While Walker and Dylan left the room I unplugged Precious's power supply and prepared her for transport. Leon seemed still pretty unhappy with my presence, but I could understand that in a way.

Unfortunately, he was way too far behind on the technology curve. His workmanship may be solid, but he obviously was subpar in his competence.

I desperately needed to investigate the security here in-depth, followed by a survey about the used computers. I did not exactly think that he had slacked off, but for some reason, New York was not a decade behind Seattle, but instead more like half a century.

Add in his blind spot about the mindscape and he was, in my opinion, a security risk. And unfortunately, I did not see him accepting my help in getting up to date.

Hunter was apparently better prepared for the next step, but his interaction here was limited, so I had nothing to base an opinion on. Speaking of Hunter, he came over to me.

“Hey, maybe we can now talk about your Seraphim. Do you think you could help me get one? And what exactly is the difference between an Mk III and an Mk IV?”

I sighed and looked at him.

“All right, at the moment I can’t help you get one. Unless you have the option to build the hardware yourself and only need the schematics you are simply out of luck as Seraphim is working on the next generation and does not build them at the moment.

I can help you buy the schematics, but that is all. And only the Mk IV schematics at that.

Now the difference between the Mk III and the Mk IV is that the Mk IV is much more modular.

It is intended for people who know what they are doing and want to tune the board to their own idiosyncrasies.

For that, the Mk IV is, in its bare form, much reduced.

Instead of 32 specialized, and more capable, QDR 16 memory slots, 16 superfast 256 TB/s HNVMH 12, and eight 256 lane UEB 7.3-connections it has eight memory slots, two HNVMHs, and 32 UEB.

Of course, you can use the UEB to install HNVMH-controllers, or memory slots, but you will lose performance compared to the dedicated connections.

Instead of two EB/s for the memory, you only get 512 TB, and instead of 256 TB/s for the mass storage, you get 128.

On the other hand, you have more options for expansions like graphic cards, LAN controllers, coprocessors, signal processors, and whatever.

That was the result of what Seraphim learned with the Mk I.

She sold a couple of them, but the feedback was mostly that the configuration was not what people wanted and they wanted x or y or z, so she reduced the dedicated connections and replaced them with modular ones.

You can get an Mk IV similar configured as the Mk III but you lose about 3% in performance compared to the Mk III.

The Mk III is essentially the model tailored to Spectre and his way to do things. I use an Mk III because I was trained and work mostly the same way.”

He looked at Precious with awe in his eyes. “Hm, ok, then can you help me get the schematics?”

“Why do you want them?” “Is that not clear? I want to use it.”

Ouch. I hated to have to pierce his enthusiasm but I had to do it.

“Sorry to say so, but a Seraphim Mk IV would be wasted money for you.”

I could see his temper rising at that.

“Hey, I can work with computers.”

“That is not the reason why it would be wasted.

To really use a Seraphim board you need a jack.

Without one, you get maybe two or three % of the potential performance. And you don’t want to get a jack at this moment. I can’t implant you one, as I lack the equipment at the moment, and it will be four to six months before I am ready, and I would strongly advise against using another cyber surgeon.

The chance of getting CRS with multiconnective neural implants hovers somewhere around 5% if you find an especially talented surgeon.

With an average surgeon, you get 30% and if you go to a quack it can rise up to 50 or 60%.

And neural CRS is in one word bad.

Muscular CRS is bad enough. It attacks and rejects the myosynth that the cyber muscles are made of, and in the end destroys them. That is certainly uncomfortable but unless the cybermuscles in question are the heart, stomach, or other vital ones it is actually quite survivable.

Mr. Walker has problems because it is his heart that is attacked.

But neural CRS is worse.

At the low end, you have the control systems for the cybermuscles, and that can lead to cramps, phantom pain, or loss of control.

But it becomes worse the more directly your nervous system interacts with the implant.

In the case of a jack that interaction is nearly at the top end.

The jack enables complete virtual reality with all senses simulated, including pain and pleasure.

Now imagine these connections misfiring. Hallucinations, crippling pain, pleasure without context, and from nowhere, you will essentially go mad.

And the really bad part is that neuronect; the material that connects the synapses with the implant is similar enough to your neural matter that eventually the CRS will attack your biological nerves.

It will literally destroy your nervous system. Slowly and inevitably, once it starts.

From what I have been told the pain is indescribable.

Most people with stage five neural CRS will commit suicide after a day or two. Those who don’t, who can’t, they are the ones you should pity. It will take them roughly a month to die.

A month in which every single second, regardless of whether awake or not, is spent in enough pain to drive a grown man insane.

So believe me, you don’t want to get a jack now when the option to get one without the risk of CRS is only half a year away.”

I took a deep breath.

“The other reason a Seraphim board would be wasted on you is that without a jack you don’t actually know yet how you will do. What your needs are, and what modules you need.

The reason why the jacks wanted a more modular variant of the Seraphim is that a board tailored to their specific needs gives an immense performance boost.

But without knowing these needs your board would be, at best, unbalanced.

I would strongly suggest that after you get the jack you get a standard beginner board and learn what you need with it.

Sure, it will limit you to 20:1 compression but it will cost you only 10-20k while a Seraphim goes for over a million. And that is a large chunk of money to waste on the wrong configuration.”

