34 – A Healthy Dose

  Addie fidgeted, shifting in her seat as she watched Beef take another enormous bite of brisket off his barbeque sampler platter. She had to hand it to him—the place did an amazing job with the vat-grown pork and beef products on their menu. At least they looked like authentic barbeque to her, but her experience was admittedly limited. The smell was convincing, too; the entire restaurant smelled like smoke and spices.

  She’d ordered something called a “pulled pork sandwich,” and it was certainly good, though she thought the barbeque sauce was a little too much. Beef was in heaven, though. He’d put away four times what she’d normally eat in a day, and he was only half done. “Good, huh?” she tried, not for the first time attempting to start up a conversation.

  Beef grunted and nodded, washing down his mouthful with a swig of cherry-flavored cola. “You sure you don’t want to try the ribs? The synthetic bones are edible.”

  “No, no—I’m not used to such rich food! I’m struggling to finish my sandwich.” Addie smiled, and she didn’t have to force it; he might not be much of a conversationalist, but Beef had been very nice. Yes—nice was the right word. He’d even gotten himself cleaned up for the lunch date. Addie had never seen the strip of curly hair he kept at the top of his mostly-shaved head combed down before, and he wore a clean, black button-up shirt with no gang markings to be found.

  “You gonna eat your fries?”

  “Not all of them. Help yourself.” Addie pushed her plate toward him, and Beef grunted, snatching three of her fries between his thick fingers. “Are you doing okay, Beef? Have the Helldogs and Black Jades gone to war?”

  “Nope.” He shook his head, chewing the mouthful of fries. He swallowed and added, “That dipshit, Troy, was up to some unsanctioned shit, I guess. He wasn’t supposed to mess with people from our neighborhood—that was our arrangement. We killed everyone who knew where he grabbed Tony, so I just said he did it by Golden’s.” He smiled, his lips shiny with barbeque sauce, and tapped his temple with a pointer finger. “Smarter than I look.”

  “So, they just backed off?”

  He shrugged. “What can they do? We’ve got nearly twice as many hitters.” He leaned back in his chair, apparently ready to give his stomach a chance to digest, and wiped his fingers on the moist towel the wait-synth had brought over. Addie couldn’t help drawing a comparison between this meal and the one Zane had tried to treat her to—they were polar opposites, and while Zane’s effort had seemed far more sophisticated, she was decidedly less nervous eating with Beef. “You ever been to a place like this?”

  “Hmm?” Addie refocused on her lunch date and smiled, shaking her head. “Nope. Pretty fancy.”

  Beef nodded and shrugged his boulder-like shoulders, resting one arm on the back of the booth. “I come here once in a while. You know, to celebrate.”

  Addie thought about that for a minute, seeing another facet of Beef. It was weird to see him out of his element—no leather, no chains, no cronies hanging around as they harassed people from their alley. “You’re lucky to have things in life worth celebrating, Beef.”

  He nodded, taking a big slurp of his soda. “The banger who took me in, the one who got me my patch—Gray Ron—did you ever meet him?”

  “Sure. I walked by him and his boys just like you did on the way to Boxer Primary.” Addie remembered Gray Ron as quiet with a mean face and a salt-and-pepper beard that couldn’t quite hide several savage-looking scars.

  “Well, he taught me that. He said, ‘Beef, if you don’t take a minute to celebrate your wins, you’ll forget you had any.’ So, when something goes right, I take a little scratch and do something nice for myself.”

  Addie nodded, her mind a little stunned to hear words of wisdom coming out of Beef’s mouth. “Do you ever take your boys with you?”

  “What?” Beef snorted, shaking his head atop his thick neck. “I throw ’em some extra bits so they can do something for themselves when they’ve saved enough. Big Ron always said that a celebration needs to come out of your own pile.”

  “Oh, right,” Addie teased, “I suppose I better pay you for my share of this lunch—”

  “Hey! No way, doll. You being here is part of my celebration.”

  Addie’s eyebrows drew together, and, probably for the thousandth time, she objected, “I wish you wouldn’t call me that.”

  Half of Beef’s mouth turned down, and when usually he’d ignore the complaint, this time he engaged. “You got something against hard-working girls? Guys, too, I guess.”

