Date 23/01/2060, Location 40.44018, 49.85378

It was 04:13 and fifteen seconds when Hunter woke, tripped by some sense. He held his breath and lay still, trying to listen carefully. The sounds of someone creeping through the room could just be heard, over the gentle snores of Aswon and Marius. Slowly his hand moved down to the scabbard, checking that the knife contained was handy. He didn't think he'd be able to grab his assault rifle quickly and cleanly enough. He waited, trying to map out the movements in the room.

It was 04:13 and thirty-two seconds when Marius awoke. Maybe it was the noise of someone crouching down beside him. More likely it was the soft caress as a hand touched his shoulder. He jolted awake, his eyes only seeing a dark blur in front of him at first, his senses still too addled with sleep to make the change to ultrasound imaging.

"I'm sorry, sorry to wake you. Please, I need your help."

In the pile of cushions to the right, the hand that was slowly drawing the knife from the scabbard paused for a moment.

"What do you mean? Help you with what?"

"Please, help me. I need to get away from here. Please, can you help me? Take me with you?"

The hand slid the knife back into the scabbard and released it, and Hunter lay still, with a small smile pulling on the corner of his mouth. This should get interesting…

"Take you where? Who are you?" Marius hissed, now coming fully awake and pushing himself up onto his elbows. With a mental flick, he engaged his vision systems, and the room was rendered as a 3d wireframe image of reflected sound.

"I am Nadia. Please, I wish to leave this place, but uncle Nadim will not let me. I do not wish to stay here. Will you take me with you?" The ultrasound paint of her gave an outline of her features, but lacked fine detail, but her voice was full of emotion. Marius thought for a moment, trying to stall as he worked out what he was going to do.

"Why me? What makes you think I'll help you?" he asked.

"You have nice face, I watch you, last night. You say thank you when you were served, and tried to help. You not treat us like different, you treat us the same. I trust you. You will help, I am sure."

Marius thought about trying to explain that he just had manners, but realised it wouldn't help him – of course he was going to treat them well and be polite – why wouldn't he? Of course that sort of proved her point – he wasn't going to discriminate against her based on her gender.

"So, hang on – Nadim is your uncle, so your father is…"

"Turul."

Marius face-palmed. Hunter sniggered quietly to himself, and then slid a foot out from under the blankets and gave Aswon a shove. Aswon woke quickly, turning towards the low-pitched conversation on the other side of the room.

"You can't be here!" he whispered, as soon as he heard an unmistakeably female voice speaking. Aswon looked over to Hunter then back to Marius and the girl, frowning. "We were specifically told… quiet."

His voice changed, from one of warning to one of command, and the others froze. Outside their door, they head a shuffle – someone moving through the common room with slippers flapping on the hard stone floor.

Aswon fumbled his earbud into place, buried his head under the blankets and called out, wondering if anyone else would have their comms in at this time of the morning.

In the adjacent room, Shimazu had also awoken – but for him it was a full bladder that disturbed his sleep. He rose carefully, stepping over the form of Kai who had swaddled himself in blankets until only his nose and mouth were visible. Tadibya had tucked herself in the corner of the room and was curled up into a tight ball with her arms wrapped around her knees – it looked uncomfortable and he couldn't imagine sleeping like that personally. If her brief stories of having walked from the northern parts of Russia all the way down to Georgia were true though, then she'd spent more time sleeping outdoors than he hoped he would ever have to, and he guessed she'd slept in some very strange places – at least she wouldn't have to dig much of a hole in the snow to fit in like that.

Opening the door, he blinked a little at the relatively bright lights, and his attention was drawn over to Nadim, who was prowling around the room. Their gazes met, and Nadim headed over to him, with an odd expression on his face.

"Is all well with you my friend? Do you need anything?"

"I'm fine, thanks. I just need to go to the bathroom."

"Oh. Oh, yes, of course, that is fine. This way, I will show you."

Shimazu let himself by guided to the far side of the room, with his host steering him by the arm. It felt odd for this relative stranger to be touching him, but thinking back to the previous night, it appeared that the concept of "personal space" was very different here to how he had been raised. There was a lot more touching and physical contact than he was used to, but fortunately his training had prepared him for "unexpected contact" and he managed to restrain his natural inclinations.

He made his way into the bathroom, fumbling with the light and closing the door behind him. Nadim had already turned away and was wandering back around the room – the lack of personal space didn't extend anywhere near bodily functions, fortunately. Shimazu checked the facilities, carefully lifting the seat and checking for bugs before taking care of matters.

