Naturally, the next Tuesday meeting was canceled, on account of it being Christmas. Unlike last year, when I was nearly exploding with rage, I was much mellower this year.
I helped with the decorations, and even worked on a Christmas feast, along with Kate.
I had even prepared some presents. Well, ok, I had prepared quite a few presents. And I was not alone in that regard. So when we got to open the presents under the tree, yes, we had a tree, even though it was artificial, there was barely any room left.
Honestly, most of what we got was trinkets. Things that show appreciation for the person, some thought about their personality but otherwise were just dust catchers.
Of course, I had to prove again that I am not very capable of reading the crowd. I mean, the others spend somewhere around a few hundred to a couple of thousand bucks for each present.
Well, I have to say, I was filthy rich, so… I think I’ve gone a bit overboard with presents here.
For Christine, it was actually quite cheap in reality. I had just hired a few authors and designers to create a regency-era VR romance for her, with the help of Calliope translating their designs into code of course. Nothing more than $500k really.
I offered to market the game for her with our X-Box brand if she so wanted. Or she could keep it for herself.
Natalie was a bit harder. But I had gotten to know her well enough to know that she had been an avid collector of snow globes. Unfortunately for her, she had lost her whole collection a couple of years before we met when her group had to relocate quickly. To make things short, the present under the tree for her just contained the key to the storage room where I had placed 1000 individually wrapped antique snow globes.
For Jacky, I had already offered to pay for her medical school, but that was not the present. No, she was, secretly because she was relatively poor, a jewelry addict. Her current collection was mostly cheap costume jewelry and such stuff. A few better things, but nothing spectacular. Well, until that Christmas morning that is.
It had taken some work, but I had found a complete set of red diamond jewelry. All set in platinum, with a pendant on a chain, a couple of rings, a brooch, earrings, and even a diadem. All in all, only $2.5 million, mostly because I had to literally pay somebody to dig it out of the rubble of LA.
For Mark, I had managed to find some antique firearms. Even the infamous original AR-15. The one from Armalite, not the one from Colt. Also a couple of original Colt Pattersons. Along with some other, less rare firearms, including an original H&K P7 M13.
For Justin and Ryan, who were both car nuts, I had bought a nearby building and had converted it into a full car shop, as automated as they liked it. Their combined present contained a set of keys and the deed. Each of them got another small present, namely another set of keys. For Justin, it was for a mint 2201 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, while for Ryan I had gotten a 2235 Lamborgini Medianoche.
All in all, $11 million well spent.
I am a bit ashamed to say so, but for the recent additions from Nowhere, I had not yet the read on their personalities, so the presents were way less personal. Well, for the Vaughns, the Wakefields, and the Mitchells it was essentially baby stuff, along with some other knick-knack.
Oh, yes, Sarah was now officially pregnant, while the other two were on the way there.
And what do you gift people who have sworn to put their life between you and any danger? What could I give them? After some discussion with Lt. Thomson, and from there with Sgt. Reynolds, I had decided to build them a nice barracks with all the amenities they might want, but where they could be among themselves.
Sadly, for more, I did not know them well enough yet.
That of course left the big ones. It was honestly, very hard, to find something for Michael. I mean, yes, I was richer than him. But please, that was only about the number of billions we had. Everything I could afford to gift to him, he could afford to buy for himself.
In the end, his present had, sadly to wait for spring to be finished. I had learned that he had gotten into Golf, needless to say in VR, as there were virtually no golf courses left in the world. To make things short, in spring, there would be another one. Just for him. I had bought another four blocks of decrepit houses and had a golf course laid out there. It was, honestly, pretty expensive. To get the greenery that is, not any of the rest of the course.
Kate was another one who got a rather small package. Her new vehicle was still stored at the Enki HQ. She got a brand new Kobashigawa Hayabusa 320 XLR. And yes, by now she had learned to fly a skimmer.
What I got for Darren was not quite that valuable in a monetary way. It was more the work I had put into it that made it special. When I had created the mind blocker, I had also recorded various other quantum fields that he used when he did things other than reading minds or emotions. After some fiddling with it, and the Seeberger equation, I found a way to amplify some of them.
I had, naturally, not given that thing to Darren as a present untested.No, I had cornered the two psionics in Naveen’s group and asked them to help me perfect it. And yes, they got one each too.
