Born to Run

by Stephen Kenson

  From the ashes of the Internet arose a new telecommunications grid, designed to take full advantage of digital technology and new optical computing tech. It took years to build it but, by the time Kellan was born, the Matrix had been part of everyday life for almost a generation. She could hardly imagine a world without immediate access to vast amounts of data. All you needed was a computer or a terminal and a place to jack in.

  The Matrix created a new breed of computer hackers, called deckers. Just as the hackers in their time embraced the newest tech and used it to advance their own goals, the deckers were those who immediately understood the potential of the Matrix as a treasure trove of information. By plugging themselves directly into the information flow, deckers could move faster, dig deeper and generally circumvent any security system. Shadow deckers made their living surfing through the data waves of the Matrix, like pearl divers going deep to find those few precious gems they could sell to the right buyer.

  Kellan wasn't going anywhere near that deep; she just needed to search for some basic information about their mysterious Mr. Johnson.

  She entered the name "Brickman." but the results didn't get her much. There were a number of Brickmans in the Seattle Metroplex Telecom Directory, and none of the listings gave Kellan any clues as to which of them, if any, was the man she was looking for. That was assuming he had a number listed in the directory to begin with. She didn't have a photo for image matching, and the directory wasn't configured to search by physical description.

  Kellan thought for a minute. The only other significant piece of information she had about Brickman was his interest in Ares Macrotechnology, and a possible connection with the Ancients. After all, it had been a Ares shipment he'd hired them to take, and he must have cut his deal with Orion—whatever it was—before he'd met with Lothan to finalize the run to acquire the shipment. Also, he obviously had a source for the Ares shipping routes.

  She fed the new parameters into the browser and set it to work while she sipped her latte and ate, mulling things over. She wasn't entirely sure what she'd do with the data, if anything turned up. It depended on what Brickman was up to. If she'd learned anything about life in the shadows, it was that trusting your instincts was what kept you alive, and one step ahead of the other guy. And her instincts told her that she needed to figure out what she was staying ahead of.

  Bingo. The browser signaled that it had found something. Kellan scrolled through the information on the screen, and her eyebrows rose in surprise.

  He works for Ares. She reread the section of the corporate host that showed one Simon Brickman was a midlevel manager for Knight Errant Security Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ares Macrotechnology, Inc. There was even a tiny photo that matched the man Kellan had seen at both meets. Brickman worked for a subsidiary of the company he'd hired them to steal from! But why?

  Kellan did some additional searches, but wasn't able to turn up much more about Brickman other than the fact that he'd attended Knight Errant's training academy in Seattle, but had moved into management fairly quickly from fieldwork and was apparently up-and-coming at the company. Why would a guy like that want to hire shadowrunners to steal from his own parent company, and then not even take possession of the swag? Kellan's search turned up more questions than answers. She tossed back the last of her drink and closed up the small computer.

  She glanced at the time readout inside the coffin and saw that most of the afternoon was gone. If she gave him what she'd learned so far, maybe Lothan would be able to fill in some of the blanks about what Brickman was up to. She stuffed her gear into her bag and headed out to catch a cab to Lothan's place.

  When she got to the house on Capitol Hill, Kellan knocked, but there was no answer. She hadn't even considered that Lothan might be out. Not sure what she hoped to achieve, Kellan turned the doorknob. To her surprise, the door opened, and so she stepped inside, closing it behind her.

  She hesitated in the hallway, not sure which room to try first. She heard low voices conversing in Lothan's study, one obviously Lothan's deep bass, and one other she couldn't make out. Kellan took a deep breath and knocked on the closed door. The conversation instantly stopped, and there was a long moment of silence that made Kellan cringe, glancing around the hall for any signs of attack, or a quick escape route, if she needed one. Then the door opened and Lothan stood framed in the doorway, peering down at Kellan with a thunderous expression on his craggy face.

  "We are not scheduled for a lesson today, Kellan." the troll growled.

  "Um . . . you're right," Kellan stammered, "but I wanted to ask you something. I didn't think about calling before I came. I can ask you later."

  "It's all right, Lothan." said a voice in the room.

