Back out on the main street, Hunter pulled up the general map of Seattle he'd downloaded to his personal pad and frowned at the display. As his brow furrowed and twisted, a small child walking along the path flinched and grabbed hold of his mother's leg, scurrying past on the verge of tears.
"It's about eight clicks to this mall place. We're gonna have to hussle to get there in time. And I'm not sure about walking that way – apparently nobody walks far in Seattle."
"Let's just grab a cab then – I'm sure we can find one somewhere," Kai said, then moved to the side of the road, scanning about then pointing to the link road that led onto the main drag. "Down that way, we should get something I reckon. Come on…" He led the team back to the main road, and it was only a few minutes until they saw a taxi driving along that they could hail, and who was willing to take them to the mall.
The cab took them up onto the highway and then crawled through the traffic at about twenty kilometres per hour, weaving across lanes while the cabby talked to them about the weather – rainy and normal, the traffic – slow and normal, and the local sports teams – losing and normal. They listened patiently, having nothing better to do, but did at least pick up a little on the local area as the cabby bemoaned having to drive up on the interstate to get to the mall, due to the loss of some routes to gated communities and others to perennial roadworks.
They closed on the mall which lay slightly to the west of the I-5, a huge edifice that was at least six stories tall, stretching for three blocks in total with tunnels at ground level where the old road grid ran through it. Enormous multi-level car-parks flanked it, equally tall with thousands of parking spaces jammed full of a huge variety of vehicles. They had plenty of time to study the enormous building as they crawled past it on the interstate, heading for the junction and the special feeder lanes that led directly into the Tacoma Mall complex. The sides of the massive concrete edifice were covered in hoardings for the hundreds of shops inside, a gaudy neon wall of advertising that almost overwhelmed the senses.
They made it into the mall, the cab pulling up at the drop-off point directly outside the main entrance amidst a sea of other taxis and busses, all jostling for position. Kai checked his watch and saw they still had fifteen minutes to spare – though given the size of the place it was possible it would take that long to walk through the building internally.
Gentle ramps led up to the main entrance, while calming contemporary music played from hidden speakers, and the area was festooned with large planters lush with vegetation. A few orks wearing grey overalls patrolled the area, collecting rubbish and picking up detritus, their heads bowed and eyes glued to their work. One mall cop stood to the side of the doors by a small security station, watching over the crowd as they entered the mall. They glanced up at the doorway as they passed inside and saw the sensor grid and weapons detectors built into the archway, and were glad they'd left the heavier hardware back at the church, passing through without much more than a hard stare from the security guard – but he didn't spot the concealed staff or sword carried by Aswon and Shimazu.
Inside the mall was brightly lit, store fronts decorated with flashing lights, trideo walls and uniformed staff all trying to entice customers inside to spend their hard-earned Nuyen. A thousand smells combined into a heady aroma, forcing Hunter to dial back, and then disable his olfactory booster to avoid being overwhelmed. The mall was busy, people coming and going in a vast sea of meta-humanity, all moving at different paces creating whorls and eddies of movement, children running around or dragging parents excitedly towards stores, elderly people slowly making their way around creating little traffic jams around them, couples walking along arm in arm, while lone shoppers bobbed and weaved through them all, racing cars weaving through the heavy traffic and darting into holes and gaps to gain a tiny advantage. It was a chaotic and busy environment, and one unlike anything the team had really encountered before – certainly it was the densest press of beings they'd been in for at least a year. All of them were slightly twitchy, becoming hyper-aware of their surroundings and they stuck together closely.
The directions to the food court were at least clearly marked, and they headed up the main spine of the shopping mall and took the wide rising travellator to the third level, continuing down the concourse until they emerged into a giant atrium, the volume level rising with the echoing screams of children and a hundred conversations filling the air. The atrium covered three levels, a vast cathedral-like space with food vendors spread around the outside on multiple levels, while a criss-crossing web of escalators and stairs wound through the middle, linking seating areas together amidst a lush forest of cultivated greenery. Clowns and other entertainers were busy in key areas, while transfixed children shovelled soy-fries into their chubby faces while magicians made coins disappear for one group. A doppler shift of screams made them look up and spot the hurtling form of children as they slid down a brightly coloured plastic chute from the top level of the atrium down into a ball pit on the very bottom level.
Somewhat stunned by the riot of colour, several people walked into the back of Hunter as the group stopped and stared for a moment, causing muttered comments that died a frightened death as they looked up into the slab of ork they'd walked into and took in his appearance. With a gentle push, Hunter got the group moving again, and they started to move around, looking for CAD. Kai headed over to a stall to collect a chocolate shake, ensuring it had a liberal supply of sprinkles over the top, then found Aswon, Shimazu and Hunter casually leaning against the underside of a staircase, looking at a dwarf sitting alone at a table on the other side of the atrium.