Aswon, Marius and Hunter had heard the byplay, as had Nadia – who was physically shaking now. Aswon got up, and silently pulled on some clothes, then rolled up to his feet. Leaving his rifle where it was, he padded quietly over to the door, and turned to the others, holding up a single finger to them, before pulling the door open and walking out into the common area.

As light spilled into the room Nadia threw herself down to the floor, tucking herself behind Marius. She snuggled in behind him, his 82kg bulk and 1.9m height easily concealing her. He wasn't sure she needed to press herself quite that tightly behind him though…

Aswon pushed through the door, raising his arms above his head and giving a large stretch, hoping the obvious movement of his arms would distract any onlookers. Nadim stared at him for a moment, then hustled over to greet him and shake his hand.

"Good morning, my friend. Are you well? It is still very early."

"Ahh, I only normally sleep a few hours each night – a skill I seemed to have picked up whilst hunting big game on the plains of Africa. Have you ever hunted, Nadim?" Aswon engaged him in conversation, steering them both towards the back door. "Do you mind if I get a little fresh air? I so love the outdoors. Nothing like the feeling of being a hunter, stalking your prey for hours, sometimes days on end."

Marius scrambled to his feet, pulling Nadia up with him and crossing to the door. Opening the wooden door a fraction, he stared through the opening, watching as Aswon decoyed Nadim away from them.

"Right, when Nadim goes outside with Aswon, you get back to your room, ok?"

"You won't take me with you then?" The disappointment in her voice was manifest. She seemed to lose a few inches in height as her shoulders slumped, and she wrapped her arms around her chest.

"We can't. We just can't, I'm sorry." Marius touched her lightly on the shoulder though, then pressed a card into her hand as she moved to clasp his hand and plead with him. It stopped her speaking, as she probed at the business card in the darkness.

"But…. That's my number. On the card. If you happened to be out, in Baku, and we happened to be out in Baku. Well, that's a different matter. Maybe then, maybe, we can sort something out. But we can't betray Turul and take you from here." He seemed to put a little emphasis on the last word. Nadim and Aswon had almost reached the back door, and he started to ease the door open slowly, not listening to the indrawn breath from Nadia. The door was no more than a few millimetres open when he froze, as Nadim suddenly turned on his heel.

"Well my friend, if you are up, then you must have breakfast, perhaps some coffee, yes? I will see to it at once." Nadim strode over to one of the doors on the far side of the room, and pushed in, and his voice could be heard calling in the darkness. Marius watched as far as he could until the door jam blocked his view, then described the room to Nadia. She stifled a cry, and whispered back to him that it was her room that Nadim had just entered. Marius cursed under his breath, and wondered how they were going to get this resolved. She gave a little start as Shimazu returned from the bathroom, but he just nodded at Nadim and Aswon, returning to his room and closing the door behind him.

Fortunately, it was one of Nadia's sisters that was roused from her bed, and entered the living area a few minutes later, still adjusting her clothing to cover her head. She gave a little bow of respect to Aswon, then headed into the kitchen and could be heard preparing coffee and items for breakfast. Nadim returned to Aswon, staring out into the still dark sky. Once again Aswon began to regale him with tales of hunting big game on the African plains. He put his left arm around Nadim's shoulder, pulling him close, and gestured with his right arm ahead of them – painting a scene with his hand as he described how the men would hunt, whilst the women stayed home to prepare the fire and the food. The story obviously gelled with Nadim's world view, and he listened raptly as Aswon described the hunt.

Behind them both, the door swung open silently as Marius lifted the handle and swayed, taking the weight of the door off the hinges. Nadia ghosted through the gap, pausing for only a moment to kiss Marius on the cheek and let her hand stroke his arm, before she moved swiftly to her room, casting fearful glances at Nadim as she did so. Not a moment after she was safely back in her room, Nadim interrupted the story, turned and came back to the table, retrieving his cigarettes and then returning to Aswon to listen to the story as he smoked his pungent local brand. Soon thereafter, they returned to lounge and were sat comfortably, whilst Nadia's sister served them breakfast. Aswon complimented Nadim on his hospitality, still trying to distract him and put him at his ease, but caught the flash of disgust that crossed the girl's face as he spoke. He made a mental note to try and speak to her to explain later. Or, maybe he should get Tadibya to do it? That might make more sense…

Aswon continued to talk with Nadim, listening to him as he described the shipping business he ran with Turul. Aswon listened attentively – absorbing the information about operations and the type of cargo they carried. Who knew when something like that might come in useful? It was obvious after an hour or two that Nadim was struggling to stay awake, but felt compelled to keep Aswon company, but he didn't realise how much of a disadvantage he was at against the somatic control Aswon had over his own body processes.

