Never Trust an Elf

by Robert N. Charrette

  The biggest of the three, the obvious leader, straightened up when he saw Kham approaching. That was Guido, one of John Parker's brood. Guido was a shadowrunner wannabe, always trying to act like he thought a runner ought to.

  "Hoi, Kham," he said in a casually familiar drawl." 'Zappening?"

  "Hoi, Guido."

  A little miffed by Kham's ignoring his question, Guido tried again. "Got work?"

  "Could be."

  Guido elbowed one of the others and gave him a conspiratorial wink. "Better, or Lissa'll have your balls for breakfast."

  Kham was too tired to play games. His response caught Guido totally off-guard. The young ork made only a feeble, futile effort to block the paw that reached for his throat. Exerting a mere fraction of his strength, Kham lifted the boy off the ground. Guido struggled to take the pressure from his throat by keeping his balance on his toes. Kham smiled grimly into Guido's purpling face and said, "Watch out your balls aren't on the menu."

  "Hey, he didn't mean anything by it, Kham," one of the others pleaded.

  "Yeah," the other chimed in. "Everybody says that, ya know. Like it's not a secret."

  Giving them a squint-eyed stare, Kham said, "Yeah? Well, if everybody knows, ya don't need ta say anyting about it."

  "Chill, man," Guido choked out. "I'm a sphinx."

  "Nah. Ain't good-looking enough," Kham said, releasing the boy. "Or tough enough."

  "Hey, man, I'm tough," Guido whined, rubbing his throat. "Take me on a run, I'll show you."

  Not if you can't take a little rough treatment. "Gotta walk before ya can run, Guido."

  Recovering his former bravado, Guido straightened up and said, "I'm ready. You got a job and need some more muscle, I'm the orkboy for you."

  Guido's quick recovery was a good sign. The boy was still a little young to move up, but he had talent. Maybe in a year or two. Kham decided to be encouraging. "Could be. Keep hanging till I call ya."

  Kham walked up the steps, listening to the gibes of Guido's companions as they started in on the boy. They'd sort it out. If an ork couldn't survive his own gang, he didn't have any business looking to tackle anybody else.

  As he stepped through the door, the familiar scent of ork and old food washed over him, blotting out the refuse scent of the street. The light was brighter than in the street, but not enough to bother him, nor was it enough to really illuminate the squalor. The main room, what had once been a show room, was littered with debris and randomly scattered piles of bedding, but, he was pleased to see, no garbage. The chamber was furnished in early junkyard; its broken-down chairs, stained and ripped couches, and tables of jumbled scraps gave it an air of bedraggled but comfy chaos. In one corner an unwatched monitor, the coils of its illegal cable hook-up snarled around its base, blared out the latest video from Maria Mercurial, courtesy of one of the music channels.

  Someday, he promised himself. Someday they wouldn't have to live here.

  He could hear shouts from the kitchen. Teresa was calling one of the kids down for snitching from the pot. Almost immediately a knot of kids came brawling through the archway. Catching sight of him, one of them shouted, "Kham's back!" As the brawl tumbled past him and into the stairway hall a small missile launched itself out of the melee. Kham caught the hurtling ork child, his oldest son Tully, and pivoted in place, swinging Tully at arm's-length. The child squealed in delight.

  Twice more around, then he tossed Tully high, catching him under the arms and lowering him to the floor. "More!" the child yelled. Kham complied, as always. Out the corner of his eye, he could see Shandra, Tully's littermate, staring from the doorway. Setting Tully down and tousling his hair to stifle his cries of "More!", Kham spoke to his daughter. "Hello, Shandy."

  "Hello, daddy."

  Crouching closer to her height, he said, "Come give me a hug."

  Shandra hugged herself and shook her head.

  It was the way she was most of the time now. He hoped it was just a phase. He straightened and took off his jacket, hanging it on a peg and slinging his weapon belt over it. He held his arms out to his daughter. "Come to daddy." She remained where she was, staring. He followed her gaze, dropping his eyes to his artificial hand. The chrome gleamed softly in the low light, a shiny ghost of the flesh that had been. He took a step toward her and she bolted back to the kitchen.

