Veiled Extraction: Shadowrun, #56 by R. L. King

Author:R. L. King
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs

The Black Cat Tavern was a quaint little place on meandering, tree-lined street lined with businesses catering to tourists. Most were closed at this hour, but the tavern itself featured a neon sign depicting a cat with an arched back, puffed tail, and almond-shaped green eyes. A jaunty witch’s hat perched on its head. The building’s weathered wooden front was dotted with ARs advertising local craft beers.

“Not many people,” Vyx commented, noting the small number of cars and motorcycles in the lot.

Virago shrugged. “Slow night.” She pulled into the parking lot and slid the bike into a space next to the back door, under a light.

Vyx slung her bag over her shoulder and followed Virago inside. Still no ping on her danger sense. She was probably being overly paranoid, but that didn’t mean she planned to let her guard down. She’d do that when this was over.

Inside, the bar continued the “witch” theme, with a cheery fire burning in a large cauldron in the center of the room, more black cats, and rustic, battered booths and tables. A few patrons, mostly younger couples or groups of women, sat around some of the tables, but most were empty. Mostly they ignored Vyx and Virago as they entered, though a couple glanced up at them before returning to their drinks. A haunting, minor-key rock tune, loud enough to hear but not to disturb anyone’s conversations, wafted from a hidden sound system.

When they asked for the back room, the slender, androgynous male bartender pointed them toward an arched doorway with “magical” runes painted around it. “Nobody back there, though.”

“That’s okay. We like our privacy.” Vyx ordered beers for the two of them.

The back room was at the end of the hall past the restrooms; it was small, with only a few tables, a fireplace dominating one wall, and a pool table that had seen many better days crouching off to one side. A trid screen showed an Urban Brawl game with the sound off, and another speaker piped in the eerie tune from the front part of the tavern. The only windows were high up the two side walls, and the only other exit was a single door labeled Emergency Exit – Alarm Will Sound.

As the bartender had indicated, the room was otherwise empty. “We got ten more minutes,” Virago said.

Vyx didn’t sit still for any of those ten minutes. Instead, she paced the room, back and forth, back and forth, pausing to check the hallway and even to leap nimbly up on one of the chairs to look out through the high windows for periodic checks of the parking lot.

“You think those guys are gonna chase you all the way out here to Salem?” Virago asked, amused. She sat at one of the tables, feet up, sipping her beer.

“You don’t know my mother when she gets her mind set on something.”

“Hello?”

Vyx and Virago both spun to face the doorway, hands going to their weapons.

The petite young woman standing there raised her hands. “It’s okay, it’s okay,” she said quickly.

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