Chapter 59

"Are you ready?"

"I've been ready for a long time..."

I nodded to Vic, who was now sitting next to me, and I was lying in his reaper's chair. It had been a week since I'd lost my leg and arm, and he'd had all my parts delivered to him, so he'd decided to install everything at once.

What else has passed this week?

Well, DeShawn and Faraday continued their attempts to recruit the girls, the first one even came down to sinful earth and met us in his limousine, at that very insistently offering the girls a ride with him. Naturally they turned him down. And although they refrained from the maternal message, the refusal of this individual was still accepted with such a face that it was clear ... he wouldn't forgive.

Faraday was a little more squeamish about it and sent his sixes to us. My girls, however, had the same response. They simply refused. And if DeShawn was quite restrained, perhaps fearing me, or maybe by nature, Faraday's sixes even tried to threaten. We calmed them down a bit by sending them to the hospital...

We also took Vic out for a barbecue. And that meeting went more than great. Good food, drinks, socializing...

"Good, then when you wake up, you'll be good as new..."

I grinned.

"That's good to know..."

"All right, come on, go back to sleep."

And he injected me with a medicine that made my eyes immediately close.

"Well, that's it, come on..."

I was clapped on the shoulder and opened my eyes. There was no sleep in either eye. Then I slowly raised both my hands and examined them. I clenched and unclenched them, and then slowly rose to a sitting position.

"Vic..."

I still took my time getting up from the riper's chair and made a couple of tentative moves.

"...you're a wizard."

"Uh, you bet! You know."

There was sadness in his voice and a certain amount of embarrassment.

"...when you have good chromium and good medicines it is not so difficult to be a wizard. It is much more difficult with those who try to save every penny, trying to use cheap drugs, either with expired expiration date or produced by unreliable companies, or chromium from garbage collectors, but only from garbage collectors, so also chromium not the first freshness..."

"It's really getting to you, isn't it?"

"You have no idea how..."

"Well..."

I scratched my cheek thoughtfully.

"I can't help you there. except, uh."

"Unless..."

Vic looked at me with interest.

"Unless you want to become a nomad and take a position as a reaper in the Aldecaldo clan."

Vic grumbled.

"The conditions there..."

"That was... now the clan has enough equipment, but it still needs to be prepared, but in general one Behemoth will be completely remodeled as an office for the riper. So everything will be at a fairly high level."

Vic glanced thoughtfully at the clinic's exit. I realized he was looking in the direction of Misty's store. And naturally he shook his head, refusing my offer.

"No..."

"Well, suit yourself...but it seems silly to me... to suffer the way you're suffering, you either have to act."

I also nodded in the direction of Misty's store.

"...or drop everything and make a drastic life change."

"Kid. you gonna tell me how to live my life?"

Vic looked at me with sadness, but at the same time I could see that he was not uncomfortable with the topic. On the contrary, he was glad to have someone to talk to. And even if this someone is a jerk that is three or four times younger than he is, but even so...

"Well, unlike you, I've got two girls already and three more on the way."

"Three? I didn't think Kiwi had much interest in you, she's kind of got a thing for Pilar..."

"Well..."

I shrugged.

"Let's be honest, who'd give up a girl like that? Especially now she's all hot for him, but when it comes down to it, what happens?"

"So what?"

"Well. first of all, there's the question of where to live. She's been living with us for a few weeks now, and it's me who takes care of the food in our company, since the girls themselves are only capable of making tea. And they all like to eat good food..."

"Are you saying that delicious food is your cunning plan?"

"I wouldn't say it was a plan, more of a subconscious effort to attract attention. I didn't even think about it until about a week ago. Before that, I was just eating good food and enjoying the satisfied faces."

"I know what you mean."

"Speaking of satisfied moses..."

"А?"

Vic looked at me in surprise.

"How's it going with our mutual acquaintance who's aiming for the big leagues?"

"Well, V. herself has made some upgrades. I can't say the chrome she's chosen is major-league chrome, but, uh. She's been getting herself ready for the big leagues. I think she went to Malstrom's the other day, had some problems.

I made a note to myself. So they've already taken the BOT. Which means they've either already found a master brainiac to process all of Parker's data for them, or that's their next move. And with DeShawn still boring us.

"How's Jackie?"

"What about him?"

"Well, did the big guy come by your place? Did you install Chrome?"

"No..."

"Well, then don't worry, you'll soon have chances to first just comfort Misty and afterward show her that she'll be better off around you."

"А?"

"Vic, a major league assignment is no big deal, the Wakako they worked with, they never got a major league assignment. Mid-level. But you must realize that with a chrome that serves in the midleague, you can't do much about it... I was only getting by on skills and the number of runners, three runners is still a lot, and I have an experimental sandy, which let's be honest is much cooler than those that can afford even many corporations from the big leagues...

"Well, that's right..."

Vic frowned.

"...oh no..."

I shook my head.

"What?"

"Vic, don't do that. Don't be so generous with your generosity."

"David, you're paying for your girls, and you're paying for Panam and Judy, I get it, they're your girls, but Lucy, Becca and Kiwi... you've got your sights set on them, but still... Paying that kind of money for them..."

