‘Where the Frag is she!’.

Kenda Yellowhorse practically exploded out of the pickup, barrelling towards Wilde as she saw him, her own automatic pistol in hand. As she rapidly approached and got uncomfortably close, he had to crane his neck back to properly look her in the face. At somewhere just below nine foot tall she was of average hight for a troll and very muscular as well, along with being of clear native American heritage, if a little pale perhaps. Her dark shoulder length hair was soaking wet, as was her skin, but Wilde couldn’t be bothered to wonder why. The matte black orbs that she had for eyes were obviously cybernetic and gave an added degree of menace to her appearance. Her normally neutral face was twisted in a grimace of frustration and fear, very much how Wilde imagined he had looked when he first arrived on the site. With all of that and her polished, sharpened horns curved like a rams, in typical circumstances he figured Kenda would have seemed threatening to most people. Pedro didn’t care though; Kenda was his best bet at finding Kay, he could deal with an angry cybered up troll for that.

‘I don’t know! That’s why I called you! She messaged me and sent me here! I found… some of her stuff inside…’.

‘Show Me!’.

As she brushed past him Kenda almost knocked Wilde down, and in the process, he smelt a whiff of lavender cut through the acidic stink of the barrens. He idly realised that she’d probably just come out the shower when he called her. He kept on his feet though and pushed past Kenda to show her the small room that housed the ruined items that had once been Kay’s.

With a heavy THUD Kenda fell to her knees next to Kay’s ruined boots and commlink, and with a gentle, almost reverent touch she lifted one of the boots to examine it.

‘She loves these boots. Damn near never takes ‘em off. Loves the dumb AR footprints they leave behind’.

Pedro vaguely registered what Kenda was muttering as he thought back to watching Kay walking down the bustling streets of Touristville, revelling in the various augmented reality effects she could add to her boots and footsteps thanks to the circuitry laced through them. She would create footprints of multicoloured fire, swirling torrents of petals around her legs, make it look like there were small woodland animals scurrying along next to her. To anyone that could see in AR at least, which was not many in the barrens. Pedro did have a pair of goggles for such things, but he always got a bit of vertigo when he used AR so rarely did so. Being able to share in Kay’s enjoyment was an exception.

‘DAMN IT!’.

She threw the damaged boot the ground and jumped to her feet, turning around to look Wilde in in the eye, leaning down to do so.

‘How the hell did someone grab her! Where were y’! Y’ shoulda stopped them! Y’ know what’ll happen if she gets sent back t’ the megacorp!’.

Genuine anger erupted from Wilde as he listened to Kenda’s accusations, words that he’d been thinking but hadn’t voiced.

‘Hey! I got here as soon as I could!’.

‘Not fast enough though!’.

‘At least she bothered to call me!’.

‘For all the good it did her!’.

There was a palpable heat in the room and Wilde was very aware they were both armed. Rage radiated off them both and the distant sounds of gunshots and wind howling through abandoned streets felt muted. Wilde had never like Kenda, and he was sure that she felt the same about him. The reason for which was also the main reason he knew she was the only person in the city next to him who’d move heaven and hell for Kay.

Kenda loved Kay.

He’d seen the signs the few times they’d all hung out. The way she hung on her every word, how she always looked brighter when Kay paid her attention, the little glances to her when she thought no one was looking. Kay had always been upfront about being bisexual and Pedro figured that Kenda was hoping for something to go wrong with their relationship so she could swoop in and finally be with Kay. In all honesty had their positions been reversed he would have done the same.

Because of that they had started to clash shortly after Kay introduced them to each other. But both knew that it upset Kay that they didn’t get along, so they had always tried to avoid each other for her sake. That wasn’t an option now though. Taking a deep breath of air tasting of smog Pedro swallowed down his pride and anger, looking up at Kenda in her cybernetic eyes.

‘This… this isn’t getting Kay back. I called you because I need help finding her. You want to blame me? Blame me. I don’t care. All I care about is getting her back. Now are you going to help, or just keep wasting time that she doesn’t have?’.

Kenda stared him down, burning hate turning to a cool distain. She turned around and examined the room and its surroundings.

‘Was it like this when y’ got here?’.

‘Yeah. Well except for those holes in the wall over there’ He gestured to where he had taken out his frustrations earlier. ‘That was me’.

