Damon listened to her slow, rhythmic breathing and thought she was asleep. “Hey,” Damon whispered in a low tone, then again just a bit louder. Assensing her confirmed Mara was sleeping.
Damon called to one of his spirits. When a large part of one’s life revolves around dusk and dawn, one gets attuned to it and dawn was nearing. Damon thought about the request he was going to make. Free me from these restraints? He reconsidered the phrasing, thinking about a few of the ways it could be interpreted and cause a bunch of trouble, like resulting in the bed being destroyed. “Without causing any damage, can you free me from these restraints? The key should be in the pants over there,” Damon nodded with his head to the pants on the floor, near the chair, under a bra and panties.
The spirit retrieved the key and freed Damon. Damon thanked the spirit as he rubbed his chafed wrists. He got the bottom half of his form fitting armor off and his briefs up then eased himself off the bed, careful not to awaken the sleeping Lone Star detective. He took some tissues from their box on the bedside table and wiped the finger she’d inserted in him wondering where had that come from? Then he took a clean tissue and twined it around the finger. Pulling up the bed sheet and covering Mara, Damon stepped to the chest of drawers, got a pair of sweat pants and put them on.
Leaving the bedroom and following the hall, Damon hung his duster in the closet, went to the bathroom and cleaned up. Then grabbed a duffel bag and his pistols from the bedroom and went out to his car where he transferred the looted weapons to the bag and and took them to his den. Damon hadn’t slept a wink. It wasn’t the sex. It was the same way every time he nearly got killed, or at least shot at. Inspecting the weapons, Damon set aside those needing cleaned as he unloaded the firearms. As he cleaned the weapons, Damon considered what to do with them. He ran a wire brush through mecidiyeköy escort the barrels of his own weapons, hoping to alter their striations so they couldn’t be matched to any recovered bullets he had fired. He would check in the next few days to see if any were recovered as well as checking the serial numbers of the commandeered weapons to see what trouble may be attached to them. Any that showed a connection to a crime would be dumped as soon as possible. The rest would probably be safest to discreetly sell and go buy new replacements with a fake or commandeered ID for any Damon really wanted. Which reminded Damon he needed to transfer any funds from those credcards as soon as possible along with getting any use from their associated IDs.
Finishing the chore by stowing away the newly acquired weapons Damon replaced his cleaned, oiled and reloaded pistols in the holster rig and headed to the kitchen. He scavenged the refrigerator and the cupboards for breakfast. The kitchen was stocked with some real food, not the usual soy and krill filled stuff. Damon fixed a few eggs and some soycaf, even real coffee was too expensive for most but the ultra-rich. Damon microwaved some instant oatmeal and put the quick breakfast on a tray with some silverware and went back to the bedroom.
Mara was barely awake, but the scent of the food stirred her. “That smells good. So how did your thing with Harry go?”
“Not that well. The customer tried a double cross and things got a bit out of hand. Mara, are you done playing your fantasy? You put those cuffs on a bit tight and my wrist chafed. But if you want to go back to it, I’ll put them back on.”
“Oh, you poor little, big bad shadowrunner,” she said. “I am pretty sure the mood is broken. I never did get around to probing you. Well, not much.” She giggled and started eating the offered eggs and oatmeal, then changed subjects. “I was expecting you back last bayan escort night.”
“I stopped off at a Grab-N-Go™ on the way back to get some beer. A gang decided it was a good time for a robbery, so it wound up not being the best time to shop.”
“That was you?” she asked. “I got called out of bed to look into the scene. It seems magic was suspected, but it was hard to tell. Actually, the manager said some troll went through the gang like he was really irritated by the interruption. When asked about the pool of blood in front of the freezer cases, the manager said the troll took the bleeder with him, saying something about taking dinner home to one of his ghoul friends. What really happened to the guy?”
“The manager was using a medkit on him and he said it advised immediate medical attention, so I dropped him off on the steps of a Universal Brotherhood. Probably more than he deserves.”
“…And the rest of the hours…?”
After a pause, “I was taking care of some loose ends that came up,” Damon said, not wanting to tell a law enforcement officer anything too compromising. Better to have plausible deniability. Besides, she could connect the dots. They finished the quick breakfast in less time than it took to prepare. Damon collected the dishes and tray and started toward the kitchen. “I need to call Donovan about something. I’ll be a few minutes,” Damon said.
Damon thought about the early hour, decided he could leave a message with a receptionist or a machine and placed the call. He started washing the dishes while the call connected.
“Hello, how may I be of assistance?” The voice on the other end asked.
“Hi, this is Rev,” Damon said, “I was hoping to leave a message for Dr. Donovan. Voice mail is fine.”
“One moment. I think the doctor is available,” the voice said before the sound switched to Muzak. It sounded like an old Miley Cyrus tune.
Donovan’s voice came across the nişantaşı escort connection. “Hey, Rev. What can I do for you?”
“I wasn’t really expecting to get you in person,” Damon said. “I was wondering if you could arrange for some off duty nurses wanting some extra cred to come over and monitor me while I go astral?”
“How long?” Donovan asked.
“I’m not sure. I’m going questing. A half day at least. Maybe up to a day and a half. I’d like them to administer some first aid if the situation starts looking like I’m going terminal.”
“Why not just come down to the clinic?” Donovan asked. “Then the on duty staff can take care of you and if you flat line an actual doctor will be handy.”
“I’m not sure I can afford it,” Damon said. “I figured paying about 20 creds an hour, so my budget was going to run from 250-750 cred.”
“How about I just charge you a thousand cred,” Donovan said, “of course any emergency procedures get added on.”
“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Damon said, “plus it sounds safer for the little extra cred.”
“Sure it’ll be safer,” Donovan said. “We can just stick you on a gurney and wheel you to where there’s room. If it gets too crowded, we can strap you down and stand you up in a corner somewhere.”
Damon could hear the humor in the doctor’s voice. “As long as you don’t stand me on my head,” Damon said. “How soon is too soon?” he asked.
“Any time. See you soon,” Donovan said and the call terminated.
Mara was up when Damon returned after finishing the dishes. Moments later, the sound of the shower running let him know where she was. Damon went into the bedroom and picked her clothes up for her, then noticed the computer was on. Damon looked at the display. It looked like a file on some known criminals. Damon looked closer, scrolling down the screen. There were three suspected/indicted/convicted chop shops listed. Further down was a short list of people suspected of dealing illegal weapons.
My little law enforcement lovely Damon thought, knowing Mara had connected the dots and suspected what his delay was. Then she had been nice enough to access restricted files and conveniently left them on display for Damon to find.