Run : Copycat Killer (based on the mission written by Steven "Bull" Ratkovich; updated 2018/07/22)
It had been a rather quiet month for Cypher and Seraphina. Getting the hardware and building the commlink for Seraphina had taken a little longer than he had expected, but once they had gotten the components they had gotten it built together. Once that had been done Cypher uploaded copies of all of his custom coded software, the sensor software and their compiled databases, and others that he had. She would later customize things to her tastes once it had been implanted.
MacCallister had also come through in a delta clinic that could build the rest of the cybernetic suite and implant it all into Seraphina. She was particularly grateful that they did not have to shave her head. And this time they did not wake up on someone's dinner table.
It was almost noon now, and one of the big and ongoing news stories that Cypher kept coming across was about the Nicaragua Canal. The same day that Seraphina had her implantation surgery mercenaries had bombed it, shutting it down completely. Aztechnology had quickly stated they would have it up and running in two weeks, but it was starting to look like no matter the PR they kept putting out it was not going to happen.
The two had been lounging for most of the day. Cypher had mostly been doing research on the various magical traditions and felt he was not much closer to figuring something out than he was a month ago. Seraphina, on the other hand, had uploaded all the stuff she had created while under the influence of the Inspiration infusion into her implanted commlink and had spent most of the last two weeks simply trying to figure out what all she had done. The Braveheart had messed with her memory of the time, and about the only clue she had of those weeks were these projects, and thus far she was keeping them close to the heart.
The silence was broken when their regular use commlinks started chirping with an incoming call. Cypher answered it when he saw it was MacCallister calling.
"Hoi chummer," MacCallister said in an unusually serious tone, "I know it's early, but I need to meet with you immediately. Meet me at the Big Rhino downtown in an hour."
"Shit sounds serious." Cypher commented.
"It is."
"We leave right away we should get there on time. We'll be there."
MacCallister simply ended the call.
"What do you think's up?" Seraphina asked.
"Not a clue, but I think it's pretty bad."
They changed their clothes, gearing up for work in their usual gear. Cypher noticed Seraphina looking at her Sakura Fubuki, something lackluster in her eyes, before she slipped it into the holster inside her jacket.
Even though it was freeway travel for most of the way it took nearly the hour MacCallister had given them just to get to The Big Rhino and find a parking space.
Downtown Seattle was the rich kid's club, it was where hot clubs and places to be seen were, the seat of the metroplex's government, and had some of the most well known buildings in the world. Long standing was the Space Needle with its rotating restaurant at the top, but also located in this district were the Aztechnology Pyramid and the former Renraku Archology. The pyramid itself gleamed like a jewel in the daylight, standing at three hundred meters in height, it was a hundred and ninety-five meters to a side and covered in eighty slabs of carved quarts each half a meter thick.
But the Pyramid was not quite as impressive in overall grandeur as the former Renraku Archology. Originally known by the acronym SCIRE (Self Contained Industrial-Residential Environment), it was the ninth largest building in the world, housing over ninety thousand residents in what was effectively a self-contained city within Seattle. That changed when the archology's resident artificial super intelligence took it over in December of 2059. It would be eighteen months before the archeology was reclaimed, and of the over one hundred thousand residents at the time (which included Christmas shopping visitors to the malls in the ground floors), roughly sixteen hundred survived.
It was now called the ACHE (Archology Commercial Housing Enclave), run by the Seattle government, it offered low income housing to nearly a hundred and fifty thousand residents. Over three times as tall as the Aztechnology Pyramid, and half a square kilometer in area at its base, its silvery-green silhouette dominated the Downtown skyline, its footprint nearly twice that of the total land Aztechnology had around their Pyramid.
And The Big Rhino at the intersection of Seneca and First Avenue was practically within spitting distance of the archology's northwestern corner.
Ironhide had to park a few blocks over, and they found the parking lot itself was at the corner of the massive arcology. All they had to do was cross the street at the southern end and there it was. Even the highway that had originally hugged the shoreline by the docks had been rerouted around to accommodate the arcology when it had been built, though Cypher had thought it might have been easier to have built around it instead.
There the two met Rook who was also on the way to The Big Rhino. He had paused for a minute or two to look up at the massive silvery-green building.
When they got to the restaurant's front doors they saw the place looked like it had been hit by a thrill gang. Scraps of food and trash were strewn about the place and the staff was picking up overturned chairs and benches to be able to clean up the floor, which also had broken glasses and plates. The place reeked of all kinds of heavily spiced foods all mixed together.
"Merde, this is nothing like home." commented Rook.
"Oh?" asked Cypher as he looked up at the massive ogre.
"Oui, this Irish pub called O'We Shea." Rook told them, "Never this bad, even when the football team loses. Or Faey had to remove someone."
A rather attractive female ork, maybe about nineteen or twenty and with a relatively slim figure, noticed the three. "I'm sorry about the mess," she said, "we've just finished up the lunch rush and haven't really had time to clean up."
"Lunch?" Rook asked.
"This? This happens daily?" Seraphina asked.
"I'm afraid so." the ork told them.
"If this is lunch I don't wanna see a riot." Cypher silently told Seraphina over their private and encrypted connection.
"Is okay? We are here to meet someone." Rook said.
"Sure. Just please be careful." she said.
They carefully walked around other staff as they cleaned, mindful of stepping on anything that might break as if it were a landmine.
MacCallister was at a table along the back wall, dressed similar to how he had been at the concert in jeans, a t-shirt, and a black leather jacket. Two others were already there when he noticed them, waving them over.
One of the other two was also an ork, of a heavier set build common to orks, lightly tanned of skin and with black hair. He wore jeans and an armored jacket, and somehow made it look high class.
The other was human, with a slimmer build, Caucasian and also with short cut black hair. He wore a more tailored suit from Zoé, and actually looked more out of place for the effort. Still, if he were to walk the streets of Downtown he would not stand out.
Cypher noticed MacCallister's dour expression as they got closer, and could smell the alcohol of the fourth massive drink glass as it came down just a little hard. Even in the dim light the two chrome datajacks in his right temple shined, but more brightly than his darkened eyes.
"Are you serious?" the other ork asked, his voice gravelly, "You called kids?"
"Yes." MacCallister barked, "I called them. He's a damned good decker, too. And she's your magic support. If looks are a problem, there's the door." He gestured towards the restaurant's front entrance.
Cypher almost had a smile for MacCallister and his support for the both of them, but the old ork's mood must have been bleeding off on him and he was feeling a little extra hostile himself. "I don't give a shit if you believe this or not, but we're not babies or newbies." Cypher told the ork, "And we ain't as young as we look."
Rook commandeered a few chairs for them to sit down on. His support was clear to the others present.
"About nine o'clock this mornin' my daughter was found dead." MacCallister started. "She was renting an apartment in the Underground, staying there while she did a research paper on the Underground's history. It looks like she was killed by the Mayan Cutter."
"Mayan Cutter?" they silently asked each other. They were already starting data searches on the subject while MacCalister continued.
"The Cutter was supposedly killed by the Knight last year. Two weeks ago new killings started appearing."
"And I'll bet Knight's worried they got the wrong guy." the human said.
"I want to know why Rebecca was killed, and I want him, the Cutter, alive." MacCallister told them. "Sixteen thousand to each if you do it."
"Yeah, this was plenty serious." Cypher silently said.
"No question."
"Yeah, we're in." Cypher said aloud.
"Oui, as am I." added Rook.
"No haggling?" the other ork asked.
"Not this time. Not a job like this." Cypher sternly said. Glaring at the ork he added, "You can go fuck off if you think it's too cheap."
"No need to be vulgar." the Ork said, his spine straightening, "Count me in."
"Underground's not the friendliest of places, but I'll go." the human added.
MacCallister prompted a file transfer, which Cypher accepted. It was a collection of photos of who had to be MacCallister's daughter, along with some personal information about her. In it, Rebecca was noted to be well liked in the Underground (being an ork likely helped a lot) and had no known enemies. She was a magician, a hermetic, and had been working on a Master's Degree on sociology and history through the University Of Washington.
There was also a screamsheet copy about the Mayan Cutter. As Cypher glanced at this he saw the search results he had gotten. Named the Mayan Cutter due to the ritualistic markings he carved into his victims using an obsidian knife, he was attributed with at least four dozen dead, most of whom had been metahumans and/or SINless.
Knight Errant had identified José Martine as the killer within a month of taking over the security contract for the Seattle metroplex (ironically this case was one of the biggest against Lone Star's competency), and upon executing an arrest warrant Martine had fled, opening fire on the officers. Martine was shot and killed, pronounced dead on arrival at Seattle General. A search of Martine's home turned up a number of obsidian knives, many with traces of blood that DNA linked to the murders and more.
"The Cutter died last year." the human said, "This's gotta be a copycat."
"I don't care 'bout that." MacCallister slurred. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself. "Here. Someone who can help, a friend that works for Knight Errant." He forwarded a commcode, and the name attached to it was "Tosh."
"Bull and that giant troll are friends?" Seraphina asked.
"Appears so."
"So, I say we start with her apartment." the other ork said. "At least we can get to the Underground from here."
He and the other human stood first, and Cypher, Seraphina, and Rook followed.
It was quite a different path to the Underground compared to Lordstrung's. While both were well established, from The Big Rhino the path was much more unrefined. From the restaurant's basement the path went to the original Seattle Underground before turning to go deeper on a path to the Ork Underground, down a well traveled but also more natural tunnel.
Along the way down to the Tourist Highway they got the pleasantries of names out of the way. Cypher, in the mean time, also took a few moments to try reading their auras, having figured out how to effectively switch his astral sight on and off.
The ork went by the name Carson, his body showing up a darker blue-white than he expected, with what he could only describe as voids in his eyes and head. His mood seemed to darken whenever he looked at Cypher or Seraphina.
The human was a gunfighter by the name of Vector. His body appeared more an inky blue, with voids for eyes, ears, in his head, and for much of his skeleton with an extra mass running down his spine. It was clear he was even more augmented than Carson, and he too did not seem too thrilled at the prospect of working with apparent children.
He also took a look at Rook, though the most he could figure out was that the giant sized ogre was awakened, seeing sparkles in the blue white that he also saw in Seraphina.
It was clear when they had reached the Tourist Highway. Along the spacious cavern there were numerous stands for venders to hawk their wares, but among the foot traffic were others on bicycles or bicycle taxies. Cypher thought rollerblades would also be good for faster travel. There was even a gentle breeze from an air circulation and venting system, keeping what might have been a dusty, dank smell almost nonexistent.
