"And up!" I called out as we lifted the medical monitoring suite from the truck bed.
Pilar, with his freakishly long arms, barely did anything. His side lifted a few inches.
On the opposite side, Rebecca did better, but she puffed up her cheeks and her red and green eyes almost damn popped out as she struggled with the weight.
"And towards me."
I prepared to slowly descend the suite as I stood just under the truck bed, trying to brace.
"Slowly… slowly…"
Rebecca's side began shaking just a little and she shuffled closer to me.
"Fuck… this… shit…" she said between breaths.
Pilar was doing fuck all. They did load it first, they must be tired already. But you are not a cyberpunk if you give up when just moving items around.
"Oh fuck." I spoke out loud as the entire machine slipped and landed on my forearms with its sharp edges. The part that landed on the bruise from the pulled-out needle hurt even worse.
The pain struck me and I clenched every muscle in my body to not let it fall.
I heard the banging of metal as Pilar reached over and took some load off with his fingers.
"I could reach over and stick a finger up your ass if that helps." Pilar joked, without even a hint of being tired.
"Shut… UP!" Rebecca shouted and lifted the machine towards me, fully off the truck.
I adjusted my feet and leaned back as I readjusted my grip.
"Okay… let go."
Without skipping a beat, they did.
"Motherfuck-"
I felt my spine compress as I held the entire thing by myself.
Slowly lowering my knees, I placed one corner of it on the floor, then held on as it touched down fully with a loud thud.
"That's all of it, thank fuck." Rebecca exhaled, then turned to where Sasha was dozing off. "I'm all for fighting and kicking ass, not this. You sure there ain't a thing left in that old place of yours you want us to pick up?"
Sasha lazily waved her limp hand in dismissal, clearly too tired to respond. Rebecca frowned.
Pilar loudly yawned, hopping off the truck. He patted my back.
"Sorry about the floor, man. Shit looks preem." He looked over the numerous indents and smudges on the ruined epoxy finish.
"Believe me, man. Least of my worries." I answered, still catching my breath.
"Okay, gotcha. Suck my dick, I'm out." Pilar grinned and went for the driver's seat.
Rebecca, in a rush, turned to me.
"What?"
"Take care of her, okay?" She said it in a weirdly soft tone.
I truly didn't understand why she was being so nice to me. What did Sasha tell them?
"I'll do everything I can."
Rebecca nodded and then jumped from the truck and landed near me.
"Others would help too. Just let us know. Sasha is being stubborn and doesn't want us-"
The loud horn blasted as Pilar began spamming it with one hand while the other banged on the door outside. Looking over to the seats, I saw every piece of weaponry Rebecca had stuffed.
"GET IN OR I'M LEAVING WITHOUT YOU."
Rebecca immediately turned around and raged.
"I SWEAR I WILL KILL YOU. GIVE ME A SECOND!"
Pilar did not stop.
Sasha rustled from her spot and Rebecca immediately caught that. She rushed to Pilar's side and punched his arm hanging from outside with her fist. Pilar yelped in pain and stopped making noise.
"GET IN! Fuck."
Rebecca ran around the front of the truck and gave me a nod. I responded likewise.
I understood. Sasha didn't want to burden anyone. But three of us apparently.
They left and I closed up the garage using the console, finally cutting out the noise of the siblings. The outside camera came online just after they would have turned the corner. So it was Sasha's doing.
I doubted I'd have to worry about Biotechnica finding this place for a while.
The floor was shit now. But I wouldn't pay to get it redone. It wasn't like I was going to reopen this place.
I carefully approached Sasha, who had been turning and tossing on the bottom shelf on top of tires. I squatted right in front of her. She lay with her eyes closed.
"Hey."
"Hey."
"If you give me five minutes, I can give you my place to sleep. It's a shitty mattress, really."
She opened her big blue eyes and stared at me. They still shook. Her nervous system was a wreck for even fully cybernetic eyes to react like that.
"That would be great."
I walked back and began stashing away all the shit I had in that room, especially the IV. But the line of sight was a bitch. Sasha looked straight at it and used her hand to move her hair out of her eyes as she stared.
