"Not even gonna drop by and say hi?"

Keith sighed, knowing all too well someone was eavesdropping during the conversation. "Sorry, I didn't see you there, maybe you should try to intercept me while standing on a stool or something." He said, chuckling.

Catherine, or Kate as her close friends call her, was his partner on a few occasions. Well-versed in everything cyber related, she spent most of her time in her office researching things or explaining to other people. She wasn't very tall, a bit under average height for women, but what she lacked in height made-up in character. She has long brown hair, and almost only wears sweaters, which hid her small frame and make it seem like she was slightly larger, unless the situation calls for something else. Surprisingly, the only alterations she had made to her body were simply to her left hand. Some accident she refuses to give details of, claiming it to be too embarrassing. Considering it was only her thumb and index finger, it led to many questions and bets as to what truly happened.

"But Nicholas drove all the way to the precinct when he heard the news earlier", pleaded Catherine, staring down Keith with puppy eyes, borderline faking tears. He sighed, even deeper this time, and reluctantly agreed to follow her into her office. "I'll at least make you coffee so just go sit down next to Nick, I'll be back in like 2 minutes."

Keith entered the room, a dimly lit office, with mostly monitors, all plastered on the same side of the room, lighting up the rest of the furniture with their glow. The blinds are always shut for some reason, which is a real safety hazard if it's your first time in this room. "How long are you gonna stand in the doorway my guy?", said a voice coming from the other side of the room. Carefully threading around the room, making sure to not trip on many of the poorly managed cables littering the floor on almost every single square inch, Keith made his way to the only uncluttered table and sat down.

"Hey Keith, it's good to see you man! Haven't seen you since the celebratory party we had after the last big case!" Nick said gleefully.

Nick was another good friend. They used to go to school together many years ago, becoming what people could call "Bros". He would be very scary if you didn't know that he just likes laughing, being very tall and broad with laugh lines that do prove he likes to have a good time. He had his signature slicked back hairdo that never left his head since he left college, somehow he could still rock it. He worked mainly as part of a private security firm, but on his downtime he liked to help around his mother's restaurant. His entire right arm up to the clavicle was replaced by one of the finest piece of art, if you could call it that. A top-of-the-line, special alloy arm, that replaced what he lost during a conflict a few years back.

"You're right, it's been a while since we last saw each other. I planned on calling you in these upcoming days before this whole thing dragged me into its mess. How's the wife?" Keith asked while craning his neck backwards to stare at the ceiling.

"She's been better, but nothing's gonna stop that woman, you know that as well as me!" Nick exclaimed while chuckling. Getting sick wasn't that rare of an occurance, obviously, but sometimes, regular medicine just won't cut it. Need something stronger, usually more expensive. Keith straightened out once Catherine approached the table, holding hot cups of coffee that he really needed right now.

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

"Thanks for that. You know, you'd make a really good housewife. I mean I say that but it only applies if you brew coffee for me." Keith let out with a shit-eating grin.

"Keep dreaming loverboy, you know you're not my type, Mister Scruffy." Kate replied, amused.

"What are you on about? His scruffy detective look is obviously how he gets all the ladies!" said Nick while laughing. They continued to sip on their drinks while silence slowly filled up the room, with a pinch of awkwardness creeping up on the trio.

"Errr... Anyways... I was thinking of dropping by to your office later since I had a few questions concerning some arm modifications. I'm not really well-versed into the whole cybernetics field since I rarely have to dabble in those, but in this case it might be useful. Arm launcher thingies, you know the ones. Give me the deets."

Kate stood up and walked over to one of the workstations. A few minutes passed until she cleared her throat, bringing attention back to her from their small talk. She rotated the chair to face the men, while still looking at her datapad.

"Arm Mounted Propulsion Cannon. Sounds scary, I know. It was advertised as a toy, basically just helping to throw balls faster and further. Mostly used by teens and young athletes to play around or train. There's a few modifications that you can apply to it, regulating power and size of the things you can throw, calibration, essentially. Then there was unofficial mods. Cranked up the power to 11, made it way too powerful, could easily hurt people. You could argue that the base model could also hurt, but it doesn't come close. Not lethal, obviously, but you could probably still break a few ribs if you aimed at someone." Kate explained while still drinking coffee.

"Okay so far I understand that part, but I wasn't shot by a baseball or whatever it is they can fling with those." Keith said, slightly confused.

"I wasn't done, if you let me finish you might've had your answer, Mister." Catherine replied, visibly annoyed. "There was a prototype version that was in the works but it was scrapped for being too dangerous. They tried to weaponize that unofficial modification, you see. Except the arm couldn't support the stress that the contraption generated. When it worked, it worked very well, being able to punch through a variety of materials with deadly force. It didn't see much use, obviously, because of the downside, which consists of overusing it could very simply snap your arm off, and you wouldn't wanna pay to get it fixed every time now would you?"

Nick shuddered, "man imagine cleaning up blood with your only remaining arm." he said jokingly but visibly disturbed.

"That's why it was only mounted on fake, cyber arms." Kate reassured. "I've heard of a way to suppress the downside, without needing bigger and beefier arms, of course. It's something I don't really have much info on, buddy of mine knows a guy that knows a guy that knows a guy that might have some juicy intel on that project. Something about being custom-made and whatnot, wanna pay him a visit?"

A few minutes of pondering passed, while she kept reading whatever was on the pad. Nicholas got up and grabbed the empty mugs to put them away.

"Where and when?" Keith asked, curious.

"How does tonight sound? Just make sure you wear something nice and I'll take you there." Kate answered.

"Sounds good to me. I'll just think of it as a date." replied Keith jokingly. "But first I really gotta get some sleep, I'm gonna pass out on this dirty floor if this keeps up any longer. Can you give me a ride Nick? I don't wanna drive in case I do something stupid." Nick simply nodded and both of them headed out of the office, waving goodbye without looking back.