***

Silk had expected for Hammer to tell the team that they were going after the car when she woke up the next morning, but even though the mage hadn’t said anything, the troll had seemed to sense that something had taken place between her and Shiver. Instead, everyone was instructed to take advantage of one more day of respite to get some serious training done.

Eight hours later, Hammer was finally satisfied with everyone’s performance, nearly every muscle in Silk’s body was tired and sore, and she was sick and tired of staring at the same three faces. When Hammer announced that he and Shiver were going to take the opportunity to practice some deep meditation, the mage decided she wasn’t ever going to get a better chance to get out of the house.

Once Hammer and Shiver were deep enough into the meditative state that they wouldn’t hear her sneak out, the mage changed into some clubbing clothes, and slipped out of the door. Shadow, who had been cleaning his beloved katana, intercepted her before she was out of sight of the house but she convinced him that Hammer hadn’t explicitly said anything forbidding her from leaving. Shadow of course wasn’t buying Silk’s story, but in the end he seemed to decide that arguing with her further wasn’t worth the cold shoulder he was sure to get for the next few days. By all appearances nobody was after the team, so the mage should be relatively safe as long as she stayed away from the really bad parts of the city.

Silk deftly avoided the shape shifter’s offer to accompany her by pointing out that the whole purpose of clubbing was to pick up on guys, none of which would approach her if she had a hulking Chinese man glaring at anyone who made eye contact with her. A crackling arc of energy sizzled from one hand to the other, reinforcing the fact that the elf could indeed take care of herself. With a shrug Shadow retreated back towards the apartment.

Silk considered calling one or more of the friends that she used to go clubbing with, but quickly discarded the idea. Any contact with the life she had built in Seattle before Shadow had shown up could be used by someone to hunt her down, so instead she spent the next few hours getting her hair and nails done before deciding exactly which club she’d be gracing with her presence for the night. Over the course of her time in the salon, the elf’s wrist phone rung a couple of times, but Silk didn’t answer it, figuring that it was Hammer trying to get through to her so that he could demand that she return to the safe house. Eventually the mage finished primping, and a short cab ride latter found herself in front of The Bleeding Edge, one of the current Seattle hot spots.

The elf adjusted her leather skirt, and slipped the troll bouncer a twenty-nuyen bill as she flipped her hair and slid past him. The battered old Amerind smiled as the stunning runner walked away, and then turned back to the denim-sporting gander girl who was trying to sneak past him. “Git lost, ya don’t hav an invitation.”

Inside, the combination of lights and music pulsed through the mage like a second heartbeat as she made her way over to the bar. Silk ordered a virgin strawberry daiquiri, a club was no place to get tipsy when you were by yourself, and checked out the early birds who were filtering into the club through the thick tendrils of artificial fog that were creeping across the club floor..

So far there wasn’t any real competition out there, but there wasn’t really any guys worth her time either. The mage sat back on a stool and enjoyed the band, while she waited for more men to show up. A pair of posters on either side of the stage advertised the band as being Depleted, probably an up an coming local band whose aggressive, cutting-edge sound had helped catapult, at least temporarily, the club into the A List of places where everyone wanted to be come Friday night. Silk usually wasn’t into Ork Slash Rock, she preferred the more mellow elvish stuff that she’d grown up with, but the band was incredibly good. The heavy drum and guitar core to the music was balanced out by the lead singer, a female ork who had a range so high that Silk had a hard time believing that a voice like that could come out of such a massive body.

As the evening wore on, the front girl proved to have even more talent than the mage had initially guessed. Had she been born to a wealthier family, and in a different body, Silk suspected that the ork could have made quite a career in opera, or on the stage. Suddenly the bitter lyrics to the songs that the group had been singing registered in the mage’s mind, and she pushed her drink away, no longer enjoying the music.

The beautiful elf had more reason than most to be aware of the difference that money and looks could make in someone’s life, but that didn’t mean that she liked the fact that some people coasted through life, while others had to struggle just to survive. The words to old, stale arguments she’d had with her mother came back, prowling through Silk’s mind in an effort to ruin the night.

