The Eyes of the Rigger

by Unknown

  It wasn't clear whether his admonishment had made a strong enough impression or whether the two sararis were telling themselves that the few ecus every month that kept their credsticks from going moldy didn't include personal initiative of this kind. At any rate they kept quiet. They would definitely also prefer to try untying themselves on their own so as not to be discovered in an get-up open to only one interpretation.

  The shadowrunners nodded to each other. Pandur opened the door, checked the lay of the land and beckoned the other two out when he saw the coast was clear.

  They hurried back to the elevator. The right-hand car was still on their level. They went up to the floor they had come from earlier. This time no one was waiting in front of the elevator door.

  The trio went through the door Festus had shot up and which connected the normal office area with the security tract, and ran down the corridor.

  Pandur covered the rear. Deep down he didn't trust the calm. Either they had been enormously lucky and had not been discovered in the turmoil following the feint by GreenWar, or the opposition knew all about them and was waiting for them where they just had to appear if they wanted to leave Chilehaus unnoticed. That place was the access to the supply shaft that Jessi had blown apart with the fireball.

  Similar thoughts must have been going through the minds of Jessi and Festus, as the two slowed down and finally stopped when they had reached the end of the corridor. Festus nodded and, with the Combat Gun poised, leapt into the transverse corridor.

  The corridor lay before them, just as deserted as they had left it.

  "Looks as though we'll get away without any more shootouts," Festus called, charging ahead with Jessi and Pandur tagging along behind.

  The hole that would take them out was straight in front of them. Suddenly Festus stopped so abruptly that Jessi ran into him and Pandur had to throw himself to the side.

  The rigger looked at both of them from dead eyes. His hands were twitching. "Jesus, Festus!" Jessi yelled. "Don't start fucking around!"

  It was instantly clear to Pandur that Festus was having another of his fits. And this time he wasn't sitting quietly in a shaft, but was holding a deadly dangerous weapon with smartgun adapters in his hands.

  The muzzle of the Combat Gun moved from one to the other. Pandur almost pulled the trigger of his Walther Secura in panic. But before he could force himself to make a decision, the rigger whipped his gun straight up and for a few seconds pumped his ammo mix into the ceiling. The plastic squares splintered and rained down down on them. The corridor was only sparsely lit. Festus had put most of the fluorescent tubes behind the plastic out of action. There was the stench of burnt plastic and ammo. Festus was bleeding from several small cuts. It bordered on a miracle that none of the three had been seriously injured by ricochets and exploding minigrenades.

  The rigger's body was twitching uncontrollably. He ripped the strap of the Combat Gun off his shoulders and flung the weapon down the corridor. Then he collapsed like a wet sack.

  "Fucking jackhead!" cursed Pandur. "If nobody had sussed before that we're here, they know now!" Still, he was glad he hadn't shot at Festus. He felt sorry for the man. Not least since what he had seen about him in the matrix. "We gotta dive, like, right now. What're we gonna do about him?"

  "Grab hold!" Jessica yelled. "Fuck, chummer, grab hold!" She tugged at the arms of the rigger, who had now gone rigid.

  Then the music for the dance struck up. It was composed of the rattle of a light MG whose muzzle had appeared round the corner of the nearest bend in the corridor. The soloist was joined by a hammering band when two other megacon guns opened up. The contraltos of Pandur and Jessi that then came in sounded thin and couldn't assert themselves. But at least they kept the gunmen and their rapid fire at a distance and prevented them from firing aimed shots.

  The ammo whistled about the shadowrunners' ears. Pandur grabbed Festus's legs with one hand and fired with the other. Jessi dragged him by the arms with one hand and fired with the other. Somehow they made progress, hauling Festus to the hole. The situation deteriorated when more security men popped up at the opposite end of the passage. Several megacon guardsmen, armored from head to foot, pressed forward along the corridor, firing assault rifles. The ammo from the shadowrunners' light weapons was unable to make any impression on them, and they knew it. Luckily, the armor slowed them up.

