Act II

 After an hour of getting ready, I started to lock up. I figured I could wander through the arcade or something before nine rolled around. When I opened the door I saw Bones sitting across the hallway, waiting for me.

"Alright!" Bones said. "It fits!" I looked down. The suit did fit well. Made me feel very professional.

"Thanks. I'll see you later." I said. Bones got up.

"Wait a second. Where are you going?" Bones asked.

"Just out. Why?"

"C'mon, I'll give you a ride. Have your gun?" He asked. I sighed.

"No." I replied, much like a nine-year old would when asked if he cleaned his room yet.

"Go get it." Bones said, pointing his finger into my apartment. I went back inside and tucked it behind me in my pants. We went down to the parking garage under the building to Bones' van. It looked much like his apartment. I had to shovel a pile of pizza boxes and bottles onto the ground before I could sit down. We rode silently to the place I was to meet Mr. J. He pulled over after twenty minutes.

"Alright. Remember what I said. I'll be back here in a couple hours." Bones said.

"What?" I exclaimed. "Why?"

"I have to get supplies for a function I'm attending."

"You better keep that function out of my apartment." I snapped. I reached for the gun in my pants behind me and pointed it at him. "Hear me?"

"You can't expect me to entertain guests in my apartment. Plus, you owe me." I couldn't help but laugh.

"For what?"

"Her name was April, remember?"

"The one that stole forty out of my pants while I was sleeping?" I growled. I pulled the hammer back with my thumb. "Yeah, I remember."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll see you in a couple hours." Bones said. He pointed at me. "And don't take that gun with you on the interview. Stash it somewhere."

"I'll take a cab." I replied, holding the hammer while I pulled the trigger, returning it to it's resting position. I stepped onto the street and closed the door. Bones pulled away and drove off. I looked at the gun I was still holding.

"Enough of your silly games, Bones. Yeah, I'll stash it somewhere." I said to myself and tossed the gun into a storm drain. Suddenly, I realized, true to his paranoid form, Bones dropped me off half a mile away from the address. At least I still had time to walk the rest of the way.

I arrived at the address nearly half an hour early. It was a fairly well to do office building. It was much too small for any large corporation, but perhaps a small domestic company operated from here. Since there were no signs or marking besides the address, I couldn't tell. I passed through the painted doors. The bottom floor was a lobby. The entire floor was empty except for a receptionist desk, a small couch next to that, a tiny coffee table, and an elevator door. These were all on the opposite side of the windowless floor. The numerous square feet of patterned green carpet between me and the other side was nearly disorienting. When I started to walk to the receptionist's desk, I had to fight the urge to break into a run. I did, and after nearly twenty seconds of walking, I made it to the other side.

The receptionist looked up at me. She was an old woman with a thousand wrinkles and a cigarette hanging from her brittle lips.

"May I help you?" she asked, the coffin nail wagging up and down as she talked.

"Yes, I'm here to see Mr. J? I have an appointment." I said, trying to be very brief. Not one of my strong suits. She held her gaze at me for one second longer than comfortable before she turned to the button on her desk.

"Sir?" she asked. "He's here."

"Already?" a voice from a speaker under the desk replied. "Oh, um... go ahead and send him in." The voice clicked off, and the elevator door opened. The receptionist pointed at the door. I nodded my head and stepped inside. It caught me by surprise that it went down instead of up. It traveled for a second, then halted. The door opened again, revealing a much smaller room that the lobby. It looked like a typical office: a couple filing cabinets, a few important documents on the walls, and a desk with a man sitting at it, scribbling signatures on papers. He looked up.

"You're early," he said. He was a rather unremarkable man. I seriously doubted I could pick him out of a photograph or a police line up if I had to. "If you'd like, make yourself a drink, and I'll be with you in a second." He reached for a button, pressed it, and a panel in the wall opened, revealing a bar.

The bar wasn't too shabby. I glanced over and took a quick inventory. He had most of the expensive stuff, arranged beautifully on mirrored shelves. However, I quietly refused and took a seat across Mr. J. at his desk. He signed off something and put it aside.

"Okay, you're with Mr. Jones, you said. What's your name?" he asked. My mind raced. Crap! I can't give him my real name! Think of an alias! Then I caught myself. Bones has you paranoid. Just give him your name, stupid.

