Shadowrock, Chapter 9 (Patreon)

Chapter 9: Ghoulish

We piled into our cars, and drove to the ‘chop shop’ where Tamanous made their lair. Or, at least, one of their lairs. An organization like theirs didn’t just have one base of operations, since that drew too much attention. Plus, it made ‘resource acquisition and distribution’ easier if there were multiple points of contact. Pretty much anywhere there was a slum in the Greater Atlanta area, you could count on Tamanous having a presence there. Even if there weren’t many in the way of ghouls living in the area, there would be bodies that needed disposing of. And Tamanous was always willing to help people hide a few unwanted corpses.

That said, rolling up to Bean’s Meat Market to deliver some corpses to ghouls was a little on the nose. According to Cougar, Felix Bean was a butcher, a legit butcher, before his son got infected by a feral ghoul. Fortunately for him, Tamanous got in touch, and they worked out a mutually beneficial deal. His business would not only be protected, but would receive additional investment. A basement was added under the back of his place, allowing Tamanous to add in an abattoir and meat packing facilities, kept separate physically and biologically from his ’real’ work. And his son didn’t go hungry.

Honestly, it wasn’t a terrible deal. Felix’s son, Alex, did the actual human butchery, working in the basement, which also had an apartment for him. The ‘fresh meat’ was then taken out, to other places, for distribution, so there weren’t lines of ghouls showing up a couple times a week for grub. The basement was reached by a concealed elevator, so even when legit meat deliveries came into the back, no one would notice anything. Felix’s only direct involvement was opening the elevator for deliveries and transferring funds from a burner commlink. Other than that, he could say he didn’t know any specifics.

Even better, the protection Tamanous provided was real. Anyone tried to attack his shop, or started asking the wrong kinds of questions? They disappeared into the basement, or one like it in another part of town, and were quickly forgotten. And Frank, Alex, and the people who picked up the goods were never going to rat on each other, so the only way the operation would be exposed was if someone got stupid, or there was some big event, outside everyone’s control.

Frank met us at the roll-up door in the back of his shop, where meat deliveries were made. He was an average looking man, with the thick, muscled build you would expect of someone who had to lift, carry, and disassemble pigs and other animals for their products. Not body builder muscles, but ‘I work for a living’ muscles.

“Evening, ladies,” he said, standing next to an industrial cart that looked as though it could easily handle several bodies at once. The way he was looking at us said that he thought we were familiar, somehow, but he knew better than to go asking those kinds of questions. People asking too many questions at any point of the organlegging business was a great way to invite problems that only got solved at muzzle velocity. “You’re delivering? Fifteen pigs, according to the message. Large haul for late at night.”

I nodded once. “Yes, some inconsiderate folks thought it would be a good idea to try and waylay a few women just going about their business. We disabused them of that notion, but that left some cleanup, after.”

“Right,” Felix said, and gestured to the cart. “Let’s get the pigs inside, so that you can get paid, and my son can get to work. Cart can comfortably hold five bodies at a time, so we’ll be making a few trips.”

We quickly loaded up the first five corpses, and Felix rolled the cart to an area of the tiled floor that looked perfectly the same as all the rest. However, when he touched a concealed switch, a section of tile sunk in a centimeter, and then slid to either side, and a cargo elevator with guard rails rose up from underground. And that is when we met Alex Bean.

He had the grey skin, bald hair, and cloudy eyes that one expected to see when one thought about ghouls, along with the same muscled build his father had, which was impressive since he looked to be all of eighteen years old. He could see well enough with his astral sight, I knew, but he was all but blind to the ‘real’ world, since he didn’t have cybernetics, like Cougar did. Speaking of which, his eyes locked on to Cougar the instant he saw her.

“Oh, wow! You’re the first woman I’ve seen like me around here. As you can imagine, I’m not able to get out too much. Sun’s an annoyance, but looking like this, people tend to react badly, unless they already know me. It isn’t so bad, since I can still meet people online, but, well it isn’t the same, since the Matrix doesn’t do auras.”

Felix raised an eyebrow, and turned to look at Cougar, himself. “Sorry about the boy. Like he said, he doesn’t get to talk with people like him in the flesh too much, and most women don’t come by for this trade. But, I must say that I didn’t take you for a ghoul just by looking at you.”

Cougar chuckled, and said, “Well, that is because I’ve had some work done. Cybereyes let me see normally, as well as giving me access to extra benefits. And I got some cosmetic bioware done. Low-impact stuff, regrowing my hair, and giving my skin a normal tone. It doesn’t hide my true nature from astral sight, obviously, and it doesn’t help with the sun, but I can walk around like a normal person without being recognized right away.”

