The rocking motion of the boat eased as they passed between the two breakwaters, entering the sheltered harbour beyond. The stone and concrete walls ran off to their left and right, three metres above the surface of the water and stretching off into the distance, out of sight. Though several of the team had exceptional night vision, the overcast conditions gave them little to work with – all they could make out was the bulk of the island ahead and a few dim and discreet lights that appeared to be aimed downwards, illuminating the harbour wall.
"What are we looking at here, Tads?" Kai asked. "Can you tell us what Siu Wong remembers of this place?"
"She came in on a powerboat, much faster than this, but she was sat down and strapped in, so she didn't get a good view of the harbour. The boat came in and turned left a bit, heading over that a way…" she waved to the north west in a vague circling motion. "When the boat landed, she had to climb up a little, onto a quay. Lots of movement, lots of cargo stacked up – bustling, a lot of activity. Some cargo coming in, some cargo going out. Lots of small boats tied up alongside, as well as a few larger ones."
"She was met by someone, who greeted her with a little respect, and they walked towards the hill, and went in through a door in the side. Beyond it was a tunnel, finished in bricks – not natural stone. Pipes ran along the top, and it was an off-yellow colour and was a little damp – a smell of stale water and sweat. She followed her guide, and they entered a warehouse of some kind – a large cavern, maybe thirty paces to a side, and high. Crates and goods stacked up everywhere, like a maze. Lights overhead swinging in the breeze a little, making the shadows dance and move. There were guards in here too, just like on the quay, walking around with machine guns, and lots of workers. They looked sad, but she didn't care…" Tads swallowed, and then leant back against the side of the wheelhouse, her eyes closed and eyelids flickering from side to side as she relived the memories she'd scavenged from the brutally injured mage.
"That's where she met the boss, this Kot Siu Wong. He was standing in front of a big mob of workers, all cowed and afraid of him. There was a man on the floor, kneeling, in front of him. Blood pooling on the floor below him from a head wound, guards watching him with guns ready. Kot telling the crowd that disobedience would not be tolerated, and neither was failure. Then he reached up and over his shoulder and pulled out a sword. It looked just like Hunter's does… he took a wider stance and held it in two hands, and the man on the ground broke down, begging for mercy, promising to work harder and better. But he killed him, as an example to the rest. Flicked the sword at them, sending blood splattering out onto their clothes, telling them it was a reminder of the price of resistance." He voice faltered and they saw her swallow, her throat rising and falling as she saw the scene in vivid colour in her head, feeling the emotions washing over her and disgusting her as they conflicted with her natural psyche.
"Kot came to speak to her afterwards, talking to her as if nothing had happened. She was respectful to him, and he spent some time telling her that she was being assessed, trusted with a position of power and was in line for greater things in the future. That went on for a while, talking about operations, discipline, loyalty to the Triads… I think I know why the workers in the factory over on the island feared her so much when she was walking around doing the inspection – she could cast an illusion that simulated agonising pain, demonstrated it on a passing worker, drove him to the floor and had him shrieking in agony while she maintained the mana flow, then made it all stop in an instant, leaving no lasting marks – at least not physically. After that there was more talking about the job, then she left, heading back out and to her boat, before heading to the island."
She opened her eyes and shook her head, trying to clear her mind of the images she'd just relived. Aswon offered her a sip from his canteen, and she nodded a thankyou to him as she swilled out her mouth with the tepid water.
"Look down the western sea wall… about thirty metres, there's a wider spot that protrudes into the harbour." Hunter gestured into the darkness and they strained to see what he was pointing at. "It's a missile battery of some kind. Looks like four missiles on the rails, pointed out at about thirty degrees. Pretty large, too."
Marius checked the route ahead and then had a glance over, trying to get an assessment of the weapon system and seeing if it compared to anything he'd seen before during his service with Saeder Krupp.
"Looks like a general purpose system – useful against both air and ground targets. Well, sea targets in this case. But that means a compromise of sorts. Agile enough to catch most aircraft, which means highly nimble and very quick on one hand, but a limited warhead size on the other. One of those will wreck us though, so we need to make sure we are not engaged during our egress from the island."
"Yeah, think that's a pretty good idea, don't you." Hunter murmured. "Looks like at least one guard there as well. I think I can see a second, but it might just be the clouds moving beyond… no, there's definitely two guards there. That's going to complicate things a little."
"It sounds like we may need a trid-phantasm to cover our escape then, to stop them shooting at us. Of course that means active magic, and that's likely to draw the attention of the elementals, which will cause a magic fight… so we need to take them out first, or have a plan for dealing with them!" She looked up and risked a quick glance into astral space. "Speaking of which, they seem to be ignoring us entirely at the moment, so hopefully they will continue to do so, unless we hit whatever is a trigger condition for them – active magical abilities probably."
"So, if we do end up using a trid-phantasm, we may well end up with it being shot at by missiles or other heavy weapons. So whatever you're simulating, you'll need to factor that in and think about battle damage." Aswon remarked. "Or, work out a way to make them dodge and weave fast enough that they could legitimately cause a miss." He considered for a moment, then turned to face Tads directly. "Ever heard of Angel's wings?" Tads shook her head, and most of the others looked equally confused – only Marius seemed to understand what he was talking about.
