The long week

Chapter 1

The night before this all happened I had a very rought night. You see I'm a shadowrunner, I contract out my services to corporations or individuals to make use of. The night before I had been a backup bodyguard for this corporate bigwig. I ended up tangling with two 7'6" trolls. I was lucky not to have been broken in half. They weren't so lucky. I had fallen into bed soon after making back to my house. After receiving my payment of course.

Out of a deep sleep I was jerked by the telecom's shrill ringing. When I figured out that it was the telecom. I was standing across the room from my bed with one of my Predator heavy pistols tracking onto the sound. I began to walk over to the telecom taking the time to pull on a pair of pants and laying my predator on the table by my bed. I keyed the telecom and growled "Who is it and What do you want?"

"It's Hansan and what do I usually call you for."

Hansan is my fixer. She get jobs and passes them on to me, getting a finder's fee from the employer usually. She has been known to get some very important items for me in a hurry.

" Depends on what time it is and who just called you." I said in a very nasty voice

" I've got another run that you might be interested in."

"Another run that's the fourth this week and it's only Wednesday." I know I told her I needed some work and needed some nuyen fast but this is insane.

" Well you know what happens as you become known in the shadows. Besides you've made yourself and me quite a bit of nuyen this week." She replied in a very matter of fact voice.

" Yes, I know. If I'm so well known in the shadows why am I going through you for work then?" I replied very smartly. Maybe that will take the slich down a notch. " And what is this work today?"

" The Johnson didn't tell me a full description, but its either courier work or bodyguarding . I got that much out of him ."

A Johnson ,for you who don't live in the shadows, is a corporate employee or some other person, could be military, that hires a shadowrunner or a team of shadowrunners to do a job for them.

" When does he want to meet?" I said.

"3 PM today at the Palace."

The Palace is a restaurant on the far side of Seattle. It is used occasionally for meetings like this.

" OK. Thanks." I said.

" bye" She said as she killed her telecom.

I looked at the clock on the wall. it said 8:30am. I had over 6 hours to the meeting. I needed to get ready for this run. First item of business: Find out if I needed any ammunition. After that would be to see if I needed to replace any of the various pieces of gear I used needed to be replaced.

After checking my ammunition and gear I wrote up a list of what I needed to order. I sat down in front of the telecom, and dialed a number from memory.

"Good morning Ares International, how may I direct your call." Said this receptionist in a overly perky voice.

" I need to talk to Denis Rodman, VP of special projects." I replied to her.

" one minute please." With these words I was put on hold.

Within thirty seconds A man appeared on the screen.

" This is Mr. Rodman's personal assistant. He is in a very important meeting. " the man smoothly rattled out.

" Tell Mr. Rodman that Mav Rick is on the phone. He will talk to me." I put in my most charming corporate style voice.

" OK I will pass it along, can you hold?" he replied

I said "Sure." with that the screen went blank again.

Another thirty seconds went by. Then the screen came back to life. Denis was on it this time.

" Hi mav " He said.

I replied " hoi chummer. I hate to call you like this but"

" What's the but on the end of that sentence mean?" he said after he caught onto the but I left hanging on the end of that sentence.

" I have a another job to go on and I need some supplies." I said hoping that he wouldn't get to mad at me.

" do I need to get out the recorder?" he asked me. good he wasn't mad at me.

"Probably" I gave him a few minutes to get his recorder on line I gave him the list.

He said " That's all, you want me to get you the moon on a silver platter too."

" I'm sorry but they've been throwing a lot of runs at me these last two weeks."

"When do you need this stuff ?" he asked.

" I'll need the ammo later today, the other items can wait for a week or so." I stated.

" I'll see what I can do on the ammo. Do you want to call me or should I call you?"

" I'll call you later today about my stuff. Oh yeah how's your family?" I said.

" The kids are growing like weeds, Jennifer was asking about you the other day, she was wanting you to come over for dinner some evening." He said, I could tell the plea hidden in the words.

"I'll have to do that, it has been a while since I was over there. " I said trying to calm his nerves.