“Really?” Alex asked, excitement in his voice. “I was told when I first changed that getting any augmentations would cripple me, especially since I didn’t have the Talent before changing.”

Cougar smiled kindly at the kid. “Yes, really. And the people telling you that were not wrong. Anything that disrupts your Essence will weaken your magical abilities. If your Magic drops too low, you’ll lose the enhanced senses, but keep the hunger, allergies, and so on. If you build up your magical power a bit, though, you can then sacrifice part of it to get augmentations, and if you aren’t intending to go into combat, the lowest-grade cybereyes would be all you need, really, and they are cheap on the Essence. The hair growth and skin pigmentation augmentations do not affect your essence, though, so you could get those for a couple thousand nucred, if you find someone willing and able to do the procedure. Some dark glasses, and you’d be able to pass for a normal blind person.”

Alex took a breath, visibly working up his courage, and said, “If I get the hair and skin augmentations, do you think you would like to go on a date with me?”

“Hah!” Lioness laughed. “Cougar is living up to her name!”

“Shush, you,” Cougar mock-glared at Lioness. Turning back to Alex, she said, “Well, I’ll give you points for having the courage to ask, especially without tripping over your words. But I’m a good bit older than you, and being seen out in public with me might draw more attention to you and your dad than you want.”

Frank takes a breath. “I didn’t want to say anything before, but you lot look familiar. That new band that’s been making waves, yeah? My cousin is a big fan of the Kittenz, and you lot look enough like them to draw attention. You’d be perfect body doubles for them, honestly.” He looks over at Alex, and says, “I know you can’t see them as I do, son, and that means you probably got a better read than I do, in some ways, but they’re more than just pretty ladies. They look close enough to celebrities that being seen in public is going to draw tabloids, especially if one of them is on a date.”

Alex sighed, but didn’t argue. “I get it. If someone sees a celebrity on a date, they’re going to dig into who the date is, which means that puts the job at risk. And you don’t fuck with the business that keeps you fed.”

Cougar grins, and says, “Good man. And, since you not only shot your shot, but took it like a champ when I had to turn ya down, I’m gonna do you a solid, kid.” She tossed him a digital link to a dating app. “Not sure if you heard about it, but one of the new gen of Tamanous saw a hole in the market. There weren’t any dating apps for the Infected like us. Basic subscription is ten nucred a month. Might be you’ll get lucky with someone who doesn’t have a famous face.”

Alex straightens up, and nods. “Right, I’ll get these bodies moved downstairs, so we can work on moving the next set.”

Felix watches as the elevator descends, taking Alex and the cart with it. When the hatch closes again, he looks at Cougar, and nods. “You didn’t have to do that, but I’m glad you did. Alex is a good kid, but life did him dirty. He ought to be at school, working to prepare for a life of his own, but he got roped into this business, just so he can keep food on the table, and I can’t even give him a hug to tell him it’ll be all right without protective gear. My own damn son, and I gotta keep him at arm’s length, literally. If his mother were still alive, seeing it would have killed her.”

Cougar shook her head. “Meant what I said. He tried to make a play, did it respectfully, and didn’t crash out when I turned him down. That’s better than most full-grown men out there, honestly.”

Felix closed his eyes for a moment, and then tossed a digital file to Cougar. “Working this job, I hear things. That is the location of a group of like-minded ghouls, like yourself, looking to do the magic stuff that makes them better at being adepts, or whatever it is the not-wizards call it. They told me to pass the word, if any ghouls who fit the bill and weren’t creeps came my way. Call themselves the Bleeding Hearts. Might be they’ll be a good fit for you.”

Cougar nodded once, but didn’t say anything as the elevator came back up, with Alex. We helped load the cart, sent him down, and did the whole thing again. When everything was said and done, Felix counted up everything, including the gangers gear, and made the call. Between the bodies, the gear, and the bonus cred for bringing things in ourselves, he paid us 21k nucred, which evened out to 3500 nucred each, in addition to everything else we’d grabbed so far. Not bad, not bad at all.

Which left just one little loose end for us to handle. We drove to an underground parking garage that had been converted into living spaces, and it was where the Crimson Kings go-gang made their lair, along with the Atlanta Maker’s Union. The Kings didn’t fuck with the Union and ran protection on the area. In return, the Union kept the Kings’ bikes in top form, and everyone involved in the area got to benefit from whatever gizmos they cooked up. Problem was, the ‘cooking’ process was loud, and there were a lot of inquisitive types there. But for a quick bout of interrogation, it would do.

Our Mr. Johnson was just waking up as we hauled his naked ass into Lioness’s garage, and tossed him into the middle of a spread-out shower curtain. I stepped on his balls to get his attention. “Well, I’m sure tonight didn’t go how you expected it to. So, why don’t we talk about who paid you to screw us?”