"Well, aircraft have flares in launchers, that fire incredibly hot burning canisters out of the sides and rear, designed to be hotter and brighter than the engines on the craft, and they're supposed to decoy missiles off of the aircraft. They can be pretty effective against cheaper and less intelligent missiles, too. But, when they're fired they leave massive amounts of smoke behind, along with incredibly bright flares of light that make visual spotting of the craft pretty easy. Viewed from the front, they look like the aircraft has suddenly grown a pair of giant wings."
"That sounds very pretty, but I'm not sure…. Ooooh, you mean make my phantasm look like that, and that would explain to people on the ground why the missile might have missed?" Aswon nodded in confirmation. "Right, I get it. And I suppose it doesn't matter how bright I make them really – in fact the brighter the better. Ok, let me think about that… I did have a thought though, for once we're tied up alongside. Could we take off the tape on the engine so it's not obvious. If we get told to leave, it could be really convenient if the engine doesn't or won't start…"
"We could – but I think we may have issues." Aswon grinned. "If we take the tape off, it'll be the only clean bit on the engine – a negative X instead."
As they progressed across the harbour, the bulk of the island grew before them, and they could make out some details in the darkness. The harbour formed a semi-circle, with the flat edge of the quayside running from west to east, and the sea wall stretching out in a hemisphere to the south. The gap they'd sailed through was just on the eastern side, bringing them into calmer waters and side on to the island.
Lined up along the quay were a variety of vessels – some as small as their own boat, some larger and clearly cargo ships rather than trawlers or pleasure craft from their shape and the design of their superstructure. Over to the east side, right at the edge of the harbour was a much sleeker-looking design, looking similar to the patrol boat that had intercepted them a little while back.
"The way I see it," Aswon said, "is that we have two main options here. We can launch an assault, storm in and kill as we go, with a couple of us detailed to take out those SAM sites or neutralise any other heavy weaponry we can find, and dealing with stuff as we go along. Or we can go for a full stealth approach, and try to sneak in to get Harley, extract him quietly and then sneak out so they don't even know he's gone. Either end works, but I get the feeling that trying something in the middle will get us the worst of both worlds."
"I have to agree with Aswon. Noisy or quiet, but don't mess about." Hunter added.
"How about we tell them we were followed? Hint that there might be pirates out there. Or something else – keep it vague and let them do the worrying. Who knows, maybe the Yaks have privateers! I also think we should tell anyone we meet that you're just a crew I hired, and that none of you speak Mandarin at all. In fact, I could drop hints that I'm thinking of just getting rid of you all later, and trying to get a proper Chinese crew back."
"It's worth a go, I suppose. It might make them drop their guard and talk in front of some of us." Aswon didn't seem convinced. "We can all just talk in English after all."
"I would guess that with Hong Kong so close,English would be a second language for most of them, so they're just as likely to listen to us as the other way around." Tads pointed out. "How about we use Russian… or even better, Azerbaijani. We should be able to keep things a lot more secure then."
"Fair point, Tads, so let's stick to Azerbaijani. Now, are we going for the stealthy approach, or going for the assault? And if we're going for the stealthy approach, then who's going sneaking first?"
"I think we'll try the stealth. If they've got missiles, who knows what else they have, and the last thing we need is tanks with machine guns or armoured cars or that kind of nonsense. So why don't you get ready to do some stealthy recon, Aswon – get your gear together." Kai looked over to the rest. "We'll all stay back here, mostly under cover. We've got hours yet until dawn, so let's not rush it, take some time to do a bit of recon, and work out a plan." Kai being somewhat cautious was a novelty for the team, and they reflected the odds must be really stacked against them if even he was being careful, so they helped Aswon get his gear together and then got themselves comfy in the tiny rest area below decks, leaving just Kai, Aswon and Marius topside.
Marius looked over a few degrees as someone signalled to the boat with a lamp, flashing a regular steady pattern and then sweeping the beam down across the water to a particular place on the quay, back and forth three times.
"Looks like we are being directed to dock, being flashed towards the western end of the harbour." Kai nodded to Marius, then glanced into the window of the wheelhouse, using the imperfect mirror to check that his features were distinctly Chinese in look. Marius steered the boat in carefully, cutting speed and opting for a very slow and cautious approach, well aware that his skill with the trawler still left much to be desired.
As they gently bumped against the harbour wall, the tyres hanging over the sides on ragged ropes absorbing the impact with a squeak, Kai had to scrabble for some ropes to tie off to the bollards on the quayside – the man standing on the concrete surface having made not a single move to help them. He waited until the craft was secured front and back, his foot tapping an angry little riff on the rough surface, and as soon as Kai finished with the second rope and Marius stopped the engine, started to bark at them in a loud and condescending voice, cutting off Kai as he called out a greeting.
"Be quiet and listen, you filthy son of a whore. You're late, and for that you should be punished – whipped or beaten, kicked in the cock so hard you piss blood for a week. Your pathetic little life is an affront to us, just remember that! You missed your docking slot, and that has caused problems for our dock master, you cretinious little worm. Just pray you can load your cargo and leave before our boss finds out – he is not as forgiving as I am!"
