Saturday 9/10/2060, Location:47.96859, -122.19593, Time 08:00

Shimazu slid through the opening first, ducking down low and using his left hand to crawl forwards whilst his right stayed on the hilt of his sword, with Aswon close behind him. He emerged into a small ward, looking around swiftly to spot for anyone who might spot them – metahuman or camera.

"Four cameras, one in each corner – no way to avoid their view."

"Let's just hope the rigger isn't paying attention at the moment and spots the door open – the invisibility should keep us safe from direct recording, but watch out for touching or bumping into things." Aswon warned.

Once they were all in the room they stood still, listening carefully and letting their eyes scan around the room for information. The room was about eight metres to a side, with a door on the opposite wall in the centre, and a wide door in the wall adjacent to them – presumably leading further into the facility. The ward was lit by soft diffuse light, a warm glow from daylight bulbs rather than a harsh white fluorescent strip. The walls were a muted colour, somewhere between brown and red – but rather than being an institutional pastel colour, it seemed to be a richer earth tone that felt warm and comforting. Four large beds were spaced out around the room, hydraulic jacks clustered underneath ready to change the shape and height to fit the patients' requirements and with fold up sections on the side to prevent anyone falling or hurting themselves. A complex-looking bio-monitor was built into the wall over each bed, with a set of neatly coiled leads and sensors ready to attach and start gathering information, while oxygen masks stood ready in a sealed plastic wrap, hooks for drug dispensers, fold-out arms to suspend medical equipment or perhaps provide anchor points for suspending limbs in a certain position.

It smelt of cleaning products, but only faintly – otherwise there was a tang of wet forest, a rich vibrant scent that made them think of growing plants and well-being. The sculpted walls swept down to meet the floor in an easy to sterilise shape that prevented anything accumulating in corners or crevices, and the room was warm – enough that they were starting to sweat slightly in their outdoor clothing. Presumably someone lying in bed with little movement would find the temperature ideal…

Aswon silently padded over to the door opposite to their entrance point and saw that there was a sight glass panel built in, with a tiny sliver of the surface that was not covered with the reflective film that had been applied. He carefully peered through the gap, moving his head from side to side as he surveyed the room beyond, catching sight of the two nurses that sat in their station. One was busy working on a terminal, updating some kind of inventory or tracking system, while the other was slowly pressing down the plunger on a cafetiere, a pair of cups waiting by the side.

He gestured at the others, showing two targets with no threat, then wandered over to the other door and listening for a moment. Glancing back he saw that neither of them had moved, then mentally slapped his own forehead.

"Two nurses, both busy." Of course they hadn't seen his gesture – they were all covered under their own invisibility spell, and they couldn't see each other. He and Shimazu could spot the others by dropping into the astral realm and looking for the glow of the spell, but that didn't reveal much detail really – so he'd have to rely on vocal comms mostly for information and movement. He was about to ease the door open when he saw the print on the wall showing the fire plan for the clinic, detailing the fire exits and evacuation routes, along with the zones for the alarm system. With a smile he called the other two over to examine it, while he eased the door open to check out the corridor. They were halfway along a three-metre-wide corridor, lit in a harsher and brighter white light, but with the same sculpted easy-clean design, stretching off to his left and right. There was a cleaner to his right, to the north of the building, supervising a cleaning robot as it worked on the floor, occasionally checking on a wrist-mounted pad that presumably showed the status of other bots around the facility. There was no sign of the two cleaners that had been in the ward a minute ago, so he eased the door closed and turned to the others.

"Nobody nearby, corridor doesn't look monitored. Nearest person a good fifteen metres away, operating machinery. As long as we're quiet, we should be ok." He vocalised, knowing the throat pickup would amplify the faint sounds and movements he made and transmit them to the others. "Let's have a look at the plan then, shall we?"

At the front of the building, Kai opened the door, then entered, pausing just inside, and looking around in a nervous fashion. He turned, almost walking back out, then turned again and walked back in, this time further into the room.

"Can I help you sir?" The clerical staff called out from behind her screen, watching the strange man as he paced back and forth as if trying to make some big decision. "Are you ok?"

"Ok? Well, I guess I'm ok, mostly ok. The other guys? Well, we'll have to see. Um. Sorry – hello. I think we need some help. But. Well. There's a problem, you see. I'm sure you understand." He headed over closer to the front desk, then turned on a smile, letting the nervousness fade from his body and radiating confidence for a moment. He let it fade, returning to his previous state and muttering under his breath. "Well, it doesn't look bad. I mean, it'll have to do, right?"

"What is it that we can help you with, sir? Are you injured?"

"Hmm? No, not really. But my friends – they weren't so lucky. But, you see – the thing is, they're on the trid. Well, not now, obviously. But they're famous, you see – and we can't have any bad press. Not now. But they are hurt. Oh, what am I going to do? They need treatment, I'm sure. But we can't have the cameras and the press around. That'll cause no end of trouble."

"Well sir, we take our patients confidentiality very seriously – we certainly wouldn't let anyone come in and bother them. And I'm sure none of the medical staff would care – they just want to help people and make them better." Kai nodded along, letting his relief show, while his inner monologue sarcastically pointed out to himself that she'd carefully mentioned only the medical staff and not the clerical staff, in terms of gossiping. But, he let his body language warm, as if he was reassured by her words.

