The Eyes of the Rigger

by Unknown

  Had Ricul and the elves called on the guardsmen for support? Had AG Chemie's attention been drawn to the depot by other sources of information? In any event, they seemed to be sure of the success of the operation. They believed they had the runners trapped. Maybe they should have asked how the runners had succeeded in getting into Chilehaus.

  The helicopters that had attacked the building had now landed on the roof and were spewing out guardsmen. The boats had discharged more security forces. The Michel Standard had been sunk. Patrick's boat was under guard. Everything seemed to be under control. All that had to be done was to tease the runners out of the cranny in which they had sought refuge.

  Nobody seemed to pay any attention to the quiet purring of the HighPower 12. Nobody seemed to see the shadow that glided through the water.

  The runners escaped their enemies.

  Almost.

  A single boat followed at a healthy distance. The three hunters possessed killer instincts and good instruments. They had time to wait for a propitious moment. They did not require the assistance of the megacon's troops. They wanted the bounty for themselves alone.

  Chapter Eight

  "Murder City Nights"

  Chronological history of Hamburg since the turn of the millennium

  (3) :

  2029 - The computer crash also plunges Hamburg's financial system into chaos. A group of CCC members alone, hired by the Senate and some conglomerates can prevent the worst happening. All the hackers are killed in the operation. Later as the " Altona Seven", they become martyrs of the decker scene.

  2030 - The factories on Big Willi employing 12,000 prisoners reach the limits of their capacity and have to be enlarged. Hamburg sets up a special HanSec troop to supervise the prisoners.

  2031-2034 - The first "Hanseatic Academy of the Magical Arts" is founded. At the onset of the Eurowars, Hamburg declares itself a "Demilitarized Zone" and with the aid of megacon troops has the region's barracks evacuated. The abandoned buildings are soon occupied by refugees fleeing the war from all the countries involved. The large conglomerates and the Senate exploit this wave of refugees both for the reconstruction of the port area and the city center as well as for the building of the Theodor Storm Causeway. In the swamps west of flooded Finkenwerder near Neugraben, more and more pontoons appear, towed there by pirates to which new floating constructions are constantly added. Soon tens of thousands of mostly illegal immigrants living in disastrous conditions of hygiene in unimaginable squalor are squeezed together cheek by jowl. Disease is rife and the pontoons are a hotbed of crime an ideal refuge both for pirates and escapees from Big Willi. 2037 - During the night of June 30 - May 1, the approximately 21,000 inmates of Big Willi launch a revolt that the 2,500 prison staff are unable to quash; by means which are never fully explained the prisoners have obtained a large number of firearms. The revolt lasts 4 days and costs the lives of 640 guards. The losses among the prisoners are 4,200. Only with the aid of wage mages and the military can a mass breakout be prevented. The Senate declares the prison island a self-sufficient zone.

  2038 - The influx of refugees from the now-ended Eurowars persists. Many metahumans seek refuge in Hamburg. The population passes the four million mark for the first time. In June violent attacks on metahumans escalate. The majority of elves flee to the western part of the former Suderelb region finding shelter in the Altes Land. Later they are concentrated mainly in Stade, while yet others migrate to Pomorya.

  2040 - Owing to targeted attacks by hovercraft pirates, the Port of Hamburg is declared a military zone. A naval unit from Kiel is placed under the command of the Hamburg Senate to enforce the declaration.

  2042 - The Alsterpalast is opened.

  2045 - Hamburg declares Ohlsdorf Cemetery an exclusion zone because of the increased incidence of ghouls and offers a bounty of 800 EC for any ghoul handed over to the authorities or law-enforcement agencies dead or alive. A gun license is required for the carrying of firearms in Hamburg but in some districts this law exists on paper only.

  2048 - The Willhelmsburg prison island has been rebuilt and now bears the name "Hanse Penal Institution 1". Its nickname however continues to be "Big Willi". HanSec assumes responsibility for security in Blankenese and the city center around the Alster.

