Aribeth was bored. Tailing people usually became boring after the first few days when you got familiar with the target's routine. He left his two-story home at central Snohomish at 7:30 am, dropping off his teenage daughter and approximately eight-year-old son at their school, leaving his wife to do what wife's do home alone. He clocked in at 8 am, had lunch at Knutson´s Country Home in Downtown every single day, clocked out at 4 pm and headed straight home, except on Wednesday and Friday when he hit the gym after work. On Saturdays, he hit the gym once more and in the evening he had a drink with some friends at The Bawdy Lass, an Irish pub in Snohomish. Excluding the occasional shopping trip or going to see a ballgame with his son, Jack Murphy didn't get out much.
Aribeth had been tailing the detective for two weeks, this being the Tuesday of the third week. She was pretty sure she'd gathered all the information on the man she could, but Sensei had insisted she'd do one more week. Tailing someone for so long wasn't only boring, but it was also dangerous. If Murphy happened to spot Aribeth more than a few times, he'd most likely get suspicious of the bumping into the same elf over and over again. Of course, Aribeth used disguises, but there were only so many faces she could wear. At the moment she was sporting a blonde wig, brown jacket, white blouse a black knee-length skirt and heels and leather gloves. She'd used a heavy layer of makeup to cover the wiring under the skin of her cheek.
Murphy was just finishing his lunch under Aribeth's surveillance. She was sitting at a bus stop on the other side of the road, pretending to read something on her commlink. As Murphy left the diner, Aribeth waited until he'd nearly crossed the block before getting up and following. Murphy was headed for an underground parking garage where he'd left his car, the same garage where Aribeth had left her rental as well. She let the detective disappear from her line of sight as he entered the underground. She knew he'd parked at the far side of the garage and she'd have plenty of time to reach her car before he reached his.
Aribeth slipped into her rental's driver's seat, looking at the back of the garage. Soon she saw familiar headlights heading towards the exit, and it was then she turned the key in the ignition. That was all she could do, however, as just when she shifted the gear on reverse, a black SUV drove behind her and came to a stop, blocking her exit. She got out of her still running car and was ready to yell something at the jerk blocking her, but her words died on her tongue as she read the situation. The driver was a brunette female dwarf, while a blonde ork man was getting out of the passenger's side. The man wore a grey suit, with an armor vest worn under the jacket. On his right hand, he had a taser, which he was bringing up to bear at Aribeth.
Aribeth's brains screamed for her to move, and she did. She dashed forward to cover the few meters between them, but thanks to her choice on footwear she couldn't quite make it before the taser was leveled at her face. The man pulled the trigger and four darts shot out, connected to the taser by wires. Aribeth threw her weight to the right, bouncing off against the car parked next to her. The darts missed her and she was within an arm's reach of the ork before he could draw another weapon.
She threw out her left arm in what seemed like a jab, but she had her fingers flat. The chromed fingers of her cyberarm reached the ork's face and pushed into his right eye, causing him to shout out a curse and recoil to his right. Turning like this he exposed the side of his face to Aribeth, who took advantage. She turned her body and threw out a straight right, hitting the ork right on the jaw. His knees buckled and he fell down on his face on the ground.
Aribeth glanced at the dwarf behind the wheel, who was pointing another taser at her. She quickly lifted her right foot into a roundhouse kick to slam the door shut, and managed to do it just as the taser fired. More darts flew, this time wireless, and they hit the interior of the car door. Having lifted her leg so fast, Aribeth had managed to tore open the side of her skirt. She cared little of that now, her main objective was to get out of here as fast as she could. If she'd had the time, she would have berated herself for not bringing weapons along. She'd grown too comfortable tailing Murphy.
