The team pulled up in the camp, looking around the depression at the vehicles arranged in a loose circle. It appeared that this was a temporary stop – no tents were out and pitched, and everyone looked to be crammed into the vehicles. At a guess, this was just an overnight stop before they moved on elsewhere. There was however a large fire pit laid out, with lots of kindling and desiccated vegetation piled up ready…
Kai and Aswon went to find the chief, and were directed to his truck by one of the returning ambushers. Knocking on the door, they waited a few seconds before the window was wound down, and a naked-looking chief appeared out of the darkness. Before he had chance to speak, Aswon told them that they had returned with the parts, as arranged, but had also bought them a gift – an entire cow, with enough meat to hopefully feed the entire tribe a good meal! Oh, and by the way, they would like to interrogate the prisoner and if possible determine what to do with him. Oh, and hey, good to see you again.
The chief blinked as the rapid fire delivery washed over him, and then asked, "No eating the prisoner?" When Aswon and Kai both shook their heads he shrugged a little, and then waved to them in the general direction of the arriving French lorry, escorted by the repair vehicle and the outriders. "Sure, do what you want with him then." A female arm appeared from the side of the window, and fingers played across his chest, and the chief turned to the side and smiled. Without turning, he shouted at a couple of the guards to come help with the meat, and then moved away from the doorway. The window smoothly rode up and Kai and Aswon walked away before they heard something they didn't want to think about.
A couple of the guards came over, and then rustled up some extra bodies, and came to the trailer, manhandling the huge carcass towards the fire pit. As word of their arrival spread, more people were roused from their sleep, and soon a horde of children were gathering around the fire pit examining the slab of meat with awe.
The team ignored the activity behind them though – their mind was on the prisoner and just what they were going to do with him. Much of it of course depended on why he had been following them and what their intent was. However, several of them were aware that if there was an innocent reason, then morally they were responsible for his capture and the loss of his truck…
The problem of course was that a perfectly innocent activity like drafting also looked just like setting up for an attack or surveillance – and that given their recent activities with what they suspected was a major Triad presence in Tashkent, they hadn't wanted to take any chances. Marius thought back to the journey, his photographic memory recalling the details clearly as if he was right there – reliving the moment as he saw the truck in his sensors, felt the pings from his traffic approach LIDAR bouncing off the other vehicle… but he couldn't see what he hadn't sensed at the time, and the results were… ambiguous, at best.
They found the prisoner bound in the back of one of the flatbed trucks, cable ties clamping his hands together tightly, the flesh a deep mottled purple as the blood pooled in them. His feet were also restrained, but there the tops of his boots and jeans had stopped the plastic from cutting into the blood flow. The team found a strip of material and approached the man, placing the makeshift blindfold over his eyes and tying it behind his head. They felt him flinch as they did so, expecting violence or some other indignity to be visited upon him.
Several of the team pointed to the colour of his hands and winced, and made a cutting motion – recognising that if was not cut free sometime soon, it was likely that he would suffer some serious permanent damage. In gruff tones, he was told not to try any funny business, and that he was to behave – or face the consequences. A combat knife sawed at the sturdy plastic wraps for a moment, and then they sprang free, causing a wince of pain, but then a sigh of relief from the man. He massaged his wrists together for a minute, then slowly sat himself up, moving slowly and carefully and obviously being aware that he was still in a precarious situation.
"Le cigarette?" he asked hopefully… the team were firm in denying him this, and his shoulders slumped slightly.
They talked with him – discovering his name was Pierre – figures – but that he was an independent haulier, working solo across multiple countries, delivering cargo, fast and cheap. As they examined him, they could see the tell-tale interface of a vehicle control rig in the nape of his neck, the interface cruder-looking and older than the one Marius had, but still an order of magnitude better than driving with a datajack or manual controls. He'd been in the game for many years – in fact he'd not long finished paying off his rig, and before tonight had been looking forward to increasing his profit margins, now he wasn't paying off a high-interest loan anymore. Tadibya, Aswon and Kai shared a glance, obviously feeling some remorse over the situation, but Marius, Hunter and Shimazu seemed unmoved.
Marius went to examine the truck, discovering it was a decent-enough Renault long-haul diesel, with a comfortable cab and some nice modern conveniences. Well maintained and put together, it should bring the tribe some good Nuyen if they could fence it on. The trailer was interesting – on very close examination, it could be seen to be a fuel transporter. Its nature had been disguised by additional plating and plastic extruded panels, turning the tell-tale shape of the oval cylinder into a more regular box shape. Marius came back to the group and asked Pierre about this.
Pierre seemed surprised by the question, and then suspicious – before explaining the value of "black gold" out here, to anyone who trekked the desert. The team considered – it was easy to see why it had the name, and getting rid of it on the second-hand or black market was massively easier than most other goods – no, it made sense to hide the nature of the cargo. They questioned a little more, finding out that he was carrying his cargo of fuel on a contract from Esso, taking up the slack their regular fleet couldn't handle. As the team questioned him, Kai and Aswon detected a subtle shift in his body language. Pierre seemed to grow a little distant and disconnected – answering the questions but with a slight delay and absentmindedness.
