by Anthology
›WHAT?
›On my mesh. He tried to hack it-succeeded, I guess-but I shut it down. Told me to be careful. Said we're not yaks. Said to watch out.
Lincoln glanced down at the zoned-out yak mage. He still hadn't moved.›SO YOU'RE WORRIED.
›Yeah.
›KILL HIM?
Deke shook his head.›Not yet. We need to find this little girl, get paid. We need more information. He looked down at the ork.›And a better plan.
Lincoln shrugged.›I'LL BACK YOUR PLAY. He disconnected.
Deke looked around, trying to ignore the taint in the air of cooking meat. It wasn't the first time he'd smelled it, not even the first time he'd smelled it in the Barrens. He dropped an overlay and looked around, watching for mesh telltales or odd dots or arrows. Nothing. The shack was right down the road.
"We're leaving now," his mother had said, a couple months after they'd gotten the word about his dad. "We're not coming back here. We're never coming back here."
Yet here I am.
The mage stirred.
"We're going back toward town. The girl has been sold to the Leaf gang, and their harvesting center is ten kilometers that direction." He climbed to his feet and looked between Deke and Lincoln. "This is acceptable?"
"Our contract was for the gangers," Deke said.
"Your contract was to retrieve the oyabun's daughter."
"From the gangers." Deke jerked a thumb over his shoulder. The rain was keeping fire from spreading outside the building, but the smoke was still there, and the smell. And, Deke knew, later that night there'd be a moment where his hand would spasm and he'd see the face of the ganger he'd punched to death. "That's done."
"I said we would renegotiate." The ork returned Deke's gaze evenly.
"Now."
"Very well. I will increase your payment by forty percent for the added labor."
"Sixty."
"You are haggling?"
"We could walk away now."
"You haven't completed your contract," the yak said. Lincoln stepped a step to the side, away from Deke's side, adding some distance between them. The ork looked at him, then back at Deke. "Even if you did, the oyabun would hunt you down."
"Fifty percent over the previous amount," Deke said. His palms were sweating inside his gloves but he kept his voice even. "And you deposit the first amount now, into our numbered accounts. Before we take another step."
The ork smiled. It was not pretty. "Done." He turned and walked back toward the slope they had come down. Their vehicle was waiting there, and as Deke drove at the ork's instructions he had Lincoln check the status of their accounts. They'd barely gone a klick when Lincon sent a message through Deke's mesh.
›MONEY'S THERE. NICE PLAY.
"How do you know it's the Leafs?" Deke asked.
"That was the information I was given," the mage said. He stared out the side window, but his fingers moved every so often in intricate movements and his lips moved as he subvocalized words. Deke watched him out of the corner of his eye.
"Given?"
"By those with the information," he said.
"You know, you could start trusting us," Deke said, after a short period of silence. "We're doing what you want."
The mage turned his head and looked at Deke. "Trust is not necessary, runner. Your skills are needed, and so you are employed. More information would not make it any easier for you to shoot people."
"I need to know about the Leafs."
"There are six people in the facility as of six hours ago. When we get there I'll be able to update that number."
"Update?"
"I can sense it."
"So you can lead me right to the little girl?" Deke smiled. "That'll make it easier. Might even be able to get in and out without killing anyone." He made an indicated turn and slowed. The flashing neon sign of a tree branch was blinking ahead in the distance, and his overlays were starting to pick up more lively dots and arrows-current ones, even. Not leftovers.
"I cannot tell you where people are," the mage said. "Only how many."
"Seems rubbish, to me."
"Everything has limits, runner. Even in the Sixth World."
Deke didn't slow down as he passed the Leaf organ harvesting center that masqueraded as a private care facility. He just rolled past, not even looking. Lincoln would be looking, he knew. He'd cross-load the feed through his mesh later. And the yak was almost glowing as they went past.
"There are twelve people in that building," he said.
