Shadowrun

by Dylan Birtolo

  Accepting the items, Cole studied the space below them. “We’re right over it, I think,” he said, and she nodded. “Okay, here goes nothing.”

  And he tossed the entire assortment directly below them.

  Even though he’d braced for it, the sudden barrage was still enough to startle him. Sensors and lasers went berserk as what must have been twenty small items suddenly entered their field. The air was filled with the zap of the lasers, the sizzle of the beams finding targets, and the acrid tang of scalded metal and melted plastic. Smoke drifted up toward them, and Cole and Lorelei both fought the urge to cough as the small fog enveloped them. The onslaught lasted at least a solid minute, and Cole estimated that no fewer than a dozen lasers had fired—what kind of office building was this?—and each at least three or four times, maybe more.

  Finally, all was silent.

  “Okay, you’ve succeeded in slaughtering the contents of our pockets,” Lorelei commented, breaking the quiet. “So what?”

  Cole smiled in response. “Now for the real test.” Taking out a single metal washer he’d held back, he flipped it up. It arced to eye-level, then curved and began to fall.

  Together they watched as it dropped below the tiles and into the killing zone.

  And nothing happened.

  “Yes!” Cole resisted the urge to wave his hands over his head in triumph—seeing as how they were still clamped to the line, that would have been a bad thing. But he was thrilled.

  So was Lorelei. “Clever,” she admitted. “You used the chaff to burn out the lasers.”

  “They may still recharge,” he pointed out, “but I think I’ve bought us a few minutes, maybe more. And a few minutes is all we need.” He grinned at her. “Shall we?”

  In reply, she leaned over and gave him a quick kiss. Then, hitching a line of her own to the one strung between the grapples, she slid down it like a spider intent upon its prey. “Try to keep up,” she called as she dropped.

  For half a second Cole worried he’d misjudged, he’d missed a few lasers, or that he’d underestimated their battery life or recharge time. But Lorelei descended quickly and smoothly, her way unimpeded, and after a second she lightly touched down upon the floor.

  Which triggered a whole new wave of klaxons, and forced her to jump hurriedly back up as the floor beneath her gave way, revealing a deep, dark pit right where she’d landed.

  “What the hell?” she demanded, glaring up at Cole as if he were somehow to blame for all this. “Who puts security like this in a bloody office building?”

  Not having any sort of answer for that, he shrugged, already lowering himself down by his hands again. He glanced about as he got close to the floor, then switched the vision in his left eye to infrared. They’d been too high for it have much use before, but now he could clearly see the pit below Lorelei as a darker, cooler shape—

  —and the rest of the floor around them as a solid mass.

  “Huh.”

  “Huh what?” she demanded, still dangling from her rope. “What does ‘huh’ mean? Is it good or bad or ‘oh my god we’re so dead’?”

  “More puzzling but possibly good,” he replied absently. After staring at the floor another second, he came to a decision.

  And stepped down, planting first one foot and then the other firmly on the carpet.

  “Wait!” Lorelei shrieked, but then stared at him standing there only a foot away from her. “Wait, what?”

  “It’s just in the one spot,” he explained, reaching out to pull her toward him. She let him, releasing her grip on the rope as he set her gently on the floor, taking a half-step back so she had room past the pit. “The rest of it’s solid.”

  “So they only set a pressure plate and a pit right there?” she asked, glancing around. “Right in the one spot we needed?” Her pretty features twisted into a grimace. “What the hell’s so special about this thing, anyway?”

  “Don’t know, don’t care,” Cole answered. “Above our pay grade. We’re just here to nab the darn thing and hand it off to the client.”

  “Right, right.” With a sigh, Lorelei turned toward the glass display case on the wall ahead of them and just in front of the pit. “Well, you’re going to have to anchor me, handsome—I can’t very well pick a lock and hold onto a rope at the same time.” And she leaped into his arms.

  Cole just barely caught her in time, wrapping his arms around her waist even as her legs twined yet again around his middle. He held on, leaning back and keeping his feet planted well apart to take the added weight as Lorelei twisted and then leaned away from him, putting her head and shoulders right above the pit.

  And directly facing their prize.

  “Hello, my pretty,” she whispered, lockpicks already in hand. The actual display case lock was fairly standard, and within seconds she had that undone and the glass panel swinging open. Then she reached in for the object they’d been sent to retrieve.

  And tugged, first gently but then harder, frowning. “It’s stuck.”

  “What?” Cole stared at their target. It wasn’t much to look at—just a thumb-sized gold disc with what looked like a shard of ruby embedded in the center like a red cat’s eye. And it appeared to be looped over a simple hook against the display’s back wall, without a lock or charm in sight.

  Yet Lorelei was now yanking on it with both hands and it clearly wasn’t budging.

  “Here, let me.” Reaching past her, Cole wrapped the fingers of one hand around the amulet, keeping his other arm around Lorelei herself. He felt the disc in his hand, cool and oddly tingly, and then a faint jolt as his flesh came into contact with the ruby.

  And the amulet came free in his hand.

