Deals with the Devil

Both Alan and Miki slept for several hours on separate sofas in the library. While it was not the most comfortable place to sleep, the two of them were so tired from the events of the previous night that they were not that picky about where they slept.

When Alan awoke, the first thing he saw was a small serving cart that had been moved just in front of his sleeping place. The cart was very neatly arranged, with two plates covered by silver lids, various knives and forks, two wine glasses and a bottle of white wine in a cooler. As he sat himself up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he lifted one of the lids off its plate, revealing sausages, fried eggs and a side salad.

"Yes, it is for you and your partner, sir," a clipped voice suddenly said from somewhere to Alan's right. Alarmed, he spun his head in the direction the voice had come from. The owner of the voice turned out to be a blond-haired, bespectacled man with a severe-looking face and a very smart blue suit with red tie. The only unusual thing about his appearance was that one of his hands seemed to be made of stone, permanently clenched in a fist.

"Alright," Alan muttered, regarding this gentleman carefully. "What's your story then?"

"My name is Owen, sir," the man replied. "I am Mr. Xanatos' PA. Mr. Xanatos thought you might care for some refreshments before you discussed your business with him."

"What time is it?" Alan asked idly.

"It is a quarter to one in the afternoon, sir," Owen promptly replied in that same clipped tone. "You were sleeping so soundly that Mr. Xanatos thought it best not to disturb you." At this there was a sudden beeping sound, and Owen peered down at his own commlink.

"If you will excuse me, sir," he said after a moment. "I must attend to other matters in the castle. Please finish your meal and speak to Mr. Xanatos as soon as possible. His office is down the corridor, the second door on the left. Good day." With that, he walked straight out of the library at a very brisk pace, leaving Alan no opportunity to question him.

The longer I live, he thought as he helped himself to a sausage, the stranger the company I keep.

"Oh, that doesn't include me, does it?" Miki suddenly projected into his head. Turning around, Alan saw her coming around a corner tidying her long, dark hair. As Alan looked at her, he saw her divert her gaze from him and look straight towards the service cart. She pulled the lid off the second plate and began to eat with great gusto. When she saw Alan looking at her with arched eyebrows, she threw him a reproachful look.

"Can't I just eat a little?" she said.

Alan looked away, shaking his head. He was glad that Miki was still young and had a fast metabolism.

"Are you going to touch your salad?" Miki asked, after a few quiet minutes spent tucking into the meal.

"No," Alan replied. "Can't stand the stuff. Actually, for a while now I've had this craving for very rare meat; the bloodier the better. I wonder if Godzilla used to eat it raw before he gained an appetite for nuclear and plasma reactors." At this, Miki almost choked on the piece of fried egg she had been on the point of swallowing.

"Oh, that's just sick!" she exclaimed. "Thanks for giving me that image!"

After a while, the pair finished their meal, with the wine going untouched. Neither of them had felt in the mood for alcohol. Miki in particular seemed to be looking more awkward as they walked down the corridor to Xanatos' office. Alan couldn't help but be concerned; usually Miki was the perky one of the pair, but now she seemed rather downtrodden. As he was about to ask what was wrong, the two of them arrived outside the office.

"I'll wait out here," Miki said rather suddenly. "I'm not fully awake yet."

Alan was about to ask why, but he knew Miki would just become irritable. Once she made her mind up about something, it was impossible to dissuade her. So he stepped through the wooden door into an immaculate office, with a large fish-tank, old cavalry rifles and a large window overlooking the city skyline. Sat at a large ornate desk was David Xanatos himself. He was a well-built man in his mid-30s, with a neatly-trimmed moustache and beard and long brown hair tied back in a ponytail. He wore a black shirt under a grey jacket and dark trousers. He was regarding Alan with brown eyes and a sly-looking smile. Alan could instantly tell that this was going to be one very slippery individual.

"At last we meet, Mr. Ryuu," Xanatos said, extending a hand for Alan to shake. "Please have a seat."

Alan sat down in the seat opposite Xanatos. The corporate mastermind rested his hands in a pyramid shape on his desk, the tips of his fingertips drumming against each other. He was looking at Alan with a gaze that gave him the impression he was being mind-read.

"So you got to hear about my little errand, did you?" Xanatos asked.

"Yes," Alan replied, being careful not to take his eyes off Xanatos' own. "No specifics were mentioned, however."

