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Sunlight streamed through the busy cafe, cast over the line of people tapping impatiently at pocket secretaries or already seated and chatting. Just past the light, around a harsh shadow, two figures sat and feigned idle conversation while watching the other patrons. The location was more obvious than most, but this also wasn’t necessarily a meeting to discuss business, as Adam found out after agreeing.
Alex sat across from him, sipping something that sounded like it had too much sugar to be called coffee and chatting about some strange lead she’d been keeping an eye on. Adam half listened. Complaining about the location more than once wouldn’t change anything but it kept him on edge, gaze following everyone that entered. Until cybernetic eyes fell to his own hand resting on the table, loosely holding a cheap plastic cup similar to Alex’s. A good chunk of polycarbonate was missing from the back of his wrist, leaving wires exposed and the yellow warning sign in his vision was so commonplace by now that he almost forgot about it. It was harder to ignore the mild jolt from his pain sensors every time he moved his hand wrong.
But he was being too obvious, Alex noticed.
“Fuck - you still haven’t gotten that fixed? Your hand is gonna fall off at this rate, Jensen,” she commented, leaning closer. “What, Miller doesn’t have any specialists at the base?”
Adam frowned and lifted his hand up, twisting it to look at the damage. “They do. But I don’t like them.” Last time he’d gotten his augs repaired the technicians were cold, too quiet about what they were doing. The looks he got made him feel like a frog being cut open by high schoolers; like he was something disgusting that, unfortunately, had to be dealt with. “None of them are augmented and it’s frustrating to try and talk to someone walking on eggshells around you.”
His companion nodded, leaning her chin against the back of her hand as she replied, “Yeah, I’ve had that problem.” A pause, before her expression lit up with an idea and a wry smile followed. “But I fixed that problem, and I think I can fix yours too. Right here in Prague.”
---
From that point on in the conversation her descriptions turned increasingly vague, despite her insistence that: it’s not bad! I just want it to be a surprise. Trust me, you’ll love him. Eventually, she left him with an address that— to his surprise— happened to be just down the street from his own apartment. If her guy turned out to be any good, having him so close would be a rare stroke of luck for the ex-cop.
The building in front of him stood as unassuming as every other and a sign with old-fashioned lettering hung over the double doors reading “THE TIME MACHINE”, signaling he was in the right place. Made sense. she said the front was an antique store. What he didn't expect was pushing through the entrance to find not just old treasures, but books, specifically — towering shelves of god knew how many titles crammed between old-style architecture sprawling in front of him. As soon as he set foot inside, the polluted air outside gave way to dust so thick he could see as it floated through every sunbeam streaming in.
Home to a mechanic or not, it was the kind of place he'd be content to lose himself in for an entire day.
The sight required several moments to process before Adam turned his attention to locating the front desk. By the time he spotted it against the far wall, he was met with a woman who had already taken notice of him and watched with a wary look. Also not surprising. Alex had mentioned the word “underground” more than once during their conversation and he would expect the group to be cautious of someone with the head to toe appearance of an undercover cop walking through their door.
But, he wasn't here to make the staff nervous. While making his way to the desk he retracted his shades, tried to soften his posture as much as he could before speaking to her. “Hey, mind telling me where I can find a guy named Václav Koller? A friend gave me a recommendation.” He held up his damaged arm as he spoke, nodding in its direction.
This didn't seem to put the woman at ease and she studied him further. Finally, her reply came as question back at him, “Mind me asking who your friend is, bud?”
“Alex.”
“Oh, thank god.” This time her shoulders dropped, tense edge leaving her expression. Now she even leaned closer to expect his arm, giving him a view of the lower, augmented portion of her own arm. “Damn - those are Sarif augs, aren't they? Doc’s gonna lose his shit when he meets you. He’s a huge fanboy.”
Adam quirked a brow. “I take it I get to meet him?”
“Yeah, yeah, I'll tell him you're coming. His office is on the left upstairs.”
She waved him away after that, and as he moved toward the staircase he could hear one end of a conversation fading behind him, catching enough to make out, “Hey, come out of your dungeon, I'm sending a pretty boy with pretty augs up-”
The comment was pushed to the back of his mind.
On the second floor, he found his way with ease, his minimal Czech being enough to make out a sign that pointed down the hall towards the manager's office. A section of books before the door caught his eye for a moment and he lingered on passing titles - some in English and flashing spines he recognized - only to be brought back to attention by a long whistle.
