Crossroads Read Online Free PDF Page A

organization with the power of a megacorp. I would have been a fool to turn Ryan down when he offered me a permanent place on the team. It was a chance to achieve all I’d ever wanted: to step out of the shadows and into the light, to become legit without really having to leave the action behind. The best part of the deal was that we were the elite troubleshooters for the Draco Foundation. It was like going from street scum to high-class super-spy.
    I lightly caressed the wheel of my sleek new Eurocar, bought and paid for with the nuyen I’d earned working with Assets. Driving it fast like I was slotting a simflick that made me James-fraggin-Bond. It was a long way from where I came from. So what the hell was I so mad about?
    The red icon of a bell interrupted my thoughts, flashing in the upper right-hand corner of my vision; an incoming call. That was another change I never expected: the cyberware. When I was young and first working the shadows, I would never in a million years have gotten anything implanted in my body. Street samurai and other muscle relied on the power cyber gave them. It made you stronger, faster, tougher, but it also made you less human. Some of the street-muscle I’d known were more machine than man.
    If you were a magician, cyber had other consequences. It was well-known that artificial implants of all kinds inhibited the use of magic, and most of us magical types avoided it like the plague. But the streets are hard, and time takes its toll. A lot of spell-slingers needed more of an edge, so they got a little cyber to keep them on top. When it weakened their magic, softened their edge, they got a little more. Then a little more, and a little more, until they were burnt-out shells stuffed with machines and their magic was gone. I used to look at burnouts like that and feel pity for them. It was a sorry sight.
    It’s different with me. That’s what I keep telling myself, anyway. After working with Assets for a while, I picked up a little cyber. Nothing major. Just enough to make life easier and, honestly, because I thought it was chill. My magical abilities were as strong as ever, stronger even with all the practice and the new things I’d learned in the past three years. Like I said, Assets had friends in high places, and some of them knew magic like I’d never seen before. So, a cyberware virgin at age twenty-eight, I got a datajack. Then some memory chips to store data and download it into my head. A display link to project it onto the retina of my eye and a comm system to keep in touch with the rest of the team silently in my head, and finally some data software to manage it all. It wasn’t much hardware, so it didn’t really affect my magic that much, especially considering how much more magic I’d learned since joining Assets. The implants were just conveniences. They didn’t make me all that different. Or so I told myself.
    The red bell icon flashed insistently. I mentally keyed the channel open and heard a faint click as it connected. Suddenly I caught sight of a figure sitting in the passenger seat next to me out of the corner of my eye. I knew it was just an optical illusion, the result of tiny lasers hitting the retinas of my eyes, but at first glance it was very convincing. Jane’s new toys and tricks were always impressive.
    She was dressed entirely in tight red leather today, including a wickedly short miniskirt that I’m sure wouldn’t have been possible if her appearance were bound by the laws of physics. I didn’t bother looking over at her. It wasn’t like she could see me anyway. The image was just for show, to give her some physical presence. She must have known I was in the car, otherwise the image would have appeared right in front of me, which would be a real problem on the highway.
    “Hello, Jane.” I said.
    The image turned to look at me (nice touch, that). Her red lips, matching the color of the leather, moved in perfect sync with the words I heard in my head