Chapter 2

NINA

Nina paced up and down the small room. Every now and then she would do star jumps or press ups.

The crone and the young girl had gone somewhere whilst she was still asleep. That hurt a little. Why couldn’t they have taken her? She still hadn’t worked out how to open the flipping door. Her confinement wouldn’t have been so bad if she knew she could escape. What if the building was on fire? Would the door open in an emergency? Somehow she doubted it. She sat down on the couch. Less than two minutes later and she was up and pacing again.

There wasn’t even a view to the outside. Even staring at another concrete block was better than staring at the damp stained walls.

After what felt like an eternity, the door opened and the young girl burst in, all excited. The crone shuffled in after. The girl raced over to Nina, something that had once been brightly coloured held in her hand. She proudly handed the object to Nina.

It looked like a tablet albeit a ruggederised and well battered one. What would have once been painfully bright primary colours, had long since faded. The faded outlines of ... things ... littered the casing. The damn thing looked older than her. There was also a single earpiece.

The crone shuffled into the kitchen carrying what looked like to Nina, their next few days’ worth of noodle rations. The girl grabbed her arm and dragged her to the couch, jumping onto it and pulling Nina down after her. With a flourish, the girl produced a simple stylus which she used to tap the screen. The screen flickered into life, revealing a crack that ran right across the screen. Nina looked closer. There were actually several cracks running across the screen. It really had been through the wars. The screen changed several times without seemingly any input from the girl, certainly none by Nina.

It was obvious that even the stylus had once belonged to something else. A bit of cord dangled forlornly from the case. Nina suspected that the original stylus had once been attached to the tablet via it. Well beggars quite literally couldn’t be choosers. A picture appeared of ... something ... It had lots of legs and arms and a big non-threatening smiling face with a word underneath. The girl pointed to the picture and kept repeating a word. Nina tried her best to imitate the Sound. The girl screamed in excitement and the picture changed, the girl repeated another word. Nina tried her best with the new sound and was rewarded with another scream of pleasure and another picture. So it was a language tutor then, that is a start. Nina settled in for a long drawn out evening.

Her voice was sore the next morning. Like it had been most mornings during her drill instructors course. She snorted as a forlorn ’about ... turn!’ echoed in her mind.

The tablet glared at her from the floor. She had a very inclination that she was going to hate the thing pretty soon. The young girl had shown her an array of icons on one screen which amongst other things, opened and shut the door to the flat, flushed the toilet and operated the shower. Just having the ability to open the door was a great relief in itself.

Unfortunately, most of the words she had learned the previous night, she had already forgotten. She had never been very good with languages.

Towards the end of the session, the girl had shown her how to input her words, written and vocal to the pictures. Which was just as well, since the tablet, beaten up as it was, was learning a hundred times faster than she was. It wasn’t quite a Babel fish but it was making a better go of it than Nina was.

Hell, even the kid was learning Nina’s language faster than Nina was learning hers. Nina pulled the tablet over and the screen flickered into life. The pictures had stopped appearing to be children’s cartoons, and now showed her random things with no rhyme or reason to their display. One minute it was kitchen utensils, then the next image would be of an ear, then something as obscure as a piece of electrical equipment or a picture of some sort of fluid. She just skipped past those to the next picture. Ahhh, she knew this one “Boot” She said into the tablet and wrote “Boot” underneath. Next up was “Sock.” Sock was written. She had no idea what that was, next picture “Drill/Auger?”. “Cup /mug?” Jeez just stick with the one subject matter will you...

Through the tablet, she found out that the young girls name was Lucille and that the crone was her grandmother.

Translation was still ropey but from what Nina could gather, Lucille’s parents were dead. Of what, didn’t survive the language barrier. Her query as to where everyone else was, received the same response of ‘dead’. Of what, again no idea. It couldn’t have been a war or anything explosive as buildings still stood. Possibly viral? She would have to wait until the tablet or indeed Lucille, learnt more of her Language. It was terrifying how quickly Lucille was picking up her speech. Lucille would point something out, Nina would say what it was and just like that, Lucille would remember it.

