Tuesday 21/9/2060, Location: 22.22744, 114.24966, Time 02:48

Kai headed through the edge of the town, quiet at nearly three in the morning on a week night. When he arrived at the top of the stairs, he took a deep breath then descended briskly, a faint smile on his face. A simple nod at the bouncer and he wandered through the double doors at the bottom of the staircase and entered the bar. Still dressed in his smart suit, the bland expression and local appearance didn't draw anything more than a casual glance from the bouncer, who looked more like he was counting down the minutes until the end of his shift.

Unsurprisingly it was quiet, with people mostly sat around tables, clustered in the booths or playing at one of the entertainment machines scattered around the outer edge. Kai headed over to the bar and ordered himself a drink, then glanced at the barman as he paid…

"I don't suppose Wa Fan is in tonight, is she?"

"Yes, she is, she's in the back, sorting out paperwork."

"Excellent. I just wondered if I could see her, please?"

"I can ask. Who shall I say is here?"

"Oh, if you could let her know it's her old friend Kai, from the academy at the end of the beach. Thank you!" The barman stared at him for a moment, then gave a tiny shrug and headed out of the doorway at the back of the bar, disappearing from sight. He was gone for nearly a minute, leaving Kai to stand at the bar and sip at his ice-cold beer and wonder if this was the right thing to do. When the barman came back, he headed over to Kai and then pointed at a booth on the far side of the club.

"If you'd like to take a seat over there, she said she'd be with you in a minute…" Kai nodded his thanks and headed over, veering at the last minute to actually sit down in the next booth over.

"Don't want to sit on a taser pad, now do we, Kai? No… let's just sit one over, randomly. Heh…" He eased himself down on the seat, and started to examine the booth casually, looking for anything unusual that made him feel particularly uncomfortable. He didn't find anything in the few minutes of casual checking, so he relaxed until he saw Wa Fan appear from the back of the bar and start to wander over towards the booth indicated by the barman. She slowed as she spotted it was empty, and then turned slightly to head for the adjacent booth, spotting Kai rise from his seat politely.

"Good evening. You asked to see me." Her voice was polite, calm and courteous – entirely correct, and it made his spine prickle. Not a sense of emotion so far, she was tightly controlling herself, trying to show nothing at all of her inner thoughts.

"Yes, thank you for agreeing to see me. I just wanted a quick word if I may. It's been a VERY busy night. Did you see the big fight at all?"

"Yes I did. It was…interesting. A most theatrical performance. I'm not one for fighting personally, but I understand it drew quite the crowd."

"Yes, it did seem to be a large draw. But, that's not why I'm here. It just so happens that I've come into some information that may be of great interest to you." He moved his hand slowly, peeling back his jacket and then gently pulling out the optical chip with exaggerated patience, making it clear that he wasn't going for a weapon of any kind. Wa Fan watched him place the chip carefully on the table before him, sitting impassive as he released the small package.

"And what is this?"

"Well, it contains some data that you might find interesting. And so far, you have been what I think of as a straight shooter. We may have had different interests, but you have been honest in your dealings, and carried out your negotiations with a view to developing a business situation. Not out of personal demands. So I thought that it might help you, in your current situation."

"Help me? Well, that's intriguing, Mr. Kai."

"Please, it's just Kai."

"So Kai, do you like to help people? Or is it only certain people?" She leant in and moved a finger to almost touch the chip, lowering her head slightly and staring up at Kai through her fringe. Kai blinked at her, wondering if she was flirting with him?

"Oh, you'd be surprised at the people we help sometimes. Some of them are very grateful…"

"And would I be very grateful? Would I have to find some way to reward you?"

