Strong Enough 5.0

Interlude: Choosing Beggers

“That’s a nice chair,” Becca says.

David nods. “Thought this was more of a scav ‘outpost,’ yeah?”

Taylor sighs, pinching her nose. “That’s the thing about scavs. Always digging in deeper.”

“Hey, we found the other elevator, didn’t we?” Becca replies.

They did find the other elevator. It lies in the back of the scav den in the basement. Or maybe ex-scav den fits better. David watched Scar clear the place out in approximately zero seconds flat. Something like:

“Going in, stay outside until I give the all clear.”

Scarlet zips inside.

Becca completely ignores instructions and leans through the open door just in time for—

BANG

Six simultaneous gunshots split the air. Becca cheers. David and the rest of the crew look inside.

Scar stands alone inside the first room, two dead scavs at her feet, another body peeking around another door. In her hand, the modded burya spins down.

“Now that’s a gun,” she says.

And then they all clapped or something. Still, David feels good, knowing that the superspeed pistol he helped kludge together did all of that. Helps with the feelings of inadequacy.

Doesn’t help with the ripper chair.

“Sheeeeeeet.” Becca runs her hand over the padded seat and attached computer, still wrapped in plastic. “This is minty, chooms. Probably ain’t even been blooded yet.”

“Oh, it’s definitely been bloodied,” Emma says. She traces a finger down one arm rest, through paired drops of blood. “Nice work on the resale value, Taylor.”

Taylor huffs, crossing her arms. “Next time you clear the scav den and I’ll fence the loot.”

Emma tosses her hair. “Good, we can both fail.”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Becca hops between the two of them, almost falling over until David catches her. “You can’t—aww thanks, sweet cheeks.” Becca yanks him into a tight hug.

David looks away, patting her back. “No prob.”

“Anyway!” Becca hops away. “You can’t just sell something this preem! It’s bolted into the floor even! How’d they even get something this nice?”

“Same way they get anything,” David straightens, blushing when Lucy raises an eyebrow at him. Damn but if she doesn’t give him shit for everything. “Look, you can see the scuffmarks where it fell off a truck.”

“No, that’s also Taylor’s fault.”

Taylor rolls her eyes “Ha, ha.”

“Besides,” says Emma. “What would we even keep it for? None of us are rippers, and sure we’ve got a few crates of scavenged chrome down here. But offloading that shit’ll be hard enough without also having to do the install.”

“Offloading?” David asks. “Can’t we see about, you know…uh, repatriating it or sum shit?”

“Repatriating?” Lucy asks. “What are you, a word of the day widget?”

David ignores her.

Taylor and Emma share a look. Been doing that more and more. David remembers the temple job, how they flipped between working together perfectly and not at all. Whatever weird tension between them has almost completely evaporated, far as he can see.

David doesn’t get women.

“We’ll look,” Taylor says. Emma huffs. Taylor shrugs at her. “We have runners.”

Lucy crosses her arms. “Thanks so much for volunteering me.”

“You wanted more cuts of the money.” Taylor shrugs. “But we probably won’t find anyone. Scavs don’t tend to leave people behind to call the cops.”

“Ah.” David’s face pulls into a sharp frown. “Fuck.”

“All the more reason to keep it!” Becca waves her hands. “You know me, girls—and Davey—”

“Thanks for noticing,” he gets out.

Becca winks at him. “Believe me, I been noticing.”

David coughs twice.

“The dumb leading the blind,” Lucy mutters.

“What.” He swallows another cough. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Lucy rolls her eyes.

“It means—” Becca starts.

“The point, please.” Taylor claps her hands once. “Handle your personal biz on your own time, Becs.”

“What, like you do?” Becca asks.

Taylor’s eyes flash, and Emma goes noticeably still. It’s the type of thing David wouldn’t pick up on if he didn’t opt into enhanced information acquisition. Only takes one classmate threatening to torture him before he decided to see what all the fuss was about. He’s still puzzling out what Emma’s reaction means and misses Becca’s next line.

“Fine, jeez. Keep clamjamming a girl why don’t you.”

Lucy and Emma laugh, and David tunes back in, trying to catch up, but the convo’s already moved on.  He shrugs it off. No one likes a gonk who keeps pulling the topic backwards; the chair matters more.

