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  POISON AGENDAS

  The year is 2063. Earth has been reborn, unleashing long-dormant magical forces across the globe. Megacorporations rule from on high, while organized crime syndicates rule the underworld. Sliding through the cracks are the shadowrunners—professionals who will do anything for a profit...and anything it takes to get the job done.

  Kellan Colt has been making a name for herself as one of Seattle's up-and-coming shadowrunners, and she believes she's ready to break out on her own. Opportunity knocks when she learns the location of a secret weapons cache abandoned by the U.S. military. With the right buyer, a score this big has the potential to secure Kellan's reputation—and her bank account.

  With a team of fellow shadowrunners assisting her, Kellan descends deep into the heart of the Awakened wilderness to extract the weapons. But the supernatural entities lurking in the forest become the least of her worries when a rival faction appears seeking the cache—and the greatest threat to them all is revealed....

  Poison Agendas

  A low, throaty growl sounded from the trees to their left. The shadowrunners whipped around toward the sound just as a whirlwind of gray fur exploded from the shadows. It slammed into Natokah, and the shaman and his attacker went tumbling down the slope. Natokah yelled in pain and surprise, and the other shadowrunners sprang into action.

  Orion drew his sword and leapt down the slope in a single motion. He tumbled in midair to land lightly on his feet close to where the creature had Natokah pinned to the ground. It was massive, as long as the shaman was tall, and it definitely outweighed him. The beast was all powerful muscle, with a blunt muzzle filled with sharp teeth, and heavy slashing talons on all four paws. Orion attacked and left a bloody gash along its flank, drawing its attention away from Natokah. The beast turned with a fierce growl, jaws flecked with white foam and red blood.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Steve Kenson stepped into the shadows in 1997 with the Awakenings sourcebook. Since then he has written or contibuted to more than two dozen Shadowrun® RPG books. His first Shadowrun novel, Technobabel, was published in 1998. He has written four other Shadowrun novels (Crossroads, Ragnarock, The Burning Time, and Born to Run), in addition to MechWarrior® and Crimson Skies™ novels. Stephen lives in Merrimack, New Hampshire, with his partner, Christopher Penczak.

  ROC

  Published by New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,

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  First published by Roc, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  First Printing, January 2006 10 987654321

  Copyright © 2006 WizKids, Inc. All rights reserved

  REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

  Printed in the United States of America

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. PUBLISHER'S NOTE

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

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  SHADOWRUN : 42

  POISON AGENDAS

  A Shadowrun™ Novel

  Stephen Kenson

  To my friends; my parents, George and Lynn; and to Christopher, most of all.

  Acknowledgements

  When you write in the Sixth World of Shadowrun®, you stand on the shoulders of giants. My deepest thanks to Mike Mulvihill for his trust and guidance,, to Sharon Turner Mulvihill for her input and expert editing, and to Bob Charrette, Tom Dowd, Paul Hume, and Jordan Weisman for starting it all and each helping in their own way to bring the Sixth World to glorious and gritty life. Without them, this book wouldn't exist, and I would have missed out on a whole lot of fun along the way.

  Contents

  Cover

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Title

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Epilogue

  Chapter 1

  Juan Espinosa wasn't a particularly brave man, which was now something of a problem. As he made his way along the upper level of the mall in the Aztechnology Pyramid, Espinosa loosened his tie, trying to relax its grip on his throat. And despite the mail's perfectly controlled environment, he found he needed to wipe away sweat beading on his brow.

  The evening weather outside the broad windows was clear—a welcome change from the previous four days of rain in the Seattle Metroplex. The nice weather seemed to have enticed everyone outside—to enjoy some shopping inside. The mall surged with shoppers. Men and women wearing the latest in corporate fashion, like Espinosa, teenagers wearing the latest in synthdenim, synthleathers, neospandex or urban tribal wear. A scattering of metahumans stuck out in the crowd, but most of the shoppers were human. Many metahumans couldn't afford to shop at the Aztechnology Mall, which was just as the mall's owners preferred it.

  Espinosa fought the urge to look behind him for about the fifth time, glancing instead into the window of Lordstrung's and trying to see in the reflection any sign that he was being followed. He couldn't tell if anyone seemed interested in him, but that didn't mean they weren't there. He spotted a row of vidbooths across from the food court
and unconsciously quickened his steps. He slid into an empty booth and pulled the transparex partition closed, fumbling in his pocket for his credstick. He slid the short plastic rod into the reader beside the flatscreen display, then tapped the telecom number he'd been given into the keypad. He prayed he remembered it correctly, since he hadn't dared to entrust it to his headware memory.

