At 5 AM I decided that daylight had won. I got dressed and snuck downstairs. I wrote a note on the kitchen table and ran out of the house, a bit faster than was strictly necessary.

  If I was up at this awful hour, I might as well take advantage of it. I vindictively sent a message to Sunny’s terminal to let him know I was shopping for repair supplies. He did tell me to check in, afterall. I might have used an emergency channel to force the message off of silent mode so it would ring through, no matter what. But he couldn't prove it.

  I turned left at the gate of my dad’s, … of their house, and walked to the corner square. The magitecha light fountain was turned off at this time of day. The crystals and gears looked a bit forlorn without the animating magic to give them a purpose in life. A bicycle rack was against the wall of a corner deli. A few magitecha bicycles were available to rent. I probably needed to figure out my own means of transportation at some point. I swiped my credstick implant and rented a magitecha cycle for the morning. I suppose bicycle technology hadn't changed, in, well ever. The Neu Ca?on magitechists and cyber-wizards had added a small engine that would provide pedal assistance so it was easier to pedal, or even no effort at all, as long as it had charge. I didn't mind pedaling, but I could minimally charge it with my telemechanic powers and just use the throttle. Of course I couldn’t refill it as effectively as a full sorcerer could. Another reason Magitechary was suboptimal at best.

  I hopped on and pointed the bicycle toward the center of the merchant and business district, up a level. After getting up to speed I quickly rolled back across the terraced river and headed north toward the same shopping area Sunny and I had visited yesterday. It was early enough that most folks were hurriedly heading to work for an early shift or to drop off their kids.

  >>Wherever kids get dropped off, do you know Big Fe?>>

  I never thought about the educational system in Neu Ca?on before. I had gone to school with the other children of Black Marketeers (err BDwerks? administrators), engineers, guards, and technicians deep in the refurbished secret bunker. Many families lived off site from the hidden facility, but the core operations stayed underground 24/7. I remember a stream of different tutors and teachers for our small class. We learned the basics like reading and writing, math and science, but a few of our teachers were former adventurers and taught us about aliens, wild monsters, corpo ‘ethics,’ and the surviving factions in North America.

  Anyway, the major merchant buildings were easy to spot. On one end BDwerks? and on the other, Under All Inc? and Rosatom General Energy? squared off, drawing attention to their respective wares. I needed to visit the first two today. But the tallest building in the city skyline was actually the nine story ziggurat that the Pirimid Magica Ubique? (PMU?) company built right next to the aether loci they controlled in their compound. They managed to build straight through the next level and extended into the air beyond the top International district. PMU? was a global magical corpo that controlled and did everything about magic. Their WEST headquarters were in Denver, but they have local branches like this all over the world.

  I suppose they did all sorts of training, enchanting and various other R&D activities there and to a lesser extent in the location here. They were one of the primary reason’s Neu Ca?on had not been the victim of a corpo hostile takeover. The massive mercenary quarters didn't hurt either.

  PMU? had direct access to the raw power of an aether loci and could use it to charge and enchant their items far more efficiently than anywhere else. I had never been inside, and wouldn't be going there today, but seeing an aether loci managed and controlled by a stone ziggurat would be a wonderful thing to investigate. Instead, I was going to their front office, yay for me.

  My bike rolled up to the walled compound and the large open gate. I couldn't see over the rune covered walls that surrounded the manufacturing site and headquarters. Two guards flanked the entrance holding magitecha rifles and the latest power armor that PMU? was producing. I guess that meant they had to look like bears ready to charge into combat. The massive suits were impressively built with ears on the head, and even functional claws on all four limbs. But both guards seemed relaxed and friendly, at least. Employees were starting to trickle in at this early hour. The business office was right after the gate and was only a four story structure. I was happy to see they were already open and ready for business. Early birds get killed by the Pterodactyl, or something like that. Early birds get killed by sandworms? I dunno.

  >>Big Fe, we need a skillset on colloquialisms for the synths….and for me. Add that to the list.>>

  I cycled up to the front of the building and left my bike at the hitching post. I didn't think it would get stolen here. It was made here after all. I walked into the first floor and was immediately overwhelmed. The entire floor was covered with professionally designed and built magitecha weapons, armor and even vehicles! They had added aircraft since the last time I had visited. It looked like a couple of helicopters and an airplane were added to their impressive list of items for sale. I guess if you were a magic user and didn't want to mess with real weapons or armor I could see the appeal of this stuff. Miles did a great job sneaking around the battlefield in his armor. And elementalists, necromancers, biomancers, sorcerers, and magitechists were their own powersource, of course. Still give me an e-mag, a charging amplifier, and a target to aim it at, over this odd mix of crystals, wires, and wishes.

