The Shadowrun Archive |
Dr. Takeo Nakada was an old friend of my fathers. He had worked with him in the body shop before the night that mage lost it when her samurai perished from essence loss. My thoughts drifted for a moment, clouded in the need for vengeance that had driven me to make myself one of them, a Shadowrunner.
Snapping back to the matters at hand, I saw that Takeo had been trying to get a hold of me for a few hours now. Damn, I must've been exhausted from my last workout. At the speed of thought, I was connected to him.
"Heyas, chief. What's the emergency?" I said, wiping the sleep from my eyes.
Takeo's face filled the monitor. "I've been trying to get a hold of you for hours now! Where in hell have you been?!"
"I guess I was exhausted from my last workout. Now answer my question before I fall asleep again." I said, chuckling lightly and stretching out my arms, not all that pleased at finding yet another new ache. Those practice sessions are hell, I thought to myself. But so are the streets of Seattle I quickly remembered.
"Well," Takeo's voice interrupted my reverie, "I got a lead on a run. Nothing major, just some backup for a decker who's running matrix interference for some buddies of his. Seems he doesn't feel quite safe standing out in the open while jacked into a corp mainframe."
My eyes lit up. "Really?! When's this going down?" Excitement over the thought of my first run boiled over into my voice.
"You meet the decker at Inferno tonight at 11pm. He'll be in the same booth that we meet in regularly." I could see by Tak's face that I wasn't the only one eager to see what I can do.
"Cool, I'll be there and ready. My bang-bangs in yet?"
"Still waiting on a couple mods to the Alpha, but they'll be done by this afternoon, I think."
"Don't think I'll be carrying the Alpha into Inferno," I said with a laugh.
"Yeah, that probably wouldn't be a good idea." Tak's light chuckle came across the receiver.
"So I guess I should get a few more hours of sleep, huh?"
"If you can sleep after hearing this news, that'd be a good idea"
Obviously, he knew better than I that sleep was out of the question now. "Talk to you after the run, I'll fill you in on all the details I can."
"You better," Takeo smiled. "Suzanne'll be ready to meet you at around 3pm, she said. I wouldn't be late for that one. Or early for that matter."
"I hear that. Still, I can barely wait to get a hold of them." My mind's eye pictured my hands holding the guns. Smiling, I imagined the city lights reflecting off them.
Tak chuckled. "Be careful what you wish for. Talk to you later, and good luck."
"Thanks, old friend. Seeya." I waved in the monitor before disconnecting.
So this is it, my first shadowrun. Everything I've been training for comes down to this moment. All the time, nuyen, and hard work will finally be put to the test.
I got up from the bed. Wrapping myself up in a long silk robe, I made my way to the kitchen. "Gonna be a long night," I said to myself.
Pouring out a mug of tea, I turned on the trideo and kicked back to a music channel that I used to listen to all the time when I was a kid. My eyes closed and the memories washed over me like the tide on a beach.
After showering up and making a quick grocery run, I hopped on my Aurora and gunned it toward the outskirts of town for my meet with Suzanne.
Throughout my exodus from downtown, traffic was thicker than usual and the police thicker yet. No chance to take a shortcut, so I just went along with the flow, a.k.a. crawl, of the wage slave tide. All in all, it took just under an hour for me to make it from my part of town to Suzanne's office just outside Seattle.
It was a large, old office building. Not unlike what one would expect a beginning corp to work out of. Suzanne Guiseppe was anything but a beginner, though. She's been an armorer for more years than I've been an elf, I thought to myself. Glancing at the building again before I stepped up to the door, I decided that it was pretty much the perfect place for an operation like this. It was far enough away from the city to not be subjected to the terrors of downtown life. Nor was it under the constant scrutiny of the finer areas' security. The old office building was damn near perfect as a choice for any shadowy business.
Stepping up to the heavy steel door, I punched in a code at a keypad. A voice came out of nowhere to let me know that my code was accepted and the door clicked audibly before it opened.
I walked into a very normal looking lobby, just as one would expect to see when entering a building such as this. Definitely not what one would think to see if they walked into an armory, I thought with a smile. Various mid-priced works of art decorated the walls of the lobby and a sofa flanked by two chairs bent around the corner to my right. To my left there was a human dressed in flashy clothes, just slightly oversized. No doubt carrying some hefty ordinance under that jacket, I thought.
The suit smiled at me and asked me to have a seat. I sat in the nearest chair and listened to the secretary type nearly as fast as she was popping her gum. The noise had just started getting to me when the suit came back and motioned me through a door.
The door led into a hallway that led to a stairway that we took down an innumerable amount of floors. At the bottom, a door not unlike the one at the front of the building awaited us. The suit made a gesture fast and subtle enough that I wouldn't notice what it was, but I did notice that he made it and the door clicked and swung open.
Inside, I saw two more suits. They were humans like the one who had led me here, dressed similarly and just as obviously armed. My escort disappeared and one of the others walked up and motioned for me to sit. I guessed that they didn't bother to put up the facade of courtesy once they knew who you were. My eyes danced about the basically featureless room, seeing only a desk with a monitor that one of the suits watched intently. A beep came from the terminal and the watcher inspected it for a moment before punching up a code. The door clicked open as before and in stepped Suzanne Guiseppe.
A smallish woman of around 35 years, Suzanne was one of Seattle's most respected armorers. She had a no-nonsense look about her stride took her through the room and toward me. Suzanne wore a corporate-cut suit with her hair done in a fashionable, yet conservative, manner. She looked much the part of her front here as corporate chairwoman.
I got up from my chair, careful not to move too fast lest her suit friends get a little eager. I shook Suzanne's hand lightly and we exchanged greetings as she led me through another door. This one led to a long hallway with doors lining each side about every twenty feet. We started up on small talk as we made our way down the hall. I could see another door at the end, but she opened up a door on the right-hand side before we got to it.
