The truck led the way into the city, trundling down the main road while the team looked about them. The four by four followed along, with the passengers also looking around with interest. The buildings were similar to those they had seen elsewhere in the country – squat and low generally, square and of simple and plain construction. The commercial buildings were larger, concrete and steel, with larger glass and looking considerably more "western", and out of place against the background of housing. To the west there was a neighbourhood that was made up of larger and more expensive housing, double-height houses set on a gentle rise and with considerably more greenery and tree cover. The roads were wide, with traffic buzzing around at random, the drivers paying scant attention to the rules of the road or nebulous terms like the "highway code" – typical for the region. They made their way south, heading for the canal and the railroad, and then headed east out of town to find a quiet area where they could pull up.
They fired up their comms, and then split up – Kai and Hunter climbed into the back of the four by four, while Shimazu drove. Aswon, Marius, Tads and Nadia stayed in the truck. Tads was concentrating on the masking spell she held up on Hunter, disguising him as a local labourer. The powerful magic was almost impenetrable to even a trained observer, as long as he didn't walk through any wards or magical barriers. But, while she maintained the spell, it took enough concentration that she couldn't concentrate fully on anything else, so she lay in her bunk and stared blankly at the ceiling above her.
Aswon broke out his cleaning kit and started to strip down his new monster rifle, checking it over for dirt and damage, keeping his trusty purdey by the side of him, loaded and ready to go. He'd told them he was going to clean his own kit first, one then the other, but had made it clear that he was happy to clean anything else that was put out for him afterwards – anything to pass the time.
Marius was scrolling through the local map, studying it closely. It would help with navigating around town of course, but mostly he was planning out if there was anywhere that could be worth ram raiding or staging an assault on – anything to help raise some funds. Nadia meanwhile was working on some data searches and background research – things that would help them out without tripping any flags or alarm signals, using the sat-phone provided by Marius.
Kai directed Shimazu to the south, heading for the Mammadova construction company, homing in on the address they had found previously. Crossing the canal and the railway line proved to be an eye opening experience – it was a sharp and sudden dividing line into poverty. As they crossed over to the south side of the city, the land became browner and more barren, the lush plant life of the other bank being notably absent. Buildings were smaller and in poorer repair and the roads more potted and distressed.
It wasn't long before they passed the first industrial site, and could see a plume of polluting smoke pouring out of the stacks and into the sky. Rusty metal and decaying fences, battered vehicles and equally hard-bitten labourers dotted the landscape, and cars became almost non-existent, being replaced by heavy goods vehicles.
As they drove around the area, they noticed people staring at the vehicle. At first they put it down to being the only vehicle on the roads, other than the bulk carriers. Next they wondered if it was because the vehicle had been resprayed and was comparatively clean. The further they drove around though, the more and more stares they attracted – and they realised it wasn't stares at the vehicle, but at the people IN the vehicle. Cursing the backwards country that still had vehicles with clear glass, Kai decided to change tack.
"Shimazu, head north, back towards the canal. Let us break contact for the moment. Hunter – keep an eye on our rear and see if we pick up a tail, will you?" He waited until they'd turned and started to head back towards the canal, before he touched the button on his comm-link. "Marius, can you fire up your surveillance drone please, and send it over our way. I think we've been made by the locals, and we might need some assistance."
He head the whine of the launch ramp in the background as Marius started to prepare the drone, and broke off the link, then started to look around as well, checking the situation. As Shimazu drove north they continued to attract stares, but didn't spot any tails or overt hostile action. Three or four minutes later Marius confirmed that he had them in sight, and even though the drone was unarmed it provided a comforting feeling that the rest of the team in the truck had them in sight and were ready to respond.
They crossed over the canal, back into the commercial area of town, and drove towards the main road – and realised they were still getting odd looks.
"Nothing personal, Shimazu – but I think it's you. They're obviously not used to seeing Asians around here. It can't be Hunter, not disguised like that, and I'm looking pretty local – so it's got to be you. We've got to get you a disguise." Shimazu grunted, and drove around a little more, before pulling over outside a clothing shop that might sell headgear. Kai headed in, with Hunter following him as far as the doorway, keeping an eye on the street.
