by Mel Odom
Hawke’s commlink chirped, and he opened the channel when he recognized the fake SIN. “I’m kinda busy—”
“Drek! Have they already found you?” Dolphin was the decker Hawke had set up for the team. She was currently in Denver, seeing to the hardware and software she’d need. She wanted everything clean, without history. “I thought they were still en route. Wait. They are still en route. Who’s shooting at you?”
“They’re not shooting at me.” Hawke watched as Rolla backhanded another ganger, sending her flying halfway across the room. “Did you say someone’s looking for me?”
“Yeah, omae, someone’s definitely looking for you. A NeoNET hit squad’s been sniffing around your back trail. They found that flimsy fake SIN you used to get down to Jamaica. I told you you should have let me take care of you.”
“I wasn’t able to reach you until this morning.”
Still on the move, Rolla felled gangers like trees. Broken or unconscious, they lay in his wake. Three gangers on the outskirts read which way the wind was blowing and tried to break for the front door. The troll street sam picked up a small table and flung it like a discus. The projectile struck the rearmost ganger and knocked him into his chummers, sending them all to the floor.
“I stay bizzy, omae. You know that. I had to clear my schedule to help you in the first place, and you’re lucky I even took your message. I keep a backlog in drops.” Dolphin sounded a little put out. Sometimes she wore her feelings on her sleeve, and no one had to ever wonder where they stood with her.
“That’s not what I meant. I meant I worked with what I could get.”
“Well, what you could get got you noticed. Taking that jet to Jamaica left you too exposed. NeoNET has sniffers on your Matrix trail. I took care of some of them, which should buy you some time in the future, but they have you by the short hairs at the moment.”
“How far out are they?” Hawke was thinking maybe he and Twitch could get gone before there was a problem.
“About five minutes out, give or take thirty seconds. Ground vehicles. I’ve been digging into NeoNET, and picked ’em up right before I called you. Whoever’s pulling the strings there, they’re digging deep for you.”
Not for him. For Rachel. “Thanks for the heads-up. See you in Minneapolis?”
“Definitely.” Dolphin sounded excited. “NeoNET, the Azzies, and some mysterious third party?, You sure know how to slice off a chunk of trouble.”
Before Hawke could reply, the connection clicked dead. Out in the middle of the floor, Rolla stood alone, dusting himself off, surrounded by the scattered bodies of the defeated gangers. Hawke didn’t think any were dead, but anyone that had a DocWagon account had been racked up as a medical emergency. That meant a lot of heat was descending on The Pink Cadillac, not counting the hit team on his heels.
Hawke leaned over to Twitch. “A crew from NeoNET is on top of us. We have to go.”
“Rolla!” Edgarson emerged from the back room and gazed around at the carnage that now filled his establishment. “Look what you’ve done!”
“I didn’t do that.” Rolla glanced over at Twitch and nodded. “I did what you paid me to do.”
Edgarson gestured at the shambles he was standing in. The old man looked like he was about ready to cry. “This? I didn’t pay you to do this! This is going to cost me a ton of nuyen! This’ll make my insurance policy go up!”
“You shouldn’t have been so cheap,” Rolla said. “You should have paid to have a guy at the door, like I suggested.”
“You—you were supposed to be on the door!”
“The door. The floor. The storage room to make sure the bartenders weren’t nicking your liquor supply.” Rolla shook his head. “I told you there was only so much I could do.”
“I should fire you!”
“Nope. You’re not firing me. That’s not going on my résumé. I quit. Keep what you owe me.” Rolla smiled at the gangers littering the floor. “This was worth it.” He glanced up at Twitch and winked. “Gimme a minute to get my duffel.”
“Sure,” Twitch replied. “But we need to hurry, mon, because we’re about to have some party crashers.”
The troll glowered down at Hawke. “Really? You got dogs at your heels? Doesn’t make a good first impression.”
Hawke didn’t know what to say to that, and before he could say anything, Rolla turned and walked to the back room. Edgarson stepped away from him.
