Fractures

The team had got together in the back room of a desert cantina in a hick town just outside of Texas. A single unshielded low wattage bulb shed a sickly yellow glow over the filthy back room. Marcus lounged in the only comfortable swivel chair, its black leather cracked now with age, he sat smoking a Luthien grey (a European brand) flicking ash onto the floor. Ras sat astride a wooden chair, arms resting on the high back with a half full bottle of tequila hanging from one hand. He was staring at Ken who had been complaining about their lack of progress in the current assignment and was trying to get the team to work together. Ackerman leaned back on his chair against the blown plaster of the wall half listening to the conversation which was growing into an argument, while trying to focus on the feedback from his surveillance drone hovering outside the bar.

Ciaran slouched on the table idly nursing a warm beer; nearly spilling it as Ken slammed a mono knife through the wooden table to the hilt to emphasize his point.

"So you can see we are not using our resources effectively!"

"We’re not getting anywhere man, and its frackin me off." Said Ras

"If you lot would pull yourselves together and coordinate we could achieve a lot more." replied Ken

"I’m getting a little tired of you trying to tell me what to do man, if you would stop giving out orders and listen..." growled Ras

"Frack off, If you two would try and cooperate instead of pissing about while some of us are trying to complete our assignment then we might actually earn the money you’ve been spending." hissed Ken

"What’s your problem Yashida?" interrupted Marcus "You are wound up way to tight pal".

Ken stood up kicking his chair back and leaned over the table

"If you two would concentrate instead of pissing away operational funds on a waste of time race..."

"We would have won that if you hadn’t have been such a crappy shot O’Sullivan" piped in Ras pointing at the techie.

"Who gives a shit anyway, its not your personal stash Yashida. They’re team funds to use at our discretion," yelled the fixer standing nose to nose with the solo.

Ken laughed

"Ha, this coming from a sleezeball who charges his team mates through the nose for favours!"

"Hey I’ve got overheads and I don’t see why I should subsidise everyone at my expense, shithead" Marcus retorted.

"Hey guys calm down, I’m su...." started Ciaran

"Button it grease monkey you can’t joke your way out of this one." growled the Jamaican.

Ken continued over the interruption

"Frag it, the same old crap. We don’t charge you for covering your ass in a firefight, not that you get into many you yellow streak of piss."

"I don’t have to take that from a 2nd rate triad drop out," yelled the fixer as he started to pull his Colt Alpha Omega 9mm.

Ken had his katana out and at the fixer’s throat before the gun had cleared the holster. The monoblade edge drew a drop of blood. "Go ahead pull it," he said fixing Marcus with a stare. Almost simultaneously Ras had an AMT 2000 pointed to the side of the Asian solo’s head.

"He dies, then so do you chink"

The three stood motionless for a moment then the netrunner cleared his throat and spoke. "Err guys we still haven’t heard from Santiago"

The moment passed and Ken sheathed his katana in one smooth motion, Ras lowered the gun and Marcus released the grip on his pistol letting it slide back into his shoulder holster.

"This is getting us no-where we’ve got to..." started Ken but was interrupted by Ras "You’re right we are all getting no-where and I’ve had enough, I quit."

"You can’t quit, we took on this fraggin mission as a group." retorted Ken but he was talking to the Jamaican’s back as he walked out of the small room.

"I’m cashing my chips in as well" stated the fixer, he fired a parting shot over his shoulder as he walked through the doorway after Ras "the Wild Cards are finished" he said.

As the clicking of the fixer’s Cuban heels receded down the hall Ken looked around the table at the two remaining members. "Well?" he asked

Richard Ackerman and Ciaran O’Sullivan looked at each other and came to an unspoken agreement. "I guess we’ll stick together for the moment but we can’t say for how long, at least until we find out what happened to Miles".

"Yea, great" said Ken to no-one in particular

"Where the frack are you Santiago?" thought Ken.

Miles woke to a world of pain. His face hurt and he could feel a flap of skin dangling onto his chin. His hands were tied behind his back and his feet were secured to the chair. At least Miles assumed he was on a chair as at the moment he was blindfolded.

