Vor followed the expensive arm out of the Snake Pit.
It belonged to a man called Mads. Vor knew him from years ago, before either of them had learned what a body was worth in separate pieces. Once, Mads had dragged him out of a fight and held a coat against his wound until a Doc arrived. Vor remembered it clearly. He also knew the model of Mads’s arm and what Jack would pay for it.
He waited until Mads turned into an alley where the club’s music became a dull thud, pounding the walls. Then he flicked open his knife. Mads heard the click and instantly spun around, steel fists clenched, ready for a fight.
Then he paused. He thought he recognised the man beneath the hood. For a brief moment, his lips began to form a smile. He even started to say Vor’s name.
This pause was all Vor needed. He struck hard and fast.
The fight was short. Mads had bought an arm with fast reflexes, but the rest of him was tired, old and outdated. When it was over, Vor crouched beside him and took out his tools. He worked quickly. The city had taught him that much: wait too long in a dark alley and you become a target just like all the rest. Somebody else would take the valuable part.
Mads was still conscious. He stuttered through a disconnected steel jaw, “You know me.”
“Yeah,” Vor said without pausing. He could remember the weight of that coat against his old wound, Mads telling him to stay conscious, the blood-soaked pavement under his cheek.
He tightened his grip on the tool and finished.
“Fuck this shit world,” said Mads, tears formed in his eyes, as his body twitched and glitched, blood and oil streamed from his shoulder where the arm had been just a few moments before.
Vor left Mads alive, just, although for how long would depend on him getting to a Doc fast. He had also taken his credits. Sympathy, empathy, emotions—these things no longer troubled Vor. He had died inside many years ago.
Back at the surgery Jack checked the arm under the lights and flicked away a few lingering strips of bloody tissue. One connector was damaged, so he lowered his offer. Vor argued, but took the money and faded back out into the rainy streets.
Later, he passed the alley where he had left Mads. The body was gone. Some Rippers were not as fussy as he was and would scavenge anything they could get, no matter how cheap the parts.