  Perfect for terrorist raids.

	"5:00.  Time to go people" said Nebulus fastening his wet suit shut.  
Face masks were put on, covering everything but their eyes, and 
equipment and weapons were gathered.  The five exited the van silently 
and moved over the man hole located a few feet from the van.  A quick 
jimmy with a bar and the lid slid over with a low screech.  A quick look 
around and Nebulus was the first in, followed by the two newbees as 
Nemesis viewed it.  

	"I hope we can trust these two!" firmly whispered Nemesis to 
Slash, who gave him her look of approval before jumping in.  Within 
seconds the whole team was in the sewer system.  Pipes lined the old 
concrete and stone walls.  The water level was only thigh deep so it didn't 
prove to be very cumbersome.  

	"You checked this place out OK, right 3?" asked Nebulus over the 
comm.

	"Two gates were cleared.  Everything is a go."

	Night vision glasses allowed easy travel through the system for 
the first fifty or so feet until voices were heard from behind.  Everyone 
stopped.  Aberdon, who was trailing, turned around, crouching to the 
water level.  It sounded like kids.  Then it was as two street punks stuck 
their heads down into the sewers looking for the vanished group of 
strangers.  One reached a hand down below his head, visibly carrying a 
flash light.  Before he tuned it on, two silent needler shots were fired and 
the bodies of two dead kids splashed into the water below, creating a little 
wake that was eventually felt by the assassin.

	"Too bad" said Nemesis leading the group once again through the 
small cavern.  "Let's go."  They traveled through the sewers with very 
little trouble.  The tunnels were relatively flat and the footing was still 
firm due to the recent construction of Cryon some 10 years ago.  Nemesis' 
night vision led them on until the man hole cover was reached near the 
loading docks of the company.  "God.  How does the weather look?" asked 
Nebulus, who had unzipped the top part of his suit after reaching the 
ladder which led to the surface.

	Jack had been in the net for some time now, checking on 
programs, root operations, and watching out for ICE.  "Security checking 
will be done in one minute" came back Jack.

	'One minute.  Come on.  Hurry up' thought Nemesis, quite eager to 
get this job started.  The adrenalizer was beginning to take effect.  
Watches were being checked until the second before the security 
program checker was finished, exactly 5:10 AM.

	"Go" said Jack.  Nebulus had already shed his wet suit and Nemesis 
had slid the man hole cover out of the way while being covered by 
Donna.  Nebulus was the first out, quickly running up to the docking 
door.  He was quickly followed by the rest of the group who crouched by 
the sides of the door, waiting for Nemesis to put the cover back on.  He 
finished and regrouped with the team who had taken off their glasses to 
allow their eyes to adjust to the indoor light emanating from the door.  
Nebulus entered.  He quickly walked down the hallway and turned left 
towards the security desk that monitored that side of the complex.  The 
security guard at the desk came into view and stood up as he approached 
the desk.

	"Who are you and what are you doing in this section of the 
building?" the guard asked in a not so calm tone of voice.  Obviously the 
security had been upgraded for Operation Revolt.

	Nebulus walked around so that he was next to the guard.  "We've 
got a problem in section 5" he replied bringing his arm from behind his 
back.  He thrust his hand forward into the guards throat, knocking him 
out with a stunner.  The guard shakingly fell to the floor and was kicked 
under the desk.  TV monitors lined the panel in front of him that had 
four jack in sites.  

	"God this is one.  Secure all personnel sensors and override all 
subsystems in this section to me" spoke Nebulus outloud into his comm 
mic.  

		Jack looked down onto the gaming board on the 
	table in front of him.  An elaborate table top created like 
	an old model train scene had been transformed into a 
	World War II battlefield.  Moving armies in Eastern Europe 
	moved on the forest-like layout depicting the different 
	programs going on.  He immediately spotted the correct 
	security program that monitored the security personnel's 
	heart rate from individual sensors mounted on their 
	watch bands.  He touched his finger to a spot near the 
	army foot soldier representing the algorithm and blinked 
	into the battlefield in front of the corporal with his 
	superuser privileges and general's uniform.  He 	
	immediately attacked the young soldier with his bayonet-
	tipped M1 rifle and fought him down to the ground where 
	he thrust the nine inch bayonet blade into the soldiers 
	chest, terminating the program's operation.  He returned 
	to his chair in front of the table again, this time wearing 
	a replica of Patton's uniform.  "Done" was his reply to 
	Nebulus.

	"Team in" ordered Nebulus who took control of the video cameras, 
freezing them onto walls.  He jumped into cyberspace with his God given 
superuser access to check for personnel in the area.  A map of the floor 
came up with personnel locations and details.  He jumped out, routing the 
ground floor and the first three basements to the monitors in front of 
him.  

	The team quickly arrived, hauling their over-and-under 
weapons, and party favors with them.  A quick look at the monitors and 
Nemesis was off first seeking the entrance to the elevators.  Slash took 
off after him, followed by the two others right behind.  The corridors 
were lightly painted and had industrial carpet lining most of the halls.  
A few more turns through the halls and the group came to a halt behind 
a wall, separating them from the two security officers stationed at the 
elevator.

	"One.  Problem at elevator" whispered Nemesis into his mic.

	"Security at elevator 4, sector 6g : move promptly to sector 5g and 
report back in to gate on arrival" announced Nebulus, speaking into the 
security's comm.  The guards looked at each other for a moment, 
questioning the command from their security base.

	"Request secure ID verification" came back one of the guards.

	"ID hold out 764421 confirm" replied Nebulus, reading the code 
from one of the monitors.  The guard motioned to his partner and the two 
walked off towards sector 5g, watching the offices as they went.  As they 
moved out of site, the lights indicating that the elevator was moving 
down turned on.  The group stayed still.

	"One.  Someone's on the..." spoke Slash.

	"Team.  Backtrack to stairs.  Take first flight down and move 
towards sector 2."  Donna spun around and headed back first, frantically 
leading the group.  If they were caught now, the show would be over 
right then.  The stairs soon appeared in a side corridor and were entered.   
The heavy fire-proof door was shut with a soft thud and Slash was the 
first to go down the concrete stairs.  The walls were solid white and were 
dimly lit by night security lights.  

	The door to the first subbasement was reached and opened.  Slash 
peered around and saw no one.  The walls were only four feet tall in this 
sector.  Offices were separated by a few grids of these as far as she could 
tell by the dim light.  Shadows snaked down the halls, carving light into 
odd shapes and strokes by the bookcases and supporting pillars.  The 
team entered the floor and proceeded right along the hallway.  

	"No guards until the elevator" spoke Nebulus into his comm.  The 
team hugged the right wall, silently treading down the hallway, 
stopping every twenty feet to check to make sure no guards were 
walking rounds within the offices.  Just because the security monitors 
didn't show any guards, there was no absolute guarantee.

	Sector 2 was finally reached.  Nemesis looked at his watch.  
5:11:43.  Just a bit behind schedule, but nothing significant enough to 
worry about.

	"Let's take the stairs from now on" whispered Donna.  "That way, 
they can't track us."

	"Forget it.  The elevator's right nearby" darted Nemesis 
continuing on in the general direction of the elevator.  'Who the fuck 
does she think she is!  This is my plan and my attack.  She's just along for 
the ride!'  They reached the corner of the hallway in front of the 
elevator.

	"Watch out!  There's..." trailed Nebulus.

	"One.  What's it like?" asked Nemesis, itching to get into a fight 
right about now.

	"Hold it right there!  Don't move!" yelled a guard from behind the 
group.  They slowly turned around as two more guards came from the 
elevator area.  They all had on armored vests and carried high caliber 
handguns, all pointed at the group.  "Sidney, call into base and notify 
them to send more people!" commanded the first guard, still pointing his 
gun at Slash.  "Drop it now!"

	Nemesis faced the two guards that had come from the elevator and 
slowly started to pivot around towards Aberdon who was right behind 
him.  Slash and Donna began to put their weapons on the ground, 
crouching in anticipation.

	"Base, this is" spoke a guard into his comm.

	"Now!" yelled Nemesis, laying down a spray of needlers at the two 
guards in front of him.  Aberdon spun around in Slash's direction 
cutting the first guard to pieces with an array of silenced hard 
ammunition.  Three guards now lay dead on the floor, their blood 
staining the carpet underneath them.

	"I told you we needed armor piercers" spoke Nemesis at Aberdon.  
"Anything less, wouldn't have killed them."

	"Too bad for standard armor vests.  Next time, wear something 
better than that" scoffed Slash grinning over the dead bodies.

