4

Case tests a new simstim flip to ride Molly’s senses as she moves through the Sprawl. She seeks a contact in Memory Lane, but the operator Larry detects Case as a “rider,” forcing him to disengage. Case researches the Panther Moderns via his Hosaka, learning their media-savvy, terror-adjacent tactics, and soon meets Angelo, a Modern delivering Finn’s diskettes.

Immersed in mapping Sense/Net’s ice, Case spends nine days building an intrusion route. Armitage presses timelines but concedes the quality of the work. The run begins at midnight: scattered Moderns inject false Blue Nine reports and a hallucinatory internal broadcast, triggering panic and heavy police response, while Molly, disguised, enters the building.

Case penetrates Sense/Net’s security systems, planting viral subroutines to mask their entry. In the sub-basements, Molly is ambushed by guards; her leg is broken. She stabilizes herself with endorphin derms and continues, while Case exploits a backdoor to spoof alarms and custodial records for the research library.

Molly reaches the target cabinet; Case forges system states so locks and alarms appear intact and records show a prior authorized removal. Molly retrieves the Dixie Flatline construct and moves to exfiltrate. Above, the lobby descends into stampede and suppression as Tacticals and Rapids seal exits; two Moderns guide Molly toward extraction before she blacks out.

Back at the loft, Panther Modern leader Lupus Yonderboy reports Molly is with a medical team. Armitage protests the chaos, but pays the Moderns. Restless, Case wanders the pre-dawn Sprawl and is confronted by Yonderboy, who delivers a cryptic message: “Wintermute,” hinting at a deeper force behind their job.