"Oh, that is good. Um. Right – I mean, we're travelling to the city, obviously, so we're not signed up with you. Do you have some terms and conditions and things I can read? Just to check on the disclosure and things?"

"Of course, sir. Here." She helpfully started to slide a slender tablet under the security screen, then paused. "Is your eyesight ok, sir?" Kai nodded, and saw her hit the power button, then shrink the font size of the screen, roughly halving it and allowing more than five words per line of "accessible" text be displayed. By the looks of things Aswon was correct in that they handled a lot of senior citizens… He took the pad with a smile and a nod. "I don't know if it will help, but given the average patient we have here, unless your friends are stars in a daytime soap opera, I'm not sure they'll be recognised!"

"I'll just go and sit and read, if that's ok. And I'm sure it is, then we can see about getting the guys to come in?" Now it was the turn of the staff member to nod and smile, and she watched for a moment while Kai headed to the corner of the reception room and take a seat then start to pour over the terms and conditions for the clinic. While he mimed reading the terms and conditions for treatment, he scanned around the room. Two doors to his left led into small consultation rooms according to the sign, ahead of him was the reception desk and clerical area, and just to the right of that was a door marked up as the toilet, and on the right were two doors – both double swing doors. One appeared to lead into the main part of the building, while the other was marked as the trauma unit – presumably handy so ambulances of walking wounded could get straight in at times of need.

"In position in the reception area, ready to cover your exit as needed." He vocalised, listening as the others made a clicking sound with their throat to acknowledge his message.

Back in the ward, Shimazu announced that he would stand watch and cover their escape route or deal with anyone that came to examine the doorway for tampering, while Aswon and Marius checked out the hospital. They nodded in agreement, and slowly and carefully made their way out into the main corridor, moving along a few metres to the ground floor store-room – helpfully the facility had standardised name plates on all of the doors, identifying what they were. Marius crouched down by the lock on the door and gave it a thorough examination while Aswon stood by his side, scanning up and down the corridor and looking for anyone that might spot them.

"Ach – this is a quality lock. Quite advanced, with a mag-reader as the primary mechanism, tied to a palm scanner. But there is also a microphone pickup, indicating possibly a tertiary access mechanism. I would also expect some kind of anti-tamper system on the lock casing. This will be a difficult lock to bypass, and there is significant risk of alerting the rigger."

"Marius – my bet is that there's a vocal over-ride. For use in true medical emergencies. I've seen them in a hospital before. Staff can call out an override code, and gain instant access – but it alerts the security and logs the incident. They use them when they need something like a defibrillator or some adrenaline and time is critical, then sign off on the access once the patient is stable." Kai murmured. "So it's possible we could record a doctor or nurse, or stage a time critical issue to gain access."

"Noted. I do not like this position. We are very exposed in the corridor – as much to random contact from someone that has not seen through the spell as deliberate action."

"Let's head upstairs then," Aswon suggested. "According to the fire plan there's another store room up there, but it's right in the south west corner of the building, at the end of a corridor. Much less chance of being run over."

"Agreed." Marius stood carefully, then headed south, walking past the access door into the reception room and the IT room – which if he had his bearings and position right was the only room over here that was actually warded. He gave the door a wide berth, not sure how the spell that was cast on him might interact with the ward and not wanting to risk it setting off an alarm. A few metres beyond the IT door was the entrance to a lift up to the second floor, and opposite a steep ramp that rose up to a switchback.

"Up the ramp?"

"Nein. I think it will be for the gurneys to use, so there is likely to be an induction loop buried in the floor to provide power. It would also sense your weight, and is likely to set off an alarm if it does not detect an authorised gurney in transit." They turned, heading past another nurses station and found the stairs, just opposite the rear entrance to the trauma wing. Through the one-way glass they could see through the door into the reception area, where Kai sat reading. They ignored him for now though, climbing up the stairs and emerging onto the second floor next to one of the operating rooms. Two cleaners could be seen inside, working around the room with some cleaning drones, directing steam blasts to sanitise the space and prepare it for the day's surgery. They turned away, moving past the upstairs nursing station and headed into the corner of the building and the second store room. As they headed that way they saw the top of the ramp from the ground floor, next to a waiting area and small café, where a middle aged woman was cleaning out the coffee machines and preparing the stall for the day's sales. Aswon smiled at the gurgling of the machines as they bought water to the boil – the noise would help cover their activities.

Marius set to work on the lock, crouching down on the floor and pulling out his toolkit, then gently undoing the screws from the casing and sliding a little probe in through the millimetre wide gap, then questing around until he found the pop out arms that would detect the case being removed. He gently positioned two blocks on either side of the case, held to the wall with tiny suction cups and extended the plungers from them, ready to fire in as he removed the case and simulate its presence, stopping the internal sensors from detecting anything. Holding his breath, he delicately worked the case loose, letting out a small sigh of relief as his blocks took the pressure of the anti-tamper switches without letting them activate.

Now the case was off, he had access to the electronics inside, which looked to be fairly modern and complex. He spent a few seconds familiarising himself with the layout of the circuit board, then pulled out his tiny microtronics jumper cables and started to bridge components together – rerouting power to bypass the maglock swipe reader and the palm scanner, sending the 'ok' signal to the processor but still re-routing the output to the rigger system and dumping it to ground. With a clunk, they heard the magnetic bolt on the door disengage and the fire door swung open slightly, allowing him to carefully open it once he was sure the coast was clear. With his other hand, he grabbed the casing and delicately balanced it over the top of the lock, making it look from a distance like the case was in place. It wouldn't hold up to scrutiny from any close examination, but it should make it less obvious.

