Born to run (s-4)

by Stephen Kenson

  "Kellan," Silver Max said. "You be ready to ditch if it looks like they're not going to stop."

  "No problem," Kellan replied. "I'm not planning on getting run down by a cargo rig today."

  "I'll give you as much warning as I can," the dwarf rigger replied, with a note of genuine concern in his voice.

  "Thanks," she said. Then she spotted headlights in the distance. "Visual contact," she said into the link.

  "Okay, people, keep the chatter to a minimum," Jackie said to everyone. The decker was monitoring the team's communications and those of the Ares personnel, along with the emergency channels and Lone Star bands, for any signs of trouble. She would ensure that the team was alerted to potential interference, and that they would be undisturbed for as long as possible.

  The bright lights were getting closer. Kellan could see two sets of headlights; it looked like a smaller truck was leading the larger cargo hauler by a short distance. Kellan kept the driver's side door open a crack, her hand tensed on the handle. If the driver of the lead truck didn't see her in time to stop:

  The lights drew closer and the lead truck began to slow. Kellan let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding as both trucks began to brake, their headlights washing over the little electric runabout stalled in the middle of the road. If they decided to simply drive around it, things would get a little more complicated for the runners. When the trucks began to slow down, Kellan hopped out of the car and ran around the front of it, so she was clearly visible in the harsh glow of the halogen lights. She began jumping up and down and waving to get their attention, acting like the stranded motorist she appeared to be.

  "Hey!" she yelled. "Help!"

  The lead truck banked a bit as it approached, but Kellan quickly realized that the team had planned things out just right. Although the smaller truck could get past her car, the cargo hauler would have to literally push the stalled vehicle out of the way to pass. So the lead truck turned a bit to the side and then came to a stop only a few meters from where Kellan was standing. The cargo hauler's brakes whined as it rolled to a stop a short distance away.

  The windows of the lead truck were tinted, and she recalled Lothan's lesson about magicians needing line of sight to affect something with a spell. Smoked, tinted and mirrored windows had become common since the Awakening, primarily in an effort to protect against the threat of criminal magicians. Even if Kellan knew spells to affect the personnel in the truck, she couldn't cast them so long as they were inside.

  She waited expectantly, doing her best to look helpless and trying not to think about the stun baton tucked into the inside pocket of her jacket, or the small, snub-nosed pistol G-Dogg had handed her before they left on the run with the comment, "Hopefully, you won't need this." Kellan hoped if she pretended the weapons weren't there, the corporate personnel wouldn't notice them. If they did, Kellan wasn't looking forward to using them.

  The passenger side door of the escort vehicle opened up and a dark-clad figure got out. He came around the front of the truck, moving toward Kellan. She could see he was human, wearing dark coveralls that revealed the bulk of armor padding across his chest and shoulders. He wore a cap with the Ares logo and his eyes gleamed a bit in the light spilling from the trucks' headlights, probably implants automatically adjusting for the light level, since he didn't squint when he looked at her. He wore a pistol in a holster at his waist, and Kellan noticed the flap was open, though he hadn't drawn his weapon: yet.

  "You all right?" he asked Kellan in a Midwestern drawl that reminded her of Kansas City.

  "I-I need some help," Kellan replied. "My car broke down and my phone's dead. Do you have a phone I can use or something?"

  "Wait right there, miss," the man said, remaining near the front of the truck and not coming any closer. "I can call to get you a tow."

  Kellan took a couple steps forward. "That'd be great! Do you need my credstick or anything?" She began reaching toward her jacket pocket innocently.

  "Please stay right there, miss," the man said in a more authoritative tone. "Please remain by your vehicle." Kellan saw the guard's hand stray toward his gun and decided to keep her hands by her side and in plain view.

  "Okay," she said, "no problem," and the guard reached up with his left hand to unclip a small mic from the shoulder strap of his uniform.

  Kellan focused her gaze on the guard's commlink as Lothan had taught her, and suddenly everything went unnaturally still and quiet. She felt the heat across her skin and narrowed her eyes, focusing, directing the energy outward, and projecting it with all of her concentration. There was a roaring in her ears like a crackling fire and she felt the heat leave her in a rush.

