The girl brushed a violet lock of hair from her forehead and winked at the man with a silver tattoo standing on the opposite side of the room, sending him the studied smile of a charming ditz. At this moment, Lucy Murray was the fluffbrain daughter of CosmoTech CEO, known for her love of hot pink cars and an IQ that matched her shoe size. She couldn't afford to slip out of character – not if she wanted to finish the job.
"Heeey!," she called out in a thin, pouty voice with a note of vocal fry. "So glad you came by! Ever since daddy bought me this cafe for my b-day, almost no one comes here anymore..."
She had him. Hook, line and sinker. He turned to look at her, some exaggerated, yet fliratious pity in his expression, then started over toward the counter. Lucy executed a quick scan to identify the organic parts of his body and prepared the hypodermic needle containing the sleeping agent. She took three steps in the tattooed man's direction and – as she's done dozens of times before – pretended to stumble. Of course, he caught her as she fell into his chest, then, in a blur, Lucy injected the needle into an exposed patch of organic tissue. No gasps of surprise, no shouts, not a single peep as he slumped to the floor. Lucy smiled again – this time in triumph.
"I have him, Peter," she hollered toward the backroom, dropping her sugary, valley-girl tone. "Is the deck ready?"
Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed her pair of Cosmo Glass and launched the neural data retrieval program. Lucy Murray was gone. The violet-haired woman now spoke as the elusive netrunner known as 8u88leGum, the best-paid datathief in Night City. Yet in a moment, she would become someone new altogether. She would become the man with the silver tattoo.
8u88leGum loved her job. Breaking into people's memories was like riding an extreme braindance emo-high. She felt as their foreign limbs became her own. She absorbed their thoughts, views and mannerisms. It was no different this time. The tattooed man's mind began to take root, pushing out the last remnants of Lucy Murray...
His name was Marc Collins and he was walking along a derelict metro tunnel. A stale mustiness hung in the air. Marc Collins hates that smell. "Guessin' she'll pop in somewhere around here," he thought. "Listen, damned if I know how your neuro system works, so I'll just say this out loud," he muttered, as if to himself. "I know you're crawlin' into my mind about now. The job comes from us. This was the only safe way to contact you. In a minute, we'll be right below CosmoTech. I'll show you what your father's keeping locked up in basement level 5. So watch close... because only you can help us."
