You never know
 
Bri Whitaker knew all about the shadows, just as she knew
that she wanted to run in them.  Ever since her sixth
birthday when she'd seen ‘Garrison's Getters' on the trid
she'd known.  She read every book, seen every trid ever made
on the subject.  She studied them, the way people talked,
how they moved what they did.
 
For her fifteenth birthday, she had her requisite rigger
control installed.  Her parents were disappointed that their
daughter had chosen to go the route of Chauffeur.  They'd
hoped she'd opt for at least running the computers for the
Company... anything but rigging.  She'd never make top
management like her father, or have her own lab like her
mother.
 
Riggers were only good for running heavy machinery or
driving around the big-wigs.  Still, it was what Bri wanted,
and what Bri wanted she got.
 
On her sixteenth birthday she got her first job, driving the
boss' son to soccer practice.  The trip there was
uneventful, and she found herself wishing something would
happen.  There was nothing more boring than watching some
snot nosed, spoiled rotten kid play soccer on your birthday.
 
Bri got her wish, right after the game.
 
They were heading back to the car when a team of nondescript
men and women surrounded them.  They made quick work of the
body guard.  One quick jab to the ribs with a set of spurs
took care of him.
 
Bri had barely time to gasp as a woman's hand closed around
her throat.  "Make a sound and you're dead, you understand,"
the woman's voice rasped in her ear.
 
Bri shuddered slightly then nodded.  
 
The woman smiled and then herded Bri and Jamieson Ruis to a
waiting vehicle.  Again Bri shivered, but her captors took
it for fear, and not excitement.  The vehicle was a
Streetmaster,  just like the one Captain Furious had used in
ShadowWheels #307.
 
She gave Jamieson and encouraging smile.  Everything was
going to be fine.  Well, the body guard would lose his job,
but they always did when they came up against
shadowrunners.  They just weren't cool enough...
 
As they drove away, Bri knew she'd gotten her birthday
wish.  The team would find out that she was a rigger, and
then she'd prove to them how useful she was and Jamieson
would be taken home as soon as his dad paid the ransom.   
Everything would be just fine.
 
When the Streetmaster stopped in an alleyway and they were
herded into a small rundown warehouse, Bri was
disappointed.  There wasn't a cool, hidden interior, there
was only debris and rats and... mud.
 
After a moment she nodded.  Of course they wouldn't take
them to their real hide-out.  Not with Jamieson there. 
Couldn't risk him remembering how they got there... or what
the place looked like.  That was how the Killingtons season
cliff hanger had ended...
 
She sat where she was told, and didn't resist when they tied
her up.  It was all part of the initiation– she hadn't
proved her usefulness yet.  By then Jamieson had started to
cry.
 
"It's okay Jamie..." she said in her best babysitter voice. 
"Everything will be fine."
 
Jamieson looked up at her and nodded slowly, but he was
still scared.  Not that she blamed him.  He didn't have the
experience and knowledge that she had.  Runners were
honorable... this was just how business was done.  
 
She managed to keep herself believing all her illusions for
another day before cold and hunger began hinting at the
truth of the matter.  Jamieson was hyperventilating after
another crying fit and it seemed nothing would stop his
uncontrolled sobs.
 
One of their captors threatened him, but it only made him
sob more.
 
"Stop it," Bri finally growled.  "He's just a kid.  Just let
him alone."
 
"Wo-ho, little missy's got a little fire after all...." the
man commented as he focused on her. 
 
She was startled as he grabbed her wrists and began fumbling
with the ropes.   "Make yourself useful then girl.  Keep the
kid quiet and we might not kill you."
 
Bri shuddered slightly as she realized the man wasn't making
an idle threat.  She massaged her wrists and then began
working on Jamieson's ropes.  Her hands hurt by the time she
was done, but at least Jamieson had stopped crying.  He
clung to her tightly as the woman came over and offered them
some bread to eat.
 
It was stale, but they both managed to choke it down.  When
they finished, Bri was holding onto Jamieson almost as
tightly as he was holding onto her.
 
"It'll be okay," she whispered over and over again as she
gently rocked him in her arms.  But by then she knew that
everything was far from all right.
 
 
 
 
"Does this story have a point or are you trying to bore me
into a confession?"
 
"There's a very important point young gutter punk," the
Police detective answered.  "I see you making the same
mistakes she did... You don't know everything, and half of
what you know is wrong."
 
"Right... So this is the ‘you're heading down the wrong path
speech' right?   Just get to the point."
 
The detective looked at her partner then at their prisoner. 
"Never mind.  I think it'd be wasted on you.  You're just
going to have to learn the hard way."
 
The prisoner smiled.  He'd won.  He'd beaten the cops by
keeping his mouth shut, just like the boss had told him.  
 
His smile lasted exactly how long it took for the detectives
to lead him down the hall.  There, waiting to be questioned
was the boss.
 
"That's him!  He's the one you want!"
 
Their prisoner froze as his boss sold him out.
 
"Like I said," the detective told him as she led him to a
holding cell.  "You have a lot to learn... and school's just
started."
 
She ignored his pleas for help, his promises to tell
everything and hooked him to the bench.  "You had you
chance," she told him.
 
She left him in the cell, and turned to her partner.
 
"How long are you going to let him stew?"
 
"Half an hour should do it," she told him with a shrug. 
"You want a cup?"
 
Her partner nodded as they retrieved their equipment.  "So
what happened..."
 
"What happened where?"
 
"The kidnaping?  Bri Whitaker?"
 
"The kid's family paid the ransom, followed the bag man back
to the runner's hideout and rescued the boy."
 
"The boy?"
 
"Yeah. the girl was just an employee, their prime concern
was the boy. They did their job."
 
"But..."
 
"Just another casualty...."
 
"That sucks," her partner growled.
 
"Yeah, it did... but I got over it."
 
"You..."
 
Detective Ruis nodded. "I learned a lot then, and it made me
a better cop."
 
Her partner thought about that for a moment.  "What ever
happened to Jamieson?"
 
Detective Ruis smiled.  "He was a lot less of a brat after
that... "
 
She paused, surprised that her partner hadn't figured it out
yet.   "Jamieson... James... my husband...."
 
The look on her partner's face was priceless, but it only
proved her point...
 
You don't know everything.