Chapter 45: Part 40
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***
- So, um.
Cake pulled up outside the house and I took a look around. The place wasn't too bad, a nice breeze from the lake over the flooded city. It wasn't exactly deserted, there were some plants around, and the house.....
- ...Now I'll prepare a place for you to rest, and afterwards I'll do the meat.....
With these words I started to pull out of the car deck chairs, which I began to arrange on the pier, there I put some umbrellas from the sun and a table, and I put a brazier a little aside on the ground. And just as I was putting the charcoal and wood chips into it, Kiwi pulled up on her motorbike.
- I see everyone's here already?
- Yeah. Kiwi, come and join us.
- Hmm.
Kiwi looked round at the girls in their swimming costumes on the deckchairs and then calmly began to undress. I looked at her with a sidelong glance, still I wondered what kind of swimming costume she had chosen.
For example, Panam was wearing a plain black swimming costume, Judy had chosen a blue one, Lucy was wearing a white one, and Becca was wearing a silver-black one... or whatever that colour was called? I've never been good with colours.
- Pfft! Poseur!
Becca couldn't stand it when Kiwi stripped naked and walked calmly towards the chaise lounge prepared for her. My girls, however, reacted completely calmly.
- Why are you so calm, she's naked in front of your boyfriend....
Becca jabbed her finger accusingly at Kiwi, who had already laid down on the chaise longue.
- 'And we took it in turns at night... so now he's not even interested in watching...'
I snorted.
- It's always interesting to watch, but at the moment I'm more interested in the meat I'm supposed to be doing. And Kiwi made it pretty clear yesterday that she wasn't interested in me, so what's the point of looking at me? I've got people to look at and know that look hasn't been wasted.
- See, you're the only one who has a problem with my bare breasts and vagina.
- Actually, I can do that, too.
- You can't...
Becca was sieged by Panam.
- А?
- You're single, or rather, I don't know that you have any romantic interest on the side, and also David sympathises with you. If it wasn't for me and Judy, he'd probably be after you or Lucy, maybe both. So you can't take your clothes off.
- Tsk... what if I don't mind him hitting on me?
- You might be okay with him hitting on you.
Judy joined in the conversation, keeping a close eye on Becca and Lucy. Although only the former was showing any obvious reactions. Lucy only opened one eye and looked at Panam and Judy, and then at me. I grinned as I continued my priesthood.
- I see... so you don't want to share?
Becky's voice was slightly mocking, but at the same time I could sense that she wasn't entirely joking.
- Should we?
- Probably not.
Becca leaned back on the lounger and there was silence for a while.
- Well...
I grinned and placed a comfortable chair close to the brazier, then walked over to Tortic and pulled out a small cooler bag.
- What's in it?
Panam followed me with interest and drew the attention of all the girls to my actions.
- You're so secretive... even Judy and I don't know what you've got in there....
- You know, the drinks.
I grinned, then set the bag on the wooden pier and opened it.
- ...I hasten to present, produced in secret from my dearest halves... from natural products... low-alcohol mead!
And I handed the ladies each a glass bottle of mead, which they accepted with some apprehension. And if Kiwi was the most doubtful, Panam and Judy looked at each other, opened the bottles from the homemade corks and took their first sips.
- М?!
Panam was the first to break away from the bottle, and trying to make as believable an expression as possible, she turned to the others.
- No... it's really bad... I don't think you should try it....
- Yeah, I'll be right back.
Becca jerked her hand away from the bottle Panam had already reached for and took her first sip.
- Hmmm?!
Seeing her reaction, and remembering Judy and Panam's reaction, Kiwi and Lucy also opened their bottles and took their first sips.
- Yeah...
Kiwi shook her head, and I sat down on a chair facing the girls, but so that the brazier was a bit to the side of me and in my field of vision, and sipped from my bottle, but it was just an ordinary cocktail, not alcoholic at all.
- Kiwi, is it time we had a serious talk?
- Hmm?
- What are your plans next?
There was a slight concern in her eyes, and Lucy looked at me carefully, expressing a cautious concern for her mentor.
- You've decided to give up on the Kiwi?
Becca... straight as a stick... I just shrugged at her words.
- In case you all have forgotten, at the end of the first day of work, Kiwi and I had an arrangement. She works with us while we work against these dope fiends... and after that we talk more substantially. And you girls should think about it... it's already a week past the agreed two weeks....
- Are you chasing me away?
- Not at all.
I shook my head.
- I'm just telling you that you'll have to decide something soon....
- Decide?
- Well...
I shrugged.
- ...I honestly have no idea what's going on with your boss. What the fate of your team is going to be. So.
- Are you suggesting we join you?
Lucy raised an eyebrow.
- Am I bad?
I mirrored her gesture, which, judging by the smirks on all the girls' faces, was quite amusing.
- Does that sentence apply to me too?
Kiwi looked at me carefully.
