Make no mistake, Powell’s employer wants all technomancers, but more than anything, it wants Tetsu, and it wants what’s in that file. The last thing it wants to happen is for Tetsu to discover his destiny and act upon it.
For your information, neither Powell or Tetsu killed that girl in the Annex, nor did they kill the guards. Those murders were committed by Cole Blackwater. You will find copies of his confession to me, amid a whole lot of other evidence, buried within this email. Run it through one of your expanders—and you’ll have the information I was going to hand over to Lone Star. I don’t trust Knight Errant.
Neither should you.
Go after Powell, follow your instincts, and no matter what, find Tetsu and help him. I hope he hasn’t been captured by this dwarf. Destroy Caliban if you can—if I’m right, my legacy will be his downfall.
Au revoir, dear Delaney,
Artus P. Wagner, CEO, Horizon Personnel Administrator
P.S.: Have you ever played a game? I suggest the enclosed demo of TechnoHack. You might find it interesting.
She forwarded the message to her partner.
“So, you’ve got the deck of cards,” Renault said. “You going to hand it over to Lone Star?”
Delaney slowly shook her head. “No…at least, not yet. Did you track down that private dick Tetsu hired in ’73? The one at the coffee shop?”
“Hasn’t returned any calls yet. I’m afraid he’s become something of a recluse. Off the grids, so to speak. Are we looking into Renraku being the possible buyer? With maybe this Caliban at the rudder?”
Delaney stood from where she perched on the desk’s edge and sat down in Wagner’s chair. “It’s a good start.” She took the email and ran it through an expander as Wagner had suggested. A single email took ten minutes to become a folder on her host’s desktop. It contained eighteen pieces of data. She opened it. “There’s audio and visual in here. And what looks like dossiers on everyone—” She blinked. “Including me.”
“Really?” Renault tilted his head to the side. “I never thought of Wagner as that smart.”
“Neither did I. I was wrong. There are also files in here regarding that shadow team.” She tapped the file marked Mack Schmetzer. The pages that scrolled before her made her pause, and she sat back in the chair. “Holy. Shit.”
“What?”
Delaney’s gaze lingered a second longer on Schmetzer’s file before she shifted her gaze from her AR to Renault’s curious visage. “There be dragons here.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Approaching the RisEn Residence
“Is that it?” Mack asked through his commlink.
Shayla answered as the Shinobi did a large, loose circle around the well-groomed property below. “Yep. I’m flying under the radar, so going fast would be a huge red flag. Not that anyone really cares on this side of town.”
Mack nodded and turned to Preacher. The troll took up most of the Shinobi’s interior, and it always amazed him that the helicopter could get off the ground with his weight. “You picking up anything?”
“Magically… yeah. There’s something down there, but I’m too far away and there’s too much mechanical interference.”
Slamm-0! spoke up from his small area, somewhat smushed between Preacher and the Shinobi’s side. “I can’t find any serious security in that area. No cameras or drones to tap into.”
“What about your nasty green friend?”
“Oh, I’m sure he and Blackwater are around. Clockwork might be a narcissistic asshole, but he’s also good at what he does, and he’s smart.” The blond smiled. “But I’m smarter.”
“How we going in, boss?” Shayla asked.
“Hot. Slamm-0!, get me the area grid with heat signatures to track bodies. Preacher, I might need a blackout spell or one of those stun things you do. Wide area.”
“Got it.”
“And me?” Shayla said.
“Land us right in front of the house. Keep the doors open and your fingers on the up button. And pray we can convince Tetsu to come with us, with the data and without force.” Mack checked his Manhunter and thought of Maria. “Because I’m in the mood to kill something.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Risen Residence
“Kazuma!” Netcat yelled.
“Give me the data you stole!” Blackwater thundered. “Or I swear I’ll hack your brain and find it myself.”
Kazuma had been about eight when he’d been thrown into his first fight. He’d lived in an area of San Francisco where not many elves dared to visit. So being one made him a permanent target with the local gangers. It was easier for Hitori, because she hadn’t been born with the ears. Back then he was glad of that, because if they’d have put a hand on her, he would have killed them. Those hadn’t been easy days—but they’d educated him on what it was like to take and deflect a blow.
His father had taught him the techniques—from birth to high school. But it had been up to him to test them on the streets and find what worked. And right now—with the blinding pain in his head, echoed by the pounding of the other technomancer at the threshold of the house’s environment host—the simple act of breathing was what he used as a focus. With each breath, he took in the essence of the datasphere around him, felt the wisps of it curl inside as he stepped into his AR. He kept his eyes closed and his breathing steady.
“You stupid drekking ass!” Clockwork shouted. “You don’t hit soft tissue with a cyberarm unless you want to turn it to mush. If you’ve given him any brain damage, I’m taking what nuyen I’d have gotten for him out of your share.”
Kazuma saw the interior of the house now, through the eyes of the camera. While Blackwater yelled back at him, Clockwork dragged Netcat to the hallway’s entrance and picked up Kazuma’s bag. Clockwork kept his gun on her while he rifled through it, eventually pulling out the commlink.