"I 'd certainly hope you'd be pleased." Kai swallowed a mouthful of cold beer, then licked his lips. She watched his every move carefully. "The contents of the chip are some information we came across during our….travels. Yes, our travels. It contains some information about a member of a certain organisation who appears to be helping himself somewhat to the funds of that organisation. Terribly rude. I think with your background in…bar management, you'd be able to make sense of the numbers. And that might help you advance somewhat in your organisati…." His voice trailed off as he suddenly registered the four men standing at the end of the booth. He'd been so busy trying to work Wa Fan, and wondering if she was working him, that he'd not seen them approach.

The four of them weren't physically that intimidating – none were much bigger than he was certainly, and they'd look puny next to Shimazu or Hunter. But each of them was watching him, one hand on their side, holding something. Probably a knife, or maybe a small cleaver. In the confined and cramped quarters of the booth, it wouldn't really matter. Four to one odds sucked at the best of times, let alone when the one is sat down with their legs under a table. He looked over at Wa Fan, who was still studying him intently.

"Sorry, felt a chill from the door. So yes, it may help you advance within your organisation. That way at least not everyone that was involved in the events of last night has to be loser. Deal with that situation quietly, and maybe you can prove that you're not the one who should have been sent as a cut-out, to take the fall for someone else's mis-management of a situation." Her eyes narrowed for a moment, before she gave him a small nod and the beginnings of a faint smile. A finger gently pressed onto the top of the chip, drawing it over towards her, until she could pick it up and slide it into a pocket. "So… got any plans? Perhaps you might be free for dinner tomorrow?"

There was a faint indraw of breath from the four men standing at the end of the table, looking down at him.

"No, perhaps that's still a little premature. Forgive my impudence. Perhaps once you've done some reading, you'll understand that we are not your enemies, and maybe things can be different. But, it has been a long day, and I did say I asked only for a few minutes of your time." Kai finished his drink, placing the empty container down carefully on a placemat, then slid out from the booth, turning his back on the four men to face Wa Fan. If they were going to kick off, it might make it mercifully quick – it wasn't like he was going to do much to stop them. "Thank you for your time this evening, and I do hope to see you soon."

Wa Fan made a small gesture with her hand, and the line of men parted into two pairs. Kai had to sidle his way out between them, looking uncomfortable and very hemmed in as he did so – but if that was the cost for getting out without being attacked, he could live with that. He had come and poked the lioness in her own den after all, it was only fair that she got to flex at him a little.

He headed out of the bar, his back itching, feeling the wieght of several stares as he climbed back up to street level and then headed towards the beach and back to the academy. He'd made it pretty much back before he bumped into Shimazu, heading out with his sword.

"Where have you been? We only just realised you weren't here…."

"Just dropping off a message, it's all good." Shimazu gave him a somewhat despairing look and shook his head, sheathed his sword and then ushered Kai into the building, locking the door shut behind him. "Well, I'm pretty tired now, so I'm going to head to bed. G'night, Shimazu!" His voice was light and jovial, giving no sign of having done something wrong or that would worry his team, and Shimazu took a deep breath, practicing the techniques Aswon had shown him, trying to calm the spike of adrenaline that was still coursing through his system.

They awoke the next morning to find the storm had continued onwards to the north, leaving them with clear skies and calm seas. Chun and the other instructors had arrived back, having caught the overnight ferry from Macao, and the breakfast room was abuzz with gossip. The team found themselves pressed for details on what had happened as well, asking to hear the story about their feats of video engineering – it seemed Nicole had already told everyone about Hunter's mastery of the broadcast software and Marius and his eagle-eyed perception, shutting down the single alarm so quickly that nobody else had dared to try.

While some of the team chatted and described their side of things, Tads led Vadim away and took him to the tilt-wing, then started to pull apart her lodge.

"What are you doing? Don't you need that?"

"Yes, but so do you. We're going on a quest, and you need somewhere to travel from. You need this to be your lodge as well. It'll break for you probably as soon as we move, but it'll do for now."

"Break for me? Does that mean it won't for you?"

