Free shadowrun 40 The Burning Time by Stephen Kenson Page A

another mouthful of food. "Can’t you tell?"
    "I suppose I could, if I’d thought to look," Talon said. "But I don’t generally go around checking out everyone’s aura, and by the time I noticed she was acting funny, she was gone. Besides, I wouldn’t feel right about reading my friends’ auras without permission."
    Hammer nodded. "I appreciate that, chummer." Then he turned to Val. "Remember how Geist used to do that all the time? Look at you like he was looking right through you? Man, that was spooky."
    "Oh yeah," she said with a laugh. "And you weren’t the one going out with him. Being with someone who knows what you’re feeling all the time— sometimes even before you do—can be a real pain in the hoop."
    "Really?" Talon said, "I thought most women wanted a guy like that."
    "Well, there’s sensitive and then there’s too sensitive," Val said, running a finger along the rim of her water glass.
    She gave Talon a wicked smile. "I guess you’re just insensitive enough, Talon."

CHAPTER TEN

    More and more, Roy Kilaro was sure that Dan Otabi was the man he was looking for, and he decided to keep a close eye on him. Sooner or later, Otabi would make a mistake that would give him away, and Roy could triumphantly expose the danger to the company.
    There might even be a promotion in it, he thought, maybe to a security job. Maybe even a chance to work with the Seraphim, the company’s famous (or infamous, depending on who you asked) counterintelligence division.
    Roy decided to set up some programs that would alert him to any unusual activity at the Cross Bio-Medical Merrimack Valley facility, particularly on the part of Otabi. The whole reason he’d introduced himself to Otabi was in hopes of spooking him enough that he would make a mistake.
    Once his monitors were in place, he picked up a radio tracker at the local Warez, Etc. store. It was the kind of spy-gear parents bought to keep track of the whereabouts of their kids when they’d borrowed the family car. It didn’t have much range, but it would have to do.
    From there, Roy drove to Cross MV facility. He located Otabi’s car in the lot and planted the small magnetic transmitter under the bumper. The he returned to his own vehicle parked nearby to wait and watch everyone going in and out of the facility.
    It was late afternoon before he finally saw Otabi finally come out and drive off in his car. Roy activated the tiny tracer and followed at a discreet distance, checking the GPS map on his dash to see where the sarariman was going.
    It wasn’t far. Maybe a kilometer or so from his office, Otabi stopped to make a call at a public vidphone. Watching from a short distance away, Roy regretted not buying surveillance gear that would have picked up what Otabi was saying or identified whom he was calling, but he hadn’t thought of it. Otabi’s call was brief. A minute later, he was back in his car and returning to the office. Roy briefly considered trying to crack open the public telecom to access its memory, but decided it would be too difficult and too risky. Better to stay on Otabi and see what he did next.
    He then followed Dan Otabi to a nearby town, concealing the Chrysler-Nissan Spirit behind a big Titan truck while Otabi went into the bank and then came out again shortly after. His last stop was through the local McHugh’s drive-through to pick up some food, then he returned to the Cross facility.
    Roy didn’t see him again until well after quitting time. Oota drove home to his apartment, but apparently didn’t bother to inform the police about the break-in, because none showed up. Roy thought that was confirmation that Otabi had something to hide. He’d looked edgy and nervous that day, like he was expecting something to happen, maybe something related to the call he’d made from the public vidphone.
    Roy waited in his car across the street from Otabi’s apartment complex, sipping lukewarm McHugh’s soykaf from a paper cup.
    It was nine-thirty