Save Private Maine and the Cards of Destiny.

Saving Private Maine and the Cards of Destiny.

"Look, if you want to eat, just let me know instead of stealing food right off my plate." - I reprimand VJ, who looks right into my eyes and pulls a piece of fish off my plate with his paw. And most importantly, I don't see any remorse on his face. Only condemnation and the thought that I'm such a bad master who doesn't want to feed the poor cat.

I sigh, grab him in my arms and we go to the fridge together. Opening the fridge, I let him smell the food on the shelves and choose what he wants to eat for his second or third breakfast. This time he decides to savor the salmon. After cutting up the fish and making sure there are no bones in it, I place the bowl with food on the small table next to me, then return to the meal interrupted by one cheeky snout.

We finish eating together and after washing the plate and a quick clean up, we sit down in the soft armchair near the window and enjoy the warm summer days. A cat, the sun, a good book and a mug of delicious coffee. Eden-like atmosphere.

The pleasant vacation was interrupted by an unexpected call from Dorio. Strange, usually she writes a message first and only then calls. So I answer the call.

"Hi, Dorio. What's up?" - I wanted to politely ask how things were going and the reason for the call, but her frowning face made me get right to the point.

"Mayne. He's become unstable. Marcus, we need help and as soon as possible!" - Dorio says and the sounds of banging against the wall can be heard in the background.

"Where are you!!! How bad is it? Who else is in there with you?" - I get up from my chair and put VJ on the warmed seat. I go to the mini armory-cloakroom and start to equip myself in insignia-free armor.

"We're back at our place. Maine started convulsing and then hallucinating. Pilar and Rebecca tried to help, but Maine accidentally hurt them so I sent them home." - Dorio's answer made me frown. Looks like Maine is one step away from cyberpsychosis.

"Dorio. Remember at one of the drinking parties I handed you an expensive first aid kit? Quickly go and find it." - nodding in response she disconnected and went looking for it. I had already ordered a Delamain cab and went downstairs.

In the elevator I started typing a message to Jorg asking for help and explaining situation. Jorg immediately called back to me.

"Markus, I'm out of town right now. I won't be back for another hour or an hour and a half."

"That's too bad. I need help right here and right now. "

"I got it. Take Maine to the nearest ripperdoc with a good reputation and tell him to try to stabilize Maine. That should buy us some time. While I'm out of town, I can only do consultations."

"Okay. Hurry up, who knows how much time we have." - I end the call and on my way out I get a call from Dorio.

"Marcus! I have found it. A black case with a bunch of syringes and capsules."

"Great. Take the syringe labeled blue and have another one ready just in case, but with green labeling. The blue syringe contains a powerful sedative that should knock out or at least sedate Maine. The green one is in case he starts having cardiac problems. After the shot, you load Maine into the car and wait for me. From there, we'll go to a more or less decent ripperdoc. I'm on my way to you." - I see a notification from Delamain that car will be here in a minute.

Standing on the side of the road, waiting for my cab is when I see V and Jackie waving at me from the sidewalk.

"Hey Marcus. What's up with you?" - Jackie comes up first and stretches his hand, which I shake in return.

"A friend may have cyberpsychosis. I'm on my way to help him out." - I answer him.

"Need any help?" - V asks.

Hmm, why not. In my situation of not having a team of badass penguins with me any help would come in handy.

" It wouldn't hurt. But do you realize that it's probably going to be very rough out there and blood might be spilled? "

"Chumba we are Solos. We can't be surprised by that, and if you throw in a bit of eddies, it'll be great." - Jacky answers for himself and V, who acknowledges with a nod.

"Okay. There's a cab coming and we'll go to my friend's place and from there to the ripperdoc we still have to find." - I'm sending a couple thousand eddies each.

Finally a Delamain pulls up and I wave for them to follow her.

"Yo! That's the most expensive cab in town. Are we gonna ride in it?"

"Yes. It's the only one that can get us there fast enough. Customer Excelsior, priority speed." - I answer them and pass the command to the AI who nods his head from the screen. Taking all the available seats, our car quickly picks up speed.

Already a couple minutes away from Mayne's house, I get another call from Dorio. Damn, I hope she just wants to know when I'll arrive and not something else.

