The next couple of days were pretty interesting. Himiko resumed her running two days later but wouldn't talk about it until they both walked back to the twelfth floor, and she asked if she could come inside my apartment briefly.
As soon as the door closed, Himiko turned to me and said, "You won't believe what happened! I mean, I bet you saw all the goons in front of Clouds the other day, but about twenty Tyger Claw enforcers came in and arrested everyone but the dolls and the clients that were still there."
She shook her head, "They brought Evelyn and me in with one of the Tyger Claw bigshots, and they asked us to tell them everything that happened, including every time you and I have ever met. No offence, but I told them everything. I mean, there wasn't much choice."
I waved her off, "That's fine. You should probably not ever lie to them. They had already seen me. The fact that so many dolls had shown up at my apartment was noticed. But I have a fairly good relationship with one of the people who run this building." I was being careful with what I was saying. I'm not sure why I didn't want her to know that I had approached the Tyger Claws myself, but I didn't.
"That was the start of it, actually. I didn't mention your names, but I told them I suspected that that manager guy, Rogan, was embezzling and that the doctor he was recommended might be abusing you and definitely was harming you through his negligent quackery," I finished.
She blinked at me, "Wait, abusing?"
I frowned, forgetting I didn't mention that. I specifically avoided mentioning anything about how the Trojan in their implants worked or what it was capable of doing, too. I just described it as malware. Since I suspected that there was a non-zero chance the Tygers might try to shut me up, I felt the same for the dolls.
I honestly didn't know what I would have done if Mr Inoue had decided to try to shut me up. Still, I had both my pistol with me and also my alt-dad's shotgun taped to the underside of the table I was entertaining them at, as well as a unique device in my pocket I had tinkered with that might have incapacitated them. I also would have been a lot faster than they might have expected. I didn't think I would have survived long if I had killed or even knocked out two of the managers of the Tyger Claws, but I definitely wouldn't have gone down like a domesticated cow walking through the slaughterhouse.
Did they still have cows here? I was pretty sure I hadn't eaten any, and although the beef scop had the taste of ground beef down pretty well, none of the "steak" options was very palatable.
When I had first thought it might be possible the Tyger Claws might kill me to ensure my silence, the idea of a genetically engineered respiratory virus with especially high morbidity in only Japanese-common phenotypes entered my head, which I felt was... a bit much. Plus, I didn't have much of the equipment needed to manufacture viruses, and even if my power helped me with that, none of the viruses would kill before I was already dead, and then it would mainly kill innocent people. Honestly, I was a bit concerned that my power immediately jumped to war crimes, weapons of mass destruction and literal weaponised racism.
Powers were... really quite scary sometimes. I couldn't even imagine what would happen if one of the members of the E88 back in Brockton Bay gained my power instead of me. I'm sure if I was in Brockton Bay and the PRT knew half of what I could do, I would have had a pre-signed kill order with my name on it just waiting for me to step out of line.
Virology equipment I might not have; however, I did have a fairly full chest full of pharmacological drugs that I had been buying a little at a time for a rainy day since I got here, and I had managed to use some of them to craft what was basically a gas grenade full of anaesthetic gas. It wasn't like a... Japanese-specific anaesthetic or anything like the virus. But it was one that I, personally, would be more resistant to than anyone else. I'm not sure how, though, as it was similar to my yoghurt in that it was actually Tinkertech rather than anything that I felt was likely reproducible. And I wouldn't be able to sit in the gas cloud forever, but while it might put anyone else to sleep in a few seconds, it would take several minutes for me to succumb.
I honestly didn't think either my guns, speed or the gas grenade would have actually saved me if the entirety of the Tyger Claws in the building were out to get me, but I didn't have it in me to just accept that without some attempt to save myself. The way I felt about it was... it was better to be scary than to be scared. Alt-Dad would have said, "Speed, surprise, and violence of action." But I think they meant basically the same thing, except I would have added "unpredictability", too.
