Part Two

The elf named Lander took another huge toke of deepweed and held it in his lungs for as long as he could. Then, he hacked and coughed until spittle hung from his lips in long white tendrils. He hoped he would start to feel the drug's calming effects soon. The Jazz he took earlier had really done a number on him; he had been hotwired for hours. At least the shaking had finally stopped. When he first got back to his apartment, he had been a twitchy mass of bulging eyes and chattering teeth. Lander looked at his pipe; it was a sky-blue glass piece in the shape of a flying dragon. He brought it to his lips. The elf lit the bowl with a cheap plastic lighter and sucked on the dragon's tail. He coughed again, but this time he finally felt his muscles loosen and he sank deeper into his torn and dirty couch. "That's the one," he mumbled through a mouthful of smoke. His eyelids gained weight and began to shut.

Suddenly, there was a knock at Lander's door. He cringed and yelled out, "Go away, Pickens! I ain't giving you any Dander for free, you goddamned meathead!" Lander giggled despite the aggravation he felt. He started to take another hit, but the knock came again.

Lander pushed himself off the couch and the cheap plastic lighter on his lap fell to the floor. "Goddamnit!" he barked. Lately he hated having to bend over for things; his back was acting up ever since he fell in the shower a week ago. He had been high on Stims and slipped. "Pickens, you son of a bitch, I'm going to jack you square in the eye!" Lander marched over to the door and put one bleary red eye to the peephole. There was only blackness. Whoever was out there was covering it up with their hand. "Pickens!" Lander screeched, "Get back to your hovel, you donk-eyed crump! Leave me the hell alone!" The elf spun on his heel and started to walk back toward the couch.

Before he could even register what was happening, a black hairy arm gripped Lander by the throat and picked him up off the ground. Oxygen was cut off immediately and he gagged and squeaked as his feet flailed away in the air. The thing that held him was a monstrosity. It had arms and legs like a man, but its naked body was more like a cross between a giant fox and a bloated fly. Brown-gold fur covered most of the thing, but long steel-like hairs stuck out near its neck and exposed flopping genitals. Its face was a clicking cavern of mandibles topped with cloudy eyes that simmered like boiling sewer water. Lander's own eyes bulged, but his sight was already starting to go dark. Behind him, his apartment door softly opened and two shadowy figures entered. Just as Lander was about to lose total consciousness, he heard one of these figures speak. The iron grip around his throat loosened. He was still being held by the neck, but now he could just barely sip air into his lungs and he suckled at it like a newborn to its mother's teat. The elf had been lowered so that the tips of his feet were allowed to touch the carpet.

Someone said, "He's our guy."

The elf could not see who spoke, but he gurgled a half-hearted, "H-helpp mee."

The same unknown voice spoke in a language the elf could not understand. The monstrosity walked the elf over to the couch and sat him down upon it as if he were a play-doll being deposited by a disinterested child. Without taking its hand from Lander's throat, the creature sat down directly beside him. Up close and able to breathe, Lander could smell the thing's pungent scent; it was like three month old garbage stuck inside a rotting rectum. The creature stared straight ahead into nothing while its mandibles chirped and chittered. With an involuntary shiver, Lander focused on who else was in the apartment with him besides the monstrosity. It was a man and an ork. The ork was one of the biggest and ugliest the elf had ever seen. He had a deep scar which stretched from the top of his bald head to the bottom of his bulging jaws. The ork's nose looked as pitted and jagged as the side of a mountain, and yellow tusks protruded from around his thick black lips. He wore a grey jumpsuit rigged with harnesses full of bulging pouches. At his side, a T-900 shotgun was slung in a quick-draw holster. If it wasn't for the monster which sat next to Lander, the ork would have easily been the most imposing figure in the room.

As for the man, Lander knew him. He had iced him not even two hours ago. The mages had called him Panther-In-the-Sky, and they had said he was extremely dangerous. They also said that he was a shaman. The rumor was that the five magic-users had worked an entire week to perfect the spell which had trapped this man and allowed the young elf to put two flechettes in his head. The mages had been very specific that Lander himself be the one to kill Panther-In-The-Sky. They had given him an extra 15,000 nuyen to do it, and he had taken it without a second thought. He had never heard of the shaman. Lander, who was never very bright, realized that it had not been the best idea to kill a man that was completely unknown to him. The elf scanned for any sign of injury on the man's forehead, but there was only clear pale skin.

