CD & EA 1.31 - Lucky

Hey, almost up to 15 ahead of Royal Road! Wahoo! I can use a day off soon :D

Enjoy!

-Plum

“Okay, now have your PAI play the Chicago Symphony from their live charity recording in 2103. Make sure it’s clear and that you can isolate each instrument.” Murphy sat in front of Juliet, finished with her quick surgery, and was helping her go through a series of diagnostics to make sure the new audio implants were working properly.

Juliet’s old implants, tiny, blood-covered black discs, sat on the stainless steel tray to her left. She couldn’t believe those dense little plastic objects had been responsible for everything she’d heard for nearly ten years. At the doctor’s request, she subvocalized, “Go ahead, Angel.”

Suddenly orchestral music filled her ears, beautifully rich and full of depth. Just like her old implants, the new ones channeled some sounds into the bones of her skull, achieving much deeper, more realistic bass than would seemingly be possible from such tiny devices. One by one, Angel began to isolate the different instruments in the symphony, and Juliet sat there, amazed by how clear they all sounded. “How . . .” she started to say, and Murphy smiled.

“These Lyrics are miles beyond your old ones, Juliet. They have hardware algorithms that your PAI can interface with to do things with sound that you could only imagine before. Tell your PAI to turn off the music and scan for the sounds of human respiration. Tell it to filter out you and me.”

“You heard her, Angel,” Juliet subvocalized. The music stopped, and the world grew quiet, and then Juliet heard quick, shallow breathing. She looked at Murphy and held her own breath, but she still heard it.

“You hear it? I’ve got those two goons in a room on the other side of the wall behind you. They’re sedated, but you can pick out their breathing. Your PAI could accurately tell you how many people are breathing on the other side of most walls now. Pretty neat, huh?”

“Very cool, Murph!” Juliet was grinning, imagining the many ways the new audio implants would help her in situations like she’d been thrown into over the last week.

“Now, tell me about the wrist—any discomfort?”

“No. It’s just tight,” Juliet said, flexing the appendage. Murphy had injected bone gel into the fracture and sprayed on a purple, nano-fiber mesh cast. It allowed her to move it with a bit of support. With the injury cemented and an injection of anti-inflammatory drugs, the swelling was almost gone.

“Grab my hand and give it a squeeze,” Murphy said, holding out her hand. Juliet gripped it and clamped down with her fingers. “Jesus! Easy, easy. Okay, I can see you’ve done a lot of work with your hands. Anyway, it seems fine. That didn’t hurt, did it?”

“Well, not me . . .” Juliet grinned, and Murphy laughed dryly.

“Okay, well, everything seems to be working just fine,” Murph said, rolling back in her stool and standing up. “Do you want to make an appointment for the nanites? Wanna wait ‘til you secure the funding? In either case, I’ll be contacting you with a job opportunity real soon. You have people you like working with? I could go through a fixer if you want.”

“Um, let’s hold off on scheduling more surgery right now. As far as your job goes, though, I’d appreciate it if you sent it straight to me and let me pick the team. Would that be all right? I have a few friends I like to work with.”

“Done deal, Juliet. I’ll send you the details and the budget and let you build the team.” Murphy held out a hand, and Juliet warmly clasped it, giving it a much gentler squeeze.

“Hey,” she said, letting Murphy help her stand, “I just thought of something. One of my friends is interested in a wire-job, a, um, reflex augmentation. She wants it done right, though—no side effects.”

“Oh?” Murphy’s eyes squinted as she contemplated. “I can do that. I’ve done several in my time. The thing is, those are really tricky, and sometimes side effects are beyond the doctor’s control. It’s a very invasive procedure, depending on if she wants just major muscle groups or all of ‘em.” She paused and shrugged, “Heck, maybe she just wants her gun arm done. Anyway, people’s bodies respond differently to things like that. I could tell from the tiny bit of scarring around your audio implants that you take to implants rather easily—not always the case.”

“Well, still, you’d do a better job than a discount chop doc, right?”

Murphy grinned and put a hand on Juliet’s shoulder, “That warms my heart, Juliet! You’d be surprised how many of my old colleagues would call me just that! Seriously, though, yes—I would be better than most in this town. Just because my snooty old partners don’t like my methods doesn’t mean they aren’t good.”

“Okay,” Juliet said, following Murphy to the door, “I’ll let her know you’ve got what it takes.”

“That I do, Juliet. That I do.” She led Juliet through the hallways of her office suite and to the elevators, and along the way, Angel let her know that she’d called her an AutoCab.