  2049 - A monorail serving the whole of Hamburg is completed. Dr Natalie Alexandrescu:

  Hamburg Venice of the North German History on VidChips VC 5 Erkrath 2051

  The rigger took the Delphin down to a depth of seven meters when they had reached the Outer Alster. In the oily waters they were invisible to the human eye. He switched off the engines, went over to emergency power and jacked out.

  "We won't get much further in the boat," he said. "The storage batteries were already half-depleted when we set out on the run. Now we've only got twenty percent operating current. Chases are out. The whole tub's ripe for the scrapyard and the batteries are the worst part. The Warriors've let the thing go to wrack and ruin."

  "What d'you suggest?" Jessi asked.

  "With the batteries in this shape I wouldn't even like to attempt the canal barrage," said Festus. "Either we head up the Alster or go for Music Island."

  "Music Island? We'll have to go through the barrage there as well." Jessi shook her head.

  "No we won't. I know a secret route, it's safe and isn't blocked."

  "Why didn't you think of that before now? Would've saved us the trip through downtown."

  "Like drek it would. We're approaching the island from the east, but beyond that it's no go. Underwater barrages. No way through."

  "What the hell do we want with Music Island?" said Jessi. " There's too much action there for us, I reckon."

  "Just the kind of action we need," Festus answered. "We can disappear in the crowd real quick. I know the island well, specially the discreet little out-of-the-way places. If the Stortebeker passage hasn't been blocked up, we can make it as far as the Reaktor's basement, get out, abandon the Delphin and stroll straight into the joint. Without coughing up admission." He turned to Pandur, "The Reaktor's a music joint, chummer."

  Pandur nodded. His knowledge of the Hamburg megaplex couldn't compete with his chummer's and was outdated. But he had heard of Music Island. It had been erected after the Great Flood as a gigantic events center on the site of what had been the main station. A small glittering city in itself, composed of multi-colored glass, alu-ceramics and laser light, built on concrete piles in the water. A dadaist-anarchist- inspired group calling itself "Zero Consumption Society with Zero Conviction Time (ZECO-ZECO)" had brought the construction toppling down by attacking the piles with bacteria. A third of the complex had sunk beneath the water, but the rest was still used. As a glitzy world of thrills for the well-heeled, however, Music Island had long ago been overtaken by the Alsterpalast in Schwanenwijk Bay. Its luxury hotels, swank bars and gourmet restaurants were frequented by megacon execs, their Japanese bosses and business associates, the top names from the world of combat sport, trid and simsense stars, the Hamburg glitterati and other drekheads who had never heard that there were people who were justified in calling a credstick an ebbie or had never even possessed one at all.

  "Okay by me." Jessi gave up her resistance. "The shits from AG Chemie won't be able to afford to turn half Hamburg inside out to catch a few runners. Let's try the Island. Pandur?"

  "All the same to me. Main thing is we get out of the water sometime." He was gradually getting sick of it. On the water with Tupamaro for months on end, stranded in the Weser-Jade Bight, in the swamps, in the pontoon ghetto, in the Delphin... He had spent too much time on swaying surfaces, in cramped tin cans and in diving suits. Besides, he took little pleasure in lying on the bed of the Aister in a heap of scrap metal controlled by a rigger who, at any moment, could fall prey to his brain maggots and freak out, while, overhead, killer elves, mafiosi and megacon guardsmen were sharpening their knives. " Either of you know where to meet a Mr Mustapha who's looking for shadowrunners for a hot, dry run in Sau
di Arabia?"

  "Hey, chummer," said Festus tensely. "Before you get your ass mixed up in a new run, you're gonna give me a few crystal-clear answers to equally crystal-clear questions. So ka?"

  "Are you threatening me?" said Pandur, tensing. He had long since decided to come clean with the other two. But he didn't like to be pressured.

  "Drek," the rigger replied. "When I want to make a threat, I got my flak in my hand. You see a flak? So okay. I just want to make it clear that you owe me a few answers."

  That sounded more conciliatory and was probably meant that way.

  "The questions?" said Pandur.

  "What Schmidt asked you. Why's AG Chemie chasing us? What did you find in the logistics computer? And something our Schmidt couldn't ask you: what do the drekheads who attacked us first want from you? Who gave your deck the magic treatment? What game're you playing?"

