Chapter 25 - Braindancing Queen

  Before I went home, I stopped by Lizzie’s Bar for business.

  Since Doc and I were not—nor would we ever again be—on speaking terms, it was up to me now to take the initiative when it came to looking for BDs. And while I didn’t know exactly what channels he got his JKs from, I did know that most of his porn stuff came from a gang known as the Mox, a gang that consisted mostly of prostitutes or people committed to protecting them.

  I stepped in line and waited for my turn to enter the neon pink building until I was face to face with a baseball bat wielding woman who gave me a once-over. “You new here?”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “Don’t touch what you won’t buy, or we’ll have a problem. You see someone you like, go to the bar or just book them using the localnet. Got it?”

  “Yeah, sure,” I said. “But I’m just here for BDs.”

  She shrugged. “I don’t really give a shit what you do, man. Just ask the bartender.”

  “Okay,” I said, and tried to step forward, only for the bouncer to hold her bat in my way.

  “I want fifty.”

  “Ah, sorry,” I sent her the entrance fee and she raised the bat and gave me a genial smile.

  “Don’t sweat it,” she said. “Have fun.”

  I went inside and saw exactly what I expected to see—a bunch of brain potatoes zoned out wearing their BD wreaths and pitching a tent in their pants. Scantily dressed Mox girls walked around, marketing themselves subtly, but making sure not to look any one patron in their eyes. They seemed profoundly uninterested in the job, yet they were posing in such casually sexy ways, emphasizing their back arches, breasts and legs. Maybe that was a part of the marketing.

  Wetwork probably was different from just regular work in that way. You had to manipulate repression to get ahead. Acting coy and all.

  One girl walked in front of me, then past me, and I followed her movements. She was dark-skinned, with long black stripper boots, wearing nothing on her lower body but a pair of pink panties. She also wore a white tank-top, and above that a short-sleeved pink jacket cut off at her midriff, and her hair was dreadlocked and tied up in a bun. She was pretty, too. Really pretty.

  Her face flashed in my mind’s eye again, my perfect recall coming in handy as I examined her face closer. Yeah. Really pretty.

  Fuck. I chuckled. She got me good there. I should probably call Fei-Fei at some point. I proceeded toward the bar, pushing my horny teenager brain down and trying my best not to get side-tracked again. And also to try and prevent myself from interacting with the girl, because I didn’t quite trust myself to not be an idiot right now.

  On paper, consuming the services of prostitutes always seemed slightly gross to me, like a failure of masculinity and power. I knew that others saw it as a form of ultimate masculinity and power, because this sex was bought by money, which was synonymous with power. But looking at these workers right now, I’d hesitate to feel any sort of disgust at them. They were people, working to survive, just like my mom did. And while Katsuo would have shit to say about them and my mom which enraged me to no end, in the end I couldn’t quite resent their differences.

  “See someone you like?” asked the bartender, a handsome man with EMP threading contouring his chin, a shock of necklaces on his neck, and an unbuttoned blue shirt. I chuckled. “Or are you just feeling guilty about cheating on your output? Been there.”

  I laughed. “Mostly just philosophizing, I guess,” I replied honestly.

  “Enny for your thoughts?”

  Well, if he was asking. “I like what the Mox does. I think this work is as respectable as any. Just took me coming here to fully realize that.” Hell, it was probably more respectable than being a corpo. At least as a sex worker, you only had to exploit yourself and not anyone else. But that was all work when you got right down to it. Exploit your assets where there’s a demand for them. For some, assets could also count as other people.

  “You want a drink?”

  Fuck it. Huh, what did I like again? To be honest, I liked none of the hard liquors more than the other. They were just a better option than beer. “Double tequila. Also, I want to know where I can get some edgerunner BDs.”

  “Check the localnet,” the bartender said as he uncapped a bottle of tequila and poured a measure that looked more than a double, dipping the bottle up and down as it poured. I connected to the localnet with my eyes and quickly found the BBS sub with the BDs they had on sale. I checked the miscellaneous section for their non-porn options, but came up empty on any new edgerunning shit.

  Crap.

