Shadowrunner
First Post
Hello all!
First I want to let you know that English is not my first language, so I will have spelling mistakes, I apologize for that.
This campaign journal is from the first person view of my character, we play Shadowrun 4th edition, our GM is very experienced in many RPG games, Shadowrun included, and we all play for many years and tend to like roll play and not just the action.
This log, or story if you like, starts after the team already played together for a long time, the characters have gained about 70 karma each, and have history together, this will come to play during the story, as well as presenting the characters in the team, so I will not post the team details in advance, this will be revealed as the story advance.
So, let's get to it.
I opened my eyes slightly, I could hear the gentle humming of my cleaning drone and smell a coffee that have just been made. A virtual display appeared in the corner of my vision, indicating the time was seven AM, Seattle weather was clear but slightly cold, and my alarm Clock was barking.
I pulled the warm soft blanket over my head and snuggled deeper into the sheets, there was nothing needed to be done so early, was it? But the virtual alarm Clock, taking the shape of a small puppy kept barking at me in the cutest, yet annoying, way possible. I could see the virtual puppy even with my eyes closed, knowing my morning problem, I programmed it that way.
"I hate you puppy" I murmured and pulled myself from the warmth of my bed. The barking pappy disappeared with a blink and I dragged myself to the kitchen passing by Mr. clean, my ever diligent and cheerful cleaning drone. "Good morning Amélie" it chirped cheerfully as I passed by it "it’s seven AM, it can’t possibly be good" I answered grumpily as I retrieved my soy-café from the automated coffee machine.
Two hours later, after a warm shower, a small breakfast and about forty minutes in front of the mirror, fixing the right outfit, I left my apartment and went into Seattle cold blue morning. I needed to visit Ben to see if he had any new jobs for me and the team. I stopped a cab, I didn't feel like driving into Seattle morning traffic.
It looked as if I was the only one worried about us getting new jobs, sure, it was mostly my responsibility as the "face" of the group, but they all seemed to be so relaxed about it. I just paid the monthly rent for my apartment and I was running annoyingly short of Nuyen. I was pretty sure I was not the only one.
If I have asked them about it, Watson would have probably said something smart, but let me do the work myself, Kryss would say in her low, orkish tone something like "I have full confidence in you, I am sure you will get us a good run, Zer0" and JC would have snored dismissively and get himself a another drink.
The cab navigated itself automatically along the gray streets of downtown Seattle, between the looming skyscrapers, and into the late morning heavy traffic. People were running around the pavements like tiny ants working for their mega-corporation queen, letting their life pass by them without even noticing. At least I was not like this anymore, not part of the great corporation’s ant nests.
I could have simply call Ben, save myself the trip, maybe I should have, but I wanted to see Ben personally. It was not only the job we needed, it was also a year since Leon, my little brother, disappeared and Ben with all his connections had nothing new so far. I needed to talk to Ben face to face, to make sure he was doing the best he could.
Thinking of Leon, my stomach knotted, where was he? Was he safe? Was he hungry and homeless? Where people making his life miserable? Especially now, after he went through goblinization and turned into an ork? I was always the one to be at his side since our parents passed away. I would have given everything to have him back.
I was a little over ten minutes late, Fragging traffic. The coffee shop was small and mostly empty, quiet jazz was played at the background and a good looking waitress smiled to me as I entered “a table just for you, or will someone be joining you miss?” she asked politely “actually, I think someone is already waiting for me, a big guy called Ben?” “Yes miss” she said nodding “in the private booth, follow me please”.
The booth was elevated with a half walls around it, giving us the privacy we needed. Ben was a big man with heavy tattooed arms and heavier bally. He lost one eye for reasons he didn’t care to share, and strangely enough he didn’t replace it with a cyber eye. Some of his clients and friends called him “One eye Ben”, me included, and I wondered if that might be the reason why he didn’t fix it, I think he liked the image the missing eye and the name gave him.
A year ago, when my plan to defect from Renraku Mega Corporation went to the toilet, Ben saved me, I actually owed him my life. I was still considered a traitor as far as Renraku was concerned, and I was wanted with a price on my head by the Ancient elven gang who thought I set them up when they tried to extract me from Renraku, but I was still alive, and that was a good start.
Ben got up as I entered the booth and gave me a crushing hug “Amelie, it’s been too long. I almost thought you forgot about me.” He held me back and looked me over “beautiful as ever” he smiled fatherly “you should have been an actress or a top model, not running the shadows risking your life, though I hear lots of good things about you and your team, it looks like you are moving up in the world, don’t you?” he smiled at me again, releasing me from his bear grip. I couldn’t help but smile back at him, he was indeed the only one I could trust since I left Renraku, beside my teammates, that is. “If I could work legit, I would probably have been working as a spider or a hacker for one of the corps, and I would have never met you, would I?” I asked, pouting my leaps and patting his big belly. “Ho, that would have been terrible indeed” he said taking his sit back.
I set in front of him, he already ordered me a coffee, the real one, not the soy-café I had home, and also a small salad he knew I liked. I inhaled deeply, enjoying the coffee aroma. “Any news of Leon?” I asked, the coffee sweet aroma forgotten. He held his own coffee with both of his hands, between his large hands it looked like a really tiny cup of coffee, his one eye looking at his cup, then he let out a long sigh "I might have something, but I'm not sure about it yet, I need you to be patient and let me check it's not a fake" my heart skipped a beat, finally, there might be a lead "you do that" I said "money is not an issue, and update me as soon as possible" he held my gaze with his one brown eye "I will Amelie, you know I will."
He leaned back into his chair "but speaking of money, I have another job offer for you and your team, a profitable one" he took a drink from his coffee, looking as if he was enjoying it and continued "it's a bodyguard job for a rich kid, one night job and you are done. You'll get twenty grand up front, and another twenty when the job is done and the kid is delivered back unharmed, you'll also get a bonus if there will be any substantial danger" "and the risks?" I asked "it's a well-known rich family, the kind of family that always has enemies, or someone that would simply like to kidnap the boy for ransom, but it's not one of the criminal families, so I don't expect any troubles that you guys can't handle" I raised an eyebrow "why then?" I asked "why do they need shadow runners like as? If they are rich and legal they can have their legal bodyguards, hell, they can have it even if they are rich and illegal" "true enough" Ben said "but the kid, the twenty eight years old kid" he emphasized "is having a party tomorrow night on the family yacht, and he hate being seen accompanied by bodyguards beside his own one bodyguard, don't get me wrong, there will be some more armed guards on the yacht, but he wants them away from the party itself, he will only agree for bodyguards who can mingle with his friends, and obviously, the everyday guards stand out. That's why they need you. I'm a friend of the family, and I said I might know someone who will know how to fit in, and here you are" forty grand for one night of potentially easy job were a hell of a lot of money, I mused "I must admit I'm tempted" I said "who is the family?" "The kid is the nephew of Mayor Matthew Hilcox of Everett, a powerful family, and the kid is what you should expect of such, spoiled and snooty, but you and your team will need to play his game, and be as polite as king George of England if you want this job" I really didn't like that type of kids, but that was a job, not a date, so we could babysit him for one night for that much nuyen "I'll talk to the team, but I believe we will take it" I said, finishing my coffee "and that was a great coffee". Ben face lit with his smile again, "of course it was, I wouldn't invite you to a place that serves anything less." He paused for a second looking at me "Check with your team, and if it's all good I'll transfer you the details of the family's chief of security, Carl Bowyer, talk to him as soon as possible and set a meeting in order to secure the deal".
As I expected, the team agreed to the job gladly, as it had been a month since we had a run, and as I thought, I was not the only one short with Nuyen. At the afternoon of the next day we had a laconic meeting with Carl Bowyer. He repeated everything Ben said using his own wards, explained about the layout of the yacht and then he paid us our first twenty grands. We boarded a motorboat accompanied by the family PR. Manager, Janet Kor, a woman in her early forties that looked like she wished the whole party project was already done with, and she again repeated the warnings about the kid behavior before boarding with us and additional guard on the motorboat. They all seemed to be genuinely concerned of that boy attitude.
The motorboat sped its way towards the three stories high bright white yacht as the late afternoon sun was planning it’s retire for the night, painting the blue water of lake Washington with orange fire. The weather was nice for Seattle afternoon, as if it was ordered especially for the party. It looked like rich people can buy anything.
The dress I picked for the party was short, black and tight, with a sheath running along my right leg, somewhat reviling and suggesting, but not overly so. Underneath the dress I wore my form fitting half body armor suit, justifying its name it was indeed form fitting and was barely noticeable, and even if someone did notice it, he would have probably mistaken it for short tights and tight undershirt. Finishing the set was a matching light jacket, just long enough to hide a Concealable holster with my pistol.
Kryss, our team's very talented ork mage, that hated and was terrible at social events, wore what she claimed to be her party outfit, a simple long gray pants and armored vest, I was more concerned with the amount of scars she displayed then with her choice of clothing, she had inflicted most of them on herself in an odd spiritual, artistic kind of way as part of her growing both in power and in understanding of the world, that’s what she told us, anyway, but I suspected there was more to it than she let us know. I think she had them all over her body, but seeing the red angry scars running over her face, neck and hands was enough to make her stand out in any social event.
Watson, once a detective, once a medicine student, and a generally the brain in the team, came dressed with his usual outfit, the Mortimer of London greatcoat over his simple shirt and trousers. Now, it might not be my choice of liking, but I can't deny Mortimer's clothing line has some style, the coat has some of the flair of an old English gentlemen’s club, though I think the greatcoat might have been too warm for the occasion in this time of the year, style or not. But it was based upon the classic design of twentieth-century naval greatcoats, so it might fit a bout party after all. Watson didn't seemed bothered by it, he carried his shotgun in a cloth bag and I knew he had some concealed weaponry under that coat, as we needed to deposit all the obvious weapon in the yacht's safe after we board.
Last came JC, JC who always joked about him grabbing a feel when I was in a coma-like state when I went into matrix virtual reality, though he never actually did so, he enjoyed making me red of embarrassment at his suggestive jokes, JC who liked his drinking way too much and was as direct and blunt as a running truck, yet the same JC who threw his life on the line to protect any of us, who did his best to appease me when my car died in flames, I was very attached to that car, and showed moments of sensitivity that surprised and baffled me.