“Like I was saying. I’m always going down on some quick and easy eddies.”

Lucy snorts.

“But selling off third-hand scav-chrome?” Becca throws out her arms. “That like…uh, what’s the phrase, Scar? The fancy one?”

“Ennies on the Ed,” Taylor replies.

“Exactly! And it’s—it’s disrespecting the memory. Instead, what if we put that shit back together. We got some good techies too, between my deadbeat bro and Davey. We got a clinic where we can do clean installs—and it’s a whole ass clinic too!” She waves her hands. David agrees that the clinic is pretty whole, got racks and tools and lead for anesthetics and shit.

The clinic is just also pretty ass.

“Instead, what if we keep the party going? We just klepped a whole building Robin Hood style; let’s get some deals out there for chrome as well. Help some people out!”

David frowns. “If we can’t get it back to the owners…that’s probably the best thing we can do.”

“Oh my—” Emma slaps Taylor’s shoulder. “You’re all bleeding hearts. May I remind you all, as business associates, that most of our recent windfall is spoken for to fix our busted-up apartment building. I’m the one who has to vet the current tenants and get new people in before we start making any money off it. And now that we’ve got a stash of chrome we can offload to carry us in the short term, you all want to sell it off, piecemeal, and at cost?”

“Hey, hey, no one said anything about at cost.” Becca rubs the back of her head. “Girl’s gotta eat, yanno. Just…under market rate, on account of it being refurbished ‘n shit.”

“Need I remind you that we still don’t have a ripper?”

“We do, technically.” Taylor shrugs when Emma turns a glare at her. “Not that I think Kikiyo will be very interested in scav chrome, or in moving her clinic.”

David looks around. “Yeah.” He decided fire his earlier thought. “This clinic may be pretty whole but it’s also pretty ass.”

“Ha!” Becca elbows him in the side. “Good one.”

David grins. Score one. The other girls laughed too, except for Emma.

“So, we have no ripper.” Emma waves a hand through the air. “I am all for the refurbishing plan, David does better work than your brother these days. But—”

“Hey, that was one gun.” Becca holds up a finger. “Also true. Pilar’s more into improvised explosives.”

“And every day I grow more thankful that he didn’t want to be on our crew,” Emma replies. “We can fix the chrome, and then sell it, along with or separately from the chair.”

Taylor tilts her head. “You’re oddly insistent.”

Emma throws her hands up in the air. “Because you’re all getting sucked into this stupid plan for no reason and we still don’t have a ripper!”

Taylor hums. “We could though.”

Emma pauses. She looks at Taylor.

Taylor tilts her head towards Emma’s leg.

Emma shakes her head.

Taylor nods.

“Fucking—!” Emma points up towards the stairs. “Really? From her?”

“I think it’s a good idea.”

“You and your good ideas.”

Taylor shrugs. “Been working out so far.”

“Oh yeah, even the bad ones!”

“Especially the bad ones.”

“Well this one is really bad. It’s a huge waste of time, brings us nothing in the short to midterm, and our reward is that we get to open a charity clinic until we run out of chrome. Where’s the return?”

“The problem—“ Taylor’s voice comes light, so light and airy that David stiffens. And he’s not the only one. “With pursuing immediate gains is that you lose sight of everything else. There are things that matter more than return on investment, even if we have to rip them screaming from Night City’s guts.”

No one else says anything, all looking at Taylor with wide eyes.

Except for Emma. Emma just sighs in barely veiled annoyance. “The worst, Taylor.”

“Glad you love me.”

“Yes or else I wouldn’t still be here!” Emma stomps her foot.

Taylor blinks.

Emma blinks back. “Oh, that’s uh. Well—”

“Do your personal biz on your personal time, chooms.” Becca leans forward with a grin. “Unless this new thing I’m seeing is crew biz.”

“It’s not—” Taylor starts; at the same time David asks:

“What are you talking about?”

“That’s what I’d like to know.” Lucy lights a cig. “If we’re about to go twenty layers deep into whatever that conversation was, I’d like a translation thanks.”

“Sure,” says Taylor.

“Right,” says Emma.

“Want me to say it?” Taylor asks.

“Fuck you.” Then, Emma points. “Becca shut up.”

