Date 16/02/2060, Location 40.02419, 48.95808

The team settled down on the comfortable chairs in the large open plan living room, and relaxed while Rusudan stoked up the fire and threw a couple of scoops of fuel on the fire and Naena and the children organised drinks for everyone. Kai asked Rusudan to tell them about what had happened…

"Well, after you came and saved us from the men, it all went quiet. For a week or so we thought it was done with, and we could go back to our normal lives. But I think it was around the 8th, we saw a car drive up the road towards the house, then just stop. It sat there for a few minutes, then drove in, around the house and back down the road – just eyeing the place up. They came back the day after, and stopped by the end of the road, I was down there working on the fence."

Rusudan slurped at his tea, smiling his thanks at Naena and looking around to make sure everyone was happy with their drinks, before continuing.

"There were two men, older men, but with a mean look about them. They wanted to know if I'd seen the other men from the week before. I told them no, shook my head. They went away. But they came back the next day, and said that someone had seen the men come in, and why would I lie? I told them again that I didn't know anything about them being here. They went away… But they came back a few days later, and wanted money again. Just a little to start with, but instead of a week, it was only a few days and they came back wanting more. And it's been like that since – they come back every few days, demand food and drink, and money. I see the guns in their belts, and the knives – and there's normally at least three or four of them now."

Rusudan sat hunched over, his body tense and knotted, clearly feeling rage and aggression towards the people who threatened his family, but unable to deal with the threat himself. Kai nodded to him as he finished speaking, reassuring him that it would be taken care of. Kai sat back and sipped at his tea, looking at the rest of the team while Hunter quietly translated what he'd said. He didn't see any argument or dissent in any of their faces.

"Right, plan time. Let's sort these idiots out properly, and get them to leave our friend here alone."

The started to hatch a plan, Marius and Hunter initially suggesting that they could go into Shirvan and purchase some components, and use that to make tracking devices – they could be attached to the cars that came to visit. Rusudan interrupted timidly, and told them they would need to order in supplies from somewhere like Baku. He went on to describe Shirvan a little more:

"Shirvan used to be big for oil and gas exploration. Much in the way of manufacturing there, lots of steel and shapers, big hammering machines and things that make pipes. There is a large river, and in bad weather parts of the town can flood. There is also a rail line – lots of heavy trains used to come here, now, not so much. They grow food now, and make things from metal or plascrete in the factories, still much large construction. But most is not high tech, very few computers or new things, no electronics and such like. For things like that, then Baku is what you need."

"Ok, thanks for that, Rusudan. Can we use your matrix connection to order some things in?" Rusudan nodded at Hunter, and passed over his phone. Hunter looked confused for a moment, then queried him, hiding his sigh of exasperation as Rusudan revealed that he had a very slim data connection on his phone, but other than that the house had NO matrix connection at all. Hunter opened up a new document on his pocket secretary and started a list of 'things needed at the house', adding wide band matrix access at the number one spot.

At the other end of the open plan lounge, Shimazu had bought out the dagger seized from the physical adept that had attacked them on the road, and asked Tads to have a look at it. She carefully examined it visually at first – it was about 300mm long, and fairly broad bladed, reaching about 100mm wide at the base of the blade, at the handguard. A wooden handle made of two slender carved wood pieces attached to a metal plate were gripped by the hands, and this was joined to two long and thickish metal bars, making a H shape with the blade. She picked it up carefully, folding her fingers around the handgrip, and looked at the bars, as they guarded each side of her forearm. The blade was held in direct line with her arm, and would favour a slashing or thrusting motion, but would require significant practice with to get around a person's guard.

She dropped into astral space next, probing at the dagger and its magical link. She saw the lines of mana radiating off the blade, dissipating into the ether slowly and without form. She probed at it, and confirmed that there was no magical link evident in the manafield of the weapon. That meant that the previous owner was definitely dead – and wouldn't be coming looking for them. She spent a few more minutes looking at it, and could detect no special abilities or odd magical taints about it.

"Right Shimazu, it looks to be a fairly low force magical dagger – it should be relatively easy to attune and bond to your aura, but it will only provide limited assistance in magical combat – though it will help. Of course, being a magical weapon, it does mean that any spirit or magical creature is going to get hurt by it – their magical defences against normal weapons won't be proof against this, so in that terms it's very valuable. It's not particularly special beyond that – you can see that it's been hand made, and it looks to have been by an enchanter who was also a blacksmith, rather than a blacksmith who was also an enchanter, if you take my meaning." Shimazu nodded, and thanked her, then posed a question.

"So, if we melted this down, in a forge or something, can we use it to make a more powerful weapon? Or as materials to make my sword magical?"