What it did was, if that two psionics were right, nearly double the efficiency of using telekinetics and biokinetics. And while the first edition had basically an on-off switch, the new one had several sliders that could regulate the amplification, or dampening, of the telepathy, empathy, telekinetics, and biokinetics. Yes, if Darren wanted to, he could now amplify his telepathy, not that I expected him to use it very often. All that could be controlled by the by-now-finished jack for psionics.
And finally, Ben. Again, it was extremely hard to find something for him. In the end, I sent bots to literally dig out some of the Morgan Library in Manhattan. Fortunately, most of the exhibits had been stored in the vaults so that when the bombs converted Manhattan into a radioactive wasteland, the books survived. Somewhat.
Nobody had the will and energy to try to rescue anything from Manhattan. Heck, in the first 50 years or so, even bots would not have survived. And afterward, most of it was forgotten.
The vaults were, unfortunately, not environmentally sealed, and so the books had suffered. Still, I was a nano-engineer, and nanobots were a pretty good tool to repair lignin, refresh the pigments, remove mold, and so on.
What that means was that right now, my bots were slowly repairing that collection. But one of the stars of it was not in a very sturdy, padded case.
When he opened it, at first he frowned, seeing the book. Then he turned to me.
“I know that I am, officially a Christian, but I am not practicing. What made you give me a bible? I mean, I love it just for the way it looks, and I love it because it is from you, but I wouldn’t think that you would give anybody a bible.”
I had to smile.
“You are right. If you view it as just another bible, then yes, it would not be something that I would give anybody. But that is no ordinary bible.
That is an original Gutenberg bible. And I see it as the beginning of modern civilization. This was the point when the dark ages ended and the renaissance began.”
His eyes threatened to leave his skull, and he quickly looked at the book again.
“This is an original? I thought most of them were destroyed. How…?”
I smiled harder.
“There was a private library and museum in Manhattan that had three of them. After sending some bots and looking through the rubble, I found that they had most of their collection in vaults. Yes, the books are damaged, but they are repairable, and right now, I have a veritable army of bots repairing the books one after the other. But this is the first one. And in my opinion the star of the collection.
And now it is yours.”
Ben just shook his head and spoke teasingly:
“Sometimes I am pretty sure you are not fully sane, you know? Did you not realize that we all agreed to not invest that much money into presents?”
I scowled and cocked my head.
“Really? Why did nobody say anything to me?”
I saw him opening his mouth to answer, only to close it again, and look helplessly into the round.
Darren snorted.
“She’s not wrong here. I mean, who talked to her about it?”
Michael shrugged equally helpless as his father.
“Well, I at least, assumed she would have to ask about the whole Christmas present things. And whoever she asks would inform her.”
I raised my eyebrows.
“Seriously? You think that I can not figure something so well documented out for myself? Should I be insulted?”
Michael snorted.
“Seriously, Viv, you are a darling, and smart as a whip, but anything social and you are lost. Yes, it is obvious that you could figure out the basic convention of presents. Not that hard, really. But to actually find something fitting for everybody here? That is the surprise. And where I figured you needed help.”
Well, I could not fault him for that.
“Oh, yes. That is… true. But you have forgotten my ultimate weapon. Warden has no problem figuring all of you out, though the idea for the book came from me.”
Ben chuckled.
“Figured that Warden would trip our nice tidy plan up. But… shouldn’t Warden also have known about us not giving big presents?”
Now that I thought about it, yes he was right. There was no way that Warden did not know about that.
I read the message a second, and then a third time, before I groaned, burying my face in my hands.
Immediately, Ben was at my side.
“Is something wrong?”
I sighed.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
“I asked Warden why she did not tell me about your agreement. The answer is that I asked her for the best presents for each of you.”
For a moment, nobody said anything, but then Natalie snickered, followed by Darren, and then all of them broke out into laughter, while I felt myself blush.
Simply perfect. And I had such high hopes of doing it right for once.
Ben, still chuckling, pulled me into a hug.
“Don’t be mad. We are not really laughing about you. We are laughing about the absurdity of the situation. Seriously, if anybody is at fault here it is me. I am the one who knows you best. And I should have known that you would use Warden.”
