16
After de Vries resurfaced. it became apparent that he himself had somehow contracted vampirism. It is unlikely any vampire would have willingly given him this dubious gift had he known de Vries’ purposes and identity. Some European runners claim he deliberately offered himself for infection, intent on learning more about his prey by becoming one of them. However it happened. de Vries became a paradox: a vampire who maintains his own essence by feeding on other vampires. Only in utter desperation does he prey on any other targets.
–
Posted to Shadowland BBS by Doktor Freeman and the Deathcore Kid, 22 March 2055
Sinunu sat in the back of the stepvan, listening to the distorted rumbling of the six Honda Vikings that were acting as escort. She had no idea where the go-gangers had come from, and didn’t care. All she knew was that with the gangers riding wing, her team wouldn’t be hassled by anyone as they made their way through Hell’s Kitchen.
Sinunu looked to her left, where Truxa sat, calmly staring straight ahead. Without turning, or even seeming to know she was being watched, Truxa slipped her hand into Sinuou’s and squeezed.
Sinunu squeezed back, then turned her attention to the rest of the van’s occupants. Flak was driving, quietly cursing the swirling dust that made it difficult to see clearly, even with his enhanced vision.
Just behind the drivers seat, Sandman rested in his sway-couch seat. The seat, a circular couch made up of plastic tubing and tie-down straps, had been installed by Sandman and Flak. Once securely fastened in, Sandman could jack into their satlink system without having to worry about keeping either himself or his deck steady when they were on the fly. Sandman was riding the Matrix right now, eyes closed, mouth half-forming words as he continued his efforts to navigate the potentially lethal minefield of their target’s computer system.
Even with the codes provided by the vampire’s inside man, Sandman was having the fight of his life trying to get inside their target’s defenses. He’d jacked out, just before they started to roll, sweat streaming down his face, the strain evident in the bags already showing under his eyes. He told them the target system was guarded by drek-hot IC, countermeasures Sandman had never seen before and hoped like hell he never would again.
Sinunu, however, had caught the gleam in his eye. Sandman was one of the best deckers in the sprawl. Not only was he enjoying the challenge of this run, but he seemed almost in awe of what he was up against. If the team came out of this thing in one piece, their own defensive measures would surely get quite a boost.
Next to Sandman was the vampire. He hadn’t so much as glanced at Sinunu since their conversation and he seemed to be meditating. Sinunu knew better. After two years with Truxa, she recognized a magician’s pose when she saw one. He was looking beyond, as Truxa would say. Gathering his mojo, and discovering what needed to be done.
Sinunu noticed that she was seeing him differently now, and wasn’t sure how she felt about that. There was none of the revulsion she’d experienced before their little chat, and she even noticed a bit of sympathy.
Beside him was the biff. Sinunu frowned. The biff was everything she detested in a woman. Beautiful, yes, but with a strength to her that surprised Sinunu. That was part of the problem. For a woman of strength to bother hiding it just so males would find her less threatening made Sinunu physically ill. The biff was also a stripper, and that was another thing Sinunu had a problem with. A woman who would degrade herself in front of men just to cop a little nuyen.
The biff caught her staring, and smiled. For just a second, Sinunu felt her breath catch in her throat. When the biff smiled, it was as if the whole van lit up. That smile was so genuine, so warm, and at the same time with just enough fear behind it that Sinunu doubled back on her thinking. In that moment, she thought she understood some of the vampire’s concern for this woman. Thought she might even want to take care of her, to keep her from harm.
What’s happening to me? First I find pity for a vamp. Then I find myself liking a biff. What’s next? Open a clinic for emotionally depressed ghouls?
Truxa squeezed her hand again, and Sinunu looked at her. The little elf was watching her closely, a small smile on her delicately featured face.
“What?”
The smile widened, and Truxa leaned in close. “You can’t go through life wondering why you shouldn’t hate someone. my love. Sometimes you have to look at people and wonder why you shouldn’t care about them.”
Sinunu smiled, and felt some of her tension melt away. “Point taken.”
She turned, and leaned forward, extending her hand to the biff. “They call me Sin.”
The biff smiled again, turning the wattage way up. “Rachel Harlan.” And shook Sinunu’s hand.
Sinunu was surprised by the grip. She’d expected something soft and pliant; instead, it was firm and hard. The kind of handshake she’d expect from a warrior.
“I’ll be looking after you tonight, so just stick tight to me and do what I do and what I say, and we’ll come out of this together, capiche?”
The smile faded from Rachel’s face. “You guys don’t want me here and I know that. You think I’m putting an extra strain on you, but trust me, I’ll take care of myself.”
Sinunu frowned. “Flak vouches for you, but that’s not the point. This is a team, and we’re still kicking because we work like a team. You’re a new player who doesn’t know the signs, doesn’t know the calls, and hasn’t read the playbook. If Flak says you’re good enough, then I believe him, but I worry that you’ll zig when you should zag, and it’ll get us all killed.”