Deke drove to the next side street, signaled the turn like a normal driver, and took it. He pulled into the first alley he found and parked the van, then opened his mesh up while Lincoln transmitted what'd he'd seen. Deke watched the replay at double-speed, watching for anything that would indicate he should slow down, but saw only what he expected: a harmless-looking building, unfortified, hiding in plain sight.
"Plan?" Lincoln asked.
"Depends," Deke said.
"On?"
"On whether one of those twelve people is the little girl." He looked to the ork. "You realize we may be too late."
"She is still alive," the mage said. "She must be."
"Then the smart money is some of them being doctors." Deke took a deep breath. "That means fast."
"Fast is more dangerous," Lincoln said. A ping sounded in Deke's head.›WHAT'S PLAN?
"Yes, it is," Deke said.›Insurance.
"The girl must not be harmed." The mage was looking in the direction of the building, but his attention was still on the small team. "Can you extract her?"
Deke smiled. "That's what you're paying me for." He glanced at Lincoln, thought for a second, and then shrugged. "Life's dangerous." He shifted his weight, then directed his attention to the ork. "You and me need to talk."
"We are speaking."
"Tell me about your mojo."
"My what?"
"Your magic. You can sense people. And I know you can kill people. I've seen that bloody well up close." Deke swallowed against his suddenly dry throat. "Can you just knock everyone in there unconscious?"
"Perhaps," the mage said. "If I could see them. But the spell for that is very dangerous to small children. I would not chance it with the oyabun's daughter at stake."
Deke opened his door and climbed out. They were parked behind a small suite of offices-all seemed deserted, and all the arrows were reading closed. He clicked through several overlays, but there didn't appear to be any security related to the Leafs directed at them. The rain hadn't changed, but there was more light. This close to London-or this far from the Barrens-there was the beginnings of a dedicated zone. If he'd been so inclined, Deke could have probably accessed the Matrix.
"When I go in, will you know who I am?"
"Only if I can see you," the mage said.
Deke nodded. This might work. "If I were carrying the little girl, would you be able to tell? Without seeing us, I mean."
"Only if I can see you. Magic is not like a vid camera." The ork climbed out of the other side of the van. He paused a moment, turning his face upward to the rain. When he looked down, Deke saw calculation in his eyes. "What is your plan?"
"I will go in. I will find the little girl. Once I have her, I'll either carry her out or put her on my back." He beckoned at the mage. "Once you see us, you put everyone else down for a nap." He snapped his fingers. "We walk out."
"Seems simple enough," Lincoln said.›HOW DOES THAT HELP ME!?
›Patience.
The ork considered for a moment. Then he climbed back into the seat he'd recently vacated and closed the door. The window rolled down enough to let sound out. "I can do this," he said. He rummaged for a black skullcap and climbed back out. "I must get on the roof. There are skylights."
"Well…" Deke went to the back of the van and rummaged around until he came up with a dingy old peacoat and slipped it on. It was large enough that it hung to below his waist and halfway down the backs of his hands.
; "You're going in like that," Lincoln asked.
"That's right."
"Through the front door."
"That's right."
›ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL YOURSELF?
"That would seem unwise," the yak said.
"Against other runners? Absolutely. Those gangers we just left? Get me nicked and sold off without a second thought." Deke shrugged his shoulders to reseat the peacoat over the bulge of his subgun at the small of his back. "Here? Just what the doctor ordered."
"You're insane," Lincoln said.
"They have to have a front," Deke said. "People must wander in off the street, arrows or no. They're a medical office, for dragon's sake. I'll just walk in for a consult." He grinned a nod at he ork and started walking, head down, hands deep in the peacoat's pockets.
›HE'S GOING TO KILL US.
›Not before we get the kid.
›RIGHT AFTER.
Deke snorted.›Probably. He glanced around the sidewalk as he came around the building he'd parked behind. There was no one else on the streets, and a quick flicker of his overlays confirmed no active sensing. He shut back down as quickly as he could, content to do more than zip-squeal text with Lincoln. It was maybe a hundred-meter walk to the clinic.
