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Cut Scene: Weldon Escapes

Weldon sat up and rubbed his shoulder through the synthetic plaid of his shirt.  "Ow" he mouthed, not actually speaking.  Stun batons hurt.

Weldon started a web search on AR for "Weldon Smith" while he grabbed at his right eye with his fingers.  Forcing back his eyelids, he grasped his eyeball directly.  There was a wet squelch as he gave it a tug and it was extricated from its bio home.

It looked like a normal green eye except for a set of ten or so shiny gold leads poking ever so slightly out of the back and the slight tint of blue in the gel that hung to the back of it. He closed his empty eye socket, keeping his other eye open to identify the center pin.  He pressed it firmly and set the eye onto the floor.  A new node flipped open on his AR PAN status.  He held his nose at the tip for moment, adjusting to the pungent smell of sterile artificial joint lubricant, aka "blue smooth".

He tasked it with a simple command to "free me".  Pieces of the eye came apart and suddenly it had legs, arms, and other appendages.  It used suction feet to climb the smooth walls and then clamped onto the small antenna.

Weldon leaned back against the wall, fighting the unconscious urge to paw at his empty eye socket.  His hands lay propped on synthetic natural-feeling fiber jeans in classic blue.  AR popped up a map.  There was a public address for "Weldon Smith".  He recorded the location and saved the map for later.

He stood up.  The eyeball-like insectoid dropped onto his shoulder and climbed back into position, waiting for him.  He used both hands, one from below and one over his head to pull the eye socket open again.  The eyeball gently pushed itself back into place with another small squish.  There was a barely audible click as the appendages closed back into storage.

The cell started to move along various tracks until a new wall appeared.  A young man with an overzealous shave and greased perfect hair spoke through a view screen:  "Mister Weldon Smith, you are being released.  It appears there was some mistake in your detainment.  Once you pay a 20 nuyen processing fee, you are free to go."

Weldon didn't move.

"You payment has been approved."

The cell moved again and without warning he found himself dumped out onto the sidewalk.  He stood up, brushed off the dirt from the concrete, and started walking.  The map from earlier was tracking his movement  and he moved.

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