shadowrun 40 The Burning Time

by Stephen Kenson

  Talon took a deep breath to steel himself before closing his eyes and opening his awareness of the astral plane. The atmosphere of the morgue washed over him like a pall, as oppressive as the stench of disinfectant and chemicals and the hint of decay underlying them. Aracos and Jase hovered nearby, invisible and inaudible to the mundane world.

  Talon looked down at the body, his mystic senses probing deeply, searching for some clue in the lingering traces of the woman’s aura. He moved his hands above the body, as if he could use them to part the layers of time to find what he was looking for. Then he spotted it.

  "There it is," he murmured. "There’s a faint trace, a lingering astral signature. Gallow was here."

  He reached into his jacket and withdrew a small plastic bag containing tweezers and a small glass vial. He used the tweezers to pluck small bits of charred skin from the corpse, then dropped them into the vial. Val turned slightly green and turned away.

  "Gallow didn’t materialize the first time we encountered it," he said slowly as he worked. "It possessed host bodies—first that ganger, then Anton Garnoff. It looks like this was another one of its host bodies, which he then discarded like an old set of clothes."

  "Does that mean Gallow is possessing Trouble?" Boom said softly.

  Talon capped the vial. "It might."

  Boom looked shocked by the implications, and Val was shivering in spite of the leather jacket she wore. The room was cold, but no colder than the late December weather outside.

  "It’s okay, Val," he said. "I’m done. We can leave now."

  "Oh, God," she whispered, "something’s wrong. Talon, we’ve got to get out of here!"

  Talon and Boom both gasped at what happened next.

  "Val!" Talon said. "Your eyes!" Small drops of blood were coming from the corners of her eyes and streaming down her cheeks like gory tears.

  "They’re here," Val whispered, and Talon sensed a swirl of motion and energy seeming to fill the astral plane.

  "Who’s he. . ." he started to say. That was as far as he got before a bony hand grabbed his arm. Talon spun to see the charred body, which clung to him as it pulled itself up and out of the body bag. An unnatural light, like the pale violet of a UV lamp, glowed in its eye sockets.

  "Holy drek!" Talon said. He tried to yank his arm free, but the corpse held on with inhuman strength. Even before he could draw the mageblade at his hip, Aracos swooped in, raking at the face of the corpse, loosening its grip. Talon drew his enchanted dagger, feeling the rush of power down his arm as he joined his magic with it and stabbed at the creature. The blade bit into the charred flesh, plunging in to the hilt. The corpse opened its jaws in a silent scream even as it slashed out at Talon with bony hands, clawing at him like a wild beast.

  Talon jerked the blade free as Boom launched across the room to backhand the corpse with enough force to send it flying against the opposite wall. Talon heard a crunching noise, but the corpse began to get up again. Then, Jase and Aracos fell upon it, each striking at its astral body. Along with the damage inflicted by Talonclaw, it was too much, and the astral form faded. The burned corpse collapsed to the ground, just a dead body again. No sooner had it done so than Talon heard the sounds of movement and of fists banging against the insides of the closed steel drawers.

  "Let’s get out of here!" he said to the others. Boom grabbed Valkyrie by the arm, and they ran out of the room, heading for the emergency exit. They passed Lt. Brady in the hall.

  "Hey! What are you—" he called after them, interrupted by the cry of a nearby lab technician spotting several animated corpses coming out of the morgue.

  "Holy drek!" Brady said, reaching for his sidearm. The building alarm sounded as the Boom pushed open the emergency exit, and the three of them made a beeline for the van. Boom got in back with Val, and Talon hopped into the driver’s seat, wishing they’d brought Hammer along. He was a better driver.

  Talon gunned the engine, and they sped out of the parking lot. "How’s she doing?" he asked, glancing into the rear view mirror.

  Boom shook his head. "I don’t know. She’s still bleeding. Val, can you hear me?"

  "My head hurts," she mumbled, feebly wiping at the blood on her cheeks, which Boom also tried to wipe away.

  "Don’t worry," Talon said. "We’re going to Doc’s."

