Arriving at the Cafe Paris, they managed to pull up into a decent parking spot overlooking the cafe - Aswon, Tads and Marius stayed with the truck, with Tads calling a city spirit to guard and protect them, whilst Kai, Hunter and Shimazu went to meet their contact - Hunter using his internal commlink to keep an open line back to Marius to relay information.
Kiril was sitting at a table by himself, a medium height and weight human male, with dark swarthy skin and 5 o'clock shadow despite the early hour. Wearing a plain black suit and stiffly starched white shirt, he looked like just another corporate drone, with slightly pudgy eyes - though the team noticed that his right hand which was resting in his lap had a slight tremor to it.
They introduced themselves, exchanged a few pleasantries and then got down to business. Kiril imported various machines, some with some fairly cutting edge computers. He had some friends, south of the border in Iran who would love to get hold of those machines, but alas - the autocracy running Iran was still on the "no-export" list, and now his friends had to go without. He was sad, they were sad... it was all very sad. If only some enterprising people could arrange to "hit" his truck, rough up his guards - though not too much - and steal those parts and run the border.
Kiril then said he'd go and get everyone coffee, and leave them to discuss payment and plans... and disappeared into the coffee shop.
Kai pulled out his phone, and called Ngo, his contact in Vietnam, a reliable producer of documents and passes. She checked with him and asked for descriptions of his team, and where they were going, so she could see what she could knock up. He then called Anahita, his art smuggler and "recovery expert" friend in Iran, mentioning that he might be down her way soon - she said she might have something for him, and she too would call him back later.
At this point, the spirit on guard alerted Tads to the "man watching the van and your friends". She looked in the direction reported, but could only see a small box that looked out of place, protruding over the parapet. She alerted Aswon, but although he could see the box, he couldn't work out what it was. Marius checked the comms gear and used his equipment to check for local drone networks, but found only evidence of a radio listening to carrier waves - no data being sent. Tads made herself comfortable and projected astrally from her body, floating up to the roof to check things out. When she got there, she found a man, calm and watchful, observing the road below through an old fashioned periscope, with a rifle laid by his side. She reported her findings, and then went back to observe him.
Kiril returned, and Kai mentioned that they were being observed, by a man with a rifle - Kiril set the coffee down, pulled out his phone and made a quick call - "Gregory, you've been spotted", then sat down and poured for everyone. Taking their cue from him, the team were not too fussed about being observed, and sat down to bargain.
After some haggling over price, routes and time, they agreed on sixty thousand Nuyen to do the job, with help from Kiril to arrange refuelling in Baku in the future, when they needed it. Delivery to take place as soon as was practical, but certainly no longer than two weeks. Kiril forward on a dossier with the routes and details of the cargo to Kai, and then with a shake of the hand, made polite farewells and headed off to his car, making a quick call as he did so. Moments later, Tads observed Gregory taking apart his rifle and stowing it in a bag, and heading off the roof into the hotel.
Kai got a text from his contact, nudging him to send over the details of his team, as he'd not done so yet.
Looking at the route, they could see that the truck would leave Baku, and retrace their steps to the north, via Quba and then head towards the coast and some of the massive oil terminals and refineries there. A quick discussion, and the team decided to use the truck stop where they waited that morning as a good ambush point. If they could get Kiril's truck to stop near one of the overpasses, they would have good overhead cover, in a dark part of the car park with minimal observers. Whilst two of the guards went for coffee and supplies, they could hit the truck and steal the cargo, fleeing whilst concealed by magical spirits and spells, and get straight onto the motorway for a fast escape.
Tads and Aswon went shopping for rope, duct tape, broom handles and various other bits of hardware, whilst the rest of the team drove up to the truck stop and made plans for where to attack from, looking at escape routes, camera locations, parking patterns and other details.
During the day, Ngo called back saying she had been partially successful - she could get fake identity chips for the 4 human members of the team - Shimazu, Marius, Tads and Aswon, but nothing for the others - not in Iran, with their approach to Meta-humans. Kai agreed to take them, happy with the quoted cost of five thousand, and was told they would be ready in two days, and that they'd be "medical workers" of some kind, so they could prepare their cover stories.