It was more than a little bit freaky.

Nina was sat on the pavement, Lucille next to her. Her grandmother was on the opposite side, a bit further down the street. Nina had a scarf wrapped round her face, leaving just a slight gap for her eyes. Her cloak was wrapped tight and the hood pulled fully forward as though she was trying to hide something, which technically she was - her good health. Lucille was bared to the light rain, showing off her disfigurements. A metal plate lay on the path in front of them, as did one in front of Lucille’s grandmother.

The tablet lay between them on their laps as they huddled together, the screen speckled with water droplets. “So. “ Nina spoke slowly for the sake of Lucille and the tablet. The Language barrier had dropped low enough for them to hold simple conversations. “What was all the...” Nina held an imaginary injector to her neck and mimicked the injections Lucille and her gran had taken. “About?”

Lucille stayed silent for a moment, obviously searching for the right words. “My, and Grans bodies don’t heal. It attacks itself.”

“Like an auto-immune disease?”

“Yes, I think so, I don’t understand auto-immune. The injections contain little machines. They make my, cells? Better. Not all machines good. Some don’t work or work poorly.” She shrugged. “Limbs rot and fall off. Have money? Buy new metal limb, or used metal limb if not so much money.”

Nina wondered, not for the first time, how had things managed to have fallen so far. Something Lucille called ‘The Fall’ was the cause. What that was, she couldn’t explain, or Nina couldn’t understand. She didn’t know which. Two cyborg men walked closer as they made their way down the street. Lucille slipped the tablet under their legs and hunched lower. Nina followed suit, not meeting the cyborgs eyes. One spat at them as they walked past, but other than that, left them alone. Lucille waited till they were well past and pulled the tablet back out. Nina let out the breath she was holding. They carried on their conversation as if nothing happened.

One of the things Lucille had told her that she was struggling to comprehend, was that conversation was now carried out mostly in peoples head. It was such an alien concept and explained why even the sparse crowds were so quiet. To have a computer in your brain. It was literally mind boggling. As best as she could understand it from Lucille, everyone had the internet in their heads. The equivalent of having an internet capable phone in your skull. You could access shops, the library anything really, just by thought.

The one consistent thing that hadn’t seemed to have changed, and the two who had just walked past were prime examples of this, was that humans were still dicks.

“How often do you need?” Nina mimed the neck injector again” Lucille shrugged. It seemed to be her favourite response to questions.

“Depends on quality. I need more often than Gran. My body not good. Last injection good quality.” she turned to face Nina and a big smile broke out across her scarred and ill face “I Last many months.”

Months ... She measured her life-span in months? Nina shivered and cried inside, unknowingly, she had just given herself the cruellest of deadlines. Make her way in the world or the young girl dies.

As the day progressed Nina learned more. The gran rarely audibly spoke -what they called real-speak ... You just get out of the habit apparently. Some uppers did it as a ‘fad’ but mainly everyone spoke on ‘Local ‘chat, on the ever-net.

That was going to be a major problem if she couldn’t speak to anyone. She said as much to Lucille.

“Wait!” The screen on the tablet flashed as screens flickered and menu’s appeared and disappeared faster than she could follow. That was another thing that Nina had just learned. Lucille and her Gran controlled most things just by thinking about it. The door to the flat, the toilet flush, the shower controls, the tablet on their lap. “There you go!” Another icon was on the home screen. “Tap it.”

Nina tapped it and a box opened. Text was scrolling down. “Local-net.” Lucille stated. Nina watched the text for a moment then laughed.

“What?” Lucille asked.

“I can’t read it. It’s in your language.” The text box vanished, more glimpsed menus then the text box was back, this time laced with words she knew. Some sentences even made a vague sort of sense, though it was obvious that the language translator still had a fair bit of work still to do. But it appeared to be learning quickly.

Nina watched the words scroll past as she thought about things. What were her short term goals, what were her long term ones? What did she class as her end game?