  The guard's commlink burst into flames. The man yelled in surprise and shock and immediately dropped the chunk of burning plastic and electronics, forgetting that it was still tethered to his uniform. It slapped against his chest and he tried to beat out the flames with one gloved hand. Kellan was aware of the doors of both trucks flying open.

  "Kellan, get down!" a voice in her ear said, and Kellan dropped to the pavement as bullets flew overhead. G-Dogg and the Street Deacon popped up from their hidden positions alongside the road, firing at the surprised Ares guards. The guy Kellan burned didn't even reach his sidearm before a round caught him, spinning him around and dropping him to the ground beside the truck. Another guard came out of the driver's side of the truck, taking cover behind the open door as bullets sparked and ricocheted off the obviously armored vehicle. Men were emerging from the cab of the cargo hauler as well.

  Kellan seized the opportunity to make a run for the front of the escort vehicle. She kept low as shots whanged off the pavement nearby. As she rounded the front, she saw that the guard who'd spoken to her was still conscious, fumbling for his sidearm. His armor must have blunted some of the force of the shot that hit him. Kellan was faster, and jammed her stun baton into the man's side. There was an electric sizzle and he cried out, then lay on the ground, twitching slightly.

  Kellan looked up just as the rear passenger door of the truck opened up and another man jumped out. She dropped her stun baton and immediately reached for her pistol, moving far too slow, as the Ares guard raised his own gun and Kellan found herself looking down a black barrel that for a moment loomed as large as a train tunnel in her vision. Then there was the sound of tearing cloth and a surprised grunt of pain from the guard as the gun fell from his hands and he crumpled. Orion stood over the fallen body, a bloody sword in his right hand, a matte black pistol in the other.

  Before Kellan could even say thanks, a bright flash of light and a boom of thunder jerked her eyes to the cloudy sky. The last fraggin' thing they needed was a sudden rainstorm.

  "Dammit," Liada cursed over the commlink. "They've got a fraggin' storm spirit!" There was another flash of light, brighter than before. Kellan saw a streak of lightning come from the direction of the other truck. It struck along the side of the road with a rolling boom of thunder, sending up a cloud of sparks and a shower of debris.

  "We're pinned down!" G-Dogg shouted. The lightning bolt had struck very close to his position.

  "On it!" Liada replied.

  Orion gestured at Kellan with the point of his sword, clearly indicating that he wanted her to stay put, then the elf ganger slipped around to the rear of the truck. He looked carefully around it, then disappeared around the corner.

  Fraggit if I'm going to just stand here! Kellan thought. She followed close behind Orion.

  The Ares guards with the cargo hauler were hunkered down close to the truck's heavy cab, firing their guns in the direction of G-Dogg and the Street Deacon. Hovering above the truck was a large, roiling mass of black clouds. Blue-white electricity shimmered between the clouds, and Kellan thought she could see a great, black-feathered bird with eyes of burning electric blue in the storm. A harsh, cold wind blew from the clouds. A storm spirit, Kellan remembered Liada saying. She had never seen one before.

  She couldn't see Liada or Lothan,
though she knew the two mages had to be close at hand and within line of sight of their target. Liada said they were going to handle the storm spirit, although Kellan had no idea exactly how. She heard a cry of pain from the guard on the opposite side of the truck, but no shot, so she assumed Orion had struck again. Then one of the Ares guards beside the cargo hauler fired a few shots toward Orion, which forced Kellan to duck back behind the end of the escort vehicle. She clutched her own pistol in both hands, listening to the sounds of the gunfire and the crackling of thunder on the opposite side.

  "Max," Lothan said over the link, "we need a distraction out in front of the main truck."

  "Roger," the dwarf rigger replied. There was a high-pitched whine of rotors and Kellan saw a drone swoop out of the darkness toward the cargo hauler. It looked like a small flying garbage can and was about the right size, except with a collar of rotor blades around the uppermost edge and a chin-mounted machine gun below. Its cylindrical surface was covered in heavy armor plates.

