Welcome to the 11th installment to The Nothing’s Child. The world is nothing like we know anymore. Or something…

If you are new to how the links work, each section shows all the links for the specific section. Otherwise there is a link for the start of each section. It is easy to catch up to where we are now.

Section 1
The Nothing’s Child
Section 2
Life is a Dumpster Dive
Section 3
Bleuthor Encryption
Section 4
Behind the Bookcase
Corporate Eggs
Fried Eggs for Breakfast
Section 5
Interrogation with no Egg to Stand On
Section 6
Mental Warfare
Section 7
Cracked Eggs

Corporate Eggs

The cold snap and melt away of the physical world switched me into run mode. Security measures for most sites attached to the Net required passwords and security bypasses. That is, unless you were able to jack in at the physical anchor point for the system.

I jacked into Drakes virtual home. No lag, straight in connection, I was there. The place was a little crazy. Granted I have never been to his place. We are more work acquaintances than friends. Not like we hang out after hours and party or anything. But I felt a little like I was invading his personal space. It was a deeper level invasion than just rummaging through his physical home.

Even though I jacked in through the physical anchor point, I found the site mired in security protection. He was guarding something in here. Something he didn’t want others to find. It took some work and a bit of trickery but I dug my way through his safety measures. The walls came down. They dropped, showing me an open space with a pedestal in the center.

The pedestal was a short distance away. Something rested in the center of its frame. An egg, seriously, it was a dull blue egg, about the size of a turkey egg. I say that thinking I know the size of a chicken egg and this one was bigger.

This was it? I went through all of that to retrieve this? I opened a few files and ran a scanner app over the thing. The reading was clear but I still felt a tinge of doubt as I reached for the egg. My touch triggered a spark. A flash of energy ripped through my arm.

The wave crashed into my brain. The egg disappeared. It was over in a flash but my arm still tingled. I can’t say how I knew it but that was what I was here for. I needed to go and go quickly. They knew about me, but I couldn’t say who they are.

I didn’t waste time. I grabbed my shit and cut the connection. The snap back into reality didn’t happen as smooth as the trip into the Net. My right arm tingled, like I had physically touched the egg.

The only way out was the way I came in. Flashes of memory flooded my mind. But not of my own memories. I saw things I knew were wrong at least from my own vantage point. I needed to get out of there, and fast. I punched the code in and pushed the door open, didn’t bother to close it behind me.

I charged out the front door and into the hall. Then raced to the stairwell I came in through. I heard the door to Drake’s apartment close as the elevator doors swooshed open. “No time,” I said to myself as I rushed through the stairwell door. Down the stairs I ran.

I was down two flights when I heard the commotion at the doorway. I couldn’t make out the voices and I wasn’t planning to wait around and see what they were excited about. I knew it had to do with me.

At the bottom of the stairs I pushed through the doorway and then out the back door to the alley beyond. I heard more chatter coming from the lobby as I pushed myself harder to get away. The alley was clear but wouldn’t remain so for long.

I ran, with little thought to direction. I needed to get away. Any direction that would give me freedom was a good enough direction for me. I had a good lead, there was a good chance I could get away from all this.

Yells came from behind me. They were in the alley now too. That is when the shooting started. This is something you learn when you do stuff like this enough; hitting a moving target isn’t easy. Hitting a moving target at night is even harder. Bullets hit the pavement around me but I was making it unscathed.

I rounded the corner of the building and was out of gun range. It wasn’t home free but it was better than dodging bullets. The black sedans I found on the side of the road sparked an idea.

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What could be worse than losing your target? How about that same target taking off with one of your vehicles when they got away? Ya, I did that. Probably not one of my better ideas at the time but the implication of it all appealed to me.

Ok so I have a few skills that are a little shady. I learned how to get a car moving some time ago. The things you do to survive, right?

I drove head-on toward the couple of ‘em that followed me out into the street. These corporate sedans have some pick up, gotta love ‘em for that. Helps that they armor the windows and doors too. The two on the street lost the game of chicken and jumped out of my way. With their guns in hand, they fired into the rear of the sedan but to no avail.

I never drove one of these before. Don’t get me wrong, I know how to drive. But these suped up corp sedans have some options I can only guess at, but I knew enough to play it safe. I was sure the car had a tracker in it. No way I could take this thing back to our warehouse hideout. I needed to ditch it and do it quick.

I ditched the car a few miles in the opposite direction of where I needed to go. Hated to lose it, but better to walk all night than be caught red handed. I found myself close to Jen’s place. She’d hate me for it, but I could burn one more favor. At the least I would have a place to crash for the night before I made it back to the warehouse.

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