  I will say the entire place was a very neat and professional looking operation. I think I even caught a glimpse of the owner, a reclusive elf who came to Neu Ca?on in the early days to build equipment and a business empire. He was quite wealthy but seemed to reinvest in the local community more than most rich yonos. I had no business bothering him however. I turned to use the bank of magitecha elevators, all glass and copper and shiny bits. I pushed the call button and rode up to the second level.

  This level was covered in a variety of sales and procurement offices. Larger deals and purchases were handled up here. While early, I saw a group of elves (not a common sight around here) talking to what appeared to be a senior sales associate, and much gesturing and haranguing was to be had. The other offices had buyers and procurers for the PMU??. Various miners, adventurers, and others would bring bulk scrap, ore, precious metals and gems, and other material to the purchasers. Pirimid Magica Ubique? was in constant need of raw materials for the various weapons, armor, and vehicles manufacturing lines. I was rather hoping to reverse the process.

  I wandered down the main hallway until I found the office I was looking for. ‘Precious gems’ no, ‘Semi-precious gems and stones’ no, ‘precious and alchemical metals’ no, ‘magical artifacts and devices,’ no, ‘Scrap and Salvage Procurement’ yes finally. I opened the door and walked into the office toward the back. I had been here once before but I didn't recognize the incredibly fit looking human seated behind the counter looking down at an old fashioned work notebook.

  I approached the gentleman and cleared my throat.

  “Good morning miss, how can I help you? I am Mr. Cravez head of Scrap and Salvage Procurement.”

  It was a good sign that this clerk was actually the head of purchasing, exactly who I was looking for. No idea why he was at work so early but I said, “Well, Mr Cravez, nice to meet you. I am Gabby Gama and I am hoping to purchase any surplus material and salvage that you might have in excess for duracrete, supersteel, nanofabrics, and energy lattices.”

  The head clerk paused and set his pen down on his notebook. “Humm, Miss Gama, that is a very unusual request. We are in the business of buying scrap and salvage of all kinds, not selling.”

  I answered quickly, “Of course, I know, but I can imagine you often have too much of one and not enough of another, and I could help balance your inventory and take some material off your hands.”

  He started to shake his head no, “I am sorry Miss Gama, I would like to help you, we here at Pirimid Magica Ubique? are in the business of helping people first, but that is not something I can do.”

  I was starting to worry this trip had been a waste. “I had done it once before? I bought a load of supersteel from you guys about two years ago? I don't remember the buyer's name, but I paid well above your buying rates and it was a good deal all around.”

  The buyer thought for a moment and continued, “Ah, perhaps we did at the time, but with our new product lines, the vehicles and armor selling so well, we cannot afford to release any material that we might need in the short term. I am sorry. I would be more than willing to keep your contact information and if we do have any major windfalls I would be happy to let you know?”

  I knew a blow off when I heard one, and I was quite disappointed to hear it. PMU? had massive inventories of all sorts of material. I was sure I could buy enough for all the vehicles and synth armor that needed repairs and their inventory wouldn't even notice. I was back to the drawing boards, with only expensive alternatives. I gave him my info on the off chance he did have a change of heart.

  I quickly retraced my steps and didn't even look at the myriad of devices in the showroom as I left. I grabbed my bike and headed back to the main market center. I stowed the bike in the rideshare location and turned it back in. I only had to pay a few credits because I had used my own mental power and the bike’s magical ‘battery’ was still totally full. I walked past a few food carts that were open for the morning rush, and decided I could stop and have time for breakfast before I figured out how to repair serious battle damage on 40 synths and 15 vehicles. I grabbed a street sausage with extra peppers. It tasted even better than it smelled, and I had no idea what meat it was made from and didn't want to know. I sat on a bench and watched the early shopping crowds hunt for deals in the various stalls, carts, and permanent shops in this part of the Merchant District.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  I wanted to meet up with Miles around noon to go to the bookstore and then we could do the hand off to Lauren and his crew in the afternoon and get our money. This gave me several hours to figure out the rest of our supplies. I decided to head over to the BDwerks? showroom first and then hit the Northern Gun one afterward. I walked past the various stalls, shops and cart vendors setting up their wares. Not many mercenaries were up at this hour yet, but enough that many locations were open.

