The Vory v Zakone may have been nasty pieces of work to a one, but they had rules. A code. They were called thieves-in-law sometimes, at least by the girls. Anna wasn't entirely certain on the specifics of the code, mostly because she didn't speak more than a smattering of Russian—though every one of them she'd ever met spoke English, even if most weren't as fluent as Church.
Anna had gotten used to keeping an eye out for Church over the year since they'd met. It was hard to get to know her. Church wore an armor around her heart that could turn the rounds from a Panzer assault cannon. They talked a little bit right before Anna went to work, usually about nothing of substance. Church would stand with her hands in her pockets, ever watching the dark street for any sign of trouble. It made Anna feel oddly safe. Church never said much, usually only asking questions rather than volunteering information, but what she did say made it clear that she'd been listening at least halfway attentively.
She paid Church back just like she paid the johnson: she kept her eyes and ears open. She hadn't told the killer that she was doing it, but if she got wind of something nasty heading Church's way, the elf would hear about it. Plus, she had a few talents of her own.
"Fucking culture vultures," Anna said in a low voice, watching the investigative journalist weasel his way over to Mikhail at the bar.
"He'll be another chalk outline before tomorrow," Leto commented as she put in her earring. "Where's Church? She's usually looming near you this time of night."
"Working. Dunno what she's doing, but her text said it was like kicking dead whales down the beach. Which sounds...gross." Anna saw a familiar face and waved Leto away. "I've got to go see somebody."
"Ooh, got a boyfriend?" Leto craned her neck to see whoever Anna had seen.
Sometimes, it was easier just to lie. "Something like that," Anna said before slipping away from her coworker. Leto was a good friend, but some things needed to be kept quiet. He hadn't visited in a long time, preferring her to make data drops. She wasn't great in the Matrix, as she had a different affinity, but she knew the basics.
He wasn't wearing his suit jacket at the moment and his sleeves were rolled up, making him look a little more like he was here to have fun. "Here I thought I would have to page Dr. Know," he said with a thin smile, catching her by the hand. He knew when he visited to keep up appearances, and so he tugged her over.
Anna took a seat in his lap. "What do you need?" she asked with her best smile even though she wasn't at all excited to see him. Payday good, but trouble bad. She still knew nothing about him, including who he was working for, but his money spent just fine and it was a good deal for just a little information.
At least, when that was all it was. She had a feeling that was not going to be the case tonight.
"I need you to pick something up," he said. "It's here in Redmond, but I can't be seen getting it. I need someone who can be a little less conspicuous than any of my other associates. A briefcase."
Anna frowned. It wasn't her job to fetch things. "Am I going to have to worry about the heat?"
"Are you planning on getting caught?" he countered before smiling. "It's nothing illegal, my dear. Just sensitive. No one else should know about it."
"Is it a hand off or a dead drop?"
"A hand-off, but my associate will be expecting you." She could feel the johnson's hand on her thigh, but didn't flinch. She knew he was just doing it because people might notice if he wasn't handsy enough with her to pass for an admirer. "And just in case you're thinking of turning me down, it is worth some money to me. Three hundred nuyen."
Anna hesitated. To her, that was good money, but well-paid frequently meant dangerous. "Why such a good price?"
"I'm not just buying your assistance, my dear. I'm also purchasing your silence. I'd have you sign an NDA, but that would probably be a waste of time. It should be a trivial task to accomplish. A...milk-run, I think they call it?"
Anna wasn't a proper shadowrunner. She didn't have the kit or the kills to even pass for one. She was just a pretty face and a nice body and a good set of ears. However, she'd been around enough runners to know that any time a Johnson said 'milk run', it was time to ask for more. "Four hundred," she said firmly. "Or you can find another girl."
He chuckled. "I see you're getting brave. I'll be generous, as you have proved reliable in the past. Three fifty."
It was fifty more than she'd thought she'd be getting. "Deal," she said. "When and where?"