I sighed.

"Shit, Vic, what are you, a fucking saint?"

"No, but Jackie's my friend. and I don't want to stand on his license and tell his life story--

I sighed again.

"Fuck... fucking saint."

I repeated those words when I saw his eyes light up. Apparently he had personally decided to call Jackie and offer him a new chrome on credit. And looking at him now, I wondered if I could do the same. And I have to admit, I probably couldn't. I couldn't.

"Okay, well, uh."

I was clapped on the shoulder as Vic's eyes faded and he turned his gaze back to me.

"...come on, get up and get dressed. You're doing fine now, but it's best not to go on combat missions for the next month. Get used to the new capabilities, because the muscles, although the same in capabilities, but still much more powerful than the previous ones, I selected them so that they in combination with the new skeleton could give you all their one hundred percent. Of course, it would be possible to put more powerful ones, but you yourself wanted a skeleton that would weigh about the same as a normal human one, so it is necessary to determine what capabilities you have now."

"Uh-huh... what's with the skin and subcutaneous armor?

"Well, your subcutaneous armor is now powerful, but you must understand that if you fall under a hail of bullets, it will withstand, but the skin..."

Vic shook his head.

"...you'll have to change your skin. And if you move too fast, don't forget that rubbing your skin against the air will give you a lot of discomfort."

I sighed.

"Don't worry, I've already got my costume ready."

"Hmm?"

"I took as a basis the costume of a raner, put on some armor, so that the movement does not interfere, as well as a helmet to protect the face. So I hope that the body will be protected from the forces of friction, and from shots... Still, the armor should protect from them. Although it's not worth getting under heavy fire, yes..."

I got to my clothes and put them on leisurely. No, I could have acted faster, but I still had little sense of my body's limits, except that I realized it was much stronger than before...

"All right, I'm off."

"Go, go, go..."

I walked out of Victor's clinic, and then quietly walked towards Misty's store, where my girls were waiting for me, who had decided to go with me. We all knew it was pointless to go with such a crowd, but the girls really wanted to talk to Misty, and they were worried about me.

"Here I am..."

I entered the store and to my surprise I saw not only my girls and Misty there, but also Vee, who was standing there with a slightly disgruntled face.

"David..."

She nodded her head at me.

My girls were much less restrained, Panam came up to me and scrutinized me, unbuttoned my jacket and made me take it off, pulled up the sleeve of my shirt and only after making sure that there was no sign of loss of limb she gave me a gentle kiss on the lips.

While I was getting dressed again, Judy was next to me; she didn't undress me, just looked me in the eye and nodded and kissed me. Lucy and Becca were next to me, kissing me on the cheeks. Kiwi was the last to come to me, and with a mocking glance at Judy and Panam, she kissed me on the lips.

To say I was shocked is an understatement...

She's got the hots for Pilar. or not anymore?

Yes, the kiss was light, weightless, childlike, but all in all, it was already signaling...

"I see you're back in one piece..."

"Yeah, and I see DeShawn's still holding out hope for me? And if not me, at least my girls? Isn't that why you came here?"

"Yeah..."

She frowned even more.

"...and why is he picking on you so much?"

"Probably not used to getting rejected, but honestly my answer still doesn't change. No, we're not gonna work for DeShawn."

She sighed.

"I suspected you'd say that... and the client is almost hysterical, saying that the data she got can only be processed by your Judy..."

I shrugged.

"It's none of our business... V, I don't want to have to deal with DeShawn..."

"Yeah, you already said that. but as a solo, I had to come and talk."

She sighed and turned around and headed for the exit.

"Are you sure you don't want to?"

She dropped that phrase as she stopped in the doorway of Misty's store.

"Right, we've got a lot of other things to do right now..."

And it was true, because in the past two weeks I had been made the head of the clan and we had already started to master the equipment from the police warehouses. Of course, it wasn't brand new, but... there were parts there too, so we did repairs on the spot. I also did not forget to work on the orders of Redina and Bestia, of course technical orders, and even just by doing them we got decent sums, because the girls helped me when it came to the technical part, and I helped them when it came to installing ice.

Vee left the store, and I answered the phone, which rang at the same second. It is rightly said that everything that can happen, will happen in a moment, so that it all brings as much inconvenience as possible.

"I'm listening to you, Regina."

"David, you've been ordering me around..."

"Hmm?"

I made a stand, since I've only left one order for Regina lately. On learning chips...

"Did you get it out?"

"Yes, although I must admit it wasn't easy and it wasn't cheap..."

"How much?"

She quoted me a price and I almost groaned in pain. Almost my entire life savings. I wouldn't have an airbag after paying for this. But it's worth it, right?

"Okay... I'll transfer the payment to you."

"I got the payment, how can I get the chips to you?"

"We'll pick them up ourselves. I don't want to pass this kind of thing on through a third party."

"Huh, I see your point...and hope you get back to combat missions soon..."

"Two weeks at the earliest. although Ripert was talking about a month, but I'm still hoping that by following his advice I'll be ready for combat operations sooner."

"Okay, uh. so it's just technical orders for now?"

"Yeah. (chuckles)"

"Okay..."