“I understand.” Eileen offered a final squeeze before letting go with one arm and reaching behind her to open the car door. Still holding on with her other arm, she maneuvered the two of them around it so he could slide right into the driver’s seat. “If you need anything, please call. Call anyway. You are my brother, and always will be.”
“Thanks.”
Lucas pulled away from her and sank into the seat, wiping his cheeks. He put both hands on the wheel and took a shuddering breath before he was able to look back at the only person who cared enough to intervene during his departure. The synthleather squealed as his grip tightened on the wheel.
Eileen closed the door for him and he offered her a weak smile, the best he could give at the moment. When he turned back to face the rest of the village, he growled again. He half-expected a crowd to have gathered to watch his leaving in disgrace. He didn’t know if it was worse that no one showed.
He drove off, kicking up rocks and dirt in his haste to leave. It wasn’t until he was a few miles from the village that he pulled over and the grief overcame his rage once again.
There were no words for the wave of emotions that crashed over him. They seemed so insurmountable. He couldn’t even begin to process them. In just a few days, everything in his life had changed and come crashing down around him like a rockslide. In the depths of his misery he reached out, tentatively exploring that connection between him and Mountain, fearful that it too would be severed with this latest development.
But the connection was there, just as strong as it had been since he woke up in the hospital. It had shown no signs of weakening.
Again came the vision of earthquakes and volcanoes, and again the mountains stood through it all. The vision calmed him, gave him hope and strength, leveling out the tidal flood.
True, the tribe had shunned him, had turned him out and banished him from their home—from his home. But he knew it wasn’t a decision they could make. It was a law of the tribe, something he had borne witness to before when others succumbed to the lure of technology. The only difference this time was that he didn’t choose this. It was not his temptation that had led him astray. It was Evo’s fault, and the artifact in that sealed chamber. They were responsible for this atrocity, and he would do whatever he could to make them pay for their crimes.
His mind made up and his course plotted, Lucas took to the road again, driving back to Seattle with singular purpose.
“You can’t possibly be serious. Can he? Is he serious?”
Lucas sat with his elbows resting on the chair arms and his hands steepled in front of his face. He glanced at the other runners in the room, men and women he had worked with over the past several months and developed a close bond with.
Ty, their ever-cautious dwarf decker, was the one who had spoken. He always pushed for the safer runs, the ones that might not be as lucrative, but kept them out of the sights of the big boys. Given his aversion to danger, Lucas was surprised the young dwarf had taken to running the shadows at all.
He shifted his gaze over to Sierra, their elven technomancer. If she agreed to take the job, Ty would fall in line. The dwarf worshipped her, and did a horrible job of disguising his admiration. She sighed and leaned back, lacing her fingers over her knee. She indicated her apparent indifference with a shrug, but when most of the attention shifted away from her, she flashed a smile at Lucas. He knew she’d agree.
That only left Heidi. Standing almost three meters tall, the troll was literally the muscle of the group. Her cybernetic enhancements were mostly under the skin, disguising just how formidable she was in combat both with firearms and the vicious serrated knife she kept tucked into her belt. Considering how intimidating she appeared, that was significant.
She cracked her knuckles, the sound echoing in the mostly-empty room. “Seems like a good idea. Pay’s good.”
“But this is Evo we’d be going up against,” the dwarf protested. “Do you even know what their security would be like? We’re talking multiple levels of encryption, each one laced with black ice, no doubt. That’s if we can even get in.”
Lucas’s jaw tightened at the name of the corporation, and he had to force himself to relax. He had been grooming this team over the last three months, steering them slowly toward his goal of striking back at Evo. And now, they finally had an opportunity. He wasn’t about to let this just slip away. Building a new team would take time. And while he was willing to be patient, even Mountain’s patience had a limit.
“It’s nothing we can’t handle. Besides, you’ll have Sierra backing you up. Or are you saying that the two of you working together can’t handle it?”
“I—I,” Ty stammered, glancing at Sierra and then quickly looking away. At another point in his life, it might have amused Lucas, but now it was a distraction.
“I guess we could. I mean, I know we could. There’s not a system out there we couldn’t hack together. It’s just, well… It’s Evo!”
“And a megacorp means twice as much nuyen as we’ve ever got before. The pay’s too good to pass up. I’m in. Just hide behind me when the shooting starts.” Heidi barked a quick chuckle.
Sierra stood up and stretched, flashing that grin in Lucas’s direction once again before she responded, “Let’s do it. About time we gave those slave drivers something else to think about.”
Ty’s shoulders slumped. “Fine. If everyone but me thinks this is a good idea, I’ll play along. I still think it’s crazy.”
A cold smile danced across Lucas’s face as his heart skipped a beat in excitement. It was finally coming to fruition. If everything went according to plan, this would only be the first strike against Evo. He was willing to dedicate whatever remained of his life to crippling them however he could. The fact that their target was in the Salish-Shidhe territory north of Seattle only sweetened the pot.
“Where we headed?” Heidi asked.
