Shadowrun

by Russell Zimmerman

  However, he could understand when the line went silent and she began screaming over the commlink. With a nod at her companion they rushed toward him, trying to get through the door and head to the front of the house. Lucas tried to dive out of the way, but he wasn’t fast enough. The first women clipped into his side and knocked him to the ground as she stumbled forward from the unexpected impact. The one behind her slashed at the air, her blade close enough that Lucas felt the wind of its passing.

  Lucas wasted no time. He called forth his energies to summon a burst of flame in front of his attacker while simultaneously asking the storm spirit to subdue his attackers. The woman charging at him backpedaled from the sudden explosion, lifting a hand to her face and shielding her eyes. The woman on the ground tried to scramble to her feet, but was quickly knocked back down by the force of a strong gust of wind materializing out of nowhere. That gave Lucas enough time to get back up.

  While the spirit tangled with the woman in the hall, Lucas squared up against his other opponent. She paced around the counter, following Lucas as he tried to keep something between them. His energy reserves were depleted, and exhaustion crept up on him once again, so he couldn’t afford to blindly hurl magic. He needed to make sure each spell counted.

  She lunged at him, trying to drive the blade into his chest. Lucas fell back, grabbing the stool next to the counter and pulling it between them. She leaped over it, continuing her assault and forcing him to backpedal. He needed her to get closer and make her think she had the advantage. As he backed up, his hip collided with a small table near the window. Lucas exaggerated the impact, stumbling as if it had knocked him off balance in surprise. The woman saw her opportunity and jumped forward.

  It was just the chance Lucas had been hoping for. He shifted to the side, letting her blade pass by and slice through his clothing without doing much damage to the skin underneath. He grabbed her arm, channeling his energy through it and shocking her system. She was unconscious before she touched the floor, her body collapsing in a heap.

  Lucas picked himself up and rushed to the back of the kitchen, heading for the door he hoped led into the garage. He yanked it open and saw he was correct, but no vehicles were parked inside. It was a large room with a cement floor and shelves of equipment stacked up on either wall, but nothing else. Either Sierra had already gotten out, or she wasn’t planning on leaving by car.

  Back in the kitchen, the scene had quieted down. The spirit had finished its combat with the other swordswoman and had moved to the upper floor, continuing to battle Lucas’s opponents. When he focused on the spirit, he could see it fighting next to Ty, helping him with a few more thugs on the upper floor. Things seemed to be well in hand, so Lucas hurried back to the warded room.

  As he stood in front of it, he debated calling his spirit back. But there would be little it could do to protect him in this situation. It might as well continue attacking Sierra’s goons, because then it would at least be doing some good. No, this trial was for him to face alone. His mind made up, he grabbed the handle, clamping tight to ignore the slight jolt of energy that shot up his arm and made him want to pull back.

  The door swung into a small room with a large display on the far side. A terminal was set up with a padded chair in front of it, but the chair was currently empty, even though the display was on and showing a series of waves crashing against a cliff wall.

  Lucas stepped inside and the door closed automatically behind him, easing shut. He checked it before getting any closer to the terminal, relieved to find it was still unlocked. He walked toward the chair, examining it. Not seeing anything unusual, he approached the display.

  When he was within an arm’s reach, the display flickered. Sierra’s face appeared, smiling her familiar cold, calculating smile. Only this time she made no attempt to hide the malice behind her grin.

  “Welcome, Lucas. I knew there was no way you’d be able to resist the wards on this room. You’d need to come and see what I might be hiding. Were you hoping that maybe it was the relic? Don’t look so surprised. You are horribly predictable. You just couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you?”

  The heavy clunk of a latch falling into place echoed behind him and he spun toward the door once again, knowing it was locked. He rushed forward and tugged on the handle, but it was useless. He didn’t have the strength to tear it open. The display flicked off, leaving him in darkness. Sierra had set a trap for him, probably a trap for all of them, and he needed to find a way out.

  Reaching for his mentor, he tried to draw on the strength of Mountain, but it was difficult to feel the connection. The wards in the room blocked him, preventing him from drawing in additional power. He could still work his magic using the energy he had, but any calls to spirits would be a fruitless endeavor.

  As he tried to figure a way out of his predicament, he smelled a spicy odor in the air. He held his breath, ripping off a section of his shirt and wrapping it over his nose and mouth. There was no way for him to know what was being added to the air in the room, but he knew it wasn’t natural. Did she want to kill him? Or was it knockout gas? Either way, he knew he didn’t want to give in to her trap.

  Using his hands as a guide, he walked forward until he could feel the chair. He groped for the terminal, pressing anything and everything he could reach, but nothing reacted. Running out of ideas, he dug his fingers into the chair, searching the cushions and arms for anything that might resemble a switch or a button, but found nothing. He dropped to his knees in front of the seat, and it rolled away from him as he fell into the front edge of the cushion.

