With Jackie Ozone running interference in the Matrix, the shadowrunners were gone long before Lone Star responded to the scene of the hijacking. The decker fed the team a running update of the response to their activity, but it was clear they'd made a clean getaway. Lone Star had started a search, but the team planned on concluding their business long before the authorities had any chance of finding them.

Silver Max took the first exit off the highway and headed into Redmond. The rigger expertly guided the big truck through the dark maze of streets, lined with the burned-out shells of cars and other refuse-living and nonliving. If anyone noticed an Ares cargo hauler trucking through the streets so late at night, they didn't bother doing anything about it. People in the Barrens generally knew to mind their own business. It wasn't healthy to do otherwise.

Lothan talked in low tones over the commlink, presumably with Jackie, although Kellan couldn't be sure. The troll mage used a private channel. The number of turns and back roads Silver Max took them on convinced Kellan the dwarf must have an implanted global positioning system. He navigated the streets of the Barrens like they were tattooed on the back of his hand. Or maybe the inside of his skull is more like it, Kellan thought.

In fairly short order, the truck pulled up outside of what used to be part of an old strip mall, built around a central anchor store with a sizable loading dock, which was ideal for their purposes. G-Dogg hopped down from the cab to haul open the rusty garage door, which protested this movement, and allow the truck to pull inside. Orion roared up on the back of his Yamaha Rapier right behind them, pulling the bike inside as G-Dogg pulled the door closed. The Street Deacon jumped down from the back of the truck to help, and the two of them wrestled the corrugated metal door closed as Silver Max killed the truck's engine and switched off the headlights.

The abandoned loading area was plunged into darkness, the only illumination the dim light coming through the heavy sheets of plastic covering the few windows. Kellan waited for her eyes to adjust to the gloom. Everyone else on the team was either a meta-human or-in the Street Deacon's case-had cybernetic eyes and could see in near-total darkness. Kellan couldn't even think about replacing her eyes without feeling nauseous. She blinked a few times, and was able to make out the shadowy shapes of the other runners around her.

"Looks like we're in the clear," Jackie reported over the commlink. "I'll continue to keep watch and let you know if there's any trouble."

"Understood. Good work, Jackie," Lothan replied. "Well, then," he said, turning to the rest of the team. "Now we await Mr. Johnson and our payment. G-Dogg, why don't you, Deacon and Orion keep a lookout for the arrival of our employer." Although phrased politely, it wasn't a request, and G-Dogg nodded, moving off to get the other two men and comply.

"Good job with that shaman," Liada said to Kellan as she tucked her gear into her ever-present shoulder bag.

"But not exactly according to plan," Lothan interjected, giving Kellan a disapproving glance. "You were supposed to stay with the decoy vehicle."

"And what, get shot?" Kellan said.

"Not if you stayed under cover."

"Lay off her, Lothan," Liada challenged the big troll. "She did a good job taking out that shaman. Saved us a lot of trouble."

Lothan bristled. "I would have dealt with her and her spirit soon enough."

"Of course," Liada sneered. "But not as fast as Kellan did. We could have overcome that shaman's defenses together, but thanks to her we didn't have to bother. One stun blast took the rest of those guards down like that"-she snapped her fingers-"and we were on our way."

"Success doesn't excuse excess," the troll shot back. He took a step toward Kellan. "In the future, if you can't stick to the plan, you will at least inform everyone else of your movements. Don't go off on your own, or you're liable to end up in the line of fire." Then he turned on his heel and stalked to the end of the truck, clambering down with the aid of his heavy, gnarled staff.

"Makkanagee," Liada muttered under her breath, watching him go. Then she turned toward Kellan. "Don't listen to him," she said. "You did good. Lothan just hates it when somebody comes up with a good idea that he can't take the credit for." Liada flashed Kellan a smile and touched her arm. "Hey, you okay?" she asked, realizing that Kellan's face had gone white as she holstered her pistol. Kellan's hands were starting to shake and she folded her arms across her chest, hugging them close to get them to stop.

"Yeah, yeah," she said. "Fine."

"It's just post-run shakes," Liada said sympathetically. "Coming down from the rush. You'll be okay."

"It's just, I never:" Kellan began, glancing up at Liada and then looking down again, embarrassed to say more to the more experienced shadowrunner.

"What? Shot anyone?"

"Not like that," Kellan replied quietly. "I mean, I shot at people when I was running in KC. Probably even hit some," she snorted mirthlessly. "But I never shot somebody that close before, right in front of me. It wasn't like this in Kansas City."

"Get used to it," Liada said, and a note in her voice made Kellan look up at her. The elf woman's face was sympathetic, but also cold. "She was working for a corp. She knew the risks. She won't be the last one, Kellan, not in this biz. If you're lucky, you'll at least get to be face-to-face with everyone you have to shoot. It's when you start shooting them in the back that you need to worry."

Liada laid a hand on her shoulder, and then left Kellan alone with her thoughts. The run kept playing in her head like a simsense loop; the moment when the shaman tried to cast that spell on her, the feel of the gun in her hand, the look on the shaman's face when the spell didn't work and Kellan's bullet caught her in the gut. Kellan wondered if she'd survived, or if she had died on the highway before help arrived. She wondered if that was how she was going to go one day.

She knew the risks. Liada's words came back to her. She knew that's the way it was in the shadows: kill or be killed, survival of the fittest. When you didn't have the advantages of wealth and privilege, or even the legal existence granted by a SIN, the other option was to be like those lost souls they passed in the Barrens on the way here: squatting in abandoned ruins, living like rats, victims of the corporate machine. Kellan knew she could never live like that.

Looking at the crate she was leaning against, she wondered what it was that they had gone to all this trouble to acquire. Crouching down, she read the shipping label. Most of the information consisted of barcodes for electronic readers to scan, but the words made Kellan frown. She checked the labels on some of the other crates and they were basically the same: Then she went to the front of the cargo area and found a pry bar she used to open one of the crates, popping the lid to look inside. It confirmed what the label on the outside said, meaning that the contents of the other crates were probably the same, not some sort of blind for contraband or hidden cargo. But then why would anyone-?

"What the frag do you think you're doing?"

Kellan jumped and turned to see Orion gracefully pulling himself up onto the back of the truck, glaring at her.

"I'm just checking:." she began, but the elf strode forward, grabbing the pry bar from her hand.

"Nobody told you to check anything," he said in a low, harsh tone.

"Yeah, well, somebody should," Kellan shot back. "Why the frag is our Johnson paying for a shipment of electronic drek that he could buy at any mall in the plex?"

"What?" Orion said.