Chapter Twenty-Five
A Quiet Moment
Somewhere South of Seattle
November 7, 2059
4:31 pm
The Bison bumped and bounded over the rough dirt road.. As near as Lenny could figure they were somewhere around a hundred miles outside of Seattle in the woodland that surrounded the sprawling metropolis. At least that is what the GPS told him. This was NAN territory. Native-American Nations. The UCAS had no claim to this, but that didn't make it any less dangerous. The NAN was actually more territorial about letting the filth from Seattle spill over the border. As a result it had taken several hours of clever maneuvering on Riggs' part to get this far. The border wasn't impossible to cross for someone who knew the tricks of the trade and a little luck.
They had been driving most of the day in a winding effort to avoid border patrols, slip through sensor nets, and generally make sure no one was following them. Most of the trip had been spent in the coiling back roads that only smugglers and organleggers took. There had only been a brief pause for lunch, consisting mostly of cold sandwiches and MREs. Meals-Ready-to-Eat. Odd name considering how they were only barely edible. It was past supper time now. More than a few stomachs growled.
Most of the trip had been in silence. There hadn't been any time wasted after Lenny tracked down Nightsky. Lenny could understand why he ran off on short notice. When he saw the situation Alona had fell into, and the fate of her friend, he hadn't blamed him. Though hardly a word had been exchanged about the incident. The only thing that bothered Lenny was the time that had been eaten up. Shard had insisted that following the magical trail she had laid out was essential and the longer they waited the harder it would be for her to lead them. That had left Lenny with two passengers that he wished he had left in Seattle. He had originally brought Tart along, who had planned to wait out the night at the safehouse, because he thought her expertise would be valuable incase they were unable to find Nightsky. It wasn't a severe handicap to Lenny though. Tart had been with the team for a long time and knew what to do in an emergency. What had upset him was having to bring Alona along.
He wasn't worried about her view of the shadowrunners. She had been living with Nightsky for the past few months and had a few passing encounters with them and the shadier side of the sprawl. The fact of the matter was that Alona didn't know what she was doing and her presence was a handicap. She didn't offer anything. At least Tart had skills. Alona had none of those. She was dead weight. A point that Gideon had pointed out a dozen times during the trip.
Lenny hadn't noticed it till now, but the Bison was quite crowded. Riggs kept his plump stature in the drivers seat with Shard on the passenger side. She directed the dwarf as best as she could, often dropping comatose as her astral form sought out markers on the astral plane that she had left when working her ritual magic. She had warned that the trial on the astral plane would fade over time. That had been the cause of the rush Lenny had put everyone through.
Nightsky sat quietly in back in between Alona and Tart, casually loading his HK227. It bulged out on the sides from a heavy gas vent system. An oversized scope sat on top while a compact laser sight rested just underneath the sound suppressor. A dataport rested neatly below the trigger guard. A datacord ran from it to a pair of smartgoggles. The simple sling looked almost out of place on its frame. All of the accessories made what should be a light submachine gun rather heavy.
"What's going to happen?" Alona said abruptly. She had directed her question at Nightsky, but it was Lenny who stepped forward and answered it.
"Nothing. You and Tart are going to stay here where its safe. Tart, Riggs is going to load an emergency pickup program into the Bison's autonav. If we get into trouble all you have to do is jack into the van and turn on the autonav. Riggs said you will see the program. Switch it on and the van will do the rest."
"I understand, Lenny." Tart replied.
Lenny huffed, then looked at Nightsky. It was bad enough that he had to bring these two with him. He was even less thrilled about having to leave them alone. "Give Tart an MP5." That may have been all that he said, but what he meant was "Give her an MP5 and make sure she knows exactly how to use it without getting herself or Alona killed." Nightsky popped open the weapons locker in the back of the van and pulled out the compact submachine gun. It was a tiny weapon, but it was very lethal for all its unassuming shape suggested. Somewhere between loading the weapon and explaining where the safety was Shard spoke up, her voice echoing through a murmured silence.
"Stop here." It was a simple set of words, but they carried a lot of weight. Out the front windshield the only thing that could be seen was trees, bushes, and a muddy road. Shard kept her eyes closed. Who whole body seemed limp as her spirit was on the other plane of existence. When she opened her eyes the strain on her was evident. She was tired and had a headache from constantly shifting her perceptions.