Aribeth took a running step and jumped, sliding over the SUV's hood. She turned to run the moment her feet touched the ground, but just barely had time to react to the driver's side door slamming open, nearly hitting her. The dwarf behind the wheel hurried out from the car, but Aribeth was faster thanks to her many cybernetic augmentations. She landed a hard front kick on the door, causing it to slam into the dwarf much the same way she had tried to slam it on to Aribeth. The dwarf staggered back, giving Aribeth precious few seconds to reach her and kick her taser holding hand, causing her to drop the device. The taser clattered to the floor as the dwarf recovered from the door blow, reaching behind his back. She took two steps back and pulled out an extendable baton, striking the air with it to cause the steel extension to unravel from the handle. She brought it over her shoulder with one hand in front of her, a basic fighting stance when using a baton.
Aribeth gritted her teeth. She just waited to run, but trying to slip past the dwarf could end with a baton to her knee, something she didn't wish for. She'd have to deal with the dwarf first, as much as she didn't want to. She lifted her hands up into a guard while kicking her right foot free of the shoe. Why'd she decided on wearing heels? Stupid. As she did so, the dwarf, who on closer inspection also had an armor vest under her jacket, reached into her pocket. With a grin, she produced and showed a Knight Errant badge, which she quickly pocketed again.
"You are under arrest. Everything you say will be used as an excuse for police brutality," the dwarf said with a sadistic grin.
Aribeth felt like a heavy weight had just been dropped in her stomach. Fighting cops was almost always an unnecessary risk. Suddenly she was very happy she didn't have any weapons on her, as she might have ventilated the ork earlier if she could have. She lifted her left foot up and moved it in a flicking motion, her remaining shoe now flying towards the dwarf's face. She swatted it aside with her left hand, her focus momentarily shifting from Aribeth to the shoe. All Aribeth needed was a moment as she dashed forward, putting all her weight into forward momentum as she landed a front kick in the dwarf's gut. The force of the kick flung the dwarf back ass over tea kettle, but, in a show of unexpected athletism, she ended the roll on her feet, winded from the blow but still very much in the fight.
Aribeth decided to try her chances now and begun sprinting past the dwarf. The shorter woman, however, once again unexpectedly, dashed to intercept Aribeth. She backhanded her baton, aiming it at Aribeth's face. Aribeth brought her left hand up to block the blow. A normal person's forearm would have suffered a broken bone, but Aribeth's cyberarm took the blow with little effect. In response, Aribeth launched another front kick with her right foot, but the dwarf saw it coming. She ducked low, letting the kick fly over her head. She then turned her back to Aribeth, standing up straight and grabbing hold of the leg over her shoulder. With a loud grunt and surprising show of strength, the dwarf threw Aribeth over herself by using her leg as leverage like many judo throws do with an opponent's arm. Aribeth yelped as she went flying, bringing her hands up to protect her face. She slammed on the concrete floor hard, her head hitting her knuckles.
Aribeth rolled over to her back, head still spinning from the sudden throw. The dwarf was walking around her, holding the baton up with apparent bad intentions. Aribeth felt kinda glad she was on her back, had she been standing she'd been too dizzy to do much. She turned herself around, her feet reaching the dwarf's legs. She butt scooted closer to the dwarf's surprise, said surprise allowing her to quickly wrap her right leg around the dwarf's left, followed by a kick to the side of the dwarf's right knee. Losing the knee from underneath her and not able to bring her other leg for support, she fell on her rear. Aribeth reached and captured her opponent's ankle into her armpit while holding her right leg in place, her other foot pushing the back of the dwarf's right knee as far as she could, forcing the copper's legs as far apart as possible and keeping her from standing up. As the dwarf attempted to reach her legs and pry them free, Aribeth wasted no time. She twisted the foot under her arm, forcing it to turn 180° in a way it wasn't supposed to. The dwarf let out a gasp of pain, which was nothing compared to the scream she let out as Aribeth kept twisting, finally causing a crack to emit from the ankle, followed by said scream and trashing from the dwarf.
Aribeth stood up, leaving the dwarf to lay there and vail. She glanced around, spotting several heads popping up between the rows of cars in the garage. Cursing to herself she took off in a run, hauling ass for the next few city blocks before hailing a taxi.
