Poison Agendas

by Stephen Kenson

  Kellan didn't ask for any details. Should she? If Natokah was confident they could make it, she guessed she was willing to take him at his word, for the moment.

  They met up with the rest of the team, who'd found a local diner open and serving breakfast. There were a few other hardy souls up at the crack of dawn; a couple of hikers, several elderly locals and a handful of truckers—legitimate versions of Fast Eddy—passing through Lewiston on their way elsewhere. Kellan wondered if any of them were really smugglers, perhaps with rigs of their own stashed somewhere outside of town.

  They chose a table in the back, well away from the other patrons, and ordered. Kellan noticed that soy did not appear anywhere on the menu. When she pointed that out to the rest of the team, only Natokah seemed pleased at the prospect of eating unprocessed food. Unsure of what any of the food was going to taste like, everyone but Natokah stuck with the somewhat familiar and ordered the special: pancakes, eggs and bacon or sausage, plus coffee.

  Once the waitress had poured their coffee and headed off to other tables, Kellan took the opportunity to tell Draven and Midnight about the arrangements for taking a boat to go downriver into Hell's Canyon.

  "Natokah says he can get us there faster than normal." she said, glancing over at the shaman. He nodded in response.

  "Does it have to be by river?" Draven asked, with a somewhat pained look. "Water and me . . ." He trailed off. The dwarf had taken off his horned helmet and stashed it along with his pack beside the table, but he still looked like a refugee from the set of a fantasy sim. Kellan hoped his distinctive appearance wasn't drawing too much attention—though she had to admit that no one in the diner seemed interested in them.

  "What's the matter?" Midnight teased. "Can't swim?"

  "I can swim," Draven replied, "it's just that I'm better at sinking."

  "Well, you can walk." Kellan said. "But it's a fraggin' long hike."

  The dwarf sighed in resignation.

  "You will not be able to wear your chain mail in the boat." Natokah observed. Draven sighed again and nodded.

  "If things go well," the shaman said, "we can make the trip in less than half the normal time, which will allow us additional time to deal with our objective." He looked pointedly at Kellan, but she wasn't about to discuss their goal in public.

  She ignored the implied question. "If we get back early, that makes it look like we haven't gone all that far. We can wait in town until our ride gets back, or we can make alternate arrangements."

  "We'll probably need to wait." Orion said. "I'm guessing there aren't a lot of options."

  Natokah nodded. "We could camp out for an extra day or two, if necessary." he said in a low voice. "It would be safer than risking drawing attention to ourselves in town."

  "Frag that." Orion said. "I'm not gonna spend any longer than I have to out in the woods. Give me a coffin hotel over some flimsy tent any day."

  "We'll see." Kellan said firmly. There was no getting away from the fact that she and her team were creatures of the urban environment. She was glad that Natokah was so comfortable in the wilderness, but she wasn't entirely happy about having to rely so heavily on the shaman during this part of the run. Ultimately, she realized, they didn't have much choice; if they were going to complete the run, they needed Natokah's help. Kellan was a little surprised that the shaman hadn't tried to negotiate for a bigger share in the profits, especially once he realized how inexperienced his teammates were in wilderness survival.

  Their food arrived, interrupting her train of thought. Kellan cautiously forked a bite of scrambled eggs into her mouth and chewed. The texture was strange, but the taste was fresh and intense. She quickly tried the sausage and pancakes. The difference between the soy products she was used to and the real thing was subtle, but she definitely could get used to the real thing—though she realized she probably couldn't afford it in Seattle. As they ate, they reviewed the supplies and equipment they had carried with them from Seattle.

  Everyone had packed a supply of dehydrated food and the personal items Natokah had recommended.

  They had divided the other wilderness essentials between them—medkit, folding shovels, lightweight thermal blankets, a tiny camp stove, a few pans and a water filtration system. They had decided to buy tents and water packs in Lewiston, and Midnight and Draven had already located the nearest store selling camping equipment. Once everyone finished eating, Kellan paid the bill, then they walked to the neighborhood hardware store—which was surprisingly well supplied—and purchased the tents, water packs and a few other items Natokah deemed useful. Then they returned to the riverside.

  Natokah naturally took charge of the boat, assigning everyone places to sit and making sure the gear was properly stowed. Then he fired up the outboard engine and they headed away from the docks, down the winding river. By the time they were underway, the sun was fully above the horizon and the day was looking clear. The air was crisp and pleasantly cool, entirely unlike the constant petrochem stink of the metroplex. Kellan looked around at the thick foliage, amazed that such unspoiled places still existed. In her experience, it seemed like nearly every inch of earth had been paved over for a mini-mall, a coffin hotel and a Stuffer Shack. The wilderness was at once fascinating and alien; it was like another world.

  Once they were a good distance from Lewiston, out of sight of the docks and on an uninhabited part of the river, Natokah cut the outboard engine. The boat drifted, carried along by the strong current.

  "All right." the shaman said to Kellan. "I think it's time we discussed the purpose of our run." His intent was obvious; if Kellan wasn't forthcoming, then Natokah had no further reason to continue. Kellan didn't mind his challenge, since she had planned to reveal the final details to the team once they left civilization behind.

  "Now's as good a time as any." she agreed. She took a deep breath. "I have information on the location of a secret military cache belonging to the old United States." she said. "It was established before the Ghost Dance War, and abandoned when this territory was relinquished to the Salish-Shidhe. It's not in any official records, and all evidence indicates the Native American Nations don't know it exists."

  A slow smile split Draven's bearded face as he realized the potential of the payoff. Midnight and Orion, who already knew the objective, watched the reactions of the other shadowrunners.

  Natokah showed no reaction. "What's in this secret military cache?"

  Kellan shrugged. "I don't know exactly. I do know that there is strong evidence showing that it was not decommissioned, and no evidence indicating that it has been found."

  "So it might not contain anything of value."

  "That is a possibility," she admitted, "but I said from the beginning that there was some risk involved in the run. It seems just as likely that it contains a lot of milspec equipment and supplies, just waiting to be found."

  "Stuff that's, like, forty, fifty years out of date." Draven commented.

  "Still worth a bundle on the shadow market." Orion interjected, shooting Draven a glance that said the weapons cache wasn't the only thing the elf considered might be out of date. "We're talking milspec stuff from the war—definitely enough to turn a profit."

  "The information about the site alone could be worth quite a bit to the right buyer." Natokah mused aloud.

  "Got somebody in mind?" Midnight asked, and the shaman shrugged.

  "Maybe. Let's see what's there first." He turned back to Kellan. "So where is this place, exactly?"

  "In the Seven Devils Mountains." Kellan said, pulling out a datapad. She brought up a map. "We should be able to follow Bernard Creek as it branches off the river most of the way to the cache. Then we'll have to hike about five kilometers to the site." She handed the datapad to Natokah, who looked over the map and nodded.

  "The datapad has coordinates programmed into a GPS locator." Kellan concluded. "Should lead us right there."

  "Passcode protected?" Natokah asked.

  "Naturally." Kellan s
aid. And encrypted. If Natokah or anyone else got the idea they didn't need Kellan once she'd told them what the run was about, they were sadly mistaken.

  Natokah handed the datapad back to Kellan without further comment. "We should be on our way, then."

  The shaman sat cross-legged in the boat, closed his eyes and began to sing. The words again were in his native tongue, and the song had a flowing quality. It seemed to match the movement of the waters around them, rising and falling in a hypnotic rhythm. The shadowrunners remained completely quiet as Natokah sang, respecting the magician at his work.

  The shaman raised his hands over his head and opened his eyes. The sunlight showed his pupils enlarged, so almost none of the whites of his eyes showed, and they were golden-brown, like the eyes of a predatory bird, rather than their usual black. The song ended with a piercing cry that echoed across the river and into the trees.