Although approaching the Tyger Claws had been the riskiest thing I had done so far in this world, I thought it was much less dangerous than doing nothing. The only other play I considered was immediately leaving the building and never returning, but I had no resources with which to gain a new identity in this world, and I had a lot invested in my current one.
I shook my head a little to clear my thoughts before shrugging at Himiko, "I don't know for sure... but that Ripperdoc had his medical credentials revoked and was wanted for sex crimes in the EC. He was definitely harming you, though, but I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be unconscious anywhere near him."
Himiko shuddered a bit, "Ugh. He was definitely a creep, but I hadn't considered that. Please do me a favour and don't mention that to Evie. I know it's weird; we basically do the same thing every day--"
I interrupted her, "It's not weird at all. You choose to do those things with the clients you see. And you have scary men with katanas to protect you while you do it. It's not even comparable."
She smiled genuinely, "Thanks, I appreciate that."
After that, we talked more about what happened. The Tyger Claws had brought in a team of edgerunners, including a netrunner and a med-tech, to double-check my work, apparently. I thought that they might use someone on their own staff, and I didn't think for a second that they didn't have netrunners or med-techs in the gang. But, edgerunners... at least the good ones I had read about online, did have a reputation for not disclosing any of their missions given to them by a "Fixer."
Neither the manager, that Rogan, nor that ripperdoc Finn Gerstatt, had been seen again, but the actual Tyger Claw manager, that Kiryu-kun, had already been sited as the new manager for one of their casinos on Jig-Jig street. Not one of their better ones either, so it was a clear demotion.
I was very glad that I had put everything on the manager and ripperdoc to give them a chance to save "face." I wasn't sure what that meant precisely; in fact, a number of net searches told me that the concept wasn't completely translatable to English using any number of words, and it was only really understood if you grew up in the culture. I wasn't sure about that unless it was something like pounds and inches instead of kilograms and centimetres, then?
I thought it basically meant that I hadn't embarrassed them even when I had the opportunity to do so, but with some additional cultural baggage that I didn't quite understand. That was enough for me.
It also seemed like the Tyger Claws were going for the admitting a bit of what happened to hide the real truth play. While it wasn't technically public knowledge, I had been following a lot of local net sites that discussed both the Tyger Claws and my Megabuilding in particular, and there were reports on a site that was basically an unofficial forum for Clouds that the Tygers closed Clouds briefly after discovering one of their employees colluding with a third party to harm and steal from the dolls working there.
A post by the official social media account for Clouds indicated that they were fine and that Clouds was covering the expense for each of their entertainers to visit one of the nicest cyber clinics in the city.
I hadn't quite realised how... beloved some of these dolls were, as there was a hue and cry by a group of people claiming to be clients, demanding to know if their particular favourite was okay. Or about how easily they could sweep everything under the rug just by giving part of the truth.
There were a few rabid posters offering to fund an XBD starring whoever hurt their favourite doll, and I shuddered because I felt there was at least a possibility that might actually be produced. The fact that there were what were, in effect, full-immersion snuff films around was one of the more disturbing parts of this new world.
Oh, and Mr Jin was the new manager at Clouds, which I guess explained his inexplicable middle finger emoji the other day. He must have been giving me the bird for giving him more work.
"Yeah, the Med-Tech and netrunner looked everyone over; they were specifically approving of what you did for me, Evie and the others; by the way, plus we're all getting free trips to the Skyline cyberclinic downtown over the next week with everyone getting a budget of eight grand to use however we want after he checks us all over," Himiko finished, very enthused.
Wow, there were a little over twenty dolls working in Clouds, so that by itself was almost a two hundred grand expenditure. Not including what they paid for the edgerunners. From what I could tell, the Tyger Claws, when they did use a carrot, made sure everyone knew about their stick too, so I felt that there was going to be a truly gruesome fate for Mr MacNeil and Herr Gerstatt.
Still, I smiled at her, "That's the clinic I go to. Dr Taylor is one of the best, if not the best, in the city."
That caused her to nod rapidly, "Really? Do you have any recommendations on what I should spend my 'store credit' on?"