There were also other, more permanent businesses built into the cavern walls. One place that seemed to really stand out to Cypher was called The Gold Mine. Judging by the AR displays it was part restaurant and part night club. It was flanked by a boutique shop on one side and a souvenir stand on the other.
"Stay here and let me go do the talking." Carson told them, not waiting for a reply as he disappeared into the crowd.
Cypher and Seraphina took the opportunity to go to one of the other venders that was serving shish kabob skewers. The food was spiced, and it was mostly mushroom caps and some kind of meat on the wooden spit. They thought it best if they did not ask what the meat used to be.
"Get your hoops over here! This is no time for souvenirs!" Carson yelled.
They hustled back over, but not too quickly. "Ya mind? We hadn't had lunch yet."
"You should've eaten before the meet." Vector chastised.
"Hey, maybe you can afford the rent to live ten minutes from the Rhino, but some of us work our asses off for a living." Seraphina snipped back.
Cypher ran some quick numbers, partly in thanks to the implanted math subprocessing unit in his head. Considering what the two had in funds if they scrimped they might have actually managed a year in one of the close by luxury neighborhoods. He already knew that kind of lifestyle was not for them, though the luxury suite Ares had provided for them in Manhattan had been nice. It was not the cushy living, but the amount of security over watch that would have been on them.
"We have directions?" Rook asked.
"We do." Carson said, saying nothing more as he turned and walked off.
It was a relatively long walk, and both were considering some kind of wheeled transportation means about halfway along. Overall it was about an hour's worth of walking along a relatively well traveled tunnel to one of the numerous residential caverns. The passage opened up as wide as a two lane road, with blocks of one and two story residential homes, some of which even had fake trees planted in front of them. With no school today there were also many kids sitting on stoops, and down one side street were a group of others playing stickball. If it were not for the artificial lighting coming from the ceiling ten meters above them Cypher figured this would have been a nice middle class neighborhood.
After walking a few blocks it became clear where Rebecca MacCallister lived. A two story brownstone was cordoned off with old fashioned yellow police tape, and the stains of dried blood on the steps and sidewalk were clear for anyone to see unaided.
As they walked up motion from the sides caught Cypher's attention. Glancing around he noticed several orks approaching them, all of them wearing brown pants and brown and gray coats. Gang colors he knew right away. Skraacha, if he remembered right from the last time he and Seraphina had come to the Underground.
"A little outta your element, aren't ya, topsiders?" one of them asked. Cypher tagged him as the leader of this batch of orks.
Carson took two extra steps forward. "We're working for someone to investigate a murder." he told them.
"There ain't nothin' here for you to investigate." the ork told them.
"If you don't mind I'll be the judge of that." Carson countered with unflinching dignity.
"Yeah, I do mind."
"Oh, so we should just tell MacCallister that the blood in front of his daughter's home just appeared for no reason?" Seraphina asked sharply, breaking the verbal roundabout between the two orks.
"What'd you say?" the other ork asked.
"I told you to let me do the talking." reprimanded Carson.
"And a lovely job of it you were doing." Cypher replied. Staring the much larger ork down he said, "MacCallister, Rebecca's dad, he hired us to investigate this."
"Wait… Just… stay right there." the ork said. He took a few steps away, and other orks got between them.
When Cypher noticed the spokesperson had pulled out a commlink he loaded up his scanning software. A quick sweep revealed several commlink IDs, including the one being used. With the ID he swapped out the scanner for his signal tapping program to listen to the conversation.
"Yeah, I'll wait." he heard the spokesperson say.
"No idea who he was talking to?" Seraphina silently asked.
"Not until he comes back." Cypher told her.
He turned out to be a she. "Yeah, there were a couple of kids, a human, and a really big ogre along with an ork and MacCallister here." she said, and their voice recognition program identified her as the hostess at The Big Rhino.
"Right, thanks."
The call ended, and the ork came back around. Cypher closed his signal tapper program.
"Right, they're good." he said to the others.
"You sure 'bout that?" asked another ork. All he got was a sharp glare.
"Is there anything you can tell us about Rebecca's murder?" asked Carson.
"No one saw anything." the spokesperson said, "Was about eight this morning when she was found, hangin' up there."
"No cameras that I can see. I'd wager no one saw anything, either." Vector said.
"Chip truth." the spokesperson told them. Then he turned and walked up the steps to the brownstone, pulled out a card and slid it into a maglock at the door. A tiny green light appeared and he opened the front door.
"You all can go in. We'll stand guard." the ork told them, stepping aside.
There were no more words as Cypher and the others walked into the brownstone (Rook had to duck to get through the doorway), though Cypher was curious as to how the ork managed to have a key for the door's maglock.
The ground floor reminded Cypher of the brownstone he and Seraphina lived in back in Queens. The first room on the ground floor was a communal family room and was rather open to a kitchen towards the back. Off to the right was a spiral staircase that went up to the second floor. There was some furniture, but everything looked basic, a lot like the Queens brownstone, with virtually no personal effects for decoration.
Carson and Vector went up the stairs while Rook slowly walked into the kitchen. "Looked like she was cooking breakfast." he said.
Cypher walked into the kitchen, looking around and trying not to gag on the smell of spoiling eggs. There were indeed some pans on an electric stove, but also pooled blood on the floor and table, with the contents that were apparently on the table now strewn about.
"Looks like they fought here, and she lost." Cypher added.
"Cypher! Get your hoop up here!" Carson yelled.
"Shit, what's he want now?" muttered Cypher as he took his time waking to the staircase.
The upstairs part of the brownstone was largely split front to back into two bedrooms, and between them was a shared bathroom and laundry. Carson and Vector both were in the back room, which Cypher noticed had been converted into an office of sorts.
"We found her home node." Carson said as Cypher walked into the office. "You're supposed to be the hacker, so… hack it."
The node was a small computer box that was standing upright next to the desk.
"We're up." he silently sent to Seraphina.
Slowly Cypher sat down at the desk. Heavy footsteps behind him announced Rook, and he figured Seraphina was a step or two ahead.
"Pull up a chair, time for a lesson." Cypher said.
"Lesson?" Carson asked. "We're on the job, we don't have time for this."
"She's learning, and it's the perfect time." Cypher countered, "Jack in with me. I'll lead." He pulled the datajack from the back of his head as Seraphina pulled up a chair to sit down beside him, pulling the data cable from the datajack at the back of her head and plugging it into the port at the back of Cypher's head. This would not be the first time since her implantation that they were jacked together, but it was still an unusual concept to either of them.
Cypher then switched over to virtual reality within his own commlink, his black armored self standing next to a handful of futuristic looking doors. Behind him was the rest of his commlink, but the doors were what was important as they were the gateways to other connected devices, and one of them was the fiber optic cable to Rebecca's home node.
One of the other doors opened, and Seraphina stepped through. She had decided that with her new commlink she would create a new icon for herself, something that she felt would be better suited to her, and she was still experimenting with the details. The trend tended towards a more mature look, a slim yet shapely woman with ample breasts, wearing a very dark red bodysuit with spiked heels and some light armor plates at her lower legs, forearms, chest and back, and hips. Her face was her own, artificially aged closer to her true age, and her hair was full, long, and wavy. Even with the heels she stood a good head shorter than Cypher's icon.
"You ready for this?" Cypher asked, his voice a chorus of a dozen people speaking as one.
"As ready as I'll ever be." she told him, her own voice a blending of only three women on chorus.
Cypher touched the door and it opened to the gateway of the home node. It was rather open and bare, with a single wooden door standing closed in its doorway. There were no walls to be seen.
"We scan the doorway first, right?" Seraphina asked.
"Yup. We want to make sure there's no data bombs or such."
Cypher's red lens eyes started to glow as he scanned the doorway, the representation of the node's access point and firewall.
"I'm not finding anything." Seraphina said.
"No traps or triggers, no." Cypher added. "Alright, now to the next step of finding a way through the firewall. Make sure you've got that stealth program up and running. I doubt Carson's got the patience for a probe attack."
"So it's brute force?"
"Yup. If you've got that exploit program set the same way I do it should be similar to use it the way I do. Follow behind me and I'll help you through."
For Cypher his exploit software worked through his virtual hands. He would literally feel the firewall for soft spots and weaknesses when he did an extended probe, or force his fingers into the firewall like a sculptor's hands to clay to divide and create an opening for the more brute force way through.
And so Cypher plunged his fingers into the wooden door, creating sparks and fragments of digital code as he did. The longer it took to get through the better the odds the firewall, and any running analysis software, had at detecting the intrusion, but if he was fast enough it would take only seconds to get through.
But he also knew how to work his way through a firewall, had known for years and had managed to nearly perfect his skill at it. In a few seconds he was through and inside the node. Knowing her skill at hacking Cypher knew that she would most certainly set off an alert if she tried for security or administrative level access on a brute force hack on her own.
The first layer was not too hard to get through, and it usually was not. The second and third layers of access took more work, what made this kind of hack riskier.
As soon as he was inside he immediately turned back before the rift in the office door closed, reaching back to grab Seraphina's hand. Black armored fingers locked onto a dark red armored arm, and he pulled. She had to force herself against the door to wedge it open wider, at least enough for her to get through the veils of crackling code. Once inside the doorway closed itself, not even a flicker of a stray bit of data to be seen.
"Are we alright?" Seraphina asked.
"I'm looking."
The interior sculpting of the node seemed to match the door. They were inside a small, neat office that partly resembled the bedroom turned office their bodies really were in. The biggest differences were the filing cabinets, pictures decorating the walls, and three oddly placed garden gnomes at three of the room's corners.
"Don't touch anything." Cypher advised.
"Those gnomes are creeping me out."
"Take a closer look at them. Analyze them."
Without moving from her spot Seraphina turned about to look at the gnomes in turn. The pointed cap of one was a bright yellow, like a child's crayon, and it carried a flashlight in one hand. The other two held swords, one with a similarly bright red cap and the other a bright blue cap.
Just by looking at the icons Cypher could guess what they were, but it was easy to mistake what any icon's true purpose was. Something fragile looking like a rice paper wall could be a top end military grade firewall as strong as what he had created.
"They're agents." Seraphina finally said. "Flashlight's a tracer and the other two are armed with attack programs."
Cypher gave each of them a once over. "Yup, they are."
"So what do we do?"
"There should be something representing the analysis program it's running. We just find it and disarm it." Cypher said, looking around, analyzing various icons. Then he looked up, and in the corner above the yellow cap gnome he saw what looked like a security camera.
"I think I found it." Seraphina announced as Cypher was already lifting a hand up towards it.
"Swap your exploit for the disarming program." Cypher told her, "It's tied to your ID so you'll need to disarm it for yourself."
