The ride to Gloria's apartnt, which was only around the corner and down the block, was a short one.
Syn's cough interrupted Gloria's enthusiastic thank you and she pointed past us out the window at Gloria's building. “We're already here.”
Gloria didn't look embarrassed over kissing like that in public and opened the taxi's door. “I'll see you in the morning, V.”
“Nova.” I said and she stepped out. When she didn't shut the door, I leaned forward to look out and ask her what was wrong. Before I could, I saw her smirk and her thoughts were happy at successfully luring in and she bent down to give another quick kiss.
Gloria laughed at my surprised look, pushed back inside the taxi, and shut the door. The taxi took off again and I sat back to think for a mont, then I turned to look at Syn.
“I'd do the sa if you saved my ass like that, choom.” Syn said and that was that.
I raised my eyebrows at her and she shook her head, which ant she wasn't in anything like dire straits and only struggled when circumstances ca up to make it harder for her. I nodded at her refusal of further help and we rode in the taxi back to my building. Tank gave a friendly wave as we passed the desk and I used my clicker to add a digital signature to the log, which he gave a thumbs up for.
We reached my apartnt and Syn gave my dressed body a concerned look. I waved her off and didn't go to the couch. I went to the kitchen and chose the sa als she had yesterday and Syn put everything on the table. I sat down and made a show of it as I tried, and failed, to use utensils.
It made her laugh, which was why I did it, and she moved her chair and food over beside and helped eat as she ate her own. She didn't mix them up or anything, so there were no shared bites of food or spoons in each other's mouths. She kept things professional and we finished the food fairly quickly.
“It seems like you're not going to need personal care for much longer.” Syn said, her voice sad.
I intentionally lifted my hand from the table and dropped the heavy cast onto the hard surface. She took the obvious hint and smiled, reassured she would have extra money for as long as I had them on, When she motioned to the couch in the living room, I shook my head.
“I've got so things to do... like actually using the toilet.” I said with a chuckle.
“And you need a hand, since you can't wash your own afterwards.” Syn said and stood, then helped stand. She stayed beside as I went into the bathroom and she didn't wait for to ask as she knelt and undid my pants. She had already slipped on surgical gloves and easily handled as she aid it into the bowl.
I let my bladder go and she turned her face away, in case of errant splashes. I made sure there weren't any and also reduced the pungent sll before she could sll it. I was done about ten seconds later and she used a cleaning wipe to disinfect , tucked away, and zipped back up.
“Thanks, Syn.” I said and patted the top of her head with my fingertips, since I didn't want to whack her with my cast like I had the table.
She rolled her eyes at and stood. “Now what?”
“I'm going to my bedroom for the first ti in almost two weeks to handle a few things and I might even lay down on the actual bed.” I answered and she nodded in understanding. “Don't worry about the uniform. I miss wearing actual clothes and I'll keep them on for a while.”
Syn nodded and walked with out of the bathroom and down the small hallway to the bedroom. She whistled at the size of it and felt envy, because it was twice the size of her own. I didn't tell her that hers was more cozy because it was smaller and more personable, rather than expanded and looked like it lacked personal touches.
I sat down on my VR chair and she turned around to leave. I caught the edge of her uniform and she stopped to turn back to face . “I know you won't let help you in certain ways and might feel guilty for taking advantage of ...”
Syn nodded and didn't say anything.
“So, why don't I do sothing you'll enjoy a little better than a few more eddies in your account?” I asked and she stepped back and pulled her uniform out of my fingers.
“No, thanks. You're just a kid and...” Syn started to deny.
“I didn't an like that.” I said and used my clicker and closed my eyes. I connected to the television in the living room and chose the station that carried her favorite show. I signed up for the personal subscription and it made all previous episodes available, with all extra scenes added in and uncensored. “There we go.” I said and opened my eyes. “For Love Or Money is now fully accessible through my vidscreen connection.”
Syn gasped and put a hand over her mouth. “You... you can't seriously an...”
“All previously aired episodes can be viewed at your leisure.” I told her.
Her hands started shaking. “N-n-no, you... why would you...”
“You helped imnsely by coming along to rescue Gloria, Synapse.” I said with gratitude. “This is the least I could do for you... that you wouldn't complain about.”
Syn gave a look that was a mix of desire and disbelief.
“So, do you want to give your cranial srotage implant a software upgrade that'll compress your storage capacity by a factor of ten?” I asked with a knowing smile.
