"Harrumph." Lothan rumbled. "Strictly smalltime." he told the others with a tone of disapproval.
"You should be able to handle the barrier spell on your own." he said to Liada.
"Versoniel." she replied in elvish. Kellan hadn't heard that word before, but from the look on Liada's face, she was sure it wasn't a compliment.
Lothan paid it no heed and instead turned his attention back to the Ancients. Gripping a handhold in one fist, he raised his staff with the other. He incanted in a deep and sonorous voice, weaving faintly glowing symbols in the air with the tip of the staff. Then he spoke a sharp word of command and pointed the staff toward the pavement. There was a crackle and a sheet of ice spread out across the highway behind them, as polished as a mirror.
Kellan expected to see the go-gangers go sliding in all directions when they hit the ice sheet but the ice turned into water before they reached it. The motorcycles sent up sheets of mist as they continued their pursuit.
"Strictly amateur, huh?" Liada called. Lothan, if he heard, made no comment. He simply lowered his bushy brows and frowned in concentration.
"Enough of this deviltry." the Street Deacon said, drawing his Ingram submachine gun from its holster. He fired a burst that sparked off the pavement and one of the Ancients' bikes. Then the gangers began to return fire, forcing the shadowrunners to duck for cover.
Orion fired several shots from his own pistol, but the back of the truck was swaying too much, and the elven bikers wove back and forth on the road behind them. The shots went wide.
Kellan heard several bullets spang off the metal framework of the truck.
"If they take out the tires, we're fragged!" Orion called.
Boom! Another blast of lightning arced toward the truck, only to be stopped short, but it was closer this time, and Kellan could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand up from the electrical discharge. Liada's face was a study in fierce concentration. She was sweating, but also looked determined not to show any effort, particularly not after Lothan had dismissed the abilities of the Ancients' spellcaster.
Kellan stumbled a few steps forward to where the troll was standing, so she could get a shot at the gangers. Lothan had flatted against the side of the truck to make a smaller target, albeit only a slightly smaller one.
"Cover me." the troll mage said to Kellan, and she swung around him, firing off a few shots in the direction of the Ancients. The second lightning bolt had revealed the position of the sorceress, and Kellan tried to hit her. The Street Deacon let loose with another burst from his Ingram, and tagged one of the outriders, who jerked and fell from his bike. The Yamaha Rapier tumbled, then slid, and the rider did much the same.
Then Lothan lunged forward with a shout, pointing his staff at the Ancients. There was a surge of power that nearly knocked Kellan over—a barely visible ripple in the air, like a wave of heat—then a blast of green fire erupted along the edge of the highway, engulfing several of the riders at the edge of the pack. She heard a few screams. The remaining bikers emerged from the cloud of eldritch flame, but one cycle was without a rider, and tumbled a short distance before skidding to a stop. Three other bikes had disappeared altogether in the flames. Kellan saw them lying scattered across the road as the fire dissipated, and Lothan slumped against the side of the truck.
"Street-trained little dabbler." he panted, glaring in the direction of the unscathed elven sorceress. "Let's see how you match up with that.”
Despite Lothan's display of power, the Ancients were not deterred. They opened fire again, and Orion and the Street Deacon laid down covering fire to keep the bikers dodging, prevent them from aiming, so their shots went wide. Kellan stayed down and fired off a few shots of her own.
"Remind me again what your plan was?" Lothan muttered sidelong to her.
"I wanted to keep the Ares guys from walking into an ambush and getting slaughtered!" she said, popping up to fire off a couple shots, then ducking back down when her pistol clicked empty. She ejected the clip and grabbed another from the pocket of her vest, slamming it home and working the slide to chamber a new round.
"Oh, well, it seems to be going very nicely, then." the troll said dryly. Then he swung himself up, bracing himself with the handhold and pointing his staff at the bikers as he spoke a word of power. A bolt of lightning arced out and struck one elf square in the chest, blasting him off his bike. The lightning continued to play over the sleek racing bike, which erupted in an explosive boom as the spell touched off its fuel tank. Another biker was blown over by the force of the blast, the rest racing around the boiling black cloud of smoke.
