I had already moved away from the door when Judy's voice came from the kitchen-dining room.
"David, can you open the door, it's for me..."
I shrugged, and taking two steps back towards the door opened it.
"Uh..."
The girl standing in front of the door stared at me in shock, her cigarette falling out of her hands, her eyes bulging as she examined me from head to toe. What am I looking at?
I looked around me...
Well, the guy's young. Well in boxer shorts... so in this world and in this city with its tolerance and permissiveness, some people walk the streets naked. In the game, of course, there was no such thing, but there they tried to convey permissiveness as much as possible. So a guy in underpants should not cause such reactions in a doll from Clouds, and I have no doubts that this is the same young lady from the canon.
"Am I wearing patterns?"
"N-no... and you...
"Hi, Evelyn..."
Judy's voice was rather cold, which was surprising, since in the canon they'd been lovers for a while before him, but afterward they'd just kept their relationship on trust. So much trust that Evelyn was able to come to Judy with the braying of a point she'd essentially ordered to rob. Not just any place, but Compeky Plaza!
For something like that to happen there had to be more than just a trusting relationship there...
"...David, this is Evelyn Parker, my ex-girlfriend. Evelyn, this is David Martinez, my boyfriend.
"Your what?"
"My boyfriend."
Judy shrugged, and I stepped aside to let Evelyn into the apartment, but she stayed in the common hallway without taking a single step inside.
"Wait, but you're, like."
"What?"
Judy grinned wryly.
"The girls?"
"Well... sort of... right?"
Evelyn wasn't sure what she was saying anymore. It was understandable, since Judy had just come up to me and kissed me, wrapping her arms around me. But if the kiss looked passionate from the outside, it felt...
It wasn't a kiss of passion; it was more a kiss of resentment and revenge, but not against me, but against Evelyn, so that by kissing me Judy was getting back at her. Apparently she was avenging a bad breakup, and it was that kiss that made Evelyn doubt what she was saying.
"This is unexpected..."
Judy pulled away from me and looked at Evelyn.
"What did you want?"
"Well... sort of..."
The girl helplessly stepped aside and I could see a bag filled with what appeared to be bottles.
"О..."
Judy nodded her head.
"I see. you came to get me drunk, then fuck me, and minimize the negative impression of everything you said to me the other day. Yes?"
She grinned.
"What was it like in there?"
"I work for whores, and you don't want to be a whore your whole life. You want to be an actress, so I should go to hell, not drag you down. Right, doll?"
Evelyn shuddered.
"Judy, what are you swearing about?"
Panam came over to us and now Evelyn's eyes got really big.
"And this..."
"That's David and I's girlfriend."
"Kha... Is this a bad time?"
"Very..."
Judy nodded her head. But the fervor and resentment in her had receded a little, and she was a little more rational.
"So what did you want?"
"A drink."
"А..."
Judy nodded her head.
"So my original assumption was right, well, then I don't have time right now. I don't have time at all. I'm working."
"But I heard you left Helms..."
"Not that I left, but yeah, I'm solo now and don't have time to drink with you."
"Uh, uh. Uh, okay. I'm gonna go."
"Uh-huh...
Judy waved her hand as if to ward off a pesky fly, and Evelyn turned and picked up her bag, the bottles clinking, and then she looked back at us and just walked away. The door closed and Judy exhaled...
"Are you okay?"
I decided to be tactful and put my arm around her shoulders.
"All right... thanks for playing along."
"Hmm? But you haven't told a single lie..."
I looked at Judy in surprise.
"Yeah..."
Panam nodded her head and a grin appeared on her face.
"You're David's girlfriend and also mine, since I don't plan on letting him go."
"Uh, uh. really?"
"Yeah..."
I nodded my head in affirmation of Panam's words and held Judy tighter to me.
"Thank you..."
"You're welcome..."
I'm just wondering how badly I've broken the canon against my knee now? It's not like it's hard to find another brainspecialist in town, Dexter so-and-so can make a deal with someone and then eliminate them afterward. So all in all...
But if the beginning of the canon can still be smoothed out a bit in this way, but the continuation?
"So, I'm gonna go take a shower, then I'm gonna get myself cleaned up."
The door behind Judy and me slammed shut.
"I'm showering first!"
She and I looked back at the shower room where Panam was hiding, who had shouted it from behind the already closed door, and grinned at her
"Wow..."
I shook my head.
"I'm next..."
I cast a glance at Judy and nodded my head with a sigh.
"All right. Uh-huh.
"Thank you..."
I got a peck on the cheek.
Panam cleaned herself up in about forty minutes, then Judy, who took about ten minutes less, and only after them did I get into the bathroom. It took me about ten minutes to do everything. Then I came out of the bathroom in clean boxers, throwing the ones I'd been wearing in the laundry basket, and walked to the closet where the set of clothes I'd taken off last night was hanging.