I entered and walked around the room. About 20 feet wide, 40 feet long, this room appeared to be a normal conference room for an office building. Coffee and tea machines were in one corner along with a table for snacks. Apparently I don't merit snacks I thought with a chuckle. There was a table near the same end as the refreshments and on it lay several packages of thick cloth.
"There they are, TopCat." She said in a rich alto voice. "I assume you'll want to check them out before leaving. Would you like something to drink while you check your order out?"
I nodded to the affirmative and began unwrapping one of the smaller packages. The cloth unrolled to show an Ares Viper Slivergun pistol. Made by one of the most reliable companies around, the Viper fires flechette rounds that cause massive damage to unarmored opponents. It had a built-in silencer and an internal Smartlink II system. Suzanne had tried to talk me out of choosing the Viper, noting that flechette rounds have a nasty tendency to bounce off body armor as if they were toothpicks and that nowadays nearly everyone has some kind of armor. I had noted, in return, that everyone is unarmored when you've got an aim like mine. She had reacted with a toothy grin and a promise to have it ordered. I felt it's weight in my hand and watched the smartgun target appear in my mind's eye. I looked at the tea machine, then at a knob, then at a notch on the knob. All targeted smoothly and faster than I could notice. I placed the pistol down on its cloth and took a sip from the tea, finding it an excellent herbal variety probably from Hong Kong, before moving on to the second package.
Similarly sized, this time the cloth unwrapped to show an Ares Predator heavy pistol. The premier heavy pistol in use today, the Predator was perhaps the most reliable pistol around. I had had this one modified with a Smartlink II system identical to the one on the Viper. The silencer I had asked for lay next to it inside the wrapping. I picked it up and felt the weight of the monstrous pistol. Targeting was just as smooth as the Viper. Setting it back in its wrapping I went on to the final package.
Much larger than the other two packages, I knew what would be inside before I began unwrapping. The Ares Alpha Combat Gun brought a smile to my face not unlike that which a kid would get at the thought of the perfect toy. The Alpha was definitely the perfect toy for me. A bullpup assault rifle, it came with a Smartlink II system integrated, as well as a mini-grenade launcher under the barrel. I held it lovingly as I ran over all its features in my head. Silencer, burst and full-auto firing, the best gas vent available, an Ares range-finder with grenade link, and a scope that would allow me to pick off targets at incredible ranges. Thinking about it, there's no wonder why militaries worldwide absolutely love this gun.
Suzanne smiled, "Looks like you like what you see. The harness you asked for is in the box on the left and the ammunition for all your weapons in the one on the right. Grenades are inside the ammo box, so I'd be extra careful with that one. Usually don't handle orders like this. They're awfully dangerous for me, but who am I to refuse a friend of a friend?"
I knew it wasn't that I was a friend, but the nuyen that I paid that made the deal. I also knew somehow that deals like these were hardly out of the ordinary for Ms. Guiseppe, but I returned her smile all the same. I decided to check out the ammo box, but found it wouldn't open.
"The ammo case is, of course, locked." She said. "I'll have Brian take care of that for you once you leave the building. Can't have people running around loaded inside my shop, you know. Too many of my colleagues paid the price of that particular mistake."
I didn't remember being frisked at the door, but before I could ask about that she continued.
"I've got some pretty intense security in here, I know every bit of ware you've got on and I also know that you aren't armed. I knew that before the first door opened. Can never be too careful, right?" She grinned again.
Now I know how the wage slaves must feel, always watched by big brother. Knowing that someone knows so much about you so fast without you knowing anything about them is an uncomfortable thing indeed. I wondered silently how they handled it day-to-day.
I slipped on the harness over my shirt. Two holsters were set for cross drawing, the grips of the pistols rested comfortably at either hip. Across the back were pouches for extra clips for both pistols. I slipped the Viper into place on the left and the Predator into the right holster. I barely noticed the change in weight. I donned my long-coat and checked out myself in a wall mirror. I looked no different from when I had walked in. The coat hid any trace of what might have been thought of as a weapon.
I then rewrapped the Alpha and tied it to the box. Suzanne led me back out through the room and left me to an escort to get up the stairs. I waved my thanks through the shutting door and bounded upstairs with the suit who I assumed to be Brian.
I walked outside and Brian slipped a keycard into a slot on the box. He then waited patiently outside with me until I had gotten everything on my bike and left for home again.
I pulled up into the complex's parking garage and bounded upstairs to my home. Checking for messages on my pocket secretary I saw that I still had a couple of hours before the meet with the decker. I flopped onto my futon, quickly surrendering to sleep's warm embrace.
It's 10:30pm and I just got out of the shower. Damn pocket secretary needs a louder beep. I dash through my room, dressing in record time and sliding into my gun rig. Legs pumping, I burst out the door and sprinted downstairs to my bike. Hopping onto and starting it as my hands flew over the code box like data through a decker. I gunned it out of the garage and down the street toward Inferno.
It's 11:03. You've just shaken three policecars and are late for the meet for your first shadowrun. What're you going to do?
I decided I needed a drink to calm my nerves. Ordering up a double 1800, I slammed it back and grabbed a second as I made my way to the back booth. Butterflies took flight in my stomach as I began to realize just what I was getting ready to do.
I looked around and the decker wasn't there. I cursed my lateness under my breath and slid into the booth. A waitress came by and I ordered up another double. Why the hell couldn't I have woken up a minute or two earlier?
My question was interrupted by the waitress and some kid in synth-leathers. I paid her with a swipe of my credstick and looked questioningly at the kid. Damn elf-watchers, I thought to myself.
"You the TopCat?" The kid asked me.
My eyes drifted over the boy. I say boy because he hardly looked 14. Ultraviolet tattoos adorned his arms and his hair was just a shade off the color and brightness of the lights flashing all over the club.
