Monday 27/9/60, Location:55.81334, 160.37626, Time 12:25

The water frothed and churned as the dark shape rose, breaking the surface of the water and sending cascades of froth off the smooth sound-absorbing tiles to fall down to the ocean below as the conning tower of the submarine rose smoothly. The hull broached a few moments later, surrounded by a sea of bubbles as the rigger piloting the sub blew the ballast tanks all the way empty, bringing the sub high into the water and exposing the fore and aft deck.

As Marius checked his sensors, he could see the massive cargo doors that had been retrofitted in place of the old missile launch system, and a moment later he could see booms and crane arms being swung out of the exposed tower of the warship, and a large cargo door being swung open to receive or offload cargo.

"New Fish, this is Lieutenant Rakonovich. Be advised we're just about to take fresh delivery of cargo. You're welcome to circle back around and land, see if there's anything you want to pick up?" Marius listened to the message, then replayed it from the buffer through the speakers into the rear compartment.

"They could have anything… guns, ammunition, cyberware, magical goods… slaves, drugs, pornography…" Aswon's nose wrinkled as he got onto the latter items, indicating his thoughts on those as trade materials.

"They could – but we really don't have the operating budget to do anything about it do we?" Kai asked, somewhat rhetorically. "And besides, we don't have a huge amount of time and a lot of distance to cover. Though it is tempting."

"We have no time, no money, and perhaps most important – no space." Marius announced. As he did, he was feeding more power to the engines and starting to rotate the pods into the forward position to draw them away onto their course."

"Meh, you're right. It's bad enough trying to sleep in the back here anyway, without cramming more cargo in. Send our thanks, and tell them we'll be back some time, please, Marius." Kai got a curt response from the pilot and felt the tilt-wing accelerate away from the Battle Barge.

"Hey, before we get too far – do you have any decision on what kind of route you want to fly?"

"What do you mean Hunter?" Kai responded, then turned to look at the monitors in the rear as Hunter bought up the map of the area. The Bering Sea dominated the centre of the map, with the Athabaskan Council lands to the right, covering the area formally known as Alaska, and the Yakut territory to the left, in what had once been Siberia. Their position was shown about one third of the way from left to right, atop a light arc that showed the massive series of shallows, islands and volcanoes making up the Aluetian chain that sat atop the region where the Pacific plate ground against the North American plate as it extended towards the north pole.

"Ok, we're here on the left, just leaving the Battle Barge. Ivan's Bay is our next stop, over here, about thirteen hundred kilometres away. We've got two choices really, but it could make a big difference. We can head on a straight line from here to the Bay, over water. That's a touch over one thousand two hundred kilometres, but we don't fly over land until we hit our destination. The other way is to follow the chain of islands, reefs and volcanos as it follows an arc. It's only an extra hundred clicks. On one hand, although pretty much all these islands show as uninhabited, there could be someone living there, that could take exception to us. On the other, if we run into any kind of trouble, knowing that we're in range to glide to something solid to land on could be really handy."

"Marius – how far CAN we glide?"

"If we were travelling at normal cruising speed and height, perhaps twenty kilometres. Less if the wind is against us, or the weather is poor." As if to underscore his comment, the tilt-wing gave a shudder as another torrent of sleet slammed into it. "That distance is less than the horizon – so if something does happen, unless we can see land, we would crash into the ocean."

"I think we should follow the islands, then. Although there's a chance that we could run into other people, we're much better off against random accidents or encounters with other aircraft."

"Roger that." Hunter updated the course, and a moment later Marius adjusted his heading a few degrees south, heading for the westernmost member of the Rat Islands. They overflew the first island about thirty minutes later, a snow and ice-bound rock forty kilometres long, with no signs of human visitation, let alone presence, before crossing open water once more. About halfway to the next island, Shimazu called out from his position on the sensors.

"I can see a bunch of whales below us, a big bunch of them. Swimming in a loose formation."

"A pod," Aswon corrected. "Let me have a look please?" They quickly passed the headset between them, and Aswon worked to swing the viewpoint around so he could check them over. "Yep, definitely killer whales – typical markings. Oh, oh that's interesting. The one at the front, the bull – it looks to have some kind of powers up. Definitely magically sensitive. I'm guessing a little, but I'm thinking some kind of enhanced senses, maybe some kind of sonar or improved scent. I wonder if it attracted the pod because it's a good hunter, or it developed the powers in response to the position?" He mused for a moment, then continued to observe the creatures as they dwindled into the distance.

They flew on, flying the length of the next Rat Island, more barren chunk of rock with nothing to attract metahumanity to it. Barely visible through the sleet, Marius eased around the high ground to the centre of the island before once more crossing the shoreline and back onto the ocean. It was less than twenty kilometres to the next parcel of land, identified on the map as Amchitka Island, which didn't seem any different, other than being much larger at seventy kilometres long. The westernmost end of the island had some sharp rises to jagged peaks, and once more Marius stuck to the lower ground near the shore, but as they entered the centre section of the island, the terrain flattened out and he eased back towards the centre.

As they crossed a large area of disrupted and shattered landscape, Hunter tensed up in his seat, feeling a little uneasy – while everyone in the back section also did the same. Only Marius seemed unaffected, deep in communion with the machinery via his rigger link. The feeling intensified, and Shimazu called out a warning, pulling the viewing optics off of his head.

"Mana spike ahead! Everyone out of astral and deactivate your powers!"