  The moment it took for the call to be connected seemed to last an eternity, and Espinosa risked a glance out the transparent partition. Still no sign of any surveillance, but there were plenty of people milling about, any one of whom could be the one.

  "Feeling a tad nervous, Mr. Espinosa?" a voice said, and the startled Aztechnology exec spun back toward the screen. It displayed a kid-trid cartoon image of a pretty girl with a heart-shaped face, impossibly large eyes and a tiny mouth curled up into a smile. The face was framed by flowing black hair, swept back and held in place by a headband shot through with silvery circuit patterns.

  "There's nothing to worry about." the sweet voice continued, carrying through the speakers in the booth. "Everything is under control and going according to plan."

  "Of—of course." Espinosa stuttered, swallowing convulsively and wiping his sweaty palms on his thighs.

  "We're ready to go. Just leave the booth and head over to the Soya-King stand. We'll take care of the rest."

  "But what . . ." he began, but the flatscreen had already gone black. The connection had been broken, and Espinosa knew the number wouldn't work a second time. All he could do now was what he had been told to do. So he pulled his credstick from the slot, stepped out of the booth and headed for the Soya-King stand, weaving his way around the scattered mall patrons enjoying a late dinner.

  As he approached the stand, a tall elf wearing a leather jacket bumped against him. Espinosa spun, a hasty apology on his lips.

  "Hey, watch where the frag you're going!" the elf snarled.

  "I'm sorry . . . I—"

  "Yeah? You're gonna be more sorry!" The elf reached out and grabbed the collar of Espinosa's suit jacket. He yanked the hapless man toward him so that they were almost face to face, though the elf stood a good ten centimeters taller. A sizzling pop jerked his gaze down to the elf's hands, and he saw the stun gun a split second before it hit him.

  The elf jammed the small weapon into his gut and Espinosa convulsed as the electric charge slammed into him. His limbs flailed spasmodically, and he heard several people shout as they noticed what was going on. Then the elf dropped him to the floor, and he wasn't aware of much more. All he could think was, What went wrong?

  * * *

  From where she stood near the food cart, Kellan Colt watched the exchange between Espinosa and his elven assailant. The elf dropped the stunned corporate suit, backed away a step, and then took off through the crowd as several people rushed to see what was happening. Kellan was at Espinosa's side in an instant, crouching beside him. He groaned, but was clearly out of it.

  "Oh my God!" she said, loudly enough for the people nearby to hear. "Somebody get help! Somebody hit a Panicbutton!" Several people in the crowd reached for their phones to punch the Panicbutton service key incorporated into every cell device, and alert the authorities to the problem. With a deft movement, Kellan reached into Espinosa's jacket and "took out" the small, pagerlike device she'd kept palmed.

  "DocWagon is on the way." she said, holding out the signal device so other people could see it. "Everybody step back and give this guy some breathing room until they get here." The crowd, grateful for someone to tell them what to do but still curious about what was going on, began to reluctantly pull away from Kellan and Espinosa, continuing their muttered conversations. Then their attention was drawn by a sound coming from the main corridor of the mall.

  Kellan glanced up as a force of Aztechnology security double-timed it around the corner into the food court, shouting for people to get out of their way. The crowd instantly parted as the guards swung their rifles in an arc ahead of them, laser sights painting red dots on the walls and floor. Their body armor was matte-black ballistic cloth, their helmets showing blank faceplates of opaque transparex, no doubt with heads-up displays providing tactical feeds.

  "Everybody back!" the lead guard barked, emphasizing the command with a wave of his gun. The crowd immediately complied, leaving Kellan crouching beside Espinosa's sprawled figure. She immediately got to her feet and took a few steps back, keeping her hands where the guards could see them. It was possible they were packing rubber or plastic bullets in those state-of-the-art assault rifles, but Kellan doubted it. This was trouble.

  The guards immediately surrounded Espinosa, the lead man leveling his weapon at Kellan. She didn't need to look down to know there was a targeting point painted on the front of her white tank top as the man took a cautious step forward.

  "All right, miss," he began, "put your hands behind—"

  Suddenly there was a loud bang at the far side of the food court and the security guards all spun in the direction of the noise, weapons at the ready. One of them fired off a burst, and people screamed and fell to the floor. The bullets went high, leaving ragged holes in the far wall and taking out part of a neolux sign in a shower of sparks and fluorescent gel. They were definitely not firing rubber bullets.

