An Unknown Past
Last moments of the Matrix, 2064
Kada Sanchez sat in her room playing trideo games. She was trying desperately to avoid boredom, but she wasn't having a lot of luck with the fighting game she was playing.
Kada lived with her parents in a modest home just outside of Los Angeles. Her parents were employees of Novatech; her Dad was a security decker and her Mom was an accountant. Someday, she hoped to work for the company too.
Dropping her simdeck, the 14 year old walked to her Mom's home office and leaned on the doorframe. "Hey Mom…" she said, "I'm bored…any chance I can get a lift to Erica's place?"
"Give me a second, hon," Kada's mother said. "That sale I was telling you about is going to start soon. I just need to buy some of this stock and then I'll be right with you." Linda, Kada's Mom, was a Native American woman who was approaching 50, and radiated a certain beauty. Her smile could end any argument. It was this smile she flashed at Kada as she rigged up her cyberdeck. She was getting ready to buy Novatech stock during their Initial Public Offering.
Kada rolled her eyes, sighed with dramatic flair and dragged her heels down the hallway. She plunked herself down on the floor and scooped up her deck again. She was on her fifth combat when she heard her mother screaming from her office.
It wasn't a scream of surprise, or fright. It was prolonged agony.
Kada forgot her game and tore down the hall. She found her mother writhing in pain with the plug jacked into her temple. Kada had been told that if she ever saw her parents acting that way to pull the plug. But the sight of her mother thrashing around and grasping her head tightly, froze her in her tracks.
Her mother's body twitched and bucked with each spasm as electricity fired into her brain. Kada could see an amorphous face on the monitor attached to her mother's deck. While the icon didn't look human, she imagined she made out a malicious grin.
Her mother's body suddenly went rigid, eyes opening wide before slumping into her chair. Kada watched the monitor go to static. A lazy curl of smoke rose from between the keys of her mother's cyberdeck and blood slowly dripped from her nose.
A tear rolled down Kada's cheek as she stared dumbstruck at her mother's limp form. Feeling weak and numb, she could only stand in the doorway, looking blindly at the weathered chair her Mom called her second home.
As tears began to fall more freely, Kada finally managed a faint whisper.
"Mom?"
Seattle, 2069
"Hey, Willy!" Kada called, "I'm home."
"Ya want a medal?" the ork asked from his workshop.
Kada smirked as she flopped into a threadbare couch and flipped on the trid.
Any visible sign of her father's Hispanic heritage was easily concealed; she appeared as Native American to the untrained eye. She was now an attractive, lithe woman with a lightly reddish hue to her tanned-looking skin. Her black hair hung in a ponytail down just past her shoulder blades. She wore a rock T-shirt and tattered jeans, both of which required a run in the washing machine or an incinerator.
She had just found a good game of Urban Brawl (and the Screamers were actually winning), when Willy strolled in from the basement. "Found a job yet?" he asked.
Willy was old, especially for an ork. Probably in his mid fifties…Kada wasn't exactly sure. He was her godfather and he had taken her in when her parents had been killed in the Crash of 64. His white and wispy hair was almost nonexistent. He walked with a cane due to a bad car accident roughly a year before the Crash. He spoke with a pronounced Scottish accent, especially when under pressure. Considering the man never served in the military, he certainly was a big fan of camo print, since he was rarely seen in anything else.
"Not yet. I figure a good one'll come along soon…"
The ork grunted. "You think this is a free ride, kid? You want the nuyen for all your little excursions, you're gonna have to make some. You think I'm made of money?"
"Are you?" Kada asked, with a playful smirk.
"Funny…I don't remember your parents being smartasses…I don't know where you get it from…"
"I've learned from the best, Uncle Willy," she said with a wink.
The ork smirked, finally shrugging off his gruff exterior. "A pretty girl like you shouldn't be sitting around watching Urban Brawl, when you could be out making a small fortune somewhere."
"Do you know how hard it is to break into the corporate business sector? I had connections at Novatech until they were forced to amalgamate… now I have nothing."
"Here," Willy said, tossing her an optical chip.
"What's this?" Kada popped the chip into the Sensei Commlink strapped to her forearm. It showed a credit balance of a few hundred nuyen and an appointment.
"I do know how hard it is to break into the corporate sector. That's why I pulled a few strings and got you a meet with a local exec at Evo. At least if you work there, I won't have to worry about you working with racist bigots…"
Kada sprang to her feet and nearly tackled the old ork as she hugged him. Willy grunted as she collided. "Thank you so much. I won't let you down, I promise."
