Knowing your Worth *Warning…dark*
By Heath Doolin
Taylor glanced at herself in the mirror as she slipped on her Zapsoc Boots, the form fit molding to her feet and calves. Her eyes registered her perfection, or belief of perfection as well as the ice-blue contacts designed to accentuate her pouty lips and platinum blonde hair cascading over her shoulders. Are you ready for this she asked herself and immediately, the beast, as she liked to call it answered back. Know your worth Tay. For you are nothing if you do not convey the front. She nodded and stepped back to get a full view. Perfect. Everything and everyone in their place. She giggled to herself in nervous anticipation. The beast assured her. Enjoy it Tay, very few will see what you have seen.
"You are right. Know your worth Taylor." She said to know one in particular.
The door chimed and Taylor put on her game face.
---
"Who is it?"
A voice grumbled wearily on the other side. "Maintenance ma’am. We are responding to your call earlier concerning plumbing problems."
Taylor punched up the camera outside to look. Three people stood there dressed in the customary orange with black stripes overalls of the maintenance sectors that worked in Mitsuhama Seattle Archeology. She frowned as she could see they looked like your ordinary run of the mill wage slaves, the ones she commonly ignored. Maybe the call really went through? These do not look like whom I supposed to meet. There was supposed to be 4-.
"Um just a moment."
The guy up in front shifted slightly while the others stood about, casually looking around. Taylor could feel panic rising. Maybe someone found out. Maybe these are actually…
"Lady, we ain’t got all night."
"Ok ok. C-C-Coming."
Taylor pulled out her personal gun, a custom-made Bocoton Light Pistol she had strapped to her back and calmly walked to the front. She paused and hid the Pistol behind her as she keyed the door open.
The men stood there. Three of them, two medium sized and one large black man shadowing them. The guy in front scowled and looked down at his reader.
"17232 Quadrant A correct?"
"Um yes."
The man looked up and something went awry. His face…faded. Taylor started to back away, her eyes widening as the man’s features regained cohesion. Her hand reached for the red PANIC button near the door automatically. A voice quite different came from the leader.
"Dammit Hexer. Inside!" Hands blurred and Taylor felt a sharp pinch on her wrist, stopping her from alerting security. She tried to scream but another hand shot up and clamped the scream in as she was pushed back into her living quarters by the guy and his comrades. The door whispered shut.
---
"Pinball we looping?"
Pinball’s voice came over her earpiece
"Roger dodger Minx. No one knows you’re there. Security is still green and the cameras are set."
Taylor’s eyes were round with fright. The three workmen were now replaced with four people, all very unlike your day to day employees of Mitsuhama. An orc woman now stood where the black man was, scanning the place quickly, muscles flexing under the weight of a large Heckler And Koch MP3000 parked in her hands. Another man sat down on her loveseat and breathed deep, his bald head showing a sheen of sweat. He grasped a bauble on his coat and seemed to go stone. The hands of a man holding her scream in were now of a woman, dark and rich with what Taylor could see was a fluorescent orange tattoo starting on the outside of the palm and swirling up her arm underneath some sort of combat armor. The black woman stared down at her through hard eyes. Another guy, an elf with long black hair and what looked to be datajacks in his temple stood beside her and peered down. He turned to look at the bald man.
"Status Hexer. What happened?"
The bald guy sighed and looked up.
"Watcher spirit man. Caught me by surprise and nearly got away. Had to boost my mana in order to pop it so we lost our disguise for a couple of ticks. Sorry but it was either take it out or have us totally blown."
The black woman nodded, still holding Taylor.
"How long before we have company."
The bald man put a hand on his scalp and massaged.
"Well, not rightly sure. I put another there in its place to fool the wage mage into thinking it just broke its hold against him but that is not gonna last if the mage gets a good look. Best as I can guess…a five minute window."
"Ok. Pinball, you get that?"