"Could be. Who am I talking to?"
"I'm the guy you're going to be protecting, chummer. So lay off the macho crap. I know I look young, but I've been running the shadows for over a year now and been on more runs than most ever survive to see." Defiance flashed through his eyes, but so did fear.
Good, I thought to myself, I need a rep like this. I haven't even done a run yet and this kid's looking at me like I'm some kind of shadowlord. Grinning, I replied. "And you need someone plenty macho to protect you on this run I'd guess or you wouldn't have been directed my way. So lay off the attitude because no matter how many runs you've been on, you still need people like me to protect your scrawny little hide."
He swallowed and sat down, ordering up some stylish drink from a passing waitress. "Okay, here's what I got for you. I work with a few teams, running matrix interference for them on occasions where they need it, and let's face it, who doesn't need it, chummer? Anyways, this one team I'm with needs me on a hot run. They're 'rescuing' some wage slave from Renraku and they need to be sure that no alarms start going off during the process."
Thoughts started going through my mind. My first run and I was going to be messing with a corp like Renraku? I must be out of my fraggin' mind.
"I always get a little worried when I have to deal with the big dogs. They've got more deckers and IC than anyone, well...anyone except Fuchi. All of which would love to get their hands on some runner who wants to play with their files. So I need you to shield me should they be able to trace and send a sec team after me or even if some wandering cop finds us."
"What's the pay on this one?" Might as well cut to the chase, I thought.
"That's the pretty part, chummer. For just sitting by and watching me, I'll pay ya 5,000 nuyen. Not bad for a baby-sitting role, eh?"
"Five thou, huh? Won't cut it. Chances are too damn high that I'll be having to do more than baby-sit. You make it 10K and we can deal."
"You outta your fraggin mind, samurai?! 10K just for a baby-sit?! I can get two samurai for that much!"
"You'd get two samurai, all right. But neither would be near as wiz as I am. Not too many can pop off headshots at long range all day long. Two samurai won't be much help to you after the first few seconds. You run that fast, kid?"
"Frag it, I'll pay 8K and that's top, I need to make money off this deal too."
"Eight thou, plus an extra two if we draw the attention you're paying me for."
"Deal done, chummer. You just damn well better be as good as people say, and almost as good as you say or my friends'll take out the change on your hide."
Grinning, I leaned forward. "I'm even better than I say. You're paying top nuyen so you get the TopCat. Where do we meet and when?"
"We met, now we leave." The kid said, pulling out a credstick and slotting it. "Here's your 8K, paid and done. You'll get the bonus afterward if the drek hits the fan."
"Immediately afterward. You rip me off and you may as well buy a grave with the 2K. Understand me, kid?"
"Chill, samurai. Let's get running." He stepped out of the booth and made his way to the exit through the waves of club-goers.
Following him outside, I began to get a rush undreamt of in my life. The kind of rush you get when Death's icy grip gets a little closer. Not necessarily that my death was drawing near, but someone's death was. I felt a cold chill as my thoughts raced through my head. Death would be watching this run carefully, indeed. Let's hope she gets her fill before she gets a chance to grab me, I thought grimly. The night seemed a little darker as the run began.
The taxi pulled over at the kid's instruction and he paid the cabby. We strolled up to the apartment building and then up 4 flights of stairs as we made our way to a room at the end of the hall.
The kid fished out a keycard and slotted it. The door opened up to a room that a squatter wouldn't have called home. The kid went on to a side room and I followed.
The side room was a little nicer, but not by much. There was a cleared out area in one corner where a deck and jack rested. The windows of the room were boarded with thick plywood.
"You live like a squatter. You know that, kid?" I said, not bothering to hide my disgust at our surroundings in my voice.
"You're getting paid enough not to care about how I live, but for your information, this is merely a safehouse that I work out of. A bunch of elf-posers really live here, but they're out at the clubs til after the sun rises. What pays for a sun nowadays, know what I mean?"
I kicked at a pile of clothes so I'd have a place to sit while the kid jacked into his deck and his deck into the jack in the wall.
"Here's your deal, chummer." The kid said. "You make sure that if I have to jack out, I get out of here. I'll be pretty mind-fogged if it happens, so you'll have to get me out. If I don't jack out and a team starts their way here, your job is to unplug me and get me the hell out of here. I don't care who you have to kill, what you have to destroy, just make sure I'm safe, got it?"
"Yeppers, now you do your job and I'll do mine." I got up and moved to the doorway so I could better hear if someone came to the door.
"Yeah, OK. Just don't forget that I'm what this run is about." With that the kid closed his eyes and entered the matrix.
The matrix is what makes the world go around. It is a mammoth computer network which every business, every home, every phone, hell, everything is attached to. It's also the home of millions of people like the kid here. It's a whole wide world where one can be in Tokyo one second, Paris the next, and Los Angeles the third. Inside the tangled technological web, every bit of info on everything immaginable lurks. If you know the codes or know how to break 'em, you can know and change everything from bank accounts to corporate files to birth certification.
What keeps the whole world from being overrun by one high-power decker is that the matrix contains millions of deckers that work to stop people like this kid. Not to mention the specialized attack programs called IC or "ice" that could do everything from denying access to actually killing people who attempt to test their abilities in the matrix.
It's been 2 minutes and nothing bad has happened yet, so I figure all's well for now. My eyes constantly searched for any moving shadows while my ears listened for the slightest creak of footsteps by the door. The silence continued for what seemed like days.
It's been 5 minutes and the kid gets this scrunched up look on his face. I walk over toward him just in time to see a trickle of blood run out of his nose. Then his ears. I unplugged him as he screamed and fell writhing to the ground. Then he got quiet. The kind of quiet only the dead can make.
Checking him over I found no pulse and worse yet, no DocWagon band. Stupid fraggin kid got himself killed in there. Guess he thought he was invulnerable. Tak's words whispered through my head. "There's always someone better..."
