Machines   von Alaiya
                           (Hamburg in the shadows)
================================================================================
                           XX – Failed negotiations
                           ------------------------


Goober stayed for another day to help remove every RFID chip and every tracker
they found in the equipment they had stolen. He offered to help install the
equipment in the hospital, but Heidenstein was hesitant to accept it. Pakhet was
rather sure that it was not only because of the extra money hey would pay, but
because he did not want to have any more people inside his hospital. But again
she did not say anything but rather helped him – as far as she was able to not
having much knowledge about this kind of equipment – to install the stuff.
“By the way, Pakhet”, Heidenstein started, when they were taking a break
over a cup of coffee.
His tone made her rather sure, she knew what he was going to talk about. She
looked up. “Hmm?”
“Have you thought about what I said? About the arms?”, he asked.
She did not answer immediately as she was still unsure. Of course she had
thought about it – but she still had not gotten to any conclusion. One the one
hand it would be nice to have arms of flesh and blood, as a part of her
regretted to ever have agreed to getting the cyber-arms, one the other hand she
was not quite ready to give up her cyber-guns. Back when she had gotten her
flesh-arms removed, she had wanted to proof herself to that fucking ass of a
superior on the job she had been working. It had not done her any good in that
job and she had ended up in the shadows – but there the arms had saved her
life more then once. “Of course I've thought about it”, she said. “But I
am... Not sure. Maybe...”
He looked at her for a moment. “Well, it is your decision. But just let me say
that I think it would be the better thing to do... As I said: I could make it so
that your arms would be as strong and as dexterous as the cyber-arms – the
only thing you would loose are the guns.”
“I know”, Pakhet whispered. She knew he meant well and even though she did
not say it, she was thankful for it. 
Heidenstein gave her a smile. “Okay.”
It was the only time he mentioned the arms while they were installing the
equipment, leaving here some more time to think, though she just could not come
a conclusion as both reasons seemed equally valid to her. This arms somehow was
a part of her shadowrunner identity.
It took them about three more days to properly install all the stuff they had
gotten from that Omnitech clinic. Once again she was tempted to ask about why
she had not seen Dr. Anderson, as they were working on his equipment after all,
but again she did not. It was enough that she was relatively sure that
Heidenstein was Anderson – even though she was not yet quite clear on whether
his old appearance was due to stress or some sort of make-up.
They had just finished installing the equipment when Heidenstein once again got
a call which he answered in Russian. He went out of the room – as he did all
the time when somebody from the Vory called. Normally it meant that he would go
somewhere to take care of some injouries. Sometimes it also meant that some
beaten up guy would be brought to the street clinic.
Pakhet could not help but notice that this time he was a long time on the phone.
Normally those calls would last two minutes at maximum – this time it was
almost a quarter of an hour until he came back. 
“What is it?”, she asked.
“Well, it seems we have a run”, he replied. “That is if you'll come
along.”
Pakhet looked up. Apparently she had made it clear enough that she rather stayed
away from the Lobatchewsky as far was possible. “What is it about?”, she
asked.
“You remember the entire ordeal with the girls that had been kidnapped?”, he
asked and she nodded for a reply. “Well, it turns out that these 'pirates' are
bigger of problem then we might have thought. They attacked some of the
Lobatchewsky businesses over the last two month – killed several girls in one
establishment, killed also several of the young boys working in the gangs...
Well, the thing is, the Lobatchewsky tried to make a bargain with some of the
gangs neither involved with them or the Likedeelers. Three guys went for a
negotiation meeting, in the morning, but they have not returned, nor did they
pick-up when they were phoned. Now they asked me whether I could go in with some
shadowrunners and find out what has happened.”
Pakhet gave a sigh. She really did not like the Lobatchewskys or the Likedeeler
for that matter, but if what Heidenstein said was true, those pirates –
whoever they were – might be worse. And in the end this was not about
attacking, but about a rescue. “Okay. I'll come along.”
He smiled. “Good. I'll call the others.”
Pakhet nodded, though she was still not sure whether she deemed it a good idea.
But then again somehow they had managed to get the equipment from the hospital
without any problems, without any kills and without blowing anything up. So
maybe she should give the others a chance.