"Apparently not. I'm not sure why… it's something our people seem not to have an issue with. Maybe because we wander the forests, moving from place to place so much. But as long as we're careful, our lodges remain intact. It seems not to be that way for others. It might make an interesting thing for you to look into, as you learn more about magic…" Vadim nodded, detecting the subtle issuance of 'homework' from his time in the military – but didn't actually mind that much in this case.

They spent the next four hours remaking the lodge, Tads explaining why everything had to be in the places it was, showing him the magical boundaries created by the placement of her materials – a dreamcatcher here, some talons on a leather thong there, coloured beads strung overhead with a knot at a precise point to help focus the flow of mana….

Hunter, Marius and Kai eventually managed to get themselves away from the breakfast room once they'd finished telling their side of the story, and headed down to the boat before heading off to one of the smaller islands out to the east. For several hours Hunter blazed away with his assault rifle, while Kai practiced with his pistol, reducing a number of trees to splintered and blasted messes, while Marius sat with a tablet, completing increasingly more complicated puzzles and mental quizzes, analysing pictures for discrepancies and reading some journals on cognitive learning therapy – trying to improve his capacity to assimilate and learn new information.

Aswon and Shimazu spent some time working in one of the training rooms, sparring with Ismael who seemed to be more of a boxer than many of the other instructors, working on their techniques. The mood of the gym was upbeat, and Chun appeared to be very happy about something – eventually revealing that he'd had over eighty applications to come and train at the gym, that day alone. It appeared that his fortunes were likely to be turned around after the epic show put on the night before.

When Tads and Vadim appeared later, Aswon idly asked them what they'd been up to – and was unprepared for a glance at each other then being informed that they couldn't really say. All Tads was willing to reveal was that they'd been on an astral quest together, which had apparently been successful, but refused to be drawn any further, before almost dragging Vadim out of the room and heading for the kitchen to check on the food situation.

"What was that about?" Shimazu asked Aswon.

"As far as I know, there is an entity called the Dweller. They are the guardian of the metaplanes, and all quests to search for knowledge or power end up going through them. People seem to have different representations of the dweller, but it remains a constant of all reports to astral space."

"Like a security guard at a front gate."

"In a way I suppose, yes. And from what I have heard, the dweller is possessed of knowledge beyond our comprehension – and delights in revealing some secret you would prefer left unsaid to anyone you are with. I'm guessing that Vadim and Tads found out something interesting, embarrassing or both about each other."

"Remind me never to go on an astral quest!" Shimazu pulled a face of disgust at the idea of someone else airing his dirty secrets.

"Well, if you ever meet him, it's because we've gone through some kind of astral gateway – and only powerful and thankfully rare spirits seem to be able to make them. But if we do encounter it, we're not going to have any choice."

After evening meal that night, Marius checked the status of the engines, estimating that there were still another few days of work to do on them. By the time they'd been collected and refitted to the tilt-wing, they were going to be lucky to get out of the academy by Saturday… On hearing this news, Tads grabbed Shimazu, outlining her plan to spend the next few days initiating herself in to the deeper mysteries of her Shamanic totem. Shimazu responded by telling her he'd had similar thoughts – and that he was planning on meditating and performing some intensive drills to help focus his mind and body as one, focussing his abilities and improving his physical prowess. After a brief discussion, they warned the team that both of them were likely to be unavailable for several days as they concentrated on their magical skills, seeking to improve their control and power.

"Oh, if we're warning people about stuff, I have one, too. Not a serious one though." Aswon smiled at the expression on Kai's face. "Don't worry, boss. It's Spook – she's coming to visit. Said she wanted to catch up with me and meet you all as well. Shouldn't be a problem. She should be arriving around lunchtime tomorrow."

"Ok, we can do that, I suppose. Why does she want to meet us?"

"I would imagine so she can size everyone up in person – just like you prefer to work in person for some things. Spook is good people, so try not to do anything crazy, will you? Quite apart from our current job, she's a very good source over here, and I don't want to upset her."