From his digital left hand came a light cloud of digital sparkles. In a second or two the analyze program would be neutralized against him.
Seraphina matched his move, her left hand turned upwards and issuing a similar cloud of digital sparkles, though red in color.
Suddenly a warning icon flashed in his vision, and the program crashed. So did the copy Seraphina was running.
"Shit." the two said at the same time.
From the corners the gnomes stirred.
"Forget the disarm, load your guns. You take red, I've got blue."
In his hands appeared a pair of mismatched pistols. One looked like a slug thrower, with an oversized barrel and a box magazine in front of the grip, and the other looked like a futuristic kind of ray gun. Though they were two pistols in his hands, they constituted a single program. With a squeeze of their triggers he unleashed a pair of bolts of disruptive code at the blue capped gnome, knocking it over and causing it to crumble into digital bits before completely vanishing.
Seraphina had altered the sculpting of her attack form, her hands looking like the ends of burning torches. She loosed a pair of fireballs at the red capped gnome, but it simply turned to her. It lunged at her with its sword, missing wildly as she seemed to just slide out of its way.
Cypher turned his attention to the yellow capped gnome, and two more bolts made it disintegrate the same way as its blue capped brother did.
"This isn't working!" Seraphina yelled. It looked like she had tried two more fireballs and that the gnome itself was fireproof. When it went to lung again with its sword she again slid out of reach. "And this sliding's annoying the shit out of me!"
"You can do it, just keep at it." Cypher told her.
Again and again the two tried attacking each other. Cypher was not too worried about her since the agent would have a hard time landing a damaging blow, assuming it got lucky enough to connect its sword to try and corrupt her icon in the first place.
Then she managed to land a solid hit, but it was not by throwing fire at the agent. After it had lunged at her and she slid out of the way she lunged for it, punching it with one of her burning fists. The agent crumpled to digital nothingness as she followed through with the strike.
"Knew you could do it." Cypher told her.
Scowling, Seraphina only looked at him. Already she had learned that it was best not to yell at him about his help in some things. The only time he did help was when he was sure that she could not handle it on her own.
"Fine, let's get on with it in here." she sourly said.
Cypher looked over the pictures that were tacked above the desk. Most were of the Underground, day to day living and such, and a few were of Rebecca and the spokesperson ork that was probably still standing guard outside with his buddies. From the pics he did see it looked like the two were dating. From some of the file names he got the name "Ca'Tan" and thus he updated his database with the ork's name.
"I'm not finding anything relevant." Seraphina said as she closed one of the filing cabinet drawers.
"I'm not surprised." Cypher said.
"All the data here's her notes and writings on the Underground. Not really a motive for murder."
"Maybe someone thought so. Go ahead and jack out. I'm gonna make a copy of this. Even if it's nothing maybe MacCallister will like a copy."
Seraphina nodded once before her icon simply vanished.
Cypher knelt down in the middle of the office node, placing his hand on the virtual floor. There was a brief ripple through the texture mapping, originating outward from his hand to flow up the walls and in towards the ceiling, as he copied the sculpting and its contents into a new storage folder inside his commlink. Once the download was complete he stood and logged off.
"Took you long enough." Carson said as soon as Cypher stirred.
"This ain't like CSI." Cypher told him, reaching down to the physical node to pull the data cord out. Seraphina had already unplugged herself from his head.
"So?" Carson impatiently asked.
"There's nothing worthwhile on the node." Seraphina told him as Cypher let the data cord recoil back into his head. "It's nothing but research and writing on the Underground."
"So what do we do next?" asked Rook.
"Let's head back topside while we figure that out." Vector suggested, "Doubt we'll find anything here sitting on our hoops chatting 'bout it."
"Agreed." Carson said.
Cypher and Seraphina simply nodded their agreement.
"So, what'd you find in there?" Ca'Tan asked as they stepped out of the brownstone.
"Nothing good." Cypher answered.
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked another ork.
Cypher stopped to look at the ork that spoke. "Means we didn't find anything." he told them, "No reason or why to this. Just that it happened."
"Doesn't mean we're giving up." Carson added.
"Not like I'm gonna give up tracking down some kid killer." Cypher muttered, thoughts of Catherine and her dad floating up again in his mind.
"She wasn't some kid!" Ca'Tan snapped.
"You gonna tell that to her mom 'n dad?" Cypher snapped back, "Huh? Try 'n convince them that it wasn't a kid, their kid that got butchered?"
Ca'Tan seemed to be taken aback.
"He meant we're not quitting." Seraphina said. "It's… it's just that this kind of job… it hits him a little more personally, that's all."
"We should get going." Rook added.
It was about another hour before they reached the Tourist Highway, Cypher and Seraphina managing to snag another shish kabob from the same vendor (Rook bought three) before heading back up towards the surface.
"Maybe we should call that friend of MacCallister's." Vector said as they walked down the stairs to ground level, Seneca Street turning to an elevated roadway to their right. It would not surprise Cypher in the least if they had all parked in the same parking lot.
"Might be worth a shot." Rook added.
"You think we really need to involve the cops?" Carson asked.
"News flash, they're already involved." Cypher said, "Maybe they've gotten some pieces they don't know how to put together, I don't know."
"Better than sitting around with our thumbs up our butts." Seraphina added.
"Alright, but in a bit." Carson told them.
It was indeed the same lot where Ironhide had parked, and while it was likely not much more private than the sidewalk they did have the advantage of not worrying about running into people while trying to have a conversation.
Carson leaned against a gunmetal gray BMW 400GT as he pulled out his commlink, using the touchpad to key in the number MacCallister had given them.
After two rings a gruff voice answered. "Knight Errant Third Precinct, this is Detective Athack."
"Yes, detective," Carson said, "we've got a mutual friend we're working for, and he gave us your number in case we needed your help."
Inwardly Cypher groaned. He understood the need for secrecy at times, but he felt being too subtle at the wrong time could be worse. And when MacCallister had identified Tosh as a friend he felt there was no reason to be so coy about it.
"Yeah? Who?" asked Tosh.
"I'm not sure…" Carson started to say.
"It's MacCallister." Seraphina blurted out. Apparently she was feeling the same as Cypher. Carson glared at her, but she was not cowed.
"Who's this?" Tosh asked.
"We met a few months ago," Cypher said, "One of your guys put a salad bowl on my head." Cypher noticed the strange looks he got from Carson and Vector.
"MacCallister hired us to track down a killer." Rook added.
"Ah, I remember you now." Tosh said, "You're with MacCallister, eh? Damn shame about his kid. Yeah, I can help. I bet I know why you're calling. Tell ya what, meet me at Center House Mall, the lower food court in thirty minutes."
"We'll be there." Cypher said, already doing a data search to find the place.
"Do you know anything about this kind of work?" Carson asked, glaring at Cypher.
"I know enough about Tosh after one meeting that he ain't into that cold war cloak and dagger bullshit." Cypher countered. His search turned up the address for the mall, and a note that it was on top of an underground multi-level parking lot.
"MacCallister said he and Tosh were friends." Seraphina added, "I really doubt MacCallister would hide it from Tosh if he asked if he hired someone to look for whoever killed his daughter."
Carson growled. "You kids're gonna be the death of me." he muttered.
"Shit, still thinking of us as kids." Cypher silently commented to Seraphina. He glanced at her, and could see she was feeling the same way as he did.
"You kids need a lift?" Carson asked.
"No, we got our own truck." Cypher answered as he and Seraphina walked off.
"We will meet you there." Rook added.
Ironhide's path took them up on Western Avenue to Virginia Street, to Sixth Avenue, and finally Mercer Street and the mall. They got a relatively good view of the Space Needle along the way. Overall it took them most of the thirty minutes Tosh had given them to get to the mall and find a parking space.
The Center House Mall was only a few blocks north of the Space Needle itself, ten stories tall with numerous stores, restaurants, and more. It was also right on the edge of upper class neighborhoods, a stark contrast to what they could expect in the Underground, so they opted to leave their more easily seen weapons behind in Ironhide.
They all met up at the interior entrance to the mall from the below ground parking lot, and the transition into the mall was a shock to say the least. Not that Cypher or Seraphina had never been inside a mall, but more from the volume of AR spam that hit them after passing through a set of weapons detectors staffed by a few harried looking mall cops. Law required everyone to broadcast their PAN for security purposes, which to Cypher meant open invitation to hacking and worse. Just about every spambot in the mall knew they had walked in because of this, and even with the filters set to the highest levels Cypher could possibly have coded crap still got through.
A sporting goods store was spouting its second week of Christmas clearance on sneakers.
A lingerie store had discounts for men looking for something for that "special someone."
Three different music stores tried to play on fears that it was his last chance to get a copy of Psychedelic Phlegmm's reunion world tour album.
At least between the incessant prompts to buy something Cypher was able to get an AR copy of the mall's map. Thankfully the lower food court was on the first floor.
According to the last census, two years ago, just over sixty percent of the resident population of Downtown was human, with nearly twenty percent being ork. Trolls may have been tied with dwarves for the minority, but that certainly was not to say there were only a handful of them at the mall.
So while Tosh was by no means the only troll anywhere in the mall he still stood out, large by even troll standards, practically taking up a bench by himself when they found him, a troll sized mug of coffee with a Soybuck's logo on it in one hand.
"Hello." Carson said, "We spoke earlier…"
"Yeah, I do remember you." Tosh said, looking at Cypher, "Salad bowl kid. Right, let's go over there and talk." The bench seemed to creak in relief when Tosh stood.
Tosh walked over to a table that was a little more secluded, but was downwind of the Soybuck's barista so it was strong with the smell of flavored coffees. The troll sized chair he selected to sit down on creaked a little, and everyone else chose a chair to sit.
"So, you know why we're here." Carson said.
"The Mayan Cutter." Tosh told them. "Yeah, I know the case. The original and the copycat."
"You're confident Knight got the right guy?" Cypher asked.
"Without a doubt. We nailed the right guy the first time." Tosh growled. "Now, my boss's been hounding me about tickets to the policeman's ball, if you'd like…"
Cypher smirked at the veiled offer of a bribe. He looked away for a bit, scanning the crowd of other mall patrons before returning his gaze back to the large troll.
"How much?" Seraphina asked.
"I'd say a hundred nuyen a ticket." Tosh answered.
"Sure." agreed Cypher, prompting a transfer to give the large troll the money.
Once Tosh had collected his "ticket money" from them he said, "The Mayan Cutter's first victim was found October of sixty-nine. There are forty-eight confirmed victims from then to when he was killed by Knight Errant in early seventy-two, and there's at least two dozen open cases that might be his but we can't prove it.
