Shadowrun 01 - Never Deal With A Dragon (16 page)

"I thought Hanae told you that I can't leave the arcology without a guard." He tapped the continuous plastic band that encircled his wrist. Fine wires and flat chips could be discerned through the translucent surface of the screamer. "This will alert security should I trespass beyond the boundaries encoded in its memory. It cannot be removed without setting off an alarm, and the Renraku Security Directorate controls the 'off' switch. Your Mr. Drake will have to come here."

"No good," she said with a slight shake of her head. "The big guy can't come in. You'll have to wait until you're out to meet him."

From the hardening of her manner, Sam sensed the matter was not negotiable. "That's not reassuring."

"Do you want out or not?"

He did. He had walked too far down this path to turn back now. He just wasn't sure that this was the best way. "Let me think about it."

"Don't think too long." she warned. "I've got a schedule to meet."

"
Is
it
time?
"

"No."

"
But I'm getting hungry
." Petulance accompanied the statement.

"Soon, Tessien."

Rainbow plumes rustled, colorless in Hart's night vision as she watched the serpent settle its coils. With its wings folded against its sides and the great fanged head tucked under the left pinion, it soon resembled nothing more than an uneven pile of feathers. It was hardly camouflage. In the lane between warehouses of United Oil's docking facility on Puget Sound, such a pile was even more out of place than a dracoform.

For all its uncharacteristic impatience, Tessien was a dracoform, one of a variety of creatures that laid claim to the powers of legendary Dragons. It—Hart was unsure of the beast's gender—was of a type known as a feathered serpent, the most Common of the greater dracoforms in the western hemisphere. Stretched out, it would measure ten meters of feather-scaled muscle, and its wingspan matched its length. Tessien was a dangerous beast, and had been her partner for four years of shadow business.

She almost trusted it.

A soft beep from the box in her jacket pocket alerted her that someone had broken one of the sensor beams she had placed earlier that evening. A second beep of a different tone told her the vector on which the target was moving. She slipped her hand into her pocket to silence the receiver. Its sound could betray them before they sprang the ambush. Any additional information the sensor could give wasn't worth that.

She glanced at the mirror she had propped across the lane to give her a view toward the main warehouse. Four figures were running away from the building, headed toward Hart and Tessien's position. From their silhouettes, she judged them to be shadowrunners. Three men and a woman. A faint jingling came from the leader as amulets and talismans swayed and clashed on his chest, marking him either as a mage or a very superstitious fellow.

The faint sounds were drowned out as a group of United Oil security men poured from the warehouse. The slap of their boots pounding on the concrete covered the noise made by the fleeing intruders, but that rhythmic sound was soon overwhelmed by the screeches of the brace of cockatrices they loosed on their prey.

Cockatrices were an avian paraspecies favored for security work because the animal's touch could shock its prey's nervous system into collapse, paralyzing an intruder for easy arrest by the paranimal's handler. Of course, the handler must pull the cockatrice away before it dined on the helpless victim, but the multinationals didn't worry much about a few trespassers unavoidably mauled or killed. It made for less trespassers. These paranimals were eager, flapping their stubby wings and pumping their long legs as they devoured the ground separating them from the shadowrunners.

The lead cockatrice closed with the trailing runner. It leaped for its prey, going high to swing its long, scaled tail at the man. One touch would paralyze him, leaving him helpless as its claws ripped into him. The runner dodged left, away from the tail as it swung forward and missed him.

Hart pegged the runner as a razorguy, one of those cybernetically enhanced punks who liked to call themselves street samurai and always seemed to be working as muscle for a shadowrunning team. It usually took a jacked-up nervous system to react so quickly and evade attacks so easily.

Steel glinted in the moonlight as a blade extended from the man's forearm, confirming Hart's guess. The samurai twisted as he moved, slicing his weapon into the animal's flesh. It squalled and crashed to the ground.

The second beast engaged another runner, who desperately blocked its attacks with a boxy object that Hart recognized as a cyberdeck. Hell of a way to treat expensive technology.