"The Squatters' Mall at 0300. I think you should be off work by then. He'll be the one-eyed troll selling knock-off cellphones at the southwest corner of the complex. Wear something red. When he asks you why you're in such a hurry, tell him: 'I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep'," the johnson said, his lips close to her ear when he saw people paying attention to them. His thumb was tracing circles on her thigh still. It probably did look like he'd at least paid her for some attention. "Once you have it and are somewhere you're not likely to be overheard, call me and I'll give you the details on where to bring it."
Anna nodded. It was a simple enough task, even if she had her suspicions that it would be more dangerous than he'd told her. She had her little ace up her sleeve in case the going got rough. She'd been to the Squatters' Mall often throughout her life. It was as familiar as the back of her hand, so she wasn't anxious about being there. "Love you," she said sweetly, kissing his cheek and hopping off his lap. "I'll call."
He nodded, looking faintly amused.
Work flew by, leaving Anna tired and hot at the end of it. She had enough time to take a shower back in the dressing room after slipping past the corner where Leto and her latest admirer were enjoying each other in the hurried, frantic fashion that seemed so common at Ikon. Between drugs and drink and energy, nothing seemed to last long or go slowly. The water sluicing over her body washed away every trace of work and she changed back into her normal clothes, which were a little less revealing than her employer-provided wardrobe. A pair of snug, worn jeans and a tight urban brawl T-shirt that went under a loose Hollywood Simsense Entertainment hoodie. She slipped on her ring again, a carved piece of bone etched with magical runes. There was a little jolt as the counterspelling foci adjusted to the flow of magic through her body.
She wasn't exactly as helpless as she seemed, at least when people weren't close enough to lay hands on her. But she'd kept her magical abilities to herself and thanked her lucky stars that she was an astral chameleon. It made it a lot harder for people to track her from her spells. Anna was well aware that she was a glass cannon, though. She could put out a lot of damage with her rarely-used combat spell, but if somebody got a shot in, she'd be drawing the spade before she could blink.
The dancer wrinkled her nose a little when she felt the first drop of acid rain splash on her face. She pulled her hood up and walked faster, keeping to beneath overhangs and awnings wherever possible as she headed to the Mall.
The Squatters' Mall was basically pandemonium all the time, a living and breathing mass of wretched souls buying and selling anything under the sun or moon that could be sold or bought. Countless voices hawked wares in virtually every language, a true tribute to the cosmopolitan nature of even the ghettos. Gang members strutted through the narrow lanes between vendors, chests puffed out as they surveyed their domain and glared at their rivals, but it was a neutral zone and so everyone at least pretended to tolerate each other. Every metatype was represented in some way or another here, from orks and trolls to dwarves and elves...though they didn't mix well. It had that special smell of unwashed bodies and trash, but that faded after a few minutes. Dull, fluorescent lights flickered and buzzed as they cast a sickly light down on the teeming crowds that flowed through the old, run-down mall. Anna was easily lost in the anonymous mass, her hood keeping people from even seeing her as a pretty face. Rain was dripping in through the untended cracks in the ceiling, so it wasn't too strange to see someone still covered up. Even though the building had no heat, the crowd generated plenty, so it was stiflingly hot in here too. Anna kept herself focused, weaving her way through the area as she headed for the southwest corner.
It took her a good half hour to find him even once she made it to that area, which was impressive considering he was eight and a half feet tall and had to weigh around 600 pounds. His skin looked calcified from his dermal bone deposits and his horns were asymmetric in their size and shape. The corners of his mouth were marked with jutting tusks, but for his heavy brow and brutish features, there was a definite gleam of intelligence to his dark eye. The other was an empty socket, as apparently he was too poor for cybernetics. "Hey, want to buy something?" he asked.
"No," Anna said with a shake of her head, but she lingered at the edge of his stall, fidgeting. It looked like impatience, but it was really just nerves. Her anxiety had amped up the moment she'd seen him.
"Oh yeah? Why are you in such a rush?"