"What's the scan?" Lenny questioned.
Shard put her fingers to her forehead and rubbed her temples. "Over this hill," She pointed out the window to the left. "There is a collection of buildings. It feels like a mile or two away. Distance doesn't translate that well on the astral."
"What kind of buildings?" Gideon asked.
"I can't say what they are, but what were after, it feels like it is are underground. The astral space around it is weird."
"Define weird."
"I don't know, just weird. It's hard to describe a weird sensation on the astral plane to someone who's never been on that plane."
Gideon huffed. "Point taken."
Lenny groaned. "We'll do this buy the numbers."
"Yeah, good one bossman. We've already screwed up by walking into a situation we don't know shit about. We're in this position because Hector just had to have his precious thingy right fragging now."
"Can it, Riggs." Lenny snapped. "Smiley, Gideon, Nightsky. You three secure the area around us, make sure we are alone. Riggs, you brought a spotter drone, right?"
"Yeah."
"Get it airborne. I want a recon of the site that Shard has lead us to. I want maps, avenues of approach, any sign of occupants. I want the area around us photographed with as much detail as you can get. I want to know exactly what we are up against. Put what you can gather into a chip so we can copy it. Then I want you to turn this van around so we are facing back down the road for a quick escape."
"Right, bossman."
"What do you want me to do, Lenny?"
Lenny turned to Shard. Though she tried to hide it, she could see the bags under her eyes and the frazzled look about her. "Take a nap."
"Take a nap?"
"We'll wait until the sun sets before we remove in. Riggs will be down with his recon by then. Besides, you look like you could use the rest."
"Heh, there's fearless leader. Always with a plan." Smiley grinned devilishly.
"Smiley, stop running your pie-hole and get your gun." Gideon grabbed his M23. "We got work to do."
Smiley glared at Gideon, looked him up and down. "You don't look like fearless leader to me, meatpuppet."
"Smiley," Lenny addressed, "check out the area around us."
"Yes, fearless leader. This sounds like it would be fun."
The samurai grabbed his shotgun and stuck his head out the door. Gideon grumbled something that was too low to make out. Then he too stepped out onto the muddy road. The ork had a hard look on his face. He was indecisive about something, but unwilling to face the question to begin with. Nightsky grabbed his HK227 and stood just as Tart grabbed his arm. She had an upset look about her, but when he returned her stare she quickly found something else to draw his attention.
"This is burst mode, right?" She motioned at the selector on the side of the MP5.
"That's semi." Nightsky reached down and flipped the selector. "That's burst. Straight down is safety, but don't worry about that. It does not have much kick back, but use both hands when firing in burst mode."
"Oh, okay. Thanks." She looked up at him, her eyes showing doubt and hinting at something on her mind.
"What is it?"
She looked away, shaking her head. "Nothing."
Without waiting for another word, or pressing further, he hopped out of the van. In his thinking whatever was on her mind wasn't important enough to stop him. So why worry about it? If it was important she would say it. If it wasn't, well, it didn't matter right now. There were other things to dwell on.
A few hours later Riggs had finished repositioning the Bison. A task harder than it seemed considering the van's size and the slippery condition of the muddy road. Lenny had called everyone in to go over what Riggs' recon had found. Lenny wasn't willing to risk any magical recon of the place. If they were dealing with a mage, as he expected from the condition they found Sergii, sending in Shard on an astral patrol wouldn't be a bright idea. The ritual magic was all the risk he wanted to take in that department.
The collection of houses that Shard's magic had lead them wasn't much to look at. It appeared to be an abandoned farm. The largest building was a plantation style mansion. The grounds around it were ill kept and the windows were boarded up, suggesting that no one had lived there for a very long time. There were a handful of other buildings around it. A barn, with half of the roof caved in. There were also stables and what appeared to be a workshop. There also seemed to be a well off from the main house. It wasn't much to look at and the drone did not pick up any living beings on the outside. Lenny selected the farmhouse as the most obvious location to begin their search. Though he planned to use Shard's arcane talents to narrow their field of such down once they got on scene. There was a quick briefing about which approach the party would use and which were the best escape routes to rendevous with the van.
After that there was very little to do except wait for the coming of night. Everyone had their own thing to pass the time. Some were all business like Riggs who was keeping himself occupied by programming the Bison's autopilot with its emergency escape program. Shard was still napping, trying to recover some of her strength before her talents were needed again. A few were busy eating. Not much was available in the area of dinner entrees. Mostly MREs Riggs stored in the van, energy drinks, and the ever present Cheesy Bun.
