Kai headed into the church, seeking out Rad in his room full of screens and hardware in various states of disassembly. He gave a quick smile to Fang as she wandered out from behind the screen that split the room into two, the other side presumably their private quarters. He wasn't quite sure what the relationship was between them – they seemed a very odd mix, one a loud, flamboyant, narcissistic and ego-driven elf ganger convinced he was some kind of gift to the world, the other a much quieter and introspective shaman more at home in the jungles of Amazonia but with (according to Tads, and he trusted her implicitly by now) considerable magic power that could have made short work of several square kilometres of city before she broke into a sweat. Whatever it was though, they seemed to work, and on reflection his own team probably made a bizarre mix to anyone looking in. He was pretty sure that if you asked a psychologist about making up a team of people with their various characteristics, they're probably just laugh or snort – yet they seemed to work, and over the last year they'd become a solid and dependable unit. Not one above bickering – but then where was the fun in that?
He turned his attention back to Rad and gave him a smile.
"Good evening, Mr. Rad."
"Hoi, chummer. What do you need?"
"I have… a shopping list. We'd like to engage your services to seek out some providers, and make arrangements, help us set up some meetings. That kind of thing."
"Sure. I'm guessing it's all off the books stuff."
"You could say that. I think you'll understand when you see the list."
"Ok, you read it out, I'll get it written down properly, then we'll make a start."
Kai pulled up a wobbly plastic chair and sat himself down next to Rad, then fired up his tablet and started to go through their list of requirements.
"First of all, following today's meeting, we have a firm deadline on being out of the city. We must leave in six days. We're due at a meeting on the 16th, so we're leaving late on the 15th to travel to the location. So final delivery, payment, checks – all that stuff needs to be done by late on the 15th. Now, there's a bunch of stuff here, and we won't want all of it – but it's all stuff we're interested in getting. Some of it duplicates other stuff, or is a list of possibles, depending on what we can get in the time frame available."
"Gotcha. So reach out for interest, not firm orders – but it depends on who can deliver."
"Yes, that's right. So first up was a sniper rifle or anti-material rifle. Something heavyweight, firing a 12.5mm cartridge or larger. A laser pistol or rifle, something from Ares ideally as we don't believe anyone else has a decent quality commercial offering. An assault cannon with explosive warheads, field-portable ideally rather than vehicle-mounted. A flamethrower, something like the Shiawase Blazer. Dart guns, splat guns, ELDAR assault rifles or narcojet rifles and sufficient ammo that can be loaded up with a chemical of our choice."
"Right… definitely off the books. I'm sure I could get you everything on the list here – but maybe not in time. Five days might be a bit tight."
"We figured as much, hence going for a variety of things – but we're not done yet. We also need C4, C12 or catalytic explosives, an automatic grenade launcher with a mix of munitions, net launchers with troll-sized nets. If they come in bigger sizes, like stuff for catching Barghest or Piasma, then we're interested in that, too. Missile launchers – either one-shot disposable jobs or a conventional launch system with either dumb fire, wire-guided or active homing missiles. I think that's about the lot in terms of things that go boom or bang or suchlike."
"Nice. Some of this stuff is going to be pricy on the streets, you know that right?"
"Yeah, but we just got paid, and we need the stuff for the next job. It's only money, right? So, moving on – magical bombs or traps, something that's tied to an anchored focus of some kind. I think that's what she said anyway… yeah. Magical taggants or defensive spray. Expendable fetishes. I think that's it…"
"Alright, chummer, no worries. Let me get the word out on these and see what we can shake loose. If we want it in five days, we might have to spread the word a little more widely than we would normally – so it's not going to be subtle. People are gonna get curious."