"Mind telling me just what your plan was?" Kellan shot back at Lothan.
"Just here to help, my dear." he replied mildly, evading the subject.
"Max, how much longer?" Kellan said into her throat mic.
"Coming up!" the dwarf replied. "Everybody hang on!"
Kellan repeated Silver Max's warning to Lothan, but didn't heed it strongly enough herself. The dwarf rigger barely slowed down as he angled the cargo truck for the off-ramp, causing it to bounce and sway. Kellan lost her grip on the handhold and tumbled across the floor, trying to keep hold of her pistol. She managed to regain her feet at the very edge of the platform as the front of the truck hit the bottom of the exit and Kellan tilted backward, windmilling her arms.
Orion leapt forward and grabbed Kellan by the vest with one hand, holding on to a cargo strap with the other as they dangled over the pavement. He hauled her back into the truck as they hit the bottom of the ramp and tumbled toward the front of the truck. Kellan was dimly aware of a reddish light behind them as she scrabbled for a handhold along the wall.
"Take cover!" Liada yelled, and Kellan glanced back to see a massive ball of fire barreling down on the back of the truck. She instinctively closed her eyes and threw up a hand to shield herself as she heard Liada and Lothan call out. There was a roar and a wave of heat, but no more than opening an oven door. Kellan opened her eyes to see the reddish flames harmlessly dissipate all around the truck.
The remaining Ancients came roaring down the exit ramp in pursuit as the shadowrunners changed clips and readied for another assault. When the bikers reached the bottom of the ramp, there was a burst of gunfire. It ricocheted off the pavement and mowed down one of the elven gangers. Kellan glanced toward the Street Deacon, but saw that the samurai hadn't fired. None of the shadowrunners had.
When she looked back, she saw a collection of powerful Harley Scorpion motorcycles roar out of a side street, carrying nearly a dozen powerfully muscled troll riders. Each of them was armed with a heavy-caliber pistol or submachine gun, and they were firing on the Ancients.
Lothan levered himself up against the side of the truck again as the Ancients turned their attention toward the troll bike gang. He made a pass with one hand in front of him, then reached out as if plucking something out of the air with his thick fingers. A blue shimmer surrounded the Ancients' sorceress and she flew off the back of the bike, as if picked up by a giant invisible hand. She rose about four meters into the air and hung there, suspended, as the Rapiers of her fellow Ancients rode on. By the time the driver of her bike realized there was something amiss, he was a good twelve meters ahead.
Then as the sorceress shouted something Kellan couldn't make out and raised her hands, Lothan brought his hand down, palm flat toward the ground, and the elf woman dropped onto the street. She didn't even move before the heavy troll bikes roared right over her. Kellan closed her eyes tightly and tried to shut out the sound of her scream.
"Amateur." Lothan said with a derisive snort.
Without their spellcaster, and now trapped between two dangerous foes, the Ancients broke off their pursuit, veering onto one of the side streets. The troll bikers followed after them, showing the symbols on the backs of their jackets as they roared off in pursuit: a cartoonish image of an elf's head, with x-ed-out eyes and a spike driven through it.
"The Spikes!" Orion said, recognizing them ins
tantly. "What the frag are they doing here?"
"I invited them." Kellan said. "I told them I had information that said the Ancients might show up around here about this time. I thought they might be able to provide us with a distraction, if we needed one."
"Well, I think they're doing a marvelous job." Lothan said, slumping against the side of the truck and sliding down to sit heavily on the floor with a sigh, leaning his head back and closing his eyes for a moment.
"How did you convince them?" Orion asked.
"G-Dogg set things up. We showed them a picture of Brickman, and told them it looked like he was cutting a deal with the Ancients. Apparently, Mr. Brickman has been working both sides of the street, supplying weapons to the Spikes and promising the same to the Ancients when the Spikes started wiping out their enemies. I figured the Spikes wouldn't care for being used any more than we did. I just didn't think it would turn into such a big mess." she said regretfully.
