CD & EA 1.18 - Friends

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-Plum

Juliet gasped and crawled backward, jerking on her leg, trying to free it from the dreamer’s grip. His fingers were like iron bands, though, and as she pulled back, he lunged forward, wrapping his other arm around her knee. He yanked himself toward her, eyes blazing, mouth foaming, and teeth gnashing. “Get the fuck off!” she screamed, but her voice was drowned out by the heavy, repeated gunfire coming from the hallway.

“My love!” the dreamer hissed, and then he let go of her ankle and grasped at her vest, driving her back and crawling onto her, his face lunging toward her, his spittle spraying out with his words. Juliet was beyond freaked out, and she kicked and pushed, thrashing backward, and then she remembered her vibroblade.

She pushed against the dreamer’s forehead with her left hand, barely avoiding his teeth as he tried to clamp down on her arm. His head was ice cold yet clammy with sweat, and Juliet would have lost her grip if she hadn’t wound her fingers in his greasy hair. Holding him back with that stiff arm, she yanked her blade from its housing with her other hand and, shaking with adrenaline, she raked it across his face.

The dreamer screamed in a new pitch as her blade ripped through his cheeks like she was cutting soft cheese, and then the knife’s humming edge hit his jawbone, hung for a fraction of a second, and continued through. Blood sheeted down over Juliet as the dreamer’s lower jaw flopped to the side, and his thrashing intensified. He let go of her, though, and still pushing against his head, Juliet jerked her body out from under him and threw him to the side as she clambered to her feet.

He rolled on the carpet, gurgling and flopping, clearly struggling to breathe. Juliet wasn’t an expert in human physiology, but it seemed she’d cut through most of his tongue, and there must have been some big veins in there. “Angel,” she gasped, “did you finish our transfer?”

“Nearly. Juliet, be careful with that blade—I’d hate for you to be exposed to any blood-borne pathogens that individual might be carrying.” Juliet jerked her hand away from her body, the blade still humming in her bloody fist. Her data cable was still tethered to the dreamer’s deck, having drug the thing out of the case and over the carpet as she scrambled backward.

She stood there, watching the dreamer thrash and gag, crawling over the carpet toward the wall, perhaps seeing something in his AUI that made the wall look like salvation.  Juliet worked to steady her breathing, waiting for Angel to finish and watching the dreamer as he grew less frenetic and stopped clawing, lying on his face choking out bubbling breaths. “Fuck, Angel, please hurry,” she said tremulously.

“Fucking hell, Juliet!” Mags hollered from the door, and Juliet feared her heart might burst from the sudden sound. “Are you done?”

“Almost! Fuck!” Juliet said, her nerves past frayed.

“Shit, that one jumped you?” Mags asked, scanning the room. “You hurt?”

“No.” Juliet shakily lifted the flap that covered her vibroblade’s sheath, and with careful concentration, she slid the tip into the housing, driving it home as the humming stopped.

“Transfer complete, Juliet,” Angel said. Juliet reached down and pulled out her data cable, then, as it rewound into its housing, she walked over to Mags, her legs still shaking from the adrenaline dump.

“Let’s go,” she said.

“Yeah, uh, it’s ugly out there. Honey and Pit are clearing the ground floor.” Mags, holding her huge pistol in one hand and a fresh magazine in the other, moved through the apartment to the door and waited as Juliet came up behind her. She looked left and right down the hallway and said, “Nothing’s moving out there. Some of the creeps are still alive, but they’re too fucked up to be dangerous. Stay on my heels.” Then she stepped out, turned right, and started jogging toward the stairwell.

Juliet followed, her brain almost failing to register the carnage around her. Slumped bodies lined the hallway in both directions, some missing limbs, and one even decapitated. She tiptoed through the mess, holding a sleeve to her nose, trying to move quickly. One dreamer, a young woman wearing a soiled gray jumper and the most elaborate dream-rig headgear she’d ever seen, twitched wildly as she approached, her left leg kicking out toward Juliet, despite the massive bloody wound in her chest.

Juliet stared at her as she ran past, her mind jumping to mad fantasies about what could have caused her to come to such straights—had her parents disowned her? Had they indulged her too much? Had she started using to get over a bad relationship? Before she could descend further down that rabbit hole, Mags yanked the fire door open and grabbed her wrist, propelling her into the stairwell.