  The bartender put the glass in front of me and I took a sip of it. I heard the scraping of a bar stool next to me, and it was a girl, probably a Mox, moving closer to me. She had an undercut and long hair that almost covered her right eye, green at the start, turning pink from the middle to the end. “Find anything you like?”

  “Not really, no,” I said as I took a deeper sip.

  “Shame. I might have some fetish stuff for you out back. If it’s too embarassing to say out loud, I can give you a call.”

  Ah. Was she the Braindance Editor then? “Thanks, but I wasn’t looking for porn, actually. I wanted some edgerunning XBDs, and I have no idea where to really get any after my supplier, uh, ghosted me. You got any of those out back?”

  She raised an eyebrow. “You want psycho BDs? It’s a weird place to ask for that stuff. You’d have better luck at a boostergang bar, we only really sell porn here.”

  Damn. Guess early JK was a go. But also…

  “Hey, I know this is a longshot,” I said. “But I’m assuming you’re a BD editor, right?”

  “You’d be right about that,” she said. “You scroll a BD or something? I can edit your virtu if you’d like.” I pursed my lips.

  “That’s gonna be hard. I’m trying to censor a lot of it. Any chance you could just point me to a place I can buy the tech for editing?”

  “I can be discreet,” she said. “Wouldn’t be able to work in this biz if I couldn’t. Grab your drink. I can take you out back right now and we can talk shop. Name’s Judy, by the way.”

  I felt a little uneasy as I followed her. The bartender made a coughing sound, and I remembered that I had to pay. After getting that business done, I followed Judy further into the club. I sank another gulp of tequila to take care of the slight anxiety. Would an early JK even cut it? The advantage of my little Wraith face-off was that it was fresh, never-before-seen, and the death toll at the end of the day was somewhat impressive. But was it really, though? It was too easy. No tension at all. I didn’t feel the fear that most edgerunners felt while tightrope walking between life and death. I was too in control. It wouldn’t be interesting.

  “See, the problem,” Judy said. “Is that you’re underestimating the skill necessary to edit virtus. It’s not something you can learn overnight. Thankfully, you don’t have to.” We walked to a backdoor that led to a tight corridor and finally got to Judy’s workshop. She fell on her work chair and faced me with arms folded. “So, what did you scroll and what do you want left out?”

  “My face for one,” I said. “From any reflection and stuff. Names and identities of the people I was thinking about at the time,” I said. “Uhh,” I rubbed the back of my neck. “It gets really specific at points,” I admitted.

  She raised an eyebrow. “Alright, then. You got the virtu burned yet?”

  I ejected a chip from my neck, one I had filled with a virtu that was scrolled by both my eyes and my spine.

  “So what we’ll do to start with,” she said. “Is you’ll rewatch the BD and tell me exactly the parts and thoughts you want censored and removed. I’ll watch and make notes as we go.”

  “Okay,” I said, thinking that over. I had perfect recall over my own thoughts. I could just tell her right now in excruciating detail everything I wanted scrubbed from the BD. Still, I wasn’t eager to go through with this. I had no idea who Judy was, and now I was entrusting her with knowledge of my solo alter ego. The only thing that protected me was that she had no idea what I did during the day, but even that was quite flimsy. Some of my thoughts would anyway shed light on this.

  That being said, I needed this BD done. I was backed to a corner now and the only way forward was to take a risk. Just had to man up and raise my risk tolerance a little.

  “I’ve got the details actually,” I said as I opened up a word processor in my eyes and activated the Sandevistan so I could finish writing every element I wanted scrubbed from the BD. Then I sent it to her.

  “Okay,” she said. “Now let’s talk price. But first, you’ve gotta tell me what the fuck it is you scrolled. Seriously. Don’t be shy.”

  I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Well, I’m a solo, and that right there’s a gig.” Not really, that was a lie. It was just random violence, but I didn’t want her to think I was crazy.

  “Oh,” she said, sitting straighter. “You’re a solo? You seem so… chill.”

  “It’s been a long day,” I said as I downed the last of my tequila and looked around for places where I could put the glass. Judy just leaned forward and offered her hand, and I gave the glass to her. “Sorry. Yeah. So it’s sort of an Edgerunner XBD.”

