The journey over the Black Sea was uneventful – as was the crossing of the shoreline as they turned south and headed inland. Despite the Kurdish guerrillas up in the hills and the presence of military units in the area to counter their threat, the radar-absorbing materials and electronic deception systems worked admirably and they sleazed their way through the radar net, helped with some carefully nap-of-the-earth flying from Marius. As they crossed the shore, Kai dialled Patrick to inform him of their approach. He listened carefully, asked for clarification and then hung up.
"Ok, I have a password to authenticate us when we land and some co-ordinates. Sending those to you now, Hunter. Apparently, the people we are meeting are very touchy and suspicious, so we need to play it cool and careful. The other thing is that apparently they are really suspicious about magic – so Tads, be careful."
"I'll make sure I don't cast in front of them or do anything that will draw attention." She sighed. Why were there so many repressed people in the world that feared what they did not understand?
"Hunter, we'd better check the co-ordinates and plan a route to try and keep us out of line of sight of that area for as long as possible. When we're about to crest a ridgeline or round a mountain, we can drop any spells and spirits, and make a clean approach." Hunter nodded to Aswon, and set to work, analysing the map.
"Well, we can keep the spirit on, right?" Kai looked slightly bemused.
"No, Kai – absolutely not. Unless you can get me sat down with them for thirty minutes to explain the difference between a magical spell and the powers of a spirit, they're just going to see magic, and freak out. No concealment, no protection, no astral spotters… we've got to go in clean." Kai grumbled but didn't argue with Aswon, and the rest of the team relaxed a little.
"If we do need a concealment on leaving, I will have to bargain with a spirit again. My services with this one are spent, so it will take me a few minutes. But I can do that when we're taking off, I hope."
"So – what colour scheme do we go for? One of the mega-corps? A merc unit? Ice-cream truck?" The others glared at Hunter, but he just swung the screen round and showed them the preview, smirking as he did so.
"If we go for a large unit of mercenaries or a corporate contractor, it displays a sense of strength and professionalism. I think they will respect that, and it shows that we are not to be trifled with. That might put us in a stronger bargaining position. Either that, or we just go with a non-descript plain colour, like a standard civilian car."
"I'm not sure, Aswon. I think a courier company would serve us better. A professional organisation, but one that travels a lot, and could conceivably have business out here – unlikely as that seems. It doesn't pose a threat or try to imply a sense of entitlement like a corp scheme would, but it also stays away from the civilian side of things." Hunter cycled through the half-dozen courier companies they had programmed into the controller, and settled on one that was a suitably drab and dour brown, that hopefully would also help them not stand out from the mountainous terrain too badly – certainly better than the lemon yellow version of a rival firm.
As they flew closer to the arrival point, Hunter monitored the map closely, and when they were about to crest a ridgeline, called out to Tads to drop the spirit concealment from the vehicle. From here on, they were theoretically in line of sight of the destination, and could be spotted by any observers. Tads grumpily complied, muttering to herself about backwards people with no appreciation for the spiritual world.
They closed in on the position, Marius angling away from it slightly as he came in, to allow him to do a quick orbit of the landing site to assess it. As he did, he monitored the take from the sensor feeds, as did everyone else – Tads watching through the optical feeds while everyone else was glued to the screens installed in the back, looking over the same data as Marius.
"Nothing magical showing, I can't see any pollution or toxicity that would indicate a background count or mana warp. No guard critters or spirits in astral space," Tads called out as she cycled through the feeds.
"Port side, on the ridge line – two man team wearing cammo fatigues, one with a long arm. Sniper team, probably – one shooter, one spotter. Can't make out the gun from here at this speed though, but definitely has a sizeable optic on it." Aswon squinted at the screen, trying to wring out any more detail, but further classification eluded him. Shimazu and Hunter reported at least two other teams spotted on the other mountain slopes surrounding the valley.
"Stream and an old trail in the valley floor, and what looks like an old mining works. I can see about twenty tents down there, too – traditional style and materials, not modern. What looks like at least thirty people too – half of them running for cover, the other half aiming at us with rifles." Kai sounded intrigued, rather than alarmed though, so the others didn't worry too much about so many guns being aimed at them.
"Look at the patch of heathland, on the north side of the valley. About a third of the way down. What is that? It's metallic, and has a power source…" Marius placed a graphic over a suspicious lump on the vegetation, and kept the image steady as he zoomed in, the sensors compensating for the motion of the tilt-wing as it continued to orbit to the location.
"What the hell? How and why do they have THAT?" Aswon seemed genuinely surprised, leaning back from the screen with a puzzled frown. The others waited for him to finish his thought, Kai giving a little cough after a few seconds. "Sorry – it's a Goliath missile battery. Seen them…um…twice, I think? Really weird bits of kit. It's a SAM turret, but look – watch the area of purplish heather in the middle of the screen there. See the patch of colour shifting to the top of it?"
Marius put another targeting box over the indicated heather, and they could see the larger patch slowly crawl closer to it, seeming to ooze across the landscape. He was also refining the sensor feed, trying to analyse the data from the passive sensors and interpret their mapping into a 3d model.
"It's a box launcher, three missiles on each side of the targeting array. Fairly typical for most SAMS – but instead of being mounted on a wheeled or tracked body, or a fixed quad-brace, it's on a powered arachnid drone body. Each of the legs has a fairly big pneumatic array that can lock it in place for firing, but also lets it traverse some crazy terrain – or do stuff like keep it level on a fifty degree slope. And the legs are draped in cammo netting and heat-reflective materials, to try and keep it hidden."
