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THE STREETS ARE ABOUT TO EXPLODE… And Puyallup’s local paranormal investigator Jimmy Kincaid is caught right in the middle of it. The neighborhood’s criminal syndicates are on the brink of all-out war, and if they go at it, the streets will run red—literally. But Jimmy’s got more problems besides trying to keep the peace between feuding mobsters. Someone’s sending him a very particular message by sending him severed limbs. And then there’s the pairs of hitmen coming after him. Last but certainly not least, he’s got to broker a deal between the biggest elven street gang in Seattle and a vicious Triad gang—and not get himself killed in the bargain. And when an old enemy comes to town for revenge, Jimmy finds his already fairly chaotic life completely upended—and never to be the same again. To settle the score, he’ll have to face off against the deadliest assassin ever to stalk the Seattle streets—and use every bit of skill, guile, and luck he has to survive…
WHERE NOBODY KNOWS YOUR NAME… Things don’t rise to gutters, they fall there. Same with back alleys and dumpsters. Same with graves. Running the shadows comes with ups and downs, but you never know where those rises and falls will take you. What someone else might call rock bottom…you might call Tuesday. Collected here for the first time, read Russell Zimmerman’s Shadowrun tales of winners, losers, and edge cases constantly somewhere in between. No longer just scattered across sourcebooks and decades, here you can find every short story and intro fiction featuring everyone’s favorite shadow legends rubbing elbows with wannabes and not-shadowrunners-at-all-just-ask-them. But it’s not all yesterday’s news, chummers. More than just a collection of previously published fiction, between these covers you’ll find a handful of brand-new stories, including a classic, pre-On the Rocks Jimmy Kincaid yarn. Also, each one comes with brand new commentary by the author, written expressly for this volume. Enjoy short stories about hearts and souls, elves and trolls, and rock and roll? Then join us here, and explore these dark streets…
THE MEANEST STREETS... James Kincaid is the type of guy who might be described as down on his luck, if only he’d had some luck to begin with. Like so many people in the shadows of Seattle, he’s trying to get by with what he has. In his case, that includes a lively spirit, a sadly diminished magical talent, quick wits, and good knowledge of the twists and turns of the city’s dingy streets and back alleys. He puts all that to the service of whatever clients he can dig up, solving whatever cases they’re willing to pay him to take on. With any luck, he’ll scrape up enough nuyen to buy a round or two of his favorite drink—whiskey, neat. His latest case seems simple enough—find a girl who’s gone missing. But throw in a couple of feuding megacorporations, a few organized crime families, and a full selection of the odd denizens of Seattle’s streets, and you’ve got a case that’s anything but easy. It’s up to Kincaid to see how many people he can keep alive—including (and especially) himself.
INTO A DARK, DISTANT FUTURE… The year 2084 may be decades away for us, but in the Sixth World, it’s now. However, the decades in between are filled with wild events: The Awakening. SURGE. The Night of Rage. The assassination of the dragon elected president, Dunkelzahn. Through the Decades takes you from now to then, with seven original stories by grizzled veterans and brash newcomers to the shadows. Representatives of the newly established Native American Nations battle political skullduggery and assassins in their quest to form a more perfect union. Prime shadowrunner Ryan Mercury returns in a tale of his early days, and a love found, lost, and found again while running the shadows for Dunkelzahn. An exiled changeling returns home to try and pick up the pieces of his shattered life after the Year of the Comet. And legendary shadowrunners Wolf and Raven confront a bold new world—including dealing with their own children—as they get up to their usual tricks in today’s Sixth World. These and three more new stories reveal glimpses of the Sixth World’s storied past…and provide the foundation for the future of the murky world that is Shadowrun.
