Poison Agendas Read online

  The emergency door at the helipad level yielded to G-Dogg's shoulder, and the three of them burst out onto the narrow landing pad, the lowermost on the outside of the Aztechnology Pyramid. Built in the style of the step pyramids of the ancient Aztecs, but on a much larger scale, the building featured several helipads on the broad flat "steps" between levels, suitable for landing small commuter tilt-rotor and vertical take-off or landing vehicles. As they emerged onto the pad, a Federated-Boeing tilt-rotor angled in for a landing. The white vehicle looked like a stubby plane or an elongated van, with short wings that rotated to angle the powerful turbofans so it could make vertical descents. On the side was emblazoned the red cross-and-caduceus logo of the DocWagon corporation.

  "Security is closing on your position." Jackie warned.

  "Roger." she replied. "Let's get the frag out of here."

  "Aw, just when things were starting to get interesting." G-Dogg joked, hefting Espinosa into a modified fireman's carry.

  The side door of the tilt-rotor slid open as it touched down on the pad, revealing a massive troll who barely fit in the frame of the door. His shaggy head and curling horns brushed against the roof as he crouched there, the backwash from the engines whipping his long hair. He wore an overcoat heavy with armor plating, and painted with mystical designs and symbols. One hand clutched an ornately carved staff topped with a crystal. His free hand waved the team toward the aircraft as it touched down.

  They ran out to meet it, G-Dogg in the lead. The troll hopped down from the doorway, moving aside to allow the ork to load his unconscious burden aboard.

  "Lothan, trouble is right behind us." Kellan yelled over the roar of the turbofans, and the troll gave her a broad, tight-lipped smile in return, only his lower tusks jutting up over his lip.

  "I think we can deal with that." he replied in a bass rumble. He pointed his staff at the wall of the building and shouted four words that Kellan didn't recognize. The crystal at the end of his staff glowed, and then radiated a shimmering beam of blue-white light. Lothan swept the light along the length of the wall, and wherever it touched the exterior surface of the building a thick sheet of ice appeared, covering both the emergency exit and the main doors onto the landing pad. The translucent wall was at least ten centimeters deep. The troll mage grunted in satisfaction as he admired his handiwork.

  "Nice." Kellan said. "You're going to have to teach me that one."

  Lothan smiled. "All in good time. Now let's be off. I believe we've outstayed our welcome."

  Kellan and Lothan climbed on board behind Orion, and G-Dogg slammed the door shut. The engines roared and they lifted smoothly off the pad, turning away from the Aztechnology Pyramid and toward the downtown heart of the Seattle Metroplex.

  "Hang on." said a new voice on the commlink in Kellan's ear, this one low and gruff. "We're out of here." The VTOL surged forward as the wings rotated and the engines put on a burst of speed. Kellan grabbed for a seat and its safety harness, glancing out the window as the air suddenly became unnaturally dark around the aircraft.

  "Uh-oh," she said, "Lothan, company!" A powerful howl of wind sent the VTOL slipping sideways, the engines whining to compensate as they lost altitude. Kellan felt her stomach lurch and grabbed for a stable handhold.

  "Damned guard elementals." Lothan growled, as he was thrown roughly against the cabin wall. "Max, keep us stable!" he shouted.

  "What the frag do you think I'm hying to do?" came the angry reply from the flight deck. "Lothan, get rid of this thing before it drives us into the ground!"

  "Watch carefully." Lothan said over his shoulder to Kellan. Then the troll mage planted his feet as firmly as possible on the tilting deck of the aircraft. He held his staff vertically in both hands in front of him, closed his eyes and concentrated, muttering arcane-sounding phrases under his breath as the crystal on the staff once again glowed with power. Lothan focused his will on dismissing the air elemental buffeting the VTOL, as the wind howled like a living thing outside the cabin.

  Kellan slid over to the window and looked outside, focusing her perceptions past the mundane. She ignored the glow of the city lights below them, the spotlights focused on the carved crystalline sides of the pyramid. She blocked out the lurching and swaying of the cabin as she gazed into the swirling windstorm outside and saw, with eyes other than the physical, what was there.