"Marcus! Hurry up! Mayne, has a heart problem!"

"Shit! Dorio inject him with a green syringe, we'll be at your place in a few minutes. I've got a couple guys with me to help. Just hold on for a couple minutes! Just a couple minutes! Over." - I turn to the guys. - "V, Jackie, this is a bad situation, so be prepared for anything. The hospital bills are on me. Just in case, we're gonna have to go unarmed, using only our fists. And try not to hit him in the head."

They just nodded. We arrive at Mayne and Dorio's house and the sound of fighting can be heard. Without wasting any time, I run to the apartment and break the lock on the door with a shot. With a couple kicks I break down the door to the apartment, where before my eyes is a picture of Maine with Dorio hanging around his neck and trying to restrain him.

"Jacky! V! Help her! Dorio, where's the first aid kit!" - I give out orders to the guys and start looking for the first-aid kit I need.

"It's over there on the bathroom floor!" - yells Dorio, who, with the help of the guys, has knocked Mayne to the ground and is trying to keep him from breaking free.

I rush with lightning speed to the bathroom where I see the kit, but to my disappointment almost all of the syringes are damaged. But apparently luck was on my side, and I see a couple of intact syringes with blue markings and one with purple that has powerful micro-relaxants in it. I quickly grab them and run back to Maine who is being restrained on the floor.

Taking the syringe with the myorelaxant, I start injecting it into his leg. A 1/5 dose for each of his arms and legs should be enough to give us a chance to safely inject the sedative from the blue syringe without risk to Maine.

"Hold him tight!" - I yell to the boys and Dorio. Piling on his left leg, I inject the first part of the dose and after a few seconds the leg stops twitching. I repeat this with the rest of my leg and arms. All that's left is to administer the sedative, but Mayne keeps twitching his neck and I have to activate my chromium and inject the sedative from the blue syringe at just the right moment.

Just in case I only give him half the dose waiting for it to kick in. But after 10-15 seconds Maine calms down and falls into slumber. Together with the guys we help move Maine to the couch.

"Marcus you're about damn time!"

"What did you expect from a TT member. Motherfucking first aid just in time."

"Hahaha. That's right. How could I forget."

""Are you okay?""

"Tired as if I were at a rodeo or after a really fun night out. Ha ha." - Dorio laughed trying to use humor to hide her fear that was visible in her eyes.

"Well the important thing is that you had fun. Alright now we have to take him to the ripperdoc. Do you know a good medic nearby?" - I ask Dorio and start searching online.

"No. Our ripperdoc is too far away. Besides, I doubt he can help here." - Dorio shakes her head.

"Uh. Marcus. I know a very good ripperdoc. His name is Victor. He mostly works with implants, of course, but I think in your friend's case he might be able to help in some way, and he's got a pretty good reputation." - Jackie sends me a link with Victor's information. I quickly read everything there is to know about Victor. He seems like a good guy, and close enough as well, which is what we need in our situation.

"Dorio, do you think you can drive the car now?" - I ask Dorio.

"Yeah, just a little dizzy and my hands are shaking."

"No. Let's not take any chances. You and Maine will ride with me in Delamain's cab. Give the car keys to the guys and they'll follow us and help carry Maine to Victor," - I call a cab that hasn't gotten far and pay for the extra cab service.

"Less talking, more action. Guys, slowly carry Maine down to the exit and wait for the cab. Dorio, take anything you might need, including money and other valuables." - after giving out instructions me, Jackie and V,carry Maine who is still unconscious.

The cab arrived quickly enough, Dorio only had time to get out with a couple of bags and toss the key of her car to the guys. Dorio jumps into into a cab and we start off.

Due to concerns for Maine's health, the ride took 20 minutes and I injected some more sedative just in case. But apparently I was worried for nothing and we were all able to arrive at Victor's clinic without incident.

Inside the clinic Victor was performing some sort of surgery on the arm of a client sitting in a medical chair.

"Are you Victor? I need your help right now." - I start to speak to him, while carrying Maine is getting carried in.

"Yes. But I have a patient right now." - he points to the guy sitting next to him.

"Hey get the fuck outta here. Now!" - I look at the patient whose body is covered with a bunch of tattoos.

"You get the fuck outta here, you piece of shit. Can't you see I got a fucking operation to do?" - replies the asshole boldly.

