Born to Run

by Stephen Kenson

  Absorbed by her thoughts, Kellan barely noticed when G-Dogg slowed the car and pulled into a lot next to a building with a scarred brick front. The lot was half exposed dirt and half cracked asphalt, enclosed by a thick chain strung from metal posts embedded in concrete. There were a number of cars and motorcycles already parked there, most of them considerably older and more beaten up than the ork's Argent. G-Dogg hit the security system as soon as they were out of the car, and led Kellan around to the front of the building.

  Metal letters mounted on the crumbling brick wall read crusher 495, and the few windows at the front of the building were tinted, so you couldn't see inside. G-Dogg glanced at Kellan as they approached the door.

  "Just follow my lead, okay?" he said. Kellan nodded as he opened the door and stepped into the gloom beyond. She followed, letting her eyes adjust to the interior illumination, dim even compared to the overcast day outside. She wondered why the majority of the places she'd been in Seattle were deliberately kept dim or shaded. Maybe it was because metahuman eyes were capable of seeing in the dark and orks, trolls and dwarves preferred less light than humans. That, or shadowrunners and other patrons preferred the illusion of privacy that the dim lighting afforded them, or some combination of both.

  The Crusher turned out to be a bar, something like

  Ebey's, though it was considerably bigger. The furniture was heavy and made of metal, with an industrial look to it, designed to support the massive frames of the orks and trolls who made up the greatest percentage of the clientele. The bar ran along one side, with a riveted metal top and wide, heavy stools lined up in front of it. A permanent haze of blue-gray smoke hung near the ceiling, creating haloes around the dim fluorescent lights.

  G-Dogg scanned the dozen or so patrons scattered around the bar, zeroing in on one sitting alone in the back. He headed that direction with Kellan in tow. It seemed to her that most of the patrons eyed her fiercely before returning to their drinks and their conversations. She was immediately convinced that, if she had entered the bar alone, her reception would have been actively unfriendly.

  So it surprised her that the man sitting in the back of the bar, slowly sipping from a tumbler filled with some dark liquor, was human. At least Kellan thought he was—it was a little difficult to tell. He was thin and wiry, with broad shoulders beneath a leather jacket bulky with armored plates. He wore a broad-brimmed hat that hid his face in shadows, but close up Kellan could see he was hollow-cheeked, with a sharp nose and chin. His face was dead white, tattooed to look like a skull, and when he picked up the glass tumbler to take a drink, Kellan saw that his hands were chromed metal and almost skeletal, moving with a faint whir of hydraulics; cyberhands without the usual covering of synthetic flesh to give them a normal appearance.

  The man barely looked up as they approached, though there was no doubt that he noticed them. He offered no greeting.

  “Buy you a drink, Deacon?" G-Dogg asked. That seemed to get the man's attention and he glanced up at the ork, his face expressionless, reflective eyes unreadable.

  "Already got one." he said flatly in a slow drawl, returning his gaze to the other side of the bar.

  G-Dogg pulled out a chair on the other side of the table with a scrape of metal on concrete. He turned it around and sat down, straddling it. Kellan took a chair at the next table, sitting sideways so the chair's back was between her and the man G-Dogg called Deacon.

  "Then how about I offer you something else?" the ork asked and Deacon paused, taking another sip of his drink before responding.

  "What do you have?" he said.

  "Work. Lothan is putting some biz together."

  "Lothan is a miserable sinner." Deacon shot back. "A devotee of the devilish arts. What kind of work does he have to offer me?"

  G-Dogg grinned, showing his tusks. "Simple job: relieving a megacorp of some of their ill-gotten gains."

  The Deacon's interest seemed piqued. G-Dogg leaned in a bit closer and said one quiet word. "Ares."

  The other man didn't react, his face remaining as impassive as stone. He took another sip of his drink and set the glass back down on the table before responding.

  "When?" was all he asked.

  "Tonight, at Lothan's, 2000 hours."

  The Deacon nodded slowly.

  "See you there." G-Dogg replied, standing and turning his chair back around. Kellan got up at the same time. They turned and walked away, leaving the Deacon in the shadows, nursing his drink.

  Kellan waited until they were outside before she said a word.

  "Who the frag was that?” she asked G-Dogg. "Calls himself the Street Deacon." he replied. "Rumor has it that he worked for a megacorp once and they shafted him. You can guess which one.

  Anyway, it seriously messed him up. He's been working the shadows in Seattle for years now. Claims he's an agent of divine retribution or something like that. Takes on jobs that frag over the megacorps, organized crime and anything else he considers 'sinful.' He's one of the best hired guns in the plex."

  "He didn't even ask you how much the job pays."

  "That's because he doesn't much care." the ork said. "He's not in it for the money, although he doesn't come cheap. Thinks he's on a mission from God. Besides, he knows me and he knows Lothan, and neither one of us would try and lowball him on price. He's not somebody I want mad at me."

  "Yeah, but he said that Lothan was a miserable sinner." she persisted, and G-Dogg chuckled.

  "To the Street Deacon, everyone is a miserable sinner, kid, including him. Doesn't mean he won't work with you. Still, you might want to keep the magic stuff on the down-low when you're around him. He seems to think that anyone who slings mojo has sold their soul to the devil."

  "Great."

  "Don't sweat it. Like I said, doesn't mean he won't work with you. As long as he's getting paid, it's just biz. Until somebody else pays him to be on their side, of course."

  Kellan paused, standing by the open car door. "Has that happened?"

  G-Dogg shrugged before climbing into the car. "Sure, happens all the time. When it does, you just try to be on the winning side, or at least stay out of the way of people like the Deacon."

  "And if you can't?" Kellan asked as she climbed in. G-Dogg looked her full in the face as he started the car and put it into gear.

  "That's when you're on your own, kid." he replied.

  Chapter 6

  When G-Dogg drove them back to Capitol Hill, Kellan thought they'd contacted everyone they were supposed to and were headed back to Lothan's. As it turned out, they had one more stop to make before they returned to the troll mage's house. G-Dogg found a parking space along a side street a short distance from Lothan's. He slotted his credstick into the meter, which automatically deducted the charge for parking and began counting down the time they could stay in that spot.

  G-Dogg led Kellan past a few small storefronts and a coffee shop. The sidewalks were full of people going about their business and studiously ignoring each other. Some were talking on the phone, either with tiny cell phones pressed to their ears or simply talking to empty space, using subdermal implants that linked them directly into the cell network.

  Kellan saw a small group of girls, probably only a couple years younger than her, checking out the trid ads for the latest Darkvine album and its associated fashion accessories in the window of a store, chattering among themselves. Kellan felt a surge of disdain for the obviously privileged daughters of well-off straight-citizen parents, but she also felt a touch of jealousy. They were the type of girls Kellan had been waiting on in restaurants and stores before she struck out on her own, kissing their perfectly sculpted butts for minimum wage. For a moment, Kellan wondered what it was like to come from a family with money, not having to wonder when and what you were going to eat next, where you were going to sleep, whether or not you'd be able to get a job to make enough cred to survive. She wondered how it would have been different if her mother had been around.

  Her hand brushed against
the cool jade of the amulet at her neck. Her mother. Who was she? What happened to her? When she was girl, Kellan used to imagine that her mother was somebody important, that she had left Kellan behind in order to protect her—not because she didn't care, like her aunt said. She used to hope that her mother would come back for her, though that hope diminished as the years passed with no word. Kellan's aunt swore that her mother was dead.

  Now, out of the blue, she had this connection, however small, to her mother. Was she the one who sent the package? The note said, "This stuff belonged to your mother"—probably not something her mother would say, unless she didn't want Kellan to know she was alive. Kellan wanted the chance to find out, but she'd need resources and connections to do it.

  Working with Lothan and G-Dogg was the first step toward the day when she made the big score and had credit to burn. For sure then, she could find out what happened to her mother. She would be the one calling the shots.

