118.
119..
120…
"Ok, that's two minutes – the gas should be starting to degrade now to be harmless, but we probably pumped in a good amount. Let's give it sixty seconds more, just to be safe. Keep the air con on full blast, guys, let's get things moving in there."
"No problems, Kai, I've got the pumps going at full speed – not that it means much with this stuff…" Hunter called out from the cupboard where he and Marius were watching the controls. The seconds ticked by, but the hallway remained mercifully quiet, with nobody emerging from their apartments. After what felt like much longer, the timer hit a hundred and eighty and Kai waved the team forward.
With the camera dome covered with gaffa tape, blinding its view of the corridor, Aswon strode down the corridor swiftly, his eyes scanning around for threats and danger. Peripherally he was aware of the worn, dirty and threadbare carpet, the scuffed and marked walls and the dirty yellow overhead lights – but none of these details really registered in his conscious mind as he scanned for anything that could impact the mission.
When he reached the doorway, he looked down and saw another of the cheap and shoddy maglocks guarding the door. 'Looked easy enough when Hunter did it,' he thought to himself, and then jammed his thumb on the top corner of the lock, leaning in hard. It proved to be tougher than he thought though, so he rocked back on his heels and then slammed into the lock again. He felt and heard the click, just before the entire front panel of the lock cracked from top left to bottom right.
"Oh crap."
Kai sighed, and then pushed his way past Aswon as he stared at the broken lock cover, easing the door open gently and calling into the apartment.
"Hello? Anyone in there? Are you alright?" A moment passed with no response, and then an elderly-looking gentleman shuffled around the corner, face full of wrinkles and a look of concern twisting his features. Kai looked on the astral plane, confirming that it was the spirit, and saw him open his mouth and draw breath.
"Are you doctors?"
"I'm medically trained," he replied with absolute honesty and sincerity. "Do you need assistance?"
"My young boy? He fell asleep, and won't wake up. There's something wrong with him!"
"Well, that sounds terrible. Let's go have a look at him and make sure he's ok." Kai raised his voice and called out back into the corridor, just in case there were any observers or security systems they hadn't identified. "Possible gas leak in here! Let's get some more medical assistance and the gas detector system." He turned back to the old man and lowered his voice to a more normal level. "Lead on sir, let's have a look at this boy and help him out, make sure he's ok."
The spirit turned and led the way into the kitchen, around the worktop and to the edge of the dining room, pointing at the crumpled form of the small child.
"He was playing, then he just went to sleep, fell over and bumped his head. And now he won't wake up!" The spirit looked genuinely upset by this – or at least the form of the old man did; Kai wasn't sure if the spirit could feel upset or not… did he even have the glands for it? Something to ask Tads later… He pulled out the medkit and started attaching the probes to the boy, gently checking him over in case there was any genuine damage. He could see a coloured patch on the side of the temple, that looked like it was going to come up in a lovely bruise – no doubt from the impact with the dining table as he had fallen over. Kai worked slowly and methodically, describing the procedure and checks in detail and asking the old man to describe what the boy had been doing, trying to distract him and keep him focussed.
Shimazu, Aswon and Tads moved in after Kai, then split up and started to work on their own areas – heading into the living area first. They found Ngun and his sons sprawled over the large leather coach, arms and legs twisted in unnatural positions. Clearly they'd realised something was happening as the gas took effect – each of them had managed to pull out either a knife or a machine pistol from their holsters before they'd succumbed to the Neurostun, but fortunately that was as far as they'd managed to go. Aswon and Shimazu removed the weapons, placing them on the far side of the apartment and straightening the bodies out, quickly checking pulse and respiration were ok, before moving on.
Tads settled down next to Ngun, and started to reach out, moving to place her hands around his head before she stopped herself, and thought better of it. She had no desire to have any more physical contact with this man than she had to, based on what she thought he'd been up to, so instead she let her index finger lightly touch him on the back of the hand. It didn't feel as personal this way, and that was fine with her. Gathering mana from the area, she channelled it into the mind probe, weaving her way through the thoughts and memories in his head, deliberately looking only for the information she and the rest of the team had thought about, and actively trying to avoid anything else.
