Sunday 17/10/2060, Location: 40.18079, -74.12168, Time 11:25

The hanger was, Marius assured them, fairly typical of a private facility. Essentially just a giant garage for planes, it had no real facilities for repair or maintenance, only the very basic levels of comfort – in their case limited to a single unisex toilet and a few stools positioned in the corner of the hanger and was nothing more than a secure box to store the aircraft in. It did have good security systems installed though, unsurprising with the typical cost of an aircraft being well into six figures.

Marius replayed the sensor footage he'd gathered when they were taxiing towards their current location, showing the different types of jet planes and tilt-wings, or acrobatic trainers in the hangers.

"We have a number of types here, falling into three main categories. These are single seat aircraft, designed for very high speed and incredible manoeuvrability – I would wager that their owners and pilots tend to be younger, more driven and more outspoken. Pleasure craft, with an element of risk and danger, designed for people to let off steam in by going very quickly and pulling stunts. At the other end of the scale we have the very comfortable and plush jets, designed to seat a family and a few retainers. In the middle are commuter vehicles – for those well off enough to afford a second home, but not yet to get the executive jet to go with it. Either way, all of the people here are well off, highly educated and motivated – so we need to present ourselves accordingly."

"What do you mean?"

"Dress appropriately, Kai – if we look like thugs, we will be picked up quickly and dealt with harshly by the local law enforcement. But on a deeper social level we need to adjust our expectations. This is not the sort of area that has public transport – everyone will drive a private vehicle. Places to drink will be upmarket, as will food suppliers and general stores. Many of the kinds of places where we would do business will just not exist around here. We need to fit in – as best we can, and not cause any problems."

"Well, ok then. I'm sure we'll be ok. But – we have a few days to kill then – what is everyone planning?"

"I'm going to spend my time working on my magical skills, and communing with Elk. I'm hoping that with some dedicated time I can try to sharpen and hone my skills to better defend us." Tads glanced over at Shimazu and then down at the ground, clearly sill having strong feelings about the events back at the massacre site.

"I'm going off camping – or at least to practice my bush skills. And I think Hunter's interested in coming along with me?"

"Yeah Aswon – I'll come. Someone's gotta keep you out of trouble." Hunter grinned, and Aswon looked like he was about to retort hotly before he realised that Hunter wasn't serious in any way.

"I intend to do a full overhaul on the aircraft, doing minor repairs and maintenance on as many systems as I can during our time here. Though the repair facilities seem non-existent, these aircraft are clearly being maintained somewhere, and no doubt the logistics chain to keep them in top condition is there – I just need to find it."

"Ok cool. Well, I'm going to make some calls and stuff, make arrangements with the dock master bloke to get us on the ship, maybe do a little shopping." Kai glanced over at Shimazu. "No doubt if I go away from here, I'll end up with a shadow to keep me safe…" Shimazu nodded at him, his face otherwise still blank and without expression. "Yeah, thought so. Otherwise maybe a bit of training with the knife and some other stuff. I'm sure I'll fill my time. Any questions or comments?"

"I had a thought, Kai – we know one of your IDs is burnt or broken or whatever the phrase is. Is it worth getting in touch with Milo? Or getting Marius to get in touch with him, and getting a replacement ordered? He has all the details about us anyway, but the more notice we give him, the easier it will probably be, right? And probably cheaper. And if he needs us to go there for a pickup, we're probably somewhere nearby on our route anyway."

"Good call, Tads – I'll add that to my to do list! Anything else?" He looked around but saw just shakes of the head from the rest of the team. " Right. Well, I guess most of us will meet up at breakfast and dinner then, or keep in touch via the phones – but otherwise, let's crack on…"

They split off, gathering equipment and moving out to create themselves some space as required, each going about their plans and business…

The team did bump into each other in passing over the next few days, crossing paths at meal times or as they came back and forth to the hanger, but Kai arranged to meet up at the end of the week, ordering in some food to catch up with what everyone had been up to and making sure they knew what had gone on.

"So, Hunter and I went camping, or more precisely, practicing our bushcraft. We headed out westward, into the woodlands bordering the airfield. Pretty standard deciduous woods, a few trails and evidence of some game. Spent a good few days wandering around making some improvised shelters, doing a little hunting, a little talismongering, and trying to stay out of the way."

"Which the locals did not make easy," Hunter added with a frown.

"No – the certainly didn't. As we reported in on the first day, there's lots of patrols – but an odd pattern. The police seem to favour a lot of local patrols using big powerful cruisers, touring the district and keeping up a high level of visibility. Very little in the way of drones and almost no magical presence though. But crossing the roads to get from one area of woodland to another was… interesting at times. You never know when a patrol car was going to come into view, or someone local that might just call them up."

