Chapter Two
Fish Out of Water
Somewhere in
Central America
November 1, 2059
10:03 pm
The stars shine down on a diseased land. At a distance it looks like a tropical paradise full of life and luster. The trees hide what's underneath. Most people take it for what's on the surface, but like everything one has to only look a little deeper to see the real perversion. A few hundred years ago a great civilization flourished here. The jungle was rich farmland. Temples grew from the forest floor like budding flowers. Again, from a distance, it has the appearance of paradise. The real perversion rests beneath the surface. Beneath the sacred temples where priests practicing an old order guided the lives of the people on the farms.
That civilization had fallen when explorers from the east came on great wooden ships. They spoke of kindness and peace, but they brought their own perversion to these lands. They brought their war, using guns and horses. War was nothing knew to the people of this new world. Like all people, they had been doing it for centuries.
It was the passengers the men from the east brought with them that spelled the end for this civilization: disease. A killer that couldn't itself be seen, but it's work was visible in the mountain of rotting corpses that grew in the farmlands. History moved on. People read about it in textbooks, trying to explain what happened as progress. People tried to forget what really occurred.
The land didn't forget.
A heavy boot plopped on the muddy ground. There was a wet, sucking sound as it pulled free. Haiku could feel her foot sink into the thick marsh with each step. A sense of urgency pushed her onwards, but stealth was of the upmost importance. Thus her movements were calculated to be quiet yet efficient at the same time. The towering walls of an ancient temple loomed over her. They blocked out the moon, bathing her and the rest of team in darkness
Abbot, a hulking ork wearing a beret, snuck the barrel of his shotgun around the temple's stone entrance. The tiny camera mounted on the end of the barrel is connected through the gun's smartlink. It fed an image into the ork's cyberware.
A small figure was almost completely hidden behind Abbot's bulk. The little woman, a dwarf shaman, called herself Perch. She looked somewhat comical in water proof boots and overalls and a hat that sparkled in the moonlight from the fish scales embedded in its weave. Perch had refused to take it off even when had Haiku asked.
"Clear." The ork said in an all too calm voice. "I'll hold sentry so no one can box you in."
"Okay." Haiku nodded, sparing a glance at her watch. It was time for the shaman to do her job. "Perch?"
The little woman perked up.
"It's your turn."
"As you say, darling." The woman spoke with a southern accent with a hint of creole. "The rivers run through here. They go down. We'll find what we need down there."
"Right." Haiku rolled her eyes, pulling her Predator. Together they entered the temple.
Just inside the entrance there was a long stairway leading deep beneath the earth. It was dark and there was a dusty scent in the air. Haiku's cybereyes laid down a thermograph so she could make it down the narrow steps without falling. She moved as quietly as ever while Perch shuffled along noisily.
The stairway comes to an end at two corridors. One spirals off into an almost never ending series of burial chambers. The other, who's entrance is less than four feet high, leads to what excavating professors called "The Chamber of Voices." This path was marked by the dim flicker of torches. Haiku's cybereyes seamlessly faded the thermographic overlay as she peered down the cramped tunnel.
"This way." Perch pointed.
She motioned Perch down the corridor lined with torches. The little woman walked right through where Haiku had to walk painfully slumped over.
"The water flows strong here." Perch chirped. "There are signs of many fish in these waters. All gone now, but they leave their spawn in the silt."
"Yeah, right, Perch. Keep your eyes open."
"My eyes are open." The woman grinned. "Are yours?"
Haiku regard her for a moment, then groaned. "Just because I'm not with the magic doesn't mean you have to rub my face in it."
"Just because you aren't with magic doesn't mean it can't be with you." The woman gave a wide grin, showing her missing teeth. "Look there."
The two shadowrunners emerged in a chamber. It was no more than six feet from floor to ceiling. Intricate carvings sprouted from every surface. The room was bathed in a brilliant blue hue. It came from an alter that dominated the center of the chamber. The alter is surrounded by four small pylons. Each had a small crystal which reflected the light from the alter. On the alter there was a small artifact. It looked like a statue one would buy at a carnival. The base was made of finely crafted wood which supported a sphere the glowed with it's on brilliance. The sphere wasn't large, no bigger than a softball. Yet it held more attention than the priceless crystals.
