Chapter 10
The Best of the Worst of Times
Renraku Acrology
Downtown, Seattle
April 4, 2059
10:30 am
Kie sipped at her tea as she poured over the mornings resource requests. It seemed to her that she was authorizing more expenditures than profits would cover. Fortunately it only looked that way until the end of the month. Otherwise, how could a multinational megacorporation like Renraku stay in business?
Her telecom beeped like it had a dozen times already. One thing the mornings guaranteed was a number of pressing phone calls. All of her calls were screened by a web of clerks. That insured that she only had to deal with the important ones. Of course, some calls went right through to her desk. The people who had that number had the highest priority of all.
Montague's face materialized on the screen when Kie answered. He offered a slight stoop to signify the traditional bow that he always gave her. His features were sharp and clean. It was obvious that he had gotten a good nights sleep. Kie only hoped that he had done something other than rest. She would be most displeased with him if he had no progress to report of.
"I was curious when you would call." She said as she put her tea glass down. "I assume you would not have contacted be unless you have something useful to report?"
"Indeed, ma'am. I have information that you will be delighted to hear."
Kie's eyes narrowed a bit. She had fought and scrapped her way up the corporate later over the course of a decade. That trip had taught her a number of lessons. It also served to make her a shrewd negotiator. She was not likely to believe something until she saw it herself.
"Speak of it." She said in an empty voice. It was a command with a tone that let it sound like a comment.
"I have discovered the holding place of the deniable assets. Our objective will be completed within this day."
Kie's eyebrow arched. "You are certain of success?"
"Quite, ma'am. I will be taking the daylight hours to plan for the encounter and obtain personal. Tonight I will return what is rightfully the company's property and dispense of the dishonorable westerners."
"I have faith in your words, Montague-san, but I must sneer at your confidence. Do not overlook anything for you will have only one chance. As time grows short we cannot afford to lose the subject to foolishness. There is an entire program waiting to be set in motion. A lack of funds and time will doubtlessly put a dampener on future activities as our priorities are shifted. This will be your only opportunity. If you fail then the company will be forced to make a deal with these people. Without sufficient funding you will not be able to pursue them afterwards. Make sure that you do not fail."
Montague almost smiled. "I only require one opportunity, ma'am. Anything more would be dishonorable. Good-day." He said as he hanged up.
Kie switched her screen off. She hoped that Montague would succeed. If he failed Kie would still have to payoff the shadowrunners to get Michelle McVey. That was provided that the runners did not turn on her in the process. She knew that if they became aware of the plot against them, they would never take any job offerings from her again. That did not concern Kie, but it would probably give her a reputation in the shadows. That would make it harder to get a shadow team in the future.
The Barrens
Redmond Seattle
10:35 pm
Why? Why the hell does everybody have to be so stupid?
Nightsky asks himself such an unusual question that he finds himself confused by the answer. The so called negotiations to get the Night Hunters to leave Redmond broke into melee only a few seconds ago. Jackal was not willing to budge an inch. Neither was Torres, the Night Hunter ring leader for this sect. Nightsky frowned at the conversation of curses and threats that both men made to each other before everything went to hell. Nightsky always thought that negotiating meant that both sides were willing to make sacrifices. That case was not true here. Apparently the only thing about to be sacrificed was a few meaningless lives. It is frustrating to see every problem to be settled with fists and guns.
"Why-" Nightsky blurted as he kicked a bar stool into the knees of someone. "-the fuck-" He stripped the MP-5 from its over-sized holster. The laser sight lite up as he pressed against the trigger. "-can't we just-" The sub-machine gun started barking fire. The full-auto setting emptied half the clip in less time than it took to take a breath. Gangers scattered left and right. "-get along!"
Fully a dozen Night Hunters and wondered into the bar by now. The conflict was quickly degrading into a full-fledged riot. Blackhearts were thrown away while the two shadowrunners caught in the middle tried to hold their ground. It was not the best place in the world that Nightksy could think of that he wanted to be at the moment. A few gangers had taken the fight out onto the street while the inside of the bar was a mass of flailing bodies.
"They wanted this!" Jackal cursed as he planted his massive fist right int he face of a Hunter. The impact knocked the green-haired fool right to the ground. "They drew down on us first, that's fair cause in my book."
The screams filled the bar as full-time warriors of humanity flooded through the front door. Fighting them was like taking on a tank with a toothpick. They were big, ugly, and were more than ready to tear apart a few street punks that made up the Blackhearts. To Nightsky, everything was going to hell in a handbasket. Blackheart gangers started going down left and right in Michael's eyes. He did not know if Jackal realized this or not. Right now he doubted that the Blackheart leader would care. The past few days had done a lot more than hurt his charges. It had hurt his pride and that was something that the ork just could not ignore.
