shadowrun 40 The Burning Time

by Stephen Kenson

  As long as he didn’t use his personal credstick, it would be harder for the company to track him. Now he was on his own in a strange city, with only limited funds. He’d probably given Gabriel more than he could have hoped for by running off. It would be proof of his guilt and complicity with whatever the Seraphim were trying to pin on him, and would probably damn Otabi by association, too. The hopelessness of his situation nearly overwhelmed him, and he gripped the support bar of the subway car as if his life depended on it.

  No, he thought, he couldn’t give up. He had to get to the bottom of it, find some evidence that he could bring to the company brass so they would know the truth. Assuming they weren’t the ones who’d authorized this scheme in the first place. That was a sobering thought. If it were true, then Roy really didn’t have a single place to turn. Who would be willing to help him against a megacorporation like Cross Applied Technologies?

  The answer came easily: the same ones people always called on when they needed to take on a corp.

  Shadowrunners.

  When the train reached downtown, Roy got off the train and found a public telecom. He slotted his certified stick and touched the screen for directory assistance.

  "The number of the Avalon nightclub," he said when the prompt appeared. A few moments later, he had the number and a printout map with directions for getting there folded up in his pocket. He was glad to see that the address wasn’t far from one of the stops on the red line.

  All he had to do was keep from getting caught before he got there.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Talon walked into the Avalon the way he always did, and the various bouncers acknowledged him with a nod. It was almost eleven o’clock, and things were just starting to pick up as a line of people began forming at the front door. Talon immediately headed up the stairs to Boom’s office on the top floor.

  "All clear, boss," Aracos said in his mind. "Everyone’s there."

  Talon thanked the spirit as he cleared the last few steps. He was thinking of what had happened when he’d gone to tell Trouble that he thought Gallow was back. As if he didn’t have enough problems without Trouble revealing that she’d been harboring feelings that were more than friendship for him.

  Trouble had made no secret of the fact that she was attracted to him when they’d first met. At first he didn’t tell her he was gay because that wasn’t the kind of information he went around telling people he barely knew. They did talk about it eventually, and he’d assumed that was the end of it.

  Jase was his first love and, in many ways, the only one. As he’d told Trouble, it was the only serious relationship he’d ever had. Besides, keeping a relationship going wasn’t easy even for a straight shadowrunner. Deep down, though, he knew that he never again wanted to hurt like he did when Jase died. Losing Jase had nearly killed him, though it was other people who died as a result of it. He took his revenge against the gangers who’d killed Jase and, in doing it, had unleashed an evil force that kept coming back to haunt him.

  Seems like, where love is concerned, all I do is make a mess of things, Talon thought as he turned the knob of the door to Boom’s office.

  Boom, Hammer, and Valkyrie were already waiting for him when he came in. He sat down near Boom’s desk, not bothering to take off his jacket.

  "So, term, what’s up?" Boom asked. "Don’t tell me you managed to find more work for us already?"

  "No," Talon said. "I’ve been doing some checking, and I think Gallow’s back." There was a pregnant pause as the words sank in.

  "So, what’s the plan?" Hammer asked calmly. Nobody asked Talon if he was certain or whether they had to get involved. They simply asked what he wanted to do next, offering their help unconditionally, without question. He wondered what he’d done to deserve such good and loyal friends.

  "Trouble’s doing some checking now," he said. His face got hot with embarrassment at the mention of her name. "She’s looking for Gallow’s usual pattern of kills. That might give us some clue about where it is and what it’s doing. Then we track it down and take care of it once and for all."

  Hammer and Boom nodded their assent. Then Talon’s headware phone rang, and the incoming call icon flashed in the corner of his vision.

  "I’ve got a call," he said. "That might be her now."

  He sat back and mentally signaled his headware to answer the call. Instead of Trouble, however, he saw something else. It was a woman’s image projected directly onto his optic nerves by his headware display link. She was perfectly formed, beautiful and sensual like a woman straight out of a high-class erotic sim. She was dressed head to toe in leather as red as blood, and her lips were colored to match. She looked at Talon with soulful eyes, and he smiled at her. Talon knew that the real woman behind the erotic image used it as a little joke on those fooled by appearances.

