Poison Agendas

by Stephen Kenson

  The Brain Eaters hesitated at the sound, and the shadowrunners stood ready for a renewed attack. Natokah slowly lowered his hands, and his features returned to normal as a strong breeze blew through the bar, carrying a swirl of drink napkins into the air. Kellan realized there were no open windows or doors that could account for the wind inside. Then smoke seemed to condense out of the air between the gangers and the shadowrunners. It took on a humanoid shape, and then solidified into the form of an ork. He was dressed in heavy work boots, jeans and a button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up over his bulging forearms. He had a heavy apron tied over his clothes and balanced a thick cudgel on his shoulder.

  "I think you should be leaving here . . . now." the ork rumbled in a deep bass, glaring at the Brain Eaters. "Or do I have to see you out myself?" He tapped the cudgel against his open palm for emphasis.

  Crash staggered to his feet, simultaneously recovering from the effects of Kellan's stun baton and his initial shock at the ork's sudden appearance. Rather than back down, he rushed the ork, slashing at him with his hand razors. The ork stood his ground, blocking the attack with an almost casual gesture from his cudgel. Then he shoved the Brain Eater back, wound up, and swung.

  The sickening sound of wood striking flesh and bone echoed in the small room. The blow spun Crash halfway around before he crumpled in a heap on the floor. The other gangers looked in horror from the smiling ork to their chummer and back again.

  "Anyone else want a piece of this?" the ork roared, taking a step forward. The gangers shrank back from him. "Get out of here! Now!" he yelled, and the Brain Eaters scrambled to gather up their fallen comrades. They retreated from the bar with only brief backward glances. When they were gone, the ork turned to Natokah.

  "Thank you, my friend." the shaman said with a slight bow.

  The ork waved it off. "My pleasure. Fraggin' gangers—don't need them causing trouble around here. Hey, Lou!" he called. "You're doin' a good job! Just make sure to pour me one once in a while, okay?" The dumbfounded bartender could only nod in agreement. The ork saluted Natokah with a wave and then dissolved into the same cloud of smoke from which he'd appeared. In an instant, he was gone.

  "Who was that?" Kellan asked.

  "The spirit of this place." the shaman replied. "Its hearth, its living essence. I called upon his help." He turned to Lou, who had approached the group with a bemused expression. "Leave a glass of whiskey, neat, over the bar tonight, and once during the week of each full moon." he told him. "It will appease his thirst and keep him happy."

  A smile split the bartender's stubbled face. "I will." he said. "Thanks! You guys are welcome here anytime." Then he retreated back to the bar.

  "Yeah, thanks," Orion told Natokah, "but I could have handled them."

  The shaman smiled. "I'm sure you could have."

  "So." the shaman said, turning toward Kellan. "I think you were saying something about getting together later?"

  Chapter 13

  They met that night at Kellan's place. Her apartment wasn't large, but there was room enough for them to sprawl across Kellan's secondhand furniture and discuss the specifics of the run. Kellan made introductions for those who hadn't already met, and it seemed clear to her some of the runners had at least heard of each other. Midnight and Natokah in particular seemed to know each other by reputation, though they gave no indication they had met.

  Draven showed up at the door wearing a chain mail shirt over a lining of ballistic armor, with a double-bladed axe strapped at his side. The topper, literally, was the horned helmet on the dwarf's head, adding at least another twenty centimeters to his height. Kellan could tell that, despite looking like a prop from a fantasy sim, the helmet was equipped with some communications and targeting gear. She was also willing to bet the axe was a modern composite, and not hammer-forged iron. Though Orion rolled his eyes at the sight of the dwarf, he managed to hold his tongue, for which Kellan was grateful. There was no need to start things off on the wrong foot. If anyone else took exception to Draven's tradfant getup, they showed no sign of it.

  Once everyone was there, Kellan got right down to business.