“Wait,” Edgarson pleaded. “Maybe I was hasty. This neighborhood, it’s a lot more dangerous than it used to be. Until tonight, we didn’t have any real trouble. Not like this. Please. We can talk.”
Rolla ignored the man and kept walking. He returned a moment later with a military duffel over his shoulder. When he reached them, he leaned down and kissed Twitch’s cheeks. “Hey, toots. Marriage doing okay by you?”
“Marriage is awesome.” Twitch wrapped her arms around the troll’s free arm and hung close. “Thanks for the wine chiller, mon. Jovi and I are enjoying it, and the supply of wine you sent.”
“My pleasure.” Rolla sized Hawke up with a glance as they headed for the front door. “Who’s your bald friend?”
“This is Hawke. You’ll get to know more about him on the road.”
“We’ll see. I’m there for you, toots, but I don’t owe this guy anything, and it already sounds like he’s dangerous to be around.” Rolla narrowed his eyes at Hawke. “If I don’t like the deal, I’ll tell Jovi she doesn’t like the deal either. Then you and me will find something else to do.”
Hawke didn’t know whether to be angry, or to try to deal with the street sam professionally. He understood where Rolla was coming from, but he didn’t have to like it.
Before he could make up his mind, he stepped outside onto the street and got hit with bright lights.
“Stand down!” an electronically enhanced voice threatened. “Drop your weapons and surrender, or we will open fire!”
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
In a blink, Hawke’s cybereyes filtered out the brightness and let him see the eight men in combat armor crouched behind the open doors of the two Rover Model 2072 vans on the other side of the street. Both vehicles were covered in heavy composite armor that absorbed the moonlight and streetlights. Even The Pink Cadillac’s neon lighting didn’t seem to touch them.
Atop both vehicles, men sat tense and ready behind machine guns and half-shields, making them small targets. All of the gunners had laser sights that left small ruby ovals dotting Hawke and his companions like measles.
Instinct told Hawke to run, to dive back inside the bar and try to head out the back. He couldn’t leave Twitch behind, though. That was one of the problems with a team: not everyone moved at the same speed, and only one person could get through a door at a time.
“Twitch,” Hawke whispered as he held his hands out to his sides. “Maybe we can make it back inside—”
She chuckled, as if honestly amused. “These clowns, mon? You want us to run from second-tier muscle? NeoNET didn’t even bother to send a group of top-flight sec men.” She shook her head. “I got this.”
That was the old Twitch, the one who didn’t back down and didn’t know when to quit.
“Glad to hear you say that, toots,” Rolla growled, “’cause I only got about half of them.”
Holding her hands out level at her sides, Twitch stepped forward, and even though he couldn’t see her face, Hawke knew she was wearing that grin she always did before a showdown.
“Stay where you are,” the enhanced voice advised. “Drop your weapons and raise your hands.”
“No, mon,” Twitch said. Her hands folded over her chest and plucked the Cavalier Deputys from shoulder leather. “You wannabes need to find something else to do tonight.”
The speaker shifted, and one of the laser dots gleamed on Twitch’s left cheek. “This is your last warning.”
The gunslinger grinned. “Got that right—”
Though Hawke had his pistol in hand and his wired
reflexes still pinging, he couldn’t get his weapon up before Twitch was already firing. Even though he’d seen her in action before, watching her work was beautiful—and it was also hard to see if not reduced to slo-mo. She wasn’t chipped, didn’t have any magical abilities, and hadn’t had any specialized training.
She was just a natural with a handgun.
She was the most dangerous person in a shootout Hawke had ever seen.
The Cavalier Deputies spat fire, roaring and bucking as they unleashed death. Her hands moved only slightly, rolling with the recoil, turning slightly to shift to a new target the moment each bullet left the barrel. The nine shots filled Hawke’s hearing like one long drumbeat.
Across the street, the eight sec men dropped in place, each with a neat, round hole at the bridge of their noses between their eyes. The AP bullets had punched through the eye protectors and face shields.
Braced, searching for a target, Hawke stood there, his smartlink reticule jumping from dead man to dead man.