Before the cockatrice could pierce the desperate runner's guard, the samurai cancelled its options. He ripped several bursts of full automatic fire into the creature before raking his aim back to his first opponent and gutting it as it started to rise.

Hart noted that the samurai had not hit his partner as the muzzle of his weapon swung past. Smartgun link, she surmised.

"That one's fast, Tessien," Hart observed as she pointed out the street samurai. "Take him first."

"
Too much metal
.
He won't taste good
."

"You won't get the others if the razorguy slices you. I'll cover the mage while you're doing that. With the artillery and armor down, the infantry will be easy meat."

"
True
." Anticipation. "
You have a discerning eye for tactics, little one
."

She slid a hand under the ruff of feathers and scratched at the joint of Tessien's head and neck. "You really know how to flatter a girl, my friend. Now go get 'em."

Tessien broadcast its eagerness as it rose into the air with a rustle, then a roar, to challenge the runners. They skidded to a stop, motionless for a second before recovering and launching their own attack as though having planned for such a contingency. They probably had, she realized. It was common knowledge that United Oil's head of security in Seattle was the Western Dragon Haesslich.

Hart felt the power gather around the mage. The runners were relying on his spells for their first strike against the dracoform. Just as she had expected.

Lavender flames streamed from the mage's outstretched hands, lighting the sky as they washed across the feathered serpent. Hart caught a glimpse of UniOil security diving for cover behind the runners.

Tessien's coils arched straight for a second and Hart saw the mage begin to smile. The grin faded as his spell fractured and his flames flickered and died, leaving the serpent unharmed. The Dragon soared higher. Emboldened by how little she had needed to bolster Tessien's magic defense, Hart stepped out to confront the mage.

"Having trouble?"

His eyes narrowed and he nodded as though he understood what had happened. He reached toward one of his amulets.

She pumped three slugs from her Atchison riot gun into his belly. He flew backward, spraying blood, entrails, and shreds of ineffective flak vest.

The sour stench that filled the air was swirled away by super-heated air as Tessien unleashed its flaming breath on the street samurai. Flesh cooked as the water in the man's tissue boiled. He collapsed to the concrete, a pile of charred bones, fused steel, and melted plastic.

Tessien circled the suddenly timid survivors as Hart called for their surrender.

"Drop your weapons and you won't be hurt."

A metallic clatter was her answer.

Tessien swooped behind her to settle. Its head arched up on a serpentine neck into a protective overwatch position as the United Oil security guards emerged from hiding and rushed to surround them. Nervous guards watched Tessien and Hart more closely than the shadowrunners. All around the circle, fingers rested on triggers.

"Who are you," demanded their leader.

Hart read his name tag. Major Fuhito.
So ka
, Haesslich's second-in-command. "We're your backup, Major."

"I wasn't informed of any special operatives on this case. I think you are opportunistic trespassers. I also think you're in a lot of trouble."

Wings thundered in the night, Dragon wings. Hart glanced up to see a familiar shape. She relaxed. There would be no problems with over-eager trigger fingers now.

"
What is the problem?
" the Western Dragon bellowed as he landed.

Fuhito bowed to the Dragon. "Haesslich-
sama
, we caught these two shadowrunners in conflict with the team that invaded the facility. They claim to be some kind of support for my team, but there were no specifications for back-up in the orders you left. They are probably just desperate runners who have turned on their own kind to save their own necks. The scum."

"
Fuhito,
you make me wonder why I keep you on the payroll
.
Send your men back and take the real trespassers with you
."

"Then the serpent and the woman are working for you," Fuhito said stiffly.

"
Of course
.
I knew about the runners who invaded us tonight
.
I also knew that they were quite accomplished for their breed, and that they might slip through your fingers
.
They had to be stopped, and I couldn't be sure I'd be available to do the job myself
."

"You could have told me."

Contempt emanated from the Dragon.