He looked to be in his mid-twenties, with a large ginger beard exploding from his chin and cheeks in an unruly fashion, wearing a stained t-shirt covered in Matrix UMS symbols and a pair of tatty jeans. He was looking vacantly across the atrium, almost looking like he was asleep, with just a small cup on the table in front of him.
"Shimazu and I have assensed him – his head is stuffed full of cyberware. Datajacks on both temples, and there's enough of his brain replaced or augmented that Hunter thinks he might have an internal deck. One eye is a cyber-replacement, and he's got something that looks like storage or more computer parts installed in his upper torso. Along with the attitude he's giving off and his general vibe, I think that's our guy."
"Ok, good one, Aswon. Let's go say hello." Kai started to thread his way over towards the waiting dwarf, the others trailing along behind him, keeping an eye out for any suspicious behaviour around the food court. "Hello there! My name's Kai – and I just happen to have here this delicious chocolate shake for free, with extra sprinkles. Want it?"
"Sure… siddown." As Kai sat and examined the dwarf more closely he spotted the cyber-eye as it zoomed in on him, the optical lens extending and bulging out slightly towards him, then giving each of the others a close examination too. Shimazu stood just behind Kai's shoulder, ready for action, while Hunter and Aswon were angled out, watching the crowd on either side of him, looking for external threats. The dwarf smiled in an insincere fashion, revealing teeth covered in plaque and while his right eye was a cyber-replacement, the left eye still looked natural and was also somewhat lazy. Both of his arms were down in his lap, and though he'd watched the chocolate shake being put down just in front of him, he'd not moved to touch it. In fact, both his arms were twitching slightly as if his hands were busy doing something under the table, and Kai wondered what he was up to.
Shimazu stared down at the dwarf, having seen the same movements and was feeling very on-edge. He stood with his feet shoulder-width apart, hands down by his side loosely. He wouldn't be quite as quick to draw his sword as he would normally – it was wedged up the inside of his jacket and might take him a few seconds to get at, but he knew he'd still probably be faster than anyone might expect – and that if need be, he could cut a swathe of destruction around them in the blink of an eye to start the process of extracting them if this did turn out to be an ambush. Until then, he watched the dwarf carefully, examining him for cues and signs of alarm or distress that could signify danger.
Aswon and Hunter watched the crowd – eyes flicking from one area to another as they processed the huge amounts of data in the busy space. It was a nightmare from a security point of view – no doubt one of the reasons that CAD had chosen it. A constant stream of people transited through the area, moving from the stalls around the edge to the seating area, heading back for more food or drink at times. Mall employees circulated around the tables clearing up the mess left by customers, children ran around and the entertainment staff circulated to amuse and distract customers. The split-level design made for a huge number of sight lines, and the crossing escalators, walkways and vegetation made it possible to spy on people from a large number of locations. And, both Aswon and Hunter felt uneasy – as if they were being watched. No matter how carefully they looked around though, they couldn't spot anyone that wasn't just an innocuous person who happened to be looking or glancing their way – yet they both felt a strange tingle up their spines as if they were being examined.
"Ok, so I'm here. What's so important?"
"Well Mr. Cad. The person we're working for is very particular and somewhat traditional. Maybe even old-fashioned. They will want someone to meet with you to pass the data to and from you, at least at first. Perhaps one of their first tasks will be to ensure that secure communications are set up. But they wanted to verify the situation first, with a face to face meeting."
"So – ok, we're all done then yeah? I can go home now?"
"No, we're not done yet. We have an outline for you, and then we need to make sure you're willing to take on the job."
"Does Trophy know the client?"
"I don't believe he does. Now – shall we get down to business?" Kai turned to look up at Hunter, who was still scanning the crowd, his frown deepening. "We ok? Are we being watched?"
"You didn't check if you was follad?" The accent thickened slightly as CADs voice rose somewhat, and his eyes flicked around the room quickly, while the frantic quivers in his arms intensified.
"It's all fine, I'm sure. Just being cautious. And of course we weren't followed, we checked. Thoroughly. Now – let's get on with this." Kai paused for a moment, then tried to strike out in a new direction. "So CAD – what do you like doing? I mean, what work do you do – what gives you satisfaction while you're working."
"Are you serious chummer?" CAD snapped his attention back to Kai, examining him carefully. His eye bulged once more as he zoomed in, scanning all over Kai's torso as if looking for some tiny detail. Then, enunciating clearly, he responded in a slightly cold tone. "I do not perform any illegal activities, or break any laws. In my spare time I enjoy playing computer games."
"Ahh, I think you misunderstand me. Don't worry – we're not with the law enforcement agencies, or seeking to entrap you, or anything like that. But excellent – you pass the first test. Big check in the discretion box. Now, I understand you're a freelance consultant. So – how much do you charge?"
"Well, that depends…" CAD still sounded suspicious and his eye kept flicking around the group, examining them closely as if looking for a surveillance microphone or hidden recorders. "I mean, if I have to travel a long way, or get to somewhere very difficult to reach, then I charge more."
