“To Vik’s clinic.”
Judy gave the order.
I just shook my head.
“First we deliver the package.”
I called Regina immediately.
“David, you’re done?”
“Yeah.
I’ve got the package, still alive.
Can hand him over.”
“Still alive?”
“His shotgun backfired, shrapnel hit his chest.
I gave him an injector, and he’s stable for now.
But he needs a medic soon.”
“I’ll send someone.
Where’s good for you?”
I thought about it.
“Little China, Ti-Hu-Tan Street.
It’s quiet there.
We can do the handoff.”
“Ten minutes.
My guy will be there.”
“We’ll be a bit longer.”
“He’ll wait.”
I nodded and ended the call.
I told Panam where to go.
“Lucy, how are we on the accounts?”
“Good.
Real good.
Why don’t we work like this with Maine?”
Lucy sounded impressed.
She sent me the money.
I whistled.
Ten million.
I split it the same way as the main reward.
Except this time, the netrunners got the biggest cut.
“Holy shit.
I can buy a new gun!”
Bex practically melted into the back seat.
“Is this right?”
“Yeah.”
I explained the split to Lucy.
“But…”
Lucy took an elbow from Bex.
“Shut up!
You want him to take it back?
I’m blowing all this on myself.
My moron brother doesn’t know about it, so he can’t spend it.
He’s used to paying for his chrome with my cash.”
“God, that’s familiar.”
Panam chimed in.
“You have a dumb brother too?”
“Brothers.
Plural.
I’m a nomad.
We’re all family, but every family has idiots.
They screw up, everyone pays.”
“And they get away with it?”
“Until they don’t.
We’re lenient, but if they really screw up, they get kicked out.
That’s how the Raffen Shiv started.
Exiles.”
Bex whistled.
“Didn’t know that.”
“Now you do.”
The car swerved and lunged forward.
We finally passed the slowpokes and hit an open road.
Panam floored it.
“Panam, take it easy.
I’m not dying.”
“You’re hurt.
You need to see Vik.”
“I will.”
I nodded.
“But I’d rather not die in a crash getting there.
Ease up a bit.”
“Grrr…
David, don’t push me.”
“I’m serious.
I’m fine.
My arm’s wrecked, but Vik will fix it.
He’ll make me better than before.
You know this city.
No one pays attention unless you cause an accident.
And we’re not the only ones who know that.”
“Panam.”
Judy put a hand on her shoulder.
“He’s right.”
“Fine.
But we’re taking a break.”
Panam glared at me.
“Got it?
No work.
None.
I’m taking you to my clan.
You need to relax.
I need to relax.
Judy, you’re coming too.
You’ll stay with us for a while.”
“Uh…
okay?”
Judy sounded unsure.
“You two can come too.”
Panam glanced back at Bex and Lucy.
“You’re cool.”
“We’re going!”
Bex was immediately on board.
Lucy hesitated.
“I don’t know.
What if Maine needs us?”
“He’s a musclehead.
He’ll call if he needs us.
But you know he usually does one job a week, maybe less.
He works for Faraday, who doesn’t exactly hand out contracts like candy.”
“That’s natural.”
I cut in.
“What do you mean?”
“Faraday’s a corpo rat.”
I shrugged.
“He works for Arasaka and Militech.
He plays both sides.
Good at it too.”
“Arasaka?”
Lucy latched onto the name.
“Yeah.
If you don’t believe me, buy info on him from other fixers.
You’ve got the cash.
You won’t even notice the hit.”
“So Faraday’s jobs are limited?”
“Exactly.
Fixers like us have a broad range of jobs.
Faraday’s stuck with corpo work.”
“Shit.”
Bex frowned.
“Yeah.
I asked Maine if he worked for Arasaka.
He said no.”
“He might not know.”
Lucy looked at me.
“He might not.”
I shrugged.
“Faraday doesn’t advertise who he works for.
Most solos don’t find out until they leave him.
They don’t realize they were corpo pawns.”
“Damn.”
Lucy got quiet.
The rest of the ride was silent.
Twenty minutes later, we pulled onto the street.
I messaged Regina.
She sent the coordinates of the pickup car.
We parked bumper to bumper.
I got out, opened our trunk, checked the package, confirmed he was still alive, and moved him to the other car.
The driver checked the vitals.
“What’s with the shard?”
“My netrunner put a program on it.
Stops him from calling out or being tracked.”
The driver nodded and closed his trunk.
I closed ours and got back in.
“Now we go to Vik.”
As we pulled up to Vik’s clinic, a message came through from Regina.
She was thanking me, and strongly suggesting I take a month off.
Too much heat lately.
Payment was already in full.
I walked into Vik’s clinic in a good mood.
“Christ, kid.
What happened to you?”
“Ran into someone with a Sandevistan.
He was waiting for me.
Got a shotgun off.”
“Get in the chair.”
Vik pointed.
I sat.
“Bex?
I thought you were with Maine.”
“Uh…
not sure anymore.”
Vik raised an eyebrow.
“David’s not your style.”
“Maybe not.
But the money is.”
I could have sworn I saw dollar signs in her eyes.
“I get to shoot things too.
Even if it’s just playing around.”
“Lucy?”
“I’m not sure either.
Maine works for Faraday.
David says he’s tied to Arasaka.”
Lucy shuddered.
Viktor put on his ripper glove, injected himself with something, and flexed his fingers.
“Let’s take a look at that arm.”
He activated a scanner that looked like an X-ray machine.
He checked the display.
“Bone’s savable.
Muscle too.”
“Vik.”
“What?”
“I’ve been thinking.
I don’t want to end up like Maine or Smasher.
But my meat body can’t keep up with my Sandevistan.”
“Go on.”
Vik was watching me closely.
“Synth muscles.
Same volume, twice the strength, five times the endurance.
No mental side effects.
No cyberpsychosis risk.
At least, not that I know of.”
“You’re right, kid.”
Vik nodded slowly.
“I’m surprised.
It’s expensive.
Regular chrome would be cheaper.
But synth muscles are a good call.
Mostly athletes use them.
They want the edge without the chrome.”
He thought for a moment.
“Anything else?”
“A better cyberdeck.”
“For what?”
Vik raised an eyebrow.
“I let netrunners work through me.
I can feel how much my deck bottlenecks them.”
“That’s…
unusual.”
He looked at me strangely.
“Most solos avoid that.
You let one in on your first day.”
“I trust Bex.
She trusts you.
That’s good enough for me.”
“Fair.
So, deck and synth muscles?”
“Yeah.”
I nodded.
“Good.
I’ve got something else too.
Experimental Kiroshis.
Military-grade.
Fourth-gen, maybe higher.
Stripped off a corpse.
I already checked them out.
No traps.”
“Let’s do it.”
I grinned.
My latest haul was more than enough to cover everything.