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[sup][color=82ca9d]CS Link[/color][/sup][/url][/center][color=silver]Turning the corner without looking, her attention fully focused on the map screen in front of her, Susie’s first warning of danger was the sound of automatic weapons chambered. Her reflexes kicked in instantly, legs flexing and springing her back into cover even as the hail of ballistic shells peppered the wall behind where she’d just been standing.

[color=a2d39c]"Fuckfuckfuckfuckassbuttchinrabbitkumquat,"[/color] the jacker rapidly muttered to herself, patting her hands down her body to make sure she hadn’t caught any stray rounds or ricochets in the tight underground passageway. Satisfied her relatively expensive jacket hadn’t been damaged, and that she wasn’t bleeding from anywhere she hadn’t been already, Susie settled herself down to examine the data she had.

Bringing the map back round she quickly studied it. Her destination wasn’t far ahead now, and there wasn’t anything shown which would explain why someone would want to shoot at her indiscriminately for no reason. Two possibilities came to mind, either something upstairs had changed or Bent Benji has sold her an out-of-date map. Again. The third possibility that someone could be tracking her also sprung to mind, but Susie couldn’t believe her luck could be that bad, despite the heavy feeling she’d been having all night long.

She needed more data to make a full analysis, and adding a couple of extra curse words to the cloud already floating around her the young girl tapped at several controls on her arm panel, deactivating her synthetic eye for a moment. She hated doing this, it always made her feel seasick whenever she did, but without knowing whether this was a local, isolated threat or something responding to something someone had done on the surface the jacker couldn’t risk backtracking through the sewers and running into more unexpected surprises.

Holding her left hand in front of her, Susie quickly slapped herself on the back of her head with the right one, carefully catching her synthetic eye as it popped from the socket. Holding it gingerly the jacker unhooked the datafeed wires leading back inside her skull and unshipped her datajack finger. Plugging the robotic eyeball onto the end of her probe Susie closed her left eye and tapped her console, bringing the synthetic one back online.

[color=a2d39c]"Why hello there, beautiful,"[/color] she said playfully, looking up at her face looking down at the camera eye. She wiggled the finger a few times, making sure the eyeballs was firmly attached before inching her way to the sewer line intersection. Hugging the wall she slipped her hand around the corner, letting the eyeball poke just far enough to get a good view of the passage ahead.

Letting out a deep sigh of relief, the young girl quickly pulled her hand back and unhooked the eyeball. Reattaching the cranial datafeed and giving the eye a quick polish with her t-shirt she slipped in back into her socket and lifted her arm console. Her attacker was just an automated EPA drone, the kinda thing they always dumped down the sewers whenever something was going on upstairs. What made it even better for the young hacker was the live feed each of the drones had back to base, a live [i]hackable[/i] feed.

It only took her a few moments scanning frequencies to lock onto the one the little robot was using to chat with its pals, and another moment to piggyback on the signal straight into its central processor. For a moment Susie wondered whether a bodyguard droid hovering behind her might be a useful bargaining tool for her scheduled meet-up, but quickly decided against it. Not only would the EPA notice if one of their drones suddenly started wandering away from its assigned post, but showing up to a not-entirely-legal business transaction with an armed police surveillance camera watching over your shoulder probably wasn’t the best idea . In fact it probably ranked about the same as the time she’d added lime to a coconut.

Quickly updating the drones FOF recognition software, Susie added herself to the ‘Friendlies’ list, and tagged the update for system wide propagation on the next data burst. Hopefully that would make sure any of the drones buddies she ran into would’ve received word that the spunky lil redhead was a chum, and not just chum. Logging out of the droid’s cyber-brain Susie quickly took the time to backpath her infiltration, cleaning out any evidence of her activities as she did, while sprinkling in enough evidence to frame her competition if anyone came looking.

Finally Susie tucked her console away and lifted herself back up to her full height. Taking a moment to straighten up her jacket the young jacker braces herself. This was the moment of truth, and taking a deep breath she stepped around the corner, lifting her arms out wide. [color=a2d39c]"All right Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up,”[/color] she declared theatrically, while at the same time flinching back, half expecting to be blown away by a hail of gunfire.

After a couple of seconds Susie opened an eye carefully, glancing down the passage at the drone, which seemed to be hovering serenely in its assigned position, perfectly content with the jacker’s presence in front of it. Skipping towards it happily Susie bent forward to tickle the automated droid under its front casing.

[color=a2d39c]“Whosa good boy? Are you a good boy? Yes, you are. You are, aren’t you?”[/color] She giggled in a playful tone, petting the oblivious drone as she slipped passed it before continuing on her way.

The whole encounter had Susie both a little worried and a little relieved. If something was going on above ground which would necessitate the activation of the sewer drones, the EPA must be gearing up for some heavy mobilisation. That could either mean the jacker and her business compatriot had some cover with a major distraction calling all the cops away from their location, or it meant that there’d be far more party guests coming to tea than she’d planned for, and Susie didn’t have enough favours to share around.

Either way, Susie was close enough to her destination to head above ground, and once she was there she should be able to get a better lay of the land. Moving over to a nearby ladder the sprightly youngster quickly bounded up the rungs, unlocking the hatch at the top and slipping into the alley above with almost fluid ease. Glancing around nothing seemed too out of place, but Susie kept herself wary nevertheless. Too often a comfortable situation turned out to be an ambush, and she really wasn’t in the mood for a fight right now.[/color]