The House of the Reaper has opened its arms to welcome:
Operative Sharinel.
Their contributions and dedication to our cause will be honored through the Net and through the Stars.
---
"Talk to me," Dino said as we took our seats.
"I've got good news and bad news," I said, setting my glass down on the table. "Which one do you want first?"
Dino's jaw seemed to clench as he closed his eyes. "Give me the bad."
"Bad news is that the price for this job just went up tenfold," I said.
Dino's expression did not change, but the look he gave me with his eyes told me he wanted to murder me. "And what could possibly be the good fucking news after that?"
"Data's worth way more than we thought," I said.
Dino's eyes looked like he wanted to rip my head off. But before he could say anything, Torque cut him off.
"The site was not abandoned," Torque said. "It was an active NetWatch observation post. We walked into it blind because the client's briefing was wrong, and Ghost nearly got zeroed inside their architecture by a Voodoo Boy netrunner who had also made their way in."
Dino's mouth closed, and his eyes moved to scan all three of us. He then leaned back into the booth's cushions in calculation, and raised both his boots onto the table.
"That changes things," Dino said.
"Yeah," I said. "It does. We have everything the client asked for, but the price is two million eddies per person. Two and a half for me."
"And why do you get the extra half-mil?" Dino asked.
"'Cause I'm the one who fucked with NetWatch for this shit," I said.
Dino looked at me for a long moment before turning his eyes to Torque. "Do you have proof that it was a NetWatch facility?"
Torque flicked his hand toward Dino, and I watched both their eyes glow orange as Torque probably sent him a visual recording he'd made. Dino remained quiet for a while before finally speaking.
"Give me a minute," he said as he leaned his head back into the cushions of the booth.
We sat in the booth and drank our drinks while Dino's eyes glowed a steady orange in what I could only guess to be a very long back-and-forth conversation. Every few minutes, Dino's jaw would tighten, or his fingers would drum once against the table, or he would tilt his head. I could tell that he was negotiating, and he was negotiating hard. On our behalf and on his own behalf.
Moth and I finished our drinks and ordered a second one from a passing server. Moth's mask pasted just enough at the mouth to allow him to drink with elegance, as if he was considering keeping my drink around. Given that he ordered a third, I assumed he liked it well enough.
About an hour had passed since Dino had asked us to wait a minute, and by the time his eyes stopped glowing, I was a little bit buzzed. Then my account pinged twice, and I felt myself sober up almost immediately.
Transfer authenticated: 2,500,000 eddies.
Transfer authenticated: 2,000,000 eddies.
Moth sat up straight in the booth, his posture shifting from relaxed to rigid while Torque set the vodka bottle slowly on the table.
"Did you mean to send us two and a half instead of two?" Torque asked.
"After a conversation with the customer, they saw fit to pay a little extra," Dino said, picking up his own bottle and downing what remained of it in a single breath. "Given the fact that fucking NetWatch was involved, they considered it appropriate. Also, don't question a client who's feeling generous. It's bad for business."
Moth began tapping his fingers in a slow rhythm. This was the closest thing to excitement I had ever seen him display. Torque's mouth spread into the broadest smile I had seen on the man's face.
I didn't have to think much before I reached into my pocket in search of the shard. A second later, I slid it across the table to Dino.
"Every single thing on the Chimera," I said. "Just as the client requested."
Dino picked up the shard and examined it for a moment before he slotted it into his neural link port. His eyes glowed orange as he verified the contents. Then he pulled the shard, pocketed it, and looked at me.
"Now get the fuck out of my booth and send the girls back in on your way out," he said.
We stood up to leave when Dino called after me.
"Ghost," Dino said.
I stopped.
"Stay back a second," he said. "I want to talk to you."
Torque and Moth walked out of the booth and disappeared into the Afterlife's floor as I sat back down. Dino's smile dropped as soon as we were alone.
"This is the second time you've pulled this little fucking stunt," Dino said.
"Dino-" I tried to speak, but he cut me off.
"Shut the fuck up," he said. "I'm talking."
Well fuck. I think I kicked the shit bucket this time.
"This is the second time you've sat across from me in front of other people and demanded a change to the terms of a job I brokered. You brought me extra data last time, and I rewarded the initiative. But this time, you walked into my booth, in front of solos I hired, and told me the price went up tenfold before anything else."
He leaned forward, and if looks could kill, Dino would have zeroed me ten times over by now.
"The only reason I am not cutting you off," Dino said, "is because, whether I like it or not, the shit you brought back about the facility being NetWatch made me an additional nine million eddies on top of the client's original fee. That is a number I respect, and it also buys you grace. But it does not buy you the right to dictate terms to me in front of other people."
"I understand," I said.
"I don't fucking think you do," Dino said. "So I'm going to say this one more and last time."
He picked up the empty bottle and pointed the neck at me. "I want you to get soem shit clear. You are a runner without a crew. You work for me... I set the price. I broker the job. I manage the client. I do the shit that needs to be done. If the job goes sideways and the price needs to change, you come to me privately to explain the situation, and I handle the renegotiation. But what you don't fucking do is walk into a room full of people and announce that the price has changed. That is not how this works. And if you do it again, I will find another runner who understands the difference between style and arrogance."
He set the empty bottle down and leaned back into the booth.
"I paid you an extra two million eddies tonight because I like your work," he said. "I like the way you think. I like the way you move. I like the fact that you walked into a NetWatch outpost and walked out with data that made me rich. As much as it pisses me the fuck off to say it right now, you have got motherfucking style, kid. But style without discipline is just a dead runner with a good wardrobe."
He gestured at the converted mortuary around us.
