Seattle, 15 December, 2050
Winter arrived while I was lying in bed, doped up on painkillers and antibiotics, as my injuries slowly healed. You would think that getting shot hurt the most. But that's a short sharp pain. Bones knitting back together, especially ones reinforced with plastic is an agony that seems unending.
Finlay has been great. I think he feels responible for our well-being. He's been cooking up chicken soup by the gallon. Well, when I say chicken, I mean chicken flavoured soy. But it is hot and drives out the cold, and even though he practically had to spoon feed me the first couple of days, it made me feel better.
And whether it's the drugs or the fact that the feds freed the senator's daughter and all those other girls, I have been sleeping like a log. No bourbon required to drown out the nightmares.
As the physical injuries heal and I can slowly hobble from my bed to the sitting room on my own, it feels like my mental wounds are also on the mend. Not healed, not by a long shot. Hell I'm not sure if that is even possible, but they somehow feel less raw. Zero even catches me smiling and humming an old country and western number at one point. She asks me what I did with the real Billie.
After a couple of weeks, I manage to do some light exercises with Finlay. He laughs at me when he sees me working out with weights in both hands. I sometimes forget that my right arm just needs charged. In fact the new arm can easily lift twice what my left can, well unless I kick in the magic.
We have been keeping a low profile since we got shot up during the extraction. Hell, Zero has even taken a temp job at some jap corp. She tells me they can be real unfriendly to non-japs and seem to think that metahumans are second class citizens. I wouldn't put up with that sort of crap, but I guess she just likes being around people more than I do.
She has also made a new friend, another corpsec called Catherine. They have even been out clubbing together. In fact, they are going out again tonight. The rest of us haven't been invited. I guess Zero wants to keep her corpsec and shadowrunner lives separate.
I've just settled in front of the trid with my first drink in nearly a month when Finlay shouts up to me. Apparently Jamal, our fake Jamaican taxi driver has a couple of open spots for a poker game and has asked if we are interested. Hell, I've been going slowly stir crazy here so I jump at the chance to get out.
Even though it's cold and wet we take my bike. Like me, it could use some exercise. Finlay's big ass means the Harley is sitting low on its shocks, but his weight gives some extra traction. I open her up and she responds like the thoroughbred she is, hauling us through the rain and traffic with a deep, satisfying roar that you can feel in your guts.
We are about halfway to Jamal's place when my phone buzzes. I take the call, easing off on the gas and steering with one hand. I can barely hear Zero's voice over the rain and the purr of the engine. But I get that she is in trouble. I pull over as she whispers an address then tells me to pretend I don't know her before she hangs up.
The address if for a Stuffer Shack not far from where we are. I spin the bike round and open the throttle wide. I let the rev counter creep into the red as we tear across the barrens, dodging through traffic and leaving a trail of spray and honking horns behind us.
In less than two minutes we arrive at the place. I let the bike's revs drop to a low rumble as we drive past the store. Several bikes sit outside, marked with the same gang colors. Not good. I find a quiet spot to park and drawing the Deputy, we make our way quickly but quietly towards the store.
Through the rain slick window, I can see that things are much worse than 'not good'. There's a big dude with a combat shotgun stuffed in some fat mama's mouth. Behind him I can see Zero and another woman huddled on the floor.
There's a guy near the door with an SMG and another one is using a long blade to undress a trembling checkout girl. I whisper what I can see to Finlay as he draws his spear and moves towards the door.
There's a ding and he's gone before the door is fully open. The kid with the SMG doesnt even have time to react. Hell, I can only watch in horror as Finlay takes the kid's head clean off with one powerful sweep of the spear's bladed tip.
As my reactions catch up, and believe me I'm no slouch in that department, Finlay is already moving towards the guy with the blade. I spin inside and spot the dude with the shotgun across the store. My revolver comes up and I take the shot. The heavy caliber round should have taken his head clean off, but he must of moved at the last moment or something, because it only grazes the side of his head. The scary part is that he seems pretty unfazed for a guy that just got shot in the head.
There's a roar of fire as he opens up. Fortunately I don't see what that first burst does to the fat woman's head till later. Even more fortunately as the gun comes up to bear on me, that first burst gives me enough time to get the frag out of the line of fire. Stone chips shower me as the heavy slugs tear into the wall where my head was a fraction of a second earlier.
A women screams in anger, rushing at Finlay with her gun blazing. Luckily for him, her shots go wide, just tearing up the cans and packages on the shelves and displays. Then two heavy pistol shots to the head take her down from behind. Zero obviously has her new Glock with her.
Finlay makes short work of knife boy, the spear's length giving him a significant edge over the ganger's blade. I put another two shots into shotgun dude, but he just fragging shakes them off and returns fire. I barely make it into cover, the heavy bullet rounds ripping chunks out of the store's plascrete walls as I duck.
I move further into the store, using the shelves as cover and picking my way carefully around glass and spilled liquids. Finlay goes the other way. Hopefully we can pincer this guy before he can get us in his sights. Shotgun dude blindfires a couple of bursts through the racks of shelves and I also hear more shots from Zero's gun.
Taking a chance, I step out from behind the shelf. Shotgun dude is right in front of me. He's not even looking at me. Instead he's got the shotgun pointed squarely at Finlay's head. I let my magic do it's thing. The revolver comes up smoothly, almost like it knows what it's doing.
Time slows. I can see the fragger's finger tightening on the trigger, but I have all the time in the world to aim and fire. Unlike my previous shots, where range, cover, armor plates and sheer goddamned luck kept them from doing any real damage, this one is dead center on his head. It tears through his ear and into his brain, the metal plates bonded to his skull keeping it from going clean through. He manages to mutter a surpised frag, then his knees go out and he topples back. Lucky for Finlay he doesn't reflexively pull the trigger.
We check on Zero and her pal, playing ignorant but turns out its all in vain. Zero tells us later that Catherine, or Cleo as she wants us to call her, had overheard Zero's call to us and put two and two together when we turned up a couple of minutes later.
Finlay groans. Seems one of those big shotgun rounds clipped him. I grab a medkit off a shelf and a bottle of bourbon out of a shot up cabinet. The owner of the joint, a dwarf, is badly hurt. But he waves me away as I try to help him, telling us to get clear as the Star are on their way.
We book and find a quiet alley where I patch up Finlay. It's not a bad as it looked. Either his armour took the brunt of the impact or his magic heals him faster than I thought. Wish my powers were more like that. While I can ignore pain to some extent, I don't heal as fast. I think he got the better deal.
We're both too wired to go back home, so we continue onto Jamal's. It's good that we do. He has some premium weed and his girl makes a damn fine mojito. Helps that Jamal somehow got hold of some real Jamaican rum to put in them. Finlay's injury is obviously bothering him and his game is off. He ends up owing us all, but we're only playing small stakes. The booze and the weed help take the edge off and when we finally do head home, I drive a lot more carefully.
November 21, 2010
October 10, 2010
Billie's Journal
Seattle, November 8, 2050
Boosted reflexes and a short fuse sure don't mix well. The Green Ronin slumps back unconscious as the rest of the team glare 'WTF' at me. I shrug and offer a weak apology.
Digging out my medkit, I consider hitting him with a stim patch, but a quick look at his eyes makes me hesitate. I don't want him croaking on us from an overdose, at least not yet. I pull out some smelling salts instead and wave them under his nose. That gets his attention although he's still pretty out of it.
Still wearing just a sheet, Zero appears with his deck. She takes his hand and places it on the palm reader. She purrs at him, asking for his password. I don't quite get what he says, something about images or icons, but Zero grocks it and soon a sultry female voice is talking to her from the deck in Japanese. She heads back into the living room leaving me to handle qestioning the jap.
Intimidation isn't going to work so I have to try charming him, all the while trying not to think about the last time I had to do this with Duncan the octopus in Scotland. I ask him who he was watching the hospital for and he proudly announces that his boss is Hanzo Shotozumi.
Yeah, the Hanzo Shotozumi, oyabun of oyabuns for Seattle and the big cheese of the yakuza in North America. My stomach sinks at that. I had hoped his connection was somewhere further down the ladder, not up in the frakkin' penthouse. No wonder Mr Kurso Tomori, aka the Green Ronin, has such a nice pad. That also explains the rather extensive and expensive cybertattoos covering most of his back.
I ask how he gets in touch with him and he rattles off the LTG of a dead drop box, well at least that's what Zero tell me it is, whatever that might be.
Then I ask him what he knows about the girls. He's snuggling up close to me trying to kiss me. I have to fight down the sick feeling in my stomach. I recognise it now as my system getting ready to kick my strength into overdrive. Warning symbols flash in my vision, as the new arm's limiters go offline. With a supreme effort I fight it down, pulling away from Kurso and taking a walk to calm down. I tell him I need a drink and frag me I really do.
He calls after me saying there's champagne and strawberries in the fridge. When I feel my heart slow to something approaching normal, I raid the fridge. Finlay is sitting in one of the chairs in the living room, his glare flicking between the entrance door, the bedroom and Zero. Zero has finally put her clothes back on and is currently curled up in a leather office chair, jacked into Green Ronin's deck.
The padre is hanging by the bedroom door, keeping an eye on the jap and sustaining the compel truth spell he cast on him. I saunter past him with the champagne and the strawberries, real ones at that. If I'm going to have to seduce this snake to get the info, I might as well enjoy it. I pour us each a glass of the champagne. It's good stuff but it's taste pales against the fresh, real strawberries. Sitting on the bed next to the Kurso, I take turns feeding him a strawberry, eating one myself and then asking him a question.
He sure is a charmer, I have to give him that. I catch myself almost letting him kiss me, when I lean over to feed him the next strawberry. I need to keep my mind on the job. I try another tack, and ask him how many hospitals he was watching. He sulks, telling me he will only whisper that secret in my ear if I 'share' a strawberry with him.
Yuck! Looks like I need to take another one for the team. No, not for the team, for those 17 other girls still held prisoner by these fraggers. I put the strawberry half in my mouth, holding it delicately between my teeth and lean into him. He bites into his half, then proceeds to kiss me. He's rather a good kisser, but all I can think about is trying not to stab him repeatedly with my hand blade which I had popped reflexively. I pull away for a breath feeling my cheeks flush and ask for the answer, turning my head so he can whisper in my ear.
He whispers, "All of them."
For a moment, I cannot speak, think or act. Part of me is screaming kill him now, the other part just wants to curl up and cry. I look to the padre, but he missed it. So, I ask again if he meant 'all' of them and he just grins and says yes. The padre's eyes go wide and he nods. The smarmy little shit is telling the truth.
I ask him how many girls are on the list and he just shrugs, "A couple of hundred."
A tear rolls down my cheek and I hear myself say, "Enough of this." Smack. I hit him. Hard. And again. He slumps back unconscious. The padre pulls me off with a soft, "Easy lass."
We return to the living room. Zero is still in the matrix and Finlay is still glaring at everyone. I finish up the champagne with the padre, then wash up the glasses and wipe down the surfaces to remove any stray fingerprints.
Zero suddenly jerks upright in the chair. She is breathing hard like she's been running. She tells us that she's just been in yakuza headquarters in Japan and managed to snatch some data on the senator's daughter before the system started to get suspicious.
We beat feet and, fortunately, don't get pulled over on our way home. Zero downloads a copy of the data for me, but there's reams of the stuff and my computer skills are distinctly lacking, okay non-existant. After an hour of searching, I decide to pack it in for the night and go to bed. I consider asking Zero, but she is busy cleaning our datatrail. It can wait.
I'm not long in bed when I hear a shouting match between Zero and Finlay. It starts off with her shouting at him about the broken tail-light then quickly becomes him shouting at her about getting it on with the Green Ronin. She's going to break that poor fragger's heart. Then, I hear the padre shouting at them to keep it down. I pull the pillow over my head and try to sleep.
Seattle, November 9, 2050
I wake late and drag myself to the kitchen for coffee and fake eggs. It works. Zero and Finlay's shouting match seems to have cleared the air a bit as she is back to her usual perky self, although I can hear Finlay working out with his spear downstairs.
I return to the data. After a couple of hours with no luck, I throw in the towel and ask Zero for help. In less than 20 minutes she has found out that the girl is still alive and even where she is being kept. I stare at her in amazement then call Danny.
I tell him I have a lead on our missing person and that we need to meet, now. I give him the address of a 'runner bar in the Redmond barrens. It's a rough place but still close to the edge. He seems a bit worried about getting there in one piece so I ask Finlay if he can get Jamal to pick him up. Finlay hauls Jamal out of bed, and ten minutes later we head down to the barrens.
The place is as bad as I remember. While there is a check for guns, no-one seems to mind me wearing the revolver. Guess it doesn't count as a real gun in here. There are only a few other people in at this time of day; one rough looking guy hitting the shots hard, and another fellow sitting loading his Ruger. The barman is a big muscled human with two cyberarms, both fitted with spurs. The spurs are extended.
Danny sits nervously in a booth, with the locals eyeing him up like a tasty snack. They lose interest when I join him and he visibly relaxes. I order a couple of shots, but Danny isn't drinking so I knock them back myself. Frag, I've drunk some rough booze in my time, but this stuff is only one step up from gasoline.
Coughing, I tell him about the data and hand him the chip. Finlay is blabbing in my ear to get the the money first. I ignore him. Danny scans the contents, his jaw slack. He asks if it's real and where I got it. I tell him it came direct from yakuza HQ in Japan. He is flabbergasted, then starts making calls. He talks to the senator first then tells me the dude wants to speak to me.
The senator has one of those calm voices that gets votes. He thanks me and tells me if the data holds up then he will pay the reward. I tell him that we would need it in cash or certified sticks. He pauses then agrees. I also tell him he should move quick to extract his daughter and that my team is available if more legitimate means aren't. He promises to think about that then asks to speak to Danny again. Danny verifies the data and hangs up. Then he calls his contact with the feds.
I'm getting verbal abuse from the team over my comm about the feds. I just tell them to chill. Danny tells me the government agent wants to speak with me. He can be in Seattle in 30 minutes. He asks me if I think we can get a coffee as I finish his shot. The barman just sneers. Danny suggests a working man's bar he knows down by Tacoma docks. I wait till Jamal arrives to pick him up, then follow him on the Harley with the rest of the team trailing in the van.
I'm on my second coffee and have had a second breakfast by the time the fed arrives. He's a lot younger than I expected, but his eyes are old. He slips into the booth across from me, next to Danny. He introduces himself as Agent Cooper; Danny later tells me his first name is Percy. I tell him he can call me Billie.
