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The car stopped quietly.
Even as we were approaching the meetup spot, I noticed Parker, who was standing with a smug grin next to Maine and Dorio. But the two of them didn't have that kind of confidence. Also standing next to them was a short woman with a bag over her head; she was apparently playing the part of Judy's grandma.
"Well, there you are..."
"So?"
"I want to see her..."
I shrugged, went around the car, and opened the trunk. Maine was tense, and so was Dorio. They were watching my every move carefully.
"Alright... just out of curiosity... do you really think something like this would make Judy hate me? She's going to find out why I did this to her..."
"Oh, that's my problem. And I'm not going to bring her to her senses right now. First, I'm taking her to an underground ripperdoc, and after that, she won't be able to do anything and she'll be with me..."
I nodded.
"An underground ripperdoc, huh? The only thing that comes to mind is installing a controller chip..."
This chip was developed by some crazy corpo and was based on a doll chip. But while a doll chip was, so to speak, a universal adjustment device, a controller chip has only one program, and it's very difficult to disable it without a special code. No, a good runner can do it, but only if they connect from the outside. From the inside...
"So, after you couldn't get her love, you decided to get her body?"
"Yeah..."
She leaned over Judy and ran her hand over her cheek. I have no idea how Judy managed to hold back.
"And if you think you can find me after this and zero me out, you're wrong. The chip I ordered will be tied to my life, and if I die..."
"I see, and these two... they're going to wait for you to get far enough away before they hand her grandma over to me?"
"Exactly!"
"I see..."
I nodded.
"So no smart plans... just relying on guts and luck..."
I shook my head.
"What are you..." Cough?!
Parker, who had looked up at me, choked and looked down at Judy, who was clutching the handle of a knife she had just stabbed into her stomach.
"You should have been worried about jamming the comms... because David talked to me during your call, and I called my grandma and found out she was fine."
"You... stabbed... me with a knife..."
Disbelief was in Parker's voice. At that moment, I heard two shots in a row. I didn't see the results of the first one, but the second one... the second one sent a piece of asphalt flying right in front of Maine's feet.
I gave him a serious look and shook my head.
"Were you expecting something else from me? You went after my grandma... even if it was just hypothetical..."
"I... I was doing it for us..."
"I've told you many times. There is no 'us' anymore. You destroyed that 'us' with your own hands. And now you're reaping the rewards of your actions and your arrogance."
"I..."
"Don't count on your mercs; we have a very good sniper who found your sniper's spot and also has the solos you brought with you in her sights."
I cut off Judy and Parker's conversation. After that, I took out a throwing knife and looked at it thoughtfully.
"Just tell me, why are you so obsessed with us... you don't even love Judy... I can tell by the way you treat her... So why?"
"Ugh... she... has to be mine..."
I shook my head and ran the tip of the knife along Parker's cheek. But she didn't care about that; she was completely focused on Judy's hand, which she was holding along with the knife she was holding in the wound, trying not to move it.
"That's the difference between you two... you want to own me, and David... he wanted to not only own me but also offered me a piece of himself. A piece that I would own."
"Do you have anything else you want to say to her?"
I looked at Judy, and she shook her head. So I sharply drove the knife into Parker's heart, right in the side, between her ribs, and then I quickly twisted it.
"Ugh!!!"
She looked up at me in shock, disbelief in her eyes.
"And you thought it would end differently, and I would give you my Judy?"
I sharply pulled the knife out of her body, just like Judy did. There was nothing in her eyes, and there was only a slight sadness in her emotions. Sadness that Parker was dying. Sadness that everything could have turned out differently if Parker hadn't gone against us...
"Goodbye, Parker..."
I shook my head and took a step to the side. While I had been supporting her before, now she just collapsed to her knees, and then she fell to her side.
"...you'll never be in our lives again."
"And what are we supposed to do now?"
Maine glared at me with a frown.
"Well, for starters, you could free the girl who's not to blame for any of this..."
I shrugged.
"...and after that, you can do whatever you want. We're going home."
"I see... is Placide at least alive?"
"Huh?"
"He was the sniper providing cover..."
I focused on the comms link with the girls.
"Cherry, how's the sniper?"
"Placide? He's fine; even his rifle's intact. I just shot his cigarette out of his mouth, and he got the hint. Well, he tried to find me, but our Moxie and Snowflake had already hacked him, so he had some problems with his optics..."
"I see..."
I turned my attention back to Maine.
"He's alive, they just messed with his optics a little..."
I looked Maine over carefully.
"And you decided to go back to fieldwork? I heard you were trying to be a fixer on Padre's turf..."
"Yeah... being a fixer isn't for me... I need a gun in my hands and adrenaline in my veins... And why are you keeping tabs on me?"
I shrugged.
"I'm not... But Becca keeps an eye on her wayward brother, so I know from her that you tried to follow my advice for a while and tried your hand at being a fixer."