"Well, you could, but it wouldn't really help, I'm afraid. The process doesn't work like that. Unless you were trying to craft a weapon that say had an enchantment on that broke other weapons, so melting one down or sacrificing it symbolically was a thing, it's not going to add any power or materials to a new weapon. You're as well, if you're not going to use this, to try and sell it and use the money to get other magical gear. In fact, you're probably going to get a better rate on it if you just try and swap it for other gear." Shimazu nodded in understanding, then wrapped the dagger up in a cloth, and got up to leave the room.

At the dining room table, Kai and Aswon were engaged in a separate discussion.

"So, you have your old rifle, from Germaine, and that's a pretty nice hunting rifle. But this new one – it looks pretty potent. Can we use it against vehicles and such like, I take it?"

"Indeed, it's a good rifle, very sturdy. But there are limits. I was certainly a little lucky, as well as being a good shot." Aswon spoke in a matter of fact way, not boasting, but sure of his own skills and talents. "The chopper was a security equipped version of a civilian model, upgraded with some armour and guns, rather than designed from the ground up as a gunship. That makes a lot of difference." Kai frowned at him, so Aswon sat back and thought for a moment.

"Ok, guns are designed to kill people, mainly. And to defeat personal body armour. Ok, right. So, that's our base for assessment. Now, if you shoot at something like a car, or a helicopter, a lot of guns are going to find their rounds stopped by the structure of the vehicle. Although you'll punch into them, the sheer weight, or mass – or hardness of their construction – stops a lot of damage. So you either need a much bigger bullet, or a lot of them. Most of the time, that means an automatic weapon, like Hunter's Ares combat gun. Still with me?" Kai nodded in understanding.

"Now, as soon as you start slapping armour onto a vehicle, the equation moves a lot. Vehicle armour is so much thicker, and tougher than the stuff we wear – vehicles don't need to bend, and they're designed to carry the weight. It's just a whole 'nother level we're talking about. If you get a military vehicle, an APC or gunship, you can put so much armour on that even this won't get through reliably." He pulled out one of the 50 calibre rounds, holding the round between thumb and forefinger, shaking it slightly from side to side. 13mm across and nearly 100mm long, it was a significant size and weight.

"What I did was aim for a point where the armour was pretty much non-existent – on the central shaft from the engine to the rotor housing. Even then, the round did some pretty nasty damage, but the pilot still managed to set her down safely. If you want to take out a target like that, then you need one of two things. The first is a heavy machine gun, where you hit the target with a burst of 10 of these at once. The second is to get some special rounds – HESH or ADCAP, APFSDS or something like that." He saw Kai going slightly cross-eyed again, and wound it back. "Look, you need military grade, high tech stuff. It's very expensive, but more important it's really hard to get hold of, as the military don't like anyone having their toys…" Kai nodded – that much he could understand, no problem.

"So, my rifle is really good – against any civilian vehicle, no problem. Against an armoured civilian vehicle – something like a valuables transfer vehicle, then I need to aim for the weakspots inherent in the design. Against a security vehicle, I may find some vulnerable points, where the armour is thinner. But, against a proper military vehicle, we need the special ammo, or I'm not going to do much other than make a lot of noise and scare the crap out of the driver – who has to assume I do have HESH loaded!" Kai nodded in understanding, and reached out for the round, hefting it in his hands.

"If you ever see any of those with black tips, red tips with a silver ring or amber sides - just buy them. Black tips are the armour piercing, red tips are incendiary normally, but with the silver ring are armour piercing variants, and the amber coloured ones are saboted light armour penetrators. To be frank though, unless they look to have been painted as a gimmick or a con, if you see any of these rounds with any colour tips – just buy them, it's probably worth it, given how rare they are going to be.

Hunter and Marius had finished their initial discussion, and got Eteri to take them for a quick tour around the back. She let them out by the back door onto the veranda, and then down onto the gravel surface that surrounded the house in all directions. She led them across to the long barn that lay parallel to the house, about 15m away from the back wall. She angled towards the northern end and slid open the heavy door about halfway, ushering the two of them in after her and sliding it shut again behind them. Inside they could feel a gentle wash of warm air blowing around, helping to take the chill off the air, and understood why Eteri was keen to get the door closed behind them.

The barn was a tall single story building, made out of extruded plastic beams with a wood-grain effect printed onto them, slotted into a framework. It was quite tall, higher than a normal single story building, but not as high as the two-storey house. Large stable bays lay to either side of them, opening onto a three metre wide walkway down the centre of the barn, from north to south. They could hear the gentle snuffling of horses, and saw at least two come up to the barred doors, showing interest in them – though possibly wondering if they were a source of food as much as anything else. Eteri explained that these two were all they had managed to obtain since the fire, and were more work horses than for riding.

As they moved down the barn, Hunter and Marius saw the amount of fire damage increase, with several of the construction elements twisted and deformed. They could see where the family had been scrubbing and cleaning at the structure, trying to remove the soot and burnt remnants of the fire in what was an ongoing operation. Unseen by Eteri, they exchanged hard-eyed looks. Neither were particularly animal lovers – but the type of people who were willing to burn animals alive to prove a point were not going to get much sympathy from either of them.

As they got to the other end, they found a couple of smaller stables, clearly designed for a single horse rather than a pair, and then the room opened out slightly. To the west was a large sealed room, in a white plastic rather than the "rustic brown" of the rest of the barn. Looking more closely, it appeared to be an isolation room, or for use by a vet – the walls, ceiling and floor were designed to be steam cleaned or blasted and bleached to keep them hygienic, and the door was solid rather than barred, so it was easier to keep anything in here separate from the rest of the barn. On the east wall was a high room holding a wide selection of tack and gear for the horses, and then a small forge area, presumably for a smith to shoe the horses at. They had a poke around, checking out the structure and the facilities. Hunter made several notes about bits that definitely needed replacing due to the fire damage, adding them to his list, before they slipped out by the south door, back into the cold winter day.

From here they followed the gravel road round the corner and to the east, down towards the garages. This was another long building, taller than the barn, and probably the same height at the apex as the house. Instead of a central ridge though, it sloped from the front to the back as one piece, dropping at a twelve degree angle. There were three large garage bays, each one easily big enough for the truck or trailer to park in, and have room to work around. With careful parking, they could probably get the truck in and squeeze a car down the side, but they'd have trouble loading them up, let alone working on them then. But, still it gave room for the truck and trailer, and room for a car or van and some motorbikes in the rest if they needed them.

Marius saw the selection of rusty tools, bent equipment and battered supplies and stopped dead, halfway across the floor, his mouth opening slightly in horror. Hunter smirked at him a little, but then sighed, and started to add tools to the ever growing list on his p-sec.

Back inside the house, Aswon and Kai had come over to Rusudan and were asking about his business – and clarifying what they thought they'd heard from Hunter.

Rusudan worked through the settings on his phone, and pulled up their matrix site. It was pretty basic, clearly designed using an off-the-shelf kit and was hosted as part of his phone package, with his provider's branding all over it. It described the Estara horse ranch as being a great place to get away from modern city life, and would be an ideal holiday to destress and live the cowboy lifestyle. Several stock images of horses, cowboys and what looked more like the great plains of America were clumsily framed by the text, along with contact information and pricing, and a widget to allow online bookings.

"I get messages on my phone, if people book. Or they call, for details. During the summer we do good business normally, in winter is time to fix the ranch, and do maintenance. Sometimes people come for the quiet, or for business meetings – but not so much the horses. But mostly quiet. So this is all the matrix I need. But you want more matrix?" He looked to Aswon as he started to speak.

"Yes, for what we have in mind, we'll need a lot more matrix connection. A lot more. Reliable stuff too, from a cable."

"Ahh, then I will get more matrix. I have a package for the phone, but I can get a ground line as well. It will be done."

"That's not what I meant, I mean WE can get the matrix in. It's us that wants it. You don't have to do it."

"But you need it. And you saved our lives, you are …" at this point he said something that defied translation, some local term or colloquialism. Aswon and Kai exchanged looks, equally baffled. "There is a life debt, so just say what you need, and it will be done."

Aswon got up from his chair, and put a hand on Kais shoulder, bending low to whisper in his ear.

"This is so your department 'Boss'," then straightened up and turned away before Kai could respond, leaving the Mongolian to explain things to their host.

Hunter and Marius drove the truck and trailer down to the garage and carefully backed the trailer into the far end bay, then swung the truck around and parked it next to the row of garages, tucked away discreetly but still ready to drive off quickly. Hunter spent a little time downloading some agricultural data and set the photovoltaic paints to a pattern mimicking a grain truck. It wouldn't do for anything more than a cursory glance, but it might help a little. Tads, Aswon and Shimazu came out to meet them, heading into the truck and started work on the ward, seeking to strengthen its power and defences with some of the magical supplies they had left.

While they were working in the truck, Marius recovered some bits from his toolkit and the roll-out screen and Hunter grabbed his computer, and they headed into the house. Using some spare cable, they ran a small aerial from the eaves of the house down and into the living room, and Marius crimped the end, adding in a connector and testing it with the cable from his sat phone. A bit of wiggling and repositioning, and he soon had the aerial pointing at one of the geosynchronous com-sats, giving a nice strong signal. They hooked the phone to the computer, and ran the output to the screen, and finally got a nice big display the size of the coffee table, with the cables neatly routed and laid in. With the sat phone closed up and connected to the computer, it would be very easy to scoop them both up and be ready to dash if they needed to, without having to go through the hassle of breaking the system down.