The blade of a knife racked across the forearm guard of Nightsky long coat as he barely managed to avoid having his throat torn out. He found the Night Hunter that made the lunge for him a pathetic excuse for a human being. A little wire-like man with long, thin fingers and a face that resembled a ghoul. Nightsky pitied the poor man for a moment, but the pity was soon replaced by hate. This was no time for philosophy or talk. Nightsky had to remind himself that this was Redmond. The only rules here were the ones you made up. The realization strengthen Michael's resolve as he swatted the knife out of the man's hand and nearly cut him into by emptying the MP-5.
Spark's shotgun rang out as he put a slug into the incredibly grotesque Hunter named Torres. Torres was big for a human, but he was as ugly as a troll. He stood nearly seven feet tall and had the build to match. Thick wades of muscle matted up around his shoulders and neck. For that matter, his neck was so thick that it looked like he had swallowed a whole turkey.
The blast of Spark's shotgun flew inches from Michael's head. Torres was less than two meters away and Michael could here the shots flying past his ears. A slug flattened out against the armored jacket that covered Torres' torso. The slug managed to shatter the chrome studs on the shoulder. Torres only flinched a bit. The blast seemed to tick the green-haired monstrosity off more than it hurt him.
"Wake up, Sky!" Smiley wailed as he caught a Night Hunter in flight and sent him crashing into a cabinet full of liquor. The Hunter had been pointing a handgun in Michael's direction before Smiley had collided with him. "This isn't a trid show."
Nightsky spined, hoping up on a bar stool and side stepping onto the bar as a mohawked teenager slammed a sinister looking axe down where the adept foot had been. The stool was neatly split apart under the impact.
"I can handle this myself, Smiley." Nightsky retorted as he made a quick leap to avoid a slashing axe at his feet.
"Not if I get to them first you won't." Smiley, who's body was working overtime thanks to all of his augmentations, grabbed a broken liquor bottle and stabbed it through the Hunters eye. Less than a second later he managed to relieve the future Humanis clubber of his right arm below the elbow. "Hah! These guys have been causing your chummers all sorts of problems? You've got to be pulling on my leg." Spurs slipped out of their housing and dug deep into the man's flesh. "These guys go to pieces too easily."
Nightsky dropped to his hands and stuck out his foot. His heel smashed the gangers nose who had been swinging at him with an axe. He rolled off the bar with a fluid ease, plopping onto the floor in a tensed crouch.
He used his gun to smash the knees of a Night Hunter who had stumbled in front of him. He jabbed the business end of the weapon into the Hunter's ribs. He was fully committed to showing the world what color this Hunter's insides were.
Click!
"Drek!" The gun was empty!
The Night Hunter gave Nightsky a cold look before he swatted the compact adept across the bar. "Fragging worthless meta-lovers!" He cursed as he knocked a stool out of his way and pulled a knife from his coat. "You should learn that hanging with orks don't help you out none."
Nightsky hit the floor with enough force to send his world spinning. His MP-5 went flying off somewhere in the distance. He thought it broke a window, meaning that his gun probably landed out in the street. His mind pushed the thought aside. Years of living on the streets had taught him that it was bad luck to stay still for too long. What was it that always worked best in a situation like this? Distract and evade?
Hands grabbed Nightsky's collar and slammed him against a wall. The impact send bottles of beer and liquor falling. One of the hands holding onto him held a knife. A big one at that.
"You think that your love of metas is going to make you like them? You, a norm associating with meta-trash?" The Night Hunter spat curses in his face.
Nightsky ignored the words. His hand dug into his pocket, expecting to find a flash grenade. It would be dangerous setting the grenade off at such close range, but if he could stuff the grenade inside the Hunter's coat it would work. However, his hopes of a quick escape were dashed. Instead of a flasher, he pulled out a cigarette lighter out of his pocket. What the frag could be done with a lighter?!
"I'll teach you how a real human kicks meta-ass!"
Nightsky eyes went wide as the Hunter pulled the knife back. In mere moments the knife would plunge through his chest and that would be the end. Nightsky wasn't about to let that happen. He was still faster than the Hunter. He grabbed a bottle of liquor with his free hand and smack it against the Hunter's skull. The bottle shattered, bathing the Hunters head in a wet liquid.
"Gah!" The Hunter croaked.
Nightsky smiled, fingering the lighter. "How about a light, chummer?" He stuck the lighter up against the Hunter's nose and sparked the flame. The Hunter's head immediately burst into a raging inferno as whatever liquor had been smashed on his head was set a blaze. Apparently whatever the Hunter used on his hair was highly flammable.
The scream that was born of the poor soul's lungs could have split steel. It was loud and sharp. He swung his head back an forth, trying to dose the flames. Nightsky pressed his advantage. He managed to place both his feet square in his foes chest. This knocked the fiery head over the bar. He was kicking and screaming the whole way over.
