On the third day, Rick left the apartment for training, though it took multiple attempts to get out of bed before she finally forced him to shower and get ready.

The sex had been vanilla, the same as it had been since he first came back from reCon, but there had been a lot of it. Rick felt bad he’d been so tired; Kristina did most of the work. He didn’t feel as bad about it later when she woke him for more.

Later that day, she’d have another therapy appointment, courtesy of the pilot program Dr. Chavez had mentioned. God, it felt like that was years ago.

What she had wasn’t depression. He knew it, she knew it, and according to his wife, her therapists knew it. Rick had never known anyone who could shift so rapidly from appearing happy and hopeful to so ashamed and inconsolable she’d lock herself in the bathroom and sob. Early in their relationship, he’d try to comfort her, but she’d become frantic, banging her head against the wall or sometimes even cutting herself. If he tried to touch her, she’d shriek and try to make herself so small, it was like she was trying to disappear.

And then, maybe a few hours or at most a day or two later, she was, if not fine, at least not inconsolable. That’s what made the suicide attempts so terrifying. He didn’t get weeks or months of warning. In fact, he got almost no warning. That meant calm seas weren’t reassuring. He couldn’t help worry about her now, but she wasn’t well enough to work yet, and he couldn’t let himself miss this opportunity. Experience had already taught them homelessness would do nothing to improve her mental health. Maybe Dr. Chavez’s trials would work.

When he got to the warehouse, it was hard not to notice there weren’t as many machines running. He looked for Jerry or Manuel, but couldn’t find either. Instead of going straight to the SR room, he bounded up the stairs and knocked on Hector’s door.

“Come on in.” His boss’s voice was muffled behind the heavy door. Hector was engaged in vigorous conversation with someone, so Rick wasn’t sure his boss knew it was him.

He knocked again. “It’s Rick.”

“Yeah. I said come in.”

Rick entered the office and found his boss pacing, dragging the old-fashioned landline’s handset and base from one corner of the office to the other.

“But you can find out who’s behind it?” Hector listened to whomever was on the other end, then said, “Manuel’s gonna be okay, but they need to operate.”

Rick’s eyes went wide. What the fuck happened to Manuel?

“No, I’m insured. Yes, he was on the clock. He’s gonna be okay. My rates will go up, but Manuel’s indispensable. Yes, you’re indispensable, too. He’s gonna be okay.”

There was more silence and a dark pall came over Hector’s face. “Jerry’s in surgery now. What? No, they said it was fifty-fifty.” Rick’s boss held the receiver away from his face as his frustrated sigh became an angry growl. “I know—Jesus fucking Christ, Alex, why do you think I need you to—” The voice on the other end of the line got loud enough for Rick to hear. Then Hector said, “Find them. Neutralize them. This is a sentinel threat.”

After a minute or so more, Hector hung up the receiver and planted both the receiver and base of the phone firmly on his desk. He sighed. “Been kind of a fucked up morning, Rick.”

“What the heck is going on? I saw you have fewer than half the machines—”

“We got hacked. The laundry machines attacked Manuel and Jerry.”

“Was it deliber—”

“Fuck yeah, it was. The virus tried to self-delete, but that self-deletion itself left trails. Alex is on it.”

“What else has been affected? Security, bank books?”

Hector shook his head. “Just the machines from what we can tell.”

“I was supposed to train today.”

“Fuck… Right.” Hector held his head. “It’s dangerous to use the SR array until we know what’s going on. I don’t think there’s any risk, but it’s not worth exposing you to…”

Rick waited when his boss trailed off.

“What’s your network like?” Hector asked.

“At home?”

Hector nodded impatiently.

“Municipal. I don’t think it’s—”

“I’d move you out, but I want you in the game as quickly as possible, and just getting the relocation allowance will take months...” He held his head as though it ached. “Gonna be another twelve grand for the whole thing, maybe? Who’s your landlord?”

Rick gave him Omar’s contact info.

“Oh good. Old neighborhood guy—I know his father. He’ll be able to keep it inconspicuous. Security?”

Rick grimaced.

“Right. I’ll have him upgrade the doors and windows. If you do well like I think you will, we’ll get proximity door unlock chips added to you and your wife’s implant ports. For now, let’s get you an SR Array and private network. You’re about to have the cheapest looking expensive apartment in the hood.”