He scans the data and appreciates the offer of deniable assets but hopes the information will be enough to get a warrant. We exchange numbers and he leaves. Great, I'm working for the feds now.
Seattle, November 10, 2050
I get a call early. It's Danny. Agent Cooper's just been on the blower to him. The judge tossed out the warrant. Cooper wants another meet and I suggest the same place as we met yesterday. I haul ass over there and find an angry young man. He tells me he has a team in place but can't go in without probable cause.
He needs someone to make some noise, preferably heavy calibre and ideally with a few explosions. I nod and tell him we'll do it. He warns me that as soon as we start making noise, we will only have two minutes to get clear.
I ask about the Felicity Berman. He tells me he would like to hand her over to the senator, but if we think we can snatch her, he's cool as long as we deliver her to him. He tells me his team will be ready to go in 30 minutes. I reply that I better get to work then. He slips me a disk and we go our separate ways.
We return to the garage and load for bear. I take the SMG and a couple of grenades plus one of my little parcels of C4. Finlay has his new AR and spear, Zero her pistol and deck and the padre brings the mojo.
On our way over we work on the plan. Cooper's intel is good with satellite photos and more. The place is big, with a pool and it's own boat dock. There's a pile of cameras on the main building and regular three man guard patrols.
We decide to go in invisible, grab the girl and make a noisy exit. If anything goes wrong, we go straight to noisy and leave the rescue to the feds. We pull off into the woods a few minutes walk from the mansion. The padre mutters and complains as he casts the four invisibility spells needed to conceal all of us. He succeeds but he lets us know that the strain of maintaining all four spells means he is not up for any spell-slinging.
We make it to the wall around the place undetected. Finlay climbs up then helps the rest of us over. Everything is going smooth until we are about halfway to the main building. Then the padre croaks out 'contact' and all hell breaks loose.
First thing I feel is magic wash over me, but the padre gets between us and the spell and I shrug it off. Finlay is also unaffected but both Zero and the padre groan in pain. Finlay reacts fast, spinning around and firing a grenade at the wall behind us. Plan B he screams as two air elementals manifest around us. I pull a smoke grenade from my pocket and lob it towards the building but it goes wide, only covering the right hand side. Just my luck, as then about half a dozen goons pop up, most of them on the left, and open fire on us.
I hit the dirt and roll away from the incoming fire. The padre grunts as he takes a couple of rounds and I hear Zero cry out too. I mentally switch the SMG to full auto and lay down a line of fire towards the guys on the left, driving them into cover behind some parked cars. Finlay throws a smoke grenade, then draws his spear and moves to take on both the elementals, giving us a chance to run for it. Padre and Zero take off towards the hole in the wall.
Finlay is moving so fast it's hard to see. There's one shimmer then two as the air elements fall to his blows. A guy appears on the roof and I catch a burst as I get to my feet. I hiss as I feel the bullets punch through my armor. I keep my attention on suppressing the guys on the right as I stagger towards the wall. Finlay calmly sheathes his spear and switches back to his AR, suppressing the guy on roof. I tumble over the remains of the wall, tasting blood. Zero and the padre don't look to be in much better shape.
Finlay retreats behind the wall and I lob an HE grenade towards the house to discourage pursuit. He reloads his grenade launcher and sends an air-timed grenade towards the guy on the roof. There's a bang and a scream. Well, at least we got one of the fraggers.
I drop my little package behind the wall. Two minutes I call, then stagger off into the woods. Zero and the padre follow after me, while Finlay lays down some covering fire. He then catches up, scooping Zero off her feet and hustling back to the van.
I'm not surprised to find Percy the G-man waiting for us. Finlay is glaring at him with his AR held ready. I spit up some blood and push the gun away. I tell him to help the others into the van. From behind us I hear a large explosion, then the reports of heavy calibre rifles. Percy makes some comment about our condition and I reply with a tight grin that at least we are still alive, if barely. He hands me a card. It's for a doctor who owes him a favour. I ask about the Berman girl. He holds up a hand and touches his ear, then tells me that his men have just secured her.
I turn away, my shoulders slumping in relief and pain and climb in the van. Vision blurring, I call the doc and tell him who gave me his name. He ask what I want. I tell him we have multiple gunshot wounds and need treatment on the quiet. He gives me an address and tells me to pull into the garage.
Finlay drives while I try to bandage up Zero and the padre. I can't do much for myself so just have to press my hand against the hole in my side to stem the bleeding. When we get to the doctor's place and he opens the back door, he frowns that I didn't say there were several people injured. I cough up some more blood and point out I did say 'multiple' gunshot wounds. He asks who is the worst injured and I tell him I thinks it's me.
He gets me onto a table and starts cutting away my armor and clothes. I tell him about my 'ware, clinically listing the stats for the arm, bone lacing, boosters and eyes. I finally tell him that I am awakened and then promptly pass out.
When I awake it is dark. I feel numb and distant. Finlay's face slowly comes into focus. I ask about the others. He points to my left and Zero is lying there. Finlay tells me that the doc is working on the padre now, but he was able to heal himself a little, so isn't in as bad a shape as the two of us. I pass out again.
Seattle, November 16, 2050
It's been a week since we got shot to shit but we are healing nicely. The doctor gave Finlay a box of painkillers and antibiotics, which he has been feeding to us every day. It's almost funny to see him playing nurse but as he won't let me have a drink, something to do with booze not mixing with pills, I've been sober and cranky for most of the week.
Sober and unable to do much but sit up in bed, I've been watching a lot of news. Percy is having his 15 minutes of fame. He explains that while investigating a terrorist attack, his team stumbled on a prostitution ring and that the senator's daughter was amongst the girls recovered. There are no shots of any of the girls, but the senator makes several appearance making prepared statements about the return of his daughter, explaining that she is receiving medical treatment. Yeah, to remove all the drek they put in her head.
Danny is also in the news with a couple of hard hitting articles on the subject. The feds are denying any leaks from their department. That makes me laugh so hard it hurts.
Seattle, November 16, 2050
I finally get a call from Danny. The senator wants to meet us. We're all pretty much recovered, although my ribs still hurt a bit and I'm still sober.
The meet is on a boat on an out of the way dock. The senator is still a public figure and even though the case is old news, he probably doesn't want to be seen dealing with shadowrunners. Away from the camera, the senator looks older with a bit of a paunch. Or maybe those lines around his eyes are from seeing his daughter again.
He shakes all our hands and offers us drinks. The padre asks for a scotch, but I just ask for water. I tell myself its because I'm still on the drugs. He hands over a small briefcase, which I pass to Finlay to check. I ask him about his daughter and he tells me she is undergoing surgery to remove the cyberware the yakuza installed in her head and will then receive therapy to help recover her memories. He looks despondently down at the cabin floor and says that he thinks his little girl may be gone for good.
I growl at him, harsher than I intend to, that she is still his kid. Is this the sort of reaction I can expect from my own parents?
Then with another round of thanks and handshakes, we are ushered out. Back on the dock, I ask Danny how many girls the feds rescued. Eighteen, of which none apart from Felicity matched the names on the list from the hospital. Well, it's a start.
Boosted reflexes and a short fuse sure don't mix well. The Green Ronin slumps back unconscious as the rest of the team glare 'WTF' at me. I shrug and offer a weak apology.
Digging out my medkit, I consider hitting him with a stim patch, but a quick look at his eyes makes me hesitate. I don't want him croaking on us from an overdose, at least not yet. I pull out some smelling salts instead and wave them under his nose. That gets his attention although he's still pretty out of it.
Still wearing just a sheet, Zero appears with his deck. She takes his hand and places it on the palm reader. She purrs at him, asking for his password. I don't quite get what he says, something about images or icons, but Zero grocks it and soon a sultry female voice is talking to her from the deck in Japanese. She heads back into the living room leaving me to handle qestioning the jap.
Intimidation isn't going to work so I have to try charming him, all the while trying not to think about the last time I had to do this with Duncan the octopus in Scotland. I ask him who he was watching the hospital for and he proudly announces that his boss is Hanzo Shotozumi.
Yeah, the Hanzo Shotozumi, oyabun of oyabuns for Seattle and the big cheese of the yakuza in North America. My stomach sinks at that. I had hoped his connection was somewhere further down the ladder, not up in the frakkin' penthouse. No wonder Mr Kurso Tomori, aka the Green Ronin, has such a nice pad. That also explains the rather extensive and expensive cybertattoos covering most of his back.
I ask how he gets in touch with him and he rattles off the LTG of a dead drop box, well at least that's what Zero tell me it is, whatever that might be.
Then I ask him what he knows about the girls. He's snuggling up close to me trying to kiss me. I have to fight down the sick feeling in my stomach. I recognise it now as my system getting ready to kick my strength into overdrive. Warning symbols flash in my vision, as the new arm's limiters go offline. With a supreme effort I fight it down, pulling away from Kurso and taking a walk to calm down. I tell him I need a drink and frag me I really do.
He calls after me saying there's champagne and strawberries in the fridge. When I feel my heart slow to something approaching normal, I raid the fridge. Finlay is sitting in one of the chairs in the living room, his glare flicking between the entrance door, the bedroom and Zero. Zero has finally put her clothes back on and is currently curled up in a leather office chair, jacked into Green Ronin's deck.
The padre is hanging by the bedroom door, keeping an eye on the jap and sustaining the compel truth spell he cast on him. I saunter past him with the champagne and the strawberries, real ones at that. If I'm going to have to seduce this snake to get the info, I might as well enjoy it. I pour us each a glass of the champagne. It's good stuff but it's taste pales against the fresh, real strawberries. Sitting on the bed next to the Kurso, I take turns feeding him a strawberry, eating one myself and then asking him a question.
He sure is a charmer, I have to give him that. I catch myself almost letting him kiss me, when I lean over to feed him the next strawberry. I need to keep my mind on the job. I try another tack, and ask him how many hospitals he was watching. He sulks, telling me he will only whisper that secret in my ear if I 'share' a strawberry with him.
Yuck! Looks like I need to take another one for the team. No, not for the team, for those 17 other girls still held prisoner by these fraggers. I put the strawberry half in my mouth, holding it delicately between my teeth and lean into him. He bites into his half, then proceeds to kiss me. He's rather a good kisser, but all I can think about is trying not to stab him repeatedly with my hand blade which I had popped reflexively. I pull away for a breath feeling my cheeks flush and ask for the answer, turning my head so he can whisper in my ear.
He whispers, "All of them."
For a moment, I cannot speak, think or act. Part of me is screaming kill him now, the other part just wants to curl up and cry. I look to the padre, but he missed it. So, I ask again if he meant 'all' of them and he just grins and says yes. The padre's eyes go wide and he nods. The smarmy little shit is telling the truth.
I ask him how many girls are on the list and he just shrugs, "A couple of hundred."
A tear rolls down my cheek and I hear myself say, "Enough of this." Smack. I hit him. Hard. And again. He slumps back unconscious. The padre pulls me off with a soft, "Easy lass."
We return to the living room. Zero is still in the matrix and Finlay is still glaring at everyone. I finish up the champagne with the padre, then wash up the glasses and wipe down the surfaces to remove any stray fingerprints.
Zero suddenly jerks upright in the chair. She is breathing hard like she's been running. She tells us that she's just been in yakuza headquarters in Japan and managed to snatch some data on the senator's daughter before the system started to get suspicious.
We beat feet and, fortunately, don't get pulled over on our way home. Zero downloads a copy of the data for me, but there's reams of the stuff and my computer skills are distinctly lacking, okay non-existant. After an hour of searching, I decide to pack it in for the night and go to bed. I consider asking Zero, but she is busy cleaning our datatrail. It can wait.
I'm not long in bed when I hear a shouting match between Zero and Finlay. It starts off with her shouting at him about the broken tail-light then quickly becomes him shouting at her about getting it on with the Green Ronin. She's going to break that poor fragger's heart. Then, I hear the padre shouting at them to keep it down. I pull the pillow over my head and try to sleep.
Seattle, November 9, 2050
I wake late and drag myself to the kitchen for coffee and fake eggs. It works. Zero and Finlay's shouting match seems to have cleared the air a bit as she is back to her usual perky self, although I can hear Finlay working out with his spear downstairs.
I return to the data. After a couple of hours with no luck, I throw in the towel and ask Zero for help. In less than 20 minutes she has found out that the girl is still alive and even where she is being kept. I stare at her in amazement then call Danny.
I tell him I have a lead on our missing person and that we need to meet, now. I give him the address of a 'runner bar in the Redmond barrens. It's a rough place but still close to the edge. He seems a bit worried about getting there in one piece so I ask Finlay if he can get Jamal to pick him up. Finlay hauls Jamal out of bed, and ten minutes later we head down to the barrens.
The place is as bad as I remember. While there is a check for guns, no-one seems to mind me wearing the revolver. Guess it doesn't count as a real gun in here. There are only a few other people in at this time of day; one rough looking guy hitting the shots hard, and another fellow sitting loading his Ruger. The barman is a big muscled human with two cyberarms, both fitted with spurs. The spurs are extended.
Danny sits nervously in a booth, with the locals eyeing him up like a tasty snack. They lose interest when I join him and he visibly relaxes. I order a couple of shots, but Danny isn't drinking so I knock them back myself. Frag, I've drunk some rough booze in my time, but this stuff is only one step up from gasoline.
Coughing, I tell him about the data and hand him the chip. Finlay is blabbing in my ear to get the the money first. I ignore him. Danny scans the contents, his jaw slack. He asks if it's real and where I got it. I tell him it came direct from yakuza HQ in Japan. He is flabbergasted, then starts making calls. He talks to the senator first then tells me the dude wants to speak to me.
The senator has one of those calm voices that gets votes. He thanks me and tells me if the data holds up then he will pay the reward. I tell him that we would need it in cash or certified sticks. He pauses then agrees. I also tell him he should move quick to extract his daughter and that my team is available if more legitimate means aren't. He promises to think about that then asks to speak to Danny again. Danny verifies the data and hangs up. Then he calls his contact with the feds.
I'm getting verbal abuse from the team over my comm about the feds. I just tell them to chill. Danny tells me the government agent wants to speak with me. He can be in Seattle in 30 minutes. He asks me if I think we can get a coffee as I finish his shot. The barman just sneers. Danny suggests a working man's bar he knows down by Tacoma docks. I wait till Jamal arrives to pick him up, then follow him on the Harley with the rest of the team trailing in the van.
I'm on my second coffee and have had a second breakfast by the time the fed arrives. He's a lot younger than I expected, but his eyes are old. He slips into the booth across from me, next to Danny. He introduces himself as Agent Cooper; Danny later tells me his first name is Percy. I tell him he can call me Billie.
