Chapter Thirty – Cat Nap Mishap

Chapter Thirty – Cat Nap Mishap

“I heard that she did it because the mayor said something about her girlfriend.”

–Sam-I-Yam, gossip forums, 2057

***

I woke up because of a buzz in my head. A call over my augs.

Groaning, I turned in bed and tried to ignore it, but the call rang again, and I snapped my eyes open. I was in my room, covered by thick blankets. The room itself was cold, a fan on sweeping cool air over anything not bundled up. Lucy was next to me, breathing slowly and evenly.

I blinked a few times, then took in the time. Two fifty-six, in the AM.

I shifted to the edge of the bed, then sat there for a moment as I processed things. “Why?” I asked. I wasn’t coherent enough to make that any more specific.

The origin of the call suggests that it’s important enough to be let through. I’m sorry for waking you up.

I groaned, then stood up, turned, and fixed the blankets around Lucy. I’d left a gap open, and I didn’t want her to get cold. She grabbed the blankets in her sleep and curled up tighter around them.

“Hello?” I muttered as I answered the call.

“Cat?” a familiar voice asked. It took me a moment to place it though. See-Three, the cyborg chick in charge of the prosthetics place. We’d sent over the first shipment just yesterday. Or Lucy did, in any case. She was taking care of all of that stuff for me.

“Yeah, that’s me,” I said as I padded across the room towards the washroom. If I was gonna be up anyway, I might as well take a piss.

“Someone broke into our place,” See-Three said.

I paused by the entrance to the washroom. “Are they still alive?” I asked.

“Yes? We didn’t have anyone staying there overnight. That was probably a mistake. I got a turret thing from… I think it’s your girlfriend? Wife? But we just got it, it wasn’t installed yet.”

“Okay,” I said. “Do we know who it is?”

“I’m talking to someone right now. I think it’s just some local punks. I don’t think it’s the gang that runs the floor we’re on, but the one two floors down. I don’t know anyone well enough to ask, and the clinic doesn’t exactly have a lot of loyal customers yet,” See-Three said. She sounded pissed, and tired.

I sighed. “I’ll call you back in ten minutes,” I said. “Are you at the clinic?”

“I am.”

“Alright, stick around there. Stay safe. I’ll come over. Try to get, like, an inventory of what was taken.”

“Okay, thanks, Catherine.”

We hung up, and I went and did what I needed to do, which included splashing cold water against my face to wake up properly.

“I’m going to need a few things,” I said.

Certainly. I imagine one of them is something to wake up?

“Yeah. Hit me up with that alien caffeine. Or… what’s stronger than caffeine for waking up?”

I have several options ranging from methamphetamine to cocaine, but for what you’re looking for, I’d suggest a cheaper, less harmful alternative. For a point I can get you a cup of hot coffee-like substance laced with a well-measured cocktail of neurostimulants. It’s not chemically addictive, and tastes too bad to be addictive otherwise. It’s a tier zero item.

“Fuck it, sure,” I said. Made sense that something like that would be available to any samurai without a catalogue. It seemed like a basic necessity.

My toilet paper was also tier zero stuff after Lucy forgot to restock, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to go back to the normal stuff.

A cup appeared by the edge of the sink, just a little styrofoam cup with a plastic lid… that had a pair of cat ears and whose mouth was shaped vaguely like a cat’s.

I rolled my eyes as I took a long pull from it, then almost spat it all out. It was rank. Like coffee that had been left to boil for way too long, and it was grainy too. “This is awful!” I hissed.