"Of course, that makes sense. Now, in terms of the work that you do – is there a way to assess your professional competence? I don't mean any offence, and Trophy did recommend you – but we hardly know him at all, so we have to be careful on behalf of our employer."
Shimazu tensed as CAD pulled his right hand out from under the table, his own hand quivering and ready to snatch at the hilt of his blade if CAD pulled a gun or some other kind of weapon on his boss. But, when the hand rose above the table, all it held was a small screen, fed from a tiny cable plugged into a datajack on his wrist. He watched as CAD angled it over and showed them security camera footage of the four of them entering the mall on their way to the meeting.
"Yes, that's us. I don't see that as particularly meaningful though?"
"Hang on, Kai." It was Hunter that spoke, turning and leaning down to examine the screen, one hand pressing down somewhat heavily on Kai's shoulder. "That's not bad. He's not seen us before we got here, so while he's been talking with you he's got into the corporate host, run a facial match on us, and backtracked our movement through the mall to work out where we came in. While talking to us. That'll do."
"Ahh, I see. Yes, I suppose that is more impressive then, when you put it like that. So – is there anything you don't like doing?"
"Dying? Getting hurt? You know… the usual stuff. Look, are we done here now? I don't like it here."
"Yes, I think we're done, I suppose. Can you just cover off what we know?" Kai glanced up at Hunter, then leant back in his seat as Hunter gave a very short and concise version of the speech he'd already given to Rad and the Twins. CAD listened carefully, noting the much more technical language and precise descriptions of matrix activity, and nodded along with Hunter.
"Right dudes. I am outta here." CAD pushed back his chair, resting both his hands on top of the table and then walked away quickly, looking around suspiciously as he did so. On the table, where his left hand had been was a thin sheet of plastic, about the size of his palm. Kai moved his hand over to grab at the milkshake, dropping his forearm onto the plastic and then pulling both of them back over to him. He pulled his phone out and spent a minute checking his messages while the others kept watched, and then as he moved his phone over to the other hand subtly grabbed the flimsy plastic and palmed it off the table. Another minute of checking his phone, with no activity or anything unusual happening, and then he too pushed himself up from the chair.
"Let's go do a bit of shopping while we're here. I'm sure I saw a hunting shop on that store directory…" They headed out of the food court, leaving the melted but otherwise untouched chocolate shake behind them on the table, the sprinkles slowly dissolving into the flavoured soy-goo, until one of the employees came to clear the table. The team were two floors up by then, approaching 'Ackerman's Sporting Goods', a shop that catered to a variety of sports and the equipment needed for them. On the way Kai checked the flimsy plastic, finding a barely legible matrix address printed in light-grey text on the transparent surface. "Here Hunter, you'd better hang on to this."
They browsed around the shop for twenty minutes, circulating to the far corners and watching for tails and any sign of security, but the coast remained clear, and they started to relax a little – both Hunter and Aswon feeling less paranoid now and no longer feeling like they were being watched. Kai found a selection of hunting arrows and grabbed several boxes, heading over to the checkout with them to pay. The sales rep rang them up and placed them in a bag, then gestured to the slot on the cred-reader for him to slot his SIN. Kai inserted the small plastic case into the hole, then waited – and a few moments later his face carefully went blank as he saw the change in the clerks expression.
"I'm sorry sir, your SIN is showing as invalid."
"I do apologise. I think it fell in the river – I'm a doctor you see, and we were walking down the river bank, and I saw a child fall in, and get into difficulty. Had to jump in and grab them, and get them out – but it's been acting up since. I had to get a new phone too. Such a hassle – but worth it for that little girl." He reached over to grab his credstick, then pulled it out and buffed it on his coat and then blew on the contacts before reinserting it. "Can we try again?"
"Of course sir." There was a pause, then the face tightened further. "Sorry, it's still showing as invalid." Their body language changed a little, and he could see the tension in their body as they tried to work out what to do. Fortunately Aswon was already heading over towards them.
"Dr. Erdene? Is there a problem?"
"Yes, my SIN isn't reading. I think it's broken – since I jumped into the river."
"The river? Oh yes, of course. Well, let me try mine." Aswon waved towards the reader and Kai snatched his SIN out of the slot and let Aswon put in his stick. After a moment, the clerk seemed to relax and a smile formed on his lips. "Ahh, thank you, Doctor Ubinawa, that's gone through now."
"Thank you. I am Aswon. Come on, doctor, let's go." Aswon pulled on Kai's elbow, turning him around Shimazu stepped up to the counter and grabbed the boxes of arrows and gave a polite bow to the clerk. They headed out of the store, leaving the clerk with a fading smile wondering why the man had said he was Aswon when his ID clearly identified him as Doctor George Ubinawa, but before he could ponder about it much more, he was distracted by another customer.
