“Is there an electrical outlet around here? While Precious here has an onboard power supply it is somewhat limited and this will probably take some time.” With that, I took the AC connector out of the case and held it up.

Hunter immediately jumped up and plugged it in, while I booted up my board.

After I logged in I activated the onboard holoprojector.

I found it funny that this was the first time I actually used that thing after I build Precious but I have to confess that I am somewhat solitary and most of my business was done over the matrix anyway.

“Ok, first the small fry. While I have no further proof for the trail being fake, I have the recording of the spam bot test in the fake compound as well as a similar test in the real compound.”

I displayed the timeline of the tests simultaneously.

“On top is the fake compound. The graphs are security ping in red, spambot activity in blue, and IP trace in green. On the bottom is the real compound. The graphs are the same. The bot was the same, the simulated spam was the same.”

I started the recordings and we all saw that at the top the red graph was stable and the blue graph was rising, there was no green graph.

At the bottom, it was a bit different. Here the red graph initially was stable as well, but within microseconds of the blue graph rising it rose faster than the bot.

Only moments later the green graph began to rise even more rapidly than the red one until a hair over a second after the spambot activation the blue graph suddenly crashed down to zero. Meanwhile, the green one slowly sunk and the red one remained at a high-level activity for several seconds longer before lowering back down to the initial level.

“As you can see, in the top there is absolutely no reaction from the security, despite the activity from the bot.

To put it into perspective, the activity was enough to shut down an average computer with spam, so no possibility of it not being noticed.

At the bottom, the same bot started and almost immediately the countermeasures are ramped up. You see the security begin a higher alert cycle, and the IP trace trying to find the bot.

Within a second it found it and killed it.

After that, the IP trace searched for other threats, while the security analyzed the activity.

After that, the trace shut down while the security, having deduced that it was a spam bot reduced its activity to the standard level.

I am sure Mr. Reid will agree that these are not the same system.”

Leon grudgingly nodded at that but did not look happy in the slightest.

“Now I have no further evidence that the two systems are not the same or that it where the system at the end of the trail and the Berardino compound, but it would take maybe 10k to pay a Queen to repeat the test if that.

You have to either trust me or pay to have it verified. I personally would prefer you verify it as it will give credence to my next points.”

The display switched and several texts opened on it.

“Now the emails are, as I already said, a pretty good forgery.

There are some discrepancies in phrasing and choice of words but they are at best minor and alone it would only prove that Berardino was a bit stressed when he wrote them. So I show them only for the sake of completeness.”

Several sentences in the hologram got highlighted, with the discrepancies in red. Also, a list of words came that showed how often the words were used. This took a couple of minutes.

Dylan shook his head after some time.

“That proves nothing. We all sometimes write or talk differently than normal.”

I had to sigh.

“Yes, I know. And as I said, I brought it up for the sake of completeness. That is not the proof. I can send the analysis to you gentlemen and if you want you can study it in more depth but in my opinion, it would be a waste of time. The real meat of my point comes now.”

The text files were replaced by several sound waveforms.

“That are the audio files. And the part that will take several hours to go through. But first, let us confirm that it is the voice of Giorgio Berardino in them.”

With that, I played a file from the fake compound where ‘Giorgio’ made audio notes to himself about how he would remove the other organized crime bosses from the playing field.

After a couple of minutes, I stopped the playback.

“Am I right that that is the voice of Mr. Berardino?”

Mr. Walker and Dylan both nodded, Walker thoughtful and Dylan visibly angry.

“Yes, that is Giorgio.” “Good, and now that.”

I started another playback where Giorgio talked about his usual business. Again after a few minutes, I stopped the playback.

“Again, is that Mr. Berardino?” Again, nods from the two mobsters.

“Ok, the baseline is established. The first one was obviously Mr. Berardino planning to remove you and most of your associates from the game. The second was only the comparison.”

I enlarged the first and second waveforms and removed the others from the holo.

“Now the next part will be pretty technical.

But for a preface, we are somewhat in luck that Mr. Berardino uses high-quality equipment for his personal office. The modern systems don’t care much about compression and reduced storage space and instead focus on optimal sound quality.

