11 – Wheels

“What’s the company called again?” Addie asked, looking up at Tony as they walked. They were passing under the looming specter of the NGT building, and she was beginning to wonder if they should’ve taken a cab.

“Redline Recovery.” He paused near a vending machine alcove in the side of the megastructure. “You want a drink? I’m thirsty.”

Addie smiled, nodding. “Yeah, something—”

“Fizzy,” he finished for her, a corner of his mouth turning up in a self-satisfied grin.

“Oh, you think I’m predictable?” Addie gave his shoulder a playful shove. “I was going to say something sweet!”

He arched an eyebrow. “Alright, alright, my mistake. I’ll be right back.” He walked toward the machines, scanning them left to right.

Addie watched him for a second, then called, “Tony?”

He turned toward her. “Yeah?”

“Something sweet and fizzy, please.”

He chuckled, nodding, then went back to his perusal of the goods. Addie stuffed her hands in her pockets, leaning against the concrete wall, watching the traffic. Sometimes, when she watched the throngs of people in the more populous areas of the Blast, she tried to imagine herself floating high above, watching the district grow small in her bird’s eye view, surrounded by other districts. Then she’d go higher and see how those districts were surrounded by more, even bigger districts. She’d keep going until she pictured New Manhattan and the more than two dozen full-fledged megatowers there.

The NGT building was enormous, and it was half gone. The idea that there were so many comparably sized, fully intact buildings in just one other district was enough to boggle her mind. “We’re like ants, JJ,” she sighed.

“We are? Do you mean you and I, or do you mean as a society, or—”

“Never mind, buddy.”

Her further ruminations on the insignificance of her life were interrupted as Tony held a can of peach-flavored Yow! soda in front of her. “Thanks.” She took it, beaming. Of course, she could have picked her own drink, but the surprise of what he’d choose made life more interesting. She noticed he was holding a root beer-flavored Massacre energy drink. “Really? Massacre?”

He shrugged and pointed to the musclebound cartoonish man on the label. “It has protein too.”

She took her first delightfully sweet, fizzy sip and asked, “Are we close?”

“You didn’t look it up?”

“I got lost in my thoughts.”

He tilted his can, chugging several large gulps before responding, “Just a few blocks.” He started walking, so Addie hurried to keep pace.

“You know, for every step you take, I have to take one and a half,” she remarked.

“Am I going too fast?”

Addie grinned. “No, I just want you to be aware that I’m doing so much more work than you.”

“Okay, noted.” He had to weave to his right to avoid a man wearing a heavy-looking rust-tech visor. The man’s mouth hung open, and Addie could see the rotten state of his teeth. She had to hold her breath as he brushed past—his body odor was overpowering. Unfortunately, running into folks like that in the Blast wasn't unusual. He was lost in his semi-virtual reality, some kind of overlay the visor was projecting. He probably didn’t know he was unclean or sickly; the hardware could interface with his nervous system, altering what his senses perceived.

“That guy’s visor looked like it was made last century,” Tony remarked when they came back together.

Addie nodded. “Lots of rust-tech in the Blast.”

He looked down at her and tapped his chromed eye socket. “Like my eye?”

“That’s not rust-tech! It hasn’t been modded or, at least not visibly, and it looks practically new.”

“Well, it ain’t pretty,” he said with a sigh.

Addie took hold of his arm, leaning into him. “Lucky the rest of your face makes up for it.”

“You better quit being so nice to me or I’m going to develop a complex.”

Addie squeezed his arm, loving how he never tried to pull away when she did that. She felt like he was getting more and more receptive to her little affections, and, in her book, that was just fine—slow and steady wins the race, after all. “Why wouldn’t I be nice to you? You’re nice to me.”

He didn’t reply, which was fine, too, as far as she was concerned. They walked for a few minutes and then Tony pointed to the corner of the next block where a large parking structure hunkered over a plasteel office building. Several business signs were posted on the side of the building, but the largest one consisted of big, red, neon letters that said, “Redline Recovery Services.”

“They repo vehicles and auction them off, but Nora says they have buyout prices on their inventory, so I thought we could check out what they’ve got.”

“Wait, you don’t know what they have? Didn’t they have an inventory on the city net?”

He clicked his tongue, nudging her with the arm she clung to. “Nah, I know. They have, like, twenty vans on their auction site, but don’t you think we should look at them before we offer a buyout?”

