The chopper landed on the waves of grass as we pulled up to the pad and a bulk of a military man stepped off. Grim faced, buzz cut, ironed trousers so sharp they could cut you, yeah he'd had training. His uniform had an insignia that I wasn't familiar with. Not a standard military officer then. That explained Emerald; no military operation would tolerate that beard.
"You've caused me a lot of paperwork Miss Xanders" the General barked
"Ghost" the echo of both I and Emerald in correction
"What?"
"It's just Ghost sir" Emerald stated "Seems Xanders is an alias"
The General gave me a stern look then rolled his eyes "That's what she wants you to think Lindsey you fool, we've done our research" I had to smirk, admittedly they'd picked up my most well known aliases. And they'd found my apartment, but the point of my apartment was that I could be found there. Since moving out of Torrin's I didn't have his contact list for jobs, though I admit I didn't expect my first one to result in my door being blown to bits. So these guys had looked into Xander's background, big deal, everything in there was fake.
"Very well Ghost, you're here for a job, one we're willing to pay a considerable amount for"
"You already did" I said, the General shrugged off the mention of his two dead men, beside me, Emerald, or should I say Lindsey went rigid, it was a subtle shift on his part but one that didn't go unnoticed by me.
"Your skills are required to prevent a group of runners from obtaining a certain artefact, a device of some importance, currently being researched. You are to stop them by any means you see fit. They are not to get their hands on it, for this we are willing to offer fifty thousand nuyen.
Fifty K is not a figure to be sniffed at by any means, but this guy had blown into my apartment. Behind me a second sedan pulled up, the Rookie got out with a large bag and my bow, my gear from the apartment. He moved over to the chopper to load everything on board.
"Curious, but why not just ask instead of getting two men killed?" I asked. The General held out a hand, the rookie removed a palm pad, on the screen was a picture of Torrin. Damn
"We figured you could do with a little more incentive to show you how serious we are." The General said "You will take the mission" he made it a statement, I could call his bluff, he had false information on me, but Torrin was important to me, the only important person to me, I couldn't take the chance.
"Fine" I said nonchalantly "But I want my apartment cleaned with a new door as well, or you can pay my security deposit" I felt Lindsey flinch next to me in amusement, the General simply grunted and nodded. Wow, happy guy.
"Details will be provided to you by Lindsey who will work with you, the two of you will . . ."
"Sorry no, I work alone" I interrupted
"Given the nature of the mission you will be accompanied . . "
"Alone or not at all"
"Lindsey will go . . ."
"NO then" I turned to go; Lindsey placed a hand on my arm to stop me, not a restraint, a plea to pause, the sharp bite of electricity had his hand retreating quickly, he took a while to catch on . . .
"Need I remind you of our leverage" The General began
"No, your leverage should be all the guarantee you need" I said "Your research should tell you that I don't work well in a group, people always end up dying, it's on my own or not at all" I stood firm. I could see the moment the General relented, smirked and strolled to the chopper. The General was speaking with Lindsey no doubt warning him about me, and there'd be the customary. . Yes there it was, the tracking device he would need to plant on me, not that his team hadn't already bugged my gear, so predictable. The rookie was busy tying my pack down in the chopper for the ride.
"Thank you"
"How is he?"
"It was close, he'll be scarred for life, but alive" Rookie was strained, grateful for the healing I had done, but acutely aware that it was my blade that had inflicted the wounds, but then he also knew it was in defence of a threat, the conflict of his emotions was clear.
"Did you pack a small leather pouch?" he nodded
"Everything except the grappling gun" he said, damn I might have needed that. Digging in my pack my fingers brushed soft leather and I withdrew the pouch, my fingers brushed more leather and I smiled, my coat, a very special coat indeed. I unrolled the pouch and withdrew a paper pack that I knew contained dried dark leaves.
"Make a tea with these" I told him "have him drink half, then soak his bandages in the rest, he must drink on an empty stomach or it wont work, and it will be bitter, but don't add any sugar or sweetener" I handed over the leaves, "They break down in contact with natural sunlight, so make it up in a red room or it'll be useless" the rookie gave me a questioning look.
"Why are you helping us?" Us. I liked that.
"Because I'm partly responsible, I have rules about killing, only when necessary and if I have to, it has to be quick and as painless as possible, I'm not a monster, but if I have to kill you to survive I wont hesitate" I retied my pack
"Can I do something for you?" Bless
"Get out of the group and start over, they don't care about you, these groups, to them you're nothing more than a meat shield, a grunt. Take your partner with you, and grow old together" I told him, there was a moment of fear, I understood, he was young, but all he'd ever known was the military life, his partner would be just the same if not more so. I sighed, "listen, go to Torrin, or the place you think he is, he'll have people watching, wait there, it could be a while but someone will speak to you eventually, tell them that "Freedom is hard to come by" and that "Casper wants to know the score of the game" then do what ever they tell you, it'll be OK" shock came over his face as he realised what I was giving him, a get out clause. He composed himself and nodded, held out a hand
"Sorry, I'm charged remember, can go off at any time" I said waving my hands. Rookie did something either incredibly stupid or brave, I'm not sure, but he took my hand and shook it anyway, the hairs on his arms stood with static
"I'll take the chance" he said, then let go and left the chopper, returning to his sedan. The General was getting into the sedan that we had arrived in. Lindsey climbed into the chopper beside me. I was staring at my hand
"Hey Ghost, you OK?" Lindsey asked
"Yeah sure" I replied, contact, physical contact, the first since Tibet. So far everyone I'd touched had received some kind of shock, one guy in the grocery store had been full blown electrocuted, but the rookie had survived, did this mean I was learning control? I doubted it, he was probably just lucky.
