Middle of nowhere, Algonkian-Manitou Council, 27 December 2050
We take a direct route toward the HNLA base, abandoning the snowbikes about a klick away and trudging the rest of way through the snow in the bulky NBC suits. At least they keep us warm as well as safe from the virus.
We spot the base after about another hour and a half. There are about five or six buildings, but the place looks quiet. Our current approach is pretty exposed so we lose more time circling around through the trees. Place looks dead.
As we move in to scout, Sharron hisses a warning for me to stop. Hidden in the snow is a trip wire and I nearly walked right into it. It's hooked up to a claymore mine. We disarm it and perform a more careful search that turns up a couple more before entering the camp proper.
The buildings are cold and a quick search reveals that most anything of value has been taken. We find a cleared area where the snow had melted and refrozen. Seems they had their own VTOL. The rest of the team joins us and we search the place proper but all we turn up is a datachip.
Zero makes quick work of it, turning up ferry schedules between Salish and Tsimshian, the name of one of the boats 'Queen of the North' and a set of navigation vectors. Based on the data, the boat will have already left Salish and is due to arrive in Kitimat in just a few hours.
Finlay gets on the comm', calling Osprey back. He lands at the base and we pile in. If we're lucky we can pick up the Wildcats and still make it to the boat a couple of hours before it arrives in Kitimat.
On the way, Zero uses the plane's satlink to do a little bit of scouting. She manages to hack into a NSA satellite and gets us a view on the coordinates just in time to see a couple of boats pulling up alongside the ferry. One is a big zodiac speedboat loaded with barrels, the other looks to be a coastguard cutter and has a pintle mount with a pair of LMGs on its forward deck. Worse, we can also see gunmen moving around on the ferry and what could be bloodstains around its bridge. Unfortunately, we don't get to see any more, as a couple of agents jump Zero. Only Finlay's quick reactions save her from getting her brain fried by Black IC, but the dumpshock still knocks her clean out.
We pick up the Wildcats and Cleo at the island, landing barely long enough for them to get onboard. Then Osprey pushes his plane as hard as he can to get us there ASAP. The Wildcats have plans of the boat and we work out a basic plan with them going for the bridge while we secure the passengers. The rest of the flight is spent in silence, well silent if you discount the roar of the osprey's engines being pushed to their limits.
Like the others, I spend the time checking my guns and loading them for bear. HE in the Winchester, APDS in the Cobra SMG and my trusty Cavalier Deputy seven-shooter. Then after what seems like a long period of waiting, Osprey calls out that he has the ferry in sight.
The Wildcats ork gunner takes up position by the side door, while Finlay and Sharron hang out the rear ramp with their assault rifles. A first pass reveals nothing but as Osprey brings the plane in over the rear deck and we start to rappel down, I hear the sound of automatic fire and the spang of bullets against the plane's fuselage.
Osprey pulls away as the Wildcats move forward. We split into two with Sharron and Finlay taking one set of stairs down, while I take the other backed up by Zero and the padre. Yeah, he's back on his feet but still looks like shit and has his left arm in a sling.
A burst of SMG fire sends Finlay and Sharron into cover. They return fire, eliciting a cry of pain as their shots hit true. We descend carefully. I spot one of the terrorists and snap off a round from the Winchester. I ain't aiming to wound and the heavy HE round takes the back of his head clean off. As he drops, I feel Zero's hand on my back. Another one off to the side. Zero takes a shot at him and I hear the padre calling on God to smite him but he doesn't drop. I roll as he fires. Bullets chase me across the deck but none hit home and the firing stops suddenly as Finlay takes him down with a well-timed burst.
I nod as we move deeper into the boat. We don't run into any more opposition and the wildcats report that they have secured the bridge, but that the controls have been shot up. We find the passengers in the main cabin. They are all dead, mainly from execution style headshots. Further searching reveals the eight barrels positioned around the boat deck. They are all wired up and as we get close, I spot a proximity trigger and warn the others to stay back.
One of the Wildcats is a demo expert and we discuss how to disable the bombs. They are wired up with proximity sensors, a timer and what looks like a seismic sensor as well as a bunch of wires that could conceal a fragload of tripswitches and trapped circuits. I wonder what the seismic sensors are for until the wildcats confirm that we are locked on a collision course with the Kitimat ferry terminal.
With time counting down, the wildcat suggests using ultrasound to scramble the proximity sensor allowing us to get close enough to disable the bombs. Zero rigs up Finlay's ultrasound sight to her electronics kit and goes to work. As she scrambles the bombs the wildcat and I move in and with steady hands and a lot of careful timing, we do manage to disable the booby traps on the bombs. However, we are unable to shut down the timers or the seismic sensors. Instead, we feed a fiber optic cable into each of the barrels, attached to a pair of goggles. This lets the padre cast a sterilise spell directly into the barrels to kill off the virus.
By the time we are finished, we can see Kitimat in the distance. My real hand won't stop shaking and the padre looks ready to pass out. With no way to stop the boat, I attach 3 sticks of dynamite to the main fuel line in the engine room and we bug out. Once Osprey has some height, I click the detonator. There is a small explosion followed by a bigger one as the ferry's fuel and the bombs strapped to the barrels explode. The ferry starts to lose headway then starts to list, flames and smoke shooting from its deck as it begins to sink.
Osprey calls over the comm that he is low on fuel but knows a place where he can refuel without anyone asking questions. Tired but happy to be alive, we agree to land there. The tiny uninhabited island lies somewhere off the coast, I cant say I was paying too much attention to where we were flying. I step out and fish half a packet of cigarettes out of my pocket. The padre bums one off me and I light him up, then mine.
I manage one draw before Finlay mutters 'Contact' over the comm and camouflaged figures appear out of the woods all around us. They move with precision, covering us and each other as only trained military can. I drop the cigarette and slowly raise my hands. I catch a glimpse of Osprey. He looks as guilty as hell and avoids my gaze as the injun commandos strip me of my weapons.
They haul us off to a nearby building. When the padre resists, they put a hood over his head and sedate him. Zero glares at the commandos with barely concealed rage and even Finlay seems angry, although it's hard to tell if its directed at himself for walking into a trap or at the injuns for catching us in it. The injuns for their part are pretty civil about the whole thing, the wildcats commander even going so far as to apologise about 'orders from above'.
Then we get hauled in for questioning. These aint military. In addition to a couple of shamans there are a bunch of suits. They look like sararimen in cheap suits but move like professionals. Great, injun spooks. An older, chain-smoking woman does most of the talking. I might be fitted with a cyber restraint but at least I'm still dressed and no-one's called me a whore, yet. Plus I figure the wildcats would of told her most of the story by now, so I bide my time and fill in the few gaps that I can. Like the eagle shaman who hired us to stop Martha, Martha's links to Terra First and what we know about the HNF and HNLA. She asks what we planned to do with the virus and I tell her she already knows what we did about it on the boat. Put a stop to it.
During the questioning one of the shaman keeps a watch on me. Probably got some truth spell on me. He kinda reminds me of an old drunk I ran into in a bar down in Salish one time. This old fella claimed to be a shaman and that he could see my spirit. He told me I had lost my totem and that my moon needed to be reunited with my sun or I would be lost in the dark. Then he called me a bitch and I clocked him. I woke up the next day in the local slammer. A few of the local braves apparently took offence to me clocking the old geezer. I was nursing a hangover and a headache when the old fella turned up and spoke to the deputy. He must of dropped the charges as the next thing I know I'm being escorted out of the county.
That all happened back before I knew about my magic abilities or who I was. I don't why it popped back into my head now, but I swear the shaman is grinning at me when they take me back to the others.
Showing posts with label sr3. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sr3. Show all posts
September 5, 2011
July 19, 2011
Billie's Journal - Torture
Kimano, Tsimshian, 26 December 2050
The Wildcats shaman did a good job on me and I'm back on my feet and while I still hurt a bit, I shut out the pain. Helps that I can literally shut off the pain. We help the injuns unload their gear from the osprey and then Finlay sends it off to scout for any sign of the escaped HNLA members. But they're long gone.
We turn our attention to the two that Sharron knocked out with the stun grenade. Finlay and Sharron get them sat up back to back and start asking questions. Not surprising they aint too keen on answering, so I shoot one of them in the knee. He wails on a bit while Zero and Sharron pull me away telling me to stay calm. I sulk in the corner glaring at the unhurt one, while Finlay hauls the crybaby away to patch him up and kiss his knee better.
To be honest, I'm a little shocked at myself. That was pure Billie. I feel her taking control again and light up a cigarette to calm myself down. Zero takes over the interrogation, hooking the unhurt prisoner up to the generator while whispering to him in her soft French accent. He doesn't seem to know much about where Wallace, their chief, was heading or what the target was although he does admit that they were going to make the government pay. Tsimshian's government is in Kitimat, but unless they are targeting the parliament buildings themselves, they could be anywhere in the city. And while I assume its going to happen soon, we just don't have enough to go on.
We take turns asking questions, and eventually I get Zero to 'juice him'. Unfortunately the girl has the generator set to 'fry' rather than 'juice' and kind of cooks him a bit too much. I realise we aint going to get anything more of him and pump him full of morphine to shut him up.
Luckily, Finlay has a bit more luck with the softly, softly approach and gets a possible location of their base from the one I shot. It's up on the Algonkin border in the middle of nowhere. Good place for a secret hideout.
But before we go, we still need to check out the bunker. The Wildcates brought NBC suits with them, so we suit up and take a look. It's dark and abandoned with little to see beyond the big drumlike container that's clearly the fuel-air device that never went off. We tip-toe around it. Then one of the Wildcats finds Father O'Reilly. To our amazement he's still alive. He's been shot to shit and lost a lot of blood, but he's still breathing. We carefully haul him out of there and the Wildcat shaman does what he can to patch him up. He's in a bad way and is likely going to lose his left arm, but he'll live. A fraggin miracle!
We continue our search, turning up some old computer system which Zero works on to remove some ancient storage devices called hard drives. Then Sharron almost stumbles on some vials abandoned in one of the biohazard units. I hold up one of the vials to the light of my torch but can't read it. I hear a click of a safety as the wildcat behind me asks me firmly but politely to hand it over. I aint too keen to be handling no death plague and am only too keen to hand it over along with the four other vials Sharron discovered.
We return to the surface and I breathe a sigh of relief when the Wildcats seal up them vials in a padded case. Zero hooks the 'hard drives' up to her deck and manages to pull some data off them about the facility and the 'Red Mask'. Yep, its a bioweapon. It's delivered in aerosol format and goes dormant once it infects the host and breaks down in sunlight in a couple of days. Perfect for killing people without any collateral damage. Whoever came up with this stuff was sick in the head, and as the team's resident crazy person I know what I'm talking about.
With no hard data on the target, we decide to try the hideout. Zero thinks she has located the base on satellite maps and Osprey flies us out there in his bird. Most of manage to snooze on the way. He drops us off about an hour or two's walk away and we start trudging through the snow towards the base. I'm kind of glad to have the NBC suit as the extra padding helps keep out the cold.
Then Finlay hears a noise. Sounds like motorbikes but there is no road to be seen. Then we spot headlights and take cover. Soon enough four snowbikes come into view, with two of them doubled up. They pull up 33 meters away and I can hear them talking but not what they are saying. Finlay and Sharron step out into view, Finlay calling out that we are police and they are to put their hands up. They reach for guns.
Five out of the six go down within seconds. The last stays slumped over the back of one of the bikes. As we approach its clear she is sick with the Red Mask and so were her friends. I give her something for the pain but it's clear she aint going to last long. We take the bikes and head back the way they came.
The Wildcats shaman did a good job on me and I'm back on my feet and while I still hurt a bit, I shut out the pain. Helps that I can literally shut off the pain. We help the injuns unload their gear from the osprey and then Finlay sends it off to scout for any sign of the escaped HNLA members. But they're long gone.
We turn our attention to the two that Sharron knocked out with the stun grenade. Finlay and Sharron get them sat up back to back and start asking questions. Not surprising they aint too keen on answering, so I shoot one of them in the knee. He wails on a bit while Zero and Sharron pull me away telling me to stay calm. I sulk in the corner glaring at the unhurt one, while Finlay hauls the crybaby away to patch him up and kiss his knee better.
To be honest, I'm a little shocked at myself. That was pure Billie. I feel her taking control again and light up a cigarette to calm myself down. Zero takes over the interrogation, hooking the unhurt prisoner up to the generator while whispering to him in her soft French accent. He doesn't seem to know much about where Wallace, their chief, was heading or what the target was although he does admit that they were going to make the government pay. Tsimshian's government is in Kitimat, but unless they are targeting the parliament buildings themselves, they could be anywhere in the city. And while I assume its going to happen soon, we just don't have enough to go on.
We take turns asking questions, and eventually I get Zero to 'juice him'. Unfortunately the girl has the generator set to 'fry' rather than 'juice' and kind of cooks him a bit too much. I realise we aint going to get anything more of him and pump him full of morphine to shut him up.
Luckily, Finlay has a bit more luck with the softly, softly approach and gets a possible location of their base from the one I shot. It's up on the Algonkin border in the middle of nowhere. Good place for a secret hideout.
But before we go, we still need to check out the bunker. The Wildcates brought NBC suits with them, so we suit up and take a look. It's dark and abandoned with little to see beyond the big drumlike container that's clearly the fuel-air device that never went off. We tip-toe around it. Then one of the Wildcats finds Father O'Reilly. To our amazement he's still alive. He's been shot to shit and lost a lot of blood, but he's still breathing. We carefully haul him out of there and the Wildcat shaman does what he can to patch him up. He's in a bad way and is likely going to lose his left arm, but he'll live. A fraggin miracle!