“Cole…I think I found something. Take a look at this.”
Blackwater headed away from the still hunched-over Kazuma and took the commlink. He held it in his hands, his gun pointed down, and within a few seconds grinned at Clockwork. “Winner winner, chicken dinner.”
Kazuma smiled. Bait accepted.
Without Clockwork’s hand on her arm, Netcat broke away and ran to Kazuma. He felt her beside him, pulling him up by his arms.
Lowering his head, he leaned against her to feign weakness, to make Blackwater the victor over the wounded. But his muscles were far from silent as adrenaline pumped into his system, the years of practice announcing the coming move and calculating each step precisely.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in.
Boss! Ponsu was at his side and glowing a pinkish gold. The sprite was angry.
Ponsu sent him an affirmative. Kazuma looked back through the exterior cameras and saw a movement against the back door. Who was that?
Blackwater was back with them again, his gun pointed at Netcat’s head. “Get up. Both of you.”
Kazuma stood, leaning heavily on Netcat. He felt blood trickle over his lips and tasted the metallic tang in his mouth. He also felt something moving down the side of his face and put his hand there. It came back slick with blood.
Her little cat icon gave a paws-up.
“You bastard,” Netcat said, her voice low. There was a click, a metal-slidin
g-on-metal noise, and then something heavy hit the ground beside Kazuma. He opened his eyes enough to see the Manhunter’s magazine on the floor in front of his left knee.
The same thing happened with Clockwork’s gun. Both of them were disarmed—but it wasn’t going to last long. And it was safe to assume that both weapons had a bullet chambered. Those two bullets could still kill one of them, if not both. He needed to act fast—and make no mistakes.
Kazuma gave the silent command to Netcat as he crouched down and to the left, his right arm reaching over to balance himself as he pushed his left shoulder into the floor.
Blackwater was fast, following Kazuma’s sudden drop with his weapon. The technomancer twisted away, pushing against the floor with his right hand as his right foot kicked straight up.
The hacker fired.
The bullet split the floor an inch away from Kazuma’s right ear—just as his boot connected squarely with Blackwater’s unprotected throat.
Netcat screamed.
Kazuma’s side burned at the sudden wrenching movement as his right foot remained straight up for a few seconds. Blackwater gurgled, fighting to pull air into his shattered larynx before falling back to the floor, his useless gun clattering on the kitchen tile.
The whole movement took less than a second, but for Kazuma it seemed to last for hours. His months of relentless training with Silk released, his energy spent, the pain in his side and head overpowered him, making him tumble forward onto his chest and cheek, arms tucking beneath his body.
Netcat screamed again.
Kazuma took in a deep breath and with half of his vision still in his AR, he saw something large and furry roll by when he looked at Netcat’s icon. What the hell?
“Think you can hack my weapon, bitch?” Clockwork shouted. As Kazuma disengaged from the house security, he saw Netcat curl into a fetal position. The bastard was kicking her!
Suddenly the round, furry ball was in his AR with bared teeth. Kazuma stumbled back to the fireplace as he threw up his hands against it.
The Swan was red now, and he pointed to the slobbering, toothy ball of nasty.
As his sprite chased after the killer ball of fur, Kazuma noticed the house’s environment was darkening. Not just dimming the lights—but shadows had crept in along the edges of the room. He felt something along his back, just brushing against the house’s datasphere, and it almost paralyzed him with fear.
It was the darkness he’d sensed in the resonance. That suffocating, ever-present evil that crept up behind him, but never showed itself. It was here, now, in the house. But how? It wasn’t in the physical world, but it was there, along the edges of the house’s host. If it was able to change that much of the house’s environment, that meant it was almost in the host. He needed to get back in and pull the self-destruct on the whole thing—and preferably do it while the bastard was inside.
Peripherally aware of the fight between the furball and Ponsu, Kazuma turned and grabbed the upper katana from the fireplace. He unsheathed it and ran up behind Clockwork—only the rigger was ready for him and ducked low as Kazuma lashed out with the blade. He missed the hobgoblin, and hit the corner of the hall entrance instead.
“Look out!”
Kazuma felt the rigger come up behind him and let his instincts direct his next move. Clockwork was short, so he knew whatever move he made would be about waist high for Kazuma. He jumped into the air as a gunshot took a chunk of the wall out.
He landed and immediately rolled into Clockwork, knowing that wasn’t something the hobgoblin would expect. Clockwork grunted as Kazuma landed on top of him and tried to tear the gun out of his hand. But the rigger wasn’t going to get disarmed that easily. He brought his shorter legs up and wrapped them around Kazuma’s torso, then tightened them. Kazuma screamed at the pain as Clockwork’s boot put hard, sudden pressure on his wound.
“Get that damn penguin out of my RCC!” The hobgoblin shouted as he struggled to keep Kazuma immobilized.
Kazuma realized Clockwork meant a swan. Ponsu was in a serious, nasty battle with whatever that thing was, almost mirroring her creator’s fight with Clockwork. Abruptly Ponsu disappeared, and then reappeared beside him.
It’s an AI! And a nasty one!