"Fletch." I replied. I immediately caught myself, but I couldn't go back. He'd think I was a head case. Damn you Bones!

"Fletch." he replied slowly. He stroked his chin. He was probably scanning his brain, wondering where he had heard that name before. "Well, anyway, you're early. We're going wait for another employee before we get started." The elevator door opened. The receptionist came out, carrying with her a box with a rag over it. Mr. J. got up and met her halfway. He lifted the rag on the box and a puff of smoke floated out. He grunted and waved the receptionist out. He sat back down.

"It seems the other employee will be, um, absent on this project. You'll be working alone." He said. My heart sped up a couple paces, but no serious worry. "Now, Fletch, I need to know some things."

"Sure." I said.

"Now, do you have any, uh, extensive track record publicly, like maybe trouble with the cops, or you might have done some work for the community. Something that the public at large can get a hold of?"

"Uh, no. Not that I know of."

"Okay, good. Do you have any problems with killing someone?" He asked, very calmly and casually, just as if he asked me my address. My heart once again sped up.

"Yes, I do. I hope I don't have to kill anybody." I said, trying not to reveal my anxiety. Mr. J. sat for a second in contemplation.

"Good. Good. I hate a high body count." I didn't know whether that was a joke or not. He reached down into the bottom drawer of his desk and took out a manila envelope. He placed it on the desk in front of me. I took it, opened it up. Inside were a couple of photos, a sketch of a map, and a half of page of text.

"It's all in there, but I'll explain to you again." Mr. J. said. "A few nights ago, a robbery occurred in one of our smaller offices. The item stolen was a package of documents that could prove fatal to this company. However, we're lucky. These documents are highly confidential and carry all the safeguards. DNA coded, thumb prints, magnetic stripped paper, the works. They won't be able to copy these documents. We need them back."

"Another robbery." I said, almost in a monotone. Bones was right. This was a shadowrun. Crap! I started to get up and explain to him that I wasn't interested.

"It pays nine thousand nuyen. Three in advance." I paused, then sat back down. Was he serious? Nine thousand nuyen? A nine with three beautiful zeros? Oh my God! I'd run naked into the Barrens for half that! That would pay rent a couple more months, and perhaps even give me enough time to figure out what I was going to do now that I was out of college. But damn my greedy side. It's amazing what courage a little money can give a guy.

"How about ten?" I asked.

"Ten?" Mr. J. responded, his face remaining still except for a cocked eyebrow.

"Yes. Ten."

"Look, young man."

"Fletch."

"Fletch, the job pays..."

"What was that thing your secretary brought in here just a second ago?"

"That's not..."

"Or should I say who?"

"Yes, you were supposed to be working with another, more experienced associate, but since his run in with a gang of..."

"Since I'm going at it alone, I'd think one more thousand would be fair." I said. It was my nature to negotiate. So much my nature that I wound up using magic inadvertently to help my cause. Influencing someone is like a shoving match between two minds. If I can shove harder, he'd see it my way.

"Okay. Ten. But I want those files back." Mr. J said, obviously not happy with the extra thousand he had to shell out. He lifted his coat to withdraw a credstick from the inside pocket. He rolled it across the deck to me. I picked it up and saw the three and three zeros in red LED lights looking back at me when I pushed the tiny button. It took me a month to earn the three thousand nuyen I had in the bank. This was absolutely fantastic!

"You have two days. Good night." Mr. J went right back to his paperwork. The elevator door opened again to reveal the receptionist, probably there to show me to the door. I collected the envelope and accompanied the receptionist to the door. When the door locked behind me, I looked at my watch.

"Hmmm. Ten o'clock." I looked at the address again. It was across town. I hailed a cab. During the ride, I reflected on what I was going to do. Yes, it was most certainly a robbery, but I'm retrieving something that was previously stolen. What was the harm in that? Then I started to think about what I could do with the money. I was so involved in daydreaming I didn't notice the cab driver stop.

"Yo! Dude, your stop?" He yelled, knocking on the glass. I was startled.

"What? Oh, here? Um…"

"Yeah, here. Thirty eight fifty." The cabbie yelled. I withdrew the credstick and slid it into the payment slot. After the display asked to confirm payment, I paused and laughed to myself. I added a hundred nuyen as a tip. Why not share the wealth? When I hit the confirmation button, the cabbie dropped his jaw in disbelief.