"It can't move fast though, surely?" Hunter asked, studying the screen again. "I mean, it's not going to dodge out of an incoming strike?"
"No – not a direct launch. But if you had satellite data, or an overhead recon flight and were planning to launch a missile strike based on that using indirect fire – it's enough that the SAM has walked far enough away from the initial location that it probably wouldn't be hit. That forces the enemy to do active surveillance, which gives the defenders a chance to spot them. I think I saw them used first in the '52 season of desert wars. We've seen the desert right, spotting stuff by location is a pain, so everyone was just relying on GPS coordinates. Well, these proved to be a real surprise for some, and it messed up their whole plan."
"So how come they don't use them everywhere?" Hunter was looking at the screen and thinking about the engineering this represented and the change to the tactical environment it would pose. What Aswon was saying sort of made sense – he was after all, designed to do the very thing required by technology like this – creep into a location and keep direct observation and provide instant tactical knowledge.
"Well, for starters they're way more expensive than a normal SAM battery. And they're an absolute bitch to maintain. Reliability used to be a big issue, and that's not something you want from a defensive weapon now, is it? They're also bigger and more obvious, and not actually any better at their normal function than a regular SAM… most people didn't think they were worth it. Though I wonder if that's more because of the environments I was working in – maybe mountains like this are where they really shine?"
Marius was bringing them in for a final approach in the time it had taken for their discussion, killing their forward thrust and slowly lowering them to the ground. There was a bunch of dust and dirt thrown up from the rough-field site, though not as bad as landing at the quarry north of Volgograd. They touched down lightly, and Marius dropped power on the engines, spooling them down as quickly as possible to reduce the dirt in the air – and lower the amount being pulled into the engine intakes.
"Ok, Shimazu, with me, I'll pop the hatch and talk to the ground contact. Hunter and Aswon, stand by for covering fire, Marius to monitor and ready for extraction if it all goes sideways. Tads, stay concealed inside, please, but be ready to support as needed." Kai looked around and got a serious of answering nods. They got up quickly, gathering gear and stashing larger weapons out of the way. Aswon was ready by the side door that faced towards the tents, ready to slide open the panel and deploy the gyro-mounted machine gun from the case built into the door frame.
"Ok, engines have stopped, one target approaching, armed and ready to fire. Got at least a dozen of his friends covering him. Oh – and you'll be pleased to know that we appear to be under the effective engagement envelope of that Goliath."
"Thanks, Marius. Ok, popping the hatch, game time." Kai put on a slightly optimistic smile, hit the control next to the hatch and then forced a deep calming breath through his body. The reassuring bulk of Shimazu stood next to him, hand resting lightly on the grip of his sword. It did give Kai a little burst of confidence though – he'd seen Shimazu react often enough that he knew that if anyone got inside a five metre radius and decided to get up to some funny business, they'd be dead before they knew it. After that is when it got tricky, of course…
As the ramp hit the ground with a metallic scrape, he slowly descended, heading towards the figure approaching him. He looked to be of average height and slender build – lean and toned, probably from a life of manual labour and climbing hills on a barely adequate diet. A fabric wrap covered most of his head and face, keeping him relatively anonymous. The AK-97 in his hands was aimed firmly at Kai though, never deviating from his centre of mass. It was battered and scratched, but had that strange dangerous metallic sheen to it – not a show weapon, this was a familiar and personal tool to the man.
"Greetings, my friend. I hope that the world is treating you well, and looks favourably upon our meeting!" Without knowing more about the culture, Kai stuck to a fairly generic greeting, not calling on any deities in particular or invoking any kind of significant word usage. He rattled off the password that Patrick had given them, keeping his hands in front of him and moving slowly as he did so, spreading them wide and with palms upturned to show no hostile intent.
The man grunted, then gave the counter-phrase back – in theory reassuring Kai that he had the right man. He pointed at the stack of containers visible in the back of the cargo area, before speaking in accented but passable English.
"The third one in from the end, in the second row. Bring me that box." Kai smiled at him, then called over his shoulder loudly and repeated the instructions. A moment later Hunter appeared, rifle slung over his shoulder and started to move boxes around, clearing the way so he could grab the indicated cargo. It took a minute to get them unstrapped and shuffle the box in the first row out of the way, but then Hunter manhandled the box down and dragged it down the ramp, laying it on the floor to the side of Kai and their contact, then retreating to stand behind Kai on the other side of Shimazu, standing with hands on his hips and displaying his impressive physique.
The contact called out, presumably in Kurdish – certainly none of the team understood what he said – and then slung his rifle. The remainder of the camp had them under observation, rifles aimed at them. The mix of men and women were dressed in a hodgepodge of different cammo clothing, patched here and there with contrasting materials, along with a variety of belts, pouches, head-dresses and other equipment. Clearly it had come from a wide variety of suppliers and time periods, and made it clear they were not a military unit from a government or corporate source. Despite their lack of uniformity, they were well spread out, either standing in a relaxed pose that would give them a stable firing base, or crouched by rocks and boulders giving them excellent cover. Their positions covered perhaps 120 degrees around the team, giving them a wide firing arc and spreading them out so grenades or automatic fire could only reach perhaps two or three of them in any one attack.