The mage shook her head, turned back to silk-clad bartender, and ordered a screw-driver. Despite her personal rule against drinking while clubbing by herself, there was no way that the elf was wasting the night thinking about her past. If it took some alcohol to push everything back to the quiet corners of her mind where she usually kept her demons locked up, then the blond would drink until she puked everything back up, or was forced to cast a detox spell on herself.

Looking around Silk realized that a full hour had passed, and there were now quite a few more people in the club. There were a couple of humans in one corner who’s movie-star good looks were enough to give the elf a run for her money, but they seemed to be more interested in each other than any of the guys making the rounds, so it looked like she could still pretty much have her pick.

Letting her gaze wander past a human that looked like he was carved from granite, and an elf who moved like a hunting cat and kept to the shadows, the mage settled on a pair of gorgeous guys in black silk who’d been giving her the eye for the last few minutes.

The next couple of hours were bliss. Every girl who made eye contact with the mage burned with jealousy, while every guy she saw made sure that she knew they’d drop whoever they were dancing with if she decided to walk over to them. Every time the trio stopped for a breather, the pair bought Silk a drink. By the third one, the worries which had been ruining the night were nothing but a fading memory, and the mage switched back to virgin drinks for the rest of the night.

Everything was proceeding perfectly for the elf right up to the point where the pair of hunks invited her to come home with them. Silk’s upbringing strictly prohibited casual dalliance, so she politely put them off. The pair then asked for her number, which she started to give out, only to realize that as good looking as the pair was, they were just normal people, completely unconnected with the shadows. Neither of the two humans would last two days in Silk’s world, a fact which filled her with a sense of loss as she realized more fully just how much her life had changed in the last few weeks.

The elf tried to finish up the string of digits with something besides her number, but she’d paused too much, and it was obvious that she was trying to blow the pair off. Things turned a little ugly at that point, as all three individuals, two of whom were drunk to the point of being mean, realized that they had essentially wasted the night. One of the guys, called Silk something that made her ears burn, so she slapped him, only to be backhanded in turn by his friend. The elf kneed the second guy, only get hit hard enough that she found herself sprawled out on the club’s glowing floor.

The mage was fuzzily trying to cast the detox spell that would clear the alcohol out of her system, when a dark figure interposed itself between her and the angry humans. Considering that Silk had never seen a man show the least amount of sense when it came to a perceived slight, she wasn’t surprised to see the pair launch themselves at her defender.

The dark figure blurred into motion, and the elf’s alcohol-dulled senses couldn’t even follow the exchange of blows. The pair of drunks fared even worse, somehow ending up clutching bruised, broken, and bleeding limbs, as a pair of ork bouncers and a troll moved in to break things up before any more paying patrons got hurt.

The dark streak intercepted the troll, leaving him unconscious and prompting the other two bouncers to pull knives from various places of concealment and rush the person who had just incapacitated their fellow employee.

Silk managed to finish up her spell as the orks hit the floor, and the black shape reeled away bleeding in a couple of spots. The mage gasped as her protector turned, revealing himself to be Shiver. The slender elf felt the room start to spin around her, only to find that the razor had picked her up, and was headed towards an emergency exit.

Detox spell or not, the trip home was mercifully hidden in a haze. Silk remembered crying, and clinging to Shiver before finally realizing that he was still bleeding, and trying to cast a healing spell. The drain proved to be too much for the tired elf, and as darkness came to claim her, she realized that the gillette had looked uncharacteristically sympathetic every time that she was able to force herself to meet his eyes.

***

The next morning found the runners observing the apartment building, under which the Eurocar was parked, from two different directions. Shiver apparently had followed the mage all day, and after putting her to bed, had explained things well enough that nobody said anything harsh when Silk woke up the next morning. The elf found that she was as grateful for Shiver’s efforts to spare her further embarrassment as she was for his rescuing her the night before.

Whatever had transpired, it looked like everyone was going to pretend like nothing had happened, and consequently, the team was finally going after the car that they’d been casing out before Shadow had fallen into his pit of self doubt.