-0-
The Seattle Boxing Gym was as old of an establishment you might guess it to be from the name alone. The 4,500+ square foot gym had a rough, down to earth feel to it. The decor had a lot of concrete and non-painted wood, and iron that you could smell the metal in the air. The gym was packed full more often than not, but on this Tuesday it was nearly empty. A very particular client had paid a good sum of money to make it so, and it was this client whom BloodHound had a meeting with.
Having taken off his shoes, the otherwise sharply dressed BloodHound headed to the crown of the gym, it's boxing ring. There were two small groups of people around the ring. At one corner were two muscular ork men, both wearing boxing shorts and tank tops. Both were also sporting plenty of bruises on their arms and faces, holding ice bags over their injuries. At the opposite corner, there were three human men, all wearing black suits. Two of them were obviously keeping an eye on their surroundings, while the third was holding a small stool, a bucket with a sports drink bottle in it and a towel.
Inside the ring were two more men. One of them a troll, typically large and muscular, also wearing an appropriate boxing outfit, with gloves and headgear, modified so his ram-like horns stuck through. He was up against a dark-haired human with garish, gold-plated cyberarms, wearing track pants and a tank top. He had likewise gloves on but no headgear, which allowed BloodHound to see that the man was sporting a nasty grin. The troll, on the other hand, looked outright angry.
The troll dashed forward towards his opponent. He threw a one-two, followed by several jabs and a hook, but the other man slipped his head past the straight punches and ducked under the hook. As he did so he turned his body, generating a lot of torque in such a small movement. His left fist dug into the troll's right side in a liver blow, causing the troll to gasp and double over in pain. As he did so, the human once again turned his body, this time landing a right uppercut on the troll's lowered face. The strength of the blow caused the troll's head to fly backwards, at which point a left hook struck his temple. The huge troll dropped down on his knees, then on his face.
The human turned his back to the troll as the two orks climbed into the ring, scampering to check out on their fallen comrade. The man spat out his mouthguard and lifted his arms in a frustrated manner.
"Where do you get these guys?!" he shouted at his cornerman, who climbed in to the ring and offered a bottle to the man. He was about to reply, but the other man silenced him by placing his gloved hand on the man's face and pushing him away. Caesar "Chrome" Ciarnellio, son of Don Vince "Numbers" Ciarniello of the Ciarniello crime family, hadn't changed much since the last time BloodHound had met him.
As BloodHound got close to the ring, one of the men standing guard stepped towards him and held up one hand. BloodHound was familiar with the proceedings and lifted up his arms so the goon could frisk him. He let BloodHound keep his commlink, but confiscated from him his pair of Savalette Guardians, a switchblade and a flash-bang grenade. That last one got a "Really?" look out of the goon, to which BloodHound replied with a smile and a shrug. Thusly disarmed, he was allowed to approach Caesar.
Caesar was pulling off his boxing gloves as BloodHound approached, he smiled as he noticed him.
"Still alive are you, you crazy dog," he said with a laugh, smacking BloodHound on the back a little harder than was necessary. BloodHound managed not to be floored by the blow, which he also knew to be characteristic of Caesar.
"Somehow," he replied to Caesar. He glanced at the orks dragging the knocked out troll out of the ring. "Didn't your father ever tell you to pick up on people your own size?" he asked, jokingly.
Caesar laughed as he glanced back for less than a second. "Regular people break too easily. Besides, they're just trogs. It's not like they use their brains anyway."
The open racism might have caused a pause in other men, but as said before, BloodHound was familiar with Caesar.
"Thank you for agreeing to this meeting. Shall we talk here, or..." He let the question hang in the air. Caesar motioned to a nearby bench and the two took a seat, Caesar's goons taking formation around them.
"Yes, you said you were having some problems with a certain police detective?"
BloodHound nodded. "Yes, one Jack Murphy. Recently transferred to Seattle from Sacramento. Have you heard of him?"
