There was a moment of quiet, then they heard Kai start to explain.
"Ok, we've a bit of a situation here. We have definitely detected a magical intruder in the base, and we've deployed to try and detain them to determine what the threat is. We've got the target building under surveillance, but we have no sight of them yet. They're likely to be extremely dangerous though! At the moment, we have the building sort of surrounded, and the troops have been shaken down into a long drag line forming an outer perimeter. By the way, excellent response to an unusual situation - it speaks volumes to your training and control. Let me tell you what I know while the rest of the team continue to search…" They heard the voice cut off, as Kai shifted to the other frequency and placated the powers that be, leaving them to get on with the mission at hand.
"Aswon, its Tads. I've just shifted back to my body, I'm lying on the top of the stairs outside the barracks we were warding. I'm just about to head back for surveillance. But can you get my body bought over somewhere closer please? I don't want it to freeze outside, and I don't want it to get possessed either – if there IS an enemy mage around, I don't want it stealing my body and running off with it."
"I'll get it done now." Aswon turned towards the platoon closest to him, and called out to the NCO in charge.
"I have to go move the body of our wise woman. Watch the building, carefully. Look for shimmers in the air, or distortions, anything that seems out of place. If you see something, raise the alarm, with the others and they will engage it. Especially him, on the roof." Aswon gestured up at the form of Shimazu standing on the roof with his sword held high and ready while he scanned the ground around him. Without waiting for a response or argument, he turned and sprinted off, heading towards Tads.
He found her body and slung it carefully over his shoulder, then descended the stairs slowly, balancing the comatose form of the shaman, who was surprisingly stocky it seemed. Still, she was manageable, and he headed towards the nearest completed building, pushing through the warded door and finding a comfy place to lay her down. With her body behind the ward, it should slow down anything getting to her and provide a modicum of protection – but she would be able to reach it just as easily.
Aswon went to activate the radio, to call Tads and advise of where the body was, but then stopped halfway, shaking his head in amusement at himself. Of course he couldn't contact her – the radio earbud was in her physical ear, but her spirit was elsewhere and couldn't hear it. He'd have to hope she drifted near him sometime soon so he could let her know.
Tads had returned to her position, high above the snowy landscape and was carefully watching the scene below. In her astral sight, the buildings were almost featureless grey blobs of man-made material, lifeless and dull. The team glowed with various levels of brightness, from the shining beacons of Aswon and Shimazu to the dull flickering embers of Marius and Hunter, their cyberware disrupting their essence and shielding their life-force. Around the perimeter she saw the waiting troops, their astral forms shimmering with radiated emotions; confusion, concern, fear, wonder, curiosity and determination, along with a whole host of others that varied from troop to troop. But they were spread out in a loose net around the barracks area, and hundreds of pairs of eyes scanned the area.
She examined them and smiled. If there was a mage under some kind of invisibility spell, then they would be taking a chance trying to get through them. Each additional watcher improved the odds that someone would get lucky and penetrate the spell, notice something that was off or unusual. Certainly she wouldn't want to risk such a move – which potentially meant that the intruder was still trapped inside the barracks block.
In the truck, Kai spoke to Vostok over the radio, filling in the MP on the procedure to use. Unknowingly, he duplicated Aswon's explanation almost word for word – describing how a concealed target might appear, or to look for footprints with no source, branches pushed out of the way with no wind to explain it. While he spoke, his eyes flicked from one set of cameras to another in a cyclic pattern, checking for any other disturbances. The last thing he wanted was for one of the other lockers to be raided during the confusion!
Aswon returned to his position, checking in with the NCO and seeing the shake of his head. Looking past him, he could spot a couple of the red-bereted MPs walking towards him, including one talking on a radio. As the part approached, Aswon heard Kai's voice coming from the set, and realised this was Vostok.
"Your commander has briefed me on what is going on – what is your next move?"
"Well, we seem to have this somewhat contained at the moment. Our wise woman is keeping watch from above, and we'll move in and do a careful search of the building to see if we can find the intruder. Can we find out who the radio operator is for this building? Maybe speak to them?"
"Already done – it is Konstantin Mikhailov. I have an MP going to collect him now, and they will bring him here. What do you need from us?" Vostok stood with his hands on his hips, staring directly at Aswon.
