shadowrun 40 The Burning Time (11 page)

"Good work," Talon said, rubbing his familiar’s head. "Hold it here and keep it from giving an alarm while I follow the drone."

The wolf nodded, and Talon continued after the Kanmushi as it completed its journey into the building. It stopped at a ventilation grate. Two of the drone’s spindly legs reached out and tapped gently on the grate. A moment later, a hand reached down and pulled the grate away.

Talon slipped through the wall into a storeroom filled with office supplies. Kneeling on the floor was Dan Otabi, his aura showing the same mix of excitement and control that Talon had come to associate with runners at work. Damn, he thought, he really does think he’s Ethan Hunt, heroic shadowbreaker, on an undercover mission.

With cool efficiency, Otabi withdrew an optical chip from his pocket as the silvery carapace of the Kanmushi opened with a pop to reveal a tiny storage compartment. Otabi slipped the chip inside and closed the compartment, his aura flashing a measure of satisfaction and concern.

"There’s the evidence we need, Vince," he muttered. Vince was one of Ethan Hunt’s teammates in
Shadowbreaker
s. To Otabi’s mind, the pilot of the tiny drone was another member of "his team," and this was part of a mission. The programming on the personafix chip had done its work as advertised.

The drone backed into the vent opening, and Otabi carefully replaced the grate. Then he straightened up and wiped his hands on his pants before leaving. Talon passed through the wall again to follow the drone back up to the roof. They encountered no further resistance on the way out.

"How’re you holding up?" Talon asked Aracos.

"Well enough, although this thing seems too stupid to know when to give up."

"They don’t build ‘em all like you, chummer," Talon thought with a grin.

"That’s for sure," Aracos shot back. "I have to admit that you really know how to summon a spirit."

Talon felt a momentary surge of pride. It was true that he’d done a great job in summoning up Aracos. Then he thought about the spirit he’d called up to avenge Jase’s death, and the feeling of satisfaction evaporated. He’d certainly learned a lot about summoning spirits since then. Or so he hoped.

When they reached the roof, the beetle drone exited the vent and crawled under the Microskimmer, which dropped down to pick it up. There was a "plink" sound as the skimmer’s magnetic gripper grabbed the Kanmushi. Then its engine whined, and it lifted smoothly off the roof and back toward the garage. Talon and Aracos followed it. When they reached the parking lot, Talon glanced down to see whether Roy Kilaro’s car was still there. He saw no sign that the "shadow" had moved from his stakeout, which was good.

Back inside the garage, Talon slipped through the side of the van and back into his body lying on the floor of its rear compartment. He took a moment to reorient himself as his physical senses came rushing back to him. He opened his eyes, blinked a couple times, and sat up while Hammer went around to open the back doors of the vehicle.

The Microskimmer glided in and dropped down to the floor as its motor wound down. Talon willed the invisibility spell to end, and the skimmer emerged into visibility as he bent to remove the tape and recover his ring from its hull.

"Okay, cack the spirit and meet us back here," Talon thought to Aracos. The air elemental’s master would sense the spirit’s destruction, though he wouldn’t know exactly how it had happened. The team couldn’t afford to leave the spirit behind to reveal something about its attackers.

Moments later, a golden-feathered falcon appeared and alighted on the seat back as Val jacked out of her remote deck. She and Hammer had changed seats, so she jacked into the van’s controls and started the engine.

Talon keyed his commlink and opened a channel to the rest of the team.

"Team One to Two and Three," he said. "Mission accomplished. We’re heading back. Nice work, everyone. Now all we have to do is wait for the drek to hit the fan."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Roy Kilaro was still doggedly tailing Dan Otabi, but he was getting tired of it. For one thing, Otabi showed no further signs of unusual behavior, where before he had seemed furtive and nervous. Like tonight, Roy thought. Dan Otabi had left work late that evening, then went straight to his car and drove home, where he stayed for the rest of the night. Roy was convinced that the change in Otabi’s demeanor had something to do with his visit to the Avalon the night before. He guessed that he’d gone there to score chips, or drugs, or something else along those lines.