More blood and a few more corpses lined the stairs, but not nearly as bad as the upstairs hallway. Juliet hurried down to the ground floor, and Honey was waiting; her blue sword dripped with blood, but she was otherwise unmussed. “Good work, Juliet. The client sent me confirmation of receipt. Come on—not much down here. They mostly swarmed the second floor.”

Juliet almost said she knew why they’d swarmed the second floor, but she bit her tongue. After Vikker and Don, she felt like she should play her cards close to her chest. For all she knew, Honey was aware of the signal and was working with the client on a shady secondary deal.

She followed Honey out of the building with Mags bringing up the rear, and when they stepped outside, Pit was waiting, scanning the periphery, his shotgun holstered and a data deck with a small thumb paddle in his hands.

“Nothing much moving out there,” he said.

“Is he running a drone?” Juliet subvocalized to Angel.

“Yes. That remote is meant to control a Chicago Systems, model 2074, surveillance drone.”

“Another relic?” Juliet said aloud.

“If it works, it works,” Honey said, moving for the fence. This time she didn’t hop it—in a shower of sparks and rapid *clinks*, she ripped her sword through it, creating a four-foot opening that she shoved wide, stepping through to the other side. Then, she started jogging toward Pit’s jeep.

Juliet and Honey clambered into Pit’s jeep while Mags stood watch and Pit collected his little guard robot. Five minutes later, they were well on their way out of the ABZ without any further hostilities. “I was sure our gunfire would draw one of the scav gangs,” Honey said as they pulled onto a minimally maintained road—no abandoned vehicles blocked the lanes, and the potholes were too small to swallow an entire tire.

“Is that usually a problem out here?” Juliet asked.

“Oh yeah. Scavs like loot, and a firefight means loot if they can get there fast enough. Sometimes they’ll pile on to whoever’s winning and try to get a double score. As it is, any scavs that clean out that mess will walk away with some good shit—some of those dreamers had expensive gear.”

“Why do you think they all attacked like that?” Juliet asked, knowing full well it was because of the signal from Vykertech.

“No fucking clue. Weird shit. It was like they were all networked or something. What happened to the suit? The guy with the data deck?”

“She cut his face off,” Mags said, turning to grin and wink at Juliet.

“He attacked me first!”

“Well, good on you for not letting him take you down. Is that his blood all over you?”

“Yes,” Juliet replied, looking at her sticky, red hands and the dark splashes on her green vest.

“Wash that vest good when you get home. Here,” Honey said, digging around under Pit’s seat. She pulled out a med kit, and when she opened it, Juliet had flashbacks to the scrapyard and the strange man named Godric who’d had her spray down his PAI with antiseptic. Sure enough, Honey produced a can of antiseptic spray, and Juliet thought it was the same exact brand. She held out her hands, and Honey sprayed them liberally, then sprayed a mist over her vest.

“Thanks,” Juliet said, rubbing her hands together and letting them drip down onto the floorboard.

“Least I can do. I was supposed to be your muscle. Sorry about that, by the way. I got caught up by the stairwell when they all woke up and came running.”

“We made it.” Juliet shrugged.

“Yeah. Hey, I’m glad you have some self-defense instincts, but if you wanna learn to fight—I mean, really fight, I could introduce you to my sensei.” Honey seemed sincere, and her tone wasn’t judgemental. Juliet felt some of the muscles she’d held clenched since the end of the mission start to relax. On a certain level, she was preparing for Honey and her crew to backstab her as Vikker had.

“Sensei?”

“Yeah, like my instructor. He has a dojo on the east side. He teaches a mix of styles, you know, MMA. He has a separate class for the sword, though. You aren’t interested in that, are you? I mean, if you were, that would be cool. Maybe come see what a regular class is like first, hmm? I attend his eight AM class almost every day and the sword class on Tuesday and Thursday nights.”

“Oh god, Pit, she’s trying to recruit her into her cult.” Mags jostled Pit’s shoulder with her fist, and they both laughed.

“It’s not a cult!” Honey laughed.

“Well, that’s really nice, Honey. I’m interested, but no promises, okay? Can you send the info to my PAI?”

“Done,” Honey said, smiling and leaning so her head hung out into the breeze.

The rest of the ride was uneventful. Honey and Juliet were quiet, Juliet replaying her encounter with the sleeper over and over in her head. The images alternated and got jumbled with flashbacks of her fight with Vikker and Don. The parallels between the ride away from the job in Pit’s jeep and the ride in Vikker’s van were too stark for her to ignore, and she kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. She caught herself feeling to be sure her pistol was still in her holster several times, and it wasn’t until Pit pulled into a brightly lit convenience store on the southern edge of Phoenix proper that she relaxed.

