Saturday 18/9/2060, Location: 21.90548, 114.05599, Time 18:30

"I think we need to push on, and make use of the spirits we have, get as far as we can before we lose them – but we do need to be somewhere safe so Tads can spend the time calling on new guardians after dusk."

"Fair enough, Aswon. Ok, let's just do a quick check then, and we'll move out." Kai raised the binoculars to his eyes, and started to scan the area to the south, while Hunter and Aswon started to survey the area through their scopes. Shimazu crouched down just behind him, keeping an eye out on their flanks and rear, while Tads started to survey the area carefully in astral space, looking for magical threats.

The island was shaped like an inverted T, and they had landed on the western side, behind a large ridge that was keeping the boat out of sight from the village area. To the south of where they were currently concealed, the land dropped down towards the sea, narrowing until it was no more than about eighty metres wide. The path from the quay wound up to meet this low ridge, bisecting it and then rising up to the main mass of the island to the south, climbing over a hundred metres in a gently undulating single climb. Anyone moving to the south would be exposed for much of the climb to any observers to the south, and the vegetation was thin and low lying, the rocks mostly jagged and sharp, with ridges running down to the sea, forcing anyone trying to cross them to constantly crest the tops of the spurs.

The path was exposed for at least three hundred metres, before it curved eastwards and met the old coastal defences, with the gun platform and store rooms that they had traced Harley to. Once past that, the path climbed again towards the village, though the vegetation to either side of the path was taller and denser there, at least.

"I just caught a flash of something metallic, left side of the ridge." Aswon steadied his rifle and slowly panned around the point that had caught his interest. "There's a single bush on it's own, quite bent from the wind, look about four metres to the right and you'll see it. Looks like a solar panel of some kind."

"Weird place for a power receiver?" Kai muttered, focussing the binoculars and looking for the small panel nestled into the rocks.

"It's not very big, so it's not going to generate much… but it is probably big enough to run something like an motion tracker or some other sensor pod, covering the path. It's about at the narrowest point too, and getting past it without being close would be difficult."

"Do we need to delay then, go after dusk?"

"No, I can't see that making any difference. It's almost certainly hooked up to a battery, charging it up during the day and using the stored power overnight. The power draw isn't going to be high on something like that – just like the sensor drone we use."

"Can we crawl around it, do you think, Aswon?" Tads asked.

"Hmm. Hunter and I, no problem. The rest of you, I think it would be a challenge. The rocks are pretty steep down by the water, and look like a slip or a tumble will just dump you straight into the water. I suppose you could levitate – but that's going to make us pretty obvious to anyone looking magically. It's a possible, but has a definite risk factor."

"I'm going to send one of the watcher spirits to go examine it." They heard her muttering, giving instructions to the simple watcher spirit and then studying it as it bounded and leapt forwards, scampering down the slope towards the path. Two minutes passed before it returned, with the team quartering the area looking for any further anomalous signs without spotting anything. When the spirit returned, it reported in to Tads who listened carefully, asking a few questions to clarify things, before she turned and reported to the rest of the team.

"There's a small cable that runs from the panel up the slope, leading to a big box full of man-made things. I'm guessing from the description and what Aswon said that it's a battery pack of some kind – it certainly seems to fit, anyway. From there another cable leads out and goes further up the slope, until it reaches a deep cleft a few metres off the path. The cable leads inside the cleft and goes into another complicated man-made thing, wedged deep inside the rocks, facing towards the path. So it does look like a sensor system of some kind. I'm going to send it back out to look on the other side of the ridge, see if there's another one…"

The others scanned the indicated area, spotting the deep cleft but unable to see far enough inside the dimly-lit narrow gap in the rocks to determine what kind of sensor lurked inside. After another minute or two, the watcher spirit returned and reported that it couldn't find anything else of interest on the other side of the ridge, and the team got ready to move forward.

"Marius, you still ok on the boat?"

"I am fine. But the controls on this vessel are very coarse, and I have to adjust the power and steering constantly to avoid hitting the rocks."

"Can't you move out a bit and use the anchor to keep you in place?"