Taylor watched as the woman named Minx nodded as she listened on the other side of her earpiece. She then looked down at Taylor and scowled.
"Ms Johnson. Correct?"
Taylor nodded.
"We are your cover for your liberation from here as per your need. I will remove my hand and you will get up and get ready to leave now. We will be going out in two minutes. You will not scream or run away or get any thoughts about throwing your weight around. Do you understand?"
Taylor nodded again and Minx removed her hands.
"Now get ready."
"I am already."
Minx took her in as Taylor stood.
"Do you usually wear this kind of gear? Partenon jumpsuit, Gimbal Blouse with storage areas in sleeves?"
"Well, no but I thought we were leaving so I thought.."
"We are trying to leave as nothing was happening. You will dress normally as you are going out on the town. This means no new stuff or stuff you consider "streetwear" to draw attention to you. Change now."
"But"
"Change in one minute or we tie you up and leave."
Taylor ran into the bedroom and began to undress quickly. All the while she grumbled. The beast answered her issues of wrath. Leave it for now. Know your worth and follow the plan.
---
She finished and stuffed the Bocoton into its personal holster and the small side pocket of her coat as she walked back. All four looked up and nodded. Minx came forward, tapping her ear.
"Our decker says it is ok to go"
"Decker? I was told that your decker would be with you." She looked at the elf.
"He is here, we just got someone to watch our back while we were in here. He does not know anything other than he is protecting us from cameras and alarms. Paul here is doing the internals in case we run into locked doors and other independent systems."
"Um ok." Inwardly, Taylor cursed herself. Frag, two deckers? Ok ok, no problem. I will just have to deal with this later.
Minx looked to her team. "Paul, you and Miyoko take the point and look for signs of trouble. Hexer, you cover them and are on guard with light astral. I will travel with you on the six to protect your meat, just warn me when you need to stop. Ms Johnson will walk between us so we can keep a eye on her." She turned to Taylor.
"Ms Johnson, you will walk normally. Do not act like you are doing anything. Do not act period. Just keep walking and listen for my instruction. Do you understand?"
"Yes but.."
"No buts Ms Johnson. Follow everything to the t. We are pulling you out of a red zone and all the hairs on my neck are standing on end, which means fate may be walking hardline against me." The black girl reached in her armor and rubbed a small juju bag nestled between her breasts. She stood at the door.
"Status people."
"Pinball ready."
"Mikoto clear and cool."
"Paul ready."
"Hexer ready to cast."
"Minx and target ready to walk."
Minx smiled at Taylor as the disguise again enveloped her face. She whispered "Relax" as the door opened again. Whether it was for Taylor or she remained unanswered.
---
The sec man glanced left as a door opened in one of the suites and two maintenance men ambled out and across the hallway, then followed out by what must be the owner of the suite and another maintenance worker who chatted as they walked toward him. He yawned slightly as they passed him, then took in the nice set of stems the woman walking down with the worker had. Lucky guy, she seems interested. He then looked ahead and something went weird in the corner of his eye. He glanced again at the retreating group as they disappeared around the corner. Funny, for a second I thought something was…
He doubled tapped his mike to activate it.
"Sec home, this is Sec 12. Moving to investigate something."
"Neg sec 12. Repeat neg. We already know. Maintain presence to quarden off."
"Quarden off sir?"
"People coming to see what is going on."
No one told me anything. I never know half of what’s going on in my sector when I am walking it. Gads, I hate this job.
---
Taylor calmly strode next to the woman in her disguise spell, but inside, her mind was flying through the instructions. Ok, next hallway down, then two floors down the stairs to the service elevator. At the intersection is the key, I must go right.