Nightsky was leaning against a tree several paces from the Bison. His sword was rested against a rotting log. The HK227 he carried sitting across his lap. A pair of smartgoggles set high on his head. A datacord ran from them to the submachine gun. He was chewing on a Cheesy Bun, idly staring up the hillside as the sun slowly set. It was dusk. A little sunlight peaked through the trees, casting shadows down the hill. It was chilly enough just to be uncomfortable. He was halfway through the cheesy goodness when he heard footsteps behind him. The sound of the steps didn't match any he remembered his fellow shadowrunners made. That's funny. After a while you can remember the way certain people move. The sounds they make as they walk. The way they walk. At some point it becomes a thing the unconscious mind registers. Without noticing it his hand had tightened over the HK227.
"Nightsky?"
The voice was Alona's. He looked around the trees girth. For the first time he noticed that she really wasn't dressed for this kind of weather. He hardly noticed the cold. Two layers of armor, a heavy load of equipment, ammo, and weapons didn't to be insulation enough all by themselves.
Alona walked up beside him. She shivered as a chill wind weaseled its way through the trees. "Busy?"
He looked back at the hillside. "No."
Alona sat down on a hollowed out log. "I wanted to thank you for what you did back in Seattle." He didn't say anything in reply. She continued. "it's still kind of hard for me to believe. That Jaxx and Darrel were into that."
"Organlegging?"
She looked at him funny. It was strangely comforting to have a name to the horrible crime two people who she had called her friends committed on a regular basis. "Yeah, poor Leslie. She had no idea."
"Most people never do."
She frowned. "She was my friend, asshole."
"Sorry." Nightsky shrugged. "Look on the bright side. You don't have to go back to work."
She chuckled at that. "Yeah, I never did like that club."
Nightsky crumpled up the Cheesy Bun wrapper. "You don't have to work at all for that matter."
"If I didn't work I would be bored out of my mind. May not be as much money as you are making, but at least it keeps my mind occupied. Gives me friends. That's something you could benefit from."
He only huffed at that.
"So," Alona looked up the hillside. "What's over the hill? Tart said they everyone was after some kind of orb?"
"Orb of Voices." He supplied. "That's what Lenny called it. Hector's footing the bill for this one. We run over the hill, get the orb, bring it back to Seattle, and we get paid."
"You don't sound too worried about it."
"No, there's only one mage over there. Two at the most. Any more than that and they would have been able to shut Shard's ritual magic down. Besides, a guy we tracked the orb to in Seattle said there was only one old woman."
"Ah," Alona said, as if musing over the whole situation from a tactical standpoint. A point of view that she had no interest in exploring to begin with. She looked back at the Bison. "Have you noticed the way she looks at you?"
"Who?"
"Tart. Who did you think I meant?"
"I hadn't noticed."
"I saw you two at the party. The two of you danced together."
"It was just a dance."
"Why don't you acknowledge her? I know she likes you. I can tell in the way she acts around you."
"It would be a waste of time." He replied.
Alona gave him a funny look. She pressed on though. It seemed like Nightsky just had a coy embarrassment about the whole thing, but she was beginning to wonder if it was something else. "How can you say it's a waste of time? Anyone, specially someone like you, should jump at the chance for a little happiness. After all, you never know when something might....." She drifted off, suddenly realizing what she was implying.
He finished the statement for her. "Something might go wrong?"
"Well, yeah." She admitted.
"Something might go wrong and I may get killed?"
"So the thought has crossed your mind?"
"That I may die and have nothing left to show for myself? The only thing I have to reflect on is the less than inspiring things I've done in my life."
She gave him a serious look. "So you have thought about it." It was a statement. Not a question.
"Yes."
There was a moment of silence. Alona kept expecting him to add something, but he didn't. She had to push to him to get him to respond.
"The way I see it," he began, "I'm just walking through the world. It doesn't matter what I do because things won't change. I can't change anything. Do you see?"
"Sounds like your babbling and trying to evade my question."
"What was your question?"
"Why won't you pay the kind of attention you need to pay to Tart?"
He didn't answer. Not aloud anyway.
"Well?"
"Because I'm beginning to think I won't be around that long."
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