Denis and I went back many years. When I was working full time for Ares we were the stars of the company two hotshot, fast tracked corporate security boys. About three or four years ago I stumbled onto the fact that Ares wasn't the good little company we had both thought it was. I let him know what I had found out. He chose to ignore it. I found that I couldn't do that so I took a leave of absence. During my leave the company has kept paying me so I have money even if I can't make any shadowruns.

" Got to run chummer, much stuff to blowup today" I joked with him before I killed the connection between us.

looking at the clock on the wall it was only 9:30 I had five and a half hours till the meeting I went and worked out in my exercise room for a hour. Then I decided to eat something in my kitchen. I took a little while to straighten up my house and to see if there was anything that I needed to do in my shop. Besides being a shadowrunner I sidelined as a weapons technician. I could build a gun from scratch or I could modify any gun out there. There was nothing. Looking at the clock it was about 12:30 so I decided to start getting ready.

After taking a shower I put on my form fitting body armor. Over this I put on a pair of jeans. The Palace isn't overly classy. They will let anyone in, no matter what style of dress ,as long as they are wearing a jacket. I pulled on a shirt deciding to go with a dress style of shirt. I pulled my dual heavy pistol shoulder holster on. I pulled on a pair of boots. I walked down to my armory to pick my weapons for today. Once I opened the door that led inside the cavernous vault that took up half my basement. Inside along the walls were the tools of my trade. Weapons of various shapes, sizes, and purposes were in racks neatly placed along each wall. Beside each style of weapon there was a rack for the ammunition. Everything was orderly and in place.

I walked to where I kept my pistols. I pulled My first pistol out of the rack. It was an Ares Predator. The predator is a heavy pistol, firing a 10 mm round, it carried enough force to punch through anything you could possibly face. The one I pulled off the walk I had for many years, it never had let me down. I checked the ammunition in the pistol. As with all the weapons inside the vault it had a full clip and was ready to fire. I never knew when someone was going to attack me I had to be ready. Paranoia it's a wonderful survival tool. I slid the pistol in the holster underneath my left arm. I pulled three clips from the rack beside where the pistol had sat. Checking that each clip had the ammunition that I wanted, I slid them into the pouches that hung underneath the holster. Looking over the other pistols hanging on the wall I pulled an Ares Viper from the wall. The viper shot flechette ammo. The damage it can do is not a pretty sight. I slid it into the holster under my right arm. I pulled three clips for it and placed them into the pouches for that weapon. I pulled another pistol from the wall. It was a Fichetti Security 500a. I was a decent light pistol, had a decent ammo load and could mount a silencer. I slid it and a holster into the small of my back. I pulled two clips for it and put them beside the pistol. I walked to where I kept my knives. I pulled a combat knife from the wall and placed it into my right boot.

I pulled six composite throwing knives off the wall. I had had two little sheaves sewn into both sleeves of my shirt, I place one knife into each sheaf. One of the other two went into my left boot. The last one went on my back just below the collar of my shirt. I walked to the cabinet where I kept the miscellaneous stuff, and pulled out two silencers. I pulled both the predator and the Fichetti and threading the silencers onto the barrels. I slid both guns back into their holsters and headed back upstairs. I looked at the time 1:30 time to check out my car. I walked out into the connecting garage, sitting out there was a motorcycle and an Eurocar Westwind 2000. Since

I had purchased the Westwind I had done several modifications, including a stronger motor, a turbo charger and having the whole body armor plated. So the car now could out run a Lonestat cruiser and roll through a moderate size roadblock without a scratch. Looking over the car I keyed the sequence that would shut down the security system on the car. I opened the door and leaned into the backseat. I flipped the lever that allowed the backseat to move up. When the seat moved upwards the small arsenal that I carried became visible. Laying inside a foam cushion was a M-41a. It is the rifle that the marines carried in that old twentieth century flatscreen vid Aliens. Shooting 10 mm armor piercing rounds and the underbarrel grenade launcher I it was a formidable weapon. On either side of the M-41 was a H&K MP3000. This is one of the most advanced silencing systems out there. You can shoot it and you won't hear more than a quiet cough. And it had a rather high ammunition count. I pushed the seat back down. Everything looked fine. It was time to head out then. double checking that I had everything. I pushed the button on the garage door opener and slid my sunglasses up over my eyes. When the garage door opened , I slid the Westwind out. When I reached the end of my driveway I pushed the button to close the garage door. If my neighbors knew that there was a criminal living on the block they would have a fit. but they thought that I was a businessman.

