Chapter Five
Of Men and Matrix
The Laken Retreat
Slaish-Shidhe Council
November 3, 2059
2:09 am
Lenny watched the floors pass. They weren't passing fast enough when Patrick was speaking.
"So you guys must be big in the corporate ladder, huh?" Patrick was as eager as a little league player. He hadn't stopped talking since stepping into the elevator. The only thing more annoying than his bantering was the elevator's Christmas carols. "I bet you guys have seen a lot of action too. Hostile take overs, whiny researchers, even locking horns with Lone Star, right? Man. Course, I haven't seen that much action. This is just my second month on the job and nothing really happens out here. Looks like old Mr. Brown fragged up though, huh?"
"Shut up." Lenny hissed, hoping that would be enough.
"Oh, right. Keeping it quiet. I see what your saying, sir."
Lenny groaned. In the back of his mind he was hoping that Patrick wouldn't turn around and see the twisted grin Smiley was giving him. Lenny had seen that grin before and knew what the eccentric samurai wanted to do to the rookie.
The elevator's doors slid open on the fourth floor. Patrick was the first out with Lenny and his entourage close behind. For a moment Lenny thought he heard the earpiece of his transceiver buzz, but he chalked it up to interference.
"This is it, Ethan Brown's suite. I'll just knock and wake him up for you."
"No." Lenny interrupted him.
"What?"
"Do not wake him."
The look on Patrick's face suggested suspicion.
"This is an internal matter." Lenny filled his words with authority. "Step aside."
Patrick stood motionless for a moment, but Lenny's attitude and pitch black cybereyes had an effect on the rookie's ego. When he moved Lenny gave a nod towards Nightsky. The adept brushed past the inexperienced guard and placed a maglock passkey on the door's lock. The passkey sequenced the lock in less than thirty seconds.
"Excuse me, sir?"
Lenny suppressed a frown. Instead he put his distaste into a growl, feeding more hostility into his troubleshooter persona. "What is it?"
"Why are your boots covered in mud?"
Lenny's carefully crafted expression faltered for a moment. He looked down to see that his boots did have mud on them. Mud from trekking through the woods. All of their footwear did. Lenny met the rookie's suspicious eyes as he took a timid step back.
Right into Smiley's waiting arms.
The young man gasped as Smiley popped his razors. The samurai disemboweled him with two quick strikes, splattering the hallway with fresh crimson.
"Goddamnit, Smiley, you didn't have to do that!"
Smiley twitched, a happy grin on his face.
"Our cover's blown!" Findler pulled the action back on his submachine gun.
Lenny gave a frightful glance at the hallway camera. "Double time! You two watch the hallway and get Riggs on the line!"
Lenny and Nightsky dashed into the suite, passing through the studio in mere moments, and broke through Ethan's bedroom door with all the speed of a Saab Dynamite going flat out. Stealth was now forgotten. They made enough noise to wake their target.
Ethan was an elderly gentleman with a receding hairline and a formidable gut. The man was out of shape and a virtual couch potato. Lenny already knew this from a dossier he got when the team accepted this run.
"What's going on here?" Ethan flicked on his beside lamp. "Who are you people?"
Nightsky covered him with his SCK submachine gun. "Hands where we can see them!"
"We've been hired to extract you from this facility." Lenny rushed to his bedside, pulling a orange jumpsuit and dropping it on the older man's lap. The jumpsuit had a place for the man's feet and a ballistic weave woven into the fibers. "You have fifteen seconds to put this on and come with us."
"What? Now!?" Ethan looked dumbfounded at the jumpsuit for a moment. "Forget this. I'm not going."
Lenny's frustration grew. "I didn't say it was up to you! You now have ten seconds to put this on and get your ass into gear!"
"We don't have time for this." Nightsky cursed, pulling the action on his SCK back and leveling the barrel on Ethan. "Put it on or you go out the hard way!"
"Okay! Great Ghost Dance, you guys are crazy." Ethan waddled out of bed and managed to shrug himself into the jumpsuit. Lenny had purposely gotten a small troll size, just big enough to be an easy fit, but not too big for Ethan to trip over himself. "It wasn't suppose to be like this. It was suppose to be real quiet."
A call came from Findler in the hallway followed by a burst of gunfire.
"We've got heat here!" Findler warned, the rest of what he said was drowned out by the cackling of SCKs. "Hurry with the mark!"
