Chapter Eight
Coming Home
The Broken Mask
Auburn, Seattle
November 3, 2059
1:00 pm
The Broken Mask is subdued this time of day. Officially didn't light up for another hour or so. Then the party goers and clubbers would move in and fill these walls with the vibrant intent of a dance club mixed with a seedy bar and equally entertaining pool tables and simunits. Until then the club was nothing more than a hole in the wall. At this time of day half a dozen patrons were scattered about. Some complaining about how terrible their lives were. Others enjoyed a simple game of pool or a spin on one of the simmers. Hector, a fixer, owned the bar. Technically, he didn't really own it. The maze of paperwork leading back to the fixer was a nightmare for anyone to follow. Hector let one of his long time associates run the bar while he used it to meetings.
A private booth held the largest collection of people. They were situated well away from the more open areas of the club. These people seemed to like it here. One was a tall man with reddish brown hair and pitch black cybereyes. Another was a tall elfin woman with brilliant blonde hair that feel in sharp shards. A third was a disconcerting human of average height and build sipping a small cup of water. He joked with a dwarf sitting next to him. The dwarf possessed quite possibly the most prominent nose of them all. A small, quiet girl sit next to them. She didn't speak much, but the eccentric man with a wide grin on his features was a sharp contrast to her. An ork rounded out the group. He joked occasionally, but his topic of choice centered on the activities of the past day.
The shadowrunners had officially wrapped up the run. Less than an hour ago they had turned Ethan Brown over to Mr. Johnson. Mr. Johnson quietly thanked the group and promptly disappeared from the scene. Afterwards the shadowrunners had turned in the gear rented from one of their contacts and given the fixer a call. Now the group waited in this small sports bar for their compensation for their efforts.
"And then BAM!" Riggs clapped his plump hands together. "The whole floor came down and flattened the Montreal Assassins like a bug! Ha! Best brawl game I've seen in weeks."
Smiley laughed, sounding like he as gargling broken glass.
Lenny lit a cigarette. "So, Riggs, while we were tromping through the Council outback yesterday you set a recorder for the Screamers and Assassins?"
"Of course! I couldn't miss it. Two more and the Screamers clench the division. Then it's superbrawl time!"
"I hear the ISSV has something real special planned this year." Nightsky mused.
"You're fragging right they do!" Riggs pointed a pudgy finger. "If the Screamers make it in the superbrawl will be here in Seattle. Big indoor arena, massive trid screens, frag I'm going to have to Tart deck the system so I can get a drones eye view of the thing!"
Shard laughed a little. "Boys and their sports."
Tart grinned. "Yeah."
"It would seem that after thousands of years of evolution they would find something more productive to occupy their time."
"Hey!" Riggs grumbled. "The Urban Brawl is a contest that brings man back to the good old days! Cavemen I'm saying! If it wasn't for us men clubbing dinosaurs back then the women and children wouldn't have anything to eat! Us men had to be mean and green and go hunting. We had to feed out cave-families ya' know."
"Ah." Shard nodded. "So caveman needed to hunt for food? So the urban brawl is like a hunt, only your hunting other people."
The sarcasm Shard sed slid of Riggs like water of a duck's back.
"That's right!" Riggs agreed. "It's primitive man I tell ya'! We're still forming complex hunting strategies and such to feed our cave-families don't ya' see?"
"Kind of like running the shadows, huh?" Findler said.
That brought silence to the table. The uneasy silence persisted for a few moments. Findler felt that he had spoken out of place.
"Why did you have to bring that up?" Nightsky groaned.
"I don't know about you chummers, but I'm frosty with the way things went down last night. Things got a little tight there for a bit."
Smiley grinned. "Heh. You were crying like a little girl." He spared a glance at Tart. "No offense."
"Smiley, has anyone ever told you that you have the personality of a chunk of plastique."
"Oh, yeah. Lot's of fraggers. Reminds me of this drekhead a few years ago. He owed some nuyen and didn't pay up on time. Some heavy fraggers told me to go out and see him. Said for not to leave until I broke something. The drekhead thought he'd drink a lot of milk cause milk's got a lot of calcium or some drek that makes bones stronger. So when I came to see him he had this goofy grin on his face thinking that he drank all this milk so his bones would be strong and they wouldn't break." Smiley grinned, noting that his choice in conversation was making one or two of his companions queasy.
