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Neuromancer

Chiba City. Not my idea for a great vacation spot, but a gold mine
for hackers like me... and I needed the money. Actually, this place was
once a great hangout for Cyberspace cowboys, now Chiba is falling apart.
The days of the great cowboy raids are over; it just got too dangerous out
there in the Matrix, the giant, electronic web of information. I'm still
not sure how it happened, but all of a sudden, cowboys started dropping out
of action faster than mice at a cat convention. Sure, you can always have
your dead brain kick-started by some stranger who'll charge you literally an
arm and a leg for your resurrection; assuming, of course, they find you.
But hell, after one of two flatlining experiences any sane man'd quit...
but I needed the money.

I'm Dixie, Dixie Flatline. I'm leavin' my story behind here, hopin'
come cowboy finds it and can make use of it if I die. I'm going in to face
the toughest combat of my life, but I better start at the beginning.

I wandered into Chiba with no cash and half the population after me
for credits I owed. I stopped off at a bar called the Chatsubo, owned by
this guy named Ratz who had a sarcastic remark for everything. I ordered
the spaghetti dinner which tasted like raw rattlesnake and smelled worse.
I was about to leave when, in a not-so-polite way, Ratz expected me to pay
for it. Luckily, the Chatsubo had a PAX machine on the wall. So I quickly
logged on and read through all the messages. There were several pages of
them. One message from Matt Shaw listed link codes for databases such as
cheapo, for the Cheap Hotel, regfellow, for the Regular Fellows, and
asanocomp, for Asano's.

I noticed a message from some guy named General Armitage who was
willing to pay me if I answered his ad with my ID Number. I don't
generally like giving out my ID Number to strangers, but I was broke and
really didn't want to trade in my intestines just yet -- besides after
Ratz's pasta, I don't think they were worth anything. This guy seemed a
little flaky but honest and he mentioned cowboys and cyberspace, so I sent
him back a message. As I went to my bank account to get Ratz's 46 credits,
much to my surprise was ten grand sittin' there from my new best friend,
General Armitage. General A wanted me to meet him at the Matrix Restaurant
but I wasn't sure, at the time, where that was. He probably wanted to buy
me dinnfer to celebrate my answerin' the ad. Ratz was naggin' me about his
dough so I tossed him the cash.

"Thanks, friend artiste," replied Ratz. "Shin came by but he didn't
want to interrupt your beauty sleep. He still has your deck."

I hated that sarcastic tone in his voice but I appreciated the
message. I really needed a deck. Our idle chit chat was interrupted by
some guys form the Health Department who came in and closed down the
Chatsubo and consequently saved hundreds from food poisoning.

I had some money now but I needed more, lots more. Now I ain't the
greedy type but I can tell you Chiba is an expensive place to hang out. So
I got to thinkin' -- where does someone go for money? A bank, right? So I
decided my next step was to find me a banking database to satisfy my
financial situation.

I passed by the Body Parts store -- no need to stop in there... I was
very proud to have all of my body parts -- and a donut shop, where a fleet
of cop cars were parked out front. Not that the cops were after me, but I
decided not to stop in because after the spaghetti, I was a little leery of
food. I kept cruisin', passing by Microsofts, a software store run by some
wimp named Larry Moe. He was the kind of guy, when younger, was the last
one to get picked for teams in dodge ball and the first one out. I stopped
in at his store to warm up a little bit. A cold wind had been blowing
through Chiba that day and I was numb to the bone.

"I'll warm you up with a flamethrower if you don't get out of here,
pal," he snapped when I told him why I had stopped in. He was sold out of
all his software anyway, so I quietly stepped back out. "Better not to
cause a scene," I thought to myself. Anyway I walked on and noticed a
massage parlor on the corner of the street (I made a note to myself to stop
in there later).

