Freezing Shadows, Chapter 46

Chapter 46: Carina

(Nightelligence Solutions Corporate Headquarters)

Shadowgirl took a breath as she parked the stolen scooter in the subterranean employee parking garage. They needed a vehicle that wouldn’t be tied back to them, after all. Once Twilight ripped out any digital traces and spoofed the registration, and Babydoll went over the thing with a tag eraser, to ensure that it wouldn’t be calling home, she had a way to get to ‘work’.

Today was Carina Lowes’s first day at the new job as a probationary part of the janitorial service for Nightelligence Solutions, a fully-owned subsidiary of NETworks, one of the Big 10 AAA corporations! She was super glad to have this chance, since she needed to make ends meet to keep food on the table. Her father had been salaryman, before some ruthless Shadowmen killed him during a run. She’d had to drop out of school to keep her little brother from going hungry, or being put in the foster system. Fortunately, Aunt Sara knew someone who was at least willing to put their neck out enough to hire her. But she was sure that, in time, she could work her way up to better things!

Shadowgirl smiled brightly as she went over the backstory that she and Twilight had put together while assembling her temporary ID, and inserting her into the corporate systems. Of course, she couldn’t just show up to ‘work’ at a corporate office without some kind of file in the system. That would be suspicious as all hell. However, if the system said that there was a random new hire, and it all looked legitimate? No janitorial staff was going to kick up enough of a fuss to matter.

She took a moment to brush down her baggy work jumpsuit, making sure none of her ‘tools’ were too obvious, before walking up to the security guard in the employee entrance, she gave him her ‘name’, and explained that she was supposed to start work today. The guard, in all of his infinite intelligence and corporate zeal, checked the terminal, found her name, and handed her a temporary work ID, with directions to the custodial office on the first floor. Nice and easy.

“Carina Lowes?” The man in the custodial office asked, dimly.

“Yes, that’s me. It is my first day.”

“Right. Right. New girl. Fine. Keep that ID on while in the building. Until you’re on permanently, you can’t get into the more sensitive areas, but offices, bathrooms, service elevators, and the like will open with the temporary ID.”

The guy paused, as if he had forgotten what he was going to say, and then sighed. “Name’s Ted. Rules are simple. Do the cleaning, don’t let the suit and ties see you on the link or slacking off. Break room next door. If you’re not on rounds, be there, so if there’s a call, then you can go and deal with the ‘emergency’ trash can, or whatever. Simple work, and pay keeps the nutrisoy coming, with enough for some beers at the end of the week. Just don’t frag this up for the rest of us, clear?”

“Got it, Ted.”

“Good. Now go grab a cart from the closet, and head on to floor four and work your way up to eight. Time to start emptying trash cans and cleaning bathrooms for the legal department.”

Carina just nodded, and turned to get the supplies from the cart. So far, so boring. Just the way an infiltration was supposed to be. If things were ‘exciting’, then something was very, very wrong. Of course, as she grabbed the cart, a message appeared on the image link in her glasses.

Twilight: So far, so good. The maintenance area you need to get into is on floor 6.

Shadowgirl: Why is the security office on the tenth floor, anyways? Seems silly.

Twilight: Main security is on the tenth floor. There’s guard posts elsewhere, but the people actually in charge of security can’t be on the first floor like plebs. But they can’t be up in the 80s with the big bosses, either, and no one wants the corpsec rubbing shoulders with the regular wageslaves. So floors 9 and 10 belong to Security. Floor nine is training and medical, 10 is armory, security office, and break room.

Shadowgirl: Ah. What about floors 4 through 8? My ‘boss’, Ted mentioned legal?

Twilight: 4 through 6 are records. Physical records. Like folders and folders of paper files, with boxes of digital records. For all those things that corporate demands they keep records of.

Shadowgirl: And so they have a template to copy when they need to fake things in a coverup.

Twilight: Now you’re getting it. So, 7 and 8 are mostly paralegals and the junior lawyers, with some of the decent players, as well. The actual head of legal is up on 78, so he can look presentable as he tries to keep corporate overlords from doing anything too illegal, or at least making sure that there are no records or documents that can provably link the corporation to it.

Shadowgirl: Right. I’ll work my way around to the maintenance room on 6.

Twilight: I’ll be on the line.

As the service elevator doors closed in front of her, Shadowgirl sighed under her breath. She didn’t like cleaning bathrooms and taking out the trash at the best of times. Doing it in a game was even worse. But that was part of the gig. If they went in, guns blazing, all the time, they’d end up getting sent for a reroll. The door chimed, and Carina smiled happily as she stepped off the elevator, and began her first day of work at her first real job!