He left his armored jacket at his apartment this time, wearing his armored vest over his broad orkish chest, and military style trousers. He carried his private arsenal in his own cloth bag and I had no doubt he carried several concealed weapons on himself. I hoped he'll pass as a military fashion chic kind of guy. Who knows what those rich kids fashion style was nowadays.
As soon as we boarded the yacht we were taken to the bridge at the upper level of the yacht. The bridge was occupied by two guards and the captain, an eastern man at his fifties that his virtual name tag displayed him as Captain John Wong. The captain was formal and cold toward us, and I wondered if that was him not liking everyone, or specifically not likening us, regardless, he kept professional and bowed his head slightly as Janet introduced us. At the back of the bridge was a door to a safe room, where we deposited our obvious weapons, keeping with us only the concealed ones. In my case I had nothing to deposit as I only had my Ruger Thunderbolt pistol in its concealable holster and a small taser in the pocket of my jacket. JC and Watson stored their rifle, shotgun and other heavy toys they were carrying in the safe, they did not like leaving their weapons behind, but we had no choice in this case. If we needed, we were planning to get those weapons back as soon as possible.
Ten minutes later we had the questionable honor of meeting the kid himself, we were led to one of the larger rooms of the yacht in the lower deck, the room was dominated by an old wooden style bar with hundreds of high quality spirit bottles, the kind you can see only in bars meant for the rich and famous. Several soft looking sofas have been arranged around the room and everything screamed of privet designers and was as extravagant as you can get.
Brandon, AKA the kid, was sitting on a high bar stool, holding a whisky glass and was accompanied by two men, a short thin young man in his early twenties and a huge bulky troll that was probably his favorite bodyguard, though the troll lounged carelessly on a sofa, lacking the alertness one might expect from a bodyguard. The kid himself was of average height with a blonde hair and lips that were a little too thick, those were twisted into an arrogant smile. I had to respect his cloth designer though, his clothing set looked both casual and extremely expensive at the same time.
Janet, who showed us into the room, had a blank expression on her face as she tried to present us "Mr. Hilcox, those are the security people I told you about, they…" Brandon cut her mid-sentence by raising his hand and gesturing her to shut up in a rather humiliating way. King George would have been terribly disappointed by the kid's manners, I thought. "Don't go yet Janet, you might be taking some, or all of them back with you" he said as he slid down from his bar stool and walked around us, looking us over, his right hand still holding his whisky glass. His eyes lingered a little too long on the wrong places as he looked me over.
"They might be amusing at least" he sighed, as he walked back to his stool, His short thin friend chuckled and the big troll smiled as if they knew something we didn't.
The three behaved like three classic high school boys from a chip trideo series. Brandon was the classic leader thug, the smaller guy was his lackey and the troll was the bigger yet stupid thug that did everything the leader thug ordered, I hardly suppressed a smile. At twenty eight Brandon was three years older than me, yet I felt like he was a young, spoiled high school child.
"Joe" Brandon said to his lackey "pour us from the good whisky, the one I keep for friends"
None of us said anything as Joe went behind the bar and arranged seven glasses on the counter, but as he started to fill the glasses Brandon looked at him "what the hell do you think you are doing?" he yelled at him.
Joe stopped filling the glasses and looked confused "you asked me to fill the glasses with the good whisky" he mumbled "I said for me and my new friends, not for you, you drek-for-brains" Joe mumbled apologies as he removed two of the glasses. I guessed the kid wanted to see if we were simple guards that followed the guards rules, not drinking on duty and not having fun on the job, or if we were ready to break the rules, no doubt he was also enjoying himself showing us who was the boss around here by humiliating as many people as possible, charming fellow.
JC took his glass happily, as I expected, and downed it in one shot, earning an appraising look from the troll. It's not every day that I get to drink a whisky that cost half my rent, not that I drink much at all, but if I have to prove of me being chill by drinking whisky, let it be an expensive one, I figured. I mimicked JC, bravely downed my own whisky, which burned down my throat, made my eyes water and my face hot. Watson pated my back gently during the twenty or so seconds I coughed afterward. He and Kryss didn't have that much trouble with their own drinks and I vowed to myself never to drink whisky again, no matter how expensive it was.
Brandon looked amused "You may go Janet" he said to his family PR. Manager, dismissing her with a wave of his hand "those four will do somehow" facing us he added "you can call me Jafar, but if you need anything you don't talk to me, you speak with Iron Ribs here" he pointed his thumb at the troll, "I expect you to be nice to my guests during the party. You can go anywhere on my yacht" he said, emphasizing that it was his yacht "but the two suites below are off-limits for you, for obvious reasons" he added with a smirk.
Not very long after, the boat was already full of young people. All of them rich, or friends of the rich, which meant they were rich themselves, but maybe a little less than their really rich friends. They all were way over my league, at least financially. Girls and boys, around my own age, were enjoying the music, dancing in swimming suits and drinking carelessly. Even when I was working for Renraku I couldn’t participate in such parties. Was I jealous? I guess in a way I was of their careless and easy way of life, but I have already learned that everything had a price, and everyone had warries, probably those guys to, so maybe I shouldn't have been jealous. But the chip truth was, that it looked darn good to be rich.
I wondered around the yacht, keeping my eyes open for trouble, I searched for a quiet place to sit and connect to the yacht surveillance cameras to be more effective. JC was at the lower level pool deck, keeping an eye on the kid and Kryss was engaged in conversation with two tattooed girls who seemed to admire her artistic scars. They showed her their tattoos and tried to convince her to join them in the pool, I hoped she had the sense to avoid it, adoring her facial and armed scars was one thing, but I was not sure how they would have reacted if she changed into swimming suit and displayed her body scars. It was a positive surprise though to see Kryss was doing well in such a social event, even though she looked as if she felt out of place.
Watson, on the other hand, was trying to avoid a drunk guy, which eventually puked all over the floor, narrowly missing Watson on the process. Watson, being Watson, ran to the restroom to clean the few spits that managed to hit his shoes, he was terrified of diseases and few vomit spits on his shoes sent him running for his life.
Finally, I found a quiet place at the small lounge in the middle level of the yacht and took a sit at an empty table. The place was empty but for one, elegant dressed young man standing at the far end next to the bar. Why did they have so many bars in one yacht? I wondered. I started playing with the augmented reality, connecting to the security cameras, as the guy approached me. He had short black hair and was a little above average height, a nice looking guy. He was cute, but I was working. "Hi" he said, looking somewhat embarrassed "can I get you a drink?" his voice was far from being confidant "thanks" I said, looking up from the AR, "but you should know I have a boyfriend", I cut straight to the chase, I couldn't be distracted even by cute guys. He lowered his eyes in disappointment, and I felt sorry for him. In truth, I didn't have a boyfriend, but I really had to keep my focus on the job. "I should have guessed he said, all the cool girls already have someone" I blushed and let my hair fall over my face. It happened to often that guys hit on me, especially when I was alone and in a party, but I was always embarrassed "I’m sorry" I said peeking at him through my hair "it's OK, it's not your fault for having someone" he said, extending his hand "Dave Bonham" he said smiling at me. Suddenly the room began to spin, and I had to grab the table, or I would have fallen off my chair, my AR display vanishing instantly as I lost focus. "Are you alright?" he asked, sounded genuinely concerned. I took slow deep breath, trying to steady myself "are you OK, you look pale, do you want me to bring you some water?" he asked again "yes, please" I managed to whisper, the room continued spinning. He hurried to the bar and came back with a glass; the water did help somewhat, and the room span a little slower. I sent a massage through my commlink to the team "something is wrong with me, I need help", but no one answered. The room spinning increased and I felt myself hitting the floor, and then everything went black.
My consciousness did not return easily, the first thing I was aware of was a fragging too real to be a dream flashback of myself sitting next to a table with my hands cuffed behind my back, the light from a lamp on the table made it difficult to see who set on the other side of the table. A man was talking to me, somewhere from behind me, not the man who set on the other side of the table who was dealing with some equipment, and I did not recognize the voice at first. "You are not as smart as you think... well, that's nothing against how smart you would think you are!"
I tried to open my eyes, but I couldn't, it felt like the world was moving, or that someone was carrying me. I felt myself drifting back into darkness, I fought the darkness, but lost.
The next time I woke I felt myself lying on something soft. As I tried to force my eyes open the flashback returned, the voice spoke again "I owe you a lot, you know. After all it is you that allowed us to get our hands on this state-of-the-art experimental equipment. Ironically, it is YOU who's responsible to who you are becoming now"
I blinked my eyes, bright light made it impossible to see, I tried to force myself to calm and use my fogy brain. Who was that man? Whose voice was it? What was he talking about and what the hell was happening to me? My cyber implant eyes should have negated any bright light, they were not working properly. Was the image sent to me through the matrix? That was possible, but it felt strange, like a real memory of something that actually happened to me, I tried to test my matrix connection, but it was dead, I couldn't feel the matrix at all, and I began to panic, my commlink was implanted in my head, not feeling the matrix meant the commlink was dead, or not in my head anymore, it also meant that the flashback was not a simsense sent to me through the matrix.
"Too sad what happened to you and your Tarou. Really. Though I couldn't care less because the scum you are. You deserve each other - but sadly, the corp can't allow this reunion. And you knew it from the start! Unfortunately, you will never meet again"
Tarou, the name made my heart ache, I felt I should have known why, but I couldn't remember. I felt I should know the voice that was talking to me. This was obviously someone who knew me well, knew my history with Renraku. I blinked my eyes again, this time my vision cleared, and I notice the ceiling above me with a bright lamp fixed on it, a tear dropped along the side of my face, the voice could have belonged only to one person, I recognized it now, Ben, my only trusted friend. How stupid I have been to put my trust in him, in anyone, reality was not a story with a good end, I knew then I could only trust myself, and even that was in doubt. He continued "And then you came to me... how easy it was to manipulate you then. At least we have THAT in common. We both hate Renraku now. But oh-how-will-you-hate-them when they finally put their hands on you. And I will collect the reward..." "Ben ho Ben, what have you done" I whispered to myself, yet, another memory, another flashback flashed before my eyes "So what would fit you more than a... woosy French ancestry. Amelie is good enough for you, Danielle. Can we affect her accent?" he asked the shadowy man next to the table. The man replayed with a faked French accent "Well, but of course" and they both laughed.
