Deadly
Game
Chapter
Four
By
Fade
After the group had decided to remain together, everyone seemed to feel like they needed a break from each other. Silk went back into her room for a several hours and worked on some spells she had been designing. Hammer called Peter, the fixer who had arranged their extraction, while Shiver meditated for several hours, and Shadow cleaned his katana before following Shiver’s example. As everyone gathered back together for dinner, Hammer let the team know that he had an arrangement with the fixer who had setup the safe house. The fixer would gather data on who was hunting the team, for approximately 10,000 nuyen.
Upon further discussion the group agreed that since they would be staying together, it would be best to pool their resources while they tried to find work. Hammer and Shiver had 60,000 nuyen between them, while Shadow had no money. Turning to Silk, the rest of the group was astonished to learn that she had access to nearly 120,000 nuyen. Looking sheepishly at Shadow, the mage said, “I have a confession to make, grandpa (referring to the powerful elf) provided a monthly stipend for you so as not to burden me.”
Seeing
Hammer’s eyebrow start to rise in surprise, Silk quickly continued. “I wasn’t stealing the money, I just wanted
to make sure that you didn’t squander it before you got settled into life here
in
Shadow struggled for a moment to place a meaning to the English word stipend. As the shape shifter realized the implications of what had just been said, his lips curled back from his teeth in anger. “You lied to me. I wanted to buy a motorcycle, and you told me that there was no way either of us could pay for it.”
Silk nodded slowly, appearing truly contrite for the first time since Hammer had met her. “I’m sorry Shadow. I shouldn’t have lied, but I didn’t want to try and explain everything to you when you first got here. I promise that from now on I’ll try and explain things to you so you can make your own decisions, rather than just choose the route that I think is best.”
Shiver hid a slight smile at seeing the confident mage humbled, but felt it was time to establish that things could not be run by committee. “Leader can’t explain everything. Question orders, sometimes die.”
Hammer immediately realized what his protégé was trying to get at, and almost slapped his forehead in frustration at his thoughtlessness. It’s quite fortunate that I broke myself of that habit long ago; it lends itself to the idea of that I am just another big dumb troll.
As the troll samurai opened his mouth to comment on the fact that the group needed to establish a chain of command, he was amazed to be beaten to the punch by Shadow. The shape shifter caught Hammer’s eye, and filled the silence left by Shiver’s comment. “Speaking of following, I think we need to establish who is in charge with regards to tactical issues.”
Hammer winced internally at the thought of having to follow Silk’s direction in a firefight, or almost as bad, that of Shadow. Clearing his throat to put himself forward as the logical candidate, the troll found himself again preempted by the shape shifter.
“I believe that by far the best choice would be Hammer.”
Hammer was pretty sure that he kept the sense of relief from his face, but he noticed that his student was not very successful, and looked almost as confused as Silk. In a display of sound tactical skill given the situation, Shadow chose to confront the most dangerous threat first. Turning to Silk the big shape shifter put a hand on her shoulder. “I know that you have some pretty good experience from your time on the HTR team, and that you are remarkably intelligent, but you’ve never had to work from the command spot before. There are a lot of things you don’t know about the shadows yet, things that could get us killed. Hammer has run the shadows for a long time, and did an excellent job keeping us all alive while you and Shiver were unconscious. Even though you are my friend, I think he would do the best job in the leader slot.”
While the pretty elf was trying to think of how to refute Shadow’s argument, the shape shifter turned to Shiver to address his surprise. “I may not understand all of the details of how meta-humanity interacts, but I do understand power struggles, and conflict in general. It was fairly easy to read your comment as an attempt to establish who should serve as this group’s leader.”
Hammer realized for the first time just exactly how intelligent the shape shifter was. He notices everything, he just doesn’t always have enough information to properly translate the signals he sees.