"I obey your orders, Haesslich-
sama
." Fuhito bowed, crisply and quickly. He then turned and stopped at the decker who was smirking at him. He slapped the woman, knocking her to the pavement. "You are a trespasser and a criminal. I think that you will find that you have little cause for amusement."

"Yours is just too big for me," the woman mumbled through a bloody lip. "You're gonna be in real drek with your corp bosses, Mr. Tin Plate. I'll file a brutality suit."

"You forfeited your rights when you entered United Oil territory," Fuhito sneered. He slammed his boot into her head, and she sagged unconscious. Her partner's sudden lunge was arrested by a pair of bulky guards. "Take them both to the interrogation facilities."

As the guards left, Haesslich sniffed at the corpses.
Admirable efficiency, Hart
."

"You'll get the bill. This kind of stuff wasn't in the contract."

"
Add a surcharge
," Haesslich suggested, amusement tinging his words. "
United Oil will pay
."

"Done," Hart agreed. She had intended to do that anyway; her contract was very specific about compensation for "additional services."

The Dragon settled onto his haunches. "
Now, what about the operation you were hired for? Everything is arranged?
"

"Looks that way. The pigeon is still waffling, but I'm sure he'll fall our way."

"
He'd better
.
I do not want this schedule disrupted
." Determination barely masked the promise of violence in the beast's statement.

Tessien hissed, but Hart reached out swiftly to touch it. This was no time for a fight.

"All of our work is satisfaction guaranteed," she assured Haesslich

Sam fretted, toying with his food. The lunchtime crowd at Garrelsen's Mall Cafe was its usual boisterous self. Even though his table was against the wall and away from the passersby outside the roping, their noise added to the clamor. Periodically, his waitress stopped by to ask after the quality of the meal, trying to hurry him along to clear the way for another paying customer. He paid no attention to all the bustle.

Roe was late.

Had she abandoned him? Been caught by Renraku security? Were the Red Samurai moving into position to arrest him for conspiracy to break his employment contract? Or was it all a test by Roe to see how nervous he was?

It really didn't matter. He was committed to this course now. If Roe didn't show, he would have to figure his own way out of the arcology. That would be hard, but staying was harder. It had become all too clear that he would never get his answers about Janice while he was under Renraku's thumb, and he could no longer sit idle.

If he was caught . . . well, that would solve his problem, too.

He had left few loose ends, putting in extra hours that almost cleared away his work load. No one would be able to accuse Samuel Verner of shirking his responsibilities, no matter how trivial. The dogs were a problem because they could hardly be part of the extraction. They wouldn't survive in the arcology without an owner, but Ms. Haramoto in Corridor B seemed fond of them and had agreed readily to care for them if Sam had to take a business trip. Since this "business trip" would likely never end, he hoped she would come to love them as much as he had. He had never been much for possessions, so not much problem there.

That left Hanae. Sweet, comfortable Hanae. Despite the lack he felt in their relationship, he couldn't abandon her. She had helped set him on this course, and he had felt better these last few days than he had for a long time. He felt good to be doing something instead of waiting for someone else I to do it for him. She was part of that change and he owed her for it. It might not be the best basis for a relationship, but better ones had started from worse reasons. He would take care of her.

Sure he would. Here he was thinking about taking Hanae out of the corporate cocoon that had protected her all her life, and he wasn't sure he could take care of himself. The events in which he'd gotten involved the day he arrived in Seattle showed him how different was the world away from the corporation. Life could get violent, even deadly. Hanae was probably less ready for that world than he was, but he was sure she would refuse to be parted from him.

The waitress appeared again, but before she could begin her nudging, Roe appeared behind her and slid into the seat opposite Sam. Roe snapped a quick order for a house salad and carrot juice and shooed the flustered girl away.

"Sorry I'm late. Had a little transportation problem. The Red Rovers and the Ancients were having a little get-together on Western Avenue. Typical gang nonsense. How have things been going with you? Made a decision?" The flush of her obvious hurry faded quickly and her normal pallor returned along with the usual smooth pace of her speech.