Run Hard, Die Fast

by Mel Odom

  The small dwelling under the apartment building was small and neat, furnished haphazardly and barren of personal effects.

  Tall but seriously underweight, Korrin was an ork, possessing the broad nose and thin lips of his kind. His elongated ears tapered to points, matching the disarray of bottom fangs that thrust up from his lower jaw.

  Bushy hair sprouting from the top of his head nearly covered his eyes. He wore a one-piece coverall with a patch over the left breast that advertised KIMIKO'S DOMESTIC SERVICE.

  Korrin raised a Fichetti Tiffani Needler and closed his eyes when he fired. The small needle rounds hardly made any noise, but they thumped into the wall behind Ironaxe with explosive detonations that left pockmarks ten centimeters across.

  Ironaxe avoided the needler. He slapped the Fichetti from Korrin's hand, then reached out and grabbed a fistful of the man's shirt. He pulled Korrin close, shoving the LD-120's barrel under the ork's left eye.

  "Breathe wrong." Ironaxe promised, "and I'll wipe your brainpan."

  Korrin swallowed hard but didn't move. "I'll talk. You don't have to do anything to me." He cringed as Bear-stalker moved in closer, sweeping the apartment with the combat rifle.

  "You helped a woman two days ago." Ironaxe said. "Talk to me about her, browncone, and you get to live. Lie to me and you die. You scan me?"

  "Yeah. Sure. What's not to understand?"

  "You know the woman I'm talking about?" Ironaxe asked.

  Korrin hesitated.

  Holding the man by the lapels of his coverall, Ironaxe slammed Korrin into the wall inside the open door. The man's breath exploded from his lungs.

  "Do you know the woman I'm talking about?" Ironaxe repeated. He kept the ork pressed up against the wall.

  "Yeah. Her name was Sencio. Andi Sencio."

  9

  [Chip file: Argent

  Security access: ******—23:17:52/10-9-60]

  UPLOAD CONTINUED Location: Everett Safehouse

  A night-draped cemetery formed around Peg and me, complete with grave markers that looked like tablets with rounded shoulders, and stones marked with winged cherubs nearly three meters tall. Thick woods stood beyond a tall wrought iron fence. Through the gaps in the fence, I thought I could make out the yellow and red glow of predator's eyes. But it might have been laser spotter scopes. In Peg's persona, I didn't have access to all the cyberware I carry so I couldn't zoom in on their positions. That's one of the main things I hated about the Matrix. It stripped away so much of what made me who I was these days.

  >This place is schizzed.< Peg said. >Even for a meeting place, this would only slot a nutter's chip-dreams.<

  Her eyes locked on a grave marker nearby that towered over us. Cut from an azure stone, the statue featured a tentacled monstrosity atop it, a pair of wicked hooks at the end of each tentacle.

  She talked to me over the private frequency she'd set up through the commlink built into my headware.

  That way we could speak between ourselves as well as through the commlink open on the Matrix construct.

  Rows and rows of grave markers spread out over the rolling hills under the pecan trees. A pale crescent of moon peered out from behind scudding clouds overhead.

  "Argent?"

  I recognized Brynnmawr's voice at once. There was always something about the timbre that made it stand out from anyone else's. Or maybe he'd conditioned me to respond to his voice. I never knew.

  "Yes, sir." I said, and Peg projected my voice into the construct. She turned and we looked at Brynnmawr.

  Slightly less than two meters tall, he was above average height and built compactly. Short-clipped gray hair covered his face, and hard black eyes gleamed under a widow's peak. His Vashon Island suit was simply cut, with a bowstring tie at his throat. He looked like an undertaker, like I always saw him, and the appearance was deliberate. But he was younger than I remembered, thanks to the Matrix persona he was using.

  Brynnmawr stopped in front of us. Uncertainty gleamed in his bright eyes, something I'd never seen in his eyes before. "How do I know it's you?"

  "Prodigal, sir." I told him after a moment's hesitation. "Who else would know our password?"

  He shook his head. "You can never tell, my boy. They know so much more than I ever thought they would."

  "It's me, sir." I said gently. And it felt uncomfortable, because I'd never talked that way to him before.