Everyone seemed to feel that the immediately important issues had been settled, and as Silk yawned, the others found themselves doing likewise. Blinking slightly at the sight of someone the size of Hammer fighting back a yawn, tusks and all, Silk decided she was going to bed. As the mage rose out of her chair, the others arrived at the same conclusion, and waving at each other, everyone retired.
* * *
Shadow woke after sleeping seven hours, only to find that both Hammer and Shiver had been up for three hours training. When the two samurai took a break, Hammer answered the shape shifter’s unvoiced question. “We both had sleep regulators installed. Needing only three or four hours of sleep is invaluable. It doesn’t make us any faster or stronger, but it gives us extra time so we can train, and learn.” Shadow nodded in agreement, and Hammer proceeded, “Would you like to train with us? I’d like to see your capabilities so I have a better idea how to use you on runs.”
Silk woke an hour later, to one of the most incredible sights of her life. Shadow and Hammer were trading blows with an intensity that startled the mage. The big troll moved much faster than anyone would have believed possible a century ago, before magic and technology combined to make people stronger, faster and almost infinitely more deadly. Even knowing that the troll was augmented so heavily, and having been around lightning-fast killers for most of her professional career, Silk found it hard to believe that some who had to weigh nearly 250 kilos could move so fast. Every attack and combination was delivered with a speed and precision that reminded Silk of a machine. Shadow, weighing in at 100 kilos was dwarfed by his opponent, but seemed to have a significant edge in speed. A surprisingly large number of blows were making it past Hammer’s greater reach, and impacting with what appeared to be bone-crushing power. The troll seemed to shrug every blow off, not even slowing when a kick took him in the side. That would have shattered the ribs of even a normal troll, thought Silk. Then again, the fact that Hammer has bones that will stop armor piercing rounds, means there is no way this is a fair contest. As if to underscore the mage’s conclusion, Shadow’s was slightly slow in retreating from the kick, and Hammer delivered a quick blow to the shape shifter’s chest.
Silk winced as she heard ribs crack, and Shadow was thrown into a wall. The mage expected a break to be called, and mentally fumed. Stupid boys play too rough, and then expect me to fix them up. Silk was in for only slightly more of a surprise than Hammer. The big troll back peddled quickly, as the shape shifter used the momentum provided by bouncing off the wall to spring back into the fray. The beautiful grace of moments before was marred by the fact that the left side of Shadow’s chest didn’t move like it was supposed to, but no mere mortal could have matched the vengeful physad. Luckily for Hammer, he had given up all pretensions of simple mortality quite some time ago, and if he was momentarily unable to go on the offensive, he was blocking all of the other’s strikes.
At that moment, Silk realized two things; Shadow no longer seemed to be putting any real power into his blows, and Hammer seemed to be moving slower and slower. A fraction of a second later, Shadow’s former ease of movement seemed to return, and he delivered four or five light strikes to Hammer’s head, throat, and chest.
Silk expected Hammer to laugh off the blows, but instead the big troll fell over backwards and lay unmoving. Shadow executed a killing strike that stopped just short of Hammer’s throat, bowed, and then kneeled down next to the troll. A series of light taps later, Hammer was able to roll over and get to his feet. The big troll bowed to signal the end of the match, and then smiled, “I knew you had to be holding back somehow.” Motioning to Shiver he continued, “He told me you took him down when you we first arrived at Silk’s apartment. I wasn’t sure from his description, but I suspected you had cultivated the nerve strike ability.”
Silk walked over and felt Shadow’s ribs, confirming that they had indeed healed on their own during the fight. I keep forgetting that he regenerates from just about everything, thought the mage as she found herself gushing in amazement. “You took him down, he has to be world class, but you took him down. That means you are world class too.”
Shadow shook his head. “That was in practice, with him not knowing about my nerve strike ability, and I suspect he was holding back slightly. In a real fight, knowing my capabilities, I suspect that he would take me.”