WHEN HOME BECOMES A PRISON... Fixer BlotterBabe has been around longer than most people realize. Long enough to have built herself a secure home in a protected park reserve. She greased all the right wheels, paid off all the right people, forged all the correct documents, hid all the tracks of her passing, created the perfect security systems inside and out. She planned for every contingency—except one. The need to escape from her own home. After realizing her sanctuary has been discovered, BlotterBabe brought just the right people to the right place to help her flee from her gilded cage with everything she holds dear—but she is too late. Now she has to escape the underground complex she spent decades building. The enemies are inside the perimeter. They have control of the security systems. Spinrad Global will stop at nothing to keep her a prisoner in her gilded cage. BlotterBabe and her friends must risk everything for her freedom—including their lives.
THE BRIGHTER THE LIGHT… Dirk Montgomery, former Lone Star cop turned shadowrunner, knows the dark byways of Seattle and the city of Cheyenne. He knows when to take chances and when to take cover. But when a megacorporate exec demands payment of an old debt, Dirk finds himself where the familiar rules don't apply anymore. THE DARKER THE SHADOWS… The Kingdom of Hawai'i is a tropical playground...with a sinister underside. Dirk must navigate its treacherous paths as he tries to stay one step ahead of all the factions battling to control the islands: the megacorps, the government, the rebels, and the yakuza. Not to mention dragons, elves, new friends...and old enemies.
CAUGHT IN A TANGLED WEB… Maria Price is good at her job. Very good. As a corporate operative, she carries out sensitive missions for Ares Macrotechnology, one of the premier megacorporations in the Sixth World. But megacorps are infamous for demanding absolute loyalty from their employees, and equally infamous for not reciprocating. And when Maria encounters an assassin in her own home, she must question everything she holds dear. Her quest for answers leads her to the glittering city of Neo-Tokyo, and a mission for Ares also holds the bonus of being against the corp she thinks tried to kill her. But when she encounters a competing ops team onsite, Maria quickly realizes the scope of this mission is bigger—much bigger—than she expected. And when she finally tracks down her target, the information he shares goes far beyond anything Maria ever expected, and draws her further into corporate machination than she ever planned to go…assuming she can survive.
WILD IN THE STREETS… Wolfgang Kies is a shadowrunner with a secret. He’s an untrained shaman whose totem is the Wolf. Struggling under the influence of the Old One's omnipotent powers, Wolfgang's only ally is Dr. Richard Raven, the elf and do-gooder vigilante Seattle turns to when all else fails. He knows Wolfgang's secret. He understands the pull of magical possession on vulnerable souls. Together they are the only force strong enough to battle crime kingpin Etienne La Plante. As the chrome-fisted Capone of the Seattle Sprawl, La Plante has at his command an army of grunge goons, razorboys, and icepick-packing street samurai. But when Wolfgang's on the prowl, every cyber-creep and crook is fair game. There’s only one hope against La Plante’s reign of terror—the one force Wolfgang fears the most...his own pure predatory fury.
BLASTS FROM THE PAST… The Sixth World has always been a grim, violent place, where your life can be measured in heartbeats from one minute to the next. And whether you’re an experienced shadowrunner, or someone who’s entered the shadows looking for safety, or to hide—or perhaps start a new life altogether—well, they can be dark, deep, and dangerous, no matter how well-prepared you think you are. These five stories kick off with a pair of tales about Yuri and Soren, two fate-crossed lovers who meet in the drab, crumbling city of Vladivostok and flee their homeland for the Seattle sprawl, only to find life is nasty and brutish no matter where they go. That’s followed by Mr. Johnson...
FOUR SECRET AUDITIONS… Fixer BlotterBabe must have exactly the right actors for a production that requires very specialized talent. The actors must not only be skilled, they need to have the right attitude and an ability to adapt to extraordinary circumstances. A Kiss to Die For: Kintsugi and Sartorial choose love over duty, but their respective families will do everything in their considerable power to stop them from being together. See How She Runs: Terrapin witnesses a murder and is handed a package destined for some important and lethal people. Now she is running for her life. Unrepairable: Landon and Liana love vexing megacorps for fun and profit with their Matrix show. Unfortunately,...