Night Shift

In the Dark

Mallory Blackstone Nikola Dresden smiled. He had an assignment. It had been two weeks, but strange activity in a corp secret bunker had opened a stream of creds. Not only would he be able to pay rent this month, he paid ahead a few as well. Mallory picked up his staff and firearm, closing the door to his apartment behind him. He heard the beep indicating the security system had engaged, and rushed to meet the corp driver escorting him, Ned. In case anyone ventured into his residence, he had taken a few precautions. If that occurred, he would definitely need to hire a cleaner. He just might have the cash for that.

In the car, Ned had transferred what they knew of the occurrence to his comlink. On a whim, Mallory assensed Ned and for an instant thought he might be one of infected. Not in any immediate danger, Mal viewed the report.

According to the report, three corp runners had vanished, but left behind enough blood and gore behind to suggest that at least one did not make it. The cameras had gone out for 4 minutes and 12 seconds, but sounds were recorded of something howling, gunfire, and screams. Then silence.

As they arrived a new development occurred. Not only was he to investigate, but the corp was not sending anyone in until a mage had looked it over astrally. Mal would have backed out, but had already spent the cash. He knew he should have read the fine print. Mallory entered the bunker and cast his extended spatial awareness spell. This gave him all the nooks and crannies of the area. He summoned a Spirit of Air, and asked of it two things. Search this place quickly, in the astral and physical planes for any sign of current life or spirits and protect me with all of your abilities if I am attacked.

The Spirit, Arov-lynx, in the shape of a tall woman with flowing hair covering her figure, began to search. Meanwhile, Mallory entered the living space. He took out a bag of implements and began reconstructing the scene based on the magical clues left. A powerful spirit had been here. From the readings he was getting, it was a Spirit of Beasts. He reached into his pocket and took some Cram. His spirit came back.

“I have searched the building and have located two of your kind and one spirit. The spirit growled at me, so I left…..

By the way, it followed me.”

Mallory was caught off balance as a massive four armed bird with a massive beak sprouting huge teeth appeared and clawed at him, ripping his coat. Mallory’s armor spell took hold, but he felt light headed. The creature, in the shape of a Grav’tor growled and spat acid that sizzled inches from Mallory’s face. Arov-Lynx then attacked the Grav’tor and caused the spirit to diminish slightly. Before Mallory could act again, the creature struck out at Arov-lynx and about half of the hair covering her vanished.

Mallory was angered and cast frost. The spirit strained against the ice and almost broke free. Mallory threw his will into the spell and the creature was held fast. Arov-lynx smashed the ice dispersing the Grav’tor.

With the completion of his duties, Arov-lynx left. Mallory followed the astral trail of the Grav’tor back to a large bedroom outfitted for a troll. Two people were in this room. An apparently dead Dwarf, and an obviously alive Elf. The elf was injured, but fit the description of one of the runners. Mallory provided first aid. At this point his drug of choice was irritating him, so Mal cast Detox on himself to remove the effects.

Looking at the paranormal and mundane clues, Mallory felt there was more to the story. However, he was asked to do a sweep and that was what he had done. The dispersal of the spirit added a bit more cash to his pocket. Mallory gave his report to the driver and was dropped off near home. He entered the apartment and pulled out the spirit formula discovered on the Dwarf. This could come in handy. One just never knows.

Mallory took a sip from his non-soy beer. Looking back, the money was almost adequate to the level of threat. He might have to think twice before he said yes without all the information.

Later, Mallory was resting a wet towel on his face calming a hangover when his comlink beeped……