  He smiled. "You look more like your friend, I guess."

  >I can fix that.< Peg told me.

  In my field of vision, her translucent blue body changed. In seconds, I was looking down at my own arms, my own body instead of her persona. But those limbs moved as Peg made them, not me.

  Brynnmawr nodded. "It's good to see you, my boy."

  I held my own counsel. Brynnmawr knew I didn't respond in any other way than honestly.

  "Walk with me." he said, choosing a well-trodden path through the gravestones.

  I tried to fall into step beside him, but couldn't. It was Peg who moved the persona even though it looked like me. >Walk beside him.< I told her privately. >To the right and one step behind.< She did it without asking why. Maybe she understood it was deference or maybe she was simply fascinated by him. Brynnmawr had that effect on many people, and some of the most responsive were female.

  "How have you been, my boy?" Brynnmawr asked.

  "Well, sir." I replied.

  "I don't get much news of you here."

  "You shouldn't, sir." I said, "as long as I do my job right."

  Brynnmawr led the way through the gravestones, idly reaching out to touch some of them and inspect them, though I was certain he was intimate with them all.

  Why can't we read the grave markers ?< asked Peg.

  They're covered in IC.< she replied. >I could try, but there's no telling what security measures I might set off.<

  >Don't.< I told her. I knew the kinds of deadly surprises Brynnmawr could devise.

  >Good choice.< she said.

  "You're still a shadowrunner." Brynnmawr observed.

  "It pays the bills, sir."

  He laughed then, that thin sibilant sound that few people had ever heard. "You were so much more than that, my boy. Probably the best I'd ever seen at your chosen field of work."

  I felt uncomfortable. I'd never talked over my past with any of the Wrecking Crew. And of them, Peg would have probably been the least understanding. But I'd been young, and my view of the world was very encapsulated, handed to me by the man walking beside me.

  "We're not here to discuss that." I said. "Nor are we entirely alone, sir."

  "I realize that." Brynnmawr snapped. "I'm quite capable of keeping secrets." His response sounded practiced, filled with more than casual anger.

  But there was something in the way he said it that convinced me he had forgotten Peg was there. That was something I wasn't used to. Brynnmawr never forgot anything. His vengeance was a legendary force in the right circles, enough to give men nightmares.

  "Why did you ask me to come here, sir?"

  "I'm doing a favor for a friend." he replied.

  I was surprised when I felt a small ache that I wasn't there by Brynnmawr's own choice. Still, it wasn't too surprising, given the relationship I'd had with him. Teacher and student had come as close to father and son as any I'd ever had. Only betrayal could have ever broken us apart. And I'd known that at the moment I'd betrayed him.

  "Who, sir?"

  "Andi Sencio." he answered.

  That name sent my mind spinning because it carried almost as much regret as Brynnmawr's. It just went to show that history was cyclical. The past was always intertwined with the present, always with us.

  "She's in a lot of trouble, my boy." Brynnmawr said.

  Given the fact that she had contacted me through Brynnmawr, I knew Andi's situation was highly understated.

  UPLOAD TO CONTINUE

  10

  "Are you certain Andi Sencio got a message out?" Richard Villiers asked.


  Miles Larder nodded. "Yes. The security unit I've placed around what we believe to be her current position in Pueblo found a jury-rigged satellite dish she used to bounce a laser burst transmission off a satellite to access the Pueblo LTG. Once in the Matrix for that brief period, she had access to several options. Till her position was overrun."

  Villiers appeared to give that some thought. "Your people had no chance to intercept the message?"

  "No. Nakatomi had a group in the area as well. I've discovered that Pendleton Frost, the double-agent Nakatomi put in Sencio's group, also managed to deliver DNA samples to Nakatomi." And that was what had kept Sencio and her group from using conventional commlinks. Wherever they were hiding, it was proof—so far—against the mage-commanded watchers Nakatomi and Villiers had searching the area.

  "Before Sencio flatlined him."

  "Yes. I don't know if Frost gave the DNA samples to Ironaxe, but my people are telling me he's definitely the guy who tipped Ironaxe off that something was wrong with LegacyTrax."