We continue our search, turning up some old computer system which Zero works on to remove some ancient storage devices called hard drives. Then Sharron almost stumbles on some vials abandoned in one of the biohazard units. I hold up one of the vials to the light of my torch but can't read it. I hear a click of a safety as the wildcat behind me asks me firmly but politely to hand it over. I aint too keen to be handling no death plague and am only too keen to hand it over along with the four other vials Sharron discovered.
We return to the surface and I breathe a sigh of relief when the Wildcats seal up them vials in a padded case. Zero hooks the 'hard drives' up to her deck and manages to pull some data off them about the facility and the 'Red Mask'. Yep, its a bioweapon. It's delivered in aerosol format and goes dormant once it infects the host and breaks down in sunlight in a couple of days. Perfect for killing people without any collateral damage. Whoever came up with this stuff was sick in the head, and as the team's resident crazy person I know what I'm talking about.
With no hard data on the target, we decide to try the hideout. Zero thinks she has located the base on satellite maps and Osprey flies us out there in his bird. Most of manage to snooze on the way. He drops us off about an hour or two's walk away and we start trudging through the snow towards the base. I'm kind of glad to have the NBC suit as the extra padding helps keep out the cold.
Then Finlay hears a noise. Sounds like motorbikes but there is no road to be seen. Then we spot headlights and take cover. Soon enough four snowbikes come into view, with two of them doubled up. They pull up 33 meters away and I can hear them talking but not what they are saying. Finlay and Sharron step out into view, Finlay calling out that we are police and they are to put their hands up. They reach for guns.
Five out of the six go down within seconds. The last stays slumped over the back of one of the bikes. As we approach its clear she is sick with the Red Mask and so were her friends. I give her something for the pain but it's clear she aint going to last long. We take the bikes and head back the way they came.
April 29, 2011
Billie's Journal - Stand off
Kimano, Tsimshian, 26 December 2050
With the toxic air spirit dealt with, there is a long moment of silence. Then the rain starts falling in cold, wet tears as if the Lord himself was mourning the death of the padre. The rain rattles on the tin roof of the guard tower, a roar of divine loss and anger.
I find myself wiping warm, salty tears from my own eyes as I cover the elevator. Gabriel was one of only a very few men that I felt comfortable to be around since...well since a long time. Hell, he'd even seen me naked, although that was after a drunken card game.
He'd also patched me up with his healing mojo more times than I cared to remember. I feel Billie wrapping herself around me, taking away the pain with a steely stare and frag you attitude. I hear myself asking the rest of team in a low Texan drawl, "What now pardners? We got no magic cover and a toxic mage floating about in the astral." Looks like the fake cowgirl is back in charge.
Finlay tells me Cleo is on her way from the village and that he is 'making a few calls'. Zero is checking the matrix through her satellite uplink and Sharon reports back that she is scouting the area for any other ways in or out. She turns up a couple of air vents but they look pretty tight for a body to climb down. Still, they are plenty big enough to drop a grenade or two down if it comes to that.
Zero is muttering in French, a sure sign that her matrix search isn't going well. Seems like there are no records of this place existing at all. It's not even on the recent maps of the area. Smells like a cover up. Sharon says she remembers something about an old US bioweapons research program and eventually Zero turns up the dirt. It's a bioweapon facility alright. One that was supposedly decommisioned with a fuel-air bomb long before I was born. Someone ain't telling the truth.
In the meantime, Finlay has got a hold of Osprey and Russell. Osprey can bring in supplies, Russell is offering some tactical support. We take a vote. None of us particularly fancy going up against magically-active terrorists with bioweapons so he calls in the support. Russell's got some contacts with the Salish chiefs and he tells us they will send up a squad of Wildcats. I've heard of them. Injun special forces and usually got a mage or two amongst them.
Speaking of mages, our Cat shaman is taking her time to get here. Just then, I feel a prickle of hairs rising on the back of my neck and turn slowly to see a big injun just floating in the air right behind me. He ain't real as I can see the rain go through him. I raise an eyebrow questioningly. He tells me if we want to see the padre alive, we need to agree to move out. My heart leaps in my chest but given the number of rounds I heard fired into the elevator I don't hold out much hope. He gives me ten minutes to discuss it with the team then simply blinks out of existence.
I leg it back to Finlay as he is the only one of us currently capable of dealing with spirits or whatever the hell that was. I explain the deal, but I ain't letting these fraggers out with the some plague virus even if the padre is still alive. The rest agree and Finlay tells the spirit as much when it pops back up. It just shrugs and shortly after there is a single gunshot from below. Sorry padre, I can't mourn your death a second time. But I will avenge it.
Cleo finally shows her face. She looks more like a drowned cat and ain't too happy to be out here. We fill her in and she takes a peek onto the astral. She starts flailing around with her arms and gives a short shriek as something cuts into her arm. It's a shallow cut, but shocks the hell out of me. Seems if you get hurt on the astral, it comes over into the real world, just like what happens to Zero if things go bad for her in the matrix. Cleo seems pretty shaken up about it too, claiming some owl spirits and a big old injun took offence to her checking in on them. Yep, the same big old injun chief as popped up behind me.
Ain't nothing to do but wait. Frag me if that ain't the hardest thing. Sharon drops some smoke down the air shafts with no result and then takes a look at the elevator shaft but decides it's too risky. The padre's heroic charge is still too raw to try that.
Zero cannibalizes our cellphones to whip up a couple of motion detectors, which we put on the furthest air vents just in case. Good thing too, as it gets dark mighty early round these parts and the rain ain't helping. Cleo gets antsy and tries to break the ward around the shaft, only to get her ass handed to her by the chief. She makes it back to her body coughing up blood as I try to stop the bleeding from a bad cut on her neck. Our catgirl ain't the smartest mage I ever met.
I stay with her in the building housing the generator. It's a bit more sheltered from the elements than the guard tower. Sharon stay with me although I think she's more interested in Cleo than me. Finlay and Zero take over watch in the tower. Only a couple more hours till Osprey gets here with the Wildcats.
Then I hear Zero over the commlink. Someone moving by the elevator. I hear Finlay's assault rifle open up as I move to the door. Then small arms fire opens up to my left. Sharon curses and then there's the scarily recognizable whump of a grenade launcher going off. Fortunately it's Sharon doing the shooting and the grenade takes out the hostiles shooting at us. Good shooting that girl.
My cybereyes ain't as good as real elven eyes in the dark, but they still pick out the dude Zero spotted legging it away from the elevator. I aint too bothered about shooting these fraggers in the back. The Winchester kicks hard and down he goes.
Finlay opens up on the shaft, shouting that some are getting away. I head out at a run calling for Sharon to cover me. One gets a couple of shots off at me, but I got long legs just made for running. I pull up next to the wall and then put a round through his chest. As he tumbles backward, I see blood and brains explode from his head as Zero finishes him off in her signature style.
And then I'm moving again, towards the village and the dock. Only too late I realise that I aint protected by Cleo's magic. I duck and roll as the mage spots me but my body is engulfed in magical fire. I roll out of his line of sight and the pain stops, then hits me hard again as the shock wears off. Lucky he doesn't hang around to finish me off. I crawl back to the camp and slump next to Cleo while Sharon tries to patch me up. Unfortunately the medkit seems to know more about first aid than she does, but at least I won't bleed out.
I fade in and out of consciousness for a couple more hours before the Wildcats arrive. Fortunately one of them is a mage and heals Cleo and me up. Unfortunately the mage got away, but not the two that Sharon hit with the concussion grenade. Sure hope they know where there boss went.
With the toxic air spirit dealt with, there is a long moment of silence. Then the rain starts falling in cold, wet tears as if the Lord himself was mourning the death of the padre. The rain rattles on the tin roof of the guard tower, a roar of divine loss and anger.
I find myself wiping warm, salty tears from my own eyes as I cover the elevator. Gabriel was one of only a very few men that I felt comfortable to be around since...well since a long time. Hell, he'd even seen me naked, although that was after a drunken card game.
He'd also patched me up with his healing mojo more times than I cared to remember. I feel Billie wrapping herself around me, taking away the pain with a steely stare and frag you attitude. I hear myself asking the rest of team in a low Texan drawl, "What now pardners? We got no magic cover and a toxic mage floating about in the astral." Looks like the fake cowgirl is back in charge.
Finlay tells me Cleo is on her way from the village and that he is 'making a few calls'. Zero is checking the matrix through her satellite uplink and Sharon reports back that she is scouting the area for any other ways in or out. She turns up a couple of air vents but they look pretty tight for a body to climb down. Still, they are plenty big enough to drop a grenade or two down if it comes to that.
Zero is muttering in French, a sure sign that her matrix search isn't going well. Seems like there are no records of this place existing at all. It's not even on the recent maps of the area. Smells like a cover up. Sharon says she remembers something about an old US bioweapons research program and eventually Zero turns up the dirt. It's a bioweapon facility alright. One that was supposedly decommisioned with a fuel-air bomb long before I was born. Someone ain't telling the truth.
In the meantime, Finlay has got a hold of Osprey and Russell. Osprey can bring in supplies, Russell is offering some tactical support. We take a vote. None of us particularly fancy going up against magically-active terrorists with bioweapons so he calls in the support. Russell's got some contacts with the Salish chiefs and he tells us they will send up a squad of Wildcats. I've heard of them. Injun special forces and usually got a mage or two amongst them.
Speaking of mages, our Cat shaman is taking her time to get here. Just then, I feel a prickle of hairs rising on the back of my neck and turn slowly to see a big injun just floating in the air right behind me. He ain't real as I can see the rain go through him. I raise an eyebrow questioningly. He tells me if we want to see the padre alive, we need to agree to move out. My heart leaps in my chest but given the number of rounds I heard fired into the elevator I don't hold out much hope. He gives me ten minutes to discuss it with the team then simply blinks out of existence.
I leg it back to Finlay as he is the only one of us currently capable of dealing with spirits or whatever the hell that was. I explain the deal, but I ain't letting these fraggers out with the some plague virus even if the padre is still alive. The rest agree and Finlay tells the spirit as much when it pops back up. It just shrugs and shortly after there is a single gunshot from below. Sorry padre, I can't mourn your death a second time. But I will avenge it.
Cleo finally shows her face. She looks more like a drowned cat and ain't too happy to be out here. We fill her in and she takes a peek onto the astral. She starts flailing around with her arms and gives a short shriek as something cuts into her arm. It's a shallow cut, but shocks the hell out of me. Seems if you get hurt on the astral, it comes over into the real world, just like what happens to Zero if things go bad for her in the matrix. Cleo seems pretty shaken up about it too, claiming some owl spirits and a big old injun took offence to her checking in on them. Yep, the same big old injun chief as popped up behind me.
Ain't nothing to do but wait. Frag me if that ain't the hardest thing. Sharon drops some smoke down the air shafts with no result and then takes a look at the elevator shaft but decides it's too risky. The padre's heroic charge is still too raw to try that.
Zero cannibalizes our cellphones to whip up a couple of motion detectors, which we put on the furthest air vents just in case. Good thing too, as it gets dark mighty early round these parts and the rain ain't helping. Cleo gets antsy and tries to break the ward around the shaft, only to get her ass handed to her by the chief. She makes it back to her body coughing up blood as I try to stop the bleeding from a bad cut on her neck. Our catgirl ain't the smartest mage I ever met.
I stay with her in the building housing the generator. It's a bit more sheltered from the elements than the guard tower. Sharon stay with me although I think she's more interested in Cleo than me. Finlay and Zero take over watch in the tower. Only a couple more hours till Osprey gets here with the Wildcats.
Then I hear Zero over the commlink. Someone moving by the elevator. I hear Finlay's assault rifle open up as I move to the door. Then small arms fire opens up to my left. Sharon curses and then there's the scarily recognizable whump of a grenade launcher going off. Fortunately it's Sharon doing the shooting and the grenade takes out the hostiles shooting at us. Good shooting that girl.
My cybereyes ain't as good as real elven eyes in the dark, but they still pick out the dude Zero spotted legging it away from the elevator. I aint too bothered about shooting these fraggers in the back. The Winchester kicks hard and down he goes.
Finlay opens up on the shaft, shouting that some are getting away. I head out at a run calling for Sharon to cover me. One gets a couple of shots off at me, but I got long legs just made for running. I pull up next to the wall and then put a round through his chest. As he tumbles backward, I see blood and brains explode from his head as Zero finishes him off in her signature style.
And then I'm moving again, towards the village and the dock. Only too late I realise that I aint protected by Cleo's magic. I duck and roll as the mage spots me but my body is engulfed in magical fire. I roll out of his line of sight and the pain stops, then hits me hard again as the shock wears off. Lucky he doesn't hang around to finish me off. I crawl back to the camp and slump next to Cleo while Sharon tries to patch me up. Unfortunately the medkit seems to know more about first aid than she does, but at least I won't bleed out.
I fade in and out of consciousness for a couple more hours before the Wildcats arrive. Fortunately one of them is a mage and heals Cleo and me up. Unfortunately the mage got away, but not the two that Sharon hit with the concussion grenade. Sure hope they know where there boss went.
