42 – Bad Options

Tony walked beside Addie up to the doors, nodding to the bouncer as they approached. The big man used his too-long chrome arm to pull the door open for them. "Yo, Shep."

Tony smiled, holding out his metal fist as they slipped by. "Ted." The bouncer clacked his other metal knuckles against Tony's, and then they were through the door, and, as it swung shut, the music from the club piped into Tony's new audio implants. They were decent pieces—Eagleton Sound Labs' mid-range model from last year—and he and Addie had gotten a discount for buying two sets at once. At least, that was what Doc Fox had said when he quoted them the price.

"You know him?" Addie asked, bringing Tony back to the present.

He looked down at her, then peered into the bar, trying to figure out who she meant. "Who?"

"The bouncer guy!"

"Oh!" Tony laughed, shaking his head. "Nah, we've met at the gym a couple of times."

She folded her arms, narrowing an eye at him. "You meet a lot of people at the gym."

Tony draped an arm over her shoulders, pulling her into his side. "Don't start getting grouchy on me, now—not after that moment we just had."

She pressed into him, her curves meeting his contours like they were a matched pair. "I'm sorry. Sometimes I feel like it's my fault I don't learn people's names—like I'm stuck-up or something. I guess I'm glad you didn't do it here, and I missed it."

"You're not stuck-up. You're sweet." Tony guided them toward the bar, moving out of the busier walkway as he kissed the top of her head. Her hair smelled like strawberries. When they were standing on the far end of the bar, Tony pressed himself up close, leaning over to catch the bartender's eye. A minute later, he came over, exposing beautiful white teeth as he grinned at Tony and winked at Addie.

"Hey, hey, you two. What's up?"

"Hi, Alonso," Addie said cheerily.

Tony nodded, returning the smile. The bartender was one of the first people they'd met at the club. When he was working, he was the guy who always handed out drinks on Torque's tab. "Hey, man. Good to see you."

"Drinking?"

"Yeah, but later. We've got some friends here, and I was hoping to get a room. You know if any are open?"

"Hang on." Alonso's golden-brown eyes unfocused, and Tony spied the tiny flickers of an AUI doing its thing. "Got a room for you—number six. Putting it on your tab, Shep."

"Thanks, man." Tony tapped his knuckles on the bar.

"I'll keep an eye out for your drink orders." Alonso flashed another brilliant smile, then moved off to grab another patron's empty glass.

"I messaged them," Addie said, peering into the crowded bar. The dance floor wasn't busy yet, but there were a lot of people in the club.

"C'mon." Tony used his arm, still over Addie's shoulders, to guide her away from the bar toward the steps leading up to the private rooms. They were halfway up when a familiar voice called out behind them.

"Yo." Beef didn't have to utter more than one syllable for his unmistakable basso voice to make an impact.

Addie whirled, pulling away from Tony. "Beef!" She eagerly hugged the big man, and Tony could see she was riding a wave of endorphins—no doubt still high from her near crash-out, recovery, and their little make-out session. He didn't blame her. He'd been down in the dumps too, but her optimism—and his decision to finally face his past and, more importantly, to do it with her—felt cathartic. He hadn't even done it yet, and already some invisible weight seemed to be lifting.

Beef chuckled and patted her back with one of his ham-sized hands. Tony nodded at him and then headed up the stairs. Glitchwitch was already there, standing halfway down the hallway next to the door marked with a numeral six. "Yo," he called, waving.

"Shepherd." She inclined her head, making her impossibly feathery mohawk dance forward and back. Her eyes were obscured by a visor, per usual. Tony had a feeling it was more of a security blanket than a necessity in most circumstances. When he got to the door, it opened at Nora's request and revealed a room very much like the one Torque was always using. Speaking of Torque… Tony poked his head back in the hallway and confirmed what he'd already subconsciously clocked: Torque's bodyguard wasn't there. The fixer must have taken the night off.

"Something wrong?" Glitch asked, waiting for him to clear the doorway.

"Nah, just surprised Torque's not working."

She nodded. "It's pretty strange. Guy's a workaholic."