Both of them slid into the room and eased the door back, moving quietly and slowly as they checked for any more sensors or surprises. Inside the room was packed from floor to ceiling with stock, covering all three walls in a large U-shape. Shelves were labelled with arcane abbreviations indicating different dressings, drugs, equipment or supplies of every imaginable shape and size. They even spotted in a rare bit of uncluttered shelf two metallic hip joints in vacuum bags – presumably ordered in for a patient. Marius hefted one, checking the weight and nodding as his thoughts were confirmed – made of a titanium alloy. Very light, but very strong – and horribly expensive. Someone was clearly well insured…

"Ok, we've got good news, bad news and then more good news," Aswon said quietly. "Good news is that we're in the store-room, Marius aced the lock. Bad news is that while there's a shit load of stock in here, all of it appears to be tagged." He leant in and carefully picked up a bottle of medicine and scraped at the small RFID sticker that had been applied. "Ok, two bits of good news. First one is that there's no surveillance in here that I can see. Second one is that the tags aren't that sticky, and we can peel them off. Question is, what do we take – there's way more stuff here than we could carry if we had everyone!"

"Start at one corner, or one end, and describe to us what you can see, briefly. Give us trade names if you spot them. Shimazu and I can tell you to grab a couple, go nuts or skip, based on what we know." Kai said, hunkering down in his seat and continuing to read the hospital paperwork, making sure the receptionist couldn't see his lips moving as he tried to transmit as subtly as possible.

Marius and Aswon slipped off their backpacks, and took one side each, Aswon working with Kai and Marius with Shimazu, working their way methodically through the room and trying to load up on a combination of goods that were both small, high value and hard to locate to maximise the reward from their raid. It proved to be quite easy to fill their bags to capacity, neatly stacking the boxes of drugs, laser scalpels, wound kits, dressings, nanite cleansers and other gear inside their rucksacks and then sealing them tightly as they slid them onto their backs. The collection of RFID tags were hidden on additional products, stashed underneath the top layer of accessible goods.

Getting out proved to be as little trouble as getting in for Marius, and Aswon watched out of the corner of his eye, marvelling at the co-ordination required for the delicate electronic work. Two minutes later, the jumpers were removed, and Marius was sliding the case back on, disengaging his bypass blocks and trapping the anti-tamper switches back into position.

"Something I noticed while I was working on the logic board. The firmware on the system was dated only three weeks ago. Whoever the rigger is that runs this hospital, they appear to be very keen on their system, and are taking great steps to keep it up to date. We really do not want to set off any alarms here."

"That seems… keen?" Aswon commented.

"Ja. It is one of those jobs that is very easy to let fall by the wayside, to always deal with something more pressing. But it indicates an attention to detail that is commendable. It is almost a shame to make them suffer."

"I think I know what you mean. They've done everything right, but their system isn't designed to defend against this kind of attack – and they're probably going to take the blame for it. Sometimes the world sucks." Aswon hefted his rucksack on his back, making it jostle slightly. "But for today – not for us. Or a couple of hundred homeless people that could never afford treatment for basic illness and issues that's affecting their lives. So it's not all bad!" Marius turned and looked at him and then shrugged, before nodding and leading the way back towards the stairwell, pausing at the corners to check if anyone was coming down the corridors.

Downstairs, Kai heard the crying a few moments before the door was pushed open, an upset mother urging an even more upset young boy into the room. His sobs were punctuated by a distressing whine that seemed to pitch shift on the inbreath, keeping up a relentless droning noise that cut right though him like a bandsaw. Glancing over he could see the source of the distress quite easily – the boy's arm bent mid-forearm at a sharp angle, his coat pushed up on the top where both the radius and ulna had snapped, pivoting upwards and probably protruding through the flesh. He twitched, his natural instinct to go and help, to provide some kind of assistance to the young boy, and he had to take a few breaths, reminding himself not to draw attention to himself – or at least not the wrong kind of attention.

The couple had only made it a few steps across the reception area when the clerical staff hit an alarm bell, and called out over her intercom. Her amplified voice could be heard through double doors leading to the trauma wing, echoing from multiple speakers.

"Duty nurse to reception please, doctor to trauma. Doctor to trauma, code 7. Thank you." A moment later the door swung open, and a nurse stepped out, looking at the small child and making a face that showed what she thought of the injury. She took two steps over to intercept the mother.

"You go to reception and get booked in, and I'll take young…?"

"Billy."

"I'll take young Billy through here, and get him started. Just come through the doors when you're ready." She transferred her gaze down to the young child. "Hello there, Billy." Her voice had softened and she squatted down to bring her face down to his level. "That looks like it stings a bit. I bet you were playing Captain Planet or something, right. Why don't you come with me, and I'll introduce you to something we called chocolate-flavoured internox. It's really yummy, and it'll take your mind RIGHT off your arm, and we can have a look at making it better. Come on." She carefully guided him towards the doors, leading him into the trauma room and making sure his arm stayed well clear of knocking into anything, while the mother continued to the reception desk and started to fill in the admission forms.