About 2:50 I pulled up to the Palace. The two humans parking cars didn't even move toward me as I pulled into the parking lot. I parked close to the front door, I just might have to exit the area in a hurry. I stepped out and started walking toward the front door. I turned when I was about 3 meters away and hit the button the turned on the security system. I didn't trust anyone, that's what has kept me alive so far. I turned and finished walking to the front door. the doorman for the Palace was this moderate size troll, only about 7'3" tall, probably weighting in at about 300lbs. He decided that he would try to intimidate me. I took my sunglasses off and fixed him with my icy blue eyes. He looked and moved away very shortly. No one could stand my gaze. That's why I wore sunglasses all the time. I walked inside, the lobby was plush and overly decorated in a palatial style. I walked up to the maitre'd and said " I'm looking for the Johnson party?" He told me " Let me check to see if he is here" he looked down at his book and then said" Your party isn't here yet but if you would like to wait in the bar We will call you when he arrives." I told him that would be fine and headed into the bar.

I walked up to the bar and asked for a cold beer. The bartender handed it to me. I took my beer to a table in the corner. When ever possible I sat with my back to the wall. It allowed me to be sure that no one was sneaking up behind me to kill me or to tap my shoulder and me killing them by accident. About ten minutes later a very good looking human waitress approached me, " Sir , the Johnson party has arrived."

I smiled very brightly at her, and said "Thank you" I slid from behind the table and followed here to the table. As I walked through the door into the dinning room I started checking to see if anyone was paying more than just idle attention at me. There were two men sitting at a corner table that seemed to be staring very intently at me. Both seemed to be caring pistols of some sort, I could make out exactly what kind though. On the other side of the room there was a man and a woman both gazing at me like I was a terrorist. I took them both to be corporate guards and to exactly know what I was. So they were added to my threat list.

The waitress led me to a table on the end of the room away from the bar. There were three men sitting there. One of them had a look to him as if he had the ultimate authority about him. The other two looked like goons. They had faces that showed very limited intelligence, but their kind just followed orders. I slid into the seat facing Mr. Johnson, thinking I had never worked for this guy before, I guess I'll see if he is going to try a screw me over.

In a moderate tone of voice he said. " So you are Maverik, I had heard a lot about you."

I wondered what a lot meant, and how hard he had to dig to get his information. " And you are Mr. Johnson. What circumstances have caused us to meet?" I said trying to be discrete as to the people at the tables around ours.

" A mutually beneficial situation. That I have heard that you have the talents to capitalize on." he said

" What kind of situation are you needing my expertise with?" two can play at this game.

" I need a package conveyed across the continent with a minimum of fuss." he replied.

" What will you pay me for transporting this package?" I said.

" 10k nuyen with another 3k for expenses." he said, but the way he said it meant that I could get some more out of him.

" Let me have some more details and I'll tell you what my services will cost you. " I said hoping that he didn't get too offended.

"The package is a young woman, she needs to be delivered to New York."

"Seattle to New York. That's a large trip. Depending on the way I had to travel with the package it could take a week. and that could get expensive"

"She just has to get there." he said. He's getting angry I need to finish this before he gets too mad I thought quickly.

"The cost for my services will be 20k with 6k up front. The 3k you said earlier and 3k from the 20." I stated

The Johnson quickly replied " I'll give you twenty five total, 5k up front and 20k at the end. " he said.

I replied" that's a deal" knowing to take what I could get.

The Johnson pulled a chip and a certified credstick out from the inside of his coat. "The chip has the information on the package and a list of possible plans that have already laid out."

I checked the credstick to make sure it contained the 5k.

" Everything looks fine. How will I contact you when I drop the package in NY?"

he slide a LTG number across the table to me. " Here's a phone number that will reach me any time of day or anywhere."

With those words I stood up and turned to leave.