While Heidenstein made the calls she got into her armoured jacket and checked
her pistols to make sure there would not be any malfunctions.
“I cannot reach Dacart”, he said once he came back and took care of his own
weapons, before they both went down to the back of the hospital. 
“Okay, where have they gone missing?”, Pakhet asked while they were waiting
for the others to arrive in the front of the hospital.
“A bar in Wandsbeck”, the doc replied. “The bar is considered neutral
ground. They met with a gang that calls themselves the Scorpions.”
Living in Wandsback Pakhet had at least heard of them. “How cliché...”, she
muttered commenting on the name. She never had quite understood why gangs always
named themselves after dangerous animals. 
“Well, that was what they call themselves”, Heidenstein said with a shrug.
Then a motorcycle pulled up on the parking lot and Pakhet realized that it was
Kah Pak, as his tall and slender build was different from Slap and Dacart. So he
had finally gotten himself a vehicle. Well that was worth something.
“I've come as quickly as possible”, he said. “The others?”
“Slap isn't there yet”, Heidenstein replied. “Dacart isn't coming.”
Kah Pak nodded to show that he had understood and waited that Slap arrived –
and he did, just a few minutes later in a cab.
He got out, paid the driver and then went over to them. “Dacart?”, he asked
when he realized that he was missing.
“Won't come”, Heidenstein said. “And we should get going.”
Pakhet hesitated. “I'd say we take the new cars.” 
“New cars?”, Slap asked.
She pointed at the two Ford Americas they had gotten from Shiawase after
returning that data drive to them. Both cars were now parked in the back of the
hospital. The cars did not have any additional armouring yet, but they would be
less conspicuous then the Jackrabbit and the van. 
“Neat”, Slap said after taking a quick look at the cars.
She and Heidenstein exchanged gazes and like that they agreed to take both cars.
Just in case that they would get into a firefight and one of the cars would
fail. It just made sense to have an extra vehicle along. 
“Well, let's get going”, Pakhet said and went over to her car.
Slap followed her so she took it that he had just decided to drive with her. She
did not complain – at least it meant no spirits just popping out in her car.
“Address?”, she asked Heidenstein just before getting into her car.
He sent it her in a message together with a request for a direct communication
line and so they drove off. 
As it was the early afternoon the streets were still quite busy making it a
longer drive then usual. Still they arrived in the south of Wandsbeck without
any complications and quickly found the bar Heidenstein had been told about.
“Zum Klabautermann” said the sign over a door that led into the buildings
cellar.
They were in an area of Wandsbeck were most of the houses were actually old –
really old – as their owners had been lucky when the black flood had come over
the city. It was not like with the buildings in Pinneberg, which were only
make-believe. No, the buildings were at least a hundred years old – some of
them far older.
Here no living soul seemed to be on the street right now: No cars driving by at
the moment and no pedestrians on the sidewalks. But as there was no supermarket
or anything but the bar around it was maybe not that noteworthy. Yet: Something
had Pakhet on edge, even though she could not quite say what it was.
As they did not want to park in front of the bar to raise any suspicions – in
case that somebody was still inside – but rather parked at the end of the
street and walked about fifty meters to the door of the bar.
“Look”, Kah Pak said. He and Heidenstein had gotten out of their car a bit
earlier and hence arrived at the bar half a minute before Pakhet and Slap.
The shaman knelt down on the street right in front of the bar. Once Pakhet had
reached them she saw what he meant: There were clear car tracks on the asphalt
that looked as if somebody had hurried to get away from there.
Kah Pak bend down to sniff at them. “They are pretty fresh.”
“Leaving the question who had driven of that hastily”, Heidenstein said.
Slap meanwhile had turned towards the door of the bar and checked at it. “It
is open”, he said. “And it looks as if somebody had broken in.”
After taking a close look at the car tracks herself, Pakhet went over to the
door. The lock – it was an old lock instead of a modern mag-lock – was
completely bend as if somebody with at least the strength of a troll forced it
open. After thinking about it she drew her heavy pistol and waited for
Heidenstein to come over, before throwing the door open.
