Shadow Runner [LitRPG]

"Make them fuck off," I hissed, wiggling my claws the tiniest bit to back up the demand with a threat.

The runner's smirk just widened. I noticed glee in the expression now, underlined by such unbearable smugness.

"No."

"No? What do you mean, no? Do you have any idea what I'll —"

"You'll kill me. Yes, yes, I know. Thing is, kiddo, what's stopping you from killing me once you have what you want anyway? I can tell you hate me. Disliked me even when the Kittens were around, probably. Most people do."

We stared at each other, the demands of the guard captain or whatever he was still echoing in from outside. My mind spun for a solution. But while Mela hissed angrily in my ear and Amelia squirmed anxiously, I used the half of my brain that wasn't freaking out to focus on more practical things.

Namely, I started copying and mailing files. Copying, so I had them right there in my data storage if I needed them. Mailing them to Amelia, because… well, I wasn't really sure I'd get out of there in one piece. Or at all.

Granted, I couldn't just copy and mail everything. They had a very nice server setup with way more memory than what my eyes could support. The server did, however, come with a very nice built-in search function. Personnel files, business logs, and anything that looked important went straight into my storage.

The countless victim files were, unfortunately, ignored.

Sure, those files might be the only way to track these people down. Yet I knew the chances of that actually happening were miniscule. I sure as fuck knew that any victims who had ended up in a certain crazy scientist's hands were dead and gone, or at least turned into something no one would recognize.

So, although this was their only lifeline, and although I was the only person who might have a chance to do something about it, I passed on those files.

Once the important stuff I could take was copied and emailed, I refocused on Mort.

"What do you want?" I asked, licking my dry lips.

Fuck, but I hated the flash of victory in his eyes.

"Take me with you. I can send them away. Distract them. Make an opening in their patrol routes. Had no chances of getting out of this dump alone, but something tells me you're not just slumming it anymore."

His eyes were pointedly focused on my cybernetic arms, almost like he was admiring them.

Refusing the urge to do him harm, I growled, "And why are you so sure I'll play along once we're out there?"

Banging started up again on the door, accompanied by more curses and demands from the guards.

"Because once I'm out of this room, I'm a lot more free than I am now," he shot back. "Fuck me over, and I'll send some interesting info to all the Zerx who care to open the message. Wonder what they'll think about two Kittens who are somehow still alive and running around, causing trouble."

I narrowed my eyes, really taking him in. Sure, Mort had always been a bit… unkempt, but now he looked worse than ever. It was clear that he'd barely slept for several days at least, let alone showered and eaten properly.

His desire to get out suddenly made a lot more sense.

"You're stuck here, aren't you? They don't trust you."

He scowled, confirming my guess was correct. "I need to 'prove' myself to my new boss and 'comrades.' They put me in charge of this server and processing its data, but they're not idiots. I'm on a strict schedule. I can't even walk out those doors without permission."

"And you think I can help you there?"

"Oh, I know you can. Dunno how you did it, but you stole higher level admin rights than even I have, the second you hacked the fucking thing."

I connected to the server, quickly confirming that yes, he was telling the truth. Apparently, a line to the outside world did open at certain times, allowing for an outside runner to connect to the typically closed system and approve Mort's end-of-duty. If Mort tried to leave the room before that point, the system would send a signal which then activated a device installed in Mort's neck.

I reeled back a little, staring at the dour runner with a dash of pity. "They put you on an actual leash?"

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His angry glare was answer enough.

But his words about admin rights had sparked two new ideas in my brain. First, I suddenly realized that I could, in fact, trigger that device myself. Depending on how powerfully I set the current, it could shock him into a twitching mess or even cause wholesale organ failure.

Second…

"I severed your connection to the server," I growled. "How the fuck do you know I hacked it?"

Smirking once more, Mort lifted his wrists off the chair fully for the first time. Two cables were revealed, leading from sockets in his forearms into the chair under him.

Secondary connection cables. They couldn't have helped him ultimately, considering how quickly I'd severed the other connections, but they gave him a certain level of access to the server anyway.

Shame and anger washed through me, salted with some fear. I'd been careless. If Mort was more of a 'perish with your enemy' kind of type, those guards would've been on my ass in seconds.

Unfortunately for him, this only made me more convinced that he needed to go.

Beyond the disgust he provoked in me, he was dangerous. Outside this room, I'd be hard-pressed to keep a close enough watch on him. Letting him go fully? Out of the question. If he ever wanted to screw me over, he simply had to share the info he'd just taunted me with.

