Cyberpunk II 2786A.D. Las Vegas.

I plug the hotel connector into my hand and a follower once again sullies the rush of ones and zeroes. Glancing over my shoulder I see it has taken the form of a snake.

Picking it up, I create a cageful of hyperactive mice…information I have no interest in…and dump the snake in before going on my merry way.

Then the sea is crashing around me and I’m standing on a rock in the middle of it. So much information to search through, how will I find Viktor?

Leaning over, I peer down into the seemingly deep water and grin. Placing a foot into the waves I sink up to my knees before my foot lands on what feels like glass. Mhm…good thing I wasn’t suckered into diving.

Sloshing along, feeling with my feet, I come to a panel. After a few minutes of investigation and not a few swear words I manage to kick it open and fall through with the water.

Surfacing, I find I’ve fallen into deep pool. The area around it is dark, ones, zeroes, and circuits glowing dimly, fading and reappearing. There are black rocks around the pool, and something brushes past my foot in the inky-green water.

Diving, I begin to chase down Viktor and his food chain.

When I finally unplug from cyberspace I feel weak and tired. It took far too long and yielded less than I like but there is some information to go on.

Kiara and I order some food and mow through it while I give her the skinny on Viktor’s business interests.

 

The hover unit swerves in front of me and my hand hit’s the NOS. Of all the stupid panic accidents I could have, this has to be the one quicker then I can blink the ninja is tilting the Hover ready to swallow up the beautiful antique. I can hear metal grinding against bitumen now my leg is howling with agony. The heat is unbearable. I tell myself I’ll go Emo on myself if I cry, but I can’t help it. The tears spring from my eyes and I’m thanking god I chose to wear a helmet to bad the rest of me isn’t protected. The physics of the bike make it separate from me hurtling down the road. My foot twists up under my leg and snaps. I manage to look up as the bike slows then stops. Thank god, with any luck the only damage will be to the panels. The hover stops between me and the bike. I force myself up with a shriek of agony.

“You dumb f***tard,” I shout. I’m so angry I spaz out I try to hop up and down and fall over a sharp shooting pain ripping up my leg. “Why, what did the poor bike ever do to you.” I know I’m heading towards hypochondriacs are us but I’m so damn mad, I don’t want to walk through the freaking desert.

The door of the hover unit closes and I hear boots hitting the road as someone walks towards me. I pull out my gun and clench it in my fist until my knuckles ache.

 

Zu parked the UMB behind a dumpster and tossed a ratty blanket over it before entering the warehouse. Mr. Brady was already there with the men from yesterday.

"Ah, Mr. Wesley," Brady said, smiling. "Time to finish the test."
Zu smiled back. "I'm looking forward to it."
"Here, these are for you," Brady said, tossing a plastic bag to Zu.

Zu opened the bag. Inside were a red bandana, a black eye-mask, and a beige capone hat. He looked up questioningly. "It's to hide your face, dingbat," Brady said before turning back to the other men. "Show starts in an hour, Mr. Wesley here has the escape route."

Zu nodded and took out the pieces of paper he had written the directions on. The group looked at the notes and then back at Zu.

He smiled. "Just trust me, guys."

 

After an extremely brief shopping trip for clothing, we head back to a hotel to get cleaned up, food and planning. D*mn, Vector has alotta tattoos. I'm not really listening to the planning session, I'm still thinking about what the crazy doctor told me about my new alts..."Ok, ok, first, your shoulder... it has a micro-sized 3-D holo-projector in it. You can display all manner of information with it. It also doubles as a HUD targeting system, so you can shoot with more accuracy. In addition, I examined the augments you already had, and saw this shield. I like that. Very useful, very useful. I expanded on it and centered the control and power-source for that in your shoulder also. Now when you trigger it, instead of a shield, you will get full-body armor. Because of the increased power output, though, now it will only last 15 seconds, and will need time to recharge. I'm not sure exactly how long... I've never tested it. So the armor will move with you, I have encoded chips into your right arm, the existing receiver on your left wrist, your new foot, and these two items, an ankle strap for your normal foot, and a neck strap to track the position of your head." Now all that could be d*mn useful...'specially if I run into Yellow-eyes again.

