Living in this world for months made me start to question some of the things about the old world that I had taken for granted. Both Lung and Oni Lee had killed numerous people, and there were tons of villains like that. Why didn't they just use a sniper rifle to put a bullet in Lung's head before he ramped up? He definitely deserved it. I couldn't figure it out, but I stopped thinking about it as I wasn't exactly in the correct place to ruminate.
"Well, you can tell your boss that the message was received loud and clear, Mr Jin," I told him, finally.
Mr Jin nodded, still looking a little abashed, "Ah, good. Now, we've taken everything that that Doctor had in his clinic. Do you want all of it? The equipment isn't the best, but it's not terrible either, and while there's not a whole lot of stock, I figured that was the best reward I could think of for you."
I blinked at him, "Uh... I'm definitely not a Ripperdoc. Sure I can configure or calibrate a few implants, but I'm not a doctor, and I'm not qualified to use any of that equipment." I did want it, though!
He shrugged, "Neither was he. He hadn't been a doctor for years, not really. Besides, what else are we going to do with it? We could sell it, but we wouldn't get that much value. It's probably worth a lot more to you than what we can get from it, even if not right away."
"Yeah, but I don't want this gift of appreciation to have any... strings or assumptions attached to it," I finally said. I was pretty sure I could do a better job than Dr Gerstatt, actually, but they didn't let people known or suspected of conducting illegal surgeries in medical school, and that was still an ambition of mine.
He waved that off, "Don't worry about it. We're not going to show up at your doorstep and ask you to chip some sketchy implants into or out of people like you're a Scav doctor or anything. I just thought you'd appreciate this more than anything else I could get you; you see, our budget is kind of shot, so to really repay you what you're owed, I'd have to wait until next quarter at least. But we can do that if you want, you don't have to take the equipment at all. Thirty or forty kay if you want a monetary reward."
I grimaced. More than I actually expected since my main goal was just not being murdered later. Enough for half of a semester at the NC Health Science Centre. The medical equipment was worth a lot more if what Jin said was true, and it wasn't bad. Especially if I could repair, refurbish or copy them. "Okay, I'll take the equipment and any other included things he had. You're right that I am very interested in them."
Jin grinned, "Great! I'll have the things delivered."
I finished both the written test and the scenarios using a human patient simulator fairly quickly and was pretty sure I scored close to perfect. With the scenarios, there was always a little bit someone could nitpick; despite all the science involved treating people was still somewhat of an art and still subjective in a lot of ways.
Still, I'd know how well I did very shortly. I waited as all of the other members of the study buddy clique got out of the testing centre. The Kang Tao medic was pacing, "I, Xiao Li, am worried!"
I reassured him, "You crushed it. I bet all the scenarios were ones we practised, and your written scores were getting very good in the practice tests."
Still, he paced back and forth until suddenly we all received an alert, everyone scrolling text across their optics. I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail to read, "HEBERT, TAYLOR: Written (100%) HPS (99%)"
I snorted. What asses. They probably just took a point off because they could, so I wouldn't have a perfect score. I glanced around, and all the members of our study group looked happy. I looked through the e-mail, which had everyone's scores, and found a couple of people failed, but it was only by a few points, so they would be allowed a couple of days of retraining followed by a retest on the elements of the exam that they failed.
People almost always passed the retest, but it was only available if you failed by less than 10 points overall or in either section. If you failed by more, you had to take the test again after three months. Even the two people who failed seemed to look happy as they realised they would probably get through the retraining. Nobody out in out failed in our class, which was a bit unusual. This national registry test had a passing rate of only sixty per cent nationally. Many people had to take it twice.
"Hahaha, I, Xiao Li, have destroyed this puny American institution!" crowed the Chinese man while everyone else congratulated each other. I tried to duck out, but they wouldn't let me avoid the congratulatory party that they had planned, especially since a few of them told me I was the only reason they passed.
They also wouldn't hear that I was technically underage and couldn't drink. About the only things that I remembered after that were singing, very badly, on the karaoke and then waking up the next morning in an unfamiliar location, on a couch, still wearing the outfit I picked for testing, even if it was a lot more crumpled. My bio-monitor was screeching about alcohol and dehydration, and I sighed. I glanced around, made sure my pistol was still with me and then looked around.
I discovered I was in a hotel, or maybe it was more like a furnished apartment. Fiona glanced out of the next room, "Oh, you're awake, Princess? You want the shower before we get some breakfast?"
I blinked at her, but nodded. Why was my Kerenzikov set at one hundred per cent? I shifted it back down to eighty-five, where it should have been. No matter; I took a hot shower and then carefully put back on my crumpled clothes, trying to smooth them out a little bit.
After that, we went together downstairs, meeting Antonio for breakfast. He said, "Well, if it isn't Little Miss Badass!"
Shit. Just what did I do? I just glare at him, my head still pounding and decide to get some fluids in me as my biomonitor suggested. Finally, I asked him, "What... are you talking about?"
Fiona blinked at me, "You don't remember? After we got kicked out of that first place, this ganger tried to mug us. Tony was about to bounce the idiot off the side of the building. What a dumbass; I don't even think that knife would have penetrated any of us... maybe you; skin weave is kind of iffy on blades. Kind of depends." How'd they know I had that? It was almost impossible to notice.
Antonio chortled, "Yeah, then all of a sudden you zip in, grab the bowie knife out of his hand and cut his pants off and start trying to pick your teeth with the blade while his pants fell down. The poor guy, I was just gonna thump him. But I wouldn't have done him as you did. He ran away crying!"
Fuck. I guess that was why my Kerenzikov was at full speed. I think I am blushing a lot. No matter what anyone says, I'm never to drink again. At least until I'm twenty-one! But when Antonio slams a fucking short sword on the table and says, "Here, your trophy of combat!" I just started groaning.
The man sitting across from me was dressed fairly well. I hadn't gone for my boardroom outfit because this company wasn't on that level, but I was wearing one that was a bit better than what I normally wore, including a pencil skirt, but this one was a little more modest and went down to slightly below my knees.
"So, Miss Taylor... your grades and test score on the national registry test are all impeccable. You could probably get a job at any of the hospitals or trauma centres in Night City. Why did you apply at NC Med Ambulance?" asked the man. He didn't seem to be an HR drone but was likely one of the line managers.
I decided not hiding anything was the best play here, as there were only a few true answers to this question from someone with my grades and background. NC Med Ambulance wasn't a bad company, but it was small, and I could get a better-paid position if I wanted one elsewhere, "A Trauma Team hiring manager was interested in me but said I could either work in a hospital setting for three years in critical care or twelve months working 911 calls in Night City. I hope to get enough experience at your company to be more competitive in a year or eighteen months to make that possibility a reality. But I will be an excellent worker while I am here."
He grinned, "Thanks for being upfront with me. That's kind of what I expected, but I appreciate not blowing smoke up my skirt. When can you start?"
Last edited: 16/11/2022
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