He scans the data and appreciates the offer of deniable assets but hopes the information will be enough to get a warrant. We exchange numbers and he leaves. Great, I'm working for the feds now.
Seattle, November 10, 2050
I get a call early. It's Danny. Agent Cooper's just been on the blower to him. The judge tossed out the warrant. Cooper wants another meet and I suggest the same place as we met yesterday. I haul ass over there and find an angry young man. He tells me he has a team in place but can't go in without probable cause.
He needs someone to make some noise, preferably heavy calibre and ideally with a few explosions. I nod and tell him we'll do it. He warns me that as soon as we start making noise, we will only have two minutes to get clear.
I ask about the Felicity Berman. He tells me he would like to hand her over to the senator, but if we think we can snatch her, he's cool as long as we deliver her to him. He tells me his team will be ready to go in 30 minutes. I reply that I better get to work then. He slips me a disk and we go our separate ways.
We return to the garage and load for bear. I take the SMG and a couple of grenades plus one of my little parcels of C4. Finlay has his new AR and spear, Zero her pistol and deck and the padre brings the mojo.
On our way over we work on the plan. Cooper's intel is good with satellite photos and more. The place is big, with a pool and it's own boat dock. There's a pile of cameras on the main building and regular three man guard patrols.
We decide to go in invisible, grab the girl and make a noisy exit. If anything goes wrong, we go straight to noisy and leave the rescue to the feds. We pull off into the woods a few minutes walk from the mansion. The padre mutters and complains as he casts the four invisibility spells needed to conceal all of us. He succeeds but he lets us know that the strain of maintaining all four spells means he is not up for any spell-slinging.
We make it to the wall around the place undetected. Finlay climbs up then helps the rest of us over. Everything is going smooth until we are about halfway to the main building. Then the padre croaks out 'contact' and all hell breaks loose.
First thing I feel is magic wash over me, but the padre gets between us and the spell and I shrug it off. Finlay is also unaffected but both Zero and the padre groan in pain. Finlay reacts fast, spinning around and firing a grenade at the wall behind us. Plan B he screams as two air elementals manifest around us. I pull a smoke grenade from my pocket and lob it towards the building but it goes wide, only covering the right hand side. Just my luck, as then about half a dozen goons pop up, most of them on the left, and open fire on us.
I hit the dirt and roll away from the incoming fire. The padre grunts as he takes a couple of rounds and I hear Zero cry out too. I mentally switch the SMG to full auto and lay down a line of fire towards the guys on the left, driving them into cover behind some parked cars. Finlay throws a smoke grenade, then draws his spear and moves to take on both the elementals, giving us a chance to run for it. Padre and Zero take off towards the hole in the wall.
Finlay is moving so fast it's hard to see. There's one shimmer then two as the air elements fall to his blows. A guy appears on the roof and I catch a burst as I get to my feet. I hiss as I feel the bullets punch through my armor. I keep my attention on suppressing the guys on the right as I stagger towards the wall. Finlay calmly sheathes his spear and switches back to his AR, suppressing the guy on roof. I tumble over the remains of the wall, tasting blood. Zero and the padre don't look to be in much better shape.
Finlay retreats behind the wall and I lob an HE grenade towards the house to discourage pursuit. He reloads his grenade launcher and sends an air-timed grenade towards the guy on the roof. There's a bang and a scream. Well, at least we got one of the fraggers.
I drop my little package behind the wall. Two minutes I call, then stagger off into the woods. Zero and the padre follow after me, while Finlay lays down some covering fire. He then catches up, scooping Zero off her feet and hustling back to the van.
I'm not surprised to find Percy the G-man waiting for us. Finlay is glaring at him with his AR held ready. I spit up some blood and push the gun away. I tell him to help the others into the van. From behind us I hear a large explosion, then the reports of heavy calibre rifles. Percy makes some comment about our condition and I reply with a tight grin that at least we are still alive, if barely. He hands me a card. It's for a doctor who owes him a favour. I ask about the Berman girl. He holds up a hand and touches his ear, then tells me that his men have just secured her.
I turn away, my shoulders slumping in relief and pain and climb in the van. Vision blurring, I call the doc and tell him who gave me his name. He ask what I want. I tell him we have multiple gunshot wounds and need treatment on the quiet. He gives me an address and tells me to pull into the garage.
Finlay drives while I try to bandage up Zero and the padre. I can't do much for myself so just have to press my hand against the hole in my side to stem the bleeding. When we get to the doctor's place and he opens the back door, he frowns that I didn't say there were several people injured. I cough up some more blood and point out I did say 'multiple' gunshot wounds. He asks who is the worst injured and I tell him I thinks it's me.
He gets me onto a table and starts cutting away my armor and clothes. I tell him about my 'ware, clinically listing the stats for the arm, bone lacing, boosters and eyes. I finally tell him that I am awakened and then promptly pass out.
When I awake it is dark. I feel numb and distant. Finlay's face slowly comes into focus. I ask about the others. He points to my left and Zero is lying there. Finlay tells me that the doc is working on the padre now, but he was able to heal himself a little, so isn't in as bad a shape as the two of us. I pass out again.
Seattle, November 16, 2050
It's been a week since we got shot to shit but we are healing nicely. The doctor gave Finlay a box of painkillers and antibiotics, which he has been feeding to us every day. It's almost funny to see him playing nurse but as he won't let me have a drink, something to do with booze not mixing with pills, I've been sober and cranky for most of the week.
Sober and unable to do much but sit up in bed, I've been watching a lot of news. Percy is having his 15 minutes of fame. He explains that while investigating a terrorist attack, his team stumbled on a prostitution ring and that the senator's daughter was amongst the girls recovered. There are no shots of any of the girls, but the senator makes several appearance making prepared statements about the return of his daughter, explaining that she is receiving medical treatment. Yeah, to remove all the drek they put in her head.
Danny is also in the news with a couple of hard hitting articles on the subject. The feds are denying any leaks from their department. That makes me laugh so hard it hurts.
Seattle, November 16, 2050
I finally get a call from Danny. The senator wants to meet us. We're all pretty much recovered, although my ribs still hurt a bit and I'm still sober.
The meet is on a boat on an out of the way dock. The senator is still a public figure and even though the case is old news, he probably doesn't want to be seen dealing with shadowrunners. Away from the camera, the senator looks older with a bit of a paunch. Or maybe those lines around his eyes are from seeing his daughter again.
He shakes all our hands and offers us drinks. The padre asks for a scotch, but I just ask for water. I tell myself its because I'm still on the drugs. He hands over a small briefcase, which I pass to Finlay to check. I ask him about his daughter and he tells me she is undergoing surgery to remove the cyberware the yakuza installed in her head and will then receive therapy to help recover her memories. He looks despondently down at the cabin floor and says that he thinks his little girl may be gone for good.
I growl at him, harsher than I intend to, that she is still his kid. Is this the sort of reaction I can expect from my own parents?
Then with another round of thanks and handshakes, we are ushered out. Back on the dock, I ask Danny how many girls the feds rescued. Eighteen, of which none apart from Felicity matched the names on the list from the hospital. Well, it's a start.
September 26, 2010
Billie's Journal
Seattle, day 1
My dreams are haunted by the image of a freckle-faced elf girl. She looks a bit like me, but not as pretty. But then, she hasn't had the plastic surgery yet. She is in a car crash. Tattooed asian men drag her from the car. She tries to get away from them, running, running, but there are too many of them. They stick wires in her head and do terrible things to her.
I wake in a sweat, my tongue thick with the taste of whiskey. Even the booze can't keep the nightmares away any more. For a moment, I don't know where I am, then remember that we are in the garage in Tacoma. I pull the sheets over my head and try to get back to sleep.
My meeting with the journalist, Kinkaid, had been a waste of time. He had looked at me like I was a crazy woman. I think maybe I am.
With no other leads to go on, I ask Zero to see what she can find on the Green Ronin. She seems a little peeved at first, asking why I don't use my 'other decker friend'. I explain again that I only used Aurora to keep the rest of the team out of trouble. She relents but I can see she is still mad at me for not going to her first. I feel bad and it's not just the hangover. Apart from Sheriff and Aurora, these are the only people in the world I feel I can trust. I don't want to lose them.
She gets back to me later in the day. A couple of hours in the matrix and a few caffeinated sugary drinks seeem to have improved her mood, while dark clouds still circle over my head. Seems our guy is a player, likes to hang out at the flash clubs like Dante's Inferno and Penumbra. Strangely, the decker community doesn't like him. Too much attitude plus his alleged ties with the yakuza. And he like blondes, preferably well-endowed ones, so at least that means I won't be the bait this time.
We don't know his schedule, so we take turns staking out the two clubs. I try to fit in, even wearing a skirt and drinking whisky sodas instead of straight shots. But my feeble attempts to converse with the few sararimen that try to hit on me fall flat and after a couple of days people just seem to ignore the crazy lady in the corner.
The padre has more luck, striking up conversations with the bar staff at Penumbra and getting to know a couple of them well enough to crack jokes and talk politics late into the night.
Zero and Finlay play a couple. Our plan is to identify the nights when the Green Ronin comes to the clubs then for the two of them to have a fight and hopefully our man will make his move on the 'dumped' Zero. When they leave we grab him and the padre uses his magic to get some answers out of him. Then I will kill him.
Seattle, day 10
Finally some luck. After hanging about the damn clubs for over a week, Finlay finally spots our man. On subsequent nights the padre and myself also make him and we can start watching him more closely to tie down his schedule and favourite spots. The fragger seems to be with a different woman every night and even when he runs into an old flame, they are still friendly to him. He's not that good looking, but definitely seems to have a way with the ladies.
Seattle, day 12
I missed a call from Kincaid last night. He wants to meet. Maybe he's changed his mind about me being crazy. We agree to meet at the coffee shop in a couple of days.
Seattle, day 14
Zero has got in contact with an old mage buddy of hers. He has a line on some Rohypnol, one of the date-rape drugs. As well as making it's victims more susceptible to suggestion, it has the nice side effect that they remember nothing of the time they are under it's influence. Maybe I won't have to kill the Green Ronin after all, although the fragger still deserves it if he's working with these scum.
I meet with Kincaid in the afternoon, with the padre providing backup. He's sitting in the cafe typing on an old fashioned laptop computer. He doesn't notice me coming in, until I slip in across from him. I offer him some of the contents of my flask and he shakes his head. I shrug and add a shot to my coffee.
I ask him why he called me back. He tells me he's done some digging and some of the info I gave him adds up. His contacts have heard rumors of these bunraku palaces, where the girls are programmed with fake personalities to become and do whatever the customer wants.
Also, he has turned up missing person's report posted with Lone Star by a Mr McCullough shortly after the girl that looks like me went missing from the hospital. He gives me a disk with the report and information on the people that could be, that are, my parents. I stare at the disk for a long moment, only looking up at him when he asks me a question. He wants to know what my stake is in this whole affair. Am I just after the money, out for revenge, or something else.
I look up at the ceiling, thinking before I reply. What do I want? He catches the eye of a waitress and orders two more coffees. I add a shot to mine and we drink for a minute in silence before I reply.
I tell him that when I started looking into my past, I had the idea that I could just pick up my old life where I had left off. But I am not that girl, not anymore. I think I would still like to meet my family, but I wonder how they would react to me. Can I go back to being Wilhemina McCullough? I doubt it. Will they accept Billie back into their family? I don't know.
What about the yakuza he asks. I tell him straight that if a few of them end up dead, I won't lose sleep over it. But that's not what I really care about. I don't particularly care if they die or go to prison. But there are seventeen other girls out there, possibly even more and possibly including the senator's daughter, that might still alive and in one of these places. Aurora and Sheriff got me out. I can't leave them behind.
He gives me a smile at that and his shoulders relax a bit. He tells me that as an investigative reporter, his job is to expose these sort of things but that he needs more information. He offers to talk to the senator about the reward for his daughter; he is still in touch with him. He also mentions a contact in the agency. I don't ask him which one, but I do tell him that I've done things that any agency wouldn't approve of. But if his agency contact can accept that, then he's just another Johnson to me and I'm willing to at least talk to him.
He tells me he'll talk to him and get back to me. I explain that he can contact me at any time, but that if I am 'working' I might not answer. He nods and shakes my hand. Call me 'Danny' he says. Billie I reply without thinking. After all, that's who I am.
Seattle, day 16
Tonight's the night. Zero has the drugs from her contact and is dressed to the nines. Finlay is also dressed up and the two head into Penumbra, with the padre following shortly after. I stay in the van. Zero is transmitting a live feed from her goggles to a screen in the back in case anything goes wrong.
Around midnight, Zero is dancing with a plain-looking asian sarariman. She pulls on his tie and grinds against him. I close one eye and look away from the video. Then Finlay is there. He looks angry but I can't hear him over the music. A troll separates the two of them and I watch him being led towards the exit. Zero has a few words with the man she was dancing with and head's to the bar and orders a drink, gulping it down.
Finaly comes back to the van and suits up in his armor. He also stashes his spear in his duster and attaches the sling of his new P90 SMG to the harness of his armor jacket. On the screen Zero watches as the Green Ronin approaches her with a drink. Soon the two are in conversation. Finlay reminds her to keep her mind on the job and she responds by looking the mark up and down. We both groan in unison.
The two of them get a lot friendlier over the next couple of hours, but with nothing much happening I drift off with my hat over my eyes. Finlay nudges me awake around 3:20 am and I can see from the monitor they are on the move.
They climb into a small sports car and after some kissing the car moves off. The kissing continues as the car drives itself into the night. The padre climbs into the back taking up Finlay's seat as the ork has moved up front to drive. We aim to intercept them before they get back to Green Ronin's appartment, but the little sports car is fast and we are struggling to catch up in the van.
As we head down I-90 towards Bellevue, disaster strikes. Zero has moved from the passenger seat and is sitting astride the decker unbuttoning his shirt. Astounded I relate what's going on to Finlay. We are almost on them, when out of nowhere a Lone Star cruiser pulls up behind us and flashes his lights. I can hear Finlay cursing as he pulls over to the hard shoulder.
The cop comes up to the driver side. Finlay opens the window halfway, trying to conceal the fact he is wearing armor and carrying weapons while the padre and I duck down out of sight in the back. It's a shakedown. The cop tells Finlay one of the van's side lights are out and when Finlay says they were fine when he last checked the bent cop smashes the driver's side light with his baton. I can hear the steering wheel groan under Finlay's grip as he works to stay calm. Zero will be pissed at the damage to the van.