In the shop, Kai examined the piles of gear behind the counter, and started to ask the shopkeeper for a head covering, something modest and tasteful. At least that's what he thought he said. The shopkeeper looked at him in confusion for a moment, his brow furrowing as he stared at his customer with the very weird accent and strange manner of speech as he asked for 'I need a clothing that goes over the head, around and around and around, then looks neat and makes you tidy.' He reached behind him and grabbed a tie, offering it over to Kai with a hopeful look upon his face.
Sighing in frustration, Kai took the tie and smiled, nodding in agreement, then held up one hand for a moment's pause and crossed to the front door, beckoning Hunter in to come and help him. Hunter looked at the tie on the counter and shook his head, then asked the man for a headscarf to go with it, selecting a plain looking but large shemargh that they could wrap around Shimazu's head in the local style and hide most of his face.
They got back to the car, and while Shimazu put on his new disguise, they checked in with the truck. Marius told them that they appeared clear, with no sign of pursuit or observers, but he was on station and continuing to monitor. Aswon informed them that he'd been monitoring the police bands whilst he was cleaning his rifle, and had started to build up a list of names and callsigns, gathering passive information on the local law.
Once Shimazu was disguised, they headed back across the canal, but this time headed more to the east than the south, following the directions to the house they had identified. The area deteriorated quickly, the houses becoming smaller and less well constructed, the plots of land narrower, the piles of rubbish in the street growing larger and more fetid. They continued to attract stares, but now they were directed at the vehicle, not the occupants. Looking at the level of poverty in the area, the truck probably represented three years income or more for these people, and even something like a spare wheel could be stolen and then sold for a week's income or more. They cruised down the right street, looking at the run-down houses that were little better than squats and quickly found that none of the houses had numbers on them, or identifying marks they could discern. Kai directed Shimazu to pull up at the side of the road, and then slid out of the car, looking around. Down the road a couple of elderly folk were leaning on a car and talking, looking their way with interest but not hostility, while two poorly-dressed children were a few yards ahead, and a larger group of slightly older kids played on the other side of the road.
He approached the two kids nearest him, who stared at him with a little fear and doubt clearly evident on their face. Kai reached into his pocket and pulled out two chocolate bars from his pocket. Their eyes dropped to the brightly wrapped bars and then flicked back to his face.
"So, can you tell me where I can find the Aliyeva family then?" He rustled the wrappings to underscore his question. One of the boys pointed at the house three down from where they stood, then tentatively reached for the chocolate bars. Kai moved the bars forward, giving them one each, then reached into his pocket again and pulled out a local note, worth about ten nuyen and passed that over as well. The older boy snatched at it and both kids burst into a sprint, surprising Kai somewhat. A few seconds later, he realised why – the bigger group of kids had been watching with interest, and as soon as they saw the wave of cash had started to run towards the recipient. The pack of kids streamed past them intent on mugging their peer for his loot.
Kai got a good look at the house, the peeling door with dry rot in the corner by the hinges, the ill-fitting window with a gap under the sill and a cracked pane of glass. He nodded to himself and returned to the car, asking Hunter to note down the location on the map. As he did, Marius called over the radio.
"Kai, everyone – are you ok. We saw Kai have some kind of interaction with the kids, then they all seemed to take off. They're now climbing onto the roof of some house and jumping from one to another. Have they stolen something from you?"
"No Marius, it's fine. We gave them a little cash, and I think the older kids wanted to take it off them. We've identified the house we want though, it's two doors forward of where the car is now, if you can note that on the map as well for Tads to check out later." He waited for Marius to acknowledge and then shut his comm-link down, and got Shimazu to start heading for Mammadova's business.
As they drove through the streets they drew fewer stares than before, but the ones that did look at them seemed to be looking harder and longer than before. They couldn't work out if it was because they'd come through the area twice now, or for some other reason, but there were few enough people that it felt like an acceptable risk, and pressed on. They approached the area marked on the Ares map, and looked up to see the edges of the construction yard looming ahead of them.
It was surrounded by a low quality chain-link fence, about 2 metres high. It hung slackly from the uprights, bowing and sagging in various places to the point that even the most un-athletic person could scale the outer barrier. There was no razor wire, or even barbed wire around the top of the posts, and they didn't see any sensor posts or cameras either, just pile after pile of building materials and construction equipment. As they drove slowly along the edge of the compound they saw a lot of crew moving around the area – lots of manual work seemed to be involved, with very little of the machinery in use in other countries. There was equipment of course – cranes and diggers, cement mixers and huge pipe bending machines, but a lot of the work that would be automated or done with labour-saving machinery in a more technological society was instead done with brute force and lots of pairs of hands.
