Honestly, Vito wasn't sure anymore whether he was becoming a machine or not. So part of what made him a person had gone a little blurry.
He was still turning that over when Gloria spoke to Jackie.
"I agree that Vito should find soone, or at least get out and breathe. He's been looking tired lately."
Vito didn't want to admit it.
"I'm fine. Not many people co by in the evenings. I get to slack off."
Jackie suddenly rembered sothing.
"Speaking of which, I almost forgot. Vik tracked down a batch of goods for you. Corporate-grade stock, took so real effort to get through the right channels."
Vito was curious.
"What kind of goods would take Vik that much effort?"
Jackie was enjoying this.
"All first-hand corpo stock. Vik said your shop needs quality rchandise to pull in the kind of people who are picky about their chro. Get that market opened up."
Vito smiled.
"I'll have to thank him properly. Haven't seen Vik in a while. Kind of miss the old man."
Jackie forwarded a file.
"Devil's Boxing Club is running a small tournant. Winner gets a shot against champions from other districts in a full championship bout. Vik's already there. What do you say?"
Vito's Kiroshi ca on as he looked through the file.
"They're actually shutting down cyberware for this? Interesting. Whose idea was that?"
"Word is the Animals started it. They're stuck in the Badlands right now, so they organized a competition to keep the betting pools running."
"And the participants just go along with it? Lock their chro and fight clean?"
"Animals mbers are keeping order. The wild king didn't make it, but there's soone called Rhino there to keep the peace. I've seen her before. She's a genuinely clean fighter."
"All right. Let's go have a look, put so bets down. Don't know what's going on with lately, but I've been enjoying a bet."
"Hell, mano. Watch yourself on that. Maybe get checked out at Vik's while you're there."
"That serious?"
"I've heard cyberware implants can cause side effects. Rejection symptoms. Gambling urges. Emotional flatness."
Vito pulled up his cyberware capacity display. Still well below the limit. He relaxed a little. But Jackie's words left sothing behind that he didn't intend to just leave there.
The numbers weren't lying. But this was a real world, not a ga. Things happened that the numbers didn't cover.
Gloria was concerned now too. She had Vito lie down on the clinic chair and started running a check.
Jackie followed them inside and stopped when he saw the equipnt.
"Is this a clinic or an automated factory? How many chanical arms are there?"
Gloria explained.
"All modified by Vito. Connect to a personal interface and they run precise surgery without assistance. He pulled apart a lot of equipnt to build these. His words: improving his engineering capability."
Jackie closed his mouth.
"No wonder the startup cost was what it was. I thought he'd bought CNC machining equipnt for the gun work."
The check ca back clean. Vito's body was running normally. Both of them relaxed.
"I could stay in the shop tonight," Gloria said. "If soone cos in I'll handle it. If nobody cos, I'll rest here."
"You don't have to. Put soone on twenty-four-hour call and next thing Saburo Arasaka shows up to pick my brain on business strategy."
Vito kept it light.
"Are you really all right? Your body's healthy, but I think you need actual rest."
Gloria wasn't fully satisfied.
"I really am. Besides, would you want David to co ho every day and find you not there?"
"David's grown up. And right now he's been staying at Sakura Market with Maine and the crew while they're running jobs."
Gloria explained: after David finished his training he'd gone out on several runs with Maine's squad. He was finding his place in the team. In one raid on scavs to pull a captured teammate out, he'd fired his first live shot. Hit the scav clean in the head.
"Lately the shop's been quiet anyway," Vito said. "I'll close up in the evenings and go out with Jackie. Gloria. Don't worry too much about ."
Gloria nodded.
Two people ca through the door.
"Doctor! Doctor!"
Vito and the others stepped out to look. A man and a woman, both dressed like rcs. The woman was the one in bad shape.
"Doctor, please, save her!"
Gloria had the patient on the chair and started her assessnt.
Then the situation changed fast. A screech of tires at the entrance. Three SUVs pulled up. Eight or nine heavily ard people climbed out. They looked like Nomads.
The male rc hit a MaxDoc, drew his gun, and moved toward the door.
Vito stopped him with one hand.
"Don't move. Nobody makes trouble at the Gunfire Children's Clinic."
The people outside had rushed the entrance in a group, all of them pushing to get through the door first.
Clunk-clack.
The turrets ca out.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
The heavy report hit like sothing striking directly against your chest.
Seventeen-milliter custom rounds cut through the group at the waist. The preset targeting was exact. Not a round wasted. One second. The people who had been shouting at the door were gone before they could make any other sound.
"You're paying for the ammunition separately. If you bring trouble back here, I won't be this easy about letting you in."
Vito patted the male rc on the shoulder and walked out.
He stepped over a section of limb that was still moving, went to the SUVs, and started working out their value. Then he called the Old Captain.
"Hey, Vito. Got your ssage. Send pictures of the vehicles. Right, I'll have people out to Heywood to collect them."
"Cars are right outside my shop. I'll give you a good price on them. Can you have a few people co by and clean up the entrance? I've still got a business to run here."
"Done. Good trade all around. Next ti you've got sothing, rember to call ."
He hung up and waved the male rc over.
"Ammunition runs at two hundred and forty eddies a round. Eleven rounds fired. Any objections?"
The rc looked like he was still processing several things at once.
"Uh. No. No objections."
Vito lit a cigarette to push the sll of blood back.
"Who were those people? What's the grudge worth chasing you all the way here for?"
The rc steadied himself.
"Night Wraiths. They ca for our cargo."
"Night Wraiths got through the border checkpoints that easily?"
"The NCPD at the checkpoints will wave anyone through as long as the money's right."
Vito nodded slowly.
"Privatize law enforcent and this is where it ends up. Whoever thought that one up deserves credit for creativity. And you two? rcs? Nomads?"
"We're Nomads. The Serpents. My na is Carlo Foster. Thank you for what you did."
Vito nodded.
"I'm Vito. Welco to the Gunfire Children's Clinic. Want to buy a modified gun for self-defense? I have a range out back where you can test it before you commit."
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