"I could – but then we would be visible from the village for certain. If we wish to remain hidden, we need to stay in this cove, and that means being close enough to run the risk of grounding or hitting the cliff edges. So I must control the boat."

"Ok, well it sounds like you have it under control. We're moving out now, and we'll be as quick as we can, though."

"Ja." Marius didn't sound entirely convinced by Kai's statement, but also had an air of resignation in it, like he'd already foreseen these events…

With the spirits concealing them, using their powers to deaden the footsteps and magically hide them from sight they moved out. About halfway down the path, Aswon heard a persistent rattle coming Hunter's direction and tapped him on the shoulder with his rifle, pausing him in place and adjusting the webbing on his back to more securely hold some of his spare ammo. With the noise eliminated they moved on until they were nearly at the location of the sensor.

Aswon moved to the fore now, setting the pace, stepping forwards with a painstakingly slow and controlled set of movements. Each foot was lifted slowly, extended forwards and then placed down with exaggerated care, rolling from the heel forwards onto the ball of the foot as the weight slowly transferred forwards. It took nearly five seconds for him to move the half metre forward of a single pace, before he started to lift the other leg to repeat the process – but that was slow enough that the sensor shouldn't recognise an abrupt change in the surroundings and trigger the alarm. He wasn't sure if the spirits' concealment would have been enough on its own to prevent them being spotted – if they'd come up from the quay and hadn't had the elevated position to do their recon from, there was no way they would have detected the sensor system at all, and would have blundered right into it.

Thinking about the odds of what might have been distracted him from the tension as he slowly walked forwards, highlighted by the last rays of the setting sun far to the west, the reddish orange light peering through the clouds on the horizon. They only had a few minutes at most until the sun set and dusk fell, and the spirits would leave them without warning – but at the same time he couldn't increase the pace without risking the sensor detecting them.

In a slow, steady, controlled set of movements the team walked past the sensor field, keeping the pace to a crawl while their skin itched as they walked in full view of anyone up the hill – trusting on the magical concealment to keep them safe. With only a minute to spare, they cleared the field of the sensor and could pick up the pace, hurrying towards the old fort as quickly as they could and getting into cover of the walls just as the spirits departed.

Tads settled down onto the stonework and started her summoning rituals, calling on the spirits of the rocky island to answer her call, bargaining with them and binding them to her will, setting each one to guard and protect a different member of the team, until they were all concealed again. When she had finished calling a smaller spirit for each person, she took a deep breath and reached 'deeper' into the bones of the mountain, calling a more powerful spirit to have as a backup or general use ally, something to hold in reserve for if the situation turned drastic.

When the spirits had been given their orders, she sighed deeply and sat back against the rocks for a moment, ignoring the persistent drizzle as the rain fell on her upturned face. Reflecting on the actions of the last six months she felt a moments surprise as she realised that she wasn't drawn or tired after the summoning – her power and skills had developed considerably since meeting with the rest of the team, and she'd advanced further in the last six months than she had done in a decade of apprenticeship back home in her tribe.

As she looked around at the others though, she realised they were probably all in the same position – Shimazu had been good with a blade before, but his somatic control of his body had intensified those skills to new and deadly heights – never mind the addition of a fairly powerful weapon focus. Aswon was much the same – his experiences had taught him new ways to control his body and mind, and the tribesman had honed years of experience as a mercenary to new heights. The others were much the same – Hunter still surprised her from time to time with the depths hidden in his character, but he'd proved over and over that with the assault rifle in his hand he was a deadly foe – even Kai had grown in apparent power, though his innate sense of chaotic energy had grown with him, and she wasn't sure that was a good thing at all…

"As we're here, is it worth us checking in the prison cells as we pass? It would be very annoying if Harley had been bought back here, and we wandered past him without realising." Aswon asked, getting a snigger from Hunter as he did so.

"The rooms were all warded, though not very powerfully. If you want I can go and give them a quick check?" Tads looked around and saw several nods, quickly projecting out of her body and floating down through the stonework into the carved area below. The wards were a mild inconvenience to her now, and she brushed aside their energies deftly and she checked each of the rooms below. Most of them were empty, with only one having some fresh cargo located in the room, piled up haphazardly against the wall. There was no sign of Harley though, or anyone else for that matter, so she quickly returned to her body and reported that to the rest.