They did, but it did nothing to curtail the feeling of twisted malevolence that washed over them, making several of them gag and wince. The spirits on guard quivered with a combination of pain and fear, turning to look at Tads and begging her for release. As soon as it had risen though, the feeling started to ebb away, fading to nothing more than a memory.

"Hunter, we've just flown over something nasty…"

"I know, I felt it, too!" His voice was angry, and also had an element of worry to it.

"Really, it must have been strong then?" Aswon said, shaking his head as if to try and shake off the last lingering feelings of astral pollution.

"That's all we need, for your weird magic shit to be rubbing off on us normal people, right, Marius?"

"I did not feel anything. I did see an odd thing on the sensors though. It looked like a small mine head."

"Well, something was down there. Let me log into the matrix and I'll see what I can dig up…"

All was quiet for a few minutes, until Hunter jacked out and told them what he'd found from his quick search.

"Ok, I found some mention of something called the Cannikin Underground Nuclear Test site. Found the information on some ecological damage site, warning people about the dangers of irradiated fish. It claims that the UCAS… sorry, no, before then – the USA carried out the largest underground nuclear test, setting off a bomb four hundred times more powerful than the ones used against Japan, but this time over eighteen hundred metres underground. Caused a magnitude seven earthquake and sent out ripples that hit both shorelines."

"That would explain the fractured landscape we flew over," Marius added.

"And also the very sharp but small spike – we must have flown right over the shaft. Well, let's mark it on the map and make sure we never, ever, fly over that spot again if we can help it."

"Or fly over it deliberately." Tads suggested, causing everyone in the back to look at her as if she'd gone mad. "Think about it… if we're being pursued by someone magically, and we know it's there, and they don't – what kind of effect would that have on someone straining their magical senses to try and keep up with our trail? It's not nice, sure. But if I was trying to evade someone actively pursuing me, then I'm going to use any advantage I can find. Especially if there's a pack of relatively weak enemies following me – where their inexperience is going to affect them much more badly." The looks of horror changed to contemplation – what she said made an awful lot of sense, though it would have to be someone definitely engaged in harmful activity to deliberately thrust themselves through that kind of feeling.

"Well, I've marked it on the map and put some notes on. At least it shouldn't surprise us next time!" Hunter called out, as they flew on, transitioning back over the ocean for the next leg of their flight. They alternated flying over land and water, following the chain of islands as it headed to the east, barren inhospitable spits of land, some of which barely made it above the ocean surface, barely visible through the foul weather.

Nobody but Hunter noticed as they entered Athabaskan Council airspace, flying into the Adak Islands – there was no radar or sensor coverage, no border patrol or customs flights – just more clouds, isolated islands and sleet slicing down to the rough waves below them, setting the tone for the next five hundred and fifty kilometres. Ninety five minutes after flying over the nuke test site they made landfall, closing on Nikolski Island and Ivan's Bay.

"Marius, the runway here is a thousand metres, marked as good for light to medium commercial traffic, though the airspace is uncontrolled. Runway designation is nine and twenty-seven."

"If it is marked as uncontrolled, that means there is no tower or controllers present, and no radio operators on duty. We will have to do a circuit of the airstrip and determine the winds for ourselves, and also check for other traffic. We may have to broadcast to avoid issues with other aircraft." Marius didn't sound thrilled with that idea, and slowed slightly, dropping down to try and get below the current cloud bank that reduced visibility to almost nothing.

Flying in over the bay they saw the small village perched on the shoreline, laid out in three terraces as it rose up the slope from the beach towards higher ground. The runway lay to the north of the houses, stretching off eastward, but there was no sign of any activity – either in the village or on the airstrip. As Marius banked around, his sensors quested outwards, looking for signs of any activity but finding nothing.

"Buckle up. I will come in for a landing on runway two-seven. No other traffic in sight, and there is a turning pad at the western end, nearest the village." They felt the tilt-wing angle downwards and the engine noises lowered slightly as he reduced power, their stomachs rising up slightly as they quickly lost altitude. Marius bought them in for a smooth landing, though, gently touching down despite the strong winds and taking advantage of the tarmac runway to save a little fuel. He let the wind and their momentum push them down the runway, turning off the centre-line as he reached the western end and tucking the tilt-wing as far up and over as he could, in case another craft also landed and needed to turn.

The engines cycled down, the noise receding and being replaced with the howling of the frigid arctic winds as they drove sleet across the landscape at a forty-five-degree angle. Visibility was perhaps fifty metres through the cockpit windows, with only a faint glow showing the direction of the village as the porch lights on each house reflected off the ice and snow.

"So – are we looking to stop for the night here?" Tads asked. "If so, I think I'd much prefer to try and get some lodgings in someone's house than stay here with all the systems powered down."

"Can we afford to wait overnight? We've still got a long way to go!"

"We have, Aswon, I'm not disputing that. But the last proper sleep we had was back in Japan. We've covered a lot of distance since then – dealt with an army of ghosts, up to the oil rig, down into the caves, flown up to the next volcano and dealt with big cats and thunder-bunnies, then turned and headed over to the ghost ship, and flown halfway across the sea. We need to think about sleep."

"I can grab a power-nap while you deal with the locals. I will be ok." Marius called from the front.

"No… she's right. We might not feel it now, but it's going to catch up on us. And look at where we're heading next. Further north for a bit, into more bad weather. And there's at least one of those volcanoes that is way over our flight ceiling I think. That's right, isn't it, Hunter?"

"Yes – Mount Saint Elias. It's over five thousand metres, and the closest place I can see to land is several kilometres away. We're going to have to cover a lot of snow and ice to get close to that one."