April 2, 2011
Billie's Journal - Christmas
Kimano, Tsimshian, 25 December 2050
Christmas day is spent travelling from the shithole that is Kimano, through several hundred kilometers of corporate deforestation to a slightly less shitty fishing village that goes by the name of 'Kitsucky'. Well I aint exactly sure that's how the local braves, I mean native americans, would pronounce it, but it sure fits. Well, the sucky part at least.
We pull up at the local watering hole in our conspicuously clean and shiny corporate vehicle and stroll on in. The natives are all fisherman with the exception of the old lady running the place. While they give us a once over, it doesn't have the glare of the Kimano braves and they don't immediately try to kick us out.
And they have fresh fish on the menu. The vegetables that go with it are unfortunately boiled soy as is the crap they serve for beer, but the fish is fragging delicious. Finlay negotiates with the old lady for a place to stay and she directs us to the local padre, I mean priest.
He's suspicious but lets us crash in the wooden shack that passes for a church hereabouts. Like the rest of the village it aint exactly in good shape, but at least it's dry and warm. Unlike the shower the next morning. It ain't the first time I've washed in cold water in winter, but going by the screams, it is for Cleo. Though to give her credit she does come out shivering but clean.
We're at the docks before it gets light and Finlay offers one of the fisherman a wad of cash to take us out to the island mentioned on the file Zero recovered. Like the rest of the locals, he claims no-one's been living there for a long while. However, if the crazy corp types we're posing as want to play tourist he's happy to take the easy money. I think he gets a hint that we might not be who we claim to be when we load on the duffel bags full of guns, but he keeps quiet.
The dock on the island is about all that's left of the main village. And it's still falling apart. We poke around for a while but looks like the locals are telling the truth. Aint no signs of life in these parts. Gabriel, the padre, sends out a couple of cherubs to look the place over but they don't find anything, so he goes astral and takes a look himself. After an hour or so of freezing our butts off, he wakes up and tells us he found a warded area about an hours or so's walk from the village. At least the walk will warm us up.
Cresting the rise we spot what looks like an internment camp out of them NAN uprising trids. Long abandoned, with only a few buildings still intact. Gabriel points at a squat bunker in the middle of the compound and tells us that's where the ward is. We head down for a closer look. As we get closer, Finlay tells us he smells diesel and soon enough the rest of us can hear the sound of a diesel generator. We find it in the remains of the building closest to the bunker. An armored cable runs from it to a control panel for the bunker's only feature, a pair of heavy elevator doors.
Before we can get a good look at the place, the generator kicks into life and the elevator starts to rise. Finlay and Sharon take up covering positions on the elevator doors, while the rest of us take cover around the corner of the bunker. Gabriel mumbles prayers, while I ready the SMG. I also hear the click-clack of the slide on Zero's pistol.
I hear the doors open and a couple of bursts of assault rifle fire, then Finlay reports all clear. There are two bodies lying in the entrance to the lift, both in hazmat suits. I really don't like the idea of going down there. While we haul the bodies out of sight the padre steps into the lift and hits the button. Sharon tries to stop him and nearly loses a foot as the heavy doors close, only pulling it out at the last minute. Zero mashes the elevator button in a vain attempt to stop it, but down it goes.
The lift dings. There is a faint bang followed by the dull sound of automatic weapons, then silence. There's no chance he could of survived that. The lift starts it's return journey and I break for cover. There's a guard post behind us that will give a good field of fire on the lift. Sharon takes cover as well and Finlay heads for the roof of the building with the generator. Zero heads into that building and there is a mechanical stutter as she shuts down the generator. Smart girl. She then joins Finlay on the roof.
Just as I am about to ask what we should do, Finlay suddenly spins on the roof, his spear glowing with magical energy and thrusts out at empty air. No, not empty I realise as a yellowish mist forms around him. He twists away, swinging and stabbing at the cloud with his spear. I switch aim from the doors and put a round through the cloud, but it doesn't seem to affect on it.
Fortunately, Finlay's spear does and within moments it's all over. The cloud dissipates but Finlay warns that there is another astral presence, possibly our target.
Christmas day is spent travelling from the shithole that is Kimano, through several hundred kilometers of corporate deforestation to a slightly less shitty fishing village that goes by the name of 'Kitsucky'. Well I aint exactly sure that's how the local braves, I mean native americans, would pronounce it, but it sure fits. Well, the sucky part at least.
We pull up at the local watering hole in our conspicuously clean and shiny corporate vehicle and stroll on in. The natives are all fisherman with the exception of the old lady running the place. While they give us a once over, it doesn't have the glare of the Kimano braves and they don't immediately try to kick us out.
And they have fresh fish on the menu. The vegetables that go with it are unfortunately boiled soy as is the crap they serve for beer, but the fish is fragging delicious. Finlay negotiates with the old lady for a place to stay and she directs us to the local padre, I mean priest.
He's suspicious but lets us crash in the wooden shack that passes for a church hereabouts. Like the rest of the village it aint exactly in good shape, but at least it's dry and warm. Unlike the shower the next morning. It ain't the first time I've washed in cold water in winter, but going by the screams, it is for Cleo. Though to give her credit she does come out shivering but clean.
We're at the docks before it gets light and Finlay offers one of the fisherman a wad of cash to take us out to the island mentioned on the file Zero recovered. Like the rest of the locals, he claims no-one's been living there for a long while. However, if the crazy corp types we're posing as want to play tourist he's happy to take the easy money. I think he gets a hint that we might not be who we claim to be when we load on the duffel bags full of guns, but he keeps quiet.
The dock on the island is about all that's left of the main village. And it's still falling apart. We poke around for a while but looks like the locals are telling the truth. Aint no signs of life in these parts. Gabriel, the padre, sends out a couple of cherubs to look the place over but they don't find anything, so he goes astral and takes a look himself. After an hour or so of freezing our butts off, he wakes up and tells us he found a warded area about an hours or so's walk from the village. At least the walk will warm us up.
Cresting the rise we spot what looks like an internment camp out of them NAN uprising trids. Long abandoned, with only a few buildings still intact. Gabriel points at a squat bunker in the middle of the compound and tells us that's where the ward is. We head down for a closer look. As we get closer, Finlay tells us he smells diesel and soon enough the rest of us can hear the sound of a diesel generator. We find it in the remains of the building closest to the bunker. An armored cable runs from it to a control panel for the bunker's only feature, a pair of heavy elevator doors.
Before we can get a good look at the place, the generator kicks into life and the elevator starts to rise. Finlay and Sharon take up covering positions on the elevator doors, while the rest of us take cover around the corner of the bunker. Gabriel mumbles prayers, while I ready the SMG. I also hear the click-clack of the slide on Zero's pistol.
I hear the doors open and a couple of bursts of assault rifle fire, then Finlay reports all clear. There are two bodies lying in the entrance to the lift, both in hazmat suits. I really don't like the idea of going down there. While we haul the bodies out of sight the padre steps into the lift and hits the button. Sharon tries to stop him and nearly loses a foot as the heavy doors close, only pulling it out at the last minute. Zero mashes the elevator button in a vain attempt to stop it, but down it goes.
The lift dings. There is a faint bang followed by the dull sound of automatic weapons, then silence. There's no chance he could of survived that. The lift starts it's return journey and I break for cover. There's a guard post behind us that will give a good field of fire on the lift. Sharon takes cover as well and Finlay heads for the roof of the building with the generator. Zero heads into that building and there is a mechanical stutter as she shuts down the generator. Smart girl. She then joins Finlay on the roof.
Just as I am about to ask what we should do, Finlay suddenly spins on the roof, his spear glowing with magical energy and thrusts out at empty air. No, not empty I realise as a yellowish mist forms around him. He twists away, swinging and stabbing at the cloud with his spear. I switch aim from the doors and put a round through the cloud, but it doesn't seem to affect on it.
Fortunately, Finlay's spear does and within moments it's all over. The cloud dissipates but Finlay warns that there is another astral presence, possibly our target.
February 23, 2011
Billie's Journal - A brief chat
[The following is a departure from the normal style of posts for Billie's Journal as it was played out via email between the players of Billie, Zero and Finlay and is presented here more or less at it happened.]
The Mitsuhama van pulls up to a halt outside the Kimano Palace hotel and Finlay announces that he's going to go for a walk to try and get some cell phone reception and check his messages. About half an hour later, phone still in his hand, he strides along the corridor leading to both Billie's and Zero's rooms. Knocking loudly on Zero's door as he walks past, he stops outside Billie's room and raps his knuckles on the hollow wooden door.
Zero perks up at the knock on her door and sticks her head out, spotting Finlay in front of Billie's room. She slides up to Finlay and pulls at his sleeve. "You know, this newfangled phone technology thing doesn't actually require you to walk over to the recipient of your message." She grins, pointing at the phone in his hand. "What's up?"
Finlay looks down at the phone and then nods towards Billie's door. "Trouble. I'll tell you once Billie opens the damn door." With that, he impatiently knocks on the door again.
Billie cracks the door, still on the chain. When she sees Finlay and Zero and the look in the ork’s face, she simply nods and closes the door again. It opens a moment later as she nods them into the room. She does a quick check up and down the corridor, then closes the door and holsters the silenced Kimber.
“Wassup, pardners?”
Finlay marches into the room, places his cell phone on the chest of drawers and presses a couple of buttons. "Sit down," he commands, gesturing from Billie to the chair.
The voice of Martha, tinny and distorted, but still recognisable, squeaks out of Finlay's phone speaker, passing on the message that Yakuza 'kyodai' have been asking around about an elf cowgirl street sam and two of her associates, an ork and another elf. Descriptions have been given, fairly accurate descriptions, particularly for Billie.
"It's been a few months since we rolled the green ronin and hit their meat manor and the repercussions of that died pretty fast, so why are the Yak after us now? Particularly you, Billie. They never really saw you. Is there something you need to tell us about?"
“Well, shee-it”, drawls Billie in full cowgirl mode. She ignores Finlay’s glare and order to sit and fishes in her gear, pulling out a bottle of Jack Daniels.
“Why don’t you two sit down and I’ll tell you what I know. Drink?”
She cracks the bottle and takes a shot directly from it, before offering it to her team mates. Then she perches on the dresser across from them and fills them in.
“Well I been watching the Green Ronin for a while now. I ain’t made no secret of it, but as no-one asks I didn’t feel the need to tell. And I been discreet about it too. How discreet? Well about the limits of a Barrett scope discreet.”
She pauses to let that thought sink in, then continues.
“Well about a week ago, I notice that the hombre has picked up a tail. Couldn’t tell from the distance I was at if they was feds or yaks, but that kinda ruled out the possibility of putting a 50-cal round in GR’s crotch, so I left well alone.”
“Then just the other day, I’m heading back from a meet with Danny. Y’know the reporter dude. Well, I spot a nondescript car following after me. Before I can make to lose it, some numbnut jumps a red, right into the side of the car. Kaboom. Intrigued I pull around for a look. Maybe not the smartest move, but I don’t like being followed. A couple of japs get out of the car. One of them is arguing with Mr Numbnuts, but the other is paying attention to me. As I drive past he pulls out his phone and takes a snap of me. I drive past and take another turn, planning to come back for the camera or the jap’s hand and the camera, but then I hear the cavalry coming so I hightail it outta there and find a quiet spot to watch.”
“Well eventually another car comes to pick up the japs and I start following them. Well blow me down if another ‘nondescript’ van don’t pull out behind me and start following me. I manage to shake him off after a bit, then I get a call that I’m assuming came from the feds telling me to lay off the japs. Then we nearly get ourselves blown up and come out here to this shithole that as far as I care, can get taken out by whatever the eagle lady said the other Martha was planning. I figure that being outta town oughta be enough to let things cool down, but if Martha is on the level then it seems it ain’t so.”
“In any case, I ain’t spoke to Martha in a while. You the one been hassling her all the time about that money she owes you.” She jabs an accusing finger at Finlay for effect, then spoils it by taking another shot from the bottle.
“So either they’re hitting up all the fixers looking for a lead or they’re getting their info from somewhere else. That means either the feds got a leak or we do. Now, I’d put my money on the feds. They got more leaks than the Alaskan pipeline, but if it ain’t them and it sure ain’t me, and I’m guessing it ain’t either of you two, that leaves either the padre or the new girl. The padre might be a drunk but I don’t figure him for a double-crosser, so that just leaves the new girl.”
“So pardners, what we gonna do about it.”
Zero hung back for a while, as Finlay and Billie were having their little stare-down. She was leaning against the wall, but when she hears Martha give a rather accurate description of herself over the phone she slides down the wall to sit on the floor, her face looking a shade paler than usual. She just stares at Billie while the latter explains things to Finlay, expression completely blank.
After a moment of silence, she coughs a little to test her voice and speaks up. "So let's see where we are now." She swallows. "Danny's been compromised. I hope you told him you were being followed." She gives a little nod at Billie. "Martha is probably reasonably safe. She has her ear to the ground is all. She's told us this sort of thing before." A little jab with her head in Finlay's direction. "Of course we can't trust any of the two newbies, but to be honest I don't think the German girl has anything to do with it. We did lead Cleo to the Ronin, and she is from a corp, so she might still be planted here."
Zero sighs and rests her head in her hands. "We really can't use this kind of drek right now. If the yak are after us, laying low for a few weeks will not be enough. These guys didn't get their power from sucking cafpow, you know what I mean? We'd have to burn our bridges. Again. Get off the grid." She thinks about it for a while, looking at the two other people in the room.
"If we wanted to take out the Ronin, which I'm all for, we should have done it a while ago. The clock is ticking, he's probably compromised enough already. If we take him out now it'll look suspicious. And then we'd have to take out the entire yak." She smiles weakly. "I don't think that's really an option though."
