August 28, 2058

Regina Deckers Safehouse

Outskirts of Regina, Algonkian-Manitou Council

~~~

"This better be good." complained OddOneIn, as he sweated with exertion walking towards a scruffy looking shack. "I gave up a hot date for this."

"A date with a SimSense chip?" teased Leon.

"No......an old VHS tape from the 90s. THATS the good stuff."

OddOneIn busted out laughing, either at his own joke or because of his mental quirks. Leon just shook his head sadly.

The quirky man known as OddOneIn looked like the most stereotypical, basement-dwelling cybergeek you could imagine. Overweight, bad skin, constantly sweaty even when not doing anything. But there was a lot of steel underneath that fat and quirkyness......at least when it came to the Matrix. OddOneIn was considered by many to be the best decker in the city, possibly even the whole Council. The dirty shack they were headed towards was one of many safehouses for the small local decking community in Regina, and OddOneIn was a leading voice for them, through all the chaos and the corporate raids.

Leon was paying a visit to the decker's inner circle today, to go through some files he had swiped from BarrierSafe yesterday. The file on a 2045 shadowrun against Robert Bear was encrypted, but Leon's computer skills weren't his strong suit, and he couldn't crack it. Hopefully OddOneIn could, and if he couldn't, then Leon would be short on options for who could. He had a few friends in Seattle, but hadn't kept much contact since his battles with Renraku last year.

OddOneIn made it to the shack, and grabbed a doorhandle on the dirt floor that you would only notice if you really, really looked for it. The earthen floor underneath revealed a trap door and a staircase below to an earthen hallway. OddOneIn led Leon into what had to be some old AmerIndian catacomb of some sort, and eventually they made it to an underground room.

In contrast to the catacombs, the secret base of the local deckers looked very modern. Drywalls were thrown up, and cyberterminals took up the full space along one wall. Two deckers were jacked in, with a vacant expression on their face as their Matrix personas went about their business. Three were sitting around a card table, abusing some kind of drug, and shot Leon a dirty look as he came in. Most of the decker community did not like Leon, either because they wanted his expensive hardware badly, or because they found out he had taken jobs from Aztechnology in the past. Corporate minions weren't exactly welcomed with open arms, given the anarchist leanings of most deckers.

But OddOneIn rarely said no to anything Leon wanted. OddOneIn was traced by a vicious Strike Team from the Mitsuhama corporation once, and had hired Leon to save his life. Leon did so free of charge, instead wanting something more valuable than nuyen: A useful local contact. He had gotten a loyal pal for life as a result, even if the loyal pal did some questionable and odd things sometimes.

Leon jacked into one cyberterminal, hooking up his shiny Fairlight Excalibur cyberdeck to it and accessing its memory for the files. Leon had gotten said cyberdeck (and most of the powerful programs on it) as a favour for saving the life of a man named Kipp David in Seattle. A high-profile corporate decker in the shadows, Kipp played both sides of the fence expertly until catching the bad side of a crooked Mr. Johnson and some of his hired runners. Leon saved him in a hail of bullets, and in exchange, he got the most powerful cyberdeck on the market as payment. It had more than enough memory to hold the best ice-busting programs, and also any confidential files, paydata, and important memos an enterprising shadowrunner could care to download from corporate datastores.

Leon could hear a few of the deckers behind them clicking their tongues in envy at Leon's cyberdeck, and even OddOneIn leaned over for a closer look. Most of the deckers here had to make do with second-rate decks and innate talent, and that gave them another reason to resent Leon: He was less talented than them, and held hardware that he "didn't deserve" to have. Of course, Leon had worked for his hardware, and had other skills, like being able to do pushups, run a mile, quickdraw a gun without blowing his foot off......

Leon opened up the first files, which had back-and-forth memos between David Longmiles and various security companies in the area. BarrierSafe was included more out of courtesy than anything else, but a wide net was cast in order for Longmiles to find information on reporters. Leon recognized a couple reporters names as people who had written hit pieces against Long Arms police officers, and their inability to police the smaller towns. Smaller towns had to rely on themselves or nearby shamanic societies for any sort of firepower in case of an attack, and of course the hit piece pointed out the recent problems in Humboldt, and asked why there wasn't a police response.

Longmiles, of course, would go to the press and insist that Long Arms police presence was needed for eco-terrorist threats and keeping big cities and Aztechnology property safe. Aztechnology was ready to combat the reporting with some vicious tactics of their own, and had sent Longmiles some (likely falsified) info of one reporter being a former eco-terrorist.

"Wow, Longmiles resorting to blackmail." said OddOneIn, before another burst of random laughter. "So much for that squeaky clean reputation."

