June 10, 2058

Wascana Park

Regina, Algonkian-Manitou Council

~~~

Leon, Sylvia, and Brandon walked down a gravel path in Wascana Park. Today was a considerably more beautiful day than yesterday, with temperatures approaching 20 degrees Celsius and the clouds breaking. Many people were out and about, so this presented a problem. The kind of business being discussed in this park today was not fit for public consumption.

Bradley was leaning against a tree, talking to someone through a radio implant, and he motioned the trio over.

Leon knew exactly two trustworthy Mr. Johnsons in Regina. Bradley was the first one, and he was small time, handling mostly courier and bodyguard runs, with the occasional ghoul bounty hunt wheedled from a local politician. There was a Johnson or two like him in every city, offering similar low-level jobs for runners to cut their teeth on. Bradley was a mixed breed in his 50s who looked 20 years older, and many people mocked him as a silver-haired old man past his prime. Not Leon though. While most people with Leon's talent would look down on the low-level street Johnsons, Leon theorized that in this line of work, you'd often meet the same people on the way up that you would on the way down. Best to maintain good relations, in case you end up going downwards......

There had to be quite a story behind this run though. Bradley had never offered wetwork, anyone in Regina actually wanting a guy dead that badly would go to shadier Mr. Johnsons (or the other trustworthy one, a local act named Donovan Reed).

"Leon! Good to see you well! Let's find a quiet place to talk, park's looking busy today."

The group headed deeper into the park to find a quiet spot, eventually coming across a little-used rest area. Leon noticed Bradley's ancient legbreaker, an ork named Boar Jaw, leaning against a entrance to a small concrete washroom. There was a wooden picnic table near the washroom, where a man in an expensive suit sat facing away from the group. The suit turned around to reveal a young Asian man with sharp eyes behind some high-tech designer glasses.

What on Earth was this?

"Alright Leon." said Bradley, sounding a little more nervous now. "Here's the man whos requesting this piece of business today. He's Kenta Kawasaki, a local supervisor for Yokogawa."

Leon looked at Bradley incredulously.

"Good grief Bradley, is this your idea of a setup!?"

"I'm not setting you up for anything other than a lucrative contract Leon. Honest. I swear it on the spirits."

"I might send you to them at this rate Bradley! What the HELL are you doing!?"

"Gentlemen, if I may." piped up Kenta from the back. "There is no need for this kind of threatening discussion. We are all reasonable men, and I'm gathering you here so we can reason together and figure out a good way to do an important job. Leon-san, please have a seat, it will cost you nothing and will prove to be highly beneficial to you."

Leon wanted to shoot Bradley and Kenta dead on general principles. Bradley knew damn well that Leon was a vigourously pro-metahuman supporter, and most Japanese corps tended to be anti-metahuman, as a result of backwards social policy from the older, more tradition-minded Japanese. They had eased up somewhat over the years, but tensions were still high, and you still heard reports of police massacres or mass deportations from across the Pacific.

However....... his instincts told him this would be worth a listen. For now. There'd be time for violence later if needed, and Bradley probably needed the money bad from his cut on this job. So Leon sat and humoured them.

"I have a contract I would like you to fulfill. A man in our company has betrayed us. We need him to be among the dearly departed."

Kenta handed over a holopix of a typical Asian Company Man who looked beaten down by life. Five day beard, dishevelled shirt and tie, messy uncombed hair, you name it, he had it.

"This man was one of my underlings, Koki Ishimura. We've done some research, and found out that he sabotaged a recent shadowrun we approved against Aztechnology."

Leon thought he knew the run. "Let me guess, he suggested hiring Lex Overstreet for it?"

"......He did not."

"Then the run was sabotaged to begin with and he couldn't have hurt it. Lex could screw up a cup of soykaf!"

Kenta sighed.

"The run had a chance of success regardless of who was doing it, Leon-san. We had a cover story in place for their presence, and an insider in the local office disabled the security cameras. All we needed was for the runners to set up explosives in a vital area and leave the premises. Instead, Ishimura tipped off several higher-ups in Aztechnology's local security force to the run. He then coerced a member of one of our Strike Teams to act as a "Mr. Johnson", and hired his own group of shadowrunners. As far as we can tell, their task was to cover possible escape routes, in case Overstreet decided on a tactical retreat. One of them seemed to have killed Mitch Moonlake-san."

Lex Overstreet and the rat-looking coward he ran with were two of the most worthless shadowrunners to ever strap on a gun, but Mitch Moonlake didn't deserve to get back-shot by a fellow runner. The game wasn't supposed to be played like that. But of the dozen or so shadowrunners in Regina, there were probably a few sociopaths who saw this as culling the competition. Leon had been offered contracts on shadowrunners in Seattle, multiple times, and only took them if the runner in question really, REALLY deserved it.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"You know I steer clear of Aztechnology though, right? I'm not geeking one of their men."

"He is not "their man". We have sources inside Aztechnology, and people of importance are currently debating on whether or not they should send a Strike Team to take care of Ishimura. They lost six members of their security force to the events of the run, and seemed displeased about it."

Aztechnology had certainly killed for a lot less. Leon ran their Boston office once with a team. Only one little package was taken from a company safe, only three guards were wounded, and Leon doubted that more than one of them died, if any. Everyone on that team except for Leon was now dead or disappeared. Leon survived because he got facial surgery, changed his name, and eased quietly down to Miami right after getting paid. Supposedly Aztechnology had corporate mages skilled in blood magic and other unpleasantness that was practised on shadowrunners dumb enough to hit them, no matter where they hid. Leon had gotten away clean, but he was one of the lucky ones.