"That's fine – we'll be well away from Seattle with all of this stuff, I doubt we'll make the news or anything. So nothing should splash back on them, if that's what you're worried about. But anyway, I'll leave you to it, and hopefully see you in the morning for some news." Kai got up and tucked the chair away, nodded at Rad and then headed back to the team, leaving the decker to stare at his back, wondering just what it was they were going to attack…
The following few days were a blur – a mix of training at the tactical centre near the church, kit maintenance, research and strange visits: one to an abandoned warehouse on the edge of the Redmond barrens to meet a weapons smuggler who had an enormous Panther assault cannon and several clips of 20mm shells in a military-style plastic travel case, slightly melted at one end; one to a barn in the middle of the Snohomish agri-district to meet several individuals with swarthy skin and unusual accents to take delivery of an Antioch grenade launcher and a full case of improved anti-infantry grenades, along with a much smaller but sturdier box of white-phosphorous rounds; a meet up in the car park for a shopping mall, located directly under the CCTV stand in a blind spot saw the transfer of a bunch of custom netguns, the nets having had capacitors ripped from a number of tasers grafted onto the main fibres. For each meeting the team saddled up and headed out, taking up positions to form a perimeter while Tads and Shimazu went in to accompany Kai for the exchange, providing close support.
Once the new hardware started to arrive, they expanded their training regime. Hunter ended up using about forty percent of his new ammo as he trained with the Panther cannon, punching holes in some abandoned skyscrapers in the edge of the Redmond Barrens, well away from prying eyes, gaining familiarity with the huge firearm. The others practiced with the netgun, using some standard nets to work out how much elevation they needed to use to fire the ungainly canister rounds and have them land on target, while Marius worked over the capacitors and connections on the modified nets, making sure the construction was good and that they wouldn't explode in the barrel when fired.
Tads managed to secure a sustaining focus at a reasonable rate from the talismonger and enchanter based in the church, then spent a day learning a spell from Fang, using her lodge once more. With the spell learnt and the foci bound to her will, she cast her new spell into it, testing it out on Aswon. As the mana penetrated his body, muscles rippled and became more defined, and his posture changed subtly. Some testing out in the car park revealed the difference in his physique as he threw some rocks that they'd collected, using them to simulate a grenade throw – with the spell up, his rocks flew significantly further, landing a good fifteen metres further out. With the sustaining foci holding the magical aura of the spell fixed in place, Tads could relax and concentrate on other tasks, the enhanced strength being fed by a slow but steady stream of ambient mana.
Towards the end of the week a small container arrived, covered in Cyrillic letters. Once cracked open it revealed six suits of security armour – bulky, heavy-duty ballistic plates attached onto an impact-resistant mesh body suit. It was not subtle in any way – making them look more like a Lone Star SWAT team than a bunch of smugglers – but it offered protection far better than anyone's normal armour, with perhaps the exception of Shimazu. As they examined the rest of the contents of the crate though, they found the additional helmets, gloves and overboots that attached to the core suit, turning it into a chemically sealed environment with a built in respirator designed to filter out riot gas, noxious chemicals and most improvised gas weapons. Built into the helmets was a smart-glass plate that flexed and modulated over the face, distorting to form a lens that could magnify distant targets, along with a tracking signal on an encrypted frequency, heads up display showing suit functions and an integrated camera linked to a small but powerful storage unit. The suits were also slick and greasy feeling, impregnated with a protective blend of compounds that would resist heat and flame, while also being heavily resistant to chemical burns and attacks.
Wearing the new armour bought a uniformity and cohesion to the team that they'd not seen before – six figures wearing matching heavy armour, turned into faceless drones and harbingers of death. It also exposed a new problem though – that of the different levels of physical prowess in the team. While Hunter, Shimazu and to a certain extent Aswon all wore the armour well, and could move around unimpeded, Marius, Kai and Tads all struggled with the heavy plating, finding that it slowed them down noticeably. They could move, walk and run in it – but it tired them faster, and their agility was noticeably less in the heavy armour. Tads tried casting her new spell again, targeting Kai this time, and found that it offered substantial improvements in his ability to wear the armour without being so drained – though the spell only affected one person, and she really didn't want to think about trying to hold up an additional two on the other members of the team. Neither was getting two more foci really that practical – not at nearly a hundred thousand Nuyen each, and requiring most of a day and some considerable effort to bond. They'd just have to work out how much of the armour's defensive benefits were worthwhile compared to the reduction in agility and make a decision on a case by case basis – though with an acid spewing horror in their immediate future, they were probably going to err on the side of stronger defences!
