by Mel Odom
"I've got time." Argent said. "I want to see the hardware."
Summertrees smiled. "It's one sweet machine. I've upgraded since I saw you last." He started toward the back of the bar. "Come on through. I've got a car at the other end of the alley."
47
On the outskirts of the Denver plex where the CAS sector nearly bumped up against the UCAS to the south in a thin strip that barely marked territory before the Pueblo Corporate Council's claims began again, Argent studied the T-bird that he had hired with the last of his liquid assets. With all the planning he'd done, trying to take advantage of the few weaknesses he'd found in Ironaxe's control over the area, he'd known from the beginning that getting Sencio's team evaced without a LAV was drekking impossible.
The warehouse was only one of several structures honey-combed into the side of the red clay foothills.
Enough corp and black market influence was in the area to make sure that no surprise raids by law enforcement personnel from other Denver sectors or nations would be successful. Or be accomplished without immediate retaliation. The black market biz was a protected investment of the whole Front Range Free Zone.
Argent walked around the massive vehicle as it sat in the garage on its three fold-out wheel struts. The Banshee held a Victory Rotary Assault Cannon on its forward firm-point, backed by two belt-fed SMGs that covered the back and both sides.
Black European Arm Works modular ablative armor covered the exterior of the LAV. All of it appeared in pristine condition. With the reactive explosions trapped inside the armor, when it took a hit, the armor defused the attack by blowing up back and throwing the used ablative section off. Like the ablative armor, the LAV's hull was black and radar-absorbent.
"When do you plan to make the run?" Summertrees asked.
"Tomorrow night." Argent answered. He'd worked with the Amerind rigger before, on other ops that weren't quite so close to home for Summertrees. The rigger was one of the most capable T-bird jammers he'd ever seen, guiding his vehicles only centimeters above the ground at times and pushing everything to the edge of control.
"Still Pueblo?" Summertrees asked.
"Dead center." Argent told him.
Summertrees' facial expression didn't change much but Argent knew the man well enough to know he wasn't completely happy. "Things have heated up down there. Joker named Ironaxe is turning over rocks all through Pueblo looking for some runners."
"The runners are the cargo." Argent told him. "And I knew about Ironaxe."
"He's got a big crew down there."
"We're not going to take his crew on." Argent said. "We're just going to get away from them."
"When I first checked into this op." Summertrees said, "there wasn't that much activity down there."
"Events are getting closer to the bone." Argent surveyed the black-out windows in two of the warehouse's walls, "I'm going to have to know if you're in or out."
"You never have said who's picking up the bottom line on this run." Summertrees said.
"I am." Argent replied. "This one's for a friend. Where's the second unit?"
"Further back in the warehouse." Summertrees answered, taking the lead and heading back into the darkness.
Argent adjusted his low-light vision automatically and picked out the crates stacked neatly on pallets and the work benches built into the sides of the walls. The LAV-98 Armored Personnel Carrier sat in the middle of the floor. Code-named Devil Rat, the LAV-98 was a piece of equipment Argent was extremely familiar with from the Desert Wars. It was painted a flat, non-reflecting black as well, and covered with the ablative armor.
The Devil Rat was a work horse of military hardware. Capable of going off-road and amphibious, it was the choice of armies in the CAS and CalFree for combat and combat-support missions. A heavy machine gun was mounted on the top turret.
"Have you arranged transport for the LAV-98?" Argent asked.
"Yeah. Got another rigger friend of mine who thinks this has got to be the most bimble-brained thing he's ever heard of, but he's agreed to provide the air transport because the chance to do it would be so wiz. And there's the nuyen involved. You realize, of course, that even after I drive this monster out of the cargo plane and start the drop, there's a better than even chance it's going to get lit up by hostile fire long before it hits the ground."
"Ironaxe's teams are going to be having problems before we drop the LAV-98." Argent said. "By then, there should be a major amount of confusion going on."
"And if there's not?" Summertrees asked.
