Chapter 49

A few days at work have flown by... quickly and fruitfully. Judy, Lucy and Kiwi became a couple of orders more efficient and faster. This had an immediate effect on the overall speed of the assignments and now we were able to take not two orders a day, but four.

Is it hard?

Yes.

But overall, more than lifted and earnings went up immediately. However...

I looked at the unknown number and raised my hand to indicate that I was dropping out of the conversation with the girls, then answered the call.

"I'm listening."

"Quiet? This is Faraday. I'd like to offer you an order..."

"Uh-huh...

I tried to express my dissatisfaction in my voice, but I didn't hang up or say that I was busy. My dissatisfaction was caused not only by the fact that he didn't even ask when I would be free... But his tone...

"When?"

"Tomorrow..."

"I'm busy."

"...the day after tomorrow?"

"Also."

"You seem to misunderstand a little, I'm Faraday. Working for me is extremely lucrative. Didn't Kiwi tell you that?"

"Told me..."

The image of Faraday smiled.

"...but what difference does it make? Faraday, do you know how long I've been working? No? I'll tell you, I work five days a week. Five days a week, I work like hell, I don't have a minute of free time on those five days."

"But then..."

"And to that end, I'm not giving my two days off to anyone."

"I can be quite generous..."

"Uh-huh, can you give me my youth back, too? Well, so that later, if I live to old age, I will not regret that I only plowed without wasting time on myself...

"Are you sure about your decision?"

"What's the solution?"

I grinned.

"In deciding not to work for you? I'm sure. I generally don't like to work for outsiders without references."

"But..."

"Yeah, Kiwi asked to talk to you, but you didn't even say anything..."

I shook my head.

"Are you kidding me?"

"О..."

My image nodded its head.

"...you figured it out? How do you expect me to treat a man who tries to manipulate me through a member of my squad? How am I supposed to treat a man like that?"

"Are you sure that's how you want to talk to me?"

Faraday's voice changed and I could hear the threat in it.

"I'm sure."

"You know, uh. I'm gonna wait for you to come crawling back to me."

I didn't answer anything, I just ended the conversation. Of course it would be possible to communicate with him more adequately, but... after Kiwi's history, after all the data I bought from Regina and Bestia on other fixers... I didn't want to talk to him in a polite mercenary way. It was good that he only mocked me, and not sent me to him...

"Yeah. we talked."

"Hmm?"

Panam glanced at me. Now we were on our way back to the apartment where we were going to have our debauchery. And this time we were planning a threesome, and Kiwi, Lucy and Becca wanted to watch a movie... and we had good soundproofing and plenty of floor space...

"Yeah. I couldn't help myself. Faraday called me. a tone of insolence, self-assurance, and superiority. Well, I couldn't help but make fun of him.

"That's, uh. it's not good."

"Yeah, I'm sorry, Kiwi. I really wanted to talk to him normally. But when he wanted to give me an assignment in the first sentence. and in that tone of voice."

"Yeah...and I warned him..."

Kiwi shook her head.

"Anyway, what should we expect? Because his last line was, "I'll wait for you to come crawling back to me.""

"Well, all in all. he's definitely gonna start making some shenanigans. but he's not gonna go after Bestia, but Regina."

"Should we warn her?"

"Well, it wouldn't hurt... to have her ready for trouble on our orders, unexpected trouble, after all Faraday is not DeShawn, who always disappears and is sure of his excellent reputation, Faraday works like hell, he has a lot of debtors, informants, mercenaries..."

"Mm..."

"Well, at least we've already started upgrading. You're the only one left, but you're already the most powerful, so I'm guessing we'll get through the first setup easily. Maybe even make a profit."

Kiwi covered her eyes and put on the mask she'd taken off in the car. It was a gesture of sorts, signaling that she'd switched to work.

I, on the other hand, frowned.

"Maybe his..."

I ran my thumb across my throat and Kiwi shook her head with a sigh.

"No... not an option. I'd like to, but he's got too good a roof, and you didn't want to get into the corporate world..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah."

I nodded my head.

And having said that, I dialed Regina.

"Quiet?"

"Anyway, Faraday got in touch with me, and I got a little... a little bit of a temper tantrum. So he might start getting in my way."

"Uh-huh... problems, problems, problems...

Regina sighed.

"Look, I don't believe in these things, but you're like a sign from above. I got a cop I know. Can you help him out?"

"Regina?"

My image raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Have you heard of Peter Pan?"

"Um...honestly, no..."