As the sun stationed itself directly overhead, and did its best to burn through the fog that the previous night’s rain had left, Hammer positioned himself and Silk on one roof, and Shiver and Shadow on another. Silk was conducting her final astral reconnaissance before the other team moved in.

Hammer looked away from his sniper scope as he heard Silk stir. “Report,” queried the gillette.

“That place is amazing. I followed your instructions, and went all the way into the apartment this time. The ward was old enough that I broke through it without any problems. There is a fortune in there. Electronics, weapons, art, you name it.”

Hammer hid a smile as he shifted on the black roof. “Is there any opposition?”

“Oh that. We are frosty, there isn’t anyone in the apartment, and I don’t see anyone in the area that looks remotely interested in what happens to the target.”

Hammer nodded, activated his sub-vocal microphone. “One here, rover is good to go.”

______

Shiver clicked his microphone twice to acknowledge the order, and began disassembling his sniper rifle. Thirty seconds later, the elf finished packing the rifle pieces into the special duffle bag used to transport the weapon.

The elf looked around one last time before gesturing for Shadow to lead the way. The pair entered the stairwell from the roof, reactivated the door alarm, and then continued down to the ground floor. Shadow tried to appear casual as he crossed the street, but his combat sense was turned up so high that he wanted to jump out of the way anytime someone looked at him.

The two samurai entered the modest, grey apartment building, and flashed their key at the pair of brawny ork security guards. There was a tense moment as a younger guard played with his pistol, but the other guard waved him off. “We’ve never seen these two fraggers before,” protested the first rent-a-guard.

“Yeah, and they are wearing armor and probably packing weapons, and all kinds of nova-hot cyberware judging by the way they move.” The older guard looked Shiver over again, noting how relaxed the elf was. “The point however is that they have the right key, and since we’ve never seen the renter, they could very well be the person paying for that corner suite. So back off before they hurt you.”

Buzzing the pair through the second door, the guard gestured Shiver closer to the bulletproof glass. “We’ll be watching you all the way to 232. Do me a favor and don’t try to start something. I’m too old to try and gun down a pair of runners who are stronger and faster than God intended men to be.”

Shiver smiled slightly and nodded before heading towards the stairs. Trying very hard not to react to the lethal intent that the first guard was aiming his way, Shadow followed the elf, hoping that the ork would relax a little once the pair was out of sight.

A couple of minutes later the samurai reached the target apartment without having encountered any problems. Shadow watched the cream-colored halls while Shiver pulled out a small device consisting of a fiber optic cable and a small screen. The elf quickly inserted the cable under the apartment door, and used it to scan for some kind of alarm system.

Shiver looked up from the screen, “Looks clean.” Smiling sarcastically at the hall camera that had rotated to look at them, the razor dropped the mini camera into a pocket, and opened the door.

As the two men slid into the luxuriously-furnished apartment, Shadow’s magically enhanced ears picked up the soft sound of something snapping. Looking up towards where the sound came from, Shadow saw a very thin thread that had broken as the door open. “It looks like we are probably the first to come in,” commented the shape shifter.

Shiver started unzipping the duffle bags that the pair had brought in anticipation of Hammer’s next order. “Shiver, Shadow, go ahead and clean the apartment out. Don’t overburden yourself, but get everything you can that could be cashed in to pay our future bills with Crack Net. Silk reports the astral as being all clear, and there isn’t any mundane activity in the area, so you should have at least a few minutes, make a careful job of it. ”

The two runners decided to depend on their teammates for warning, and consequently both were able to start throwing things into their duffels. Shiver started with the gun safe that occupied one wall of the bedroom. The elf knew very little about demolitions, and didn’t have any explosives with him, so his options were somewhat limited. A quick inspection showed that the safe was a top-of-the-line model with ceramic components designed to defeat the use of a monofilament cutting tool, so using a sten knife, or something similar was out of question. Shiver was about to move on when he remembered the key that Hammer had handed him just before they had left on the mission.