The chopper lifted and Lindsey had to shout above the noise "Time I showed you what you're dealing with" He switched on a palm pad "these guys are the real deal Ghost, dangerous, several known underground factions have gone up against these guys and either disappeared or died. They're brash and suicidal at times, but most importantly they've never failed"
"First time for everything" The screen scrolled showing dates, faces of contacts, many had MIA or Deceased printed across them. "What was their last known location?" I asked
"Rumours were they'd been killed in a crash, the whole group, so investigations into them ceased after the wreckage was found, or what was left of it, nothing could have survived that, but that was until one of the group was seen in Seattle making enquiries about the new technology, only two of the original have been spotted together, the third is still missing, maybe not everyone got out" He scrolled through his pad to bring up a photo file as he continued. There's a mage, strong one too, pulls some seriously powerful levitation magic, manipulation, but it's the technomancer you have to watch, all the crazy moves come from him, he hits a system and decimates it before he's even detected, sharp shooter too, so not completely reliant on the matrix in a fight. At first the General wanted you to infiltrate the group, but given what these guys are capable of I think shadowing then assassination are in best order."
"I'm not an assassin for hire, that's not what I do" I said "I'll stop them my own way, just who am I dealing with anyway" Lindsey opened the picture file and showed me the screen, and for a second I wasn't sure to laugh or not "I don't think infiltration will be a problem"
"What makes you say that?" Lindsey saw me smile and connected the dots "You know these guys?!" I smiled again
"Sure do, he's my landlord"
The chopper flew for about forty minutes, we sat in silence for the most part, at first Lindsey had asked questions about my relationship with Lathain; however I didn't much feel like giving the game away. We started to hit a little turbulence as we hit the mountain area surrounding our destination, there was a military style base within the heart of the mountain, a parking lot with a few Humvees and tanks out from about the size of three football fields was all that could be seen of what had been briefed to be an extensive facility.
"So you want me to stop Lathain getting his hands on this device?" I had clarified with Lindsey; he had regarded me with those eyes of his
"That's the plan at least" he said "there's also a bonus to your pay if you can find out the location of the device and comm. us"
"Wait, the device isn't yours?" I asked, Lindsey gritted his teeth in annoyance, he'd said too much, but he conceded and continued anyway
"No it isn't, but we want to get it before it goes to auction, there is a general Napper at the base who used to work for us on the inside, she has since turned to their side in the development of the weapon, she was due to fly to Chicago in three days to auction the device."
"And you want me to steal it" I said
"Steal it back" Lindsey said "Someone has hired Lathain to do the same job, we were hoping you'd get there first, get the device before it went to auction"
"So what you're saying is that you can't afford it, neither can some of your competitors and you also want to get back at this Napper dude"
"He's a She" Lindsey corrected, whatever "We have heard some disturbing rumours about what goes on in the lower levels too" he said "human experiments, with weird meta human cross overs being developed"
"You mean like Frankenstein's monster" Lindsey gave me a blank look and shrugged, he didn't get the reference, shame, every one should read Mary Shelly. "So who hired Lathain? And if this is your base, or at least partly then why don't you know what's going down underground?"
"It's a part military and part private owned base, the military have a presence there but the land is owned by our company, however the military coops have decided to gradually buy us out bit by bit, we now only have real access to the upper floors, and the person leading the buy out?"
"Napper?" I guessed. He nodded
"Whatever they're doing then it can't be good, Napper was hired six years ago because she is ruthless and unsympathetic to the animal experimentation which was going on at the time, she was suppose to go in on the military side and find out what they were up to with the buy outs, the off limits areas, and to try and get a look in at this weapon they had started to develop, something that was suppose to change the battlefield"
"Change the battle field?" I was curious now, a spy gone rogue had turned into their worst nightmare, she would know exactly how they operated, what they wanted and so could anticipate their every move. It's a very bad idea to let an unstable person into such a role; unless of course she was playing the double agent and biding her time for the right moment. So we were potentially looking for a weapon that could change the very course of any battlefield? That was nothing new, when magic had begun creeping back into the world mages were employed by military groups as the ultimate fighters, nothing could block their attacks, they were highly paid and the first target in any fight, so maybe the device was aimed at magic users.
