8 – Good Deeds

Tony watched Addie perusing the various Dust reactors Dino had on display. Most were pretty low-end, like the one he’d gotten a few weeks ago, but there were two that would be real upgrades for Addie. He couldn’t help but think she was studiously avoiding them on purpose. He knew why, of course. One was nearly six thousand bits, and the other was closer to eight, which would eat up nearly half of their operating fund.

He tapped the glass, indicating the most expensive model. “Tenshin is a decent company. I’ve seen their high-end models go for upwards of a hundred K on the secondary market.”

“We can’t afford that, Tony! We still have to hire some subs for the job!”

“Nah, we’ll pay on completion. Any subs willing to sign on with a couple of unranked operators will understand.” He pushed the button for a sales rep. “This one has a two-hundred Dust unit core. That’ll give you some room to grow, yeah?”

Addie nodded, licking her lips. She looked nervous, and Tony realized this was probably the most expensive thing she’d ever purchased. He chuckled and gently squeezed her shoulder. “Relax, would you? This is an investment for us.”

“I just feel…pressure, I guess.”

Tony sniffed, shrugging as he idly kneaded her tense neck muscles. “Yeah, well, that’s because I haven’t been earning my share of the bits. You’ve been doing all the heavy lifting.”

“Oh, hush!” She laughed, leaning into him, arching her neck to the side and twisting, guiding his fingers. “That feels so good. I think…” She trailed off, inhaling sharply as he hit a particularly tight muscle knot. “I think I should splurge on a massage.”

Tony laughed and released her shoulder. “Yeah, you should! I’ve seen like four parlors in the district. There’s one a block from Golden’s—fifty bits for an hour.”

Before she could respond, a girl wearing a Dino’s smock came around the corner. She had pretty cybernetic eyes with bright, lime-green irises. Seeing them, Tony wondered how good the employee discount was. “Hey there! Need some help?”

Tony nodded and tapped the glass. “Does this Tenshin model come with a matrix?”

She smiled and her eyes lit up. Tony figured this sale would probably make her week. “I think so. Let me open the case.”

Twenty minutes later, package in hand, they were walking briskly through the district toward the clinic in their neighborhood. “You sure you want Peters to do this? Doc Fox seemed like he had more up-to-date equipment.”

Addie shook her head. “Doc Peters is my friend, Tony! He does a lot of good in the district, and he could use the easy bits.” She looked up at him and narrowed her eyes a little. Tony knew that meant he was about to get some serious talk. “Remember when you first talked to me about becoming an operator?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“We talked about doing good—helping people. So far, we’re just taking whatever work Torque throws our way.”

“Ads, we’re just getting our footing. We need to build up our bankroll and stockpile some equipment. We need to make contacts and build our rep. When we’re in a stronger position, we’ll be able to reach out and help people more easily.”

“Yeah, I get that; I just want to make sure that’s still where we’re headed.”

Tony nodded, letting her words sink in. He really hadn’t been thinking about that stuff. He’d been focused on getting jobs, finishing them, and training up for the next. He’d been watching their bit vault balance growing and planning how to spend the bits. “Tell you what, if you think we’re going off track, you need to kick my ass, okay? I’m trusting you to keep me focused on what’s right. Is that too much to lay on you?”

Addie looked up at him, eyes wide with surprise. She clearly hadn’t expected that answer. As she often did, she gripped his arm with both hands and leaned into him affectionately. “It’s not too much, Tony. Thank you.”

He didn’t respond, just basked in the warm feeling he got when she was happy with him like that. They walked for about a block before she spoke again. “I have an idea to get us started on that road, but I don’t think you’re going to like it.”

Her fingers squeezed his upper arm gently as they walked, and the little tingles that ran up from her touch, raising the hairs on the nape of his neck, made it impossible for him to respond with anything more than, “Yeah?”

“Yeah. You said we need to hire some subs for this job, right?”

“Mmhmm.”

“Well, how about Randal?”

“Rand—Beef?” Tony looked down at her, but she wasn’t looking at him anymore; she was leaning her cheek into his shoulder, watching the sidewalk ahead of them.

