Makeda Red Read online

  “I needed it.” Tojo belched and turned away.

  “I know.” Makeda nodded, not really paying attention to him. Her mind was half on the guards before her and half on the problem presented. She considered the ramifications of Schmidt and the two runs—one an extraction, one for paydata—as she watched the corpsec duo move from suite to suite, knocking on the door, and talking to the people within, showing them something on the datapad.

  “I feel sick.” Tojo touched her arm with a sweaty hand.

  She brushed it off. “Tojo, please shut up. We can talk about this in the suite. I have to think.”

  His answer was to throw up in the corner of the airlock. The pungent smell of vomit filled the small space, making Makeda gag. A quick look told her that the guards weren’t done with the sleeper car ahead. She opened the previous door and backed out of the airlock with her hand to her mouth. “Tojo!”

  Makeda opened the bathroom door, thankful her Party Train band worked on it. Tojo stumbled toward her. She pointed to the toilet, pressing back to keep from touching him. He rushed in and vomited more into the waiting receptacle. She closed and locked the bathroom door.

  “What a fraggin’ mess,” she muttered.

  “Bern in fifteen,” Galen warned.

  “Son of a trog.” How had time slipped away so fast?

  “So Herr Schmidt had two runs involving our target, eh?”

  Makeda turned away as she subvocalized, “Yeah. Shitty business practices. Look into it more if you can. Be careful.”

  “Always.”

  As Tojo got sick again, she focused on her face in the mirror, concentrating on not getting sick herself. She didn’t look too bad, but the bruise and swelling of her cheek was obvious now. Beauty’d had one hell of a right hook.

  She rinsed one of the washcloths and handed it to Tojo once it looked like he had stopped throwing up and was just panting on the bathroom floor. With any luck, this will have gotten some of whatever Beauty dosed him with out of his system.

  Tojo hauled himself to his feet and stumbled over to the sink. Makeda moved to the bathroom door and looked out the peephole— partly to give him some privacy, partly to watch who was going by. At least this was going to give the Saeder-Krupp guards a lot of time to get ahead of them.

  “Drek. I liked this shirt.” Tojo wiped at the white shirt with the wet cloth and proceeded to make a bigger mess of it. He tried to button it, but half of the buttons were missing.

  Makeda glanced over her shoulder then back at the peephole just in time to see a large black mass fill it. She jumped back from the door to Tojo and put a hand over his mouth just as the pounding began.

  “Anyone in there?”

  Makeda kept a tight grip on Tojo as he jerked in surprise at how fast she moved and the sudden noise. She murmured, “Calm, chummer. We’re all good here.”

  The pounding came again. Makeda counted in her head. At thirty-five, the pounding came a third time, but it was faint. They’d moved on to the next suite. Makeda let out the breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. She looked at Tojo and he nodded. She let him go. “Sorry. Guess they came back.”

  She wondered at the doubling back. The guards weren’t moving in a logical pattern. Start at one end of the train and go to the other end. That made sense to her. Then again, if corpsec missed their target on the first pass, it would take that much longer to find them. Maybe there was a logic to it. Their lack of a visible, logical pattern made things difficult.

  Tojo shrugged and repeated, “It’s all good.” He took a breath. “Can we go to my room now?”

  “Two minutes. That should be enough time for them to knock on all the doors in this car.” She eyed his gray skin and sweating brow. “You going to be sick again?”

  He shook his head. “I just want this to be done. I want to get my nuyen and get to my new home.”

  At that moment, he looked every bit the salaryman he was. Makeda nodded. “Soon. There’ll be some rough going, but soon. You look a lot less fuzzyheaded. Why don’t you wash your face?”

  Tojo dropped the dirty washcloth into the waiting receptacle and grabbed another one. He washed his face and swished out his mouth with the provided rinse. He washed his hands in water hot enough to steam. When he was done, he patted his hands dry and took a steady breath.

  “I feel…embarrassed and queasy, but better.” Tojo gazed at the floor, not meeting her eyes. Then he bowed low and held it. “I’m sorry.” It was a simple apology for everything.

