As the truck sped to the west down the asphalt road, Hunter stood on the rear seat, his torso and head out of the cupola and watched the road behind them, his assault rifle held tightly in his hands. Blood oozed from the wounds on his back, being driven around his flanks like a crazy ink-blot picture, but he ignored the shooting pain from his back and concentrated on the road behind them, watching as the smoke cloud from the downed chopper receded into the distance and the road behind them remained mercifully clear.
In the rear of the truck, Kai struggled with the first aid kit, pulling at bandages impregnated with coagulants and broad spectrum antibiotics, trying to get them applied to his back and the gunshot wounds there, flinching as he twisted and writhed and pulled at the wounds. No matter how he contorted, he couldn't apply them properly. Marius was driving, and he could see Hunter's legs through the door, and catch the occasional word from Aswon as he checked the rear view mirrors, his massive rifle ready to back up the Englishman. With Tads and Shimazu in the trailer, that only left Nadia unaccounted for.
He looked around and saw her legs protruding from the bunk, unmoving.
"Nadia?"
"Nadia!"
"NADIA."
She didn't respond, but her saw her legs tremble slightly – she wasn't asleep or unconscious. Kai frowned and sighed heavily. He was in a lot of pain, had been shot at, and wasn't in the mood for messing around. He concentrated and modulated his voice, shaping his vocal cords to channel power into his speech.
"Look at me." The words came out in a low pitched hiss, strange harmonics rumbling and echoing at the edge of normal perception. She looked up at him, her gaze slowly rising up from the floor of the trailer, dragging its way up his body to meet his eyes. He saw her cheeks glisten as the tears rolled down her face, and her jaw trembled. Other than the tears, her lips were dry, and he could see them quiver uncontrollably. He was about to tell her to come and help him with the dressing, but instead just draped the dressing over his back and leant back against the edge of the truck. A stab of pain told him that he was leaning more or less in the right place, but he had to trust that the pads were actually blocking up the wound and doing some good. But, for the moment, he had bigger concerns – like a member of his team about to have a complete meltdown.
"Light the gas," "Grab the kettle," "Fill the kettle." Slowly he talked her through the mundane process of making a cup of tea for him, keeping the commands short and sharp. She carried them out like an automaton, tears streaming down her face, and the sound of rattling cups and spoons could be heard over the roar of the engine as her trembling hands moved them around. But, as she progressed, the trembles calmed slightly, and the tears stopped as the immediacy of the action passed, and her system returned to normal from the massive dose of adrenaline that had coursed through her veins.
Kai was just sipping on his cup of tea, trying not to move or disturb the wounds on his back whilst Nadia sat watching him from the bottom bunk, half her face hidden in shadow as she lay like a frightened animal, her large dark eyes watching him intently when the intercom chirped into life. Tads called out over the interlink, "Hey, everyone ok up there? We're both ok back here." Kai motioned and winced in pain, and Nadia passed him the microphone before retreating to her bunk.
"Well, I'm shot, but stable. Hunter the same, Aswon and Marius ok. It would be lovely to see you up here, actually."
"Well, get Marius to stop, and we'll move to the front. I'm actually thinking – it might be worth moving the boxes into the truck, just so that trick won't work again. I mean, I don't want to lose the trailer and the lodge. That's mine, and I need it. But there's no reason to attack the trailer if there's nothing in there they need, right?"
"Out of sight, no sign of pursuit!" Hunter called down, shouting against the slipstream, then slowly and carefully climbed down after one quick look around. He moved into the back and collapsed into one of the seats, reaching for some painkillers and throwing a handful down his neck, washed down with a squeeze from his waterbottle. Aswon stuck his head through the door, and pointed at the microphone.
"Tads?" Kai nodded at him. "TADS!" He raised his voice, projecting and slowing his speech slightly. "Can you get a spirit to go check the outside of the truck? I'm thinking that last guy we fought – he must have jumped from the chopper, then leapt over the hedge and stuff to get to us. Looked like an adept. It's possible that he managed to get something thrown onto the van to trace us." There was a few seconds of quiet from the other end of the link
"Ok, done – got something looking now. It should let me know if it finds anything."
