CD & EA 1.11 - Upgrades

“How long will Ghoul be in recovery? I want to speak with her before she leaves,” Juliet said, ignoring the doc’s questions about her upgrades.

“She’ll be sedated another few hours, but then it’ll be a day or two before I allow her to walk around. I had to stitch a lot of organ damage.” Tsakanikas sat down to Juliet’s right, sighing heavily as he sank into the white cushion. “I’m tired.”

“Sorry, Doc. I’m tired too,” Juliet said.

“Well? I don’t have any clients until noon. This is a good time for me to get some work done if you want to take advantage of the moment.”

“Well, you know I need retinal implants. Good ones. I need a better data port—one with co-processing capabilities. I need a data jack, wireless and with a hard line.”

“That’s a pricey list, Juliet.”

Juliet sighed and nodded, “Those are just the things I need. Not what I want.”

“Well, let’s talk money, hmm? I’m already in the hole for Ghoul’s work.”

“I told you, the van has the score from Vikker’s heist.” She gestured vaguely in the direction of the driveway.

“Yes, well, that’s not exactly bits in my account, is it? What sort of ‘score’ are we talking about? Do you have a buyer?”

“Shit . . .” Juliet said, frowning. “They’re lithium-air batts. Big ones for large vehicles. They retail for something like twenty-eight k, and we have thirteen of ‘em.”

“Well, I can find a buyer, but I’ll take a larger cut for acting as a fence. Unless you had someone in mind? Maybe Vikker told you who his fence was?” Tsakanikas spoke like he was doing her a favor, but she could see the smug self-satisfaction on his face. She shook her head, and he nodded.

He blew out a long breath, eyes going distant while he calculated and said, “Suppose I can get twenty-four k for them. That’s three hundred and twelve k. You’ve already promised me a third for my work with Ghoul. That leaves you with two hundred and eight k. Minus my twenty percent fencing fee, you’re at a hundred and sixty-six point four. Were you going to give part of your share to Ghoul?”

“Yeah, I was going to give her a third.” Juliet glanced at Gary, still snoozing beside her, and said, “It’s the right thing to do. You sure twenty percent is fair?”

“It’s on the high end for a fence fee, but I know others who pay closer to fifty percent because they have no rep and no connections.” He raised an eyebrow waiting for Juliet to draw the conclusion—she had no rep, and he was doing her a favor.

“Right.” Juliet sighed.

“So, if you give a third to Ghoul, you’re left with eighty-three thousand, two hundred bits from the heist.” He ticked off his fingers like he was doing the math in his head, but Juliet knew damn well his PAI had created a spreadsheet in his AUI.

“Plus ten k for my contract,” Juliet said, taking off her specs and handing them to the doctor.

“Eh, wasn’t there a fee for the use of these?” Tsakanikas asked, looking a little annoyed as he took the blood-spattered glasses.

“I think, with your big windfall, you can let that go, no?”

He scratched his chin, looking up at the ceiling, and then smiled at her broadly, exposing perfect white teeth, “It’s true, I’m making more money today than I anticipated. Okay, Juliet, sending your payment for the contract now.” His eyes were glassy for a moment, then he nodded, and Angel chimed in.

“You’ve just received a ten thousand Helios-bit payment from ‘Doc Sack.’ Additionally, you’ve received a new rating for your operator rep.” She displayed Juliet’s operator card:

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

Rating: F-14-N

Skillset subgroups:

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

Combat:

N/A     *

Technical:

• Network Security Bypass/Defend     S (2)
• Data Retrieval     A (1)
• Welding     *
• Electrical     *
• Combustion & Electrical Engine Repair     *

Other:

• High-Performance Driving/Navigation     *

“I’d give you ratings for combat, but first, I’ll need to see the vid of how you took Vikker’s team out,” Tsakanikas said, guessing why Juliet was staring off into space.

“I’ll do without, thanks.”

“Before we talk specifics, with regard to the work I’ll do today, I need to see the merchandise. It’s time for the trust to start flowing in both directions here, Juliet.” As if on cue, Gary grunted, rubbed at his eyes, and stood up. “Gary will go inspect the van’s cargo, yes? He can unload it into my garage.”

“He can unload it after you’re done with me. I’ll let him inspect it now, though.” Juliet subvocalized, “Angel let Gary open the rear door, but don’t let him take any cargo out.”

“Juliet, I’ll need those specs to monitor the van remotely.”

