Two tattooed women sat in a corner booth, one clearly distraught and the other pensive. The nearby neon lights painted them in pink hues.

“Leese, what you experienced is just a daemon. You ran too close to the sun and burned,” said the more composed woman. She had short, jet-black hair with purple highlights. She wore a ragged, heavy leather jacket that looked like it had lost a fight with a bear from Old Earth and dark denim pants. While sipping her beer, she looked over at her friend concerned.

“No, Mags, you don’t get it. I’ve seen daemons, I’ve seen I.C.E.¹ , I’ve seen crappy programs from skiddies. This. was. not. That.” the other woman said, pointing her finger down, emphasizing each word. Leese put her head in her hands.

In contrast with her friend, she had a haunted expression on her face. With her white hair pulled back into a tight ponytail, her eyes wide and her right leg was shaking like a broken heat shield on a thruster. She wore a black hooded sweatshirt with the “Resistance” on it, a local band that played here often, popular among those in their early twenties.

“Okay, fine. It wasn’t a daemon. Walk me through what happened again.” Mags replied. Her face showed honest understanding and worry for her friend.

Leese picked her head out of her hands. The bartender walked over and put a steaming mug in front of her. “You look awful kid, have some tea on the house.” said the bartender placing the mug in front of her.

“Thanks, Dova, I feel even worse.” Leese replied while picking the tea up and putting her face over it. She breathed in the tea vapor and took a sip. The tea relaxed her, the haunted look left her face. The bartender Cordova walked away, back to tend bar.

She sipped again and said “The task was a routine smash and grab. Crack the I.C.E., grab sensitive files and get out of there.” Leese mimicked punching open a wall and grabbing something. “However, shit went sideways. I broke the I.C.E., easy. Melting the I.C.E. was almost too simple.”

Mags took a sip of her as she listened. “What do you mean? Like a honeypot?”. One would chastise their friend for being stupid enough to fall for a honeypot, but Mags only showed empathy.

“Maybe… The files were there, we downloaded most of them before the daemon-thing manifested. As we looked deeper, something looked back. Something perceived me, and I don’t mean like the usual ICE detection. It felt like it reached into my mind… no, that’s not accurate. Even daemons can fry a runner’s brain in realspace.”

Leese rubbed her eyes before continuing. “Cyberspace… darkened as if something cast a shadow over it. Then it felt like the daemon-thing was scanning my thoughts and making me relive every memory. I swear it was taking my thoughts.”

Mags’ eyebrows shot up in genuine surprise. “Okay, that’s not a daemon. That’s next-level shit. What else did it do?”

“That’s the thing, Mags, nothing. It scanned my partner in the same way and then it fucked off. The shadow was gone. It knew we were there for the data, but it didn’t seem to give a shit about protecting it.”

¹ Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics