Poison Agendas

by Stephen Kenson

  Kellan only turned her attention away from Zhade for a second, but the toxic shaman slammed the heel of his hand into her chin, breaking her hold and sending her reeling.

  Orion raised his sword and charged Zhade with a blood-curdling cry. The shaman gestured and Orion slammed full tilt into a mystic barrier that sprang up between them, separating the two halves of the monorail car. He took a step back, then hacked at the barrier with his sword. The blade sliced through slowly but surely, like cutting wet clay.

  It was Kellan's turn to take advantage of a momentary distraction. Zhade turned his attention back toward Kellan just as she jabbed him with her stun baton. There was a sizzling crack and Zhade cried out in pain and fury, but he stayed on his feet. He swatted the weapon out of Kellan's hand, sending it clattering to the floor. The glowing magical wall suddenly collapsed.

  Kellan yelled, "Stop the train!" and Midnight ran for the control booth.

  "It's over, Zhade!" Kellan said. "Give it up and you might just walk away from this."

  "Never!" he screamed. "Not until I silence the Earth's pain! Not until I kill the parasites infesting her—parasites like you!" He raised his arms above his head, and she could see the glow of gathering power.

  "Orion, look out!" Kellan extended her magical defenses, trying to block Zhade's spell as the shaman hurled a small sphere of energy toward them. The blast shook the monorail and blew out part of the wall of the car. The wind roared around the car's interior as they continued to pick up speed, skimming over the charged track below.

  Kellan managed to grab on to one of the upright supports, but Orion wasn't so lucky. Though she was able to shield both of them from the force of the blast, Orion slid toward the hole in the wall as the train took a curve. He drove his sword through one of the seats and held tightly to the hilt to avoid being flung out of the car.

  "Orion!" Kellan swung out from the support pole, stretching out her hand, allowing Orion to grab hold and stabilize himself. She was aware of Zhade beginning another spell as she helped pull Orion to his feet.

  "Die!" the shaman shouted, and as the train took a curve in the opposite direction Orion stumbled across the car, pushing Kellan back, and was hit by the stream of acid intended for her. There was a sizzling sound as Orion dropped to his knees, screaming in pain. His sword fell from suddenly nerveless fingers to slide under the seats as he collapsed onto the floor.

  Zhade circled into the middle of the car as Kellan pushed herself up out of the seat she'd fallen into. She looked down at Orion's body, smoke rising from the bubbling acid wound across his back.

  "Bastard!" she screamed. Kellan poured her fury into a roaring streamer of flames. Zhade held out one hand, deflecting the fire like it was spray of water from a hose. With his other hand, he conjured a shard of energy that he hurled at Kellan like a dagger. She batted it away as if it were an annoying insect.

  "You're more powerful than I expected." Zhade said. "But you're no match for me. The corruption of the world is my weapon, and you've given me the key to increase my power beyond anything you can imagine!"

  The toxic shaman pressed the attack, greenish lightning crackling from his hands. Kellan deflected it, but she knew Zhade was right. He was more powerful than she, and Kellan knew she couldn't stand up to his assault much longer.

  Maybe I can't beat this fragger, but he is not going to win. She reinforced her defenses, then began gathering the power she would need for a blast that would take out the monorail car and everything in it. She recalled Brickman's words to her.

  "You're going down before I do," she said to Zhade, "and you're going down in flames."

  She realized that she didn't need to shout to be heard: the wind was dying down, because the monorail was slowing. Zhade noticed it, too.

  "No!" the shaman howled, and Kellan grinned in triumph.

  "That means Midnight got control of the train."

  A shot echoed in the car.

  "Got it under control." Midnight said from the doorway, her pistol still leveled at Zhade.

  The shaman stumbled back a step as blood began to leak between the pieces of his makeshift armor.

  "Down . . ." he muttered, "down in flames." He raised his hands, greenish flames flickering into being around them, and Midnight fired twice more. Fire streaked toward Kellan, but she deflected it with ease. The shaman's fearsome power was gone. The impact of the two shots in quick succession sent Zhade stumbling toward the blasted wall of the car. He overstepped and reached for some kind of handhold, but his hands found only empty air where the side of the monorail car had been. He windmilled his arms for a second, balanced there, then the monorail took a curve and the shaman plunged toward the street below. His scream was lost in the wind and the squeal of the wheels on the track.

  Epilogue

  "We got clear of train before Lone Star showed up," Kellan said, "so there weren't any witnesses to what happened, and it's a pretty sure thing that Zhade's not going to be talking to anyone."

  Simon Brickman relaxed in his desk chair with a look of smug satisfaction. Kellan Colt and Midnight occupied the chairs in front of him, and Lothan the Wise stood behind them.

  "Good." Brickman said. "This debacle hasn't turned out to be a total loss, after all. I've been able to spin things so that rumors 'leaked' to the press suggest Knight Errant thwarted plans by terrorists to unleash a deadly chemical weapon on the metroplex, and that we recovered the remaining weapons to turn them over to the UCAS government. It's enough to keep Lone Star scrambling to explain why they didn't find out about this threat until it was too late for them to do anything about it."

  "Glad we could help." Brickman chuckled at the sarcasm in Kellan's voice.

  "I wouldn't complain if I were you." he said. "After all, I allowed you to keep the cred I provided to cover your expenses, and Natokah and Lothan were able to see to it that there were no significant medical bills. Speaking of which, how is Orion?"

  "He'll be fully recovered with a few more days' rest." Lothan said.

  "He's a lucky young man."

  "Then we're square?" Kellan asked, and Brickman nodded.

  "I'd say our business is concluded."

  "Good." Kellan stood.

  "Go ahead." Midnight said to her. "I'll be right there."

  Kellan looked at Brickman for a moment, then nodded and left the room. Lothan gave Brickman and Midnight each a measured stare before turning to follow Kellan out the door. When the door closed behind Lothan, Brickman regarded Midnight with a faint smile.

  "I want to know that you aren't going to give her any trouble over this." Midnight said, and Brickman's smile widened into a smirk.

  "Why, Midnight, do I sense an attachment to this kid?" he asked. "You never struck me as the mentoring type." She shrugged.

  "You said it yourself. Kellan has considerable potential—she just needs the training and experience to go with it."

  "And you're the one to give it to her?"

  "Who better? After all, I have been playing this game for a long time, Simon."

  "Yes." Brickman said. "Sometimes, I think longer than you let on. But it still doesn't explain why you'd burden yourself by taking on an apprentice, Midnight. Thinking of retiring?"

  The elf woman smiled. "You know shadowrunners don't retire, Brickman." Her expression turned serious again. "Just tell me things are really square."

  "They're square." Brickman replied. "I wouldn't hire that kid to escort my mother across the street, let alone trust her with my shadow business. I give her one, maybe two more runs before she turns up dead in the sprawl.''

  Satisfied, Midnight turned to leave.

  "If you ask me, you're wasting your time, Midnight."

  She turned to regard the Ares company man coldly. "You do business your way, I'll do it mine."

  When the door closed behind Midnight, Simon Brickman leaned back in his chair. He needed to figure out how to take the momentary advantage over Lone Star and parlay it into something he could use, but he
took a few minutes to consider Midnight's interest in Kellan Colt.

  She was right: shadowrunners didn't retire. Unless they managed to hit the big score, they worked the shadows until time and age caught up with them and they made a fatal mistake. Certainly, Midnight had the ambition to hit the big score.

  Just how did Kellan Colt figure in?