Michael 'Magos' Sobronov
The subject's body made one final violent twitch as the Invasive Ripscanner (trademark pending) hissed and detached from his exposed brain, or what was left of the poor shriveled up thing anyway.
"Well, at least the poor fucker's dead now." Yelena said sarcastically, incidentally voicing my subconscious thoughts for me.
Showing no reaction, I skimmed the scan results and mentally hummed at the confirmation of what I'd already suspected.
Ever since the first session, there had been six more flareups where the subject attempted to either break himself out or rip my assistant to pieces depending on whether she was present or not, and every single time showed a progressive shift in his nervous system, most notably the brain and the spine.
My maladaptation hypothesis was soon proven to be correct, because while yes the body was attempting to return to some kind of equilibrium by adapting to the cyberware it was also burning up more resources than it could afford in doing so, effectively rendering the subject completely brain dead after the final flare up.
A result that was no doubt further accelerated up by extra aggressive experimentation as I replaced the subject's other fleshy arm with my own Cyberarm model to observe just how far the adaptation went.
Did the nervous system adapt specifically to the cyberware present at the moment of cyberpsychosis or to cyberware in general? And if so to which degree?
The answer proved to be a resounding yesn't.
Because this is where things got... weird.
At first the arm connected as well as anything else made by myself, but while the added strain on the nervous system remained within projected levels to begin with, after the next flare up came about the carefully observed software within the fresh limb started to shift.
Seemingly completely on its own.
Most of the changes were completely nonsensical and counterproductive, but to my complete and utter bafflement there were a few actual optimizations that even I failed to consider while designing the code.
And all of it appeared to form seemingly at random!
It would have been amazing, mind-shattering even, if not for the fact it was so god damn frustrating.
Because there was simply no reasonable explanation. No source of the signal or the code, no matter how deeply I dug into the subject's Agent.
Was the human brain really just a fancy biocomputer that could learn to speak in code and suddenly decided to upload legible data?
Was I dealing with some Blackwall AI voodoo techno fuckery?
Was the subject merging with the machine to such a deep level he became both?
I had no fucking idea!
And it annoyed me... considerably.
Admittedly it also had me itching for more, but if I really was dealing with AI fuckery of any degree I would have to be prepared to deal with it if I poked the proverbial sleeping bear a bit too much.
And the only real way to deal with AI when it came to data was... sigh, another AI.
"Mmmm." I grumbled in annoyance for a good minute before making the decision and shoving into the back of my head "Have you been appraising Jones of our progress?" I asked my assistant.
"Yeah." Yelena nodded as she finished zipping the subject up in a body bag "She's pretty satisfied so far." She paused and then huffed "Actually she seemed pretty thrilled now that I think about it, hard to tell with how she is most of the time."
"Thrilled enough to procure a fresh subject sometime this year?" I prompted dryly.
"Pickings have been slim what with those crazy fuckers at MaxTac rounding up anyone with chrome who twitches at people wrong." She shrugged "But since this poor fucker finally flatlined, I'm sure she'll kick her ass into gear and grab a new one real quick."
"Sooner rather than later I hope." I said "I've got ideas."
"Can't have you losing interest in her little pet project, eh?" She gave a crooked smirk "Or is it your pet project now too?"
"It is exactly what gives me the most money with the least amount of inconvenience at any given moment." I drawled "And I'll thank you to keep any ideas to the contrary to yourself."
She gave me an expectant look "Well? Where's my thanks then?"
My base deadpan expression somehow became even more so as the woman just kept waiting "Insufferable fucking Scav." I ultimately huffed and wired her a thousand eddies "There, go buy yourself some dignity or something, God knows you could use some."
"Ah, you know you love me." She mocked, still grinning.
"Fuck off." I rolled my eyes and walked out of the lab.
-----
"So they finally decided to back off is it?" I asked, voice carefully neutral "They sure took their time."
V put down her chopsticks and gave me a bland look "A higherup getting massacred without a single trace of who did it tends to make people tense, M. Three months of investigation is nothing." She said dryly "I'm honestly not sure if I should be impressed or horrified they didn't find a single clue pointing at you."
Ended up cleaning house pretty hard though from what I hear.
"Having a bioscanner handy is pretty useful for removing evidence." I said a bit smugly.
