Part 20

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***

- To Vic's...

Judy gave that command, but I just shook my head.

- Let's turn in the body first.

And that's when I contacted Regina.

- David, are you all done?

- Yes, I can give you the body while it's still alive....

- Still?

- His shotgun went off, shrapnel hit his rib cage. I gave him an injector, and since he's still alive, his heart and other major organs are intact, but he'd better see a medic.

- I get it... where would you prefer to hand the body over?

I've been thinking.

- In Little China, there's a street called Ti-hoo-tan, it's not too busy, we can go there.

- Got it, my man will be there in ten minutes.

- It'll take us a little longer to get there.

- He'll wait anyway.

I nodded my head and cut the connection, while telling Panam, who gave a grudging nod, where we should go.

- Lucy, what's up with the bills?

- A lot...a lot...why aren't Maine and I working like this?

Lucy looked at Becca and transferred the money to me. Which made me whistle. Ten mil! I didn't get greedy and split it the same way I'd split it, but if the biggest part was mine, the biggest part went to our netrunners, who got us this pay raise.

- Fuck...I can buy a new gun!

Becca's literally sprawled out in the backseat.

- Is there a mistake?

- No...

I shook my head and explained to Lucy the division of my team.

- But...

Lucy got elbowed by Becca.

- Quiet! You want him to ask for his money back?! I was only going to spend it on myself, and my stupid brother doesn't know about it, so he can't get into debt that I have to pay out of my own pocket. You see, he's used to paying for his chrome at my expense.

- Yeah, that's a familiar situation.

Panam commented on Becky's words.

- What, you have a dumbass brother too?

- And not just one... I'm a nomad, we're all like family there, but the family is not without its freaks. They do something wrong, and we're all responsible.

- And they get away with it?

- Up to a time... usually we're a bit lenient with the dumb ones, but if they do something big, we can kick them out of the clan. Or how do you think the Steelers were formed? They're clan splinters.

Becca whistled.

- I didn't know.

- Now you do.

The car jerked sideways, then again, and we finally overtook all the turtles that were on our way and flew out onto the almost free road, where Panam pressed the accelerator to the floor.

- Panam don't drive like that, I'm not dying....

- You're hurt and you have to go to Vic...

- I have to...

I nodded my head.

- And we'll go to him, but it's better if we don't have an accident. So just slow down a little bit.

- Grrr... David, don't make me angry....

- No, I'm serious, I'm sitting here, I'm fine, my arm's all messed up, but Vic will fix me up, I'll be better than I was, but there's no way that's gonna happen if we accidentally have an accident. You know how crazy this town is. No matter how fast you drive, no one will pay attention to us, at least not until we cause an accident. But we're not the only ones who take advantage of this city....

- Panam...

Judy's hand on her shoulder.

- ...he's right.

- Okay, but we're taking a holiday.

Panam gave me a stern look.

- 'You hear me, no work... no work at all, I'm taking you out of town to live in my clan. You need to relax a little. And I need to... Judy, we're taking you out of town too, live in the country for a while.

- Um, okay?

Judy said it in a very uncertain voice, which was understandable. She'd never even been offered that option before. And here it was just a matter of fact...

- You two... you're welcome to join in too....

Panam glanced at Becca and Lucy.

- ...you two are funny....

- Erm.

- I'm in!

Becca immediately agreed, while Lucy didn't know how to react.

- At least I'll be away from my arsehole brother! I'll get some rest! And you can shoot, can't you?

- Of course, we have a shooting range, it's not often used, but....

- Lucy, you're coming, aren't you?

Becca looked at her friend.

- I don't know... I've got the money, but... what if Mayne needs us?

- That jock's gonna call us if he needs us. But you know he doesn't organise anything more than once a week. Often less, cos he works for Faraday, and Faraday doesn't exactly throw orders around.

- It's only natural.

I got into a conversation with the girls. We've already worked with them, and if Panam has decided to invite them for a holiday together, they've left a very good impression on her. And I trust her judgement.

- What do you mean?

- Faraday is a corporate rat....

I shrugged.

- Only works with Arasaka and Militech and is very successful at getting her arse greased with Vaseline and the former and the latter.

- Arasaka?

Lucy seized on that as if to demand that I confirm those words.

- Yeah... you don't believe me, you can buy information on him from the fixers. You'll have enough money for that, you won't even notice you're spending it.

I shook the shoulder of my healthy arm.

- So Faraday doesn't get a lot of assignments. We, who work for regular fixers, have the right of choice and a wide range of assignments. But fixers are usually not affiliated with one gang, Okada is an exception, and as a consequence they get orders for everything. Faraday, on the other hand, only has to work on jobs that benefit corporations.

- Fucking...

Becca frowned.

- Yeah... I don't like Arasaka... and I asked Mayne if he worked for Arasaka and he told me he didn't....

- And he might not know...