Kai was about to try and get a word in edgewise, but the angry man on the quay continued with barely a pause.
"You will stay on the boat, you shrivelled cockmunchers. You don't leave the boat, or one of my men will shoot you. You don't look at the other boats, or you'll get shot. You don't make a mess on my harbour, or you'll get shot. When you get told your new slot in the morning, you will take this nasty piece of junk to that slot at speed, and load your cargo at once. You will not talk to the guards or the workers, you don't answer back, and you don't hang around – or you'll get shot."
Behind the man, a door opened in the small hut that sat at the end of the harbour wall, and another man emerged, holding a small tablet or clipboard, and started to head over towards them.
"In fact, you will count yourselves lucky if one of our men doesn't shoot you for being fetid pieces of dog turd, not fit to be on our feet. You slimy, good-for-nothing pieces of distended rectal flap. If I had my way…."
The crack as the tablet was slapped on the back of his head sounded like a gunshot and the man span around, his gun rising automatically even as the other hand rose to the back of his head. As soon as he recognised the man holding the tablet though, both gun and empty hand fell, and he took a step back.
"Excuse my colleague – he's very enthusiastic, if not very welcoming to our fine allies that carry our goods to and fro for us." The newcomer was older, and had a resigned tone to his voice, yet spoke with a quiet authority. "As he has already indicated though, we do have some rules you are expected to follow, and the punishment for breaking them can be severe. So, please, stay on your boat until you are called for in the morning, then move quickly to the designated spot and load your cargo, so you can get out of here and try to make up for lost time." He turned to the first man, who had started to rub at the back of his head again. "Don't you think a quick check around the island perimeter will show your commitment to our continued security? Hmm?" Clearly it was more than a suggestion, and the man nodded and turned on his heel, giving Kai and Marius a dirty look as he did so that indicated that any laughter on their part wouldn't be forgotten or forgiven.
"Excuse me!" Kai called in Mandarin as the man turned away. "May I have a word. It's safe to talk, none of the crew are locals or speak a decent language – they're just what I have to put up with at the moment. To be honest, I think I'm going to end up putting a bullet in their heads when I can recruit someone decent…"
The man turned back and looked at Kai, then shrugged his shoulders, waiting for him to continue.
"So, we were tailed on the way here. I think they weren't expecting us to have engine troubles, and got a bit too close, and I spotted them. I just thought you would want to know. Not sure if they're pirates, or from the Navy, or some corporate protection force. But they were over to the east, about fifteen kilometres or so."
"And what kind of boat was this?"
"I didn't get a good look at them – not in this light anyway." Kai waved his hand up at the clouds. "But it looked to be a skiff, but pretty fast and quite large really. I just thought you should all know in case it's a problem…"
"I will inform the patrols to be on alert."
"The other thing – we really did have engine troubles. Is there somewhere I can get or borrow tools? I can get the idiots to try and fix the engine before I have to kill them!"
"No. Fix your engine with whatever you have on board. We have nothing to help you."
"I see. And what do we do about toilet facilities or getting rid of rubbish?"
"Use the harbour…" the guard waved at the filthy water, slick with oil wastes and rubbish that was clogging up the area near the harbour wall.
"I understand, well, thank you, mister?"
"Xu."
"Thank you Mr. Xu. I'll keep the barbarians on the ship and out of the way, until tomorrow morning, and we'll look to be ready to move over for loading around eight or nine then." Kai gave a small but respectful bow and slid the door closed on the wheelhouse, watching through the glass as the man returned to the small hut.
Aswon waited for the exchange to finish and the door to close, then released the rope which he'd been hanging onto, and slowly moved through the water. Fortunately the harbour had a slipway at the western end and he could make his way up the slimy concrete surface as he closed on the building, crouching low to stay below the window level. Working around the back of the building he had to continue moving in a slow crouch to stay under the windows on the other faces of the building, then slowly peek around the corner, checking for wandering guards. Seeing none, he waited for a denser patch of clouds to pass over the moon, then slipped across the roadway and onto the grass and moss covered bank that rose up from the far side, carefully making his way up the rough surface until he was nearly four metres above the roadway. He found a small cleft that he could lay in, and slowly worked around his gear, squeezing out water and checking his weapons were ready.
A look around to confirm the positions of the patrolling elementals and he had a quick glance at the quayside below and the other boats, confirming that there were no obvious wards or other magical effects in view. He activated his comms gear and reported that he was across the road and heading up to the top of the island to do some recon…
Tads had moved back up into the wheelhouse and was watching that way through the window, ready to drop a spell if needed or provide other magical support. Hidden by the glass from outside observation, she was able to remain in astral space and got a good look around the area, and was able to spot a fourth elemental – another air elemental, on patrol. With the four of them taking a roughly circular patrol pattern around the island in a clockwise direction, there was only a few hundred metres between them, meaning it was going to be almost impossible to perform active magic on the surface of the island at all.
"What about the water? Is that going to have anything in there?"
"I didn't see anything, but it's difficult to see underwater anyway. The little creatures give off a glow at the best of times, and things like water elementals and lake spirits are hard to spot even on their own. But some mage has spent a fair bit of effort summoning these elementals, and I think we have to assume they've gone the whole way and got a couple of water elementals to guard against intruders, too."
