>From: malcolmc@spider.co.uk (Malcolm Campbell)
Subject: Transitive Nightfall hits the U.S.A
Date: 19 Jul 91 15:49:08 GMT


This story was written by a friend of mine in fun, tisnt a serious
writing attempt. Its a reflection of whats happening in my "Shadowrun"
Campaign... Comments etc encouraged, characters - please dont use them.

THE FALLEN HEAVEN TOUR- ACCORDING TO ANGEL

     Angel had been paranoid about the security of the flight.  She'd
been paranoid about leaving Transative.  She didn't want their best acts
to get blown up on the plane, but then she didn't want someone to waste
the compound.  Which was the worse to loose? It had been easy really.
She was going to be on the plane.  She worried Solo for weeks about
checking and rechecking the plane and how the faceless enemy, doubtless
hired by Boeing, might blow them all away.  In the end the intrepid,
taciturn, cyborged Solo had yelled at her to let her to do her fucking
job.  And Angel had slunk away guiltily to see Sean, again.
     Sean was Darkstar's closest friend, apart from her, or so she
hoped.  Sean was a spy for the Elven nation or, as Darkstar called him,
an accountant.  He monitored monetary transactions.  He'd stolen over
1.5 million from Boeing for Darkstar's operations.  The thought amused
him, but he'd made sure all traceable links ran to Transative and not
him.  He warned Angel she'd need to get the money back.  It was only a
loan.  But he'd forked out over 600,000 NY from his own account for
Darkstar.  That was a lot of money for him.  He had a flash company car
and a decent bike, but his home was a small one storey out South
Queensferry way.  Angel knew it rather well.
     When she'd first turned to him for help as Darkstar was hauled away
into the night sky and then transported half way across the world, he'd
told her there was only one way he could think of raising the cash and
Darkstar would never forgive her.  She'd threatened to kill him if
Darkstar died and hung up.  Later, hours later, when she'd managed to
get the Japanese hospital, re-gen centre of the world, to take him and
had managed to get a few lines on raising some of the cash, she'd gone
round to see him, begging forgiveness and help.
     She'd meant to be nice about it, sophisticated.  She ended up
crying on his shoulder, then in his bed making love.  Sean was an
unusual lover.  Gentle, rough, whatever she wanted, but always, always,
he held her afterwards and told how much he cared.  Not normal behaviour
in 21st century social life, where few people had time for sentiment in
casual sex.  Darkstar was more likely to get up and walk away grinning.
That was the junk in his head.  He'd fail to catch her mood.  When
he realised he was always contrite.  Somehow she'd managed to break
through the assassin training and cyber-wear in Darkstar's head.  He did
actually love her.
     The monumental achievement of cutting into the heart of that very
dark elf was, Angel occasionally admitted to herself, more than half
Darkstar's attraction.  He'd do things she wouldn't even dream about.
He'd blow people away without a second's thought.  Of course he was
never a casual killer.  Good contracts only, beautifully planned and
enjoyed to the last second, impossible for Angel to comprehend.  He
possessed a darkness she was incapable of and both of them were
strangely attracted to the other.  Between them they might make one
balanced person, the mage and the cyborg-killer.
     Angel had lived with Darkstar for just over a year.  They'd been
together longer than that, but some time during their relationship she'd
moved in and stopped going home to her cramped, downtown flat.  Darkstar
had plenty of space and he found having a mage nearby useful.  Angel
loved his flat, loved the money he thoughtless spent and loved the quiet
evenings when the killer read at home, books about god only knew what,
and she'd snuggle up next to him, just enjoying his warm presence and
the weight of the arm that was thrown carelessly over her.
     Of course there were bad times too.  She'd learnt early not to rile
him.  When really pushed Darkstar's instinct was to kill.  He loved
Angel so he only hit her and walked out.  It hurt inside more than the
bruises.  But she learnt to watch for the mood swings his cyberwear
spawned.  Perhaps the only reason she hadn't left when he first hit her
was what he had said the next day.  She'd come up behind him and hugged
him, half expecting to be thrown off and he'd swung her round and kissed
her.
     "I thought you'd be angry with me for disturbing you," she'd said
half wary, half delighted.
     He smiled down at her, love in his black eyes and said, "Hugs,
Angel, are always welcome."
     It was such a ridiculous thing for him to say, but he'd meant it.