Still, he was not yet mollified.

“And I tell you, I can work with computers, I already have a diadem. And I want to do more than just build and maintain systems. I can do so much more.”

“Do you know what jacks call people who buy a top board as soon as they have a jack?”

“Uh, no?”

“Idiots.”

“What? Why? Don’t they want competition and badmouth us others?”

“There is an old saying that there are old pilots, and there are bold pilots, but there are no old bold pilots.

The meaning is that a bold pilot will almost invariably kill himself. A newly implanted jack now buys himself a top-of-the-line board is the equivalent of the bold pilot.

It takes time, willingness, and care to learn how to do a dive.

The more powerful your board is the less forgiving it is.

Sure, it also has more reserves but unless you are an idiot you don’t need these reserves.

An idiot sees his new elite board, has his newly healed jack and gets the idea that he is now unstoppable in the matrix.

The live expectancy of these people is measured in days and single-digit days at that.

It is as I told you, a blindly bought better board is usually badly balanced for the person while giving the jack a false sense of security.

Add in that they rarely have real experience in the matrix and the usual thing they try is to digitally rob a bank, if they are a bit smarter, and just go on a rampage if they are not.

The latter ends when they encounter a more sophisticated security system with black ice that fries their brain, the former is simply an exceedingly bad idea.

Do you know how many successful digital bank robberies there were since the great war?”

“No? That was what? 150 years ago? So I would guess between 500 and a thousand globally?”

“That depends on how you count, but generally the answer is considered to be one.

This one was a haul of epic proportions and it is mind-boggling what amount of money the perpetrator got when he or she robbed more than 1000 accounts at 33 banks at the same time.

But the point is, that was the only time somebody pulled that off, and we still have absolutely no idea who it was or how they did it.

We can only infer that it was done because one morning the money was missing. That was the phantom.

Attempted robberies on the other hand happen ten to 20 times a year. Except for the phantom, not one survived. If they are lucky they run into black ice and fry their brain. Extremely painful but it is over fast.

The other option is that the bank sends out a hunter-killer team. And these teams have the order to make it painful and slow. They usually interpret that as using pain sticks to kill the hacker by pain overload, after a few days of entertainment.

But the gist of what I am trying to say is that you can’t win using a Seraphim board from the get-go and can only lose. If you really want to become a jack you should use your diadem and get a basic board suited for work as a queen, I would suggest a Crystaltech Dream 5.

Sure, it is sold as a gaming rig, but it is more powerful than nearly all so-called dedicated cybersecurity systems and I can send you the software and manuals to convert it. Or you can use a Kawamoto Intruder Titan but you pay three times as much as for the Dream, get at best 10% more power, and land on an observation list unless you go through a fixer and pay even more.

With the Dream, you can experiment with matrix activities and do a couple of easy training dives to find out how you want to work. I can send you a list of easy targets, just don’t do any damage, these targets are protected by the better jacks just to give beginners something to train on.

I will help you compile a library of utilities and you can gain experience slowly. And before you get a different idea, I know of no one active who did not start with a basic off-the-shelf board. That includes me. That includes Seraphim.

That includes even Spectre or the other of the top 10, with the possible exception of the phantom. Nobody knows how the phantom started so I can’t comment here. ”

I saw that his jaw muscles tensed and he took on a stubborn expression.

“You will see, I will find a way. You can’t hold me down.” With that, he abruptly turned around and walked out of the door, only for Leon to come to me.

“What did you want with my son?” I could only tiredly shake my head.

“I wanted nothing with him. He wanted to know how he could get a Seraphim board.”

“Don’t you give Hunter any strange ideas. We already have planned out how he will take over from me in a few years, so keep away from him.”

“Believe me, I did not give him any ideas. On the contrary, I tried to talk him out of some ideas he already had. And in all honesty, if he inherited your stubbornness then he will manage to kill himself in a few months.”

That shook him up.

“What do you mean with that?”

I sighed before I answered.

“He is apparently dead set on becoming a Jack.

And he wanted to buy a Seraphim Mk IV for his first board.

Frankly, both are bad ideas. If I understood it right the majority of experienced cyber surgeons in the city are no longer available. It is more than likely that, if he insists to get a jack now he will go to a quack with a more than even chance that he contracts CRS.

I would implant him but I have to get my business up and running first, and I don’t have the impression that he intends to wait six months as I advised him to do.

The choice of a Seraphim for his first board is not necessarily deadly, but it is comparable to giving a driving student the keys to a super sports car after his first time behind the wheel and telling him to have fun in traffic. I know of not a single person who started with something like a Seraphim board and survived for longer than a month.”

I looked him directly in the eyes.

“And it seems that one of the reasons he appears so insistent is that you belittle what he wants to do. I honestly have no idea how you can save the situation, and I am by far the wrong person to ask about father-son relationships, but I advise you urgently to seek help from somebody knowledgeable about these things, or you will most likely bury your son in a couple of months.

While I personally would think that a shame but would not be impacted much, I estimate that it would have much graver consequences for you. I would help you but after our talk just now I don’t expect that he will be particularly eager to deepen the acquaintance between us. If you manage to defuse the situation somehow you can tell him that my offer is still open.”

With that I gripped Precious.

“I assume we will see each other in the future so see you then.”