Collateral

The ripper doc’s office is located inside of an old building. The entrance is on the side of an alleyway, and except for a small sign on the door saying “ripper doc” nothing here indicates the presence of a medical facility.

Rose walks in and after climbing some stairs enters a small waiting area. The walls, floor and ceiling are all covered in cyan tiles, smeared with stains of blood dirt, and other stuff. A random collection of chairs line one of the walls, and a reception desk is placed behind the back of the room.

A man with quite a bit of cybernetics implants sits behind the desk, and he smiles when Rose enters.

“Good morning, Ma’am. Do you have an appointment?”

“I don’t. I have to see the doc right now.”

“I am afraid the doc is with a patient right now, but I can check for you if we can make you an appointment today.”

Rose ignores him and walks to the door with “Surgery” written on it. The receptionist stands up. “Ma’am, you can’t go in there. The doctor is with a patient right now. You need to wait here.”

Rose bases the door in. There is a small office with a desk and some chairs, and a door on the side leads to the actual surgery. Rose walks right past the office and enters the surgery.

The practice looks similar to the waiting room. Tiles on the floor, walls and ceiling are covered with dirt, blood, and many other bodily fluids. In the centre of the room is an operating table. The doctor is operating on a forty-year-old woman. Looks like he is installing something on her left lower arm.

Rose knows this table all too well. ten years earlier, she was chained to that specific one.

The doctor looks up the moment Rose enters. He is a tall and muscular man. A large part of his face is covered in cybernetics, and he has a large scar on his neck. He is fully dressed in scrubs. “Ma’am, you can’t be in here. If you need a cybernetic implant or other medical work, please talk to my receptionist and make an appointment.”

“I am not here for an appointment. Don’t you recognise me?”

The ripper doc looks at Rose thinking, and then strokes the large scar on his neck. “Rose” He whispers.

He looks back at the patient. “I am sorry about this, I will be right back.”

He gestures to Rose to walk back into the office. The receptionist is still there. “I am so sorry, Doctor. I tried to stop her, but she just barged in.”

“It’s ok, you can go back to your desk. I handle this.”

After the receptionist leaves, the doctor closes both doors.

“So, Rose,” the doctor asks. He sounds really scared and isn’t looking at Rose, but at the gun he is holding in her right hand. “How are you, how is the child?”

“Alive,” Rose says. “No thanks to you.”

An awkward silence filled the room.

“You know,” the doctor continues. “Your parents just wanted what was best for you.”

Rose tightens the grip around her gun and aims it at the doctor. Her heart races and her breathing becomes faster.

“It was my child, my body, my choice to make. Not my parents. And not yours.”

“You made that pretty clear when you freed yourself from the operating table and stabbed me in the neck.”

Rose sighs. “I did. I am not here because of that. Water under the bridge.”

“Then why are you here?”

“I am here about an implant you stole.”

The doctor looks confused. “What implant?”

“The AI guardian.”

The doctor shakes his head. “I bought it fair and square from-”

Rose keeps her gun aimed at the doctor’s head “I know you bought it. But the person you bought it from stole it. And the company wants it back. Just hand it over and I will be on my merry way.”

“I can’t give it to you, I have installed it already in a patient.”

Rose cocks the gun and puts it against the doctor’s head. “What patient.”

“The one that is still in the operating room.”

Rose forces a smile. “Thank you. I’ll just cut it from her.”

Rose walks to the door but turns around at the last moment.

“One more thing,” she says.

Rose lowers her gun, aiming it at the doctor’s groin area, and pulls the trigger.

“That is for trying to abort my baby against my will.”

The doctor falls to the floor and moans in pain.

Rose ignores him and walks back into the operating room. To her surprise, the woman who was on the operating table before is gone.

What the hell?

She frantically looks around. The only door is the one she just came from. How did she leave? Rose looks at the open window. Maybe she climbed through there.

Rose pokes her head through the window. She is four stories up, and there is no fire escape or similar, so no way that she left this way.

Then, Rose spots a woman climbing down using the ridges of the building.

“Hey, what the hell are you doing? Stop right there!”

The Woman looks at Rose and starts to climb faster.

Rose climbs out of the window. “I guess we are doing a chase today,” she mutters.