Shadowrun

by Russell Zimmerman

  “Dax, what—?” I began as my gaze darted between them. Bug already had her deck out and was fiddling with it, ignoring us.

  “We gotta figure this out, Code,” Dax said. “What those guys were doing at your place. Thought we could use a little more help.”

  I studied them as they settled into seats. It was about then I realized what the thing in the middle of the table was: a white-noise generator. People used them when they didn’t want anybody to listen in on their conversations—I’d seen versions of them a couple of times in meeting rooms back at ManaSure, though my pay grade was way too low to need one at any meeting they’d let me attend. I swallowed. Yeah, Dax and I hadn’t seen each other much over the last couple of years, but it looked like his life had changed as much as mine. “I don’t—”

  Dax pointed around the table, where they’d all settled themselves. They were all looking at me. “You know Mimi,” he said. “And you met Bug tonight.” He indicated the dwarf: “This here’s Tonio. He hangs around here ’cuz he likes his ladies big, but he’s also a wiz with anything that goes bang.”

  I frowned. “Okay,” I said. “But how are you gonna help me figure out what’s going on?”

  Mimi shot me a fierce grin, making me glad she was on my side. “Just tell ’em what happened,” Dax said.

  So I did—what’d I have to lose at this point? I told them the same story I’d told Dax, starting with my firing, then my uncle at the shop, and finally the attack at my place. They all listened intently except for Bug, who might have been, but you could never tell with deckers. Her eyes were kind of rolled back in her head and her fingers flashed over her deck so fast I couldn’t follow their movements.

  “So, you don’t know why anybody would want to kill your uncle?” Tonio asked. He had a blue voice, almost the same color as his hair. I wondered what he’d say if I told him that.

  “No clue. Maybe a bad business deal, but that doesn’t usually get you dissected, does it?” I struggled to keep my tone even; right now I couldn’t afford to lose my head. I didn’t want to end up like Uncle Mason.

  Bug’s eyes came up, and she pointed at one of the trid screens. “You know this guy?” she asked. The screen lit up with the image of my apartment lobby. The vid was jumpy and it was hard to see much in the dim light, but I did get one good look at the guy with the SMG before Dax made him one with the wall. He looked human, moved like he had some ’ware, and dark shades covered his eyes.

  “Nah,” I said. “Never seen him before. You know him?”

  The others shook their heads. “I’ll run some searches,” Bug said, and dropped back down into her decker trance.

  Dax stood. “Okay,” he said. “Cody, you stay here with Bug. Tonio, you keep an eye on the place till we get back.” The dwarf nodded and stood.

  “Where are you going?” I asked, rising in my chair.

  “Me and Mimi’re gonna do a little legwork,” Dax said. “Put out a few feelers, see what we can find.”

  “But those guys saw you, too,” I protested, getting up. “I’m coming along.”

  Dax shook his head. “You stay put,” he said. “If this does have something to do with your uncle, we should know what you’re up against before you put your ass out there. We need to find out what they wanted to kill him for.”

  I stood up and crossed to the other side of the room, motioning for Dax to follow me. “Don’t be an idiot,” I whispered, glaring at him, with a sideways glance at Mimi. “Don’t get yourself in drek for me. You and Mimi got Katie to look out for now.”

  I looked out the one-way window, into the writhing mass of oversized bodies getting their freak on downstairs as two hot orks—one male, one female—shimmied on the stage, and then over at Mimi again, who wore her skimpy outfit like some kind of armor. “It isn’t worth it, Dax. Listen, with Uncle Mason gone and my job in the drekker, I got no ties here any more. I’ll just sell my car and get a bus ticket out. Start over somewhere else. Maybe down in CalFree. I’ll buzz you guys when I’m settled.”

  Dax’s face was stubborn, and maybe a little hurt. “You got ties, Cody. You got us. You’re family. We won’t be gone long—just need to talk to a couple people who only do in-person meets. You stay here, or I’ll have old Bella downstairs sit on you till we get back. And she ain’t had a bath in a week. So ka?”

  I studied my feet, miserable. “Yeah. So ka.”

  He thumped me on the shoulder. “Back soon. We’ll get this handled, chummer.”

  I sat slumped in the chair across from Bug as she twiddled with her deck, and tried to not feel like the world’s biggest piece of crap.

  Back a few years ago, when Uncle Mason had helped me get my foot into U-Dub, my main motivation was to get as far away from the Barrens as I could. It wasn’t because I felt too good for my roots—believe me, I’d woken up plenty of times in the middle of the night wondering what the hell I ever thought I was doing, thinking a street kid like me could make something of myself when most of my friends were still trying to figure out where their next meal was coming from. I wasn’t proud of the fact that I’d lost contact with Dax over the years, and it hadn’t been because I’d particularly wanted to—in fact, the first couple of years of school I’d made an extra effort to meet up with him, to invite him to parties, to come back to the old stomping grounds and try to get something going like the old days. But that saying about not being able to go home again had some truth in it, and eventually I think we both realized our lives had just drifted in different directions.

  The last time I’d seen Dax before this had been six months ago, when he and Mimi had invited me over to their place to celebrate their daughter’s third birthday. I’d known they had a daughter, but I was so busy with school and work and being a self-centered slacker ass that I hadn’t made it over to see her until then. Oh sure, I always had a good excuse: exams, working overtime, or some project I had to finish. I always sent a little gift—sometimes late—but I never made it over there myself. Dax never said a word about it, just kept sending me the notices and the invitations.

  And then, I get myself in over my head and the first thing I think to do is call my old chummer. And he was right there for me without hesitation. You know, like a real friend is supposed to be.

  “Hey.” Bug’s speckled-magenta voice invited itself to my pity party, startling me. I’d forgotten she was there.

  I sat up. “What?”

  “Think I got something,” she said, leaning back and stretching her arms up above her head. I heard little bright blue pops. Then she poked at her deck again and the trid screen lit up. “You said your uncle had a lore shop, neh?”

  “Yeah. Has for years.”

  She nodded. “Got some hits on my searches. Your uncle ever deal in dragon parts?”

  “Dragon parts?” I stared at her numbly, not sure I’d heard her right. “Why?”

  The trid switched to what looked like an internal report delivered by a dour-looking human male in a Lone Star uniform. Not here in Seattle, then.

  “There’s a few of these,” Bug said. “Same thing like you said, last month or so. Talismongers getting cacked—sometimes cut up like your uncle—for sellin’ scales and claws and teeth from dragons. All over the place. Seems like the wizworms are getting fragged off about people selling pieces of ’em, so they’re makin’ examples of the poor slots doin’ it.” She hit a key on her deck and another one popped up. “The cops are keepin’ ’em under wraps, though. This stuff isn’t gettin’ out to the public. I got these from callin’ in a couple of favors.”

  “Wait a tick,” I said, leaning in to get a closer look. “You mean somebody’s cutting up talismongers? Dragons are involved? And the cops aren’t telling anybody?”

  Bug shrugged. “Don’t want a panic, I guess.” She was only half- looking at me; the other half of her attention was on something inside her head. “It’s gettin’ worse, too. Rumors that whoever it is, they’re not just goin’ after current ’mongers. Even some of the retired gu
ys are disappearing.”

  “Disappearing?”

  “Yeah. Or—” The small sharp tusks poking from her lips twisted in disgust. “—here’s a couple reports where the ’mongers and their people look like they’ve been chewed on. Eaten.”

  Icy beads of sweat popped up on the back of my neck. This was unreal. My uncle had been in business for years—since before I’d been born. Aside from a few attempted break-ins, I’d never heard him mention anything about anybody being after him. And I’d never seen any pieces of dragons in his shop, either, except for a model of a baby one he kept in a jar on a shelf as kind of a mascot. Certainly there hadn’t been any claws or scales in any of the stuff I’d catalogued, and since Uncle Mason was kind of cheap about hiring help once I got old enough to do the job, I’d seen a lot of what had come through there.