"So, to work?"
"Yeah..."
I nodded at Panam's question, and the girls and I left the house. Panam spent a couple of minutes in Tortic to find a good radio station, or rather not a good one, but one that was playing decent music today. And only after that, the Tortika roared to a cheerful rap music, quite decent, despite my dislike for this genre of music.
The trip took about an hour, after which Panam stopped where Regina's information indicated there was an opportunity to keep a low profile.
"Okay, we're working..."
I grinned and got out of the car heading towards the main entrance of the building.
The optics allowed me to look through the walls, a kind of x-ray vision that allowed me to realize that there was no one behind him. So I calmly went inside and walked through the first floor. Pretending to go to one of the empty apartments on the other side, I walked past the garbage man, who was watching me closely, and after activating the sandy, I turned around and pulled out a knife and took two steps forward and drove it through his eye and into the garbage man's brain.
"The first one is ready..."
I, as usual, turned to the girls on the internal communication channel then went to the apartment across the hall and making sure it was empty carefully opened it, then dragged the corpse into it.
I shut the door behind me and crouching in front of the door to the bandit base I was able to pick the lock with the demon pretty quickly.
The door opened quietly, and I knew it was empty, but I had to be careful, so I got in very quietly.
"I'm inside..."
I grinned and slowly walked through the base I had to mop up...
Was it difficult?
No.
Such assignments had long since become passable for me, except that the Scavengers had become afraid of Tikhoni, as Regina herself admitted that she was the one who had leaked some of the information about me. Not to hurt me, but just so the work wouldn't be attributed to another solo. She always does that, as do other fixers, unless absolute anonymity is required.
The base was cleared quickly and quietly, the scavengers did not even realize that something happened, just died all.
"Good girl, your move..."
The nickname for Judy came naturally, at first I wanted to call her Breindance Master, but Judy just made a face at that suggestion, and it was too long... so I shortened it to Breindance Master first... so I shortened it to Breindance. and then I remembered that a brain is a brain, so I gave her the nickname Clever Girl.
"Roger that."
"Try your best, there is almost no chromium here, either recently taken out, or they don't keep it here at all, and I didn't find any hiding places. So our extra income depends on you."
"I get it, I get it."
Judy was concentrating on hacking into the terminals I was connecting to. One by one, she broke their defenses, going through the data and quickly. I could only keep track of the money being deposited into my account.
Naturally, the money was not transferred directly, but through offshore and laundering centers, which allowed to wipe out their trace, even if they lost some of it. But even so, what she was doing was extremely profitable for all of us. Seventy grand.
"Quiet, I'm done. Cherry's already warmed up Tortika."
My image nodded its head, and I quietly left the Scavenger base.
"I'm on my way."
"By the way, I found the address of the place where they now keep the chrome and that's the address Regina didn't give us."
"Hmm?"
"True security there must be... and they also attracted the Animals."
"Animals aren't a problem, and neither are Scavengers, though I'm surprised these gangs could find common ground."
"The garbage men promised forty-five percent of the revenue.
I whistled.
I had already left the house and quickly walked down the street and got into the car, which immediately started up.
"Where are we going?"
I sighed.
"Let's get on with the assignment... I'd like to kill the Scavengers on the chrome, but first I have to finish Regina's assignments for today."
"Reputation?"
"Uh-huh...
I grinned sadly.
"...If we had her better, I might have sent Bestia too, though it's doubtful, if Regina can't do it, then solo...you have to have Morgan Blackhand's or Jonny Silverhand's rep, or maybe Smasher's... Then yeah, people like her can be turned down for no reason and no fear. But then..."
I sighed.
"And unlike Panam, I had no reason to. She was the one who tried to set her up with the stiletto. or rather, there was a reason, but I made a condition of reconciliation, hoping she wouldn't pay, but I was wrong..."
"You seem to have gotten off topic..."
Judy grinned. In the meantime, I did distribute the loot to her and send her shares to the girls.
"Is that so? I'm still talking about reputation, which sometimes means sacrificing profit. However, we can do one night's work, I think it's better that way."
"We're still gonna sell chrome through her?"
"Well, since Judy got that data, we can go direct this time."
"Okay..."
Panam nodded her head, I'll contact Mitch and Scorpion, tell them to get the car ready and get ready to move out on the signal...
"Uh, no."
I interrupted Panam.
"Let them come out now, and it better be two cars."
"Hmm?"
"You remember the last time we tamped down the chrome, don't you? It's better to go empty than to leave something for the Scavengers or the Animals in case there's more chrome."
"Okay..."