- Yes.
- Can you feed me?
Judging by her voice, she would have grinned wryly if she could.
- Yeah... I think if things work out, I'll talk to Regina, she'll take into account the growing team and find more... lucrative assignments from our point of view. After all, there are a lot of junkies in this town and, as we've recently learned, it's very lucrative to work against them.
- Yeah.
- Well, I was talking to Dorio just yesterday... I had a feeling you'd bring it up. So...
Kiwi sighed.
- The team is disbanded.
- What?!
Becca jumped up from her deckchair, and Lucy opened her eyes in shock and stared at Kivi.
- You're leaving?
- Not ours...but ours...ugh.
She shook her head.
- ...Anyway, I'll start again. Mayne is relatively stable now, he even went to a couple of rippers who basically gave the same diagnosis as Victor. He wanted to go to Borg, but he's got Dorio on his back. She'd already slacked off once and almost lost him, so now... Only proven rippers with good reviews. Anyway, he was told at least a year with the chromium he had, plus prescription meds for recovery because his brain was severely overloaded.
- Overloaded?
- Yeah.
- I talked to Victor too, wanting to know a little better about the psychosis....
I sighed.
- И?
- Well, the point is that psychosis is not dependent on the amount of chromium...
- I mean, everyone knows that cyber-psychos are always heavily chromed. Or they've been psychologically traumatised, but even so, they're at least seventy per cent chromium.
Lucy was curious, and Kiwi and the others looked at me with interest.
- There were a lot of terms... but in general, cyberpsychosis is an overload of neurons in the brain, when the brain can no longer process the mass of information coming into it, causing hallucinations. In some cases, during the borderline state, psychosis may not manifest itself as hallucinations, but as a strong manic disorder.
- Well, we know how it manifests itself, especially since the result is essentially the same, a bunch of dead bodies and Max-so eliminating the psycho. But what does chrome have to do with it?
- You see, the brain itself is a very powerful tool. And it can handle replacing anything, Smasher being a good example. Except most of the time people do stupid things...
- Stupid?
Becca wondered, and understandably so, as it could affect her brother, whom she didn't like, but he was still a brother. Well, at least that's how I can decipher her interest.
- They forget that different manufacturers don't have uniform software.
- И?
While we were talking, I took the kebab off the grill and put the skewers on plates in front of the girls. They also got a new bottle of mead.
- Eat, and I will continue the story....
I showed by my example how exactly I offer to eat and as in the old Soviet film about Shurik at the construction site I took a piece of meat off the skewer with my teeth. After chewing it and drinking it I decided to continue my story.
- So, different software has different errors, flaws, mistakes, assumptions, and there is a lot of crap in the software, our runners should understand it better than others....
I scrutinised Judy, Lucy and Kiwi, who nodded their heads.
- ...and now add conflicts between different software, which overlap with all of the above, and the brain just can't cope. That's where cyberpsychosis comes in.
- Well...
Kiwi shook her head.
- ...Dorio basically said that Mayne was condemned for rarely visiting normal rippers, condemned Borg... said it could have been avoided....
- Well, theoretically, it could have been...
I nodded my head.
- ...up to a certain point all this could be smoothed out, experienced rippers can synchronise the chrome, of course this procedure is not the easiest, and it should be repeated at least once a month.
- Yeah...I doubt Borg would have bothered with that.
- Exactly...
I nodded my head.
- But as for what started this whole conversation... so Mayne's out for at least a year?
- Yes... and frankly, after working with you this week, I'd love to continue on your team. Especially since Dorio said that she and Pilar and Regina have started working, but it's not much, but it's enough for food and rent... and a Reaper....
- In general, we can even throw them some money, for me and the girls a thousand a day to give them is not a problem, and for them in the current situation is a good help....
Becca shook her head.
- ...Even my cretinous brother... Though he should generally support himself. But I don't give a sneeze about him, and I'd stay with you... you're fine, just don't forget to check with your friend about the shooting range... otherwise you're just promising....
- Well, it's been a very busy week... so it's been a bit of a busy week, but I think next weekend I'll provide us with a similar holiday.
- Mm-hmm.
The girls had just finished their kebabs and looked greedily at the brazier, on which there were already skewers with new kebabs. But they still had to be cooked....
- Lucy?
- I'm with you... I have work... I have money... I have a lot of work, but I also have money, and... the atmosphere in your team is better... Mayne's is somehow more... just more, and you have warmth... family style... I even started to forget about my dream a little bit....
- Dream?
I looked at Lucy with interest.
- I dream of going to the moon...
It was said in an embarrassed voice.
- Well, it's not a bad dream, maybe in six months, a year we'll go for a week with the whole group... Kiwi?
Lucy's eyes widened and she nodded dazedly.
- I'm with you... I have debts to pay back... and it's easier with you... and Lucy's right, it's more homely... I like it....
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