  “Something against? No, Beef, but it’s not what I do. I’m not a sex worker, and it makes me feel like you don’t respect me enough to know what I actually am.” She wracked her brain for a suitable analogy. “What if I called you a ‘suit’ or a ‘wage slave?’ What if I said you were—”

  “Woah!” Beef clenched his enormous fist and—rather gently—thumped it on the table. “Don’t go starting any damn rumors, Ads.”

  “You get my point, though?”

  “Yeah, I get it. Fine, I won’t call you that.” He grimaced and added, “If it slips out by accident, I’m sorry.”

  Addie smiled and, for the first time in a long while, tried to look at Beef as Randal, imagining how the large, goofy boy she’d grown up with had become a Helldog enforcer. He was still in there; that much was sure. “Beef” wouldn’t say sorry—that was Randal. Thinking about him like that reminded her of his older sister, and she looked into his dark eyes and asked, “Have you heard from Dena?”

  Something flickered over his expression, not anger or irritation, something softer—disappointment? “Nah. Not for years.”

  “Last I remember, she got a job in the city, right?” Everyone knew you meant New Manhattan when you said “the city.”

  “Yeah. Something to do with cosmetic testing.” He shrugged. “She was always the smart one.”

  “That’s not true, Rand—Beef.” Addie smiled apologetically. “You were better at math than I was!”

  “Hah!” He laughed, shaking his head ruefully as he stuffed another forkful of sauce-drenched meat into his mouth. After a few seconds, he swallowed and nodded. “Yep. You even copied off me once.”

  “Only once, though! I felt so guilty!” Addie laughed, too. When the levity passed, she sipped her iced tea and said, “I’m sorry I always avoid spending time with you. This has been fun. I think… I think when you joined the Helldogs, I felt like you’d made a choice. You’d picked your family, and I’m not interested in that—the banger life.”

  He sighed and shrugged. “One of the great tragedies, I suppose. Our great love will never bloom.” His words were so incongruous with the Beef she’d come to know that Addie stared for several seconds, processing the words before she realized he was being funny. He was…right?

  “You’ve got a lot hiding under that tough exterior, don’t you?”

  “More than you’ll ever know.” He winked, the motion exaggerated by his heavy brow and red, inflamed cheek, then began scooting toward the edge of the booth. “Thanks for hanging out with me, Ads. I got a few things on my plate this afternoon, though, so I gotta bail. The bill’s paid.”

  “Oh!” Addie wiped her mouth with the napkin, even though she hadn’t eaten anything since the last time she’d done that, and started to get up.

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  Beef waved her down. “Hey, chill. Finish your drink. I got a guy meeting me outside, and I don’t want him to know I’m with you. Guys like that—they build a database of weaknesses, and I don’t need you getting on his list.”

  “Um—” Addie sat back down, feeling awkward. “—okay. I’ll eat the rest of my fries. Thanks for lunch, Beef.”

  “You got it d—” He chuckled, shaking his head. “Addie.” Then, he turned and trundled through the restaurant toward the lobby. Addie watched him go, struck by a wave of melancholy that made the prospect of eating anything else decidedly unappealing. She sipped her tea, memories running through her mind—kids playing on the sidewalk in front of her dad’s shop, hiding in the alleys, getting treats from other adults, even the bangers like Gray Ron.

  She remembered when her mom died, and her dad had a hard time helping her get new clothes or do something with her wild, thick hair. She remembered Randal stepping in front of her and daring the Lopez boys to say one more mean thing to her. He’d always looked out for her, and where had she been when he’d gotten sucked into the Helldogs? She’d backed away, shaking her head, lamenting another “bad decision” made by a neighborhood kid. Had she ever tried to talk him out of it? Had she tried spending time with him, showing him there was another way?

  Addie didn’t know if she could have influenced him, not when he was basically feral—both his parents were dead by the time he was a teenager—and the Helldogs filled that role. Even so, she could have tried. Instead, she’d judged him, taking his continued friendliness for granted, even when she talked down to him.

  Those were the thoughts going through her mind as she sat there, sipping her tea until nothing was left but slowly melting ice. Something like fifteen minutes had gone by when her AUI beeped, and she saw a new message from Tony:

  13:11 – Tony: Hey, you doing all right? Do I need to call in a rescue?

