Chapter 16 - The Search

With Dane still playing shepherd I jacked into my Deck and using the number that I had received I went looking for the Seoulpa. While they weren't a Corp they had an interesting variation on their telecom. I down loaded all the information in the computer memory and then started to investigate the variation.

It was a feeder line off the computer section of the telecom. I eased into it and looked around. It looked like they had a mainframe that was hooked to the telecom so that with the proper password a person could get into different parts of the organization. With this variation they were not really hooked into the Matrix while at the same time they had that capability. I had entered a Temple, nearly a Pagoda, I'm not sure just what the Korean's call their places of worship. After looking through many rooms that looked like meditation chambers I found the library and started to rifle the files. Several I down loaded and several I ignored. Using key words I pulled everything that said Leafcutter, Windsong, de Chateau, Project Chiron and Togiwara.

It was as I tried to ease back out I ran into the Ice, Black Ice. They were blocking the temple's hallway between the mainframe and the telecom. When I tried to jack out I found that somehow I was prevented from doing it. That left nothing to do but fight. There were three of them and this time I couldn't just wound them and run as they were between me and where I needed to go. This time I had to take them all the way out!

The one advantage I had was they were in a narrow space and couldn't come at me all at once. I had my attack program loaded and ready as I had been expecting either them or something like them. This Ice looked like Warrior Priest with staffs or long walking sticks. There wasn't a lot of room to swing the staff so I knew that it was only a prop. I pulled out a tomahawk and threw it at the first one. It backed him up some which further entangled the ones behind him. Even with this more powerful Deck there was a slight 'reload' time so I could only throw one 'tomahawk' at the time like a revolver instead of a burst of them like a machine gun. I could tell that the first one had been badly wounded so I put the next tomahawk into the second one. With it also wounded I finished off the first one and then turned back to finish the second. The second Priest staggered towards me as I was lining up my throw on him. I let go at him and finished him off as the third one used the staff as a pivot point and vaulted over the first two and came at me. I backed up and started to throw again but the staff lashed out and hit my arm. For this run I had dropped my Analyze program and instead had an Armor program running. The hit on the Armor had not really done any damage but it had numbed my arm. I did keep my grip on the tomahawk though.

I continued to back up and shifted the hatchet to my other hand. I kept my right side bladed towards the Priest even though it had taken some slight damage as I wanted to keep the weapon side away from him. I threw again just as he shifted and using the staff again as a pivot point tried to kick me with both feet. My tomahawk missed him but chopped the staff in half causing him to fall and not complete his kick.

The Priest seemed to be stunned a bit so I foolishly stepped forward to kick him. My kick never landed as my anchor leg was swept from under me dumping me to the floor. With us both down on the floor he swarmed over me.

With him on top of me he drew back his right hand to hit me. As he started the move I turned my head and he hit the armored helm instead of my face. The blow still smarted but it didn't do the damage it could have. His hand was damaged from the blow as he started to wince and shake the hand. I squirmed and wiggled trying to upset him as he clasp my throat with his left hand and started to apply pressure. Keeping him slightly off balance with my movements I brought the hatchet up and chopped, using it like a hand weapon instead of a throwing weapon. I didn't have a good swing as the left arm was partially pinned but I wounded him, then knocked him off of me when he stopped fighting long enough to deal with the pain. I pushed myself back and chopped again before he could regain his composure and continue his attack. With a third chop I finished him off.

With the Ice out of the way, I got up and staggered out of the mainframe and back into the telecom. There I was able to jack out and rejoin my friends.

As the system shock began to wear off I realized that Dane had an ice pack against the back of my neck and had eased me down to the floor. I couldn't help chuckling. On the street Intrusion Countermeasures (IC) is called Ice. She was using ice to overcome the affects of Ice!

"Lay still. You had a bad one that time. Something was wrong with the Deck, I couldn't pull the plug. I tried several times but it acted like it was welded to the Deck and to your head. It just wouldn't come out. You were squirming and moving around. You even yelled a couple of times and then you sat up and pulled the plug yourself. When you slumped over I was afraid you were going to fall out of the chair so I eased you to the floor."

