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The Thorton pulled up to Lizzie's Bar. Today, we arrived during off-hours, as we weren't here to relax, but to work. Once again, the Mox, or rather Judy, had sent Regina a request for technical maintenance on the servers in the basement.
"Hey, Rita."
I greeted the head bouncer, who, as always, was standing at the entrance to the bar.
"Hey, David. Judy drag you in again?"
"Well, why 'drag'?"
I shrugged and hugged the girl like a good friend.
"Hey! Don't get your hands all over him! He's taken!"
Panam couldn't hold back when Rita's hands started crawling up my back and grabbed my ass. I wasn't offended by her, though. If anything, it boosted my ego a little, as she was a beautiful girl, and her attention flattered me.
Tch…
Rita let me go and shook her head.
"So she really got you hooked, huh, Ghost?"
"More like I got her…"
I shook my head and smirked.
"…I've been feeding her since we first met, not with burritos, but with dishes made from real food!"
Rita let out a whistle, then took a step to the side, letting me and Panam in.
"You know where to go. Judy couldn't wait for you guys to get here since early this morning…"
"Something happen?"
"Well…"
Rita looked away.
"Just say it already…"
"We had some trouble… the bar fired a corporate rep from Arasaka…"
"And? Is that rare?"
"No, it happens all the time… but this time, the goons decided to take the records with them, so the girl wasn't a normal one. And, of course, they weren't gentle with our tech. So you've got a ton of work ahead of you."
"I hope she's in debt at least?"
"Uh-huh… she'll be working as a bouncer for a couple of months just for food, until she pays off your services and the parts you'll have to use. She's starting today, so I guess I'll introduce you when you leave."
"Why isn't she here now, then?"
"She got fired, so they took all her implants…"
Rita drew the baseball bat, which she never let go of, across her throat.
"Wait, they zeroed her implants?!"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Did they take her to a ripper?"
"Yeah, she met up with a friend here, and he took her to Vik… what's going on?"
"What's going on is that she wasn't just some doll for fun or an accountant—she was a fucking combat operative! Only they need a ripper urgently when they get fired, otherwise, they'll just die. Alright, I'll figure it out…"
Walking into the bar, I called Viktor.
"Hey, kid. How's it going?"
"Hey, Vik. I heard you had an interesting patient today?"
"What do you mean 'had'? She's still with me… I don't know what to do with this stupid girl…"
"Is it that bad?"
"Yeah… you know me. If I have a recommendation or a regular client, I can install some stuff on a signed waiver, but with this… I have to replace a lot. They literally zeroed everything she had! Fucking corporate assholes…"
I sighed.
"Is she conscious?"
"Well… I can bring her to… but she won't last long."
"What about her friend?"
"Jackie? What's gonna happen to that meathead?"
"Wait, you said Jackie? As in Misty's boyfriend?"
"The one and only… and Mama Welles's son, from the El Coyote Cojo bar in Heywood…"
"Hmm… I've talked to him. Give him my number. If he's really willing to vouch for his friend, tell him to call me immediately."
As I said this, I walked into the bar and calmly made my way through the small corridor past the security post, entering the main hall.
"Got it. He'll call you back now."
I walked through the hall, and an unknown number immediately came in, which I hurried to answer.
"Choom, Vik said you wanted to hear from me?"
"Yeah… You know your friend is in a bad way, right?"
"Well…"
The guy's voice, or rather the man's, since his image looked pretty tough.
"…In short, here's an option: I'll pay for her treatment and chrome replacement. You can't count on Arasaka chrome, of course, but at least it will be a full set…"
"Hmm? What do you want from me?"
"I'll send you a credit agreement… Don't worry, the interest isn't predatory like with microloans—just ten percent a year. Of course, if it weren't for Misty, I would've probably charged you a lot more, forty percent or so, but I know your girlfriend, and she'll give me a look like a beat-up puppy that'll put me in a grave the next time I visit Vik if I did that. So, ten percent a year, with the condition that the payments will only start if your friend, whose treatment I'll pay for, refuses to sign it after Vik is done."
"I agree."
"Ugh, that girl is lucky to have a choom like you…"
I quickly drew up the contract and sent it to Jackie.
"The amount isn't listed here."
"Vik will fill in the amount. You can talk to him. I'm not looking for suckers; I'm a solo, and I don't get involved in scams."
"One second…"
A couple of seconds of silence, after which the guy spoke again.
"Yeah, I signed it and sent it to Vik for him to determine the amount needed to get V back on her feet…"
"V?"
David's memory stirred, bringing to the surface a flashback of a girl who occasionally taught counterintelligence courses at the academy. But I pushed those thoughts away. She was high-ranking in Arasaka's counterintelligence.
"Yeah, that's my friend's name…"
I nodded, and blinked, as I hadn't expected Vik to be so fast. He had already filled in the necessary amount to get the girl back on her feet. The amount wasn't very large, at least I had the money, and paying it to Viktor wouldn't make me dirt poor. So I immediately transferred the necessary amount to Vik.