They've apparently come to a decision while I was lost in my thoughts. "Sounds like a plan to me, I'll go get us some guns and a bottle of whiskey to celebrate." and tattoo-boy leaves with the look of a man on a mission. I watch Tolva plug in and go into one of her little trances, so now I'm bored again. I figure it's as good a time as any to test out the other alt. I look down at my foot... I know he explained the whole thing to me, but alot of it sounded like technical jargon, so I'm still a little confused. I trigger the thing off...
*CHHOOOM!*
I go shooting straight up, about 5 feet... but considering I'm 5'1", and the ceiling isn't 10 feet tall, it's an unpleasant trip. *BAM!* I hit the ceiling, and *THUMP* I land in a crumple.

OW! So that's what the doc meant by 'concussive-force jump assistance'. All I really caught from that part of the conversation was that I should be able to jump between 5 to 10 feet farther than I was able before, although it might be more because he'd never tested with someone as small as me. I guess I should have tested outside. I drag myself back to my feet, and Tolva hasn't even twitched. I flop myself back down in a chair just in time for her to 'wake up' from her hacking. Man, it looks like she ran a marathon or something, she looks beat. She orders some food, and I add a request for some headache medicine to the order, and we sit down and go over what she found while we wait for Vector to get back with the firepower.

 

I followed venom out where the strange, crazy man reseived more free things from his, enimes? Who knew with this guy. It had better be a good car, I was tired of walking, and being driven around would be a nice change. "So were to now?" I asked, wondering how much more I'd let him lead before I considered my dues to him paid. Not to much longer, he was an idiot. Going purpously into a nutt cases building for supplies? Didn't even get what he said he was gona, just got the basics, thought we were gona rob thhe place blind. If you ask me Venom is the blind one, blind, and dumb. Sure hope I surrvived this guy.

 

As the big casino came into view Nomad let out a sigh of relief. He almost thought that those gangsters were crooked even in their last words, but they'd told the truth, right before he killed them. The memory brought a smile to his face. He entered the casino and looked around at all the bright lights and busy people, eager to throw their money away.

As he entered the concierge gave him a polite greeting and asked if he needed assistance, he charming replied no and continued on his way. It's not your day to die. He walked through rows upon rows of virtual slot machines and roulette tables. Blackjack was his game, he loved it. As unpredictable as bowel movements.

He seated himself at a table where there were three other gentlemen, a tall business man with a pin stripe suit, what looked to be his partner in a lesser quality suit and an old man with a vintage cowboy hat. He sat down and watched a few hands before placing his bet. A jack and a queen.

"I'll stay." he smiled and put his cards down.

According to the two dead gangsters this casino was owned by one of the influential people in the Russian mafia. Led by a man with a cross shaped scar on his left cheek. Apparently they were extremely violent and didn't take any trouble from any one. My type of people.

He met the clear blue eyes of the expensive businessman, who decided to hit and then after a few seconds called to stay.

Nomad looked around and saw a hive of security camera's mounted on walls behind curtains, near doors, just about every conceivable place was being monitored, which is exactly like they had described it. He was a bit suspicious about the fact that he managed to sneak in a gun which went undetected as he passed into the casino.

The lesser businessman went bust and so did the old man. The dealer flipped his cards. 21. Nomad had 20, the expensive man 18. Nomad smiled a bit,

"Can i see your manager."

"Excuse me sir?" replied the dealer.

"I would like to speak to your manager." Nomad looked up into one of the cameras that had swiveled in his direction. He could almost see the lens adjusting to snap his face.

"Aww c'mon. You lose one hand and you got your panties in a bunch?" asked mr expensive,"Lighten up pal." he patted Nomad on the shoulder.

"Do not touch me."

"Excuse me is there a problem here?" A huge man with a wireless earpiece came up behind Nomad.

"Yes, i think this man is cheating." said Nomad.

"Please come with us sir." Nomad was escorted by the large man away from the tables and in through a locked security door that only opened with a valid retinal scan. So far, so good. They proceeded further in through a maze of brightly lit white halls until they came to a door, which was unlocked and Nomad was ushered in and asked to sit down. The large man spoke silently for a while before a bunch of men, led by a man with a cross shaped scar on his left cheek, arrived in the room.

Nomad counted five large men of equal size. He looked at each of them before making eye contact with their leader.

"You," he pointed at Nomad,"You look at my camera when you have a gun. Why?" one of the large men promptly searched Nomad and relieved him of his firearm.

"I know some things that could help you. The gun was merely to get your attention." The man laughed, and then his goons laughed with him.

"You know how many punks like you i see everyday? Offering information for money, protection and the like. Phonies. All of them. You know what we do to phonies? We wash them." Nomad put on a confused face,"I have a giant washing machine. Inside it are hundreds of sharp blades. Just throw a body in for 5 minutes it turns to mince."

