the stolen van
Oh, and she finally told us her name, which is Gray.
So, I asked over my shoulder to where she was sitting in the back while being healed up by Spark. "What went wrong?"
"You guys ever been double crossed by a Johnson?" she asked in response. She said she was aware we were pretty new to the Shadows, so she had to ask. Blitz was picking her brain. Her summation of the game: do a job, get double crossed, they kill you and they don't have to pay you for the work.
I pull the van into the neighborhood, and it's quiet and clean, a narrow stretch of streets with no vehicles parked on the street. The house was at the end of the block. It was wreathed in a high wall of shrubbery and a concrete wall with a driveway that disappeared into the compound.
I parked a few blocks away. We walked in and found a spot to climb the wall. Blitz went over first and saw two little dogs in the yard nearby. Gray went over with help then I hoisted Spark over and followed.
I opened a ration bar and we tied a bloody rag from Gray's wound to it, then Spark launched the nasty thing at the dogs to distract them. She threw it toward the front of the property as we sneaked to the rear of the house where the pool solarium was.
As we approached, motion sensors went off and the old man who owns the place froze where he was in the pool room, looking out at us in his swim trunks and robe, but with a rifle in hand.
Gray said she'd go settle the score. Blitz cast a spell and he became invisible to go along with her. I tossed Spark my silenced pistol and the two of us moved to flank Gray and Blitz. I got the rifle out and put on the supressor.
"Why don't you lower the weapon, Mac?" Gray called out though I couldn't hear the rest of the exchange. She nudged the door open with her foot and put something there to prop it open. Steam escaped the room from a hot tub.
Later Blitz told us Gray demanded her money or Mac would send the wrong message.
Spark sneaked off to deal with a threat, telling me there's another guard inside the pool house. I heard the muted pops of gunfire from where Spark had gone.
Blitz must have cast a spell because the thug in the pool room just goes flying through a copse of bamboo trees.
"Your goons are gone!" Gray yelled in a sing song voice to the boss man. He eased back into the building, withdrawing to the shadows. He asked to go to his pocket secretary and get money to pay Gray. The transaction is complete.
Spark came back as the guy went into his house, locking up. We retreated back to the front gate. Blitz tried to recruit Gray. Who knows where that will go?
We cruised off into the night, dropped Gray off and got a perfectly professional send off from her: "Don't call me. I'll call you." Later we all got 3,000 Nuyen each in bank transfers to complete Gray's payment to us.