“This okay with you?” He asked.

“You sure you don’t want a ride home, Juliet?” Honey added.

“Yeah, this is good. I have a ride coming already,” she lied, hopping out of the jeep. “Hope we can work together again soon, you guys, and, Honey, I’ll maybe see you at your, um, dojo?”

“Yeah, I hope so, Juliet. Okay, stay safe, hon.”

“Later, Juliet. Nice work tonight,” Mags said. She looked at Juliet, and her visor flashed with blinking red lights that spelled, “Later!” Juliet laughed, and Pit waved as he put his noisy, ancient jeep into drive and sped away.

“You have an AutoCab coming, Juliet. ETA is four minutes.”

“Great,” Juliet said, then she went into the store and bought herself some very salty potato chips and a sugary cola. When she was sitting in the back of her AutoCab riding toward the downtown district, she breathed a heavy sigh of relief. She munched her snack, hardly believing she’d made it through the night without having to flee or abandon yet another vehicle or set of belongings.

“Juliet, your operator card has been updated. Do you want to see it?” As usual, Angel didn’t wait for a response, sending the blinking tab to her AUI. Juliet focused on it and read her new stats:

Handle: “Juliet” – SOA-SP License #: JB789-029

Personal Protection & Small Arms License #: E86072801

Rating: F-47-N

Skillset subgroups:

Peer and Client Rating (Grades are F, D, C, B, A, S, S+):

Combat:

• Close Quarters Heavy Weapon Combat  - A (1)
• Close Quarters Bladed Weapon Combat - A (3)

Technical:

• Network Security Bypass/Defend - S (6)
• Data Retrieval - S (5)
• Welding - *
• Electrical - *
• Combustion & Electrical Engine Repair - *

Other:

• High-Performance Driving/Navigation - A (1)

“God, they really inflated my numbers, huh?”

“Well, you did a remarkable job tonight, Juliet. You’ve earned the deposit that just came into your account. Your new Sol-bit balance is 14,233.”

“Fuck! I mean, it was scary and a little sketchy, but that was a quick way to earn eight grand!”

“Are you serious about visiting Honey’s dojo? I think it would do you good, Juliet. You will further your ties with Honey, who appears to be a competent operator, and you’ll perhaps learn some skills to defend yourself better.”

“Speaking of Honey being competent, we need to give those guys a rating, don’t we? What about Ghoul? I never paid her back for the rating she gave me!”

“It’s common practice to wait a week or two so that the ratings aren’t obviously attributable to you. I imagine your team was quick to rate you because of your new status and because they had good things to say.”

“Well, I have good things to say, don’t I?”

“While your team was successful, they each performed in a less-than-perfect manner. Honey’s performance might warrant an A or B rating because she did a good job finding the target and fighting free of the berserk sleepers, but she did fail to keep you safe, which was one of her primary duties. Mags was dangerously incautious with her weapon, and neither she nor Pit were highly performing in regard to stealth and mission focus.”

“Angel, don’t be such a hardass. Give them all top marks from me—Ghoul too.”

“Very well,” Angel said, and Juliet swore she could hear the sigh in her voice.

“Hey, I’m new, and I’m trying to make friends. Sometimes being a little generous with the ratings can serve a purpose, you know?”

“Acknowledged.”

Juliet didn’t run into any trouble on her way back to the Palo Verde, and when she arrived, the hotel doors opened for her immediately. The lobby was almost deserted at that time of night, and she figured that was for the best, glancing down at the big blood stain on the front of her vest. Thinking better of wearing it around, she shrugged out of it and carried it over her arm as she went into the elevators and made her way back to her room.

“Can I even wash this thing in a machine?” she asked Angel as she hung it in the little closet by the door.

“Yes, Juliet, the manufacturer boasts of its durability and ease of care.”

“Good,” she said, planning to handle the mess in the morning. Right then, she wanted a shower and some more food. “I’m going to get cleaned up. Please order me something with a lot of protein and a couple of beers. I’m fucking starving.”

“The hotel offers a burger that they claim is forty percent real beef. Would you like to try it?”