They pressed on, moving up the path as it climbed at a twenty degree angle up the side of the hill, winding in a gentle snaking movement around the undulations of the hill. As they rounded one gentle bend to the right the largest structure at the top of the hill came into sight, the end of a large boxy building – and on top stood a single sentry, surveying the area. They eased over to the side of the path and crouched, moving slowly to reduce the risk of being seen. Rifles and binoculars were raised, and the sentry was studied carefully. Dressed in jeans and a jacket, he stood behind the low parapet with an assault rifle hanging from a sling across his chest, slowly panning across the island with a large pair of binoculars. They flinched as he seemed to stare right at them, before relaxing as his gaze moved on, confounded by the mountain spirits' concealment.

"I could try to control his mind a little, influence him to just ignore the path in his scans. Until someone or something challenges his thoughts, that might let us advance in safety?"

"The weather." Shimazu spoke quietly, his eyes flicking around at the water dripping from the low bushes on either side. "Very few people like being out in this kind of weather. If you can plant the seed in his head that he's just fed up of getting damp, and that he wants to find a dry corner somewhere to get a little rest from being rained on – that might be more natural and less likely to cause suspicion."

Tads nodded at him, then turned back and sighted on the guard through the binoculars, adjusting the focussing ring until he came into sharp focus. She couldn't make out much in the way of detail – he was just a dark shape against a darker sky, but she could see him clearly enough, and in astral space his living aura showed up just fine as she channelled mana into the spell, slowly twisting and changing the perceptions of his mind. It wasn't a direct control spell – they existed but were much harder to cast and draining upon the caster, but it created a very strong suggestion instead, and she was gratified to see the guard start to waver, then resolutely march off somewhere to hide out of the rain.

"Ok, he's gone – should be gone for a while. Can't see any other guards up there, but I don't know about security systems."

"No sign of anything here."

"Me neither," Aswon added after Hunter reported in. "Should be safe to move up now."

Tads had tried to cleanse away her spell signature, dissipating the magical energies to make sure that they didn't linger in the area, but the spell seemed to be somewhat resistant to her efforts. She tried again, but once more failed to smooth away the rise in mana in the local area and felt the edge of a nagging headache coming on.

"Can't seem to get rid of this spell backlash… just to make you aware, there's a magical trace here, that's going to last a good few hours."

"Have we scouted up at the top yet?" Kai looked around and saw everyone shake their head.

"The maps of these islands are rubbish – or at least the public ones are. Very low detail and not that current." Hunter frowned. "I could call Julius and see if he has more current files, but it does put us on the map again."

"Give me a few minutes to scout, and I'll be right back." Tads projected and soared up into the air, the nagging headache translating into a dull background ache over her whole body – distracting but not debilitating. She set the pain aside and quickly ascended, examining the top of the hill carefully.

A large part of the top had been cleared and cultivated, neat squares of land with straight paths, rows of vegetation and the odd bit of farm machinery dotted around clearly indicating their artificial origins. There were also a dozen huts or hovels as the top of the hill, having the look of shared housing. Primitive and basic, they didn't appear to go in much for creature comforts, though they did at least keep the wind and rain out. One larger building was built to a higher standard, set slightly apart from the others and closer to the large building that dominated the top of the hill. This stood about four storeys tall, made from concrete or ceramacrete, she wasn't quite sure. A grand entrance with two sets of double doors was reached by a short flight of steps and led into the main building, with two wings extending off in either direction. It wasn't that tall, being only four storeys – but towered over the other buildings and looked very out of place.

She quickly surveyed the huts, finding them crammed full of sleeping workers with an air of malaise and hopelessness that drained away the joy and life of astral space as comprehensively as any oppressive factory or toxic dump, apart from the nicer one which seemed to be home to a smaller number of guards and a much more relaxed astral aura – which in it's own way was a damning indictment on their behaviour…none of these people were losing any sleep about the conditions they imposed on the inhabitants of the other huts.

