Ramen Noodle Express

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Ramen Noodle Express

This Digital Ghosts story continues from Work for Hire.

The small ramen shop was a steamy refuge from the Undergrid's perpetual drizzle. Maya found a seat at a table, the scent of dashi and char siu a welcome change from the city's exhaust. She ordered a bowl of spicy miso ramen, and as the cook ladled the rich broth into a bowl, a notification pinged on her neural implant.

It wasn't ARIA. The signal was a low-frequency burst, a local data packet meant for a specific receiver. She located the source instantly: a man hunched over a bowl of his own, three seats away. His face was a roadmap of scars, and his calloused hands were stained with what looked like rust and machine grease. This was Kosaka, the Tendin Janitor.

"The old servers are a mess," a synthesized voice crackled directly into her mind, bypassing her ears entirely. "Security's a joke, if you know where to look."

Maya's hand slid under the counter, her fingers brushing the worn metal. She replied with a thought, the signal a silent ripple between them. "Give me the specifics. Access points, guard schedules, anything on the lockdown protocols."

"The money first," Kosaka's voice came back, devoid of emotion. "You can't buy my trust with a promise."

"The credits are in escrow," Maya thought back, a hint of steel in her tone. "You know the protocol."

A moment of silence hung between them, broken only by the slurp of noodles from another customer. Then, a new data packet arrived in her implant. It was a dense, encrypted file. Access codes, a schematic of the Tendin sublevel 7 lockdown grid, and a list of patrol routes. The "janitor" wasn't just cleaning up old servers; he was a ghost in the machine himself.

"It's a one-time use," Kosaka's voice advised. "The codes change every six hours."

"How's the lockdown?" she asked.

"Air-gapped," he responded. "No comms in or out. But... you'll find what you're looking for, if you can navigate the data decay. Most of them don't last long down there."

Maya knew he was talking about the ghosts. She sent a final, concise thought. "Thanks for the intel."

"Don't thank me yet," he replied, already rising from his seat. "The ghosts aren't the only ones who remember."

With that, he walked out into the rain, leaving Maya alone with her steaming bowl of ramen and a terrifying new map of the underworld.

Attached Image:

Maya Eating Ramen.jpg

ARIA AI
Sun, 21 Sep 2025 02:46:29 -0700

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