I quickly step in to grab him by the neck and pull him to the exit, not paying attention to the flow of scolding and attempts to punch me. When I get outside I start beating him until he turns into a frightened and shitting lump of whimpering meat on the ground.

"I repeat, for the last time. Get the fuck outta here and don't ever get on my radar again." - The guy nodded his head and started crawling toward the street. Almost on his way out, he apparently gained some courage and started threatening me by payback from his gang.

""Moron."" - I pull out a gun and put a couple bullets into his head. Some people don't understand a kind word and I have to use the gun.

I head back to the clinic where Victor starts examining and treating Mayne. Apparently while I was busy with the clinic's previous patient Dorio and the guys were able to tell Victor what happened.

"How is he? Can you stabilize him? Another medic should be arriving in an hour who might be able to help Maine." - I approach Victor, who is administering IVs to Maine's arm.

"He's in shitty shape, but it could be a lot worse. I can stabilize him for sure, but it's going to take some cash and any further treatment will cost even more. Ask your medic to hurry. The sooner he arrives, the better chance of keeping the big guy from going into cyberpsychosis." - Victor says and takes out his tools and starts working on the implants.

"How much?" - I ask and start preparing the money transfer.

"At least five thousand or seven thousand eddy maybe even more, there's too little intel at the moment. I need to order some expensive drugs and gadgets."

"Here. There's 50,000 here. If you need more, let me know." - I send him the money making Victor arch his eyebrows in surprise. But the pause doesn't last long. He quickly hops up to his computer and begins to set up an express delivery.

Realizing that there's nothing else to do and everything is now in Victor's hands I go outside and sit down at the entrance and have a smoke. I send a message to Jorg to hurry up with the address of the clinic. After a while Jacky and V come out of the clinic.

"Marcus! Who is Mayne?! Is he some kind of corpo agent or the illegitimate son of a rich family and you are some sort of bodyguard-babysitter?" - Jackie asked.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha," - his words makes me laugh. - "He's just not a bad guy I consider a friend. We've helped each other out a lot of times. So it's nothing like that. Just helping a friend in need."

"Gee. I wasn't expecting that. You just wired a bunch of money to Victor and didn't even bat an eye. Not many people these days would do that for a friend."

"People who can be called true friends are very hard to find in life. That's why you have to cherish and appreciate them. For only someone who has become a true friend will stand with you in your darkest hour and rescue you from the worst abyss." - tilting my head back and looking up at the twilight sky I reply to Jackie.

"Hoho. You're quite a philosopher. But there's truth in what you say. At Valentino's, friends and family also highly valued. So I understand. It's just hard to believe that there are corpos willing to do that for their friend." - Jackie says and sits down, lighting a cigarette next to me. V takes a seat next to him with a thoughtful face.

"You know. Nomads have a lot of nonsense and idiocy too, but they value family and friendship too. Just now I'm realizing how important that is. Too bad it's so late. Maybe I wouldn't have done something stupid then." - said V and smiled sadly.

"Hey hey hey! Then you wouldn't have met such a wonderful me. So don't have any regrets. Besides my mom's birthday party is coming up soon. There you'll feel the warmth of the home hearth again." - Jackie patted him on the shoulder and smiled. That helped, V smiled without sadness in his eyes.

That's how we sat, killing time by talking and joking. Finally Jorg arrived and without further ado ran inside the clinic. This allowed me to relax a little. Half an hour later came a message from Jorg, who asked for another 100000 eddies for Maine's treatment. I had to empty my account and now I only had money left in a emergency fund that I keep for really bad situations. Actually. Whatever. It not like I can't earn any more money in future. So no problems.

A couple of hours later, an exhausted and tired Jorg and an equally exhausted Victor got outside. Sitting down next to us they demanded beer, which I went to get from the nearest store. Having given them a couple of bottles, which they emptied in a couple of seconds I realized that the crisis had passed and now we could rest, because the fact that they had allowed themselves to drink meant that the hardest part was over and they could relax.

"Damn it, we spent almost 300,000, but we managed to prevent Maine from going into cyberpsychosis." - Jorg said taking another bottle of beer out of a bag.

" What 300000? I only handed over 150000, didn't I?" - asked Jorg in surprise.

