Awakening: Part One Of the HIVE series

Chapter 1:

A single tone played through Hal Harvey’s headphones, easing him awake from his dreamless sleep. His eyes slowly opened to see that he had a short message displayed in the center of all his monitors, indicating that his computer had completed streaming. Most nights he was up this late streaming data illegally. Ever since Hal hacked into his first computer when he was 13, he had been pirating signals and breaking barriers, since his first Net-Run then he had assumed four separate identities, stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars, and had acquired several governmental secrets. Still groggy from sleep, Hal turned to look at the familiar surroundings of his personal command center.

The command center was Hal’s apartment, but unlike most apartments with standard furniture and appliances, Harvey’s place was lined with computers and scrap parts, instead of food in the kitchen; there was a server in the cabinets and cords lining all the floors. Instead of tables and chairs, large iron racks with spare parts littered the place from ceiling to floor. The only semi clean area was the terminal, which had six small monitors on a desk with a master keyboard, and then a Head monitor, which took up the entire wall on a projector screen.

A small notification alarm sounded on the screen with a small highlight on one of his secondary monitors. He quickly sent the data to his main monitor. With a quick change of pixel’s Hal came to an email with a link inserted into the body, meaning that a contract had been placed. Hal clicked on the contract link only to have a secure video line connect to an outside source. Though opposed to it, he had little to no choice in coming face to face with a more elderly Asian gentleman.

“Greetings Mr. Harvey, I am known as Cipher head of the hackers syndicate known as Nexus… Word on the street is that you’re one of the brightest upcoming NetRunners in all of Netropolis, therefore I have an offer for you.” The man clicked something on his side of the screen; resulting in a full screen photo of a tall dark man in a business suit. “This is Dexter Masters. Head of Psi-Link Corporation.” Cipher said, the photo switched to an image of Psi-Link’s main compound, the tower, which spanned past most buildings in the city by at least 30 stories. “Psi-Link is currently under contract by the military to design a  Artificial Intelligence capable of tapping into the mainframes of other countries. If this program becomes operational the world could be in danger, an artificial intelligence with intercontinental hacking capabilities could take control of all the computer system of the entire world. Potentially causing a global shutdown of technology.” Various photos of the facility flashed on the screen one after another like a slideshow.

            After a few observation photos of Psi Link’s tower from the outside the pictures stopped on a floor plan. “If the syndicate is so good, why haven’t they tried to stop the project?” Hal said in a sarcastic voice as he took a drag off a lit camel, and a sip out of his day old coffee. He made a disgusted look and threw the cup into the garbage.

            “Because Mr. Harvey, if you do this I can guarantee that the people at Nexus will take an interest in you.” Cipher’s offer resonated over the speakers as he gave Hal a keen look. Hal leaned closer to the screen his interest obviously peaked. His cigarette brightened again as he dragged deeply, a smirk happened across his face.

            “I do this job, then what?” Hal said, throwing another empty coffee cup into the trash next to him.

            “We find you, and then you know the next step. Cipher out.” The screen went black with large bolded green letters that read, end of transmission. Hal leaned back; a look of satisfaction dragged itself across his face. He pushed his scraggly brown hair back, out of his face, and took a final drag on his cigarette. Nexus could unlock every byte of information to him. Hal’s thirst for knowledge caused his heart to quicken its pace. He opened his closet and quickly packed his mobile gear, then dressed himself in his tight black cargo pants and peacoat. He stole a quick glance at his reflection in his mirror, where he saw himself spiky brown hair short and thin body, geared up for the biggest Netrun of his career. Not only was he going to hack into Psi-Link, he was going to do it in as soon as he possibly could, Nexus would have to take him once he has extracted the data he figured as he lit another cigarette and walked out into the night.