The man crouched, and reached down to grab the security tie at the left hand end of the box, twisting it so he could read the number. His other hand rummaged in a pouch and pulled out a sat phone, then with a practiced one handed motion flipped out the antenna and hit a speed dial, before raising it to his ear. They waited while his call connected and he read out the security tag ID to the person on the other end of the phone – then repeated with the second and third tags as well. It displayed a level of paranoia and suspicion they'd not really encountered before, and they wondered just how far this would go.
Apparently satisfied with the security tags, the man pulled out a knife from a leather sheath, slicing quickly and easily through the security tags. The Janbiya was about twenty centimetres long, with a wide blade at the hilt that narrowed and curved slightly towards the tip. It didn't look that impressive as a weapon – certainly nothing compared to Shimazu's sword or the common fighting knives from the likes of Cougar or Ares – but the ease with which it cut through the security seals let them know it was razor sharp.
The knife was replaced and the lid flipped back, revealing the interior packed full of explosives and ammunition. Another shouted command in Kurdish, and two people approached from the camp, shouldering their weapons so they could each reach into the box. One man pulled out his own Janbiya and cut open a package of commercial blasting explosive, and then pulled out a slender wooden box. He flipped open the lid and pulled up a brass rod, then attached a tiny set of pans to a yoke balanced upon it, making a little set of scales. Carefully he sliced off a sliver of the blasting compound, and delicately weighed it in the pan, until he had 5 grams of explosive measured out. He sealed everything up again, and then headed away from the camp and the tilt wing towards the stream, and fiddled with the explosives and a small spool of wire.
The other man grabbed one of the boxes of ammunition and opened up the plastic container, then rummaged through the interior, grabbing a single round of explosive from deep inside the box. Kai wondered at the activity for a moment, contemplating what must have happened in the past to make them so suspicious. He guessed they'd had a deal once from some smuggler or provider that had perhaps only sold them 20% of the goods they were after – the top 20% of the boxes being real and the rest underneath either duds or just filler. Well, it would take a bit of time, but not that long in the scheme of things, and waiting patiently wouldn't do them any harm.
The second guy grabbed the round of 12mm ammunition and worked it into the action of his sidearm, then headed off at a brisk stride towards the tents, disappearing from view. They heard a bleating, and a few moments later, he emerged again, leading a dishevelled looking goat by a rope to a clear area. The goat trotted along behind him, unaware of any nefarious intent, and soon found itself in a clear area with the rope tied around a large boulder, while the man backed off to about ten metres. He carefully sighted, then called out in a questioning tone. Their contact shouted back, and the man fired his pistol.
The head of the goat exploded violently as the explosive round hit it in the side. Blood fountained from the neck, and the creature slumped to the ground, while the boom of the shot echoed around the valley. Just as the boom started to fade, there was another noise, this time a sharper 'crack' as the other man set off the sliver of explosives using a small battery attached to the spool of wire. The explosive sound was a more immediate bark, bouncing back and forth from the rock slopes as the sound wave propagated outwards. Even before the sound had stopped, the engineer had gone back to the blast site and was looking at the rocks and ground, presumably checking on the explosive power of the material. He called back, and gave a thumbs up to their contact, apparently satisfied with the quality of the blasting compound.
It was like a switch being thrown. Their contact pulled down his face covering and smiled at them, revealing a double row of slightly yellow teeth fixed none the less into a big smile. He shouted something to his men, and almost as one, the rifles were lowered, and then slung over shoulders or let drop onto their slings. People resumed whatever they were doing, amongst the tents, while a dozen or more headed towards the back of the tilt wing, now smiling and joking amongst themselves.
The head of the militia reached over to shake Kai's hand, vigorously shaking it several times with his spare hand clasped over the top. As the men and women from the camp reached them, he finally released his grip on Kai's hands.
"Ok, guests will bring boxes out. Teams will open and check cargo, then move to the storage areas." He smiled and nodded, then turned to face Kai, waiting for him to nod in agreement before waving his troops forward. As the boxes were bought to the edge of the ramp, teams of two were ready to receive them, and bring them down to the flat land behind, moving out of the way of the next pair before slicing open the seals and checking the contents of the boxes. There was good natured gossip going on amongst them, and both Aswon and Hunter strained to hear, trying to pick up the basics of the language.
A pair of women approached from the tent with a large and battered tray, sporting a carafe of coffee and a large plate of sweetmeats. Refreshments were offered to the team – the coffee was black and strong, the sweets loaded down with sugar and bursting with strong flavours. Any hostility or suspicion seemed to have been completely banished, and the guerrillas laughed and joked as they offloaded the cargo, or shared their beverage with the team. Marius was quick to ask for someone to grab him something to eat and drink, and make sure he didn't miss out on the local brew.
A few minutes passed, and the locals had offloaded all but the last box. The team could see several pairs of men and women struggling up the slopes with boxes, heading up the steep inclines with the heavy packing crates held between them, heading for large patches of vegetation or rocky outcroppings.
A radio keyed up, and a rushed and garbled message started to burst forth. The leader of the group listened carefully, and then dropped his food, his hands grabbing his rifle and bringing it up swiftly to bear on Kai.
"Put your hands in the air!" All around them people dropped their boxes and similarly grabbed their weapons, bringing them up in a concerted wave to cover the team. They might not have been a military unit, but that didn't mean they were not capable of acting in unison or switching from a relaxed stance to a combat focus in the blink of an eye. The team froze, caught flat-footed by the sudden and very severe reversal in attitude. Shimazu was pretty sure he could strike at the leader – kill him even – in one swift sword blow. But after that, pretty much everyone but Marius would probably get shot in very short order.
