She might have laughed at the android if not for the worried look on the shopkeep’s face.  Not that she felt badly about frying its programme, in fact she was quite pleased with her handiwork, albeit at Gil’s suspense.  Joey did, however, try to keep the gadget away when he snatched it out of her palms, but it didn’t seem to pose much of a challenge for him to obtain it.  Now it was her turn to set her brows tight and frown at the man, an accusing glare aimed up at his equally suspicious gaze.  He pulled off the ‘imposing’ look quite well, she noted, but she had a volt gun on her person, so it would take more than an angry look to really intimidate her.  After a couple of unsuccessful attempts to reclaim her prize, she finally settled to cross her arms and lean back into the sales rack, focusing her thirsty eye on the HexTech still in his possession.  She dialed the Voxel to the inactive position, uncertain if it actually functioned after the pulse.<br/><br/>“If I didn’t, would you even have known<span style="font-style: italic">that thing</span>was a part of your inventory?” she indicated the HexTech with a curt nod.  “Look, I dunno if you’re some kind of black market fence or if you’re just plain daft, but I think you can do better than four thousand.”  She pushed away from the shelf and returned to the counter, lifting the satchel by one of the faded leather straps.  She plucked the cores from inside, cushioned quite nicely by the surrounding cash and unharmed by her previous abuse.<br/><br/>“You seem to know a lot more about biotic implants than you let on, so I<span style="font-style: italic">know</span>you know the real value of these things,” she turned it over in her hand as if to demonstrate.  The status LED was still a bright, healthy green colour, which indicated it was unaffected by HexTech.  In reality, a lot of biotic implants were built to resist it after the advent of disruptive technology, but it was common knowledge that any augment with the tag “Pulse-proofed” would drain the bank quicker than a sick baby could soil a brand new nappy.  Joey knew it was only a matter of time before the next technological threat surfaced and would up the prices again for yet another resistance mechanism.  That’s how it always went.<br/><br/>She ought to have simply left it, she argued with herself.  Someone who deals with Mar wasn’t anyone she wanted to associate with.  If she weren’t desperate, she might have gone to pawn it at the usual spot.  What the hell was she thinking?  Earlier, she was close to settling, but she knew now that his original offer was intentionally short, and she knew she had to challenge it.  In all honesty, she was curious, but Joey knew it was best not to dig too deeply for answers lest you get tunneled in with no Plan B to fall back on.  Since Plan B was not in her pockets most days, she was going to do what needed to be done.  Time wouldn’t allow her much room for options.