That is not surprising as file storage has become exceedingly cheap and it would be more expensive to make a professional and a consumer version of the soft- and hardware.

But that is important because the equipment encodes much more than just the sound of the speech. It encodes background sounds like the air conditioning, the ticking clock, the hum of the massage motors in the chair, and so on as well as other artifacts like the specific resonances of the computer, the microphone, the frequency of the wireless LAN, and the wireless connection between the mic and the computer, the quirks of the electrical net and even the effect of the background radiation including the cosmic radiation.

It is barely measurable in the file, but barely and not at all are very different.”

While I said that I zoomed in on the second waveform and enlarged a small segment of it until I could highlight the points I was talking about. For the cosmic radiation, I zoomed really deep before the somewhat randomness of the CMBR was visible.

“And that is the important factor.

For such forgeries, there are several levels of quality. At the lowest, only fit to outwit dumb speech control systems is to simply take the right words in the right order without any consideration of timbre, tempo, stress levels, and whatever.

Anybody intelligent enough to breathe on their own will know immediately it is a forgery.

Then one can take the right words in the right order and adapt the different factors so that it sounds homogenous.

That will fool the inattentive listener but anybody who pays any attention at all will be able to tell that it is not right.

There will be no emotion, no emphasis, no personality. Just a monotone slush. You don’t need computers to tell it is fake.

After that one has to invest some effort to make it sound real. Adjust the tempo and the timbre so that it sounds the same but with enough variability and emphasis to make it sound like a real person said it. But even a cursory analysis with computers will show many artifacts. The compression, the encoding, and the whole waveform will simply not be a single thing but a Frankenstein of one.

Next, we have the so-called deep fake.

The forger has used software to homogenize the compression and encoding.

The best way to discover it is to measure the variability of the waveform. This level invariably has none, if you excuse my pun.

If what I assume is your computer power is in the right ballpark you would manage to analyze a 10 minutes long file in a day or two.

Still, nothing that you could not do. Spectre’s supercomputer will manage the same in a couple of milliseconds.

Then we have what I would call the professional deep fake.

Here the professional uses an algorithm to vary the variability.

To figure it out you need to analyze the file and measure the variability to find the algorithmic regularity.

Depending on the complexity of the algorithm I would put your computers at a week to a month for the same 10-minute file.

But still, you can manage it. The supercomputer I used would manage that file in 10 seconds or so, and do up to 128 of them at the same time.

But what we have here is what I would call the virtuous deep fake.

Whoever did this actually used a random number generator to modify the algorithm.

There is no way an analysis of the waveform will show that. If Spectre had not encountered something similar before the supercomputer would have concluded that these were real recordings, so count yourself lucky here.

The only way to spot it is to actually look into the recording artifacts I mentioned before.

While they vary from day to day and even from minute to minute the change is gradual and in the same recording should be mostly the same.

And the program I used to analyze the files was actually set up to use that as the last measure when none of the other tests show a fake.

As I said, Spectre encountered it before.

To bring it in perspective, the supercomputer took an average of 5 minutes per file.

Your estimated system would take a year or two to analyze one of the files.

Just to make it clear how high level that technique is, I would guess that there are less than a dozen people who can do that in the solar system.

I can remove 2 from the list because I know it was not Spectre and neither was it me.

And that is what I meant with that this forgery would have cost somewhat north of 200 million dollars.

Oh, and before you ask, yes I could do something similar, and no, even I can’t remove every artifact. The CMBR is impossible to fake as far as I know.”

Over the next two hours, I used the first waveform to show first the variability and then zoomed in and highlighted the breaks in the artifacts, where the deep fake changed the timbre or the tempo of the word, adapted the emphasis, and made it seem legit.

When the waveform was in deep enough zoom it was, while still not obvious, noticeable to see the differences if they were highlighted.

After the grueling session with a few pointed questions from Dylan, I concluded the analysis of the first faked file.

“Ok, that was the first one. Are there any questions?”

Dylan took a deep breath and then leaned forward.

“That looks all pretty convincing but what is your proof of it?”

I had to shake my head.

“Pay somebody to get the data from the fake compound.

