July 11, 2058

South Plains Security Consulting Compound

Regina, Algonkian-Manitou Council

~~~

Leon, Sylvia, and Brandon had all returned from their "vacations" without any incident, and settled back into the familiar shadows of Regina to continue their work.

Leon had forgiven Bradley for his earlier transgressions, and had taken half a dozen courier and bodyguard runs that went off without incident, as well as two jobs for Donovan Reed delivering packages from Regina to smaller cities. South Plains was making enough to cover expenses, and had plenty of money left over from the Koki Ishimura hit. Leon had sold Koki's goods to a trustworthy fixer now that the heat had died down, and with Leon in possession of all the armor and guns on his checklist, he could start saving money if he wanted, something that was rare for shadowrunners to ever be able to do.

Other than that, there was barely any real action for anyone in the city. Leon had gotten so bored just just courier and bodyguard work that he improvised a war game around his compound. Leon fought Sylvia and Brandon 1-vs-2 in gunfights with non-lethal gel rounds, and won more than his share of encounters. It was all in good fun though, and helped build live-fire skills.

However, a slow week for action was about to come to an end.

Leon was sitting down for a nice breakfast, with a cup of piping hot soykaf at his table and a bowl of Stonewheat porridge to go with it. Leon was dumping a possibly illegal amount of maple syrup into his breakfast when his cell phone rang.

"South Plains Security Consulting, how may I help you?"

"Leon, it's Laura Hawksford. We've got a run and its urgent."

Laura Hawksford was the Ceremonial Chief of the AMC, one of the three Chiefs running the council lands. Chief Hawksford was the one who contacted Leon the most of the three Chiefs, and she wasn't known for making social calls. This was something big.

"How urgent?"

"Clear your calendar for today kid, we're taking a transport copter to Regina. Meet us in the Seales Room in an hour."

The Seales Room was in Regina's Legislative Building, where the local politicians worked. It was meant to be a private meeting place in the legislature where important and often illegal business could be discussed. The military guarded it during meetings, and searched it and its users regularly for recording devices. Leon had been there several times to take shadowruns from the Chiefs, and a couple of the plans he carried out had re-shaped Council history. This was gonna be a big-league job.

"Alright, I'll get the team prepared right away."

"Good. See you then."

Chief Hawksford hung up, and Leon put his cell phone down, exhaling with a mixture of nervousness and excitement.

"We got a government run fellas. Finish eating then get everything packed."

Leon wolfed down his breakfast, readying himself mentally for what was to come......

~~~

Exactly 59 minutes later, Leon was getting the business from a pair of army boys in the Legislative Building. An ork patted him down for weapons, while a dwarf ran an electronic device over him that was meant to detect microphones. A thorough search revealed nothing, so they reluctantly let him through.

Leon was unarmed and defenceless. He could hypothetically conceal one of those new-fangled ceramic guns on him somewhere and beat this search, but he didn't need to, at least not yet. So far, all three chiefs were his allies, let him conduct his business in exchange for doing them favours like this, and weren't the type of people to set him up for something. Why bother?

As Leon opened the door though, the thought of being setup for death did cross his mind. Leon expected three Chiefs, and in the room were three Chiefs plus one undesirable.

At the head of the table was the Civil Chief, Robert Bear. He looked the part of both a chief and a bear, a tall, wide, strong man in his mid-fifties, clad in a ceremonial feather headdress and buckskin clothes. Robert Bear was in charge of overseeing the civil services of the Council, and had done a fair job, considering the position of Civil Chief was hereditary. Civil Chief was tied to the Bear clan, due to their outstanding service performed in getting the Native American Nations up and running to begin with. Robert could slack off and do things halfway, but he did a decent job leading his people and keeping quality of life at reasonable levels for the AMC population. Besides his size and political maneuvering though, he was a deadly man when pushed. His muscles weren't for show, and he was a powerful Bear Shaman, with some good attacking spells at his disposal.

There was deep history between Leon and Robert. In his past life before becoming Leon Eagles, even before becoming Wild Fire, Leon's father worked as Robert Bear's bodyguard. In 2045, a would-be assassin ran up to Robert Bear, carrying a live grenade with the intent to cause a suicide bombing. Leon's father, without thinking twice about it, tackled the intruder and was blown to pieces alongside him, saving Robert's life at the cost of his own. Robert Bear had protected Leon ever since whenever he was in the Council, trying not to let the life of his saviour's son go to waste. The two were good friends, or as good friends as a politician and a shadowrunner could be.

To the right of Robert Bear was the second Chief, War Chief Carl Hillborn. Carl was a Cree tribesman in his forties, but looked older, with a face riddled with minor scars. Carl was elected by the military to oversee it and other heavy combat-related matters, and was very competent at his job, despite occasional resource and manpower limitations. He had been on a season of a war games show called Desert Wars, a trideo program that saw squads of mercenaries fight each other in combat with gel rounds, usually in ruined villages in the nuclear wastelands of Syria and Libya. This wasn't a scripted or fancied-up show though: it featured people from militaries, corporate Strike Teams, government assassins, and mercenary companies going at each other for real, gel rounds aside. Just being on the show was a signal that you were good with a gun and not to be messed with, and that was Carl to a tee. He had a lot of high-grade cyberware installed in him to maximize performance (particularly some cutting edge chrome flesh, with good stopping power against even high quality rounds), and used guns like he was born to hold them. Anyone crazy enough to brace Carl Hillborn would probably end up in a shallow grave. Sometimes in several pieces.

The Ceremonial Chief, Laura Hawksford, was off to the left. A beautiful Algonkian woman in her mid-forties, Laura Hawksford was the only Chief elected by the people, and was currently serving her third term, with slim chances of losing an election any time soon. She looked regal in her traditional dress, and wore a headband with seven different gaudy feathers that accentuated her hair well. Her beauty, sweet demeanour and innate charisma made her an excellent politician, and when she talked, everyone listened.

However, there was a lot of steel hiding underneath the silk. Laura was a Shaman who worshipped the Snake totem, and her illusion magic was exceptional, some of it possibly better than Sylvia's. Leon felt she would probably be the toughest of the three to bring down in a fight, but luckily there would be no need for that. Laura understood the shadowrunning world perfectly well, and had nothing but respect for Leon, after he saved the town of Humboldt from a troublesome vampire attack when no one else would.

While Leon had cordial relationships with all three tribal Chiefs, the fourth person in the room did not respect Leon one bit, as David Longmiles, police chief and CEO of Long Arms Security, had shown up today. The intense-looking Longmiles was giving Leon a glare that could boil iron. Leon coolly returned a smile right back at him, before taking a seat.

"Chief Bear......Chief Hillborn......Chief Hawksford......Mr. Longmiles......it's good to see you all well. What am I doing for you today?"