“This got us into the good stuff in the compound, maybe it will help once you’re into the apartment.” He was right again, thought the razor in disbelief as the key opened up the gun safe. Who would have thought that someone would use the same key for so many things. Of course, who would be stupid enough to put as many eggs in one basket as this racist human did back in the compound, reflected the elf remembering that a single bag had contained nearly a million in liquid assets, as well as the keys to multiple apartments, and vehicles.

Examining the contents of the safe, Shiver found that it actually contained quite a bit more than just weapons. A Novatech deck was crowded next to a pocket secretary and a pile of credsticks. An AK-97 assault rifle, a Ranger Arms sniper rifle, and a Ingram Smartgun occupied three of the padded alcoves, while a variety of heavy pistols, some of which appeared to be collectors items rounded out the firearm contents of the safe. What is up with this guy, he seems obsessed with those, though Shiver upon seeing a ceramic sheath that had to contain a sten knife. Very nearly the ultimate cutting tool ever devised by man, the knife was constructed of extremely hard crystal, grown in zero gravity. The real advantage that the crystal had over some other type of material was that with a little coaxing, the crystal could be made to form an edge that was only 18 or 19 atoms thick. With that kind of edge, there was very little that the knife couldn’t cut through given sufficient time. Of course the construction process for one of the knives was extremely time consuming and expensive, so the knives were very rare, but if you had the money, you could get anything.

While Shiver was packing up the more valuable contents of the safe, Shadow looked through the rest of the apartment with much less luck. There was a very expensive trid unit in the living room, but it was much too large to move quickly, so it had to stay, as did the complex sound system built into the wall of the apartment. There were a number of paintings on the walls, but as Shadow started pulling them out of their frames he discovered that they were all copies of original pieces. Good thing I talked to Hammer about how he was certifying all those other paintings as real. One by one, the things that Silk had expected to bring the team quite a bit of money didn’t pan out. At last, Shadow had inspected the entire apartment, finding nothing of value except for a small trid chip collection, and a portable trid player from the kitchen.. “Nothing else here,” commented the shape shifter as he walked into the bedroom.

Shiver nodded, zipping the last of the valuables into the duffle bag. “Let’s fade.” The pair checked back in with Hammer, confirming that nothing unusual was happening before heading back down the stairs.

As the pair came around a corner they were astonished to see the older ork waiting for them. The two runners fanned out, expecting some kind of trouble with the security guard, but he shook his head. “I’m not looking to start anything. I got to thinking and came up with an idea that you might be interested in. You both have the look of a hit and run type of operation. The way I figure things you came to clean any valuables out of the joint, and then split. You could get a tad more out of this if you wanted though.”

Shadow cocked his head to the side, which the ork took as enough of a sign of interest to continue. “I sometimes get into records around here that I probably shouldn’t. From what I’ve seen the money paying for that apartment isn’t going to stop coming in. Unless someone specifically tells it to. Assuming that the someone who could make that decision is dead, you could possibly take advantage of that steady stream of nuyen. You have the key to the apartment, so use it to request that management give you a different apartment while applying the money that is coming in against the other apartment. The corp that owns these flops owns thirty or forty other complexes. You could pick a spot in one of those, and then hack into the mainframe and make it look like the corp just got greedy and rented this place out to someone else, keeping the rent payments that are coming in.”

Shadow stared at the guard baffled as to why he would be offering strangers such useful advice. Shiver on the other hand knew exactly why someone would be helping out suspected runners. The elf slowly unzipped his duffle bag. “Short on cash,” announced Shiver as he pulled out a pair of matching heavy pistols, and the Ingram, ejected the clips, and then handed both the weapons and clips to the guard separately.

The ork smiled and pointed back to the stairs. “The guy that rented that apartment left a car down in space 86. I imagine that you’ll want to pick it up while you’re here.” Tucking the pistols into his waistband, and slinging the submachine gun over his shoulder, the guard turned and walked back down the hall whistling a energetic little tune.

A few minutes later in the dimly-lit underground garage, the pair found parking spot 86 and the sports car they had been seeking for the last week. The dark blue Westwind seemed almost alive. Shiver half expected the vehicle to spring at him as he walked around behind it. Shadow, who had bugged Silk every day for his first week in Seattle to buy him a sports car or bullet bike, just stood staring in awe at the car. Eventually the shape shifter tore himself away from visually tracing the sleek lines of the car, and pulled out a bug scanner that Hammer had handed him that morning.