"I know you won't. The money is for you to buy a suit…can't show up in a T-shirt and jeans to this kind of thing…"
"I'll go shopping for the suit right now," Kada said before bounding out the door.
"That girl will be the death of me," Willy said, with a smirk before returning to the basement.
Kada sat fidgeting in front of the dwarf that sat in the desk across from her. She felt the interview was going well, but the dwarf sat, his face emotionless, as he ran a background check on her. The man drummed his fingers on the desk; the noise was boring its way into her head, little by little. She wanted to get up and move around, do anything that wasn't just sitting and listening to rhythmic drumming and the hum of the HR guy's commlink.
"Well," the man said, finally lowering the 3-D hologram, "Everything looks great, Ms. Sanchez. If you would look over these last few issues, I think you would make a good addition to the Evo team."
Kada's face broke into a wide grin. She had made it! The dwarf walked around his desk and handed her a datapad, which she began to peruse. She ran over the terms of the position and soon the smile dropped from her face.
"Is there a problem, Ms. Sanchez?" the HR guy asked.
"It says in here that I am required to use virtual reality…"
"That is correct."
"Isn't it possible to do the job without it?"
"While it is possible, we require a certain standard and quantity of work each day and the only way that criteria can be met, is with the speed immersed interactivity provides. Whether you choose to install a datajack, or use trodes are up to you."
Kada met the man's perplexed stare for a moment before returning her eyes to the pad. After a heavy sigh, she set the pad down on the man's desk. "I guess I won't be taking the position…"
"I assure you, the electronics we use are of the highest quality. There is no risk to you."
"I'm sure my parents were told the same thing…"
The dwarf reflected on her background and tried to defuse her fears. "What happened to your parents was a fluke. Without a tangible backbone to the Matrix, there is no risk of anything of that caliber ever happening again."
Kada felt a tear slide down her cheek as she replayed in her mind her mother's demise; an event brought on by a simple cable willingly plugged into her brain. It had been a safe piece of cyberware that had become a vehicle of death. Any time she considered plugging into the Matrix, she was overcome by an anxiety attack; a sense of nausea and a cold feeling all over. She couldn't do it.
"I…I'm really sorry. I can't…" Kada said, with new tears rolling down her cheek.
The dwarf sighed and nodded. "I'm sorry to hear that. I wish you well, Ms. Sanchez."
Kada shook the man's offered hand and walked out of the office, not looking forward to seeing her Uncle's reaction.
Kada cried on the living room couch, while Willy stood nearby, leaning heavily on his cane.
"Buck up, Kada. You're stronger than this."
Kada looked up and glared at Willy. "What do you mean by that?"
"You're crying over a job. There are plenty more."
"But, won't datajacks or trodes be a requirement for anything worthwhile?"
"Probably," Willy said, "So that means you have to do one of two things: defeat your fear of the Matrix, or find work that doesn't require it."
Kada sat and thought for a moment, studying her honorary Uncle. "You don't have a datajack…what did you do before you retired?"
"Don't go there, lassie… you want nothing to do with my old lifestyle."
Kada was a little surprised by Willy. He didn't usually block her so obviously. "Why? I don't really know anything about you before I came to live with you...?"
"There's a reason for that. It's better for you if you don't know."
The ork turned and walked down into the basement and soon, she heard his tools running. She had been told not to go downstairs when she was younger. Kada sat and thought about her godfather while she flipped through channels on the trid. Strengthening her resolve, she stood up and walked to the basement door. She had, of course, snuck a peek a few times and didn't see what the big deal was, but each time Willy hadn't been there. Perhaps, if she saw him working, she would get an idea.
She crept down the old wooden stairs as best she could and peered around the corner.
Willy was nowhere to be seen.
Perplexed she continued forward. She heard a saw spin up briefly, as if cutting though something. She went to the nook where the power tools were and there was no sign of Willy. The saw spun up briefly once more, totally unmanned. She walked over and saw that it was set up for remote operation.
She continued exploring the basement, learning that almost everything in her godfather's workshop was rigged for remote operation. As she looked around, she saw no signs that any of the tools had been used. No wear on the blades and no sawdust. Everything was pristine.
She was getting more and more confused, when she saw the pegboard where all the tools hung. Well-oiled hinges showed that the tool rack swung out from the wall. She grasped the board and it lightly swung away, revealing the wall behind it. At first she thought little of it, but she soon noticed the outline of a doorway set into the wall.
"A secret room!"