At dawn, Tadibya woke and headed out to the trucks "to get some bits". Whilst out there, she summoned a new spirit to replace the one from the night before, asking it to guard the truck and to come and warn her if anything attacked or tried to interfere with the truck. The spirit stood next to her astrally, the body formed of ethereal arms made from shock absorbers, an oil can for a body, two gently spinning tyres for legs. A newspaper sheet made the head, crumpled to give the impression of eye sockets and a mouth.

"No."

Tadibya raised an eyebrow in surprise, and looked at the spirit.

"Why not?"

"Can't." She waited a moment, but the newspaper face looked away around the yard, as if bored with her.

"Um. I'm talking with you."

"Yeah, I know. Don't care though."

Tadibya examined the spirit carefully. It appeared to be a fairly normal City Spirit, summoned from the essence of the people and place nearby. The formation of the body indicated that it was certainly tied to the repair yard and the business – but she couldn't work out just why it was giving her so much sass. With a slight air of exasperation, she repeated her request.

"Told you, can't. Dumbass. Can't go in the house."

Tadibya suddenly realised why it couldn't – the home was not part of the city domain, where the spirit could wander freely. Being a place that was permanently occupied, it was likely a hearth domain. To the non-magical, it was no different – but on the spirit plane, the difference between the inside and outside of the house was like night and day. The boundary of the domain stopped the spirit dead in its track, and it quite literally could not cross the threshold. Elementals had no such restriction, being bound from primal magic and directed at the will of their creators – but they also took extensive rituals to bind, that took hours to complete, unlike the expression of will and thought that Tadibya was more used to working with.

"Well, in that case then, guard and protect the truck. And if anyone attacks, just make a lot of noise."

"Whatever."

It appeared that was as good as she was going to get, so she went with that, returning to the house and curling up on the soft sofa next to Aswon and accepting a drink with a nod of thanks.

Gradually, the rest of the team woke, and joined their host for breakfast. When there were enough people up and about – the family as well as the team, Aswon pulled Tadibya to one side.

"Can you do me a favour? We had an issue this morning, and I needed to distract Nadim. Had to lay it on a bit thick about a woman's place being in the kitchen and stuff like that. I think one of the women took me seriously. Can you have a word and explain that I was just playing up to him – I'm not actually like that?"

Tadibya considered his words for a moment, and then shook her head.

"I'll do it… but I'm not sure I'd be any better at this than you, or anyone else. I mean – I'm a woman, sure. But they haven't been treating me like one since I got here. I'm not sure why that is, or what it means, but I don't want to make things difficult. It might make things worse, is what I'm saying – especially when they've all been treating me just like one of you guys. Might be seen as rubbing their nose in it."

Aswon listened as Tadibya babbled on, and got the distinct opinion that she didn't think it was a good idea, and decided to let it drop. Perhaps, if he had the chance, he'd say something. Or maybe get Kai to say something – when he put his mind to it, he could be pretty eloquent. Either way, it was probably not a good idea to get Tadibya involved.

After breakfast, they thanked their host. Kai gave a little speech about the quality of their hospitality which seemed to go down well, and they excused themselves. Ten minutes later, they were in the truck, picking their way through traffic on the main road into the centre of Baku. It was comparatively busy, and the traffic was slow moving, which gave them a little time to look around them. Although they'd been through the city once before, they were considerably more relaxed now, and less worried about pursuit from Chechen guerrillas, the Police and other people interested in detaining them – and considerably better armed, armoured and equipped in general.

Baku was a strange mix – some of the city was obviously aged, with buildings hundreds of years old – built from stone blocks with intricate carvings, gargoyles, arches, and a weird mix of Christian and Islamic influences. Other parts of the city were ultra-modern – walls of glass, steel and chrome in a brutal post-modern style. It looked like the revival of the city had come via the power of the oil and gas industries, and the extraction of natural resources. Here and there older buildings were being demolished to make way for newer, "better" buildings, but it was obvious that the city had grown organically and not part of any planned design.