  I first saw the dozens of magitecha and cyber-wizard vendors, modifiers, and designers that you could hire. They all had various stalls to capture your business right outside PMU?. You could buy off the shelf, and have one of them customize and modify to your heart’s and pocketbook’s content. As I understood it, magitechists use magic to control science, and cyber-wizards used science to control magic. Sounds too simplistic to me. But what do I know, I was encoding trans-freudian neural networks on post-quantum mesh substrate. At least cyber-wizards were using science and engineering in their pursuits.

  >> Sure Fe, that makes complete sense. >>

  Next, on the backside of the main mercenary oriented shops, I saw the business that sold us our upgraded weapons yesterday, Neu Ca?on Armory. And after that was a variety of boutique and bespoke mercenary stores. Finally, there were the main attractions, the large businesses, first stop BDwerks?.

  If I was being impartial, BDwerk’s flagship store was a glitzy, ostentatious, and overdone two stories of sprawling showrooms, modification shops and demonstration areas. Rosatom General Energy? was on the other extreme, unsurprisingly to everyone, was the tallest at three stories but minimalist with clean lines, austere even. Across the street, Under All Inc. ?, was two stories but its design was a blend of RGE’s and BDwerks?, right in the middle, neither flashy nor clean and refined.

  >>One might even say the compromise choice. *ahem* fine Big Fe, I will lay off RGE, you are right I do buy their products. >>

  Their store was a towering cube that was across the street from their similarly uninspired vehicle depot that I needed to head to after this. The vehicle shop was, of course, in corporate partnership with Toyota-Daimler-Bilaindand?.

  Passing under the giant sign that proclaimed, ‘BDwerks? Showroom’ in neon letters, I walked through the first set of sliding glass doors, through the man trap, and the second set of doors. Immediately after I stepped into the showroom I felt the cool air conditioning. It was already running in the morning, and I have to say, it felt amazing. PMU? has a magical environmental something-or-other on their buildings, and it kept them cool, but not the blast of arctic air that nuclear power and condensate coils could create. The showroom was spread over an entire city block. It was divided into weapons, body armor and gear, power armor and vehicles, drones and robot animals, and the last area in the back had long shooting alleys. You could try out all their weapons, if you had enough credit. Upstairs were the sales and management offices. Downstairs was the ‘mod’ clinic; cybernetic, Stim-Rider, and even crazier conversations were all available. Doctors and technicians offered a variety of procedures and modifications, some of which were even legal and aboveboard. They were ready to hack, cut and install, again if you had the credits. And the boys upstairs were happy to offer you a loan, if you didn’t have enough creds on you. I would laugh, but I was right there in debt to ‘em.

  I needed to check on the cybernetic order that Alexandria had submitted for me, and perhaps add to it, and then I wanted to check out the vehicles and drool over the power armor. I strode over to the counter and greeted the sales clerk. I told her we had an order in process and she proceeded to look it up and show me when it would be ready. It looks like Alexandria not only got a solid discount she had added several goodies as well. There were 5 sensor harnesses and force controllers, glad she caught that for the prototypes. She knew what she was doing, and I was grateful to see she was helping out. Given that I totally failed to find the raw mega materials I wanted, I doubled the number of cyborg armor we had on order. I was pretty sure I could repurpose the external armor to fill in the cracks and damage done to the suits of power armor my existing synths were using. Finally, I authorized the pending charges and started to browse the showroom.

  Guns weren’t really my thing even though they were a necessity of life. I looked at the melee weapons briefly thinking I wouldn't find anything of interest, and, boy, was I wrong. It seems like BDwerks? had already ‘cloned’ a UAI design for a war hammer. The spiked hammer wouldn't do much damage as is, but it was silver plated which would deal with ghosts, or so the rumors went. And it had a nano-mod that would do moderate damage when energized. But the kicker was the holes drilled in the face for shotgun rounds. Everyone on the prairie, err wasteland, was using the shotguns for knockdown and kinetic damage. This hammer would discharge the same shotgun round when you made solid contact with an adversary. I loved it, it was finicky, technical and the perfect weapon for someone like me. I could dream of a dozen variants I could design off the top. I was frankly glad to see BDwerks? steal the design from UAI, they were the first to design and develop the explosive shells anyway but we could do it better (or at least cheaper?). I added the hammer to the list and continued shopping. I saw several close quarters nano-chainsaws and thought the synths might use them for melee weapons, but I decided to wait for now.