Lenny frowned, turning to the mark. "Ethan, you're never more than three feet away from me." Ethan nodded fearfully at Lenny's order as the shadowrunner moved for the door. "Time to get out of here, Sky."
The adept turned for the door which suddenly swung background on its hinges and smashed him right in the face before slamming shut again.
"Frag!" Nightsky stumbled back with his hand over his nose. He tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. "It won't open!"
Lenny knew the door could not have done that by itself. He had read the dossier on the Retreat's security features. One of the highlights was that the Retreat maintained two shamans.
"Watch for spirits." Lenny warned.
Nightsky leveled his SCK at the door and cut lose. Half the clip put enough potholes in the frame so the adept run right through which is exactly what he did.
"Move, Ethan!" Lenny shoved the older man just as the hallway lights started flashing off and on rapidly. Lenny knew it was the spirit messing with their heads.
The group passed the bathroom just as the toilet exploded, sending a unnatural flood of water into the hall. Nightsky nearly lost his footing, but kept moving. Lenny grabbed Ethan by the handy loop on the back of the jumpsuit and held him upright. Years of experience on the darker side of the shadows told Lenny that the exploding commode was the work of a spirit. More 'accidents' were sure to follow. As the group passed the kitchen a meat cleaver embedded itself in the wall just in front of Nightsky's face. The adept dropped to his knee and rolled into the main room. He didn't fire as the bullets wouldn't have any effect on a spirit.
"What the frag is taking you guys?" Findler called from the door where he was reloading his gun. Smiley could be seen in the hallway with a gleeful look on his face. The eccentric samurai's SCK was rattling away just before the samurai's clip ran dry.
Smiley frowned at the weapon. "Oh, bunnyfrag."
"Nail him!" Guards near the elevator yelled. Two guards rushed Smiley with stun batons raised. A third put a burst across the samurai's chest, making him drop to his knees.
Findler came around the door and proliferated the third gunman across his armored jacket. The other two collided with Smiley, but the samurai had only been faking his injuries. As the two men fell on them Smiley popped his spurs and eviscerated one and beat the other senseless with the defunct SCK.
Smiley laughed gleefully, enjoying every moment of it.. "Frag you with a garden hose!"
Smiley didn't see the guard he had put down draw his pistol. Though bleeding profusely, the man was still able to point his gun at Smiley's thick head, but Nightsky came through the doorway and turned the guard's arm into a useless pile of gore with one burst.
"Oh god don't kill me!" The other guard yelled as Smiley did his best to shove the submachine gun into the man's nostril. The lone guard at the end of the hallway, who's breath had been knocked out as bullets flattened out against his armor, watched in horror as Smiley defied the physics of shoving a SCK submachine gun into another man's skull.
Another elevator door pinged. As it slid open three more fresh security personal leaping into the fray. They began filling the hallway with a hail of lead. Smiley took another hit, but the samurai's armored jacket held. Nightsky pressed himself against the floor and returned fire. The shadowrunners did their best to concentrate their fire on pinning the new group in the cramped elevator. If they made it out the team would surely be overwhelmed.
A bullet clipped Findler's arm, taking a chunk of the ballistic fabric and flesh with it. The ork dropped back. "We're getting killed out here!"
Lenny grabbed Ethan and dragged him aside. "Stay here!"
"How are you going to get us out of this one, Lenny?" Findler grabbed a towel from a nearby stand and wrapped it over his arm. "Where you're knack for having and answer for everything now? Huh? I don't fragging see it!"
"Stay frosty!" Lenny keyed his commlink. "Shard! We need some back up of the magical kind." The commlink was filled with static. "Shard to you read me? Shard?!"
The spirit in Ethan's suite suddenly let itself be known. A couch detached itself from the wall and charged like an enraged bull. Lenny rolled out of the way as it crashed into the wall.
"Shard! Where are you?!"
"Lenny do something!" Nightsky yelled from the corridor where Smiley had grabbed one of the fallen guards and was using it as a human shield. Both of them were moments away from being cut in half by security. "Frag, if you want something done, do it yourself." Nightsky pulled a pair of grenades from his belt, one offensive designed for penetration and an incendiary designed to burn. He hurled them at the open elevator doors.
Someone yelled grenade and leapt into the open, but Findler cut him down. Fire broke out followed by a series of cracks as ammo started cooking off. Screams lit up from the people inside. An explosion rocked the lift, breaking its safety moorings and sending it plummeting to the basement with the echoing screams of the unfortunate victims.