	"Team, what's up?" asked Nebulus over the comm.

	"Thanks for the warning, one.  We just waxed three of 'em" 
replied Nemesis, dragging one into an office room.  The other two were 
placed under the desks in one of the nearby offices as well in hope of 
temporarily concealing their presence.

	The elevator door was opened and the group entered, pressing the 
button for subbasement 4 on the panel.  The doors shut and the elevator 
began to move down.

	"Guards in sector 2DD, report to sector 4DD immediately" spoke 
Nemesis into the security comm.  He looked back at the monitors, 
bringing up the bottom two levels.  'More guards at the key points.  More 
security blockades to bypass.  Shit.  Guards are moving in on the elevator 
in sector 2DD.'

	  "One, this is God.  Security ID failed.  They won't listen to you 
now.  Presently blocking communications to other sectors."

	"What the hell happened" asked Nebulus getting quite pissed by 
now that the plan was getting fucked up.

	"The security is tighter than I thought.  Out."

	The elevator stopped, but it wasn't at subbasement 4.  The team 
looked around and at the panel, trying to find out what was wrong.  
"Team, this is God.  Break out of the top hatch and find another way back 
into the building.  Security is on to you."

	"Shit!" yelled Nemesis very mad that the plan had failed.

	"We're still in so don't fuck up!" yelled Slash.	

	"Everybody, get back!" yelled Aberdon, pushing the group to the 
opposing side of the elevator from the doors.  He aimed his grenade 
launcher from under his gun, and fired at the floor, just under the doors.  

	"NO!!!!" yelled Slash.  Before she could do anything about it, the 
grenade impacted on the floor and exploded filling the cabin with fire, 
smoke and a shock wave that threw everyone to the floor.  The far side of 
the floor blew out destroying the lower part of the doors as well.  Slowly, 
Slash looked up to view the damage, her ears were ringing from the 
blast.  Black smoke filled the cabin allowing almost no visibility.  

	"Two.  What the hell can you see?" she asked Nemesis, pulling him 
to sit up.

	He switched his eyes to infra-red and then to ultraviolet, trying 
to get a better picture of the cabin.  "The floor's about half gone and the 
doors are severely damaged."  The cabin swayed a little in the elevator 
shaft as the team began to regain itself.

	"One this is three.  How the hell do we get out of here!" screamed 
Slash into her comm.  The earphone just buzzed; the diaphragm 
completely shredded from the shock wave.  "One this is three, come in."  
Nothing.  "Shit!  We're cut off!  Why the fuck did you blow the elevator 
like that you moron!?  You killed the goddamn comms!" she yelled 
throwing her comm to the ground.

	"Wait.  Elevator ladder.  Come on" said Nemesis venturing into the 
grayish-black smoke, his mask temporarily giving him a filter to breath 
through.  His adrenaline pushing him onward, Nemesis crouched near 
the hole and reached out for the rung of the ladder nearest to him.

	"God, this is one.  Secure fire alarms and all security sectors not 
in this area.  I want my team to be shut off from everyone else.  We've 
lost communications with them."  

		Jack stood up from his playing board and 
	proceeded to another one :  another level of security.  He 
	sat down at the second board dressed in a Civil War 
	General's uniform.  The gold braids from his blue epaulets 
	dangled near the surface as he closely looked over the 
	terrain.  He found where he wanted to be and placed his 
	finger at the spot only to appear there instantly.  

		He stood in the Union Army's camp under overcast 
	skies looking around for the program he wanted to kill.  
	"Young man, come here!" he yelled in a northern accent 
	at one of the messenger boys.

		"Yes sir" the boy said breathing hard from 
	carrying messages as he stood at attention in front of 
	General Jack.  His weathered uniform and tattered pants 
	could hardly be classified as a uniform, but yet it worked 
	well with his position.

		"Where can I find the lad who's carryin' the 
	message about the fire?"

		"That'd be me, sir.  I'm sorry I haven't gotten it out 
	yet, but they blocked my normal way out and I can't get 
	by."

		"Why don't you give the message to me and I'll 
	make sure that it gets out, son" he said holding his gloved 
	hand outward to the young boy.

		"But sir, I.."

		"Now, son!" he commanded, lowering his voice to a 
	thunderous growl.

		"Yes sir." he replied giving Jack the message.  He 
	looked confused with the order, but was not about to 
	disobey a general.

		"Now git goin' kid."  The boy turned slowly around 
	and then started to walk off looking for another problem 
	to report.  Then he collapsed about ten feet from Jack as 
	his head exploded from the .50 caliber flint lock pistol ball 
	that pierced the back of his head.  No one paid attention as 
	they were not programmed to monitor his operation.  He 
	landed face first into the muddy ground as Jack put the 
	gun back in it's holster at his side and blinked out of the 
	board, leaving the message to be erased.

	Nebulus had yet to be nervous, but he wasn't exactly calm 
anymore as he found the remote sensing information and popped it up 
on the screen of one of his monitors.  After a little searching he changed 
the monitors to display the motion sensor and thermal sensor 
information from the different floors.  'Elevator shaft.  What the fuck 
are they doing in a goddamn elevator shaft?' he thought to himself.

	"Hold it right there, mister!" yelled a guard from behind Nebulus.  
"Don't move, don't even breathe!"  The guard and his two counterparts 
slowly walked around, surrounding him at the guard desk.  "Do you 
really think we were that stupid!?" asked the guard.

	"Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my sector?" 
confronted Nebulus, unfamiliar with the uniforms.  The guards were 
decked out in military-style commando garb, carrying heavy caliber 
rifles and explosives.

	"We're the other half of the security that you didn't take into 
consideration in your plan.  Now shut up!"

	"Hey!  There is no other side of security that I don't know about!  
Now put those guns down before I notify security and make this a big 
mess!" ordered Nebulus, standing up to face the leader of the group who 
stood on the other side of the security desk across from him.  'Shit.  
Heavy bore weapons, needlers, grenades and explosives.  They really are 
military.  Lieutenant DeGrace.  Oh, shit...' he thought to himself as his 
eyes looked down to the ground in front of his adversaries' boots.  A 
single hand stuck out underneath the desk.

	"Mistake number one, asshole.  Now sit down" said Lieutenant 
DeGrace.  He slowly gripped the arms of the chair and sat down, hoping 
that the commandos wouldn't take notice of what was on the monitors 
yet.  'Come on Jack.  Call me.  Call me.'

	"One this is God."

	"One is dead" was his only reply.  The monitors blinked out and 
Nebulus' comm went dead as one of the commando's behind him grabbed 
him by the throat and forced him to the ground backwards, shoving a 
needler into his throat as his head firmly hit the floor.

	"Your body armor won't protect you from this, now will it" 
sneered the commando, living for the fight.  Nebulus just laughed, and 
continued to laugh sarcastically until he was silenced with the butt of a 
gun against his head.

	"The hunt is on" spoke the Lieutenant into his comm.

		"Damn.  Now what the fuck am I supposed to do?" 
	Jack talked to himself in the net, surrounded by the 
	playing fields and game boards of the blue lit room.  "Wait.  
	Who took him out?"  He moved from board to board 
	checking all the different systems that were running, 
	personnel marks, timelines and on.  With a single 
	thought, twenty more boards came into play on the 
	ceiling above his head.  It was just like the feet of the 
	tables were nailed to the ceiling.  "Ah, I love tesseracts!" 
	Jack announced with a smile as he changed perspective 
	and jumped onto the ceiling to view the new playing 
	fields :  thermal and motion sensors of every floor in their 
	sector.  "Time for some fun!"

	By now the team had climbed down the elevator shaft ladder to 
within sight of the fourth subbasement.    Nemesis lead the way down 
with Donna, Slash and Aberdon following closely behind.  Their weapons 
slung and both hands holding onto the ladder, Nemesis pondered what an 
easy target they would be if anyone would open one of the doors and find 
them there.

	"Team this is God...God....God..." echoed one of the speakers in the 
shaft.  Slash looked around, trying to find the source without any luck.  

	"God, where are you!" Slash yelled, clinging onto the ladder, not 
allowing herself to look down.

	"I can't hear you, but I know where you are.  Keep going and 
hurry up.  One is dead so get out as soon as possible."

	"Shit!" screamed Slash.  The reality of the challenge was at hand.  
'Have we come this far only to be finished off.  Goddamn it.  I knew it was 
too big!' she thought to herself, as they descended closer to the elevator 
door.

