She heard Loir type on his keyboard, but neither of them could explain what was going on, and Eden was getting very uneasy. Eden tried to count, but she had gone up at least four or five floors. It was strange she had seen literally no one, not even guarding the doors and corridors... She decided to stop in one of them and wait for a second, looking around. She might now be closer to one of the panels she was looking for. She walked up to one of the closed rooms, trying to listen. From what she had seen before, the doors were sound-proof, but...
As soon as she had put her ear close to the door, she took it back. She could hear men yelling in Japanese in there, and even more curious, banging against that door... as if they were trapped? Eden stepped back and resumed running.
“Loir, do you think someone else could have gotten to a control panel before us?”
“I doubt it, you didn’t waste any time, and you didn’t even have sushi! Plus, taking control of their whole security just from one control panel is the work of genius! I’m a genius! That device you have is expensive to buy or to make, there are only a handful of hackers who can do that!”
“The Rat may have come up with the same plan as us, then,” sighed Eden. “There’s clearly someone in control here, someone playing... against the Japanese. Dante, did you–”
“I did not send someone else ahead.”
Eden grimaced. Then it was a high possibility they had been beaten at their own game. She reached a new floor, and this time, the decor changed. It was a lot less traditional, a lot more modern. This was her chance. Eden tried to find a crack in the wall, a little slit between two panels. She found it and, using her leg, kicked one of the panels until she deformed it enough to grab the edge and pull it off the wall. A portion of the wall as large as three doors came off with some more kicking, revealing what Eden was looking for. A very small square with an access port. She put Loir’s device right in.
“Loir, you’re up.”
“Yay, come here, baby! Cutie cutie, come here show me your... sashimi...”
As she heard his excitement go down, Eden grimaced.
“Loir?”
“Oh. Uh-oh. Oh, no bueno...”
“Loir, tell me what’s wrong.”
“Kitty, you were right. Another hacker is on the case. Oh, this is not going to go well...”
“Can you beat them? Someone we know?”
“Yup... I recognize that kind of coding, very, very nasty... Oh, she’s not gonna be happy... How badly do you want in, Kitty? Because this is trouble...”
“Her? You know that hacker? Is she working for the Rat?”
“I dunno, but... uh... She’s an old friend from the Edge, so she’s not going to be happy to see me... Oh, Circé, it’s been a while, you old witchy lady...”
Eden let out a long sigh. Of course. Circé. C.
Eden stood still, hesitating. If that other hacker was ahead, it would be a lot of trouble to get control of the building, both from her side and Loir’s. However, she had to do something. She had an ominous feeling about that woman from the start... She should have known she was no ordinary escort to begin with; if that woman was a hacker, perhaps she wasn’t much of one... Could she go up against Circé? She knew nothing about that woman or her fighting abilities. She didn’t even know who she was working for.
“Loir, what do you know about her?” whispered Eden, walking to the next corridor.
Now that she had to be less worried about the Yakuza, Eden moved freely, but she made sure to stay away from the doors and open rooms. If Circé was in charge of the place, she could easily trap her somewhere, and Eden would really be locked up without anyone to help...
“Uh... First, she really, really doesn’t like me,” whimpered Loir.
“Go figure...” muttered Eden.
If that woman was part of the Edge when Loir stupidly got them all arrested, she really couldn’t be blamed for resenting her crazy ex-teammate.
“Circé is an alias, I have no idea about her real name, Kitty. I just met her while we were part of the Edge, and teamed up as partners...”
“Wait a second... She was your previous partner? She’s a Dive Hacker?”
“Yup.”
Eden gasped. She hadn’t expected that. Seeing how Circé had been far ahead and taken control of the place already, she had thought that woman was a Back Hacker, not a Diver like her... moreover, Loir’s former partner!
“...So she knows how to fight?”