Juliet said her goodbyes to Doctor Murphy, then rode the elevator down to the garage, marveling at the little differences in her hearing. Sounds were sharper, more distinct, and there was an absence of a baseline hum that she’d gotten used to over the last few years. “I remember when my old implants started humming. What was it? Three years ago? It drove me crazy at first, and now that it’s gone, I almost miss it.”

“You’ll grow used to the new clarity,” Angel said, “You don’t notice the missing artifacts from your old retinal implants, do you?”

“No, I guess not. I’m getting used to the more vivid colors and sharper AUI, too.” The elevator dinged, and Juliet stepped to the side, not wanting to be exposed when the doors opened. As the doors started to open, she lifted the edge of her vest and put her hand on the grip of her Taipan. “Hear anything, Angel?” she subvocalized.

“Nothing in the near vicinity.”

Juliet poked her head into the opening door and watched the shadows of the garage for a minute. Then, before the doors dinged and closed again, she stepped out. “Feeling paranoid.”

“I’d be worried about you if you weren’t.”

Juliet didn’t encounter any trouble as she walked through the garage and met her cab near the entrance, and the ride back to the trailer park was uneventful. As usual, the park was quiet in the afternoon. The only person she saw outdoors was the security guard, though Juliet saw several people lifting blinds to peer out as she walked by their plots. She smiled, imagining the nosy old ladies texting each other with updates about her comings and goings.

For fun, she increased the gain on her new implants and stood outside their trailer for a minute, trying to pinpoint Ghoul’s location within. It took her a few seconds, but eventually, she heard her taking slow, very steady breaths just to the side of the door. Juliet laughed and said, “Ghoul are you waiting by the door to try to scare me?”

The door squeaked open, and Ghoul stood smiling in the opening, “No! I just wanted to make sure you didn’t have any creeps following you.” She glanced Juliet up and down and frowned, “You have some work done to your wrist?”

“No,” Juliet said, climbed up the steps, and walked into their little kitchen, not wanting to continue the discussion around prying ears. “Hang on,” she said, then picked up her fully charged new deck. “Angel,” she said aloud, not worried about Ghoul hearing her talk to the PAI, “this thing has a noise screen setting, right?”

“Yes, though leave it on the charging pad—that function depletes the battery quickly. The deck can use its three-dimensional audio projection to create a static field that stretches four feet in each direction.”

“Oh, well, that covers the kitchen, at least. Come sit over here, Ghoul, in case we have snooping neighbors. I kinda pissed off some people today, and never know who might want a reward to snitch us out.” Juliet sat down at their little plastic kitchen table and waited for Ghoul to sit across from her.

“Well?” Ghoul asked, eyes narrowed in a look that said, “What’s the latest disaster?”

“Okay, so when I got to Murphy’s office, I found her being kidnapped in the garage.”

“You what?” Ghoul leaned forward suddenly, very interested.

“Yeah, two bangers from this gang called the Rattlers had her tied up and were going to take her to a bar or something, and it sounded like they meant to torture or kill her, so I stepped in. I almost killed them, but one broke my wrist.” Juliet held up her wrist, rubbing her fingers lightly over the sprayed-on mesh.

“You almost killed them?” Ghoul took Juliet’s wrist in her hands and pulled it toward her, pushing and pulling at her hand to bend it back and forward, albeit gently.

“It’s fine,” Juliet said, pulling it back. Then she gave Ghoul a brief rundown of the fight, including the deal she made with the banger that had held her at gunpoint.

“Jesus, you’re one lucky bitch,” Ghoul chuckled.

“Hey!” Juliet said, reaching out and smacking the side of Ghoul’s head lightly. She bit her lip nervously—she’d acted on reflex as she might have with Felix. Ghoul didn’t react, didn’t snatch her hand out of the air, or hit her back. She just looked at Juliet, blinked a couple of times, and then smiled.

“I guess I deserved that. You’re not a bitch.”

“Thanks!” Juliet laughed.

“You are lucky, though! Lucky that guy was nearly dead, lucky there was a doc nearby to bargain with, lucky your first shot messed him up good, lucky your . . .”

“I get it. I get it! Yeah, I’m lucky! What did he mean when he said I didn’t know how to clear a corner?”

“You stuck your gun—and wrist—out on a blind corner. He was waiting for you, so I guess it’s lucky,” she emphasized the word, “that you didn’t stick your head out first.”

“Yeah? So what’s the right move?”

Ghoul picked up Juliet’s new deck and set it on the table between them. “Can you make this thing project a drawing pad?” Before Juliet could answer, Angel activated the holoprojector on the deck, and a flat blue plane appeared an inch above the deck. “Perfect,” Ghoul said, then she drew an L shape with her finger and pointed at it, “This is the corner.”

