Chapter 82

I opened my eyes in the net. My lobby was still blank…

 

I really needed to spend some time building this up. A lobby could be a really useful tool if prepared correctly.

 

But I shook that away and dived into the city.

 

I did plan on talking to Yoko today, but first there was something I wanted to explore myself.

 

I wanted to find more Scavs.

 

What? My Bank account was looking a little thin, and it was better to find another den to raid sooner rather than later. Ichi still had to pay rent after all.

 

So I needed information, and I wasn’t going to accept going to see Yoko and just having it handed to me.

 

A netrunner was all about finding information.

 

So I was going to gather it myself this time. I wasn’t a detective, but I had seen plenty of cop shows!

 

If you wanted to hunt someone. You had to find out where their victims had been.

 

So first step was the NCPD Criminal database.

 

It was easy enough to find the location of, I jumped to the NCPD City-Net page, and instantly I was in front of a prison of a building. Gates, and fences, digital barbed wire, and Daemons shaped like dogs walking around the walls.

 

I scoffed though. For all of its look of security, that’s all it was. I walked right up to the gate and requested access.

 

The gate opened and I was allowed to access the ‘public’ pages. You would think that would mean if I wanted the private stuff I would have stronger security, but that wasn’t true.

 

I walked past the gate. Past the guard Daemons. Past the security, into the lobby of a building, and then once I was in. I just turned away from the lobby room, that looked like I was visiting the DMV. Instead I found the visual door that had “Secure. NCPD Only” On it.

 

Like I said. They already let me in past all the security. In this case I was pretty sure it was intentional. The NCPD didn’t care if someone went looking for their criminal database after all. I mean I already had access to it through my Kiroshi. The access that Vik had set up for me was super common, and so it was child’s play to just walk through the secure door into a file room.

 

The door lock on the door was flimsy and I breached it within a few moments.

 

Like I said someone wanted people to be able to access at least this set of files. Inside was a storage room, nearly infinitely long filled with old storage cabinets. I walked over to the first one and popped it open. Inside was files on a recent Grand Theft Auto. I closed the drawer.

 

I needed something else.

 

So with a bit of a mental command, I inputted a search function for all files relating to kidnapping.

 

The room rumbled. Like I was in the matrix, and thousands of the cabinets vanished as the whole space rearranged itself.

 

Then when the shifting room still left me with millions of cabinets, I narrowed it more. Within the last four months. It rumbled and shifted again. There were still a ton of files, but at least now I could start.

 

First just to see I added “Scav” into the search to see what would happen. The room didn’t alter in any way that I could see.

 

I pulled open the first file closest to me.

 

Violet Espinosa. Age 27. Reported missing 4.17. Deceased. SCAV.

 

Peter Franklin Age 36. Reported missing 5.2. Deceased. SCAV.

 

The reports were all like that. Sure there was more information on each one, the police reports had a lot of information including the missing persons criminal history and such.

 

But that bit was the most interesting point.

 

Why was SCAV on all these files?

 

Why was Deceased? Did the NCPD know something? I couldn’t find any information on why they were listed that way.

 

In the end, I didn’t get an answer, but the more recent kidnappings at least had locations for last seen.

 

So I started collecting the data. Opening a file and just dumping the last location into a map of Night City. Slowly more and more dots grew across the file. There were hundreds of kidnapping reports, and I was just dumping them all into the file to see what would happen.

 

In the end, there were definitely hot spots on the map, but it didn’t really give me enough information to know for sure.

 

But, I knew where to look now.

 

So I found the most recent kidnapping report that was closest to the hotspots, and pulled those files saving them to my own server and took my new hotspot map. Then I walked out of the NCPD server.

 

—–

 

Markus Leon. Went missing yesterday. Age 30. His wife made the report. Markus had been last seen walking to work from his apartment building by his wife.

 

His work was three blocks down the street. He never made it to work.

 

But I had a general time he had left. And this was a modern city.

 

It had cameras everywhere.

 

So first I walked to the apartment complex that Markus lived in. The Server was old. It didn’t have the security to really stop me as I accessed the system, breached past its defenses and accessed the few security cameras still working.

 

Most were broken, but the elevator one worked.

 

I checked the time, and watched.

 

6:37 AM.

 

I found him. Markus steps onto the elevator from the third floor. Heads down, and walks out.

 

I jump out of the camera. The lobby camera was broken, but there was an outside camera looking down at the entrance. It was a few floors up, which is the only reason It wasn’t broken.

 

6:38 AM.

 

Markus walked out of the complex, turned left down the street and continued his path.

 

Okay. I checked the net for buildings along the road he had gone down.

 

The next building over was a hotel. The security was tighter, but still easily bypassed especially since I was in the net.

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Its cameras were active. Protected by bullet proof domes so they wouldn’t get destroyed.

 

6:38 AM.

 

Markus walks past the entrance. I watch for a minute after he goes past.

 

No one seemed to be following him or anything.

 

So I pulled out of the security of the building and moved on.

 

I continued down the street. Any building that didn’t have cameras. I would jump across the street and see if there were cameras facing outward enough to catch across the street.

 

Down we went. Until I crossed a street and Markus didn’t appear.

 

I went back, and saw him reach the crosswalk through a diner’s camera, and then nothing.

 

I jumped around, checking all the corners of the street trying to find something.

 

6:41 AM.

 

I spotted it.

 

Markus didn’t cross the street, the path he should take to go to work.

 

No, he turned left and continued walking down the street.

 

Interesting.

 

I continued to follow his path as he headed away from his workplace.

 

What was Markus up to?

 

Not that I was interested if the guy had just bailed. I was looking for scavs.

 

Down the street we went, only a few times I had to skip a few buildings and wait for him to walk into frame.

 

Then suddenly I jumped to the next camera and he never appeared.

 

I checked all the cameras in the area, I could confirm he disappeared.

 

After a few minutes of checking, I realized there was only one place he could have gone.

 

An apartment building.

 

So he was in the apartments? I mean Scavs often set up there, but this wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. Where were the group of scavs beating him unconscious or drugging him and dragging him into a rape van or something?

 

The apartment complex was run down, didn’t have any security cameras inside.

 

Probably on purpose.

 

But it did have a server still, everything had a net channel after all, had to, to have TV.

 

So I started sneaking in. Something weird was going on.

 

The server as I slipped in was dark and run down, plenty of slow down spots.

 

I wouldn’t be surprised if the TV reception in the place sucked.

 

But the security might as well have been a broken lock. I popped in, and checked the apartment listings.

 

Markus Leon wasn’t on the registry of course.

 

But I did find something interesting.

 

An entire section of the complex that had everyone stop paying rent as one. Consistent rent payments by some of the people and then suddenly nothing. This started months ago.

 

But more interesting? The server data was modified.

 

It wasn’t anything amazing, but it wouldn’t be sending any alerts to the owner to let them know there was a late payment.

 

Services would shut off still, but the owner wouldn’t know he needed to bring in more people.

 

Interesting.

 

Second floor, rooms 220-230 were all non paying.

 

There was a temptation to back out and check it out in person but…

 

I was a netrunner. This was the sort of thing I was meant to do.