"There we go then." Aswon said, as if that statement sealed the deal. "We do not want to be climbing mountains after two or three days of naps and long flights. We'll get ourselves into trouble, and someone will die, regardless of the cold-weather gear we have. That'll just slow the process down and make it drawn out and painful."

"If we're going to do anything at all, I think we should go and deal with this volcano first, and then come back here to sleep for the night. It's not far, is it?" Tads asked.

"No, about twenty-three kilometres, we'll barely get up to altitude. And we should be able to just throw it out of the door at this one, the peak is a touch below two thousand metres."

"I disagree," Aswon interrupted. "If we were going to do it, we should have done so before we landed. I think if there is anyone observing us, it would be very suspicious for us to take off and disappear for twenty minutes, then come back and land again. In a place like this, we're going to stick out like a sore thumb no matter what. We don't need to draw attention to ourselves and make people question what we're doing…"

"Ok, so we need to get into the settlement, find some fuel, and maybe see about overnight accommodation, then?" Kai added, seeming to agree with Aswon. "And in the morning, be up early and head to the volcano before heading further east towards the next stop."

"I can help with that, then. I'll go for a quick astral scout through the area and see what I can find. Will save us wandering about in the cold and wet as much as possible."

"Be careful! A place like this, I bet they have a local shaman, and they will be someone important in the community. Something like this… I would guess it would be like the Wolf Tribe we found on the way to Tashkent." Aswon warned her. Tads nodded, and then made herself comfortable before she sprang her spirit out of her body and darted down to the village, quickly surveying the area and looking for information.

"While we're waiting for her to come back – what do we know about the area?" Kai asked. Looking around the team in turn, he got a bunch of shrugs and blank expressions for his trouble.

"I've never heard of any mercenary groups operating out here. In fact I'm not aware of any merc ops for the Athabaskans at all. They've got some natural resources, but they're all a bitch to get at, and I think the corps are too busy plundering other places first. Otherwise, I've not heard much about this place, other than they were part of the Native American Nations and that they took part in the Great Ghost Dance and kicked the white man out, all those years ago. Expect a strong tribal culture, reverence for the land and nature spirits or totems, and an intolerance for Caucasians."

"Great, somewhere else that I can't show my face!" groused Hunter, with Marius nodding along with him. "Otherwise, I've got a bunch of hearsay from Shadowland – but a lot of it's contradictory. And a bunch from their tourist board that reads like propaganda. Nothing that really disagrees with what Aswon just said though. He was about to add something new, but Tads stirred, stretching her neck out and then unbuckling her seatbelt to stand. He closed his mouth and waved at her, indicating she should make her report.

"Nothing moving in the village at all – didn't see a single soul outside, but given the weather that's not surprising. It's about three hundred metres walk down to the start of the village, with just one house closer than that. Everywhere seems to have a light on the house, but there's no street lights or municipal facilities I could see. All the houses are pretty sturdy looking, with steeply pitched roofs, presumably to shed the snow. But every single house I looked at had a ward. Not a huge one, perhaps only as strong as the spirits I normally call for you all each day. But they all tasted the same, exactly the same – so I guess there is a village shaman, and they either spend a lot of their time warding, or they know some of the same techniques we do and have a lot of warding materials to burn up."

"For how unspoilt the area seems to be, if they're even halfway decent at talismongering, I'm sure they could find and make their own materials." Aswon suggested.

"Yes, very likely. Something to do on the long winter nights, I guess. Every house also had a strange angular rune carved into the lintel over the main doorway. I'm not sure if it's a warning, or part of the ward, but it seems to have the same magical residue or signature as the ward itself. And I got a sense from the wards that the totem is some kind of predator. There was an edge of hunger and fury to it, at least that's how it felt."

"Well, that says to be that we should be on our best behaviour and be frakking polite, as far as I'm concerned. If going into any of the houses around here will let the village shaman know we're invading their turf, we need to make sure we're not seen as a threat."

"Again, not going to disagree, Aswon. But I think I found the main store – it's one of the larger buildings down near the water, and I could see recent tracks nearby, so it looks like it's inhabited or recently used. I'd suggest heading down there first of all."

"Ok everyone – grab your coats and gear up, let's get down there and meet the natives!" Kai exclaimed cheerfully. "Let's all head down, size the place out. We can leave the aircraft locked up right?" Marius nodded grumpily, but grabbed his winter jacket from the pile in the troop bay, and started to sort through the pile of cold-weather gear that was crammed into a box, looking for gloves and a scarf to add over the top.

Once the whole team were geared up, they slid open the door on the port side, bracing themselves for the inevitable assault. Sleet slammed into them and the wind clawed and ripped at them, sending loose ends of scarves, lanyards and drawstrings whipping around frantically. They piled out quickly and sealed the door as soon as the last man was out, Marius activating the anti-theft system and making sure the door locks were engaged and the craft set to alert him if anyone approached. They turned towards the faint yellow glow and started to slog through the slush and ice, down the trail towards the village.

They passed the first large building without incident, but as they moved past the second, the front door opened and a figure appeared in a poncho, flapping angrily as they stepped out onto the front porch. He or she called out to them, in a language none of the team recognised. Tads responded in Nenets, calling out that they were looking for fuel and a place to rest. The figure paused for a moment, then tried again, this time in English.

"Hail strangers. What do you want?"

"We're looking for somewhere to purchase fuel and supplies, and maybe arrange for somewhere to stay for the night!" Kai called out, speaking loudly and using his powers to project his voice to cross the intervening distance without having to shout or raise his voice.