     Faithfulness was never part of their arrangement.  On contract he
was often way for weeks, even months at a time and obviously she never
knew where he was and when he'd be back.  He was arrogantly handsome and
Angel was sure there must be other women in his life, although they
would undoubtedly be less attractive than her.  So she'd asked him about
lovers.  He said he didn't care who she slept with as long as she kept
it quiet and he neither looked a fool nor heard about it, which made
Sean a bit difficult.
     The first time she'd slept with Sean, well seduced him, was the
time he turned up at the flat looking for Darkstar.  He was a stunning
blonde elf, although next to Darkstar he looked only mediocre, and he
had a warm smile.  She'd liked him at once.  Darkstar was away on
another of his trips and was by any reckoning way overdue.  And Sean was
well, available.  And he was good.  She'd almost died when Darkstar had
casually mentioned the concealed vids in the flat.  He'd grinned at her
and assured her there were none in the bedroom so he must have guessed.
He didn't seem at all bothered, but it wasn't until Sean paid her off
for a run she and some friends had done separately that a watching
Darkstar had mentioned this guy from the Elven Embassy was one of his
best friends.
     She'd told him then and he'd asked her puzzled, why she'd want to
sleep with an accountant.  It wasn't until much later she found out this
was a long standing joke between them.  Sean's ability to follow money
transactions through the net without a deck was uncanny.  He and
Darkstar had grown up together and shared a mysterious past that neither
would talk about despite Angel's prodding.  Once Sean had evilly told
her that in the past he and Darkstar used to share women.
     Since the attack that had crippled Darkstar, she and Sean had
become close, very close.  Sean said sleepily once that of course he had
to look after her for Darkstar.  He also told her that he did care very
much.  He didn't have a steady girlfriend.  He didn't want any ties, but
Angel was beginning to suspect that she came close.  Sean didn't even
think of her as human any more and he was a great one for elves are the
next stage of evolution speeches.  She didn't know how Darkstar would
react to their closeness.  Sean suggested they could always share.
Angel bit him and snarled she didn't want to become one of their
toys.
     "Oh, that was when we were young," Sean said stroking her hair,
"Its different now".
     And Angel was suddenly and bitterly reminded that both of them were
in their mid forties.  She was beautiful and 26.  Sean and Darkstar
would pass for being in their mid twenties for at least the next 20
years and possibly much longer.  If it wasn't for them she wouldn't mind
growing old.  Sean didn't understand her fears.  Live for today, he
would say.  You live a dangerous life, Angel, so does Darkstar.  And
then they would both disappear for months and fail to understand why she
was so unhappy; they had all the time in the world.
     The night before they flew out.  Angel let herself into Sean's
flat.  He wasn't there.  She crawled into the large, circular green bed,
Sean's only visible extravagance apart from his two ornamental swords
and waited for him.  She woke up early and alone.  He turned up just as
they were boarding the private jet, roses in hand and kissed her softly and
deeply in front of a mildly boggled Solo.  (It took a lot to boggle
cyborg-Solo).  It was clear that he would have no idea why she could be
upset about his absence last night.  She didn't mention it.  Maybe he
was trying to enforce the idea of no ties. No ties, but to his elven
brother.  They both said they weren't related, but they were closer than
any real brothers she knew.  Close in that strange, distant, elven way.
So Sean had kissed Darkstar's Lady, seen her on the plane, made sure she
was safe and promised to join them at some stage in the tour, whenever
his work allowed.
     Angel sat on her third ever orbital flight, ignoring the stars,
thinking of Darkstar lying in the meditank, thinking of Sean and crying.
The acts pretended not to notice.  She was their boss.
     Darkstar was a very good assassin, who made a lot of money.
Everyone knew what he did, none of them could prove it and none of them
dared say it, but money was one way the feds might get him, so he needed
a money sink.  A casual, unthinking comment from Angel, a trip to a
local concert and Darkstar set up his own music company, stage,
recordings, the lot.  Of course he was too busy to run it and he needed
someone he could trust, at least a little.  So Angel, who was studying
hard to become a decent mage and doing a little running on the side to