Lucas jumped out of his seat and pulled up a prepared map of the Salish-Shidhe territory on the wall’s AR display. He paced back and forth as he zoomed in on the facility, magnifying it until the grounds around the building occupied the entire display surface.
His hand clenched into a tight fist at seeing the area again, and he pressed his lips tightly together.
Ty let out a low whistle. “That’s insanely detailed. How did you get this intel? There’s no way a satellite could have picked that up, not if it’s corp space.”
“I have some previous experience in the area.” Lucas paused, waiting to see if anyone asked him about it. Heidi raised an eyebrow, but didn’t speak. She was the only one to show any reaction, so Lucas continued. “This information is a few months old, but this is a layout of what the facility looked like at the time. Based on the report we received, they’re running an excavation site, searching for artifacts of power. Apparently, they just discovered one, and are about to ship it back to their main headquarters. We’ll strike the facility before the artifact gets on the road, recover it, and deliver it to Mr. Johnson. It should be loaded in a shipping crate about a meter on each side.”
“How did you have all this ready? Usually I’m the one digging up our preliminary intel, but it looks like you’ve got it already figured out.” The note of disappointment in Ty’s voice was clear, almost coming out like a whine.
Sierra chuckled. “Don’t you get it? He already said we were taking the job. That’s the only way Mr. Johnson would have given out these details. Seems like someone’s a little anxious to take on one of the big boys.”
Heidi chuckled too, her deep rumble like a heavy stone rolling down a rocky ravine.
Lucas didn’t respond. There was no need. Yes, he was prepared for this mission. He had been for months now. When the contract came through his contacts, he didn’t even bother to negotiate the fee. Not that his partners needed to know that detail.
“Mother of Lofwyr. She’s right, isn’t she? You accepted it even before we could talk about it, didn’t you? What the hell?” Ty wrinkled his nose a
nd crossed his arms in front of his chest, narrowing his eyes and glaring at Lucas.
The taller man just waited. It only took a few seconds before the dwarf sighed and waved at Lucas to continue.
“As I was saying, this information might be outdated, but some things won’t have changed. There’s one main service road that runs for about two kilometers before reaching a main road. I think we should approach the facility from the north, through the wilderness. There’s not much in that area that should give us too many problems. That way we aren’t stuck on the middle of a dirt road barely wide enough for a truck.”
“How can you be sure? Salish-Shidhe doesn’t usually allow tourists. We might be trekking on some holy ground or some such and piss off the locals.”
As usual, Ty pointed out everything he could think of that could possibly go wrong. Lucas reminded himself that he was almost there. He could spare a little more patience.
“Trust me, that area is safe. There aren’t any villages for several kilometers. I used to work in the Salish-Shidhe, almost exclusively, for years.”
Lucas’s voice trailed off as he admitted this to his companions. While they had spent the last several months working together, they still knew precious little about each other’s pasts and histories. He wasn’t in the mood to share those details. He just needed people who could get the job done. The fact that they usually felt the same was more than sufficient for him.
Sierra interrupted the silence by jerking the door open. She looked back over her shoulder at the rest of the group. “You coming? Seems like we’re prepped enough to start our reconnaissance. Lucas will take point.”
Her words jolted the rest of the group into action. Lucas had very little to grab, just his sidearm tucked into the holster at his belt and his medkit attached to the other side. His recent experiences had taught him that even with his gifts, sometimes being armed could be very useful. Even if he was only competent with guns, they had a more immediate effect on observers, something that had come in handy more than once.
When they got to the street, they split up. Sierra accompanied Lucas to his car. As much as Ty might wish for different seating arrangements, this was the most practical: Lucas’s Americar didn’t have the cargo space to fit Heidi comfortably. Lucas climbed into the driver’s seat and waited for Ty to come around the corner in his truck. Soon both vehicles were traveling north, heading toward the UCAS border.
As he drove, Lucas’s mind tumbled over possibilities as be thought about the future and wrestled with his emotions. Some part of him still sought to go back to his village, but he knew it was a futile effort. While he had come to appreciate the value and uses of his cybereyes, they were still viewed as an abomination and against village law. His hands flexed on the wheel so hard the steering column creaked in protest. At least Eileen still spoke with him.
Sierra put a hand on his shoulder, giving him a soft squeeze. He caught a whiff of her perfume, a combination of lilacs and vanilla. He shrugged her off, keeping his attention focused on the road ahead. They had a job to do; that was what was important.
“This matters to you, doesn’t it? It’s more than just the money?” For the space of a few breaths, Lucas didn’t respond. In the end, he only spoke as a way to distract himself, to cope with the tension mounting inside. If he couldn’t release the agitated energy, he’d be useless when they reached the facility.
He took a deep breath and rolled his shoulders, loosening his grip on the steering wheel at the same time. “Yes, it does. I have a bit of a history associated with this place.”
“I gathered that. The months-old information that was first-hand. How you know the area so well. Thanks for stating the obvious.”
Lucas bit back a growl and reminded himself that this was Sierra’s way. She didn’t mean any harm by it. “I don’t mean the territory. I mean this place specifically. Something happened there, something I don’t like to think about. It was life-changing.”
