Freezing Shadows, Chapter 40

Chapter 40: Conversation

“Icy, good to see you. All of you. And in one piece.”

Alisha Cooper was looking rough. Rougher than she had when we’d left her at the Hades Club just a few days ago. She’d been up late a few nights in a row, almost certainly. Whether with work or worry was anyone’s guess.

Of course, we weren’t at Hades Club now. This wasn’t that kind of meet. Instead, we were meeting at a warehouse in the ‘Elven District’ on the south shore of Lake Union. Alisha was there, along with an old (or at least, old-looking) Ford Americar. Looks could be deceiving, of course. I didn’t doubt that the car was tricked out in some way, even if it just had a better engine and concealed armor. It looked like a generic used car, which meant that you couldn’t have gotten better camouflage if you’d had full-on invisibility systems going on.

“Alisha,” I nodded. “Good to see you. It was… an eventful trip.”

She just nodded, and when she spoke, her voice was tight, like she was doing everything possible to keep it together. “And Tyler? Twilight said he was drugged up, and would need help getting clean, as well as therapy. She mentioned brainwashing? But it sounded like more.”

“Yeah, about that,” I started, as the rest of the girls came over, with Berzerker carrying an unconscious Tyler. Alisha’s eyes went to the boy’s body, and I could see she was on a razor’s edge. “Physically, Tyler is alive, and in one piece. That’s the good news. We made sure he was stable, but didn’t do anything to wake him up. Think its probably best if he’s in someplace safe when that happens. Got somewhere we can lay him down while we talk?”

“Y-yeah. Back seat of the car. Door’s unlocked.” Her eyes followed Berzerker as she walked to the car. Shadowgirl opened the door, and the cybered-up gunslinger placed the boy on the back seat, laying him out as carefully as she could.

Only then did Alisha’s eyes come back to me. “All right. Spill. What happened to Tyler? What kind of danger is he in? You said he was physically in one piece. What does that mean?”

“You’re retired, but you were still a shadowman. You know how every bit of ware you get, wears away at the stuff that keeps you tethered to you, right? It is why magicians react badly to ware, and why sammies have a hard limit on how much chrome they can shove in their body before the whole thing gives up the ghost.”

“Yeah, the general term is ‘essence’, right?”

“Right. There are other ways you can ‘wear away’ at someone’s essence. Heavy drug use, for instance, as well as some other things. Tyler was heavily drugged while he was at that retreat. They didn’t risk giving him an OD, but they definitely kept him drugged up hard. And, before you ask, we think it was precisely because doing that would wear away at his essence, and grind it down.”

“Why, though? There are easier ways to fuck someone up, and make them a true believer in some stupid cult.”

I took a breath, considering. I’d spent the entire drive up from Yakima considering what, and how much, to tell Alisha. “Brainwashing them was a secondary thing. Or maybe insurance. The point of it was to get a living being with as little resistance as possible.”

“I’m really not liking where this is going, Icy. I thought it was just going to be cult stuff, but this sounds different.”

“Time to make a choice, Alisha. There are things you can’t un-know. Things you, your sister, and Tyler would all be better off if you don’t know them. If I didn’t trust you had a good head on your shoulders, I wouldn’t even be telling you this much. We might not be walking on a dragon’s hoard, but this is just as serious.”

I saw Alisha frown as she locked in, and focused on what I was saying. “This Brotherhood of Unity is bigger than just the one retreat. They’re worldwide, and they can scrub things from the Matrix. That means they have power. And whatever Tyler was into stumbled into a secret. Something they’d be willing to ‘disappear’ people over, or arrange accidents for, right?”

I just nodded slowly. She needed to make this decision herself. She was smart, but smart sometimes became a liability. Especially when dealing with secrets that people wanted to stay secret.

“Tell me what I would need to know to give you and other teams the information they need, if these guys come up as jobs in the future.”

“The Brotherhood of Unity is bad news. All of it. If you see them in someone’s background, and they’re coming to you for work, walk away. If one of your people is looking to get clean, send them anywhere else but there. Don’t go digging into the organization. If you do, you’ll be lucky if it is just a ‘random act of gang violence’. Everyone you know will be lucky, too.”

“So, the Brotherhood has some bad juju going on. Given how you made sure to lead with the Essence talk, it is something magical?”

“Yeah. If you have a mage you trust, or even an adept that can scope the astral, get them to do a bit of assensing on people you’re looking into. Especially if their behavior changes. But the mage needs to play it cool, especially if the outside doesn’t match the inside. Same as peeking the astral and seeing a dragon where a dwarf should be. Making a scene is just going to cause trouble. And invest in wards.”

“I can do that. What about defense? Wards are nice, but they’re just a wall, right? They don’t do anything once someone breaks in.”

“So, in unrelated news, we ran into those paracritters you mentioned. The ants the size of cars, you know? Turns out, they really were real. Insecticide bullets worked like a charm, though. So, I’d make sure to keep a clip or two on hand, for when you’re needing to deal with big bugs like that.”

