Ambasadora (Book 1 of Ambasadora) by Heidi Ruby Miller Read Free Book Online Page B

said.
    “Except….” Zak wrapped
both hands around his weapon, ready to level it. “Someone slipped in a
data miner to a fragger hub world.”
    “If that’s true, then a
streamer either breached some pretty elaborate security or—”
    “Streamers are average
citizens coming to V-side worlds to get laid or watch the sun set somewhere
they’ll never get to see in person. They barely have the knowledge it takes for
insertion,” Zak interrupted.
    Someone accidentally stumbling
into the wrong part of the V-side was almost impossible. The random combination
of idents implanted during fragger initiation were not only scanned upon
entering the hidden V-side fragger worlds, but also monitored during any
session, preventing a mainstream user, dubbed streamers, from entering fragger
territory by accident or otherwise. Zak often wondered where all of his idents
were; in his arm, his thigh bone, his tongue? Only the doctor who performed the
operation knew.
    “What we have is another
informer problem,” he said. Someone who found a new ideology .
    “Do the bosses know
who?” Ariel gripped her rocket launcher in both hands.
    “Yep.” Zak leveled his
weapon at Bullseye. “Confirmed just before I called you in.”
    The marmoset’s large eyes bulged.
“Not me.” He morphed into a human av, green spikes of hair rocketing
upward from a youthful visage. He had called up his own crafter with the morph
and wielded it in trembling hands.
    “Come on. You know me better
than that.”
    Zak was the first to fire, a
point-blank shot to the forehead. In the real world Bullseye would have been
obliterated, but in this virtual existence, it just blew off the top of his
head without killing him.
    He managed to choke out a plea.
“Zak, please. Don’t do this. I wouldn’t betray the fraggers.”
    The little guy stalled, trying to
call up better weapons, activate his healing programs, or just unplug from his
V-side host. But Zak had lockout codes for every fragger in his contingency.
Bullseye no longer had control of his fate.
    “Please.” Bullseye
screamed when he realized he’d never be able to unplug. “No. Help
me.” He crawled toward Zak’s feet.
    Zak fired into Bullseye’s newly
healed face. The others fired their weapons until Bullseye could no longer call
up his healing programs. Then Ariel aimed her rocket launcher at his spasming
chest and finished the job.
    Whoever Bullseye was in the real
world was now experiencing a neural overload. The result would be either a
cerebral hemorrhage or a heart attack. Then the idents would break down with
the cessation of cell activity. All traces of fragger involvement would be
erased, making it look like another gamer who dialed up his neural stimulator
too far or a streamer who couldn’t handle insertion. That was if anyone even
found the body. Most fraggers were anti-social and chose a life of solitude,
except in the V-side.
    Probably did him a favor,
ending his lonely existence .
    Zak looked at his contingency and
knew one day that favor would probably be returned.

EIGHT
    “I really hate your
sister.” Sara uppercut Dahlia’s jaw. Her head snapped back, her ponytail
slapping her face. Dahlia lacked Faya’s spirit. That must have come from Faya’s
father’s side since she and Dahlia shared the same mother. Dahlia had quite the
horrible shadow to live in, but that wouldn’t win her any sympathy from Sara.
As soon as she found out four weeks ago that Faya Renault’s little sister was
training here as well, Sara focused all of her energy for this one fight.
Masked as a simple scrimmage, she meant to exact revenge on Faya today, through
her sister.
    A small group of Simon’s private
contractors cheered from the edges of the grass sparring ring. The bare-footed
females traded blows on the aqua-colored sod of the training garden, which was
fenced in on three sides by tall hedges.
    A mid-morning grey sky hung close
above the clouds in the Prollixer Territory, a thousand miles