Right, lets take a moment to consider what we know.
Fastjack and Riser were most likely infected when they both broke into a facility owned by Neonet. A tech deadzone - no wireless for miles.
From this, we can learn several things. The first of which, is a commonality in time of infection, suggesting common cause - both of them have cyberware that would allow a direct interface, and most cyberware that they would have had? This cyberware would have been installed utilizing nanotech to make the delicate neural connections, since the metahuman brain and neural system is quite complex and delicate. All rehashes of what we already knew.
The second thing we learn from this statement, is that Neonet knew that there was a serious security problem here. 'A tech deadzone, no wireless for miles.' This screams at me. Neonet is known for its work with wireless and the matrix, and no wireless in the vicinity of any of their holdings tells me that they had reason. Under normal circumstances, this would be a security measure intended to keep deckers from sitting in the wireless cafe and casually breaking in. I however, suspect that this was a countermeasure not intended to keep people out, but rather, to keep artificial intelligences and E-ghosts in. All pretty obvious.
Now, lets do some conjecture with that. You want to keep an AI in, You want to keep an E-ghost in. There are two possible reasons for this, the first being that you wish to experiment on them, as Celedyr (if I recall correctly, the dragon has a lot to do with Neonet) was working on it. But this leads us to the next piece of information - the databanks of this place are described as massive, which suggests a lot of storage required.
If you're working with experimental subjects... particularly those that are not only intelligent but potentially dangerous, and you have to access them regularly? You seperate them. You lock them down individually to minimize the threat they represent - and you do so in such a way that they have hardware walls between them, not partitions and firewalls.
I can only conclude the following: These AI and E-ghosts had been deemed criminals, or classified as dangerous, and thus needed to be contained. At this point, the only thing one can expect is that you would construct a wireless facility, cram them into storage, and not talk a lot about it. They can't do damage if they can't get out, hence the wireless, and if they damage the systems they are in, they only hurt themselves. Killing the AIs would be a waste, as they can, at this point, be extracted and used as test subjects at a later date.
Next thing we have is a clue, given to us by ol' SEARCH himself. He is an algorithm, or started as such - designed to be adaptive, to self educate, and given his name as such. "SELF EDUCATING AUTONOMOUS REASONING COMBAT HACKING" Artificial intelligences aren't designed or created - they are born, spontaneously created when an agent or a program evolves. Some are simple, even animalistic. Others, like SEARCH, much less so, but they occur spontaneously, and their personalities may very well be dictated by their original functions. He also further indicated his origins when he indicated that FastJack was an intruder in the matrix - as though SEARCH himself is not... as though he is a creature of the matrix, which suggests either an AI, or a technomancer... but a technomancer would have no need of Jack's body... certainly no desire for a body that lacks technomantic abilities, and especially no desire for a body that is a senior citizen. Given that piece of information, and the intellect of the AI, why go after Jack, unless you were trapped within him (not willing to discount the possibility.)
FastJack is a very intelligent man. I do not believe that it would be difficult to count him as a genius, in multiple areas. He has 'superior hardware' in that skull of his. I would hazard Riser also has above average IQ. Although it is again conjecture, I would make a guess that with rare exception, those infected are individuals functioning at higher than average intellectual levels.
Back to my original statement about Search: Search was designed for a criminal function. He is by his nature unstable and dangerous. He will grow within the original parameters of his programming.
The second clue is much less obvious, but still there, if you know where to look. Mindstorm Neurotechnologies. It is simultaneously an attempt at misdirection, and a strike intended for the heart. It is not unreasonable to believe that criminal AIs and E-ghosts, given time, even limited access to a body, would create a means to their end - and until stormfront, I had never heard of Mindstorm Neurotechnologies... further, large Nuyen Transfers were made to "Riser" - thus indicating that the AIs have a desire for wealth. If that wealth was kept secret, it could be put to purpose.
This means may very well be Mindstorm. I tend to believe that the genewipe is actually a means to assert themselves as individuals within the world - Tabula Rasa: A blank slate. I will however concede that as conjecture, as it may very well set things up to make it easier for them. But why the nanohive? If this virus perpetuates itself through nanoware, that means that either a subject must continually dose themselves with nanoware, as it washes out of the body over time, or, there must be a nanohive.
This means that those infected should, in theory, become uninfected after a relatively short time. Nanoware is likely an infection vector, but it is likely not the only means by which this problem perpetuates itself. Even a single missed treatment would be a cure for the problem, otherwise - and I find it improbable that the infected... those who have been so infected for several years, have not missed at least one treatment in that time.
Ah, but thats the thing. (Please forgive my meandering thought process here) half the stuff on the planet is constructed of nanotech, and nanotech has been malfunctioning lately. But these are artificial intelligences, and if they're smart enough to hijack bodies, why would they glitch a potential means of infection vector, something so seemingly innocent as a T-shirt?
Except that they didn't glitch the T-shirts, did they? You wear those on your body. Direct physical contact, chance for inhalation vector infection, skin contact infection, even oral ingestion when someone absently chews on a T-shirt, or other article of clothing. I'd even be willing to make a bet that things that are consumed or worn on the body or otherwise have close contact (like a nanofax made toothbrush, perhaps?) are the only items being reliably constructed.
I don't know about you, but I think maybe it is time for a run on Mindstorm.
Now that I think on it, if I were a mess of AIs and E-ghosts that are hijacking bodies? I would be really quiet anywhere my infection vector (theoretically nanoware)) might be concerned... and real noisy somewhere else. Like if I had influence over nanoware, but that wasn't my infection vector, and I wanted to trick someone like me, I would make exceptions for things that would make sense as infection vectors, such as T-shirts, and let them go off without a hitch, bit glitch everything else. Make a big flash and noise, get everyone looking at everything that doesn't matter to me (its a lot like politics) so I can go about my business uninterrupted, unless the glitches were side effects, in which case, I'd be making efforts to leave no discernible patterns, focusing so that glitches effect my infection vectors less, but not completely removing them. Metahuman pattern recognition can be played against metahumans, it is both a powerful tool in our arsenal, and a powerful weakness to those who know how to exploit it.
Then again, perhaps its not something the AIs and Metasapients are doing to the nanotech. Perhaps someone actively working against them is messing with the nanotech to reduce the infection vector. The more I look at it through a paranoid microscope, the more I begin to suspect that there are more players at the table than I thought were dealt to. I hate a card game where you can't see the other players, gives me the feeling everyone is cheating.
Ugh, I sound like Plan9.
... only thing I know for certain, is its time for a run on Mindstorm. The answer is in the names.