"There is where the water flows." Perch sounded excited. The dwarf picked her way over the uneven ground to the alter. "It feeds a great river here, like the mighty Mississippi. It is an old river here. Older than the canyons of the Colorado."
Haiku slowly approached the alter. The small amount of awe she felt in front of the silly thing had passed now. Her mind had shifted back into business mode. "Sure, Perch, old river. Grab it and let's get out of here."
She reached for the artifact, but Perch reached out and slapped her hand away like a mother scolding a child.
"No! You cannot touch the Voices like that!" Perch snapped, working her hands slowly around the little artifact without really touching it. "The waters flow around it like a rock in the stream. There are bears on the water's edge and fishermen casting their lines. It's not wise to jump into the jaws of the bear or be lured by the bait."
"What are you talking about? Grab the thing and let's get out of here. We don't have much time."
Perch shot Haiku a cold glance. In her wordless reply Haiku saw that she had overstepped her bounds. Ancient artifacts were not her field of specialty. She was the team's organizer, not the magician. This was in the dwarf's hands now. Reluctantly Haiku stepped back. She placed herself at the entrance to the chamber to watch and wait.
"I'll move the waters now. They will be safe again once the bear is gone and the fisherman has lost his lines."
Perch began to chant, speaking in a language that Haiku could not begin to understand. She spoke in tones of Native American and broken pieces of something else much older. The dwarf's arthritis constricted fist knotted around a small sack of fish oils. Occasionally she would sprinkle the alter with it before chanting again. Then she slowly unfolded a cloth from her pocket, took the orb, and wrapped it up. When it looked like she was finished she plucked a small lure from her sweater and placed it where the artifact had been. Once that was done she afforded a small nod of approval to herself.
"These waters have been good."
Haiku shrugged. "Are you ready?"
"Yes." Perch turned. The chamber was now dark. The light from the orb was hidden by the cloth. "I am ready. We should leave these waters now."
The wind had picked up at the temple entrance. As Haiku and Perch emerged they caught the first of many chilly gusts. Abbot was still standing guard. The ork looked like he was ready to leave, though. A tension had built up in his muscles while on sentry. The freedom of movement would serve to loosen them up.
"Get it?" Abbot asked.
"Got it."
The ork grinned widely. "Good, let's fade. Austin's on his way with the chopper. We got five minutes."
"Right." Haiku was about to beat feet through the forest when she noticed Perch wasn't moving. The dwarf woman was standing awkwardly at the temple entrance. Her head was held in an alert fashion. "Perch? What's wrong?"
The shaman held up one boney finger. "Different waters."
Haiku didn't understand at first. She didn't even notice the vines snaking around her ankles.
In another moment they closed in on her. The vines, barbed with thorns, wrap around her legs and sent her smashing into the muddy earth. The vines moved like living beings as they wrapped around her body, pinning her arms to her sides, and dragging her into the stone walls of the temple.
She gasped. "Get these things off me!"
"Haiku!" Abbot raised his assault rifle, but thought twice of that. He pulled his machete and rushed to her aid.
"I can't breath!" The vines tightened around her chest and tear into her flesh with their thorns. The more Haiku struggled the deeper they dug.
Abbot's machete worked on the tangled mass. The blade chopped and hacked and took off pieces of vine, leaves, and stone.
"The water's have lines now. A fisherman lines." Perch stood perfectly still. She didn't seem surprised when vines took on a life of their own. Here eyes were focused on the sky, searching the darkness for tell-tale shapes of the 'fishermen'.
She saw them high above in the overgrown temple. Two of them pasted in the back light of the moon as it peaked through the ruins. Their dark, wicked forms reached out to the group without really moving. Perch felt their will and mana fill the space between them. She could feel the skill of these fishermen. They were much greater than her skill at avoiding them.
