Gambit's. The place brought back a flood of memories for Shitbird as he stared through their CCTV feeds. He wasn't even anywhere near the building, but he could smell it. The scent of every drop of grease, blood, and cheap Furisian Ale filled his lungs. It was probably one of the only places on Terra that truly never changed, which suited the hacker just fine.
Since they never changed their security, either.
He'd slipped his way into their systems nearly a decade ago, and slipped through all the cracks since. It gave him a perfect front row for all the carnage, mayhem, closings, and shady deals. What he enjoyed most was the people though, especially the staff. It was rare they hired anybody on these days, considering how slow business had got compared to the past, so when an attractive young woman showed up as a server Gary's curiosity was piqued.
Much to his chagrin that curiosity paid off in spades, too. The lass was something alright.
A few dozen holoscreens hovered around in his room, providing it with a soft orange glow. Each one had a different article, database, picture, or live-feed, and all of them revolved around this new server, "Athens", as she called herself. Now Gary was never a stalker, and he wasn't interested in this woman sexually, or to meet her, or any of that. She was just a new curiosity in Gambit's, and when he did a little digging she became downright interesting.
Even in Wing City few people use code names, you know? So he'd decided to make a bit of a game of it.
Today was the day it started in earnest, though. Shitbird had finally amassed enough information on his subject, one "Catherine [REDACTED]". It's not that he couldn't get the information on her full name, it's that the Garden was insanely far away, and the lag was unbearable. He settled for what he had, besides it'd be far more interesting to try, and get it from the woman herself. He watched through the Gambit's feed until somebody placed an order.
Much to his delight, she made her way to the joint's register. A modified Dataslate.
Instead of the usual menus, options, and Gambit's UI, it was just a black screen for a split second, before it flickered, slowly shifting to what looked like a webpage.
The URL was blank, the page was black, bordered in orange, and the text was of a similar color.
I bet this is pretty trippy, huh Catherine? Or should I say "Agent Athens".Below the line of text was a photo, a snapshot of Athens blasting away at some punks with the rest of Prima Donna in the Abandoned Slums.
Let me get right to the point. You see, this is what I don't get. You want to remain anonymous at large, right? You, and "Dusk", and all the others in Prima Donna. Hence the code names, and the helmets, and pretending you're Terrans instead of Gardenites, right?. But then you go, and get into a huge shootout in the middle of nowhere?A video was embedded, more captured footage of the firefight playing, muted.
It just doesn't add up to me, it's so noisy, so visible...But you know what? I can't complain too much..The Shanty Shake was now displayed.
It did lemme get the info on your pad..Oh, wait..The picture morphed, now showing the new abandoned hovel Prima Donna held up in.
You moved, that's right. So here's the thing. We're gunna play a game, you and me. You're going to tell me everything about yourself, and your little organization, ooorrrrrr..Black and white footage of the Prima Donna safehouse played, with a large red *LIVE symbol in the corner. It showed eight people in hoodies, sneaking up on it very quietly. One turned the to the CCTV camera that was apparently capturing it all, and held up a small bundle. It was a brick of C4.
All your little buddies become thick, soupy, red paste!
"CLICK ON THE PIGEON TO CONTINUE!"