19 – Friday

Tony used his box cutter to slice the seams on the packaging, revealing the plastic-wrapped housings for the van’s new magcoil dampers. He was going to replace the vehicle’s aged, worn-out, steel-bodied hydraulic shocks. The magcoil dampers were newer tech, but they were aftermarket parts designed for the van’s body and were supposed to be a perfect fit. The beauty of the upgrade was that it came with a module for the van’s AI, which would allow it to tune the suspension on the fly, adjusting it based on the load.

Behind the boxes of dampers were two more containing new graphene-lattice struts—another big upgrade for the van. They were lightweight and durable; combined with the dampers, they’d fix ninety percent of the van’s suspension problems. He’d prioritized the repairs because they were going to have to help Bert move his inventory to the warehouse soon, and he did not want to make half a dozen trips through the district with the van loaded to the gills—metal grinding on metal.

He could hear Addie and her dad working in the back of the warehouse, screwing panels onto the framed-out walls they’d built over the last couple of days. Things were coming along, but they’d need to make some income soon, and they’d hit a sort of roadblock with Torque. The fixer had plenty of little jobs, but those with decent paydays—like the one to rescue that Victor Kwon guy—were usually reserved for operators beyond the “unranked” tier.

Tony was reasonably sure they could pass the exam for tier 9, but that would cost them another thousand bits—500 each—and if they failed, that was money down a hole. Still, they had the bits, and they needed the cred to pull in better jobs, so he was going to try to talk Addie into testing after they finished the move.

Addie burst into laughter, the sound echoing through the mostly empty space, and Tony grinned. Her laugh reminded him of his life back before he and Eric got involved with Cross. It was unfettered and real, not like the polished, performative ones of the corpo elites, too worried about how a slip of sincerity might play with clients or competitors. At that altitude, everyone was one or the other, so they faked it—no one was genuine.

He sat on the edge of the shipping crate, staring into space, picturing Addie. He was smitten—no doubt about it. That kiss… He shook his head, trying to wipe the stupid grin off his face. He knew it was a bad idea. He knew he was bad for her. But dammit, she was so sweet, so good, and the idea of letting her slip through his fingers—of being doomed never to be happy again—he just couldn’t make his stubborn, stupid ass accept that.

The problem was, he knew he was being selfish, and the part of him that cared about Addie, the part that wanted to snatch her up and keep her all to himself, knew it too. He knew he was walking a fine line between clinging to something good and destroying it. He had so much baggage, and even if he faced down his raw feelings, swallowed his pride, and shoved the idea of revenge into a hole so deep it never saw daylight—even if he did all that—there was still a chance the people who’d ruined him wouldn’t be happy to see him happy again. What if they came for Addie?

Sighing and forcing himself into action just to keep his mind busy, he stood up and turned back to the van. He’d taken the wheels off but still needed to remove the old shocks and struts. He wasn’t exactly a mechanical genius, but Nora had all the plans, and she could overlay his AUI with each step of the process, so the job wouldn’t be hard. They’d bought jack stands, wrenches, and the attachments for the impact driver—between the right tools and Nora’s help, he figured it would take a couple of hours.

As he worked, he tried to keep his mind busy with business-related thoughts. He wanted to get Addie a hardened drone with a needler attachment. He figured a crawler would be good—something like her spider drone, but a lot bigger. The other night, when they’d rescued Kwon, he’d found that his old method of bullshitting and just being a hell of a lot faster and more dangerous than his enemies wasn’t exactly the way to go—not yet. If Addie could deliver a stealth drone and fire a few silenced paralytic rounds, they could avoid a lot of dangerous situations.

The thing was, as good as she was with those drones, they weren’t nearly as important as her Dust “empath” abilities. She was a spark, or maybe more than a spark, and people with that level of talent were rare. Even now, Addie was better than any spark Tony had ever worked with. He could hardly imagine what she’d be like with some training and a high-end Dust reactor. The truth was, Tony didn’t even know what she might be capable of—that was how exceptional she was.

He'd seen shows in the city—sparks who could pull off some straight-up incredible feats. One of them made wings out of light and levitated off the ground. He still wasn’t sure if it had been the real deal or if they’d been using some fancy tech to simulate Dust magic. Still, after hearing Beef’s account about what that Zane asshole did to him, Tony was more eager than ever to get Addie trained up somehow. If she could manipulate gravity or fade through walls… The implications for pulling off high-profile jobs were obvious.

Of course, he could stand for some upgrades, too—better body armor, weapons, augments, cybernetics, software… The list was long, and everything took bits, lots and lots of bits. Still, he was good enough for the Blast, at least for the time being; Addie needed the upgrades first.

He was done uninstalling the old parts and working on the rear damper installations when Addie came over. “My dad wants to order some lunch. Are you hungry?”

“Hell, yes,” Tony grunted as he tugged against an oversized wrench.

“Sandwiches okay? He’s hungry for a sub.”

“Perfect.” Tony paused what he was doing to look up at her.