Now, the Zerx didn't much worry me. Neither did, urg, 'Titus', whoever he was or wasn't to me. Amelia's father, though? If Mort somehow alerted him to the situation, the hunt would be on, and all the anonymity provided by our assumed deaths would be gone.

So, I couldn't accept Mort's deal. Even if I wanted to.

Funnily enough, I saw the shift of realization in his face the second I reached that decision. Something in my eyes must have told him, perhaps, or he was enough of a rat to sense impending death.

"Wait, I can —"

I didn't let him finish the sentence. So quickly that my arm blurred and my shoulder ached a little, I ran my claws straight through his eyes in a single swipe.

Blood, viscera, and mechanical bits erupted to the side where my swipe splattered them onto some of the server racks. Those sizzled slightly. Their heat, kept in check only by the climate control of the room, reacted like I'd poured oil over them.

Which, now that I thought about it, I kind of had? There were probably bits of far worse in that mess somewhere.

Regardless, the scream that escaped the runner echoed not just inside the room but beyond it, transmitted throughout the building by the room's hidden microphones.

The guards froze for a few seconds. Then their attempts to gain entry took on a much more frantic air.

I, meanwhile, leaned close to the ruined vestiges of Mort's face with a vindictive sneer.

"That was for Garren. This one," I whispered, driving my claws up into his liver and shredding it, "is for Mela. And this? This is just for me."

I shoved my arm up, well past the wrist, until my claws mangled his heart. Then I ripped my arm out of him, doing as much damage on exit as I could.

I frowned at the mess left all over me, not because it was yucky human bits, but because there was a decent bit of non-organic crap stuck to my ruined Zerx jacket sleeve.

Giving into curiosity for just a moment, I slashed my claws down his chest until it gaped open. Cybernetic bits mixed with flesh inside his chest cavity, potentially granting any number of enhancements I knew nothing about. Amelia gasped in the background, but I ignored her and focused on a quick examination.

From a glance, nothing looked set to detonate after his demise. That left me free to shove him out of the chair and leave him to finish riding out his death throes on the floor.

Then I turned towards the server racks.

I had already snatched up the files that interested me, particularly a couple which contained banking information and access codes to multiple credit deposits and accounts. So, with a heavy heart, I gave the order to wipe all the data.

Months of Zerx efforts instantly went up in digital smoke. That thought put a small smile on my face, at least.

Then I overclocked the hell out of the servers and threw a clumsy, half-finished Overheat quickhack at them for good measure. I'd started improving the hack and then left it like that, thinking I wouldn't need it any time soon. Still, as the servers began to overheat and overwhelm the room's AC, I figured it was working well enough.

Unfortunately, the gorilla and his crew outside were also starting to make progress.

Two more grunts had dragged in a metal bench from somewhere. Its legs had been removed, the nubs giving the fuckers useful handles to grip as they started applying the flat seat to the thick metal door separating me from them.

Mela had gone as silent as the grave. All Amelia could manage were vague mutterings of support and demands that I 'get out of there this instant.'

I acknowledged none of that, too busy sweating from both the heat and the tension as the doors continued to dent and the servers grew progressively redder. Only when the first sparks appeared, growing quickly into a small fire that spread through the racks, did I let out a breath of relief.

I needed shock and awe. I needed panic and poor decision-making.

In other words, I needed the attention of the guards to be on anything but me.

I quickly pressed myself against the wall to the door's left, my eyes fixed on the slow destruction of the metal. In a way, this reminded me of hiding with Mela inside my apartment so long ago, as a group of Zerx gained entry in much the same way.

At least this door was much more impressive and far more resistant to damage?

"Hey, Mela, this seem familiar?" I teased, just to break the tension.

She snorted. "Sure. Way I remember it, I barely made it to the HQ with you dragging my sorry ass along."

"Yep."

"Not a great memory."

"Ahhh, but we did make it," I pointed out reasonably, a smile tugging at my lips in spite of the situation.

The door finally began to cave for real, partially dislodging with a horrible sound of tearing metal. I chose that moment to engage Stealth and shot one last look at the sever racks.

They were starting to roar into a proper fire now. The servers sizzled as the bits that had already reached melting temp ran off in rivulets of horribly hot liquid. Sweat stuck my clothes to my back. I had just enough time to worry about how that would affect my health when the door was hit one final time, making it thump into the room with a dull boom.

The first guards spilled in immediately, eyes wide with horror at the sight of their precious servers.

I coiled up in preparation to strike.