  Time was running out. He tried to take small breaths, hoping that might mitigate some of the effects of whatever he was breathing, but his lungs and throat felt like they were on fire. His mind turned over possibilities, frantically considering every option. A sense of calmness filled him as he realized that mindless flailing served no purpose. An image of a mountain, standing strong in the face of storm, flood, and earthquake came to his mind. Lucas stopped his mad scramble and sat cross-legged on the floor, resting his hands on his knees with his eyes closed as he took a very long, slow breath. His chest and lungs continued burning, but he pushed the pain away and processed the situation. Sierra would have an escape route. She was exceedingly careful and well-prepared. She would not risk being caught in her own trap or having it triggered on her if something went wrong. That meant he just needed to find it. She would pick something he wouldn’t consider, especially if this was a trap designed with him in mind. So, what was it that he wouldn’t normally think about, but that she could count on? It would be something that couldn’t be triggered by accident, but had to be deliberate. It also couldn’t count on any external hardware, because then it wouldn’t be a failsafe. That meant it wasn’t the terminal or the chair.

  What else was in the room? He opened his eyes out of habit, trying to remember what he saw when he first entered. To his surprise, he could make out the shapes in the room. He held his hand in front of his face, flexing the fingers a few times, surprised that his eyes had this capability. They had never covered it in his training, but then again, he’d stopped going as soon as he was released. He made a mental note to check the specifications on his implants to see their full functionality and embrace all of them if he got out of here.

  With his enhanced sight, he saw a panel in the back wall, underneath the display. It had a faint glow around the edges, something he never would have seen when the chamber was lit. It hinted at a dim light behind the cover. Lucas walked over and pried at the panel, eventually discovering he could push in one corner, and use that leverage to pull it back.

  On the other side of the panel was a small cavity in the wall, barely large enough for his hand. Inside it, a handle connected to some mechanism in the structure of the house. The pain in his lungs was starting to make him dizzy and cough, so he grabbed the handle and pulled it, hoping for the best.

  As soon as he pulled the handle down, the HVAC system roared t
o life and a breeze of fresh air rushed down from above him. He stood up tall and angled his face to the fan, taking in a deep breath even though the effort made him cough again.

  The door lock clicked, and Lucas hurried to it, not wanting to be in the room a moment longer than necessary. The light of the hallway blinded him, and he covered his eyes with his arm as he fell through, landing on the tiles and crawling away from the warded trap room.

  As he sat there, struggling for air and trying to stop coughing, he realized he wasn’t hearing any more combat, either from above or outside the house. He felt for his spirit, but the connection was severed, probably as soon as the door was shut. He hoped his spirit’s sudden disappearance hadn’t resulted in Ty’s death.

  He needed to find out. Using the wall for support, he pushed himself to his feet and took a few shuffling steps toward the foyer.

  Once he was in the main room, he stopped when he spotted Heidi in the doorway. She was covered in blood, but it was impossible to tell which was hers and what might have been her opponents’. When she saw Lucas, she smiled and lifted her knife in a salute. He opened his mouth to say something about Ty, but collapsed to the floor instead.

  She rushed over to him, picking him up and sliding him against a wall so he could prop himself into a sitting position.

  “Ty... Upstairs.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I talked to the little guy already. Said he ran into some trouble, but your spirit friend got him out of it. He’s fine. A little banged up, but that’s it. He’s plugged into Sierra’s computer now, digging around and causing a whole mess of chaos from what I can gather.”

  Lucas nodded, glad he could just focus on breathing for a while. With Heidi to stand watch over him, he had that luxury. Each breath came easier than the one before, and his next coughing fit had no blood in it, so that was a good sign.

  His strength started to come back too, now that he could feel Mountain’s presence and taste the fresh air. The chalky taste of heavy spice still lingered on the back of his tongue, but if that was the worst of his long-term repercussions, he was in good shape.

  Heidi watched over him for a short time, then began rummaging around the room and checking the bodies in the hallway. Judging from how she moved, most of the blood couldn’t be hers. Lucas wondered if she was even injured after her adventure. She returned from the kitchen to offer him a glass of water, and he gulped it down, not caring if it happened to be contaminated and another one of Sierra’s traps. By the time that he felt comfortable enough to stand, Ty was coming down the stairs.

  “What’d you find?” His voice sounded hoarse and the words made his throat itch, but at least he could breathe without the sensation of fire in his lungs. He took another swig of water, relishing the cool sensation as it slid down his throat.

  “Can we talk about it in the truck? I disabled the security systems, but I don’t know how long that’s gonna last. Not to mention Knight Errant’s probably on the way. I’m sure one of the neighbors called this in by now.”

  Lucas saw no flaw in the logic, so he followed Ty to the front door. The dwarf walked confidently out on the lawn, directly into view of the turret. He jogged out to the gate, swinging it open and climbing into the truck before Heidi and Lucas were off the property.

  Once they were in the vehicle he drove off, not stopping until they were several kilometers away and he could find a crowded lot. When they’d parked, he turned in his seat so he could look Lucas in the face and pulled open the back window. Heidi leaned forward, sticking her massive head through the small space in a way that would have been comical if it were not for the seriousness of their situation.

  “Right, so, Sierra set it all up as a trap,” Ty said. “She knew I had a tracking agent on her, and if I had to guess, wasn’t even at the house at all. She set it all up before we left to get the thing from that Evo site. She planned this from the start!”