  Pandur felt reminded of the run in Dusseldorf. Wenzel had also suspected he was playing a double game.

  "D'you think I'm working for two clients? Chummer, I've been in the shadows a few years longer than you. I know the rules."

  "You don't know who the mage is?" asked Festus. "Or who it could be?"

  "Someone who wants to pinch the files without paying, without organizing a run. That's what I think." He hesitated, wondering whether to give more away. "Two years ago I experienced some weird things that are connected with it. Some kind of grey eminence that's pulling the strings and doesn't show himself. I've never found out who had me on the hook."

  "Real darn smart lumbering your chummers with all that shit!"

  "Happens to be my handicap!" Pandur countered. "Different guys have different problems, worse problems, and impose them on their chummers as well!"

  The rigger was quiet for a while. Then he shrugged his shoulders. "And the killers in the boat?"

  "Are mixed up with the grey eminence, or not. Two of them once chased my girlfriend and me. They wanted data as well. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure they work for AG Chemie. Could well be they have more than one contract. Could be they were out to get our Schmidt, or me, or one of you. Or the data. Or everything. Those drekheads do good business and make sure the job's profitable."

  "Does that apply to the mafioso? Is the Mafia hunting you?" Jessi put in a question.

  "I've never pissed in the Mafia's pocket so much that they'd waste bullets on me," Pandur replied. "That fellah's called Ricul and he's the half-brother of the woman I told you about. He holds me responsible for Nasha's death."

  "Got a whole heap of enemies, huh?" The rigger looked at him searchingly.

  "Who in shadowland doesn't?"

  "But that's not enough for you?"

  Pandur didn't know what the rigger was driving at. "I'm a runner who just can't keep everyone happy. Normally I'm not the type who likes making enemies. I don't cheat people, I'm not particularly aggressive and I like to live in peace with my fellow man - if they leave me in peace as well."

  Festus looked at him darkly, "You stick your body parts in other people's affairs too much, chummer. You oughta be glad that some chummers only flip out when the viruses are marching across their brains. Be glad there're other chummers who're just as peace-loving as you. Or you'd have one more enemy. You could slowly start thinking of opening up a store."

  Aha, thought Pandur. You weren't In such a deep sleep after allr chummer...

  "You stupid drekhead!" Jessi screamed at Festus. "What are you? A fucking peeping-tom? And don't you ever dare describe me as "other people's affairs" again. I owe you nothing, so ka? I go to bed with whoever I like!"

  "You fuckin' tramp!" Festus exploded.

  Pandur saw that Jessi almost gave vent to her fury, but then got herself back under control before a single word crossed her lips. Instead, checking herself with an effort, she managed to say, "This is hardly the right time to be tearing into each other, is it? Leave me be, chummer! We're a team, but apart from that divorced! So ka?"

  The rigger was silent. A thick, angry vein on his forehead very, very slowly subsided.

  Pandur likewise said nothing. He had been aware from the start that the two had known each other for a long time, and Jessi had confirmed it. Nothing in the past hours, not a word and not a gesture had led him to suspect, however, that it had been such a close relationship. It was not unknown for shadowrunners to go to bed together after a run. Men with women, men with men, women with women, according to their preferences. That was normal. Faster and more eruptive perhaps than elsewhere, because life in the shadows was faster and more eruptive. Mostly only short-lived relationships were formed, one-night stands. Chummers like Molotova and Dr Mabuse, who had been a couple in life as in the shadows, were the exception. The shadows weren't a bed of feathers in which love could have any substance in the long term. Pandur had known that a girl like Jessi aroused male fantasies. It wouldn't have surprised him to hear that Jessi and Festus had once screwed. But he couldn't have known that there was more involved. Jessi had only told him about Patrick. And yet...

  I might have known. The allusions, that certain tension between the two of them...

  The rigger turned away from the girl. He appeared calmer than could have been expected. But that was not surprising actually. After all, he had had enough time before to come to terms with the situation.