"Well, what did you think would happen?" Orion snorted, and Kellan shrugged.
"I don't know, that the Ancients would take off once things went sour, I guess. That they'd both realize they were being set up and they'd call things off."
"Maybe if it was anyone other than the Spikes," Orion replied ruefully, "but the Spikes have been our . . . have been the Ancients' enemies for way too long. It doesn't matter who's getting used or who's getting set up any more. It's blood for blood."
"Everybody okay back there?" G-Dogg said over the comm.
"Yeah, Dogg." Kellan replied, shaking off her other thoughts. They weren't done with business yet.
"Looks like the Spikes bought us what we needed. Great idea, kid. Max is headed for the drop-off so we can get off the streets."
"So ka." Kellan said. "Jackie, what's our status?"
"I think you're in the clear." the decker replied. "I'm going to massage a few things online to convince Lone Star this is just another outbreak of gang violence between the Spikes and the Ancients; their response will focus on the gangs, so we can use it as cover. Odds are Ares won't report anything to the Star in a hurry, if they bother to report it at all. Max is going to want to sweep the truck for tracers, like we talked about, but, other than that, it looks good. Oh, and I think I've got a buyer who's very interested in some quality Ares merchandise."
Kellan smiled and rubbed a dirty hand across her jaw. "Nice work." she said. "Set up a meet."
"Already taken care of." Jackie replied. "The buyer will join us at the stash site." —
The cargo hauler clattered off into the darkened streets of the metroplex and Kellan listened to the roar of the bikes, and the sounds of gunfire, fading into the distance behind them. She glanced over at Orion. He was looking out into the dark, maybe thinking about the people who used to be his surrogate family. Were any of the Ancients who attacked them going to survive the night?
Her plan had worked, but at what cost?
Chapter 19
Silver Max expertly guided the battered cargo truck through the back streets on the outskirts of Redmond, avoiding what little traffic there was at such an early hour. They'd chosen a different meeting site than before, but the new one was also in the Barrens: there were more than a few places in the Redmond Barrens to hide a truck, even one the size of an Ares cargo hauler.
The place used to be a mall, a retail store, or a commercial garage; it was difficult to tell for sure.
The important thing was that it offered facilities to accommodate large trucks. G-Dogg jumped down from the cab to open up the overhead door and let Silver Max drive in, keeping an eye out for any signs of trouble. The shadowrunners in the back of the truck had been watching for signs of pursuit, but they saw none. The encounter with the Spikes had apparently sidetracked the Ancients, and there were no signs of Lone Star or Ares security.
Max left the truck's headlights on, since there was no other light in the room. They threw a glare against the wall, casting long, dark shadows into the corners. The light silhouetted a slim shape that approached the truck from the darkness.
"Right on time." Jackie Ozone said. "Are we all clear?"
"Looks like." G-Dogg said with a smile.
"Good." Jackie closed her eyes for a moment. As she dropped down from the back of the truck, Kellan could see the decker's lips moving slightly. She was subvocalizing, most likely for an implanted phone or commlink that was wired directly into her brain and linked to her ears and vocal cords.
Jackie opened her eyes with a small, satisfied smile.
"Our buyer will be here shortly." she said.
"Don't you suppose you should check to make sure you actually have the goods first?" Lothan asked, clambering down from the truck. All eyes fixed on him.
Kellan felt her heart sink for a moment before Lothan began chuckling, then laughing.
"Don't worry!" the troll mage said. "Just a little joke."
"Well, you would know what's really in those crates, wouldn't you?" Kellan muttered. Lothan's expression darkened.
"I know it may be costing me a fair amount." he replied quietly.
"Let's start with our percentage off the top." G-Dogg said. He began prying the tops off the crates, and Kellan suddenly got the feeling it was like Christmas for the shadowrunners. The Street Deacon acquired a pair of Ares Predators, the Mark III model, which brought a genuine smile to the samurai's pale face. G-Dogg, Silver Max and Orion each chose two weapons, and Orion held out a sleek new Ares Crusader machine pistol to Kellan.
