Chapter 5
Death On Queen's Street
Michael worked as quickly as he could. Impressing himself with the time that it took him to break the casing on the maglock, allowing him access to the wires. It was strange enough that Cameron didn't open the door when Remy announced their presence. No one answered to their knocking so where was Cameron?
Yet he had to be careful with the lock. No matter how fast Remy wanted inside, Michael noticed that the lock was hooked to a PANICBUTTON system. One screw up and a call would go into police central.
"Got it." Michael said successfully as he kindly pushed the door open. Tension filled him dispite the fact that it took almost three minutes to breach the lock. Pretty good time roughly a challenge.
Remy was obviously on edge. He told everyone to get armed when Alasdiar wouldn't open the door for them. Everyone took his advice and grabbed a weapon from the hovertruck parked nearby behind Alasdair's flat.
The door opened into a small hallway. There was a stairs to the right leading to the next level. Five doors lined the room, four of which were closed.
Shannon turned his noise to the scent that assualted him. "What? Someone having a BBQ in here or something?"
Sharon tried to hold her breath. She placed the scent, though. The smell of burnt flesh is hard to mistake. In her hand was a Slander SMG slung around her shoulder from a strap. "There." She pointed to the opened door with the barrel.
Lori stayed well behind the others as they walked into the flat. Kyle was bringing up the rear and motioned her to move on since she was being a little stubborn about it. She was croutched over to the smell which was slowly disapating.
"Gad," Lori choked. "That stinks."
On the other side of the door, the room was basically what Cameron had called his Living Room. There was a balcony with a fire escape leading out of the second floor area. The choking reek of burnted flesh filled the room. Alasdiar Cameron's body lay on the floor. His body and the area immediately around him look sroched; whatever killed him burned his body so badly and horribly that bits of it crumble to ash everytime someone takes a step. Only an autospy can conclusively prove that this charred lump was once Alasdiar Cameron. But they know that its Alasidar's corpse. The build of the shell and the personal effects still fused to the remaining bone prove that. Other than the small circle burned around Cameron, the apartment is undamaged. There is definitely something weird the way his dead arm points toward the sky through the balcony window.
"My god, what happened here?" Lori blurted, near panic. The others were somewhat calmer.
"A wild guess, Lori, I'd say that he's dead." Shannon said, sticking his head out the balcony window with his SMG leading the way. "Now our fragging employer's dead!"
"But how did he die?" She pressed. Almost demanded, knowing that it wsan't smart just to stick around her much longer. She hardly noticed the stench anymore and close to breaking down.
Sharon raised her hands and shifted her attention to the astral plain. Assening what happened her in the atmosphere of the thought and light. The resonances of death still fill the area. She felt her stomach churn, feeling how he died, learning what happened. What Alasdair felt as his death came slowly and painfully. Almost torcher. He consinious slammed back into her and she immediatley collapsed, screaming what she had felt.
"Such pain, I've never felt anything like it." She cried. "He died so painfully and horribly. Nearly inhuman."
Remy was there, holding her like a father would a child. "Its' alright, Sharon. You're here. Nothing's going to hurt you while we're around." Remy turned to the others. "The rest of you spread out and see if you can find anything." Then to Fulcrum as the others dispersied. "How did he die?" He demanded.
"What are we going to do now?!" Lori exclaimed. "What's going to happen to us?"
"Chill out, Lori." Kyle suggested as kindly as he could. "Tkae it easy or you're give yourself a heart attack before we have time to do anything."
Fulcrum studied the area, paced it astrally. Then examined the magic in the area like he was seperating chaff from wheat. "Magic, Remy, he died by magic. A combat spell with an elemental fire effect." Was his conclusion.
"Anything else." Remy groaned. Also noticing that Lori had found something on Alasdiar's desk. Looking like an optical chip for a cyberdeck, Lori slipped it away in he gym bag where she carried her own Fuchi Cyber-4 deck and examated Alasdiar's smashed and useless hunk of his Fuchi Cyber-4.
"There is another way." Fulcrum said. He begun chanting and shifting his attentions vaguely throughout the room. Remy recognized this work. He was summoning a nature spirit. Strange that Fulcrum ceased after trying for only a short time. "There is no Hearth spirit here. It has already faded away."
Remy was confused. He never really understood the idea of spirits even when Sharon would speak of them. A shaman was in line with spirits. "What good would that have done? Could the spirit have seen the murder." He asked, helping Sharon to her feet and making sure that she could stand without him holding her. Sharon was fine now, recovered from what she had felt.
"No, the spirit would have only been present in 'spirit' as it were. It could have told us only what I have told you, Remy. Of course, someone could have summoned it to be present. That is why I wanted to try anyway."
