Shadowrun

by Russell Zimmerman

He crouched and grabbed a stick, sketching out the facility in the dirt. He indicated where the cameras were, and the last place he’d seen the soldiers on patrol.

  “There’s a truck parked in the loading dock. I figure that’s to ship out the artifact once they have it stabilized. Mr. Johnson says this run is very time-sensitive. I’m guessing we have hours at best, maybe less. Once they get it loaded, it’s going to be locked down, and we’ll have a highly secure, fast-moving target, something I don’t think any of us want to deal with.”

  “What if we use the truck ourselves? Steal it just before they load the artifact and then use it to get out of here? We know how big the package is, but no idea how much it weighs. That way we can even let them pack it up for us.”

  Heidi and Ty both nodded at Sierra’s suggestion, and for his part, Lucas couldn’t see a flaw in her plan. The only downside was that it would require perfect timing on their assault, but he could have a spirit watch for when that time might be. The drain would be painful, but he could manage it, especially if it was their best option to steal the artifact.

  “That’s a good idea, but we’ll need to be fast and time it right. It’ll be a small window. I’m open to other ideas. Does anyone else have an alternate plan?”

  Lucas looked around at his companions. Each of them studied the drawn map for different amounts of time, but in the end, each one looked up and shook his or her head. Lucas couldn’t come up with a better plan either, short of directly assaulting the base and doing as much damage as possible. Even if he did want his vengeance, he couldn’t forget that most of the people working there didn’t deserve his wrath. He wouldn’t suggest something that would deliberately put them in that level of danger.

  “It’s decided then. I’ll have a spirit watching for the artifact, and when they move to load it on the truck, I’ll give a signal. Ty, you get the truck running. Sierra, you hack the gate, making sure we have a way out. Heidi and I will take care of the guards in the facility, or at least give them something else to think about. We’ll stage our assault from these two points, here and here.”

  Heidi flashed a grin that would have made Lucas feel bad for the security team if he had any sympathy for them. The truth was, he was looking forward to seeing how destructive his spiritual allies could be. While the people working on the industrial side of things might only be wage slaves, the soldiers knew what they were signing up for.

  “Once you get the truck to the gate, we’ll reconvene there and then head out, driving to the rest stop so we can swap the cargo. Everyone clear? All right. Get in position and wait for my signal.”

  Lucas stalked off, taking a route that crossed the road and led him to the far side of the facility. He wanted to be the one taking the longest route because he had the most faith in his ability to be stealthy. Plus, it put him near the guard house, the best place for him to indulge his destructive inclinations.

  When he was in position, he called to his spirit, instructing it to watch for any package being removed from the warded room and brought to the truck. It was the only logical place they could be keeping the artifact while packing it for storage. If it was anywhere else in the facility, his spirit would’ve found it. The only other possibility was that the shipment had already moved, and they were too late. He refused to accept that.

  Time ticked by painfully, but there was nothing to do but wait. Lucas stood and paced back and forth, unable to sit still and wait for the call to action. He needed to move just to get the anxiety out of his muscles.

  When his spirit returned, it sent him an image of a shipping crate, heavily warded and covered with the Evo corporate logo. The time had come.

  “The package is being loaded,” Lucas said into his commlink.

  Then he charged forward, rushing at the gate and asking the storm spirit to protect him and strike down his foes. As he reached the fence, he tapped into his reserves and called forth a bolt of destructive force, hurling it at the barrier.

  There was a flash of bright yellow light, and sparks erupted as the bolt ripped a large hole through the wire mesh. Before the smoke had cleared, Lucas jumped through, charging toward the barracks as soon as his feet were back on solid ground.

  The door jerked open, and Lucas wasted no time. He slid to a stop and pulled forth his energies once again, the Mountain clear in his mind as he willed flame into existence. A burst of fire erupted near the door, met with screams and shouts of surprise.

  The first guard in a line stumbled out of the barracks, screaming as he ran around trailing licks of flame.