The killer ball of fur with teeth was an AI? This was just getting better all the time. As Clockwork kept squeezing the air out of him, Kazuma patted the ground to his right and found the hilt of his katana just as he heard a gunshot go off. He expected pain…somewhere.
Hadn’t Clockwork just shot him?
Silk knelt over him where he lay back with his knees bent and Clockwork’s legs still wrapped around him. “This is the oddest position I’ve ever caught you in.”
He smiled up at her. “Did you kill him?”
“I hope so. Can’t wait to find out. Netcat’s already heading to the Hummer. Let’s go.” She took his hand and, with a few kicks to the hobgoblin’s face to dislodge him, hauled Kazuma to his feet. He clutched his side, but still managed to take her into his arms.
“You were supposed to wait in the car.”
“I can’t leave you alone for a minute, can I?” She pressed a kiss against his lips before pushing him to the back door, stepping over the still-gasping Blackwater. “We’ve got to get out of here. Those gunshots might have triggered someone’s security.”
“Wait! I have to trigger the host!”
Silk looked up at him in incredulous disbelief. “Now? You got the package, right?”
“Yes, and I left an image copy for them to find.”
“So why do you have to—”
He put his hand to her face. “Because I can’t let that darkness…that evil…infect Myddrin’s home. This was my home. And Hitori’s. I can’t explain what it is, not yet because I don’t know. But that other technomancer is nearly inside her personal space. I want to kill the motherfucker while he’s in there. Just give me two minutes!”
Silk sighed and pulled him to her as they blended into the darkness of the back yard. He spotted the old, small pagoda near a short bridge over a stream, and motioned her over to that. His head was ringing and his vision kept blurring. “I bet in the daylight this yard’s an Asian paradise.”
Kazuma nodded, though he was sure she couldn’t see him in the dark. He dove back into the host with his admin password—and found the same strange, dark edges. The virtual house matched the environmental one, only darker. Mold was growing at an alarming rate along the walls, and the place smelled of dirt and rot. He ran to the back room to the freezer—
It was open, and the packets of meat were thawing on the woven floor.
“Looking for this?”
Kazuma spun around to face a persona he’d never seen before. It was tall and thin and wore a long, shiny, black trench coat. The coat’s texture moved like oil. The same material covered his long legs, and his feet were covered in boots with a dragon’s head at the toe. Kazuma couldn’t see the being’s face—it was covered by a black gas mask, with yellow eyes beneath a top hat.
It was one of the creepiest personas he’d ever seen—and it held the image copy of the packet in its gloved hands.
Kazuma didn’t answer. Instead, he reached back and drew a katana from his back. The packet in the intruder’s hand started rotting as the information corrupted. Outwardly, it was like watching a time-lapse vid of a rotting piece of meat. It turned black, then green, and then maggots started falling off as they wriggled out of holes in the packet. As the maggots hit the floor, they tore holes in the woven mats.
“You thought I would be fooled by an image?” The intruder’s voice was low and loud. It vibrated against Kazuma’s ribcage.
“Who are you?” he finally asked. He needed a name.
“Shax.” The gas mask tilted its head. “And you are Soldat.”
How did he know that? Ponsu appeared behind the intruder—small this time. No bigger than a butterfly. Just a speck of
gold in the darkening hallway.
The entire environment was tainted. It hurt against his senses. It was the same feeling he’d found in the Resonance Realms, the feeling of something looming in the background, wanting in. Whatever this was—he was sure Shax had brought it with him.
“I know your sprite is behind me. The dissonance you see is a part of me. I control it. I give it life and it gives me…” he didn’t finish the sentence, leaving it for Kazuma to finish.
“You’re a dissonant technomancer. A Discordian?” Kazuma had heard of the Discordians and rumors they were involved with Code Clan—but he’d never followed up to find out whether it was true. And now he was certain he faced one of them.
“I am what I am,” Shax said in that thrumming voice. “And now it’s time for you to give me the real data. SHOW ME WHERE IT IS, OR I WILL KILL YOUR SPRITE!”
Threatening Ponsu in front of Ponsu was never a good idea. Given his sprite’s sometimes volatile and somewhat excitable personality, Kazuma didn’t even have to give the creature a command.
The tiny Ponsu flipped the light switch on the wall behind Shax—
—and the host crashed in on itself.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Risen Residence
Netcat stumbled toward the door, still overwhelmed by the ferocious attack of Clockwork’s AI. How could she have forgotten about that damn thing? She’d battled it once before in Seattle—and both times she’d survived.
Barely.
With every muscle demanding a rest, Netcat battled fading as she yanked open the front door with the intent of heading to the Hummer. Whatever Kazuma was doing, she had to believe he was capable of winning. She knew the data was safe, away from here and this damn house.
A hand on her forehead, she stumbled off the porch to the first step before she felt the sudden gusts of wind and debris as a Shinobi helicopter landed on the street in front of the house.
And who were these jackasses? More of Powell’s people? Another shadow team?
She started to duck to her left into the shadows to head to the lot across the street when an all-too-familiar window popped up in her AR.
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