"Check it out." he said.
Kellan took the weapon and hefted it. It was relatively light, with an extended clip and burst-fire mode. She sighted along its barrel. It was a top-of-the-line gun, and she decided to keep it.
"If you're quite finished playing," Lothan said dryly, "time is money."
"My sentiments exactly." said another voice, and Kellan turned to see a woman enter the building. She was human, wearing a smart corporate pantsuit and a pale blue T-shirt. Her straight blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she wore sunglasses, despite the fact that it was the middle of the night. Kellan assumed the shades either contained electronics and a heads-up display, or they concealed their guest's cybereyes.
She carried a slim bag slung over her shoulder, and a small, flatscreen personal secretary in one hand.
"Ms. Johnson." Jackie said by way of greeting, and the woman nodded.
"So, then, what do we have?" she asked, walking past the shadowrunners toward the back of the truck. G-Dogg gave her a hand up, and she quickly took inventory of the contents of the crates, excepting the items removed by the shadowrunners. She scanned the barcode affixed to the outside of each crate, then spent a few moments tapping the screen of her pocket secretary. Then she stepped down from the back of the truck.
"A nice little haul." she pronounced, heading over to Jackie and presenting her with the pocket comp. The decker glanced at the screen, then looked over at Kellan, raising her eyebrows in a silent question.
Kellan joined the two women, and Jackie held out the pocket secretary for her to examine. She looked at the figures highlighted on the screen and did her best to maintain a poker face. The truth was, she had no idea what the weapons were worth, though Jackie had provided an estimate beforehand based on the shipping manifest, which was pretty close to the figure the buyer was offering. She looked back at the decker and nodded slightly, and Jackie returned her nod, taking the pocket comp back from Kellan and handing it to the buyer.
"Done." she said and the woman looked satisfied.
"Very well. I'll take possession from here, then?" Jackie looked at Kellan, who shrugged.
"Fine by me." she said. "We're out of here."
Ms. Johnson slotted a credstick into the pocket secretary and manipulated the keys. There was an electronic purr, then she withdrew the stick and passed it to Kellan.
"Certified credit," the woman said, "as agreed. I believe that concludes our business. Nice working with you. Jackie, if you have other merchandise like this to
unload sometime, let me know."
"Of course." the decker said with a smile.
The shadowrunners moved to the far side of the building, where Jackie and G-Dogg's cars and Orion's motorcycle waited.
"Kellan, a moment of your time, if I may?" Lothan asked, motioning Kellan over to him. She glanced at the other shadowrunners, particularly Orion, in what she hoped was a confident and encouraging way.
"I'll be right there." she said. Then she and Lothan moved away from the group before the troll mage spoke again.
"You don't have anything to worry about." he began. "I don't bear grudges. They're not very productive, for one thing. When you've been around as long as I have, you learn that it's better to focus on the productive side of things.
"I do also appreciate your . . . discretion in this matter." Lothan continued. Kellan could tell that it was a difficult admission for the old troll. "That you didn't say anything to the others."
"And I'm not going to," Kellan said, " 'though I'm sure they've pretty much figured it out."
"Of course—they're not fools. Well, not most of them, anyway." Lothan said quietly, with a faint smile playing at the edges of his mouth.
"But I’d like to know." Kellan said. "What were you doing, Lothan?"
The troll shrugged. "Like I said, just business. Our Mr. Johnson wanted a little extra insurance to make sure things went well. He passed me off to his people as additional security but, of course, I was supposed to help ensure that the shipment fell into the Ancients' hands."
"So you knew. I mean, when I came to you, you knew . . ."
"About Brickman's plans? For the most part."
"But you said . . ."
"I told you to stay out of it." Lothan said firmly. "With good reason. I didn't see a need to inform you of my business, since Mr. Johnson was paying for discretion. I thought it was enough to dissuade you, but I see now I should have been more . . . forthcoming."
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