They signalled to Tadibya, and pointed at him, and then their eyes. She nodded, and then extended her senses, looking at him from the astral, and sensing his life force and interaction with the magical world. As she scanned over him, she saw his essence was weak and faint, suppressed by the massive amount of cyberware he had implanted, rather than any systemic weakness. She shuddered as she traced the fine black trails of high technology that invaded his spine and wrapped their way around the column of nerves leading towards his spine. His head however was a nearly solid black mass of technology, with just the odd glimmer of luminous white showing between the tendrils of deadness. There was something odd about his aura though, but it wasn't anything she'd encountered before. She didn't sense any hostility from him, or a palpable sense of evil – he was just… detached. Given how dead he felt, that didn't seem too surprising to Tadibya. As she returned to the mundane plane she gave a little shake of disgust, but then shrugged her shoulders at the others.
They left Hunter and Shimazu keeping an eye on him, and wandered away. Aswon and Kai tried to see the chief, but he was still "busy" – and they decided they definitely didn't need to interrupt. Tadibya got a fresh container and created another kilo of peanuts and then added some salt, and went in search of Rakur, the apprentice shaman. He greeted her warmly when he saw the gift, exchanging it for the nearly empty container from the last visit.
A short while later the chieftain approached them, looking quite chipper. Before the team had the opportunity to speak, though, he asked them if they could help him out with a little job. He explained that two groups of people were meeting, and he really would rather they didn't get to come to some arrangement. If only there was someone who was… formidable… with a rifle, who could cast doubts onto the wiseness of their conversation. In exchange a number of magical compounds made and gathered by the tribe would be made available.
Seeing the abrupt change in Aswon's body language at effectively being asked to become an assassin, Kai expressed his immediate regrets that they wouldn't be able to take this job, due to a prior commitment to another employer. He quickly explained that they would love to help the tribe out, but they couldn't – because it would mean going back on their word to someone else, and they couldn't do that – just like they couldn't let the chief down when they had promised to get him the car parts.
His speech seemed to be accepted with good grace, and the issue wasn't pushed. They started to negotiate over the prisoner, with the Chief clarifying that they really didn't want him eaten, smiling at Kai's emphatic response. In the end a price was offered for the prisoner… one cow. The tribe of course, got to keep the truck and the cargo.
They headed back, and collected Pierre, transferring him into their truck. He was stashed into one of the bunks after ensuring his blindfold was still secure, and with hurried goodbyes, they set off across the desert back to the road, turning south towards the town of Mary. On the way, they called Kiril, but had to leave a message with one of the workers as he was out at a sales meeting somewhere. The journey to Mary was uneventful – Pierre was quiet in the back, seeming resigned to his fate – perhaps sensing that he was being carefully observed by strangers with guns. Marius kicked in the speakers, and started to talk to him about truck maintenance and his rig, finding out just how much he knew, and how much was talk. Just as they were passing through Mary and heading towards Ashgabat, Kiril called back, and Kai grabbed the phone and moved into the cab, closing the door behind him.
After pleasantries were exchanged, Kai put an offer to Kiril. He gave a little detail, but not the whole story, explaining how they'd found a guy who seemed handy with his toolkit, but had lost his rig and was now looking for work – might Kiril have use for an extra set of hands who knew how to handle a welding torch? Kiril asked some questions, and Marius vouched for his technical knowledge, and after a few minutes it was agreed – they would pack him onto the train at Ashgabat and send him to Tashkent, and Kiril would try him for a week, and take it from there.
When Pierre was informed of the deal, he seemed unimpressed and gave another shrug, apparently ambivalent to the chance to restart his life and begin to earn some cash somewhere. A bit pissed off by his attitude, they ignored his request for a smoke and kept him squished into the bunk. They rolled on towards Ashgabat, meeting very little traffic this early in the morning.
Just as they were hitting the outer suburbs of the city, still choked with sand and debris, Aswon got a call from Sing Wan. She and her associates had set up a new charitable organisation, listing Aswon, Kai and "Olga Dimitry" as directors. They'd started to build some details into the fake identity of Olga for Tadibya to use, but it was still a little shaky so far. However, it would at least allow them to start to funnel some funds through the charity, which in turn would help generate some credit history and make things hang together. Aswon fired over the ten grand Sing requested for her work so far with thanks, and started to study the details of the organisation.
They dropped Pierre off at the station, Kai walking into the ticket office and getting a ticket for him using their certified credstick, and then coming back to collect him from the truck. He was walked around a corner before the blindfold was removed, and then told to head for the station, and not look back, and then the ticket and a pack of Camels were thrust into his hand. Pierre headed to the train, obeying the instructions, and was watched until he was on-board, and safely out of their hair.
With no unexpected passengers, no cargo left and all systems repaired, they hit a filling station and splashed a couple of thousand on topping off the fuel tanks and getting some fresh water and food, and transited through the city centre, looking at the corporate buildings in the centre with cynical and predatory eyes. Exiting to the west, they pulled up at the motel they had used before on their first visit, as the sun slowly sank towards the horizon. The same youth was on the desk, and clearly remembered them – or their generous tip – and fell over himself to get them rooms and arrange for food, drink and whatever else they wanted. The offer of girls, boys, drink and drugs were considered and then politely turned down, and after Tadibya had entered each of their rooms and stunned the bedbugs into submission for a day, they settled in for the night, planning an early start for tomorrow as they headed back to Kum Dag to follow up on the offer of work there.