"All of the Cutter's victims were cut the same way, ritually sliced up in the same pattern, all with an obsidian knife."
"How'd you know it was obsidian?" Vector asked.
"Microscopic fragments found in the wounds." Tosh answered. "The majority of the vics were metahuman, the bulk of them orks."
"Bet Humanis really loved this guy." Cypher remarked.
"Maybe, but Brackhaven kicked Lone Star out partly because they couldn't catch this guy." Tosh told them. "They missed the obsidian and cremated the bodies, so there's no solid proof for most of 'em. Even though there were a few human vics, most of all of 'em were poor and SINless."
"Some people might say, 'Who cares?' to that." Rook said, scowling.
"And this new cutter?" Cypher asked.
"This one appeared two weeks ago and has killed five people so far. Including Rebecca, another ork, a troll, a dwarf, and a human, and all SINners. There's no apparent pattern to the location of the killings or any link to the vics."
Cypher ran some numbers through his TI-500 math subprocessing unit. "On the average this guy's killing faster than the original."
"How so?" Vector asked.
"Last guy averaged two kills a month. The copycat's already killed five in the time the original would've done one. Screams 'Copycat' to me."
"Not everyone will see it that way." Carson said.
"He's right." agreed Tosh. "Already we've got complaints that we didn't catch the right guy last time."
"So how'd you get this guy the first time?" Seraphina asked.
Tosh said, "We got a tip off from a talismonger that sold a guy named José Martine a bunch of obsidian knives that matched the murder weapon. Was enough to get a warrant to arrest the slot and search his doss. When we tracked him down he tried running, and got himself geeked. We found the knives, including used ones, in his home. DNA matched up with the vics."
"And the mentality of this guy?" Vector asked.
"Was a laid off Aztechnology factory worker. Blamed 'cheap metahuman labor' for the reason he lost his job."
"I doubt this guy's the same." Cypher said. "All SINners and he's been killing twice a week so far."
"Certainly can't just go around asking people. Hell, half of Brackhaven's constituents'd probably cover for the guy."
"Are we even sure it's a guy?" Seraphina asked.
"Odds favor it's a male." Tosh said, "Sure, a female ork or troll'd have the strength necessary to do the job, but it's rare for a woman of any metatype to do this."
"Maybe Rebecca could give us a clue." Rook suggested.
"If you're willing to buy some extra tickets, I can pull a few strings." Tosh suggested.
"Think it'd be a good idea?" Cypher silently saked Seraphina, glancing over to her.
"I don't know. I can't read auras like that. Like Cambra can."
"Might be worth it." Carson said.
"Might as well." Cypher relented. Glancing at Seraphina he could see she was not too sure either.
After Tosh had collected another round from everyone, he said, "Alright guys, I'll make a couple of calls. Hang tight for a sec." He then stood and walked over to a place that looked a little more out of the way.
While they waited Cypher glanced around at the people around them again, leaving Tosh's conversation more private considering his relationship with MacCallister. His facial and voice recognition programs were constantly running, noting new and unique faces and voices that he happened to hear regardless of where his attention was. The mall patrons seemed to be going about their regular routines like all was just fine.
Then Tosh walked back to them. His extra imposing size briefly made Cypher wonder if the large troll bench pressed a GMC Banshee as a warm up to a workout.
"Look, I have a lot on my plate today and I'm supposed to be chasing down this copycat Cutter myself. I don't have time to babysit a bunch of runners. I called down to the morgue, and Dr. Jordan is expecting you. As far as she's knows, you're consultants. Behave yourselves, and for ghost's sake don't take any damned weapons in with you into the Hooper Building."
"Hey, we will, but I can't vouch for these two." Cypher said as he and Seraphina stood, indicating to Carson and Vector.
"Let's just get going, shall we?" asked Carson.
"Thank you." Seraphina said as they left.
Getting back out of the mall was not too difficult, mixing in with the flow of other people as they moved about.
"So where's this Hooper Building?" Cypher asked as they walked down towards their vehicles.
"You fellows look lost." someone else said, causing Cypher and the others to stop.
The speaker was one of several human men. He had short cut blond hair that made Cypher think military or mercenary, and several scars crisscrossing the left side of his face. He wore a red and green jacket, like the others, and sported the most impressive necklace of the bunch, decorated with a pair of troll horns and a dozen ork tusks.
"This here's our turf," the blond human told them.
"What's it to you?" Cypher asked, already feeling a heat welling up inside of him.
"Ain't no filthy animals allowed." He spat at Carson's feet.
"Lookin' for a neuterin', mutt?" Seraphina asked.
The man grinned. "Hell, even if we weren't being paid to take you down, we'd do it just for fun. The fact you're workin' for a tusker makes it even more fun."
Everyone pulled guns, and Cypher was backpedaling as he reached into his jacket for his twin Predators. The handguns chambered explosive rounds as he took aim at one of the men, one with a Predator of his own in hand. They traded shots, his two for the man's one, and Cypher felt the slug slam into his left shoulder, his armored jacket and form fitting body armor underneath it absorbing most of the energy. Still the shot knocked him backwards and off his feet.
It was more concept, a feeling, than a conscious thought that hit Cypher as his head bounced off the concrete floor of the parking lot, a need for help.
A surge of raw magical power hit him like electricity, running from head to toe like he was a connecting circuit to a high voltage line. He more felt than heard himself scream in pain, and he felt something join with him.
Rolling himself forward Cypher felt faster and lighter than before. He could see the humans in their red and green jackets, glowing blue-white with an almost pink tint to them. He picked one and launched himself at the man.
The man saw him coming, Cypher's attack was far from subtle, but he underestimated Cypher's speed and was almost struck by his leading cybernetic fist. The man had jumped to his right, and was caught off guard by a powerful backhand blow. The man's armor largely fended off the bludgeoning force, but was still slammed into a car.
A new pain erupted in Cypher's right arm. Clutching it to him he saw the handle of a knife sticking out of his forearm.
His strike was too powerful for me to fend off, a voice from within told him.
Shoving the voice aside, Cypher gritted his teeth as he took hold of the knife handle, pulling the narrow straight blade out of his arm.
Two other men in red and green jackets paused to look at Cypher. He could feel his blood running from his wound, hot and wet as it dribbled on the concrete floor, but he did not care as he discarded the knife. Roaring his attack he rushed them, moving impossibly fast and landing a fierce blow on one of them with his cybernetic left hand.
The man's buddy tried grappling Cypher, wrapping his arms in a tight bear hug. If he had realized the spirit possessing Cypher made him as strong as the average ork he might have reconsidered the idea. Instead he got a head slammed into his chin, a pair of elbows rammed into his sides, and a heeled boot crashing down on his own left foot. He never felt the crossing cybernetic fist connect to his cheek, breaking a few bones as his head could only whip to the side.
Three men wearing red and green ran past him, and Cypher suddenly wanted to give chase, to run them down…
"Stop!" he heard someone yell. It was Seraphina's voice.
Why stop? the spirit asked. You called, I had to obey, but the hunt is still on.
Cypher dropped to his knees, the pain renewed in his right arm again. Go! It's done! he practically yelled at the spirit.
You relinquish your remaining services?
YES! GO!
The world returned to normal, though his arm felt like it was on fire, dripping magma from his stab wound.
"Don't move." Seraphina said, kneeling down at his side. She took his arm in her hands, holding it and hardly squeamish about the blood. He could feel through her touch the buildup of energy just before it flowed into his arm. The burning sensation was something new to him, like the damage done to his arm was on fire, but backwards as her spell accelerated the body's natural healing process.
It did not feel complete, her healing spell, but after about half a minute of sitting there his arm felt better. It still throbbed a little, along with the bruise he likely had at his right shoulder, but the pain was manageable.
"Ya know, we really should get outta here." Carson said, "No telling how close the real cops are."
"There's a place north of here, David Rogers Park. Meet up there in two hours." Vector added.
"Got it." Rook said, and the three split off.
"Let me help you." Seraphina softly said, helping Cypher up to his feet. She had apparently called Ironhide as the truck was already pulling up beside them. She helped him up into the passenger side front seat before rushing around to the driver's side to climb in as well.
It seemed strange seeing the world from the other side of the truck. Even though he really did not have to, Cypher still held his right arm close to his body.
"What happened back there?" Seraphina asked, breaking the silence.
"I… I'm not sure." he told her. Truth was he had an idea, but was far from certain.
"It looked a bit like last time." she softly said, "That night you told me to run."
"It felt a bit like that." he admitted.
He felt a hand on his arm, and when he turned to look he saw her reaching across the truck, looking at him with genuine concern.
"Your magic, right? You still need to learn how to control it. People have killed themselves because they couldn't control their power."
"I didn't even try. It just… sorta… kinda happened."
"That's what I mean! You can't just 'let it happen.' Spells go crazy, spirits go wild, it's dangerous!"
Cypher had no words for her. He knew of the dangers she was talking about, they had all been mentioned in the material he had read online. There was nothing he could tell her that already understood all of this, so instead he put his right hand on hers, giving it a gentle squeeze to hopefully reassure her that he was not about to try anything crazy like summoning powerful spirits.
"I'll figure something out." he told her.
"We'll figure something out." she corrected.
"Think we could at least stop someplace for dinner?"
"There's a Nacho Mama a few blocks back." Ironhide suggested, the truck's pilot and persona programs picking up on the keywords for food.
Seraphina could not help but keep looking at his arm as Ironhide drove them around Downtown, taking furtive glances while he watched buildings and people pass by from what had typically been her seat in the truck.
She could not help but think of the last time she had worked a healing spell on him. This time was different, with some of the power she had put into fixing his arm simply leeching away without any effect.
Clenching her eyes shut she cursed her misfortune of getting doused with those infusions, the weakening of her magic and her apparent inability to control the power she once did. Even her power focus, the choker that bore his online signature that she wore at her neck was now too tempting a crutch. Despite that she had still activated her focus for the power to heal his arm.
Forcing her eyes back open she noticed Cypher looking at her.
"Everything alright?" he asked.
"Yeah, fine." she softly said. She could not, would not tell him how she feared she was losing control of her own power. He was barely awakened and had yet to figure out his tradition, his paradigm.
It had seemed so easy for Seraphina to figure it out for herself. Magic was power, power for her to command and do with as she willed, and she did so by interposing herself into its reality. Everything seemed to fit with what was generally called the Dark Arts, or black magic. The constant demonic appearance of her spirits (which she knew would freak her mother out if she knew about them) and just her overall rather selfish attitude towards using sorcery for what she wanted.