But these days, Leon and Aztechnology were neutral. He didn't hit the corp, because they were the undisputed number-one influential group of any kind in the Council. Aztechnology had likely given him a few jobs indirectly, as they were rumoured to have ties to Donovan Reed. Both Leon and Aztechnology were also close to the three Chiefs that governed the Council lands, so it was an arrangement that probably worked out well for everyone. If this run wouldn't step on Aztechnology toes......

"Why can't you just send your own Strike Team to his house and do the hit that way?"

"As I mentioned before, Ishimura had a Strike Team member acting as a Mr. Johnson. For all I know, my own trusted Strike Team members may have been colluding with Ishimura as well. Besides, for sensitive jobs like these, we have a tendency to keep things subtle and......off the books."

Which was typical for a corp. Shadowrunners were the vital 3rd party that did things indirectly, and Leon was well aware of his pawn status in the game.

"So this is all fine and dandy, but what makes you think I should do a job for anti-metahuman racist drek-heads like you? Why should I help you?"

Kenta sighed. "We do not have discriminatory policies against metahumans, unlike some of our Japanese rivals. We aim to be inclusive, in order to get the best talent possible to pursue our long-term goals."

"Skip the PR speech. I bet the old suits running your company probably laughed out loud when they saw the Night of Rage on their trid, or when they saw metahumans being shipped to the Phillippines to die like flies. You've done your homework on me, you know I have a beautiful elf that I love. You'd kill her for your corporate principles. Why should I help you?"

"......We do not hate metahumans as much as you think we do, and we are not asking you to eliminate one. You don't even have to work with us beyond this mission. But the truth of the situation is, a man of your talents is the only one capable of handling this job. No other runner in this city, maybe even this Council would willingly take this job and have a chance at success."

Which was true. There were a couple competent runners in Regina, a few more in Calgary and Saskatoon, and a lot more in Thunder Bay (although they had no reason to leave a lucrative smuggling port like that). Leon was your best bet in the Council for a contract killing that wouldn't go immediately south.

"......For what its worth, when we were debating whether to fill a security position with an elf or an ork last year, Ishimura's response was, and I quote: "Frag them both, let the afterlife sort them out". Unfortunately his disagreements with this and other corporate policies may have contributed to his betrayal of us."

Leon badly wanted to believe that Kenta was lying to him, that he was some charismatic face manipulating him with phermones or something. But he didn't sense it, and Leon had dealt with a couple tricky faces in his time trying to scam him. Leon did contract killings under two conditions: If the pay was good, and if the target really had it coming. By hiring shadowrunners to turn on each other and being a racist jack-off, that was enough for Leon to ice Ishimura, and he didn't like having his buttons pushed like this.

But why would Kenta do the job this way? Would it not make sense to get a Yokogawa metahuman and have them pose as the client needing Ishimura killed? Why risk provoking Leon like this?

Then Leon realized there were two reasons. The first was that Kenta was probably telling the truth, and if he was, then Kenta really couldn't turn to anyone else for a gig. The second was that Leon, in his own way, was as intimidating to corps as the corps were to Leon. Yokogawa could not afford to make him an enemy. Oh sure, a good Strike Team could probably kill him, but they'd lose men doing it. Sylvia and Brandon would then try to avenge his death, necessitating another couple teams to take them out (and with Sylvia's high-level Invisibility spells, she could wage potential guerrilla warfare on Yokogawa for some time).

On top of that, there was also the fact that Brandon had the last name Rivers. He was estranged from his parents and most of the Rivers clan, but still carried the last name, and his death would meet with a swift response. The Rivers family practised some heavy-duty magic, had some quality marksmen, and were very, very dangerous if pushed. One story almost everyone in the Council had whispered about was when a rapist had practised his trade on one of Brandon's teenage cousins. Brandon's father and some other branches of the family tree tracked him down south to the Ute Nation, forcibly brought him back to Council lands, removed both hands and his manhood with a hot knife, broke him mentally with repeated Confusion, Overstimulation, and Agonizing Pain spells, and then eventually burned what was left of him alive, as part of an old tribal spirit ritual to ward off evil.

Yokogawa wasn't a big-time corp (yet), and they weren't an infamous company that was grudges-over-business like Renraku. They wouldn't bother with a standing kill order on someone as skilled and well-connected as Leon. Instead, Kenta was trying to butter Leon up as an ally, and trying to work in goodwill with him.

And besides, if Kenta was actually buttering him up to frame him for the job later and deny involvement, that's a thing that dozens of Johnsons and dozens of shadowrunners across North America could do to Leon under extreme duress. It came with the job description.

"Has he got a wife and kids?" Leon said, reaching for any sort of straw he could grasp to talk himself out of the job.

"He has a wife, but no kids. Ishimura was rendered sterile by an accident in Europe several years ago. If it makes it easier, Leon-san, I will arrange for Ishimura's wife to be out of town when you do the job."

Leon sighed.

"Alright, heres the deal Kenta, or whatever your name is...... I've got a job offer from another Mr. Johnson to drive a man down to Thunder Bay tomorrow, and I'm going to take it....... IF, and WHEN I get back from that job, I will take the run. I'm not gonna take less than 40,000 nuyen to hit this guy though, and I'll want 20,000 up front. Plus a report on his security, his house layout, any habits of note that can be exploited, anything that might be relevant."

"I will consult with my bosses over the payment, and I will have the report ready for you whenever you want it."

The two haggled over some remaining details, shook hands (with great reluctance on Leon's part), and went their separate ways to leave the park.

Against all odds, the hit was on.