She moved on, and found the main building had been converted to some kind of factory or processing plant, with almost the entire floor space taken up by large vats of algae or moss of some kind, with workers stirring and manipulating the contents under bright overhead lights. The workers here seemed as unhappy as those in the bunk houses, and she saw a few guards standing around with some kind of machine guns in hand. Above the factory floors there was an empty layer of building, abandoned and sad, derelict with just a few remnants of office furniture and detritus scattered around. Finally, on the top floor the east side of the building was empty, just like the floor below, but the western end was blocked off and furnished – and protected by a ward that went beyond the basic protections built into the guards' hut outside.

Cautiously she pressed through in a random corner, moving slowly and carefully and examining the layout of the rooms, being very wary about spirits and guardians. As she explored she discovered the mage she had seen on her travels before, confirming that she also matched the image from Ngun's head – this was their target. She sat at a large desk, side on to the entrance door, and appeared to be reading a large text book, the pages radiating a feeling of age or antiquity. Tads quickly backed out, worming her way through the wards and then rising up through the ceiling to the roof, confirming that the guard had indeed found a quiet and sheltered corner by the large air-conditioning units to shelter in, and was quietly puffing away on a cigarette as he stared blankly up into the night sky.

She shot back to her body, gave a stretch and reported on what she'd found to everyone there, then looked around again with annoyance at the strong astral taint from her spell that lingered over the area.

"I could do with a few minutes rest, see if I can shift this headache, before we push on?" She said, watching as Kai checked his watch and nodded to her, before calling Marius to advise they were going to be delayed. She ignored the conversation back and forth, mostly registering that Marius was grumpy about this, and that Kai made insincere soothing noises, but tried not to pay too much attention as she gently rubbed at her temples and meditated, trying to rid herself of the stress from her earlier activities.

They waited, Tads popping some painkillers and continuing to rub at her temples until the pain receded back to nothing – and then tried to cleanse her spell signature from the area again. Once more, the energies refused to dissipate, stubbornly retaining their full strength and form.

"No good. I can try and clear it again if we come back, but if the alarm is raised, we're not getting away clean."

"Let's try not to raise the alarm, then. Move out, folks – lets work around the perimeter and get close to the buildings and we'll see what's going on."

They crawled up through the bushes to the east, slowly working their way around the approach to the village until they were on the flank and starting to close on the building. This close they could make out the rickety-looking fire escape bolted onto the concrete walls at either end, rising up to the fourth floor, and the large number of windows that lined each floor, giving those inside a clear view over the cleared area around the building.

"Doesn't look like the windows open, and I'm not seeing any light leakage from them. No idea how many of them are still in use. If the ground floor is now a factory, they may well be all blocked off there, but no idea on the upper levels." Aswon panned back and forth with his scope, examining the reflective plastic panels one at a time, looking for information.

"I'm not seeing power feeds either, or anything that would generate power on the island. Maybe solar and wind, feeding into batteries. Maybe they've got something tidal off the island. Or they could have a generator down in the basement perhaps. But it's probably going to be limited in total capacity, for what that's worth." Hunter scratched the side of his head and worked a finger into his ear, wiggling it about with a damp squelching noise as he studied the low resolution scans of the island – the best he'd managed to pull from the matrix. "There's not much using power though, either, from what I can see."

"Ok, so how about we get up onto the roof, and take that guard out of action. The last thing we need is him surprising us or raising the alarm."

"Well, we can, Kai. I'm sure between myself and Hunter we can get up onto the roof from the top of the fire escape ok, and take him down. But they'll know they've been attacked for sure. Isn't stealth going to be our best option here?" Aswon asked.

"I think they're going to know someone was here one way or another, by the time we're done tonight. I just can't see us getting the information we need without a trace of some kind. And in that case, I'd rather make sure we take the guard out and keep ourselves as safe as possible."

"Well, in that case, we can go up with some tranq patches and slap those on him, and if he doesn't go down quickly enough we can always resort to a punch to the face."

"That won't be a problem, Aswon. Happy to chin the bastard for you." Hunter added.

"Or if we can get them to a position where I can see them, I can drop a stunball on him, knock him out. As long as Hunter's behind me anyway…" Tads smiled in the darkness, and heard a little chunter of annoyance from Hunter.