They passed a large set of open gates, looking into the compound on the eastern side. The first thing they saw were three cars parked outside some battered and run down offices – cars that looked way out of place. Two of them were really nice BMWs, expensive models from the looks of things. Their sleek and styled shapes looked out of place set against the concrete and steel backdrop, and their glossy finish reflected light from the pale and wan winter sun. The third car was even more spectacular, and Hunter gave a low whistle as he recognised the Rolls Royce Black Phantom. It wasn't a hypercar, noted for speed or ultimate performance, but it was one of a handful of cars that was still entirely hand-built and was *the* word in luxury travel – with an eye-watering price tag. If the two BMWs looked out of place in the construction company, the Roller looked out of place in the city.
The radio keyed alive, and Marius reported in on the cars from the overhead view, giving the specific models and their relative costs and availability, backing up Hunter's quick appraisal. As they drove on, the cars swept out of view, and they continued along the sagging fence and the piles of construction material, dirt and rusty machinery until they reached the end of the block.
"Marius, Kai. We're going to head back to your location. Can you keep the drone on station here, and watch those cars and the people that come or go?"
"Ja."
They headed back, keeping an eye on their surroundings in case of tails, but didn't spot anything more than the odd hard look from people they passed. Back at the truck they checked in on Marius, but found that nobody had been to or from the cars since they left. The drone was orbiting the construction company in a wide circle, high above in the sky with the engine hum lost in the breeze. They looked back over the footage taken of them earlier, but couldn't spot any adverse reactions from their passage around the town. They tried to work out why they were attracting stares still, but couldn't pick up any anything concrete – it could be the colour of the car, the make or model, or even something small like the absence of a bumper sticker.
Tads dropped the masking spell on Hunter, returning him to his normal appearance as she studied the map carefully, looking for physical landmarks and terrain features to guide her. Moments later she projected her spirit into the astral realm and headed out of the country at top speed, flitting across to the edge of sea, before turning and heading back, looping into Azerbaijan from a different direction, and then slowing, orientating herself and jumping closer and closer to the south side of the city. Carefully floating down and closing in on the house, she turned up her nose at the filth and despair in the area, distaste showing clearly on her face at the pollution seeping into astral space from the torment and despair of the real world. Pressing through the ceiling she entered the small house and looked around, spotting four living beings, none of them magically active. She observed for a few minutes, watching carefully, then finally spun her body around in the corner of the room and manifested, so most of her body was still in the wall and only her face showed through in the corner.
It was dim in the room, the light from the day struggling to get through the two small dirty windows, front and back. Three young girls played at some kind of game in one corner of the room, curled up on a big heap of mattresses and bedding. In the other corner, a woman was scrubbing tiredly at a collection of dishes in the tiny kitchenette. There was only one other room, a tiny and dirty looking bathroom with a small bathtub and a cracked sink visible through the doorway. The whole scene was a sad indictment on their lives, and it was easy to see why there was a background count in the area if this was typical of the quality of life for the area. Tads let herself fade back into the air, and flew north, heading for the windmill and the magical talislegger as a handy way-point to check for any magical tails, before returning to the truck and making a report.
She was just finished with her report when they spotted a bike coming out of a side road a few hundred yards down the road. The biker checked left and right as he pulled out onto the road, but then did a double-take, staring their way and slowed, reefing the bike into a U-turn and heading back their way.
Shimazu started the car up and was accelerating away to the east before Hunter and Tads shouts of warning were even complete, revving the engine hard and leaving trails of black rubber on the grey tarmac road. The bike continued to chase after them, and they saw a plume of black smoke suddenly billow from the truck as Marius fired up the engine. The bike zipped past just as the truck was moving, swerving around the turning truck, and continuing to close on the four by four.
Shimazu accelerated, slowing the closure rate somewhat for a moment, but then the biker accelerated again, and the distance started to drop between them.
"We can't outrun him, not on that thing."