  "What did you find in the computer, chummer? What's so hot that the toxin merchants want to blow us to Hades?"

  Pandur hesitated, but it had to come out into the open. "I stumbled across it by accident and knew straight away that the very existence of this data would cause us trouble. It all revolves around some criminal shit that AG Chemie's pulling off in Africa. Don't ask me the details. I only glanced through the stuff. But this business is dynamite: human experimentation. The drekheads have killed hundreds, if not thousands, of people to test something. They've been working on it with two other megacons that are called A and B in the records. The whole thing went down in Kenya."

  It was out. Pandur felt relieved.

  "What?" Festus whistled through his teeth. "Regular, old-fashioned mass murder?"

  "That's maybe too hard. More like experiments with people where a lot of them turned up their toes."

  "Got ya," said the rigger. "And now they're shit-scared it'll become public knowledge."

  "Maybe the megacons can get away with almost anything," Jessi said bitterly. "But there are limits. If that gets out... "

  "The toxin merchants can expect a fine," said Festus drily. " You bad, bad, bad boys - you shouldn't do that, now. Mass murders with more than a thousand deaths are punishable by three black marks in your copybooks . "

  Pandur had already wondered why AG Chemie was trying so hard to keep the lid on the affair. Megacons operated largely outside national laws. But there were limits, of course. If public outrage became too great, the government, weak though it was, would have to do something. There would be an inquiry. But AG Chemie would presumably manage to come out with its hands clean. That alone could not be the cause of the all the excitement.

  "It would mean that AG Chemie's shares would plummet," he said. "The competition will try to take advantage of the situation for their own benefit and grab market shares from them. That's why it's so important for the megacon not to let the data come out."

  "Is the data in your cyberdeck?" Jessi asked.

  Pandur nodded. "I thought hard about that. They would've pursued us if they'd just suspected I'd copied the data - so why deprive ourselves of it?"

  "Excellent!" The girl stuck out her chin combatively. "We'll pass it on to the Klabauterbund. They'll make sure that public opinion's mobilized. There're links between the Klabauter and the Shock Wave Surfers, you know. They get into the NewsFax channels and feed the material to the media."

  "That would be one way," said Pandur reservedly. He had already thought about the decker's aid organization himself. As a lone wolf, he mistrusted organizations, even illegal ones. But in this case they needed all the help they could get. "
You're just forgetting we can't get at the data."

  "The mages of the Klabauterbund will solve the problem."

  "Hope the sorcerers appreciate the gift," Festus put in, " and treat us to real fancy coffins. I'd like one in oak, and a wormproof aluminum case for my cyberware. You never know. Maybe I'll need it if I come back as a zombie."

  "You should've worried about the worms before you got your doc to stick those wonder eyes in your nut," said Jessi.

  "Drek, the eyes're ace! How often do I have to tell ya the software was diseased?"

  Before the dispute between the two could flare up again, Pandur said, "You checked off all your questions, chummer? Can we get round to the practical problems at last?"

  The rigger looked at him with his sick eyes, which betrayed nothing of the disease, with his capable and at the tame time analytical eyes, as inscrutable as ever. Cybereyes. "I just want to know exactly what you found out about my goddam cyberware."

  "Listen, chummer, the data's in my cyberdeck with all the other information, and we can't get at it right now. You know all that, don't you? You'll get a copy of the data that's important for you as soon as we've cracked the deck. Or as soon as the Klabauter men have the answer - if we get involved with them, that is."

  "But the trail leads to MCT in Prague?"

  "There're minutes of a meeting with MCT. An MCT exec, a certain Dr Gregor Kroll... no, wait, Dr Gregor Krumpf, that was the name... So, right, this Doc Krumpf sent out invitations for a demonstration of new cybereye developments in Prague. But AG Chemie declined because the interests of company B could've been affected." Pandur put his hand to his brow. "I just realized. That's the same company turning up as was working with AG Chemie in Kenya. That can't be a coincidence."

  "Ya see, chummer." The rigger seemed really pleased. "That was a lot ya got there. I'm gonna grab me this here Doc Krumpf."