While Shadow went over the vehicle looking for bugs, Shiver performed a detailed visual inspection looking for bombs, cut fuel lines, or anything else that might spell trouble. The elven razor had spent eight or nine hours over the last two days while Shadow and Silk had been asleep, reading up on vehicles, and common ways that people tried to sabotage them, but even with his mnemonic enhancer enhancing his recall ability, the elf was nervous that he would forget something important.

Shadow had been done with his scan for five minutes before Shiver finally crawled out from under the Eurocar, and indicated that the vehicle was sound. After the pair had safely stored the valuables in the trunk, they climbed into the vehicle only to find that they were in for a pretty big disappointment.

“Drek,” cried Shiver as he hit the steering wheel. Shadow decided that his friend must be fairly upset because the shape shifter had never heard the razor swear before, but noted that Shiver was calm enough not to have put any real force behind the blow to the car. It would be a very bad thing to break the car before we even got it out of the parking garage.

“What is wrong,” inquired Shadow.

Shiver pointed at the fuel gauge which was registering empty, “Figures.” In what was undoubtedly the longest communication that Shadow had heard from Shiver, the elf radioed Hammer and explained that the car had probably been delivered to the garage straight from the show room. “There isn’t any gas in this beast, we’ll have to stop for fuel.”

Upon informing Hammer of the situation, Shiver got out of the car to retrieve the fuel canister that he had noticed in the trunk while securing the valuables. As the elf emptied the container into the car he fumed over the stupidity of having a vehicle, but leaving it in a state where it wouldn’t be usable without several minute’s preparation. The possibility of fuel turning into varnish in the fuel tank was a good reason to empty out the tank of an antique, but not a vehicle that your life depended on.

_____

From his rooftop vantage point, Hammer scanned the area looking for a gas station. As he saw the blue Westwind pull out of the underground parking spot, the troll directed Shiver towards the service station.

Hammer checked to make sure that Silk was ok, only to find that she had come back from her astral scouting. “So we are frosty right,” the mage inquired. “They are out and we can fade.”

Hammer shook his head, and pointed. “They have to fill the car up. We need to stay on site and cover them until they are out of sight, and we’ve ascertained whether or not there is going to be any response to our entering the apartment.”

Silk nodded and lay back down, slipping into astral space. The mage looked at Hammer momentarily, enjoying the dark blue of concentration that permeated the troll’s aura. Silk then hurried down to check out the gas station.

The ordinary laws of physics didn’t apply in astral space, so the mage zipped across the kilometer between her and her team members in less than a second. Looking at the balding, portly old man inside the battered old shop, Silk saw an aura filled with the kind of things one would expect. The old man seemed to be worried about something, but it was a long term, ever-persistent worry rather than the sharp pulsing worry of someone planning some kind of underhanded deed like icing someone and stealing their car. Probably wondering whether or not he’ll be able to make end’s meet, thought the mage as she looked a little closer at the human’s aura, confirming that he was essentially harmless.

A quick tour through the gas station and the house that was attached to it, a feat accomplished by stepping through aged walls and warped doors at breakneck speed, showed that the only other occupant was a bird-like old woman who’s aura matched the man’s so well, that the mage assumed they were married.

Satisfied that no harm would come to her friends from those two, Silk rose through the concrete roof of the building, trying to get high enough to see if anyone was approaching via the streets. Silk had only been aloft for a minute or so when she saw something moving towards the gas station at a fairly rapid pace.

Soaring down to examine the movement the mage found herself face to face with a group of teens dressed in black and red, who were riding a motley collection of motorcycles. Another second or two proved to be enough time for Silk to assess a couple of auras and decide that the gang was almost certainly looking for trouble.

Silk looked around and realized that she had only a few seconds before the gang passed her friends. Fleeing back to her body at the full speed possible in astral space, the mage arrived back and opened her eyes, gasping with the shock of transitioning back to her body so quickly. “You’ve got to warn them. There is a gang headed towards them, and they seem to be looking for some kind of trouble.”