That caused me to look at her and hum slightly, "He has a full clinic, so he has biosculpt services as well. It kind of depends on what you want, really." Text from a few days ago when I connected my personal link to her scrolled down my eyes as I reviewed what cybernetics she had. "Those BioDyne optics aren't great. Your current doll chip is actually quite a good brand. I'd go for whatever he recommends as far as the biosculpt for your general health and if you wanted cosmetic changes, which should be pretty cheap, and maybe a set of Kiroshi Mk2s. That would be about eight kay, give or take. Otherwise, maybe an internal bio-monitor or the biosculpt treatment for either nanosurgeons or an enhanced immune system. Things that will increase your health, keep you alive and allow you to earn more money should be your priority."
She paused, looking curious, "What are nanosurgeons?"
I shrugged, "It's a type of bioware, not cyberware. A colony of genetically tailored, organic nanomachines produced by a special organ in your body. Basically, it's a healing factor. If you get shot, you'll be much more likely to survive. The enhanced immune system is nice, too. It depends on if you're more concerned about violence or disease, I suppose." I intended to get both, eventually.
"Oooh... interesting," she said, and then I blushed furiously as I remembered an option I hadn't mentioned to her.
I said, after a pause, "Uh... I forgot to mention, but you could also get, you know... a Midnight Lady accessory. It might help your business. Techhair is pretty cheap too, they integrate with your doll chip too, so it would automatically shift into the hair colour, length and style preferred by your clients when the doll server generates their interpersonal ideal."
In Brockton Bay, I had unfortunately learned the word "vajazzle", and the numerous Midnight Lady accessories were this to the nth degree, but they also had a practical aspect. There was a line of over a dozen particular models, some for "up top" and others for "down below", that were designed both to be aesthetically pleasing (or incredibly disturbing) as well as functional, in perhaps every way you could imagine. I didn't want to think about it anymore.
That caused Himiko to laugh at my blushing and tease me slightly, "You're quite sheltered to have grown up in Night City, Taylor." She was right, and I would have to adapt a bit, especially if I was going to be working in the healthcare sector. It's hard to stay a blushing maiden while being a clinician. But then she nodded, "But you're right! I had even been saving money for such a thing, but I didn't trust any of the doctors I knew to put it in. Do you know how much they cost?"
I shifted uneasily. I had researched almost every type of cybernetic implant that I knew about, including types from companies that were out of business or weren't sold anymore, so of course, I knew. "They range from very reasonable to ridiculously expensive, as in a bespoke accessory for a BD star might cost a quarter of a million eddies or more. But in that case, it is like designer clothes. The cost is for the exclusivity. The most common and popular... accessory only costs two or three thousand eurodollars, maybe four at most at Skyline."
She nodded with a smile, "That's not bad. I might use my own money for that, then. The techhair and biosculpt are a good idea, too, except the 'sculpt will have to be subtle. I have a lot of clients who are more or less attached to how I look. But I'm sure if they're as high-end as you say, they can do a lot while keeping myself still recognisable."
I specifically said nothing about that, one way or another. Although I went to a different biosculpt clinic, that was basically what Alt-Taylor and, therefore, I did, as well.
After finishing the discussion, she left, and I went to school. It was a half day in class and a half day at the hospital day, and I was up to sixty-five per cent on the Kerenzikov, and I seemed to get the best results as far as getting used to it when it was set just high enough that I felt slightly uncomfortable with the boost and speed level.
I think I scared one of the patients I was working on when I forgot what I was doing and sutured him from a simple knife wound at what seemed to him to be super-speed, though. But I was done before he even had a chance to look really upset about it, and the sutures were tiny and impeccable, so win for me.
I thought it was a little bit odd that we still used sutures in this far future, wouldn't there be some sort of weird biomedical nano glue? There was! But traditional dissolving sutures were a lot cheaper and almost as good.
About a week later, Mr Jin asked me to visit him in his new office at Clouds, so I found myself walking in, nervous, just to be greeted by a very kind-looking receptionist, "Ah, don't worry, Miss. There's nothing to be afraid of at all."