"What is the matter? What's wrong? Have we offended you?" Kai asked, as he slowly raised his hands, cup of coffee in one and half-eaten sweet in the other. Shimazu followed suit, though his hands were empty – his training and culture had precluded him having anything tying up his hands while he was 'on duty'. Marius was still in the cockpit, and Aswon was back in the hold with Tads, somewhat out of sight, while Hunter was at the top of the ramp, relaxing after humping all the cargo out.
"You have been seen – before! You are our enemy!"
"I'm sorry – but we've never been here before, or seen you. As far as I am aware, nobody on my crew has ever seen you before. Whatever you think we have done, I assure you we haven't!" Kai spoke slowly and calmly, trying to defuse the situation. The rest of the team took their cue from him, trying to stand as still as possible and not give off any sign of aggression. They saw though the entire camp go back on alert – people on the slope raising their rifles and aiming down at them, gun barrels aiming at them from behind boulders and out of ravines, from behind tents.
"Could this be from somewhere in Constantinople?" Tads murmured, trying to remain still and quiet and hoping that nobody was targeting her specifically. She was inside the hold, and it was fairly dark inside – but with that many guns pointed at the craft, she wasn't entirely sure she was safe.
"Could it be from that car bombing near the temple?" Hunter mused, "There were people running around all over the place – maybe we got pegged for being the bad guys there?"
"That doesn't feel right. The imam looked after us in his hall, and got someone to help us. I got good vibes from him, I don't think that's where this is coming from." Aswon was just as quiet as Tads, while he slowly inched backwards, getting back towards the sliding hatch and the stowed machine gun.
"There's obviously been some mistake. Why don't I come and talk to you, and get this all sorted out?" Kai suggested.
"Yes – you come with us, and we find out what you know – all of you. All of your crew, out of there. NOW!"
"Well, sure, most of us can come – but not the pilot. He's wired into the craft you see, that's how he controls it."
"I know what a rigger is, just get him to unjack. Don't take us for fools." The grip on the AK tightened, and Kai saw the set of his jaw and the anger making his nose flare. The guy was ready properly upset about something, and he'd need a better excuse.
"Look, we can't unplug him it's… complicated. We had an issue with the ship, and it got horribly polluted. We've had ourselves inoculated, but it's not safe for anyone else to go in there." Kai tried to make it convincing, but it sounded thin. Tads and Shimazu were both watching the contact from the astral, and they saw his aura change – the hostility burning like a flame and his anger growing.
"That guy looks ready to kill Kai. He's running out of patience."
"I agree with Tads. His posture and expressions indicate that he's willing to kill, and the more I look at him, the more I think he's willing to die for what he believes in. I don't believe he's bluffing." Shimazu came through faintly on the radio as he tried his hardest not to actually speak – they'd not really worked out how sub-vocalising worked, and without the cyberware implanted in Hunter and Marius, it was a lot harder than they made out.
"I don't want to alarm anyone, but I'm picking up three laser sights now tracking across the vehicle. I've followed them back, and it looks like there are at least three crew served machine guns up on the slopes buried in caves or tunnels. All three look ready to fire, so please don't do anything to encourage that." Marius spoke quietly but firmly, and the team picked up the meaning behind his words. Armoured or not, there was a limit to how much fire their bird could take. If the weapons were dug in and mounted on tripods or mounts attached to the rocks, there would be no recoil for the crew to battle against – and their fire would be significantly more accurate. On the ground, unable to dodge, a concentrated stream of fire could overwhelm their armour, punching through it given enough time. And there were parts of the craft where the armour was thinner or non-existent by design – engine intakes, propellers and other key systems were all much easier to damage, and as a sitting duck it was likely the enemy could walk fire into those areas and launch a crippling attack.
Fighting their way out of this was becoming less and less likely – which meant diplomacy and negotiation was their best – if not only – hope.
"Fine – fine, we'll come along. But I was serious – our pilot cannot unplug quickly. Something to do with his systems, I don't understand the technicalities. I think it's to do with the aerial drones we have on patrol, a few thousand metres up. Something to do with if there's a loss of signal, they assume we've been killed or attacked and follow their instructions. The last thing we want is them swooping down and firing on the tents with cluster bombs and explosive rounds."
The man shouted a warning, a long and angry sounding stream of Kurdish, and they saw troops closing on their position and moving to the sides, creating a path between them leading to the tents. In the distance they saw a change in the Goliath battery – arms or lifting jacks raised the cammo netting and the pistons went to high speed, moving the system in a series of wild lurches across the slope quickly. It appeared they were taking the threat of aerial support seriously, and were trying to make their own defences harder to hit.
"Kai, I think I've spotted one of the bunkers that Marius was talking about. It will take me a few seconds for each one – but I can reshape the rocks to close them up and prevent the crews firing, without killing them. Just so you know."
"There's no need for anything hasty," Kai transmitted to Tads, hoping she would get the message that was also aimed at their contact. "Why don't we go to your tent, and you can explain what has upset you, and we can try to work out how to resolve this. I had hoped we had a business deal here, and that everything was satisfactory. But we'll comply with your orders." Kai used his words carefully, ensuring their contact felt like the dominant party, but also reminding him of his professional duties to his men and his cause. Hopefully in his tent, in his own 'place' he would feel more in control and less likely to be jumpy.