Take one of the files there and compare it to the analyzed one I have given you.

Otherwise, what would convince you?

If you wait until your computer system has analyzed even one of the files whoever is behind it will have most likely put the next plan into motion. Sure, you can super zoom into the waveform, but if you don’t trust me then you won’t take my word that the breaks show a fake.

You would have to find another one who actually could identify it.

And as I said, you have, at best, 10 options.

One of them made this stuff, so you have if you are lucky a ten percent chance of paying tens of millions to your enemy while he or she lies to you.

So you would need to contact at least two of them.

So just for that, you would need 30 to 40 million dollars. The options are you either trust my explanation or not. I can’t tell you anything to change that.”

He looked me in the eye.

“You said that you could create the fake. So even if it is faked and we get the information from other experts what tells us it was not you who did it?”

I was, in all seriousness baffled at that. After I lifted my chin off the table I rang for words for a couple of minutes.

“That is… if you think that the plot I described is over convoluted and insane what do you propose I would gain from that?

Fact is, somebody, hacked the database. Not just your database, but the databases of more than 30 organizations here in New York.

That happened months ago.

Fact is, for some reason several cyber surgeons here in the city simultaneously decided to implant cyberware that almost ensures that the recipient contracts CRS, and the hacked databases increased the chance significantly.

Fact is that from the hacked database in the hospital next door there was a trail that should not exist to a matrix compound that identifies itself as the Berardino compound that looks as real as painted canvas.

I give you that you have to take my explanation for the artifacts at face value, and sadly I simply can’t help you there.

But the rest you can verify, and I already urged you to do exactly that.

The possibility that it were the Berardinos is in my professional opinion vanishingly low but it is not zero.

That would mean that it is some elaborate plot.

I can’t ascertain what the end goal of the plot might be, but there has to be one. But for me to be behind it the plot morphs from insane to ludicrous. So why would I do that?”

“Easy. You want to get a ready market for your new cyberware. For that, you had to get rid of the cybutchers here in NYC. And with that plot, you made them all suspect.”

I closed my eyes and took a couple of deep slow breaths.

“My cyberware is immune to CRS.

That is a pretty unique selling point for it I would think. I have absolutely no need to drive any cybersurgeons away.

My projections are, or were, I made them before this whole fiasco, that it would take me a year before I was the premier cyber surgeon in New York and no longer than five before I and whoever I taught the technique would be the sole providers for cyberware in the US.

Another five years and my market would be the whole dang solar system.

And without CRS the potential target demographics will increase to somewhat around 50 to 60% of humanity.

For some tech like ARC implants, I would place it north of 80%.

Of course, if my technique would not work that would not happen, but in that case, the only thing I would have achieved with this plot would be to kill off my potential customer base while at the same time destroying my reputation.

It either works and I can rescue most, if not all of you, in which case I have no need for this convoluted mess, or it does not work and it will make my work as a cybersurgeon impossible.

And considering that I have implanted the fucking stuff into myself and openly have used cyberware, fucking neural cyberware at that, in front of people from your fucking organization I would think it is fucking obvious that I at least fucking believe that this fucking shit works!”

During that speech, I continuously raised my voice until I essentially screamed the last sentence into his face. Only the piercing pain in my hip made me realize that I stood up, and I slowly sank back down into the wheelchair, hissing in pain. Then I realized what I had said, and I felt my face heat up.

“Sorry, I… “

Mr. Walker waved me off.

“Don’t worry about it. I think most of us understand. Everybody loses their cool sometimes.

And it is reassuring that you actually can use profanities.

And Dylan, while I am sure that Kitten is smart enough to cook up such a plot, I am sure she is also way too smart to actually do it.

Also while she is smart enough, she is nowhere devious enough.”

I had calmed down somewhat when he spoke and bowed my head towards him.

“Thank you. It is… wait what?” I was completely taken off guard by what he said and could only stare at him. Then he began to laugh softly.

“That is nothing bad. In our world, we meet way too many people who are too devious. Sometimes it is for the better as you need it to navigate some of the traps and dangers we face, but all too often it is used like a broadsword where it needs to be a scalpel.