No one said much as they breezed through the hallways. A couple of sec men turned the corner and the ork woman/black guy burst into a round of hearty laughter from a joke the other seemed to tell in subtle tones. The sec men relaxed slightly as the black guy raised a hand to the group and continued on without stopping. Very nice thought Taylor, relaxed posture to circumvent anything viewed as out of the ordinary, but giving the defensive the ability to make the first offense if necessary. Acting like they meet everyday and are close to sweep past the curious. Taylor herself had used the same treatment to break past certain cold eyes and get what she needed. It was classic warrior business. Taylor strode past the same group without so much as a glance, though Taylor noticed that the one known as Minx had fallen back a couple of steps to act as though she/he was alone. They were not stopped. As they ambled around the corner slowly, Taylor glanced sideways at the security men but did not turn her face. One touched a mike and was saying something as the others stared at her. Good, they are ready.
The façade was dropped while in the stairs due to Minx terming it a "dead zone", giving both the mage time to rest and others to breathe a little. Taylor leaned back and acted nervous but she was all ice inside. The beast was steeling her nerve knowing what lay ahead, readying her. She could feel the gaze of the elf and the ork woman on her and responded likewise, shifting around and asking dumb questions. The elf responded with curt answers while the ork woman remained impassive, still staring at her with dark eyes. Something pricked in Taylor but she could not be sure what it was and she pushed it away. The one called Minx patted the mage on the back all while seeming to sub-vocalize to the other decker. She nodded once to no one in particular and turned to the group.
"Ok kids, a cakewalk to the service elevator, then down to the loading zone. After that, back to the drop zone. Hexer, how’s your juice?"
Hexer’s eyes popped open and he smiled. "Fine, ready to roll."
"You sure?"
"As long as we do not fight."
"Heh..I hear that. Null sheen there. Pinball says we are green."
Taylor smiled inwardly. Excellent.
"Ok, Hex…cover us up."
The spellslinger weaved his hands again and the images of the maintenance men clouded over the shadowrunners. Taylor turned and caught sight of the ork woman’s face before it was once again replaced with the black man. It chilled Taylor, for it showed nothing but utter hate at her for a cool second and then it was gone. What is her problem? Taylor shivered a bit, and the beast was quiet. For a moment, she felt alone. Then the beast calmed her and whispered great dreams and she was again ready. But those eyes.
They walked carefully down the two flights and to the exit that would guide them to the service elevators. Taylor moved along as instructed, watching the two diguised runners exit into the hallway to cover the permiter. They will be the first to go. She stepped out into the controlled hallway along with her escorts and she could see it from there, about 50 yards ahead. The beast could hardly contain itself in her head. There it is Taylor, opportunity awaits. The intersection was your standard faire, a large crossing of the hallways that connected several storage areas and offices with the service elevator occupying the far end of the hallway directly in front of them. Taylor had been here before, seeing that this was the way to many exits. Funny, how this place brings back the earlier attempts. She knew they were there, probably 3 teams of four in the rooms closest to the crossing , waiting for them to cross the ‘line’ where they would be bottled in. Taylor knew to hang back and dive right.
They plodded on as they came to the crossing, the two in front hitting the corners and examining the left and right corridor. Seeing nothing they advanced to the center and waited. Taylor slowed ever slightly and noticed that Minx walked on at a normal pace, not noticing her. Her heart thudded as they gathered in the center. The beast inside was tense as she was. Their disguises came apart and Minx turned to look at her. She smiled.
"Almost there Ms Johnson, you ok?"
"Y-yes."
"No need for the disguises anymore. Nothing from the elevator down to sneak past, thanks to Pinball."
"Great." She was already formulating the plan to rid herself of this Pinball character.
The one called Minx turned and nodded to the others.
"Ready?"
All nodded. They started to turn to the corridor, toward the service elevator. The ork woman stepped across the ‘line’ first and Taylor leapt to the right and threw her hands over her head. She waited for the thunder.
