Liquid Cool (Liquid Cool, Book 1) by Austin Dragon

Author:Austin Dragon
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: cyberpunk detective, sci-fi detective private investigator, best detective series, cyberpunk thriller, cyberpunk mysteries, cyberpunk, top 10 science fiction books
Publisher: Well-Tailored Books
Published: 2016-02-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 36

Just Me

THE REVIEW FROM THE Corporate Guy was like gold in getting in front of other people in the corporate world. I had PJ print a ton of intro cards with their reviews prominently displayed on the back. None of them cared about me or my credentials. All that mattered was that I was referred by a fellow corporatist. The review for the Government Guy had the same effect within government circles. I wanted to make sure I established myself as a generalist detective, right from the start. The Guy Who Scratched My Vehicle and family were the icing on the cake in telling people I worked for the Average Joe too. I had the business trifecta—corporate, government, and the people.

Clients were fine, but in the end, could they pay me?

When I called PJ into my office, she had her normal Punch Judy swagger that said "whatcha want?" like I often did when I was in my moods. After I tossed her a wad of bills—her bionic hand made sure not to drop it—she couldn't stop smiling.

"How do you know what secretaries earn in salary?"

"I looked it up on the Net."

"Are you paying me below market or above market?"

"Above market. Liquid Cool is a classy joint with a reputation."

She stuffed the wad of cash into her bra. I had told Phishy women don't do that in real life.

"I really didn't need to see that," I said.

The rest of the day would be her telling me, or talking to herself—I couldn't tell which, about all the shoes and new dresses and jewelry she was going to buy with her first official paycheck.

For me, I sat behind my desk, leaning back in the chair with my feet on my desk and hands interlaced, cradling the back of my head. I wasn't playing detective; I was one. I had an office, one employee, slick weapons, the business cards to prove I was real, and clients that paid me with checks that didn't bounce. As the saying went, Life was good, and even I had a hard time suppressing a smile.

But Wilford G.'s How to be a Great Detective with 100 Rules warned me. "The quickest way to go from being a working private eye to being a dead one was being content. Contentment was the devil. It makes you stupid and slow. If you caught yourself smiling, slap yourself. If you're feeling good, get off your butt and go get another client, because you clearly have too much free time. Never forget that the working detective is an endangered species. A wide variety of punks want to do bodily violence to you. They want to put you in the morgue meat market. You want contentment? Go be a monk on Xanadu Pleasure Colony. You want to be a working detective, never smile. There're a lot of grinning dead detectives in the morgue. Keep your hand on the trigger of your favorite piece, and your head always in the game. Be the hero, even if it hurts.

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