Marius and Aswon were just coming out of the stairwell when they had to pause as a young man in scrubs barrelled through the door to their left, heading into the trauma room. They saw him turn and hip-check the doors, keeping his gloved hands clear of the push plates, the doors swinging open wide from the force and revealing the emergency treatment room stuffed full of equipment and supplies.

"I'm going to see if I can sneak in there."

"I will watch the corridor then, Aswon." Marius moved back to the corner next to the stairs, pressing himself up against the wall to minimise the space he was taking up, and started to scan the corridors, watching and listening for any more people, while Aswon moved towards the doors and very gently pushed one side open just enough that he could look through the gap in the middle. He spotted the nurse ushering the young boy in, the angle of the arm and saw the doctor reaching for some equipment and swabs to start treatment. He let his eyes flicker around the room, seeing more of the same kind of equipment as they'd already stolen from upstairs, along with a few machines – maybe a portable x-ray machine, some kind of imaging scanner, other devices he could only guess at the function of. Whatever they were, they looked expensive though…

While the nurse was helping Billy taking in big deep breaths of nitrous oxide, and the doctor started to gently cut away at the coat and layers of clothing around the arm, Aswon pushed the door open, slowly and carefully, moving in a controlled and steady fashion. He didn't want any sudden movements that might draw the eye or make the hinges squeak, or to hit anything on the far side. It took time, but when the door was open wide enough he slipped through, cursing mentally as he heard the rucksack on his back sliding against the door edge – he'd forgotten to allow a little extra space for it. The staff seemed far too busy to notice though, attending to the child whose wails were dissipating as the pain faded while his serotonin levels spiked.

"I've got a bunch of portable machines in here. One says x-ray, one says ultrasound, there's others with names too – but they're turned away from me. Look like the same kind of thing though. Worth grabbing?"

"Yes, they tend to be pretty pricy and hard to get hold of – capital equipment like that is harder to get on the street than the drugs or wound packs. Grab whatever you think you can get away with, Aswon." Kai murmured, glancing over the top of his pad at the mother and the receptionist, both of whom were still busy.

Aswon grabbed the closest machine, the 'MediMon XT39-T Ultrasound imager' a large boxlike affair resting on top of a trolley, with an arm rising from one corner to some kind of emitter or diagnostic head about thirty centimetres above the imaging plate. He looked at it, and realised that it was going to need at least partial disassembly before it could be stowed away at all, and that would just look weird – as would picking it up and carrying it. He had enough experience with Tads' spells by now to know that though he was currently invisible, the spell bending light around his form and just showing the detail on the far side of his body to any observer, if he picked up the device, it would not be covered – only the things he'd been holding at the time were affected. And he was pretty sure that seeing an ultrasound imager just floating through the air would likely cause some kinds of alarm to the nurse and doctor. He gently pushed on the trolley, rolling it a few centimetres towards the door, listening for squeaks and other noises.

It rolled reassuringly quietly though, and he watched the staff carefully, giving the trolley another nudge. He was less concerned about the child – if he started talking about moving equipment and poltergeists, they'd just assumed he'd had enough pain relief and crack on with the treatment he was pretty sure. He shoved the trolley again, gently rolling it a little closer to the door, then took a step to follow it. Slowly and carefully he moved to the doorway, manipulating the device ahead of him but never so fast that it caught their eye. Waiting until they were lining up the broken arm in the x-ray machine, and thanking luck that he hadn't tried to grab that one, he eased the door open and pushed the trolley out, then let the door gently close behind him, before picking up the pace and heading back towards the first room they'd entered.

Once back there they worked on getting the device collapsed and stowed away into the travel configuration, folding it down to something they could conceivably fit into a rucksack.

"There's a lot of grunting going on, you ok in there?" They paused, hearing the smirk on Hunter's face as he spoke, and knowing that he was just waiting to make some kind of crude inuendo.

"We're struggling to get this thing packed away. It's like a puzzle device and doesn't want to stay collapsed. Bits keep popping out."

"That's not what it sounds like from here." Aswon was about to give a snarky reply, but Hunter continued speaking. "I take it you've checked that for RFID tags as well?"

They all paused, realising they hadn't done that at all. Swiftly they turned the imager over, checking the under-side and the openable sections until they found the tag. This one was less flimsy, a metallic strip that was strongly bonded to the case – but not strong enough to cope with being peeled off by a quick swipe with a survival knife. Aswon peeled it off his fingers and stuck it to the underside of one of the beds, figuring it would take a little while to track down and identify, before returning to help Shimazu and Marius fold the device down and stash it in Shimazu's bag.

"Ok, we've got three bags full of gear. Ready to leave, Kai."

"Get to the door leading to reception, and I'll get that open." Kai sounded confident, so the three of them eased out of the ward, heading back down the corridor and around the corner, past the stairs and the next room, containing two of the security guards working on their paperwork. A moment later the door opened, pulling away from them and into reception, letting them slowly walk out into the room. On the other side of the door, Kai looked through into the corridor then turned back to the receptionist and looked puzzled.

"This isn't the toilet. I was looking for the toilet?"