	They reached subbasement 4 in no time and stopped to gather 
their weapons for an assault.  "Guys, we're one minute behind schedule.  
Since Nebulus is out, I say we just take out everything in our way and get 
out in the same manner" Nemesis said, looking back up the ladder.  'Nice 
ass, Donna.  We'll have to fuck when we get out of here.'

	"Let's do it!" snarled Slash.  'Pay back time.  Now the fun begins.'

	As the team climbed away from the door, Nemesis pulled out a 
magnetic explosive and secured it to the doors, sliding down the ladder in 
time for the doors to be completely destroyed.  Aberdon was the first into 
the hall.  The doors were shredded onto the floor nearby and the bodies 
of two guards lay among the scattered debris.  A quick look around and 
the shielded doors were closing quickly, locking the area out due to the 
explosion.  The team reassembled in the hall.

	"Team, this is God.  I can talk you through to the strike zone.  Go 
forward to the first door and I'll open it!" he ordered.  The team took off.  
Jack looked onto the master board for the sector, viewing what was going 
on.  "Enemy on other side, door opening now!" he yelled into the 
microphone next to him on the table.  The team crouched next to the 
walls as the door slid open.  Four guards were waiting just like Jack had 
said, and were soon disposed of by a sneak attack of needlers and hard 
ammo as the door opened.  They ran ahead down the hall, now lit by 
security lights.  The concrete walls and hard metal doors concealed labs 
and computer rooms by the dozens as they continued down the straight, 
tiled hallway.

	"Six guards commin' from the right hallway!" yelled Jack.  
Nemesis and the team slowed down and slid next to the facing wall of the 
hallway.  "Shutting blockade" said Jack as the solid metal shielding door 
fell into place, locking the guards out of range.  The group continued on.  

	Running towards the next intersection, Nemesis veered towards 
the left hallway.  They turned into the hallway, only to be stopped by a 
solid door, again.  Slash and Donna ran back a few steps, watching their 
backs.

	"God, we got a door" yelled Nemesis, knowing that he wouldn't be 
heard anyways.  

	"Incoming!" yelled Slash as a squad of commandos came down the 
hallway in full force.  Donna opened up and let out a spray of hard 
ammo, hitting a few, but having little effect.

	"Shit!  They're armored!" she yelled as the two men got in 
position.  Scraping fire bounced off the walls around Donna as she fell to 
the ground, trying to get out of the way of the action.

	"Now!" yelled Aberdon.  He and Nemesis ducked around the corner 
with their weapons, laying down fire.  The commandos taking cover 
against some of the walls that led into other hallways began putting 
down another layer of ammo at the two.  Donna jumped out a little to 
thrown down a flash mine.  She was nicked by two rounds in the chest 
and fell backward just as the mine exploded, sending up a high intensity 
flash explosion.  Slash jumped out just as it went off and fired two mini-
grenades which impacted directly above the cowering attackers.  
Aberdon and Nemesis took off down the hallway after the commando 
position and engaged themselves in the fight by firing at the 
commandos at point blank range.  Taking a few hits each, they pressed 
through the group until they were out of ammunition.  The smoke from 
the grenades had cleared and there were only a few more left.  Nemesis 
picked up the nearest one and slammed his fist into his face, crushing 
every bone from the impact.  The commando grabbed Nemesis' arm just 
as he was thrown into the wall behind him and forgotten about as 
Nemesis' attacked his next victim.  Soon the floor was littered with 
bloodied camouflage, their broken armor not strong enough against 
specialized armor piercing rounds.  Slash and Donna joined the two men 
in the middle of the battlefield.

	"Now this is what I call a fight!" yelled Nemesis allowing his 
adrenalizer to get the most of him.  

	"Military commandos.  Looks like we underestimated Cryon a little 
bit.  Let's move" said Slash, leading the team back to the door.  Reloads 
and armor checks were made.  Scrape marks in her armor were only left 
in Donna's chest where she was hit.

	"5:14:39" said Nemesis.

	"Team, God here.  Door opening in 2 seconds."

	"It's about goddamn time" hissed Aberdon.  The door slid upward 
surprising the group who was ready for anything now.  Another squad 
of commandos were lying on the ground, as if they had collapsed.  

	"Nerve gas is great isn't it" came Jack's voice over the speakers.

	"That boy's crazy" blurted Slash.  They relaxed their weapons 
enough to start running down the hallway towards the last blockade.  

	Jack watched intently at the movement of the team from within 
the computers.  "OK.  Alarms deactivated.  Explosives deactivated.  
Communications deactivated" he spoke to himself.  He constantly went 
over the area again and again in a split seconds making sure that 
nothing would go wrong once the team was in place.

	The last blockade was passed without any problems.  Labs with 
built in windows now lined the concrete substructure.  The halls were 
relatively dark, but shadows from the security night lights lined the 
walls.  

	"The lab should be up around the next corner" cautiously spoke 
Slash to Nemesis who was running side by side with her in the wide 
corridors.  Weapons pointed forward, they slowed to a brisk walk to 
within inches of the intersection that led to the target site.  'There's got 
to be a squad here' repeated Nemesis in his head.  'Come on, let's go, let's 
go!' anxiously thought Slash, ready to get the job over with.

	"Intruder is using armor piercers.  Stop them at all costs.  It's up 
to you, McGletspy" Lieutenant DeGrace's voice came over the military 
comm to the guards posted out front of the labs for Project Revolt.

	'Time to start the show' thought Nemesis to himself.  He pointed to 
his eyes while holding a flash mine in his fingers.  Everyone 
understood.  They took their positions around each other, ready for 
attack as Nemesis slid the flash mine smoothly across the floor in the 
direction of the target.  A second later, Nemesis' polarized CRI's viewed 
the four guards decked out in armored gear and heavy bore weapons as 
the flash mine went off, not too far from their position in front of the 
metal lab door.  Heavily armored in urban camouflage, Kevlar II body 
armor and carrying anti-terrorist attack gear, the four commandos 
opened fire immediately after the flash dimmed.  Their anti-radiation 
goggles protecting them from the burn of the mine allowed their 
weapons to pinpoint Nemesis' head in their sites, only to miss by his fast 
reflexes.

	"Four in armor!" yelled Nemesis over his shoulder while bringing 
his gun up for an assault.  The barrage silenced for a millisecond.  

	"Get back!" screamed Slash, pulling Donna with her.  A 
minigrenade exploded on the corner wall and was followed by three 
more that left more shrapnel than damaged concrete.

	"Hold this" said Aberdon shedding his equipment pack, 
containing some of the explosives.  "Let's do it!" he yelled, throwing two 
grenades into the hallway.  Right after impact, he and Nemesis began 
the attack by charging into the intersecting hallway to face the 
commandos head on.   Spraying needlers and hard ammo, the firing line 
pressed forward towards the commandos.  Without time to react from the 
grenade, the commandos began taking damage as the onslaught 
continued on.  Their armor being torn away from the ammunition, the 
guards soon fell to the ground without an escape route.  A quick release 
from one of the commandos launched a minigrenade at the line.  Moving 
out of its way, Aberdon and Nemesis lost position as the grenade exploded 
behind them.  Unsatisfied, however, Nemesis took control by directly 
attacking one of the commandos in close combat.  Weakened from the 
fire fight, the commando fought to gain balance as Nemesis picked him 
up off the ground by the throat, throwing his gun to the side for the 
challenge.  Kicking with his bloodied leg and grabbing with his hands, 
the commando fought until Nemesis slammed his fist into his face.  The 
anti-gas goggles exploded under the pressure.  The commando went limp 
in Nemesis' hands as he pulled his fist out of the commando's face, 
leaving only a crushed and bleeding lifeless body to slump to the ground 
with a release of his grip.  One other commando ran towards Nemesis, but 
was cut short as Aberdon gunned him down, finding weak points in the 
sides of his armor.  Nemesis reached down towards one of his kills of the 
day to get another weapon in time to head kill one of the other guards 
preparing to fire on Aberdon.  Weapons pointed at the head of the 
remaining one, Lieutenant McGletspy.

	Panting from the adrenaline rush, Nemesis lowered his barrel to 
walk closer to the Lieutenant.  The Lieutenant's leg and chest were 
bleeding from needlers.  He held his chest with his hand under his shirt, 
provocatively looking at the approaching Nemesis.

	"Eat me mother fucker!" yelled the Lieutenant, holding in his 
now exposed hand a death mine :  a high explosive that personnel carry 
for hopeless situations.  