But she had been careless with that power, had gotten herself into a bit of trouble, and that was partly why she had left her old life behind, fleeing for Denver as a means to get away. Entering the shadows was just happenstance.
But after meeting Cypher things had changed a little. He did not care about her magic, or the fact that she could cast magic at all, even despite being a few years younger than her and many at that age thought magic was the best thing ever. It was actually something she had managed to keep secret from him for a while, until he had come home one night and slept for two days straight. Out of real concern for him she had worked one of her spells on him, twice daily, until he had woken up from his deep slumber. A few days later he had seen her cast fire and heal his arm after a ganger had clubbed him.
Healing him had felt nice. He was grateful, but never demanding. And it had caused a change within her, though her spirits were pretty much unchanged. Healing him had felt fulfilling, left her feeling warm, even despite whatever burn she might have also felt from the magical energies. The Dark Arts were rather demanding about the self, and she just could not be that way, especially when it came to Cypher.
Looking out the driver side window she tried to think about Cypher and what his outlook on magic was. If she could figure out what his tradition was she could help find him a teacher or training material. She did not want him to end up making the same mistake that had almost cost her her own life.
Two hours later put it well after sunset. Compared to Denver there was no twilight, no lengthening shadows to bring on the night. Only a blanket of inky black darkness to cover the sky, fought back by street lights and illuminated signs. No moon would hang in the sky this night, and the clouds above were so heavy with water they would have blocked the stars anyway.
While just burning time Cypher did more research into the Mayan Cutter, both past and present. The victims of the original Mayan Cutter, though mostly SINless metahumans, were largely random, with no rhyme or reason to their selection. In the case of the copycat it seemed a little different, though he did have to admit to himself there was not really enough evidence to support the theory just yet, evidence he would rather not wait for to see if he was right. The first victim, an ork, was a member and supporter of the Ork Rights Committee, a group pushing to have the Underground declared an official district of Seattle. Second was a troll and a member of Mothers Of Metahumanity (MOM for short), followed by the human with no obvious connection to any rights groups, then the dwarf who was also a member of the Ork Rights Committee. Last was Rebecca, who could be inferred as a supporter of the ORC since she was researching the history of the Underground. With a slant to it all it looked like this copycat killer was working for Humanis, with the human victim an attempted smokescreen to cover his or her motives.
This he kept to himself.
Carson had sent everyone a text half an hour ago with a new spot for meeting up. Something had happened at the David Rogers Park so the place was crawling with Knight Errant officers.
The new meeting place was across the river, a place called Gas Works Park, a stubby little peninsula that stuck out from the north end of Lake Union. It was so named for being the site of a gasification plant, repurposed as a park and playground almost a century ago. Parts of the original factories had been used as part of the park, but since then replaced with a more modern design in the 2050's. It turned out to be a much quieter place to meet, with practically no one else there at the start of the evening hours. The two were the last ones to arrive, and finding the others was rather easy. They were also in no rush as they walked, taking in the gentle beauty of the park and the relatively fresh and moist air. South in the distance they could see, left to right, the Aztechnology pyramid glowing bright white as it was lit from within, the ACHE in what looked like a silvery green radiance, and the iconic Space Needle.
"Glad you could make it." Vector said as they walked up.
"Right. First thing we need to know is what happened to you with those Troll Killers." Carson said.
"Troll killers?" Seraphina asked.
Vector said, "Human only gang. Their hobbies include killing orks and trolls, taking tusks and horns for trophies."
"That's sick."
"So, Cypher, we saw it but we're still trying to figure it out." Carson said.
"I think I know, but I'm not sure." Cypher told them. "My magic's… not… a hundred percent. I'm still trying to figure it out."
"La magie?" Rook asked, "You?"
"Great, so we've got a kid who's just awakened." muttered Vector. "Any idea when you were gonna tell us?"
"Gonna tell us what's all implanted in your brain, or what's mixed in with your bones?" Cypher countered.
"Hey, fuck off!" Seraphina said loudly. "Whatever he can conjure I can put down if it goes crazy."
"Conjure?" Carson asked.
"Near as we can figure I summoned a spirit, and it possessed me." Cypher told them. "I had its power, but I was in control."
"Honest to ghost?" Vector asked, "Seriously, because what you're saying's complete bulldrek."
"Ya know, I don't give a shit what you believe!" Cypher snapped, "You asked, and you got an answer. Deal with it."
"He's right." Carson said. "Girl, you're responsible if he goes out of control. Now, let's move on. Vector, give it to him."
Vector pulled something out of his pocket and tossed it to Cypher.
Catching it was easy, and out of reflex Cypher's right hand snatched the object out of the air. He gritted his teeth against the pain.
"What is it?" Seraphina asked.
Cypher looked at it before answering. "Looks like an old Sony 'link." He looked to Vector, asking, "Something to do with our job?"
"The blond bimbo had this on him." Vector said, "Figured it might be worth something."
"Especially when he seemed to know we were working for MacCallister." Carson added.
Cypher said nothing as he pulled the data cable from the back of his head and plugged it into the commlink. First thing he did was analyze it for traps, encryption, and just to see what the quality of it was.
"It's crap. No better than a burner 'link." he told them as he loaded his exploit program and applied it against the other commlink's firewall.
"We figured that much." Carson said, "What we need you to do…"
"No shit, Sherlock. I'm already inside." Cypher told them, the commlink's firewall crumpling like paper against his intrusion. "There's no data, 'cept the call log. I'm already back-hacking the data trail."
"Told you he is good." commented Rook.
"Just give me a minute." Cypher added as the trace ran, hoping no one had any stupid questions to bug him with.
The last commcode that had called it, only an hour ago, came from a company called Scorpion Communications, a little business in the metroplex that sold and provided service for burner commlinks. The commlink itself was currently switched off and there was no known last location.
Now there were good things and bad things to using burner commlinks. Good was the anonymity that they gave users that knew how to use them properly, but bad was the poor security the commlinks and most of their service providers had.
Of course the idea was that you bought such a cheap commlink, used it for a short while, and when you were done you burned the data and pitched it.
Finding the service provider through the matrix was not at all difficult, and figuring he would not need much in the way of security access Cypher went for quick and nasty through their firewall. In short order he had gotten through and was looking at the account tied to that commcode. Naturally there was no identity registration to the burner account, but he had the access ID for that commlink and found there was a more extensive call log history to another commcode, along with its connecting access ID. And something that struck Cypher as odd was that someone had kept buying additional minutes of usage through less than anonymous means, a man by the name of George Mathers. It was no guarantee that he was the one using this burner commlink, but he was connected somehow.
Setting that information aside, name and commcode and access ID (which was useless with the commlink turned off), Cypher logged off and moved on to tracing the location of the other commlink. That one turned out to be active, and in seconds his trace program had located it.
"Last caller also used a burner. Can't find that one, but I did find another 'link that person called." Cypher told them.
"What?" Vector asked.
"I think he means whoever called those assholes on us also called someone else." Seraphina said.
"Yeah." Cypher said, "And that someone's north east of here. GPS puts the 'link on the other side of the four-oh-five."
"North east? Four-oh-five?" Carson asked, sighing. "Puts it in Redmond."
"Good odds." Vector added.
"That bad?" Cypher asked.
"The Redmond Barrens aren't a nice place for anyone, especially kids." Carson said.
"But is it the Cutter?" Vector asked.
"Can you get any identity info from it?" Carson asked.
"I'll check." Cypher told them. "Gimme a minute." Carson and Vector seemed a little more patient this time with the next minute.
Cypher started off with a general data ping of the commlink, the kind law enforcement did to see if your commlink was broadcasting in high security areas when it was supposed to. The prompt was ignored, which meant that the commlink was at set to private mode.
A scan of that commlink returned better hardware than the one in his hand, and a much stronger firewall. With no other obvious security measures running Cypher went right to a brute force attack to the firewall. Within seconds he was through. He found the identity information, copied the data to his implanted commlink, and cut the connection.
"SIN on the other link says he's Shawn Walker." Cypher told them.
Carson closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath and loosing it with a grunt.
"You already knew, didn't you." Cypher said.
"I visited Dr. Jordan." Carson said, opening his eyes to look at everyone. "Rebecca was a fighter, but she was drugged before she was killed. They found a tissue sample under her nails, and I got a copy of the DNA results about ten minutes ago."
"So, anything we should know about him?" Rook asked, pushing things along."
"Would be interesting to see how good he is." Carson commented. "All I got was a name."
Behind his goggles Cypher scowled. Closing out his exploit program he reloaded his browser and plugged in Shawn Walker's information for a search. It was not too long before the search was reduced to a crawl, but he had acquired substantial information sources, one of which was an old article from the Denver Daily dated in early 2062.
"How much do you want?" Cypher asked.
"Just the important highlights." Carson answered.
"He's a meter-ninety, a hundred kilos, and ex-UCAS Army Ranger with a dishonorable discharge in twenty-sixty-one. Hmm, blue eyes, blond hair. Aryan. Makes sense."
"And by Aryan…" Seraphina started to say.
"He'd kill us all for not being blue eyed, blond humans." Cypher finished.
"Except you." Carson said.
"No. Him too." Rook said.
Cypher lifted up his goggles for the others to see, noting their surprise at his blue-in-blue eyes. Even the likes of Alamos 20,000 would just as soon kill him as try to cure him of his inhumanly colored eyes.
"And the reason for his dishonorable discharge?" asked Vector.
"Conduct unbecoming a soldier, torture, murder, and assaulting his commanding officer." Cypher answered, settling his goggles back into place.
"That'll do it."
"You said it makes sense. What makes sense?" Seraphina asked.
Cypher sighed. "I looked into the five new victims." he told them, "Two were part of the Ork Rights Committee and one was a Mothers Of Metahumanity supporter."
"Bet the human wasn't one of them." Carson said flatly.
"Hey!" Vector went, taking exception to the statement.
"Actually, he's right." Cypher said, "But he's Eastern European. Black hair, medium skin. Certainly a prime target if you're all for Aryan Pride." There was an edge of disgust in his voice at that last part. Before his SURGE he might have fit that idea, provided they accepted elves. But that never meant he ever believed in it himself.
"Alright then." Carson said. "So, fact remains we still need to try and capture this guy."
"Special Forces means he's got training. He knows how to fight and set up a defense and all that." Vector said.
"So we go in carefully, recon the place for its defenses and all that." Cypher said. "Especially since I expect he's waiting for us."
"How so?" Rook asked.
"Smart money's that the person that sent those Troll Killers on us knows who we're looking for." Vector said, "It's good odds that he's tipped our target man off that he's being hunted. And a cornered animal is quite dangerous."
