Shadowrunners take on a variety of jobs that respectable clients don't want to get their hands dirty with.
I've only dipped in that pool when it was necessary-or I was tricked into it. I still cherry pick when I can, and then beg when necessary. I've pretty much kept my choices to surveillance and recovery over the years-though I have been pulled into some pretty complicated situations.
This profession sometimes takes me to different places-not always the more exotic locales like Hong Kong- nobody throws that kind of nuyen my way. And since I'm more of a Seattle name, not much about my reputation has gotten past the borders. Lately the routine had become too much of just that-a routine. I did want to get out of the rain-see some sunshine.
Los Angeles wasn't my first choice, and neither was this coffee shop across from the Mega Tri-Plex (that's the local term for the three Megacorps buildings for Horizon, Ares and Shiawase).
I was here to do a favor for an old friend's 'nephew.' But let's get it straight-I knew the guy I was meeting wasn't really her nephew-because Naomi Takashi didn't have siblings. Naomi's an old friend of mine from my short-lived Lone Star days who was now the Central Administrator for Wireless Augmented Reality Reconnaissance at the Lone Star facility in Seattle. The fact she had asked me for a favor-that was enough for me to say yes before I knew what it was she wanted.
I had a skeletal sob-story fit for the latest teen trideo-of a brother looking for his sister who disappeared. Yeah, I'd heard it before. Null perspiration.
But hell-it was Naomi-and I owed her my life ten times over.
So I'd e-mailed the guy-a Knight Errant employee named Kazuma (that's KAH-zoo-mah, as Naomi corrected me forty times) Tetsu. Tet-sue. His e-mails were professionally encrypted-scaled so that I'd have to enter a password on my end to read them. It was a bit annoying but I liked the guy's eye for security.
We'd arranged to meet at Cup O' Sin on the corner of Dreking and Expensive at ten o'clock. I'd only been there ten minutes before I saw him entering the shop-that was less then two minutes before the ork and his buddies blasted in with weapons firing.
Just my kind of day.
He was tall and slender and young looking-like most Japanese I'd known. Naomi was my age and I swear she looked as young and beautiful as the day we'd first met. His hair was fashionably cut around his face and ears then pulled back in a long ponytail behind him. It looked as if it'd been dyed a reddish brown as well-but at least it wasn't something like bright pink or yellow. He wore an expensive suit, black with a mandarin collar and black silk beneath. On his lapel was the KE pen the local branch's employees wore as a badge as well as his SIN that allowed them access in and out of Knight Errant doors.
I kept my attention fixed between my contact and the three coming through the front. It was obvious in a pinch they weren't actually aiming at anything or anybody-more so firing off their weapons to create a panic. My guess was to chase customers out of the shop.
But then there was always the path of the stray bullet-which found my client somewhere in his upper body. With a grunt I ducked, pulled out my Colt Manhunter and chambered a round. It wasn't so much that I was worried about this kid's life-but my own. If something happened to him, Naomi would blame-and possibly kill-me. At the very least she never speak to me again.
And as a professional, I couldn't exactly afford not having her as one of my key contacts for information in the Lone Star database.
As others scrambled out and the three intruders made their way in, I moved quick and low around them and to the right. Kazuma lay on his face behind a felled shelf of token coffee mugs and sugary sweets. I saw blood on the back of his suit and on the polished tile floor beneath.
But he hadn't let the wound take him down-the guy was up on all fours, moving as fast as he could toward the back of the shop to the counter, a black leather messenger bag draped around his shoulder. If that's where his gear was stored and one of the shooters saw it, they'd come after him and take it.
Tech wasn't as expensive as it used to be-but still-from the size of the bag I assumed he had one of the new slimline commlinks with an RFID tag on it. Shit-heads like these were always looking for a quick steal and a quick fence.
With a glance around I moved in behind him, keeping the overturned shelf between us and the intruder's view. Colt in my right hand, I crouch-stepped over him, threaded my left hand and arm beneath his left side under his arm and pulled him forward with me.
My back gave a slight protest-he was heavier than he looked-and I was getting too old for this.
Original intention had been to get him out of the shop-but it looked like that exit was blocked, and he'd also started to fight to get free of me. I figured whoever didn't get out in the first few seconds was going to be either a hostage or collateral.
'Baka let me go!' he hissed at me as one of the shooters, a bulked up, chromed hulk, chased a nice-looking girl out of the shop and then dragged her back in again. Uh oh-that didn't look good for her. 'What are you-' the kid said in a much louder voice.
I slapped a hand over his mouth and yanked him down to the floor with me to watch the shooters' actions.
The ork noticed his companion dragging the girl back in by her hair and moved in himself. If this was gonna be some twisted bit of thrill sex I was just gonna have to drop the kid and do my part. Can't stand by and watch as some innocent piece of endowment gets gacked.
But ork took his weapon and held it by the firing end and smashed it hard into his companion's head. The side not covered in a chrome dome. Blood gushed over the thug's face and he lost hold of the girl. She screamed but was at least smart enough to get the hell out of there.
'What the hell did you do that for?' Chromedome demanded as he reached behind him and drew a katana from his back.
Ork didn't appear to be too afraid of Chromedome's weapon. He was in his face, his own weapon righted and the barrel inches from the guy's bloody nose. 'We ain't here for that. You do your part and you get paid. You fuck up again, and I'll cap your ass and chop you for parts.'
Chromedome sneered and re-holstered his blade.
A few other customers were trying to get by and Kazuma was moving in my arms. I pulled my hand away from his face and whispered, 'Keep quiet.'
But that just wasn't going to happen. 'I have to get back there,' he nodded in the direction he was going. 'Behind-' he winced 'behind the counter, to the right. Central server and network key.'
Oh? I didn't ask how this kid would know that-I just did what he said. I released him and he kept low. I crouched down as well but noticed there was a blood trail left by his clothing. That little detail was going to give us away eventually-but at the moment it couldn't be helped.
'I'm in,' said the third intruder, another human that'd set up a small odd shaped box near the register. He'd donned a pair of goggles and AR gloves-dude was interfacing with the shop's PAN through a home-make comlink.
So they were hacking into the shop's network. But why? It was a coffee shop. The only thing they'd find was an inventory list, payroll records, and maybe what next week's soy-drek of the day was going to be.
Kazuma was moving again and I followed him, hoping like hell none of them noticed the motion behind mister hacker. It wasn't that I couldn't defend myself-I was pretty good with my Colt Manhunter. But I had no idea if Kazuma here was armed, could shoot, or how bad he'd been hit. I also didn't know what kind of weapon mister hacker had. The fact these guys were hitting a shop bright and early on a Tuesday morning, full of customers and witnesses, was just a little crazy.
He moved behind the coffee shop's counter and to the right, just past the employee john and kneeled in front of what looked like a blank part of the wall. I kept myself low on my knees, my Colt aimed at the back of mister hacker as Kazuma held up his left hand in mid-air. It looked to me as if he were playing an invisible piano-but I knew he was logged into the Augmented Reality of the coffee shop's PAN.
I didn't see a commlink on him anywhere, no wires, so I assumed he'd done the mod thing and converted his data-jack to a wireless receiver-internal 'link. And since I didn't see any goggles or shades-I assumed his eyes were cyber-enhanced as well.
Now see? Why would a young, good-looking kid like this do that to his body? Me? There wasn't an artificial piece of hardware anywhere. Not even a data-jack. Never had a need for it. Yeah, I'd used the commlink and