"Can you send out a watcher spirit to find it, or them?"
"I could – but it's almost certainly going to be attacked and then eaten when it finds them – as they're going to be weaker than the spirits and not in their home element. And it'll risk setting off the alarm…"
"Probably not that…. much of a…. risk really." Aswon spoke quietly, taking breaths that interrupted his speech as he climbed the steep bank, oozing from cover to cover. "If they're on remote….service they can't keep….going back to their summoner."
"That's true enough. If they've been left, they probably have orders to just attack anything magical, and if the fight goes badly to raise the alarm to anyone nearby. Probably in a very loud and obvious fashion." Tads thought for a moment. "There's probably a person…or maybe a place they would be told to report to. If there's a magical threat, go to this guard room and report to anyone there, for instance." Another thought crossed her mind. "And if they've got a water elemental in the harbour or the ocean, they may well have an earth elemental in the hill or passages underneath it. That's something we'll need to watch out for."
"More likely a….. hearth spirit inside would be…..my guess."
They waited as Aswon continued to sneak upwards, until he was on the top section of the island, a broad plateau about seven hundred metres across. The ground was rough and undulating, and littered with small structures, concrete blocks, remains of walls – it gave Aswon enough cover that he felt much more comfortable and could start to explore the area. He didn't spot any kind of intruder systems up here – not aimed at local protection anyway. He could spot a couple of radar towers or sensor posts, but they were right at the edge of the plateau and were facing outwards, securing the approaches to the island from a sea attack.
It took him a good thirty minutes to do a slow circuit of the top of the island, finding a road that moved around the northern edge that gradually wound down the side until it met ground level near the hut he'd crawled past. On the north-west corner he saw a tunnel that delved underground, branching off from this road, with a small guard post, a pair of guards in attendance. The glowing tips of their cigarettes gave them away far before they could have seen him, and he stayed well clear of their lines of sight. Right at the eastern end of the island, the road terminated at another entrance to the underground area, that seemed a mirror of the one to the west, with another pair of guards on duty.
A third entrance was found roughly in the centre of the island, a black pit leading to a spiral staircase that dropped straight down – he listened for a moment but couldn't hear any noise below, and decided not to risk descending until he'd reported in. The top of the island was also littered with vents and covered tunnels, each with a steady stream of warm air rising up from them, carrying away heat from deeper underground.
He made his way back to the slope overlooking the harbour, and quickly summarised his findings, speaking in clipped Azerbaijani in case anyone was listening in on the frequency with some decryption gear. As he did so, he spotted a pair of guards slowly working along the quay from the east, guns hanging at their waists from fabric slings, chatting to each other, one of the pair smoking a fat cigarette – or maybe a cigar.
"Good work Aswon. Ok, how about we get a spirit to go cause a distraction at one of the other boats – make people look that way, give us some cover while we get up on the top?"
"We could, but there's a risk they'd just sound the alarm, and that would alert everyone. Just think, if they have external floodlights and turn them on, we'll all get spotted. And we can't hide under one of my invisibility spells…"
"Ok, so we just have to make a run for it?"
"If we time it right, so the patrol is heading back to the east, and the elementals are as far away as possible, and nobody else is moving around, I think we'll be ok." Aswon called. "I've been keeping an eye on the guards, and they're really bored. If we can get them and the elementals in sync, then it should be good. There's a bit of a climb to get to my position, but once past here, nobody on the ground can see you, and the top of the island looks deserted, so it's pretty easy to move about up here."
"Ok, we'll do that, Aswon. You call in the guard schedule. Tads, you watch for the elementals. Everyone get your gear, and when we get the all-clear from both, we get across the road and get up top, and work out which of those entrances we're going to use." The team sprang into action, tightening armour, getting guns cocked and ready, checking med-kits and water bottles, making sure they were ready to move when the call came.
"How about we get my watcher spirits down below decks to make snoring noises?" Tads suggested. "If anyone comes past it sounds like we're still on the boat then. Might stop them asking questions?"
"It's an idea… maybe get one of them to call up that they're fixing the engine if anyone says anything to them, just so a guard gets an answer if they call?" Aswon added.
"What about rigging up a smoke grenade as well, just in case they come aboard? Will let us know something's gone wrong?"
"Risky, Kai. Still too much of a bang to make it sound like engine failure, and might make them think they're under attack. Probably best to keep it low key."
"Fair enough, Aswon. Ok, tell us when…"
It took fifteen minutes for the guards to be facing the right direction, the guard in the shack to be distracted and the elementals to be in the right place but eventually the pieces were all aligned an the team slipped across the road one by one, scurrying into cover and then clambering up the slope towards Aswon who directed them up to the next hiding place with barely-seen gestures in the darkness. Tads slipped, causing a minor earthslide that threatened to tip her backwards down the slope, but Shimazu steadied her and pushed her upwards, helping her regain traction, before scrambling up the slope himself.
