Page 21 of The SongBird's Love
“Do you have... my candies?”
“Oh, the price for those went up, Eden.”
“What? How come?”
“Tough times!” sighed the old woman. “The Rat is worried the Old Dragon will make a bad decision. We need to look out for ourselves, you know...”
“What about the Yakuza?”
The lady shook her head.
“Unless we get a strong new Dragon, the Snake will try to eat the Rat!”
Eden grimaced, but the imagery was fitting. The Yakuza head, known amongst the Zodiac as the Snake, had never gotten along with the Rat. If it wasn’t for the Dragon acting as a mediator between them, it was unlikely those two would remain on speaking terms. The rumors of Old Man Long being sick was really shaking up all the territories...
“You’re better without it,” said Granny Duong. “Trust me, darling, I don’t say this often, but that’s one product I’m never happy to sell, especially to little flowers like you.”
Eden nodded, but her throat felt tight when she remembered she only had three left. If she couldn’t afford to buy more, how would she endure that pain next time? She grabbed her bags and left Granny Duong’s shop.
Eden stopped outside to put her two puppies on leashes, although both hated it, and resumed her walk with her bags. Another thing she liked about that neighborhood was the cheap and good food. Eden knew exactly where to find the best street stalls. She sat down for her lunch and fed her dogs while waiting for her own food. Eden was no stranger to her favorite food stalls, but without interacting with anyone else, she just kept playing with her dogs and watching them fight over some pieces of chicken. She knew she was sticking out like a sore thumb in that neighborhood and shouldn’t stay around for too long. The locals were still applying the Confucianism principle of hospitality, but she couldn’t push it. Even the patron of the shop was just polite to her, as she was a regular customer.
“The Edge?”
She froze, hearing the two men at the next table whisper. Eden’s SIN was translating everything they were saying for her. It was one of the perks of being a hacker; she could download most programs for free if she knew where to find them, and she had made sure to get one for Asian languages two years ago.
However, those men had no idea she was actually spying on them. How many White people spent money on Vietnamese translating software? Hence, they whispered for the other people not to hear them, but Eden was the only one they weren’t cautious about.
“Are you an idiot?” said the other one. “If the Edge was hiding here, don’t you think the Rat would know? Nah, I’m telling you, the Yakuza are hiding the Edge.”
A shiver of excitement went down Eden’s spine.
The Edge. The most wanted criminal organization and the only global one. An international league of hackers acting together, like vigilantes, shattering the Cores with each of their massive attacks. They had reportedly managed to have the Miami Core shut down for forty-eight hours four years ago, an unprecedented event that had made them famous but also put them as the number one enemy...
“No, no. I had some information. It said Ghost’s signal appeared again, around this area.”
“Ghost is part of the Edge?”
“Of course! The best hacker of the Chicago Server, why wouldn’t he? He’s got to be!”
Eden wondered if she should have felt flattered by those words, but truthfully she was a bit more worried that her last position had been pinpointed... She stood up, paid for her food, and left, a bit nervous.
She had never wanted to be Ghost. She needed money, and it was something she was good at. She had always been good as a Dive Hacker, and she had a unique configuration that made her the best among many, many others. That was it. She was curious about the Edge, of course, but she had no intention to look for them. Sometimes, she even wondered if the Edge was real. During the Miami Incident, their Core had claimed it had come from a malfunction, a technical incident. Of course, a lot of people hadn’t believed that. Since when could the Cores’ go out of power like that? Not only had their main energy source been cut off, but all the electrical support and extra resources had been cut off too, communications included. No other Core had been able to intervene, almost causing a major political incident between the Southern Confederation and the Northern States Republic Union...
As Eden went back to the Mexican territory, she suddenly heard gunshots from afar. She froze and, like everyone around, walked close against a wall, waiting a bit to see. It sounded like it came from farther north, in the Italian’s territory... Were things going wrong? Or was the ruckus just caused by the Luchadores again?
She sighed, and as soon as things went quiet, she grabbed the puppies and hurried back toward her territory.
There was no safe territory in the Suburbs. Safety was something only the people living in the Core were allowed. The mafias were like a double-edged sword, protecting their citizens but also causing more fights.
A mafia lord’s territory wasn’t judged by its size but by how much their borders moved. The stronger ones had established their presence enough for the other Zodiacs not to mess with them… It meant nothing to have authority over several neighborhoods if they could lose them overnight.
Eden got home quickly. Once she had locked the door behind her and put the dogs down, she let out a long sigh, a bit out of breath. There really was no way to rest peacefully here... As the puppies went to nap on the mattress, tired from the little trip, she walked to her drawer, grabbing a picture hidden inside the little notebook she used to do her calculations. She smiled every time she saw that picture.
“...SIN, call Mom.”
She felt the little device vibrate, and closed her eyes, waiting. It took a little while.
“Eden! Eden, how are you, my baby!”