"I think we can stand down the rest of the troops – if we've not seen anything by now, we're probably not going to. And we've got this building under observation, so as long as we proceed cautiously, we should be ok."
Marius and Nadia headed over from the perimeter to join the rest of the team as the MPs passed the word and the troops headed back to their barracks. They could see the animated discussions going on in every squad or platoon – this day had certainly provided plenty of excitement for the base, and it was unlikely to be forgotten quickly. They saw Hunter head off towards one of the other barracks, and Aswon gave him a call.
"Hunter? Where you going?"
"I've got a hunch – I'm going to go keep an eye on one of the other lockers, one of the buildings we haven't warded yet, and don't have surveillance in. Just something bothering me. I'm listening in though, if something kicks off, I'll be over quickly." Aswon shrugged, listened for a moment in case anyone else was going to say anything, and then focussed back on their building. By this point the half-dressed trooper had been taken away by a couple of MPs, who were quietly explaining the translation error to him and prying the bayonet from his clenched grasp, clearing the way for the team to approach the building.
Shimazu climbed down the roof stairs and entered the top floor of the barracks and started to poke around. As he entered the barracks by the wide door leading onto the exterior staircase, he stopped and just looked at the barracks, comparing it to their own.
The room was laid out symmetrically, with ten beds in a line down each wall. The metal framed beds looked old, with thin mattresses and uncomfortable looking blankets made from some synthetic material. Next to each bed was a locker, made from a dull grey plastic compound, a half metre wide and deep and nearly two metres tall, with a large tab sticking out of the right hand side and door for the padlock to go though. Strip lights ran down the length of the roof, set against bare plascrete surfaces with the power cables tacked directly into the grey pitted surface.
The barracks was clean and tidy – all the beds perfectly made and conforming to the ideals of the Red Army's standards it seemed. The floor was spotless, the walls clear and the beds and lockers were all spaced so evenly that Shimazu couldn't spot any variance by eye – and presumably neither could any officer coming for an inspection. He spent a minute just looking, his eyes roaming around the room looking for anything out of place, any flicker of movement, shimmer or other unexplained visual artefacts. He dropped into astral and examined the scene for a second time, letting the faint emotions wash over him – a weird mix of anger, frustration, joy and pride.
"Aswon, I know most of the troops have gone. But can you get any that are left with you, or the MPs, to keep an eye on the air? I'm suspicious about how they managed to get away, and if we're thinking spell casters, I'm wondering if they're hiding up on another roof or something?" Aswon acknowledged Kai's request and passed it onto the MPs, confirming that it was passed around to the troops remaining nearby.
"Right, now we've got the sky being watched, can you get Tads back on comms, if you can reach her?" Aswon acknowledged again, then looked around astrally until he could see Tads circling the area a few hundred metres up in the air. He waved at her, his long arms scything through the air until she saw him and swooped down close enough to hear him.
"We've got people watching the sky – Kai says can you get back to your body – it's over in that block by the way, ground floor just inside the door, and give him a shout." Tads nodded and then just seemed to vanish. Aswon knew she'd just accelerated to her top speed for a second or two, covering hundreds of metres as she did so and felt a brief flash of envy, knowing it was something he could never experience. A few seconds later he heard her croaking over the comms, clearly having found her body propped up against the wall in the barracks block.
"Great, now – Tads. You had a look around, yes? Did you see anything suspicious?"
"Not really, Kai – but it was a fast look, I was trying to cover a lot of ground quickly, and get sight of whatever it was that triggered the ward."
"When the ward was affected – what can you tell me about that? Were they trying to break it, or just walk through? Or cast a spell through it?"
"Umm… not really. We know the ward was affected by a magical force crossing it. It wasn't a spell, that wouldn't trigger it like this. So it was a creature of some kind, trying to get through the ward with a magical effect. But we can't tell if it was going in, or coming out – it doesn't work like that. We just know it was broken." Aswon spied Tads walking around the corner of the barracks and heading over their way, talking into her commlink as she did so. His attention was drawn to more movement, as an MP appeared with a cold-looking trooper.