She laughed, reaching out to gently rub her thumb against his cheek. “You’re filthy.”

“Uh, this van’s seen a lot of road.”

Addie nodded, peering past him into the wheel well. “Everything fits?”

“Yep.” He grunted again, this time as he struggled to his feet, wincing. “My knees are not loving this concrete. Should’ve bought some pads.”

“Too bad we don’t have a nice big bathtub, huh?” Addie smiled, folding her hands and swaying back and forth, feigning innocence. She was eager to get her bathroom finished, and an oversized bathtub was on her wish list.

“Eh, I’ll be happy with a shower. Gotta finish this job first, though. Probably only need another half hour. I mean, as long as everything works. These new dampers are powered, so I’ll need to run lines to the battery pack, but I already checked, and it has auxiliary outputs. Once I install the software, the AI shouldn’t have any trouble finding them…” He trailed off when he saw the distant look in Addie’s eyes; she wasn’t interested in the details of the van’s suspension upgrade. “Anyway, how’s the construction going?”

“Walls are all done!” She held out a hand, and despite his earlier reservations, he took it, allowing himself to be tugged toward the back of the warehouse. “I’ll show you!”

He followed her toward the unpainted walls they’d put up, encompassing a couple of hundred square meters of the warehouse floor. The doorway was empty—they’d yet to buy any doors—but the walls were all finished with Panelite panels that snapped together and were paint-ready. They were wired for electricity, too. Tony had yet to run the lines up to the warehouse’s power lines, but he didn’t think that would be difficult. The floors were bare concrete, but with all the walls done, it was easy to envision the finished space.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

They’d have a kitchen and lounge area, then down one hallway, a bedroom, a closet, and a bathroom for Addie. Down another hallway, on the other side of the lounge area, they’d have the same situation for Tony. At first, they’d planned to make two separate apartments, but when Bert pointed out that meant more walls, another kitchen they’d have to plumb, and a separate power line brought down, Tony and Addie had quickly agreed that this was easier.

In a way, Tony thought it was strange that Bert hadn’t argued about being set up in the old business office without Addie. Maybe he recognized that she wanted a little space from her dad, but the whole thing made Tony a little self-conscious because wasn’t he basically taking Bert’s place as Addie’s roommate? In the end, he had to recognize that the whole thing was silly. They were all living under one big roof, and Bert was a two-minute walk from their new apartment.

“Speaking of roof…” Tony looked up past the walls to the high warehouse ceiling. “I feel like we should put ceilings in.”

Addie laughed, squeezing his hand. “We will! The same company that makes the wall panels makes modular ceiling panels and support lattices. My dad said he’d order them.”

Tony nodded. “Cool. Hate to have something drop down into my bedroom, you know?”

Addie clicked her tongue, shaking her head. “Sure, Tony, who would want that?”

“Where’s your dad?”

“He went up to go to the bathroom. Food will be here in just a few minutes. Let’s open the bay door!”

Tony didn’t argue, and they made their way back to the van. Nora opened the door for them before they arrived, and as it clanked toward the ceiling, some natural gray-tinted light shone into the warehouse, blending with the high-powered overhead LEDs. “That’s nice,” he said, inhaling deeply. He’d gotten used to the odor of the Blast—the constant acidic tang of the thick, contaminated Dust—but the air was cooler, and with a breeze blowing out of the northwest, it was fresher than usual.

“We should have had this open all day!” Addie hurried ahead, releasing his hand. He watched her stand just beyond the bay door in the warehouse’s little parking lot, face turned up, arms back, as she inhaled the air. She was beautiful—blue eyes faintly glimmering in the diffuse light from the cloudy sky, hair shimmering in shades of copper and red. More than her features, though, her smile lit her up, and he couldn’t, for the life of him, understand why he hadn’t seen that when they’d first met.

Maybe his brain had been dulled by his near-death experience. Maybe depression had clouded his perception. Whatever the case, he thanked fate or angels or whoever was looking out for him that he’d stumbled upon Bert Jones that day. “Smells all right, doesn’t it?”

Addie turned to him, her eyes reflecting her smile. “It does!” She nodded toward the van. “So, another half hour on that? Then what do you want to do?”

“Well, it’s Friday. I kinda wanna hit Torque up for some contacts. We could maybe get a drink afterward.”

“First of all, yes, I’m very much onboard to get a drink with you, Mr. Shepherd, but what do you need from Torque? What kinds of contacts?”

“Dust contacts, my dear—” He cut himself off, reaching for a pistol that wasn’t in his waistband when a drone swooped down toward them out of the gray sky. He relaxed when he saw a plastic bag hanging from its mechanical arm. It lowered itself to an altitude of about two meters, then dropped the sack with a rustling plop. Without hesitation, the drone’s rotors whirred, and it bolted into the sky, zooming out of their lives.

Addie grabbed the sack, holding it high. “Food’s here!”