“Uh…”

Hector waved Rick’s hesitation away. “We were already looking at how to get you something more convenient. This just sped up our timetable.”

Private network? Upgraded security? For a game? “Who do you think did this?”

Hector shrugged. “Cippriano, Chlebek, Levine?”

“Aren’t they allies?” Rick asked.

Hector laughed, but didn’t explain. “You’re gonna have to go home to approve the deliveries and the upgrades. Everything will be coming in pieces, and the network guy will look sorta… not very professional—but I don’t want the whole ghetto knowing you’ve got an SR machine worth six grand all by itself.”

Six grand? Wow. “Lemme call my wife.”

Kristina was surprised, but she told him she’d hop in the shower and get ready for visitors. She’d seemed okay, but he felt helpless that his work life was intruding on her healing, and though she’d be gone for her therapy later in the afternoon, it was still an imposition.

Hector called a few people and asked Rick more questions before sending him home to get ready for the upgrades.

**************************************

Hector wasn’t kidding when he said the network installation worker would look unconventional. He looked more like a diesel mechanic than a tech guy. He wore an old-fashioned dark blue, long-sleeve button up with a name tag sewn into it, and his hair and beard were unkempt. Rick wondered if he was drunk.

“You mind?” The network guy, whose name was Kevin, gestured at the side table in the corner with the broken lamp.

“Uh, go ahead.”

As Kevin began setting up a new computer terminal, Rick got curious. “What’s that?”

“Server. We’re not gonna replace your muni network—anyone eavesdropping would get awful curious about a single apartment with a secure, private network in a shithole like this.” He shrugged. “No offense.”

“So they’ll both be running?”

Kevin sniffed and rubbed his bulbous, red nose. “Yeah, but just for appearances. You and the missus will have to give me some of the sites you go to so we can replicate your normal internet use.” He gave Rick a knowing look. “That means even the porn sites or illegal sharing stuff. If you’re on muni and it ain’t got you arrested yet, it won’t.”

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Rick shifted on his feet. “I’ll… have to ask…”

“You ain’t gonna shock me, as long as it’s not kids, animals, or snuff.” Kevin nodded. “And it ain’t, cuz Hector already snooped ya, and he’d have sent someone less professional.”

Less professional? “Nothing like that, no.” He hated to even think about the subject, but aside from some light roleplay, his preferences since reCon couldn’t be too exotic.

Kevin was still setting up the private internet when pieces of the SR unit started coming. Like his boss had warned him, the deliveries were sporadic, and the largest part was the chair, which looked like the deluxe one Hector had in the basement.

Nothing had yet been assembled when Kristina-Anne came home from her appointment to the absolute chaos of boxes, wires, lights, and hastily rearranged furniture. She shot him an anxious smile.

He motioned her over. “He’s setting up the private network alongside the municipal network. Says he needs to know—”

“I gotta know what kind of pornography you like, and if you’re looking up illegal ad-blocking devices or anything like that,” Kevin fairly shouted from across the room.

Rick shrugged by way of apology.

Her smile was nervous. “Do I have to tell you?”

“You might as well,” Kevin said. “It’s not like he’s not gonna check now.” The disheveled man laughed.

Kristina rolled her eyes and said in a low voice, “This is more invasive than my shrink, baby.” She stepped close and whispered in his ear.

“Really?” Rick’s heart pounded faster.

She blushed, then said to Kevin, “I’m coming…”

Rick shook his head and tried to focus on more immediate concerns, like the best way to sort the boxes so Kevin could assemble the SR array.

Kristina came back and hugged him. “Therapy really took it out of me and all this”—she pointed around the disorganized room—“isn’t helping. Okay if I nap for a bit?”

Rick squeezed her. “Yeah. It should be under control in… uh… a few hours.” He watched her as she retired to the bedroom. She seemed better than she was. The real test would be the next couple days. Would it be easier now that he’d be training at home, or would the sight of him appearing to sleep all day aggravate her? She’d said it wasn’t Alex that drove her to try to kill herself, but now that they’d cleared the air about his previous indiscretions—Jeez, that was a lifetime ago—he wasn’t sure he believed her.

But he had to train. This was his first real chance at a future. For all she knew, she had no chance at a family anymore.