None of them moved.
Coolly, as if she had all day long, Twitch broke the revolvers open and replaced the spent shells with fresh cartridges from the pouch at her waist.
Rolla patted the gunslinger on the shoulder. “Not bad, toots, but you had to shoot the one on the end twice. Wasted a bullet.”
Hawke hadn’t even noticed that, but now that he was looking, he saw that the sec man had two holes in his forehead, spaced less than a centimeter apart.
Twitch shrugged. “I wanted to make sure, mon. It’s been a while. I thought he turned his head at the last second.”
“Chummer,” Rolla said, “none of them had time to turn nothin’.” The troll shifted his gaze to Hawke. “You got a ride?”
Hawke holstered his weapon. “I do.”
“We’ll need to leave it. If those guys found you, they can find whatever you’re driving.”
Hawke nodded. He’d thought of that, too. “We’re on foot ’til we can arrange other transportation.”
Rolla shook his head and sighed. “I gotta say, as a prospective employer, you ain’t very impressive so far.”
Finished reloading, Twitch shoved her weapons back into leather. “We’re running right now. This isn’t Hawke’s best element. He’s good on his feet when he’s going for the prize, mon. That’s when you’ll see him all shiny.”
Wanting to put as much distance from the impromptu battlefield as possible, Hawke took off walking. He opened the comm to Dolphin. “Hola.”
“I see you’re still alive,” she said brightly.
“We might not have been if you hadn’t given me the warning. Thanks.”
“Null sheen, omae. My pleasure.”
“You said you could see me?” Hawke looked around.
“I can. I do. I’m tapped into the neighborhood cams, drekky though they are.”
“Can you wipe the footage?”
“There’s no footage, no record. I got control of the cams before I called you and stopped them.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ve also arranged for a Bulldog for you. It doesn’t look like much, but I know a rigger there who does top-notch work. The wheels will be wiz. Turn left at the end of the block and go three blocks farther to an alley on your left again. You’ll find the keys in it. I’ll also have new SINS—bulletproof ones this time, at least more so than the ones you two have been running under—for you and the two people with you.”
When Dolphin had her game on, she was spectacular. Looking back at Twitch and Rolla as they followed him, Hawke started feeling a little more confident. He didn’t allow that feeling to develop much, though. Aztechnology and NeoNET were sure to stack their forces wide and deep.
A few minutes later, Hawke entered an alley and found a nondescript Bulldog step-van sitting there, its still-warm engine ticking quietly. It was painted a forgettable gray-brown that would blend in anywhere.
The door had been upgraded to include a concealed print lock. Dolphin had relayed the change to Hawke and let him know the vehicle would be attuned to him. When he placed his hand on the door, the locks thunked and released.
He opened the door and slid behind the wheel while the sirens of the law enforcement teams closing in screamed around him. The seat automatically adjusted to accommodate him, then a five-point racer’s belt reached around him and locked him into place when he cranked the engine over. It growled quietly, low and deep and powerful. The Bulldog had definitely been upgraded.
Rolla opened the rear door for Twitch, then claimed the shotgun seat for himself. The vehicle rocked under his massive weight as he settled in. Although the Bulldog was a standard van, not a larger utility vehicle, the troll was still able to get comfortable. It helped that Twitch was so small in the back.
Engaging the transmission, Hawke pulled the van out into the street. The vehicle handled much smoother and responded more powerfully than it should have.
“So, what’s this run you’re needing help with?” Rolla asked.
“I’m not quite sure,” Hawke admitted.
Rolla craned his massive head over his shoulder and gazed at Twitch. “We’re on a snipe hunt?”
“Just listen to him, mon.”
Turning back to Hawke, the troll grunted with dissatisfaction.
“We’re not entirely in the dark on this,” Hawke replied. “I’ve got something a lot of people want. I just have to hang onto it long enough to figure out what it is and how to make it work for us.”
“What do you have?”
“A young woman. An artifact she found in South America.”
“Can’t she tell you?”
