“Hi guys,” Zoe greeted her coworkers after walking into the pizzeria. She was surprised to see TK and Terr there.

“Hi newbie,” Vee said.

“Rookie,” Terr greeted with a nod of his head. He eyed her running outfit. “Changed clothes?”

“Zoe, you must have been hit hard. Your face is still red,” Newt said instead of greeting her.

“Who did that?” TK growled. Zoe’s eyes widened in alarm.

“TK gets protective,” Vee explained while gesturing to an empty chair at their table.

“And that is nothing compared to Cee,” Terr added. “She’ll want to fight whoever did it.”

Zoe sat and recapped her first run in with a gang other than the mob including her run. “It was much colder riding here in my running gear than my riding stuff.”

The others laughed as a waitress came over and gave them old fashioned lamented menus to look over. She asked, “You guys want iced tea as usual?”

“Yes,” TK answered to nods from the others. Zoe nodded as well since Newt offered to pay. Besides, she liked sweet tea. “I’ll be right back then.”

“This place is quite…traditional,” Newt told Zoe as the waitress walked to the kitchen.

“So, the mob owns and runs this place,” Zoe quipped. Her grin slipped as she noticed the others weren’t smiling. “It is?”

“Yep,” Terr answered. “The pizza, subs, and service are to die for though.”

“The triad really emptied your accounts?” TK asked returning the subject to Zoe’s experience.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Zoe answered. “Wang Chi, the only man with the gang, said he was a triad member and that my defenses weren’t bad, but not good enough.”

Newt described the man and Vee sent Zoe a picture of a man that matched the description. Zoe confirmed that was the same Wang Chi that robbed her.

“He’s basically lower management and controls a few of the free roaming gangs the triad allow in their territory,” Vee said. “Cee will back down from the revenge planning after she hears the whole story. Even she isn’t foolish enough to challenge the triad.”

“You’ll want to avoid him and the gang,” Newt said. Seeing Zoe’s questioning look, she continued,” The triad are one of the big four criminal organizations in the city. Couriers get some protection since so many depend on us to transfer data including the gangs, but only the big four will challenge each other.”

“Another option is to always be packing and unafraid to use it,” TK growled. “If a triad, yakuza, or one of the others get shot while harassing a courier, they won’t pursue it and chalk it up to stupidity.”

“Improving your armor and ICE will help too,” Terr said.

“I have the best ICE CyberBionic offered,” Zoe protested. “It’s corporate level too.”

The others laughed.

“Zoe, there is corporate ICE and then there is what they claim is corporate ICE,” Newt said. Zoe sent them a list of her ICE and daemons. “Oh.”

“Wow! You do have corporate ICE,” Vee exclaimed.

“Shhh! Not so loud Vee,” Terr chided his friend. “You know us mere mortals aren’t supposed to have corporate level software.”

“We’re not?” Zoe asked as the waitress brought five glasses of tea and a pitcher. “Thank you.”

“Ready to order?” the waitress asked after the others thanked her as well.

“TK and I will take our usual two large meat lover’s pizzas,” Terr said. Seeing Zoe’s shocked expression, the orc said,” We have an extremely high metabolism due to our modifications.”

“Ah.”

“Zoe, Newt and I were planning on getting a medium pepperoni,” Vee said. “Order what you want.”

“We could change that to a large if you want to share with us,” Newt offered.

“Thanks. That works for me,” Zoe said. The waitress took the orders and left. “So, normal folks aren’t allowed to have the corporate stuff?”

“It’s not illegal since the corporations usually shutdown access to that kind of software and reclaim their implants,” TK said. “Though it is frowned upon to have it.”

“But Doc Brown acted like it was completely fine and normal for me to have it,” Zoe said.

“Well, no wonder you have it. Doc Brown is fine with letting others that she feels she can trust, or use have access to the corporate stuff,” Newt replied to nods from the others.

“Claire did mention me doing a few runs for her when she needed a courier,” Zoe said.

“Sounds about right. She did the same for me when I got my modifications,” TK said. “She didn’t offer the corporate software though. If you can get me a copy of your ICE, I would pay for it.”

“Me too,” the others chorused.

“I’ll see if I can get past the copy protections tonight,” Zoe said.

“You’re a slicer too?” Terr asked.

“Cee did mention you had gotten into the camera network,” Vee added.

“Uh…yes,” Zoe answered hesitantly. “Why?”

“Any chance you could code an app to monitor or permanently slice into the police comm network?” Terr asked. “Every courier would happily pay for that.”

“Nobody has done it before?” Zoe asked. “I know there used to be police scanners that were legal.”

“That was years ago before the corporations completely took over,” Newt replied.

“And yes, others have tried to create a police scanner program or app,” TK said. “It’s never worked out too well though.”

“Why is that?” Zoe asked and took a sip of her tea. “Ugh! That’s unsweetened and nasty.”

“It’s iced tea, not sweet tea,” Vee laughed. “The waitress will gladly bring you some sweetener packets if you want them.”

“No. I’d rather just drink water or something else,” Zoe replied to more laughter.

“The police and corporations are usually quick to patch any holes in their networks and go hard after whoever slices into them,” TK explained.

“Figures,” Zoe muttered. “Still, Traffic Cop uses a permanent backdoor into the camera network.”

“That’s the camera network and it was done by one of the city coders,” Newt retorted. “It’s not like he’ll patch over his backdoor.”

“Perhaps I can use his backdoor to get into the police comms,’ Zoe mused. “They’re both on the same city network.”

“You’ll make a lot of credits if you can,” Terr said. “Every courier in the city will want that software.”

“And all the gangs,” Vee added. “Don’t sell to them.”

“Enough talk about slicing. Here comes the pizza,” TK said

“How do you know?” Zoe asked.

“My nose knows,” TK replied tapping his nose as the waitress emerged from the kitchen doors carrying two trays. Another waitress was bringing a third tray and a stack of plates. The rest of them laughed.