The towering troll walked around some more before quickly moving out to the desolate street, looking at the ruined husk of a building from the outside. Wilde was close on her heels and noticed that she was paying special attention to the crumbling road and one of the larger holes in the side of the building that opened like a gaping wound. She then knelt to the ancient asphalt and rubbed it with her hand, examining the residue on her hand.

Wilde kept his frustrations in check. He had no idea what Kenda was doing but wanted her to do it faster. He wanted to be speeding down the street to where Kay was, gun in hand and target in sight. But more than that he wanted to know where Kay was, and for that he needed to trust in Kenda, difficult as that was.

Rising to her feet Kenda turned to Wilde while rubbing her chin.

‘How long ago d’you say you get her call?’.

He checked his commlink. ‘about half an hour ago’.

She glowered at him in response and Pedro imagined she was preparing to yell about how long it had taken him to contact her. Any such opinions she kept to herself though, instead looking down one side of the wasteland of a street where the sounds of what was either gunfire or fireworks was slowly getting closer. Being Redmond there was a good chance it might have been both, but neither were helpful for them.

‘She give y’ the rundown on who was after her? Anythin’?’

‘Not much, she said they looked like gangers driving cars. Were in blue, bright blue and had a thing for snakes or eastern style dragons, it was on their rides and jackets. She didn’t see much; she’d just hid to call me when it sounded like they were getting close. She said they had a mage hood with them’.

A blank look was her response.

‘It’s a thing cops or anyone else looking to hold a magically active person uses. It’s a bag that locks over your head, prevents you from seeing anything or speaking. It has these little flashing lights and speakers on the inside that scream and flash at you so you can’t concentrate on anything. Basically, it’s to stop you from casting any spells or summoning anything. Some Lonestar rent-a-cops threw one on me a few years back when they were pulling people in for some dreck, wasn’t a nice experience’.

‘Them pullin’ y’ in or the hood?’.

‘Both’.

‘Hmm… So, it doesn’t sound like it was a corp team that grabbed her, but that mage hood doesn’t sound like somethin’ most gangs’d just have on them’.

‘No, my nuyens on MCT putting a bounty out on Kay and these guys just happened to be the ones who found her, or they subcontracted the kidnapping to the gang directly’.

‘Hm, maybe. Did Kay say anything else?’.

‘No. her com cut out just after she told me about the mage hood. Said they’d spotted her. By the time I got here all I could find were her boots and commlink. And a faint trace of her astral signature’.

He got another blank look from Kenda.

‘Magic fingerprint. She was definitely here. And she was frightened’.

‘Could y’ do some magic dreck an’ use that t’… see where she is?’.

‘No, it doesn’t work like that. I summoned a spirit to look for her based off it, but Redmond’s a big place, it’ll take too long to search even for a spirit. If she hasn’t been taken to some other part of Seattle by now’.

‘There goes that idea… When the call cut out, did it seem like it was her that did it or did somethin’ else happen?’.

‘What do you mean?’.

‘Like could her commlink have been hack, bricked or shot?’.

‘I… I don’t know. It didn’t seem like she’d meant to cut it off there, but she was panicking, she could’ve done it by mistake. I don’t know, I’m not good with techy stuff like that. How about you? Did you find out anything looking about the place? Any clues?’.

Kenda shook her head and pointed to the ruined road before them.

‘I can make out the tire marks from a couple of cars like y’ said, y’ can see where they skidded to stop. An’ that hole there looks like where they smashed int’ the building. Y’ can make out some blue paint scratches on the sides of it. Judgin’ from the look of things I’d say the cars were both pretty well armoured, probably a custom job. But I don’t know anythin’ about gangs or how y’d go ‘bout gettin’ somethin’ like that’.

‘Can you tell where they headed after grabbing Kay?’.

‘They went down this road, but – ‘, Kenda kicked the road in question, bringing up a spray of rotten, disintegrating asphalt. ‘the damn roads so old that half of it crumbles away t’ nothin’ when somethin’ drives over it. An’ too many’ve driven by here for me t’ get a clear trail, I can’t work out where these ganger dreck-heads went’.

Stolen story; please report.

‘Alright. Do you have any contacts in the city that could help us? Anyone who knows about gangs or could check into bounties that’ve been posted? Someone who could hack some drone or camera footage to let us find the kidnappers?’.