"What happened?" Lenny wondered.
"Milk didn't do the body good." Smiley leered evilly.
"Smiley, you really have no sense of tact, do you?"
Smiley grinned at the elfin mage. The grin wasn't friendly. It was disturbing.
Nightsky offered a cheap joke. "Really, Shard, we don't keep Smiley around for his tact." He laughed. "We like his way with people."
The group laughed. Some more than others with Riggs being the loudest and Tart the least. Lenny found it amusing. Smiley may be a bit on the extreme side of things, but he was little more than a thug. He did what he was told. Everything else was entertainment to him.
It occurred to Lenny that this was one of the few times the whole team had been together just to chat over a few drinks. Well, most of the team. Gideon wasn't here. Lenny hadn't seen the ork mercenary in months. He found that he missed the grizzled ork. Sure he was somewhat stubborn and had a one track mind, but things seemed like they were missing something without him.
Lenny's pitch-black eyes wondered over the team again. They were laughing and joking happily amongst themselves. Almost like normal people. No one could tell this was a band of shadowrunners at first glance. It was hard to believe that this morning they were running for their lives while carrying enough firepower to take out a HTR team. The only thing they have to show for their escapade was sleepy eyes and a few bruises. Lenny thought they got off lucky.
"Ah, my good friends! How are you chummers?" Hector greeted the group cheerfully as he approached their private booth. The fixer had two bodyguards with him this afternoon. One of them Lenny recognized as Cinder, a spellslinger he had worked with a few times. The other was a ork he didn't know.
Cinder gave a slight nod of recognition to the group. The ork did not. Both stood some distance from the booth. Lenny's team was one that held Hector's confidence. The chance of this simple meet going bad were nonexistent. This gave Cinder and the ork a chance to relax.
"Hector." Lenny shook the fixer's hand as he sat. "We've been waiting for you."
"I was delayed. It couldn't be helped." Hector gave a nod to the assembled runners. He didn't pay as much courtesy to Findler. He wasn't one of Hector's regular contacts. The group had picked him up at the last minute when the run showed a need for more muscle. "Actually I expected you guys to look a bit different, specially from the way you chummers called me last night."
"You can thank the twins." Lenny said. "They worked their little miracles."
"They did didn't they?"
Tart nodded, seemingly more than impressed with the two shamans.
"Well, I'll have to do something special for them. They've been good ever since I those agricorps got off their backs. Have you been to see Rojo?" Hector was referring to the armorer the team had rented gear from so they could impersonate corporate troubleshooters.
"Yes, just before we came here."
"Rojo was a little unhappy." Nightsky added. "Some of his toys didn't make it back, but that goes with the territory."
"I hate to be a wet noodle." Riggs interrupted. "But how's about a paycheck? I lost a good piece of tech last night. I need something to replace it."
Hector smirked. "Yes, of course." He pulled a small wallet of credsticks from his jacket and passed them out to the runners. "Sorry, it has been a busy week."
"You're telling me." Lenny mused as he pocketed his credstick.
"Yes. I am looking foward to a few days off." Shard admitted. "Christmas is coming up this month."
"Don't forget the brawl semi-finals!" Riggs barked. "Going to be good I tell ya'!"
"Well," Nightsky emptied his glass, placed it on the table, and stood. "Let me know how the brawl turns out."
"Where are you going?"
"Home. Sleep."
"Need a lift?" Riggs asked.
"I'll take a cab."
"Hold a sec." Hector pulled a handful of envelopes from his jacket and passed them out. Notably Findler did not get one. "I might as well give you these while everyone's together."
"What's this?"
"An invitation. All of you are cordially invited to a celebration I'll be hosting."
"Celebration? Like a party?"
"It's for associates and clients. It will be a great chance to mingle and have a little fun."
Lenny nodded, reading over his invitation. The party would probably be a safe as safe can be knowing Hector. Security would be provided by fellow shadowrunners to keep the riffraff out. Riffraff included unwanted people like curious undercover cops or nosey corporates. None of that was much of a concern when Hector was in charge of things.
"Club Prenumbra?" Lenny put the invitation into his jacket pocket.
