<div class="floatright">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/5/5c/SwitchSmall.jpg)<br/>Switch (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EW7kMex5ArfjHNlqslE-TGlRPPr5fcQ_kDeSBKkktvY)<br/></div><br/>Mr Fitzwilliam listened patiently to Rave's speech, then allowed her to depart without further comment. He climbed into the limousine, along with his guards, and they drove away. The pigeon remained in the car park, pecking at the ground for scraps. If Alicia saw the wave, there was no sign of it from behind the tinted windows.<br/><br/>Switch put her arms around Rave and squeezed her tightly. "You're a brave girl, Rave," she said, kissing her forehead. "It takes a lot of balls for the likes of us to say what needs to be said to the likes of him. You can borrow mine anytime, b-t-w."<br/><br/>Back in the apartment, Jefferson had heated up some soy cakes for a late-night snack. They'd shared a meal with Alicia between bouts of lovemaking, but Switch, at least, was still edgy, and thus still hungry. She sat up in bed and munched on the cakes, with the blanket over her legs.<br/><br/>At about 5 a.m., a video call came in from the Boss. Switch projected the video up against the bedroom wall, letting the room's own sensors provide the return feed.<br/><br/>"Good work tonight,<em>bambine</em>," he greeted them. The Boss was at his desk in his headquarters, and seemed to be taking a quick break from a number of other people wanting his attention on the Matrix. "Right now, I couldn't be happier with you both.<br/><br/>"First things first - you found Alicia and brought her home unmolested. Except by you two, anyway," he added, flashing up a video of Alicia sucking Switch's cock in the shower. "That's not a problem, by the way - if her father had wanted you to turn down her obviously willing advances, he should have paid extra for the privilege.<br/><br/>"Nice work with that vampire, Rave. If he'd gotten his fangs into her, that would have left a mark on her soul that nothing short of millions of nuyen worth of genetic therapy would have fixed. If she even left alive." He put his feet up on his desk and lit a cigar.<br/><br/>"So you've earned your pay for this job. Six thousand nuyen each. I'm transferring it to your accounts now." He flicked his fingers, and Rave received a pop-up message from her Mafia accounting system, registering the money. "And like I said, I'm impressed. I'll keep this in mind when I'm handing out work next time."<br/><br/>He pulled up a few more AROs and leafed through them. "I've got a message from Fitzwilliam saying that he got his daughter home safe. And he wants to retain your services as bodyguards for any time Alicia wants to step outside her corporate bubble. It's easy money for me and for you, so I agreed to it." He frowned at the ARO. "He also said he's sending you a bonus, and you should open your window to get it. No idea what that's about."<br/><br/>He took a long drag on his cigar, then sat up straight. "Now, here's where it gets interesting. That vampire was an independent operator. He wasn't paying protection to me or any other syndicate or gang. That means that brothel he was running is mine now. I mean, I gotta pay to lease it from its actual owner, but it's part of a Wuxing real estate portfolio that no actual metahuman being cares about. The Pawns aren't interested in it either, so that's good.<br/><br/>"Now, I know you both talked to some of the girls who 'worked' there. Plenty of them have places to go, but a whole lot of them don't. So this is what we call an op-or-too-ni-tea. That brothel has plenty of regular patrons already, so that's existing customers. I'm gonna put one of my up-and-coming admins in there, bring in a few more girls and turn a nice profit from it."<br/><br/>The Boss gestured at Rave and Switch with his cigar. "So that's where you two come in. The place is gonna need security, and some people who can relate to the girls, now that we're not keeping them in line with threats of being eaten. So what I'm thinking is, you two move into the top floor, the one with the office and everything. Help run the place and keep everyone happy. Rave, you can do something about the... magic... stuff... bad vibes... thing. Switch, you know how whoring works, you can help out a lot.<br/><br/>"What do you think? You've proven that you're worth a lot more than a cage dancer and a street whore. Consider this a promotion."<br/><br/>He flicked some ash from his cigar and watched the two girls, to see what they thought of the proposal.