"Uh, you need a receipt?" He asked.

"No, that's alright. Thank you."

"Yeah, thank you. Come back anytime! Ask for Jim!" He said and pulled away. Unlike Bones, the cabbie dropped me off across the street of the address. The building I was to break into was a small building compared to the others that surrounded it. It stood four floors high and was covered in mirrored glass. It almost looked like a gigantic jewelry box. A couple lights could be seen coming from the third floor, meaning some poor guy was working late at the whim of his boss.

I ducked into an alley and did a spell that I picked up my freshman year at the University. Besides the immediate benefits, being invisible was kinda dull. Sure, you can "borrow" things, even stare at women undressing without them knowing, but what else? Oh well. It was going to serve it's purpose tonight. After a couple of seconds of going over the spell in my head, I looked down. Yep. I saw nothing. It worked as usual. I peeked around the corner. The light had turned off on the third floor. A couple of minutes later, a man walked out stuffing a pass card into his wallet, and the wallet into the pocket of his trench coat. What luck! A one legged blind man could grab a wallet from a trench coat. I crept up behind him, following him to his car. As he unlocked the door, I snagged the wallet out of the pocket. He must have been oblivious, because he got in and drove off without hesitation.

The wallet was pretty empty. It seemed just a dust jacket for the pass card. I took the card out and tossed the wallet away. I wouldn't need it. I walked around to the back of the building. Perhaps a side or rear entrance would work better than the front door. But, since there was neither, I had to go to the front. I knew there was a security guard in there. If I slid that card and walked through, I was certain to have a high-powered machine gun pointed at me. Damn these mirrored lobby windows! I wished I could see who was inside. But I did have an idea. I went and slid the card through. Once the door beeped and clicked the lock open, the door swung outwards. Just as I suspected, a security guard stepped out a couple feet to investigate, but not enough for me to squeeze through. He reached for a radio at his waist.

"Front door to center." He said.

"Center, go ahead."

"Did you do anything to the front door? Over."

"What do you mean? Over."

"It opened by itself. Over."

"Anyone there? Over."

"Nope."

"The security system must be doing a diagnostic. If it happens again, call me. Out." He put the radio back on his belt and went back inside. The door began to creep back to the original position of locked. As soon as the guard was out of the way, I jumped inside, barely avoiding the door slamming into my backside. Close call.

Inside was pretty dark. A couple lights from outside cast the only light into the lobby. The guard went to the rear of the lobby and picked up a shotgun. Man, if I was caught, I was dead. I silently regretted dumping that gun into the sewer. The security guard began to walk around again, patrolling the floor.

Now I had to find these files Mr. J. was talking about. They would probably be on the fourth floor. There was no elevator, but a pair of spiral escalators in the middle of the lobby. It was a nice piece of work. One was still twirling upstairs, just as it's brother twirled downwards. This helped because I didn't have to make any undue noise. I traveled up the thing from the first floor to the second, and up to the third floor where the escalator terminated.

The third floor was a few cubicles, another small lobby and a hallway to other offices. A couple security guards were on this floor, talking and looking out the window. They also held shotguns. My heart was racing fast. I proceeded down the hallway, looking at the names of the doors. None of the doors looked really important except for one, because it was open slightly. I pushed on it opening it further, stepped inside and pushed it closed once again.

Inside was your typical office. There was a typical desk, a typical computer, a typical ergonomic office chair, but not your typical office employee sitting in it. A very pretty non-typical office employee as a matter of fact. The wire coming from her head and going into the computer told me she was swimming around in the Matrix. Bones did it all the time when he wasn't drinking my beer. This lady that was sitting at the desk looked like she worked here. Her appearance was right for an office: a gray blazer and skirt, and her brown hair tied back into a neat ponytail. The only thing that didn't fit was the spiral tattooed around her left eye. Both her eyes were closed at the moment.

Inspiration struck! I bet she knew where the files were! I could pull that plug out of here head and she'd be so disoriented and confused, she'd fess up without even knowing it! I did that all the time to Bones. It was quite a show seeing him suffer from what he called being dumped. I dropped by invisibility act, went over to the young lady and pulled the plug straight out. What a dumb idea.