Shimazu was looking around, evaluating the position of the Kurds around him and working out the order to assault them if it became necessary. First he'd tumble forwards while drawing the sword, and as he came up he'd split their contact in half from his genitals to his skull, then he'd strike sideways to the left, looking to decapitate the guy with the red and white face covering. From there… his mind continued to work out a plan of attack as his eyes flickered around the crowd, evaluating threats – then suddenly stopped as he recognised a face and memories came flooding back. He nodded his head in a direction as he spoke, pointing with his chin.
"Kai – over there. Woman by the tent. Pretty sure that was the leech seller in Sinope. You know, where we got stuck in that traffic jam, and then there was the trouble?" They were all walking towards the tent now save Marius who was still jacked in – a single guerrilla moving in to the cockpit and sitting in the co-pilot's seat where she could keep an eye on him, her pistol aiming at his torso.
"Yes, that does look like her. Mind you, it's also where I hit that child in the face with the truck door and caused a bit of a scene." Aswon sounded a little guilty over that, remembering the horrible sounds and the wails of the child as it was thrown off the truck to the ground. "But while that was awful for the child, I think this is more likely to be about the power station."
Shimazu spoke to Kai in Mandarin, hoping that nobody but them would be able to understand, and advised Kai that he was pretty certain he could take the leader hostage or kill him in a single move – if required. Kai told him to play it cool though, and continued to follow their captor, raising his hands further and smiling as he received a dirty look following his speech.
Two men pulled aside the tent flaps and they were pushed into the dim interior. Hunter and Shimazu tensed as they were pushed and shoved, wanting to lash out in defiance. Aswon rolled with the push, having seen far too many angry crowds and insurgents over the years to play their little game, and settling for passive compliance – for now. He saw that Shimazu still had his sword in the scabbard, and both he and Tads had their extendable staffs with them. Clearly the Kurds assumed that their guns gave them an advantage, and hadn't considered or even had an awareness of how the close confines of a tent changed the dynamics of a fight significantly.
The guards pushed them down onto the ground in a line, then moved to the other side of the square tent, standing in a second parallel line about four metres away. Aswon ducked his head down to hide his smile as he mentally played through the potential action in his head. Tads throwing a stun ball across the tent, knocking out 75% of them in an instant, leaving the team able to act as she couldn't see them on either side of her. Shimazu striking forward with blazing speed. Hunter demonstrating that a man with an AK was not scary to someone who had faced off against a grizzly bear – and won. He got control of his smile and looked up again, with a suitably grave expression.
The tent opened again, and the leech seller came in, carrying a small computer with her. She and their contact babbled away at each other in rapid fire Kurdish for about two minutes, apparently arguing over how they should proceed – in the end it appeared that she got her own way, and the man looked angrily at them and then waved and spat out a few more words, before heading to the corner of the tent and squatting by a low table to grab himself a drink.
She moved up towards Aswon, and held the computer near his head, making sure the microphone pickup was aimed at his face.
"Say…Boulevard Junction." Aswon repeated the two words, enunciating clearly and watched as the screen displayed a wave form analysis of his voice. The device considered the data for a moment, then made a guttural noise, flashing a red warning box on the screen. She shrugged and moved on to Kai, next in line.
"Say… Access Code." Kai repeated the line, using a fairly normal voice and watching her carefully, trying to work out what this was about. Once more the computer analysed the voice print and gave the same result. She continued down the line, testing Tads, Shimazu and Hunter with the same results. As she reached the end of the line, the man in the corner spat out a few words – though they were still gibberish to the team, it sounded very much like an 'I told you so'. She responded by pointing through the side of the tent in the general direction of the tilt wing, clearly indicating that there was one person not yet tested. The man sighed, but didn't argue, and she turned on her heel and swiftly left, taking the computer with her and striding towards the craft.
"Now, what have we upset you so mu..." The man cut off Kai with a sharp chopping motion, and went back to his coffee. He still seemed to be angry, unwilling to engage in any form of communication. His men continued to point guns at them across the space, watching and waiting for word from their commander.
The leech-seller entered the cockpit and held the laptop up with one hand, fumbling in her pocket for a small radio. She managed to pull it out and set it to transmit, then called out to the tent, speaking in English.
"I am with the last one." She fumbled for a moment then told the recumbent body to speak. "Say 'Traffic situation'." Marius heard her perfectly fine, and decided to play along with her strange request. She seemed confused for a moment when his response came out of a bulkhead speaker rather than his mouth, but apparently it was loud and clear enough for the computer to hear. The waveform displayed, the calculations made – but this time the dialog box appeared in green and the computer made a much more positive 'ding' of success.
"I knew it! Turkish intelligence! Commander, this proves it – they're the secret police!"
"Absolutely not!" Kai retorted quickly. He had to stop this crazy assertion before it gained traction, or they were doomed. Whatever strange logic they were working on, he had to discredit – and quickly!
"Oh really. Well then, listen to this!" There was a moment's silence, and a recording started to play. It had the odd hiss of static and occasional robotic artefact common to digital transmissions with low bandwidth – but it was unmistakably the voice of Marius.
'Listen carefully. This is officer Shariz from the Millî İst-ih-barat Teşk-ilatı. My access code is 993-J45-T. I have a situation with two officers down, with three members of your division in attendance. Do you have officer with ID 5993 at the scene of a traffic collision at the Barbaros Boulevard junction with Yildiz Posta?'