Oh, shit. She mistook me for one of their clients. I supposed I did sort of look like their demographic, nervous, possibly virginal, very shy and anxious. I was immediately impressed by the hostess that was greeting me; they seemed very good at their job of greeting shy loners. I also found it interesting that there were two options when I walked in, with one route with a receptionist glyph and one route with a computer glyph. I supposed some people had such crippling social anxiety that they wouldn't have even been able to interact with the hostess lady, despite how sensitive, accepting and nice she seemed to be. It was actually quite impressive that they had a "zero contact" option for those sorts of people. I think I would have definitely chosen that option if I was interested in their services!
I forced a chuckle and said, "Ahh... I appreciate that. But I'm not a client; I'm here to see Mr Jin. My name is Taylor Hebert."
The hostess' eyes went wide momentarily before she smiled, "Oh! Apologies, of course." I could briefly see text scroll across her optics before she said, "Follow me, please." And after she was replaced by another hostess that looked somewhat similar, the first one escorted me deeper into the building to the manager's office. In Japanese, she introduced me at the door, "Jin-sama, Taylor Hebert-san is here to see you."
I grinned a little bit despite myself. Jin-sama is he, now? But I supposed all the hostesses were amongst the administrative staff that the Tyger Claws briefly put under "close confinement", so it probably was quite smart to be especially respectful to the new guy in charge. I had looked that up after Mr Inoue left, and it apparently meant being held in detention in such a way that the prisoner could not communicate with anyone at all. That would tend to make anyone nervous, even if they weren't guilty of anything.
"Come in, Taylor!" Mr Jin said, and I nodded to the hostess and entered his office.
Perhaps I shouldn't tease the man who has no doubt murdered people, but my mouth opened before I realised what I was doing, "Oh, great, Jin-sama--"
But that was as far as I got before he yelled, half laughing, "Fuck you! You know, I had an easy job. I was home at four in the afternoon every day. I worked bankers' hours! Now I'm responsible for this, and I can't even hire a business manager for at least six months after that last guy. We might even be in the red this quarter for the first time ever." He shook his head, "You remind me of my daughter in a lot of ways; she gave me shit about the hostesses too. Take a seat."
I did so, and "What's this about, Mr Jin? And you let your daughter visit you in a brothel?"
"You're here for thanks, basically. And yeah, it's not like I'm giving her store credit, and we're a classy place. She's not going to see anything or anyone in the halls," he said confidently, then paused as if to consider, "Honestly, I might prefer a relationship with a pretend doll than some of the boys at her school. I could maybe pull a few strings with her interpersonal ideal generator, so she doesn't get past first base until she's thirty."
That made me genuinely chuckle. From my perspective, Mr Jin would probably be considered a villain if we were in Brockton Bay, for sure, but at least he cared about his family. I reminded myself what he was capable of and not to consider him a cuddly teddy bear, though.
He then nodded, "We appreciate that you didn't tell the dolls any specifics about the malware you found on their systems; you left it generic enough that we were able to paint a much better picture for us of what happened. I'm supposed to threaten you obliquely now, but I'm not going to bother. You're smart enough to know what the deal is. The only people who know the whole story that isn't one of us are a netrunner and Med-Tech that have Okada-sama's full trust, so we'll know if the story ever came out, not only would it just be seen as a conspiracy theory but we'd know who was responsible."
That was kind of a threat all in itself, wasn't it? I rubbed the back of my head, "That wasn't oblique at all, Mr Jin. That was a straight on threat. But, yeah, I take your meaning."
"Ahahah... sorry. I was going to say something like..." He coughed into his hand and shifted his tone down an octave, taking the tone of a campy film villain, "You, Miss Hebert, are soon to be the only person alive who knows the dark secret amongst those that we don't trust." He then shrugged and said in his normal tone, looking kind of abashed, "But it sounded really cheesy."
Then he waved it off, "Besides, the organisation might not trust you, but I do. I think you're a good girl, Taylor. So let's not dwell on such things."
