After an emergency overnight shift, Padraic opened the door to his apartment and found his cousin inside, looking over the plans on his desk and murmuring softly to himself."This looks good, Padraic,” Arch said finally. “You been working on this long?"Padraic blinked at him."Off and on,” he said vaguely.Arch traced a finger over the schematics, following the long and graceful lines of the monofilament strands as they looped a path from an interface jack in the chest up through the neck to snug directly into the brain."Neural netting at its best,” Arch said happily, and despite his exhaustion, Padraic felt a swelling of pride. Arch was a courier, and he saw some of the best tech up close and personal every day. Padraic spent his time working in the lower echelons of an anonymous hardware developer, and he had been lucky to scrape together enough money to fund his current project."Got a buyer yet?” Arch asked casually, and Padraic could only laugh, touching the still-raw implants in his chest gingerly."I've only had it in for a week or so.