"It's the door straight ahead of you. Are you sure you're alright?" Kai turned a few degrees to his left to the door which was quite clearly marked as the toilet with clear illustrations and the words written in English, Japanese and Spanish. A quick flick into astral showed him that all three of his team were clear, and he let go of the door into the hospital and then pushed into the toilets, letting the door swing shut behind him. Aswon, Shimazu and Marius headed towards the front doors, then waited patiently at the side. A few moments later, Kai came out of the toilets with some tissue paper, blowing his nose noisily and then dropping the crumpled paper into the bin and heading over to stand under the sensor for the front doors, before he turned and called to the receptionist.

"Ok, thanks, I'm going to go speak to the artists and tell them I found a clinic that will treat them. Back soon!" Again a quick glance into the astral showed him all three of the team had made it through the door while his body was triggering the sensor, and he followed them out, heading south to the corner of the building and then turning east to go find Hunter and Tads. As each of them circled around the earth bank and bushes growing on the half-developed lot they were waiting at, Tads let the invisibility spell drop, having them 'emerge' from behind the obstacle. When they were all visible again, the team set off to the east, walking at a brisk pace. Heading down 39th Street they cut through an alleyway, towards the 'Funko Field' sports centre and athletics stadium, looking to work around the paths surrounding the site. Kai dropped back a little, telling the group that he was going to watch for tails.

The rest of the group headed into the car park and stopped at a small stand of trees, then pulled out the contents of the rucksacks, one by one, going through all the goods and doing a double check for tags or any other electronic tracers, making sure they hadn't missed anything that was going to give them away – or worse, lead the authorities back to the church and land April in hot water. They were about half-way through when the comms clicked on.

"Um – just had a pickup truck slam on the brakes and through a sharp turn, looks like it's coming my way." They waited a second, then Kai broadcast again. "Yeah, definitely heading my way. Two orks, big guys, not as big as Hunter, though. Just pulled over and got out, extendable batons, chasing." They heard the weird breathy rasping over the comms as Kai broke into a run, trying to talk at the same time. Hunter, Aswon and Shimazu immediately broke into a run, heading back the way they had come, leaving Marius and Tads to guard the stash.

Kai ran down the road, the two orks in hot pursuit. He could hear their work-boots thudding onto the pavement as they closed on him, slowly eating up the distance – he'd probably surprised them a little with his turn of speed, or they'd have driven past him before they jumped out. As he ran past the last house on the street he saw Aswon round the corner marginally before Shimazu, extendable staff out in one hand, his long legs eating up the distance as he sprinted at a ferocious rate towards his boss. Shimazu was a stride behind him, sword held in a reverse grip, the blade swinging through the air as he, too, sprinted around the road. Hunter was a good few metres behind by this point, but no less threatening-looking – while Aswon and Shimazu resembled destroyers slicing through the water, Hunter looked more like a battleship, slower perhaps – but no less fearsome.

He heard the two orks skid to a halt as the odds changed abruptly. No more was it one helpless-looking tourist wandering down a quiet road, now they were outnumbered two-to-one, and three of the four were armed, and with weapons more dangerous than a night-stick. The muggers were not the brightest of sparks, but they knew trouble when they saw it, and they abruptly changed course, running back to their truck as quickly as they could. The team slowed as they reached Kai, letting them go. It was unlikely there was anything to gain from stopping them, and there was plenty of opportunity to get into trouble.

Keeping an eye out in case the orks had just decided to go and get reinforcements, they headed back to the others, repacked the gear and continued to move onwards, heading back towards the I-5 and making their way through a culvert underneath the road that bought them out near the Church.

Once back at the Church, they headed over to the room April had turned into her surgery, knocking on the door and waiting for her to answer it. When she saw Kai, she sighed at him.

"What have you broken now?"

"Nothing. We've got good news. Can we come in?" April sighed again, then stepped back out of the way, letting the team into her room and looking at them suspiciously as they swung down their rucksacks. "Thanks – we've been out doing some shopping, and we found some things….under a bush. Just laying by the side of the road. We don't know what they are, or where they came from, but they looked like they might be useful, so we thought we'd bring them to you." Kai made a gesture, and the team started to unpack the bags, stacking up the boxes of supplies and drugs on the worktop, trying to lay them out neatly in groups of related products. April's face was a bizarre mix of suspicion and wonder – she clearly didn't believe Kai, but quickly realised he was trying to give her an 'out' – even if she was questioned magically, she could respond with 'the truth' as she knew it, and not give herself away at all.

"You folks know I can't pay for this stuff, right? I got like… no money."

"We know, and don't worry about it. It's fine. Look, you looked after us and helped us out – and more importantly you look after all these people here too. And now you can do it a little better. So, Happy Holidays."

April moved over and started looking through the boxes, sorting them into different piles and checking over the contents of some, just shoving others to one side. She seemed particularly impressed with the imaging machine, and moved that over to a table and gave it a quick once-over, before crossing to the door and looking out into the corridor. She must have seen someone she knew, as she called out to them.

"Grimmy! I need a hand. Find me Fiona, the little girl with the cataract, old Jimmy, Nelson and Manuel. Tell them I want to see them for surgery – I got some supplies in!" Closing the door, she turned to face them and gave them a big smile. "Thanks folks. Gonna make a lot of people well with this stuff. We all appreciate it."

"Would you like some assistance? It sounds like you have a couple of procedures lined up. Both myself and Shimazu are pretty reasonable technicians...?"