Their earpieces activated as Marius transmitted from the other side of the island, having been listening in to their conversation.

"Whatever you are doing, can you get on with it? The tide is shifting, and the boat requires constant adjustment to keep it in position. You have been some considerable time already."

"Is everything ok out there Marius?"

"Yes, Kai. It is just very tedious."

"Ok, well, we'll be as quick as we can."

"So now isn't the time to suggest grabbing a few hours of sleep then, and striking in the middle of the night when they're at their lowest?" Tads added, the smile gone from her face. "I know it's a pain for Marius to keep having to move the boat – but we've all been going since early this morning, and if we do this and end up in a fight and having to run, we're not going to be at our best."

"I don't like that – I appreciate that we have been on the go all day, and what you say is true, Tads. But I don't think we have the time to spend taking this slowly anymore. The fight is coming up, and we need to locate Harley and secure him. And we have a fortress potentially, that might need storming. That worries me."

"I agree with Aswon." Marius added quickly. "I cannot remain on station indefinitely – we are burning fuel here trying to maintain position. I will also need to sleep at some point, and we are unarmed. Even a lightly armed gunboat would represent a major threat to us that we cannot adequately respond to."

"Ok, that sounds like we really can't afford to wait. Tads – give me one more quick sweep of the building, then we go." Kai pointed a finger at the building, and Tads heard the subtle change in his voice, the normal light-heartedness being replaced with a focussed command. She nodded and went limp as she carried out his orders. The others checked their gear, waiting for her to return, and watching carefully, Shimazu standing guard over her body and watching for astral intruders with his hand resting lightly on the hilt of his sword. They didn't have to wait long – no more than fifteen seconds.

"She's on the move, down on the ground floor. Looks like she's doing an inspection of the work force. Certainly she's very interested in what they're doing, and there's an aura of fear around her – the workforce is terrified of her presence. I didn't get spotted, as far as I can tell."

"Go." Kai's voice was flat, and the team started to move up. As they got close to the fire escape, they slid to a halt and the plan rapidly went out of the window. A quick look from Hunter confirmed his worst fears – the fire escape was a rotten and fatigued death trap, rusting metal, loose bolts and steps held in place by metal struts that looked more like cooking foil than structural members.

"We can't climb that. I don't think even Shimazu can run up that… he might not leave footprints, but I just can't see it holding his weight when he has to turn at the landings."

"Rope!" Aswon gestured impatiently to Hunter, who pulled loose the coil of climbing rope and threw it over to the lanky tribesman, who caught it deftly and then ran at the wall, making a leap as he got within a metre of the concrete. His body sailed through the air, landing about three metres up, and then in defiance of physics, just stuck there, the power flowing through the gecko tattoo etched into his flesh. Moving carefully he climbed the vertical surface, his limbs sticking to the concrete with magical force, pulling loose one limb at a time and working his way up the outside of the building until he could ooze over the parapet on the roof. He swiftly made a loop in the rope and looped that over his shoulders and let the rest of the coil drop down to the waiting team below.

Hunter grabbed the rope and gave it two quick tugs, then leant back on the rope and started the climb, walking up the surface while his massive biceps flexed and hands grasped the rope like mechanical pincers. Above him, Aswon bent his knees, dropping his ass to the roof and bracing his knees against the parapet, straining to hold himself in position as the massive ork climbed up the side of the wall, relying on his position to lock himself in place. Fortunately Hunter was as strong as he was heavy, and he made it to the top of the building without incident, dropping down onto the roof alongside Aswon. A quick glance round to ensure that nobody was around to interfere, and he too grabbed the rope to assist Aswon.

With two of them on the roof they were able to start hauling the next member of the team up, swiftly bringing them to the top of the building, too, repeating the process until they were all safely located on the roof.

Moving silently, the team advanced, dark deadly shadows flitting from cover to cover as they closed on the roof doorway. Aswon and Shimazu closed on the position of the guard and were just getting ready to pounce when they heard a noise – and the guard rounded the corner, sniffing at the air curiously. They didn't know what he'd smelt, or which one of the team had been detected – but there was no time for subtleness now. Two pairs of hands struck forwards, slapping the guard on either side of his face with the sticky tranq patches. The drugs leeched into the skin, quickly going to work and catapulting themselves into the bloodstream, racing towards the brain and interfering with the chemical processes.