With the men taken care of, and Shimazu standing guard watching, acting as a body shield between Tads and the old man, Aswon wandered into the kitchen to check on the mother, tutting as he rounded the corner. She'd been cooking, it seemed, and as she'd collapsed had managed to pull or spill a pot of hot water which had cascaded down over her, leaving her with scalds down her arms and legs.
He looked around, but didn't want to distract Kai or Shimazu right now… what to do, what to do… He seemed to remember that the first and best treatment for burns was to cool the area, for some time – that should certainly help and didn't require any particular skill or knowledge. Carefully he crouched down and lifted her up, trying to avoid disturbing the red and blistered skin, and placed her over the sink, letting her feet sit in one bowl and her bum in the other, before turning on the tap to run over her legs with cool water. With a bit of fiddling he could keep her back and neck supported with his right hand, and grabbed the spray hose, turning that on the scalds down her arms, and he carefully watched her expression – hoping the shock of being drenched wouldn't wake her sooner.
"So, tell me about the boy? What's his name? And does he have any medical conditions?" Kai checked the output from the medkit sensors, relieved to see a slow but steady heart rate, solid respiration and no sign of any underlying issues.
"He is Sung Lang Hai. He likes strawberry strings, and Dino Racers. He likes to play the upside-down game. He doesn't like Atom Smasher though, and Boiled Rice makes him pull faces." The old man continued to reel off a list of things the boy liked and disliked, and Kai was about to interrupt him, but then realised that if he didn't understand the question in this way, he was not likely to know the answers regardless – and it did keep him well and truly distracted, so he let him continue.
Back in the main room, Tads found the information she wanted and released her touch on Ngun, breaking the spell. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, calming herself from the emotions and thoughts she'd experienced, before she let her senses extend into the astral to examine the scene. The air was tainted with her signature, the unique magical 'flavour' of her magical persona, an echo of the spell she'd cast, and she started to lightly move and disrupt the astral flows, clearing away the traces of the probe, swirling the magical energies and disrupting the forensic evidence. She had no idea if they had a mage they could call upon to assense the scene before it faded away naturally, but she wasn't going to take any chances.
"When you're done with the boy, the mother does need some help, she has been hurt." Aswon called over, letting Kai know.
"I'll be with you in a minute." Kai looked up as the spirit moved away from the boy towards Aswon, glancing back as he did so. He seemed to be moving reluctantly for some reason, but he did continue to head over to the sink, approaching Aswon who watched him carefully, wondering if he'd said or done something to trigger a reaction.
"She is hurt? Injured?"
"She is. She has been burnt by the hot water, and needs treatment. It's not life-threatening though."
"If she is injured, I must aid her. What should I do?" Aswon heard some stress on the word 'must', and suddenly wondered about the spirit. It sounded like he was bound or compelled to help in some way – it certainly didn't look as though he wanted to or particularly cared about her. Interesting… He saw Kai raise up from the floor, the boy in his arms.
"I'm not sure there's anything you can do? Unless there is something you can do?" Aswon raised an eyebrow, wondering just what powers or abilities the spirit might have. He was about to speak again, when he saw Kai carefully walk towards him, shaking his head.
"Excuse me – can you take the boy to his bedroom. I can attend to her injuries, but I think you would be better to look after Sung Lang, while we look at her. It's very important that he is monitored, and carefully watched. He has been treated, and should make a full recovery, though he is sleeping still. If he is sick, you should help hold his head, so he doesn't choke himself. Can you do that?"
The old man / spirit nodded much more enthusiastically, and gathered the boy into his arms, his physical body looking old and frail but the magical energies of his form actually giving him prodigious strength. The spirit took the boy, heading down the corridor towards one of the bedrooms, without a backwards glance.
Kai checked the mother out, nodding in approval as he saw what Aswon had done, and reached over to increase the flow of water over the injured areas. He glanced over as Shimazu and Tads arrived, and then gestured at the mother with his chin while his hands continued to run and spray water over her.
