"Have a Heart"

His target’s body had yet to settle on the sidewalk and the Kiro® Speed Chip transistors registered the slight relaxation in his brain signature and turned off, but still the adrenaline rush flooded every cell of his body. His face was stone as he looked down at his chest. The hole at the spot of his heart told a cautionary tale of hunting without body armor. Eddie twisted his arm behind his back. He felt the nine millimeter hole in his jacket. A clean through shot, he thought with slight relief.

Eddie returned his arm forward and read the vital signs glowing from under the skin of his wrist. The bio monitor implant flashed frantically in warning.

Eddie knew what it was telling him even without reading the message, “Call Dr. Sabini!” Without warning his bio audio connections sang the tonal phone code of Dr. Sabini, PhD, Psychiatrist.

“Eddie,” said the doctor after answered the call on the second ring. “How are you?” His voice was calm, almost whispering. A technique used to calm patients on edge.

“I’m hit,” said Eddie. “Right where my heart should be.”

“Are you in danger of death?” Asked the doctor.

Eddie glance at the hole. The DermalSeal® had already closed over. A fatal shot to any normal male, but Eddie had his heart replaced years ago. Now each ventricle resided in a different location in his torso. A shielded microprocessor regulated and synchronized the electrical twitch that acted as a heart beat.

Eddie took another look at his bio monitor. The device had registered the phone number dialed. It now displayed graphs and stats comparing Eddie’s current state with that of his normal vital signs. “No.”

“Eddie,” said Dr. Sabini, “I want you to immediately visit a good place. The place we speak of regularly is ideal. Only afterwards do I want you to seek medical aid.” Eddie gave a nod and looked at his wrist, the heart rate had dropped, the beta waves were still registered as “Agitated”.

Eddie concluded the doctor was right. He pulled from his pocket inside his leather trench coat four sheets of plasti-paper. From an exterior pocket he produced a staple gun. Bystanders could hear the crunch and pop of the staple gun as it fastened the Australian Certificates of Arrest to each of the perps foreheads.

The pain in his chest was all but nonexistent thanks to his natural and artificial endorphins released by the pain nullifying cyber device residing beside his pituitary gland.

Eddie looked up as the police beat officer cautiously approached him and his three victims. Eddie slowly held up the fourth A3 sized document.

The cop snatched the sheet from Eddie with one hand as the other holding the gun trembled slightly. Officer Roger’s had heard of the Eddies, but never knew anyone that had seen one.

The level of body mod and cyber implants Eddie’s underwent to achieve their ideal self was unbelievable. The ultra lean, muscular body was reinforced with an implanted, powered exoskeleton that gleamed gold from the titanium alloy. His flesh was paler than a cadaver and near transparently thin. A side effect of nano agents that maintained the cyber linkages.

Of which there are many, thought Officer Rogers. Rogers looked at the document. It was written in Cantonese.

“How about one in American?” Asked Rogers with usual police snark.

Eddie reached out and touched an upper corner of the sheet which reminded Rogers of a thin, clear document cover. The Real Paper® flashed colors as it scrolled through multiple languages before stopping on English.

The text was British in nature noted the officer, but he could read it just fine. After a minute, Officer Rogers handed the document back to the bounty hunter.

“I have to go,” said Eddie as he stood. The officer’s eyes widened as he watch Eddie rise to nearly seven feet in height. The cop nodded understanding and Eddie turned and walked to a full sized silver van. Rogers sized up the three wanted dead contracts on the ground. Chrome arms with illegally built in punch daggers and designer body armor proved inadequate for their final fight.

Blessedly, traffic was sparse allowing Eddie to speedily make it to the dirty industrial park his friends called home. As he pulled into the open bay doors, he halted and exited the van. He looked around. Cyber optics scanned the thermal range. A spot of yellow caused him to snear a smiled.

“Jax,’ said Eddie sending the name echoing in the warehouse. The thermal image flared red as the teenage girl stood from behind the blue oil drum.

“It’s Eddie,” said Jax and the other members of the Globe ‘Trodders emerged from hiding.

Eddie turned over his wrist and looked at the bio monitor. His stress graph showed a noticeable drop. Looking up, Eddie spotted a chubby stranger reluctantly moving toward him from behind everyone else.

"Who's this," asked Eddie.

Jax smiled and raised her arms to present their guest. "This," said Jax, "is Digits."

(CREDIT) P. Benjamin