"Ok, get ready to stop in a couple of seconds. Marius, jamming please. Aswon..." Kai looked behind him, past the pursuing motorbike but could already see Aswon pushing the hatch open with a shoulder and rising out of the cab with his rifle in hand. "Yeah, Aswon, you carry on. Ok, Hunter get ready… and STOP!" Unseen by Kai, Tads had cast her masking spell on the vehicle, changing the shape and style somewhat – but it appeared to be too late, and the biker was still in hot pursuit.
Shimazu slowed hard, not quite skidding but coming to a very abrupt halt. The biker slammed on the brakes, the front of his bike dipping into the shocks and forcing him to throw his weight back to avoid overshooting or lifting the back wheel. He pulled up next to the four by four, looking through the window with confusion as Shimazu stared at him with cold eyes.
"Ulvi?" there was a distinctly uncertain tone to his voice, but no sense of alarm – not yet.
The back window opened and Kai leaned out, levelling his taser at the biker and pulling the trigger. The biker fell back, recognising the shape of a gun and flexing to try and get out of the line of fire and the two prongs flew over the top of his body, tiny sparks flickering off them. Kai snarled and fired again, the two prongs striking in his upper thigh as he fell back away from his bike. His body went into spasm as thousands of volts flowed between the two spikes, making him twitch and jerk.
Hunter leapt from his side of the car, scooting around with his rifle held in a tactical position, covering the biker. Shimazu climbed out of his door and kicked out at the biker – catching him a glancing blow as he continued to twist and jolt with the after-effects of the taser. He lined up more carefully and his large meaty fist came down in a hammer strike on the biker's side, driving the air from him and knocking him into unconsciousness – although there was also a noise that sounded considerably like a few ribs breaking.
They looked around, watching as the truck pulled up behind them, but other than that the area was quiet and still, with nothing else moving.
Hunter broke the silence first, putting the crook of his elbow around the bike handlebars and then lifting with an explosive breath, raising the front end of the bike up in the air. With short steps he half walked, half dragged the bike to the canal on the north side of the road and then heaved it into the turgid and still waters. It vanished with just a small trail of bubbles behind it, which rapidly trailed off as it sank beneath the surface. Kai rooted through the ex-motorcyclist's pockets, grabbing his phone and his ID stick, then examined them. He couldn't find any reference to Ulvi in the phone, and the name didn't match anything on their research so far.
"What are we going to do with this guy?" asked Aswon.
"Well, the first thing we want to do is get off this road, just in case someone comes. Hunter's disposed of the bike, let's gather anything else up and get off the road to the south. Yeah, canal to the north – let's go south."
They heaved the unconscious body into the four by four, and then both vehicles drove south across the rough terrain, following a faint trail into the wilderness. They pulled up about a kilometre to the south in a shallow ravine, mostly out of sight of the road, and pulled the body out and laid him out on the ground. The team gathered around and discussed what to do with him. Options ranged from just leaving him by the side of the road to offing him and tying rocks to his body and throwing him in the canal. After much discussion though, they came upon the plan of casting a spell on him to influence his thought process and sway his mind to be friendly to them, then interrogating him.
Tads explained to them how the spell worked.
"It won't tell him how to think, and we have no control over what they do, or say. It's more that we can change their outlook on life, on a specific area. Like we could get someone to feel strongly motivated to rescue sick animals – but it wouldn't change what they like to eat or drink. And if we do something that's actually strongly opposed to how they feel, then it's more likely their subconscious mind will rebel against the spell and break through. So it's best to do light touches, and not try to make them say that black is white."
They discussed for a while, and worked out that their best approach was to try and influence the biker to believe they were friends of Ulvi, working for him and were thus generally 'trustworthy'. With that in mind, they patched up the guy's ribs, gave him a healthy shot of novacaine and some anaesthetic from the medkit to further cloud his senses. Finally, a capsule of ammonia was snapped under the nose, rousing them to wakefulness. Slowly his eyes fluttered and his eyes rolled up to face outwards, slightly defocussed and confused.
"Where's Ulvi? I thought that was Ulvi's car?"
"Ulvi is busy, on a job. We're helping him." Kai said firmly.
"Oh, ok. That's nice. Oof, why do I hurt?" Hunter took over from Kai, replacing his faltering attempts at the local language.
"You fell off your bike, when someone in a car nudged you. They stole your phone and ID, and your bike. We saw them driving off as we arrived, and decided to help you out. How did you know it was Ulvi's car?"