"Sure, scrub up and let's see what you're made of!"

"I'll stay and help as well. I should be able to assist with their recovery." Tads said, moving to go wash her hands as well.

The rest of the team headed out, leaving Kai and Shimazu to assist with the surgery as soon as the first patient turned up. Hunter, Marius and Aswon headed back to the tilt-wing and started to pack up their gear, and sort through their cargo area, looking to make sure all the equipment was secure and strapped down well, unlikely to shift during flight or combat manoeuvres.

A few hours later they'd finished packing – or rather re-packing - the tilt-wing, and the team had returned from surgery. Kai and Shimazu knew they were no slouches with battlefield medicine, but it was clear to them that April was ahead of them both in theoretical knowledge and practical application, and they both wondered what DocWagon must have done to alienate her so much that she'd not only left their employ, but also absconded with a bunch of their equipment. On the other hand, April had been thoroughly impressed with how well Tads had integrated herself into the surgery, and the huge impact it had on the recover time for her patients – just as clearly whatever team she'd on hadn't had magical support, and it had been an eye-opener for her.

As they settled down for some lunch, Tads looked around and then called out to the team.

"Hey? Where's Vadim?" Nobody answered, and she waited a few seconds, then a look of vague concern swept over her face. "Has nobody seen him? When was the last time anyone saw him then?"

"I think when we got up first thing," Aswon said. "Wasn't he heading off with that local Shaman?"

"Fang?"

"Yes, that's her. I think I saw them getting in a car to head off somewhere."

"Oh… well he should be ok with her. Hmm."

"Speaking of cars," Shimazu said around a mouthful of sandwich, "I'm going to borrow one of their vehicles and head down to the tailors to pick up our suits. Going to need some cash. Or for you to come with me, Kai."

"I'll come with. Tads, do you know what… oh, she's gone." Kai looked over at the slumped form of the shaman, then leant over and rescued a half-eaten sandwich from her slack fingers before it dropped onto the deck. "Come on, let's grab a bit of food to take with us. The way traffic runs in the city, we might be lucky to make it back by dark, and I'm guessing Marius wants to take off soon after dusk and make the most of the night." Marius nodded in agreement as he chewed on a mouthful of food. Shimazu and Kai loaded up with some nibbles, then headed off to go get the keycard for one of the runner vehicles that seemed to be used as general pool rentals for running about.

About ten minutes later, a figure entered the hanger and walked over to the tilt-wing, calling out to get their attention. When Aswon looked over he recognised Maisie, the Amerindian that helped run the training centre just down the road from the church that they'd been making use of. He put down his plate and jumped down from the body of the aircraft and strolled over to her.

"Hello Maisie. I am Aswon."

"Yes, I know. Listen – you know I've been helping you with the language and signing and stuff, and you said you were happy to pay, and I said maybe a favour?"

"Yes. Do you have something you need assistance with."

"Well, I was thinking. You've been asking a lot of questions about Sioux culture, and travel, and lifestyle and such like. Seems to me you're planning a trip over there."

"I will not comment on that."

"Look, I don't want to pry into your business or get involved. Don't know. Don't care. But if you are going to Sioux, I have a proposition for you. You know I lived there, all my life until I got smuggled into Seattle a little while back. There's probably loads of things I know that I can't tell you, not quickly and easily. How about a trade?"

"What kind of trade?" Aswon asked suspiciously.

"I come with you to Sioux, and act as your guide to help you get around, wherever it is you're going. I won't get involved with whatever job you're going to do – both for my sake and for yours. But I'll help you in general as much as I can with avoiding trouble and getting supplies and things like that."

"In exchange for what?"

"Drop me off back in Sioux, with a little of my travel gear. Somewhere near Casper would be ideal – that's the biggest airport, with links all over the world. But most important they've got a UCAS embassy there, and I can apply for a visa, see?"

"No, I do not see."

"I'm not here officially. And I can't apply for a visa to come and stay, unless I'm back home. I have to apply for a visa to visit the UCAS before I actually do it. So if you can get me back home, I can jump through the hoops to be here properly. Eyes has said he'll act as a work sponsor at the training centre, and it makes like so much easier if I've got at least one legit ID I can fall back on to protect me."

"Ahh, I see. Well, I can't see a problem with that, but I'll have to check with Kai. Assuming we're going to Sioux of course."

"Of course." Maisie struggled not to smile at him, having realised quite some time ago that they were definitely in fact going to Sioux lands, somewhere. "Well, I think he'll say yes – it's a simple enough favour and it helps both of us out. So I'll go grab my things, just in case he says yes. And if he says no, I'll ask again nicely." She grinned at Aswon then turned on her heel and headed for the door.

Tads didn't come back to her body for nearly forty minutes, stretching and wincing as she moved from the position she'd slumped into.

"Right, Vadim is with Fang, but they're both out of their bodies, I think on the metaplanes. So they're questing for something – can't say what. There's a bunch of spirits on guard, so I didn't get much of a chance to ask questions – they just wanted me to leave and not interfere."

"How come you were that long, then?"

"I went up to see if I could find Ice Maiden afterwards, Aswon."

"That was a bit risky!"