(Later)

Maintenance Guy’s Perception Roll: 4d6 = 1 hit, 0 Miss

Shadowgirl’s Palming roll: 10d6 = 2 hits, 1 Miss (Success)

Shadowgirl’s Infiltration roll: 10d6 = 3 Hits, 2 Miss

Carina was getting tired, having already worked through two whole floors, emptying trash cans, checking the paper, and cleaning the bathrooms. Even the men’s rooms. Ick. But that’s the job, and she’s still not done. So she just keeps going. And, oh, look, there’s a door marked extra special in her HUD, with no one around!

Twilight: Camera looped. Access log for the door edited.

Shadowgirl smiled as she pressed the passkey that she had ‘borrowed’ from the maintenance guy’s toolbox when they passed each other in the bathrooms on floor five. Leaky sink didn’t mean poor Carina could skip her work, after all. But for Shadowgirl, it meant she could easily slip into the maintenance area where little Carina wasn’t supposed to be able to go.

Given the dust and grime covering everything here, it was a pretty good guess that no one came here, if they didn’t have to. Fortunately, grey jumpsuits hid grime pretty well, and the passage was big enough for her to bring her cart in, too. Now, she just had to get her work done before anyone noticed Carina was missing.

Of course, Shadowgirl knew that she wasn’t exactly gifted when it came to electronics, or hardware. She knew how to use her commlink well enough, but there was no way she’d be able to tell which PVC pipe was which, and where she should cut. Thankfully, she didn’t have to know that stuff. That’s why she had a team to help her.

Twilight: Looking through your visual feed. Highlighting the pipe you need to cut. Do it six centimeters above the regulator box.

Shadowgirl: Let me know if anyone starts coming. I’ll go as quick as I can, but this isn’t going to be quiet.

Twilight: Will do.

Shadowgirl removed the small miniwelder from one of her pockets. The tool was great for cutting, and had enough of a battery to keep the electric cutting arc going for thirty minutes. Of course, despite all that it was absolutely useless as a weapon, since the arc was small enough that you’d have better luck trying to damage someone with a lighter’s flame. It was a tool, after all.

A tool that was very effective, if somewhat slow, at performing this task. Two minutes later, the pipe was cleanly severed, along with the cables running through it. The rest of the pipes and cables and other things she didn’t know about were fine.

Shadowgirl: Done.

Twilight: Good. I’ve looped the security diagnostic. No one will notice unless they actually go and check the physical component. And they won’t do that unless they have to.

Shadowgirl: Am I clear?

Twilight: No one in hallway. Cameras looped. Go.

Carina slipped out of the maintenance room, and happily continued on her way. She’d already cleaned the bathroom on this floor, so she just needed to go to the service elevator, and continue on up to seven. There were offices on those floors, so she’d be focusing more on changing trash cans and the like. Hopefully. She really hoped the bathrooms weren’t going to be bad. She barely even noticed when she ‘accidentally’ dropped the maintenance guy’s passkey in the service elevator. Hopefully someone found it, and turned it in, eventually.

(Later)

Carina was trying hard not to sigh as she trudged from the service elevator to the employee parking garage. Ten hours on her feet. Ten hours taking out trash, and cleaning bathrooms. Four people who tried to convince her to ‘take a break’ under their desk. And one of them was a woman! She never knew that working in a real corporate office could be so… awful.

But finally, it was over. She had her credstick for 64 nucred. Not much, but it would help keep the lights on, and food on the table, so little Pablo could keep going to school. And that was what really mattered at the end of the day, right?

Shadowgirl breathed easier once she was free and clear of the corporate hellscape. She wasn’t the most astrally sensitive type out there. Icy and their new snake friend had her beat in that regard, since they could actually see the astral. Even so, she could feel the way the depression and desperation hung on that place like a sickly miasma. There were more vibrant and hopeful areas of the Barrens. If she spent too long there, she’d probably get physically ill from all of it. If she didn’t end up stabbing someone in the throat when they tried to grope her, again.

Honestly, that was probably the most telling sign that life in Nightelligence Solutions was not good. When wageslaves start thinking the cleaning lady in a baggy, plain grey jumpsuit that literally doesn’t show anything is looking good, they’ve clearly been without meaningful companionship for far too long. And the worst part was they probably thought they were the lucky ones, since they were working in the office, not needing to do ‘dirty’ work.

Four blocks away, Shadowgirl abandoned the scooter in an alleyway, and slipped into the back of Berzerker’s van as it pulled up, Twilight shutting the door behind her. As she stripped out of the jumpsuit to reveal her formfitting half-body armor, Shadowgirl looked at the other two women. “So, we good? I really don’t want to have to go back in there. ‘Carina’ had a hell of a day.”

Twilight grinned at her. “No, the lab’s emergency system is isolated from the security office, now, and our decoy ‘biomonitors’ are ready and waiting. We’re ready.”

“Good,” Shadowgirl said as she pulled on her normal clothes. “When are we doing this?”

“Next shift change for the guards is at 20:30. We roll in at 21:00. Take down the guards, hide the bodies, and keep moving.”

“Sounds good to me.”