Then my fears came alive. The kid was dead! That means no extra pay and it also meant that they knew where he was. If they could attack him then they could definitely track him. Worse yet, if they could track him, they could find me.
I pulled my pistols from their holsters and desperately wished that I had brought the Alpha. Nonetheless, the feel of the two pistols and the appearance of the sights in my mind's eye calmed me. I truly became what I had feared becoming, a machine. Not lifeless, I had become detached. Everything became nothing more than numbers crunched by a computer, a killing computer. Everything I saw, heard, or felt was sorted coolly by the circuits in my head and then fed to my brain. Items, people, everything became data or targets.
The first bit of data came around in a big way as I heard the heavy footfalls of a group of people running toward the door to the apartment.
That's when the world exploded.
I could feel the heat and wind of submachinegun fire all around me. I twisted to fall backwards and pointed the Predator at the window just as the first head came into view. The big gun bucked in my hand, delivering its armor piercing round through the gunman's skull to devastating effect. The head disappeared faster than it had come into sight.
I twisted again just in time to see the car below me. I tucked my head and knees and landed hard on the roof of an Americar. Glass exploded outward like the breath from my body. I remained rolled up for a second, lungs aching to draw a few precious moments of breath. The second lasted too long.
A second gunman had appeared in the window, doubtless the rest were already on their way downstairs. He peppered the car and me with a hail of bullets from a teeny Ingram SuperMach 100. Despite its size, the submachinegun could deliver rounds as fast as a mini-gun. And deliver it did.
I felt most of the rounds tugging at my coat, while some made it to my vest and wreaked havoc on my clothes. A few managed to make it through all the layers of armor clothing and a pair of hits seared my flesh. One shot pierced my side and a second sank into the meat of my thigh. The damage wasn't serious, I hope. I rolled off the car and dropped behind it for some cover.
I popped up for just a hair of a second to see that he had already left the window. Turning and running fast and hard into an alley across the street, the bullet wounds making themselves known with every footfall. Hoping that I could get an edge by being in darkness, but knowing that hope was all I should do in this age of technology where anyone could have the eyesight of an elf or a dwarf for a handful of nuyen.
I risked a glance over my shoulder as I sprinted through the alley. Seeing nothing, but hearing the orders of their team leader barked out hurriedly, I decided it best not to look back again. Guns still drawn, jacket flapping behind me, I burst in though a door to an office complex.
I found myself alone in a dark lobby, clearly the place had closed up for the night. Good, I thought to myself. Not too many people will be in here to catch a bullet or a glance of my face. I picked out a surveillance camera and blinded it with a round from my Predator.
Then I saw the shadows of the approaching gunmen. I dove over a desk and rolled up, guns resting on the desktop for the first sign of them. The first guy never knew what hit him.
I had never seen what flechette rounds do to their targets before, and even if I had seen it, I would have been no less impressed. In one pull of the trigger a three-round burst turned what was a normal face into something that even a Stuffer Shack wouldn't serve. He fell back silently as a second target presented himself in the doorway.
He got to turn to face me as the Predator bucked in my hand. Its round caught him in the shoulder, spinning him around so his back faced me. A follow-up shot through the base of his neck took him out of the picture.
My mind ran over the numbers as I cursed myself for not knowing how many there were or where they were for that matter. I had just downed four gunmen and the shadows told of at least one more outside. Taking aim with the Predator again I sighted just to the right of the doorframe at around chest height. I caressed the trigger twice and was rewarded with a scream and the sight of his head dropping at the base of the door. His eyes were clenched tight in pain. I ended his pain with a burst from the slivergun. No shadows showed at the door so I stood and checked for exits. I needed to get out of here in a bad way.
I saw movement in a window and barely ducked the booming death carried by a burst of shot. There's the guy who got the door to the kid's apartment, I thought. How many more, I wondered, lurked around the building waiting for a crack at me. I was determined not to give them anything to shoot at and took off, low to the ground, toward the entrance to the building.
A spray of shot caught me in the back and threw me out into the street. Fighting to grab a breath I rolled over onto my back to greet the gunner who had almost ended my shadowrunning days. The greetings came in the form of a silent burst from the Viper, its tiny daggers ripping through his flesh and clothes like an angry cloud of hornets.
Rolling over, I lined my Predator up with yet another gunman to send an armor-piercing round through his throat. His head hung from strings of skin and blood vessels as his body sunk to the sidewalk.
Adrenaline rushed through me, allowing me to ignore the pain of the gunshots and bruises too numerous to count. I felt more alive than I ever had in my life. I felt invincible. I managed to listen through the pounding of blood through my ears and heard nothing more than the sounds of the street.
Unfortunately, the common sounds of the street include police sirens. I thought better than to take on the police and I took off running through alleyways and abandoned buildings as I made my way into a nicer area of town. Not that this part was really all that nice, but it was nice enough that I could grab a cab back to Dante's.
Throughout the ride, my mind drifted to thoughts about the kid and his friends. My father had already died at the hands of someone's "friends." Would they come after me? Did they even know that the kid hired me? What was supposed to be an easy baby-sit turned into hell and it didn't look to get any easier from here on out.
Well, if they want me, they can damn well try to get me. I won't make myself lose sleep over it. Getting paranoid won't do me any good. Best to just go about life as before and continue my running. I kept trying to get the thought of his "friends" coming after me for vengeance, but I knew it wouldn't work. The scene of my father's office just kept popping up over and over. The bodies, the blood...
Thankfully, I was brought out of my reverie by the screeching of the cab's brakes and the cabby's yell to "Pay me and get the fuck out." I paid the man with a handful of crumpled nuyen and hopped out, walking for where I had parked my Aurora.