"Ah, that should not surprise you by now," Xanatos replied smoothly. "You can never be too careful when dealing with fixers and shadowrunners."

"Just get to the point, Xanatos," Alan said flatly. "I don't buy into any megacorp smooth-talking. Just tell me what this job is."

"My, you are eager, aren't you?" Xanatos replied with a smirk. "Always focused on the task at hand. You're a man after my own heart."

"Spare me," Alan retorted. "So what do you want? Any reason you're not hiring locally?"

"Let's just say," Xanatos replied, "that I don't want anybody to see you coming. Manhattan is a rather close-knit community; if I hire a local 'runner, everybody will know who to expect.

"As to why you are here..." he continued. "I'm having a spot of bother with one of my employees. One Dr. Anton Sevarius, to be exact. As you may or may not know, I hired him recently as part of a project my company has been working on. This project was of a very... shall we say sensitive nature, but I have lost contact with him over the past few days. Owing to the nature of his research I am sure you understand I am concerned for his whereabouts; I cannot have him leaking my most prized industrial secrets, can I?"

"Is that what you think has happened?" Alan asked. "That he has defected?"

"It's one possibility," Xanatos said in a rather off-handed manner. "Of course, that's what I want you to find out, as you have no doubt realised. Once you have ascertained what has become of him, I will be able to decide on the next course of action. I trust I can count on your discretion for the duration of your stay?" He spoke casually enough, but Alan noticed a finality to his tone suggesting that he was very sure of himself. That meant Xanatos was capable of giving him a lot of trouble if he crossed him. His mannerisms reminded Alan of Kiryuu in a lot of ways.

"Assuming I'm given suitable compensation," Alan said clearly, "my lips are sealed."

"I'm glad we understand each other," Xanatos said, smirking. "Very well, Mr. Ryuu. Now Dr. Sevarius was very careful about his dealings, but my own people were able to trace his commlink transmissions to an old science facility that he used prior to being in my employ. Such an out-of-the-way location doesn't bode well for him or for myself. It's as good a place as any to start." With that, he picked up a piece of notepaper and wrote down an address which he handed to Alan.

"Alright," Alan said, taking the notepaper and putting it in his pocket. "I'll look into this, but I expect suitable compensation for my time."

"Do your job," Xanatos replied, "and that won't be an issue." With that same smug smile on his face, he followed Alan out of the office and into the hall. It soon turned out that Miki had company, for standing with her was a tall, slim woman, wearing a red shirt and blue jeans. She had long red hair and a black tattoo across her right eye. In her arms she was holding a happy-looking baby boy. Miki looked enraptured at the sight of the infant.

"Oh, he is too cute!" she sighed.

"Thanks," the woman responded. "He takes after his father." Looking at her, Alan could not help but feel that, for all her smiles and warmth, her face made her look rather crafty.

"Oh, Ryuu," Miki said, looking up and noticing him standing there. "Are we ready to go?"

"Yeah," Alan replied. "I've got all that we need to know."

"Aren't you going to introduce me?" the red-haired woman asked.

"Oh, sorry," Miki quickly said apologetically. "Ryuu, this is Fox, Xanatos' wife, and their son Alex. Fox, this is my partner, Ryuu."

As Alan shook Fox's free hand, little Alex piped up "Doggie! Doggie!"

"His first words," Fox chuckled. "Bronx has taken to him like a duck to water, and Lex acts like his big brother. At least we know for sure that gargoyles don't harm children, not like what the Quarrymen have been preaching."

"Hello, sweetheart," Xanatos said in a surprisingly warm tone. "Did you catch up on your sleep?"

"I did, darling," Fox replied. "It helped that Alex slept like a log, of course."

Alan did not know that Xanatos had a family. Their warm tones were so convincing that Alan couldn't say for sure if they were just good actors, or if there really did exist people Xanatos cared about. Normally the corporations were faceless entities to him, and a cynical side of Alan told him that this was some kind of ploy to dissuade Alan from going back on his word, but he could not close his mind to the possibility of genuine affection between the Xanatos family.

"Let's go," he told Miki. "We've got a job to do."

As he and Miki were about to leave, Owen walked out of the room next door to Xanatos' office. Alan assumed that room to be Owen's office.