"Can you spare some power for this – they don't look deep, and the wounds are looking pretty cool now. But it'll help keep the evidence down." Tads nodded and a moment later the kitchen was illuminated with golden light, reflecting off the stainless-steel backsplash and the chromed taps and casting myriad rainbow patterns around the room. Kai was correct, the wounds were not deep and it took her only a few seconds to heal the skin and restore the flesh to its normal texture, and she actually spent more time cleaning up her signature again than she did on the healing spell. "Good work. Ok, let's lay her on the floor, and then we can get out of here. Assuming we have the info we need?" He watched Tads nod her head at him, and smiled in relief.
"Who broke this lock?" Marius sounded disgruntled as he called over the comms. Mind you, that wasn't anything unusual, as it didn't take much to disturb his sense of order. "Never mind, I need two minutes to fix this, while you are cleaning up. They heard a loud sigh before the transmission cut off, as he went to work with his tools on the door lock. Taking advantage of the time, they did a quick sweep of the areas they'd been into, making sure they hadn't left any evidence behind, taking the time to wipe down surfaces they might have touched to remove any fingerprints and dragging a brush over the thick carpet to remove their footprints.
As they backed out into the corridor, Marius was just screwing a lock cover back on, fiddling with the small security screws set in the underside.
"The one on here was broken, snapped. So I took off the cover on the lock of the apartment over the other side and swapped them over. That one still is marked, but it might not get noticed if they're not too careful."
"Shush!" Aswon cocked his head for a moment, then smiled. "Ok, sorry. I think the spirit is singing to the kid, it sounds like a child's song anyway. But this seems like a good time to get out of here."
"Yup. Ok, let's wipe the locks down, and back up – carefully now! Let's not leave anything behind." Kai hustled down the corridor, Shimazu and Tads following him closely behind. Marius and Hunter finished with the door lock and wiped it down, and followed them, with Aswon bringing up the rear. As he reached the T-junction, he reached up and pulled away the tape covering the camera dome from around the corner, restoring the view – if the camera was working at all.
"I think we should go down the stairs." Marius announced as he caught up with Kai, waiting at the lift doors.
"It's twenty-seven floors! That's going to take a while…why?" Aswon called out.
"Because if we are in the lift, it could get stopped on any one of those floors on the way down, and we could be seen. The stairs are likely to be quieter, and we can always change direction or get out onto the floor if we need to. " Kai considered for a moment, and saw the logic, giving a nod and waving towards the stairs door. Shimazu bounded ahead, pushing the door open and starting to trot down the stairs, scouting out the route.
They got down to the eighteenth floor before they encountered anyone except rubbish and dirt, stacking up behind Shimazu as he held a hand up in the air, peering around the edge of the stairwell. As he ducked back, he turned to face them and mimed stabbing himself in the arm, before holding up two fingers and pointing down the next half flight of steps.
Kai eased forward and glanced around the edge of the stairs, moving slowly and cautiously, staring down at the pair of youths in dirty flats that were huddled up on some waste packaging at the landing below them, and watched as one of them slowly heated the chemicals in a little burning pot while the other pulled out an auto-injector that had seen better days. Physical drugs had taken a beating in the last twenty years as more chips come out that could directly stimulate the pleasure centres of the brain with an experience that rivalled a blockbuster film – but there were still plenty of people in the world that needed or wanted to step away from their lives and lose themselves into their fantasies.
When the chemical was all melted they poured it into the reservoir of the auto-injector and then gave themselves a blast to the neck each, the distinctive 'click-hiss' as the high pressure gas forced the liquid through the skin surface into the blood vessels below. A few seconds later their eyes went wide and they gave little gasps as the drugs hit, and they leant backwards with their faces upturned, staring blindly ahead of them.
"Come on, let's go. They're probably not even going to remember us passing." The team trooped past, trying to avoid touching their legs as they spasmed and trembled, bodies reacting to the massive surge of stimuli the brain was subjected to. Once down past the landing, they picked up the pace, clattering down the stairs quickly, Shimazu racing ahead to open up the distance again and confirm the way was clear. There were no further interruptions, and other than having to sidestep around pools of urine, vomit and a dead cat, they made it to the bottom without incident, crossing the empty lobby and reaching the external door.