"Go down to the water's edge, and look for the building with the blue roof. They will help you!"

"Thank you!" Kai turned to the rest. "Ok, blue roof… I wonder if that's the same place Tads found?"

Sure enough it was, the larger building down near the rocky beach and breakwater that led out onto the bay. The building was larger than the homes nearby, the roof less steep but covering an area much wider and longer than the houses. It also featured a massive porch at the front, built at a right angle to the doorway, and with a windbreak covering much of the entrance. It gave them some respite from the weather and a chance to shake themselves and get rid of most of the sleet, before Aswon pushed open the door and entered the shop, ducking his head to get through the doorway, while Hunter, Shimazu, Kai, Tads, Vadim and Marius bunched up behind him, trying to leave the door open for as short a time as possible.

Between being jostled by those people behind him, bending low to avoid hitting his head, and the sheet surprise of the situation, Aswon was woefully unprepared when a figure lunged at him from the side, a fast-moving meta-human blur. He barely had time to register what was going on when the ball of the foot hit him on the cheek, and only his super-naturally fast combat reactions let him lean and start to collapse to the other side to rob the blow of much of its impact force. Whoever, or whatever had hit him was also enhanced through – as the foot stopped a hands-width beyond his face and then changed direction, the heel striking him on the other side of the face. He'd started to fall at this point, so the heel only caught him on the nose, but there was a distinct cracking noise as the cartilage gave way, sending spikes of pain through his face. The foot changed direction again, really stretching this time as he continued to fall towards the ground, and with a twist hit him square on the jaw, hastening his downward fall.

As Aswon fell, the blur slowed into the form of a middle-aged woman who raised her hands to her face even as her leg recovered from the barrage of kicks.

"Oh by the gods, I'm so sorry!" The voice was shocked, and the expression matched perfectly as her eyes went rounded and her hands grabbed either side of her face in horror. Shimazu was still acting on impulse, the sword drawing without conscious thought, but at least he managed to halt it's motion a good thirty millimetres short of her chin. As the rest of the team's reactions caught up, there was the clicking and clacking of firearms being taken off safety and pointed at or near the woman. For a moment, nobody moved or said anything, or even blinked.

"Ok, I know I started that. But take that out of my face, please." Her voice was polite and respectful, but also firm and unwavering – and if she was in any way intimidated by the speed of Shimazu's draw and the precision of his placement, it wasn't showing. He moved back, lowered the sword and then returned it to the scabbard with unerring accuracy, assured now that he could draw it again with alacrity if required. The woman turned and looked down at Aswon, ignoring the guns pointed in her direction and extended a hand down towards him. "Again, I'm so sorry. I really thought you were someone else!"

"Really, someone else that looked like me?" His voice was thick and he sounded like he had an awful cold, his nose blocked by blood and fluid from the kick… but he accepted her hand and rolled forwards to his feet. Her grip was firm and strong, displaying some of the power still evident in her body despite her advancing years. "Sorry if I find that a little hard to believe!"

"I know right – what are the odds that two incredibly tall black people would show up in a place like this at the same time. Yet here you are. Look, I really am sorry. Would you like a beer? It's on the house – the least I can do."

"Sure, that would be great." Aswon gently touched his nose and worked it from side to side a little. It hurt like a bugger, and made his eyes water – but the damage was limited, and he was sure Tads could sort him out quickly once they had some privacy. Besides, he was intrigued by the concept of someone else that looked like him, and wanted to know more – and the best way to do that was to forgive the incident, accept her apology and move on. "I take it then that this other person was, to put it bluntly, being a bit of a dick. If you were willing to kick him like that, at least."

"You could say that. Came in with his buddies, wanting all kinds of stuff. Caught him twiddling his fingers and trying to influence me into giving them the bargain of a lifetime, hand over a bunch of stuff for free."

Aswon stopped working at his nose and stared at her, then quickly looked around the store. It was pretty plain, consisting of simple shelves loaded down with bulk supplies for the most part, very little in the way of choice and nearly all basic brands and what people would term 'the essentials'. A store like this probably didn't make much in the way of profit, but would still be essential for the local area.

"Ok, I can understand why you'd be pissed with them. And I can also see how you'd be convinced they were coming back in to have another go. So – black, and as tall as me?"

"Yes, pretty much the same height I think. Hair wasn't as big though, and they were a lot more slender. Hard to see under the coat of course, but the hands were really thin and spindly. Elf-like. Narrow face too, full of smug superiority. Made me feel uncomfortable straight away, think that's what put me on my guard."

While Aswon talked with the woman, Tads leant over and whispered in Shimazu's ear, hoping that Kai would just catch the conversation, too.

"Have you checked her out? Physical adept for sure, got a bunch of powers up. Don't recognise most of them. But when she kicked Aswon, she was definitely doing something to make her go faster…" She saw Shimazu touch the hilt of his sword and his eyes glaze over slightly as he gave her a quick astral once-over, as did Kai, and they both nodded in agreement.

"Anyway, sorry, where are my manners. I'm Ineak Komangapik, and I run the store here. Welcome to Ivan's Bay." Kai stepped forward and glanced over at Aswon, one eyebrow raised just a touch at him in query. Aswon gave a nod and a smile, then stepped back a little, giving Kai the floor.

"Hello there. I'm Kai, and these are my team-mates. Aswon you've already met," he smiled broadly, making sure there was no sting to his words as it seemed clear that Aswon wasn't intending to pursue the issue, "and we have Hunter, Marius, Shimazu, Tads and Vadim."