Alisha blinked for a second, as she processed the sudden change in topic, and then nodded, slowly. “I see. Good to know about that. Anything else I should know about?”

“Yeah. We ran into local chapter of some go-gangers on the job, run as the Devastation Angels. They helped us out with a bit of an issue when we were going in to get Tyler. I wouldn’t exactly trust them further than I could throw them, but that’s what I’m like for most people I’ve just met. Still, if you ever do find the Brotherhood of Unity or someone like them on your radar, you might consider giving those girls a call. They’re private sorts, so I wouldn’t go trusting them with all your secrets, just like they probably won’t trust you much, but they have beef with the Brotherhood. But don’t send a team to help them, or call them in asking to help one of your teams unless you know for certain that the team is a nonjudgy kind of team.”

“How nonjudgemental? ‘I don’t mind a troll on the team’? Or ‘I don’t care what the frak you are or what drek you’re into, so long as it doesn’t affect me, and I don’t have to see it’?”

“The second. You might have heard of them. All-female go-gang, not shy about including individuals with some mutations. Especially the ‘not as pretty’ types that freak some people out. But they were useful. Had a couple free spirits along as buddies, which meant I didn’t need to keep an eye on the astral while we went hunting. But those things also make them quick to get distrustful, and I have a good feeling that they’d hang someone out to dry in a heartbeat if they thought they were getting screwed over, or if they felt someone was getting too judgmental. Judgy people can’t cause trouble for you if their whole team died because you waited until both sides softened each other up before coming in.”

“So, steer clear of them, unless something with, say, special paracritters or this Brotherhood of Unity comes along? And then make sure that the team I send with them, if any, is able to keep their mouth shut, at least until the job is done? That about right?”

“And this is why I like dealing with you, Alisha. You always know what needs to be said, and when things don’t need to be said.” I took a breath, mainly to put some separation between my words, before continuing. “But, back to Tyler. They wore away at his essence, and as I’m sure you know, that doesn’t come back. However, if he decides to go in for mods, that gap will get filled first, before it wears away at him any further. He’s not Awakened, so he doesn’t have any of the Talent to lose, but there’s still the detox, and dealing with whatever mindfrag they pulled on him. He’s going to need you, or your sister, maybe both. Otherwise, he may fall in with a bad crowd again, and this time he might not come back.”

“Right. I’ll be sure to let my sister know. Let me transfer the rest of the funds. You earned it.”

She handed over a credstick, which I loaded up and parceled out to the rest of the team. I looked back to her, and said, “I know it has only been a couple days, but have you heard anything about the business from the other day?”

Alisha nodded, and then took a deep breath. When she looked at him again, she said, “As you might expect, the first few links in the chain are cut-outs who have been, well, cut-out. After the would-be contact you mentioned, I managed to trace things to another body, but that was where the trail mostly died. I was literally following bodies at that point, as there have been a lot of ‘sudden retirements’ and ‘tragic accidents’ within Mixsanto.”

“The question is, are they dying because the people above are cutting them out, or because the dragon is hunting?”

“Given how public the bodies are getting? I’d wager some of both. Unfortunately, I don’t think you’ll be finding anyone to express your displeasure to about their treatment of you. However, it isn’t all bad. While I haven’t been able to get you a meeting with whoever was behind the hit, there’s a chance that I can get you a meeting with someone who can clear the air, and make sure the dragon doesn’t hold a grudge.”

I raised an eyebrow. “The only ones I know of that can convince a dragon of anything are some powerful magic types. Most of them other dragons.”

“Ah, yes,” Alisha nodded. “You know the Redmond Towers casino, out near Glow City?”

I took a breath, and said, “I know that a dragon is supposed to be in charge of the place, and that they’re the reason some of the crazy ass radiation cultists or whatever the hell is out there haven’t done anything too crazy. Or, at least, nothing that spills over into the rest of the sprawl.”

“Yeah. The dragon has a name, Ivaeth. Female dragon, of the ‘Western’ type. We’ve had dealings in the past, back when I was active. Reasonable sort, but remember a dragon is a dragon. They don’t do anything for free, and they play the long game.”

“So, what? Go to this dragon, plead my case, and she tells the feathered serpent that we didn’t know he was a dragon, and wouldn’t have taken the job if we did?”

“Something like that. She’ll probably have some kind of task for you. Probably symbolic. To prove your sincerity, and all that. But the fact that you deliberately refrained from executing the dragon Raoki, didn’t take trophies or anything like that, and got out of there without touching anything that could be considered his hoard? That goes a long way. Approach it right, and you could be clear of this.”

I breathed a bit easier at that. ‘Friendly meeting with a dragon’ wasn’t exactly clear sailing, but it beat the hell out of looking over your shoulder, wondering when an angry dragon was going to come after you for revenge. According to the rumors, they were big on grudges. Sometimes generational grudges, where they screwed with someone for something their ancestor did long ago. Just needed to be sure this meeting went right.

“Thanks, Alisha. And take care of Tyler.”

“You know it, Icy.”