Cyberpunk: I'm Not a Scavenger - Chapter 66: The Biotechnica Tower (Patreon)

Meredith shifted her position, making her best features even more conspicuous.

Out of respect, Pantheon openly admired the view for a couple of seconds.

"Relax. If I'm calling you, it's because I've got something good for you."

Meredith's smile faded, and her expression grew more serious.

"Militech has an important gig. There aren't many people in Night City who can pull it off, and you're the one I trust most."

"Stealing experimental cyberware from Arasaka? Or digging up dirt on a rival politician?"

"Something along those lines."

Meredith propped her chin on her hands and explained the job.

"Militech has been working with Biotechnica on new drugs and medical equipment for years. But lately, Biotechnica has been making moves behind our backs. We need to know exactly how far their research has progressed so we can decide whether the partnership is worth continuing. Our agents will give you a vulnerability in Biotechnica's network defenses. Your job is to infiltrate their tower, retrieve the data, and bring it to me."

It sounded simple enough, provided he wasn't worried about Biotechnica's security systems and rapid-response teams.

Pantheon didn't accept immediately. Instead, he considered what else he might get out of the job.

Did Biotechnica have anything he wanted?

The corporation specialized in genetic engineering, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and microbiological research. It possessed some of the most advanced genetic engineering technology and equipment in the world.

Pantheon had been reluctant to use his Nanosuit because of its potential side effects. If he could get hold of Biotechnica's equipment, he might finally find a way to solve the suit's problems.

...

Corpo Plaza was particularly dazzling at night.

Two enormous holographic goldfish, one red and one blue, drifted above the park in the city center. The corporate towers rose like gigantic tombstones, announcing the death of things that had long since disappeared.

Wearing the most ordinary corporate suit imaginable and carrying a briefcase, Pantheon walked straight into Biotechnica Tower.

"Beep. Clock-in successful."

He adjusted the glasses he'd put on as part of his disguise and trudged into the building like an exhausted office worker dragged back in for overtime.

The security system found nothing wrong. The guard at the entrance gave him a sympathetic look and waved him through.

The elevator carried him toward the forty-second floor.

That was as high as his forged credentials would take him. Creating an identity with greater clearance would have been too much trouble, so he figured he could walk the rest of the way.

He leaned against the elevator wall, idly watching the numbers change.

Come to think of it, how had Sasha gotten inside in the anime?

By elevator, if he remembered correctly.

Was Biotechnica's security really as easy to get through as a public restroom?

Ding!

Pantheon stepped out into an empty corridor. Only two surveillance cameras were still diligently doing their jobs.

At three in the morning, almost everyone had gone home apart from a handful of unfortunate employees.

He shot the nearest camera a look. The daemon he'd uploaded immediately broke into the system and replaced its live feed.

The daemon then worked its way up Biotechnica's outer subnet. Every camera along his route would conveniently fail to notice him.

Since he wasn't ready to cause a commotion, he had to climb the remaining floors the hard way.

It wasn't much. Just fifty-odd floors.

Pantheon loosened the tie strangling his neck, opened the stairwell's fire door, and started climbing.

The stairwell was narrow enough that he could faintly hear voices echoing down from above.

Security guards on patrol.

"Fuck, I really don't want to be at work!"

"Quit complaining. The cameras are watching. Think about what you're going to have for breakfast tomorrow."

"Shit! It's all garbage anyway. What difference does it make?"

Pantheon waited behind the door with a palm-sized device in his hand.

It was a signal jammer of the kind Scavengers used to block wealthy kidnapping victims' implants and prevent Trauma Team from receiving an alert.

He'd upgraded and reprogrammed it, making it smaller, more effective, and capable of jamming a precisely selected area. More importantly, it could transmit convincing but blurred substitute signals while the real ones were blocked, buying him time if anyone checked.

The moment both guards entered the cameras' blind spot, Pantheon moved.

[Edgerunner]!

He pressed the jammer's button. Their biometric monitors, emergency alerts, and neural-link communications all went offline.

The two men kept chatting, completely unaware that their signals had changed.

Pantheon swept up the stairs like a ghost. In less than two seconds, he was behind them, and two sharp, precisely delivered chops knocked them unconscious.

He dragged them into a stairwell maintenance room, pulled out his personal link, and connected it to one of their neural interfaces.

A flood of data rushed into his mind.

Patrol schedules, shift rotations, floor checkpoints, even the little ways the guards habitually slacked off. He could see it all.

He extracted what he needed and finished spoofing their signals. By the time he switched off the jammer, less than half a minute had passed.

Their neural links and biometric monitors would now send the usual signals to the control terminal. Unless someone actually laid eyes on them, the supervisors would assume they were still on patrol, perhaps after taking a short break.

With everything taken care of, Pantheon disconnected the cable and resumed his climb.

Between the forged signals and the ungodly hour, the rest of the journey went smoothly. He encountered no more patrols and triggered no alarms.

Like a ghost who didn't exist, he reached the data room on the top floor without a sound.

This floor's surveillance ran on an independent system, protected by ICE more sophisticated than anything below. Unfortunately for Biotechnica, overcoming it cost Pantheon only another couple of seconds.

The data room itself wasn't hidden behind an imposing alloy blast door. Its exterior was an ordinary bulletproof-glass curtain wall. If an intruder made it this far, even the strongest door would only delay the inevitable.

A token electronic lock guarded the glass entrance. Pantheon barely spared it a glance before swiping it open.

Inside, dark-blue indicator lights winked in the darkness like a sea of stars. Dense cables and pipes threaded across the ceiling, accompanied by the low hum of a climate-control compressor.

Pantheon finally opened the briefcase he'd carried all the way up. It contained a new set of equipment he'd made specifically for this mission.

For some reason, he had the feeling an unexpected surprise was waiting for him.

He was confident he could avoid detection, but who could guarantee that nothing would go wrong?

After changing, a Pilot stood in the data room.

The suit was modeled on the Pilot from Titanfall, complete with a kinetic-assist system, a retractable grappling hook, a sonic locator, and a host of other gadgets.

Pantheon moved around a little to make sure everything worked, then took out a data terminal and connected it to the server.

"Let's see what goodies they've got in here."