  Jessi was the first to dive through the hole, pulling the rigger after her. Pandur pushed from behind and then climbed through himself. He found to his amazement that he was unhurt.

  "We won't make it," he panted. "They'll be here any minute and come after us."

  "Can it!" Jessi bellowed at him. "He'll come round in a second."

  "And if he doesn't?" asked Pandur.

  "Then we'll leave him here and he'll have to look after himself."

  Without another word, the two of them dragged the rigger along the gallery. Crouching figures appeared at the opening and fired at them. Pandur ducked and fired back with his Secura. One of the gunmen slumped. His companions dragged him away from the opening. Pandur slammed in another ammo clip, firing at irregular intervals until it was empty. Then Jessi took over, firing her Caveat.

  The security men had got wise to the game. None of them risked showing himself at the hole or climbing through. The armored guardsmen could have risked it but they were too cumbersome and unwieldy to climb through. Pandur and Jessi knew they had only gained a breathing space. Sooner or later someone would point out to the security men that their masters didn't pay them for farting into their duds.

  The runners pulled Festus deeper into the gallery and set him in a sitting position when they had reached the shaft leading down. There was nothing more they could do for him.

  "He doesn't have a chance anyway," Pandur remarked softly.

  Jessi knew at once what he meant. "What did you see in the matrix, chummer?"

  "That it's terminal," Pandur replied. "Unless..."

  A synthmuscle-strengthened hand encircled his throat. The rigger had come to.

  "Unless - what, chummer?" he asked menacingly. "Why didn't you tell me the truth?"

  "Get your mits off him!" Jessi shrieked at him. "Let him be for chrissake and get your ass in gear! You've caused us enough trouble as it is!"

  The rigger obeyed and, like the others, put on the fins they'd left behind.

  Pandur fought for breath. He was furious about the assault although, on the other hand, he could appreciate what was going on inside Festus.

  "Right, you fucking chiphead," he snarled. "I'll tell you what I know. The shit you shoved in your skull was not from AG Chemie, but they know the stuff exists and who makes it: Mitsuhama CT in Prague. It leads to death within three months -unless you can persuade the Mitsuhama docs to straighten you out. And it won't be easy to persuade them. So, now you can work out yourself how much time you've got left."

  The rigger reacted with amazing calm. He even came across as relieved.

  He looked up when sounds could be heard in the distant opening. This time his hand was under control when it jerked up, levelled the Combat Gun and pumped everything he had down the gallery. Strangled screams were the echo.

  Festus lowered the weapon, hardly seeming aware of what he had done. It was his job. He did what he had to do without giving it much thought. His thoughts were somewhere else entirely.

  "Thanks, chummer," he said and shook Pandur's hand. "Sorry about just now. Now at least I know where I'm at. I've probably got a few weeks - and a goal!" He turned to Jessi. "Don't worry, I'll get you back to the Delphin safely. Two attacks in one hour are an exception. Now I've got a few days' peace again."

  He slipped on his breathing mask and was the first to jump into the dark water. Jessi and Pandur followed. First through the supply tunnel, then out of Chilehaus and back to the building where they had left the Delphin. No one followed them, no one tried to stop them.

  When the rigger, calm and fully in control, as if nothing had happened,
was steering the Delphin out into the Outer Alster, Pandur realized little by little that, for the moment at least, he had left the shadows behind him.

  Chapter Seven

  "Let's Spend the Night Together"

  A chronological history of Hamburg since the turn of the millenium (2) :

  2012 - Hamburg too is faced with magical phenomena. It is mainly elemental water spirits that do mischief in the flooded areas. Earth spirits cause cases of subsidence in Altona, which lead to flooding in areas previously above the water level and thought safe. In northern Germany's media city sightings of paranormal creatures in the Harburg Hills and the Saxon Forest are on the increase. From there, too come reports of the appearance of nature and elemental spirits. The first UGE children are born in Hamburg. The University Clinic of Eppendorf takes on their cause and commences intensive research programs. The island of Willhelmsburg, almost totally devastated in the Great Flood, is converted into a prison island by resolution of the Hamburg Senate under the influence of various large conglomerates.