The recording stopped, and the team suddenly had an inkling of what was going on. Tads and Hunter in particular, their minds raced back to the road accident in Constantinople, when the random guy had jumped the lights and hit Tads, knocking her off her bike and breaking her leg. And Hunter – deciding to shoot his car when it looked like he was trying to flee the scene.
Their memories were interrupted though by a snigger. Aswon tried to supress it, but another burst out, a wet snigger of mirth that refused to be suppressed. Then he guffawed. It wasn't enough, and a moment later a full-on belly laugh burst forwards. He wasn't a broad man – all of his energy had been spent growing up rather than out, so his rib-cage was not broad enough to give him a particularly deep voice. But the humour also stripped away any vestige of control from him. He wasn't laughing like a regular person watching a comedy show. He was laughing at a much more primal level – the level where noises more like monkeys managed to form, along with tears that couldn't be held back. The kind of howling that led almost to hypoxia – like that strange feeling of choking you get when violently throwing up, wondering if your body was going to betray you.
The guards were surprised. Their commander was surprised. The team – they were even more surprised, wondering just what Aswon was up to. But he just rocked back and forth, his dark ebony skin wrinkled around his cheeks as his chipmunk smile pulled his flesh, while gales of laughter burst forth.
"Aswon – this isn't helping!" Kai muttered.
"I… i… sorry,….i…. pfft…. Whohooohoooho… all." He took a deep breath, and tried to calm himself, and then just as he was about to speak, another giggle escaped. He glanced over at the guards looking at him with utter confusion on their faces, and the angry commander and distracted Kai, and it sent him off into a fresh gale of laughter. It took another twenty seconds before he bought it under control, and managed to splutter out a sentence without breaking into fresh fits of the giggles – and only by keeping his eyes closed so he didn't have to make eye contact with anyone.
"All this trouble. All this, caused by one asshole who ran a red light. Well, I guess we have our karmic payback for what happened to him. And we never saw it coming!" He started to giggle again, and they saw him biting his lip to try and keep his composure.
"What I think my friend here is trying to say is – we're pretty good at lying when we need to, and if you give us a few minutes we can normally come up with a better story than our craft being polluted and dangerous." Kai shrugged as the commander turned to face him, watching the man's expression carefully.
"We lie, we run the borders, we bribe officials. We do deals on the quiet – and when we run into trouble, we lie our little asses off to get out of trouble. Let me tell you what happened, and why Marius gave that little speech…." He started to describe the broad strokes of their stay in Constantinople, six months ago, leading up to Tads and Hunter working at the truck, then crossing the rush hour city to get back to them, and the unfortunate incident with a random driver who hit the gas at the wrong moment.
The commander listened, but Kai could see he wasn't convinced, so Kai reached into his memory, and described the scene more carefully, adding details of the sights and smells of the city, the feelings of those in the truck as they listened over the radio. The alarm in Hunter's voice as the cops turned up and they realised the trouble they could be in. A thought popped into his head, and he called out over the room, making out that he was using the commander's radio to call to the leech seller in the truck – even now not wanting to give away the fact that they had their own communications.
"Marius! Please tell me that the call you made over the commlink of yours was recorded, and you have it on your deck?"
Fortunately, he did – and he responded by playing it back. They heard the conversation as it was relayed to Marius through the truck's systems – the frantic discussion of how they were going to get out of this, and the preamble where Marius outlined his plan. Then there was the call – this time without the jitter and wobble in the digital recording. Exactly the same cadence of speech, the same words, the same content. On the clearer recording they could make out the background noise of the call centre, and the change in pitch of the operators voice as they got excited for dealing with a call that was intriguing. He let the whole conversation play out, then spoke up himself.
"I have the conversation available to export onto an optical chip for you to run through your computer. I assure you that I did make the call, but that we are nothing to do with Turkish Intelligence. We just used that as a cover to make our escape from the police, for the illegal use of a handgun."
"Come on. Think it through. We're not Turkish – none of us are from the area. I mean, Aswon is from Africa, Tads is up from the North Pole," She shook her head, but kept quiet – this was not the right time to disrupt his flow, "I'm from Mongolia and Shimazu is from Japan. Marius is as German as they come, and Hunter is from the UK. None of us have any sympathy with the Turkish government at all, and we're certainly not going to be trusted by them to work for their intelligence agency. That wouldn't make sense would it? Would it?" He watched carefully, and saw the micro-movements as the commander digested his words. He wasn't even aware he was shaking his head the motion was so small – but it meant that he believed Kai, at least at some level.
"You can check the footage from Marius, and run it through your machine. I understand why you're so careful – the Turkish authorities want to kill you and end your uprising. But if we were really intelligence agents, then we wouldn't have let you take the guns and explosives up into the mountain, would we? Or they'd be a drone strike on the area? Or a company of troops invading the area, wanting to capture you all for interrogation. But there isn't, because we're just a bunch of dodgy smugglers, doing a job for Patrick to try and earn some money. There's no plot – just greed."
Kai had started to use his powers, letting the words carry subharmonics and suggestions, building up magical potential and using his fine motor controls to mirror microscopic movements back to the Kurdish commander. He reinforced his statements, going over each of the points again, showing the consistency of their story and filling in the details of their time in the city and their experience at Sinope.
