Ragnarock (12 page)

The other man, however, caught his attention at once. He was tall, with Nordic features, dark blond hair, and a full beard. His winged brows and sharp, hooked nose gave him the look of a bird of prey about to swoop down and attack. His aura was a bland mask of studied calm and disinterest, but Speren examined it carefully and saw the true fires lurking within. This man was more than he appeared. He was a powerful magician, as powerful as Speren himself, perhaps. The cane he carried lightly in his right hand held an enchantment, making it a focus for the magician's powers. This was one individual Speren would need to deal with carefully.

Fortunately, the magician was not using his own abilities to view the astral plane at the moment, so Speren remained invisible to both men as they spoke.

"Quite a turnout for such short notice." the magician said. "You've done well, Rashid. Very well."

The Arab accepted the compliment with a slight incline of his head and a flicker of pleasure through his aura. "My thanks, Herr Zoller. Of course, it is as much the bait as the skill of the fisherman that draws in the fish. The merchandise you are offering has
drawn considerable interest."

"Yes." Zoller said slowly, tapping the head of his cane against his open left hand. "Hopefully not too much interest."

"No, no." Rashid said in soothing tones. "My associates and their clients are individuals of the utmost discretion. You can be assured that our business has not traveled beyond our circle. We will have no trouble."

Zoller's aura hardened like his stare. "We had best not, Rashid. We had best not." He held the smaller man's gaze for a few long seconds before turning away and resuming tapping his cane. "How long before we begin?"

Rashid glanced at the gold watch he wore on his left wrist. "Only a few more minutes. We should be nearly ready."

"Very well." Zoller said. "I will get the item."

Excellent, Speren thought, as Zoller moved toward the door.

"What about this professor who found it?" Rashid asked just as Zoller was reaching for the doorknob. Zoller stopped and turned back to the other man.

"I'll bring him as well. He can authenticate the piece and help to drive up the bidding."

"And afterward?" Rashid asked.

Zoller's aura darkened again. "That is not your concern." he said. "Keep your attention on the business at hand."

"Of course, Herr Zoller." the fixer replied with an oily bow. Zoller turned and left the room, and Speren's astral form followed close behind. With luck, Zoller would lead him directly to the hiding place of the artifact and Dr. Goronay. Then, while the two men were on their way to the auction room, Speren could return to his body and take the steps needed to secure both of them for his Prince.

Zoller made his way down the hall and out, over to the wide bank of elevators of the main lobby of the hotel. The floor was done in white-veined black marble, the walls in dark green wallpaper that complemented the brass fittings and framework of the elevators, whose doors were covered with elaborate scrollwork. He tapped his cane impatiently while waiting for the elevator car to descend. Speren felt much the same. He wished he could move on ahead, but there was little point until he discovered where Zoller was going.

When the elevator car finally arrived, Zoller took a step forward to enter, then suddenly paused on the threshold with a strange look on his face. Speren noted a flicker in Zoller's aura as the man hesitated for an instant before turning away from the elevator and allowing the door to slide shut behind him. There was a look of concern on his face as he reached into his overcoat to produce a small cell phone.

Flipping the phone open, Zoller hit a single button and held it to his ear. Speren moved close to hear the hushed tones as he spoke in German.

"There's a disruption of the wards in my suite." he said. "See to it. I'm on my way now to investigate." He snapped the phone shut and pocketed it, striding toward the stairwell. At the foot of the stairs, he stopped, closed his eyes, and muttered a short phrase in German under his breath. His aura grew brighter and more solid as he extended his presence into the astral plane. Speren kept close to the entrance, behind Zoller, where he hoped he could not be seen.

Suddenly, the astral plane around him was lit up as a ghostly warrior appeared, dressed like a German soldier from the nineteenth century, complete with helmet, breastplate, and a filigreed fencing saber at his side. Zoller spoke to the spirit, which regarded him with deep, faintly glowing eyes.

"Go to my suite." Zoller said. "Find any intruders there and destroy them, but do not harm the crystal. This is my will."

The spirit bowed faintly. "As you command." it said in German, then took flight up the stairs at great speed, not giving Speren's astral form so much as a second look. Speren was pleased that spirits were often so literal-minded. The hearth spirit Zoller summoned had probably noticed Speren's astral form, but since its master hadn't bothered to include intruders outside his suite in his orders, the spirit simply ignored Speren altogether.

Speren wasn't about to waste such an opportunity, and he slipped up through the stairs to catch up with the spirit. It would lead him where he needed to go. He thought briefly about staying with Zoller, but his instincts told him that the magician would follow quickly enough. Speren had not gotten where he was without knowing when to take risks.

In moments, both spirits passed through a dozen floors to reach Zoller's hotel suite. As the magician said, a ward existed around the suite, a magical barrier to block the passage of astral forms, no doubt put there by Zoller himself. Already under Zoller's command, the hearth spirit was able to pass through the ward with no more difficulty than passing through the physical wall. Speren, however, was blocked by the shimmering barrier. He knew that any attack on the ward would alert Zoller, but there was no time to waste. Speren drew the astral double of Argentine, his magical sword, and swung it at the barrier with all the power of his will behind it.

Although Zoller's ward was skillfully built, it was no match for Speren's enchanted blade, which sliced through the barrier as if it were made of paper. In an instant, Speren was through the ward and into the suite, the gash he cut through the barrier closing behind him like a healing wound. Inside the main room of the suite were four intruders, three of them physical beings—a human, an ork, and a troll. The fourth was a spirit in the form of a golden-winged falcon. The human was just slipping a flat rosy crystal, cut in the shape of a heart, into a soft black bag. Silverblade was nearly blinded by the powerful radiance of the stone's aura before it was swallowed by the bag. It had to be the item he'd been sent to find. Slung over the troll's shoulder was an unconscious man with gray hair and a full beard, wearing a rumpled suit. Dr. Goronay himself.