"Oh, it's the only one like it I've ever seen. Ulvi always said that he would get an ST Turbo when he made the big time… it was his favourite car. I've never seen anyone else with one. I was confused when it changed colour, but then I thought – ooh, he's got the colour shift stuff installed. I'd like to get that, but it's expensive – and not worth it on a crappy bike."
"So, what do you do? How do you know Ulvi… do you work for him?"
"Me work for him? No, I wish though. It would be exciting! And I'd earn lots more money than I do now, that's for sure. No, I was his friend at school – I used to help him with his assignments, and he stopped kids picking on me. He's called me from time to time, to ask questions on stuff, accountancy and such like, and keeps saying we'll meet up for a beer sometime." The biker moved, and winced as he compressed his ribs a little, then fell silent as he probed at his side.
The team exchanged looks over his head, with lots of shrugs and questioning glances. Hunter motioned a gun shooting with his fingers, but Kai shook his head and then moved around to whisper to him in English, for him to translate.
"Well, we have to go now. You should be fine though, to get back to town – it will just take a while. Sorry, we would take you but we have to do something for Ulvi. And you know how impatient he gets!" The biker nodded in agreement, clearly remembering some incident in his past. "We'll drop you on the road, and then we'll be off – you should be ok as long as you keep heading to town though."
They loaded him up, and quickly drove back to the road, dropped him off and then returned down the trail, heading west and hitting the road to town much further along, out of sight. It was a good ten kilometres to the edge of town, and with his still injured ribs it would easily take him three or four hours before he made it back to civilisation. Even then, it didn't seem that he would be causing any trouble for them, and he didn't appear to have any links in to the Mafia.
As they bumped over the rough terrain, the came to the conclusion that it was time to get rid of Ulvi's four by four – it was obviously recognisable and pretty rare, no matter what colour it was painted – and probably the reason for the stares they had received around town. It also made some sense that it had clear glass – Ulvi obviously wanted to be seen, and his vanity or ego overrode his safety against magical attack, although there seemed to be very little magical activity in the town at all, so perhaps that wasn't so much of a weakness.
As they travelled along the route, they set a destination they were heading for, and asked Tads to go to Mammadova construction and scout the place out. Once more she went limp, her spirit soaring through the air. Again, she flew out of the country at high speed, travelling at thousands of kilometres per hour, he spirit unfettered by the need to move her physical form. She flew out to the mountain where they'd first been captured, then spun around to look for pursuit, and seeing none accelerated hard back to the south and back towards Shirvan. At the speed her spirit moved it took moments to detour, but meant that she never travelled directly to her observation target, and always had a chance to spot for astral pursuit.
Closing in on the compound she was once again hit by a wave of distorted mana. Here it wasn't despair and need that created a warp in the manasphere, but the pollution and disdain for the earth that created the static that warped astral space. The rusting steel, industrial pollution and discarded plastics that lay around the place made for a horrible area, one that would impede her ability to cast spells significantly. As she flew over the area though, there was a spot where the warping intensified even further, twisting and becoming malevolent and evil. It was around the back of an outhouse or garage, boarded on two sides by large shipping containers and a large pile of rusting metal and concrete on the fourth. Two narrow paths led to it, and if you were in the area, nobody would be able to see you from the outside. She shuddered, imagining what kind of activities must have taken place there to create that kind of taint. As she looked over to the cars though she noticed the warp easing up, becoming almost unnoticeable next to the cars. In fact, as she looked over the cars there was an area of almost normal mana there, and a strange feeling enveloped it. She looked over it for a moment, concentrating on the emotional content of the area and then snorted – she felt nothing but love and care, the feelings she would have expected from a mother looking at her child. Obviously someone had strong feelings for this car – and that could prove to be useful.
She gave the admin buildings a quick once over, testing them cautiously for wards and magical barriers, looking for spirits of any kind that might be bound to the buildings, but again finding nothing. In the admin area there were four office workers, looking tired and dispirited and struggling with a mound of paperwork – old fashioned, non-computerised records. As she was leaving she spotted another area of twisted nastiness in a different area of the yard, and she hid up near a light stand and manifested for a moment, looking down at the scene to identify what was the cause. As soon as she looked with her normal vision, the grey blob of processed material turned into a huge compactor, a hydraulic press that turned materials into small cubes of waste. She felt her gorge rise and tried to put from her mind what would have caused that amount of suffering, but as she flew out of the country on a dog-leg trip back to the meeting place, her imagination filled in details of people put into cars and the huge steel jaws descending upon them, making her shudder in revulsion.