Addie and Beef were closing in on the door, so Tony moved inside, standing beside the booth so he could wait for Addie to slide in ahead of him. Glitch had no such qualms and scooted all the way to the back of the horseshoe-shaped seat. She lowered her visor and peered at him with her bright blue eyes. "Funny how you muscle are all the same—always want the outside seat. Always want to face the door. This ought to be interesting…"

Tony narrowed his eyes, trying to see what she meant, but then Addie and Beef came in. Addie slipped past him, sliding into the booth. Tony moved to sit beside her—it was the only seat that was on the outside and faced the door, but Beef stepped that way at the same time.

"Easy, corpo. Trying to hug me?"

"Take the other side of the table, Beef," Tony said with a sigh.

"Negative. Gotta see the door."

Tony didn't move. "I'll watch it for you. Take an hour off."

Beef pressed his girth into him. "I wanna sit by Ads."

Tony stared the big man in the eye. "I'm sitting there, Beef."

Glitch sniggered, but Addie cleared her throat and, in a sweet voice, said, "Beef, come on, now. You're a sub on this job, so let Tony sit where he wants. He's footing the bill."

Beef exhaled heavily through his nose, but after another moment of staring intently with his dark, deep-set eyes at Tony, he shrugged and sat down on the other side of the table. "Don't let anyone creep up on me through that door."

"Of course he won't," Addie said, a saccharine smile aimed his way.

Tony slid into the seat beside her and looked at Glitch, arching an eyebrow. "Enjoy that?"

She bobbed her head. "Very much, sir."

"So, anyway, thanks for coming, Beef and Glitchwitch. As you know, we've got a personal project that—"

"Tony!" Addie interrupted. "Aren't you going to tell him?"

Beef was quick to clue in. "Tell him what?"

Tony shrugged. "I guess now's as good a time as any…"

"The hell are you two talking about?" Beef demanded. His belly was pressed tight to the table, and when he leaned forward, Tony could hear the bolts on the table base straining.

"Easy, man. It's good news. Let's just say your, uh, coworker, Gomez, has had a change in attitude. He's eager to support you retiring from the Helldogs."

"The fuck he is. That piece of shit was dragging me through it just yesterday—"

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Addie shook her head. "It's true, Beef. Tony met with him before we came here."

Beef arched his prodigious brow. "No shit?"

"No shit," Glitchwitch added. "I helped Tony come up with something to convince him." She glanced at Tony and quickly added, "Not for free, mind you. Tony paid me."

Beef leaned back, his big, livid lips stretching into a slow smile as he peered at Glitchwitch. "Shit, you did that for me, doll?"

"Um, like I said, he paid—"

Beef waved her to silence. "Yeah, yeah. I get it." He winked at her. "So, Gomez is gonna play ball with me, huh, T?"

"Shep—" Addie started to correct him, but again, he waved a big, meaty hand.

"We're all friends here. I'm sure G-witch has the place jammed up."

"G-witch?" Addie's voice rose, incredulous.

"I like it, Beefie!" Glitch slid a little closer to the giant.

Beef was clearly pleased with himself, and his synth-leather duster squeaked with the strain of containing his chest as he laughed. After a minute, he nodded to Tony. "So, that's cool. Thanks, Tony. Do I wanna know what kinda dirt you dug up on him?"

Tony shook his head. "Better for him and me if I keep it between us. He'll be talking to you soon, though, so be sure to give him a chance to be nice before you start rubbing his nose in it."

"Understood. So, um"—he cleared his throat, suddenly uncomfortable—"since you guys handled that bit of biz for me, how about I do this job with you on the house? No charge."

"Beef, you don't have—" Addie started to say, but Beef wasn't done.

"I mean, except for salvage. If I loot something good, I want dibs."

Tony grinned, nudging Addie. "Sure. Sounds good." He nodded toward Glitch. "Anyway, Glitch already has an idea what this job is about, but I'll go over everything so we can be sure we're all up to speed."

"Right." Glitch nodded.

Beef grunted his agreement, and Tony continued, "Remember that other job you did with us?"

"Sure. Pretty good scratch."

Tony reached for something—anything—to drink, and frowned. "Let's put in a drink order. I'm buying."

Beef thumped the table. "Hell yes. I'll have a brew—something dark and thick."

