Living life as a southern bell wasn?t anything that was in her future, despite the admittedly perfect name of Summer Rose Daniels. Her mother despaired at having brought up a girl that wore combat boots with dresses and knew more about the workings of a computer than a stove.
The computer?s output was being sent via a direct cortical implant that then sent signals to display the information in a way that was very much like having a floating screen a foot in front of her face. It was one of the ?improvements? she?d acquired since arriving in Rhy?din nearly four years ago.
The thought of her mother having a ?spell? and fainting clear away if she found out about her lifestyle now was a concern. It wasn?t that she was a rebel trying to get back at her parents, they?d been good parents, still were in their own way but they wouldn?t understand. Truth be told very few people would understand her choices.
There was more than a few women in her hometown that thought she should find herself a man and settle down to start building the ranks of the Daniels clan. It wasn't a lack of suitors, although she didn't attract as many as most of her cousins, but a lack of desire. She was too young to even start thinking of settling down, and the thought of having kids was so far off her scan that she wasn't sure they'd ever enter the picture.
Two other men were being fed instructions as she sorted through the maze of security to gain entrance to the system and disable the outer perimeter measures. The timing was important as she needed to punch through as close to when the men were approaching any given obstacle as possible. The system was advanced and she only had seconds to get in, disable the security and move again before it reacted. If her program was caught then it was all over.
At the age of seventeen she had managed to create programs that stealthed their way into high security computer systems and grab information. It was a matter of pride that drove her to do such things and curiosity when it came to hacking into the systems of private individuals of interest.
The seedy secrets that people with means possessed never ceased to amuse Summer. It was if they believed all that money could guarantee privacy. The fact that they could fall beneath her subtle ministrations amused Summer in the same way some of her cousins got satisfaction out of sacking a man in a football game.
This was a special program that she?d been working on for nearly six months and this was it?s maiden run. So far it was performing as expected but she wanted it to excel and she was pushing hard. The two men were approaching the inner sanctum and closing in on the goal when she sensed something wasn?t quite right.
Steering the program was a lot like the old Tron movie, she loved that film and that was reflected in the programs she wrote. The end game of it was that in her mind she took a hard right in her blue glowing motorcycle and avoided the waiting jaws of a trap by a hair. They weren?t real jaws, no more than she was really riding the motorcycle but because she was hooked in via the cortical implant real damage could be done to her neural pathways... that was part of the thrill. The jaws morphed into an angular monstrosity with four arms that ended in wicked looking hooks and began to give chase.
The two men were waiting nearby for her to drop the last of the defenses, drawing a gun from a holster at her side she aimed over her shoulder, hoping that no obstacles popped up in front of her while she wasn?t looking. Her lips moved as she mouthed the words ?use the force? and shot. The beam struck a panel where the monster had been a moment ago and a door swung open.
She fired a shot at the beast to keep it focused on her while the men ducked into the inner sanctum and got the information they were after.
There weren?t all that many billionaires in the world so when she found one that had next to nothing written on them she had gone to extraordinary lengths to dig up everything she could, break into their most private files and learn everything she could... with copies sent off to a secure location of course. The stuff she dug up on the man was so fantastical she thought that she might have found a fictional story that the man was writing in his spare time. It wasn't written like a story but rather like some elaborate delusion, an absolutely fascinating one at that.
It took her another three minutes to lose the beast and that was only after she opted to use brute force. Punching a hole through the ?floor? and dropping out of the subsystem. By the time she was unplugged from her laptop and grabbing her helmet she heard the sounds of men coming toward her position. They were faster than she expected but not fast enough. She was on her bike and speeding down the real streets of Rhy?din before the men had a chance to even get a good look at the girl that broke into their ?invincible? system.
At seventeen she thought herself pretty damn keen and invincible. It was a good thing that the man that caught her sneaking was also a man that recognized a talent that he could put to good use and opted to give her a job rather than a quick trip to deadsville. At the time, she hadn?t thought being dragged to a place as foreign to Georgia as Rhy?din was peachy but it had turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to her.
Not only was she given a ton of cash to do with what she wanted, she had access to technologies from other places that was far more advanced than anything she could get her hands on at home. It was a paradise just one short trip away from Georgia and she could indulge in her first love, the gathering of information, while getting paid good money.
The one thing she hadn?t really taken into her calculations was how much she missed the sense of family. The Daniels were a close clan and not having any of them to confide in had taken its toll. When she ran into Colt, nearly literally,was when the full force of that came crashing in on her but now she wasn?t alone here but had quite the number of Daniels to call upon. Well when it rained it poured Daniels and God help any caught in the Southern downpour.
