Stray Cat Strut

Chapter Thirty-Six - Nun Your Business

Chapter Thirty-Six - Nun Your Business

"The word Computer comes from the Latin word... computer, which means 'machine that computes.' It's one of many modern words that means things today that they also meant before."

--Me, a memoire, 2039

***

Delilah stared at me. Really stared at me. "Why do you want to talk to Franny, Catherine?" she asked. "Is this some sort of prank?"

"I don't play pranks," I said. "Look, we've got a situation brewing, and I wanted to talk to someone who knows how the gangs work."

Delilah shifted to the side, her shoulder resting against the doorframe. "And the first person that came to mind was my... was Franny?"

I shrugged. "Her or maybe Rac? But I don't want to get the kid too involved in all of this, on account of her being a kid and all."

Delilah eyed me for a moment more, then she sighed and stepped back. "Come on in, both of you. I'm liable to leave you wallowing on the doorstep, Cat, but Nya at least deserves to be treated as a guest."

"I don't think that's what she said," I replied. "C'mon. Maybe we can bum some food off of her while she's feeling generous."

Delilah snorted from just inside. She tried not to smile, but I could tell that she was actually in a pretty decent mood. I'd kinda learned to pick up some cues from her body language alone after spending so much time around her, and being able to see her face just made it all the easier.

She escorted us over to her kitchen, then got busy behind the big island thing in the middle while Nya and I took some stools to sit on. "Do you like coffee, Nya?"

"Mhm!" Nya replied. "With lots of sugar and milk."

"I can manage that," Delilah said. "I've sent a text to Franny. She's on her way. Should be here in a few minutes at most. She was already on her way back from the abbey. But in the meantime, what are you looking into, exactly?"

"Right, so the gangs are acting up, I guess? They got a little boost with the incursion pulling a lot of people into the PMCs and out of security, and there's a lot of places that have closed down. Maybe it's temporary, but a big drop in jobs means lots of folks with nothing to do who still need to eat."

"I see the logic," Delilah said. "And now they've become a problem?"

"Maybe? Maybe not yet. I just feel like it's one of those things... if you're not on top of it, it'll fester and then you will have a problem. It's like... what do you call that stuff when your bits go green?"

"Gangrene?" Delilah asked. "You've seen that before?"

"Once or twice," I said with a shrug. "It's not pretty. I think, back in the day, they used to burn that off, right? I think today we have medicine for it. So that's where I'm at now. We either head it off now, burn it up later, or find a cure. Personally, I'd rather stamp this out before it becomes too big of a problem."

"Very... ah, proactive, nya," Nya said with a nod.

Delilah hummed to herself as she finished preparing four small mugs of coffee. She placed them on a tray, then brought it over before fetching a small metal thing for milk from the fridge and a glass jar filled with sugar cubes. "It's not the worst idea I've heard from you," she said. "But I don't think taking on the gangs will be all that easy. And having a samurai... multiple samurai, galavanting around New Montreal attacking random gangs might cause more trouble in the long term."

"I don't know about galavanting," I said, testing the word a little. "But I think we can probably solve this without resorting to nukes and shit that'll have us in the evening's media feeds." I took a sip of the coffee, made a face, then took the milk from Nya when she was finished with it. I poured some in until the coffee was almost more white than brown.

Delilah took a sip of her own. Black, because she was weird that way. "I suppose. And you think Franny can help?"

"I hope so. It's that or I have to rely on the Family, or people that I don't know as well. Franny, at least, won't fuck me over."

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"No, she wouldn't do that. She might mess with you a little at times, but she takes the health of the city, spiritual or otherwise, quite seriously." Delilah looked up, then smiled. "Speaking of... she's here now, I believe."

She was right. Probably plugged into the house's security or something. Franny came into the kitchen carrying one of those unfoldable grocery boxes with the gif-ads on the side. It was filled with random bits of food. "Hello!" she said. "Hi Cat, been a minute. Hello... ah, I'm sorry, I don't know your name."

"Nya is Nya, nya!" Nya said.

"Uh, hi Nya Nya," Franny replied. The mistake only made Nya grin like an idiot though. Then Franny came up to Delilah. She half-turned, put the groceries down, then... they stared at each other.

Nya and I both went silent as we watched the two of them get progressively more red, and then, finally, as if they had to get it over with as quickly as possible, they gave each other the quickest, most chaste peck ever.

I felt my brows climbing at that. Not so much the kiss, that was... kind of a lame kiss. I'd eaten burgers with more sexual energy than they put into that smooch... it was more the way they both looked so embarrassed about it, but also kind of pleased.

Young love, or whatever. Or maybe this was more of a Delilah and Franny problem, because when Lucy and I were in our 'young love' phase, we were banging on every surface, horizontal or otherwise.

"So, ah, Catherine and Nya here have come over to talk about something you're more familiar with than I am," Delilah said. She licked her lips right after, and wasn't even looking at Franny.

"That's right," I said, because anything to fill out the awkwardness was worth it at this point. Maybe coming here was a mistake. Nya and I were obviously interrupting something. Maybe if we weren't here, they'd be up to something scandalous, like holding hands, or looking each other in the eyes and blushing. I held back from rolling my eyes. "Figured you might be able to give me the low-down on the gangs."

Franny shrugged. "I probably can. I was never part of any of them, but I used to help deliver food to impoverished neighbourhoods, and I've smacked a few clowns around too. Got a rep, you know? But yeah, I made some... let's call them friends in the undercity. What do you need to know, exactly? I might not know everything, but I could point you in the right direction."

"Thanks," I said. "So, what's the easy explanation?"

"Easy is that everything is rather complicated," Franny said. She saw the fourth mug of coffee and smiled before taking it. Also a black coffee drinker. Gross. "It's all about who knows who, who pisses off who, and which charismatic jerk with enough credits can convince others to work for them."

"Right," I said.

"It's not that bad. You mostly have... I guess to simplify it, three types of gangs?" she said.

"Go on."

"The first is the type you're probably thinking of, from like shows and movies. Street gangs. They start off as small communities, then grow a bit. Lots of protection rackets, extortion, drugs. Some aren't that bad though. They exist to keep their space in the city safe. Some are like extended families, or clans." She shook her head, orange hair shifting with the motion. "Then there's the... let's call them professional gangs?"

"It's a profession now?" I asked.

She laughed. "Sorta? Those are more about casinos, smuggling, drug production and sales. Lots of big money. They tend to be a bit older, more settled in, with longer reputations. A lot more business-like, but also more dangerous."

"Alright," I said. "And the last?"

"Union gangs. They're mostly formed around the factory districts. A lot of workers banding together to get what they want. Technically I think they're just unions, but a lot of them spill over into doing the kind of stuff you'd expect a gang to do. And they always get labelled as gangs and terrorists by the police and corps."

"Obviously," I said.

Hurting the bottom line was terrorism of the worst sort.

"So... if I want to tell the gangs to chill the fuck out for a bit, where do I start?"

***