›Get on the Matrix. Get us a rigger, right now. We need a drone here in ten minutes. Pay whatever you have to. But we need wheels.
›THAT SHORT WILL COST.
›Death costs more. Pay it.
›THE PLAN?
›Find a hide. Somewhere you can bear on the roof and the front of the building.
›I CAN'T LOOK TWO DIRECTIONS AT ONCE.
›Watch the front. You don't need to watch the ork until I've got the girl.
›ROG.
Deke clicked the messager off and concentrated on the task at hand. The front of the Leaf clinic was brightly lit, just like most of the other 'corp clone businesses around here. Deke walked just beneath the sign and into the front door without hesitation.
A white-coated receptionist looked up when Deke entered. He was young, maybe twenty-four, a dwarf. He was sitting on a high stool, short arms manipulating an AR keyboard in front of him. Deke's mesh registered a query from the dwarf but returned nothing, not even a carrier.
"May I help you?" the dwarf asked.
"I need a doctor," Deke said.
"Your SIN?"
"It's my hand," Deke said, holding up his right arm.
"I understand, sir," the dwarf said. The nameplate on his uniform read SANCHEZ. "But I need your SIN to begin processing your application."
"It hurts," Deke said. He stepped to the desk. A meter of countertop separated them, but Deke didn't doubt there was at best an alarm button-at worst a gun-beneath the countertop. He poked his arm across the desk. The dwarf frowned.
"Sir, I'm afraid-" he gurgled the rest, as the monoblade in Deke's hand penetrated his forehead.
"That's better," Deke said.›It's on, he sent to Lincoln.
Alarms screamed to life around him. An armored door collapsed near-instantly across the entryway he'd just passed through, and doors snapped shut across the exposed corridors. Deke blinked his overlays up. His mesh came up and his AR went haywire with warnings.
"Bloody hell," Deke murmured, and crouched in front of the dead dwarf's desk.
"Sometimes they're ready for you," Deke's father had once said. "Despite surprise, the buggers find out you're coming or they're ready to be surprised. Then all you can do is cause as much chaos as you can and hope you slip through amongst it."
Deke shrugged out of the peacoat and flung it toward the door. He brought his subgun around and chambered a round. Then he reached into the baggy pockets on the thighs of his dungarees and pulled a small gray charge. He rolled around the corner of the desk, slapped the charge against the nearest blast door near where the latch would be on a normal door, and then smashed a flat metal plate overtop it. Then he rolled back around to duck and cover behind the desk.
He tripped a control in his mesh.
The explosion was a small one, but even small explosions are loud in small rooms. Deke's ears-well, his real one, not his cyber-were ringing, but he staggered to his feet and smashed his shoulder against the door. The plate groaned and then snapped with a crack. Deke shoved his way through and led with the subgun.
Overlays washed across his vision as his mesh interrogated the arrows and dots and other RFID tags in the building. A sketchy map began to take shape in wireframe, but Deke ignored it for now. There were no doors off this corridor, so he had only one way to go. He went.
A man stumbled across the T of the corridor in front of him, moving right to left. It could have been an elf, or even an ork. It wasn't a girl. Deke didn't hesitate. He triggered a three-round-burst from his subgun, two of which removed the person's head at the throat quite nicely. The third buried itself in the surprisingly sturdy door.
The reports of the gun were quite loud, loud enough to penetrate the ringing in Deke's left ear. He reached behind him again and came back with a flash-bang, which he primed and rolled down the corridor. He came to a stop against the opposite wall of the T-junction. Deke crouched and opened his mouth. His overlays flickered to masking, and he closed his left eye. The explosion was even more devastating than the door charge had been.
›TWO DOWN IN FRONT. Lincoln was getting some work after all.›SWEEPERS.
That left nine, one of which was the bunny's little girl. Deke ground his teeth and moved toward the junction. Sweepers from around back of the building-sweepers being those blokes who'd try to come around the building and get behind him-in less than thirty seconds meant a disgustingly high state of readiness. Either these Leafs were real pros, or they were real nervous having the bunny's daughter getting her organs removed in their building.