As they eased the door open, they could hear the sounds of shouting, angry voices raised in argument to the north. Marius leant out and looked up the plaza, and could spot a group of perhaps half a dozen people standing in a loose semi-circle around two people, arguing and physically grappling with each other.
"What's going on?" Kai asked, unable to make out the speech.
"One on the right is claiming the other one has stolen her purse or bag, I think. Other one is denying it, and threatening to hurt her unless it is returned."
"Sounds like a really good distraction if you ask me. Let's get out of here!" Aswon put actions to words and headed for the stairwell on the outside edge of the plaza, dropping down the edge of the car park to the steeply angled hillside a few stories below. The team hustled after him, speedily descending the outside stairs which strangely enough were cleaner, safer and a lot more pleasant than the ones inside the tower, until they reached the trail below. They turned north, coming down the hill as the massive bulk of the tower rose higher and higher over them, until they reached the bottom of the trail and could turn into the street, spying the van exactly where they'd left it. Nothing seemed to be wrong, and there was no sign of trouble, so they hustled over.
"Vadim, we're back, coming in…" Tads called out as she rapped a few times on the back doors – best to be safe, just in case! He greeted them with a relieved smile, reaching out to grab the first few bags and shuffle them in and away from the doors, then moving up to make space and let the team climb inside. Once more Marius and Kai went to sit in the cab, and once they were all secure, they started up the engine and pulled away slowly, turning in a tight U-shape and reversing direction back towards the way they had come in.
The journey out of the city couldn't have been a bigger contrast to their journey in – tuning in to the local news station they discovered that the accident in the cross-bay tunnel had been cleared, and traffic had resumed with a vengeance. Once out of the poorer district they had been in, it took them an age to work their way down through nose to tail traffic and get back onto the highway, and they didn't make it above ten kilometres per hour for the first thirty minutes of the journey. It at least gave them time to discuss what Tads had learnt though, and what they were going to do about it.
"I'll try and keep this in the right order, but his thoughts were…not very pleasant, and there's all kinds of things I don't want to think about, but I'll do my best. As we know, he was Ngun Hai, and he's the 483 for the area we were just in, having his own accountant – that's a 415 – and lots of Triad members, they're the 49s. They seem to have a real thing for their lucky and unlucky numbers, and base a lot of their operations around them. Ngun and Lo Han go way back, worked their way up through the ranks at roughly the same time, and they've cooperated on a few ventures before – some of the big names from the city go out to the country club."
"So, Lo Han approached Ngun with the plan, and wanted to make use of some of Ngun's 49s. Ngun agreed, and is in for a small cut of the money that Lo Han thinks he's going to make. He organised the snatch, but also suggested somewhere to stash Harley – there's something he thinks of as 'The Fortress'. He doesn't know exactly where it is, other than in the ocean to the south or south east of here, but he does know that it's the major trans-shipment point for a lot of counterfeit goods, drugs and some of the flesh trade from and to Hong Kong." Those in the back saw her quiver a little as she finished the sentence, wondering what images she might have seen in his head.
"After they snatched Harley, and took him back to the apartment, he was on the supply chopper and went out around the islands. Each of them produces drugs or chips or something like that, with regular resupply runs to drop off fresh food and raw materials and collect finished goods once a week or so. Ngun was to drop off Harley at the last of the drug islands, the one that Vadim traced his signature to, and leave him with Sui Wong."
"And who the hell is Sui Wong?" Kai asked impatiently, then gave a little "oof" as Aswon poked him in the ribs.
"I was getting there. She's a mage, and the 438 for the drug islands – I'm pretty sure from the mental picture I got from him, that she's the mage I saw near the storerooms. That's a good thing from my point of view, as she's not an initiated mage. I don't know what spells she knows, but her power is considerably less well developed than any of us, so that blunts the threat somewhat – though we shouldn't take her lightly! But anyway that's who Ngun's men were handing Harley off to, and she would then get him shipped on to this fortress place."
"The fortress is run or operated by Kot Siu-Wong, the 483 for the area, and Ngun brokered a deal with him on Lo's behalf, getting him a cut too, in exchange for holding Harley and getting him to the fight if needed, and for providing proof of life and things like that. Kot has also bought into the scheme, and is fronting some of the money for whatever betting scams they're coming up with, to make things easier."