Finaly pays off the cop with 100 yen in cash and they let us go with just a warning. Fraggers! Once they head off, Finlay drives like a maniac to catch up to the sport's car. We catch up just as they take the off-ramp to Bellevue. We're ready to take them at the next light when another cop car, KE this time, pulls out from behind a sign and flags us down. As the sport's car pulls away, Finlay quickly hands his weapons into the back.
One of the KE guys is grilling Finlay about what he is doing in Bellevue this time of night, while his buddy pokes around the van. Cop two asks what's in the back just as Finlay replies he is here to pick up a friend who went home with some guy who turned out to be a jerk and called him for a lift. As the padre and I prepare to take out the KE guys, they decide he's on the level and let us go. With big sighs of relief we move on. The cops follow us a couple of blocks then turn off. Finlay pushes the speed limit as much as he can but we arrive too late and Zero and Green Ronin are already in the lift on the way up to his appartment.
After what seems like forever, Zero finally gets her mind on the job and suggests that she invite her friend over for a threesome. The decker is a bit hesitant at first, claiming he is feeling the drink - or more likely the drugs, but after some more kissing and fondling, he finally agrees.
We feed her the van's current licence number and my new name. Even I have to think for a second. I switch places with Finlay and with the two boys invisible in the back, we pull up at the entrance some fifteen minutes later.
The guard just rolls his eyes when I tell him who I am coming to see and lets us in. We take the lift up and buzz his door. I'm surprised when Zero opens the door wearing just a sheet and a grin. Her cheeks are flushed and her hair messed up. Finlay and the padre nearly knock us down as they push past me and into the flat.
It's pretty swish place, even nicer than the one we had downtown. In the bedroom, the Ronin is lying on the bed, naked and half asleep. I lean over to check on him and he mumbles something and tries to kiss me. I react before I realise what I'm doing. The new arm responds fast, snapping back and smashing into his face. Lucky the safety limiters were on, but he still slumps back unconscious. Shit.
My dreams are haunted by the image of a freckle-faced elf girl. She looks a bit like me, but not as pretty. But then, she hasn't had the plastic surgery yet. She is in a car crash. Tattooed asian men drag her from the car. She tries to get away from them, running, running, but there are too many of them. They stick wires in her head and do terrible things to her.
I wake in a sweat, my tongue thick with the taste of whiskey. Even the booze can't keep the nightmares away any more. For a moment, I don't know where I am, then remember that we are in the garage in Tacoma. I pull the sheets over my head and try to get back to sleep.
My meeting with the journalist, Kinkaid, had been a waste of time. He had looked at me like I was a crazy woman. I think maybe I am.
With no other leads to go on, I ask Zero to see what she can find on the Green Ronin. She seems a little peeved at first, asking why I don't use my 'other decker friend'. I explain again that I only used Aurora to keep the rest of the team out of trouble. She relents but I can see she is still mad at me for not going to her first. I feel bad and it's not just the hangover. Apart from Sheriff and Aurora, these are the only people in the world I feel I can trust. I don't want to lose them.
She gets back to me later in the day. A couple of hours in the matrix and a few caffeinated sugary drinks seeem to have improved her mood, while dark clouds still circle over my head. Seems our guy is a player, likes to hang out at the flash clubs like Dante's Inferno and Penumbra. Strangely, the decker community doesn't like him. Too much attitude plus his alleged ties with the yakuza. And he like blondes, preferably well-endowed ones, so at least that means I won't be the bait this time.
We don't know his schedule, so we take turns staking out the two clubs. I try to fit in, even wearing a skirt and drinking whisky sodas instead of straight shots. But my feeble attempts to converse with the few sararimen that try to hit on me fall flat and after a couple of days people just seem to ignore the crazy lady in the corner.
The padre has more luck, striking up conversations with the bar staff at Penumbra and getting to know a couple of them well enough to crack jokes and talk politics late into the night.
Zero and Finlay play a couple. Our plan is to identify the nights when the Green Ronin comes to the clubs then for the two of them to have a fight and hopefully our man will make his move on the 'dumped' Zero. When they leave we grab him and the padre uses his magic to get some answers out of him. Then I will kill him.
Seattle, day 10
Finally some luck. After hanging about the damn clubs for over a week, Finlay finally spots our man. On subsequent nights the padre and myself also make him and we can start watching him more closely to tie down his schedule and favourite spots. The fragger seems to be with a different woman every night and even when he runs into an old flame, they are still friendly to him. He's not that good looking, but definitely seems to have a way with the ladies.
Seattle, day 12
I missed a call from Kincaid last night. He wants to meet. Maybe he's changed his mind about me being crazy. We agree to meet at the coffee shop in a couple of days.
Seattle, day 14
Zero has got in contact with an old mage buddy of hers. He has a line on some Rohypnol, one of the date-rape drugs. As well as making it's victims more susceptible to suggestion, it has the nice side effect that they remember nothing of the time they are under it's influence. Maybe I won't have to kill the Green Ronin after all, although the fragger still deserves it if he's working with these scum.
I meet with Kincaid in the afternoon, with the padre providing backup. He's sitting in the cafe typing on an old fashioned laptop computer. He doesn't notice me coming in, until I slip in across from him. I offer him some of the contents of my flask and he shakes his head. I shrug and add a shot to my coffee.
I ask him why he called me back. He tells me he's done some digging and some of the info I gave him adds up. His contacts have heard rumors of these bunraku palaces, where the girls are programmed with fake personalities to become and do whatever the customer wants.
Also, he has turned up missing person's report posted with Lone Star by a Mr McCullough shortly after the girl that looks like me went missing from the hospital. He gives me a disk with the report and information on the people that could be, that are, my parents. I stare at the disk for a long moment, only looking up at him when he asks me a question. He wants to know what my stake is in this whole affair. Am I just after the money, out for revenge, or something else.
I look up at the ceiling, thinking before I reply. What do I want? He catches the eye of a waitress and orders two more coffees. I add a shot to mine and we drink for a minute in silence before I reply.
I tell him that when I started looking into my past, I had the idea that I could just pick up my old life where I had left off. But I am not that girl, not anymore. I think I would still like to meet my family, but I wonder how they would react to me. Can I go back to being Wilhemina McCullough? I doubt it. Will they accept Billie back into their family? I don't know.
What about the yakuza he asks. I tell him straight that if a few of them end up dead, I won't lose sleep over it. But that's not what I really care about. I don't particularly care if they die or go to prison. But there are seventeen other girls out there, possibly even more and possibly including the senator's daughter, that might still alive and in one of these places. Aurora and Sheriff got me out. I can't leave them behind.
He gives me a smile at that and his shoulders relax a bit. He tells me that as an investigative reporter, his job is to expose these sort of things but that he needs more information. He offers to talk to the senator about the reward for his daughter; he is still in touch with him. He also mentions a contact in the agency. I don't ask him which one, but I do tell him that I've done things that any agency wouldn't approve of. But if his agency contact can accept that, then he's just another Johnson to me and I'm willing to at least talk to him.
He tells me he'll talk to him and get back to me. I explain that he can contact me at any time, but that if I am 'working' I might not answer. He nods and shakes my hand. Call me 'Danny' he says. Billie I reply without thinking. After all, that's who I am.
Seattle, day 16
Tonight's the night. Zero has the drugs from her contact and is dressed to the nines. Finlay is also dressed up and the two head into Penumbra, with the padre following shortly after. I stay in the van. Zero is transmitting a live feed from her goggles to a screen in the back in case anything goes wrong.
Around midnight, Zero is dancing with a plain-looking asian sarariman. She pulls on his tie and grinds against him. I close one eye and look away from the video. Then Finlay is there. He looks angry but I can't hear him over the music. A troll separates the two of them and I watch him being led towards the exit. Zero has a few words with the man she was dancing with and head's to the bar and orders a drink, gulping it down.
Finaly comes back to the van and suits up in his armor. He also stashes his spear in his duster and attaches the sling of his new P90 SMG to the harness of his armor jacket. On the screen Zero watches as the Green Ronin approaches her with a drink. Soon the two are in conversation. Finlay reminds her to keep her mind on the job and she responds by looking the mark up and down. We both groan in unison.
The two of them get a lot friendlier over the next couple of hours, but with nothing much happening I drift off with my hat over my eyes. Finlay nudges me awake around 3:20 am and I can see from the monitor they are on the move.
They climb into a small sports car and after some kissing the car moves off. The kissing continues as the car drives itself into the night. The padre climbs into the back taking up Finlay's seat as the ork has moved up front to drive. We aim to intercept them before they get back to Green Ronin's appartment, but the little sports car is fast and we are struggling to catch up in the van.
As we head down I-90 towards Bellevue, disaster strikes. Zero has moved from the passenger seat and is sitting astride the decker unbuttoning his shirt. Astounded I relate what's going on to Finlay. We are almost on them, when out of nowhere a Lone Star cruiser pulls up behind us and flashes his lights. I can hear Finlay cursing as he pulls over to the hard shoulder.
The cop comes up to the driver side. Finlay opens the window halfway, trying to conceal the fact he is wearing armor and carrying weapons while the padre and I duck down out of sight in the back. It's a shakedown. The cop tells Finlay one of the van's side lights are out and when Finlay says they were fine when he last checked the bent cop smashes the driver's side light with his baton. I can hear the steering wheel groan under Finlay's grip as he works to stay calm. Zero will be pissed at the damage to the van.
Finaly pays off the cop with 100 yen in cash and they let us go with just a warning. Fraggers! Once they head off, Finlay drives like a maniac to catch up to the sport's car. We catch up just as they take the off-ramp to Bellevue. We're ready to take them at the next light when another cop car, KE this time, pulls out from behind a sign and flags us down. As the sport's car pulls away, Finlay quickly hands his weapons into the back.
One of the KE guys is grilling Finlay about what he is doing in Bellevue this time of night, while his buddy pokes around the van. Cop two asks what's in the back just as Finlay replies he is here to pick up a friend who went home with some guy who turned out to be a jerk and called him for a lift. As the padre and I prepare to take out the KE guys, they decide he's on the level and let us go. With big sighs of relief we move on. The cops follow us a couple of blocks then turn off. Finlay pushes the speed limit as much as he can but we arrive too late and Zero and Green Ronin are already in the lift on the way up to his appartment.
After what seems like forever, Zero finally gets her mind on the job and suggests that she invite her friend over for a threesome. The decker is a bit hesitant at first, claiming he is feeling the drink - or more likely the drugs, but after some more kissing and fondling, he finally agrees.
We feed her the van's current licence number and my new name. Even I have to think for a second. I switch places with Finlay and with the two boys invisible in the back, we pull up at the entrance some fifteen minutes later.
The guard just rolls his eyes when I tell him who I am coming to see and lets us in. We take the lift up and buzz his door. I'm surprised when Zero opens the door wearing just a sheet and a grin. Her cheeks are flushed and her hair messed up. Finlay and the padre nearly knock us down as they push past me and into the flat.
It's pretty swish place, even nicer than the one we had downtown. In the bedroom, the Ronin is lying on the bed, naked and half asleep. I lean over to check on him and he mumbles something and tries to kiss me. I react before I realise what I'm doing. The new arm responds fast, snapping back and smashing into his face. Lucky the safety limiters were on, but he still slumps back unconscious. Shit.
September 8, 2010
Karnak the Killer
Chapter 3 - The Tower of the Magi
Karnak was disappointed. They had been escorted quickly through the tower with barely a chance to see anything beyond brief glimpses of the building’s impressive architecture and into this non-descript room with a single window. He stood, squeezed between Aardaal and Carrick, in one corner of the small room. Juniper dressed in her Elementalist’s robes, with her staff held in one hand stood before them on one side of a small plain table.
On the other side sat three old men, all mages. Although of which exact discipline, Karnak could not tell. They were explaining the rules of the initiation to Juniper. She would have one full day to complete the task. She could take as many companions with her as she wanted, although they would face the same dangers as she did and would need to sign a waiver that they accepted these risks of their own free will.
With the paperwork out of the way they were led down narrow twisting steps to a dusty cellar under the Tower. With a few formal words, a young apprentice presented Juniper with a necklace containing four different coloured gemstones, then pulled a lever and a section of the wall slid back. The four entered cautiously and the panel slid back into place behind them.
The hallway ahead of them was dimly lit with fading light quartzes. The walls and floor were bare stone and the passage was just wide and high enough for Carrick to pass through. The only feature was a large rune on the floor halfway along the corridor. As they approached the rune, one of the gems on the necklace flared into life, giving off a faint red glow.
“This is the symbol for fire” explained Juniper to the others.
As they approached the end of the corridor, they could see another fire rune on the wall, which slid aside revealing a four-way junction. At the centre of the junction was another rune. As they entered, the door with the fire rune slid silently back into place behind them.
“This one is water.” confirmed Juniper as the blue gem on her necklace flared into life. The walls of the other passages also showed runes and Juniper pointed them out for the others.
“Fire behind us, water to the left, air straight ahead and earth to the right.”
“Only fire and water are glowing on the necklace” said Karnak, thinking out loud. “We came through fire, so I guess that means we go through water.”
Juniper approached the door with the water rune and indeed it slid back into the wall. Ahead lay another corridor similar to the first. The rune in the middle of this one was the symbol for earth.
“Mayhap, we simply need to activate all four gemstones to complete the trial”, suggested Aardaal.
“I hope it is as simple as that”, muttered Juniper with a frown. “But I fear it may be more complex. And more dangerous.”
The third gem, an emerald began to glow with an green light as they passed the symbol for earth. With three gemstones glowing they had high hopes of finishing the trial quickly. But the next junction contained the symbol for water and as they entered it, the light faded from the blue gem.
Over the next hour, the four explored several corridors and junctions, often backtracking to activate one or more of the gems. They made slow progress through the maze until they realised they were in danger of having no gems active.
“What happens if they all go out?” asked Karnak.
“I suppose we fail the trial.” rumbled Carrick.
“You mean we will be stuck here forever? Won‘t they let us out?” demanded Aardaal.
Juniper gulped as the true danger of the trial became apparent, “I-I don’t think so.”
With their lives on the line, the party took a moment to consider their options. Karnak had picked up some fish pies on the way to the tower that morning and offered the still warm pastries around. Carrick had mapped out the maze on a piece of parchment and they studied it carefully, while they munched on the pies.
“There must be a solution,” muttered Juniper, her brow furrowed in concentration.
Karnak picked at his tusks, deep in thought. He looked carefully up and down the bare corridor.