I couldn’t help myself. Yeah, he was not wrong. The situation was absurd. I mean, sure, it was a bucketload of money, but please, that was pocket change for me by now.
Well, after all that awkwardness had been resolved and we had our big breakfast it was mostly a calm day. Nobody had any projects, duties, workload, or whatever. Only peaceful togetherness, singing of some carols and such things.
Oh, and preparing for the feast for dinner. Boy was that a doozy. Somehow Ryan had convinced Michael to clone a complete turkey just for us to eat. Instead of using vat-turkey that is.
Then of course, we had mashed potatoes, all sorts of vegetables, dumplings, several other potato products, and of course, a variety of homemade bread and bread rolls. Needless to say most of us were busy for a few hours preparing all that food.
Otherwise, we mostly lounged around. Reading, talking, playing a few board games, and let me tell you, I was not even aware that those things still existed, listening to music, and they cajoled me into playing some Christmas music, though I refused to torture them with my meager violing skills.
It was, sadly, not one single harmonious event though. During the afternoon, Ben took me to the side to talk to me.
“I… need the ancillary services I hinted about when we first met.”
Wait, something was not quite right here.
“Uh… I thought all that was a moot point. I mean, we spent most nights together anyway.”
It took him a moment to really understand what I was saying, and then he chuckled.
“Oh… you thought that was the ancillary services? No, I am not in the habit of forcing women to do my bidding in that regard. A willing partner is just way more satisfying.”
He took a deep breath and the mirth left his face.
“No, what I meant then, and now, is that I need a woman on my arm for a New Year's Ball. Basically arm candy, though you are way more than that.”
I stared at him for some long moments, expecting, and hoping, that he had made a joke. Unfortunately, nothing pointed to that possibility.
“A… ball. You want to take me to a ball? Are you serious?”
He winced, but his eyes held firm.
“Yes, unfortunately, I am. It is one of those mandatory events that I have to attend, along with many of the other bosses. The self-proclaimed ‘elite’ of New York City loves to call us onto the carpet and show us how much more powerful than us they are.”
I frowned.
“But what about last year? You did not need anybody then?”
“Last year I was still recovering from the CRS. It was an honest and plausible excuse. Much more realistic than needed because it was true. This year, I have no such excuse.”
“But you are no longer just one of the mob bosses here. You own 10% of a double-A corporation. Surely that puts you above those so-called elites.”
He nodded gravely.
“You are right, in a way that is so. But that is not common knowledge. Also, those assholes would take it out on my people and my allies. Yes, with Enki here, and I am sure that the CEO and the majority owner of Enki would support me, I could probably defend my territory from their troops. But I can’t be sure that I can intercept them before they cause some damage.”
He sighed.
“It’s simply not worth it. Next year it will be different, but for the time being, I still have to play by their rules. And that means I have to appear at their ball. And they expect a woman at my side.”
I closed my eyes and sighed.
“And you could not have said something a tiny bit sooner? You know how much I hate anything like that.”
“Yes, I know. But I had hoped that they had already removed me from their list. They did not.”
I massaged the bridge of my nose.
“So… in other words, I have six days to learn ballroom dancing, organize some clothes that will make it clear that they do not want to mess with me, and by extension you, oh, and some jewelry of course.”
I groaned.
“Frick, you know that Svenja won’t let me go only with you there. And I am pretty sure that Thomson will want at least a fire team in power armor with us.”
Ben snorted.
“No power armor. But I am sure they will be impressed if the Mercedes Benz T-240 we will arrive in, you know something barely any of them can afford, will be escorted by a Carnotaurus.”
I sighed again.
“Will there be anybody who is honestly important? Or just snooty wannabees who inherited some money?”
“There will be a few, but not all that many. Hell, none of us would be there if they didn’t have the power to send the police or mercenaries after us.”
“I understand. Fine, it can’t be helped. Another thing. Arm candy?”
He chuckled.
“Hey, that was when I had just met you. Not that I expected to be alive when it became necessary, but I was planning for Michael. He would have inherited the contract.”
“Yes, I understand that, but arm candy? Are you serious?”
He grabbed my chin softly.