"I see..."
Without making any sudden movements, Maine took the bag off the girl's head.
"What, it's all over already?"
"Yeah..."
"And? Where's my money?"
"I'm guessing it's in the same place as mine... on the dead client..."
"What?"
The girl looked from Maine to me in surprise.
"You zeroed out my money?"
"And what if I did?"
"Then you're going to pay me..."
Maine put his big hand over the defiant girl's mouth.
"Luda, don't get greedy. This guy is a high-level solo, and he knows how to count money. So if you mess with him, he'll just zero you out."
Maine let go of the brazen girl's mouth. I, meanwhile, just turned toward Judy, who had already gotten out of the trunk and was standing behind me.
"Are we leaving?"
"Yeah..."
"Hey! I wasn't kidding! You zeroed out my money, and you have to..."
I sharply turned around, and a throwing knife flew right past the girl's face, cutting a little of her hair and sticking into the wall behind her. Thankfully, Maine had taken a couple of steps to the side after he let go of her, as had Dorio. So the throw didn't threaten either of them.
The girl, meanwhile, froze and slowly looked down at her hair, which had fallen on the asphalt. Then she just as slowly turned around and noticed the knife that was half-stuck in the wall of the building.
"Alright..."
I calmly walked past her and, taking hold of the knife, I pulled it out of the wall without showing any strain.
"No, no... no need to worry. I'm not after your money..."
"Good."
I nodded a couple of times, after which Judy and I got into the car and quickly drove toward the megabuilding where we picked up the other girls. Panam immediately kicked me out of the driver's seat.
"Well... we solved one problem..."
"It's been a lot more than one problem for a while now..."
I shook my head at Kiwi's words.
"The first problem we really solved was Faraday. And Parker... she was just a small crack in the road; she wasn't even a pothole. So we're going home and getting some rest, and then we'll get back to work..."
"By the way, did you guys see that girl?"
Kiwi was being very sarcastic when she remembered the girl they had apparently hired to play the part of Judy's grandma.
"We saw her arrogance."
Lucy commented on what she had seen. But from Judy, I felt a slight admiration for the girl's bravery and approval of her understanding of the situation when she didn't dig any deeper.
"I actually managed to dig up some info on her..."
"And?"
I was also curious what Kiwi had managed to find on this girl.
"She's a solo who specializes in high-end escort work. You know, when you need to draw attention to a specific action by distracting people from the real security. It's a dangerous but well-paid profession."
"Uh... so hiring her isn't cheap?"
"Well... she's not a top-tier solo, but she's not at the bottom either, so yeah, her services cost a lot of eddies."
I nodded.
"You think Parker had the funds to hire her?"
"I'm checking that right now..."
I looked at Judy in surprise.
"What? While you were talking to Maine, I slotted a shard into her body, so we can still get some info out of her before her chrome completely shuts down after her death..."
"I see... so we'll find out what she was planning soon?"
"She already told us, didn't she?"
Judy shrugged.
"Yeah, but she might not have told us everything."
"She might not have..."
Judy nodded.
"...but I doubt she was lying. What she said was in her style. And I think if you had believed her and decided to trade me..."
"Judy, don't be ridiculous..."
I shook my head.
"Even if she had pulled off a miracle and found a moment when none of you were around me, and she had also hired a top-tier runner who could hack our comms and fake a conversation from your side... all she would have accomplished is that I would have arrived at the spot with my Sandevistan activated at one hundred percent."
"Wow..."
Judy tugged on her earlobe.
"...alright, I'll dig a little more into what she had saved before her chrome completely shuts down after her death..."
"Lucy..."
"Yeah?"
The girl looked at me a little surprised.
"Start looking for a shuttle that can take us to the moon. The money from the hacked training shards, even though we didn't get too greedy with the price and percentage, is coming in. And we're doing good work..."
I looked out the side window of the car thoughtfully.
"...I think in a month, we'll be able to afford a week-long vacation like that, and we won't be left with no money at all."
"Well, we weren't left with no money before, either..."
Becca shrugged, commenting on my words.
"David just took all the expenses on himself again..."
Kiwi commented on what she had heard.
"Yeah, and are you guys against it?"
"It's not that we're against it..."
Panam decided to join the conversation, looking sideways at me. Judy, meanwhile, was feeling annoyed and a little impressed. She was happy about my care and my desire to take on all the expenses, but it also annoyed her...
"Girls, I suggest we take matters into our own hands and pay for the trip to the moon ourselves. We can split the cost for a week, or maybe even two, there..."
They exchanged glances and nodded at Becca's suggestion.
"Hey, what about..."
"No one's asking for your opinion. You're already paying for everything you can... so this time, we're paying."
I sighed.
"Alright..."
I had to give in, because through my connection with Judy, I could feel that she wasn't going to back down on this matter. I guess the other girls were the same...
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