"Hey, it's me!"

"I know, that's what I mean…" The rest of the team laughed at Aswon's quick response, even more so at the look of fake outrage on Kai's face.

An uneventful night led to an uneventful morning, the team training at the academy or over on the small island they'd appropriated as their shooting ground – burning through their supply of "crap" ammo that Nadia had classified for them gave them plenty of training ammunition, and plenty of experience with cleaning their guns to remove the carbon and other impurities left behind by the cheap rounds.

Aswon was waiting out at the front of the academy at noon, and saw a large off-roader bouncing down the road that ran along the back edge of the beach, heading towards him. He met up with the vehicle at the car park, watching as Spook stopped the engine and climbed down from the cab, greeting him with a broad smile. As he looked over at her he was relieved to see that she looked much more relaxed than when he'd last seen her just over a week ago. With his customary directness, he decided to mention this.

"Looking good, Spook. You seem much more relaxed than last time."

"Smooth waters, Aswon, smooth waters. Partly thanks to you and your team, of course. Chun seems happy, and he's getting a lot of interest in the academy, and some sniffs from various organisations that are interested in him and his fighters. And of course, thanks to your little tip off, some close friends of mine happened to make a few opportune bets and did very nicely out of Monday night." She reached him and gave him a quick but firm hug, arms around his waist with her head barely coming up to his chest. She gave a quick squeeze, then released him, taking a half step back and looking up. "You did good. Not that I expected anything less."

"Well, it seemed to have come out ok in the end. We've tried to keep a low profile and not poke the Triads too much in the eye, but I think some fallout is inevitable. It got pretty loud at one point."

"Cost of doing business sometimes. Speaking of which – here, this is your team's cut." She reached into her inside pocket and pulled out a certified credstick, handing it over to him. He accepted it and raised an eyebrow at her. "Like I said, thanks to your tip, we had a good night. I had a consortium of people prepped after our conversation, and we managed to get some quite specific bets on that worked out very nicely for us." Her eyes and hair shimmered, blue pulses of light rotating around her cyber-eyes and pulses flickering down the fibres implanted into her hair, presumably as a reaction to what she was feeling.

"I think it's almost time for lunch. Everyone should be about – I warned them you were coming."

"Good, it'll be good to catch up with Chun, too. Make sure he's happy, and I have some news for him as well."

They headed into the academy, chatting away about work, life and the world, catching up on old times and relaxing into each other's company. When they reached the dining room they could see that there were decorative covers over the tables, and a buffet set out with a huge variety of dishes – it looked like Vivian must have been busy most of the morning preparing the meal.

Chun greeted Spook warmly, and guided her to a seat prepared for her – clearly they'd done some business in the past and had an established relationship, too. The rest of the team arrived in dribs and drabs along with the students and instructors, and Aswon introduced them to Spook as they arrived. Dinner turned into an extended affair, taking longer than was normal for the mid-day break as everyone grazed their way through the excellent spread laid out for them.

The slow pace of dinner gave Spook plenty of time to meet with the team, chatting with each of them and gently questioning them about their role and skills, establishing what they bought to the team. Knowing that she was a fixer – the classic go-between used by Corporations to give them their deniability when hiring Shadow assets took the edge of the questions, but her skill was just as evident in how she talked to the team. Rather than prying into what they'd done in the past for people, it was more a question of how they'd done it, establishing how skilled they were in their chosen area so she could gauge the level of work they could be trusted with.

Kai bought up the next stage of their travel plans again, reminding Spook that they'd sought her out for helping them get across the border into Japan, and she passed over the details of her contact – a Japanese man by the name of 'Harikona'. He worked with a variety of smugglers it seemed, and could for a price assist them with evading the border patrols and provide them with a safe route into Japan.