  The drone opened up with its machine gun, tracing a chattering arc of fire along the pavement just in front of the cab of the cargo hauler, sending up sparks and ricochets from the road where the high-caliber rounds struck. The security guards scrambled for cover. Then the drone swiveled its gun up toward the hovering storm spirit and ripped off another burst directly into it. Tongues of flame shot from the barrel of the gun, but if the spirit was affected by the gunfire in the slightest, it didn't show it.

  It was the distraction Lothan asked for, and Kellan was going to take full advantage of it. Staying low to the ground, she hustled along the side of the road toward the cargo hauler, making her way around to the back of it. Silver Max's drone veered off as the Ares guards opened fire on it. She heard some rounds ricochet off the drone's armor, but it simply withdrew a short distance away, hovering off to the side of the road, the guards still well within the range of its machine gun, but where they would have a difficult time returning fire. Another sustained burst of machine-gun fire roared in the dark, forcing the guards to keep their heads down, though Kellan noticed Max wasn't shooting directly at them. That might disable the truck, which would pretty much frag their whole run.

  Kellan reached the back of the truck and crouched there, listening. She could hear a low droning chant coming from the back of the truck, a kind of singsong in a language she didn't recognize, and she felt a tingle along her skin, the hairs on the back of her neck bristling. Magic. She was sure of it.

  She glanced up at the side rigging of the truck's cargo area, then grabbed one of the cargo straps and pulled herself up, trying to move silently. Then she dropped the strap from one hand and grabbed her pistol with the other as she swung around into the back of the truck, bringing her gun up to cover the interior.

  Nestled among the heavy plastic packing crates in the back of the truck was a thin figure wearing a long, dark coat. Her hair was long and braided, and it looked like she had at least some Native blood. She turned as Kellan landed and raised one hand, a faint shimmer forming around it. Kellan squeezed the trigger twice, snapping off a couple shots. The first one went wide, blowing a hole in a crate with a scattering of packing material. The second hit the shaman in her shoulder, spinning her to the side into one of the crates and breaking her concentration. The spell, whatever it had been, didn't go off.

  Kellan moved closer, gun held extended in both hands, leveled at the shaman as she struggled to her feet. It looked like her coat was lined with enough armor that it stopped the bullet, although Kellan knew from experience that it still felt like being hit with a baseball bat wielded by a troll. The shaman had suffered some blunt trauma to be sure, maybe worse. She was clutching at her shoulder as she regained her feet.

  "Try that again," Kellan said flatly, "and the next one goes between your eyes."

  The shaman glared at her, but didn't say anything, slowly lowering her hands to her sides, but keeping them where Kellan could see them.

  "You're controlling the spirit out there," Kellan said, and the shaman nodded.

  "Get rid of it," Kellan told her, raising her gun slightly for emphasis. "And don't try pulling anything, understand?"

  The shaman paused for a moment, eyes locked on Kellan's, and Kellan wondered if she was using magic to try to figure out if she was bluffing. She didn't feel anything, but it was hard to tell. Then the shaman slowly raised her hands and began to chant like she had before. Kellan could feel the magic in the air, could almost see it coalescing around the other woman.

  The spell lashed out at Kellan, hitting her like a physical blow. She reflexively pushed against it, gritting her teeth and holding her ground. It felt like icy claws were tearing at her very soul, but she thought about the crystalline egg Lothan had taught her to visualize, and the claws seemed to scrape against it without really hurting her. At the same time, her finger squeezed the trigger.

  The shaman just looked at Kellan, shocked that her spell had failed, then she doubled over when the shot hit her in the gut and crumpled to the deck of the truck. The effects of the spell faded with her, and Kellan gasped as time seemed to snap back to normal. She felt a bit drained, but her adrenaline was pumping and her heart was pounding. Kellan stared at the fallen shaman for a moment, but she didn't move. Kellan keyed her commlink.

  "This is K," she said. "I'm in the back of the truck. Their shaman is down."

  "Good work," Lothan replied. "That's definitely taken the fight out of the storm spirit as well as their magical defenses. Let's wrap this up, shall we?" the troll mage said to no one in particular.