  “Hey, that’s not fair!” Lorelei protested as he extracted the amulet from the case and tucked it safely into one of his pockets, then secured the pocket itself. “I must have loosened it for you.”

  “Sure, that’s it,” he agreed easily, amused but careful not to show it. Lorelei, he had learned, could be prickly when crossed. “Okay, let’s get out of here.”

  For just a second, she paused. “You know, part of me just wants to charge down this stupid corridor, shouting at the top of my lungs,” she admitted with a wicked grin and a gleam in her eye.

  “You’d be Swiss cheese before you got three meters,” Cole reminded her.

  “Spoilsport,” she grumbled, but didn’t argue further. Instead she clambered up onto his shoulders, using him for support as she grabbed onto her rope and began to haul herself back above the ceiling tiles.

  Cole waited until she was safely gripping the line above before he retracted his arms and rose back off the ground as well.

  And not a moment too soon, he noticed, as behind him several of the laser-sensor combos began to wink to life once more.

  But they had the amulet they’d come to get, and they were still in one piece. Provided they could get back out of the building unharmed and undetained, they’d done it. The job was almost over.

  Still, considering how many surprises they’d had on this one already, Cole decided he wouldn’t relax until the client had the prize and they had their money.

  After all, better safe than sorry.

  * * *

  3

  Sure enough, they had no sooner made their way back into the office area and dropped back down to the ground—retrieving the magnetic grapples and the line between them before they descended—when Rodrick and Tish came rushing over. The former had light coruscating about his hands and eyes, a sure sign he was either about to cast something or in the process of maintaining an existing spell, and the latter had her deck in her hand and her stubby little fingers flying across the keys with shocking speed and dexterity.

  “We’ve got a problem,” Rodrick declared.

  “Yeah, we kinda figured,” Cole shot back. “What happened with the alarms? You guys were supposed to take care of those!”

  “We did!” the mage replied, his narrow features flushed. “All the ones we knew about, any
way. There was a second set nested beneath, set to go active only if the normal level was breached or frozen. There was no way to predict that.” He shook his head and echoed what Cole and Lorelei had already said to each other while trying to get to the display: “Somebody went to an awful lot of trouble to protect this place. A lot more than you’d ever expect for a boring old office building.”

  Tish had yet to look up from her deck, but now she added her first contribution to the conversation, which was as blunt as ever: “Did you get it?”

  “Yeah, we got it.” Cole patted his pocket but didn’t pull out the amulet. They could all admire it later, if they got out of here. Which was the priority right now. “So what’s the problem? You said there was a problem.”

  “Yeah.” Rodrick sighed and swept long, dark hair back from his face. He looked tired. Cole knew from working with other mages that magic could be exhausting, and the elf had clearly been forced to operate at a much higher level than expected since they’d broken in here. And from the sound of things, they weren’t done yet. “The building’s on lockdown.”

  “We guessed from the steel bars and mesh panels over all the doors and windows,” Lorelei said. She’d been lounging against one of the desks, but Cole could see she was actually coiled like a spring, ready to move at a moment’s notice.

  “It’s more than those,” Rodrick continued, giving her a brief glare. “Apparently they’ve got a protocol in place for something like this.” He gestured toward the back of the wide office space, where a wash of white light swept across a distant hall. “It scans the entire place, bit by bit, for anyone and everyone left inside. Compares them to its personnel rosters, approves the ones authorized to be here—” He actually gulped, looking even paler than usual.

  “—and fries the rest through a grid built into the floor,” Tish finished for him. The dwarf looked more angry than afraid, but from what Cole had seen that was normal for her. “I managed to reroute it so it started at the far end first, but the rate it’s going?” She shrugged. “We’ve got maybe five minutes, ten tops, before it hits us.”

  “Could we dodge around it?” Lorelei asked. “Head to a section it’s already covered and then just wait until it’s done?”

  But Tish was already shaking her head. “It’s smarter than that. It doesn’t leave an area once it’s been scanned, it just expands into the next one. Like somebody painting a floor—the patch they did first isn’t as wet by the time they reach the last one, but it’s still gonna leave a mark if you step on it.”

  “What about going up again?” was Lorelei’s next suggestion. “That worked before.”

  “Not this time,” Roderick answered. “The electricity may start under the floor but it arcs all the way to the ceiling. You’d get cooked as easily up there as down here.”

  Cole was thinking fast. “I’m guessing you’re trying to shut it down and not having any luck?” he asked, and Tish nodded. “Right. Stop working on that.”

  That got her attention enough for her to actually look up at him. “What? But if I can’t shut it off before it gets to us—”

  “You won’t be able to,” Cole interrupted. “And you’re wasting your time on it. I’ve got a better idea.” He grinned. “Get us into the system instead.”

  “That’s what I’m trying—” she started to say, but this time Lorelei was the one who cut her off with a sharp gasp.

  “Damn,” the elven thief whispered, straightening. She shot Cole a bright smile. “That’s brilliant!”

  “I’m missing something here,” Rodrick muttered, glancing back and forth between them.