“Kitten, as much as it is wrong, anybody who sees you for the first time will think of you as a little girl. And the way you look… that is not quite natural, and smart people do not need to put that much effort into their appearance. In other words, until you say something, anybody will think of you as a vapid little airhead.
That is naturally out of the window the moment you do open your mouth, but yeah, the first impression will be arm candy.”
To say that I was not happy about that would have been an understatement. Yes, I knew he was right, but that did not mean I liked it.
And I really wished he had told me sooner than that. I mean, I had six days to prepare an epic entrance. And I was so not good with that.
What I did not do though was ruin this very first Christmas that I was celebrating. I calmed myself down and forced my thoughts to anything but that ball. As good as I could at least.
Still, I could not stop myself from formulating the first outlines of a plan though. A plan that I attacked the moment I woke up on Wednesday.
I think I have made it abundantly clear that my sense of taste was a bit limited. I did not trust myself to even decide on my hairstyle, much less on the rest. And so I canvassed the matrix for a couple of designers who would create my outfit. Only the best materials of course. Shoes made from stomper-calv-leather, a real silk gown, and I had some special ideas about the jewelry.
Naturally not the design. I knew at least some of my limitations.
Unfortunately, the need for the designers to be Matrix-capable made it almost necessary to go to the Commonwealth. That had its advantages and disadvantages.
Advantage was that Pures were universally more creative, and if you managed to reign them in you were almost guaranteed something breathtaking.
The big disadvantage was though that for Pures, my 151cm height was simply ugly. I had to find somebody who was at once artistically and creatively gifted but on the other hand did not refuse to work with me.
Honestly, that was the hardest part of it. Getting the materials for the autotailor was done in a couple of hours, and the delivery would start on the 27th. The rest of the 26th I was busy looking for a cosmetologist, a good hairdresser, a fashion designer, and a finesmith who would be willing to send me the designs so that I could create the actual art here in NYC.
For some very obvious reasons, I choose emerald green as the overall coloration. That made my choice of emeralds as the dominant gems even better. And no, I did not choose them because they complement my eyes and my hair color. But more on that later.
I had managed to get a couple of large bolts of real silkworm satin, in the emerald green of course. I also had gotten my hands on a bolt of pine-colored chiffon, for accents and other necessities.
The stomper calv leather was sadly only available in mint or black. Well, black goes with nearly everything.
The emeralds were a bit harder to come by, honestly. But I managed to get them for the 28th. Thank goodness for my NADAs which would integrate them into the jewelry quite easily.
It took me several hours at 4:1 on the 27th to get the designs for the ballgown, as well as for the shoes. I had insisted on synthetic emeralds as fasteners, to an interesting effect.
Most of the 28th I spent in VR learning the ballroom dances. I can not say that I had much fun, honestly, but what has to be done, has to be done. I could not stumble around on the ball like the klutz from the other side of the continent.
For the 29th I was busy arranging dress uniforms for the guard platoon, armored of course. I also hired Mark to outfit them with beautiful but functional weapons. What he delivered was more a work of art than tools, but he assured me that those sidearms were as deadly as they come.
He even organized swords. Can you imagine? Swords, in the mid-23rd century? But it strangely fit. And again, the swords were beautiful but functional.
I could accept that he had a design for what he called a fully pimped-out gun on hand. I mean, he is Mark, of course he did. But the swords surprised me. He later told me that he was not a gun nut but a weapons nut. Swords were weapons, so he had naturally created his dream design in some weaponsmith simulator he had found somewhere.
Both Ben’s T-240 and the Carnotaurus were detailed within an inch of their lives. And of course, Lt. Thomson explained to me that at least four of his men would be in power armor and protecting the building, being close enough to react quickly if there was a need. He, as well as Svenja, along with Svenja’s squad, would accompany me inside the building.
The men in power armor made it necessary to detail those too. Thankfully that was a job that bots could do very well.
I for one was happy that I had the idea to bring the jewelry designer and the hairdresser together so that they could plan my hairstyle and its decoration accordingly.
For the 30th I mostly spent time with Ben and Nibbles. Yes, the NADAs and the autotailor were busy creating real-world versions of the art that I had commissioned. It was, at once insanely expensive to get such a rush job, and on the other hand very cheap.
Every single one of those artists wanted an ultra-jack with a cranial board as pay. For me, the $1300 for each combo was utterly cheap. The materials were way more expensive than that.
