Altered Carbon

The danger of living too many times:

you forget to fear death.

We dismiss the Grim Reaper as a quaint metaphor.

But fearing death...

it's good for you.

Just stop complaining.

Take off that necklace. I told you to throw it away.

No. It's Mom's.

You're just like her.

Disobedient, ungrateful... bitch.

Tak?

I'll tell them it wasn't your fault.

I'll say the truth. They have to listen.

Do you trust me, Rei?

Every way there is.

Why did you kill your father?

You're just a kid and you blew his stack out.

He deserved it.

Because he beat up your sister?

He wasn't going to stop. He killed my mother.

- Cops say your mom ran away. - Cops are stupid.

I told them what happened.

He dumped her in a coolant pool. There was no body.

Nothing left.

So they didn't believe me.

I believe you.

The Settled Worlds are full of lawlessness.

Killers, rapists, slavers, gangs.

They leave behind victims. Innocents.

We travel between planets, protect our citizens.

Mister, I've got nothing left for you to take.

They took my body, probably sold it off already. What do you want?

To recruit you. Colonial Tactical Assault Corps.

You're CTAC?

Looking at you, I see potential.

I can make something out of you, son.

What about my sister?

I did what I did because of Rei.

I want her safe.

You've never been able to trust anyone, have you?

Son, we are the Protectorate.

We protect.

I'll see to it she's placed in a good family,

that she gets a good life with people who will love her and treat her well.

You have my word.

What happens next? Will I get my body back?

I'll requisition it for the Corps. You can use it if you ever come back.

- Where am I going? - You're casting off this planet with me.

Train on different worlds, in different sleeves.

This time tomorrow, you'll be in a man's body.

And no one will ever hurt you or yours again.

Off-planet? What about Rei?

You disconnect from this life.

Anyone who knows what you are will be in danger.

I have to tell her.

If you want her to be safe,

you're never going to be able to see her again.

Trust me.

Tak?

Rei?

Welcome back.

You're gonna die.

You're bleeding internally, holed all over,

and you picked up a blood infection in that slaughterhouse.

I tried, but I can't save this sleeve.

I know I shouldn't have bothered,

but I wanted to hurry up the family reunion.

It looks like it's gonna have to wait until we can get you resleeved.

Wait... Ortega?

She's fine. I knocked her out. I'm sorry. I was in a rush.

Relax.

You're gonna wake up in a new body, something more durable

and a little less gaijin and with better hair.

You have to save this sleeve.

Don't be such a baby.

You used to switch sleeves like changing socks.

No!

- Tak, you're beat to shit, septic... - No.

...and the Reaper in your system is fighting the blood scrubbers.

Probably tripping balls right now.

If I don't kill you, the fever and organ failure likely will.

Promise.

Jesus, why?

Fine, Tak.

If that's what you want.

I owe you that much.

Here...

You're not here. You died.

Didn't take.

You know me better than that, big brother.

- We always come back for each other. - No matter how long it takes.

250 years.

You've really let yourself go.

How?

How did you survive Stronghold?

Quick version, then you shut up and rest.

They blew our shuttle.

Next thing I knew, I woke up in some low-rent virtual

with some pencil-neck archaeology student working on his dissertation.

He stumbled on my stack in the wreckage, along with some genetic material.

Total freak chance, one in a billion.

He resleeved me in a synth and...

Well, you were on ice and everyone else was dead.

I told him I was an innocent bystander killed by heartless Envoys.

First chance I got, I booked with my DNA.

Made a lot of money, grew a few clones.

I've been on my own ever since.

Not anymore.

This sleeve is shit.

Sleeve's not the problem. Gotta pay the transfer fee, man.

Hate the fucking reacclimation cocktail. Headaches for days.

Listen up!

This team has been thrown together from who's available on cast.

ReAc for a half day, then we stand up at 0300.

Kovacs, how does it feel to be back in your original skin?

A lot more mileage than I expected.

Reflex still good.

Thank the Corps for keeping it in shape.

Who the fuck is this guy, he gets a retread?

It's my home world.

First time I've been back since I joined up.

Target is a yakuza kumicho...

...by the name of Gottfrid Saito.

Domestic terror, murder, prostitution. And he doesn't pay his taxes.

Whoops.

They need to be taught a very public lesson.

The must-kill is Saito. Slag his stack.

Everyone else is kill as kill can.

Most kills...

...most days off, most bonus money.

Even you guys could figure out how that works.

Put up your hands! Put up your hands!

Kovacs, you're on Saito.

Put the gun down

before I drill a hole right through your stack, gaijin motherfucker.

You're gonna call your friends on comm,

tell them you've taken down Saito, to come in here weapons down.

Where did you get that necklace?

That was my mother's.

Tak?

Kill him, you worthless whore!

Kill him now!

Where the fuck have you been?

- No! - Kovacs, take him out!

Kovacs, what are you doing?

Let's go.

This way.

Tak, come on.

A good family?

That's what he promised me.

Well, technically, it's true.

I was sold to the yakuza as kobun.

A perfect little foot soldier, loyal to my oyabun, Saito.

And why wouldn't I be? I didn't have anyone else.

He said you'd be safe.

And you believed him?

I remember you being smarter.

Protectorate, Jaeger, he will come after us.

He's not gonna stop until he finds me.

The yakuza and the Protectorate both want our heads.

I don't know which is worse.

Any ideas that don't involve dying a slow and terrible death?

I don't know. We gotta get off-planet. I'm not sure how.

Jaeger's gonna block the ports and the casting stations.

Slow and terrible death it is.

I'll take a few more with me.

In the forest...

did you ever tell anyone what we found when we were kids?

Not a soul.

You trust me?

Not even a little.

Why?

I used to think the Patchwork Man lived here.

Guess we'll find out.

Are you sure you remember where it is?

Maybe.

"Maybe"?

Definitely.

This was a lot easier when I was eight.

We follow this east, it'll take us to the caves.

Not till tomorrow. It's getting dark.

Look at the way the Songspire threads through the boulders.

You ever wonder if the Elder civilization designed it to do that?

Create structures underground with the branches as some kind of scaffold?

Those are the most words you've said to me in hours

and they're about fucking rocks.

It's fine. It's in the past. Let's keep moving.

No. We can camp here for the night.

We're deep enough in the forest.

So, tomorrow we go underground and what? Hide like the animals?

You got a better plan?

I'd say we should find some potential allies,

but we just killed everyone we know, so...

I missed you so much.

I'm sorry, Rei.

Why did you...

Death isn't only about the destruction of the body.

Sometimes, just like that, you extinguish one self

and another is born.

But every birth is violent