---
She almost immediately felt arms lift her up. She opened her eyes. They were running down the right hallway. Taylor could not fathom what was happening and she found that Minx had her to her own feet and was pushing her ahead. There was a sound behind her and a yell, then the sound of a clip being burned and screams. She spun to see the elf ‘decker’ point to one of the closed rooms and say something. The door crunched outward towards him and she heard more screams of pain. He’s a mage? What’s going on? The beast said nothing. She watched as the other mage did the same to another closed area and run toward her. The orc woman rolled around the corner, pulled the spent magazine, and popped another clip into her MP3000. She turned the corner and let loose a few more shots before sidestepping back into her cover.
Minx appeared in her view.
"MOVE NOW!"
Taylor was agape. This is all wrong!! She felt the black woman’s hand squeeze her neck and push her to sprinting down the corridor. She could barely keep up and was suddenly flung to the right. Her head connected with the wall and could not see anything but funny lights. The air pumped against her face as Minx’s Desert Eagle III thundered in the small hallway, deafening Taylor. A larger hand seized her arm and dragged her up and she stumbled forward, nearly tripping over the body of another twitching security man lying prone with three neat bullets in his face. Taylor screamed and the hand slapped her silent.
"Quiet."
Taylor was stunned and followed orders. They ran on. She felt the hands drag her to a stop and they burst into a room full of boxes and one other person. A guy stood and smiled at them, pulling a datajack and tucking a deck back into a black steel casement.
"We got opportunity…10 minutes before it kicks in again." He pointed to the wall, which sported a large hole cut into it and blackness beyond.
"Great Pin. We set?"
He nodded and Taylor felt a rope bind about her chest. She looked down and the black rope crossed her again and was bumped as another body backed against hers. It was the elf.
"What’s going on?" she managed to get out of her throat. It was ignored. She felt someone smack the elf on his chest.
"GO!"
She was dragged behind the elf and saw everyone looking at her as they themselves were wrapping ropes around waists and hooks. Suddenly, she had no footing and screamed as gravity pulled them both into the inky blackness. The air whistled past her ears and she heard the elf again.
"I thought I said quiet."
Something hard connected with the back of her head, metal. And suddenly the blackness was her own.
---
Images flashed.
She was being carried in a long dark tunnel. Over a shoulder.
She felt heat and could see a light in the dark and felt herself dropping through it.
Someone said "Now" and a great expanse of air pushed her hair back.
More running, she could see the cement below her.
Gunfire.
Her carrier shouting something.
Being pulled up a ladder and she was flying through the air again, only to connect what she identified as a van bed.
She fell into darkness again.
---
Her head hurt, and she could smell the stink of motor oil and rotten garbage.
She opened her eyes and all was silent around her. She could see the roof of a van above her. She sat up slowly and examined herself. She was filthy, her clothes covered in dirt and some blood. Not hers. The beast rose up and blasted in her already aching head. Calm Taylor, Calm. Something went wrong. Something. Get your bearing and continue on. She nodded to herself and scooted to the van door. It opened.
She was in a warehouse of some kind. It was still dark and there were piles of all kinds of drek about her. She remembered her Boco Light pistol and felt around. Still there. She pulled it. She got to her feet and walked around a splintered pile of what must have been a shipping crate. She was not alone.
The guy that met them in the storage area was there. He was fiddling with a deck as he sat at a lone desk. He noticed she was there and looked up.
"Ah awake at last."
The beast rose in her head. Feign innocence. Get what you need. She put the Pistol behind her back.
"What happened?"
"You got knocked out on your way down the airshaft."
"Airshaft?"
The guy scratched his head and concentrated on his deck.
"Yea…we had to go that way due to a trap laid for us. Lucky I found it huh?"
Careful. Innocence.
"You found a trap? My god we were lucky to survive." Taylor blew out a breath.
The guy nodded. "Yea…but just barely. But as they say, any trap you walk away from was a badly planned one."
Lil drekkin shit.
"Yea. Good thing you had a backup plan."
"Aye. But we were successful and you got out." He smiled. "You shall be on your way soon."
The beast inside howled with delight. They do not know. We can still come through this. Even better than before!