Meanwhile, Shiver approached Hammer to discuss the tactical implications of working with Shadow. Upon overhearing Shadow’s analysis of the fight, Shiver shook his head and broke his habitual silence. “You are world class."
Hammer nodded in agreement with his student. "Unless someone is hunting you down, they won’t know your capabilities. Your speed, regeneration ability, and nerve strike would have been enough to take down anyone we have ever run across in hand to hand. How are you with a gun?”
Shadow looked sheepishly at the ground, which made Hammer think of his earlier realization. All those signals we take for granted are not natural to him, he merely does them to make people feel at ease. Shadow pointed at his sword and explained. “That is about as high tech as the monastery ever got. The patron always had a couple of guards carrying firearms, and the monastery guard had access to some sub machine guns, but for the most part we were only trained in non-ranged combat. If I have a chance to steady myself and aim, I can hit most things are a decent range, but I’m really not very good.”
Silk was still trying to understand how Shadow had paralyzed Hammer, and finally decided that since the others weren’t going to drop any additional hints she would have to go ahead and ask. “Excuse me, but what exactly did you do to beat Hammer?”
Shadow smiled, “I used strikes to the chi meridians on Hammer's hands and arms to slow him down enough that I could hit some of the more important spots on his neck, chest and head without being killed. Those last four or five strikes which were enough to completely immobilize him. Master Chin always said that it would be invaluable to learn nerve strikes. Initially I refused to learn them, but he was persistent enough that I put the time in to learn them. It took a couple of years to become even as proficient as I am.”
With that, the group got down to discussing actual skills, and styles of operation. Silk was slightly disappointed that she wouldn’t get to see a match between her friend and Shiver. When she had mentioned it Shiver had seemed willing, but Hammer had vetoed the idea. “Shiver is starting to develop a cough after yesterday, I don’t want him to push too hard or he could end up in serious trouble.”
The mage’s disappointment was short lived however because the discussion of Shadow’s nerve strike ability lead quite naturally to a discussion of his other abilities, which she quite enjoyed hearing. Although Silk didn’t understand some of what the men were describing, she paid close attention when Shadow mentioned his “combat sense.” Amazingly enough, the mysterious ability that Shadow hadn’t really ever been able to explain to her was old hat to both Hammer and Shiver. “Have you ever been around anyone with a tactical computer,” Hammer asked. Silk indicated she was familiar with the abilities of someone equipped with that particular piece of cyberware, and the troll continued.
“As you know, the tactical computer analyses the information coming in from all your senses. It helps filter out the unimportant details, and focus in on the critical sensory information. A really good tactical computer can help people avoid ambushes that they don’t consciously know are coming. Combat sense for a physical adept works similarly. Shadow picks up on an incredible amount of sensory data, so he operates from a better knowledge base than the rest of us. A crease in an opponent’s forehead, a slight tensing of a leg, any number of subtle clues can tip him off to what an opponent is going to do.”
Turning to Shadow, Silk gave him a dirty look. “Why didn’t you just tell me that when I asked?”
Hammer shook his head. “Shadow can correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t imagine that he ever realized that he is that much more perceive than the rest of us. If a person is born with an ability, they often have no reason to believe that what they can do is any different than what anyone else can do.”
Shadow nodded, “This is correct, but I think it involves more than just my physical senses. As an experiment, the monks locked me in a soundproof room with one way mirrors. Somehow, even though all five senses were nullified, I could still feel whenever they aimed a weapon at me.”
Hammer smiled broadly at that, and turned towards Shiver, who uncharacteristically was also grinning from ear to ear. Silk turned towards Shadow only to become frustrated at his knowing look. “Alright, every member of this little boy’s club looks like they are about to rupture themselves, so I’ll bite. What has all of you so happy?”