"I am just playing with you Danielle. I have all this planned thoroughly even if you think I improvise. What will we make of your dear Tarou? ...Leon? Is it French enough? Let's scramble it a bit. Tarou is... sorry - LEON is YOUR BROTHER. And he... turned into an Ork - and Renraku can't allow that - mostly not to their elite "samurais". Samurais-my-behind if I may say. But you can't have them take your brother, can you? You'll be restless until you know what happened with him. Sadly, for you, I am the only one who knows..."
Tarou, I could almost see him in my mind now, and I could feel my heart aching for him. Sadly, I knew Ben was not lying, it all felt so true, more true than my memories of the past year. In my flashback I looked down, and I got a glimpse of a light blue uniform I was wearing, I think it was Renraku uniform. Another man with the same uniform walked into the room, and whispers something to the man behind me, who must have been Ben. Ben replies vocally "Get the men ready in their positions, we're out in ten" then he spoke to me again "Amelie, we rehearsed it thoroughly enough by now. We've invested weeks on this show and the puppet you are now. The talented, exceptional hacker kid - who would have believed?" he laughed. "Well, our REAL talented hacker will back you up for it to seem real. He's exceptional. And with the equipment you allowed us to grab - oh, that's amazing stuff - no one would ever suspect. We will know everything you do. We're almost inside your head. So, it's over now, girl. Here we depart from reality as you knew it" the man in front of me opened a suitcase on the table and was dealing with something inside it "And starting thirty minutes from now" Ben's said with a final note to his words "I am going to be your best and only friend. You can call me Ben"
At that point I was confused and panicked, flashes of memories swapped through my mind, and I wasn't sure which one was real and which one was not, I couldn't feel any of my implants and that confused me even more, I must have been hyperventilating. Suddenly someone in the room said "look, the chick is awake" I didn't even checked my surrounding till then, just to show how confused I was. "Good, I prefer her awake when we will have fun with her" another voice replied. There was no point pretending to be unconscious, after they clearly knew I was awake. I lifted my head, looking at the room, I was lying on a bed, only with me panties and bra, and this underwear set was not a modest one. Two shirtless oriental looking men were sitting on chairs next to the door to the room, it looked like they were playing cards before I regained conciseness and the way they both looked at me made a chill run down my spine. I carefully rolled up to my feet, standing on the bed, my eyes not leaving the pair as I tried to clear my head and focus. One of them was obviously augmented with cyber arms covered with tattoo-like drawings, I couldn't notice any augmentations on the second. The tattoos on the augmented one reminded me of the tattoos the Korean Komun'go ring gangers we tangled with several month ago had. I tried to cover myself the little I could with my arms, like that would have done any good, and that drew an evil smile from the two men "she is even hotter when she's awake" the augmented man said. They spoke Korean and surprisingly I understood them perfectly "what do you want of me" I snarled at them, speaking Korean "ha, she has got some fire in her" the other one said "relax baby, our boss is on his way, he has some question for you and then we will all have some fun together" his smile was mocking as he leered at me. He approached the bed, holding the deck of cards to me "here, pick a card, let's see your future" I figured I had little chance fighting the both, or even one of them, I was short for an elf, my 158 centimeters and 48 kilos were not a match for most men in unarmed combat, that's what I had JC for, only he wasn't here now. Yet, I wasn't going to let them have their fun with me without a fight. I snatched the cards deck angrily from the leering guy, he stepped back laughing "whoa, its looks like she wants to have some fun right now" he laughed. The augmented guy approached the bed, grinning evilly. It was not courage, but fear that drove me to action, before he could climb onto the bed I kicked his face with a skill that surprised both of us, and he stumbled back holding a broken nose. I tried to kick him again, but this time he was ready and blocked my kick easily, I guess the cliché about oriental people and martial arts has a grain of truth after all. While his friend looked amused, the augmented guy was furious, he drew a long cougar blade from his belt "I'm gonna gut you like a pig, bitch" he growled in a low angry voice and launched at me. Standing on the bed I had the advantage of height and I instinctively tried to block him, surprising both of us again, I was fast, but not fast enough compare to his augmented arms speed. he cut a long, but shallow cut along my ribs, I hardly felt it with the adrenaline rush I was in, I took a step back on the bed, the cards deck was still in my left hand, without even realizing what I was doing I drew a card from the deck and felt as if electrical currents were running through my hand to the card, it was glowing faintly. I was awed at what I did next, I threw the card at the tattooed man, and it flew at him almost like a bullet, cutting his throat. Blood was pumping out of the wound and he fell to the ground. He tried to press the wound, but after few seconds he stopped moving. Both I and the other ganger were shocked for a second, and then he was at me with his own blade, I tried to block him, but I was not even close. I don’t know if it was the wound, me being shocked or just bad luck, but his blade stabbed me through the stomach, and I could hardly breathe. His long blade went deep into me and he held it there, his face inches from mine, smiling at my shocked expression. He pulled his blade out and took a step back, and although I was close to losing consciousness again, the space he gave me was all I needed. Maybe he thought I was already dead, or maybe he just prepared himself for another strike, but a second later he had a card lodged in his throat, he fell back, dyeing within seconds. Later I found out I was very lucky, miraculously, the knife miss any vital organ, but I was bleeding badly from both wounds, especially the one in my stomach.
I pressed my hand on the wound in my stomach tightly, it hurt like hell, and looked around the room as I tried to steady myself. My head was spinning and I was dizzy from blood lose. What were they saying? Their boss was on his way? I didn't think he was going to be happy with what I have done to his men, I needed to get out of there and fast. Looking around the room I found my stuff on a heap in the corner, of course, it was too much to expect my pistol will be there, but I still had that deck of cards clutched in my left hand, maybe I could use that card trick again. With all my aches and wounds I found myself chuckling painfully, card trick, ha? Maybe I should start doing shows for kids. I donned my form fitting body armor, not bothering with the dress, while trying to keep pressure on the wound the whole time. I was still dizzy as hell, even more so then before, and as my adrenaline rush was subsiding, the pain from my wounds was instance, especially with my armor brushing against them with every move I took. The stomach wound was not only terribly painful, but it also gave me trouble moving straight, the blade must have ruptured some muscles, drek I was in a bad shape. Sadly, not only my pistol was missing, my micro transceiver was gone, and that meant I couldn't talk to the team, if they even were alive. But then, I found the jackpot, my secondary commlink, or maybe it was my only real commlink, according to Ben. The massage icon was blinking, but I had no time for it. I sent a text massage to the team "I'm badly injured, I'm not sure where I am, but it's a suite with a bed, so it's must be one of the "off-limits" suites the kid had talked about". I breathed painfully with relief as several seconds later I received replays from JC asking me to stay put "no can do" I typed back, "the boss of those Korean gangers is on his way here, I'm trying to find a way out." I searched the now dead Koreans and found an electronic key-card, it opened the door with a blip.
Try as I might, I couldn't avoid leaving a trail of blood behind me as I stumbled through the yacht lower level corridors. It was eerily silent as I stepped over several dead bodies on my way towards the back of the yacht, all belonged to once happy partying young people.
JC texted me that he joined forces with Kryss and they were heading toward my location, and that Watson was at the front of the middle level, dealing with some gangers. Later I found that they all lost their consciousness just like I did, and each woke to find gangers around them, all but Watson who lost his consciousness while he was in the bathroom dealing with the few vomit spits, and the gangers didn't find him. It could only be that Brendon's whisky had some kind of drag in it. Luckily, the gangers presumed that JC and Kryss were dead, and didn't put a bullet in their heads, the gangers paid dearly for that mistake. JC found he still had his concealed pistol with its silencer on when he woke, and made good use of it, killing the two gangers next to him before they could even react and then killing his way toward Kryss, Kryss herself regain consciousness half submerged in the yacht pool, which was red with blood, and then killed the gangers on her path with her deadly spells, though casting so many spells taxed her greatly.
I advanced as silently as I could along the corridor, my left hand press to my stomach and my right hand on the wall, I was not sure I could stay on my feet if I didn't support myself on the wall. I had to cross in front of an opened door and I took a quick peek through the door, the bodies of three girls and one boy lay on the floor, all dressed with swimming suits. It looked like they tried to run from the pool deck into that room and were shot at their backs, each was lying in a pool of dark red blood and had several gunshot wounds at their backs. A ganger was at the room, he was going over the bar content, throwing the bottles carelessly to the floor. A submachinegun was strapped on his back. I sneaked clumsily across the door, hoping he was too busy to notice. But again, my luck failed me, As soon as I sneaked across the door the sound of crashing bottles ceased, although I doubt the ganger saw me, he probably have heard me, I wasn't so light on my feet in my condition, and he might have had augmented ears or some other hearing improving device, and of course, there was a good chance he could notice the trail of blood I was leaving behind me. I heard the too familiar sound of a weapon being cocked as I tried to move faster down the corridor toward a second door, I hoped to sneak into it before the ganger could finish my painful existence. My vision was spinning and my legs felt rubbery, I was very close to the door, but I wasn't moving fast enough "freeze and turn around, slowly" the ganger voice commanded with heavily accented English. I spread my hands to the sides, I didn't want him to shot me just because he might think I was holding a weapon, and turned around slowly, the ganger was holding his submachinegun pointed at me. Drek, I thought, the chances I could survive this were slim at best. Suddenly, the ganger raised his weapon to his shoulder, pointing toward me and I dropped to the ground instinctively, hoping to dodge his bullets, only instead of bullets a bolt of force flew above me and hit the ganger to the chest, I could hear his ribs break as he flew backward and hit the wall at the far end of the corridor. Kryss has arrived.
From what I knew of mages, they could only cast so many spells before draining themselves, they could overcast, creating even more deadly spell but risking their own life on the process. Physically, the effect of the draining on a mage vary between mages, in Kryss case her scars started bleeding when she drained herself to much, and drek, her scars bled badly.
