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***
Victor arrived in his car about ten minutes after we did. Misty was with him, but she didn't look her best and my girls noticed it too, immediately surrounding her with their attention.
- Hi...
Victor walked over to me unloading the drink bags next to me and extended his hand for a handshake.
- Hi Vic...
I gladly responded to the big guy's handshake, and despite the fact that now I looked much bigger than before I was still inferior to him in size. So calling him a big guy, even mentally, made sense.
- How are you, have you had a checkup lately?
I grinned with a corner of my lips.
- Who's talking about what, but the Reaper is primarily about health?
Victor shrugged.
- Well, you're my best client, so it would be strange if I didn't ask how long you've been checked?
- Not long ago... just half a week ago. The clan ripper is thrilled that for once he has people coming in for regular checkups without reminders, instead of waiting for chrome problems to show up and then coming in with complaints.
- Huh, that's good...
- Yeah, but I was planning to visit you at the end of the month anyway. Still, the clan riper is not bad, but I use his services only because I do not want to distract you from work too often for the sake of a trivial inspection.
- I don't mind...
Vic shrugged again.
- ...although the number of patients has increased a bit lately, so I have a lot of work to do now...well, compared to the way things used to be.
- Good for you...
During the leisurely conversation Vic and I prepared meat and charcoal grill, on which we put skewers, and then started to prepare cocktails.
- So how's Misty?
- Not good...
Vic sighed, looking towards the girls who were trying to get Misty out of her decadent mood.
- Maybe if Mrs Wells had let her offriend her, she'd be better, but... You know where I found her?
I raised an eyebrow questioningly.
- Outside Jackie's garage. She was sitting next to him, just crying... I tried to talk to Mrs Wells, of course, but she was adamant that she didn't want Misty at the ceremony. I couldn't just leave, after all, Jackie was a good friend of mine.....
He sighed.
- It took me about twenty minutes to convince her to just get up and come with me, and then I spit on her shoulder and carried her back to my flat, where I gave her hot tea.
- Why didn't you call me first?
-...
- Vic, maybe I don't communicate with Misty much, as well as with you, but I consider you my friends and in such a situation I could definitely try to help! And the girls, even though they knew about the situation, didn't realise it was that bad.....
- It's actually tolerable.
She eats, runs her own shop, reads cards for visitors, and she has no suicidal thoughts, but still any reminder of Jackie makes her mood drop.
He sighed.
- Um...
I gave Misty a mock look, as if to ask, 'What's wrong now? You're not such an idiot to be discussing Jackie with her while you were getting to this place, are you?
- Yeah, V called. Apologised to her for not being able to attend the ofrenda... that's it....
- I see.
- I hear you're helping her out a lot?
- Not that much.
- Well, Vee bragged to me that you made mega-cool cannons that she could shoot down Kang Tao's avi with no problem... that can clearly be classed as quite a bit of help.
- For starters, I just fulfilled an order I received from a fixer. The fact that I arranged it with V first is beside the point. So there can be no claims against me. I simply created the weapon, and what it was used for....
- Mm-hmm.
- Don't quibble...
I turned the skewers a little and went back to making drinks.
- There's a second reason...
- What's that?
Victor paused for a moment and sipped a little from the cocktail he was making for himself and looked at me questioningly.
- She wanted to use the EMP too, but to create it she wanted to blow up a microwave station outside the city.
- Was she fucking nuts?
- That's the reaction I had when she called me and told me she wanted to hire me, and then described her plan... I had a very strong urge to agree then, and after the meeting, to just punch her.
- That's... radical...
- And how should I react to the proposal to become a terrorist, who will kill thousands, if not tens of thousands of civilians?
- There's nothing to argue about... I didn't expect that from her....
- By the way, remind me at the end of our picnic to send you the files on her chip, maybe you'll think of something, because my brains are running out of my ears just trying to understand what the creator of the chip screwed up there.
I shook my head.
- Nah...I'd figure it out if they explained to me exactly what the creator of that chip was smoking.....
Vic grinned.
- Well, throw it down, see if I can solve something.
- Good.
Victor came to the brazier and quickly checked the kebab and said that it was ready, and then collected the skewers, and I came to the brazier with new skewers and placed them over the smouldering coals.
- Well, looks like it's time for some food, doesn't it?
Vic came to the table and put the skewers on the centre plate, from which they immediately disappeared. The girls quickly sorted out two portions each leaving only two skewers in the centre of the table, one for me and one for Vic.
Two skewers were also on the plate in front of Misty, though she didn't take part in the looting of the centre plate.