“Yeah, Beef. Why not? Don’t we need more muscle on this one?”

“Yeah, muscle was one of the roles I wanted to fill, but he’s not an operator, Ads. Anything he does—any psychotic thing he does—is going to come back on us, on our SOA licenses.”

“He’s not stupid, Tony. You’ve seen that. If we can talk him into this, he’ll act the part.”

“But why, Ads? He’s a banger—pretty sure once you’re in a banger gang it’s kind of permanent.”

Addie let go of him, folding her arms over her chest. “Just because he was born in the Blast and lost his parents before he really knew them, doesn’t mean he should be sentenced to life—a short one—as a banger. There are people who’ve quit that life. There was a guy on our street who was a former Helldog. If we can show Beef another path, don’t you think he deserves a shot at it? We both owe him, Tony. I’ve owed him since I was a little girl!”

Tony frowned, too irritated by how right she was to speak. When they reached the corner and had to wait for a light, he inhaled slowly and said, “I guess I’m cool with giving Beef a shot. You know he’s gonna read a lot into it, though. He has a thing for you.” It was a Hail Mary, a last-ditch, underhanded effort to get Addie to change her mind, and he felt ashamed as soon as he said it.

“He knows where I stand with that. He’s all talk, anyway.” He thought she was done responding and felt like he’d gotten off easy, but then she added, “At least he’s willing to take a shot with someone he likes.”

“I…” Tony shook his head, clicking his tongue, for once a little too flustered to act cool. When the light changed and they started walking, he finally managed to say, “You better sell it to him, then. He’ll just laugh in my face.”

Addie unfolded her arms and beamed at him. “Thank you, Tony!”

He waved a hand, feeling a little of his cool reasserting itself. “I’m just glad you’re happy. We still need a netjacker.”

Addie nodded, smiling. “I know who we can ask for a reference.”

“Not another banger—”

“No!” She laughed. “Doc Peters. He’s installed all sorts of stuff for people. I’m sure he knows someone with the right kind of equipment and, hopefully, talents.”

Tony rubbed his chin, reflecting on his need for a shave. “Yeah, that’s a good idea. Peters has a good head on his shoulders, too. He won’t send us out to talk to any idiots.”

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When they reached their neighborhood, Addie steered him toward Beef’s usual hangout. Tony followed along without complaint, though he asked, “You sure you want to talk to him now, with his boys hanging around?”

Addie smiled at him over her shoulder, hurrying her steps. “Leave Randal to me.”

“Fair enough.” Tony stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets and walked into the alley behind her. As expected, Beef and his boys were a few meters in. His two usual cronies were there, sitting on a dumpster, passing a chemstick back and forth, and Beef was sitting on an ancient synth-leather recliner.

The enormous banger shifted in his seat, hoisting his leg a little higher, and when he caught sight of them, he clapped his meaty hands together and chortled. “Oh, ho! Look who it is! Corpo-Tony and the ever-radiant Adelaide!”

Tony smirked, but Addie preened, walking in a little circle before the chuckling giant. His boys hooted, but were too engrossed with their drugs to look up for long. When Addie finished showing off her outfit—the usual jeans and yellow jacket—she said, “Hey, Beef. How’s the leg?”

“Eh, still can’t bend the knee right, and my hip aches for a solid hour when I wake up. I should’ve had the doc chop it off.”

“Never too late,” Tony quipped.

“Hey, hey, T. Glad to see you’re still sharp. I heard you were getting slow.” Beef chuckled, and Tony knew better than to bite and ask him what he’d been hearing; he was just bullshitting.

Addie sighed and stepped closer to Beef. “Before you and Tony make us all uncomfortable with your flirting, I was wondering if maybe you and I could meet up for lunch in a couple of hours. I’m buying.”

“Oh? Just you and me, Ads?” He gave Tony a pointed look.

“Heh.” Tony sucked his teeth, reaching into his jacket to find his shades.

“Yep. Just you and me, Beef. I’ll send you the restaurant location in an hour or so, ’kay?”