I tried to push myself back to my feet, but black spots appeared in front of my eyes, I stayed on all four waiting for the spots to disappear when a strong hand grabbed my arm and helping me up, it was JC who did so without the slightest effort with one hand while keeping his pistol pointing ahead with his other hand. "Although I appreciate the view" he said "I think we need to move" they both looked at my blood soaked body armor and then at my face "drek, you look pale" JC said, his humor vanishing "you are not going anywhere like this" Kryss said and started casting a spell, few seconds later I felt her magical energies surge through me and my wounds tingled in a strange way, I could actually feel my rapture muscles binding themselves back together, and although the spell did not heal the wounds completely, I felt much, much better. Kryss, on the other hand, was bleeding badly from her scars, even more then before "drek Kryss" I said "you don't need to kill yourself to heal me" I knew she couldn't heal the wounds she suffered from her own casting. JC and Kryss exchanges weird look as I spoke, and I was surprised, although maybe I shouldn't have been, I had no French accent, pure American accent. "What the hell happened to you?" JC asked "I'm not sure" I said, he probably was asking about my accent, but I preferred to avoid the question for now "I lost consciousness and when I woke I found myself without my weapons and armor in one of the suites with two gangers, one of them augmented. They tried to assault me and I killed them, but I got myself pretty bit up in the process" JC eyebrow arched "you?" he asked "you killed two gangers unarmed and unarmored?" I was the team hacker and face, I was OK with pistols, though nothing to brag about, but I had nothing to do with unarmed combat. I didn't know how I killed the two, though I felt that if I just had some time to sit and think I could remember my past, my true past, my true self. "Yes" was all I could say at that point.
We headed toward Watson, JC took point as Kryss could not cast anymore spells without putting herself in a real danger, maybe even killing herself, and I was not sure I could explain my card trick at that point. Besides, after what happened with Ben I just felt I couldn't trust anyone anymore, so I kept my cards close to my chest, so to speak. We sneaked around several gangers advancing quietly, with Kryss out of energy we preferred avoiding combat if possible. As we walked I noticed about a dozen dead gangers, some of them were killed from a single bullet to their head, and the other were torn apart by Kryss magical forces.
An explosion rocked the boat, coming from the direction Watson should have been, we couldn't know what was happening and we continued onward as quickly as we could, only to find Watson checking a machine-gun he retrieved from the smoking remains of a ganger, Watson liked grenades and rarely left home without one. "Let's move" I said "I'm sure the gangers are on their way here" Watson also looked surprised by the change of my accent, but he said nothing, it was not the right time. "To the bridge" he said "we got to collect our gear before we get out of here" JC frowned "I know it's expensive gear up there, but we should head for the lifeboat and get the hell out of here." They both looked at me expectedly, at past runs Kryss referred to me as the leader of the group, and weirdly that stuck, the fact that they trusted me with all the weird things that were happening to me was the best I could ask for, and maybe I could trust them despite what happened with Ben. I wouldn't have trusted me in their place.
JC personalized assault rifle and Watson special shotgun were in the safe of the bridge, both weapons cost them a small fortune and were not easy to come by. With both Watson and JC armed I believed we could grab our gear without getting ourselves killed, so I said "lets head to the bridge, we do it fast and then head back to the lifeboat" everyone knew there was no time to argue so we headed to the bridge. As we were walking Kryss who walked behind me said "what's that on your hair, Zer0?" Zer0 was my code-name as the team's hacker, it was invented by Ben and it wasn't me, which made me angry. I moved my hand through my hair, a huge amount of dandruff like substance was dropping from my hair, drek, I never had dandruff before. Was that the supper advanced substance Ben was using to "be in my head", as he put it? "I am not sure, Kryss, but it's nothing that is important right now" I replayed.
We ascended to the third level of the yacht and were preparing to advance on the bridge, when we heard some noises coming from the stairs we just came from. We hurriedly took position facing the stairs when a three meter high figure raced up the stairs, it was made of water, all of it, it's almost humanoid face kept changing, it's eyes and mouth were literally swimming around its face. "drek" Kryss coursed "a water elemental, run you fools" I doubted very much Kryss could stop the water elemental all by herself in her condition, although the mundane weapon we had could do little to help, but before I could say anything another figure appeared at the top of the stairs, it was a Korean older man, with an opened robe over an armored vest, if I needed to bet, I would have bet he was a mage, and probably the mage that summoned and control the elemental spirit. Maybe he thought that we have continued to the bridge, or maybe he was so confident in himself he simply came up the stairs, it looked like Kryss also identified him as a mage, and in a blink of an eye she sent a bolt of force at him that smashed his chest. I guessed right, it was the mage that summoned the spirit, and with him dead the elemental spirit was free and enraged, it charged down the stairs at the mage's friends and we could hear lots of screams coming from the lower deck. Kryss smiled at us, coughed some blood and dropped to the ground. Drek, Kryss, why did you have to be a hero? You could have proven me wrong about going to the bridge without killing yourself. I ran to her and checked her pulse, it took me few seconds to find it, it was weak but it was there. I picked her unconscious body from the floor and swung it over my shoulder, she was way lighter than I thought. Both JC and Watson looked at me with surprise and JC nod his head "we definitely need to talk when this is over" he said. Apparently I was much stronger than any of us thought I was.
The breaking into the bridge went smoothly, I may not be a hacker, but I still know how to bypass a card reader, I managed to short the reader circuits and the door to the bridge opened. Watson and JC stormed in, surprising the three gangers and killing them within seconds. Captain John Wong body was lying over the security cameras console, he was shot twice in his chest and his captain shirt was socked with blood. While JC and Watson sacked the safe I shoved the captain's body from the bloodied console so I could start the security cameras and get a better look at what was happening. We also needed to see if we could find Brendon Hilcox among the gangers or the dead, a mission is still a mission, even if the
hit the fan. Searching through the cameras I found no trace of him or his troll friend, I did found the body of his lackey, Joe, he lay dead on the floor of the same room where we met Brandon. I could also see several groups of gangers advancing towards the bridge "we are going to have company soon, let's get out of here" I warned the team.
The next ten minutes we had several encounters with gangers, and we pushed them back, mostly Watson and JC, I was busy carrying the unconscious Kryss, and then something unexpected happened, a ganger head almost exploded from a sniper shot coming from the yacht upper roof. A vivid memory came to me, a Japanese middle aged man was lecturing a small group of people, me among them "in cleaning operations we need to station at least one sniper on a vantage point, a roof or an upper floor in urban combat, a hilltop in the wilderness, an area that will provide us with fire control over the battlefield" the instructor was wearing Renraku uniforms. I had terrible feeling about that "I don't know who the sniper is" I said "but I have a feeling we need to get the hell out of here, and now" there was no argument. We hurried back to the bridge and Watson pressed a button that started an automated machine-gun that was on the front of the yacht, we noticed the heavy machine-gun controls when we first visited the bridge, but we did not think we will ever need to use it. We started it now in order to create a distraction, the sound of the heavy machine-gun long bursts of fire echoed around the yacht. We could see on the security cameras that some of the ganger were indeed confused by it. We ran to the side of the yacht, I hoped that the night darkness will give us some cover, night vision or not. Watson pulled a rope he had in his bag, that man always had something for every situation, it's better to be prepared, he always said. I lowered myself down the rope till I hit the dark, Icy water, I hated cold water, and I still do. Next they lowered Kryss to me and I made sure to keep her head above the water as I started swimming with her toward the rear end of the yacht, where the lifeboat should be. We had no chance of swimming to the shore in the freezing water, we needed to get to the lifeboat to survive. JC and Watson soon joined me in the icy water and we found the lifeboat. JC helped me pull Kryss into it, while Watson sneaked into the yacht and cut the ropes holding the lifeboat. Several shots were fire at our direction as we started the motor a hundred meters or so from the yacht and headed toward the lights at the far shore, but they all missed.
While we sailed I pulled my commlink out and press the play on the blinking massage icon, I guessed what it was going to be, but I needed to hear it anyway.
"Hey darling, it's BEN." Ben's voice came mocking from the commlink speakers "Sorry I couldn't say farewell face-to-face. I really hope you get to hear my message before you die. Anyway, there's a last thing I wanted from you - and that's the reward on your head, deserter! There was never any Ancients involved in this, it was always your beloved Renraku that you've crossed. If you're lucky you will die before they get to you. And to get my rewards I've just told them where to find you. I must admit - though I am really, really satisfied, this vengeance left an empty hole in me. First, I have much less to do and solve when my Zer0 is gone! Second, I can't see your face when you realized the truth of all this. Last but not the least, I hate Renraku score a goal - yet, it's an own goal as I schemed your desertion which had made you wanted in the first place. Getting killed by your own is hell of a vengeance. Anyway, thanks for being the fall-guys for our becoming rich! You were the most talented naive puppet ever. Love you!
BTW, if you feel uncomfortable dying with all these dandruff - don't worry, this is just the high-end gear we've used, thanks to you"
This massage confirmed everything I suspected, and with it a flood of memories overwhelmed me. I remembered my childhood in Seattle and later in sun Francisco, I remembered my parents, they were killed at the famous Renraku Arcology shutdown when I was only eleven. Renraku took me in and was my new home, I remembered my training at Renraku for the red samurai elite forces and I remembered Tarou, his handsome face, his gentle touch, his caring, the only one who really cared about me, not about my potential, not about what I could do, but just about me. Ben took it all away because he wanted to get rich. The end was fogy, I couldn't remember what exactly happened with Ben, but I knew he set me up and betrayed me. I was behind furious. I murmured to myself "I am coming for you, and I will make you pay for everything". Looking at my teammates I said aloud "all our commlinks are compromised, we need to ditch them" and threw my commlink into lake Washington dark water. JC and Watson looked at me, then nodded and ditched their own commlinks. A commlink is a costly device, and they threw it without a word of complaint, and it was my fault they were in this mess. I had a user account in each of their devices, as the so called hacker of the team, they all gave me access, and if I had access so did Ben, he probably could track every movement we made, read every text and email we sent or received, and much more through those commlinks.
Eventually the boat hit the shore in a relatively secluded place. It was dark, we were wet, freezing and wounded, Kryss was still out and we had no idea where we were.
"What do we do now?" JC asked
"We run" I said, and started towards the lights.
