|
|
  Cyberspace1
The scent of the Gulf was strong in his nostrils as Fritz watched the back of the small house. In the distance he could hear the sound of the waves gently lapping on the beach. A glimmer of star light reflected off the windows as the high thin clouds passed by. All of Fritz's attention centred on the wooden door and sounds coming from the neighborhood around him. The heat of the summer night and humidity brought all the bugs out in force, yet he ignored them just as he ignored everything else but his assigned target. Pretty soon the razor guys would be crashing the place and his job was to make sure that no one got away from the back.Tapping the helmet controls with his tongue, he lowered the light amplification and sound levels to just above normal and capped them. Glancing down Fritz check his weapons readouts and found everything working nominally. He wouldn't fire up his laser sight until the smash started. No sense in giving anyone any warning that they didn't need. Who knew what sort of dection gear, if any was inside the shack he'd staked out all day... Looking back up to the shack, he expanded the sensor field till he had a clear 180 degree view in front. The HUD display ticked down the seconds at the bottom right of his vision. Thirty more and then the fun would start and in another hundred and twenty it should be all over if all went well. Slowly and with infinite care Fritz brought his assault rifle up to his shoulder. A ghostly reticle formed inside on his face plate where the rifle pointed. It wouldn't brighten until the laser sight went on, but it was good enough at this distance with just his passive optics to do the job. Ten seconds and Fritz heard the scrunch of gravel and shells under the wheels of a car coasting down the road toward the target. The street light nearest the shack was shot out just after nightfall leaving this end of the street in darkness. The live oaks cut most of the light from the stars and the moon earlier in the night. In this modern age, if you had the money and connections, the dark of night hid nothing anymore. Looking through his iron sights to double check his helmet display Fritz waited for the fireworks to start. Five seconds, the driver tapped his brakes lightly and the already unlatched doors swung open, disgorging the strike team. With the speed of enhanced reflexes and cyberneticly augmented vision, the car's occupants moved toward the house. Fritz's laser detector went off before the team had cleared the ditch infront of the house. 'Dumb' he thought, as he cycled the bolt on his rifle. A loud pop confirmed his suspicions as the strike leader's report was cut off in mid sentance. His display still showed two active symbols for the strike team and a dull crump announced their reaction to the booby trap as a grenade blew out the front of the house. With a push of his chin, the laser sight went on, and with another, an RPG went through one of the rear windows spilling tear gas as it landed. Dizzy was screaming in his headphones as she went in one of the shattered front windows, her machine pistol spraying about the room wildly. Alim's heavy pistol roared once then he forced the broken door inward. Crazy Eddie's symbol stumbled in after him, the wound sensor activated in Fritz's display. Their luck soured, but still in their favour, the strike team closed in to complete their job. With a rush the entire front of the house blew out and started to collapse. Static roared in his earphones from damaged feeds still live in the mess before him. The back door opened and three figures sprinted for the beach to his right. Fritz laid his sight on the middle of the rear figure and squeezed off a round. The rear most figure missed a step and went down loosely. As he shifted targets, the foremost figure sprayed rounds from a CAW back toward the now burning shack. The now rear most figure started to zig zag as it ran nearing the high tide drop of the beach. This threw off his aim ever so slightly and enabled the figure's armour to deflect Fritz's second shot. The round's impacting sent the figure flying over the drop onto the soft sand below. But it had also alerted the figure with the CAW to loose his next burts at the muzzle flash from Fritz's rifle. The guy was good, hosed from cold he'd gotten his act together and his people out of the trap and moving. While his first shots were wasted against the shack, his next were on target or else close enough. Fritz felt the impact of numerous fletchettes on his helmet and upper body. ' The guy must have been enhanced to the max to do all that he'd done' Fritz thought as he recovered from the shotgun's blast. All of the electronics on his rifle were skragged, as well as most in his helmet. Thankfully the polycarbon had held as did the ceramic of his own body armour. It had stopped most of the fletchettes, but several were wedged in the joints where there had only been kelvar to stop them. Fritz's respect for the shooter died an instant before the figure before him did. Stopping to reload, no matter how swiftly the guy did it gave Fritz enough time to shift to his iron sights and send a trey round burst through the figure as he brought his CAW back up. A hard slap to his head followed by a flat crack let him know that the last figure was still left to be dealt with. Fritz screamed and threw out his hands as he rolled over and lay still. The seconds passed like minutes as he waited with an aching neck. But he was soon rewarded with the sound of a jet ski starting up then moving away. Rising to his feet beside an oak Fritz looked out into the bay. The last figure was racing in an arc away from him on the jet ski. Stripping off his helmet and dropping it, he picked up the grenade launcher and dailed up an high explosive round. Bracing against the tree to steady himself, Fritz guesstimated the range and let fly. Then lowering his sights, fired again. As he'd thought, the first shot was long and bay ward of the jet ski. His next shot though was on target as reflex jerked the jet ski toward shore. The column of water from the near miss threw the jet ski driver into the water and swamped the ski itself. Marking the spot where the rider went down, Fritz snatched up his rifle and ran down the beach. The tattered remains of his chameleon suit shifting colours wildly as moved along the wet sand. Black, dark grey, silver, white and dark blue of the moonless waters in a random pattern. As he ran Fritz gave a clipped sitrep to their controler and waited for her to decide what to do with this snafu. Coming to the spot opposite where the jetski stopped, he set down his rifle and tore off most of his armour before wading out into the water. He didn't worry much about stepping on anything or running into much. Not after two grenades in the water hereabouts. A few yards infront of him a burst of bubbles marked something under the water. Pushing forward as quickly as he could, Fritz kicked something under the surface of the water. Reaching down in the nearly chest deep water he felt cloth and body armour. With a grunt he pulled it up and got a better grip before moving back to shore. Adjusting his grip to hold the motionless figure around the hips, Fritz let the guy drag through the rest of the water to the beach, draining his lungs as they went. Dropping his limp burden, he began artificial resperation as soon as he'd disarmed the guy. After a moment his efforts were rewarded with a gagged coughing. Looking his prize over, Fritz couldn't tell if the oriental below him was male or female and didn't care much either way. Handcuffing the guys hands behind him with fasteners put any razor claws out of action. From the way that the figure was twitching, it seemed as if some of his cyber ware was shorted out. Not that unlikely given the shrapnel and shocks the guy had taken. The salty humid air just didn't mix well with cybernetics either... Never mind that they were built to go inside a human body or to be stronger than one. The insidious effects of the gulf coast sooner or later caught up with anyone not used to it. Fritz's mind was jerked back to the present as his captive started to move under him in a conscious manner. Looking down, he keyed his comm unit and reported in. "Inez, I've got a live one, send the car to me and lets see what we can get out of this fuck up." Fritz said. "That's a roger. Bennie will be there as soon as he loads up the rest of the team." "Tell him to hurry it up then, the cops, scavangers and corps will all be here soon!" Inez took a breath and said,"Don't worry, he doesn't have much to pick up." "I know. I'll meet him at the street. Out." "Roger. Out." Looking down at his captive Fritz took a moment to study him a bit more closely. Chromed data jack in each temple, at least one cybernetic eye and a tattered black jumpsuit where the flak jacket hadn't covered it. Under these conditions, he couldn't tell if the guy was Japanese, Chinese or Korean. Stripping the flak jacket back over the guy's arms, Fritz picked him up and half carried him half dragged him toward the road. Dropping him half in the ditch, Fritz jogged back and picked up his grenade launcher and went back to the road. In a moment an old Chrysler sedan pulled up and the trunk latch popped. "Hya Bennie, how's tricks?" Fritz asked brightly as he lifted the trunk lid. "Not too good. The only one to make it out was Crazy Eddie, and that's only because Alim took most of the blast." Bennie said around the joint he'd fired up. "What the fuck happened?" "Looks like they knew we or somebody was after 'em and mined the front of the house. That's what got Dizzy and Alim. Danna and Teddy bought it with a claymore in the front yard. Eddie was sure as hell lucky today wasn't he?" "Yeah, sure. Caught just enough of the claymore to slow him down and let Alim catch the big one. Who turned on their laser before they hit the house?" "Beats me, but probably Teddy. You know how he likes to give pree-cise reports on everything. Cost him this time though." "Yeah." Fritz said as he slammed the trunk. "Lets get outta here before anyone else comes along to join the fun." "Ohkay. Rolling" Bennie said as Fritz fell into his seat, letting the momentum of the car shut the door for him. A couple of turns and they were onto the DIP, or Dauphin Island Parkway as it was offically know. Even this late at night there was enough traffic on the road to let them cruise along without too much notice. Another couple of turns and they left the bay behind them and were heading out of town on Range Line Road. The big chemical and petroleum processing plant's lights faded to a dim glow behind them. Turning off onto one of the small side streets then another they made their way back to the temporary base they'd taken for this job. The house sat well back from the road and was totally blacked out. It was an old turn of the century brick ranch style which had made it fairly well into the present time. "Must have been passed down through a family" Fritz thought as they parked in the garage and the door rolled down. While Bennie went on inside, Fritz walked around and retrieved their passenger then Crazy Eddie before following Bennie in. Going on through the kitchen, he found Inez and Bennie in the den. The room was mostly bare, an old sofa, a couple of chairs and a low table all sitting on carpet that must have been new before the last world war. Cardboard had been taped over the windows and fire place with white noise makers attached. The new fiber optic lines to the portacomp and phones were the only jarring note of modernism in the old house. As soon as they were ready to go, these things would be gone with them in a few short minutes. Setting his burden down by the fireplace, Fritz turned to Inez and asked,"Where's Marcus?" Before she could answer, a male voice from the hallway answered the question for her. "Over here. I've set up the first bedroom for a quick interrogation. Bring our guest on in and we'll see just what we've gotten ourselves into this time." The speaker was of average height, but was bulky, musclar and dark. Dark hair and dark eyes plainly showed his southern Itialian ancestory. Not what one would expect of a cyber jock at all. But this guy took his meat as seriously as he did his deck. Besides, as he would sometimes point out," Who would look for a cybernaut that looked more like a contractor or restraunt owner?" It made a weird kind of sense in a strange way. Picking up his still twitching bundle, Fritz carried him into the indicated room. Laying him down on an inflatable cargo mattress, he removed the fasteners and replaced them with others tied to the mattresses straps. While he did this, Marcus fussed over his connectors and data jacks. Giving a disgusted sigh he turned to Fritz. "What the hell happened to him anyway? You try to drownd him or something?" "He was getting away so I rattled his cage some. Hell there's not a serious wound on the bastard. So what if he twitches some? Just means that he aint going anywhere on his own." Fritz replied. "True, he won't go anywhere my friend, but he probably won't be worth shit to us either if we can't get him dried out enough to talk to." Marcus said. "O.k., what was I supposed to do then?" "About what you did I guess. No use crying over spilled milk anyway. Lets see what we can salvage from this wreck and why he had so much protection in the first place. Our Mr. Johnson never said anything about that." "Yeah, and lets see about collecting all of the hazard pay this time too. We've got to make good for Dizzy, Danna and Teddy now. Not to mention Alim." "I know, I know," Marcus said as he braced the man's head in a frame and started cleaning out the data jacks. "Our Mr. Johnson never said much about having to deal with combat situations. Just a nice simple smash and grab routine. Ah, there we go, cleaned out enough for some answers and maybe alittle repair work. Fritz, clean out his eyes and see what else is cyberized. If it's damaged, clean it or shut it down. I'm going to jump this guy's brain box and see if there is anything special or worth down loading." "Be sure to find out where he's from and where he was going" Fritz said, "We can always use the info for something. After you finish, we'll see what the others have found out." Marcus finished patching up and in various data cords and jacks then plugged himself in. Taking a deep breath and letting it out between clenched teeth he said,"Here we go..." and dove into the other man's mind like a seal into a pool. Fritz cleaned the artificial eyes with lightweight oil and dropped a cloth over them. Next he started down the arms and legs feeling for anything obvious such as razor ports or subdural armour and the like. He carefully cut away the jump suit and examined each limb in turn. Next he picked up a sophisticated scanner from a pile of instraments and ran it over each of the man's limbs and torso while studying a small viewscreen he held in his other hand. Every so often he would grunt or hm under his breath until the scan was completed. Then he turned back to see what Marcus had found, if anything in the wreckage of cybernetics. A sheen of sweat stood out upon Marcus's brow and he was breathing slowly and deeply. His eyes were moving in quick bursts left and right mimicking REM movements. Suddenly he started grunting and his hands clenched into fists, tensing, relaxing slightly to tense again and again. Fritz reached over ready to jerk the data jack from his temple when the body below them started to heave and convulse. With a sudden wrenching there were a series of sharp pops then the body on the mattress sagged flacidly. The odours of death spread throughout the small room as Fritz glanced quickly from Marcus to the body between them and back up again. Marcus raised a hand palm out as Fritz shook him, then said "Wait a moment, I'll be alright." Fritz leaned back and watched as Marcus finished his run in the dead man's brain. Slowly Marcus let out a long breath and stared at his fellow shadowrunner. Under his dusky complexion he had gone quite pale. At last he spoke, "That was a hell of a run. The first time I've been in somebody as they lost it. Damn he almost took me with him! He tried real hard too! I'm glad he was so far gone or else he would've fried me in no time..." Fritz could tell that his companion was serverely shaken by all of this and he grasp his shoulder firmly. Communicating that he wasn't alone in the room, in the world. Marcus had the look of a man who'd been in extreme, prolonged combat. The stare into eternity that people get when they have been too close to death for too long and simply don't care enough anymore. He'd seen it before, had the same look himself before. Marcus would have to come down from it on his own, though Fritz could help him some. "Come on Marcus, what did you find in this guy's storage? Spill it man and talk to me! This guy was packing enough cyberware to never make it through an airport on his own. Give me the run Marcus!" Fritz said forcefully. His only chance to get Marcus out of this was to get him to react and talk his way out of what had just happened. "O.k. tell me about this drek head man, from the top. What do you mean that he tried to take you with him?" Slowly Marcus leaned back and sat on the floor, being very careful not to look at the man on the mattress. Giving himself a shake, he started out slowly but steadily. "I cleaned the datajack out as best I could while you worked over his eyes. Then I plugged in the medical programmes to run a stablization on him while I finished checking the jacks. They were pretty well shot, about maybe half capacity. Anyway it was a real bitch getting in and moving around." he said. "Well, I took it easy. Finding the data paths in his plugged in ROM and RAM. The amount of hardware in the man was pretty amazing when you think about it. Very little meat left to the guy. He was almost a walking talking android. If it could be replaced, then it was. Think that there was very little of 'him' left by the time you wasted him." "I didn't 'waste him', all I did was knock him off the ski. The Gulf, she did the rest."Fritz denied hotly. He himself had been shot up, blown up worse than that guy and he was still alive. . "I know" Marcus sighed,"but somehow some of the salt water and blood or something went blooey in his head. All of the 'ware was out of synch. If it hadn't been, I'd have been toast as soon as I plugged into his head. The guy was, probably still is viscous! Anyway, like I said there wasn't much left of 'him' left in there, just some basic memories and reflexes. Who ever jacked him up like this spent alot of money on him. About half of his brain is simply gone. Just cut out and tossed. Replaced with a biocomp, already programmed. This guy could be just about anything that has been recorded! And be it just as if he was the expert they recorded! A truely scary scenario. Do we have any coffee around?" "Hang on, I'll send Inez for some."Fritz said as he turned to yell out the door. "Inez, bring us some coffee in here and start a scan on all the channels for anything to do on our little operation. Be sure to look for the encrypted stuff, especially the mobile transmissions. Have Bennie keep scanning while you get the coffee." "She's gonna be pissed that you sent her for the coffee instead of Bennie." Marcus drawled. "Let her, we need her in here and for Bennie to stay calm for a bit longer. I don't like what I'm hearing and we need alot of brain power up on this double quick." "Your ass, her temper will be as red as her hair my friend." "Don't I know it! But it'll come down real fast, believe me." "Yeah, especially when she hears what comes next." "That bad?" "Worse..." There was the sound of rattled paper and plastic then a muted curse. A moment later Inez brought them all a cup of instant coffee in and wore an expression as hot as her hair. "If you think," she began in a sharp harsh voice. "Is Bennie still keeping watch on the comm ?" Marcus asked calmly. "Yes, and when I left there was only alittle really heavy duty stuff on the air. Of course if they're using land lines we won't hear about it till it's too late." Inez finished. "Here, look over all of the stuff that Fritz and I found on this guy while I recheck the data dump. Fritz, check his clothes again, really careful this time, and if you don't find anything, check on Bennie. Make sure that he's not missed anything then get back here. We've got to figure out just what we 've gotten ourselves into and what's going to happen next. Questions or comments?" Marcus asked as he glanced up from his leads. "No." "Same here, I'll be back to finish this geek's pockets in a minute." Fritz said as he got up and left the room. Turning he made a quick pit stop, then carefully sipping his coffee, made his way back to the living room. Bennie sat with his legs wrapped in plastic sheeting and a mixed cigerette in one hand and a beer in the other. Radio scanners before him, tv beside him and headphones crowned atop him, Bennie looked like an anceint worried king or wise man surrounded by his followers. "Anything yet man?" Fritz asked moving up and looking over his shoulder. "Nah, just some routine police stuff, a newsie flash and a couple of corpsec cars. Maybe a few more there inside of the next half hour. Usual scrambled burst stuff, though not even much of that." Bennie said as he took another pull of his beer and drag off of his weed stick. "O.k., keep a close watch on those cars, and find out which corp they belong to. If those corps send any more out that aren't in their routine patrol patterns, yell. I mean it, yell loud and don't even take a sip or a toke first. Got me?" "Sure man, everthing's cool here man. Relax, we made it and live to snarf another day." Nodding, Fritz turned and checked the perimeter alarms with a quick glance. Running the scan cycles on the scanners just to make sure, he sighed and left Bennie to his beer and smoke. Next he stopped in the bedroom where they'd set up a portamedic and checked Crazy Eddie. He was knocked out and the machine had him stitched up pretty as a new pair of jeans. Taking another slug of rapidly cooling coffee, Fritz headed back to the debriefing room. Inez had on a pair of portable 'trodes, her hair pulled back into a rough bundle and hanging down the back of her neck. Marcus was once again jacked back in to his system running down whatever was left in the dead guy's brain. Looking at the corpse, Fritz shuddered. It wasn't really a person any more, just meat loaded with used hardware. Not even good hardware now, but busted junk. Squating down next to the guy, Fritz methodically turned out his pockets then clothes and finally his shoes. Not stopping there, he picked up his scanner again and began marking sections of the body out that held interesting gadgets or storage cavities. Marcus and Inez were having a conversation on the lines while he began cutting into the meat to retrieve whatever goodies were left in the runner. It took some patience and skill because it seemed as if most of the bone this runner had was replaced with alloy doubles. Very interesting. A small belly pouch revealed a biochip and a sealed packet. Just as he was removing it, the runner's head began sinking backwards, then the cargo mat popped like a cheap balloon. Marcus and Inez both looked up at each other at the same time and then sighed before stripping off their headsets.
 Return to Stories of Andromeda |