“Mal better not be doing any last stands. I gave him a mobile weapon to move with, not stand there and get shot with.” Noe said from where she was finishing storing her old pieces.

“You’re done now Mal anyway. I’ve made the clasps that hold it all together the ones with red teeth. If you turn the buckles a bit you can see what color the teeth are and know if they are for taking the whole thing off in one piece or if it’s for something specific.” Noe’s mom said, standing up and scuffling my hair up.

“Argh. Well, thanks for the gear. I’ll pay you back with something interesting at some point. With me being a netrunner and an operator there’s doubtless some sort of information or data that you’d find interesting to know I run across.” I said, fixing my hair as best I could.

“You look nova Mal. Looks a lot better than the other rig, a lot more professional.” Noes said as she too stood up and walked over to me.

“I need to head home and get ready for the job, Marchand should be messaging me any time soon.” I said.

“You take care this time yeah? Here’s two mags of some standard smart rounds for your smg, forty fives and no fancy tricks to them. I was building them to use as a starting point for my own. You should still have enough ammo of the rest, take this new sight as well to replace your NV sight. It’s a typical digital sight but it’s got higher zoom so you can be more precise with your smart rounds at range.” Noe said, pushing some mags and a square sight into my arms.

“Thanks Noe, hopefully I won’t need them just to do some netrunning.” I said with a smile.

“You always find a way though.” She said as she sat back down at her desk and started programming her printer with something.

“See you later Mal, I’m going to have a nice shower and a nap. Just got back from the job and all.” Noe’s mom said before walking to the bathroom.

I headed out of Noe’s apartment and across the street to my own. As I was walking into my apartment I saw an Indian looking girl with pigtail hair walking out of Marchand’s place, maybe same age as me or a little younger. Something rung in my head at her, the blue Indian guy’s sister, what was her name again? I couldn’t remember if Marchand even told me.

“Hey, how’s it going?” I asked as I pocketed my key shard, standing there in my open doorway.

“Sorry? Do I know you?” She asked, her face a picture of worry and sadness.

“Uh. No actually. Just you were right there in my hallway and looked upset. Just thought I’d see if you needed a hand or something?” I offered, a little awkwardly. We’re in the water district, not exactly the land of altruism.

“I don’t need… I… Ugh.” She started to tell me before bursting into tears.

“Woah, hey. Do you want to come in here? Get some tissues or something? It’s just me and my mom here.” I asked, taking a cautious step towards the girl and indicating my door.

“No, it’s just… Urgh… I… Please, thank you.” She said as she tried to deny me before seemingly giving in and stumbling into my place to sit on the edge of the sofa and bawl her eyes out.

I rushed into the bathroom and grabbed some of the face tissues and some wet wipes mom likes that smell nice. I wasn’t sure what girls used for crying. If she had a cut arm I’d know what to do and what to grab, I didn’t know the treatment plan for sadness.

Quickly getting back into the living room I placed the wet wipes onto the coffee table near the sofa and then offered her a few tissues which she carefully took and cried into while trying to dry her face at the same time, just resulting in a more wet face.

Mom actually came out of her room at the noises, she must have been waking up as I’d come in.

“What’s going on here Mal? Who’s this girl? What did you do?” Mom asked as she stood there in her house clothes. At least she wasn’t wearing pajamas.

“I didn’t do anything. She was near enough crying in the hallway and I said to come in here so she wasn’t crying out there. I just gave her some tissues and stuff.” I said lamely, holding a tissue box near the girl.

“He didn’t do anything Miss. He… Ugh… He just invited me in because I was crying. I’m sorry for intruding in your home. I’ll leave… Ugh… I’ll leave now.” The girl said between sobs.

Mom just walked over to the girl and crouched down to her level on the sofa and hugged her. The girl flinched away at first but didn’t avoid it and accepted the hug when mom came closer.

“It’ll be alright. What’s your name?” Mom asked as she held the girl close.

“My name is Lla, I used to live here on the street. Just me and my brother. But he’s… Ugh… He’s being so… He’ll die! He’s going to die!” She said before breaking into a new bout of hard sobs.

Mom just settled on the sofa next to her and held her still as she cried into her shoulder as hard as I’d heard anyone cry. There was something about crying that cut through you, even if you weren’t involved. I’d always thought of it like a depth thing, the deeper the sadness was that the crying was pulling from then the deeper the crying would get into you when you heard it.

I’d heard a woman crying over the corpse of her daughter who’d been killed in the crossfire between a bunch of gangers. The little girl was no older than me at the time and I was nearly a whole street away but the wails of the mother really cut into me in a way I hadn’t known existed at that young age. I was only six or maybe a few months older. Still wearing stitched together baby clothes. When I heard the mother cry, it was the first time I’d seen emotional death, I’d seen dead bodies and seen gangers kill each other but I’d never seen the emotional fallout before.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Lla’s crying felt like that, though not quite as deep. Her brother wasn’t dead yet. But the emotion in the crying was pulling from something deep. Maybe because he was the last of her family? The loss of her parents through the imminent loss of her brother?

I made us all some drinks at the kitchen counter and brought them over to the table in silence. I didn’t really know how to deal with this situation. My advice to the girl wouldn’t help her currently, it would be to just cut ties with the brother to keep herself safe from backlash from whatever her brother was doing. She didn’t need that advice right now.

Just sitting on the sofa with mom hugging her seemed to help her though as I sat awkwardly across the room being quiet and trying to think of something to say to her that might help the situation. I could offer to help her brother, but that would be a death sentence so I wouldn’t. I could offer to shelter Lla here or somewhere else secure, either way she’d be hidden from a corp clean up squad until they lost interest. I could try and talk to her brother as an operator, but he likely wouldn’t think much of me and even if he spoke to me he seemed pretty set on his path from what little I’d seen.