"Sounds like fun. But i assure you im no phony," Nomad stretched out his arm and allowed all the men in the room to watch it disappear, "I am actually, dead serious."

 

Micheal lead Jonathon to a nice black sports car in the parking garage. Micheal looked at Jonathon.
"Can you drive?" Micheal asked, "I'll run us off the road if I drive."
Micheal walked up to a red limo, Mafio's car, and punched the window out. He took out a jewelry box out. He looked in the jewelry box to see a diamond ring. With a snakish smile Micheal took the ring.
"There isn't anyway I'm going to let you dirty man hug all over woman now," Micheal said under his breath, "We can talk to some of my friends in the Las Vegas show in one of the Casinos."
Micheal rubbed the box.
"It's called Velvet Line....by the way don't expect much out my friends they are hot, but they are transvestites every single one of them," Micheal paused, "Unless you swing that way."

 

I did my best to ignore Venom. "Just give me the damned keys Venom." I said holding up my hand for him to throw them. "Just tell me where to go and I'll make sure we get their in one piece." I promised. And looked over the nice car for a moment. This might be better than I had thought, looked like a fun drive. I wondered what it had under the hood, hopefully something, poluting, and loud. American muscle car type engine, always better than the quiet, boreing import engines.

 

Zu waited at the first check point with two smaller transports. The idea was two bring the heavier transport there, and then separate into the two smaller ones. From there, each transport had a different route to take. Each route ended with two heavy speeders to bring the goods back to the warehouse.

Within a half hour of waiting, the large transport showed up. He threw on the hate, mask, and bandana, and then hopped out to help unload. The cargo was secured in heavy plastic containers, Zu had no idea what they were. As he helped load, he noticed Brady wasn't anywhere to be found. Guess the boss doesn't work.

Once the cargo was secure, Zu looked at the men. "I'll take the large transport, and I'll meet one of you at checkpoint B."

The men nodded at each other and Zu hopped in the large transport. He put it in gear and headed for the Wal-Depot ten blocks away. He was nervous about the law, but it needed to be done. Twenty minutes later, and Zu was at the WD. He backed the transport up to the dock and got out.

"Hey!" he heard a man's voice. "Hey you ain't on the list!"
Zu shrugged it off and headed to the front of the store.
He heard the man run up from behind. "Hey jacko**, get your rig the f*** out of here."

The man spun Zu around, and Zu pulled his pistol on him. The man raised his hands to the sky. Zu shook his head and pistol-whipped him upside the head, knocking him cold. He dragged the man back to the transport and leaned him against before heading to the front. He removed his face garb and stuffed it in his jacket. He made his way to a speeder he rented from the Aberdeen.

Forty minutes later, he parked the speeder a block from checkpoint B and ran the rest of the way. One of the men was waiting. He had already loaded the goods into the two heavy speeders.

"Sig said he and T will be here in a couple of minutes to take care of the transport."
Zu nodded. "Good, let's get this s*** back to the warehouse."

They each hopped in their respective speeders and took off in different directions. After another twenty minutes, they were back at the warehouse where Brady was waiting. There were some more men there, unloading the goods. Zu backed the speeder up next to the other three and got out.

He walked up to Brady. "How'd you get the truck without alerting the law?"
Brady winked at him. "We're that damn good, kid." He put his hand on Zu's shoulder. "And so are you," he said smiling, "Welcome to the Brady Bunch."
Zu grinned and shook Brady's hand. "Thank you, Mr. Brady," he said. "So what next?"
Brady lead him inside. "After the boys load that stuff, we got to deliver it."
"Where's it going?"
"That's Mr. Krokodil's stuff now," Brady said.
Zu's stomach twisted in knots. Krokodil's? he thought. Suddenly he was eager, I could take him out and maybe get off the frozen tundra for good. "When do we drop it off?"
Brady laughed. "We aren't dropping it off," he said, "I am. You ain't big enough yet to meet him."
Or not, Zu thought bitterly.
Brady took an envelope out of his jacket and handed it to Zu. "Good job, Vin," he said, "stop by the warehouse anytime you want. If not, I'll call when we need you."
"Thanks, Mr. Brady," Zu replied.
"Go have a blast in the city kid, you earned it."

Zu nodded and shook Brady's hand again. He made his way out of the warehouse, hopped on the UMB, and rode back to the Aberdeen.