Her gaze swept the room but it was apparent that nobody inside as the room was
very small, featuring only four tables and the bar itself, which was made of old
wood. But that was not the only thing obvious: There had been a fight going on
in here and it did not happen long ago: There were bullet holes in the wall
opposite to the door as well as a relatively fresh puddle of blood on the
floor.
“Well, shit”, she muttered while scanning the room again for anything
remarkable.
“There is a camera”, Slap said and nodded over to the bar.
The bar had apparently gone with the entire Frisian flair that many bars in
Hamburg featured: There was an old wooden steering wheel from a ship hanging on
the back wall just above the bullet holes and several nautical items lay on the
top shelf over the bar just above the bottles of spirits. But between a padded
sea gull and parts of an old fishing net, there was a security camera oriented
towards the door of the bar.
“Well, let's hope it was filming”, Heidenstein replied.
Pakhet went into the bar and then through the door at the counter as she had
seen another door behind it. She wanted to make sure that nobody was here, but
after she had checked the mostly empty back room that only featured a table and
a few chairs, the small kitchen with an mostly empty fridge and the toilets it
was clear that this bar really had been completely deserted.
“So, what do you think?”, Heidenstein asked while Slap was looking for a
good spot to jack into the camera.
“I think I better go outside and guard this place”, she replied. “I don't
like it one bit.” She could not point on anything specific, but something
about this place gave her the creeps. She was sure that it was not because of
the fight and the puddle of blood because she had seen many people die before,
had found dead bodies in much worse places and never had been creeped because of
it. No, something was just off – and she could not say what exactly it was.
When she was outside she leaned against the wall and waited for something to
happen. Maybe somebody had summoned a toxic spirit inside. Because those things
just left something in the air – some times at least – that was just
off-putting. 
While she waited she noticed that a HanSec surveillance drone flew by three
times, which seemed at least somewhat odd. Had somebody made a call when they
heard to shooting? If so HanSec had probably been paid to not come here which
would explain the drone, while no other sign of police presence was to be seen.
There was also a total of two cars driving by, but both seemed to be normal
middle class wage slave vehicles – both being driven on auto-pilot while the
drivers were busy otherwise.
After maybe ten minutes the door of the bar opened again and Heidenstein waved
at her to come inside.
Sullenly she went over to the door and turned around, still being somewhat
freaked out by the fact that she just could not made out what was responsible
for the strange feeling.
“We've got something”, he said and typed something into his commlink.
She realized that he had sent her a message and found a video file attached to
it. She opened the file, which was several minutes long, and looked at it. In
the beginning of the video two man were sitting at one of the tables and talked
about something. As the video had no audio and was just a simple old with even
so much as depth in the picture. The date was two days ago. Then one of the men
handed something over to the other one, before they shook hands and one of the
men left.
Pakhet played the video in double the speed as she there was no audio to miss
anyway.
The next video was from this day, only three hours ago. It showed how three men
came inside – one was the man who had paid in the other video. The other man
was there, too, let them in and then went outside himself. Pakhet suspected he
was the owner of the bar. Then, about a quarter of an hour later – at least
according to the time stamp – the door opened again and three other men came
in. One of the men that had been there earlier talked to them and they lay their
weapons on the counter.
They started talking and Pakhet accelerated the pace of the video even more
until she got to the point she had been waiting for: The door was busted open
and a huge figure came into the room and started shooting. From the side it had
to be a troll though the quality of the video was too low to say for certain.
The men all jumped behind the table, but then another huge figure came in. The
entire ordeal lasted maybe ten seconds, before a way smaller figure came inside.
The figure apparently said something, before the large figures just carried the
men out – it was not obvious whether they were dead or alive.
“Hmm”, Pakhet just made while watching the video. “This is strange.”
Heidenstein nodded. “Something about those trolls seems weird. They don't move
natural.”
“Yes.” She looked at the video again.
“Maybe they are bunrakus”, Heidenstein suggested.
Pakhet just nodded again and looked around. Slap was not in the room, while Kah
Pak sat on the floor – apparently meditating. “What's with him?”
“He had felt something weird and is trying to find out what it is”,
Heidenstein explained. 