  "Jane," he said. "Long time no see. What’s going on?"

  "Hoi, Talon," she replied, her voice transmitted directly to his audio centers. "Hope I’m not calling at a bad time."

  Jane-in-the-Box was a decker, one of slickest Talon had ever known. She worked with Assets, Inc., the team of shadowrunners employed by the Draco Foundation and funded by money from the late dragon Dunkelzahn’s estate. Talon had worked for Assets before coming to Boston, traveling the world as well as taking part in some harrowing shadowruns. Then the business with Trouble and Gallow brought him back to his home town. He hadn’t heard from any of the Assets crew in a while, and Jane’s sudden appearance made him think this wasn’t a social call.

  "Could be better," he said. "What’s up?"

  "A consultation," Jane replied. "There’s something unusual going on down in DeeCee, and Ryan wants you to come down and have a look at it. Usual rates, of course."

  Talon sighed. "This is bad time, Jane," he said. "We’re pretty deep in some weird things around here, too. What’s up?"

  Jane’s image shrugged slightly, a subtle nuance to the programming. "Well, I don’t know from magic, but Ryan says it’s got something to do with the astral rift near the Watergate. I guess people are picking up some strange vibes from it or something."

  "Don’t you have a mage who can check it out? What about the Foundation? They must have more mages on the payroll than you can shake a wand at."

  "They do," Jane said, "and plenty of them have checked out the rift, but they don’t know what to make of it. Ryan says he wants someone with experience ‘dealing with things from the other side.’ That means you, chummer."

  Talon grimaced as he recalled some of those experiences with "the other side," the bizarre reaches of the metaplanes and the things he’d seen there in his first run with Assets. It still gave him the occasional nightmare, and he wasn’t anxious to revisit any more unpleasant memories.

  "I can’t come just now," he said. "Tell Ryan I might be able to come down in astral form in a few days. That’s the best I can do."

  "All right," Jane said. "I’ll tell him." She didn’t ask for more details on what he was doing. It wouldn’t have been proper street etiquette to inquire. "Good luck, chummer."

  Then the image blinked out, and Talon returned his attention to the room.

  "Was that Jane?" Boom asked.

  "Uh-huh. Assets has something they want me to look into."

  "Never rains but it pours," the troll muttered.

  "I’ll say," Talon said.

  "I hate to interrupt, term," Boom said, looking down at his desk, "but it looks like there’s another country being heard from. Come take a look at this."

  They all clustered around the desk to look at the windows open on its glassy surface. They showed surveillance-cam images of a man making his way through the nightclub below, carrying a flat-sided bag slung over one shoulder. They recognized his face and reddish hair.

  "It’s Kilaro, the guy who was following Otabi," Hammer said.

  "What’s he doing here?" Boom asked.

  "Looking for us, probably," Talon said. "He followed Otabi here before. Maybe he rec
ognized one of us from here."

  "Or maybe he told Cross security about it, and they’re using him as bait," Boom said, his expression turning sour. He didn’t care for anything that threatened his nightclub. The Avalon was considered neutral territory, like many such places in the various plexes across the country, but it wasn’t unknown for corporations to use stalking horses to invade them when need be.

  "I’m gonna have him thrown out," Boom said, reaching for the hot button on his desktop.

  "Wait," Talon said. "Let me have a look first."

  He sat down, sinking quickly and easily into a trance and loosing his astral body. He floated away from his physical form, then dived down through the floor of the room, with Aracos close behind him. He passed through the physical structure of the nightclub as if it wasn’t even there, reaching the main room in moments. He oriented himself among the flurry of unleashed emotions and desires coming off the crowd like waves of heat, and quickly zeroed in on Kilaro.