  The elemental spirit was a thin figure clad in dark rags that were swirling and flapping in the wind along with its long, wild hair. It looked like a hag, with a pointed chin and nose, its eyes black pits lit by glowing spots of electric blue light. It opened its mouth and screamed with the wind, extending hands like bony claws as it fought against the aircraft's engines and against the power of Lothan's banishing spell.

  Pressing one hand against the window to steady herself, Kellan gathered her will. With her other hand, she traced a pattern in the air, a faint glow trailing her movements and leaving mystic symbols shimmering before her. She spoke the words of the spell, then jabbed her fingers toward the air spirit. A bolt of light leapt, straight and true as a shot, piercing the spirit like a spear. The elemental shrieked, then dissipated like smoke in the wind, which died away with the last sound of its cries.

  The aircraft righted itself and began to climb, heading out over the metroplex. Lothan opened his eyes and settled into an empty space on the bench seat next to Kellan.

  "I had the situation under control." the troll said, and Kellan shrugged.

  "I just figured we needed to clear out before any more guard spirits showed up, and you were keeping that thing busy."

  Lothan nodded. "Sound reasoning. But beware interrupting a banishment. Such a spell might not always be so successful."

  Gee, you're welcome, Kellan thought, but contented herself with muttering, "I'll keep that in mind."

  Apparently satisfied, Lothan keyed his commlink. "Jackie, what's our status?"

  "I'm spoofing the air-traffic control grid so the Azzies won't be able to track you." the decker replied. "By the time they scramble any pursuit, you should be well out of range."

  "Excellent." Lothan spoke to the flight deck. "Homeward, Max," he said, "and we can dispose of this business."

  "You got it." the pilot replied. "Looks like we've got clear air. We'll be at the meet in no time."

  "Then, perhaps," the troll said, "we can find out where exactly our plans went awry."

  Lothan had come to the same conclusion as Kellan and probably everyone else: something had gone wrong, which could only mean an information leak, and that meant someone had sold them out. If that was true, then somebody had to pay.

  Chapter 2

  Silver Max expertly guided the tilt-rotor along the edge of the metroplex downtown and east toward the Redmond Barrens. Years ago, before the Awakening, the Barrens had been a prosperous area. But the chaos of the past fifty-plus years had taken their toll on some places more than others. Economic and political upheavals had transformed Redmond from an affluent tech-rich community to a depressed and hellish district of the Seattle Metropolitan Complex, under the administration of greater Seattle.

  That meant a life of neglect for the inhabitants of the Barrens, mostly nonentities so far as the metroplex government was concerned. People without SINs, System Identification Numbers, didn't exist in the government's databases. That meant the government wasn't obligated to provide them with anything, including basic services and legal rights, and could ignore them as long as they didn't cause trouble for "real" citizens. So Redmond was filled with condemned and abandoned buildings, and condemned and abandoned people who were carefully watched from the outside by the security forces working for the government and corporations. Redmond was left to quietly rot.

  That arrangement suited shadowrunners just fine. They took advantage of existing outside the government system to sell their services to the highest bidders. They did the dirty work—the jobs no corporation or government could publicly acknowledge needing done but that were so very necessary
in the cutthroat world of modern business. Places like the Redmond Barrens represented hell to many, but served as havens for shadowrunners, places where they could go about their business undisturbed, so long as they were discreet.

  Max set the VTOL down in an abandoned lot well inside the borders of Redmond. The dwarf rigger killed the landing lights on his approach, bringing the aircraft in using nothing but instruments. It would have been difficult for an ordinary pilot, but not for Max, since he was plugged directly into the aircraft's systems through his vehicle control rig. The VTOL's sensors were like his own eyes and ears, its wings like his limbs, its engines like his muscles; so Max guided them down safely in the pitch-black night, moving as surely as a man walking through a familiar room by dim moonlight.