Tads unsurprisingly asked Spook for some help with a talismonger in Hong Kong, wanting to stock up on materials before they left on the next leg of their mission, and after a quick chat to determine what nature of supplies were needed, provided the number and address for a 'Clara Wu Tsai', who ran a discreet supply shop in the centre of Hong Kong itself.

When lunch was done, the tables cleared and everyone had let their dinner go down enough that training was a possibility, they started to split back up into groups, heading off to the various training rooms scattered around the building. Marius, Hunter and Kai headed back out to continue their weapons drills, while Tads, Shimazu and Vadim returned to their magical studies. Having nothing arrange directly, Aswon tagged along with Spook, who in turn followed Chun towards one of the training rooms. It looked like Chun was going to do a little one to one training with her, so Aswon found himself a corner and did some warming up and exercises to keep him limber, leaving her to get on with things.

While they were training, he couldn't help but overhear Chun ask her a question. He didn't mean to eavesdrop, he certainly respected Spook too much to try and pry into her business deliberately, and while he didn't know Chun that well, he certainly seemed to be just as worthy of his privacy. But that didn't change the fact that his exceptionally acute hearing did in fact catch the quiet question from Chun to Spook…

"So, no more problems with those guys, then? Are you all sorted now?" He saw her nod, and say something in return, too quietly for him to catch. Chun nodded though, his customary smile having faded away as he listened to her response. Thoughts raced through Aswon's mind – Spook had clearly been having issues with someone about something, enough to cause her some grief. Enough to make her seek out some training for self-defence? He cast his mind back to their meeting in the restaurant, and his surprise at how confrontational she'd been with the drunken man. It was a side of her he'd not seen before, but now he wondered if it was a response to whatever was going on in her life. Whatever it was though, she didn't seem to want to tell him, and he was fine with that. If she wanted him to know, she'd tell him. And if she wanted his help, she'd ask… and he'd do whatever he could to help her.

She trained with Chun for half an hour, before Chun called Aswon over and kitted him out with some heavily padded gloves and got them to do some sparring. Though considerably shorter and smaller than Aswon, what she lacked in reach she tried to compensate for with speed, and she had a dogged persistence that meant he was often on the defensive, trying to fend off her relentless attacks. Of course, this wasn't his strong point either – if she'd come at him while he had his spear, she'd have been dealt with within a few seconds…

Spook headed off just before the main meal of the day, giving Aswon another hug and wishing the rest of the team well, disappearing back towards the city in the off-roader, and leaving the team to settle down around the table for dinner. Aswon pulled over the cred-stick, and asked Hunter to check it out.

"There's seventy five grand on here, as far as I can see. Where did this come from?" Hunter couldn't do transactions on his deck without the approved software and security measures from one of the matrix banks, but he could at least check the balance and ensure the ciphers were intact.

"Our share of the winnings from the bets. Apparently she and some friends of hers put some fairly hefty bets down on Chun winning in a specific round by knockout. Looks like they made a fair bit of cred, and Spook has taken a tithe to pass on to us."

"So, where does that put us?" Hunter turned towards Kai, sliding the stick over his way.

"Well, we had about two-eighty. This takes us to three-fifty-five. The two bets we put on at the stadium netted us one hundred ninety, taking us to five hundred and forty-five thousand total. Course, that's still short of the six hundred that we think it's going to cost us to get the engines fixed."

"We're going to have to find another job. Possibly several jobs. If we can get to the talismongers and get some supplies, we can maybe do some warding in a day or two, earn ourselves some more. But I'm not sure we can earn enough, quickly enough, that we can get out of here and still get the mission done in time. I mean, how much will we need for fuel?" Aswon looked over to Hunter, who tapped a few keys on his deck, displaying a rough flight plan around the ring of fire, and displayed the total distance still to go.

"We're looking at about seventeen thousand kilometres, which means the same in litres of fuel. Based on the kinds of prices we've been seeing, we're going to need just shy of a hundred thousand to pay for the fuel. Plus then we have other costs – ammo, food, water and so on."