She ran her fingers around the edge of the door and tried to find purchase to pull the door open. The heavy door offered no answer as to how to open it, but she noticed a rectangular panel beside the door way. It was coloured to match the beige paneling on the wall, but it was some form of translucent glass. She ran her hand over it and light shone through as something scanned her hand. She recoiled from the door, hoping that it would open.
The door burst outward with a wild-eyed Willy, who quickly leveled a massive pistol at her head. Kada recoiled in fear from her godfather, who looked like a different person at the far end of the weapon.
Willy sighed and reeled in the gun. "Jesus, girl! Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
"What the hell is this, Willy?" Kada said, still not fully recovered from the shock of her caregiver coming at her with a gun.
"Something you were never to learn about…" Willy said.
"Why do you need to keep me in the dark? I'm a grown woman now, Willy. I can take it."
Willy glared at his adopted daughter for a long while before he sighed and let his shoulders droop. "Yer sure about this?"
"Yes. I want the truth, Willy."
Willy stepped back into the secret room, leaving the door open behind him. The heavy door appeared to be made of thick metal, with masonite on the outside to blend with the rest of the basement. Kada stepped across the threshold, into a different world.
The cozy-yet-beaten lifestyle present in Willy's house was nowhere to be seen. The room was metallic and draped in wires. Powerful commlinks lined the desk that was set into the wall and storage compartments dotted the walls.
"What is this?" Kada asked, as she looked around the cybered bunker.
"This is my job, lass," Willy said.
"You said you retired…"
"Aye, that I did. From one job. This was the job I started when the old one finished."
"What was your first job?" Kada asked with hesitation.
Willy walked over to a storage compartment and pulled the doors open. Inside was lined with guns and ammunition. "I was a shadowrunner, Kada."
Kada looked at her godfather with shock. "A shadowrunner! Like on the trid?"
Willy laughed and shook his head. "No, not like on the trid. These trid shows either glamourize the work, or denounce it, while we're likely somewhere in between. It's not glamourous. In reality, we are freelancers, doing the work others won't soil their hands doing themselves."
Kada walked over and touched the guns that Willy had shown her. She had never held the fearful devices before and she examined them closely. Many looked similar, but the subtle differences probably meant something to Willy. "Have you ever…you know…killed anyone?"
"Several people, I'm afraid. Comes with the territory. We always tried to avoid casualties in the biz, but when company employees are willing to die for the latest bit of wiz gadgetry, people fall in the crossfire. I lost a lot of good friends…"
Kada saw the remorse on Willy's face and reflected on all the stories she had been told about shadowrunners. 'Bloodthirsty killers, only interested in themselves' is how they had been summed up by Novatech educators during her youth. However, she had been living with a runner for five years and found that to be incredibly false.
"So, why'd you stop?" Kada asked.
"Ya mean, aside from age? The accident that gave me this…" Willy said, holding up his cane.
"You let a car accident stop your career, after being shot at for years?"
"Nah…your father told you about the accident, right?"
"Bits and pieces," Kada said.
"What he said was that I was in a car accident. What he didn't say was that the car accident was due to a run gone bad. Lone Star was shooting at us and managed to place a lucky shot into the skull of Gears, our rigger. The car crashed and flipped a few times. Those of us that were conscious pulled ourselves from the wreckage crawled away and tried to get into the sewers. We had just got to a manhole cover when I took a round to my left knee," Willy said, tapping his cane against his weak knee for emphasis. "It already hurt like hell, but the bullet tore it to bits. Our troll friend…what was his name…?"
Willy concentrated on his memory, but Kada sat in slack jawed awe on the edge of a desk. She had lived with this man and not known any of who he really was.
"Damn my old mind…can't remember. He died fighting the cops, buying me and the mage time to escape. She healed my gunshot, so I could at least walk and we made it out of there. The pay was good, and I managed to buy myself a couple doses of Leonization. Otherwise, I'd be dead by now…"
"Why didn't you get a cybernetic replacement for your leg? You don't have to use a cane," Kada said.
"Cybernetics and me don't mix, lassie. My body has a habit of rejecting it. So, I just had them patch it up as best they could."
"You retired because you had a limp? Kind of a poor reason…"
"Anything that could slow me down is a liability. Couldn't take the risk. That and I had just lost most of my best friends because of some faulty information. My heart just wasn't in it anymore," Willy said, sorrowfully.
Kada felt bad for her godfather. She knew what it meant to lose one's best friends. Upon thinking of her parents, she looked up at Willy with a questioning look.