  A crack of gunfire split the air, and Lucas instinctively dropped down and covered his head. He felt a bullet rip the side of his jacket just above his left hip, burning the skin as it tore through. As he turned, he saw clouds manifest around the man who’d fired at him, picking him off the ground and hurling him through the air until he collided against the facility wall with a crunch. The force of nature barreled forward, heading after the guard’s companion, who fired round after round into the swirling mass, hoping for a lucky shot.

  Lucas turned his attention back to the barracks just as the rest of the soldiers cleared the doorway. He stood and summoned another burst of flame, this one driving him back down on one knee, panting with effort.

  The guards were prepared for it this time. Those in front had riot shields, and while the flame licked around the edges, it did little to damage the men holding them. Lucas dove behind a stack of crates for shelter as they opened fire. Wood cracked and splintered around him in quick succession, creating a rain of shards near the edge of his cover.

  His energy reserves felt nonexistent, but he needed to keep fighting. He thought of Evo and what they had done to him, how they were responsible for his loss of eyesight and for weakening the most important relationship in his life. With that thought in mind he stood, braving the bullets as he called forth the power once more.

  He created a sheet of ice on the ground between his location and the barracks. The guards charging his location were not ready for the sudden change as what was once solid ground became smooth as glass. They fell as a unit and slid toward him. A couple lost their guns and shields, the weapons skittering across the ice until they hit the dirt on the far side. Lucas drew his sidearm and delivered a quick and efficient executioner’s shot to the closest one before he could recover. His spirit swooped in, dragging two of the guards off in a flash of lightning. The final guard scrambled across the dirt toward one of the dropped rifles. Lucas emptied his magazine, firing in the guard’s general direction. Enough of the bullets hit their mark to make him stop moving.

  Lucas looked up and saw someone standing in the doorway to the barracks, holding a gun and aiming at Lucas. The shaman froze, unable to move as time collapsed into horrible slow motion—

  A sudden force struck the guard in the chest, driving him back and lifting his gun as he pulled the trigger. The bullets arced over Lucas, soaring into the sky, where they were lost among the stars. The storm spirit continued pummeling the soldier, then darted off to attack the other survivors within the building.

  When the spirit emerged, the wisps of cloud were faint, less substantial than before, but it was still doing its job. It soared across the ice surface, swirling around Lucas as it settled into a guard position, not seeing any current threats.

  Gulping a breath, Lucas forced himself to run around the building to get a look at the loading dock. He had to make sure the mission continued. His weary feet scuffed against the ground, kicking several rocks in front of him, but still he continued. As he rounded the facility, he spotted Heidi standing at the far corner, peeking around the edge and firing shots at some unseen assailants. A guard was dead at her feet, her knife still lodged in his eye socket. Three other guards were scattered around the open area, all of them bleeding and unmoving. Things looked like they were going the runners’ way.

  Suddenly, Lucas felt his connection to the storm spirit vanish. The abrupt absence of it in his mind caused him to stu
mble and he put a hand on the wall for support. He looked at the truck in the loading dock just in time to see a magician there, casting a spell. There was no time to react. He immediately felt the blast of energy against his mental shields; they crackled around the edges, but held strong.

  The second time the mage attacked, Lucas was ready for the assault. But it never came—not at him, anyway. He heard a scream across the courtyard and saw Heidi stumble backward, clutching her forehead. If the mission was going to succeed, Lucas needed to get that mage’s attention and take him out. He launched a blast of fire at the mage, scorching the wall next to where the man stood. The mage ducked back into the facility, but not before Lucas saw the burn marks on his clothes.

  Across from him, Heidi continued fighting, albeit moving more slowly than before and shaking her head every time she pulled back around the corner for cover. Lucas rushed up to the truck, sliding in front of it to use it for cover. He was as bone-weary as someone who hadn’t slept for days, but once again he sought his connection.

  “Great Mountain, I need your strength now more than ever. I beseech you, send forth a spirit of beasts so that I may take down our foe.”