_____

Shiver had just started pumping gas when Hammer activated his radio and warned the elf of the incoming gang. “Too late,” responded the razor as the bikes go close enough that his acute hearing could separate the throaty roar of engines from the background noise of the city.

Shiver tapped the roof of the car to alert Shadow that something was up, and then tried to pump gas as casually as possible. Drek, I know it isn’t going to work. In a neighborhood like this, having a 200,000 nuyen vehicle is all but begging someone to try and take you down a peg or two.

Shadow exited the car as the gangers rolled up to the gas station, and surrounded the two runners. The apparent leader of the group, a large dark-haired norm with fourteen or fifteen piercings on his face, looked Shadow and Shiver over for a moment before deciding not to risk a confrontation. Although anyone who brought such a ridiculously expensive car into the gang’s turf deserved to loose the vehicle, there was something about the pair that made Needle nervous. As long as the two didn’t obviously challenge the gang’s authority or Needle’s courage, the gang’s sergeant didn’t have to try and knock them around any. If the gang’s actual leader took issue with that later on, Needle would just have to deal with Breaker’s wrath then.

The rest of the gangers knew enough to follow Needle’s lead, so they didn’t overtly try and start anything with the pair of runners who’s car they had surrounded , but that didn’t stop them from heckling the pair a little.

“Hey chummers you weren’t planning on going anywhere were you?”

“Nice car, want me to break it in with a few bullet holes for you?”

Shadow wasn’t sure how to respond to the yells coming from the gangers, so he followed Shiver’s lead and just ignored the teens. Failing to get any kind of rise out of their targets, the youths turned to watch what they knew would be a good show, as Needle drug the gas station owner out onto the oil stained pavement.

“Sam, why are you being such a pest. My friends need their wheels topped off, so turn the pumps on already.”

The old man was obviously very scared, but apparently had realized that the way things were going he only had a few weeks before he would have lost so much money to the gang that he wouldn’t be able to pay for the next fuel shipment. “Y-you have to pay first. Th-then I’ll turn the pumps on.”

Needle laughed as he slapped the old man, knocking the other to the ground. “You stupid piece of drek. We protect you from all kinds of bad things, and you are trying to soak us for nuyen just to fill up a couple of hogs. Think of this as our protection fee.”

The ganger turned to a scrawny, leather-clad elf who hadn’t yet hit the growth spurt that would let him loom over the heads of his fellows. “Beanpole, go turn the pumps on.”

Beanpole headed into the gas station only to come back out after a couple of seconds with a frown on his face. “There is some kind of code lock on the pumps now. You have to know the code to turn everything on.”

None of the gangers were laughing now. A sign of defiance like this had to be crushed quickly. Before it spread. Needle knelt down to put his battered, pierced face closer to the old man’s. “Nice try Sam, but we both know where this is headed. You can just tell us the code and save yourself and your wife a lot of pain, or you can be stupid, and get someone hurt.”

Wicked looking knives had started appearing among the gang members, they at least largely seemed to be in favor of hurting someone. Sam looked at the gangers and realized that there was no real way to avoid problems now. Even if he gave them the code, they probably make an example of him now to ensure that no one else in the neighborhood tried to stand up to them. The old man took a deep breath and then spit at Needle.

There was an instant of complete stillness as everyone tried to understand what had just happened, and then Needle pulled out a stiletto and extended the blade. “You’re going to be sorry you did that, sorry for a long time.”

Realizing his attempt to anger the ganger into killing him quickly had failed, Sam felt sobs bubbling up out of his chest. The old man shrunk further down towards the ground as the ganger approached, knife weaving. The only thing left to hope for now was that the teens would stop with him, leaving his wife alone.

Needle flicked his knife out, creating a shallow slash on Sam’s cheek. As the ganger reached back to strike again, he felt crushing strength grab his wrist, and then an arm hit him in the chest, hurling him backwards into the ground.

