Crossroads

by Stephen Kenson

  My own pain was intense, but I gritted my teeth as I concentrated on maintaining the spell until Trouble’s own life force was strong enough to maintain the healing itself. I could feel blood dripping down over my mouth and chin and felt the beginnings of a massive headache starting behind my eyes. My hands trembled as I lifted them gently from Trouble’s chest, watching the spell start to stabilize. I was in no shape to go after Gallow, and in even worse shape to try and continue our battle.

  “Talon!” a deep voice echoed in the tunnel as Boom and the others rushed toward us. I looked up weakly from where I knelt as the troll hurried over, combat shotgun at the ready.

  “How ...” I started weakly, “I told you . . ”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Boom said. “I know, but I never was very good at taking orders. Val tracked you down using your headphone link. You left the circuit open. How is . . .?”

  “She’ll be okay.” I said. “She just needs to rest a bit.”

  “You too, from the look of it.” Boom said. He glanced around the tunnel. “Gallow?”

  “Escaped.” I replied. “I can’t rest for long, chummer. I have to find him, have to stop him . .

  I started to rise and Boom caught me under one arm as I wobbled. “Easy, easy.” he said. “You’re not going to be any good against anyone right now. Take a few minutes. We’ll find him, Talon.”

  “Yes.” Isogi said, stepping forward. He seemed in charge of himself again, his face an emotionless mask. "We will stop this spirit.” he said.

  This is far from over, I thought, repeating Gallow’s earlier words to me. I had to find it and stop it, but now, all I could do was sink down beside Trouble and try to rest. I slumped on the rusting tracks. There was no way I could handle Gallow by myself right now, but fortunately, I had some help.

  “Thanks.” I said quietly. “Here’s what we’re going to have to do.”

  22

  Trouble’s eyes fluttered open. I stopped what I was doing and moved to help her sit up against the tunnel wall. She looked up at me and smiled weakly. “Hi.” she said. I returned the smile. “Hi yourself. How are you feeling?”

  “Tired, but okay. Did you get him?”

  “No.”

  Trouble’s face fell, the smile vanished. “Talon . . she began.

  “It’s okay.” I said. “There was no way I was going to just leave you there. You were hurt pretty bad.”

  Trouble winced slightly. “The fire, I remember . . .” She hugged herself tightly. “My god, what was that thing? Where did it come from?”

  “It calls itself Gallow.” I said, “and I created it.”

  “What?” she said.

  I held up a hand to forestall the question for a moment as I motioned to everyone else to gather around. I went back over to the partial diagram drawn in colored chalk on the cracked concrete of the old platform and began to explain what I’d pieced together so far as I continued to sketch symbols and runes around the edges of the circle.

  “The creature from the Catacombs that is possessing Garnoff’s body is a free spirit.” I began. “It calls itself

  Gallow, and it’s a great deal smarter than I gave it credit for. It turns out that it played me for a sucker and that’s not a feeling I’m fond of, especially since I discovered my own connection to this whole mess.”

  I took a deep breath, and continued. “I told some of you about how Mitsuhama tried to recruit me as a company mage years ago, how Garnoff was responsible for arranging Jason Vale’s death, and how that convinced me to take MCT’s offer and go to MIT&T on a corporate scholarship.

  “The part I didn’t tell you came between Jase’s death and my taking MCT’s offer. I loved Jase, he saved my life and gave it some meaning for the first time I could remember. When he died, it was like I died with him. I didn't really care what happened to me. All I could think about was getting the fraggers who’d done it.

  “It wasn’t hard to track them down. The gang was called the Asphalt Rats and they operated on the outskirts of the Rox. They were a small-time go-gang, running protection and playing errand-runner for some of the bigger fish in the pond. Mostly they just hit the streets doing as much random violence as they could. Having them hit Jase was smart. Nobody would connect another incident of ‘random street violence’ to a corporate hit, and it probably didn’t cost Garnoff anything more than some new BTL chips for the gangers to fry their gray matter on.