earn some cash, suddenly found herself managing director of a company.
It hadn't been as hard as she'd thought.  Angel was smart, very smart.
She also had a good voice and an ear for music. And she was beautiful and
really quite a nice person.  Charm, quick thinking and a battery of good
friends had built the backbone of the company.  Darkstar suddenly found
that Transative Nightfall was making money.  He was surprised and proud.
He spent more money, started talking of a corp and retiring.  Shortly
after he did, or so he claimed, and everything was going really well,
Angel and friends screwed up royally.
     Angel had begun to suspect that Darkstar wasn't retiring
permanently so much as taking a break and saving the money to get his
cyberwear removed.  He was on the edge of psychosis and it had just sunk
in that this was not the way he wanted to remain ..  forever.  The
thought of an unaffected Darkstar made Angel's heart sing.  If he loved
this much now, what would happen when he was back to normal?
     It was when she was dreaming of this that a corp had contacted her
and the others, claimed they knew about the Sony job they'd pulled,
which put the lot of them on a major hit list and offered them more
money than they thought possible for a small, but very tough job.
Ignoring Darkstar's advice Angel and the others had gone for it.  The
elf had been right.  It was a set-up.  A set up by Sony.  By Sony and by
Boeing.
     They were captured and given very few options.  Angel either had to
work on a project that involved her killing other mages for research,
get Darkstar to buy her back or die.  She had been prepared to take the
last option, but Tye managed to buy his way out with two
phone-credit transfers and went running to Darkstar.  He came back with
all the money that Transative had made and a remit to get all Darkstar's
people out.  Sony and Boeing said it was short by a million.  Darkstar
phoned in a hour, when Tye hadn't phoned to say it was all clear, and
threatened the Boeing headman.  He was a very important and powerful
Oriental so it had to be a big threat.  To get Angel back, Darkstar told
him something no-one knew.  He said simply, in Japanese, "I am Ninja."
named his clan and asked if the Boeing man would like to talk to his
wife now.  It had been enough.
     Enough to get them released, although not to get the money back,
and enough for Boeing to hire a rival gang to try and kill Darkstar.
They almost succeeded, which was why Darkstar was in bits in hospital
and Angel was flying to America, desperately trying to raise money so
they would fix him and not turn the tank off.  They'd almost got enough,
but Angel had to get money back to Sean so he could replenish the
missing chunk from Boeing's coffers.  The only good thing to come out of
the whole nightmare was that in healing Darkstar they'd had to take out
all the cyberwear, which had been shot to pieces.
     Angel had killed one of the ninja herself.  Darkstar should have
been able to take them both, but they'd been very unlucky and Darkstar
had been unusually overconfident.  There were a whole string of what
ifs, that shouldn't have happened, and had.  Solo and Darkstar had been
practicing downstairs in the dojo, under the main hall and above the
heating ducts.  They were both tired, unamoured and confident that
no-one was going to work their way in underground after Darkstar had
liberally laced the ducts with mono-wire.  But the ninja had been lucky.
They errupted through the floor.  Their first action was to fire an
awful lot of needles into Darkstar and for the mage-ninja to destroy
Darkstar's gun.  They'd both put up one hell of a fight.  The security
camera had videoed the lot, which is why Angel had got there in time to
blow the mage-ninja away with a lazer carbine and to see Darkstar die.
She'd tried to catch him, but it was beyond her skill.
     Both she and the elf paid a lot of money to have a medical team on
call, a very good team.  They'd re-sussed Darkstar, shredded as he was.
Angel would never forget his aura as they carted him away.  It didn't
even look elven let alone like Darkstar.  And now she was going to share
the entire experience with the world.  The video was forming the
backdrop to their worldwide tour.  She'd called it Fallen Heaven.
     The tour had been Sean's idea.  He reckoned it was their best way
of raising money, short of selling the business, which wasn't quite
worth the money she needed.  Besides selling Transative meant that they
would have lost everything.  The homes of all major staff, including
Darkstar, had been demolished by Boeing's operatives.  Angel had
expected that.  She'd rescued all she thought Darkstar would want from