"Mr. Xanatos," Owen said promptly, "you have an urgent telephone call from Mr. Duval."

"What, again?" Xanatos asked, a faint trace of irritation in his voice. "I'll return the call later," he continued, turning to face his PA. At this, for a brief moment Alan thought he saw a flicker of doubt cross Owen's face.

"Are you sure it's wise to keep the Illuminati waiting?" Owen said in a low voice, though not low enough for Alan to not hear it.

"No," Xanatos replied simply, his eyebrow arched. If he had seen Alan eavesdropping, he was pretending he hadn't. As the two shadowrunners walked down the hall towards the elevators, Xanatos turned back to his family, his arms outstretched.

"Now who needs a piggy-back ride?!" he asked jovially.

***

"I'll tell you something," Alan said to Miki later as the two were walking through the strangely-quiet Manhattan streets in the afternoon sunshine. "I'm glad for those firewalls and ICs Zapper set these commlinks up with. I recorded the whole conversation between Xanatos and myself; it's too risky to email the file to anyone right now if he's watching our communication lines, but it should be safe on the commlink for the time being."

Miki didn't say anything. Alan noticed that she had been very quiet all day, especially when they had left the Xanatos building. Alan of course had told her everything that had happened and played the recording for her, but she hadn't seemed to have paid attention to any of it. Her mind seemed to be elsewhere as the two of them headed to what looked like an abandoned shipping yard. It was the address Xanatos had given Alan, but the area seemed to be deserted; apparently it was scheduled to be rebuilt. If anything it meant that this was their last chance to find out what Sevarius was up to.

After some moments wandering around the site, they came across a heavy iron door at the base of one of the run-down buildings. It looked more like the entrance to a fallout shelter than any door into the building itself. Checking the notepaper that Xanatos had given him, Alan nodded.

"I think this is it," he said. "It matches Xanatos' description, anyway." Noticing Miki hadn't responded, he turned to look at her. She was looking at him strangely, as if she had found out that he was dying.

"Alright, what's bothering you?" Alan asked, sounding slightly annoyed. "Out with it."

Miki turned her eyes away from Alan for a moment, looking downcast.

"Alan..." she began. "We need to talk... about us."

"Now's not a good time, Miki," Alan grumbled. "We've got a job to do here!"

"Just wait a moment," Miki said more forcefully. "I need to say this now before anything else happens."

Alan gave a frustrated sigh. He folded his arms across his chest and looked at Miki impatiently. He was sure that there were better times than in the middle of a job to be discussing their relationship, but he had noticed that Miki had looked troubled since they left Seattle. It seemed she could no longer hold in whatever it was she wanted to say.

"Listen, Alan..." Miki said carefully, her face looking troubled. "My life... my life as a Godzilla-loving shadowrunner... I wouldn't have it any other way. I hope you understand that first. But I... I want... I need normalcy. Not now, not even soon, but definitely someday. I want a house, a yard, picnics on Sunday afternoons, all of that normal stuff, but most of all..." She looked away from Alan at this point, taking in a deep breath before facing him again.

"I want children, Alan," she finished. "And I know that's something you can never give me."

Alan was taken aback. He had never even considered the idea of children before this point. Often times he wondered why Miki still stood by him, knowing that he would outlive her. Now that Miki had brought the subject of children up, he began to see where she was coming from. He did not know what sort of complications would arise from trying to bring his children into the world; the risk was likely far too great. Miki seemed fixed on the idea of having them, however, and the thought that she would be leaving him because of it was tearing Alan apart. He did his best not to let his feelings show, as Miki looked away from him.

"We have to break up," Miki said simply. "We need to start seeing other people."

"Easier said than done," Alan muttered.

"Look," Miki said, reasonably. "I know your options are limited-"

"Limited?!" Alan suddenly exclaimed with such force that Miki jumped. "Look around you! Do you see any female Godzilla mutants roaming around out there?!"

Miki could only stand in silence for a moment, looking very awkward.

"Exactly," Alan said bitterly. "Have a good time looking for normalcy." He stormed off towards the iron door before Miki could say anything. She knew Alan was right, but she could not help but feel that he was being rather unfair. She approached him and was about to argue in her defence, but as Alan pushed his hand on the door it swung open slightly with a slight squeaking sound.