She went back to the truck and reported in, providing all the detail she could on what she'd found, then decided to quickly flit over and check the house again, finding it much the same as before. Instead of at the sink, the mother was now tucked up on the bed with her three daughters, reading to them from a book. Other than that, it was much the same scene as before, so she returned to the truck.
Most of the team were watching the roll out screen, as Marius piloted the drone over the compound, keeping an eye on the scene and the cars. Aswon was in the back, apparently checking in with his contacts and making sure that everything was ok with them. Shimazu decided it would be worth a try, and pulled out his own phone, calling Sato. The phone beeped and clicked at him, seeming to take a long time to connect – but then finally rang.
"Hello?" The voice sounded guarded and hesitant.
"Sato? It's Shimazu? Are you ok?"
"Yeah – I'm ok. Is your phone secure?"
"Um, not really I suppose, just a standard model."
"Right – in that case, I'm fine, and I've moved away… far far away. Call me back sometime when you can, securely, and we'll talk, ok?"
"Right, no problem. I'll call you back soon then." He disconnected and sat back in his seat, with a relieved expression on his face. It was as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and he breathed out deeply, closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them he saw Kai smiling at him and gave him a brief nod.
They settled down to wait a little, watching the display in the cab as people moved around the compound and carried out their work. The afternoon wore on, and other than the odd bit of traffic that moved past them that was carefully watched, nothing happened nearby. It was about two hours later when they saw a heavy construction truck pull into the yard, and people disgorged from the cab and the load area, moving around to offload supplies. One of the passengers headed over to the Rolls Royce though, and popped the boot. They kicked off their dirty boots one at a time, exchanging them for some clean trainers, and put the boots carefully into the plastic bucket in the otherwise spotless cargo area. By this time the team was assembled, watching over the scene carefully.
"Ok, this has got to be Mammadova. If he gets in the car, can you follow him carefully? Chances are he'll be going home sooner or later. Can we do that?"
"Ja, drone is at 67% charge – the sun is not so strong today. But we still have good range, and unless he gets on the highway we should be able to keep up with him through the city. Taking direct control now."
As Marius directly jumped into the drone the picture steadied, his expert skills taking over from the basic piloting software installed in the blimp. The drone drifted over to the gateway, ready to follow the car and then waited. Sure enough, minutes later the car started up and headed to the gate, then started to head north-west, back towards the centre of town. Kai turned to ask Tads to follow him, but found her body slumped to the side in her safety harness. A moment later, she opened her eyes.
"Sorry, was just checking back on the ranch. No sign of those creatures or anything else out there. Did you want me for something?"
"Yes, Mammadova is on the move, in his car. Can you trail him for as long as is safe, and see where he goes?" He watched as she flopped to one side again, and sighed under his breath.
"I'll take that as a yes, I think…"
The drone followed Mammadova as he made his way through town, crossing over the canal and the railroad and then heading west into the higher class area. Completely invisible to the drone's sensors, the disembodied spirit of Tads probed and checked the car, and jumped in as he stopped at a junction, assensing him and finding him not magically protected in any way, and with a little cyberware in his head and down his spine, along with a few other bits dotted around his body. She leapt out at the next junction, and flew through the air again, tailing him back to a large detached property that backed onto a small lake.
While Marius took up position high above the house and kept a wide view on the area, Tads snuck into the house with him, probing carefully and again finding not a single magical defence. She heard a group of people come to meet him, and quickly determined that he had a small staff that were dealt with curtly and abruptly. Whilst Mammadova relaxed in his front room with a drink and a small snack bought to him by his servants, she explored the large house quickly. Manifesting in some carefully selected places she spotted cameras covering all of the external exits, along with some of the key junctions in the house. Interestingly, the most intensely covered area of the property was the garage, with cameras in all four corners facing towards the large central area, which was clearly designed to house the Rolls Royce.
Tads returned to the truck, and recounted what she had seen and Hunter got to work on sketching the internal layout of the house using the external view from the drone as a basis, and filling in details from her quick scout. Kai sat deep in thought, his fingers steepled under his chin as he stared forward, eyes unfocussed and deep in thought. After a few minutes, he stirred.
