The Johnson Run

by Kai O'Connal

  She watched the elf through the window in the café, but he just continued to sip his coffee and never moved. It lasted long enough that Keandra began to think she really was being paranoid. Shaking her head, she signaled Paz to get going.

  “Where’re we going?”

  “First National. We need a certified credstick. I have a feeling we won’t be handing Freyr over.”

  “If we’re gonna run anyway, why not keep the suit’s nuyen? I doubt his company would even bat an eye at how much we’re gonna be giving him. It’s like, what, one tenth of one percent of what they make in a day most likely?”

  Keandra opened her mouth to respond but Paz waved her hand dismissively. “I know, I know. They keep track of it all, down to the last little nuyen, and we don’t wanna give them any more reason to come after us than they’ll already have. I get it. I just figured I’d throw out the idea. Let’s get this over with. I just hate the idea of throwing money away.”

  “Then to Northgate. I need a jammer. Something we can use to keep Freyr locked down without having one of our devices permanently offline. After that, we’ll head back to Victoria’s. Hopefully she’ll have something by then.”

  “So I’m basically your chauffeur today.”

  “What happened to being excited about getting out and about while Lance had to stay at the safehouse?”

  Paz grumbled something unintelligible in reply.

  16

  When they returned, Victoria’s shop was dark with the shades drawn. The sign still read CLOSED, though the schedule indicated it should be open for another three hours. Keandra and Paz parked in front of the building and stared at the door.

  “She’s probably with another special client. We’ll just have to wait until she’s done.”

  As the minutes ticked by, Keandra wondered who she was trying to convince, Paz or herself. Victoria had more clients than just her so patience was warranted. She wouldn’t want someone else barging in if she were involved in negotiations. But recent events put her on edge and she wondered if something was happening in there. Had she put Victoria at risk by coming here asking for her help?

  Keandra released her breath in a long exhale as a man walked out of the shop and cut a hard left. She and Paz walked into the shop. As soon as she saw them, Victoria grinned from ear to ear and pressed the button once more to switch the sign.

  “Twice in a row! My my my, you’re going to be bad for business, even if you aren’t my competition! If I stay closed, how will I ever sell my fabulous merchandise?”

  “I’m pretty sure you make far more from your trade in secrets than you do from your trade in trinkets. I doubt your bank account will suffer too badly from these meetings.”

  Victoria winked as she waved Keandra and Paz into the back office. Once again, she collapsed into her customary seat. This time she grabbed a couple of glasses from under the table next to her and poured out a clear, fizzy, sharp-smelling beverage. She handed one to each of them and then poured a third for herself.

  “Cheers!”

  “What is this?”

  Keandra sniffed it, trying to place the scent. She was never quite sure what Victoria had to offer. She always liked to close her deals with a drink, but the contents were always a grab bag.

  Paz downed hers in a single swallow after clinking glasses with the ork, then scrunched up her face and coughed once. “Whatever it is, it’s damn good!”

  Victoria drained her glass as well, letting out a long, satisfied sigh. It didn’t escape Keandra’s notice that Victoria refused to reveal what the beverage was.

  With a shrug, Keandra swallowed hers while trying not to taste it. It burned as it slid down her throat, feeling like dozens of tiny needles piercing the inside of her neck and sliding down to her stomach. She coughed several times, holding out the glass to Victoria to keep from dropping it.

  “Right, and now we get down to business. You wanted to talk about information. Well, turns out I was able to find out a lot about your little piece of land there. You were right: it has changed hands several times. Surprisingly, each one was a legitimate sale with all of the information up to date and on record. So, you’re in luck. I really hit the motherlode.

  “I’ll send you the full transfer of ownership papers when we’re done here. But the highlights are that it was originally owned by the government. They claimed it ever since the founding of the California Free State. Twenty years later a real estate investor purchased it and transferred it over to a technical company. That’s the boring stuff. They never developed it.

  “The exciting bit starts when a weapons development company bought it. They applied for a bunch of permits to create a lot of buildings on the site, but as far as I can tell, nothing was built. Despite that, the land transferred ownership four times since then, but each time it was just a renaming of the current company. Someone is clearly trying to bury that land in as much paperwork as possible and doesn’t want it known who really owns it, or for how long. Intriguing, yes?”

  “And you uncovered the names of all of these companies and holdings?”

  “Of course I did. You don’t think I would give you half the information, do you? I have a reputation to maintain, after all. I would hate to harm our working relationship. Now, I do believe it is time for you to share. What’s this about a dragon?”

  Keandra perched on the edge of the table, sitting on the corner with her legs stretched out in front of her. Victoria leaned forward, excitement and anticipation plainly written on her face. Keandra forced herself not to smile, despite the seriousness of the situation and the gravity of what she was about to share.

  “During one of our runs, we happened across some information. It appears someone has been developing a new weapon, specifically designed to attack dragons. Not only that, but the prototype is complete, and they’re planning to launch an attack against Hestaby.”