Kai relayed Tads thought about moving the golem parts into the truck to Aswon and Hunter, watching them consider their options. Neither of them rejected the idea, though both looked around the cramped interior and he could see them playing a mental game of Tetris as to where everything would fit. Kai changed the settings on the intercom, pushing the connection through to Marius, and relayed the plan once more, again getting no complaints from their rigger.
"Oh, we do want to stop though, and get the other two back with us, and get some treatment done."
"I don't want to stop yet, still close to the ambush site. The further we are, the more chance we have of losing them."
"Ok, I can see that – but I do want to stop soon. Like the next town." There was a moment's silence, then the German's voice came back, with a sigh of resignation.
"Fine, there is a town coming up, another few kilometres away. Carsamba, it has a fuel station on the east side of the town, across the river. We can stop and refuel, which will give us more than enough to reach the handover point without stopping again, we can grab some food and transfer people over. It's only twenty clicks from the Ambush site though, so we shouldn't stay long. And has anyone checked us for bugs or trackers?"
Aswon rummaged around and pulled out the bug scanner, flipped it on and started to play it around him in a circle. He froze as he got a twitch, but then the signal vanished, so he went back and forth a few times, monitoring carefully and adjusting the bandwidth controls. About thirty seconds later there was another kick of the readout.
"I think we do have something on us. I'm going outside to check!" With that he stowed his rifle, and climbed up and out onto the roof of the truck. Unseen, his Gecko tattoo flared slightly, the magical power binding him to the surface and keeping him safe as he crawled over the top of the vehicle with the scanner. He gave a start as he saw a shimmer ahead of him, a distortion in the air flow that seemed out of place, and he hastily changed to his astral vision and gave a start as he saw a large spirit sitting on the roof, squatting on its haunches and staring at a spot. It waggled its bottom, and looked just like a domestic cat stalking a bit of string or something similar. He watched for a second and saw it starting to pounce, excitement and glee radiating from it – before it pulled back and resumed its position and started to watch again. The pounce was timed with another kick on his instrument, and he had an idea.
Crawling forward he moved to the spot that the spirit was staring at, and carefully shielding his face from the windstream, peered at the roof with a hand shielding his eyes. Ahh! There, he caught the faint edge of a disk of thin film. He worked at it with his nails, and slowly peeled back the fifteen centimetre diameter disk, holding it up to the light and catching sight of the faint circuitry that ran through it. It looked like a variation on an activate-on-demand tracker – but this gave off a pulse after a pre-determined period instead.
He moved back to the cab and carefully aimed, and then with a deft flick of his wrist sent the disk spinning through the air into the side of a farm vehicle passing them on the other side of the road, being rewarded with a sound like a slap as the disk stuck to the vehicle. He watched as the farmer drove off happily in the other direction, taking the homing beacon with it, then turned back to see the spirit continuing the search over their vehicle. He played the detector over the vehicle some more, but didn't get any more twitches, so he carefully climbed back inside, heading over to the intercom.
"Your spirit was very confused. It was set to come up for one pulse every thirty seconds or so – so it probably was having a hard time deciding if it was a bug or not. Kept jumping on it then changing its mind." Aswon shook his head as he relayed the information, wondering what it would be like to be relatively intelligent, but to have no idea or background into the world of man and the technological wonders they had produced. No wonder it was confused – and it had gotten itself into a loop trying to decide what to do about it.
They felt Marius slow slightly, as he entered the town and encountered some traffic, having to brake hard a couple of times as the locals pulled out of side streets straight onto the main carriageway, with no real regard for other traffic. A couple of minutes passed, then the outside noise changed abruptly as they crossed the bridge over the Yesilirmak Nehri river that ran through the centre of town, the rumble of town being replaced by the sound of water washing back and forth for a few moments, then changing back again as they hit the eastern shore.
"So, what do you think happened with the trailer?" asked Kai. It was Tads that answered first;
"Could have been a spirit commanded to unplug stuff. Could have been someone at range with some good quality binoculars and a powerful magical fingers spells. Those are the two most likely, I think."
"Maybe a device planted on the vehicle when we stopped, that dropped off when the trailer unhitched," suggested Marius. They shrugged, suspecting that they'd never know how it had been achieved specifically.