Shadowrunners, Speren thought. They had beaten him to his target. Even as he considered his options, Zoller's hearth spirit assumed physical form, appearing as a fierce warrior clad in armor and wielding a razor-sharp sword.

"Hold, intruders!" it said. "Surrender or die!"

10

It had all been going so well, Talon thought as the uninvited spirit materialized inside the hotel suite. But most shadowruns did, at first. Breaking the ward protecting the crystal was a calculated risk. Now they were paying the price.

Both Hammer and the spirit moved with blinding speed, the spirit through the power of its magical nature, Hammer via the technology of superconducting nerves and spinal subprocessors. In this particular case, it appeared that technology won out over magic, as the ork mercenary raised his snubnosed Ingram smartgun and fired off a three-round burst at the onrushing spirit.

Had it been only a being of flesh and blood, the
impact of the 9mm rounds would have wounded or
even killed the spirit, would at least have knocked some of the wind out of it. The spirit, however, was no mortal creature, but a being of the astral plane. Its body might look and feel solid, but it was not flesh and bone. Hammer's gunfire had no more effect on it than it would on stone, wind, or water.

The spirit's shining sword flashed out. Hammer dropped his Ingram and fell back, cursing, bleeding from a deep gash along his forearm.

Boom didn't even bother trying to shoot at the spirit. He'd worked with Talon long enough to know that it wasn't worth the trouble. Instead, he jerked his right fist downward, and a curved blade of surgical steel slid from the concealed sheath inside his massive forearm, nearly as long as the saber the spirit wielded. Boom stepped forward and slashed at the soldier-spirit as it turned away from Hammer. He was rewarded for his effort with a slash along his shoulder from the spirit's own blade. Once again, had the spirit been merely mortal, Boom's great strength and longer reach would have made all the difference. But combat with spirits was more a matter of will than of physical strength, and Boom's willpower, while formidable for a troll, was no match for such a powerful spirit.

The best way to fight magic was with magic, Talon thought. He could try and use his own magic to banish the spirit back from where it came.

"Boss!"
Aracos spoke in Talon's mind.
"There's another spirit in the room, a projecting magician."

"Zoller?"
Talon thought.

"No.
He's an elf, and he's armed."

An elf? Talon had no idea who it could be. Certainly not one of Zoller's people, they were all human. This certainly complicated matters. Talon
needed to be careful how he used magic if there was
another magician present. There was little this stranger could do from the astral plane to interfere with Talon's efforts in the physical world, but he could immediately attack if Talon used his own astral abilities. If Talon focused all his concentration on banishing the spirit, it would leave him defenseless against any other attacks, and the astral magician might have other allies around. It was too much of a risk.

"You take the magician."
Talon thought to Aracos. "
I'll handle the spirit."

"You got it."
Aracos said.

From across the room, Talon pointed at the spirit and gathered magical power to him. It seethed like a glowing ball of energy around his hand, visible from the astral plane, but unseen to mundane eyes, except perhaps as a faint shimmer, a kind of distortion in the air. In an instant, Talon gathered the power and spoke a sharp word, sending it flying at the spirit like a lightning bolt.

The spirit stiffened and jerked as the manabolt slammed into it, tearing away its very substance, striking where it was most vulnerable, on the spiritual level. The spirit was quite powerful, however, and the spell did not slay it, as it would any lesser being. It was injured, but Talon was afraid he'd only made it angry.

With a growl of anger, Hammer charged into the spirit and tackled it. The silvery saber flipped out of the spirit's grasp, vanishing like smoke, as Hammer bore it to the floor. Boom rushed to help, and Talon stepped forward, readying another spell.

"Boss! I've got real problems here!"
Aracos screamed in his thoughts.
"He's got a mageblade."

Damn! The astral magician was a more serious problem than Talon had thought. With a powerful enough magical weapon, he could cut Aracos to ribbons. Talon could use his own astral abilities to go to his ally's aid, but that would leave Hammer and Boom to fight the spirit, and he could already see it struggling against them. It would also leave Talon vulnerable to both the astral magician and the spirit, and he doubted he could fight off both as the same time.

"All right."
Talon thought to Aracos.
"Get out of there. See if you can get that magician to follow you or something
." He felt the spirit's assent and turned his attention back toward the soldier-spirit the others were struggling to hold onto. Although smaller than either of the heavily muscled metahumans, the spirit was not limited by the constraints of its size. With a mighty surge, it threw both the ork and the troll off it and rose up, the sword reappearing in its hand as it did so.

Talon wasn't about to give it another chance to attack. Gathering power again, he flung it at the spirit with all his might. The spirit cried out in pain, the first sound it had made since calling for them to surrender. The physical form of the soldier wavered and rippled like a trideo image whose projector was out of whack. The power of Talon's spell shredded its life force, the core of its being. The physical manifestation followed suit and broke up, melting away like fog, its cry echoing faintly in the air.

"Talon, we've got problems." It was Trouble's voice sounding in his head, coming over his head-com. "Hotel security cams show three men heading up the stairs with Zoller and another three in the elevator on the way to your floor."

"Can you override the elevator?" Talon asked.

"I'm trying, but the hotel's system is on alert and I've got my hands full dodging some ice right at the moment. Even if I can override, I'll probably have to shut down the whole system. You guys better get out of there ASAP."

"Copy." Talon said. "Boom and Hammer are both hurt, but we've got the artifact. We're getting out of here, but we're going to need some cover."

"Roger that." Trouble replied. "I'll keep 'em busy for as long as I can."