Shadowrun

by Russell Zimmerman

  He walked up to the warehouse, trying to stay clear of any windows while not looking like he was sneaking up on the facility. He didn’t want to trigger any alarms. He kept his head down to hide his face from any cameras she might be tapped into. No point in taking any unnecessary risks.

  As he got closer, he reached out with his energies, tapping into his strength to summon a spirit of waves and tides. It was relatively easy, even in his drained condition, thanks to his proximity to the Sound.

  The spirit danced under the surface of the water next to him, gliding along in its natural environment. He spoke under his breath, soft enough that even someone standing next to him would have difficulty deciphering the words. He had no doubt the spirit would understand him.

  “Great spirit of whirlpools and carrier of ships, I request your aid. If all goes well, I will be sending you a magical relic. I need you to take it far away from here, depositing it on the shore at Alki beach. Bury it, and let me know where so that I may find it again. After you do this service, you are free to return home with my thanks.”

  He received an image of a wave splashing on the shore and dancing among the rocks before swirling and heading back to sea. He knew the spirit would do as he asked, glad to have such a simple request from its summoner.

  That part taken care of, Lucas steeled himself for his confrontation with Sierra. He slapped the patch onto his arm, just above the elbow. The shock to his system jolted him into full wakefulness, and he felt invigorated. The weariness of his day fled his body, and he felt like he could stay up for days. Logically, he knew the ensuing crash would come eventually, but one way or another, he wouldn’t need to worry about Sierra at that point.

  The warehouse wall stretched up into the sky in front of him, easily three stories tall. It had few windows, and most of those were covered with grime so thick he couldn’t see through them. Nonetheless, he ducked as he passed in front of them on his way to the side door. Again, he didn’t want to take any chances.

  When he got to the door, he turned the handle slowly, making sure it didn’t creak or groan. With a gentle push, Lucas eased the door open a crack, peering into the darkness beyond.

  He saw Sierra, standing in front of a table and staring out at the Sound, a box he assumed contained the relic sitting on the table next to her. The rest of the warehouse looked scattered and disorganized, with half-filled barrels and ropes hanging down from the catwalks. An ancient piece of machinery that looked like some sort of crane rusted in the corner, clearly not used for years, and suffering the damage of its longtime proximity to salt water. The only details that looked new were several cameras and projectors around the edges of the walls near the ceiling.

  Too late Lucas noticed that opening the door cast a beam of light across the ground in front of Sierra. She snatched up her gun and turned, firing at the doorway even before she could recognize who it was.

  Lucas burst through the door, rolling into the room and dropping underneath the path of the deadly projectile. He came around to his feet and immediately drew on his energy to summon a burst of flame in front of Sierra.

  The explosion forced her back, her skin scorched and her jacket smoldering. She ran to the side of the room, away from him, while firing in his direction. Most of the shots went wide, but Lucas ducked behind a barrel for safety. Two bullets struck the metal and rung out with a solid chime as they dented the heavy container. The foul-smelling liquid inside sloshed under the impact.

  Peering around the edge, Lucas glimpsed Sierra ducking behind the crane. He heard the telltale sound of a new magazine latching into place as she reloaded. He cast another spell, summoning a sheet of ice to appear on the ground underneath the crane and in the surrounding area. Hopefully that would at least slow her down so he could get a good shot at her.

  “Ice? Really? What? No spirits to help you? I expected something more.” She fired a couple more shots and forced Lucas to duck back behind the barrel again. When he risked a glance he saw that she was running up the arm of the crane, avoiding the ice entirely. Still, it was a predictable path with no room to dodge.

  He summoned a burst of flame right in front of her face, making her yelp in surprise as it singed her hair. She lost her balance and dropped over the side, landing on the ice with a thud. She managed to land behind some debris, hidden from Lucas’s vision.

  Since taking a shot wasn’t an option, he rushed over to the table. As he was a few strides away, he heard the crack of her gun again. He jumped forward, knocking the table over. The box crashed to the ground, tumbling across the cement until it fell over the edge and splashed in the water.