	"Get out!" yelled Nemesis, running backwards and diving for the 
nearest intersecting hallway only a few steps away.  Aberdon let out a 
few rounds into the Lieutenant's skull but not in time to silence the 
mine.  A millisecond later, it erupted into a ball of fire, engulfing 
Aberdon.  A cloud of fire flew down the corridors, running over the rest 
of the party that had taken cover by kissing the ground.  The shockwave 
from the blast echoed its anger down the corridors until the fire itself 
had died away.  Slowly Nemesis pulled himself up off of the ground.  
Putting out a few fires that had started on his suit, he gradually made his 
way back to the battlefield.  

	Donna and Slash stood at the tip of a large blood pool.  Aberdon's 
body was now in six pieces, his extremities lying on the ground near 
him.  Blood stains and body parts cluttered the ceiling, walls and floor 
where the commandos had been.  All their bodies were now soaked, 
burning and scattered all about the hall.  Donna moved over to Nemesis 
and handed him her gun.

	"Gimme your K1 and let's get this over with" she softly spoke.  
Nemesis' large hand took hold of the grip and pointed it towards the 
facing locked door.  He let loose a minigrenade which exploded, 
destroying the locking mechanism on the door.  Donna turned back 
around towards the door only to be handed Nemesis' K1.

	The lab was lined with liquid beds and computer terminals with 
the large computer in the back.  The whole room was barely large 
enough to contain the ten beds.  The group got straight to work laying 
down the explosive packs and detonation arrays around the beds and 
supercomputer.

	"Sync check" said Nemesis as the last one was placed down.  
Donna took out the detonator and confirmed that they were all properly 
synced.

	"5:16:12.  Time to move" said Slash, exiting the room first.  Donna 
put on the last pack containing the party favors and left last, detonator 
in hand.  The trek back down the halls was fairly simple.  Their boots left 
a trail of bloodied bootprints from the last battle as they jogged down the 
hallways.  The thought of where was Jack was on everyone's mind since 
they had had no contact with him for the past few minutes.  A few more 
jogs to the left and right put them back at the stairwell.

	"5:16:49.  Let's do it" said Slash looking at Donna.  Nemesis went 
into the stairwell and proceeded to go up a flight and a half, checking 
for more guards.  Slash followed, but not as far since she was Donna's 
backup.  Donna was the last in and shut the door until only her hand 
with the detonator was sticking out, making sure that the structure 
would not interfere with the detonation.

	"Here we go!" she yelled up the stairs.  'Do it' she told herself as 
she pushed the trigger button down and pulled her arm in quickly.  
Donna began running upstairs as the explosions in the lab rocked the 
basement in a stunning blaze of fire and thunder.  Sonic blasts blew out 
many of the windows as it ran down the hallways only to be followed by 
clouds of fire that engulfed everything in site.  Multiple explosions could 
be distantly heard as the team regrouped on the third subbasement level 
and continued upward toward the main floor.

	"Watch it!" yelled Slash as they made their way to the bottom of 
the first floor's stairs.  An infrared antipersonnel mine was seen on the 
wall next to one of the bottom stairs.  A look skyward showed the 
explosive sitting, waiting for it's target to come through it's invisible 
trip line.  Carefully stepping over the trip line, Nemesis led the way to 
the top door.  'This is just too easy of an escape' he thought to himself 
remembering many other raids whose exit was much tougher than it's 
entrance.  He unfastened two grenades from his armor and proceeded to 
throw them into the hallway, shutting the stairwell door quickly behind 
them.  

	"Grenade!!!" yelled a guard from inside the hallway.  Nemesis' 
guess was right.  The two exploded relatively at the same time.  Nemesis 
quickly entered the smoky hallway and proceeded to fire at the four 
commandos who had taken posts on opposite sides of the stairwell door.  
Slash and Donna soon jumped into the hallway, taking posts on either 
side of Nemesis, guarding against additional intrusion.  A few quick looks 
around only produced the four dead bodies on the ground.  Nemesis 
reloaded.

	The party turned right from the stairwell door and proceeded 
with caution to the next intersection.  They moved slowly with their 
weapons pointed straight ahead, searching for the way out while still 
knowing that they had to return to the original entrance to not only get 
out, but to also find out what happened to Nebulus.  The first intersection 
was clear.

	"Donna.  String a mine across here" ordered Nemesis who 
continued to move on.  Donna handed the mine to Slash who plastered it 
to the opposing wall while Donna strung the device across the 
intersection.  

	The lights began to flicker on and off.  Then the siren was heard.  
The team stopped to look around.  The electronic whirring of the fire 
alarm filled the entire hallway with its annoying tone.  "Code 1 fire alert 
in subbasement 4.  All personnel must evacuate these premises 
immediately" spoke a recorded voice from the speakers that Jack had 
been using previously.  'Why the hell are the alarms going off if Jack 
had control of the situation?' questioned Nemesis.

	"Jack must be out as well" said Slash.  "Let's get the fuck out of 
here!"  The team took off down the hallway.  It was time to leave Cryon 
once and for all.  The operation had taken long enough.  Half of the team 
was either dead or taken out of the picture somehow.   

	"Donna.  Give me your gun and start preparing some party 
favors" yelled Slash taking Donna's gun.  Donna took off her pack and 
sorted through the explosives and grenades, ready to hand them out 
when people needed to die.  Passing another intersection, the team saw 
the back of the chair at the security desk.  Nemesis waved his hand back 
at Donna and she put in it a high explosive, enough of a bang to destroy 
the room.

	"Hey man, catch!" yelled Nemesis.  Nebulus turned around only to 
see the explosive heading his way.  The guards hiding behind the walls 
still had their guns pointed at him if he screwed up.  But then, what else 
could he do.  The team stopped their advance and Nemesis shot two 
minigrenades into the room.  Nebulus jumped from his chair and 
sprinted towards his team as the grenades went off and the explosive 
landed on the chair.  The team took cover just as gun fire was heard, but 
was soon silenced by the deadening thunder of the explosive as it 
completely destroyed everything and everyone in the room.

	"Glad you still know what you're doin'" said Nebulus looking at 
the team.

	"We figured something was up, so I decided to make sure no one 
was in the room" replied Nemesis.  

	"There may be more guards down the hallway."

	"Let's go."  Getting up once again, the team continued down the 
hall and fought through the fire and debris of the security room.  
Finally advancing down the final hall, Nemesis emptied his gun of 
minigrenades and destroyed the entrance door and hopefully 
everything else that could attack them.  Donna dropped off the party 
favors and they carefully exited the docking entrance.  Nemesis was first 
away from the entrance and proceeded to move aside the manhole cover.  
The group got into the hole and Donna, being last as usual, pressed the 
detonator, igniting the explosives left in the pack.  The docking area of 
the building erupted in fire and exploded sending debris everywhere.  
But, the team had already begun the trip through the sewers.  The job 
was over.  It was time to go home.

	Sitting in the van on the way back into the city, no one talked.  
The van took a corner and drove by the Cryon building, getting a good 
look at all the police and fire department personnel who were attacking 
the multiple fires in the building.  The deep color of fire offset the light 
grayish color building in the morning light.  The sun had just started to 
come up, but was still pretty early before daybreak.  They soon turned 
into the city, taking their masks off.




			Cool Darkness
				by Matthew Carpenter



		Chapter 5 : A Thorn in Paradise



	"So what the hell happened in there?" questioned Nemesis 
looking towards the front of the van in Nebulus' direction.

	"I was watching you more than I was watching myself" told a 
disgusted Nebulus, completely shamed by his performance or lack there 
of.

	"At least you know a sign when you see one.  What happened to 
Jack?"

	"What do you mean, what happened to Jack" rudely snapped 
Nebulus who turned around to give Nemesis the evil eye.

	"We lost him before we got to the strike zone.  Where'd he go?  I 
thought he was supposed to follow us all the way out."

	"I don't know.  Maybe he bumped into ICE or something.  Why 
don't we get back there quickly and find out" Nebulus pointed out to 
Donna who pushed her foot into the floor, accelerating the van as she 
drove on into the city.

	Not soon enough for Nebulus' liking, the van pulled in front of 
the garage door of the warehouse.  Nemesis calmly hopped out of the 
back door of the van and proceeded to open the door.  The van came to a 
quiet stop with the garage door crashing down behind it.  The lights 
were still on; the office door to the underground comps was still shut.

	"Jack!  Hey Jack!  Where the hell are you shit-head!?" yelled 
Nemesis, feeling a little funny about the whole situation.  Walking to the 
back of the van, he picked up his rifle and proceeded to walk towards the 
office door.  He was followed by Nebulus and eventually Slash, who had 
had enough of Jack's clowning around.  Screwing around on the nets is 
one thing, but leaving a team in the thick of a job is another.  