While the drugs did their work, Aswon and Shimazu grappled with the guard, pinning his hands and preventing him from firing his weapon or calling for help, until a few seconds later the body went limp and started to collapse. Just as quickly they found themselves holding him up, preventing his now-limp body from slamming into the floor and making a noise. They looked around and dragged his body into a sheltered corner, leaning it against the metal box section of the east side heat exchanger system, tucking him into the shadows and arranging him so it looked like he'd just fallen asleep – at least until you got close enough to see the woven drug soaked disks that adhered to his flesh.

"I'm on watch up here, I'll keep an eye on him." Hunter moved to the edge of the roof with his assault rifle and started a slow circuit, looking down at the quiet village below. Tads, Kai and Shimazu crouched by the doorway while Aswon eased himself down the steps, splaying his legs wide to keep his footsteps away from the centre to cut down on signs of his passage and the chance of creaking stairs. Making it down to the third floor, he headed east to what should have been the empty side of the building, confirming with a visual inspection what Tads had found from her astral reconnaissance.

Reaching the end of the building, he examined the fire escape and found that the doorway had been crudely bricked up on the inside. The workmanship was sloppy and haphazard, and it wouldn't take much to rip the barrier down – but it would be noisy and take time, time they might not have if the plan went into the shitter. He headed back to the middle and the stairwell, and carefully listened down the echoing stairwell, not detecting anything but the faint noise of the workers far below on the ground floor.

"Come on down, third floor east secure, checking west. Fire escapes look to be blocked." Aswon finished subvocalising, and then headed west as he heard the movement of Shimazu as he started to move down the stairs to take position on his six. As he advanced into the western half of the building he saw the faint marks on the walls where partitions had once been, along with lines on the dirty and faded carpet showing where banks of desk and filing cabinets had once stood. Ahead of him lay the mage's quarters, the door closed and locked with the telltale red light of a mag-lock. But, as he looked around he found a toilet block, just off the main stairwell, which looked to still be in service. It wasn't particularly clean, but it wasn't filthy either – someone was maintaining it. "Found ourselves a possible ambush point. Toilet door on the north side of the main corridor leading to her quarters. If she comes up the stairs or lift, she'll have to come past here and we can take her from behind. Or take her out in the toilet itself if she comes in."

"Good work, Aswon." Kai, Shimazu and Tads moved forwards to meet him, examining the room themselves and rapidly coming to the same conclusion. There was no real cover in the area otherwise, unless they wanted to try and hide behind some of the structural supports, and they were only about three hundred millimetres wide. Tads or Kai might manage ok, but there was no way Hunter or Shimazu would be concealed by something that small.

"How are we going to do this, Kai?"

"We take her down when she comes back up, and get the information we need. Then I think we need to take out the guards, all of them. Wipe them out. Free the slaves and scatter them all over the island, then bug out."

"Are you mad? What the hell kind of plan is that?" Aswon responded, aghast. "That's crazy talk."

"I don't want to do it, but I think we have to!" Kai responded hotly.

"So, stealth is out of the window then." He glared at Kai, who returned his gaze equally firmly. "Look, I don't want to kill anyone we don't have to. Regardless of the guards being evil fucks, it's going to raise massive questions, and the Triad is going to go ape shit if we take out an entire facility. Why?"

"I don't want to kill anyone either. But if we take out the boss, and she's doing regular patrol inspections, she's going to be missed sooner rather than later. And if the boss goes down, but her number two has his wits about him, he's going to hit the panic button and alert his superiors. And from what we know, that person works at this fortress place, so that runs the risk of alerting them all. And I don't like the sound of combining words like 'the fortress' and 'red alert'. That strikes me as a BAD combination. So the best way to avoid that is to just shut this place down, turn it into a black hole. That buys us enough time to get there and rescue the kid before it all kicks off…"

Aswon considered his words and had to admit there was a chain of logic there, much as he didn't like it. Still, there was plenty about the world that he didn't like…