“Oh, yeah, I guess so.” Addie frowned, thinking. “We can’t really afford a vehicle, Tony. We have less than twenty K in the—”

“We won’t buy something new; besides, they offer financing.”

“But that’s how corpos get you!” Addie let go of his arm, tugging his sleeve to make him look at her. “You know how many of my friends swore they’d never work for Boxer, but then they got something financed and the next thing I knew, they were working off a debt?”

Tony sighed and shook his head. “This won’t be like that. It’ll be a small loan and we’ll pay it off after we finish our next job. Remember, the payday is twenty-six K.”

“Well, we’re going to owe Beef and Glitchwitch a piece of that, and—”

“Ads—” Tony grasped her shoulders, looking down into her eyes. “—I will never let us get caught up in a corpo debt, okay? I promise you, this little loan will be gone before our first payment is due. Do you trust me?”

Looking into his eye—the one that had an actual iris to look into—Addie couldn’t find any doubt in her heart about her answer. “I trust you, Tony.” Hadn’t he already saved her life? Hadn’t she done everything she could to save him? He’d never do anything to hurt her, she was certain of that.

He smiled. “It goes both ways.” With that, he slung his arm over her shoulders and started walking again, pulling her along as he crossed the street. If he kept doing things like that—walking with his arm around her—she was going to have to get some clarity from him; what exactly did he think they were to each other? Just partners? Just chums? Because she wasn’t going to be okay with that forever. Should she push it, though? Hadn’t she just said that slow and steady wins the race?

Her mental back and forth was put on hold as the doors to the office building slid open, and they walked into the foyer. Another set of doors to their left proudly proclaimed the space beyond as “Redline Recovery Corporate Offices.” Tony lowered his arm and walked toward them, and Addie followed. Inside, they met with the receptionist, who called down a sales manager named Tim Galloway. He was a smallish fellow with a big, wavy hairstyle. He didn’t wear a typical corpo suit, but he had a long-sleeved shirt and tie, and his loafers were freshly polished.

“Mr. Shepherd?” he asked, as he came out of the elevator—Tony had explained to Addie earlier that they’d make the purchase using their SOA identifications.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

“That’s right, and my partner, Ember.”

“Well, I’m Tim, and it’s a pleasure!” He took a moment to shake both of their hands. Addie felt a little funny during the exchange; she’d never been treated quite like it. She felt like an imposter—like, why was this man in a tie talking to her like she was a serious person? Still, she gave her best smile and nodded along as Tony explained what they wanted.

“We were hoping to get a look at any vans you’ve got for sale. We want something with ample cargo space, and we aren’t looking for anything too clean. I mean, we’re not worried about cosmetics, you understand?”

Tim nodded enthusiastically. “I’ve got a bunch of vehicles like that in the garage. Why don’t we step over here to one of our virtual showrooms?” He nodded to a series of empty, glassed-in offices opposite the reception desk. Tony and Addie followed him in, and when Tim shut the door, he said, “Torrence, please start a showcase with all vehicles currently in stock with the ‘van’ tag.”

As the windows darkened, becoming opaque, and the lights dimmed, a three-dimensional model of a sleek, red van appeared at the center of the space, rotating slowly. A disembodied voice, articulate and cultured-sounding, said, “Here we have the Condor Motors Exeter, a 2114 model with only 43,301 kilometers on the power plant. Inside you’ll find—”

Tony cleared his throat and held up a hand. “We should probably add some filters, Tim. I have a feeling a lot of your vehicles will be out of our price range.”

Tim looked up with a startled expression, making Addie wonder if he was used to the showroom AI doing all the work for him. “Ah, of course. I should have probably narrowed things down for you. Do you want to describe what you’re looking for? Torrence will listen in and narrow down the presentation.”

Tony looked at Addie, and to her surprise, asked, “What do you think, Ember? Want to describe what you had in mind?” He smiled a little crookedly, and she wondered if he was enjoying putting her on the spot or if he just wanted to include her.

Smiling right back at him, she decided she’d have some fun. “Oh, I don’t know, Shepherd. I like dark colors, but I also want it to look pretty. Of course, we don’t want something so cramped as that fancy thing.” She gestured to the still rotating model of the Exeter. “Let’s prioritize cargo space, okay, Torrence?”

