Cyberpunk: I'm Not Cheating Chapter 44: Sunflower

Vito checked himself carefully in the Biotechnica bathroom mirror. Next to him, a pale-faced corpo was injecting sothing.

Vito looked at Santos Rogers's face reflected back at him and gave a satisfied nod.

"Hey. Are you done with the mirror? I still need to inject. If you don't need it, step aside."

A corpo rushed in and started hurrying Vito along.

"Whoa, easy. What's this? Shooting up stimulants to push for a new position?"

Vito put his hands up and moved.

"Don't play the saint. Like you haven't done the sa."

The corpo snapped and opened the mirror cabinet, carefully located the vein in his neck, and injected.

Vito frowned.

"You're that far gone and you're still coming in to work?"

The corpo settled, then pushed back:

"I've been going insane lately. I slept seven hours total last week. What else am I supposed to use?"

Vito wasn't annoyed. He kept talking.

"You don't need to push this hard just for a promotion. What's the big project?"

The corpo glanced scornfully at the one taking pills next to him and answered flatly:

"It's all that Nomad business. Whatever. Too tired to explain. I need to get back to my station."

Vito watched the corpo leave and turned it over.

So Biotechnica's current workload was tied to Nomads. The data Romano wanted was probably connected to all of this.

"Hey, Vito. Stop wasting ti in the bathroom. Turn left on the way out and keep walking."

"OK. How's Santos doing?"

"Jackie topped up his anesthetic. He won't be up for a while. Follow my route to the storage room. That's the closest point your access level can reach to the server room."

"Got it. Moving."

Vito left the bathroom and walked toward the storage room following T-Bug's route. Several employees nodded at him along the way. He nodded back.

A female employee rushed past him and accidentally dropped a stack of files.

She got a few steps ahead before realizing, then doubled back. Vito had already picked them up and held them out.

"Th-thank you, Rogers."

She said it and rushed off again.

Vito didn't think much of it. A colleague of the real Santos, probably. He kept walking, and then saw the sa female employee a second ti.

"I really have to go, Steve. I need to get all these files transferred to my computer. They're pushing hard from above."

"All right, baby. How about a goodbye hug?"

"Fine, Steve. Don't knock my files over."

They hugged for a few seconds. Vito's Kiroshi optics clearly captured Steve's face over the female employee's shoulder, looking directly at him with a provocative expression.

"Haha. Interesting. My favorite: office love triangle."

Vito left them to it and walked straight to the storage room.

"I'm here, Bug."

"Good. Inside the door, all the way left. Look up. There's a ventilation duct. I'll open it. You go through directly to the server room."

Vito followed the instructions to the duct, then frowned.

"Not going to work, Bug. It's full of dust and oil in there."

In movies, ventilation ducts are clean enough to reflect light. In reality, those tubes held everything disgusting you could imagine.

"What's wrong? Our corporate employee Mr. Vito has a cleanliness issue?"

T-Bug kept it light.

"No. If I co out of a duct covered in gri, I'll stand out. At least among all these suits."

"Sorry. I didn't think of that. Rerouting."

T-Bug used the caras to map a new path.

"Done. But this way has two security guards and a data room clerk. Be careful."

Vito left the storage room and remarked:

"Only three people? I figured a big corporate server room would have at least a hundred."

"Biotechnica isn't a security firm. And in server rooms, more people ans more can go wrong. OK. I'll manually adjust the next cara angle. Move past the outer corner quickly. You have four seconds."

T-Bug started calling it out.

"Four. Three. Two. One. Perfect. First guard is at the right fork ahead. He's heading your way. I'll control the lights briefly to draw him back. I'll give you the signal. Move through fast and quiet."

"OK."

"Wait. Wait. Now."

T-Bug hit the signal the instant the guard turned away. Vito moved like a cat, silent across the intersection and forward.

"One guard ahead. He has a blind spot. Walk straight past him. But you've got a problem after that."

"What problem?"

Vito asked once he was past the second guard.

"The data room is glass-walled. The clerk has a direct line of sight to the entry. As long as she isn't blind, she'll see soone co in."

"Can you hack her?"

"I can. But it'll leave traces. Biotechnica can track it back."

Vito frowned.

"What if I do it?"

T-Bug exhaled.

"Her data room has four alarms. If she trips one while hacked, you'll be dealing with a Biotechnica security squad."

Vito stopped at the last corner.

"I'll walk up. Pretend I'm delivering a ssage. Then knock her out with the tranq."

"Worth trying. If it fails, I'll deploy the virus and you'll have one minute and twenty seconds to get out. I'll tell Jackie to start an attack and draw fire to buy you ti."

Vito steadied himself and walked toward the data room. T-Bug silently adjusted the cara angles ahead of him.

Coming up to the glass, Vito saw a familiar face inside. The sa female employee who'd had the complicated mont with the real Santos Rogers.

Vito walked up. He waved. When she looked up at him, Vito put his index finger to his lips.

The female employee assud Santos had co to find her. She imdiately checked the security cara. The automatic rotation had just moved it toward the corner.

"Rogers, are you out of your mind? You don't have clearance here. Get out while you haven't been recorded."

She kept her voice barely above a whisper.

Vito stepped into the data room. His eyes settled on her with the weight of sothing held back a long ti, like a man who wants sothing and knows it isn't his.

"OK. I've looped the data room surveillance on the last four minutes. Get out of here and go straight to the server to upload the virus."

There was a soft sound. The female employee, whose full attention had been on Vito's face, was hit by a discreet shot.

The tranquilizer hit and she went limp in her chair. Vito stepped forward to keep her from touching the alarm panel, then adjusted her posture, setting her up so it looked like she'd fallen asleep at her desk.

He went into the server room and got to work.

"The data volu is higher than expected. But I've already optimized the transfer protocol and bypassed their encryption dongle."

T-Bug said.

"Give three minutes. No. Two. As long as nobody walks in, we get what we ca for."

T-Bug was always confident in her own work.

"Don't rush. Patience is the companion of wisdom."

Vito's voice was quiet and steady.

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