Kazuki watched the smoke-filled booth intently as the waitstaff cleaned up the mess a few booths over. Whatever happened was quick, explosive, and brash, but that’s what runners were known for, right?
He brought up an augmented reality window and searched through his personal files on the Cairo ‘runner scene, his cybereyes rapidly sifting through the data. At the same time, he replayed snippets of a conversation between Shai, the proprietor of this particular establishment, and a large human that tumbled out of that booth moments before, in another.
“I’ll tell you what we are going to do now. We will clean up this mess—professional courtesy, let us say. I find a way to stage Qetesh involvement with Nary’s client. Everyone happy.”
Qetesh … Kazuki had heard the name before. With a flick of his fingers, he opened more AR windows revealing a series of news articles as he glanced at the booth. A woman was draped over the table with a trickle of blood streaming from her eye, all while dressed in a similar, sultry uniform as the rest of the ancient Egyptian-themed staff. Running a facial recognition search, his commlink pinged thirty seconds later with a data hit on her identity.
Qetesh Corset - Assassin - Location Unknown - Area of Activity: Egypt.
With that bit of paydata, Kazuki adjusted his search parameters. She was good, either scrubbing databases or keeping her presence on the down-low. But when you’ve been a prolific runner/assassin like she is, things will slip. Moscow, Kyoto, Dublin, Medina, New York, this one got around. Big hits too.
And that only made this street sam more intriguing.
As a precaution, Kazuki scanned his immediate area, ensuring his booth’s white noise filter was active before ringing a specific comm-code. The dial tone cooed as it fluctuated softly with an almost bell-like chime.
“Kaz-kun? Aho. It’s almost four in the morning. What the hell are you doing?” the female voice on the other end sounded exhausted, though he knew she was likely out partying until a few hours ago
He smiled to himself, “Moshi moshi, you lazy dolt. I need you to run a check for me.”
The line went quiet for a moment before Kazuki heard a sigh, “You aren’t even going to ask nicely are you?”
“After the drek you put me through with the last job, Mio-chan, you are lucky I even called you,” He retorted while browsing the articles. “I need info on this man,” Kazuki sent a capture of the large human standing with Shai, “Ignore the ogre. This man took down Qetesh Corset, the one from the Kyoto train heist last year, and ripped a cyber eye from this Wuxing jobber.”
The line went quiet other than the rapid clacking of Mio’s ancient keyboard. “Where are you right now, anata? Qetesh is based in the Mediterranean …” A chirp rung from her computer, “I am finding an ‘Andros’. Though he’s definitely not with Wuxing. I imagine that was a disguise.”
Kazuki sucked in some air at that, “At least we have a name. Send me anything you find, Mio-chan, I’m following him.”
He heard her gasp, “Does this mean we’re good then, baka?” Her tone definitely had some energy to it, even though the grogginess.
“Kuso. Get me the information and we’ll see. Though the next time I’m in Osaka, we will have a discussion over some sake and takoyaki.”
He stood up, adjusting his menpō rebreather, cutting the call just as Mio started to respond. Brushing past the remaining waitress cleaning up some broken glass from the booth, he quickly paid for the night’s drinks and pulled his equipment from the Dune Seas’ lock up.
As he moved into the shadows, Kazuki checked his silenced pistol and blades, making sure they were secure in their concealed sheaths and holsters. Satisfied everything was in order, he decided to get in on whatever action Andros was up to.
(Get ready for Shadowrun: Risks & Rewards with the first part of this blog series! https://bit.ly/SR-R-R-INCOMING-MESSAGE)