  "You don't need her, Daddy," Tully said, affixing himself to Kham's leg.

  Kham scooped him up. The boy gave his father a squeeze around the neck, then settled back to nestle in the strong sweep of Kham's arm. Tully reached out a hand and ran it along the smooth plastic of the flesh-metal interface and down over the rigid alloy of Kham's hand. "It's hard, Dad. Like you."

  "Ya gonna be hard when yer big, Tully?"

  "Uh-huh."

  "That's my boy," Kham said, with a delighted smile.

  Kham heard familiar footsteps approaching. Lissa. He turned to face her. She was as beautiful as ever, if a bit tousled from her work in the kitchen. Her tusks, delicate and fine, gleamed like old ivory. They showed particularly clear when she was frowning, which she was now. She stopped about a meter away and put one hand on her hip while the other unconsciously caressed Shandra's head. Clinging to her mother's leg, the girl sobbed softly. Lissa said some quiet words to her before looking at Kham.

  "About time."

  "Had a meet."

  She looked at him for a moment, then bent down and whispered to Shandra. The girl nodded her head and ran toward the kitchen. Lissa straightened to face Kham again. "You've got a run then."

  "Most likely. Got another meet tonight."

  She folded her arms. "This better not be another story, Kham. We need the money."

  "We'll get it."

  "And I don't need the grief." Taking a step forward, she tugged Tully from his arms. Setting him down, she said, "Get along, Tully. Teresa needs your help in the kitchen."

  "Aw. Mom."

  "Go!"

  Tully sulked off.

  "We were playing," Kham said.

  "He's got work, even if no one else around here does. You think this hall runs itself?"

  Kham knew from experience that she didn't really want an answer to that question. In fact, she went on to answer it herself in an all-too-familiar tirade. He shouldn't have been gone so long. He shouldn't get in the way around the hall. He should've brought home some money. He shouldn't keep the kids from doing their chores. And on and on and on. He nodded in the right places and shook his head in the other right places. He lost his appetite as his stomach went sour. Why did it have to be this way?

  For all her harping, he still loved her. He wanted to tell her that. He reached out a hand to gather her to him, realizing too late that he had reached out with his right. She flinched away from him, a flash of horror reflected in the chrome of his hand. Then she stood her ground and let him gather her in his arms.

  "I love ya," he said.

  She said nothing.

  "It's gonna be all right."

  "How can you say that, Kham? Everything's different now."

  Her voice was shaky. He knew she was worried, scared for the kids mostly. That was what made her shrill so often now. He caressed her hair with his right hand and she shivered, so he stopped. "Nuttin's changed."

  "It has." she said softly.

  He knew her words for truth. Ever since he'd gotten his cybernetic replacements, Lissa had been different. cold and distant. She shuddered when he touched her with the replacement hand. It was easier sometimes not to touch her at all.

  "Dere's lotsa guys wid enhancements on da streets. Orks, too. Their chicas don't got problems wit dem."

  "It's not real."

  "But I ain't no vat-grown corp monster. I'm still me. Kham, yer husband. An artificial hand and syntetic muscles in my leg don't change dat."

  "I haven't left you, have I?"

  "No."

  "I've been a good wife, haven't I? I take care of the kids. I feed this crew and run herd on this brawl you call a
hall. You can't say I don't."

  "No, I can't." They both knew that the street was not a nice place, and there were damned few shelters that didn't want a SIN before they did anything for you. It was all part of the system, which didn't work for orks like them.

  "If it wasn't fer da implants, I'd be a crip. I wouldn't be able ta take care of ya and da kids."

  "I know that."

  "I still love ya and da kids."

  "I know that."

  But Lissa didn't sound like she really believed it. "I didn't abandon ya, like John Parker did his woman when he took up shadowrunning. And yer not a widow, like Teresa, Asa, or Komiko. What if I'da died on dose runs last year fer Sam Verner? What if I'da died aboard dat damned, drowned sub like Teresa and Komiko's men? What woulda happened ta ya and da kids den?"

  "I don't know."

