10 – Welcome to the Neighborhood
By the time Tony got back to the messenger shop, the fade’s sister was gone, and Addie was already stuffing her drone into her backpack. Rene stood there, too, leaning against the screened-off counter, and as the door clicked shut behind Tony, she smiled at him cheerily. “You did it! Addie says you got the fade stuck on the second floor of one of the skeletons!”
He shrugged. “Yeah—well, at least that’s the last place I saw it.”
Addie zipped up her bag and stood, grunting softly as she hoisted it over her shoulder. “It’s still there. I watched it for a little while before flying my drone back.” She looked at Rene and flashed a bright smile. “Aren’t you glad you hired Tony? Wasn’t it a clever idea of my dad’s? I bet he’d love it if you stopped by to tell him how it went.”
Rene folded her arms and shook her head, reaching up to fidget with one of her gray-streaked curls. “Bert’s busy, and I’ve got four bikes to repair.” She looked at Tony, snapping her fingers. “Which reminds me—I owe you some money.”
Tony suddenly felt guilty for taking five hundred bits for ten minutes of work. “I mean, if it’s a problem—”
“No!” Addie walked over to look him in the face. “Don’t sell yourself short! That thing got ahold of you five times. If I’d known how fast they were, there’s no way I would have suggested this! I mean, you could have died!”
“Well,” Tony shrugged, “I didn’t die. I mean, yeah, I’d do it differently next time, but I learned a lot about how they move. I’m pretty sure I could pull that off without getting touched. I just need to run through more obstacles.”
“Wasn’t that weird?” Addie nodded emphatically. She turned to Rene and explained, “Whenever Tony jumped over something, the fade would go right through it, only it took a few seconds, like it was kind of stuck. It even ran through an AutoCab!”
“Really? They can do that even before they, um, transition?” The older woman sighed heavily and tsked. “When I was a teenager, maybe five years younger than you are now, Boxer Corp used to round fades up. They had some kind of special van for it—I never learned how it worked, but they could keep ’em in there even if they were as far gone as that girl out there. They stopped doing that about twenty years ago, now.”
“Really?” Addie glanced at Tony. “Isn’t that strange?” She looked back at Rene. “Why’d they stop? What did they do with them?”
“No idea.” Rene held out her hand to Tony. “Bert said you’d have a bit-locker or something?”
“Yeah.” Tony handed it over, and a few seconds later, Renee gave it back.
“Looks like you ripped your tracksuit, so I added a little tip.”
Tony looked down, saw the hole over his left knee, and sighed. “Yeah, I guess I did.”
“C’mon, Tony, I’ll introduce you to Floyd at Salvage Styles. It’s a second-hand shop.” Addie waved. “See you later, Rene. Please go see my dad—he’s lonely!” She giggled under her breath and didn’t wait for an answer, bustling through the door.
Tony waved to Renee. “Bye.” Then he followed Addie out of the shop. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked behind her, his mind retracing the chase through the neighborhood. He really had risked his life, and for what? Five hundred bits? The thought made him cringe a little; it reminded him too much of how he used to act back when he and Eric first started. Back when he’d been a solo, taking stupid-risky jobs for some rep and way too few bits.
“I got some great footage, Tony,” Addie said, slowing so he moved up beside her. “And I’m really sorry about how dangerous that was. I knew they were fast, but I thought, you know, normal fast.”
“Eh, I’m a big boy. I should’ve thought about the risks.”
“You do that a lot—minimize. I talked you into this job. You should be annoyed with me!”
Tony looked at her with a narrowed eye. What kind of game was she playing? She wanted him to be mad? “You got some kind of guilt complex?”
That took her aback. Her big blue eyes, open and cheerful one second, darkened and seemed to recede under her dark brows. She pressed her lips together and huffed. “I’m just… I just…” She worked her right hand into a loose fist and then unclasped it as they walked, staring at him. When she almost ran into a light pole, Tony grabbed her shoulder and stopped her.
“What is it? We both underestimated the fade. I’m not mad at you, and you shouldn’t be mad at me. It’s all good—nobody got hurt.”
“But you could have. The first time I saw it grab you on the knee, I thought my heart would stop! I’ve never been responsible for someone dying, Tony.”
“Eh, from what I understand, that wouldn’t have killed me. I probably would’ve just lost my leg, right?”
“Yeah, but the fade was there, dummy. How would you get away?”