The computer?s output was being sent via a direct cortical implant that then sent signals to display the information in a way that was very much like having a floating screen a foot in front of her face. It was one of the ?improvements? she?d acquired since arriving in Rhy?din nearly four years ago.
The thought of her mother having a ?spell? and fainting clear away if she found out about her lifestyle now was a concern. It wasn?t that she was a rebel trying to get back at her parents, they?d been good parents, still were in their own way but they wouldn?t understand. Truth be told very few people would understand her choices.
There was more than a few women in her hometown that thought she should find herself a man and settle down to start building the ranks of the Daniels clan. It wasn't a lack of suitors, although she didn't attract as many as most of her cousins, but a lack of desire. She was too young to even start thinking of settling down, and the thought of having kids was so far off her scan that she wasn't sure they'd ever enter the picture.
Two other men were being fed instructions as she sorted through the maze of security to gain entrance to the system and disable the outer perimeter measures. The timing was important as she needed to punch through as close to when the men were approaching any given obstacle as possible. The system was advanced and she only had seconds to get in, disable the security and move again before it reacted. If her program was caught then it was all over.
At the age of seventeen she had managed to create programs that stealthed their way into high security computer systems and grab information. It was a matter of pride that drove her to do such things and curiosity when it came to hacking into the systems of private individuals of interest.
The seedy secrets that people with means possessed never ceased to amuse Summer. It was if they believed all that money could guarantee privacy. The fact that they could fall beneath her subtle ministrations amused Summer in the same way some of her cousins got satisfaction out of sacking a man in a football game.
This was a special program that she?d been working on for nearly six months and this was it?s maiden run. So far it was performing as expected but she wanted it to excel and she was pushing hard. The two men were approaching the inner sanctum and closing in on the goal when she sensed something wasn?t quite right.
Steering the program was a lot like the old Tron movie, she loved that film and that was reflected in the programs she wrote. The end game of it was that in her mind she took a hard right in her blue glowing motorcycle and avoided the waiting jaws of a trap by a hair. They weren?t real jaws, no more than she was really riding the motorcycle but because she was hooked in via the cortical implant real damage could be done to her neural pathways... that was part of the thrill. The jaws morphed into an angular monstrosity with four arms that ended in wicked looking hooks and began to give chase.
The two men were waiting nearby for her to drop the last of the defenses, drawing a gun from a holster at her side she aimed over her shoulder, hoping that no obstacles popped up in front of her while she wasn?t looking. Her lips moved as she mouthed the words ?use the force? and shot. The beam struck a panel where the monster had been a moment ago and a door swung open.
She fired a shot at the beast to keep it focused on her while the men ducked into the inner sanctum and got the information they were after.
There weren?t all that many billionaires in the world so when she found one that had next to nothing written on them she had gone to extraordinary lengths to dig up everything she could, break into their most private files and learn everything she could... with copies sent off to a secure location of course. The stuff she dug up on the man was so fantastical she thought that she might have found a fictional story that the man was writing in his spare time. It wasn't written like a story but rather like some elaborate delusion, an absolutely fascinating one at that.
It took her another three minutes to lose the beast and that was only after she opted to use brute force. Punching a hole through the ?floor? and dropping out of the subsystem. By the time she was unplugged from her laptop and grabbing her helmet she heard the sounds of men coming toward her position. They were faster than she expected but not fast enough. She was on her bike and speeding down the real streets of Rhy?din before the men had a chance to even get a good look at the girl that broke into their ?invincible? system.
At seventeen she thought herself pretty damn keen and invincible. It was a good thing that the man that caught her sneaking was also a man that recognized a talent that he could put to good use and opted to give her a job rather than a quick trip to deadsville. At the time, she hadn?t thought being dragged to a place as foreign to Georgia as Rhy?din was peachy but it had turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to her.
Not only was she given a ton of cash to do with what she wanted, she had access to technologies from other places that was far more advanced than anything she could get her hands on at home. It was a paradise just one short trip away from Georgia and she could indulge in her first love, the gathering of information, while getting paid good money.
The one thing she hadn?t really taken into her calculations was how much she missed the sense of family. The Daniels were a close clan and not having any of them to confide in had taken its toll. When she ran into Colt, nearly literally,was when the full force of that came crashing in on her but now she wasn?t alone here but had quite the number of Daniels to call upon. Well when it rained it poured Daniels and God help any caught in the Southern downpour.