Shadowrun

by Russell Zimmerman

  Simone leaned forward. “What was happening, at the speed of the Matrix, was the equivalent of a video game with very real deadly consequences and no saved games. SIMaeon fought another hacker with his skills and agent programs. He won, but he told me later that it was a close thing. However, as he is a corporate hacker, or a white hat, as they are sometimes called, he had extra equipment on hand to fix his damaged deck.”

  The image of SIMaeon disappeared and was replaced with more video of the fight outside the Pour House. “Meanwhile, the Hellhounds kept attacking the Pour House patrons and the DocWagon’s Ares Citymaster—which held up to its sterling reputation. While I knew I was safe inside its armor, I’ll admit, I was frightened.”

  Simone smiled at the camera. “And then I got to see some action. Over the comms, Takeshi called for “Little Dog,” one of the heavy-duty resuscitation machines. More on that after a word from our sponsors.”

  The scene is of nature, traveling over green hills, through lush forests, up burnt dunes, down to the ocean with crashing waves. A voiceover speaks as the scene travels through each lovely natural scene. “Imagine a world filled with the plants and animals nature intended. Imagine a world where power plants live in harmony with their ecosystems. Imagine a world where natural energy fulfills all your needs.”

  The camera travels through more nature scenes, repeating the images but this time with each, you can see a different kind of natural energy being harnessed. Over the green hills, high-tech camouflaged windmills stand. In the forest, a camouflaged building with a geothermal symbol looks like a tree house. On the burning dunes, oval solar collectors soak up the sun. On the oceans, energy generating motion buoys float.

  The scene shifts to a busy central square with people walking across it. The camera pans down to their feet, then to the energy generating motion platform to the machines harnessing the natural energy created by the walking citizens. “Imagine being part of the energy system that powers your life every day. Imagine Gaeatronics.”

  The word GAEATRONICS appears on the screen until the commercial goes black.

  The show returned to Simone in the studio. “Welcome back to Stories with Hart: The DocWagon Edition. I’m Simone Hart, and when we last left you, I was in the middle of danger while trying to get my story. For those who aren’t aware, when I did a story on Knight Errant, Officer Gabriella showed me how to fire various pistols before my ride-along with her. Afterward, I continued practicing my firearm skills. As part of my agreement with DocWagon to do a ride-along with an HTR team, Studio 15 bought me a pistols skillsoft package. Despite what the forthcoming footage looks like, I was never in any real danger.”

  Simone held up a pistol. “This is the Ares Light Fire 75, the pistol I chose from the weapons available. It was filled with gel rounds—which, while not lethal, still pack a punch. No one died by my hand at the Pour House. Also, the Amina Collection armored clothing I wore, by the always wonderful Amina Vardeman, was as stylish as it was protective.

  “Now we return to my ride-along with DocWagon 19. SIMaeon was silent, still fighting an enemy hacker. Gunther was keeping the Hellhounds from the Citymaster, and Takeshi, the team lead, had called for their resuscitation drone.”

  The scene fades from the studio back to the interior of the Citymaster. Takeshi’s voice comes over the comm while Simone looks at the weapons on one of the ambulance walls. There are three pistols, two rifles, several grenades, and a dozen magazines of different kinds of ammunition. “Gunther. Send Little Dog out.”

  “Little Dog?” Simone turns her head toward the front of the ambulance.

  Gunther’s answer comes over the speaker nearest her. “One of my medical drones.”

  “Takeshi, is it safe for me to come out, too?”

  There is a pause. “Do you know how to use a pistol, Simone?”

  “I can use the Ares pistol you have on the wall.”

  “Whiz.” Gunther’s voice is bright with admiration. “I’ll unlock it for you.”

  “Very good, Miss Hart. Load it with gel rounds and don’t be afraid to shoot anyone who comes at you. I’m sending Hey Jude to meet you at the door.”

  Simone’s hand reaches for the Ares Light Fire 75 pistol and a magazine of gel rounds. She wastes no time in checking and loading the pistol. She selects a second magazine of gel rounds, pauses, and takes a third magazine of regular ammunition, tucking both into pockets on her khaki jumpsuit.

