Collateral

While they are driving to the motel, Rose speaks up.

“Why are you here, Sophia? Why does my dad want you to come along?”

Sophia shakes her head. “You don’t think I can do the job, do you? You think I don’t have the guts.”

Rose looks Sophia in the eye. “That is not the issue Sophia. I care a lot about you and don’t want you to get hurt. Why are you interested in being a runner? Most of us started when we didn’t have a choice. You have a choice, you can be whatever you want.”

Sophia shakes her head. “I don’t want to become a runner. And my dad doesn’t want me to become one either. This won’t be a regular thing.”

“Then why are you here?”

Sophia sighs. “My dad thinks you are one of his best runners but doesn’t trust you. So he sends me along to ensure you don’t secretly pocket, copy, or look at the phone.”

“Really? Your dad wants you to keep an eye on me?”

Sophia looks down. “Yes. But I promise I won’t be in the way. You won’t know I am here.”

Rose shakes her head. “If you are tagging along, you will carry your own weight. I can certainly use the help. You do what I say and stay close.”

After they arrive at the motel, both women walk in. They try to walk past the reception but are stopped by the yelling from the receptionist.

“Excuse me. You can’t just walk in here. Where do you think you are going?”

The receptionist is a young girl, only a couple of years older than Sophia. Her hair is bright blue, and she has a cybernetic implant in her left eye, just like Rose. Although it seems like a cheaper model. The skin around the implant looks really inflamed, Rose is surprised she can still see out of the implant. Although, given the girl’s strange head movements, Rose isn’t sure she can actually see with it.

“Do you want to book a room?” She asks.

“Actually, we are already guests. We are just going to our room.”

The receptionist looks at them for a few moments, startled. The lights on the cybernetic eye blink and beep. Lots of red lights go off. and she winches a bit in pain. He hits her cybernetic eye with her hand a couple of times, and the lights turn back to blue and green.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t see you in our system. Are you sure you’re at the right motel?” the girl says.

Rose is getting annoyed. “Listen, we’re just trying to get to our room. Can you just let us in?”

The receptionist hesitates for a moment and hits the side of her implant again.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. I can’t let you in if you’re not in our system.”

Rose and Sophia exchanged a look. Then Sophia steps in front of the receptionist. “Fine. We’ll book a room then.”

To Rose’s surprise, the receptionist looked relieved.

“Great! I’ll need your ID.”

Rose steps forward and hands the girl an id card. She plugs it in in her cybernetic eye.

“So your name is Sydney Kelly, is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“If you wanna book a second room, I will also need your id.” She looks at Sophia.

Rose steps in. “O no, we will share a room.”

“Are you sure? The bed is quite small.”

“Won’t be a problem.”

“Okay, you do you. Your room is room number 429.”

Rose leans over to the receptionist. “You should up your dosage of immunosuppressants. Then you would have way fewer problems with your cybernetics.”

The girl sighs. “I know, but I can’t really afford them at the moment. The nice guy living in room 315 gave me some, but they don’t seem to work.” She shows Rose a pill bottle from her pocket.

Rose examines the pill bottle. “These pills look off.” She searches for her own pill bottle in her jacket and picks a pill from each. She shows them to the receptionist.

“See the difference,” Rose says. “The real immunosuppressants have an inscription on it, see.” She points with her finger. “The ones you have are placebos.”

Rose empties the pill bottle and pours half her own pill bottle into it. “Here, these pills will work.”

The receptionist looks at the pills. Thanks.

You’re welcome.

The receptionist hands Rose the keycard, and both Rose and Sophia walk upstairs to room 315.

Rose studies the lock. The lock is digital, but the ports seem to have some loose wires.

Damnit.

“The lock is not wired correctly. It will fry my cyber eye when I try to hack it.”

“Can’t you use your rigging deck? Or your phone?”

Rose shakes her head. “Those will be fried too.”

Sophia laughs. “Well, good thing I came prepared.”

She opens her suitcase and after some searching finds a crowbar.

“Why hack if you can use brute force.” Without hesitation, she breaks the motel room’s door open.

The first thing Rose notices is the smell. An awful, rotting smell, that Rose instantly recognises. The slowly pushes the door open, and on the ground lies the rotting corpse of John Sterling.