"I took a bunch of spirits with me – I'd actually been planning on doing it anyway, just with Vadim along as backup, staying far enough behind he could see if anything happened to me and report back if it did. But I figured, if we went all the way up to see her, and all she wanted to do was give us a phone number for someone here who could help us, that's a horrible waste of time and fuel and things for something I could do astrally. And the journey only took me a few minutes to do there and back – the rest of the time I was looking for her!"

"And what did she say?"

"Turns out she does have something for us, and we do need to go back. But at least we know the journey's worth doing!"

"Yes, that does make sense." Aswon rubbed his chin for a moment. "Well, the tilt-wing is ready to fly, but we need to wait for Shimazu and Kai to return. And dusk. But with Seattle traffic, that may come sooner than they get back!"

As it happened, Shimazu and Kai made it back by about half past three, having had a reasonable journey down to collect and pay for the suits, and they had a good thirty minutes before it started to darken as dusk fell. As they were back in the hanger, passing out the suits to everyone to stow away, Fang and Vadim returned, pulling up in a little methane-powered two-seater bubble car. They watched as Vadim headed straight over towards Tads, with Fang ambling along behind him, looking up into the sky, deep in thought.

"Tads, I would like to speak to you. Kai as well, probably." Tads nodded and waved Kai over, then jumped up onto a cargo crate and arranged her legs in front of her so they were crossed and gave her somewhere to rest her elbows while her head was gently cradled in her interlinked hands.

"Whassup?"

"Kai – thank you. And you, Tads. I have news – I wish to stay here. With Fang, and the others." Tads blinked in surprise, her head coming up out of her hands and her back straightening. Kai's expression barely changed, and he stood and waited for an explanation. "I have been working with Fang, and we have done some quests together for knowledge. During that experience, we found that we have something in common – our experience with the forest. Fang has… well, she is on a quest of some kind. There is a threat, and she seeks to resolve it. And during the quest my totem came to me, and told me to help her. Her forest, my forest. It's all part of the same thing. The great forest is linked, with roots and branches, across the world, of all kinds. I feel that I need to go with her and help her in her task. Helping her will help me."

"That's… a bit of a surprise. Look – I have no problem with this – you're an adult and can make your own decisions. But are you sure about this?" Tads watched Vadim nodding vigorously. "What about your family. Are you going to tell them where you are? And what about the army? We need to tell the captain where you are at least, if not the Brigadier. We're responsible for you. I'M responsible for you."

"I will call my family. I will tell them I am here, that I am safe and well, and that you looked after me – but now it is time for me to walk my own path."

"Well, that's no problem from my side, Vadim." Kai butted in before Tads could speak again. He could see she was still struggling to work through the impact of the surprise revelation, and he needed to get things moving. "Look from my point of view, we'll leave you our contact details, and you can call us for help, of course. Or transport. And if we're passing through this way, we'll check in with you. And we'll give you some cash to get you sorted out – you've earned it in the last few weeks. But like Tads said, you're an adult, you can make your own decisions and go where you please. Might as well be with our blessings." He stressed the last few words and glanced over to Tads, making sure she got the message.

"Thank you – I'll go tell Fang I'm staying, then come and collect my things." He headed over to her, and was soon deep in conversation with her while Kai and Tads returned to the others and let them know the news.

"We should call the captain, and tell him what's going on. As soon as possible."

"No Tads, I don't think that's a good idea."

"Kai – we have to tell them. We're responsible for him! We're not leaving until we do!" Tads folded her arms and scowled at him, her body posture changing as her resolve hardened. Several of the team sighed, having seen that expression before – 'determined Tads' was a blunt object that defied rational conversation most of the time.

"Look – we had to get away from the base quickly. That inspector secret agent dude was knocked out, there was going to be a world of trouble, and we had to be anywhere but there. I'm pretty sure they've written him off – in a nice way. Not that they don't care. But they trusted us to get him away and keep him out of trouble, and that's what we've done. As we've both pointed out – he's ISN'T a child, and he can look after himself. You've been training him almost non-stop every moment we're not doing something else, you and Aswon. He's got loads more knowledge and control now than when we first met him."

"I am not leaving him without talking to the Captain." She enunciated clearly.

"Hang on one moment. Let me recall." Marius closed his eyes and concentrated, remembering the address on the parade square, the brigade of angry troops, the inspector up on the platform trying to perform a character assassination with a butter knife rather than a stiletto. 'Please get a travel permit cut for Vadim here, along with a leave of absence for medical reasons.' Those were the Brigadier's words. Which means he has travel rights to go anywhere in the nation, and is exempt from further military service in all likelihood. That is the most probable response." His gaze shifted to Aswon though, before he continued. "However, I think on reflection, given the nature of the magical assault, he is likely to have just taken Vadim out of the military database entirely. If he was still listed, do you think that streak of piss would have hesitated to hunt him down and exact vengeance upon him? I do not think the Brigadier would have risked that. You know how much he cares for his men. He would have taken steps to make him disappear, knowing that we would likely take Vadim out of the Inspector's reach."

"I'd have to agree. From my merc experience, everything stays on your record – no matter what you did, good or bad. The only way to deal with that is to get rid of the record."

"I still think we should tell the captain."

"No Tads – think about it. Do you think the communication lines into a military base are not monitored? Recorded by the KGB or GRU, or whichever organisation is looking at their security? And if you mention Vadim on the record, then you CREATE a paper trail, some sign that he did exist once. You are actually putting him in danger by doing that!" That comment finally seemed to do the trick – the idea that she might deliberately harm him or cause some potential damage to his family by exposing his existence was the key to diffusing her stubbornness.

