Jiro merged into his neon black datacycle and sped down the bitstream. Hackers and outlaws divided up large parts of cyberspace and crossing through their territory without asking could be painful. The data frontier was wild and free. Free from the corporate bullshit chopped up fine and spoon fed to the masses, keeping them fat, semi-content and dumb.

He had a job to do. Somewhere in the real world he could feel the echo of heat against the skin of his lower back. His spinal modem must be running hot. He should have replaced the thing months ago but he didn’t have the money. That would change by the end of the night.

An alert popped up on his hud. One of the back doors programmed into the World lay ahead. He needed it to cross into corporate territory. Swapping one snippet of code for another melted part of the street and he rode through a shimmering door. Secondary and tertiary alerts wailed in his ear. Apparently the Yu-Ultani Corp. had set up sentinels recently.

Jiro grimaced and prepared for battle.