the flat two days before it went up, including his hash store.  The last
few weeks had been spent building the company's profile, getting air
time for interviews and releasing albums.  The next few weeks would tell
if she'd got it right.  She rather hoped the increased media-profile of
Transative had stopped Boeing from taking further action.  Sean thought
their next move would be to send in a corp army team.  It hadn't
happened, yet.
     Inside a few hours they landed in America, Angel sick with
apprehension, the dwarf band stoned out of their heads and Solo eager to
get them all out and safe.  The first day was spent at the Hotel Angora,
where the bands were under strict orders not too get to out of their
heads.  Angel went down to the venue, well Stadium, with Bytor, the elf
flutist-mage and Lee Apollo the soloist-mage.  Between them they
concocted a special on stage ward, transparent, but impenetrable by
bullets and spells.  Angel wasn't taking any chances.
     That evening she made a local phone call.
     "Master Altara's residence," said the voice of a very English
Butler.
     "Er, hi.  Its Angel.  I said I'd call Altara when we were in town
with the show." She resisted the impulse to call him Master Altara.  He
wasn't hers, but the voice was very compelling.
     "Ah, yes, Miss Angel.  The Master is at home today.  I'll see if he
is available."
     There was a pause and then a pleasant, only slightly accented voice
came down the line.
     "Angel, how are you? So you made the tour.  Is this an invitation
or are you thinking of the little job we were discussing before."
     The little job was another of those ones that offered more money
than Angel had dreamed of.  It worried her.
     "I'm fine Altara.  As far the job goes, I'd like to talk to you
about it, preferably the day after the concert.  But yes, I would be
delighted if you would be my guest tomorrow night."
     "Tomorrow night, hmm. I am a little busy."
     Angel paused.  She wasn't going to beg, even if this was one of the
grossest initates she had ever meant- and even if he was a very, very
cute elf.  What is it I have about pointies? She wondered silently.
      "But I suppose seeing as this is an fairly unique event I
could....  Yes, Angel I would be delighted..  although I'd prefer to
arrive after er Strombringer's set."
      "Actually they're playing twice, Altara, but I'm sure you could
always retire to the hospitality suite when they're one.  Dinner,
perhaps? What would you like me to lay on?"
     "I'm sure you know my tastes, Angel.  Send a car for me an hour
before the performance to the Wall Street Club in 234th Street.  I'll
make my own arrangements for travel home."
     "Sure.."
     "Good, I'll see you tomorrow." Click.
     Hell, knew his tastes.  The only time she'd ever seen him was at
the Mile High in Seattle, when she'd impulsively sent her card over.
She was going to have to get them to fly food over.  It would cost a
fortune, but she had a feeling it could be very useful to be in Altara's
good books.  She'd sent him one of the original tapes of his favourite
band, Unicorn Death, the atonal group and he'd sent her a diamond, by
return post.  The tape had been less than valuable.  Unicorn Death
had a very small following, although countless people, including
Darkstar, had assured her they were very good at what they did.  She
loathed their latest album.  She'd been able to take a full ten minutes
before she felt sick so it should sell well.
     The night of the concert arrived, despite the whole company's
belief it couldn't really happen and they found themselves back stage
with five thousand people, including some of the world's top music
critics waiting out front.  Angel begun to wish she hadn't insisted in
singing too.  Altara was in his box, she'd see him later.  Oh gods of
the earth and air, she prayed, here goes.
     The lights went down, a single spot fell on Bytor, centre stage a
silver flute in his left hand.  A tall, brown haired elf, dressed in a
soft green tunic, earth coloured boots and leggings, looking small and
vunerable on the vast expanse of white stage and then he begun to play.
The flute's rippling voice soared high and clear across the vast
auditorium, it was the saddest sound imaginable.  The tune snatched at
eyes and the back of your throat.  It squeezed your heart gently until
tears fell from your eyes.  It was a song to make the sky weep.  Even
the members of Transative, who knew Bytor worked his magic with music,
were awed.
     The spot on Bytor grew dimmer, until all you could see was his face
and the flute.  The soundtrack whispered into action.  The soft sad
tones of a woman's voice sank these words slowing into the listening
minds:

