Chapter Six
Of Men and Magic
The Laken Retreat
Slaish-Shidhe Council
November 3, 2059
2:20 am
Tart's consciousness slammed into her meat body. Before the sights of the Matrix had left her vision she was vomiting blood and swimming in a dizzying sea of muck so thick it felt like molasses. Blood seeped from her eyelids and her nose was a gooey mess as the overwhelming punishment of the experience claimed her conscious mind and sent her swirling into a torturous oblivion.
Across the way the lights on the Laken Retreat that had burned so brightly suddenly went dark. Everything shut down. Air conditioners, water processors, power grids, and the security system. Suddenly everything had gone native.
The bloody hallways of the fourth floor fell into the darkness. Unlike the rest of the residents, the shadowrunners saw this blessing. The locked doors suddenly opened as the power grid went down. They were free to move once again and wasted no time. The jamming net, which had hampered communications so effectively, was now gone.
"That's right, Riggs." Lenny spat into the commlink as the group bounded down the stairwell. "I want Fishtank and Shard's mojo on the lobby right fragging now!"
"Grenades!" Nightsky screamed as guards from the first floor launched grenades through the stairway. The bundles of death bounced off the rails before exploding in a deafening waves.
"Concussion grenades." Lenny noted from the ringing in his ears.
Findler put his SCK over the rail and cut loose a burst. One of the guards had his shoulder torn apart. Under the cover the shadowrunners edged down the stairs. The group made it as far as the second floor before Lenny stopped them.
"Fan out and watch the first level door! Smiley, the smash that window."
Smiley glanced at the window that offered a nice view of the quad. Then grabbed a barely conscious guard and threw him out. The guard landed with a heavy thunk in some prickle bushes.
"Window smashed, fearless leader."
Lenny keyed his commlink. "Shard? I need your mojo on the second floor stairway window. Give us something to land on."
"Copy." Shard replied. "The spirit of the earth will be there shortly."
The prickle brushes were suddenly uprooted as the hulking form of an Earth Elemental broke through the ground. The hideous thing looked almost friendly with the soft patch of moss growing on top of its potato-shaped head.
"Everyone on the potato!" Lenny ordered. "Findler, take Ethan. Nightsky, you're next."
Findler and Ethan dropped onto the elemental's head. The spirit didn't seem to mind. In fact there appeared to be a somewhat disarming grin on its face.
The door on the first level opened again. Smiley pulled his Predator and prepared to violently express himself, but the guards pointed a small launcher through the crack. It spat to spinning balls of death at the shadowrunners. Smiley watched them come and could only think of one thing to say.
"The pigeons are shitting live ones."
The grenades went off with a paralyzing concussion. The blast sent Smiley through the open window, over the elemental, and right into a waiting prickle bush. Fortunately the samurai's metal-laced bones kept anything from breaking. In fact, he landed with a smile on his face. Nightsky and Lenny went in opposite directions. Nightsky landed on the edge of the stairs. His ears were bleeding. Lenny landed roughly on the step with a gash across his forehead. His ears weren't bleeding. They were buzzing as some delicate piece of their cybernetics had taken a nasty jolt.
"Take them!" The guards yelled as they advanced armed with tasers. They learned that quickly. The light submachine rounds weren't punching through the shadowrunner's armor effectively. Now they were using electricity.
Nightsky rolled out of the way just as a pair of darts sailed passed him. His SCK came up ready to spit fire into his foes.
But the gun misfired and jammed.
A dart struck the adept's shoulder and discharged. The jolt brought him down. His nerves firing randomly as overstimulated muscles spasm violently. The promise of unconsciousness seemed eerily inviting as his head pressed against itself.
"Hang tight!" Lenny started popping off rounds.
One guard collapsed as a smartlink-guided round entered his cranium. A dart narrowly missed Lenny as he bounded down the steps. He grabbed the sword's sheath the adept had been so insistent on carrying. With some effort he dragged Nightsky to his feet in time to avoid another dart.
"Stay with me, Night! I can't drag you out by myself." Lenny blew one guard's kneecap off.
Nightsky muttered something in response.
Then a dart connected with Lenny's hand. It fired off its charge and Lenny fell to his feet. He found himself unable to breath. His lungs refused to work. Flashes danced in his cybereyes as the electrical charge interfered with his cybernetics. Nightsky fell heavily next to him. The adept was groggy and barely able to lift his head.
"We've got them now!" One guard said.
Lenny shut his eyes, trying to clear them and focus on aiming his pistol, but the smartlink spat a mass of static and fuzz into his vision.