Roy had been sitting outside Otabi’s apartment complex for hours, and had started to think it was time to call it a night. If Otabi was slotting chips, he was probably sprawled out on the couch or the bed running one right now. Roy could try to break in, but he didn’t particularly want to get arrested. He decided to call it a night.

Thinking about all that had happened since he’d arrived in the Boston plex, he realized that his hopes of making a big splash with this investigation had just about fizzled out. The fantasy of winning a promotion by exposing a plot that posed a danger to the company was being extinguished by the tedium of following someone as dull as Dan Otabi.

He made up his mind to tell Otabi’s supervisor about his suspicions in the morning. Let him sort it all out. That way, Roy could be on the next flight back to Montreal. He shuddered at the thought of the piles of work probably awaiting him back in the office. Still, it couldn’t be worse than the fiasco this had turned out to be. Back in his hotel room, he took off his clothes and tossed them on the floor. He was asleep moments after his head hit the pillow.

The insistent prodding of his headware woke him in the morning. He showered and shaved and got dressed. It didn’t take long to pack up his small suitcase and his deck in its case, then he checked out of the hotel. With his bags in the trunk of the car, he drove up to the Merrimack Valley research facility one last time.

"Morning, Lou," he said to the security guard on his way in.

"Morning, Mr. Kilaro," the ork returned brightly. "Here to check out some more systems?"

"Something like that," Roy said.

Lou watched his console as the security sensors swept over Roy like invisible hands, searching for signs of contraband, weapons, or dangerous cyberware. Then the ork took out a visitor badge, ran it through an encoder, and handed it to Roy.

"Here you go," he said. "You’re all set. Hope you can finish up before Christmas. You wouldn’t want to be away from home for the holidays, right?"

"Right," Roy said. "Thanks."

His destination was the office of Rebecca Sloane, director of the Merrimack Valley facility. He had read her personnel file, along with those of other staff members, on the trip from Québec. She was an efficient, if not brilliant, manager who had worked for Cross Bio-Medical for twelve years. Before that, she’d been an administrative assistant at Fuchi. Her no-nonsense, professional attitude had gotten her promoted several times since joining CATco. She was divorced, with two children.

Sloane’s secretary stopped Roy as he approached her office.

"May I help you, sir?" the woman asked, rather nervously, he thought.

"I’m Roy Kilaro, Information Services, from the head office," he said. "I’d like to see Ms. Sloane."

"I’m sorry, Mr. Kilaro. She’s in a meeting right now."

"I see. Do you know when she’ll be available?"

"I’m afraid not, sir."

"Well, could you at least tell her I’m here?"

The secretary hesitated for a moment, then picked up the phone on her desk.

"Ms. Sloane?" she said. "There’s a Mr. Kilaro here from head office Information Systems to see you." She listened for a moment, then looked over at Roy. "You can go right in, Mr. Kilaro. She’s expecting you."

Expecting me? Roy thought, but he kept the surprise off his face.

Rebecca Sloane was in her late thirties and wore a dark blazer and matching trousers over a silk blouse. Her long dark hair was tied back tightly at the nape of her neck, and she wore small, diamond-stud earrings. She had a worried expression and dark circles under her eyes. It looked like she hadn’t gotten much sleep.

Also in the room was an elf, who sat facing Sloane’s desk. Like most of his race, he was tall and thin. His pale, angular features were accentuated by the unrelieved black of his shirt, pants, and boots. His hair was black, too, worn long to the shoulders. The only spot of brightness was a silver pendant around his neck, a small, five-pointed star enclosed within a circle.

Roy figured him for a mage, and wondered what he was doing here.

Sloane walked toward Roy, extending her hand to shake Roy’s. "Well, Mr. Kilaro, thank you for getting here so quickly," she said.

Roy stared at her in confusion.

"You were sent by head office, weren’t you?" she asked. "In response to my request."

"Request?" He felt like a total idiot.

"The security. . ." she began, then stopped short. "Why are you here, Mr. Kilaro?"

"There seems to be some kind of mix-up," Roy said. "I’m with Information Services. I came down a few days ago to look into some data-traffic and system quirks that turned up in your regular logs. I wanted to report my findings." He looked from Sloane to the elf and back again. "Has something happened?"

Rebecca Sloane also glanced over at the elf. She rubbed at her forehead as though she had the makings of a serious headache.