Marius called his contact Adat, a corporate data pusher somewhere in the Middle East, asking him that if they just happened to be going to Iran, and had some spare room - what he should take with him to provide supplemental funds from black market trading. After questioning his sanity, Adat advised initially that potable water could get a high price - but as they didn't have room for that, that consumer electronics and entertainment electronics would get a good price if they can find a trustworthy vendor. Marius made plans to buy about a selection of optical chips, containing various music, films and other "Western" entertainment that would be banned in the Iranian region and would fetch a good price – hopefully he could buy a few thousands worth of entertainment chips and double his money by taking them across the border.
Hunter called his friend in Copenhagen, Julis, but he was not available initially. He got hold of him later in the day, and asked if they could get some more up to date sat-imagery - Julius said he would see what he could do, stealing some time and resources from his corporate intelligence office to get the data that Hunter needed.
Anahita the art recovery expert called Kai back, and said that if he was in the area, she did have a job for him - she had a hot piece of merchandise that she really needed to get to India, if he was interested? In exchange she said she could get some travel permits that would make their in-Iran travel much smoother. Kai agreed, saying "no problem".
Aswon called Sing Wan again, asking to be put in touch with a fixer in Baku - she passed over the contact details of "Germaine Rodderik". Aswon called her and it immediately became clear that Germaine had missed the memo about the fall of the British Empire, but was carrying on regardless, calling people "my good man", describing things as "marvellous" and treating everyone with a faint casual racism and sense of superiority. Aswon explained his need for some hardware, and Germaine told him that he would meet her at the waterfront bar at seven that evening to discuss things further. Turning up at the prescribed time with Tads in tow, Aswon immediately spotted Germaine - the loud woman in the floral dress, large beehive hair-do and dripping with tasteful jewellery, haranguing the waiters in a loud and enthusiastic manner.
Aswon and Tads approached, and Aswon coughed discretely to attract her attention.
"Yes?" Her voice was polite, but guarded, as she looked Aswon and Tads up and down.
"Good evening Miss. My name is Aswon. A good friend of mine in Hong Kong mentioned that were I to be here at this time, I might meet someone who could assist me with some resource issues. And this is my friend Tads, a traveller from the north."
"Oh, marvellous. Sit down, both of you. A drink?" She smiled at them broadly then turned slightly and raised a finger to a passing waiter, summoning him with a gesture. "Two glasses of the Boursin, 25 for my friends here."
Aswon recounted their recent adventures briefly, explaining that they were somewhat short of both gear and funding, but looking to engage in some work – which unfortunately needed at least some basic equipment to carry out. As they had little money, he needed something basic, sturdy and workable to get them started, and that he could always expand his options later. Treating her politely and with respect seemed to win him some brownie points, and she asked him if wanted a rifle that had some style, or something plain.
"Well, as I said, we don't have a lot of money…"
"Young man. You need to understand that 'style' and 'cost' do not mean the same thing. And that a high price is not necessarily an indication of either quality or workmanship."
"I think I understand Miss. In which case, while I need substance, doing it with style has a certain appeal as well." He smiled at her, and as his lips pulled back, they revealed the large implanted lion fangs set into his gumline. Germaine leant forward slightly, studying them and then clapped her hands together with glee.
"Splendid! Splendid!" She turned slightly towards the restaurant, and then out of the blue bellowed loudly, drawing the attention of every other person seated in the restaurant. "HEEEEENRY!" She turned back to them, ignoring the stares from the locals. "He'll be along in a moment." Sure enough, they spotted a man in a dark grey uniform threading his way through the tables towards them, carrying a large wooden box. When he arrived, the carefully lifted the box up onto the edge of the table, twisting it so the hinges faced away from Aswon, then moved around to stand behind Germaine. She made a little gesture, indicating that Aswon should open the hasps and look inside.
As he touched the box he realised that it wasn't wood after all – but some kind of high density plastic, with realistic grain moulded into it. He ran his hand over the texture, admiring the effort that had gone into the reproduction and then nodded at his host.
