Introducing Aodhan

 

   It had been a long day of riding along with Joseph "Patchcable" von Burg.  An amiable dwarf rigger who seemed to be supporting himself as a mobile street doc.  He took care of those who couldn't afford Doc Wagon or Crash Cart, and even better, those who couldn't get themselves to a street doc.  "Supporting" was a loose term.  The guy was living out of his van.  Aodhan often drove the dwarf crazy by moving some pile of laundry, or medical supplies not put away, or even a drone project that "Patch" had not finished working on the night before. "Stop touching my things!" he'd yell every time.  Still, the guy had hired Aodhan when no one else would.  The gruffy mudbeard had spotted him pushing his Yamaha Growler with a bone-dry fuel tank.  When the dwarf spotted Aodhan’s cyberdeck he offered him a job on the spot.  Securing his PAN and watching his back while he drove through the streets of Seattle.  The guy's patients didn't always pay up.  Which was a problem because that was the basis of their agreement, a percentage of the payments received.  Still, it had kept him fed and, so far, enough Nuyen to meet rent at his apartment in the northern end of Puyallup.  The grumpy little fellow even would pick him up when there wasn't enough money to fuel his bike.  Today's end of the day meal was a platter of Tacos from Rico's Taco Haven Food Truck.  They were good.  They were seasoned well enough to not taste the soybeans.

 "Fraggin' gadaithe.  Can't they see we're tryin' to have our dinner over here?". Aodhan said to Patchcable as he turned to the sound of breaking glass behind them.  Pulling his goggles up and over his eyes, he let the AR begin to feed him information from the matrix.  The thermal images of five bodies lit up easily against the cooler backdrop of the house they were breaking into.  No icons broadcasting.  Definitely up to no good.  Aodhan took another bite out of his taco.  Then a woman's scream and a baby's cry.  "Oh for Frag's sake!"  With that he put his taco down.  He wasn't sure how long it would take the Guards, um, what did the locals call them around here, Knight Errant, but he knew that it would take them several minutes to get here.  Minutes that could mean the difference between a beating, and death, to whoever was in that house.  Especially that babai.

   With a nod of his head, Patchcable indicated that he was OK with Aodhan checking things out.   With that the wiry elf, clad dark blues and greys, slipped out of the passenger seat of Doc/Rigger's van.  He didn't shut the door, not wanting to cause any noise to draw attention to himself.  He moved across the street and entered the yard.  As he did, a tiny eye-spy drone whispered by his shoulder and on into the house.  Aodhan moved smoothly up to the door and peered through the broken pane of glass.  Three figures.  One straight ahead of him.  Maybe the leader?  It was moving hectically, turning around arms pointing, and lots of screaming.  Two figures to his left. One was obviously trashing the place, while one was working a console of some kind.  “Where did the other two get off to?”  he wondered to himself.

   "'Patch, I’ve got one of my Neuro-Stun grenades ready if we need to go in."

   "Yo! Is this one of your drones?" a voice called out from inside.

   Before Aodhan could register that one of the Doc's drones had been spotted, the inside of the house lit up like a miniature sun.  His goggles’ compensation dampened the effects, but not before those pretty little blue dots appeared filling up part of his vision.  Still, he couldn't hesitate.  He popped the pin on his Neuro-Stun grenade, threw open the door, and was able to land the grenade right at the leader's feet in the center of the house.  He didn’t wait to admire his work.  He yanked the door shut, smoothly, without slamming it home.  A second, but very much more subdued, flash of light popped from within the house.  Loud curses in Sperethiel filled the house, interspersed with coughing. 

   Patchcable connected the visual feed from a second drone that he had flown into the house, to Aodhan's PAN.  He placed the image, so it overlaid the map he had placed in the upper left field of view.  He saw that the gas had disabled the leader.  The two thugs to the left were stumbling towards a door leading away, probably outside.  Where was the last intruder?  And the ones screaming and crying?  Another matrix scan. Five PAN icons exiting the house.  “Frag, frag, frag.  What have you done you Keeb!?”  He whipped out his respirator, removed his flat cap, and dropped it smoothly into place over his face.  He counted to five and entered the house.  There, in the center of the house was an elderly woman.  He rushed over and dropped to his knees next to the unconscious woman.  He tugged his shock gloves off anxiously and began feeling for a pulse along her neck.

   "Well done you fraggin' eejit.  You took out someone's Mamó."  The blood was draining from his face as he said it aloud to no one.  Calling on his commlink.  "Better get in here Doc."

Author's Post script:  Yes, i'm still around.  Life has just kept me really busy.  I doubt any of my original readers are even still around, but who knows.  I've kept writing short stories, but not as much as'd like.  This is a new character, and maybe a new 'series',  I guess i'll see.  Whoever stumbles across this one, i hope you like it.