"Why do you need that?"
"I need the nutrients."
Then she became quiet again, just staring as I carried things out of that room one by one.
The last thing I carried out was the bundle of Sprocket's cyberarms, wrapped up.
Returning back, I again squatted near Sasha. She had been just looking, seemingly without blinking.
"Want me to carry you?"
I got a silent nod. I went for a princess hold, which after the equipment was like carrying a feather. She was mostly metal and plastic, though. The burnt smell intensified as I was closer.
Her pink M-76e Omaha was missing.
Carefully going around the corner, I placed her on top of the mattress. The contrast hit me. Man, this place was filthy.
"Well then, call me if you need me. I'll answer this time. Sorry."
I turned around and began closing the door.
"…Wait."
Pushing it back open, I peeked inside.
"Yeah."
"Can we talk?" Sasha said, her voice weak.
Walking back inside, I stood above her.
"Yep."
"Why didn't you answer?"
"I couldn't. Tough to explain. There's nothing really that can wake me up using the system default neuron prodding."
"Is that so?" she asked somberly, staring at the ceiling. It was moldy up there.
"I wish I could explain, but it's-"
"It's what?"
"I don't really know where to start. You shouldn't have to listen to it." I didn't know what kind of problems that would create for her.
"But I want to. Why is it that I never get to hear what you are up to?"
"Well, I got into trouble with Arasaka recently. By proxy, but still."
Sasha's eyes began to water and she still stared at the ceiling.
I squatted down near her.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know it was important for you to know, but it's as much as I can tell you."
She must not have known about David. Because I was asking about Gloria Martinez… and I- I killed her. I didn't want anybody to know.
"I don't understand what's going on with you. A few months ago you were so different. But now… I don't recognize you anymore…"
"You drew the face, Sasha."
"No. It's not about that. Don't you see?" Sasha turned her head to me, causing the smallest tears to rush down her face. Her voice cracked. "You don't trust me even a little."
I remained silent.
"What's your goal with me? I don't understand."
I was lost. But seeing her like this was making me feel a different kind of frustration. Would she believe a word I said? How much would I need to lie to make this work? My jaw clenched and I just stared her in the eyes until the answer came to me.
"I'm not sure. But what if I told you everything? Bit by bit. I want to make sure you can sleep in peace until you recover."
Sasha smiled slightly, clearly still in pain.
"That bad?"
I bit the inside of my lip. I forced a smile in return.
"Yeah. Let's start small." I said.
Sasha lightly tapped the mattress and shifted further back. She wiped her tears with her fingers.
"Fine."
I lay down and we lay face to face on our sides.
"So?"
"Look up." I told her.
She looked at the ceiling without a thought.
"The wall, dummy. Do you see it?"
"It's a nice wall."
"See the scratched out 'Wires'?"
"Yeah."
"Used to be his and his wife's place. Sprocket. So, the name of the shop."
I waited for a joke but she just looked at me when I returned my gaze to her.
"He died doing honest to god stupid shit many years ago. And this place was run by his wife, Rosa María Quintana. Sprocket. I actually worked here for a while under her."
"I know. You used the local net here all the time."
"Yes, sorry. I'll get back to your spying later. So, I worked for cash. Lived here for free. And she was as rude as it gets. Absolutely heartless on the outside. But my puppy eyes convinced her to let me have a chance.
She paid me way too much. Drove me around in her Quadra to pick up food together. She never said a damn word. There was never music while working. She was just that person. Worked day and night, making the impossible happen."
"What happened?" Sasha's voice was barely a whisper.
"She died. A few days ago. I found her in her apartment. And I can't find the time to-" My eyes started to water and my breath became unsteady. "I can't even… I need to do all this shit just to look at the… frozen remains. They stripped her of her chrome. And I just… I."
Sasha hugged me and I felt myself breaking down even more. I felt Sasha crying with me on my neck.
I pulled her in.
"I'm sorry… I… there's so much shit. I-"
"I understand." Sasha whispered in my ear.