Taylor strolled around the desk and sat down on a clear spot. She pulled her legs high and crossed, giving a generous amount of thigh light, much to the noticing of the man.
"Thank you for getting me out. Where are the others? I want to thank them personally."
The man did not look up, still eyeing her supple flesh.
"Uh..They had to go out…meet with our fixer." He grinned. "Left us here all alone."
"Really?"
"Uh huh."
She pulled the pistol and stuck it to his forehead. He looked up into her eyes. Taylor smiled and could feel the beast smiling inward too.
"Thanks sucker."
She pulled the trigger.
---
*Click*
The man sat back, relaxing a bit.
"Whoops."
Taylor pulled the trigger again.
*Click*
*Click*
"Yea, bullets may help."
Forms suddenly appeared to her right. It was the rest of the group. With one other. A tall thin lady with her hair pulled back tightly. An elf woman. She smiled without humor at Taylor.
The man got up and plucked the Boco from Taylor’s hand and tossed it away with a clatter.
Taylor said nothing, only sat there. Her eyes belayed a calm exterior. She looked like a deer caught in headlights.
The group took positions around her, with the elf woman standing closest.
"Good evening Ms Sakson….or is it Ms. Twain….or perhaps even your original…Ms Tarislent."
The man pulled a reader from a pocket in a coat and begins to read.
"Shana Tarislent…Age 29. Ph.D. Biomolecular Fusion. Bachelor Degree, Biochemistry. Touted by Mitsuhama Science Division upon graduation August 2057. A good worker, soon progressing past her colleagues and gaining resources to her own division. Nothing is heard from her within a 6 month period when suddenly a job is available to pull her from Mitsuhama to Ares Technical. A team goes in and disappears as well as Ms Tarislent."
"Minmei Twain appears and heads up another division of Mitsu Science. 30, and making more money than the form Tarislent. She is soon at about the same position. Has some interesting theories on several subjects including Biomolecular chips that somehow generate mana. Is generally believed in some circles to be full of jetwash. As her deadline approaches, someone on Shadowland offers a hefty reward to pull Miss Twain from her position. Some believe it to be Ares but there is no mention of an actual person. A green group of runners with a supposed backdoor to Mitsu takes the job and disappears. Minmei vanishes as well."
The guy stops and cracks his neck. Everyone around Taylor is quiet and watching her.
"Taylor Sakson is appointed to Ms Minmei’s former position, which is interesting since there is no record of her in Mitsu prior. She makes now three times as much as the former women do in the same position. She presses Ms Twain’s ideas with equal zest and is thought to be on to something. Sadly though, she misses two important deadlines to show results. As if by magic, nearly 6 months to the day, a man contacts our lovely elf maiden fixer here to hire some runners to liberate a worker not wanting to work for Mitsuhama anymore. Funny thing is that the man we shall call Mr. X tries to hire these runners about a mile away from the Ares archeology."
The guy stops and sits back into his seat. He absentmindedly fingers his deck.
Taylor is aghast.
---
The elf woman continued where the decker had stopped.
"Well we know that now from our decker. Minus one thing we shall go into here in a bit. Indeed I am the person contacted to hire out some runners to liberate you. I did find some willing to do so but made sure to stipulate something prior. Losing some of my force is to be expected. We are, after all, deniable assets, but there is a saying in our groups. ‘One time is a tragedy, twice is a catastrophe, but the third time requires you to weigh the odds, charge through the nose….and do some digging.’"
"And we did dig, Ms Sakson. Come to find that Mitsuhama snoops were investigating you as well as us. They were really very interested in why you had become such a hot ticket to be pulled out of their grasps as of late and every six months. Oh sure, some of their big boys are wanted for big time extractions. Under tight bonds these walking bags of nuyen are. But you were a quandary, for though you had some interesting ideas, you had yet proven they worked. Yet, some people out there wanted you bad enough to try to get you three times. And through some miraculous discoveries, the security teams found out exactly how these runners were supposed to get to you each time. The last time they in fact rescued you from the grips of the nasty runners in a spectacular gunfight that you yourself scrambled out of the way from."