“Maybe we missed something” he grunted as his eye caught what looked like the outline of a doorway on the opposite wall.
“A hidden passage”, declared Aardaal. “Carrick help me open it.”
The obsidiman pushed at the wall where Aardaal indicated and a section of the wall twisted open.
Aardaal slipped through the opening. Beyond was a large dimly-lit room. He could hear water lapping against stone and a damp, musty smell assailed his nostrils. As his eyes adjusted to the gloom, he could see a narrow strip of stone leading across the room to the far wall, black water on either side.
However, more worrying was the hunched figure in the middle of stone walkway. Its head cocked up as he entered, sniffing at the air like some beast. Studying the figure, Aardaal could now see that’s the creatures eyes were sewn shut and it’s arms ended not in hands but short, broad blades.
Back at the entrance, Carrick gulped. He was more concerned by the dark water on either side of the narrow walkway, than the creature on it. Obsidimen could not swim.
Aardaal edged cautiously out along the walkway towards the creature. As he got closer, he could see that it was tethered to the middle of the walkway by a chain. The creature hissed and lunged at him, only to be pulled up short.
Aardaal dropped into a crouch and edged closer. When the creature lunged again, he waited until the chain pulled it to a halt then slashed at it with his father’s sword. The beast howled in rage. It thrashed against it’s tether and to the shock of the four adventurers, ripped the chain clean from the floor. It immediately charged at Aardaal in a blind rage, but the sword master kept his cool. As it reached him, he twisted to the side and gave it a gentle push that took it off the side of the walkway and into the dark water with a loud splash.
The water settled and of the creature there was no sign. The four edged carefully across the walkway to the other side, the obsidiman on his hands and knees. With some pushing at the wall they managed to open another concealed doorway that took them back into one of the corridors they had previously traversed. This gave them some additional possibilities for changing which gems were lit. While Carrick waited, for he was not keen to cross the walkway more than necessary, the rest of the party moved back and forth between the passages and corridors until they had the right combination of gems activated to move deeper into the maze.
They returned to water room and called out for Carrick to join them. As the obsidiman stepped onto the walkway, Aardaal‘s keen eyes spotted a movement. The creature they had thought dead, was climbing out of the water and up the wall at the obsidiman’s feet.
“Carrick, ware! The creature is still alive.”
Carrick backed out of the room, setting his shield and drawing his heavy spiked mace. Dripping with water, the pale cadaver crawled onto the walkway. It sniffed at the air and turned towards Aardaal at the other end of the walkway. Spotting his chance, Carrick smacked it on the head with a bone crushing blow. The creature roared as the obsidiman’s blow crushed the back of its skull, then turned and lashed at him with a frenzy of blows.
‘Too fast’ were Carrick’s last thoughts as the beast’s blows stung his flesh. A normal man would have been flayed alive, but his training allowed him to parry some of the blows and his thick skin absorbed the worst of the others. Still the pain and shock were overwhelming and he sank to his knees and toppled sideways.
Juniper’s earth dart hit the creature in the back and it spun towards the others. Aardaal and Karnak were already edging out onto the walkway. Aardaal had his sword at the ready and Karnak followed banging his sword on his shield and shouting, “Hey, blind and ugly. Over here.”
The creature charged again. Aardaal set his footing and drove his blade hard into it’s chest as it reached him. There was a squirt of liquid from a pouch sewn into it’s chest and it stopped with a croak, then tumbled slowly into the water. They rushed to the other side and checked on the fallen obsidiman.
“Still breathing,” sighed Juniper. “His wounds are not deep. He will live.”
While Juniper patched him up, the two men watched the water for signs of movement. This time the creature did not resurface. They rested for what seemed like hours, but could not tell for sure. Then, with a soft moan, Carrick’s eyes flickered open.
“Welcome back my friend,” grinned Karnak. They helped the obsidiman back to his feet and proceeded slowly onwards.
However, they had no sooner gone past the next junction when they realised that they could again go no further without being trapped. While Juniper and Carrick studied the obsidiman’s map, Karnak and Aardaal checked the walls for concealed doors.
“Here” announced Aardaal and Carrick pushed at the wall where he indicated. A cold mist billowed from the hidden room as the door swung open. Karnak and Aardaal slipped inside. The room seemed to soak up the light from quartzes in the hall, so even with their sensitive eyes, they could only see a few paces into the room.
“I like this not” uttered Karnak. They edged across the room, but could see no doorway in the opposite wall. Then Karnak shivered at a cold touch on his shoulder. Spinning around he could see nothing. “There is something in here.”
The two hurried back to the door and Carrick pushed it closed behind them.
“No way out that way,” wheezed Karnak, his heart pounding more from fright than exertion.
The group huddled together in silence, while Juniper studied Carrick's map. Quite some time later, she finally looked up. “I believe I have the solution." She explained the sequence of corridors and junctions they needed to follow to activate the gems to get them through the next door.
“The only problem is that once we go through it, we will be unable to return.”
The group was silent for a moment. Aardaal stood statue-still, Carrick seemed lost in thought and Karnak picked nervously at his tusks.
“Well, we can sit here and die or go on. I vote we go on.” he offered at last. One by one, the others nodded.
Juniper walked the planned route and came back to them with the required gems lit. They stepped into the junction and the ruby dulled, leaving only the sapphire representing air lit. She approached the door with the air symbol and it slid aside revealing a set of stairs leading upwards. Behind her, the three men breathed out a collective sigh of relief.
At the top of the stairs, the same young novice who had let them into the maze was sitting at small reading desk. He looked up from the heavy book he was poring over and raised an eyebrow.
“We were on the verge of giving up on you. Initiates normally complete it within the first couple of hours or not at all.”
“And what happens to those who don’t make it in the allotted time,” questioned Karnak.
The novice shrugged and nodded towards the injured Carrick. “Looks like you already found out.”
Closing his book, the novice stood up from the desk and escorted them back to the room where they had first met the Tower’s mages.
They waited for about an hour before the mages assembled. Karnak yawned realising that it was approaching dawn and that the novice was probably rousing the mages from their beds. Once they finally arrived, they sat conversing in hushed whispers amongst themselves for a few minutes before the eldest turned to them and addressed Juniper.
“Juniper Elderberry”, he intoned. “You have successfully completed the trial of elements. We welcome you as a novice of the Tower.
Nodding towards the necklace she still wore, he continued, “Your token of completion will allow you access to the tower at any time. You may freely use the library, but for now the rest of the tower is off limits. For your own safety, of course.”
Juniper nodded. She was glowing with pride and could barely contain her excitement. When the old mages finally shuffled out of the room, she jumped up and hugged first Carrick then Aardaal and finally Karnak.
“Thank you,” she gushed. “This means everything to me.”
“Carrick deserves most of the credit”, laughed Karnak. “He took on that creature on his own and has the bumps to show for it.”
Carrick nodded, rubbing at his bandaged arm.
Karnak was disappointed. They had been escorted quickly through the tower with barely a chance to see anything beyond brief glimpses of the building’s impressive architecture and into this non-descript room with a single window. He stood, squeezed between Aardaal and Carrick, in one corner of the small room. Juniper dressed in her Elementalist’s robes, with her staff held in one hand stood before them on one side of a small plain table.
On the other side sat three old men, all mages. Although of which exact discipline, Karnak could not tell. They were explaining the rules of the initiation to Juniper. She would have one full day to complete the task. She could take as many companions with her as she wanted, although they would face the same dangers as she did and would need to sign a waiver that they accepted these risks of their own free will.
With the paperwork out of the way they were led down narrow twisting steps to a dusty cellar under the Tower. With a few formal words, a young apprentice presented Juniper with a necklace containing four different coloured gemstones, then pulled a lever and a section of the wall slid back. The four entered cautiously and the panel slid back into place behind them.
The hallway ahead of them was dimly lit with fading light quartzes. The walls and floor were bare stone and the passage was just wide and high enough for Carrick to pass through. The only feature was a large rune on the floor halfway along the corridor. As they approached the rune, one of the gems on the necklace flared into life, giving off a faint red glow.
“This is the symbol for fire” explained Juniper to the others.
As they approached the end of the corridor, they could see another fire rune on the wall, which slid aside revealing a four-way junction. At the centre of the junction was another rune. As they entered, the door with the fire rune slid silently back into place behind them.
“This one is water.” confirmed Juniper as the blue gem on her necklace flared into life. The walls of the other passages also showed runes and Juniper pointed them out for the others.
“Fire behind us, water to the left, air straight ahead and earth to the right.”
“Only fire and water are glowing on the necklace” said Karnak, thinking out loud. “We came through fire, so I guess that means we go through water.”
Juniper approached the door with the water rune and indeed it slid back into the wall. Ahead lay another corridor similar to the first. The rune in the middle of this one was the symbol for earth.
“Mayhap, we simply need to activate all four gemstones to complete the trial”, suggested Aardaal.
“I hope it is as simple as that”, muttered Juniper with a frown. “But I fear it may be more complex. And more dangerous.”
The third gem, an emerald began to glow with an green light as they passed the symbol for earth. With three gemstones glowing they had high hopes of finishing the trial quickly. But the next junction contained the symbol for water and as they entered it, the light faded from the blue gem.
Over the next hour, the four explored several corridors and junctions, often backtracking to activate one or more of the gems. They made slow progress through the maze until they realised they were in danger of having no gems active.
“What happens if they all go out?” asked Karnak.
“I suppose we fail the trial.” rumbled Carrick.
“You mean we will be stuck here forever? Won‘t they let us out?” demanded Aardaal.
Juniper gulped as the true danger of the trial became apparent, “I-I don’t think so.”
With their lives on the line, the party took a moment to consider their options. Karnak had picked up some fish pies on the way to the tower that morning and offered the still warm pastries around. Carrick had mapped out the maze on a piece of parchment and they studied it carefully, while they munched on the pies.
“There must be a solution,” muttered Juniper, her brow furrowed in concentration.
Karnak picked at his tusks, deep in thought. He looked carefully up and down the bare corridor.
“Maybe we missed something” he grunted as his eye caught what looked like the outline of a doorway on the opposite wall.
“A hidden passage”, declared Aardaal. “Carrick help me open it.”
The obsidiman pushed at the wall where Aardaal indicated and a section of the wall twisted open.
Aardaal slipped through the opening. Beyond was a large dimly-lit room. He could hear water lapping against stone and a damp, musty smell assailed his nostrils. As his eyes adjusted to the gloom, he could see a narrow strip of stone leading across the room to the far wall, black water on either side.
However, more worrying was the hunched figure in the middle of stone walkway. Its head cocked up as he entered, sniffing at the air like some beast. Studying the figure, Aardaal could now see that’s the creatures eyes were sewn shut and it’s arms ended not in hands but short, broad blades.
Back at the entrance, Carrick gulped. He was more concerned by the dark water on either side of the narrow walkway, than the creature on it. Obsidimen could not swim.
Aardaal edged cautiously out along the walkway towards the creature. As he got closer, he could see that it was tethered to the middle of the walkway by a chain. The creature hissed and lunged at him, only to be pulled up short.
Aardaal dropped into a crouch and edged closer. When the creature lunged again, he waited until the chain pulled it to a halt then slashed at it with his father’s sword. The beast howled in rage. It thrashed against it’s tether and to the shock of the four adventurers, ripped the chain clean from the floor. It immediately charged at Aardaal in a blind rage, but the sword master kept his cool. As it reached him, he twisted to the side and gave it a gentle push that took it off the side of the walkway and into the dark water with a loud splash.
The water settled and of the creature there was no sign. The four edged carefully across the walkway to the other side, the obsidiman on his hands and knees. With some pushing at the wall they managed to open another concealed doorway that took them back into one of the corridors they had previously traversed. This gave them some additional possibilities for changing which gems were lit. While Carrick waited, for he was not keen to cross the walkway more than necessary, the rest of the party moved back and forth between the passages and corridors until they had the right combination of gems activated to move deeper into the maze.
They returned to water room and called out for Carrick to join them. As the obsidiman stepped onto the walkway, Aardaal‘s keen eyes spotted a movement. The creature they had thought dead, was climbing out of the water and up the wall at the obsidiman’s feet.
“Carrick, ware! The creature is still alive.”
Carrick backed out of the room, setting his shield and drawing his heavy spiked mace. Dripping with water, the pale cadaver crawled onto the walkway. It sniffed at the air and turned towards Aardaal at the other end of the walkway. Spotting his chance, Carrick smacked it on the head with a bone crushing blow. The creature roared as the obsidiman’s blow crushed the back of its skull, then turned and lashed at him with a frenzy of blows.
‘Too fast’ were Carrick’s last thoughts as the beast’s blows stung his flesh. A normal man would have been flayed alive, but his training allowed him to parry some of the blows and his thick skin absorbed the worst of the others. Still the pain and shock were overwhelming and he sank to his knees and toppled sideways.
Juniper’s earth dart hit the creature in the back and it spun towards the others. Aardaal and Karnak were already edging out onto the walkway. Aardaal had his sword at the ready and Karnak followed banging his sword on his shield and shouting, “Hey, blind and ugly. Over here.”
The creature charged again. Aardaal set his footing and drove his blade hard into it’s chest as it reached him. There was a squirt of liquid from a pouch sewn into it’s chest and it stopped with a croak, then tumbled slowly into the water. They rushed to the other side and checked on the fallen obsidiman.
“Still breathing,” sighed Juniper. “His wounds are not deep. He will live.”
While Juniper patched him up, the two men watched the water for signs of movement. This time the creature did not resurface. They rested for what seemed like hours, but could not tell for sure. Then, with a soft moan, Carrick’s eyes flickered open.
“Welcome back my friend,” grinned Karnak. They helped the obsidiman back to his feet and proceeded slowly onwards.
However, they had no sooner gone past the next junction when they realised that they could again go no further without being trapped. While Juniper and Carrick studied the obsidiman’s map, Karnak and Aardaal checked the walls for concealed doors.
“Here” announced Aardaal and Carrick pushed at the wall where he indicated. A cold mist billowed from the hidden room as the door swung open. Karnak and Aardaal slipped inside. The room seemed to soak up the light from quartzes in the hall, so even with their sensitive eyes, they could only see a few paces into the room.
“I like this not” uttered Karnak. They edged across the room, but could see no doorway in the opposite wall. Then Karnak shivered at a cold touch on his shoulder. Spinning around he could see nothing. “There is something in here.”
The two hurried back to the door and Carrick pushed it closed behind them.
“No way out that way,” wheezed Karnak, his heart pounding more from fright than exertion.