"Friend of mine owes me a favor. I have reserved the Futari Room." Hectors said confidently. "There's some nova hot entertainment lined up too. I've spared no expense this year."
Riggs snorted, rubbing his prominent nose. "Going to be free food?"
"Full buffet." Hector answered. "Only it's a bit of a coat and tie thing. You understand."
"Frag, I'll tolerate a coat and tie for an all you can eat buffet!" Riggs gave a goofy grin.
"Count me out." Nightsky folded the invitation. "I've never been much of a party goer anyway."
"Come now, Nightsky. It will be good for you. It's chance to make some contacts." Hector urged. "Besides, you might have a little fun."
"I'll think about it. In the meantime, I'm going home. Catch you chummers later."
"Are you leaving?" Tart asked.
"Yes." He hefted his bag from the floor.
"I'm leaving too. I'm pretty tired." Tart collected her gym bag which held her cyberdeck. "Want to share a taxi?"
"Sure."
Tart got up and waved at the table. There was a series of goodbyes from group. More than one telling the two to be careful. A few others mentioning Hector's party and how it would be nice if everyone was there. Shard asked Tart if she was going. In all honesty she wasn't sure, but did thing it would be fun. Shard smiled and told her that she would come by tomorrow to help pick out something to wear. After all, in the mage's opinion, the looks make half the night. Tart only grinned at that. Then followed Nightsky as he left.
Outside he flagged down a Taxi. A battered old Americar pulled up. The two of the climbed in and road off.
Nightsky and Tart gave the driver directions several blocks away from their respective apartments. They never gave exact addresses to cabbies. To some people it may sound paranoid, but in the shadows it is better if every taxi driver in the sprawl didn't know your home address.
"Are you really planning on going tomorrow night?" Nightsky asked after a few miles.
Tart shrugged. "I don't know." She didn't really feel like going. Nor did she like social encounters like that, but she was curious. "I think it would be nice. Are you?"
"Ask me after a good night's sleep." Nightsky yawned.
"You don't think it will be any fun?"
"It would be a little odd. All of us together for the simple joy of each other's company." Nightsky spared a cautious glance at the taxi driver. "When we get together it's mostly on business."
"Exactly," Tart perked up. "That's why I thought it would be nice."
"Not having to worry about business?"
"Ever since my mom died you guys have been like family to me. I don't really have anyone else. I don't really talk with anyone outside our little group. It use to not bother me, not talking to people I mean. I liked being alone, but it's been harder lately."
Nightsky smirked. "You've become attached to us."
"Yeah." Tart giggled. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that if anyone else gave me an invitation like this I would have said no right on the spot. Except that it's with the rest of us. The rest of the group is going to be there. I think that will make it fun." She smiled inwardly, her fingers playing with the strap of her gym bag. "Sharon even offered to help me pick out something to wear."
Nightsky noticed that she used the mage's real name. Though it was true that over the past few months Tart had become more relaxed around the group. She had changed a lot since her first run.
To her there were two worlds, the Matrix and the Real World. They had different rules. Tart felt most comfortable swimming in the sea of data than the sea of humanity. It seemed that there were two people in her now. One was Tart the decker. An aggressive and confident slicer of code and dumper of corporate lackeys. The other was Tart the girl who, as a child, was considered almost pathologically shy. Lately she had latched onto the rest of the team like a surrogate family. In the Matrix it was different. She didn't need anyone in the there.
"I'll make a deal with you." She said.
"What's that?"
"If you go I'll go."
"Why?"
"If you go then we will all be there."
Tart had a point. Riggs had already said he would come just for a chance to terrorize the buffet. Lenny would go just out of courtesy to Hector. Odds are Shard wouldn't be far behind as she lived for things like this and, of course, Smiley would never miss a chance to make a fool of himself in public. Nightsky was the only one whose presence wasn't assured. He wasn't really thinking that far ahead. Tomorrow night might as well be next week. Right now the only thing on his mind was twelve hours of uninterrupted sleep.
"Well?" Tart pressed. "What do you think?"
"We'll see." Nightsky answered after a few moments.