"Kai, I got a suspicion. Go buy something else – something cheap, with that ID. Be prepared for it to get rejected, so make it something you can put down or back nice and easily." They wandered around the top level of the mall until Kai found a small shop selling phone accessories, and grabbed a waterproof case that would fit his model. Sure enough when he went to pay for it, the clerk informed him that his ID would not scan. Hunter had moved around to the side of the counter and was perusing goods on the shelf, up until the ID was scanned – when he carefully watched out of the corner of his eye to see what was on screen. Somewhat prepared by the previous encounter, Aswon came to his recue and lead with the story about going for a swim to save a child, and Kai made some polite excuses, apologised for the wasted time and carefully put the case back on display before leaving the store. A few minutes later they all met up again at the other end of the mall.
"Yeah, that ID needs to go in the bin I think. I saw some of the codes coming up – it wasn't showing as a fake, but it was showing as invalid – and I think the detail on it showed the owner as deceased. You're likely to get collared if you keep trying to use that one."
"Balls. I like being a doctor!"
"Use the one you got from Milo – that should be solid. It had better be for how much we paid for it!"
"I suppose. Who was I again?" Kai checked on his phone, scanning a reference file and then smiled. "Ahh, Mr. Zunduin Khangal, a PR activist and speechwriter. Used to work for Yamatetsu. I remember now. Ok, that's not so bad."
They headed out of the mall and hailed another cab, looking for someone willing to take them to Downtown. As they got in, Kai tried his old SIN one more time, just to confirm things – and again found it was invalid, and one of the others had to authorise their entry into the cab and pay the fare. They headed north, re-joining the I-5 and heading up into the central part of Seattle though kilometres of urban jungle. Traffic heading south out of the central area picked up dramatically as they headed north, and soon the other side of the interstate was solid, with queuing traffic in all lanes – though their side was still somewhat free flowing. The closer they got to the centre of the downtown district though, the heavier and slower the traffic became, until they too were slowed almost to a halt. Fortunately by this point they were close enough to the Queen Ann Hill sub-district that they could head off the interstate onto local roads, fighting their way through local traffic as they closed on the Space Needle.
The cab dropped them off on the side of a large public park, about fifty metres from the entrance to the tower, which stretched up into the air hundreds of metres above them. The restaurant was up around the six hundred metre mark, according to Hunter's research, and they could well believe it – it looked tiny from ground level, despite being a large facility that could seat more than a hundred guests at the same time.
They checked out the area, spotting the overt and heavy security presence. There were Lone Star cops on patrol in the area, walking in pairs with noticeable body armour and the strange gliding gait that indicated some level of cyber-enhanced reflexes, huge Ruger Thunderbolt pistols ready to hand in their speed holsters on their right hips. Beyond that though were rotordrones patrolling the area, steadily buzzing through the air with 7.62mm machine guns hanging ominously from their turrets, scanning the ground below. In astral, a huge air elemental flew in slow deliberate circles around the building itself, looking around the area for anything that might be a threat – it was large enough that they figured Tads would hesitate to engage it in a magical contest, and Shimazu would be hard pressed to defeat it in combat. There were also a number of watcher spirits buzzing around the area, much smaller and less durable, but making it hard to sneak through the area. Finally, there were guards on the entrance doors to the Space Needle itself, large and fit-looking Orks in very smart suits with the subtle wires of ear buds reaching down to their concealed radios. A maître de stood just in front of them at a heavy lectern, welcoming guests and checking their IDs, while they stood impassively by – but a quick check in astral revealed that both of them were heavily modified and would likely have a fairly nasty set of combat enhancements.
Fortunately they didn't have to sneak inside the restaurant, just meet someone in the grounds, so they turned away from the entrance and started to wander around the neatly sculpted gardens, looking for their contact. Aswon pulled on a hat, cramming his hair into the peak of the cap and pulling down on the sides of the fabric, trying to conceal the mass of dreadlocks. He either didn't realise, or didn't care with how ridiculous he looked with the cap perched on top of the mass of barely constrained hair, and he turned to them when it was finally settled with a smile.
"Now they will not recognise me, my disguise will defeat them all. I am Aswon."
"Of course. Cunning." Kai smiled at him, then pointing at a small Japanese girl wearing what looked like a school uniform, who was standing at a makeshift stall selling toys. "Just going to head over there and see what that's about…" He led the team over towards the young girl, and as they got closer he could see the stall was covered in plushie toys, all of them a rough version of the Great Dragon Ryumyo. "Do you think that's our contact?" He sounded sceptical, but if their theory was right, then Ryumyo was one of the two dragons that had hired them. Of course, given his status in Japanese culture, it was hardly surprising to find someone completely entranced with the dragon and selling effigies of him. As he looked closer at the uniform he spotted the yellow necktie and embroidered red poppy on her shirt and nodded to himself in satisfaction.