"That's what they're saying, we owned most of the base, and most of the tech, but as time has gone on we've been shut out more and more" he showed me a round plan of the base, most of the levels were in red, particularly the bottom ones "We hired a lot of people, but none of them have ever left, given the buy out that's been happening we need to know where our men are"
"You think they switched sides?" I asked
"Possible, I know a few that might make the jump but I doubt it would be all of them, you have to understand Ghost, no one ever leaves this facility"
"Then how do you know what's going on?" I asked
"We have some working camera's in some of the areas" he admitted "There are a lot of people there, and it looks like in the last few years they've made some major modifications to the unit, they've dug all the way into the caves, across and down below" he brought up a map, outdated from three years prior. He overlaid an image of the rock face and zoomed out. "All of this area is now under construction, I couldn't tell you how far back the base now goes, but if these plans have spread anywhere near as quickly as the amount of incoming steel suggests then it'll be a real warren down there"
"Does your out of date intel tell me where the weapon is likely to be held?" I asked taking in a mental map of the facility, I noted another area which might be another way in, at the base of the mountain side, where the ventilation was likely exhausting from.
"Not really" he said "But we've a few still on our side, last we heard our teams were separating from the military and starting to push back, there are a bunch of rebels causing trouble but we can't know for sure if they're with Napper or against her, all I have is a comm. image of the insignia they're using" Lindsey showed me a blurry photo of a shield with two pistols crossing over, a ball of mage energy in the centre.
"You think there's a mutiny going on?" I asked
"I have no idea, but if they've been keeping people for all this time underground it wouldn't surprise me if those working for the military side decided to lash out"
"Why haven't you tried to get in before?" I asked, Lindsey winced at the question and wouldn't meet my eyes, which could only mean one thing. "You already have" I guessed "and they're either dead or trapped" Lindsey nodded numbly "that explains why you brought me in, to you I'm expendable" my voice was clipped and hard "I'll find out what I can for you but I'm not putting myself in unnecessary danger for you, I'm being paid to stop Lathain, maybe retrieve this device for you, but other than that you're on your own"
Lindsey looked as though he would say something before the pilot interrupted to let us know we were heading closer to the base. The joint ownership was apparent by the flags blowing by the gateway, though from the small presence of Lindsey's team at the gate compared to the newer occupant's numbers you could tell that the chopper would not really be welcome, I might have to get in another way. . .
The chopper began to circle the facility waiting for landing clearance in the tiny parking lot. It looked like there was some commotion down below at the front gates where a huge lorry waited. I took a look around the surrounding area, mostly rocky and bare, nothing much to hide in, if things turned south and I had to get out then I would need to use my magic to get out unseen. I had noticed a few caves as we had flown over, it was likely these were the caves I had seen on the map. There was little disturbance of the flora in that area so it might be unused, it might at the very least be a good place to start.
As the chopper came in to land I took more of an interest on what was happening on the ground, I really shouldn't have been surprised to see Lathain stood arguing with a dozen armed guards, backed up by Wizbit and a man I didn't recognise.
"Any idea what's going on?" I asked, Lindsey com'd the gate a moment.
"Looks like they're trying to get in the base on false ID's and someone tripped the system for a hack" really? Lathain was getting sloppy or their systems were super high grade, Lathain had no real trouble hacking into anything.
"Let me move them on" I said, Lindsey shot me a look
"How?"
"Just do it" I said, if I was lucky I could work this to both mine and Lathain's advantage, but I needed to know what the elf knew first.
"You know if you fail" he warned, it was a stupid threat, and it gave me an insight into how they'd tricked me here, if they really had Torrin they wouldn't need to threaten, this "reminder" was to try and keep my loyalty, I would bet anything that Torrin was safe.
"Just land this pile of crap and let me talk to him" I snapped, my patience wearing thin, I was usually rather good at reading people but they had gotten me this far without me figuring it was a bluff. Oh well if I play along for a while I might just get myself some extra cash.
The chopper landed and I grabbed my pack pulling it on quickly and jumping from the chopper, I turned to Lindsey
"Get us off the base and I'll contact you when I know more about what's going on" I said, he looked wary, his eyes slightly on the collar of my shirt where the bug had been placed then nodded. He figured he could keep track of me using the bug, well I could sort that. My electrical short was only temporary after all. Lindsey's face fell as he realised his tracker wouldn't stay put for long. "How do I know you'll do your job?" he asked
"You don't, but I'll give you my word I'll keep you as up to date as I am able" I told him. He looked nervous and conflicted, but he didn't really have much choice but to do as I said, he nodded and waved to permit me to leave.
I strode towards Lathain and the group, the guards didn't see me until I was shouting them aside, I paid them little attention as I stood in front of a surprised elf and mage, there was also a third man who looked thoroughly confused
"Ghost?" The elf said, at just over six foot he was like all elves of this world, stunning, with amazing eyes and a sharp sense of humour, I hadn't seen or spoken to him since getting back from Tibet, little wonder since contact, physical contact with me would fry his internal comm. and bio-ware. Wizbit regarded me with curiosity and perhaps a little fear, Tibet had shaken him badly, he'd grown a beard since I'd seen him last, he looked old now, older than he should at least.
"Lathain, Wizbit" I said cheerily "You're just in time to pick me up"