I poured her a glass of water, and she glanced at them for a moment before shrugging and swallowing them with the water. I nod at her and stand up, and sit in a chair near the loveseat, "So, here is what I recommend. I can download and install the genuine firmware for your doll chip; I'll charge you just the fifty eddies it costs me and five to install it. You also have malware, a trojan, installed on your OS. I will clear that for free. To calibrate all of your implants will take about an hour, so that's one hundred eddies."
I didn't actually have permission to charge for medical services rendered, but I felt that these women would be more suspicious if I didn't charge them anything. I would be if I were them.
I finish, "I can't really do anything about the interface problems with your cyberware. You need some nanomeds, additional surgery or both, which I don't have and can't provide. I will give you a prescription of which type of nanomed you need and how you should take them, but you'll have to buy them yourself. You should be able to get them at most pharmacies downtown, but they're over seven hundred eddies for a one-month supply, and you'll need to be on them for at least sixty to ninety days. Ideally, you shouldn't ever go back to any of the rippers on Jig-Jig street. You guys make enough money to actually go to a reputable place, and I implore you to do so."
Himiko looked rather furious, "I see. I went to the doctor that the management at Clouds recommended. I don't think I will take their recommendations in the future as far as that is concerned. Please, do everything you can." With that, I received a digital transfer of funds and nodded.
Evelyn perked up, "Uh... can you check me next? I don't really have issues with my 'ware, but now I'm kind of nervous."
I nodded at her, "Sure," while internally, I logged into the net site for Cyberdyne Systems... wait, didn't they make Terminators?! That Earth Aleph movie flashed into my mind. Well, here they made doll chips, amongst other things, and paid them fifty eurodollars for a genuine copy of their latest firmware. But before I did, I did verify that there was no associated SkyNet product line, just to be safe.
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Stormy Clouds
Himiko was relaxing as I checked Evelyn's implants. Hers was installed in a much better manner, albeit still not what I would consider good, which made me wonder as she claimed that she used the same doctor as Himiko did. Perhaps the doctor was just having a bad day? However, the same malware was installed in both her doll chip, which was made by a different manufacturer, as well as her operating system.
The same malware made me a bit suspicious. I might have suspected it was something that Clouds was installing, except there was no real need to. Doll chips gave incredible, even if it was temporary, permissions when they were connected to the doll server. Clouds would have no need to install malware to get anything from any of their dolls.
After verifying that Evelyn didn't mind me speaking in front of Himiko, I told her, "Your surgery was done a bit better, but I wouldn't go as far as to say that it was good. You've probably experienced slight headaches after using your implants. You're young enough that you would have likely adapted to it, but it isn't really a good thing to have to. There should be absolutely no discomfort in using any cybernetic implants. If there is, then something is wrong." I shared the opinion of the one cybernetic surgeon I trusted with my own body.
She agreed to the same fee for recalibration, and by the time I was done, Himiko was sighing in relief, "I feel so much better already."
I nodded at her, "That is mostly the anti-inflammatories; the calibration will help going forward, though." I pour her another glass of water for each of them, "You are also dehydrated. Both of you are, but that is pretty normal. Eighty per cent of people in Night City suffer from some level of chronic dehydration."
I grabbed a blank sheet of paper from one of the notepads I occasionally took to school. Although I took notes mainly through my deck, there were occasions when I needed to write things down. I tore a sheet out, carefully folded it in half and then tore it down the folds.
I wrote several things on each piece of paper and then slid each to the women, who took it and glanced at it. Himiko blinked and asked, "What does PRN mean?"
Uhhh... I wrote those on autopilot. That's a good question. I thought about it for a moment, "It's an abbreviation for Latin, pro re nata, which is used in the healthcare industry as a shorthand. It translates to as needed. So it means as needed for pain. That's the neural anti-inflammatory I gave you, I will give you enough for a couple of days, but you will probably need to buy your own; it's pretty cheap and widely available.