Shiver saw Sam looked back up as the old man heard Needle hit the ground. When it came down to it, the elf hadn’t really been surprised that Shadow had slipped past the gangers, and taken the leader down, the shape shifter always had more heart than brains. Realizing that there was no way the gang would back down after Shadow threw Needle around, Shiver exploded into action as soon as Shadow was committed.

The elf lashed out with a foot, catching the nearest gang member in the temple with his heel. The mohawked ganger hit the ground only a split second behind his leader, and half of a second ahead of his friend, who Shiver had already hit with a quick jab and a hammer fist.

Shadow tapped Needle lightly in the chest with his heel, hitting a major nerve cluster. As the gang leader felt pain explode through every part of his body, Shadow was already moving towards the rest of the gang. The gangers had been watching as Shadow attacked Needle, so they responded to him first, not even realizing that Shiver had gone on the offensive. As guns stated appearing, Shadow tried to close with the gangers, and Shiver dropped two gangers with rapid punches, and sent a third through the air with a back thrust kick.

A kilometer away on the filthy, sagging rooftop Hammer bit back an oath as he realized what was happening. “Neutralize the opposition,” instructed the gillette to Silk as he sighted in the first ganger. The troll squeezed the sniper rifle’s trigger, felt a slight kick, and saw the target’s head explode as a heavy caliber round tore through it.

Silk new from experience that events would be happening too quickly for her to follow, so instead of picking an individual target, she just pulled in the mana, and dropped an area stun spell on the biggest cluster of targets she could see, hoping that her efforts would be enough to ensure that Shadow and Shiver didn’t get hurt..

Three of the gangers grabbed their heads, and staggered around, while others fell to the ground. As Silk blinked trying to clear the spots from her eyes, Hammer dropped another target, and Shiver slashed an opponent with his hand razors. A second later, Shadow reached the gangers, and started dropping the already stunned gang members with rapid strikes and throws.

Two seconds later the fight was over, and all but one ganger was either unconscious or dead. From his spot on the asphalt, Needle saw the well-muscled elf walk over. Trying to fight past the most intense pain he had ever felt, the ganger found that his nerves were still firing so quickly that he couldn’t do anything but twitch.

Shiver looked questioningly at Shadow. “He won’t be able to move for a minute or two still. It will be another two minutes after that before he is really dangerous again.” Shiver nodded and knelt down so Needle could see him. “You’re in the drek now,” commented the elf. Looking at the old man who was still sitting in a small pool of oil, the razor raised an eyebrow. “What next?”

Shadow could see the wheels turning in the human’s mind, as the other realized that he couldn’t stay where he was. “We’ll have to leave ja? The other kids will find out what happened. They will probably kill us.”

As despair threatened to overwhelm the old man, Hammer came on over the two runner’s ear pieces. “I need a status report, why are you two still there?”

Shadow looked at Shiver before replying. “We can’t just leave the old man here. If anyone shows up before he gets out of here they will kill him.”

Hammer was quiet for a second before sighing. “You are right, I’ll call Peter. He can arrange a pickup for the man and his wife.”

Shadow smiled at Shiver, and then set about searching the fallen gangers. Shiver shook his head before turning back to the Sam. “Relax.” The elf then pulled out a narcojet pistol and started shooting unconscious opponents to ensure that they remained that way.

Needle felt a slight decrease in the waves of pain coursing through his system. The tough felt a slight amount of hope. It looked like everyone had forgotten him. Exerting a fair amount of willpower, the ganger found that he could now control a few muscles to a limited extent, and that he was starting to get sensations other than just pain. Twisting his head slightly, Needle felt the rough asphalt dig into his cheek a little as he tried to subtly reposition himself so he could watch the two runners.

When the ganger finally moved enough to see the elf, he found a pair of cold, dark eyes watching him. The fragger has been playing with me the whole time. He never forgot about me. At that point Needle realized that a heavy pistol had joined the narcojet in the elf’s hands. As Shiver saw the realization dawn in the other’s eyes, he looked at Sam and queried, “Which.”

Needle heard a slight shift from behind, and saw the emotionless elf nod. Both weapons came up, drifted towards the ganger’s neck, there was a silenced shot, and then the gang saw everything fade to a dark gray.