The group huddled together in silence, while Juniper studied Carrick's map. Quite some time later, she finally looked up. “I believe I have the solution." She explained the sequence of corridors and junctions they needed to follow to activate the gems to get them through the next door.
“The only problem is that once we go through it, we will be unable to return.”
The group was silent for a moment. Aardaal stood statue-still, Carrick seemed lost in thought and Karnak picked nervously at his tusks.
“Well, we can sit here and die or go on. I vote we go on.” he offered at last. One by one, the others nodded.
Juniper walked the planned route and came back to them with the required gems lit. They stepped into the junction and the ruby dulled, leaving only the sapphire representing air lit. She approached the door with the air symbol and it slid aside revealing a set of stairs leading upwards. Behind her, the three men breathed out a collective sigh of relief.
At the top of the stairs, the same young novice who had let them into the maze was sitting at small reading desk. He looked up from the heavy book he was poring over and raised an eyebrow.
“We were on the verge of giving up on you. Initiates normally complete it within the first couple of hours or not at all.”
“And what happens to those who don’t make it in the allotted time,” questioned Karnak.
The novice shrugged and nodded towards the injured Carrick. “Looks like you already found out.”
Closing his book, the novice stood up from the desk and escorted them back to the room where they had first met the Tower’s mages.
They waited for about an hour before the mages assembled. Karnak yawned realising that it was approaching dawn and that the novice was probably rousing the mages from their beds. Once they finally arrived, they sat conversing in hushed whispers amongst themselves for a few minutes before the eldest turned to them and addressed Juniper.
“Juniper Elderberry”, he intoned. “You have successfully completed the trial of elements. We welcome you as a novice of the Tower.
Nodding towards the necklace she still wore, he continued, “Your token of completion will allow you access to the tower at any time. You may freely use the library, but for now the rest of the tower is off limits. For your own safety, of course.”
Juniper nodded. She was glowing with pride and could barely contain her excitement. When the old mages finally shuffled out of the room, she jumped up and hugged first Carrick then Aardaal and finally Karnak.
“Thank you,” she gushed. “This means everything to me.”
“Carrick deserves most of the credit”, laughed Karnak. “He took on that creature on his own and has the bumps to show for it.”
Carrick nodded, rubbing at his bandaged arm.
August 29, 2010
Billie's Journal - Aurora's message
Hello Billy,
The tripswitch I left on the tracer paid off. Your hunch was right. Someone did run a check on Seattle Children's Hospital's records. And whoever was doing the sniffing was good. He found the trace and report, tripped it on purpose and then waited around to see if anyone would come to have a look...cocky bastard. I watched the whole scene unfold in stealth mode. The decker that showed up was good, but the snooper was better.
I only realised the 'snooper' had mirrored himself when the new arrival tried to ambush and crash him, only to find too late that he shredded a decoy while leaving himself open to a counterattack. It was over really before it began. The snooper crashed our guy and then went and checked where his signal came from.
I waited for a short while and then went and checked myself.
Anyway, the guy that was paid to keep an eye on the hospital files is Yoshi Takemura aka 'the green ronin'. He's a cocky and elitist SOB. He calls himself an 'independent' data specialist but almost all his work involves the Yakuza.
The address the hack originated from is Pacific Heights Road N° 22 in Bellevue. Posh condoplex in a real nice neighbourhood. Top notch security. Also, Bellevue is a stronghold for the Yakuza.
I figured your case wouldn't be unique, so I also ran a few pattern recognition and data mining programs on the hospital records looking for data gaps. I found quite a few. Looks like the hospital's got some skin traders inside. Unfortunately no name to link the gaps together, but when I ran a search and analysis on a couple of variables such as accidents and patients brought into Seattle's Childrens and crosslinked that to records of missing girls around the suspected year of your abduction, I came up with a long list of girls that vanished without a trace.
Details on each of the girls are in the attached files. I also attached the search parameters I used in case your decker friend wants to do some further snooping, but one case is interesting: Felicity Berman, daughter of then Senator of NY Eckhart Berman. The case raised a pretty big stink when it broke, because Lone Star completely bungled it. When the father got a court order to have the case transferred to the FBI, LS had to admit they had lost all forensic material which could have led an FBI mage to the girl. There were strong suspicions at the time that LS bungled the case deliberately because the Senator was one of the people that got LS taken off the NY city contract.
The girl disappeared about 9 months before we got you out, while she was visiting Seattle. She was involved in a minor traffic accident and taken to...drum roll: Seattle's Children. After that nothing. Once the Feds got involved they checked what they could, but there were no records of her in the hospital's system, no sighitng of her on sec camera's and the pediatrician on duty at the emergeny ward when she would have been brought in swore he'd never even seen the girl.
A couple of possible sources worth checking further are LS's databases, but good luck with that. Hospital staff records of the last 6 years may be interesting as well - amazing how easy those were to access and copy. Privacy just ain't what it used to be ;).
Good luck hunting.
A.
Attached files:
Dora Craig, elf
Flower Tuci, elf
Esmeralda Bennet, elf
Wilhelmina McCullough, elf [this girl looks a bit like you]
Jane Summers, human
Felicity Berman, human [the senator's daughter]
Jade Goodall, human
Yuan Yi, human, chinese
Mai Ling, human, chinese
Myatsuko Yoko, human, japanese
Iris [no family name], elf
Finella Laurelin, tir tairngire citizen
Mira Wallcot, elf
Jain Zar, elf
Leila Haraldson, elf
Star Haraldson, elf [Leila and Star are twins]
Torrun Hallmaren, elf
Maria Hindmarsh, elf
Search algorithms
Personnel records [folder]
Berman case articles [folder]
The tripswitch I left on the tracer paid off. Your hunch was right. Someone did run a check on Seattle Children's Hospital's records. And whoever was doing the sniffing was good. He found the trace and report, tripped it on purpose and then waited around to see if anyone would come to have a look...cocky bastard. I watched the whole scene unfold in stealth mode. The decker that showed up was good, but the snooper was better.
I only realised the 'snooper' had mirrored himself when the new arrival tried to ambush and crash him, only to find too late that he shredded a decoy while leaving himself open to a counterattack. It was over really before it began. The snooper crashed our guy and then went and checked where his signal came from.
I waited for a short while and then went and checked myself.
Anyway, the guy that was paid to keep an eye on the hospital files is Yoshi Takemura aka 'the green ronin'. He's a cocky and elitist SOB. He calls himself an 'independent' data specialist but almost all his work involves the Yakuza.
The address the hack originated from is Pacific Heights Road N° 22 in Bellevue. Posh condoplex in a real nice neighbourhood. Top notch security. Also, Bellevue is a stronghold for the Yakuza.
I figured your case wouldn't be unique, so I also ran a few pattern recognition and data mining programs on the hospital records looking for data gaps. I found quite a few. Looks like the hospital's got some skin traders inside. Unfortunately no name to link the gaps together, but when I ran a search and analysis on a couple of variables such as accidents and patients brought into Seattle's Childrens and crosslinked that to records of missing girls around the suspected year of your abduction, I came up with a long list of girls that vanished without a trace.
Details on each of the girls are in the attached files. I also attached the search parameters I used in case your decker friend wants to do some further snooping, but one case is interesting: Felicity Berman, daughter of then Senator of NY Eckhart Berman. The case raised a pretty big stink when it broke, because Lone Star completely bungled it. When the father got a court order to have the case transferred to the FBI, LS had to admit they had lost all forensic material which could have led an FBI mage to the girl. There were strong suspicions at the time that LS bungled the case deliberately because the Senator was one of the people that got LS taken off the NY city contract.
The girl disappeared about 9 months before we got you out, while she was visiting Seattle. She was involved in a minor traffic accident and taken to...drum roll: Seattle's Children. After that nothing. Once the Feds got involved they checked what they could, but there were no records of her in the hospital's system, no sighitng of her on sec camera's and the pediatrician on duty at the emergeny ward when she would have been brought in swore he'd never even seen the girl.
A couple of possible sources worth checking further are LS's databases, but good luck with that. Hospital staff records of the last 6 years may be interesting as well - amazing how easy those were to access and copy. Privacy just ain't what it used to be ;).
Good luck hunting.
A.
Attached files:
Dora Craig, elf
Flower Tuci, elf
Esmeralda Bennet, elf
Wilhelmina McCullough, elf [this girl looks a bit like you]
Jane Summers, human
Felicity Berman, human [the senator's daughter]
Jade Goodall, human
Yuan Yi, human, chinese
Mai Ling, human, chinese
Myatsuko Yoko, human, japanese
Iris [no family name], elf
Finella Laurelin, tir tairngire citizen
Mira Wallcot, elf
Jain Zar, elf
Leila Haraldson, elf
Star Haraldson, elf [Leila and Star are twins]
Torrun Hallmaren, elf
Maria Hindmarsh, elf
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Personnel records [folder]
Berman case articles [folder]
Billie's Journal
Seattle, day 1
It's been a couple of months since I last posted. We've been keeping a low profile and I barely heard from any of the others for the first month after we escaped from that house.
Not that we haven't been busy. We have been looking for a new place to call home. Zero narrowed the possibilities down to two places and we took a look. First place was an old fire station down in the Barrens. On the plus side that meant we wouldn't have to worry about the cavalry raining on our parade, just the locals. But it was in pretty bad condition and would need a lot of work to be habitable.
The second place was an empty garage in the commercial district down by the docks. Lone Star does come by now and then but that does mean it's safer. Also as most of the places are businesses there's not too many people just wandering around, and most of them go home of an evening. There were also some appartments above the garage that we could use and the clincher, the rent was cheap.
Which is a good thing as I'm broke. Replacing my lost gear wasn't cheap but getting my arm fixed and upgraded really emptied my savings. Hang on let me go back a bit. Last time we all got together Finlay asked me how I managed to get out of that chair. He had tried himself and he's pretty darned strong. I told him that is was like in Edinburgh when I took ill, but this time I let it out and was able to break free.
"Like ze Hulk" chirped Zero with that cute little frenchie accent of hers. I didn't know what she meant so she showed me a clip of some cartoon character that turns green and gets strong when he's angry. I told her that was what it kinda felt like, except the turning green part. She laughed at that and it made me smile too. There ain't enough smiles in this crazy world.
About this time, the padre who had been quietly nursing his drink looks at me and says, "You are awakened. Not a mage, but an adept of some sort."
I ask him if he means like Finlay and he replies "Yes." Well that sure kills the conversation. Later I ask him about magic and cyberware. He tells me that my arm and other enhancements will only limit my magical abilities, not stop them from working. He tells me that he thinks I can boost my strength, ignore pain to some extent, and that my affinity for handguns may be more than just 'natural' talent.
Well, if I can boost my strength with magic it sure explains how I managed to damage my cyberarm. I ask around about getting it upgraded and finally Sheriff comes through with a contact. Frag, I owe that man so much and now I owe him more.
The new arm is a little bulkier and heavier and cost me pretty much all my remaining cred. I had just enough to cover my share of the rent for the new place. Now I need a job.
Checking my mail, I find a message from Aurora. I've pasted it here so I won't lose it.
Aurora's message
Well I was out of the door and halfway to Bellevue before good sense got the better of rage. I managed to pull off the road into a back alley, before collapsing over the bike's handlebars in tears. A couple of hours later, with my tail between my legs, I drove back to the garage.
Seems I had left my mail onscreen 'cause the whole team were sitting up waiting up for me. Zero gave me a friendly hug and Finlay handed me a scotch, the real stuff too. Then we sat down and had a long talk.
I told them how since finding out some of my past in Scotland, I had been doing some digging. Well, Aurora had been doing some digging and had made the link to the hospital here in Seattle and found the trace in their system. I told them that after our last run went bad, I had asked her to keep watch for someone else digging into my past and maybe triggering that trace program. Someone had.
"So what now," Finlay asked, ever practical.
"I could use some help," I whispered in reply.
Seattle, day 3
Zero has spent the last couple of days digging into the hospital database, building on the data Aurora sent through. She did some cross-referencing and found that a doctor still working there had been on duty in E.R. every time a girl had gone missing.
I also did some digging myself, looking at the pictures of all the girls to see if any struck a memory. Only one did. Wilhemina McCullough. An elf, thin and with blonde hair like mine. Her face is younger and a slightly a different shape, but I feel like I'm looking in a mirror when I look at her image.
Zero hacks into the doc's personal files then his home computer. She digs up some dirt: details of an offshore account in the Cayman Islands. Doc Lyman just made prime suspect.
Seattle, day 4
I don't like the plan but it's the best we got. Zero has gotten hold of a nurse's and a nun's outfit and I get to be the nun. We go in separately, Zero as a nurse, Finlay as a visitor and me and the padre as religious support. It mostly works as nobody really bothers us until Finlay runs afoul of the doc's secretary. Only some fast talking and remembering that the doc has a golfing afternoon planned later in the week, convinces her he is on the level.
Finlay and Zero extract the doc, and we load him into the van. The padre casts a spell on him to make him tell the truth and I keep him covered with one of the Kimbers. He spills but its not what we want. He knows nothing about missing girls but has been sending samples of fetal matter from abortions to a bunch of interested parties before destroying them.
Frag, is everyone in Seattle on the take. Seems like it is as the padre then puts the squeeze on the doc for a share of his ill-gotten gains. I had hoped to use him as my man on the inside, but this surprise move blows any chance of that out of the water. When did the padre get so greedy. I know he uses most of it to care for his 'flock', but this guy coulda been useful to me. We drop the doc off and return to the garage.
Seattle, day 5
Combing through the files for any clues, I realise that a lot of the articles on the senator's missing daughter were written by the same guy, Danny Kincaid. I look him up, but my computer skills ain't too good and have to ask Zero for help. She turns up an address quicker than I can draw my piece.
I call the reporter but get reception. I leave my real name, if that is what it is, and tell them its about the senator's daughter. Later I get a call from the man himself. I handle it badly and he tells me he gets a lot of crank calls and asks for some proof, physical proof. I offer to send him the data but he just laughs. He wants hard copy.
I get Zero to print out some of the info for me and swing past his office to drop it off personally.
Seattle, day 6
Seems to have worked. He calls back for a meet. A coffee place near his office. He is an older guy, who still wears suspenders to keep his pants up. His hair is greying and he carries too much weight from working a desk job. He wants to know what my story is. I tell him some, but not all. He seems unwilling to provide me with anything I can use. He still seems to think that I am a loon, either that or a gold-digger after the reward money. And while that money sure would be nice, I am just out for revenge.
Well, only one more lead to go. Green Ronin.