They found a car-park large enough to leave the truck in, and secured the doors, then headed to the largest department store they'd found. En-masse they visited the business section, and soon the guys were all being measured for good quality suits. The concession owner managed to get Aswon, Shimazu, Marius and Kai fitted with reasonable ease, but Hunter proved to be too much, for even his largest suits, and he had to call a local seamstress to assist. With some difficulty they worked out how to expand the suit to fit around his frame, mostly by buying a second suit of the same colour and using it to donate additional panels of fabric. No bias seemed to be shown to Hunter on account of his orcish nature – perhaps because the salesman had entirely too close a view of just how big his biceps were.

With additional purchases of shirts, belts, shoes and small sundries like cufflinks, the pile of shopping grew quickly, and good financial sense quickly snuffed any lingering racism that may have been present. Other people were shopping, to be sure – but none were spending even a fraction as much as the team obviously were. Aswon spent some time checking over the ties, ensuring he got a tie in both dark and light blue. According to the research that Hunter had helped with, these were tied to two universities in England that had some kind of reputation. He hoped that it would cover part of the issue that Germaine had with them – whatever it was.

Whilst they were waiting for people to be measured and for the seamstress to do her thing, Aswon raised the issue of Germaine again. They talked for a while, racking their brains and thinking back to the last time they had come through Baku, and what had been discussed. Playing back the conversations in their head, and following an off-hand remark from Tadibya, the closest he had come up with was that it was something to do with not going to the Talismongers in Shirvan… maybe she'd arranged a special meeting or something?

After all the guys were sorted with smart business-ware, they crossed to the other side of the store and sorted Tadibya out with a dress, which proved to be harder than expected. She had a very particular set of requirements that none of them could fathom out – it had to have sleeves of a certain type, and a specific cut or drape. It took some time, but eventually they found something that seemed to please her, and they made their purchase there.

Taking all their purchases back to the truck, they decided to split up and fan out for the next phase. Kai went and purchased a selection of news-faxes, and located a café to sit in. For the next few hours he sipped coffee and studied the financial markets, in particular the fallout and effects of the Maersk takeover on Dekita, and what it would do to the area. The dust was still settling on the initial buyout, and the market was still in a lot of flux. However, it turned out that the purchase had caused major upset in the world markets, and the ripples still seemed to be spreading outwards. Fuchi, it seemed had been losing ground steadily to a lot of the other corps recently, and had been targeted quite heavily. They were still a mega-corp, a very powerful global entity – but they had lost a lot of ground to the other megas. It was a massively complicated issue, but he gained a lot of information on the bigger picture over the course of a few hours.

Shimazu meanwhile spent some time in stores looking for books or chips on the Russian language, and also picked up some information on psychology. He ended up with a selection of courses that claimed to teach both of these skills in thirty days of study, some on chip and some as an audio service. There was even a couple of old fashioned printed books, though the pages were made of a wood/plastic hybrid.

Marius went looking for some electronic equipment – but was initially disappointed with the available goods. No matter where he went, he could not find any suppliers of encryption and decryption tools that were better than his current gear. Obviously unsettled by the ease with which the other team had cracked their communications net, he was determined to do something about this – but it appeared that Baku was not going to be the place. He didn't find anywhere that sold products to the security market, but it appeared that only the most rudimentary of encryption was available to the public. He had a little more luck getting hold of some jamming devices and white-noise generators – those being seen as "defensive" technologies. Even here though he found that the local markets were more expensive than he thought the products should be, with his wish list costing nearly thirty-five percent more than he was expecting. One thing he did find was lots of gear that was much more powerful than he expected – having larger ranges or more powerful signal boosters, compared to goods found in Europe. He figured that a lot of it was adapted for either maritime use or in the deserts or mountains that made up so much of the terrain here.

Tadibya, meanwhile, spent the hours looking for a magical shop. Any magical shop. Even a touristy one selling mostly rubbish and magic wands. She wandered around the city centre, such as it was, for hours – trawling up and down small alleyways, exploring courts and plazas, round the back of older buildings, and narrow by-ways. All of the places at the fringe, where shops like this were normally found – but nothing. After several hours of wandering the streets with nothing to show for her troubles but a scowl on her face, she headed back to the truck to meet with the rest.