The ride back was calming. I needed it in a bad way, but the calm also made me realize just how bad I hurt all over. By the time I got to my door I was so weary that I could barely crawl into bed. I would shower in the morning, yeah. And I'd get a nice hot breakfast. Not substitute food either, real stuff. I deserved it after that. Yeah, that'll be great, but now I just need to sleep.
Weary muscles and mind succumbed quickly and within seconds I was well into a dreamless sleep.
The sheets stuck to my body in two places, reminding me of everything that I had done the night before. Two deep red blotches graced my formerly white silk sheets as well as the basic filth I had picked up during the fighting. I pulled them off and bit my lip as I felt the wounds pull open.
Stripping out of my armored clothes I hobbled into the shower. My mind raced to reproduce everything that had happened as the pinprick tingling of the superhot water scoured the grime off my body. I took out a pair of tweezers and looked down at the hole in my thigh. I told myself it wouldn't hurt. I told myself again and again and again as I stuck the metal prongs in my leg and fished out the tiny bullet. A steady stream of expletives rewarded the effort, but the bullet was out.
After a quick search I saw that the second bullet that had tagged me had passed clean through my side a couple inches above my hip. No major parts there, thankfully. I washed both spots down thoroughly and fought myself out of the shower after about 10 more minutes. I slapped three patches over the wounds and tied my robe around my waist.
I made my way to the kitchen and began brewing up some tea that Alistair had managed to get a hold of from a friend overseas. Damned expensive stuff, but I deserved something good after the hell I went through last night.
An incessant muffled beep led me back to the bedroom where I found my pocket secretary wadded up in the sheets. I popped it open and scanned the messages. One message, timed at 5pm. The PocSec showed the actual time to be a hair past 9pm. The message was from Alistair. I dialed him up as I made my way to the kitchen for my tea.
"Heya, TopCat." Alistair's face lit up the vidphone display.
"What's up, Al?" I knew he hated being called that, but I was of a mood to be difficult today.
"Seems that some people caught your act last night and were more than a little impressed. They talked to their people who talked to my people who talked to me who is now talking to you." Alistair got that smug look that just screamed the fact that he was one of the most connected fixers in the biz.
"Your point being?" I shook off a bit of creeping grogginess and killed it with some tea. Damn powerful stuff.
Alistair looked miffed at my crassness. "My point is that they want to meet you. In a big way. They're willing to pay you a grand just for listening to them."
"Man, this just fraggin reeks of a set-up. How the hell do I know I'm not going to be walking into a shooting gallery?" The bullet wounds expressed their approval of my attitude with a couple twinges of pain.
"Calm down, TopCat. The people they worked this meet with are dependable. I've known them for a long time and they wouldn't pull something like this on me or any of mine. I knew how you'd feel about this and I wouldn't feel any better were I in your shoes, so as of now there's no place for the meet. That's for you to choose, me to relay and them to be at."
Alistair had worked this one pretty sweetly. "So nobody knows that I've even accepted this meet, right? Let alone where I might choose to have it?"
"That's right, TopCat old chummer. It's all in your hands. That grand could also be in your hands if you choose to listen to 'em. You can choose to avoid it, but this may be a big break. People willing to spend that kind of cash on something so little as a meet are good people to know."
"I'll think on it over dinner, alright? By the way, this tea is damn phenomenal. Can you get me any more?"
"I'll see what I can do. Talk to ya later." Alistair didn't wait for my reply, the screen going black before my mouth opened.
Scanning the fridge for some munchies I found some remains of a soy pizza and a bowl of something that was probably salad. I set my dinner-to-be on my countertop and chowed away while I thought about whether or not I should make the meet or not.
Chances are, this is a set-up. Whether Alistair believes it or not, I do. Which means a couple things. Whoever I'll be meeting with will be gunning for me, so I need to be well-armored and -armed. It also means it'll be a chance for me to find out who is after me. No more chasing shadows.
So if I do take it. I'll meet whoever it is that's after me. If anyone is even after me. I'll get a cool grand in nuyen no matter what happens if it's a legit deal. It could mean a whole lot of openings for me if what Alistair said is true.
If I choose not to take it, then I'll never know if someone wants to kill me or if they just want to know me or what. Upside to this is that I don't take the chance of getting iced so soon.
Sooner or later they'll find me, no matter what their reason. Looks like there's only one choice.
I dialed up Alistair.
I danced through the crowds, working my way to a back booth in Hell that I had come to kind of call my own. I guess not everyone had heard that, because I saw two teens busily making out in my booth. Mental note to check for stains if you ever sit there again. I had liked that one too.
I settled on one a little further back in the shadows. It was better viewpoint-wise and it kept me out of sight much better than the other. Unfortunately it also kept me out of sight of the waitress. It took about 10 minutes for me to finally flag one down. I ordered a double 1800 and waited patiently for its arrival.
The waitress returned with a questioning look on her face. I expected the bubblehead to blurt out something like "You're an elf, aren't you?" or some other mindless dribble. Instead she asked if I was supposed to be meeting some people tonight.
I nodded and poured myself a hefty shot of tequila and waited for the waitress to speak again. She sort of glanced over to my usual booth and there I saw a pair of corp-types, one in black, the other in white. Both appeared to be Japanese in descent and didn't look to be packing, but then again, neither did I.
They were looking over the couple and asking them questions. The boy stood up and started barking at Black and he was quickly subdued with a wristlock and redirected out of the booth. His girlfriend took off after him like an barghest in heat and disappeared into the crowd. Both suits seated themselves in the booth and waved down a waitress.
I told my waitress that I'd be moving to that table and left her a sizable tip. Making my way there was fairly easy compared to getting into the nightclub and soon I stood before them.
"Komban-wa, TopCat-sama" They said in unison with bows of their heads. "Thank you for agreeing to meet with us."
"The offer was a little hard to refuse." I said, hoping they'd pay me before they started their spiel.