  I slowly let my breath out. “Are you getting anything about who might be behind this? Nobody’s claiming responsibility?”

  She shook her head, her fingers still flying over the screen. “Not that I can find. I—” She stopped, going stiff.

  “What?”

  Bug didn’t answer. Her whole body had tightened up like somebody had stuck her finger in an electrical socket. Her eyes were wide open, her face rigid. She jerked and rattled in her chair like she was driving over rough road.

  “Bug? You okay?” I grabbed her shoulder and shook it. Her fingers were still moving, faster than ever. The image on the trid screen flickered and went to static.

  Heart pounding in panic, I stared at her. Everything I knew about deckers I knew from watching the trid. I’d never actually met one up close and personal before. I knew they could access the Matrix wirelessly, or else they could plug themselves into their decks using a wire. That was what Bug had done: it snaked from her deck on the table up to a jack on the side of her head. Should I just pull the plug to disconnect her? I knew enough to know that was a bad idea unless it was an emergency, but was this an emergency? She looked bad, but her fingers were still moving. If I jacked her out too soon I might hurt her, but—

  She flung herself back in her chair, panting hard and yanking the plug from her datajack. “Frag me sideways!” she growled. “That was close!”

  “What? What happened?” My voice shook, high and bright red with fear.

  “Somebody caught on to what I was doing,” she got out between breaths. “Musta been watchin’ for activity, anybody lookin’ for info on the killings.”

  “Watching?” Oh, drek, this is bad. I went to the bar, snatched an oversized bottle of water from the mini-fridge and brought it back to her. “Did they follow you? Did they figure out where you were?”

  She popped the water and chugged half in one long swallow. “Don’t think so,” she said. Her face was ashen, dotted with sweat. “Oh, frag, that sucked. Head feels like somebody clubbed me.” She looked up at me. “Chummer, you got yourself tied up in some bad news. Worse than we thought, it looks like.”

  I took that in for a minute, trying to get my mind around it. Whoever these groups were that were killing talismongers, one of them had killed my uncle. Now they were after me—and I had no idea why. And there were dragons involved. Maybe more than one. For guys like me, dragons were something you heard about on the trid, sort of like the President of the UCAS or Maria Mercurial—and that was just fine with me. Back when I was at U-Dub, a couple of my classmates had mentioned that they’d love to meet a dragon someday, but I knew better. When you were talking about something as big, strong, powerful, and magically potent as a wizworm, it was safer if you just stayed well under their radar. Just the thought that somebody related to me might have caught the attention of one (or more than one, my helpful brain offered) was enough to make me almost drek myself.

  This wasn’t some random thing—as horrible as it sounded, I’d been halfway hoping it would turn out to be some obscure gang who got off on cutting up their victims. That wouldn’t bring Uncle Mason back or make his death any less awful, but at least it would mean it was over.

  Instead, if Bug was right, whoever this was they weren’t content to settle with killing my uncle. They wanted me too. And if they had the resources to cover their tracks as well as they had, and to pick up on Bug’s signal to try to follow her back here, then—

  “Oh, frag…” I whispered.

  Dax and Mimi were out there, and they had no idea what they were up against.

  “No way. You’re not goin’ anywhere.” Tonio, the blue-haired dwarf, crossed his short, powerful arms over his barrel chest and shook his head. “Dax said you stay here.”

  I glared at him. “Frag it, I can’t just sit here!” I protested. My anger and frustration at being watched like some kind of toddler added jagged red lines to my normally mellow green tones. I held up my ’link. “I can’t reach ’em. That’s bad. It’s just like with Uncle Mason.”

  Tonio looked at Bug, but she just shook her head. “Can’t find ’em,” she said. “Tried to hack their ’links, but no go. Just goes to voicemail.”

  I scrubbed at my face, pacing around the room. “I can’t just do nothing!” I yelled. Guilt rose inside me like an overflowing drekker: I’d let Dax down. Again. It should have been me out there, not him. This was my problem, not his.

