Duces
New Portland - 2115 AD
This case was going to be difficult.
She picked up the pad for the fifth time, frowning all the while. The picture of the girl was fake, but leave it to hackers to muck themselves up for the police. It was an impressive job. Her full holoshot turn around was complete and seamless. She even made little faces when you rotated the holo. She couldn't help but smile at the absurdity of it.
Lucy, Everybody L. - Class A Hackster.
Wanted for Public Disturbance, Public Disruption, Theft, Disruption of Government Systems, Disruption of Government Communications, Felony Hacking...
The list went on and on. She had been a busy girl over the last few years. She was also very good. Most of her "crimes" were in fact only believed. Evidence was scarce, or non existent, for many of them. The police normally wouldn't bother with most of it since all of these were trifles, petty crimes. More fun spirited than malicious.
She was truly a free and rebellious spirit. Which made this recent accusation all the more difficult to comprehend.
Murder.
Not reactionary. Not fueled from extreme emotion such as a jilted lover. Just cold, calculated, and precise murder.
The hit, which is the only term she thought fitting, was clean and sterile. Not messy and wild which was Lucy's MO. The only way she was linked was because they found traces of her ghost in the buildings systems. It was enough for the big brass. They wanted her head, and they wanted it yesterday.
Swearing for the fifth time she tossed the pad once again onto her desk. The only reason the chief gave her this assignment was because she was a girl. "You're a girl, you know how they think. It's right up your alley," he had said.
"Up my alley my ass..."
She pulled her hood down more over her face.
Her mind was racing. Going over the events, time and time again.
How had he trapped her ghost in the system? How did he know she was there in the first place? How did he murder that man without leaving any evidence?
She was good, one of the best if she said so herself. Yet he pulled off things that made her feel like a novice. Figuring out how he did it was going to be tricky but she had to know. There wasn't much time left. They were bound to have seen the traces she was forced to leave behind in her battle to retrieve her ghost from the system.
No doubt she was suspect number one. A full crackdown and manhunt was the only recourse.
Since they wouldn't know where to start she had some time. It was cliche but she had to return to the site. The only way she would figure out what was going on, or at least where to go next, lay there.
She came to the end of the alley and peered around the corner. There, two blocks down, was the building where it all went south. A few police were still mucking about, but they would be wrapping up soon.
She pulled the phase pistol from her pocket that she just purchased from an underground Quartermaster. She Jostled it lightly to feel its heft. This thing alone would set her up in containment for a decade. It was worth the risk. When you're the prime suspect of killing a cop, they always shot to kill on sight, guilty be damned.