 

Micheal hissed very loud at Jonathon. He didn't like things taken from him like that. Micheal sat in the car.
"You want to make a right of Ridge Row, Ridge Row is the exist out of the place by the way," Micheal said.
Micheal looked at the window and smiled at the red limo.

 

I ignored him some more, sat in the drivers seat and turned it on. The engine prrrd. Got to be an american made car, no import sounded that pretty. "That's a good girl." I said to the car and reved the engine up once before pulling out onto the road. It was busy, but not as bad as i thought it was going to be. "Ok, keep feeding me the directions, and try not to get us lost." I said and wished that I was outside the city limits so I could test the girl out. She needed a name, I thought as I stopped at a red light. I patted the steering wheel, Eve, way, that fit her perfectly, Eve who tempted Adam to taste the forbiden fruit. She was a temptress all right.

 

"Will you stop petting the car...it's just some junk of metal," Micheal said, "Once you go right from Ridge Row keep on growing straight for the next five miles, after that you want to turn left on Cider road, and then want to make a right onto Winchester....there you will be at Velvet Lining Casion."
Micheal grumbled a little. He didn't like Jonathon attitude. He just wanted to cut Jonathon's voice box or something.

 

I followed his directions, and pulled outside up to the front entrence to the casino. "So we're here." I said, considering me being his driver about the last favor for me to be payed back. The car felt like she agreed, she wasn't for taxiing around nutt jobs, she needed to be used for real work, maybe I could get hooked up with one of the other groups, then I'd be free of Venom at least. "What is your plan exactly?"

 

"My plan is simple," Micheal said.
Micheal eyes looked at Jonathon with a snakish smile. Micheal got out of the car.
"There really is no need to get out of the car," Micheal said.
Micheal towards the front entrance of the casino and smiled. The black sports car blew up with Jonathan inside of it. The money and the car had been laced with bombs. Micheal wasn't going to try to kill Jonathon until Jonathon broke one of Micheal's last nerves.
Jonathon nerved Micheal. And Micheal wanted him dead now. Mafio came out of the casino clapping. Mafio placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You're such a naughty boy," Mafio said.
"That is what you get, you broke my last nerve, I had to babysit you this whole entire time," Micheal said.

 

Half the car exsploded just like he had warned me it would. Though that didn't keep me from being scrapped and pretty badly burnt but the exsplosion had been aimed away. Damned nutt needed me to look dead to do something, oh well, maybe i'll take the opertunity to disappear. I slipped out the side door and stumbled dazed into a near by alleyway where I gathered my thoughts. What was the next step he said he needed me to do? Oh ya, that. After this we were definatly even.

 

Once the weapons had been admired I outlined my thoughts for Kiara and Vector about how we could dry up some Vegas scum.

“Think of it like a shark feeding program,” I begin, holding the whiskey up to the light and admiring it’s amber hue as I sit in a hotel chair with one booted foot up on the desk, “we catch some of the middle-sized fish and toss them to the sharks. I have a medium fish already picked out.”

I tell them of what I found. How we can target our medium Viktor fish.

“The tricky bit,” I admit, “is to get inside long enough to find his memory file chip. He doesn’t leave the information that we want hanging out there in cyberspace for someone like me to cherry-pick. He keeps it all safe and secure because,” here I lean forward and point the index finger that’s holding my whiskey glass at Vector, “I’m sure he has information on that chip that is not going to be healthy for him if his competition…or worse yet, his business partners, find out about it.”

I grin at their expressions and cock my head at them.

“Then what do you think we do with it?” I wonder if they can guess. Personally, I find it delicious.

 

The hotel does not even ask me a question as I stagger up the stairs with a green duffel bag holding a bottle of good ol' Jack.

I suppose that should make me feel better but it only ends up unnerving me more as I make to the door. I give a quick knock and tell them Daddy is home.

I hear some commentary that involves my death in painful bloody ways. OR they could have just said come in. Either way it is good to be loved.

I drop the duffel bag on the floor and take a seat on the bed "Here you go, a short barrel pulse shotgun, two plasma pistols, four solid shot riot rifles, a concussion blaster, two laser pistols, woth six solid shot weapons, a shot gun, four pistols, an uzi, also included are energy cells for the power weapons and extra bullet clips for the solid shot weapons, not to mention holsters and cases and instruction manuals along with a six hour store credit no premises warranty that they should not kill you on the first shot"

Ok it's official, this city in a total mind job, I have no idea what the last 250 years may have been like but I knew I should have been worried when he said I got a discount for buying the whole 'gang dropper' package.