  “They can take care of themselves,” Tonio said.

  I spun on him. “These guys are out of their league, and they don’t even know it,” I growled. I thought about trying to just bull my way past the dwarf and out the door, but I knew that wouldn’t work: he was short, but he was wide. Even if I managed to get past him, one call downstairs would put a whole crowd of ambulatory brick walls between me and the outside world. And besides, what the hell was I gonna do if I made it outside? I didn’t even know where Dax and Mimi had gone. How was I supposed to—

  I nearly smacked myself in the head. “Stupid!” I yelled. “I am such an idiot!”

  Bug and Tonio just glared at me.

  I stalked back over to the table and threw myself into a chair. Honestly, sometimes I wonder how I ever managed to make it this far in life. What the hell had I been doing all this time? I was a mage! Okay, sure, maybe not a very good one, and maybe one who’d spent the last year focusing on the being a second assistant mojo-monkey for setting up experimental rituals, but frag, I must be spooked if I was acting like this much of a moron. Without stopping to tell Bug and Tonio what I was doing, I made a few hand gestures in the air and murmured some Latin under my breath.

  An instant later, a shimmering form appeared in front of me, on top of the table. Looking vaguely like a large overeager dog, it hovered there and waited, watching me with spectral drool dripping from its lolling tongue. I’m not sure why exactly most of my summoned spirits look like dogs—I think it’s a subconscious thing, because I’d wanted a dog all the time I’d been growing up, and Mom had never gone for it because dogs cost nuyen, and nuyen was better spent on more important things like BTLs and booze.

  Bug and Tonio didn’t seem the least bit surprised to see it; in fact, something like approval flashed across the dwarf’s face, like maybe he didn’t think I was completely useless after all.

  I looked into the spirit’s doggy face and sent it clear impressions of Dax and Mimi. “Find them,” I ordered, using the mental link I had with it. “Find them and tell them to call Cody now. Then come back here. Got it?”

  The spirit nodded, tongue flapping, and loped out through the wall.

  The waiting’s always the hardest part. Bug dug her deck out again and plugged in; she sent the images to the trid screen and I watched as the view flashed from one unknown location to another. I wondered if she was checking places where she thought Dax and Mimi might have gone. Her face didn’t betray much, but her aura did: she was worried.

  Tonio, meanwhile, was making calls on his comm. I couldn’t hear much of what he was saying, but I did catch a couple of snatches of conversation during my pacing rounds that suggested he was contacting some unknown associates and asking them to come to the club
. As far as I knew, the dwarf was just another patron of Big Dreams, but he sure seemed to have some pull: twice a pair of beefy orks came up to the room where we waited, consulted under their breath with Tonio, then nodded and headed off. I wondered if he was telling them to keep an eye out for any potential trouble arriving on the scene.

  My spirit came back in fifteen minutes, and from the moment it appeared, skidding across the table like a real dog, I knew something was wrong. Its aura, normally a placid blue, flared bright red with agitation.

  Bad! Its voice in my head wasn’t really a voice, per se—it didn’t have a color like real voices did—but more of an impression. Badbadbad!

  “What?” I demanded aloud. Dimly I was aware of both Bug and Tonio’s intent focus. “Did you find them?”

  Bad, it said again through our link. Fire. Lots of fire. Big boom. I got the impression of the dark form of a building, smoke and flame rising up from its interior.

  “Where? Show me!” I ordered. That was tricky: spirits—or at least my spirits—weren’t the greatest at pinpointing locations in the physical world.

  Fire. Boom. Pain. Screaming. The spirit practically oscillated, like one of those annoying little rat-dogs right before it pisses all over the rug.

  “Show me where!” I yelled. I was panicking now. If Dax and Mimi were in trouble, I couldn’t help them if I couldn’t figure out where they were. I didn’t take my eyes off the spirit, but gestured to my left. “Bug! Any fires or explosions around this area recently?”

  “Drek…” she whispered, but in the periphery of my vision I could see her pounding something out on her deck. Tonio had his ’link out again.