At the top of the slope they dropped prone, laid out in a circular fashion with their feet closest to the centre, and quietly watched and waited, letting a full two minutes pass before they were convinced that they'd made it unobserved and it was safe to move on. Aswon guided them to a broken-down corner of wall that let them congregate together more easily and gave good cover, and then pointed out each of the main features he'd seen on his earlier scout. A quick discussion about the entrances to the underground areas and the guards followed, and they decided that even though the guards did seem very slack, it would take only a single cry or additional guards to be watching via a security system or even from the other side of some polarised glass to raise the alarm.
Thus, they found themselves moving towards one of the big air vents that expelled a gentle stream of warm air into the night sky. It only took a quick wrench from Hunter and Shimazu to pop the top cover off the vent and reveal the vertical shaft below.
"This looks very old. I would suspect it is the same size all the way along the main channel, to a collection chamber, before splitting into smaller branches that service specific rooms or areas. It looks like it is from a time predating motors and fans, or other air movement systems – they had to build them big enough to let enough air through from normal convection currents. That also means gentle turns as well, most likely."
"We want to be careful about mould and fungus growths, though. I recall a facility that had an outbreak of a variation of something called Legionnaire's disease back when I was working in Japan. Someone disturbed a big patch of slime on the wall of the air conditioning system, and it sent spores through the whole facility. Hospitalised dozens and nearly killed some of them."
They looked down into the black tunnel, and Kai carefully turned on his torch and played it around the walls of the shaft, looking down at the galvanised steel sheets that formed the rough boxes lining the air shaft.
"Looks clear, but we'll move carefully. Ok, Aswon, your height might help with these steps, can you scout down and around, and let us know." Aswon looked at Kai and nodded, then looked down at the shaft, with a frown. Neither his sniper rifle nor his spear were in any way suited to fighting in a one metre square tunnel – but he wasn't about to leave either one behind. He placed the spear alongside the rifle and used the sling to wrap and bind them together, so he could at least move them as a single item, then carefully started to climb down the metal, stretching a little even with his long legs at the one metre drop from one ridge to another.
The chimney descended four metres, then slowly curved to the north, dropping another few metres down before transitioning to a horizontal tunnel that stretched off into the stygian blackness. His eyes were adept at functioning in the smallest amount of light far better than the average human – but down here there was no light at all. He moved forward a little, working by feel, and listened carefully, hearing odd noises reflected from hundreds of different air vents and shafts magnified and echoing through the vent system. After a minute, he called the others, telling them it was safe to descend at least as far as the second bend. With solid cover overhead, he flipped into the astral, and saw the tunnel stretching ahead, growing smaller with distance, the astral plane glowing faintly with the life force of bacteria and single celled organisms that clung to the walls or floated through the air.
"All clear astrally too. No sign of wards, spirits or critters…"
The others moved down, Hunter bringing up the rear and carefully placing the cover back over the shaft so it would not be obvious to any passing guard that there intruders below. It took some careful teamwork, but they managed to work out a system of bracing against the corners and helping each other down the one metre drops that let them descend quietly and safely, until they were all clustered up behind Aswon.
"Give me a few minutes, will you?" Tads moved around to sit cross-legged and leant against the wall, then projected out of her body and raced down the passageway, moving with absolute silence and great speed as she flicked forward junction by junction, scouting out the air conditioning pipes. She sped through junction rooms, past spinning fans and grilles, darting through smaller passages that would have stopped first Hunter and Shimazu, and then any member of the team from physically passing, scouting out the facility and trying to keep track of her bearings, and make some kind of logical assessment of the base.
"Ok folks. It should be safe to talk here, we're a little way from the first people, and they're in big noisy rooms. Let me see if I can describe what I've seen…" Tads held up her phone against the top of the tunnel, and then motioned for someone to hold it in place, and started to sketch out shapes in the dust and grime on the tunnel floor. "This isn't going to be accurate, but it should be good enough to give you an idea."
""So, this is the harbour, and there's doors in the vertical wall leading into the hill. Those corridors are a couple of metres long and then open up into warehouses or cargo storage areas. Maybe twenty or thirty metres to a side, and laid out in parallel with the harbour edge. The third one along was different from the rest, that had two corridors leading out, not just one – I don't know if that was important or not."
"Each warehouse had people working in it, moving boxes around, stacking them up, taking inventory or things like that, and had roving guard patrols. Each warehouse also had a single tunnel leading further back into the hill, much like the one out to the harbour. They went another five or ten metres back, into what I'd describe as a factory or work room. People working there, at benches and desks, making things or working machinery. Lots of unhappy people – I don't think they want to be there, but also cowed and frightened. Guards again, wandering around with guns. I saw a couple of guards with talent too – physical adepts. None of them looked to be initiated though, so I suspect they were not that well-trained."
"Each of those factory rooms had one tunnel again that led out, into a big arcing tunnel that curved around. There was an exit at each end, with guards on – that sounded like it matches up with the holes that Aswon found from the top…" She finished sketching her idea of how the base looked, leaving a mass of finger marks showing tunnels and rooms crammed in, with no sense of scale or proportion – but it gave them at least a little idea of the layout."
"What's the other side of the curved tunnel?" Kai asked.
"I don't know – I saw some more tunnels, but I wanted to report back on what I'd seen first, so you didn't worry about how long I was gone."