I am still wondering if I should have went with 'No man left behind' package or the "Getting da Girl" package. The "Hero" package looked good too, but he did not have the MiDi in stock.

This whole city is making my skin crawl.

I gotta give them names soon, as I can't keep calling her sweet cheeks, well I can, but not to her face, so I might as well get a name I can remember.

Anyway the one with the blue hair, Tonya or something, starts talking about feeding sharks and I am getting flashbacks to feeding the sharks alright and I can't say I am all liking that idea.

Maybe there is something I am missing about this plan, but she sounds like she knows what she is talking about.

“Then what do you think we do with it?”

The first thing that hits my head is deny any knowledge of it and run for our lives, but the look on her face is telling me that is not what is on her mind.

I twist off the cap on the bottle and pour a small glass for myself "Use it to leverage a full pardon?"

A man can dream right?

 

I try to look up as the mans legs come into view, I hurt to much to do anything other then breath. His hands are on my helmet that’s when I see him, Zeke Harris, jerk, freebooter, junkie, drug runner. Yeah I know this guys, my gun racked up points on his rear end, about four bullets worth. As he takes off the helmet his smiling.

“Well if it ain‘t the pretty cop that put a round into my ass,” he says. He looks amused. It’s more then likely that he’ll be paying me back.

“It wasn‘t a round it was four bullets, a round in that issue handgun is six,” I can’t help but correct him. I have this thing when it comes to a***holes, I have to correct them.

He shrugs, “four bullets one round what‘s the difference it hurt like hell.”

I try to smile, “We‘re even now right Harris, I mean come on look what you‘ve done.”

“I wasn‘t aiming to hurt you I was aiming to kill you then knock off your bike and any valuables. That was of course till I realised who you were. Now I‘m going to show you what you missed out on dissing me because I‘m so called criminal.” He bends down and scoops me up, I figure his trying to be all romantic. I feel like a helpless retard.

“Still doing drugs,” I ask. I hope to high hell he is because I could use some right about now.

“Nope, I’m clean can’t afford to be doing drugs with the debt I owe to the local Yakuza.”

Just great I’m trapped with a clean lunatic.

 

I give him the look that deserves. It’s the oh so you’re a wiseguy look.

“Somehow I doubt that even a secret record of one small-time mob boss’s payroll, ‘special arrangements’, and business dealings is going to interest the people who sent us much beyond asking us what the hell we’re going to DO about it. Might possibly get us back to cryo-freeze but I kinda doubt it would get much else done.”

I swirl the drink in my tumbler and sip it, feeling the fire spread.

“Nope, we send it anonymously to someone who will be really interested in it. The people he crossed, underpaid, or dipped from and let them clean his clock. Then we find another middle fish and do it again…until we can tackle some bigger fish.”

Laying my head back on the back of the chair I feel semi-relaxed thanks to the alcohol.

“We set the city against itself and watch it burn.”

 

Laying in the back of the hover unit I can hear the sounds of Zeke loading my ninja into it. I feel cold, I’m guessing the blood I’m missing has caused it. He gets into the hover and turns to me, “We‘ll get you fixed, then we can have a good long chat.”

“Hoorah,” I say sarcasm lacing my voice. He ignores me and drives. The motion of the hover lulls me, I dip in and out of consciousness. When I wake I’m no longer in the hover, seems I’m at a hotel of sorts.

“Where am I?” I manage to ask. I feel groggy but at least there’s not any pain.

“In Vegas,” Zeke says. I can’t see him, my vision is all blurred. I can hear other voices quite a feel there are a lot of people in the room. I try to rub my eyes but I can’t lift my arms, I feel like dead weight.

“You won‘t be able to move for a bit,” a woman says. “We‘ve had to do a lot of work on your body.”

Oh s*** I’m thinking have they ripped out my augments are they selling those too.

“Yeah there’s a how lot of augment down your right side and your foot was to mashed up to keep so it had to go.” Zeke says.

“Great I have no foot,” I mutter.

“No you have a foot,” he replies. “The reason I brought you hear is because I heard you went and did the dirty on your own partner. Not the good girl I thought you were.”

“Yeah I blew his brains out, he was asking for it.” I reply. I don’t want to talk about my partner, its no ones damn business but my own.

“Fair enough. I want your help Suzu. I need you to help us.”

Us I wonder how many people he is talking about.