I fear it is all but impossible to trust many people here.”

Dylan shook his head.

“You sure boss? I mean, we don’t know her. She could be playing us.”

Mr. Walker took on an admonishing tone.

“Dylan, do you remember what I told you about what your greatest weakness is?”

“Yes, boss. But why are you so sure?”

“All right, I explain it to you, but someday you will have to develop your own ability to judge people. One thing you need to remember is that you need to observe more carefully before you judge.

In the case of our Kitten here, while she has the smarts for being devious and then some, and I would guess she also is clever enough, but so far I have not seen that from her, what she lacks is the dishonesty needed. To be blunt, she is too direct and honest to be this devious. It is clear that she is not very experienced with lying.

Either she is a covert operative of a caliber that makes any attempt of us to unmask her simply laughable or she is exactly what she tells us she is.

And I chose to believe that nobody would use such a valuable asset against us. We are simply too small time for that. Somebody that talented would be used against a class AAA megacorp.”

My thoughts spun completely chaotic at that. I was… bad at lying? I had thought I was pretty good. How was I bad at it? Did everybody know what I was lying about? Did they read me like a book? How could it be that I did not know that?

Mr. Walker returned his sight to me.

“Calm down Kitten. Yes, I know you lied about some things. So what, everybody does. In our business, we don’t expect much honesty so it is no big deal. My point is that you are not good enough at lying that you could conceal any basic treachery. We know you did not tell us everything but we also know that what you did not tell us is nothing we have to be concerned about.”

I took a few calming breaths, counted to ten in my head, and then nodded.

“I have to take your word for that Mr. Walker. Do you have some advice on how I can address some of my shortcomings?”

He chuckled at that.

“You too need to learn to listen my dear.

I don’t see your lack of dishonesty as a shortcoming. You are in the enviable position that you don’t need to be good at it.

On the contrary, in your case, it would actually be a disadvantage.

With few exceptions, you deal with people via the matrix in messages or directly as customers in your cyber-shop.

In the first case, you don’t need any ability to lie, as I would guess you have several filters to mask yourself, and in the second I assume that you don’t want to sell your customers something they neither want nor need.

In that case, your honesty will make it easier. Especially when it goes around that you are not especially good at lying.”

Well, that shot some of my plans right into the foot. Oh, sure, I did not intend to promise more than I could deliver, but I had actually planned to search out the local universities sometime, and I would definitely not do that either as Vivian DuClare or as Veronica Sinclair. It would also limit my possible interactions with other groups or individuals. I would have to overhaul quite a few plans.

“O…k. I understand. But to get back to the topic, I can show and explain to you the other files in the fake stack but we would be here a month or longer and I think neither of us wants to do that. So what do we do now?”

Walker nodded. “You are right Kitten. I assume that if we choose a file at random you would be able to go into some details with the results. So how many files are there?”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“Sure I can. Just point at a file.” I displayed a list of the files in the fake stack. All in all roughly 130 sound files. Walker stood up and slowly walked to the hologram looking at the files and more or less randomly pointed at one.

“Use this one.”

This time the demonstration was decidedly shorter. I did not have to go into the depth about how the analysis had marked the file as fake but only had to show the markers. All in all, it took another half hour to get it done. But Walker seemed to be satisfied.

“Ok. I assume you will give us the files and results of the analysis? Leon? Can you get the files from the trail? And then check them against the results Kitten gave us?”

Leon nodded his head. “Yeah, shouldn’t be a problem.

My reapers should crack the compound in two or three days.

After that, I only have to check if the files are the same that the analysis was done on so I should get you the results in a week, maybe two.”

A week or two? Two or three days? Frick, that was worse than I imagined.

Mr. Walker needed matrix support ASAP. Even a halfway competent Queen would get the data in the real Berardino compound in a day.

If they could get it at all that is, the security there was no joke.

In the fake compound, it would take a couple of minutes.

And the comparison, if run on a decent number-crunching distributed setup should take no longer than a day, two at the outset. Heck, the cluster could do it in less than half an hour if I tasked it with high enough priority.

As it was I had to bite onto my lips to keep myself from interjecting. It was not enough.