"We good?" he asked.
"We're good," I said.
"Then get the fuck out of my sight and tell the girls I'm ready," he ordered.
I stood up and went to exit the booth as the three women, who had been outside waiting to be ordered in, walked past me.
"Ghost," Dino called out from behind me, and I turned to look at him.
"You've got motherfucking style," he said, and pointed the empty bottle at me one last time before turning his attention to his company.
I walked out of the Afterlife and looked at my internal clock. It was 4:04 AM, and the city was still very alive with traffic. I pulled up my Agent and sent Vik a message.
Me: "Hey Vik. Can I drop by the clinic?"
I got a reply within a few seconds, which meant he was awake. Not something too unusual for a ripperdoc, but considering Vik didn't have any chrome, he needed his beauty sleep.
Vik: "This something that can wait?"
Me: "I don't really know."
Vik: "Then come."
"I really need to get myself a proper ride while I rebuild the Mustang," I muttered to myself as I got into the cab I had ordered.
Twenty minutes later, the cab dropped me at the corner of the alley that led to Vik's place. As I stepped out of it, I felt as if the ground had rolled beneath me, and for a fraction of a second I was surrounded by red rock and tall grass while animal-shaped machines moved past me. Then I was standing on the edge of a cliff, watching a red-haired woman run through the grass with a bow in her hand as the machines hunted her. However, she fought back and, at times, hunted them back. As she did, I noticed that the sky above her was a beautiful blue color that reminded me of the safari BDs I used to watch as a kid.
Then I blinked, and it was all gone. I was standing on the sidewalk where the cab had left me. I felt my hands shaking as it began to rain.
"What the fuck," I whispered, and I heard something whisper back. I turned my head to look around, but I was alone on the street, save for the hobo who was sitting against one of the stores.
I felt the world begin to spin and leaned onto a light post to steady myself. Then I looked up and saw a Galena G240 parked at the curb; its faded gasoline green paint and rust along the wheel arches hinted it was the car I had bought, fixed up, and given Mom.
I frowned as my brain tried to come up with a reason for Mom's car to be parked here, blinking in confusion. As soon as I blinked, the G240 magically disappeared and in its place there was a GA32T in preem condition. Not only that, but it was also a whole different color.
"Okay, weird shit is happening," I whispered to myself, and this time, I heard multiple whispers coming from behind me. I turned to see who it was, only for the ground to tilt once again. I was, once again, in a whole new world, my surroundings having completely shifted as the same red-haired woman I had seen earlier stood in front of me, on a cliff overlooking a valley full of the animal-shaped machines.
I noticed that she seemed to be speaking with someone, but there was no one around her. Then she turned and looked right at me, and started walking my way. Just as she was about to reach me, the scenery once again disappeared, and I found myself back on the same sidewalk with a twitch in my left eye as louder whispers surrounded me.
My Kiroshis flickered, and for a split second, there was an overlay projected of a targeting reticle I had never seen. Glyphs seemed to form the edges of a triangle before disappearing from existence. My guess was that whatever the fuck that HADES fucker had sent my way was going to kepe on doing this shit, and it was only going to get worse.
So I pushed myself off the lamp post, forcing myself to walk as straight as I could as the world around me seemed to tilt. I reached the esoterica and noticed it was closed, so I had to go around to the side entrance and over the padlocked metal door.
Once I reached the door, I pulled myself up and over, landing in the alleyway, and walked down the steps that led to Vik's clinic. The door slid open as I approached, and my world changed once again as soon as I crossed the threshold. I was now staring at a massive machine, taller than any building I had ever seen, its body assembled from metal and cables and thousands of other smaller machines. The machine was letting out a screech that would have liquefied my brain, were this not a hallucination. I then noticed that the red-haired woman had climbed on its back and was pokign her with her magic voodoo staff as the machine flailed in an attempt to shake her off.
And as it flailed, something on it came flying at me, and then I found myself tripping and crashing onto Vik's medical shit by the chair.
"Jesus, kid," Vik said. "You alright? You look like shit."
He helped me up and helped me steady myself.
"Easy there," Vik said. "What's going on? What's gotten into you?"
"I don't..." I was about to start lying, but I realized that I needed serious medical attention at the moment, so I couldn't be hiding any secrets any longer from Vik. "An op tonight almost flatlined me. I need everything in my head checked. My self-diagnostic keeps coming back null or error, and I'm..."
I trailed off as the door to my left opened. It was the door I had always assumed led to a storage room, a garage, or some kind of back-office space Vik used for inventory. But for some reason, Mom was standing in the doorway, wearing a bathrobe. She was looking at me with an expression that was equal parts surprise and guilt, and I felt my brain malfunction because, like five minutes ago, I had just hallucinated her car on the street, and the hallucination had dissolved when I blinked, and now she was standing in Vik's doorway.
"Ma?" I said.
"Who are you talking to, kid?" Vik asked, drawing my attention.
"The fuck you talking about, Vik?" I said, looking at a confused and concerned Vik. "She's standing right th..."
I turned my head back toward the doorway, only to see that it was closed with my mother nowhere to be seen. I was then assaulted by another wave of whispers that was longer than the last one. They were saying something in a language I did not speak. Something that sounded like a name.
When they stopped, I found myself with one hand on the surgical chair, feeling out of breath. I could feel Vik's eyes.
"Sit down," Vik said quietly, and I obeyed. "You have to shoot straight with me, kid. What the fuck is going on with you?"
"I... I don't know," I said. I mean, it wasn't really a lie. I had a hunch about what was causing this, but I really had no idea what the fuck was happening to me.
---
Stones are love, stones are life...
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