"So, who's the closest in size to Mammadova?" Marius and Hunter went through the footage, pulling frames out from the surveillance info and comparing the pictures to a library of shapes and sizes, scaling him from the background. Hunter and Shimazu were clearly far too big, Tads was the wrong sex, and Aswon was a massively tall African with a huge afro and lion fangs… which left Marius and Kai. And of the two, Kai was clearly a much closer fit than Marius.
"Shit." Kai looked like he'd bitten into a lemon for a moment, then cleared his features. "Well, I guess that plan won't work then. I'd wondered if we could impersonate him someway. Hmm… maybe we can make it work after all. Tads, tell me about this spell of yours that disguises the physical shape of things…"
Tads described the spell as best she could, considering their lack of shared magical knowledge, outlining the actual effects and trying to give him an understanding of how physically taxing it was to cast, and how difficult it was to sustain the illusion, making it much more difficult to cast other spells, and impossible to summon or banish spirits. But crucially, she clarified that within certain limits she could make things appear bigger or smaller than they were – so it was possible, at a stretch, that she could make Marius appear to be Mammadova.
"I think we don't just want to defeat this guy. We don't even want to just kill him. We have to destroy him, and his organisation – and for that we need to work at least partly from the inside. And that means impersonating him or key members of his organisation, and taking advantage of them."
Kai sat back in his seat and started to talk, illustrating his points with much waving of the hands.
"Right, so hear me out – some of this might sound far-fetched, but I think it stands a chance of working. So we get into the house and take care of Mammadova – I think that bit would actually be pretty easy, given the skills we have. We hide the body and replace him with a disguised Marius." Marius raised an eyebrow at him, but didn't object – at least not yet.
"We have Mammadova burst from his room, he's written a message, telling them that he's been targeted, and he thinks the house is bugged, so he won't speak – and neither should they. They need to carry on as usual, but he'll just grunt at them. So Marius can understand them, and we don't have to worry about the accent, ok?" He looked around at some sceptical faces, but nobody argued.
"Then we get him to write that he's called in outside security – he doesn't know who he can trust, and he thinks someone in the family has betrayed him. At that point the rest of us arrive, as the outside contractors – and we can take over his dealings, moving to secure his family and assets, with Mammadova giving his approval. Once we have that sold to them, we go to his house and business, and we get access to his computers and take him for every Nuyen he has, and make that money disappear. Then we arrange for Mammadova's body to be found, hanging from the ceiling having committed suicide in response to the situation – the head is cut off the snake, and the body has no funds or resources, and should die." He stopped speaking and looked around at the others. "Ok, I'm done, you can talk now." The silence continued for perhaps ten seconds, just long enough to be really awkward before Tads asked a question.
"What about his brother or sister?"
"I don't think we need to kill them to ruin him."
"No, I mean we know they're involved. They were the parents of Ulvi's lieutenants, so they're likely to hear or find out about their kids going missing sometime during this, so we should factor that in too." Kai blinked at her for a few seconds then nodded as he caught up with what she meant. Shimazu cleared his throat
"I don't think it will work. Sorry. But it's not believable. Too many people will ask questions." Kai looked like he was going to argue, but instead just waved at Shimazu to go on and elaborate on his point. "Look at the house and the servants – he could easily afford a driver for his car, but he doesn't He drives himself. He wants to be in control, to be active. The car is the status symbol for him of his wealth and success and power – but he doesn't want to be driven. He sees the act of driving as a masculine trait, of someone driving their own destiny. He doesn't want to be like… a politician, being driven around and having rules and compromises drive their life. We saw him earlier coming back from somewhere in the work truck. He's a hands on guy, goes out with his workers and sorts out problems directly – that's almost certainly where Ulvi got it from. He's not going to be the type of guy who panics and calls in outside contractors. He'd get a gun, and go deal with someone using excessive and continued violence on a disproportionate scale if they threatened his family."
"He'd fuck them up royally," Hunter added, helpfully. Shimazu shrugged.
"That's what I said, just not as crudely. But in essence, yes. I just don't think anyone that knows Mammadova would believe that he could sit back passively and let someone else deal with this problem."
Kai looked around and saw the nods of assent as the others agreed with Shimazu.
"Sounds like that psychology course is working. I wish it wasn't true, but that doesn't make it so. Alright – so we need a new plan."
