Hundreds of neon lights on the streets of Zeelis made Dolly glow as she walked. The sun had just set, but the enormity of the city had hidden the natural light for hours now. Dolly was used to drowning out the deafening sound of the traffic above and below her, it was more important to focus on getting home fast, or risk running into a bunch of Cartel thugs. She couldn’t afford another visit to a Ripper-Doc…
As she neared the lift, Dolly heard shouts in the distance. Snatchers are out again… At least they’re not after me, she thought. Dolly hopped into the lift and let out a sigh of relief when it took her straight to level 3. The worst was over and she could finally get home and relax.
Dolly walked up to her door and knocked 3 times. Jessup should be home already, and she was too tired to pull out her MagKey. She heard whispers on the other side of the door, and light footsteps… “C’mon, open up!” yelled Dolly.
The door opened a crack, the Restraint Beam was still active as Jessup peeked through the gap. “Oh thank fuck, it’s just you” he said.
“Yeah… Just me. Is everything okay Jes?”
“Yeah yeah yeah, just come in quick”
Jessup switched off the beam and hurried Dolly inside. Dolly walked into her home to find a stranger sitting at the table, with an old rag soaking up blood from his right shoulder, and a gun in his left hand. “Hey Dolly!” said Faller, a bit too cheerful for someone that had obviously been shot. “Jessup what the hell is going on here?” said Dolly.
“Dolly, don’t freak out, this is Faller. He’s… a friend”
“Your friend is bleeding”
“It’s under control”
“Under control? What about the bench covered in tech?” Snapped Dolly, gesturing to the array of Psybernetics on the table.
“Look..” said Jessup, “Long story short, Faller was doing a drop for some Snatchers, and it turned south when the ZPD showed up”
Dolly could feel her cheeks burning in frustration. “THE ZPD?! And you thought the best place to hide out was our home?”
“Like I said, Faller is a friend, I couldn’t just turn him away. We’re working on a plan.”
Despite being furious Dolly’s caring nature urged her to help. “Well shit. He’s already here, there’s not much we can do about that. At least let me take a look at that at that shoulder”
Dolly removed the rag from Faller’s shoulder and noted that Jessup had done less than a half-decent job at cleaning up. “Christ Jes, did you even try to help this guy? Grab me the med kit from the hall will you?”
Dolly continued to inspect the wound and used a SanPad to wipe away the blood. “Honestly, we deal with shit like this at least once a week at work” she remarked, “you’re gonna be fine”.
The shot had come from a tech pistol, the bullet grazed Faller’s shoulder, but the electric discharge from the round had also fried some of the skin. Dolly could see a couple of wires that must connect to a Psybernetic implant, she soldered the wires back together, careful not to drip any liquid metal into the wound, and delicately pushed the cables back under the wound before sewing it shut. “Ahhh feeling better already!” remarked Faller.
Dolly noticed a couple of lights buried under the skin by his elbow were now blinking. What could that implant be for…. She wondered.
“Alright you’re patched up, but go easy on that shoulder tough guy. So do you want to tell me what you intend to do with all this blood soaked tech you’ve dragged to my house?” Asked Dolly.
“Right, of course. Well obviously I need to lay low for a while, but truth be told the last thing Snatchers care about is a bit of blood on their tech, so I shouldn’t have any trouble arranging another drop”
This guy is a moron thought Dolly. “So your plan is to do exactly what got you shot in the first place?” She asked.
Faller looked stunned. This was what he did to get by, abandoning the drop wasn’t an option. “There’s a lot more at stake here than just money. I have a good thing going with— “
“The thugs that rip Psybernetics out of people?” Dolly interrupted.
“Yes, those guys, better to be on their good side than be one of their victims”
Faller had a point, and like it or not Dolly was part of this now. Her mind was racing thinking of the best way to deal with the situation. She hadn’t seen any ZPD on the way home, so the trail was probably cooling off, but it was too soon to send Faller out the door. If he was spotted with that bloody bag he might not make it down a single level.
“Hey, Jessup, do you still talk to that Ripper-Doc guy… What was his name, Kane? Kale?” Asked Dolly.
“You mean Kade? Yeah he’s posted on level eight, but he’s out of the business since he started flipping those sigils from the Equinox Syndicate”
“You said a while back he was working on temporary cloaking implants, maybe we should see if he’s available for one more patient. Assuming you’re keen for an upgrade, Faller?”
“Hell yeah! My last doc ‘underdelivered’ if you know what I mean” replied Faller, pointing at the glowing lights next to his elbow.
Dolly was glad he wanted to go ahead with the plan, but remained suspicious of that implant. From what she’d seen through the wound, that job looked flawless, and the circuitry went past his shoulder. That implant was done by a professional, and there’s no way something that big doesn’t do something impressive.
“I take it you’re good for the money, given your… profession. If we’re gonna help I think you could swing some of the profit off this job to me and Jessup here, think of it as ‘rent’ and ‘cleaning supply costs’”
Faller smirked and put his hands up above his head in mock-defeat. “Fair is fair”, he remarked. “And thanks for patching me up too, Jes is a good friend, but he’s a shit medic”
“Whatever”, Jessup scoffed. “I’ll telegram Kade and see what we can do. You’re sure you want to get involved in this, Dolly?”
“It’s a bit late for that now, and I figure you both need someone with brains to do this properly anyway.”
In truth Dolly was riddled with anxiety, but was also feeling a rush of excitement. She hadn’t been past level 5 in a long time, and life had been a bit predictable lately. The prospect of being in the Snatcher’s “good books” was appealing. Dolly had her own Psybernetics she would rather keep inside her body.
The trio continued to discuss the plan late into the night and decided Faller would stay there for at least tonight while they waited on a reply from Kade. Jessup cleaned up the blood and hid the bag of Tech while Dolly set up a spot for Faller to sleep in the lounge. Dolly reflected on how the peaceful evening she had envisaged ended with her agreeing to help out with a Snatcher deal. It sounded insane in her head, and she didn’t feel like herself, nonetheless Dolly was cautiously optimistic about how this would all turn out..