The Fall of Heaven is over
It happened not long ago
When angels and demons fought
And Heaven fell.

When brave blood spoiled the battlefield
And hearts love died
But still in the graveyard of despair
We remember what has gone before.

     Dazzling light, all the colours of the rainbow, danced across the
stage.  Bytor vanished and Storm Bringer was there.  Three dwarfs loud
raucous, filled with energy, revving guitars like motorbikes exploded
into song.  At least half the crowd roared.  The back screen was
playing.  It showed a truck trundling down towards a well armoured
bridge, the Forth Road Bridge.  It showed frantic preparations by the
National Guard, on the wrong side.

When Heaven falls to Satan's thralls
The days before shall see the end of men
Who plot and scheme against us all
The small people of the world
The ones they thought they could conquor easily
But oh-oh-oh it is not so
But oh-oh-oh it is not so

     The Bridge on the screen vanished in a minor nuclear explosion.  (I
knew that was a good idea, thought Angel backstage.  Darkstar didn't
want me to trust him, but that bridge was dying to go.)

Salute the Highlander
Leader of his Nation
Who would not see his country's enslavement

     (The screen flashed mockups of a Highlander, who'd never existed.
Angel had been afraid elsewise they might think Storm Bringer meant
Darkstar.  The audience were slightly confused.  Not reading their
bloody programmes, moaned Lee.  It'll make sense as we go on, murmured
Angel.  Half of them don't even know about the Highlands resistance,
snarled Bytor, stupid pig ignorant, stuck-up...  Oh stow it, chorused
Angel and Solo together.)
     The music roared on.  The fans cheered.  The lyrics became
hopelessly entangeled unless you were a SB fan, but the beat and the
continual footage of the mini-mushroom kept the crowd going.  Then the
dwarves launched into a series of tracks off their latest album with a
few old favourites like Suck it and See, Why don't you, Suck it and See,
thrown in for good measure.  Angel prayed Altara was somewhere quiet
sipping champagne or stuffing his face on that incredibly expensive
food.
     The set ended in a violent explosion on stage.  Angel had spent two
weeks persuading the dwarves, no they couldn't have a real nuke, not at
the start of the show.  As it was Solo had had to personally remove six
extra parcels of explosives the dwarves had tried to add- just ter make
it more real-like, yer know.  The last from Anvil's metal cod-piece.
They were really, really stoned, said Solo in tones of reluctant
appreciation.
     Gem, only survivor of Gemini, took the stage with a back-up band.
His female partner had been assassinated at Transative by a crazy
Unicorn Death fan.  That was shortly before someone planted a mini-nuke
in their main hall and Angel had defused it.  Angel giggled quietly to
herself.  What a life. What a lot of nukes.
     Gem sang of the loss of his partner, of the decaying of Edinburgh,
of the black zones no-one in their right mind would enter, of the
vampires sighted in the streets, of the toxic spirits of the city..