The armour also bought a new problem to the team – that of space. With all the new guns and equipment, along with six large and bulky suits of armour that refused to pack down in size conveniently, the tilt-wing was now not just low on cargo space – but completely out. It was already a somewhat unpleasant place to live in, never having been designed to support a team such as theirs on a long-term basis, but now it was just too much. With no space to stretch out in the cargo area, the only option they had for any chance of a reasonable night's sleep was to set up tents outside the hull, making a full camp each stop.
They checked the maps over, looking at the terrain again and trying to work out what they might need, and after a quick check with Rad on storage decided to unpack one of the motorbikes along with the vector-thrust based aerial drone and the modified crawler they had picked up at the temple, none of which were likely to be that useful in the coming mission. After removing the three vehicles they'd recovered enough space to make the comfort levels marginal again and were ready to head off. Tads stowed the dragon scales from Ice-Maiden down the side of the fuel barrels, wedging them in between the plastic barrels and the hull. It kept them out of sight from a casual inspection, and it may help if someone decided to shoot at them – she didn't know how strong they were exactly, but she expected that they'd bounce all but the biggest bullets without too much trouble.
After dusk, they once more lifted off from the church, laden down with their new hardware and a full tank of fuel, reserve barrels topped off and all their kit freshly maintained, oiled, restocked and rearmed – they were as ready as they were going to get, given the short timescales. Marius picked a different exit point this time, flying along the Snohomish river for a while until they got into the Redmond Barrens, flying low over the ruined and desolate landscape, flashing between decaying tower blocks and disintegrating factories while the occasional gunshot punctured the air behind him as he interrupted some gang brawl or meeting. Toxic fumes swirled behind them as their rotors swirled the green and brown pockets of polluted air, leaving behind twin vortices of roiling filth that snaked back and forth through the landscape. He found an area to the east between two sensor posts on the Salish border and rocketed across at over five hundred kilometres per hour, probably setting off air sensors and alarms, but clearing the area too quickly for the local guards to respond.
They flew across the Salish lands, wilderness mostly with the occasional farm and homestead or small corporation that was permitted to operate under the more environmentally aware rules and regulations enforced over the nation. Astral space glowed brightly with the light of the natural environment, and pollution all but disappeared, a far cry from the hellhole that was Redmond. The land was mostly dark, just a few houses being lit up at night and very little signs of infrastructure visible as they climbed up through the Cascades and rocketed through the mountains and headed for the plains on the far side.
Along the way, Tads keyed up her comms, sending on the general team frequency so that everyone but Maisie could hear her.
"Hey Hunter. Got a question about your computer shadow thing."
"Shadowland?"
"If you say so. But they've got lots of information on there, haven't they? Have they got stuff about magic too?"
"Yes, there's a whole sub-board called Magiknet. I've not really been on there, they have their own logins and admins, though my main access can get me into a whole bunch of their SIGs. Special interest groups, before you ask. But why?"
"Well, I've been working on a new formula. You see…well, I don't know the best way to describe this. Right – ok, there's two types of healing spell that I know about. One, the one I use, can heal an injury that someone has. The other one, heals damage too, but only if it's been sustained recently. Like within an hour or two of injury – but it's slightly easier to manage the magical backlash when you do it. At least I assumed the two were related, and the time constraint makes it easier to handle. Well, that got me to thinking… you see some spells can be designed to only affect particular targets or groups of people or things, and they follow a similar pattern. Instead of an illusion that you can put up to look like anything you want – like Spangles covering the entire valley floor with a picture of an empty landscape, instead you can restrict it to a vehicle only, but make it look like anything you want."
"And that makes it easier to cast?"
"No, not really – but it does make it easier to deal with the mana dump afterwards. And if you need to worry less about that, you can concentrate more on the process of casting. So it's not easier exactly, but you can focus more on it, and hopefully be more successful."
"Ok, with you so far. But what has this got to do with Shadowland?"
"I was getting there. So, I'm designing a spell, the time-limited version of the healing spell. But I thought, I could go further – what if I make it so that the spell only affects people with cyberware and implants? By restricting the target even more, I can make it even easier to handle the magical backlash, and that means you can spend even more effort on casting it in the first place. Which, lets face it, is always going to help with you folk."
