September 14, 2058

Green Hand's Cabin

Several km outside of Strasbourg, Algonkian-Manitou Council

~~~

It had been a couple days since they started this protection job, and the shadowrunner trio led by Bitterwind were already bored with it. Nothing was in these woods except varmints and vagrants, and the nights spent guarding the place were starting to get nippy.

Rain had also been threatening for the past few nights. The weather in North America had gotten weird since the Great Ghost Dance in 2018, meaning that no two seasons were alike. Freak storms of all sorts were a regular occurrence, and the skies seemed like they might be threatening another one soon......

"You better check on Clay soon." said Bitterwind. "He went around back to sweep the forest, and he should've checked in by now."

"He'll be fine." said JudgementDayne. "Clay can take care of himself, that's the only reason we LET him tag along."

JudgementDayne, of course, did not realize the statement applied as much to him as it did to Clay. Bitterwind wasn't especially talented, but he had survived the shadows for over 10 years, and knew guys like JudgementDayne didn't last long. Either they were cowards who talked tough, or tough talkers with no fear who eventually bit off more than they could chew. Bitterwind bet on JudgementDayne being the cowardly type.

Still, JudgementDayne hadn't screwed up bigtime yet. Once he did, he'd be cut loose......

"You hear the word about Leon lately?" JudgementDayne said, leaning against a railing near the cabin and looking at the moon. "They say he's looking for a gang to run against for some reason......I think they're called the Gold Mountain Boys? You ever heard of them?"

"......Name rings a bell......can't quite place it though......"

"I should find out who they are and join up with them. They want to kill Leon, they can't be that bad."

"They might be bad......I remember now, I heard that name while doing some smuggling through the Sioux a while back. I think they're a gang affiliated with one of those Humanis Nation groups."

JudgementDayne clicked his tongue in displeasure, before pulling out a lighter from his jacket pocket and lighting a nico-stick. As he took a deep drag, he felt a sudden sting in his neck. JudgementDayne grabbed at the sting, felt something like a dart, and as he went to pull it out, he quickly lost consciousness.

Bitterwind behind him had also slumped onto the dirt, as suddenly three figures suddenly manifested in front of the log cabin.

Leon, Sylvia, and Brandon had been under the cover of an Invisibility spell, popping in front of the cabin to shoot the guards with knockout darts. They had also taken care of Clay, who was unconscious in the forest behind the cabin, also courtesy of a knockout dart. Leon holstered the dart gun, and checked on Sylvia, who woozily staggered near a railing.

"You all right?"

Sylvia nodded in the affirmative, although it was hard to read how she was really feeling under the balaclava she was wearing. All three were in dark burglar gear to blend in with the night.

"Alright, watch the door. I'm going in to set the charges. Brandon, drag these guys away from the cabin, someplace where they won't get killed. If they give you any trouble, put em' back to sleep."

Brandon nodded, and went to drag Bitterwind's unconscious body into the forest. Sylvia drew her Fichetti Security 500, took a couple deep breaths, and took up a position in the cabin, knocking out a glass window and resting her arm on the sill. Leon adjusted a duffel bag on his shoulders containing the C4 charges, and went into the cabin to set them up.

Leon had decided on a non-lethal policy for the run, after feeling out the security detail that the eco-terrorists had hired over the past couple days. He didn't care for JudgementDayne too much, but Bitterwind and Clay had a few shreds of integrity and competence between them. It was best to knock them out with stealth rather than kill them, even though they'd probably be out for blood later, once they figured out Leon was the one who darted them.

Truth was, he didn't want to clip the shadowrunners, not even a guy like JudgementDayne who had a hard-on for him. Recently, a lot of runners had been getting geeked, and no one was quite sure why. Two days ago, a no-name runner in Regina was found face-down in a downtown alley, with a gaping hole in his head. A couple noteworthy runners in Saskatoon or Lloydminister had also been publicly murdered recently, with no suspects known or being looked for at the moment. The Long Arms police force generally didn't give much thought to investigating the deaths of the SINless or the shadowrunners.

Then of course there was Michael Moonlake, who performed the disastrous Aztechnology run at the start of the summer, and who Leon knew was clipped by shadowrunners hired to tie up the loose ends. Rumours were flying that other runners were now being hired to kill runners, and lower the general population of the shadows.

So it made Leon worry. Partially because he might be targeted next, but also because he felt this was too low-brow for the AMC. Runners and the people who needed them in the Council had a bit of respect for the game and how it was played. This wasn't Seattle, where pruning the shadowrunner tree was expected and even encouraged to get rid of all the untalented riff-raff and wannabes. But the Council's shadows had a bad enough time as it was existing under the heel of Long Arms. Now the shadows were eating each other too?

So JudgementDayne, Bitterwind, and Clay would be left alive today, while Leon would just blow up this cabin and put another eco-terrorist outfit out of business. Quickly, he went about his part of the run, finding a well-hidden trap door leading to the basement.

The basement was unsurprisingly bereft of big-time security measures. These were eco-terrorists, after all, and they probably wanted to keep electricity use to a minimum. Leon carefully looked around for a good place to set up the charges, finding a good structural support to plant them on.

But before rigging the charges and setting the timer, Leon decided to have some fun first. Kenta Kawasaki wanted a scorched-earth destruction of the eco-terrorists base, but surely some equipment didn't NEED to be lost to the flames, right?

So Leon searched around, and eventually found a small armory. All of the guns within were some not-well-cared-for antiques from before the Awakening, which wouldn't look out of place in old 1990s gangster movies. But there were some smoke and gas grenades worth keeping or selling. As Leon filled his duffel bag, he also noticed a file cabinet inside the armory, below the gun racks.

Leon quickly leafed through the files, looking for anything of interest. He found a paper file folder indicating "Possible Allies", and went through it to find several other eco-terrorist groups he was familiar with...... but he also found that damn gold coloured logo again, belonging to the Gold Mountain Boys!

Unfortunately, there was nothing new in the Green Hand's info on them. The name of the group wasn't even mentioned, and a lot of the paper had black crossout marks all over it. Still, there was some use to these files. Kenta could learn about other outfits that were considering hitting Yokogawa. Maybe those files would be worth something extra......

Leon bagged up everything of value, and went back to the charges he had set up. Leon set the timer to fifteen minutes, and headed up to get Brandon and Sylvia ready for a swift exit.