"Well, at least as long as we stay on Tads' good side, the last two shouldn't be a problem. For which, thank you, Tads. In case we don't say it often enough." Tads smiled at Aswon and nodded her head a little, acknowledging him.

They chatted on for a while longer, trying to work out what they would need in terms of expenses and operating funds, and whichever way they ran the numbers, it always ended up looking just as grim – after paying for the engines, they wouldn't have enough money to complete the journey. Somehow they had to find some extra cash from somewhere, otherwise the mission was a bust.

With something of a dampener on their spirits, they finished their meal, carried out their evening tasks and headed to bed. The next day was spent doing more training and preparation, with Kai sending some messages to Spook to see if she could find them some work. They'd have to wait until at least Friday afternoon to actually take on any work – until then both Tads and Shimazu were still tied up with their own training, and if they broke off now it would be disruptive enough to make what they'd done already worthless. Without them, they could still put up some wards, but they'd not be as powerful or as quick as with the two most powerful members of the team.

Late on the Thursday afternoon, Marius let them all know that the engines had been reassembled and were complete – and should be available for collection on the Friday morning.

"Not now?" Kai asked

"No – they're going to be pressure tested overnight, and have some diagnostics run on them. It is not a standard practice for most places, but this is not your run of the mill facility. I would have expected nothing less, to be honest."

"So, we need to go down on Friday, and pay up I would expect. But Tads and Shimazu won't have finished until then….crap. We're not going to get a ward done in time, are we?"

"I do not believe so. We may be able to push back payment until the engines have been installed. Once we get them back here, it is likely to take me at least a day or two of fitting time, to reconnect all the avionics and to calibrate them. Normally again this is done in a facility with the correct tools. We do not have that luxury."

"Right. Well, there's not a lot we can do about this, is there? Let me go see Chun and see if we can get a lift back with them…" Kai stopped as Marius suddenly smacked his forehead and muttered to himself in German. "What?"

"We also need to refill the fuel tanks. We have enough to take off and fly a little way, but not a full tank."

"Ok, let me see what we can sort out with Chun. See how much HE thinks he owes us for the rescue…"

Kai headed off to see Chun, who promised to "take care of things" and "leave it with him". Kai thought about pressing him, but decided to leave it for the moment, and to concentrate instead on their finances. He returned to Marius and spent some time going through the information on the matrix site about their repairs, trying to work out what costs were involved and if there was anything they could see that might be an option for a discount.

On Friday morning, Chun called all the students together, assembling them out of the front of the academy and leading them in a group class to get them warmed up. After fifteen minutes of light exercise, the pointed to the corner of the veranda where the long bamboo poles and heavy ropes were piled up, before announcing that today's main core-strength task was 'the engine carry'… They saw a few winces on faces, but again there was relatively little grumbling about the task that lay ahead of them. Much like the initial journey, the students were broken down into teams and then led off to collect their poles and ropes, before jogging down the beach towards the town and the Giovani workshop.

When they arrived, they found the two engines waiting for them in the cradles, wrapped in plastic and looking factory-new. Kai headed towards the office to find Marcello and settle the account, while the rest of the team helped Marius get the ropes in place and get the two engines slung from the poles and ready for transport. Kai wandered into the reception area, where the young man working the front desk got him a tiny cup of intensely strong black coffee, and led him through into Marcello's office.

"Ahh, Mr. Kai. I hope everything is to your satisfaction?"

"Yes, everything looks great. Marius hasn't said anything, which means he's ecstatic. It looks like you've done an excellent job!" A little lavish praise and buttering up wouldn't hurt, Kai thought. It certainly shouldn't push the price up any more!

"That is good news. A most unusual job for us of course, it's been an interesting challenge. And the engines are, when you get down to basics, just the same as we normally deal with in terms of our usual hyper-car heritage. Top end components, working at peak efficiency. Alas, of course, working on such precision equipment with skilled hands does come with a price…" He pulled open a drawer and removed a leather folio case, opening it up and displaying half a dozen sheets of creamy white paper, each one laid out with a table of costs, charges and parts used or fabricated for the project.