Zero groans and gets up, paces around for a bit, and suddenly stops. She throws her arms up and swears loudly, in French. Then, she turns to one of the night stands in Billie's room and kicks it, still swearing and muttering in French. "I can so do without this right now!" She turns back to the other two, face flushed. "I can't fix this. Unless we find three dead bodies, a stable matrix connection, a catchy song, and a whole lot of make-up, we're doomed."
Billie takes another shot from the bottle of Jack.
“I’m real sorry to have dragged you all into this. And I sure appreciate all you done to help get those girls free from the yaks. But while I ain’t too keen on taking on the whole fraggin posse on my lonesome, I ain’t just gonna walk away from all those other women they still got wired up.”
There is something fierce in her demeanor. Stubbornness they had not seen before or perhaps had sensed in her but had never seen as strong as this. She snaps out of quickly, spitting on the hotel room’s grotty carpet.
“And don’t you worry about Danny, darling. I warned him right away and gave him a message to pass onto the feds about using me and him as bait. Might not have been the most diplomatic of messages but I’m sure he didn’t pass it on exactly as I put it.”
“You’re right about our IDs though. These new ones are worth shit now. Sheet, thirty large down the drain. Well, I’m sure we can find a few bodies to attach them to back in Seattle, even if we have to shoot them first. But that can wait. Right now we gotta be dealing with these injuns. We can worry about the yaks when we get back to town. Although I guess I could have a quick chat with Danny to see if he knows what the feds are up to. What do you two reckon?”
Finlay absent-mindedly runs a finger over the hilt of Nuada and speaks in a low, calm voice. "I reckon we should turn you over to the yak in exchange for immunity." Finlay pauses to let that statement sink in, before nodding towards Zero. "We," he gestures in a circle with his offhand, "all of us, agreed to help you on your private crusade because we trusted you and wanted to help you save those young girls." Finlay pauses again. "To save yourself" Disappointed, he shakes his head slightly, closing his eyes for a brief second. "All the while you're running around like a school girl who's watched all the episodes of 'Shadowrunners' and thinks she's a professional."
Zero sits back down and crosses her arms, pressing her lips together in thought as she observes Finlay and Billie.
Billie’s face twists in rage. She spits her words out, practically screaming at Finlay, “You fucker! Ah shoulda known you were just like all those other men. You think I’m just something to use and throw aside when you’re done.”
She snaps to her feet, hot tears burning her cheeks. She looks down at the spear in his belt then sticks her chin out, teeth gritted, neck exposed and eyes closed.
“Okay big man”, she hisses. “If yer gonna do me, then do it. Just be quick about it. Coz if you think you can hand me over to those fuckers while I’m still breathing, you better think again.”
Her whole body is visibly shaking with anger. Her slim hands are balled into fists and her right one twists slowly at the wrist, turning a full 360 degrees while she growls under her breath at Finlay.
Zero stands up with a sigh and stalks towards Billie. In one swift movement, her hand hits Billie's cheek with a loud slap. Zero raises her eyebrows and leans into Billie so they're eye to visor. "Nobody is using you. We are worried. You are not being yourself." She softens her voice a little, taking Billie's hand in both of her own and rubbing the back of it with her thumb. "Finlay just wanted to point out the gravity of the situation, I think. He's still a bit of a drill sarge..." She steps away again and tilts her head up, pointing her chin at Billie. "But if you get me into trouble, friend, I warn you now. I am done running away."
Billie’s head snaps to the side then back, her eyes now open. She stares down at the petite French woman, her red-rimmed eyes wide with shock, anger and frustration. As Zero rubs her hand, her real one part of her brain notes, she slowly stops shaking and her shoulders slump resignedly.
Barely audibly she whispers “Sorry.”
Then she slumps back against the dresser, her free hand reaching for the bottle of whiskey. She looks at it for a moment then casually drops it in the wastebasket.
With a half laugh, half sigh she says, “Not being myself you say. What, you actually want the crazy cowboy girl back. Hell, I was just starting to think I could maybe put her behind me. But then I suppose she’s more who I am these days than Wilhelmina is.”
Wiping her eyes, she points at Finlay with her off-hand, some anger still in her voice. “Okay, mister fraggin professional. Since you’re so fragging smart, what do you suggest?”
Finlay carefully lifts the whiskey bottle from the trash can and pours it into the wash stand in the corner as he talks. "I'm not claiming to have all the answers lass, and even if I did, you're not off the hook that easy. We can either confront the yak, or ride out the worst of it in obscurity."
"Now, they've clearly put two and two together and come up with four. We all pissed off one of their soldiers and we all raided one of their mansions but I'm a non-descript ork and Zero's a piece of ass, you can hire our sort for a dime down in the Barrens." He turns to look at Zero and winks, "No offence girl." Turning back to Billie, Finlay speaks firmly, looking straight in Billie's eyes. "It's you they're after now, you're making waves in their entire fucking water garden, you and your journo pal."
Breaking away from her eye line after a second's pause Finlay runs a critical eye over Billie, taking in the details of her face and body shape, trying to determine ways that her most distinctive features can be hidden.
"First, you need to blend in. Either we make everyone else a skinny elven cowgirl or you've got a lot of changing to do. I'm not sure which o' those is harder."
Zero hums in thought, biting her thumb. "Actually..." She eyes Billie. "It might be a possibility. Depending on whether Billie was serious about leaving the cowboy thing behind." She sits up and looks at Billie, questioningly.
Arms crossed tight across her chest, Billie glares at Zero and Finlay. Finally, she lets out a sigh and rifles in her pockets for her cigarettes. She strikes a match on the NO SMOKING sign and takes a long draw, then lets the smoke out with a catlike hiss.
“Ah guess…” she begins. Then she frowns and starts again. “I guess it was a rather obvious disguise.”
The sudden change in her accent from Texan drawl to a soft Seattle lilt is as sudden as the change in her demeanor. Her shoulders relax and her whole body seems to shift from butch cowgirl to that of a demure, insecure, young woman. She gives the two runners an almost embarrassed smile.
“It’s just that…well…I mean when Sharif pulled me out of that place. I was…well if you think I’m messed up now, I was a lot worse then. I could barely function, could hardly talk and had no memory. I spent all day watching old cowboy movies on the trid. I still don’t know if it was what they did to me or getting all the crap taken out of my head. So I guess Sharif kinda indulged me a little. But then, you have to realize, the cowgirl thing. Well, it was all I could remember at the time.”
She takes another drag on the cigarette to calm herself, to get her thoughts in order, before continuing. “Billie. Well, Billie let me function. Deal with all the bad things. She’s tough as nails and doesn’t take shit from anyone. She’s John Wayne, Butch Cassidy, Clint Eastwood and Rooster Coburn all rolled into one. Well, I think you know what she’s like.”
“But now that I remember more about what happened to me, y’know thanks to that spirit quest or whatever it was that happened to us in Scotland. Well…that whole cowgirl thing just doesn’t fit as comfortably anymore. She’s still there. And I’m sure I’ll still need her for some of the things she can do. Like, y’know shooting people. But maybe this is a good thing. Time for me to move on. Get better.”
She gives a questioning, doe-eyed look to Finlay and then turns to Zero.
“Zero, will you help me? I know I already asked a lot from you all, but I don’t really know anything about fashion, or makeup, or anything really.” As if for emphasis, she tugs at the checked shirt she is currently wearing.
Zero shakes her head with a smile. "Of course." She straightens up and stretches. "But you know, you don't have to leave Billie behind completely. You're still the same person. Perhaps you change over time, and you don't have to hold on to strange defences anymore, but these years were not just a lie to get away from reality."
She walks over to Billie and her smile widens. "And I know just what you need. A viral video. And a total makeover." Zero holds up her hands with her thumb and index finger touching, so they form a square, and looks through it to Billie. "We'll make you a star." She giggles.
Finlay shakes his head and let's out a slight sigh. "Yes, raise her profile, that's just what we need."
Billie’s eyes go momentarily wide, then narrow into a frown directed at Zero. Her voice deepens but she manages to keep the Texan drawl out of it. “No star profile, no girlie stuff and nothing too revealing, okay.”
The hint of a grin tugs at her mouth, as she tries to remain serious. She points at Finlay, “And no making fun of me in whatever get up Zero picks out for me or the hat goes back on! Deal?”
Zero smirks mysteriously and almost flutters over to Finlay. She starts whispering something in his ear, looking back at Billie with the same smirk from time to time. Then, she hums something softly to illustrate a point, counting something down on her fingers. She nods excitedly at Finlay and her grin widens, as she wraps up her explanation with "And it'll be faaa-bulous!"
Finlay looks slightly wide eyed at Zero. "Really, crotchless? You think that people will buy that?"
Zero's grin widens. "Well, I would, wouldn't you?" She casts another glance at Billie. "Definitely, right?"
Finlay glances across to Billie. "Yeah, probably. But you know me, I'm a soldier at heart."
Billie’s cheeks slowly redden as Zero and Finlay whisper and point. Her arms move from her hips to across her breasts as her blush deepens.
She tries to channel the cowgirl, but her voice comes out almost shrill, “Enough! This brief chat is over.”
She points to the door with her cyberarm, while her real one stays firmly pressed across her breasts. “Out! Now! Or someone is gonna get shot in the face.”
Somehow, the threat doesn’t work without the fake Texan drawl. But despite her obvious discomfort, she seems serious now.
The Mitsuhama van pulls up to a halt outside the Kimano Palace hotel and Finlay announces that he's going to go for a walk to try and get some cell phone reception and check his messages. About half an hour later, phone still in his hand, he strides along the corridor leading to both Billie's and Zero's rooms. Knocking loudly on Zero's door as he walks past, he stops outside Billie's room and raps his knuckles on the hollow wooden door.
Zero perks up at the knock on her door and sticks her head out, spotting Finlay in front of Billie's room. She slides up to Finlay and pulls at his sleeve. "You know, this newfangled phone technology thing doesn't actually require you to walk over to the recipient of your message." She grins, pointing at the phone in his hand. "What's up?"
Finlay looks down at the phone and then nods towards Billie's door. "Trouble. I'll tell you once Billie opens the damn door." With that, he impatiently knocks on the door again.
Billie cracks the door, still on the chain. When she sees Finlay and Zero and the look in the ork’s face, she simply nods and closes the door again. It opens a moment later as she nods them into the room. She does a quick check up and down the corridor, then closes the door and holsters the silenced Kimber.
“Wassup, pardners?”
Finlay marches into the room, places his cell phone on the chest of drawers and presses a couple of buttons. "Sit down," he commands, gesturing from Billie to the chair.
The voice of Martha, tinny and distorted, but still recognisable, squeaks out of Finlay's phone speaker, passing on the message that Yakuza 'kyodai' have been asking around about an elf cowgirl street sam and two of her associates, an ork and another elf. Descriptions have been given, fairly accurate descriptions, particularly for Billie.
"It's been a few months since we rolled the green ronin and hit their meat manor and the repercussions of that died pretty fast, so why are the Yak after us now? Particularly you, Billie. They never really saw you. Is there something you need to tell us about?"
“Well, shee-it”, drawls Billie in full cowgirl mode. She ignores Finlay’s glare and order to sit and fishes in her gear, pulling out a bottle of Jack Daniels.
“Why don’t you two sit down and I’ll tell you what I know. Drink?”
She cracks the bottle and takes a shot directly from it, before offering it to her team mates. Then she perches on the dresser across from them and fills them in.
“Well I been watching the Green Ronin for a while now. I ain’t made no secret of it, but as no-one asks I didn’t feel the need to tell. And I been discreet about it too. How discreet? Well about the limits of a Barrett scope discreet.”
She pauses to let that thought sink in, then continues.
“Well about a week ago, I notice that the hombre has picked up a tail. Couldn’t tell from the distance I was at if they was feds or yaks, but that kinda ruled out the possibility of putting a 50-cal round in GR’s crotch, so I left well alone.”
“Then just the other day, I’m heading back from a meet with Danny. Y’know the reporter dude. Well, I spot a nondescript car following after me. Before I can make to lose it, some numbnut jumps a red, right into the side of the car. Kaboom. Intrigued I pull around for a look. Maybe not the smartest move, but I don’t like being followed. A couple of japs get out of the car. One of them is arguing with Mr Numbnuts, but the other is paying attention to me. As I drive past he pulls out his phone and takes a snap of me. I drive past and take another turn, planning to come back for the camera or the jap’s hand and the camera, but then I hear the cavalry coming so I hightail it outta there and find a quiet spot to watch.”
“Well eventually another car comes to pick up the japs and I start following them. Well blow me down if another ‘nondescript’ van don’t pull out behind me and start following me. I manage to shake him off after a bit, then I get a call that I’m assuming came from the feds telling me to lay off the japs. Then we nearly get ourselves blown up and come out here to this shithole that as far as I care, can get taken out by whatever the eagle lady said the other Martha was planning. I figure that being outta town oughta be enough to let things cool down, but if Martha is on the level then it seems it ain’t so.”
“In any case, I ain’t spoke to Martha in a while. You the one been hassling her all the time about that money she owes you.” She jabs an accusing finger at Finlay for effect, then spoils it by taking another shot from the bottle.
“So either they’re hitting up all the fixers looking for a lead or they’re getting their info from somewhere else. That means either the feds got a leak or we do. Now, I’d put my money on the feds. They got more leaks than the Alaskan pipeline, but if it ain’t them and it sure ain’t me, and I’m guessing it ain’t either of you two, that leaves either the padre or the new girl. The padre might be a drunk but I don’t figure him for a double-crosser, so that just leaves the new girl.”
