Hunting Shadows
By
Fade
Chapter 13
Mercury's whole universe seemed to narrows down to Shiver's finger, slowly taking the slack out of the trigger on the Ares Predator that was pointed directly at her. The mage knew that she needed to do something, cast a spell, go for a weapon, something. Unfortunately, she had just been through too much.
The elf had been close to death a number of times before, but this was the first time that she'd seen it coming so clearly. Pieces of shrapnel flying by, or a fireball exploding on top of someone were quite different than seeing someone coldly preparing to execute you.
Just before Shiver fired, the door to the hotel exploded, knocking both elves down. A dark figure blurred through the room, grabbing Shiver and throwing him up against a wall. The slender figure spoke a pair of words, and Shiver abruptly stopped the attack that he had been about to launch.
"That is right," confirmed a cold voice. "Those lines of force will cut you into a hundred pieces if you move."
Mercury rolled herself over enough that she could see Shiver and his captor. As the elf's vision cleared back up, she was able to see that the figure was a human male, and that he wore dark clothing that contrasted incredibly with his pale skin. The human lowered Shiver, seeming to adjust the spell holding the elf so that it trapped him against the wall.
Mercury focused on the elf, refusing to believe that he was really trapped, but there was no mistaking the fear in the razor's eyes. The mage felt a brief sense of relief wash over her, realizing that the human was likely friendly, or at least not actively opposed to the runners.
The human finished walking over, and the battered elf looked up to see dead eyes resting above enlarged canines. Holy drek, it is a vampire. Mercury tried to reach past her pain and cast a spell, but she suddenly realized that it didn't really matter. The vampire was obviously a very powerful mage, one that would give the elf a run for her money on her best day.
Nothing could have surprised Mercury more than when the undead fiend before her held out a hand. "Names DeVries, Martin DeVries. Would you mind if I patched you up?"
In the end Mercury had accepted the vampire's offer of aid because if he wanted her dead, she wasn't in any shape to contest his desires. A short time later both she and Silk had been healed and were more or less mobile, if still exhausted from drain.
Choosing a moment when the vampire was distracted, Shiver had somehow escaped, overcoming the spell that had been holding him, and jumping out the window.
Realizing that the team was in no shape to protect itself during the next twenty-four hours or so, the vampire had caused an air elemental to manifest, and had given it instructions to protect the team. Mercury had still been reeling from the events of the last few minutes, when the man had announced that there was only an hour of darkness left, and departed.
Mercury had convinced the hotel management to give them a new suit of rooms, and with the help of a recently awakened Shadow had moved Silk into the new rooms. When the pair returned to move Hammer, they found that the troll was free of his duct tape bindings, and high again.
Resisting the urge to blister the paint in the room with expletives, the mage had helped Shadow drag Hammer out of the ruined suite.
Twelve hours later, Silk and Mercury were both more or less recovered from their exhaustion, and Shadow was staying awake for a few hours at a time, and only eating a regular meal every two hours.
Mercury was pretty sure that the vampire, was coming back. The question then was whether or not he really was the near-legendary Martin DeVries. The mage knew that DeVries was rumored to be fairly friendly with Raven, the Robinhood of the Seattle Plex.
The pretty elf hadn't ever run in the kind of circles that would have brought her into contact with Raven, Wolf, Kid Death, or any of the other legendary runners who championed justice. Nevertheless, where there was enough money, and the right contacts, it was possible to get a hold of just about anyone. Mercury still had a little bit of cash in her account from her last couple of runs, which she burned liberally in an effort to try and get a hold of someone who could confirm DeVries' identity.
An hour before sunset, Mercury's wrist phone rang, and one of her contacts gave her a number that he said should allow her to get a hold of Wolf. By the time night fully fell Mercury had a complete description of DeVries, as well as a couple of questions that Wolf claimed only his friend could answer. The whole experience was more than a little overwhelming. Mercury was as pragmatic as most runners, but she had a secret streak of romanticism that had always drawn her towards stories about runners like Raven and his crew.
Wolf had an incredibly powerful presence, even over the phone, and as a result Mercury was still reeling slightly from what the runner had told her, when a quiet knock announced DeVries' presence.
"Have you decided whether or not I am who I say I am," inquired the vampire.
Mercury pounded on the wall a couple of times to get Silk out of her room, as Shadow glided into the room. "I was told that if you really are DeVries, that you would know who said that you should not let so much time pass between visits...”
Sadness momentarily seemed to penetrate the dead orbs that served the vampire as eyes. "The rest of us age much more quickly than you do old friend. Spoken by my shape shifting friend Wolf. No doubt he meant it as a small reproach for how long it has been since I've had a chance to talk to him."
The vampire shook his head and when he looked back to the elf, a smile touched his lips, but his eyes had resumed their former appearance. "Friends, one more thing that has been sacrificed in my mad crusade to eliminate what I see as mankind's greatest threat. Stacked up against my humanity, I don't suppose it should be of much account, but for some reason it is."
Carefully pulling a lighter, and a pack of Platinum Selects from his pocket, DeVries looked at the smoke alarm in the center of the ceiling before deciding not to light up. "Are you satisfied I am who I say I am, or can I leave and go indulge myself in my favorite vice?"
Mercury felt the corners of her mouth pulling into a smile at the vampire's dry humor. "I am satisfied, which leaves the question of why the world's most famous vampire hunter saved the four of us from a psychopathic old teammate."
Putting the lighter and cigarettes away with a sigh, DeVries strolled over to the nearest chair and sat down. "Vampires of course, the sole reason for my existence. You had a visit from a rather large individual a few days back unless I'm mistaken. During the course of your conversation you told him about an astral battle which involved a certain horned mage."
Mercury nodded as Silk came out and took a seat next to DeVries like it was completely normal for a vampire to come calling on the runners. "Go ahead."
DeVries smiled at the calm way Silk entered, "That razor works for an associate of mine. Under normal circumstances the associate would have provided you with the same substantial kind of aid that he has in the past. Unfortunately his assets are currently tied up with some other matters, and his normal method of hiring outside help has proven unreliable. He knew however that I can't resist a good vampire hunt, so you get me instead."
Silk had a look of puzzlement on her face that all but shouted confusion. "Sorry, I don't know who you are, but you're too late. Shadow and Hammer chased away the only vampires we've seen. We haven't seen hide or hair of them since."
DeVries shrugged. "If you'll forgive my contradicting you, you have in fact seen a number of "signs" of them, but you haven't been able to see the bigger picture well enough to realize it. The racist organization you ran into last month was much better funded than anyone would have expected for such an unknown organization. The vampires who escaped are the obvious answer as to where the money was coming from."
The three runners were nodding in agreement now, the vampire wasn't saying anything they didn't already know.
"The gang that almost took you all down was also far too well funded. More importantly, it was associated with a mage that is known to be a vampiric pawn."
It was Shadow's turn to look puzzled, but Silk didn't feel like it was the proper time to stop the vampire and explain the grisly process whereby a vampire addicted someone to their blood, thereby turning the person into a slave who would do anything for their next hit. Besides the thought reminded her of Hammer, who wasn't much better than a pawn right now, so the mage gestured for Shadow to hold his peace until she could explain later.
"Most people don't believe it, but there is a group of vampires based in England who are hellbent on making the world over in their own image. They are currently trying to expand their influence into this area by sending in a few well-funded vampires to set up a power base. From all appearances the racist group was part of that power base-it would have provided an incredible reserve of mundane muscle."
The vampire checked to make sure the two elves were following him. "The matrix lets you find anything out about anyone if you want it badly enough, but for practical purposes, it isn't worth looking unless you have something that can narrow your search down quite a bit. For our mutual friend, finding out that vampires were involved with that gang was enough to point him in the right direction for cracking more of this cabal's organization. It turns out that both the gang and the racists had some carefully disguised transactions with a dummy corp that provides a front for the Silver Society."
Shadow was back to looking confused, but Mercury and Silk looked poleaxed. The Silver Society was a group of hermetic mages who were viewed with an incredible amount of respect through all classes of Seattle Society. The membership of the society included all kinds of rich, prominent mages who were known for conducting philanthropic work through the Silver Society.
DeVries' smile had grown as he watched the other mages realize the implications of what he was saying. It was incredible how even fairly cynical runners like Mercury tended to have at least a few things they still believed were pure and incorruptible. "If you add in the fact that a couple of the society's members 'died' within a week of the racists being iced, and another few died after you guys went after the gang the first time...."
Mercury swore bitterly. "Those fragging bloodsuckers turned them. They turned one of the most prominent groups of mages into a bunch of vampiric pawns."
DeVries shook his head. "No, the odds are that they only turned one or two mages into pawns. Pawns are a lot of work to create and maintain, and most people are really fairly easy to corrupt through other means. Drugs, other vices, or blackmail will do it nearly every time."
"That isn't all though, we also managed to compile some evidence linking all of those groups to GenWonders, a small but ultra-profitable corp that has 'recruited' some of the top minds in genetics and bioengineering. The corp maintains a small clinic that is able to implant some high level beta cyberware. There have even been some rumors that it has managed to do some deltaware stuff with a narrow range of cyberware."
Mercury was maintaining a cool front, but Silk was starting to look positively furious. The mage pulled out a new stick of gum to replace the one she had just put in her mouth five minutes previously. "What is the link," she demanded.
DeVries didn't take offense at the elf's tone. "Most of the racist's you guys killed had GenWonder cyberware in them. More importantly, nearly all of the newer mods was GenWonders stuff."
Shadow spoke up for the first time. "That is pretty tenuous. I don't understand most of what is being said, but that seems a little weak."
DeVries shrugged pulling a cigarette out and lighting it as he stared at the smoke detector, which suddenly imploded. "That is true, but there is the matter of how such a small corp is managing to recruit and keep a hold of such top talent. From the looks of things nobody volunteered to join up. Instead there has been a rash of hate crimes, and gang-style violence associated with the normal extractions you'd expect from a corp. Nothing consistent enough to tip their hands, but the pattern is there. Also there has been three or four times as much magical muscle associated with GenWonder as you would expect from an organization their size. A couple of corps got their researchers back only to watch the researchers go up in flames from ritual sorcery. In the one case where that wasn't the case, the corp was hit by a magical assault so strong that it had people claiming Lofwyr was behind it."
A that point Silk apparently decided she didn't need to hear anymore. The mage threw the unopened pack of gum she had been playing with at Shadow who caught it without seeming to even look at the elf. Jumping out of her seat, Silk stalked over to DeVries in a manner that should have looked quite amusing given the mage's slight build. "Ok, I'm convinced. I say we go and ice these bozos. We take down the vampires and everything else goes away right?"
DeVries shook his head, and almost gaped when he saw Shadow do the same. "They won't be easy to find. Possibly destroying their power base will draw them out, but we may very well just have to settle for destroying the operations we know about."
Shadow nodded at that, "I will help."
Mercury hadn't been quite as excited to put herself into the line of fire again, but she had positively bristled when DeVries had mentioned that he would of course be willing to compensate her for the risk. In the end the mage had agreed provided DeVries' evidence panned out.
Shadow knew that Silk had opted in largely on a need for revenge. It turned out that the vampires they had run into once before were behind pretty much every miserable moment and bullet wound the mage had suffered in the last month or two, and she had long since stopped looking at running the shadows as some kind of novelty. The shape shifter suspected that a little part of Silk wanted to help because it was the right thing to do, but for now, most of it just came down to payback.
Mercury was a little harder to figure out. The brunet was quite a bit more mercenary than Silk, so Shadow would have expected her to want some money out of a run that wasn't to take down someone who was already gunning for her. The fact that she had been so offended by DeVries' offer to pay her for helping struck Shadow as being slightly odd.
Watching the mage watch the vampire out of the corner of her eye, Shadow suddenly realized that her gaze held awe instead of the suspicion that he had first thought. She's in it because DeVries is involved. It may be that she has told herself that it is all just to help out some chummers, but it is because of DeVries. She has a touch of the same hero worship that Shiver used to feel towards Hammer.
The next few hours went by fairly quickly. Mercury got the evidence she had wanted, and it was even more persuasive than DeVries had let on. The team decided that the Silver Society should go down first. Mercury especially didn't want to try and crack GenWonder when it could call on the kind of mojo that the society could provide.
DeVries had indicated that he was on a fairly tight schedule, so the team decided to do the two runs on consecutive nights, and hope that the corp didn't realize that they were coming and set a trap for them.
As the team had finished their planning, Silk had decided to check on Hammer. DeVries had learned of the troll's condition by that time, and asked to accompany the mage.
The two runners had entered the room to find Hammer in the middle of the withdrawal symptoms that had nearly killed him a few days before. DeVries had walked over to Hammer and placed a hand on the troll's arm, apparently with the intent of helping, only to have Hammer suddenly head-butt the vampire and try to stomp on him.
DeVries didn't have the springy grace of Shadow, who would have bounced off of the floor, and easily avoided the clumsy attack, but the vampire was already regenerating from his wounds, and he had something that the shape shifter didn't. DeVries looked up at the foot that was descending towards his face, and spoke a guttural word that seemed to reverberate in Silk's skull.
White light streaked from the vampire and struck Hammer, throwing him into the far wall. The troll crashed through the sheetrock, and intervening studs, and lay shaking and stunned while DeVries climbed slowly to his feet. Before the vampire could take more than a step or two towards his attacker, Shadow ghosted into the room with his katana bared. For a second it looked like the shape shifter was going to attack DeVries despite Silk's attempts to call him off and explain that Hammer had provoked the vampire.
Before things could get fully settled down Hammer rolled back to his feet and charged DeVries again, still shaking from withdrawal, and the huge electrical surge he had just experienced. For all that the troll was still moving very quickly, he didn't have his usual speed and grace, so he didn't even stand a chance when Shadow blind sided him with a tackle that involved a precisely placed nerve-strike that brought Hammer down before DeVries was forced to use another spell.
The team finally used the steel restraints that Silk had purchased earlier in the day, to make sure that Hammer wouldn't be able to free himself anymore, and then DeVries had surprised the team by casting a spell that alleviated nearly all of Hammer's withdrawal symptoms.
Leaving the troll still swearing at the vampire, and demanding to be released, Mercury and the others finished their planning, and went to sleep, while DeVries disappeared to wherever he went for the day.
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