  There was a moment of profound silence. Even the sound of the river seemed to stop. Then it resumed stronger than before, and a rippling wave caused the boat to bob and bounce. Off to starboard, a swirl of white water appeared, like a miniature whirlpool. Draven grabbed for the safety line on the boat, but Natokah gazed calmly at the river. The waters swirled and bubbled, then burst upward as an enormous figure took shape.

  It looked like a giant snake, its body so thick that Kellan felt certain she couldn't get her arms all the way around it. Only a portion of it reared up from the surface of the water, but it towered over the boat.

  It had a blunt, triangular head, which looked down at the shadowrunners with flat, dark eyes. A forked tongue flickered to taste the air. The snake's body looked as solid as if it were carved from ice, but they could see water flowing through it as quickly as the river was moving. The surface of the snake was covered with shimmering translucent scales, and it swayed slightly in the air above them.

  "Great Snake River." Natokah intoned. "I call upon you to carry us on your back to the place that we seek. Make our journey swift and secure. Watch over us and guard us against all danger. I ask this with respect for you and your domain, noble spirit."

  The watery serpent regarded Natokah for a long moment, its alien features unreadable. It did not respond immediately, and Kellan had the strong impression of some unspoken communication passing between shaman and spirit. Perhaps the river spirit was assessing Natokah and his companions to decide if they were worthy. Then its blunt head dove toward the boat.

  The river spirit encircled the boat in its coils like a breaking wave, sending a ripple out against the flow of the water. Natokah fired up the outboard engine and shouted, "Hang on!"

  An instant later, they shot forward as if propelled out of a cannon. The boat sent up a sheet of water from its prow as it cut through the river at a speed far greater than it could ever achieve on its own. The riverbanks rushed past, and Kellan clung to the safety ropes, in fear for her life. After a few minutes, she realized that despite their great speed, the boat remained stable. After overcoming his initial shock, Orion grinned and let out a wild whoop of excitement, like a kid on a carnival ride.

  When they saw the foaming white water in the distance, dark rocks thrusting up from the surface, the shadowrunners tensed. Kellan called out a warning to Natokah in the back of the boat.

  "The rapids!" she shouted over the roar of the outboard and the water.

  "Just hold on!" he shouted back.

  Kellan clutched the safety ropes even tighter and hunkered down as they rushed toward the swirling rapids. Rather than being dashed on the rocks or torn apart, as she expected, their boat seemed to skip blithely across them, light as a feather, buoyed up from below. It was like the river swelled to cover the rapids in order for them to pass. Then they dropped back down to the normal surface level and continued on their way.

  They made their way downriver past several more rapids before reaching the mouth of Bernard Creek. The boat slowed and gently slid from the Snake River into the tributary. Their speed dropped to what might be expected from the power of their outboard motor, and they chugged up into the creek.

  "Damn!" Orion couldn't stop grinning. "What a ride!"

  "We've made good time." Natokah observed laconically, like he did this sort of thing all the time. "I estimate that we should be able to make it to our destination by nightfall. We have cut at least a day off our trip."

  "Nice work." Kellan complimented him, and the shaman nodded.

  "Let's hope what we're looking for makes it worth it." he replied.

  Chapter 17

  After the exhilaration of their trip downriver, piloting the boat along the creek and then hiking through the woods seemed rather anticlimactic. If they reached the target site before nightfall, as Natokah predicted, and things went well, they'd be able to head back the following morning with information to sell in Seattle, and hopefully some samples of the abandoned materiel to go with it.

  Kellan thought about what she would do with her share of a score. It gave her something to do besides think about how her feet ached in her boots or how her pack seemed to get heavier and heavier the farther they went. She would definitely move into a more upscale place, maybe something in Queen Anne or Capitol Hill. She could invest some cred into magical gear, too, instead of borrowing Lothan's stuff. Her own magical library, maybe, along with some ritual tools, maybe even a place where she could create a summoning circle. She imagined showing that off to Lothan and seeing what he thought of her skills then.