"We thought it might make things a bit smoother." White said.
"You may call me Mr. Black and my partner Mr. White." Black said, there was something to the way he moved. Possessing a grace few people would ever see and fewer still would ever have. He was chipped or active. White looked way too normal to be hanging around with this guy. All the more reason to keep an eye on him, I thought.
"And you may call me TopCat" I said as I took a seat across from them. The sound and lights made it difficult to tell if anyone else had come with them. Hell, someone could probably walk right up and geek me before I knew what was up. Mental note to pick quieter places for meets.
White slid a credstick over the table. It was a certified, standard payment for shadow-services. It showed 1000 nuyen exactly. I pawed it and slipped it into my coat. "Your dime, gentlemen. What's this about?"
"We received word of your actions the other night and were most impressed. For someone to pop up on the shadow-scene and perform so admirably in his debut is rare indeed. We think you have talent and we'd like to use said talent."
"My talents are always available for the right price and cause, gentlemen. I'm sure something can be arranged. What kind of work do you have in mind and more appropriately, what kind of nuyen?" Maybe these two weren't so bad after all.
"Cutting quickly to the chase, I can see we will like working with you Mr. TopCat." White's smile damn near blinded me.
"Wetwork. A nasty troll has something of ours and we want it back. Chances are too good he knows what it is so we need him to disappear and we need the item back in our hands as soon as possible."
Not too many people would use words like that in public, were they amateurs or were they so damn sure of themselves that I was the man? "Maybe I can, maybe I can't. What's the price tag?"
Black's turn to grin. "We would like to work this out in trade if possible..." Very bad sign. "...you cost us quite a lot of money in training and manpower that night." Fragging bad sign.
That's when I noticed the stickpin in White's lapel. A golden pin with a Renraku standard on it. I was fragged in a big way.
"We traded away our men and now you will perform this service for us or you will conveniently disappear."
I looked around, still no sign of help for these two, but that meant nothing. I was caught and caught bad.
"Of course, you get to keep the 1000 nuyen for the meet." Great, that's got to cover me fighting a troll. Fragged, fragged, FRAGGED!
They both laughed lightly. "You see, we don't take such things lightly. But your death is not nearly as valuable as the troll's. You will do this and we'll call it even. Call it a soft spot in our hearts for new kids."
I'm sure I was turning red. I can't believe I got set up like this. Alistair was going to have some answering to do for this one. "OK, you got me. What's the word on the troll?"
"I'm glad you see it our way." White said. Something tells me that Black didn't feel that way. "He's holed up in the Barrens somewhere. As you may guess, we don't get out that way much. Before he turned samurai..." he said the last word with utter disgust. "...he was a ganger down there. We figured he would go back to his old friends and at last word it certainly appeared that he had done so."
"So what I have to go on is I'm looking for a troll ganger in the Barrens. He's stolen some drek-hot item from you guys and you need him dead and it returned. What the frag is it anyway?" Might as well tell me to find an elf in Tir Tairngire.
"Here is a chip with some security footage of the troll. We managed to get everyone on the team except him. Maybe you should've ran with them instead of protecting the boy, eh? Not much even the best bodyguard can do against IC, now is there?" White's grin threatened to split his head in half.
I took the proffered chip and stuffed it away. "Anything more to work with here? Name, maybe even gang affiliation?"
"His name is unknown to us, but we do know that he ran with a thrill-gang called the Deadboyz. A mixed-race group of low level samurai. The rest we just don't know. You'd better get going, you don't have much time."
"What do you mean?" I wasn't at all prepared for drek like this.
"Oh, how forgetful of us. You have six hours to do this or we will find you. Maybe it'll be one of us, maybe another runner. Maybe some little old lady at a newsstand. But we will find you if you fail or try to run out on the job. Oh, and by the way, good luck." His laughter was drowned out by a sudden roar in the music.
I leapt from my seat and ran through the sea of clubbers to the exit. As I burst out into the streets, I tossed a few bills to the ganger who was watching my bike, kicked it on and blasted off to the Barrens.
The laughter echoed in my head the whole ride. Death was with me again, and she wouldn't leave tonight unsated.
I dumped my bike in an alleyway and slipped a few gangers a handful of nuyen to keep it safe for me with a promise of more to come when I returned. I also told them that it was as good as theirs if I didn't show by sunrise. They seemed to like that idea a lot.
I chatted with them a bit, hoping to find some info on the troll I was hunting. Two hundred nuyen later they dropped the location of the Deadboyz turf. Not to mention a few stories about people who had tried to make it in there. When one gang says "those fraggers are nasty" about another gang that isn't part of their set, you know that it's chip-truth.
So now I have a location, albeit a general one. I have a face, but no name. The gangers didn't know too many Deadboyz and from the sound of it weren't all that willing to be that kind of curious. I checked my current location to my map of Seattle as I uploaded it from memory to my datalink. Nearly a damn klick, should've come in from the north. Time to get moving.
Sprinting through the onslaught of the rain I found myself in Deadboyz turf in no time. Of course, some Deadboyz also found me. Hopping a few luckily available fire-escapes and bursting through a handful of apartments kept me from being anything more than a ghost in the rain. I slipped back down to ground level after a few minutes and made my way to a corner diner.
It might've been a decent retro-diner, typical 1950's style place set in an old train car, might've. The old owners had smartly left this place to newer management that wouldn't have to deal with the gangs. An ork who smelled only slightly worse than the food he was fixing waved a spatula at me and grunted out something unintelligible. I gave him the finger and he grinned then busted out in a loud guffaw.
"What's a fraggin' elf wantin in dese parts? Ya see, da menu gots no dandelions on it, chummer. We only serves real grub 'ere." The ork grinned and I swear I saw the tail of something disappear between his tusks.