“She’s in a coma.”
“Wow. This just gets more and more wiz. I can see why you’d be so attracted to it.”
“I don’t have a choice. I’m carrying a bulls-eye between my shoulders right now. I’m just trying to get the woman out from under. When I do, we’ll be in the clear, too.”
“You sure about that?”
Hawke tightened his hands on the wheel and looked at the troll. “No. I can let you out at the next corner if you want.”
Rolla shook his head and hooked a thumb over his shoulder. He sighed. “Nope. Twitch has already bought into this. I know her. Given your impressive debut, I’m gonna stick with her and make sure she’s okay.”
“That works for me.”
“So, what am I getting paid?” Rolla turned his attention back to Hawke.
“You’re getting a piece of the prize. We share and share alike.”
“How many ways are we cutting this thing?”
“If I get everybody I want? Eight ways.”
“That’s a lot of pieces. To make this worthwhile, the pieces are gonna have to be worth a lot.”
“I think they are. Aztechnology doesn’t go after small items.”
“Aztechnology, huh?” Rolla shook his head. “Is that who those guys back there were?”
“No.” Hawke coasted to a stop at a deserted intersection and gazed up at a police helicopter headed in the direction of The Pink Cadillac. The searchlight on the helo’s nose flashed through the streets and ripped away the shadows. “Those guys were with NeoNET.”
“NeoNET, hmmm.” Rolla scratched his goatee-covered chin with black talons. “I owe them some payback for a job I got screwed over on.”
“So that means you’re gonna pay me for the privilege of sticking it to that corp?” Hawke gazed blankly at Rolla.
The troll stared back at him for a moment, then smiled. “Heh. No. But I’m in.” He held out a callused fist.
Hawke bumped knuckles with him, and they all settled in for the twelve-hour ride to Minneapolis.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
“Got a minute, omae?”
Reclined in the passenger seat while Twitch took a turn behind the wheel, Hawke jerked awake as the voice echoed inside his head. Twitch’s eyes cut to him and he shook his head, letting her know he were fine. Rolla snored like a bellows in the back seat.
&
nbsp; “I do, Dolphin. What have you got?” Hawke rubbed his eyes. Sitting up straighter, he checked the takeout cup of soykaf in the holder between the seats. It was equipped with a heating unit, but it didn’t work on an empty cup. He checked his chron and found it was 0418 hours. He’d only been asleep a couple hours.
“I’ve been looking into your dead Johnson.” Dolphin sounded slow and distant, and he knew she was jacked into the Matrix and talking to him from there. “Want to take a look with me?”
“How?”
“There’s a rig in the glove box.”
Leaning forward, Hawke opened the glove box and sorted through the paperwork inside that was all registered to his current SIN. “I don’t see it.”
Dolphin sighed. “Of course you don’t, liebling. I didn’t put it there for just anyone to find. There’s a print scanner at the back of the unit, opens a hidey hole.”
Hawke ran his hand around the inside of the glove compartment for a moment, then felt something vibrate within. He pulled his hand back as a hidden compartment revealed itself. A light flicked on inside and lit the micro-sized DNI within. The Direct Neural Interface was a rigging harness for Matrix surfers who didn’t have jacks.
Dolphin wanted to take him into the ’trix, and he wasn’t thrilled about that. Hawke preferred his world three-dimensional, with physical rules he could easily understand. Cyberspace was too fluid, too open to interpretation, and it was never the same thing twice.
Hawke stared at the DNI like it was a poisonous viper. “I don’t want to go into the Matrix.”
“Don’t be such a baby, Hawke,” Dolphin chided. “It’s perfectly safe.”
“Maybe for you.” Hawke could still remember the crash in ’64. He’d been a kid, playing in a game when the system had gone down. Luckily, the game he’d been on had been supported by Saeder-Krupp Schwerindustriesellschaft, the heavy industries corp owned by the great western dragon, Lofwyr. S-K maintained its own Matrix kill switch, and had prevented the damage that had run rampant throughout other systems. Most of the other corps had suffered significant losses.