Hammer chose to answer, although Shiver looked like he wanted to say something snide. I think that stupid elf gets too much satisfaction out of trying to relieve me of my ignorance, he probably thinks it is taking me down a notch to admit that I don’t know something, thought the mage. “Our new friend has just informed us that his combat sense is so well developed that he essentially can not be ambushed. That of course means he is the ideal point man for any endeavor. This understandably is quite a relief to Shiver and I, who have seen a number or good teams fall to ambushes. Shadow on the other hand is probably just pleased to be able to contribute to the team.”
Although the mage was tempted reply to this tidbit of information with some kind of acidic remark, she refrained. Heavens knows I can understand what it would be like to be ambushed, so I can appreciate the fact that Shadow has some superpower that lets him detect them. I’ll just have to make sure I think things through a little better next time so Shaky doesn’t get the satisfaction of seeing Hammer explain something so basic to me.
The rest of the discussion revealed that Hammer and Shiver really did have ultra-expensive delta grade cyberware installed throughout most of their body. Hammer’s bone lacing and dermal replacement that allowed him to soak up so much punishment without getting seriously injured were both courtesy of the infamous Chiba clinic, as was the cyberware and bioware that Shiver had recently had installed.
“Ironically enough, like Shadow, we belonged to a monastery,” Hammer explained. I don’t want to get into all the details, but the monks had some connections to the delta clinic in Chiba, and quite a bit of money. Consequently, all of our top people were very highly cybered. I’ve served as the monastery’s assassin for the last twenty years, and in the process have had enough metal implanted in my body to kill me had the cyber been a of a little lower quality, or the surgeons less skilled. Three months ago I was on a training mission with Shiver. The target was a local drug lord who had started dabbling in the slave trade as well. We got back from the mission and found our brethren murdered. There are very few clues as to who destroyed the monastery, but what little evidence I was able to find pointed towards Seattle, so I used the remaining money to which we had access to send Shiver to Chiba, and arranged to meet him here.”
Silk realized that Hammer had said everything he intended to say, and suppressed a scowl. I guess we all have secrets that we don’t plan on telling the others. Welcome to the shadows Silk, paranoia really is a survival skill out here.
The fact that Hammer hadn’t been as forthcoming as the mage would have liked reminded her that she would probably be better off not recounting her entire life’s history to the group. Consequently she sketched in only the bare details that pertained to her abilities.
“I received a formal education in magic in Tir Tairngire, but eventually left. I’m fairly well grounded in healing spells, as well as a variety of sleep and stunning spells. I’ve got decent ability with regards to summoning elementals, but don’t do so all that much.”
Seeing Hammer raise an eyebrow, Silk hurried to defend her statement. “People don’t realize how expensive it gets to always be buying the ritual equipment you need to summon elementals. Doc Wagon used to give their mages an allowance to buy all that junk, but they stopped a few years ago. I think they said it was being abused by some of mages, but the real reason was that they wanted to fatten up their bottom line.”
Deciding that she hadn’t really justified not keeping an elemental or two around as backup, Silk promised herself that she would remedy the situation shortly, and meanwhile decided to finish describing her abilities as quickly as possible.
“I can use a gun, but I’m probably not even as accurate as Shadow is.” Seeing that the rest of the group was patiently waiting for her to tell them about additional abilities, Silk started getting nervous. Oh no, they don’t think I’m good enough, what else can I do? In desperation the mage continued, “Um, I’ve also got a really cool collection of spells that the mages in the fashion industry have been using, but I guess they probably won’t come in too useful while running the shadows.” Why in the world did I just say that, thought the mage as she wished once again that her life had taken a different course. I’ll never get into industry now, so please don’t ask about those spells.
Hammer seemed to sense Silk’s discomfort, or he may have simply figured that if Silk hadn’t volunteered additional information then the team didn’t have a right to know about it. Whatever the reason, Hammer chose not to inquire further.
Reviewing the information that Shadow and Silk had just shared, Hammer felt the tactical situation start to form in his mind. After finding out if Shadow and Silk had any preferences as far as equipment went, the big troll placed another call to the fixer that had arranged the safe house.
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