Becca zips her lips. “Shutting!”

“Our illustrious leader,” Emma says. “Wants us to go even deeper into the red in order to pay for a ripperdoc apprenticeship. Since we already have most of the starting costs of a clinic so generously donated by scavengers anonymous, the last cost is a ripper. And we have a friendly ripper of some decent reputation who might be willing to take someone on.

“I told her it’s a stupid idea that throws bad money after worse,” Emma continues. “And then you heard Taylor’s vid-special direct to stream speech about the value of more than just quarterly earnings reports.”

“Damn.” Becca nods, cupping her chin. “I can’t believe I missed the sexual tension.”

Emma moans. “That’s your take away?”

“Course, bestie! You two are like this!” Becca wraps one finger around the other. “Or maybe…” Her hands change into scissors.

“I will shoot you with my gun,” Taylor says.

“Awww.” Becca hops over, reaching up to pat their nominal ‘leader’ on the cheek. “I knew you cared.”

Lucy takes a drag of her cigarette and blows out an obnoxiously large cloud of smoke. “Setting aside everything Becca just said. I’m missing the part where one of us expressed interest in becoming a ripper.”

“You wanted a bigger cut,” Taylor replies.

“Not if it means cutting people open.”

“Monowire.”

“I don’t have to put them back together again.” Lucy waves her cig. “That said, having someone inhouse would be…better.” Her free hand goes up towards the back of her neck, before pausing.

“My thoughts as well,” Taylor says. “Kikiyo is great, and has helped us a lot, but she’s also—”

“Expensive,” Emma finishes. “Upscale Japantown, for all her foyer is full of shit.”

“So cheaper than corpo central and not much else,” David says.

Taylor shrugs. “We’re still paying off our last round of chrome.”

“More money we don’t have to burn,” Emma mutters. Everyone ignores her.

“So, if Lucy’s not interested, that leaves three.” Taylor looks at the rest of the crew. “Sasha isn’t an option for obvious reasons.”

“Not me.” Emma waves a hand. “I have my hands full managing all of our shells, let alone our actual company.”

“I could do most of that,” Taylor says. “Faster too.”

“Twice as fast and twice as wrong,” Emma rolls her eyes. “You suck at legal.”

Taylor folds her arms defensively. “I can…learn.”

“No.”

Taylor huffs. “Fine.”

Lucy laughs. “Wish I could do that.”

“Sexual. Tension.” Becca nods again.

Taylor rounds on her, eyes flashing red. “What about you, Rebecca. Care to contribute anything to the crew?”

“Ah, well that’s…ehehe.” Becca grins sheepishly. “I’m not really a book smart kinda girl. I do guns cause when they blow up they don’t sue.”

Taylor’s eyes flick to her own revolver.

“Don’t worry, boss lady. Dimples did that one.”

And then Taylor’s eyes go to David. “How do you feel about an after school internship?”

“What, me?” He points. “I’m not on any of the med tracks or nothing.”

She quirks her lip. “It would be a pretty long apprenticeship. But our pace of jobs is slow anyway.”

“That’s true.”

“Slow?” Becca shakes her head. “We’re like, one or two a week.”

David, along with Emma and Taylor, all look at Becca in surprise. “Yeah?” David says. “That’s like, glacial?”

“Y’all are crazy,” Becca says.

“Corpos.” Lucy shakes her head. “Most crews run jobs once or twice a month.

The three Academy students share looks.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Taylor says.

“Dyed in the wool corpos,” Lucy says.

“I thought it was weird too,” Becca says. “But it’s also cause we got more people than Maine’s old crew, and also Scar’s got us doing smaller jobs.”

“Because we don’t have two six and a half feet tall combat borgs.” Taylor sighs. “Regardless. We can plan around your potential internship, and deficit spending or no, we have flexibility right now we won’t have in a couple of months.”

David starts tapping his heel against the floor. “A ripper?” Doc’s face flashes in his mind. “I…”

“…Ah.” Taylor shakes her head. “Forget I asked, then. We’ll just have to let it go.”

“Wha—no it’s not…” David pauses. “It’s just, my last ripper didn’t exactly leave a…good impression.”

“Like I said, don’t worry about it.”