  In short order, they were bursting through the front doors of Doc’s clinic on the edge of the Rox. Hilda glanced up from trying to restrain a young ork who looked like he was fragged up on something.

  "We need help!" Talon said.

  "Get her down to room three!" Hilda said. "I’ll be right there!" She pressed a tranq-patch against the ork’s neck, and his struggles began to subside.

  They brought Valkyrie into one of the examining rooms, where Boom laid her gently on the examination table. A few moments later, Doc and Hilda came in, both looking haggard. Doc immediately began to examine Val. He shone a light in her eyes while Hilda took her vital signs.

  "What happened?" he asked.

  "We don’t know," Talon said, "but I think there’s magic involved. Something’s going on with her aura, but I’ve never seen anything like it before."

  Doc frowned. "Magic, just great. Whatever it is, it seems to be going around, because I’ve already had over two dozen patients this month with a variety of weird symptoms I can’t explain."

  "Can you do anything for her?" Talon asked.

  "I’ll do what I can," Doc said, "but I don’t know magic from a hole in the ground. Could you stay and see if you can give me some help?"

  Talon hesitated, caught between his duty to Val and the knowledge that time was probably running out for Trouble and a large portion of the rest of the city.

  Val must have read the look on his face. "Go on," she said, levering upright a bit. "I’ll be fine. Sorry I can’t hel. . .oh!" She gasped, falling back again with one hand pressed across her eyes.

  Talon touched her arm gently. "We’ll be back as soon as we can," he said, then turned to Doc MacArthur. "Take good care of her."

  Soon Talon and Boom were back in the van, heading north and west toward their safe house.

  "What the hell is going on, Talon?" Boom asked.

  "Remember Dr. Gordon, that doctor Mama Iaga sent us to see the first time Gallow showed up? When she said she was helping us for reasons of her own?"

  "Yeah," the troll said, "what a nutter he was."

  "Maybe so, but I keep remembering what he told us. It was something like ‘the Awakening is far from over—in fact, it’s only begun.’ I think what’s happening is part of that, something Mama’s been waiting for. She’s been playing us for more than a year, ever since I came to Boston. This has been a long time coming."

  "Do you think the stuff you took from that body will help you find Gallow and Trouble?" Boom asked.

  "It had better, chummer, because I think time’s running out. For all of us."

  When they returned to the safe house, Talon and Boom told Hammer and Kilaro about what happened at the morgue and about Val’s mysterious ailment.

  Kilaro listened intently, then said, "It sounds like the same thing that’s been happening in other cities. The newsnets are full of it. At first, they thought it was an outbreak of some strange new disease, but now they’re comparing it to what happened on Goblinization Day. This time, it started in DeeCee, with people coming down with mysterious symptoms. The ‘nets say some of those people are transforming now."

  "Transforming?" Talon asked. "Into what?"

  Kilaro shrugged. "Nobody knows. It’s like Goblinization all over again, but this time its not only humans being affected. They’re reporting metahumans coming down with. . .whatever is it, too."

  "Frag," Hammer said. "It’s going to be chaos out there. Pure chaos."

  "Keep monitoring the newsnets," Talon told Kilaro. "And see if the shadow servers have got more than what you picked up on the regular media."

  He turned to Hammer. "You ready?"

  "I’d rather have some of
Val’s drones backing us up," Hammer said, "or at least time to get me a minigun or something, but I guess we’re as ready as we’re gonna be. That is, as soon as you tell me where we’re going."

  "That’s what I’m going to find out right now," Talon replied. "Wish me luck."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Talon returned to the room where he’d drawn his hermetic circle, drawing the dark sheets of plastic to close himself off from the outside world. He double-checked the circle to make sure every glyph, every angle, was in place before he began the ritual to link the scraps of burned flesh to the spirit that had once inhabited them and then destroyed them. He couldn’t afford any mistakes with this one.

  Also present was Jase, hovering near Talon in his astral form.

  "You know," Talon said, "before you found me, I used to think I was loco because of some of the things I saw and felt from my magic. Now I’m getting that feeling again. Things coming out of the metaplanes, the dead walking and. . .you. . .showing up again. It’s like the world is going mad. What’s happening, Jase? Where’s it going to end?"