  "The run is fairly simple." she said. "A trip out of the plex into Salish-Shidhe Council territory to a specific location. It's strictly an information-gathering job: we go, we see what's there, get all the data we can, and get back home, all without alerting the border patrols or the SSC security forces."

  "What exactly are we supposed to be scouting?" Natokah asked.

  "I'm not prepared to share that information at this point." Kellan said, trying to be diplomatic.

  The shaman's dark eyes focused on her for a long moment.

  "We're all professionals here." Natokah finally said, spreading his hands to include everyone in the room. "If you're not willing to show us a level of trust, why should we do the same?"

  Kellan leaned forward as she responded. "I don't consider this to be a question of trust. As professional shadowrunners, you don't always get to know all the details going into a run. That's the team leader's responsibility, and I'm the team leader. If you can't work within the terms of the job, the door's over there."

  All eyes went to Natokah. The shaman's face was inscrutable as he eyed Kellan.

  "We'll play it your way for now."

  Kellan looked at the other runners, but no one else voiced any objections.

  "Good." she said. She wasn't sure she managed to keep her relief out of her voice. "The first thing we need to do is get from here to there, which means leaving the metroplex and crossing over into NAN territory without raising any red flags."

  "I can help with that." Draven volunteered. "I know smugglers who work the routes south and east of here. They run cargo—and sometimes passengers—in and out of NAN territory, from Seattle down to Denver and back."

  "If I give you the general location, can you arrange for transportation in and out of the SSC territories?"

  Draven nodded. "The closest city should be enough." he said. "I assume we'd need to be on our own from there?"

  "Right." Kellan replied. "Okay." she manipulated the controls of a flatscreen datapad before setting it on the low table in the middle of the room. "This is our target area in the SSC. It looks like Lewiston-Clarkston is the closest city."

  Draven looked over the map. "That should be enough to go on." he said. "It's not far off the major smuggling routes, so I should be able to find us a t-bird pilot willing to take a short side trip."

  "How would we leave the plex?" Orion asked, leaning in to look at the map. Kellan doubted the elf had ever been outside of Seattle. From what she knew, Orion had grown up on the streets of Puyallup. Though many people associated elves with the Awakened wilderness, this elf had probably never even seen a real forest, much less hiked through one.

  "Our departure point will be up to the smuggler," Natokah interjected, "but my guess is we'll go through the Puyallup Barrens. I know of several places there where we can make the crossing."

  Kellan nodded. "As long as there is minimal chance of anyone else catching wind of this."

  "Of course. The people I know are discreet." Draven replied.

  "Well," Orion commented, "If we're headed out into NAN land, we're going to need wilderness gear, right?"

  "Some of that we can acquire in Lewiston or the nearby area, I imagine." Natokah said. "The less cargo we bring with us out of the metroplex, the easier it will be."

  "Plus, if we're carrying out a lot of wilderness gear, it gives anyone who's watching an idea of what we're doing." Midnight added. She was lounging in one of Kellan's beat-up easy chairs. "Better to find what we need closer to our objective."

  "I'm not ashamed to say I've never been camping in my life." Orion stated. "But it seems like we've got a lot of muscle just to go out in the woods."

  He glanced somewhat pointedly at Draven. Natokah spoke up before Kellan could answer.

  "It's a wise precaution." he said. "The Awakening affected animals as well as people
, and there's no telling what we might run into in the wild. There are also spirits—some mischievous, others more dangerous."

  "That's going to be your department." Kellan told the shaman. She suddenly wished she had time to return to Lothan for a more detailed course in summoning and controlling spirits.

  "You guys," she said to Orion and Draven, "deal with anything else that gets in our way. Midnight handles security." Natokah glanced briefly at the infiltration expert, a thoughtful look on his face.

  Let him wonder why we need a security specialist along, Kellan thought. She was glad the shaman had chosen to stick with the run. She had confidence in her own magical abilities, but Natokah knew the sorts of spirits they might encounter outside the metroplex. And he obviously had knowledge of the Native American Nations that surely would be useful. All Kellan knew about the NAN came from what she learned in school, and secondhand stories and rumors. She passed through NAN territory to get from Kansas City to Seattle, but you didn't learn a lot about a place by riding through it. Natokah was a valuable resource.