"Each time, Mitsuhama rewarded you well for your bravery and ability to get directly back to work after suffering the terrible plight their competitors put you through. And each time you were given extension on your work. Finally, a decker with a lot of time on his hands found something interesting and brought it to my attention. A drop box out in the middle of nowhere yet with tracebacks going to personal mailboxes from Mitsuhama and Ares Tech. From one man who had the same problem, he was really wanted by Mitsuhama but seemed to be able to get away due to the shadowrunners extracting being stopped. He was attempted twice. The mailbox encrypted each message sent out that said the same thing on the false front. That sentence was "Know your worth."
The elf woman smiled and stroked Taylor’s head softly.
"Such a pretty lil head to be worth about thirteen solid runners. Oh I am sorry, I mean eight. For we succeeded. Allow me to present your liberators."
She pointed to the black woman "Minx here was your leader. She also had a lover who met his untimely end in a similar run about a year ago, in nearly the same place in Mitsuhama. His name was Jubei."
"Mikoto had a brother who lost his life in a firefight trying in his words "to do some good for the oppressed" Shame it happened."
"Paul had a good friend, a blood brother, who told him not to come with him about 6 months ago because it was a simple extraction from Mitsuhama." Paul stood and nodded.
"Hexer’s wife was killed doing something 6 months ago in Mitsuhama. She only told him that Ares tech hired her and her team which included Paul’s blood brother."
"Pinball knew the two deckers that were providing cover for the Mitsu extractions prior. He even disconnected the smoking corpse of the last one."
"Eight good people…dead due to a malicious pact between two scum that are lower than the companies they worked for. Eight more if you count your friends victims. Unfortunately for him, he died after being kidnapped from a club he was slumming around. Right after he met me. Real slow I hear."
The orc spoke for the first time, eyeing Taylor the same way she did in the stairs.
"And very very painful."
"Eight souls screaming for revenge. Double crossed for the bottom line on someone’s JOB." The elf steadied herself because her voice had cracked on the last word.
"We may be expendable Ms Sakson. But even some of us feel for those lost and seek reconciliation for them. I had no trouble finding those to help me get you out safe. True, we did deviate from the course our Mr. Johnson specifically requested he know about. Took another route. But you are safely in our hands."
Minx bent directly into Taylor’s tear welling eyes.
"Taylor, I gave you the benefit of the doubt. Even against everything they said. I pocketed your bullets. You had a chance there to at least get on our good side. But the viper rose and you condemned."
Pinball whispered "sucker".
Taylor felt the beast leave her, with nary a word. She was alone, alone to face sins by herself and her ‘heroes’ who were slowly closing the circle around her. She managed one scream before a meaty fist slammed into her open mouth.
It would be a long time before death closed its arms on her.
---
END TRANS
---
Authors notes: Gruesome eh? No doubt a dark story ala the dark side of the mind. But you know, not all the stories in the Shadowrun Universe are "good guy wins, gets babe, evil corp suffers" There are some people out there that would sacrifice others to make themselves look good. Corps are corps but it takes man to run it and those men may be the real evil. Sorry if you got down, I usually write the others (Al and Snap) but this one kept knocking for freedom and I gave it. Not to worry though got plenty more good guy stuff working. In fact, Snap and Al have a story unfolding (and I mean it, its on paper and going as we speak! Hooray!) So it will be soon. Probably before the San Diego Con in two weeks. (Anyone besides me going? Love to meet you)
Shadowrun and all things within the Shadowrun universe are owned and operated by FASA corp and used without their permission. Also, a piece of them is owned by…MICROSOFT….AAAA!!!! Fear, panic, wet my pants. But everything else in here is copyrighted to yours truly. Bye for now