Morning sunlight streamed through the windows of my apartment, casting a warm golden hue over everything.
I sat on my sofa, completely naked, unbothered, basking in the comfort of my own skin. My body—hyper-realistic, sleek, and undeniably gorgeous—was the product of top-grade synthetic craftsmanship. One leg crossed the other with elegance as I sipped from my nutrient juice bottle. This morning, the flavor was mango-vanilla. I didn't hate it.
Bored and aimless, I turned on the TV. Drama. Switched. News. Switched. Old cartoons. Switched. Eventually, I just shut the damn thing off. Nothing interesting. Nothing important.
With a thought, I linked to the Bounty Hunter system—no typing needed. My cyberbrain connected directly to the interface. I browsed the updated wanted list, eyes moving lazily over posters flickering across my augmented reality view.
Still no leads on that hacker. No new 'wanted dead or alive' tag for any cyberterrorist. I sighed and logged out.
I stood up and got dressed—blue bodycon mini dress, tight enough to hug every curve, and high heels sharp enough to be considered weapons. I slid my handgun into my designer handbag, slung my keys around one finger, and called out:
"Let's go, Harry. Time to visit your daddy."
Harry barked once—short and digital, his own version of "ready."
---
Later, at Alex's Shop
We stepped into Alex's cluttered tech workshop. The air smelled like solder and machine oil. Half-finished androids hung from racks, some blinking aimlessly, others headless entirely.
Alex glanced up from a maintenance bench, screwdriver in one hand, a synthetic arm in the other.
"Still alive, huh?" he quipped, then narrowed his eyes. "Wait. You are Jane, right? Not the hacker pulling strings through that pretty face?"
I smirked. "Very funny, Alex. You know what happened?"
He set the tools down and leaned back in his chair. "Harry sent me a distress ping last night. Encrypted, but loud enough. I figured something nasty went down."
"Can you trace the hacker?" I asked.
Alex spun around to his computer, fingers flying across the keyboard with practiced speed.
"Based on Harry's logs, there were five proxy signals used in the attack. All linked to five separate cyberbrains. Hacker likely hijacked other cyborgs and used their processors to cover their tracks."
I clenched my jaw. "Damn it."
"But," Alex added, "you only need to find one of those five. Get access to a proxy node, and I might be able to follow the breadcrumbs back to the source."
"And how would you even do that?"
"I'll hack directly into the hijacked cyborg's cyberbrain and trace the incoming command string. Risky, but doable."
I hesitated, pacing slightly. "Give me a minute to think."
Alex gave me a look. "Jane, are you sure about this? You're chasing shadows. There's no bounty in a personal vendetta."
"I know." I paused, staring out the window. "But they tried to take control of me, Alex. That's not something I can just ignore."
He leaned back in his chair, folding his arms. "Alright. Say the word and I'm on board."
I stood still, then made up my mind. "Give me the names and IDs of the five hijacked cyborgs. I want to cross-reference them with the bounty list."
Alex grinned and started typing again. A moment later, a data packet flashed into my system. I scanned the list and launched a cross-check against the Bounty Hunter Guild's wanted database.
Seconds passed. Then—ping.
'Match found: Brad Slater. Wanted Alive.
Crime: Robbery, Reckless Driving.
Reward: 4,000 credits.
Tag: Full Cybernetic Body, Class-C.'
Bingo.
"One match. A low-level criminal, Class-C cyborg," I muttered. "Perfect. He'll do."
I turned to leave when Alex stopped me and held out something.
"Here, take this."
He handed me what looked like a high-end USB thumb drive, sleek black with a blue LED.
"What is it?"
"It's a spike hack drive. Plug it into a cyborg's neural port, and I'll get remote access through the uplink."
"Seriously? You want me to just… force open his port?"
"Yeah, just pop open the synthetic ear panel. It's delicate work, but it won't kill him. Just don't yank the whole head off."
I squinted at the drive. "You really trust this thing?"
"Trust me. It's custom firmware. Just plug it in and let me do the rest."
I pocketed the device. "Fine. Let's see if this Brad guy is as easy to catch as his bounty suggests."
I snapped my fingers. "Harry, let's go."
Harry gave a cheerful bark and fell in step behind me.
Back home, I started prepping—gear check, systems diagnostics, tactical route planning.
I wasn't just going after Brad Slater.
I was hunting the ghost who tried to hijack my body.
And this time, I was going to hunt them back.