Transparent armor

Prompt: glass

“Is this the guy?” Bane was studying the three-dimensional projection while his BNI – brain-network-integration – module uploaded the target data.

“Yep.” Shelly’s program-distorted voice was as clear as if they were standing right in front of him. In fact, Bane would not even try to guess their location. Shelly really cared about their identity and privacy. They even used some random generated model for the avatar so no one could track them by finding the avatar designer. Bane was careful himself, but Shelly’s security level bordered paranoia. Of course, he will not dare say it out loud. No one wants their brain melted by Shelly’s dirty viruses. This person was a genius and a maniac. Bane loved working with them even if they gave him creeps.

“Oh, he seems like a real cutie. Why would someone want him dead?” Aspid was a direct opposite of Shelly. A shaved right half of her head allowed everyone to see the brand proving that Yahve himself designed her voluptuous body. The woman adored attention. It did not matter if it were lustful gazes or bullets – if everything was concentrated on her, she was excited.

“I don’t give a damn whose sore feet he stepped on as long as I’m getting paid to fry his brains.”

“You are too cruel, dear.”

Bane coughed on the ice coffee he was sipping. Aspid was no less cruel than Shelly was, but in more… carnal ways.

“You can’t just kill a person for no reason, sweetie, even if you are getting paid for this. This is just… boring.”

“Shut up Aspid!”

Bane let his body register their usual chitchat on the background while his attention shifted to summarizing the data.

Shu Jing. 88 years old. A prime of one’s life, unless you are a “pro-natural” fool that considers cybernetics, cloning and other biotech stuff a sin. Let’s see… A medic. A neurobiology expert and a healthcare manager. A head doctor in a state clinic, then a director of his own clinic. Now a head of regional healthcare department. Pretty rich guy. Or could be one. He is spending lots of money on charity it seems. Like, LOTS of money. And…

“Shelly!”

“What’s it Bane?”

“What’s the trick with this guy?”

“Meaning?”

“Where’s the dirty laundry? The guy owns only a small house. No luxury. Almost no security. His relatives are no big tops. His only income seems to be his salary and small bank account. Heck, he doesn't even have a car! Where’s shady business? Drug dealing? Slave traffic? Brains hacking? Where’s anything?”

“There’s nothing.”

Aspid whistled in surprise. “I like him even more now. And I ask again – why would someone want him dead?”

“Look, I don’t know and I don’t care, okay? This guy is as transparent as that thing Aspid calls dress. He is hiding nothing and he is ashamed of nothing. I can count where his money goes up to the last cent and to the last drink he bought. I can tell you where he goes, whom he dates, what his search history is. And note that I had to do no tricks to dig this. Everything about him is in plain sight. Damn, I can even name you the porn stars he favors.”

“Mmm, is Myli Sin among them?”

Bane and Shelly ignored the question.

“The guy is climbing up the social ladder pretty fast.” Shelly continued. “He is pursuing a politician career now. My guess is – the client doesn’t want a dude like this to be in politics, but they can’t compromise him, because he is not hiding anything, so… The client wants us to turn his brains upside down and make sure Mister Honest Guy will not make others look bad. Are you satisfied?”

Bane nodded. “Seems plausible.”

He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, his attention shifting back to planning. The process never stopped actually, part of his brain kept scheming as he talked with the team. One of the many benefits of BNI. A non-enhanced human brain could do this too, of course, but BNI multiplied the efficiency and allowed automated transformation of his plans into transferable visualization files. The price for this efficiency was vulnerability. BNI was a gate that hackers could use to dig into his brains and required strong protection software.

Their team represented the three most common types of modern people. Aspid - she had no BNI, but her body was almost totally replaced with this bioengineering masterpiece. Bane was more natural in terms of flesh, but his mind was much more integrated with the machine via BNI. And Shelly went as digital as it was possible, giving up their body to receive all the benefits of enhancing their brain with computer modules. The doll, the cyborg and the ghost.

Bane opened his eyes. Shelly and Aspid stopped their usual bickering. Bane sent the plans directly to Shelly through their secured channel. Aspid lifted her hand and placed it gently on Bane's palm to enable wireless data transfer. It was wise to have a team member without a BNI. This way no one can remotely hack all the three of them.

The plan was simple. With such a low security level, it was a piece of cake. No guards to take care of. No top-notch armored car with AI driver and flying drones with damn miniguns. Of course, killing someone is not that easy nowadays. Most people have their personality ready for copying. In case of emergency, it can be either transferred via BNI or stored in a special external module hidden somewhere inside their skull. To make sure the target will not return in a new body you need to intercept the copy and delete it. It's easier if the target have BNI module, but Shu Jing had none, and this means they must get close.

***

Shu Jing checked the time. His watches indicated that the bus was supposed to arrive twenty minutes ago. The people around him were growing nervous.

"Here's our public transport for ya. You should do something about it.”

It was not the first time someone recognized him. That was the price for reaching higher positions. The smallest part of the price actually.

“I sure do.” Shu smiled back to the old lady that addressed him. “But I will need your support for that.”

The woman's response was interrupted by a loud announcement.

“Dear passengers, we are currently dealing with a technical issues. The next bus will arrive in fifteen minutes. We are sorry for the inconvenience.”

Shu winced. It was too long and he hated being late.

“Hey, Ayu. Call the taxi.”

His smartphone responded to the command and displayed the order info on the inner side of his glasses. It seems he will have to endure the old lady's grumbling for four more minutes.

“Wait! Please wait!” Someone shouted as Shu was getting in the car. He looked at the gorgeous woman gliding towards him. “Where are you heading?”

“Administration district.”

“Thank goodness! Can we share a ride? There seems to be no more taxi available nearby and I'm so late! I'll pay for it of course”

“No need to.” Shu smiled and held the door so the woman could get inside. “What's the destination?”

“You are so sweet! University main entrance please.”

Shu placed himself in the car and added the second location to his order. As the car sped up smoothly, he kept shooting side glances at the woman. He was sure she will not mind, otherwise she would not buy this body and this dress.

“It's rare to meet someone so eco-conscious among more. . . prosperous part of our community.”

“Not using a personal car is a healthy choice. For a person, for a society, for a planet.” She smiled. “Is this correct?”

Shu sighed. “Yes, that's exactly my words. So, are you a journalist hoping for a spicy interview? Never thought a journalist could afford Yahve-branded body though. How many senators you blackmailed to buy it?”

She laughed. “No, no. I'm just really inspired by your public lectures on healthy lifestyle.”

“May I at least hear your name? It's unfair that you already know mine.”

Bane looked in the rear view mirror to make sure Jing's attention was all stolen by Aspid. Everything was going smooth so far. Messing with the public transport system was pretty easy for Shelly, as well as intercepting a taxi order and replacing it with their car. They already reached the place he picked. Bane sent a message to Aspid via his BNI. Time to strike.

Mara - that was the name she gave - looked at her watches when they vibrated. A wide smile appeared on her face. A cruel smile. Her movement was as fast as a lightning, the blade sliding from her wrist and slicing through Shu's neck. Bane put the car to a stop and pulled a data transfer cord from the car computer. With all the medical data on Shu Jing in the open they knew exactly what his body modifications are and where the module for a personality reserve copy is located.

“Connection confirmed. I'm diving in.” Even the distortion program could not hide anticipation in Shelly's voice. Bane concentrated on driving and scanning the surrounding for the signs of incoming cops. Shu's body had an emergency rescue call option. Disabling geolocation will be the first point in Shelly's checklist, but the cops will receive the initial location and sooner or later they will realize what they should be looking for. Aspid was busy cleaning herself from the blood. Bane winced when she licked it off her fingers in the process.