"Oh, dear." Perch gasped before dashing for the woods. "We must go! These fishermen are very good. Their lines will catch us and we'll be fed into their nets. We should go deeper to avoid their lures!"
"What are you talking about?" Abbot called just as he finished cutting Haiku free.
She dropped the the ground and gasped for breath, sparing only a moment to get the tangle of vines off her feet. "Do what she says, Abbot, run!"
The two runners followed after their teammate. Together the three of them tore through the brush as fast as they could. Haiku didn't know exactly where they were going, but she did know they were going in the general direction of the extraction zone. Hopefully they would hear Austin's chopper any second.
A powerful blast of wind suddenly lifted Perch right off her feet. The dwarf spun in mid air, her legs and arms working comically fast, before she slammed into the ground. The wind ripped through her possessions, scattering her herbs and oils across a small clearing.
The orb fell out and rolled away, becoming partially exposed underneath the cloth.
"Perch?" Haiku rushed up to the fallen woman. She looked dazed, but otherwise unheart. "Can you run."
"Yes, I can run. I can out run you." Perch patted her person. "Where is the Voices?"
"I've got the stuff." Abbot called, bringing up the rear.
Perch looked past Haiku in time to see Abbot reaching for the artifact recovered from the temple. "No!" She warned. "Don't touch it!"
Abbot picked the trinket up without thinking twice. His fingers touched the naked surface of the orb. Nothing seemed wrong as he wrapped the cloth around it. Then he looked frosty eyed at Haiku. His jaw slacked open in shock and horror. Almost like he had seen a ghost or a long lost friend.
Then he screamed.
"MAKE THEM STOP! MAKE THEM STOP! DON'T LET THEM GO IN THERE! GET THEM OUT! ARRRGGGHHHHH!"
"Abbot?! What's wrong? Listen to me!" Haiku pleaded.
"THEY WON'T STOP! THEY WON'T STOP! GET OUT! GET OUT!" Abbot dropped the orb at his feet and pressed his hands against his head. A look of pure horror filled his face contorting his features in a horrible display of pain and fear. "MAKE THEM GET OUT!"
"Hang on Abbot!"
"No!" Perch grabbed Haiku's leg. "You can't help them. He swimming in the waters."
"I don't care if he's swimming in acid!" Haiku shrugged Perch off. "Abbot!"
The ork backhanded her with enough force to lay her out. The throbbing ache in her head was bad worse as her injured ribs landed painfully on the pointy base of the artifact.
"MAKE THEM LEAVE! MAKE THEM LEAVE!" Abbot plodded around in circles before abruptly stopping in front of a large tree. "You? YOU MAKE THEM STOP!" The assault rifle came up and a hail of bullets chewed into the bark. The clattering of shells was matched only by the ork's raving words. "I'LL GET THEM OUT! I'LL SAVE THEM! THEY WILL BE FREE!"
"Abbot what the frag is wrong with you!?" Haiku ducked as the ork swung the gun in a wide arch, proliferating the foliage in an impressive display. From the corner of her eye she saw Perch take a burst and collapse. "Stop it!"
"Stop? Make them stop?" Abbot mused. "Yes, I know how to make them stop."
Haiku risked looking up in time Abbot placed the barrel of his rifle under his chin. Immediately she tried to find the breath within herself to call out.
"ABBOT!"
The ork promptly blew the top of his head off.
"Abbot!" Haiku half crawled, half rolled to him, but she knew she was too late. Abbot's cooling corpse rested serenely in a patch of clovers.
"I told you not to help him." Came a weak voice.
"Perch?" Haiku rushed to the shaman. "Perch? You're alive?"
"Abbot was swimming in the waters. There was no way out for him. The waters were too deep and too cold. It pulled him under." Every word the shaman spoke was a struggle.
"Hang in there. I'm going to get us out of here." Haiku grabbed the artifact, stuffing it into her sack. She picked up Abbot's assault rifle on a whim.
"Leave me, darling. The waters are coming for me too. I see the great fisherman on the banks now. I'm not sly enough to get away this time." Her voice was fading.