Shiver holstered the unfired Predator, ejected the spent clip of narcojet darts, and inserted a new clip before concealing the weapon. The elf looked at Needle, then over at Sam. “Bad choice, somebody else will have to kill him eventually.”

***

Hammer tried to relax back at the base, but he had a very bad feeling about the day’s events. The team had managed to get Sam and his wife out of the area without problems from any more of the gang. Peter had assisted, arranging for a safe house, and eventual transportation for the pair, as well as picking up all the motorcycles and weaponry from the gangers.

The fixer was pretty sure that he could get enough from the bikes and other goodies to get the couple started with a new life, even allowing for a modest cut to Peter for his efforts. A hundred thousand nuyen isn’t a ton on which to start a new life, but Peter said he would try and arrange a sale of the land their gas station was on to help them out a little more.

Silk had almost cried when Shiver handed the keys to the Westwind over to Peter. The mage had wanted to keep the sports car something fierce, but had agreed in the end that the team needed to pursue the much bigger payoff likely when Crack Net managed to break the encryption on the military vehicle. The fact that Silk finally agreed that the car needed to go didn’t mean that she didn’t throw a fit, or two or three, before getting to that point. The mage had explained at length that the universe was possessed of not a single shred of justice to let her get this close to owning a Westwind, and then take it away from her. After a few minutes, the verbal rant was enough to penetrate the warm fuzzy feelings that Shiver seemed to be feeling of late towards the other elf. Shiver probably wouldn’t have minded the detailed objection if it hadn’t been made at fairly high volume, which seemed to get louder as the diatribe progressed, but as it was he looked to be close to saying something that would cause all kinds of problems between him and the mage. Hammer had finally motioned Shiver into the other room until Silk finished. The mage had seen the other elf leave, and realizing that she was being more than a little unreasonable, wrapped her complaint up as quickly as she could without making it obvious that she was quitting because Shiver was leaving.

Strangely enough, Shadow, who had up to that point demonstrated not attachment to anything material other than his beloved katana, had been nearly as sorry to see the blue Yamaha Rapier he had helped Peter’s men drive away go, as Silk had been to see the Westwind leave, even if he was much more reasonable about it. Silk later told Hammer later that the shape shifter had been asking for a motorcycle since the first day the mage had known him.

The team had taken extra precautions before returning to their safe house; consequently, they didn’t get back until well after dark. Upon making it back, Shadow told Hammer about the suggestion the old guard had made with regards to the apartment. Once again bored by the direction the conversation was headed, Silk bid everyone good night, and headed to bed. Shortly after that Shadow decided to turn in as well. Shiver retired to his room to meditate, and Hammer was left trying to decide what about the run was bothering him so much. Things hadn’t gone as planned, but they almost never did. All things considered, the team would have had a hard time asking for a better result to their week and a half of planning.

After an hour of thought Hammer had identified a couple of loose ends that could possibly cause the team problems. Fairly confident that he’d anticipated anything that might bite the four when they weren’t looking, the big troll dialed up Peter’s number.

“Hello, you talk to Peter,” came the reply, surprising Hammer who had expected to be talking to the fixer’s new secretary.

“Peter, I’m sorry to bother you again today, but I was wondering if you could dig up some information for me.”

“Of course, amigo Hammer,” came the immediately reply from the tiny Azetlander. “What would you like to know?”

“Can you look into the background of the two guards that were on duty in the apartment complex I’m sending you the address of. The time would have been about 9 a.m.”

Peter’s smiling face nodded on the screen. “Is there anything else?”

Hammer considered for a moment longer before shrugging. “Yeah, if you would, please look into the gang that we had problems with at that gas station. I don’t know why I’m so nervous about them, but for some reason I am.”

“The information should run you about twelve thousand. Two thousand for each guard, and eight for the gang. The standard is a ten percent bonus for any pay data we manage to dig up, as well as another two thousand to be held in a contingency fund in case my people run into problems much greater than one would expect on such a routine assignment. If you would like, I’ll just pull this out of the money I’ll owe you for the sale of the car.”

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