Chapter2: Traveling on the Fastroad

The morning came and Megufu was eating his breakfast. It was still dark but he'd risen early. The image-box was on and he sat in the front room of the house with a tray of breakfast. The shutters were one third of the way up and every now and again he would look out. He spent more time looking out of that gap then at the image-box.

"…In the latest news Divine Bank was attacked today and had several million kerbs stolen. It is presumed that the Gehrich mafia was behind the act but nobody is certain. The chief of Donau police said in a briefing that he would 'bring the villains of the crime to justice'. The criminals used a size three magi-wheel armed with hand held magi-tech devices. One fired a Pellet inside the building but nobody was hurt. The group escaped before police could arrive at the scene…"

He sighed and crunched on some cereal. He didn't really know what he was getting into today. He yawned watching as scenes of the bank robbery and the police investigating the area filled the screen.

"…Yes I'm here at the moment of the scene right now Daria. As you could imagine the blast must have taken out several tiles of flooring inside the building. Victims and witnesses are being given counseling and advice at this moment. Currently police are not letting journalists inside the building and have given us no clue as to when…"

Megufu yawned and closed his eyes.

"… The act happened in the late evening at about 7:00. Eye witnesses say it was near complete dark when the suspects left the area…"

He fell asleep.

The sun lit the house and the world broke out into a strong misleading morning light. The sun was dazzling and across the street two children, a girl and a boy were playing with a water sprinkler in someone's garden. An older boy kicked a ball across the road and tried to keep it up on his knees. Distantly a radio played down the street as someone washed their magi-wheel with a sponge and bucket.

A black magi-wheel pulled up and the boy moved had to move quickly out of the way. It stopped outside of Megufu's house, a long black ominous limo. Megufu's eyes were closed and distantly through the sleep he heard the noise of birds outside, children shouting and the noise of the running engine but he did not pick out its significance. He only did so when the horn sounded and his eyes flickered open. His mouth was open and his cheek was wet with drool. Looking at the shutters he saw the top of the black wheels through the gap. Getting to his feet hurriedly he put a brown coat on and leaving the tray on the floor he unlocked the door and walked outside. He closed it behind him locking it and then hurried down the steps to where the magi-wheel waited below; his hands were in his pockets. The glass was blacked out so that one could only make the dim impression of some dark shape in the drivers seat.

He came to the passenger's door and tapped on the glass. An electric black screen rolled down and an unshaven face looked at him from the passengers' side.

"You getting in?" he asked gruffly, a newspaper in his hands.

"Yeah – I suppose I am," said Megufu reluctantly. Walking down the limo he opened one of the back doors and entered sitting in the back. The car drove on and he sat in the darkness watching the sunny street depart outside.

"Where are we going?" he asked

"We're taking you to Ralaport. Boss wants to speak to you in Bale"

Megufu nodded, "What kind of job is this?"

"Don't know," chuckled the driver, "you think they tell me about these things?"

"I saw that there's been a bank robbery on the news. Do you guys no anything about that?"

"Gehrich has got nothing to do with Virage you know that so to answer that question heh…not much. I heard from a friend that Gehrich wanted to expand its control further into Fletz – or at least that's his theory. Heck what do I know?"

The scenery outside of flower baskets and nice homes passed away as the limo turned onto the fastroad. The Fastroads were vast expanses of road stretching from one city or area to another. When driving on a Fastroad you were allowed to travel at whatever speed you wanted in Tiberoa and Serdio. In Demingrad the law changed in winter to a limit to stop people from skidding on the icy roads.

Farms and wasteland passed them by as they headed on their journey. The dusty ground stretched for miles on either side with nothing but the occasional shack or barren weed. Not so many people lived in the barren lands. Long ago they had been completely empty but that was all changing with F.T. The company named Flowers over Tiberoa had been using magic on the soil so that it was possible for people to live in the once barren parts of Tiberoa. In ancient times over two thirds of the country had been unusable for farming.

Far to the west, which was where they were heading (as Ralaport was on the way), was the Tiberoan University of Magic located in the Valley of Corrupted Gravity. The area was well know to historians and professors alike as it was the ancient battle ground of dragoons and Virage in the dragon campaign. A huge conflict was enacted where the old legendary winglies suffered huge losses against the liberating humans. Old texts from libraries told of huge abyss' and the landscape changing itself over night. Rocks floated and strange visions could be seen in the air. All that was a long time ago of course.

Now the magic was slowly dying down there but it was an ideal place of study. There were still the occasional ripples in the air and the rock that thrown up didn't come down quite as soon as was expected. All sorts of magical experiments were carried out. The first major studies of old wingly portal technology had been done there hence the development of Ralaport to the east, which started the construction of portals all over the land. This place was where now they were heading.

The limo stopped briefly in services and Megufu used the toilets. He told the two men that he'd left his wallet and they paid for his meal. He hadn't but he wanted to test the atmosphere. He wasn't in the mood to spend his own kerbs.

As the sun began to set they drove on at high speed down the fastroad. Arriving at Ralaport they got out at a hotel where the men paid money.

"We're staying here for the night Megufu. We'll take the port tomorrow and see the boss"

Megufu nodded and took the room key from the unshaven man. He walked up the stairs and coming to his room walked in and closed the door behind him. An image box was in the room but he didn't feel like using it. Instead he went softly to sleep.