  “Weren’t you looking for them?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” I said. “This is the backup plan.”

  She hummed. “Ten thousand.”

  I winced. “That’s steep for just a BD edit, no?”

  “It’s an XBD. Those are different. Illegal for one. And ultraviolence ain’t my cup of tea, so you’re paying extra for that.”

  I sighed. “Can we do eight thousand?”

  “Ten thousand,” she said firmly. I frowned.

  “Come on, that’s—” I sighed again. “Fine.” I wired her a transaction request using my shell corp and she accepted it with a smile. “I want about ten copies.”

  “Pleasure doing biz.”

  “I need this done fast, Judy,” I said. “Tomorrow afternoon at the latest or I’m fucked. I’m sorry to pressure you, but it’s my ass on the line, too, and I’ve paid a lot for this.”

  “Shit won’t take that long,” she said. “Just head on over at six in the morning and it’ll be ready. How long is it?” she slotted the BD into a wreath that was only connected to her PC monitor. “Three minutes. Yeah, it’ll be done in time. Don’t worry, kid.”

  And… here it is. “Judy,” I began. “I don’t suffer loose lips lightly.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me. “Are you threatening—”

  “Yes. Yes, I am.”

  She stared daggers at me, and I returned that stare with an impassive one. I didn’t need bluster. I just needed her to understand.

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  She relented first, and looked away to type something at her keyboard, not saying a word to me. “See you in the morning,” I said as I walked away.

  000

  Judy Alvarez watched as the apparent solo closed the door on his way out, her heart still roiling from the sudden and gratuitous brush with impending violence. She’d first taken a shine to the kid after overhearing his conversation with the bartender. Didn’t seem like the bad sort. Probably wasn’t, either. She felt bad for having ripped him off on editing his little BD, but after that blatant threat, not anymore.

  But she had no reason to fuck the kid over. And even if she did, as revenge for his mouthiness, she’d rather do so after learning about what he was capable of.

  She put on her BD wreath and watched the virtu unedited first. Most people began at half-strength on emotion, but she could already tell from the data in the virtu that the emotions never really peaked beyond comfort levels except for just one occasion. This would probably be a boring watch then.

  Then she was on a little plateau in the badlands, the city of Night behind her and the endless desert in front of her. Her bike had been fucked with. Wraiths were closing in.

  She immediately considered options.

  So many options. So many thoughts. Ideas. Plans. Branches of the future stretching out endlessly, each one being analyzed, each calculated for optimal efficiency.

  Judy felt as if her face was being pressed so close into a TV screen that she was pushing into it, through it, her entire self being replaced by the subject on the screen. The Solo.

  The Solo’s mind raced. Judy pressed the emergency brakes and stopped the virtu, and then ripped the wreath from her head.

  What the fuck?

  Her brain was buzzing.

  What the fuck was inside this virtu?

  It was like she was wearing a Kerenzikov, only her perception of the thoughts running through the subject’s head was normal speed despite the speedware making every thought whizz by at three times the speed.

  She put the virtu on half-speed and disconnected some parameters of her personal link so she wouldn’t lose her ego so she could watch the rest. The kid managed to stop time somehow, using a Sandevistan, which gave him time to think even more.

  A lot of morality bullshit, too. He had a hangup about not having a hangup about killing. Weird. And that number he kept thinking about? What was he, some sort of middle-school syndrome patient? How in the fuck had the kid that had just been in her workshop killed a hundred and eighty three people? That was insanely excessive.

  The kid sent out his quickhacks, and things only got weirder from there. It was as if she had just gone from driving a Mai Mai to going full throttle on a Rayfield Excalibur AV. She halved the speed of the virtu again and ignored the technobabble in the quickhack. Most Netrunners who scrolled BDs requested to have the tech babble edited out to not give any watchers an in on their techniques, but the kid’s files said nothing about changing that up. Whatever. She wouldn’t touch it then.

  The kid sent pandemonium into the midst of the thirty wraiths that were making their way towards him, killing several almost instantly in the ensuing hail of bullets and rockets. A voice, probably the Sandevistan itself, informed him of how much he had used it, and he was surprised at that. He had gone through some brain changes evidently, and it had made him vastly better at processing information. That explained so much.

