Three sister's were gathered back at the Magical Sisters room. This time it was Cathrin's suggestion they would meet here. Cathrin couldn't use the chair comfortably yet at this point and was seated in her wheelchair. Lina had to override the system so it would work even without the chairs, but it was functioning up to a degree.
"Last time we were here we were lamenting about Lalage and how horrible she was." Cathrin said, sitting with the strawberry lemonade, her signature drink, in front of her. Everyone had their own drinks, Lina with Apple Juice, just regular old apple juice. Nelly had ended up with a blackcurrant drink, which had never been her favorite, but wasn't awful.
"This time we are mad at the ones who did this to her and the ones who by doing nothing allowed this to happen." Nelly said, and winced a bit about how she was partly to blame. The others didn't notice or didn't show it.
She took a sip from the blackcurrant drink in front of her, and found it better than when they were young. Maybe Lina instinctively knew what they would enjoy as adults. She did still drink the apple juice, sighing like an office worker out for a beer after a rough days work. Nelly really hoped Lina hadn't been hanging out with a weird crowd, but also laughed internally at the image of a regular office worker being questioned by the empress after bringing her daughter out to a pub.
"The biggest problem is we don't know who okayed the selling of the product nor the identity of the buyer. Even our audit of Dove revealed no information of either Oracle or Beggar." Lina said, scrolling through a few files on her phone. "The guys at Sharp said that Lalage could still exist, the only question is about that brain implant."
"What company was the implant from?" Nelly asked, having a few guesses.
"It wasn't so clear from the tape, but based on the other gear she was implanted with its either Biorito Conglomerate or Second Dawn." Cathrin said and sent a map to the projector from her phone. It showed the few notable towers in the vicinity of their homestead. "Second Dawn hasn't really been active in Block 21X before, its mostly a Block 17 company, with one five year old branch here. While Biorito as you well know is one of our military providers."
"Same your legs are coming from right?" Lina said. Cathrin nodded in reply. Nelly hadn't expected Black Dawn to be one of the options, her second guess had been Walsh Inc. Every thought at that name brought some painful pangs in her chest.
"Doesn't Walsh have some brain implant stuff?" Nelly asked, curious to why they hadn't named them as an option.
"No they shouldn't have, I know they do DNA splicing and some general implants, but this should be way above their level." Cathrin said after pondering for a while, gave a quick search in their own system and shook her head.
"I could have sworn remembering Gideon talk about some chip, it carried the same nomination as our tower, 21X,which is why I remember it so vividly." Nelly said. Thinking back at the specific time. She must have been visiting the Walsh tower and it was some sort of dinner event. When they talked about it, it didn't seem like a top secret.
"We don't have anything about that, but I'll send it down the chain if there have been any news regarding a chip called 21X." Cathrin said and noted down the information.
"Sorry this isn't exactly related but can we send a gift to Nadia? She is the one that helped us get on track with this." Lina said, proud about her friend. Nelly wasn't sure how the two had met, but was glad there was at least someone that Lina could rely on.
"Of course, I'll stand for the costs" Nelly said and smiled at the energetic sister of hers.
"Thank you Nelly I'll send her something special" Lina said beaming, and started instantly scrolling through some options she had on her phone.
"Isn't that like technically still our money as you are spending, the family money in the heiress position?" Cathrin said questioning Nelly with a wide smile.
"Shh, its better if I get extra hugs from a gullible sister this way." Nelly said not even pretending to be silent, but did put a finger to her lips.
"A good point. Lina I'm paying half." Cathrin said after clapping her hands together in exaggerated understanding.
"Thanks Cathrin you are awesome too" Lina stood up and walked to kiss and hug Cathrin. Nelly opened her arms, waiting for her turn. Unexpectedly Lina didn't show.
"Wheres mine?" Nelly said, pouting when Lina didn't move to her.
"You think I don't have ears while I'm on the phone, but I in fact do!" Lina said, smacking her phone on the table. She proceeded to crossed her arms.
"Lies, your ears clearly disappear when you look at the phone." Nelly said and Cathrin added her agreement. They both looked at her waiting for Lina to explain. She was standing there for while with hands crossed, not ready to capitulate and agree that she was wrong. But no little sister named Lina can stand under the gaze of two older ones without breaking.
"I closed the app on accident and heard you say something about a gullible little sister. So I refused to hug you, I was going to but I wont!" Lina said, harrumphing theatrically.
"But I was talking about Cathrin." Nelly said and put her best poker face on. Cathrin was about to say something, but swallowed it when Lina answered.
"Oh really sorry then," Lina said, uncrossed her arms and walked up to Nellly giving her a kiss and hug. Cathrin held back her laughter, but it really looked like coughing. Lina looked at Cathrin with worry, still wrapped in Nelly's arms.
"I told you she is gullible," Nelly said to Cathrin, smiling wider than in a long time. When Cathrin exploded in to laughter, Lina's face faltered.
"NELLYYY!" Lina yelled, but couldn't wiggle free from Nelly's firm hug.