“Is that where you got your eyes? I always thought it was weird that a shaman would use cyberware. I’m guessing you didn’t have much of a choice.”
The accuracy of her statement was a spike penetrating his soul. His arms shook and he forced himself to hold tighter on the wheel, but that only made it worse. He took deep gulps of air, focusing on his breathing.
“No worries. You don’t want to talk about it, and I think you told me enough.” She nodded at his arms before letting out an exaggerated sigh and turning to stare out the window, tracing designs on it with her index finger. Lucas kept his focus on the road ahead, willing the miles to pass by faster.
Time seemed to simultaneously freeze and pass in a blur as Lucas wrestled in his own mind, so it was a surprise when they reached the staging location. He had to jerk the wheel and swerve across two lanes to make their exit. Sierra gripped the door armrest, but said nothing.
They drove into what used to be a rest stop many years ago. Now the parking lot was overgrown with vegetation and the single building was little more than a pile of rubble, long since reclaimed by the forces of nature. The trees here grew with a strength that was far more powerful and abrupt than nature’s normal course. That energy filled the air, and Lucas felt invigorated in a way he hadn’t felt in years as soon as he stepped out of the car and caught the whiffs of mud, sap, and pine. Even the darkness, the moon and stars concealed by thick cloud cover, seemed alive.
Ty drove up and parked next to him, getting out of his truck and failing to suppress a shudder. The vehicle groaned as Heidi hopped out of the back. Lucas glanced at Sierra, not surprised to see her skin a little pale and her hand gripping the car for support. This far from technology was probably a bit of a shock to her system. But she carried her head high, and flashed a grin when she realized he was staring.
“I don’t like this,” Ty said. “It’s like the entire thing’s a dark zone. I feel blind. We sure we want to do this?”
“Once we get to the facility, I’m sure you’ll feel more at home. They have relays set up, so you should be able to access the Matrix when we’re within range. It’s only a few kilometers away. Let’s start walking.”
Lucas led the way, having faith that the others would follow. The thunderous crashing behind him let him know that Heidi was close on his tail. While she was extremely dexterous for a being of her size, a three-meter-tall troll could only do so much to avoid snapping low-hanging branches from the surrounding trees, let alone fallen ones. He just hoped the noise from the machinery at the facility would drown out the sound of their approach.
Despite his absence, the paths were much the same as he remembered. Even a magical forest didn’t change much in a few months, especially when animals followed the same trails. As he walked, he reached inside, feeling the connection to Mountain. He expected it to be stronger, more vibrant now that they were back in the wilderness, but it was the same as it had been ever since the surgery. That surprised him, but it brought him comfort nonetheless. Mountain was always with him.
After they’d walked for about a half-hour, Lucas stopped. The light from the Evo facility filtered through the trees ahead. Once the rest of his party stopped tromping through the underbrush, he heard the familiar sounds of heavy machinery grinding through all hours of the night. He knelt at the base of a tree, using it as a barrier between himself and the complex.
Lucas took the energy residing inside him and sent out his call, searching for a spirit of storms to aid him in his quest. It didn’t take long before the call was answered. The spirit came quickly, soaking up the energy Lucas offered.
“Hello, revered one. I require your assistance if you would be so willing. Survey the grounds of the facility up ahead, letting me know of any guards, Awakened individuals, or warded areas.”
The spirit whisked off, willing to complete the task without any prodding on Lucas’s part. He kept his eyes closed so he could better focus on any images sent by the spirit. His team was used to this—they’d seen him do it many times before. His
scouting reports were always accurate and far more detailed than Ty or Sierra could recover, even when they were in the midst of the city. Here in the wilderness, his techniques had an even greater advantage.
Images of the facility flooded his mind, and he had to strain to sort them out. It looked like Evo had increased security since his previous visit. More guards patrolled the border, and the fence now had a guard house at the main entrance. The guards themselves were better armed, carrying weapons that looked like the latest Ares technology. Cameras mounted at three of the corners of the main building swept back and forth as they scanned for intruders. In the loading dock area, a semi was backed up against the large doors that opened into the facility. It was close enough that a human could step from the loading dock right into the back of the trailer. Bits of vegetation still clung to the sides of the semi, most likely from using the narrow service road.
The spirit showed him an image of a deep hole in the ground, surrounded by spotlights on tall poles, yet it still remained dark in the center. There was no way to tell how deep the excavation went. But the spirit revealed traces of magical auras lining the edges of the hole in long stripes, like something had scraped against the sides as it was pulled out. That had to be the site where the artifact was recovered. Lucas was sure of it.
The final information he received was the picture of the warded room. It was a good thing he was already on his knees, as the mental picture sent a shiver through his body that would otherwise have made him collapse. Taking deep breaths, struggling to fill his lungs with air, he took that fear and grappled it, turning it into single-minded focus and determination. He curled his lips back into a snarl as the room danced in his mind.
When he opened his eyes, he was able to stand and turn to face the rest of his companions without any tremor in his body or his voice. “The facility is better guarded than I remember, but we’ll get in.”
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