  He stopped two cars, and then he activated the Sandevistan again to drop-kick the windshield of the first car coming towards him, instantly killing the two passengers inside.

  A sharp pain travelled up her legs before disappearing. A minor spike in emotion followed. She’d keep the pain in, since it was so brief that it would probably just give the watcher a high. And the kid moved on from it with admirable swiftness too; no lingering mental microtrauma.

  The kid’s mind wandered from time to time, thinking about random stuff as he threw a knife straight into the skull of an approaching Wraith.

  It felt surreal to be in his body as he charged at a gunman with nothing but his fists, completely ignoring the fact that he had his own gun. The brutality he executed was calculated and workmanlike, but no less gruesome to watch as he deformed the guy’s face.

  Then the biggest spike in emotion yet occurred. Her mind’s eye flashed with the face of a beautiful, red-haired woman, the rolling barrel of a heavy machine gun, fire and vehicles, and then an impressionistic scene of heaven and hell.

  ‘Sorry, mom.’

  An otherworldly force seemed to hug around the Solo’s body—clearly a figment of imagination but a remarkably stable one—pushing his trigger finger and killing the Wraith.

  She paused the virtu and made sure to scan for more emotional crests. She hadn’t expected this one to affect her nearly as much as it did.

  And the client wanted this deleted.

  That… wouldn’t do, though. That was a defining moment. She didn’t know what it defined or what it did for him, but she knew it was important.

  Grief. Lost loved one. Loss of innocence. Those were killer themes, sold for a fucking premium in Night City, especially when packaged in with edgerunner biz. Too many hardened and jaded criminals scrolled their BDs. There wasn’t a contrast, really, between the moral reflection of their actions and the reality of it. No story.

  ‘Mom’ would have to be replaced. Also the post-traumatic imagery. She could obscure the faces and defining characteristics. But the ‘sorry’ had to remain. A sorry to a deceased loved one, a step into the underworld.

  She nodded. And continued the virtu.

  The Solo was all biz from there on out. He got into a Wraith car, admired its beauty, decided then and there that he would get it. Some more shit about a guy called Maine and his car and… a school? Kid went to school? Hold on, was he doing all of this to impress his friends?

  What the actual fuck.

  This kid was a nutcase.

  The show continued as the kid drove his newfound dream car into a herd of Wraiths shooting at him, killing only one of them before diving out like an action hero, processing every portion of his surroundings in order to make a landing that didn’t even so much as scratch him on the rocks on the desert. He raised his gun, activated his Sandevistan and popped each Wraith one by one.

  No. He popped them the way he had been taught to pop them by someone called Rebecca. And the impressions suggested it wasn’t long ago that he learned it either.

  No… it couldn’t be the same Rebecca. Had to be a coincidence. The kid didn’t flash any visual memory of this Rebecca either, so Judy had no way to confirm. Either way, he took his enemies out with perfect precision after getting the hang of shooting. Then he got up and looked for a long gun, found a copperhead, shot some newcomers, and let one of them run so he could get better target practice.

  “Are you threatening—”

  “Yes. Yes, I am.”

  At first, Judy had been surprised at the balls of this kid to just walk into an outsider’s turf and threaten them to their face. Judy had heard a lot of shit from desperate people, but threats rubbed her wrong wherever they came from. And she had almost returned his money and then thrown him out on his ass for it. She hadn’t taken the threat particularly seriously as well either. What could he do?

  A lot. He could do a lot.

  Back to the virtu, the Solo drove up to the wreckage and finished the job, dispassionately executing every last Wraith. The last one, he finally felt some emotion. The slightest hint of contrition, honest contrition too, but in the end he was resolved to only one course of action. After all, the gonk had seen his face.

  And now his was riddled with bullets.

  The virtu ended there.

  Judy bit her thumbnail, considering that wraith’s last moments.

  She called Rebecca.

  Becca: Yo, Judes? Long time, no talk! What’s up?

  Judy: Got a question for you. You in touch with any solo that sports a Sandevistan?

  Becca: You heard of D already? Yeah, he’s a newbie in our crew. Crazy motherfucker and fucking competent too. He’s my choom also. Whaddya want with him?