And then there was the fact they didn't have everyone's DNA just sitting around in a database waiting to be used, that was logistically impossible.
"Admittedly leaving the turd alive was a bit stupid of me, but he wasn't spiteful enough to fight through the pain and leave a clue so all is well that ends well I suppose."
"No one can fight through whatever the fuck you did to him." She pretend shuddered "Remind me to never get captured by a pissed off ripper. The aftermath of that makes death look nice."
"I'm pretty sure you knew that already." I smirked, tossing back the last of my actual noodles with actual meat "What brings you by anyway?"
She raised an eyebrow "What? Can't a girl visit her scary ass borg choom in her free time?"
My resulting look said all that needed to be said to that.
She sighed and leaned back into her seat "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up."
"Don't mind if I do." I cut off whatever she was about to say with a deadpan "Ha. Ha. Ha."
Understandably, she flipped me off but then went on to say "The Emperor has some big project planned for the Waterfront, and the constant gang war is starting to make the investors think they can talk back. I'm here to deal with it."
"So you are here to wrangle poor old Jugo?" I tilted my head "What's the project anyway?"
"Are you trying to get me killed?" She narrowed her eyes.
"No, not really." I denied "Won't take me much to learn what it is without you help in any case but you've got me all curious now. Not like I'm going to share it with anyone, not without a lot of eddies getting involved anyway."
Which was probably more reassuring than just saying I won't say a thing to the corpo.
She looked conflicted but only for a short while "Yeah, not like it is a massive secret anyway. They are opening another branch of Konpeki Plaza, they are going through a mass vetting for potential employees."
Arasaka's ultra bougie corpo hotel chain? "Trying to milk the fact the waterfront sits right next to the Orbital Air Center then?"
"Pretty much." She nodded "So you see how an ongoing gang war in spitting distance might be a problem."
"Can't have the realities of Night City bothering the honored guests." I drawled and pointed at her "Hell, part of me wants to believe the decadent little shits would appreciate the show if you market it well enough."
Valerie's lip twitched upwards at the mental image "You know what, I can totally see it happening."
"Fucking rats." I shook my head.
"Hey." She glared without any heat "You happen to be talking to one of those rats right now."
"And you wear the title proudly, madam." I pretend bowed "But before I make you rethink your life decisions for the third time-"
Her eye twitched.
"-How about we get back to your actual purpose here?"
"Right." She was all too happy to shift topics "So can I count on you to help me with the Tygers?"
I gave it some thought, tapping the table as I did "I'd advise against involving me immediately, even if you could afford my rates."
"Why not?" She showed no reaction to the latter bit.
Smart.
"Because if you depend on me for every interaction with the man he won't respect you, duh." I told her bluntly "I might have a lot of influence with the local branch but you've already been dealing with the boss for a while so you shouldn't have any problems escalating a bit."
"And you think he will just accept ending the entire gang war at my say so?" She scowled.
"Of course not." I snorted, much to her annoyance "You have to frame it in a way that lets him have his fun, make it seem like a challenge or something, madman will probably appreciate a time limit to how many he can kill before negotiations."
Her dead look practically screamed 'Please tell me you are fucking with me.'
"Well that is if you were given any resources to bribe him along, of course." I added "Can't exactly end the fighting at your request without something tangible."
"My superiors aren't that inept." She said "I've got room to negotiate."
"And there you go." I spread my arms "Problem solved."
"It can't be that simple."
"Well yeah." I pointed at her "There is also the fact Maelstrom needs to accept whatever peace offer the two of you come up with, but I'm not going to even bother trying to get into the head of one of those crazy fuckers so you are on your own there."
"So long as I get the Tyger on board I'm good." She said a bit too quickly.
"Someone else is trying to push things on the Maelstrom's end, aren't they?" I asked with narrowed eyes.
And for the briefest moment I caught her going still before her mask fell back into place.
"What are you talking about?" She asked calmly.
Completely ignoring her question I asked "What did they do to piss you off?"
Briefly it looked like she'd just refuse to answer but she ultimately decided against it as her shoulders slumped "The insipid little bitch was cheering when she thought I was going to take the fall for the Totentanz mess, cheering!"