"Each of our section heads has signed off on the work, and the pressure test delivered excellent results overnight. All of the details are logged here in your works order record." He replaced the sheets in the folio case and slid it across the desk towards Kai. Kai looked down, and realised he was paying at least a few hundred Nuyen for the bill in the designer folder, and a rebellious little streak in him wanted to just to sign for the bill and push the case back. But, for the customer base they normally had, they were probably used to doing those little extra touches. He sighed, and flipped open the case, and looked at the total on the bottom of the last page, then froze.

"Of course, Mister Fu has been down to see us already, and has notified us of the arrangements made, so we have deducted that amount from the bill, leaving just the remainder to pay. Are we using certified sticks or a Matrix transfer?"

"Certified, I think." He swallowed, and then spoke again, compelling his voice to remain stable. "Yes, certified sticks, though I'm afraid we have a few with the amount split over them. Sorry about that."

"Oh, no bother at all. Let me just get the reader powered up." Marcello pulled the cred-reader towards him and started to key in his dealer number and authentication details, letting it scan his fingerprint and retina to confirm his identity for the bank. Kai meanwhile looked down at the total listed.

501,283 Nuyen, including local taxes.

He wasn't sure what the 'deal' was that Chun had struck, but it certainly made things easier! He started to rummage through his pockets, gathering the sticks together to slot. With the seventy-five from Spook, one hundred and ninety from the gambling and the two hundred and eighty ish they had, that gave them about forty-four thousand left over – rather than being over fifty thousand short. It still wasn't enough to get them fuel enough for the rest of the journey – but it would cover them for the first third at least and gave them opportunity to do some other things.

"Right, so if I can take the first credstick please?" Marcello held out his hand, and Kai worked through the sticks, emptying two and leaving the small amount on the third, reclaiming them all to take with him. Marcello walked him out of the office, shaking his hand and wishing him well, and Kai made polite conversation, making sure he left on good terms, while continuing to wonder just what deal Chun had struck.

He made it back to the academy along with the engines, and watched Marius starting to supervise the attachment, powered by a large amount of grunting and sweating as people lifted the massive engines into position. When they were at least positioned on the hooks and in roughly the right place, Chun sent everyone off for showers and lunch, giving Marius some time to work out how long it would take to get them reconnected.

He caught up with them in the break room as the team were eating, and gave them the news.

"If I go flat out, and get some help with the computer diagnostics, I think about eighteen hours."

"So I guess you want Hunter to help, then. Ok – well, that's not so bad. It's lunchtime now. How about if you work at it for the rest of the day, until you feel you're not being productive anymore, while we work with Spook on getting some warding sorted. Sleep overnight. Tomorrow we go off and do whatever job we can find, while you finish off the installation. Then you sleep, and get a break – and we look at heading off after dusk. I presume you'd rather take off in the dark away from here anyway?" Marius nodded to Kai. "Ok, that's settled then."

"We do still need to refuel," Marius reminded Kai.

"Chun said he'd take care of that. I'll check in with him, though."

Chun it appeared, had indeed taken care of things. With all the students somewhat refreshed from a shower and lunch, he told them of the afternoon's fun and exciting events to come. As soon as he started describing things, several faces fell, as he went into detail about a torturous-sounding relay event. He had four twenty-litre containers that he'd rustled up from somewhere, and each would be taken up to the harbour area, where someone had arranged for a delivery of JP5 jet fuel to be stored in one of the old bunkerage tanks. A student would fill the container, and then carry the twenty-five kilo weight along to the edge of the beach, to the first 'station'. There they would take over doing squat thrusts, while the next person in the chain carried the fuel container most of the way along the beach, to hand over at the sit-up station. Slowly the fuel container would make its way along, all the way back to the courtyard, passing through five stations until it could be poured into the fuel tank. Then, holding the tank overhead, that student would run all the way back to the boat yard and fill up the tank again…

