by Mel Odom
"See you on the ground, Wakiza." Argent told the rigger.
"We'll be there, omae, but I sure hope this comes off the way you say it will."
"Have a little faith." the big shadowrunner said. "If there's one thing that can be counted on in this world, it's corporate greed. Too many interested parties have too much at stake on this play. It's not just about Sencio and her people any more."
"Take care down dere, cher." Laveau said. "Dese old bones feel good about dis, but dey say you watch your hoop all de same. And you know dat Hawk, he be watching over you from de other side tonight. I feel him with you, cher."
"I hope so." Argent said. Without another word, he kicked the pack at the side of the cargo door out into the slipstream following the plane. Then he leaped out and followed it.
The big pack Argent kicked out had a static line pull cord. A hundred meters back of the Skytruck, the black parachute belled out and filled with air.
Argent popped his own parachute and followed the cargo chute down, glancing up only briefly to make sure Archangel had cleared the Skytruck safely. The elven decker's synthsilk opened above him, a black oval that blotted out the stars above.
Long minutes ticked by. If it hadn't been for the cargo chute, Argent would have popped synthsilk much closer to the ground. Losing it was possible because the Battle-Tac system wouldn't be on-line till the sat-link they'd arranged to cover the op came to life. There was no way to replace the equipment the pack carried if something went wrong. Safer was slower but surer.
The pack touched ground first, almost disappearing against the shadow-wrapped crest of a hill. The terrain in all directions was broken and uneven.
Argent unstrapped the chute and gave it to Archangel. The elven decker took his chute and hers, then covered them with loose rocks she found. There was nothing on the chutes to tie the team to them, nothing even a mage could dig up because no personal contact had been made with them that hadn't been with gloved hands.
Using the tool kit that came in the pack, Argent assembled the two Artemis Industries Night Gliders in something under twelve minutes. They sat on the ground when he finished, two hang gliders with wedge shaped sails. Luckily, Archangel had used an electric-driven turbo-fan powered Night Glider before, though she hadn't informed Argent as to when or what the circumstances had entailed.
Switching the batteries on, Argent took a running start with the lightweight Night Glider and leaped into the air. Rather than use the vertical lift that was possible from the unit because it was such a drain on the batteries, he opted for the gradual lift as they flew away from the hillside. The southwesterly wind filled with the chill that came over the area at night provided a crosscurrent and made Argent grateful for the heavy armor he wore.
They switched off the helmet comm-links, preferring to give off no electronic signature. The turbofan engines were whisper quiet and couldn't be heard from more than a few meters away. The glider's mesh skin was radar absorbent so Argent wasn't worried about tripping any of the electronic security Ironaxe had surrounding the warehouse district in the Pueblo plex.
He glided, barely aware of the turbofan humming in his ears as he watched the lights of the plex grow stronger and closer. His heart hammered in his chest and he tried in vain to sort out all the emotions that filled him.
The retina clock whirred by, and time chased Argent all the way into Pueblo.
51
Argent and Archangel dumped the Night Gliders two klicks out of the plex and jogged into Pueblo without incident. Ironaxe's team were gearing toward not letting people out of the area instead of guarding against people coming in. The entrance to the Underground-Awakened Sencio had given Argent was through an abandoned warehouse on Creel Street, on the outer perimeter of the loading docks fronting the Arkansas River.
Leading the way through the tangle of broken and empty streets, Argent spotted the helicopters hovering over the central area of the warehouse district. Ironaxe hadn't spared the expense in his search, which gave the big shadowrunner hope. Sencio and her team were still free.
Perspiration covered him under the light military armor. He gazed out at the black water of the river, smelling the pollution that had tainted it from the mining operations that had created a rat's warren under Pueblo. The steel industry had been demanding, and the plex had fed on itself before the world had Awakened. Mounds of tailings from all the mining efforts stood in tall near-mountains beyond the plex's rim and on the other side of the river.
A third helicopter dragged the river in front of the warehouse district, working a route that kept it above the dark water. There was no doubt that the crew aboard the helo swept the river as well as the banks with their surveillance equipment. The river would be the most likely route of escape.
On Creel Street, Argent paused in the shadows and glanced across the broken thoroughfare to the two-story building that had once housed a machine shop that had supplied the various mining companies and smelting factories in the area.
He crossed the street at a jog, his hands filled with the Ingrams. Boards covered the door and the broken windows of the building. He scanned the door carefully and found the miniaturized silent lock-squealer that would signal if the door was opened. Evidently Ironaxe's teams had already searched the building.
Holstering the Ingrams, he knelt and fished a screwdriver and wirecutters from his armored vest pockets.
A lock-squealer wasn't hard to work around; the trick lay in spotting them before it was too late. Using some of the electrical wire he carried in the vest, he wired around the contacts, then opened the door.
His low-light vision amplified the light streaming in through the dusty panes of the board-covered windows. The room beyond was empty, the concrete floor littered with debris that squatters had used to make their stay in the building more comfortable. The smell of fresh ashes lingered in the air.
There was no sign of any squatters, though. Either they'd taken the hint when Ironaxe's troops had invaded the area, or they'd been routed when the door-to-door search had begun.