Panther-In-The-Sky stood next to the ork, and both of them looked down upon Lander and the monstrosity. The shaman motioned toward the clicking creature at Lander's left side as he addressed the elf, "This is an old friend of mine. You wouldn't be able to pronounce his name, so I'm not even going to bother with introductions." Panther-In The-Sky smiled and his lips twisted into a thin, malicious black curve. He pointed at Lander, "But you and I know each other. Now here is the hardwire…I am going to do you a huge favor. I am going to be completely square with you kid, and that's more than I ever got on the street." He hunkered down and sat on his spring-heel boots, so he could look the elf in the eye.

Behind Panther-In-The-Sky, the ork silently and bemusedly shook his head, but the elf didn't notice. The shaman continued, "Lander, I came here for a bit of information. There are some things I want to know. I want to know who backed your run against me. I want to know the names of the five mages who were with you when you iced me. And I want to know if you had ever heard my name before this job. If you can answer me those questions, and give me a few extra details here and there, it might turn out alright for you. If you don't answer them, I can promise you it won't be good." Panther-In-The-Sky spread his hands in front of him as though presenting a deck of cards to a mark before asking them to pick one.

The elf licked his chapped lips; his tongue was coated in white crust. When he spoke, his voice cracked and strained with effort. "I have no idea who you are, man. I never even heard of you before tonight…I was…stupid. Stupid to ice you on just their say-so."

"That's a certainty, true enough." Panther-In-The-Sky's cold blue eyes glittered, "Now, who were those five mages you were with? I want their names."

Lander swallowed painfully, "Man, I don't know any of their names! I just met all of them tonight and it wasn't like they gave me their life stories!…I only know the one I dealt with directly, their boss…He's the one who set me up on this job, only he wasn't there when I iced you. He called himself Gast." The elf coughed, the white spittle was laced with red. When Panther-In-The-Sky saw it, he drew a symbol in the air with his right hand and the monstrosity let go of Lander's neck. The elf curled into a ball on the couch and started sobbing as he clutched at his throat.

"Did you catch that, Buzz?" Panther-In-The-Sky turned to the giant ork. "Our blubbering friend here said that he dealt with a mage named Gast. Isn't that weird? I believe we knew a fellow by that name once, didn't we?" He was speaking sarcastically, but beneath the sarcasm was barely restrained rage.

The ork's menacing glare instantly fell away, and it was replaced by a deathly pall of fear that widened his eyes and made his distended jaw quiver. "It can't be the same Gast. That Gast was just a small-timer when we ran across him, boss. How could I have known…?"

Panther-In-The-Sky silenced him with a raised finger. "That is why I call the shots. Do you understand that now, you 7-foot tall piece of jackal shit?" The shaman's voice dropped in pitch until it positively dripped with venom. "Three years ago, you convinced me to let that hack mage go, and like a moron I agreed. That soft heart of yours and my trust in your judgement both just came back to haunt me." Panther-In-The-Sky pushed himself back to his feet and took a step toward Buzz, who backed away. It was unnerving to see the massive ork retreat before the tall, skinny pale wisp of a man. "When you and I are done here, you are going to track that third-rate mage down and make him eat his own extremities. And I want photos to prove it, your past actions were those of a third-rate bodyman, so I'm gonna treat you like you were a third-rate bodyman for the time being. And, you're going to get me the names of the other goons he had with him. Is that okay with you? Is that clear?"

Buzz furiously nodded, "I will do that, boss. I will get that done, easy." The ork's face pinched into a look of forced humility. "I made a bad call three years ago. I didn't think Gast would ever come back to bite us like this. He was a sixteen year old kid…"

The shaman interrupted, "Quiet." He turned back to the simpering form of Lander, who quivered like a baby beside the blankly staring monstrosity. "Hey! Kid, stop that crying right now or I'm going to have my two friends here play tug of war with you. One will grab you by your elvish love stick, the other will use your tongue, and we'll see which end tears first."

