Ragnarock (27 page)
"Doesn't sound like he has much information of use then." Silverblade said.
"Not quite." Talon replied. "There was one thing. Seems that the skag who gave our mageblades to Klaus for safekeeping was none other than our old buddy Zoller."
"Zoller?" Boom said. "But Alamais turned him into a frog!"
"Maybe Alamais' spell wasn't permanent," Talon said, "and Zoller is back working for his old boss, or else it was and somebody's pretending to be Zoller. Three guesses who that could be."
"Alamais." Silverblade said.
"Whoever it is, he's got all the earmarks of a Winternight shaman. Apparently, there's something going down very soon in Berlin. Herr Zoller got some extra muscle from Kühnen's Humanis cell to beef up his own followers. Kühnen thought he had something big planned."
"Something involving a stolen nuclear weapon." Silverblade said. "But what? And more importantly, where?"
"Let's find out." Talon said, and keyed open his headlink. "Trouble, you there?
"Right here." she said.
"Hang on, let me put you on the speaker." Talon said. He leaned past the passenger seat and activated the portable receiver that rested there. The speaker on it crackled a bit before Trouble's voice came through.
"We on?" she asked.
"Loud and clear." Talon said. "What did you get on that concert so far?"
"Some very interesting stuff. You were right, the entertainment division of Mitsuhama Computer Technologies is sponsoring a big benefit concert in Berlin tonight, in cooperation with DeMeKo, the big European media corp. It's part of a multinational world tour by some of the hottest bands and performers out there. I think you're also right about it being a likely target for Winternight."
"Why is that?" Silverblade asked.
"Three reasons. First, part of the concert is a benefit for charities in Berlin. Second, the guest list includes the VP of MCT Europe, Ryu Takahashi; the President of DeMeKo, Wolfgang Osterwald; and the VP of Saeder-Krupp Deutchland, Karl-Heinze Beminger."
"And the third reason?" Silverblade asked.
"The name of the show," Trouble said, "is 'Ragnarock, the Concert of the Century.' If you were Winternight, could
you
pass up on irony like that?"
"But why a concert? And why this concert?" Hammer asked.
"Simple." Boom said. "Think about it. This show is a big Mitsuhama production supporting Berlin, which everyone knows hacks off Lofwyr. Alamais has already struck at S-K by attacking Lofwyr. While the dragon is out of commission, his Winternight chummers set off a stolen S-K nuclear weapon at a major concert in the heart of Germany, sponsored by S-K's chief rival in the heavy industries business. Of course, with everything going on after the attack on Lofwyr, you can bet that Herr Berninger will cancel his appearance at the concert. So a nuke that could only belong to Saeder-Krupp goes off, killing two major rival execs, and handing MCT a PR nightmare, while the S-K exec is mysteriously absent. What would that look like to you?"
"Retaliation," Talon said, "for the attack on Lofwyr."
"Right, a magical attack, and guess who's the Number Two corp in magic R&D?"
"Mitsuhama." Silverblade said. "So Mitsuhama thinks they've been attacked by Saeder-Krupp. They retaliate . . ."
"And, boom! Pretty soon you've got a major corporate war." Boom said.
"But they'll figure it out." Val chimed in from the driver's seat. "I mean, Saeder-Krupp will tell them . . ."
"What?" Boom said. "That they're innocent? Do you really think MCT, or any other corp, will believe them? By the time the megacorps decide to trust each other and start putting the pieces together, they may already be too deep in the conflict to pull out without risking a major loss. At the very least, things will go on for a while, maybe long enough for Winternight to keep stoking the flames."
"So they're trying to trigger a final war, a real Ragnarock." Trouble said.
Talon nodded grimly. "That's what it looks like.
Trouble, dig up everything else you can about this concert. I want everything there is to know about it. If we're going to have a snowball's chance in hell of stopping Winternight, we're going to need it."
The crowd gathered for the Ragnarock concert was like a sea of humanity, with waves of anticipation rippling through it as the time neared for the show to begin. As he moved unnoticed through the crowd, Talon hoped that the terrorists were planning to take advantage of the powerful swell of emotion he could feel rising off the concert-goers, like heat rising from asphalt in summer. Winternight had a lot of magicians, and they knew the power of unleashed emotion. Hopefully, they wouldn't act until the mood of the crowd built a little further.
The massive stadium was usually used for sporting events. Now the playing field below had been converted into a giant stage for the Ragnarock concert. Tens of thousands of fans were gathered in the stands above, most of them clad in street leathers and denim, gleaming with chains and metal studs. Talon also spotted more than a few well-off corporate kids and twenty-somethings doing their best to look like they fit in with the rest. The stadium lights were on, but the shadows in the stands were heavy and it was nearly impossible to see more than a dozen or so meters, much less across the stadium to the other side.
It was like looking for a needle in a haystack, Talon thought as he made his way up the stairs to one of the tunnel entrances to the outer ring of the stadium. Winternight could hide an army in this crowd and he'd never spot them. Pulling the collar of his long coat close around his neck, Talon mentally keyed open his headcom.
"Come in, team." he said. "Give me an update. Anything?"
"Nothing unusual on the fly-bys." Val said. "I've run four passes over the stadium and scanned to the limits of the sensors on this thing. There's just too many bodies and too much electronic gear down there to get any kind of accurate reading. Not to mention that Winternight could be using magic to hide themselves."
"Same thing from down here." Trouble said. "The scanning gear in the van is limited, and we're not in the best position out here. Can't pick up any signs of the nuke or of Zoller, or Alamais, or whoever he is."
"What about Silverblade?" Talon asked.
"He's still out-of-body." Trouble responded. "At least, as far as I can tell. I'll let you know as soon as he's back."