They felt the truck sway as Marius pulled into the station, and heard him clamber out of the cab to go and see to the fuelling, along with a distant slam as the trailer door opened and closed, then thirty seconds later, the trucker door opened and Shimazu and Tads peered around the opening.
"Right then, Aswon, Nadia – come give us a hand, please. Let's get these boxes shifted into here as quick as we can." Nadia crawled out of the bunk space and moved quietly to assist, whilst Aswon kept an eye on her surreptitiously. It was hard work, but done in a few minutes between the four of them, finishing off around the same time as Marius finished refuelling the massive tank.
Kai and Hunter sat back in silence, waiting for them to finish. Kai gave a little shudder as he felt a trickle of blood sliding down the bottom of his back, but it didn't feel like much, so he left it be, waiting for the others to finish loading before he bothered them for treatment.
They'd put in just over two hundred litres of fuel, and Marius came to grab a credstick from Kai before heading into the payment area of the shop, grabbing a little plastic basket as he did so and filling it with glucose drinks and tablets and various other "pick-me-up" snacks. The cashier rang up the supplies and debited the stick for just over 2, 060 Nuyen, leaving the balance much reduced.
With everyone back on board and in the truck section, along with the cargo it became very cramped in the rear of the truck. Marius stuck his head into the rear to check that everything was ok.
"Give us another two to three minutes, please. This treatment will be much easier to do if we're not rocking around," Shimazu asked, already gloved up and putting on a disposable plastic apron over his clothes, the first aid kit and supplies opened up next to him. Marius frowned and stood watching – understanding the reason why, but not liking it one bit. At least the truck was concealed from overhead surveillance by the fuel stop canopy….
As Kai leaned forward to allow Shimazu access to his back, Tads and Shimazu both jumped back reflexively.
"Get back! Get away from him!"
Kai froze as they realised they were talking about him, whilst the others scrunched back swiftly, not understanding why, or what was going on. Tads grabbed a torch and shone it behind Kai, whilst Shimazu carefully peered around him, looking at his back and the black pulsating mass that was there, his eyes flitting over to the jar of leeches, then back again. Kai got a terrible sinking feeling, and tried to look round and over his shoulder.
"No Kai, keep still. It looks to have clamped onto the wounds, just keep still while we look at this." Shimazu put a hand on his shoulder, gently leaning him forward to get a good look at the quivering mess embedded in the wounds and growing in size with every gulp of blood. "What do you use to get rid of leeches and slugs and things?"
"Fire!" announced Hunter, "Or salt. But fire is better."
"I think we should try salt first, thank you," said Kai, looking a little pale now. "Anytime soon is good."
Shimazu grabbed the salt pot, and started to tip the contents onto the black glistening flesh, a steady stream of white crystals landing on the pitted surface and disappearing quickly. Kai screamed in pain as the creature seemed to go into a frenzy, and for the first time he could feel the thousands of tiny serrated teeth chomping away at his flesh as the creature tried to physically burrow into him to escape the assault. Shimazu snatched the water container from Hunter and doused the creature, trying to wash off the salt and dilute any remaining crystals or residue.
"Well, I don't think that works. Fire might still be an option – but not inside, and outside is too obvious." Aswon leant in with a bottle of the cheap alcohol they normally carried for bribery purposes, and poured it carefully down Kai's back, over the leech. It didn't seem to have an effect, even after they waited for a minute or two, so he shrugged.
"Well, it was worth a try – looks like you can't get them drunk. At least the wound should be a bit cleaner!" Tads shook her head at him.
"Ok everyone, stand behind me and I'll try to stun it – just like the bed lice." Tads rolled up her sleeves and cracked her knuckles, whilst everyone else moved out of her line of sight. She blasted at both Kai and the leech with her magic, casting using a very light touch but lots of power – hoping that with her mental protection, Kai's mind would shake off the assault but the simple mind of the creature would be overwhelmed. Both of them shook as the blast hit them, but neither fell over, so she hit them again. This time she was rewarded by the creature peeling back off and away from Kai's spine, flopping onto the surface behind him. With obvious distaste, Shimazu grabbed it in gloved hands, and put it into a clear bag for now, to keep it contained, then changed his gloves and attended to Kai.