The girl spotted them coming and turned towards them with a bright smile and raised a plushie before her in both hands.
"You seek dragon, lovely dragon, ten nuyen! Very cute, bring you much luck!"
"I'm sure I could buy one of those from you. I think we could all do with a little luck every now and then. I'm Kai by the way."
"This dragon…this dragon not good enough for you. You need special lucky dragon then!" She placed the plushie creation back down on the table in front of her along with all the rest, then reached down under the table into a box, pulling what appeared to be another identical dragon out. "This one for you!"
"Ok, thank you." He paid for the dragon with some of his last remaining cash, and took the plushie with his other hand. As he grabbed the toy around the neck, he could feel something hard and cylindrical running through the centre of the stuffed animal – something vaguely cred-stick sized.
"Enjoy your dragon! Bring you much good fortune!"
"I think it will." Kai turned and made a shooing motion to the rest of the team, and they walked away from the stall, deeper into the gardens. Towards the centre they found a toilet block, and Kai headed inside, locking himself into one of the stalls and then carefully pulling open the stitching on the dragon until he could reach inside and grasp around with his fingers and extract the cred-stick. When he pulled out the cylinder he blinked – it wasn't the normal plain black or silver plastic construction, with the small logo of whichever bank had issued it – this one appeared to be carved out of wood of some kind, a deep ebony colour, with a faint texture detectable as he ran his fingers over the surface. He popped the cap off the end to reveal the standard interface – that part at least was normal. He carefully pocketed the credstick, sealing the pocket thoroughly and then headed back out to the rest of the team, giving them a brief smile and subtle thumbs up message.
"Let's go back to the entrance – I'm sure I saw a souvenir shop there or something, with a banking terminal. I think we should make a deposit as quickly as possible."
"I agree. If that was paid with a certified stick, we're one pickpocket away from being poor."
"Or one clumsy moment where someone puts it down and loses it." Hunter added, being a lot less subtle than Aswon.
"Hey! I'm not clumsy! Or forgetful."
"No – you're just an agent of chaos sometimes, and like to keep us on our toes. But we're on to you." Hunter smiled, then let his smile fade away and stared at Kai. "But we're on to you, so watch it."
Luckily, the souvenir stand wasn't too far away, so they couldn't get that far into the argument before they reached it, and as Kai had noted there was a banking terminal set next to it, allowing for people to transfer money between accounts or check their balance before the park robbed them blind with extortionately priced food and drink. Kai entered the account details and was just about to verify his ID with a fingerprint and retinal scan when he paused.
"Erm… Dr. Erdene was one of the IDs listed on the corporate front. Khangal isn't…"
"Me or Tads then. Ok, we probably need to get that sorted fairly soon and get some more accounts linked than that." Aswon leant forward and keyed in his ID, slotted his SIN and ran through the verification process to authenticate access to the account, then stepped back out of the way so Kai could get access to the terminal. Kai nodded his thanks to Aswon, then removed the cred-stick from his pocket, took a deep breath and slotted it. It took a moment to digest the content, checking the encryption algorithms and anti-tamper circuits, then displayed the balance on the stick – exactly one million Nuyen. He hit the transfer button, and drained the stick into the main account then verified the amount, before removing the stick and logging out of the terminal.
"Oh shit!" Kai suddenly exclaimed as a thought occurred to him. "Nadia's not got access to this, has she? That's the last thing we need, to find the account empty and then get a picture of a gold-plated ranch…"
"Maybe, she's pretty sharp." Aswon replied with a smile, enjoying the moments discomfort. "You can always call her and tell her not to touch the money."
"No way. I'm not going to do that, she scares me."
"Sign of a good office manager, I suppose."
"No, you're fine." Hunter interrupted. "We set this up before we picked Nadia up, and we've not added her to the account. Though Marius might want to if you point that out to him. So if you don't, you probably want to keep schtum. And if you've emptied that stick, you probably want to bin it, and make sure we get rid of the tracking beacon. The one that's almost certainly turned on… "
"Yeah, probably. Ok. Almost definitely." Kai turned and headed to the souvenir shop, buying a small but overpriced model of the Space Needle. As he left the store he casually threw the now-empty stick into the bin. "For Nadia. Hopefully that'll keep her happy."
"Think it'll take more than that. Maybe get Marius some Viagra as well on the way back." Hunter snorted, then chuckled to himself, following along as the others headed out of the small park and to the main road to hail a cab back towards the church. They'd just settled into the cab and started to make their way through the evening traffic, with Aswon poking Kai and reminding him once more that they still had a bunch of shares in a Turkish steel mill when his voice trailed off mid-sentence.
"You ok there, Aswon?" Kai asked, happy to distract him from his current line of thinking.
