Uncle Ray. Dunk. I’d imagined conversations with them so many times in lockup that I’d almost forgotten they had once been real. I’d stopped even thinking of them as parts of my life I might reclaim – as there had been no indication I would ever be released. And then I was. They simply dumped me on the street. And I hadn’t even been out more than a few months – hadn’t even quite sorted out what to do with myself – when I got the message from Uncle.
I didn’t know how he found me. And he didn’t say what kind of trouble he was in. Just that he needed me. And Dunk. And we were supposed to meet him in Hong Kong. I didn’t know how to feel about any of this. But it was Uncle. More importantly, it was Dunk. So off I went.
The arrival flight was rough. Storms kicked up and made for a bad descent. My stomach was *not* happy about it. The water taxi to the harbour didn’t help. And when I stepped off the docks, there he was. Dunk. I’d know that slouch anywhere.
Much bigger. He’d filled out well since 16. All that extra weight he’d gained when we started getting regular meals. All that chubbiness he used to get teased about. It had hardened into muscle. Looked good on him. Unfortunately something else also looked good on him. A uniform. LSPD. Lone Star Police. Dunk was a fragging CorpCop. Figures. Always was a more of a straight arrow than me. And who was that next to him? Another Star. An elf woman – looking every bit as corpo as him.
No sign of Uncle. He was supposed to meet us at the dock and then lead us to a rendezvous point. Dunk hadn’t seen him. Said he’d been acting weird lately. Distracted. The other blue with him was his “partner” – Sergeant Carter. Said he had brought her for backup because he didn’t know if I’d show. I let the hint pass. He didn’t even know what he didn’t know.
We decided to head directly for the meetup. Maybe Uncle had needed to go ahead for some reason. But the docks exit was locked… and it didn’t accept Dunk or Carter’s police IDs. Odd… but plenty of things didn’t work right in the Hong Kong slums. We assumed it was just a glitch. Saw a construction site nearby with poor security. Easily got through that and figured we could cut through.
Unfortunately we stumbled into a smuggling operation of some kind. And the smugglers didn’t appear interested in talking things out – especially once Dunk announced us as police. Nice Dunk. Real helpful.
When we reached the address we found no sign of Uncle. We did, however, find four rough looking characters already occupying the site. Dunk just about started a fight, laying in to them about Uncle and throwing around his ID. I sensed that wasn’t accomplishing much, and Carter seemed to agree, so we got him to let me do the talking.
According to the leader – a big troll going by “Nightjar” – they were shadowrunners. And Uncle had hired them to take us all into the Kowloon walled city – one of the most infamous and dangerous slums on earth. Dunk was convinced they were lying – “Uncle would never work with people like this!“. I could see in their eyes that it was true. What was Uncle involved in? And where was he? Nightjar didn’t seem to know either. I was just about to ask some follow-up questions when his head sprouted a large hole. Sniper fire. We all hit the deck.
But not all of us made it. The elf shadowrunner caught a round in the back. And then, Carter…
And the rest of us dove into cover. Loudspeakers called out in Cantonese, “Hong Kong PD! Drop your weapons and surrender!” Yeah. Like Carter and the others ever got that chance. Dunk screamed back that he was Lone Star, but his only answer was a bullet whizzing overhead. PD or not, this was do or die.
I gave the incoming SWAT something to worry about.
While Dunk grabbed the troll’s rifle and charged in blazing. We were really going to have to work at it if I wanted to keep him alive while we got out of this mess.
I saw incoming police drones, as well as more SWAT. Things were going sideways quickly. Fortunately it seemed one of the remaining shadowrunners was a decker. She grabbed a downed police PDA and hacked the drones into overload. A welcome release, but there was just too much heat coming. We needed a way out, fast.
The orc girl seemed to be talking to her Rat. Couldn’t tell what it was about, but I could sense mana involved. Then she threw out a green fog which had the SWAT choking and gasping, and yelled out “This way! I have an exit“! I wasn’t sure what she thought she had, but anything was better than staying put. We made a quick dive into a sewer access before reinforcements could arrive.
Down below Dunk tried desperately to get in touch with his command but instead growled that his access had been revoked! Even his home systems rejected his ID. The hacker grabbed his phone away, threw it to the ground, and stomped on it. Repeatedly. “They’re tracking it newb! Ditch yours too sparkles!” I was already smashing mine. Didn’t take a genius to see where this was going.
I tried to question them about what was going on, but the hacker hushed me “Dump the chatter! Trying to read the grid!” Then her face got very, very pale and she cursed softly. “Dreck“. She held up her PDA and showed us all what she was seeing. A Hong Kong news podcast. “Terrorists in a firefight with police. Do not engage. Call the police immediately if you see any of them”. With four familiar faces helpfully on screen…. We were truly fucked.
The runners introduced themselves. The orc girl was Gobbet. The dwarf hacker Is0bel. They said they were stuck with us now. With the news circulating the baggers would catch us in no time if we popped up in Hong Kong proper. Every camera in town was looking for us. And while the runners had no identities in the system for the authorities to track…. Dunk and I did. And that would lead the cops right to them too. There was only one solution. We would have to become SINless. Have our social identities utterly wiped – making us complete outlaws.
Dunk was outraged. He’d spent his life rising above the streets. He was a cop! But Gobbet succinctly countered it. “You can be a dead ex-cop, or a live criminal. Take your pick.“
I tried to be more accommodating. It might be self-interest, but we needed them now. I asked about their friends that had died above. They said Nightjar – the troll – had always looked out for them. He was the toughest runner they knew, and they had no idea what they were going to do without him. The other – the elf – apparently went by Backfire. They had nothing to say about him beyond “asshole”. Apparently he would not be mourned.
