The SongBird's Love

#3 Basement

Eden sighed and grabbed her bag, taking out her own clothes to change into. She quickly traded the red sequined dress for a long-sleeved turtleneck bodysuit and a pair of cargo pants. Putting her long hair into a high bun and grabbing her facemask, she threw her dress in the automated washing machine and got ready to leave in just a few minutes.

Activating the oxygen flow in her mask, she stepped out of the bar and walked into Chicago's nightlife.

The neighborhood where Jack's bar was installed was buzzing at such an hour. Many people came here to have fun and forget their troubles or real lives for one night. Most of these people were coming from the Core, and Eden could recognize them in one glance. Perfect haircuts, bright smiles, clean and brand new clothes. They had no need to hide their shiny, white teeth behind masks, as long as they could endure the smell, pollution, and dust for a few hours. They would be back to their polished and worry-less lives before dawn.

For people like Eden, however, there was nowhere else to go back to. She walked to the bus station, before remembering she needed more money this month... Eden hesitated. She glanced up at one of the giant screens on the buildings. The air quality that night wasn't good...and her face mask probably only had enough oxygen for the trip back. She hesitated. If she made a stop by the shop to recharge her oxygen, that would be more money, but she needed that refill anyway.

Moreover, taking the bus saved time, but it was still costly. The blonde shook her head and changed her trajectory without remorse. Like every day on her way home, she was doing her math over and over in her head. Adding up the cost of what she needed to buy, subtracting what she had to pay. Eden had always been good with numbers, but no matter how many times she did the calculations, it never fell on the positive side.

Walking added an extra half hour to her trip back.

Most of the streets were empty. No one wanted to waste oxygen with a trip outside. The few people she crossed paths with were on their way to work, probably not able to afford the bus, like her. Although she could only see their eyes, no one lifted their eyes from the ground to look at her. Everyone was busy going their own way. Sometimes though, she'd recognize a familiar glance and nod, but no matter what, Eden kept walking. No one had time to stop for a chat.

Finally, she spotted the little corner store. She walked in, deactivating her mask right away.

"Namaste, Miss Eden!"

Eden walked up to the counter, handing her mask to the middle-aged man behind the glass.

"How are you, Said?" She asked with a tired voice.

To her surprise, the man answered in Hindi with lots of gestures. Eden frowned.

"Did you deactivate your translating software again? I thought you had taken a full one this time?" She asked.

"No, no! No money!"

Eden made a grimace. Every time his shop was in a pinch, the poor man had to deactivate his software to save himself some money. It was always bad news for him though, as most people wouldn't bother to try and understand him. Although Eden had no idea what he was saying, he kept talking in Hindi, so she nodded, aware that he only needed to vent. He knew enough English to understand his customers, but he most likely didn't realize he was using his native tongue instead.

"Pay?" He asked.

Eden nodded.

"Yeah, making the transfer right away."

She felt the little device in her neck vibrate and mentally accounted for the money that must have been taken out of her account. Said nodded and thanked her, or something along those lines, and she left the little shop, taking a deep breath before putting her mask back on.

She was already halfway home when she left the little shop. Eden had to live in a different neighborhood from the one she worked in. Not many places accepted to hire Parts for many reasons. Not only did people like her have a bad reputation among many communities, but they had more costs than others to maintain their cybernetic parts, and no one wanted a worker who could physically break down at any moment... She put all those dark thoughts aside and instead began to sing the lyrics of the song playing when she left the bar. It was one of her favorites, one of those old songs she could listen to and forget everything else.

"Homesick tired all alone in a big city, Why should everybody pity me... Night time's falling, folks are a-singin'... they dance till break of day..."

She had heard it so many times, she could hum and whistle every instrument's part. She would swing her head and go on like this, forgetting how tired she was. It was slow, dreamy jazz that matched that time of the night. She liked the raspy, deep voice of the singer as if she could see him in an old black and white movie.

Just like that, with those legs that wouldn't get sore or tired, she arrived home in no time to the familiar, quieter streets of the Lower West Side. This part of the suburbs wasn't really under any of the Zodiacs' watch. It was stuck somewhere between the territories of the Italian Tiger, the Chinese Dragon, and the Mexican Eagle. While the first two didn't really care for that territory, the last one was using it as an excuse to cause trouble. Sometimes, men wearing luchadores masks and driving big vehicles would suddenly come down the streets and cause a ruckus for nothing, just to see if they could annoy the bigger monsters. It never really happened though. The old man Long was too busy to care, and the Italian Tiger didn't seem interested at all. In the end, only the people from Eden's neighborhood would suffer in silence.

