It has come to my attention that I failed to explain a piece of shadowrun vocabulary to the readers, so I'd like to rectify that mistake: trid refers to both videogames and tv shows, although with the matrix tv shows are not always on the tv…but the point stands that if someone says 'the trids' they mean the tv shows, probably the news. In the case of the trid chips from this story, it is referring to videogames.
Sarah sighed as she stepped out of the Underground Market. She hadn't learned anything new from the other shopkeepers, just more about Ghostlight's apparent addicting to trids. All she had to go on was this Reaver gig that the other 'runners had apparently gotten too close to and been killed over. And that was bad because her Reaver contact had recently bit a bullet in a power struggle, and so she had no source of information inside the gang's operation.
Sarah activated her comm. and called in some back-up. Sarah mentally calculated what this back-up was going to cost her as the other side picked up, and sighed again when she came up with the number.
"…hey, babe. Why is a hot chick calling me and waking me up so early in the morning?" The video feed showed an empty living room, or at least a living room that didn't have anyone in it. The room was cluttered with junk. Sarah's eyebrows lowered slightly.
"Gimme a visual, Shift, and I'll tell you. Besides, it's 2 o'clock in the afternoon, hardly early in the morning." Sarah listened as someone in the other room picked up what Sarah presumed was an alarm clock.
"So it is, but I usually work nights, so it is early morning for me. Really early morning in fact…hold on I'll be there in a second." Sarah sat in her car impatiently as the sounds of someone preparing for the day, or in this case night, ahead came from off camera. Finally a tall, heavily muscled human in a skintight t-shirt and a pair of saggy pants stepped into the room, his fire red hair standing up in a Mohawk. Shift was a street samurai, or a shadowrunner who focused all his skills on combat. All shadowrunners carry guns, but street samurai also carried blades. Most held themselves to a code of honor, like one of the ancient samurai, but being runners, their code of honor was usually much more lax than their ancient counterparts. Shift's bulkiness was not that he was muscle-bound, but that he had grafted muscles that made him stronger than a normal human and a lean, mean machine made all the more powerful by the fact that his skeleton was laced with carbon. Shift was a big fan of blades. Anything that was both sharp and shiny caught his attention, so he'd started out life as a collector of knives. He'd made some enemies, however, and next thing he knew he was on the streets. There his love of all things sharp saved his life, and he quickly developed a skill to match his collection. Sarah had ended up working with him a couple times and the two had realized they made a good team. They worked separately most of the time, but whenever one of them needed the back-up, they would call on the other.
"Flamefist! It's good to see you! Sorry about the groggy intro, I was still too asleep to recognize you. Probably wouldn't have recognized my own mother if she'd been the one to call." Shift sat down on the only piece of furniture in the room that wasn't full of empty soda cans and sheathed knives, daggers, and an occasional sword. Shift's face showed signs of a beard growing, but it only looked like he'd forgotten to shave a couple times in a row. "So, you've got your visual, now what do you need?" the grin he flashed Sarah gave the impression that he thought it was charming, but unkempt appearance destroyed the effect.
"I'm going for a walk and I need someone to make the gangers think twice before they try anything." Shift squinted at the screen as though he didn't believe it, which was understandable considering the last time she'd said that they'd ended up almost getting eaten by a couple werewolves.
"Really? And here I was expecting to have to go to war on an entire gang and you just wanting someone to keep the drug-ees off of ya?" Shift tilted his head sideways. "I think there's more to this than you're saying." Sarah sighed. It had been worth a try.
"Ok. I'm on a job and the trail leads into Reaver territory. In fact, it leads to the Reavers themselves. My old contact for them is currently 6 feet under, or at least what's left of him is, and so I'm going to have to ask the Reavers myself." Sarah sat back and watched Shift's face as he judged everything she'd said. She'd always been good at reading other people's expressions, and Shift was even newer to the shadows than she was, so it was easy to tell he still had some doubts, but he believed her.
"All right. So what's your plan?" Shift smiled as he reached off screen and picked up a can of soda and, using a knife that appeared in his hand like the magic Sarah knew he didn't have, cut the top out so the can was now a cup, and drank heavily from it.