  LegacyTrax had been the Trojan horse Villiers had used to trap Ironaxe and render his corporation vulnerable to Sencio's shadow ops team. Though incredibly savvy in biz, Ironaxe had a weakness for the lore of his people.

  LegacyTrax had a history of ferreting out such information. They'd asked for, and received, access to Ironaxe's huge library on the subject, then winnowed their way into VaulTek itself. The op had been going smoothly—until Nakatomi's double-agent stepped in and gave Sencio away.

  "Our people weren't expecting the crudeness of the communications effort." Lanier went on. "They spotted it in the commlink traps they'd set up in the Pueblo LTG to monitor activity, but in burst mode. It was gone before they could nail it down. No one's used that kind of technology in decades. Ironaxe's men closed on the team that sent it and succeeded in killing one of them. Sencio and another man escaped."

  "Did Ironaxe intercept it?"

  "I don't know." Lanier answered honestly. "But probably not. If he had, he'd have been in your face by now. And Nakatomi's waiting in the wings to make this deal if you get blown out of the water." Shikei Nakatomi, until last year, had been one of the three top men in Fuchi. Now the man headed up the Fuchi Asia remnants, and had bought the four million shares of Renraku Computer Systems that Lanier had sold to the Zurich-Orbital Gemeinschaft Bank, aligning his corp with Renraku. Or positioning himself to take it over, depending on which line of thinking was followed. Nakatomi was also Richard Villiers' mortal enemy.

  One of them, Lanier amended silently.

  "You said the burst transmission was traced. Where?"

  "To a geosynchronous satellite over North America. We haven't been able to discover who owns it."

  And that alone, Lanier knew, meant a lot. Villiers himself had masterminded shadow ops that no one had ever penetrated. The LegacyTrax op had run smoothly for months before being discovered. Even now, no one could assign blame for what had happened. Unless they could catch Sencio. "All of our attempts to break through the IC covering the system have been blocked. Two deckers are dead from dump shock after being forcibly ejected from the system, and another is in a coma. Even then, the chances are that the message has been relayed and no longer exists within the satellite's subsystems."

  "A satellite buried that far back and that deeply." Villiers said, "suggests another megacorp."

  "Or the military." Lanier said. "They have unlisted satellites. And they were the last to stop using the burst transmission sequencing." Security was one area where he excelled over Villiers. He also had the determination and resolve to take chances himself, and kill those who got in his way. Villiers was good with stock and bonds, but Lanier had grown to adulthood with a gun and a knife in his hands.

  "Sencio was in the military, wasn't she?"

  "UCAS special forces." Lanier confirmed. "All of that information is highly classified."

  "If Ironaxe gets his hands on Sencio, things could go badly for us down there. The advances in Matrix security VaulTek has come up with will buy NovaTech weeks or months against anything shadowrunner teams can put together. Not to mention the worth of a merger with a major player in the Pueblo Corporate Council."

  "The possibility also exists that we weren't able to download everything Sencio and her team got from VaulTek." Lanier pointed out.

  "I know. I try to keep that in mind. But every breath that woman takes is a menace to NovaTech."

  "I could send the secondary team in now." Lanier said, "but I'd like to wait on that. There's a wild card that could still show up on the table."

  "Whoever Sencio contacted?"

  Lanier nodded. "We may be able to use that."

  "Need I point out." Villiers asked, "that person may be an even bigger threat than either Nakatomi or Ironaxe?"

  "Maybe." Lanier admitted. "But that other party could also turn out to be a smokescreen we can use. Or it could be another resource that could be tapped in our favor."

  Villiers nodded his agreement. "Keep me in the loop, Miles. I'm depending on you."

  And Lanier knew that was true. There was no one Villiers had ever trusted more. He wasn't about to let his friend down.

  11

  "How you did you know Sencio?" Ironaxe demanded, his cyberhand tight on the ork's thin shoulder.

  "I did a couple tours in the Desert Wars with her." Korrin said. "Both of us were with Fuchi then. You don't forget chummers you fought with."

  "What did she want with you?" Ironaxe asked.

