Further down, there was a full workup of duty rosters and shifts, entry codes and primary login usernames and passwords. I looked up at the smug Ranes.
“Okay, I admit it…” I said grudgingly. “This is worth fifty percent.”
“It’s a simple grab job. We have the codes for the doors and the local systems. There might be a security mage unless we attack tomorrow night, when he has the night off. I can handle their wards. We know where and when the guards will be for the next week. There’s only one or two at a time to start with. It’s mostly drones on site. We’ll also know where the cameras will be. All we have to do is get in fast and shut up their security rigger. We drop Slim in to take over the system and stop any messages for help and erase any record of us. Tap out the guards and we’ve got run of the place for at least as long as it’ll take to load up a van. We load up some gear and drones and get out of there like it’s a third Crash.”
Needles, Slim, and Pretty sat in Needles’s office, listening to me lay out the plan. It was hard to read any of their faces. Pretty was her usual masked self, Needles was completely focused on the plan, but still fatigued by his worries, and Slim seemed thrilled at the prospect of going out into the real world. The four of us were each bringing something to the game: Needles had combat experience and was still strong enough to muscle things into place, as well as being a decent driver. We’d need Slim to do our hacking and pick out the stuff worth taking, and while Pretty and I could both provide a face for the group. I also had my smattering of magic and more than a few runs under my belt.
Pretty looked over the maps. “What kinds of things does the place usually lock up?”
“The warehouse is a primary distribution hub for Mitsuhama. A kind of storage bottleneck before it gets divided and sent to other concerns, primarily Black Lotus. There’ll be a lot of different things there, but the newest shipment will be easy to spot and still ready for movement right up front. And this shipment is exactly the kind of gear we need.”
“How do we get into the security room?” Slim asked.
I pointed at the map. “I figure spoofing our way in is the best option. MCT riggers use closed circuits for their security rigging systems, standard for corporate layouts, so there’s no way to hack in from the outside. Since it looks like they’ll have gas traps, we can bet they’ll have some filter systems in the air ducts, so I won’t be able to mist through. What we do have, though, is the door code for the security room. If we can get in as, I don’t know, something they’d trust, we could make our way to that room and disable the rigger. We dash Slim up there and he takes control of things. With so few guards, Slim can use the drones to take them out, and we’ll be in control. Slim can use their own security setup to isolate and gas guards.”
Pretty cut in. “How do we know who they’d trust?”
“Oh, oh!” Slim jumped up and down in his seat. “We know the address to the place. I bet they order food or takeout or something! We could find out which restaurant is the one who delivers the most and make a surprise delivery!”
I shook my head. “It’s a nice idea, but they’ll be ready for a ‘random delivery’ ploy. We’d have to know exactly what place they order from and when, and take their place.”
“I could bug the area, intercept incoming calls and be ready for it when it happens. All we’d have to do is wait for it.”
“You’re talking about bugging lines they monitor, assuming one of them doesn’t place the call privately. Then, we’d have to intercept their route of transit, meaning hacking into the city auto grid systems. Then, we’d have to hope they don’t know the delivery people personally or something, and that we’d fit into their outfits, anyway.”
Slim slumped in his chair. I tried to encourage him. “Hey, those are good ideas, kid, we just need to look for more options.”
“What about masquerading as MCT personnel?” Needles asked. “We could intercept one of their shipments coming in or show up as inspectors or something.”
“No good,” I said. “They’ll be monitoring their shipments closely via satellite, rigging, et cetera. They’ll be ready for that. We’d need to show up as surprise personnel, which means getting our own uniforms.” I looked to Pretty.
“No,” she said. “I can’t make them, I just don’t have the materials or the time. And with Edgar dead, I don’t know anyone who can get us some quickly enough.”
“Okay,” Needles said, ”what about a simple assault?”
“Definitely not. They’ll call for backup instantly, plus we’ll have drones and autoguns on us before we have a hope of escape.”
Pretty spoke up. “We do have some other uniforms. Lone Star and various civil servants. Maybe we say a criminal has fled into their grounds and we need to pursue?”
I thought it over. “Not a bad idea. We could stress that time is of the essence, and that if they don’t comply, we’ll be forced to lodge a complaint against them for impeding the apprehension of a suspect.”
“Yeah, yeah, that would carry some weight here. Lone Star is the main police force, so MCT isn’t gonna want the trouble they can bring down on them.” Slim nodded.
“I like that one,” Needles said, “but it might not get us any further than their front door. After all, they’ve got drones and cameras everywhere. They’ll just flip through and tell us they don’t see him.”
“But they might let us in the security room if we insist on seeing through their cameras.”
“Ah, you’re forgetting, Red, things have changed since you’ve been away. They could just send us pics to our commlinks.”
“Wait,” Slim sat up. “Wait, you said they’d have to beam them to us?”
“Yeah.”
“They’d have to establish a connection to the commlink. That’s our way into their system! I could lock out the rigger from there once I was hacked in. And since we have the codes, I could do it real quick!”
I cut in. “Can’t they cut off the connection physically?”