"Ok, good thinking. We'll have a look at this, can you go scout the rest then?" Kai watched as she went limp again, and looked down at the map. "I'm inclined to believe she's right about these exits being the ones you saw from up top. That means when we're looking to leave, we have a choice of coming south through the tunnels and going through work rooms full of people and warehouses, out onto the harbour – or going along this main tunnel in an arc and fighting past guards on either end… I'm not sure I like either plan that much."
"There was one more entrance I saw, roughly in the middle – Tads didn't mention anything about that from her scout, but she may have just missed it or overlooked it. That might be an option, I didn't see any guards there at all."
They talked quietly for another couple of minutes, working up possible plans and making guesses as to how the base was constructed and what kind of guard force they might be looking at, while they waited for Tads to return. When she did, it was clear she'd found some new information that she felt was important…
"Right, I missed some stuff, and I found a bunch of new stuff. Ok, by each entrance, the ones leading to above ground – there's a security room or guard room. At least a handful of guards in each one at a rough count – I only caught a glimpse as one person was going through a door, and I didn't press my luck in case there were wards, spirits or something like guardian vines. But if we go for an attack on one of those, there's likely to be a number of guards burst out of those rooms very quickly."
"Next, I think I found the accommodation for this place. All around the north side of the curving corridor, there's passages that lead off to a complex of rooms. A bunch of them are empty, a bunch of them are full – but nothing in-between. I think they've got shifts of workers and guards and things, and people are either on duty or stood down… at least that seems to make sense to me."
"I've found a passage in the middle of the main corridor as well that leads south, and when I followed that I found a small guard force, then a spiral staircase leading up. I think that's the same one that's in the middle of the island. There was only a pair of guards at that one, and no guard room though…" Several of the team perked up at that and exchanged glances – it sounded like the ideal place to make their escape if needed.
"And last of all, I found two interesting places - both on the south side of the main corridor, one to the left of the middle, one to the right. Both of them have got much heavier doors blocking off the corridor, and both of them are warded."
"That sounds like either command rooms, armouries or the kind of place to put prisoners then." Aswon noted. "You couldn't get into them via the air vents?"
"No – I looked around, but I couldn't find a way in. I suspect that they're on a different system. I was going to have a look above ground – but then I remembered the elementals. That's almost certainly going to attract their attention…." They all nodded at that, realising that they'd become a little too comfortable perhaps with relying on astral scouting and magical cover for their plans.
"I did have a thought though while I was scouting around. When we find Harley's prison cell or room or whatever… I can leave a spirit there, with a physical mask spell covering it. We can make it look like Harley, and the spirit will be able to talk to the guards if they come and check on him. It might help us make our escape easier, if the guards think he's still in his cell?"
"That's genius, Tads!" Aswon gave a big grin, his huge lion fangs showing as his lips peeled back.
"Yes, that does sound good. Nice work Tads. Ok, sounds like we need to move further in, and have a look at these doors and things. I wonder if we can work out where they're fed from."
"Hang on, Kai." Aswon closed his eyes and retraced his journey around the top of the island mentally. "I think I did see some smaller vents – much more modern design, much more tough as well mind. I'd put money on those being a newer installation for an upgraded set of facilities."
"Give me a few minutes." Hunter shuffled around in the tiny tunnel, huffing and puffing a little with the limited room and then disappeared back up the ventilation shaft, climbing out to return to the top side. They waited patiently, and soon enough they heard him reporting over the radio again. "Found them. Yeah, small bore stuff. None of us are getting down through these for certain. Look modern, and they're made of plasteel."
"Hey Hunter. Can you sample the air or something with that machine in your nose? Would you be able to work out how many people are in the rooms below from what the air tastes like?"
"I'll give it a try, Tads. Wait one." It was actually several minutes before he reported back again, and the team were starting to get anxious about the silence. "Ok, I've taken several samples. Both sets of vents are giving off elevated levels of carbon dioxide, indicating that there's multiple people in the facilities below. But the one to the western end of the island is giving an indication that's much higher – seems like a busier set of rooms. One to the east is only about half that reading."
"That sounds more like a prison then, unless they're holding a lot of people." Aswon looked at the crude map sketched in the dirt of the tunnel wall. "Tads, can you go and have a look at the door physically? Manifest that is and see what it looks like? While Hunter's climbing back down?" Once more the Shaman's body went limp as she headed off astrally to check on the doors as requested.
She returned about the same time as Hunter did, and filled them in on what she'd found. The passageways were blocked with a heavy security door, looking like something used to guard a bank vault. A retinal scanner and keypad were present in addition to the normal magnetic card reader, though thankfully the doors didn't seem to have a security camera monitoring them.
"I also went back and checked through the sleeping quarters again quickly. Something I hadn't really connected before – a lot of the rooms have got lots of people in, maybe thirty in a block. But some have only a few. When I checked them out, they're much nicer inside, with pictures and paintings and comfy chairs and things, and proper toilets – the big ones just had a bucket in the corner. So I think I've found out where the leaders are sleeping… that made me curious, so I did another quick check and found something interesting. The big blocks have got locks on the OUTSIDE of the doors – so the people get locked into their rooms. The others have the locks on the inside, like normal.
