"Let's roll!" she said into the commlink and Silver Max fired up the engine of the cargo truck.

"Hang on back there," Max said, then he hit the gas and the truck lurched forward and began to pick up speed.

"Um, Max?" Kellan asked. "Aren't we headed in the direction the Ancients are coming from?"

"That's why I said to hold on, kiddo," the dwarf rigger said with a laugh. "It's gonna be a bumpy ride." It was the most animated Kellan had ever heard Max, even more so than when he'd had a few at Dante's Inferno. It was clear that when he was driving, when his cyberware merged him with the machine, was when the dwarf really came alive.

They blasted past the escort truck. Kellan and the others held on to the straps and heavy metal D-rings holding down the cargo as the truck barreled along the lonely stretch of highway.

"How long to our exit, Max?" Kellan asked.

"Gonna be a few minutes."

"Will we get there before-?"

"No chance," the dwarf replied.

"Here they come," G-Dogg said, and Kellan could hear the roar of motorcycles approaching ahead of them.

"All right," whooped Silver Max, "who wants to play chicken?" He floored the gas and the truck picked up speed, rushing and rattling along the highway.

Kellan saw the motorcycles whiz past in the other lane. They were already slowing down. Clearly they'd seen their quarry, behind schedule but headed in the right direction. The elven bikers skidded to a halt and pulled U-turns in the middle of the highway. Kellan did a quick count; there were more than a dozen bikes, some of them with a couple elves mounted on them, but most with a single rider. Their engines roared again as they set off in pursuit of the truck.

"Liada, my dear," Lothan said, "since it is the Ancients we're dealing with, I think we should take precautions, don't you?" The elven mage nodded. Holding on to the cargo strap with on hand, she closed her eyes for a moment and waved a hand through the air. Lothan did much the same, standing closer to the end of the truck, and the stone at the end of his staff glowed faintly as he did so. Kellan felt a familiar tingle of magic in the air.

It was well timed, too, for no sooner was the spell cast than a crackling bolt of lightning erupted from the back of one of the bikes, lancing out at the truck. Kellan flinched and braced for the blast, but it never came. Instead, the lightning bolt seemed to strike an invisible wall scarcely a meter from the truck, splashing against it in a shower of blue-white sparks and dissipating with a crack of thunder, but doing no harm to the truck or its passengers.

"Harrumph," Lothan rumbled. "Strictly smalltime," he told the others with a tone of disapproval.

"You should be able to handle the barrier spell on your own," he said to Liada.

"Versoniel," she replied in elvish. Kellan hadn't heard that word before, but from the look on Liada's face, she was sure it wasn't a compliment.

Lothan paid it no heed and instead turned his attention back to the Ancients. Gripping a handhold in one fist, he raised his staff with the other. He in-canted in a deep and sonorous voice, weaving faintly glowing symbols in the air with the tip of the staff. Then he spoke a sharp word of command and pointed the staff toward the pavement. There was a crackle and a sheet of ice spread out across the highway behind them, as polished as a mirror.

Kellan expected to see the go-gangers go sliding in all directions when they hit the ice sheet but the ice turned into water before they reached it. The motorcycles sent up sheets of mist as they continued their pursuit.

"Strictly amateur, huh?" Liada called. Lothan, if he heard, made no comment. He simply lowered his bushy brows and frowned in concentration.

"Enough of this deviltry," the Street Deacon said, drawing his Ingram submachine gun from its holster. He fired a burst that sparked off the pavement and one of the Ancients' bikes. Then the gangers began to return fire, forcing the shadowrunners to duck for cover.

Orion fired several shots from his own pistol, but the back of the truck was swaying too much, and the elven bikers wove back and forth on the road behind them. The shots went wide.

Kellan heard several bullets spang off the metal framework of the truck.

"If they take out the tires, we're fragged!" Orion called.

Boom! Another blast of lightning arced toward the truck, only to be stopped short, but it was closer this time, and Kellan could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand up from the electrical discharge. Liada's face was a study in fierce concentration. She was sweating, but also looked determined not to show any effort, particularly not after Lothan had dismissed the abilities of the Ancients' spellcaster.

Kellan stumbled a few steps forward to where the troll was standing, so she could get a shot at the gangers. Lothan had flatted against the side of the truck to make a smaller target, albeit only a slightly smaller one.

"Cover me," the troll mage said to Kellan, and she swung around him, firing off a few shots in the direction of the Ancients. The second lightning bolt had revealed the position of the sorceress, and Kellan tried to hit her. The Street Deacon let loose with another burst from his Ingram, and tagged one of the outriders, who jerked and fell from his bike. The Yamaha Rapier tumbled, then slid, and the rider did much the same.

Then Lothan lunged forward with a shout, pointing his staff at the Ancients. There was a surge of power that nearly knocked Kellan over-a barely visible ripple in the air, like a wave of heat-then a blast of green fire erupted along the edge of the highway, engulfing several of the riders at the edge of the pack. She heard a few screams. The remaining bikers emerged from the cloud of eldritch flame, but one cycle was without a rider, and tumbled a short distance before skidding to a stop. Three other bikes had disappeared altogether in the flames. Kellan saw them lying scattered across the road as the fire dissipated, and Lothan slumped against the side of the truck.

"Street-trained little dabbler," he panted, glaring in the direction of the unscathed elven sorceress. "Let's see how you match up with that."

Despite Lothan's display of power, the Ancients were not deterred. They opened fire again, and Orion and the Street Deacon laid down covering fire to keep the bikers dodging, prevent them from aiming, so their shots went wide. Kellan stayed down and fired off a few shots of her own.

"Remind me again what your plan was?" Lothan muttered sidelong to her.

"I wanted to keep the Ares guys from walking into an ambush and getting slaughtered!" she said, popping up to fire off a couple shots, then ducking back down when her pistol clicked empty. She ejected the clip and grabbed another from the pocket of her vest, slamming it home and working the slide to chamber a new round.

"Oh, well, it seems to be going very nicely, then," the troll said dryly. Then he swung himself up, bracing himself with the handhold and pointing his staff at the bikers as he spoke a word of power. A bolt of lightning arced out and struck one elf square in the chest, blasting him off his bike. The lightning continued to play over the sleek racing bike, which erupted in an explosive boom as the spell touched off its fuel tank. Another biker was blown over by the force of the blast, the rest racing around the boiling black cloud of smoke.

"Mind telling me just what your plan was?" Kellan shot back at Lothan.

"Just here to help, my dear," he replied mildly, evading the subject.

"Max, how much longer?" Kellan said into her throat mic.

"Coming up!" the dwarf replied. "Everybody hang on!"

Kellan repeated Silver Max's warning to Lothan, but didn't heed it strongly enough herself. The dwarf rigger barely slowed down as he angled the cargo truck for the off-ramp, causing it to bounce and sway. Kellan lost her grip on the handhold and tumbled across the floor, trying to keep hold of her pistol. She managed to regain her feet at the very edge of the platform as the front of the truck hit the bottom of the exit and Kellan tilted backward, windmilling her arms.