I found Shin's pawn shop on the next corner and stopped in to pick up
my deck. Shin's an interesting fellow; not the type I'd invite to an
afternoon garden party, but he seemed to know how to get a hold of some
hardware that ain't all that readily available. I knew I'd be needing a
deck to get into databases even though I couldn't afford a cyberdeck. I
picked up my Yamamitsu UXB equipped with comlink 1.0 which would do me fine
for right now, but I knew it took comlink 6.0 to reach cyberspace. I
checked out Shin's inventory, but really didn't see anything. When I was
leavin', Shin mumbled something to me in Sprawl then locked the door. I'm
not all that bilingual, but I can tell you he was glad my deck was out of
his shop. I wasn't too offended, mainly because I didn't understand it.
So I blew it off and set out in search of any link codes, passwords or info
I could get my hands on. I've included a map in here of downtown Chiba, at
least the places I came across, that might help.

My next stop was at the House of Pong. It's been a while since I had
been in Chiba and things had changed. I walked in expecting to go a couple
of rounds of table tennis and instead, met a crazed monk named Nolan who
wanted to know if I had seen the Holy Joystick.

"The Holy what?!!" I laughed.

Nolan got this solemn look on his face and started rhapsodizin' about
a long road for students on the quest for the Holy Joystick.

"Holy Joystick! Now I have heard everythin. What kind of a place is
this?" I don't know exactly what I said, but he was offended and kicked me
out mumbling something more about my being unworthy of the quest.

I went down to the end of the street to Crazy Edo's. Edo fancies
himself a patrician of hi-tech and loves to eat smelly fish eggs. He told
me his prices were low and he could beat the prices of the other major
hardware store in town, Asano's. I told him I was just browsing and checked
out his stock. But before I left, he mentioned he could get me comlink 2.0
if I brought him some caviar. It sounded like a good trade to me and I
went off in search of caviar.

I started makin' notes to myself at this point (like Edo - caviar and
Nolan - joystick) because you never know how much you're gonna have to
remember. I wandered up to the Matrix restaurant and I wasn't even to the
door when I got picked up by a lawbot for associatin' with that general on
the PAX, Armitage. They said they'd arrested him and now they had me. So
much for democracy and presumed innocent until proven guilty. I have no
idea what Armitage had done, but I should have known that you don't just
get ten grand for nothin'. They sent me to a justice booth. Those lawyers
there wanted to charge 250 credits to defend me. I don't think it would
have done any good -- I was still fined 500 credits... but it seemed like a
small price to pay for the ten thousand I had already gotten.

I paid my fine (which by the way, is irrevocable) and I kept an eye,
rather my nose out for caviar. Suddenly I remembered -- it struck me like
a thunderbolt -- the massage parlor! Maybe they serve caviar to their
customers. But the minutes I walked in I got that feeling that this was
the kind of place someone could get into a lot of trouble. I was there
just long enough to find out they didn't have caviar, but they did have the
link code for the Panther Moderns, chaos and the password mainline, and the
lawbots which heavily patrolled the place.

I listened to the compujudge's lecture about being a model citizen,
then headed back to the parlor for... (well, let's just say some
entertainment of the physical kind) and maybe some more link codes and
passwords. I met Akiko again. She told me another link code, bozobank for
the Bank of Zurich Orbital, but then that darn lawbot showed up. As you
could guess by now, this gettin' arrested stuff was a little more than I
could take, although lookin' back on everything I kinda laugh.

When I was young, I was a well-behaved kid, never got into trouble --
I tried, but never really got into serious trouble. And the other night
when I was talkin' to my Ma, and told her about gettin' arrested, she said
with a little disappointment, "Are ya happy now, son? Ya got yerself a
record."

I decided the message parlor was not worth the hassle anymore although
I wondered how that place ever made any money with the people always
gettin' dragged downtown.

I walked down the street to get as far away as I could from the
parlor. The street came to a dead end at the spaceport just ahead. On one
side of the street was the Maas Biolabs, but the doors were locked. I
looked around, there was no way to get in. It had been awhile since I had
been in Chiba but this part of town looked familiar. Then I remembered. I
turned and walked across the street to the warehouse, with a smile as big
as Texas across my face. I went through the doors, down the hall and
knocked on another door.

"Enter," said the elderly voice.

I opened the door; an old man was sittin' behind a big desk, cluttered
with junk. He was pointing a gun at me.