"Best we could figure," Hunter continued, "was that we've got people with a very specific and narrow view on law enforcement in the area. Based on what Marius said, it would seem to fit. They want the idea of safety, and the police keeping an eye on things – but only in a general sense. They don't want high-altitude drones looking down on THEIR yard or garden, spying on them. And they certainly don't want magical wotsits flying around keeping an eye on them where they can't be seen – so it's old fashioned patrol cars with real life, flesh and blood policemen. Stick them on the roads, looking for trouble-makers like ourselves and hassle them, and let them stop and deal with people on the roads – but keep out of the private land."

"We saw plenty of evidence of the police stopping to talk to people, so they seem reasonably well connected locally – and probably know a lot of the townsfolk by name as well as face – but they also seemed to be treated like favoured employees. We saw a good number of interactions, and the police were all very polite, checking up and dealing with issues, but they all seemed to be driven by the locals – not the police. I'd guess they know who the big funders are locally and not to ruffle feathers. So – we stayed clear of them as a priority, and stuck to the woods. But we also discovered the area is riddled with god-dammed golf courses and private parks, shooting clubs and other 'rich' clubs like that. Acres of space turned over to almost no people, but they did have lots of security on the perimeter with good fences, CCTV and drone systems. So we had to keep clear of that lot as well."

"And we also found a military base – or the edge of one." Hunter flashed up a map, highlighting the massive sprawling estate labelled as 'Naval Weapons Station Earle'. "Huge place, has its own rail lines going in, and base facilities. Place just seemed to go on forever – we think it's a major munitions store, which is why it's so big. Lots of little bunkers all spread out, to avoid issues if there was an accidental detonation. But we definitely didn't want to get picked up snooping around there – so we did a U-turn and came back this way, looking for more magic plants and stuff."

"And that didn't go too well, either. There's plenty of woodland – hundreds and hundreds of hectares of it. But I didn't spot anything we could harvest. Everything was…well, tainted is too strong a word. But there's so many golf courses and large estates and things that are just dosing the air with pesticides, herbicides, artificial fertilisers and genetically modified seeds that the area just seems to have lost its natural touch. It's healthy, vibrant and there's lots of small game around – but it all seems to be affected a little by a…." Aswon groped for the right words. "Like a taste of mankind. It's alive, but it's not one hundred percent natural. And just no good for use as raw materials. But it's definitely not toxic – we didn't spot any signs of illegal dumping or spills. Guess the local patrols are good for something at least."

"So we did some practice stuff. Aswon speared a couple of critters and made himself some new spears from branches and stuff, and got a few pelts. I did some stalking practice, and we didn't get too wet – but that's about what we did for the last week. Was alright, really." Hunter shrugged, then sat back and waited, having said as much as he was going to about what they'd been up to.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it. I don't think we can talismonger in this area – it's just too developed and too well tamed, even the creatures have just got something about them. Maybe if we mined for ore – but I don't think we have the skills for that, let alone the time. Otherwise I've practiced, Hunter's stalked me, and we've had a few good nights sleeping in some shelters out in the woods. And we definitely don't want to get caught up to no good around here – the police will be all over us like a rash. So yeah… that's us pair."

"What about you, Marius?" Kai turned to examine the German.

"I have been working on maintenance and upgrade tasks. Over the past week I have removed every single user-serviceable module from the electronics and avionics bay, checked all the fluid systems, control surfaces and general maintenance tasks I have access to. It has held up remarkably well to the trip so far, thanks I believe to the preparation we did before the coldest sections. Though, based on how things went, I do not wish to repeat that, and I certainly do not want to take us anywhere colder. This craft is most definitely not optimised for arctic operations."

"Other than that, I have worked with some of the local maintenance crews, who are all either employees of a large maintenance company, or sub-contracting individuals working for the same – they appear to do all of the work on the planes here. I can find no examples of any of the people who own or lease these aircraft actually doing the work themselves, so I believe my initial assessment is correct – especially corroborated by what Aswon and Hunter discovered. This whole area is a retreat for the rich and powerful from New York."

"On a positive note though, while checking the aircraft over and having time to really work through the systems, I found a number of spaces and voids that were built into the craft. They have been somewhat difficult to access, but working with the local crews I have secured a number of small custom fuel tanks that have been fitted into these voids, and linked to the main fuel tanks embedded into the wings. We should now have a fuel capacity approaching two thousand litres, extending our range somewhat, though at a loss of some overall weight capacity."