Tony folded his arms, tapping his cybernetic fingers on his biceps. “Good point, but it doesn’t matter. Nobody’s responsible for me. Besides, I’d be dead already if not for you and Bert, so we’ll call it even.” He jerked his chin in the direction they’d been going. “Come on.”
They started walking again, and Addie skipped ahead a little so she could turn toward him. “You really think so? You would’ve died?”
“If Bert hadn’t taken me in?” He shrugged. “Probably. I was in a bad spot with those drugs and the condition of my arm.” He tapped his chest. “No reactor. Honestly, I almost let Beef do me.”
“What?” Addie’s voice rose an octave.
“Yeah, he gave me a choice: die or work for him, basically. Laying there, feeling the way I did, thinking about the ‘friends’ who jammed me up—I was just about ready to throw ’em down.”
“Your cards?”
Tony grinned and clicked his tongue, cocking his head sideways. “Hey—you play?”
“Cards? Just a little, for fun. I tried gambling on the sim-net, but I lost a hundred bits in like twenty minutes and decided it wasn’t for me.”
“Well, we need to play sometime. For fun, I mean.” Tony heard a sound that was so familiar that he stopped in his tracks and turned toward it. Across the street was a big, warehouse-style gym, open to the street via three bay doors. Each bay was mostly blocked off by fighting rings. Men were boxing in the center and right-hand ring, but two women were going at it MMA-style in the left-hand ring. The sound came to him again, and he looked past the center ring to see a big bruiser absolutely brutalizing a heavy bag. “Shit, there’s a gym here.”
“Golden’s? Yeah, it’s been here forever.”
“Can we stop by?”
“Sure. I’m just going to be editing today—no hurry.” Addie waited for a beat-up, gang-tagged old bus to hum past, then darted across the street. Tony was right on her heels. When he stepped onto the opposite sidewalk, he studied the men sparring in the center ring. One of them had two cybernetic arms—nothing special, but higher-end than the bulky plasteel job Tony was sporting. The other guy had a single cybernetic leg from the knee down. They both moved like pros, smooth and patient, testing each other’s defenses.
“That’s Lionel Golden,” Addie said, pointing to a wiry, dark-skinned man with a shaved head standing near the women’s ring. He was watching intently, calling out advice to both fighters as one of them worked from a guard position to get an arm bar while the other tried to pummel her face.
“Gotcha.” Tony nodded, then walked around the side of the building to a standard doorway not dominated by sparring rings. “I’m gonna see what their rates are.”
“Oh, I get it,” Addie said, following behind him. “Yeah, I figured you were a gym kind of guy.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“What gave it away?” Tony waggled his eyebrows at her over the top of his shades.
Addie shrugged and deadpanned, “Vanity muscles.”
“Vanity? You saw me vaulting those dumpsters and whatnot, right? That takes work!”
“Ooh! Touchy subject, I see.”
Tony just grinned, shaking his head. He could take some ribbing. He pulled the door open and stepped into the gym’s crowded foyer. Supplement display cases dominated the walls, and a young woman in leggings and a tank top sat behind a small terminal at a glass and plasteel counter. Pamphlets advertising workouts, personal trainers, and more supplements crowded her counter, but Tony saw a small chip reader connected to her terminal. “Nice, looks like members can scan in without a PAI, huh?”
The girl looked up, and Tony took a second to appreciate her makeup—glossy red lips, sparkly blue eye shadow, and an animated tattoo of starbursts that streamed out from the corners of her eyes toward her temples. “Something happen to your PAI, hon?”
Tony nodded, leaning an elbow on the counter. He could feel Addie behind and to his right, but she didn’t say anything. Was it possible she didn’t know this girl? Tony was beginning to think she knew everyone. “Yeah, you guys have a card or something?”
“I’ve got these old-school fobs with a chip.” She pulled open a drawer and fished out one of the little plastic devices about the size of his bit-locker. It was shaped like a dumbbell and had “GOLDEN’S” printed on one side in black letters. “You interested in a membership?”
“You got showers? Lockers?”
“Yeah, of course.” She dipped her finger into a pouch of white powder and stuck it in her mouth, smiling as she sucked it off. When she pulled her finger out, she winked. “Pre-workout.”
“Okay.” Tony chuckled, shaking his head. “I just want a basic membership—no lessons or anything.”
“I don’t sell all that stuff anyway, hon. Golden will talk to you when he sees you working out. That’s how he does business. It’s thirty a month and another ten if you want your own locker. If you’re not linking a bit-vault, there’s another three-bit cash charge.”
