Cyberpunk Beauty & the Beast?
Once upon a time, far in the future, the son of the CEO of a Major Technology Corporation comes of age and takes over the family company. He learns that the company has been doing some Very Bad Things and wants to put a stop to it. Another top executive tries to convince him that these Highly Unethical and Dangerous Technologies (such as the city’s incredibly intrusive surveillance system) are vital to the company’s continued existence. When he refuses to listen, she takes advantage of the technology that plugs his mind in to all the company’s computer systems, leaving his mind trapped in cyberspace while his body’s stuck in a comatose state. She can’t kill him--there are certain things that only the CEO has access to--but she can keep him trapped in this mental torment, and revive him every once in a while to see if he’s finally willing to hand full control of the company over to her.
Some time later, Rival Corporation falls on hard times, leaving technology genius Beauty out of work. Her father hears of a job possibility for her, and goes to a house in one of the city’s elite neighborhoods to see if he can arrange an interview--to no avail. The employer never shows, and the house is strangely empty. But her father does see roses growing in a highly secured greenhouse. Real plants are a near-impossibility in their ultra-technological world, but Beauty loves the flowers, and her father can’t resist bringing her a little something to cheer her up after his failure.
He make it all the way to the bush itself before the alarms go off and the house’s security system traps him inside. The House’s AI doesn’t alert the authorities, like these systems are supposed to do. Instead, it puts him through an interrogation--how did he get inside when the greenhouse was guarded by top-of-the-line surveillance technology? He explains that his daughter the computer genius taught him a few tricks, and begs for mercy since he only intended to take one flower. The AI demands the father bring the girl here to the house; if he doesn’t, the AI will alert the authorities about the theft and their lives will basically be over.
Beauty answers the summons, expecting the worse--and gets a job offer from the AI. It turns out the AI is running a vast corporate espionage network; it has made its agents invisible to the surveillance systems and digital networks in the city. But to take down the Major Technology Corporation, their network needs a physical someone who isn’t invisible, someone who can be seen who can speak to the right people, open the right doors, operate the right technology with the skill of an expert--and Beauty’s the only one qualified for the job. When Beauty learns exactly how Major Technology Corporation is using its vast surveillance network to do Very Evil Things to the people of the city, she signs right up.
With the help of the AI’s invisible servants, Beauty undertakes missions to undermine the Major Technology Corporation. The AI isn’t like any artificial intelligence that Beauty’s ever seen. For one thing, its access to city-wide systems is unparalleled in her experience. For another thing, it has opinions and a moral compass that aren’t like anything she’s seen in technology (what AI has a love of roses?). It seems almost...human, and she’s astonished to find herself developing a friendship with it.
Eventually, they manage to gain access to the highest levels of the company’s technology, where Beauty destroys the Evil Mainframes, liberating the city and taking down the Major Corporation. She also finds a man plugged into the system itself, and rushes to disconnect him before the crashing system erases his mind with it. She learns the man is the lost CEO of the company--and her mysterious AI employer. The Evil Executive had no idea that leaving the CEO helplessly connected to the company’s computer systems gave him complete access to all their surveillance and security technology, and he took advantage of that to bring down the company.
With the evil technology destroyed, they save the city, reform the company, and eventually, get married. Happily ever afters all around (or as much as one can get in a cyberpunk world).