“I see you are not quite satisfied with that Kitten?”

I felt my face heat up again. “Uhm… yeah. These times, they are excessive. Sorry to say so, but if you hire any Queen you will get the results in two to three days.

It should take no longer than half an hour with an abysmal connection to get the files from the fake compound.

And if you run the comparison on a standard Beowulf cluster, even with only 3 or 4 nodes, you get the result in a couple of days.”

Leon was visibly not amused with what I was saying.

“Look here, missy. We are not all irresponsible jackasses that run willy nilly through the matrix without any regard for security. Something like this has to be done carefully and that means slowly.”

“I already told you that there is absolutely no security on that site. So link to it and download the files. No problem here.”

“We have only your word that there is no security.”

“Then replicate my experiment with a spam bot.

It will take not even five minutes to verify the lack of security.

If I am wrong you have lost five minutes.

If I am right you have won two to three days.

Do you realize we are at a time limit here? There are over 30 other patrons in this city that are at this moment most likely dying from CRS.

It would be a surprising stroke of luck if Mr. Walker was the most severe case so it is unlikely that we will manage to save all of them.

What do you think will happen when this whole situation comes to the attention of the organizations that were so targeted?

Do you think we will be able to prevent quarrels? If I am right, and one of them finds the tampering and follows the trail we will have a gang war. And that is a losing proposition for us all.

Our only chance to prevent this is to inform the other organizations about the truth and convince them that it was an insanely overcomplicated frame job.

For that, we need more than just my word.

We need independent confirmation. In the best case some mercenaries not associated with any of the organizations. And we need it to be somebody who can work fast. It might already be too late but we have to try anything to keep the situation stable.”

Dylan snorted.

“You don’t know much about the situation here? Do you think that this will explode in this way? We are smarter than that.”

It took me a moment to process what he was saying.

“Do you remember what you said before I explained the frame job to you?

You were practically already on the way to attack the Berardinos.

And you can bet that the majority of people will react the same way.

Remember, without the knowledge about artistic deep fakes and how to detect them it is impossible to tell that the fakes are fakes.

And even with the knowledge, without a supercomputer, it will take years to prove it.

So there may be some people who will think something is fishy, but they will probably be in the minority, and won’t have more than a gut feeling to make their case.

So yes, I think that this will explode in this way unless we can defuse the situation almost immediately.”

I looked Dylan directly into the eyes while I said that, and it was pretty obvious he did not like what he was hearing, but could not dispute it.

Walker on the other hand was much harder to read. After a few moments, he leaned forward and placed his hands on the table.

“So what would you suggest we do then Kitten? You are right, it will be hard to convince the others that it is a frame-up, so any suggestion would be welcome.”

I had to think for a moment, formulating my vague idea.

“If I were you I would hire one of the jacks from the Abyss to do the verification.

Dunedain or Aqua Paradox should be relatively affordable, reliable, fast, and trustworthy.

They are neither at the top of the heap and such exceptional expensive nor barely capable to be in the Abyss, and they are known for doing their job well and telling the truth.

I could also bring Spectre to the table, but that could backfire, and if I am honest, he is quite a bit more expensive, as is proper for the number six of the top 10.

I would then advise the other patrons to hire their own hackers to verify the information we provide, so I would only hire one of them.

I could provide a list of abyss-dwellers that I think are trustworthy but coming from me this list would probably automatically suspect, so let them search for their own.

Not all will get a cost-efficient or reliable result but enough should that the consensus will support what we told them.

Of course, you should give them the data I unearthed along with the analysis results so that they can get their own cyber specialists to run their own Beowulfs over the data while they wait for the abyss-dwellers to get them the answers.”

Walker leaned back.

“That is the second time that you mention these Beowulfs. Could you explain what you mean by that?”

He did not know what a Beowulf Cluster was? That was surprising to say it mildly. He seemed to be otherwise well informed.

“Really? Oh, well, ok. A Beowulf Cluster is a small to mid-sized network of mostly similar relative cost-effective computers that uses special programs to emulate a much more powerful single computer.

It is essentially a massively parallel computing unit that divides the tasks into small parts and distributes them to the single computers in the cluster.