  The troll's expression smoothed out, then he stepped back and gestured to Kellan to enter.

  Kellan didn't recognize the woman sitting in one of the chairs by Lothan's desk. She didn't look much older than Kellan, though she had a quiet confidence about her. Kellan immediately noticed that her close-cropped blond hair highlighted the silvery gleam of a datajack at her temple. She wore a close-fitting, sleeveless black T-shirt and black jeans with athletic shoes. A tailored synthleather jacket was draped over the back of the chair.

  "Hoi, Kellan," she said in a familiar voice, "nice to see you."

  Kellan paused for a moment, trying to place the voice. She was sure that she'd never seen the woman before but she sounded like . . .

  "Jackie?" she asked, and the woman smiled, flashing perfect white teeth in the dimness of the room.

  "The one and only." she said.

  "Consider yourself honored." Lothan said from behind Kellan as he closed the study door. "Only a select few meet the infamous Jackie Ozone in the flesh." There was a playful, mocking familiarity in his tone.

  "Infamous?" Jackie said with a smile. "Why, Lothan, you silver-tongued devil. ..."

  "So, what is it you wanted to ask?" Lothan cleared his throat and deftly changed the subject. Kellan fished in her bag for the dataBook, opening it up and tapping the controls before holding it so Lothan could see the roll-out screen.

  "Brickman." she said simply. "Our Mr. Johnson. Apparently he works for Ares, or at least for Knight Errant. I'm trying to figure out why he hired us to steal from his own company."

  "How did you get this?" Lothan asked, nodding toward the screen and ignoring her unspoken question.

  "I came up with a couple of keywords, then did a Matrix search with a good browser." Kellan said.

  "That's good basic technique." Jackie complimented her, coming around to look at the screen. She cast a critical eye at the dataBook.

  "Apparently we're to have a lesson today, after all." Lothan said with a sigh. "Kellan, I assumed you were experienced enough to know better than to dig around in the background of an employer and then sharing that information indiscriminately."

  "Hardly indiscriminately." Jackie interjected. "After all she does know us,"

  Lothan shot the decker a look that clearly said, "stay out of this."

  "Be that as it may." he continued. "It doesn't change the fact that our employers pay for and expect a certain measure of discretion, as well as professional behavior. If you want to be successful in this business, Kellan, I suggest you keep that in mind."

  "Oh, come off it, Lothan!" Jackie scoffed. "It's not like you didn't check out Brickman and learn the same info before you took the job." The troll glared at the decker.

  "Then . . . you knew?" Kellan asked. "I mean, you knew Brickman worked for Knight Errant, and you didn't say anything to the rest of us?"

  "Of course I knew." Lothan said patiently, like he was explaining the blatantly obvious to a small child. "Only a fool doesn't check out a potential employer's credentials, just to be on the safe side, but the important thing is not to be seen prying into an employer's affairs. It's a matter of appearances. I didn't say anything because it didn't concern you."

  "Don't you think it's kind of strange—Brickman hiring
us to steal from his own company?"

  "Not at all. It happens all the time. Midlevel employees become involved in corporate politics or power struggles within their own company, and some find it useful to go outside the corporate structure looking for a little help to move their own agendas forward. I've seen far stranger things in my time."

  "But I think Brickman is up to something—"

  "Of course he is." Lothan interrupted, his patience obviously wearing thin. "But Mr. Brickman's plans, whatever they may be, are of no concern to us. He hired us for a job, we did the job to his satisfaction, and he paid us the agreed-upon amount—with a nice little bonus, I may add. Now our business is concluded. Whatever Brickman's plans are, they're none of our concern. I suggest you invest whatever money you have left over, after a night of celebration in G-Dogg's company, in some new clothing and whatever other necessities you may need, and be here on time for your next lesson. Forget about Mr. Brickman."

  "But . . ."

  "Leave it be, Kellan!" the troll rumbled, drawing himself up to his full height to tower head and shoulders above Kellan. "Do I make myself clear?"

  "Yeah." she said flatly. "Like crystal."

  "Good. Now, if you'll excuse us. . . ." Lothan stared pointedly at the door, and Kellan stuffed the dataBook back into her bag and left without another word, just a backward glance at Jackie and Lothan before she closed the door behind her.

