Yes, But What if it was Shadowrun (Part 8)?

Again, not technically Shadowrun, just Earth-218 revisited in with cyberpunk elements incorporated...

The summons arrived without ceremony.

A child no older than twelve found Raven delivering groceries to a tenement in the Redmond Barrens.

"Are you Raven?"

He nodded.

She handed him a black envelope. No stamp. No address, just a seal pressed into dark green wax—a dragon coiled around the Seattle skyline. "I was told to give it only to you."

"What did they pay you?"

The girl blinked. "They paid my mother's hospital bill."

The envelope contained a single sheet of thick paper.

Mr. Raven,
You have demonstrated an unusual habit.
You complete dangerous work.
You accept payment.
You give nearly all of it away.
While irrational...
...it is statistically interesting.
Present yourself tomorrow at 1900.
Come armed.
Come alone.
Do not decline.

-- X

The handwriting was precise, a flowing cursive committed to paper by a long-practiced hand.

The address included was for a high-rise on Pine Street, in the financial heart of the city.

Security began six blocks away. Autonomous drones floated silently overhead. Turrets tracked every passing vehicle. Corporate security personnel in clean and pressed uniforms checked identities that had already been confirmed three different ways.

Raven surrendered neither blade nor firearm and no one asked him to. Instead, a woman of Native American descent in an emerald business suit smiled.

"Miss Xacu has requested that you be sent straight up."

The elevator climbed for what felt like forever. The rain became clouds and the clouds became distant weather. Finally, the doors whispered open.

The penthouse looked less like an office than a throne room. Ancient jade statues stood beside VRNet servers. Live bonsai trees grew from planters machined from a metal Raven didn'trecognize. A holographic projector sat upon a table, projecting dozens of glowing financial markets in the air. The city glittered beyond walls of glass.

Curled comfortably upon a platform large enough to park a city bus, was the dragon.
She regarded him with the calm confidence of something that had watched empires rise and fall.

"I've been told that you have survived encounters that should have killed you." Her voice was smooth, her diction perfect, projected directly into his mind.

He nodded, "I've had good teachers and a fair amount of luck."

"I do not believe 'luck' has had anything to do with your success." The dragon's nostrils flared. "You smell...of sugar."

Raven sighed, "Long story."

"I'm sure it is." She studied him for nearly a minute, her haze qas calculating. Finally she spoke. "You know what people call you?"

"Usually by my name," he replied.

She smiled, an expression with an entirely different meaning when a dragon was involved. "I was going to say a statistical anomaly."

"This," she said, "is not a job I can entrust to a corporation. Three teams have already accepted the contract and disappeared. I need someone," the dragon continued, "whose first instinct is not profit."

Raven folded his arms. "I have a price."

"I know." The dragon's smile returned. "It simply isn't money."

She touched the console once more. A scrolling list of hospital records, good-bank inventories, medical debt, eviction notices flashed past too quickly to read.

Hundreds of names filled the display. "I've already investigated your finances." She sounded almost amused.

She reached beneath the table and slid a slim credstick toward him. "One million nuyen."

Raven didn't touch it. "And?"

"Medical debt erased, food shipments, housing, schools." She looked out across the neon skyline. "Everything you've been doing alone... done properly."

Raven was quiet for a long time. Finally he looked back at her. "What do you want me to steal?"