The trooper had doffed his jacket and had a blanket wrapped around him, but it was clear that he was still muddy and wet from the assault course. He shivered a little in the cold wind that blew across the barracks area in the gathering dusk, and Aswon motioned him to go stand in the stairwell, in the lee of the outer wall to get out of the wind, while he waited for Tads to catch up.
When she did, they headed up the stairs to the first barracks room, Shimazu dropping down the stairs to meet them. As they entered the barracks, they fanned out and again spent a minute just looking. Aswon, Tads and Shimazu all checked both physically and astrally, looking around the room intensely from their position by the door. The radio operator watched and went to speak, but a touch on the arm from the MP and a shake of the head bade him into silence.
"Nothing. Exactly the same feel as upstairs in the other barracks, with the exception of the tiny trace of magic on the locker of course. Some kind of transformative magic I think. Very hard to tell though." Aswon and Tads nodded along with Shimazu's statement, not noticing the sudden sharp look from Konstantin at the mention of magic on his locker.
They moved down the barracks, heading for the third bed down on the left hand side, and then turned to face the locker. Shimazu and Tads again looked at the scene astrally, evaluating the locker carefully and looking at the fading wisps of magic that betrayed the casting of a spell some time ago.
"There's not much there – either it was a fairly low power spell, or the caster spent some time trying to hide the trail. Not much to go on." Shimazu muttered.
"It's enough – I've got a sense of it now. Enough to lock into the signature. If I see them casting again, whoever it is – I can tie them to this." Tads relaxed as she finished her intense scrutiny of the locker, the lines on her forehead fading but not disappearing.
"Ok – you guys inside. Can you get this man to check his locker, spot for anything taken, but also see if there's anything extra. Maybe we've been looking at this wrong from the start. What if they're planting magical trackers in there as well?" They considered this for a moment, then Tads shook her head.
"No Kai – that doesn't feel right. They'd have to have something magical in there, and we'd spot it quickly. And that would give us something we could track back to them using a ritual of finding. No, I don't think that makes sense at all."
"Unless they're just leaving something personal, and using the same sympathetic linking to track the other way. Either way, I need everyone out of the building for a minute. Oh, and I need your code for your lock." Aswon turned towards the radio operator, who had been listening to the conversation and was clearly trying to work out what was going on.
"You want my code? To get into my locker? I can enter it for you, but I want to see what you are doing with my things!" He started to step forwards but then froze as Aswon moved with snake-like speed, his hand grasping Konstantin's wrist and gripping tightly – the blackness of his skin contrasting with the pale flesh of the Russian. The trooper started to pull away angrily, and the MP shifted, his hand dropping towards his holster.
"No – I need to check your locker for bombs, explosive devices, toxins or other little gifts that our intruders might have left for you. We know they are in some way magically active, and we suspect that they may be using some kind of spell to melt through your locker wall to get inside without using the lock at all. I'd hate to find out that they've left a hand grenade leaning against the door for instance."
Everyone froze for a moment as Aswon calmly laid out a number of explosive and unwelcome futures for them, and the trooper relaxed and nodded, pulling his hand back slowly.
"I will swipe my fingerprint for the first part of the lock then, and then go stand in the corner, and call out my code." The MP shrugged, but nodded and turned to leave, moving to the door and holding it open for Tads and Shimazu, then following them out.
Aswon spent a minute examining the locker carefully, looking for any tell-tale wires or reed switches, sticky pads or any of the other more inventive ways of booby-trapping an item. Thinking back to how Marius had set up the cameras, he paid close attention to the tight fitting seam on the door by the hinges. Despite a thorough look, he couldn't see anything at all so he waved Konstantin forwards to swipe his finger over the sensor.
The light flashed green as he moved his finger over the reader, then he rapidly moved away, heading towards the other end of the barracks.
"Five-one-eight-five-three" he called, as he crouched down at the far end of the room, using the bed frame as cover. Aswon entered the code and saw the second light go green as the lock popped open, then slowly and carefully he extracted the lock from the housing. For a moment he just waited, standing by the side of the locker with his reflexes straining and ready to thrown him to the side at a moment's notice. But nothing happened. He eased forward and moved the door a millimetre, checking carefully, then another, then another. After thirty seconds of slow careful moment, he pulled the door open fully, his eyes scanning intently, before letting out a whoosh of air.