"Ngun doesn't know much about the fortress itself – mostly he seemed to think about sportswear, jewellery, perfumes and electronics in relations to that place, so I guess those are some of the goods that come through it. But he does think it is pretty secure and well defended, wherever it is. But if we want to find out where it is, we need to either get some intel from a different source, or go have a chat with Sui Wong and get the location from her."
"Ok, thanks, Tads. I think I followed all of that. So – does anyone need anything from the academy, or do we have all of the gear we need?" Kai listened to the general murmur of voices before continuing. "If we've got everything then, let's head back to the harbour and the boat, and get on our way to the island with Miss Wong, and see if we can get some information from her."
They didn't have to change direction or route – the harbour was only the other end of the beach from the academy after all, but it was closing in on three in the afternoon by the time they made it back. After they had climbed out of the vehicle and stretched their legs, Vadim tapped Kai on the shoulder.
"I was thinking, if you're all going on the boat – do you want me to take the van back to the house? And guard the aircraft? The boat didn't look that big, and I might be able to stop something funny going on with Chun or his family?"
"That's a good idea, Vadim… are you ok doing that?" Kai watched Vadim give a shrug and then grabbed the keys from Marius, handing them over to the Russian soldier. Vadim quickly dived into the cab, getting out of the persistent drizzle that was well on the way to soaking all of them, and sat waiting until they were ready to leave.
"Is this weather due to hold? Or if we wait a bit, will it get better, Hunter?" Aswon asked, squinting slightly as he looked up at an angle, while the rain continued to soak his massive mane of hair.
"Like this for the next few hours at least, then maybe getting worse. No major storms or anything, and the wind shouldn't get above ten it says." Hunter flipped through a few more pages on his PDA, then looked back up. "So, a bit shit, staying shit, but not getting awful."
"I actually think this is good weather for us. There will be fewer tourists or pleasure craft out, and fishermen will not care about us or have time to waste watching us. We should be able to move around more easily." Marius looked around a bit more, then saw the boat's owner coming towards them. They'd been briefly introduced earlier, and he strode over to get the keys required to start the engines and other systems. As he walked up, he spotted the man was carrying a hammer in his right hand, and watched him somewhat suspiciously. The fisherman raised his hand and offered the hammer to Marius, then motioned towards the back of the boat.
"For persuading! Two taps! Tonk Tonk!" He nodded sagely as if he'd just delivered words of wisdom, and Marius just looked at him for a moment before he turned to face the rest of the team, a slightly pained expression on his face.
"Right, get on board. Let's see what this thing runs like." He climbed aboard and headed into the wheelhouse, finding the controls and spent a minute familiarising himself with the systems – not that there were many. The boat had a short range radio, a fishing sonar but no radar or surface scanners, no autonav or pilot and lacked any kind of comforts. The engine controls were limited to full and half power, idle and reverse, with a pair of controls for lights, and a few gauges showing oil and fuel – at least they were showing as being topped off.
When everyone else was getting settled and poking around, he moved down to the stern and checked out the engine. The marine diesel was dirty and badly maintained, covered in a thick layer of grime and grease, reminding him of the riser back in the apartment block. But, on top of the engine was two short lengths of red electrical tape arranged in a cross. Both bits of tape were also filthy, curling up at the corners and coated in a sheen of oil. He felt Hunter looming behind him, looking over his shoulder.
"What's that?"
"Carburettor? No, that cannot be correct. Diesel engine. It must be… the fuel injectors. Ja."
"So what's the tape for?"
"From the pantomime, I think this is where we have to hit the engine to persuade it. I am not sure what we have to persuade it, but from the looks of things, I feel this may not be the most reliable of vehicles…"
"Only one way to find out…"
Marius didn't answer, but gave the engine another look over, then hesitantly turned on the fuel flow, warmed the glow plugs and after a small wait, hit the starter. The engine cranked for a few seconds, coughed and then spurted into life with a horrible knocking sound, the engine vibrating as if it wanted to tear itself loose of the mounting brackets. A foul stench filled the air, along with a faint blue cloud of exhaust fumes leaking from a pipe somewhere. Marius's lip curled up in distaste at the noise and smell, and he hefted the hammer in his right hand, wondering if a pre-emptive strike might help establish his relationship with the engine. He wasn't generally a fan of percussive maintenance, preferring due care and attention along with precision design – but he was prepared to make an exception.
