"Are you okay?" Geraldo asked.

Gabriela wiped the blood away from her mouth before she accepted Geraldo's outstretched hand. He pulled her to her feet.

"I'm fine. I thought you said he was a spineless coward?"

"Even cornered rats will put up a fight." Geraldo bent down and began to search the unconscious man, rifling through his pockets, turning each one inside out before moving to the next one.

"What are you looking for?" Gabriela winced as she explored her lip, feeling around the cut. Her lip was swelling, making it hard to talk without slurring her words.

Geraldo paused and looked up at her. "Drugs." He explained before he went back to his search. "Bingo."

Geraldo held up a baggy before he tossed it over to Gabriela. She snatched it out of the air and held it up in the low light. She turned the clear plastic bag over and around. Small disks glittered in the ally lamps.

"This is digital." She said.

"Some hacker probably got their hands on old source code for digital Narco and tried to make his own brain candy."

"He doesn't have a brain dock." Gabriela pointed at Pet.

"It's not for him. I'm sure he was planning on selling it in the Bazaar. People come down from the Upper City to find rare stuff. Old junk scavenged in the war ruins, girls and boys to have a good time with, and drugs."

Gabriela grimaced when she remembered the old books she had to turn down and briefly wondered if the vendor would still have them, if she could even find the booth again.

"He was probably hoping to find some dumb kid looking for a good time."

"Digital Narco can seize the brain dock. Trap you in a coma." She added as she tossed the baggy back.

"Do you think he cares about that?"

"Why don't you wake him up, and we can ask him," Gabriela growled. She crossed her arms and watched as Geraldo sat him up and slapped his cheeks lightly.

"Hey." He said with a slightly more brutal slap. "Wake up, Pet."

Pet groaned, and his head lolled back and forth as his eyes opened slowly and rolled back into his head. The whites of his eyes were bloodshot, and she could smell the sour stench of unwashed flesh wafting off of him.

"Wha-?" Pet asked groggily.

"Surprise, asshole." Geraldo smiled and grabbed the man by his thinning hair, pulling the skin of his scalp up.

Pet yelped and kicked out at Geraldo as he scratched at his hand hopelessly.

"Shut the fuck up, Pet." Geraldo pushed his head back and held up the baggy in front of his eyes. "Assaulting a security officer is five to ten years of hard time, and it's an additional two for each one of these. How many do you think are in here, Detective Fohren?" He looked back at Gabriela.

"Fifteen, maybe twenty."

"Let's call it twenty. That's fifty years, Pet-y! Fifty long years of hard labor, if you are lucky, a corporation will buy up your contract and work you to death in a call center."

"I didn't know who she was." He insisted.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"I believe she announced herself."

"Please, I wasn't going to hurt her. I thought she was a Chrome Domer."

Geraldo looked back at Gabriela before he looked back at Pet. He shook his head and chuckled. "Does she look like a fucking Chrome Domer, Pet?"

"Please, I, I," He stammered, "I will do anything, tell you anything you want."

"I want to know about the bliss you are pushing."

"I'm not pushing bliss, man." Pet wailed.

"Don't bullshit me, Pet-y. I can smell the stench of the drugs rotting you from the inside. So where are you getting the bliss, who supplies it, and where can we find them?"

"I promise, I don't know. I haven't had bliss in weeks. I have been getting by on heroin."

Geraldo picked Pet up and slammed him against the brick wall. The junkie’s feet kicked and dangled above the dark asphalt.

"No one is getting fucking tar, you pissant." Gabriela couldn't help but feel amused watching Geraldo. In the lawless Lower City, even the law was unruly, and Geraldo was perfect for the job.

"It's synthetic." Pet sobbed. "It's not tar."

The ring of Geraldo's palm terminal filled the alley, drowning out Pet's sob. Geraldo let him fall to the ground. "Don't fucking move." He warned as he pulled out his terminal and answered it.

"This is Geraldo." He paused and turned to Gabriela before he held it out to her. "It's for you."

Gabriela uncrossed her arms and hesitated.

"It's Sally. She wants to talk to you." Geraldo told her.

Tentatively she took the terminal and held it to her ear. She could hear Sally exhaling on the other side of the connection. "Is that you, Blossom?"

"What is it?"

"I found that implant you two are looking for."

Gabriela looked up at Geraldo before she turned away and walked down the alley so she couldn't be overheard. "How?"

"A mutual friend told me where to find it."

"Who is this friend?"

"Doesn't matter right now, Blossom. All that matters is I know where to find it, or at least where to find the person who bought it."

"Where is it?"

Gabriela could hear Sally inhaling a cigarette before she exhaled. "A woman named Nora Thane has it."

"Do you know where we can find her?" Gabriela asked eagerly.

"I do, Church of Saint Saviour."

The name didn't sound familiar to her. She glanced back at Geraldo when she heard Pet screaming again. The bigger man was preoccupied with his beating. "Where is that?"

"Geraldo will know."

"Why are you helping me?"

Gabriela expected the woman would tell her what she wanted in return, but, "I was captivated by your pretty hazel eyes." That was all she said before she disconnected from the terminal.

Gabriela looked down at the screen of the terminal. "Disconnected." She tapped her finger thoughtfully on the side of the screen before she walked back to Pet and Geraldo.

"I needed to make some cash and fast." Pete was explaining. "I figured I could turn the brain candy over quickly and get the Chrome Dome their money before they killed me."

Geraldo ignored Pete and asked, "What did she have to say?"

"She found the implant. Church of Saint Saviour, you know what it is?"

"Yeah." Geraldo lit a cigarette and took a drag. "It's an old church in the Lower City. A mission ran by a Father Diaz."

"Nora Thane ring a bell?"

"Nope." Geraldo took another drag before he looked down at Pet. He flicked his cigarette at the man. The cigarette exploded in a shower of embers when it collided with him. Pet flinched and held up his hands.

"Looks like it's your lucky day, Pet-y boy." Geralso said as he turned away and walked down the alley.

Gabriela looked down at Pet as he whimpered and sobbed. She clenched her jaw as she gave his side a sharp kick. She could feel and hear his ribs break under her boot. "That's for my lip, you fuck."

Pet gasped and sobbed as she walked away. "Wait!" He called out after them. "What about the brain candy? If I don't sell it, I'm dead."

Geraldo took the baggy out of his pocket and handed it to Gabriela. "Your call."

Gabriela strolled back to Pet. Who sobbed and said, "Thank you, Thank you." After every sob

Gabriela dropped the baggy on the ground in front of him, and just as he reached out for it, just before his fingers could touch the bag, she brought the heel of her boot down on the baggy. Smashing its precious content.

"No!" Pet cried. "You bitch, why?!"

"You should get out of town while you still can." Was all she said as she walked away.