From there, Hunter and Marius started a thorough investigation into agricultural pre-fabricated buildings, looking at styles, costs, availability, construction methods, shipping costs, permits to build and a whole host of other things. Along the way the search meandered into some more specialist areas, like explosive blast proof shipping containers, used in quarries to hold dangerous and sensitive blasting compounds – but equally good for being a secure gun safe. They found that none of the pre-fab buildings they were looking at were suitable for living in, and that trying to get living accommodation involved a whole bunch of different suppliers and permits – but that static caravans were available just as easily and without the paperwork.

Slowly they sketched out a list of requirements and buildings that would meet those needs, drawing rough plans onto the satellite view of the ranch and sizing up ground space and visibility, working out access requirements and defensive implications. Alongside the stables and the garage, a cluster of buildings took virtual shape – a workshop for working on the vehicles, an enchanting area with a forge, a secure arms locker, sleeping accommodation for the team in two 8-berth static caravans with room to stretch out and relax, a building large enough for a second lodge, training rooms, a computer training room or briefing room. As they got carried away with their plans, the base grew larger and large and the price tally climbed up and up as they added on additional features and items on their wish list.

As the day wore on, whilst the guys were in the house working on the plans for the base, the magical trio finished the improvements to the ward in the truck. Tads asked Aswon and Shimazu to stay behind, and come with her to the lodge. She led the way in and pulled the door shut behind them, with Aswon raising a curious eyebrow at her.

"I think I'm ready to do a little meditation, and to call on my totem to renew my link with him, to further pledge myself to the path of my people. If Elk feels I'm ready, and judges me worthy to walk down the path, then I'll hopefully gain a deeper understanding of magic and become more powerful. But, I want to try and learn specifically how to hide my magical nature from others – so I want to show them you, and say that I want that, too." Aswon nodded in understanding, but still looked slightly doubtful. Shimazu had his normal blank expression on his face – what she thought of as his "professional bodyguard look" – she was sure he had thoughts about this, but he wasn't letting them show.

"Well, I'll help if I can, but I'm not sure what I can do – I'm not even a follower of your path, so I don't see how it'll make much difference." Aswon moved to stand behind her in the circle, and waved for Shimazu to stand on her other side, so that she was at the apex of the formation.

"Excuse the phrase, but you're my herd. You, the rest of the fighting … er… bucks in the herd can 'hide', but I can't, so I want to explain to Elk that if all the magical combatants in the herd can hide, pretend to be mundane, the whole herd is safer, stronger, and we're better able to protect the 'weaker', non-magical … er… does, so to speak, because I'm not dragging danger back with me if I can 'hide' too. " She shrugged a little. "It made more sense in Nenet."

Tads settled herself down cross-legged in the middle of her circle, and started to pull out small bags of coloured sand and dirt, pouring them in front of her in basic patterns, making a simple picture. First some dark material for the earth, then some green for the hills and the trees, a bit of blue for a lake, some golden yellow sand for the sun. It was crude, like a picture drawn by a child, yet it hummed with magical power as Tads opened herself up to the spirit realm. Aswon stayed quiet, kneeling on the ground behind her and giving her plenty of space to work. Shimazu knelt also, facing slightly outwards and with one hand resting lightly on the hilt of his sword.

After a few minutes, the picture rippled and a large Elk appeared in it, sliding out from behind a tree like a stop-motion animation. It turned its head towards them, simplistic features blurring and shifting as the sands and coloured earth moved around without any visible force. Then there was a lurch, a sudden shift of power, and somehow they were all "in" the picture, in some far off distant forest, in a world of blocky colours and crude textures. The truck was gone, and they were surrounded by trees and forest, made up of blocks of coloured earth and sand. Aswon stood behind her, spear gripped tightly in his hands but not seeming to be too alarmed. Shimazu took a step in towards them, turning to face outwards so he could cover both of their rears, and there was a quiet whisper of steel as his sword was drawn. Although he'd never been on an astral quest, or a metaplane, he'd heard about them and figured this was something her totem was doing – or something to do with their magical link formed when they set up their group.

The elk approached, staring at Tads, and then glanced at Aswon and Shimazu, pawing at the ground a little. The body language was hard to read, and he wasn't sure if it looked frightened and about to run away, or angry and about to attack. Unsure either way, they stayed still and tried not to tip things one way or the other, and let Tads do the talking. She addressed the Elk, and talked to it – or rather at it, since it didn't reply physically. She wove a tale of their deeds over the recent past, talking about foes hidden from and spells cast, deeds undertaken and risks run. Along the way she highlighted that both Aswon and Shimazu had the power to hide their magical signatures, to pass amongst people unnoticed except by careful and deliberate concentration, and that was useful – but without a magical ability to do the same, she was not only at risk herself, but also bought risk to them, and the rest of the team.