He can’t let it go so easily though. Being the team’s ripper, well, David knows he’s got the head for it. It would also…maybe he’d stop feeling like such a gopher, surrounded by absolute badasses. But the only ripper he knew was Doc for so long, and this clinic looks like it could be just like Doc’s, all it needs is an oily coat of dried blood and worse.

David doesn’t want to end up like Doc.

Taylor puts a hand on his shoulder. He jumps. “David, I’m serious. Don’t worry about it. We don’t need this, especially if it will glitch you out.”

“I ain’t glitching. Just—” He takes a step away. “Fills a role, doesn’t it? We need either that or another frontliner. And no shade boss, but you ain’t much of a tank.”

Taylor laughs once. “That’s true. Don’t worry about what we need, David. You’ve got your spot.”

He sighs, heel tapping against the floor. “Let me think about it?”

Taylor eyes him for a moment, before lowering her hand. “Sure. Get back to me by next week, we’ll need time to find potential buyers anyway.”

“Read ya,” David replies.

He shakes out his leg, doing his best to ignore the looks Becca and Lucy are sending him. Emma, at least, doesn’t give him any useless pity. “Anything else we gotta handle?” he asks.

“Slap a padlock on the door.” Lucy shrugs. “Does the private lift stop anywhere other than the penthouse?”

“Nope. I pinged Sasha about it at the start.”

“Sex dungeon hardcore.” Becca grins. “Preem.”

With nothing else to cover, the crew breaks. David and Pilar managed to get the main lift working on the first day. The actual mechanical assembly was fine; Someone had just ripped out the fuse box. Becca slaps David on the back on his floor, before shooting up to the penthouse. Part of David wishes he could stay on the top floor with all his drop-dead gorgeous teammates; the rest of him thanks god he’s not staying there.

He loves the new unit anyway. First time he’s had his own room, gonna fill it up with tools and other gear, plus a safe for his guns. David pulls a face, he still hasn’t told his mom that he’s part of a runner crew.

Gonna blow up in his face soon.

The front room of the apartment sits empty. They got a couch on the cheap, and his mom has her door shut. Sleeping before her next shift.

With nothing to do, David decides to look up more about ripping. His data pad is still in a box, thinks he shoved it in the closet. They’ve never had a closet before either.

David opens the door and frowns. Why are there two boxes in the closet? He hasn’t brought back anything else, and Mom’s been working. He sighs. “Must be the bottom.” No reason Mom wouldn’t just put her random shit on top of the first box. With a grunt he sets the top box to the side and pulls out the bottom one.

The cardboard flaps open to reveal a treasure trove of chrome, all packaged into neat plastic bags.

“What the fuck?” David asks. “What the fuck!”

A thump comes from his mom’s room, and David freezes.

“David!” she shouts.

“Shit, shit—” He darts around, eyes frantic. “I—uh, sorry, Mom! I just dropped a box on my toe, don’t—!”

“A box?”  Before he can say another word, Gloria Martinez bursts out of her room. “Don’t open the—uh.” She stops, looking at the open box in front of David.

“Mom,” he asks. “You’re…not a scav right?”

“What?” She gapes, stumbling out of the bedroom. “Davey, how can you even ask that!”

“Cause there’s a lot of chrome here. And you—I know you wouldn’t do that but we just cleared a scav den and—”

“A scav den!” Suddenly Gloria is in front of him, hands on her hips, glare full nuclear. “David Martinez, a scav den? With who? When! You’re not some cyberpunk, David, what are you doing going to—”

“Mom!”

“—a place like that? My son—my only son—running into a den of scavengers!”

David presses a hand against his face and sighs.

“You’re going to leave me alone, David? Ay, a single mother burying her only son, how could you ever to this to me, I would—"

“Stop.” He says. She keeps going. “Just STOP!”

His mom freezes, staring at his outstretched palm.

David sucks in deep breaths, eyes squeezed shut. Right now he feels all kinds of fucked up, but Gloria’s his mom. Even if she scavved the chrome, he—he needs to figure this shit out. Fuck. What would Scarlet do.

David blows out a gust of air. “Okay.” He nods. “Okay, Ma. We got. We got some stuff to go over, yeah?”

