Howdy guys,

Wrote this up following an SR session and a discussion about how a runner gains public awareness. Basically the consensus was that if a runner did a lot of jobs (particularly high profile stuff like wetwork) but managed to keep a low but slowly building public awareness by being careful to leave no evidence etc, then law enforcement and others outside the shadows might know of the character but not who the character is (IE: they've got a good idea of what the character has done and abilities etc, but not identity). So I wrote this short fiction kinda as an example. If people like it then I'll probably write up more installments as the Lone Star guys try to peice together the aftermath of both loner runs and team runs. So without further ado... (and yes, it is inspired somewhat by the humorous CSI scenes from Boondock Saints)

Lone Star Seattle: Episode One

Federal Memorial Bridge
Downtown-Belleview border
Seattle Metroplex
January 23rd 2066

Officer McLoughlin kneeled in the middle of the bridge and regarded the hole in the asphalt. “Got a bullet here!” he called out to the others. Hernandez was the first to come over. He was a good man – from the Lone Star Organized Crime Division. The other two officers were fast behind him – McGruder from SWAT and Higgins from Magical Forensics.
Higgins quickly pulled the forceps from her bag and dug into the hole. Hernandez and McGruder actually looked surprised when a deformed slag of metal was forthcoming out of the forensicist’s efforts. “Well I’ll be damned,” McGruder’s Texan drawl broke the silence.
McLoughlin smiled “There’s your magic bullet McGruder…”
“Not really,” Higgins was quick to point out. She never was much for theatrics anyway. “No residual magic at all…” she concentrates a moment as she assenses the piece of twisted metal before adding “definitely from the murder… .50 cal rifled discarding sabot armor piercing round. The ballistics boys at the lab will be able to tell us more.” She smiles tightly as she places the bullet into an evidence bag and seals it.
Hernandez, McGruder, and Higgins stand and move to head back to the remains of the limousine. As they move, Hernandez says “So, any theories people? We’ve got a dead Yakuza beetle-lord, but none of the escort was anywhere to be found by the time SWAT arrived. We know the Triads wouldn’t risk war, and all the regular mafia heavy hitters have been placed elsewhere. That leaves only outside contractors.”
McGruder nods as he pulls a cigar out and lights it. He grins maniacally at the dirty look Higgins shoots him and blows smoke out through his nostrils as he says “So Shadowrunners then…” He spits out onto the pavement as if to emphasize his disgust with the subject matter of his statement.
“Would you stop doing that? You’re contaminating the scene,” Higgins chided – obviously frustrated with the SWAT officer’s manner.
McGruder just laughs and says wryly “Not like there’s anything to contaminate. Perp ain’t leave much behind but a body and a wrecked limo. Then the Yaks bugged out. If there were any more casualties, they took ‘em with them. Same for the runners. I figure that it was a team. They set an ambush for the motorcade… probably shot the hell out of the escort and took returning fire. In the chaos, I figure that one of the runners used a high powered rifle with that APDS round you found to punch through the bullet proof glass. It hit the target then ricocheted off the frame of the limo through the floor pan into the road. So the driver panics and guns it, then abandons the limo where we found it and runs. Probably he’ll be executed for cowardice as soon as the Yaks find him. Ain’t any other ballistic evidence since we’re in the middle of a bridge… no walls for stray bullets to hit, an’ the bays a tad deep to look for em.”
Hernandez nods his approval of the theory, but Higgins shakes her head and says “Doesn’t scan… that would have left behind more of an astral signature. I’ve just got his death… no other violence.”
Now Hernandez frowns as he says “That’d mean a lone gunman… or an inside job…”
Finally, McLoughlin stands and says “It was the Ferryman… He was alone, and he took the shot from there…” as he points to another bridge about a kilometer away. “The limo was in motion, and the shot was fired from above. That’s the reason for McGruder’s magic bullet theory, no ricochet involved.”
McGruder takes the cigar out his mouth and looks at McLoughlin as if the other officer had lost his mind before saying “Oh please with your damned fairy tales again. There ain’t no Ferryman. Different cases, different killers… you’re stretching it to even call it a similar MO… if you can call a lack of evidence a fraggin’ MO.”
Hernandez looks confused as he says “Ferryman? That a runner or someone we should know?”
Higgins nods thoughtfully “We’ll know more when ballistics come back. It might be the same perp as the others.” She then looks to Hernandez as she explains “Ferryman’s a name that McLoughlin gave a sniper we connected to numerous assassinations. Always the same ballistics report… so either its one rifle that’s gone through a lot of owners or it’s the same guy – and he’s too stupid or too cocky to ditch the murder weapon between jobs… or it means a lot to him… if it is a him that is.”
“So why Ferryman?” Hernandez asks.
McLoughlin smiles and answers “I think that the perp is a lot more than a sniper. Similar MO to some other killings… not all his long range kills are like this but a lot of them are… he likes to take out their eyes. We’ve got a lot of unsolved cases where the perps used pistol rounds to take out the eyes of other victims…”
McGruder chuckles and turns away, his long black duster flapping in the evening breeze as he takes another pull on his cigar and says “Here we go… conspiracy mumbo jumbo mixed with good ole ignorance and superstition…”
“I think they are connected yes… unless of course you buy McGruder’s panicking driver and magic bullet theory.” McLoughlin retorts.
“Ok, I’ll bite… but what made you give this guy that name?” Hernandez states.
Higgins beats the other officer to a reply “Named for Charon… the ferryman of the River Stix. In classic mythology, they said that you had to place a coin on each of a corpse’s eyes so that they could pay the toll and make it from purgatory to the underworld. Some say that if the corpse had no eyes, then Charon would take pity on the soul and waive the fare. Hence the name… if it’s the same killer… of that I’m not convinced.”
McLoughlin nods sagely “Well, believe that it’s the same killer or not, at the very least we know that it’s probably the same sniper… I’d bet money that those ballistics reports will confirm that.”
Hernandez nods “You’ve sold me… on the sniper thing, not the ferryman thing I mean.”
McGruder just shakes his head and says in his gruff Texan way “So you all are telling me that some fraggin’ slot climbed to the top of the other bridge, set up a rifle, took aim at a man in the backseat of a limo going eighty klicks a’ hour - a fraggin’ klick away - and blew his brains out THROUGH SLOTTIN’ BULLETPROOF GLASS!?!?! Sorry, but my granddaddy had a sayin’ that if tha cow smells like a fish then he ain’t eatin’ it.” McGruder turns and starts walking away cussing and muttering about idiots in Seattle.
“So… Detective McCoughlin… is McGruder always like that?” Hernandez asks.
The other two officers simultaneously reply “Yes.”

Scope - that's lovely. Absolutely great characterisation. Nice realism and thought. I think this is excellent flavour material that does exactly what you said you wanted it to do. And yes, I'd certainly like to see more of it. I don't have much constructive criticism, I'd be afraid of interfering with what's already a good style. You start in past tense and end up in present, but I didn't really notice that when I was reading it.

Too short though. Write more!