In the Days before Heaven fell
The Evil stalked the earth
And the best of us fell
The best of us fell

     His guitar screamed bloody tears and the backdrop flashed pictures
of the dying girl, of the black zones, of street battles and could that
be an aeroplane or two with Boeing logo? Almost two thirds of the crowd
were on their feet, swaying, caught up in the battle.  Mandoline Jane
came next.  The famous Mandoline Jane they'd stolen from EMI.  She still
didn't know it was Darkstar, who'd taken EMI's contract on her
boyfriend, shortly before she left the major corp.  Angel thought she
probably wouldn't care now.  EMI had kept her so hooked on drugs, she
hardly known who she was off stage.
     Jane sang of the days when Heaven reigned.  The screen showed
footage of the early days of Transavite, of Darkstar, of Angel, of the
bands, laughing and happy.  She sung sunlight, friendship, hope and
love.

The Brave days of heaven
The Brave days of fortune
Friendship and Love

     She was good, so good.  The crowd warmed to the characters on film,
screamed when they saw their favourite bands and slowly through
Mandoline Jane's music came to like, sympathise with the whole corp.  It
was the longest set of the night.
     Jane left.  The Stage was empty and in silence the screen played
the ninja errupting through the floor of the dojo.  Darkstar and Solo
startled, seeming defenseless, tired and sweating.  And Angel appeared
stage centre.  She sung, quiet simply, of her love for Darkstar.  Behind
her the screen showed him flipping through the air, fighting like a
whirlwind then Darkstar being shot down, again and again.  The audience
were silent, some in tears.  The mages among them awed.  As she sung
Angel manifested her aura for them.  It surrounded her.  It was almost
her image, the face and figure only slightly different as all auras are,
but what caught their attention was the wings.  Angel appeared as an
Angel.  The mundanes thought it was a stage effect, a potent one, but a
stage effect.  The mages knew that this was no initiate skill, Angel was
too dim magically for that, this was real.  An Angel was singing to
them.  Up in his box Altara blinked, then smiled very slowly.  He
appreciated the show.
     Angel left the stage as Unicorn Death began.  They moved slowly
across the stage playing seemingly unconnected notes, the atonal music
Angel hated.  The screen showed Darkstar fall several times, then
changed to the panicking in the security station to the chaos of the
complex and then to the chaos of the average day in the city streets.
Mindless violence, stupid accidents, decaying buildings, children crying
and men in grey suits going about their work mixed with the non-melody
of the band.
     It had been the part Angel was most worried about.  Unicorn Death
was not incredibly popular.  But using them to show the breakdown of
everything, including obviously Transative, was perfect.  Nonsense music
for a nonsense world, both complementing the other.  The fans loved it
and even the Storm Bringer groupies were swaying to an imaginary beat.
     Blind Lee Apollo walked on stage to the final strains of Unicorn
Death.  The screen showed Darkstar fallen, then Angel, and others
sprinting down to the room.  His voice was quiet at first..

"See the fallen
Feel the despair
And know that whatever this world takes from you
It only gets what you give
It only gets what you give"

     Lee went into a building instrumental.  Angel wasted the Ninja on
screen.  Another Ninja got his head blown off by a security sergeant.
The medics came in and Darkstar vanished into a hovership and into the
night sky.  Lee sang louder

"See the fallen
Feel the despair
And know whatever this world takes from you
It only gets what you give
It only gets what you give
FIGHT"

Ninja died again on cue.

F-I-G-H-T screamed Lee.

     And his voice was joined by Storm Bringer, Mandoline Jane, Angel,
Bytor, Gem and Unicorn Death.
     All of them on stage.  Exploding clouds of lights, thunder and
lightening rolled across the stage as Transative with one voice shouted
their defiance.

"It only gets what you give
Heaven Fell
But now no reign of Hell
For you, for me
The people small
We stand against the greatest of them all

Believe in you
Thats all you've got
Don't let them bring you down
Trample the odds."