She took a deep breath. "I've got promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep,"
He nodded thoughtfully. "Well, I'm sure they can wait for a sec." He waved her into the back of his little booth. "Tachi, watch the front."
The Japanese dwarf bent over a disassembled cyberdeck stopped his fiddling with the interior circuitry and hopped up from his workstation. "Got it, boss!" He looked young and enthusiastic, in an unusually cheerful way. It made Anna want to like him a little bit, even if it did also make her suspicious.
Anna followed him into the hidden back, her hands fisted tight in the pocket of her sweatshirt. "Is this it?" she asked when she saw a locked briefcase tucked away behind a shelf of junk parts.
"Yeah, chummer, so don't drop it." The troll picked it up and passed it to her. "Oh, and one more thing. Y—"
The front of the shop exploded, sending Anna and the troll flying into the shelves hard. Anna gasped and put a hand over her freshly broken ribs, picking herself up off the floor. She grabbed the briefcase, scorched and catching a familiar whiff in the air along with smoke: mana. The imprint the spell had left blazed brightly in her astral perception. There was a powerful mage in the area, and she wasn't going to take the time to stop and look for them. It was a power she didn't want to tangle with. However, her only way out was through the smoldering wreckage. The screams were everywhere, people burned viciously by the fire. Whoever had cast that spell cared absolutely nothing for bystanders or the retribution of the gangs who had made this a neutral territory.
That frightened Anna, and so she bolted. She wanted to help people, but she could barely convince herself to stay conscious and moving with the agony in her ribs. The moment she sensed more than heard someone casting a spell, she threw herself to the ground and screamed when she hit her ribs against someone's shoe. A blast of lightning exploded overhead, hitting a power panel and plunging the world into darkness. Anna squirmed away, blinded by the flash and unable to smell anything other than ozone, mana, and burning flesh.
"Frag frag frag frag—" she whispered as she crawled, cut off by a foot coming down hard on her back. It hurt.
She found herself rolled over, facing up at a figure she could barely see through the after-flash. They were lit by a strange, conjured green fire in their left hand. It flared brightly and she realized it was an offensive fire spell about to burn her to a crisp. Different syllables came to her lips immediately, and she whispered them under her breath as she wove patterns against the floor with the fingers that weren't clutching the briefcase's handle. If it was do or die, she had every intention of doing and not dying.
Just as the mage fed power into the spell, ready to set it loose, the emerald flame was snuffed out. Her counterspell had gone off without a hitch. Without hesitating, she hit them in the face with a manabolt. She couldn't see, but the shout of pain let her know that they didn't appreciate her contribution to the conversation.
Anna got to her feet and went careening through the chaos that was the crowd. By some miracle, she managed to fight her way out. Instead of stopping once she was free, she kept running with the briefcase in hand. As her vision returned, she ran for the only place she felt safe: Ikon. Whatever the consequences were, she was confident that the Russians weren't going to let someone walk in and frag up their place. She waited until she had a few blocks behind her before she wove a healing spell over her own ribs, golden light and warmth suffusing her side. There were a series of painful cracks as her ribs snapped themselves back into place and knit together. She didn't maintain the effect long enough to heal the bruising too, as she was afraid of the mage catching her.
A Lonestar drone flew overhead, headed straight for the chaos. She hoped the sight of it would slow her pursuers as she wove through gang territories. It was a dangerous game she was playing now.
It wasn't until she stopped for breath, ribs still aching as she panted for air, that she realized she had veered off course in her panic. She was in Halloweener territory now. Unfortunately, she didn't have the face paint for it. That flaming jack-o-lantern spray-painted on the front face of a run down bar was a clear indication that she had made a wrong turn.
"Hey baby," someone said from behind her.
Anna whipped around and immediately let another manabolt flare to life, a glowing sphere of pale blue resting in the palm of her hand. "Buzz off," she said, voice hard.
There were five of them. That was four more than she was prepared to deal with. They were all wearing thick greasepaint on their faces in grotesque, Halloween-themed patterns: skulls and Frankensteins and ghosts.
