Ben sadly sent me a message saying that he was required in some high-level meetings. Considering the hot potato I gave Vince to play with, I had a pretty good guess what was going on, but I used the time to finish Mark’s arm.

Unlike the first attempt, this one showed a proper signal response. If my simulation was correct, it would feel and work just like Mark’s biological arm had. I also had finished the socket which I would place on the stump.

As a little gimmick, I had included an electro-shocker into the palm, to give Mark a little hold-out. It would only be enough for two, maybe three shocks, before the internal battery was exhausted, and then it would take several hours for the metabolic converter in the socket to recharge it, but in an emergency, it might be a little trump card.

At the end of the day, I evaluated the experiment with the rats, and as I had expected, the applicator worked just fine. The rats with CRS were the ones without the nano-filter, while not a single one with it had contracted the dreaded disease.

The next morning I had the auto-surgeon implant the socket, without any complications, and then he began testing the arm.

It took some minor adjustments to get it to work right, and without a HUD, he had a hard time controlling the additional features, like the quick release, the sensitivity setting, and the shocker, but he would have to work through that by himself. I had no way to help him with that.

During one of the fittings, Ben got in, along with Michael.

Michael was immediately interested in the cyber-limb.

“That is one of the new cyberware? And it works?”

Mark grinned widely, flexed his arm, balled his fist.

“Sure does. It is a bit strange, the feeling is a tiny bit off, but man is it cool.”

“And there was no option for making it look like a biological arm? It… looks like something from a bot.”

I shrugged.

“Sure there is the option. Mark wanted it to look this way.”

“Really? Why that?”

“Because it’s fucking cool. I am the first in 150 years to have a fully working cyber-limb without getting my brain shredded. So fuck organic, I want it to look like it’s cyberware.”

“I still say it would be probably better in your line of work if you would keep the arm a secret. Not that it is that much of an advantage. Sure, it won’t get tired, and it is around 10% stronger than his biological arm, but the shoulder will get tired and will be painfully overstressed if you abuse it. Keep that in mind.”

“Yeah, I heard you the first ten times. It is cool anyway. So fuck advantage.”

Michael had begun walking around Mark, to look at him from different angles.

“You say it is only a bit better than his biological arm? Why not make it super-powered? I’m pretty sure you could make an arm that is three, or four times stronger than that.”

“You are off by around an order of magnitude. If my simulations are correct, I could make an arm roughly 50 times stronger. But not without cost.

One problem is energy. The super-strong arm would need more energy than his body can produce. He would have to literally charge it, for about 25-35 minutes of full power. The metabolic converter can, at best support four or five times the strength. And for that, he would be eating like a horse.”

“Hm, ok, that sounds not so good, but the four to five times… why not use that?”

“Here the second, and significantly bigger problem comes into play. Leverage. Our bodies are mostly pretty well balanced. But if you want to increase the strength of an arm in that way, the power will also work on your own body.

In this case, such strength would destroy what is left of his humerus, rip apart the remaining biological muscles and sinews. It is not designed to withstand that much power.

No problem you might say, just reinforce the rest of the arm, or replace it at the shoulder.

Then you transfer the problem to the shoulder blade and the muscles and sinews there.

Why not reinforce that then? In that case, you transfer the stress to the spine. And yes, it is possible to reinforce the spine to take it, and the rest of the body to take it. But doing so without impeding the flexibility of the spine is quite a bit harder. And I have not yet managed to design something that would work.

Add in that we can’t just replace the bones, as they produce the blood cells. It would just be a slow, painful death.

I know there are solutions, they did it in the great war after all, but I have yet to find them.

So, in conclusion, there is no point in doing it for now, as the body won’t be able to use the extra strength.”

Mark laughed again.

“Yeah, I know. But I am first on the list for when you get it done.”

He turned to Michael.

“Think about it, if a single arm is cool, how sub-zero would it be to have a full-powered cyber system, huh? I… have to have it.”

I tried to get the OPB cable out of the arm, but just at that moment, Mark again flexed it.

“Stop moving around!”

Mark laughed again.

“Yes, Boss.” But luckily he kept still long enough for me to remove the cable and close the maintenance panel.

“So, done for now. Try to use the arm and get a feel for it. We can adjust it whenever you need to.”

“Thanks, red.”

He quickly moved out of the room, and we could hear him shout just outside:

“Hey, my new arm is done. Come look! It’s just so cool!”

I sighed and shook my head.