Suddenly, she swiveled around and threw a shoulder into my gut. I could only react by falling to the ground and sliding into the wall. The next thing I saw was her standing over me, a gun barrel in my face. I flinched, accidentally dodging the bullet by a fraction of an inch. I could feel the impact the slug made when it hit the wall, but I heard nothing. Lying on the ground, I hit her with the only offense I had; a stun spell. She stumbled backwards and landed on her butt. I jumped up and tried to cover her mouth when she had the gun barrel in my face again. I thought it was the end until I heard it click and the top half slide backwards, only to remain there for want of a bullet.

"Out of ammo?" I asked. She responded by smashing the gun into the side of my face. While I held my jaw in agony, she scooted against the wall, curled up and held her head.

"Dammit!" I growled quietly. "What did you do that for?"

"What do you mean? You pulled the plug on me! You deserved it." She groaned back. She rubbed her head. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh, I work here!" I said. Yeah, that ought to work.

"Work here? Please." She said, looking at me through her bangs. "A mage with any self respect wouldn't work here. You're on a run. What did you come for?" She had a pretty voice. It was the kind of voice that makes you perform tasks without fully thinking about it first.

"How'd you know..." I started. She smiled.

"Tell you what. How about we do our own thing and leave each other alone? I've got such a fragging headache." She said, still holding her head. I examined the blood on my hand from the fresh cut on my face.

"Okay." I said. While she rolled her head around, I used a bit of magic to close up the cut. The bleeding stopped, and the cut was closing up. With any luck, it wouldn't leave a scar. But now I wasn't so concerned over my face. I could hear footsteps. So could the lady against the wall across from me. She grabbed her gun and popped another clip in. I just stood up. The door swung open and one of the security guards entered, armed with a flashlight and a pistol.

"Hello? What are you doing here?" He asked, shining the flashlight at me, pointing the pistol at my crotch. I flinched, trying to avoid covering my balls with my hands.

"Why, I work here! What's the matter?" I asked, working my magic. This dude was old. That should make it easy to fool him.

"Is that so?" He asked. I could feel him give in. "Got yer ID card handy, son?"

"Sure. No problem." I said. I handed him the ID card recently borrowed. I continued to run the spell over him, gradually feeling it go easier and easier. It was working.

"Hmmm. Ya gotta get a new one. Your hair's shorter."

"Is that a fact? Thanks." He handed it back to me. Before he turned to leave, he nodded to me quickly.

"Ya got a little cut on yer face. You okay?" He said. I reached up as if surprised.

"Damn. Must have scratched myself. Got a rash."

"Oh. Good night." He turned and left, shutting the door behind him. I sighed. Damn, that was close. Sure he was easy to fool, but what if he wasn't? I was so close to having my balls shot off. Twice!

"I can't believe it!" The girl whispered. I looked at her sitting against the wall, her gun in both hands. "I could have shot him three times and been in the parking lot in the time you fooled around!"

"Yeah, but I didn't kill him." I whispered back. "I have scruples."

"Your scruples are going to get you killed." She growled. "If you pull that crap with me again, I'll make sure I have a full clip." She sat back down at the terminal, dropped her gun into a holster on her back and put the cord back into her head. I sighed and continued on my way. She would have been an interesting person to hang around with. I crept further down the hall, finding another door with a maglock. I could see the stairs through the little glass window. I slid the card across the maglock, but alas, a red light flicked on, denying me access. I'd needed another way. Perhaps the original trick I used to gain access? Just get someone else to open it for me. I turned invisible again with little effort. I threw my elbow against the glass. It took all my effort to keep from yelling in pain. Damn that was hard glass! I tried once more. Same result.

I went back into the other office. The girl was there, still skipping through the Matrix. She wouldn't need her gun. I took it from the holster on her back and went back to the door, taking time on the way to make sure it was also invisible. I stepped back a couple feet, aimed and fired. The glass shattered, the gun never made a sound, but I had to catch the gun after I lost my grip on it from the recoil. She made it look so easy!

Sure enough, the security guards came to investigate. Shotguns held before them. I cowered in the corner as one went up and looked through the shattered glass. He took out his pass card and slid it across the maglock, opening the door. He slipped inside, followed by his partner, followed by me.

"What in the hell was that?" The younger one asked.