Gloria folds her arms. “I think so. What do you think you’re doing, going after scavs? This really isn’t one of your BDs, mijo!”

David nods. “I know it’s not.” He hasn’t watched a BD since Doc. “We have stuff to tell each other. I’ll go first, then you. Deal?”

Gloria shifts, arms crossed. “Look, can’t you just forget about all that. We have—”

“Ma.” David stands. He’s still shorter than her, but he’s growing. They’re almost eye to eye now. “We’re family, right? We support each other.” He taps the box of chrome with a heel. “Especially with this.”

She worries her lip. “Ah…when did my boy go and get so big and dependable.” She reaches out, squeezing his shoulder. “My little man.”

David blushes with embarrassment. “Mom!”

She laughs, but it’s still a bit frantic. “My little boy. Okay, fine. We’ll talk about it.” Gloria fixes him with a stern look. “But don’t think I forgot you promising to go first. On the couch now, mister. And if I’m not satisfied, you’re in big trouble!”

David rolls his eyes. “Yeah, yeah.”

“Don’t think I don’t see you rolling your eyes,” Gloria says.

David plops on the couch, staring at the ceiling. His mom pauses, before following after him. She sits down almost gingerly, looking at him with worried eyes.

“David?” she asks. “Are…I know I was upset, but I’m in your corner, okay? Are you in danger?”

“Gimmie a sec. I’m preem, it’s just…it’s complicated.” He sighs. “So, you remember those two nice girls from the Academy that got us the housing deal?”

“Oh?” Gloria tilts her head. “Of course. Don’t tell me you’re doing this to impress a girl. Bad enough that ‘ex’ Mox is—”

“Mom, don’t talk shit ‘bout my friends.”

“Of course.” She smirks at him. “But does she know you’re friends?”

David runs a hand down his face.

“Those nice Arasaka girls run a merc crew.” He meets his mom’s eyes. “Becca and I are both on it.”

“Excuse me.” His mom rubs her ear. “A what?”

“A merc crew. That’s how—” He pauses. The job on Lombard is top secret. They don’t talk about it with anyone, because if anyone finds out…

David trusts his mom, but he’s no gonk. This secret, he needs to keep from her to keep her safe.

“They’re how we got into the housing program, we got in on the short list through our contacts.”

“Your contacts?” Gloria frowns. “You better not be talking about that ripper, I told you—”

David reaches behind his back, where he keeps his holster. He pulls out his unity—lightly modded—courtesy of Becca, and sets it on the table. His mom shuts up right quick.

“We’re real mercs. We run real jobs. Look, I’ll tell you all of it, ‘cept confidential fixer shit. Okay? Just listen?”

“…Okay,” she says. “Talk fast, mijo.”

David talks fast.

He goes over how they exposed what Doc did to one of his clients, a member of Taylor’s crew. How Taylor offered him a spot for one job, and how he started pulling his weight.

The crew got him the edds to pay for the new Arasaka expenses, the crew got them into the new apartment, and the crew always, always took care of him. He doesn’t turn his back on people who do right by him, just like Mom taught.

After the end of it all, Gloria sighs. “I wish I could be more mad at you.”

“That’s my line, Ma.” He jerks his head towards the box. “What’s with the chrome.”

“I’m not a scav.” She folds her arms. “You know how the meat wagons work. We get paid for bodies, but not much. If we pick up a flatline, better the chrome goes to us than the burners, no?”

David frowns. “Yeah. That tracks, just…” He looks down, foot tapping. “You never make sure someone flatlines before the hospital, right?”

“Make sure? What do you mean—” Gloria gasps, and suddenly the heated glare is back. “You mean zero someone for their chrome? Never!” She shakes her head. “David, I may get paid shit for the worst hours imaginable, but I take my job seriously.”

“Good.” He lets out a breath. “Okay, good. Love you, Mom.”

“…Love you too, mijo.” She pauses a bit longer. “And there are probably meat wagons that rip chrome out of people who are still alive, but not my wagon. We do shit clean, so it doesn’t get back to us. But if you ever need a ride and it’s not me picking you up…make sure you have one of your merc friends in the back with you, yeah?”

David nods, chewing on that. Then he says, “So that’s how you’re paying for the Academy.”

Gloria shrugs.

