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Back at my place, I opened the baggy. The ripper had the courtesy to clean up the heart before delivering it - it was a translucent torus about the size of a 5 gram coin. There was no logo on it, meaning it was custom made, but I expected that. I was tempted to try hooking it up to a terminal to see if there was anything hidden on it that might explain it's apparent value, but resisted - I'm not that greedy.
I called Ellis. He wanted to meet me at a barn hidden underground near Duncan, which is about 30 minutes from where I live. I told him I would be there at 19 o'clock, and made it around 18 - I had bad vibes and wanted to make sure I wasn't walking into an ambush. The lock on the hatch was an old one, and the alarm system was easily defeated. I made sure there were nothing fishy, no spysprays on the walls, no weapons stashed for future use. After my paranoia was eased, I locked things back up and left, stayed in a holding pattern for 45 minutes before returning.
A sleek black luxury car was parked near the hidden hatch. My car's sensors showed that the vents were still warm and there was nobody hiding in it. He must have just got there. I landed my car next to his and walked to the hatch. Pulling the camo sheet away, I saw the hatch was ajar. I descended into the darkness.
Ellis was standing across the barn from the ladder, about ten meters away. He seemed much more nervous than usual, he had an obvious anxiety that was contagious. We went through the preliminaries - he deep-radared me, I did the same. Neither of us was carrying a weapon. After that was established I walked over to him.
"Lets see the silver" I said, adjusting my DR scanner so it could verify the quality.
"I have it right over there" he replied, gesturing towards the looming mass of one of the cattle. He started to walk towards the beast, which was shuddering with the ecstasy that trickled into it's brain through the wire implanted at birth. My attention was diverted - I did not hear his companion until he was right behind me. I turned.
Before me was two meters and over a hundred kilos of unnatural muscle. "What's going on Ellis? One seller, one buyer, I've followed that rule since before you were a glint in your Daddy's eye."
Ellis stood there looking sheepish, but his companion spoke. "Sorry Hector, but there is no buying going on tonight. Only taking." He stepped towards me. "Give me the heart and we will make this easy."
The brute was unarmed, but that didn't matter much since I was too. I am no slouch at unarmed combat, but this guy probably massed twice what I did, and moved like he was wired. Most of my nervous system was factory original. It was time to salvage what I could.
"It's in my car. You'll need me to get into it." The second part of that was true, I have had the help of many thieves in designing my custom security system.
"Well, let's go get it" the tall guy said. I nodded, and turned back towards the ladder. As I walked by one of the cattle, I said "Ellis, I have never understood why you go through the expense of wiring the cows. What's the point?"
"You generally get a lighter sentence if you can prove you haven't killed any and they have led happy lives. We do it just in case."
"So, they don't feel any pain, eh?" I turned to face the open side of one of the cattle, where some meat had recently been harvested - the skin had not regenerated yet, the ribs were still exposed. I stuck my hand into the quivering warmth. Ellis laughed.
My hand tingled as my fingers made contact with the scaled feedback surface of my needler. I gave it a moment to allow the feedback loop to establish with my spinal implants, and pulled the gun free. I swung it around, and it coughed twice the moment it was pointed at human flesh. The side of Ellis' friend's head disintegrated as a cloud of crystal iron shards passed through it. He dropped to the ground, twitching like the orgasmic cows around him. I willed the gun to cease fire and aimed it at Ellis as the cow's fluids dropped from the frictionless barrel.
"There really is no money?" I asked Ellis. He looked like he was about to wet his pants.
"I have a few grams on me, you can have them. Please don't kill me."
"I'm not going to kill you, and you can keep your money." I emptied the gun into the earthen floor and dropped it. "If I see you again Ellis, you won't be so lucky." I headed for the ladder.
"What am I going to do with him?" he whined as I walked away.
"I don't know, but you better figure something out. I bought that gun from you a few months ago, and I'm wearing your fingerprints." I paused, looked around. "You kids are so unresourceful these days. You have the perfect means of disposing of a body right here." I gestured at a meat processing unit.
Ellis was crying. "Granddads buyers always gene-test the meat!"
"Eat it yourself" I replied, and climbed up the ladder.
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