"The last thing I have done was commission the new racking in the cargo area. This has again, unfortunately, lowered our weight limit somewhat – but it has made the storage area considerably easier to use and gain maximum benefit from."

"You put in a shelf?" Hunter asked, sounding unimpressed.

"Nein. A shelf would be easy. I have configured a system that is custom designed to fit over and around the various drones and the ruck-sacks, and other cargo we have as closely and exactly as possible. It is now possible to get at nearly all of the cargo without having to remove the items on top or on either side. That should make future operations much more efficient." He sat back and smiled, the smile fading as the others looked…unimpressed. "You will see, next time you need something from the bottom. Then you will thank me."

"Ok, sounds good, Marius. Been busy, then. What about you, Tads?"

"I have made a breakthrough in my magical studies, and I have deepened my knowledge of magic. In my own way, I think I have advanced my level of power to match Shimazu – just down a very different path. And Elk has given me a choice, and I believe I have made the right one that most benefits us."

"Which was?" Aswon asked, his face full of curiosity.

"I sank into a trance while chanting, and found myself on the edge of a forest, Elk standing beside me, feeling their hot breath on the back of my neck – and I could see two paths laid out before me. I asked which one to follow, but they just looked at me. Eventually I realised I would get no help with this, so I travelled left – down the path skirting the edge of the forest, dropping down the side of a cliff into a gorge or chasm. A hugely powerful river flowed down the bottom, with narrow paths along the side, and I saw two people there." Tads sipped at some water, then continued.

"The first person stood on the rocks by the side of the river, casting their gaze here and there. Then they jumped, throwing themselves into the river, grasping at something that glimmered in the light. They came to the surface, a small nugget of gold held tightly in their hands, but struggled in the current, and were thrown against the rocks. With the wind knocked out of them, they were barely able to climb out of the river and back onto the land, holding their prize. Stunned, they sat down, waiting to recover until they could try again. This time when they dove in, they missed the gold that was washed down in the stream, but got a cut to the head for their troubles and had to rest once more, holding the wound with their hand until they stopped bleeding."

"The second person sat on the edge of the stream, and they held a contraption in their hand, a hoop of wood with a piece of cloth held over it. Carefully they dipped the thing into the water, moving it back and forth carefully. At first nothing seemed to happen, but as I sat and watched, the cloth seemed to change colour, taking on a sparkling hue. Minutes passed, and slowly the cloth caught a thousand tiny flakes of gold, straining out the treasure from the river piece by piece. It took them a long time, but slowly they managed to get enough gold to match the other person's first dive – but with no apparent risk. The first person had gathered more by now, but they were covered in a mass of cuts of and bruises, and seemed less and less sure of themselves with every dive."

"Elk pushed me then, directing me up the path and back to where I'd started, then down the path to the right, leading into the forest. With sudden realisation, I remembered the place – I had seen this before, in another trial set by Elk. When they stepped off the path and hid behind a log, I knew what was coming, and I hid, too. Moments later, a massive herd of wild animals thundered down the trail, sweeping away everything in their path – but we were safe, having hidden before they arrived. Then Elk hid again, this time behind a tall tree still standing. I squeezed behind another, then a tornado struck, from the side, throwing wood and stones violently into the trees, which shielded us from harm. When the wind subsided, Elk led me back to the split in the path, and I knew it was time to choose."

"I hope you picked the alchemy thing where you get to make gold!" Hunter exclaimed.

"That's a literal meaning, rather than what I think was represented. It wasn't the knowledge of how to make gold, or how to find it. It was more a way of comparing two methods of gathering valuable resources."

"Mana – to fuel your spells?" Aswon guessed.

"I think so. But that's not what I decided there. I explained to Elk what I needed – the knowledge that I sought. A way to protect us all against magical threats, not just to shield our minds against spells, but to protect our essences against the wills of spirits and dragons too. That if I'd been able to do that, then perhaps Shimazu might not have been hurt as he was. Elk listened, then pushed aside the vegetation, showing me a third way, a new path. But the path was narrow, impossibly narrow. No more than the width of a finger, sliding back and forth, from side to side, climbing higher and higher along the precipice of a ridgeline. I saw mountain goats struggling on the sides, and when one slipped, it fell into the void, far, far below. The wind howled, and rain beat at the path further away, turning the trail into a slippery nightmare. Elk was telling me, I think, that I was not ready for this knowledge yet. So then I had a choice to make between the two paths Elk had shown me."

"I considered for a while, but chose the left path. I believe the path to the right described an ability commonly called 'sensing' – a talent to detect disruptions and fluctuations in the local mana-sphere. Learning this would let me detect the appearance of mana storms and astral shallows, powerful magical items and creatures attuned to the astral realm."