  "An honest answer at least." He held her tight, careful to keep his replacement hand from touching her flesh. "But I did survive dose runs even dough da first cost me my hand and part 'a my leg. Drek! I survived da run and was back up in time ta go on annoder inta dat damned bug-filled submarine fer da dogboy. It takes a tough guy ta get back up dat fast, and I'm tough. I'm a survivor, babe. I'm a rough, tough ork like I gotta be."

  "Not every ork is as tough as you," she said, breaking free of his embrace.

  "Don't I know it."

  "Well, you don't know everything!" She ran away, crying.

  Kham just stood there, confused and frustrated. He never seemed able to find the words Lissa wanted to hear. He thought about going after her, but what good would it do? After the meet, when he had some money, things would be better.

  As he stood there lost in his thoughts, Jord and the rest of the hunters came into the hall, prancing and shouting. "Hey, dad! Look what I caught," Jord yelled, swinging his prize by the tail. A cat.

  Kham looked at it with distaste. "Take it inta da kitchen, boy."

  "Sure." The victorious hunters continued their parade toward the back of the hall. Jord looked over his shoulder. "You coming, Dad?"

  "Ya go ahead, Jord. Dad's gotta do some biz." Facing Lissa over the table would be bad enough. But cat, too? He strapped on his weapon belt and ripped his jacket from the peg and slung it over his shoulder. He stomped up the stairs to the room his family used for a bedroom. From the locked case in the bottom of the closet he took a skeletal-stocked assault rifle, an AK-74 special. Working with sure hands, he broke it down and concealed the parts in pockets sewn to the lining of his jacket. He had a meet tonight at ten and he might need a little extra insurance. There wouldn't be time to come back here if he was to make a stop before the meet. He stomped back down the stairs and out into the street.

  The third pay phone he tried was working. He slipped in his credstick and punched in the telecom code. The line opened and a recorded voice started speaking. He waited a moment, then tapped in a code that Sally Tsung gave to only a few people. The code patched him through to another line. The voice that answered this time was live, female, but not Sally herself.

  "Hello."

  "Dis is Kham. Sally in?"

  "She's not here right now. May I take a message?"

  "Gotta talk wit her."

  "Business?"

  "Looks like it."

  A moment's pause, and then, "She'll be at Penumbra tonight. Around eleven."

  "Club's okay but da time's no good. Need ta see her 'fore dat."

  "When?"

  "Nine."

  "I'll tell her when she checks in," the voice said, then the connection broke.

  Kham slammed the receiver down. Drek! There was no way to know whether Sally would get the message in time to meet with him. There was nothing to do but go to the club and hope she showed.

  * * *

  It was quarter past nine when Sally Tsung walked into Club Penumbra. She strolled in like she owned the place, a common enough attitude for top-rank shadowrunners. Her armor-lined coat was of real leather, stitched with arcane symbols and fringed along the arms and lower edges. Billowing out behind her, the coat opened to reveal what she wore underneath, which wasn't much: a halter top, cut-off jeans, and knee-high boots. Crossed weapon belts rode low on her hips, a pistol holster on one and a scabbarded magesword on the other. She nodded to Jim at the bar, her shock of blonde hair bobbing over her forehead. The rest of her hair was bound back into a rat-tail braid that snaked around from behind her neck and slithered down between her breasts to lie over the constraining strings of her leather halter. She was a street mage, as lean, hard, and dangerous as they came. And she was every bit as beautiful as the day she had first recruited Kham, and more unreachable than ever. Still, he couldn't help grinning at her as she slouched into the seat across the table from him.

  "Hello, Kham. How's my favorite hunk of ork flesh tonight?"

  "Hello, Sally. Doing okay. You?"

  "Living the life, doing the scene." She shrugged her shoulders with casual negligence. "Hear you got a party starting."

  As he'd suspected from seeing her in her working clothes, she was in a business frame of mind and not interested in social chat. So, he complied. "Looks dat way. Got a meet fer da job here at ten, muscle only on da spec, but ya taught me shadowrunning too good.

  I want an ace in da hole, a magical ace."

  "I understand the lay of the land, Kham." She gazed off across the bar. "But I'm afraid I can't help. I've got something cooking myself."

  "Ya didn't call me."

  "Nothing personal, Kham." She still didn't look at him. "It's just not your sort of biz."

  "What about my run?"