Hunter found himself a café that offered free matrix connections and a pleasing selection of chili spiced pastries, and spent some time researching local laws and regulations. Baku, and the Trans-Caucasian League in general, looked to have a very weird mish-mash of laws. A lot of stuff was illegal to own, use or get implanted here, but was legal if it was bought elsewhere. Many things could be gained with a permit, but the rules on getting permits were byzantine and complex. Slowly as he deciphered the rules, it became clear that a lot of the laws had been changed or fitted around the people who had come with the oil and mineral businesses. It was illegal to have a cybernetic eye with a laser system – unless you were a foreign prospector using the laser to scan mineral deposits that would bring in foreign investment into the country. It was illegal to have an implanted control system to interface with vehicles – unless it was a vehicle with the purpose of mining, drilling or exploration. Rule after rule had been written around, modified or flat out caveated to death to account for the high-tech gear needed for efficient harvesting of oil, gas and precious metals, and the guards, admin staff, mages and other support staff that came with them.

After an hour or two of wading through the mass of legal waffling, Hunter decided to clear his head a little, and checked on the location of hospitals in Baku. It appeared there were two – one older one in the city, and a newer one at the edge of town, on the way to the oil refinery and terminals. Figuring the older one was more likely to be underfunded and perhaps willing to cut him a deal, he headed over there.

Sure enough, the place was run-down and crumbling, and seemed to deal with the locals mainly – there were very few "western" patients or staff. He found a doctor after a short while, and managed to pull him to one side for a quiet chat. After describing his medical requirements, the doctor told him that he had two drugs he could offer him – Warfarin or Apixaban. The Warfarin was two thousand for a month's supply, and the Apixaban was four thousand. Examining the bottles the doctor brandished at him, he could see the Warfarin had the same labels on as he had seen previously – packed somewhere in Russia, it was likely to suffer from poor quality control and may have been watered down or possibly contaminated, and certainly not to be trusted. The Apixaban was of Ukranian origins – he quickly keyed up his pad and did a data search, ignoring the doctor who was pushing for a decision. The first page of results indicated that there were a number of stories in the media from a year or two ago that related to a quality control issue. Hunter didn't bother checking any further, but instead turned to the doctor and politely declined both. He wasn't going to be injecting anything into his blood stream unless he was a hundred percent happy with the quality – or desperate enough to take such a massive risk. He made a mental note to get a visit out to the newer hospital to see what they had in stock – and to take Kai with him to do some bargaining for him.

Aswon found a shop selling some nice food, got himself a picnic together and went down to the shore and relaxed for a bit. He figured he owed it to himself to have a quiet afternoon once in a while. After his picnic and a bit of time watching the fishing boats plying their trade and a few pleasure craft zooming around in the bay, he turned his attention inwards, and made a systematic review of himself. The wounds sustained during the pipeline assault seemed to have healed nicely, the scabs over the wounds almost gone and the flesh healed. He was still pretty supple and limber, and in good condition.

After his food had gone down, he started some gentle exercises, using the activity to centre his thoughts and make sure he was in tune with his body. His thoughts drifted as he relaxed – considering his life, the spear, his relationship with the team. Something disturbed him though. As he sat meditating in the cold winter sunshine on the edge of the dock, he felt a little tremor in his hands. It faded after a few seconds, then was gone. He waited, and just as he was about to put it down to a random event, it happened again. A minor tremor, but it made both of his hands give a little tremble. Imperceptible to most people, but with his somatic control, he felt it clear as day. Maybe he needed a checkup, Aswon thought.

He contacted Kai and caught up with him, but was distracted from the tremors when Kai told him what he was searching for – a gift for Germaine. They spent a while trawling the shops, looking for something appropriate – but it was a difficult task given how little they knew about her. What do you buy an ex-patriate fixer living in a place like this? Despite searching for some time, they were unable to come up with anything appropriate that didn't run the risk of being way off base and making her even less helpful. In the end they settled on a bottle of the Russian vodka they had previously acquired. It might be like anti-freeze, but it was at least authentic.

One by one the team trickled in, and they cycled through the shower and into their new clothes, emerging from the dusty truck some time later looking like a cabaret act. They headed down to the Waterside, parking their truck in a side street nearby. The streets were fairly quiet, and most people wandered by with coats pulled tightly around them. A cold wind scythed off the water, making several of the team shiver as they cross the road and entered the main square.

Once they approached the Waterside Bar though, it warmed up considerably – a combination of the gas burners situated around the tables and a clear plexiglass barrier around the seating area was sufficient to defeat the worst of the winter chill. Kai spoke with the waiter and they were shown to their tables – Kai, Aswon and a space at one table, and the rest of the team and one space at a second table a few metres away.