The taxi pulled onto Nightsky's block half an hour later. Tart told him to call her when he made up his mind. The adept paid for his part of the ride with his new credstick. Then the cab drove off. Nightsky walked the rest of the way to home. He had only recently moved into this part of the sprawl. The neighborhood wasn't that bad. There were only a few small gangs around and sparse Lone Star patrols. The people were normal compared to some of the places he had lived in the past. It was only a few miles away from a community college. Several business had grown up around here as well as some reasonable housing.
As Nightsky turned down the driveway to his complex the sun peaked out through the clouds. It bathed him in its warming light. He squinted his eyes. It had been a while since he saw the sun like this. Seattle's hazy weather had seen to that. It looked like things were clearing off after so many weeks of perfectly miserable overcasts.
He approached he brushed his fingers over all the keys on the keypad before entering the code. It was a habit he had developed. Some people used fingerprint dust and a UV lamp to pick up on the code. By touching all the keys he ensured his prints wouldn't highlight the ones in it.
It was a four bedroom, two bath apartment. Which was good because it gave Nightsky and Alona space from each other. The front door opened to the living room which had a high ceiling. A patio was to the left. A combined kitchen and breakfast room to the right. Two hallways lead to the bedrooms and baths off the living room. Alona's bedroom was next to the kitchen. Nightsky's was on the opposite side. The other two rooms were unoccupied. Nightsky had converted one of them into a storage place for his various pieces of gear and equipment. The other was filled with assorted junk. There was an air-mattress for guests, but little else.
Some changes had been made since they moved in. One was a microcamera above the patio and front door. Ballistic glass now covered the windows. The keypad had been enhanced. All of this Alona had chalked up to Nightsky's seemingly paranoid nature.
The door swung open to the smell of day old sausage pizza. There were voices coming from the kitchen. Two to be exact, but only one was recognizable. The other was too masculine to be Alona. Nightsky's hand dropped to the Manhunter holstered beneath his long coat. At first he didn't realize he had done it. That brought a slight frown to his face. Another bad habit he had picked up in the shadows.
"Wasn't that the door?" He heard a deep, unfamiliar voice say.
Nightsky felt his grip tighten on the pistol as a figure emerged from the kitchen area. The shadowrunner looked the new face over quickly. An eye honed on the mean streets of the Barrens singled out any weapons, but there were none to be seen.
"Oh, hey. Who are you?" He asked, looking surprised to see him. The visitor looked a little younger than Nightsky. Maybe late teens or early twenties.
Nightsky's eyes narrowed, taking in every bit of information available. Size, weight, body language, everything. Again the action wasn't conscious. Then it occurred to him that he is actually considering shooting this stranger. It shocked him that he was doing this without even consciously thinking about it. Was this another habit he had picked up in the shadows?
Alona spotted the two as she came through the kitchen. "Michael! I didn't hear you come in. This is Darrell, my friend from the club. Darrel, this is Michael."
The two exchanged a brief hello. It was more courtesy than anything else as Nightsky tried to get his brain off business mode. He didn't think Darrell saw what he was about to do. Either that or the shadowrunner was just too tired to pick up on it.
"Michael, huh?" Darrell came over and offered a friendly handshake. "Alona told me she had a roomate. I just didn't think it would be a guy."
Nightsky regarded the his hand. He took it in good faith. Darrell had quite a grip. One that made Nightsky wonder if there were hostility in it.
"Look, hey, I need to run." Darrell passed Nightsky and opened the door. "Alona, see you tonight at work?"
"Yeah." Alona said. "I switched with Tara."
"See you then." Darrel left. The door shut and locked behind him.
Nightsky stared for a few seconds. Part of him was trying to work out what Darrell was doing here. The other part was pondering the physics of sleeping while standing up.
"He's nice, isn't he? Where have you been?"
"Working." Nightsky had been gone for much of the past week. He dropped the duffel bag on the floor. It made a metallic clank when it hit.
"You sound tired."
"I am." He replied as he entered the kitchen, emptying the contents of his pockets on the table. "I thought we had a talk about having people over?"
"Come on, Michael. You can't expect me to live in self imposed exile. Everybody needs friends. Chummers." Alona pulled up a chair on the table where Nightsky had dumped the contents on his coat pockets. A credstick lay amid a white envelope and a few wadded bills. She whistled at the credstick's balance. "Looks like you made a killing."