"Then you don't make the drop." Argent said. "Simple as that."
"You realize that we're going to lose the LAV-98 if we make the exfiltration?" Summertrees asked.
"It's an acceptable loss." Argent replied. "And it's actually a loss from the minute it comes out of that cargo plane and starts the descent."
Summertrees shook his head. "Chummer, even getting the deal I got on it, you're talking about shucking a hundred and seventy thousand nuyen in flames. And then there's the costs on the upgrades to the ECM hardware."
Argent knew. The electronic countermeasure hardware remained a constant expense, based on improvements and changes in the field. "I know. Are you in or out?"
Summertrees extended a hand and flashed a crooked grin. "I'm in, chummer. This is the kind of run legends are made of. Drek, it might even make a good epitaph."
48
The hotel room in Denver's CAS sector's Chinatown was small and cramped, filled with the smells of the Cantonese restaurant occupying the lower story of the building. Archangel encrypted the telecom transmissions at that end, allowing Peg to be present during Argent's briefing as well as the rest of the team. To prevent eavesdroppers and electronic surveillance, Argent set up white noise generators in a perimeter that cut off the outside world, blanketing all four walls, the floor, and the ceiling. As a further precaution, Laveau kept a watcher spirit in the astral around the room.
"We only get one take on this op." Argent stood in the center of the room, his hand resting on the holo projector control he'd set up and programmed for the brief. "If it gets fragged at any time, drop it in the drekker and pull out however you can. For most of you, we've already established SINs that will allow you to leave Denver. Those of you who end up in-country have no choice but to try to get free on your own."
"Nice of you to set it up so we have such a cheery beginning." Harrison Dane lounged in a chair and sipped a whiskey sour. He wore street clothing and looked like he'd just put in a hard eight at a nearby loading dock. Wherever the elf went, from gutter to social club, Argent had always known him to blend in.
Argent swept the team with his gaze. "This is the last night you have that you may draw an easy breath for awhile. I want you to know what you're risking."
"Dey know, cher." Laveau said, lights glinting on the many silver rings she wore. "Else dey not be here, no?"
"The upside." Argent went on, "is that I think we can do this." He flicked the holo projector on.
A bright bubble of color filled the air above his head. In heartbeats, it sorted itself out into a trid image.
Darkened plexscape showed lights from businesses and dwellings, advertising as well as defensive perimeters.
"This is downtown Pueblo." Argent said. "Our target is in the Underground-Awakened."
"The local rally point—" Jesse Travers said, leaning against one side of the room's door back to the main hallway.
"—for metahumanity." Jason Travers continued, standing on the other side of the door. "Primarily for the victims of goblinization—"
"—who got kicked out of their own tribes." Jesse said.
"We read the downloads you had on the noteputers you outfitted us with." Jason finished.
"Sencio and her team are with the Underground-Awakened." Argent said, "under the warehouse district."
The holo tightened up its focus, sweeping to the warehouse area.
"That's also where Ironaxe and his sec teams have started
to concentrate their search." Peg commented over the telecom. A map of bright red stars suddenly shot through the holo. "Each one of these stars signifies a vehicular unit Ironaxe has put into the area. As you can see, there are dozens."
"And you plan on evading all those units." Wakiza Summertrees sat cross-legged on the floor.
"Are you sweating this, flyboy?" Jesse Travers asked.
"You're the last man to be committed to this free-for-all." Jason said.
"Evading them is the only chance we have." Archangel spoke up from her corner of the room. "But we're going to manage that in stages."
"As you know." Argent said, "we've got to consider more than the physical transportation of the team trapped in the Underground-Awakened. Ironaxe has a comm-base set up inside his search perimeter."
"And you've found it?" Harrison Dane asked.
"Peg did." Argent answered. A yellow triangle lit up on the screen. "Ironaxe set up ops in one of the warehouses, complete with sat-link and troop-link capability."