Gobbet lead us along a winding path through the sewers, periodically conferring with the local rodents, until eventually we popped up in a deserted subway station. At that point they filled us in on the plan.
Their “fixer” (an “agent” fixing runners up with jobs) was a woman going by “Kindly Cheng” – a local crimelord in the Yellow Lotus Triad. She was vicious, cruel and would not hesitate to sacrifice anyone or anything that stood in her way. She was also the only chance we had of getting scrubbed. Wiping someone out of all major ID databases without getting caught was a serious enterprise – requiring high level contacts, a *lot* of money, and with a lot of risk. I asked why such a person would do that for us. Isobel and Gobbet glanced at each other and swallowed hard. “We’re going to grovel like our lives depend on it. Because they do.” was Gobbet’s succinct answer.
They told Dunk and I to wait in the station while they went ahead to make initial contact. We were to follow them up into about an hour, head *directly* for the MahJong Parlor, not interact with *anyone else* on our way, and then be as polite and ingratiating as possible after being introduced. Then they headed up.
I could tell Dunk had been just barely holding it together for some time now. So I told him. “Its just us now. Let it out.” He looked at me as if about to say something, and then turned and slammed his fist into the wall. Repeatedly.
“She’s dead Ye. She was my fragging partner. She came here as a favor to me. She was the one that had my *back* And shes fragging DEAD!“. I tried to empathise, saying she must have been an amazing friend. He just snarled. “Don’t patronize me Ye. What would you know about having someone’s back? You just disappear when it gets hard.“
Now I had had enough. I asked him how hard HE came looking for ME. “You fell off the grid Ye. Totally flat-lined. No trace. You hid your tracks well.”
“I spent EIGHT YEARS in a ZERO ZONE jack-ass!”
That shut him down. Cold. “What? A Black Site? That… that makes sense. That… explains a lot. Jesus Ye.” He was quiet for a long time. Then, “Its just… a lot to take. All at once. Uncle Ray’s in trouble and missing. You pop up. Carter’s DEAD. I’m not a Star any more. I’m going freakin SINless! I mean, how much more fragged up could it get?” I gave him a look he still remembered after all these years. Didn’t have to say a word. You NEVER ask THAT. NEVER. We waited a while longer, and then headed up into Heoi.
Heoi was a mass of docks, old ships, and dilapidated buildings so intertwined and lashed together that it was hard to tell where “land” gave way to “dock” and “ship”. It was the last bit of “civilized” Hong Kong outside walled Kowloon City. If your definition of “civilized” included gang-ridden slums where one way or another everybody worked for, in, or with the Black Market.
The MahJong Parlor looked even seedier than the surrounding slums, and Duncan did not look at all certain about this idea. But we didn’t really have much other choice. I told him emphatically to let me do the talking. We could NOT afford to antagonize here.
“Kindly” Cheng looked every bit as harsh and in control as her reputation. Gobbet and Isobel were sitting meekly in the corner looking downcast, and she immediately greeted us with “So you’re the Western fuck-ups who got my best Shadowrunner killed. Explain to me why I shouldn’t have your bodies dumped in the harbor before the heat hunting for you comes down on me?” This was going to be a tough audience.
I tried to stress that it was in both of our interests to find out who had been behind the police ambush. And I tried to keep things in no-nonsense terms of power and reprisal. I’d grown up street. I’d spent time in lockup. I knew the score. She eventually relented – agreeing that somebody needed to pay for Nightjar (apparently even she didn’t care about Backfire). But it was going to cost. Big time.
Cheng had been the “fixer” who had set up Uncle Ray with Nightjar and his crew. She said Uncle had been mumbling something about “Leaving his prosperity in Kowloon.” He seemed to her to be not all there, but didn’t show obvious signs of drugs. Dunk breathed in sharply at the suggestion Ray might have been using, but I kicked him to keep quiet.
Cheng would arrange to burn our identities – if for no other reason than to protect herself. But until the debt was repaid we’d be working for her. Filling in for her lost runners. So first she wanted us to do a job to prove we could hack it. Is0bel would be overseeing us. Gobbet would be… working in the most demeaning roles Cheng could think of in the meantime as penance for getting Nightjar offed.
She wanted us to enter Kowloon City, find a rogue enforcer going by “Strangler Bao” – and deliver a message. Dunk objected, but I hushed him and looked at her questioningly. Were we being asked to be thugs? Assassins? She grimaced in response. “I already know you and Gun Show over there can kill. There’s several dead HKPD can speak to that now, aren’t there? No. I mean give him this.” And she handed me a data stick. Then held it as I reached for it, stared coldly into my eyes, and said, “And remember. His men are MY men. They are supposed to work for ME. So if you kill ANY of them you are killing MY soldiers. Keep that FIRMLY in mind.“ And then we were dismissed.
Outside. Dunk just looked at me. “We’re really doing this, aren’t we?”. “Got any better ideas? We can’t find Uncle and figure out what’s going on if we’re dead. ‘Gun Show.“. He rolled his eyes. “That name had better not stick Ye.”
I wasn’t going tell him. It had already stuck.
Now we just needed to find a new wardrobe before striking out with Isobel. Dunk in particular stuck out way too much in his SWAT gear even if we did get our IDs burned. And while the residents of Heoi and Kowloon would die – literally – before snitching to the blue, it was best not to tempt fate.
Author’s Notes:
Still settling on the render style, but I think this’ll work for this run. I was absolutely *shocked* at the level of gun violence GPT let me get away with. Especially considering DALL-E would press eject if you merely looked at a firearm funny. It’ll be fun to see what else I can get it to do in a more modern setting.
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