The chair was rusted into a position facing eastward, and was covered by the skin of a cougar. Burnout remembered the Kodiak killing that cougar so many years before. This had been the Kodiak's favorite place in the world. He had told Burnout that there Bear often showed him mysteries that ground-bound followers could never hope to see.
From this height, Burnout looked far into the next valley, seeing the sunset peeking its fiery eye just below the last tatters of the storm clouds. Brilliant streaks of blazing red burned the sky, like tongues of fire.
Very fitting.
Burnout went back down the ladder, pulled the shaman's body over his shoulder, and then returned to the top. He set the dead man in the chair, propping the soggy body upright so his faceless head looked into the heart of the setting sun. Then Burnout laid all of the shaman's possessions around him, and finally covered the old man with the deerskin.
He climbed back down the ladder, went into the cabin, and began a fire in the old shack's potbelly stove. When he had a nice blaze going, he took some kindling and ignited the shaman's bedding. Then he stepped back out into the morning air just as the roof of the shack caught fire.
He retreated to a safe distance and watched the tower burn.
"My friend, you gave your life for me, and now I commend your soul to Bear. May he tend to you."
It only took minutes for the ancient wood of the tower to catch, and suddenly, it seemed as if the structure was a pillar of pure flame. Smoke rocketed skyward, seeming to ignore the slight breeze that had begun to blow.
After a half-hour, the huge structure collapsed to the ground with a rumbling crash like rolling thunder. Burning rubble flew up and gouts of flame shot into the sky.
"A fitting pyre," Lethe said.
Burnout nodded and continued to watch the remains of the tower burn. Because of the recent rain, the fire refused to spread to the surrounding vegetation. It confined itself to the tower, and as that structure was consumed, it slowly dwindled. It was almost as if the blaze knew its purpose.
"I've been thinking," Lethe said.
Burnout watched the trails of smoke strain for the sky, and thought about those last few hours before the attack. "Well, that makes one of us."
"Perhaps all this death could have been averted. Perhaps if I had killed Ryan Mercury when I had the chance. When I first realized that he wanted the Heart for his selfish purposes."
Burnout shook his head. "In this game, everybody makes their own choices. I chose to steal the Heart, Mercury chose to track me to take it back. Ryan Mercury and I are to blame for the death. No one else."
Burnout turned away from the smoking wreckage and scrambled to the shallow hunting blind he'd made yesterday afternoon. The one he'd waited in to surprise Mercury. It had been a surprise, all right. For both of them. Mercury had run true to form… his tactical ability besting Burnout's fighting prowess by enough to keep them at a stalemate.
Burnout had expected Mercury to come down the funnel and land in the clearing. Then he and the Kodiak would have crushed the enemy between them. Instead of catching their prey in a vice, they'd found themselves in a much wider pincer. Still, their positioning had caught Ryan by surprise.
He gathered up the small amount of supplies he'd stashed in the hole, the spare ammo, and the extra Predator. Then he began his trek down the mountain side.
Mercury would be back before long, his desire for the Heart fueled by the losses he'd suffered. Burnout intended to be long gone when Mercury showed up with reinforcements.
"Ryan Mercury is the key," Lethe said. "He is the only obstacle to-"
"What the frag are you going on about? Of course Mercury is the key."
"Did I say that aloud?"
"I heard it."
Lethe was silent for minute. Then, "I'd like to help you kill Ryan Mercury."
25
Back at Assets, Inc. Ryan's fogged mind responded to the needle shower's stinging jets the way a blind beggar would respond to the scent of a hearty meal. He turned his body so the steaming water could hit every part of him, the force of the spray cleansing the blood and the scent of death from his body.
Miranda had died before reaching the clinic. Her body had given out under the strain.
Ryan had made the short flight back to Assets with Dhin and Grind in the Phoenix II. Axler remained at the clinic for an arm and a leg replacement. Transfusions of Syndorphin had taken away the physical pain, but she was just as slotted off about Miranda's death as Ryan.
Ryan had stayed for a while, trying to cheer Axler up by distracting her with cyberware catalogs, trying to get her to pick out her favorite mods on her new 'ware. It was going to cost a lot of nuyen, but Ryan didn't care. Axler was worth whatever she wanted.
Now, he rubbed soap around the wound Burnout had left in his ribs. Ryan knew that without medical attention the injury would have been fatal for any other man, but he had already felt the healing begin during the afternoon.
By the time Dhin got a chance to take a look at his injuries, the wound had already sealed over. Dhin had looked at the amount of blood on his clothing and raised an inquisitive eyebrow, making his brutish face seem somehow refined.
"I've always been a fast healer," Ryan replied to the unspoken question.
Now, as he rubbed at the quickly forming scar tissue, he wondered about that. He knew that magic had something to do with it, something to do with his speed, his strength, but that didn't seem to explain it anymore.
Ryan knew plenty of others like himself. Physical adepts who mastered their bodies magically and pushed past limits no norm could hope to match. He'd even known one other person who followed the Invisible Way, which was similar to the Silent Way that Dunkelzahn had taught him. She was extremely advanced in her technique, and he had learned some valuable things from her.
Still, she couldn't compete with him in combat. Not even close. He would always fall back on his lessons in the arboretum, the battles with Dunkelzahn in the darkness and stillness of the spectral shadows. Those lessons and his innate magic gave him the edge in every fight.
It had taken every effort of machine and magic to make a viable opponent for him.
How can that be possible?
Ryan shook his head, sending a spray of water against the wall. Dunkelzahn had always told him that even among his own kind, he was special. It was for that reason that the dragon had rescued him the day his parents died, because of his special gift.
Ryan felt a wave of self-disgust. And like a good little soldier, I didn't ask questions. Now it's too late to ask them, and I don't seem to have any answers.
He was about to shut off the shower, when his wrist-phone beeped. Ryan looked at the screen to see Jane's code. He didn't care if Jane saw him in the shower. After all, she'd seen him in worse places.
Ryan thumbed the receiver, "Hello, Jane, I was-"
He stopped short. The face that filled the screen wasn't Jane's. For just a moment, his breath caught in his throat. It was the face of a woman he never expected to hear from again.
Deep in his heart, the part of him that was Roxborough felt a shiver of fear.
Ryan quelled the feeling and gave a warm smile. "Alice, so good to see you. Sorry about the shower, but you should be more honest when you call."
Alice's small mouth grew from a smile to a lascivious grin. "You don't know how long it's been since I've surprised a man in the shower. My, my, aren't we a big boy? And in all the right places too."
Ryan laughed, and it felt good even though it hurt. "What's biz?"
"I thought you should know that I've gone into Rox's host in Panama and wiped all the files pertaining to his spirit-transfer procedure. Everything about memory encoding and personality remapping. It's all been wiped."