"Really weird feeling. Like someone just disturbed my ancestors." He looked around out of the cab's windows, staring at the neon city beyond and the sea of lights from the endless snake of cars clogging up the roads. "Don't know what it is…"
Shimazu reached into his coat, his fingers worming under the layers until he could grasp the handle of his sword and feel his connection with it, then dropped into astral space to examine the area. He checked the cab first for any signs of astral tampering or wards, spirits concealed in the seats or latent spells waiting to go off – but found nothing. Next he checked over the cabbie, but found him fairly typical, a weary and dreary man with a little cyberware, watching the traffic carefully and contending with the rush hour queues. Finally he turned to Aswon and gave him a thorough examination, checking out his aura as closely as he could. Aswon obliged by dropping his masking for a moment, making the task easier and Shimazu gave a start as he saw a faint pulsing thread emanating from his aura, flicking around the cab and questing in multiple directions.
"I think you're being tracked." He muttered quietly, trying not to let the cab driver hear. Chances are if he thought there was magical nonsense going on he'd turf them out of his cab rather than take any risks, and that would strand them in the middle of the city somewhere. "I'll keep an eye on it."
Kai lent forward and rapped on the divider, attracting the driver's attention and asked about the traffic – but was unsurprised to find out that this was typical and that believe it or not they were on the fastest road and route out of Downtown at the moment.
"We need to get back to the church and get into the tilt-wing. The ward on that should slow down whoever's doing this and maybe even stop them cold." Unfortunately that was not what Seattle's traffic had planned for them, and they crawled up the I-5 amongst the tens of thousands of other commuters all battling to get home on a Monday evening. As the journey progressed, the traces of power leaking from Aswon's aura intensified as the tracking ritual progressed. Sooner or later whoever was looking for them was going to get a lock on them – and it was almost certainly going to be bad news. Kai pulled out his phone and called Marius, speaking in Russian so as not to alert the cabbie.
"We may have a problem. We' in a cab, coming back from downtown, and we're potentially coming in hot."
"Do I need to warm up the drones? Or the engines?"
"Neither – not that kind of problem. We think Aswon's being tracked by something magical. Can you get Tads and warn her?"
"She is not here. Has not been here all day."
"Ok, let Vadim know then, please."
"Also not here. He left with Tads first thing, straight after breakfast."
"Crap. Ok, I'll try calling Tads direct. We'll do what we can, but you may want to be ready, just in case. We'll want to pull up and get straight into the bird – so if you can have one of the doors that are warded open, so we can run straight in?"
"No problem, I will get things ready."
Kai disconnected the call, then tried Tads. He smiled as he heard the phone answer, but then the smile faded when he heard Vadim speak.
"Hello?"
"Vadim, it's Kai. I need to speak to Tads – it's urgent."
"She's not here. In her body. She's on a vision quest."
"How long will that take?"
"I don't know. It could be a few minutes, it could be until tomorrow. There's no way to tell."
"Ok, look – where are you?"
"I shouldn't say. We are away from the church a little, though."
"What do you mean you shouldn't say?"
"We're in a lodge, and the shaman who owns it does not want to share the location. So I will not say where I am. Tads was MOST clear on this."
"Look, we're being tracked!" The taxi wobbled slightly as Kai raised his voice in exasperation, and the driver reacted to the tone, head twisting round in alarm. Kai switched back to English. "No. don't worry, sir. Our stocks and shares are being tracked, there's a hostile takeover coming. Nothing to worry about – though we do need to get back to our offices as soon as possible. There's a big fat tip if you can get us there faster!" The cabbie seemed to accept the answer, turning back to concentrate on the road for a moment, before calling back over his shoulder.
"How much of a tip?"
"Two hundred Nuyen?" Kai offered, hoping that would be enough.
"Right!" A horn blared as the cabbie muscled his way into a space on the lane to their left, squeezing himself into a gap that was probably a little too small for safety. Kai turned back to face the rear of the cab, and lowered his voice, back into Russian.
"Vadim, something magical is tracking Aswon. Been building up for a while now. Don't know what, but it's not going to be good, I think. We need some magical backup at the Church. We'll probably be there in about twenty or thirty minutes." The taxi swerved sharply to one side and another horn sounded just behind them as a driver expressed their rage at being cut up. "Maybe sooner."
"I can be there astrally in a few seconds, and help defend you. Just call when you are there, and I will leave at once."
"Ok, we'll do that. No idea what is tracking us though, so if Tads gets back from her thingy, let her know, too?"
"I will do."
Kai hung up and looked over at Shimazu, then at Aswon, dropping into astral himself. He could see the building power now himself – it was fairly obvious now, and continuing to build in intensity. Unfortunately there was nothing they could do – they'd seen a few stores and malls on the side of the highway, but while many of them had wards, they were flimsy and low in power, acting more as a deterrent and to stop juvenile activity, rather than serious magical assault. The only places that they had seen with strong wards that might make a difference had all been corporate facilities surrounded by high walls topped with razor wire, often with signs warning that trespassers would be shot, or fed to the Barghest – which while they would do the job to stop the magical tracking (they hoped) would cause a whole bunch of other problems.