"I haven't repaid her… for anything… she wanted to sell the place and move back with her family… she told me she has… but she… had no one left. Fuck. I'm sorry."
"You saved me today again, Caelen."
"What? No, I didn't-"
"They busted the wrong door. The one farthest from where I was. All because you thought it was weird that I had crammed everything into one corner."
"That, no-"
I wiped my face with my hand.
"It saved me. They saw me entering from the wrong door. Thank you."
"That doesn't-"
"Thank you. I'm alive. Thank you."
We embraced and I didn't want time to pass at all.
But it does.
I pulled away slightly, and so did she. I saw her eyes once again.
"That makes two." I tried joking, my voice cracked.
Sasha smiled brightly in response.
"Yes. Yes it does."
She is so beautiful.
I looked at her for a while. Just trying to take it all in.
"Sorry, I need to go."
"When will you be back?"
"I don't know. You can just track me again."
"I can? Hmm?" Her tone was teasing, soft.
"Not what… Can you explain it? Why do you want to know where I am?" I asked.
"…I'm tired." Sasha got away from me and flopped back onto her back.
"If you-"
"I just want to." Sasha said, and turned her head towards the wall, her voice small.
My face contorted as I tried to contain a smile.
"I'll come back with everything you need or want. Just you wait."
She responded by making a smooching sound, her lips barely puckered.
"I'll be quick."
I got out quietly.
Right, now I had to go. But what if I delayed and stayed here? No.
I paced around a little, convincing myself that there were priorities. She needed to rest and I really needed to go pick up David.
I needed to get done with this. I needed to get to my car.
The walk to the Quadra felt longer than usual. My boots scraped the concrete. I'm really tired. The morning fog seeped in, hazing everything.
Opening the trunk, I took out the food and water. I pushed it closed using my foot. Walking down by the side, I noticed my own reflection in the side mirror.
My hairstyle ruined. Bags under my eyes. My cheeks had fallen in slightly and I was just plain dirty. I saw dirt even got into the EMP threading seams on my face. I'd been like this the entire time? It needed to be fixed.
Fuck it, buy a proper mirror for once. It gets worse each day otherwise. It's about time.
Another message notification hit my vision. Vik.
"Good morning. I'm not a babysitter. Take back the kid. He will be fine."
"I'll be there in twenty." I wrote back.
To be expected. You don't run a clinic by yourself in a basement on Jig Jig street because you are good with kids.
I checked the last ping from David's system. Confirmed his location still at Vik's.
I stepped back and returned to where Sasha was sleeping. I slowly opened the door with my foot and placed the food and water inside, closing it back as gently as I could.
"Thanks," came the message a few seconds later, with her pink cat emoji attached. I could almost hear her tired voice saying it.
I'll ask Vik what to do. She should sleep. That didn't strike me as a good response to neurological overload.
And while on the topic. SC, where are the usual complaints? I've been hungry for a while.
Save my words.
I did say that. Maybe I'll ask Sasha to use her scanner to figure out if the neuron mass expanded while I have the opportunity. You are getting smarter, SC.
There was no response.
I quickly chugged a bottle of water and ate a bar of SCOP. The synthetic paste stuck to my teeth. Then a quick shower with the water from the hose, just to fix my hair and wash my face.
Looking back, it was a slight improvement, but wearing this skintight netrunner suit I probably still stank.
I walked around to the passenger side, disarmed the boobytrap, and remotely opened the garage door just enough to get under. The grenade, now back with its pin, went into the glove compartment.
Rolling out, I noticed the homeless had gathered in the area again. The gate closed behind me with a metallic screech.
In Night City, whenever people moved like that, it meant big shit was happening on the streets. These ones had brought their own tents. I'd shoot in the air when I came back, maybe drive them off.
I merged into traffic. The Quadra's engine hummed, a low growl that settled into my bones.
Connecting to the security network while I was still in the range, I tried quickly overwriting the protocols, but they were already improved and had added me as an administrator. What was she thinking, doing this much?
Driving further, I began my usual routine of browsing the news and noting down anything useful among the garbage.