“So pardners, what we gonna do about it.”
Zero hung back for a while, as Finlay and Billie were having their little stare-down. She was leaning against the wall, but when she hears Martha give a rather accurate description of herself over the phone she slides down the wall to sit on the floor, her face looking a shade paler than usual. She just stares at Billie while the latter explains things to Finlay, expression completely blank.
After a moment of silence, she coughs a little to test her voice and speaks up. "So let's see where we are now." She swallows. "Danny's been compromised. I hope you told him you were being followed." She gives a little nod at Billie. "Martha is probably reasonably safe. She has her ear to the ground is all. She's told us this sort of thing before." A little jab with her head in Finlay's direction. "Of course we can't trust any of the two newbies, but to be honest I don't think the German girl has anything to do with it. We did lead Cleo to the Ronin, and she is from a corp, so she might still be planted here."
Zero sighs and rests her head in her hands. "We really can't use this kind of drek right now. If the yak are after us, laying low for a few weeks will not be enough. These guys didn't get their power from sucking cafpow, you know what I mean? We'd have to burn our bridges. Again. Get off the grid." She thinks about it for a while, looking at the two other people in the room.
"If we wanted to take out the Ronin, which I'm all for, we should have done it a while ago. The clock is ticking, he's probably compromised enough already. If we take him out now it'll look suspicious. And then we'd have to take out the entire yak." She smiles weakly. "I don't think that's really an option though."
Zero groans and gets up, paces around for a bit, and suddenly stops. She throws her arms up and swears loudly, in French. Then, she turns to one of the night stands in Billie's room and kicks it, still swearing and muttering in French. "I can so do without this right now!" She turns back to the other two, face flushed. "I can't fix this. Unless we find three dead bodies, a stable matrix connection, a catchy song, and a whole lot of make-up, we're doomed."
Billie takes another shot from the bottle of Jack.
“I’m real sorry to have dragged you all into this. And I sure appreciate all you done to help get those girls free from the yaks. But while I ain’t too keen on taking on the whole fraggin posse on my lonesome, I ain’t just gonna walk away from all those other women they still got wired up.”
There is something fierce in her demeanor. Stubbornness they had not seen before or perhaps had sensed in her but had never seen as strong as this. She snaps out of quickly, spitting on the hotel room’s grotty carpet.
“And don’t you worry about Danny, darling. I warned him right away and gave him a message to pass onto the feds about using me and him as bait. Might not have been the most diplomatic of messages but I’m sure he didn’t pass it on exactly as I put it.”
“You’re right about our IDs though. These new ones are worth shit now. Sheet, thirty large down the drain. Well, I’m sure we can find a few bodies to attach them to back in Seattle, even if we have to shoot them first. But that can wait. Right now we gotta be dealing with these injuns. We can worry about the yaks when we get back to town. Although I guess I could have a quick chat with Danny to see if he knows what the feds are up to. What do you two reckon?”
Finlay absent-mindedly runs a finger over the hilt of Nuada and speaks in a low, calm voice. "I reckon we should turn you over to the yak in exchange for immunity." Finlay pauses to let that statement sink in, before nodding towards Zero. "We," he gestures in a circle with his offhand, "all of us, agreed to help you on your private crusade because we trusted you and wanted to help you save those young girls." Finlay pauses again. "To save yourself" Disappointed, he shakes his head slightly, closing his eyes for a brief second. "All the while you're running around like a school girl who's watched all the episodes of 'Shadowrunners' and thinks she's a professional."
Zero sits back down and crosses her arms, pressing her lips together in thought as she observes Finlay and Billie.
Billie’s face twists in rage. She spits her words out, practically screaming at Finlay, “You fucker! Ah shoulda known you were just like all those other men. You think I’m just something to use and throw aside when you’re done.”
She snaps to her feet, hot tears burning her cheeks. She looks down at the spear in his belt then sticks her chin out, teeth gritted, neck exposed and eyes closed.
“Okay big man”, she hisses. “If yer gonna do me, then do it. Just be quick about it. Coz if you think you can hand me over to those fuckers while I’m still breathing, you better think again.”
Her whole body is visibly shaking with anger. Her slim hands are balled into fists and her right one twists slowly at the wrist, turning a full 360 degrees while she growls under her breath at Finlay.
Zero stands up with a sigh and stalks towards Billie. In one swift movement, her hand hits Billie's cheek with a loud slap. Zero raises her eyebrows and leans into Billie so they're eye to visor. "Nobody is using you. We are worried. You are not being yourself." She softens her voice a little, taking Billie's hand in both of her own and rubbing the back of it with her thumb. "Finlay just wanted to point out the gravity of the situation, I think. He's still a bit of a drill sarge..." She steps away again and tilts her head up, pointing her chin at Billie. "But if you get me into trouble, friend, I warn you now. I am done running away."
Billie’s head snaps to the side then back, her eyes now open. She stares down at the petite French woman, her red-rimmed eyes wide with shock, anger and frustration. As Zero rubs her hand, her real one part of her brain notes, she slowly stops shaking and her shoulders slump resignedly.
Barely audibly she whispers “Sorry.”
Then she slumps back against the dresser, her free hand reaching for the bottle of whiskey. She looks at it for a moment then casually drops it in the wastebasket.
With a half laugh, half sigh she says, “Not being myself you say. What, you actually want the crazy cowboy girl back. Hell, I was just starting to think I could maybe put her behind me. But then I suppose she’s more who I am these days than Wilhelmina is.”
Wiping her eyes, she points at Finlay with her off-hand, some anger still in her voice. “Okay, mister fraggin professional. Since you’re so fragging smart, what do you suggest?”
Finlay carefully lifts the whiskey bottle from the trash can and pours it into the wash stand in the corner as he talks. "I'm not claiming to have all the answers lass, and even if I did, you're not off the hook that easy. We can either confront the yak, or ride out the worst of it in obscurity."
"Now, they've clearly put two and two together and come up with four. We all pissed off one of their soldiers and we all raided one of their mansions but I'm a non-descript ork and Zero's a piece of ass, you can hire our sort for a dime down in the Barrens." He turns to look at Zero and winks, "No offence girl." Turning back to Billie, Finlay speaks firmly, looking straight in Billie's eyes. "It's you they're after now, you're making waves in their entire fucking water garden, you and your journo pal."
Breaking away from her eye line after a second's pause Finlay runs a critical eye over Billie, taking in the details of her face and body shape, trying to determine ways that her most distinctive features can be hidden.
"First, you need to blend in. Either we make everyone else a skinny elven cowgirl or you've got a lot of changing to do. I'm not sure which o' those is harder."
Zero hums in thought, biting her thumb. "Actually..." She eyes Billie. "It might be a possibility. Depending on whether Billie was serious about leaving the cowboy thing behind." She sits up and looks at Billie, questioningly.
Arms crossed tight across her chest, Billie glares at Zero and Finlay. Finally, she lets out a sigh and rifles in her pockets for her cigarettes. She strikes a match on the NO SMOKING sign and takes a long draw, then lets the smoke out with a catlike hiss.
“Ah guess…” she begins. Then she frowns and starts again. “I guess it was a rather obvious disguise.”
The sudden change in her accent from Texan drawl to a soft Seattle lilt is as sudden as the change in her demeanor. Her shoulders relax and her whole body seems to shift from butch cowgirl to that of a demure, insecure, young woman. She gives the two runners an almost embarrassed smile.
“It’s just that…well…I mean when Sharif pulled me out of that place. I was…well if you think I’m messed up now, I was a lot worse then. I could barely function, could hardly talk and had no memory. I spent all day watching old cowboy movies on the trid. I still don’t know if it was what they did to me or getting all the crap taken out of my head. So I guess Sharif kinda indulged me a little. But then, you have to realize, the cowgirl thing. Well, it was all I could remember at the time.”
She takes another drag on the cigarette to calm herself, to get her thoughts in order, before continuing. “Billie. Well, Billie let me function. Deal with all the bad things. She’s tough as nails and doesn’t take shit from anyone. She’s John Wayne, Butch Cassidy, Clint Eastwood and Rooster Coburn all rolled into one. Well, I think you know what she’s like.”
“But now that I remember more about what happened to me, y’know thanks to that spirit quest or whatever it was that happened to us in Scotland. Well…that whole cowgirl thing just doesn’t fit as comfortably anymore. She’s still there. And I’m sure I’ll still need her for some of the things she can do. Like, y’know shooting people. But maybe this is a good thing. Time for me to move on. Get better.”
She gives a questioning, doe-eyed look to Finlay and then turns to Zero.
“Zero, will you help me? I know I already asked a lot from you all, but I don’t really know anything about fashion, or makeup, or anything really.” As if for emphasis, she tugs at the checked shirt she is currently wearing.
Zero shakes her head with a smile. "Of course." She straightens up and stretches. "But you know, you don't have to leave Billie behind completely. You're still the same person. Perhaps you change over time, and you don't have to hold on to strange defences anymore, but these years were not just a lie to get away from reality."
She walks over to Billie and her smile widens. "And I know just what you need. A viral video. And a total makeover." Zero holds up her hands with her thumb and index finger touching, so they form a square, and looks through it to Billie. "We'll make you a star." She giggles.
Finlay shakes his head and let's out a slight sigh. "Yes, raise her profile, that's just what we need."
Billie’s eyes go momentarily wide, then narrow into a frown directed at Zero. Her voice deepens but she manages to keep the Texan drawl out of it. “No star profile, no girlie stuff and nothing too revealing, okay.”
The hint of a grin tugs at her mouth, as she tries to remain serious. She points at Finlay, “And no making fun of me in whatever get up Zero picks out for me or the hat goes back on! Deal?”
Zero smirks mysteriously and almost flutters over to Finlay. She starts whispering something in his ear, looking back at Billie with the same smirk from time to time. Then, she hums something softly to illustrate a point, counting something down on her fingers. She nods excitedly at Finlay and her grin widens, as she wraps up her explanation with "And it'll be faaa-bulous!"
Finlay looks slightly wide eyed at Zero. "Really, crotchless? You think that people will buy that?"
Zero's grin widens. "Well, I would, wouldn't you?" She casts another glance at Billie. "Definitely, right?"
Finlay glances across to Billie. "Yeah, probably. But you know me, I'm a soldier at heart."
Billie’s cheeks slowly redden as Zero and Finlay whisper and point. Her arms move from her hips to across her breasts as her blush deepens.
She tries to channel the cowgirl, but her voice comes out almost shrill, “Enough! This brief chat is over.”
She points to the door with her cyberarm, while her real one stays firmly pressed across her breasts. “Out! Now! Or someone is gonna get shot in the face.”
Somehow, the threat doesn’t work without the fake Texan drawl. But despite her obvious discomfort, she seems serious now.
February 21, 2011
Billie's Journal - Bye bye Billie
Kimano, Tsimshian, 23 December 2050
Today is my first day trying not to be Billie. But after five odd years of practising a deep Texan drawl, she's proving hard to shake. And I'm sure that I will still have to rely on her when things get nasty. Feels strange talking about her like that. After all she is who I am, who I was, for most of what I can remember of my life.
After our little jaunt into Haida town last night we are all up a little late. Cleo seems the worst for wear, her hair lank and bags around her eyes. We find a cheap diner, that only serves us because the padre, I mean Father O'Reilly is with us. Then we retire back to the hotel to do some legwork. Well mainly for Zero to do some matrix snooping. Finlay is feeling cooped up so takes of for a walk, Cleo locks herself in her room and Gabriel proceeds to down a half bottle of the local hooch. Zero has routed the room's terminal up to the matrix via an IP randomizer so I do a little snooping myself.
Let's just say that my computer skills ain't on par with my pistol skills. I turn up a few dead ends which I text through to Zero. Then my phone crashes. Piece of jap shit that it is. Typical as we're pretending to be employees of some jap corp.
I decide to get some air and take a walk. Maybe I can pick up a new outfit that's a bit less cowgirl. Well I get as far as the first store. The cashier is an uppity indian slapper that won't even serve me till I flash the fake ID and even then she ain't too friendly. I slink back to the hotel in a foul mood.
One thing I noticed when I was out. There ain't no metas here at all. I guess it's been bugging me the last couple of days but only hit home just now. I try to get some figures, but that sorta information ain't public record. I'll get Zero to look it up when she finishes up whatever she's up to in the matrix.
Around dark, Finlay gets back. His mood ain't much better than mine, but at least Zero finally has some good news, even though she bitches about having to owe a couple of favours to some of her decker chummers.
Apparently some dude name of Daniel Shimihand used to run the HNF before the purges. It was assumed this dude was killed but seems like he may still be running around and that he's behind the HNAL. Also seems that the HNAL might have links to TerraFirst, the ecoterrorists out of California. Well there's a link. However, more creepy are some conspiracy theories that the HNF is just a government front to sweep up any unsavoury elements. Now that is just fraggin' nasty.
Now that Zero's done her bit, it's time for the rest of us to pay a visit to the Randy Sasquatch. We rouse Cleo out of bed, although the girl is looking even worse than earlier and has an attitude to match. She finally casts her masking spell on us so we look like injuns and we head back into Haida town.
It's pretty clear we picked up a tail as soon as we crossed into this part of town. And the closer we get to the Randy Sasquatch the worst the place gets. I ain't seen places this bad since I was last in Redmond. The bar is a dump, but the neon sign outside still works. Guess noone wants to mess with the local HNF HQ.