Caesar rubbed his chin, then snapped his fingers at one of the goombas. Said grunt stepped closer and turned to Caesar.
"Say, Vinnie, what's the name of that police lieutenant who put your brother in E.R. Murphy?"
"Yes boss, Jack Murphy. It was in a raid of one of our dollhouses."
"I knew I'd heard that name somewhere," Caesar said, waving Vinnie off back to his post. "Yeah, it looks like we've got a problem with Murphy as well. I know Vinnie's brother, Tony's his name. Nice guy, never hurt a fly. Well, unless the fly got in the way of our business, then Tony would break its kneecaps. But other than that, stand up guy."
BloodHound nodded. "It seems we share an interest in getting rid of him. But putting out a hit on a police lieutenant, especially the kind of poster boy I've heard Murphy is, would lead to a backlash from the police."
"Psh, as if the cops could do anything to us," scoffed Caesar. "But if you want to cover your own ass, fine. What were you thinking?"
"I was thinking... an accident. But I'm not sure which method we should pursue until I hear more from my team. When I do, can I trust in your help?"
Caesar smacked BloodHound on the back again, BloodHound could swear he felt his teeth rattling. "Of course. But within limits, you understand?"
"Of course. Grazie mille."
"Certamente!" Caesar replied, giving a third smack on BloodHound's back. He wasn't sure if he could take a fourth, so he quickly got up, collected his weapons and left.
-0-
The shadowrunners had earlier decided the following day to meet up and exchange notes. The team had decided on Normandy Park in West Seattle to be the location of their meeting. Located right next to Elliot Bay, the park was a safe place to hide in plain sight in the afternoon. Beautiful summer day as it was, quite some people had decided to come down and see some actual greenery for a change. Even a diverse group such as the team would be absorbed into the masses without much difficulty. The group had converged around a picnic table, everyone excluding Aribeth. Sensei was checking the time on his commlink as Sparrow, the latest arrival shuffled on the wooden bench. His rear end had grown so accustomed to his soft, custom made computer chair, that he was having trouble being comfortable on the hard wood.
"I don't suppose any of you have been in contact with Aribeth as of late?" he inquired but received only headshakes.
"Oh well, we'll start without her. When or if she does arrive-" Sensei was cut short by a sudden burst of metal music, coming from Sparrow's commlink. The troll dug the device out, lifting a brow as he read the screen.
"Unknown caller. Just a second," he said as he swiped his massive thumb over the touch screen, lifting the commlink to his ear. "Who's this?" he asked, lifting his brow at the reply. "It's Aribeth," he said to the others. "I'll put you on speaker."
"It's me," came a familiar voice from the commlink. "I ran into some trouble. While I was tailing Murphy, I was ambushed by two plain-clothes cops."
"Are you hurt?" asked BloodHound, sincere concern in his voice.
"No, I managed to disable them, they came at me with non-lethal weapons. They didn't even flash a badge at me until after I had laid one of them out."
"I trust you left both of them breathing?" asked Sensei in turn. Aribeth's voice grew clearly frustrated.
"Yes, I did. I'm glad our de facto leader has his priorities in order." Sensei's brow wrinkled but didn't say anything.
"Anyway, I'm going to disappear for a couple of days. I'll send my notes to Sparrow, then I'll toss this commlink, it's a burner. Sparrow, be a dear and see if they've put out an APB on me."
"Of course," replied Sparrow.
"Oh, and Sensei?" Aribeth continued. "Next time an espionage specialist tells you a job is getting dangerous, that means the job is getting dangerous. If you're going to keep ignoring my expertise, I might as well find another team. Bye."
An awkward silence fell on the table, broken soon after with the "Ding", signaling the receival of a text message on Sparrow's commlink. Sparrow read it out loud, detailing Jack Murphy's weekly routine.
"There won't be an APB," Sensei said after Sparrow was finished. "She said they didn't identify themselves as police until the fight was already underway. That's the first thing they should have done if the arrest was going to be an official one. My guess that had Aribeth not escaped, she'd found herself in some dark basement being roughed up for information. The real question is... did Murphy know about it?"