  “I knew a few spells back then, but nothing that would let me take on a whole gang by myself. I needed help, but I had nowhere to turn. I didn’t have any real money, or any contacts. So I took the magical gear that was left in Jase’s apartment and used it to perform a ritual, a rite of summoning. I conjured up the biggest, meanest, toughest fire elemental I could. Looking back on it. I’m amazed I pulled it off without giving myself a stroke in the process, but I don’t think I would’ve cared at that point. All I wanted was to see the Rats dead. So I called up the spirit and bound it to obey me.

  “I went down to the turf where the gang usually hung out. It didn’t take long to find them. They’d taken over an alley and turned it into their party zone for the night. The music was blasting, and most of the Rats were hitting the booze and BTLs pretty heavy. They never even knew what hit ’em.

  “I called up the spirit and gave it one command: ‘Kill them all.’ And it did.” I paused in my work and looked at the silent faces staring back at me. There was no judgment, no recrimination. All of them lived life in the shadows. Trouble had told me Hammer came from one of the toughest neighborhoods in New York City, and I knew Boom’s early life hadn’t been easy. Even Isogi remained impassive, inscrutable. They knew that the shadows forced people to do some hard things sometimes.

  “I didn’t really know what I was doing.” I continued, drawing a set of symbols in the southern quarter of the circle with bold strokes. “When the elemental lit into them, it was like nothing I’d ever seen before. I was horrified, fascinated. I must have lost control over the spirit. The alley was a blackened ruin. I just turned and walked away, put that whole part of my life behind me and went to tell MCT I’d take their offer. I didn’t give a second thought to what became of that elemental. . . until now.”

  “So, the elemental you summoned to kill those gangers was the same spirit down in the underground?” Trouble asked.

  I nodded. “Mama said the answer was somewhere on the metaplanes. Dr. Gordon’s map guided me to a place on the metaplane of fire where I saw visions of Gallow’s past and learned how it was connected to me. I suspect Mama knew something about it all along, but I don’t think Garnoff really knew what he was dealing with.”

  “But Garnoff was working with that. . . thing.” Isogi said with a note of distaste.

  “Yes, but I think Gallow was playing him as much as it was playing me. When Gallow escaped my binding and became a free spirit, something happened to it. I’m not sure what, but I think it had to do with the fact that it was summoned by my anger and need for revenge. The first and only command it received was to kill, so that was all it knew how to do. Its hold on this world is tenuous. It needs the energy of living beings to sustain itself and a physical body to channel its power. It possessed one of the dying gangers and used his body to commit murders to provide it with enough life force to keep going and start to increase its power.”

  “That was the hanged man?” Trouble asked, and I thought about my Tarot layout, the Hanged Man, reversed.

  “Yes.” I said. “The poor fragger Gallow possessed worked up enough willpower to try and kill himself. The spirit couldn’t stop him, but it managed to sustain his body by using all its remaining power. That left it none to escape on its own or find a new body. It needed help for that.

  “That’s where Garnoff comes in. His metaplanar exploration must have touched on something that allowed Gallow to communicate with him. It offered Garnoff magical knowledge and power. All he had to do was kill a few victims to help Gallow build up his power again. Garnoff was a sick fragge
r. Deep down he probably enjoyed the whole thing. Gallow could never have done it if Garnoff hadn’t gone along willingly. He probably hoped to find out enough about Gallow to eventually figure out a way to bind it and control it himself.”

  “That’s why Garnoff wanted to sacrifice you?” Trouble said. “To give Gallow more power?”

  “That’s what he was told.” I said. “Like I said, Gallow played us both for suckers. It probably told Garnoff that I was its summoner, and that my life force, my blood, was the most potent of all for increasing its power. It may have even told him that it wanted to use my body for a new vessel to channel its power. The magical symbolism works, the ‘child’ kills the ‘father’ and takes on his power. Garnoff probably never even questioned it. He probably figured he could use me as some kind of bargaining chip, or that he’d be able to bind Gallow once it was free of that body.