We push through the door into a wall of noise, sweat and stale beer. The locals give us an unfriendly look and we retreat to a table in a dark corner. We nurse a couple of watered soybeers before Finlay spots our mark. A mohawked indian standing at the bar. Shit, didn't see him come in, so either there's a back way or he was already here. We keep an eye on the fella. He seems well known, talking with the barman and a few of the other patrons. Then some brave comes around with a pitcher, half filled with notes. Not wanting to cause trouble we toss in a few bills each. He makes some light conversation, but as we are a Scot, an Irishman and a woman, we keep it down. Finlay spins a yarn about looking for work and the guy seems to buy it.
But when he moves on, we realise that mohawk is gone. He sure didn't come past us, so he must of slipped out the back. We finish up our drinks and leave. Circling around towards the back of the bar, we spot another couple of youths watching us. Finlay slips back as we turn down an alley and grabs one of the little fraggers as he comes around after us. He's a feisty little shit, trying to bite the ork but he ain't got no chance against Finlay's grip.
Still he won't give anything up, so Finlay finally lets him go with a kick up the backside. We make it to the back of the bar without any further trouble, but the delay means our mohawked friend is long gone. Gabriel summons a couple of little cherubs to go look for him while we mosy on back to the hotel.
We shake our tail as we get into the nicer part of town, although that's not saying much. We arrive back at the hotel just as Gabriel's little watchers turn back up to announce they found Nightingale. We make plans. Under an invisibility spell from Gabriel, I lift the commlink from the lazy-ass, porn-watching kid at the desk. Zero does some stuff with it to make it into a spycam and then, still invisible, I head back to where the watcher's say they found Nightingale.
An old lock stops me at the front and my lockpick snaps when I try to open it. I make my way around back. There's a fire escape but it's been welded up, I guess to prevent people like me coming in the back. I take a run up and manage to catch the bottom of it but some fragger's wrapped barbed wire around it and you can bet it's my real hand that finds that. I grit my teeth and get a hold with the cyber arm and pull myself up. I find the mark's appartment and set up the kid's phone so that the camera has a good view of the room without being too obvious itself.
Sharon patches up my hand when I get back. It's late and I'm tired. I go to bed hoping that tomorrow is a better day.
Kimano, Tsimshian, 24 December 2050
It's Christmas eve but even the snow here is grey and miserable. However, we finally get some luck on the stakeout. The little phone is streaming images at one frame every tens seconds or so and eventually captures our mark on the phone. Finlay thinks he's saying Nightingale at one point but all I see is an open mouth. Zero takes a peek into the local phone records and find out where the call went. Game on.
We suit up and head out to what looks like it used to be the commercial district. Except most of the building are run down and boarded up. Our target is a warehouse that seems like it's been long abandoned, except that the lock on the front looks pretty new. A fire door around back is less well protected and with a bit of effort I manage to pop it open. Inside looks like some church or conference room with rows of seats and a pulpit of sorts at the front. There are two rooms at the back. Finlay and Gabriel take one, Zero and I take the other. It's an office and dusty too, like it ain't been used in a while.
I hear a faint humming and spot some cables going into the back of a cabinet. Without thinking I open the door. Some old terminal with a screen and keyboard. Behind me, Zero hisses to close the door. I do as she says just as my brain makes the link that these dudes are working with TerraFirst and that TerraFirst like to blow things up. I maybe manage a step back before the cabinet explodes and that probably saves my life. The blast lifts me off my feet and punches me through the drywall into the hall beyond. Deafened and hurting, I'm trying to get back to my feet but the padre is there easing me back down. The pain hits and I'm twitching on the ground as he pumps mana into me to patch me up. And then the pain is gone. I stagger to my feet as he goes to work on Zero. She looks hurt, but not too badly. Finlay and I take watch for the long seconds it takes for his magic to work then we are out of there.
We make it halfway to the next building when Finlay twitches suddenly. Then I hear the crack of a high velocity round. Frag, sniper. Even injured, Finlay is moving even before my boosted reflexes kick in. He sprints across the open ground and dives behind the next building. My reflexes take over and I follow after him almost without thinking. Frag, I don't even know where the gunman is. I spin as I get into cover, looking behind for the others. Gabriel is nowhere to be seen and Zero is running towards us, bullets picking at her heels. She makes it into cover just as another rifle shot takes out the corner of the building next to her head.
Before we can go looking for the shooters, we hear sirens and hotfoot it out of there. Back at the hotel, Zero digs out the damaged disks we recovered from the terminal and goes to work on them. I grab some sleep. Being blown up tends to take it out of a person.
I wake to hear a voice I don't recognise talking about 'red mask' and biosuits. Zero plays it back again. Well looks like we got us a destination now. She also tells us that her matrix buddies found our Martha and that she's a dog shaman working for TerraFirst's 'northern cell'. Hell and here I thought dog shaman's were supposed to look out for people. Shows how much I know about magic.
Today is my first day trying not to be Billie. But after five odd years of practising a deep Texan drawl, she's proving hard to shake. And I'm sure that I will still have to rely on her when things get nasty. Feels strange talking about her like that. After all she is who I am, who I was, for most of what I can remember of my life.
After our little jaunt into Haida town last night we are all up a little late. Cleo seems the worst for wear, her hair lank and bags around her eyes. We find a cheap diner, that only serves us because the padre, I mean Father O'Reilly is with us. Then we retire back to the hotel to do some legwork. Well mainly for Zero to do some matrix snooping. Finlay is feeling cooped up so takes of for a walk, Cleo locks herself in her room and Gabriel proceeds to down a half bottle of the local hooch. Zero has routed the room's terminal up to the matrix via an IP randomizer so I do a little snooping myself.
Let's just say that my computer skills ain't on par with my pistol skills. I turn up a few dead ends which I text through to Zero. Then my phone crashes. Piece of jap shit that it is. Typical as we're pretending to be employees of some jap corp.
I decide to get some air and take a walk. Maybe I can pick up a new outfit that's a bit less cowgirl. Well I get as far as the first store. The cashier is an uppity indian slapper that won't even serve me till I flash the fake ID and even then she ain't too friendly. I slink back to the hotel in a foul mood.
One thing I noticed when I was out. There ain't no metas here at all. I guess it's been bugging me the last couple of days but only hit home just now. I try to get some figures, but that sorta information ain't public record. I'll get Zero to look it up when she finishes up whatever she's up to in the matrix.
Around dark, Finlay gets back. His mood ain't much better than mine, but at least Zero finally has some good news, even though she bitches about having to owe a couple of favours to some of her decker chummers.
Apparently some dude name of Daniel Shimihand used to run the HNF before the purges. It was assumed this dude was killed but seems like he may still be running around and that he's behind the HNAL. Also seems that the HNAL might have links to TerraFirst, the ecoterrorists out of California. Well there's a link. However, more creepy are some conspiracy theories that the HNF is just a government front to sweep up any unsavoury elements. Now that is just fraggin' nasty.
Now that Zero's done her bit, it's time for the rest of us to pay a visit to the Randy Sasquatch. We rouse Cleo out of bed, although the girl is looking even worse than earlier and has an attitude to match. She finally casts her masking spell on us so we look like injuns and we head back into Haida town.
It's pretty clear we picked up a tail as soon as we crossed into this part of town. And the closer we get to the Randy Sasquatch the worst the place gets. I ain't seen places this bad since I was last in Redmond. The bar is a dump, but the neon sign outside still works. Guess noone wants to mess with the local HNF HQ.
We push through the door into a wall of noise, sweat and stale beer. The locals give us an unfriendly look and we retreat to a table in a dark corner. We nurse a couple of watered soybeers before Finlay spots our mark. A mohawked indian standing at the bar. Shit, didn't see him come in, so either there's a back way or he was already here. We keep an eye on the fella. He seems well known, talking with the barman and a few of the other patrons. Then some brave comes around with a pitcher, half filled with notes. Not wanting to cause trouble we toss in a few bills each. He makes some light conversation, but as we are a Scot, an Irishman and a woman, we keep it down. Finlay spins a yarn about looking for work and the guy seems to buy it.
But when he moves on, we realise that mohawk is gone. He sure didn't come past us, so he must of slipped out the back. We finish up our drinks and leave. Circling around towards the back of the bar, we spot another couple of youths watching us. Finlay slips back as we turn down an alley and grabs one of the little fraggers as he comes around after us. He's a feisty little shit, trying to bite the ork but he ain't got no chance against Finlay's grip.
Still he won't give anything up, so Finlay finally lets him go with a kick up the backside. We make it to the back of the bar without any further trouble, but the delay means our mohawked friend is long gone. Gabriel summons a couple of little cherubs to go look for him while we mosy on back to the hotel.
We shake our tail as we get into the nicer part of town, although that's not saying much. We arrive back at the hotel just as Gabriel's little watchers turn back up to announce they found Nightingale. We make plans. Under an invisibility spell from Gabriel, I lift the commlink from the lazy-ass, porn-watching kid at the desk. Zero does some stuff with it to make it into a spycam and then, still invisible, I head back to where the watcher's say they found Nightingale.
An old lock stops me at the front and my lockpick snaps when I try to open it. I make my way around back. There's a fire escape but it's been welded up, I guess to prevent people like me coming in the back. I take a run up and manage to catch the bottom of it but some fragger's wrapped barbed wire around it and you can bet it's my real hand that finds that. I grit my teeth and get a hold with the cyber arm and pull myself up. I find the mark's appartment and set up the kid's phone so that the camera has a good view of the room without being too obvious itself.
Sharon patches up my hand when I get back. It's late and I'm tired. I go to bed hoping that tomorrow is a better day.
Kimano, Tsimshian, 24 December 2050
It's Christmas eve but even the snow here is grey and miserable. However, we finally get some luck on the stakeout. The little phone is streaming images at one frame every tens seconds or so and eventually captures our mark on the phone. Finlay thinks he's saying Nightingale at one point but all I see is an open mouth. Zero takes a peek into the local phone records and find out where the call went. Game on.
We suit up and head out to what looks like it used to be the commercial district. Except most of the building are run down and boarded up. Our target is a warehouse that seems like it's been long abandoned, except that the lock on the front looks pretty new. A fire door around back is less well protected and with a bit of effort I manage to pop it open. Inside looks like some church or conference room with rows of seats and a pulpit of sorts at the front. There are two rooms at the back. Finlay and Gabriel take one, Zero and I take the other. It's an office and dusty too, like it ain't been used in a while.
I hear a faint humming and spot some cables going into the back of a cabinet. Without thinking I open the door. Some old terminal with a screen and keyboard. Behind me, Zero hisses to close the door. I do as she says just as my brain makes the link that these dudes are working with TerraFirst and that TerraFirst like to blow things up. I maybe manage a step back before the cabinet explodes and that probably saves my life. The blast lifts me off my feet and punches me through the drywall into the hall beyond. Deafened and hurting, I'm trying to get back to my feet but the padre is there easing me back down. The pain hits and I'm twitching on the ground as he pumps mana into me to patch me up. And then the pain is gone. I stagger to my feet as he goes to work on Zero. She looks hurt, but not too badly. Finlay and I take watch for the long seconds it takes for his magic to work then we are out of there.
We make it halfway to the next building when Finlay twitches suddenly. Then I hear the crack of a high velocity round. Frag, sniper. Even injured, Finlay is moving even before my boosted reflexes kick in. He sprints across the open ground and dives behind the next building. My reflexes take over and I follow after him almost without thinking. Frag, I don't even know where the gunman is. I spin as I get into cover, looking behind for the others. Gabriel is nowhere to be seen and Zero is running towards us, bullets picking at her heels. She makes it into cover just as another rifle shot takes out the corner of the building next to her head.
Before we can go looking for the shooters, we hear sirens and hotfoot it out of there. Back at the hotel, Zero digs out the damaged disks we recovered from the terminal and goes to work on them. I grab some sleep. Being blown up tends to take it out of a person.
I wake to hear a voice I don't recognise talking about 'red mask' and biosuits. Zero plays it back again. Well looks like we got us a destination now. She also tells us that her matrix buddies found our Martha and that she's a dog shaman working for TerraFirst's 'northern cell'. Hell and here I thought dog shaman's were supposed to look out for people. Shows how much I know about magic.
January 23, 2011
Biliie's Journal - Trouble in Tsimshian
Tsimshian, 21 December 2050
Our driver's name is Sharon and she is indeed from Germany. What she's doing in the arse end of injun territory, she declines to say. As she pulls onto the main road, and from the maps she gives us what looks like the only road around here, she does tell us that she has been here for about six months acting as a guide for 'special tourists' like us.
She fills us in what she knows of the locals. Tsimshian and Klingit braves basically run the place. Haida and Kwakiutl are the oppressed minority. Anglos come after that and then metahumans. Frag, our pilot wasn't kidding when he warned me that my outfit wouldn't go down well with these injuns.
I catch her checking us out in the rear-view mirror. Her gaze seems to linger over long on Cleo, before she asks if she's okay. The cat lady does seems to be a bit green around the gills so we pull over and she moves up front between Finlay and Sharon to see if that makes her feel any better.
The padre is bitching that the limo dont have a mini bar and wants us to pull into a gas station. Sharon informs us that the next station is about a hundred klicks up the road or a couple of hours given the snow and crappy roads. The padre cusses, but settles down for a snooze till we get there. Zero is also quiet. And truth be told, has been that way since she took that bad turn that damned near killed her.