"Ok, can you show us on the map where the nicer rooms are. I think that's where we'll find the shift leaders or intelligence officers or something – they're the ones likely to have access through those doors. If we can physically get down there, take them out and then grab their gear, we can get through the doors much more easily. If we can't, well it's time for Marius to break open the toolkit and go to town on those locks. I don't suppose they look like the same make as the ones in Hong Kong, do they?" Tads shook her head, and Kai frowned a little. "No, not that lucky. Oh well. Right – let's move out. From what I understand, if we go down here about forty metres, there's an access hatch that drops us down just off the main corridor. Then we just have to avoid the patrolling guards."
The whole team moved down, taking their time and trying to remain stealthy, aware though that time was slowly ticking by. They found a chamber where several of the smaller ducts from deeper in the facility merged together into their tunnel, along with the access door that allowed maintenance. A quick astral check confirmed that nobody was on the other side, and they slowly eased their way down into the dark tunnel, looking around a pile of maintenance gear at the dimly-lit main thoroughfare through the base.
The tunnels were brick-lined, stained with the passage of water and time, and the air had a musty smell to it, while the floor was uneven but worn smooth by the passage of thousands of feet. Bulkhead lamps were laid out along the ceiling, just far enough apart that pools of brighter light were interposed with shadows.
Out of the air vents, the team rechecked their weapons and gear, feeling much more comfortable now they could stand up and manoeuvre. Kai lowered his voice after checking everyone was ready.
"Tads, you'll go to do the mindprobe. Shimazu, bodyguard duty and take care of knocking out the target. We'll stay here, keep an eye out for guards, and be ready to provide backup if anything goes wrong. Hunter, Marius, if we have to support, you'll cover left down the passage. Aswon, you and I will cover right. Let's go."
Tads and Shimazu slipped forwards, crossing the main corridor after checking the tunnel was clear of guards, and then heading down to the accommodation wing opposite, turning down the first passage they came to and then stopping before a mag-locked door.
"How do we get through here?" Shimazu asked.
"Trust me. Ten seconds." She sat and leant against the wall, called one of her spirits to her and mentally gave it a few commands, before projecting through the door to the other side, the spirit obediently following her. She manifested, appearing as a ghost like form that would be visible to anyone living, but still invisible to any technological sensors. The only person in the room was sound asleep, a high-pitched snore sounding from the bed. She pointed to the door release button, and the spirit nodded, materialising in it's physical form for just long enough to hit the surface. The door clicked open, and Shimazu gently eased it aside, while Tads floated back to her body and stood up with a smile on her lips.
It took only a few moments for Shimazu to stealthily pad over to the sleeping form and gently lay the drug patch onto the forehead, laying fingers gently on his neck and checking the pulse. Thirty seconds passed and he gently clicked his fingers next to the man's ear, getting louder and louder, then giving him a little shake. Nothing.
"Ok, target's out." He waved Tads over, then rolled the man flat onto his back and pulled back his eyelids to check the pupillary response, giving a little start when one milky white eye stared back at him. "Ok, looks like we lucked out. We've got Kot Siu Wong here…"
"Just about to start the mind probe. Going to ask where Harley is. What else do we need to know?"
"Security codes for the doors, what security measures are in place. Confirm which security door leads to what… that's the main things, I think," Aswon responded. "If he knows who monitors the security systems and how we wipe them, that might help too."
Tads focussed for a moment, delving in his brain and searching for very specific bits of information, trying not to get distracted by strange thoughts and lucid drug-fuelled visions that wandered through his sub-conscious.
"Got it. Need a swipe card, which is on the side of his bed." Shimazu looked over and grabbed the card which lay next to a lamp and a book reader. "The code is 9510357, and it also need a retinal scan to get into either set of doors – only about a third of the guards are cleared for those doors along with the sergeants and captains, shift leaders and so on. The door to the east is the one that leads to the prison, as Hunter suspected. The one to the west is their command room and where the defences are controlled from, where the radios and matrix links are and things like that. That's also where the security system is, along with a bunch of guards."
"Heh. Ha Ha… you know what we need to do now, don't you?" Aswon giggled again, the noise distorting a little as the subvocal mic struggled to work out what was viable communications and what was random twitching of the throat. "Shimazu, can you carry this guy easily enough?"
"I guess so, he's pretty average for a human."
"If Tads can conceal you, and you get him over here…. The security system will show that the boss of the facility was the one that opened the doors and busted Harley out of prison… using his code. And then went back to bed, and used his card to swipe back into his room. That's going to send them mental trying to work out what happened…."
Tads heard the quiet grunt as Shimazu swept up the body from the bed, wrapped in his sheet as much so Shimazu didn't have to touch his body, out of any issues with modesty or concern for their victim. She looked around quickly, and spotted a wardrobe, heading over to it and pulling the doors open, then physically climbing inside. Shimazu looked at her oddly, but stepped over to her as she furiously waved at him, wondering what kind of mad scheme she was up to now. With a few quick mutters, she wrapped them both in a spell to conceal them and then shooed him back, climbing back out of the wardrobe and closing the doors.