  “I see what you did there.” Gunther’s voice is full with mirth.

  “You never know when you’ll need regular ammo.”

  “Smart thinking. You ready?”

  “Yes.”

  “Follow Little Dog. Hey Jude’s already coming out to meet you.” He pauses and then adds. “Seriously, shoot anyone—who isn’t us—that gets too close.”

  The gull-wing door of the Citymaster swings open and Simone clambers out. Before her is a squat drone that comes up to her knees. Around her are fallen people, some in red and orange, some not. Some bleeding and still, some prone and moaning. Simone scans back and forth across the area as she follows the trundling drone. One corner of the Pour House is smoldering, but looks solid.

  As she approaches the front door, a man in torn orange and red clothing—a Hellhound—stumbles out of it.

  “Stay back!” Simone’s voice is loud and firm, with only a slight tremble. The human, blond-hair and blue-eyed, leers at her with a bloody mouth and doesn’t move. Simone raises her pistol and shoots the go-ganger in the forehead. His leer freezes, and he collapses in a heap on the ground.

  “Good shootin’!” Gunther’s voice is gleeful.

  “Not bad for a reporter.” Hey Jude appears in the Pour House doorway. “C’mon, we got work for Little Dog.”

  Simone follows Hey Jude and the drone inside, where there is no doubt that a brawl-turned-riot happened here. From her scan of the room, not a single piece of moveable furniture is unbroken. Behind the bar stands two people, a troll and an ork. They both hold weapons and watch the DocWagon team with wary respect, but do nothing more than watch.

  When Simone hesitates, turning toward the bar, Gunther whispers quietly over the comm. “Not a good idea, Simone. Really.” As she’s the only one who reacts, it appears the rigger privately messaged her. She nods and continues to the back hallway, which ends in a back room that barely holds the three people inside. Odder stands over a small, gray ork who’s slumped over a deck hugged to his chest.

  Takeshi, still glowing with magical armor, moves out of the doorway and lets the drone in. “We’re going to give Little Dog a go before we call this one done.”

  “Will he live?”

  He looks back at the drone and the unmoving ork. “That remains to be seen.”

  Odder looks tired. Her hands glow with soft light as the drone attaches itself to the ork at vital places—the chest, the back of the neck, the groin. “Clear,” she murmurs just before the ork’s body gives a huge spasm and the light from Odder’s hands flashes.

  Simone glances at Hey Jude, and then does a double take. She’s bleeding from what looks suspiciously like a bullet wound in her the chest, and from the arm that looks like a machete slashed it.

  Noticing her glance, Hey Jude shrugs. “It’s a flesh wound. Once we get the client elsewhere, we’ll take care of us.”

  Looking closer at Takeshi, Simone notices the reserved man’s clothing is ripped, and several bruises mar his face and hands. “Are you all right?”

  Takeshi nods. “Hazards of the trade. This is minor.”

  “We’ve got a pulse.” Odder is exalted and smiling. She stands, wobbling a little. “He’s alive.”

  “Good work team. Wrap it up.” He pauses. “Gunther?”

  “All clear here. Everyone’s disappeared, and I’m even hearing Knight Errant sirens.”

  Takeshi nods. “Good. SIMaeon?”

  “Here. Alive. Been better.”

  “We’ll debrief on the way to the hospital.”

  Hey Jude nudges S
imone’s shoulder. “Go with Takeshi. I gotta take the client.”

  Simone nods as Hey Jude slings her rifle behind her and then gathers up the small ork, carrying him like a child. He still hugs his deck tight.

  As Simone turns to follow Takeshi, she hears Hey Jude murmur in a low, sing-song voice, “You just hold on tight, Miyuzaki. You keep your deck close. It’s yours, and you’ll come back to it. We got ya. You’re good. We got ya.”

  The scene faded from the destroyed Pour House Tavern to the brightly lit studio. Simone nodded to the main camera. “I wish we could say that Miyuzaki recovered and was doing just fine, but at the time of this broadcast, he is still in the hospital in a coma, suffering from what is known as dumpshock. He has regained consciousness only once, long enough to reach for his deck, but was unable to speak. Our prayers and well-wishes go out to Miyuzaki and his loved ones.”