“Shit,” Juliet said, snatching the specs up from the seat where Tsakanikas had set them. “I need these to make sure he’s not doing something dumb,” she said, slipping them onto her face. Tsakanikas nodded, and five minutes later, after she’d confirmed Gary had only inspected the cargo and Angel had relocked the vehicle, she handed them back to him.

“The deadman’s switch?” Tsakanikas asked.

“Still in place via the sat net. Don’t let anything happen during surgery, Doc.”

“Speaking of surgery, my PAI has been doing some math, and I’ve come up with some suggestions for you. First of all, I have a good data port that you might want—I’m offering it at a reduced rate because it was recovered from a client of mine that was killed recently. That’s right; I see the horror on your face. It’s used. It’s a good port, though, Juliet, at a great price.”

“Well? What is it?”

“A Jannik Systems XR-55. It has two coprocessors: a multi-function, sixty-four core general computing chip and a pseudo-quantum floating point calculator. It comes stock with memory to perform data-intensive operations and has the expansion space to double it.”

“The price?” Juliet didn’t even know what most of those words meant.

“Twenty-eight k, installed.”

“Sheesh, I thought the data port was the cheap part.” Juliet’s eyes were heavy, and her pain was starting to return, and she didn’t want to sit there all day talking numbers with Dr. Tsakanikas. Was this a deliberate tactic? Was he trying to wear her down?

“Data ports like your current one are inexpensive, Juliet, but they’re also extremely limited. I could . . .”

“Nah, Doctor. It’s fine. Let’s hear about the other items.”

“Juliet, I’ve scanned the net and come up with some comp prices for that data port. It tends to retail for around twenty-five thousand bits, but that’s before any surgical fees.”

“Thanks, Angel.”

“I have several options for data jacks, Juliet. Most of them have physical connectors meant to be installed in a recess carved into the radius,” he held up his left arm and pointed to a spot on his arm a few inches down from his thumb, “near a person’s wrist. I think the BNS 8840 will work nicely for you. It has three feet of micro cable and a powerful wireless array. Even better, it can be almost wholly covered with synth-skin—its housing is long and narrow, allowing it to fit into even fine bones.”

“That device will suit you well, Juliet, and it retails for fifteen thousand bits,” Angel said, and Juliet wanted to thank her for getting more proactive with her information, but Tsakanikas stole her attention.

“I’ll install that one for thirty thousand bits,” he said with a smile.

“That’s twice retail, Doc.”

“The installation is rather involved, Juliet. If you had a previous unit, the price would be closer to twenty. I have to create the housing in your bone and make the connection through your nervous system to your PAI.”

“Inform him that your PAI has already made connections into your radial nerves, Juliet,” Angel said, and Juliet paused for a moment taking in the implications of those words.

“Angel,” she subvocalized, “Why are you in my radial nerves?”

“I told you, Juliet, my connection to you is much more thorough than the typical PAI. This is intentional, so I can better manage any other cybernetic or bionic enhancements you add to your body. It also allows me to monitor and, to some degree, manage your vital signs and activities. For instance, when I helped you burn off that tranquilizer.”

Juliet sighed in resignation and said, “I already have connections in my radial nerves. You won’t have to dig far.”

“Oh? So you’ve been prepping for this upgrade, hmm? Smart as you are pretty, Juliet! In that case, I’ll knock off five k. Twenty-five for the data jack, sound good?”

“It doesn’t exactly sound good, but it is what it is. How about the retinal implants? I think you said twenty-two k, right?”

“Well, that’s where things get interesting. You want this work done today, right? Bad news is, I won’t have those Hayashi Prisms until Tuesday.” He paused for dramatic effect, but Juliet just stared at him, and he cleared his throat, continuing, “The good news is that I have something better in stock—Hayashi Crystal Optics.”

“Oh God, who names these things?”

“Bah, the fucking name’s not important, Juliet!” Again, his accent was almost pure Greek when he swore, “What’s important is that these are the improved model of the Prisms, and they have a much higher resolution on the projector. They have a thirty-layer AUI and patented color stability technology. More than that, you can expect outstanding low-light functionality and powerful zooming capabilities.” Juliet could see by the way his retinas were moving that he was reading off a checklist, probably from a brochure.

“Those retail for twenty-four thousand, Juliet,” Angel chimed in.

“I’ll install these for thirty-four k,” Tsakanikas said proudly, smiling at her as he folded his arms in front of his chest, clearly pleased with his sales pitch.