"I thought runners and corporate workers were supposed to hate one another. How did you and my Dad get to be friends?"
Willy smirked. "C'mere… I wanna show you something."
He walked over to a small storage box tucked away in the furthest corner of his office. He reached down into it and brought up a heavy metal case. Setting it on the desk, he motioned to Kada. "Go on. Open it."
Kada threw the latches off and lifted the lid. Inside was an old cyberdeck, unlike any she had ever seen. "This is an old Fuchi deck…but just barely. What happened to it?"
"It's heavily customized… it was one of the best decks I've ever seen put to use."
"I didn't know you were a decker…" Kada said. "How did you do it without a datajack?"
"I'm no decker. I get by, but you couldn't pay me enough to get involved in the hazards of hacking a powerful system. This was your father's old deck."
Kada looked at Willy, trying to gauge if he was joking. "What?"
"Your Dad was a runner too, Kada. Before you came along, anyways."
"There's no way my Dad was a shadowrunner. He was a loyal corporate decker."
"Not always. When we were younger, we thought being a runner would be totally wiz and we saved up our money to get into the biz. I got into guns, he got into computers. After nearly getting killed the first few times out, we realized how hard the work was going to be and smartened up. Your father didn't like being shot at, and he got shot at a lot, since he was always the one cutting through the corp's code and stealing their stuff. Since he really couldn't move when plugged in, he was an easy target. By the time he hit thirty, he'd had enough. He hung up his bulletproof vest and went looking for legit work. Shortly after being picked up by Novatech, he met your Mom. Then there was no going back."
"I can't imagine someone giving up running for a desk job…I mean, they seem like the total opposite of one another," Kada thought aloud.
"Your father struggled for a few years. He often complained of being bored and wanting to be in the field again. But his growing infatuation with Linda kept him punching the clock. Ultimately, your mother beat out the call of the shadows and you were born. I have to say, I was reluctant to take on the role as godfather…I never wanted kids."
"Then why did you?"
"It was so important to your Dad that I honor him in that way. I figured I would have died long before him, since I had a shorter lifespan and I continued to work as a runner. I thought I'd get out of the arrangement without having to take care of a whiny little brat."
"Hey…" Kada said, stung by Willy's words.
"If it's any consolation, I have no regrets. You've been very good to me, lass."
Kada smiled. "I didn't even know my own family… if you hadn't told me, I would never have known…"
Kada glared down on the cyberdeck that had belonged to her father. She wanted to heave the deck to the ground and smash it to bits. It was because of those damned contraptions that her parents were dead.
Sensing Kada's thoughts, Willy walked over and closed the deck case and returned it to its old storage spot. "Kada, your family's death was a freak accident. Nothing like it could ever happen again."
"How do you know?" Kada asked.
"Well, I've done a lot of homework on the subject. I'd say the odds are pretty damned good that it won't happen again."
Kada looked at her godfather. "Homework?"
"What, you think you were the only one upset by your family's death? I spent a great deal of effort to try and find someone to blame."
"And?" Kada prodded.
"And it's hard to put the blame on any one entity. I suppose the only guilty party still around is a terrorist cell named Winternight. Don't know much about them, but I know they were ultimately the ones that brought down the Matrix."
"They killed my parents?"
"Nope…an AI got loose in the ECSE during the Novatech IPO and did some horrible things to people. Your folks witnessed him firsthand and paid the price."
"What was it called? The AI."
"It was named Deus. Do you remember the Renraku Arcology shutdown?"
"C'mon, Willy…I was like…nine years old," Kada said, rolling her eyes.
"Tryin' to make me feel old?" Willy said with a smile, "Regardless, it was the same deal. Deus somehow got out of the Arcology and rebuilt in the Matrix. Thankfully, if there was one advantage to Winternight destroying the Matrix, is that they killed that thing once and for all."
"Where is Winternight now?"
"Dunno. Up until '65, most people didn't even know they existed. They're everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Regular enigma stuff."
Kada sat in thought for a moment and then snapped out of it, taking stock of her surroundings. "If you're not a runner anymore, then what is all this?"
"I'm not a runner anymore, but I'm still in the biz. Over thirty years in the biz, you make a few friends. I'm what's called a fixer now."
"You find runners work…"
"You pick that up from the trid? At least they got something right…"
"Willy…" Kada said, eyes staring forward in thought, "would you be willing to show me some stuff?"
"What kinda 'stuff'?" Willy said, with a frown. "Anything I could show you would border on the illegal side and if nothing else, get you into trouble. Shadowrunning is an unforgiving profession and I don't want to introduce you to that brand of hell."