"You haven't been watching TV?"

"TV? I don't have time for that..."

"Okay... anyway, until recently there was this maniac, kidnapper, murderer, he was nicknamed Peter Pan. He would kidnap teenagers, lure them in, and, uh. that's it. nothing else is known. He was accidentally caught, found dead in his car, and the cops shot him dead in the process..."

I frowned.

"AND?"

No, I remembered the canon and there was kind of a Peter Pan thing going on... but the details. I don't remember that anymore. A side quest with a cop. And I have too busy a life right now to remember such small details.

"The problem is that he was shot, but he didn't die..."

"Should we finish him off?"

"No. if that were the case, my friend would do it himself, the point is we need a master brainer who can pull information out of a comatose brain damaged..."

"Just a second, I'll hook Judy up--

"Come on..."

A couple seconds and Judy answers the phone.

"Is something wrong?"

"Regina, bring her up to speed and she can tell you if she can do it or not."

"Okay, uh. so, uh, background. There's a coma patient. He's a criminal, but he was shot in the head when he was apprehended... But we need his memories. We need something to hold on to so we can find where he's holding teenagers who aren't dead yet."

"Uh..."

Judy was very confused.

"...well, in theory it's possible, but in practice, you have to look at how damaged the brain is, and also look for something from real life that can make his brain work in the right direction. But that's only if the brain's intact enough... there's sophisticated technology, I've read about it. You can access dreams. And then you can process those dreams into a brain."

"So it's real?"

"Well, uh. Yeah. but I'm telling you, we need to see what's going on with the brain."

"David, can you go now?"

I sighed... I guess the threesome's on hold, but when Regina asks for it. no, it's okay to say no, but... I'm too nice to this fixer. So saying no is not an option.

"Go where?"

"Knight City P.D. Lab, in the Glen, in Haywood. I'll text you the contact info for a guy I know. His name is River Ward. He's a cop, but he's a good cop, probably one of the few cops in Knight City that don't take bribes. Give him a call when you get there."

"Okay..."

I sighed.

"Drop details in an email..."

"Okay, uh. and, uh, David. thank you."

"Regina, don't-- just know that you can count on me.

"Uh-huh...

The connection broke, and I opened my eyes.

"Panam, we're changing our route. We need to go to Haywood for the Knight City Police lab."

"Uh, uh. are you sure?"

"Yeah, Regina asked for help. and he's a cop with some Peter Pan issues."

"Um... something I heard..."

Becca joined the conversation.

"You mean the kidnapper the cops shot?"

Kiwi joined the conversation as well.

"Yeah. not exactly shot, more like put into a coma and will need Judy's help to create a brain if possible. So we have a job to do, which will probably go unpaid, but will boost our relationship with the fixer."

"I see..."

The girls sighed, Panam, however, abruptly reversed the direction of Tortika's movement.

"So, uh, any details?"

"Now..."

I opened the letter from Regina and read it, then began to tell the girls exactly what our main employer had sent me.

"...so, our contact. Honest cop."

At this phrase the girls snorted.

"...no, really, I doubt Regina would make that characterization just for fun."

"Well..."

The girls hesitated, because Regina really didn't seem like someone who could give such a characterization just like that.

"...On the whole, you're right."

I nodded and decided to continue.

"So, an honest cop, and he's got a problem, because Peter Pan has apparently kidnapped his nephew. And now Peter Pan is lying in a coma, and what happened to his nephew, where is he and is he alive at all, all these questions need answers."

"Yeah. well, let's help an honest cop!"

Becca belligerently raised her fist upward.

In general, the conversation could have ended there, but the topic of honest cops was unexpectedly continued.

"Do you think there's a lot of honest cops in Knight City?"

I snorted.

"More than it could have been, but less than I would have liked."

"This is..."

Becca wanted to say something, but was interrupted by a more pragmatic outlook on life Kiwi.

"You mean greater than zero but less than at least ten?"

"Well, as usual, Kiwi ruined the fairy tale moment when we could have dreamed that there are actually a lot of honest cops out there, it's just that we've been unlucky in life and mostly fallen for the creeps..."

Judy chuckled as she said it.

"It's just the way the city is. Knight City is not conducive to the survival of honest rational..."

Kiwi wasn't about to give up her own point of view.

"Well, David and we survived, didn't we?"

Panam grinned.

"Well..."

I decided to join the conversation again.

"...We are a good illustration of the saying, "Good must come with fists.", which is why we survived..."