“YES!” Syn gasped and dropped to her knees to take my free hand. “Please, please, please!”
“It'll only take a few minutes.” I promised and pretended to click my clicker as I ntally pinged her communications protocol and she allowed access as she closed her eyes. I checked her for spyware and malware and removed anything I found, now that I had her permission, then I used my technomancy to alter a few things.
Since I knew a lot of different technology and their programd patterns from Star Trek, I replaced a few of her microprocessors for much better versions and increased her processing speed, replaced her storage with a much better dium that did the sa thing, and upgraded the interface between her flesh and her cyberware to enhance natural cooling and reduce the chance of overheating to almost nothing.
Syn shivered as the changes settled and she opened her eyes. Her pupils almost sparked as she felt the difference. A quick ntal command from her made her gasp again as she saw the changes. “How?”
“You'd be surprised what a good software update can do.” I said, truthfully.
Syn's disbelief faded and she glanced down at and back at my face. “I still can't take advantage of you. I'm your nurse and I'd never be able to look at myself if I abused you like that.”
“I know.” I said, since Gloria had to physically declare she wasn't my nurse in order to let herself feel anything personal when around . “Go have a drink or sothing while you do whatever you want to do in the living room.”
“The security caras...” Syn said right away and then blushed when she rembered she had already given Tank at the security desk a show if he checked the footage.
“Here's the command to loop it.” I said and clicked my clicker as I sent her the simple program. “It'll only work for systems you have permission to access and enter, though.”
Syn looked shocked at receiving the simple hack. “You can do things like that?”
“Maybe.” I hedged and she softly laughed. “Go have fun for the rest of the night. I'm going to play with my cyberdeck for a while and then I'll lay down for real.”
Syn nodded and stood. She looked indecisive before she sighed and turned around and walked to the bedroom door. “You can't co out to peek at , so don't even think about doing it, choom.”
“Don't worry, I won't.” I said and her shoulders slumped slightly as her thoughts revealed her disappointnt. “I'll wait until you're distracted bathing in my tub to sneak a really good look at you.”
Her back stiffened and she felt both pleased at wanting her and naughty for only letting peek and never touch. She was my nurse and should remain out of my reach; but, the potential I represented had her excited and a little nervous.
Won are complicated. I thought as she left the bedroom and she shut the door. I didn't miss the slightly smug look on her face, either. Apparently, reminding her that she could play in my huge bathroom had been the right thing to say.
I hit the chair release and laid back almost horizontal and put my clicker back into my pocket. I had a few things to look through, thanks to copying David's information. His insights about the Tyger Claws being responsible for Tanaka's viral bombs had given the hook I needed to dig deeper into Arasaka Academy's policies and practises.
The problem I had was my cyberdeck was easily traced and I did not want anyone knowing what I was looking into. So, I had a bit of research to do to find a good scapegoat. Either that or I could hire a netrunner to do the deed for . The thought made chuckle, because as far as I knew, soone had already done the research and was just sitting on the info I wanted.
That ant I needed soone important, maybe soone that had more connections with the Tyger Claws than anyone else. I ntally prepared myself and dove into the net to surf for what I needed. My digital avatar appeared and I looked like my Atlas Persona, just as I had in the Matrix. It was definitely appropriate, since I was once again in a kind of digital world.
Not surprisingly, my odd presence was noticed almost imdiately by a few corpo netrunners and a couple of independents. They either had monitoring programs for a search like this or my unusual thod of connection tripped a few alarms. My bet was monitoring software.
It was too late for to pull back, though. They had my scent and would be searching for a way to trace back to my cyberdeck, despite the safety checks I had in place. Since they were going to find anyway, just as I had been worried they would if I did this from ho, I threw caution to the wind and inquired about the best option for the info I wanted.
A list of Fixers appeared in my view. They were the information agents spread all across Night City that arranged certain services to be perford, like hits, kidnappings, rescues, espionage, demolition, or anything else that soone would need an independent rcenary or rcenary group to handle. You gave the Fixer a task and they arranged for soone to take care of it, for a fee of course.
The list was from the most relevant to the least, which ant the first na on the list was the one I was looking for, Wakako Okada. A ping for more information brought up her deets and she was the Fixer that had the most ties to the Tyger Claws gang. She had married five of the Tyger Claws leaders and gave birth to nine sons, whom were all high ranked mbers of the gang.