~~~

(50 minutes later)

Leon, Brandon, and Sylvia hung around long enough to ensure that the charges went off with no problems, then made tracks for home in their Ford Bison truck.

It looked like he would be making a clean getaway, and Leon knew Long Arms wouldn't be looking out for the culprit, even if they suspected Leon. Crimes against eco-terrorists were not exactly high on their priority list. Hopefully Kenta Kawasaki wouldn't sell him out......

As he drove through the small town of Craven though, an unwelcome guest appeared. It was too dark to tell properly, but Leon had a feeling it was the same damn Long Arms unmarked cop car that had been trying to tail him recently. What the hell was he doing in Craven?

"Sylvia, can you read whoever's tailgating us here?"

Sylvia's eyes went glassy, before rebounding into sharp focus.

"It's the same guy that was tailing us a couple days ago. He's got that same creepy aura in the astral plane......"

"What the hell is Longmiles doing now?" wondered Leon, keeping one eye in his rearview and one eye on the road. "It didn't work out well the last time he put out a tail on me."

And indeed, it hadn't. Leon had complained to the Council chiefs over an unmarked Long Arms car tailing him back in the spring. The chiefs thumped Longmiles' nose over it, mostly because they were worried a permanent Long Arms tail would make it impossible for Leon to operate properly when the government needed him for a run. Longmiles was predictably aghast at being told to lay off a shadowrunner, and had been raging to the chiefs ever since, wanting a 24/7 surveillance team on Leon, without restrictions. War Chief Hillborn dissuaded any attempts at forming one with some subtle military threats, but it looked like Long Arms was out and about again, trying to catch Leon in the act of doing something illegal.

If only Longmiles knew that Leon's job today was technically taking out another one of Longmiles' arch-enemies, the eco-terrorists. And if only Longmiles knew that hiring shadowrunners to take out anyone Long Arms saw as troublesome might be a good idea......so good, in fact, that every private policing corp in North America except Long Arms did it......

As they entered Regina from the east, Leon dipped his Ford Bison into side streets, and finally lost the tail. Eventually, Leon circled north and headed for home, but he had a feeling it wasn't the last time he'd see that damned unmarked car following him around......