  Of course, she would spend some on nice clothes, and a night out on the town from time to time. She'd heard the Eye of the Needle was one of the nicest restaurants in Seattle. It was hard to get reservations, but money talked. She imagined walking into one of Seattle's most exclusive nightspots, with the shadows abuzz about what she'd accomplished. "There goes Kellan Colt." they would say. "Did you hear about the job she pulled off?"

  "Kellan? Kellan?"

  "Huh?" Kellan was suddenly yanked out of her fantasy by Orion's voice. The elf stood close at hand, adjusting the straps of his pack over his jacket, a sheen of sweat on his forehead.

  "Natokah says we should be pretty close."

  Kellan noticed that Draven was lagging a bit behind the rest of the group, while Natokah was a little ahead, followed closely by Midnight. The two of them made good time, while the dwarf was hampered by his inexperience in tramping through the wilderness and by the amount of equipment he was carrying.

  Kellan pulled out the datapad and checked the global positioning system.

  "He's right." she said. "We're pretty close to the coordinates. It shouldn't be too much farther." Good thing, too, since she could see the sun sinking toward the horizon, and the shadows were getting increasingly long, especially under the canopy of the trees towering above them.

  Draven came puffing and wheezing up the slope.

  "We'd fraggin' better be almost there." the dwarf grunted. "I'm too damn old for this drek."

  Ahead was a low rise, and Natokah waved to the rest of the team from there. Midnight waited with him until everyone else caught up.

  Below the rise they could see traces of what looked like an old logging road. Only the faint, regularly spaced indentations, overgrown with grasses and ground-covering plants, gave any indication that humans had ever disturbed this place.

  "I think this is the way." Natokah said, and Kellan consulted the GPS again.

  "It would take us in the right direction." she replied.

  "Nobody has been this way for a long time." the shaman observed.

  "That's a good sign, right? Means nobody else has found the place yet."

  Natokah grunted his agreement.

  "You don't sound too happy about it." Kellan said, and the shaman gave her a considering look.

  "No, it is promising." he said. "There's just something ... I don't know, something . . . unsettling about this place.''

  Perhaps she also was feeling what Natokah had noticed, or maybe it was simply that Kellan was disturbed by the idea that something
was making the normally stoic shaman uneasy. She suddenly felt anxious.

  A low, throaty growl sounded from the trees to their left. The shadowrunners whipped around toward the sound just as a whirlwind of gray fur exploded from the shadows. It slammed into Natokah, and the shaman and his attacker went tumbling down the slope. Natokah yelled in pain and surprise, and the other shadowrunners sprang into action.

  Orion drew his sword and leapt down the slope in a single motion. He tumbled in midair to land lightly on his feet close to where the creature had Natokah pinned to the ground. It was massive, as long as the shaman was tall, and it definitely outweighed him. The beast was all powerful muscle, with a blunt muzzle filled with sharp teeth, and heavy slashing talons on all four paws. Orion attacked and left a bloody gash along its flank, drawing its attention away from Natokah. The beast turned with a fierce growl, jaws flecked with white foam and red blood.

  Draven followed close behind Orion, drawing his axe and skittering down the slope, sending loose earth and gravel cascading down ahead ot him. The creature's attention remained focused on Orion.

  Without moving from her position, Midnight drew her slim pistol and leveled it at the creature, the beam of its laser sight gleaming red in the dying light.

  "No!" Kellan said. "You might hit one of the others!"

  Midnight flashed her a glance that said she didn't make mistakes like that, then she refocused on the red dot from the laser sight, bringing it to rest on the creature's left shoulder. She pulled the trigger just as it lunged at Orion.

  The silenced shot was barely audible above the creature's growls, but a fine spray of blood spurted from where the bullet struck it in the midsection and the animal recoiled, twisting toward this new source of pain. Orion used the opportunity to roll out of the way and come at it from the far side, opposite where Draven was ready to rush it.

  The beast's wounds only seemed to enrage it. It howled, and charged at the shadowrunners with renewed fury. Draven swung his axe, but the creature knocked the dwarf aside, sending him flying a good couple of meters. Then Orion dodged in and stabbed, earning another cry of pain from the beast.