  "Out. She wanted out of the Pueblo Corporate Council lands, omae. She'd heard I was connected in Pueblo, but I couldn't help her." Korrin shivered again and shook his head. "I'm small-time. She was asking too much."

  "She's still in Pueblo?"

  Korrin nodded. "As of this morning. Unless she found someone who could get her out."

  Ironaxe glared into the ork's weak eyes. "If she contacts you again, you'll let me know."

  "Sure, sure. The minute I hear from her."

  Pushing the man away, Ironaxe gestured to Bearstalker to follow him out. Outside, he made his way back to the Phaeton limousine, then dropped into the back seat. He accessed his commlink and broke off the engagement.

  The rigger powered the big luxury vehicle up smoothly and rocketed them away, heading back to Highway 47.

  "This Andi Sencio won't be in contact with Korrin again." Bearstalker said. "Not if she's as good as she's proven so far."

  "I know."

  "Have you gotten any closer to finding out who actually owns LegacyTrax?"

  Ironaxe shook his head. "No. The corporation's real ownership is buried in holding companies and shell corporations. Whoever hid it knew what they were doing. My people have followed a dozen different trails so far." Someone had done their research well; first by finding out his interest in his people's history, and second by discovering his business with LegacyTrax.

  Legacy Trax was a small operation that specialized in locating information about Amerindian culture. The only other major players in the field of locating magical artifacts from different cultures that had come to light since the Awakening were the Atlantean Foundation, the Draco Foundation, and Aztechnology. The first two were headed by people close to Dunkelzahn before the great dragon was assassinated. Of them all, LegacyTrax's initial findings seemed the most promising. Now, Ironaxe had to wonder if even that was a lie.

  "Did you find out if Villiers was actually using their services?"

  "Yes. One of our deckers who built the back door into Legacy Trax's mainframes after security in the corp had been breached found files on Villiers."

  "What was he looking for?"

  "That's secured." Ironaxe replied. "Apparently he never risked his own corp's security integrity."

  "He was already working with LegacyTrax at the time they found you." Bearstalker said.

  "It gave us something in common, I thought." Ironaxe replied. "Though I still don't know for sure if he was aware that I was involved with them. Now, the possibility exis
ts that I was set up by Villiers. And if I find that to be true, not only will I shut down the mergers he was wanting to do with VaulTek, but I'll do my best to smash that fledgling corporation of his."

  The commlink buzzed for his attention and he opened the phone connection. "Mr. Ironaxe." a woman said smoothly, "I have Shikei Nakatomi of Fuchi Asia on the line for you."

  "Patch it to the car." Ironaxe said. The Phaeton was equipped with a satellite uplink. He cleared the comm-link and waited for the limo's commlink to come on-line. "Nakatomi." he told Bearstalker.

  "Now that's fragging interesting." Bearstalker said.

  Ironaxe couldn't help but agree. Then the uplink juiced to life, enabling the transmission.

  12

  [Chip file: Argent

  Security access: ******—23:24:02/10-9-60]

  UPLOAD CONTINUED Location: Everett Safehouse

  "What kind of trouble is Andi Sencio in, sir?" I asked.

  Brynnmawr stood before me, gazing off at the rows of tombstones, cherubs, and monsters. "I don't know the specifics, my boy. Only that she needed me to contact you."

  >Who's Sencio ?< Peg asked.

  >Not now.< I told her, knowing full well she'd run Sencio's name in case the meeting with Brynnmawr went to drek. Whatever Peg found, if anything, wouldn't tie Sencio to me, though. Brynnmawr had provided both of us—and others—complete security packs that had effectively erased anyone we'd ever been the day we walked away from him. Not all of them had gotten to keep on walking. We had.

  Her contacting Brynnmawr through the private satellite and construct were guaranteed to be one of the safest routes of communication. He knew too many secrets to live, but he knew them about too many people for any of them to ever kill him. One of the reasons he'd had people like Andi and I working for him was because we were good enough to become faceless ciphers in every dangerous game he played.

  "Why you, sir?" I asked.

  "Did she know where you were or how to get in touch with you discreetly?"

  "I don't know, sir." And I didn't. Andi and I had parted ways years ago.

  "She knew I'd be able to get in touch with you."