"I'm thinking I walk in and ask nicely." Sarah smile truthfully. Shift pulled a spit-take, drops of soda appearing on the screen.
"shift, Flamefist…And when they say 'no'?" Shift laughed as he cleaned up the mess with a t-shirt that had been lying on the floor. That was another thing about Shift. He got his name because, for reasons he refused to explain, whenever he said 'shit' it sounded like 'shift'. Sarah knew he could speak the word, had even heard him say it once or twice, but most of the time he said 'shift' instead.
"That's what you're for, silly." Sarah smiled as understanding came into the young runner's eyes. "What do you say?"
"I knew it. You're runs are always full of adventure. Sign me up, as long as you're willing to pay the usual cost of my expertise." Shift was already looking around the room, tossing empty soda cans and dirty laundry across the room as he dug through the junk. Sarah sighed for the fifth time since walking out of the market. She'd been hoping he'd forget. Oh, well.
"All right, glad to have you. Meet me at the corner of…"
Sarah sat in the coffee shop, waiting on Shift who was, as usual, late. For someone who could dice a ganger before you knew the guy was there, he sure moved slowly. Sarah had just received her fifth synth-coffee when Shift walked in, ordered an extra hot "cup'o'joe", and sat down next to Sarah. He'd washed and shaved since she'd hung up (that explained the long wait) and was in his business outfit: the same he'd been wearing in the apartment with an armored duster on and a couple of sword hilts just barely visible beneath the coat.
"So, whether or not you mind me asking, what's the job that's got you asking our good friends for information?" Shift asked nonchalantly, showing some tact for once.
"I'm tracking somebody down, and the people who were doing it before me disappeared because they asked the wrong questions. I plan on asking the wrong questions, but not disappearing." Sarah explained.
"And who might that be?" Shift pushed, "You know I won't protect someone unless I know exactly why they need it. It's nothing personal: just good business.
"Ever here of a 'runner called Ghostlight?" Sarah asked over her 6th cup of synth-coffee. Shift's brow furrowed as he thought for a second.
"Nope. Can't say that I have."
"He's a hacker who specializes in data collection. He recently went dark, and my employers think he has something of theirs." Sarah explained, "I'm looking for him, and I'm not the first. There was a group of investigators who apparently came looking for information regarding a reaver gig and the reavers silenced them for it. I checked a few contacts in various areas, and aparently whatever this thing is it's going to be big. The reavers have been bragging about how it's going to be the crime of the century, but nobody has enough to figure out what exactly it is."
"What are you thinking it is? And if they're bragging, it must be big. You know that everyone who hears about it is going to be on guard." Shift mused, "So you need me to do what?" Shift asked again as the barista gave Sarah her 7th cup.
"I need you to keep the Reavers from deciding to just kill me before I can open my mouth. Whatever their plan is, all I'm after is Ghostlight."
"Then after you get the information you're going to need somebody to cover you while you continue after this Ghostlight and eventually track him down and capture him, right?"
"Right. You got the gear for a search? If things go acording to plan, you won't have to draw your gun, or a knife, until we find Ghostlight."
"I can keep." Shift faked a hurt look, "I am appaled that you consider me nothing more than a combat loving freak. I am a combat loving freak with a patience! Besides, when was the last time you went on a run that went acording to plan?" Shift smiled, and as the barista gave him his cup of synth-coffee he stood up and started to walk out, having apparently paid electronically. Sarah waited the half second as the barista gave Sarah her 8th cup of coffee and then followed.
"So, we're using my car, or yours?" Shift spoke over his shoulder as they stepped into the parking lot. Sarah thought for a second, choosing her next words carefully and dropping the empty coffee cup into the trashcan outside the door.
"let's use yours: I took mine home and took a bus here." Sarah knew better than to travel around in the same registered vehicle over a period of time while she was on the job. It leads to people knowing where you are, and that is never good when you're trying to find the stuff they don't want you to know. In truth the car was around the corner in a parking lot for a 24-hour store, and it was big enough that nobody would notice that the car didn't leave after a couple of hours, but the less people knew, especially blunt people like Shift, the less it got around, and Sarah didn't want to come back and find her car had been taken to the closest chop shop because Shift hadn't kept his mouth shut.