Black bird flies

Eva was having trouble keeping her mouth shut. The alcohol didn't help, though this was only her third drink. People said it was a bad habit to drink on business, but then again, Mr Johnson was paying, and given the place's price range, Eva wasn't missing out. The man had better have some credits near at hand.

She decided she was not on business enough to warrant another sip. She wagered her willingness to interrupt, and potentially wreck the deal, would disappear with intoxication. She took the occasion to check in one more time on their surroundings ; a handy excuse not to follow the boring conversation which she was strictly ordered not to engage in.

The club was still pretty lively, though it was quite difficult to tell with the noise-filtering on. The youths were shuffling each to their own tune, which was pretty amusing to watch from a distance. There seemed to be the beginning of a scuffle near the entrance though.

She felt Eden's hand on hers and turned to him. All his attention was still outwardly turned towards Mr Johnson – he had even hidden the movement under the table so nobody else would notice, and he was scolding her gently on a private channel at the same time. That was the sort of thing you could pull off with modern implants. She discarded the message on her retinal screen with a blink – she didn't need to read it to know what he said about her attention span and drinking on duty. Curse him, but she loved that man.

She wasn't about to be put off so easily, though, and she felt very playful all of a sudden. She grabbed his hand with hers and pulled it to her, stashing it between her thighs. She didn't have the strongest grip as shadowrunners go, but then again, neither did he, and she definitely had the advantage of surprise. He stammered, blushed, and turned to her at last.

Her attempt to not wreck the discussion probably failed at that moment, but Eden's and Mr Johnson's faces both were definitely worth it.

"Bomb voyage" had to step in and save the day, which was a sure sign it was a dire day indeed. His French accent was practised, perhaps too much so. They were making a rather poor impression here – Mr Johnson had specifically asked for the best and, by the look of it, he wasn't too impressed. Their mutual contacts in the shadows had been clear this was a "final run", the kind you do or die trying. It would bring them enough resources for anything they could possibly want, even go legal.

Come to think of it, Eva was not here for the cash alone, and though she didn't mind material comforts, being who she was had a way of opening you to the spiritual value of things. She wanted Eden to be happy, she wanted to exercise her trade, and it's not like job offers for her type were out by the hundred. Besides, there was always the chance she could do some good now and then.

This Mr Johnson was a towering guy, all tense and serious, with the jawline of a footballer. He looked right through them – never in their eyes directly – and had spoken five words since the beginning of the meeting. This was a corporate underdog who couldn't bear to witness real freedom if Eva ever saw one.

She had worked for dozens just like him, using the telltale alias to protect their own identities and still itching to rise in the megalithic hierarchy of their companies. Not a very interesting profile, but as far as Eva was concerned, he was clean, and not about to jump them anytime soon. Not using magic, anyway.

Eva didn't know much about the world before the Awakening, but she could only imagine how different it was before mana came along. To start with, there weren't any elves or dwarves around at the time - they came with the mana, that she was sure. The orks and trolls came in a second wave called Goblinization, which didn't exactly help them to fit in. A whole lot of stuff Awakened and started displaying magical powers - not just metahumans, but also plants and rocks.