"Pull the... chips from the... storage unit. I downloaded... a lot of files as... well as what they had... stored in the telecom's memory," I gasped. "That... is probably just junk for show... but I grabbed it before I... found the way into the mainframe. After... I got in there I pulled out a lot of... stuff that might help us." As I told her that I slowly opened my eyes and as they adjusted I saw that Blake was in the room also and he was the one pulling the info chips and feeding it into the computer.

"Don't blame me this time, Bossman. You knew... where I was going and what I was doing. I... told you this wasn't the safest profession to be in. Those... Priest were deadly."

"You just rest and recover," Blake said. "We can pull up these files and scan them without you this time."

Dane helped me to the bed and they left taking a telecom with them to scan the files. They turned off the lights and closed the door on the way out. I had no more than straightened out and gotten comfortable than she was back.

"If this one is like the last time you're going to have a headache. We can start working on that right now. Sit up and take this," she said. I took the pills she handed me and washed them down with a couple of swallows of water she had also brought and laid back down. This was worse than the last time. They shouldn't have been able to stop me from jacking out but somehow they had. My head didn't just hurt it radiated pain with each heart pulse.

Dane undid my belt and zipper and then said, "Raise your butt up. You'll be a lot more comfortable sleeping without your clothes." She pulled off my pants, pulled my shirt over my head, pushed me back down and covered me up.

"Thank you, Mommie," I said as she was closing the door again. I could hear her laughter in the hallway.

The medication worked as I woke the next morning to the smell of fresh soykaf and without a headache. I dressed and went into the kitchen and joined the others.

"Find anything worth while or interesting in that mess?" I asked.

"Actually several things. One, it appears that de Chateau has been working for the Seoulpa the whole time he was also working for Togiwara. He's been feeding them information about the projects that he has been helping with all along however there is nothing in the files to indicate what they were doing with the data. They were also the ones who set up the different houses that he was using. Somebody found out about the connection is why he hired us. He had been staying away from them and any possible information drop sites ever since he had come into possession of the chips. He was trying to get the chips to Seoulpa when Lone Star hit. Windsong said he thought that de Chateau had turned them is why they opened fire on him and on us. They have very little on us, you aren't listed at all. They are looking for us but so far they have been looking in all the wrong places. They have been staking out my place, Dane's place and Cain's place since the day after we moved to the first safe house."

"Tell him about the rest of it," said Dane. Then before he could say anything she continued. "There was also a list of the higher ups in the gang and many of the street soldiers. I told Blake that we could sell that info to the Yaks and to the Mafia. The Yakuza nearly wiped out the Koreans back in '43 and still don't like them. What became the Seoulpa Rings worked for the Yaks when they hit Don Brian O'Malley, head of the Seattle Mafia. His brother James is now the Don and probably would like to know about the Seoulpas also. With both of them hunting the Seoulpas the street war that would result would take a lot of the pressure off of us."

"That's an option we can save for later," cut in Blake. "Right now we have more important things to discuss. Who is this last group of people that de Chateau was contacting and where do they fit in? Where does Pusan Industrial Corp fit in? Plus we still don't know how de Chateau got the chips in the first place. Who hit the research complex? How did the chips and papers get to de Chateau? Why were they brought here? There's a lot of Seoulpa in CFS that could have taken delivery of the chips right from the gitgo, why didn't they?"

"I can understand why the Seoulpa wanted the chips. They are the smallest of the organized gangs and the chips could help them grow and take over a lot of new territory as well as territory that belonged to the other two gangs. The chips would greatly enhance their fighting capability. But we need to know how they did it if for no other reason than to protect ourselves."

"Right now everyone thinks we had something to do with the theft of the chips. If we can show how it was done and that we were in no way involved then maybe we can get out of all of this in one piece. That I think is more important right now than taking off some pressure. If the pressure increases to the point we can't do what we are trying to do then we can always let the list out to the Yaks and the Dons," commented Blake.

"You," he said to me, "rest up for today. I don't want you doing anything where you might have to fight your way out of anything. I want you well and healthy for later."