Crossroads Read Online Free PDF

through the subdermal speakers. “What’s this I hear about you ditching out on the end of the Tyre run, chummer?”
    “What’s to tell? It was done. I did my job and now I’m going home, like a good little team member.”
    “Talon . . Her tone sounded like a parent who’d just caught a wayward child in a fib.
    “Look, Jane, I don’t really want to talk about it, okay?”
    “No, it’s not. Something’s been bothering you for a while and I want to know what it is. I’m worried about you, Tom, and I’m not the only one.”
    I almost turned to look at her as I shifted lanes to get closer to the exit that was coming up. The Eurocar's scan-system wasn’t picking up any police radar or laser scans along the highway, so I was making good time.
    “Has Ryan said something to you?” I asked.
    “No, he didn't have to. I heard you blew up at him.”
    “Not his fault. He was only doing what he thought was right.” That’s what Ryan always did.
    “I didn't say it was, but you don’t do something like that for no reason. You’re too responsible for that, Tom. You’re too professional.”
    “Maybe that’s it.” I said, as much to myself as anyone else. Having a conversation with Jane over my headlink was almost like talking to myself sometimes. “Maybe I’m just a little too professional these days. It just feels . . . confining. I’ve worked with teams before, but not like this. On other teams I was always the hotshot, the wiz-kid mage who knew how to handle anything. Now . . . now I feel like I’m out of my depth, Jane. All the things I’ve seen, all the things I know about what’s out there . . .
    Do you know I still have nightmares about all that drek involving the Dragon Heart?”
    There was a moment of silence over the line. “No, no I didn’t.”
    “I nearly died, Jane. Hell, I did die out there on the bridge, and Lucero brought me back from the other side. I don’t know what the hell to make of that. When I was running the streets, I was sure I’d be history before I hit twenty-five. Then twenty-five came and went and I never thought I’d see thirty. Now, here I am. I used to think I knew how it all worked: life, death, magic, but now nothing makes sense.”
    Jane remained silent, so I continued. “It used to all be about making the next score; finding another run, another deal to make enough nuyen to get me through another few months. I didn’t think about the future. It was all about keeping it together in the here and now. Now I am thinking about the future, and I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m not sure I can handle all of this.”
    “You’re not giving yourself enough credit, Talon.”
    “Maybe not.” I said quietly. “But you worked for Dunkelzahn, Jane, worked for a fraggin’ great dragon for years. I never even met him. Hell, the only time I met a dragon before Assets, it scared the hell out of me. You were practically friends with one.”
    “Not friends exactly.” Jane mused. “I don’t think dragons really have friends like other people. But I do think Dunkelzahn appreciated us in a way other dragons don’t.”
    Yeah, like as something other than lunch, I thought. “What I’m saying is you and Ryan and the others got used to all of this weirdness . . .”
    “And you will, too. It just takes some time.”
    “How much time, Jane? Where do I go from here?”
    “Wherever you want, chummer.”
    I thought about that for a long moment, watching the road zip past as I came up on the exit.
    “I want to go home.” I said. “Only I don't know where that is anymore.”
    I slid the Eurocar gently to a stop at the end of the ramp to wait for the light to change. I turned and looked at Jane’s image. She was beautiful, one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen. The virtual projection was something of a statement for Jane; one part fantasy and one part sarcasm, since in real-life Jane-in-the-Box looked nothing like the seductive she-devil in red I saw before me.