  He poured every ounce of energy he had into the summoning, dropping to all fours on the ground in front of the truck so his back was lower than the bumper. A growl sounded in his head along with a severe bloodlust, a desire to sink his teeth into the flesh of his enemies and taste the coppery flavor of their blood.

  “Feast on the mage guarding this facility. Hunt him before he stops us. Please, spirit…” Lucas collapsed to the ground, dust puffing from where his body struck the dirt. He clung to consciousness, needing to know if his spirit was successful. The energy to summon this beast was more than he should have used, and his entire body felt like it was on fire. But it was their only hope. Evo needed to pay, and they needed to be stopped here.

  The connection stayed strong as the beast spirit hunted down the mage. The battle was short and vicious, and Lucas bathed in the revelry of the hunt. The spirit’s elation invigorating him, he rose to his feet, using the truck’s grille for balance. He heard a door slam and vibrations flowed through his arm as the truck roared to life.

  Lucas hurried around to the passenger door. No sense in walking all the way to the gate to have Ty pick him up, not when he could climb in here. As he grabbed the handle, the truck began to roll forward. Through the window he saw Sierra behind the wheel.

  The surprise made him freeze. Sierra pointed her sidearm at Lucas’s head and fired. He dropped back, falling off the truck as the window shattered and his entire face bled from what felt like a hundred different cuts. Blood ran into his eyes, masking the entire world with a solid blur of red. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.

  Someone jerked him to his feet and shoved him toward the gate. The hand was large, easily grasping his entire upper arm in its palm. Heidi turned back and fired a burst at the corner, forcing a guard to duck back and stop his pursuit.

  “Go! Gate!” She drove him forward, turning around and walking backward so she could provide cover. After a few steps, reality came crashing back around him and Lucas ran to the gate as fast as he could. He leaned forward, almost falling on his face as his feet scuffed the ground in his haste.

  At the gate, Ty stood next to the guard house, staring down the road with his brow creased in confusion. There was no time to talk now. Lucas gripped Ty’s shoulder, intending to jerk the dwarf along with him. But the simple fact of resting his hand on another person made the wave of exhaustion strike him hard enough to make his head sag.

  “Move!” Heidi thundered.

  In less than a second, she was on them, wrapping an arm around Lucas’s waist and picking him up in mid-stride. She sprinted into the underbrush, heading for the thickest part, and crashed right through. Branches smacked against Lucas and clawed at his bleeding face. It was all he could do to keep them from flaying off more of his skin.

  After a mad dash, the sounds of gunfire faded to nothing, and soon the steady grind of the machinery was little more than an echo. Only then did Heidi put Lucas down, taking a knee and panting heavily. Ty collapsed face-first in the ground, with only enough energy to roll onto his side to avoid breathing dirt and mud. Lucas saw Heidi was bleeding from several spots through her armored jacket. He’d need to treat those and quickly, to make sure the damage wasn’t too severe. He opened his medkit and gestured for her to take off her jacket. She winced and grunted as she did so, the fabric sticking in a couple of places as she peeled it off. Lucas said nothing. He didn’t trust his ability to form words yet.

  To his relief, most of her wounds weren’t serious. Her dermal plating had stopped most of the bullets before they could pierce too deep. One spot was a through-and-through, easily patched. Only one of her wounds required him to retrieve the bullet, and even that one had stopped shortly after entry, with the tail end wedged between two of her plates. He yanked it out with a sickening, wet squish and immediately put a patch over the hole before it could bleed too much. Heidi gripped the log underneath her so tightly that the wood cracked and splintered.

  “What happened back there?”

  Lucas didn’t need to ask what she was talking about. He looked over to Ty, asking for an explanation without saying anything.

  The dwarf looked as confused as he felt. “After you guys left, she thought we should switch roles. Said I’d be better at taking care of the security systems at the gate. There weren’t any, it turned out, but I thought she had a point. She always worked better under fire.”