  As soon as they touched the ground, the team sprang into motion. Espinosa was still deeply unconscious, so G-Dogg hefted him again while Orion slid open the hatch and hopped out. He covered the area with a flat-profile pistol, alert for any signs of trouble, his superior metahuman vision easily piercing the gloom. Kellan, G-Dogg and Lothan followed close behind.

  "Jackie," the troll mage announced, "we're on the ground. Status?"

  "No signs of pursuit." the decker's disembodied voice replied. "At least, nothing you're going to have to worry about. I've made sure air-traffic control doesn't have a lock on your location. It's a good bet the Azzies are putting out feelers, though, so don't linger."

  "We have no intention of doing so." Lothan said. "Max, clear out and meet us at the rendezvous when you've taken care of our ride."

  "Roger that." the dwarf replied. Kellan could just see Max through the tinted windows of the aircraft, lying back in the pilot's seat, cables trailing from the jack behind his ear. He looked like he was asleep.

  Orion slid the hatch closed and the engines began to whine as the team backed away, then the tilt-rotor lifted off with a wash of air, dust and loose paper and plastic from the parking lot. In a few moments, it cleared the tops of the nearby buildings, then the wings rotated forward and it headed off into the dark, its running lights coming on once it was a short distance away.

  A van awaited them in the alley running along the back of the lot. The local gang had been paid to ensure that nothing happened to it. A few moments later, the shadowrunners were on their way through the streets of Redmond with G-Dogg at the wheel, Orion riding shotgun and Kellan and Lothan squeezed in back with their "guest."

  "That must have been quite the stun spell you used." the troll commented, observing Espinosa's condition.

  "Well, I wanted to make sure I took down the guards." Kellan knew she sounded defensive. "I knew it wouldn't hurt Espinosa. He'll come around eventually."

  "It wasn't a criticism, my dear. I think it was rather well done, all things considered."

  "Thanks." Kellan was taken aback; Lothan so rarely handed out compliments. She had been learning magic from the old troll mage since shortly after she'd arrived in Seattle, just a few months ago. When she got involved in a fight outside a club where G-Dogg occasionally worked, her survival instinct forced a powerful, unsuspected magical talent to the surface. G-Dogg introduced her to Lothan, who volunteered to take her on as his apprentice in the mystic arts. Magicians were valuable in the twenty-first century, both in and out of the shadows, which gave Kellan an edge in finding work. Before coming to Seattle she had been strictly a small-timer, pulling just enough runs in Kansas City to make ends meet.

  With her newfound talent and a couple of month's worth of big-time runs under her belt, she felt she was ready for something more challenging.

  "Did you see any sign that Espinosa was being watched?" Lothan asked. Kellan shook her head.

  "I don't think so. I mean, he didn't know we were going to fake an attack so we could 'evacuate' him with the DocWagon chopper, and he did seem kind of nervous—but that's no big surprise for an exec looking to jump ship to a rival company."

  Lothan nodded. "True. Did you assess his emotional state?"

  "No, it all happened too fast, and I stuck with the plan, which meant limiting the magic I did inside the pyramid."

  "Well, I think we should avail ourselves of the opportunity to do so now, don't you? Just in case." He waved one hand toward the unconscious suit in invitation for Kellan to proceed.

  "Okay." she said. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, willing herself to relax. Kellan was finding it difficult to learn astral perception, what Lothan and many other magicians simply called the Sight. It took concentration, practice and, most of all, focus, to open oneself up to the images and impressions of the magical world. At first, Kellan only managed it spontaneously. Now, she felt she was getting the hang of it.

  As she willed her perceptions to shift, Kellan's vision went slightly out of focus and she became aware of softly glowing haloes of light around each person in the van. Their auras, their life energy, were now visible to her magical senses. Orion's aura was particularly bright in her peripheral vision; he was an adept, gifted with magical physical abilities of his own. Because he was a powerful magician, Lothan's aura should have been blindingly brilliant, but Kellan knew the old mage deliberately concealed much of his magical power beneath a façade she had yet to learn to penetrate. Lothan's staff and amulet, however, shimmered with power.

  Kellan turned her attention to Espinosa, examining the unconscious man's aura. It was strong and healthy, indicating he'd suffered no serious harm in their escape from the Aztechnology Pyramid. There were some dark spots here and there, particularly around Espinosa's head. Kellan knew these dark spots were signs of cyberware implants, alterations to the body that put it out of synch with the aura. Espinosa had a datajack behind his right ear, and a few other headware augmentations; fairly common equipment for a man of his position and income.

  The emotional surface of the aura was placid—little surprise, since he was deeply unconscious. Were Espinosa awake, Kellan could have read impressions of what he was feeling from studying his aura. It was an inexact science that she was still learning, but she could already pick up more than surface emotions. Lothan was able to read an amazing amount of detail from observing someone's aura, though he combined it with a talent for reading people in general.

  Rather than looking at the company man's emotions, Kellan focused on finding telltale signs that Espinosa was under the influence of any sort of spell, or that his soon-to-be-former employers might be using magical means to track him. She saw no lingering spells in his aura, no threads connecting him to distant rituals and no spirits hovering about.

  "He looks clean." she said.

  "I agree." Lothan replied. "How long until our meeting with the Johnson?" he asked the runners in the front seat.

  "About two hours." G-Dogg answered without taking his eyes off the road.

  "Good. That should give us some time to make sure our guest is awake and in good condition when we make the exchange, and perhaps ask a few questions before our principal arrives to take possession."

  "You think he sold us out?" Orion asked, lifting his chin toward Espinosa.

  "I don't know yet." Lothan rumbled. "But I intend to before our business is concluded."

  Espinosa regained consciousness soon after the shadowrunners reached their destination, one of Redmond's many abandoned strip malls, its storefronts covered with sheets of construction plastic and layers of gang graffiti. He seemed quite surprised to find himself alive, and to be tied to a chair in the middle of an otherwise empty room.

  "What is this?" he asked, tugging at the bonds securing his hands and feet.

  "This," Lothan replied, rising to his full height of three meters, his horns nearly brushing the ceiling, "is payback for the trouble you've caused us, Mr. Espinosa."

  "What trouble? What are you talking about?" Despite the cool temperature of the dimly lit room, Espinosa began to sweat.

  "I mean the fact that Aztechnology security knew about your imminent departure, that they were ready and waiting for us, and that someone mus
t have agreed to cooperate with them. To act as bait."

  "I—I don't know what you're talking about." the exec replied, glancing nervously around the room. "My new employers hired you to get me out of Aztechnology, not to attack me. ..." He struggled weakly against his bonds.

  "That was part of the plan." Lothan said. "We chose to make it look as if you needed medical attention so that we could whisk you away in a purloined DocWagon VTOL. We didn't fill you in on that part of the plan because we wanted it to look real, and to avoid any potential security leaks. . . The troll's voice trailed off and his eyes narrowed, making him look very dangerous.

  "You're looking very warm, Mr. Espinosa." he purred sympathetically. "And your aura is quite turbulent. Fascinating thing, the aura. You can learn so much from it." He took a step closer to the company man. "For example, you can see when someone is telling the truth or when they are lying. You can even reach into the aura and twist. . . ." He extended one massive hand toward Espinosa's sweat-sheened brow.

  "They didn't give me any choice!" Espinosa blurted out, squeezing his eyes shut and flinching away from Lothan. "They said if I didn't cooperate, they would . . . Oh, Madre de Dios. . . ." He lapsed into muttering fearfully in a mix of Spanish and Nahuatl as Lothan approached.

  "Well?" the troll asked.

  "He's telling the truth," Kellan said, "and is scared out of his fraggin' mind."

  "Very good—though I'd say it's rather obvious." He looked down at the whimpering company man with an expression of disgust. "Contain yourself, Mr. Espinosa. We're not going to hurt you." At that, Espinosa dared to raise his eyes to look at Lothan, his pitiful sounds stilled.

  "You—you're not?"

  "Of course not. You're still a valuable commodity, after all. You're going to get your wish and find yourself placed with a new employer as soon as they arrive to collect you, which should be quite soon. However. ..." The troll paused for emphasis, turning away from Espinosa slightly.