     Storm Bringer's raw violence, Mandoline Jane's voice of hope, the
Angel, Bytor the pacifist, Gem bereaved, Lee blind but brave, Unicorn
reeking chaos; the crowd didn't stand a chance.  All of them were on
their feet, even the critics screaming for more.  The show had lasted
two hours without an interval and no-one had left the auditorium.
     The bands in turn did a set of their own songs, off their latest
albums.  On the screen pictures of whirling heavens, images on defiance,
cascaded through the songs.  All of them stayed on stage and finally
sang "Don't let them bring you down" once more, adding the final
triumphant line "Heaven lives."
     Backstage none of them could believe what they had done.  "Wow,"
said Solo, "that was good.  I mean really good."
     "Yeah," said Axil looking very confused, "Bet'er than drugs 'n'
sex." He seemed very disturbed.
     Mandoline Jane couldn't stop grinning.  Unicorn Death were suitably
cool in their silver grey trench coats.  Gem was crying, presumably for
Ini.  Lee and Bytor were both higher than kites.  As the group moved off
to the backstage party Angel suddenly remembered Altara.
     He was waiting in his box.  "Well done, Angel!" he said with heavy
emphasis on the final word.  Of course she invited him to the party.  He
declined gracefully.  She couldn't imagine him there.  Altara was
paralyzed from the neck down.  He floated, ate, moved with the sheer
force of his mind alone.  It was unlikely he'd let down any of his
defences among strangers.  Without magic he would be helpless.  Angel
wanted to ask him what had happened, but his dignity as well as his
incredible power kept her quiet.
     "But you will have breakfast with me, won't you?"
     Angel smiled and nodded.
     "I'll send a car then.  About nine am? Unless of course you'd
prefer to come back now."
     It was said with a slight smile and it floored Angel.  He can't
mean, can he, but he's, how, I...  unfinshed sentences chased across her
mind pursued by the fox of Altara's smile.
     He grinned at her confusion.  "Tomorrow then.  I'll look forward to
it." Her arm moved unbidden towards him and he inclined his neck to kiss
her hand.  For once in her life Angel didn't say a word.  Altara floated
out.
     Alone Angel managed to eventually close her mouth.  She thumped a
cushion.
     "Pointies!" she growled.
     "What?" asked Solo materialising in the doorway.
     "Oh, just moaning," answered Angel, "Not going to the party?"
     "Of course I'm going to the frigging party.  Who'der yer thinks
running the F-ing security?"
     Angel grinned. "Tough life, ain't it?" she said.
     "No," said Solo unexpectedly, "I came up to tell you we've just
taken over 6 million in ticket sales down the credit lines since the
show closed and every critic in America is raving about us."
     "S-s-s-six?"
     Solo nodded and passed Angel a phone.  She called Japan at once and
paid off the rest of Darkstar's bill.
     "Party time," she said brightly, ushering Solo out.
     "For some," muttered Solo darkly.
     Angel sauntered off her head in the clouds.  She wished Sean was
here in share in this, but he should join them before the final leg in
Japan.  Or maybe he'd just be elf again and not turn up.  She walked
into the party to be greeted by cheers.
     Angel was for once doing Sean a great injustice.  Nothing short of
an Imperial Order from the Elven Prince of Ireland would keep him away
from Japan.  Although he'd tried to dismiss the thought he knew Darkstar
very well and he knew that the assassin's reaction to the trauma of
having all his cyberwear out, might mean he wanted to be alone for a
while.  And a while for Darkstar meant about seven years, if you were
lucky.  Sean knew he had to be there, for which ever one of them needed
him- only he had this horrible feeling they both would.


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  Malcolm Campbell                          |   Spider Systems Limited
                                            |   Spider Park, Stanwell Street
- malcolmc@spider.co.uk   +44 31 554 9424   |   Edinburgh, EH6 5NG, Scotland