The manager's office stood open and in the doorway, a man younger than him moved through it with a look of glee not quite obscured by the mess of curly hair falling over his face. Adam was more distracted by his outfit, though: a worn and torn lab coat with a missing sleeve that revealed partially and fully augmented arms. The half-arm caught his eye with an obvious home paint job, and— oddly enough— fingers missing. All in all the man he took to be Václav Koller didn't strike him as a doctor in any sense. But, if Alex trusted him, he was worth a shot.
“ Fuck. man , she wasn't kidding!” Rather than introduce himself, the mechanic moved in a beeline to stop in front of Adam, taking his hand as though it wasn't attached to anyone and turning it over. He tempered himself and resisted the urge to snatch his arm away. “Sarif augs - high end models - no, fuck, are these custom ? Holy shit! I mean, I've never seen his work in person anyway, but this -”
“I take it you're Koller?” Adam cut him off, and to his relief, derailed that train of thought enough for the man to let go of him.
He flashed an apologetic smile, before putting a step between the two of them. “Yes! My apologies, Václav Koller, at your service, mister…?”
“Jensen. Adam.”
“Jensen! Great to meet you. Come on in, yeah? You caught me at a great time.” Koller gestured for Adam to follow him into the office, a room equally spacious and decorated with shelves of books. He expected them to stop at the desk but instead was led past it, towards the back of the room. “I take it you need some work on those nice shiny arms? That we do down here -” he moved something out of Adam's view and the apparently false wall slid aside with the groan of older mechanisms, revealing another small room with an elevator at the far end. “Looks a little spooky, but don't be shy.”
“Seems like you took the ‘underground specialist’ title a bit literally,” Adam commented dryly, scanning over the display cases full of early models for augmented arms. It didn’t take an architect to figure that there wasn’t any more room in the building to go up, and he was doubtful this would go back to the main floor.
A chuckle rattled out from Koller as he hit the button and doors parted in front of them. “Man, you don’t even know.”
The doors closed behind them and with a small lurch the elevator began its descent. Even now, as they waited, he could feel eager eyes on him and they drew Adam to meet the mechanic's gaze with a quirked brow. After a beat he realized Koller wasn’t studying his face, rather the protruding pieces of his eye-shield, and as though on cue to confirm his thoughts Koller asked, “Those - next to your eyes, what are those?”
With a motion all but invisible he triggered the mechanism to extend frameless shades out from the augs, to the delight of the other man.
“ Sunglasses ? Holy shit , that’s so fucking cool! Fuck, were you a model for Sarif, or something? How come I never saw you in any of the ads?” He shot off questions faster than Adam could answer and he opted to ignore them as the doors opened again, offering him an easy out for that conversation.
At a glance, it looked like they were standing in a sewer more than any kind of clinic. They were met with cement walls painted with graffiti peeking out around the corners as Koller led him inside. Off to the side of the oddly-shaped basement, a brightly-lit and better-maintained room - if it could be called as much - stood with shelves of medical supplies and a centerpiece operating chair. The space bathed in clinical white light stood out against the grim of the halls surrounding it, decorated with trash and leftover grime that led Adam to realize his judgement hadn’t been a hyperbole. They were literally standing in a repurposed sewer. If that alone didn’t give him pause, the sight of arms reaching out of the darkness above them was enough to falter the ex-cop. Koller must have noticed this reluctance as he paused in his stride and flashed another apologetic look back at Adam.
“Not exactly a five star clinic, I know. But you work with what you got! And I promise: the looks are deceiving. I’m nothing if not professional, Jensen. You’re in the best hands in Prague,” he assured, holding up his own augmented hands for emphasis.
He reminded himself that Alex trusted Koller and while her own personal motivations and ethics may be up in the air, he couldn’t knock her taste thus far. So, he shrugged and nodded towards the chair further into the room, replying, “Guess we’ll find out.”
Koller beamed at him once more before scurrying ahead to start rifling through drawers, muttering to himself about tools, special ordering Sarif parts, and in a lower tone reflecting that it wouldn’t be cheap. Everything about him was animated to a degree that almost seemed cartoonish: moving with grand gestures when he spoke and even when darting around the workspace looking for supplies. A stark difference with what he expected from most anyone he was sent to meet, and from himself.
