There Are Many Tokyos In Flower

Chapter 2: Port USB

Martin would have done his gunslinger ancestors proud, with how quick his sidearm was pointed at that tiny metal creature. "Doc, deactivate that thing right the fuck now."

Doc's eyes went wide, his hands went up, and he backed away as far as the small room would allow. "Marty, you should put the gun away."

But the Bird looked — far from frightened — nonplussed, and just a little put-out as he looked Martin up and down. "Let's see, steely-eyed expression. Strange haircut dyed blue. Trying hard to be a steely-eyed killer with a baby-smooth face. Are we in an anime? Japanese role-playing game?"

"Doc, turn that thing off. You don't know what you're dealing with," Martin ordered, gesturing with his gun for emphasis.

The little metallic bird looked like it was squinting at him. "Oh, wait, I see it now. We have crossed paths before. And not too far from where we are now. You're Martin Rawley, formerly a fixer for 'Peace of Mind', the now defunct mercenary company run by Lanval Adams. You were on the crew holding Luca Cardego and his friends captive, until that idiot Fabulo ordered Luca killed. Funny, given how much Luca paid you to bail on the Brotherhood of Vampires, I thought you'd be busy spraining your imagination by trying to spend all that money."

"Doc, that's not some automated drone. That's a sentient AI, and it's bat-shit crazy. Pull the fucking plug."

"Marty, this isn't odd behaviour for the BIRD model drones," Doc protested. "They're all a little peculiar, they think they're living in a world made up by some kind of extra-dimensional author. But they're completely harmless. More importantly, if you don't let it accompany you on this job, you won't be allowed in the city."

"Relax, Marty." BIRD waved its wing at him, and hopped across the small table. "I ended up betraying the Brotherhood less than an hour after you did. And judging by the equipment on your doctor's table there, it's either I go with you, or he replaces your eyes with some kind of cameras. And with how his hands are shaking right now, I wouldn't trust him with a tattoo needle, let alone complicated surgery he's probably not qualified for."

"Hey, I'm fully licensed," Doc insisted.

"For complicated brain surgery?"

"Well, no. But the instillation instructions are easy enough to follow," Doc said. "Nothing more complicated than a piece of IKEA furniture."

"Which means Martin has a 50/50 chance of coming out the procedure blind because you did step fourteen backwards," BIRD said, and turned back to Martin. "Would it help if I swore on the fabled Turning Machine that the interests of my circuits are aligned with yours for the moment?"

Martin scoffed, but he put away his pistol. And he fished out the combat goggles Doc had suggested, and put them on his forehead, beneath his hair.

BIRD stretched its wings, and fluttered up until it landed on his shoulder. The little metallic bird hardly weighed more than a few ounces, Marin barely noticed its presence on his shoulder, and its movements were quiet enough Martin wasn't likely to hear them unless he put his ear right up to its chassis.

A hard rap on the open door pulled Martin's eyes, and he turned to see the ship's captain pointing down the hall. Candice's hair was bright blue now, shimmering with flecks of white. "My cargo bay has a few good-sized windows. I know you've seen Mars once before, but have you ever seen Neo Tokyo?"

Martin followed her to the cargo bay, past the half-dozen motorcycles magnetically locked to ship's hull, and stopped beside her at a window so large he could fit a car through it. "A little big for a viewport. Aren't windows a structural weakness?"

"You always expecting to get shot at, Martin?" Candice asked.

"Shot, stabbed, vented into space when the only thing keeping my air in the room shatters."