  Another wave of guilt hit Addie as she recalled joking around with Tony about her lunch “date” with Beef.

  13:12 – Addie: No rescue needed. He was really nice, and the food was good. I’m heading home now.

  He replied with a “cool,” and Addie slid out of the booth, trying to shake off the weird sadness that had gripped her heart. She made her way out of the restaurant, down the escalator to the lower half of the NGT lobby, and approached a bank of automated doors. She’d just edged around a group of suit-wearing corpos when a familiar voice called out.

  “Addie!” She turned to see Zane hurrying toward her. He was dressed to fit in, wearing a stylish gray suit with a shiny turquoise tie. His smile was huge, white teeth flashing as he approached. “So great to see you like this! What a surprise! I’m on a lunch break; care to join me?”

  Addie’s smile was hesitant; he’d caught her off guard. There had to be a thousand people on the ground floor of the tower. What were the odds of him running into her? “Oh, hey, Zane. Sorry, but I’ve already eaten, and I’ve got something to—”

  “Maybe I could walk with you part of the way? I’d like to talk to you about an opportunity.”

  Addie noted the sensor array in the corner, scanning everyone near the doors. Was that how he’d “run into her?” Boxer’s corporate office was in the NGT building; did they have the clout to access the building’s security feed? If not them, then who would? “I’m kind of in a hurry, Zane.” She smiled apologetically and moved toward the door, but he kept pace with her.

  “It’ll just take a minute. Promise.”

  Addie didn’t respond but kept walking through the crowds, trying to get to the corner so she could turn toward her neighborhood and move away from the busier part of the district. She caught the crosswalk on green and hurried across, and Zane followed close behind. When they cleared the corner, he lengthened his stride to walk beside her, and Addie looked up at him, feeling obligated by his persistence to acknowledge him. “So, what’s on your mind?”

  “I talked to a friend about your reading on the Dust containment field—you know, when I ruined our dinner?”

  Addie favored him with a small smile, irritated that she felt herself succumbing to his charm again. “I remember.”

  “Well, I didn’t mention your name or anything, but my friend—also a Boxer employee—said he was sure you could get a sizeable signing bonus. He was sure the hiring manager on my team would go nuts if he saw what you could do. I knew that. I mean, I knew you could get hired, but I didn’t know about the bonus. They won’t offer it to you right away, but if you hesitate, they’ll start throwing bits at you—my friend’s words.”

  Addie shook her head. “That’s nice, Zane, but I’m not interested in working for Boxer.” They crossed another intersection, and Zane reached out to grasp the fabric of her jacket at her elbow, tugging it gently to slow her down.

  “Addie, this could be a life-changing situation for you—education, a career, a nice fat deposit in your bit-vault. I know people in the Blast are derogatory about Boxer, but you wouldn’t have to work here. I’m constantly in the field, and—”

  “Zane, thank you so much for trying to do something nice for me, but right now, I have other goals I’m focused on. I’m going into business with a friend and—”

  “A friend? I don’t think a friend would want to hold you back from an opportunity like this.”

  “Well, he doesn’t know about it, does he? Look, I’ll think about it, all right?”

  He nodded, his hazel eyes a little too intense as they stared into hers. After a moment, though, he smiled and shrugged, brushing a hand through his hair. “Yeah, sure. Think about it. I’m sounding a little too pushy, aren’t I? I just got excited when, well, when you blew away my score on the containment field.” He backed off and started to wave, but then he paused and held up a finger as if an idea had just occurred to him. “I have another thought.”

  “What’s that?”

  “If it’s Boxer that’s souring you on the idea, I know an independent recruiter. She could line up a thousand different opportunities for you. Would you sit down with her for lunch sometime?”

  With a heavy sigh of resignation, Addie nodded. “I said I’d think about it. I’ll think about this new idea, too. I have to go, Zane.” She forced a smile and waved, and he nodded, returning the gesture.