The others were quiet, recognising "the voice" and waiting for it to work it's magic. Sure enough, the hostility seemed to diminish as Kai talked to the commander, spending a few minutes to point out all the holes in their conspiracy theory, and reassuring them of their bona-fides. It was a masterful piece of negotiation, and the rest of the team wondered why Kai wasn't always this convincing – but were glad that he could be, when it really mattered.
There was a click, as the commander uncocked his pistol and put the safety on, before thrusting it back into his thigh holster. It appeared that he'd made up his mind, and he barked instructions out loudly. The line of troops all put their weapons on safe before looping slings over their heads or shoulders, and scurrying around to collect cushions for the team – who had abruptly transitioned from prisoners or spies, to honoured guests, it seemed. He continued to talk into the radio, and by now both Aswon and Hunter was starting to pick up words and gain a glimmer of understanding – it appeared that someone was getting a bit of a dressing-down and told to be a lot more careful with her accusations.
As people started to flow into the tent carrying refreshments and fuss over them, Kai called over to the commander. When he had his attention, he bowed a little, then spoke clearly, and perhaps a little louder than was necessary.
"Sir – I understand what you were doing. These are dangerous times, and you are responsible for the lives of all of these people. But more – you're responsible for the idea and the cause of what you're doing. So I, we – we all understand why you had to do that. You had to be sure. It was not personal against us, and we don't have an issue with it. You were doing what any good commander would do, to keep your troops and your mission safe."
The rest of the team sipped at their coffee and munched on some more sweets, leaving it to Kai to do some more sweet-talking. Carefully Kai laid out all the good things he had done, making sure his troops knew just what a good commander he was, and how clever he'd been in using the electronic information that he'd gotten – and that it wasn't his fault that other people wanted to strike at the Turkish authorities, too.
Fortunately Kai stopped before the butter got too thick, but it seemed to have done the job – the actions of their commander were all justified, and the troops heard the apparently genuine admiration in Kai's voice and the compliments paid to them. Kai didn't know if he needed the support – but he figured that making sure he didn't undermine his position and was seen as an ally was worth plenty, and certainly more than a few minutes of talking. And hey – if they worked out he was lying through his ass and talking bollocks – well that just reinforced the idea that they'd lied about being Turkish Intelligence too, didn't it? Win win, as they say.
Back in the tilt-wing, the leech seller deactivated the computer with slow, deliberate clicks, then gestured for the other young woman to leave them. When she'd gone, she squeezed into the co-pilot's seat herself and looked out of the windows for a few moments, as if searching for the right thing to say in the harsh landscape.
"I see you got your truck upgraded then?"
"We still have it – and it has a special place in my heart. But it wasn't the right vehicle for this job. It would have done it, but much slower, and that wasn't right for this job. And it's not as discreet."
"Not as discreet?"
"Well, perhaps not as quiet is a better phrase. We were most of the way around the valley and your SAM battery still didn't have us locked up."
"Ahh yes. It is a very hard target to spot on sensors. I heard the chatter from the controller – he did not see you at all. It is a stealth craft, then?"
"Yes, you could say that. For general purpose movement, it's pretty hard to spot, and it carries a reasonable cargo. Not as much as…" His voice stopped suddenly, and the woman waited a moment to see if he would continue.
"Not as much as what?"
"Never mind. You wouldn't understand."
"Hrm. Well, this craft. It is quiet, and capable of transport. We often find ourselves in need of such qualities. Perhaps, we could arrange for some more work for you?"
"That depends on the timeframe – we're quite busy for the next few weeks with some pre-booked work for some friends of ours. And either way, you'd have to talk to Kai about that."
"He's the Mongol, right?"
"Yes, he's both our team leader and negotiator. And I think he'd be open to negotiations – but like I said, not for a few weeks as we have work to do that has very precise time requirements."
"We should perhaps discuss this with him then. In this line of….business…so much comes down to personal reputation and dealings. Come, join us for coffee. I will detail some troops to watch over the craft, and you have my personal guarantee that it will remain untouched and safe."
"Sure. You go ahead and I'll be over in a few minutes. I need to shut down properly, seal engine ports, that sort of thing." She gave him a considering look, then nodded, and climbed out of the cockpit, heading down the length of the craft and down the back ramp. As soon as she'd gone and he was sure the craft had nobody aboard buy himself, he engaged all of the security lockouts on the systems, and went through a full password and ID change, encrypting all of the flight systems and making it as hard as possible for anyone to access the computers. She sounded like she'd meant her offer, but he wasn't going to take any chances.
In the tents, the mood had changed once again – jokes and laughter, relaxed smiles, passing around the coffee and offers of smokes. The team were understandably wary – they'd been here before and knew how quickly things could change though. After about ten minutes of slightly over the top and forced hospitality from hosts trying to apologise for nearly shooting them, the tent flaps were pulled back and a small stream of people came in carrying platters of kebabs, offering them around to all of the guards and visitors. It seemed the goat's death hadn't been in vain…
Aswon tried some, and then asked to speak to the cook, and was led out of the tent and to another large tent, about thirty metres away. Inside were several large skillets over some coals, with lumps of meat slowly browning on them. The dismembered goat hung from a hook, while someone used a razor sharp knife to carefully peel off all the meat from the bones before passing it over to another cook who was equally carefully dice and cube the meat. They weren't being stingy with how they were treating their guests, but they also weren't letting anything go to waste.