"All clear. Ok, I'm not touching anything. Can you come and look and see if anything is amiss? But try to look only – not to touch. TADS! SHIMAZU! LOOKS CLEAR!" The door pushed open again, and the others came back in, looking around as they did so. Konstantin came and peered into his locker and then muttered under his breath, an unhappy look forming on his face.
"My Bible. I think my Bible has gone." Before Aswon could respond, Tads interrupted.
"That's odd. No spell residue inside. No trace of the spell that we detected. So whatever was cast was definitely cast on the locker itself. Now, tell us about the thing that's gone missing please?"
They listened while Konstantin described his Bible. It wasn't a traditional book, hundreds of pages thick and bound, but more of a pamphlet the way he described it, and no thicker than an exercise book. From his gesticulations it was around 15 by 20cm in size, thin enough to slide into a pocket and carry with you, but with every page covered in densely packed text in a very small font. It had been a gift from his grandmother, and had been with him for years.
The team exchanged glances – clearly another theft of an item with little monetary value or use, but of an intensely personal significance. Before they got to speak though, Kai called them over the commlink, having been listening in on the conversation.
"Tads – can you see if you can get a mindlink with this guy, and get a good mental picture of exactly what this looks like. That way you can get your spirit to search the base for it, yes? And see if it's still here?" She didn't bother answering him, instead turning to the trooper and smiling gently as she motioned for him to sit on the bed, while she sat opposite him.
"Konstantin, is it? We're very sorry your book has been taken, and we'd like to get it back for you. But to do that, we need your help. If you're willing to help us that is?" She saw him nod, then continued before he could say anything. "Well, I'm a shaman, and I know that sometimes people from other religions don't view us well, but really we're nice people. We just want to help. So what I want to do is cast a spell, that will let me see what your book looks like, from your thoughts. I can't see anything you don't want to show me, but if we know exactly what it looks like, it will help us find it. And hopefully quickly, before it gets taken away. Are you happy for me to do that?" She paused, and held her breath, wondering if his religious views would stymie her like it had in the infirmary.
"Of course – we're all different, and know God in different ways. But if this will help me get my Bible back, then go ahead." Tads didn't pause or wait for any further explanation, summoning the mana and forming it into the spell, linking their minds together.
"Great, ok, now think of the book. Think about taking it out of the locker and opening it. A beige or orange tint to it, a cover, sort of cardboard like, but it bends and flexes. Inside there is text printed on the inside cover, in Russian. Ahh, an address of the printers, and a number of the printing, and saying who did the translation. What is that – on the top right, written in ink? Remember that and think about it please. To my grandson, with love. Remember our teachings, and always do the right thing." Her voice choked a little as the wave of emotion hit her as Konstantin thought about his grandmother and a whole jumble of memories battered at her through the link, then turned to despair and sadness as she watched through his eyes as the cheap cardboard casket disappeared through the curtains into the crematorium.
She took a moment, then guided him to think about the next page, and worked through a few more, getting a sense of the layout and how the tiny text looked on the page. She dropped the spell and sat back, considering as she looked at the trooper.
"Thank you, that will be an enormous help. I know how important this is to you, and we'll do everything we can to get this back to you." She moved around to the other side of the bed, facing away from them to give her a moment to think. Behind her, Aswon and Shimazu got Konstanin to do a physical check of the locker, confirming that nothing else had been taken, and nothing else had been left. They queried with Konstantin on the layout, learning that just like the approved method of bed-making, that the lockers had a specific layout – dress uniform at this end, combat uniforms at this end, PT kit folded and stored here, towel and wash-kit there. It confirmed that there was only a small shelf area for "personal items" and matched their descriptions and experience so far – but that also meant that anyone who got into a locker would know exactly where to look to find the things they were looking for.