“Certainly, I—”

“And I don’t think we need windows in the cargo area. This won’t be for passenger commuters; we want something capable of holding a lot of weight.” Addie really didn’t know much about vehicles in general, let alone vans; she’d never owned one, and she’d never been any sort of enthusiast, but she knew what she thought looked good. “Window tint would be nice, and good tires, and—”

“Well, don’t put those things on the filter,” Tony interrupted, smiling as he spoke, focusing on Addie. “We can always add cosmetic features you like after we buy it, Ember.”

“Shall I add anything else to the filter?” the AI asked.

Addie stared at Tony, narrowing her eyes, and he relented, taking over, “We’re on a budget, Torrence, so limit the search to vehicles under twenty thousand Sol-bits.”

“Excellent! With cargo being your priority, there is one vehicle in that price range that I believe will interest you.”

“One, huh?” Tony chuckled, nudging Addie with his elbow. She was a little surprised, but not much; cars were expensive!

The holographic display changed, and a much taller, less sleek van appeared. This one had gray paint and quite a few dings and scratches. The cargo area didn’t have any windows, and, as it rotated, Addie saw that the passenger side was painted with yellow, boxy letters reading, “George’s Moving.”

“This vehicle is a 2109, Houston Auto Dynamics Challenger with 179 thousand kilometers on the power plant. While this is beyond the manufacturer's warranty for the original system, it’s important to note that the battery bank has been refurbished and only has twenty thousand kilometers on the aftermarket parts. More importantly, this vehicle is very budget-friendly with an auction buyout of only 12,199 Sol-bits.”

“Hey!” Tim said, clapping Tony on the shoulder. “How about that? It’s like, um, kismet! A perfect vehicle for your needs, wouldn’t you say?”

Tony looked at Addie, and she shrugged. It wasn’t very pretty, but it looked sturdy and capable—something that could do the job and blend in if they needed it to. “Let’s see the inside,” he said.

“Of course,” the AI replied, and then the model spun so they were facing the rear of the vehicle. The two doors opened wide, revealing a plain, unpainted, plasteel interior with tie-down loops for cargo welded all over the walls and floor. The camera advanced to the front of the cab, where two well-worn bucket seats faced a fairly generic dashboard—a steering wheel and utilitarian display panel. “The onboard AI is dated, but maintains all necessary ratings and licenses for autonomous operation in every district of the greater metropolitan area.”

Tony looked at Addie and spoke like they were alone, seemingly unconcerned that Tim and the AI were listening. “For twelve k, there’s probably a lot wrong with the thing. Probably needs shocks, brakes, struts, and all those kinds of things. You can see the tires are bald and, obviously, it needs paint.”

“Hey, hey, that might be partially

true,” Tim said, finally deciding he needed to try to earn his commission. “That’s why the price is right, though. You have to look at the big picture; that’s one hell of a solid vehicle, isn’t that right, Torrence?”

The AI was quick to agree, “The Challenger model van is highly sought after for its durability and utilitarian design. This particular vehicle has good bones, as they say. With a little investment and elbow grease, you can make it run just like new again!”

Addie couldn’t help giggling at the tag team sales effort. Tony winked at her, then said, “We’ll take it if you can replace the tires.”

“Well, um, Mr. Shepherd, tires aren’t cheap, as you know, and—”

Tony chuckled and clapped Tim on the shoulder. “You’ve got more than a thousand vehicles for sale in that big garage. Just swap ’em out from another van or truck and let the next sales guy worry about selling those bald tires, yeah?”

Tim frowned, rubbing his smooth-shaven chin, but after a moment, his lips curled into a smile and he nodded. “I’ve got a guy in the service department who’ll do that for me. So, do we have a deal, then?”

Tony looked at Addie. “What do you think?”

She folded her arms, walking around the three-dimensional image again, trying not to smile. She wanted to play the part of a discerning customer just a little longer. After several glances at Tony, then back at the van, she finally sighed and nodded. “If Tim gets us some quality tires, I think he deserves the sale.”

“We’ve got a deal, then!” Tim immediately announced, grasping for Tony’s hand, shaking it, then repeating the process with Addie’s. It struck her how proud he was of himself. He hadn’t really done anything. The AI and Tony had pretty much handled the sale for him. Still, he’d been flexible on the tires, something Addie never would have thought of, so she supposed he deserved a little credit.