“Right,” Juliet nodded.

“So, you want to stand a bit back from the corner,” she drew a dot to illustrate. “Then you work your way around the corner, holding your gun close so no one can jump out and grab it or knock it away. You sidestep, ‘slicing the pie’ with your field of view as you work your way around.

“If you’d done that, you’d have seen old boy lurking against the concrete and had a chance to blast him or duck back into cover.” Ghoul moved the dot and drew little lines as more and more area beyond the corner came into the dot’s line of sight, illustrating where the “slice the pie” analogy came from.

“Oh, shit. Yeah, I guess I see how dumb that was.”

“You’re not dumb, Juliet. You just aren’t experienced. At least you’re lucky!” Ghoul laughed and darted a hand out to lightly tap the side of Juliet’s head, moving so fast her hand was a blur.

“You don’t need a reflex job!” Juliet laughed.

“You kidding me? Don woulda tapped my head three times before I touched his.”

“Well, I mentioned to the doc that I had a friend interested in something like that, and she said she could do it. She’ll probably give you a discount if I bring you,” Juliet said, then explained her standing discount with the doctor.

“Hell yeah! That’s awesome, Jules. So you got the audio upgrade, huh?”

“Yep! Um,” Juliet paused and subvocalized, “Angel can you show me the gear score for my cybernetics?”

“My pleasure!” A blinking tab appeared, and Juliet opened it with a gesture:

Cybernetic and Bionic augmentation:

Model name and number:

Overall rating of the augmentation (Grades are F, D, C, B, A, S, S+):

PAI

WBD Project Angel, Alpha 3.433 - S+

Data Port

Jannik Systems, XR-55 - B

Data Jack

Bio Network Solutions, 8840 - C

Retinal Cybernetic Implant

Hayashi, Crystal Optics 3.2c - B

Auditory Cybernetic Implant

Cork Systems, Lyric Model 4 - B

No other augmentation detected.

“It’s a Cork Systems, Lyric,” she finished. Juliet almost said it was a “grade B” audio implant but realized no one without a PAI like Angel would probably know what she was talking about.

“Oh, Cork makes good implants,” Ghoul said, nodding. “Any word from Temo or anything? I’m itching to do a job. Well, I’m itching to do anything that gets me outta this trailer. I guess we’re stuck with ABZ work until my identity isn’t a problem, though.”

“Nothing today,” Juliet said. “I guess I could call him, or we could try to pick something up off the boards. I’ll be honest, though, Ghoul—I’m feeling kinda fried right now. I almost lost my shit in the doctor’s office. I think a day or two of just working out and resting would do me some good.”

“Yout almost lost your shit? What do you mean?” Ghoul asked, standing up and beginning to pace in the cramped kitchen. She walked over to the door and peered out the little window, pulling the orange and yellow curtain aside.

“The doc went to get supplies, and I started feeling like I was about to be betrayed, like goons were waiting to jump me.”

“There’s no way that doc can connect you to Vikker, right? I’m sure those assholes that want me have postings out, but they don’t know about you. Did you mention my handle to the doc? Shit, maybe it’s time I changed it.”

“No, I didn’t mention it. This isn’t about you, though; it’s about me. I’ve been . . . harried for a week now. This life is still new to me.”

Ghoul nodded, letting the curtain fall back into place, and looked at Juliet. She frowned and said, “Yeah, yeah. Right. No worries, Juliet. Let me ask you this—if I pick up a job tonight, will you help me cover my ID while I head out? I’ll do something in the ABZ, something quick and easy. I just gotta make something happen. I’m crawling outta my skin here. Normally, if I couldn’t work, I’d at least hit the gym or a bar, and I can’t do that shit with all the ID queries around town. You know?”

Juliet looked at Ghoul, still wearing the same gym shorts and t-shirt she’d had the previous day. She saw how she held her eyebrows up, her eyes wide open, pleading her case, and sighed, saying, “I guess we could do something quick. The extra money sure wouldn’t hurt. Want me to call Temo?”

“Fuck yes! Thanks, Jules! Let’s not call Temo, though; I think he’d call us if he had something up our alley. Let’s take a minute to peruse the boards—see if there’s anything we can both get in on.”

“Right,” Juliet said, then, as Ghoul’s eyes unfocused, looking at her AUI, Juliet subvocalized, “Angel can you try to find a job in the ABZ that both of us could work on tonight?”

