Wisps of smoke hung in the neon-tinged air. The bar was jam-packed with all kinds of people - cyborgs relaxing after their construction jobs, junkies buying Red Sand, and unaugmented humans just looking to drown their sorrows. Small brick alcoves held busy tables for those who played games on their Brainwaves.

Amber weaved her way through the crowd, taking a stool at the bar. She took care to keep her hood over her ursine ears.

Hybrids like her were rarely welcome in Gary. On her way in, she'd seen several of them working as prostitutes, or sleeping in the husks of burnt-out buildings. Some might've been informants for Skin Deep, but word was even they rarely set foot in the sprawl. Nonetheless, she had to be here. She'd been tracking her target via drone for hours, and he was almost certainly somewhere inside.

"Welcome to The Broken Shillelagh", spoke the pale-skinned android bartender, "What can I get you?"

"Rum, ice. Hey, is Richie here? Big guy, cyborg?"

"I'm afraid I don't know who you're talking about."

"Say a friend wants to meet him." Amber said, passing her a few physical cryptos.

The bartender's cameras zoomed on her. "My programming prevents me from taking bribes. At least from new customers."

"I'm sure..."

It looked as if she'd have to rely on her senses for this one.

Amber summoned a private window on her TAP, and scanned the room as she sipped her rum. She had a photo of Richie on file, and compared it to every cyborg present.

There he was. A hulking bundle of metal parts and black artificial muscle, sat at a table looking around anxiously. A visor-like display stood in for his eyes, and the contours of his steel skin reflected the neon table-lamp in front of him. Amber took her rum, and had a seat on the adjacent corner.

"Richie Burns?"

"You ain't my dealer. What do you want?" growled the cyborg.

"I, ah, heard things about you. Word is you got the Enhancement Package."

"Yeah, what about it?"

Amber slowly drew back her hood, revealing her ursine ears to the cyborg. His glowing golden eyes widened.

"I was wonderin'... whether you had a chance to test it out..."

Contrary to expectations, the lights representing his brow furrowed. Artificial muscle rocketed his fist towards Amber's face, forcing her to dive to the floor.

"You damn freak. Get outta my sight!"

"Bastard!"

In one swift motion, she drew her pistol and aimed up at the cyborg. He prepped to stomp her head into a pulp, when she shot a bullet through his braincase.

A burst of sparks erupted from the resultant hole, and he froze in place. Amber rolled over and got to her feet. The cyborg's ancillary systems struggled to keep their host alive, till she pushed him over, and left the chassis convulsing on the floor.

"Mother fucker", she scoffed, sitting down to finish her drink.

She kept her gun in her spare hand, browsing the eyes that'd turned to her. With her "secret" revealed, some were curious, but most were hiding hostility.

Once the chassis went inert, she jacked a cable in the back of her neck, and ran it to the cyborg's physical TAP ports. She helped herself to his cryptos, and grabbed his last memory file. The Bratva Vory liked seeing how their enemies died.

Before she left, Amber returned her glass to the bartender, and slapped a few extra notes on the bar.

"For the rum. And the mess."

"I don't appreciate my patrons killing each other."

This turn of phrase led her to cast a sharp eye at the android.

"You ain't a slave... You run this joint?"

"When my master passed, he left me this place. Call me QAI, or 'Kai' for short."

"Amber. Lee Xiao sends his regards."