"Well, I'm sure we can sort something out. First question – does anyone have a problem with dogs?" Ineak looked around, and saw everyone shaking their head, then smiled and headed towards the back of the room, and the only other doorway visible. She opened the door, revealing a stock room or warehouse beyond it, along with a huge wolf that sat on its rear haunches, a small child sitting on the floor between the front legs. It stared at them with intense yellow eyes, and the lips pulled back into a snarl, revealing a row of vicious teeth nearly fifty millimetres long. "Sssi-wusa" she said sharply, holding up a hand to the creature, and the lip dropped down, the snarl retreating, though the intense stare remained. Tads and Shimazu were both still watching in astral space and they saw a flash of power as Ineak gave the command – some ability to communicate, control or influence the beast of some kind. "Now – next question. Other than not being kicked in the face, what do you need?" Kai grinned, and Hunter gave a snigger while casting a glance over at Aswon.

"We're on our way over to the UCAS, and were looking for some fuel, maybe some supplies and perhaps somewhere to spend the night. It's been a long day of travel so far, and our aircraft doesn't have a huge amount of room for sleeping in. Anything you can help with along those lines?" Kai ignored Aswon, not sure if he would be able to keep a straight face either.

"Supplies we can help with. We don't have a wide range, as you can see, but you're welcome to purchase whatever you need. We do have a sat uplink – it's a bit slow, but we can get through to the banking matrix sites, so your cred should be good. Fuel is no problem – assume you're after regular aviation fuel?" Marius nodded to her in agreement, and she gave him a smile and nod of her own. "No problem, then. And accommodation... I think we can do something there. If it's just for one night, it should be fine."

"Excellent. We have Nuyen of course. But we also have some trade goods that we could maybe barter with." He glanced at Tads out of the corner of his eye, watching for the tiny nod of approval. "We can offer you a bunch of fresh fruit, milk, meats, cheeses, pulses, vegetables." Ineak gave him a look of surprise, then her eyes narrowed in suspicion and she glanced around the team, her gaze lingering over Tads and Vadim in particular.

"Natural or magical food?" Now it was Kai's turn to look at her through narrowed eyes. He wondered what had made her ask the question, and if he should consider disguising their source. Aswon's warning about the local shaman rang in the back of his head though, and he decided to play it straight.

"Magical. Our shaman is widely travelled and very competent at making a wide variety of foodstuffs. Why?"

"If it was fresh, I'd want to know how long you'd been in transit with it, and where it was from. Make sure it was fit to consume, fit to sell." She waved a hand around, not gesturing at anything in particular. "Out here, we're pretty isolated. Nearest doc's over two hundred klicks away. That might be a week in a bad storm. You get food poisoning out here, it can kill you."

"Ahh, I see. Yes, that makes sense. Well, all magically created using nothing but the finest chanting and dancing."

"What totem do you follow?" Ineak turned her attention to Tads and Vadim, having clearly identified them from their belongings and appearance.

"I'm an Elk follower, Vadim here follows Wolverine." Tads said. "Can we ask about your shaman? I saw that all of the buildings in the village are protected, presumably by them? May we meet them, to pay our respects?"

"I'm not sure about that. They can be a bit… stand offish. I mean, if you really want to, I can ask them about meeting you here, on neutral turf. Probably not a good idea anywhere else. Polar bear can be a bit territorial you see." Tads nodded, and thought about the huge white bears that they had sometimes seen back in her home village, and the predatory nature of the wards and magical signature suddenly made a lot more sense. "Anyway, let me arrange some things for you." Ineak headed over to the counter and to a phone positioned behind it, then dialled a short number and started to babble away in the local language. A minute later she hung up, dialled another number and had another equally short conversation.

The team looked around the store while they waited, checking over the goods and confirming what they'd thought from the earlier quick glance. Choice was very limited, and a lot of the goods were sold in large bulk boxes or variety packs, and everything was sealed in some way or designed as a long-life product. Prices were understandably much higher than they were used to – but thinking about the difficulty of shipping from either side of the Pacific out to these remote islands didn't seem unjustified.

Hunter headed towards the back door, stopping a few metres away from the threshold and sank to one knee, and looked over towards the wolf, making a little clicking noise in his mouth and holding his hand forward a touch. The snarl returned to the wolf, and a low rumbling growl sounded in the depths of its ribcage. Aswon thought he heard a whispered query asking who was a good puppy, and eased to one side, just in case Hunter was about to do something terminally stupid. Fortunately he was saved by Ineak hanging up the phone and heading over to the doorway. She reached down and picked up the small child, balancing her on a hip, and then gave two short sharp commands to the wolf, one after the other. Again, there was a flash of mana as some kind of power was used briefly, but the change in demeanour drew his attention away from that. As the child was removed from in front of the paws, the wolf seemed to relax a great deal, as if being stood down from 'on guard'. With the second command, the wolf dropped to the ground, then belly crawled forward, tentatively extending the neck and head towards Hunter and sniffing his outstretched hand. After a little sniff and a snort of presumed approval, it wormed its way forward a little more and lay its head on the thin carpet, allowing Hunter to scritch at the top of the head.

"Right, I've sorted out the fuelling, we should be able to get someone up there in about an hour. Hopefully the weather will ease off a little by then. And I've got somewhere for you to stay tonight – it's not grand, and you may have to have a couple of you on a sofa rather than a bed, but it should be warm and dry."

"Will there be a shower?" Hunter asked, his fingers slowly massaging the scalp of the wolf, dense yellow talons gently scratching at the short hair running between the ears.