It's been a couple of months since I last posted. We've been keeping a low profile and I barely heard from any of the others for the first month after we escaped from that house.
Not that we haven't been busy. We have been looking for a new place to call home. Zero narrowed the possibilities down to two places and we took a look. First place was an old fire station down in the Barrens. On the plus side that meant we wouldn't have to worry about the cavalry raining on our parade, just the locals. But it was in pretty bad condition and would need a lot of work to be habitable.
The second place was an empty garage in the commercial district down by the docks. Lone Star does come by now and then but that does mean it's safer. Also as most of the places are businesses there's not too many people just wandering around, and most of them go home of an evening. There were also some appartments above the garage that we could use and the clincher, the rent was cheap.
Which is a good thing as I'm broke. Replacing my lost gear wasn't cheap but getting my arm fixed and upgraded really emptied my savings. Hang on let me go back a bit. Last time we all got together Finlay asked me how I managed to get out of that chair. He had tried himself and he's pretty darned strong. I told him that is was like in Edinburgh when I took ill, but this time I let it out and was able to break free.
"Like ze Hulk" chirped Zero with that cute little frenchie accent of hers. I didn't know what she meant so she showed me a clip of some cartoon character that turns green and gets strong when he's angry. I told her that was what it kinda felt like, except the turning green part. She laughed at that and it made me smile too. There ain't enough smiles in this crazy world.
About this time, the padre who had been quietly nursing his drink looks at me and says, "You are awakened. Not a mage, but an adept of some sort."
I ask him if he means like Finlay and he replies "Yes." Well that sure kills the conversation. Later I ask him about magic and cyberware. He tells me that my arm and other enhancements will only limit my magical abilities, not stop them from working. He tells me that he thinks I can boost my strength, ignore pain to some extent, and that my affinity for handguns may be more than just 'natural' talent.
Well, if I can boost my strength with magic it sure explains how I managed to damage my cyberarm. I ask around about getting it upgraded and finally Sheriff comes through with a contact. Frag, I owe that man so much and now I owe him more.
The new arm is a little bulkier and heavier and cost me pretty much all my remaining cred. I had just enough to cover my share of the rent for the new place. Now I need a job.
Checking my mail, I find a message from Aurora. I've pasted it here so I won't lose it.
Aurora's message
Well I was out of the door and halfway to Bellevue before good sense got the better of rage. I managed to pull off the road into a back alley, before collapsing over the bike's handlebars in tears. A couple of hours later, with my tail between my legs, I drove back to the garage.
Seems I had left my mail onscreen 'cause the whole team were sitting up waiting up for me. Zero gave me a friendly hug and Finlay handed me a scotch, the real stuff too. Then we sat down and had a long talk.
I told them how since finding out some of my past in Scotland, I had been doing some digging. Well, Aurora had been doing some digging and had made the link to the hospital here in Seattle and found the trace in their system. I told them that after our last run went bad, I had asked her to keep watch for someone else digging into my past and maybe triggering that trace program. Someone had.
"So what now," Finlay asked, ever practical.
"I could use some help," I whispered in reply.
Seattle, day 3
Zero has spent the last couple of days digging into the hospital database, building on the data Aurora sent through. She did some cross-referencing and found that a doctor still working there had been on duty in E.R. every time a girl had gone missing.
I also did some digging myself, looking at the pictures of all the girls to see if any struck a memory. Only one did. Wilhemina McCullough. An elf, thin and with blonde hair like mine. Her face is younger and a slightly a different shape, but I feel like I'm looking in a mirror when I look at her image.
Zero hacks into the doc's personal files then his home computer. She digs up some dirt: details of an offshore account in the Cayman Islands. Doc Lyman just made prime suspect.
Seattle, day 4
I don't like the plan but it's the best we got. Zero has gotten hold of a nurse's and a nun's outfit and I get to be the nun. We go in separately, Zero as a nurse, Finlay as a visitor and me and the padre as religious support. It mostly works as nobody really bothers us until Finlay runs afoul of the doc's secretary. Only some fast talking and remembering that the doc has a golfing afternoon planned later in the week, convinces her he is on the level.
Finlay and Zero extract the doc, and we load him into the van. The padre casts a spell on him to make him tell the truth and I keep him covered with one of the Kimbers. He spills but its not what we want. He knows nothing about missing girls but has been sending samples of fetal matter from abortions to a bunch of interested parties before destroying them.
Frag, is everyone in Seattle on the take. Seems like it is as the padre then puts the squeeze on the doc for a share of his ill-gotten gains. I had hoped to use him as my man on the inside, but this surprise move blows any chance of that out of the water. When did the padre get so greedy. I know he uses most of it to care for his 'flock', but this guy coulda been useful to me. We drop the doc off and return to the garage.
Seattle, day 5
Combing through the files for any clues, I realise that a lot of the articles on the senator's missing daughter were written by the same guy, Danny Kincaid. I look him up, but my computer skills ain't too good and have to ask Zero for help. She turns up an address quicker than I can draw my piece.
I call the reporter but get reception. I leave my real name, if that is what it is, and tell them its about the senator's daughter. Later I get a call from the man himself. I handle it badly and he tells me he gets a lot of crank calls and asks for some proof, physical proof. I offer to send him the data but he just laughs. He wants hard copy.
I get Zero to print out some of the info for me and swing past his office to drop it off personally.
Seattle, day 6
Seems to have worked. He calls back for a meet. A coffee place near his office. He is an older guy, who still wears suspenders to keep his pants up. His hair is greying and he carries too much weight from working a desk job. He wants to know what my story is. I tell him some, but not all. He seems unwilling to provide me with anything I can use. He still seems to think that I am a loon, either that or a gold-digger after the reward money. And while that money sure would be nice, I am just out for revenge.
Well, only one more lead to go. Green Ronin.
August 21, 2010
Karnak the Killer
Chapter 2 - The trouble with Elves
Karnak arrived at the market early. Too early. The sun was just creeping over the roof of the merchant’s guild building on the East of the main market square, casting long shadows over the teamsters unhitching horses and leading them away to the stables of the nearby inns.
Merchants were only just starting to set up there canvas tents; here a spice merchant, there a silk trader. Unfortunately they were not selling yet. Karnak ground his teeth and approached one of the merchants, a trader in arms and armor.
“Good day, sir,” he smiled. “I was hoping to purchase a new sword but I see you are late in setting up today. Trouble on the road?”
Short, even for a dwarf, the merchant looked up at Karnak with a snort that was half frustration and half laughter.
“No troubles my tall friend,” grinned the dwarf. “At least none beyond getting a pile of rocks twice your height moving of a morning.”
The merchant nodded towards the north end of the market and Karnak’s eyes went wide as he spotted the tall figure of an obsidiman. At least a head taller than Karnak, the large figure was standing in the middle of the thoroughfare, its head swinging slowly left and right, taking in the all the sound and chaos of the merchants as they rushed around setting up their stalls.
“Now that is something you don’t see every day.” said Karnak, a glint in his eye. “If you will excuse me, sir, I will return later in the day to examine your wares.”
Without waiting for the dwarf’s response, Karnak set off at a brisk pace towards the obsidiman.
“Good morrow, stone brother,” called Karnak as he stepped up to large slate coloured individual. The obsidiman was an impressive figure, His dark skin rippled with strength and was covered with living bark armour. A massive shield was strapped to his left arm and at his waist hung a massive spiked mace.
“Hello friend ork,” rumbled the large figure, its gaze settling on Karnak.
Before Karnak could say another word, a slim figure appeared from behind the Obsidiman. “Another beggar, Carrick?”
Karnak gave an involuntary hiss as he spotted the long pointed ears of an elf. Although on a further look, the ears belonged to a rather pretty young elf girl with long purple hair and emerald green eyes. From her simple attire and the spiky fernweave armor she wore, she certainly wasn’t from Riddleport.
Recovering quickly, Karnak put on his best smile and launched into his spiel.
“Milady, I did not see you there behind your large friend. I am no beggar as you can see. I am but a humble citizen of this fine city. I can direct you to merchants that offer the finest of goods at the fairest of prices, inns serving the best food and ale, and with beds free of bugs. All my knowledge of what this city has to offer is yours for the cost of only a few silver pieces. So, how can I be of help to you?”
The obsidiman seemed on the point of answering, but the elf answered first.
“We are going to the Tower of the Magi. And we already have directions, so thank you for your kind offer but your assistance is not required. Come, Carrick. Let us be on our way.”
And with that, she turned on her heel and with the Obsidian lumbering after her headed off in exactly the opposite direction to the Tower.
Karnak shrugged and after spending a few more minutes circling the market to check out what the various merchants had on offer, he swung past a local fish merchant and picked up a still warm eel pie. With a tune on his lips and his mouth full of eel pie he ambled off in the direction of the Fool’s market.
---
When he arrived at the Fool’s market, Karnak was surprised to spot a pair of familiar figures.
“Stone brother, milady elf. Was your visit to the Mage‘s Tower a success?”
“We have still to make our way there,” snapped Juniper.
“Well, should you need my assistance you can usually find me in the Sea Serpent of an evening. Although it is not one of the places I would normally recommend for such as you.”
“I thought there would be more people,” interrupted Carrick suddenly.
Karnak looked around, the hairs on his neck rising as he realised they were alone in the square. By this hour, it should be filling up with hawkers, con-artists, snake oil salesmen and other disreputable traders. But the square was empty, not even a city guard to be seen.
“Trouble.” muttered Karnak, unstrapping his shield and loosening his sword in its scabbard. “I hope you can use that mace my stone friend. And milady, do you have any magics that can help us?”
“Well I…but not in my matrices. I would need to…” stammered Juniper.
“Then do it” grunted Karnak.
---
Aardaal was really worried now. He had been forced to change direction three times since leaving home. Every route he had taken towards Qet’chiqan’s house had been blocked by gutter thugs. He had spotted the first two easily, too easily he now suspected.
The second pair had been lurking in a narrow alley and he had only spotted them at the last moment when he caught a reflection off a drawn blade. The third pair had simply been standing in the middle of the road, clearly waiting for him.
All six of them were following him now. He realised they were herding him and needed to lose them. He hoped that cutting through the Fool’s Market would give him that chance. But as he turned into the square, he realised this was exactly where they wanted him. Apart from an unusual trio of an elf, dwarf and an Obsidiman, the square was empty.
Aardaal hesitated only an instant then headed towards the threesome. The goons following were mainly local thugs. It seemed unlikely that these three were in league with them. He was halfway across the square to them when he caught a movement from the corner of his eye.
Another two goons stepped out from an alley. The first was a large ork, the second a weasel-faced human holding a loaded crossbow. Aardaal hissed out his breath. Behind him, he could hear heavy footfalls as the other six goons entered the square. He closed his eyes for a second to focus his thoughts and then with brisk effective movements, drew his dagger and charged towards the two goons.
It almost worked. The human loosed the crossbow in surprise, the shot going wide. Then Aardaal performed a forward handspring that took him clean over the head of the human. But he landed slightly off-balance and the ork was quicker than he looked. He swung a heavy club at Aardaal’s head. Aardaal twisted, avoiding getting his skull crushed, but the club clipped the side of the head and he tumbled to the ground.
‘Passions‘ thought Karnak. ‘Why is it always elves?’
Clearing his throat, he took a step towards the goons. One of them was a large gap-toothed ork with silver capped tusks.
“Hoi tusker,” called Karnak. “You been hanging around these breeders so long you need six to one odds to take down one scrawny elf?”
The big ork turned with a grunt, “Hey, dey are wit him. Get em too!” The cap-toothed ork and three of the other goons turned away from the elf and started moving towards Karnak.
Karnak drew his sword and prepared to fight. But before he could act, Carrick moved. The Obsidiman seemed to glide across the ground at a pace much faster than Karnak believed such a large humanoid could move.
Carrick braced his heavy full shield as he charged the lead ork. There was a crunch as the two collided. Carrick stopped, but the ork was flung back several feet and landed on his back unconscious.
Then the other three were on them. Blades clashed as they thrust and parried. Karnak drove his blade towards one of the thugs but overextended. As he tried to recover, the thug thrust his shortsword into his side finding a weak spot in his armor. Karnak tumbled to the ground with a groan, feeling hot blood running down his side.
Behind him, Juniper yelped as one of the other thug’s blades nicked her arm. She focused through the pain and drew together the threads of her spell. The earth at her feet writhed and a dart of stone surged up, slicing open the face of the thug attacking her.
Aaardaal flipped back up to his feet and shook his head. The big ork grinned and swung his club back and forth in lazy arcs. Aardaal feinted then thrust, his dagger scraping the ork’s armor but failing to penetrate. The ork grunted and took a wide swing, which Aardaal easily dodged. Aardaal’s blade darted forward again scoring another hit but again failing to do any real damage.
Carrick turned his attention to the thug standing over Karnak. His spiked mace crashed into the thug’s side knocking the breath out of him and forcing him back several steps, allowing Karnak to get back on his feet.
Seeing the carnage that the Obsidiman was wreaking, Aardaal performed another flip ending up near the flat out ork. He scooped up the ork’s shortsword and tumbled forward, slicing one of the other grunts as he passed. Together the four quickly dispatched the remaining thugs, but not before one of them scored another hit on Karnak.
“My thanks”, whispered Aardaal. “But perhaps it would be best if you accompany me to my destination. It is not far from here.”
“He needs urgent care” said Juniper kneeling next to the bleeding Karnak.
With a smooth motion, Carrick scooped up the bleeding ork despite his feeble protestations. They crossed the Fool’s market and entered the King’s Way. After a few minutes hurrying along the street, they turned down a short alley and Aaardaal knocked at a heavy wooden door.
After a brief wait, the door opened. A look of relief came over the craggy face of a worried-looking obsidiman, which immediately turned to concern when it spotted the bleeding ork.
“Bring him in. Quick.” rumbled the obsidiman. The four hustled through the door and the obsidiman closed and barred it behind them. He led them across a tidy courtyard and up a sturdy wooden staircase to a narrow balcony.
“Put him in here” directed the Obsidiman. “I will fetch water and medicines.”
Carrick eased Karnak down onto the bed and helped him out of his armor. Underneath, his fine shirt was stained with blood.
“Give me room, Carrick” ordered Juniper pushing the obsidiman out of the way. She cut away Karnak’s shirt and wadded up the bloody rags into a compress to stop the bleeding. Qet’chiqan returned with water and bandages. She cleaned the ork’s wounds, sewed the cuts and bandaged him up. Throughout it all the big ork made no complaints, beyond an occasional hiss of pain through gritted teeth. When she was finished, he looked deep into her emerald eyes and whispered a soft thank you.