"Just a mocktail for me," Glitch said. "I'm on a cleanse. Something sweet and a little tart—ask the bartender to surprise me."

"Ads?" Tony looked over at her.

"Fun seeing you call her by her real name," Glitch interjected, smiling slyly.

Tony shrugged. "We're all friends."

Addie cleared her throat, shifting from side to side as she inhaled, ready to speak, then hesitated. Tony nudged her. "What?"

"Is there a chance we'll do this job tonight?"

Tony shrugged. "Yeah, I hope so, but not for like six hours."

"In that case, a Ruby Slipper."

Tony smiled. The drink was one of Alonso's "signature" cocktails, and Tony had no idea what was in it. He'd tasted Addie's once and found it to be sweet with a hint of cranberry—and not to his liking. "Got all that, Nora?"

"Yes, Tony, and for you?"

"Cola. Caffeinated," he subvocalized.

That handled, he looked around the table, meeting everyone's eyes. When he got back to Beef, he said, "Right. Well, that squint we pulled out of that lab turned out to be a nut-job."

Beef shook his head and grunted, but didn't say anything more.

Tony continued, "He's taking people with Dust afflictions and doing something to 'em to get those afflictions to be more like, well, more like what you might see on a spark. We know that much for sure, but Glitch did some digging and there's more to the story." Tony nodded to Glitch. "Go ahead. You'll remember the details better than I will."

Glitch sat up straight, pushing her visor up so it covered her eyes again. "Sure. Well, I got into a few servers where I wasn't welcome, and I learned about a few things Doctor Kwon was working on before he fell out with Boxer. They have a project internally labeled as 'IDM,' and Kwon was listed as the top researcher on the project. At first, I couldn't find any more info on the project, not even what 'IDM' stood for. Mind you, I only stumbled on this because I was trying to find Kwon for Ember and Shepherd. Anyway, I kept digging, and I got a little dirt from a Boxer message board where some of the lab-techs were talking in an encrypted channel—well, they thought it was encrypted…"

She paused for breath, and Tony watched Beef, wondering how much he was absorbing. He looked like he was in a trance; his dark eyes staring into nothing—or, maybe, at the wall. He didn't react to her words, and his breathing had grown very slow and steady. Still, his eyes were open…

"So, anyway, I read through a few long chats where they were complaining about the senior scientists, including Kwon, and one of them referred to the lab as a 'mutation factory.' I doxed the one who said that and sent her a threatening message, pretending I was a corpo-sec investigator for the company. I told her one of the other people in the chat had ratted her out, saying she was spilling details about the project, and, well, she flipped instantly. I got her to spill a few more details, and she said IDM stands for Instigated Dust Mutations."

"In other words," Tony interjected, "they're not just working on Dust-afflicted people, they're making them."

Addie nodded, leaning over the table toward Beef. "So they aren't doing good things, as we'd hoped. I mean, they aren't working on a cure. They're trying to figure out how to make their own sparks."

Beef finally stirred, shrugging. "Okay, cool. They're the bad guys. I honestly don't give a shit. Just tell me where we're going and what my job is."

Tony barked a short laugh, shaking his head. The guy didn't disappoint. As an experiment, he asked, "What do you think we should do?"

Beef looked at Addie, then at Tony. "I take it minding your own business isn't an option?"

Addie sighed explosively, throwing her hands up. "Beef! We let him out. I saw one of his victims! What he's doing is wrong, and our hands aren't clean!"

"I was just asking—" Beef started to say, then a chime sounded at the door.

"Drinks are here," Nora announced in Tony's ear.

"Come in," Tony said, knowing Nora would open the door.

A young woman came in carrying a tray. She wore a shiny, silver tank top over black pants, and her hair was styled in a hundred tiny blue braids that stood straight out from her scalp. "Hey, all. Here are your drinks."

"Love your hair," Glitch said as the server started depositing their drinks on the table.

"Thanks! Yours is shiny, too."

Addie sighed wistfully, and Tony knew she was lamenting her thick, curly hair currently pulled back in two loose braids. When they all had their drinks and the server had left, Tony sipped his cola, peering pointedly at Beef.

The big guy gulped the top third of his beer down, then set the mug aside. "Fine, if I were a busy-body do-gooder? I guess I'd have to ice the guy."

