"How's it going up there?" the voice of my hacker freind Melody asked in my ear.
"Oh, it's just great. Quite the view from the top you know. Makes me get why the fat cats can ignore what happens down below; from up here it's almost beautiful."
"I meant how's the suit smartass," Melody replied. It was her stupid plan that had me doing my best Spiderman up the side of the AppleSoft corporate arcology.
"Oh. Not bad. The electrostatics are working out just fine so far, though I think I know why the prototype was in storage, its discharging like nobody's business. I'm actually wondering if-"
"Yeah, OK, good," Melody cut me off like always. "You're about a hundred feet from the executive apartments level. Once you get there you should be able to see the air exchange exhausts."
I shook my head and started climbing again, "I remember the plan Mel, I'd not a dolt." When she didn't reply I just focused on my climb, trying to ignore the static discharges from the suit as I went. After about fifty feet I heard the whispered whirring of my team's drone swarm suddenly close on me.
"Hold still, incoming security swarm." Mel's voice cut out as she killed the comms line. I froze, the swarm surrounding me were now operating on a semi-autonomous AI. They hovered near me and waited, and I did my best to hang in there. The heavy droning hum of the corp's security swarm grew louder as the grew close. I tongued the helmet switch to activate the active camouflage and held very, very still.
The security swarm keyed in on the Mel's little drones and the AI did what it was meant to and sent the swarm scurrying away as fast as possible. The security swarm broke up, each unit trailing one of ours and leaving me hanging on the side of the arcology alone in a sudden quiet. I breathed my relief but gave it an extra hundred count before I started again. With luck the next time security posed a problem I'd be inside the building.
