“What was that all about, in the restaurant? How come you ran?” “ ’Cause, if I’d stayed, I might have killed Riviera.” “Why?” “What he did to me. The show.” “I don’t get it.” “This cost a lot,” she said, extending her right hand as though it held an invisible fruit. The five blades slid out, then retracted smoothly. “Costs to go to Chiba, costs to get the surgery, costs to have them jack your nervous system up so you’ll have the reflexes to go with the gear. . . . You know how I got the money, when I was starting out? Here. Not here, but a place like it, in the Sprawl. Joke, to start with,
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