  Judy was just about to talk about the virtu before ‘D’s voice popped up in her head.

  “I don’t suffer loose lips lightly.”

  ‘Gonk saw my face.’

  Judy: Not-nothing. Just heard rumors is all.

  Becca: Wait a minute. He didn’t come to Lizzie’s did he? Did he? Oh my god, you have to tell me if he did.

  Judy: No, not at all, I’ve never seen him. Me and the other girls just heard rumors about a Sandy in your crew, we wanted to know if they fuck as good as they say. You know, cuz they’re, like, super fast? Hahah.

  Becca: Nah, he doesn’t fuck. Me, at least. But I’ll ask if he uses it when he fucks next time I see him and settle this debate for ya, no problem. Was that all?

  Judy: Yeah, pretty much. Why not swing by Lizzie’s sometime? Your brother’s a regular, why ain’t you?

  Becca: Because my brother’s a regular. Ban him and I’ll finally come back.

  Judy: Hahah. See ya, Becs.

  Judy hung up and started chewing harder on her thumbnail.

  Ah.

  Fuck.

  000

  I woke up extra early today so I could both swing by Lizzie’s to pick up my BDs and also so I could send in a request to have several more sets of uniform ordered. It was about time I replaced my stuff with something that fit better, and also because I didn’t want to bother with getting rid of every single dried bloodstain from a white shirt.

  I came to Lizzie’s with my casualwear and saw the bouncer sitting on a chair staring up at the sky with golden eyes. She saw me and ended the call. “Back for more?” she asked.

  “Yeah, I have some biz with Judy,” I said. “Can I come through?”

  “Fifty eddies first,” she said.

  Judy popped out from the door and saw me. “Ah, hey you, come on in.”

  “I’ll pay, first,” I said.

  “Pay?” Judy asked, then looked at the bouncer. Ah, fuck. why do I let myself get scammed so easily?

  “I never had to pay to begin with, did I?” I looked at the bouncer, who was just grinning.

  “Nope.”

  Judy looked at me with wide eyes. “How much did you pay her? I can return the cash if you want.”

  I raised an eyebrow at that. She was being pretty agreeable all of a sudden. What did she want? Or rather, what did she do? “No, it’s fine. It’s just fifty edds anyway.” A long time ago, I couldn’t imagine myself ever saying that, but now I could. Way before even graduating, too.

  Nova.

  I followed her into the bar and to her office. She was walking with a spring in her step. “As agreed, all identifiers have been removed. All reflections, names and faces, except for the Wraiths. I tweaked the experience a little to sort of shave down the density of information—you think, like, really hard, you know? Really solid thoughts, if that makes sense. Fast too. Not that it’s any of my business, but you might wanna get checked for neurodevelopmental disorders. You’re kind of… all over the place,” we reached her office where she kept a ziploc bag of chips. “Anyway, here they are. I threw in an extra ten chips. You paid a lot for this edit, and it’s really not a big deal. And yes, I will keep my silence on this. You have my word on that.”

  Ah, I understood now.

  She was scared of me. “I’m glad you understand.” I accepted the bag. “And hey,” I said the beginnings of an apology, but thought better of it. Maybe just double down instead. “I think you forgot the original and uncopied virtu.”

  “Was just getting to that,” she said with a strained smile as she handed me the chip in a small ziplock bag. “There you go.”

  I searched her eyes for any hints of deception, but all I could find was fear and discomfort. “Thank you,” I said. “Preem work.” And I turned to leave.

  But not before breaching into her shit of course. She was a techie, not a Netrunner, but her cybersec was still solid enough to stall me for the amount of time it took for me to walk into her workshop and almost be out the door. I did a quick scan through her drives and found nothing just as I walked out the door.

  She knew better, I kept telling myself on my way home to get dressed up for school. She knew better than to fuck with me at this point.

  Still, it was a risk I absolutely hated taking. Leaps of faith rarely went unpunished in this city.

  000

  At school, I was just breezing by in a daze of simmering anger and discontentedness, my typical cocktail of emotion whenever I came to this hellish academy. It was more than average now though; my interaction with Judy left me uneasy, vulnerable, and the fact that I was doing all of this to gain the favor of some fifteen-year-old only added more salt to my wound.