"Yes, there should be. We'll get some fuel over to get the fire going, and get hot water on the go."

"Luxury. I'll sleep on the floor if need be, as long as I can get a shower…"

"So, these other people… can you tell us anything about them? If only so we can avoid them ourselves or keep an eye out for their rudeness…" Aswon asked.

"They turned up yesterday. Got dropped off by a trash hauler coming from Seattle way. Headed down here to get a bunch of supplies, throwing their certified sticks around and stocking up on gear. All their coats and gear looked pretty new – looked decent enough, but they weren't wearing it naturally. Anyway, they were pretty tooled up – clearly a bunch of runners out hunting for something. Just like you lot really. 'Cept they were a bit ruder and more full of themselves. Then after gearing up and our little…incident… they headed off to the north, towards the mountains."

"Towards the volcanoes out there, the two peaks about twenty-five klicks or so?" Hunter asked.

"Yep. Not sure if they'll make it, of course. I guess I forgot to warn them about the burial sites and how they want to stay clear of those. Probably too busy yelling at their Mesmer to stop trying to mess with my head. So sad." Ineak didn't sound at all sad or repentant, and through none of the team had any idea what the 'burial grounds' entailed, they'd seen enough weird shit by this point to guess that it wasn't likely to be good or helpful.

"I'd just like to point out at this point that we are simple merchants, just travelling salesmen travelling from place to place with interesting things for sale…" Kai said, and to his credit he managed to sound and look sincere.

"Of course you are. Not smugglers or Shadowrunners. Not carrying assault rifles with integrated smartlink deuces. Or weapon foci and a remarkably fast draw. Or having your pilot have more bandwidth on his rigger interface than your average telephone exchange. Riiiight." There was humour in her voice, and she didn't seem offended by Kai's assertion.

"Well, ok. But we ALSO do travelling salesman stuff. Really."

"Never said you didn't. So – are you in the market for some interesting products?"

"That depends what you have I suspect. But I'm sure we're interested in at least seeing it." Kai said quickly, before anyone could stop him. Ineak smiled, and waved for the team to follow her through the door into the back area, where she led them to a sturdy metal locker positioned against the wall. Inside that was a gun safe, accessed with an iris scanner and a keypad barring access. After opening up the safe, Ineak started to work through the contents, letting the team know what she had for sale.

"Ok, I've got three boxes of these gyrojet rounds, great little thing for if you're working near water. And I've got one box of the black tip version, designed with an armour penetrator built in." Aswon's eyes went wide as she pulled out the boxes of miniature rockets, and he coughed into his hand in surprise.

"And er… how much would they be?"

"I can do you the normal rounds for three-fifty a box. The black tips I'd need to ask for six hundred." Aswon nodded, then started to work out some figures in his head, trying to remember the prices he'd last seen that ammo selling for on the black market.

"I've also got some Panther rounds here, if anyone likes the big booms." She held aloft a hefty box of ammo, containing enormous 20mm rounds thicker than Hunter's fingers. "These are a bit pricy, at a grand a box – but if you need to drop a Piasma or something equally big, they get the job done." Several of the other team members started to join Aswon in the wide-eyed category as she waved the explosive ammo around.

"I've got a bunch of these – taser rounds, designed for large targets. Souped-up capacitors, will easily take down a troll or another target that size. Very tasty… I don't have a launcher for these, but you can use the standard size one. These are rechargeable, and about two grand each. Now, let me see… ahh yes, speargun spears. Hardened alloy, for hunting small to medium water targets. Got five boxes of ten, at about five hundred each." She rested the sample box of spears back in the safe, then picked up two boxes of rifle ammo.

"These are interesting, fairly new design. They managed to get some kind of semi-SABOT design working in 5.56mm calibre. Teflon coated, they penetrate body armour much better than normal, while being cheaper than the full-on discarding sabot ammo is. Two hundred and forty per box, if you're interested." She shelved the boxes again, and picked up two larger boxes, over double the length.

"These are for a fifty cal, standard 12.7 by 99mm rounds, but they're the diamondcore penetrator type. Designed for anti-material use, they're good against most APCs and light aircraft, and will punch a hole straight through most bullet-proof glass. Got two boxes of these, a grand each."

She saw the look of interest at the last item on Aswon's face and considered for a moment, then reached in for another box the same size.

"Now these beauties… these I think you'll like. Armour piercing fin stabilising discarding sabot. The very latest designs from Ares Macrotechnology, these things will punch through light armour like tissue paper, and let you threaten small tanks, attack t-birds and even light shipping, when fired from the right gun. Only problem is that quality control is a bitch, and the yield rate is low, so they tend to be pricy. Real pricy, and there's not much I can do about that." She saw Aswon open his mouth hesitantly. "Three grand, and that's the best I can offer. I did have two boxes – but the other team grabbed one of them." Aswon blanched at the price, and then again at the mention of the other team. If they were heading towards the same location, and had a box of this ammo – they had something that could punch straight through the tilt-wing, assuming they could hit it, or take an engine out with no great problems. And with recent events having told them just how complex and expensive their bird was to fix, that wasn't something he wanted to contemplate much. A quick glance at Marius and he saw the same thought process and look of discomfort on his face.

