Chapter Twenty-Six
So Far Away
Somewhere South of Seattle
November 7, 2059
8:01 pm
Riggs pulled his plump frame into the driver's seat. A mess of wires, datacords, and Cheesy Buns followed. He flopped across the seat's cushions with a content sigh. After showing a bun of cheesy goodness into his mouth he began plugging in the half dozen remote control wires, datajack uplinks, and radio leads into the datajacks that sprouted from his skull. "You two girls just sit tight and this will all be over before you know it."
"We just set here?" Alona asked.
"Yeah, yer on what we call 'Meat Watch'. That means you watch my meat bod while I'm jacked in. I'm running a lot of drones this time 'round. Shouldn't be much trouble since we aren't going up against any heavy artillery. We're holding all of those cards this hand. Still, I'd like to know if anything comes beating on these windows." Riggs tapped his knuckles against the ballistic glass. "Tart, I've got an intercom setup on the remote deck. It's jacked in through the radio."
"I understand." The small human woman replied. She was holding the MP5 sternly. Even though the weapon was relatively light, it was a burden for her.
"You two just stay in the van. Don't go outside. You can hear everything that's happening over the radio channels." Riggs looked over the two girls' faces. He could see worry and fear on at least one of them. "Hey, don't worry! This van's armored like a tank. It may not look it, but it can soak up a direct heat from heavy machine guns. Honestly! Would I lie to you?" That seemed to put some of that worry at ease. Riggs keyed the radio. "Riggs, checking in. How you chummers doing?"
Nearly two miles away Lenny and the rest of the shadowrunners were hunkered down in a line of trees surrounded the old farming buildings. They had been moving in the strictest of silence with their senses keyed up as high as they would go. So far Shard had reported very little in the way of astral security. The astral space had a lot of static that she called background count. It was like a fog that hung over the area on the astral plane. Other than that there was nothing. Which was unusual and did not set well with Lenny. Their approach had been too easy.
Lenny keyed his commlink. "Lenny here, almost in position. Standby."
Shard looked up, detecting concern in his tone. "Are you okay?"
"No. This is too easy."
Shard smiled. "Maybe you are being paranoid?"
"No, it just doesn't feel right."
"Really, Lenny. Sometimes I think that you're not happy unless something's going wrong. Try to relax." Shard urged. "The more relaxed you are the better you will think."
"Are we going to chat all night or do something?" Gideon growled.
"Right," Lenny keyed the commlink again. "Riggs, status on backup?"
By backup Lenny was referring to the drones that Riggs held under his control. Lenny had thought it best to hold those drones back at first. It was hard for a drone to sneak anywhere and he deemed that stealth was more important than brute firepower on their initial approach. It was a point that even Gideon had agreed on. If things turned hairy a Doberman ground assault drone and Riggs' favorite remote terror, Big Bertha, was only a radio call away.
Lenny glanced to his left, over the faces of his fellow teammates. Shard was at his side. There was an MP5 in her hand, but her attention was more focused on the small emerald clenched tightly in her fist. For not the first time in his life he noticed how beautiful she really was. Most people thought elves were beautiful because they carried the many of the traits that mainstream society defined beauty by. High cheek bones, long legs, thin stature, and so on. Shard had all of that, but to Lenny she also had something more. It was the way she looked at the world. Her innate kindness and the gentle way she had about her. Above all it was her strength. The untamable will she had to do what was right. No matter the kinds of sickness that she foudn herself surrounded by. She was like an angel on a field of death, glowing bright with hope and love.
Gideon, crouching at Shard's side, was a sharp contrast to the elf. Where the elf was graceful and lovely, the ork was downright grotesque. There was no kindness or empathy under his scarred skin. He held the M23 assault rifle with firm assurance. He meant business with it. he was part of the sickness that surrounded the world. Pure, uncut professional. To him right and wrong were just a concept weaker people used to define their existence. Gideon had seen a lifetime of battles. They left their marks on his skin and on his soul. He no longer concerned himself with petty concepts of a world that had labeled him an outcaste. He was a soldier in the purest sense. He left right and wrong for other people to decide.