"Stylish, and practical – but not real. I think I begin to understand." He opened the clasps and lifted the lid, and took in a deep breath of surprise. Inside was a long sporting rifle, a sleek looking mix of black metallic barrel and receiver with a lustrous wooden stock. He let his fingers slide over the stock, and was surprised to find it was real wood – hand carved and polished by the looks of things. There was a manufacturers name neatly stamped into the receiver, and he moved his head to the side a little, so the light would catch it and he could read the subtle text – 'Purdey'. He had no idea who they were, but the rifle seemed to be a work of art rather than a cheap and practical solution, and almost certainly way out of his budget – as well as being one of the loveliest and distinctive weapons he'd ever seen.
"This… would seem to be worth significantly more than I was looking to spend on equipment. I… um. I mean no disrespect of course. But I'm not sure I could justify the cost of something like this."
"Well, it's nice to see someone have an appreciation for the form, as well as the function. And a piece like this is designed to be used, not hung on the wall. So, I'm happy to offer it to you, knowing that you understand the true value of such a thing. And besides, I like you."
Aswon saw her smile again, and felt himself flush. Was she flirting with him? Or working him? He couldn't tell, so he concentrated instead on gently closing the lid and fastening the clasps.
"So, a thousand should cover the cost nicely." Aswon swallowed… it was a bit more than he'd been wanting to spend, but he really couldn't complain. If the gun shot as well as it looked, he was getting the bargain of the year, and could easily imagine someone being asked to pay five to ten times that to buy it as new. He pulled out his credstick and slid it into the reader attached to her phone, watching the Nuyen transfer over as soon as his thumbprint authorised the transaction.
"Besides, Spook has nothing but good words to say about you, and she's a smashing gal." Aswon relaxed a little at hearing Sing Wan's chosen handle, indicating that Germaine really did know her reasonably well – though he had to supress a smile at hearing her referred to as a 'gal'. "But I do have a little something for you to do, before we next meet. I want to know Aswon – light blue or dark blue?"
Aswon had no idea what she was talking about, so he repeated the phrase, ensuring he'd heard her correctly, and saw her nod in response.
"I will endeavour to find out before we next meet."
"Good, good. Now – I believe my dinner will be along shortly – so is there anything else you need?"
"Actually yes, if it's not an imposition. My friend Tads here is skilled in the mystic arts, but seeks a supplier of goods and materials she can call upon. Is there someone you might know?"
"Ahh, an easy one. Of course, let me see." She pulled out her comm-link and scrolled through her address book for a few seconds, then tapped on the screen, and waved her link towards them, beaming the data over the short range personal area network. "He's a little way south of here, near a town called Shirvan. Local gentleman, goes by the name of Aslik Mustafan." She spoke his name without any trace of a smile or humour, and they both tried to match her equally grave expression.
"He's a dealer in all manner of things arcane, and I'm sure he'll be able to assist."
"Thank you, you've been exceedingly helpful Miss Roderick. And I can see a waiter coming now with what looks like some kind of sea creature, so I will take this opportunity to wish you pleasant dining." He stood and tucked the chair in under the table as the waiter arrived with a large plate holding a freshly steamed lobster that probably cost enough to feed a family for a week. Tads joined him and he gently laid a hand on the case, waiting for the fractional nod from Germaine to indicate that she was happy for him to take the rifle. With a polite goodbye, they excused themselves, leaving Germaine to tuck into her dinner, while the chauffer watched them leave, his eyes studying them carefully.
Meanwhile, Marius had been pouring over the maps and imagery he had, and produced a preliminary border crossing plan - south on the motorway to Lankaran, then west to Lerik, then on increasingly smaller roads up to the mountains, and into one of a number of narrow and twisting mountain passes, looking to make use of the massive ground clearance of thei truck to handle the rough terrain, and then down the other side into Iran, sticking to the back routes as far as possible.
The team bedded down early, trying to shift their body clocks to a different cycle, ready for their heist and escape.