  Lucas nodded. He expected no less, based on the recording he’d seen in the warded room. Heidi also looked unsurprised at this revelation.

  Ty was the only one who looked shocked. He glanced between his two companions, waiting for them to react before giving up and continuing. “Okay, you two are clearly not as surprised about that as you should be. I really thought she was on our side. Anyway, I looked into her files, trying to figure out what was going on and where she might be taking that thing that we found. She’s really good about scrubbing her stuff. All of her personal files were heavily guarded, and when I did get in, they didn’t have anything important. Totally erased, except for a jab here or there at me for being predictable.”

  “Seems to be a theme of hers.”

  “So, I gave up on that because there wasn’t much of a point. Anything she bothered to safeguard that well would just be trapped like crazy and be useless. Instead I decided to look at things that weren’t guarded. You know, pointless stuff.”

  “Please tell me you found something useful.”

  “I did. I checked the GPS records for her car. Yeah, she has one. There’s a lot she never told us. Like every week she went to this one building downtown near the docks. It was the same building, and she always went there at the same time every week. It’s the only reason she ever heads down there. And, it’s where her car is currently parked.”

  “What are we waiting for?”

  “You want to charge right in, no plan or anything? You saw what she did to us here!”

  “She knew we were coming for her here. This time, she expects us either to be dead, or to have no trail to follow. Yes, Ty, I expect us to go charging after her before she has a chance to unload that relic onto a ship for Aztlan or something. If you have a better plan, start explaining it while we’re on the road.”

  Ty glanced over his shoulder to look for some support from Heidi, but she just grinned in a way that let him know she was in favor of the violent route. He swallowed and started up the truck.

  As they drove, Lucas took the time to analyze his own condition. Physically, he felt mostly recovered from the gas attack. His breathing was normal and he could take deep breaths without any sensation of pain or struggle. On the other hand, his energy reserves were still extremely low. Only his sheer sense of determination kept him from falling asleep and letting blissful darkness take over his consciousness.

  He pulled a stim patch from his medkit. He’d wait until they got to the docks to use it, but it would help him deal with the exhaustion from excessive magic use. It was only a temporary solution and timing would be critical, but it would work. It had to work. He just needed to be at the best he could for the final showdown.

  About halfway to the docks, Lucas heard sirens. Turning around, he saw two Knight Errant vehicles catching up fast. It looked like one of the neighbors had in fact called the authorities, and they’d managed to track their truck. At least the Knights hadn’t opened fire yet, but it was still attention they needed to lose before getting to the docks.

  Ty seemed to have the same idea. He glanced into his rearview mirror and then slammed his foot down on the pedal, driving Lucas back into the seat. Heidi had to grip the sides of the truck to keep from rolling out the back. The police vehicles sped up too, gaining on the truck.

  “Lose them. You keep talking about how fast your truck is.”

  “That’s without a giant troll in the back! I can’t exactly whip around corners with her back there!”

  The Knights were close enough now that one of them rammed the back corner of Ty’s truck, making it jerk and forcing him to yank the wheel to keep from skidding to the side. The other car pulled over to the side, inching up next to the truck and maneuvering to get in front.

  Lucas cursed and started to tap into his energies to get ready to summon a spirit. They needed to get away if they were going to have any chance of stopping Sierra.

  The truck hopped and suddenly lurched forward, shooting ahead of the car next to them. Lucas looked back just in time to see Heidi land on the hood of the car behind them, smas
hing her hand through the windshield. The car swerved to the side and crashed into a building, tossing Heidi off with enough force that she cracked the walls. Her armor stayed strong and she landed on her feet, shaking her head to clear it, but still with that mad smile on her lips.

  The other Knight Errant vehicle slammed on its brakes and whipped into a U-turn, heading back to help their allies. Ty jerked to the side, skidding the back tires against the pavement with an ear-splitting shriek and shooting down the side street. The last glimpse Lucas had of Heidi was of her charging the new patrol car, looking like she would take the entire vehicle out.

  Ty was quiet the rest of the drive, his hands gripped hard enough on the wheel to turn his knuckles white and make the tendons in his arms stand out. Lucas sat still, keeping quiet as they made their way to Sierra’s last known location. Neither one of them spoke until they were only a block away, and Ty pulled over to the side of the road.

  “Her car will be down that street about a block. I figure if she sees the truck, she’ll know we’re coming.”

  He swallowed again and let go of the wheel, his hands shaking as he dropped them to his legs. Lucas put a hand on the dwarf’s shoulder. Ty looked up at him, chewing on his bottom lip.

  “I’ll take care of this. You stay here.”

  Ty nodded, relief plainly written on his face as Lucas opened his door and got out. Just before he shut it, Ty spoke up.

  “Do you think she’s okay? Not Sierra. Heidi. The Knights…”

  “She’ll be fine. It’d take a dragon to take her out. You’ll see.”

  After those final words of encouragement, Lucas gave a halfhearted smile and slammed the door shut. He turned away, heading down the street in the direction Ty had indicated.

  He saw a sports car parked in front of one of the port warehouses, a vehicle that looked suspiciously out of place considering the environment. Even more telling was the fact that his own car was parked behind it.