"Folks, just to let you know, I've just checked over the guard up here. Still all clear in the village by the way." Hunter sounded slightly strained, and they imagined him lifting the body up and turning it over as he was talking. "He's got an assault rifle, cheap ass nasty thing, with a couple of spare clips. Also got a walky talky style radio, clipped onto his belt, pretty basic short range set. But I've also found an inhaler – sealed plastic unit, with a logo on it. Reads ' CombatRage' – think it's pretty obvious what kind of thing we're talking about here. One mo." Hunter carefully pulled open the plastic seal without activating the inhaler mechanism and then gave a gently sniff, letting the chemical analyser in his nose go to work.

"Ok, I'm getting a proper cocktail off this stuff here. Strong dextroamphetamine base, so we're talking increased reaction speed, alertness and resistance to fatigue. There's some kind of alkaloid opium analgesic too, so that's going to block the effects of trauma. Think there might be some coagulant factor in here as well as some other stuff that I can't pin down. But the guy looks clean, not like a user. Pretty good teeth, no sign of habitual use. Stained fingers from cigarettes, but no signs of anything harder. But if all the troops have got them, if the alert is raised, they're going to be bitches to put down."

"Ok, noted. Good job, Hunter. Let's get ourselves into position and wait for the target to return to her quarters." Kai waved most of the team into the toilets, and moved to the far corner of the floor and hid behind one of the support beams. "I'll double click when she's passing the door, triple click if she's coming to you." Aswon, Shimazu and Tads hid in the toilet area, waiting in the dim glow from the emergency light positioned over the doorway. Shimazu had his sword in one hand and another tranq patch in the other, while Tads held her quarterstaff ready to swing it if needed – but relying on her magic as her primary weapon. Aswon however laid his magical spear to one side and extended his taser spear, checking the charge level and setting himself up as if to receive a charge from a wild boar.

Thirty-five minutes passed, the tension rising as they waited in the dark, their stomachs flipping and brains playing games with them as they imagined various noises and shapes moving in the dark. Eventually though, Kai saw their target emerge out of the stairwell and turn towards her suite, walking with surety through the darkened room, muscle memory taking her on the right path. She turned just as she reached the toilets, and Kai clicked his transmit button three times.

As she swung the door open, Aswon lunged forwards with his spear, striking low and hard. He pushed forwards, his rear leg braced against the bottom support of one of the stalls, and his front foot slipped on the slick tiles, sliding sideways and tipping him off balance. Instead of the controlled strike he'd planned for, his full weight and force drove the taser prongs into her midriff, and thousands of volts arced between the contacts sending a paralysing jolt through her body. The spear continued forwards though, slicing through her silken kimono and penetrating her stomach, the tip of the weapon cutting through her intestines and striking deep into her core.

She twitched and writhed as electricity poured through her, diaphragm contracting in spasms and robbing her vocal cords of anything but the tiniest amount of air and causing her scream of terror and pain to come out as more of a pained sigh. She collapsed, folding forwards and over the taser, maintaining her contact with the prongs and continuing to writhe and jolt as the power surged through her. Aswon released the trigger and let go of the spear, using his hands to grab at the walls for support, he managed to recover his footing.

"Oh crap." Looking at the pool of blood and the collapsing mage, there was no question that she was badly wounded. He dived forwards and flicked the lights on, the LED panels in the roof flicking on to bathe the room in a cold harsh light that illuminated the rapidly spreading pool of blood that gushed from her stomach. "Shimazu, first aid kit?" He moved to the side to clear the way as the big Japanese man slid the tranq patch back into its protective sheath and instead grabbed for his medical kit, hurrying forward to stem the flow of blood. A moment later Kai barrelled in through the door, squinting at the unexpected brightness and taking in the scene before him.

"When I said we were going to kill them all, I thought we'd wait until we at least had the information, Aswon…" Kai's tone of voice was light, and he gave Aswon a grin – his attempt at humour fell flat from Aswon's perspective though.

"Sorry, Tads – you might need to work fast. That hit her harder than I thought it would."