  The power armor section was modest but impressive. I really got a kick out of the Sun’s Shadow power armor. It was a poor man’s knock off the premier power armor suit from UAI, the Emperor’s Assault PA. It was half as armored, with none of the upgrades, communications, countermeasures or proprietary powerful weaponry. It was, however, nostalgic, available, cheap-ish and less gaudy. The matte black finish helped the armor not stand out as a ‘kill me first’ sign, the ability to maneuver around the battlefield means you could shoot, and reposition, while not getting caught literally flat footed. I mean the Emperor’s Fist is a masterpiece that could destroy anything, but this was a solid reinterpretation, in my opinion. Also it was quite out of my budget at UC 12 million! The Chaparralito power suit was next. The long articulated legs provide movement, and the angled armor reduced direct damage, in theory. I wasn't sure what I thought of it still. It was quite a deal at half a million UC, and as the name suggests it was quite fast. It had limited armor, at best, no integral weapons, but it did boost reaction time incredibly well (for ‘ganic operators; my synths were plenty fast). I guess you cannot have everything, but I was still looking for options for the Infantry synths. I was decently happy with the Grasshopper for the scout synths.

  I drooled over the two Super Cheetah flying suits they had hanging from the ceiling as well. I was hoping to buy a few of those to see if the synths could pilot them, but all in good time. The Super Cheetah was a knock off, and perhaps superior version of the American Empire Warthog T-100 air superiority, loiter, and air-to-ground platform that my dad has designed. The AE Air Force and National Guard had used them to conquer, and reconquer most of North America. 4 rear mounted turbo jets allowed for VTOL and long range flight. Integrated plasma (thank you RGE) casters (one on each arm), and microjet rockets provided a well rounded weapons platform. The BDwerks? knock off was very similar with an added ECM and countermeasure package, so they would be less likely to be instantly killed on sight, for possessing an American Empire Air Force weapons platform clone.

  >>Take that circular logic eh, Big Fe, don't crash your reasoning functions on that one.>>

  If the fact that my dad was killed in one of them wasn't enough of a reminder, the entire wall facing me was full of the various mechs, pack mules, and pets that my dad had designed or had a hand in creating.From simple dog companions to large power armor suits looking like an armored (and armed) Tyrannosaurus Rex (the real one this time). He was the lead designer for many of the newer vehicle and power armor models. He was always in love with animals of all kinds, And luckily enough, he did get to build them for a living. Smugglers, even wealthy farmers and adventurers liked the reliability and durability of a robot but the looks of a scary monster or dinosaur. The products were a great seller from day one for BDwerks?.

  With a sigh I turned to look at the vehicle options. The Kombi-Max was too large even for this show room, but a virtual walk through was available at the kiosk. Everything from knock offs of Toyota-Daimler-Bilaindand (like the Kombi-Max), and Power Construction Corp? (like the multi-dozer), to the homegrown designs like the Roundabout pickup truck, Lootrunner buggy, Pixie enduro bike, and the unstoppable, and unstoppably ugly, all-terrain Frogman camper wagon.

  >>Güey, I needed to have a word with whatever Black Marketeer or PR drone comes up with these names, Fe.>>

  But I guess the fact that they sell means it doesn't really matter.

  While cheap enough to buy a new one, I was glad I had found salvage parts for the Roundabouts and should be able to get that truck moving again. I liked the other vehicles but I didn't think they brought anything new to the table. But my eye kept going back to the Enduro bike. I imagined riding a bike was a good first step to piloting aircraft? I could convince myself of that, it took more skill than driving a truck at least. Therefore If I bought them for the synths, for research, it would be justified right? With the low price tag of UC 30,000, I decided to buy five of them. I talked to the polite sales staff who were always milling, but never brave enough to approach me about getting a rush engine swap. I didn't like the messy flex fuel, I wanted electric power, all the way for the bikes. He said he would look into it, and that was that.

  I really wanted a K-9 companion ‘bot, it was smart for an auto-drone, could guard, track/ search, and was one of the first products BDwerks? has released from the animal line up. My dad had upgraded the personality matrix on the newer versions, he claimed it was far better than the first gen. But at UC 2.5 million, I could buy a lot of weapons, parts, and motorcycles for that much money. I was going to have to figure out my current toys before I got more, but dang it, waiting is hard. As soon as I make my combat line of infantry I will be making bank!

  I had decided I was done with BDwerks? and I made my way back to the sales clerks. I checked in with the nice cashier one more time and she rang up my total, an almost painless swipe of my subdermal credstick and I was on to the next store. I was glad I hadn’t seen Lauren around, but I doubt he would slum it on the sales floor all that often.

  I exited the showroom and walked past the New Telluride Freight, and Aether Courier Services stores. They were both owned by a couple in Colorado, and while I didn't need to ship much around the wastes, they were the lifeblood of the region and were the main reason we had the Maricopa Corridor at all. All of Neu Ca?on was appreciative of that.