After a couple of hours we finally reach the gas station. It's little more than a couple of pumps and a shack. Sharon tells us it's best if me, Zero and Finlay stay in the car. The pump attendant, when he does finally come out to tank the car, is an obnoxious redskin who only seems willing to help us because the car has Mitsuhama plates. I'm starting to take a strong dislike to this place.
The padre at least seems happy. Although the booze smells like hooch and he coughs down the first taste. Second one don't go down any easier, but he's persistant. I give it a try but it's about the worst I've tasted and the Souix Orks make some pretty rough stuff down in Salish territory.
After about another hour, Sharon points at a bridge ahead and tells us we're nearly there. Then the bridge blows up. Finlay shouts rocket launcher as light rounds start spanging off the side of the car. I have to give the lady her due, she pulls us to stop right before the big fragging hole in the bridge and has us in reverse before I can get my Kimber drawn. I can make out muzzle flashes up on the hill, about 200 meters away, well 205.6 m exactly according to my eyes but who's counting. All that matters is that I ain't gonna hit shit at that range with the Kimber, and the Winchester is in the trunk.
Up front, Cleo starts screaming. Did she get hit? Finlay grabs a hold of her and starts shouting all sergeant major style at her to shut the frag up and calm down. It seems to be work and by the time we are back up the road and concealed in the tree line, she has calmed down enough that he lets her go. It's only then I realise that she has a fragging monofilament whip in her hand. That would of been bad news if she had triggered that inside the car.
The padre turns the car invisible and somewhat abashed, Cleo creates a phantom car to distract the locals. It seems to work as nobody shoots at us. Then as dawn turns night into a miserable grey, we drive back down to the bridge. While Sharon and Finlay examine the damage, I trudge up the hill through knee deep snow to where the ambushers were. They sure weren't professionals as they left the empty rocket launcher and shell casings behind. They were also all clumped up together where a single grenade would of taken them all out.
With help from Finlay, Sharon negotiates the narrow strip of road next to the hole and we continue on our way. Over the rise we finally get a view of the town of Kimano, our destination. Looks like someone took the barrens and let it go to seed. I don't think I've seen a shittier looking town in my life. This place makes Redmond look like Renton, and that's just the better parts.
Rolling into the centre we get pulled over by a police blockade that's got more guns than the UCAS army. I count three assault rifles, a couple of auto shotguns and a fragging ugly fucker of an injun manning an MMG on the armored car that passes for a copwagon in these parts. The cop is only slightly unpleasant to the padre who is acting as Mr Johnson, letting us through after only a few sexist and racial slurs.
We finally make it to the Kimano Palace hotel. It might once have lived up to the two stars still just about attached to the hoarding out front, but not this fragging century. We haul our gear inside while the padre negotiates with the young brave manning the desk. It takes a flash of his fake Mitsuhama ID to get the kid's attention and some further haggling to get us some rooms. I'm beginning to hate this town.
I hate it even more when I see my room. I've been in cleaner hunting lodges out in the Salish wilds. I'll be sleeping in my bag that's for certain. Zero swings by to check the place for bugs, of the electronic kind, but neither of us is too keen on doing a thorough search. We stash our gear and go looking for food.
The kid at the desk is less than helpful, seeming more intent on leering at Cleo and Zero. He does mention some place called the Randy Sasquatch, but it smells like a setup and mental images of an injun version of Duncan the octopus leave me less than hungry.
The diner is another shithole and while the padre, Cleo and Sharon get a relatively decent table, myself, Finlay and Zero are stuck in back near the toilets. And we only get served about 20 minutes after the others. And they screw up our order. I give the waitress a look but hold my tongue. I then hear her blabbing to the padre that he should sack his uppity staff as she overcharges him for the tasteless processed krill that passes for food round here.
After that we decide to take a drive out to find the family of David Tom, the dead Haida National Front guy the eagle lady told us about. We get more shit from the cops on the roadblock then they flag us down as take the turn off into the Haida section of town. The cop warns us off and points us up the hill towards the Mitsuhama aluminium plant. We turn back but take the first off ramp once out of their sight.
Turns out to be a bad move. Downtown might be shitty, but this place is a lot worse. The roads are in bad shape and most of the housing looks like its ready to fall down or is currently in the process of doing so. We haven't gone a hundred meters from the road when some little shit of an injun takes out the driver's mirror with a catapult. More rocks start pinging of the car, taking out the other mirror, then I spot a bottle arcing in from above. I shout floor it to Sharon and her reflexes are good. The first molotov falls short, but a second lands on the roof. More rocks and a couple of bullets ding the paintwork as Sharon tries to get us out of there. I shout directions from the map and the padre calls up an elemental to douse the burning roof. We make it out shaken but intact, pulling out onto the road near the Mitsuhama facility where the padre gets the third degree from some corp goon about damaging corp property.
We drive back to town giving the cops a laugh at the state of the car. I catch a short nap, the trid is all corp propaganda, then when it gets dark we all slip out the back. The padre turns himself, Finlay and Sharon invisible. Cleo makes herself, me and Zero look like local braves and we scoot back into the Haida hellhole.
This time no-one bothers us and we make it to the Tom's house. I rap on the door and a young girl opens it slightly. When I ask if she if Miss Tom, her eyes go wide and she calls out 'Mama, run'. She tries to slam the door on me but I'm too quick and strong and hold it ajar. I try to assure her that we ain't here to cause any trouble but she keeps pressing on the door so I let it shut. I keep talking through the door and after a bit she cracks it open again wanting to know if I am from the government. I tell Cleo to drop the mask on me and the girl's eyes go even wider but at least this time she lets us in.
I explain, and not necessarily in the most diplomatic or sensitive way that David is dead and that it was the HNF that killed him. The girl denies he had anything to do with them but won't look me in the eye, so I call bullshit. She sighs and admits that okay maybe he was but that they never did any of the violent stuff the government claims they did. Yeah right I reply and she tells us that there is a splinter group called the Haida National Army of Liberation or some shit that is more radical and is into the violent stuff. Apparently they also got some links to and support from the confederates down in Calfree. Their local recruiter is some brave called Nightingale who frequents the Randy Sasquatch. I feel a shiver run up my spine at the mention of that watering hole. The girl confirms it aint the sort of place a lady ought to set foot in. Shit, I sure wasn't planning to if I could avoid it.
I offer my condolences for their loss and after Cleo makes us look like injuns again we head back to the hotel.
Our driver's name is Sharon and she is indeed from Germany. What she's doing in the arse end of injun territory, she declines to say. As she pulls onto the main road, and from the maps she gives us what looks like the only road around here, she does tell us that she has been here for about six months acting as a guide for 'special tourists' like us.
She fills us in what she knows of the locals. Tsimshian and Klingit braves basically run the place. Haida and Kwakiutl are the oppressed minority. Anglos come after that and then metahumans. Frag, our pilot wasn't kidding when he warned me that my outfit wouldn't go down well with these injuns.
I catch her checking us out in the rear-view mirror. Her gaze seems to linger over long on Cleo, before she asks if she's okay. The cat lady does seems to be a bit green around the gills so we pull over and she moves up front between Finlay and Sharon to see if that makes her feel any better.
The padre is bitching that the limo dont have a mini bar and wants us to pull into a gas station. Sharon informs us that the next station is about a hundred klicks up the road or a couple of hours given the snow and crappy roads. The padre cusses, but settles down for a snooze till we get there. Zero is also quiet. And truth be told, has been that way since she took that bad turn that damned near killed her.
After a couple of hours we finally reach the gas station. It's little more than a couple of pumps and a shack. Sharon tells us it's best if me, Zero and Finlay stay in the car. The pump attendant, when he does finally come out to tank the car, is an obnoxious redskin who only seems willing to help us because the car has Mitsuhama plates. I'm starting to take a strong dislike to this place.
The padre at least seems happy. Although the booze smells like hooch and he coughs down the first taste. Second one don't go down any easier, but he's persistant. I give it a try but it's about the worst I've tasted and the Souix Orks make some pretty rough stuff down in Salish territory.
After about another hour, Sharon points at a bridge ahead and tells us we're nearly there. Then the bridge blows up. Finlay shouts rocket launcher as light rounds start spanging off the side of the car. I have to give the lady her due, she pulls us to stop right before the big fragging hole in the bridge and has us in reverse before I can get my Kimber drawn. I can make out muzzle flashes up on the hill, about 200 meters away, well 205.6 m exactly according to my eyes but who's counting. All that matters is that I ain't gonna hit shit at that range with the Kimber, and the Winchester is in the trunk.
Up front, Cleo starts screaming. Did she get hit? Finlay grabs a hold of her and starts shouting all sergeant major style at her to shut the frag up and calm down. It seems to be work and by the time we are back up the road and concealed in the tree line, she has calmed down enough that he lets her go. It's only then I realise that she has a fragging monofilament whip in her hand. That would of been bad news if she had triggered that inside the car.
The padre turns the car invisible and somewhat abashed, Cleo creates a phantom car to distract the locals. It seems to work as nobody shoots at us. Then as dawn turns night into a miserable grey, we drive back down to the bridge. While Sharon and Finlay examine the damage, I trudge up the hill through knee deep snow to where the ambushers were. They sure weren't professionals as they left the empty rocket launcher and shell casings behind. They were also all clumped up together where a single grenade would of taken them all out.
With help from Finlay, Sharon negotiates the narrow strip of road next to the hole and we continue on our way. Over the rise we finally get a view of the town of Kimano, our destination. Looks like someone took the barrens and let it go to seed. I don't think I've seen a shittier looking town in my life. This place makes Redmond look like Renton, and that's just the better parts.
Rolling into the centre we get pulled over by a police blockade that's got more guns than the UCAS army. I count three assault rifles, a couple of auto shotguns and a fragging ugly fucker of an injun manning an MMG on the armored car that passes for a copwagon in these parts. The cop is only slightly unpleasant to the padre who is acting as Mr Johnson, letting us through after only a few sexist and racial slurs.
We finally make it to the Kimano Palace hotel. It might once have lived up to the two stars still just about attached to the hoarding out front, but not this fragging century. We haul our gear inside while the padre negotiates with the young brave manning the desk. It takes a flash of his fake Mitsuhama ID to get the kid's attention and some further haggling to get us some rooms. I'm beginning to hate this town.
I hate it even more when I see my room. I've been in cleaner hunting lodges out in the Salish wilds. I'll be sleeping in my bag that's for certain. Zero swings by to check the place for bugs, of the electronic kind, but neither of us is too keen on doing a thorough search. We stash our gear and go looking for food.
The kid at the desk is less than helpful, seeming more intent on leering at Cleo and Zero. He does mention some place called the Randy Sasquatch, but it smells like a setup and mental images of an injun version of Duncan the octopus leave me less than hungry.
The diner is another shithole and while the padre, Cleo and Sharon get a relatively decent table, myself, Finlay and Zero are stuck in back near the toilets. And we only get served about 20 minutes after the others. And they screw up our order. I give the waitress a look but hold my tongue. I then hear her blabbing to the padre that he should sack his uppity staff as she overcharges him for the tasteless processed krill that passes for food round here.
After that we decide to take a drive out to find the family of David Tom, the dead Haida National Front guy the eagle lady told us about. We get more shit from the cops on the roadblock then they flag us down as take the turn off into the Haida section of town. The cop warns us off and points us up the hill towards the Mitsuhama aluminium plant. We turn back but take the first off ramp once out of their sight.
Turns out to be a bad move. Downtown might be shitty, but this place is a lot worse. The roads are in bad shape and most of the housing looks like its ready to fall down or is currently in the process of doing so. We haven't gone a hundred meters from the road when some little shit of an injun takes out the driver's mirror with a catapult. More rocks start pinging of the car, taking out the other mirror, then I spot a bottle arcing in from above. I shout floor it to Sharon and her reflexes are good. The first molotov falls short, but a second lands on the roof. More rocks and a couple of bullets ding the paintwork as Sharon tries to get us out of there. I shout directions from the map and the padre calls up an elemental to douse the burning roof. We make it out shaken but intact, pulling out onto the road near the Mitsuhama facility where the padre gets the third degree from some corp goon about damaging corp property.
We drive back to town giving the cops a laugh at the state of the car. I catch a short nap, the trid is all corp propaganda, then when it gets dark we all slip out the back. The padre turns himself, Finlay and Sharon invisible. Cleo makes herself, me and Zero look like local braves and we scoot back into the Haida hellhole.
This time no-one bothers us and we make it to the Tom's house. I rap on the door and a young girl opens it slightly. When I ask if she if Miss Tom, her eyes go wide and she calls out 'Mama, run'. She tries to slam the door on me but I'm too quick and strong and hold it ajar. I try to assure her that we ain't here to cause any trouble but she keeps pressing on the door so I let it shut. I keep talking through the door and after a bit she cracks it open again wanting to know if I am from the government. I tell Cleo to drop the mask on me and the girl's eyes go even wider but at least this time she lets us in.
I explain, and not necessarily in the most diplomatic or sensitive way that David is dead and that it was the HNF that killed him. The girl denies he had anything to do with them but won't look me in the eye, so I call bullshit. She sighs and admits that okay maybe he was but that they never did any of the violent stuff the government claims they did. Yeah right I reply and she tells us that there is a splinter group called the Haida National Army of Liberation or some shit that is more radical and is into the violent stuff. Apparently they also got some links to and support from the confederates down in Calfree. Their local recruiter is some brave called Nightingale who frequents the Randy Sasquatch. I feel a shiver run up my spine at the mention of that watering hole. The girl confirms it aint the sort of place a lady ought to set foot in. Shit, I sure wasn't planning to if I could avoid it.