Shimazu went to work, tending to the wounds which were now leaking blood freely with the removal of the leech. He packed them out and applied coagulants directly into the flesh, then bandaged him up and sealed the wounds tightly. Tads took over, and a minute later the truck was filled with golden light as the mana went to work directly on the wounds. Once more the effect was remarkable, and in less than four minutes after the leech was removed, Kai was as good as new.
Now he was feeling better, Kai helped Shimazu with Hunter's wounds, spending time rooting around and pulling out the slugs that were worryingly close to his spine, before tending to the ragged wounds and bandaging them up. Tads moved in, and the golden glow filled the truck with bright light once more. This time though, whilst the outer layers of skin closed over and looked good as new, Hunter still grimaced and winced as he moved.
"Hey, what gives? Have I upset you? Why don't I get the full treatment?"
Tads stared at him for a moment, giving him a moment to look at her bloodshot eyes and the edge of fatigue that crept over her face.
"I'm capable of magical healing – but I'm not an engineer. Magic works on the flesh, but not on the chrome. Bits of you are more machine than man, and I can't do anything about that. Your soul is damaged and polluted by the things inside you, and it's hard to revitalise. That's the best I can do."
Hunter sniffed a moment, then nodded his head and mumbled a thanks. It looked like he wanted to argue about the relative merits of his cyberwear, but wasn't going to do so at the moment. Instead he worked his arms and waist, flexing to see how bad the damage was. He looked to have a pretty good range of motion, and it wasn't actually too bad – it had just surprised him that any injury remained. He hefted his gun and checked the pain levels, and figured that he should be back to normal in a day or so anyway – it felt more like a sprain now.
Kai looked around at the others, then at the leeches in the jar and bags.
"Right, strip search. Everyone, get your clothes off, now – let's make sure that there's no more of these things on any of us. No messing around now, let's just get this done."
Surprisingly enough, nobody complained – just stripped quickly and efficiently. Maybe being nearly naked in front of each other during the ID scans had been enough to get rid of any lingering body modesty. Maybe it was a sign of them starting to gel together as a team. Or maybe the threat of weird magical leeches being attached to delicate parts of their body was more pressing than any fear of being eyed up by the others. Regardless, they quickly got each other checked over, and found themselves clear of the creatures, then hurriedly got dressed again.
"Shimazu, let's get all your leeches put into the trailer, away from us. Marius, start us up, as soon as Shimazu's back aboard, we'll roll out – we've been here long enough." Shimazu went wide-eyed when they were announced as "his" leeches, but grabbed them and ran to the trailer, whilst Marius got them started up again. Thirty seconds later, they rolled out of the garage as Shimazu leapt back up into the truck, pulling the door shut behind him.
Shimazu started to rake through the cupboards as they pulled out, going through their supplies carefully. The others watched him with curiosity for a minute, until he held up a jar of hotdogs with a cry of exclamation.
"We got two jars off that woman. Half the leeches in each one, I think. But both jars were the same. Except the two jars I put into the trailer now – they're different. Well, one of them is different to the other, I mean – one is like this?"
They looked around at each other, and there was a babble of voices as the each denied having had anything to do with the situation, as they looked at each other in confusion. Shimazu pulled up pictures of the two jars in the back on his phone, and showed them around, clearly identifying the slightly different styles between the two. They were all confused, and couldn't explain why the jar didn't match, or what it signified.
They drove on to the east, then Hunter gave a start as his pocket vibrated. He dug out his phone, raising it to his ear and answered with a non-committal "Hi." He listened for a few moments, then relaxed.
"Oh, hi Julius. Yeah, go ahead, good to talk." He chatted for a few minutes, then bade farewell to his caller and hung up. Kai raised an eyebrow to him, and waited for him to speak.
"That's Julius, my mate over at Ares. He's the guy who works in the satellite and image recon office, over in the Netherlands – the one that got us the map and the crossing points into Iran. Kai and the others nodded in understanding. "Well, he's run into an issue with his boss, some kind of office politics. So he's looking for some info to help out – something to get him an 'attaboy' and score some points. So he wants some info from us, if we can give it – something that doesn't compromise us, but helps him out." The team looked at each other, then to Kai.