  Fraggin' know-it-all! Kellan fumed as she stalked down the hall. I'll show him what he can do with his fraggin' advice. Everyone had told her that Lothan could be difficult, but she hadn't expected him to simply dismiss her. She knew the difference between professional discretion and a Mr. Johnson with something to hide, and Brickman was up to something. Lothan's refusal to even consider her point only reinforced her suspicions—and made her wonder about the magician's motivations, too.

  She headed out the door, choosing not to slam it, and down the street. She wanted to walk, needed to clear her head before she decided what she was going to do next.

  “Kellan, hang on a sec." a voice called from behind her. She turned to see Jackie Ozone coming down the street behind her. The decker now wore her jacket and had a stylish leather carrying case slung over her shoulder, which she steadied with one hand as she walked. Kellan stopped walking and waited for Jackie to catch up.

  "You okay?" she asked and Kellan nodded.

  "Yeah, fine."

  "Don't let Lothan get to you." Jackie told her. "I'm sure you've heard the same advice from everyone else who knows him even slightly. What they may not have said is that he actually means well. The fact that he bothers to hand out advice at all means he cares, even if he's annoying the drek out of you when he does it."

  "Yeah, something like that." Kellan replied with a snort.

  "He makes a good point," Jackie began, raising a hand to head off Kellan's retort, "but I think you do, too. In my opinion, sometimes Lothan carries the whole 'professional courtesy and discretion' thing a little too far, and doesn't ask enough questions. Me, I'm willing to question anything and everyone, and my gut tells me your questions deserve an answer. If Brickman has an agenda that could come back and bite us, or that might be worth something to us, then we should check it out, right?"

  Kellan smiled. "Exactly."

  "In fact." Jackie mused, a slow smile spreading across her face. "It would be wrong of us to not check it out."

  "Doing that is going to take a lot more Matrix muscle than I've got." Kellan said, lifting the bag containing her dataBook for emphasis.

  "Well, then, you're in luck." Jackie said, patting the side of her own bag. "Since I happen to know someone with just the right tools for the job. Let's just see what Mr. Brickman is hiding, shall we?"

  Chapter 13

  Kellan was surprised when Jackie made arrangements to check them into a coffin hotel on the outskirts of Bellevue. It was classier than the one Kellan stayed at. Not a haven for chipheads and other SINless, but the kind of place where cost-conscious business travelers caught a few hours of sleep between flights or after late nights at the office. When Kellan asked about it, Jackie explained that she hardly did any decking from home. With the existence of trace programs that could backtrack deckers' datatrails and locate them in the real world, Jackie preferred to not risk being caught at home.

  On the way to the hotel, Kellan filled Jackie in on her suspicions. She described Orion's apparently tense conversation with Brickman at the meet, including Orion's mention of weapons. The decker listened carefully to everything Kellan had to say, apparently reserving judgment on what any of it might mean.

  The clerk on duty at the coffin hotel did a double take at two young women renting a single unit. He leered, but didn't ask any questions as Jackie blithely slotted her credstick to pay for it, then took Kellan's hand to lead her to the elevator. Kellan could feel the back of her neck burning with an unaccustomed blush.

  "Cover." Jackie said once the elevator doors closed. "All that twinkie is going to remember is two slags who wanted a crash-space together. He won't be wondering about anything else."

  Sitting down on the foam padding inside the cubicle, Jackie unwound a collection of wires from a pocket of her carrying case.

  "This your first Matrix run?" she asked Kellan.

  "Well, in school . . ." Kellan began and Jackie shook her head.

  "Nope, not school, or playing virtua-games with friends or drek like that—for real."

  "Then, yeah, it is." Kellan replied reluctantly.

  "Ah, a Matrix virgin." Jackie said with a smile. "Well, then, you're in for a fun ride. Here."

  Jackie passed Kellan a collection of wires and leads connected to an elastic headband.