Another guard advanced up the stairs pulling a pistol. "You are under arrest for attempting to-AAAIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!"
A burst of explosive rounds from a heavy machine gun turned the guard into a meat sandwich. Blood, gore, bits of bone, and armor splattered in all directions.
"What the frag is-GAAHH!" Another guard was cut down.
On the other side of the open door Lenny could make out a boxy shape zipping around in the lobby. The pounding of high caliber rounds could clearly be heard as people scattered in all directions. Lenny couldn't help, but to smile. Riggs had come through with Killer Fishtank. The drone sported a nasty assault weapon that had been liberated from a Lone Star impound yard several months ago. It tore the opposition a sunder.
The wall behind Lenny suddenly collapsed. Shard's Earth Elemental reached in with one rocky hand and gently scooped up the two shadowrunners. Lenny held onto Nightsky as the great creature slowly turned and began plodding across the quad. The cool breeze rushing over him served to bring his senses back. In the distance he could see Findler and Ethan trudging through the field, making their way up the hill to where the Bison was waiting. Smiley was close behind covering them with Findler's submachine gun. For a moment he thought he saw another shape nearby. One of a statuesque elfin woman commanding the power of the spirits.
Nightsky managed to lift his head. The adept was still very shaky on his feet as he gave a questioning look at Lenny.
"It's called transportation, Nightsky." He grinned. "Spirit style."
For the first time Nightsky offered a smile. It was one of relief.
Then the Earth Elemental lost it's rocky leg as shaman sent a fiery bolt of mana through the beast. The lumbering mound of rock and earth began the fall. It's weary passengers saw the ground rush up. They leapt from the falling giant before it hit the ground with enough force to jar fillings loose.
The elemental wasn't out. It rose to its full height and glared angrily at the attacking shaman. The shaman merely looked on before shattering the elemental into a hail of stones and mud that covered the silky grass.
"FRAG!" Nightsky shielded his head from the falling remains of the spirit. "He pulped it!"
"Run!" Lenny grabbed Nightsky by the shoulder and hauled him to his feet. The two raced across the open field.
Suddenly the grass became alive as the shaman summoned a spirit. A spinning mix of grass collected into a malformed scarecrow. It advanced on the runners. Then a powerful burst of wind tore it apart.
Lenny grinned again. Another one of Shard's elementals had saved the day. "Keep moving!" Lenny pressed as he stumbled over the perimeter fence. Nightsky sort of flopped over, but Lenny was there to drag him up again. "Almost there. Then you can pass out all you want."
Nightsky shook the fuzziness from his head. "I'm going to hold you to that."
"That shaman just fragged Killer Fishtank!" Riggs whined over the commlink.
"Shard? Throw one of your spirits at the shaman." Lenny spoke into the 'link.
"Copy." She replied.
At the front steps of the Laken Retreat a hand of earth and rocks suddenly engulfed the shaman and dragged him down.
Nightsky and Lenny sprinted up the hill. As they reached the top Findler was shoving Ethan inside the van. Smiley was sitting outside with a submachine gun his hand and an idiotic grin on his face. Shard was there as well, though she looked fatigued from commanding elementals and taking out watchers.
"What kept you two?"
"Go frag yourself with a spur, Smiley." Nightsky pushed passed the eccentric samurai and dropped heavily into one of the bucket seats.
Lenny noticed that Ethan had a bruise on his head as Findler shoved him inside. "What happened to him?"
"He thought he'd change his mind about the run. I had a few words with him." Smiley's definition of a few words meant that he decked the man with the butt of his pistol.
"Slot and run you slags! We've got to get out of here!" Riggs yelled.
Smiley and Lenny hopped in. The door slide shut just behind him and the Bison jumped into gear, sending unprepared runners to the floor. Riggs was more than willing to sacrifice a smooth ride in favor of speed as the van bounced over the rough terrain.
"What happened to Tart?"
Tart was in the Bison laying on an unwrapped sleeping bag. She looked terrible. Blood had tried and matted around her nose and ears. Her color was also very bad. Shard was kneeling her applying a patch from a medkit. The mage explained what happened.
"She went back into the Matrix to bring down the security system, but something went wrong. I think she ran into some serious trouble and was dumped out of the Matrix again. When she was dumped the Retreat went dark. I did what I could."
Lenny frowned. He concluded that Tart had probably crashed the entire system. The action dealt subjected her to some nasty biofeedback and probably burned some chips on her cyberdeck.
"You guys are nuts!" Ethan raved. "I should have never agreed to this. My life is ruined now! Why didn't I see this before?"
