The Lower City was dark. A perpetual night cast by the towering buildings and the many roads and trams supported by massive graffitied columns. The light for Lower City was almost all artificial. Animated billboards showered the city in the light and noise of the latest product they promoted.

It didn’t rain in Lower City. Instead, the rain from above collected and collided until it fell in rivers and waterfalls from the city above. Caring with it the filth and waste of the Upper City.

“Where are we going?” Gabriela asked while she looked out the car window. The crowds that shuffled by were all deviants. The chrome of implants glistened in the artificial light, and the faded paint used to hide the implants glowed in the neon haze.

“A contact named Sally. She’s got her ear to the ground in the Lower City. Has a knack for knowing things.”

“What sort of things?”

“The kind of things that you can’t learn from the Ether Web.”

Gabriela turned her attention away from the window and examined her new partner. His augmented eyes stared unblinking at the road before them. “How do you know this contact is going to help us?”

“There is a mutual understanding between the two of us. Sally and I go way back.”

“You scratch her back, and she scratches yours?”

Geraldo chuckled and smiled. A wide smile that split his face and flashed capped teeth. “More like she scratches mine, and I make sure no one puts a bullet in the back of her head.”

“And if she doesn’t know anything that can help us?”

“Then we start moving through the circles, shake a few trees, and see what falls out. I’m sure it’s nothing different from how it works in the Upper City.”

“Typically, we investigate, get hit with a lawsuit, then we wait for legal to deal with it. Unless they sacrifice some mid-level manager or the trail leads down here.”

“Then it’s my problem.” He glanced over at her and frowned.

“I guess things down here are different from up there.” Geraldo pointed above them. “There’s no bullshit pleasantries, no lawyers, or some corpo suite to pin shit on. Here, people handle their own crap, and they handle it the best way they know how to. That means most wouldn’t hesitate putting a bullet in my back or yours, and it also means that they wouldn’t have a problem ratting out a rival.”

They are crabs in a bucket.” He concluded as he shifted his weight in the small cab of the car. “Each one pulling the other down as they try to reach the top.”

“Jesus.” Gabriela shook her head and looked back out the window. “You act like they aren’t even people.”

“No. I am saying they are people. Real people. The people you deal with, the ones up there,” Geraldo pointed up once more, “the only thing real about them is their bodies. Everything else is fake.”

Gabriela clenched her teeth and was silent for a moment. “You know I was from the Upper City, right?”

“I do; your mother is Antonia Fohren, UN chancellor.”

“So, what are you saying about me, then?”

Geraldo pulled the car over and opened the door slightly. “I’m not saying anything about you. No one asks to live in the Lower City, and you can’t ask to live in the Upper City; You do what you can to get out and live up there. That’s all I am saying.”

“There are good people above, just as I am sure there are good people down here.”

“We are here.” That was all Geraldo said before he got out and shut the door.

The car rocked as he left. Gabriela glared at him before she unfastened her safety restraints and opened the door to follow. The Lower City was colder than she had expected it to be. Her breath hung in the air before her in a thick cloud. Geraldo had already crossed the street to a complex of buildings built around one of the highways bypass’ massive columns.

A pink-haired woman leaned against a wall with a Bioloxys ad plastered to the worn brick reading, “Making a better world, by making better people.” “Fuck the Phage” was graffitied over the advertisement in thick black words.

The woman smiled as Geraldo approached. She stood up and crossed her arms over her chest. A cigarette burned between her long slender hands. “Detective, it’s always a pleasure to see you here.”

“Sally,” Geraldo nodded.

“And are you here for business or pleasure today?”

“What am I always here for?”

Sally’s plump, ruby red lips puckered into a frown. “It’s always business with you, Honey. Do you ever relax?”

“Not if I can help it.” He finished with a smile. Today was the first time Gabriela had seen him show more emotion than his standard grimace.

“This is Detective Fohren.” He introduced Gabriela.

Gabriela smiled. “Good morning, ma’am.” Her AFD scanned the woman. A long list of argumentations appeared and slowly scrolled down.

“Ma’am?” Sally put a dainty hand over her lips in a vain attempt to hide her amusement.” Detective, where did you find this lovely Blossom?”

“I’m his partner.”

Sally laughed. “If you are going to run around down here, Sweetheart, then you are going to need to learn to lie a little better than that. Geraldo works alone, always has. Isn’t that right, Love?”

“Listen, Sally.” Geraldo ignored the question. “I need your help finding a mod and the seller.”

“Always business with you,” Sally said as she took a drag of her cigarette and exhaled slowly. “Well, come on then, let’s get to it. You are scaring away my customers. What are you looking for?”

Geraldo pulled out his terminal and handed it to her, pointing at the screen. “Have you seen this on the market?” He pointed to the green block of text.

“A CLI 110-9?” Sally raised an eyebrow. “It treats severe seizure disorders. That’s wet gear, Sweetheart. You know I don’t get these hands dirty. The stuff I help facilitate is aftermarket. Wet gear is not something I facilitate.”

“I know.” Geraldo took the terminal back. “I was hoping you heard a client talking about one; maybe you knew if someone was asking around for a mod like this?”

