They'd all chipped in to buy Juan a preem niche at the Phoenix Columbarium, and V had thrown in a little extra for the holoepitaph:

Juan Torres

You gave me a second chance.

I wish I could have done the same.

さようなら.

Ayako stood between her and Judy, staring at the little vault. "I dunno how I'm gonna tell his brother," said Ayako, her fingertips brushing the holoepitaph. "His name's Paco. Really looked up to Juan."

V looked at her, raising her eyebrows. "Paco Torres? Barghest kid. Dogtown."

Ayako nodded. "Ran into some trouble with Kurt Hansen. Said a merc and her Nomad buddies helped him escape to Nairobi." She looked at V, a spark of realization lighting her face. "You?"

V didn't need accolades for helping a kid out. "Yeah," she said, and shrugged, "it was the right thing t'do."

Ayako smiled. "Fate has a way of bringin' the right people together when it counts," she said. "He and Juan were close, years ago. But Paco joined Barghest. Juan ain't liked that. Kinda drifted apart after that." She turned back to Juan's niche, scratching at the corners of her oculars. V slid her arm across Ayako's shoulders, and Judy did the same. Ayako hugged them tightly, like she needed it, that human touch, more than anything in the world.

"Done saying your goodbyes, kid?" asked Buster, looking at Ayako. He'd been standing a few feet away, wanting to give Ayako some space to mourn. "Don't mean to rush," he added, gently.

Ayako nodded. "Yeah," she said, "we need to get to the spaceport." She untangled herself from V and Judy, stepping back, away from the wall of niches. "But first," she said, turning around to look at Buster, "we need to make a pit-stop at the pawnshop."

Trevor, to V's surprise, was standing behind the Lexan partition of the shop's counter, counting fat sheaves of eddies and depositing the bills into a commercial drop-safe. Ayako's shop didn't deal in digital currency; she preferred physical cash, because it was harder for the corpos and their banker chooms to trace. "Heya, Kunoi—Ayako," said Trevor, looking up, his eyes rimmed in black paintstick. He was dressed in the same patchwork denim vest from before, but sporting a purple deathhawk today, skulls stenciled into the closely cropped sides of his head.

"When didja start workin' here, kiddo?" asked V.

"Not too long ago. Got kicked outta my group-home for fightin' with some dorpher kid tried to klep my cyberdeck," said Trevor, looking at her. "Ayako called me up, said I could live in one of the apartments here. She'd pay me to watch the shop 'cause—"

"Gotoda ain't here no more," said V, nodding.

"Yeah," said Trevor, frowning. He came out from behind the Lexan partition, fishing something out of his vest. He extended his hand, a glossy black datashard pinched between his calloused guitarist fingers. "Wanted me to give you this," he told her. "Goto did, I mean."

V took the shard. "Thanks, take a look at it in a minute."

"Heard 'bout Juan," said Trevor. He looked at Ayako. "Real sorry."

Ayako nodded. "So am I."

"What happened t'Gotoda anyway?" asked Judy. "I mean, we know where he's gone. But why?"

"Not too long after things went sideways with that whole cyberpsycho thing, Goto started actin' real weird. Like more than usual," said Trevor, shrugging his thin shoulders. "Like gonked as fuck, choom. Walkin' 'round like the little dude was bein' remote-controlled. Dunno how else to explain it. Creepiest shit I ever saw. Handed me that shard, and just walked out," and Trevor waved a hand toward the door to the pawnshop. "Next thing I know, I'm hearin' he's netrunnin' with the Locos, tryin' to rebuild the spaceport's data-structures."

V frowned.

"I'm guessin' now that Juan's gone, things have calmed down?" asked Trevor.

"Sorta," said Judy. "Lotta corpoboots on the ground, hasslin' peeps."

"So your usual day in Phoenix," said Trevor, nodding, his crest of feathery, purple hair bobbing.

"Trevor," said Ayako, "been any trouble from the corpos 'round my shop?"

The kid was staring at Buster now, who was hanging back behind the group, lingering near the door. "Other than that Militech borg back there? Nope." He looked at Panam, blinking. "Nomads, too. Damn, Ayako, you been makin' all sorts of friends."