Where Gideon left the choice of right and wrong to others, Smiley simply didn't give a flying fuck. The eccentric samurai was leaning against a tree. The shotgun he carried was held casually by the barrel. Dikoted razors in the gillete's hands subconsciously dug into the tree bark. There was a wide, wild grin on his features. He didn't see the world as right and wrong at all. In fact, he's mind worked on a completely different level. Not only did right and wrong not exist, the mere concept had never occurred to him once in all of his life. He lived in the moment of pure ecstacy. Nothing else existed. There was no laws or morals. If there was something in front of him it was there for him to break. if it couldn't be broken it was there for him to sadistically please himself on. If he couldn't solve a problem with violence then, in his mind, he obviously wasn't being violent enough.
The world hadn't made Smiley liked this. Smiley had made himself like this. Cruel, unthinking, pyschotic. Nightsky was different though. He was a product of the world. It was the world that had made him what he had become. Lenny stared at the adept for a moment. He stared blankly ahead, eyes hidden behind a pair of smartgoggles. A datacord snaked from the goggles to an HK227. A heavy scabbard was lashed across his back. lenny thought back to when he first met Nightsky. It didn't seem like so long ago now. Yet Lenny could see the changes that this kind of life had caused on him. It was like living in the shadows was sucking out his humanity. Indeed, this kind of life could steal almost anything that a person had. Including their sense of self and the way they viewed themselves and how they fit into the world. It was like a poison, working slowly overtime. Until eventually there was nothing left, but a hollow shell.
"Lenny?" Shard said.
"Hrm?"
She tapped her finger on her watch. Lenny nodded. It was time.
"Right. It's time. Let's move in. The fog is rising."
8:20pm
The room was light only by the time light of dozens of candles. Most were burned at least halfway down. Some had burned out completely. The air was thick with moldy scents and ocher. The hand of an old woman, skin wrinkled and thin with age, reached for an old pipe. With a shaky grasp she placed the end between her old, cracked lips. She lit it with a candle at her side. A thin veil of smoke added its own flavor to the air. A snake slithered its way into the whool blankets that the old crone rested her ancient body on. It moved with an innate stealth so gracefully that it became a part of the ground.
"Yes, my dears, I know." She says to no one in particular. No one at all as she is alone in her place of isolation. "I heard them come in long ago. I am aware of their presence."
She took another puff from the old pipe, holding the smoke in her lungs for a long moment. She savored the taste of the ancient herb. It was a commodity she allowed herself despite her rigid devotion to the path that she followed.
"What's that my dear? No, I am not worried. The hearts of men are weak. They will run to us down by the river so far away." The ran her old fingers over the flame of a candle. "They will stand around in dismay. When they feel the snake bite into their veins they will never want to be here again and will not remember why they came. The hazing clouds above their heads will wash away their path. They will not know where to go. No more meaning to their life. No more reason to stay."
The old woman lowered her head, pulling a cloth wrap off a small figurine. the candle light didn't reflect from the black orb atop it. It was like it fed off the light, washing it away into it's only infinite depths. Her mind drew the images of the people that approached her sanctum. She wrapped their image in the arcane mystics of her own magic. The old crone lifted her head and began a chant as her fingers touched the glossy surface.
"I'm not the one who's so far away when I feel the snake bite into my veins never did I want to be here again. I don't remember why I came. Candles raise my desire why I'm so far away. No more meaning to my life. No more reason to stay. Freezing, feeling, breathing, breathing. I'm coming back again. I'm not the one who's so far away when I feel the snake bite into my veins never did I want to be here again and I don't remember why I came. Hazing clouds rain on my head. Empty thoughts feel my ears. Find my shade by the moonlihgt. Why my thoughts sound so clear. Teaming, streaming, breathing, breathing. I'm coming back again. Down by the water so far away when I feel the snake bite into my viens never did I want to be here again.
"And I don't remember why that I came."
8:30pm
Shard tilted her head as a cool breeze wafted over her. "Did you feel that?"
"No," Lenny replied, "I didn't feel a thing."