"That all sounds like useful stuff – why not go for that?" Kai asked.

"I was tempted – much like the last time Elk showed me that vision. It would be very useful to avoid some things like sudden mana-storms or the effects generated by some spirits and creatures. But, it would have very situational use. It would work great while we're on the ground, you see, but less so in the air – we're normally going too fast. By the time I'd realised what I was seeing and radio through to him," Tads gestured to Marius, "we'd have hit or flown into whatever it was. In the truck it would work – but that's back at the ranch… so instead I went for the other thing."

"Which isn't panning for gold? Is it how to mine gold?"

"No, Hunter. Think of the gold as mana. Every time I dip into the stream to bring out some power, I have to jump in the river. If I jump in where it's calm, I might get swept along and would have to really struggle to get the power. It's possible I might get hurt. Instead, if I had time to slowly draw the power together, sieving it out of the air rather than grabbing for it, it would be easier and safer. Just not quicker."

"That sounds like a reasonable plan. What's stopping you?"

"The time – if every spell actually takes longer to cast, that could have disastrous effects on the team. I'm still not entirely sure how it works – it's a new concept for me, and something I wasn't aware that could be done at all. But…" She sat back and waved her arms around vaguely, trying to work out how to describe something she was still trying to decipher herself. "Ok – when I use my magic to stun people in an area – I can vary the force behind that. How much wallop there is. Just a little hit, is just a little mana backlash to deal with. A massive thump to them, is a massive backlash for me. But when I cast the spell, it's done in the blink of an eye – it's just the effects that can last for hours. This new way… I think, if I try for a big wallop, but instead of it being instant, I take a few seconds to draw the mana out of the air instead of grabbing at it frantically, I can just take a big hit from the backlash, not a massive one. If I take ten seconds, then it might be just a medium size energy drain. And if I took thirty seconds, then it might feel like just trying to deal with a sneeze. The longer I take, the easier it should be – to a certain point."

"Hah – most combats are over in a few seconds – or we're not doing our jobs right!"

"Exactly – that's my point. If I take thirty seconds to cast any of my spells in combat, they're probably not going to be of much use. Not unless we co-ordinate and I'm the one springing an ambush, and you go as soon as my spell goes off. So I need to work out how to control this, to be able to turn it on and off, and use it as appropriate. And that's going to take a bit of practice still."

"That sounds like you've still got lots to do, then, Tads. Is that it?"

"Other than making a call back to Nadia, and asking her to get some more magical ingredients from Aslick, yes. That's taken up most of my waking hours for the last few days."

"Cool – well, that's just me and Shimazu left, then. So, where do I start… well ok – I called Anahita, you remember her? In Iran? Asked her if she wanted anything bought back from New York as we were passing. Warned her about the length of the trip and so on, and she said she'd get back to me. Well she did, the next day, with a job offer. Turns out she wanted me to get the Colt 1911."

"She wanted a pistol? An old, pre-crash firearm? Why?" Hunter looked confused, wondering why anyone would want such a primitive design.

"Not A Colt 1911. THE Colt 1911. Serial number one. Apparently there's a place called Rhode Island Auction House, just north of New York, and they specialise in weird and wacky guns, and they're auctioning off this pistol that's going to sell for an absolutely fortune, in something called the Ian McCollum memorial auction. Well, it would sell for a fortune, if it was still there and we hadn't stolen it to bring back to her, to pass on to one of her buyers for a massive amount of cash, with us getting a good share."

"So you said no, right. Kai? Right? You said no. Oh god, you didn't say no, did you?" Aswon raised both hands to the sides of his face, drawing them down his cheeks in horror.

"I did say no, actually. You and Hunter were out camping, Marius was busy welding, Tads was talking to the fairies and that left Shimazu and I. So I told her were couldn't take a job, just the courier work." Kai grinned at Aswon who gave a shudder of relief. "So, I was tempted, but didn't sign us up for that. Next, I gave Vadim a call, just to check up on him – figured you'd want to know about this, Tads."

"How is he?"

"Well, from what I could see, he's settling in fine in Seattle. When I called, they were in the middle of something – him, that Fang woman and some of the others from the church place. I spotted the big troll fella with the RV. But they were in the middle of a firefight, and he was throwing fireballs at someone, looked to be having a crazy time of things."

"Someone else must have taught him that!"

"But anyway, he seems fine and was busy blowing up some ecological despoilers or something. It was pretty noisy, but he seemed to be more than happy, so I left him too it."

"I'm still not happy about leaving him, you know. We told the Brigadier we'd look after him, and his mother."