  "Want to know your fortune?" a voice close to Kellan asked, and she turned to see a woman sitting behind a card table set up in front of a coffee shop. An antique-looking black shawl covered the table and a spread of tarot cards was laid out on top of the lacy silk. The woman was an elf, wearing a close-fitting T-shirt under a cloak pinned at the shoulder with a circular broach in a Celtic knot design. Her loose-fitting jeans were painted with mystical symbols and designs. Her hair was sandy colored and worn long, cascading in waves down her shoulders; and of course she was gorgeous, with intense blue eyes that seemed to look right into Kellan's soul.

  "The cards know all." she said grandly, with a sweeping gesture over the table. "Just twenty nuyen for the secret insights from the elven Tree of Life."

  "How's about telling my fortune, Liada?" G-Dogg said, and the woman smiled up at him.

  "I don't give out freebies, G." she replied. In reply the ork pulled a crumpled UCAS twenty-dollar bill from his pocket and tossed it in the upturned top hat at Liada's feet.

  "Okay." she shrugged. "Let's see what the cards have to say." She shuffled the deck with crisp, practiced motions before dividing them into three piles in front of her. Then she closed her eyes for a moment, letting out a slow sigh.

  "Past, present and future." she said, tapping each of the stacks of cards in turn. She flipped over the top card on the first stack. It was the four of pentacles, showing masons working on a half-finished tower or castle with stained-glass windows.

  "Hard work, laying the foundations for material success." the woman said. "Hustling to get things done." she glanced sidelong at G-Dogg with a slight smile, then flipped over the top card on the next stack.

  It was the king of wands. "A dark man," she continued, "strong-willed, intellectual. . . ." She paused and looked up at G-Dogg again, her mouth pinched in a thin line. Then she turned over the top card on the final stack.

  The princess of wands, wielding a burning torch that illuminated the darkness. "A young woman," she said, "with a passionate nature, showing the right path." She glanced up at Kellan, and then back at G-Dogg, leaning back from the table with a sigh.

  "What does Lothan want?" she asked, picking up the cards and putting them back into the deck. She squared them by tapping the deck against the table before putting the cards into a small embroidered leather pouch.

  "We're setting up a meeting. . . ." G-Dogg began.

  "Not interested." Liada replied with a wave of her hand.

  "You making that much money telling fortunes?" G-Dogg replied.

  "It's not bad," she said, somewhat defensively, "but it has nothing to do with that. I just don't feel like working with the Almighty Master of the Arts Arcane." She did a deliberately bad imitation of Lothan's lofty tone, waving one hand in the air in a grand gesture.

  "It's a simple job." G-Dogg said.

  "It's never that simple with Lothan. You know that."

  "Yeah, well, I also know that you were his first choice for magical backup on this job."

  "Backup." Liada repeated. "Which means playing second fiddle to the Master. No thanks."

  "Okay." G-Dogg shrugged. "I'll just tell him you weren't up for it."

  The elf raised one eyebrow and glared at the smiling ork. Then she slipped the tarot deck case into the voluminous shoulder bag sitting on the ground next to her.

  "When's the meeting?" she asked.

  "At Lothan's, 2000 hours."

  "I'll be there." she said. "I'll listen to what he has to say, but no promises. If I don't like what I hear, I'm telling Lothan where he can stick his job and I'm out of there."

  "Fair enough." G-Dogg said.

  "You in on this?" Liada said, turning to Kellan.

  "Yeah." she replied.

  "Watch out for this one," she said nodding her head toward G-Dogg, "and Lothan. The one thing they have in common is that they're both manipulative bastards." G-Dogg grinned, but didn't deny it.

  "I'm Liada." she extended a hand to Kellan who shook it.

  "Kellan."

  "New to Seattle?" she asked.

  "Yeah."

  "Well, nice to meet you."

  "She's Lothan's new apprentice." G-Dogg offered, which caused Liada to raise both eyebrows.

  "Oh, really?" she said. "Well, my condolences. Here's hoping you survive the experience." She turned to G-Dogg, rising from behind the table. "Tell his highness that I'll be there tonight."

  They still had some time before the meet after leaving Liada, so G-Dogg suggested getting something to eat. Kellan's stomach reminded her that she hadn't had anything except most of a breakfast burrito all day, so she agreed. Ensconced in a back booth at A Little Bit O' Saigon in Capitol Hill, she and the ork talked a bit.