When would he ever be brave enough to disclose what he’d done to her? Would she be happy? Would she feel violated?

One step at a time, Rick. He needed a safe nest and a wife who wasn’t sick before he could worry about her reaction to what he’d done.

Once Kevin had the parallel server set up with Rick and his wife’s common surfing patterns, he moved on to assembling the SR Array. The disheveled tech reduced Rick’s role to little more than that of handing him the parts while he connected all the screws and wires.

When he had it all set up, he checked the cable with Rick’s port. The tech struggled to get the cable to fit. “Man, your port is kinda new.”

Rick nodded. “Old one got infected. They had to give me a new one.”

Keven narrowed one eye at him, as if he knew there must be an angle he couldn’t see. “Pretty rare anyone gets an implant replaced.” He looked genuinely concerned. “I hope this one doesn’t get infected, man.”

Rick touched the back of his head. It wasn’t swollen or tender anymore. “I think it’s fine. I need to train.” He sat in the completed SR chair and adjusted the cable. “How do I log in?”

Kevin indicated a red button under a clear plastic lid—it looked like the firing button for a fighter jet or something similarly exotic. “Hector’s unit doesn’t have this.”

Kevin smiled. “He wants you to feel like you’re preparing for a life and death fight, so he thought you’d appreciate the touch. You want me to—”

“No way. It’s fuckin’ rad.” He smiled. It would certainly put him in the mood. All the time he’d been training, something had been missing. When he was an MMA fighter, he had a ritual he did before every fight, something guaranteed to get his mind focused on the fight. When he went into the SR array, it always took him a minute or more to orient himself to the task at hand, and that was before the new implant and his sessions trying to overcome his reCon with Ditto. Flicking the cover open and punching a jet fighter missile button could be his signal to his brain that he was leaving the world where he was a husband and an employee. He’d punch the button, his world would go black, and he’d rise a champion. Someday.

He looked up at Kevin. “Any idea if Alex will be able to access my sessions?”

From the array’s speakers came Alex’s voice. “I’m already here.”

“Jesus Christ!” Rick nearly jumped from the chair, and the look on Kevin’s face made it seem he hadn’t expected her, either. “You’re not able to just come in and out at a whim like that, are you?”

“Of course.” There was a tense silence before the sound of her laughter gave away that she was kidding. “You have to set the ringer. All new SR arrays come wide open so a remote tech doesn’t have to walk a buyer through the basic steps of letting them in.”

“Where are the settings?”

Kevin said, “You’ll note there’s an AR element to the new unit. It’s an upgraded and totally sweet version of your Muni AR. The settings are in the same place.”

Rick entered the settings and set a “knock first” switch. “How does Kris use the AR internet while I’m on here?”

Alex said, “Kevin’s gonna put a standard AR array in your bedroom.”

Kevin grinned. “Already did while you were signing with the delivery driver a while back—it was pretty quick.”

Rick missed anything the tech said after that, as Kristina’s disembodied face showed up in the AR portion of the new unit. “Hey baby! This thing’s pretty slick,” she said.

“I thought you were sleeping.”

“Yes, and now I’m awake. That’s how bodies work.”

Alex laughed.

Oh fuck.

“Is that Alex?” Kristina asked.

“None other—this Kris?”

“This is Rick’s wife, yeah.”

Oh no.

Alex’s voice, typically rather deep for a woman, became aggressively chipper. “It’s so great to talk to you again!”

Oh, thank God. Alex, you’re some sort of wizard with wives, or something. Then it struck him. Why is she a wizard with other men’s wives?

In the video chat panel, Kristina smiled, but whether it was genuine or not was hard to tell. “I feel like I should be jealous my husband has been spending so much time with another woman, but weirdly, I’m not.”

Rick fervently wished he had an errand to run—even if it meant enduring the most banal advertising assault. Had his chair gotten warmer?

“Good!” Alex said. “It’s refreshing to meet someone so secure in her relationship she doesn’t mind that her husband has to spend time with another woman for hours and hours every day. I just hate the way we’re expected to be catty and passive-aggressive.”

“Me too!” Now Kristina’s voice was also oddly high-pitched. What did it mean? It meant nothing good for him, that’s what.