Evelyn asked, "I just got this one. Is this the one that is seven hundred eddies for a month? Oh, and why are you talking so fast?"
I nodded while grinding my teeth a little bit. I had been talking in slow-mo the entire conversation, from my perspective anyway. I slowed down some more, "Yes. It is standard to receive a couple of days of this particular prescription at any time you receive cybernetic work done. Even if the surgeon is gifted, and their equipment is top of the line, nobody is perfect. Generally, they send it home with you from the clinic." I showed them the bottle of pills that the Skyline clinic had sent me home with.
Himiko and Evelyn glanced between themselves, and then, finally, Himiko said, "I don't think either of us has ever been given something like that after visiting a ripperdoc."
I shrugged before saying, "I can't say that I'm surprised. It's public knowledge that this is the main way this particular medicine is used, though. If you search the net for the medicine name, you will find thousands of results of people asking why they got this medicine from the clinic after getting cyberware."
Evelyn shook her head, "No, no... we don't doubt you. We're just a bit upset, I suppose. Say... would you mind taking a look at some of our colleagues, as well?"
I fidgeted a little bit, "I don't know. That depends. You see... I live here, and I don't want to get on the wrong side of the Tyger Claws. It would be... a problem. I am getting the impression, for a lot of reasons, that maybe they don't know exactly how their employees are being treated, but I would need to know a lot more about how Clouds is run first."
I was fidgeting because I didn't think it was really in me to actually decline, even if it put me in a bad position with the gang that ran this building. The trojans installed in both Himiko and Evelyn's OS would have allowed, in addition to normal remote code execution, remote and invisible triggering of the BD hardware. An attacker could have had them scrolling BDs of every client they saw, which would be... very bad for the reputation of Clouds. Complete discretion and client confidentiality were one of their main selling points.
Honestly, the Tyger Claws seemed sort of the type of group to shoot the messenger in certain situations, so I wasn't sure exactly what I should do with this information. I could potentially see them flatlining the doctor, and then me too, just because I knew they were compromised. Like Alt-Dad had said, three people could keep a secret if two of them were dead.
Of course, that also was just as compelling a reason for me to go to them on my own terms. I couldn't see the secret of this lasting much longer than a few weeks, even if I tried to instil discretion into Himiko and Evelyn. They would tell their fellow dolls, and then it would be completely impossible to contain; only delay would work at that point.
I could approach Mr Jin, and then instead of someone unknown from the Tyger Claws approaching me to find out what I knew, I could deal with a known quantity. A known quantity that was outside the present chain-of-command of Clouds, too, which might be compromised.
Again Evelyn and Himiko glanced between each other, but this time Evelyn said, "Himiko knows a lot more about how Clouds is run; she can tell you everything."
What I learned before I bid both of the women adieu was interesting. While there was technically a Tyger Claw in charge of the management of Clouds, in this case, his name was Kiryu Jirō, in actuality, Clouds was managed by a third party, a man who wasn't actually in the Tyger Claws at all and merely ran the day to day operations of the business and managed the "talent." His name was Rogan MacNeil, and at most, he would be considered an associate of the gang and definitely not an actual member. I could work with that.
The name of the ripperdoc was Finn Gerstatt, and he was a new ripper that had, over the past nine months, set up shop in a clinic in Jig-Jig street, with his main clientele being sex workers of one sort or another. He wasn't the ripper that Hamiko used to get her first doll chip, but that wasn't really an endorsement of her first doctor, either.
Himiko forwarded me a still of his face, and I ran it through both the NCPD as well as a fee-for-service background check site that was mostly used by private detectives. It turned out that wasn't his real name, and he was actually a former doctor named Ernst Streicher; he had a sketchy work history that her entry-level gumshoe site couldn't penetrate entirely, but what was certain was he had his medical credentials revoked and was charged with a bevvy of crimes in the European Community, mostly involving sexual assault, abuse of position, and some drug-related charges.