"Shut the frag up!" Nightsky snapped, holding a towel to his bleeding ears.
"Not to burst anyone's bubble, but we're not out of this drek yet." Riggs reminded.
"Riggs is right." Lenny concurred as he opened a footlocker in the back of the Bison and pulled out an assault rifle. "Shard, make sure there's nothing following us astrally. Riggs should be able to spot anything physical."
"There might be a problem, Lenny. Two of my elementals are gone."
"Which ones?"
"The earth."
Lenny cursed. That was going to cause a problem in a few miles. "Don't worry about it. Focus on anything following us."
"Right, Lenny." Shard got into a Lotus position next to Tart. She focused her mind inward, viewing the world through the astral plane.
"The elementals are gone? We're fragged now! What the frag are we going to do when we hit the bridge?" Riggs whined, his voice even more annoying through the van's internal speakers.
"Keep you mind on possible pursuit and let me worry about the bridge." Lenny reminded, turning to the others in the back of the van. There was a heavy bump as the Bison bounded onto the main road. "How's everyone holding up."
Findler had finished a quick bandage over his wound. Nightsky was still holding his head. Smiley was smiling.
"Been better." Findler said.
Shard's eyes snapped open. "Lenny, my sprites say there are two cars behind us. I believe they're from the Retreat."
Lenny looked to the rigger's catatonic body. "Riggs?"
"Nothing yet, too far away."
"Step on it."
"Don't need to tell me twice."
Nightsky tilted his head. "What now?"
Lenny pulled a small box out of the back locker. It had a pair of plastic cubes. "Plan B."
"Plan B?" Smiley laughed. "Hell, we didn't have a Plan A!"
"Not now, Smiley." Lenny pulled the medkit over and fished out a stimpatch for himself. He grabbed another and tossed it in Nightsky's direction. "It will help." He was talking about the ringing in his ears.
Shard's eyes opened again. "Spirits." She warned. "I have to go. Tell Riggs not to get off this road. I want to be able to find my body after I'm finished with them."
With that she was gone. Shard's astral form lifted from her body. It was a dangerous thing to do because her body was in motion. If her form didn't return to her body after a certain amount of time her spirit would fade away and her body would die. Fortunately there was only one road for the Bison to travel on and there were not many people out here. That would make finding her body a lot easier.
The Bison came around a curve at in excessive speed. It tilted wildly, but with Riggs plugged into the machine there was very little chance of him losing control. Everybody inside held on as the van shifted. Lenny instinctively held Tart and Shard as neither of them seemed to be in a condition to do it for themselves.
"Bridge in a few more klicks, bossman." Riggs reported.
"Stop us on the far side. How far back are those cars?"
"Can't tell, still not on the sensors."
"Give yourself room to breath on the other side."
"It's going to be that big? Frag."
Findler started to stand, but Lenny told him to set. This wouldn't take long. Nightsky, feeling better after the stimpatch, discarded his jammed SCK and took one of the explosive blocks from Lenny. He was in a better condition to plant the explosives.
"How do these things work again?"
"Yank off the adhesive, place under bridge, press the timer, and run like hell. Preset the timers for thirty seconds."
"Will that give us enough time?"
"I'm worried about giving us too much time."
"Here comes the bridge!" Riggs reported.
The Bison ran over the rickety old thing, it's heavy treads make a steady rhythm over the surface. Riggs brought everything to an abrupt stop ten meters on the other. The side door slid open. Lenny and Nightsky jumped out each carrying a little packet of destruction in their hands. They slid down one muddy bank and pressed the charges against the bridge's underside. They started the timers at the same time and raced for the Bison. Tires squealed the moment they got in as Riggs pressed the gas. The military grade explosives were more than enough to take out a sizeable chunk of the highway. Less than a kilometer later there was a distant boom that marked the destruction of the bridge.
Lenny afford a small smile. He also noticed that Shard was back with them. "See? I told you I had bad vibes about this one." There was almost a hint of humor in his voice.
Shard gave a weak laugh.
"Uhm, bossman?" Riggs said. "I don't mean to trample on your good mood, but I'm picking up a radio signal from up ahead. There's another company car bearing down on us."
Lenny cursed again. They weren't giving up easily. "Can you handle them?"
Riggs shrugged. "Probably. They'll be on us in a few minutes."
"Wait." Shard interrupted. "I have a better idea."
"And that would be?" Riggs said sarcastically.
"Pull us in next to those trees up there."
"What? You want me to stop?! Are you out of your daisy eating mind?!"
"Do it, Riggs." Lenny said.
"We'll be a sitting duck!"