“Yes!” Juliet laughed at herself—it felt so liberating not to be counting her bits and worrying about the next rent payment. Sure, she’d lost a lot when she ran away from Tucson, but the money she was making as an operator was unheard of among her peer group. “After you do that, please line me up a few more jobs to consider. We’ll go over them in the morning, okay?”

“I will.”

“Now, will you do me a favor and load up my ‘Forget About Rent’ playlist?” As the relaxing tunes she liked to listen to when she fantasized about a different life started to play, she walked into the bathroom, slipped off her dirty clothes, and, rather than the shower, she started up the tub again. The hotel charged her forty bits per bath, but she felt like it was worth it.

The next day, Juliet washed her vest and clothes, then, at Angel’s urging, went to the hotel fitness center. Angel directed her through a routine on the machines that she said would optimize her fitness gains. She spent time on a cardio machine, then several strength training machines, and finally finished up with a circuit of body-weight exercises. By the time she was finished, Juliet felt ruinously exhausted, sure that she’d be incapacitated for several days.

She returned to her room, took a shower, and then flopped onto the bed, “Angel, this has to be counter-productive. How can I function if you destroy my muscles with a workout?”

“It only exhausted you so much because you never do it, Juliet. If you continue to make this a habit, you’ll find that your body will adjust, and you won’t feel so exhausted after each workout.”

“Yeah, I know, Angel. I’m just bitching. How about those jobs? Did you find . . .” Juliet stopped speaking because Angel had put an incoming call on her AUI—it was a blank screen, but the name under the ringing icon was Ghoul. “Answer,” she said.

“Juliet!” Ghoul said, her face coming into view. She looked better than the last time Juliet had seen her—the dark circles were gone from under her eyes, and her lips had regained their pink tone. Still, she looked harried, and Juliet could tell she was walking fast or maybe even jogging by how she was breathing.

“Ghoul? How are you?”

“Not good, Juliet. Those assholes that contracted Vikker? They want the batts or the money from the sale, or, failing that, they want my ass in a deep hole in the desert.”

“How’d they find you?”

“Vikker had a lot of friends, and they knew about me, I guess. I mean, I worked with him a lot over the years. Uh, anyway, I already spent some of my cut, and I know the doc ain’t going to give his up. I either gotta bail or kill these fuckers, and I don’t know if I can take ‘em all. I’m heading up to Phoenix. Please tell me that’s where you are—I don’t know anyone up that way.”

Before she could second guess herself, Juliet said, “Yeah, I’m up here. I’m just hopping from place to place, though—nothing of my own.”

“Well, I got a few thousand left. Let’s get together, and we can find a place to lay low and do a few jobs. That cool? It’s so much easier for muscle to find jobs if we have a tech to work with.”

“Oh, I see,” Juliet said with a wry grin, “you want to use me for my skills?”

“Isn’t that what friends are for?” Ghoul laughed.

“You think those guys will chase you? You know how to hide yourself?”

“I’m trying! I ditched my ride, and I’m about to meet a guy that owes me a favor. He’ll get me to Phoenix without anyone scanning me, but then I might need your help. You think you can help?”

“Juliet, It might not . . .” Angel started to say, but Juliet cut her off.

“Of course, Ghoul. I’m not going to leave you hanging out to dry. Keep your messages encrypted, but let me know when you get to Phoenix. We’ll figure something out.” Juliet cut the line and then rubbed her suddenly sweaty palms on her jean-clad knees.

“This might not be the smartest . . .”

“Yeah, Angel, I know. Of course, this is risky, but put yourself in Ghoul’s shoes. She’s in trouble because of me. I mean, yeah, those assholes started it, but if it hadn’t been for me, she’d be sitting on her patio relaxing right now. Well, I don’t know if she even had a patio, but you get the idea. I can’t leave her hanging, not when I can help. I mean, you can help her, right?”

“Do you mean helping her to mask her identity? If she has the hardware to project images, I can write her a script that would do the job, but it would be heavy-handed and inelegant—I adjust your faux identity on the fly, and there’s no way a simple script could do what I do.”

“What about a false ID? Something permanent?”

“If we had access to the personnel database of a major corp, I could liberate and alter enough information to make her a false identity, one that would stand up to casual scrutiny.”

“All right! Well, that’s a plan, then, right? We’ll hide her for now, but that’ll be the goal.” Juliet kicked her legs out and lay back on her pillow with a sigh. It was stressful, knowing she was about to invite a bunch more trouble into her life, but it also felt good—sometimes you just had to do the right thing.