Closing the door behind him, Argent made his way deeper into the building. He knew the way from the floor plans Sencio had sent. Archangel stayed at his heels. Machine pistols in his hands, he found the door leading down to the basement and followed the switchback metal stairs down.
Six rooms lined the basement, three to a side. All of them showed signs of having been used by squatters before. In the third room on the right, Argent crossed to the line of rusty metal lockers covering the wall.
All of them had bent and warped doors, totally empty of contents that would be helpful in any way.
He counted six down, just the way Sencio had called it, then bent down and caught the bottom of the locker. His fingers just made it under the clearance provided by the locker's stubby legs. He found the catch hidden there and released it. Then he lifted the locker, having to use the greater strength provided in his cyberlimb.
At first, the locker resisted. Then the resistance gave way and the locker moved smoothly upward, taking two on either side of it. The lockers shoved upward nearly a meter, not quite half their length, stopping just short of the ceiling. There were no tracks or scrapes on the wall behind it to reveal that the lockers could be raised.
Adjusting his low-light vision, Argent peered into the waiting darkness. Nothing moved. But a tunnel, hewn from the rocky strata, drifted down into the ground, opening into a chamber beyond.
"Well?" he said to Archangel.
"If it's according to the gameplan." the elven decker said, "we go. We're losing time sitting here wondering."
Argent silently agreed. He sniffed the air, using his cyberware to gather the trace scents of minerals, the river, and human and meta perspiration. All of it seemed old, like it belonged there.
He slid through the opening under the lockers and waited till Archangel joined him. The tunnel beyond left enough room for him to stand if he hunkered over slightly. He reached up and pulled the locker down,
closing the hidden entrance.
Resuming the lead, he made his way toward the chamber, recognizing it as one of the mine shafts that had been driven deep beneath the city. Before the world had Awakened, Pueblo had continued to grow as a plex, soon stretching out over old mines that had been abandoned and closed up. When metahumanity had filled the ranks of the Amerinds, they' d found living quarters already established for them beneath Pueblo.
Shadows suddenly filled the chamber, and the harsh clacks of weapon safeties being released filled the air.
"Drek." Archangel said quietly behind Argent.
"Put your weapons down!" a male voice commanded from the shadows.
Argent stared through the shadows, seeing the trolls and orks dominating the ranks of the Amerind metahumanity lining the opposite side of the underground chamber. He released the Ingrams, letting them fall to the length of their Whipit slings. "Do what he said." he told Archangel.
His retina clock showed the time as 22:42:12. He had less than eighteen minutes to get into place to make the call to Harrison Dane. Otherwise, the team buzzed turbo and they were all trapped.
52
[Chip file: Argent
Security access: ******—22.:43:21/10-14-60]
BEGIN UPLOAD Location: Seattle Safehouse (recorded at a later date)
"Argent."
I recognized Andi's voice at once, and I felt the pull of it despite all the years and distance that had been between us.
I stood in the darkness with my hands raised over my head, the weight of the Ingrams pressing against the sides of my chest only an eyeblink away if I chose to go for them. And if Andi hadn't been among the group of two dozen there in front of me, maybe I'd have taken my chances.
They couldn't see it, but I'd palmed an AFR-7 flash grenade from my weapons rigging. The pull-ring looped over my thumb. One flick and I'd yank it free. A heartbeat after that and the chamber would have been filled with blinding light that my cybereyes could adjust for. In the instant after that, there'd have been a lot of flatliners filling the chamber.
Andi limped from the shadows, favoring her left leg more than she had in the vid-file she'd sent me by way of Chandler. Her face showed efforts of cleaning, but her complexion was off, waxy with pain. "I was starting to think you weren't coming." she said.
I took my hands out of the air as her temporary allies lowered their weapons. They didn't fully trust me, but they were sociable enough not to be obvious about it. I spoke for the others to hear, not wanting them to make any mistakes. "I've got a noteputer in my chest pouch." I reached in and took it out, using sleight of hand to return the flash grenade to my weapon webbing.
"I didn't doubt you." Andi said, "but I didn't know if the message got through." She didn't stop coming till she reached me.
I took her into my arms to help support her.
Andi touched my face with her hand, drawing it slowly down the line of my jaw. "You look like you haven't changed at all."
I felt her body briefly against mine, but as familiar as it seemed, there'd been changes too. Holding onto the past was never a good thing. It had a tendency to make you question things you had no business questioning, and made you slow to react to things you didn't have time to question.
She must have felt it, too, because she drew away. And in that instant, so cold and hard and crystal-clear between us, we both knew that the ties that bound us were no longer the ones we thought had been there.
But neither were they completely gone. And I think both of us knew they never quite would be.
I took a comm-link headset from my chest pouch. It was encrypted and set to the frequency the team was using. "You'll need this."
She took it without a word, standing apart from me now.
I also handed her the noteputer, switching it on. The pale green screen filled the darkness of the chamber. "This is a map of the mine tunnels under Pueblo. There's a destination marked on it that's less than a klick from the present position here. Can you get your people there." I consulted my retina clock, "in fourteen minutes?"