“Take a seat! Set your coat wherever and let’s get a good look at those augs, yeah?” As fast as Adam could pull his coat off and settle into the operating chair, Koller was at his side.
From this close he could get a better look at the augs the “best hands in Prague” had on him. For one, they weren't Tai Young work, and definitely not Sarif models, nor any other smaller, specialized brand that had quickly fell in the wake of the incident. They were custom built without a doubt - although custom “cobbled” may have been a better descriptor. Upon closer inspection, it was clear the hand he’d noticed earlier wasn’t just missing fingers, but what purpose the replacement mechanism served wasn’t clear as he didn’t hold still long enough for that amount of examination. Instead, he was focused on the clear issue with Adam’s own hand and wrist, careful as he picked up and examined the damaged material.
“I’m guessing a model doesn’t get himself into enough trouble to break shit like this, eh?” Koller commented after a moment of looking over the exposed wiring. He leaned back then on the stood he’d pulled over, busying himself with smaller tools on the tray next to them. “You Alex’s coworker, then? In the Collective?”
Mention of Alex didn’t surprise him but the fact that Koller knew who she worked with raised his brows. “Yeah, one of my jobs. Work for Interpol, too.”
The mechanic was already setting to work pulling and carefully connecting wires. Uncertainty clung to Adam up to that point, but if nothing else, it seemed like the younger man knew what he was doing. Despite appearances.
“Big time spy guy coming to an underground aug specialist? Gotta say, Jensen, this shit isn't usually what I hear from my clientele,” Koller laughed, not sparing a glance at him as he shook his head, “But I'm not prying. Just like to get an idea of the kind of issues you might bring in with your work, you know? If you decide to come back.”
“Alex gave a pretty glowing recommendation. Can't see why I wouldn't,” he replied.
“I'll have to thank her - I can't tell you how long I've wanted to see Sarif augs in person, and these ? Fuck, they're beautiful! You don't know how jealous I am.” To emphasize, the mechanic did pause to ghost a hand over the length of Adam's arm, leaning in a little closer to inspect it.
Though the comment was genuine, Adam couldn't help a sound in his throat between scoffing and laughter. “I've gotten a lot of comments about my augs. I think you're the only person aside Sarif that's ever called them beautiful.”
At that, the younger man's eyes lit up. “Holy shit- you know him?”
“Used to be head of his security staff, before the Incident.”
Koller paused a second before shaking his head, ear to ear grin never leaving his expression. “I can tell I'm prying too much already - look, man, I really try not to. But this guy’s my fucking hero. It's crazy that you ended up here.”
“Yeah, that's one way of putting it,” he replied.
That was an easy way out of the conversation for him, a good place to let it drop while the mechanic worked at his hand. Koller looked like he was going to burst if he didn't ask more questions, but he respected the silence, much to Jensen's surprise. The only sound in the room for a short while being ambient droning of machinery alongside Koller humming under his breath. It gave him a rare moment to breath with there being nothing else to do in the chair.
Yet, instead of relaxing fully, he was still studying the other man's augs. More specifically the wires he realized were attached to a cranial aug he’d noticed earlier but hadn’t been able to get a good look at. Not that Adam had any better angles now, save for when he bent in closer to Adam’s arm. He had his own questions forming about who serviced the already underground aug mechanic, or how he’d ended up with something much more risky to install that looked just as unpolished as his arms. Even more than that, the more he observed the repurposed sewer and considered it in tangent with the bookstore cover, Adam couldn’t help wondering how the hell cops hadn’t stormed the place a long time ago. All that held him back from pressing the topics was mutual respect; if Koller wasn’t going to ask about things that didn’t concern him, neither would Adam.
“You have any other augs? Aside the shades?”
The chain of thought was broken by the mechanic speaking up again while he worked, this time sparing Adam a glance as he posed the question. He debated how to answer for a second, but if he were to keep going back to Koller after this, lying would put a strain on the interactions. “Quite a few. Mostly internal. Throw a dart at any internal organ and you’ll probably hit metal. Both of my legs, too.”
That earned a chuckle from Koller, and a brief response. “Sounds like a lot of upkeep, man.”
“Only in this line of work.”
This time, he was sure the good doctor opted not to push any further because that would be the point where any mechanic realized whatever happened to Adam to land him with so many augs wasn’t good. Few people ever cut off their limbs just to have them replaced by cybernetics for fun, let alone over half their body. Coupled with the extra knowledge he had been Sarif’s security dog and a basic timeline of what had happened overseas not long before the Incident, he was sure Koller could put some of the pieces together.