"I think you're making it too complicated boss. Just kill him and be done with it. Keep it simple, cut down on the risk. And we get to fuck him up, royally." Said Hunter, with a wry grin on his face. Shimazu and Marius nodded, agreeing with him.
"Keeping it simple is good, but if we can take some money from him easily, I think we should do that. Can we steal his bank account? Hunter, can you use the computer to do that?"
"Realistically no. If we had a cyber-deck and a whole bunch of utilities then perhaps – but we're talking hundreds of thousands of Nuyen worth of kit to pull it off without leaving a trace that could be followed up – and experience. I'm good with computers, but this would be new to me. So we shouldn't count on that," Hunter's voice was filled with a frankness that made the others take note. "If we get control of him, we can go to the bank with him and get money from his account and put it on certified sticks – at that point it's just like cash, and not tied to his account. But if we take too much, that would probably trip alarms at the bank. Anyone know what the limit is?"
Marius did a quick check on the matrix using his satellite dish, and waded through several pages of dry and boring text, then shook his head.
"According to this, I think the most you can take out is about ten grand, before it triggers something. But there's a weird footnote about something." Nadia leant over and scrolled the page back up and then down, scanning the text quickly.
"No, it's only five thousand, unless you're a member of an approved political party or an employee of a schedule III business. Pretty much that means unless the government approves of you, you can't transfer more than five thousand in cash at any one time without filling in permits and applications.
"Maybe we could brew up some kind of chemical to affect him. I'm not sure what I could brew with a simple setup, but I have a good understanding of the processes required. Maybe if we can get the chemicals and a recipe or directions from the matrix, we could make some truth serum or something like that," Aswon looked over at Hunter and Marius, who both frowned and shook their heads slowly, indicating that they were not sure they could get that kind of information from the matrix – at least not easily.
"Ok, that may be worth looking into. Based on what Tads told us earlier, it's not likely that influence will work – not for something like this. Maybe both together would work – lower his inhibitions chemically, then influence him to give his money to charity. But it's still probably tenuous." Kai sighed. "I so wanna destroy this guy."
"I think we just hit him just outside the house, a single silenced shot that takes care of him. We hit the house, steal anything not nailed down, load it into his car, and then drive off with it and sell the lot. Don't be too greedy and keep it simple. And then we put the money into a fund for a helicopter" The rest of the team smiled as Marius added the last part.
"If we are going to do this, then we do need to make it a professional hit. Get set up, make it quick, clean and simple, and get the hell out of town and lay low for a while. This guy is too well connected. But yes, I agree – get me somewhere high with a good line of sight, and we can end this with a single shot, based on his current security. If he gets wind of his son's death though, then it will get much more difficult."
"Yes, I agree – we need to check if the servants stay in the house or go home before we do a hit, as they could complicate things. Ideally we should leave them out of this, they're not really involved I think." Hunter paused for a moment. "If we do need to take them out though, we shouldn't hesitate, and make it quick, clean and efficient."
"We know he loves his car – can we use that as bait? Or booby trap it?"
"I dunno Tads – that represents a very expensive and mobile asset, that would probably be easy to shift on some place like Baku. I think someone like Germaine could probably help if we explained what kind of person used to own it. I don't think she'd approve of Mr Mammadova at all."
"Let me go check on something." Without waiting for an answer Tads floated out and zoomed around astrally. Checking at the construction yard first, the two other posh cars were still there, for whatever that was worth. Then she headed back over to the house, and stealthily made her way in. One servant was busy polishing the car in the garage, while two more worked in the kitchen preparing a meal. Mammadova was relaxing in front of his trid, and had been joined by an adult and a child. Tads listened for a moment, and made the snap call that she was listening to his wife and daughter, having returned from a day trip somewhere. A quick turn of the house found the last servant putting away things in a bedroom, but nobody else present. She returned and reported in what she'd found.
"Ok, a wife and kid. That makes things a little messier. I think we need to think about it. And we probably need some gear. Let's get on the road and head to Baku, and get rid of that four by four, to get us some ready cash, buy some supplies and then come back tomorrow, once we've done some more planning. Then we can take this bastard down, hard."
They nodded in agreement with Kai, split up into their vehicles and started the drive north to Baku, scheming and plotting on how to take down the head of the Mammadova clan.