“What’s in the?” she mimed the auto injector again.

Lucille’s eyes unfocused. When Nina had mentioned the phenomena previously, Lucille had said it probably happened when she was on the ever-net. Her pupils snapped back to normal.

“Machines and blood.”

“Blood?” Nina was surprised.

“Good blood. From an Upper.”

“So like a blood transfusion?”

A shrug.

Back ‘home’ in England, blood was donated freely. But she was sure she had read somewhere that you got paid for it in America. Would hers be worth something here? And for how much?

“Why Upper? Why not Lower?” Nina was intrigued, was this a potential revenue stream?

“Lower blood not good, too...” Lucille was obviously grasping for the right word “ill.”

A sudden chill ran through Nina. If her blood was worth money, would that mean she was at risk of being turned, quite literally, into a cash cow? She had the sudden and rather unpleasant image of being manacled up against a wall, a tube running out of an artery, being bled almost to death every day ... She would have to step very carefully indeed.

“Where does that shop get the serum Lucille?”

A shrug “I don’t know, you will have to ask them.’

So that’s where it starts then.

Nina had been mulling it over in her mind in the days after the conversation with Lucille in the street. Her tablet had continued to improve its translation abilities remarkably well in that time as well. Which was just as well since Nina’s own ability had continued to prove woeful. Now she was stood in the shop, waiting for the other customer to leave so she could speak with the proprietor. Eventually the man left and Nina, every scrap of skin covered, approached the shopkeeper.

She typed into the tablet and posted the message on local. # I need to contact one of your suppliers. #

The tablet beeped. # What’s in it for me? # This was the bit that worried Nina and was the weakest part of her plan.

# A cut of the deal and every subsequent deal. #

# How much? #

Nina decided to take a leaf out of Lucille’s book and shrugged. # That depends on what the deal is worth to the supplier. #

# Not good enough. #

# Okay I’ll find another. # Nina put the tablet back in a cloak pocket, turned and headed for the door. She entered the street and the door had almost fully closed behind her when it burst open. The tablet in her pocket vibrating. she pulled it out and read the message.

# Woah! No need to be so hasty! #

After a quick exchange, the shopkeeper agreed to speak with the manufacturer. Nina sent over the address for messages Lucille had created for her.

Nina checked the data slate/tablet. This was the spot, though she was slightly early, army habits still hard to kick. Five minutes before a parade and all that. The marked table was empty so she sat herself down, placed the tablet in front of her. She passed the time carrying on her language lessons, listening to the AI instructor though her earpiece.

Two shadows loomed over the table. A male and female, both heavily augmented, stared down at her. Nina had left the scarf covering most of her face, leaving just her eyes exposed. The two continued to stare at her in that all too familiar way.

“I can’t com. Only real-speak.” She trusted that the tablet would translate her words and send them to the two Augs.

The female looked down disparagingly at the data slate. “What bin did you raid that from?”

The data slate translated the parts Nina couldn’t interpret, sending the full transition to the earpiece. Nina wrote on the slate listening to the interpretation “It was given to me by a friend.”

“A friend wouldn’t give you that junk.” The woman snorted.

Nina typed, listened. “A true friend gives more than they can really afford.”

“I don’t have time to waste talking philosophy. Do you want genetic repair or not? That shit’s expensive, more than you can afford by the looks of it. I can’t believe you have wasted my time.” She turned to leave.

“Wait!” Nina called out as she hastily typed into the tablet, listening intently to the translated words. “I know you need good DNA. The more stable, the better. I’ll get you stable blood from an Upper, if you give me one serum in return.”

“How much blood?”

“A vials worth.”

“A vial?” The woman asked. The man looked towards the woman “And how do you propose to get that amount, and then get the blood to me without clotting?”

“The getting is my problem. The clotting is yours, you’re the medic.”

“And how do I know you can do this?”

“You don’t, but you can check the blood. The blood won’t lie.”

“No, no it won’t.”

The woman slowly reached into her jacket and pulled out a thick tube, slightly thicker and longer than a whiteboard marker from back in Nina’s time. “Do you know how to use an auto leach?” She asked.