“Lla, if you’d like we can put you up here for a while. When your brother finishes his operation he can come pick you up and know the corp won’t get to you before he’s finished. Or I could organize a safe house somewhere nearby if you’d prefer.” I said. I only realized my mistake at the last word.

“Operation? What do you know of my brother? What do you know about the corp? Who are you?!” She asked confused and then snarling in my mother’s embrace. She quickly realized she was shouting from a hug and pulled away to stand up and face me.

“Woah, Hey. It’s not like that. I saw Rivaan around the street, had a chat in passing. Then I had a meeting with Marchand when they got into a fight and she lopped off his arm when he got aggressive. I tried to step in but it was all over before I even took half a step. Borgs move quick.” I said, holding my hands up in surrender.

“Marchand cut off his arm? He said he lost it getting away from corpo agents! I’d have never returned here to speak with her if I knew Marchand hurt my brother!” She said, getting worked up.

“She’s not the nicest person when you threaten her. Your brother opened up some pretty big threats to her and she told him to leave. He took some of her response badly and opened up his arms, power mauls I think? Marchand moved before I could even grab his wrist from the doorway. Then she told him to leave again and he left.” I said from the same posture.

Lla seemed to deflate on the spot.

“He’s always been a gonk. He’s always been short fused and reacts badly to some things. Family. Money. Respect. If he thinks you’re taking them away from him it’s rare he can keep under control. Especially when he’s scared.” She said, sitting back down on the sofa.

“All I’ve heard really is there’s some big corp job he’s working on and it’s risky, Marchand told me to keep my nose out of it because it sounded like it was a house of cards. Even mentioned it was a shame she had to kick you out after your brother went combat mode. If you want, we can help you and your brother by keeping you safe from the corp for a little while, let your brother get his work done with one less worry. How’s that sound?” I said.

Mom was just patting Lla’s shoulder from the side as Lla had started tearing up again after sitting down.

“Why are you helping me? I don’t have anything. Even the money we have is tied up in my brother’s stuff and his cyberware. We eat alright but hardly more than that.” She said in a small voice.

“Because you’re in trouble and you’re right there on my doorstep. Also it’s not much to just let you live in my store room for a few weeks. Mom, you don’t mind if Lla crashes here for a little while right? Just to keep safe while the corp might be looking for leverage against her brother. I doubt they’d step foot on Marchand’s turf without her say so and she wouldn’t let them in without major backing and a real good reason that also benefits Marchand, capturing Lla doesn’t meet much of that.” I said.

“It’s fine. I don’t mind someone staying in the house as long as they need. Especially if it’s dangerous like this.” Mom said with a smile.

“You trust me to live here? I don’t understand.” Lla said, still snuffling and confused.

“Oh I don’t really trust much. Marchand has netrunners handling security all over the street. They monitor all the apartments indirectly too. So hijinks of any sort will be known generally, especially when there’s guests involved.” I said, waving my hand around to show it wasn’t important really.

“This whole situation is weird. Can I have some time to think about it?” Lla asked.

“Sure. Take whatever time you need. Remember I can also sort you out a safehouse elsewhere nearby if need be. It’d be a bit lonely because you’d be on lock down alone with no grid access but I’d try to check in from time to time.” I said.

“My brother could likely do the same.” Lla said.

“Ah, but who could your brother trust to do that? If he’s making a big enough wave to attract attention then he can’t really trust anyone, and he can’t do it himself without being tracked or traced. I’m not even connected to your brother, I could set up a hundred safehouses whatever corp might be snooping wouldn’t care at all.” I said. “Other family or old friends are also out as they can be traced down and followed, new friends and allies can also be paid off.”

“Hm. If I stay here for today, would that be alright? I want to try to talk to Marchand tomorrow anyway. I’ll pay you for the trouble.” She said with a frown.

“If you’re trying to convince Marchand to join your brother in his big job, that’s a dead end. If you want Marchand to pull your brother away from it, also a dead end. And you brother would likely go ballistic, as well as going right back to it from the beginning.” I said, frowning back.

She deflated in the chair. Defeated.

“Then what do I even do? My brother has pulled in more than dozen people for his big operation and none of them are trusted. He’s been working on plans for months but lately he’s been buying tools and machines along with visiting brokers and buying guns. He’s getting ready to start the thing with all these people but I know they’ll all either die or turn on him the moment he has anything of worth.” She said, tears returning.

“Well my usual response would be something about how some people choose their path even if it’s a dead end. They chose it knowing the risks and settled it, they had a shot of getting everything and were okay with it only being a tiny, tiny chance of success.” I said, trying not to sound too full of myself. “I don’t know what you want to hear Lla. I can’t stop your brother, Marchand can’t either. You might have had a chance a long time ago. Now though? I don’t think anything will stop him, he’ll run into the fire to grab his prize and you’ve just got to hold out hope that he’ll walk out.”

“Hope he walks out? He’ll die attacking a corp HQ up front with like fifteen other gonks just because they “have some plans”. He’ll die at the first security gate and I won’t even have a body to bury. Just like before.” Lla cried out, then started to cry again. Mom pulled her into a new hug.

“As much as I’d like to change some aspect of that, I don’t think anyone can. I don’t think even your brother can anymore. He likely can’t see anything but his goal in front of him if he’s got this far. I can offer you a place to sleep where you won’t be hunted down by clean up crews though. It’d be nice to be able to offer more, but the world doesn’t work like that. Not for us down here.” I said, feeling comfortable in the cynicism. Much more familiar to me than trying to cheer someone up.

Mom just shot me a frown from the hug she was giving Lla.