  "You know how to use an electrode net?" she asked, and Kellan nodded. She slipped the band onto her head, adjusting it so that the electrodes made contact with the skin of her forehead and temples. They would translate electronic impulses into neural information and relay them directly to her brain. The resolution was a lot lower than you got from the direct mind-machine interface of a datajack, but Kellan didn't have a jack, so the trode net would have to suffice.

  As Kellan settled the net in place, Jackie reached into her bag and removed a small, flat, rectangular object inside a burnished metal case. She set it reverently on the foam between them. Kellan let out a low whistle when she saw it.

  "Nice deck." she said, and Jackie beamed with pride.

  "Thanks." she replied.

  "What kind is it?" Kellan asked, looking on both sides for a logo or brand name on the sleek casing. Jackie laughed.

  "It's a custom build." she said. "Off-the-shelf is fine for newbies getting their start, but if you really want to run the Matrix, you need to know your deck inside and out. The best way to do that is build it yourself. This one has the casing of the old Cross Applied Technologies deck I started out with, but I've majorly upgraded most of the guts." She folded back the cyberdeck's protective case to reveal a sleek, flat alphanumeric keypad featuring a number of customized function keys. There was a slot along the side where a flatscreen rolled out, but Jackie didn't pull it out. The deck looked like a slim keyboard with slots for data chips and ports for plugging in peripherals, but no external display.

  Jackie opened a side panel of the deck and unreeled a thin fiber-optic cable with a standard jack terminator, which she slid into the chrome jack at her temple. It nestled there with a faint snick, lying almost flush against her head. The cable trailed down the side of her face. Then she took the jack for Kellan's trode net and plugged it into a secondary port on the deck. She powered up the deck with a tap on the keypad. Kellan felt a faint tingle as the cyberdeck initialized and its simsense circuits established contact with her nervous system.

  "The hitcher rig," Jackie said, gesturing toward the trode net, "will feed you the same signal as me. It's filtered a bit, but you'll see, hear and feel everything I do in the Matrix. You won't have any control, though, that's all me. You okay with that?"

&
nbsp; Kellan nodded. "Good. We'll be able to talk through the interface, but no backseat driving, okay? I need to stay focused, so don't interrupt unless I talk to you first." Again, Kellan nodded in acknowledgment, feeling a knot of nervousness and excitement in her stomach.

  "All right, then." Jackie said. "What we know right now is that Brickman, our Mr. Johnson, works for Knight Errant and that he had some reason of his own for setting up our little run on Ares. He also has some kind of deal going with Orion and the Ancients, which may have gone sour, from what you told me about their conversation."

  "There's the Street Deacon, too." Kellan said. At Jackie's quizzical look, she went on. "There was something about his expression when he saw Brickman, like he knew him or something, and didn't like him. I got the feeling it was mutual, but it's harder to tell with Brickman."

  "Magical intuition?" Jackie asked with a raised eyebrow.

  She shrugged. "I don't know. Call it a hunch."

  "All right." the decker said. "So we've got Brickman, Orion and the Deacon, and something that might tie it all together. Sounds to me like Brickman is the center of all this, so we should check him out first. Since you already found something online, it's a good bet he's the most accessible, too. You ready to go?" Kellan nodded.

  "Okay, get as comfortable as you can. This could take a little while." Kellan settled back against the padding on her side of the coffin, while Jackie did the same on the opposite side, their legs stretched out in the middle and the cyberdeck resting in Jackie's lap. Then Jackie tapped a key on the cyberdeck and the world vanished in a wash of silvery static.

  Kellan fought down a surge of panic as she lost all sensation of her body for a moment. She was falling through an endless void of silent static. Then the chaos of static resolved itself into patterns and the world reformed around her in a different configuration.

  Kellan found herself standing on a vast, dark plain under a night-black sky. Hovering overhead were constellations of orbiting neon shapes: cubes, spheres, stars, pillars and entire buildings floating there. Stretching off in all directions were glowing traceries of lines, with pulses of energy running along them at regular intervals. The horizon was a vast cityscape glowing against the darkness. Some of the structures were familiar—Kellan saw the Space Needle and the Aztechnology Pyramid—while others were completely alien, even impossible in the geography and physics of the ordinary world. They were in the depths of the Seattle Matrix.