"I can try." Andi glanced at the noteputer. "You got maps of the mines."
"A friend of mine did." I said, referring to Peg. "We got maps of most of the mining areas, but we weren't sure about all the changes the Underground-Awakened have made."
"Not many." a strong, clear voice advised.
I looked up, spotting the tall troll as she stepped from behind two yabos sporting assault rifles. I recognized her from the file Peg had uploaded me regarding the Underground-Awakened: Mary Hawkmoon, the meta tribe's chosen chieftain.
There'd been two pictures in the file I'd scanned. One showed her as she was now, a brutish looking troll with canines that reached up to the bottom of her eyes. The other picture was of her before she'd goblinized: a petite girl of about twelve or thirteen, raven's-wing dark hair, and a smile full of joy.
The goblinization had eradicated all the appearance of the young girl, leaving what her family and tribe had considered to be a monster in its wake. Gray filled her hair, making her look ancient.
"If we made too many changes in these tunnels." Mary Hawkmoon said, "our movements would be too easily found out."
I nodded. "There's also a path marked from that point." I said. "If you can get word to your people that we'll be traveling that way, it'll help keep them clear of the firezone."
"You're going to bring Ironaxe and his people down here?" Hawkmoon seized the noteputer from Andi and gazed at it.
"Can't be helped." I said. "Escape overland isn't an option."
"How dare you do so." an ork told me, his dark eyes flashing as he stepped threateningly toward me. He carried an assault rifle and let the barrel drift in my direction.
UPLOAD TO CONTINUE
53
[Chip file: Argent
Security access: ******—22:49:03/10-14-60]
UPLOAD CONTINUED
Location: Seattle Safehouse (recorded at a later time)
"Look." I told Hawkmoon, shifting slightly to give myself some maneuvering room against the assault rifle the ork held on me in the underground chamber, "you knew the risks you were taking when you offered sanctuary to these people. And Ironaxe is already closing in."
"He's right." Hawkmoon said. "We've lost six of our people to Ironaxe's sec forces."
The ork backed down, but he obviously didn't like it.
"Clear your people out of those tunnels." I said. "Iron-axe is going to know we're moving in"—I checked the time—"eight minutes. When we do, he's going to follow us. Then we'll either get away from him, or he'll geek us where he catches up to us. However it goes down, he should leave the rest of the Underground Awakened alone."
Hawkmoon called out names, sending her warriors on their way. "The Spirits look over you, warrior, and I wish you well with your war." She turned and headed out of the chamber.
I shifted my attention to Andi. "See you on the other side."
Andi looked like she wanted to say something more, but there was no time. And more than likely, she didn't know what to say.
My heart beat like a leaden gong as I watched her. I guess I'd fantasized somewhere in the back of that lizard brain that pushes us all through life, figuring how she'd react when I rode in to save her. Brynnmawr programmed me to be a hero, or maybe he only helped shape that innate need within myself to push myself to the limit to be more than I ever could be. Being a hero was only a manifestation of that.
How I conducted myself, how I saw the world and my place in it, that only mattered to me. And looking into Andi's eyes, I finally saw the true distance that really separated us.
I'd always believed in what I was doing because I felt the actions I'd taken were to make the world a better place. It sounded altruistic to admit it to myself, but that was when I knew. Brynnmawr had groomed me, made me what I was, because he had recognized what was within me.
And in that moment, I also realized that maybe I'd never truly understood what it was that was within Bry
nnmawr. We were more alike than I'd ever imagined. Only somewhere in there, he'd broken, lost the faith that I needed so desperately to survive.
An image of Brynnmawr living in the Matrix in that empty, grave-filled world of his blurred in front of me, and I realized my time with him hadn't been finished after all.
But I did see Andi clearly, saw her as she was and not as I'd wanted her to be. She was a true professional at what she did. And she did what she did to benefit herself.
I couldn't fault her for it. Most people lived their lives that way.
"I'll be there." she said finally. Then she stepped through the mouth of the chamber into another tunnel and was gone.
I went back to the hidden entrance and opened it, surging through. The retina clock was clicking off the seconds, adding up to minutes. There were only three of them before Archangel and I had to be in position.
"How do you feel about the situation now?" Archangel asked as we ran up the shaking metal stairs.
"With Sencio?" I asked.
"Yes. There wasn't all that chemistry and sparks I'd expected between you two."
"Disappointed?" I asked, trying not to let my own confusion sound in my voice.
"Maybe a little. You've got all this advice on how I should look at my own situation, and you've been pretty fragging free with it."
"My advice." I said, "is to get a good look at your situation, then decide what to do with it. Don't just run away from it."
"I didn't ask for your advice."
I ran to the door leading out into the street. Two minutes and twenty-eight seconds remained for us to get to the secondary comm-link, and to give the signal to Harrison Dane. "The only reason I offered it is because you're tearing yourself apart with it." I said.
Maybe she wanted to argue, but I never found out. In the next minute we were buzzing turbo down the street, staying in the shadows. At something less than a minute remaining on the chron, I knew there was no time for finesse when we reached the targeted warehouse.