  Talon scanned the colorful aura around his body, which reflected the man’s emotions as well as his general state of health and well being. Talon saw the telltale signs of cybernetic implants that he’d noticed when assensing Kilaro’s aura previously. He looked carefully before zipping back up through the building and returning to his physical body.

  "Well?" Boom asked when Talon opened his eyes.

  "He’s scared," Talon said. "Confused and scared out of his wits, but also determined underneath it all."

  "Do you think he’s trying to draw us out?" Val asked.

  "Yes, but I don’t know if he’s doing it for the corp or not. I’d like to talk to him before we just try to ditch him."

  Boom frowned, then nodded slowly. "All right," he said.

  "Hammer, you and me," Talon said. The ork nodded, following Talon out the door. "We’ll be right back," Talon said.

  They descended the stairs and pushed through the crowd of people to where Kilaro was standing. Talon was always impressed with the speed and stealth at which someone the size of Harlan Hammarand could move. The ork faded back into the crowd, allowing Talon to approach their target from the other side. Kilaro started slightly when he noticed Talon, but he didn’t see Hammer until the big ork laid one massive hand on his shoulder. Talon thought he was going to jump out of his skin.

  "Mr. Kilaro," he said. "Fancy seeing you again. Is this business or pleasure?"

  Kilaro gulped visibly as he tried to regain his composure, glancing from Talon to Hammer and back again.

  "Business," he said finally. "I’ve found out some things I think you might like to know."

  Talon allowed himself a raised eyebrow. "Really? Well, then, why don’t you come with us and you can tell us all about it."

  Kilaro knew he didn’t have much choice in the matter, so he allowed Talon and Hammer to escort him away from the dance floor and up the stairs. They went into Boom’s office, and Talon gestured to an empty chair.

  "Have a seat," he said. "So, was it our charming company or something else that wouldn’t let you stay away?"

  Kilaro gave Talon a hard look. "I’ve probably destroyed my career over this," he said bitterly. "The least you could do is listen."

  "We’re listening," Boom said.

  "How much do you know about that stuff you were hired to steal?" Kilaro asked.

  Talon glanced over at Boom, letting him answer. "Crowd control agent," Boom said. "Engineered bug intended to make everyone feel like drek for a few days; fast-acting with an aerosol vector."

  "Is that all?" Kilaro asked.

  Boom leaned forward, elbows on his desk. "Why? Is there something else we should know about it?"

  Kilaro nodded. "The virus is called Pandora, and you’re right, it’s an anti-riot agent. But that’s not all. It’s a binary product based on some experiments with a riot-agent called Vigid back in the early fifties. Normally, it’s a fast-acting, incapacitating agent with symptoms similar to a bad stomach flu. Victims feel nauseous, dizzy, and so on. Spray a crowd with it, and they’ll all be puking up their guts in about a minute. But include a special catalyst and the Pandora bug mutates rapidly into something much, much nastier."

  "How nasty?" Talon asked.

  Kilaro turned to look at him. "Deadly," he said. "Kills in a matter of minutes, but it isn’t contagious. It dies quickly when it’s exposed to air, so it’s safe to enter the area just a few minutes later. I guess the idea was to create a tool for broad-range military use, so you could either incapacitate an enemy or make sure he never got up."

  Kilaro reached down toward the bag sitting at his feet, then stopped for a moment when he saw everyone’s hands drift toward their weapons. Moving his hand very, very slowly, he took an optical chip from the bag’s inner pocket and slid it across the desk toward Boom.

  "There’s the data’," he said. "Direct from the company’s files. Interesting thing is, around the same time you stole the samples of the virus, the only samples of the catalyst went missing, too. Did you have something to do with that?"

  "No," Talon said. "We didn’t know about any catalyst. Whoever hired us must have hired someone else to get the catalyst for them."

  "Which means whoever’s got it has a massive lethal weapon," Boom said.

  "Why are you telling us this?" Talon asked.