This stroke her as odd, but she did not say anything to it. She had not seen a
toxic spirit in the video but maybe it had been something like that. After all
some things were just so bad that they left an impression even for the mundane.
Pakhet sat down facing the door and waited for anyone to make a move.
Slap was the first one to show up. He came from the back room and nodded at
Pakhet, when he saw her. “He's still out?”, he asked looking at Kah Pak.
Heidenstein answered with a nod.
“I wonder why the owner did not show up again”, Pakhet muttered.
“Maybe he has heard something and is afraid”, the doc replied.
That did not sound too much out of the field, Pakhet had to agree. “Maybe.”
Finally after three more minutes Kah Pak opened his eyes and stood up. “I
think I found something. It is...” He seemed to be scrumbling for the right
word. “Weird.”
“What is it?”, Heidenstein asked.
The shaman stood up and seemed to be collecting himself. “Well, in the astral
space there is.... Something. Well, actually it is not. Normally everything has
some sort of energy signature. We call it astral signature”, he tried to
explain. “And here... It is like something had removed parts of the signature.
It feels a bit like... A vacuum.” He shook his head as if he could not
entirely explain it himself.
“Can we use that to track them?”, Pakhet asked.
Kah Pak nodded. “I've already tried. If you show me a map I can show you the
point where I last have felt them.”
Heidenstein was the first who had his commlink at hand. After having pulled a
proper map from the matrix, he showed it to the shaman, who did not take long to
mark a spot on the map.
“But I am not sure they stayed there”, he said. “I think that they moved.
I will go into the astral plane to follow them further.”
Pakhet nodded.
“Say, Heidenstein”, Slap said. “Do you have the number of one of the
Lobatchewsky guys missing? I might be able to find the commlink.”
At this Heidenstein nodded. “I can give it to you.”
“Well, I guess back to the cars then?”, Pakhet said with some relief as she
just did not like to stay here.
Somehow she ended up driving Kah Pak around this time, while Slap sat into a car
with Heidenstein. Pakhet started the car and just took a deep breath of relief
once they had left the street behind them.
Looking to her side she saw Kah Pak relaxing and closing his eyes, so he could
go back into the astral – at least this was what Pakhet suspected he was
doing.
The point on the map he had showed them was in the direction of the port, which
was why she drove into the direction of the Elbe. This time she drove in front
of Heidenstein and Slap, but something seemed weird, as the other car further
and further falling behind before taking a different turn then her.
“Everything alright, Doc?”, Pakhet asked over their communication line.
But there was no answer. Well, this was not good. But for the moment she drove
on in the hope they would find something. Maybe Heidenstein was looking
something up and had put the car on autopilot, which sometimes did not choose
the best way.
“I think I know where they are”, Kah Pak said scaring her for a moment as
she had not noticed that he had woken up.
“Good”, Pakhet said. She pointed at the screen of the satnav which
thankfully had a normal screen instead of only displaying things in AR. “Can
you show me where?”
The elven shaman nodded and took a long look at the screen, before pointing at a
block that was almost at the port. 
Pakhet knew that area well, as it was not far from where she had once worked.
There were several warehouses that belonged to a real estate company renting the
warehouses off for companies that needed extra space for only a few month at a
time. In some of the warehouses they also just rented of containers to people
who were moving. So it was not out of the question that some gang had just
rented a warehouse for illegal activity. HanSec had found entire drugs kitchens
in some of those warehouses.
So she drove to the block Kah Pak had shown her. “Anything else?”
“Well, one other person had also a weird aura”, Kah Pak replied. “And when
I was at that place there were several living persons insides. I cannot tell
though whether the people we are looking for are still alive.”
“We'll see about that later”, Pakhet muttered.
From where they had been when Kah Pak had awoken it took them exactly seven
minutes to get to the place. As she had suspected it was a medium sized compound
with a warehouse on it. Pakhet stopped the car and tried again to reach
Heidenstein. “Doc? Doc? What is going on with you?”
She cursed when there was no other reply, suddenly having a bad feeling. Could
it be that some hacker had hacked into that car, kidnapping it and driving it of
somewhere else? Maybe she should have followed them.