Two minutes passed, and then the engine did seem to start settling down. It still rattled and vibrated, but nowhere near as strongly as it had been, and the black smoke that had been billowing out of the small exhaust flue started to fade slightly and look less like the marker for a major oil rig fire and more like something you might associate with a boat – albeit more like a freighter that had ten times the length of this little fishing vessel. Satisfied that it wasn't going to catch fire or explode, Marius called on the others to cast off the ropes holding them in place against the pier and very slowly backed them out from the harbour.
He hadn't piloted a boat before, but took the same approach as he would when getting in a new truck or chopper for the first time – take it very steady, observe everything, try and listen to the feedback from the vehicle and build up experience and practice before you needed it, in calm and quiet conditions. Unfortunately the feedback from the vehicle mostly consisted of it feeling like half a dozen angry cats in a bag being rolled down a rocky hill, and the sound wasn't too dissimilar either. He grimaced, and worked hard on getting to know the vehicle, making a series of gentle turns as he motored out of the shallow harbour and headed for the open sea, bobbing up and down on the waves at minimum power.
The others found somewhere to sit and watch that was out of the way – tempting as it was to poke fun at his handling of the craft, the expression on his face and tension in the jaw promised them that his sense of humour was probably in the van with Vadim, on the way back to the academy, and nobody wanted to find out what his views were on mutinous crew being made to walk the plank…
Gradually they increased speed, turning to the east to head directly away from the beach and around the small island in the bay, before he swung south in the deeper waters and advanced the throttles to full power, bringing the boat to a heady speed of eleven knots, or about twenty kilometres per hour. The wind from the south drove the waves straight at them, and they bobbed up and down, riding from peak to trough in a never ending roller-coaster that stretched on to the horizon.
Once they were on what seemed like a straight course, Tads leant over the side of the boat, finding a spot low enough that her hand could reach the water, letting the waves wash between her fingers as she called upon a spirit of the oceans. A foaming face appeared next to her in the water, riding easily through the waves in answer to her call, and she asked the spirit to conceal them against observers and predators, watching as the face dissipated into a long stream of bubbles that slowly extended around the boat until it formed a perimeter. Nothing appeared to have changed to the crew on the inside, but from the outside the noise of the boat faded away and the structure of the boat faded as if it was concealed by a thick and cloying mist.
Kai waved the team together and sat on the deck to the fore of the wheelhouse, where the structure would insulate them from the noise a little, and the rest of them clustered around him. He had the comms open so Marius could listen but could choose to ignore them and concentrate on piloting the boat if required.
"When we get to the island, we're going to need to deal with that mage then, but not kill them – not until Tads has fished through her mind and gotten the information we need from them. Unless we can get them to spill the details otherwise?"
"I don't think we can rely on that, or that it's a safe option." Aswon responded. "If they're in the Triad, and they're a manager, they're likely to have one of those tattoos – and we still don't really know what that means. But I also think that though we can out-number them, and Hunter and Shimazu are going to be massive compared to her – we can't rely on her being intimidated. Not when she could potentially kill either one or both of them with a look. That kind of power tends to make people cocky – and it's not like she's going to be weak-willed either, if she's a spellcaster."
"Do we know what kind of caster she is?" Kai asked, seeing a shake of the head from Tads as he did so.
"I think it's possible she might be Wujen, given the background." Aswon saw Kai breathing in to ask the question, and just carried on talking. "Hermetics summon elementals, getting things like fire, earth, water and air elementals to do their work. They need a big ritual to do it in, but the elementals are then bound to them for ages. A shaman summons nature spirits, more representations of the environment, and they only last to either dawn or dusk. But, you don't need a ritual to do it. Wujen are sort of in-between, based on eastern philosophy, as far as I know. They have different elementals, including wood and metal, things long associated with belief and religious structure in the far east – but they still last from dawn or dusk to the other. Different outlook, and the flavour of spirits is a bit different, but similar to what Tads can summon in a lot of ways. I think it's likely to be her spirits that we saw attacking Vadim."