Eidolon released another single. How many- I don't care. I don't listen to music.
Another death. Arasaka deployed new regional centers in Poland. New dust storm approaching Night City. Big explosion from Dog Town.
All shit.
I passed under an NCART line and it sped away behind another building, its shadow momentarily covering my car. The tracks rattled overhead, then faded.
Should I just hire people to look for Lucy? No. Dumb idea. That would make her hide. She would notice.
I didn't ride the rapid transit lines that often myself. Maybe she was out there somewhere. Fate was a fairly common concept to grasp. But with my fate, I wasn't sure there was such a thing at all. It's all so complicated.
Maybe I'd have to drop the subtlety and the reclusiveness a bit. It felt good to finally share with Sasha. I'd have to ask her about so much in return.
On the topic of being less subtle, this was a good time to call Rebecca.
The call connected with a click.
"What? What the fuck happened?" she immediately responded, her voice sharp and loud right in my head.
"She's fine. I'm calling to ask something."
"…Grab your shitty little gun and shoot YOUR FUCKING KNEECAPS, YOU GONK!"
The sudden yell caused me to brake suddenly. I heard shouting and car horns as people behind me evaded hitting me. Privilege of an expensive looking ride.
"Hey, fuck you. I need to know-" I retaliated, my voice rising, then returning to normal morning traffic.
Rebecca did not let me finish.
"FUCK. Do it quick. I'm on the john." Her voice was strained, impatient.
"What's your team composition at the moment?"
"We don't need another netrunner. And like, our fixer is really fucking picky, so no. Four eyes won't even take Sasha back in. And besides, you suck major style. Sasha told me." she stated flatly.
So he was the reason Sasha had been left to work solo gigs. And the last part, she would say that.
"Good to know. Who's the netrunner?"
"Kiwi. She's a cold bitch but she does great. What about her?" Rebecca's tone was dismissive.
Well, she did in the original. Sold you all off.
"Anybody else?"
"Are you deaf? No. End of fuckin' story. Is that all?"
I tapped the steering wheel with my fingers in disappointment, the soft thuds matching my heartbeat.
"Thanks, Becca. Yep, thanks."
She hung up. Maybe I went too far with the nickname.
But alas… no Lucy. Fuck.
She had to be somewhere. Everybody I knew existed here, and even more that I didn't know existed.
She was an enemy to Arasaka as I remembered. Giving her even a hint of potential tracking would cause shit I wouldn't know how to recover from. She could kill me. And I doubted there would be much stopping her with her skillset.
Those chances are- wait. SC. Are you capable of locating a person through something less than a photo? A name? A drawing?
My head again felt weak as SC conjured up an answer.
Coma.
So an extremely long time for you to search. Am I right? I didn't need an answer. It would make sense that the quality of the input would correlate with the speed of the search. But time was what I didn't have.
I was two minutes from reaching Vik's clinic. Switching the voice back to Raf, I steeled myself to act in the most commanding way possible. David needed this.
As I drove, I passed two corpses of people who had jumped off buildings and landed on the streets, making ugly splatters. Didn't look too important either. Doubt I'd see them in the news tomorrow.
I almost forgot. I reached over to the central console and took out the immunosuppressor injector that kept my implants from running wild suddenly. I almost ran out of fresh spots to inject. I'll switch to thighs next.
There was little of note as I entered the alley. Besides the cat, which ran away as soon as I got near.
Getting down the stairs, I heard banging noises. A punching bag.
I opened the door and saw David punching the bag while Vik watched another match. This one was decades old based on the chrome those guys were packing.
David stopped punching when I walked in. Vik didn't look up from the match.
"Morning." I announced myself.
David's new eyes were still recalibrating; I could tell from the way he tracked me, slightly overcorrecting for distance. It would normalize in another day or two.
He had a bruise on his jaw that had developed color overnight. His knuckles were still raw and now looked even worse. Trying to toughen him up, Viktor?
Otherwise he looked marginally better.
"Oh, morning," he responded, his voice flat.
"You overpaid," Viktor stated, still not looking up.