  Except for flicking a quick glance toward the gunfire, Kellan kept her gaze on the security guards. When the Aztechnology men turned, she raised one hand and spoke a phrase in a fluid language. The exact sound of it was lost in the noise, but her words wouldn't have been intelligible even if the mall had been completely silent. The lead security guard spun back toward Kellan just in time to see her hurl a fistsized ball of light at his feet. He didn't even have time to call out a warning.

  The ball of light burst in a soundless explosion, engulfing the security guards and Espinosa in its radiance. Kellan focused on confining the burst to the few meters occupied by the armed men. A few mall patrons were caught in the blast of the spell as well, but it couldn't be helped; she had made the area of effect as small as she could. Where the golden light struck, people crumpled, like puppets with their strings cut. The Aztechnology guards and half a dozen mall patrons simply dropped to the floor, the only sounds being bodies hitting the tile and guns clattering down beside them.

  Kellan pulled a compact earpiece and throat mic from the pocket of her jacket and slipped it over her right ear as an elf and an ork came charging toward her. The shocked crowd mostly stayed where they were, crouching or lying on the floor, or hiding behind small tables and chairs.

  "Jackie, we're fragged." Kellan said into the mic. "Security made us. We're headed for the pad. Tell Max to hurry."

  "Understood." replied a woman's voice. "I'll give you what cover I can."

  "What happened?" asked the elf who had incapacitated Espinosa. The other man, a burly ork, crouched beside the unconscious company man.

  "I don't know." Kellan said. "They must have been tipped off. They were in position and armed for bear—not like regular Aztechnology security."

  "He's out cold." the ork announced, after checking Espinosa's pulse to make sure he was still alive.

  "He'll stay out for a while, too." Kellan replied. "Pick him up, we've gotta get the frag out of here."

  Without further comment, the ork lifted the unconscious suit and tossed him over one broad shoulder with little more effort than picking up a child. Kellan touched a hand to her throat mic.

  "Jackie, we've got our boy, but we need the quickest way out of here."

  "There's an emergency exit to your left." the decker's voice replied after a second. "About four meters down the corridor. It's eighteen flights up to the pad."

  Kellan nodded. "Let's go." she said to the others, and headed down the hall at a quick trot.

  "Stop!" a voice shouted as they reached the emergency door. Kellan turned and saw another team of armed security guards headed their way. The lead guards raised their weapons.

  "Go!" she shouted, and the elf hit the emergency door running.
An alarm began sounding through the mall as the door flew open with a bang. The ork followed, carrying the unconscious Espinosa, with Kellan right behind. She dived through the doorway as shots ricocheted with loud cracks off the metal frame and the ferrocrete wall. She pushed on the door to shut it, then abandoned her effort and let the hydraulics close it behind her as the three of them took the stairs at a run.

  "Jackie, we—"

  "I'm overriding the maglocks on all the emergency doors," the decker interrupted, "and shutting down the elevators, but that's only going to slow them down, not stop 'em." Behind them, Kellan could hear the guards hitting the door with something heavy.

  "Roger that." Kellan replied.

  "Fraggin' heavy suit." the ork puffed as they hit the fourth flight of stairs. "He could definitely cut down on the nachos."

  "I could say the same for you, G-Dogg." the elf said with a wicked grin, taking the stairs two and three at a time with long-legged strides.

  "Then maybe you should carry his fraggin' butt, Orion." G-Dogg shot back.

  The door one flight below them burst open and a couple of shots whanged off the metal railing and smacked against the ferrocrete stairs.

  "Stop where you are!" a guard yelled.

  "Keep going." Kellan told her companions. The elf hesitated for a moment, glancing back at Kellan, then G-Dogg barreled past him and he turned to follow. Kellan raised her hand and spoke the same phrase she'd used in the food court. Another glowing ball of mystic energy leapt from her fingers as three guards charged into the stairwell. It burst in a soundless explosion that laid the guards out unconscious.

  Kellan started running up the stairs again but stumbled, catching herself on the railing and breathing heavily. The two stun spells in relatively rapid succession had taken their toll. She wasn't sure she'd be able to pull off another one, and hoped she wouldn't need to. She focused on keeping her legs moving and catching up with the others as they pounded up the stairs.