"So she's likely going to have some spirits available, and we need to watch for those, as well as some spells that could hurt us – so I agree, trying to intimidate her into just telling us what we want isn't likely to be a good idea. So we've got to knock her out and get Tads to do her thing. So that means tasers, and punches to the face and things like that – and Aswon and Shimazu being ready in case she has spirits ready to assist her and they can take care of them?"
The discussed for a while, trying to work out contingencies for how they could best subdue a shaman and take out any guards or escort she might have, with minimal risk. Much of it was fairly loose, as there was so much unknown to them, but they at least had some rough plans, before lapsing back into quiet contemplation as the boat ploughed on through the waves, gradually bending a course south east towards their island destination. Islands came into view off their beams, and Marius sailed a course that stopped them getting too close to them, or any other traffic on the ocean. The concealment seemed to hold as nothing even approached them, let alone attacked them.
They'd covered perhaps thirty kilometres when the engine hiccupped, ran for a few beats and then hiccupped again, before a large belch of black smoke erupted from the stack and the engine died. As they lost power, the boat started to swing to the side, the waves slapping at the hull and sending them rocking from side to side in a most alarming fashion.
"What's wrong, Marius?"
"Unknown, I am going to check the engine." Marius grabbed the hammer as he headed below deck to the engine space and examined the hot oily mess installed there. "Fuel – check. Line is ok. Fuel pump – ok. Compressor – ok. Air filter… ok. Oil sump…ok." He scratched his head and looked around the engine, seeing if he could spot what was wrong, but everything seemed ok. At their hearts, the diesel engines used in most boats were fairly simple, using very basic components to compress and ignite the fuel, sending the pistons up and down, the crankshaft to turn and driving the propellor through the water. Everything seemed ok, and he couldn't spot a reason why the engine had died.
Tentatively, he leant over and smacked the hammer on the red cross, and tried the starter again. Once more the engine cranked, turned over a few times like an asthmatic child running a race and then died. He checked the fuel, air, oil and other systems again - confirming that everything was ok.
He tried again, and as the engine cranked, bought the hammer down on the spot indicated, giving it two sharp smacks with the face of the hammer. The engine hiccupped, coughed and then cranked again. Twice more he bought the hammer down, listening to the engine as it gulped at the fuel and air, trying to determine what strange situation was going on inside the massive lump of metal. After three minutes of trying, he managed to get the engine to catch, timing the smacks on the top with the coughs of the engine as it tried to start, until the big unit roared into life once more.
Muttering several choice curse words and vowing to have words with whoever was supposed to maintain the engines, as well as the designers, he returned to the wheelhouse and powered back up, turning the small boat back onto course and bringing them slowly back up to speed.
On deck, Tads had been busy, summoning a handful of watcher spirits to attend to her. Compared to nature spirits that she normally dealt with, watcher spirits were somewhat stupid, somewhat irritating and much more limited – unable to interact with physical materials for instance, though they could be used to carry messages from one person to another (if you could trust them to repeat the message correctly). They were however good as simple guard dogs or astral trip-wires, and could also be surprisingly effective in reasonable numbers to swarm an astral enemy and tie it up in a swirling melee of bites and claws.
Hunter had also managed to get some very rough maps of the area, and had zoomed in to look as closely as he could at the island they were heading for. Landing spots were limited – a small blob looked like a concrete quay that had been built on the western side of the island, but that was directly in view and at the bottom of the long path that wound up to the village located in the centre. Docking there would leave them exposed to constant view from any observers out and about, and though concealed by the spirit, all it would take is a lucky glance and their cover was blown.
Looking at the colours of the waves, and the blocky terrain though, he found two alternate spots that might possibly be suitable landing spots, with semi-sheltered shallow covers, that didn't appear to be surrounded by submerged rocks, and he marked them both up on the map. If they were suitable to stop at and drop anchor, they'd involve a rough climb out and up onto the island – so there was some risk there, but it might help them make a stealthy approach to the village.