The end of chapter 1
First I want to let you know that English is not my first language, so I will have spelling mistakes, I apologize for that.
This campaign journal is from the first person view of my character, we play Shadowrun 4th edition, our GM is very experienced in many RPG games, Shadowrun included, and we all play for many years and tend to like roll play and not just the action.
This log, or story if you like, starts after the team already played together for a long time, the characters have gained about 70 karma each, and have history together, this will come to play during the story, as well as presenting the characters in the team, so I will not post the team details in advance, this will be revealed as the story advance.
So, let's get to it.
- The other side of the mirror.
I opened my eyes slightly, I could hear the gentle humming of my cleaning drone and smell a coffee that have just been made. A virtual display appeared in the corner of my vision, indicating the time was seven AM, Seattle weather was clear but slightly cold, and my alarm Clock was barking.
I pulled the warm soft blanket over my head and snuggled deeper into the sheets, there was nothing needed to be done so early, was it? But the virtual alarm Clock, taking the shape of a small puppy kept barking at me in the cutest, yet annoying, way possible. I could see the virtual puppy even with my eyes closed, knowing my morning problem, I programmed it that way.
"I hate you puppy" I murmured and pulled myself from the warmth of my bed. The barking pappy disappeared with a blink and I dragged myself to the kitchen passing by Mr. clean, my ever diligent and cheerful cleaning drone. "Good morning Amélie" it chirped cheerfully as I passed by it "it’s seven AM, it can’t possibly be good" I answered grumpily as I retrieved my soy-café from the automated coffee machine.
Two hours later, after a warm shower, a small breakfast and about forty minutes in front of the mirror, fixing the right outfit, I left my apartment and went into Seattle cold blue morning. I needed to visit Ben to see if he had any new jobs for me and the team. I stopped a cab, I didn't feel like driving into Seattle morning traffic.
It looked as if I was the only one worried about us getting new jobs, sure, it was mostly my responsibility as the "face" of the group, but they all seemed to be so relaxed about it. I just paid the monthly rent for my apartment and I was running annoyingly short of Nuyen. I was pretty sure I was not the only one.
If I have asked them about it, Watson would have probably said something smart, but let me do the work myself, Kryss would say in her low, orkish tone something like "I have full confidence in you, I am sure you will get us a good run, Zer0" and JC would have snored dismissively and get himself a another drink.
The cab navigated itself automatically along the gray streets of downtown Seattle, between the looming skyscrapers, and into the late morning heavy traffic. People were running around the pavements like tiny ants working for their mega-corporation queen, letting their life pass by them without even noticing. At least I was not like this anymore, not part of the great corporation’s ant nests.
I could have simply call Ben, save myself the trip, maybe I should have, but I wanted to see Ben personally. It was not only the job we needed, it was also a year since Leon, my little brother, disappeared and Ben with all his connections had nothing new so far. I needed to talk to Ben face to face, to make sure he was doing the best he could.
Thinking of Leon, my stomach knotted, where was he? Was he safe? Was he hungry and homeless? Where people making his life miserable? Especially now, after he went through goblinization and turned into an ork? I was always the one to be at his side since our parents passed away. I would have given everything to have him back.
I was a little over ten minutes late, Fragging traffic. The coffee shop was small and mostly empty, quiet jazz was played at the background and a good looking waitress smiled to me as I entered “a table just for you, or will someone be joining you miss?” she asked politely “actually, I think someone is already waiting for me, a big guy called Ben?” “Yes miss” she said nodding “in the private booth, follow me please”.
The booth was elevated with a half walls around it, giving us the privacy we needed. Ben was a big man with heavy tattooed arms and heavier bally. He lost one eye for reasons he didn’t care to share, and strangely enough he didn’t replace it with a cyber eye. Some of his clients and friends called him “One eye Ben”, me included, and I wondered if that might be the reason why he didn’t fix it, I think he liked the image the missing eye and the name gave him.
A year ago, when my plan to defect from Renraku Mega Corporation went to the toilet, Ben saved me, I actually owed him my life. I was still considered a traitor as far as Renraku was concerned, and I was wanted with a price on my head by the Ancient elven gang who thought I set them up when they tried to extract me from Renraku, but I was still alive, and that was a good start.
Ben got up as I entered the booth and gave me a crushing hug “Amelie, it’s been too long. I almost thought you forgot about me.” He held me back and looked me over “beautiful as ever” he smiled fatherly “you should have been an actress or a top model, not running the shadows risking your life, though I hear lots of good things about you and your team, it looks like you are moving up in the world, don’t you?” he smiled at me again, releasing me from his bear grip. I couldn’t help but smile back at him, he was indeed the only one I could trust since I left Renraku, beside my teammates, that is. “If I could work legit, I would probably have been working as a spider or a hacker for one of the corps, and I would have never met you, would I?” I asked, pouting my leaps and patting his big belly. “Ho, that would have been terrible indeed” he said taking his sit back.
I set in front of him, he already ordered me a coffee, the real one, not the soy-café I had home, and also a small salad he knew I liked. I inhaled deeply, enjoying the coffee aroma. “Any news of Leon?” I asked, the coffee sweet aroma forgotten. He held his own coffee with both of his hands, between his large hands it looked like a really tiny cup of coffee, his one eye looking at his cup, then he let out a long sigh "I might have something, but I'm not sure about it yet, I need you to be patient and let me check it's not a fake" my heart skipped a beat, finally, there might be a lead "you do that" I said "money is not an issue, and update me as soon as possible" he held my gaze with his one brown eye "I will Amelie, you know I will."
He leaned back into his chair "but speaking of money, I have another job offer for you and your team, a profitable one" he took a drink from his coffee, looking as if he was enjoying it and continued "it's a bodyguard job for a rich kid, one night job and you are done. You'll get twenty grand up front, and another twenty when the job is done and the kid is delivered back unharmed, you'll also get a bonus if there will be any substantial danger" "and the risks?" I asked "it's a well-known rich family, the kind of family that always has enemies, or someone that would simply like to kidnap the boy for ransom, but it's not one of the criminal families, so I don't expect any troubles that you guys can't handle" I raised an eyebrow "why then?" I asked "why do they need shadow runners like as? If they are rich and legal they can have their legal bodyguards, hell, they can have it even if they are rich and illegal" "true enough" Ben said "but the kid, the twenty eight years old kid" he emphasized "is having a party tomorrow night on the family yacht, and he hate being seen accompanied by bodyguards beside his own one bodyguard, don't get me wrong, there will be some more armed guards on the yacht, but he wants them away from the party itself, he will only agree for bodyguards who can mingle with his friends, and obviously, the everyday guards stand out. That's why they need you. I'm a friend of the family, and I said I might know someone who will know how to fit in, and here you are" forty grand for one night of potentially easy job were a hell of a lot of money, I mused "I must admit I'm tempted" I said "who is the family?" "The kid is the nephew of Mayor Matthew Hilcox of Everett, a powerful family, and the kid is what you should expect of such, spoiled and snooty, but you and your team will need to play his game, and be as polite as king George of England if you want this job" I really didn't like that type of kids, but that was a job, not a date, so we could babysit him for one night for that much nuyen "I'll talk to the team, but I believe we will take it" I said, finishing my coffee "and that was a great coffee". Ben face lit with his smile again, "of course it was, I wouldn't invite you to a place that serves anything less." He paused for a second looking at me "Check with your team, and if it's all good I'll transfer you the details of the family's chief of security, Carl Bowyer, talk to him as soon as possible and set a meeting in order to secure the deal".
As I expected, the team agreed to the job gladly, as it had been a month since we had a run, and as I thought, I was not the only one short with Nuyen. At the afternoon of the next day we had a laconic meeting with Carl Bowyer. He repeated everything Ben said using his own wards, explained about the layout of the yacht and then he paid us our first twenty grands. We boarded a motorboat accompanied by the family PR. Manager, Janet Kor, a woman in her early forties that looked like she wished the whole party project was already done with, and she again repeated the warnings about the kid behavior before boarding with us and additional guard on the motorboat. They all seemed to be genuinely concerned of that boy attitude.
The motorboat sped its way towards the three stories high bright white yacht as the late afternoon sun was planning it’s retire for the night, painting the blue water of lake Washington with orange fire. The weather was nice for Seattle afternoon, as if it was ordered especially for the party. It looked like rich people can buy anything.
The dress I picked for the party was short, black and tight, with a sheath running along my right leg, somewhat reviling and suggesting, but not overly so. Underneath the dress I wore my form fitting half body armor suit, justifying its name it was indeed form fitting and was barely noticeable, and even if someone did notice it, he would have probably mistaken it for short tights and tight undershirt. Finishing the set was a matching light jacket, just long enough to hide a Concealable holster with my pistol.
Kryss, our team's very talented ork mage, that hated and was terrible at social events, wore what she claimed to be her party outfit, a simple long gray pants and armored vest, I was more concerned with the amount of scars she displayed then with her choice of clothing, she had inflicted most of them on herself in an odd spiritual, artistic kind of way as part of her growing both in power and in understanding of the world, that’s what she told us, anyway, but I suspected there was more to it than she let us know. I think she had them all over her body, but seeing the red angry scars running over her face, neck and hands was enough to make her stand out in any social event.
Watson, once a detective, once a medicine student, and a generally the brain in the team, came dressed with his usual outfit, the Mortimer of London greatcoat over his simple shirt and trousers. Now, it might not be my choice of liking, but I can't deny Mortimer's clothing line has some style, the coat has some of the flair of an old English gentlemen’s club, though I think the greatcoat might have been too warm for the occasion in this time of the year, style or not. But it was based upon the classic design of twentieth-century naval greatcoats, so it might fit a bout party after all. Watson didn't seemed bothered by it, he carried his shotgun in a cloth bag and I knew he had some concealed weaponry under that coat, as we needed to deposit all the obvious weapon in the yacht's safe after we board.
Last came JC, JC who always joked about him grabbing a feel when I was in a coma-like state when I went into matrix virtual reality, though he never actually did so, he enjoyed making me red of embarrassment at his suggestive jokes, JC who liked his drinking way too much and was as direct and blunt as a running truck, yet the same JC who threw his life on the line to protect any of us, who did his best to appease me when my car died in flames, I was very attached to that car, and showed moments of sensitivity that surprised and baffled me.