“No.” Admitted Nina.

“Well if you really can get the blood from an Upper, then I’m sure you can follow these simple instructions. Remove this cap here. Run the bared end on the skin till the other end lights up green. Then and only then, push your thumb against the light. Hold it until the light goes red then twist this collar here all the way round. It will release a stabiliser. Shake the leach for at least two minutes, then replace the cap and return to this vender,” She gave Nina the address, the tablet pinging as it received it. “Say it’s for Mike P2020.” The woman replaced the cap and handed the auto-leach over.

“If you give me another auto-leach, I’ll give you two vials in exchange for two serums. “The male laughed aloud. Nina looked his way. “I’m not laughing.”

“I don’t have two leaches on me.”

“Get me one.” Nina challenged.

“You really expect to fill two vials worth?” The woman asked, somewhat scornfully.

“Yes, or I wouldn’t be wasting MY time with you. You have something I need. I can get you something you need more.”

“Uppers have blood protection to stop them being farmed. You will need to get the second vial before any blood-nanites activate.” The woman pointed out. Nina didn’t know that.

“That is my problem. How many lowers can you help with two vials of Upper blood?”

“Depends on the quality of the blood and the genetic code.”

“Two vials for two serums.” Nina repeated.

“And how soon can you get the vials?”

“Within a day.”

The woman raised the patchy remains of an eyebrow in disbelief.

Nina wrote on her slate “How soon can you fabricate the serums?”

“Within a day of receipt of the blood.”

“Where do I collect?”

“Same vendor.”

“Do I need a code or something?”

“No, he will remember you.” Nina and the medic stared at each other. “Are you not going to threaten me with some ghastly fate should I supply you with a placebo instead of serum?” The medic mocked.

“Should I? If you do, you will lose potential access to upper blood. That’s worth more in the long run than holding out on two doses.”

“If you can deliver...”

“I will deliver, will you?” Nina challenged back.

They went back to staring at each other until a passing stranger accidentally bumped into the medic, who didn’t seem all that phased by the contact. She reached into a pocket the passer-by had brushed against and handed over a second auto leach.

“If you deliver, I will deliver.” The medic and her partner turned and left. Nina picked up her data slate and pocketed the second leach. She looked around and left the outside eating plaza.

ROSHA

# So, what do you think? # Rosha asked.

# Definitely more to this deal than meets the eye. # Nipples answered.

# Did you scan her? #

# You know I did, same as I know you did. #

# And? # Enquired Rosha.

# She is no Lower: she might cover most of her face, but come on, did you see her skin? I bet you a month of night shifts that the blood that comes back, is hers. #

# No deal. #

They walked on in digital silence.

# I am curious though. #

# About what Rosha? #

# Why does she need serum? If she’s an upper, she can get it easily enough and it will be of a quality greatly in excess of what we can fabricate. #

# Obnoxious teen daughter runs away from mummy and daddies stifling corporate shackles...? #

# I can get with the rebellious daughter scenario. # Rosha mused.

# Oh yeah, ringing a few bells is she? #

# Carry on like that and its bed pan duty for you... #

# Such abuse of power. Most unbecoming. #

# But something is not right. The high and mighty have anti-hostage protocols. #

# That they do... #

# So she must be tracked or trackable... #

# Yet she has no evernet access. Nor Augs, nor nanites. And I pinged her hard enough. # Rosha laughed. # I pinged her so fucking hard that I got returns from bystanders and she didn’t even bat an eyelid. Go on, send it over. #

# Send what over? # He tried to act all innocent.

# Don’t play the innocent. I saw the flashes. You bombarded her with every light spectrum going. #

# Umm... #

# Send it over. I know you have an image in which you can count every freckle and pubic hair... #

# It was professional habit! #

# Yeah, yeah, thousands might believe that shit, but I’m not one of them. Hand it over. #

He transmitted the file across and Rosha sent the file up to her visual cortex as they walked back to their illicit medical centre. With a flick off an eye she brought the image up and expanded and rotated it, the three dimensional image rotating at the edge of her vision. She studied the LIDDAR image.