I shrugged at Lucy's words, and when she looked up at me in surprise, I smiled softly when she looked back at me, because I had a rear-view mirror in the car and could see the faces of the people sitting behind me. I hope they see me too.

- Faraday doesn't advertise who he's working for... usually the solos associated with him, until they go to another fixer and don't know that all the assignments they've been given are for the benefit of corporate bigwigs. That at their expense more than a dozen rats have risen up the career ladder.

- Yeah.

Lucy was very loaded, and we travelled the rest of the way in silence.

After about twenty minutes, we pulled into the street and I immediately texted Regina, who dropped the geolocation of the car I was supposed to put our cargo in. We stopped exactly boot to boot. I got out of the car and calmly walked to our boot, opened it, checked the condition of the cargo and making sure that the cargo is alive and is not going to die I transferred it to the boot of the car sent by Regina.

The driver also checked the type's vitals.

- What's the chip?

- My Rauner put a demon on it so this one couldn't contact anyone and couldn't be tracked.

The driver nodded and slammed the boot of his car, while I closed Tortik's big boot and sat quietly in the front seat.

- Now to Vic's...

Already when we were approaching Victor's clinic, I received a message from Regina, in which she thanked me and strongly advised me to take a break for a month. I'd made too much noise lately.

Naturally she paid me the money in full, she even promised me a bonus when the shipment arrives. But here everything depends only on the customer, who should be satisfied with the condition of the cargo.

Anyway, I entered Vic's clinic in a high mood...

- Jesus, baby, what happened to you?

- I ran into a Sandy user who was waiting for me and took a shotgun blast.

- Okay, let's get in the chair...

Vic nodded me to his operating chair, where I sat down, and then glanced at the girls.

- Becca, I thought you were with Mayne.

- Yeah, I'm kind of... not sure anymore...

- What?

Vic looked at her with a grin.

- David's not your style of work.

- Yeah, but the money.

I could have sworn I saw money signs instead of pupils, which glistened with Becca's emotions.

- I had to shoot her, even if it wasn't in person, but as if I was playing a toy...

- And I'm not so sure... Mayne works for Faraday, and according to David, he's connected to Arasaka....

Lucy shrugged her shoulders, meanwhile Victor checked that I was sitting properly, put on his riper glove and injected something from the injector into his hand. Then he wiggled his fingers and with a satisfied nod looked at me with his eyes.

- So... the hand needs a closer look....

With these words he activated some device, which resembled an X-ray machine from my previous life, but obviously more advanced, and checked the data that were displayed on the terminal.

- So... the bone can be saved, and the muscles too....

- Vic.

- What?

- I've been thinking... I don't want to become a cyborg like Maine or Smasher, but my human body just can't work in the same mode as my Sandi....

- So what do you suggest?

I was looked at with a very frown.

- Synthetic muscles. They are, if I understand things correctly, at the same volume....

I pointed my finger at myself.

- ...will give you twice the strength and five times the endurance. They don't affect the psyche, and they haven't made people crazy... well, not that I know of.

- You're right, kid... they haven't...

Vic looked at me thoughtfully.

- ...and, frankly, I'm very surprised. It's not a cheap option, regular chrome would definitely be cheaper, but you're talking about synthetic muscles. They are now mostly used by athletes who do not want to train or just want to go beyond the limit available to the average person, but do not want to put a lot of chromium ...

Vic looked at me thoughtfully, checked the readings of the device and closed his eyes.

- Any other requests?

I shook my head thoughtfully.

- I want a lot of things, but we will proceed in increments. I don't know yet what exactly I will get from installing synthetic muscles. I'll have to try them, and before that I'll have to go through rehabilitation....

Vic gave a satisfied nod, acknowledging that I was right.

- Unless... a more powerful cyberdeck.....

- What for?

Vic raised his eyebrows in surprise.

- Often I let the Ranners work through me, and I can literally feel how much my deck limits them with its bandwidth.

- Um...

- What?

Looking surprised at the speechless Vic.

- It's just unusual...

- That's right... usually solos try to avoid running a raner through their implants, and this one let me in, even though he's only known me for the first day.

- This is about Becca. She trusts you, I trust her, so you deserve a chance too.

I shrugged in response to Lucy's question.

- Especially since it ended well....

- Okay, so a deck, and synthetic muscles?

- Yeah...

I nodded my head and raised an eyebrow questioningly as Vic scratched his cheek in embarrassment and looked away.

- Vic?

- Well... I don't usually do this sort of thing... but I was offered some optics, second-hand of course, obviously taken off a dead man, but... I thought of you, kid.

I blinked.

- Me?

- Yeah... kiroshi, experimental, obviously generation four plus, and military grade... anyway, I couldn't resist and bought them back. Naturally, I've checked them out, so there's nothing wrong with them.

- Come on!

I grinned and waved my hand, agreeing to replace the optics. I've earned a lot of money, so I'll have enough for everything I want.