  “That’s not going to stop me.”

  Sierra reloaded again, giving Lucas enough time to roll over the table and use it as a makeshift shelter. The exhaustion crept up again, and he panted, more for lack of energy than being out of breath. At best, he only had one more spell in him. He either needed an easy target with his flame burst, or he needed to touch her. Otherwise, his magic would be useless.

  “You’re getting tired. I can hear it in your breathing. All those months I spent working with you, what do you think I was doing? I was studying you, learning your strengths and weaknesses. Knowing your limits. It was necessary if you were going to work for us.”

  “You’re more stupid than I thought if you think I’d ever work for a corp.”

  Sierra laughed, a sound that echoed through the room and seemed to come from every direction at once. He couldn’t help glancing all around for the threat, but refusing to poke his head over the table and expose himself.

  “What do you think you’ve been doing this entire time? You don’t think Evo had access to a magical artifact of that power, do you?”

  “You mean…?”

  “Yes, you’ve been doing exactly what we wanted all along. I told you: You. Are. Predictable.”

  Lucas stood up, making sure he could see Sierra before unleashing his magic into a single burst of flame, pouring every ounce of energy he had into the blast. It surrounded her, consuming her entire form until nothing was left of her. He dropped to a knee as all of the energy left him and he could barely stand.

  Slow applause made him catch his breath and look up. Sierra stepped out behind the crane, clapping as she walked forward. Then another Sierra appeared on the other side of the room, walking toward him with the same amused expression on her face. A third and a fourth Sierra appeared, the copies continuing until there were six images of the woman standing in front of him, all in a row and moving in unison. When she spoke, her words came from every direction, making it impossible to know which one was real.

  “And as I told you before, that predictability is a weakness. One we were more than willing to exploit. See where it got you?” She laughed, hands on her hips and her gun pointed down at the ground next to her.

  Lucas hung his head loosely and closed his eyes, listening to her chuckles as they slowly subsided. She let out a long sigh and took a breath to start talking again.

  He was ready to admit defeat. She had outsmarted him, and now she was gloating in it. There was no way he could tell which one of her was the real one—he was too exhausted to even use astral sight to find her. She had orchestrated everything all the way back to the accident that cost him his eyes—

  The answer came to him like magma bursting through a volcano. His eyes could tell him so much more. She had forgotten how much they could do. Hells, he had forgotten about it himself. When he lifted his head, he opened his eyes and used the thermographic option. Even though all six forms looked down at him, one alone gave off any heat. The others were mirror images of the original.

  Lucas didn’t bother standing. He drew his gun and fired, pulling the trigger until the magazine was empty. At this range, almost every single one of the bullets hit their mark. In her cockiness, she wasn’t wearing any body armor, and he watched the six images of her jerk with each shot until she lay on the ground, still and unmoving. Only then did her other images fade away,
leaving only her lifeless body on the stained floor.

  Lucas collapsed, his strength spent and enjoying the cold cement pressed against his cheek. As he drifted to sleep, images of a buried treasure came drifting to his mind, sent by the spirit.

  It was a full two days before Lucas felt like his strength had returned. According to Ty, he’d lost an entire day passing in and out of consciousness while mumbling about buried treasure. Now he sat, turning the box over in his hands, curious what the relic was and tempted to open it to find out. A knock at the door interrupted that thread before he could give in to temptation. His decision was made.

  He opened the door, revealing the courier he’d requested. Lucas handed over the package and watched the courier leave. The artifact would be taken to the village he used to call home. It was better with them. It belonged with them.

  Lucas closed the door and walked back into his apartment, rejoining Ty and Heidi. They were celebrating Heidi’s release from Knight Errant after paying a hefty fine, paid for courtesy of Ty hacking into Sierra’s accounts.