Elk circled them, large liquid eyes staring at Aswon and Shimazu in turn, pawing at the ground and hot moist air rolling over them as the ethereal avatar sniffed at them and sampled their auras. They stayed still, trying to support Tads without causing problems for her. The Elk circled, sniffing and considering them, the unnatural quiet of the picture forest giving them nothing to listen to except the sound of the ancient creature. It looked at Tads again, then lowered its head and suddenly lunged forward, smashing into her with its bony head. A split second later the wide antlers hit Aswon and Shimazu, and all three of them were flung through the air, the wind driven from them. The background blurred, and as they drew in a deep breath to replace the air knocked out of them they refocussed on the walls of the truck around them. None of them were damaged or hurt, and there was no sign of the forest or the elk.

Tads looked down at the magical supplies, and found that all of the sand and earth was mixed together into a large muddy mess, no clear elements any more – except for a single, large, hoofprint right in the middle, along with a strange sense of satisfaction.

"Look at me please, magically?" She concentrated on looking small and inoffensive, and heard a slight intake of breath from each of them as they peered at her astrally. Aswon gave a big beaming smile, and Shimazu nodded his head in satisfaction. He looked down at his hands, still gripping his sword, then his eyes flared wide in alarm. The others felt the change in his aura and stopped what they were about to say, waiting for him to speak. He didn't say anything though, instead just rolling his wrist over and showing them the time – and that over an hour had passed since they entered the lodge. Aswon and Tads shrugged, and Tads drew a breath.

"That's actually not so bad. I've heard of people who've been gone for days for something like this – though that's the longest I've ever heard. But still, we should probably head back and see what the rest are up to." They nodded at her, and all three of them headed back to the house, into the living area to see what the rest of the team had accomplished.

Inside they found the plans for the base had expanded in several stages. The first phase appeared to be an 8 berth caravan to live in, along with two steel framed buildings with plastic filler walls, each about ten by twenty metres, to be used for enchanting and as a vehicle workshop, along with the armoured storage container – which was pushing for about sixty thousand Nuyen all told. There was details for phases two and three, with more buildings, sensor posts, pop up sentry guns and computer labs, but the figures for these ran into the hundreds of thousands and then millions – clearly long-term dreams.

Once they'd gone over the plans, Kai got them all sat down, and told them what he'd been up to while they were working on plans and magical adventures. He took a sip of coffee and then sat back on the sofa, waving for the others to relax in a similar fashion.

"I think this is going to work out nicely. We've got a good opportunity here. So, Rusudan has no family beyond the wife and kids in the area – they moved a fair way across the country to come here, so there's no one local that's likely to pop in to come and see them. He's been running the business for a few years, and makes a small profit – enough to keep them going and live somewhat comfortably, at least until some idiots set fire to their horses."

Tads shifted uncomfortably on her seat and her eyes stared across the room, clearly thinking about whatever events had scarred her in the past. A moment later she felt a reassuring hand on her shoulder as Shimazu reached over to her, his self-study in psychology starting to pay dividends. She smiled at him and nodded slightly, but didn't say anything to avoid interrupting Kai.

"The family got a pretty good deal on the land a good few years back – it's much bigger than I thought it was. They've only got a field on either side of the drive, running alongside the main road – this is the more fertile area you see, and the farmers north and south of us actually grow some crops. But once you get a quarter klick back, and it starts hitting the uplands, the ground is broken and almost impossible to farm, and as such has a pretty low value to them. The ranch covers most of the escarpment and ridges back that way for a good few kilometres, and all told they've got about 50 square kilometres of land they own entirely." Several of the team exchanged looks of surprise at this news, then leant forward to examine the screen as Kai bought up the map of the area, showing the extents of their land.

"So, they got the house, with guest quarters, built the stables, got some riding horses and set up a matrix site, and have been doing authentic cowboy holidays and ranch breaks since. Get families coming, and sometimes corporate types, wanting a break or a chance to unwind, they get them out on the trails and criss-cross the hills, riding for half a day and doing some outdoors stuff with them as well, tire them out, then bring them back here. That's why they've got this big open plan area – it's the main guest area where they can mingle with the others and relax after a day of riding. The family does all the cooking and cleaning, and then they head to bed exhausted and happy after a day of fresh air."

"That means that there's already an established pattern of people coming and going from the ranch, with suitcases and stuff, in a variety of transports, every few days – perfect cover for us. People coming in all kinds of vehicles too, including corporate limos. One of the 'features' they had was their limited matrix presence, so nothing to disturb you – we'll have to have matrix of course, but we can hide it from the guests. It also means we want to keep things visually low key, and make it look like part of the ranch with whatever we set up, so we may end up digging and going down a little." Hunter and Marius turned to face each other, and there was a smile on both their faces for a moment until Kai raised his voice a little in mock anger, "but we are NOT building a secret volcano lair, you two – so don't even go there!"