"Check this out." Michael said cheerfully, a good change from his former seriousness. He had pulled a picture of the Monarch of the Glen off the wall to reveil a classic safe hidden behind it. Only Michael would have thought to stop and look for the heck of it. A simple combination lock held it shut.
"Great, Michael, but not much use with it being closed and all." Kyle said, speaking almost too soon.
Michael already had his ear firmly planted against it while turning the knob. Listening for each catch of the lever inside. "As you where saying, eh?" He added, opening the shallow safe.
Kyle whistled. Inside must have been stacks of 100 pound notes. Michael did the same. A glow in his eyes.
"Looks like someone just won the lottery." Shannon called for Lori to bring her bag over so that Michael could load the money in it. Michael replied, "Yeah, me."
"We can't take that, can we?" Sharon questioned.
Michael raised his hands to his shoulder height, a fistfull of cash in each. "This is what he was going to pay us with anyway, right? Besides, we kind of running low on cashflow anyway."
Sharon sighed, she figured that old habits were hard to break for him. Just last week, Michael was arrested for pick-pocketing in Seattle. Why should he be any different here in Edinbrugh.
"Hurry, Michael, and load all of that stuff up." Remy ordered. "We're leaving here as soon as we can."
Fulcrum walked to a couch and removed a blanket that was on top. Placing it over the remains of Cameron. As he did, little bits of ash toppled and hit the floor. Releashing a little more of the burnted scent into the air.
Michael tilted his head as he stuffed the last of the money into the bag. As if he was listening for something. In a second, the noise became louder and was easily placeable. "Cops, you not hear them?" He closed the safe after he removed a shiny credstick.
Remy listened.
"Been hearing them." Shannon had augmented hearing from cyberware. "Slot and run."
Remy pointed his finger. "Shannon, that just may be the best idea you've had all day. Kyle, take Lori and Michael and head for the hovertuck. Take the fire escape. Maybe they won't see you if you head out the back. Then bring the truck around behind the alley under the fire escape."
"You got it, boss." Kyle said as he opened the door to the balcony for Lori and Michael. Making sure they were on their way down the spiral stairs of the fire escape before he followed.
Shannon had moved to a connecting room that had a window from which he could see the street below. Outside, he saw two police cars pull up. "Here they come, I count four. Heavy pistols, maybe smartlinks, and stun batons."
"Armor?" Remy asked Shannon as he pointed at Fulcrum. "Give me an illusion spell that'll buy some time."
"Plated vests." Shannon replied as Fulcrum carried out Remy's orders.
"We're going to split and head for the truck. Me and Fulcrum, Shannon and Sharon." Remy barked. "Now you two beat it."
Shannon had no intention of leaving Remy here. He was too loyal to him for what Remy had done in the past. He owed that much.
"Come on, move it." Remy snapped as Fulcrum finished his spellcast. Outside the cops were witnessing a spectile of light and pryokentics that made them think the building was on fire. Sparks of light could be seen through the window. Fulcrum, however, didn't sustain it that long. "We be right behind you."
"But, Remy." Sharon questioned.
Shannon grabbed her arm and, gently as he could, swung her toward the balcony door. "Not now, Sharon, we'll let you two argue it out when we're out of here. Simple enough for you?"
Sharon didn't give him anymore trouble and left with the troll. Dispite the fact that she didn't want to.
"They're coming up." Fulcrum said.
"Stand by to make us invisible then. Got to give them a distraction so the others have enough time." Remy overturned a desk and placed it in the doorway where he could see the front door.
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why didn't you pair off with Sharon? She could have easily done the job I could have."
"I'll explain later." Remy had started to, but abrubtly changed his mind. He knew why. He wanted to say, but he simply didn't have the time right now. What was Fulcrum wanting to hear? That he cared for her? Yes, that was the truth. He wanted to say it, but he stopped himself as the police charged through the door.
Remy squeezed the trigger of his Ingram Smartgun. The smartlink made it easy for him to scare the cops back instead of shooting them back. He let loose two bursts across the archway of the door before he turned back to Fulcrum and told him to use the blasted spell. Remy held his breath as Fulcrum did the socrey a shaman should. Then that was it. Remy didn't feel any different. But when the police's bullets started missing him by meters at a time, he knew it had worked. He could see three of them by now. Plus he was sure that he heard the hovertruck pull up outside below the fire escape.
Another burst from an invisible foe made the police hug the floor. Fulcrum was holding onto Remy so he stayed invisible. He knew that if they lost contact, he would be visible and dead.
