Beyond the Pale by Jak Koke

activated it. “Jane,” came Ryan’s voice out of the darkness. “Copy, Jane.”
    “I’m here, Quicksilver, what’s your status?”
    “Talon and I are alive and well,” said Ryan. “I’ve got Harlequin online. He’s agreed to perform the ritual that will take me and the Heart across to the metaplanes. We’ll need the others topside.”
    “You got that, Axler? Grind?”
    In her video link, Jane saw Axler hold out her gloved hand and make a fist with thumb extended upward.
    “They’re coming out now, Quicksilver,” Jane said.
    “Good, I’ll meet them down by the dock,” Ryan said. “Also, we’re going to need more runners to provide security in the physical world just in case the Azzies decide to come after us.”
    “The Azzies?”
    “You heard right. Harlequin thinks they’re the ones who’d come after us.”
    “Fragging great.”
    “That’s what I thought.”
    Jane started thinking. She knew a team who was based out of Marseilles, runners who had previously worked with Carla Brooks and had an excellent rep. But she didn’t know if they’d be available on such short notice. “I’ll contact one of the teams I know who work this area,” she said. “They did freelance sec-work for Black Angel on the night of the assassination.”
    “Uh, Jane,” Ryan said.
    “What?”
    “They must not have done a very good job,” Ryan said, his tone deadpan.
    Jane paused for a second, not sure if Ryan was joking or serious. “They were the best,” she said finally. “Black Angel will vouch for them.”
    Ryan laughed. “I trust you, Jane. I was kidding.”
    “Frag you!”
    “You name the time and place.”
    “No, forget it. Nadja would kill me.”
    “Me too.”
    Jane laughed, and had her system load the telecom number for the team’s fixer into her virtual reality. Most shadowrunning teams didn’t know Jane, except perhaps as a decker for Assets, Inc. They didn’t know she used to act as an cyber-fixer for Dunkelzahn or do his decking. That was just the way she wanted it, so she always worked through other fixers.
    “I’ll be out of touch for a few cycles,” she told Ryan.
    “Copy.”
    The fixer was a free spirit called Cinnamon who worked out of Los Angeles, but handled contracts everywhere. She did most of the biz for the team Jane wanted to hire. Jane dove down through her Matrix gate and pulsed across the electronic skies and into Cinnamon’s LTG—Local Telecommunications Grid.
    Jane engaged her sophisticated relocate utility in case of trace ice and rang the telecom.
    The fixer picked up almost instantly. She appeared as a beautiful human woman with golden blonde hair that fell straight around her shoulders. Her blue eyes widened as they recognized Jane’s icon. “Hello, Jane-in-the-box,” Cinnamon said. “What can I do for you?”
    “I need a team of runners for some security work,” Jane said. “Cluster’s group , if they’re back in the Marseilles area.”
    “You think they stayed in Washington after the assassination? Black Angel cleared them of blame, but Cluster didn’t want to hang around to take any fallout.”
    Jane kept her tone extremely serious. “I wouldn’t be contacting you if I didn’t trust them.”
    Cinnamon picked up on the tone. “I think I can arrange for their services. What are the details?”
    Jane smiled. “I think you’ll like this one,” she said. “Extremely urgent, but very, very lucrative.”
    Cinnamon’s face lit up. “Good.”
    “Your team will meet with my runners at Chateau d'If as soon as possible. I need someone within two hours so if it’s going to be longer, we’ll have to go with another team.”
    Cinnamon allowed a slight downward curve to touch the corners of her mouth. “That’s really tight,” she said. “But I think they can do it.”
    “They’ll be responsible for guarding the island for a few days at most. They should bring their own supplies and equipment, even though some minimal resources may be available to