Lander hacked and wiped his nose and miserably pushed himself upright. He was careful to keep as much space as he could between himself and the horrific entity. The young elf gawked at the shaman with wet, inexperienced eyes. "I'll tell you whatever you want."

"That's a given," Panther-In-The-Sky said. "Did Aneki back you? Was that where the money and gear came from?"

Lander nodded. "Yeah, Gast said that Aneki was looking for new talent, said that if I iced you I would be guaranteed solid work for years. Gave me an extra 15,000 nuyen for it, upfront."

"And you believed that?" For the first time in this affair, the shaman had real sympathy in his voice. There wasn't much of it, but it was there all the same. "You never thought to question why none of them would kill me, or why they would hire a rookie like you to do it?" Panther-In-The-Sky shook his head, "Normally I wouldn't believe someone could be that dumb, but after seeing you up close, I'm starting to. Where did you live before you came to Seattle? Candyland?" The shaman laughed at his own joke, but the rest of the room remained deathly silent except for the chirp of the monstrosity's mandibles. Panther-In-The-Sky's laughter died down to bemused head-shaking and he said, "Alright, I think we are done here."

A little light came into Lander's eyes. When he spoke, both the ork and the shaman could hear the hopefulness in his voice as plain as daylight. "Please, man I know I fucked up here, but the bottom line is you ain't dead. You ain't gotta do this. You let me go and I swear I'll leave the city and never come back. I swear it!"

Panther-In-The-Sky smirked. He folded his arms across his chest and gazed over at Buzz. The giant ork had backed as far away from the shaman as he could and now stood against the far wall. "How about it, Buzz? Do we let this one go too? What's your call here?"

Buzz did not say a word. After a moment of meeting the shaman's eyes, he let his gaze fall to the floor where he pretended to stare at the refuse.

"Now you're getting it, Buzz. That's exactly the response I was looking for." Panther-In-The-Sky turned to Lander and spoke a single word in an alien language. It sounded like the hiss of a grill fire in the rain. In a single, slow motion the monstrosity swiveled its arms and grasped Lander's head with both hands. The elf started to scream. He had a high-pitched voice, and his wail reminded the shaman of the sound an owl makes when it swoops for the kill. Lander kicked his legs and twisted his midsection in an effort to escape, but the monstrosity's grip was molded steel. It increased its hold on Lander until eventually the shaman heard a meaty pop. The elf's skull had just fractured. Lander's body went a little limp at that point, but it still twitched and shuddered like a short-circuiting robot. Then the monstrosity brought the elf's face closer to its own, until Lander's features were engulfed by clicking mandibles. The elf's wail, which had subsided with the crushed cranium, began anew. Only it was louder, more piercing. It continued right up until the monstrosity began to eat Lander's mouth and throat.

About ten minutes later, the carnage was over. Panther-In-The-Sky dismissed his familiar with a slight wave and a quick bark of command. What was left of Lander was splattered on the couch in bloody bits of bone and chunks of flesh. The shaman gave a nod of satisfaction. Without looking at the ork, he said, "Let's get out of this rat hole."

Panther-In-The-Sky was half-way to the door when a call came over his commlink. It was the only bit of cyberware he had, and he almost never used it to make calls. No one called him. It was way too easy to monitor and eavesdrop these days. But this call was private, and it was on a black channel, which meant top-level encryption. At first, he doubted his own senses and asked Buzz in a choked voice, "Are you fucking with me right now?" Buzz looked at the shaman as if he were crazy. His reaction meant the call was real. "Shit," Panther-in-The-Sky mumbled. "Hold on for a second, Buzz. I've got someone on commlink." The ork immediately drew his shotgun and braced himself against the door.

The shaman answered. A face appeared in his vision. It was a young blonde woman dressed to the hilt in a smart suit. She wore wire-frame glasses and her lipstick was the color of clouds. "Hold one moment for Mr. Drake." She disappeared.

"You've got to be kidding me," the shaman whispered.

"Who is it?" Buzz quietly asked.

"It's Drake."