Well, I guess that told me the tragic fate of Dr Finn Gerstatt. I didn't know if I felt bad for him or not, but the fact that he implied that he was still, presently, alive over a week after being detained by the Tygers Claw was really quite sinister sounding, actually.
I had a sudden feeling of... anxiety, but not quite. Disconnection, like I, couldn't recognise myself for a moment. Like I should be a lot more upset that they might be torturing this man to death, no matter how bad he might be and that I was at least indirectly responsible. And I shouldn't be exchanging pleasantries with what would be considered a villain, and I especially shouldn't kind of enjoy the banter we had. Even the worst villains at least went to the Birdcage, didn't they? But there was no Birdcage anywhere near here. And more importantly, I didn't think there were any heroes on the entire planet. At least there were none I had seen in Night City.
I mentally catalogued the feeling for a deeper self-assessment later. If I wasn't a universal traveller, I might have considered it a possible incipient cyberpsychosis symptom, even if it was incredibly minor. But I felt that it was more like multiversal dysmorphia, for lack of a better word. My medical sense diagnosed it actually as something along the lines of "fish out of water syndrome." There were multiple names for it, but it was common for people who were living full-time in vastly different cultures. Expat syndrome, and a few other names.
Living in this world for months made me start to question some of the things about the old world that I had taken for granted. Both Lung and Oni Lee had killed numerous people, and there were tons of villains like that. Why didn't they just use a sniper rifle to put a bullet in Lung's head before he ramped up? He definitely deserved it. I couldn't figure it out, but I stopped thinking about it as I wasn't exactly in the correct place to ruminate.
"Well, you can tell your boss that the message was received loud and clear, Mr Jin," I told him, finally.
Mr Jin nodded, still looking a little abashed, "Ah, good. Now, we've taken everything that that Doctor had in his clinic. Do you want all of it? The equipment isn't the best, but it's not terrible either, and while there's not a whole lot of stock, I figured that was the best reward I could think of for you."
I blinked at him, "Uh... I'm definitely not a Ripperdoc. Sure I can configure or calibrate a few implants, but I'm not a doctor, and I'm not qualified to use any of that equipment." I did want it, though!
He shrugged, "Neither was he. He hadn't been a doctor for years, not really. Besides, what else are we going to do with it? We could sell it, but we wouldn't get that much value. It's probably worth a lot more to you than what we can get from it, even if not right away."
"Yeah, but I don't want this gift of appreciation to have any... strings or assumptions attached to it," I finally said. I was pretty sure I could do a better job than Dr Gerstatt, actually, but they didn't let people known or suspected of conducting illegal surgeries in medical school, and that was still an ambition of mine.
He waved that off, "Don't worry about it. We're not going to show up at your doorstep and ask you to chip some sketchy implants into or out of people like you're a Scav doctor or anything. I just thought you'd appreciate this more than anything else I could get you; you see, our budget is kind of shot, so to really repay you what you're owed, I'd have to wait until next quarter at least. But we can do that if you want, you don't have to take the equipment at all. Thirty or forty kay if you want a monetary reward."
I grimaced. More than I actually expected since my main goal was just not being murdered later. Enough for half of a semester at the NC Health Science Centre. The medical equipment was worth a lot more if what Jin said was true, and it wasn't bad. Especially if I could repair, refurbish or copy them. "Okay, I'll take the equipment and any other included things he had. You're right that I am very interested in them."
Jin grinned, "Great! I'll have the things delivered."
I finished both the written test and the scenarios using a human patient simulator fairly quickly and was pretty sure I scored close to perfect. With the scenarios, there was always a little bit someone could nitpick; despite all the science involved treating people was still somewhat of an art and still subjective in a lot of ways.
Still, I'd know how well I did very shortly. I waited as all of the other members of the study buddy clique got out of the testing centre. The Kang Tao medic was pacing, "I, Xiao Li, am worried!"
I reassured him, "You crushed it. I bet all the scenarios were ones we practised, and your written scores were getting very good in the practice tests."