“Oh, you don’t have to ask me twice.” He looked over his shoulder at his boys and growled, “Hear that, Runt? You get to be in charge for a few hours, so lay off the chems!”

Reject immediately whined, “Aw, why him, Boss?”

Runt, meanwhile, stabbed his chemstick out on his thigh. It sizzled and smoked, but he didn’t so much as flinch. “Got it, Boss!”

“C’mon, Tony,” Addie said with a smile, traipsing past the three bangers.

Tony followed, but he paused near Beef. “Hey, I was joking, but I wasn’t. You can always get chrome if that asshole spark messed your leg up too much.”

Beef nodded, gathering a loogie in his throat. Thankfully, he spat on the other side of his chair before he answered. “I know, T. Been thinking about it. I’ll have to keep my eye out for someone with the right-sized leg.”

Tony snorted, shaking his head as he continued, taking long strides to catch up to Addie. When he was beside her, she looked up at him. “See? Easy peasy.”

“Well, he’s not exactly on the job yet.”

“Oh, I’ll talk him into it. By the way, how much should we offer him?”

“Well—” Tony adjusted his sunglasses as he looked up to the sky, thinking about the question. After a moment, he continued, “I’d say offer him thirty-five hundred and an even split on any salvage or, in this case, loot.”

“Loot?”

“Yeah. I have to be honest, Ads. I don’t think we’re going to be able to pull this one off without alerting the corpo-sec on site. I’m thinking of a plan where we can, hopefully, get the jump on them at least and subdue them without any real violence, but once that’s done—I mean, there’ll be equipment up for grabs.”

They were across the street from the clinic, so Addie slowed and turned to look at him. “You mean we’re going to rob the place on top of rescuing Kwon?”

Tony shrugged. “Maybe not the place, but the guards. We can’t really leave them with their weapons, can we? And, yeah, if we see anything that looks valuable that we might be able to carry out in, say, a duffel bag, I don’t know why we wouldn’t.”

Addie narrowed one eye at him. “Because they’re the bad guys?”

“Sure!” Tony lowered his shades and winked his silver eye at her. To his relief, she dropped the subject and hurried across the street.

When they entered the clinic, Tony was surprised to see an empty waiting room. Addie must have felt the same way because when she walked up to the counter, she asked, “Sheesh, Vicky, where are all the customers?”

Vicky rolled back in her chair to see over the counter more easily. “Rare slow day, I guess. You need to see the doc?”

“Is he available?”

Vicky nodded and blew an enormous bubble that sparkled like a disco ball in the overhead lights. When she popped it, sucking the gum back into her mouth, the little gate in the counter buzzed and unlatched. “Go on back.” She looked at Tony. “You too?”

“I guess so.”

Addie nodded, holding the gate open for him. “He’s going to talk to Peters, but he’ll be leaving soon.”

“I am?” Tony followed her through the back door.

“Yeah. Since I have to meet with Beef, you should go recruit us a netjacker.”

“If Peters knows one. Otherwise, I guess I can put a posting on the SOA boards.”

“Is that what you would normally do?”

Tony shook his head. “Nah, Eric would handle all that stuff.”

“Oh, right. You told me that.” Addie pushed open the door to the operating room, and Peters was there, elbows deep in the housing of one of his autosurgeon tables.

He looked up at the sound of the door and waved absently. “Hey, Addie. Hi, Tony. Could one of you hand me that NeoFlesh canister?” Addie was quick to help out, walking over to the stainless table and picking up the bright yellow tube. When she handed it to the doc, he asked, “What brings you two in?”

Addie held up her plastic bag from Dino’s. “I have a new Dust reactor.”

“Oh? Need an install?”

“Yep. Also, we were hoping you could put us in touch with a netjacker that might be looking for work.”

While she spoke, Tony reached up and rubbed the back of his neck, feeling a little nervous about Addie’s blunt openness. He hadn’t realized how used to being cagey he’d become. Where he came from, people didn’t do favors for free, and you didn’t go around announcing exactly what you wanted. Of course, he liked how Addie operated a lot better, but he feared she’d get into trouble when they weren’t working with her well-developed connections.