It is mostly viewed as the poor man’s supercomputer as it is a comparatively cheap way to get a heap of computing power.

It is, of course not completely scalable as not all tasks can be parallelized well, but most modern supercomputers are in reality a specialized variant of the same principle, just with much more powerful high-end components and processors.

The supercomputer I used for the analysis is one of them.”

Walker looked at me for a moment before he looked at Leon with a single lifted eyebrow.

“I think she talks about the distributed servers that some dot-gov types or the bigger corporations have. At least it sounds like that.”

“Wait, you don’t use Beowulfs here normally? How…? Where… ? How do your universities, research labs, and schools do their work? How do you simulate game theory? Where do they do the computing for the city administration?”

All eyes were fixed on me with that.

It was Hunter that spoke first.

“They use dist-server for that in the Nowhere? Do they have really that much money lying around?”

“Yes, of course, they use them in the Commonwealth.

A small cluster of maybe 20 or 30 computers is cheap, the software is mostly open source and the network infrastructure is consumer-grade.

I have seen enough computers here in your HQ that I know you can afford them.

Heck, I can give you an off-the-shelf standard configuration including software, installation guide, and hardware specs ready to order that would cost somewhere around $100k.

The only thing needed is the setup and the electricity, and you have fusactors so that is cheap too. There is absolutely no reason for any decent-sized organization to not have a Beowulf ready for running.”

I had to shake my head.

“Damn, so much for my estimate of your computing resources. Multiply all the numbers I told you by 10.”

They all looked at each other before Walker addressed me again.

“I think we can talk later about that. But you should make your plans in the knowledge that nobody here has one of these clusters available.”

I nodded.

“That changes some of my suggestions.

Forget them verifying it by themselves.

No chance for that.

They need professionals from the Abyss. And you should contact either Dunedain or Aqua Paradox for that.

They are, as I mentioned in my opinion the best option for this.

The others will have to pay more for that but that is not your problem. After that, we should seriously talk about your computer systems. They are in desperate need of an upgrade I think.”

Dylan seemed not very impressed by that though.

“You think we want one of these clusters? Hell, we don’t need it.”

I managed a sad smile.

“You think you don’t need it. But the game theory alone will be invaluable for you.”

“We have better things to do than to play games.”

“Game theory has not much to do with playing.

Instead, it is essentially the mathematical and logical construct to analyze and predict human behaviors as well as an invaluable tool for decision making.

It essentially explains your gut feelings and shows where they are right, where they are wrong, and where you can do better.

I don’t know your organization enough to make a precise estimate but the average gain in efficiency from using game theory is somewhere in the 40% range.

The final gain mostly depends on how good the instincts of the decision-makers are.

But there will be a gain. Another use case for a cluster is loss prevention.

Something like with your hospital administrator can be relatively easily detected if you have a good database setup and run an appropriate algorithm over the numbers regularly.”

Walker rapped on the table.

“That is nice and will be an interesting topic for another time, but we don’t have one of these now so we can’t use it for the problem at hand.

So back to the topic at hand.

I think you are right, that we need to hire independent help to verify your findings. Not that I don’t trust you but something this convoluted needs many sources of confirmation before we can sell it to the others.

So yes, we will contact the hackers you recommended and have them check what you have given us. I think that concludes that part. Is there anything else?”

I began shutting down Precious, while I answered.

“Yes, a few other things, but nothing even approaching this magnitude.

First, one of the members of Frankel’s gang is a relatively decent tech head. He is in the process of being broken for sale, and I offer you the right of first refusal.

I think he may be useful for your organization. The other slavers are more or less just muscle. If you need cannon fodder you can have them, but otherwise, I will throw them onto the market.”

Walker took a moment to contemplate the information.

“What do you understand as being relative decent? How do you say he compares to Leon here?”

“I don’t have enough information to evaluate Mr. Reid, so take what I say with a grain of salt. I think the tech-head is comparable. Stronger in some things, weaker in others.

He seems to concentrate on hacking while Mr. Reid seems to me to be more focused on the installation and maintenance side. So he could be a nice addition.”

