shadowrun 40 The Burning Time (21 page)

A slow smile spread across Trouble’s lips, then bowed and withdrew from the room.

Mama gave a high-pitched cackle. "Soon, very soon," she whispered, alone in the dimness of the room. "Soon, my time will come."

The Lowell-Lawrence area, or the "L-Zone," as it was known to its inhabitants, had seen far better days, but not recently. The area had been in decline for nearly a hundred years. With the formation of the Boston metroplex, areas like the Rox and the L-Zone were written off as worthless. They were too difficult to police and too expensive to clean up. Left to their own devices, the residents of places like the L-Zone either got out or dug in and did the best they could. Homeless refugees, squatters, illegal immigrants, metahumans, and other outcasts had swelled their numbers over the years. The area was home to a particularly large number of orks, most of whom had been forced out of many of the "nicer" areas in the sprawl. With their faster maturation and birth rates, orks quickly came to dominate the L-Zone, which generated resentment and led to gangs, late-night shootings, and other violence.

Talon wasn’t as familiar with the L-Zone as he was the Rox, but he knew it well enough. Places outside the metroplex—and outside the rule of law—were havens to shadowrunners. Talon and his team kept an apartment building for occasions just like this one. They didn’t object to its use by squatters and street people because a local gang was paid to keep their own area clean and locked up when not needed. The team had reinforced security with arcane graffiti and by spreading rumors that powerful spells were in place to keep intruders out. Of course, those were tall tales, but most people in the Sixth World knew better than to mess with a mage, so they left the place alone.

Talon had taken over the living room as his working space, banishing the rest of the team to the kitchen and the two smaller bedrooms. He felt a little guilty claiming the biggest room in the place, but the demands of his work didn’t leave him with much choice. Boom and Hammer had helped him clear out the space and tack up sheets of plastic garbage bags to close off the open doorways from the kitchen and front hall. It was crude, but enough to block out distractions and remind the others not to intrude while Talon was working. The symbolic boundaries were as important as the actual privacy.

He would have liked to ward off the whole place, but there just wasn’t time. Getting immediately to work, he took some small paint cans and a box of colored chalk from his kit bag. The room, which was about four meters square, was only barely large enough for his purposes, but he didn’t have the time to look for a bigger one. First he painted a large circle in black, then another inside it in red. Between the two circles, he painted four red triangles pointing outward to the four cardinal directions, then four white triangles at the cross-quarters. Inside each triangle went the appropriate mystic symbol of power and warding. At the tip of each triangle, he placed a small white candle.

He drew a white circle within the red one, then a circle of mystic runes in white and red all the way around. In the center, he painted a white, six-pointed star big enough to contain his body lying down. The top and bottom points were aligned east-west, and he drew magical symbols at each of the star’s points. Finally, he painted other small symbols of mystic power along the ring of the inner circle. As he worked, he focused his intent on the subtle energies of the circle, building it up as a place of power and safety for his magic.

When he was done, Talon stood back and examined his work. He checked everything twice for flaws or errors in his workmanship. Finding none, he was ready to begin. He stepped into the center of the circle, closed his eyes, and gave a wave of his hand, making the candles spring to life. Then he withdrew a small lock of black hair from a sealed plastic pouch. It was a great token of trust that the other members of the team had allowed him to take magical links to them in case something like this happened. The tiny lock of Trouble’s hair would be his connection to her, the means for using his magic to find her.

Talon gathered the energies of his spell and began chanting in a low, sonorous voice. He focused his attention on the lock of hair between his fingers, fixing Trouble’s image in his mind. As best he could, he put aside his concerns over what might have happened to her. If Gallow had harmed her. . .

Talon brought his attention back to the ritual. The working had to be exact.

After several hours’ work, he lifted aside the dark plastic curtain over the doorway and stepped into the kitchen. Boom was leaning back in a chair, staring off into space and mumbling to himself. Talon smiled faintly, realizing that must be how he looked when conversing with someone over his headphone or when trancing to do magic. Boom acknowledged Talon with a nod and a slight wave of his hand. Then he blinked a couple of times, apparently ending his call.