But the Johnson spoke "If you let anything happen to my daughter I will hunt you down like an animal." I turned to him and said " If anything happens to your daughter while I'm taking her across the continent, it will be because I'm already dead." with that I turned and walked out of the dinning room. and outside. So the young woman that I'm taking to New York is the Johnson's daughter. It doesn't really matter one way or the other to me because I finish my jobs no matter what.

I walked past the hulking doorman and the two guys parking cars like they didn't exist. But for me they didn't I was inside the run already. Making myself ready to face what ever came my way. I pushed the button an d my keys that disable the security system. Opened the door and slid into the seat. I pulled out of the parking lot, and headed down the street. After driving a few blocks I pulled over into the parking lot of this run down grocery store. I shut the car off and got out. Pulling my bug scanner I scanned the entire car no bugs that was good. I took the chip that I was given and slotted it into my chipjack. I engaged my display link and started reading the information as it passed across my left eye. I learned that the girl's name was Laura. I was delivering her to her mother. I pulled the chip from my jack and put it back in its case. I called my contact in the Salish-Shidhe council and asked her to see if she could get me a pass to go through the three road routes from Seattle to Missouri. I slotted my credstick into the port connected to the telecom that I had installed in the Westwind. I was issued the passes with a minim of delay. After I sent my contact the payment plus a little extra I signed off . I then dialed Rodman's private number from my wrist phone. He came onto the line on the second ring. " He spoke quickly" I've only got a minute before This meeting. Your stuff is ready. When do you want to meet and pick it up?"

"When do you get out of your meeting?"

" In about half an hour."

" Meet in the security parking level of the garage at the Archology. in 45 minutes." I said

" Sounds good " With that he cut the connection.

I headed in the direction of the archology and let the autopilot take it.

I pulled up to the gate at the archology. There was always at least two guards at every gate. One of the guards came out of guard house and walked up to the window of the Westwind. I slide down the window. The guard recognized me. " Hi Mr. Richard's." He said. "hi Bob" I replied.

"When are you going to come back? We've been missing you around the poker table' he said

"It looks like it might still be a while, bob. And you wouldn't be missing me all that much remember I always took your money."

" Your right." with that he signaled and the gate open. " go on in"

" Thanks Bob" I said as I pulled on into archology.

I headed off in the direction of the parking garage.

I pulled into the garage and headed down the 1st ramp. There was a sign in front of it that said that it was under construction but I knew better. I went down three levels and pulled off the ramp. This was the security parking level. There parked in the second row was Rodman, next to his car was this white van. On the other side of his car was an empty parking spot. I pulled into it. I slid out of the Westwind and Rodman got out of his car. We both looked at each other then shook hand. "Good to see you again " he told me. " Same here" I told him.

I hated to break up the moment but. "Lets get down to business" I told him.

"OK, I've got all your stuff in the van." With that he opened the back doors on the van. I turned and opened the trunk on the Westwind. I walked to the back of the van and opened the cases. Everything looked fine. I picked up one of the cases and moved it to my trunk. when I turned around Denis was staring at me like I was a ghost. " What's wrong?" I asked him. "I'm just surprised that's all. It took two of my guys to pick up each of those cases. He said.

"I've had my muscles augmented since we worked together."

I moved the other cases to the trunk.

Denis handed me a box. " Your body armor, and coat are inside the box."

"Thank you, And how much Do I owe you?" I said.

"Nothing."

" What?"

"You are still listed as on a Security detail. As you know everybody's given a ammunition amount every week. Well, you have about 3 years worth of ammo and armor waiting. I just subtracted it from the amount that is listed for you."

"Thanks" With these words we hugged each other.

"I'll give you a call when I get back" I told him.

"If you don't you won't have to face me , you'll have to face Jennifer."

" I can face armed goons all day but Jennifer isn't something I want to tangle with."

Jennifer is a black belt in several forms of martial arts. she can break a man over her knee with out sweating. She is also worried about me continuously.

I pulled of the parking spot and headed back up the ramp. I drove through the archology at the speed limit, keeping an eye out for any children running around. I pulled out of the gate and headed back toward my house. I pulled into the driveway and keyed the garage door. I got out of the car. I unloaded everything out of the car. I moved all the ammo to the armory. I filled up several clips with the new ammunition. and I put all the weapons that I used this morning up except for the two in the shoulder holster.