"He's a grown man and a soldier – he'll be ok. Or as ok there as he would back home. Anyway, after that I called the Maersk guy – Rusty. If you want to worry about someone, worry about this guy. I reckon if he doesn't change jobs in the next year, he's going to have a heart attack. Never seen a man more stressed than that, have you, Shimazu?" The bodyguard didn't speak but shook his head in confirmation. "I think we got interrupted about six times in five minutes of conversation, while I was giving him the code and getting us booked onto the ship. But, we're all sorted you'll be glad to know – the captain will be expecting us, and they're going to make some kind of landing pad for us to set down on – I showed him the picture you took, Aswon, and I think he got it."

"I would be surprised if they could replicate that picture though, even on a large cargo vessel."

"Yeah, he said something like that. I think he said we could get a ring of cargo containers around us, but only one container high. But something about chains and tie down points – hopefully that means something to you, Marius?"

"Can you remember what he said exactly?" Kai just shrugged unapologetically, and Marius scowled at him. "Probably that he can arrange anchor points to run to the landing gear, connecting via chains then – to stop us shifting in heavy seas. It will slow down any take-offs we attempt though if we need to defend the ship. But that is still better than slamming into the containers if we hit rough weather."

"We can always try to cover the craft with the cammo netting once we've landed." Aswon suggested. "It won't hide that there's something there, but it will make identifying us from an overhead shot very difficult. Though again it will slow down any aerial response we might need to launch. Worth it though to avoid being ID'd, in my opinion."

"So that's ok, then. He was pretty easy to deal with, so after that I got in touch with Ludmilla. Had a chat with her, explained where we were and what we were doing, but unfortunately, she's not got anything for us either. She did seem keen, until I told her about how long the boat would take – she muttered something about the biological precursors not lasting long enough and the cargo would be dead by the time we were halfway over – so that was a bust."

"So, we're just on a nice quiet trip back, then?" Aswon gave a sigh of relief and sat back, leaning against the bulkhead.

"I didn't say that. Because then I called Germaine – and we had a really nice conversation. Turns out she'd really enjoyed her little holiday at the ranch, and has gotten back into her riding a bit more, and hunting from horseback. It turns out that the ranch needs much better horses in stock, she was quite firm with me, and told me I needed to sort the situation out." As he looked around the room he could see the slightly defocussed look on several people's faces, and knew they were imagining the conversation themselves. "But once I'd promised to sort that out, I asked her if there was anything she wanted – and it turned out there was. Apparently one of the best makers of shooting jackets is someone called Parker, who works off Madison Square, in New York. They've been making coats for select clientele for over a hundred and fifty years, though it's hard to prove that post-crash – but enough people believe it that it's still taken as the truth. And Germaine has always wanted a jacket from there, but never managed to get one – they're all hand-made to measure, and normally have a hefty waiting time. So I offered to get one for her. I had to be a little bit careful asking for her measurements, of course, but we got that sorted, so Shimazu and I went for a trip to New York."

"It did not go smoothly," Shimazu said, speaking for the first time. They all waited for a moment to see if he'd continue, but it was Kai that carried on with the story.

"We managed to get a lift into the town, and from there headed down to the shore – and I think we found out why the area is so similar, and there's so little variation. When we got near the coast, there's a massive wall and set of sea defences, set back from the beaches. The beaches look ok, nice enough – but once you get past the front and the commercial activity there, there's a good five metre set of breakers built in an almost continuous line as far as we could see. Asked around a bit, and it turns out that ages ago there was a couple of hurricanes, all in the same year. Between the hurricanes themselves, the storm surges and the flooding, the area got really badly hit, wiping out a lot of the towns nearby and killing thousands. After that, a bunch of property developers were able to buy up a lot of the land for cheap from various estates and auctions, and sank some cash into the defences, then marketed the whole area as some kind of retreat or get-away from New York, turning the whole district into some up-market enclave of second homes and rural retreats."

"We managed to get a hydro-foil from the pier on the beach up to New York, and from there we got onto the rail and subway systems to Madison Square. Found the place and it was a proper little snobbery place. Kind of reminded me of the place in Seattle where we got the suits – fussy little people, very upper class and full of themselves. Trying to cultivate an aura of respectability and olde-worlde-charm. Very stand-offish with us to start with, even when I told them what I wanted, saying they were full, had no room on their books or anything like that." Kai suddenly started to grin, his smile full of mischief. "At least until I told them that my employer would be simply devastated not to be wearing a Parkers coat when she went hunting with the Queen later in the season."

The team ogled at him for a moment, wondering what kind of madness he'd been spouting.

"Don't worry, I was careful. I just dropped lots of…hints. We were there on behalf of a British lady, a lady of some bearing. