Neon Dust [Progression Cyberpunk]

37 – Indecent Proposal

When Tony charged down the hallway, the first thing he noticed was the smell—the acrid tang of melted plastics mixed with something like overdone hamburgers. Beneath those harsh odors was something else, sharp and metallic. Ozone? When he saw the smoking boots sticking out of the bedroom doorway, his heart kicked into overdrive, adrenaline surging through his limbs. "Addie!" he yelled.

He didn't slow when he reached the door. He slammed his metallic elbow into the jamb to redirect his charge, then barreled into the room, striding over the first smoking corpse, nearly stumbling over a second, and dropping to his knees when he saw Addie's crumpled form on the carpet near an out-of-place dresser.

When he saw she was breathing, he started to calm down, which allowed him to look at the scenario objectively; the two corpo-sec goons were fried. Addie didn't have hardware to do that, so she must have used her Dust. He'd seen her kill a guy with it before, but nothing even close to what he was seeing here; she'd utterly cooked them. He cradled her head in his lap, gently patting her cheek with his human fingers. "Ads? Addie?"

She didn't respond, but she shifted, moaning, and the movement exposed her left palm, which was raw and red—burned. Wincing, Tony pulled up the sleeve of her jacket, exposing more burns on her wrist. "Ouch…"

"H-hello?" a tremulous voice cried from the bathroom. Clementine.

Tony carefully cradled Addie in his arms and stood, then carried her to the door and pulled it open. Clementine was sitting in the tub, eyes wide and fearful. "You okay?"

"I'm, um, yes. Is Ember?"

"She'll be okay, I think. I need you to watch her for a minute. I gotta check the front door and make sure we're not getting more company." He eyeballed the tub. It was big enough. "Sit back. Make room." His tone left no room for arguments or questions, so Clementine did as commanded, and Tony gently laid Addie into the tub beside the girl's legs, resting her head in the girl's lap. "If she wakes up, make sure she knows everything is all right."

As Clementine nodded, gingerly cradling Addie's head, Tony turned and stormed out of the bathroom. He shut the door, then shoved the dresser against it. Hefting his shotgun, he jogged down the hall toward the front door. He had a feeling the goons' support tech would be long gone—surely their vitals had been monitored—but he had to check.

The front door was slightly ajar; the attackers had blown the latch. Tony used the barrel of his shotgun to nudge it further open, ready to fire if he saw anyone dressed in combat gear. The hallway was empty. "Of course." He sighed. Did that mean it was over, or did that mean reinforcements were coming? In his professional opinion, it meant the assault was over.

These men had come to nab Clementine, and they'd come in hard and loud. Their window of action was closing because there was no way the building AI or even Ross's neighbors hadn't realized something was going down. Which meant legit corpo-sec units were probably on their way. Tony frowned, striding back into the apartment, hurrying toward the living area and the two men who'd tried to kill him.

He squatted by the guy he'd shot twice in the visor, turning his head so he could see the side of the helmet—black, no markings. While he was there, Tony yanked his PAI and stuffed it into his coat pocket. He wasn't trying to hide his presence there—the job was legit—so he didn't care if the guy's chip was transmitting, but he figured he might as well continue best practices. Besides, he could always sell the thing down the road. Moving down, he searched the heavy, polymer body armor for identifying symbols.

It looked like high-end corpo-sec riot gear or special operator equipment. In his opinion, it was too uniform for these guys to be independent contractors. There were discolored areas on the chest and shoulders where badges might once have been, but he couldn't make out any discernable pattern. A single concussion grenade hung from his belt, so Tony took it, slipping it into his pocket with the PAIs.

He went over to the other victim, sprawled amid the ruined dining table. Tony wrinkled his nose at the mess he'd made of him, and only spared a minute to pull his PAI before backing off. He was on his way back to check on Addie when the lights flickered, and the air began to cycle through the vents. "Guess it's over," he sighed, lowering his gun.

He was just moving the dresser to get back into the bathroom when the residential AI, Inez, said, "Excuse me, Shepherd. I've detected a gap in the continuity of my consciousness timeline. Please provide any information you have. Is Miss Ross here? I can't find her on my visual inputs."

"She's in the bathroom. We were attacked. See the bodies? Contact Ross. I think we're in the clear, but the door's busted and I'm low on ammo."

"Right away."

Tony entered the bathroom and found Clementine and Addie almost exactly as he'd left them. "She come to at all?"

Clementine shook her head. "Just mumbling in her sleep."

Tony nodded, reaching into his coat for one of the two trauma injectors he'd stowed there. They weren't as high-end as the ones he'd gotten off the mercs who'd kidnapped Addie, but they were decent—packed with nanites capable of suturing flesh, restoring blood flow, or even oxygenating a brain for the short term. Earlier, he hadn't thought Addie needed one, considering it seemed like she was out from overusing her Dust, but when he looked at her arm and saw it swelling and turning purple, he changed his mind.

"I think her Dust matrix is fried—at least partially."

"Th-that can happen?"

"Dunno, but if anyone was going to find out, leave it to Ember." Tony winked at the girl as he pressed the injector to Addie's wounded forearm. It hissed, and the little dial on the side ticked down from three to two, meaning it had two more uses before it was dry. He tucked it back into his coat pocket, then stooped to scoop Addie back into his arms.

Tony glanced at Clementine. "Follow me and stick close." Then, as he carried Addie out of the bedroom, he said, "Inez? Did you get ahold of Ross? Can you let us into his bedroom? I'd rather hole up in there with his daughter while we wait for support. I mean, since we've got corpses all over the place."

"One moment, Shepherd," Inez replied.

Still cradling Addie, Tony said, "Clementine, grab onto my coat and don't look at the guys on the floor. It's ugly." Then, he briskly walked out of the room, towing the girl past the carnage. When they were in the long hallway, he hurried toward the double doors at the end.

Inez's voice echoed in the marble-floored hallway. "Mr. Ross is returning home. He's ordered Boxer corpo-sec to secure the site and given me permission to request a trauma team for your colleague; they show an eleven-minute ETA. He will allow me to open his bedroom, but requests that you do not, and I quote, 'mess with his things.' Will that be acceptable?"

"Yeah, fine. Just open the door." Tony was relieved to hear about the trauma team. Honestly, he'd been on the verge of locking Clementine in the bedroom and hauling Addie down to a clinic. He knew there were quite a few right in the NGT building on the lower, commercial levels. When the door clicked open, he carried Addie over to Ross's king-sized bed and its charcoal-gray satin comforter, lying her down gently. Clementine sat at the foot of the bed, looking pensive.

Tony scanned the room, noting the high-end furnishings, the art, and the utter neatness of everything. He could see the polished marble of a bathroom through one open door, and he assumed the other door led to a closet. "No safe room, Inez?"

"No, sir, but the bedroom doors are heavily reinforced."

Tony nodded, walking over to the door and pushing it shut. "Let me know when someone arrives."

"Tony?" Addie's voice was hoarse, almost a whisper, and he hurried back to the bed, grabbing her uninjured hand, too relieved to hear her voice to care that she'd used his real name.

"Hey, hey," he whispered, leaning close. Her eyes were still closed, but she was licking her lips, trying to spread some moisture around. "Boy, you really outdid yourself, didn't you?"

"Is…" She opened her eyes and then closed them immediately, but not before Tony saw that the whites were full of blood. He'd done that once—burst a blood vessel in his eye—but this looked worse. "Is Clementine…"

"I'm fine, Ember! You protected me." The girl tentatively rested her hand on Addie's shin, gently patting it.

Tony stroked one of Addie's thick, dark brows with his thumb, cupping the side of her face. "We're good—just rest. I think you might have fried your matrix. Help's coming, but all the bad guys are gone."

Addie squeezed her eyes tight and lay back on the pillow, exhaling raggedly. "I h-hurt all over."

"I know, I know." Tony continued to massage Addie's brow. "Just a few minutes and the guys with the good stuff will be here."

"Who were they?" Clementine asked, her voice nearly a whisper.

Tony looked at her, saw the tears in her eyes, and had to remind himself that she was just a spoiled, very sheltered kid. "Dunno. Their gear says tac-ops, and they were pretty damn tough. I'm guessing your dad's gonna have some ideas."

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"Shepherd?" Inez asked from her hidden speaker.

"Yeah?"

"Boxer corpo-sec is here. They're establishing a security perimeter outside the apartment, but Mr. Ross doesn't want them in the apartment yet. Will that be all right?"

Tony frowned. Why the hell would he care? "I don't need them. Just get the damn trauma team in here."

"Their ETA is just under five minutes."

Tony already knew that; Nora had created a countdown when Inez first mentioned the ETA. "Okay, good. Does Ross want me to do anything?"

"No, but he's asked me to convey his gratitude."

Tony snorted as he shifted his position, going from his knees onto his butt, leaning his back against the bed as he held Addie's hand. When he didn't say anything for a minute, Clementine got up and moved to a chair in the corner facing the bed. She stared at him for several long seconds before he arched an eyebrow and asked, "What?"

"I saw those men in the bedroom. How'd she do that? Some kind of plasma weapon?"

Tony sighed. "I told you not to look at them. You'll see 'em at night now, when you're trying to sleep." He absently slapped a hand against his coat, feeling for the familiar lump of a stim stick. He'd quit, though, long before he'd even been dumped in the Blast. Still, his body remembered the steadying rush of the chemicals and craved it right then. "Anyway, yeah. A plasma discharge—last-ditch kind of thing." Better the girl spread rumors about dodgy edgerunner tech than of a mysterious Dust empath who could flash-fry a pair of borged-out goons.

"She saved me. I mean, I think. You weren't there, so…"

"Yeah, damn right she saved you. Saved herself, too, but that's besides the point. As for me, I was dealing with another pair. Whoever bankrolled this little move—they weren't cutting corners."

They sat in silence after that, and Tony thought about the firefight, wondering what he could have done better. He should have had some grenades on him, he decided. Some body armor wouldn't have hurt, either. Addie needed an offensive drone. Humpty was great, but she needed something with guns or, at the very least, something that could blow itself up.

"Shepherd, I'm going to admit the trauma team," Inez announced.

With a grunt, Tony stood, watching the door, hand on the grip of his shotgun. When it clicked open, two people wearing pale blue uniform jumpers came through, one lugging a black, hard-shell equipment case and another clutching a light machine gun mounted on a pneumatic stabilizer vest. The guy with the gun took up a position by the door, and the woman approached the bed.

"Is this the injured individual?" she asked, approaching the bed.

"Yeah."

"I'm Doctor Salcido. Please stand back from the patient and don't make any threatening movements—I'd hate for Rudy to overreact." As she spoke, she jerked her head toward the guy by the door, but her grin said she was mostly joking. Her eyes were hidden behind a chromed-out visor, and when she stepped over to Addie, sweeping her gaze methodically across her body, Tony's optics picked out the subtle wash of diagnostic rays—full-spectrum, probably medical-grade. "What happened?"

Tony sighed. So much for keeping her Dust talents a secret from the kid. "I think she overloaded her matrix. She dumped a lot of Dust."

"Ah. That explains the scans."

"I thought you said—" Clementine started to ask, but Tony held up his hand and winked at her when she looked at him.

"She's gonna need a new matrix for sure, and, damn, probably some nerve and vascular grafts, especially in this arm and hand. For now, I can stabilize her and do something about the nerve pain. I see you administered some nanites in the arm. That was good; she was having a real circulation problem. Nothing life-threatening is going on here, at least." She opened her case and took out an auto-injector and a pouch of cartridges for it.

"What's happening?" Addie asked, almost dreamily, as Salcido pressed the injector to her neck.

"Just gonna make you more comfortable." The injector hissed, and Addie sighed, rolling her head to the side as she took a deep breath. The doctor looked at Tony, smiling. "That'll keep her comfortable for a few hours. Now, the damage is the worst in her arm, but she has nerve and vessel burns all along the path of her Dust matrix. I have nanites capable of repairing those less severe injuries, but I need to clear it with the responsible party."

Tony folded his arms over his chest. "You mean the guy footing the bill?"

Salcido nodded. "One minute. I've sent the estimate."

Clementine spoke up. "He'll pay it." She cleared her throat and spoke louder, "Inez! Tell my dad he had better take care of Ember!"

"I will convey your message, Miss Clementine."

"I just got approval," the doctor said, beaming at Clementine. "Not just for the nanites, but for the tissue reconstruction on her arm, as well. Excellent!" She unplugged the canister from her auto-injector and returned to her case, fishing around for something. After a moment, she withdrew a metallic gold canister and put it into the injector. Without pause, she decisively pressed it against Addie's thigh, pulling the trigger with a click and a hiss. Tony thought she was done, but she moved the injector to Addie's shoulder and gave her another dose.

"These are high-end little bots—I'm communicating with them right now." She tapped her visor. "As for her arm—" She looked toward the door. "Rudy, I need the m-cas."

"What's that?" Clementine asked. She'd come to stand beside Tony and was watching the doctor intently.

"Mobile compact auto-surgeon." Salcido stared at Rudy. "Are you going?"

"Hell no, I'm not! There are corpses ten meters down the hall. If I don't keep eyes on you, it's my ass! I already have two write-ups, and—"

"Seriously, Rudy?" The doctor stood, stuffed her injector back into her case, then peeled off the gloves Tony hadn't even seen her put on. "Let's go, then." She glanced at Tony. "Be right back. She'll be out of it for a while."

Tony nodded, watching the two leave. He walked toward the door, trying to decide if he wanted it open or not, but Inez spoke directly into his—still buzzing—audio implants, "Shepherd, Mr. Ross is in his office and requests your presence."

"Seriously?" Tony glanced at Clementine. The girl was snooping through the doctor's case. Under his breath, he asked, "What about his daughter?"

"He asked for you specifically."

"Unbelievable." Tony looked toward the bed. "Clementine, can you keep an eye on her? I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Is it safe?"

"I'm not leaving the apartment—anything seems off, I'll be back here before you can blink twice."

"Okay."

Tony walked down the hallway, past Clementine's room, and then turned left toward the other locked doors in the apartment: Ross's office. They weren't locked any longer. One of them stood open, and two corpo-sec goons, wearing far less formidable armor than the guys who'd raided the apartment, stood guard outside it. When Tony walked toward them, they straightened up and, to his surprise, gave him a respectful nod as they separated a bit more to give him room to pass through.

Ross sat behind his desk inside the office, scowling at something on his AUI. When he glimpsed Tony, he waved his hand, clearing his vision, and said, "Shepherd, we need to talk. Can you close that door?"

Tony pushed the door shut, then turned to face the man. He didn't mean to—probably didn't even realize it—when he folded his arms over his chest and leaned a shoulder against the bookcase to his left, slouching there, and affecting an utterly unimpressed posture. "Somebody sent some heavy hitters here, Ross."

"I'm aware. I'm also aware that I was fortunate to have hired you and your partner. Can you imagine if I'd left my little corpo-sec detail to watch over my daughter?" He sighed and dug through his desk drawer until he pulled out a small pill box. He shook it, smiling with satisfaction as one of them fell into the palm of his hand. After he'd tossed it back with a swig of water from the tumbler on his desk, he said, "I'm turning on a jammer. No offense, but I'm about to talk about some sensitive topics."

Tony shrugged, and Ross stared at him for a few seconds, then nodded and touched a small black box on his desk. The buzzing in Tony's ears intensified.

Ross cleared his throat, leaned back in his chair, and said, "I'm almost certain the men you and your partner killed are members of a Black Talon unit—Boxer's corporate special forces."

Tony nodded. "Tracks. I mean, you said you had rivals."

"I do, but this is different. Only the people on my team knew I'd be out today. Only someone who's been watching me very carefully would know my daughter is here. I've gotten myself tied up in a perilous position at work. Things are coming to a boil, and I need to relieve some pressure."

Tony shifted but didn't speak. He was waiting for something useful to come out of the man's mouth, and he had a feeling things were about to get interesting.

"Are you familiar with the Boxer executive structure?"

Tony shook his head.

"Well, at my level, we're all expected to earn, you see? We're given a great deal of autonomy, budget, personnel—anything we need. At the end of the year, if we don't show a big return on all the bits we go through, it's chopping block time. You understand?"

Tony nodded.

"Well, my current project is deep in the red, but I'm very close to a breakthrough, something that'll bring returns that'll put me in the top earner spot among my contemporaries. We had a setback a couple of weeks back—lost one of our top scientists—but we recovered, and things are looking good. I'm getting squeezed, though. I've got a certain rival—the one who organized my setback—who's causing trouble for me. I'm ninety percent sure he's the one who staged today's attack."

"Any evidence?"

"Only that his brother-in-law is the Black Talon commander. Well, and the fact that he's the one who paid some mercs to kidnap my scientist."

Tony's heart rate picked up. "The, uh, setback you mentioned?"

"Yeah. Now the lunatic—the scientist—is loose in the district, and my COO is breathing down my neck, blaming me for all the trouble he's causing. That's what I was supposed to be dealing with today."

"This scientist. He got a name?"

"Kwon." Ross waved his hand. "Forget that, though. I'll work on that problem. I'll make you a proposal: I need something done about Weaver—my rival—and I'll pay well for it."

"Something done? As in?"

"I don't know! I need him to disappear, man! I need him off my back! Look, I'll pay for any medical treatment your partner needs. I'll give you a hefty bonus for today's job, too, but if you'll help me out with Weaver, then I'll really make it worth your while."

Tony unfolded his arms and slowly walked over to the chair in front of Ross's desk. He sat down on the edge of the cushion, resting his mechanical elbow on his knee as he leaned forward, drilling his eyes into Ross's. The man swallowed noisily and blinked, looking to the side, then back. "I just want to be clear—you're asking me to kill a Boxer exec?"

Ross glanced at the black box on his desk—the jammer—and his hand shook when he reached toward it. He tilted it toward himself, so the small crystal-glass display faced him. He was confirming it was working. When he set the box down and looked at Tony, he nodded. "Yeah. That's right. I guess that would be the easiest, but if you could take him out some other way, I'd be fine with that, too. I just need him to be too damn busy to mess with me, you understand?"

Tony nodded. "I've done work like that before. My partner won't like it, but if you're okay with…alternative solutions, I think I can sell it to her. You're sure you can handle the scientist?"

Ross nodded. "Yes. I almost had it handled today before"—he waved a hand toward the door leading into the rest of his apartment—"all this happened."

"All right. Let me get Ember sorted out. I'm assuming you don't want to go through Torque for this?"

"Why do you think I'm talking to you now? If word gets out about this…"

Tony smiled, leaning back in the chair. "All right. I'm going to have my PAI send you an encrypted comm address. We're going to have a lot of expenses to prep for a job like this, so I'll need partial payment up front."

"Of course! I meant what I said about a bonus for your work today, too. I'll pay that through Torque, though—might as well keep up appearances."

"Yeah. All right, Mr. Ross." Tony stood. "Let me get back to my partner, and we'll talk soon."

"The sooner the better, Shepherd. You bought me a little time today; Weaver will have to keep his head down after this kidnapping debacle, but that won't last forever."

Tony paused as he rested his hand on the doorknob. "First things first. Send me a contract offer on that encrypted channel. You can use language like 'target' instead of mentioning the guy's name. If I like the offer, we'll get started soon enough."

"Of course. Thank you, Shepherd, and please thank your partner, too. I'll be in touch."