“You’re gonna charge me more for paying upfront?” Tony sighed, shaking his head, hardly believing he was quibbling over three bits. Times had certainly changed.
“Yeah.” She shrugged, sticking her finger back into her pouch of white powder. “I guess Golden wants to encourage recurring payment methods.”
“It’s fine. What are the hours?”
“Four in the morning until midnight.”
“Nice.” Tony fished his bit-locker out of his pocket and slid it over the counter to the girl. “I’m Tony Santoro.”
“Okay, my PAI will fill in the forms, but I have to ask you some questions since you can’t just interface.”
Tony glanced at Addie and saw she was perusing a brochure about kickboxing. He nudged her. “Just let me sign up, and then we can go, okay?”
She nodded, still staring at the brochure. “No problem.”
“So, Tony,” the girl behind the counter said, “first of all, I’m Amy, and I work at the front desk, but I’m also a pilates and yoga instructor. I’ve got your first and last name; well, I should say my PAI does. Can you tell me your address?”
“It’s, um…” Tony looked at Addie, and she looked up, narrowing her eyes at the girl.
“It’s my dad’s shop, Amy.”
“Oh, hey, Addie. Didn’t see you there.” Her tone made it very clear that she had. She stuck her finger into the powder—Tony thought he could smell strawberries and sugar—and stuck it between her lips as she narrowed her eyes. Tony was beginning to get the impression that they weren’t friends. After a moment, she pulled her glistening finger out and looked at Tony. “Fifty-four Clarence Avenue?”
“I think so.” Tony shrugged. He’d seen a street sign with that name but couldn’t be sure it was Bert and Addie’s street.
“You know that’s right, Amy. Your PAI just looked it up.” Addie set the brochure down. “Come on, don’t act like Golden doesn’t have a hundred name-only accounts. Tony’s paying up front; just give him his chip.”
“Cool your engines, priss.”
Addie leaned forward. “You’re calling me ‘priss’? Look at yourself! How much did that tattoo cost?”
Amy leaned forward, nearly brushing her pouch of powder off the counter. “Less than I get paid for a single class. Maybe if you got a real job, you’d—"
“Amy!” a gruff voice called. Tony looked toward the archway leading into the gym and saw the man Addie had identified as Lionel Golden. “Is there something I can help with?”
“No, Mister Golden.” Amy sat back on her stool, shifting her glaring frown away from Addie and forming it into a smile before she turned toward her boss. “Just signing up a new member.”
The man, wiry muscles rippling under his tank top, stepped forward, beaming broadly, exposing a mouth full of white teeth interspersed with chrome implants. He held a hand out. “Hey there, pardner! I’m Lionel Golden, but everyone just calls me Golden.”
Tony stretched out his cybernetic hand, a little self-conscious about it, but Golden snatched it confidently, giving it a good squeeze. “Tony. Nice to meet you.”
“Tony, huh? I was watching you walk around outside the gym. You move like you’ve done some fighting.”
Tony tilted his head, slightly surprised, but not really—fighters moved differently than ordinary people. Being able to recognize that had been a non-optional skill in his old line of work. “Yeah, I used to fight a little. Amateur, only.”
Golden looked at Tony’s arm. “Auged?”
Tony shook his head. “Nah, barebones. I was younger then, with all my parts.” He chuckled.
“Well, listen, I run amateur fights here once a week. I just do barebones, aug-50, and aug-75+. If you’re any good, you might be all right in the aug-50 division. We’ve got quite a few fighters that are technically only aug-25, but they compete. I mean, I’d do more divisions, but we just don’t have enough contenders.”
Tony nodded, thinking. He knew what Golden was talking about—in pro and amateur fighting, there were different divisions based on how many limbs and other physical-enhancement cybernetics a fighter had. Barebones meant you were fighting naturally with no augmentation or “augs.” Aug-25 meant you had at most one cybernetic limb and no more than tier-six speed or strength augmentations. Aug-50 allowed up to two limbs and tier-four augs, and Aug-75+ meant you could be facing fully borged-out fighters with up to tier-one augmentations.
“You have guys with tier-one augs in this neighborhood?”
“Hah! Hell no! The divisions are mostly about limbs down here.”
Tony nodded. “I’ll give it some thought, thanks.”
“Yeah, of course. I’ll keep an eye on you; if I think you’d do well, I’ll bug you again, okay? It’s worth your while—we get some decent prize money. Anyway, welcome to the neighborhood, pardner.” He clapped Tony on the shoulder and then turned to Amy. “Sign the man up, Amy! Quit pestering him for details.” With that, he ambled back into the gym.