  “So you’re just gonna give it to the tribe that kicked you out, just because it was found on their land, and not even tell them it was from you?” Heidi shook her head in disappointment. “It could’ve been worth a lot. You at least could’ve gotten some cred for it.”

  Lucas shrugged as he dropped into his chair. He leaned back and propped his feet up, folding his hands across his stomach. “It doesn’t matter. They’re not my family anymore. But they’re still important to me, and I’m still going to do right by them.”

  “Hey, it’s your life. So, sounds like I missed the real fun and excitement. What happened? What was Sierra up to?”

  Ty pushed himself out his chair, excited to share what he had found out. He sucked in a great breath of air, but then glanced over at Lucas before he started talking. Lucas smiled and held out his hand, conceding the floor to the dwarf.

  “Well, turns out Sierra was working for Aztechnology the whole time and had set this whole thing up. They even arranged to have an artifact held by Evo, hoping Lucas would stumble on it. He did, and that’s how he lost his eyes. They figured if they could turn him against Evo, they could use him to get what they really wanted.”

  Heidi looked over at Lucas who nodded, confirming Ty’s story. After all, it was Ty who had discovered most of that information after the fact. It still surprised him that he had been manipulated so easily, but he vowed not to be so singularly focused to let it happen again.

  “All right, but what about the fight? How did it go down with Sierra?”

  “Oh that! Well, we knew she was expecting us, so we snuck up to the warehouse, making sure to stick to the shadows…”

  Lucas smiled as he listened to Ty tell the story and add his own personal touches to it. There was no harm in it, and it was entertaining to listen to. Who had done what wasn’t important. The important part was that the relic was returned, and he had some companions he could count on. Once they recovered, he was looking forward to their next run. In the meantime, he should probably contact Eileen, tell her to keep an eye out for an important delivery.

  Discreetly, of course.

  * * *

  $

  MORE SHADOWRUN FICTION!

  Coming in November 2017

  BURIED SECRETS

  Vaquita’s had a rough go of it lately. She had been a London-based rigger when something went wrong inside her head. The mental space that used to be hers alone was now shared as a foreign personality carved out a section for itself. It wasn’t exactly madness, but it sure felt like it.

  Lately she’s gotten her swagger back, and intends to prove it in a new testing ground—the Angel Towers Arcology. But the arcology’s secrets and dangers go far deeper than Vaquita realizes, and she’ll have to deal with its perils at every turn—as well as the people who put them there—if she wants to come back out in one piece.

  SHADOWRUNTABLETOP.COM

  About the Authors

  Dylan Birtolo resides in the Pacific Northwest where he spends his time as a writer, a gamer, and a professional sword-swinger. His thoughts are filled with shape shifters, mythological demons, and epic battles. He’s published a few fantasy novels and several short stories. He trains in Systema and with the Seattle Knights: an acting troop that focuses on stage combat. He jousts, and yes, the armor is real—it weighs over 100 pounds. You can read more about him and his works at www.dylanbirtolo.com or follow his twitter at DylanBirtolo.

  * * *

  Jennifer Brozek is a Hugo Award-nominated editor and a Bram Stoker-nominated author. Winner of the Scribe, Origins, and the ENnie awards, her contributions to RPG sourcebooks include Dragonlance, Colonial Gothic, Shadowrun, Serenity, Savage Worlds, and White Wolf SAS. Jennifer is the author of the award-winning YA Battletech novel The Nellus Academy Incident. She has also written for the AAA MMO Aion and the award winning videogame Shadowrun Returns. When she is not writing her heart out, she is gallivanting around the Pacific Northwest in its wonderfully mercurial weather. Read more about her at www.jenniferbrozek.com or follow her on Twitter at @JenniferBrozek.

  * * *

  R. L. King is the author of the Amazon-bestselling urban fantasy series The Alastair Stone Chronicles, as well as writing for Shadowrun (officially and unofficially) since before many of its fans were alive. Her first SR novel, Borrowed Time, was nominated for a Scribe Award by the International Association of Media Tie- In Writers, and her next one, Veiled Extraction, will be published in 2019. She lives in San Jose, CA with her ever-patient spouse, a herd of assorted cats, and a gecko named Lofwyr who’s expecting to come into his powers any day now.