Transferring the fuel eighty litres at a time would take all day – transforming the students into a slow, sweaty and exhausted human pipeline. Not even the mention of the special prize for the winning team seemed to buoy spirits much. Even after Chun explained the details of what was happening – that the stations would be done in sets of exercises, with rests in-between made either the team, or the students, feel that much more excited about the prospect. None the less, Chun chivvied them out onto the beach and got them set up, and soon after fuel started to be transferred into the tilt wing, slowly filling up the tanks and getting them ready to travel.

Spook came through for them, letting them know she'd found a mid-sized electronics company that had a newly remodelled corporate headquarters that was in need of warding, located in downtown Hong Kong. On the Saturday morning the magical element of the team bundled into the tiny van, heading around the coast road towards the harbour and then joining the slow-moving queue as it fed into the tunnel under the bay.

When they arrived at the location, they were directed into the underground car-park, ending up six levels deep in the cavernous space excavated deep into the earth. A representative from B K Rekhatex Electronics Corporate met them at the lift, taking them up to the ground floor to be booked in by building security. The building appeared to be multi-tenanted, and once cleared by the main desk they were whisked up to the thirty-fifth floor to the main reception for the corporation. Here they met with the chief architect, the manager of the building renovation, and the senior planning manager for BKR.

"Ahh, I see your team is indeed powerful. Very good. Let me show you where we wish for the wards to be situated. Please, follow me!" The architect smiled at them and led them away, while they wondered what he meant. It was only when Kai moved away from the rest of the team to follow their guide that they saw him visibly glowing, power radiating from him in every direction.

"Kai, you're not masking. What are you doing?"

"Yes I am… " he turned and looked, and took an involuntary step back as he saw the huge amounts of power radiating from the group of three. "What are YOU doing?" In vain they tried to re-establish their masking, but it appeared that magic was not behaving normally here.

"I've heard of this – I remember a mage telling me he'd worked in Hong Kong a while back. Sometimes they get wild magic, and things on the astral plane appear on the physical. Or spells sometimes go off far stronger than anticipated, or just don't work at all. I guess we just have to deal with it – but at least our employers can see that we are actually doing stuff!" Aswon followed Kai and started to look around at the top floors of the building. It looked like several levels had been knocked through into one, at least one large atrium, with offices surrounding them all facing in towards a central location, marked with an ornamental pond and a large fountain cascading down a foliage covered jumble of rocks. "This feels very Feng Shui. I bet they put stuff in specific places to try and focus the good luck and prosperity in key areas…"

They didn't have time to spend examining in detail though, as they were directed to the large pile of magical materials that had been provided for their use, and the three representatives showed them on the plans where the wards must cover. It was a large area, and would certainly need most of their strength and skill to achieve, but it was well within the bounds of what they could do.

Putting the wards up was an unusual affair – it was the first time they had ever been able to see the barriers forming, slowly becoming more and more opaque as they inscribed symbols into the pillars and wall elements of the building, painted on signs and laid trails of coloured chalk in conduits under floor panels – but they adapted quickly, and a few hours later a powerful astral ward sprang into being, totally encapsulating the top three floors of the building in a bubble that was as powerful as the ward on their tilt-wing.

The three corporate employees examined their work, appearing more than satisfied with the job and happily arranging for payment of twenty thousand Nuyen via certified credstick to Kai, before they headed back down to the basement car park and out of the city.

By the time they made it back to the academy, evening had fallen. Hunter and Marius were sprawled out in their beds, sleeping soundly and with a few stray grease marks here and there from their extended efforts to get the engines back online. But, with the bird fuelled, engines running again and all the damage from the volcanic ash cloud repaired, the team were once more mobile and ready to resume their mission.