  “Accepted. It’s what happens after you’re drugged.” Makeda eyed him as he straightened up. He looked better. Less gray. More in control. His shivering was gone. She listened at the door, then looked out the peephole. Nothing.

  “I—I didn’t know she was going to drug you.”

  “Hold that thought. We’ll talk about it in your room.” She glanced at him. “I promise. I will listen. You can explain it all then.”

  This time, he was quiet. They stood there in an uncomfortable silence for the next minute. Makeda didn’t care. What she wanted was control of a space, where she could make sure there was no one watching or listening in. If the target was uncomfortable now, he’d be really uncomfortable in a corporate cell. Or dead.

  After what seemed like forever, Makeda opened the bathroom door and looked out. The sleeper car was empty. She offered Tojo her hand. He accepted it, and the two of them went to the airlock. It was open on both sides, and a man in a Party Train concierge’s uniform was cleaning up the spot where Tojo had been sick. He nodded to them as they passed by. Makeda ignored him. Tojo blushed to the roots of his black hair.

  When they got to car sixteen, she let him open the suite door. The two of them entered. Makeda closed and locked the door with a sigh. Tojo had already stripped off his shirt and thrown it in a corner. As he looked for another shirt to put on, Makeda slipped her compact out of her boot and pressed the hidden button on the side. She spun in a slow circle.

  It was a small suite, designed more for a single person than two, but two could make it work. While all of the furnishings were of high quality, they didn’t have the same lushness her suite had. No marble or brass accents. The couch bed was a double instead of a queen. No washroom, but there was a small sink and mirror. It was a nice, if less opulent, room.

  “Oh, there’s nothing here. Beauty already checked.”

  “He’s right. No bugs of any kind,” TechnoGalen confirmed. “Ten minutes to Bern.”

  Makeda clicked her compact off and slid it back into her boot. “Put on your warmest shirt. You have a coat, right? We’re going to be out in the cold for a bit.” That was what she’d forgotten in her room. A coat. They would have to go back to get it. Plus, the window was wider in her suite. She needed that to help him out of the window.

  Makeda smiled to herself. The train was moving fast but smooth. It would probably terrify Tojo to go out the window. She admitted a little fear herself, despite having the enhanced reflexes to land in relative safety. Part of her was thrilled. She’d never had to jump off a train before. She lived for new experiences.

  Tojo slipped into a long-sleeved button-up shirt. He didn’t say anything as he dug through the small closet, pulled out a leather jacket, and tossed it to the bed. Then he went back into the closet.

  Makeda heard a soft beep and Tojo sigh with relief. “It’s here. She didn’t stiff me.” He showed her a matte black credstick with gold bands, then clasped it in a fist.

  “Is that full?” Gold credsticks could hold up to 200,000 nuyen. She saw it was certified, but didn’t see how much was listed on the small display screen.

  He shook his head. “Half.” Tojo laughed. “I still don’t understand what’s so important about maintenance codes.”

  “Right. Tell me about this second deal that Herr Schmidt set up.

  What did he say?”

  Tojo’s face crumpled again. “You are mad at me.” His voice was resigned and depressed.

  “No. I’m not. But every time
you say that, it pisses me off. Stop it.” Makeda crossed her arms. “Just answer the question. I need to know what you agreed to. I have to work it into my plans. Multiple runs with the same—” She paused. She’d almost said “salaryman.” She didn’t know how he’d take the insult. “With the same person is unusual. Especially on a train like this, where no one gets on and off except at the end points.”

  Tojo sat on the bed and shrugged. “After the whole extraction thing got set up, Herr Schmidt called me back and asked me if I could get a copy of the elevator maintenance codes before I left. That it was worth a lot of money to the right people. I told him it was no problem, and he offered me 100,000 nuyen for it. Said the money would go a long way in my new home.”

  “And he set it up to happen here, on the Party Train?” Makeda rested her chin in her hand and considered it.

