I swam through a sea of data. On a busy mainline, user icons stream by like cars on a highway, neon streaks moving at the highest speeds man could imagine.

I was shrouded in an extremely expensive camouflage utility. I was told that nothing short of an AI could detect the utility and find me, but I don’t trust easily.

Careful, Louise, I thought.

The data grid of One Shell Square loomed like an ultramodern monolith before me, a blue and orange tower stretching endlessly into the sky. One Shell Square housed several corporation interests within its confines, and if they didn’t have the data I needed, maybe I could find the paths to it.

Wish me luck, I thought, and dove in. I skipped past the black ICE , moving downward, towards the base. Low priority systems, the way in. I’d work up through the cracks.

I found my path. Custodial. Added one of my persona’s to system maintenance and routed payroll through seven different banks, each of which led closer to a grave in Wisconsin.

Let them figure that out.