Tads concentrated and drew in mana again, shaping another spell. She felt her senses expand around her, stretching out metres in each direction in a sphere and a pool of data bombarded her. She suddenly knew that there were 89 blankets and bed sheets, but 90 pillows in this barracks block, and knew that room D on the ground floor had the extra pillow – why she couldn't say, but it was there. There were also eight bibles in the block, but they were all traditional in form, not like the travel version she had seen in the mindlink. She concentrated, trying not to count lightbulbs, boots and the assortment of sundry items, focussing her catalogue spell and pushed herself to her feet.
"Going looking for this book. Will be wandering around each of the barracks. I can probably cover each one by doing a quick tour of the outside." With that, she wandered over to the door, concentrating on keeping the spell focussed and controlled, and headed down the stairs.
Aswon and Shimazu took a few pictures of the locker, just for the record, then told the MP that they'd done all they could and from their point of view they could let the troops back in – unless the MPs had any forensic kit they wanted to use. From the snort on his face, it was clear that fancy kit like that was well beyond their means. With one last look around the room, they headed outside and down the stairs, heading back towards the building they had been warding.
"So, guys. If they do steal these things, they can do rituals to try and track the guys, which would be useful in their own right, but also cast spells on them. So how do we stop that?" They could hear the sound of the kettle in the background as Kai got himself a brew together.
"We've got a number of things we can do. First, would be to find out what vehicles they are going to the front in, and make sure that the vehicles that each companies radio operator is in is warded as best we can. Second, we could find one of the vehicles if materials are tight, and ward that as best as we can, then get them to go in and out a couple of times a day."
"But surely they can be affected the rest of the time?"
"It's… it's a little hard to explain. Um." Aswon lapsed into silence for a moment. "Ok, let me explain it from our point of view, and see if this makes sense. Say we wanted to find someone – I don't know – imagine that Marius had been kidnapped, and we were trying to find him. So we get a bunch of mages or shaman together, to do a ritual finding. We know what he looks like, and have a good magical image of him, but we don't know where he is. Ok?" There was a snort of disdain over the radio, that sounded somehow offended that he could be taken hostage so easily, which Aswon ignored.
"Now, we know he was only kidnapped a few minutes ago, so he's got to be somewhere nearby – that limits the focus of the search. But it's not like we're actually searching and looking, it's more abstract than that. Like I said, it's a bit weird. But that's like trying to throw a spear and hit an elephant, it's pretty easy. If it was a few hours since the kidnap, then it's like trying to hit a hyena – much harder, much smaller target. And if it was days since we had seen him and he could be anywhere in the world, it would be like trying to hit a fly with a spear. I mean, you might get lucky, but it's difficult. Very difficult. So you get a big group of mages to help and pour power in, and that's like a whole tribe throwing spears at the hyena, or the fly. You're much more likely to hit. Make sense?"
"Go on…" Kai smiled as he poured milk into his tea, thinking about Aswon's choice of analogy. You can take the man out of Africa, but apparently…
"So, putting the target on the other side of a ward is like trying to hit them with a spear through undergrowth or trees. Stuff gets in the way, and it makes it harder. Now this is where it sorts of breaks down a bit, and doesn't make sense. Because the ritual takes hours, if the target goes in or out of the ward at any time, then it becomes more difficult for all of the time. You're just less likely to succeed at all."
"Why?"
"Because that's how magic works. Maybe there's a reason, but you need to find some great shaman or university mage to explain it to you. I just know it does. Ok?"
"Well. Ok, I guess. If that's how it is. So go on…" Kai sounded somewhat dubious.
"So if they travel for three hours say by their trucks, but then all the radio operators go in and out of one truck that has a really strong ward on it, then it makes any ritual, cast on any of them massively more difficult. Whether the team doing the finding were one minute into the ritual, or one minute left on their ritual – the whole thing suddenly becomes as hard as hitting a fly with a spear. So if they can do it every couple of hours, it will completely disrupt any ritual aimed at them. That's what Tads is doing by going in and out of her lodge so frequently. The Iranians, if it is them, will suddenly lose their ability to find her or cast a spell at her, and throw them off their game."
"Ahh, right. Ok. So it's more difficult – much more difficult – but not impossible?"
"No. Not impossible. If someone wants you found and they're willing to throw money at the problem, or resources, you'll be found. Sooner or later. It just matters how important you are to them." They chatted for a while longer, with Aswon explaining about how they could also change security cyphers, rotating through codes and sequences on a more regular basis, so that if one of the radio operators was compromised, then the effects would be shorter lived before the codes changed again – assuming they were detected.