"Sit down, Mr. Kilaro," she said. "As long as you’re here, maybe you can be of some help." Roy took a seat next to the elf.

"Mr. Kilaro, this is Cary Greenleaf. He’s with the Magical Resources department. Last night, Mr. Greenleaf sensed a magical intrusion in the facility."

"What kind of intrusion?" Roy asked, suddenly going cold.

"I can’t be sure," Greenleaf said in a pleasant tenor voice. "One of the spirits I bound to watch over the facility was destroyed by an unknown force, a magical intruder who left no other traces."

"Was anything taken?"

"We’ve got people looking into that now," Sloane said. "We don’t know. So far, we’ve found no other signs of a disturbance or break-in."

"Could it be a false alarm?"

Greenleaf shook his head. "No, impossible. Something destroyed my elemental."

"Shadowrunners," Roy said softly, almost without realizing it.

"That’s what we think," Sloane said. "Which is why I called head office as soon as Mr. Greenleaf reported the security breach late last evening. I assumed you’d been sent to assist in the investigation."

"Actually," came a voice from the doorway, "that’s my job." They all turned to see a man dressed in an immaculate black jacket and pants, black leather shoes, and a deep blue shirt with a mandarin collar. His short blond hair was brushed back from a high forehead and cold, blue-green eyes. He carried a slim black briefcase in one hand. Sloane’s secretary stood behind him looking helpless, like she wanted to say something but didn’t dare. The man came in and closed the door quietly behind him.

"And you are. . .?" Ms. Sloane asked cautiously.

"Gabriel," he said. He reached into his jacket and withdrew a slim plastic card. As he pressed his thumb to the back of it, a holographic image of him appeared on the front of the card, along with a gold cross. "Cross Special Security," he added.

Seraphim, Roy thought in awe, as Sloane’s eyes widened. Head office must have thought her call was serious business if they’d sent one of their elite agents.

"I’m here to investigate the security breach you reported, Ms. Sloane," Gabriel continued smoothly, slipping the ID back into his pocket. "Who is this?" He looked directly at Roy, who wished he was anywhere else in the world at that moment.

"Roy Kilaro, Information Services," Roy said before Sloane could answer.

"And what is your involvement in this matter, Mr. Kilaro?"

"I. . .ah, actually may have some information that’s related."

Gabriel looked at him so hard that Roy wondered if he was reading his mind. A feat like was probably well within the Seraphim’s abilities. Unlike Greenleaf, however, Gabriel didn’t look like a mage.

Gabriel nodded curtly, accepting Roy’s explanation, then turned back to Sloane.

"Please describe what occurred," he said.

She walked around the desk as if she was glad to have it between her and Gabriel. Then she leaned forward and put her hands on the desktop, as if to steady herself.

"Last night at. . .around seven o’clock. . ." She glanced toward Greenleaf for verification, and he nodded. "Last night at around seven, Mr. Greenleaf here sensed a magical intrusion—the destruction of one of the guardian spirits for the facility."

"What time exactly?" Gabriel asked Greenleaf.

"Seven-oh-four. I logged the time the instant I felt the elemental vanish, then contacted Ms. Sloane and Mr. Armont."

"My head of security," Sloane supplied helpfully.

"Are there any other signs of intrusion or indications that anything was taken?"

"Not so far," Sloane said. "My security people are looking into that right now."

"And I assume no one else has been informed about this," Gabriel said.

Sloane shook her head. "No one except for my security chief and his staff."

Apparently satisfied with that answer, Gabriel turned his attention back to Roy.

"You said you have related information?"

"Possibly," Roy said. "I was checking some system logs filed with the head office and noticed minor alterations of data coming out of this facility." All eyes in the room focused intently on him as he spoke.

"They were very small, most likely random glitches. I asked to take over the regular maintenance inspections of the systems in this area so I could check them out for myself." He looked from Gabriel to Sloane, both of them obviously waiting for him to say more.

"I traced the data-trail back here, and I suspected Dan Otabi, a computer systems specialist. When I spoke with him, he seemed nervous when he found out I was from Information Services."

"Did you reveal your suspicions to him or anyone else?" Gabriel asked.