They'd been at sea for nearly two and a half hours as they approached the island, curving around from the northern reaches to approach from the west. As they closed they could see the island rising up above the surface of the water, protruding nearly two hundred metres or more at the peak. The yellow stone looked to be cracked and fractured, with sharp spires and ridges in some places, and smooth plateaus in others. Half the island was covered in low lying bushes and vegetation, while the other half was either irrigated land or bare rock.
As they came closer, they could see the concrete quay that Hunter had identified, with a winding trail that rose steeply from the rear and leading up towards the peak at the centre of the island. The spot they were heading for was nearly half a kilometre to the north though, a very shallow bay that looked to have fewer white breaking waves than elsewhere up the unforgiving and unwelcoming coastline. There was enough of a spur of land sticking out into the water that they should be able to get the fishing boat physically behind it, obscuring it from most of the island to the south.
"Tads – can you do me a scout please, and check out the water. Let me know if I have enough clearance under the surface for the boat – I do not want to strike a column or spur of rock here. And it would be helpful to know if there are any strange critters under the water, too."
The shaman went limp for a few moments as she darted forwards, her astral form sliding under the water's surface and checking the area out. Fortunately the water seemed quite deep, there being a large pool at the base of the cliffs, going down at least five or six metres, and she didn't spot anything but a few fish darting around in the rough waters, feeding off the layer of silt and mud at the bottom. After a quick spin in place to confirm nothing had escaped her notice she headed back to the boat and reported in to Marius.
"Good, we will be able to get the boat in there nicely. Looking at the currents though, I will have to stay with her I think. The currents are very strong, and with just one anchor we will get spun around and dragged back and forth. The only way to stay out of sight is to keep control of her, and maintain her position."
"Ok Marius – whatever you think is best. I'm sure the rest of us can handle the snatch, and it'll be good to know the getaway vehicle is ready to go." The team smiled at the concept of 'getaway' in the slow and plodding fishing boat, but on the other hand, any land based critter or enemy would have a hard time chasing them out over the ocean.
Marius bought them in as carefully as he could, getting the anchor thrown out and made fast and then working the engines to swing them around into as sheltered a position as he could, swapping between forward and reverse thrust as best he could to hold them steady while Aswon and Hunter swarmed over the side and made a leap for the rocks. There was a scraping sound that set teeth on edge as Hunter's climbing claws extended from the tips of his fingers, digging shallow cuts into the rocks as he latched on, while Aswon landed and just seemed to glue himself to the surface, his tattooed spell binding him in place.
Once sure of their footing, they started to scale the cliff, working their way up onto the ledge that lay about five metres above the sloshing waterline. It didn't take long to find a deep crack in the cliff that they could place a wedge into, and secure their climbing line onto, casting it back down onto the boat below. One by one, the rest of the team clambered up the rope with assistance from the two above, then bringing up their bags of gear and weapons.
Fighting their way through the bushes and dense thorns, they worked their way up the slope, climbing the thirty metres towards a ridgeline that ran across the northern spit of land from south west to north east. The last few metres they crawled on their bellies, sliding up until just their heads peered over the brow of the hill, taking in the scene before them.
To their south, the terrain dropped back twenty metres until it met the sharply climbing path from the quay, rising up again as it wound up the hillside. Approximately level with their current height, and six hundred metres to the south they could just make out the tiny barred windows in the cliff edge, marking the positions of the cells that had briefly contained Harley. The path wound into the area, and Tads described the general layout from memory, pointing out where the internal passage lay and where the path wound once it had come out of the far side, leading further up the hill. Just visible at the top of the next ridge, about nine hundred metres from their current position, lay the small huddle of hovels clustered around a larger factory style building.
"That's where I saw her, wandering around up there. I suspect she lives in the main building, and the workers are in the hovels around the outside."
Aswon, Hunter, Shimazu and Tads examined the route between their current position and the village – a narrow isthmus no more than one hundred metres wide at sea level and dropping to no more than twenty metres at the ridge, in a big dip that would leave them exposed to view from anyone in the village looking this way.
"This…could get tricky." Aswon murmured.
"Yeah. But we'll find a way. We always do." Kai replied cheerily. "So, are we going, or waiting for dusk? Can't be more than thirty minutes away before the light starts to go…"