"Klye's below us." Fulcrum declared calmly. Amazing that he was speaking in such a steady voice while sustaining a spell and watching bullets fly over his head. Had losing his family made him that hard as Sharon had said.
Remy took a second to glance over his shoulder to see the hovertruck parked below the balcony. Shannon waving out of the sunroof on the top, holding his SMG in his hands yelling, "Let's get the hell out of here or shoot the blasted fuzz. Make up you mind!", or something like that.
"We're going to jump, Ful, you up for it?" Remy questioned.
"No worries." He replied as he pulled Remy onto the balcony and over the railing. Fulcrum followed close behind.
Remy moaned as he hit the top of the truck, but it was better than the altrenative; getting his ass shot off. The second that Kyle heard two thumps on the roof, he floored it. In a heartbeat, he was out of sight and roaring out of Edinbrugh.
"He's dead." Michael finally said as Kyle exited the limits of the sprawl.
Sharon looked at him. Michael was just a teenager. No more than sixteen. His parents abandoned him years ago and he grew up on the streets of Seattle. Naturally he obtained a number of unique skills, some of which are not even known, but he also lost out on so much. She wondered, what was it about him that set him apart from the rest of the world?
"You okay?"
Michael smiled. "Yeah, just fine considering the fact that our employer is dead, we're in it with the cops now, and we are stuck here in Scotland. It's not like we can go home with the fuzz flashing discriptions of us as Americans here, now is it?" He spoke quickly aided by rapid movements with his hands.
"I suppose we're stuck with finding this Quicksilver." Remy remorsed.
"What? Are you losing it or something Remy? Our employer is dead. The cops want us for murder by now. Plus you might as well count Edinburgh off our stop list for the next, oh, few years." Lori blurted, almost standing in the hovertruck. Recapping everything Michael had said so quickly and increased the volume that Michael himself was supprised to see that she could out do him. "I say that it's time to make tracks for good ole Seattle. Sure it's busted and burnt and shot up half the time, but it's still home for me."
"The only way to make it out of Scotland, and Britian for that matter, is by boat and plane." Sharon stated sternly. "The airports will be watched. You might as well strike them out now. As far as commercial boats, forget it. It'll be the same as the airports. And we don't have the contacts here in Scotland to use any other means. Shadow wise, we'd be better off in Seattle. I think we should all know that by now."
"We could make the mainland of Britian at best." Fulcrum said. "But it is doubtful that we could get any farther given our resources. Germany is definitaly out of the discussion. Besides, the customs on continental Europe are about as tight, if not more so, than Britian."
"We can't make it off the mainland, we don't have the fuel to make any place like Ireland and I'm not going to Tir na nOg. Edinburgh blocks us from London and the rest of this god-forsaken land." Kyle said over his shoulder. "All extra tanks are full, we can make it around here, but not over water for any length of time."
"Lucky for us, then, that we are heading for Skye?" Shannon relaxed a little in his seat. He knew it was going to be a long drive and Lori was more than a little upset about Cameron and the situation it put them in. He didn't feel like hearing her all the fourteen hours it would take them to reach Kyle of Lochalsh were they could take a ferry to the island. It was shortly after noon by the time they pulled out of the Edinburgh limits.
"We should make it to Kyle of Lochalsh by about two."
"A couple hours then?"
Kyle frowned. "No, Shannon, I meant two in the morning, use you head for once." He said playfully. Yet he was losing a little of his sense of humor for the troll with their situation.
Lori couldn't belive the two of them. Didn't they know what just happened? They were all in deep drek and they acted like it was nothing new. And Remy? He was as cool as ice.
"If he's still alive, Quicksilver should be able to help us out once we tell him about how Alasdiar died. I don't think He'll believe that we did it. No matter what the fuzz say. Losing our employer means that we're losing our meal-ticket."
"I can't believe that you're actually going on with this?" Lori questioned Remy like he was a psycho. He was crazy, they had nothing left in Scotland. But as Remy would say, 'well make something for us here in Scotland if we can't find anything.'
"What would you have us do? Quicksilver may be the only chance we have of finding out what this is all about. Alasdair's death doesn't change our purpose. We are still committed to that purpose. So what we don't have the fancy rooms or resources we had when he was alive. We are still the same bunch of shadowrunners we were back in Seattle." Remy looked at the gym bag, then the weapons, and extra gear. "We got money, we got guns, and we got survival gear. We're a lot better off than when we first got here. And I plan to keep it that way."
"I only wish we had the time to take care of Alasdair Cameron's body before we left." Fulcrum refelcted hollowly. "Seems such torture to die like that and have one's body charred to a lump. I hope that the police and the officials bury it well. Otherwise I fear for the people that killed Alasdair."