  Victoria shook her head, squinting her eyes shut. “No…no…no….You can’t be serious. No one is stupid enough to attack a dragon.”

  “I’m serious. This new tech has been in development for years, and they even developed a custom-built AI to execute the attack. I don’t know why the corp wants to attack Hestaby, or honestly if they even hope to succeed. But I do know the weapon is ready to launch, and it could happen any day now.”

  Victoria’s shoulders slumped. Her arms slid off her legs to dangle over the sides of the chair. Eventually she sat back, running a hand over her face. “That’s serious. And that is massive, no doubt about it. How accurate is your information?”

  “I’d say our source is one of the most qualified people to speak on the subject, and had direct interaction with the program.”

  With a slap on the chair’s arms, Victoria jumped to a standing position. Her morose and defeated expression had been replaced with her customary toothy grin and a shine in her eyes. She slapped Keandra on the back again, in the exact same spot as before. Keandra was sure it would develop into a bruise.

  “No time like the present for living, my friend. This is just proof of it. And at least now I know what might be coming, and before anyone else, I wager. This was a good deal. Always a pleasure doing business with you. You never fail to disappoint.”

  She gestured, urging them to precede her out of the back room. Paz and Keandra complied, returning to the main part of the store while Victoria put everything back to normal. Keandra hesitated and then extended her hand. Victoria took it with one eyebrow raised in a question.

  “Be careful, Victoria. The people responsible for this are dangerous, and we’ve already attracted some unwanted attention. They might come after you too.”

  “Don’t you worry about me. I have my own secrets, and am more than capable of taking care of myself.”

  “Just make sure you do.”

  Paz and Keandra left the store and drove back to the safehouse. Once again, Paz parked several blocks away. Keandra looked around as they walked, trying to spot the elf from the café, but didn’t see him o
r anyone else following them as they headed toward to the apartment complex. She stood by the door, taking a final glance before entering the lobby.

  “Nervous much?”

  “I like to think of it as being adequately on edge.”

  Inside the apartment, Lance rested on the floor, tossing a knife up and catching it before it struck him. E-jekt stretched out on the couch, taking a nap. When the door opened, Lance snatched his knife from the air and bent his elbow, cocking it back and ready to throw it. When he recognized who it was, he went back to tossing it.

  “Welcome back. E-jekt’s finally getting some rest. He worked like crazy from the minute you left, and only just stopped to eat something and shut his eyes a few hours ago. He should be good by now if you want to wake him.”

  “We’d better. We have a lot to discuss and figure out.”

  Lance sprang up and walked over to jostle E-jekt. The ork grunted and swatted at Lance as he rolled over, but knuckled his eyes before pushing himself up. Lance claimed the seat next to him, tossing his knife from one hand to the other and flipping it around when he caught it. Paz took her usual seat on the floor next to the door.

  “It’s time to figure out what we’ve found out,” Keandra began. “Victoria should have sent you some files about the land Freyr claimed is where the secret laboratory is. Judging from that, it seems pretty clear something in the area is supposed to be hidden. While that doesn’t necessarily mean anything by itself, it does lend some weight to Freyr’s story. What were you able to find out?”

  E-jekt blinked and stretched. “I trust Paz told you about the electrical incident? Well, I also did some poking around before that, and it looks like someone shipped a lot of construction materials to that area, but satellite imagery doesn’t show any buildings. So, either they stored the materials there for a while, and then shipped them somewhere else without creating any invoices, or something’s built underground.”

  “So pretty much everything we’re finding points to Freyr telling the truth? That’s certainly how it seems to me. Please correct me if I’m wrong or if I’m missing something.” Keandra looked at each of her companions in turn, but no one argued her logic. She pressed her lips together and gave a single nod.

  “All right then, I think we need to operate under the assumption that what Freyr told us is true. And if that’s the case, then we need to decide what we want to do about it. I for one think handing him over to Mr. Johnson is a horrible plan. I don’t think anyone should be in control of that much devastation. Like Freyr said, whether or not the weapons are successful, just launching them would start an all-out war that would scar this planet.”

  “I’m afraid I have to agree with you. As much as I would like to hold up our original arrangement, I would not put that much power in the hands of someone with so few scruples. I’ll be blunt: I care little for the life of this artificial entity.” Lance shrugged and spread his hands in front of him. “But, I do care about what might happen if a dragon were to become involved.”

  E-jekt offered a nod, giving his agreement without saying a single word. Paz grinned and held up a thumb.

  So at least they were in agreement about the first point. That had gone easier than Keandra had expected.

  “The next question is, what do we want to do if we don’t plan to turn Freyr over to Mr. Johnson? We have a couple of options there as well. I think we’re all in agreement that we should return the funds before attempting to flee Seattle. Anything we can do to limit his ability to get support for pursuing us would be a good thing.”