I almost laughed when a Tyger Claw netrunner appeared in front of in the form of a demon with wings and large bloody claws on their hands. Thanks to what David had shared with , I knew this was not the netrunner I wanted. Their digital signs were wrong.
“Back off!” He growled, even though I was sure it was a woman. “Or I'll destroy you!”
I flicked my hand at her and dispelled her devil cloaking program, which made her gasp as her actual digital avatar was revealed. She was fairly pretty and a little dainty, probably because she was more used to using her brain instead of her brawn. She tried to retreat and I flew forward and grabbed her by the neck.
“Uh, uh, uh.” I said and smiled. “Tell Lady Okada that Atlas politely requests a eting. I have business she might be interested in.”
“I-I-I'll pass it on! I swear!” The woman agreed and looked terrified. “Just let go!”
I could tell from her thoughts, that I could sohow access through her digital avatar, that she was lying through her teeth. I also discovered that as long as I held onto her, she couldn't break the connection or log out.
“Thank you for agreeing to be my mouthpiece.” I said and implanted the command for her to actually call the Fixer for and to give her the ssage. “I'll wait here for her.”
The woman nodded several tis and she tried to pry my hand off. I let her and she gasped for air, even though there was no air, and she imdiately started to dissolve as she hit the disconnect command.
I had lied about waiting there, though. I had her signal now and I flew through the net to where her login station was. I wasn't quite sure how I knew to go there, though. It just felt instinctual to follow her. Was it a normal system or was she in a full dive VR rig that she needed a tub filled with ice to keep her from overheating as she fought digitally? Was that why I could easily find her?
Once I was inside whatever cyberdeck she was using, I felt out for the information I wanted. It wasn't there, so I just started copying everything. There wasn't much, so it was probably only a normal cyberdeck that had limited information on it. After copying everything, I knew it was only used for fighting in the digital world and only had hacks and programs designed for that.
A ntal inquiry sent back to the net showed that the ones that had noticed arriving and were watching , had lost my signal and were desperately searching for . I chuckled and floated there in a practically private digital space and waited for the Fixer to decide what she was going to do.
As an added precaution, I kept up a constantly running program to detect power surges or power loss, so I could escape if they tried to shut the cyberdeck down or destroyed it.
*
“Please repeat that.” Wakako Okada ordered the trembling woman, whom then spoke the sa simple business request with a male voice that she should not have produced without a lot of tweaking to her voice box and a few programming updates. “What do you think of this, Maiko?”
“He's good. Really good.” Maiko Maeda said. She was the unofficial manager of the Clouds club down the street in gabuilding H8 and was visiting to give her report on their lucrative business dealings. “I'd want him for my crew if I was still active.”
Wakako knew that was high praise from the woman. “Do you think he will agree to et with you as my representative?”
“No.” Maiko scoffed. “He asked for you specifically, even adding the Lady honorarium to show you respect. You should show him respect in return.”
“He attacked my people.” Wakako stated.
“He retaliated.” Maiko said. “With his observed skills, I'm surprised he didn't just lobotomize her and waited for her replacent.”
Said woman trembled again and both Wakako and Maiko gave her pitying looks.
“He did see through her cloak imdiately.” Wakako said, which ant they couldn't send anyone else in wearing her digital avatar, as he would see right through it. “With his skills, what do you think he will ask of ?”
“Either a hit or information.” Maiko answered. “It will tie into the Tyger Claws almost directly, since he ca right to you.”
“Agreed.” Wakako said and slowly rose from her chair. Her old body was still fairly strong, despite looking as old as it did. Being alive for nearly 70 years took a toll on a person, even with dical technology so advanced and cybernetics to extend that life. “I will et with him.”
“I'll co with you.” Maiko offered.
Wakako nodded and walked by the still terrified netrunner that refused to touch a VR set ever again. She would be moved to another Tyger Claws location and they could deal with a netrunner that wouldn't netrun.
Maiko patted the scared woman on the shoulder in commiseration and followed the old woman out of her office and into the hidden cyber-security room behind the pachinko parlour. It was from here that the Fixer ran her entire operation and controlled most of the Watson subdivision.
“Is he still there in our private servers?” Wakako asked and the young man monitoring things nodded. “Have you figured out how yet?”
The man shook his head and bowed. Wakako waved him away and went over to the closest netrunner chair. She sat on it like a throne and Maiko helped her connect up and put on the VR set. She went to the next chair and put her own on, the hooked up. They had soone to et and both of them were interested in who it was and what he wanted.
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