  "Null perspiration, chummer. There's lots of magic children on the streets these days. You can take your pick."

  Sure there were magicians out there, but she was the only mage he would trust. Without magical aid, he was left to rely on his orks and their mundane firepower. Magic might not be common everywhere in the world, but shadowrunners had a tendency to run into it, and that was the possibility that worried him. "Maybe I only want da best."

  She faced him, a wide, warm smile on her face. "Ooh, flattery. You tempt me, chummer, but a girl has to honor her commitments and I've already got one. Tell you what, though. Just for old times' sake, I'll run cover for you at the meet."

  "No cost?"

  Her smile was sweet. "I could ask for a percentage, but you're a chummer. Besides, I have to be here anyway."

  * * *

  Kham's guys arrived in a bunch only half an hour after the time he had told them. Not bad for them: they were only ten minutes behind the time he wanted them there. Punctuality before a run was always a problem with them. Fortunately, that problem disappeared when things got warmer.

  They joined him and started drinking. Just beer, nothing to queer the meet. With each round, Kham watched the tab go up, but the job would pay for it, he hoped.

  Sally was hanging out at her usual table in the back, screened from most of the noise of the dance floor. It was still early and the crowd was light. Big Tom the sasquatch was doing the warm-up show, all instrumental pieces that he could imitate with amazing facility. The club's real action wouldn't Start until later.

  A pair of rough boys walked in. They were real hard cases, razorguys with lots of obvious cyberware. Both wore patches from a half-dozen mercenary units, implying that they'd seen action in some of the corporate fracas of the last ten years. One was a blond and the other a brunet, but otherwise they were identical. Cosmetic surgery probably. Something in their body language also made Kham wonder if they were lovers. The razorguys looked around, scanning the place. The blond said something to Jim at the bar and Jim nodded toward the back room. Kham was sure these two weren't the employers, so they had to be other applicants. Was there to be a bidding war for a place on the run?

  A dwarf was the next runner Jim sent to the back room. Kham recognized him at once. The dwarf was Greerson, a West Coast heavy-hitter who spent most of his time down in California Free State. His presence definitely meant that others ha
d been contacted about this run, and raised the odds of a bidding war. But any Mr. Johnson who wanted it discreet would be making a mistake to start taking competitive bids. The losers would have word of his run on the streets in nanoseconds.

  Kham nodded to Rabo. Time for the guys to go in and show the flag. He hoped Sheila wouldn't let Greerson goad her into causing trouble before Kham was in there to keep her temper cool. There had been trouble between the two of them before.

  Kham waited a while longer. He was almost ready to go in himself when another stranger approached Jim. This one was a small Asian, Japanese maybe, who was no taller than the dwarf but slighter by a wide margin. Young, too, for a norm shadowrunner. The Asian had a whispered conversation with Jim, who then sent him on back. Another runner, definitely, but what sort of specialty? Maybe a decker? He sure wasn't big enough for a frontline fighter and he didn't have the look of a magicboy.

  "Your Mr. Johnson's an elf," Sally's voice whispered in Kham's ear a few minutes later as a tall man in a long trench coat approached the bar.

  Confident that she would hear, Kham whispered his thanks and rose from his seat-He caught up with the elf before he reached the door to the back room. He didn't surprise him, though, because the elf turned as Kham approached. With a wide, toothy grin Kham said, "Evening, Mr. Johnson,"

  "You're Kham."

  "Right."

  The elf looked over Kham's shoulder. "You are alone?"

  "My guys are waiting inside. Along wit a few other people. I wasn't told dis was a joint venture."

  "You cannot expect to know all the details. I was informed that you were a professional. Professionals understand that secrecy is a necessity of business."

  Kham leaned toward him. "Professionals expect fair deals, too."

  The elf turned his head to the side as if offended by Kham's smell, but he didn't retreat. "I am prepared to offer a fair deal. To all. However, I am not prepared to cut separate deals with overly pushy persons of inflated ego. You will hear the deal along with the others, or you will not hear it at all."

  Pulling back and allowing the elf his personal space, Kham said, "Yer gonna be late fer yer own meet, Mr. J"

  "Perhaps you would care to precede me," the elf suggested.