"The spell signature from the casting will be in there now. If a mage investigates and opens the door, it'll be obvious – but only if they open the door. Otherwise, the door will block their line of sight, and might give it long enough to fade away naturally. Let's go." Shimazu nodded in understanding and swiftly turned and left the room, and after looking around for anything they might have dropped or left, she followed along as Shimazu moved back down the branch corridor to the main curving tunnel, meeting up with the others who formed up around him. Tads pushed the spell out a little wider to cover them all, and they swiftly moved eastwards down the tunnel, heading for the passageway leading down to the security door.
Kai grabbed the mag-lock passkey from Shimazu's pocket and swiped it, then lifted Kot's hand and extended a finger, stabbing the entrance code into the keypad. It was a bit of effort for the next step, trying to pull his eyelids open and let the retinal scanner focus on his eyes while Shimazu held the body still - and who knew what kind of weird reading the machine was getting from that disturbing milky white eye. But whatever reading it did get, it was apparently happy with the unique pattern found in the malformed retina, and the door clicked open with a little hiss, indicating a very slight pressure differential from the room beyond.
The air on the other side smelt less damp, and the walls looked to be newer – at least the facing was anyway. They could see the passageway lead on a few metres before a turn to the left, then a few more metres beyond that it opened up into a chamber. Aswon moved forwards and checked out the turning on the left, looking down a short stubby length of corridor to a room of some kind, with a polarised window next to it. There was no way past without being visible and he eased back to let the others know. Tads just waved her hand forward, reshaping the trid-phantasm until it unwrapped from around them, forming a blanket over the end of the corridor that looked just like the empty junction beyond it.
"Should be safe now. Until someone magical looks out and sees a spell covering the area, in which case we're all in trouble."
They moved on, Kot still slung over Shimazu's shoulder, and the team trying to be as quiet as possible – Tad's spell could generate noise if required, but it couldn't do anything to dampen the sounds they made, and that could attract the attention of any guards just as surely as being seen.
They approached the corner, and as they got a better angle, they could see the first of the prison cells on the far wall, door open leading to a dark and miserable-looking cell. A camera was on the wall to the right, focussed down into the cell area, on a fixed mount, and to reach the cells they'd have to walk in front of it. Kai gestured up at the camera and made a twisting motion, and Aswon stepped to the side and grabbed the camera, slowly twisting the mount until the camera pointed about forty degrees further to the right. If someone was just idly glancing at a whole bank of monitors they might not notice the change in view. Maybe…
They stepped around the corner into the open space, looking down the row of ten cell doors, and stopped, their hearts sinking. Despair washed over them as they saw the open door on the fourth cell, and a large pool of blood expanding out from it. A collective sigh of disappointment from the group sounded, not from any one person but more a gestalt of their shared feelings of failure.
They were too late.
They walked forwards, slowly, examining the scene before them, looking down at the concrete floor stained with a large pool of congealing blood, and then realised there was more to the scene. Leading away from the doorway was a pair of footprints – bloody footprints. They stopped again, examining the scene with renewed interest. A tiny flicker of hope was kindled, weak, guttering and easily snuffed out, but burning brightly in the darkness of despair none the less.
Aswon suddenly looked up and saw the camera at the other end of the hallway, and strode over to it quickly, wrenching it round to the left so it wouldn't get any more footage of them standing around like zombies. Kai, Shimazu and Tads had walked over to the footprints, and followed them as they led out of the hallway into the corridor – leading along the mirror tunnel to the one they had entered via, past the other side of the guard room and to a security door that matched the one they had used. A security door that stood open, with a suspicious bloody footprint on the threshold, and blood and ichor dripping down the retinal scanner. As Shimazu looked down, he saw an eyeball lying incongruously in the corner of the tunnel, staring up into the ceiling.
Hunter and Marius had walked over to the door, being careful to avoid the pool of blood, and examined the inside of the cell. There were two bodies there, both of which looked to have been brutally and savagely assaulted. On one of the bodies they could see the white shards of broken ribs sticking out through the armoured clothing, a neat row of jagged spines that indicated that someone had been hit hard enough to force bones to not only break, but also stab their way through some reinforced fabric – no mean feat. The other guard was face down, and the ruined face appeared to be the source of the pool of blood that filled the doorway.
Crucially though, they could see the guards' weapons. Each guard had been carrying a machine pistol, a short-barrelled weapon with a long magazine sticking out from just in front of the pistol grip. Hunter gave a quick sniff, but couldn't detect any trace of gunsmoke or cordite – just the rich iron tang of the blood, and the faint reek of human excrement.
"Everyone, he's not taken the guards' guns. Either of them. Or their shoes. No sign of a gunfight here, so I guess he got the drop on them. Both of them."
"So we've got a pretty pissed-off kid, son of a legendary martial artist, running loose in a fortress full of bad guys that have been holding him prisoner for a week. Oh great. This is SO not going to end well!"
"Come on Aswon – at least we know where he's gone!" Kai said brightly. "Look – just follow the trail of bloody footprints!"
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?"
"Of course I am. Now let's go find him before any of the goons do. And we'd better be thinking of ways to let him know that we're on his side, so we don't end up looking like that!" Kai gestured at the prison cell and cooling corpses, even as he turned to start walking up the corridor, chasing after the escaped prisoner and hoping they found him before anyone else did – and before the alarm was raised.