"So we blow it up and we no longer have to worry about a sat-link scanning the area. I can punch holes in most of that for you with a Barrett Model 121 from nearly two thousand meters out, using thermographic sights. Next thing the guys know inside the comm-base, they're geeked."
"That's part of it." Argent agreed. "However, Ironaxe has been establishing negotiations with Asian Fuchi and NovaTech. It's a safe bet that both of those entities have satellite recon in the area."
"Dey be waiting to jump in and help ol' Ironaxe, him find himself in a fix." Laveau said.
Argent nodded. "So what we have to do is take an alternate comm-relay point, patch into their deck feeds, and prevent Ironaxe from falling back on either Asian Fuchi or NovaTech."
"Do you think he'd use one of them if he's as suspicious of them as you think he is?" Summertrees asked.
"In a heartbeat." Argent answered. "First, he's pretty sure whoever set the shadowrunners loose in his biz hasn't completely gotten everything they wanted on the datasteal. And second, if either of the two corps try to turn him down when he requests assistance, he may have his guilty party."
"He may not go for them." Summertrees said. "An APC, even an accomplished rig like the LAV-98, isn't going to be able to fade the heat in a combat situation like the one you're going to be addressing down in Pueblo."
"What's this about an APC?" Dane demanded. "Nobody mentioned using a fragging Devil Rat on this op.
Spirits, tooling around in that, we're going to be sitting ducks on a hot zone evac."
"That's where everything gets interesting." Argent said.
49
Argent hadn't revealed everything to the crew yet, and Harrison Dane's reaction in the briefing room only underscored that. Before anything went down with the op, he had to sell them on it. He could almost feel Toshi and Hawk in the background around him, almost hear their approval for the daring route he was going to take with the exfiltration. "We'll leave that for the moment. Before this run gets that far, other things have to be taken care of."
"One of those things being that a patch has to be made into Ironaxe's cybernetic systems." Archangel said. "That's where I come in. After I get into position, Dane will take down Ironaxe's sat-link. Peg has found a probable point of entry."
"Here." Peg announced. A purple light joined the others on the holo representation of the Pueblo warehouse district. "While I was sleazing my way around Ironaxe's on-site systems after tracking them through his corporate systems, I found the back-up system linking him directly into the local telephone grid."
"So when the sat-link gets slotted by Dane—" Jesse said.
"—then Ironaxe will try to go on-line through the LTG." Jason stated. "Only Archangel will be there—"
"—and she'll feed in the data we want the other corps to have—"
"—fragging their systems."
"If everything works right." Argent said, "that's exactly how it will go down."
"And if it doesn't?" Summertrees asked.
"Then everybody buzzes turbo and clears the hot zone." the big shadowrunner said. "Everybody scan?"
Nods circled the room.
"Step One is to shut down Ironaxe's sat-link and reestablish a patch with NovaTech and Asian Fuchi that will allow us to sideline them as well. Hopefully that will create even more of a diversion because Ironaxe will have to put some people on that end of his ops to find out if he's been betrayed and if any more is coming. Once we control the comm-links, we move directly into Step Two. And that's to create confusion at the physical location in Pueblo." Argent glanced up at the Travers twins, forcing himself to concentrate on the logistics of the plan and not all the things that could go wrong during the implementation of it. "Dane, we're still going to be needing the long gun at this point."
"Have you got a position marked for me?" the elf asked. The trid star demeanor had dropped away, replaced by the canny gaze of the trained assassin Argent was most familiar with.
"Peg." Argent prompted.
"Here." Peg replied. Obediently, a green light winked on in the holo, topping one of the taller buildings in the warehouse district. "This location will give you an overview of Ironaxe's whole Pueblo operation. The longest shot you'll have to make will be somewhat less than twelve hundred meters."
"Cake." Dane stated. "Simhard at best."
"Ironaxe's ground troops are going to be around—" Jesse Travers said.
"—and they're going to try to light you up if they find you." Jason added.
"The Barrett I got for you is also going to be equipped with APDS rounds. They'll punch through the armor."