Either option would get Deke killed.
Two more forms loomed out of the darkness ahead as he went left at the T. He brought the subgun up and fired twice, six rounds. Three to each form. Both of them collapsed as Deke darted forward behind his bullets. They were women, in hospital greens. Harmless.
Still dead.
"There's two kinds of people in the world, lad," his first sergeant in the SAS had told him once. "The kind that matter and the kind that don't." Deke had frowned then, and the sergeant had clapped him on the arm. "On an op, there's those you're there for and those you aren't, and those you aren't are disposable. They get in your way, you move them. You don't leave problems behind you."
Deke stepped past them. He didn't look down twice.
Seven.
›THE ORK IS DOING SOMETHING.
Deke swore and shouldered a door open. An empty breakroom, full of spilled coffee and dots screaming fire warnings. Deke swung around.
A flicker of light made him jerk back, but not far enough. Something tugged at the subgun for an instant, right before the front half of the barrel dropped off. Another flicker of light, and Deke looked away from the end of his gun lying on the floor and down the hallway. A man in heavy gloves twirled a length of line. Monofilament. As sharp as the blade in Deke's fist.
"Runners," the man spat.
"Corps," Deke spat back.
"You're not getting out of here," the sec man said.
"Darn," Deke said. He dropped the remains of his submachine gun and held his hands out toward the man. The sec guard snarled and swung his line. Deke, his overlays ready, tagged the line in flight and stuck his right hand out, fist clenched. The line jerked in the air and went taut, the end wrapped around the edge of the monoblade protruding from Deke's fist.
"Nice trick," the sec guard said. "Not nice enough." He jerked.
There was another tug as the monofilament sawed through the blade and swung free. The man spun, unbalanced, gathering the line back to himself. It took the low-mass line barely a second to writhe back under his control.
Just in time for the bullet from Deke's pistol-the one he'd drawn with his left hand even as his right registered the tug of the monofi
lament cutting-took him in the shoulder and spun him around.
Deke switched the gun to his right hand, advanced two steps, and put four more rounds into the downed sec man. The fourth round entered the man's head through his right temple. It didn't-that Deke could see-come out.
"Works," Deke said. Six.
›DON'T GET COCKY.
Deke's cyberear picked up the footstep even as he chuckled at Lincoln's comment. He spun around, gun ready, but not fast enough. Bullets crackled down the hallway as the man-the elf, Deke saw-held down the trigger on the submachine gun he held. The first round crashed against the right side of Deke's chest, but it bounced off his dermal plates and ricocheted away. The others-twenty-eight or so, his mesh told him-flew on steadily higher trajectories as the recoil raised the barrel.
Pain flared through Deke's chest at the impact. The armor was subdermal, after all… he had a right-big gouge through the flesh and muscle of his chest. He let himself fall to the corridor floor but kept a tight grip on the pistol in his right hand.
"Did I get him?" the elf asked.
"No," Deke snarled. He fired.
Five.
Deke gathered himself and stood. His chest burned, but he didn't have any trouble breathing. He replaced the magazine in his pistol and moved down the hallway in the direction the man with the submachine gun had come from. A large pair of double-doors were at the end of the hall. Deke bulled through them in a rush.
The room was brightly-lit from a bank of lights on the ceiling. The light was harsh, actinic. Four men stood around a table, trays and instruments all around them. A small form was on the table, covered in green surgical blankets. There was blood on the blankets.
"Get out of here!" one of the men said. "You're not sterile!"
Deke swallowed. There was a lot of blood on the blankets. More on the aprons of the men, and on the tools scattered on trays around them.
"Did you hear me?"
Deke shot him.
The others yelped and backed away from the table. There were no other exits from the room except the large doors Deke had come through. He brandished the pistol and the men whimpered and backed against the wall. Sheep. Deke stepped closer to the table and jerked the surgical blankets back.