"You're deader than a snowman in Hell's Kitchen!" A Night Hunter yelled as he ran across the top of the bar. This Hunter looked a lot younger than the rest of his comrades, but the spiked knuckles that were clutched in his fist suggested that he was no less a threat.
Nightsky hopped to his feet on. The Hunter was still screaming and heading right for him. Nightsky arched himself, pulling a needle sharp Sai from a scabbard on his thigh. He made a few fading slashes at the Hunter that got him to slow his charge. However, the Sai was a stabbing weapon, not a cutting one. Nightsky made a faded attack, then pulled himself back. The Sai flipped in his hand. A moment later stabbed it through the forearm of the Hunter. He screamed as Nightsky locked the Sai into place and flipped off the bar. Nightsky landed on his feet. His flip generated enough momentum to snap the bones in the Hunter's arm. The ganger screamed in pain and sprouting profanity at the same time. Nightsky jumped up onto a barstool, gaining position to plant a snap kick into the Hunter's gut that forced him to double over. Nightsky pulled the Sai, along with the Hunter's arm, up in the air and locked the Hunter's head in the joint of his knee. All at once Michael stepped off the bar. His momentum brought the Hunter crashing face first into the hard wooden surface of the bar-top. A gooey, crunchy sound erupted when the ganger's face smashed down.
"Kill them kill them kill them!" Torres bellowed as he pulled out a Max-Power and started taking pop-shots at the wiggling mass of bodies that had flooded the bar. The Hunters that flanked him put sinister grins on their face and charged into the vicious melee wielding short swords, razors, and nasty looking clubs.
Smiley frowned, seeing the anger in his face and total disappointment that he must have been feeling see as how a good number of his Night Hunters were either unconscious or dead by now. Then again, Smiley had to admit that there were more than a few Blackhearts down for the count.
A Night Hunter smacked another Blackheart to the ground and started kicking him with a steel-toed boot. Smiley plastered a smirk on his face and bounded off the bar, landing right in front of the Hunter who was a little overweight and looked like he had eaten one too many soyburgers.
"Hey, tons-o-fun." He taunted, snapping his spurs and spilling the man's guts onto the crippled Blackheart at his feet. "Let me help out with your weight problem." He grabbed the man who was screaming like a stuck pig and pushed him over the bar.
Torres locked his rather beady eyes onto Smiley's wild smile.
"Torres is it? You don't look to happy." Smiley's spurs slide back into their housing as he drew both his Predators from their holsters. "So get happy or I'll shoot you!" Smiley started firing before he checked to see if Torres expression changed any.
Torres screamed something hideous and charged Smiley. Smiley kept blazing away with his handguns as the towering brute ran like a mad cow. Somewhere by the bar a Blackheart ganger had soaked and stuffed a rag down a bottle of liquor. The ganger set the rag on fire and hurled it at Torres. The man's shoulder burst into flames which quickly spread to cover his coat. Torres screamed like a wild man as flames engulfed his neon-green mohawk.
"Yeah!" Smiley cried with glee. "You're a crispy critter now."
Torres flailed around, striking anybody that got to close to him. This included any of his own gangers who were trying to put the flames out. Eventually the burning monolith wondered too close to the shattered bottles behind the bar. A healthy inferno blazed in the bar. Choking smoke filled the air.
Jackal knew that within the next ten minutes there would not be anything left of the bar, but a smoking rubble. He glanced at his fellow Blackhearts and saw that some of them were down while a few were still standing.
"Everybody out." The ork ordered. "The bar is going up in flames."
"That's for sure, chummer." Spark agreed as his triggered his shotgun again. "We not going to be here when it goes down."
"Everybody out!" Another Blackheart cried.
Smiley glanced around after reloading his pistols. He shot a few Night Hunters who were moaning on the ground. All in all, he seemed oblivious to the raging inferno that had started around him.
"Smiley?"
"What, 'Sky?" Smiley replied as he kicked a body at his foot.
"Well, in case you didn't notice, the bar's on fire and we're in the middle of it."
Smiley looked around, noticing for perhaps the first time that there was a fire. "Gee, why didn't I bring any marshmallows for this cookout?" He kicked the body again at his feet. "Guess this fellow will have to do. Wonder if he tastes like chicken?"
Nightsky crabbed Smiley by the arm. "We're leaving!"
"Awe." Smiley sounded truly disappointed. "But we just got started." He shrugged.
"Come on." Nightsky began pulling the larger man towards the front door as the rest of the Blackhearts darted out.
"Yeah, I guess it is getting about that time to meet Lenny."
"Sure, meet Lenny, whatever you want." Nightsky huffed. "Now move your feet!"
"I was just getting to enjoy all of this, but oh well." Smiley turned, grabbed Nightsky by the back of his coat and practically shoving him out the door. "We better get to the bolthole before Lenny does. You know how moody he gets in the mornings."
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