"Now I wish you'd brought Ravage." Seraphina said.
"Or those falcons, though I really wanna augment their sensors first." Cypher added. "Besides, it'd take too long for us to get any of the Pack. Bet he'll have even more reinforcements by then."
"Ravage? Pack?" Vector asked.
"Bunch o' modified Doberman drones." Cypher answered.
Rook said, "We should go, then. Find him and everything before he gets more friends for protection."
"Cypher, you lead, we'll follow. Just don't get too close." Carson said.
It seemed a little odd to Cypher, leading everyone rather than following someone else. Using a free roadmap of the Seattle Metroplex he took them on a path north and around Lake Washington, east to the 405, then south. The highway along this stretch was the boundary between Bellevue on their right and Redmond on their left. The two had heard tales about Redmond, but this was their first time seeing it for themselves. They silently agreed that it still felt a lot like Aurora back in Denver.
It was a relatively tiny spot called Totem Lake, exiting onto NE 124th Street and crossing over the highway to head into Redmond. Not far was an intersection with 124th Avenue NE, and the burned out building that likely once housed a few businesses. The parking lot had a few aged and rusting vehicles in it and security looked less than promising.
"This can't be the place." Vector said as everyone got out of their vehicles.
"Hardly. He's about two hundred meters south." Cypher said. "Figured it'd be better if we walked there."
"Good idea."
Almost casually they walked south along 124th Avenue. Decades ago this was probably a thriving business district, but even the first matrix crash of 2029 had proven devastating to the software giant that had once called Redmond home.
There was very little to light their way. What little light they had was naturally amplified by Cypher's eyes, and where the shadows were too deep his vision started to shift to the black and white of his thermographic eyesight. He had been tempted to use the ultrasonic sensor in his goggles, but instead left it on a passive setting out of fear the noise might tip Walker and the others off.
As they drew closer they saw that Walker was not only expecting them, but whoever he was with was expecting trouble in general for a while now. Cypher guessed that Walker and company had holed themselves up in a car dealership turned junkyard as it was the only reason he could initially think of why the next block appeared to be fenced off by a wall of cars stacked three high down the street.
"Now that looks like the place." Vector said in a hushed tone, not out of fear or respect, but out of not wanting to be heard any good distance away. "Trying to force us to go in blind, and they'll have more cars inside to give them cover. It's their home turf."
"So if we knew the layout we could take that advantage away from them." Cypher said.
"Maybe we could check a mapping site. They might have an orbital view." Seraphina suggested.
"Depends on when that kind of imagery was last taken and made public." Vector said.
Seraphina scowled. "First three I found are years old." she told them. "And I think they're the same."
"Probably are." Vector said. "How good are you two at being sneaky?"
"Pretty good." Seraphina answered.
"Our gear and a spirit of hers and we'll be practically undetectable." Cypher added.
"Right. So we're gonna try and keep it simple. Too many unknowns and a complex plan's sure to get a visit from Murphy." Vector told them. "Our target's sure to be holed up inside a building in there, and who knows how much muscle in our way."
"Muscle that likely won't back down." Carson added. "People we'll likely have to kill."
"So the three of us are going to go in the front way," continued Vector, "through whatever gate or entrance we can find. You two are gonna go up on top of that barricade of cars, stealthily, and be our eyes on high to warn us about what's around the next corner."
"Yeah, we can do it." Cypher said.
"Not like we haven't had to kill someone before." Seraphina told them, putting a front that was much braver than Cypher knew she truly felt.
Carson and Vector shared a look, a mix of some surprise and disbelief.
"So we ghost all our 'links," Cypher added, "and you give me access to yours so we can run a tactical program. I'll be the center point of the network.
"I don't like that idea." Carson said.
"And we don't have the gear we're gonna need for a tacnet." Vector added.
"So we don't get all the benefits," Cypher said, "but I've got the best 'link and best spot to run a centralized network. As long as I can see the thugs I can give you a warning in AR. Your 'links'll tell me where you're at in everything. Be better if I had a drone that could fly high over us."
Vector pondered this. "Better than nothing." he relented. "But we might have to leave Rook's 'link out of it."
"Why?" Rook asked.
"You're lightest on the gear." Vector answered. "No smartguns, no other sensors. Including you will drag the network down. The three of us will be sticking together anyway."
"So I'll exclude you from the tacnet," Cypher said, "but if I've got your 'link I can still give you info."
"That possible?" Vector asked.
"Of course."
"Sounds like we have a plan." Carson said.
It took a few minutes to set up the tactical network, and once it was established Cypher and Seraphina put on their hologloves, pulled up their hoods, and activated the camouflage function of their clothing. While Cypher had dealt with the network Seraphina had called her air elemental to help conceal their presence. Together they went ahead of the others to the wall of stacked cars.
There was no real shortage of handholds to climb up the wall, though they did have to take care to avoid cutting themselves on crumpled metal, broken safety glass, and torn fiberglass. Their childlike bodies actually gave them a bit of an edge once they were on top of the wall, individually weighing substantially less than the average dwarf, and combined weighing less than the average human or elf.
What they saw was recorded into the tactical network program via their implanted simrigs, the program automatically laying down a map of the compound's interior for the others. Even more cars and trucks were stacked up, creating a gauntlet around a 'U' shaped building. From the faded markings they could tell it used to be the showroom and garage of a car dealership.
Somewhat milling about the building they also saw several men. Each one had a long jacket on, likely heavily armored, and carried an Uzi IV.
Together they headed along the north wall, moving closer to the building. A crumpled car roof buckled just a little as Cypher passed over it, but he kept on going. He heard it buckle a little as Seraphina went over it. Stopping in the bed of an old Nomad he crouched down to watch what men he could see.
It seemed like no one noticed, or if they heard the noise they did not care.
"They're all blond men." Seraphina noted.
"Yeah." agreed Cypher.
"So dull."
"What?!"
"Well, what if everyone had the exact same hair color? No brunettes, no… redheads, no variety."
"Okay, I get ya."
He felt Seraphina move in closer, putting one arm around him.
"Now let's find this asshole."
"He'll probably be inside." Cypher said.
Looking back he saw the others as they were about to go around a wall of cars. They stopped just short of going around and being spotted by an Aryan goon. When it looked like they were going to get discovered anyway Vector peeked around the corner and shot.
The gunshot was good, but the Aryan's armored jacket absorbed most of it. Still the goon was knocked off his feet.
The obvious gunshot drew their attention, and more came running. They were no slouches, ducking behind cars for cover and leapfrogging positions as they advanced.
"Shit, there's too many of 'em." Cypher noted when he counted at least six Aryan goons converging on the others.
"That's not all." Seraphina added. She did not have to explain as Cypher saw it for himself.
First it was like looking through a mirage, then two. From nothing strode two tall humanoid figures moving with fluid grace despite their apparent size, their skin cracking and darkening like crusted slag on molten iron and their bodies wreathed in flames. Right away Cypher recognized the two fire elementals that had appeared.
"Magicians." Cypher silently said.
"Two of them." Seraphina amended. She tagged them in their tactical network, and Cypher saw a red halo appear around the heads of two Aryan goons.
Cypher pulled one of his Predators, taking a double handed grip as he aimed at one of the two marked magicians. It was a long shot to say the least, even with a zoom option in the Predator's smartgun system.
He took the shot.
A small fireball bloomed against the magician's back, the explosive round tearing through his armored jacket and knocking him forward onto his face.
The other Aryan goons reacted almost immediately. One went for their fallen buddy while the others all took cover against any further shots.
One of the two fire elementals turned its attention towards them.
"Shit." Cypher hissed, ducking down into the pickup's bed.
"Did it see you?" Seraphina silently asked.
"Don't know."
It did not, but it did have a very good idea when the pickup's cab erupted in fire. The two jumped from the bed and ran further down the wall. Seraphina's air elemental must have been able to obscure them still as the next shot from the Aryan's fire elemental struck the wall a meter or two behind them. A few more steps and they had the old dealership building in their way.
Cypher thought they might have a few seconds to collect themselves, maybe for Seraphina to call up another of her spirits to deal with the fire elemental. He mentally kicked himself when he saw the fire elemental take the direct approach after them, flying up over the building like a comet.
You know what to do, a voice whispered in his mind. He had no idea why he thought of the toxic coyote spirits he helped fight against two months ago, but something came to mind.
He stared at the fire elemental as it came towards them, seemingly unconcerned about what the two could do.
It was like before, when he struck a toxic coyote. Then it had not been about how hard he could hit but imposing his own existence against the spirit. It was different now as he was in no way going to get close enough to a fire elemental to physically strike it.
He felt something, and for a split instant his mind connected with that of the elemental. He could feel threads that connected it to the magician that had called it, and in imposing himself against the elemental he could feel one of them get dislodged.
The spirit's flight paused and it seemed to do something of a howl, though it sounded more like a raging fire tearing through a forest.
Now if only it was so simple as that. Magical energies were sent in a backlash at Cypher, and he found he was holding his breath when the burning energies passed.
Watch, and learn.
He looked over to the blur that was Seraphina, who had somehow taken a cue from him. Somehow he could sense it, more felt what she did than saw it, that same connection, the interposing of willpower between the two, and the overwhelming force she put against the elemental.
The elemental itself stopped, floated backwards, and disappeared.
"You know how crazy that was?" chastised Seraphina.
"Like you and Astorath and Baradiel?" he asked back, naming off her two most powerful, and invoked, bound spirits. Since his awakening he had gained a better understanding on just how powerful they were, at the extreme limits of her power before her accident.
"Let's just find that asshole." He could hear the anger in her simulated voice.
Cypher loaded up his tracking program, tied it into the tactical network, and started a search for Shawn Walker's commlink. In a few seconds he had a triangulated location inside the main dealership building.
"We could use a little help here!" Carson yelled over their network.
"On it." Seraphina said.
She said nothing as she summoned an elemental. Walking through a mirage it appeared in the material world, a vague humanoid made of mud as tall as a troll, with a crest of short horns of deep blue crystal, with similar blue claws at its hands and feet. A white patina started to form over its body, frost exemplifying the chill evening air.
The spirit rushed down the west side of the building, shouldering into a parked truck and skidding it aside on its flat tires. With an upraised arm it unleashed a blast of water into one of the Aryan goons.
"It'll handle the spirit." Seraphina told him.
"Right." Over the network he said, "We've got a bead on the target, we're going after him." Silently he added, "That way." pointing at a set of doors along the north wall that would have been obscured by a few trucks at ground level.