	They approached the office door and found it still locked from the 
inside.  Nebulus walked over to a nearby desk, reached into the top 
drawer and picked up a magnetic key.  He returned to the door and 
inserted the flat key into the slot just under the door handle which 
produced a soft pop as the lock disengaged.  Nebulus opened the door and 
the group peered in.  The office was still the same :  a few file cabinets, a 
metal desk with a wooden, rocking office chair, a single light at the desk 
with another one in the ceiling, and a small hand comp sitting at the 
right of the desk.

	'Nothing is missing.  Everything is cool...except' thought Nebulus.  
"Jack's gone."

	"What!?" wined Nemesis in disbelief of wherever Nebulus had 
derived this idea.

	"The chair's here.  He should be sitting in it down in the room" 
stated Nebulus loosing his cool.

	"Bullshit.  He and I changed that last week 'cause he wanted a 
padded chair so his butt wouldn't hurt so much" slapped Nemesis.

	"Huh!?!?" 

	"Come on" said Nemesis entering the room and pressing the 
correct sequence of keys on the hand comp to enable the elevator to the 
comp room.  Slash moved the chair out of the way as the plate under the 
leg area of the desk slowly began its decent into the comp room.  Within 
10 seconds it had hit bottom, about 12 feet below in the concrete dungeon 
where Jack roamed.

	"Jack.  Hey, Jack..you down there!?" yelled Slash.  No answer.

	"He's probably still in the nets.  He'll never respond like that" 
spoke Nebulus.

	"Well there's only one way to find out" said Nemesis as he hang 
dropped from the desk edge into the dark pit.

	"Don...hunnn....you moron" Slash sighed under her breath.  'He 
never thinks about traps.'  "Watch out for traps."  Nemesis never heard 
her voice; his concentration on where he was and not what people were 
doing topside.  He pivoted left in the direction of the comp room.  The 
corridor to the room was normal sized with a low ceiling.  The walls were 
made of cold concrete that still flaked grit when rubbed against.  It was 
dark with a few streaks of light coming from the room, barely lighting 
enough for someone to see.  Nemesis changed his eyes to night vision to 
see that was up with Jack.

	'All right Jack, where the hell are you man.'  He peered into the 
comp room.  The two main comps on the far wall were humming as usual, 
the short ceiling making them look larger than normal.  He walked 
further into the room.  The four workstations were still running with 
their monitors running lines of info across them constantly.  'Jack.  
Where the hell are you.'  He lowered his rifle.  In fact he lowered it until 
the barrel almost scraped the ground.  He stood completely erect and 
walked over to the wall where the control panel was.  A single touch and 
a second panel came up.  He closed his eyes as he turned the ceiling light 
on.  His eyes were switched back to normal vision and he opened his 
eyelids.

	"Come on down, guys!" yelled Nemesis as he looked over at Jack 
who was still slouched in his padded chair, still jacked into the nets.

	"What's the deal!?" yelled back Slash.

	"He's here.  Still in the net."  The elevator platform began to move 
back up and in no time the rest of the team minus Donna was in the comp 
room.  "I guess he's still in the net."

	"What the hell's he still doin' in there?" replied Slash quite 
disgusted at Jack now that he was still here and had left them in Cryon.

	"He must've run into something." sighed Nebulus looking at his 
foot as it tapped lightly on the concrete floor.  'What could he have run 
into?  ICE?  Naw, couldn't be.  He's too good for that.  Then again...  Naw, 
he must be screwin' around or somethin'.  But why would he leave us in 
Cryon to go screw around somewhere?  I wonder if they got this thing up 
and running before we got there.  Or what if they had another site, or if 
we attacked the wrong site!  Couldn't be.  We planned this thing to 
perfectly to hit the wrong site.  Yeah, sure.' he thought to himself, 
especially after how badly they fucked the whole deal up.  'Well, there's 
only one way to find out.'  Looking up he said "I'm goin' in" and started to 
walk towards the workstation next to Jack's.

	"What!  You can't be serious.  Let's just pull the plug and get him 
back" screeched Slash.

	"Yeah, right.  And possibly loose him forever.  He might be into 
something serious, and there's only one way to find out." replied 
Nebulus, putting a wireless jack next to his ports.

	"I thought you could track someone like that for cryin' out loud!"

	"We'll see about that."  With that he sat in the chair and jacked in, 
wireless of course.

	"Well, let's get them prepared for a long trip.  I can't see them 
coming back any time soon" softly spoke Slash.  She and Nemesis turned 
to the one cabinet that had little components and things in it.  The door 
was opened and two IV's were taken out by Slash.  She walked over to the 
two and began to get Jack ready for insertion.  Nemesis in the mean time 
began preparing the two nutrient bags.  In no time, both Jack and 
Nebulus were outfitted with medical nutrient bags that fed into their 
system.  That way they at least wouldn't dehydrate.

		Nebulus stood up from a kneeling position on the 
	asphalt street of an unknown city.  It was dark, actually 
	gray in color and the clouds in the sky were moving very 
	fast.  The surrounding buildings stood like monuments 
	compared to Nebulus' small body.  A little piece of 
	newspaper skipped by along the ground behind his feet.  
	The long street he was looking down seemed to go on 
	forever.  The city was completely deserted.  
	
		"Strange" he told himself outloud.  "Oh, well, let's 
	get going."  He began walking in the direction of the first 
	gate to get into mainstream cyberspace.  A few steps and 
	he leaned forward to the ground and shape changed into a 
	sleek black sports car, one of the new European cars that 
	can top 300 mph.  Fat tires, no rear view mirrors; kinda 
	like an old Countach he thought to himself as he squealed 
	his tires and flew down the streets.  

		"Great.  Traffic jam already."  In the near distance 
	he could see lots of people trying to get into the gateway.  
	"Always a bunch of jerks who don't know there way 
	around the block yet."  With a glance skyward, he pulled 
	off the ground and moved a story or two above the rest of 
	the traffic.  Flying over the crown was fun.  The first 
	gateway was breached easily and he soon got back onto 
	the road and cruised into the highways, the internet 
	highways that connected to everywhere in the world, and 
	then some.

		After only a little time, his speed began to slow.  
	Actually he began to slow immensely, eventually coming 
	to a complete stop.  'What the hell is going on?' he thought 
	to himself, checking all of his systems.  Then he began to 
	shape change back into a person, except he hadn't chosen 
	to do so.  'Somebody's taking control of my environment.'  
	Then he began to fly backwards, completely out of 
	control.  He fought to stabilize and he tried to stop, but 
	eventually was thrown back into the crowd of people 
	waiting at the gateway entrance.  With an additional 
	thrust, he was tossed into the crowd, landing on the hard 
	asphalt just like everyone else had.

		"What the hell is going on!" he yelled at the top of 
	his lungs as he stood up, wiping himself off.  The area 
	around he began to change and soon he was standing on a 
	computer generated grid.  No streets.  No buildings.  Just 
	grids.  He continued to look around, finally running his 
	identifier program.  In a few seconds an arrow appeared 
	pointing in the direction off to his right, toward the 
	gateway.  He started to push his way in that direction, 
	searching for Jack.  The gateway soon became clearer to 
	him as it was a large billboard sign which read :


		The Cyberspace Mob now rules the nets	

		    Pay to Enter.  Pay at your OWN Risk


		"What the hell is going on, here!" he yelled.

		"Oh shut up up there you asshole!" came from 
	someone behind him.  He turned around to see who the 
	hell was yelling at him in a crisis like this.

		"Fuck you buddy!" he yelled back, not knowing 
	who had yelled at him.  He continued to push his way 
	towards the front.  Eventually he got within a few 
	hundred feet of the gateway and recognized Jack only a 
	few steps in front of him.

		"Jack, what the hell is going on here man!?" asked 
	Nebulus as he reached his companion.

		"What the hell are you doing here?  I thought you 
	were still in Cryon."
	
		"I was.  We got back already.  What the hell 
	happened to you?"

		'Take a look.  One second I was in, the next I was 
	pulled out by these guys.  Do you believe this shit.  They've 
	taken over all the surrounding gateways and there's no 
	way in or out to another gateway."

		"What do you mean.  You can't even break it?"
	