But for them, they got something worth Ȼ3 million. Unaffordable for anybody but the richest and most successful in their field. If that. I doubted that any hairdresser or cosmetologist would ever earn that amount of money.
That of course meant that both sides were absolutely satisfied with the deal, which was the best kind of deal really.
But while the machines were working, Ben and I played with Nibbles, who visibly relished the attention and the fun. Talk about spoiled. Nibbles was probably the only cat with her personal android attendant.
But it was the last somewhat peaceful day of the year so I was content with it.
Which brought us to the 31st. New Year's Eve. The big day. I more or less forced myself to keep dozing for as long as I could stand it. That resulted in me getting up at 6:00. For the rest of the day, I let myself be pampered by a group of gynoids who gave me the whole spa treatment.
Some of it was nice, sure. But whoever got the idea that odorous mud masks were a necessity… whatever. The massage managed to make me completely relaxed, only ruined by Nibbles jumping onto my back and going to sleep.
Then one of the gynoids played hairdresser and styled my mane. It had been a fight to get the hairdresser to design a style that would not cut my hair short. This was my one vanity. I loved my long hair and I would not let it be cut short if I could help it.
Fortunately, I managed to accept that fact and create an elaborate style that incorporated my waist-length locks. It still took the gynoid nearly two hours to get it done, though part of that was thanks to the weaving of some of the jewelry into the setup. I have to say, the way the emeralds looked in my copper-colored hair was pretty nice. I could do without the two hours of work to get it though.
Ben’s reaction to the result was at least satisfactory. It took him nearly a minute to be able to say anything, and even then only compliments left his mouth. Which saved his hide, honestly. The shoes alone would probably work as torture instruments.
As we were sitting in the T-240, flying to the old hotel in the Bronx that supplied the ballroom, Ben softly asked:
“Not that I don’t appreciate it, but why are going to those extremes? Why not do the bare minimum to get by?”
I raised my eyebrow.
“To go to the same garbage next year and the year after that? I know people like those so-called elites. As long as they can put pressure on people, they will do anything and everything to amuse themselves and humiliate others.
If we show that we acquiesced to their demands, and go through the motions, they get a win. And they will try again and again. The higher profile their victims are, the better. And with Enki, we can expect them to push this garbage every couple of months.
No, we have to ruin their fun, show that we call the shots and that we dictate the terms. We need to humiliate them.
Unfortunately, you can’t do that. They will never forget that they were able to shove you around. That means that I have to do it. And for that, I have to be so much above them in status that they won’t dare to be in the same borough as me without my permission.
I have to become the insanely rich, insanely bored elite that they pretend to be.”
Ben looked me in the eyes, then closed his own and sighed.
“In general you are not wrong. But your plan has one critical flaw. I hate to remind you of it, but you can’t lie convincingly. You won’t ever be able to play such a role and not make mistakes.”
I nodded.
“You are right. I can’t play virtually any role outside of VR. Except one. I can play the cold, uncaring, emotionally distanced person. Because I can become a cold, uncaring emotionally distanced person.
When I was 11, nearly 12, I finally managed to clamp down on my emotions. I had to do it, to protect myself from the Panacea goons.”
Ben stared at me for a moment and then shook his head.
“That can’t be easy and absolutely can’t be good for you. It’s not worth it. I can survive them flaunting their perceived power. I’ve done it for years.”
I shook my head as well.
“It is not just you that I am protecting. I do this to protect the others in the fortress. And Michael, Enki, and the rest of the leadership there. And yes, all of your people as well. And I will be damned if I give such bullies even an iota of satisfaction.”
“But if you are pretending to be an elite, what differentiates you from them in that regard?”
“I won’t be pretending. I am socially so far beyond them that they can not even fathom it. Enki alone would be enough to do that. But I also bring Vandermeer to the table. In a year, Enki will own this city. We already have enough power to make any attempt of them to interfere unpleasantly for them. No, this is not me pretending to have status and power, this is me demonstrating I have it.”
“But that is not you. I fear this will hurt you. You’ve made so much progress this last year, please don’t risk that just for my sake.”
“I have to do it if only to be able to look into my eyes in the mirror after tomorrow.”