At a few moments after eight, a lean and fast-looking Jaguar entered the square, pulling up outside the entrance to the restaurant and parking right in front of the "No Parking" sign. The chauffeur got out from the right-hand side, and walked around to open the left passenger door. Germaine emerged, wearing a brightly coloured dress with matching bag and shoes, and a large gold chain around her neck. The waiter greeted her politely, and escorted her over to the table. She followed in his wake, like a galleon under full sail. She owned the space around her with absolute confidence and had a few nods and smiles for people sitting at other tables as she passed.

Kai and Aswon rose as she approached, and waited for her to be seated before they resumed their places. The waiter distributed the wine list with speed, and they opened the menus in front of them. Kai however held his down and away from him, and faced Germaine directly.

"Would you care to choose the wine? I'm sure you're more familiar with the tastes here, and the menu, and you'll certainly be better at choosing something more appropriate to the meal."

Germaine nodded graciously, and selected a bottle of Meursault from the list – it wasn't the most expensive wine by far, but it was certainly not "cheap" either. The waiter departed with the lists, leaving them at the table for the moment. Aswon pulled out the two blue ties, one dark and one light, and held them up.

"Good evening Miss Germaine. I was wondering if you would care to choose which blue was most appropriate."

"I wouldn't say either of them was directly appropriate for you, my dear." The tone of voice was flat and dismissive, and somewhat cutting, and there was no warmth or friendliness in the 'my dear'. Whatever he'd done he certainly had ticked her off, that much was certain. Glancing at Kai, he cleared his throat and slowly stood.

"If you'll excuse me, I'll leave you to speak with my Captain and employer, and hope that you have a pleasant meal."

He nodded his head respectfully, retiring to the other table where he joined the rest of the team, hoping that Kai was better off without him there to upset her. On the first table, the waiter returned with a bottle and three glasses, which he set out. He didn't mention the now empty seat, but instead poured a small amount of wine into a glass and offered it to Kai. Kai, knowing nothing of substance about wine, swirled it in what he hoped was an authentic looking fashion, sniffed it, sipped it and then nodded, and watched as two large glasses were poured. The third glass he turned upside down, and pushed to the far side of the table. Moments later a second waiter delivered the menus, and he offered them to the pair.

Germaine didn't even open hers, instead looking up at the waiter.

"If chef has fresh stock, then I'll have the lobster." When the waiter nodded, she smiled, her face transforming into a wide smile. "Splendid!" The enthusiasm was at odds with her previously frosty demeanour, and Kai watched her body language and comportment with interest. As the waiter turned to him, he didn't stop his study of her. She wore not only a gold necklace, but also ornate golden earrings, and had a number of rings on her fingers, of both hands. Kai looked at them briefly, but couldn't work out if they were valuable or not.

"That sounds like a recommendation to me. I'll have the lobster as well then please, exactly the same." Only at the end of the sentence did his eyes flick to the waiter to ensure he was understood. With a nod, the waiter acknowledged his order, and headed away, leaving Kai to focus his attention on Germaine again.

"So, Mr Rolla. You wanted to meet?"

"Please, let us not be so formal. My friends and business partners call me Kai – I would hope you will fit into one of those two categories by the end of the meal." Kai went to work, tweaking micro-expressions to fit her mannerisms, echoing body language, smiling at attention and schooled his body to present the image he needed to put her at ease.

He spoke slowly and carefully as he toyed with his wine glass, apologising for any distress or harm caused by Aswon in his ignorance of proper behaviour, and went on to describe how he wanted to make personal amends for any insult offered to her by his employee's conduct.

At the end of his little speech, he reached down and pulled up the bottle of Russian Vodka, in the decorative bag they'd found whilst shopping, and offered it to her, explaining that it wasn't much, but they wanted to at least offer something to her for the 'inconvenience'.

Germaine took the offered bottle and examined it carefully, checking the seal and the label with a hawk-like stare.

"An authentic Russian Vodka – internal market, original label. Excellent. Well, thank you, Kai." She laid a hand over his, and he twitched as he felt the warmth of her hand on his – it was like the tingle from an electric shock. He stared into her eyes, studying her as she told him that all was well, and waved away the issue with his "employee". With a start he recognised that she was using the same techniques on him. She was less adept with the control of her body, but very experienced.