The ork took a deep breath, "We could be in some trouble here, boss."

Panther-In-The-Sky did not respond. A new face had entered his view, but this was no human face. Nor was it the face of an elf, troll, ork, or dwarf. This was the ancient, shining scaled, amber-eyed face of a dragon. Its long mouth opened wide, exposing a lengthy row of teeth, they were the yellow-white of aged ivory but their color turned to obsidian near the root. When the dragon spoke, its voice was as old and tired as mountains. Still, its quiet whisper-hiss carried more power and actual weight than a genetically modified baritone. "Hello, Panther-In-The-Sky," it said to the shaman.

"Well, it has been a long time," Panther-In-The-Sky sounded genuinely shocked, which almost never happened. "You are the one they call Drake? Did you come up with that name yourself?"

The dragon's face cracked and curled into what could just barely be called a smile, "Yes, I did! You know, even with a name like 'Drake' most of these fools have no idea they are working for a dragon. They think I'm some eccentric billionaire who never leaves his private fortress! How stupid these creatures are! Present company excluded of course." The dragon's amber eyes narrowed, "You are not stupid, Panther-In-The-Sky. That is why I let you have the money you took from Aneki, which was my money anyway. You are the only one I would let take anything from me."

The shaman smirked, "You owe me that and more, wyrm, and don't you forget it." Drake started to bluster at that, but Panther-In-The-Sky interrupted, "Just because you're older than me does not mean you can't be indebted to me. And you are. You are indebted to me. Who was it that was broken and bleeding all those years ago? And don't forget the begging, you were begging an awful lot then too. I saved you."

The dragon roared, "So you could take my secrets from me! You brought me back so you could have the knowledge of the dragons! Centuries of knowledge! I have paid you back a hundred times over! Never speak to me of debts, whelp! Never again!"

"Are you done?" The shaman was not impressed by the dragon's display of anger, he had seen it before. "Why did you contact me…Drake?" He said the name with derision.

The dragon immediately calmed himself. "You're going to do a job for me."

The shaman had to choke down a laugh, "Is that so? How do you figure that one?"

"I figure it like this, you already did me a favor by eliminating that dumb elf. Now, you're going to kill someone else for me."

Panther-In-The-Sky yawned; he was beginning to feel exhausted. It had been a long night. "You know what my rate is? Because any job I do for you is going to cost you that amount times ten. You good with those terms?"

The dragon positively snickered, it sounded like dead tree branches snapping under the weight of snow. "I will pay you 3 million nuyen for this. Consider it a gift for past services."

The shaman knew this sounded too good to be true, but he also knew that the dragon was usually straight when it came to money. Dragons usually were. And 3 million would be nothing for Drake. It would be everything to the shaman. "Who do you want iced?"

"In a few days, an unknown courier will be transporting a program for a small company named Matrix Systems. I want you to find out who this courier is, wait till he gets the program, and then burn him out. Leave him dead on the street." The dragon's head swayed back and forth with the movement a cobra makes at the sound of a flute. "When I found out it was you that stole from Aneki, I was thrilled. I had no idea you were in Seattle. You see, I need the best for this job, Panther-In-The-Sky. I need this courier iced, and I will give you 3 million for it, half-upfront. Just give me your account number and you will have the money in less than a minute."

Panther-In-The-Sky gave a tight smile. "I will do the job. Call me back in one hour and I'll have the account information ready."

The dragon was in the middle of saying farewell, but the shaman cut the link on the connection and Drake's image faded from view. He looked at the ork, who had been silently waiting for all hell to break loose. "Let's go, Buzz." The shaman walked toward the door, opened it and began to walk down the hallway.

The ork chased after Panther-In-The-Sky while he re-holstered his shotgun. "What was that call all about?"

"A job. Drake wants me to ice a courier."

The ork looked relieved, "That's all?" He fell into pace a step behind the shaman, "Who does he want dead?"

Panther-In-The-Sky stopped. Behind one of the grimy apartment doors a television blared an old war movie. Bursts of muted gunfire masked the sound of children crying and women screaming at their drugged out husbands. The shaman looked back at the ork, "He wants me to ice Jake Armitage."