‘I don’t know anybody in the city OK! I’ve only been here for a few months the only person I know whose sorta trustworthy is Chuck. He runs a chop shop an’ junkyard about half a mile away from Touristville, rents out a dinky trailer for me an’ gives me odd jobs sometimes. He keeps his distance from the gangs an’ organised crime for the most part. Tends t’ deal with people he trusts or’ve been given the ok by somebody he trusts’.

‘Would he know anything about the gang’s cars? You said they were probably custom’.

‘Maybe. But if I want to ask him, I’ll need to do it in person. He doesn’t have a commlink’.

Pedro gave an incredulous look to the troll.

‘I know I know. I think he had a bad experience in the last Matrix crash, doesn’t trust commlinks an’ never directly interfaces with the Matrix. Only way t’ talk t’ him is in person. Which it’s soundin’ like we’re gonna need to do. Unless you’ve a better idea’.

He fiddled with the ring on his finger. He did have an idea, one that could potentially be much quicker in giving them Kay’s location, but it’d come at a cost he’d already rejected once before, and he would need to be diplomatic about it now. Pedro closed his eyes for a moment and envisioned Kay the last time they’d been together. A bright burning star of a person, who looked out into the pollution-stained wreck of a city and saw freedom from a life of drudgery build off the crushed lives of the masses. He thought of the faint astral signature he felt in the ruined building, how scared and distraught she was as she was captured.

‘I might have another option. Can you show me on your commlinks map where this Chucks place is?’.

He looked at her digital map and worked out the route they’d need to go. It looked like they’d be able to head to her place first, then if it didn’t work out, they could go see if this Chuck could offer them any information.

‘Ok, so we need to head here first-’, after an awkward couple of seconds he was finally able to ping the location on Kenda’s commlinks map. ‘to see someone I know. She might be able to help or put us in contact with someone who can. Let’s go’.

‘Wait, who’s this person? How’s she helpin?’.

‘I’ll explain on the way. Come on, we’re wasting time!’.

‘Ugh, fine. But throw y’r bike in the back of the truck. No point in splittin’ up or gettin’ separated if we don’t need t’.

‘Ok, but let’s be quick!’.

Wheeling his ride to the back of the pickup, Wilde looked for some ramp or something that he could use to roll his vehicle into Kenda’s but couldn’t find anything.

‘Hey. Do you have a ramp or something that folds out the back here?’.

With a smirk the giant of a woman walked up to him and lifted his four-hundred-pound motorcycle up and into the back of the pickup with little more than a grunt of effort.

‘You want me to tie it down for you too?’. She said in a sarcastic tone.

‘I’m good, thanks’.

He replied in an equally facetious tone as he hopped up into the flatbed and hurriedly tied his scarlet motorcycle down with some old, but still serviceable rope that was lying there. Wilde glanced up at the sky when he got out of the back and made his way to get into the passengers’ door. The uncharacteristically blue skies over Seattle were quickly changing back to more typical weather; large looming clouds of jaundiced yellow were gathering at the horizon and would probably be overhead in a few hours. He hoped he’d be next to Kay before then.

As soon as Wilde sat himself in the truck Kenda speed off, not waiting for him to so much as shut the door, let alone put on a seatbelt. Everything in the truck from the seats to the controls were all sized for a troll to operate, making riding in it a somewhat surreal experience, as if he was a child again, too small for the world he was in. There was a small forest of pine scented air fresheners hanging from the rear-view mirror that were doing a fair job of fighting off the smell of the numerous old takeout containers strewn throughout the truck. Pedro would have opened the window for some fresh air but knew that in the barrens the air outside would only taste ranker.

‘So, y’ gonna tell me who it is we’re meetin’ now? What they can do t’ help us find Kay? Why y’ didn’t call them in the first place?’.

‘An old friend of my mom’s. Magic stuff. And it’s complicated, respectively. That good enough for you?’. Pedro tersely stated.

‘No it ain’t actually. I wanna know what I might be walkin’ int’ an’ why if this is such a good idea y’ didn’t go for it earlier? I mean if this persons a pal of y’r mom’s then shouldn’t we call her t’ help arrange a meetin’, at least see if she’ll help us get them on our side?’.