		"No one can" explained Jack in a sorrowful tone of 
	voice.  "I've found a few friends here and they can't break 
	it.  Whoever made this isn't working for the government, 
	military or a company.  This is straight from the 
	underground.  All I can figure is that it's written in a new 
	AI language that actually learns who you are and how to 
	keep you from getting into the gateway if you haven't 
	paid."

		"You mean to tell me that someone is holding the 
	gateway hostage?"

		"Yep.  The funny part is that no one has any idea 
	who could've pulled a stunt like this off.  This is beyond 
	professional.  I can't even tell where it's coming from."  
	The two stood around almost as lost as everyone else.  It 
	was getting more crowded as time went on and eventually, 
	Nebulus had had enough.

		"Get a site set up so we can start attacking this 
	thing from the inside out."

		"Yeah right" replied Jack completely disgusted 
	now.  "Don't you think I've tried it already in about a 
	thousand configurations, only to get tossed back without 
	getting any further into the system.  I told you once you 
	moron, the more you do the more it understands about 
	you, which means that it can stop you easier every time 
	you try something new."

		"So how do we get the fuck through" blazed a 
	beyond frustrated Nebulus.

	"So what should we do now?" asked Nemesis, peering towards the 
elevator.  After standing there for ten minutes, his patience had run out 
and a bar run was the first thing that ran into his head.  "I know.  How 
about some Black Oil?"

	"That dump.  Naw, I'm not in the mood" casually replied Slash.  

	"How about Hot Kicks" she said with a sly grin growing on her face as 
she looked into Nemesis' eyes.

	"You gotta be kiddin' me.  We don't fit into a place like that."

	"That doesn't keep you from screwin' every chic with big tits, 
long legs, and stockings pulled up to her crotch that works there now 
does it?" she kidded pulling him towards the elevator.

	"Jealous?" he asked with a smirk.

	"I'm coming in my pants just thinking about you" she joked as 
they stood on the elevator platform.  She pressed her hand against the 
wall where a hidden panel was and the platform began to rise.  

	Topside, they walked out of the office to find Donna sitting in one 
of the office chairs in front of a desk off to the side of the warehouse.

	"Everything OK with Jack?"

	"Who knows.  Nebulus went into the matrix to fetch him" replied 
Slash.  "Hey.  We're gonna go to a bar.  Wanna come?"

	"Sure.  But first, where's my money?" she said getting back down 
to business.

	"Nebulus handles that and he is preoccupied right now."  Donna 
wasn't too pleased about this.  In fact she was getting quite pissed off as 
she stood up to face Slash.  "Chill woman.  It's not like we're gonna forget 
you.  Jeez."

	"Hey.  A job is a job.  Now it's done and I want my money!"

	"Look honey, you ain't gonna get paid until he gets out of the nets 
so why don't you just pack that bitchy attitude of yours away and chill 
out until he is free.  This job ain't done until we're all back and we got 
two in the nets!"  snarled Slash, frowning her brow.

	Nemesis looked on at the 'cat fight' as he called it between the 
two.  'Wait a minute.'  He looked at Donna's forehead.  'Zoom in.  More.  
There.  Now look at that.  Sweat.  And it's not even hot here, either.'  He 
moved his gaze down to her hands.  'Same thing, and even a little 
twitchy.'  He panned back up to her chest which was expanding and 
contracting a little faster and larger than he would've expected.  He 
switched his eyes to IR, trying to get a thermal scan of her body.  To no 
avail, the combat suit that she still wore blocked most of the signals 
coming from her body and canceled his experiment.

	"All right.  Chill out.  Why don't you take a shower and get 
changed and I will pull Nebulus out in time for him to pay you.  Then we 
can go to the bars.  OK?" stated Nemesis.

	"Where the hell am I gonna..."

	"There's a shower in the bathroom over there" he said pointing to 
a door along the office wall, "and your extra clothes that you brought are 
still in the van, right?"

	"Don't EVEN think about pullin' somethin' stupid, Nemesis" she 
warned with a glare.  Nemesis didn't move and didn't loose eye contact 
until she turned around to get her stuff out of the van.  Slash took his 
arm and turned him to fact her.

	"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" she scowled in a low 
voice.

	"Trust me."

		By now, Jack and Nebulus had jumped in and out of 
	cyberspace at least a dozen times, trying to trick the 
	gateway or get past it somehow.  Each time they would 
	bring in different attack programs and loose them just as 
	quickly as the 'Cyberspace Mob' would find them and 
	erase them, or make them unusable.  There were now 
	about five people in a group around Jack and Nemesis; all 
	of whom knew each other through one facet or another. 

		"So where do we go from here?" sighed one of the 
	guys.

		"We have to find another way around it.  
	Everything we've tried has failed.  Period.  And I can't see 
	any way around it" said Jack.

		"So the cybermaster Jack has finally met his 
	match.  How interesting" stated Nebulus, getting more 
	excited at the prospect of what seemed like the ultimate 
	challenge.

		"I wouldn't say that so soon.  It's just going to take 
	some time to figure out how to get around it" replied Jack, 
	letting the comment fly over his head.

		"So where are we?" asked one of Jack's friends.

		"Simple.  We can't get past without paying, which 
	is completely absurd.  We know it's not being done by the 
	government, military, a company, Mogul, Nestroth and a 
	few other groups.  But that leaves a lot of names that, 
	although I can't figure who could've masterminded this, 
	could be responsible for it" stated Jack.

		Someone else spoke up.  "Well, attack and defense 
	programs don't work.  It can tell who we are and seems to 
	know our strengths and weaknesses.  Camouflaging 
	doesn't help since it kills that first.  I don't think if we 
	sent ICE against it it would even work."

		"What!  Are you nuts.  How the hell would you SEND 
	ICE after it.  There's nowhere to keep it connected to to 
	run it" heckled another.

		"Yes there is and that's exactly what we're gonna 
	do" spoke Jack, standing up and pacing around in a very 
	small circle.  "We can attach it to the gateway itself.  It's 
	identifier must still exist or we couldn't have gotten here."

		"Yeah, but it'll already know how to kill ICE."

		"Yeah, but I know a way to make it so they can't 
	track it or disarm it" ecstatically spoke Jack.  "Everyone 
	jump out and meet me at my comp room in 1 hour."

	Donna came out of the bathroom wearing a short mini with tights 
underneath it, highlighting her legs with black spandex.  Her wet hair 
left trickles of water on her leather short jacket that covered a tank top.  

	'Switch to IR.  Focus and zoom on chest area.  Just as I thought.'  
"You definitely look sexy tonight, woman" yelled Nemesis from across 
the warehouse.  He hopped off the desk he was sitting on and approached 
her.

	"So where's Nebulus with my money, macho man?" she said with 
a smirk in her smile.

	"This way, my lady" he said, raising his left hand, palm up, to take 
hers as a rightful gentleman should.  She placed her right hand in his 
with a flirtatious smile.  He slowly started to turn around and Donna 
began to take a step forward to accompany him.  

	Quickly, Nemesis spun back in her direction, landing a bone-
breaking fist in her stomach.  Instantaneously, she fell to the ground as 
if life had been sucked out of her.  She laid on the ground in a fetal 
position, holding her stomach, completely unable to breath from the 
attack.  Nemesis looking over to Slash who was sitting at a desk, giving 
her the signal.  She rose from her chair carrying a needle.  Nemesis 
reached down and gripped Donna's jacket firmly by the shoulders and 
ripped it down her arms so that they were bare from her shoulder to her 
elbow.  She winced in pain, still unable to breath.  Nemesis reached his 
hand up and received the needle from Slash.

	"Nighty night, my little spy" cooed Nemesis with a devil's grin, as 
he injected her with the tranquilizer.

	"Nighty night, bitch" spit Slash.




			Cool Darkness
				by Matthew Carpenter



			Chapter 6 : A Slap in the Face



	"Whew.  Man oh man.  This one's gonna hurt" said a sweaty 
Jack as he faced his sidearm, Nebulus.  He stood up and staggered 
over to the bathroom stall that was on the other side of the 
elevator to relieve himself.  Nebulus just sat there rubbing his 
eyes.  After a few seconds he stood and walked over to the elevator 
platform and momentarily waited for the chair to come down.

	"Where the hell you goin'?" yelled Jack from the stall.