"Why? Wouldn't you want to be able to do that on the whole team?"
"In a way yes – but anyone who doesn't have stuff in their body is pretty easy to heal anyway. Their soul isn't twisted… I don't mean this in a nasty way – you know I'm never going to put anything in MY body, but I accept you want to put stuff in yours, and it gives you certain advantages. And if you weren't born with magical potential, and there's no way to get it, it's not like you have a choice! But for the likes of Kai, Shimazu, Aswon and myself, because we don't have things in our souls interfering with the magical flow of energy, it's pretty easy to repair. And because it's reasonably easy, that means I can handle the dump of mojo afterwards. I could restrict it, but I don't need to. But healing you and Marius, that's much harder. Much, much harder sometimes, and trying to do both can just leave me shattered and with a thumping headache, bad enough you can't see straight sometimes. So making a spell that is already a bit easier to work on due to the time thing, and then making it even easier due to it being a restricted target it will affect – that seems to make sense."
"Ok, if you say so. I mean, the logic sounds reasonable, but it's all mystic mumbo jumbo to me. And I still don't see what this has to do with Shadowland."
"Well, if I got the formula, and got it written out in a weird way, so it's all just a bunch of numbers and stuff, could you put it up on your thing and give it away for free? To help you get more access?"
"Ahhhh, right. Ok – that makes sense now. Well, we could – I'm not sure what you mean by weird way, but I can take a picture of your rabbit skin or something?"
"That's what I mean. If I write out the spell like a wizard would use it, instead of a shaman, then it would be all numbers and brackets and things like that, not a piece of artwork containing magical power. Its not how I'd choose to write it, but it does make it easier to put on the matrix, I think."
"Then I could – and it might help. But it might also earn you or me some people who are a bit disgruntled with us."
"Why?" Now it was Tads that sounded confused.
"Because a lot of people make their living selling information and things like formulas and codes on Shadowland. If you go and give something away, then you're taking away customers from someone trying to earn a living from doing the same thing. And more so, they could maybe sell the same formula to scores of people, if it's a popular spell. If you go and give it away, that's gonna spread like a wildfire, and you're going to affect the whole market. So there might be a whole bunch of people mad with you."
"Oh. Right, I get that. I hadn't though that through. But if I make it a spell like a wizard, and we sell that – then it's not likely they'll be able to identify the team from that – they'll be looking for a team with a hermetic mage in it, rather than a shaman. So I'm ok with that!"
"And if you do release a spell like that, Tads," Aswon added, having been listening with interest, "you can bet that someone will be reverse engineering it pretty soon, and looking to modify it further. They're probably going to try and sell it as an even more improved version – but it further dilutes the market and gives someone else to look at and track down…"
"Well, if you can get me the formula written down, I'll stick it up. I'll just be careful, and make sure I describe it in the right way, and put it in the right place. Assuming we're all in a fit state to do anything of course, in a few days time…"
They flew on through the darkness, slicing across the Salish for nine hundred kilometres and reaching the border with the Sioux nation a little way north from the old Yellowstone National Park. The Salish and Sioux were fairly friendly, the border mostly a formality between them, and Marius slid through the nominal air defences easily, avoiding radar and sensor stations with the help of his advanced electronics and the concealment of the spirit. Turning slightly south, he headed down towards the hills of the former state of Wyoming, closing in on a smuggler stop known as 'Daniels'. The co-ordinates and landing clearance had been supplied by Iceman66, so they felt reasonably confident it wasn't a setup, but he still did a careful approach – it was little more than a hundred kilometres from Casper.
Casper wasn't the capital of the Sioux nation – that was Cheyenne, two hundred and forty five kilometres to the south – but it was home to the largest airport in the nation and the only true international hub. Sub-orbital and semi-ballistic aircraft departed from the airport heading for locations around the world such as Vladivostok, Tokyo, London and Dubai, and as a result their radar coverage was extensive and powerful. Nobody wanted to risk having a light aircraft blunder into the path of a SCRAMjet passenger aircraft as it accelerated to Mach 14, and it was the kind of scenario that made air traffic controllers have nightmares. Indeed, a crash only a year or two before in Seattle had made world-wide news, when a descending plane had hit some kind of other vehicle, breaking apart whilst still travelling at better than Mach 3 and spreading itself over hundreds of acres on the approach path to Sea-Tac, littering the Redmond Barrens with flaming wreckage and debris. The inhospitable environment and complete lack of civilisation had made the subsequent investigation a circus of epic proportions, and safety procedures worldwide had been upgraded following the incident.