  Kilaro looked down, seeming to gather his thoughts. "Two reasons, I suppose," he said, looking up again. "First, I think somebody at Cross wanted you to get away with this stuff. The investigation is focused on finding scapegoats to blame for the theft of the virus rather than tracking it down again."

  "Well, would you say that’s standard corporate procedure?" Talon asked.

  Kilaro shook his head. "No, it’s more than that. The data in the files I found shows that the company has started inoculating its own personnel in Boston against the effects of the Pandora virus, but nowhere else. They’ve got a vaccine for it, but they haven’t said word one about it, or about how dangerous the virus is, to the authorities. It’s like they expect Pandora to get used here and want to be ready for it."

  "And second?" Talon prompted.

  "And second, because I didn’t have anyone else to turn to who’d believe me without the company being able to cover it up," Kilaro said.

  "Frag," Boom muttered. "We’ve been set up."

  "But why?" Val said. "Why would Cross get involved in letting someone steal a weapon from them? If they use it, they’ll only end up looking bad."

  "Not necessarily," Boom said. "Think about it. Cross gets two potential benefits from letting the Pandora virus get used. One, it’s a field test of the technology under ‘actual conditions.’ If it works as advertised, Cross will have no lack of military buyers wanting some of their very own. That will drive the price up and create demand even if there’s a public outcry against it. What’s more, think about who holds the security contract for Boston."

  "Knight Errant," Talon said.

  "Right. If somebody manages to set off a major viral weapon in the metroplex, Cross can come forward and say they contacted Knight Errant about the theft, but that Knight dragged its feet. They’ll make them look incompetent. And Knight Errant is controlled by Ares Macrotech, Cross’s biggest rival. Getting their contract with Boston pulled would cripple Ares’ presence in the New England area."

  "Leaving it ripe for somebody else to move in," Hammer concluded. "Frag."

  "And you can bet Cross will be pointing fingers our way when the drek hits the fan," Boom said. "They’ll blame everything on the big, bad shadowrunners, or should I say ‘terrorists’?"

  "Never rains but it pours, huh? Looks like we’re going to have to find that virus," Talon said, looking around at the others.

  A beeping from Boom’s desktop broke interrupted any further discussion.

  "Oh, frag me," Boom said. "We’ve got another problem. Looks like Mr. Kilaro here has friends."

  "What?" Talon said, coming around to Boom’s side of the desk. The security monitors showed the crowd down below, and
Talon quickly picked out another familiar face in the crowd.

  "Drek," he said.

  "What is it?" Kilaro asked.

  Talon looked up at him. "It’s your buddy Gabriel. He must have followed you here, and I don’t think he came alone."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  "Okay, chummers," Talon said. "It’s time for us to be going."

  "Out the back way," Boom said, rising from his desk and hitting a switch to shut everything down. Val and Hammer went out quickly, though Hammer stopped to check the camera pickups outside.

  "What about me?" Kilaro asked.

  Talon grabbed him by the armpit and pulled him out of the chair. "You’re coming with us," he said. "Stick close and do exactly what you’re told, understand?" Kilaro nodded numbly, clutching the bag with his cyberdeck to his chest.

  "All clear," Hammer said.

  "Go," Talon said.

  Hammer opened the door and began moving down the hall, gun at the ready. Val went next, then Kilaro and Talon, with Boom bringing up the rear. The troll drew a heavy pistol that looked almost childishly small in his massive grip, but it had enough power to punch through an engine block, much less a human target.

  "The van?" Talon asked Val.

  "Ready out back," she said.

  They heard a loud report from a gun and the thudding sound of running feet.

  "They’re coming up the stairs!" Aracos said in Talon’s mind.

  "They’re coming," Talon said. "Go! Go!"

  They raced for the door leading to the emergency exit. When they reached the intersection of the corridors, three men, all human, were coming up the stairs from the main floor. Gabriel was in the lead, and each of the three held a semi-automatic pistol in his hand. They wore heavy long coats over nondescript corporate wear and dark sunglasses that seemed not to hinder them at all in the dim hallway.