"Riggs!"
"Okay! Okay! But if we get fragged I'm personally come back from the dead to say I told you so!"
The Bison eased off the road and came to a halt near the trees. The other runners looked up suspiciously, wondering why they had suddenly stopped. Riggs, not one for taking chances, popped the minigun from the overheard turret. He might be stopping, but he doesn't have to like it.
"Okay, Shard, we're stopped. You want me to stand by the road and stick out my thumb now?"
"Just sit there, Riggs, and try not to talk too much."
Shard stood in the middle of the van. She pointed her finger to the roof and chanted something in a completely indecipherable language. No one could tell that anything had changed. Ethan looked completely baffled and was about to say something, but a sharp glance from Lenny told him to be quiet. Lenny, like all of the shadowrunners (with Riggs being a paranoid exception), learned a long time ago that magic was not always easily seen. To the people inside everything stayed the same, but on the outside the mana was talking hold. The van's outline blurred next to the trees. Then slowly faded into the background. Shard kept her eyes closed while she concentrated intensely. Sweat beaded up on her skin as she held the spell with the force of her will.
In a few minutes headlights could be seen in the distance. It was the company car Riggs had reported. It was racing towards the Retreat at high speed. The dwarf rigger almost had a coronary when the car came around the curve. It was all Lenny could do to keep the dwarf from opening up with the minigun.
"But they're going to spot us, bossman! They'll radio back and we'll be in deeper drek than we were before!"
"Don't touch that trigger, Riggs."
"Bossman, they're going to frag us!"
"Riggs, if you touch that trigger and I'll feed you to Smiley!"
Riggs didn't mention the minigun again after that. The car past the Bison's position completely oblivious of its presence. Riggs was at a loss for words when nothing happened. Eventually he did edge the Bison back onto the highway. Shard held the spell for a few more kilometers before she dropped it out of exhaustion.
By then they were well away from the country road that lead up to the Laken Retreat. A few more kilometers and the Bison turned off on a series of dirt roads. Riggs lead the group following a map and a GPS system. Twenty minutes later they reached the interstate.
Only then did Lenny light a cigarette. He took a long drag before letting it out. Ethan coughed slightly at the smoke.
"Must you do that?" He asked.
Lenny ignored him. Mostly. "How is Tart?"
"Still sleeping." Shard answered, still kneeling beside her.
"Findler?"
"Good to go, Lenny."
Lenny didn't bother to ask Smiley how he was. Even if the eccentric samurai was injured he'd never know it. The pain editor in his head would block it out. Nightsky held his hand over his ear. The concussion probably did a little damage there. Lenny still had a bad pick up from his cybernetics since the concussion grenades went off.
"Riggs, cut the van's ECM for a few minutes." Lenny pulled out his phone. "I have to make a call."
"Right, bossman."
Lenny selected Hector's number off the speed dial. It rang only once before the fixer picked up. "Hello. It's me. We have the package. In bound now."
"Everything five by five?" The fixer asked.
"More or less. We need medical attention. Mojo."
"Can you make the twin's by dawn?"
Lenny checked the time. "Yes."
"I will call ahead."
"Also need to dispose of decorations." Lenny was referring to gear.
"We'll take care of that later. The package needs to be traded."
"Sometime after lunch. My team needs some rest."
"I will contact Mr. Johnson. Call me back after you have wined and dined."
"Null sheen." Lenny hung up. He couldn't hear him, but he suspected that Riggs switched the ECM back on as soon as the call was completed.
"Talking to your benefactor?" Ethan queried.
"That is none of your concern, Mr. Brown."
"Where are you taking me? I have a right to know."
Lenny rested on a folding bench not far from Tart and Shard. He didn't say anything. Instead he pulled a bug scanner from underneath the bench. "Hold still." He instructed as he passed the bug scanner over Ethan. It came up with nothing. He also pulled a thumbprint reader and checked Ethan's ID with the one Mr. Johnson had given the team. It was something he should have done before they broke out of the Retreat, but everything had happened so quickly that Lenny had forgotten.
"Satisfied?"
Lenny put the scanners away. "We're going to Seattle. We will receive medical attention there. Tomorrow afternoon you will be handed over to our Johnson. I do not know what will happen beyond that."
"Why not?"
"Because we are not paid to know. Stay frosty and don't try to skip away. Try that and I'll have you drugged and comatose till we hand you off. Play nice and you can keep your wits about you. Do we have an understanding?"
Ethan nodded.
"I'm glad." Lenny turned his attention to the dwarfish rigger. "Riggs, take us to see the twins."