“Not me, but Jack handles the client schedule. Maybe you can ask him? He is inside in the back.”

“Thank you.” Geraldo turned to Gabriela and held out his hands. “I need you to stay here. Jack isn’t open to people he doesn’t know.”

“Not unless you see something you want, Blossom. Then he would be more than willing to speak with you.”

Gabriela looked at Geraldo and nodded. “I’ll be fine out here.”

“It will only take a moment.” He assured her before he ducked inside the shanty.

Sally took another drag and looked at Gabriela. “So, Blossom. You ever been with a real woman?”

The question caught Gabriela off guard. She looked the woman over from top to bottom before her eyes finally made it back to Sally’s. “What parts of you are real?”

Sally laughed. “The parts that matter, of course, Blossom. I can be anything or anyone you want me to be.” Sally’s skin tone darkened from a pale white to dark ebony.

“How does a woman like you afford mods like that?”

“A woman like me?” Sally giggled, “you mean a whore? Well, Blossom. I’m just good at what I do. Would you like to see it for yourself? I think we have some time, and if not, I am sure the Detective wouldn’t mind waiting.

We can get to know each other better. Maybe you could tell me why a perfect piece of ass like you is running around in this shit heap. Oh, and pillow talk is extra.” She added.

Gabriela shook her head and held her hands up In front of her. “I think I’ll pass.”

“Suit yourself.” She said with a shrug. “You know where to find me if you change your mind.”

“You will be the first to know if I do,” Gabriela said as politely as she could before she walked back to the car.

She watched as people shuffled about their day. Some hurried along with urgency, while others seemed to meander. More than a few were clearly too doped up to even know where they were or where they were going. All of them were augmented.

A ball rolled from an alley, bouncing across the asphalt before it bumped against Gabriela’s boot. She frowned and looked down at the ball. It was small and checkered red and black. Movement from the dark alley drew her attention away from the toy.

Gabriela’s AFD illuminated the small figure peering out from the dark street. She picked up the ball and held it out to the child. “Here.” She offered with a smile, but the child only shifted their weight nervously.

“I’m not going to hurt you.” She assured them, but they still only stood there.

Gabriela frowned before she stooped down and rolled the ball back to the child. Only then did they step out from the shadows. The child was covered in rags and stood on two rickety augmented legs. Their face was canceled with a mask with a crude smile painted over it.

The child snatched up the ball in the claw of an outdated arm. The child’s entire body appeared to be comprised of tech and parts older than she was. “What’s your name?” Gabriela asked.

“Maru.” A digitalized voice answered as the girl tucked the ball under the stub of her other arm. As far as Gabriela could tell, the stub was the only part of the girl that was still real.

“That’s a pretty name.”

The girl backed away nervously. “Thank you. What’s your name?”

“Gabriela.”

“You are pretty.”

Gabriela smiled. “So are you.”

The girl looked away before she asked. “Are you perfect?”

“Do you mean am I gen perfect?”

“I have never seen someone like you before.” The little girl admitted.

Gabriela could tell that Mura was nervous. Not by her voice, but by the way, she clung to the shadows of the alley.

“Do you live around here?” Gabriela squatted down so that she was the same high as the girl.

The little girl nodded. “I live with my brother.”

“And what’s his name?” Gabriela put her hands into her pockets, a vain attempt to warm her fingers up.

“Soma. I have to go.” The girl said before she disappeared back into the shadows.

“Come back anytime, Detective,” Sally called out.

Gabriela stood and turned around. Geraldo waved a hand at the woman as he walked back to the car.

“Let’s go.” He said as he opened his door.

“You find anything useful?” She asked when she got back into the car.

“Just that some Chrome Domes have been running a hustle, pushing bliss and Ravaline.

“Bliss is made from fetal tissue,” Gabriela added.

“So is Ravaline.”

“Do people still take that shit? I thought the WHO put a stop to the misinformation that it can cure the phage.”

“People will believe in anything that will give them hope.” Geraldo started the car. “And there is always going to be someone willing to sell them that hope, regardless of how fucked it is.”

“Did you threaten to arrest her?”

Geraldo looked at her once more with his strange eyes. “Why would I do that? Prostitution isn’t illegal.”

“No, but you know she is facilitating black market deals for mods.” Gabriela pointed out. “She admitted to it.”

“The mods she gets are from a morgue. The people she gets them from don’t need them anymore. So no one is getting hurt by what she and Jack do.”

“Then why do it on a black market?”

“What she talks to clients about is pillow talk, and as far as I know, that wasn’t illegal,” Geraldo said as he pulled away from the curb.

It wasn’t that Gabriela was surprised that a Taurus officer would let a perp walk. Contacts and informants were invaluable. But Geraldo seemed to be strait-laced and by the book. He had a stick so far up his ass Gabriela had often wondered if he could even bend over.

“So she just gave you this information willingly?”

“As I had said: she scratches my back, and I make sure no one puts a bullet in the back of her head. You hungry?” He asked suddenly.

“I could eat,” Gabriela admitted. Her stomach suddenly gurgled at the thought of food.

“We should get something to eat. You like Pho?”