Juniper felt her cheeks colour. “No thanks necessary. But perhaps you should be more careful about whom you pick fights with in the future.”
Karnak gave a weak grin at that. ‘Elves’ he thought to himself. ‘Nothing but trouble.’
---
Fortunately no-one else had more than minor cuts and bruises. Still Juniper made sure that everyone’s injuries were properly cleaned and bandaged, including her own. The group then spent the next few days at Qet’chiqan’s house while Karnak recovered from his wounds. In any case, Qet’chiqan warned them that it would be unwise to leave the house until he was able to find out why the thugs had attacked Aardaal.
Aardaal and Carrick spent most of their time practising with their weapons and sparring in the courtyard. The package that Aardaal had brought to Qet’chiqan had turned out to be his father’s swords, which had only made him even more concerned. Qet’chiqan had given the blades back to Aardaal, saying that he should have them. The obsidiman also seemed worried by the blades.
The news, when it came, hit Aardaal like a hammer blow. His home had been burned to the ground. Neither of his parents had escaped the flames. Qet’chiqan could not stop him from visiting the burned out remains, but both obsidimen went with him to keep him safe. The house was a charred ruin. The roof timbers had given way and all that was left was charred wood and cracked tiles. The houses on either side were also badly damaged but the fire had been contained from spreading further. Aardaal stood there rigid for a long time, with silent tears running down his face until Qet’chiqan led him away.
Aardaal retired to his room and spent the next days coming to terms with his loss. Karnak recovered quickly, helped by Juniper’s chirurgery skill and a healing potion from Qet’chiqan. He was soon able to sit up and asked for his lute. He strummed lightly on the chords and hummed a few tunes. Juniper and Qet‘chiqan told him about Aardaal’s parents fate and Qet’chiqan gave him a small bag of silver coins for saving Aardaal from his attackers.
Juniper spent most of her time talking with plants in Qet’chiqan’s garden. The obsidiman took good care of them, for the most part. But he could not talk to the plants, so there were a few plants that needed some extra care.
After a few days, Qet’chiqan told them it should be safe to leave his home again. Carrick escorted Juniper to the Tower of the Magi. This time, with directions from the obsidiman, they reached their destination quickly.
The mages at the tower were a snooty bunch. They informed her she needed to take a test of initiation before they would allow her access to the tower’s library and teachings. She was permitted assistance from her companions, as the trial could be dangerous, they warned. But should they succeed, only she would gain access to the tower’s facilities. She explained this to the others when she returned to Qet’chiqan’s house.
Aardaal spoke first, “I owe you my life, you have my blade.”
Karnak gave her a broad grin. “And you tended my wounds. Plus it is not every day that one gets a chance to see inside the mages tower. So I would have come with you regardless.”
“They said it could be dangerous,” repeated Juniper.
“Then all the more reason for us to come with you,” rumbled Carrick. The others nodded in assent.
Karnak arrived at the market early. Too early. The sun was just creeping over the roof of the merchant’s guild building on the East of the main market square, casting long shadows over the teamsters unhitching horses and leading them away to the stables of the nearby inns.
Merchants were only just starting to set up there canvas tents; here a spice merchant, there a silk trader. Unfortunately they were not selling yet. Karnak ground his teeth and approached one of the merchants, a trader in arms and armor.
“Good day, sir,” he smiled. “I was hoping to purchase a new sword but I see you are late in setting up today. Trouble on the road?”
Short, even for a dwarf, the merchant looked up at Karnak with a snort that was half frustration and half laughter.
“No troubles my tall friend,” grinned the dwarf. “At least none beyond getting a pile of rocks twice your height moving of a morning.”
The merchant nodded towards the north end of the market and Karnak’s eyes went wide as he spotted the tall figure of an obsidiman. At least a head taller than Karnak, the large figure was standing in the middle of the thoroughfare, its head swinging slowly left and right, taking in the all the sound and chaos of the merchants as they rushed around setting up their stalls.
“Now that is something you don’t see every day.” said Karnak, a glint in his eye. “If you will excuse me, sir, I will return later in the day to examine your wares.”
Without waiting for the dwarf’s response, Karnak set off at a brisk pace towards the obsidiman.
“Good morrow, stone brother,” called Karnak as he stepped up to large slate coloured individual. The obsidiman was an impressive figure, His dark skin rippled with strength and was covered with living bark armour. A massive shield was strapped to his left arm and at his waist hung a massive spiked mace.
“Hello friend ork,” rumbled the large figure, its gaze settling on Karnak.
Before Karnak could say another word, a slim figure appeared from behind the Obsidiman. “Another beggar, Carrick?”
Karnak gave an involuntary hiss as he spotted the long pointed ears of an elf. Although on a further look, the ears belonged to a rather pretty young elf girl with long purple hair and emerald green eyes. From her simple attire and the spiky fernweave armor she wore, she certainly wasn’t from Riddleport.
Recovering quickly, Karnak put on his best smile and launched into his spiel.
“Milady, I did not see you there behind your large friend. I am no beggar as you can see. I am but a humble citizen of this fine city. I can direct you to merchants that offer the finest of goods at the fairest of prices, inns serving the best food and ale, and with beds free of bugs. All my knowledge of what this city has to offer is yours for the cost of only a few silver pieces. So, how can I be of help to you?”
The obsidiman seemed on the point of answering, but the elf answered first.
“We are going to the Tower of the Magi. And we already have directions, so thank you for your kind offer but your assistance is not required. Come, Carrick. Let us be on our way.”
And with that, she turned on her heel and with the Obsidian lumbering after her headed off in exactly the opposite direction to the Tower.
Karnak shrugged and after spending a few more minutes circling the market to check out what the various merchants had on offer, he swung past a local fish merchant and picked up a still warm eel pie. With a tune on his lips and his mouth full of eel pie he ambled off in the direction of the Fool’s market.
---
When he arrived at the Fool’s market, Karnak was surprised to spot a pair of familiar figures.
“Stone brother, milady elf. Was your visit to the Mage‘s Tower a success?”
“We have still to make our way there,” snapped Juniper.
“Well, should you need my assistance you can usually find me in the Sea Serpent of an evening. Although it is not one of the places I would normally recommend for such as you.”
“I thought there would be more people,” interrupted Carrick suddenly.
Karnak looked around, the hairs on his neck rising as he realised they were alone in the square. By this hour, it should be filling up with hawkers, con-artists, snake oil salesmen and other disreputable traders. But the square was empty, not even a city guard to be seen.
“Trouble.” muttered Karnak, unstrapping his shield and loosening his sword in its scabbard. “I hope you can use that mace my stone friend. And milady, do you have any magics that can help us?”
“Well I…but not in my matrices. I would need to…” stammered Juniper.
“Then do it” grunted Karnak.
---
Aardaal was really worried now. He had been forced to change direction three times since leaving home. Every route he had taken towards Qet’chiqan’s house had been blocked by gutter thugs. He had spotted the first two easily, too easily he now suspected.
The second pair had been lurking in a narrow alley and he had only spotted them at the last moment when he caught a reflection off a drawn blade. The third pair had simply been standing in the middle of the road, clearly waiting for him.
All six of them were following him now. He realised they were herding him and needed to lose them. He hoped that cutting through the Fool’s Market would give him that chance. But as he turned into the square, he realised this was exactly where they wanted him. Apart from an unusual trio of an elf, dwarf and an Obsidiman, the square was empty.
Aardaal hesitated only an instant then headed towards the threesome. The goons following were mainly local thugs. It seemed unlikely that these three were in league with them. He was halfway across the square to them when he caught a movement from the corner of his eye.
Another two goons stepped out from an alley. The first was a large ork, the second a weasel-faced human holding a loaded crossbow. Aardaal hissed out his breath. Behind him, he could hear heavy footfalls as the other six goons entered the square. He closed his eyes for a second to focus his thoughts and then with brisk effective movements, drew his dagger and charged towards the two goons.
It almost worked. The human loosed the crossbow in surprise, the shot going wide. Then Aardaal performed a forward handspring that took him clean over the head of the human. But he landed slightly off-balance and the ork was quicker than he looked. He swung a heavy club at Aardaal’s head. Aardaal twisted, avoiding getting his skull crushed, but the club clipped the side of the head and he tumbled to the ground.
‘Passions‘ thought Karnak. ‘Why is it always elves?’
Clearing his throat, he took a step towards the goons. One of them was a large gap-toothed ork with silver capped tusks.
“Hoi tusker,” called Karnak. “You been hanging around these breeders so long you need six to one odds to take down one scrawny elf?”
The big ork turned with a grunt, “Hey, dey are wit him. Get em too!” The cap-toothed ork and three of the other goons turned away from the elf and started moving towards Karnak.
Karnak drew his sword and prepared to fight. But before he could act, Carrick moved. The Obsidiman seemed to glide across the ground at a pace much faster than Karnak believed such a large humanoid could move.
Carrick braced his heavy full shield as he charged the lead ork. There was a crunch as the two collided. Carrick stopped, but the ork was flung back several feet and landed on his back unconscious.
Then the other three were on them. Blades clashed as they thrust and parried. Karnak drove his blade towards one of the thugs but overextended. As he tried to recover, the thug thrust his shortsword into his side finding a weak spot in his armor. Karnak tumbled to the ground with a groan, feeling hot blood running down his side.
Behind him, Juniper yelped as one of the other thug’s blades nicked her arm. She focused through the pain and drew together the threads of her spell. The earth at her feet writhed and a dart of stone surged up, slicing open the face of the thug attacking her.
Aaardaal flipped back up to his feet and shook his head. The big ork grinned and swung his club back and forth in lazy arcs. Aardaal feinted then thrust, his dagger scraping the ork’s armor but failing to penetrate. The ork grunted and took a wide swing, which Aardaal easily dodged. Aardaal’s blade darted forward again scoring another hit but again failing to do any real damage.
Carrick turned his attention to the thug standing over Karnak. His spiked mace crashed into the thug’s side knocking the breath out of him and forcing him back several steps, allowing Karnak to get back on his feet.
Seeing the carnage that the Obsidiman was wreaking, Aardaal performed another flip ending up near the flat out ork. He scooped up the ork’s shortsword and tumbled forward, slicing one of the other grunts as he passed. Together the four quickly dispatched the remaining thugs, but not before one of them scored another hit on Karnak.
“My thanks”, whispered Aardaal. “But perhaps it would be best if you accompany me to my destination. It is not far from here.”
“He needs urgent care” said Juniper kneeling next to the bleeding Karnak.
With a smooth motion, Carrick scooped up the bleeding ork despite his feeble protestations. They crossed the Fool’s market and entered the King’s Way. After a few minutes hurrying along the street, they turned down a short alley and Aaardaal knocked at a heavy wooden door.
After a brief wait, the door opened. A look of relief came over the craggy face of a worried-looking obsidiman, which immediately turned to concern when it spotted the bleeding ork.
“Bring him in. Quick.” rumbled the obsidiman. The four hustled through the door and the obsidiman closed and barred it behind them. He led them across a tidy courtyard and up a sturdy wooden staircase to a narrow balcony.
“Put him in here” directed the Obsidiman. “I will fetch water and medicines.”
Carrick eased Karnak down onto the bed and helped him out of his armor. Underneath, his fine shirt was stained with blood.
“Give me room, Carrick” ordered Juniper pushing the obsidiman out of the way. She cut away Karnak’s shirt and wadded up the bloody rags into a compress to stop the bleeding. Qet’chiqan returned with water and bandages. She cleaned the ork’s wounds, sewed the cuts and bandaged him up. Throughout it all the big ork made no complaints, beyond an occasional hiss of pain through gritted teeth. When she was finished, he looked deep into her emerald eyes and whispered a soft thank you.
Juniper felt her cheeks colour. “No thanks necessary. But perhaps you should be more careful about whom you pick fights with in the future.”
Karnak gave a weak grin at that. ‘Elves’ he thought to himself. ‘Nothing but trouble.’
---
Fortunately no-one else had more than minor cuts and bruises. Still Juniper made sure that everyone’s injuries were properly cleaned and bandaged, including her own. The group then spent the next few days at Qet’chiqan’s house while Karnak recovered from his wounds. In any case, Qet’chiqan warned them that it would be unwise to leave the house until he was able to find out why the thugs had attacked Aardaal.
Aardaal and Carrick spent most of their time practising with their weapons and sparring in the courtyard. The package that Aardaal had brought to Qet’chiqan had turned out to be his father’s swords, which had only made him even more concerned. Qet’chiqan had given the blades back to Aardaal, saying that he should have them. The obsidiman also seemed worried by the blades.
The news, when it came, hit Aardaal like a hammer blow. His home had been burned to the ground. Neither of his parents had escaped the flames. Qet’chiqan could not stop him from visiting the burned out remains, but both obsidimen went with him to keep him safe. The house was a charred ruin. The roof timbers had given way and all that was left was charred wood and cracked tiles. The houses on either side were also badly damaged but the fire had been contained from spreading further. Aardaal stood there rigid for a long time, with silent tears running down his face until Qet’chiqan led him away.
Aardaal retired to his room and spent the next days coming to terms with his loss. Karnak recovered quickly, helped by Juniper’s chirurgery skill and a healing potion from Qet’chiqan. He was soon able to sit up and asked for his lute. He strummed lightly on the chords and hummed a few tunes. Juniper and Qet‘chiqan told him about Aardaal’s parents fate and Qet’chiqan gave him a small bag of silver coins for saving Aardaal from his attackers.
Juniper spent most of her time talking with plants in Qet’chiqan’s garden. The obsidiman took good care of them, for the most part. But he could not talk to the plants, so there were a few plants that needed some extra care.
After a few days, Qet’chiqan told them it should be safe to leave his home again. Carrick escorted Juniper to the Tower of the Magi. This time, with directions from the obsidiman, they reached their destination quickly.
The mages at the tower were a snooty bunch. They informed her she needed to take a test of initiation before they would allow her access to the tower’s library and teachings. She was permitted assistance from her companions, as the trial could be dangerous, they warned. But should they succeed, only she would gain access to the tower’s facilities. She explained this to the others when she returned to Qet’chiqan’s house.
Aardaal spoke first, “I owe you my life, you have my blade.”
Karnak gave her a broad grin. “And you tended my wounds. Plus it is not every day that one gets a chance to see inside the mages tower. So I would have come with you regardless.”
“They said it could be dangerous,” repeated Juniper.
“Then all the more reason for us to come with you,” rumbled Carrick. The others nodded in assent.
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