"You even trained the rascal. I think it's money well spent."
Vik looked up and raised his eyebrows, a flicker of something akin to amusement crossing his face.
"I'll just make you pay less next time around."
I didn't think there was anything wrong with that. I gave a nod back and then turned to David, who just stood there, listening.
"Ready? Let's go, Dee."
"Where?"
"First, your house. You're moving."
David's expression filled with despair. His shoulders slumped.
"You wanted to go somewhere else?"
"I just paid rent," he said, his voice tight.
"You can sublet it if you want to make some money back. But you're not staying there."
David cautiously darted his eyes to Vik and back to me. He didn't think we could speak openly about why this was.
I raised my hand to calm him down.
"Vik's not going to share anything. Right?"
Vik turned in his chair again. "As long as it doesn't endanger my patients, I don't care."
"Doing the opposite here, Vik. Dee here got in a fight with the Arasaka kids. And you know how they react to these things."
Vik remained stoic. "Figured it was something like that," he stated.
"You mentioned that he needs to give up," I inquired.
"Some fights you're just not meant to win. You can only outlast them." Vik's eyes were on the screen again.
David looked enraged at the mention that he shouldn't have won. His jaw was tight. He remained silent.
"And why did you try to teach him how to fight then?"
"There's nothing wrong with trying to make them not even want to try." Vik shrugged.
I nodded my head in agreement. There was no real fault in that logic. David needed to bulk up.
"Damn right you are. Okay, Dee, pack up."
David went off to get his stuff and I was left with Vik.
I walked over and lowered my voice.
"Vik, what should you do if neural overload from intensive overclock causes someone to overheat so much they smell burned? Really important. So much that the person can't even fall asleep."
Vik got silent and pursed his lips as he mulled it over. His brow was furrowed.
"I'd have to see. Get that person to a ripper. A competent professional should gauge the situation from there."
My heart stung.
"What's the range of issues we're looking at?"
"All the way to imminent death." Vik said it flat, without drama.
David was approaching already.
Fuck.
"Vik. Do you do home calls? I'll pay as much as you want."
He stood up. His frame was solid, unmoving.
"I don't do home calls. Never have. You bring them to me, or you find someone else."
"Vik-"
"No." He cut me off. Not angry. Just final. "And what if there's a person here hoping for me to help them? I'm just gone? I refuse to conduct myself in such a manner. People rely on me to do what I do here."
I overstepped.
"My fault. Any issues if sleeping medication is used?"
"Shouldn't be. Just adjust the dosage." Vik sat back down.
David, now fully equipped, stood wide eyed, trying to understand the situation. He had a duffel over one shoulder and the urn bag over the other.
"Later, Vik," I said and turned around. "Let's go," I called out to David, and we went outside.
I heard a deep sigh from behind us. I am stressing out the old man too much.
We walked to the car in silence. The morning air was cool.
"How's the eyes?" I asked.
David blinked a couple of times, adjusting to the sunlight. He squinted.
"It's alright. I don't really understand why I need to see every bit of dust floating through the air, though. It will self adjust, right?" His voice was uncertain, almost whiny.
I stopped and turned around.
"It's um… yeah, it will. Every speck, really? Can you count them out?"
David shrugged. Then suddenly his eyes twitched rapidly, then stopped, then twitched again. He looked like he was focusing on something far away.
"Somewhere in the eighty range," he said casually.
That wasn't normal, right? The specs on these clearly showed improvement in image processing speed, but the brain should have remained relatively unchanged. This shouldn't be possible within a day.
I made a quick mental note for budgeting reasons. David should get way more money allocated towards upgrades. If this trend continued-
"Raf?" David called out and pointed to the bald cat that roamed around here.
He hadn't seen cats before.
"Go for it. Pet it."
David carefully approached, crouching down. The cat practically melted when he touched it, arching its back into his palm. Standing behind, I waited patiently until he was done. The cat even purred.
"What's that? Hey, don't eat me." He talked to it as the cat began to lick his damaged knuckles, its tiny tongue rasping over the raw skin.
I am unsure what to feel.