‘My mom died about maybe ten years ago now’. He said as if he didn’t still know how long it had been since his mother was taken from him, how she was betrayed. ‘So fat chance of that working out’.

‘Oh, uh, sorry’.

‘It’s… it’s fine. Look the woman’s name is Sophia Tarallo, she runs a talismongers near Touristville, I buy a lot of my regents, lodge materials and- ‘

He could see Kenda’s lack of comprehension in her face even as she was speeding down the deserted, have destroyed streets of Redmond.

‘-anyway, it’s a spellcasters shop basically. After my mom died, we drifted apart but she’d still keep in touch, and we’d see each other when I came in to buy stuff. The important thing is that she’s got her finger on the pulse of the magic scene in Redmond; she’s on good terms with some of the best spellcasters in the area, even some of the bigger magical groups that wok outside of the barrens supposedly, and she knows how to get her hands on some powerful magic items…’.

Pedro toyed with his mother’s ring on his finger as he spoke.

‘Thought y’ said y’ couldn’t use magic t’ find Kay?’.

Kenda spoke as she drove over an especially bad patch of road that was mostly a giant pothole causing the truck to vibrate.

‘I can’t. But someone else could. There are spells out there, spells I don’t know, that can let you find specific things, specific people. I know Kays astral signature well enough that I can give it to someone else so they’ve got something to go off’.

‘Not sure I like the idea of someone else havin’ her astral… signature thing. Couldn’t y’ just cast the spell if y’ learnt it?’.

‘No, well… It takes time to learn a spell. Time Kay doesn’t have. Even if I did know it, it probably wouldn’t help much. It’d take a lot of power to have the spells effect cover Redmond, let alone all of Seattle, more than I have. But Sophia should know people who could put it off, maybe a group working together could do it’.

‘Hmm’. Pedro could hear the concern in Kenda’s tone over the loud drone of her truck’s engine and the various wails and gunshots that made up the ambient sounds of the Redmond barrens.

‘What? You’ve got a better idea than that? Think your buddy Chuck’s going to have a better shot of knowing where Kay is!?’.

‘It just sounds like this’ll be a big ask your makin’ t’ somebody y’ don’t sound too close t’. Somethin’ like this’ll probably come with a price tag, an’ I doubt someone who runs a business in the barrens’ll be willin’ t’ take an IOU’.

Kenda was being irritatingly insightful. Wilde wasn’t sure if his own face was giving away the fact that this would be more complicated or if the troll had some cyberware that made it easier to pick up where somebody was lying. He’d heard there were some augments that could do things like that. He sighed with resignation and prepared himself to give a more informed explanation.

‘Sophia’ll do it. She knows I can pay her, that’s all that matters to her’.

‘Oh, I’m sorry, didn’t know you had a secret fortune in your back pocket’.

A slight smirk grew on Pedro’s face as Kenda accidentally stumbled close to the truth.

‘It’s not a fortune exactly, but it is something Sophia wants’.

He held up his right hand, showing the ring on it, his mother’s sustaining focus for health spells which Kenda half glanced at as she kept most of her focus on the streets, swerving to avoid someone who was either dead or passed out in the middle of the road.

‘It’s a… magic item. Used to be my mom’s before she died. It’s fairly strong and useful so it’s worth some good nuyen. At least enough for a down payment to hire someone to cast a spell as big as we’re needing’.

‘And y’re sure this Sophia wants it? That she’s not got a dozen of those in her back office or somethin’?’.

‘Oh, she wants it alright. She’s already tried to sell it once before without even telling me’.

‘Wait, what?’.

She took a dramatic right turn to swerve out of the way of a sinkhole that had opened into a chasm in the centre of the road. Wilde’s brow furrowed as he realised that he had said more than he’d meant to. Well, he figured he might as well tell her everything, it was either that or have her find out when they met with Sophia in person. He doubted that Kenda would be willing to wait in the truck while he negotiated.

‘It’s… sigh… Alright, so about a few months or so ago Sophia calls me over to the shop, tells me that she’s got some good news for me and that I should bring my mother’s focus over. Like an idiot I don’t see what’s coming and go over with it. We have a good talk to start off with, she bought decent takeout for us both… and then she gets to business. Sophia starts talking about how nuyen is tight in the barrens and how she knows my mom would want me to have a better life than this yada yada. Anyway, I tell her sure it’s tough, but what can you do? It’s the barrens. Then she says how she has an easy way for me to earn a good chunk of nuyen, enough for me to be able to afford a fake SIN that’d hold up to a proper check unlike this one’.

