Chapter Text
Neil had a very special set of skills that made even the rich and famous knock on his door. His door that was down a dank alley behind a dumpster in the depths of the underbelly. There was a neon sign outside the advertised the Chinese food place down the street and a barred window. The door had the number 10 painted on and the mail slot was bolted shut. It was a rather unassuming door like all the others before it.
With his skills, Neil had to move and keep moving. He was often told the things they’d do to him if he was caught. Cut off his fingers, maybe his whole hand. Take his eyes, leave him bleeding out in some grimy puddle. It was an endless, morbid list.
But Neil would rather use his skills than find a way to fit into the slums. There was no other way for him to survive then to use his only skills and keep running.
His current clients were going to get him killed though. For sure.
Through his door walked world famous Exy players Kevin Day and Andrew Minyard. The feed through Neil’s contacts confirmed who they were, but he recognized them as Exy kept him entertained when he wasn’t working.
“I swear to fucking god if you are not Neil Josten then I am going to strangle you with my bare hands,” Kevin Day said, marching up to Neil’s desk while Andrew Minyard hung back. “I have been to too many dead ends to handle any more of this shit.”
Neil folded his hands. “Model number?” Neil asked. Kevin Day gave him a confused look.
“The sensor, Kevin,” Andrew Minyard said, pushing past Kevin to lean over Neil’s desk. He leaned very close. His brilliant white teeth were perfectly straight, Neil noted. “It’s three years old. That means it’s an AlphaT16. In my arm.”
Neil didn’t tell him he knew where the sensor was. It had been mentioned in plenty of interviews.
“You knew he had one?” Kevin asked. Neil figured he’d had a speech to present to Neil about how Andrew needed his sensor modified or turned off or altered. But Neil knew why they were here and didn’t need to hear Kevin’s speech as long as he was paid in full. Possibly double since they were definitely rich enough.
“He’s high profile. I know who has money and who has a sensor,” Neil said flatly.
“High profile,” Andrew repeated. Neil looked him in the eye. They were close enough that Neil knew Andrew could tell that his contacts were augmented, but if that bothered Andrew then he didn’t mention it.
“He plays better without the drugs. I need you to modify his sensor so that he can come off them when he wants and it won’t set off an alarm or whatever,” Kevin told Neil. Sensors were placed in two kinds of people; patients and criminals. For patients, sensors were placed in the body so that doctors could monitor drug and medication use. From criminals it was a tracking thing.
Neil modified medical sensors only, which he knew Andrew’s was from the model. But Andrew had the sensor and medication as a condition of parole. That meant doctors and his probation officer would have eyes on the sensor.
“I assume you came with payment?” Neil asked. Andrew was still in his face grinning.
“Yeah,” Kevin said holding up a checkbook.
“Show me your arm,” Neil said to Andrew.
“Not out here, I’m not,” Andrew told Neil. Neil rolled his eyes, pushing away from his desk and going into his aptly named operating room.
“Come on,” Neil said and went through the door without waiting to see if Andrew followed.
After some yelling from Kevin and laughing from Andrew, Andrew entered the room and sat on the chair in the center. The room was full of double locked cabinets and various moveable lights.
“Arm on the table,” Neil said opening various cabinets and getting supplies. He then washed his hands and pulled on gloves.
“Why should I trust you?” Andrew asked. Neil shrugged.
“Don’t. I don’t care. Leave if you want.”
Andrew stared at Neil. In the harsh light his pupils were pinpricks and his irises reflected gold. Andrew’s lips pulled back into another grin.
“I don’t care either,” he said, pulling his shirt over his head and placing his arm on the small table between him and Neil. The light caught on the scarred flesh. Self inflicted damage, Neil assumed, meaning the scar from the sensor was not easy to pick out.
Neil placed his pointer finger in the center of Andrew’s wrist and then dragged it down the vein in the center of his wrist. Neil marked where the vein disappeared and then moved further until he felt the distinct lump of a forearm sensor. He made another pen mark on Andrew’s arm and then moved away to secure his arm.
Andrew watched Neil’s every move in silence. Neil strapped Andrew’s arm down and then cleaned the area.
“Are you going to watch?” Neil asked, injecting Andrew with a numbing solution.
“Yep. I have to make sure you don’t mess up my beautiful arm,” Andrew mocked. Neil rolled his eyes and dug the scalpel into Andrew’s forearm.
He cut slow and precise. Too deep and he could do damage. He dug his thumb into the incision and felt around until he mapped out the sensor. He’d worked on the model before, so it didn’t take long to hit the release and pull it free.
The sensor was a small rectangular device, slim and covered in tendrils that attached to the bone in the arm. Neil pulled another light over, turning it on and dumping solution on the sensor to clean it off. When deactivated there was a brief window of time before the sensor would alarm on the other end.
Neil hooked the sensor to a laptop and dumped a gel into the open wound on Andrew’s arm. “It’ll keep you from bleeding out,” Neil said tearing off his gloves and getting to work.
He was fast. Modifying through his laptop was simple, the manual edits he had to make took up more time, but again he was fast. While the new program was loading onto the sensor, Neil cracked it open and fixed the timer, so that it would go off every day regardless. Changing it manually covered Neil’s programs tracks. If the program failed, the sensor would not. Someone would have to take the sensor out and examine it knowing to look for an altercation.
Neil pulled on new gloves, digging the gel out of Andrew’s arm. When the sensor was clean, he pushed the sensor back in and reattached it.
“I’m going to pour glue into the incision. It’s going to be sore and bruise, but the glue will seal it fast and leave no scar.”
“Because that clearly matters to me,” Andrew said as Neil glued him shut.
“Or so no one will be suspicious,” Neil said. Andrew rolled his eyes.
Neil freed Andrew’s arm and watched as Andrew pulled his shirt back on. Back in the main room, Neil was paid double in three different amounts.
And then they were gone. Rich and famous and it was like it had never happened.
Neil stashed the checks and went to clean his operating room. He wondered if he’d be able to tell Andrew wasn’t taking his medication when he was playing.