"Alright, I've transferred the money to Vik, so adios…"
I ended the conversation with Jackie. And it wasn't just that I wasn't interested in talking to him, but also that Panam and I had gone down to Judy's basement, where she was in a kind of daze.
"Ah… it's you… I was expecting you later…"
"Well, we woke up pretty early today, and the job here could take a while, so we decided to come a little earlier. And from what I see, it was a good idea…"
I looked at the shattered servers, which had been brutally broken.
"Um… you understand that this can't be repaired…"
I shook my head.
"…only taken apart for parts…"
"I know. The parts for the new servers will be here in about an hour."
"Okay, but what's up with you?"
"They broke… my braindance gear. I customized it myself; there wasn't a single factory screw left. And now…"
"So why are you so upset?"
I walked up to Judy and put my arms around her shoulders. Panam came around to the other side and hugged her as well.
"Didn't you hear? They…"
"I heard. But you didn't make this gear yesterday, did you?"
"No…"
"Not the day before yesterday?"
"No… a couple of years ago…"
"And you didn't stay in the same place for those couple of years? You learned new things? And you also got a friend who knows his way around tech, right?"
"Yeah…"
"Well, then you and I will make everything even better than it was! Of course, you'll have to customize the specialized braindance gear yourself… But everything else… I'm perfectly capable of helping with the upgrades."
"But where would I get the money?"
"I'll give you a loan…"
I shrugged as if it were a given.
"…with no interest, no due date. We'll just agree on how you'll pay me back."
"Are you serious right now?"
"He's completely serious, and I agree with him. You're our friend, and even though we haven't known each other that long, we care about you. Even though you keep trying to seduce me. Although I've told you more than once that I'm strictly into boys. And yeah, get your hand off my ass. My ass belongs to David now."
Tch…
"Well, you can always try to seduce me, and then use your relationship with me to get into bed with Panam…"
I smirked and put my hand on Judy's ass.
"Hey!"
Panam was indignant, but overall, much less so than any other girl would have been in my past life. The customs in this time and this city were much more liberal.
"Get your hand off my ass… Take it off…"
I looked at Judy and raised my right eyebrow in question.
"…I'm not kidding. Or make a deal with Panam so my hand can be on her ass."
"David, do you really want to fondle her ass that badly?"
"I'm comparing…"
Despite my words, I took my hand off Judy's butt, which had clearly come to her senses and was no longer in a slump.
"And whose butt is better?"
"Yours, hands down…"
I answered Panam without a second of hesitation.
"Hey!"
Judy angrily pulled away from us and looked at me with displeasure. I, on the other hand, hugged Panam and put my other hand on her butt, starting to caress it with pleasure.
"What? This butt is one that I can touch at any time… So the choice between two firm, exquisite butts that belong to exquisite girls is obvious. I'm giving the highest score to the curves that belong to me."
Hmm…
"Let's just figure out how much money you need first?"
Judy thoughtfully looked around.
"I need a powerful computer. In our reality, that's at least ten thousand…"
I nodded, understanding that Judy had obviously decided to go with the minimum price. I didn't like that very much. I wanted to make her feel more indebted to me. Even with the debt being paid back. So I had already activated my deck and gone online, looking for a computer with enough power and performance to work with braindances in extremely high quality.
"What do you think about the second model of the OTG from Militech?"
Judy flinched.
"That's… a little expensive…"
Well, of course, it was forty thousand. A very large sum of money. Still, I worked a lot, and even a sum ten times larger wouldn't make me a pauper. I would be without savings, but I would have a way to live.
"Still?"
Judy bit her lip and looked away.
"I would really want one. It's one of the best computers available to regular people right now. I wouldn't have to mod it, and I could work on it peacefully for another couple of years."
"Good…"
I placed the order.
"…I ordered it. It'll be delivered in an hour."
"What?! Have you lost your mind?! It costs almost thirty-seven thousand!"
"Forty, but I'm hoping I'm not throwing money away. I'm investing it in equipment that will be used to record and edit high-quality braindances that will bring in profit for both you and me."
"That's…"
Judy swallowed hard, walked up to me, took my hands, and put them on her butt.
Pff… "You're not going to pay me off with that. But it's nice…"
I nodded, completely unashamed of the fact that I was fondling Judy's butt in front of my girlfriend. And Panam herself stood behind Judy, and, putting her hands on top of mine, began to knead her butt.
"What else do you need?"
"Goggles for viewing the material…"
Judy listed the required equipment, and I bought all of it from Militech, since it's always better to use equipment from one company. It connects better and produces fewer errors when they work with each other.
"Well… I've ordered everything…"
"And how much do I owe you in the end?"
"Eighty-three thousand bucks."
Judy sighed.
"I might as well become a doll and work it off… I won't make that much in a couple of years!"
"Well…"
I let go of her butt and took a couple of steps back, carefully looking her over from head to toe, which made her flinch a little.
"David, don't scare Judy!"
Panam looked at me sternly.
I smirked.
"Alright… Judy, how are you with netrunning?"
"Huh?"
"Can you be our crew's netrunner? To work from the Thorton and help me with hacking into complex systems…"
"Well, generally… I can…"
She nodded her head in surprise, and I smiled.
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