"Someone's already been here..." Alan said quietly. He looked at the card reader, which was showing a green light. Apparently it had been hacked.

"Let's hope they're long gone and that they left something behind," Alan stated, drawing his large Ruger Super Warhawk revolver and stepping through the door. Miki followed close behind him, hardly daring to breath.

The door let to a flight of stairs leading downwards. There was still power running to the area, for the lights flickered on and off. One of the first things Alan noticed was that there had been some kind of a fight, for he saw what looked like large claw marks streaking across the walls and other signs of damage. He ran his own claw through them for a comparison. The stairs ended in a corridor which led to a two-way junction. In spite of the flickering lights, Alan could see perfectly fine thanks to his mutated eyes.

"Which way?" Miki asked quietly.

"Let's go right..." Alan muttered, stepping down the right-hand corridor. The left-hand corridor showed further signs of animalistic damage, but the right one seemed relatively unharmed. As they walked down towards another door at the end on the left-hand wall, Alan looked irritably up at the flickering lights.

"What is it with abandoned sites and flickering lights?" he wondered aloud. "Just once, I'd like to find an abandoned lab that looked like it might have been a nice place to be."

"Quiet!" Miki said in a loud whisper. "I thought I heard something."

With his gun held close, Alan carefully inched his way around the corner and through the door, with Miki a few feet away from him. He noticed that he was now in what looked like an abandoned data storage room, with computer monitors, servers and filing cabinets lining the walls and a plethora of thick cables criss-crossing the floor. Some of the monitors had been broken and some papers were strewn on the floor, but other than that the room looked largely intact, though like the corridors it was not very well-lit. Alan took another two steps into the room, intending to move across to one of the computers.

"Drop it!" a female voice suddenly shouted from his left, accompanied by the click of a gun's hammer. Alan was shocked that someone had been able to get the drop on him, but thought it best not to argue when his ambusher had a clear shot at his head. He dropped his heavy weapon onto the floor, and glanced to his right to get a look at his captor.

"Alan?" Miki asked, speaking into his mind, still unseen. "What's happened? Who's there?!"

"Miki," Alan responded, "don't take this the wrong way, but there's a woman in here pointing a gun at my head." He cursed himself repeatedly in his head. He could not believe that he had blundered into an ambush like this. If he got out of this, he had to make sure he and Miki kept this lapse of concentration to themselves.

"Turn to face me, slowly," the woman commanded. "Keep your hands where I can see them!"

As Alan turned, he got a better look at his would-be attacker. She was an athletically-built woman and also seemed to be of mixed race; part African-American and part Native American. She had tanned skin and long, flowing black hair. She was dressed in a maroon leather jacket over a black shirt, and blue jeans. By all accounts, she was very pretty, but she was regarding Alan with a very stony look, pointing a Colt Manhunter pistol at his chest.

"What happened to you then?" she asked, after a moment to take in his appearance. "Bad accident with a shifting spell?"

Alan remained silent. Quite aside from the fact that was a question he did not feel like answering, something in his gut told him that this was not a woman he should mess around with. He recognised her pistol as one quite common among law enforcement; he had the sudden horrible feeling that she was connected to the police, which would put his mission in serious jeopardy and pretty much end his shadowrunning career.

"Matt!" she suddenly called out, her head inclining towards the door. "Get down here! I got a live one!"

"You too?" a male voice suddenly called back, and Alan found it hard to suppress a low groan. By the sounds of it, Miki had been caught. He wondered why she had not alerted him to this. He looked towards the door and saw Miki come through first, arms raised, followed by a Caucasian man with bright blue eyes, short flaming red hair and a brown trench-coat over a suit. He too was aiming a gun at Miki, and pushed her towards Alan.

"Sorry..." Miki grumbled. "He caught me by surprise."

The man called Matt stood by the woman, keeping his gun trained on the two shadowrunners.

"What do you reckon, Elisa?" Matt asked the woman. "Shadowrunners out to make a quick buck?"

"Best guess," Elisa replied. "You got some cuffs handy? We can have 'em tagged at the station in minutes."

The mention of the name 'Elisa' suddenly brought something to the front of Alan's memory. It was his only chance that they might get out of this mess.

"Wait a minute!" Alan said quickly. "Do you know Goliath, by any chance?"

Elisa suddenly gave a little gasp at the mention of the name 'Goliath'. She looked at Alan with a shocked expression. Matt turned to her, looking puzzled.