# Good physique. Good range of movement. A lot of muscle mass. She is highly active. No visible skin trauma, no biomechanical issues. #

# A bit of a freak. #

# Yeah definitely a bit of a freak. Though I would not recommend saying that to her face, Nipples. I thought that Kasimov was for show, but looking at that image. I’m not so sure now. #

# She has the muscular tone to use it. # He agreed.

# Which brings us back round to the original question. What is she up to? # Rosha sent a query off to their protection as they arrived at the concealed entrance to their small facility. The replies came back. All quiet. The door slid back as the correct numerical key was received and they entered. The dark corridor gave way to bright light and a strong smell of antiseptic. She ran her eye down the stats of their current patients. All as expected.

# Dust off the DB64 and calibrate it ready for tomorrow. #

# You think she will do it tonight? #

# I’ll be surprised if she hasn’t done it already. She doesn’t strike me as one to hang about. I’ll let the fixer know she is coming and not to fuck with her. I know what he is like. #

# Better to tell him to tell his pals as well. #

# Yeah advisable, otherwise I think we will end up with some more customers. In fact, prep some beds just in case. She doesn’t strike me as one to suffer fools. #

Rosha sliced the head off Nipples three dimensional rendering and sent it to their middle man along with instructions to behave if she appeared. Mentally she catalogued their inventory and sent requests to their various suppliers. She checked their power usage.

# Will we cope with the extra draw that all the equipment running will create? #

He pulled up the schematics and studied them. # We should do. If we don’t run too much else at the same time. If we get more patients we will have to scale back production accordingly. That’s a big order. It’s going to draw attention. Is that advisable? #

# I don’t know. I really don’t know. But we save a lot of money with the bulk buy. #

# Yes, but we are going to have to store some of that elsewhere and that’s going to cost, unless you delay delivery by a day or two so that the carrier covers the storage. #

# You know, that’s not a bad suggestion Nipples. #

Their HUD’s pinged with incoming alerts. With calm experience, they donned their surgical gear and prepped the equipment needed to deal with the injuries being sent.

# I bags the big one. #

# Are you sure? That looks messy. # She sent the unlock code to the door.

# I like a challenge. #

# That, you are going to get. #

The door crashed open accompanied with shouts, and screams.

“I told you from the start your plan was fucking shit!”

“It was a good plan. You were supposed to keep an eye out, what the fuck happened to that?”

Four male Gangerz appeared. Carrying the two seriously wounded.

“Put them on those trolleys and fuck off. This is a clean facility and you four are most definitely not.” Fingers told the four non-casualties.

# We stay. # The ganger moved from real to local net

# No, you do not. # Rosha re-iterated.

Nipples interrupted # You know the rules. If you don’t like them, take your pals to another chop shop. But I would make it quick as they won’t survive for much longer. #

One of the Gangerz grabbed the angry one and dragged him back towards the doorway.

# And no hanging about outside. This is neutral ground, Go back to your sleepz. We will message you when they can be collected. #

Rosha pulled up an outside feed and parked it in a corner of her HUD to ensure that they did indeed leave as her medical augs synched with her patient’s central processor.

The preliminary triage was quickly done, several gunshot wounds, nothing vital hit and some stab wounds for good measure. She sliced away his armour and the clothes underneath pouring a disinfectant and detergent mix over his body. Her patient cried out as the solution burned into his wounds. # Man up! # She sent a medical code to his CPU and put him to sleep.

It didn’t take her long to clean and glue his wounds shut. She decontaminated her gloves and moved over to Nipples patient. He was deep into his patients’ bowels, splicing tubes together. She swiped her patient off her HUD and brought up his. There was a lung injury that looked interesting and fun, so she started on that, cracking a couple of ribs apart to make access easier. # How are they with their outstanding bills. # She dropped a shell into the tray beside her.

