Torque

From where he was crouched in the alley, the doorway was just visible through the rain. After waiting for hours, he allowed himself the luxury of a candy bar.  After finishing, he dropped the wrapper on top of  the nearby open trash can.  A pleased rat darted forward, sniffed the wrapper, and then backed away into the shadows.

"Repellent systems are still operational," he thought. 

As the door opened, several actions took place faster than the eye could follow, a rusty pipe on the ground was raised quickly to his lips, his smartlinked goggles locked telescopic targeting on the doorway, and he inhaled.  Then, slowly, he let the breath out through his nose as a ten-year-old girl came out of the door with her Nanny. Shortly after, the open doorway was filled with the bulk of a Troll Sumurai whose cyber eyes seemed to pass right over the figure forty-odd feet away. 

As a small human male in a lab coat stepped out of the doorway, the blowgun puffed, and a small dart appeared on his left hand.   As the normale groaned, the Troll spun looking for enemies. His eyes alighted on a heavily built unarmed norm strolling across the street towards them.  Before the Troll could bring his Predator II up to fire a dart appeared in his gun hand, and he dropped the weapon. With a snarl the Troll raised his left hand, revealing the muzzle of a cyber-emplaced LMG. 

"I wouldn’t do that, my friend, if you care to have your employer and yourself live out the hour." The approaching norm commented casually.  "The phage bacterium in your system has a cure, but I don’t have it with me."

Feeling his numb arm swelling from the infection, the Troll quietly replied, "Why take him?"

"To make a pleasant offer away from prying eyes."

"OK, but move fast!"

In ten seconds all three were in a Mitsu Nightsky, rigged by someone behind a mirrored window.  The Troll had unloaded his cyberarm, as well as handing over all seventeen backup weapons as each was requested. Reaching the delivery door of a factory, the Nightsky unloaded them, and two medical personnel stepped out to assist in transporting the now unconscious Human.  The Troll Samurai  accepted the offer of a wheelchair after finding his own muscles would no longer respond properly.  As the two were rolled into the private clinic, the Troll yelled, "Damn you, Torque!" Fabian Torkinelli, known to the shadow populace as Torque, nodded to the departing Troll. 

"Don’t worry, my friend, this will benefit us all."  He quietly accepted the credstick, not checking the 40K Nuyen value.  The Johnson smiled, and said, "well done, Mr. Torquet.  The pickup was unobserved, and the delivery was without mishap."

"Just remember," said Torque, "if either of them die before returning, I will ensure that justice is given for the victims.  And it’s Torque, like Fork, no Mr."

"I will be sure to ensure their safety as my own." Torque faded into a nearby alley.  

Safety Extraction Services had happily delivered another unharmed opportunity. The ganger waiting in the alley with the monofilament whip was shocked when his line wrapped around the approaching man’s arm but did not remove it.  That was nothing, however, compared to the shock he received, when the man used the line to yank him forward, decapitating him with his own line. "This monofil laced combaderm is neat stuff," Torque mused, not for the first or last time.  Then ruefully looking at his slashed skin, he headed for Bush, the Dove Shaman.

Author’s note: the monofilament combaderm is a sub-skin implant.  A tough polymer weave (Spiderfiber III) is created by micro bots, then the monofilament lines are carefully inserted into the double hexagonal weave.  The monofilament prevents deep cuts, from ultra sharp materials, the Spiderfiber flexes prevents deep penetration of most weaponry.  Note that Armor piercing rounds have a good chance of getting past, and that impact damage is not significantly affected.  Repeated ultra sharp cuts, such as in the above story, will degrade the Spiderfiber enough to allow weapon passage.  A really powerful impact (grenade throws wearer into a strung monofil line, can allow the monofil to cut through the Spiderfiber and press the imbedded monofil down into sundry, bones, ligaments, vital organs, etc. ad nauseum, so impact armor and laced bones are always a smart consideration. Also remember that blood vessels, nerves and stuff have to pass through assigned holes to get to the real skin from the body. Treat karma loss similar to dermal plating Advantages are near indectability without scanning.  Prevention of dismemberment.  If used with dermal plating, cut the karma loss of the lesser enhancement by ½.Remember three things if incorporating  this item into a scenario: 1. This is definitely high grade beta clinic work, the computer directed microrobotic  work is tough stuff.   2. This is very expensive to get and maintain.  (Yes, maintain.)  3. This stuff can make it really hard for a surgeon or healer to get an area repaired. (‘Doc, I brought him in because this stuff is down into the flesh, and is interfering with the magic healing.’  ‘Yeah, well how the heck am I gonna operate on a bone through a mesh of monofilament?!’) Please don’t bother quoting the source if you want to use this in a story or game.  If some brilliant person has thought something similar up previously, I haven’t read it, so sorry.