“You’re already getting shit loads of surgery fees out of me. Can’t you cut me a break?”

He rubbed his cheek, arms still folded, and looked very thoughtful. “Well, I suppose I could knock off for the nerve blockers and the general surgery suite fees. All right, Juliet, you drive a hard bargain, but I’ll do it for thirty.” She nodded, and he mimed tabulating in the air in front of himself, saying, “That leaves you with ten thousand, two hundred from your work tonight. Think of that, Juliet! You’re getting lots of great new gear installed and still walking away richer!”

“Don’t start with me, doctor. I went through hell last night, and I feel like it’s just the first step on a long road of trouble I’ve gotten myself mixed up in.”

“Come, I’m sure Yan is done cleaning up the surgical room. Let’s get started, hmm? Wouldn’t you like to put this day behind you? By the time I’m done, your friend will be awake enough to talk, and then you can go home and relax.”

Juliet looked into Tsakanikas’s brown eyes beneath his heavy, unkempt brows, and she wanted to trust him. She wanted to relax and let him do his work, but she couldn’t, not after what Vikker did. Not after the way Don had laughed when he’d thought she was dying. No, it was going to take a while before she trusted again. “My PAI needs to be put into a desktop dock when you pull it out—it needs audio and video of me. If it detects foul play, it’ll trigger the van. Sorry, Doc, but I’m all out of trust today.”

“Ahem,” Tsakanikas said, standing up. “Well, you’re not the first borderline hostile client I’ve operated on. No worries, Juliet, no worries. I have a port for the PAI in the surgical suite. Come, let’s begin.”

“Angel, will he be able to detect anything about you when he pulls you out?”

“No, Juliet. I have sufficient shielding to avoid mild EMP disruptions, and I’ll truncate my synth-nerves to avoid raising suspicion at their number and length—they’re too entwined with you to fully extract in any case. Any attempts to bypass my firewalls from the external port will be rebuffed.”

“Too entwined . . .” Juliet trailed off as she followed the doctor into the surgical room. The table was gleaming—spotless plasteel and chrome-colored metal. “Doc, I forgot about my ribs.” She said as he pointed to a curtained corner of the room. Gesturing at a hospital gown hanging from a hook.

“A trivial matter, Juliet. I’ll deal with it, gratis. I just need to inject some cast-gel and then tape up the skin. Please, put on the gown. I’ll have Yan deal with your clothes.” She didn’t want to comply, didn’t want to put herself into any more vulnerable position than she had to, but when she thought about it, she decided it didn’t matter—she’d be pretty much helpless on that table, with or without her clothes. If Tsakanikas were going to be a creep, her bloody t-shirt and jeans wouldn’t stop him.

As she climbed onto the surgery table, she scanned the nearby table for the data dock Tsakanikas had promised and saw it—it comforted her to know Angel would be watching.  Tsakanikas wheeled over a cart holding the cyber gear on stainless steel trays. They were all wrapped in plastic, so she couldn’t get a good look at them, but the size of some of the components was a little disturbing. “That thing’s going in my bone?”

“Yes, Juliet. Don’t worry; I never leave a patient in pain. The data port, while twice the size of your current one, is very well designed.” He held up a plastic-wrapped piece of hardware about the size of a golf ball but concave, with long, glinting, metallic tendrils hanging off its sides. “See these?” he held up one of the tendrils with his finger. “Processors! Shaped this way to coil between your shoulder muscles. This design keeps you from losing mobility like some older, blocky data ports did to their hosts, taking up too much room in the spine and neck.”

“There’s another thing we need to go over,” he said, picking up another of the packages. “These are your new retinal implants. They replace the entire optic nerve, including your, well, your eyeballs.” He smiled at her and shrugged sheepishly like this was a minor detail he forgot to mention.

“What? My old implants were just the lenses and part of the nerve!”

“Yes, well, there’s a lot more to these implants. The projectors, the high res receptors, the autozoom functions—it’s just easier to get them all into your head in a new package. Don’t let this worry you, though—they’re synth-flesh and will adapt to your body within a day. I just was wondering what color you wanted the irises to be?”

“Oh? I can choose?”

“Yes, and it’s something you can adjust on your own later. You’ve got Mediterranean coloring, you know. Nice olive skin, dark hair. Those green eyes are great, but I could enhance them a bit—make them pop.”

“Oh, God. Just try to match what I have, please. I’ll mess with it on my own sometime.”