Rachel looked down for a moment, and Sinunu had to lean forward to catch her next words. “I won’t. I promise. But I couldn’t just sit on my hoop when someone I love is in danger.”
Sinunu frowned again. She didn’t really want this mission to become so personal. She preferred fins to be clinical insertions without any emotional entanglements, but it seemed that everyone was determined to make her care about them on this one. She knew that could work against her at the wrong moment. Sometimes caring too much made you think when you needed to act. It made her uneasy.
Sinunu sat back. “It’s understood, Rachel. Rest easy though. We’ll do everything to get your man back in one piece.”
Rachel lifted her head, and there was that thousand-watt smile again. “You don’t know how much I appreciate your help, especially since I can’t afford to pay you.”
That caught Sinunu off guard. Rachel seemed to think they were doing this as a favor to her, maybe because she and Flak were acquainted or because of that Corinna biz. She seemed to have absolutely no clue that the vampire had already deposited mondo nuyen into their Cayman account.
Despite herself, she leaned forward again. “I got to ask, and you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but how did you get mixed up with”-she nodded in the direction of de Vries-“him?”
Rachel looked startled for a moment. “I don’t know what you mean. I’ve only known him for about two hours longer than I’ve known you. He found me. Without him, I’d probably still be sitting in Warren’s apartment waiting for him to come home.”
Sinunu couldn’t help a small start of surprise. “You mean you didn’t seek him out? He just showed up and offered to help you?”
Rachel shrugged. “Yeah, pretty much like that.”
Sinunu sat back and digested this. The vamp shows up to help the lady in distress, pays out major nuyen without even telling her, and lets her come along on a very dangerous run. It didn’t scan. She looked at the vamp again, wondering what angle he was running. Then she thought about what Truxa had said. Was it possible he was doing this our of the goodness of whatever heart he had left?
Sinunu shook her head. Maybe Truxa was right. She was certainly finding it harder and harder not to like the creature sitting so calmly across from her.
Suddenly, the rumble of the Vikings, which had become like distant white noise, screamed to a higher pitch, and then was gone as if they had never been there.
“Heads up,” said Flak from the front. “Escort away. It’s party time.”
Through the mounted speaker over Sinunu’s head, Sandman’s voice was distant, making him sound like a strung-out chip head. “I’m home free. All systems running like clockwork, but there’s some sort of internal cycle on all the ice in this place. It’s being constantly replaced by different defensive lines. I give us a half an hour, max, from insertion to extraction, before I have to fight this system again. So let’s light it up.”
Sinunu pulled her hood down over her face, fining the air filter into place. She pulled her Heckler and Koch MP-5 TX, checked the load again, and strapped it to her back.
From under the seat, she took the compound crossbow, complete with forty real wood quarrels, that she’d used the night before to cover de Vries in the apartment. The quarrels had cost a mint, and she would have to be careful not to waste them. Not to mention that the crossbow wasn’t a weapon she’d normally have opted for. Still, she found herself liking its simplicity, as well as its silence. If only they made a faster repeater for the thing. As it was, she only had six rounds before she had to reload. Still, if she was careful, and if she was centered, it would do nicely.
De Vries had told them their target was full of vampires, and the team had been briefed on how to kill them. He’d told them vampires were as allergic to wood as to sunlight. He’d said that if a vampire’s spine were damaged, it would kill him. He also told them the place was full of vampires with augmentation, something no one had ever heard of before now. They’d have to cross that bridge when they came to it.
After making sure all of her hand-to-hand weapons were in place and ready, Sinunu turned her attention inward. focusing on her breathing, she let her mind wander through her body, loosening any tensions, focusing her chi into her belly to center her power.
When she was ready, she opened her eyes and looked at the world with new eyes. Everything seemed to be connected by lilting lines, and she could see how the slightest action or movement of one person or thing affected everything else. Sinunu knew instinctively how an action on her part would cause those lines to waver and snap. She felt perfectly at peace, and ultimately capable.
She knew, even before it began to happen, that the van had reached its destination and would be coming to a halt.
“Last stop. Everybody out,” said Flak, his low voice coming through the tacticom built in to Sinunu’s head gear. She was at the door, gracefully pushing it open and stepping out, before anyone else had even moved.
Dropping to a crouch, she scanned the area. The place looked like they’d suddenly been transported to the dark side of the moon. The night sky was black, and the only light came from behind her, at the front of the van. The light was orange, and cast the whole landscape into hellish relief.
Even with the air filter on, the smell of the place was overwhelming. Dry and noxious, with just the hint of spoiled eggs over the top. It was the scent of death and decay. The stench of age-old battlefields where the dead have not rested easily.
To her left, a small collection of haphazardly erected structures formed a small shanty town. She knew this was where the locals had set up camp when the compound had first opened its soup kitchen. That was, of course, before many of the occupants of the little town had began to disappear with alarming regularity.