Nipples didn’t take his gaze from the bundle of slippery innards he was currently manipulating. # Paid up this morning. #

# Funny that. Shows a distinctly non-standard amount of forethought and planning. #

# Going to take them a while to work this one off. #

# Woah! # He leant hastily to the side as jet of brown spurted into the air from the wound.

# Mmm nice! # Rosha remarked as she tossed another round into the tray. She glanced over. # I’ll race you to the kidney wound! #

# You’re on! #

They watched the ventilator piston slowly rise and fall. There was something therapeutic about the motion, as they sipped their teas. The clothes and possessions of their two new patients were bagged and tagged on a shelf out of harm’s way. Nipples was unusually quiet.

# Are you still pissed because I beat you to the kidney? # Teased Rosha.

# I let you win. #

# Yeah, right, pull the other one, it has lesions on it. #

# I’m having second thoughts about our Upper. #

# Bit late now. #

# Aye, that it is. It’s the angle that bothers me. Why? It doesn’t make any sense. #

# Don’t worry about it Nipples, it will only drive you mad. Well, madder... #

# Oh haha... #

# You ARE pissed about not getting the kidney... #

# I’m not... #

# Oh yes you are ... Poor Nipply never got the kidney... # Rosha rubbed the knuckle of her forefinger against the corner of her eye whilst emitting a plaintive sob.

# I’ll have you know that... # He paused.

Rosha looked over. # What? #

Nipples leapt from his seat. # Incoming. Twelve year old girl. Aug rejection. multiple organ failure. shit, its Liala. #

# Oh no. I thought we had her stable. Is she crashing? #

Nipples checked his link. # She’s crashing. #

# Fuck! #

Nipples prepped an adrenaline shot whilst Rosha charged up the defib unit. The air in the room swirled as the outside door opened. The corridor echoing loudly to the heavy tread of a

Boosted Aug. Liala was carried in, looking positively miniscule in the arms of her eight foot tall biomechanical father. Nipples pointed to the awaiting bed and the father hastily yet still tenderly, placed the girl on top, quickly stepping back out of the way. His metal fingers opening and closing in futile helplessness.

There was no time for subtleness, Nipples grabbed the neckline of her simple shift and ripped it open exposing the unhealthy pallor of her chest and discoloured skin from the malfunctioning Augs underneath. Nipples looked at the data coming in. It wasn’t good. He glanced at Rosha. Her expression was grave.

# Yoh! bitches! # Rosha and Nipples looked up as the third member of their little team entered the medical clinic. Lexi Dreer walked into the triage room glancing at the stationary cyborg in the corner. # Oh damn, not Liala again? # Rosha and Nipples nodded. Lexi switched to their private channel. # Damn, he’s going to be there all night isn’t he? He’s like a gargoyle with the ability to move, rip your arms off and then stuff them in your ears. #

# Think on the bright side Lexi. You don’t have to worry about anyone sneaking inside tonight and robbing you of your virtue... #

# I should be so lucky. And fuck you Nipples. Bad? # Lexi was already calling up Liala’s biomedical log.

Rosha nodded. # Flat-lined twice on the table. #

# And on the way over. # Nipples added.

# What’s with the mahoosive purchase order? We don’t need all that shit, well, we do, but we can’t do fuck all with it. # Lexi asked as she changed into medical overalls and scrubbed up. # We need plasma, more cellular repair nano-bots, gene therapy access would be nice. Not all that shit. Where are we even going to store all that! #

Nipples placed a hand on her shoulder. # It’s cool Lexi. It’s been a busy day, we will explain tomorrow. #

# Well, Rosha’s the boss... #

# That she is Lexi. That she is... # Agreed nipples.

# And it’s mostly her money. Mostly... # Lexi scanned the systems of the patients in their care. All were in various stages of ‘stable’. # Anything else I should know about?. #

# Everything’s, in the logs. I need to do a few house calls on the way home. I’ II catch you tomorrow. # Nipples picked up a medical bag, adding a few items to it from their rapidly diminishing supply, nodded to Liala’s father and left.