“Oh? A netjacker? Like the real deal with a dream-rig and everything?”

Tony cleared his throat and replied, “Not necessarily. Someone good at cracking, though. Someone with the gear for jamming and intercepting comms.”

Peters grunted as he reached deep into the machine with the yellow tube. “What on Earth are you two up to?”

Addie glanced at Tony quickly, motioning downward with one hand. He got the picture; she wanted to handle this. “Let’s just say I need to get some footage from places where people don’t really want me poking around. I need to get by some corpo goons who might want to stop me.”

“Huh. Well, it’s none of my business, I suppose. I know you two well enough to know you’re not trying to bust one of my clients, so I don’t mind passing your info along to a few that might fit the bill.”

“Do you mind doing it now, Doc?” Addie pressed. “We have kind of a limited window to get this done, and Tony was hoping to interview someone this afternoon—like, now.”

Doc Peters sighed as he extracted himself from the machine and began snapping the housing cover back into place. He pinched his finger and cursed, sucking on the digit for a moment while Addie glanced at Tony nervously. She raised an eyebrow as if to ask, “What now?”

“Honestly, Doc,” he said, stepping forward to help hold the panel in place. “If it’s too much trouble, don’t worry yourself. I can always try to get the drop on the security guys and crack a few skulls—”

“Oh, hey, now! Let’s not go and do anything drastic. I don’t mind sending out a message or two. Hey, you know, there’s a client of mine who’s been having trouble with her bill. I bet she might be interested in some work. You are paying, right?”

“Yes, we are!” Addie said, swooping in to tug on the doc’s arm, helping him to his feet. “Tony will go over all of that with her.”

The doctor held up a finger. “Just a minute and I’ll send a message.” He nodded to another autosurgeon. “Why don’t you hop up there, Addie? I’ll be able to install that unit in just a few minutes.” With that, he sort of zoned out, staring into space, and Tony figured he was sending his netjacker client a message.

Addie tugged his wrist, and he followed her over to the stainless table with the robotic surgeon’s arms poised above it. “These tables always give me the creeps,” she said. “Do you think in the early days they made a lot of mistakes? What if someone plugged in the wrong commands and it took your organs out or—”

“You’re a goof!” Tony chuckled and knocked his knuckles on the table. “Are you trying to freak yourself out before your surgery?”

She wrinkled her brow at him. “I can’t help it if my mind takes me to strange places.”

“Nah, I know you can’t.” Tony watched as she hoisted herself up onto the table. The thing was contoured for a human shape, but it was a one-size-fits-all depression, and he knew Addie would be swimming in it. He started musing aloud before he could stop himself and slam the door on the memory. “You should have seen the autosurgeons at the clinic I went to in New Manhattan. Synth-leather over memory gel, heated, with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres served bedside. Assuming you didn’t have to be put under, I mean.”

Addie’s eyes had gone wide, and he knew it wasn’t because she was impressed by the description of the clinic; it was because he’d opened up a little about his past. He felt his neck get hot and started to turn away, but Addie grabbed his wrist in her warm, slender fingers. “Don’t pull back. I’m glad you shared that with me.”

Tony swallowed his urge to make a joke. Instead, he pushed himself a little harder, consciously forcing himself to say a little more. “The clinic was run by a friend. Well, I thought he was. In the end, he was the one who chopped me up.”

Addie nodded, silently absorbing his words. She tightened her grip on his wrist, and he could see she wasn’t sure if she should say anything or just let him soak in the memory. Thankfully—as far as Tony was concerned—Doc Peters cleared his throat and walked over. “Good news, Tony; she’s available. She said I could give you her address.”

Tony nodded, still staring into Addie’s blue eyes. She didn’t blink, and neither did he for several seconds, and then he remembered to breathe and slowly pulled his hand loose. He turned to Peters, grinning crookedly, back to his old, insouciant self. “Thanks, doc. I’ll try to send some more business your way.” Peters gulped, perhaps unsure how he should interpret that promise. Tony turned to Addie and winked. “Have a nice lunch.”