  Still, Kellan had been serious when she told him he could walk. The shaman was within his rights to try to get more information about the run, but she had just as much of a right to deny him. This run was her opportunity to call the shots. If Natokah or anyone else had a problem with that, then Kellan didn't need them. She felt she'd handled things pretty well. She had a good feeling about this run.

  * * *

  "I've got a bad feeling about this." Orion said later, after everyone else had left. There'd been some additional discussion of equipment needed and the timing of the run, then Kellan had given everyone their up-front share of the cred and sent them on their way. Now they had to wait until Draven arranged transportation out of the metroplex, which he seemed to think he could set up fairly quickly.

  "Why?" Kellan asked Orion, as he stared out the window into the darkness.

  The elf gave a little snort of mirthless laughter. "Don't you ever feel just a little overwhelmed?" he asked, turning away from the window. "Maybe it's just the idea of leaving the metroplex. Maybe it's just that it seems like things are happening pretty fast."

  "Yeah, I feel that way too." she replied. "But things're working out. Pretty soon this run will be over and we'll have some real cred to show for it."

  "I hope so. Nice the way you handled Natokah, by the way." he said.

  "Thanks. But I'm glad he decided to stay. I think he's going to be a big asset on this run."

  Orion nodded. "Yeah, he seems to know his stuff.

  And that business with the hearth spirit was pretty impressive. All the same, I'd keep an eye on him—on all of them—if I were you."

  "I don't know." Kellan replied. "I think Natokah and Draven are trustworthy enough. They don't seem to have a lot of ambition beyond the next run. Natokah in particular seems like an honorable enough guy. But you're right, I probably should keep an eye on them both."

  "And Midnight, too." Orion reminded her. "You can't trust her any more than Draven or Natokah."

  "You're not the first one to think that." Kellan said. "Lothan showed up here the other night to give me the same warning."

  "What did he say?"

  "Typical Lothan stuff. He just gave me this mysterious warning, no details, like I'm supposed to trust him."

  "Don't you?" Orion asked. "I mean, I know you don't agree with him about everything . . ." Kellan remembered that Orion didn't know the full extent of her dealings—her double-dealings—with Lothan. She'd kept the fact that he was working for the opposition on the Ares run a secret from everyone else involved in the "asset acquisition."

  She shrugged, choosing to sidestep the question. "I think she'll be useful on this run. Besides," she glanced up at Orion from her place on the couch, "she says she knew my mom."

  "Really?"

  Kellan nodded. "Yeah. She recognized this." she said, touching her amulet. "Said it belonged to a shadowrunner named Mustang she used to run with, someone who taught her the ropes. She always wondered what happened to her. She says I look a lot like her, and the timing is right for her to have been my mother."

  "You sure she's on the level?" Orion asked. He sat on the other end of the couch. "I mean, she could just be telling you this to get in good with you for some reason."

  "What reason? She didn't even know I was looking for information about my mother." Kellan said. "She brought it up. I guess she could be making it up, but the stuff she said about my mom fits the little know."

  "Does she know what happened to your mom?"

  Kellan shook her head. "No, she says she lost track of her. It seems like she wants to know what happened almost as much as I do. It's not much, but it's a start. Midnight really seems to want to help me out, like my mom helped her. I think I can trust her as much as you can trust anyone in this business.''

  Orion smiled ruefully. "Well, for what it's worth," he said, "I trust you."

  Kellan was surprised. "Really?" she asked.

  He nodded. "Yeah, really. You took a big risk coming to me when you found out the Ancients were being set up. You didn't really know anything about me, but you took a chance in order to do what you thought was right. People just don't do that for each other, especially in our line of work. That's how I know I can trust you."