If Shelly still had a body, it would be smiling now. Their avatar was too primitive for this, but they still felt the emotion. It contained a tint of disappointment though. Everything was too easy. Here it is, the target's personality reserved copy. An artificial vessel for a soul. A transparent one. No massive gray firewall. No antivirus programs looming over as castle towers in this artificial reality that Shelly's mind interpreted in familiar visual form. A very fragile vessel. This man is really naive. Did he hope that everyone will play by the rules in the games of power? Time to throw a harsh reality into his face. And smash him with it. Shelly's avatar stretched out it's hand as they requested an access to data. And stopped an inch before it.

“Access denied.”

Confused, Shelly tried again.

“Access denied. ”

There was nothing. At least they saw nothing. But they felt it. A solid something preventing them from getting these data. Their avatar was not able to bare it's teeth, but Shelly felt exactly this way. Finally, some fun. Their avatar's hands transformed into a thin blade. It looked just like the one that Aspid used to cut the man's head off. But this time it proved to be useless. No scratch appeared on the invisible wall. The drill that followed was unsuccessful either. The sledgehammer. The ram. The flamethrower. Tool after tool failed to break through whatever protected these damn data.

“Impressive, isn't it?” The familiar voice asked. Shelly's avatar stopped pounding the invisible wall with bare fists. Shelly knew the voice from the target data she gathered. Shu Jing. His avatar appeared on the other side of the obstacle. It looked exactly like the man did in material world. A bit on the chubby side, less than average height, balding head. The man had enough money to build a body anyone would envy yet he kept his natural look. Why would Aspid call him cute?

“I always knew my brother is a genius. You probably checked my relatives when you were planning your attack? A simple IT specialist. But he invented this. Like a bulletproof glass, it's transparent. But it is really really reliable."

Shelly ignored him. They already understood the operation went wrong. It was time to fly. Their avatar stepped back. And hit another invisible wall. A low growl emerged from Shelly's avatar mouth.

"Leaving already? That's not very polite of you. I'm afraid I can't let you go. Not yet. I don't want your friends to physically destroy my reserve copy device and I hope they won't as long as you are here with me."

A trap. Shelly was desperately looking for a way out of this. This guy seems talkative, it might be possible to trick him.

"What the hell is this thing?"

"Thanks for asking." Shu Jing looked like a professor reading a lecture. "As you probably know, personality copying is a tricky process. In most cases they result is... Let's call it incomplete. This is the reason it is used as emergency mean only. The problem roots hide in the complexity of human nature. You see, our mind is not as structured as most people believe it to be. In fact it's pretty chaotic. More often than not there are parts of us that we ourselves don't like. Bad habits. Bad decisions. Our sins. Our mistakes. We hide them. We reject them. We distort ourselves in our own minds. But it's still part of what makes us us. This causes huge interference during personality copying process. The more severe the internal conflict is, the worse the outcome will be."

The fact that during his lecture Shelly kept trying to break the barrier disturbed Jing in no way. It seems he was genuinely amused by her attempts.

"You probably wonder what it has to do with this amazing protection? You see, this special defensive program is designed especially for personality reserved copies. You can say it is powered by my soul. And the more successful the copying process was, the stronger the defense is. And as I mentioned earlier, the key to successful personality copying is being as honest with oneself as possible. Hiding nothing. Rejecting no part of yourself. Being transparent. It's not easy and comes with a price. I was widely critiqued for some of my actions, even among people I consider close. But I turned this into my sword and my armor. A transparent..."

He stopped suddenly.

"Your friends are trying to send you a message. They have to flee. It's good I was right about them, they decided against destroying you along with me. You have good friends even if what you do is wrong. People are so complex. Anyway, as a medic, I'd rather not kill anyone. I will unblock you. Get out, hacker. And tell your client that if something looks vulnerable it is not necessarily fragile."

Prompt explanation.

A bulletproof glass is sometimes called transparent armor. I wanted to explore the idea that some things that look fragile can be actually pretty sturdy, and at the same time touch the theme of internet safety, privacy policy and self perception in the net. I'm not that good with sci-fi and I hope I gave enough of the atmosphere.

Also, I really have to work on those endings...

Word count 2510