Runner's Companion.pdf - Free

Simon Wentworth (order #1132857) 9life on the run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .“Didn’t we just have a drill last week?” Roger asked, blinkingthrough his oversized AR goggles. His shirt was already stainedwith red jelly from his morning donut break. He ran a hand acrosshis thinning hair, then stood and stretched, ready to take advantageof the brief break—corp efficiency metrics were suspendedduring active alerts.“System will reboot in three minutes,” Stanley said, calmlymaking some annotations to his report. “If you weren’t followingstandards for saving work, they’ll just make you stay late to makeit up. You should be more careful, Taji.”Taji made a funny, strangled sound, instead of the fuck youStanley expected. He looked up at his co-worker, puzzled to seeTaji’s nut-brown face drained to a pasty grey. Roger was pressedagainst his work-station, mouth soundlessly opening and closinglike a dying fish.Stanley swung his head around, looking up in horror at thefour people entering the lab. They were wearing masks and blackbody-suits, obviously armored, and two were pointing guns—bigguns—at Stanley and his co-workers. A third person, smaller thanthe rest, was obviously manipulating an AR interface, gloved handsflying in graceful motions on screens Stanley couldn’t see. Stanleyhad seen enough of the EpSin trids to know a hacker when he sawone. The final person towered above the rest, a hulking Troll, hissingle horn jutting demon-like from his black mask.“Stay still and stay off your AR,” one of the gun-wielding intruders—aman by his voice—warned them. “You gonna take careof the alarms anytime soon, P?” the man calmly asked the hackerbehind him. The hacker’s graceful hands paused long enough toflip the man the bird. At the same time, the giant waved one hugehand towards Taji and Roger, and Stanley watched in absolutehorror as his co-workers crumpled to the ground. Ohgod-ohgodohgod.Stanley felt his bowels turn to water as his eyes flicked fromthe Troll, to the guns, and back to the Troll. A mage. A fuckingTroll Mage. Stanley’s heartbeat was roaring in his ears as he waitedfor the Troll to kill him with his demented magic.This is not a drill. This is not a—the system’s droning voicewas suddenly cut off.“Got it,” the hacker said, in a low and husky woman’s voice.“Twenty seconds till reboot,” she said.“Okay,” the first man said, taking three long strides to standnext to Stanley. As the hot metal of the gun pressed into his neck,Stanley felt something warm and wet trickle down his leg. “You’vegot twenty seconds to pull up your backups, Mr. Hahn.”Stanley couldn’t breathe, couldn’t do anything but feel theburning of the gun against his skin. The gun pressed harder intohis neck, and the man grabbed Stanley’s chair and swiveled itaround to face the small terminal flat-screen.“Type, Mr. Hahn,” the man said, his voice menacing. Stanleyreached out, hands shaking, as he pulled up his private networkfiles. As data entry specialist, he had access to a small back-up system,which logged his work and provided a second layer of systemsecurity: after a system breech, any corrupted files on the mainnode would be reloaded from his secured terminal.“The files on the biomorph drone tests,” the man demanded.Stanley didn’t dare look up as he brought up the files. Comparedto the quiet shadowrunners, his gasping breath was unnaturallyloud. When the system beeped, the man held out a hand to thehacker“Ten seconds to upload the virus,” she said, tossing the manback a second chip.“Now, upload this into the system, Mr. Hahn,” he demanded.Stanley looked up in horror, forgetting The Troll, the guns,shocked out of his fear by indignation. “That’s… that’s ten monthsworth of work,” he stuttered, appalled. “I couldn’t do that!”Under the mask, the man’s mouth twisted in a grimace.“Damn wage slaves,” the shadowrunner said, shaking his head, thenawkwardly forced the chip into the memory reader. While Stanleysobbed, the shadow runner destroyed his life.HORSE (FACE)“C’mon Horse, you’ve been in there all morning! I need thecan!” Banshee said, pounding on the bathroom door.Horse sighed as he felt his delicate concentration waver. Hegripped the grimy counter as he peered into the warped mirror.His skin had darkened from copper to ebony easily enough, and hishair was already the right shade, although they’d had to purchasean insta-perm product to get the right texture. Getting the Afro-Asian features right was much harder, with the subtle shifts of eyeshape, and the less-subtle broadening of the cheeks, the fullnessof the lips and the wideness of the mouth. Still, as he turned his172Runner’s Companion