He nodded as he shrugged his shoulders, "That's exactly what I want. Nothing more. Nothing less. And I ain't even asking for you to lie about my work- just judge it fairly, and I'll call it square. And! And... I understand that a pretty young thing like you probably has gotten some pretty outrageous requests... but I ain't like that. In fact, this is probably the biggest risk of my career."
"I wasn't aware that one could skip certification levels like that."
Mister Davies carded his fingers through his long, brown hair as he winced, "You can't- but! But I said I called in some favors. Chooms owe me big time... so we'll have your Level 3 backdated to the last round of testing six months ago. We don't keep footage past four months, and your test... well, it was a perfect score. You paid and the records are clean because they're coming directly from the main office- the €$10,000 eddies you paid to take this test will be backdated and injected retroactively into the ledgers... and since the fiscal year isn't complete yet then this works out perfectly."
He inhaled and let out a gusting sigh as he smiled wearily, "Trust me, this is perfect. Preem. Everything worked out in our favor. As far as anyone knows you've been a Level 3 for the required six months, and you've had over 179 fully recorded tear-downs done at the Level 3 standard. Had an AI scrub through and adjust the opening recordings to change your words a bit- 'Level 2 maintenance' to 'Level 3 maintenance'... and modify the metadata. The netrunner was preem, and fast. She didn't charge me all that much either because she said you two were friends."
I tilted my head and narrowed my eyes, "T-Bug?"
He grinned and snapped his fingers, "Exacto. She came in clutch, helped me lay all this out. A-and I paid the €$25,000 fee out of pocket using the transaction authorization you made for this one so... I'm sorry that this was sprung on you out of the blue, but I needed it to be authentic as possible. And I'm a real asshole for asking this of you, but... shit, Tanya, will you help me?"
I closed my eyes and mulled this over for as long as I could.
This could possibly go wrong in many ways, but with T-Bug assisting in this effort I knew at least the technical side of this was handled; T-Bug was good. No City Hall netrunner floating around the net where these digital records were stored would have been able to notice her, let alone catch her.
"And you're certain that everything will be legitimate? The detes and documents correct?"
Mister Davies let out a deep breath as he sagged in his chair, the man nodding firmly, "Yes. Everything will come direct from us to City Hall, and the records updates were done within City Hall as well. No digital trails. I won't tell you the who or how that side of it was accomplished, but everything electronic and physical is backdated properly- I'll just have to print out your physical Level 3 cert I made up and everything will be official as official can be. And if anyone comes asking around about your testing six months ago ain't nobody going to have any clue because we hardly remember the faces of people we tested last week, and the NCTC-Watson security guys are only legally required to hold onto security footage for 120 days... so the day you took your test on is long gone. Once you get your Level 4 cert from my compadre in about twenty minutes... we'll be set."
I neatly folded my hands in my lap, "Well then, let me say this: I am a law-abiding citizen. As long as my documentation and everything supporting it is legal then we will have no issues."
He blinked a few times before he smiled a touch, "Shit. You'll actually help?"
"I do believe that you've saved me years of time, Mister Davies, spent €$25,000 on my behalf, and also notified me of a problem that I didn't even know existed... so yes, as long as you won't ask me to doctor my reports for any mistakes made while I'm observing for your referral... when my probationary year is over I will be your tenth and final referral for Level 5."
Mister Davies collapsed bonelessly in his chair, his arms shaking as he rubbed at his face, "Holy shit. You're heaven-sent, Tanya. A real Angel from God himself. Jesus Christ... I'd completely given up hope that I'd ever make it to Level 5 and now this? If I didn't think the world would shit on me for tempting fate I'd offer to take you out to dinner."
I did my best to not flinch- Being-X! You did this, didn't you!?
My lips firmed into a thin line, "Mister Davies I will remind you that I am only 15..."
"I know, but you could'a fooled me," He grunted, "You certainly don't look like it. I'd complain about high school girls looking like college girls but you already left high school and college."
Mister Davies clapped his hands lightly and stood up, straightening out his clothing crisply before pulling his blazer on over the top, "Let's go get you your cert, Tanya. Enclosed will be my deets. Do give me a call if you got questions or juicy details- gossip is a bit of the thing among us Level 4s. Oh... and one thing, if you ever meet a Level 4 by the name of Pilar Romanov? Don't bother with him. The guy a total nutjob pervert. Real piece of work. He wanted me to scroll BDs of my wife and I having sex in order to secure his referral, and considering you look like... well, you, there is no doubt in my mind that he'd likely request something equally nefarious from you."
"Thank you for the heads up, I will commit it to memory, Mister Davies."
Needless to say, when I climbed back into the Delamain cab thirty minutes later- after calling him and telling him I would be slightly behind schedule- I had both my Level 3 and my Level 4 certification in my bag. And the best part it was practically free!
I just needed to buzz T-Bug and ask her to at least give me a heads-up is someone is running a gig on me; we're chooms, some professional courtesy would be nice.
From: Argent Silver
To: BigTiddyXBDsONLY
Mister BTXO, I regret to inform you that I will not be debugging code for a daemon that specifically targets the hidden dressing room cameras at the specific fashion boutique. I will not turn these communications over to the NCPD as a professional courtesy, but you should think about possibly questioning your life choices before someone kicks in your door.
Seriously,
Argent Silver.
From: Argent Silver
To: E1iteSupr3m3
I have completed debugging the code for the laundromat infiltration daemon as requested. It did not need to be recompiled using the latest standards so that saved me a lot of time. See attached. However, as much as I am grateful for your repeat business, if you're going to keep sending me debug requests to get free stuff I am going to jack up the price for my services.
Sincerely,
Argent Silver.
---
From: E1iteSupr3m3
To: Argent Silver
Hahahahahahahahaha! Nova work as always, Silver. I already spread the word out to a few chooms you can trust, so I'd please ask you not to crank up the rates. I'm not abusing them I promise! Just something to take some of the edge off when times are hard- I've got siblings to help my ma take care of! lol Or something like that. Regardless, Stellar Nova. Here, take my money. Gig complete.
[E1iteSupr3m3 has sent a P2P payment of €$1,200.00. Would you like to accept? Yes/No?]
[Yes.]
From: Argent Silver
To: RustRedBadlandsBandit
No.
I do not care how much extra you're willing to pay as a 'bonus'. The code you sent me is missing whole logic and decision branches for how to execute, and it doesn't even have a compiler!
Listen, I cannot debug your daemon if it's missing half the code—especially not without the core routines for the intended encryption algos or the AetherNet protocol handlers. I cannot just conjure up a fix without the subroutines for your HephaestusV2 firewall or the AI integration layer.
Asking me to do so is like trying to patch a hole in the Black Wall with duct tape.
I deal in code debugging. If you want assistance with completing this daemon then I can recommend at least three other Netrunners good at programming that won't charge you an arm and a leg for completing this daemon; at worst they might request some eddies and the rights to use the daemon personally. Regardless, I won't complete this daemon for you, especially not with how few eddies you put up to begin with.
I will be keeping the €$350 deposit for wasting three hours of my time, but as a consolation prize, I have included in this message a text file where I list out all of the major components this daemon is missing and point you in a direction as to where you might be able to find what you need.
You may message me again when you have this daemon finished and want it debugged and tested, until then...
Sincerely,
Argent Silver.