"So, I guess they're starting this now so they get advance notice of when the troops are moving to deploy? I mean, I guess the radio guys will know first, right?"
"No – they'll find out the same as the other troops." The English accent was a giveaway, and Aswon held his peace to let Hunter speak. "The Brigadier's comms team will find out first, probably via a land line warning order. That's going to be delivered via fibre optic relays on a permanent base like this, and they're next to impossible to intercept. The comms team will pass that to Zarkorov as the ops officer, who briefs the Brigadier. From there, the warning order will probably go down to the major or captains in charge of the stores and motor pools first, to get them spun up and ready for the move. Then it'll be a whole bunch of logistics work needed to get fuel, supplies, materials, ammo, water – all those things, sorted out. There's a massive amount of work to do to get a couple of thousand men moving and supplied for combat."
"After that, there'll be warning orders cut to the Majors and Captains for the actual Brigade. They'll get their ops teams involved and start planning, working out routes, stopping points and things like that. Once they're done, then it'll filter down to Lieutenants, then finally down to the actual NCOs and platoons to get themselves in gear. So the radio operators will be about the last to know – though anyone watching activity on the base will know and there'll be rumours. They'll know they're moving, but not where."
"Oh." Kai sounded a little despondent, as his assumptions were knocked over like a house of cards.
"But that does tell us something. Or actually a really important thing. If they wanted to compromise when and where they were going to – then they'd be targeting the base staff and the headquarters troop comms technicians and command staff. Now sure, that's possibly a bit riskier – but for how well they've done so far, probably worth the attempt. But they haven't done that. They're going after the unit radio operators, and that means that they're after operational intelligence and intend to compromise them once they are deployed. They want to find them when they're out there, and do something about it. So that means it's only going to really matter when they get to wherever they end up going." They could hear the sounds of the wind from his microphone, and it was clear that he'd left whatever building he'd been investigating. It went quiet for a moment, then they heard the wind noise again – but it wasn't Hunter again, it was Tads.
"Just as a thought – if they're doing training, then they don't need their radio net really, do they? How about if we moved all the radio operators into the infirmary for a few weeks? Once we've warded that, if they're going in and out, it would disrupt any ritual on them, like Aswon said earlier?"
"Or how about if we went around to all the radio operators and got their personal gear, locked them in a box and put them in our truck? Then we take away the source of all the possible links?" Hunter queried. This sparked a fresh conversation, where they tried to work out if they could persuade people to give up their treasured possessions – the consensus being that if the order came down from the Brigadier, they probably would, but it would almost certainly cause some resentment.
"What are you doing Hunter, anyway?"
"I'm checking out the buildings. I've been looking at the buildings that have been targeted, trying to work out the pattern. Up until today, they've all been on the eastern side of the base, close to the forest. I'm wondering if there's an observation point where someone could be watching to see when the barracks are emptying, or to count people out – which might lead us to some intel."
"Hey Aswon – if they broke the ward on the way in, we'd surely have caught them. So that means they broke it on the way out – so why?"
"Maybe they got unlucky. Or made a mistake – maybe it was the remains of whatever spell they had cast that triggered it. Or maybe they were sending a message."
"They'd have to be fairly confident to send a message," Shimazu interjected, "because that implies that they've seen what we're doing and we don't worry them. Unless they were probing to see what our response was like. And personally – given how quickly Tads was on scene, then joined by the rest of us, and how quickly we ended up with a large perimeter watching them, I'd feel quite intimidated if it was me doing the job."
"Could it be an inside job, then – and we're forcing the pace because of what we're doing? And they're trying to throw us off by causing chaos on the base with the troops."
"I don't know, Hunter – sure, if it was an inside job then they'd probably pick up on the rumour mill. But if they're operating solo, it's a gutsy call to make. And if there's a whole team, the Brigadier has got some pretty big problems to worry about." Kai sounded a little distant, as if he was trying to work out which was more likely. "Say – could we plant items in the lockers for them to steal? Fake personal things? Things that we could track ourselves?"