"Wrong choice of words." Nightsky pulled a jug of orange juice from the refrigerator.
Alona fiddled with the credstick. "No sense of humor today?"
"Sorry." Nightsky wiped his mouth and put the jug back. "My sense of humor went to bed five minutes ago."
Alona picked up the envelope. "What's this?"
"Nothing, really. It's an invitation to a party tomorrow night."
"A party? You, Nightsky, got invited to a party?"
Nightsky smirked. It was quite an odd thing to begin with. Who would have thought that Hector was throwing something like this? Too bad he didn't think about it at the bar. He could have made jokes at the fixer's expense.
"Well are you going?" Alona teased.
"I wasn't planning on it."
"Why not? I think you, of all people, could use a night on the town. You've been too gloomy lately."
"It's not that kind of party, Alona."
"What do you mean that kind?" Alona questioned. "The invitation says you can bring a guest."
Nightsky was starting to wish he had thrown that envelope away. "An acquittance of mine is throwing the get together. It's a chance to meet some new contacts and spend some time with old ones."
"That sounds like the definition of a party to me. Let me go with you. We'll have a great time!"
"No."
"Oh, come on! I'm sick of hanging out around here. In case you haven't noticed my life has been turned upside down recently! I deserve a chance to get out and mingle with some new people."
"Alona, you might not want to mingle with some of these people."
"Why? Just because they're some of your friends? It's not like they don't know me. I met some of the people you work with. Lenny and Shard."
"That's not the point."
Alona frowned, trying to see between the lines that he had drawn. There was concern in his words. "You know I won't say anything. Besides, you said this wasn't about business."
"I said it wasn't completely about business."
"Same thing."
Nightsky frowned. She was worse than Tart. The only way she would drop the subject is if she got her way. "Okay," He gave in. "We'll both go."
"Great!"
"But when I say leave we're leaving. Okay?"
"You really don't like parties, do you?"
"I'm just haven't been in the mood in a while." Nightsky dragged himself to his room. "I'm going to bed."
"Goodnight! Or, rather, good evening. I've got to get ready for work."
"Make sure to lock the door when you leave."
"Want me to bring this bag in there?"
Nightsky looked over his shoulder. The duffel bag he had brought in was still sitting in the floor. "No." He said as he hefted the bag over his shoulder and carried it into his room. Unpacking would have to wait until later. Right now the only thing on Nightsky's mind was twelve hours of uninterrupted sleep. He was in dreamland the second his head hit the pillow.
Though he had just lay down his breathing was already deep and steady. He was already asleep. Alona watched him for a moment. They had only been living together for a month, but Alona could see changes in him. Alona had just now become comfortable with her new life. Now it felt like Nightsky was growing distant. Last month, when Alona's mother had died, Nightsky talked about starting a new life. Bright and hopeful words about building on what Alona's mother had tried to do poured from him like water from a facet.
He didn't talk as much now. When he did the words weren't hopeful. They were sparse and cold. It was always worst just after he came back from a shadowrun. He stayed distant for several days afterwards. Then, when word of another run came up, he would begin to lighten up.
For a long time Alona didn't know why he was that way. At first she thought that he was happier running the shadows, but that didn't make sense. He never talking about what he did on runs. Since last month he hadn't even mentioned the murders of Barnabas and his allies or Linna and Sand. He didn't seem to take any pleasure from it. For that matter, he didn't seem to have feelings at all about it. Or he just kept them hidden too well. Besides, Nightsky always took things too seriously. Any sense of humor he had shown before was quite dead now.
A party though? Alona smiled at the thought of that. What made it interesting was that it was being held by some of his associates. Alona had met some of those people before. Lenny, the red haired man with cybereyes, had helped her out a few weeks ago. Shard, the elfin mage, had found her when she ran away before. They didn't seem like bad people. In fact, they were more friendly than Nightsky was at times. It would be great to meet the rest of the team. Just to see who he spends his time with and to make herself known. Alona wanted them to know that she could stand on her own too feet. Getting in with as many people as possible would be a good start. She had to now. Her father and mother were no longer around to help. It was up to her now.
Besides, the party might put Nightsky in a lighter mood. Seeing him mope around for the next week would be very depressing. He had a personality of a dead log during times like that.