"Fall back." The guard trapped near the elevators whispered into his transceiver. He pushed himself towards the stairway. "Lock it down. Lock it down."
"Smiley! Grab that guy!" Nightsky got to his feet.
Smiley charged for the poor soul, but not even he was quick enough to prevent the guard from slipping into the stairway. Smiley pulled against the closed door, but it refused to budge. The heavy construction materials ensured that he wouldn't be breaking it down either. Then all the doors on the fourth floor locked down. Shields dropped over all the outside windows and over the elevator accesses.
"What the frag?" Smiley growled.
"They've locked us in!" Ethan said fearfully. "We are trapped. I knew I never should have agreed to this. Look, I've changed my mind. I'm not going. Just let me go back to bed and we can forget this whole thing."
Lenny frowned. "Doesn't work like that, Ethan. We're all committed. There's no going back for you or us."
The older man frowned. He was so worried that he didn't even notice that his ten thousand dollar trid unit was moving on its own. The massive speakers were like arms as it raised them above Ethan's head. Lenny tackled the old man at the last minute. The speaker crashed into the floor, sending sparks and chunks of plastic across the carpet.
"What is that?!" Ethan gasped as a face appeared on the trideo. A hideous face from some twentieth century horror flick.
"A spirit." Lenny answered, quick drawing his Predator and blowing holes in the expensive equipment. The cosmetic damage didn't stop the lumbering entertainment center from smashing recliner Lenny had ducked behind.
Findler stood with his weapon pointed at the thing, but it buried a woofer into the ork's chest and knocked the shadowrunner into the hallway.
"Shard!" Lenny keyed his commlink, but only got static. "Shard come in!"
Findler struggled to his feet, but Nightsky held him back.
"Stay down." The adept snapped.
"Down?! Are you fragged?"
The trideo spirit threw it's powercords around Lenny. The cords wrapped around his gun hand and leg. One nearly wrapped around his throat, but he got his hand up quick enough to keep it from choking him.
Nightsky dashed into the suite, unsheathing the katana and severing the cords with one fluid stroke. The trideo spirit howled in frustration, a sickening sound that wailed from the shattered speakers, and lunged for the adept. Nightsky side stepped the mountain of plastic and wires, bringing his speed and the weight of the beast onto the blade of his sword which astrally glowed with the anchored magic of a physical adept. The spirit's form clashed with the magical power, severing it's link with the physical world and sending it screaming back to its own dimension.
The trideo equipment fell lifelessly to the floor. Ethan nearly passed out.
"Is it dead?" Findler groaned from the corridor.
Nightsky sheathed the sword. "Let's hope so."
"They'll be more." Lenny knew there would be. Shamans could call up spirits without the long preparation time that mages required when summoning elementals.
Ethan gasped, breathing heavily. The reality of his predicament was driving him insane. "Everything is locked down. We can't get out! They'll come up here with more people next!"
"Calm down, Mr. Brown." Lenny struggled to his feet.
"No! Just leave me here! I've changed my mind. I don't want out."
"You can't change you mind."
"But I'm the whole reason you are here! You should respect my choice if I don't want to go."
"Doesn't work like that. Our contract is with the Johnson. We were hired to get you out. That is exactly what we are going to do." Lenny glared. "Wether you like it or not."
"I hate to bring this out, Lenny, but how are we going to get out of here?" Nightsky asked.
"I don't know." Lenny admitted. "I can't get the others on the commlink and it won't be long until security sends reinforcements. We need some way off this floor. Nightsky, see what you can do with the stairway door."
Nightsky nodded and tromped off, pulling a microtronics kit from his belt.
Lenny's commlink crackled. Through the static he could hear a definite voice. It was Riggs. The dwarf was trying to boost his single and overcome the ECM at the same time.
"Riggs?" Lenny pressed his finger to his ear. "Come in? The Retreat's gone into lock down. What's happening with Tart?"
"She got dumped, bossman! Fragged right out of the Matrix. We're in deep drek!" Riggs bantered.
"Stay frosty, chummer. Get Tart jacked back in. We need these doors open. Get ready to open up a way out and keep your eyes peeled. They may check for our escape route."
"But the 'trix already dumped her once! It'll baseline her again and we'll be in even deeper drek!"
"Riggs, I don't have time to argue with you! Get it done, now!"
"Right, bossman, right. Hang tight."