All of that made Marius very respectful of the massive fuzzy bubble of overlapping sensors, keeping low and slow, making use of the terrain and closing on the location until he found a large meandering river that he could follow up to the secluded airstrip. When they got there, he discovered a fairly large civilian airport set on a flat parcel of land right beside the river, which also had a bustling harbour alongside, along with decent road links to the highway to the east that joined Casper and Cheyenne. It was a little out of the way, but it wasn't that discreet a place, and must definitely show up on the overhead scans of multiple nations – unlike for instance the quarry, or their recent stop in Cal-Free.
He checked in with the tower, and was given landing permission near the main hangers and fuel depot, and bought in the tilt-wing with his customary skill and precision, placing her down exactly in the middle of the helipad. The team emerged from the tilt-wing, glad to stretch their legs a little and met with the airport staff when the rotors had stopped spinning, and Kai paid for a fuel top up. Here at least they found that they were definitely in the right place – no mention of landing permits, flight plans or other paperwork was mentioned, as soon as Kai waved his cred-stick around it was clear that the prospect of cold hard cash was sufficient to make all questions disappear.
"I'll be back in a few minutes. I'm just going to check on some things." Tads announced, returning aboard the aircraft and strapping in, then summoning her flock of spirits to accompany her. Shimazu and Aswon watched as her astral form rose up out of the aircraft, angled east and then accelerated quickly, disappearing over the horizon in less than a blink of an eye.
Whilst Marius stayed behind to supervise the fuelling and keep an eye on things, the rest of the team headed over towards the airport reception, which it turned out was more of a lounge and bar area. They could see a few other crews sitting and relaxing, having a beer and eating some snacks, giving further proof that this wasn't an official airport where the rules were enforced – there was no way these pilots were going to be waiting the mandatory period after consuming alcohol before they took to the skies again!
Kai and Shimazu headed to the bar to get a few drinks and snacks in, and listen to the gossip, while Hunter and Aswon secured a table and checked out the surroundings. The roots of the place as a civilian airport could be seen, the odd patches of floor where security booths and check in desks had once been, along with the odd hanger swinging in the faint breeze told of signs and directions to help weary travellers on their way. It wouldn't have been large, but it had the odd layout common to most airports, with routes to separate inbound passengers that needed to be screened and have their IDs checked, and the outbound passengers who needed to be shepherded to the outside world. As Hunter looked around he spotted a few natives sitting at a table in the corner, chatting and laughing, a couple of beers laid out on the table. He was about to move his glance on, when he saw a flutter of fingers, rapidly moving in familiar forms.
"Aswon, don't turn just yet. Back corner, your seven o'clock position, four natives in a booth. All youngish-looking, fit and have a look to them. And they're chatting in Sioux sign." Aswon nodded to Hunter, then casually knocked off a coaster from the table and turned to retrieve it, letting his head glance to the side as he did.
[We'll cross the border at location Bravo. Standard deployment, under EMCON. Trail south to set up observations. One week on station, should be simple.]
[Yes, no problem. Should be a routine op. Say, have you seen that pair at the table over there? They look like new faces.]
[Indeed, not subtle. But unless they start something, we'll just file a standard report when we get back. Keep half an eye on them though.]
"Kai, this is Aswon," he said as he sat back up, turning away from the booth. I think we've got a Sioux Special Forces team in the back corner of the bar. They've noticed us, but aren't too worried. But we should be careful. Hunter's keeping an eye on them at the moment." He glanced up at the big ork, and got a minute nod from him.
