Just Don’t Call Them ‘Flesh Doctors’

• October
• 26

8:25 pm The Voice of the Planet

Cafe Franco is bustling this afternoon with shoppers and business people alike. It’s glass and steel partitioning separates the booths from each other, while allowing the social atmosphere to be maintained. The sophisticated lounge bar is situated in on the seven-third floor of the monolithic commercial building known as The Plaza in Sector Sixteen. It’s lower floors are filled with shops selling grey market goods and quick and easy entertainment, while it’s upper levels host private clubs for the elite and custom tailored boutiques containing the luxurious fantastics. Here, somewhere in the middle, is an almost peaceful mixture of the two distinct classes in Dystopia. Where the ‘workers’ and the ‘players’ can interact. As I put my frothing DysCaff Latte onto the table in front of me, my guest offers me a cube of chocolate flavoured sponge cake, a reconstituted protein concoction of something they sell for real twenty or so storeys above us. My guest assures me, it’s a pretty good facsimile.
“This is one of the few places on this planet where these people can mix freely and without any uncomfortable moments.” Ex-doctor Angelus Keaver smiles. “Of course, I know only too well the pleasures the upper class and corporate high-flyers take on ground level, but here, the divide seems to be blurred. It’s a strange place and there’s not many like it. I’m not implying that the so called ’sixtieth’ line doesn’t exist, it’s just more blurred than many people portray it. There’s the extremes at both end, the CEO who only sees the low income consumers as a demographic to be exploited, then the chip on the shoulder working class hero who sees the corporate workers as soulless minions to a flawed system. I get caught in between because of what I do. I see both sides.”
Keaver is what the mainstream media call a ‘flesh doctor’. It’s a term Keaver does not like applied.
“It just sounds so seedy, ‘flesh doctor’ and ‘fleshclinic’ just sounds like I operate in a dirty, low lit backroom or basement with a broken ceiling fan and a flickering light neon strip light. I don’t doubt these places exist, but there’s a lot of us Independent Medical Practitioners out there who operate facilities in places like this.”
He goes on the explain the media’s misrepresentation of his line of work.
“The media love to portray us as dangerous or unprofessional. But it’s all because the medical companies or the franchises like MediCare don’t like us, because we offer value for money. I’m not trying to say that the hospitals or MediCare are worse than us, far from it, there’s no way my little business can deal with full scale medical emergencies. But I can offer cyberisation, fashion and cosmetic surgery and minor medical procedures at a much smaller cost to all. Plus, because we aren’t constrained by the full rules and regulations, we can offer services not normally available through the ‘official’ medical business.”
I enquire if that includes experimental or illegal technology.
“I’m certain some will offer the service if you ask. But not in places like this.” he notions to The Plaza. “It’s a little too obvious to graft a cybernetic arm with a plasma charger bolted to it in this place. That is exactly the sort of thing the media always goes on about. When some citizen goes and gets a case of post cyberisation trauma and freaks out, starts smashing up regular people, it’s always ‘the irresponsible flesh clinic’ that caused it. Never mind the fact that a corporation was churning out an ‘even stronger’ model or plastering the electronic billboards. Do you have any idea the kind of things that are in some cosmetic products? Some of it is more dangerous than the acid rain, does the media say anything about that, no, because it’s big business. We’re the little guys, and as such, we’re a target.”
My questions then turn to the notion of illegal biological medical supplies, Keaver’s face changes, he seems uncomfortable.
“Well sure, sometimes you have to go grey or black market to get hold of items. I don’t have too much of a problem in a place like this, I’ve got accounts with the right hospitals and medical companies. But when I started out down on the ground floor, it was necessary to get supplies wherever you could to keep going. I don’t deny it and I don’t blame anybody for doing it to stay in business, but it’s not something any of us independents like to think too hard about. Sure you buy an organ from a non-verified source, it could be from anywhere, or anyone. But if it gets you a paycheck, fair enough. It’s not like you put an order in advance for a kidney or whatever and some guy goes off and finds you one, no questions ask.” he clears his throat. “Well, it’s not like I ever put in an advanced order. Let’s put it like that.”
He offers me another brownie.
“I mean, you don’t ask where the ingredients for this comes from do you? You just like the taste.”