"Well, in that case Fang needs to know what's gone on. I'm not just leaving him here!"

"Fine. Tell Fang then. I am sure she will understand." Kai butted in smoothly, seizing the opportunity. "She's still talking with Vadim now, so why not go take care of that." Tads nodded and headed over there, and Kai turned round to see Aswon looming over him. "Yes?"

"While we're in the sharing mood, I have an opportunity for you. You know the American Indian lady at the training centre? Maisie? Well…." Aswon recounted the discussion from earlier, letting the others know what she'd suggested. Fortunately Kai seemed to think this was a good idea, and nodded his approval to Aswon, who in turn sent a message to Maisie telling her to head for the hanger.

Tads meanwhile was standing next to Vadim, staring at him intently, while he fumbled in his pocket.

"I'll call her, I promise. What? I said I'd do it!"

"Top pocket, Vadim. I can see the glow of the screen."

"Oh, there it is. Well, look, I can't call her now. It's… well, I don't know what time it is over there."

"It's about ten in the morning. I worked it out. Ever since Kai made that call to someone at like three in the morning, it's one of the things I try to do. So your mother will be up and about, and probably cleaning the house. Call her!" Vadim grumbled and pulled out his phone, then dialled the number. Twenty seconds later he grinned at the display.

"Mamachka!" He looked up and glared for a moment at Tads, but she stood where she was, refusing to move until he'd done more than say a simple hello. Fang walked past and on seeing Vadim standing with the phone in front of his face, decided to lean in almost resting her head onto his shoulder, smiling into the camera.

"Hello there, you must be Vadim's mother! It's a pleasure to meet you." The voice switched to very badly accented English.

"Yes, mother am of Vadim. Nice girlfriend Vadim for? Vadim, why you not say?" Vadim rolled his eyes and glared at Tads then swung his ire towards Fang, who just smiled sweetly at him and pinched his cheek before disappearing out of shot with a wave, leaving Vadim with a lot of explaining to do.

Back in the tilt-wing, Hunter moved forward after Marius, giving him a few seconds to get settled in the pilot's seat before moving towards the left hand chair himself. He was just about to sit down when some weird kind of danger sense went off – there was something wrong. One hand reached over for Marius who was just grabbing the rigger jack, ready to insert it into the interface in the back of his skull, and his strong fingers squeezed Marius hard – hard enough to make the rigger wince in pain.

"Don't move. Something's wrong in here." His eyes started to scan around the cockpit, looking for whatever tiny clue had alerted his danger sense. Methodically he swept over the banks of instruments, the controls, electrical panels, access covers, the chair…. His eyes stopped as he caught the edge of the cushion, raised up out of the chair base, sitting maybe fifty millimetres higher than it should have. Someone had lifted the seat out and put something underneath it. Grenades? Explosives? Tracking device? He pointed down at the chair, then slowly squatted to draw level with the base of the chair and drew his knife, carefully lifting the edge of the seat pad just a tiny amount so he could see into the underside area.

"What is it?" Marius asked as Hunter suddenly snorted and stood up.

"You'll see. Little bastard. Oh, he's not gonna win this one." Hunter reached over and lifted the seat pad up, exposing the whoopee cushion that was inflated and just ready for him to sit on, along with a little handwritten note that had just one word on it 'Popalsya!' Hunter grabbed the cushion and gently squeezed it, listening to the farting noise that echoed around the cockpit. A smirk spread across his face and he turned to slide out of the cockpit into the back, where he rummaged around for a smoke grenade, then spent a moment wrapping the cushion around the small cylinder. Two large strides took him to the doorway and with a heave the door slid open. He threw the bundle towards Vadim – not too worried about the accuracy, but more for effect and raised his voice nice and loud.

"Granata!" He raised one finger on his hand, clearly and stared at Vadim who had thrown himself away from the bundle on sheer reflex and was now sprawled on the hard concrete wincing at the damage to his elbows and knees. "Better luck next time, Vadim!"

He ducked back inside, slamming the door shut and making his way back to the cockpit, chuckling all the way at the expression on the Russian soldier's face, then strapped in as Marius finished the pre-flight checks and started up the engines.

A few minutes later they were clear of the hanger and taking off, rising rapidly into the air and slotting into the Seattle traffic. They were a lot more familiar with the airspace now, and navigated out of the city much more surely than their first attempt, and ran the border with barely a twitch, Marius sliding through the radar coverage like a pro while one of the spirits concealed them from the sensors. An hour later they were at the northern end of the Salish, near the Tsimshin border and setting down on the same upland plateau where they'd first met Ice Maiden. Sure enough, there on the sensors was a rabbit the size of a small pony or large dog, sitting patiently on the same hillock a little way out from the tree-line.

A quick conversation amongst the team decided that Marius and Hunter were staying inside, along with Maisie who didn't know who they were meeting or what they were doing here, but was being true to her word and not getting involved or asking questions. Kai, Shimazu, Aswon and Tads all climbed out, weapons to hand but not carried aggressively, and started to walk across the scrubby mountain, heading towards the rabbit who was gently nibbling on some vegetation.

As they approached, they head the voice in their head once more.

"Ahh, welcome back. So, how did your mission go?"