"You do realize you could fuck yourself over in the long run by risking things for no gain like this, right?" I pointed out.
"Not if I win."
Words of wisdom right there.
-----
The two pincer-limbed maintenance drones skittered about the half assembled Cyberleg far less clumsily than last time, slowly putting the limb back together or at least attempting to do so with all the skill of your average NC ripperdoc, which was a level just shy of utterly embarrassing by my own standards.
"Deactivate assembly sequence." I voiced and the two VI-run drones stopped what they were doing and skittered away from the limb and back to the other three prototype models, lining themselves up perfectly and shutting down.
"Definitely going to need to up their fine dexterity before trying again." I muttered, feeling a mix of annoyance and satisfaction "But progress is progress."
"And once I perfect the worker drones." I chuckled darkly "Combat models are just one small modification away."
Naturally programming a functional and practical VI for something as complex as cyberware repair and assembly was nowhere near as easy as my usual programming, as I could usually rely on directed inputs from the nervous system when dealing with implants.
Oh no, I had to program these little fuckers from top to bottom.
It was proving to be an interesting challenge so far.
I could have probably already made functional combat models as those were far less complex, but I was learning as I worked and any model I produced later would far surpass whatever suicide drone I could make now.
Not that they wouldn't be suicide drones as well but my point stands.
Seeing a notification flicker to the edge of my vision, I made sure the drones were deactivated and disconnected before stepping out of my workshop and nodding at my actually respectable assistant.
"Ms. Martinez." I said a lot less clippedly now that work hours were done "I trust that Mr. Sanchez was satisfied with his purchase."
"He was." She said with a fraction of my own satisfaction "He was acting like he hadn't had a breath of fresh air in his life."
"That is what happens when cigar burned lungs get replaced with a pair of beyond baseline human ones." I chuckle "He could smoke plastic now and nothing would happen to him, though something tells me he is going to be avoiding contact with any kind of smoke until he dies."
She smiles and nods, accepting her usual can of ice coffee I grabbed from the fridge.
Gloria Martinez looked like she had aged back a few years now that she had consistent rest time available without the threat of losing her job, and while it took us a few weeks to get used to each other's near daily presence, she slowly became more and more relaxed around me and became invaluable when it came to dealing with the minutiae of my work.
I am not ashamed to admit I shunted as much of the annoying tedium of running a business as I could her way, and as quickly as I could as well, but to my surprise instead of complaining about it as was her right (or at least as it was supposed to be in a better world) she took it on the chin and took over scheduling and taking calls.
Naturally, that combined with the fact business was booming due to the agreements I finally managed to hammer out with Rogue and Wakako, earned her a considerable raise and so far she had not given me a reason to regret hiring her.
Well, except for one minor annoyance.
See, about one month into her employment we had an unexpected break in the middle of the schedule due to a customer cancelling an operation.
Or well, it was more along the lines of him getting cancelled by way of high caliber round through the side of the cranium but that was beside the point.
The point as it were, was that there were now two hours of planned intensive surgery gone with the wind, and no customer who could reasonably reschedule quickly enough that we could still make use of it, leaving us with an unplanned break for the day.
So I invited her upstairs for a snack because I could find no actual reason not to.
I have come to regret that decision immensely.
Because she and mom hit it off instantly.
And then as if I was stuck in some kind of cruel fever dream, I got to listen to my mother start sharing stories about me with my employee, whom she had met mere minutes before, and who proceeded to do commit the same heinous act upon her own child.
Life was indeed a cruel, ruthless thing.
Needless to say, this meant that Gloria had become something of a constant fixture in my life, both on and off of work, and that would have been fine if not for the fact I could sometimes catch her giving me pitying looks when she thought I wasn't looking.
It wasn't egregious but it did grate, no matter how illogical I knew the emotion to be.
Catching myself, I shook it from my mind and gave the woman a lazy wave as she finished her drink and signed off for the day, going upstairs to chat with my mother for a bit, as was their new custom, before going home.
"Thinking about stupid shit won't make it any less stupid." I told myself and decided to focus on something much more productive instead as I opened up the list of the most expensive and luxurious places in Night City.
New years was coming around in a few days, and it has been a while since I took Rebecca out somewhere nice.
-------
Thine stone is mine.
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