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"So…"
The Thorton stopped next to the house, and I looked around. The place was indeed not bad, a pleasant breeze from the lake over the flooded city. It wasn't a complete desert, either; there were some plants around, and the house…
"…I'll set up a place for you to relax now, and then I'll take care of the meat…"
With those words, I started to take lounge chairs out of the car, which I began to arrange on the pier. I also put a few sun umbrellas and a small table there. I placed the brazier a little to the side on the ground. And just as I was putting the charcoal and wood chips in it, Kiwi drove up on her bike.
"Looks like everyone's here already?"
"Yep… Kiwi, come join us…"
Hmm…
Kiwi looked at the girls, who were already lying on the lounge chairs in their swimsuits, and then calmly started to undress. I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye. I was curious about what kind of swimsuit she had chosen.
For example, Panam was in a regular black swimsuit, Judy had chosen a blue one, Lucy was wearing a white one, and Becca was in a silver-and-black one… or what do you call that color? I've never been good with colors.
"Pfft! Posing!"
Becca couldn't hold back when Kiwi stripped down naked and calmly walked to the lounge chair that had been set up for her. However, my girls reacted to this with complete calm.
"Why are you all so calm? She's stark naked in front of your guy…"
Becca pointed an accusing finger at Kiwi, who was already lying on the lounge chair.
"We wore him out last night, one after the other… so he's not even that interested in looking now…"
I snorted.
"It's always interesting to look, but right now, I'm more interested in the meat that I have to take care of. And Kiwi made it pretty clear yesterday that she's not interested in me, so what's the point of drooling and staring? I have people to look at and know that the gaze wasn't wasted."
"See? The only one with a problem with my naked tits and vag is you."
"I can, too…"
"No, you can't…"
Panam put Becca in her place.
"Huh?"
"You're single, or rather, I don't know if you have any romantic interests on the side, and David likes you. If it weren't for Judy and me, he probably would have hit on you or Lucy, or maybe both of you. So you can't get undressed."
"Tch… what if I'm not against him hitting on me?"
"You might not be against it…"
Judy joined the conversation, watching Becca and Lucy carefully. Although only the former showed any clear reactions. Lucy just opened one eye and carefully looked at Panam and Judy first, and then at me. I just smirked and continued my ritual.
"I see… so you don't want to share?"
Becca's voice was slightly mocking, but at the same time, you could feel that she wasn't completely joking.
"Should we want to?"
"I guess not…"
Becca leaned back on the lounge chair again, and for a while, silence reigned.
"Well…"
I smirked and placed a comfortable chair not far from the brazier. After that, I walked over to the Thorton and took a small cooler bag out of it.
"And what's in there?"
Panam followed me with interest and drew all the girls' attention to what I was doing.
"You've got so much secrecy going on… even Judy and I have no idea what you have in there…"
"Well, there are drinks in there…"
I smirked, then put the bag on the wooden pier and opened it.
"…allow me to present, made in secret from my dearest halves… from natural ingredients… low-alcohol mead!"
And I handed the ladies a glass bottle of mead, which they accepted with some apprehension. And while Kiwi was more hesitant than the others, Panam and Judy exchanged glances, opened the bottles with the homemade caps, and took their first sips.
M?!
Panam was the first to pull away from the bottle. She tried to make her face as believable as possible and addressed the others.
"No… it's nasty stuff… I think you'd better not try it…"
"Yeah, right…"
Becca pulled her hand with the bottle away from Panam, who had already reached for it. She opened it and took her first sip.
Mmm?!
Seeing her reaction, and also remembering the reactions of Judy and Panam, Kiwi and Lucy also opened their bottles and took their first sips.
"Man…"
Kiwi shook her head. I sat on the chair facing the girls, but so that the brazier was a little to my side and was in my line of sight, and I also drank from my bottle, but mine was a regular cocktail, completely non-alcoholic.
"Kiwi, is it time for us to have a serious talk?"
"Hmm?"
"What are your plans now?"
A little worry appeared in her eyes, and Lucy also looked at me carefully, expressing cautious concern for her mentor.
"Did you decide to stop using Kiwi's services?"
Becca… as blunt as a post. I just shrugged at her words.
"If you all forgot, at the end of the first day of work, Kiwi and I had an agreement. She works with us as long as we're working against these junkies… and after that, we'll talk more specifically. And you girls should think about it, too… a week has already passed out of the two weeks we agreed upon…"
"Are you kicking us out?"
"Not at all…"
I shook my head.
"I'm just telling you that you'll have to make a decision soon, too…"
"A decision?"
"Well…"
I shrugged.
"…I, to be honest, have no idea what's going on with your boss. What the fate of your crew will be next. So…"
"Are you asking us to join you?"
Lucy raised an eyebrow.
"And is it bad being with me?"
I mirrored her gesture, which, judging by the girls' smirks, was pretty funny.
"Does that offer apply to me, too?"
Kiwi looked at me carefully.
"Yeah."
"Can you feed us all?"
Judging by her voice, if she could, she would be smirking sarcastically.