"I can understand a door opening by itself, but not this." The security guard reached for his radio. "Attention. Code yellow. Code yellow." A voice crackled in response.

"What? What's the matter?"

"A window broke up here. Something's up. Just make sure you got it on semi-auto, okay? We don't need ninety holes like last time, Leon."

"Yeah, yeah. Out." I gulped. Ninety? My heart was racing at the prospect of being punctured by high velocity metal slugs by a guy named Leon. The two security guards went back into the lobby, leaving me in the stairwell. I tucked the gigantic gun in my pants and crept upstairs.

The fourth floor must have been one office. It consisted of about ten feet of narrow hallway ending at a narrow door. Damn. I couldn't just walk in. I might really get shot if someone was on the other side. I had to get in some other way. I went back downstairs and found a ventilation duct on the wall next to the floor. Luckily, it wasn't bolted, just hinged. I lifted it up and looked down the vent. A long shiny corridor extended into darkness. It wasn't that tempting, but if I wanted the rest of my money, I'd have to try. The vent itself was barely big enough for me. I'm sure I ripped a hole in the suit squeezing in. The crawl wasn't that long: I fell out after five seconds through a grate nearly invisible in the darkness.

Whatever I hit, I hit it hard. I realized it was the floor. The fall was at least ten feet onto the concrete floor. The pain was multiplied by landing on the gun. My invisibility spell dropped upon impact. I just laid there, barely able to do anything except take in the surroundings. I dropped in what appeared to be a boiler room, furnace control room or something. I sat up and looked around. A ladder in the corner lead up to another duct, one that looked like it went over the fourth floor. I picked myself up and climbed into the second duct.

Looking down the vent, I could see a light coming from the bottom. This duct was leading over the office. I crawled in and shimmied forward. About five feet from the vent, I could see the outline of a person, and a gun.

"Who's there? I'll shoot!" asked a familiar voice, barely audible over the low hum of the air conditioning machinery behind me.

"Hello? That you?" I asked. I crawled up the rest of the way. Sure enough, it was the same girl in the same gray suit with the same tattoo around her eye. The gun was much smaller than the one in my pants.

"You again?" she asked, squinting. My eyes got used to the low light. "What are you doing up here?"

"Trying to get inside."

"Yeah, well wait until I'm done."

"What are you doing?"

"Watch. I'm recording." I peeked over the edge of the vent. I saw four men. Three of them were sitting in front of a desk, and one behind it. It looked like a pleasant meeting. Then the man behind the desk got up, and the three other men got up. The two on either side walked around and grabbed the man by his arms. The third man took a rope from his jacket with a noose tied in one end. He hopped up on the desk and looped it around a light fixture. The other two men took the man that was sitting behind the desk and forced his head into the loop and let go. I turned my head. I'm pretty sure he struggled before he died; I didn't have to watch.

"Got it!" she quietly exclaimed.

"Why on earth do you want to record a murder?" I asked. But I didn't get an answer from her. A voice came from behind me. He spoke into a radio held in one hand while he pointed a gun at my crotch with his other.

"Sir, we got us a couple a tunnel rats."

We were forced through the tiny vent from which we were watching the entire thing. The lady and myself were held while the third man paced back and forth in front of us. He was an old man. Gray hair and moustache. He looked quite British.

"Now then. Why were the two of you up in the vent?" The British gentleman asked with an appropriate British accent. Neither of us responded. The gentleman went up to the lady and looked her over, then reached down her blouse. She was definitely surprised. As was I. He came back up with a small device.

"Why, it appears to be a video recorder!" He said. He opened it up, took out the chip inside and dropped it on the floor. He stomped on it, but the chip didn't break. He did so a few more times. Still the chip remained intact. The lady laughed slightly.

"You can't destroy it! I made sure I'd get you on video. Hell, toss it in a fire! It ain't gonna lose a line of resolution." The gentleman picked up the chip and placed it in his shirt pocket. He walked over to her and slugged her right in the stomach. I was raised to respect women, so that set me off.

"You punk!" I yelled and tossed the biggest stun spell I had at him. He staggered back a pace, then pulled a gun from his hip and pointed the thing straight at my nose, smiling. Then he exhaled, like he had just realized something.

"Very noble. I don't think I'll kill you right now." Instead of shooting me with his shiny chrome gun, he slammed me upside the head with it.