"Now, I've chatted with both of the kids, and they're pretty happy here. Both like the outdoor life, and are happy working on the ranch. They'd like some better education – Eteri mentioned she'd like to be a vet one day to help look after the horses, and Vardo seems quite handy with his little welding set, so there's plenty of scope to help them out and keep them happy and productive, as well as keeping the ranch ticking along. They manage quite happily with the number of guests they get on a normal basis. On that note, let me tell you about the house…" Kai shifted round a little on the settee, so had his back to the front of the house, and started to point and use his arms to describe the tour he'd been given earlier.

"As you come in the front door, there's the open area over there, the tables and chairs and stuff. To the right is the main office where Rusudan does his accounts and paperwork and such like. Then there's a pair of toilets, a cupboard with the cleaning stuff, then the second office – they let corporate types hold meetings in there when they book the place out. Coming the other way, you come into the lounge area, where we are now of course, and this is used for general socialising and relaxing and the table over there for main meals. The kitchen is through the door there and runs down to the back door next to the office." He watched to make sure everyone was keeping up with the description.

"If we go up the main stairs near the front door, that brings you up near the south side of the house. There's the four main guest rooms, each a double room, a triple at a push, with two rooms on the east side of the landing, and two on the west. There's a bathroom on each side of the landing, shared between the two rooms, and a separate toilet. Past the guest rooms, there's a linen room, then Vardo's bedroom, Eteri on the corner, then round to Rusudan and Naena's room which has an en-suite. That brings you back towards the middle of the house, and there's a large drying cupboard and another store room, then down the other set of stairs, which brings you down over there, behind the dining table. So normally, they'd have a max of 8 guests or so, and they can manage that load between them quite happily."

"I think we don't want to take any of the guest quarters up – although they'll be comfy, and warm and all the rest of it – it's going to stop the primary business, and that not only kills the lifestyle, it also stops the cover working as well. So we definitely want to get separate places for us to sleep." He looked around and saw general nods of agreement.

"Now, they started to have problems with this mafia bunch a little while back – first it was scoping the place out, then a few visits and poking around, then some comments about how isolated they are here, how it would be a shame if anything was to happen – we all know how this works, right? Well, after we dealt with that bunch, it bought them a week or two of quiet, then some new guys turned up – cautious to start off with, asking questions about the first lot. Rusudan said he'd never seen them, but then they started again. This time they've been quicker to escalate, and now they're trying to hit him up for cash pretty hard and fast. So, I think we need to nip this in the bud, pretty sharp."

"Now, we've got a shopping list for the place to get some upgrades, what else do we have on the cards?" Kai looked around the group, stopping at Tads as she lifted a hand.

"Well, one of the things we should do is get two hoops or metal bands put up or something. Like a doorway with no door." She could see the others looking at her blankly. "I don't know what the English is, but you have two big posts upright, then a bar across the top, going over the road."

"Archway?" suggested Hunter

"Um maybe. But we want one of those over the driveway, because then we can put a ward on it. It has to be an enclosed line you see, to mark the boundary. So if we can get something over the roadway, we can ward it – and if anyone ever comes in with a magic spell up, or a weapon or something – it will set the ward off. Spirits and other creatures and stuff will just fly over, or go around – but it will catch anyone actively magical in a car."

"Ok, excellent – that's really cheap. In fact we can probably just get that done with stuff we have onsite now. Nice one."

"And also, if we find out what they eat, I can stock up their pantry for them, to make their funds go further."

"Ok, that's great, let's see if you can do that this evening – I think they're running low right now. Anyone else?" He looked around, but nobody seemed to have anything to say, so they broke up and moved around the house, finding somewhere to be.

Tads called Aslik Mustafan, the talismonger who lived in the nearby woods, asking if she could sell the spell formulas back to him that she had already learned. He didn't appear thrilled by the idea, intimating that they were 'used' now, and that they were somehow soiled by being second hand. Sensing that she wasn't going to get much for them, instead she changed tack asking him if he had any spell formula for sale that would improve her quickness and reaction in combat. Here he was a lot more forthcoming, indicating that he had something like that available and ready for sale. Tads asked him to hold onto it for her for a day or two – reasoning that as she now had a sustaining foci from the golem delivery she might as well have a good spell to go with it that would enhance her combat ability. Last of all she told him that she needed a large amount of lodge and warding materials again, and asked him to start collecting those together.

After her call, she moved into the kitchen, working through the cupboards and looking for the raw materials she could magically fabricate, and went to work, replenishing supplies.

Shimazu headed out to the truck and found his waterproof cable box, and spent several hours inscribing runes and sigils on the inside of the case, slowly building up the magical protections on it to a point where he felt he could hide his treatise safely within it.