"Any luck?" the troll asked.

Talon shook his head, dropping down into a chair. "No. Wherever Trouble is, she’s behind a ward too powerful for me to penetrate. I couldn’t reach her."

"You did the best you could," Boom said. "We’ll just have to find another way. I’ve been checking around, too, and it sounds like our friend Kilaro is telling the truth about at least one thing. I heard from a friend of a friend that some runners pulled off another job against Cross recently. Seems they got hold of a canister of some kind of bio-agent. Sounds like that catalyst he was talking about."

"Did you learn anything about the runners who did it?"

"Just one thing: they’re all dead. Nobody knows who did it, but the street buzz is that they got careless and were double-crossed, probably by their Johnson."

"And nothing on who that was?" Talon asked.

"Not so far, but I’m still checking," Boom replied. "It could have been the Seraphim, too," he said, "tying up loose ends."

"Yeah, like us," Talon said. "It could have been someone within Cross who did the hiring in the first place. They wouldn’t be the first corp to hire runners to pull off a job against their own assets as a cover for something else."

"Paranoia as a way of life," Boom said, then got serious again. "Do you think it might have been the Seraphim that set fire to Trouble’s apartment? I mean, maybe they went after her, she took one of them out, and they decided to torch the place to cover their tracks."

"Could be," Talon said slowly, "I don’t know, but something tells me it was Gallow. It’s back. I just know it."

"Any way we can find out for sure?" the troll asked.

Talon nodded. "Yeah, but I’m going to have to get some rest before I try it."

Boom laid a hand gently on his shoulder. "Go ahead and catch some z’s," he said. "You’re no good to anyone if you exhaust yourself. I’ll keep an eye on things."

Talon went back to where they’d laid out some sleeping mats. He dropped onto it gratefully, but it was a long while before sleep came.

Talon tried to sleep, but his rest was fitful. He finally woke up in a cold sweat after another nightmare about Gallow and the death of the Asphalt Rats. He got up, and went into the kitchen, where Boom and Val had were laying out some takeout food. They all sat down at the rickety table to talk over deli sandwiches, except for Talon, who thought his work would go better on an empty stomach.

Roy Kilaro was in the same subdued mood as the previous night. The full reality of his situation was apparently just starting to sink in. He had probably never seen a neighborhood like the L-Zone, except maybe on the trid. Talon decided that if they had to keep Kilaro with them for awhile, they might as well put him to work doing something useful. It would also take his mind off his problems.

"What kind of deck have you got?" he asked, gesturing toward Kilaro’s gear bag. Kilaro didn’t answer right away, maybe wondering if Talon was planning to take it and sell it.

"Cross Babel-series," he said finally.

"Not bad," Val put in. "You any good with it?"

"What do you think? I found out about what was going on with Otabi, didn’t I?"

"The more I think about it," Boom said, "the more I think you were intended to find out about that, chummer. At the very least, your bosses decided it was in their interest to have someone to hang this on."

"Don’t forget I found out about the Pandora virus, too," Kilaro said defensively.

"Yeah, and led the Seraphim right to us," Hammer grumbled.

"I didn’t have any choice. . ."

"Doesn’t matter how we got here," Talon cut in. "We’ve got to deal with it. It’s a good thing you know how to use a deck, Roy. Without Trouble, we’re going to need you to dig up some data for us."

"I know a coupla other deckers, Tal," Boom said, but Talon shook his head.

"No, I don’t want anyone else to know about this. Not until we learn more about what’s going on and who we can trust."

"Does that mean you trust me?" Kilaro asked.

Talon gave a short laugh. "Not on your life, chummer, but if you frag us over, you’re going down with us. That’s reason enough to think you won’t. Anything more than that, you’ve got to earn it."

"What about the signature of his deck?" Val said.

"We’ve got Trouble’s emergency bag in the van," Talon said, then turned back to Kilaro. "Think you can swap out some of the chips in your deck for some of Trouble’s extras and load up some of her backup programs?"

Kilaro needed. "No problem if they’re compatible. Give me a microtronics tool kit and an hour or two, and I should be able to do the mods so my deck won’t leave fingerprints in the Matrix."