Still, he paced back and forth until suddenly we all received an alert, everyone scrolling text across their optics. I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail to read, "HEBERT, TAYLOR: Written (100%) HPS (99%)"
I snorted. What asses. They probably just took a point off because they could, so I wouldn't have a perfect score. I glanced around, and all the members of our study group looked happy. I looked through the e-mail, which had everyone's scores, and found a couple of people failed, but it was only by a few points, so they would be allowed a couple of days of retraining followed by a retest on the elements of the exam that they failed.
People almost always passed the retest, but it was only available if you failed by less than 10 points overall or in either section. If you failed by more, you had to take the test again after three months. Even the two people who failed seemed to look happy as they realised they would probably get through the retraining. Nobody out and out failed in our class, which was a bit unusual. This national registry test had a passing rate of only sixty per cent nationally. Many people had to take it twice.
"Hahaha, I, Xiao Li, have destroyed this puny American institution!" crowed the Chinese man while everyone else congratulated each other. I tried to duck out, but they wouldn't let me avoid the congratulatory party that they had planned, especially since a few of them told me I was the only reason they passed.
They also wouldn't hear that I was technically underage and couldn't drink. About the only things that I remembered after that were singing, very badly, on the karaoke and then waking up the next morning in an unfamiliar location, on a couch, still wearing the outfit I picked for testing, even if it was a lot more crumpled. My bio-monitor was screeching about alcohol and dehydration, and I sighed. I glanced around, made sure my pistol was still with me and then looked around.
I discovered I was in a hotel, or maybe it was more like a furnished apartment. Fiona glanced out of the next room, "Oh, you're awake, Princess? You want the shower before we get some breakfast?"
I blinked at her, but she nodded. Why was my Kerenzikov set at one hundred per cent? I shifted it back down to eighty-five, where it should have been. No matter; I took a hot shower and then carefully put back on my crumpled clothes, trying to smooth them out a little bit.
After that, we went together downstairs, meeting Antonio for breakfast. He said, "Well, if it isn't Little Miss Badass!"
Shit. Just what did I do? I just glare at him, my head still pounding and decide to get some fluids in me as my biomonitor suggested. Finally, I asked him, "What... are you talking about?"
Fiona blinked at me, "You don't remember? After we got kicked out of that first place, this ganger tried to mug us. Tony was about to bounce the idiot off the side of the building. What a dumbass; I don't even think that knife would have penetrated any of us... maybe you; skin weave is kind of iffy on blades. Kind of depends." How'd they know I had that? It was almost impossible to notice.
Antonio chortled, "Yeah, then all of a sudden you zip in, grab the bowie knife out of his hand and cut his pants off and start trying to pick your teeth with the blade while his pants fell down. The poor guy, I was just gonna thump him. But I wouldn't have done him as you did. He ran away crying!"
Fuck. I guess that was why my Kerenzikov was at full speed. I think I am blushing a lot. No matter what anyone says, I'm never to drink again. At least until I'm twenty-one! But when Antonio slams a fucking short sword on the table and says, "Here, your trophy of combat!" I just started groaning.
The man sitting across from me was dressed fairly well. I hadn't gone for my boardroom outfit because this company wasn't on that level, but I was wearing one that was a bit better than what I normally wore, including a pencil skirt, but this one was a little more modest and went down to slightly below my knees.
"So, Miss Taylor... your grades and test score on the national registry test are all impeccable. You could probably get a job at any of the hospitals or trauma centres in Night City. Why did you apply at NC Med Ambulance?" asked the man. He didn't seem to be an HR drone but was likely one of the line managers.
I decided not hiding anything was the best play here, as there were only a few true answers to this question from someone with my grades and background. NC Med Ambulance wasn't a bad company, but it was small, and I could get a better-paid position if I wanted one elsewhere, "A Trauma Team hiring manager was interested in me but said I could either work in a hospital setting for three years in critical care or twelve months working 911 calls in Night City. I hope to get enough experience at your company to be more competitive in a year or eighteen months to make that possibility a reality. But I will be an excellent worker while I am here."
He grinned, "Thanks for being upfront with me. That's kind of what I expected, but I appreciate not blowing smoke up my skirt. When can you start?"