“Your call, Juliet.” Tsakanikas started applying velcro straps over her ankles, thighs, waist, chest, and arms. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said while he was doing it. “I need to access your front and back during the surgery, and the table rotates, so I don’t have to rotate you.” After she was strapped in, he cleaned her arm and clamped the table’s autoinjector to her inside elbow.

“You’re not going to put me under, are you?”

“Well, not completely! I’ll be blocking your nerve signals, so you don’t feel it when I cut into you, and I’ll give you a mild tranquilizer to help with the panic—it’s very strange to be aware while someone cuts you up, Juliet. After your long night, and with the cocktail, you might doze off. That’s for the best! Don’t you worry. Your trusty PAI will have a front-row seat,” he gestured to the data dock.

“Right,” Juliet said, and the word came out slow and slurred. Had he already injected her? Her arm felt very cold—he had! She tried to panic, but her heart wouldn’t respond; she felt so relaxed and peaceful. “This is fine,” she mumbled as Tsakanikas tightened a strap over her forehead.

“Good, Juliet, good. Just relax and let the doctor do his thing,” Tsakanikas said, then he rotated the table. The lights spun crazily, and then Juliet was looking at the floor. “Let’s get this PAI out first, then we’ll start with the data port. I want to put your PAI back in before we do the other upgrades—we’ll want to ensure a good connection, after all.”

Everything after that was sort of a blur to Juliet. She was vaguely aware of the doctor working on her, humming to whatever music he had playing in his own implants, and going between the little trays of scalpels, staplers, pliers, and other scary-looking implements and the surgical table, often throwing away bloody gauze or changing his bloody gloves in between.

She was facing the floor for quite a while, and though she felt him tugging and pressing at something at the base of her neck, she never felt any pain, and for a time, she imagined she was getting a massage. She knew he took Angel out early on because her clear, pleasant voice wished Juliet luck, and then the icon in her retinal implants indicated that her PAI was “offline.”

Juliet felt the world spinning, jerked her eyes open, and saw that Tsakanikas had turned her face up. She tried to ask, “Is Angel back in,” but it came out sounding like a string of slurred consonants and vowels.

“I’m here, Juliet,” Angel said in her ear, though, and Juliet smiled, a strand of drool running out of the corner of her mouth. “Juliet, the doctor is going to do your retinal implants next. He’s requested that I disable your old ones. This will make things dark for you, but he’s assured me it’s for the best, so you don’t have to see the auto-surgeon arms working on your eyes.” Juliet grunted her consent, and then everything was dark.

Scratching, tugging, then scraping that echoed through her skull followed. She felt a tingle run through her left eye and down her cheek, a similar sensation from the right side, and a heavy pressure. She began to worry that something had gone wrong—she wasn’t supposed to feel anything, was she? She tried to blink, thought she managed it, but wasn’t sure. Then Angel spoke to her again, “The new implants are online, Juliet. I’m going to activate them.”

Suddenly light exploded in her vision and was quickly dialed down to normal levels. Juliet blinked her eyes several times and darted her eyes around, from left to right, then top to bottom, and she heard Tsakanikas beside her, “Good, perfect. Can you see?”

“He’s speaking to me,” Angel said. “I’m messaging his PAI. I’ll report that your image is clear, and the fidelity is much higher than your old implants.” Juliet couldn’t argue. Things seemed brighter and clearer, and the AUI icons were much better defined, magically moving with her vision to always stay at the edge, so they never obscured her view. Angel spent some time activating various functions—the local map, a test call, filtering specific colors and spectrums, and even projecting a static barrier to hide her identity.

Everything worked perfectly, and Juliet couldn’t wait for the next time she called Fee Fee and saw him in full, lifelike clarity. “I’m reporting to the doctor that the implants are fully operational. Congratulations, Juliet!” Angel said after finishing her checklist of diagnostics.

Juliet tried to subvocalize to Angel and found that she was mostly able to form the words in the back of her throat, “What about . . . data port. Will it work for . . . need?”

“The data port is an order of magnitude better than your old one. I’ll be able to brute force some security that doesn’t have easy exploits, though I won’t be on par with a true netjacker. Still, you should have more employment opportunities, and I think I’ll be able to keep your identity secure even under close scrutiny.”

“Good,” Juliet managed as she felt the doctor tugging on her arm and heard the high-pitched whir of some kind of power tool. She couldn’t move her head, but she tilted her eyes down as far as she could, and then she saw Tsakanikas sawing away at her arm with something that looked a hell of a lot like an angle cutter. A moment later, he lifted out a six-inch section of one of her bones, bloody and dripping dark marrow, and Juliet felt herself sink into darkness again.