  E-jekt coughed in order to capture everyone’s attention. “Do we want Freyr to be part of this conversation? Now that we’ve decided we aren’t turning him over, we have no reason to keep him confined. I think he’d appreciate being part of the discussion.”

  “It’s just a sprite. Don’t tell me you believe it has feelings as well. Have you heard how it talks?”

  “Lance, enough. I think E-jekt’s right. At the least, we have nothing to hide from him anymore since we won’t be turning him over to Mr. Johnson. If he decides to leave, that’s his prerogative. He might have helpful information to contribute.”

  “I concede to your logic, and see no harm in letting it listen in.”

  Pulling out her commlink, Keandra first turned on the audio and video capture hardware. Then she reconnected it to the Matrix. She placed it on the counter and stood back.

  “Sorry for the delay, Freyr. We had to take care of some things in preparation for leaving the country.”

 

  “We haven’t decided yet. We’re still figuring that out.”

 

  “There’s a lot more to consider than just that. We’re trying to put all the pieces together and figure out what the best course of action will be for us. It isn’t that simple, I’m afraid.”

 

  “Where would you get a hundred thousand nuyen?”

 

  Lance missed his knife, and it skittered across the floor. Keandra kicked it back to him and he caught it with his boot, bending to pick it up and tucking it back into its sheath. E-jekt let out a low whistle.

  “With those new IDs and that kind of payday, we could take an honest-to-goodness vacation.” The distant gaze in E-jekt’s eyes had nothing to do with dropping into the Matrix.

  “And think of the upgrades I could get.” To accentuate her point, Paz reached up and ran her fingers over her cyberarm.

  “Does that mean you’re both in for the biggest payday we’ve ever seen? Or hell, the biggest payday we’ve ever heard of?” Kendra asked.

  “Of course. A chance to piss off a suit and shoot our way into what’s probably a military-grade facility? I’d be down just for that. The payday’s just a bonus—a super sweet bonus. Come on, Meat-sack, you know it’ll be fun.”

  Lance grinned his cocky half-smirk at Paz. “I certainly can’t let you go alone, now could I? With security that tight, you’d be lost without me.”

  Kendra smiled as well. “Then since we’re all in agreement, you should be glad to know we’ve got four tickets on a flight to Sacramento. It leaves in three hours, so we’d best get packing.”

  17

  Two hours later, a car dropped Keandra and E-jekt off at the airport. They’d arranged to meet Lance and Paz there, arriving in separate vehicles in case they were being followed. Keandra made a quick stop at Elliot’s and gave Francis the certified credstick, instructing him to hand it over to Mr. Johnson when he arrived for their meeting. She knew it wouldn’t stop him from pursuing them, but she hoped it might slow down some of his support.

  She had no idea where Freyr was at the moment, or if such a concept could even apply to a purely digital entity. She took him at his word when he said he was residing solely on her commlink earlier, but now that he had Matrix access, he could be anywhere. He gave them a way to contact him if they needed his assistance, but otherwise he promised he’d touch base with them once they got to Sacramento.

  They traveled light, carrying only one bag between the two of them. There wasn’t much more than that to carry. Thanks to Victoria’s diligence, they had authorization to carry weapons on the plane, so there was no need to attempt to smuggle them in checked baggage.

  Th
e security line was crowded with people going on vacation, seemingly oblivious to the heavily-armed security around them. It seemed more a case of being accustomed to it. If you lived your life away from the shadows and never had a run-in with security that involved getting shot at, you probably started to accept the armored guards with assault rifles in every public building. The guards put Keandra on edge, and for good reason. She kept track of the guards’ locations without staring at them while she and E-jekt waited in the line.

  When their turn came to pass through the inspection, she handed over the travel visas granting them permission to be armed on the plane and crossing international borders. As the guard inspected the antiquated form of verification, another guard ran her SIN through on his terminal. This was where she’d find out if the identities were worth the price they’d paid. After a few tense seconds, the guard waved her and E-jekt through without bothering to check them or their luggage for weapons.

  The two companions walked into the terminal and headed to their gate. She saw Paz up ahead. The dwarf stood out in a crowd that gave her a wide berth, probably due to her obvious cyberware. Keandra was willing to bet that most of the passengers here had never seen real cyberware in person before today. A few children whispered to each other and pointed. For her part, Paz seemed to enjoy the attention.

  Keandra made sure Paz noticed they were there, and then sat down in one of the available seats near the gate. She had a good view of the rest of the terminal from this position, and could even keep an eye on the security station. The people milled about, ignoring her as they went about their business.

  During a casual glance up at the security station, Keandra saw something that made her pause. She looked carefully, squinting to get a better view. Yes, she’d seen it correctly: it was the elf she’d caught following her. He stood at the security station and showed something to the guard. The guard gestured through, pointing toward her gate. The elf headed in her direction and two of the guards at the security station fell into step behind him, flanking him on either side.