  2017 - At a session of the Hamburg Senate Sergius Hergheim makes known that, as representative of the druid circle "Sacred Spring", he lays claim to the land around Trittau Reinbek and Geesthacht, as well as the entire Saxon Forest. The communities in this region are to be evacuated within a month. After delivering this message, he transforms himself into a unicorn before the eyes of the assembled and gallops off to the aforesaid area. The town of Bad Segeberg is destroyed in an earthquake a few days after the deadline expires.

  2019 - The Grand Penitentiary of Willhelmsburg is opened. Four thousand prisoners from the whole of Germany are housed on the island popularly known as "Big Willi". Hamburg benefits from the revenue generated by the island's factories in which the prisoners are forced to work.

  2021 - The beginning of goblinization in April soon leads to heavy street fighting when many parties and associations advocate interning metahumans in closed camps. Many ores and trolls but also elves and dwarfs flee to the Druid Lands of the Saxon Forest region as, in the following year assaults on them continue to rise. Hamburg finds itself compelled to resettle the metahumans in the Druid Lands and thus recognize the area's status. The second VITAS wave claims a further 60, 000 lives. On May 29 the water dragon, Kaltenstein destroys several supertankers and passenger ships as well as the entire petroleum docks. This act is to be only a small part of the retaliation for the contamination of the North Sea.

  2028 - The NDR is one of the first German broadcasters to set up experimental simsense studios.

  Dr Natalie Alexandrescu: Hamburg Venice of the North German History on Vidchips VC 5, Erkrath 2051

  The rigger took the Delphin to the surface to exchange the hot, sticky air inside for the air over the Outer Alster. Outside it stank but it was cool. Pandur was sweating as much as the others and enjoyed being able to breathe freely again.

  "Unnecessary risk," Jessi criticized the rigger. "We don't have far to go."

  "Got to cool off my nut," replied Festus.

  Jessi said nothing. Probably she was thinking the same as Pandur. Better the risk of being discovered than another of the rigger's fits.

  They were traveling without position lights and were now bobbing up and down in the shadow of an unlit, ruined apartment house. Laser beams were flitting across the horizon of downtown Hamburg. The other lights of the megaplex lay before them in a wide semi-cirle as if they were in an arena in which the crowd on the terraces were burning matches. The lights refracted in the murky water but were too far away to compete with the light from the moon. Copters were circling downtown, just about where Chilehaus lay. On the Outer Alster, however, it was quiet. No copters. Two smallish boats were moving slowly away from them.

  "Our depot," said Jessi, pointing ahead to another canal, lined with ruins.

  "Really only a hop, skip and a jump away," said Pandur. He recognized the district even though he had only glimpsed it on the vidscreen as they were setting out.

  The building that housed the depot had from the outside the robust charm of an ugly, grey concrete bunker. The basement and two stories were underwater. What rose up over the surface presented itself as a plain concrete block, three floors high, empty window sockets, drafty and cold. Looked like an old office building. It would have been no big loss for the face of the city if the whole construction had been engulfed, but it had withstood the Great Flood.

  There were other unused buildings nearby, most of them badly damaged, the upper stories bullet-pocked or blown up, not much use for anything anymore. The line of buildings looked like a row of teeth destroyed by tooth decay, only this one tooth being capable of cracking nuts.

  "Looks like the aftermath of a bombing raid," said Pandur, while the rigger closed the Delphin's dome and went to diving stations.

  "Doesn't just look like that, chummer," Jessi answered. "In Winterhude and specially here in the Osterbek Canal there was a battle in the late Thirties between anarchist urban guerilla fighters and a Senate fleet. At the time the Senate was made up of conservatives and the ultra-right. And that happened even though the anarchists were already represented in the Lower House and were becoming more and more powerful. There was plenty of heat all over the city, but here especially. Rocket launchers and heavy artillery on both sides. In the end the anarchists had to retreat, but they put up stiff resistance."