"Not Militech anymore, kid," grunted Buster. "Just did some work with them, that's all."

"Got a problem with Nomads?" asked Panam, a little more aggressively than she'd probably meant to. V didn't blame her; Nomads were always on edge when interacting with city-slickers, who generally viewed the Nations as subhuman tarmac rats.

Trevor laughed. "Lady, I look like some corpofuck? Nah, Nomads are cool. Real fuckin' rebels, you guys."

"I gotta grab somethin' upstairs," said Ayako, and she turned to Buster. "Come with me, Big Guy." Then, to V, "Might wanna head back to your apartment. Gonna take a while. Gotta run some tests."

V frowned. "Meredith knows we're here," she said. "She might tell her new chooms."

"If that was the case," said Buster, "they would have been here by now. But the kid behind the counter said he ain't seen anyone."

"My name's Trevor," said Trevor.

"Yeah, yeah. Trevor," said Buster, dismissively.

"What the hell do you have to run tests on?" asked Panam, looking at Ayako. "We don't have time."

"The Technomancers are bringin' the shuttle to the spaceport perimeter as we speak," said Ayako. She and Buster started toward the staircase. "That said," she continued, shrugging, "I gotta run some tests on Val's new biochip. Make sure everythin' is good. Tweak if necessary."

"Whoah, wait," said Panam, throwing out her hand: stop . "You are going to stick another biochip into her head? After the one she already has is killing her?"

"This biochip will work as intended," said Ayako. "I personally built it with Mochi's help, and Hellman's blueprints—which I improved on, I'll have you know. It's designed to interface with Mochi's nanoprogram, the one that'll save Val." She stared at Panam for a long moment, her expression unreadable. "If you want Val to survive," she continued, "and I know you do, you'll chill, Panam. I'm not pullin' some shit on Valerie. I wanna save her. I promised I'd save her."

"And I'm the one working the program as Mochi's proxy," said Buster, crossing his arms. "Going to also install a new neuroport, chuck the one that Dex Deshawn busted with his fucking gun. Then fire up the program and fix you, shortstack."

Judy furrowed her brow, concerned. "Your heart's 'ganic. Can it handle that kinda dataload?"

"Probably not," said Buster, shrugging. "But don't worry about me, Alvarez. I've lived a long, long time. Longer than most can even dream of living. If it's my time to go, it's my time, and I'd be happy for it." He smiled, and it was the first genuine smile V had ever seen the borg give anyone. "God just wants me to do a little good in the world on my way out."

"Buster—"

"Knock it off, shortstack," interrupted the borg, and he walked over to V, gave her hair a grandfatherly ruffle. "This is my choice," he told her. "The deckhead here can't do the operation; she's not a ripperdoc, doesn't have the know-how for that kind of thing. And with that sporeware in her chrome? Connecting to you would be way too risky, even with Mochi's help."

V felt a hard lump in her throat, hot tears rimming her eyes.

"Yuji offered, but I don't trust some ex-'Saka spy to poke around your hardware," said Buster. He shrugged his huge shoulders. "Doesn't matter anyway. He's gone. So it's up to me." He peered at her, her reflection twinned in the green monitor-glass of his oculars. "Quit crying, kid. Doesn't suit you. Besides, maybe I'll be just fine, and you're making a mountain out of a molehill."

V punched him in the arm without any real rancor, and the borg laughed. "Can't y'just not be an asshole for once in your life?" she quavered, and wiped her eyes with the heels of her palms. "Let a bitch cry, fuckin' shit."

"Need you on your A-game, kid," said Buster, his oculars shuttering in the facsimile of a blink. "Once me and the deckhead are done finagling with this biochip, it's off to the spaceport, then the Crystal Palace. And to that fucking AI's mainframe." He ruffled her hair again, then turned to Ayako. "Come on, deckhead. Let's go."

V watched them go. Judy and Panam hugged her. Trevor stared like he didn't know if he should be comforting her or running away. He decided to choose the former, awkwardly patting her on the back.

"C'mon," Judy said to her, leading her toward the stairs, "let's get up to our apartment, get you some tea or somethin'."

V nodded.