“How do you fence them?” David asks. “I ain’t…I mean, you don’t have to tell me, but if you have a fence I might be able to get a finders fee out of the boss.”

“Finders fee?” Gloria shakes her head. “David, if they helped get us this apartment, letting them know a few of my buyers is...”

“Well—” He rubs the back of his head. “I mean…”

“Also. Since you have a crew and all. I was…maybe wondering if you have another contact?” Gloria shrugs helplessly. “I do most things word of mouth, face to face even. I was working with this one crew, big buyer. But then they up and vanished.”

“A big buyer?”

“Yeah.” She nods. “That’s where all those plates came from. My guy wanted something preem, an edge, but his mainline pinged me about slowing him down. So, I pitched him on the idea of a full set of camo, because the guy was massive. Like, two meters—two and a half felt like even! Anyway, people with serious hardware like that doesn’t grow on trees, but I kept showing I was getting new camo plates and he was paying me to hold them.” Gloria shrugged. “Then he went silent, haven’t been able to find him or his output since.”

“Big guy?” David asks. His stomach starts to sink. “Was his girl huge too?”

“Oh yeah, two giants in a micro-world. They were great together. Still, they ghosted me.” Glora pulls a face. “I traded for a lot of this chrome, bought out my wagon for some of it. And sure he was paying for the hold, but only part value—Not that I was upset, but…”

“What’s his name?” David asks.

Cause he wasn’t with the crew, back…back then. But he’s heard about Maine and Dorio, even though he never met either.

“Davey! I can’t just go and give out my sources.”

“Ma.” He meets her gaze. “It’s serious.”

“…It’s Maine.” She furrows her brow. “Maine and—”

“Dorio.”

Gloria blinks in surprise. “How do you know that name?”

David looks down at the floor. “Small ass world.”

“Excuse me. Language!”

David sighs. Then laughs. “Sorry. Sorry. It’s just…You know my crew?”

Gloria raises an eyebrow. “The one with all the tiny girls?”

“Yeah.” David nods. “It used to be Maine’s crew, until he got himself pushed over the edge by Doc after Dorio ate it on a job.”

Gloria stares at him. “Well fuck.”

“Language?” David asks.

She glares at him. “What your tongue, mister. I took you into this world—”

“And you can take me out of it, yeah.” David picks up his gun, slipping it back into his holster. “So yeah, that’s the story, huh?”

“…I guess so.” Gloria looks at him worriedly. “Are you sure you want to do this, David? Running the edge—you just told me what happened to Maine in the end, and he was.” She holds her arms out, imitating his massive size. “But you, you’re in the Academy now! You don’t have to—”

David hears her, he really does. Maybe a year ago, David would have agreed, but he’s seen how the tower works, Emma and Taylor have told him how Arasaka as a whole works. “I know it’s dangerous.”

“It’s your life!”

David shakes his head. “I just…” He hasn’t had time to untangle all of this, let alone his future. It’s all mixed up in his head, and he knows that he won’t be able to make sense of it until he sits down and really chews it all over. Digests it and shits out something he can understand.

Instead of starting in on that, David asks. “How’d you get all the chrome out, anyway? Subdermal camo plates are…”

“David.” Gloria puts her hands on her hips. “I may not be a doctor, but your mother is a licensed medical professional. Handling chrome is one of the most important parts of being an EMT. Not to brag, but I can troubleshoot an implant better than half the rippers on Jig-jig.”

David’s brain scratches, blue screening for a second before rebooting with a completely different process. “You can?”

“Of course I can!” Gloria collapses back on the couch, tension giving way to mock sorry. “Oh, mama! What happened to my little son who used to brag about how smart his mom was? Where did I go wrong?”

“What? Ma, no! It’s—”

“What did I do to earn such an ungrateful son, was I not hard enough on him? Now he runs around shooting up scav dens with joytoys.”

“Mom!”

“It’s—”

“You should meet my boss,” David says.

Gloria stops. “What?”

“You should meet Taylor. Like, for real. Get the whole story out there.”

“The Taylor that killed someone for Maine’s death?” Gloria asked. “Maine’s death that I fueled with chrome?”

“She’s not—” David pauses, because Taylor is that vengeful. “We’ll tell her how you and Dorio were working to keep Maine on this side of the edge. She’ll understand. Probably even thank you.”