"Should be enough to slot somebody's day." Dane commented. "That fragging Barrett is a big drekking weapon, though. I assume I'm going inside Pueblo earlier than the rest of you?"
"You're out of here in the morning." Argent said. "You're going in with Summertrees when he stashes the T-bird. If you get caught before tomorrow night, the run is off."
"How will we know?" Laveau asked.
"If he's in place, he'll call." Argent said.
"What about comm-links?" Jesse Travers asked.
"By twenty-three hundred tomorrow." Argent said, "we'll have a sat-link up and running. Peg made a time-buy from one of the T-bird comm-links in the area to back our action. The time was expensive, and they're giving us only eleven minutes to make our play. Then we lose everything they give us."
"But during that time we'll all be linked?" Jason asked.
Argent nodded. "From what I remember, everyone in this room is checked out on the BattleTac Integration System." When no one disagreed with him, he went on. "I've also got my hands on some Esprit light military armor for the on-site teams. You won't be invulnerable, but it should help out."
"While Dane's flat-lining everything he can put cross hairs over." Jesse asked, "what are we going to be doing?"
"Creating havoc along the warehouse district." Argent said. "We're not stinting any on heavy bang-bang for this run. After we take out the sat-link, after Dane opens fire on the vehicles that could offer pursuit, you'll drop from the cargo plane with Summertrees and hit the ground running. You'll have a backpack filled with mines and incendiaries. Put them to use."
"And me?" Laveau asked. "Where will I be during dis time?"
"With Summertrees." Argent said. "Since we can't get word in to the Underground-Awakened or Sencio, I want to make sure we don't get blasted for our trouble by the people we're trying to rescue."
"Also to let dem know dat you have one of deir kind among you." Laveau said.
Argent returned her gaze full measure. "Yes." There was no other answer. "Also, Sencio has people who aren't going to be able to move under their own power. You can help out with that and get first aid going.
And when that Devil Rat hits the ground, rest assured that you're going to draw more than your share of attention. You and Summertrees will have to hold them till Archangel and I can double back to your position."
"What's this abo
ut a Devil Rat?" Dane asked suspiciously. "I thought we were going to use the T-bird to get out of there."
"We are." Argent said. "After we get out of Pueblo. That was the interesting part I told you we'd get to."
He told them the rest of it, beginning with the way the APC was going to be air-dropped into the hot zone.
He watched as conviction gave way to surprise, then to disbelief. Finally, he reeled them back in to his way of thinking, convincing them how it was going to work, convincing himself one more time.
Interest, Argent had always found, was in a direct ratio to how close a chummer cut it to getting geeked.
And interest on this run was off the charts.
50
Argent braced himself in the back of the Hawker-Siddley HS-895 Skytruck and gazed down into the black night seen through the open cargo door at his feet. The twin rear-facing pusher propellers set up an unusual vibration he hadn't quite gotten used to in the short flight from the CAS sector in Denver.
Wakiza Summertrees and Laveau stood behind him, to the right of the LAV-98 strapped down to the bottom of the Skytruck. Archangel stood at his side, clutching a handrail mounted on the side of the plane's immense cargo hold.
All of them were dressed in the black Espirit light military armor Argent had purchased on the black market. He missed having Peg inside his head as he got ready to make the drop a little over twenty klicks outside the Pueblo plex. He wore the Ingram machine pistols in double shoulder slings and the Savalette Guardian on his thigh. The BattleTac wrapped securely around his left wrist. Pouches and slings on his armor held reloads for his weapons and incendiaries.
He took a deep breath to clear his lungs of carbon dioxide, then checked his retina chron. He and Archangel had a little over an hour to make the rendezvous with Ironaxe's back-up comm-link in Pueblo before 2300.
He glanced at the elven decker and used the short-wave radio built into the suit's helmet to communicate with her. "Are you ready?"
Archangel ran her hands over her gear. The cyberdeck hung in a special bulletproof and impact resistant case across her lower back under her parachute. "Yes."