"This place is weird. I don't like it at all. No gossip at the bar, everyone's really uptight and quiet. And if the Wildcats are here, that means the military MUST know about this place. Let's just head back to the bird. I don't want us to create a scene or do anything to get noticed. Not with what's coming up…"
Aswon and Hunter blinked at each other in surprise, then turned in unison to glance at Kai, wondering if he was feeling all right. They'd half expected him to wander over, introduce himself and then offer to help them out with any minor needs they might have or requirements for special jobs – but instead he seemed to be somewhat nervous.
"Roger that. Heading out now." Aswon rose and then spoke to Hunter normally rather than subvocalising. "Never look a gift camel in the mouth."
"Horse."
"What?"
"It's never look a gift horse in the mouth."
"Maybe where you come from. But let's not tempt fate." He smiled and led the way, and the four of them headed back to the tilt-wing, just as the tanks were topped off. Climbing back aboard, they saw Tads stirring, and giving a stretch before she made a report.
"I just headed back over to the target site – just the same. Really low on Mana, but no sign of activity or anything special or unusual. No change at all from the previous visit, so I think that it's just how it is. But then I took a longer flight, heading over to the temple. Had a little look around, very carefully. And it looks like someone has been back into the temple. From what I can see, they got in from the outside. It's not the thing digging itself loose or tunnelling out. It looks like someone went there deliberately to free it."
"Who'd do something like that?" Shimazu asked.
"I can think of half a dozen corporations stupid enough to think they could control something like that, or make a bargain with it," Aswon responded with some bitterness. "And so do you if you think about it. But it could be some doomsday cult, or religious zealots too, or anything else. But it is interesting that it was dug out, rather than escaped."
"Marius – I'm not keen on this place – we ready to go?"
"Yes Kai, starting engines now." The whine of the auxiliary power unit filled the cabin for a moment, then the port engine rumbled into life, followed a few seconds later by the starboard. A minute later they were rising into the air, heading east and crossing the remaining four hundred and seventy five kilometres to the target zone, Marius splitting the difference between Casper and Cheyenne and avoiding both cities equally. They were out of the mountains now, well into the mid-west American plains, and there was very little cover. Huge swathes of farmland stretched out around them, brown and fallow at this time of year, but showing as unspoilt and carefully managed. The odd field did have drones working on it, removing a late crop of some hardy kind of soy or vegetable, robotic pickers working up and down the lines of plants to gather the resources carefully and place them in electric trailers that trundled off when full to a larger sorting machine that waited at the corner of the field. Other areas were covered in seas of solar arrays, much like their trip through Ute had been, making use of the plentiful sunshine to provide clean energy for the modest needs of the Sioux nation.
It was the early hours of the morning when they buzzed past the t-junction, Marius giving the area a careful scan while Shimazu studied it through the viewing prism. It was quiet and dark, a simple meeting of a minor road with a highway at a ninety degree angle, a junction that looked lost and alone in the middle of the rolling plains, nothing remarkable about the area at all. A string of wooden telephone poles ran down the side of the highway, set back about five metres from the cracked blacktop surface, with sagging wires linking them together, but there was no artificial light to be seen within fifteen kilometres. The astral plane was equally quiet – no watcher spirits or magical activity at all, just a quiet and serene background glow of a natural area with nothing remarkable to see.
They headed east a few more kilometres, Marius setting them down to the south-west end of Lee Lake, a body of water about a thousand metres long and two hundred wide. It was unlikely to have people camping there at this time of year, but meant they could potentially find some thick growth to use as concealment or cover, as well as potentially having access to fresh water – or just have an easy to find spot on a map to get back to. As soon as they settled, Tads did another quick astral scout back to the junction, to see if they'd spooked anything or anyone – but it was just as quiet as before.
They kept to their normal watch schedule overnight, keeping close to the aircraft and with the guard armed and ready to respond, but the night passed without incident, the sun rising from the east along with a bitterly cold wind that raced across the rolling hills, a hoarfrost leaving trails of icy crystals across the lee of the hills, coating vegetation with a sparkling halo that didn't vanish until an hour after dawn when everyone had warmed up and finished their breakfast.