Aswon moved over to the cooks though, smiling and nodding at them, and trying to compliment them in pigeon Kurdish and English, picking up more and more words as he went along. He was genuinely interested in how they cooked the meat and watched as the cubes of meat were pushed onto a skewer with some sliced tomato and quickly seared over some coals before heading out to feed someone else. With space cleared, the next batch of meat was thrown into the skillet and he paid close attention to the seasonings used and the order they were applied to get an idea of just how they were preparing things.
While he was doing that, he also watched the people in the tent carefully. They were mostly women, though not entirely – so it wasn't seen as "woman's work", for sure. He saw people adjust their head garb several times, and without being offended, so it looked like it wasn't a religious issue or something forced upon people – more a practical element or societal custom. And all the women carried holstered sidearms, just the same as the men, in their incredible riot of gear from a thousand different suppliers.
Aswon had heard of the Kurds of course – there were a few groups of Kurdish mercs who worked on the international scene and they had a very good reputation. Strong, intelligent and hard-working, they were noted for having a "can do" attitude and a degree of timeliness that was often lacking amongst countries from around the Med and the Middle East. Looking around the tent at the wiry and tough people here, he could spot the same traits, and knew he definitely didn't want to have them as enemies if he could help it.
The rest of the team were plied with food and drink, and took part in the conversations as best they could – many of the locals had only a smattering of English, which left the commander and the leech seller as their main points of contact. She introduced her commander as "Kawa", and herself as "Ceyda". Kai confirmed their names to her, working on the basis that she probably knew or suspected them anyway. They chatted, with Kai making an effort to steer away from politics and their fight, instead asking them about life in the mountains, the scenery, and travel, whatever he could to keep the conversation moving along with mostly non-controversial topics. His plan was slightly derailed however when Shimazu cleared his throat.
"Ceyda? Those leeches you sold us. I've kept them for a while now, and we fed them. Actually, we had an issue with one and it got free, and…do you know what, that's a story for another time." He saw Hunter looking like he was going to say something and hurriedly moved on. "Well, they're all alive and we've found out some interesting things about them. But I just wondered if we could know a bit more about them? They're really interesting."
"Well, they're strange little things, aren't they? I don't know too much about them, just that they come from the Master's lands, and that he provides them to us to sell or provide as payment for people like yourselves, people from outside who have the things we want and value magical oddities."
"The master?"
"Yes, the master." The team were all listening intently now, as was Kawa who was giving Ceyda a very stern look.
"Could I….meet the master?"
"I very much doubt it. He values his privacy a great deal, and does not like people coming to visit without invitation. And no – I would not dream of asking for one."
"Oh, that's a shame. It just strikes me that it would be a very interesting place to visit, and probably a very interesting person. Ok, if I can't go and see the master, and that's fine – I understand – can you tell me more or less what part of the country they come from. I'm just trying to find out as much as I can about the leeches and knowing what kind of terrain or climate they're from would be a great help.
Ceyda and Kawa shared another look, and there seemed to be some kind of war of wills going on between them. After a few moments though he shrugged and looked away, turning to have a conversation with one of his men. Ceyda turned to them and then pulled out her computer again, configuring it to project an image onto the side of the tent. They twisted on the floor so they could all see, and she bought up a map of Turkey.
"Ok, so we are here… and the leeches come from… let me just scroll…. Over here." She scrolled east about four hundred kilometres, and stopped a little way short of the border with the TCL, and zoomed in on a mountain peak.
"Is that… that is. That's Mount Ararat!" Marius exclaimed, blinking rapidly.
"I believe that's what it's called in English, yes."
Marius stared at the image, and was about to speak, then thought better of it. Instead he fired up his commlink, and sent a message to the team over their earbuds, staring at the image all the time.
"I just think it's worth mentioning at this point that Mount Ararat is one of the supposed lairs of the Great Dragon Aden, the despoiler. You know, the Dragon that obliterated Tehran in retaliation for threats made by the Iranian. If these are his minions, we need to shut the fuck up, and get out of here. We do NOT want to be involved in this."
Kai smiled and pointed at the map.
"I see that it's not far from the border, can you just zoom out a little? Ahh, perfect. Look at that – we pretty much have to go past the mountain on our way either back home, or to our next job. Hmm." Marius turned to stare at him in horror, before sending another message.
"Kai? Kaaaai…. NO! This Dragon wiped out a city of ten million people and turned it into a graveyard. You know there IS a reason why one of the rules of the shadows is 'never deal with a dragon' right? Don't do this….
"Well, just wondering – I mean it would be good if you could let your master know we'd quite like to fly past his mountain, just to make sure we don't invade his privacy. But if anyone needs a lift to this Mount Ararat, we're going that way and would be happy to get you there!"
Marius lowered his head into his palms, wondering what he'd done to offend the universe this way. The tent flaps twitched open again, and Aswon stooped to enter. He'd managed to persuade a few of the women to step away from the cooking and show him some of their knife fighting techniques, and the thought Shimazu would be really interested to see this. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could see Kai grinning like a mischievous child, while Marius was doing a full on double face-palm, and both Hunter and Tads were looking…alarmed. Only Shimazu looked non-plussed. But then Shimazu normally looked non-plussed by everything.
"Um… what's going on?"
"Oh, hey Aswon. We're off to go sightseeing at a mountain!"
For no reason he could work out, a chill sensation ran down Aswon's spine.
"Oh. Great. I think."