  “Speak soon, I hope!” he called after her, but Addie was already hurrying toward the next corner. Why did she feel like she’d just escaped the jaws of a trap? Was she just being paranoid? If he’d wanted to force her into something, he sure had a pleasant way of doing it. Maybe it was just the weird coincidence of running into him, coupled with his pushy behavior. For some reason, the whole interaction made her want to talk to Tony, so she had JJ call him while she walked.

  He answered after only one beep, “What’s up?”

  “Walking home.”

  “Yeah, I saw that.”

  “Huh?”

  “You’re still sharing your location with me.”

  “Oh!” Addie laughed. “Should I stop?”

  “I don’t mind it. Here—” His eyes narrowed as he did something, and then a message appeared on Addie’s AUI:

  Your contact, Tony, has shared his location data with you.

  He smiled. “Now it’s fair.” Addie liked his teeth; she wondered if they were natural. If they were synthetic, they were high-end because they didn’t have that too-white artificial look she’d seen on so many people. “You still there?”

  “Oh, yeah”—Addie cleared her throat—“just thinking about how I’m going to use this information against you. I guess I can track you on your next date with Maisie and have my drone spy on you.”

  Tony’s silver eye twinkled. “Oh? Why would you do that? Jealousy?”

  Addie’s cheeks reddened, but it wasn’t because of his playful accusation. She was reacting to herself; she’d said the words without thinking, and then, when he hadn’t denied any plans to date Maisie, she’d felt precisely that—jealous. Why, though? Was she really falling for this guy—this guy who’d been dumped in the Blast, a killer, a total mystery? She tried to laugh it off, “No, just teasing. Tony, can I ask you something?”

  His smile fell away. “Yeah, sure.”

  “That guy, Zane, the spark from Boxer Corp?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Well, he ran into me at the NGT tower after I finished lunch…” Addie spent the next five minutes detailing her conversation with Zane. She’d mainly brought it up to change the subject and kill some time, but as she spoke, she realized she really did want to hear Tony’s opinion.

  “First of all, there’s no way that meeting was chance. He’s got the tower security monitoring for you. Probably facial recognition, but maybe JJ’s responding to pings, too. Have you told him not to?”

  “No… Why would I?”

  “For reasons like this. When you become an operator, you’re going to have to get better about looking over your shoulder. A healthy dose of paranoia will go a long way toward keeping you alive.” He frowned, and she saw his cybernetic hand reach up and scratch his jawline. “This guy might be nice, and he might actually want to do something good for you, but he’s definitely chasing a finder’s fee, too. You’ll get a sign-on bonus, but he’ll get paid for bringing you to Boxer. Hell, if he knows an independent head hunter—”

  “Head hunter?”

  “It sounds worse than it is—a recruiter. Well, I take that back. Depending on who they’re recruiting for, they can be just as bad as a hitman. There are folks like that who’ll sell someone into slavery for the right price. It happens all the time—dodgy contracts, meetings in no-man’s land. Shit! Now I’m getting myself worried.” His eyes unfocused for a second, and he said, “You’re halfway here. I’m coming to meet you.”

  “You really think—”

  “No, probably not. Not in broad daylight. Still, I’ll feel better. See you in three minutes.” The call ended, and Addie stopped walking, frowning. She was still twelve minutes from the shop. What did he mean by three minutes?

  “JJ, put Tony’s location on my map.” Addie gestured toward her map, spreading her fingers to make it bigger on her AUI. A blinking white dot appeared near her Dad’s shop, and then it started moving. No, it started moving. “JJ, calculate Tony’s speed.”

  “Twenty-three kilometers per hour, though it seems to be gradually slowing.”

  “Huh.” Addie watched the dot move toward her, slipping through alleys, cutting corners at intersections, and generally proving that he hadn’t gotten into a car. She started walking again, shaking her head. “He’s basically sprinting to me. For no reason.” She couldn’t decide if it was crazy or romantic, but she couldn’t deny the smile on her face. “Do you think he sees me as more than a friend, JJ?”

  “Do you mean Tony?”

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t know, Addie. I’ll try to research the topic. May I respond later today?” That was one of the things Addie had been working on with JJ—getting him to try to find an answer without simply saying he didn’t know.

  It didn’t answer her question, but it also didn’t do anything to diminish her smile. “That’ll be fine, JJ.”