Elsewhere
Esmeray disassembled the gun she took from the Agent and tossed it into a dumpster as Tobias fell in close behind her.
Tobias: Care to tell me who you are?
Esmeray: I'm Esmeray Dixon, but everyone calls me Ray.
Tobias: Tobias.
Esmeray: I know.
Tobias: Yeah, wanna tell me what the fuck that was all about?
Esmeray: That was Orion Industrial tying up loose ends. Because you helped them.
Tobias: Gathered that. But where do you come into play?
Esmeray: You'll find out soon enough. We gotta be smart about getting back to my place.
Tobias: Whoa, hey. Thanks for saving me and all but you did just murder fuck like seven D.R.C and they're sure as shit gonna pin that on me.
Esmeray: You're fine. They're gonna come hard yes, but they won't go public. Can't have the masses knowing what's going on and that they use Dreamers to clean up their messes. Hence the hit squad.
Tobias: I need to call Crowe daddy.
Esmeray: Who?
Tobias: Alex Crowe... he'll know what's going on.
Esmeray: Calling a D.R.C Agent after a group of D.R.C Agents just tried to whack you? Are you insane or just generally a moron?
Esmeray checks her phone as Vade sends her some routes.
Esmeray: Follow me, my associate has some of the camera feeds down but only for a bit.
Esmeray and Tobias head down quickly down the street as they mingle with some others as Tobias looks to see the city streets aren't nearly as busy as most other cities.
Tobias: It's funny.
Esmeray: What?
Tobias: The biggest city in the world and it's always so quiet…
Esmeray: Everyone's hooked up and in their own world here...this way.
Tobias follows her as they go a few blocks before she makes them hold between two buildings as a D.R.C convoy drives by and heads towards his residence.
Tobias: Fuck this is bad.
Esmeray: It could be worse.
Tobias: How?
Esmeray: I couldn't have showed up. Come on.
She heads down the adjacent street as Tobias looks around and follows suit.
Elsewhere
Inside the precinct for the D.R.C Orion City Building Alex comes inside to see the uproar and hysteria as a large Agent comes over and pushes Alex who seems confused.
Alex: The fuck!?
Agent: Your asshole "dreamer" just killed seven of our own!
Alex watches as other Agents begin to encircle Alex and Alex reaches for his gun but stood as a loud voice carried out as Captain Sam Ramos pushes through and gets between them and Alex.
Sam: Everyone back the hell up! Stop this shit! This isn't how we do things! Get your ass back to work, get on those streets, find the son of a bitch! But do it quietly! Go! Now!
Sam stern faces the crowd as Alex looks at Sam who turns to him.
Sam: Everyone's on edge. We don't know what happened but seven agents are dead. Tobias couldn't have gotten the drop on them but until we see their body cams we're not sure.
Alex: Tobias wouldn't…
Sam: We don't know. but that doesn't matter anymore. Word from the top is what it was. You're gonna have to let that relationship go. Now. Do you think you can find him?
Alex: I do.
Sam: You know what's going to have to be done. I won't be able to stop those guys from doing that again.
Alex: I understand.
Sam: find him. Bring him in...or silence him. I can't have an agent killer out on those streets. I'm sorry, Alex. I really am.
Alex nods as Sam pats him and heads off as Lieutenant Chris Anderson comes over to him.
Chris: You gonna be alright?
Alex: I'm not sure.
Chris: If you need anything…
Alex: Thanks, Chris.
Chris: I'm going to go and see the body cam footage, see what that shows us.
Alex: I'll tag along.
The two head off as Alex can still see the weary and leering faces of the Agents watching him closely.
Elsewhere
Vade stands as Esmeray and Tobias come into the room as Vade hits a button and a scanner drops down and scans Tobias over before eclipsing the room in a green hue.
Vade: Sorry, it's a data blocker. Your phone, sir.
Tobias: Uh..?
Esmeray: Vade isn't the most people friendly. Tobias, meet Vade Drifter, I swear that's his actual name.
Vade: Charmed. Phone.
Tobias begrudgingly hands it over as Vade plugs it into his computer and adds in some codes before handing it back.
Vade: Swept it for bugs and deleted the tracking tech they come pre installed with. Should be able to talk a little more freely. And also, the fuck is wrong with you two!? I just saw over the D.R.C chatter boxes that you killed seven agents!?
Tobias: Whoa, hey, no, that wasn't me at all, that was this one.
Vade: Figures.
Esmeray: Did what I had to do.
Vade: At what cost?!
Esmeray: It doesn't matter. I did what needed to be done and we got the guy. We're fine.
Vade: You don't know the D.R.C like I do.
Esmeray: I know them well enough.b
Tobias looks between the two before he rubs the back of his head.
Tobias: Look if I'm interrupting something I can always just bounce…
Esmeray: Tobias, what if I told you you're meant for something more?
Tobias: I'd say you're the second person in the last six hours to tell me that.
Vade gives him a raised eyebrow as Esmeray pushes through.
Esmeray: Look. Me and Vade can't do what you do, we can't infiltrate an A.N.N. system undetected….
Tobias: So lemme get this straight. You just needed a dreamer? You can get any dreamer non registered, why in the hell would you need me?
Vade: Precisely that. You're registered. You remained undetected yet you're linked with anyone who's ever been connected to the A.N.N system. We've also been told you're the best at keeping yourself stable within the dream share.
Tobias: Maybe. Maybe not. Still doesn't tell me anything about what it is you guys are after?
Vade looks at Esmeray as she folds her arms and leans against her desk.
Esmeray: Simple really. We wanna bring down Orion Industrial.
Tobias looks between the two with a confused look as Vade pushes his glasses up.
Elsewhere
Chris and Alex watch the body cam footage on a series of screens as the face for Esmeray is obscured in every frame.
Chris: Why aren't we able to get a rendering?
Tech: Some form of interference…
Alex: This tech possible?
Tech: Clearly.
Chris: Do we have any known lists of active tech modders?
Tech: Composing it now.
Alex watches as a print out forms and Chris scans the QR code as Alex does the same as he looks through the files.
Alex: Cross referencing with current known locations.
Chris: if he got even the slightest of heads up...the other person couldn't have been more than a mile from his location…
Alex: I've got ..three matches.
Chris: Time to go kick in a few doors.
Alex nods and follows Chris out as the two stride out of the precinct and towards one of the cruisers.
Elsewhere
Esmeray and Vade stand before one of their screens as Tobias was seated directly in front of them.
Tobias: So what's this plan of yours that you need me for?
Esmeray: This is board member, Yan Hirsch.
The picture of the Board Member flashes on the screen as Tobias folds his arms.
Tobias: Every Thursday he holds a large Neural Network party for many of his rich and powerful friends. Much like the Senator.
Vade: Van is the head of the Orion Industrial neural database. Every dream share, everything they've ever done, he's got access too.
Tobias: Can't you just siphon it from the net?
Vade: Tried. Without a master code, there's no way to access the database.
Esmeray: Which is where you come in. We can connect to the neural link, find the master code, and have you there to make sure the uplink happens without being detected.
Tobias: Lot of variables. Too much to leave to chance.
Esmeray: We've worked out most of the kinks. We know what we're doing.
Tobias: So you want me to help you jack a master source code from an Orion Industrial board member. Sure, fine. Whatever. But that still doesn't answer my initial question on who you are and why we're doing this to begin with.
Vade looks Esmeray who nods as he shrugs.
Esmeray: Because .. we're what's left of the Awakened.
Tobias looks between the two again as Vade simply nods as he then looks at Esmeray who smirks.
End of chapter