I should probably go to medical first, to get a complete scan of my wetware and hardware. And get an appointment to replace my primary node. I'm not looking forward to either, though, and working off my secondary node is slower and frustrating. I ping medical and leave a message; it's probably too late in the afternoon to get an appointment, so I head to the precinct first. Besides, they're going to try to upsell me on the latest upgrades. Goddamn kickbacks.

I'm halfway to the precinct before Captain Cartwright pings me with an order to report to him 'in the meat' anyway. I'm in his office less than two minutes later. At least I'm prompt.

That's about the only positive thing he says to me, before raking me over the coals.

He leans across the desk, his fingers steepled, his thin lips pressed together and his eyes narrow. “Lieutenant, I have administrators and bureaucrats I barely know crawling out of the aether, demanding I explain the heat and torsion damage on their hardware. You used your CE Key to override key safeties, and the only thing you can give me is a pile of scrap code?” His eyes are narrow and he's rigid in his chair.

I breathe deeply. “It’s all in my report; I pursued the suspect into the system, throttled and quarantined them, and it self-destructed. Check my logs.”

Cartwright breathes slowly through his nose. “Your primary node logs are scrambled; we couldn’t pull anything legible out of them, so everything up to the Blight was lost. The secondary node was filtered through an emulation; it's a mess. It shows you leaping into the subsystem and getting slapped around by malware.”

“Malware coming from the suspect!” I snap, leaning forward.

“But there’s no body. We checked the other entities in the server, and they were all benign. We grabbed the three you tagged, especially the decompiled body, and had forensics dissect the code line by line, character by character. There’s nothing there,” he says, his tone neutral.

Come on! “It’s not random, Captain. There’s a pattern to the code,” I say slowly.

“Yes, but it’s a junk pattern. As best we can tell, it’s a decoy,” he says, waving one hand.

I grip the arms of my chair. “I’m telling you, it wasn't! It was hitting me with diverse and effective malware, and it actively blighted my augmentation through my filter. A decoy can’t do that. This was a directed attack from a sentient-level avatar!"

Cartwright shrugs. "Well, if it was there, it’s gone now. Maybe it slipped out a backdoor and left a decoy behind to distract you,” he offers.

“No way. I shut everything down. It had no way out,” I protest, trying not to shout.

“You got suckered, no shame in that.”

My fingers dig into my palms, but I take a deep breath, closing my eyes and letting my head fall back. “Look, Captain, I saw Officer Rusteater through the eyebot. I'd like to speak with him."

"Them," the Captain corrects. "And you can ask. But what Officer Rusteater does in their own time, off-duty, is no concern of yours. Unless you have reason to believe they are involved?"

"Well, if the eyebot was sent to spy on them, or if the sabotage was intended to kill them-"

"Then they would be the intended victim, and an officer of this precinct," the Captain says evenly. "You can ask whatever you like, keeping that in mind."

Be polite, and don't make trouble for my officer.

"Sir, heard and understood," I mutter.

"In the meantime, we'll have to schedule a deposition for the Board of Review by the end of the week. For the use of your CE Key," he says, and I stifle the urge to roll my eyes. "And I still want that update on the ME case tomorrow."

"Green across the board, Captain," I say, struggling not to say anything I'll regret.

"Dismissed."

And you're welcome, Cartwright, for preventing a bomb from going off in the docks.

***

Stepping out of Cartwright's office, I'm ready to bite the head off the next person I see. Which, unfortunately, is Rabi. Walking into the hallway, I'm startled when she appears at my side from nowhere. "Hello Hello, Lieutenant! Do you have a moment?"

I swallow the grunt of irritation building in my throat, keeping my pace. "Ah, Captain, I'm a little-"

"Busy? Of course, replacing your implant. I'll walk you down to medical," she says without missing a beat.

I cough at that. "Uh, I actually-"

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"-haven't made an appointment yet, of course, so I made one on your behalf, I hope I'm not overstepping, how are you feeling?"

...weirdly thoughtful. "Uh... no, not overstepping I suppose- thanks, by the way..." I sputter, taken off-guard. "I'm fine, I think, I mean," I say, trying to recover. When did she have time to do that? Wait, when did she even learn about my implant bricking?

"I poured through the code, you know, from the decompiled Avatar," she adds as we walk.

What? You got through all of that this quickly? Damn, cyber-queen, get it done. "Cart- Captain Cartwright said it wasn't anything interesting," I note, frowning.

Rabi giggles in response. "Oh, it's very interesting, we just can't make sense of it, which makes it super interesting to me," she says, tossing her head.

"Well, is there anything I can do?" I ask, as we reach the corridor to medical.

She skips beside me. "Yes. I would like your implant," she says smoothly.

What? "Uh... you mean, the bricked one?" I tap my temple.

She nods quickly and eagerly. "Yes yes! Please. I'll pay for the replacement. Even an upgrade."

You've very helpful. Why is that? "Well, I watched all the code degrade, the data is unsalvageable. The implant is worth the scrap value of the hardware," I say. She doesn't respond to that. "It's dead," I add.

She gives me a glance. "It was never alive, but it could be made so if I granted such a wish."

