I climb through the darkness of unconsciousness towards the sounds of a man and a woman bickering and the smell of antiseptic and sandalwood incense.
“-Is fine. The bullets missed the important things so he shouldn't need implants. And when Kei should be fine when they wake up, but I’ll go through the battery with them to make sure.”
I groan internally, and I hear a curtain get drawn back. Maybe I didn't groan internally. Slowly I open my eyes to behold the smiling face of the local butcher and Leah’s worried face hovering over his shoulder. Doctor Srinivas is a jolly-looking fat man with an immaculately styled grey handlebar mustache, caterpillar eyebrows, and one of the earliest prosthetic eyes I’ve ever seen. He claims he won't upgrade until modern eyes can match its level of magnification. He also won't say how powerful that magnification would have to be. Regardless of any idiosyncrasies, he’s also THE best unlicensed doctor in the city.
“So Mx. Kei”, he says, pushing back one of my eyelids to get a better look into my eye. “How are we feeling? Any headaches, auras, distorted senses, or severe tinnitus?” I manage a grunt in the negative. “Excellent! Do you think you can answer a few questions for me? With words, please.”
I swallow thickly and croak out an “Alright.”
His grin brightens. “Thank you! For this, I’ve disabled your access to the ‘Net temporarily, but it will resume when you leave my office. Now, will you please tell me the date and year?”
“It’s uh.” I pause for a second. “The fourth of April, 2069.”
The doc nods and writes something down. “And which city are we in currently?”
This one is easier. “We’re in the Sea-Van Megalopolis, District 18.”
He nods again. “And can you remember what you were doing before you wound up here?”
I muster up my most innocent expression. “I was working on a program for Kawasaki-Mitsubishi Light Industries and must have lost track of time and exceeded the legal safe limit for time in VR. Luckily my roommates were there to bring me in.” I finish off the act with a flutter of my eyelashes. The doctor laughs again.
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“Ah, you runners and your jokes. I’ll let you discuss your nefarious deeds with your associate and turn your Net access back on.”
I flop back onto the pillows. “What day is it actually Leah?”
She slips into the chair next to my bed and pats my hand. “It’s the afternoon of the 5th, Kei. Hank was in surgery until this morning, but it looks like he’ll be fine in the end. Jack wanted to be here when you woke up, but I made him sleep. He said to tell you ‘Nice shooting’”
I smile and give a small nod. Sounds like Jack. “How’re, him, and Arash? And what happened with the Johnson?”
“Jack’s fine, just a bit bruised with a small amount of internal bleeding. Arash made it out with no injuries, and I did the same. The Johnson…” Leah gets one of her trademark vicious grins. I swear a shark’s smile would have more warmth. “The Johnson wanted to stiff us for half pay because you killed two of K-M’s veteran drone operators. So I pulled some data from your deck and rattled off his name, SIN, address, and number of children. He coughed up the full amount, combat, and a bonus for quick delivery. I don't think he’ll be using us again any time soon, but I also put the word out that his jobs are traps so we’ll see who gets the last laugh.”
I laugh weakly at that. Leah has a terrifying amount of contacts from all walks of life. I almost feel sorry for that Johnson because of what’ll happen to him next. He’ll most likely become a pariah in our circle, and be unable to do his job for whichever group he belongs to. If he’s lucky, he’ll be transferred somewhere less underworld-facing and never rise higher than middle management. If he’s unlucky…
Best not to dwell on that. “So how much is my cut?”
Leah pats my hand and I get a transfer notice for-
I nearly yell, but strangle it to a whisper. “Fifty thousand!? Leah, what the hell was that package?”
Leah shrugs. “Corporate secrets, weapon schematics, a list of clients, the CEO’s grocery list? Who the hell knows Kei. Asking questions like that gets you zeroed. And I intend to live a very long time. Rest up, enjoy the cash, lie low, call me when you run out and we’ll go on another run. I’ll look into the blue dragon in the meantime. And give Jack a call when you feel up to it, the big lug was worried about you.”
I nod meekly and stare at the ceiling, thinking. Definitely not to keep myself from staring at her ass while she walks away. Time to find something to do to kill time for a few
months I guess.