- So, let's raise these glasses to the fact that we gather like this as often as possible!
I raised my glass defiantly and everyone at the table did the same, although Misty was a little behind, but Panam, who was sitting next to her, quickly put the glass in her hand and helped her join in the toast.
They drank...
- So...
A leisurely conversation ensued, with Misty joining in very slowly and at first seemingly reluctantly. But here a word... there two... here the topic of mysticism was touched... and now she is a full-fledged participant of the conversation. Vic just shook his head in surprise and nodded appreciatively at me. We had a good time...
A couple more hours went by like that.
- So, we should probably start a little experiment....
Judy got up from her seat and quickly fetched a couple of sets of wetsuits.
- David, let's go and get changed and dive into this reservoir.
I grinned.
- You know if this was a date I might comment on your choice of location... Poison puddle.....
I shook my head.
- Come on, you're visiting the city I spent my childhood in!
- That's the only thing that makes it better.
I took my wetsuit, and then Judy and I went into the cottage, where we started to change clothes. I wasn't shy, either, so Judy gave me some telling glances.
- You know, if it wasn't for Vic and Misty.
- I know.
I nodded, interrupting Judy.
- ...I wouldn't mind taking that wetsuit off of you slowly myself and....
- Okay, that's enough!
Judy shook her head and quickly left the cabin, and I left the house under the stares of everyone.
- So, are you gonna put on the scuba gear yourself?
- Nope.
I shook my head.
- It's my first time... so I expect my more experienced partner to be gentle with me.....
There were chuckles from all sides and even Misty chuckled softly into her fist.
- Okay...
Judy pulled sharply on one of the straps and it squeezed really hard.
- Tsk.
- Oh, I'm sorry.
- It's okay.
I shook my head, but I didn't reprimand her for such a prank, and she quickly corrected the situation, and then kissed me lightly on the lips.
- I'm sorry... I'm just a little nervous... first parallel brayne recording....
I shrugged.
- It's okay, let's just do it...
- Mm-hmm...
Judy got a couple of splits and extras out of the car, which she put on herself and helped me put on properly, after which the helmets and gloves were finally put on. And already fully clothed, we walked to the pier, from which we jumped into the water.
A few seconds later, I got a call from Judy.
- David, can you hear me?
- Yeah.
- Good, I won't connect the others, and Becca should be getting dressed by agreement, we won't swim into the deep water, but we'll do a little synchronisation of our devices.
- Let's just swim away from this wooden dock a little bit, or Becca will jump down and....
- Okay.
We swam about twenty metres, and then Judy hovered in the water.
- Hmmm... you're pretty funny in the water....
- Well, you're the one with the diving experience, but I don't have any experience at all, so I'm still getting the hang of it.
- All right, let's start with something simple, a deeper connection test. I'll sing a tune, and you try to figure out what song I mean....
- Go ahead, purr.
And Judy really started humming a tune, except I've never been a music lover, so to understand what kind of tune she meant....
- I don't know what the song was, but I could sing it.
Which I did.
- Yeah, that's right, now you do it.
I thought about it for a while, and then I started humming a song by a rock band that David knew, and Judy started humming it a dozen seconds later, and then she sang the chorus. It was pretty good.
- Elf Wanderer, if I'm not mistaken, the band KusBos?
- Well, I don't know the band, but the title and the chorus are right.
- Yeah, you're not much of a music lover. Now, let's go through the motions, swim round me in a clockwise direction....
I complied with Judy's request and, to her slight chuckles and comments on my efforts to swim smoothly, swam a couple of laps around her in a clockwise direction.
- Okay, okay, now counterclockwise.....
And that's what she asked me to do.
- All right... enough...
She stopped me.
- Now see, to stay on the same level you have to go like this...
And Judy just hung in one place for a couple of minutes, commenting on her movements, and then I started to do it, not as naturally as she did, but much better than before.
- Okay, that'll do... Where do I go?
- To me first.
Judy swam to me so close we could touch.
- Now away from me.
Again she did what I asked, meanwhile Becca was in the water, but she kept some distance from us and didn't interfere with the setting up of the equipment.
- Clockwise...
And again Judy obeyed my request, and afterwards she swam me anti-clockwise as well.
- So...
As soon as I stopped her, she checked the data she was getting from the equipment.
- ...Well, I can say that we are sixty per cent synchronised, which is more than I expected, so we can start diving.
- Well, let's get going.
I nodded to Judy and swam after her, with Becca following at some distance behind us....