Tim led them out of the showroom to a comfortable waiting area, where the company’s AI interfaced with Tony’s PAI. In just a few minutes, Addie was signing a digital bill of sale and a twenty-four-month financing agreement. Tony signed with her, of course, but it still made her nervous; she’d gone her whole life avoiding debt. She believed what Tony said, that they’d pay it off, but the stories she’d heard, the people she’d known, who’d lost everything due to a tiny corporate loan, kept dancing through her mind as they sat waiting.

The wait was the most frustrating part; the sale itself had been quick, and, thanks to their PAIs, the paperwork had been almost instantaneous, but they had to sit there, twiddling their thumbs while the van was cleaned and the tires were changed. Tony must have sensed her unease and irritation because he nudged her with his knee. “You know, we could pay that agreement off right now if we wanted to. I just figured we might need some cash for the job, so we’d just put a couple of grand down and pay it off afterward. If you’re stressing, though…”

Addie smiled, shaking her head. “No, it’s okay.” A thought occurred to her, and she asked, “Where are we going to park it? I mean, I know we want to get a building eventually, but for now?”

“There’s a garage not far from Golden’s. It’s only a couple hundred bits a week for a spot.”

Addie narrowed her eyes, shifting on the couch so she could fold one foot under her other thigh and look at him more directly. She knew the garage he was talking about, but the idea of paying to park in it was so foreign to her that she never would have considered it. She decided to use it as an angle to fish for more details about Tony’s past life. “You definitely have a different attitude about money than I do. What was it like? Living in New ’Hattan, I mean?”

“Hmm.” He rubbed his chin, his thumb making little scratching noises against the stubble there; he clearly hadn’t shaved that morning. “I mean, I could go on for days. What’s something specific you want me to tell you about?”

Addie was surprised by the question. She’d half expected him to deflect her curiosity with a joke. She wanted to ask him all kinds of things, most of all about his love life, but she knew better than that. She knew he was avoiding something on that subject, so she tried to think of something personal, but not too personal. “What was your place like? Did you have an apartment?”

He smiled, inhaling through his nose as his eyes went a little distant. “I had a loft. It was in a decent building, but nothing too fancy. Still, it was a lot of space for that district; real estate’s at a real premium there, especially outside of the arcologies. I liked it because it was unassuming, but still…cool, you know? Like, I had nice furniture, but nothing ostentatious. The best part was the kitchen, though. I’ve always wanted to be a good cook, but I’ve never really gotten past ambition and actually learned.” He chuckled at some memory, and Addie smiled, enjoying this side of him.

“Did you have a car?”

He grinned, nodding. “I’ve had a few. Most recently, a Zeller Ghost. Are you familiar?”

Addie shook her head. “Just a sec. JJ, find me a picture of a Zeller Ghost.” A window appeared in her AUI displaying a sleek, roadster-type vehicle. It looked fast and beautiful, and Addie could only imagine the kind of person who’d step out of such a machine. The car in the image was an opalescent blue with windows so dark they looked like portals into a void. “So pretty!”

Tony nodded, smiling. “Pretty and fast.” He sighed and shrugged, leaning back on the couch. “Anyway, who cares. That life’s over.”

Addie tentatively reached for his plasteel hand, gently grasping it so the rubber, tactile sensors could feel her fingertips. “Do you miss it?”

He was still leaning back, but he turned his head so he could look her in the eyes. He stared at her for several long seconds before he replied. “I might miss some things, but I’m starting to realize I’ve got things now that the old Tony couldn’t have hoped for.”

Addie felt her heart speed up, and she tightened her grip on his hand. She licked her lips, nervously darting her eyes away from his, then back again. “Don’t tease me, Tony.”

“I wouldn’t.” His voice was barely a whisper, thick with emotion, and Addie felt like it was a perfect moment, something out of a romance vid. That being the case, she shouldn’t have been surprised when Tim came through the door and ruined it.

“Good news, folks! Your van’s all set! Come with me, and I’ll walk you through the biometrics setup. I’ve got a note from our service department that it can be a little finicky on that model.”

Tony smiled, gently squeezing her hand before letting go, then he stood up, and the magical moment was gone. “Sounds good, Tim. Did you get us some good tires?”