"You sure?" Talon asked.

"Don’t worry. I know all about the standard security measures in legit decks versus shadow cyberdecks. I’ve seen the mods lots of times. It’s all part of working in computer services. I know what I’m doing."

"Let’s hope so," Talon said.

"So what information am I after?" Kilaro asked.

"First, you’ve got to dig up the scan on what happened at Trouble’s place last night. We need to know more about it, especially whose body I found there. It might tell us where she is now."

"What about the Pandora virus?" Kilaro asked.

"That’s next," Talon said. "Find out what you can, but only after you track down the intel on Trouble’s place. Boom, can you talk discreetly to a few people about . . ."

"Wait a minute," Kilaro said. "That virus could kill thousands—tens of thousands—of people! And all you’re going to do about it is make some calls and have me dig around in the Matrix?"

"Listen, chummer," Talon said. "We didn’t ask for this run. We’ll do what we can to make sure no one gets killed, but you should understand one thing up front. My first loyalty is to the people on my team, and that includes Trouble. If she needs our help, then the rest of the plex is on its own. Besides, the thing she’s dealing with could be a hundred times worse than your virus if we don’t stop it now while we still can. Understand?"

"What could be worse than this stuff?" Kilaro asked.

"A rogue spirit named Gallow," Talon said. "It’s potentially more dangerous than any weapon. It’s done something with Trouble, and I want to know what." He turned to Hammer, who was washing down the last of his sandwich with a long swig from a can of soda.

"Hammer, talk to whoever you can trust on the military circuit. See if anyone has gotten their hands on something like this virus and who would have an immediate use for it."

"That’s a pretty tall order," Hammer said. "I can think of about a dozen right off who’d love to get their hands on something like that, but I’ll see what I can do."

Talon pushed his untouched food away and slid back from the table. "I’m going to do some astral work and see what else I can find out," he said. "I’ll probably be out of it for a while, so Boom, you’re in charge. Kilaro, get to work on your deck. Val can help you with it."

Val nodded and wiped her mouth with a paper napkin, then crumpled and tossed it on the table. She got up and went to get the tool kit they’d need to make the modifications to Kilaro’s deck.

Talon also grabbed his kit bag and got up to return to the other room. Boom reached out to stop him with one massive hand on Talon’s shoulder.

"You’re going to try and find out more about these visions of Jase, aren’t you?" he asked, though it wasn’t really a question.

"Boom, I’m no use to anybody until I figure out what the frag is going on," Talon said, "and I’m more convinced than ever that this whole thing ties in with Gallow somehow. It might be using something that looks like Jase to frag with my head or it might really be Jase trying to tell me something. Whatever it is, I can’t ignore it. Don’t worry. I’m not forgetting about Trouble, but we need to know what we’re up against if we’re ever going to find her."

Boom gave Talon a lopsided grin. "Hey, chummer, I wasn’t arguing with the magic expert. I just wanted to know the plan. For what it’s worth, I think you’re right. We’re all of us worried about Trouble, but I know we’ll get her back."

"I sure as hell hope so," Talon said.

That wasn’t entirely true. In his heart, Talon
vowed
to find Trouble and stop Gallow, no matter what it took. And if that meant he had to face down the Dweller on the Threshold again, he was ready for it.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Talon spent an hour or so rearranging the hermetic circle to his liking. Then he went back to the kitchen to check in with Boom before he got started.

"How are Kilaro and Val doing?" he asked.

"We’re all set," Val said, coming into the room and wiping her hands on a dirty rag. "We made the mods to Kilaro’s deck, and he jacked in. Looks good so far, but I’m going to keep an eye on him in case something goes wrong."

"Or in case he decides to rat us out to his Seraphim buddies," Boom muttered.

"I don’t think so," Val said. "If he wanted to do that, he’s had opportunities before this. Just call it a feeling, but I think he’s for real. He’s been hung out to dry just as much as we have, even more. He didn’t really ask for this. At least we knew what we were getting into, sorta."

"Okay, keep an eye on him," Talon said. "I’m ready to get down to work. You guys know the drill."