He left his armored jacket at his apartment this time, wearing his armored vest over his broad orkish chest, and military style trousers. He carried his private arsenal in his own cloth bag and I had no doubt he carried several concealed weapons on himself. I hoped he'll pass as a military fashion chic kind of guy. Who knows what those rich kids fashion style was nowadays.
As soon as we boarded the yacht we were taken to the bridge at the upper level of the yacht. The bridge was occupied by two guards and the captain, an eastern man at his fifties that his virtual name tag displayed him as Captain John Wong. The captain was formal and cold toward us, and I wondered if that was him not liking everyone, or specifically not likening us, regardless, he kept professional and bowed his head slightly as Janet introduced us. At the back of the bridge was a door to a safe room, where we deposited our obvious weapons, keeping with us only the concealed ones. In my case I had nothing to deposit as I only had my Ruger Thunderbolt pistol in its concealable holster and a small taser in the pocket of my jacket. JC and Watson stored their rifle, shotgun and other heavy toys they were carrying in the safe, they did not like leaving their weapons behind, but we had no choice in this case. If we needed, we were planning to get those weapons back as soon as possible.
Ten minutes later we had the questionable honor of meeting the kid himself, we were led to one of the larger rooms of the yacht in the lower deck, the room was dominated by an old wooden style bar with hundreds of high quality spirit bottles, the kind you can see only in bars meant for the rich and famous. Several soft looking sofas have been arranged around the room and everything screamed of privet designers and was as extravagant as you can get.
Brandon, AKA the kid, was sitting on a high bar stool, holding a whisky glass and was accompanied by two men, a short thin young man in his early twenties and a huge bulky troll that was probably his favorite bodyguard, though the troll lounged carelessly on a sofa, lacking the alertness one might expect from a bodyguard. The kid himself was of average height with a blonde hair and lips that were a little too thick, those were twisted into an arrogant smile. I had to respect his cloth designer though, his clothing set looked both casual and extremely expensive at the same time.
Janet, who showed us into the room, had a blank expression on her face as she tried to present us "Mr. Hilcox, those are the security people I told you about, they…" Brandon cut her mid-sentence by raising his hand and gesturing her to shut up in a rather humiliating way. King George would have been terribly disappointed by the kid's manners, I thought. "Don't go yet Janet, you might be taking some, or all of them back with you" he said as he slid down from his bar stool and walked around us, looking us over, his right hand still holding his whisky glass. His eyes lingered a little too long on the wrong places as he looked me over.
"They might be amusing at least" he sighed, as he walked back to his stool, His short thin friend chuckled and the big troll smiled as if they knew something we didn't.
The three behaved like three classic high school boys from a chip trideo series. Brandon was the classic leader thug, the smaller guy was his lackey and the troll was the bigger yet stupid thug that did everything the leader thug ordered, I hardly suppressed a smile. At twenty eight Brandon was three years older than me, yet I felt like he was a young, spoiled high school child.
"Joe" Brandon said to his lackey "pour us from the good whisky, the one I keep for friends"
None of us said anything as Joe went behind the bar and arranged seven glasses on the counter, but as he started to fill the glasses Brandon looked at him "what the hell do you think you are doing?" he yelled at him.
Joe stopped filling the glasses and looked confused "you asked me to fill the glasses with the good whisky" he mumbled "I said for me and my new friends, not for you, you drek-for-brains" Joe mumbled apologies as he removed two of the glasses. I guessed the kid wanted to see if we were simple guards that followed the guards rules, not drinking on duty and not having fun on the job, or if we were ready to break the rules, no doubt he was also enjoying himself showing us who was the boss around here by humiliating as many people as possible, charming fellow.
JC took his glass happily, as I expected, and downed it in one shot, earning an appraising look from the troll. It's not every day that I get to drink a whisky that cost half my rent, not that I drink much at all, but if I have to prove of me being chill by drinking whisky, let it be an expensive one, I figured. I mimicked JC, bravely downed my own whisky, which burned down my throat, made my eyes water and my face hot. Watson pated my back gently during the twenty or so seconds I coughed afterward. He and Kryss didn't have that much trouble with their own drinks and I vowed to myself never to drink whisky again, no matter how expensive it was.
Brandon looked amused "You may go Janet" he said to his family PR. Manager, dismissing her with a wave of his hand "those four will do somehow" facing us he added "you can call me Jafar, but if you need anything you don't talk to me, you speak with Iron Ribs here" he pointed his thumb at the troll, "I expect you to be nice to my guests during the party. You can go anywhere on my yacht" he said, emphasizing that it was his yacht "but the two suites below are off-limits for you, for obvious reasons" he added with a smirk.
Not very long after, the boat was already full of young people. All of them rich, or friends of the rich, which meant they were rich themselves, but maybe a little less than their really rich friends. They all were way over my league, at least financially. Girls and boys, around my own age, were enjoying the music, dancing in swimming suits and drinking carelessly. Even when I was working for Renraku I couldn’t participate in such parties. Was I jealous? I guess in a way I was of their careless and easy way of life, but I have already learned that everything had a price, and everyone had warries, probably those guys to, so maybe I shouldn't have been jealous. But the chip truth was, that it looked darn good to be rich.
I wondered around the yacht, keeping my eyes open for trouble, I searched for a quiet place to sit and connect to the yacht surveillance cameras to be more effective. JC was at the lower level pool deck, keeping an eye on the kid and Kryss was engaged in conversation with two tattooed girls who seemed to admire her artistic scars. They showed her their tattoos and tried to convince her to join them in the pool, I hoped she had the sense to avoid it, adoring her facial and armed scars was one thing, but I was not sure how they would have reacted if she changed into swimming suit and displayed her body scars. It was a positive surprise though to see Kryss was doing well in such a social event, even though she looked as if she felt out of place.
Watson, on the other hand, was trying to avoid a drunk guy, which eventually puked all over the floor, narrowly missing Watson on the process. Watson, being Watson, ran to the restroom to clean the few spits that managed to hit his shoes, he was terrified of diseases and few vomit spits on his shoes sent him running for his life.
Finally, I found a quiet place at the small lounge in the middle level of the yacht and took a sit at an empty table. The place was empty but for one, elegant dressed young man standing at the far end next to the bar. Why did they have so many bars in one yacht? I wondered. I started playing with the augmented reality, connecting to the security cameras, as the guy approached me. He had short black hair and was a little above average height, a nice looking guy. He was cute, but I was working. "Hi" he said, looking somewhat embarrassed "can I get you a drink?" his voice was far from being confidant "thanks" I said, looking up from the AR, "but you should know I have a boyfriend", I cut straight to the chase, I couldn't be distracted even by cute guys. He lowered his eyes in disappointment, and I felt sorry for him. In truth, I didn't have a boyfriend, but I really had to keep my focus on the job. "I should have guessed he said, all the cool girls already have someone" I blushed and let my hair fall over my face. It happened to often that guys hit on me, especially when I was alone and in a party, but I was always embarrassed "I’m sorry" I said peeking at him through my hair "it's OK, it's not your fault for having someone" he said, extending his hand "Dave Bonham" he said smiling at me. Suddenly the room began to spin, and I had to grab the table, or I would have fallen off my chair, my AR display vanishing instantly as I lost focus. "Are you alright?" he asked, sounded genuinely concerned. I took slow deep breath, trying to steady myself "are you OK, you look pale, do you want me to bring you some water?" he asked again "yes, please" I managed to whisper, the room continued spinning. He hurried to the bar and came back with a glass; the water did help somewhat, and the room span a little slower. I sent a massage through my commlink to the team "something is wrong with me, I need help", but no one answered. The room spinning increased and I felt myself hitting the floor, and then everything went black.
My consciousness did not return easily, the first thing I was aware of was a fragging too real to be a dream flashback of myself sitting next to a table with my hands cuffed behind my back, the light from a lamp on the table made it difficult to see who set on the other side of the table. A man was talking to me, somewhere from behind me, not the man who set on the other side of the table who was dealing with some equipment, and I did not recognize the voice at first. "You are not as smart as you think... well, that's nothing against how smart you would think you are!"
I tried to open my eyes, but I couldn't, it felt like the world was moving, or that someone was carrying me. I felt myself drifting back into darkness, I fought the darkness, but lost.
The next time I woke I felt myself lying on something soft. As I tried to force my eyes open the flashback returned, the voice spoke again "I owe you a lot, you know. After all it is you that allowed us to get our hands on this state-of-the-art experimental equipment. Ironically, it is YOU who's responsible to who you are becoming now"
I blinked my eyes, bright light made it impossible to see, I tried to force myself to calm and use my fogy brain. Who was that man? Whose voice was it? What was he talking about and what the hell was happening to me? My cyber implant eyes should have negated any bright light, they were not working properly. Was the image sent to me through the matrix? That was possible, but it felt strange, like a real memory of something that actually happened to me, I tried to test my matrix connection, but it was dead, I couldn't feel the matrix at all, and I began to panic, my commlink was implanted in my head, not feeling the matrix meant the commlink was dead, or not in my head anymore, it also meant that the flashback was not a simsense sent to me through the matrix.
"Too sad what happened to you and your Tarou. Really. Though I couldn't care less because the scum you are. You deserve each other - but sadly, the corp can't allow this reunion. And you knew it from the start! Unfortunately, you will never meet again"
Tarou, the name made my heart ache, I felt I should have known why, but I couldn't remember. I felt I should know the voice that was talking to me. This was obviously someone who knew me well, knew my history with Renraku. I blinked my eyes again, this time my vision cleared, and I notice the ceiling above me with a bright lamp fixed on it, a tear dropped along the side of my face, the voice could have belonged only to one person, I recognized it now, Ben, my only trusted friend. How stupid I have been to put my trust in him, in anyone, reality was not a story with a good end, I knew then I could only trust myself, and even that was in doubt. He continued "And then you came to me... how easy it was to manipulate you then. At least we have THAT in common. We both hate Renraku now. But oh-how-will-you-hate-them when they finally put their hands on you. And I will collect the reward..." "Ben ho Ben, what have you done" I whispered to myself, yet, another memory, another flashback flashed before my eyes "So what would fit you more than a... woosy French ancestry. Amelie is good enough for you, Danielle. Can we affect her accent?" he asked the shadowy man next to the table. The man replayed with a faked French accent "Well, but of course" and they both laughed.