“If they have enough time, but I could be in full VR. Lightning quick! I’ll program and copy a bunch of agents onto separate commlinks with me and have them all connected into the main line. I send them in to rush the system and lock him out! Then they don’t have time to contact Lone Star to verify us, either!”
“Have we got the hardware for that? That’s a lot of processing power and bandwidth.”
“Oh, for this, I’ll take our best along and run it hot enough to melt! I mean, we’re going in to replace most of this stuff, so we might as well use it! If I overclock it, we’ll probably break some of our gear, but I think we can get in. At the worst, I can have the agents act as viruses and clog up their rig enough to keep him busy. Scramble their IFF codes or shutdown or something. We can rush the room and get in, take out the guy in the chair. Then it’s all ours!”
I looked to the others. Pretty looked impassive, but Needles shrugged. “What have we got to lose?”
I nodded. “It’s a good plan, Slim. Let’s make it happen.”
Chapter 11
Heist
Opting to go for the night when they’d be without their security mage, we got moving as soon as possible. Slim spent every moment programming his agents. It turned out he had all kinds of them, built in his spare time, so he altered their code for various purposes. Some were made to keep ICE busy, while other were designed to stealth their way past and subvert routines. The majority were designed to unlock the doors, disable cameras, and subvert the IFF on the drones and autoguns. Slim said he didn’t know how good their rigger might be, so it was better to assume he’d be too good. On that assumption, he designed his system assault to keep him busy until we could physically get to him.
Needles sat in the armory, cleaning and loading every Ares or Lone Star weapon they’d salvaged over the years. He always had a few ghouls nearby, to show them how to handle and care for a gun. I realized this was not just as an investment into the future security of his warren, but also in case he didn’
t make it back.
Pretty spent her time alone with a needle and thread, subtly altering the uniforms until they fit as though they were made for us. Then she went through her collection of wigs and makeup, finding ways to make Needles and Slim look more human, and the two of us less conspicuous.
For my own part, I reviewed the plan again and again, meditating the rest of the time. I had to marshal my strength for this. I was sure I would survive, somehow, but it paid to be cautious.
I sat in a large drainage pipe far away from the group, poring over the electronic paper repeatedly to see if any new revelation would spring at me. I was so absorbed I didn’t hear Mene appear.
“Why am I not coming along?” she demanded, hands on her hips.
I looked up. No need to ask what she was talking about or how she knew.
“Mitsuhama sites are filled with wards. I don’t want to take the chance you’ll get caught in one I can’t free you from.”
“The ghouls are all dual-natured. They’ll get caught in those wards just like I could.”
“But they have a physical component. Worse comes to worst, I can pull them out by force. What if you get caught in a flytrap that’s too strong for me?”
“I can look out for myself.”
“I don’t doubt it, but that’s not the issue. I don’t want to lose you.”
“I found you, Rick! I found you! I know what I’m doing! Why do you insist on treating me like a child?!”
I sighed. “Most children can’t cast spells or flow through matter. But you are still that age, Mene. Besides which, I have another job for you. Something I think only you can do here.”
“And what’s that?”
Dressed and armed like Lone Star Fast Response Team troops, we left the warrens as soon as the sun set.
Needles and Slim didn’t look half bad in their wigs, both unobtrusive brown cuts. Filed nails, polish, makeup, and dentures hid most of their ghoulish features, and both had cybereyes that could look human. The final effect was enough to fool someone who wasn’t looking for it.
Pretty was wearing a platinum blonde wig and had dyed her eyebrows to match. She was stunning, but I hesitated to point it out. My own black wig pinched my head, and I’d had to shave my goatee and color my brows as well, but the effect was marvelous.
We quietly headed across the street to a garage the warren garage where the warren occasionally kept a car or two. The van I had heard so much about proved to be something of a disappointment. A rundown Gaz-Niki Legacy family van, with rust-corroded rims and windows thick with dust. I was suddenly wondering if we’d even make it out of the garage.
The door squealed alarmingly as we cracked it open. I peered inside. The bench in back had been removed, leaving only the passenger and driver seats. Needles threw on an old trench coat to hide his uniform as he drove the dilapidated van, and we piled in back, silently going over the plan. Slim readied his chain of commlinks, each carefully linked via fiber optic cable and carefully packed all over his person, in a backpack, and in pockets and pouches. In his hands he cradled a cyberdeck that looked more like a pile of optical chips and wire than the constant companion of any decker.
The ride over was mostly silent. I think Pretty and Slim were scared. This was like nothing either of them had ever been a part of, to my knowledge. Brutal as the Matrix might get for Slim, it’s quite different from real combat, and I didn’t think Pretty knew much more than how to point and shoot when it came to guns. I knew Needles could take care of himself. Keeping the other two alive might get tricky, however.
Needles called back to me. “How did you get your stalker spirit to stay behind? I didn’t think she’d let you this far out of her sight.”
“I told her I needed someone to stay behind and keep watch over things. She made me promise to summon her if I really needed her, though.”
Needles chuckled.