Tony nodded. "Why's that? Why would you have to?"

"Because you ain't gonna make him forget what he knows. Boxer already tried to use him once. They're probably trying to get him back. If they fail, some other corp might get him. Even if they don't, he's already doing that shit on his own. Too risky to leave him hanging loose. Even if you found a corp that pretended to disagree with what he was doing and convinced 'em to arrest him, they'd sell him to the first R&D department that came calling. You know how they are."

"So the only solution is death?" Glitch asked, pulling her visor down as she looked from Beef to Tony.

Tony tilted his head, thinking. After a moment, he said, "I mean, there's always wipeware."

"That's real?" Addie asked, eyes widening. "I thought it was just something you see in serials…"

Glitch shook her head. "It's real—and very, very illegal." After a pause, she added, "I can get one."

Tony looked at Addie. "Would you rather that?"

"Than killing him?" She looked down, her voice quiet. "I can't believe we're talking about this. I know, I know—I said I could handle it. I know there aren't many options…" She turned to Glitch. "What does it do?"

"The wipeware? The program I can get is called Mindmelt. It's supposed to… erase everything. Down to language acquisition. Our dear doc would be starting from square one."

"Pricy?" Tony asked.

Glitch nodded. "Fifteen K a pop. It's a use it and lose it file—no copies."

"Just ice the bastard," Beef grunted.

Addie shook her head. "Take it out of my cut. I mean, if we salvage anything. If we don't, I'll pay from our next job, T."

Tony shook his head. "Nah, I'm with you on this. I think it's the right way to go. We don't want to kill if we don't have to. That being said, if things get hot in there and he happens to catch a bullet…" He looked at Glitch. "Can you, like, get a refund if we don't use the program?"

"Once I buy it, it's ours. No refunds from these kinds of people. Still, I can get it in about ten seconds flat, so long as I have a net connection."

Tony smiled. "Perfect. Wait 'til the last minute."

Beef's chest had started bouncing up and down while Tony spoke, and he finally began to wheeze out a laugh, shaking his head as his big face turned crimson. "Oh, my ribs! Listen to this guy! You're killing me, T."

"What?" Tony asked, but Glitch was smiling too.

"Look at you over there, hoping we get into a firefight so you can save fifteen K."

"Hey, that's not—"

Beef gasped for breath, wheezing as he tried to contain his laugh, and apparently it was too much for Glitch; she started to giggle—a wonderful, rapid, high-pitched sound that made Tony smile. Addie poked him in the ribs. "Is that true? Are you—"

"I said, that's not what I was thinking!" Tony's voice cracked as he started to laugh. "I'm laughing—" He gasped. "I'm laughing at Beef's stupid face!"

Addie stood up on the cushion beside him. "You guys! This isn't funny! We're talking about erasing or killing a man!"

"K-killing," Beef choked out, "if—if T's bit-vault has any say!"

Addie sighed, falling back down onto the seat, her legs folded beneath her. "I give up." She picked up her red drink and took a long, deep swallow. Tony cleared his throat and got himself under control, reaching over to take her hand in his. He didn't say anything, but she looked at him and smiled, though her eyes were a little troubled. "I really want to use the, um, program if we can."

Tony nodded. "Yeah. I hear you, Ads. I promise." He looked back at the others. "Alright, we got that out of our system?"

Beef was still red-faced, but he managed to drain his beer without choking, so Tony figured he was done laughing. Glitch looked at him and nodded.

"So, if we're gonna pull this off, we need to talk about the facility and the equipment Ads and I picked up after our last job. We want this to go smoothly and quickly because the guy Victor Kwon used to work for at Boxer has his eyes on him, and we need to get Kwon before he does."

"How do you know—" Glitch started to ask, but Tony held up a hand.

"I'll explain everything." He pointed to the center of the glass table where the holo-projector was housed. "For now, I need you to pull up the lab you found and give us a rundown on its layout and security."

Glitch nodded, tapping something on her invisible AUI. "Okay, so, when you said he'd be in a lab, I started with the one over on Ed Burger Drive in that half-burned office stack. You guys know the one? Anyway, I tracked down some power usage stats and…"

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