The shadowrunners spread out along the porch of the old farmhouse. The old wooden planks creaked and groaned underfoot as they arrayed themselves around the front door. Nightsky took hold of the doorknob and turned, but it didn't opened. It was locked. That was unusual for a place that was suppose to be abandoned. He made the signal to Lenny who only nodded and passed a glance at Gideon. The ork pulled back the action on his assault rifle, rose his foot, and plowed it into the front door. The noise was sharp and swift as the old lock smashed under the impact. Smiley and Nightsky immediately rushed in. Nightsky pressed himself against the left wall, gun up and at ready. The goggles covering his eyes switched over to thermographic. Smiley, on the other hand, strolled through the front door like he owned the place. He held his shotgun over his shoulder. A wild smiley on his face.
"Clear."Nightsky informed.
Gideon stood defensively on the porch, his eyes darting around the property.Lenny and Shard moved in. Lenny spent more time covering Shard and leading her by the hand than anything else. He was use to it. Normally Shard had a significant portion of her senses devoted to the astral plane. By leading her alone she kept her meat body moving. Not enough to make it difficult for her, but enough to make her a harder target for snipers. The moment the elfin mage stepped over the threshold she went slack. The mage's eyes were glazed over and unfocused. The sudden dead weight on Lenny's arm drew his attention.
"What's wrong, Shard?"
"I don't know. It hit me all of a sudden." She put her hand to her head, trying to steady her swimming senses. Senses that weren't meant for viewing the material plane. There was an echoing creep through the old house. Like wind blowing over the timbers, only a hundred times more hollow and empty. Shard looked up. "We aren't alone."
A thundering wail of wind smashed through the back door and hurricaned its way down the hallway. It slammed into the shadowrunners with all the force of a locomotive. The power of the wind was so real that it knocked Gideon right off the porch. He landed flat on his back a dozen paces away. The howling pain of a thousand bastards and squeals of slaughtered pigs road on its apex. The bone chilling sound made the skin crawl as the frigid air bite into flesh. Shards of icy fear spun through the air. they struck with a force of unnatural ferocity. Nightsky dropped to his knees, triggering his HK227 into a muffled burst. Shard crumbled to the floor. Lenny pressed against a wall. Smiley went through a wall.
Then as quickly as it came it was gone. Leaves settled back on the floor as the ethereal wisp disappeared.
Nightsky wrapped grim and soot off his goggles. "What the hell was that?!"
Lenny wrapped his hand around Shard's arm and hauled her up against the wall. "Spirit!"
Nightsky gasped in shock. He let the HK227 drop on its sling while he pulled the sword from its sheath. Astrally the blade resonated with magical power. It would fair far better against a spirit than bullets would. "I'm on point! Shard, back me up."
"No!" Shard struggled to her feet. Her head was throbbing. "It's not a spirit."
"A spell then." Lenny concluded, holding his assault rifle at ready. "Gideon?"
Gideon answered from outside the door. "Here.......fragging wizworm hits strong."
At least Gideon was still there. Lenny turned his attention to another member of his team. "Smiley? Smiley where are you?"
There was silence except for a jerky laughter emanating from a fresh hole in the wall. Lenny held Shard back as Nightsky covered the hallway. He eased around the edge of the hole and peered inside. There he saw Smiley laying on his back. Boards and planks from the wall lay on and around him. He had an idiot smile on his face and seemed to be laughing quietly to himself.
"Smiley?"
"Heh...heh....."
"Smiley, you okay in there?"
Smiley's eyes rolled back in his head. His body twitched involuntarily as the wired reflexes in his nerves switched over to a fresh charge. The eccentric samurai titled his head at ninety degrees. His smile turned sideways, staring blankly at the ceiling. "Heh.....I'm not the one....heh....heheh....."
Lenny stared at the man for a moment. He was vaguely concious of Nightsky stepping around his side to look through the hole the often psychotic madman had made. "Smiley? You okay?"
"You're not the one? Not the one what?" Nightsky said.
Smiley abruptly started speaking. He spoke in a detached tone that didn't actually sound like his own voice, but that was probably because he rarely spoke sanely. "Heh....I'm not the one who's far away when I feel the snake bite into my veins never did I want to be here again and I don't remember why that I came."
Smiley sat straight up from a prone position. His eyes hidden behind his dark shades. He smiled cruelly, then twitched. His gaze bearing straight ahead. Lenny locked eyes with him for a fleeting moment. Then Smiley snatched up both his Predators. The smartlinks locked onto Lenny�s head.
And started pulling the triggers.
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