Kapitel 191: Freak Show

"How are things proceeding?" Joanne Koch from the large monitor Zeta sat before.

"They're 'proceeding'." he drawls, "Our contacts with those Nomads suggest a sixty percent fatality rate, and half of those survivors have some degenerative brain disorder afterwards."

"Any noticeable side-effects or obstacles?"

"There is a noticeable difference between people who have boosted antibodies or nanomachinery. On the other hand, people who have to take immunosuppressants are some of the most affected." he explains, going over reports a third time.

She nods, "Good, try and have the weapon target immuno-compromised individuals, killing unaugmented people isn't our goal here. We certainly can't risk that kind of thing spreading in the city proper."

"I'll get the egg-heads working on it."

"How is our other 'project'?" she inquires.

He shrugs, "Gonna have to be more specific there."

"The one we can't talk about like this." she states.

"Ah, that... I can see why you'd not wanna speak about it, even someone like you wants to vomit at the thought." he grimaces, "I'd have never accepted the job if you'd told me that's what I'd be protecting."

She frowns and shakes her head, "I don't care what you think, I want to know if there are any problems that need attending."

Zeta scoffs, "Whatever, your 'freak show' is going 'better than expected' or so the white jackets downstairs say. You need to ask them if you wanna know more, I ain't touching that shit with a missile, even if I'd REALLY like to."

*Bzztch!*

The lights of the room suddenly flicker before turning to normal, causing Zeta to pause, "Hmph, looks like I've got something to take care of. Toodles, boss-lady." he grins, turning off the monitor before giving the finger to the black screen, "Dumb cunt. Once I get my paycheck I'm out."

---------------

Elsewhere :

Sasha quietly lifts the vent away from the ground and climb out, barely avoiding the armed guard who walked past. She'd found herself in some kind of server room and was already shivering with how cold it was, her tight Netrunner suit not providing really any insulation.

She hacks the cameras in nearby hallways and rooms before sneaking over to a corner where she'd located one of the ports into the mainframe. Of course, there was a lot of security preventing just anyone from accessing it, but after some minutes with some specialised software, she gets in...

Unfortunately, she hadn't accessed the full system, merely the memory banks, disconnected from their actual security systems. Even so, this was what they'd come for, evidence that would incriminate Biotechnica.

It takes only a couple seconds of highspeed searching to realise how wrong she'd been in her initial assessment. This wasn't simply a kidnapping and illegal experimentation situation, no... Biotechnica was committing atrocities against humanity, any lesser person would have freaked out and ran at what she'd seen.

Yes, this place did kidnap people, but they weren't the test subjects. The men were harvested before getting incinerated, and the women? Forcefully inseminated, so that the scientists here could attempt to genetically modify the unborn fetuses. They'd even kidnapped smaller children and experimented on them, most died horrific deaths of course, deaths that one could only experience through untested genetic manipulation.

Forget what they'd done to her mother, the things here in this facility were an abomination. Almost every subject died painful deaths as cancer overtook their bodies, genetic abnormalities tearing them apart, even killing the mothers who'd been forced to carry these poor children.

Firming herself, she quickly begins the process of downloading the most important files, documentation of the experiments, etc. Even with all the measures Biotechnica took to scrub their names from everything, you couldn't remove the fact that they built the facility, all of the equipment, and almost everyone working here had some ties with the Corporation.

As far as any court or public opinion was concerned, they were fucked.

*BEEEP!*

Sasha blinks as an alarm goes off as soon as she downloads the first packet, red lights replacing the depressing white fluorescent ones. The doors to the room all lock themselves, and the cameras all get their systems flooded with diagnostic programs.

[They're onto me, but I haven't got the security down yet! I'm setting up scrambler!] - Sasha

[We're comiRP$"%%@-] Ori's message gets corrupted by both her scrambler and the one automatically set up by the facility after the breach.

She could hear guards approaching now, but she continued to download files, even while the facility's own Netrunners and ICE tried to prevent it, it did slow her, but she already had enough to tear the company a new one. But she needed more.

*ThudThudThud!*

A security guard slams his fist into the glass of the locked door, glaring under his visor at Sasha in the corner. "STOP NOW OR WE'LL HAVE TO USE LETHAL MEANS!" he shouts, trying to scan his card to unlock the door.

She flashes him a smile and short-circuits the door, "Sorry! I seem to have gotten lost! Is this Wholefoods or not?"

"Damn you! Come out or I'll start shooting, I swear to god!" he angrily roars, backing up with his assault rifle raised.

"Please! I'm just lost! Can you tell me which direction-"

*Bangbangbangbangbang!"

Well, jigs up. Sasha retrieves her port and sprints to the vent, sliding inside as bullets strike breaking through the security door. The guard slams his shoulder through and tries to tag her, but she slips away before any bullets could hit.

"Fuck! Control, she got away through the vents!"

...

"No!? Even if I was naked and covered in grease I'd never fit!"

...

"I don't give a shit if you dock my pay, I'm not going fucking caving! Someone else sort that shit!"

---------------

Outside, Ori and Rebecca had already jumped into action after receiving Sasha's message. They'd run through the tunnel, uncaring of the cameras, but once they reached the heavily fortified entrance of the facility, they were unsure of what exactly to do...

"You got new arms, put them to use!" Rebecca urges.

"That won't work." he sighs, despite approaching to try it anyway.