"He knows Goliath?" Matt muttered. "You think this guy knows the Manhattan clan?"

"Maybe..." Elisa murmured. It seemed that someone else knowing the names of the gargoyles had knocked the wind out of her. "How long have you known them?" she finally asked.

"Only since last night," Alan replied. "I know you two are having problems, and from the way he acted last night he seemed pretty cut up by it all."

Miki just looked at Alan with contempt on her face. She could not believe he was openly using emotional blackmail to try and save their necks. In danger or not, that was still a very low blow.

"He..." muttered Elisa. "He told you about that?"

"Not exactly," Alan said. "Angela filled me in on the details."

"Wait..." Matt muttered. "If this guy knows the Manhattan Clan, that must mean he's been hanging around Xanatos!" He turned to Elisa, a look of excitement on his face. "You realise what this means? This is our best lead into finding out what that creep's up to!" He looked back at Alan with a triumphant look. "You're coming with us, pal. We've got some nice questions for you."

"Now just hold on!" Alan replied indignantly. "I don't know what you think the deal is between me and Xanatos, bucko, but-"

"Shh!" Miki suddenly said, holding up a warning hand, and everyone fell into silence. "Can you hear that?" she whispered.

Now that no-one was speaking, Alan could definitely hear something. A series of rhythmic clangs, muffled but quite audible, the rhythm being rather fast. To Alan, it sounded like someone running on a metal walkway or on metal stairs. The sound was still quite faint, as if the person who was running was still some distance away.

"Matt..." Elisa whispered, as he and her partner watched the door into the room. "Were there any other doors in the other room?"

"There was one," Matt replied. "Was about to check it out, until I heard you shouting. I ran into the woman in the hallway."

Unseen by the others, Miki slowly backed towards the computer desk near the wall behind her, and carefully removed a data disk from the desk and slipped it into her jeans pocket. The others watched the door with bated breath as the sound of running footsteps grew louder and louder. There was a loud crash as something solid struck a distant wall, and the footsteps grew ever louder until finally the source of the noise burst through the doorway in front of them.

The footsteps had been made by a human man, dressed in what once must have been a respectable suit but was now little more than rags. Rather disconcertingly, he was caked in blood, and his eyes were a deep, blood red with no pupils. He stood in the doorway for a moment, twitching violently, making horrible gagging noises as if his throat had been crushed. It was like he was having some kind of seizure or stroke.

Both police officers held their guns at the ready. It seemed neither of them were sure how to treat this stranger, whether to be easy on them or to be firm. The stranger only continued to survey everyone in the room with those horrible red eyes, still twitching and making those horrid gagging noises. As Alan watched, he noticed that the stranger never blinked.

As the stranger twitched and glanced at each person in the room, his eyes fell on Alan. It was then that it suddenly raised its arm, pointing at Alan, the glare in his eyes somehow intensifying. All of a sudden it opened its mouth, emitting a loud, unearthly shriek, so loud that everyone briefly covered their ears. As the mouth opened, saliva mixed with blood seemed to drip out of it in unhealthy amounts. Then he suddenly lurched forward, staggering towards Alan in sudden twitching, jerking movements. Elisa and Matt kept their guns on the person, and Elisa seemed to have re-discovered the use of her senses.

"Stop right there, mister!" she shouted, but the stranger blindly ignored her, apparently only having eyes for Alan.

"Freeze!" Matt shouted, but to no avail. Alan raised his arms and backed away, now looking very nervous, yet the stranger continued to advance, and in a few moments was on Alan, arms raised and mouth opened, apparently about to try and bite him. In panic, Alan swung his left fist – the mutated, Godzilla-like arm – and felt a sharp shot of pain up his arm as the fist collided with the attacker's face. The stranger's head snapped to one side and a horrible snapping sound was heard as he collapsed to the floor, twitching and convulsing.

"I shouldn't have done that..." Alan gasped, shaking. "I shouldn't have done that..." It seemed he had underestimated the strength of his punches through that arm, and he feared that he had somehow broken the man's neck. All the while, a horrible, nagging feeling clawed at the inside of his stomach. He could not shake off the feeling that he had seen eyes like that before.