Pedro vaguely gestured to his commlink that was linked to the fake ID that was only similar to him in the broadest of senses.

‘Enough for me to maybe get out of the barrens and make a fresh start somewhere else. Sounds too good to be true right? So, I ask her how she’s gonna be able to pull something like that off for me. That’s when she tells me that she knows people that’d be in the market for my moms old sustaining focus, that she’d want me to sell it and get out of the barrens rather than use it risking my life playing Urban Brawl… that she’s already got a buyer lined up already’.

Wilde’s tone turned as acidic as the foul air outside.

‘My mom didn’t have a lot of stuff, this ring, this focus is one of the only things I have of hers. There’s no way in hell I’d ever sell it, Sophia knew that but tried to make out that it was for my benefit rather than hers. Playing on her friendship with mom to make me go along with it. She was just trying to use me to make some quick money, she didn’t give a damn about me’.

‘Y think she wouldn’t’ve paid out?’.

‘She probably would’ve, but she’d have gotten a good cut of the sale as well. It’d also be good for her reputation, magic items like focuses aren’t that common and mom’s is stronger than average. If Sophia could produce one for somebody in the market for one it’d make more people likely to do business with her. She’d seem like a woman with connections’.

‘So, uh, I guess things didn’t go well?’.

‘She tried to convince me to sell the one thing my mom left me just so she could make a fast buck off it!... No, it didn’t go well. Things got heated, I said some stuff… Anyway, I haven’t spoken to her since’.

‘And y’ really think she’s gonna want t’ talk now? Look y’ said it y’rself we don’t have time t’ waste-‘.

‘It’s not a waste of time! Look, Sophia wants my mom’s focus? She can have it. She won’t even need to spend any nuyen for it. All she needs to do is arrange for a spell to be cast. It’s a good deal for her and we’ll be able to head to Kay within a couple hours. Might even be able to get some help from whoever she hires to cast the spell. This is the fastest way I can think of to get Kay back. If you’ve got something better then say it; otherwise, keep driving’.

Kenda continued speeding through the barren roads of Redmond, the sounds of casual violence dying down now that they were closer to Touristville, emphasizing the silence in the truck. After a few awkward minutes Kenda was the one to give in and try to break the quiet.

‘And y’re ok with this? Givin’ away y’r mom’s ring?’.

‘… It’s for Kay. My mom… she’d understand’.

‘Alright then. We’ll try it out… And Wilde… Thanks for… doin’ this’.

‘I’m not doing it for you Kenda’.

‘Yeah, I know that! But still… thanks for doin’ it for her anyway. I ‘preciate it’.

‘Yeah, well, likewise. Thanks for showing up as quick as you did, I guess. Its good knowing that I’ve got some help in this’.

‘Null sheen chummer… But y’ know I’m goin’ in there with y right?’.

‘I figured you weren’t going to wait in the truck. Just let me do the talking, don’t break anything and we’ll be fine’.

‘Just like back home. Yeah, I can do that. Not much I could add to a magicy negotiation anyway. That’s us just comin’ up to the place now’.

The truck turned a corner and came to the start of a group of buildings that stood out from the rest of the dilapidated and ramshackle structures of the Redmond barrens due to their being in marginally better condition. The streets here were bustling with people in contrast to the abandoned ones they had just driven through, though many were still armed and had crude street armour on as they went about with their day. There was even street lighting and illuminated signs on most of the businesses, all lit despite the time of day, with no uniform style to it. Crooked lampposts leaning like the drunks on the street, neon signs hanging off of crude posts from buildings, rusted street signs strewn with Christmas lights, even what seemed to be normal house lamps that had been grafted to the few bollards remaining next to the road. A hodgepodge of smells coming from this section of the barrens that even managed to slip into the truck and overcome the oppressive scent of artificial pine. Cheap colognes and perfumes, cooking “mystery meat” that was more than likely rat, body odour, gunpowder, pollution from not-too-distant factories, ash from Mount Rainer. It was a sensory overload for the uninitiated, but to Pedro it was a sign he was close to his immediate goal.