"Julius Deane," I said, "put that thing away before you hurt yourself.
Seems you haven't changed much. You know just enough to make you paranoid,
huh?"

Ole Julie lay down his pistol, and grinned his pink grin. "Dixie,
what are you doing in town?" His grin changed to a devilish laugh. "What
do you want, cowboy?"

"Me? Want somethin'? How about a joystick or some caviar?" Julias
shook his head no but offered to upgrade my cryptology chip, if I had one.
"No such luck, Julie," I said. "Maybe another day. I'll be seeing you
around." And with that, I left.

I couldn't make up my mind if today was a good or bad one. I stopped
off in the Gentleman Loser for a drink. Then I'd decide. This bar wasn't
all that crowded -- I found a seat right off -- but didn't need it 'cause
there was a PAX machine on the wall and I wanted to check out any new
messages on the bulletin board.

One said that a woman named Shiva at the Gentleman Loser had a guest
pass for the Matrix Restaurant. I found her sitting at a booth in the
corner.

"Hey, geek!" she yelled. "C'mere! I got somethin' for ya!"

"Whatever it is, I hope it's not contagious," I cleverly responded.

"Anonymous was here earlier. If you're a friend of his, you know what
I've got for you."

One of the messages for me on the PAX was from Anonymous Bosch. It
said that he'd borrowed a cryptology skill chip from me and that I could
pick it up at the Gentleman Loser. Frankly, I don't ever remember owning a
crypt chip, but why complain? Shiva gave me the chip and when I asked her
about the Matrix guest pass, she gave me that, too. Glancing around the
room, I also noticed that some of the booths came equipped with cyberjacks,
my way into databases and eventually cyberspace.

Right now I'd say, yup, this had been a good day. Feelin' lucky I
decided to chat with Shiva. I pulled one of those lines they used back in
the olden days. "Hey, baby, let's get outta here and go back to my place."
She smacked me good with a right hook. After everybody stopped starin' at
me, I went to the bar and ordered another drink. Nope, this hadn't been
that great a day after all. But in Chiba City, it never is.

I finished my drink and headed for Julius Deane's place. After being
publicly humiliated I might as well upgrade my cryptology chip. Julie
charged me 5000 credits for his efforts and it was only up to level three.
I went back to the Gentleman Loser armed with my deck, comlink 1.0 and an
upgraded cryptology. I made my way through the crowd, and watched some
poor sailor go flyin' over a table from Shiva's right jab as I went to the
back wall to a cyberjack.

When I jacked in, it prompted me for a link code. I tried bozobank,
then chaos. Both times it flashed incompatible link (I hate when that
happens). Then I tried cheapo. It worked! I was in the database and the
intro message said the first level password was guest. Perusing the main
menu I decided to order some room service then take a look at my bill. I
almost fell out of my booth -- Cheap Hotel had caviar! I quickly paid my
bill (they wouldn't let me order until I had paid up) and ordered some
caviar.

By this time I was back to feelin' like it had been a good day after
all. I went down to the Cheap Hotel, got my caviar then went to see Crazy
Edo at his Used Hardware Emporium. He was so excited about the fish eggs
and I was even happier about gettin' rid of them. He installed comlink 2.0
in my deck then raced to the back room for some cream cheese and crackers.

I was tired and should have gone to sleep but I wanted to check out
comlink 2.0 at the GL. I tried bozobank, no luck. But this time chaos
worked like a charm and using the password mainline I was in to the
Panther Moderns database.

There were several things there and my gut instinct was to write 'em
down. First, fungeki was a password at Hosaka. Another said Larry moe had
a coptalk skill for sale. Modern Bob heard I was in town and to welcome me
back he said he would give me some link codes. So I wrote back to him,
"Hey, Bobby boy! What is the link code for the SEA?" His returned message
explained that the code for the Software Enforcement Agency was soften.

I exited the message board and looked at the software library. Only
one program interested me there, comlink 3.0. I quickly downloaded it and
left the Panther Moderns database. It cost money to link into databases so
I tried to spend as little time as possible in each one. I tried soften
with comlink 3.0 and I got the opening title page for the Software
Enforcement Agency. But, without the password, I couldn't get in.