“I wonder if I did the right thing here.”

I felt Ben’s hand on my shoulder.

“I would say so. He is happy with it, so why not let him have it?”

“Yes, you are right, but… he is so… I don’t know, he just doesn’t take this seriously.”

“So what? Can you or can you not replace his arm at virtually any time, and with enough lead up even with a biological arm?”

“You know I can. What does that have to do with it?”

“So, if he can’t make it work, you can give him a new one. So what is the risk?”

“I know, but… it is my fault that he lost his arm. If I hadn’t…”

I felt him grip my shoulders and turn me around to face him.

“Vivian, don’t go there. It was not your decision to have Falconer attack you. The only thing you could have done to prevent it is not to tell us about the new cyberware. And call me selfish, but considering that I would be dead already in that case, I can’t see anything wrong with it. So let it go.”

He then hugged me for a few minutes, only for Michael calling out:

“Hey, get a room you two!”

“Son, when you get into a new relationship, you will realize that not seeing another for a whole day is not nice.”

I, on the other hand, was pretty sure that I could use the glow from my face to read in the dark, even without the low-light mods to my implants.

Awkwardly, I tried to change the topic.

“Well, alright then. What… can I do for you gentlemen?”

Ben laughed.

“Don’t let yourself be spooked by Mike. He… get’s a kick out of trying to embarrass me. Has not worked for a long time, but you give him some new ammunition.”

Still beet red, I murmured:

“Sure, but does he has to go after me as well?”

He kissed my forehead.

“You, my dear, are just collateral damage for him.”

Michael was snickering.

“You know dad, one day I will get you. You just have to wait.”

I shrugged and looked up to Ben.

“Now, I can understand why you are here. But did you have to bring him as well?”

“Oh, don’t be mean, Kitten. It’s just a bit of harmless fun between me and dad.”

“Mike, please let it go. You know that Vivian is uncomfortable in situations like these. And I told you that it is for a very good reason. So don’t torture her, okay?”

“Hey, I am mostly harmless. She really needs to get used to this stuff, or she will not survive here. You know what assholes some of your associates are. And many of them will use anything to make somebody else, anybody else, uncomfortable. We need to toughen her up.”

Ben sighed and pulled me a bit harder into the hug.

“Yes, I know, but we have to do it slowly. We don’t want to spook her or damage her along the way.”

I growled for a bit.

“’She’ is here, and can hear you, you know that?”

“Yes, Kitten, we know that. But sometimes things like that have to be said, and there is no good way to do it otherwise.”

“So, what do you two mean about these ‘associates’ of you? Something I should know?”

Ben rolled his eyes for a bit, but answered me:

“Yes, you will need to learn about it. But… whatever, we can do it as well just now. You may have noticed that my position is more along the lines of a medieval lord. I take responsibility for the people in my territory, I try to help them out, provide services, police the streets, and such.

I am still a gangster boss, to use the colloquial expression, but many of us, the better ones of us, try to be more protectors than exploiters.

But in that context, I have to act diplomatically with all sorts of people. Politicians, power brokers, fixers, the rich, whatever.

And many of them are just plain assholes. They get an unholy pleasure in hurting others. Some of them would burn small kids at the stake just for shit and giggles.

And if you are in a relationship with me, you won’t be able to avoid them all. Well, to be honest, with the new cyberware alone, you won’t be able to avoid all of them, irrelevant of us being together or not.

And they will use absolutely anything and everything to make you even a tiny bit uncomfortable.

If they can actually cause pain, either emotional or physical, they will be so much happier.

So, in that way, Mike is right, you will have to toughen up. There is, sadly no way around it. But we can do it slowly and without tormenting you that much.”

I looked from him to Michael and back to Ben, only finding confirmation in both faces.

“So… I can’t evade these… jerks? I mean, they can’t get in here.”

“Not with force, no, but with extortion, subterfuge, and other such ways, they can. They probably won’t be too damaging. To you. You are valuable. The others? They are just playthings for them. Completely irrelevant, and their only value for them is that they can be played with.”

“Hm… it seems that I have to look into the higher society here in NYC a bit deeper, then. There are always ways to… neutralize such people.”

Michael lifted both his hands in a defensive stance.

“Woah, slow down. These people are… inviolate. You can’t kill them. You can’t put a hit on them. They have too much power, too many bodyguards. Believe me, there already have been many who… looked into it. It just won’t work.”