  * * *

  Russell “Rusty” Zimmerman failed a Will roll and got hooked on the shadowrunning shenanigans of Dodger, Ghost, and Sally Tsung when he was supposed to be Christmas shopping way back in 1989. An incurable fan of the setting ever since, especially after he met his beautiful wife Felicia through the game they both loved, he started his own shadowrunning freelance writing career several years ago, contributing sourcebooks, adventures, and stand-alone fiction. When he’s not busy dodging deadlines, he’s raising a trio of too-cute dogs and giving history lectures in his adopted home state of Texas.

  TOWER OF THE SCORPION

  A SHADOWRUN NOVELLA BY MEL ODOM

  COMING SOON

  Rashida bint Tariq bin Feroze al-Nazari steals through the deadliest shadows in the world: Dubai, in the Caliphate of Arabia. In a merciless land policed by the Caliphate Guard, under a government that exacts harsh penalties against any shadowrunner, she must break into the Saqr Tower and get out with the intel she’s getting paid to retrieve.

  * * *

  Hired to steal a black op software package from Raqmu Enterprises, Rashida calls on her team of shadowrunners to help with the smash- and-grab. And this run isn’t just for the nuyen. The people behind Raqmu Enterprises killed Rashida’s family. Failure isn’t an option.

  * * *

  But death doesn’t scare Rashida. A Scorpion shaman, she fights for her life every day against the spirit that grants her the power to destroy her enemies, but ultimately seeks to consume her very essence. Amid treacherous desert sands and a city as deadly as a viper, Rashida must battle enemies both within and without if she is going to survive…

  Preparing to take a man’s life is much different than boosting data or intel.

  Rashida bint Tariq bin Feroze al-Nazari admitted the difference as soon as she’d taken up her observation post over the porta-buildings and popup storefronts collected in the desert valley below. Thoughts of killing the man down there had been in her mind for years, but she’d never gotten this close to acting on them.

  Tonight…was different.

  Killing another person wasn’t new. The first time she’d taken a life, the act hadn’t been planned. It had come as a result of need and training, to protect a teammate. Afterward, she’d been sick. But those feelings had dissipated quickly, chased off by thoughts of sa
ving her friend. She’d lost a few of those over the last few years as well. A career in the shadows wasn’t based in longevity.

  This death, however, was coldly planned, part of the total package. It wasn’t paid for by the Mr. Johnson who had hired her. Rather, the promised death was part of the payment the anonymous corp exec had enticed her with. She’d willingly agreed.

  Quiet as a gentle sigh, Rashida rose from the sand dune where she’d lain in hiding for the last seventy-six minutes under a gibbous moon. She strode toward the night market wrapped in a neon bubble at the foot of the hill and her target, thinking only of tearing the life from the man she had pursued for so long. Dry desert wind carried the sharp teeth of the chill that would bite deepest before the morning sun returned.

  “Whipstrike.” Khadija’s concern came through the encrypted commlink.

  “I’m here,” Rashida responded. Whipstrike was her street name. Khadija was called Optivor because the decker saw many things with her hacking skills.

  “I know you’re there, sister. No problem with the connection.” The decker monitored Rashida’s progress from an out-of-the-way jackpoint in Algiers. The country had a long history of piracy, and that infamous tradition continued with smuggling and illegal jackpoints. Khadija lived in Marrakesh, but she made it a point never to do business there.

  Rashida had never conducted a run inside Arabia for the same reason. Since the nations in the Arabian Peninsula had joined to form the Caliphate of Arabia in 2055, the Caliphate Guard units made very public examples of shadowrunners who got caught—unless the Caliphate had employed them. In that case, the shadowrunners simply disappeared—just as dead—because failures weren’t allowed to come to light.