“Ok, I will think about it. But in all honesty, I will likely refuse. For one I don’t like to use slaves, and then as far as I know it is hard to force somebody to use his intellectual skills even with a slave collar.”

I shrugged.

“No problem, and you are right.

In such cases, you need a carrot together with the stick of the collar.

And I agree with your sentiments about slaves.

If it weren’t a bunch of slavers I would not enslave them, but they are, and I think a bit of karmic justice is exactly what is needed here.

Now, the next point is that one of the fixers you send me to decided that I was ripe for a bit of theft. He stole around $8 million from me, and when I confronted him he outright told me that my only backing here in New York would die in 2 weeks latest.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want you to intervene on my behalf, but I think you need to know that your situation is known.

If Mr. Vasilienkov knows it, who knows who else is aware.”

“Hm, ok, that is valuable info. I will look into it, but it was only a matter of time before it got out. More interesting is, why don’t you want me to get your money back?”

“Oh, I already took care of it.

He had actually quite good data security, he paid ArgoNaughty to set it up. I must confess I had a bit of luck that it was Argo.

He is a nice enough guy and a pretty good computer user, but he is at best marginal at creating the software himself. He instead used a framework that I sold him as basic for the security suite. Otherwise, it would have taken me a day or two to get through it.”

“So you had a back door? You know, I am a little bit disappointed. That is not how I had estimated you.”

“No, I had no back door.

I sell the same framework to many people, and quite a few are pretty adept at ferreting out such things.

And I just don’t like them.

If I give my word I try to keep it and if I sell something I provide it as complete as I can. It is a thing of honor for me. No, the backdoor was Argo’s. I just had the advantage that I knew the specifics of the security and where the backdoor had to be.”

“I understand. So you took your money back? Anything else?”

“Everything else.

The backdoor I found provided me with all of Mr. Vasilienkov’s accounts and I decided to establish an example here.

He is broke and I took all his data.

So far I have no idea what I have, it will take a couple of days to decrypt it all, but I have it all. Then I deleted it and sabotaged his backup system. He will not get his data back any time soon.”

He tapped onto his cheek with his right index finger for a while.

“Ok, I can’t really fault you there. Somebody like Maximilian should know better than to rip off a customer and I can understand that you had to demonstrate you are no rollover but try to be more diplomatic in the future, please. How much did you get from him?”

“A bit over 60 million. A nice windfall but I don’t expect something similar in the near future.”

Leon seemed disgusted by the discussion while Hunter looked quite interested. When I mentioned the sum I appropriated Dylan’s chin fell down, and he burst out:

“Shit. 60 million? How is that so… “

Walker chuckled softly.

“Think Dylan.

Booth Max and Kitten play in a different league than you are used to. Max is, was one of the more successful fixers here in New York, and Kitten told us she is a broker and the tech for Spectre.

And while she only gets a percentage of what Spectre makes, he routinely gets triple-digit millions for his work.

A hacker that is accepted in the Abyss can earn 10 million in a single day easily.

Kitten's foray into cyber surgery is more a hobby for her than a real way to make money. Even if she gets 100% of the market in the US it will be dwarfed by what she can make doing matrix dives. And if other abyss-dwellers use her software then she gets a nice amount from them too. I would not be surprised if she was worth north of a billion.”

Wow, he was good. O sure, he was off by a considerable margin but that had more to do with the secrets he had not yet deducted and less with his estimates.

“But back to the topic, do you think there will be any fallout from that dive?”

“No, I don’t think so. He lost his blackmail material, he lost his data and he lost his money. I guess he will lose the majority of his contacts soon, and he will lose his reputation so all in all, I think he is neutralized as a threat.”

“You don’t think any of his friends will come after you?”

“Good point, but no, I don’t think that. The kind of friends that would be a problem are also the kind of friends you buy, and he lost his money. He would need either mercenaries or infiltrators. Any other fixers could, at worst blacklist me, but there are enough of them that I can get by.”

“Yes, you are right I think. I think also that I want a direct talk with Maximilian. We will see what he will have to say. Well, anything else?”

“No, that was all from my side.”

“Good then. It was informative. I am sure we will see each other shortly.”