The charges were still pending, but there was a notation that they weren't serious enough to trigger the expense of extradition or rendition, but there was a reward if he was returned alive to the EC. That explained why he was in Night City, I supposed, and it made me worry about what he might do to anyone unconscious in his clinic.
I wanted a bit more evidence, so I asked Himiko to send a couple of other dolls, at least one of which had never patronised Mr Gerstatt, and asked her and Evelyn to be exceptionally discreet for the moment. My expectation was not that it would last longer than a week, but it should be enough to get things in order. In Order, huh? In German, there was an expression to reassure someone everything was okay; it was "Alles ist in Ordnung." All is in order. Well, it wouldn't be soon for Herr Gerstatt.
I spent a few hours working on the Kendachi monowire VR shard, managing only to decapitate myself once and dismember myself thrice. The VR simulation included pain, so it was very painful to do so as I expected that it did a lot more than anything to make people proficient quickly. You could even specify a time dilation factor in the training program, so I had been training on a time factor of three point oh, which would be me at full boost, which I would achieve... someday.
I would probably have to install the monowire in my arms and hands myself, as I had discovered having an integrated weapons system acted as a multiplicative factor as far as surveillance from the city's psycho squad was concerned. It wasn't surprising because I didn't think there were many cases of cyberpsychos going crazy that didn't involve one with at least one weapon system. Usually, mantis blades or a Projectile Launch System, though.
That meant that I could probably get one or two small additional pieces of cybernetics at the Skyline clinic before I installed the monowire. I was pretty sure I wanted some integrated self-ICE to help myself if someone tried to hack me. I could be immediately disabled, or potentially killed, by a proficient netrunner as easily as them flipping their hands at present. There were a number of commercial options, but I had been wondering if I could disassemble part of the Dragoon suit, as it had to incorporate a ton of electronic war and ECM countermeasures.
In terms of repairing it, I couldn't do much even with my power, but using it for parts gave me a lot of options so long as I used those parts in cybernetics. Though the Dragoon was over thirty years old, that didn't necessarily mean it had lost its relevance or that it was thirty years obsolete.
After Rache Bartmosse triggered the DataKrash and destroyed the Old Net, it set back technical advancement decades. Even recently, corporations were suspected of funding illegal deep dives into the Old Net, losing many netrunners in the process, trying to uncover what was essentially Lost Technology, like this world was that Earth Aleph game that Greg Vedor at school liked, with the mechs. BattleTech? Battle something, anyway. I remembered him talking about it at lunch periodically, back when I still ate my lunch in the cafeteria anyway.
Things were so backward after the DataKrash that corporations used punch card systems for almost a decade; you could still find remnants of these systems in old construction in and near Night City.
If so, I would have to incorporate a system that was somewhat user-serviceable if I wanted to be able to maintain any possible Tinkertech system connected to my brain. Self-ICE systems were usually installed right next to your operating system, so in this case, the back of my neck. I could find a commercial system that included user-serviceable panels, as customised ICE was actually not completely unheard of.
Usually, these types of implants were only used by serious netrunners, though, so I would appear to be a bit of a poseur to buy one of them. They were also priced accordingly, usually about twice as expensive as an off-the-shelf ICE system. But that was something I could live with. In fact, being underestimated was probably to my benefit.
I grabbed the sleep inducer wreath and settled it on my head before sitting comfortably in the La-Z-Boy-style chair I had in my apartment, setting it for three hours which would result in a maximum neural plasticity effect, which was good for both my training in the use of a monowire and for my training speaking and reacting at less than super speed.
I rarely slept in my bed anymore since I tended to use the sleep inducer every night, as it had a tendency to fall off and wake me up if I was in bed and could roll around. It figured. Just when I got a comfortable enough bed is when I stopped really using it.
I shifted the boost level to fifty-five per cent when I woke up the next morning, and things seemed manageable. It would probably take some more time until I really forgot that people, such as the News broadcasts, were speaking in what seemed like slow motion, but I at least stopped myself from tapping my fingers at super speed on my kitchen table while listening to the morning broadcast today.