  Kellan felt another surge of magic, like a rippling in the air, and the gunfire ahead of the truck suddenly fell silent. She heard a clang of metal and a cry of pain from the right side of the truck cab, then suddenly Liada and Orion swung into the back of the truck from opposite sides. The Street Deacon and Lothan followed close behind.

  The other shadowrunners quickly searched the back of the truck for any other Ares personnel, then Lothan spoke into his commlink.

  "Max, we're clear," he said.

  "Roger," the dwarf rigger replied. "I'm on my way."

  "Jackie, status," the troll said.

  "We've got a window," the decker said in a businesslike tone, her previous playfulness absent. "A call went out to Lone Star when things started going down, but I'm scrambling some messages from the dispatch that should keep them busy for a little while. You've got five, maybe ten minutes at the outside."

  "All right, let's go," Lothan told the rest of the team.

  Liada hunkered down beside the fallen shaman, looking her over. There was blood on the flatbed.

  "Is she:?" Kellan asked and Liada shook her head.

  "Not yet," she said.

  "Dump her," Lothan told the Street Deacon. The street samurai holstered his weapon to scoop up the unconscious shaman. He tossed her off the end of the truck onto the street. Kellan started to say something, but a glance from Liada made her reconsider it. The elf mage shook her head slightly.

  Orion hopped down from the back of the truck, sheathing his sword. He disappeared around the corner as Silver Max and G-Dogg climbed into the cab of the cargo hauler. The engine roared to life again and Lothan grabbed hold of one of the straps holding the crates in place.

  "Let's ride!" G-Dogg called from the cab. Silver Max threw the truck into gear and it lurched forward, forcing the shadowrunners in back to grab for handholds. Max plowed past the escort truck and the electric three-wheeler, and Kellan could see security guards lying scattered across the road. Some lay in dark puddles of blood, while others appeared completely unmarked. There was no one to watch as the truck, its cargo and the shadowrunners rumbled away down the highway and into the night.

  10

  With Jackie Ozone running interference in the Matrix, the shadowrunners were gone long before Lone Star responded to the scene of the hijacking. The decker fed the team a running update of the response to their activity, but it was clear they'd made a clean getaway. Lone
Star had started a search, but the team planned on concluding their business long before the authorities had any chance of finding them.

  Silver Max took the first exit off the highway and headed into Redmond. The rigger expertly guided the big truck through the dark maze of streets, lined with the burned-out shells of cars and other refuse-living and nonliving. If anyone noticed an Ares cargo hauler trucking through the streets so late at night, they didn't bother doing anything about it. People in the Barrens generally knew to mind their own business. It wasn't healthy to do otherwise.

  Lothan talked in low tones over the commlink, presumably with Jackie, although Kellan couldn't be sure. The troll mage used a private channel. The number of turns and back roads Silver Max took them on convinced Kellan the dwarf must have an implanted global positioning system. He navigated the streets of the Barrens like they were tattooed on the back of his hand. Or maybe the inside of his skull is more like it, Kellan thought.

  In fairly short order, the truck pulled up outside of what used to be part of an old strip mall, built around a central anchor store with a sizable loading dock, which was ideal for their purposes. G-Dogg hopped down from the cab to haul open the rusty garage door, which protested this movement, and allow the truck to pull inside. Orion roared up on the back of his Yamaha Rapier right behind them, pulling the bike inside as G-Dogg pulled the door closed. The Street Deacon jumped down from the back of the truck to help, and the two of them wrestled the corrugated metal door closed as Silver Max killed the truck's engine and switched off the headlights.

  The abandoned loading area was plunged into darkness, the only illumination the dim light coming through the heavy sheets of plastic covering the few windows. Kellan waited for her eyes to adjust to the gloom. Everyone else on the team was either a meta-human or-in the Street Deacon's case-had cybernetic eyes and could see in near-total darkness. Kellan couldn't even think about replacing her eyes without feeling nauseous. She blinked a few times, and was able to make out the shadowy shapes of the other runners around her.