"It can be plants if they're medical-in-some-way plants. The algae was a whole process of a couple years like five to ten hours a week, I hooked it off retrovirus genetic treatments, I learned a lot. I could probably make trees get to bearing fast by also making them grow aspirin in their bark like willows or something, but I doubt it would be the best use of my time."

"Put everybody on an all natural high fiber diet," suggests Lorica. "Eh, it can be a long process. I can live without apples for a little while."

"...I'd better go introduce you to my contact with the old netrunner basement in person after this. It's how things are done. I don't have a lot of friends, but I have some contacts, if the distinction makes sense."

"It does, yeah. What's this one do?"

"Runs a gang that's barely worth the title. More of a neighborhood association that owns guns, really. The rent for the basement will be between you and her, but probably just some pretty basic cybersecurity and monitoring."

"Easy peasy."

"And the implicit shared incentives of you wanting a safe place to work and her wanting a safe apartment tower. It's for the best when things work out like that."

Lorica nods. Her enchilada's gone; her helmet clicks shut again.

Nom nom.

The apartment building in question is a pretty ordinary looking brick five blocks away, six stories tall and eight units per floor. The owner meets them in her own second-floor apartment, and Dr. Baika introduces them to each other.

"Doc here fixed up my eyes and my hand," she has prominent cybernetics in those places, "So I trust she's good people, but I don't know you from a hole in the ground."

"Well, what do you need to know?"