Shadowrun: Spells & Chrome Read Free

from my sister,” The hiss of his voice blended almost completely with the steam rising from the AR rocks.
    “Oh, you’re not related. She’s only your sister in the sense that all nuns go to hell. So you’re colleagues, nothing more.”
    “You should stay away from her,” Agares repeated.
    “And if I don’t?”
    Fire burned deep behind Agares’ eyes, and his lips curled in a tight smile. He stood slowly, then took a step to his left. He was no longer riding his crocodile.
    The demon said only one word. “Execute.”
    The crocodile moved forward.

    •••

    “Look, I know it doesn’t have teeth, but when it bites you it hurts! It fucking hurts, okay?”
    Vitriol knew he was speaking louder than he should, so he shut up. He sat against the wall next to the roof door and huddled against the cold wind.
    He could tell Harpy was still curious, but also that she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of asking him anything more about it. But they had been on the roof for an hour already, there was no telling how much longer they’d have to be up there, and something had to pass the time.
    “So how does it hurt?” Harpy finally asked.
    Vitriol knew exactly what she was talking about, but it might be a long night and he needed to take his fun where he could get it.
    “How does what hurt?”
    “How does a goddamn crocodile hurt, you asshole? You know, the thing you were just talking about?”
    “Ah, right, the crocodile,” Vitriol said, lightly slapping his knee. “Well, here’s the thing. It’s a program, right? Software. So it can interact with anything wired into the Matrix. You take your average Hiroki, someone without anything hardwired into their brain, maybe without any implants at all, and it’s not going to hurt them much. No access points. But someone like me, I got all sorts of points of entry for it. So when it bites, it’s trying to short out anything electronic in me. It didn’t permanently fry anything, but it gave me a weird sort of sharp tingling in my brain and throat, like someone was trying to dig a dozen slivers out of the middle of my head with a dozen needles.”
    “That’s still not as bad as an actual crocodile bite,” Harpy said.
    “Yeah. But it ain’t good.”
    They were quiet again, and Vitriol watched the Manhattan city lights calmly blink and flicker in front of him. It was soothing, which was all wrong, so Vitriol looked at Harpy instead. Her round face, her folded arms, and her eternally arched eyebrow were enough to keep him irritated and on edge.
    “Don’t you want to know how I finally got away?” he said.
    “Not really.”
    “Oh come on! It was a virtual crocodile trying to fry my neurons! That’s kind of cool, right?”
    “I guess.”
    “And obviously I got away from it, or I wouldn’t be here. So how did I do it?”
    “I don’t know,” Harpy said. “Some sort of hacker crap. You got out your program and it fought the demon guy’s program and yours either won or it distracted this crocodile thing long enough for you to get away. Who gives a shit?”
    “It’s more complicated than that!” Vitriol said. “It’s not like you just launch a program and sit back and wait for it to do its thing! There’s all sorts of adjustments you need to make on the fly, moves and counter-moves, it’s like swordfighting!”
    “It’s like playing video games—just a bunch of button-pushing.”
    “Yeah, but really cool button pushing!”
    “Shut up,” Harpy said.
    “No, hold on, let me explain—“
    “Shut up. ” Harpy grabbed her dark sunglasses and threw them on, watching the images that appeared on the insides of the lenses. “They’re here,” she said. “You’re on.”
    The dark rooftop in front of Vitriol faded as he focused on the image inside his head, a feed from a security camera in the building below. Lochinvar was in the lobby, dressed in his usual black with clips and creases in all the right places. Next to him was the pigeon, a man