He’d gotten over the shock of Alex’s appearance. “Hey, I’m sorry I’ve been training alone. I’m having some problems getting back in the swing of things.”

“You’ve been training alone?” Kristina asked.

Here come the questions. “Yeah, just until, you know, I feel I’m at a hundred percent again.”

Kristina shot him a knowing smile. “I’d say you’re at a hundred and ten”—she winked—“but you’re talking about the game, right?”

Rick blushed.

“Uh… sounds like you two are… healthy.” Alex changed subjects. “I wondered why Hector put me on his schedule for so many training sessions. I was starting to worry he had the wrong idea about what sort of relationship he and I had.”

Kristina frowned. “I wonder why he’d ever do that.”

Rick pretended he didn’t understand the significance of the comment.

Luckily, Alex ignored it, too. “So in a few days, you think you’ll be ready?”

Rick frowned. “I dunno. Might need longer.” Don’t press it, don’t press it, don’t press it…

“Man, I’m getting bored with Hector. He’s so not a natural at fighting. He’s not fun, like you.”

Jesus Christ, Alex, are you trying to get me in the doghouse?

“Oh, is he fun? That’s interesting.” Kristina tilted her head. “You a joker and you’re hiding it from me?”

Rick breathed a sigh of relief. His wife knew he could be funny. She was just giving him a hard time in front of his trainer. He snorted a single burst of laughter, but then suppressed it.

Alex said, “Ahhh… Inside joke. Alright, you two. Get a room and leave me out of it.”

Kristina smiled. “You’re okay, you know that, Alex?’

Rick didn’t want to say anything for fear he’d jinx it. He held still, like a moose watching two wolves at the edge of a field.

Alex laughed. “You’re alright yourself. Thank you for… Y’know, for not being upset that I have to spend so much time with your husband. You know it’s for a purpose, right?”

Kristina looked down. “He hasn’t been like this since, well… not for a long time. You’ve made my husband happy, and that makes me happy.” She looked up, her face expressing vulnerability. “As long as it’s not… y’know.”

“It’s not,” Alex said. “And it won’t ever be.”

That last part seemed aimed at Rick as much as his wife. He didn’t mind; he was glad to see she’d understood the nature of his relationship.

“I’m kinda worried he’s having trouble getting back into it.” Kristina’s next words were for Rick. “Is the implant okay? I know the doctors told you how close it was, but you have no idea how scared I was when they wheeled you in.”

No idea? I’ve been just as terrified four times now. He didn’t say it. “The implant is fine…”

“Because of your history, they said it was really risky.”

“History?” Alex asked.

Oh no.

Kristina’s eyes widened, then narrowed. When Rick realized Alex couldn’t see his wife, he sighed, trying to make it sound like boredom and not relief.

His wife said, “Head trauma. The expectations for boys are different in—”

“Oh, right. The Western Republic.” Alex didn’t appear to catch that Rick’s wife had saved them both with her quick thinking. Then Alex said in a low voice, “Can we acknowledge your husband’s not exactly new to fighting, though?”

Kristina put on a concerned face, though there was a smile in her eyes, as if she liked that Alex didn’t know the full story. “He’s had some training.”

“Hah!” Alex said. “Knew it.”

Rick looked out from the corner of his eye. Kevin didn’t appear to be listening, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t.

“We can talk more about this once I’m back in fighting shape,” Rick said.

Alex sighed. “Right. Remind me, you have five slots for things to carry forward into the next rank, and you haven’t chosen anything yet?”

“How do you know that?”

“I’m your trainer. I have access—unless you close it off, which, I wouldn’t recommend.”

He nodded. Right. That’s a problem for a later date. “I don’t want to choose anything until I know I can use it properly. I’d been focusing on speed, but I’m not sure that’s a viable path forward because this implant just feels different.”

“You’ll catch up to the tech improvements, but you’re in a unique situation. I get that,” Alex said. “You know Hector wants you for a tourney coming up in a week and a half? He probably told you he’s okay with you not making it, but…” She didn’t say the rest. She didn’t have to.

“I’m busting my ass, Alex. Every day.”

“Yeah.” There was dead air on the other end. “Just… you have to be careful with Hector is all.”

Kristina shot Rick an anxious glance, and he smiled to reassure her. The anxious look diminished, but it didn’t go away. Rick’s reassurances had failed before.