In just a couple of seconds, Angel said, “I’ve found one that might interest you. It’s an open posting that hasn’t been picked up in more than a week.” Juliet opened the blinking tab and read the posting:

Posting# G1874

Requested Role: Data Retrieval

Rep level: F-S+

Job Description: Confront members of the Hell’s Ambassadors paramilitary group and settle a water rights dispute for your client. Resistance and overt hostility are possible.

Compensation: 8000 Sol-bits

Scavenge Rights: Shared

Location: Phoenix South, ABZ border zone.

Date: Open - Active when two to four operators accept the position.

“Uh,” Juliet said, many concerns and doubts warring for space on her tongue, but Ghoul looked at her, and she shrugged, sending her a link to the posting.

“Oh, this sounds juicy,” Ghoul said, grinning. “We could ask Hot Mustard and Corbitt to join us.”

“I was thinking I could ask Honey . . .”

“Really? I haven’t met her yet, but she doesn’t seem the intimidating type.” Ghoul frowned and drummed her fingers on the tabletop.

“She’s a good fighter, but she does come off as pretty sweet.” Juliet shrugged, but then she pressed her lips together, straightened her back, and said, “Well, I told her I’d think of her with jobs I took, so I’d like to offer her a spot. Is that okay with you?”

“Yeah, no sweat. I get it. I’ll call Hot Mustard, and you call your friend, cool?” Ghoul’s response caught her off guard; she’d been expecting to have to argue her case more.

“Why not Corbett?” Juliet asked, genuinely curious—both men had seemed pretty good to her admittedly untrained eye.

“He’s all right, but Hot Mustard was pounding nails with that rifle of his. Honey’s good with close-quarters action, right? She likes the sword?” Juliet nodded, and Ghoul continued, “Well, I like fighting close too, even with guns, so I figure Hot Mustard balances us out. He’s damn good, and I can tell he’s seen a lot of action.”

“Makes sense. Okay, I’ll go call Honey,” she said, standing up and walking down the hallway to her bedroom. As she closed the door, she could already hear Ghoul talking, presumably, to Hot Mustard. She sat at the foot of her bed and sighed, “Dammit, I forgot to get new sheets. Maybe we can stop on the way home from this job. Angel, will you remind me? Also, call up Honey.”

Her AUI displayed the pending call, beeping every couple of seconds, and then an image resolved, showing Honey’s smiling face with a colorful floral print wallpaper behind her head. “Juliet!”

“Hey, Honey! How are you?”

“I’m good. Just watching my nephew—did you wanna meet for open-dojo again?”

“Well, actually, my roomie and I are looking at doing a job tonight. You interested?”

“Seriously? Hell, yes, I am! What are we looking at?”

“I’ll send you the card, just a sec.” Angel displayed an animation showing a card wooshing threw her field of view and then out of her peripheral vision.

“Got it,” Honey said, then her eyes darted side to side for a second, and a frown creased her lips, “This could get real ugly, Juliet. Those are nasty guys. You got a fourth?”

“Yeah, Ghoul’s working that out right now. He’s pretty good, and Ghoul’s tough as nails.”

“I don’t normally take this kind of job, but I’m bored half the time waiting for Temo to set me up something he thinks is ‘worth my time or worth the risk,’ his two favorite phrases. If you’re sure about the other two, you know I’m down to work with you anytime.”

“Yeah, I can vouch for Ghoul, and Hot Mustard was outstanding on the job we did. You know, the second dreamer job I told you about.”

“Hot Mustard? Are you serious?” Honey started to laugh. “So we’re heading out with Honey and Hot Mustard? Oh god, we better keep that under wraps if we’re trying to intimidate anyone.”

Juliet couldn’t help laughing along, and as they both got it together, she started it up again by saying, “I haven’t picked a handle yet! I could go with something like BBQ.”

“No!” Honey laughed, “You’ve gotta go with Ketchup!”

“Oh, god,” Juliet groaned. “Yeah, I think I’ll stick with Juliet for now. Anyway, we don’t have wheels. Maybe Hot Mustard does, but do you? I guess we could all take cabs and meet up a few klicks out from the job.”

“Hold up,” Honey said, eyes going glassy, “Looks like your two friends grabbed the job—two of four slots taken. Let’s sign up then we can all communicate through the SOA network. I’ve got wheels.”

“Right on! Signing up now,” Juliet said, trusting Angel to follow through.

“Cool, get your scary-sounding friend ready, and I’ll message you all to arrange pickups. I need an hour to finish up here, but then we should get going while the sun’s still out—no sense making this more ominous than it has to be.”