  "I don’t know," Jase said. "I wish I did. In fact, you probably know more about magic than I do. I’d only been practicing the Art for a few years before we met. You’ve been doing it for half your life by now. Looks to me like you’re a damn good mage, Tal. I always knew you would be."

  "Thanks," Talon said, looking up at Jase’s ghostly form. He couldn’t help letting out a sigh. "Gods, Jase, this is so crazy. I. . .I feel like everything’s falling apart and if I let go, even for a minute, I’ll go down with it. And having you here. . ."

  "I know," Jase said. "Think how it is for me. I still remember dying in your arms, and now I’m here and I don’t even really know what I am. Am I the real Jason Vale or a ghost or just a memory of him wrapped up in spirit-stuff? I mean, I feel real, but how long will that last? How long can I exist like this?"

  "I don’t know," Talon said, shaking his head. "But I promise, I’m not going to lose you like I did the last time."

  "You may not have any choice in the matter, Tal. None of us really do when the time comes."

  Talon gave him a faint smile. "Jase, my love, if being a shadowrunner has taught me anything, it’s that we can beat the odds—if we try."

  "I wish I could help with this," Jase said.

  Talon stood up, dusting off his hands. "Better you should conserve your strength. We don’t know how much ritual magic might drain your energies. Besides, I’ve already got all the help I need."

  He called out to Aracos, and his ally spirit appeared alongside him in the form of a silvery-gray wolf, nodding his noble head.

  "Ready?" Talon asked, and Aracos dipped his head again. "And, Jase, keep an eye out for anything going on in the astral, okay?"

  Talon raised one hand, and the candles placed around the circle burst into flame. He held a piece of the charred skin between his fingers and focused on the spirit connected with it, chanting the words of his spell.

  "Ready?" Ian O’Donnel asked Trouble an hour later as she checked over the equipment for the last time.

  She favored him with a dazzling smile as she closed the pack and stood up "All set," she said. "I’ve checked it over, and your people did a wiz job with the release device."

  "Well, we’ve had plenty of practice with things like that," Ian said with more than a hint of irony in his tone.

  "Soon that will come to an end," Trouble said, slipping her arms around him. "When that delegation of elves arrives at the Dunkelzahn Institute to bask in the glory of their so-called ‘good deeds,’ they’ll find a very different reception waiting for them."

  "Yes," Ian said. "It will make an impression on them, that much is certain. I just hope. . ."

  "What?"

  "I just hope it will be enough. I wouldn’t say this to the others, but I sometimes wonder if releasing some riot gas and making the elves and their friends puke up their guts for a while is going to make a difference. Maybe you were right, Ariel, in walking away from all this."

  She pressed a finger to his lips to silence him. "No, my love, it was you who was right all along. Of course our actions can make a difference. We have to believe that. You have to believe that."

  "God," he said, a smile spreading across his face. "What would I do without you? You’re a pillar of strength for me." He pulled her into a fierce embrace.

  Rory MacInnis poked his head in the door. "We’re ready to go, sir," he said to Ian.

  "Be right there," Ian said, then turned back to Ariel. He looked deeply, almost regretfully, into her eyes. "We should go."

  "I’m ready," she said. "Very ready, my love."

  It was a small team, consisting of only O’Donnel, MacInnis, a woman named Colleen, and Trouble. They drove across the river to Cambridge, where Ian led them down some of the old subway tunnels running beneath the part of the metroplex not connected to the Catacombs across the river. Ian carried the backpack holding the viral bomb as they made their way through the tunnels toward the site of the Dunkelzahn Institute for Magical Research.

  The Institute had been founded with money from the dragon’s will as a private, non-profit organization devoted to pure research into the arts of magic and supporting Awakened causes. One of the members of the Board of Directors, Cormac McKilleen, was from Tír na nÓg. Although it was rumored that McKilleen was out of favor with the Tír government and that his position with the Institute made him something of an exile in the eyes of the ruling Danaan Families, he was still a propaganda tool of the elven regime. In honor of the anniversary of the Awakening, the rulers of Tír na nÓg had gifted the Institute a number of Celtic artifacts for study, artifacts that were part of the heritage of Ireland, now an elf-ruled nation less than fifty years old. They weren’t the Tír’s to give, which was why the Knights were going to demonstrate their disapproval by making everyone as sick as the Tír made them.