Something very subtle made his nose twitch, and he suddenly realised that he was flushing slightly, as well as his heart racing. She had pheromone implants as well, designed to send out chemicals designed to make her opponents more pliant. He'd gone up against negotiators with pheromone implants before, but he'd not encountered any this smooth before. He looked up, and saw the amusement in her face. She knew, but more importantly, she knew, that he knew. And she didn't mind that he knew, that she knew that he knew. His mind swum for a moment as he tried to work out what that all meant.

She pulled her hand back and sat back, and the intensity of the situation was broken. She called out in a loud voice that carried clearly across the plaza.

"HEEEEENRY!" The chauffer appeared moments later by her side, summoned like a genie from the lamp. He must have been moving before she'd taken a breath… She handed him the bottle, and then shooed him away to the car.

Shimazu watched him from the other table, and leant forward slightly, lowering his voice.

"His suit is armoured, quite discreet, but there are some tell-tales if you know what to look for. He's definitely carrying a piece too, probably a heavy pistol – very distinctive bulge in the left hand side of the jacket – probably means he's right handed and going for a cross draw. Moves pretty smooth, so he's either an adept or he has some kind of cyber-augmentations."

The others nodded as Shimazu reeled off his assessment, trying to avoid staring at the chauffeur.

"But, I don't think he's that pro – he's too far away from her to act to defend her as a principal – unless his skills are through the roof and he's reading the tactical situation before it develops for us. Of course, there is the other alternative – he's actually trained ok, but is comfortable by the car because we're no threat to her that the snipers can't deal with.

That sobered them a little, and they started to cast glances around them, looking for possible backup in the buildings and rooftops around the plaza.

Back at the main table, Kai relaxed a little, and actually concentrated less on being charming, and stopped trying to manipulate his responses. If she knew all the "plays", and was as proficient as she seemed to be, she was going to recognise any moves he made. Aswon seemed to think she was a really important contact here, and he was starting to come to the same conclusion – he couldn't imagine someone this good at negotiating not being wired into the local scene pretty well. They chatted generally – the weather, the news about Fuchi, travelling… nothing specific, but lots of little hints dropped about business and how things could be affected. The more he chatted with her, the more he grew to agree with Aswon – Germaine was definitely "in the biz".

As they consumed the excellent lobster, Germaine mentioned that she would of course be happy to reintroduce the team to her Talislegger friend – hardly emphasising the "re", although Kai heard it clearly. Without pause though Germaine continued.

"Of course, I'd be happy to do this – but I'm finding myself so distracted at the moment, that I hardly know if I'm coming or going." She sighed a little, and Kai restrained a smile. The idea of this woman being distracted was about as likely as the idea that he'd grow wings and fly without the help of a mage. He could see exactly where this conversation was going now.

"Distracted? Why, whatever is the matter?" Kai asked – picking up the conversational ball and politely offering it over.

"Well, you see, there's this piece of artwork, in an office here in town. And I just can't stop thinking about it…"

Germaine pulled out a small PDA and keyed the display active, and slid it over to show Kai. He could see a picture of different coloured triangles and quadrangles in a variety of colours, all in an ornate frame. Germaine pushed the PDA over for Kai to examine, and then sipped at her wine.

Kai examined the PDA and then slowly chewed on a mouthful of lobster. They continued to chat, talking about life in Baku and the Trans Caucasian League, and finished their dinners off. At the end of the meal, Kai slid the PDA towards him and pocketed it casually, before standing and moving around to behind Germaine to pull her chair back for her. She flashed a smile at him, and spoke quietly.

"Well, thank you so much for dinner, Kai. I enjoyed our little chat. Perhaps we can meet again for dinner sometime – perhaps in about a week?"

"Of course, I'm sure we can sort something out. That should be plenty of time to make arrangements."

He escorted her back to the car, where she flashed him a thousand watt smile before climbing into the soft and luxurious interior of the Jaguar. Kai waited for the chauffeur to drive away before re-joining the team and settling the dinner account. On the way back to the truck, he keyed alive the PDA and checked the text files and information that accompanied the painting. He refused to discuss anything of substance until they were back in the truck.

As soon as they were sealed away in the truck, he motioned for Marius to pull out onto the street and to head east.

"Ok, head to Uzeyir Hacibeyov Street. Seems like we have a little job to do for Miss. G to get her back onside. Let's take a look at the place."

The truck pulled out into the night air, and started to wend its way through the darkened streets towards the fifteen-storey tower block identified in the dossier.