"No Kai – sorry. But they're looking at these items, and working out they have an emotional attachments – they're not going to pick up a fake. And we don't have the means to do our own ritual of finding." They could hear the regret in Aswon's voice as he shot down the plan.
"On the other hand, though," Tads interjected, "we know that they definitely can cast spells of some kind – at least some transformation magic, but they also have full astral sight and can read auras well. All of which points to a strongly magical intruder. Unless they're really good as masking, sooner or later we'd scan them if they're on the base, and that covers the inside job side of things – or we'll spot them doing a raid. It's just a matter of making sure we keep our eyes open."
Hunter listened with half an ear as Tads, Aswon and Kai discussed magic – specifically transformation magic. Apparently there were dozens if not more of different spells that were known about, things that changed temperature or caused something to freeze or ignite. Tads identified that her spell that created food was of this type, as was the spell used by the golem recovery team when they coated the windscreen of the truck with glue. Tads started to discuss theoretical stuff about spell design that sounded like woolly mumbo jumbo mostly, so he started to tune out – especially as he'd reached his destination.
In the 4th Battalion area, two of the barracks had been hit, and two hadn't. He was in the Bravo Company building, down on the ground floor. The officers' quarters were through the door ahead of him, which meant the main communal toilet and shower area should be off to the sides. Well, there was something to be said for the Russian mania for building everything to the same template – the conditions were the same everywhere and it made things easy to predict.
Wandering into the showers, he examined the tiled room carefully, noting the size and spacing of the drains. He ran the cold water for a few minutes and watched as it pooled and then drained away slowly as he shut off the taps, indicating that the drain pipe was pretty small. The toilets had a wide bore pipe, but that wasn't much better and with the tightness of the turns he doubted that much above the size of a snake would be able to make it though.
Next he went outside, and stood with his hands on his hips, ignoring the cold wind that plucked and tugged at his jacket, as he considered sight lines. He wandered back and forth in the gathering gloom, trying to work out what was bugging him. As he did so, he found a spot where he could see most of the barracks, now lit up against the gathering night with pools of yellow spilling out of the tiny high set windows into the night. He turned on the spot, and looked at the forest, taking in the dark mass of trees that reared up before him.
Loosening his pistol in the holster, he strode over to the edge of the woodland and worked his way through the undergrowth, kicking at the brambles and dense weeds that grew just outside the cleared area, and soon reached the bottom of a huge conifer. Standing at the bottom, the wind had dropped to nothing and the forest was quiet. His feet sank into the dense carpet of dried pine needles, year upon year of shedding and falling laid over one another forming a spongy surface that absorbed noise. No snow had managed to make it through the multiple layers of branches above, and the ground was a multi-hued brown of decaying matter and loam.
He looked up at the dried and sparse branches directly above him, brown and spindly and starved of nutrients as the tree directed more of its energy higher up where it would receive more sunlight. He could do this… he grasped the trunk and started to climb, his large and powerful hands grabbing the trunk firmly and his heavy combat boots being stiff enough to wedge into the knots and junctions of the branches. He had to be careful, as many of the branches were too slender for his full weight, but by keeping three points of contact he climbed the tree as if it was a ladder, ascending higher and higher until he found a decent perch. Leaning back to peer over his shoulder, he looked down upon the base and the barracks, and the view was far better than at ground level. From here he could see many of barracks blocks and their exits, and it would make a great observation point.
He spun around again, and as he did so, movement caught his eye. The moon was just starting to rise, and was visible through the clouds, and he saw an owl flying over the trees, soaring silently on outstretched wings. It must be close he thought – then watched as it flew behind a treetop that just looked wrong somehow. He lifted a finger and the inbuilt laser rangefinder fired off, returning a value to his retinal display a split second later. Three hundred and twenty seven metres. But if the tree was 327 metres away, and the owl had flown behind it – he shouldn't have been able to see the owl – unless the owl was huge. Like, really huge.
"Team, I'm on the eastern edge of the base, up a tree. I'm looking east, bearing 094 mark 12. I've just spotted an owl, has to be some kind of paracritter – its ruddy enormous. It flew behind a tree that was a third of a click away, and I could see it clearly, so by my estimates it has to be the best part of seven to eight metres wingspan."