"You have such a low opinion of the job, yet you did it for thirty years?"
"At first I convinced myself it was cool. Almost believed it for a few years. Then by the time I realized the raw deal I was getting, I was so far in that I really couldn't do anything else. Don't get yourself into the same trap."
"I'm not saying I want to become a shadowrunner. I just want you to teach me some things. Now that I know what you do for a living, what happens if someone comes after you and learns of your family ties? I'd like to be able to give them a run for their money."
"I've been careful so far, haven't I?" Willy retorted.
"What if someone is more careful?"
Willy hung his head and took a deep breath. "You aren't going to let this go, are you?"
Kada simply locked her gaze onto Willy's and he implicitly knew the answer. The damned girl could be so bull-headed when she got her mind set on something…
"Fine, you want to be all bad-ass, that's your choice. Who am I but the voice of experience…"
"Willy, I just want to be able to protect myself and currently I can't. Maybe you can use all your bad experiences as a runner to teach me something important."
Willy dropped himself into his captain's chair. "If you are adamant about doing this, I will make some calls."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm a little old to be sparring with you or taking you down to the shooting range. But I know a few people in the biz that'd be capable of showing you a few things. So sit down, while I contact some friends."
Kada did as she was told. She watched Willy work, as he contacted several anonymous parties and conversed subvocally with them. She hoped she was making the right decision, but something in the back of her mind told her she had. She had shadowrunner in her blood, even if she had only just come to realize it.
"OK…" Willy said, shutting down the commlink, "I've set up a few appointments for you. One is with a gentleman named Recoil. He will show you how to use those."
Kada followed Willy's gesture toward the gun locker. "He's going to teach me how to shoot?"
"You want to be able to defend yourself, right? Recoil is a Japanese gentleman and is very particular about how he does business. Speak only when spoken to and always stick a 'san' at the end of his name when you speak to him. It's a sign of respect."
"All right."
"The other appointment is with a man named Patch. He's a surgeon of sorts. He's going to have to make some improvements to your meat."
"Cybernetics! I don't want any…"
"This is something to consider in the future. There's no need for it currently. But, when or if the time comes, I've given him instructions not to install a datajack under any circumstances and to listen to your desires. You need something, Kada. You're a pretty young thing and you're smart enough. But, I'm sorry to say, if you went toe to toe with a troll, he'd snap you in half. We're talking speed and durability improvements. No one will mess with your grey matter, I promise you."
Kada sighed and resigned herself. If she was going to do this, she supposed that Willy's experience shouldn't be shrugged off. "All right… I'll see your doctor friend."
"If you're serious about doing this, it only makes sense. The training will be hard and the surgery will likely be painful. Hopefully when it's all said and done, it will be enough to convince you that shadowrunning is not the best course of action for you."
Outskirts of Renton, 2070
A man in a crisp suit sat patiently at a table in a private VIP room as loud dance music blasted in the club outside his door. It was almost time for the job to begin, as minor as it was. A simple courier mission…anyone could do it. Still, he had contacted his fixer of choice to see if the ork had anyone able to take the job. The fixer had said he had a new runner that would be more than capable of taking the job and completing it to his satisfaction.
The door opened, shaking him from his bored stupor and allowing the deafening roar of the club inside his sanctuary for a brief moment. The woman that strode in seemed composed and professional. Her long black hair was pulled back in a series of tiny braids, each with a small Native charm around the tip. Her skin was a tanned reddish hue of possible Hispanic or Amerind descent. She had a cigarette perched between her lips as she removed her armored jacket and draped it over the back of the chair opposite him.
She wore urban camouflage pants and combat boots with a simply grey T-shirt. A tattoo of a band of arrows encircled her right arm; a symbol of protection. The Medicine Man's eye, a series of layered diamonds, adorned the back of her left hand. In many Native tribes it was a customary symbol of wisdom. A commlink was strapped to her left forearm, discreetly powered down for the duration of their dealings. He sized her up and while she seemed fairly small, she appeared to be fit and muscular. The presence of two holsters under her arms didn't surprise him, but he was pleasantly surprised when she surrendered the weapons to his bodyguards without being prompted. She removed her sunglasses to reveal natural brown eyes. They conveyed an aura of confidence and told him that she was ready for this and would do what was required. He smiled. She would do nicely.
The woman offered him her hand. "Good evening, Mr. Johnson. I am Inquisitor. Let's get down to business, shall we?"