Tads didn't answer, instead moving forwards to grab her enemy's foot and concentrate on the spell, trying to stay out of Shimazu's way as he pumped drugs into the body and applied a pressure bandage over the bubbling wound that pulsed and spurted blood in an irregular pattern.

"I think she might have had a heart condition already. She's fibrillating, very erratic pulse. BP dropping, pulse dropping, respiration dropping. Kai, help – bag her, protect the airway." Shimazu's voice had taken on a detached and emotionless edge, and Kai moved to assist, his jokes at Aswon's expense forgotten as his own medical training kicked in and he worked with Shimazu to stop her dying – at least long enough for Tads to get the information she needed.

"Guys, don't want to alarm you, but a guard has just left the guard hut, and is heading towards the main building. Doesn't appear alarmed or in a hurry, but he's armed and he'll be here in a minute or two. Work fast."

Aswon clambered over Kai and Shimazu, heading towards the stairwell so he would be in a position to intercept the guard and stop him interfering with the others, while both the medics fought to sustain the body of their enemy. Tads concentrated, channelling mana into the spell and rifling through her thoughts, trying to filter out the pain and confusion, marshalling memories that had been scrambled by the taser and were now getting slightly psychedelic from cocktail of drugs they'd just injected her with to stabilise her systems.

Moments ticked by…

"Got it. Kot Siu-Wong is her boss, her 483. Manager of the counterfeiting activity for the Blue Lotus Triad, and runs the factory island they call the fortress. Black hair, and he's blind in one eye, a weird milky white colour, like a cataract. The other eye was bloodshot red when she met him, possibly from drugs. Average height and build, lots of scars and callouses on his arms from fighting. She saw him carrying a sword in a back scabbard, some kind of high tech blade. Ugh." She shuddered and took a moment, then continued. "He was beheading someone for poor performance, had his guards hold him down in position, over a railing, and publicly executed him as an example to the others. He also has some kind of bullwhip or something on his hip as well."

"Oh great. Just what we need – a nutter with a monosword and monofilament whip. That'll be nice." Aswon muttered over the comm, adjusting his grip on his sword as he waited in ambush for the guard, crouched and ready to strike.

"I've got a mental picture of the island – Hunter, I'll get with you later and link you a mental image, see if you can translate it to a model or something. But it's a pretty big island with lots of buildings built into the slopes, and a big sea wall around a harbour. It's about forty kilometres from here I think. I've got a memory of the direction and the stars from when she went there to report in to him, so I think I can navigate us there.

"What about defences or a layout?"

"um.. not much. She only saw a bit of the base – mostly she was remembering the people and trying to impress her boss. Flickers of corridors and underground rooms, big production lines of stuff, fake goods, I think. Not much use. But it seems a lot of traffic goes through the area, in and out by boat. Lots of guards too. Like… I dunno, hundreds. And several hundred workers. Or more like slaves. Lots of them. Lots of machinery, too. Horrible place."

Tads gave a weird little giggle and stroked the side of her own face, then shuddered.

"Have you just injected her with something else?"

"Yes, we had to give her something to mask the pain, her systems are bottoming out. I think we can stabilise her, but she needs surgery – or magical healing."

"Well, I'm not getting much out of her mind now – it's shutting down and getting all weird and distorted. I think I've got everything useful we're going to get, at least for the moment." She sat upright and broke the connection, taking a deep breath and trying to regain her composure.

A foul reek had started to build in the area, the mage having voided her bowels as a result of the attack, the smell of fetid excrement gradually seeping through her clothing - though at least it was somewhat in keeping with the location, which somehow seemed to make it slightly less offensive to them, almost as if their bodies were programmed not to gag at the smell by virtue of them being in the toilets.

"Tads, do you think you can alter her memories at all, make her think she was attacked by Yakuza assassins or something? Hint at some kind of rival attack?"

"I don't know, I can give it a try I suppose…"

"I just think that might hel… wait one. Footsteps. Guard coming up the stairs."

The team grabbed their weapons, the stabilised form of the mage forgotten as they moved quietly forwards to support Aswon out on the landing, while the unsuspecting guard climbed the stairs, heading up to relieve the previous sentry, unaware of the spectres of death that waited at the next landing for him…