Amy glared toward Addie again, then looked at Tony with a smile. “Okay, hon. You want your own locker?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“That’ll be eighty-six bits for your first month and a month’s deposit.” She gestured toward the bit-locker Tony had set on the counter. “May I?”
“Yeah, go for it.” She slid it toward her little terminal and plugged it in. “Hey, what’s my balance?”
“That’s wild!” She looked up and winked. “You had 586 sol-bits on here. You’re at an even 500 now.” She slid it back to him. “Talk to me or Golden when you come for your first workout, and we’ll assign you a locker.”
“Thanks.” Tony turned toward Addie, but Amy grabbed his sleeve.
“One sec! Let me encode your keychain.” Tony couldn’t help noticing how she let her fingertips slide down his forearm as he turned back toward her. Was she flirting? He was dirty, with torn pants and a bandage covering one eye, and she was flirting? He had to conclude that she was just trying to irritate Addie.
“Here you go, hon.” She held the keychain out, her holographic fingernail polish making her nails flicker and stretch like red talons.
Tony slid it into his pocket and nodded. “Yeah, uh, thanks.” Then, he turned toward the door, “Let’s go, Addie. Sorry for the delay.”
“It’s fine. Amy’s never been quick—”
“I’ll show you quick, you little skank! Come behind this counter and say—” The door swung shut, and Amy’s vitriol was lost to the sounds of the city street.
“I take it she doesn’t like you?”
“Not since Boxer Secondary.” Addie chuckled. “Not a huge loss—this isn’t exactly my kind of place.” She hurried to the street and immediately crossed as traffic slowed for the nearby light.
Jogging behind her, Tony asked, “What happened in school? Let me guess: a boy.”
Addie looked at him with narrowed eyes. “How original! Two women dislike each other—must be about a boy!”
“Am I wrong?”
Addie frowned, harumphed, folded her arms, and, in a much quieter voice, replied, “No.”
Tony laughed and nudged her shoulder. “Hey, I’ve got plenty of embarrassing stories if you want to have a competition. I bet I’d win.”
Addie turned a corner, moving in the general direction of Bert’s shop, but she slowed and pointed down the sidewalk. “Salvage Styles is just up there.” When Tony nodded, she made an exasperated grr sound, jerking her thumb back toward the corner. “Amy and I were competing for a scholarship, and I needed help in Chemistry. My lab and study partner was her boyfriend, and she talked him into icing me out. I still got the scholarship, but we’ve been ‘enemies’ ever since.”
“Ah, well, that’s nothing to be embarrassed about! I thought you liked the same boy, not that you—”
“Well, I did!” Addie laughed. “It feels better just to admit it! I had a huge crush on Robbie Lloyd, but he only had eyes for Amy.”
“Had?”
“Yeah, he’s gone—hired by Boxer and traded away in an acquisition. I think he’s somewhere in the Gulf City Consortium now.”
They’d come to the second-hand clothing store, and Tony reached to open the door, holding it for Addie. “Life’s funny that way. I don’t have a clue where most of the people I grew up with are.”
Addie stepped past him, and when they were both standing in the relatively quiet store near a big table of folded “surplus” jeans, she looked up at him and asked, “Anyway, why’d you sign up at Golden’s so soon? I’d think you’d be more focused on, I dunno, saving for a PAI.”
“You want an honest answer?” Tony lowered his shades and looked into her eyes with his single, silver iris.
“Of course…” She looked a little nervous at the sudden shift in tone.
Tony smiled and sniffed his armpit. “I smell like shit, and I need a good long shower.”
Addie laughed. “I didn’t think of that! There’s only a toilet and sink in the shop! Tony, you could—”
“Oh, no, no, no.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “I’m not intruding on you and Bert any more than I already am. C’mon, this time yesterday, you were pretty sure it was a bad idea for me to even be in the shop. There’s no way you want me in your personal bathroom.” She looked like she was going to protest, so Tony added, “Besides, I’m out of shape and not used to fighting without my missing augs. I need to work out and get some practice in. I’ll go in the morning before the store opens, catch a shower, and be back before Bert can even miss me.”
“Morning person?”
“Eh, I’m like a dog. I can sleep whenever.” Tony started into the spacious store, letting his eyes drift from racks of shirts to a wall of footwear to the back corner where vintage suits were hung. He twirled his bit-locker between his fingers, grinning at Addie. “Let’s see if I can find some threads that won’t deplete my fortune too much.”