  As the Delphin approached their destination, Pandur looked at the front screen. Two of the sad ruins, along with the depot building, formed a U, whose open side lay in the shadow of a further building. This had the advantage that the Michel Standard, anchored in the most secluded corner of the group of buildings and with the additional cover of a camoflage net, could only be discovered accidentally. The boat itself was in place.

  "Later, the hovercraft pilots and the trafficking gangs tended to transact their business in this district," Jessi went on. "But the Border Protection Force guys sealed off the access canals. That's why that whole scene shifted to St Pauli and into the old warehouse district. The Osterbek's also too near the Alster Palace and the Mundsburg Towers. Too big an audience from the ruling class, too many security services, too many fat cats cruising around the Alster on their private boats. There's been a lot of talk from time to time of demolishing this quarter and building another luxury complex on piles in the water, but each time the investors have pulled out."

  "Isn't Winterhude Navaria's stamping ground?" Pandur asked. A very few water nymphs were among the Awakened Beings of the Sixth World and the story went around among pirates that one of them lived in Hamburg's waters. "I'd love to see a real, live nymph."

  Jessi laughed. "Nymphs somehow seem to stir men's imaginations. Why, for godsake? You can't even screw them."

  "But they've got gorgeous tits," Festus maintained. "At least in the pictures in old books of fables."

  "So ka, for you tits're the only thing that make a woman," Jessi retorted with annoyance. She turned back to Pandur. " Navaria lives in the Feenteich, a pond a ways from here, just off the Alster in Uhlenhorst. She's able to live there because the pond is fed by an underground spring. She definitely wouldn't feel comfortable in the Outer Alster, not to mention this filthy canal. Navaria is okay and sometimes cooperates with the eco-groups. But she likes her seclusion and rarely shows herself."

  "Have you ever had any dealings with her?"

  "No. If she shows herself at all, then only to Irdina, an old shaman woman who's been in contact with her for years."

  "What does Navaria have to offer besides tits?" Pandur was forced to think of Tungrita. Awakened Beings lived all around and among them, but this fact didn't seem to concern people. There were even those who still denied the existence of such beings. And the really powerful among the Awakened weren't interested enough in people to want to change this state of affairs. They followed their own natures and aims and only intervened when they felt bothered by people.

  "She's got enough up top to keep her enemies away from her residence," said Jessi dr
ily. "Drek, why on earth don't we rejoice in the fact that all our fairy tales and legends have come true? Why can't we simply marvel, like little children do? At nymphs, for example. At Nature in all its variety. What do we do instead? We destroy Nature wherever we can. And if we have to deal with Awakened Beings, we ask straight away about their particular powers..." She interrupted herself. "Sorry, chummer, wasn't meant personally."

  "I get the message." Still, Pandur felt it was aimed at him, Festus guided the Delphin into the opening leading to the depot.

  The runners were on their way from the Delphin's anchorage to the hideout of the GreenWarriors somewhere in the building. They had left their diving suits in the Delphin. They were back in the clothes they had come in.

  Jessi led the two men unerringly through what was left of the building. First they went up two floors, then down one. She seemed to be on home ground.

  They reached the end of a staircase and passage. It looked exactly like the staircase they had just been in. What had once been yellow paint had been weathered by rising damp and the winds that blew through the building, and most of it had flaked off. The dust and dirt of past, less glorious decades had formed a thick crust on the floor. The concrete was riven by broad cracks. Somewhere water was dripping as if the last resident hadn't turned off the faucet properly.

  Jessi stopped outside a room in the middle of the corridor. It stood out from the rest in that the doorway had grey plastic sheeting stuck over it from the inside. The plastic was slit in the middle to allow access.

  The room was windowless and dark. Jessi slipped through the slit first, produced a flashlight from under her sweatshirt and let the beam roam around the room. There was all sorts of junk lying around on the floor: empty plastic drinks crates, scraps of the plastic sheeting that was stuck over the doorway, a plastic desk broken in half, two gutted 2DTV housings, plastic baskets, the outriggers of a catamaran and parts of its deck planking. The room looked like a storage closet into which someone had stuffed all the things cluttering up other rooms.