  "Thanks." Kellan said quietly. "I trust you, too." There was a moment when Kellan was caught in the earnest look in Orion's green eyes. Then he glanced away and an awkward pause hung in the air.

  "Well then, we've each got somebody in the biz we can trust. Look, I should get going." he said. "Give me a buzz when we're set to go, or if you need anything else, okay?" He stood up from the couch, grabbing his leather jacket from the back of a chair and slipping it on.

  "Sure." Kellan said. "No problem."

  "Catch you later." he said, pulling open the door.

  "Okay. And, Orion?"

  "Yeah?"

  "Thanks." Kellan said.

  "Null sheen." the elf replied. "G'night." Then he was out the door and it closed quietly behind him.

  Kellan sat on her couch, hugging her knees to her chest and thinking. Events were in motion. Now it was just a matter of finding out if Squeak's data was the gold mine he'd thought it was. Just a trip out into foreign territory, through hostile Awakened wilderness, in search of something that someone else was willing to kill for. "Nothing to it." Kellan muttered to herself, glad she appeared so confident to Orion. She hoped everyone else on the team saw the same thing as he did.

  She'd been truly surprised, and deeply honored, by Orion's declaration of trust. Their mutual trust was based on mutual respect. She'd gone out on a limb for Orion and he'd done the same, getting thrown out of the Ancients go-gang for defying its leader, Green Lucifer. He could have just kept his mouth shut, could have ignored Kellan's information that said the gang was being double-crossed. Since then, she had learned Orion did what he believed was right, and she trusted him to do the right thing.

  Could she say the same about anyone else on the team? Not really. The other shadowrunners she knew acted out of self-interest. Sometimes it was enlightened self-interest, but more often it was just looking out for number one. A few runners followed a personal code, but it seemed like everyone held things back. Everyone had a hidden agenda. Maybe that was another reason she trusted Orion: the elf warrior certainly didn't hold anything back. He was as direct as a sword thrust about pretty much everything. There were no secrets, and she could rely on him to tell her exactly what he thought.

  Kellan picked up her phone and pulled up a number from the menu, tucking her feet underneath her on the couch. When the voice mail system answered, she paused for only a second before leaving a message.

  "Midnight, it's Kellan. Give me a call in the morning. We need to talk."

  Chapter 14

  Kellan arranged to meet Midnight the following afternoon. She loved the nocturnal lifestyle, for which shadowrunners were famous, as much as the next guy, but this daytime meeting see
med appropriate since she wanted to clear away some shadows. Midnight had agreed to come back to Kellan's place—this wasn't a conversation Kellan wanted to have in public, and she felt a little stronger on her own turf. It was the same reason she'd decided to bring the team there last night, even though most runners would consider revealing your home base to anyone to be a rookie mistake.

  Midnight called up from the lobby of the building right on time. Kellan buzzed her in, then paced by the door until she knocked.

  Midnight wasn't wearing her "working clothes" of form-fitting leather. Instead, she wore a loose fitting leather jacket and a tee-shirt tucked into a pair of jeans worn over black leather boots. A bright red messenger bag was slung over her shoulder, and her long hair fell loose around her shoulders. Out of her usual ponytail, her hair softened the sharp planes and angles of her face. Even dressed so casually, however, Midnight still looked like a model and moved like a dancer as she glided into Kellan's apartment.

  "Right on time." Kellan said. "Thanks."

  "I want you to know," Midnight said lightly, "getting up during the day isn't something I do for just anybody."

  "I feel suitably honored," she quipped, "and I appreciate it."

  "Not a problem. Actually, I wanted to talk to you, too."

  "Really? What about?" Kellan asked.

  "You first."

  Kellan gestured toward the same chair Midnight had adorned last night, letting her take off her jacket and settle in before she continued. Kellan sat on the edge of the couch and decided to plunge right into it.

  "I want to know what you and Lothan talked about that night at the club."

  Midnight didn't bat an eye, but settled more deeply into the chair.

  "Have you asked Lothan about it?" she asked.