I went up to my bedroom. I pulled on the new body armor. I pulled on a pair of black armored pants. I pulled on a black kevlar t shirt. On went my combat boots. I slid the shoulder holster again. I pulled out one of my many bags. I put several changes of clothes, resembling what I was wearing. I also put a black baclava and gloves into the bag. I picked up the long coat and the bag and headed downstairs. I laid the long coat and the bag on my couch. I walked into the kitchen and decided to fix myself something to eat. I put together a couple of sandwiches and grabbed a glass of milk . I sat down and ate my food. I put my dishes into the dishwasher and turned it on. I headed on down to my armory

I walked into the armory and headed back to the pistol section. I put back the Ares Viper. I picked up a FN Desert Eagle III. This autoloader is one of the most powerful around. I slid it into the shoulder holster that the viper had used. I replaced the clips for the Viper with the clips for the Desert Eagle. I made sure that the Fichette was situated in the small of my back. I pulled out another pistol to add to my firepower. The Glock Model 40. This fired 10mm high powered rounds. I pulled another holster out of my cabinet and placed it on my right hip. I slid the pistol into it with 5 clips. I walked to the cabinet on the far side of the armory. I open the door inside were various edged weapons. I pulled out a katana. I pulled its sheaf off and took a look at its dikoted blade. Looked like it could shear through steel. I pulled the sheaf back onto the blade. And laid the katana against the wall. I pulled a combat knife. It had a 8 inch tanto blade. I put it inside my left right boot. I reached in and got 6 throwing knives. I pulled out a pair of gloves from the case. I pulled the gloves on. Around the gloves were sheaves for the knives. I put all the knives into the sheaves. I closed the doors. Picking up the katana I walked to the door. I leaned the katana against the wall. I walked back to where I keep my combat shotguns. I picked my Enfield AS-7. It had a 50 rnd drum attached. I checked the ammo load in the drum. I pulled two other drums from the rack and two 10 rnd clips. I dropped these by the doors too.

I stopped by my miscellaneous locker and I pulled out two rifle cases, a Smg case and two pistol cases. Each of the cases will hold two weapons. Into one of the pistol cases went a predator and a Viper. Into the other went a Beretta 200St and a Fichetti Security 500a. I put 10 clips for each weapons in their respective cases.

Into the Smg case went a H&K HK227 and a H&K MPK9. Into this case went 10 clips for each SMG. Into the first rifle case went another M-41a. I put 10 clips for the M-41a and 80 grenades into the case. Into the other case went a Barett .50 sniper rifle. And 100 rnds of armor piercing ammo. You never know when you have to reach out and touch someone, lethally.

I carried all my weapons upstairs to my car. I laid all the cases into the backseat. I walked back inside and picked up my bag carried it out to the Westwind. I remembered that I would need my bag of tricks for this one. Inside a spare bedroom I kept a back with various items to help me escape or cause major destruction.

After I had the car loaded I picked up my long coat and walked out to the Westwind. And took off. I headed toward the safehouse where Laura was staying.

Before I got out of the car I slotted the chip that the Johnson gave me. I pulled up the picture of Laura and had it display on my eye.

As I walked up to the door, I could feel eyes staring at me. I rang the bell. The door opened revealing an orc with a smg pointed at me.

"What do you want?" he bellowed at me.

"I'm here to pick up Laura." I said calmly.

"Wait a minute" with that the door was slammed in my face.

The door opened back up quickly and I was ushered into the house. I was following my orc guide into the living room. "I'm sorry about slamming the door but we have to cover every security angle, you know." He told me

"That's fine. I understand about security measures." I replied.

We walked into the room. I quickly scanned the room making sure that there was ample men guarding the place. I finally moved my gaze into the center of the room where this young woman was sitting I matched her with the picture that was displaying on my left retina. The picture and the woman matched. I gave the mental command to have the display turned off. By this time Laura had noticed me. "Who are you? What do you mean that you have to pick me up?" she said to me.