  “Probably lots of somethings,” Lorelei agreed, then covered that with a sharp but sweet smile to counter his glower. “What Cole means is break into the personnel records and make us look like employees. You know, people who’re authorized to be here. Then, when the sweep reaches us—”

  “It’ll pass right over us, because we’ll be on the approved list.” Tish was nodding appreciatively. “Yeah, that is smart. And those records have barely any protection on them at all, since that’s not where they figure anyone’s gonna try breaking in. I can have us set up in a jiff.” She stopped talking again, her fingers moving at even greater speeds, her heavy features furrowed as she began work.

  Two minutes later, the four of them stood in the hallway, side by side, as the white light of the scan swept toward them. “Either this is gonna be a piece of cake or it’s gonna hurt like hell,” Tish said softly. She had her fists bunched at her sides like she could fight her way through the security measure, but of course if she’d done her job correctly she’d already won this fight. Still, Cole could hardly blame her for being nervous.

  The light reached them and enveloped them in a blinding white glare. “Individuals located,” a computerized voice announced. “Initiating scan.” The light intensified until all Cole could see was shrouded in a haze.

  “Matching to personnel records,” came the next declaration, followed a few seconds later by “Personnel records found. Individuals cleared for office activity.”

  They all breathed sighs of relief. Then they all had to gasp for breath when the computer system spoke again, stating, “Unauthorized item removal. Alert!”

  Oh, crap, Cole thought, his hand going to his pocket. They hadn’t even thought of that, but of course a place like this would inventory everything—and enter those items in its database right along with its employees. You could move a pencil or an eraser without a problem, sure, but in lockdown mode it would check to make sure expensive stuff like server racks were where they were supposed to be—and any relics and artifacts as well.

  Like the one he was now carrying.

  His hand snaked into his pocket and closed tightly around the amulet. Would the system fry them for having it? Or would it just demand that they return it? Or, more likely, incapacitate or otherwise restrain them until the authorities could come and retrieve it? Either way, they were going to have to—

  “Identity confirmed,” the security system declared. “Item removal authorized.” And the sweep passed over them, the sudden darkness leaving them all blinking as the sheet of white light continued on down the hall.

  “What was that?” Lorelei asked as soon as it had passed them by. She kept her voice to a whisper, as if somehow that would fool a security program capable of scanning DNA.

  “No idea,” Cole replied, letting go of the amulet and pulling his hand free. “But I’ll take it. Let’s get out of here before it changes its mind.”

  The others all nodded. “Which way?” Rodrick asked. “The way we’d planned, or—”

  But Cole had already thought about that and dismissed the idea. “It thinks we’re legit,” he pointed out. “If we try sneaking back out through the air ducts, it’s going to be forced to revise that assessment, and I’m not willing to assume it’s too dumb to figure that out. Are you?” The others all shook their heads. “So we leave the way any good little office worker would—out the service entrance.”

  There wasn’t anything that needed to be said to that, so they started walking. The office building had a main entrance, of course, but that led straight to the corridor he and Lorelei had just come from, and there was no way they were going back there, even with the computer thinking they were allowed to be here. There were two side entrances, however, and one of them opened right onto this office area. That was where they headed now, and when they reached the plain metal door they paused long enough for Tish to check the alarms and locks surrounding it.

  “All clear,” she announced, smirking. “Looks like the systems actually unlocked it for us when it saw us approaching. Helpful, that.”

  “Very.” Cole grabbed the door’s lockbar. “Once we’re out of here—”

  “Already done,” the decker assured him smugly. “Our records are time-sensitive.”

  “Nice.” And with that Cole pushed the lockbar and shoved the door open.

  It was still the middle of the night—with everythin
g that had happened, he’d half-expected it to be broad daylight outside, with people heading to work. He paused a second on the threshold to let his eyes adjust to the change in lighting, then dropped into a defensive crouch when someone large and hulking loomed into his peripheral vision.

  “You bozos about done?” Mace—Stonemace Lifecrusher to his close friends and associates—demanded, stepping into the light above the door just enough for them to see it was him, his signature stone mace hefted in both hands. “’Cause I’ve already had to put one patrol down, and set another off on a wild goose chase, and there’s a third on its way.”

  “Yeah, we’re done,” Cole replied, stepping all the way out of the building and heading toward the ork and the comforting shadows around him. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  He heard several mutters of agreement behind him, but didn’t bother to look back as he followed Mace along the exit route the big ork had cleared for them. At this point, the job was done, so the team wasn’t really a team anymore. Just a handful of individuals all hired for the same purpose, and all interested in getting away and getting paid. That meant it was in each of their own best interests to make it away from here safe and sound, so he’d let the others worry about that themselves. Even Lorelei. Anyway, she was a big girl. She could take care of herself, and wouldn’t appreciate him suggesting otherwise.

  Besides, he had the amulet. As long as he got out of here okay, he’d get paid. And if some of the rest of them—particularly the two newbs, who had nearly gotten him killed—were too slow or too stupid to escape? Well, that just meant a bigger cut for him.

  Cole thought he could live with that.

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