“Are you sure?”

David nods. “Everything I’ve heard about Maine is that he was a real chrome-dome. If you stopped working with him, he woulda found someone else…He did find someone else, in the end.”

Gloria frowns. “And why should I meet with her?”

“You wanted a fence to sell the chrome, right?” David waves a hand. “Well…we might have better than that. And we might have buyers for your wagon, bet they’re not happy their main—uh—their usual client up and vanished either.”

“You’ll buy it all?” Gloria tilts her head. “I know you’re a crew, Davey, but look what happened to Maine. Chipping in so much—”

“Not for us.” David pauses. “Okay not all for us. I ain’t—I ain’t good at explaining, but it’s a recent business opportunity, a real uh, windfall that you could help us capitalize on by expanding our market demographic into new areas, or something.”

Gloria laughs. “Where’d you learn to talk like that?”

“Academy.” David shrugs. “I am going, you know. I just run jobs on the side.”

“We’re not done talking about that either,” Gloria says.

“Can we rope in Emma and Taylor for this, please?” David asks. “Cause they’re doing the same thing and…we have reasons okay? I just…they’re all bogo in my head right now.”

Gloria gives her son a hard look, before sighs. “So, what’s your plan then?”

“We go talk to Taylor about your chrome, and also about your history as a medical professional.”

“How does that fit in?” Gloria asks.

“It does, just…just trust me. And then.” David’s eyes track back over to the box, with active camo plates. Not enough for a big guy like Maine, but David’s a lot smaller, even after his growth spurt. “Maybe I’ll buy the camo.”

“David!”

“I’m serious, ma,” he says. “I won’t—I won’t do it without your okay, but. Just listen, please? I promise I’m not talking out of my ass. This is real! This got us into a nice new apartment, now. We’re doing things that matter, now. Not in ten or twenty years or however long it takes to climb the tower!”

“Still…” she says.

“Look, just listen?” He asks for the third time. “We can talk it all out. Promise it’ll be good for us, even if I don’t keep working as a runner. Just…give it a shot? Don’t just go in so you can shoot me down. Please. Mom. I…I want to be a part of this.”

Gloria shakes her head, and David’s heart sinks. “Running around with pretty girls is—”

“It’s not about that, mom!” David shakes his head. “None of them are even interested in me.”

Her eyes track skyward. “Mama, you gave me a son just as—”

“I never ask for anything,” David says. Gloria stops. “I know how hard you work, Mom. That’s why I been working just as hard for this family.”

“David, that’s not your job,” Gloria replies. “It’s my job to take care of you. You’re my son!”

“And you’ve done great, Mom.” David nods. “Without you, I never would have made it into the Academy. I never would have met this crew, found this opportunity. So please, mom. Just listen to what we have to say. I promise, this isn’t like something out of some shitty BD.”

“Language—” she protests weakly. David keeps talking.

“This is real. This is serious, and we look out for each other. Inside the Academy and outside.”

Gloria pauses, looking away. She asks, “And the chrome?”

David bites his lip. “Promise I won’t go full ninja without your okay.”

“Nu-uh!” Gloria rounds on him. “Not full Ninja! No upgrades, no runner chrome without my go ahead! Some of these pieces, they seriously fuck you up, David, even with a good ripper. And you don’t have a good ripper!”

David nods. “I might though. If you come with me and talk to the boss.”

Gloria sighs. “What does that even mean? Still, your heart’s set, isn’t it.”

“Yeah.”

“Fine. I’ll go talk to your boss, for real.” Gloria looks him dead in the eye. “And you promise me. I didn’t bust my hump for years for you to go chip in a mountain of chrome before you even turned twenty.”

David takes in a deep breath, and he lets it out. “I promise, Mom. No runner chrome unless you say so.”

“…Okay,” Gloria says. “Okay. Let’s go.”

David stands. “I’ll call her now.”

Gloria nods.

David does just that, even as his thoughts scramble in all directions, bogo-sorting between his ears. But his eyes keep going back to the box of active camo plates, because there’s one idea that won’t leave him, no matter what else flickers back and forth around it.

Their crew doesn’t have a front line, but maybe…maybe they don’t need one.