  “I knew Garnoff wanted me, but I didn’t know why. Mama’s information as much as told me that. I also knew from the Manadyne run that we didn’t have much of a chance of getting close to the real reasons without having to go through a lot of security. That’s why I figured it was easiest to give Garnoff what he wanted, make him think he had me so I could find out why.”

  I finished up the southern quarter of the circle and moved on to the western quarter, sketching new signs and symbols there.

  “You’re so fragging lucky that worked.” Boom said. “I mean, Garnoff could have killed you and Trouble both before we ever got there.”

  “It was a risk.” I admitted, “but no bigger than a shadowrun against some of MCT’s best security. Garnoff thought Trouble was under his control, thanks to his little suggestion spell.”

  “Are you saying she wasn’t ever under Garnoff’s control?” Isogi asked, glancing over at Trouble.

  “She was for a while. What Garnoff said about her informing him about our run on Manadyne was true.”

  Trouble colored a bit at the reminder. She was so angry when I told her about Gamoff’s spell that I wasn’t sure she’d be able to pull off that act without trying the kill Garnoff herself.

  “Garnoff didn’t know that I’d performed a mind probe on Trouble when she was hurt after the Manadyne run. I noticed something strange while I was in her mind, and I found the spell and disabled it.” I smiled. “And he thought I was drugged with something other than some harmless antibiotics. I was able to mask my aura well enough to make it look like I was helpless. Garnoff didn’t look too deeply. He was overconfident and he figured he had me for sure. He was too busy gloating to notice anything wrong.

  “The truth was, Gallow wanted me for a totally different reason. I summoned Gallow out of anger and commanded it because of a need for revenge. More than life force, Gallow feeds on those emotions, especially from me. It’s almost like a part of my own psyche, impressed on the substance of astral space, a dark reflection of my personality.

  “That's part of the reason it hates me. In a lot of ways, Gallow is me, or a part of me. It knew Garnoff couldn't resist telling me he was the one who had Jase killed, and it knew how that would make me feel—just like I felt when I first summoned it. I suspect that if Garnoff hadn’t told me the truth, Gallow would have. Gallow penetrated my masking. It knew I was faking, but it didn't warn Garnoff. It didn’t need my life force to give it the power it needed. It needed my anger, my hate, the same murderous rage that created it. When I killed Garnoff, I gave Gallow just what it needed.

  “Now it’s got Garnoff’s body to work through, and a whole city full of victims.” I said. “It’s only a matter of time before Gallow starts to kill again to sustain itself, and I want to find it and stop it before that can happen.”

  “Can you do it?” Boom asked.

  “I think so.” I said. “Ordinarily, I know I could. I learned Gallow’s true name on my astral quest. I should be able to summon it into my presence and try to bind it again, but I have no idea if that’ll work. Gallow isn’t like any free spirit I’ve encountered before. Since it’s possessing a physical body, it may not be drawn to summonings using its true name.

  “But I do have an idea how to track it down. I’ve got a spell attuned to detect specific individuals. I should be able to do a quick ritual to allow me to figure out where Gallow is, and sustain the spell so I can track him, no matter where he goes.

  “Gallow was weakened somewhat by our fight down in the Catacombs, so it’ll probably go to ground for a while, then try to hunt down some victims for a recharge. We need to find it before that happens. If I can get close enough, I can try and banish it again.”

  “You will deal with this spirit, then?” Isogi said. I turned to look up at him again. His immaculate suit was stained with concrete dust and spattered with blood, although very little of it his own, from the look of him. Despite that, he retained his composure and regarded me coolly.

  “One way or another.” I said, “I will deal with it. I have to.”

  Isogi nodded slightly, as if he understood.

  “So ka. I must inform the oyabun of what has happened. He will be most displeased with Gamoff’s faithlessness and deception.” He fixed me with a dark stare. Isogi made no mention of the fact that the oyabun would probably be quite displeased with him as well.