"I'm looking for a friend, chummer. The kind money can buy, you know what I mean?" I kept my eyes and head low, using the reflection off of the counter to tell me what was happening around the place. Aside from some chipped out troll sprawled in a corner booth and two orks going at it like they'd been at sea for a year, the place was deserted.
"A friend, huh? Har! Elf has ta come down ta da Barrens ta get laid does he?"
I cut him off with a hiss. "I don't dabble in diseases, trog. I'm looking for some muscle for a job I've got lined up. Heard there's some real solid talent in the Deadboyz so I came down to take a look for myself."
"Ohhhhh, dat kinda friend. Well, da Deadboyz live pretty well, ya'd 'ave ta 'ave some big nuyen ta get dem ta helps yas." His eyes gleamed with greed. Good, I thought this one'll talk it up good for cheap. Let's just hope I can understand what the hell he's saying.
I slid a wad of nuyen notes out of my jacket. My hand slamming down on the countertop in front of the ork, but not leaving the cash. He drooled as I suspected he would and his hands quivered for a chance to snatch the cash that would probably buy him his next month's worth of chips. "Nuyen enough, I believe. More I learn now, the less I gotta pay them. Saves money for other expenses like burgers. What say 100 nuyen for your greasiest and a few names of interest?"
I had him by the balls in this negotiation. Fragger damn near pissed himself in delight. "I kin do dat fer yas, chummer. I knows all da Deadboyz. I knows which ones'll work and which ones're worth da nuyen. Make it 200 and ya'll know whatcha need ta." His eye twitched nervously, he just realized that he was giving away a whole hell of a lot. Time to sweeten the deal.
"Tell you what, chummer. A name is only going to do so much, you know. I'd need a place too. And places don't come cheap, I'd guess. Call it 500 nuyen and I need to know where to find one specific trog. You slotting this?"
His jaw dropped at the mention of that much cash. "OK, who ya looking for?" I described him direct from the datalink's picture. Everything down to the length of his horns. The guy obviously knew who I was talking about, but he seemed reluctant to talk to me about him.
"What's the matter? Lost interest in nuyen all of a sudden?" I pulled my hand back across the table. He slapped his hand down on top of mine and leaned close. The smell of him damn near had me puking, he'd better do whatever he was going to fast.
"'is name's Tiny. Ya'll find 'im in da whorehouse down da road about t'ree blocks. He's real nervous-like about sumptin an' da 'boyz are watching out fer 'im. Ya jus' lookin fer him fer a job, right? Yas ain't gonna try ta geek 'im are ya?" He was worried, not for Tiny. He was worried because he knew that the Deadboyz would find out who ratted Tiny's location. And he was worried about what would happen if the visitor turned up a killer.
"Just a job, chummer." I said and lifted my hand from the wad of bills on the counter. The ork had scooped it up a split-second faster than I had let it go. I then pulled up my collar and stepped out to the rain.
Three blocks later I came to a building that looked like it was on its last leg. The acidic rain had eaten away at the plasticrete of the walls and most of the windows had been busted out by gunshot or by body, I guessed. Two trolls stood out front holding pipes the size of my leg and advancing steadily toward me.
"Hey there, chummers." I raised my hands defensively. "I'm here looking for a joygirl for the night, been a rough one and I just need someone to take it out on if you know what I mean." I studied their reactions, they were also trying to figure out what the hell an elf was doing in this part of town. "I'm hiding out here til things cool down, you know? Knew there wouldn't be any 'Star or Corps here. What do you say, guys? Can't an elf have a little fun too?"
The trolls commented rather crudely about the word "little", then they lowered their clubs. I asked for Tiny's girlfriend. They told me she was busy, as I had hoped. If she's busy, then he's there. So I asked for the next best thing. They set me up with what probably passes for cute in an ork and ushered me upstairs. Before I shut the door I turned to one of the bouncers and whispered to him. "You mind telling me her room number so when I come back I'll know where to go? She's supposed to be the best from what I hear." They were obviously pleased that their talent was talked of so highly and told me.
I looked at my door, 206. She was in 413. That means that Tiny is also in 413. Which means I've not only got to get up two flights of stairs, but I've got to get across the fragging building. How the hell do I run this?
I solved the problem by gasping as I looked at the door. The joygirl looked at me as she was stripping out of her skirt. "What's wrong, hmm?"
"I can't be in this room. Something bad happened to me once in a situation like this. Just don't like being on low floors when I do this kind of thing." I blushed.
She pressed the story and I made up a line about having been caught in a bust because I was on a low floor and that I would've been able to escape had I been higher up.
She believed it all well enough and led me up the stairs to the fourth floor. Perfect, I thought. She chose room 407 and waved me in. Now I had to find a way to ditch her and get to Tiny. I couldn't kill her. That would be cold-blooded murder. She hadn't done anything but be the wrong person at the wrong time. So now what? A plan formed.
I walked over to her, she was undressing again, and laid her down onto the rusted, old bed. I slipped out of my overcoat, laying my guns next to it. I fished around for something in my coat for a second and she looked up.
I sprang atop her, hands covering her mouth. That's no small feat, mind you, orks have monstrous maws. All the better for...well, back to the work at hand. I grabbed a pillow and put it over her face. My body's weight pinning her to the bed as I slapped the tranq patch on her chest.
She kicked and let out muffled screams for all of 15 seconds as the drug worked its way into her system. I hopped off about 20 after that, just to be sure she wasn't playing possum. One down. Minimum of two to go. Tiny and his squeeze. Don't have to kill her, but he had to die. Frag Renraku for forcing me into this mess.
I slipped my guns back on and my overcoat as well. The familiar grips of the Viper and Predator filled my hands and I made my way to the window. There was a ledge about a foot wide circling the floor. The streets were all but empty and that made the prospect of going that way a little dangerous. One wandering eye and I became a duck in a shooting gallery. Best to just go through the door.