I offer my condolences for their loss and after Cleo makes us look like injuns again we head back to the hotel.
December 12, 2010
Billie's Journal - Catnip
Seattle, 17 December 2050
I am woken in the middle of the night by a frantic Finlay. He's got Zero cradled in his arms. She is moaning and twitching with blood leaking from her nose and eyes. Not a good sign.
Lucky for them I have been going easy on the booze lately or I would just have shot him and gone back to sleep. I roll out of bed, my reactions running faster than my brain. Finlay lays Zero on the bed and I check her out as best I can. I know how to set a broken bone and stop someone from bleeding to death but I'm no doctor.
I bark at Finlay, who is hovering nearby like a worried dog, to go get the fraggin medkit while I check Zero out as best I can. She is burning up, her heart is racing and her milky white eyes are twitching like crazy. It's almost like she's being hit by ice in the matrix but she's not logged in.
Finlay returns with the kit and I attach the probes. Elevated heart rate and temperature, EEG all over the place. I hate being right but I hate it more that the damn medkit is better at diagnosing her than I am. I follow it's instructions, doing my best to stabilise her without any real idea what's wrong.
I tell Finlay to check on her deck, but he comes back to say it is switched off. Then her temp spikes and she starts thrashing about. I pretty much order Finlay to carry her into the bathroom and put her in the bath. I grab up the medkit and follow him, turning on the cold tap as soon as he eases her into the tub.
The medkit's alarms start squealing as I reattach the probes. For the next few minutes things are touch and go as to whether she's going to make it, but then all of a sudden her brain activity drops back to normal then into REM sleep and her other stats begin to stabilise.
We haul her back out of the bath and put her back into bed. All the commotion has finally roused the padre. His breath stinks of booze and his eyes are red-rimmed but he summons his mojo and manages to heal Zero a little. I give her a sedative to keep her out and then go get a glass of Jack to settle my nerves.
For the rest of the night, Finlay and I take turns keeping an eye on her and as light finally dawns late in the morning, she opens her eyes and asks for a slushie. I think she'll make it.
Seattle, 19 December 2050
Zero is getting better. When I gave her the remote for the trid she just glared at it for a second then threw it at me. We gave her sugary drinks and her deck, mainly for our own sakes.
She gets a call from Martha who has been contacted by Zero's new friend Cleo. As a sort of test to see how serious Cleo was about getting out of the corp and into the shadows, Zero pulled some sort of matrix trickery to make it look like Cleo wanted to have elective surgery to get some secretary ware installed. Looks like she's taken the bait and wants a meet with a decker to find out who set her up. Of course, Martha immediately thought of Zero.
Against the medkit's and my advice, we haul Zero out of bed and help her into a suitably street outfit of knee-length black platform boots, a short denim skirt, a too-tight t-shirt of some rave band I have never heard of and a denim jacket that matches the skirt and is cut to conceal her Glock's shoulder holster. I am wearing jeans and boots, a heavy check shirt and duster. And my Cavalier is in it's quick-draw leg holster.
Figuring that Zero is not up for driving to the meet herself, we call Jamal. His fake Jamaican accent is as bad as my texan one, but he agrees to take us down to Redmond tourist town.
We arrive early and after settling Zero at a table, I take a quiet booth at the back, while Finlay sits up at the bar. The padre drew short straw and gets to cover the ouside from a damp alley across the way.
His grumbling turns to surprise as Cleo arrives with some muscle in tow, a red-leather clad street samurai. The sam' enters first. He could be the real thing but if he is, he's not top class. He completely overlooks Finlay at the bar, sitting amongst the other orks, and his gaze doesn't come anywhere near me in the back, focusing instead on the denim clad Zero. She does have that effect on men, though.
He heads back out and returns with Cleo. She hesitates a moment when she spots Zero, but recovers quickly. She moves over to speak with her and Zero just asks her directly if she is Mrs J. I can hear the padre sniggering over the comms at that.
Cleo quickly comes clean, but as Zero set up the whole thing, we already know the details. Nonetheless, she pushes her hard, initially asking for four thousand then letting Cleo negotiate it down to three and half before demanding half up front.
I can see Cleo's eyes widen at that. There is some negotiation, then Finlay steps over to the table to escort her to one of few armored ATMs still working in this part of town.
Her friend complains but she convinces him to stay and watch Zero. I settle back to wait for them to get back only to hear a deep, accented voice near me say 'Cavalier?'
I glance to my right. An older guy, with short-cropped graying hair, and an obvious cyberarm and eyes nods towards the table. I grunt a yeah and give him a quizzical look. He shrugs and points at his ears saying he could hear me working the cylinder and that if he could hear so could Harry. I ask him who Harry is and he tells me he's the bartender. Frag. I put my hand on the table and tell him that it has a mind of his own. He holds up both arms and says he knows all about that. I ask him how he got them, choice or accident. He says it was a stupid accident.
We chat guns to pass the time. He likes automatics, bigger clips. I say I can understand that and tell him I have a pair of Kimbers for when I need to be quiet. Nice guns he replies, asking where I got them. I shrug and just say that they came into my possession. He smiles at that. He tells me his name is Vlad and that he's from Lithuania. Could by Vory. I tell him he can call me Billie. He asks if it's short for something and I tell him it's just Billie.
Finlay and Cleo turn back up around then. Cleo hands over a credstick and then she and red-leather jacket head out. We give them a few then call Jamal to come pick us up.
Seattle, 20 December 2050
Next day it's back to Redmond for the follow-up meet. Zero spent the evening pulling together a nice little file pointing to Green Ronin as the decker who sent the message from Cleo's terminal.
Cleo seems disappointed, wanting to know why this guy was setting her up. Zero plays it cool and offers a number of realistic reasons. Then Cleo asks Zero to help get her out. Bingo. Finlay, the padre and I join them at the booth to discuss the 'extraction'. Cleo already has a cover story, so she just needs a place to chill and a new ID. We tell her we can help with that. Finlay seems uncertain, but I feel like I owe it to her. After all, when Shariff pulled me out of that Bunraku palace, he did the same for me.
The padre asks her what skills she can bring. We know she's a mage of some sort but not what. Her eyes flicker for a second going a bit wider as she scans us. I guess she's putting the old astral sight on us and wasn't expecting to find a mage and two adepts sitting next to her. Her nose twitches as she focuses on Zero, then she looks somewhat confused and disappointed.
Padre says nice try, but that no heathen witch can overcome the power of the Lord. Don't know what she tried but for a change the priest had his spell defence up. Hope he remembers that next time we are on a run. We spend the next ten minutes listening to him ranting about shamen being the devil's servants.
Then we try to dissuade her, saying that the shadows are not a nice place to be in, no matter what she has heard. Finlay even tries the 'have you ever killed someone' angle. She gulps but say she would if she had to. Guess we got ourselves a new team-member.
I am woken in the middle of the night by a frantic Finlay. He's got Zero cradled in his arms. She is moaning and twitching with blood leaking from her nose and eyes. Not a good sign.
Lucky for them I have been going easy on the booze lately or I would just have shot him and gone back to sleep. I roll out of bed, my reactions running faster than my brain. Finlay lays Zero on the bed and I check her out as best I can. I know how to set a broken bone and stop someone from bleeding to death but I'm no doctor.
I bark at Finlay, who is hovering nearby like a worried dog, to go get the fraggin medkit while I check Zero out as best I can. She is burning up, her heart is racing and her milky white eyes are twitching like crazy. It's almost like she's being hit by ice in the matrix but she's not logged in.
Finlay returns with the kit and I attach the probes. Elevated heart rate and temperature, EEG all over the place. I hate being right but I hate it more that the damn medkit is better at diagnosing her than I am. I follow it's instructions, doing my best to stabilise her without any real idea what's wrong.
I tell Finlay to check on her deck, but he comes back to say it is switched off. Then her temp spikes and she starts thrashing about. I pretty much order Finlay to carry her into the bathroom and put her in the bath. I grab up the medkit and follow him, turning on the cold tap as soon as he eases her into the tub.
The medkit's alarms start squealing as I reattach the probes. For the next few minutes things are touch and go as to whether she's going to make it, but then all of a sudden her brain activity drops back to normal then into REM sleep and her other stats begin to stabilise.
We haul her back out of the bath and put her back into bed. All the commotion has finally roused the padre. His breath stinks of booze and his eyes are red-rimmed but he summons his mojo and manages to heal Zero a little. I give her a sedative to keep her out and then go get a glass of Jack to settle my nerves.
For the rest of the night, Finlay and I take turns keeping an eye on her and as light finally dawns late in the morning, she opens her eyes and asks for a slushie. I think she'll make it.
Seattle, 19 December 2050
Zero is getting better. When I gave her the remote for the trid she just glared at it for a second then threw it at me. We gave her sugary drinks and her deck, mainly for our own sakes.
She gets a call from Martha who has been contacted by Zero's new friend Cleo. As a sort of test to see how serious Cleo was about getting out of the corp and into the shadows, Zero pulled some sort of matrix trickery to make it look like Cleo wanted to have elective surgery to get some secretary ware installed. Looks like she's taken the bait and wants a meet with a decker to find out who set her up. Of course, Martha immediately thought of Zero.
Against the medkit's and my advice, we haul Zero out of bed and help her into a suitably street outfit of knee-length black platform boots, a short denim skirt, a too-tight t-shirt of some rave band I have never heard of and a denim jacket that matches the skirt and is cut to conceal her Glock's shoulder holster. I am wearing jeans and boots, a heavy check shirt and duster. And my Cavalier is in it's quick-draw leg holster.
Figuring that Zero is not up for driving to the meet herself, we call Jamal. His fake Jamaican accent is as bad as my texan one, but he agrees to take us down to Redmond tourist town.
We arrive early and after settling Zero at a table, I take a quiet booth at the back, while Finlay sits up at the bar. The padre drew short straw and gets to cover the ouside from a damp alley across the way.
His grumbling turns to surprise as Cleo arrives with some muscle in tow, a red-leather clad street samurai. The sam' enters first. He could be the real thing but if he is, he's not top class. He completely overlooks Finlay at the bar, sitting amongst the other orks, and his gaze doesn't come anywhere near me in the back, focusing instead on the denim clad Zero. She does have that effect on men, though.
He heads back out and returns with Cleo. She hesitates a moment when she spots Zero, but recovers quickly. She moves over to speak with her and Zero just asks her directly if she is Mrs J. I can hear the padre sniggering over the comms at that.
Cleo quickly comes clean, but as Zero set up the whole thing, we already know the details. Nonetheless, she pushes her hard, initially asking for four thousand then letting Cleo negotiate it down to three and half before demanding half up front.
I can see Cleo's eyes widen at that. There is some negotiation, then Finlay steps over to the table to escort her to one of few armored ATMs still working in this part of town.
Her friend complains but she convinces him to stay and watch Zero. I settle back to wait for them to get back only to hear a deep, accented voice near me say 'Cavalier?'
I glance to my right. An older guy, with short-cropped graying hair, and an obvious cyberarm and eyes nods towards the table. I grunt a yeah and give him a quizzical look. He shrugs and points at his ears saying he could hear me working the cylinder and that if he could hear so could Harry. I ask him who Harry is and he tells me he's the bartender. Frag. I put my hand on the table and tell him that it has a mind of his own. He holds up both arms and says he knows all about that. I ask him how he got them, choice or accident. He says it was a stupid accident.
We chat guns to pass the time. He likes automatics, bigger clips. I say I can understand that and tell him I have a pair of Kimbers for when I need to be quiet. Nice guns he replies, asking where I got them. I shrug and just say that they came into my possession. He smiles at that. He tells me his name is Vlad and that he's from Lithuania. Could by Vory. I tell him he can call me Billie. He asks if it's short for something and I tell him it's just Billie.
Finlay and Cleo turn back up around then. Cleo hands over a credstick and then she and red-leather jacket head out. We give them a few then call Jamal to come pick us up.
Seattle, 20 December 2050
Next day it's back to Redmond for the follow-up meet. Zero spent the evening pulling together a nice little file pointing to Green Ronin as the decker who sent the message from Cleo's terminal.
Cleo seems disappointed, wanting to know why this guy was setting her up. Zero plays it cool and offers a number of realistic reasons. Then Cleo asks Zero to help get her out. Bingo. Finlay, the padre and I join them at the booth to discuss the 'extraction'. Cleo already has a cover story, so she just needs a place to chill and a new ID. We tell her we can help with that. Finlay seems uncertain, but I feel like I owe it to her. After all, when Shariff pulled me out of that Bunraku palace, he did the same for me.
The padre asks her what skills she can bring. We know she's a mage of some sort but not what. Her eyes flicker for a second going a bit wider as she scans us. I guess she's putting the old astral sight on us and wasn't expecting to find a mage and two adepts sitting next to her. Her nose twitches as she focuses on Zero, then she looks somewhat confused and disappointed.
Padre says nice try, but that no heathen witch can overcome the power of the Lord. Don't know what she tried but for a change the priest had his spell defence up. Hope he remembers that next time we are on a run. We spend the next ten minutes listening to him ranting about shamen being the devil's servants.
Then we try to dissuade her, saying that the shadows are not a nice place to be in, no matter what she has heard. Finlay even tries the 'have you ever killed someone' angle. She gulps but say she would if she had to. Guess we got ourselves a new team-member.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