  He bowed slightly at the waist before turning and walking down the tunnel a short distance. He stood there, half-turned away from us, staring into space. I had no doubt that he was using some kind of headphone radio system to contact his people and tell Hiramatsu, the oyabun, of what was happening in the underground. His face betrayed no emotion and his jaw moved only slightly as he subvocalized through the link, far too quiet for anyone to overhear, even if they were standing right next to him. Isogi would also have to take whatever punishment was due for his own involvement in the affair and his support of Garnoff, assuming any of us got out of the tunnels alive.

  “Get him.” Trouble said a few moments after Isogi walked away. “You’d think he was in charge around here.”

  “Do you think it’s a good idea having him around?” Sloane asked quietly.

  “We don’t really have much choice.” I said. “We’ve got bigger things to worry about than one yakuza, and we could use his help.”

  “Wouldn’t take much.” Sloane continued, almost like he hadn’t heard me. “Down here, it’d be a long time before the yaks figured out what happened to him. With all the ghouls in the tunnels, they might not ever find the body . . .” He cradled his gun in his hands as he contemplated the idea.

  “No.” I said, “he’s better off alive. He’ll tell the oyabun what happened and, if we can’t stop Gallow, the yakuza might. At least someone else will know Gallow’s loose and be able to do something about it.”

  Sloane looked over at me, the gaze of his cybereyes flat and emotionless, showing nothing of the man behind them. “We don’t need his help.” he said.

  I looked into Sloane’s eyes without flinching or backing down. I was tired, but I wasn’t going to let the team start coming apart. “I say we do . . . for now.” I turned back to working on the circle I needed for the spell. It was almost finished.

  Hammer came over and hunkered down nearby, careful not to disturb what I was working on. “Sloane hates yaks.” he said quietly, “but he’s a pro. You don’t have to worry about him.”

  “I’m not.” I said. “I’m more worried about pulling this off.”

  “You think it’ll work?” Hammer asked, his voice a little louder.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. Trying to banish Gallow took a lot out of me. I also don’t have the time to do this up right. The spell’s going to have to be quick and dirty, and that means it’s going to be pretty weak. I’m banking that I took as much out of Gallow as it took out of me. If its resistance is down, I might be able to make this spell work.”

  “And then?” Hammer asked.

  “Then we find Gallow and finish this once and for all.” I said.

  Isogi approached us quietly. I could feel Sloane tense a bit from w
here he leaned up against a concrete post.

  “I have spoken with Hiramatsu-sama.” he said quietly. “You may deal with this matter as you see fit. But if the spirit escapes or overcomes you again and begins more killings that may threaten the underground, we may be forced to take action, and our response will be swift and merciless.”

  I nodded in acknowledgment of the pronouncement. It was no more or less than what I’d expected.

  “I am to remain and assist you in whatever way I can.” Isogi continued. As part of his punishment, no doubt, a way of at least partially redeeming himself in the eyes of his superior.

  “Your help is welcome.” I said, with a glance toward Sloane. “Do you have a weapon?”

  “Of course.”

  “Good, because you’re going to need it.”

  23

  Once the circle was complete, I began the ritual. It was makeshift, even by my standards, but sometimes you have to work with what you’ve got. The circle I drew on the concrete platform was just wide enough for me to stand in, the bare minimum, worked with runes and signs of knowledge and protection. I incorporated symbols representing Gallow’s true name in it, in hopes of achieving a better link with the spirit. The two of us were already connected, and I hoped that would allow me to find it, no matter where it might have gone.

  A single candle—taken from the pocket of my coat—burned on the floor in front of me as I completed the circle and began the spell. I drew Talonclaw from its sheath and held the blade in the tiny flame of the candle. Garnoff's blood still clung to the blade from where I’d stabbed him. Normally the blood would allow me to cast my ritual on Garnoff, no matter where he might be. I was trusting, with Gallow possessing Garnoff’s body, that the ritual would let me find the spirit instead.

  The blood sizzled and burned, sending wisps of acrid smoke drifting up. I reached out with my magical senses, sending out a tendril of power, searching for a connection to make the link. I chanted in Latin, low and sonorous, and my voice echoed in the tunnels as the others stood and silently watched me work. I was only barely aware of their presence, all my attention focused on reaching Gallow.