I slipped out into the hall and checked it out. No guards in sight. Guess they trusted those two monsters out front to do the job. Hell, I'd trust them to keep me safe.
Catlike footfalls took me to the door to room 413. I pressed my ear to the door for a listen. Loud snoring and footsteps coming for the door. I spun and pressed my body flat to the wall as the door opened. The shadow crossed the floor and showed on the wall opposite me as Tiny's joygirl opened the door.
"Jerry! I need some food up here now!" She yelled out the door, leaning forward. She turned just in time to see me and Jerry came up the stairs to get a solid view of me as well. I'm fragged, I'm fragged, I'm fragged.
I didn't have to look long. The giant of a troll charged into me with the force of a suborbital. His momentum picked me up off of my feet and carried me four full meters until we crashed into the refrigerator.
My vision fogged immediately and a lance of pain ripped through my back. My arms and legs went numb from the shock and my pistols clattered to the floor. I shook my head in time to see a huge paw closing over my face.
Tiny screamed in rage and pulled me out of the fridge by my face. Turning, he slammed the back of my head into the floor. Wood panels snapped instantly under the power of his attack and I felt splinters slicing into my flesh. The whole world was spinning. If not for my titanium-laced skeleton, I'd be dead. Instead I was forced to live through this beating.
Again and again the giant slammed my skull into/through the floor. Then he stood, still holding me by my face, and lifted me over his head. The only reason I knew I was going up was that the light was brighter. Or was I finally passing out? Then the floor rushed up to meet me.
I swear that nothing I have ever seen could've done what he did there, but I was thrown through the floor, through the ceiling of the room below, and through a table in that room. Everything hurt. I couldn't get my breath and I couldn't feel my limbs. My eyesight was shot, every vision coming in nothing less than triplicate. I wasn't going to make it, and that thought held some kind of comfort.
Tiny's impact as he jumped down was not unlike that of a mortar round. He began to kick my ribs viciously, screaming something. I wish I could've heard him, but the ringing in my ears covered up pretty much anything else. He then picked me up in his arms, holding my limp form like a rag doll.
Mercifully, everything began to fade out slowly. The only thought in my mind was to drift away to where there is no pain and no big trolls to dish it out. That's when Tiny began to squeeze.
I screamed. An inhuman sound escaping my tortured body. It even surprised Tiny because he let up for an instant, then redoubled his efforts. I just kept screaming. I felt something snap. A rib? Impossible, they're laced with titanium. Another wet snap accompanied with an electric lance of pain. Another. He was cracking me open like a walnut. The constant presence of the pain was the only thing keeping me awake enough to live through this.
Something happened then, though I'll never quite know what triggered it. But I knew what had happened. My claws were out. Retractable carbide blades built into sheaths under my fingernails. I fought and fought through the pain as I felt another rib go, finally wriggling one arm free. I swiped my hand across Tiny's eyes.
I know it didn't have a lot of force behind it, but when I didn't see anything happen immediately after the attack I was wondering just what kind of monster I was facing. Then his eyes split open, their fluids running down his face. Four more lines suddenly appeared, then opened wide to release a flood of blood down his face. Tiny dropped me and held his hands up to his face, trying to hold it together. He stumbled madly about the room, flinging furniture as easily as one might throw a ball, bellowing out cries for help.
I crawled to my feet and from there to a countertop. With a slight hop, which was about all I could manage, I managed to sink my claws into the floor of the room above. With no small effort and pain that made the effort seem like hell itself, I was back upstairs and safe from the troll on rampage below. I located my pistols and trained them on the hulking form in the room below. I heard his cries, he was in excruciating pain. He was blind. And he couldn't do anything about it.
I started firing bursts from the Viper. Didn't stop til the last moan escaped Tiny's body. The door splintered open and I saw the ork named Jerry with an axe in his hands. I pointed my pistols his way and he froze. "Look, I just want to get out of here. No more problems. That, or I can put six flechettes into your left eye's pupil before you can take your next step toward me. Just let me do what I have to and we'll all get out of here alive."
Jerry stepped backward, but kept his axe readied. I kept one eye on him and both guns while I searched the room quickly. I finally found what I wanted in Tiny's coat. A small chipcase complete with chip. I pocketed it and slipped out onto the ledge.
I managed to get around to an alley where I jumped into a dumpster full of what had to be year-old trash. The stench managed to loosen my guts which were in no condition to hold anything back down. I watched the days' meals come out in fast forward and pulled myself from the trash.
My muscles were quivering and every quiver brought pain. I glanced down at my side and saw my shirt had turned crimson. A quick check showed me that he had indeed cracked a few of my ribs. In fact, I could see two of them now in plain sight. I watched the meals from the day before come up as I sank to my knees in the rain-drenched alley.
I heard the commotion beginning and stumbled up to my feet, maintaining a shambling gait as I turned toward the turf where I had stashed my bike. My vision started to cloud and I realized that I probably wouldn't make it the kilometer-plus I had to go to get there. I came out of the alley to see the diner. Then I remembered the two orks who were at play while I was there. If they had any transport...
My luck. A Harley Scorpion with a jury rigged ignition system awaited me. I somehow got my carcass over to it and saw the face of the orks in the diner as I started it up with a roar. He tried to get untangled from his girlfriend but by that time I was blasting out of the area.
Alistair sent someone for the chip. I got a message from my Renraku buddies saying how pleased they were with my work and that maybe they could find a use for me another day. I left them a message to frag off and die.
The run is over and I am still nowhere near my goal of finding my father's killers. It'll be a few weeks before I do anything more than sitting around my apartment and drinking that tea that Alistair gets for me. After that, it's back on the trail for me. My bike'll be in in a week, maybe I'll take a vacation once it gets here. A nice little trip down the coast. Tir is supposed to be beautiful this time of year.
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