The team got their heads together, looked at their bank balance and agonised – but not for long. Although they were short on cash, the chance to pick up this ammo was too good an opportunity to pass up. It wasn't that it was cheap – if they were authorised military users, they could purchase from a catalogue tomorrow and have it shipped next day! But they weren't authorised users, and finding it on the black market was neither common nor reliable. In the end they purchased the rifle and sniper rifle rounds, and all of the gyro-jet ammunition, despite not owning the weapon they could fire it from…

With their under-the-counter shopping completed, they headed back out into the main store and purchased some regular food and supplies, before Ineak told them their fuel was ready for them. Marius headed back towards the landing strip, to supervise the refuelling. He met up with a taciturn local who seemed willing to communicate in grunts and nods, driving a small but powerful tracked vehicle that was towing a large fuel bowser. The fuelling went without a hitch, topping off their tanks and leaving them ready for the next leg.

The rest of the team headed out with Ineak, locking the door to the shop behind them and leading them up through the village to a house on the second tier back from the beach. After unlocking the front door with a key produced from an inside pocket, she waved them into the still, cold house. The atmosphere inside was far more chilled than the temperature alone should have been responsible for, and they looked around uncertainly, not sure why they were feeling off balance.

"Someone will be along shortly with a sled full of fuel for the fire, and we'll get the place warmed up." Ineak told them.

"Um – this place. It's ok to stay here for the night then? It just…looks furnished?" Kai gestured at the paintings on the wall and family photos on the mantlepiece, trying to subtly ask a question about where they were staying.

"It's…unoccupied. Unexpectedly. Like I said earlier, this can be a dangerous and lonely place, unfortunately. Treat the place with respect and you're very welcome though." Kai studied Ineak for a moment, then nodded, willing to leave it at that. He wasn't sure what unfortunate and probably unpleasant end they previous owner had come to, but she clearly didn't want to discuss it, and that was fine with him.

"Well, thank you, we'll do our best to look after the place. Now, I'm sure Tads won't mind coming back with you to the shop when you return and sorting you out with some food to help pay for this. But, otherwise – what are you after? What do you need here? We will probably be working our way back along this route in the future, when we've dropped off our current cargo. It makes sense to bring things back with us that people want?"

"Well, I have a contact that supplies ammunition, as you've probably already guessed. We have a deal for fuel in place, and we get topped off regularly – the airstrip is a designated emergency landing point, you see." Kai nodded as if he understood exactly what that meant and what the implications were. "Something we're always short on is good medical gear and supplies. Electronics as well – anything with encryption or decryption capabilities is normally frowned on by the government, so they're in short supply too."

"Medical supplies? Well, I'm sure we can arrange some of that. Any particular kind of thing?"

"Stuff for dealing with infections, cuts and slashes, bites and cold-related injuries. I'm sure it's no surprise that we get a lot of those kind of issues out here. The medical clinic over at King Cove is the closest full-time medical centre, and that's nearly five hundred klicks east of here, and the nearest proper hospital is Anchorage and that's fifteen hundred. People have to learn to live with the minor stuff and hope it doesn't go wrong or turn bad, or things can get tricky really quickly." Kai shared a look with Shimazu and the rest of the team, then turned back to Ineak.

"Listen, not messing around here. Both Shimazu and I are doctors – legitimate, trained doctors. We don't have permits for your area of course. But if you've got sick people here, bring them over. We'll get our med supplies from the plane and we'll help anyone we can."

Ineak didn't have to be told twice, and she headed back to the shop with Tads in tow, and started to call around the village, while Shimazu, Kai and Aswon headed back to the plane to grab supplies, leaving Hunter and Vadim to take delivery of the fuel and start getting the house warmed up. When Tads arrived at the shop she found herself some containers, sat in the corner of the room and went to work, creating a harvest of food to supply the locals with. She figured she had a good few hours to work in, and paced herself, taking it steadily and making sure she didn't over-tax her abilities, stopping for ten minutes of meditation anytime she felt a headache forming. Slowly a pile of food accumulated in front of her, until Ineak came to cart it away and put it in storage somewhere.

Back at the house the chill atmosphere was slowly being banished by a roaring fire, fed with peat and moss logs created locally from the scrubby material that covered the ground, and within half an hour the house was warm enough they could take off their coats and outer layers, and Hunter had found the shower and was luxuriating in a stream of hot soapy water. The team heard a knock on the door soon enough, and found a villager who'd been sent to see them, waving an ingrowing and infected toenail at them. Shimazu and Kai went to work, dealing with the injury, treating the wound and injecting some anti-biotics and passing over a small course of tablets to deal with the after-effects before sending them on their way. Barely had they left when another local turned up, this time with an impacted wisdom tooth that was no doubt causing considerable pain and making life miserable.

By the time Hunter had finished his shower and was back downstairs, there was the beginnings of a small queue. He and Aswon set to work trying to triage the villagers, writing down symptoms and observations, and soaking up the local language as they listened to the villagers chatting away, while Shimazu and Kai continued to work through the list of minor injuries and fixing everything they could.

The stream of visitors went well into the evening, but eventually they'd seen most of the village and resolved all of their complaints and lingering issues, earning considerable goodwill along the way. Ineak returned with Tads just before nine in the evening, having run out of storage bottles, boxes and crates, or reached the point where food would be going off or rotting before it could be used, and informed Kai that as far as she was concerned their accommodation was paid for – between the medical services and the food delivery, they were more than happy to treat the team as honoured guests for the night and attend to their needs.

Exhausted from another long day, the team bedded down – even forgoing a normal watch schedule as they felt reasonably secure in the middle of the village behind the ward. It wasn't that the ward was particularly strong, but they were pretty certain that anything that tried to break it would have to deal not only with the team as they woke up – but also an angry Polar-Bear shaman. Between hot showers, a good meal, and warm, comfortable beds, they all slept remarkably well, despite the howling winds that raged outside.