"He doesn't see it that way." said Leon. "Longmiles probably thinks this reporter is a crook of some sort, and is asking his corporate buddies for proof."

"Maybe he should start looking for crooks with the people hes talking to."

"He does, sometimes. Just not with Aztechnology. David's convinced they're our saviors for fixing those wheat crop plagues we had last decade. David's clean. He's an idiot...... but a clean idiot."

"......You would say that." A decker behind him mumbled under his breath.

Leon turned to address the man. "Look, Long Arms is a crooked corp, okay? No one can deny that. But David himself is clean. He's not a superman who can watch over every jackleg constable with a cattle prod and a gun, so he hires some crooks on accident. But David himself is all about law and order. That's what makes him dangerous, he believes his own hype."

"So why isn't he helping the small towns?"

"For the same reasons he says to the press. He thinks the Manitou are the real problems, and shadowrunners like me are the problems. He thinks theres a conspiracy where shadowrunners are causing every problem the Council's ever had, and that no shadowruns for good ever happen. He thinks the eco-terrorists are wrapped up in the conspiracy, and just do it to spite Aztechnology, who have done all these great things for society. Again, thats what makes him dangerous. He BELIEVES his own hype, instead of spewing out public press releases then doing the opposite thing behind closed doors."

OddOneIn burst out laughing to relieve the tension, although Leon was sure this was due to his mental quirk, and not finding this actually funny. It was hard to tell though sometimes. OddOneIn's sense of humour could be pretty basic and even a little macabre sometimes.

"Well, this is good stuff to know, I'll pay you 750 for it."

"You're a fixer now?" Leon said, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm not selling this info later, I'm just paying you for the trouble. This media war stuff is great, you can make a lot of nuyen playing both sides against the middle. Everyone here has easy ice to crack, except Aztechnology. We'll get some good business from this."

Leon knew that part of the game all too well. Shadowrunners could make money off of any kind of dispute by playing off both sides, if they were good at it. Fast talking could be as useful as fast hands sometimes in this line of work......

"Whats the other file besides the big one? Something about a new cop coming in?"

"Nothing for you to worry about." said Leon smugly. "David brought in a Sioux vigilante for me, hatchet man who goes by Travis Bull. He'll be getting a nice surprise when he lands at the Saskatoon airport."

"You sure you don't want me to reroute the autopilot up to the Arctic or something? Or crash his plane?"

"I've got it covered."

OddOneIn had the sense to leave it at that. When Leon Eagles said something was covered, it was COVERED.

"Alright, let's break down this big one. Unplug from your Fairlight and let me jack in for a sec......"

OddOneIn plugged his datajack into the Fairlight Excalibur, and went into a familiar trance, going into the Matrix itself to analyze the file and decrypt it. A moment later, he broke from his trance and went back into the real world, shaking off the vertigo.

"That was child's play. You're not gonna get a lot from this file though......"

Leon looked at the screen of the cyberterminal, and saw the file's contents. The first header he saw was the familiar gold-coloured oval logo with a vague hill in the middle. This same logo was on the jacket of the young man who blew up his father. Below, the text read......

"The group behind the assassination attempt [DATA CORRUPTED] Robert Bear is known as the Gold Mountain Boys, a branch of [DATA CORRUPTED], an anti-metahuman terrorist group established [DATA CORRUPTED] after the events [DATA CORRUPTED]. The Gold [DATA CORRUPTED], and also handle missions related [DATA CORRUPTED] in AmerIndian countries.

The Gold Mountain Boys are led by [DATA CORRUPTED], believed to be one of the men responsible [DATA CORRUPTED]. It is not known why his loyalties changed, [DATA CORRUPTED]. His real identity and name are unknown."

The rest of the file was a slew of [DATA CORRUPTED] marks.

"Damn, this thing is chopped up worse than soyburger!" Leon exclaimed. "You sure you didn't screw this up, Odd One?"

"That happens all the time." said OddOneIn, shrugging. "Some high-heat files like this get hit with virus attacks before they get seen by anyone. Shadowland is full of conspiracy theories with all the good stuff hidden behind a data corrupted, and then everyone plays guessing games on what it means."

"Well then......put out the word, I'll pay top nuyen for any info about a group named the Gold Mountain Boys, and any info on who they work for."

"If I see any, I'll get it to you."

OddOneIn got his credstick scrambler while howling with laughter again. Leon got paid off for the info he provided, and left the decker hideout.

For the first time in thirteen years, his enemy had a name. Now if it just had a face......