SES blues

"Hey, that hurts!" said the heavily muscled man as a small woman cleaned his arm wound.

"Well, Mr. Super-cyber! If you’d be a little more careful, and not depend on your implants to pull your fat from the fire, you wouldn’t get so many nice scars. At least this time it was a wire and not something cramming the mesh down into your flesh again. Can’t you wear hardened bracers or something?"

The woman was less than five feet in height. Her long slim, yet strong fingers finished probing and cleaning the wound. The cut went all the way aroung the forearm and she had to use both small hands to hold the skin in place. With a prayer and a focus of her will, soft white light bathed the wound, until only a white line was visible.

"How does it look now?" she whispered.

"Beautiful, just like you," the man replied looking into her milky, translucent eyes. A pigeon swooped down from the wall, and landed on the now-healed arm. With light pecks, it tested his sense of feeling, until giggling, he pleaded, "Enough! That tickles too much." The bird flew back to join its hundred-odd kin, nesting in the eaves of the room.

"Dove, I brought some seed, and some food." He dragged severall hundred pounds of grain into the room, not seeming to notice the weight, but watching his feet as the ancient floor creaked under him.

"Please put it in the bin for me, Torque. And the food in the fridge." Although she spoke to him, Torque could see that her mind was far away, riding the currents of air through the eyes of a small winged friend. "I bought you some more clothes." He said, as he cleaned the droppings scattered around the room. With an exasperated sigh, she turned to him. "Torque, I’m staying here. My friends need me. New clothes will only get as filthy as my old ones! And Stop buying me things! I don’t want to go through it again, but I’ve told you, your friendship is valuable to me, but too much violence clings to you for me to stay with you!"

"I know, Dove. I know." Shaking his head, he left the room pulling the locked door behind him. The rooftop shack looked like a mole on white statue, so much guano had dropped. Inside the room, the pale woman blew a kiss after him, "be careful, my Love. Oh Pidgeon, why do you taunt me this way!"

Torque was in a rut. He couldn’t get close to Dove, he didn’t have a current run, two corps were irked because he had extracted valued employees, and Lone Star was seeking him under suspicion of kidnapping. Vaulting off the roof, he easily cleared the twenty foot distance to its closest neighbor. One fire escape and two minutes of jogging later, he arrived at the Aikikai Dojo of Master Yun. As he stretched and prepared for practice, his once Master, now Partner, grasped his shoulders.

"What bothers you now, Mirror?"

"I just don’t seem to be able to get the Corps to accept the idea of Safety Extractions. I almost lost two clients this week, when their guards lost it and went ballistic on me." As Torque related his difficulties to Master Bok Yun, the short, barrel-chested Korean closed his eyes. At fifty-seven, the former Asian champion radiated health and composure.

"I see that you are impatient in getting violent people to see a more effective way of doing business." The calm Master chided. "But remember that you have only had a few skirmishes. For the advantages of these methods to become apparent to the corporate slaves, time will have to pass. These decisions are made by Accountants, not Warriors. I will speak to some sensible heads at Lone Star, perhaps they will be willing to allow you room, if they more fully understand your purpose. But for this to work at all, you must not kill."

Torque responded, "I know, but sooner or later, someone will get seriously hurt, and it might be me."

"I do not believe you are so fated, Mirror. Now go. The proprietor of the East Redmond Pawn Brokers has a problem that closely matches your skills. He will offer you ten kay Nuyen. You agree, but make if per person, plus expenses." Smiling, Yun walked briskly away into his office to meditate. Torque left the Dojo no less confused, but somehow comforted by his discussion. How did Yun always have the right comments? Jogging the two miles to the Brokerage burned off some nervous energy, and ten minutes later, he was knocking on the door.

"YA MOVE YOUR CAN ONE MILLI, AN YER GONNA LOSE IT! Now step inside where I can sees ya to blast ya." Hmmphing under his breath, Torque strolled into the Pawn Shop. The door closed behind him and locked itself. "So, ya tink ya can help me out, huh? Mr. Karate guy!" The spotlight shining into Torque’s eyes began to irk him. Closing his eyes, the 3-D sensor grid built into his dermal wiring formed the room around him. Before the Broker could flinch, Torque snapped a shuriken nail into both the light and the muzzle of the Predator II leveled at him. The revealed Orc male stared down at his now jammed Predator, and whistled appreciatively through his teeth. "I don’t think anything, Mr. Lucci. You have a difficulty, and I have a possible way to remove it. Although many people will offer to remove your problem, my method involves minimal bloodshed, saving of face, and avoidance of angering certain important people."

Torque launched into his sales pitch. "What makes yer tink I ain’t get another way ta nail dis problem, Chummer?" Torque relaxed, when the client asks you questions, you’re in. "Ah, I’m sure a man of your resources has many ways that any problem can be solved. But the most precious resource is friendship. I know that a man of your position has only so many friends who are similarly situated and who can appreciate your dilemma, while having unfortunate interests of their own. Blood ties , for them, are as much of a load, as a blessing."

"OK, Torque. I see’s where ya headed. An a live ‘removal’ would be less awkward. I can give ya ten K Nuyen." With a professional nod, Torque said, "per person, plus expenses. No compromise."

"Man, how is that that you always know what I’ll pay?"

"It’s a gift, a precious gift..." Torque left to set up the run.

"Inspector Stern, you have many options in your work. I urge you to reconsider a current option being exercised toward a young man of my acquaintance." The Korean master faced out toward the office window as he spoke, his hands clasped together in front.

"Yun, while I respect your opinion, I don’t see why I should stick my neck out for you or your friend." The aging Inspector looked Yun over carefully. ‘How does he manage to stay so youthful?’ She caught herself reaching for a smoke, and turned the move into a brush back of her thick salt and pepper hair.

"Inspector, I only suggest that this young man, while skirting the edge of defined legality, is performing a valued service. He is assisting parties in their realignment of human assets without bloodshed. Any of several jobs that he has accepted in the past weeks would have likely resulted in bloodshed. Innocent bystanders are often killed by those who draw weapons in fear and anger. Have any charges been laid by any individuals involved, or by Renraku or Denshai?"

"No, and that’s the only reason he’s not cooling his heels right now! I appreciate that he’s not just a mercenary target man, but I can’t have prominant citizens worrying about their safety. Certainly not in an election year." She finished sourly.

"But Ingrid, that is the beauty. The abductee ends up safer than they were before, and usually with improved options. The Corps complaints result from the loss of talent, who they were illegally preventing from leaving. Is that not a worse form of incarceration? If this man stops performing this service, you will see the body counts between the Corps begin to mount again. Would that not be worse than the Corps pressure that you now feel?"

"As usual Yun, you’ve pre-analyzed my whole life and served it up to me as just desserts. OK, I’ll cut the kid some slack. But, if he kills one innocent life, I’ll have his head!"

"Exquisite Ingrid," Yun murmured, pulling her bowed head to his chest and massaging away her tension. "I study your life because I love you. If he kills an innocent, you will be able to pick him up at the Dojo, because he will have committed seppuku. Fortunately, he lets me have some argument as to who, in this depraved world, is worth calling innocent." As Ingrid relaxed under the expert massage, she mumbled, "You least of all, Yun. You the very least." In her position, Ingrid Stern could not see the single tear trickle down the expressionless face; or hear the inner voice saying, ‘if you knew how close to truth you come, would you still care, Darling Ingy?"