The traffic started to ease a little the further north they went, dying down with every exit they passed, every little pocket of suburban development that a thousand wage-slaves called home, and with every kilometre travelled they were able to pick up speed. The promise of triple pay had bought out the racing driver lurking at the core of the cabbie's personality, and he pushed the cab hard, keeping up with the more sleek and powerful executive cars and sporty designs by virtue of just jamming his foot to the floor and liberal use of the horn – and knowing that other people wouldn't want the hassle of dealing with a bump and were likely to get out of the way.
Finally they swerved off the I-5, rocketing up the slip-road heading towards the diamond interchange at the top. The car rocked wildly as the cabbie swerved around a waiting truck, jumping the red light at the top and cutting into the traffic coming east down 41st Street causing a fanfare of angry honking as the cab disrupted the traffic turning onto the I-5. They'd barely straightened up from the junction when the cabby threw the wheel over hard to the left, sending them all sliding to the right and squishing up against the door as they swung onto 3rd Avenue, rocketing through the industrial estate that contained the church. Kai pushed back from the door and fumbled with his phone, calling Vadim and tell him they were just about to arrive, then turned to the others.
"Hunter, pay for the cab as soon as we get back, will you. Aswon – head inside, fast as you can. Shimazu – you go with him, I'll try and keep up. Get inside the ward as fast as you can." Everyone nodded in agreement, and got ready to disembark from the cab. With a squeal of brakes the cab decelerated hard, leaving two long black streaks of rubber on the road as they slid to a halt at the entrance to the car park. Hunter leant forward, credstick in hand to pay while the others threw the door open and bolted. There were a couple of people moving around in the car-park, but when they saw Aswon and Shimazu appear and sprint to the vehicle hanger, they moved as fast as they could out of the way. By now the local population had realised that while having Shadowrunners on their doorstep was often a good thing for them, thanks to the money they threw around and the protection they offered, there were some drawbacks – automatic gunfire, high-speed car chases and the occasional gang war. Their street-senses had become adjusted to picking up on situations like that, and as they saw how fast the two men were running and the expressions on their faces, they took extreme effort to make sure they were not anywhere near either of them.
Aswon and Shimazu crossed the car park in seconds, enhanced physiques pushing them to speeds comparable to top level athletes. A shape loomed at the opening to the hanger as they closed, pulling back the curtain to let light spill out and give them an uninterrupted entrance and a straight run to the bird. Marius pulled the opening wider with his left hand, and held out the Spear with his right, holding it loosely so Aswon could snatch it out of his grasp as he passed, still running full tilt towards the waiting ramp, only ten metres ahead. Vadim's astral form hovered by the ramp, looking around for intruders, ready to strike.
The magical power reached a crescendo, tendrils of power suddenly arcing out from Aswon's body as they made a connection with the power questing from a ritual somewhere, then a huge shape appeared before him, decelerating so quickly it was as if they had just teleported in. Aswon had seen Tads arriving back from her travels often enough by now to understand what was happening, but he'd never seen anything this big arrive before, and he skidded to a halt, only a few metres from the ramp. He didn't want to – but the creature had manifested in front of him, blocking the way very effectively.
It reared up, unfurling its wings and swinging a scaly head towards him, fixing him with cold, beady eyes, then hissed at him, words cracking and rasping from its mouth.
"Ahhh. There you are."
"You're looking for me?" He stood up straight, commanding his breathing to steady and holding his spear close to his body, just in case. "I am Aswon!"
"Yes, I am aware of that fact. I have a message for you." The head swung over to examine Shimazu, fixing him with an equally cold stare for a moment as the bodyguard stood ready to strike, sword in hand. Shimazu examined the drake, then took a step backwards, lowering his sword a little, letting the tip point down towards the ground. It hadn't attacked yet, so he'd give it a chance to speak – but remaining ready to strike at a moment's notice. The drake swung back to face Aswon, ignoring the panting Kai as he arrived through the doorway, Marius and the astral form of Vadim entirely.
"The creature you have sworn to defeat has escaped the prison. It has been tracked across to the lands of North America. My master commands that you travel to a place, to seek it out and carry out your sworn task." Aswon's face fell, and the others looked equally surprised. A moment of silence stretched out, then Aswon recovered and cleared his throat.
"Do you have any more details of how it got out?"
"No, I am just the messenger for my master. He commands you to travel to a place, a junction between two things. The old US Highway 18 and a trail of Big Feet. Go to this place and meet a guide. You must be there by the fifteenth day of this month. Do you understand this message?"
"Yes, we do." Aswon repeated the instructions, the drake nodding as he did so.
"And you will go to this place as instructed?"
