Part 4

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***

It wasn't hard to spot the car that was following me, but I didn't bother. I just memorised and stayed calm. However, if I hadn't experienced death, it would have been hard to stay calm in such a situation.

The taxi stopped exactly in the car park in front of Lizzie's Bar. I calmly left the car, noting with a glance as the car that had been following me parked on the other side of the street. Still not panicking, I walked to the entrance of the bar.

There were girls standing on either side of the door, and as I approached, one of them pulled away from the wall and took a couple of steps forward, throwing her bat threateningly on her shoulder.

- Boy, you've come at a bit of a bad time.

- Or maybe not the right time...

The dark-skinned girl grinned at the wall.

- No, I came to the right place at the right time. Inform a certain Judy that a specialist from Regina has arrived.

- Hmm.

The bat girl's eyes lit up and she nodded.

- Come in.

- Thank you...

I nodded to the girl, who stepped aside, and went inside the bar and went through a small corridor, where there was a security desk, and ended up in the central hall. It was two-tiered and I looked around with interest.

- Who are you?

I was approached by the bartender, who was the first to notice me.

- Judy.

- Hmm...

The bartender's eyes lit up.

- Wait, she'll be here in a few minutes.

I nodded my head and continued to look around, and five minutes later the girl I'd been waiting for came through one of the doors.

A low whistle escaped me.

- Judy?

- Yeah, why?

- I just didn't expect my employer to be so beautiful.

- Pfft! No chance...

I shrugged.

- So I wasn't doing anything... just stating a fact. I'm definitely not going to start a relationship for a pretty face....

- Right?

She looked me over and waved her hand, urging me to follow her.

- Mm-hmm... need to get some here too....

I tapped my temple a couple of times with my index finger, and the girl looked back and noticed my gesture.

- ...and also here...

A couple of taps on the rib cage.

- ...there was something.

- Brains and soul?

- You know...

I nodded my head a couple of times.

- There's a good saying in the Russian quarter. You meet people by their clothes and see them off by their brains. That's the same here, a beautiful face is good, but nowadays it means almost nothing, you can make any appearance. But you can't put someone else's brains in, just like some moral values....

- You're funny... with such views on life, and you went solo?

- Sometimes life happens in such a way that you either have to lie down, fold your arms on your chest and die, or get up and walk.

- Yeah?

- Yeah... just yesterday, a student at a corporate academy, the hope of a mum who works like a damned to pay for tuition....

I shake my head.

- ...today an orphan, unable to pay for a flat and tuition. So, you either go solo with all that entails, or you just go and die in the nearest back alley.

- I know what you mean.

- Hmm?

- When I was a kid, I found a fire engine in a junkyard... it was in a shitty, shitty condition, but I was interested....

- You restored it?

- Yeah.

- Clever fool.

- Hey!

- Come on, Knight City's entire junkyard is owned by corporations. And if it's still realistic to steal a wreck, like a washing machine or something, then a fire truck....

I shake my head.

- And you probably also decided to ride on it ...

- Yeah.

This she muttered quietly and slightly offended, and I could not help myself and caught up with her and hugged her by the shoulders.

- What's wrong with you? I'm not judging.

I shook her slightly, causing a surprised look from the girl.

- I guess... if my situation hadn't made me grow up so fast, I'd be happy to build a fire truck or a police car out of... parts found in a junkyard and then take it for a ride.

- Hmph.

- It was stupid and reckless, but that's what kids are for...

We got down to the basement and I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

- This place is... pretty clean.

- Yeah...

Judy shrugged.

- ...What did you expect?

- A creative mess.

- Huh, you think the world of me.

She shook her head.

- All right, show me what needs fixing, huh?

- Well, let's start with this server.

She took me into one of the rooms.

- ...as I was told you haven't worked with equipment specifically for the Brains, but you can look at computers and servers...so do it.

- Mm-hmm. You got a tool?

- Let's go.

We returned to the main room of the basement, where they gave me a set of tools and waved me in the direction of the server room, which I came to. With that said, I kept the door closed and decided to get back to the conversation.

- So what happened next?

- What happened next?

- Well, so you put the car together, took it for a drive....

- А...