Quickly she opened a map in AR and tried to find the location of Heidenstein's
commlink. As they normally shared that kind of information over the
communication line she was able to see that the car was parked only a bit from
where the car had moved in another direction.
“What is it?”, Kah Pak asked.
“I cannot reach Heidenstein”, Pakhet replied. Hesitating for a moment she
finally decided: “If we don't hear from them for the next five minutes, we
drive there and look what has happened.”
“Okay”, Kah Pak just replied.
She had to admit to get rather nervous while waiting for something to happen.
One minute passed, then two minutes, then three. But then she heard something
over her ear-piece. 
“Pakhet?”, Heidenstein's voice asked.
“Yes”, she quickly replied. “What is going on? What is happening?”
“Slap and I had just some run in with some... Well, Slap says it was a
technomancer in the matrix”, he said.
So it was something with the matrix. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, pretty much. We, well, I guess we won the fight, though only because
the technomancer disappeared.”
Well, that was somewhat weird – and be it just because technomancers were so
incredible rare. Since she had started living in the shadows Pakhet had come
across only two technomancers and one of them was already dead as being a mancer
just shortened one's life expectancy considerably. “Okay. I think we have
found where they've brought those men”, she finally said. “Can you see where
we are?”
“Yep, I can see you”, Heidenstein replied. “We'll be there in ten
minutes.”
“Okay”, she confirmed and looked over at Kah Pak.
The young elf seemed to be focused on the warehouse. Maybe he was trying to
sense what exactly was inside.
At least Pakhet could tell one thing: The van they had had to be driving was not
parked outside of the warehouse, which had not to mean anything as they could
have easily brought it inside. She estimated the warehouse to be about fourty
meters in length and maybe twenty-five meters broad. There was at least one very
obvious security camera on a pole next to the gateway leading onto the
compound.
A bit more then ten minutes later she could see Heidenstein's car drive by and
got out of her own car.
Kah Pak followed her and they met up with Heidenstein and Slap, who had parked
behind one of the other warehouses and out of sight from the one Kah Pak had
pointed out.
“So, what did you find out?”, Slap asked once they had reached them.
“Whoever went into the bar is in that warehouse over there now”, Kah Pak
said. “I can feel that very clearly. I can see it on the astral plane. There
are also people who are injured inside of it. I would have taken a closer look
but the entire building is surrounded by a mana barrier meaning I cannot just go
inside astraly.”
“Say, could one of the weird auras you've felt been a technomancer?”,
Heidenstein asked.
The shaman considered this for a moment. “Well, yes, one of them maybe. But
not the void, the void is something else. Something... That does not quite feel
alive.”
“Oh fuck...”, Heidenstein muttered, making Pakhet raise an eyebrow as he
rarely cursed outside a fight. “It could be cyber-zombies”, he explained.
“Some people... Well, if they are too cybered-up something in them just dies
and they are more... Like drones. At least from what I know.” He looked at
Pakhet while he spoke and she thought she understood what he wanted to tell her.
Another warning.
“But we don't know whether the guys are inside, right?”, Slap asked.
“I am not sure, no”, Kah Pak replied.
Pakhet sighed. “Well, we can at least look around and then decide on what
we'll do next, right?”
“Sounds good”, Heidenstein agreed with a sigh.
Once again divided they walked around the area to see how well the surveillance
for the warehouse was. Pakhet spotted three obvious security cameras on the
compound: The one next to the gate and two on two opposite corners of the
building. If what Kah Pak had said was right, there was also either some sort of
spirit or a mage inside.
“What do you have?”, Pakhet asked over the audio connection.
“I've got at least three more hidden cameras”, Slap replied. “But the back
door is suspiciously lightly secured.” His voice said the same she was
thinking: That smelled like a trap, though she was not sure whether it was for
them or the Vory.
“I don't like it”, she muttered.
“Well, me neither”, Heidenstein and Slap replied almost synchronously.
“Well, at least we can be somewhat sure, where they are, right?”, Kah Pak
said. “I mean, that is what we were hired for, right?”
“Right”, Heidenstein answered faintly.

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