  The old access to the tunnels had been closed off years before the Institute was built, but a small shaped charge, properly placed, would take care of the layer of metal and concrete separating the tunnel from the outside world. The opening would allow the virus they’d acquired to spread through the Institute and the surrounding area for blocks before dying out. It was more than enough to make their point and give the Sidhe lasting memories of their visit to Boston.

  Some rats squealed and scattered as the group’s lights penetrated the dark chamber Ian had chosen. Ian lowered the pack gently to the ground, and they got to work, keeping a careful eye out as they labored by the harsh halon glow of their flashlights. He did most of the work himself, with some help from MacInnis and Trouble, mostly in the form of handing him the right tools, while Colleen kept watch.

  As Ian worked, Gallow watched eagerly through Trouble’s eyes. The spirit felt a faint brush against its aura, which wrapped around that of the woman. Its astral senses could make out faint indications of a power reaching out across the ether toward it, like a feather-light touch, a tenuous thread of magic connecting it to someone far away. That thread tasted of a familiar power, and Gallow was unable to keep a broad smile from Trouble’s face. Let the others think it was satisfaction with their work. Gallow knew it was because Mama Iaga had been proven right. Talon had found it, and would come, as she said.

  All Gallow had to do was prepare and wait.

  From an apartment in the L-Zone, Talon reached out, forging the link between the piece of Gallow’s abandoned host body and Gallow’s spirit, hidden somewhere within the city. He spun out the thread of their connection, strengthening it with the power of his will and with energy drawn from Aracos. Then, he saw it stretching before him like a ghostly tether, stretching out, out toward Gallow. He kept the thread firmly in the grip of his will and began to work the spell. Its energies coursed down the thread like a vibration down a violin string, but Talon remained prepared for the danger of a backlash or a sudden attack from the astral plane.

  The spell reached out and, in a flash of insight, Ta
lon knew where Gallow was. It was in the depths of the Catacombs, where they’d confronted the spirit the first time, but in a different area of the tunnels. Staying focused on the spell, Talon strode to doorway and pulled open the plastic curtain. The others were waiting for him in the kitchen.

  "I’ve found them," he said. "Let’s go."

  Gallow felt the touch of Talon’s spell and did not resist as the mage who had created it sought to find it again. It was so easy, the spirit thought, feeling the spell play across its aura like a faint shimmer of heat and light. Now Talon knew. He would be on his way. Gallow glanced up into the open shaft above where Ian O’Donnel was working.

  "How much longer?" Trouble asked, and Ian glanced down.

  "Nearly finished," he said, using his sleeve to wipe away the sweat and grime from his face. Gallow forced down feelings of urgency and the desire to command Ian to work faster. Patience, patience, it thought. Savor the moment. But the moments ticked by too slowly before O’Donnel finished his work, climbed down the shaft, and dropped the last two meters to the floor.

  "Done," he announced proudly. "It’s only too bad we can’t wait around for the show to begin."

  Trouble slid smoothly into his arms. "Well, it depends on the sort of show you want to see," she said wickedly, drawing him to her lips for a kiss.

  Watching them, Rory chuckled. "Get a room, you two. We’ve got to get going." When the two lovebirds ignored him, he laughed again before tapping Ian on the shoulder. "Hey, boss, we got plenty of time for—"

  Rory and Colleen gasped as Trouble released her hold on Ian, and he slumped to the floor, eyes wide and staring, his mouth open in a silent scream, but unmoving.

  "What the. . .?" Rory said, reaching for his gun.

  "I’m sorry," Trouble purred, "but your usefulness to me is at an end."

  No sooner had Trouble spoken, than an aura of flames surrounded her, throwing a hellish light across the room. She gestured toward Colleen, the fingers of her left hand opening like a blossom. A jet of flame shot from her aura, spraying the young woman like a fire hose, igniting her hair and clothing. Colleen shrieked and dropped to the ground, rolling to try and put out the flames.