"We've got nothing, so far." Boom said. "Security's pretty tight. We're lucky you were able to get us past it with those invisibility spells." Fortunately, the hired security forces didn't include a lot of magicians
to spot-check everyone coming through the gates, so
the guards didn't notice a few invisible shadowrunners slipping past them, avoiding the metal detectors and weapons sniffers.
"How about getting into the backstage areas?"
Talon said. It was certainly possible Winternight might have something set up there.
"Working on it." Boom said.
Talon sent his thoughts out into the astral plane. "
Aracos, anything yet?"
"Got a possibility,"
the spirit replied,
"but it's hard to be sure. There's a lot of emotional static floating around in the astral from all these people getting it up about the show. But I can sense some faint magical emanations coming from understage."
"Under the stage?"
Talon echoed. He glanced back down into the stadium. The stage was built up on the field below like a multi-tiered structure of its own. The "backstage" area would actually be in the hollow space underneath.
"Do you know what kind of magic?"
"Can't tell. It could just be some kind of special effect preparation for the show
. . ."
That was certainly a possibility. Trouble's research showed that a local magical company was being employed to provide magical illusions as part of the stage show, so . . .
"Wait a sec." Talon said to himself, then into the commlink. "Trouble, that company doing the stage effects. Do they have their own staff of mages or do they contract out?"
"Checking . . . nope, they're not too big. Looks like they subcontract most of their magical work."
"Zoller. Zoller's a magical consultant. Winternight could be using his credentials to get backstage."
"Talon." came Silverblade's voice over the link. "There's something going on below the stage. The area is warded, and I didn't want to attempt to penetrate it, lest I should warn whoever set up the ward. But no other area of the stadium is warded."
Talon circuited the link to the rest of the team, to include them all in the conversation. "Okay, folks, it looks like our targets are down in the understage area. That puts them smack in the middle of the stadium, the perfect place to set up their bomb. We've got to get down there. Meet up at tunnel G of the outer ring." Talon headed up the stairs at a jog as the stadium lights dimmed and the floodlights illuminated the stage.
The show was starting, and Talon knew they didn't have much time.
"Ladies and gentlemen! And all you other assorted mutants!" a voice boomed out over the PA system. "Welcome to the concert of the century! Welcome and bear witness to . . . the coming . . . of . . . RAGNAROCK!" A deafening cheer went up from the crowd as they went wild. There was an explosion of light and sound on the stage as flares went off, spotlights swung in, and the first band went into a slamming shag metal guitar solo that seemed to make the walls vibrate.
As Talon turned the corner and headed to meet up with the rest of his team, he paused for a moment and looked out over the stadium.
Chummer,
Talon said silently to the faceless announcer,
I sure as hell hope you're wrong.
Heinrich Zoller stepped over the bodies of the security guards and directed his hirelings to place the bomb under the stage. His master had been merciful in restoring him after his initial failure. Zoller would not disappoint him again. Soon he would be the one to strike the spark that would ignite the glory of Ragnarok, and he would reap his reward. Out of the flames, he would be reborn, a new god to reign over the new world that would come about, under the guidance of his master, of course.
He opened the side panel of the bomb, setting the controls for a countdown. His Humanis hirelings had no idea of the nature of the device they were planting, of course.
T
hey thought it was a more conventional explosive intended to strike a blow against foreign corporations who would pollute German purity with their presence and their ideas. That was true, to a point, but they did not know how powerful the blast would be, or that Germany would be the first battleground of the final war. Zoller's true servants, members of Winternight, knew what was coming, but they faced it gladly, knowing they would be rewarded in the world to come, the world that would rise from the ashes of the old.
He placed a finger on the control switch.
"Master, all is in readiness."
he thought.
"Excellent."
his Master's voice responded.
"You have done well, Heinrich. You will be of great service to me in times to come."
"Thank you, Master."
Zoller pushed the button and the ten-minute countdown began. Now there was no turning back.
Talon met up with the rest of the team in the outer corridor of the stadium. Boom and Hammer arrived first, weapons carefully concealed beneath long coats and armored jackets. Trouble and Silverblade followed close behind, slipping in from the outside with the aid of Silverblade's magic. Talon could feel a faint magical presence nearby as they approached. A glance with his astral senses told him that Silverblade still had one of Val's drones concealed with an invisibility spell, keeping it hidden from sight.
"What's the plan?" Hammer asked.
"We hit them fast and hard, but don't forget they've got an active nuke with them. Trouble, do you think you can disarm it?"
Trouble nodded. "If it's electronic, I can shut it down."
"Good." Talon said. "Let's head for the understage area. If any local guards get in the way, let me or Silverblade take them down. We don't want to raise an alarm and we don't want any unnecessary casualties." They weren't packing gel rounds this time. "Save the heavy firepower for Winternight. Everybody link in on the comm and let's go."
They headed along the corridor to the stairs that would take them down to the bottom level of the stadium. A pair of uniformed guards stood at the entrance as they approached. Talon signalled the others to hang back. The guards turned and spotted the team just as Talon gestured, and a soundless, unseen explosion seemed to ripple the air around them. The guards collapsed where they were, sliding to the ground in a heap. Boom and Hammer quickly dragged them out of sight, and then the team hit the stairs.
Hammer took point, with Talon and Silverblade close behind. The elf drew his silvery sword with one hand, and held his pistol in the other. Talon did the same, drawing Talonclaw and keeping his Ares Slivergun close at hand in case his spells weren't enough to handle whatever awaited them below. Trouble and Boom brought up the rear, with Val's combat drone hovering behind them. Boom could see—and shoot—clearly over the heads of everyone in front of him.