I could hear the sadness in Judy's voice. Of course I knew her story, but she was my favourite character in the game. I even played the game as a girl a couple of times for her! So to keep the conversation going and learn her story first hand, so to speak, I was really interested.

- And then there was the colony...

- Caught?

- Yeah... and they charged me with stealing a fire engine.....

I stopped talking for a while, having found the server problem and thought about how best to fix it. There were different options, but I wanted to do it cheaply and reliably.

- So, you're a big-time sitter, huh?

- Pfft... yeah... when I got out, I tried to sue the city, or rather, I went to the lawyers who....

- What an idiot.

- Hey!

- Judy, in this town, the stupidest thing you could do would be to sue the corporation.

I shook my head and walked out of the server room.

- Where are the parts?

- Over there.

I was waved over to the lockers and walked over to them to pick out the parts I needed.

- What am I supposed to do? Accept it? Swallow it?

I gave Judy a hard look.

- What?

- No, no, I just couldn't resist answering your question. Regarding your question... the lawsuit should be against the person, not the system. Pull up your file, find the name of the official, then pull up the fire service records and find the data on the decommissioned car you were rebuilding and sue the individual.

- But...

- Judy...

I interrupted her without a word.

- I'm not saying the system's perfect or anything. I'm just saying that a system can only be fought by another system. Only a corporation can fight a corporation, only a city can fight a city. The case against you was started by a very specific reasonable person who USED the system to make a profit at your expense, or maybe to get promoted.

I shrugged my shoulders and walked towards the server with the parts I picked up to repair it.

- Just take it as a fact that it was a man who sent you to the colony...

- You think... but he's got a family....

- You know.

I looked out of the server room and caught a glimpse of Judy, who was also away from some of the Breen equipment.

- ...it's nice to be kind and not want to hurt someone. But in this particular situation, the only way to not hurt anyone is to forget and forgive. If you want compensation, you should definitely file a lawsuit against the person.

I went back to the server room and continued working.

- After all, you too have a family and a life of your own and this official didn't care about that.

- I guess...

For a few hours we just worked, exchanging phrases related to work, during which time I fixed the server that was out of order and inspected and cleaned the rest of the servers. Once I was done with them, I came out of the server room and sat down in the chair across from Judy.

- So?

- What?

She looked up at me.

- What else do I need to fix?

- You done with the server room?

- Yeah, you can take that job. Not only did I fix the server that crashed, but I cleaned the rest. So nothing should be down anytime soon.

Judy nodded and stood up and went to the server room, which she left a dozen minutes later.

- It's okay...

She looked at me carefully.

- Can you take a look at the old computers?

- Come on...

I shrugged, and Judy took me to the warehouse where I burrowed into the hardware.

She and I didn't finish until late in the evening, when the bar was fully operational, and I could hear it quite clearly. Although the soundproofing was pretty good.

- So, how's it going in here?

- Susie?

Judy looked up from the table yes, and I looked up at the girl who had come in.

- Yeah, have you been working hard?

- Mm-hmm.

- What do you think of the bloke?

- The guy is good... He may be zero in hardware, but he fixed the server and has already fixed two old computers.

- So you're happy?

- Yeah... I'd book him for tomorrow, let him clean up the computers until the end. We could use the extra hardware in working order.

- You okay?

- Nobody's closed my order yet...

I shrugged.

- So on the way out I'll just call the fixer, tell him that you have more work than expected and tomorrow morning I'll come to you again.

- Great!

Judy looked really happy.

- Can we exchange contacts? If you're on your way up, call me and I'll meet you in the hall.

I nodded my head and we exchanged contacts, then I stood up and stretched and walked out.

- Okay... see you tomorrow then.

- Uh-huh, bye... wait!

Judy's shout made me stop.

- Yeah?

- What's your name? Cos you know me, and I only know your call sign from Regina... Quiet.....

She snorted.

- ...although you do like to talk....

- David. David Martinez. And I'm quiet because I do my more delicate work quietly... without too much fuss or sacrifice.

- Okay. I'm Judy Alvarez.

- Nice to meet you, Judy. I'll see you tomorrow.

- Yeah. (chuckles) Bye. Bye.