I1: Mind the Gap

[John Hino]

Late on the 20th, when he hoped there would be fewer people around, John rode the escalator down into St. Paul's tube station. He wore big trench coat, more to hide his investigative gadgets than his appearance, and toted a golf bag concealing Onihasaiki. At least, he hoped the mystic weapon would react if it was near something evil.

[Narrator]

St. Paul's station is filled with tourists, even in the evening. It's a only one stop away from one of the major stations in the heart of the city, close to a tourist attraction as well as the Stock Exchange, which results in a strange mixture of crowds. John's presence causes heads to turn around him, but people are also quick to make room for him, be it out of politeness or fear and the crowd is thick enough for him to not raise much suspicion past his immediate vicinity. Here and there an obvious mutant is in the crowd but not as many as one might spot one stop over on the tube line that runs south into Lambeth. John's weapon doesn't seem to react to anything, apparently content to just effectively be an inert chunk of stone for the time being.

Going down towards the actual tracks John can notice the occasional door that looks like it leads to the areas not meant for the public. Maintenance corridors and the likes. Things look mostly untouched until he gets to the actual platform, which appears to be new and in relatively pristine condition. The tracks themselves appear to be new as well as the wall dividing the tracks going the other way. This general area must have been part of what had been repaired. The tracks mostly run along an east/west line, somewhat parallel to the Thames.

[John Hino]

John stood near the edge of the east/west line and activated a pair of small, insectile camera robots which crawled down his leg and over the lip, heading off in opposite directions. He then repeated this at the Lambeth line.

[Narrator]

John gets a couple of weird looks as he steps up to the edge, one of which apparently noticed what he was doing.

"Hey, what are you doing? What are those?"

Meanwhile the images from the robots show mostly empty train tracks in a dark tunnel. Here and there are emergency lights and doors presumably leading to emergency exits and maintenance tunnels. The doors seem to pop up roughly every 100 yards or so, with the exception of the tracks leading west, which seems to have an additional door placed in between two of the normal emergency exits.

[John Hino]

"Hmm?" he responded, looking down. "Gah!" he jumped, making a show of brushing off bugs. "Damn vermin," he cringed.

[Narrator]

"Ah bloody hell! Are those the things I read about? Said in The Sun that there's alien cockroaches around!" he says, taking a step back from John just in case.

[John Hino]

"Seriously?! Eww! Eww!" he said before hurrying for the restrooms, pretending to frantically search his clothes for more pests.

[Narrator]

The man looks worried and a woman nearby looks suspiciously at John as he hurries off, but it seems they're not following him. "Freaking muties, don't even notice bugs crawling on 'em." one of the bystander mutters, getting some nods and murmured agreements.

[John Hino]

John ducked into a stall to review his footage.

"Bingo," he whispered to himself as he saw the extra door. He waited a while before returning to the westbound platform. There, he waited for an opportunity to enter the tunnel unnoticed.

[Narrator]

It takes a while for there to be an interval between trains for there to be few enough people, but eventually John manages to sneak into the tunnel. The door, unlike all the maintenance and emergency escape ones appears to have a more sophisticated lock on it. Namely a number pad along with a card reader. It looks vaguely out of place in a subway tunnel.

[John Hino]

He took out a small device and connected it to the keypad. He felt a little guilty as code flashed by on the device's screen as it attempted to bypass the lock.

[Narrator]

It takes a surprising amount of time but eventually the lock relents. With a faint electronic screech and a small line of smoke rising from the keypad the magnetic seals unlock and the door opens up. Inside is a narrow tunnel that leads about 100 feet and then ends in a small room that seems to hold nothing but a small terminal that is set into the far wall. At a glance it appears to be in the same style as the lock had been, which is to say it looks slightly futuristic and out of place.

[John Hino]

John decided to check for cameras before proceeding into the room.

[Narrator]

No cameras here at least. There had been a lot of security cameras throughout the tube station though. This is London, after all.

[John Hino]

He moved in to examine the terminal, feeling every bit like a Shadowrunner.

[Narrator]

The terminal appears to be running as indicated by a series of blinking lights but is not currently displaying anything.

[John Hino]

He attempted to figure out how to turn the screen on.

[Narrator]

Tapping a key on the terminal's keyboard proved to be enough and the display flickers to life.

Code: Select all

All Systems running in Secondary Mode
Primary Program executed

Secondary Program running
Uplink stable
Data-Rate 21GB/s
Financial Monitoring Module active
Reallocation 73% complete

Tertiary Program unavailable
SEA Module not connected

[John Hino]

"Financial monitoring? So you're the culprit eh?"

What OS is this? Hmm... Well it's worth a shot.

Code: Select all

>>HELP

[Narrator]

Code: Select all

1) Primary Module
2) Secondary Module
3) Tertiary Module
4) Real-Time Monitor
5) Activity Log
6) Developer Console - DISABLED

[John Hino]

Code: Select all

>>1

[Narrator]

Code: Select all

1) Data Accretion Module
2) Financial Analysis
3) Trade Module

Each of the sub menus would take John to a complicated program that gathers financial data and analyses it. The system appears to have direct access to any and all data going into, out of and through the London Stock Exchange, which would suggest that it is wired directly into the closed circuit of the exchange. The analysis and trade programs run the gathered data through a bunch of complicated calculations and then execute a series of trades, masked as other clients' automatic trades and aiming to create balanced transactions in order not to create discrepancies. They're all designed to whittle down Hino Industries stock.

[John Hino]

John went back and went through the other menus.

[Narrator]

The Real-Time Monitor is just that, a real-time display of the financial data currently being gathered and analyzed and the logs show everything that had been monitored since the device went online. Ever since the completion of the first program the actual volume of executed trades seems to have gone down. The secondary program, which shows at 73% done, is still running and appears to be doing the occasional trade, appearing more focused on the Asian markets. The tertiary program is little more than a program waiting to initiate a signal towards activating a different system entirely it seems. That system doesn't seem to be currently connected.

[John Hino]

John looked for a port he could use to copy the data as possible evidence, and then would do so if possible.

[Narrator]

No ports of any kind on the machine. It doesn't even have a power button or any noticeable plugs.

[John Hino]

"Damn..."

He then went about trying to stop the programs functions.

[Narrator]

All command functions have been disabled. It appears the console isn't designed to be shut-off.

[John Hino]

"Guess it can't be helped," he sighed. He brought out his tetsubo and swung it at the machine.

[Narrator]

The machine is sturdier than it looks but after a third strike the casing gives in and the electronics inside don't offer much resistance. A small explosion is set off inside the terminal and soon the insides of the terminal are smoking as they slowly melt down.

[John Hino]

He put the club away and headed out, thinking a trip to the Madripoor location was in order. Taking this one out no doubt alerted the conspirators and the SEA unit would likely be heavily guarded. It was time to bring Will in.