“I won’t kill anybody. I won’t put out a hit or several either. I… let’s say I have ways of getting information. Ways they can’t defend against.

And if you show me one of these jerks who doesn’t have skeletons in his closet or enemies who would actually enjoy taking him down with information somebody places into their hand, I will agree to buy a bridge from you.”

Ben again grabbed my shoulders and held me at arm's length while looking into my eyes.

After a few seconds, he lifted his eyebrow.

“You actually mean that, don’t you? But don’t get your hopes too high, many of them are… smart enough not to place any incriminating evidence on a computer you can reach from the matrix.”

Now it was on me to snicker.

“You remember when we were talking about bugs in the clinic? How I… suddenly realized that I could build them? I am a nano engineer and implant surgeon. I can make you a bug that is no bigger than a tiny insect.

I can make a microbot that can link into any offline computer system and give me access to it, matrix connection or not. If they antagonize me, us, they will be the ones paying the price in the end.”

“Better than Kawamoto, or Burgmeister? Dalgon? These people have access to the triple-A’s top-of-the-line products.”

I shrugged.

“There are only a handful of nano engineers in my league in the world. Most of them are busy designing nanobots or other nanotech. Sure, Burgmeister or Dalgon have a few of them, but on the other hand, not one of them has somebody actively designing implants. They use canned tech from shortly after the great war. So yes, if I go at it carefully, and plan it out what I can build will be better than what the opposition can buy. And that doesn’t even include some other toys I might use.”

At the last sentence, I quickly and pointedly looked downward, and I saw understanding bloom in his face.

“Oh… oh yes, that could indeed make a difference. But ok, that has time.

The reason why I brought Mike with me is your factory.”

I rolled my eyes, sighed, and answered him:

“I thought we were done with this topic. I don’t want to run a fricking factory.”

“Yup, you made that abundantly clear. That is the reason why Mike will run it for you.”

Mike? His son? Sure, I was pretty sure that Ben could trust him, but…

“Mike? I don’t know Michael. Well not really anyway. Yes, I trust you, but… “

Michael chuckled at that.

“Oh, you wound me. Not knowing me? And that as we spent whole minutes talking to each other. A whole half hour even.”

He laughed for a bit further.

“But seriously, I get it. At the moment we work on the trust you have with dad. I think that should be enough to begin planing. And get to know each other better so that we can work together.

It isn’t as if we could wave a magic wand and have a new factory standing.”

Insecure, I looked at him, trying to gauge his trustworthiness. That was, naturally, a futile thing to do, for me. I just did not have enough experience with other people to judge them.

In desperation, I turned my gaze to Ben. Him, I trusted.

“Come on Kitten. I can vouch for him. I am pretty proud of my ability to evaluate people. And honestly, the thing that you should trust is self-interest.

We will, of course, get a percentage of the corporation, and the factory. And we will build it here, in my territory, and in the neighboring, recently vacated territory. My people will get the jobs, they will pay tribute to me.

In other words, it can only be to our advantage if it works well. And while I really like you, you would basically be the last person I would want to run such a company.”

I suddenly felt slighted at his last sentence, but before I could complain, he continued:

“Don’t get me wrong, you are a terrific person, but to run such a company, you need to be a politician. You need to work with people. On all different levels.

You have neither the patience nor the… inclination for that type of life. As you told me yourself, you would go insane within weeks. So, let somebody who does enjoy it do the work, give him enough incentive to do a good job, and keep doing what you enjoy doing.”

I closed my eyes and thought about it for a moment.

“Ok, we can try. But I’ll have Warden look into it.”

“Seriously, I would think you were sick if you did not insist on it. Not that I expect Warden to not do it regardless of what anybody of us says.”

The overhead loudspeaker crackled for a moment before Warden’s eerily happy voice came from it:

“You are right in that respect, Mr. Walker. I will, of course, observe your son in this endeavor.”

While Ben and I twitched a bit, Michael literally jumped up a tiny bit.

“What… who the hell was that? Can somebody listen to us?”

Ben smiled mildly.

“You were right with ‘what’ the hell was that. That was the VI that Vivian has created. I told you about it. You will get used to her.”

Michael looked around the room.

“And it… she did listen to us? Here?”

“Of course I did, Mr. Walker. You are around Seraphim. My objective is to protect her. I will always listen to anything around her.”

“Fuck… that is creepy.”

“As I said, you’ll get used to it. She is pretty useful all in all. Also, she is one of the toys Vivian mentioned earlier.”