Chapter 3

Padre sent his driver in a herse to pick them up. Mom was put into a coffin and slid into the back. The hospital gave David all her belongings. Clothes and her high vis jacket mostly. David hopped into the passenger seat and watched the city go by as they drove into Heywood. Padre had a small church here, used to go to every Sunday. David even sang in the choir for a while. Mom used to call him "her little altar boy". They had stopped coming once David got into high school. Mom was working too many hours and Arasaka kept him busy even on weekends.

Pulling up in front of Padre's church the man himself was standing outside to greet them.

"Thank you for this Padre."

"Gloria was a good woman David, it is the least I can do now that her soul has returned to the Lord's embrace."

Padre had his driver bring mom inside and held a prayer for her asking god to welcome her home and to look out for David here on earth. She was taken away by some women to be prepared for cremation.

"So David, what now?"

"Huh, I got no idea Padre. Look at me, I'm half a man at this point."

"An arm and leg can be replaced David."

"They could be, but you and I both know rippers ain't cheap. I don't have scratch like that lying around."

"The church has been known to donate to others in their time of need."

That made him chuckle.

"Even if it's my time of need I still ain't no charity case Padre."

"It wouldn't be charity David you'd pay it back. It might not be in eddies, but the church would have its due."

David gave it a moment of thought.

"If there's work I can do Padre I'd rather have that. Let me earn the eddies."

"Are you still good with computers like you were as a child?"

"Better"

Padre nodded, "I may have some work for you then."

"Thank you, Padre."

It wasn't long after that one of the women who took his mother returned with an urn full of her ashes. Taking the urn and his moms things, David got a ride home from Padre. Padre let him know that he'd be in touch. Padre's driver then pulled away. Now David had to climb hundreds of stairs on a damn peg leg.

After what felt like an hour, he finally reached his apartment door. As if the universe couldn't give him a break the door was locked and it said he'd been evicted. Fuck the landlord David was getting in here. Opening the control panel on the door David linked in. Once connected it wasn't difficult to hack open the locks.

Once the door slid open David disconnected and hobbled in. The door slid closed behind him, and he made for the couch. Once there he collapsed onto it. Mom's urn clutched tight; he could finally let himself breakdown.

An hour later David was able to compose himself. With nothing better to do he went through his mom's stuff. The clothes were set aside and the car keys too; they were worthless without the car. Finding her data shard he slotted it in. What really surprised him was her bank balance, 40,000 eddies. That had to be a mistake mom didn't make that kind of money. That's practically a year's salary for her. Transfering the eddies to his own account he was thankful he'd be able to afford to live for the foreseeable future.

Continuing to go through his mother's stuff he went through his mother's EMT jacket. Feeling through the jacket he came across something long and metallic. Searching for where it could be stored, he found the hidden pockets on the inside of the jacket. Reaching into it he pulled out what looked like an evidence bag with what looked like a metal spine in it.

"What do we have here?"

This was a serious piece of chrome and the trace amounts of blood on it raised some questions about his mother he didn't want answered.

Taking it into his room he hooked it up to his computer to see if he could pull up its specs. Obviously, the majority of what came up was encrypted, but breaking down encryptions was one of the first things they taught you at Arasaka. Why make something new when you can steal it from competitors.

The odd thing was that the encryptions were a combination of Militech and Arasaka. The reason why was soon uncovered. This piece of chrome was a scarily modified Militech Apogee sandevistan. There was an added kerenzikov from Arasaka, reinforced military grade spinal port, heat sinks, and neural processor making it all work together. This thing was a beast. Better than any sandevistan he'd ever even heard of.

Some of the coding was off and he'd need to adjust some of the specs to fit him but as far a chrome goes this thing was perfect. If he were to chip this, along with the arms and legs he'd designed he'd never have to worry about another gangbanger or suit ever again. He'd have chrome head and shoulders above most people.

He just needed to get these things chipped in. To do that he'd need to get those nanobots made. Set up some equipment to help vacillate their work. Maybe Padre can pay him in gold for any work he'd do in the future. The church always had gold around hell Padre had teeth made of gold.

With a goal in mind David got to work, cleaning up the coding of his new sandevistan and adding some of his own to help integrate it with his future arms and legs. He spent practically all night working. At some point he fell asleep at his desk and was awoken by an incoming call.

"Morning Padre"

"Good morning David. I have work for you if you're interested."

"Absolutely, whatcha got for me?"

"Encrypted data from a tiger claw stash house. I need it unencrypted for a client, think you can do that?"

"Without a doubt Padre."

"Good I'm transferring the data now, once you're done send the unencrypted data back to me and I'll send you your eddies."

"Quick question Padre, I need to get my hands on some gold, pure 24k stuff. Think I could get some of my pay in gold?"

"I could accommodate your request David, but the exchange isn't cheap, every gram will take the place of 200 eddies. This job is only paying 500 eddies total. Are you sure you want it in gold?"

That will be 2.5 grams and he'll need at least an ounce to make enough bots. So that's about 11 jobs if they all pay 500 eddies. The money mom left behind can pay for all other expenses in the meantime.

"Yeah, Padre I'm sure, you're a real lifesaver, thank you."

"Thank God David, he bestows all blessings upon us. Get that data to me as soon as you can. Once I have it, I'll send a runner with your payment."

The call ended and David got to work. Tiger Claws had connections with Arasaka so they're encryption methods were pretty similar. David spent the rest of morning unencrypting it and sent it off to Padre before lunch.

It was around 14:15 when he got a knock on his door. It was Padre's runner with his payment. Gold secured, David headed back to his room and to get the 3D printer up and running. Feeding the gold into the printer, he was ready to start making his first batch of nanobots. Hitting enter the schematics were uploaded and the printer got to work.