They hesitated. One frightened girl was one thing, but a frightened mage could be really unpleasant for anyone on the receiving end. "Come on, baby, put that mana out," one said, approaching very slowly, as if he could creep up on her without her realizing how close he was getting.
"I think you should find another alleyway," an accented, female voice said from behind Anna. "This one is ours."
Anna didn't quite relax, but she felt a surge of relief. She let the spell in her hand flare brighter as she fed more power into it, bumping its force up a couple of levels. It was enough to make the Halloweeners back off. They would circle like jackals, waiting for their moment, but they weren't going to instigate anything just yet. "You've got a hell of a sense of timing, omae," Anna said once the gangers had left the alley, turning to look at Church.
The Vory killer raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing."
Church's lip curled. "Working," she said, sounding thoroughly disgusted with the task that had brought her to the area. "Now you."
Anna cracked a tense smile. "Working. I need to get to Ikon."
"I'll take you," Church said, adjusting her jacket. For once, she wasn't in business attire. She was wearing kevlar-reinforced jeans and tactical boots, with a black armored jacket over a white T-shirt. She was holding a black ballistic mask in one hand and Anna was pretty certain she'd just tucked away a pistol. She looked like the kind of person who would gleefully put her fist through the back of someone's skull via their face, which from what Anna knew, was pretty representative of Church's personality. She was a people person in the same way urban brawl was socialization.
"Do you have a car?" Anna asked, following close on Church's heels. She wasn't stupid and she certainly wasn't going to turn down any Vory help she was fortunate enough to get.
"A bike. Draws less attention," Church explained briefly as they walked. She seemed to be restraining her own curiosity when she looked at over at the briefcase in Anna's hand. "Russian work?"
"I didn't ask," Anna admitted. She was beginning to reconsider her blind willingness to see this through just for corporate chump change. If a mage like that was trying to kill her...well, it was worth a hell of a lot more than a few hundred nuyen. As she followed Church, she scanned the area astrally. There was no sign of anything Awakened in the area. A watcher spirit a few blocks down, probably sent by some jealous boyfriend or girlfriend with a knack for magic to keep an eye on their potentially cheating partner.
Church raised an eyebrow, but didn't ask. She wove her way through the alleys and back avenues, avoiding the main streets through this area until they reached her motorcycle. It wasn't too hard, with how run down this part of Redmond was. Not that any part of Redmond was particularly stunning, except maybe the areas where people were struck bodily by muggers. "Take my helmet," she said instead of pressing for more information, handing the aforementioned piece of equipment over. "My mask can keep the wind out of my face."
The thoughtfulness surprised Anna. She set the briefcase down just long enough to put the helmet on.
"Is it fragile?" Church asked, motioning to the briefcase.
"They warned me not to drop it." Anna picked it up, watching as Church undid a strap on her motorcycle's rear. It looked perfect for lashing a briefcase to the bike. "Thanks, Church. I appreciate this." She wasn't certain why her gut didn't mind the Vory killer, but she hadn't lived this long by ignoring her instincts.
Church shrugged expressively and cinched the briefcase into place before getting on the bike. She waited until Anna was on behind her to start it up, knowing that the dancer would be inclined to do something rash if it looked like she might try to take the briefcase and run. Now the Vory knew she was a mage, but she was hoping beyond hope that Church kept that little tidbit to herself. She didn't want to find herself pushed into anything else in her nocturnal job. Illusion mages like herself could find themselves in high demand to fill all kinds of fantasies for people. Being good looking wasn't going to dissuade anyone from wanting to use her magic that way. The opposite, if anything. And considering her magic was the one untainted part of her life so far...well, she wanted to keep it that way.
When they reached Ikon, she told herself, she would start looking into what the hell was going on. These people didn't seem like the types to let a little thing like her not having the package any more stop them from doing unspeakably cruel things to her. She didn't live at Ikon, after all. She would have to leave Vory protection at some point.
What I wouldn't give for a shot of bliss and a few quiet drinks, Anna thought.