"I don't think that's a problem – plenty of info we can give him about Turkey – which shouldn't be a problem to us if we're careful. And we're leaving anyway…. Yeah, we can help your friend out, and keep him sweet."
Hunter pulled out his computer, and started to tap away, creating section headings to add data to. Various members of the team leant over to offer thoughts and opinions, and the list grew: The attack on the Power plant, the Warlord on the Turkish / Trans-Caucass League border, the Mosque and the Imam that had saved them in Constantinople, the Steel Mill and their appalling safety record – and the level of bribery involved, the nature reserve they had explored – and the remarkably proficient sensor net emplaced within it, the location of the Mafia contact in the graveyard, and the link to the Mr. Kulkachev back in Batumi, that Sasha's garage was a good place to get some "quiet" work done for Ares operatives in the city, and the level of police response that could be expected in the event of a public incident.
Whilst this was going on Shimazu kept an eye on Nadia, and wasn't liking the look of what he saw. She was withdrawing into herself, not really communicating with anyone and not doing anything – just lost in her own thoughts. He stared at Aswon until he made eye contact, then meaningfully flicked his eyes over towards Nadia a couple of times. Aswon looked back at him and nodded, then clambered over the boxes and moved towards the rear of the truck and the tiny field kitchen, asking Nadia to come with him.
She followed him slowly, clambering over the boxes and ending up perched on the largest box, presumably holding the chest piece of the golem cargo. Aswon started to grab ingredients and started to chat with Nadia.
"Thinking after that bit of excitement, I think we deserve a treat, right? Well. Ok then, let's see. Of course we're a little limited with the cooking stuff here, and the cookies didn't work so well last time. Maybe biscuits would work better. Do you know what the difference is between biscuits and cookies are? That's always confused me." He wittered on, drowning her in trivial questions about food, on and on, not even really giving her much of a chance to respond. The questions got more inane as he went on, the truck rumbling down the highway whilst the highly skilled mercenary rifleman got flour and chocolate chips all over his fingers. Eventually she snapped.
"I can't believe you're asking me about food and I shot a man in the head and killed him!" Her outburst was loud and full of emotion, and for a moment there was silence in the truck. Then the click of fingers on the keyboard resumed as Hunter started typing again, with Tads and Kai looking back at the screen. Aswon stopped, letting the dough rest for a moment and looked at her.
"Well, I'm hungry. And so are you probably. You've had a massive shot of adrenaline run through your system, and a period of intense physical activity, stress through the roof and now you're at the bottom of a recovery cycle. That's at least half the reason you're quivering – it's your body demanding complex carbs. Ever wondered why soldiers are so often found eating in the movies – apart from a good time for dialogue to explain the plot? It's because that's what they do. They have to." Nadia stared at him, blinking hard to repress tears.
"It's not like you really had a choice. The enemy turned up with guns, and tried to kill us. Kill or be killed. There's not really many other options. Oh, sometimes it's a threat, sometimes you can negotiate, and sometimes you DO have a choice – and when you do, don't throw that away. But sometimes you have to be realistic, and realise that people will force you to make choices you don't want to, and there's not really time or ability to look for other options."
"We didn't choose to put you in that position – you chose to come with us. And being brutally honest, we're not sure it's the life for you. That's why we were looking to set up a base, and were having a look at those places back east. Play to your strengths. We want you to run that base, to look after it and manage it for us. To be with us, without being on the road, running those risks. We know you can manage the logistics of that with your eyes shut. We're not sure you want to shoot the enemy in the head. But that's part of the work we do, the life we lead. We don't go looking for it, but it's there, and it happens." Nadia blinked at him, considering her words as she listened to him. It fell silent in the truck for a moment, whilst Nadia processed what he had said, and thought about how she felt. It was the first time anyone had explicitly said anything about her not travelling with them – or managing a facility for them.
"Have you…I mean how many people have you killed?" Aswon smiled a little, but spoke quickly before Nadia could take offence.