  “Yeah. It’s as private as you can really get. The rich don’t like to be spied on.” He gazed at the credstick. “I don’t understand why anyone would want the codes. I mean, who wants to muck about with a shut- down elevator anyway? Besides engineers, that is.”

  Makeda shook her head and furrowed her brow.

  “The codes only work when the elevator is turned off. That’s when you do maintenance.” Tojo shrugged. “I do a lot of development for how the elevator works and takes care of itself. What it senses when it’s moving and when it’s not. Maintenance is one of the biggest challenges to the sideways elevator.”

  A light went on in Makeda’s head. “What kind of maintenance?” She hugged herself to keep her voice even.

  “Uh…” He paused and thought for a moment. “Speed tests, stop tests, alarm tests. Some emergency tests. That sort of thing. Edge cases.”

  “You mean, you can make an elevator move even if it is locked down?”

  “Yeah. Or powered off. All elevators have emergency power packs now. You’ve got to be able to test that they work.”

  She uncrossed her arms and stepped to him. “What elevators do these maintenance codes work on?”

  Tojo tilted his head. “Well, all of them. It doesn’t make sense to have a maintenance program that works on only some of the elevators. It’s hard enough to take care of one program as complicated as this. Why would you want to keep track of more than one?”

  Makeda sat down next to him with a thump. Backdoor keys into every Thyssen-Krupp elevator—the most ubiquitous elevator manufacturer in the world—was worth a lot more than a mere 100,000 nuyen. No wonder Beauty had slap patched her.

  “That’s, uh, interesting.” And that was the understatement of the year. Hell, Makeda could make money just selling the knowledge that those codes existed.

  Tojo nodded. “I know. But I couldn’t just walk out with data chips. The company frowns on that sort of thing, so I made it look like one of these. But really, it’s just a data chip.” He held up the credstick. “On a train like this, no one’s going to say anything about people running around with gold credsticks.”

  Makeda’s heart stuttered in her chest. It took all her willpower to not look at the credsticks she’d taken from Beauty. There was a very good chance that she had a copy of the maintenance codes. “That… that’s brilliant.” She meant it. In another life, Tojo could’ve been a decent shadowrunner. “You just put the faux credstick in a datajack to download them?”

  “Yeah. That’s it.”

  She took a breath. “Right. I’m going to use the restroom. You pack a small bag with whatever you can’t leave behind. Be ready when I get back. But pack light. You’re going to have to carry it for a bit.” Makeda didn’t wait for an answer as she peeked out the suite door, then hurried to the communal restroom at the end of the car.

  Once inside with the door locked, Makeda took the two credsticks from her pocket. Both had the same flat black-matte finish, but one had silver bands, the other gold. The one with gold bands was larger and had a larger display. The display didn’t show a number, but it had a word: Isoshi.

  “You are so sharing that with us,” Galen said, his voice soft with awe.

  “Yes, but not a word. Technically, we’re stealing from another runner team, and that’s not going to sit well with anyone. So we don’t do anything with this. Not until this job is done. Don’t even sniff around for buyers until we test the codes.” Makeda lifted up the short curls at the base of her head and slotted the faux credstick. “I mean it, Galen. Not a word to anyone. Not Saladin. Not Plath. Not anyone. This is too hot, in the best and worst sense.”

  “So ka.”

  Her headware went to work and asked for the passcode. She entered “Isoshi,” and the files unlocked. She made two copies of them. One for her own personal use that she locked down under double encryption. One in data storage, encrypted and ready for transfer. She made sure the data chip was completely empty before she pulled the fake credstick from her datajack.

  Without thinking about what she was doing. Makeda stomped the small device into pieces. She picked out the data chip and stomped it again until it was also in pieces. Then she put some of the pieces into the trash and some in the toilet. After she relieved herself, she flushed the other bits to parts unknown.

  A bing sounded in her head. Makeda jerked in surprise. She flushed hot with guilt and her stomach flip-flopped. “What? What is it?”

  “Ah, we’ve just passed Bern. You need to get a move on, Makeda. Get off the train now. You’ll meet your contacts in Lucern…. Or nearby.”