  Simone turned to the side camera. “At this point. We returned to the DocWagon garage to allow Gunther time to inspect the Citymaster for damage, to allow SIMaeon to fix his deck, and for Odder to rest. I took the time to talk with Takeshi, the enigmatic leader of DocWagon 19, about himself, the evening, and the hacking attempt on the team’s communications array.”

  The scene shifts to the DocWagon garage again. Simone watches Takeshi pace back and forth with smooth steps. His face has the faraway look of someone lost in thought. “Is everything all right?”

  Takeshi nods. “Thinking. Considering what we know. It’s not unusual for people to attempt to hack into DocWagon. It’s mostly benign, if sensitive, hacking—records of clients and such. Patrol routes. Though they don’t usually come after HTR teams. And it’s even rarer that they set out to geek the DocWagon hacker. I’m considering this in conjunction to your presence this evening.”

  “You don’t think someone’s trying to hurt me, do you?”

  He tilts his head and contemplates her for a moment. “You specifically? No. But, if someone wanted to damage DocWagon’s reputation, hurting a well-known trid personality like yourself while on a ride-along would go a long way.”

  “No one knew I would be here today.”

  “No one?” His smile is gentle. “Not your studio, the interns, the producers…?”

  “Oh. I…you don’t actually…”

  “Don’t worry. I don’t truly think that’s what happening. It’s merely one of the options I must consider.”

  Takeshi sits down on a folding chair. In the distance behind him, Hey Jude is being patched up by another uniformed DocWagon employee. Simone watches as the med-tech pulls a slug from her breastbone, just under the clavicle. The ork grimaces with a grunt of pain. Simone turns from her and looks back at Takeshi, who is patiently waiting.

  Simone sits down across from him. “For a medical professional, you have a very tactical mind.”

  “I wasn’t always an EMT.”

  “What were you before this life?”

  “A soldier.” He pauses, looking chagrined, and rubs a bandage on his arm. “A mercenary. I’ve seen a lot of action. Fought in more skirmishes than I care to think about. I was very good at what I did. Which is mostly the same thing I do now. Command a team. Save lives.”

  “You don’t look that old.”

  “I am older than I look. My mind and body connection allows me my youthful demeanor.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  He offers her his open palms for a moment, looking down at them, before placing his hands on his thighs. “I am an adept. I harness the magical energy around me to power my body, to push it beyond normal human limits.”

  “That explains your glowing skin, the magical armor.”

  Takeshi nods. “Yes.”

  “What made you change from being a soldier to becoming an EMT?”

  Takeshi looks away as he speaks. “A need to feed the soul as well as the body. My sensei suggested that a man of my abilities would do well in DocWagon. I agreed. Here I am.”

  The scene shifted back to the studio with an image of Takeshi next to Simone. “John “Tash” Takeshi is an eight-year veteran of the mercenary unit known as the Nephilim Network. Leaving the Network in 2061, Takeshi turned from a life of killing to a life of healing. He quickly moved from the Standard Response Team to a High-Threat Response Team after proving his skills in the Tacoma food riots of 2063. His prior military service gave him the skills and confidence to run his own team by 2066. Takeshi has been in charge of DocWagon 19 for the past five years.”

  Simone paused as the image next to her morphed into a picture of Takeshi with his glowing mystic armor. “One of the most valuable skills this DocWagon adept has is his magic. As you can see, the channeled magic gives him certain beneficial side effects like slower aging. It also allows Takeshi to enhance his martial prowess, making his strikes do more damage while providing him with the ability to absorb more damage. These arcane skills can be taxing, and he can suffer some detrimental physical effects after the mystical boost to the body has run its course.”

  Turning to the secondary camera, Simone smiled. “DocWagon, as a company, is good to their employees, and while we were in the garage, the DocWagon shift lead, Benjamin Novakowski, noted hero of the Seattle legislature hostage situation of 2069, debriefed DocWagon 19 about the earlier part of the evening. But first, a word from our sponsors.”

  The screen shows a muscular chest and a hand zipping up a black Knight Errant uniform jacket. The Knight Errant badge shines bright on the anonymous officer’s chest. The camera pans in from the left of the officer, showing the Knight Errant uniform signature shoulder armor with the Knight Errant symbol on it. The officer grabs, checks, and holsters a pistol.

