Zed moved over to a work station, pausing to pull her thin tank top off over her head, revealing a petite torso with little breasts. She seemed entirely un-embarrassed by the nudity as she began strapping a harness onto her chest, a plate affixing over her amputated shoulder. From a drawer, she pulled a mechanical arm, affixing it to the plate. She connected several wires from the arm to a jack on the back of her neck, blue eyes blinking with a pattern of lights inside the irises as the arm synced to her brain. The fingers twitched and jumped a few times as she powered up her rig. When the arm was working correctly, she held out the mechanical hand to Beretta who passed her the small drive.<br/><br/>"Usual fee?" Zed asked, hefting the small drive. Beretta nodded and the techie fit the drive into a port on her desk. Code scrolled on the screen as the devices interfaced, Zed's mechanical and biological fingers dancing across her keyboard as she pulled up a decryption program.<br/><br/><br/>Those playing video-games or simply lounging around the living room watched Carth warily. It didn't look like any of them were over 20. All of them had a blade on them or guns strapped to their hips or thighs. Life was rough in the warrens. Zed ran a sort of... hostel for the youth in the Ninjaz territory. A lot of them were homeless and she let them crash in her place.<br/><br/>"Standard gray package right?" said one of the kids to Carth, eyes looking over his bulky frame. "You ever want some more advanced upgrades, let Little Lightning know, eh?" He jabbed a thumb at his own chest, indicating he was, in fact, Little Lightning.<br/><br/>The girl beside him with pink hair snorted. She was quite a bit bulkier, her clothes less future chic and more road warrior. She had a NION-ANGELS tattoo on her muscular shoulder. They were a separate gang who had a longstanding relationship with the Ninjaz. They were the brawn to the Ninjaz brains. "Yeah right. Like you could get ahold of corporate tech like that. He'll try to sell you T-13 CPUs and call them "premium tech."" The boy scowled but was appropriately put in his place, suddenly very intent on his game.<br/><br/>"Carth," called Beretta. "Come here and check this out." She waved her partner over.<br/><br/><br/>Zed's fingers flew over the keys, coding a workaround for the anti-tampering program on the drive on the fly. A final keystroke unlocked the file directories and the hacker sat back, scrolling through the files. "Holy shit..." She said under her breath. She was not one for such exclamations and Beretta's eyebrows raised. The hacker had seen something pretty profound to have such a response.<br/><br/>"What?"<br/><br/>Zed quickly yanked the drive from her rig, tossing it onto the desk and standing. She leaned over the desk, reaching down to a bundle of cables running through the wall, yanking them loose along with a large amount of plaster.<br/><br/>"Keep your money," she said as she thrust the drive back into Beretta's hand. "The files are unlocked. Pursue them at your own risk but I don't want any part of this." She opened a closet, retrieving a long coat and a go bag. "I'm going off grid. Someone might have traced me through the network. You should lay low too. What's on that drive... the end is nigh." She shook her head, making sure her pistol was loaded and holstering it. "Everybody out!" She called to the kids in her living room. "And stay away for a few weeks."<br/><br/>Beretta looked at Carth as the others left, hefting the drive in her hand. "Zed doesn't get scared... this is... so much bigger than I thought..."