Hunter unpacked several key items from the truck and headed out into the field to the south of the house. Once in the middle of the field, he scouted round a little, finding a natural depression and then settled himself down into it, pulling one of Aswons 'Wild Hunt' cammo jackets over his shoulders and back. The jacket was far too small for him to wear, but it did more or less cover him when he lay on the floor. After that he teased some camo net over the top, settling himself down on his padded jacket with his assault rifle lying just in front of him along with a small squeeze pouch of water, some chocolate bars and a pair of binoculars. Moving slowly, he keyed his microphone and checked the encrypted radio was working fine, listening as Marius confirmed a good signal. Then, he settled down into the ground and waited, his eyes flitting from the driveway onto the main road, the field to the left, the field to the right, then back, over and over.

The rest of the team settled down and relaxed, climbing into their hammocks or bunks in the truck, or using the empty guest rooms in the main house. Just before midnight, Marius called out to Hunter on the comms.

"Hunter, it's midnight. When are you coming in?"

"I'm going to stay out tonight, I've just got a feeling. I'll come back in for breakfast. See you at dawn." Marius looked down at the radio, then shrugged. He grabbed another of the radios and set it to open mike, then took it to the room he had grabbed and settled down into bed with Nadia.

The night passed uneventfully, the clear night sky letting temperatures drop sharply and a thick frost formed on the ground. Hunter remained on watch all night, chilly – but functional, his high tech clothing keeping him warm enough to stay marginally comfortable all night. At dawn he headed into the house, and the toilet. With the most important and pressing need taken care of, he aimed for the kitchen and a pot of hot tea. Entering the large kitchen quietly, he found Rusudan and Naena at the kitchen table, illuminated by a soft yellow light from the cooker hood and the first faint rays of light from the eastern sky as the sun rose beyond the hills. They both jumped in alarm as he coughed quietly, having made no noise as he entered – but at least they both recognised him, as he'd already taken all the camo gear off and stowed the rifle while he attended to the call of nature.

"What's up, Rusudan?" he asked, gesturing at the table packed full of plastic boxes and containers.

"The foods in these boxes – we don't understand where they came from. Most of these were nearly empty yesterday!"

"Ahh, you need to talk to Kai about that – but I think he made arrangements." Hunter didn't explain any further, but saw the husband and wife exchange looks and give bemused shrugs. He grabbed a mug and started to look around for tea, but was then quickly ushered out of the kitchen and told to go and relax, and that they would bring him a drink through. Sure enough, a few minutes later a piping hot cup of tea was served to him, along with some bread and jam.

He waited until Tads showed up, fresh from her dawn prayers and told her of the encounter in the kitchen and the otherwise uneventful night, then set down his empty cup and plate, and headed back to the truck, rolling into his sleeping bag and falling asleep almost before his head hit the pillow.

Tads listened to Rusudan and Neana as they explained the mystery of the appearing breakfast produce, and decided to go and get Kai to explain. Kai, of course, then had to get Aswon up to translate for him, as this was not something that could be handled without care.

"So, you're well aware that magic exists in the world. Well, as it happens, we have some magic available to us. And some of that magic allows us to create food. Not all kinds of food – it has to be simple. But things like rice, and oats, and basic ingredients we can make. So, while we are here, we try to help out with the food, to make your supplies go further, so you don't run out."

"That's…. that's amazing. How does it work?" Kai looked at the two of them and saw no fear or hostility in their expression, just amazement and wonder. Clearly they didn't have the knee-jerk reaction to magic that some had. He decided to go for broke, and called Tads in, and pushed an empty bowl over her way, nodding for her to do a demonstration.

Tads concentrated for a moment, manipulating the mana field around her and bending it to her will. Her fingers twitched a little by her side, and for a moment her eyes grew darker – but then a mound of dried oats appeared in the bowl. Naena gave a gasp of delight and reached out to grab an oat flake, examining it closely and then tentatively putting in on the end of her tongue and tasting it.

"It's so real!" Rusudan grabbed some too, and also checked them out.

"Of course they taste real – they ARE real. Just made to appear here, with magic." I have to have seen the food to understand it, and be able to recreate it. And the spell I know is not that powerful, so it's limited in what it can make – very basic stuff mostly. But I can…" Tads paused as another empty bowl was pushed in front of her, and both of them watched her expectantly. "…make a variety of things. Rice?" They nodded, and moments later were rewarded with a kilo of long-grain white rice. "However, it takes some effort to cast, and doing it while tired or injured, or drained from other magical work could lead to nosebleeds, spasms, fainting or worse – so it's not a tap that can be just turned on."

She headed back into the common room, and settled down on the sofa, curling up into a small ball and watched as the kids set the table for breakfast. Soon enough Nadia and Marius came downstairs, along with Shimazu and they found seats, settling in for a variety of oatcakes and porridge with preserves.