"I am just playing with you Danielle. I have all this planned thoroughly even if you think I improvise. What will we make of your dear Tarou? ...Leon? Is it French enough? Let's scramble it a bit. Tarou is... sorry - LEON is YOUR BROTHER. And he... turned into an Ork - and Renraku can't allow that - mostly not to their elite "samurais". Samurais-my-behind if I may say. But you can't have them take your brother, can you? You'll be restless until you know what happened with him. Sadly, for you, I am the only one who knows..."
Tarou, I could almost see him in my mind now, and I could feel my heart aching for him. Sadly, I knew Ben was not lying, it all felt so true, more true than my memories of the past year. In my flashback I looked down, and I got a glimpse of a light blue uniform I was wearing, I think it was Renraku uniform. Another man with the same uniform walked into the room, and whispers something to the man behind me, who must have been Ben. Ben replies vocally "Get the men ready in their positions, we're out in ten" then he spoke to me again "Amelie, we rehearsed it thoroughly enough by now. We've invested weeks on this show and the puppet you are now. The talented, exceptional hacker kid - who would have believed?" he laughed. "Well, our REAL talented hacker will back you up for it to seem real. He's exceptional. And with the equipment you allowed us to grab - oh, that's amazing stuff - no one would ever suspect. We will know everything you do. We're almost inside your head. So, it's over now, girl. Here we depart from reality as you knew it" the man in front of me opened a suitcase on the table and was dealing with something inside it "And starting thirty minutes from now" Ben's said with a final note to his words "I am going to be your best and only friend. You can call me Ben"
At that point I was confused and panicked, flashes of memories swapped through my mind, and I wasn't sure which one was real and which one was not, I couldn't feel any of my implants and that confused me even more, I must have been hyperventilating. Suddenly someone in the room said "look, the chick is awake" I didn't even checked my surrounding till then, just to show how confused I was. "Good, I prefer her awake when we will have fun with her" another voice replied. There was no point pretending to be unconscious, after they clearly knew I was awake. I lifted my head, looking at the room, I was lying on a bed, only with me panties and bra, and this underwear set was not a modest one. Two shirtless oriental looking men were sitting on chairs next to the door to the room, it looked like they were playing cards before I regained conciseness and the way they both looked at me made a chill run down my spine. I carefully rolled up to my feet, standing on the bed, my eyes not leaving the pair as I tried to clear my head and focus. One of them was obviously augmented with cyber arms covered with tattoo-like drawings, I couldn't notice any augmentations on the second. The tattoos on the augmented one reminded me of the tattoos the Korean Komun'go ring gangers we tangled with several month ago had. I tried to cover myself the little I could with my arms, like that would have done any good, and that drew an evil smile from the two men "she is even hotter when she's awake" the augmented man said. They spoke Korean and surprisingly I understood them perfectly "what do you want of me" I snarled at them, speaking Korean "ha, she has got some fire in her" the other one said "relax baby, our boss is on his way, he has some question for you and then we will all have some fun together" his smile was mocking as he leered at me. He approached the bed, holding the deck of cards to me "here, pick a card, let's see your future" I figured I had little chance fighting the both, or even one of them, I was short for an elf, my 158 centimeters and 48 kilos were not a match for most men in unarmed combat, that's what I had JC for, only he wasn't here now. Yet, I wasn't going to let them have their fun with me without a fight. I snatched the cards deck angrily from the leering guy, he stepped back laughing "whoa, its looks like she wants to have some fun right now" he laughed. The augmented guy approached the bed, grinning evilly. It was not courage, but fear that drove me to action, before he could climb onto the bed I kicked his face with a skill that surprised both of us, and he stumbled back holding a broken nose. I tried to kick him again, but this time he was ready and blocked my kick easily, I guess the cliché about oriental people and martial arts has a grain of truth after all. While his friend looked amused, the augmented guy was furious, he drew a long cougar blade from his belt "I'm gonna gut you like a pig, bitch" he growled in a low angry voice and launched at me. Standing on the bed I had the advantage of height and I instinctively tried to block him, surprising both of us again, I was fast, but not fast enough compare to his augmented arms speed. he cut a long, but shallow cut along my ribs, I hardly felt it with the adrenaline rush I was in, I took a step back on the bed, the cards deck was still in my left hand, without even realizing what I was doing I drew a card from the deck and felt as if electrical currents were running through my hand to the card, it was glowing faintly. I was awed at what I did next, I threw the card at the tattooed man, and it flew at him almost like a bullet, cutting his throat. Blood was pumping out of the wound and he fell to the ground. He tried to press the wound, but after few seconds he stopped moving. Both I and the other ganger were shocked for a second, and then he was at me with his own blade, I tried to block him, but I was not even close. I don’t know if it was the wound, me being shocked or just bad luck, but his blade stabbed me through the stomach, and I could hardly breathe. His long blade went deep into me and he held it there, his face inches from mine, smiling at my shocked expression. He pulled his blade out and took a step back, and although I was close to losing consciousness again, the space he gave me was all I needed. Maybe he thought I was already dead, or maybe he just prepared himself for another strike, but a second later he had a card lodged in his throat, he fell back, dyeing within seconds. Later I found out I was very lucky, miraculously, the knife miss any vital organ, but I was bleeding badly from both wounds, especially the one in my stomach.
I pressed my hand on the wound in my stomach tightly, it hurt like hell, and looked around the room as I tried to steady myself. My head was spinning and I was dizzy from blood lose. What were they saying? Their boss was on his way? I didn't think he was going to be happy with what I have done to his men, I needed to get out of there and fast. Looking around the room I found my stuff on a heap in the corner, of course, it was too much to expect my pistol will be there, but I still had that deck of cards clutched in my left hand, maybe I could use that card trick again. With all my aches and wounds I found myself chuckling painfully, card trick, ha? Maybe I should start doing shows for kids. I donned my form fitting body armor, not bothering with the dress, while trying to keep pressure on the wound the whole time. I was still dizzy as hell, even more so then before, and as my adrenaline rush was subsiding, the pain from my wounds was instance, especially with my armor brushing against them with every move I took. The stomach wound was not only terribly painful, but it also gave me trouble moving straight, the blade must have ruptured some muscles, drek I was in a bad shape. Sadly, not only my pistol was missing, my micro transceiver was gone, and that meant I couldn't talk to the team, if they even were alive. But then, I found the jackpot, my secondary commlink, or maybe it was my only real commlink, according to Ben. The massage icon was blinking, but I had no time for it. I sent a text massage to the team "I'm badly injured, I'm not sure where I am, but it's a suite with a bed, so it's must be one of the "off-limits" suites the kid had talked about". I breathed painfully with relief as several seconds later I received replays from JC asking me to stay put "no can do" I typed back, "the boss of those Korean gangers is on his way here, I'm trying to find a way out." I searched the now dead Koreans and found an electronic key-card, it opened the door with a blip.
Try as I might, I couldn't avoid leaving a trail of blood behind me as I stumbled through the yacht lower level corridors. It was eerily silent as I stepped over several dead bodies on my way towards the back of the yacht, all belonged to once happy partying young people.
JC texted me that he joined forces with Kryss and they were heading toward my location, and that Watson was at the front of the middle level, dealing with some gangers. Later I found that they all lost their consciousness just like I did, and each woke to find gangers around them, all but Watson who lost his consciousness while he was in the bathroom dealing with the few vomit spits, and the gangers didn't find him. It could only be that Brendon's whisky had some kind of drag in it. Luckily, the gangers presumed that JC and Kryss were dead, and didn't put a bullet in their heads, the gangers paid dearly for that mistake. JC found he still had his concealed pistol with its silencer on when he woke, and made good use of it, killing the two gangers next to him before they could even react and then killing his way toward Kryss, Kryss herself regain consciousness half submerged in the yacht pool, which was red with blood, and then killed the gangers on her path with her deadly spells, though casting so many spells taxed her greatly.
I advanced as silently as I could along the corridor, my left hand press to my stomach and my right hand on the wall, I was not sure I could stay on my feet if I didn't support myself on the wall. I had to cross in front of an opened door and I took a quick peek through the door, the bodies of three girls and one boy lay on the floor, all dressed with swimming suits. It looked like they tried to run from the pool deck into that room and were shot at their backs, each was lying in a pool of dark red blood and had several gunshot wounds at their backs. A ganger was at the room, he was going over the bar content, throwing the bottles carelessly to the floor. A submachinegun was strapped on his back. I sneaked clumsily across the door, hoping he was too busy to notice. But again, my luck failed me, As soon as I sneaked across the door the sound of crashing bottles ceased, although I doubt the ganger saw me, he probably have heard me, I wasn't so light on my feet in my condition, and he might have had augmented ears or some other hearing improving device, and of course, there was a good chance he could notice the trail of blood I was leaving behind me. I heard the too familiar sound of a weapon being cocked as I tried to move faster down the corridor toward a second door, I hoped to sneak into it before the ganger could finish my painful existence. My vision was spinning and my legs felt rubbery, I was very close to the door, but I wasn't moving fast enough "freeze and turn around, slowly" the ganger voice commanded with heavily accented English. I spread my hands to the sides, I didn't want him to shot me just because he might think I was holding a weapon, and turned around slowly, the ganger was holding his submachinegun pointed at me. Drek, I thought, the chances I could survive this were slim at best. Suddenly, the ganger raised his weapon to his shoulder, pointing toward me and I dropped to the ground instinctively, hoping to dodge his bullets, only instead of bullets a bolt of force flew above me and hit the ganger to the chest, I could hear his ribs break as he flew backward and hit the wall at the far end of the corridor. Kryss has arrived.
From what I knew of mages, they could only cast so many spells before draining themselves, they could overcast, creating even more deadly spell but risking their own life on the process. Physically, the effect of the draining on a mage vary between mages, in Kryss case her scars started bleeding when she drained herself to much, and drek, her scars bled badly.