  The screen shifts to a feminine form in the same Knight Errant uniform. She puts on a tactical belt as the camera pans over her body, highlighting her officer’s rank before it shows her picking up, checking, and holstering a pistol.

  As the two officers come together, standing in heroic poses, words appear over top of them:

  KNIGHT ERRANT NEEDS ONLY THE BEST KNIGHT ERRANT WANTS THOSE WHO WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE

  The camera slowly moves up their forms to show two attractive, brown-haired humans who look at the camera with confidence.

  The woman lifts her chin. “Knight Errant needs you. Because if you won’t make a difference, who will?”

  The man nods. “If you have the talent and the drive, Knight Errant has a place for you. Contact your nearest Knight Errant office to learn more about the training programs available in your area.”

  Gold words on a black background appear:

  KNIGHT ERRANT

  MORE THAN A JOB

  IT’S A PROFESSION

  The screen goes black.

  “Welcome back to this special edition of Stories with Hart. My ride-along with DocWagon 19 had quieted down for a few moments, allowing time to assess the situation. DocWagon shift lead, Benjamin Novakowski, joined team lead Takeshi and team hacker SIMaeon after the cyber attack on DocWagon 19’s communications array.” Simone nodded to the camera and the scene faded to black.

  When the scene returns, Benjamin Novakowski, a handsome Arabic man, sits next to Takeshi on a folding chair. Ben wears the same DocWagon uniform as everyone else. SIMaeon, in the flesh, sits on a third folding chair with them. Simone is near enough to the trio to watch the conversation, but not close enough to be part of it.

  Ben nods at SIMaeon. “We’ve got our security team on it. Right now, we’re not seeing what you saw. It’s going to take more digging.”

  “But it was there. The jog in the comms. It happened on both the Chrome Holly rescue and the Nagano rescue. Someone’s targeting us.” SIMaeon is making an effort stay still in his chair.

  “It may seem like that, yes. We’ve got a lot more logs to go through to find out what happened on those two rescues. The only rescue we’ve got data on is the Miyuzaki rescue.”

  SIMaeon bites his lip and practically vibrates in place. “You don’t believe me.”

  Takeshi clea
rs his throat and gives SIMaeon a warning look.

  SIMaeon stills, gripping the sides of the chair with both hands. Only his mouth moves as he speaks.

  “It’s tonight. Every rescue. The agent was snooping and spoofing. Then, when I caught it, it didn’t try to get away. It tried to hurt me. And to open a door to let its hacker in…which succeeded, I might add.” In SIMaeon’s stillness, it is clear from the bruised look around his tired eyes that he’s not one hundred percent yet.

  Ben nods. “I know. Do we need to pull you off duty?”

  “NO!” SIMaeon jumps to his feet.

  “I don’t think that’ll be necessary.” Takeshi’s calm, quiet voice brings sanity back to SIMaeon and he sits again, grabbing hold of the chair’s sides once more.

  “Please, Mr. Novakowski, don’t. I know what I’m looking for now. Another hacker won’t see what I’m seeing.”

  Ben and Takeshi exchange a conversation in a glance and Ben nods. “All right. But I’ll spin up another one to be around. Just in case.”

  Takeshi’s voice cuts through SIMaeon’s growing ire. “SIMaeon—what aren’t you telling us?”

  The hacker looks at the ground, not meeting his boss in the eye. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean exactly what I said. What aren’t you telling us?”

  SIMaeon gives Ben a guilty glance, then turns his full attention to Takeshi. “Miyuzaki… I know him. He’s a pal.” Takeshi says nothing. “And I…kinda asked him for a favor.”

  Ben’s voice takes on an edge. “What kind of favor?”

  Takeshi gestures for calm to them both and then looks at SIMaeon again.

  The young man shrinks into himself. “After the Chrome Holly bit…I asked him to look into things for me. I couldn’t…and he’s got… had…a better deck and better agents.”

  Ben stands so fast his chair falls over, outrage and disbelief all over his face. “You hired an outside party on a rescue?”