Tony cleared off one of the folding plastic tables he was using for a workbench and brought it out into the air. He had two such tables, and each had come with four chairs, so there wasn’t any shortage of seating when Bert limped down from his catwalk. Addie’s dad had other ideas, though, announcing, “Kids, I wrenched my back earlier. I’m gonna take my sandwich up to the futon.” He’d already started furnishing his new space; he was going to give most of the furniture in their current apartment to Addie.

“Dad! It’s probably better for you to sit in a hard chair like this. You’re just going to bend yourself out of shape even more sitting on that couch.”

“No, no, sweetie. I’ll lie it out flat and then stretch out on my back.”

“You can’t eat a sandwich like that!”

Bert scowled and snatched the bag off the table. “Just give me my sandwich, you bossy little…” Whatever insult he had planned faded into mutters as he grabbed his thick, paper-wrapped sandwich and turned back toward the stairs. He paused, though, and turned to wave. “See you later, Tony. I might sleep here tonight.”

Addie gave Tony a stricken look, then chased after her dad. She caught him by the stairs, and Tony chuckled as he heard her lay into him about not saying goodbye to her. He was a character, and so was she. Bert definitely took on a different personality when he was hurting, but that was pretty normal. Pain had a way of making people grumpy. Tony unpacked the other two sandwiches, surprised to see they were both the same—classic Italian grinders, the stickers said.

He looked to see Addie hugging her dad, and then she started back toward him, but he called out, “Grab us a couple of drinks!” On their first day of occupancy, a rep from ZapTop Cola had stopped by and asked if he could install a vending machine in the warehouse. Tony tried to tell him they wouldn’t have many employees, but he didn’t care. Addie had enthusiastically agreed, and, though the damn sodas were overpriced at five bits each, they now had easy access to a variety of cold beverages.

Tony had just unwrapped his sandwich when Addie arrived with two sodas. She held them up—Fusion Cola and Heartstop Cherry. “Which one do you want?”

Tony knew the correct answer: it didn’t really matter what he wanted; he knew she wanted the cherry. “Cola sounds good.”

Addie smiled and put it on the table before him. “So? You were saying? About Torque’s contacts?”

“Right. We need to get you some more help learning to do your thing. We need to get in touch with someone who knows more about Dust empaths, or whatever you wanna call ’em.”

“That didn’t go so well the last time I tried—”

“Not some creep corpo-prick!”

Addie laughed. “Tony, that’s almost poetic. Creep corpo-prick!”

“Anyway, there has to be another operator with some juice in this district—someone we can talk to without fearing you’ll get snatched up.”

“But what are you going to tell Torque? I thought we wanted to keep my…talents quiet.”

“Yeah, sure. We can say we’re asking for a friend or that you’re working on a story. It’s not that big a deal. Torque’s a fixer. It’s his job to put people together. He might charge us a fee or say we owe him one or some other line of BS.” Tony shrugged and took a bite of his sandwich, savoring the tangy dressing and the mild peppers mixed in with the meat.

Addie mimicked him, chewing slowly, while she nodded. “Sounds good to me. I’m struggling to self-teach myself using that old manual. I think a lot of it’s kind of out of date.”

Tony swallowed and said, “It’d be good to get an idea just how much Dust you’re going to need access to. We could always allocate some funds for more refined Dust if the job warrants it. I mean, until you have a better reactor.”

Addie put a hand to her chest, shaking her head. “We spent enough on this reactor.”

“Nah. That’s just a stepping stone. Besides, I can take it when you’re done with it.” Tony twisted the tab off his cola and took a big gulp.

Addie did the same, taking a much smaller sip of her cherry soda. “Will that help you? For your nanites? What about your wire job?”

“Hmm…” Tony frowned, considering. “Two hundred dust, I mean, two hundred impure Dust like we can pull out of the air down here won’t get me very far. Maybe one second of activation—for my reflexes, I mean. As for my nanites, yeah, that’d be enough to keep ’em actively working on something for a long time. An hour or more, especially with passive Dust collection supplementing.”

“Your wire job uses that much Dust?”

Tony nodded. “Oh yeah. I used to spend about ten thousand bits worth of Dust just to get through a quick fight.” He chuckled, then took another bite. As he chewed, he held his hand to his mouth and added, “That was billable to the client, though.”

As she liked to do, Addie changed the subject without warning. “After we talk to Torque, can we go somewhere different? I’ve never been up to one of the clubs in the NGT building.”

Tony arched an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? You got something to wear?” When her eyes widened, he laughed and said, “I’m just asking ’cause I don’t.”

Addie put her sandwich down and, almost breathless in her excitement, said, “Let’s go shopping!”

“You wanna?” Tony grinned. He didn’t hate the sound of that. “I could use a nice outfit. Might come in handy on a job.”

“Okay, but you have to let me help. I don’t want you looking like a corpo-creep.”

Tony tapped his chrome eye with his black, plasteel arm. “Ain’t much chance of that, sweetie.”

Addie smiled, then stretched her leg under the table to tap his knee with her sneaker. “I like it when you call me sweetie.”