  "Why all that work just to get in touch with people?" Kellan asked. "Seems like Lothan could have handled that biz with three phone calls."

  G-Dogg began ticking things off on his fingers and, for the first time, Kellan noticed that the ork had six fingers on each hand. She remembered hearing something about an extra finger being a "secondary mutation." Only a minor percentage of orks had the extra finger. It certainly was a lot less inconvenient than some other mutations that had sprung up after the Awakening.

  "Well, first," he said, "Lothan doesn't like to handle stuff like that and, as you might guess, he's not all that good at it. Me, I like to talk, and I like to do my biz face-to-face.

  "Second, you gotta be careful doing business over the phone. You never know who might be listening. Job like this, probably not a big deal, but there're deckers who make a living putting together random pieces of data off the Matrix, making connections and passing them on to the right people willing to pay for them. There's always a chance that somebody is going to hear when there's a run going down. You try to keep that as quiet as possible. Plus, it's easier to get a feel for what people are thinking when you're looking at them instead of talking to them on the phone."

  "There a third?" Kellan asked.

  "Yup. Third is I wanted you to get a chance to meet everyone and learn a little about how the biz works here in Seattle."

  "Doesn't seem like Lothan is anybody's favorite guy." Kellan mused, changing the subject. She appreciated the ork's consideration, but she didn't want to dwell on the fact that she needed to be introduced around like a complete newbie.

  "Lothan can have a pretty high opinion of himself," G-Dogg said, "but let me tell you, he knows the biz like nobody else. Lothan has been running the shadows longer than anybody I know. He may not be Mr. Personality, but he knows what he's doing, and that's what really counts in this business.

  That's why people still work with him, even if he can be a real pain in the hoop sometimes."

  "Is that why you work with him?" she asked.

  "One of the reasons." G-Dogg said. "Let's just say that I owe Lothan and leave it at that, okay? He's helped me out, so I help him out."

  As soon as they finished eating, they headed back to Lothan's place, where they were the first to arrive for the meeting. The old troll was all business, and wan
ted to wait until everyone was there before discussing the job. They assembled in Lothan's study, sitting in a rough semicircle against the backdrop of the overloaded bookshelves. Liada arrived next, followed by Silver Max and then the Street Deacon and Orion. Once everyone was in the study, Lothan settled into the wide chair in front of his desk. He turned the screen of the telecom unit on his desk to face into the room and hit a key on the control pad. A green light glowed on the display to show that it was in use.

  "I believe that most of you know Jackie Ozone, by reputation, if nothing else." Lothan said, nodding toward the telecom. The screen lit up with the cartoonlike image of a girl with big eyes, a tiny, delicate mouth and long, dark hair, dressed in a flowing white gown and carrying a silvery wand. She bowed with a flourish of the wand, which trailed a sparkle of stardust behind it.

  "Hello, all." came a bright voice from the telecom's speakers.

  "Now that we're all here." Lothan said. "Let's get down to business. The job is a fairly simple snatch and grab on some cargo coming into the metroplex by truck. It belongs to Ares Macrotechnology, and information from our employer indicates that there will be some modest security protecting the shipment."

  "What's in it?" Silver Max asked.

  Lothan shrugged. "The Johnson felt that was on a need-to-know basis—"

  "—and we don't need to know." Max concluded, nodding for the troll to continue.

  "We need to hit the truck after it gets into the metroplex, then deliver it to a location in Redmond specified by our client. Since it is coming into the plex via the East Road, our best shot is to get to the truck while it's still in Redmond, before it reaches Bellevue."

  "It's headed for the Ares facility there?" Liada asked. Lothan nodded.

  "Sounds simple enough." Silver Max said.

  "The cut is five thousand nuyen each upon successful completion of the run." Lothan said, looking around at the runners. "Time is somewhat limited, since the shipment arrives in two days. That gives us less than forty-eight hours to confirm the details and set up the run." He looked around at the assembled runners. "Are we all in agreement on the terms?"