"I was sent by your father to take you to your destination and you can call me Maverik." The guards that where standing stationed in the living room turned to stare at me. When you live in the shadows as long, and do the work I do you tend to develop a reputation of sorts. I have heard that my reputation is that I can be trusted to do a job no matter what the odds. It has been said that I had became an urban legend because of my longevity in my line of work. Everyone who has ever met me in person, after hearing my reputation, goes into a kind of shock from the meeting.

"I need to make a call I'll be back shortly." she stated forcefully as She go up from the couch. She headed toward the dining room area according to the maps I had sitting inside my head.

This elf guard left his post to come to talk to me. " Do you know what you are getting yourself into?" he asked me.

" Probably not, but that's the story of my life. What's miss Priss like? I said to him

"Miss Priss is right, She is spoiled rotten. She thinks that all the people who are under her station in life are her servants. She gets her way in everything. Her dad sees to that. If she does help you she'll extract a price for it though." he replied to my question

"thanks"

"no problem for you man. I just wanted to know how have you stayed alive all the years you have spent in the shadows?"

"being prepared for just about anything. I try to plan out my runs, and then I allow for things to go wrong at every part of the run. That gives me enough planning to survive anything that has been thrown at me." I told him

Laura decided to enter the room right then so the conversation ended between the security guard and me. She said "OK you check out Maverik. I'll be ready to leave in the morning."

" I'm sorry that isn't possible." I said

" What do you mean that isn't possible?"

"We are leaving in about 10 minutes. After you take your bags out to my car."

"What do you mean me take my bags out to your car, your the chauffeur."

"I'm not a chaufer. Your dad wouldn't have trusted you to a chaufer for the drive we are going to make without several bodyguards." I said in a quiet voice.

"I don't care, if your working for my dad you have to do what I tell you so get my bags !" she yelled.

by this time the guards where turning toward the windows so that neither I nor Laura could see their faces.

I told her "I'm not a regular employee of your father's. So I don't work for your father. I'm doing this job off the record and for cash. So you are in charge of me, you can't demand things of me and if You give me too much lip I will drop you off on the side of the road and tell your father that the deal between me and him is canceled. Also I'll tell him where you are at and what caused me to nullify the deal. Do you understand??"

"Yes I understand. I'll go get my bags." She said and walked to get her bags. All the guards into the room turned and clapped for me. " good job dealing with her for now. You'll pay later just wait." the guard I was talking to earlier said.

I went over and sat down on the couch waiting for Laura to get back with her bags. While she was gone I starting feeling like there was danger coming. Over the time that I've been living in the shadows I had started developing a sort of sixth sense when it comes to danger. I can usually feel when some kind of danger is approaching the area that I'm in. The last time that I had this feeling a troll armed with a Panther assault cannon had come charging into the room I was in. I decided this time to be ready. I gave a mental command to all my cyberware to activate. after I gave the command several things happened, the switch that allowed my reflexes to kick in turned to the on position allowing me to react at full speed. The tactical computer that allowed me to track targets and to estimate their next moves turned on. when the tac comp turned on it allowed the twin smartlinks that I had installed to work at full capacity, not just what My feebly brain could process by itself. Just after the feeling of danger Laura walked back into the room carrying two large suitcases and two smaller bags, hung off each shoulder. The way she was struggling, I had to help her I went over and took one of the suitcases from her with my left hand. Without saying a word I turned and led the way to the front door, the orc guard standing there , opened the door a crack. Looking out he turned to me and said " I can't see anyone out there, So it should be safe for you to leave"