"Bulldrek!" Haiku grabbed Perch by the shoulder, using her coveralls as leverage. She tried to be as gentle as she could. She spared a quick glance at the compass on her watch and did some quick math with the aid of her headware processor. "If we can make it to the extraction you'll be okay."
"It is too far upstream....."
"No! It's not!" Haiku trudged through the forest, coaching her wounded teammate on. She was using Abbot's rifle more as a crutch than a weapon. "We can make it."
"No, the lure is in the water. It's bright and colorful. It moves like a minnow."
Haiku gritted her teeth, looking through the pain as her aching wounds screamed out in protest. "Don't start with that shaman talk now, Perch. Talk to me about something else. Tell me about your kids. Talk to me about them."
"The lure is close."
Haiku shook her head, thinking for a moment that she heard the faint whirling of a helicopter blade. "Not the lure, tell me about your kids! You talk about them all the time. You couldn't be quiet about them when we were in California. Your son, Matt was it, works in conservation. Right? Tell me about him. What about your other son? Jeffery? Was that his name? Answer me Perch, was that his name? What did he do?"
Perch didn't answer.
The thumping of rotor blades became clear now. Through the trees Haiku could see the faint light from Austin's copter. The sight lifted her spirits. "Look, we're almost there. Don't let go, Perch."
They broke through the foliage. Haiku's muscles were straining against the weight she support. Perch was heavy than she looked and Abbot's assault rifle was more of a liability than an asset. The shaman was little more than dead weight now. Austin's helicopter loomed in the clearing. It's blades beating the grass with downdrafts.
"Austin! Get out here and help me!"
The side door slide open as she approached. Austin stuck his head out. The blond human had riggerjacks running from the back of his skull.
"Abbot's dead!" Haiku called, struggling to walk under her load. "Perch is hurt will bad. Give me a hand."
Austin held out his hand. "Give me that rifle."
She gave him the rifle. The rigger took it by the barrel and scooted it inside the cabin. Haiku carefully lay Perch down. The shaman was becoming to much for her to support. For the first time she noticed how bad the woman was bleeding. It looked like lifting her into the copter would cause even more injury. Haiku checked for a pulse.
"I think she's unconscious." Concern filled her voice. "I need the medkit and a trauma patch."
"Did you get the artifact?"
She could barely hear him underneath the thumping blades. "What?!"
"Did you get the Orb?"
"Yes."
"Give it to me."
Haiku was so concerned with Perch's condition that she didn't think twice. She shrugged her backpack off and tossed it to her teammate. Austin rifled through the back until he found what he was looking for. He pulled back the wrapping just enough to see it. The orb stared back at him, quietly glowing with its own inner light.
"Give me the fragging medkit already! Perch needs it!"
Austin looked up at her, putting the orb back into the pack and sliding it underneath a bench seat. "Sorry, lass, things have changed."
"What?" Haiku shot him suspicious eyes. Her words were unusually quiet.
Austin held his Rugar Warhawk on her. "One stick split four ways doesn't leave much icing on the cake for me. One stick split one way does."
Haiku saw the revolver's heavy barrel looming at her. She was caught completely off guard, shock to the point that she didn't know what to do. Austin wasn't giving her a chance to figure out something.
"Enjoy your dirtnap, Haiku."
The heavy slug ripped through her. Haiku fell, her head bouncing on the soft mud. Immediately she lost feeling below her chest. The rotor blades blew hair across her staring eyes, forever locked in an expression of disbelief.
The helicopter's door shut and the machine lifted off, leaving Haiku far below. In a moment it disappeared over the trees. Austin smiled to himself the whole way. This was the easiest job he had ever had. In a few hours he'd have enough nuyen to take the next year off. Maybe sell the copter too. He wouldn't be needing it for a while.
He was so proud of himself. He set the helicopter on autopilot and fished out the sack. The artifact was still wrapped in cloth. He slowly folded it away to admit the Orb's beauty. It glowed serenely in the dim light of the cockpit. So peaceful. Austin smiled again, fingering the little idol like a long lost childhood toy.
Until his fingers casually brushed against the Orb's surface.