While I was being scanned, my BTC was squeezing my arm. I thought it might be hiding itself.

Honestly, I kept forgetting it was there until it did something. Was that on purpose?

Amusing note, I keep getting glimpses of Scuff puttering about doing its own scan of equipment in Vik's clinic.

Would that be useful? Should I have have been getting them to do that more?

"Hmm, you have biomods, or gene editing?"

"Not that I know of?" Who knows what the Company did to me?

"Now that's a conundrum." He seemed pensive.

"Showing no degradation from radiation, no trace nanites from from any of the numerous sources, even the hostile microbial content count is almost nonexistent." (AN: The present hostile microbes are from the "pizza", I'll give you that one for free.)

"Huh? Those are normal? Sounds terrible, how do folk live with all that?"

"How do you not?" Shook his head.

"You can counter most of the problems with meds and other nanites. Most folks get a puff of a Max Doc or Vita Stim to keep going for a while. Knocks disease right out, for a time. Truth be told, I've never seen anyone with such an undamaged genomic structure. Do you mind if I take sample, just for me to study?"

"Not at all, Doc."

The exoframe on his left arm did something but I didn't feel it. I just heard it moving.

"Good news though, kid, almost anything can be chipped in. That gives you a broad spectrum of options."

He gave me options. The cheapest fully functional set was $3000, really "bare bones" as he put it. Really basic connectivity, comparatively slow and vulnerable. I didn't like the sound of that. The eyes wouldn't be functional better than my current ones, I'd just be able to visualize some Net architecture and call screens.

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The most expensive package, he had available, was $20,000 and had a lot of bells and whistles. Embedded security features, seamless integration of neural controls. Eyes with high resolution vision, zoom, low light options, and flare protection. Best of all fast, intuitive connections.

"Not the best out there right now, but not far from it. Outside of corps' labs anyway."

Do I get the basic tech and upgrade later, or do I go and find a way to scrape together $20k?

I really didn't want to get into the attitude of fix it later. No, I wanted the best I could get. Less time being...tinkered with, the better.

Without the "Chrome" I wouldn't be ready to meet the Faceman.

"I'll have to come back. It'll take me a bit to get some Eddies together for the "preem chrome".

His demeanor seemed to shift to something less professional, but more concerned.

"Ya know kid, if you weren't so friendly and relaxed, I'd think you were a Corpo spy. We have to get ya use to the streets and quick. Or you might not make it."

"Sure Doc, working on it. Unless you know someone who can move some lumber, I'm going to have to do this the hard way."

"Lumber? From actual trees? Where in the world would ya get that?" That was genuine shock right there.

Wow, wood must be really rare. Rarer than I'd first suspected. Which means Greg got me good. Damn.

"Dr. Vektor, you know how it is. I know a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a place." I chuckled and he snorted.

"Nah, I know people who'd do it, but they wouldn't trust ya without a rep." He seemed frustrated. Like he'd run into this problem before, and more than once.

"No Worries Doc, I'll figure it out. We all have to do what we can." I wasn't ready to show Vik what I could do yet. Not ready to show anyone really.

I left, said goodbye to the kitty and Misty. Got Scuff back on the car, and headed north in the Galena.

It was around 1AM at this point. I was getting tired, but I had work to do.

I had found out you could sell loot in certain places. Kabuki for one.

Most shopkeeps there would buy goods under the table. No questions asked. If it wasn't too rare or too big, this was a great option. You'd never get a good deal, but you would something.

That lead me to my next idea.

Sinnamin had told me about the Maelstrom. They were a Booster Gang, centered around their chrome and getting more of it, leaving their humanity behind.

Real scumbags. Trading drugs, kidnapping, torture and snuff XBDs(Still didn't know what those were), and so much more.

They were easy to find, and no one would miss them.

The problem being they were often "Borged Out" or basically mostly chrome. So stronger, faster, meaner.

Did I have a plan?

Other then have my Probes sneak up behind them and zap the fuck out of them? No.

Try to find a small group or two, see what I get from "flatlining" them. Repeat if needed.

If and or when I had enough money to afford Vik's top shelf, head south to another gang's territory. Find a cheap hotel and sleep.

Not much of a plan.

Stupid. Monumentally stupid.

Part of me wanted to go back and grab an army of Probes and lay waste to everything. My instincts told me it wasn't the time.

So much to do. There was never enough time.