"It's normally the first question I get asked when I say I'm a mercenary. Nothing personal. Well, I used to keep count. And before you go to the second question – yes, I remember my first one. As, I suspect, will you. It never goes away. After a while I stopped counting. Not because I don't care, but because it distracts you from life. Remember the dead, just don't dwell on them and don't let them dominate your life. But don't forget them, or you lose sight of your moral compass, and it gets too easy." Aswon went back to kneading the cookie mixture, thinking about his own demons for a moment, whilst Nadia watched him, studying his profile as his jaw worked, replaying something in his mind.
"How many people has…. Marius killed?" Aswon couldn't help himself. His head snapped round to face her, to look her into the eye. He saw the look on her face – the need to know more about the man she had trusted, the man she had travelled with. The man that she had slept with. Aswon saw a gaping chasm of danger ahead of him - of being drawn into a relationship that he had no rights to be in, and of the potentially huge amount of damage he could do to. He drew in a breath, wondering how he was going to get out of this, without destroying the work he'd done over the last few minutes. It was at this moment that Shimazu spoke, arriving like the Seventh Cavalry of the old west, riding to the rescue at the last minute.
"I'm not sure Marius actually kills people. Most of the time it's the vehicle. It might not be much, but it's an important distinction." The remark was flippant, but delivered in such a deadpan voice, with impeccable timing and appropriateness. Nadia couldn't help but snigger, a glot of tears and snot rolling around in her nose with a most disgusting noise. It broke the moment though, and by the time Nadia had found a tissue and blown her nose, Aswon was wiping dough off his fingers and trying to get cookie mixture onto the baking tray to put into the tiny burner to cook. The question remained unanswered and hopefully forgotten.
The tapping stopped, and Hunter pulled down on the screen, closing the laptop down with the report partially completed. He slid the machine back into its carrying pack and stowed it, then clambered over to Nadia, sliding onto the box she was sitting on, but facing the other way. He leaned back, placing a hand gently on her shoulder, and turned his head to face her, "It doesn't get any easier, but you do get to live with it. If you need to talk, just ask."
Nadia stared at him for a moment, and Hunter stared right back. It was as if she was speaking to another person, and her pupils dilated slightly as her brain processed emotions. For perhaps the first time, Hunter had let down his guard with her, and wasn't showing her his "public face", but seemed to be speaking from the heart. She didn't know what to say, so she nodded mutely at him.
He leant forwards, and the mask went back up. As he moved forwards off the box, he theatrically leant to one side, and let rip with a wet sounding fart, as if he had to excuse his moment of touching concern with some base level behaviour.
"Oh Hunter, that stinks!" Nadia exclaimed, as she moved off the box suddenly, to go stand by Aswon. Hunter just smirked at her, and shuffled back towards his perch, grabbing the computer again. Nadia looked around at the occupants of the truck – Aswon the merc, who no doubt had killed plenty of people over his decades of work, Shimazu the bodyguard, who she'd seen leap into combat and behead people without a second of thought, Hunter the Englishman, normally so brash and rude, yet capable of surprising depths. None of them had any reason to want her here, yet they'd all taken the time to look after her after the shooting. To get her back on an even keel, and to think about what she'd done. For a moment, she felt more at home with this bunch of slightly sociopathic travelling rodeo clowns than she ever had at home.
Her thoughts were disturbed by a cry of alarm from the front of the truck. A moment later the truck quivered slightly, then accelerated sharply, throwing them off balance. The speakers crackled and then Marius' voice spoke quietly, somewhat detached as if he was concentrating hard on something else.
"Achtung! Tads has spotted a chopper following us. Checking it now. Ach, it's the one from the ambush. Several miles back, and off our left side. Looks to be pacing us at the moment. Checking details, but you might want to gear up."
The back of the truck erupted into action. Aswon turned and clambered over the boxes, heading for his rifle and to get into the front where he had access to the roof hatch. Hunter shoved the laptop away again, sentence half-finished and grabbed his assault rifle, quickly checking the clip. Shimazu grabbed his armour and frowned as one of the plates slid out of the massive tears and rips in it. Giving it a shake, bits of Kevlar and ceramic trickled out, and he dropped it on the floor in disgust, scavenging around for the spare he'd purchased. Nadia took a moment, and then flipped off the fuel to the burner. The cookies would be ruined – but to be fair, Aswon had probably already accomplished that – but at least the truck wouldn't catch fire. She grabbed a first aid kit and started climbing into one of the armour vests, struggling with the straps and buckles, but determined to pull her weight.