Rather than let the conversation settle awkwardly on that note, Koller’s tone and expression remained fairly upbeat. “Fuck - I bet. No offense, man, but your hands? They look like they’ve seen better days. I mean, I have some fillers for the polycarbonate leftover from an old job, but that will just make them look shiny,” there was a pause in that thought as he raised his eyes to flash Adam a knowing smile, “You don’t seem like someone who cares about shiny things, though, Jensen.”
“Neither do you,” he countered, nodding towards Koller’s own hands and subtly prompting his question from earlier.
“Ah! I can’t afford shiny things. That is where the difference lies.” The mechanic stood from his spot and moved to find something on the desk behind where Adam sat, though he continued to speak over the sounds of drawers being opened. “I can appreciate shiny things when I see them, though. And, they wouldn’t exactly fit the my look, anyway. These things?” He came back into view and held both arms open, displaying the hand-crafted augs. “They suit me! They get the job done. They’re easy to take off and take on, so when I’m working, I can do this -” the missing space between the fingers on his right hand jumped to life with a flame, shining light onto Koller’s beaming expression, “- when I need to. And when I’m done? Pop it right off! If I remember to.”
With that, he was back on his stool and hunched over Adam’s arm, although not finished in his ramblings. “You, on the other hand? I mean - just look at these! Black, streamlined, gold accents, sleek and se -” he cut himself off, seeming to think better of the half-formed word. “They suit your style, man, that’s my point. Having this tech is great, and all, but if we’re gonna give people options, why not give them options , y’know? Give people something that suits them! Form and function! Which, speaking of function - if you ever want any tune-ups or maybe, you know, additions I would be more than happy to dig into your tech. Free of charge!”
Up until that point Adam had watched and listened to the tangent with silent intrigue. Koller had the same energy and passion as Sarif when it came to augmentation, it seemed like, but something about his perspective was different in a way the ex-cop couldn’t place just yet. At the offer, though, he didn’t hesitate to interject: “I think I have more than enough augs stuffed into me. Thanks, though.”
If the answer offended Koller at all, it didn’t show. Instead, he shrugged and assured, “Any time, it’s an open offer! But, only if you wanna. I know I can get pretty into this shit, but don’t feel like you have to do anything. If you’re happy the way you are, good!” With that, he leaned back on his stool and gestures to Adam’s hand. “Well - I think that oughta do it, huh? Anything feel out of place or unconnected?”
Adam answered the question by lifting his arm and curling the hand into a fist, flexing the fingers various ways, and actually focusing now on the auto-diagnostics running in the corner of his vision. Everything came up green. His gaze refocused on Koller and he nodded. “Feels good, doc. I have to admit, I came in a little skeptical.”
“Reasonably! But, look, I’m not just some quack working out of a sewer. Before everything went to shit I worked for LIMB - real lab coat and everything! This place might not be pretty, but the results are just as good as any other underground aug clinic.”
That earned almost-a-laugh, more of an exhale through his nose as Adam rose and went to pick up his coat from the back of the chair. “I’ll leave you a good review. How much do I owe?”
“Eh, for an hour of soldering wires? Don’t sweat it,” Koller assured, waving him off with a hand as he got to his feet as well, scooping up a tablet from one of the tables. “I don’t do this stuff for profit. It’s important work. People need it.” A beat passed before he looked up from the screen and flashed a lopsided grin. “Besides! It isn’t every day I get to see Sarif augs in person. Keep coming back with those pretty augs and we’ll call it even. Just, don’t get them too beat up.”
More questions cropped up in his mind as to how exactly Koller was able to afford the tech and upkeep of it if he wasn’t taking regular payments, but Adam reasoned with himself that if he kept coming back he would probably be able to uncover that mystery, as well. With how many augmented people there were in Prague and Koller doing work like this pro bono meant he was probably someone with plenty of connections. And— given what he’d gleaned from the visit—either powerful friends, or powerful enemies were keeping this underground clinic in check. Even if he didn’t appear to already be a reliable mechanic, Koller would be a useful contact.
So, Adam nodded, and offered on his way back toward the elevator, “Can’t make any promises, but I’ll definitely be seeing you around, Koller.”
The mechanic waved him out, still grinning. “I’ll look forward to it, Jensen.”