Fic: Shanshu 4 - Hacking

[dragonyphoenix]

Fandom: BtVS
Original prompt: Spike shanshues
Part 4 of Shanshu
Taming the Muse prompt: sordid

The building had been abandoned. Will had seen pictures of gutted rooms and windows nailed shut with wood planks, but that had been thirty years ago. Now the wooden floors were smooth, the handrails stained to a dark cherry color, and the entryway was covered, floor to ceiling, with mosaics. To Will's left, women dark of skin and hair, wearing brightly colored shawls, gathered lilies – the flowers towering over them. To his right, men plowed the living earth, not with trucks or oxen, but with the strength of their own limbs. Above the sun danced with the moon in a pale blue sky.

Inside the entryway, in the open space at the bottom of the stairs and before the elevators, the old man waited for him. On his black t-shirt, the words Agnostic Front Skinhead circled around a pair of kick-ass boots. Everyone called him Webb although Will, asking around, had been told his Christian name was John. Webb had been one of the original tenants, part of the group that had reclaimed the abandoned building back in the 80's.

While Millay and her friends claimed Webb didn't spend all his time in the foyer, every time Will stopped by, there he was, standing at the base of the stairs, smoking a cig. “Buckets of Blood, man.”

“I beg your pardon?” Will had tried ignoring the man, but Webb continued to speak to him. Eventually it had just seemed rude to ignore someone who was so persistent.

“Buckets of Blood, showing on the home screen. You in?”

“Thank you, but I have business … I'm here to see Millay.”

Rather than waiting for the elevator with Webb standing right there, Will took the stairs up to the seventh floor. Vines of ivy, painted on the walls, led his way. He rapped on the door, drumming out a quick rat a tat tat. Millay's skin, pale for California, back-lit by the bluish glow of her computer terminal, glimmered with an almost unnatural sheen. As usual she seemed to have run her fingers through her ash-blonde hair in lieu of using a brush. Will, who hadn't been expecting her to answer so quickly, let his hand drop to his side. Most nights she was so hooked into the Net that he'd have it'd take a good five or ten minutes of banging for her to come around.

“Morgan called,” she said, answering his unasked question.

Morgan? “What'd he tell you?” Bugger, the ass was probably having a field day with this piece of news.

“That there's someone who knew you from before.”

“That's it?”

“And that you want info on him, but I could have worked that part bit out for myself.”

“Thanks.” He knew she'd help but that she'd put aside her daily hacking routine to make time? He hadn't quite expected that.

“Hey, it's a big deal, knowing who you are, being rooted in your past. So, tell. What do I have to work with?”

“Outside The Sunflower, about forty-five minute ago. Hauled in by the fuzz. Dark hair, about my height maybe, eyepatch. Sort of hard to miss.”

She'd shown him a bit about computers, while they were still an item, but his hunt and peck method with the keyboard had driven her up the wall. It was a mystery to him, how her fingers could fly so and still hit the right keys. “Here he is. Alexander LaVelle Harris.” It was him alright. Will ignored the text on the screen for the picture.

“That was quick.” He could feel himself grinning at her. Smart women, they got to him every time.

“Oooh, you do know how to pick 'em.”

“What's that?”

“Picked up for suspected assault. Your old buds seem rather sordid.”

Yeah, it wasn't as encouraging as it could be. “When can I get in to see him?”

“You can't.”

“Can't? But I've never found anyone else who knows whom I used to be.”

She waved a hand at him. “I know, I know, but he's already out. Somebody must have woken up a judge to get him out at this time of night. No, wait.” Dark words danced across the screen like spiders. “Ha! It's another hacker. Damned good too. Took advantage of a discrepancy in the reports: no body. This'll take a while. You gonna stay?”

“Hell, yeah.” Racks of computers filled the room. Will had never understood why she needed more than one but had learned not to ask. He sat down on the floor, knees raised to chest, and waited to see what Millay's searching would find.