Chapter 106: Gearing up for Gambino
I was looking at Mira's naked torso. She had scars all over her body. There were scars on scars. Some you could tell were made from cuts, some from whipping, and some from burns. The entire diversity of scar variety was represented on her body.
She saw the way I was looking at her and covered herself back up with her shirt, uncomfortable. "Don't look at me like that," she said.
"Like what?" I said.
"With pity. Don't look down on me like that. Yeah I've been through some shit. I'm still equal to you. That doesn't make me less than anyone else," she said.
I gently but firmly pushed her down onto her back on the bed and leaned over her. I looked her in the eyes and said, "That doesn't make you less than anyone else. It makes you more than them."
Enjoy new adventures from empire
Her eyes started to water and she wiped them away with her shirt. She turned her head to look away from me and mumbled, "Thank you."
"You're welcome, but it's true. Your hardships make you stronger, and you're the strongest person I've ever met," I said.
She looked back at me. She stared into my eyes for a while, thinking of what she was going to say. "You're the strongest person I've ever met."
"Thanks," I said. I kissed her. She kissed me back. Then I got off her and sat back up on the bed. "Now let's get ready to kill an asshole."
"Let's," she said and smiled. She had the most emotional smile I'd ever seen. It was full of sadness and pain, and that's what made it so moving to me.
Mira walked me through the process of installing upgrades to her cyberware with things we got from the auction. We only did two upgrades today. She said she might need me to do more later, but for today it would just be dermal armor and a central nervous system upgrade.
The dermal armor was easy. I thought I'd have to do something difficult like layer her skin with mesh or something, but it was just a paste. The paste contained nanobots and various ingredients that the nanobots would use to construct the armor into her skin.
So she was able to retain all of her original skin and sensations on her torso while still being able to upgrade her resilience. This did involve me rubbing the paste all over her body. Even into her scalp. We didn't want a shot to her hair being the weak point.
That would be kind of lame to say the least. And I do mean all over her body. So yes, she now had a bullet proof ass and pussy. We didn't want that to be the weak point either.
Then came the hard part. It wasn't super difficult but it was gross. I had to cut a line down her spine with a scalpel for the central nervous system upgrade. The hardware plugged into her spine and brain stem and allowed her to stimulate her central nervous system into overdrive.
It allowed for increased perception and reaction times. It was very taxing though, so she would only be able to use it so many times before she would pass out or have to take a break.
Like the dermal armor, this didn't involve significant disfiguring either. It simply installed itself into her central nervous system and embedded itself under the skin. There would be a minor scar running down her spine but that was it. The hardware itself was mostly comprised of microwires.
I carefully cut the line down her spine and then laid the tube of wires over the cut. The machinery sprang to life and dove into the cut. She screamed as it embedded itself under her skin and stabbed into her spine and brain. Mind you, these wires were microns thick, so they caused little to no lasting damage, but it still hurt like a bitch.
She told me to staple the cut on her spine together, but I had a better idea. Using two fingers, I poured Vi into the skin on both sides of the cut. This stimulated the skin to heal the wound. I made sure to press the skin together at the same time, so when it healed there was minimal scarring.
When it was all over there was the faintest line to show that the cut had ever been made in the first place. I slapped her ass and said she was good. She asked me how I healed her and I just replied it was a vampire thing.
"You know, I might want you to turn me into a vampire sometime. You make it seem like such an upgrade," she said.
"It can be, but many vampires would rather be mortal and able to see the sun again. It really depends on the person. Not me though. I've never felt more comfortable and in my own skin in my life," I said.
"I feel like I would feel the same way," she said.
"Let's hold off on it for now. I'll consider doing it if you change your mind about staying," I said. "I wouldn't want you to be a stranded vampire in here without me."
"Ok," she said. She put her head down like she was saddened by that, but I wasn't sure if she was sad I said no, or by the fact that I wouldn't ever see her again after today. She brought her head up with a smile she was struggling to maintain. "Let's go take this motherfucker down."
"That's the spirit!" I said.
We left the Make Good Love Hotel and headed to a seedier part of town. A place where cops didn't like to visit because of how dangerous it was. We stopped outside an old office building.
It wasn't massive or anything but it was decently sized. It was about 10 stories tall. It was the secret, not so secret, hideout for Gino Gambino's criminal operations.
Rumor had it that Gambino dealt in all forms of crime. Even sex trafficking. The Calabrese Family had certain types of crime that they wouldn't do because they had morals. Sex trafficking was among them.
You might think, but they do hits, how moral could they be? Most hits were thoroughly researched beforehand and made sure that the person ordering the hit was in the morally righteous position to be doing so.
The Calabrese Family wouldn't take hits they didn't agree with and they didn't take jobs in general they didn't agree with. Not Gino Gambino. He took any job no matter how cruel or disgusting the act being committed was.
I fully expected to find all kinds of fucked up shit as Mira and I made our way through the building. But that would have to wait until we walked through the front door. I was never one for subtly.
I was going to announce our presence from the beginning and only fight if we were met with hostility. My plan, if he proved more hospitable than I knew he would be, was to ask Gino to back off, and then beat him to a pulp until he agreed.
Otherwise, Mira and I were going to slaughter our way through the entire building, one floor at a time. I knocked on the outer door to the office building and someone on the other side of the door motioned for me to come in.
A burly dude with blonde hair came up to me and said, "What business do you got here? We've got gambling, coke, more coke, even more coke, and other stuff too. What are you looking to get into?"
This was oddly hospitable. Maybe we wouldn't have to kill anyone after all.
"I wanted to talk to Gino," I said.
The man's face twisted and a look of horror passed over his features. He fell back onto his ass and started scooting away from me. He said to the men around him, "It's the guy! The guy Gino warned us about! Get him!"
A room full of more than twenty guys all turned their guns towards me and Mira. I guess not. I guess we're going to have to crack some eggs after all.