Hunter pulled up one of the maps that his friend Julius had sent through, highlighting an area to the south of the junction where a few undulations in the terrain created a delve or hollow that might be big enough to set the tilt-wing down in and have it hidden from casual view. There was precious little cover in general out here, and there was little they could do to hide once on the ground, but the team felt it was worthwhile and relocated as soon as they'd packed away after breakfast. That put them about a kilometre south of the junction – hopefully close enough to offer a sensible location to retreat to or get reinforcements from, as needed.
While the rest of the team got into their standard travelling gear, leaving the heavy armour and major ordnance behind, Marius inflated the lifting bag for his recon drone and launched it up into the air, then headed to the cockpit to jack into his deck and start his surveillance. He let the drone lift up high, fading into the clear blue sky and motored north slowly, taking his time to survey the land around them and keep an eye out. As the road came into view, he saw a black off-road jeep sitting near the turning, pulled over completely onto the verge, with a lone figure sitting on the front of the vehicle, staring up the road.
He moved the drone to the east, then lowered slightly, putting the sun behind him and positioned himself to get a good look at the person waiting, seeing if he could identify them, while keeping the drone at an extended range to remain as stealthy as possible. In the back of his mind he could hear the occasional comment or huff of exertion as the rest of the team walked over the rough ground towards the road, fanning out into a v-formation and keeping their eyes open.
As he finally got a lock onto the target and steadied the drone, he blinked his virtual eyes in surprise.
"Das kann nicht gut sein," he muttered.
"What was that, Marius?" Hunter asked
"Nothing. Be advised. One target, black SUV at the junction. One figure, sitting on the front of the vehicle. No hostile activity detected." He jumped out of the drone and back to his Captain's chair, then connected to his PDA and did a quick search on a few news terms to get a picture, then compared the two. They certainly LOOKED the same, at least from here… He shut down the PDA and jumped back into the drone, rising back up into the air and drifting closer so he could monitor the situation.
The rest of the team plodded across the prairie, avoiding rabbit holes and sand traps, keeping their eyes open and looking around them. As they walked, they could see the line of poles stretching across the horizon, marking the line of the road below it, and the black blob of the SUV sitting dark against the pale brown of the dying vegetation. The wind knifed in from their right hand side, the temperature close to freezing and sending a fine spray of sand up from the occasional hillock as they disturbed the ground, showing anyone to their left in a fine grit. They saw the figure on the car look their way and shift around slightly, before turning back to continue gazing to the east. Clearly they'd been seen – but the figure didn't seem bothered, or hostile.
Aswon slowed first, peering ahead and then raised his binoculars for a better look at the figure.
"Is that? Nah… surely not." The others stopped and looked at him, then peered ahead, zooming in their vision using technological aids or magical powers where available. "It is him. That's Ehran the Scribe. He's the one that wrote the book explaining about the cycles of magic."
"Hmm? I don't know about books – but he's a collector of fine art, that much I know. Particularly French impressionists. And some of the Scottish painters. He's acquired a number of very exclusive pieces over the last few years I know that much." Kai shrugged and then started walking again. "Come on. Famous or not, it seems he's waiting for us."
They walked closer, and when they were a few hundred metres away, the figure slid down off the front of the car and moved around to the side door. Marius swung the drone over to get a better view, and on the ground a number of safety catches moved and several of the team engaged their defences, just in case.
"He is getting something out of the car. Small, about the size of a large bottle. Unscrewing. Ahh, a thermos flask of some kind. Moving back around to the front now. It does not look like a weapon." Marius zoomed back out and did a scan around the perimeter, just in case it was a distraction.
Ehran meanwhile moved back to the front and hopped up onto the car again, then unscrewed the top of the flask and poured some hot soup into the cup, before carefully sealing the flask up again. He sipped at the scalding hot soup, testing the flavour carefully then set the cup down next to him and carefully laid the flask down, ensuring it wouldn't roll away. His head turned towards the team as they continued to close, and he made a gentle beckoning gesture before picking up his cup once more and blowing gently on the surface to cool the liquid a little.
"Well, this has just got interesting…" Kai muttered, then engaged his smile, turning it all the way up to megawatt range and lengthening his stride. "Good morning!"
Ehran the Scribe, one of the most foremost authorities on magic in the world raised a cup in salute and waited for the team to cross the road to meet him.
