Chapter Twenty – Unsub

Chapter Twenty – Unsub

“Everything today is based on a subscription system, why not air?”

–AirCo, Premium Air Services, 2038

***

Peter was a weird guy. He was… too nice, if that made even a lick of sense.

At the moment he was in a dress shirt and slacks, a corpo outfit by any measure, only it was clearly about half a decade out of fashion, his topmost button was undone, and it looked like his shirt had been pressed by someone unfamiliar with an iron.

Somehow it all came together to make him look like someone who was professional, but not corporate, trustworthy but not infallible.

If he was doing it on purpose, then Peter was way ahead of everyone else. If he wasn’t, then he either had a damned good secretary or whatever dressing him, or his instincts were on point.

“Sorry for the delay,” he said as he racked his fingers through his hair. “Just had to take care of a few things.” He smiled at me, then glanced at the cyborg next to him. “Ah, I take it Laura’s introduced herself?”

“As See-Three,” I said. “What’s up with that name anyway?”

Laura shrugged, then gestured to her face. “Three eye-sensors. The name just kind of stuck. Its gotten to the point that I’m a little worried about switching out to something different.” Her eyes were pretty weird. Three short tubes poking out of a plate buried into her face. I noticed that Laura didn’t have a nose, instead there was a small filter tab off to one side of her face with a tube running back to where her nose should have been. It was a bit of a fucky look.

“Makes sense,” I said. I didn’t have rocks to throw from my glass house. Stray Cat was a lot harder to explain as far as names went. Hell, I had a house. I wasn’t a stray. I’d even go so far as to say that I was properly house-trained. I shook my head and refocused. “Anyway. I’m here for the thing we talked about a while ago.”

“You had prosthetics to donate,” Peter said. “I remember, it’s why I had See-Three come over. She’s the best when it comes to this kind of thing.”

“I’m hardly the best,” See-Three said.

“You’re certainly better than I am,” Peter shot back. “The only thing I’ve got going for me are my augs and some body sculpting. Oh, and a pancreas.”

“Your pancreas?” I asked.

I think my confusion came through because he chuckled at that, then waved dismissively. “Family history of diabetes,” he said. “I got some biomods for my pancreas… about ten years ago? Trust me, I couldn’t stand being in this place if I couldn’t handle some sugar.”

I nodded and glanced around the bakery. Some of the stuff being sold here was probably not great when it came to that kind of stuff. Or something. I’d never really been keen on looking at nutritional labels. “Okay. Yeah, that makes sense.”

“So, what kind of stuff are we dealing with?” See-Three asked.

“I’ve got a catalogue of basic prosthetics,” I said. “Arms, legs, the usual bits.”

“Knees?” she asked.

“I… think those would be included in legs?”

She shook her head. “No, they wouldn’t. Knees, hips, shoulders, they’re tricky as hell. It’s easier to get a femur-down replacement than it is to get a new knee. Knees are complicated. Making an entire leg is less complicated.”

“That seems counterintuitive,” I said.

She shrugged. “That’s just how it is. We’ve had good knees for a while, but they’re still disproportionately more expensive.”

I didn’t quite get it, but it didn’t sound entirely implausible. “I think I can manage knees and the like too.”