	"I'm gonna check on the others and tell them what's up.  
We're gonna need some info from the streets and fast ...." he 
trailed off in his own thought as the chair arrived.  He sat down 
and got to the office floor in no time, listening to Jack rant and 
rave about what he had just said.  Nebulus' brow was furrowed, 
now, and time had taken it's toll on him.  He walked out of the 
office to notice the van was missing.  "Goddamn, stupid son's of 
bitches!" he yelled, spinning around to look at the whole 
warehouse.  "Those dumn fuck's!  If it's the last thing I told them 
it's to stay put!  Jesus!" he fumed slamming a fist into the desk he 
began to sit at.  A thousand swear words ran through his mind 
and his head began to throb.  Closing his eyes, he sat back in the 
hard wood chair thinking about the job, running his fingers 
through his hair.  'Of course, we first had to fuck the job up.  
Then we actually had to run into this damn mob.  Who the hell 
would dare to be a mob on the nets.  Who would have the 
capabilities.  Hmmmmm.  "The government" his eyes flashed 
open.  "Nah.  Couldn't be" he said to himself with a quirky smile 
that almost gleamed with getting the answer, and then laughed at 
it's stupidity.  "But it would be the perfect front to run us 
down....legally.  Well, kind of.  Shit."

	He opened the top desk drawer and took out a few plastic 
bottles of pills.  He popped a few in his mouth and downed them 
with a flat can of Coke that had probably been there more than a 
day.  

	"What's the matter with you!" yelled Jack from the office's 
entrance.  "How many times have I told you not to get drugged 
before you jack in.  Especially now.  What the hell do you ..."

	"Oh shut up and take this!" said Nebulus throwing a bottle 
to Jack.  He caught it with a rattle and looked up very disgusted 
almost in disbelief at what Nebulus was implying.  "Relax, it's 
caffeine.  It'll wake you up."

	"I'm not tired" replied Jack walking towards Nebulus.  He 
screwed the cap off the bottle and put a pill in his mouth.  He 
reached the table, putting the closed bottle down and picking up 
the can of Coke.

	"That's been there awhile, you know" muttered Nebulus.

	"I know.  I opened it last week" he said with a smirk.

*************

	Slash had been driving the van through the back streets of 
the city for about ten minutes until she came to the designated 
spot Nemesis had told her to go to.  The tall buildings surrounding 
them sent shadows out to swallow up the surrounding sidewalks, 
almost requiring a street lights to light up the broken and 
graffittied walls that surrounded them.  

	"So where the hell do we go from here?" she asked, leaning 
over her shoulder to get a glimpse of Nemesis' back.  He was 
leaning over Donna who was still out cold.  Her arms were tied 
together with unbreakable plastic ties that were laced from her 
wrists up to her elbows.  Her hands had turned pale from lack of 
blood in her hands.  Her legs were tied in a similar manner, one 
that Nemesis found a certain liking to.

	"There should be a garage door around here somewhere 
that has the word 'Ixzer' graffettied on it in red" replied Nemesis 
who had turned to look out the front windshield.  "Just go slow 
and we should  be able to see it better."

	"I can't see a goddamn thing with Ixzer on it" whined 
Slash, getting quite frustrated with the whole secretive situation.  
'First you don't tell me where we're going, then what we're doing.  
You dumb shit!  I don't see why I ever listen to you.'  She slowly 
eased her foot on the accelerator and let the van drift down the 
alleyway, nearly scraping the sides of it on one of the buildings.

	"Stop here.  Turn the engine off" spoke Nemesis in a 
hushed voice as he popped the sliding door open and slowly 
began to push it out of his way.

	"What's the silence for man?  I don't see any Ixzer."

	Without a reply, he jumped out of the van, landing his 
combat boots on the broken asphalt and turned around to scoop 
up the still unconscious Donna.  Throwing her over his shoulder, 
he walked in front of the van and stood in front of the garage 
door.  Slash got out and stood behind him still unsure of what was 
about to happen.  'Switch to UV.'  Ixzer appeared on the door, just 
as he had said.  He slowly moved to the wall on the left side of the 
door and allowed Donna to slide from his shoulder, landing 
soundly on the concrete with a thud.

	"Well I see we're in a good mood today" smirked Slash 
getting a kick out of Nemesis' behavior.  'He's finally back to his 
old self' she smiled to herself, looking down at Donna.  'Bitch.'  
Her smile was broken as the wall Nemesis was touching broke 
open and a small camera appeared in front of his face.  She took a 
step back, getting into a combat stance.  Her claws extended 
instantly.  He never moved.

	"Enter password" stated a speaker originating from near 
the camera.

	"Zephia 12 Luther Mia" replied Nemesis.  The camera 
disappeared as the wall rebuilt itself, hiding the broken area.  A 
couple of loud noises came from within the garage and the door 
slowly began to open.  Nemesis bent over and scooped up Donna's 
body and began walking into the garage.  Slash followed a little 
hesitantly behind her companion, still with her claws out and 
ready.  She really hated being uninformed.

	"Stop right there!" came a deep, husky male voice from 
within the darkness of the garage.  The two of them had barely 
gotten ten feet within the building.  

	"Who's there!" yelled Slash from behind her companion.

	"Nemesis.  How's it goin' mon?"

	"Not too bad Doc.  Got a little present for you."

	"Another hooker.  Don't you know I gave them up for 
lent?"

	"No hookers this time.  A tinker toy to take apart."

	By now, Slash was completely confused.  'What the hell is 
going on?  How is this guy and where the hell is he?' she thought 
trying to look into the darkness.

	"Do we get to have some fun this time?"

	"You got it."

	"Bring her in."  The lights flashed on, slightly blinding 
Slash for a second.  The garage door immediately slammed down 
into the concrete that startled the always calm Slash.

	"Will someone please tell me what the fuck is going on!" 
yelled Slash at the top of her lungs.  Nemesis turned around 
slowly eyeing her weirdly.

	"Slash, meet Doc.  He's a techie friend of mine.  He likes to 
take things apart and see how they work."  He turned towards Doc 
and began walking in his general direction.  "Doc, this is my 
friend Slash.  She's with Nestroth" he said pointing a thumb in 
her direction.  

	"Hey ya sexy" he said looking her over.  She looked him 
over back.  He stood almost as tall as Nemesis, but had black hair 
down to the middle of his back that flowed as he turned around to 
lead Nemesis to the door behind him.  He walked with a limp to the 
left side and had a cybernetic left arm as well.  'He must've gotten 
into something' thought Slash to herself as she began to follow 
the two men towards the door, her claws finally retracting.  It 
was unlocked with a pass card and led to a set of stairs leading 
downward.  Doc led them down.  Nemesis bumped Donna's head on 
the door frame.  Slash just had to let out a small laugh at that.

	They arrived at a another door that lead into a cybernetics 
lab, or something that looked like one.  Donna was placed on the 
medical table in the middle of the room.  There were tools of all 
sorts lining the walls and hanging from the ceiling.  Off to the 
left side were large tools for more heavy equipment, including 
what looked like a modified military gatlin gun.

	"I take it you like weaponry, sweetie?" smirked Doc seeing 
Slash look the gun over.  She looked at him with an anticipated 
smile that said yes.  "Hmm.  Maybe I'll let you take her for a ride 
tonight."  He turned towards Nemesis who was cutting Donna's 
bonds with one of Doc's molecularly sharp blades.

	"So what the hell's with this chic anyways?" asked Doc.

	"She worked with us on our last project, but she's got 
something in her chest that I think is a bug.  It's the only thing 
that explains why we ran into shit."

	"How do you know?"

	"Look at her under IR.  You'll see something really black 
there."

	"So you want to cut her open and see what we can see?"

	"Let's see if she will talk first."  The two men took her arms 
and legs, cuffing them to the four corners of the table securely.  
Doc took out an antidote for the sleeping chemical Nemesis used 
on her, and injected her with it.  In a few moments she came to 
trying to wipe her eyes with no luck from the restraints.  She 
looked up to see Nemesis looking right into her face.  Doc was 
busy putting on a surgeon's hat, mask and gloves.  'Interesting 
difference from the mechanics suit there Doc' Slash told herself 
as she too walked towards Donna.

	"Who are you working for Donna?" asked Nemesis in a 
very calm voice.

	"What the hell are you doing?  Untie me at once, you 
moron!" she screamed back testing her restraints.

	"I don't think so sweetie.  I think you set us up, which is 
why you've got a bug in your chest.  So why don't you just tell us 
what is going on" he said politely.

	"I'm not working for anyone.  And I don't have anything 
in my chest you, idiot!  Now let me go!" she screamed.  Doc walked 
around and attached two electrodes to her head and turned on a 
scanner that monitored certain parts of the brain for 
brainwaves.  "What the hell is that?  Who is he?"

