Anthology - SHADOWRUN - Spells and Chrome

I didn't see a commlink on him anywhere, no wires, so I assumed he'd done the mod thing and converted his data-jack to a wireless receiver-internal 'link. And since I didn't see any goggles or shades-I assumed his eyes were cyber-enhanced as well.

Now see? Why would a young, good-looking kid like this do that to his body? Me? There wasn't an artificial piece of hardware anywhere. Not even a data-jack. Never had a need for it. Yeah, I'd used the commlink and goggles rig now and then so I could get a taste of what AR might be like-having advertisements, e-mail and calls always in the peripheral of my vision.

And you know what I thought about it?

Crap. My mind stayed busy enough without all that shit being dumped in there on a continual basis. The Matrix was easier today to access than ever before-I'd never liked VR back then and I sure as hell didn't like it now.

There was a click and the door popped open. I pulled it out just enough to shove him inside, then piled in behind him.

The room was little more than a four-walled coffin, complete with an empty desk, an old data-jack outlet in its surface, and several brown, unmarked boxes. A broom, mop and apron hung on a nail behind the door.

I closed the door as quietly as possible. Kazuma reached out with his left hand again and tapped invisible keys. He was favoring his right arm where the bullet had apparently went through his shoulder.

Abruptly he waved at the air with his left hand and then collapsed hard against the wall. When he moved I saw a bright smear of blood he'd left behind. I holstered the Colt and coaxed him into helping me remove the messenger bag and jacket. Kazuma unbuttoned the front of his shirt and winced as I peeled it back from the wound.

Yep-right shoulder was a bloody mess. Reaching into the right pocket of my coat, I retrieved an old penlight I'd gotten from a client a few months back-self-charging little tool. Wasn't sure how I'd lasted this long without it-especially with my aging eyes.

He winced and closed his eyes as I pulled material out of the wound, but kept quiet. Turning his face away, I got a good look at his profile and noticed his hair had shifted, exposing a long, slender ear.

"You're an elf."

"Is that a problem?" His voice was surprisingly deep.

"No-it's just that Naomi didn't mention that." Now I was sure he wasn't her nephew.

His eyes opened at her name and he turned his head to look at me. "You're Derek Montgomery?"

I gave him my best smirk. "Is that a problem?"

He almost smiled. Almost. But then schooled his features into something a bit more stoic-which of course looked strange on his face. I'm not a judge on guy's looks. Especially when it's common to polish up one's appearance cosmetically these days. But looking at Kazuma-I'd say he was kinda too pretty for a guy. Being an elf and Asian-that was a double whammy. Androgyny was the curse of being both.

There were more shouts on the other side of the door and then a scream.

Kazuma looked at the door and I noticed just a flicker of panic in his expression. "We need to call the PCC-"

Ooh. I waved my right hand at him to stop. "Let's not get too hasty, okay? I'm sure local authorities can handle this." It's not that I had a problem with the PPC cops-my problems were more interlaced around Lone Star-but I wasn't in the mood to deal with any sort of authority at the moment.

He frowned at me. I noticed he had dark green eyes, not dark black-brown like Naomi's. And I also noticed with a slight shock that they weren't enhanced; these were human-or rather elven-eyes.

I looked at both of them. Cyber eyes-though you could buy the newer enhancements with life-like cosmetic qualities (mostly used by kids who were doing it behind their parent's backs)-always had a tell-tale sheen about them. Not like an animal's eyes that went red or silver in bright light-but more of a different hue. A signature that I'd always used as a marker. It let me know they were seeing things I had no access to.

This kid's eyes didn't have that. They weren't cyber.

So-how had he seen the shop's AR? Or even been able to tap this room's security? Unless he had on a pair of those smartlink contact lenses. That could account for the green tint to his eyes.

"I'm going to check on our friends outside." He leaned his head back on the wall and closed his eyes.

"Hey-Kazuma," I tapped his cheek. He looked incredibly young and he was looking incredibly pale. With a wound like that and no medical treatment-elf or human-he was going to go into shock. I wasn't a doctor, and I sure as hell couldn't play one in the trid. "Hey-look at me."

He blinked slowly and his expression looked-familiar. Only where had I seen that look before? Not on his face-but someone else I'd known a long time ago. It was the expression of someone being in two places at once.

"They've dismantled the auto-security call-out," Kazuma said, though his expression didn't change. "Looks like they've already hacked into the main control. Damnit-the ECCM's still working, but it looks like they're not trying to jam the main signal."

I was still wondering how he was seeing this-so I reached out and moved his hair away from the sides of his temples. There was no datajack. Nothing. Not even a scar where one had been removed. I would swear he was accessing remotely-but was he in the Matrix? I didn't see how-most of the time if a decker was submersed in VR then they weren't accessing their meat sack except to breathe, much less speak.

How the fuck was he doing both? "Do you have security clearance for this server?"

He nodded slowly. "I do now."

What the hell did that mean? Was the kid hacking his way in? Well, he was Knight Errant and he'd known about this room-which made me think he was either pretty high level or he'd worked in the sector before-maybe even for the PPC. I figured I'd ask him later-after we kicked these assholes out.

"Kazuma-can you figure out what they're after?"

"I don't-" He frowned, and his full, lower lip trembled. "How could they know this? I didn't know that door existed on this server. Ponzu-track sinister seven, subsection 66.77-pop2. Find out where that thing is going."

Ponzu?

Wasn't that a sauce?

Kazuma blinked rapidly as he looked up at me. He was shaking. "I-I'm cold."

"Shock." I glanced around. There was nothing in here that I could use as a blanket-except my coat. With a sigh I stood and removed it, careful of my weapon and laid it over him. I really needed something to staunch the bleeding-but the wound was a through and through-a hole in and a hole out. The wound was bleeding steadily and if we didn't get out of here soon, this kid was gonna expire.

And then I'd have Naomi to contend with. That was not how I intended on ending this little venture.

As I tried to fasten his coat around him as a bandage my hand pressed against something hard and ungiving. I pulled the coat back and found a hidden back holster around his middle containing a Fichetti Security 600. I slipped it out and checked the magazine as Kazuma's eyelids fluttered. Fully loaded.

I nudged him and held the gun up. "Can you use this thing?"

He squinted at me and nodded. "Yeah-I can use it. My Grandfather taught me."

Grandfather? Was that supposed to mean something? I held it out. I wasn't surprised a Knight Errant techie boy had a weapon-I think I was just slotting him into a stereotype and suspecting he had a katana hidden somewhere. "Think you can use it now?"

He nodded and reached out with his left hand and grabbed it. "Why?"

"Because we have to get out of here, that's why. If I understand what you're saying, those jack-heads out there are looking to steal this server-why I don't know-but that means they'll be trying to bust down this door any minute and I'm not sure-"