I tried to push myself back to my feet, but black spots appeared in front of my eyes, I stayed on all four waiting for the spots to disappear when a strong hand grabbed my arm and helping me up, it was JC who did so without the slightest effort with one hand while keeping his pistol pointing ahead with his other hand. "Although I appreciate the view" he said "I think we need to move" they both looked at my blood soaked body armor and then at my face "drek, you look pale" JC said, his humor vanishing "you are not going anywhere like this" Kryss said and started casting a spell, few seconds later I felt her magical energies surge through me and my wounds tingled in a strange way, I could actually feel my rapture muscles binding themselves back together, and although the spell did not heal the wounds completely, I felt much, much better. Kryss, on the other hand, was bleeding badly from her scars, even more then before "drek Kryss" I said "you don't need to kill yourself to heal me" I knew she couldn't heal the wounds she suffered from her own casting. JC and Kryss exchanges weird look as I spoke, and I was surprised, although maybe I shouldn't have been, I had no French accent, pure American accent. "What the hell happened to you?" JC asked "I'm not sure" I said, he probably was asking about my accent, but I preferred to avoid the question for now "I lost consciousness and when I woke I found myself without my weapons and armor in one of the suites with two gangers, one of them augmented. They tried to assault me and I killed them, but I got myself pretty bit up in the process" JC eyebrow arched "you?" he asked "you killed two gangers unarmed and unarmored?" I was the team hacker and face, I was OK with pistols, though nothing to brag about, but I had nothing to do with unarmed combat. I didn't know how I killed the two, though I felt that if I just had some time to sit and think I could remember my past, my true past, my true self. "Yes" was all I could say at that point.
We headed toward Watson, JC took point as Kryss could not cast anymore spells without putting herself in a real danger, maybe even killing herself, and I was not sure I could explain my card trick at that point. Besides, after what happened with Ben I just felt I couldn't trust anyone anymore, so I kept my cards close to my chest, so to speak. We sneaked around several gangers advancing quietly, with Kryss out of energy we preferred avoiding combat if possible. As we walked I noticed about a dozen dead gangers, some of them were killed from a single bullet to their head, and the other were torn apart by Kryss magical forces.
An explosion rocked the boat, coming from the direction Watson should have been, we couldn't know what was happening and we continued onward as quickly as we could, only to find Watson checking a machine-gun he retrieved from the smoking remains of a ganger, Watson liked grenades and rarely left home without one. "Let's move" I said "I'm sure the gangers are on their way here" Watson also looked surprised by the change of my accent, but he said nothing, it was not the right time. "To the bridge" he said "we got to collect our gear before we get out of here" JC frowned "I know it's expensive gear up there, but we should head for the lifeboat and get the hell out of here." They both looked at me expectedly, at past runs Kryss referred to me as the leader of the group, and weirdly that stuck, the fact that they trusted me with all the weird things that were happening to me was the best I could ask for, and maybe I could trust them despite what happened with Ben. I wouldn't have trusted me in their place.
JC personalized assault rifle and Watson special shotgun were in the safe of the bridge, both weapons cost them a small fortune and were not easy to come by. With both Watson and JC armed I believed we could grab our gear without getting ourselves killed, so I said "lets head to the bridge, we do it fast and then head back to the lifeboat" everyone knew there was no time to argue so we headed to the bridge. As we were walking Kryss who walked behind me said "what's that on your hair, Zer0?" Zer0 was my code-name as the team's hacker, it was invented by Ben and it wasn't me, which made me angry. I moved my hand through my hair, a huge amount of dandruff like substance was dropping from my hair, drek, I never had dandruff before. Was that the supper advanced substance Ben was using to "be in my head", as he put it? "I am not sure, Kryss, but it's nothing that is important right now" I replayed.
We ascended to the third level of the yacht and were preparing to advance on the bridge, when we heard some noises coming from the stairs we just came from. We hurriedly took position facing the stairs when a three meter high figure raced up the stairs, it was made of water, all of it, it's almost humanoid face kept changing, it's eyes and mouth were literally swimming around its face. "drek" Kryss coursed "a water elemental, run you fools" I doubted very much Kryss could stop the water elemental all by herself in her condition, although the mundane weapon we had could do little to help, but before I could say anything another figure appeared at the top of the stairs, it was a Korean older man, with an opened robe over an armored vest, if I needed to bet, I would have bet he was a mage, and probably the mage that summoned and control the elemental spirit. Maybe he thought that we have continued to the bridge, or maybe he was so confident in himself he simply came up the stairs, it looked like Kryss also identified him as a mage, and in a blink of an eye she sent a bolt of force at him that smashed his chest. I guessed right, it was the mage that summoned the spirit, and with him dead the elemental spirit was free and enraged, it charged down the stairs at the mage's friends and we could hear lots of screams coming from the lower deck. Kryss smiled at us, coughed some blood and dropped to the ground. Drek, Kryss, why did you have to be a hero? You could have proven me wrong about going to the bridge without killing yourself. I ran to her and checked her pulse, it took me few seconds to find it, it was weak but it was there. I picked her unconscious body from the floor and swung it over my shoulder, she was way lighter than I thought. Both JC and Watson looked at me with surprise and JC nod his head "we definitely need to talk when this is over" he said. Apparently I was much stronger than any of us thought I was.
The breaking into the bridge went smoothly, I may not be a hacker, but I still know how to bypass a card reader, I managed to short the reader circuits and the door to the bridge opened. Watson and JC stormed in, surprising the three gangers and killing them within seconds. Captain John Wong body was lying over the security cameras console, he was shot twice in his chest and his captain shirt was socked with blood. While JC and Watson sacked the safe I shoved the captain's body from the bloodied console so I could start the security cameras and get a better look at what was happening. We also needed to see if we could find Brendon Hilcox among the gangers or the dead, a mission is still a mission, even if the
hit the fan. Searching through the cameras I found no trace of him or his troll friend, I did found the body of his lackey, Joe, he lay dead on the floor of the same room where we met Brandon. I could also see several groups of gangers advancing towards the bridge "we are going to have company soon, let's get out of here" I warned the team.The next ten minutes we had several encounters with gangers, and we pushed them back, mostly Watson and JC, I was busy carrying the unconscious Kryss, and then something unexpected happened, a ganger head almost exploded from a sniper shot coming from the yacht upper roof. A vivid memory came to me, a Japanese middle aged man was lecturing a small group of people, me among them "in cleaning operations we need to station at least one sniper on a vantage point, a roof or an upper floor in urban combat, a hilltop in the wilderness, an area that will provide us with fire control over the battlefield" the instructor was wearing Renraku uniforms. I had terrible feeling about that "I don't know who the sniper is" I said "but I have a feeling we need to get the hell out of here, and now" there was no argument. We hurried back to the bridge and Watson pressed a button that started an automated machine-gun that was on the front of the yacht, we noticed the heavy machine-gun controls when we first visited the bridge, but we did not think we will ever need to use it. We started it now in order to create a distraction, the sound of the heavy machine-gun long bursts of fire echoed around the yacht. We could see on the security cameras that some of the ganger were indeed confused by it. We ran to the side of the yacht, I hoped that the night darkness will give us some cover, night vision or not. Watson pulled a rope he had in his bag, that man always had something for every situation, it's better to be prepared, he always said. I lowered myself down the rope till I hit the dark, Icy water, I hated cold water, and I still do. Next they lowered Kryss to me and I made sure to keep her head above the water as I started swimming with her toward the rear end of the yacht, where the lifeboat should be. We had no chance of swimming to the shore in the freezing water, we needed to get to the lifeboat to survive. JC and Watson soon joined me in the icy water and we found the lifeboat. JC helped me pull Kryss into it, while Watson sneaked into the yacht and cut the ropes holding the lifeboat. Several shots were fire at our direction as we started the motor a hundred meters or so from the yacht and headed toward the lights at the far shore, but they all missed.
While we sailed I pulled my commlink out and press the play on the blinking massage icon, I guessed what it was going to be, but I needed to hear it anyway.
"Hey darling, it's BEN." Ben's voice came mocking from the commlink speakers "Sorry I couldn't say farewell face-to-face. I really hope you get to hear my message before you die. Anyway, there's a last thing I wanted from you - and that's the reward on your head, deserter! There was never any Ancients involved in this, it was always your beloved Renraku that you've crossed. If you're lucky you will die before they get to you. And to get my rewards I've just told them where to find you. I must admit - though I am really, really satisfied, this vengeance left an empty hole in me. First, I have much less to do and solve when my Zer0 is gone! Second, I can't see your face when you realized the truth of all this. Last but not the least, I hate Renraku score a goal - yet, it's an own goal as I schemed your desertion which had made you wanted in the first place. Getting killed by your own is hell of a vengeance. Anyway, thanks for being the fall-guys for our becoming rich! You were the most talented naive puppet ever. Love you!
BTW, if you feel uncomfortable dying with all these dandruff - don't worry, this is just the high-end gear we've used, thanks to you"
This massage confirmed everything I suspected, and with it a flood of memories overwhelmed me. I remembered my childhood in Seattle and later in sun Francisco, I remembered my parents, they were killed at the famous Renraku Arcology shutdown when I was only eleven. Renraku took me in and was my new home, I remembered my training at Renraku for the red samurai elite forces and I remembered Tarou, his handsome face, his gentle touch, his caring, the only one who really cared about me, not about my potential, not about what I could do, but just about me. Ben took it all away because he wanted to get rich. The end was fogy, I couldn't remember what exactly happened with Ben, but I knew he set me up and betrayed me. I was behind furious. I murmured to myself "I am coming for you, and I will make you pay for everything". Looking at my teammates I said aloud "all our commlinks are compromised, we need to ditch them" and threw my commlink into lake Washington dark water. JC and Watson looked at me, then nodded and ditched their own commlinks. A commlink is a costly device, and they threw it without a word of complaint, and it was my fault they were in this mess. I had a user account in each of their devices, as the so called hacker of the team, they all gave me access, and if I had access so did Ben, he probably could track every movement we made, read every text and email we sent or received, and much more through those commlinks.
Eventually the boat hit the shore in a relatively secluded place. It was dark, we were wet, freezing and wounded, Kryss was still out and we had no idea where we were.
"What do we do now?" JC asked
"We run" I said, and started towards the lights.
The end of chapter 1