The trip was rocky over the ramshackle roads of the Corridor to the O’Hare subsprawl. Finally, we stopped in an alleyway between a pair of empty office park buildings. Only two short blocks away was our prey, a squat but imposing warehouse filled with treasure. Unlike most corp-owned businesses, this one actually had its primary brand name on the side. The big, stylized “M” stood proudly over Mitsuhama Distribution in smaller script . As we slunk through the last alleyway, I slipped into the astral and got a look at the building.
Here, further from the scars of the past, it was much easier to see things clearly. The cold, dead surfaces of the streets and buildings betrayed no outer astral surveillance, no bound elementals or watcher spirits. Reaching out further, I could feel the hint of bound power within, probably wards. I’d be ready.
I nodded to the others, and we sprinted across the street toward the warehouse. “Where’d he go?!” I shouted to the others, beginning our guile.
“No sign, leader.” Needles responded, swinging his rifle about.
“Base, Base, this is Tango, we have lost the suspect, we have lost the suspect, over.” Pretty spoke clearly into a pretend mic.
The ruse sent us running all over the street. Pretty kept listening to her fake line as we spread out in a close-fire formation. She nodded, and looked up at me.
“Leader, Eye-in-the-Sky reports suspect movement north toward the MCT building.”
I threw a look toward the building and slung my shotgun. Taking a deep breath like a corp goon about to deal with a rival corp goon, I signaled the others to round up and keep their guns down as we headed to the door beside the main garage. Pushing the buzzer, I made a show of being impatient and nervous in the cold December air. According to the intel, there were enough automated defenses for there to be only four security guards on duty tonight, along with the security rigger. A speaker grille grated a voice at us.
“Identify yourself.”
Slim held up his badge taken from the Lone Star patrol. A fiberoptic cable connected to it, running down his arm to his primary commlink. Security badges usually have a small transmitter in this wireless world, allowing others to scan them for verification. Slim had used a basic forgery of the info to keep them looking at it for the valuable seconds it would take to establish a connection and place self-replicating viruses and agents in their system. In basic terms, his badge was a transmitter dish for viral hell.
“Lone Star Chicago Detachment 248 Tango, in pursuit of armed suspect. We have reason to believe they have entered your facility grounds.”
“We haven’t seen anyone.”
“The perp is a Rat shaman. He is known to use stealth enchantments. Can we speak with your on-duty security mage?”
There was a pause. No doubt they were nervous about the possibility of a criminal on the grounds the very night they were without their mage. I suppressed my grin as the voice came back, hesitant. He sounded new to the job.
“Our mage is off-duty tonight.”
I adopted a stern tone. “In that case, we’d better use our own. I’m formally requesting immediate access to your facilities.”
“I’ll have to send for authoriza—”
“We don’t have time! He’ll be gone by then. I’m sure you don’t want to be held responsible for impeding an official Lone Star operation. In fact, this could be constituted as aiding and abetting the suspect.”
The silence spoke volumes.
“I’ll take personal responsibility for any damages caused, but we have to get in there now. Who knows what he’ll do in there?”
Only a brief pause before the maglock buzzed, opening into the warehouse and loading dock. Security cameras and a pair of auto turrets were swinging to and fro, searching for a target. The security guard couldn’t be over twenty-five, another kid trying to make a buck. I felt immediate pity.
“Please conduct your investigation quickly, officers. This is all highly irregular.”
I smiled reassuringly, signaling Needles and Slim toward the stairway that led up to the break room, office, and security hub. Another signal to Pretty set her to watchfully
sweeping her rifle across the room, looking diligent.
“Don’t worry, sir, this will be handled as quickly and professionally as possible.”
The guard nervously nodded before holding a hand to his ear. My hand tensed on my shotgun.
“This Rat shaman, is he any good with computers?”
“Why?”
“On site security is reporting an intrusion into our system.”
I almost laughed. This poor kid! You never let these things slip. Then again, he should have known that we were, logically, the first suspects when something like this happens. Still, it would make things easier for us.
I nodded. “He uses a commlink full of agents and viruses, spreads confusion to cover his movements when he knows he’s been seen. Can you use that to get a lock on his location in here?”
“Uh, it’s a closed circuit system. He’d have to be in the security room, or…” His eyes lit up. “He’d have to wire in over this way!” He pulled his pistol and started running to a corner of the warehouse. Pretty and I followed.
We were halfway across the open expanse of the loading dock when I heard a muffled set of gunshots over the earpiece, followed a moment later by Needles’ voice.
“Security Room secure. Drones and cameras disabled. Take out your little friend.” Pretty aimed her assault rifle in a random direction and shouted, “There!”
The guard turned to look, and I swung the butt of my shotgun at his head. Hard enough to knock him out, but not kill him. I really did feel sorry for him.
Pretty actually smiled at me as we ran to the Security Room. An obese man was lying on the floor amidst a spray of rubber riot pellets, unconscious and wheezing. Needles stood over him, heaving for breath and drooling a little.
“Needles… Needles!”
Shadowrun: Crimson Page 17