When Tads awoke in the morning, she found Aswon staring at his comms set, then at his phone, then at his computer, checking each in turn.

"What's up Aswon?"

"The date. I'm sure it's wrong. But all of them say the same. Wednesday the 29th. I'm sure it was Monday yesterday. Sure. What's yours say?"

"Wednesday, too."

"Dammit. I must be going mad. I was SURE it was Monday yesterday!"

"You're a pair of dumbasses." Hunter's sleepy voice came from under the blanket on the sofa. "Very noisy dumbasses, too. It's the date line."

Realisation struck Aswon as he thought about where they were, but Tads still looked mystified and Aswon had to pull a pad over and show her on the map, explaining the concept of the International Date line and how it affected timekeeping.

"So, question is, have we lost a day off of the mission time?" Hunter flipped back the corner of the blanket to stare at them for a moment. "'cos that sucks if we have, but better to know now, right?"

"I don't think so, Hunter." Aswon racked his brain, thinking back to the meeting in the park. "I'm pretty sure the phrasing was 'one moon' to do the job in. Regardless of the date, and where we are in terms of the numbers we assign to each day, crossing the date line won't affect the phase of the moon, and how far through the lunar cycle we are. At least I don't think so. But – it's probably wise to ACT like we've got one day less than we have!"

"Great." The blanket was flipped back over Hunter's face, hiding his mismatched and asymmetrical features once more, but not cutting out the quiet grumbling as he complained about magic, dragons, moons, 'myfic nonsense' and a variety of other ills and complaints. Aswon and Tads headed out of the room to find somewhere quiet to chat, leaving him to it.

By eight in the morning they were all up and had coffee and breakfast inside them. Aswon insisted on leading a session of stretching and gentle exercises for everyone, refusing to change the subject until they'd all been brow-beaten into acquiescence.

"You'll thank me later! You've all slept well and relaxed for the first time in too long, in a nice warm house. Now we're going back out into the cold, traipsing up and down mountains and sitting in those jump seats for hours at a time. If you don't stretch off, you're going to get cramps like you wouldn't believe!" he warned them. Grudgingly the team joined in, working up a bit of a sweat in the warm living room of the house, the fire still smouldering away with the remains of the previous night's fuel rendered down to ash.

When they were done they cleaned the house, returning it to the state they'd found it – they'd made a good impression on the locals they felt, and didn't want to ruin that by leaving their rooms in a state. Who knew when they'd want to be back here, and make sure of the place again? When the cleaning was complete, they grabbed their gear and headed down to the shop, wandering through the misty morning and the spooky quiet. The weather had broken sometime overnight, but the air was still laden with moisture, and a thick bank of fog or mist lay over the village, rolling in from the bay, deadening sound and making it look like a scene from a horror trid.

Ineak was down at the store, serving a customer and gave them a smile and wave as she finished up, them heading over to see them. Kai exchanged pleasantries with her, thanking her for their rooms and making sure he swapped contact details with her to make future deals somewhat easier to arrange, before letting her know that the team were heading back to their aircraft and away.

Leaving the store, they headed north along the breakwater, following the edge of the bay to the edge of the houses. The very last house had a large fence around it, decorated with skulls and bones tied together and hanging from the upright poles – and inside the fence, standing on the porch was a large man who glowered at them from under his eyebrows. He wore a huge white fur cloak clasped around his shoulders, and stood next to him, almost shoulder-tall was a massive polar bear, watching them with gimlet black eyes. As they passed his house, he gave them a curt nod.

Kai stopped, and then gave him a slow and respectful bow, as did Shimazu, Vadim, Tads and Aswon. Hunter and Marius returned his nod, but that was as far as they went. Neither side said anything, and after a moment, Kai turned and continued to lead the team back towards the tilt-wing. It took a few minutes when they were back to get systems warmed up and the ice broken off the control surfaces, but by the time they were ready to fly, all of their gear had been repacked and stashed away securely, and the crew were strapped in and ready to go.

The mist was starting to fade away as the pale sunlight tried to pierce the clouds, and visibility rose slightly, giving them a good view of the barren rolling landscape as Marius lifted off, gently swinging the nose north and applying more power. They couldn't see the volcano yet – the air wasn't that clear, but they could see a few hundred metres now, not that there was much to pay attention to. The undulating terrain swapped between crests of bare rock, frozen bogs and low fields of moss and peat, breaking away in serried ranks that led to the horizon. As Marius gained altitude, the mosaic fell away beneath them, blending into a blurry mass with few if any defining features.

The journey to the volcano took less than five minutes, the huge bulk of the cone emerging from the grey fog bank ahead of them. As they closed to a couple of kilometres away, Marius got a ping on his sensor pod, just as Shimazu called out an alarm. For a moment his radar picked up a large motorised sled of some kind, with perhaps four of five metahumans riding it – but then the contact wavered and disappeared.

"Contact, dead ahead. We've got an invisibility spell and some kind of spirit with concealment on a target, heading up our mountain. I think they've spotted us…" Shimazu's voice faded away into silence as he squinted, trying to make out the details in the distance. "Yes, they've definitely spotted us! Inbound spirits, moving to attack, one nature spirit and a couple of earth elementals! Evasive action, Marius!"

The tilt wing heeled over to starboard as Marius swung away from the group of Shadowrunners on the mountain, and Marius got another quick contact as whoever they were down there activated their rigger network and launched some drones before they too were concealed behind magical defences.