Phoenix Phire

Dextron immediately noticed the difference of v-Earth under the influence of the T-6. The colors, sounds, and smells were more vibrant, more alive. He appeared a few moments before the rest of the Bottom Feeders, who were similarly impressed.

[All satellites are online, and encrypted data feedback has been looped in. Overload is being rerouted to create a real-time stream. This connection is secure.]

Darsi was the first to notice that all of their avatars were dressed in sleek black jumpsuits. "This your doing, Dex?"

Dex nodded. "Starting today, the world is ours."

Mongoose moved to the controls. "Let's see what Geneva looks like at this time of the day."

"Pretty." Stiletto's duo-colored eyes scanned the city beneath them when it popped into view an instant later. Unexpectedly, she stopped hiding her heterochromia in recent days. She stood next to Dextron, the top of her head barely reaching his chest. "You should make your Avatar shorter, Dex."

Dex grinned suddenly; the hair color of the week for the tiny hacker was bright yellow. "Only if you keep that hair color. It's very cool."

"It is nice," Darsi agreed.

Thumper nodded and patted the petite girl's head. "It's quite striking."

"Singapore sunset saffron," Stiletto announced, smiling widely at the attention.

They were one hundred meters above Lake Geneva, near the southwest shore where the Rhône River fed it. It was an hour before sunset; the breeze coming off the water made the temperature pleasant.

Darsi pointed west of their position. A mirrored building with a peculiar pyramid shape stood out in the distance. "H & F is in the

Charmilles-Châtelaine-Servette district."

Mongoose and Gadget shared a glance but neither commented. Darsi was fluent in a half dozen languages, neither of them would have even attempted the words.

"Woah... talented tongue," Dex said the words before analyzing its content.

Darsi favored him with a sexy smile before continuing. "Their HQ is on the corner of Rue Liotard and Avenue De-Luserna. Bring us in, Dex."

The vehicle moved suddenly, darting directly to the front of the building, approximately three meters above the busy sidewalk.

Dex stepped over the side, hovering in v-Earth while studying his surroundings. "Remove all traffic, both pedestrian and automotive, within a three-block radius of this position."

The area around their target grew suddenly quiet; they could still hear the distant hum of traffic accompanied by the occasional car horn.

"Holy crap, Dextron." Gadget moved alongside the younger hacker while studying the building closer. Without a doubt, it was the most impressive thing he'd ever seen.

Darsi was already at the entrance, peering in despite knowing that there would be nothing to see. Their perception of the building came from the earth's orbit. "I want the electronic schematic on the building; Gadget and Mongoose can handle that."

Since it was Darsi's job, she was in charge of the delegation. "Thumper and Stiletto get me detailed blueprints, everything you can find; ductwork, pipes, and any kind of conduit."

Dex watched as the two teams split up and moved in different directions; he waited calmly, knowing that Darsi would have an assignment for him.

Darsi motioned for Dex to join her by the entrance. "We need to fill in the blanks for this building, starting with the lobby."

Dex nodded and dropped to the street level, his sharp eyes taking in everything. "There!"

Darsi watched as he moved toward the intersection. "Traffic cam?"

Dex nodded and motioned with his gloved hand; immediately, all the Bottom Feeders received the camera feed's pip (picture-picture).

The original feed showed the intersection's crosswalk; slowly, it panned toward the glass doors of their building's entrance.

Darsi stared at the pip on her HUD. "Zoom into the building, focus on woman fixing her hair."

Darsi moved through the closed doorway, suddenly thankful that an AI was assisting them. Syntax instantly filled in the space with everything the camera could see; the rest of the building was eerily empty. "Create a static representation of the inside so we can explore a bit."

[Of course, Quicksilver.]

Dex moved beside her, the traffic cam only filled out a small part of the building, but it was a start. From there, he hacked the door guard's smart glasses that linked into the building's security system. Then, treading carefully, since H & F were known for their attention to security details, he mirrored the video feeds but didn't attempt to alter their movement.

"Hmm... That's why you're my guy, Dex." Darsi moved further into the building; slowly, over several seconds, the details of the lobby started filling out. "Personal data bracelet on the blue suit guy!" Darsi pointed at the target a moment before he walked through her.

"Got him!" Dex routed through the bracelet and used it to ping all similar devices within range. "Nice... Seventeen small security breaches."

"I want everything, Dex; we need to know every detail before we come here in person." Darsi keyed her hud and brought up Gadget's holo. "Progress? We can't poke around too long; even small fluctuations will be noticed after a few minutes."

Gadget's wrinkled face grinned back at her. "We have three data access points; more importantly, we've located the central junction for incoming transactions."

"Tippy toes, Gadget. They are going to have some serious defenses. Don't trip any alarms." Darsi was about to key up Thumper's holo, but it popped up while she was talking to Gadget.

Thumper shared a building blueprint in the T-6's group video feed. "Two years ago, they put in-floor heating on the three lower levels. Because of that, they raised the floors about one foot."

Darsi wrinkled her nose slightly. "That's tight. Does that include the thickness of the material?"

"Quit complaining, skip a few meals and get ready for Hard Entry." Thumper deliberately emphasized the last two words of the sentence. "If you're worried, I'll team up with Dex and handle the hard entry."

Darsi rolled her eyes and closed the holo. "You'd love that, you little scamp," she muttered under her breath.

Dex glanced at his hud and checked the time. "Let's bail. We have enough information to get started."

Within a few seconds, the Bottom Feeders returned to the Nav-Platform. Even though they could have all logged off from anywhere, they shared grins when they all had the same idea.

[Dextron, I believe you may be interested in this.]

"Hmm?" Dex was to use the control panel when the vehicle suddenly changed locations.

Both the temperature and visibility plummeted suddenly. Then, the crashing sound of thunder followed by the flash of lightning, made everyone on the platform flinch reflexively.

"Where are we?" Dex couldn't see much through the torrential downpour.

The Nav-Platform was in a large parking area that butted up against the glass doors of a building. A sign with bold red lettering said, EMERGENCY ROOM.

[This is the Klondis Municipal Hospital in Detroit.]

Dex moved toward the glass doors where four people were pushing a wheeled gurney inside. "What are we looking at?"

Darsi frowned at the black SUV. "That's no ambulance. It feels corporate to me." She entered through the open door and immediately hacked into the security cam mounted over the entrance.

It took a few seconds for Syntax to update the images from the camera's memory bank.

"No fucking way..." The unconscious person on the gurney slowly came into focus, like an old Instamatic photograph.

Stiletto led the rest of the Bottom Feeders into the building, stooping slightly to stare at the red-haired person. "Is this someone we know?"

Darsi nodded, her expression suddenly grim. "It's Kendal, the guy that was kidnapped in broad daylight."

Dex was already in front of the gurney. "Get me the video feeds from security while I delay the elevator. I want to know where they are bringing him."

Darsi nodded and brought up her hud. Within seconds her hud shut down, and she let out a string of curses. "Leave the elevator, Dex! There's some major ICE here."

Dex paused what he was doing while considering her words. "Were you discovered?"

Darsi shook her head. "My failsafe kicked in before I made contact with security."

"Why didn't it trip when we hacked the entry cam?" Dex watched helplessly as the elevator opened for a few seconds, and Kenji was wheeled inside.

The group waited patiently as the lights that designated floors slowly lit up. Finally, after a few seconds, it settled on the sixth floor.

Darsi grabbed her partner's hand and pulled him toward the exit. "One job at a time, we'll let one of our specialists from the hive investigate this."