"Ah Mr Santiago you are awake, excellent now we can begin. You seem surprised that I know your name, don’t be."

Santiago recognised the voice as belonging to a woman but it was being disguised using electronic means. He scanned the room using his telepathic ability but the pain was causing interference, although he managed to ascertain that there were two men and a woman in the room.

"Breaking and entering is a serious offence Mr Santiago," the mystery woman said.

"So is torture" Miles replied "How is Dr Mengelai by the way?" he sneered with a bravado that he didn’t really feel.

"The poor Dr is dead, which is unfortunate as he was a useful hireling; a skilled man of many talents."

She paused "Which brings me to another point. How did you manage to electrocute him dear boy?"

"My magnetic personality was to much for him, perhaps you would like to sample it?" Miles grunted through the pain of speaking.

"I thought that you would be more cooperative, I assumed some sort of cybernetic enhancement but the brief scan we were able to achieve here revealed nothing unusual. Perhaps a full autopsy would uncover your secrets, hmmm?" she drawled.

"Go ahead, try it. I’ve got all the time in the world." Miles winced as pain shot through his jaw.

"Nasty damage you suffered on the ops table, unfortunately we have run out of pain killers. Sadly though we don’t have time for a full examination. Don’t look surprised Mr Santiago, I have no doubt that a man of your reputation would leave little to chance, no doubt that if you fail to report by the morning your friends will come looking or perhaps they’re watching the building now? I doubt they are though." the woman whispered.

She was getting close and Miles reached out with his mind again to get a tag on her identity, the interference in this room was high though, probably some sort of white noise generator to prevent snooping. She had a strong personality and her thoughts were convoluted.

"Yes we are all professionals here and I cannot afford to compromise my position, you will have to go on a little drive." she continued.

The click clack of the woman’s heels receded across the tiled floor and in a lowered voice she told a guard "Miss Brunner wants the body found out in the old ruins. It has to look like a fight, take some plasma from the medical unit and scatter it around the area. Execute final instructions at dawn."

The next thing, Miles was roughly lifted by 2 men and carried for about 5 minutes before being dropped into what he assumed was a trunk. His location was confirmed when the car engine started and he was driven for about 30 minutes, the last 10 over rough ground.

Light invaded his world as the trunk opened and he had knocked the blindfold off. The first thing he noticed was that the guards were wearing rubber gloves and they were careful to avoid touching his face or hands. They dragged him over amongst some ruins and dumped him.

"How do you want to play this then?" the smaller of the two men said to the other.

"Don’t mind, I’m just amazed that the bitch didn’t flatline our butts after that delivery we fragged up." the big guy replied.

"Shit yeah, remember Jason. He didn’t deliver that package on time because of the accident on the line, fraggin whore had that fudge packin, nigger cowboy of hers waste him, poor sod."

"Goddam it, you’re right. We must have got off lucky this time, hell how were we to know the pickup was compromised?"

"You should have checked the restaurant for undercover cops, they are easy enough to spot" the small guard imitated a woman’s voice.

"What the fuck does she know, anyway we nailed the cops and got out in one piece, what more does she want" he continued.

"Maybe that’s why we got off with it? Either that or she’s short staffed." They both laughed for several minutes before recovering and opening a few beers from the cooler in the back seat.

"Hey guys your boss sounds a real pain, why don’t you cut me loose and I can set you up for life. How does 100K sound?" Miles attempted a smile but his damaged face turned it to a grimace.

Both men looked at him then the little one spoke "Naw I don’t think so." Firstly no one in their right minds wants the Devil on their backs for the rest of eternity and secondly... Well the first ones good enough."

"Yeah lets just do it." Said the big guy, pulling back the slide on his 9mm pistol chambering a round.

They carried on chatting as they set up the scene; they seemed to think it of great importance, probably to please their boss. One splattered blood on a far wall near a doorway, then the big one dragged the little one from the doorway to the car in order to simulate the survivor removing his buddy. They arranged Miles near a window and the small one spoke.