Sometime later, Juliet opened her eyes and saw that she was in a different room—the walls were painted pastel yellow, and the light was diffuse and dim—sunlight filtering through gauzy curtains.  “Angel, where am I?” she asked, her throat scratchy and dry.

“You’re still in Tsakanikas’s clinic, resting in one of his recovery rooms. Your procedures were successful, including the repair of your fourth rib on the left side. It was badly fractured, but the doctor mended it with bone gel, and it won’t trouble you as it heals.”

“Ugh. What time is it?” Juliet struggled to sit up and felt tight, painful twinges from her shoulders and her bandaged left arm. As she blinked, wincing, she realized her eyes hurt too—like she’d been punched in them both.

“You’ve been sleeping for three hours post-surgery, Juliet. It’s two pm, and your pain meds are probably wearing off. I’ve prepared a new status sheet for you. Would you like to see your updated information?” Before she could answer, Angel displayed a spreadsheet in the lower left of her vision. She sighed and focused on it, and it instantly snapped into view much more quickly and in higher definition than in her old AUI:

Juliet Corina Bianchi

Physical, Mental, and Social Status Compilation:

Comparative Ranking Percentile (higher is better):

Net worth and assets:

Helios-bits: 10,367 - 6.8

Neural adaptiveness:

.96342 (scale of 0 - 1) - 99.91

Synaptic Responsiveness:

.19 (lower is better) - 79.31

Musculoskeletal ranking: – 17.22

Cardiovascular ranking: – 31.87

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

Golio Tech, DP477 - F

No other augmentation detected.

“Great. Thanks, Angel,” Juliet said, still unsure why she should care about how her PAI rated her compared to some mysterious database. “So I’m sitting on ten thousand bits? The doc paid before delivery?”

“Oh, Juliet, I unlocked the van for the doctor after I confirmed he’d completed his part of the bargain.”

“What the fuck, Angel? I didn’t tell you to do that!” Juliet, her pain forgotten, sat up and threw the sheet off herself, strangely bothered to see she was wearing nothing but a hospital gown, even though she’d been the one to put it on. “Where’re my fucking clothes?”

“Did I overstep, Juliet? I thought I understood the terms of the agreement quite well.”

“It’s not a matter of you getting it wrong; it’s a matter of you doing something that I should have had a say in. You don’t always know what I’m thinking, all right? You need to clear big decisions with me.”

“Your clothes are near the door. You just panned over them,” Angel said, and Juliet thought she sounded curt; no, was it annoyed? She stood and unsteadily made her way to the chair near the door where her clothes were folded, including her underwear, further creeping her out. She picked up her shirt and sniffed it, noting the detergent smell and the lack of blood. Even the rip had been mended.

“Well, who do I thank for this? Yan?” Juliet got dressed as quickly as possible, then she pulled open the door and was surprised to see Gary standing in the hallway. Something about his steady presence was reassuring, though, so Juliet smiled at him.

“Hey,” he said. “Doc says things went well, but he wants you to go ahead and speak to your friend, then clear out. He says he doesn’t like having that van in his driveway, and your PAI wouldn’t give him the start code.”

“Ugh,” Juliet cleared her throat, surprised but relieved to see the world hadn’t ended because of her PAI’s initiative. “Thanks, Gary. Where’s her room?”

He gestured down the hall to another closed door in the same wall. “Next to yours.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to her, then clear out. Thanks for your help.”

“No problem. I’m kinda on duty ‘til she leaves. Doc thinks she might be a bit of a live wire.”

Juliet nodded, then turned toward the other door and subvocalized, “I’m sorry I yelled at you, Angel. I’m just worried that you have different standards of trust than I do, and I do not trust Tsakanikas. Can I repeat that? I do not trust Tsakanikas.”

“Thank you, Juliet. I’m sorry for acting without your knowledge. I feel like I know what trust is. I feel like I understand when someone has earned it, but I think I might need to experience more with you before I truly understand. Perhaps we can speak later, and you can explain what it is about the doctor you don’t trust.”

Juliet wanted to stop and ask the PAI what it meant when it said it “feels,” but she shook her head and just said, “Yeah, Angel. We can do that later. Now I have to face the woman who tried to kill me 'cause I killed her friends.” Juliet twisted the doorknob and stepped into Ghoul’s room.