Uh... huh? "Sorry, I'm not following you,"

Just as we reach the door to medical, Rabi turns, blocking my path. "Yes, you are following me, you just don't understand. May I please have your implant, Lieutenant?"

It's weird, but I guess there's nothing dangerous she can do with it. And it never hurts to be politic with the higher ranks. "Uh, sure..." I say, diplomatically.

She steps aside, motioning me in. I'm surprised when I get a flag approving me for a full replacement of the computing core of my current node. Huh, Rabi paid in advance? Nifty, no insurance bullshit...

As I step into the medical wing, Rabi grabs my arm. "And remember, that is not clean, which can eternal lye. And with strange oils, even soap may die."

What? "What?" I turn to look at her, and the silver threads ripple in my overlay as she laughs and shakes her head.

Her nose wrinkles. "I'm saying you could use a bath, Lieutenant," she says, rolling her eyes.

Well, the night just keeps on giving.

***

Thankfully, Rabi doesn't insist on keeping by my side the whole time. My implant isn't a custom job. NeuroWare is a pretty generic brand, and their main series is nothing special. They are reliable and easy to service, and you can plug and play. The surgery takes less than an hour, and it's all outpatient. No need to open my skull, just access the implant subdermally at the port in the bone. I do have to stay conscious during it, though.

I'm laying on my side on the medical table while a rather curt nurse preps me. His bedside manner leaves a little to be desired, if I'm being honest. Not being much of a time-waster, I decide to get some answers. I ping Officer Rusteater through my secondary node, while the nurse tinkers with the first. Just Rusteater? No last name? Nothing? Oof.

They answer after a few moments. There's no greeting. "I'm off-duty, Lieutenant. Did you check the shift schedule?"

I lick my lips, subvocalizing, ignoring the tug I feel from my temple. "Yes, I apologize, Officer Rusteater. However, there was an incident at the dock, and I'd like to speak with you to get a statement."

"Tomorrow. I'm sleeping in early tonight," they state quickly.

Sleeping? Wait, did they leave the Chimera? Or... are they still there? And... sleeping? "Oh, sorry, I thought you were Synth," I add. Sometimes it can be hard to tell.

"I am," is the blunt response.

"Oh... you sleep?" I ask, blinking.

"Is that any of your concern, Lieutenant?"

My mouth works silently for a moment. "No, I apologize, I just-"

"Assumed?" They interject.

I chew my lip. "I'm sorry, Officer Rusteater, maybe we got off on the wrong foot-"

"I'm available anytime tomorrow morning after nine and before noon. Ping me then. Have a good day," they say with a flat tone.

I take a breath. "I apol... huh." They broke the channel. Rude.

Eh, they're a Synth. I'm sure it's... benign. Don't do that thing where you assume the worst.

I try pinging the Chimera.

When I don't get an answer, I'm proud of myself. I don't spin out.

I'm too busy worrying that someone might be trying to kill Sparrow to worry if she's sleeping around.

***

I'll spare you the details of the procedure to swap my implants. In the beginning, I just lay back, enduring a few nerve connections and some diagnostics. The end is mostly filled with tedious paperwork. Well, its digital, but paperwork all the same. True to her word, Captain Gupta has authorized payment from the forensics budget. I guess it's a work-related expense, and I'm not complaining. The doctor slaps a tiny dermal patch on my temple and gives me the specs for the unit.

Rabi's gone with my old unit before I'm even released; I guess she was eager to get it back to dissect it. Still, even though I got a shiny new node installed for free, I can't help feeling a little used.

Oh well, she's gone, no need to keep up with her parsec-a-light-minute rambling. Plus, who knows, maybe she can pull something useful off of it? If it can help me, I'll take it.

By the time I get back to my quarters, it's late. I'd normally be crawling into my cot by now. But I do take half an hour to test all the functions of my new implant, and make sure my four nodes are communicating effectively. I upload all my latest malware filters and preferences. You know, the things you do with a new electronic device.

I also take a long and thorough bath, and put a note to buy some stronger deodorant. I can't tell is Rabi was screwing with me, but it's a small station. And I want to smell nice... for...

Well, I want to smell nice. I don't have to explain myself to anyone, even myself!

By the time I'm crawling into the cot and pulling the blanket around myself, I'm at least certain I'm clean. Ugh, some sleepless manic cybermind on one hand, and a synth who replicates the need to sleep on the other? For a few moments, I'm concerned that those thoughts running back and forth in my mind will keep me up all night.

But then, something else occurs to me. If Rabi can pull any data off that implant, it might include useful information about the suspect or the case. At the same time, she might pull any other sort of data off it. Like, about Sparrow. Or... Alex. Shit.

I'm wrong, of course. The thought doesn't keep me up all night. Just two or three hours. I'm finally able to fall asleep by reassuring myself that Rabi won't find anything. Or possibly that she just wanted the implant for creepy stalker-y reasons. Because it had been inside me, or something like that. I'm a little ashamed to admit it, but that really does help me get to sleep.

Alright, you can judge me a little. Besides, it's nothing compared to the next day.