"Right so he’s looking out the window having a smoke when we burst in the room blasting, he’s good so he draws and caps one of us but goes down from a lucky hit from the other, OK?" he looked at the big guard.

"Sounds fine" he grunted aiming his gun

"No, no not yet. We have to run in from outside, try to stick with the plan." shouted the smaller guard. "The suns coming up, lets go"

The bigger guard rolled his eyes at Miles. "Sorry about this but he is such a perfectionist"

Miles just nodded; this situation was getting surreal.

Santiago crawled towards the doorway, determined that he was not going to go down without a fight, when he heard a vile curse from the big guard followed by 2 sharp retorts from a small calibre weapon. As Miles pushed himself up the wall to a standing position he heard the dull whump of a silenced rifle, probably an assault weapon. Then a body impacted with the gravel just outside; a trail of blood seeping in through the doorway. Miles waited for what seemed an age but was a matter of 30 seconds, and then a voice he recognised announced "Clear!" He peered around the doorjamb to see the welcome sight of Kissi kneeling beside the body of the smaller guard, and then another man appeared over a small rise carrying a Militech Ronin light assault.

"I told you that you should have let me take them both out Kissi, but oh no you had to go in." he laughed

"Back off Chernowski, that fat idiot should have been dead right after I hit him, this biotoxin is lethal." retorted Kissi.

"Well he had enough time to raise his gun and try to whack you out didn’t he" Chernowski replied. "here lets take a look at the shoulder"

"He only winged me, the fat fucker" Kissi kicked the corpse vehemently. "It’s my Versachi top I’m pissed about, this cost me over a grand!"

Miles chose now to stumble around the corner. Kissi’s partner dropped into a crouch aiming at Miles but Kissi waved him off.

"That’s who we’re here for dickhead, can’t you tell by the kicked dog expression and the strip ties?" Yelled Kissi

"Jesus you are pissy today, I’ll wait by the jeep". Stormed Chernowski.

Santiago instinctively reached out with his mind towards Kissi and realised that she was angry because she thought he was dead and angry with him for putting her through this. She stomped upto him and drew back a fist to hit him, Miles closed his eyes and winced expecting the impact but instead was subject to a crushing hug and passionate kiss which in all honesty nearly caused him to pass out with pain from his facial injuries. Miles managed a weak smile before collapsing into Kissi’s arms; nearly unconscious from bloodloss. He heard her shout for Chernowski to bring the medical kit before passing out.

Santiago woke on his back, the sky passing overhead. He was in the back of a jeep driving along the hi-way.

"How did you find me?" he queried.

Kissi looked down and replied "I got a call about 5 hours ago from some bloke who said you were in serious shit, and to drive out to that hick Texan town if I wanted to help."

"How the..." began Miles.

"Anyway Roxi was outta town so I picked up Chernowski here from the Hope cus he’s got a small plane and we blasted down under the radar, made it in under4 hours. Anyway we gets into town and heads to the local taverna where this barman says some bloke left a message for me."

Kissi pulls out a crumpled piece of paper, which gives directions to a vid phone booth near the Darktower resort.

Kissi continued. "So we hightailed it over there and finds a prerecorded message waiting when we dialed the number on the paper, the vid was disengaged so no ID but the message says if we shift it we might be in time to save you. Then he gave directions to the place where we found you. It was about 10 minutes to dawn when we got there and began scouting around, Chernowski found the car tracks and then we saw the two punks coming out of that building holding guns. I thought we were to late and tried to jump them. You know the rest."

Miles sighed, at least his face wasn’t hurting now; a combination of painkillers and his advanced healing nanites were working away. This mission was getting more complicated than he had first envisioned; in fact he couldn’t remember why he came down here in the first place. Santiago was still thinking when he fell asleep.

It was dark when he awoke, the blinds were drawn and he could hear the occasional gunshot out or scream; he was in the zone somewhere then. The door opened and a dim light filtered in from a neon sign across the street outlining Kissi. She sauntered over to the sofa where Miles was sprawled. "Feeling better?" she queried.

"All the better for seeing you darlin" he croaked.