"I hope your right." I told him. I opened my coat to make it easier to get to my pistols. I nodded to the door guard, he opened the door and out we went. I led the way hurrying out to my westwind. I cleared the steps down about two paces in front of laura to see if anyone was interested. Better they shoot me than her. When I had made it 3/4 of the way to my car, I reached into my pocket for my keys. I pushed the button on the security control that would: open the trunk, unlock the doors and turn off the security system I made it to the trunk and threw the bag into it. Turning around I saw that she had only made it halfway to the car. The feeling of danger suddenly increased threefold. I opened my door and leaned into the backseat. pushing the button that allowed access to my weapons stored underneath my seat I reached in and grabbed both MP3000's . I leaned out of the car sliding the straps for the smgs over my shoulders. By this time laura had finally made it to the trunk. I walked back , she had thrown one of her smaller bags into the trunk, and had the rest to go. I grabbed her other large suitcase and threw it into the trunk. She had thrown her other bag into the trunk also by this time. I said "Get into the car and don't come out until either I tell you its safe or until the guards from the house come get you, do you understand?" she nodded her head in agreement. She walked to the passenger door, got in and shut the door. Now that she's more safe than she was I could start what I was good at neutralizing threat. I began to scan the arm. Nothing appeared , I keep looking for any kind of threat. After standing here for two minutes and looking for anything I began to walk toward my door. As I reached out to open the door I felt three impacts on my back. The combined force of the three threw me forward. I let myself fall into the ground, when I hit I rolled upright facing in the opposite direction. Coming down the street toward me were two men. The one on the right could have fit in any where, he was an average human nothing special about him. The guy on the left on the other hand would have stood out anywhere, he was a very ugly looking dwarf. They were either well outfitted punks or they were very low level runners ,I thought. They were walking straight at me with assault rifles ready to fire. I estimated the distance between me and them. I was within range of their rifles but if I expected to take them down with my Sub machine guns , I would have to get closer. I set my feet to get ready to run when a glint of light in my eyes caused me to look up a building about 300 meters away on the roof was a sniper. Drek ,I thought , like I need any other problems. I took of running at the two on the ground, while setting the snipers location into my tac computer. I guess that my move took them off guard. I had closed the distanced to about half before they even seemed to react. Then they seemed to move in slow motion, that's why I went with the faster edge. I had the left smg locked onto the left guy and the right smg locked onto the right guy. That's why I had the tactical computer installed , it helps me lock targets a lot faster with my smartlinks. through the cybernetic links that existed between me and the smgs I set the mode on both of them to burst-fire. A half a second later both smgs sang their deadly tunes. The guy on the right took two rounds in the chest and the third round into his throat. He went down immediately. The dwarf on the left took all three rounds into his chest. He just stood there like they didn't affect him. the next thing I knew he was pulling the trigger on his assault rifle. I felt three bullets hit my left shoulder. I was lucky only 1 of the three managed to go through my armor. I trained both my MP3000' s on him and pulled both triggers. He took all six bullets inside a half an inch circle in the middle of his chest. He went flying back with a fountain of blood. Looking around I noticed that I was at the door to the building that the sniper was on top of. I entered the lobby and started to climb the stairs. The shoulder where I was shot was bleeding freely. Stopping on the second story landing I pulled a dressing from a pouch on my belt. I slide the dressing over the wound, to keep from bleeding to death before I got the sniper. I went up to the third floor, I decide instead of going up the stairs to the roof where the sniper was waiting for me I_ll go up a back way. I made my way to the side of the building away from my car. I pulled a grapple gun from my belt. I leaned out a window and fired the grapple onto the roof. I ulled to set the grapple on something firm. I swung out and began to pull myself up. My left shoulder and arm screamed in agony from the exertion but I continued up the rope. I made my way over the edge of the roof. I saw the sniper he was focused sighting throught the scope on his rifle. estimating the distance to be only 50 meters between the sniper and me. It would be a tought shot buti could make it. Letting my left smg fall to the end of its strap, I moved my left hand to support the gun. Locking the smg onto the back of the snipers head, I set the mode to single shot, throught my smartlink. I squeezed the trigger gently. The guns violent motion as the bullet passed the end of the silencer. The bullet traveled throught the air untill in slammed into the back of the snipers skull transfering all its kinetic energy on impact. I relaxed my grip on the smg and walked to the stairway door. there was a grenade hooked to the handle. If I had opened the door I would have been killed by the grenade. Oh well another day in the shadows. I disarmed the grenade, and put into my pocket. I walked down the stairs leaving the snipers body up on the roof. I walked out of the building and to my car. I opened the drivers door and got in. Laura was sitting there terrified. "What happened?" she asked me

" Three men tried to kill you or me, I killed them." I told her in a weary voice. She looked at me as if I had turned into some monster. I put the keys in the ignition and started the westwind up. I headed toward the north edge of the city.