Without waiting for an answer they scrambled down the inside of the wall of cars and headed straight for the gap between the building and a stacked row of cars. There it was to a set of double doors, and they were unlocked.
Cypher looked the doors over first before carefully pulling one of them open. Despite the age there was no real noise, though there did not appear to be any traps or security measures. According to his tracking Shawn Wallace's commlink was practically straight ahead. Down a darkened hallway to what was probably a showroom at the other end.
They walked as softly as they could, Seraphina's air elemental adding whatever it did to conceal their presence.
His heart started pounding and try as he might Cypher could not figure out why he wanted to turn around and head back out the way they came.
Rational thought be damned, Cypher turned for the door.
"Where're you going?" Seraphina asked.
"Out!" he called back, aloud.
Cypher almost made it to the door before he was tackled from behind, landing hard on his right side. He was grappled, and barely had sense to stop when part of him realized it was Seraphina wrestling with him. Her hand clamped over his mouth, and he resisted an urge to bite.
Brrrrrt went automatic gunfire, bullets detonating as they hit the doors.
"Anything?" a man yelled.
"Nothing!" another man yelled.
"I was sure I heard something." the first man loudly said.
Breathing hard, Cypher could feel the wet heat against her hand and his face.
Then suddenly he was free, being shoved away to the side. When he had rolled over to see where he had been laying he saw a shining spear blade jabbed into the floor.
Standing over them was a warrior woman, a Valkyrie, blond hair flowing in an unseen breeze from underneath a silver cap helm with golden wings, wearing a corset of silver armor, braces, and knee high boots. She held the spear with her right hand, the other arm adorned with a half meter wide round shield.
Up came her spear, and Cypher rolled just in the nick of time to avoid getting skewered by the spirit as it stabbed down at him. He was not quite so lucky a second time, the blade jamming into his left side.
Cypher grabbed the spear that was part of the spirit, holding on tightly by the end of the shaft where the blade appeared to be attached. He could feel the impossibly sharp edge as it cut through his jacket and into his body, and through gritted teeth he growled, "I will unmake you." as he stared into the spirit's blue eyes.
This time it was like with the coyote spirits, imposing his will against the spirit's existence. With a karate-like chop he brought his cybernetic arm against the spear shaft, the symbolic blow against the spirit's material form.
The spirit howled, the spear shaft breaking against the attack and the part that Cypher was holding disappeared. It recoiled itself away from the material to become wholly astral. Almost as quickly Cypher shifted his sight to the astral.
"The fuck you don't!" Seraphina yelled. Her body blazed as she was in the astral too, lunging for the spirit as it fled.
"Drek, we got intruders!" yelled the second man. Cypher could see him now, glowing a bright blue-white laced with red.
Seraphina was too slow to catch the spirit, free of material constraints as it moved. She landed on her belly on the floor.
The Aryan shot again, the shots high as he apparently could not see what to shoot at, trying some kind of anti-invisibility tactic.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are." the Aryan challenged, his gaze sweeping high over them.
Suddenly there was a blossom of red at the Aryan's knee. He cried out in pain as his leg gave out.
Cypher tried to sit up, but an eruption of pain in his side kept him from moving and his perceptions slid from the astral. All he could do was watch as the blur that was Seraphina stood. He saw a quick flash of red on the Aryan man's head, a brief puff of smoke as flesh and bone were vaporized, and he fell over dead.
Then she was at his side. He felt more than saw her hands at his side where the spirit had speared him.
"Hold still." she said urgently, though hushed.
Figuring on what she was going to do, he forced his perceptions into the astral again.
He could see the blue-white body that was Seraphina, and the intensity that was her power focus, blazing like a star compared to his own power. Two lines of power flowed from her focus, down her arms to her hands, and then into his side as she pressed her hands against his wound.
Again it felt like fire was pouring into him, the energy accelerating his body's natural healing.
"What about our target?" Cypher asked.
"The elemental was gonna take care of that." she told him. "When the others were safe and the spirits dealt with it was supposed to keep him in here, alive, by any means possible."
"So we got him."
"Mmm hmm."
Carson was walking up to them by the time Seraphina had finished with her healing spell, and still it did not feel quite complete. She was helping Cypher to his feet when the ork spoke. "Stupid move on your part."
"What, sneak around behind the enemy while they're distracted?" Cypher asked.
"You're just lucky we got him." Carson told them.
"Lucky my ass." Seraphina barked back, "C'mon." she said more gently to Cypher.
The two walked down the hallway, past a few small offices, and around a corner to what had been a showroom.
Sitting on the floor and resting against an old Ford Americar, its emerald green paint faded and chipped, was Shawn Wallace. It looked like he was passed out drunk.
"What'd you do to him?" asked Vector.
As they got closer Cypher wished they had not. Wallace reeked, and when Cypher noticed the wet spot at his crotch he guessed why.
"That elemental I sent to help was supposed to also keep him in here." Seraphina said. She tipped her head as if to listen to someone, then added, "Guess it really scared the shit outta him."
Cypher clamped his eyes shut, grimacing.
"Well, if you could get your spirit to stop doing whatever it's doing to keep him here, it'd be much appreciated."
"Was that why I tried to run?" Cypher silently asked Seraphina while Vector and Rook now moved Wallace, using a pair of handcuffs to restrain the blond human.
"Probably. A lot of spirits can invoke terror in someone. Guess he's really weak willed compared to you."
"But your elemental was way stronger than that Valkyrie."
Seraphina only nodded.
"Right, so you two can haul him to wherever MacCallister wants him." Vector said.
"Fine." Seraphina agreed sharply.
Cypher sighed. "Alright, so where're we going?"
"Fifty-five Seaver Way, down in Tacoma." Carson answered. "It's in the docks."
"Fitting place." Vector commented.
"We should make sure we got all his tech, too." Cypher said. "Bet MacCallister'll want all he can get."
Cypher connected his commlink to Ironhide, sending an order for it to drive down to the junkyard and meet them. While waiting for the truck Cypher had gotten Walker's commlink, and Seraphina had managed to track down a small box that was apparently the central home node for the place.
Once Ironhide was there Cypher was half tempted to have Walker tossed into the very back, figuring the truck bed would be easier to hose out after hauling his shit stained ass. Walker ended up being put into the back seat, lying on his stomach.
Once again in the driver's seat, Cypher held his right hand to his side. There was still a bit of pain when he tried to move too much. At least he was not bleeding out from the spirit's stab wound.
Along the way Cypher and Seraphina connected to the node and hacked their way into it. Cypher was much more stoic about what they found inside, the interior sculpting made to make it look like a World War II German war room, complete with busts and paintings of Adolph Hitler, Rommel, and other such infamous members of the old Nazi regime. Even the running IC program fit the theme, looking like an Aryan SS officer. Well, that was before it was crashed.
The docks in Tacoma were built out tidal flats, jabbing out into Commencement Bay like three fat fingers, the Puyallup River cutting through between two of them. It had been about two centuries ago when the flats had been remade, the bay dredged for deep water access, and the whole area reshaped to fit man's needs.
And not too far was the near mythical spot where the Night Of Rage started.
Carson, leading the way in his sedan, driving right up to the large rolling doors of one warehouse in particular, one of many that all looked very similar to each other, and honked his horn once.
Slowly the doors rolled upwards, stopping when they were just high enough to let the trucks in. They closed once everyone was inside.
Cypher could not quite decide on which was worse as he stepped down from Ironhide: the pungent smell of a soiled Shawn Walker or the acrid industrial smell of the Tacoma waterfront.
There were numerous people there waiting for them, MacCallister among them, all of them standing, and before them was an empty folding chair. Next to the ork fixer was an Amerind in fringed leathers, a sword at his hip, and next to him was a younger ork male that bore a striking resemblance to Rebecca. Behind this ork, whom Cypher figured was William MacCallister's son, was a dark haired human woman with an angry scowl on her face. She looked the most terrifying of the bunch, even with her eyes red and cheeks flushed from who knew how much crying she might have done earlier that day. Others that looked more like family friends included two women and another man.
While they waited for Rook and Vector to extract Walker from Ironhide, Cypher shifted his vision into the astral to look everyone over. He did not care if there was any real need to look at their auras or not, but he felt the more practice he could get in reading a lot of different people the better. As he shifted his sight back to normal he noted that the Amerind and most of the other humans were also awakened.
Aside from everyone and four vehicles, the warehouse was empty.
Shawn Walker was unceremoniously dumped into the empty chair.
"Wake him." MacCallister said gruffly.
Carson slapped Walker once, and when that did not seem to do it slapped him once more. Then Walker's head rolled a little before his eyes opened.
"Hang on." Cypher said, stepping up to Walker as the Aryan quickly regained his senses. He kept just far enough away to avoid the risk of getting kicked, standing right in front of Walker so they could see eye to eye.
Walker looked him up and down. "Yeah?" he asked.
"Just curious about what you're thinkin' right now. Especially lookin' at me."
Walker spat. "Makes me sick you'd throw in with this lot, throw away your humanity by sidin' with tuskers and low borns."
Cypher smirked.
"What's so funny?" Walker asked.
Without saying a word Cypher pulled his goggles up over his head with his right hand, keeping his eyes closed. He was hoping for a good bit of the dramatic just before he opened his eyes for all to see. The reaction on Walker's face was priceless when he saw Cypher's blue-in-blue eyes.
"All I needed." he said nonchalantly, turning as he walked away.
"You have his commlink?" MacCallister asked.
Cypher pulled Walker's commlink out of his left jacket pocket. He held it up for MacCallister to see before tossing it to him.
"You can stay and watch if you want. Otherwise, meet us at the Big Rhino in an hour. We'll settle up then." MacCallister told them.
Seraphina stepped up to Cypher's left, taking his empty cybernetic hand in hers. They really did not need to say anything. They were staying.
Seemed so were the others.
MacCallister nodded to the Amerind, quietly saying, "Take it all, Johnny."
Johnny stepped up to Walker, quickly grabbing the Aryan by the ears with both hands. A glow soon grew around Johnny, glowing white lines of magical energy flowing upwards like soft wool yarn on a gentle breeze. Some of those lines took shape, making the outline of a coyote's head over Johnny's, like a full mask.
Again Cypher shifted his sight to the astral, and was greeted by a whole lot more. Many more of those glowing white threads could be seen, running between the heads of both men, looping about as they circled.
Then the circuit of threads stopped, the spell faded, and Cypher shifted his sight back to normal.
"Got everything, Bull." Johnny announced.
The dark haired woman stepped up to Walker, reaching into her purse and pulling a Ruger Super Warhawk out. She did not blink, her resolve like iron, as she hefted the heavy revolver and pressed it to Walker's temple. The Aryan started to grin, likely at some private joke, just before she squeezed the trigger.