"Evening, Miss Eden," said a man when she finally arrived in front of the building.

That man was middle-aged, wearing a bandanna over his face to protect himself from the dust, and a rifle. Eden frowned.

"Evening, Manuel. What's going on?" She asked, pointing towards the gun.

"Ah, you know, the usual," he replied with a strong Hispanic accent. "My wife is grumpy, so I came down to stand guard. A kid was shot last week, and we heard gunshots two hours ago... But I'm happy you're okay."

"Thanks," said Eden, glancing towards the upper floors. "You be careful. ...How is the baby?"

"She's really cute, but she cries a lot. My wife and I had a fight again; she wants another one!"

Eden felt a bit sorry for him, the poor man looked exhausted. He would probably have been better and safer upstairs than standing here on the sidewalk.

"But you have that job at the factory now..." she said.

"I know! But you know how my wife is. She thinks we will all be condemned by God for using those. I try to tell her I can bring good money home now, but she doesn't like it."

He pointed towards his neck, where he had recently been implanted with a SIN. Eden sighed. Manuel was a good man, but he had struggled so much until he could finally get one, and it included some sacrifices as well. His wife was very religious, and she hated anything that modified their bodies. She wouldn't even talk to Eden and cursed or started praying in Spanish every time they saw each other.

"It will be fine," she said. "I'm sure she'll come around."

"I don't know, Miss Eden, but thank you. I hope you have a good night."

"Good night, Manuel."

Without waiting anymore, Eden walked towards the stairs. However, as soon as she found herself there, she hesitated.

The stairs were going two ways: up or down. She glanced at the stairs going down to the basement and hesitated. ...No, she shouldn't. She ignored it and ran upstairs. Her apartment was on the fourth floor. As soon as she got home, Eden let out a long sigh of relief and dropped her bag on the floor. She didn't have enough belongings for this place to be messy, but it certainly had a lot going on.

First, she had a table against the window, with dozens of little pots filled with dirt. There wasn't anything sprouting, it looked like they had just been left there. Eden walked to that table first, checking if anything had happened. She was so used to deception, though, she only glanced once and didn't look back again. She walked to the mattress on the ground and let herself fall on it. She wasn't really tired, but she did feel a bit... out of it. She regretted not staying longer at the bar. Staying here, between four walls, was a bit depressing. If it had been a better day, she would have gone up to the roof, but she couldn't waste more oxygen today. She sighed and grabbed the little notepad that was left somewhere on her bed. She wrote down, again, all of the expenses for the week. She could skip dinner and save a bit of money there. Jack let her wash her clothes at the bar too, and she could go without water until her next workday. She scratched her neck, her SIN a bit itchy.

She wrote down what she had earned at the bar, and her work at the shop. The number she had in mind was still bigger, though. The usual costs for her mom's care were just a little bit under both combined. If she added the special care, and her own expenses... Eden took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She couldn't manage a third job. She had no time for it, and the first two she had already been lucky to find in her condition. She glared at that notepad, a bit annoyed. Why did things always end up like this?

She glanced at the window. Had those people ever had any idea of the struggles they faced on that side of the river?

After a while, she left the notepad on her bed, stood up and walked back to the stairs. This time, she was resolutely going down to the basement. She hadn't been there in... what, a week? She arrived in front of the locked door and pushed the number combination.

"Wrong code. Two attempts remaining."

Eden rolled her eyes. He had changed the code again?

"SIN, call Loir."

However, nothing happened. His SIN number, too? Eden sighed and banged against the door, annoyed.

"Loir, open up, you paranoid i***t!"

The door opened right away, and Eden almost fell forward, not prepared for it to open so easily. She sighed and closed the door behind her.

The basement was completely dark. A bit cautious, Eden walked in silently, each of her steps echoing. It was like being in an underground parking lot, but a small one. After a while, a light bulb flickered in one corner. She heard a desk chair rolling towards her.

"Good Morning, my little Eden."

She turned around, a bit annoyed.