"Yeah… I think if everything works out for us, I'll talk to Regina. She'll take into account our expanded crew and choose more… profitable jobs from our point of view. After all, there are a lot of junkies in this city, and, as we recently learned, working against them is very profitable."
"Man…"
"Well, I talked to Dorio just yesterday… it's like I had a feeling you would bring this up. So…"
Kiwi sighed.
"The crew has been disbanded."
"What?!"
Becca even jumped off the lounge chair, and Lucy's eyes widened in shock as she stared at Kiwi.
"You're leaving?"
"No, not our… I mean… ugh…"
She shook her head.
"…alright, I'll start over. Maine is relatively stable now. He even went to a couple of rippers who basically gave him the same diagnosis as Viktor. Of course, he wanted to go to Borg, but Dorio is keeping him on a tight leash. She already let up once and almost lost him, so now… only vetted rippers with good reviews. In short, they told him he'd need at least a year with the chrome he has, plus they prescribed medication for recovery, since his brain was severely overloaded."
"Overloaded?"
"Yeah…"
"I also talked to Viktor; I wanted to learn a little more about cyberpsychosis…"
I sighed.
"And?"
"Well, the thing is, cyberpsychosis doesn't depend on the amount of chrome…"
"What do you mean? Everyone knows that cyberpsychos are always very heavily chromed. Or they've suffered psychological trauma, but even then, they're at least seventy percent chromed."
Lucy showed her curiosity, and Kiwi and the others also looked at me with interest.
"There were a lot of terms… but in general, cyberpsychosis is an overload of the neurons in the brain, when the brain can't keep up with processing the massive amount of information coming into it, which leads to hallucinations. In some cases, during a borderline state, psychosis can manifest not as hallucinations but as a severe manic disorder."
"Well, we know how that manifests. Besides, the result is pretty much the same: a bunch of corpses and MaxTac taking out the psycho. But how is chrome involved here?"
"You see… the brain itself is a very powerful tool. And it can handle the replacement of everything. Smasher is a good example of that. But in most cases, people do something stupid…"
"Stupid?"
Becca was interested. Of course, it made sense. This could also affect her brother, whom she might not love, but he was still her brother. At least, that's how I can interpret her interest.
"They forget that different manufacturers don't have standardized software."
"And?"
While we were talking, I took the ready-made shashlik off the brazier and laid the skewers with it on plates in front of the girls. They also received a new bottle of mead each.
"Eat up, and I'll continue my story…"
I showed them by example how I suggested they eat. Just like in the old Soviet movie about Shurik at a construction site, I took a piece of meat off the skewer with my teeth. After that, I chewed it, took a sip of my drink, and decided to continue my story.
"So, different software has different bugs, flaws, assumptions, and a lot of other crap in the programs. Our netrunners should understand this better than anyone else…"
I carefully looked at Judy, Lucy, and Kiwi, who nodded.
"…and now add the conflicts between different software, which are layered on top of everything I just said, and the brain just can't cope anymore. That's when cyberpsychosis appears."
"Well…"
Kiwi shook her head.
"…Dorio said that people were criticizing Maine for rarely going to normal rippers. They were criticizing Borg… they said it could have been avoided…"
"Well, theoretically, it could have…"
I nodded my head.
"…up to a certain point, all of this could have been smoothed out. Experienced rippers can synchronize the chrome, of course, it's not the easiest procedure, and you have to repeat it at least once a month."
"Man… Borg probably didn't bother with that."
"Exactly…"
I nodded my head.
"But back to what started this whole conversation… so Maine is out for at least a year?"
"Yeah… and, to be honest, after working with you all this week, I would gladly continue on your crew. Especially since Dorio said that she and Pilar have started working with Regina, just on minor stuff, but it's enough for food and rent… and for the ripper…"
"In general, we can even give them a little eddies. It's not a problem for me and the girls to send them a thousand a day, and for them, in their current situation, it would be a big help…"
Becca shook her head.
"…even for my idiot brother… although he should be able to provide for himself. But I don't give a damn about him, and I would stay with you… it's good with you here, just don't forget to ask your friend about the shooting range… you're all talk…"
"Well, this week was very stressful… so I didn't have time for that, but I think next weekend, I'll arrange a similar vacation for us."
"Uh-huh…"
The girls had just finished their shashlik and looked eagerly at the brazier, on which skewers with new shashlik were already lying. But they still needed to be cooked…
"Lucy?"
"I'm with you guys… there's work… there's eddies… a lot of work, but there's also eddies. And… the atmosphere on your team is better… with Maine, everything was a little more… just more. But with you, it's warm… like a family… I've even started to forget about my dream a little…"
"A dream?"
I looked at Lucy with interest.
"I dream of going to the moon…"
It was said in a shy voice.
"Well, that's not a bad dream. Maybe in six months, a year, we'll fly to the moon for a week as a group… Kiwi?"
Lucy's eyes widened, and she nodded her head in astonishment.
"I'm with you guys… I still have to pay off my debts… and it's easier to do that with you… and Lucy is right, everything is more like a family with you guys… I like it…"
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