The team loaded up, checked their weapons and donned their armour, whilst Marius worked on the sensors, refining his targeting data. A minute later he confirmed that it was definitely the chopper that had over-flown them at the ambush. Either Aswon hadn't done as much damage as he'd thought, or they'd managed to put some temporary repairs in pretty quickly. Either way though, it seemed to have learnt its lesson, and was staying a good distance back, and gently weaving from side to side in flight, making a difficult shot almost impossible. For the moment, it just seemed to be pacing them – content to sit and watch, and follow along. It was actually out over the water, quite low and on their back left quarter, just pacing them as they drove along the road.
"It won't have the fuel capacity to stay back there forever, but it could be vectoring other units onto us, and keeping us on a short leash until they arrive," Marius sounded frustrated over the intercom, having no systems that he could use to strike at their pursuer.
Hunter called out to them, his fingers flying across the computer screen to examine their route. "Ok, we've got options. There's three short tunnels coming up through the rough terrain ahead, between one hundred and three hundred metres long, then there's a big beast, almost four kilometres long. If we can use the smart materials to change our signature, maybe throw up some spells?"
Kai nodded, but turned towards Tads first. "Can you do something to try and disrupt them? I mean spell-wise? Anything that would take them down." Tads thought for a moment, but then shook her head.
"Not really. I've not really got any spells designed for damaging vehicles and things. Still a lot of stuff on the list to get. Unless…" she looked thoughtful for a moment. "I've got one thing to try…"
She moved to the window, taking the offered binoculars from Aswon. After a few seconds adjustment, she pressed her face up against the rubber eye cups and looked for the chopper, finding it after a few seconds.
"Ok, now I'm not sure how this is going to work, not tried this before…." Her voice trailed off as she concentrated, and her voice began to chant in the strange language she normally used when casting spells, her fingers fluttering as she focussed the energy. Moments later a raw onion splattered against the window of the vehicle from the inside, quickly dropping down to the floor. "Oops, sorry. Um… ok, over there is still a long way, not just at the end of the binoculars. Let's try that again."
The chopper seemed to stutter in the air, then banked sharply to the side as a small but steady stream of raw vegetables appeared just in front of the air intake. Fortunately for the pilot the grill stopped most of the veg entering, and anything small enough to get through was mashed by the whirling machinery.
"Sorry, that's about as big as I can go. Not sure it's really stopped them." They watched, and sure enough the chopper banked back, climbing a little higher as they entered more rugged terrain. Without warning a long discoloured patch appeared over the windscreen, about a half metre in height and covering the vehicle from left to right. They watched it carefully expecting it start dissolving the glass or bursting into flames at a moment's notice – but no, nothing happened.
SLAM!
Three small birds plummeted down into the windscreen of the truck, killing themselves instantly. With a combined speed of about a hundred and twenty five kilometres per hour, they almost exploded on impact, but the feathers and gore stuck to the windscreen in a big splatter pattern. A moment later some more hit, then some more.
"Glue strip, and some kind of animal control spell. I guess they don't have anything that will hurt the vehicle directly either – but that's pretty inventive!" Tads exclaimed. "I mean it's awful, because they're just murdering those creatures, but if we were a normal vehicle with a driver, it's going to pretty much force you to stop."
Kai poked the intercom with haste. "Marius, you still good?"
"Ja, Ja – sensors are clear. I'm not looking out of the cab anyway. I can drive through this no problem."
They burst into the first tunnel, being cut off from sight for about six seconds, then burst out into the cold winter sunlight again. Another kilometre sped past, then a slightly longer tunnel, this one taking nearly fifteen seconds to pass through.
"Ok folks, another two klicks, then we have the long tunnel. That should give us about two minutes out of line of sight to work this through. Let's get ready." Hunter had the map at maximum zoom, and their position marker scrolled smoothly down the pathway marked out, edging closer to the flashing icon marking the entrance to the tunnel.