Again Cypher was reminded of the Dragon and his daughter, Catherine Westmore. Then he had thought he was a twelve year old boy, responsible for putting Catherine into the position that resulted in her death. He had been hot with anger when he, his sister, and others had hunted down her killer and father, Kazuya "The Dragon" Hotomi, a former Yakuza assassin. That burning rage had simply popped like a balloon when their employer, Junko "Lady Jade" Tetsuya, had shot him in the head.
But it was different this time, and for a moment he wondered why. There was no burning rage to be quenched when the Aryan's brains were blown out, decorating the warehouse floor. There was only a cold detachment, nothing more.
Slowly she put the revolver back in her purse. She looked Cypher and the others over, softly saying, "Thank you for this."
"We'll see you later, Bull." Cypher said as he slipped his hand free from Seraphina's so he could put his goggles back on.
"Big Rhino, one hour." Carson added.
Seraphina barely noticed the world outside, her eyes seeing nothing through the passenger side window as they drove north on highway 5. All she could think about was cold Cypher had looked when Walker was shot, how hard his hand felt when she realized she had clamped down in a white knuckle death grip, his fingers not even flinching.
The similarities of this job made her think of what Cypher had told her about Catherine Westmore, a half-Asian girl that had been killed by her own father almost two years ago, and Cypher had helped track him down.
She thought about that night when he came home, his aura rent with pain, frustration, and deeply seeded in anger and sadness. It was something that had seemed so pervasive when they first met only two weeks before, and part of her wondered if he would try and beat her. She had initially kept her distance as she did not want to burn him, but that changed after he had come home, after he had witnessed the Dragon's execution.
The next morning she had seen a change in his aura, more pain and fatigue than anything, and when he had told her he had something he needed to do, Seraphina had decided she would not let him go alone. She had decided she wanted to help him, and had no idea he would be taking her to a graveyard.
It was at Catherine's grave when he had told her about that night's job, about Catherine, her father, and how he thought he had really fallen for the half-Asian girl with cybernetic eyes the month before when he was part of the team paid to kidnap her. He had even kept her pink commlink for that month, apparently as a reminder about her, and a self promised oath to find her killer.
And now that, in a fashion, justice had been served, he had brought that commlink with to leave on her gravestone, figuring it was a farewell gesture and that he was finally moving on. She had been a bit surprised at his apparent maturity, considering then she thought he was only twelve years old. Seraphina had also been amazed at how someone so young could have even dealt with what he had gone through, but looking back at it now, almost two years later and knowing his true age, it seemed to make a little more sense.
If only it could have been a relatively quiet trip. For whatever reason, Catherine's mother had come too. The biggest surprise for the woman was seeing her daughter's commlink on the gravestone, and demanded to know how they had come across it. Seraphina had wondered how much she had overheard, if she knew of Cypher's involvement in everything.
With Mrs. Westmore's first questions Seraphina had figured that the woman knew nothing, and she wondered if Cypher would turn violent, his anger getting the better of him. She was glad when it did not.
Ultimately all Cypher had told the grieving mother was that Catherine had been avenged, her murderer brought to justice. Obviously Mrs. Westmore had pressed for more information, but Cypher had only answered one of her many asked, and likely many more unasked, questions. Who had killed Catherine?
Afterwards, when they were more alone, Cypher had told her more about Catherine. Just about everything, it seemed. After that she had decided to confess about her magic to him, and a few days later had proved it by trying to burn one of their neighbors who thought it was a good idea to try and take their food by force while they were coming home, and then heal Cypher after he had gotten clubbed in the head.
He had taken it rather well afterwards when she told him she wanted to start doing the same work he did. Seraphina had figured that if a twelve year old boy could be a shadowrunner, so too could a ten year old (well, sixteen year old, really) girl.
The bright light of the Aztechnology Pyramid brought her back from her reverie. They had just passed the interchange between highways 5 and 90, highway five turning gently towards the left as it angled closer to the heart of Downtown before clipping the northeast corner of the ACHE.
Glancing over to Cypher she opened herself up to the astral again. There was still a chill in his aura, a darkness like iron interwoven into his mood. As she closed off the astral she wondered if this would ever fade like the pain he had for Catherine had faded.
The Big Rhino looked like a much nicer place when it did not look like a hurricane of a food fight had happened. It was now well past the dinner rush, and the staff had already gotten the place back to looking like a reputable restaurant by the time Cypher and Seraphina had gotten there.
The layout of the place was easier to see when one did not have to tread carefully, with trestle tables and benches spread around the main dining area. It was the kind of place where most of the dining was where you got to know your neighbor, a stranger only being a friend you had not met yet.
They had actually gotten there quite early, opting to have dinner there and wait for MacCallister to arrive. Cypher was also glad that there were not many customers at this hour so they could have a spot more to themselves while they ate.
True to the restaurant's reputation the food was heavily spiced, a fusion of Creole and Germano-Slavic styles, and an "ork-sized" serving of seared chicken caked with paprika and cumin with garlic mashed potatoes and spaghetti squash for one was more than enough food for the both of them.
They were about done eating, and packing up a go-box with enough food another meal for each of them, when MacCallister showed up.
"Hope you're not done yet." he said, sitting down next to them.
"I don't think I could eat any more." Seraphina told him.
A waitress walked over to them, and MacCallister said, "Two pitchers of the Big Rhino Cider and four glasses, please. I have friends coming."
She simply nodded and headed off.
"It's good food here, but way heavy on the spices." Cypher said, closing up their go-box.
MacCallister chuckled. "Yeah, that's the 'authentic ork cuisine' for ya."
Cypher merely smiled. He found it funny how there was much of anything of an 'authentic' ork culture considering that barely sixty years ago orks were the stuff of fiction. At least the elves had their immortals, elves that were alive during the previous age of magic thousands of years ago, like Ehran The Scribe and Aithne Oakforest, and likely more, who knew of the ancient elfin cutulre.
The waitress was soon back with a large platter in both hands. On it were four large glasses and two equally large pitchers filled with a yellowish liquid. She was quick in placing everything on their table before taking the platter with her when she left.
"I'm sure you know I'm older than I look," said Seraphina as MacCallister started pouring cider into three of the glasses, "but I'm not even eighteen for a week and a half yet."
"So you only get one, then." MacCallister told her, lacking that adult-to-child tone in his voice. Even so, their glasses were about one quarter full compared to his own.
Cypher sniffed his drink, feeling the alcohol burn his nose. Like anything made for ork consumption, the proof was taken to the extreme. He and Seraphina both carefully took a sip, the drink burning on the way down and almost overwhelming the taste of the drink itself.
Seraphina sputtered, coughing a little as she set her drink back down again.
Rook was next to arrive, grabbing a troll sized chair on his way to their table. "You got here early." he commented, looking at Cypher and Seraphina. MacCallister pushed the still full pitcher of cider to the big ogre.
"Only for dinner." Cypher said.
"Hard to eat on the run." Seraphina added.
"True." agreed Rook, accepting the pitcher. It looked more like a large mug in his massive hand.
"That place you mentioned earlier, We O'Shae…?" Seraphina asked.
"O'We Shae." Rook corrected.
"What kind of food they got there?"
"It is an Irish pub, over in France. Food is… not so spicy."
"Ah, you're missing out." MacCallister said just before downing a mouthful of cider.
Rook smiled, "Everyone has their own taste."
MacCallister simply nodded, accepting the truth.
"So, the gang's all here." Carson said as he and Vector walked over. They both also grabbed a chair and sat down.
"Help yourselves." MacCallister told them, gesturing to the pitcher of cider and the empty glasses.
Carson poured himself a full glass of the cider, but Vector only took a half sized portion.
"I wanna thank you for your work." MacCallister told them, "This meant a lot more than you realize."
"We know better than you think." Cypher said, taking another sip of his cider.
"You seriously think so?" Vector asked. This drew a harsh look from Cypher, which quickly softened when he looked away from the gunfighter.
"This is not your first job like this?" Rook asked.
"Truly? No." Cypher answered.
"Care to fill in the details?" Carson asked.
Cypher glanced over to Seraphina.
"Whatever you want. I'll follow your lead." she silently told him.
"Don't know what all you'll find," Cypher said, "but look up Kazuya 'The Dragon' Hotomi. He was an assassin for the Denver Yakuza a couple of years ago." He took another sip.
"That's all you're gonna tell us?" Vector asked.
Cypher's glass came down hard. "It's all you need to know."
"We all have our demons." Rook gently said. "He will tell us when he is ready."
"Good 'nough for me, anyway." MacCallister told them. "Anyway, chummers, to business." From a pocket he pulled out five silver colored credsticks and set them towards the center of the table.
Seraphina, being the closer of the two, grabbed two of the credsticks as the others reached for theirs, handing one of them over to Cypher.
"Enjoy the drinks with my thanks." MacCallister told them, downing the last of his glass of cider before standing. He gave them a wave as he left.
"He's gotta know something." Carson mused.
"He knows more about us than you think." Cypher said, emptying the last of his own glass.
"Like Fallen Angels." Rook said, "What did he mean?"
"Fallen Angels?" Vector asked, looking Cypher and Seraphina over.
Cypher sighed. "We were on a job, took us down to L.A. Some of the local Ancients helped out with a safe house to rest up in."
"One of them thought we were just adorable, 'little angels' she called us." Seraphina added.
"We hadn't been there twenty minutes when another gang attacked." Cypher continued. "Her attitude changed after they witnessed my shooting and her spirits."
"Must've been brutal." Vector commented.
"One of the attackers, Burning Angels gang, I think, I double tapped in the head." Cypher said, holding his hands up like a pair of guns, kicking them back to imitate the recoil of shooting. "Double-Ex rounds blew his skull apart. But she was so tired from the trip and pissed at the attack she incinerated another with a single spell."
"Proved we weren't the cute little angels she thought we were." Seraphina muttered darkly, taking a sip of her own cider.
"And so someone else made some comment about us being fallen angels, and the name stuck." finished Cypher.
Carson looked at them in wonder. The way they had said it certainly was not the youthful boasting he had apparently expected to hear. Though easily the youngest of them, Seraphina might have given in to such exaggeration, but she had picked up from Cypher early on in her career in the shadows about keeping it real.
"But that was L.A., over a thousand kilometers away." Vector said.
"The crew we were with were out of Seattle. People talk." Cypher replied, wondering who MacCallister had heard that from.
"Ready?" Seraphina asked.
"Yeah, let's go home." he told her, grabbing their go-box.
They both gave a slight wave as they headed out the door.