As the group watched, the twitching on the supposed corpse suddenly started becoming more violent, and the same loud gargled, shrieking noise was heard coming from his mouth. Blood started pouring out from beneath the body, and horrible snapping and cracking sounds could be heard. Alan backed away towards Miki while Elisa moved to check the door. From the distance the sound of many muffled footsteps could be heard, getting louder and louder.

"Elisa?" Matt called, looking rather pale. "I think we need to get outta here!"

"Agreed," Elisa nodded, looking at the other three. "My car's not far from here. Move it! Go!"

With that, she ran back down the corridor, Matt and Miki following close behind. Alan stooped to retrieve his gun then moved to follow, but turned to look behind him. He saw that the body was now moving, and as he watched he saw that it was being raised on what looked like a set of crab-like legs, growing out of the body's stomach and rib-cage. Alan fought the urge to be sick and ran after the others towards the exit. In the darkness, he could see other figures emerging from one of the doors at the other end of the corridor, the footsteps getting ever louder, and the new arrivals making the same horrible shrieking noises.

Dashing back up the stairs, Alan burst out into the fading daylight, just in time to see Miki following Matt towards the back of one of the abandoned warehouses. Figuring that he would rather take his chances with the detectives than try to outrun the mob, he quickly followed. Behind him he could still hear the mob's footsteps, and he could even hear a phrase being repeated by some of them again and again:

"The Enemy..."

Alan was not willing to stick around and find out what they meant, so he followed the others around the warehouse to a well-maintained maroon sedan – a Mercury Comet, Alan recognised it as – which the others had already piled into, Elisa at the driver's seat. Miki was in one of the back seats, urging Alan to catch up. The mutant dove in through the open door, and Miki slammed the door shut behind him.

As Elisa struggled to turn the engine on, Alan looked out the side window to see a crowd of at least twenty people had followed him. All of them were in various states of disarray, all of them were covered in blood, and all of them had the same red eyes. They continued to make those unearthly wails as they charged straight at the car. Within seconds, they slammed into it and began shaking the vehicle and punching the glass, trying to break through and get at the cowering humans inside.

"Elisa, hurry!" Matt shouted, as the pounding intensified. No matter how strong the glass was, Alan was certain that it would break if this kept up. The creatures continued to wail and drool as, after several tense moments, the engine finally roared into life.

"Hold on!" Elisa shouted, as she sent the car careening out of the area, knocking down two of the attackers in the process. One of them managed to grab onto the rear bumper and was dragged along the tarmac behind them, before finally dropping. The survivors gave chase, but the car was just too fast for them, and eventually they were clear. All four occupants of the car took a moment to catch their breath. By this time, it was almost sunset, and the light was glowing an orange colour.

"What the fuck was all that about?!" Alan demanded.

"You tell us," Matt retorted. "Xanatos not telling you all you need to know?" He turned to look at Elisa, who was concentrating on the road. "What do you suggest we do, partner?"

"Get on the radio to the precinct," Elisa said authoritatively. "Get a SWAT team over to that warehouse and get whatever info's left in there." As Matt made the call, Elisa also said, "I say we head over to Xanatos' place, let the clan know what's happening."

"What?" Matt asked disbelievingly. "You don't think a SWAT team can handle a bunch of crack-heads? Shouldn't we get these two clowns," he continued, jerking his thumb in Alan's direction, "into custody?"

"We can easily keep an eye on them," Elisa reasoned. "I think processing them can wait. Right now, if Xanatos does have anything to do with this, we should take the chance to question him. You and I both know what Sevarius is capable of..." She trailed away at that point, as if a painful subject was being broached. "Dunkelzahn knows what he was doing in that lab."

At this, Miki quickly slid the data disc out of her pocket by a fraction, long enough for Alan to see it and nod, before quickly hiding it again.

"Alright," Matt replied, looking very uncertain. He turned and glared at Alan. "However, try anything funny and we drop you. Clear?"

"Crystal," Alan shrugged. Matt just nodded and reached down for his commlink. Alan sighed as he realised that now he would have two people watching his every move in this place. He too wanted to know what was going on; he was troubled by the red eyes of those creatures looking so familiar, not to mention the mutation that had begun as Alan had watched.

Whatever was going on, he was sure that he was onto something big. He only hoped he and Miki could get the information they needed and make a clean getaway before the likes of Elisa Maza and Goliath could follow them.