After breakfast had been cleared away, with the family insisting that the team relaxed and didn't do any of the clearing up, they had a brief chat about the mafia and the current situation. It wasn't exactly a detailed plan, as they lacked much in the way of information – but they figured they were more than a match for any local mafia goons. They had the training and equipment to run rings around them, and the firepower and armour to run straight through them if they needed to. So the plan was to grab someone at the bottom, and just question them firmly – very firmly – to get the next person up in the chain. And just work up until they hit the top dog, or someone that could be dealt with at a business level, and told to leave the ranch alone if they valued their lives. Until they had some more information, that was about the depth of it…

After the meeting broke up, Shimazu grabbed his sword and slung it over his back, and then headed out of the house, and jogged down the gravelled area past the garage, heading towards the escarpment. Along with wanting to go for a run to stretch his legs and keep fit, he also wanted to look for somewhere he could set up a quiet little shrine, well away from the others, where he could have some peace and tranquillity. He covered the two hundred and fifty metres to the edge of the hill quickly, and then started to head up the gullies and ridges, pushing hard to maintain his pace and climbed the slopes quickly.

Back at the house, Aswon slung his rifle over his back, unconsciously mirroring Shimazu. With a quick look around, he swarmed up the side of the house, his Gecko tattoo glowing under his clothes. The rough panels gave him plenty of grip and he made the climb quickly, padding up and over the gutter and up to the ridgeline of the roof. He headed to the north end, and crouched down by the large chimney leading up from the common room, settling down to watch in the shallow shadows of the structure.

He heard a noise a few minutes later and glanced back over his shoulder, watching as Eteri led Nadia to the stables. Shortly afterwards, he heard them bring one of the horses out, and half listened as Eteri taught Nadia how to brush the horse down, and described life on the ranch to her. Nadia seemed fascinated with the horse, and soaked up the information, spending quite some time with Eteri helping her muck out the stables, clean the tack and feed them. Once that was all done, Eteri saddled one of the horses up, and taught Nadia how to climb into the saddle, and led her around the yard a few times, giving her a quick lesson in riding. From the excited squeals, it sounded like Nadia thoroughly enjoyed herself.

Shimazu returned from his jog at about ten, looking pleased with himself. He'd worked up a good sweat, and took advantage of the bathrooms in the house, enjoying a shower that allowed him to stretch out and turn around without his shoulders catching on the walls. Hunter was still sound asleep, and the rest were relaxing, browsing catalogues, planning buildings or doing little bits of maintenance, when a buzz over the radio interrupted them.

"Got a car turning into the driveway, heading down slowly. Older car, but has polarised windows – looks like a Lada of some kind. Not very powerful anyway, no sign of arms or armour. Definitely not just turning around, they're coming down the drive. No, wait… they've stopped." The rest of the team scrambled to pick up their guns and gear, struggling into armour and moving to concealed positions all around the ground floor while Aswon ran through the report. "They've still stopped. I can't see how they would have seen me, but they seem spooked. No, they're rolling again, moving slowly though. Suggest we remain out of sight and listen in. Ok, closing on the house, I'm about to lose line of sight to them….. yeah, they've parked up just in front of the veranda."

A moment later, they heard a knock at the door, and Rusudan moved to answer it, swinging the door open wide, but standing on the threshold and blocking the doorway, his arms folded in defiance. The team listened as the two thugs talked to Rusudan, trying to extort money from him, while he in turn told them how poor he was, and that he had nothing more to give. They sounded irate, and angry, and as Rusudan reasoned with them calmly and apparently with more vigour than normal, their voices raised and became more belligerent. Rusudan kept his cool though, standing his ground – trying not to give the game away.

Kai whispered to Naena, and then pushed her out of the kitchen, into view. She tottered for a few steps, and then gathered herself and walked up to the front door.

"Rusudan! Why not tell them?" The team heard him stop, and could imagine the look of confusion on his face. "Tell them about the visitors you have tomorrow. The rich corporate types from the city. We will have money to pay them tomorrow, when the guests arrive at midday." Rusudan spluttered at her a little, but the two goons took over the conversation, informing Rusudan and Naena that they'd be back at midday tomorrow – and that they'd better have the money, before turning and crunching their way across the gravel and back to their car. They drove half way down the track back to the main road, then paused for nearly thirty seconds, before continuing on their way.

Tads summoned a sky spirit, and gave it a series of complex instructions on following the car back to town, and to watch if they got out of the car and into a house, but only for more than 10 minutes, unless they came back out with other people and went elsewhere in which case it was to follow them there, until it was sure they'd stopped, and then to come back and tell her and lead her to that spot. The spirit looked as confused as the rest of the team, but vanished in a gust of wind, streaking out of view from the house to follow the rusty old Lada. Marius, meanwhile, had pulled out his deck, warmed up the drone and launched the stealthy blimp, sending the Condor up high and locking onto the car whilst it was parked at the front of the house, and programming the drone to follow it and keep it under surveillance.

"Kai, why did you get Naena to tell them to come back tomorrow?"

"Well, now we know exactly where they'll be at twelve tomorrow. And they don't know that we know. So it's up to us to make sure it's a pleasant surprise…."

The team set to work on plans for the ambush.