2:16 am
"Jack back in!" Shard had pleaded. "If you don't they are done for. The security system has locked them in."
"Hurry up!" Riggs had said. "It sounds like they're in some real drek!"
"You can do it. Just give them a way out."
Words sounded so simple when Shard spoke them. They did sound like much when her meat ears heard them. Fear and hesitation left her as she tripped the deck. Tart had plugged the datacord back into her jack and dived into the Matrix. She hopped a uplink from a satellite and beamed herself into the Retreat's system like a pillaging Viking. Her persona was running full combat programs, blazing through the access nodes like a knife through melting butter. The system was hot from her last escapade. Everything was on alert, but she was ready.
Datastreams flowed around her as she axed into the command lines and shot straight for the security node. Sensors showed a Tar Baby IC pop up in her path, but the festering pile of binaries was too slow as she hurled a steamroller over the worthless piece of oozing muck.
"You have entered the Security Subprocesser." A voice chimed. "Access is forbidden."
The encryption sequence collapsed under her nimble fingers. They folded in on themselves to allow her access, slicing the code never felt so good. The subprocesser had locked the Retreat down, trapping the team inside with a very angry response force sizing them up. Now Tart was going to free them.
"Halt! You presence in this node is illegal." The words came from a new icon. Not just any icon, but the shiny black and blue persona of a corporate decker. The decker loomed over Tart with obvious offense utilities in place. "You will logout now or face severe consequences. I have been authorized to use excessive force."
Tart eyed the subprocessor. It would be easy to open the locks, but the corporate decker wasn't going to give her a chance. There was only one thing to do. Her persona's arm changed shape into a horrific blaster. At the same time she gave her trump card the green light.
"Suck code corporate lackey!"
The attack program struck by leaping a arching current of brilliant light at the other decker whom effortlessly evaded it.
"You were warned." The decker's soulless eyes flashed.
Tart felt the shift in the Matrix as the corporate decker attacked with a fiery trident. The program he used wasn't immediately recognizable. Her shield utility brought up a crystalline barrier. The trident tore chunks from it and flashed across its sparkling surface. Sequences flashed in front of her mind's eye. The power behind the attack is as real as any intrusion countermeasure. In fact, this was the most dangerous kind of countermeasure a decker could ever face.
Another decker.
Tart evaded the next strike and flicked her persona's razored hair sending a quill of spins into her opponent. The corporate heavy hitter was unfazed. He hurled a gooey substance struck her. It bound her to the walls of the node.
A binder! It kept her immobile and unable to parry his attacks!
"You should have logged off when you had the chance."
The decker moved in with his trident Tart's sensors identified it as a Killjoy program. She braced herself. This was really going to hurt.
The decker lay into her. Tart's defenses crumpled. The trident brought live fire to her nerves as it ravaged her deck and struck her nervous system. In the virtual world her icon was wrapped with fiery energy. In the real world she was bordering on a seizure. The trident struck again with more force, pulling blood and tears from her meat eyes. Through the swirling blackness of indescribable pain Tart's thoughts centered on Lenny and the rest of the team trapped inside. If she failed them they would be killed. She couldn't fail. Too many lives were at stake. She couldn't lose them.
The trident tore into her icon again, bringing real torture to her body. She screamed, feeling for sure that it was being hear in the real world as well as here. Her mind screamed out in never ending agony as her heartbeat became erratic.
The pain stopped as the decker halted his attack. It didn't matter as Tart's deck and mind we close to breaking.
"You're not getting off that easily. Next time I warn you about something you should take it seriously." The decker attached a glowing sprite to Tart's persona. The little ball of light danced around her before darting off. She recognized it as a trace program. "I'm sending you back to the meat world with this last gift." The decker raised the trident.
Tart forced herself to think pass the agonizing pain.
"I have a gift too." She smiled to herself, reaching for her trump card. "SK run command line three: execute little boy."
"What?" The decker sounded confused as a shimmering appeared in the node, forming a new icon. "Identify yourself!" The decker demanded.
A small boy had materialized into the node. There shouldn't be a way for such a thing to just pop up like that. It could be a program. It wasn't an icon or a persona. It was something that had been very carefully coded by the hottest deckers on the Matrix. It could run quietly in the background on supporting frames. The only hint of its purpose comes from the biohazard logo on the boy's shirt.
A Crash Utility.
Tart smiled. "Here's your present."
The node burst into searing white fire with both deckers inside.