Loir was the most singular character she knew, and that was saying a lot. First, she didn't know his real name. From what she had heard before, he had at least five or six aliases. She finally spotted him in the darkness, sitting on his desk chair, perched like an owl with his bare toes out, wearing shiny blue nail polish. The rest of his clothes were all black, so dark it was hard to even know what he was actually wearing. He was bald, but he had so many tattoos on his face and head that it was hard to tell in one glance. Although he had dozens of tattoos, Eden could only read a handful of them. The most obvious one was the word "Anarkia" tattooed on the left side of his head, and she also knew the Chinese symbol on his neck meant pain. The rest of it was presently covered by his clothes. His skinny arms were wrapped around his knees as he was staring at her. It was a disturbing stare, mostly because she couldn't figure out where his pupils were. His eyeballs were completely tattooed.

"It's evening," she retorted.

"Maybe here."

She knew she shouldn't get into his little mind games. Loir was crazy in his own way.

He tilted his head and smiled, revealing two missing teeth. Then, he rolled his chair to another side of the basement. The screens lit back up one by one, all fourteen of them. Loir was seated in front of a giant table, his keyboards scattered all over in random order. Despite the number of screens, she couldn't tell how many computers there really were, as she'd see his mouse jump from one screen to another from time to time, with no logic either. It would disappear to the left side of a computer on the far right and reappear at the top of another one located at the other end. She couldn't even figure out if he had messed it up to play, or perhaps to confuse people who could intrude and try to use his things.

"Eden is not sleepy tonight," he whistled, his eyes back on the screens. "What is she up to?"

"It's too early to sleep," she said in a low voice, although it was half a lie.

"Mh... I can smell someone who needs money."

She glared at his back, but Loir wasn't looking at her. Eden crossed her arms and walked up to stand next to him, glancing at the screens. One was displaying a Russian news channel, two others the news of the various Cores throughout the world. Eden stared at the pictures and videos of places she had never been, curious. She wondered if all Cores were the same, living without a care about the rest of the world. Another channel was showing the Green Earth Party news, where images of the thriving forests were displayed. It changed into gorgeous, blue images of fish swimming in the aquamarine sea. She stared at that even longer.

"...It's fake."

"What?"

Loir pointed at the screen she was looking at without looking at it himself. His fingers were activating like crazy spiders on one of the keyboards, sending coding information on a black screen.

"Those images. They took it from a documentary from the twenty-first century. This isn't the real current state of the Western American sea. They are just clearing the place to build three other Cores. The water is still too polluted for fish like these to be there. But fear not, they will make more artificial beaches."

Eden remained silent. She knew those images couldn't be trusted. She knew the other side. The Green Earth Party only had green as a word in its name, and that was it. They showed what the people in the Cores needed to see to sleep soundlessly...

"By the way, a new job came in," he said with his scary smile.

"I'm not here to take another job, Loir. I just... wondered how you were, and came downstairs."

"Well. I'm still aliiiiiiiiive," he suddenly started singing.

Loir began singing some old song loudly, wiggling around on his chair and making some strange movements with his shoulders, as if they had a life of their own. Eden stepped back, careful not to get hit. He really was crazy... After a while, he finished with a spin on his chair, his arms spread with a big smile as if he was waiting for her to applaud.

"...Are you done?" She asked.

"Mh, yes! I mean, unless you want an encore..."

"I'm good. Now, the job?"

"...What job?"

"The job you mentioned two minutes ago, Loir!"

"Oh. That?"

"Yes, that. What about it? What is it?"

He started laughing.

"You'll love it... They are paying a lot of money for it."

"Who? The Russians again?"

"No, no, no, Eden. The Italians. Some nice, pretty Italian bills," he chuckled, rubbing his fingertips.

"How much money...?" She wondered, trying to tell herself it was stupid to even ask.

"Hm... abbastanza per comprare tanta pizza!"

"For f**k's sake, Loir, how much?"

He began laughing hysterically, and Eden sighed again. She knew better than to answer his provocations, but she had given in again. She waited for him to be done laughing.

"Twenty-two million," he suddenly blurted between two laughs.

"T-twenty-two...?" She repeated.

A cold chill ran down her spine. There was no easy job at this price, but it was... tempting. With such a sum, it would pay for her mom's expenses and hers for at least a few years, maybe even a decade.

"See? I told you. A lot of pizza!"

"What the heck does he want for that price...?" She muttered. "Some data from the Core? Or a hacking bomb?"

"Oh, no, no, little Eden. The Tiger just wants to play with a cute little mouse."

"...A mouse?"

Loir chuckled and tilted his head.

"The price on Ghost's head just went up, little mouse. Twenty-two million. Congrats!"