  “Right. On my way.” She squared her shoulders and walked out of the bathroom like she owned it. Makeda did not think about the mega-lucrative paydata sitting in her head. She had a client to extract, and that had to be her main focus right now.

  Using her Party Train band to get into Tojo’s room, she wanted to sigh at the way he didn’t react. He just smiled at her and hefted his small bag. He didn’t think it was strange that she could get in and out whenever she wanted to. He may have shadowrunner leanings, but he didn’t have the right mindset. It had to be those drek trid shows about shadowrunners and the corp security who tried to catch them— succeeding only when it was convenient for dramatic purposes.

  “Here’s the plan. We’re going to go to my suite, get my stuff, then go out the window.” She continued on through his double-take. “It might hurt a little when you hit the ground. It’s important that you do two things: First, don’t roll too far away. You won’t hit the track. They’re elevated. You’ll get a little bruised, but you’ll be fine. Second, try to keep an eye on where I come out. Head in that direction. I’m going to try to jump with you so we don’t get too separated. Clear?”

  Tojo nodded in slow motion. He looked afraid and unsure. “What if I get hurt?”

  “Don’t think that way.” She saw the stubbornness creep into his expression. “We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it.” She took him by the arm. “Look, this is your freedom we’re talking about. You wanted this. We’ve got a lot of kilometers to go before we get you there. This should be the roughest part. We can do this.”

  “We can do this.” The repeated words were hollow. He tried to smile and failed.

  She ignored it. “That’s the spirit. We will do this.” Makeda opened the door. “No more stalling. Time’s wasting.” She led him out of his room and down the hall. To his credit, Tojo didn’t look back.

  There were more people in the sleeper car hallway now. For some, the party was winding down. Others were just looking for a place to rest or recharge before they returned to the bacchanal. Either way, Makeda and Tojo needed to step over and around people sleeping, making out, or passed out.

  As they entered the sleeper car with Makeda’s suite in it, Party Train personnel were checking on their guests and trying to get them moved to more comfortable, less trafficked places. Makeda opened her suite and stopped in her tracks as the two Saeder-Krupp security guards turned to look at her.

  Makeda saw that they had gone through all of her belongings— her bag was dumped on the bed, its seams ripped open. Her scan
t clothing also had their seams opened, and even the bed had been torn apart. She had no idea what they were looking for, but she knew her cover was blown. No corpsec in their right mind would destroy the personal effects of someone as rich as her background suggested. Either that, or they were so far lost on leads they were willing to risk a royal reaming from someone rich enough to do it.

  Either way, she was in trouble.

  Makeda backpedaled and took off the way she’d come, dragging Tojo with her. He’d gasped as he saw the guards barrel out of the suite. Then she didn’t have to drag him at all.

  The two of them bolted down the hallway to the exit. As soon as they got through, Makeda smashed the control with her elbow. It hurt like hell, but she hoped it would lock the door behind them.

  “Galen. Trouble. What’s at the end of the train?” Panting, she didn’t try to hide her whispered words.

  “Sleeper cars and storage, as far as I can tell.”

  “Windows?”

  When Galen didn’t immediately answer, Makeda pushed a drunken couple behind them and into the path of the oncoming Saeder-Krupp guards. This time as they moved from car to car, she used her other elbow to smash the control plate. It wasn’t slowing the guards down much, but it did something.

  “Can’t tell from my eyes in the sky, but alarms are going off in the cars you’ve been in.”

  “Yeah. Breaking the door sensors.”

  “It’s helping. Sorta. Confusing things, anyway.”

  They burst into the next sleeper car. It was the farthest car Makeda had visited. She had no idea what was beyond. At the end of the car, the exit door looked different. There was a punch pad instead of a sensor. They sprinted to the door. Makeda typed in the code she saw Security Captain Jarvis punch into the pad when she’d been locked in the train ramp. The pad beeped green, but as she moved to open the door, it gave a deeper blat and went red. Makeda had no idea what that meant beyond the fact that they were trapped.

  “Everything is going into lockdown. Comms are going insane. I don’t know why. I don’t think it’s you.”