  During lunch, I ate in the park as always, out of the way of the other cliques and groups. Mid-sandwich, I got an unexpected call.

  Fei-Fei: Hey there. Forget about me yet?

  I smiled.

  David: Likely story. Was actually thinking about you recently.

  Fei-Fei: See a pretty girl walk by or what?

  I raised an eyebrow. How the fuck could she guess that?

  David: No, I mean—yeah.

  Fei-Fei: Hahah! Relax, choom! It’s not like we’re dating or anything. I don’t expect exclusivity from you.

  David: Yeah, yeah. I know. It’s just, it’s a weird setup for me. This is new.

  Fei-Fei: It’s, yeah, it’s new to me, too. Feels a little strange, but better than commitment I would say. Anyway, there’s a party going on tonight

  David: Yacht party, yeah, I heard. You got invited too?

  Fei-Fei: I go wherever Katsuobushi goes, for better or for worse.

  David: Katsuobushi, hahah. I’ll use that one someday.

  Fei-Fei: No, it’s my… pet-name for him. Best not to use it.

  David: Damn. Guess I’ll just go back to the tried and tested ‘gonk’.

  Fei-Fei: You can call him Studd-San. He has a chrome dick, you know?

  David: Fuck, really?

  I laughed.

  Fei-Fei: Honest! It’s got a vibration function and everything! Feels like getting drilled by a jackhammer. Have to screw up my pain thresh just to enjoy it. And he’s like, super fixated on his dick, too. Talks about it a lot. He calls it a fucking spear, the dickhead. Literally.

  David: What a freak. Wait, it hurts?

  Fei-Fei: It’s not a big deal. I can just not feel the pain when I want to, and I was mostly just doing it because I felt bad for him. He doesn’t have the balls to try anything I don’t want.

  David: Careful or he might replace them with more chrome.

  Fei-Fei: Hahahahahaha! Oh man—and you know, he shaped it weirdly too. ‘For your pleasure’, he said-said. He’s such a gonk, I can’t.

  David: Jesus Christ, choom, you can’t be serious

  Fei-Fei: Like, I feel bad for him sometimes. He tries so hard to flaunt daddy’s chromy gifts as if that means anything. Never understood how you could be so proud of having earned nothing at all. Like, his best qualities? Daddy bought them. Everything from chipware down to his oversized plastic dick. That being said, don’t ever get a Mr. Studd, David.

  David: Oh god please don’t talk about that.

  Something about cutting my dick off to get a ‘better’ one skeeved me out way worse than chipping in entire arms or legs. Maybe I was putting too much importance on the concept of manhood? Probably. Wasn’t like chrome couldn’t just make anyone a man, or a woman, or anything in between.

  In the end it was all just matter. The deeper concepts like masculinity and pride being centered around a body part made as much sense to me as religion or spirituality when I really thought about it.

  Thing about Katsuo was that he was just bad at using his tools. Not me, though. I’m built different.

  I finished the last of my sandwich.

  Fei-Fei: I’m serious! You don’t need a vibrating glans function or a dick long enough to stick out of my mouth! Just use your fingers and tongue like you always have, go deep and slow just like—

  I had to make sure no one was around to see me blush or react physically to Fei-Fei’s words. I let her go on for a while though, and resisted every urge to return the same energy and frustrate myself even more. Instead, I just got down to biz.

  David: You think we’ll get some alone time during this party?

  Fei-Fei: Probably. Studd-San will be busy kissing up to his baby cousin for most of the time. While that happens, you and I can go LEO.

  David: You’re gonna regret riling me up, choom.

  Fei-Fei: I will most certainly not. And here’s a parting gift. See you tonight, big bad solo.

  Fei-Fei hung up the call and left a photo. I downloaded it and opened it in my eyes.

  She was in her school’s bathroom, wearing her school uniform; a brown and black plaid skirt and a long-sleeved white shirt with a tie, only the shirt was pulled up to reveal her boobs.

  That… did things.

  I was racing against the clock now. Either I calmed down in the next five minutes or I’d be late for the next class.