"Yes! We said we would do, and we will keep our word!" Aswon was definite, knowing that both he and Shimazu had sworn an oath, and had no intention of failing to complete this task, and being pretty certain that none of the rest would fail to help. Some of them might grumble about it, long and hard – but they'd support the team.
"Very well. I shall inform my master." The drake turned and accelerated, disappearing in the blink of an eye as it headed north. Aswon blinked in surprise, but then recalled a conversation with Hunter one time where he'd been talking about great circle routes and how strange as it might seem on a map, but the shortest route between two places was often an arc or circle, not a straight line.
"Was that a tiny dragon?" Vadim asked quietly, still somewhat stunned by the presence of the creature and its conversation with Aswon.
"In a certain sense of the word – perhaps. It was a drake, a servant of a dragon. That one appears to serve the Great Dragon Aden. He is the one that we have agreed to attack the Horror for."
"Right. Ok, I'm going to go back to Tads, and let her know. How long did it say we had?"
"Until the fifteenth. So we've got eleven days – but I have no idea where we're going."
"I think I might." Hunter sounded a little distracted, and they turned to see him studying a map. "Yeah, I think I got it… there's a road that I think is the old US Highway road number 18, in what used to be South Dakota. Meets up with something called Big Foot Trail. If so, it's in what is now Sioux lands, about sixteen hundred klicks from here."
"We can make that on one tank of fuel then, and if we take a load with us, can get back using the refuel. Ok, that's doable." Aswon saw the expression on Marius's face. "I know – I know. I wasn't expecting this and it's not ideal. I thought we'd have more time. But if we go over there and deal with this threat, it gets a dragon off our backs, and clears our schedule as far as I know – we can go back to the ranch and relax for a while, and not have to leave to go and do this." Marius considered this – Aswon was probably right, and if they didn't have anything else to do, he could stay at the ranch for a while and be there when the baby came. All he had to do was make sure the bird was ready to fly and deal with this one thing – and stop Kai taking any more jobs. He nodded to Aswon more firmly, and Aswon returned his nod with a smile, not understanding the reason for the change in demeanour and assuming it was because of his excellent skills of diplomacy.
When Tads and Vadim returned late that night, the team got together and discussed the new plan over pizza delivered from the local takeaway. Tads had unsurprisingly asked for a slice of everyone's pizza to taste, as well as ordering one of each of the side dishes, and was munching away carefully and deliberately as she tried each type of food. The team jumped in surprise as she suddenly spat out a mouthful of pizza, sending half masticated olive all over the floor – apparently a taste that had surprised and somewhat disgusted her. Even more amusing was watching her screw up her face and go in for a second bite, causing a shudder of revulsion and retching noises.
The team agreed that they didn't really have much of a choice but to carry out the mission for Aden – two of the team had promised, and in a way that was against their nature to go back upon, while in a more general sense, saying no to a Great Dragon was generally a good way to show that you were bored of life – particularly one that had taken exception to threats and posturing by burning down the capital city of Iran.
With eleven days until they needed to be there though, that gave them options – and after a great deal of discussion they agreed upon a five day period of training and repairs here at the church. That should allow Marius enough time to get all of the damaged systems on the tilt-wing repaired and fully operational again, and to also spend some of their pay on some new gear which he'd been after for a while. In particular he was after a 'protocol emulation module' for his deck, a very illegal but very useful addon that would allow him to conduct electronic warfare against other rigger networks and enemy vehicles.
Tads had indicated that she was making excellent progress with learning some powerful and useful spells from Fang, in exchange for some tuition on various techniques that Tads had picked up in the last year. She could also use the time to make her notes and contact Aslick and Popov, to see if they could create some of the spells she was interested in but didn't have time to manufacture herself. Vadim was also picking up a lot of knowledge from this exchange, improving his own skills greatly from the two more experienced Shaman.
Kai wanted to spend some time meditating and seeking out new insights about his own magical ability and seeing if he could increase his own focus and skills, and this seemed like as good a time to do so as any other – perhaps even better as it might let him be more adept at overcoming the effects of the Horror upon them all.
Hunter, Aswon and Shimazu all had plenty of training to get on with to either maintain or try and improve their skills, and the local gyms and the tactical training centre just down from the church made for an excellent venue to accomplish this.
"There's one other thing I want to do before we leave here – and that's do a quick job against one of the hospitals or clinics in the area. Once we're done with our training, we'll take a couple of hours to split up and go check a couple out, find out which is going to be the softest target, then make off with some goodies. Some for our own supplies, some for resale or bribes along the way, and some to give to April. I want to make sure that if we end up getting arms and legs ripped off fighting this Horror, that we've got somewhere to come back to with a doctor who owes us a favour, and has the equipment to help us."
The others nodded in understanding as he explained. With their skills, it should be a low risk venture that would be quick to carry out, and building those bridges now might pay dividends later.
"Ok folks – we've got just under a week. Let's go out there and make the most of it!"