	"Donna, I'm only going to ask you one more time, before I 
cut your chest open and find out what the hell you have in there.  
Now, tell me, who are you working for" he said in a very deep 
voice that began to frighten Donna even more.  His frowned brow 
made her look at him with wide eyes, fearing that he was serious.  
She thought for a moment, and then just made her eyelids very 
narrow and matched his frown with hers.

	"Fuck off bastard" she replied in a low tone.  Nemesis bent 
down until his face was less than a centimeter away from hers 
without changing his expression.

	"Have it your way, my dear."  He moved his lips down to 
hers and gave her a small kiss on the lips.  She didn't kiss him 
back.  He withdrew his face from hers, standing straight up, and 
removed the electrodes from her head.  "We won't be needing 
these" he said tossing them to Doc.  He looked back down at Donna 
and saw the fear in her eyes, yet also saw her determination as 
well.  He moved his right hand up to his left shoulder and quickly 
sent it flying across Donna's face, slapping her cheek so that the 
side of her face bounced off the table.  Blood began to trickle 
from the corner of her mouth as she turned to glare back at 
Nemesis whose facial expression still had not changed.

	"You asshole.  I'm gonna kill you, you son of a bitch!" she 
screamed.  Starting to violently pull on her restraints, she yelled 
and screamed until Doc had had enough.

	"Time to put her to sleep, I think."

	"Not this time.  I want her to feel this" snarled Nemesis.  
Donna barely caught what he said and gasped a little in 
anticipation.  Nemesis nodded to Slash who was getting a kick out 
of the torture being induced by Nemesis.  'It's good to have him 
back' she thought to herself.  She walked to Donna's right side 
and smiled at her.  Donna only caught a glimpse of her out of her 
peripheral vision.  Stroking her stomach, Slash began feeling 
Donna's lower ribs and stomach.  Then raised her strong arm and 
let the side of her fist slam into Donna's stomach, just below her 
sternum.  Donna sucked in her breath and pulled at her cuffs as 
her face turned red from her breath being knocked of out her.  
She finally relaxed a little and began taking short breaths.

	Nemesis stood above her head still and pulled her jacket 
away as much as possible from her chest.  He then reached into 
her top and in one swift pull, ripped the top of it and her bra 
open.  She struggled underneath him to no evail as his hands 
went further down to grab the divided material at the edge of the 
tear.  In another pull, her top was in two and he pulled the parts 
to the sides to reveal her bare chest and white breasts.  Her 
nipples were slightly hard from her treatment, something that 
Slash took note of.  She slowly caressed both of Donna's breasts, 
allowing her touch to become rougher as her claws extended a 
few inches from her fingertips.  Her slight smile of playfulness 
changed to a devilish grin as she moved her fingers to the 
underside of Donna's breasts and pushed her claws into the skin 
below them.  Not wanting to be outdone by what was sure to be 
effective torture by Nemesis, Slash began to drag her claws down 
towards Donna's navel.

	"Now who are you working for Donna?" asked Slash now 
enjoying the fun as well.

	"Nobody!  I swear I'm not working for anybody!" she 
screamed.  Tears were now running from her eyes as she tossed 
her head from side to side.  Slash only pushed in harder until 
blood coated much of her lower stomach.

	'I've had enough of this shit' thought Nemesis as he 
reached over for the molecularly sharp blade he had cut her 
bonds with.  He placed the edge of it next to the tendon in her 
right peck.  Slash reluctantly pulled her claws out of Donna as 
she saw what Nemesis was about to do.  "Donna, why did you set us 
up.  Tell me or you will regret it" he spoke in a stern voice after 
waiting impatiently for an answer.

	"Go to hell!" she yelled.  The pain and realization of the 
situation, finally breaking her.

	"Fine.  Slash put a gag in her mouth.  I don't want any of 
her childish screams to hurt my ears"  he said.  Slash complied by 
stuffing a dirty rag in her mouth and stepped back as Nemesis 
began slowly cutting the tendon in her peck.  Her screams were 
muffled by the rag, but her tears and struggling movements only 
made the pain worse.  The tendon finally broken and Donna let 
out a ear-piercing shriek as the tears rolled down her face freely.

	"That's enough, Nemesis" said Doc as he came over to 
Nemesis who was getting ready to start on the other shoulder.  He 
placed the end of a silver device that looked like a gun to Donna's 
throat and pulled the trigger.  She jerked and then collapsed to 
the table, unconscious.  

	"Making her squirm is not going to get the info you want 
man."

	"You know how much I hate people who stab me in the 
back."

	"Let's just get what you came for and forget about it, all 
right?" spoke Doc in a soft tone of voice, a little shocked by the 
whole situation.

	"You're the doc.  Let's see what's in her chest."  He removed 
the blade from her shoulder and stepped back as Doc began to 
stop the bleeding in Donna's stomach with a laserstitch.  After 
removing the gag in her mouth, he began working on stopping 
the extensive bleeding from her shoulder.  To Nemesis' wishes, he 
finally cut into her chest with a scalpel.  Doc brought over a few 
instruments to determine just where and what the black box in 
her chest really was, then began to go after the prize.

	"Jesus Christ!  This thing is really in her.  Someone really 
did a good job on her when they put it in."  Doc continued to try 
and get a better look at the black thin box that was lodged under 
Donna's sternum, near her collar bone.  "How the hell could she 
breath for cryin' out load?"  The frown on Doc's face spelled a 
tough job, and probably one done by a pro.  He continued to open 
her up enough to get at the box and finally cut the thin metal 
rings that were securing it to her sternum.  A soft digital pulse 
emanated from Donna's direction, and then a hushed pop silenced 
all sound in the room.  Her head and body jerked slightly and 
then went limp again.  Her heart drastically slowed until coming 
to a complete stop within seconds of the diminished sound.

	"Damn" softly stated Doc, keeping his hands still.

	"What?" questioned Slash and Nemesis almost in unison.

	"Shoulda known.  Oh well.  Let's see what we can see."  He 
slowly pulled the box out from under Donna's sternum, not 
bothering to put her back together more than letting the torn 
skin slide back into place.  Taking the box over to the sink, he 
removed most of the blood from the box with a damp towel and put 
it under a lamp to get a better look at it.  'Edging at the sides, not 
too tough.  No markings, no noticeable points, oh hey, there's the 
trigger mechanism' he thought looking at a very small silver 
line down the inside of the clips.  Nemesis and Slash becoming 
bored with the subject at hand, retired to opposite sides of the 
room to lean on the walls, waiting for something to come out of 
the box that would give them a clue to Donna's true loyalties.

	Doc picked the box up and moved it over to the work table 
and placed it on a ceramic flat plate that was situated under one of 
his analyzers.  Within a few minutes he had run IR, UV, X-ray and 
a few other tests just to see what was in the middle of the black 
box.  He then took a small tool and began wedging the corner of it 
open until the lid popped up.  Slowly, he lifted it off and revealed 
the small transmitter board that the X-ray scan had shown.

	"So what do we got?" gruffly asked Nemesis, still 
pessimistically leaning on the wall.

	"Transmitter box.  It essentially controlled the bomb.  
However, it could have been triggered by someone else with some 
form of an electronic signal."

	"So she had a fail safe in her, huh?"  he said moving closer 
to Donna again.  He brushed her cheek with his index finger and 
moved his face close to hers.  "You got outta this easy wench" he 
whispered to her.  Standing up, he moved over to take the box in 
his hand.  "So can you figure out who made it or who could 
detonate it?" he asked looking at Doc.

	"Maybe.  It'll take some time."

	"Contact me in the usual way in one day" replied Nemesis 
as he handed the box back to Doc and motioned Slash to following 
him out the door.  

	"What about your woman?"

	"Oh yeah."  Nemesis grabbed a nearby trash bag and 
worked it over Donna's head and torso after removing her bonds.  
He scooped her up so that she was crunched upside down into the 
bag and then proceeded to head up the stairs.

	As Doc verified the garage door closing from his wall 
monitor he dialed into his telecom and waited while the security 
codes played their game before opening a screen.

	"What is it?" came Nebulus' tired voice.

	"We've got a few problems."

******************

	"So what the hell are you going to do with her?" 
reprimanded Slash as she drove into the next alleyway.

	"Pull up next to that dumpster over there?"  The van 
stopped and Nemesis pulled Donna's body out of the van, throwing 
it into the dumpster without a care.  He returned to the van to 
fetch a can of gasoline and proceeded to pour some of the can's 
contents onto Donna's body.  He returned to the van and picked 
up an old oil rag.  Lighting it, the van began to move away as he 
threw it into the dumpster and slid the van's side door shut.