"I'm going to check it out!" Tads stopped sustaining her spell and turned towards the MP that had been silently accompanying her as she wandered around the base. "Sorry, I have to go, we may have found the magical intruder. I'll be back to my body as soon as I can!" With that, she sat down and leant back against the wall, then her spirit leapt out of her physical form into the night air. She saw the look of confusion on his face as she whipped past the MP – oh well, nothing to do about that now. Hopefully he'd not move her too far or do anything rash.
She turned and oriented herself to the east. She had no idea about the precise bearing that Hunter had given, but he'd said about a third of a kilometre, roughly…thaddaway. The world blurred as she accelerated to speed, and then swam back into focus about one tenth of a second later. She looked around, and saw the owl swooping low, not that far away from her. She was behind it, and moved to follow, travelling at her normal speed now, sending her astral form gently gliding down behind it. She was dead behind the huge feathered body, and was pretty sure she couldn't be seen at all, and watched as it twisted its wings and started to gently flap as it flared to come in for a landing on an exposed branch, landing in a break in the canopy caused by the clearing below.
She adjusted her position slightly, moving to remain behind it and continued to approach, closing the distance so she could examine it as closely as possible. It still faced away from her, giving no sign of being aware of her in any way. When she was just a few metres away, she stopped, ready to fly off at a moment's notice – then slowly extended her senses to try and determine what it was. She blinked in surprise as she evaluated it – it wasn't a paracritter at all – it was a shapeshifter. Something able to take human form. Or a human able to take owl form, it was hard to tell really. But it was definitely sentient and likely to be quite powerful.
She was focussed on the owl – too focussed. She never saw it coming at all. Talons raked her back, and she screamed in pain, twisting as she did so. A mass of black feathers smothered her face, sharp talons clawing at her and a savage beak tearing at her astral form. It was either some form of awakened bird, a paracritter, or possibly another shapeshifter – not that it really mattered now. She fended off the wing buffets and claws, focussing her magic to duck and dodge, dip and dive as they engaged in a swirling 3d melee. She beat at it, trying to disengage while it continued to harass her, and again a moment too late realised what it had done.
The massive talons of the owl slammed into her on her unengaged side. Vicious claws twenty centimetres long ripped at her, opening up huge wounds in her back and side and she staggered through the air from the impact. Distracted by the bird, the owl had had time to take off and fly up in an arc, placing his attack carefully.
Tads made a judgement call – there was no way she could stay here and engage these two creatures, not at two-to-one odds. Especially not as she'd been savagely wounded already – she could feel the pain coursing through her brain, her reactions slowing. But there was something she could do…
She manifested, appearing in the material world as a ghostly figure. To an observer, where before there had been two massive birds swooping and clawing at nothing, now they would see the fight for what it was. But now she was manifested, she was also present in a way that means she could interact with the physical world – she could be seen and heard. She let out a scream of pain, air projecting from her lungs as powerfully as she could, and she surged upwards, accelerating as best she could. Her astral form rocketed upwards, and a moment later she was nearly ten kilometres above the fight.
Far below her, the two birds circled, and the owl banked sharply, its face looking upwards at the tiny astral speck far above it. But it could see her – and that was all it needed. Gathering mana to it and shaping it with its rage, it flung the magical attack upwards.
The spell erupted around her – not travelling through the intervening space at all, just being cast there, and arriving here. The roiling ball of mana battered at her, trying to stun her insensible so she would plummet down to earth. But this was her kind of fight. Her magical shields were raised, guarding her against spells cast directly against her and she felt the magic slide around her, over her, past her… but not into her. She felt the vitriol and hatred focussed into the spell, the intent to cause her death – but she also realised that the spell was comparatively low in force. Certainly the spell she used to take out the mafia back at the ranch had more mojo in it.
In the tree, Hunter suddenly cocked his head as the distant scream reached him.
"CONTACT!"
A moment later Kai called over the radio, his voice stressed.
"We have a problem. An MP has just called in an alert – he's with Tads and apparently her body has just been ripped open and there's blood everywhere. He's called for a medic team, but he's saying that she's dying."
The team sprang into action.