"You don’t sound it, here try some of this," said Kissi, handing him a bottle of vodka.

After a few swigs he noticed she had a small deck cradled under one arm.

"What’s that for" asked Miles

"Oh, your netrunner has been tying to contact you all day, he said he has an important private message for you, so I’ll leave you two alone for a while", winking at him she walked out and closed the door behind her.

Santiago opened the deck and activated the viewscreen; Ackermans face appeared after a minute or so. "Thank god your OK, we were worried about you, what happened?"

Miles regaled the netrunner with his tale and took another slug of vodka.

"Good to see you have a painkiller because I’ve got some bad news pal" said Richard looking rather worried.

"Fire away, it can’t be much worse than what’s happened already" said Miles around the bottle.

"There is no easy way to say this, .... Janine is dead"

"What!" whispered Miles the bottle dropping from nerveless fingers and spilling its remaining contents on the rug.

"She was found at her apartment yesterday, police reports are sketchy but it appears that she was shot with a high powered sniper rifle, probably from a rooftop across from her apartment" the netrunner explained.

Miles was silent so Richard continued.

"I hacked into Marcus’s laptop before he left and sent a mockup vid call to his police contact, got some details on the case. It seems some pictures of you and Kissi were found in the apartment along with a typed message on her message system that was due to be sent to her father in EBM. It ran along the lines of ‘If I can’t have you to myself then no-one will’ and runs into tearful desperation for help against her opponent in love ending with a promise to return to the fold if her parents helped."

Santiago was puzzled. "That was not the Janine I knew, she didn’t get along with her parents and she was way to head strong to ask for help from them, this is smelling more and more like a set up but why?"

"Perhaps this can answer it," said the netrunner as he downloaded a file to Miles’s laptop. "Its a short message with level 5 encryption and read once software, it was dropped of at the Mercs R Us BB in the Wild Cards mail slot, addressed to you. I have to go now; the team members are fraggin each other. Two have split and I think you had better go to ground as well, that encryption has all the hallmarks of Arasaka."

The screen went dead and Santiago pushed play and activated the message. An Asian face flickered onto the screen, a man sitting at a desk in a plush office; he spoke in barely accented English.

"Ahh Mr Santiago, we meet at last. I thought a brief message was in order since I, unlike yourself am an honourable man and do not intend to kill you from the shadows so you die without knowing who your assailant was. I am afraid that I have now come to maturity and have inherited my father’s position therefore I must now remove the blemish from my family’s honour. Some years ago you were responsible for his death, during that time I have compiled quite a dossier on you, your associates, your work and other things. In fact I probably know you better than you know yourself, after all you did not think that you would escape unpunished did you? You have been living on borrowed time Mr Santiago but your mere death is not punishment enough for my family’s dishonour, I shall take from you all that you love and hold dear before striking the final blow that will end your life. Believe me when I say that you will dream of that moment by the time I have finished with you. Farewell for now, we shall meet soon enough."

<< message ends >>

<< execute instruction 451 >>

Miles watched as the file self deleted, overloading the viewers chip and melting the hardware. He tossed the now useless laptop to one side and held his head in his hands. The door opened after a few minutes and Kissi walked in, sat down beside him and held him. "What’s wrong lover?" she whispered.

Santiago told her everything except for the fact he had still been seeing Janine until recent events made that impossible.

"Great, that means we are both up shit creek without a paddle. Thankfully my boat has a large compartment full of big guns." Said Kissi with a glint in her eye.

"You should stay away from me until this blows over" stated Miles

Kissi prodded him in the chest "I don’t think so sweetheart, whoever offed your ex left the impression that she wanted me dead and that we are both jointly responsible for her demise. So if not the NCPD then a pair of enraged EBM executive parents are going to want my head. No, from now on we stick together."

"You’re right, get your gear together we are safer on the move" said Miles rising from the sofa. Well Mr Faceless of Arasaka you are going to find that we are harder prey than you think, lets go."

The pair cleared out of the apartment and within minutes the rain splattered, blood stained streets of Night City had enveloped them in its neon embrace.