The messages erupted across all of Danival's augmented senses. Xiao Lin was pinging on every platform they shared. Somehow, Xiao Lin already knew. Danival had left a readout unlocked. Or a shared inbox was linked to this final account overdraft. The credit limit he pushed like a rubber band finally snapped. Danival readied himself for sacrifice. A samurai's blade biting his pale, shiny belly. His friend prepared to deliver the decapitation as he floundered his own evisceration. Danival gifted himself a moment to ingest a long, final stream of noodle broth.

Danival unwrapped his readout and read:

YELDE’S DEAD YELDE’S DEAD YELDE’S DEAD…

Broth almost shot out Danival’s nose. Xiao Lin was the type of person who would jump to horrible imaginations if he didn’t hear back from a friend for a few days. Sometimes he was right. This was excessive.

Danival tapped his earring to bring up Xiao Lin’s contact. He put a chopstick between his teeth. It took one beep for Xiao to pick up.

“Oh man. This is not good, Val. Oh man.”

Xiao wouldn’t stop saying “oh man,” so Danival switched to video.

Xiao Lin was shirtless. He held his hair in a knot with one hand. Boogers were smeared across his nose. Puffy bags under his red, dry eyes. Danival gnawed his chopstick into loose splinters between his teeth. This image of his friend was unsettling. The news was disturbing but unconfirmed. Danival felt a sliver of relief. Xiao Lin didn’t know about the processing gig. The sliver closed up as quickly as it had opened. He pictured himself tied down by Carlos’ men. They held his foot out to remove toenails. Carlos Wen sat there for the whole thing. Danival had always imagined Carlos Wen as one of those smooth nerds who wore suit jackets and bracelets. Found a way to skim some extra dollars from a job that didn’t pay him enough. Now, Danival pictured Carlos as a guy who never wore a shirt because his body was covered in tattoos. A mean line of glowing cybernetics up his spine. The kind of body that could bench press Danival.

“We’re so screwed, Val.” Xiao Lin stammered out. “Yelde had the firmware hack for the pumps. She was going to give it to me at Dragão Laranja in a few hours.” Xiao Lin trailed off at the end. He could only breathe in serrated gasps.

“I’ve seen Yelde get up after getting hit by a bus and laugh it off. There’s no way she’s dead.” Danival tried to say but couldn’t interrupt.

“Carlos Wen isn’t going to sell to us if we don’t come with empty pumps. Oh man. He’s gonna blame us for that much product lying around. It’s a liability! Oh man. He’s going to say we’re causing a liability.” Xiao Lin began muttering about insurance.

“Xiao! You’re overreacting! It’s probably a glitch. I just had a–” Danival caught himself. Xiao Lin didn’t notice.

“I got her Deceased And Assist ping, Val. She’s been dead for hours.” Xiao Lin began crying again and repeating “oh man oh man.” Deceased And Assist was a subscription service required by some opportunities Xiao Lin would meander his way into while hanging out at the Dragão Laranja Teahouse. A small implant was able to track multiple vital signs and send an alert if the carrier flatlined for a predetermined threshold. Danival considered getting one when he started processing at Recursos Organic Tecnológica Corporation because they offered a slight bonus for anyone who signed up for the service. He didn’t go through with it because his sister wouldn’t confirm being on his recipient list, and he didn’t trust any of his other friends enough. Turned out Yelde wasn’t a subscriber either. She hacked the system to show Danival and listed Xiao Lin as the contact. After years, they had all forgotten about it, and Xiao ignored any job that listed the subscription as a requirement.

Danival made the shape with his mouth to say, “Oh,” but didn’t say anything. He was annoyed the last time he saw her. Everyone kept trying to make him take shots. He couldn’t convince them that following the ROTCo protocol would make for a better payout. He snuck out without anyone noticing. He never said “bye” to Yelde.

So this is where Danival’s string of bad luck ended with no more yarn to pull. Ironic that Xiao Lin was going to meet Yelde at the teahouse. It’s where you could go to get the unmodified news and seedy gossip of the city. Xiao Lin sucked it up like a mosquito. Xiao introduced Danival to Yelde there. When they first met, Danival enjoyed how excited she was about the world. Even when she started to talk about simulations and galactic cheat codes, he listened without following. They became and stayed friends. She introduced them to the insulin pumps. Xiao Lin spent over a year collecting them, waiting for the right elements to align. He convinced anyone he knew to hang on to a box of pumps and promised them a payout. “It’s a startup!” He said. More people in the city knew about his insulin boxes than his actual face. When the auspicious threads finally became a tapestry, it was as if the plan was so bad Yelde died to save herself from watching the trainwreck. Now they were toast.

Unless. Danival thought. “Unless.”

That was it. Nothing else followed.

A grand plan didn’t materialize in front of him. Everything had gone completely wrong today. He realized it would keep getting worse. He resigned himself to a “So what,” and even if Yelde was dead, which he still doubted, she wouldn’t want them mourning her by crying into a bowl of noodles. Danival dropped the remaining half chopstick into his bowl. It was going to get worse and he had nothing more to lose. He placed his face in his hands. He pulled at his skin.

He saw an image. The front door of someone’s home. A boring, brown doormat. He had to get inside. He was feeding a cat? The yellow doll sat next to the doormat. It was heavy in his hands. When he lifted it, he found the front door key underneath.

Danival unplugged the tube from the attachment in his arm. Blue liquid dribbled as he slid the port shut. “Thanks, Ji!” He yelled as he headed towards the closest metro stop. “Xiao Lin, you still have Yelde’s apartment code, right?”

“Huh?” Xiao Lin sucked boogers up his nose. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, it’s over here.” Danival could see Xiao scrolling on his readout.

“Let’s break in and see if we can find the hack. She was supposed to give it to you today, right?” Danival imagined it sitting on her kitchen counter next to a sticky note that would say “For XL.”

Danival could hear Xiao Lin sniff and mutter an agreement, then blow his nose and start to move. “Yeah, Danival. Good idea. I’ll meet you there.”