  Lucas’s jaw clenched. So Sierra was a double-crosser. But for who, or what? Did she intend to make the drop later that evening to Mr. Johnson? That wasn’t possible—she didn’t know where it was. Mr. Johnson had contacted him directly, and he’d arranged everything without any involvement from the rest of the team. That meant there had to be an outside player.

  Or the entire thing was a setup, and Mr. Johnson was part of the plan.

  “We need to get back to Seattle and dig a little into Sierra’s history, figure out who she might be working for. You can do that from anywhere, can’t you?”

  The dwarf nodded. There wasn’t anything else to discuss at this point, so Lucas jogged down the trail back toward their vehicles. He kept his pace steady, something he could maintain the entire length of the journey, even given his exhausted state. Stealth was a moot point right now compared to speed.

  Heidi and Ty crashed along behind him. He heard the troll’s panting almost in his ear, and imagined he could feel her breath on the back of his neck. At one point, Lucas glanced over his shoulder as he rounded a corner and was surprised to find Heidi a few meters behind him. It had sounded like a train was bearing down on him and about to run him over any second.

  When they burst through the last section of trees and came to the rest stop, Lucas froze. Up ahead he saw the semi, the back opened revealing a long empty trailer with lights running along the top edge, reflecting off the metallic sides. His car was missing, and only Ty’s truck was in the lot. Near the spot where his car had been parked was a large crate, the one covered in wards and the Evo stamp. The top was torn off and the container was empty.

  “Blessed Mountain…”

  Heidi brushed past him and moved to the truck, hopping into the back so it groaned as it sank from the sudden weight. She gestured for him to get in.

  “We still need to get outta here. That hasn’t changed, has it? Just ’cause she took your wheels?”

  She was right. Lucas rushed forward, climbing into the passenger seat as Ty slammed the door shut on his side. The truck rumbled to life and roared as Ty accelerated. While he navigated back to the highway, Lucas stared out the window, running through their entire time together as a team.

  Was there anything that had seemed odd about Sierra? When he had started looking for people to sign on with, she recruited him. After they’d decided to work together, she had introduced him to Heidi, and then they found Ty as a gr
oup when they needed a fourth man for a run. Lucas couldn’t help looking through the truck’s back window at Heidi. Was she in on this too? No, he didn’t think so. She seemed just as surprised as he was, and she had risked her life to get him out of there. She very easily could have left him behind or climbed in the truck as it drove past. He was confident she wasn’t part of the plan.

  Whatever the plan was.

  Moving forward in his memories, he still couldn’t think of anything out of the ordinary. Sierra was the one who could sway any vote and get the rest of the team to come around to her position; they all looked up to her. She never wanted the leadership role, but she clearly had the power. And whenever he steered them against a corp, especially any of Evo’s holdings, she had always supported him.

  There had to be an explanation, something he wasn’t seeing. But it would do him no good to mull it over until they had more information. Putting the pieces together now was assembling them with fairy dust for glue, and only served to feed his imagination. Lucas needed intel, and to get that, they needed to get back somewhere networked.

  For the first time in his life, he felt anxious to leave the wilderness and return to civilization.

  When they got to their safe house, Lucas had hoped to see his car sitting on the street, and was disappointed when it wasn’t. They hustled up to the apartment they used as a gathering place, but it was still secure. A quick check showed that the few belongings Sierra had left were still present. If she was coming back to retrieve them, she hadn’t been here yet.

  “All right, we need to figure out whatever we can about Sierra. Check her accounts, her SIN, whatever you can get, and dig up anything you can find. Heidi and I will start going through her stuff, see if there’s anything that might be a clue as to who she’s working for or where she’s going.”

  Ty nodded and sat down at his desk, placing his hands on the table and leaning back so his body would go slack and relax as he jacked into the Matrix. Lucas had seen it many times, but no matter how often he witnessed it, it still seemed odd to him. It was like Ty was no longer in his body, and it was just an empty shell. He couldn’t help but wonder if his body looked like that when he took a spirit walk. The thought sent a chill down his spine, but he dismissed it. It was time to focus on his own task at hand.