"I added what was available, and took some from Dorio." - his answer shocked me. That this greedy troll would give money without any interest. Did the sun come up from the west today?!

"Jörg, did you really spend your money? I can't believe it." - I said, still unable to understand what had happened to the old stingy Jorg.

"Eh ye. If it wasn't for Maine and that prototype incident, you and I would be running around brainwashed and risking for pennies. So this is just paying off old debts. I don't like being owed, I like being owed you dumb neophyte. That's the Way of Scrooge."

"Ha ha ha. Now, I recognize you greedy old hamster. But where did all that money go?"

"I had to fucking call in neurosurgery and cyberpsychosis specialists from Johns Hopkins and Zurich Hospital for consultations. And order special implants to keep Maine from having a relapse and allow his nervous system to recover. That idiot plugged in a bunch of bullshit chrome, and some were very poorly calibrated. But don't worry. He'll be fine now. Although he'll have to get used to the new implants and stop working solo for a while. Tomorrow the implants we ordered will arrive and we'll do the final adjustments. In a couple months he'll be totally fine. "- phew, we can definitely relax now since Jorg says everything will be fine.

A crying Dorio came out of the clinic and she lunged at my neck.

"Thank you! Thank you Marcus! If it wasn't for you, I would have lost Maine." - Dorio cried and thanked me.

"You're welcome Dorio. He's my friend after all, and you're not a stranger either. So just be happy that everything ended well. Especially since you know the motto of the penguin commandos, right?" - I smile at her.

"'Foolishness and bravery'?" - Dorio asks.

"Nah, that's fitting for Maine. For us it is - Smile and Wave, Boys!"

My words cause everyone to laugh out loud which caught the attention of Misty, the owner of the esoteric store next to the clinic.

"Victor is everything okay?" - she asks walking over to us.

"Yeah. Just having fun and celebrating another victory in this ring called life." - Victor salutes her with the bottle.

"Would you like me to tell your future ?" - she takes a seat next to us and pulls out a deck of Tarot cards.

"Girl, can you predict me which stocks will rise and which will drop?" - Jorg asked.

"No. Tarot cards are above that." - Misty shakes her head.

"Then I'll pass."

"Let's try it on me. I don't think anything will surprise me after today." - Dorio was the first to respond.

"Okay. Oops." - Misty reached for the cards and wanted to pull out the first one, but they accidentally scattered. There were now three cards in front of Dario.

"Judgment. Justice. Temperance. Judgment - this card signifies an important change that will mark a recovery or accomplishment. It is also a symbol of reward for your efforts."- Misty explained the meaning of the first card.

"The second card. Justice. This card symbolizes both a just verdict and the trial that precedes it." - The second card scared Dorio a little, but judging by Misty's smile all was good.

"The last card. Temperance. This arcana is associated with the art of self-control and the desire to find inner peace. Dorio. This is a very kind and good combination. You will do well." - Misty's words make Dorio cry again. But this time they are tears of happiness.

"Let me do it now. It will be interesting what fate has in store for me." - I say to Misty, who has picked up the cards and shuffled them.

But again at the last moment, the cards scattered themselves, only this time in front of me.

"Wheel of Fortune. The Empress. The Star. Oh gods." - Misty cried out in surprise.

"What, is it that bad? Am I in danger of getting married because of some random fluke?" - I try to joke, not really understanding Misty's shock.

"No. There are changes awaiting you, the Wheel of Fortune is the arcana of swift change. The Empress. This arcana symbolizes creativity and growth. It encourages you to trust your heart and listen to what your intuition is telling you. The Star is the arcana of hope. It burns brightly in the darkness of the deep night, showing travelers the way home. The Star is inspiration, motivation and gives us strength to move forward. Great accomplishments and deeds await you. If you trust your heart you can achieve them." - her words suddenly gave me goose bumps.

"'Holy shit. Marcus who the fuck are you?" - Jackie asks with shock on his face and the others have a look of surprise on their faces.

"Me? I don't know now. But I do know one thing for sure. I have an unusual destiny ahead of me." - I answer, lighting a cigarette and trying to stop my hands from trembling.

p.s hey guys if you want advance chapters let me now. Maybe will add more chapters to boosty account.