BloodHound shook his head. "No, I'd say the real question is why Aribeth was still tailing him. With how structural Murphy's life sounds, doing any more surveillance seems pointless. Aribeth told you as much, didn't she?"
Sensei gave an annoyed look at BloodHound, but it was 'Roo who spoke up next. "Hold on, hold on," she said. "That's a convo for later, once we're done with the job. BloodHound, how did your meetin' go?"
"Caesar promised to help, within limits," he said, turning from Sensei to 'Roo. "The Ciarniellos have a lot of people on their payroll and almost as much who are in debt to them. I'm sure he can provide us a pawn or several if needed. How about you, any new toys?"
"Oh! Right, here." 'Roo dug out from her pink shoulder bag a manila folder. "I ordered and paid for these like a month ago, here they are now." From the folder, she poured on to the table five flesh colored earpieces. "They're waterproof too! So go on, everyone take one. Guess I'll hold on to the one for Aribeth until she comes out from hiding."
"No APB," said Sparrow as everyone else was fitting their earpiece on, the troll was looking at his commlink. "Not even an arrest warrant for anyone fitting her description. At least the cruiser I backdoored into earlier hasn't received one."
"See?" said Sensei. "We might be up for a more dangerous foe than we thought."
BloodHound nodded his head, rubbing his chin in thought.
"I don't know if this will help, but I did some digging, looking into Murphy's medical history," said Sparrow. "It turns out that he's allergic to most form of antibiotics, there's an extremely short list of what he can have."
"How allergic?" asked 'Roo.
"Fatally," replied Sparrow. A silence fell on the table as everyone took this new info in.
"Umm, I've got an idea?" said 'Roo, more question than a statement.
"Let's hear it then," said Sensei.
"Well, he goes to the gym a lot, right? How about you two," she pointed at BloodHound and Sensei. "go at the same time, only Sensei either goes in or turns invisible at some point. You can do that, right?"
Sensei nodded.
"So, once you're in the showers with him, BloodHound, uh, well, drops the soap." She frowned as the tall man snickered at her choice of words. "Then Sensei uses the same spell he used to levitate the crazy ork durin' our last job, only you move the soap under Murphy's foot. He falls over and hopefully hurts himself bad enough to warrant a trip to the hospital. Once he's there, we get one of Ciarniellos people to slip in 'n' give him a shot of antibiotics that he's allergic to."
Everyone listened intently, and it was Sensei who first spoke. "I'm sorry, but I thought the reason we took this job was that there was room for a non-lethal option. I'm afraid this plan of yours isn't suitable."
BloodHound turned to Sensei, scowling. "Murphy lost his opportunity for a non-lethal option when his people attacked Aribeth. It's like you said, he's dangerous. I say we deal with him permanently."
"And I say, as the team leader," Sensei replied. "that we don't kill a father of two simply for looking out for his own safety."
"Then I call for a vote. Whoever thinks we should put Murphy down, raise your hand," said BloodHound, lifting his hand up. 'Roo looked between the two men, then raised her hand. All eyes fell on Sparrow. The decker swallowed audibly but did not raise his hand. "I'd personally preferred if we didn't, but..." Sparrow shifted on his seat. "Just putting it out there, if Aribeth were here? She'd have her hand up."
"So it's decided, three-on-two. We're killing the man," BloodHound declared as he and 'Roo lowered their hands.
"You'd better call Lucky, then," said Sensei as he stood up. "You'll need to find a replacement mage. Call me again when you've decided to take on a job that doesn't require murder." And with that, he turned and walked away. 'Roo called after the dwarf, but he didn't look back. 'Roo groaned, leaning against the table. "That went swimmingly."
"I'll call Lucky, see if she can find someone on such short notice. Meeting adjourned, I suppose."
The team said their goodbyes and left the park, BloodHound on his bike and Sparrow hitching a ride with 'Roo.