“We‘re sick of being threatened and we‘re sick of the Yakuza‘s so called interest rates. You worked a lot with them you know them well enough to help us.”

I sigh, “That was a long time ago, how much have things changed since then? You were put on ice for your crimes to. How can you combat something you don‘t know.”

“Easy enough done, you make a gang to fight a gang.” Zeke says.

I laugh, “didn‘t your mamma ever teach you two wrongs don‘t make a right?”

 

“We set the city against itself and watch it burn.”

I like this girl, spunky and evil. Explains why they put her on ice I guess. I wonder how mean the other one is, perhaps her bodyguard and ended up cutting a few guys in half or something.

But wondering what got them put on ice does not help me find ways to prevent going back to the ice box.

"What's in it for us?" I take a small gulp of the drink and let it burn its way down to my gut. Ooooh that feels good.

I know what she has is a means to an end, it's the type of thing I would do just for the sheer fun of watching the whole place burn down around me, break out the smores and make it a party.

But a whole lotta years on Ice changed my feelings about this idea, what do we get out of it in the end of things?

We do our job and then what?

"Could we use this stuff to get some dirt on someone that might be able to turn the tracker in our nanites off? Allow us to just walk out of this free and clear?"

 

“How to turn the nanites off is a very good question.” I admit. “On the surface of it, we do the job we were sent to do…which does nothing more than buy us time if we survive. On the plus side, if we make this work we get the mobs fighting each other instead of us and maybe that opens our options just a little bit.”

“I’ve wondered about the nanites. Wondered if there are codes that will switch them off without exploding them. But I’m sure that those codes would be tough to come by and risky to use. After all, if we try the wrong code or the wrong sequence,” I spread my hands and my whiskey sloshes a little, “Bang.”

 

I take another modest gulp of the fire water and let out a long deep sigh.

From what I head it is a whole lot more painful then 'bang' but I really don't want to talk about that right now.

She is a smart cookie, that I'll give her. Not her first time doing this, it is mine however. The idea of this tracker is killing me a bit, well, no it's not. The tracker does not phase me, chances are we all had trackers in us at some point before they did this, just limited ones, ones they could sneak into us.

But I learned long ago not to trust the system. Hence why I became a criminal in the first place.

"I love the the idea of burning this city to the ground and letting everyone else do our dirty work" I tap my glass into hers and grin. "So" I chuckle and give her a smile "am I going to get lucky tonight" I run my mental fingers across my chin... then the mood dies.

Something about these arms just making me feel sick inside, perhaps before when I was all messed up by the cryo-freeze it was not so much an issue, but now, I just feel ill when I look at them, knowing that I lost a part of me.

Maybe it is not the arms, because these things are amazing to tell the truth, but the fact that they may have wanted me to die, that I am not supposed to be alive, and these are living proof I was past the due date.

Something about that just makes me feel... hollow.

I finish off the drink and lay back on the bed. "Wake me when I need to feed the sharks" I mumble as I stare at the ceiling.

I was feeling good there for a moment.

 

It's been a very interesting conversation so far, and by interesting, I mean I'm falling asleep. The little bit of whiskey that I managed to choke down isn't helping matters, either. "After all, if we try the wrong code or the wrong sequence, Bang.” "Yeah... I'm not really a big fan of that whole "bang" thing. But how the heck do you propose that we sneak in there and snatch the... chip thingie. We're wanted, and its not gonna be as easy as just walking in there." My stomach burns. I probably shouldn't have joined them for the round of shots.

 

I’m beginning to like this guy. I grin as we clink our glasses together and I’m almost ready to banter back with him about the necessity of this being one of his wildest dreams for him to get lucky when his face completely changes.

This is the first time I’ve seen this expression on him. It’s a mixture of disgust and despair and it’s a little confusing coming on the heels of his lightheartedness. It happened when he rubbed his fingers on his chin. The augments?

I remembered the sense of loss that came with my eye augment. Of feeling less than human. I remembered the same feeling with the shoulder, checking to see if I had two hands when I woke up. There is something about being part machine that takes a lot of getting used to.

He flops across the bed muttering about waking him up to feed the sharks and I breathe a reluctant sigh before smiling at Kiara.

She wanted to know how we're going to sneak in and snatch the 'chip thingie'.

"Working on that," I tell her, "I have a feeling that one of Viktor's trucks may be the way in. Of course," I stare into middle distance picturing it, "that may take a little bit of truckjacking to do."

“I think I’ll hack back in,” I tell them, “and see what else I can find that might help us.”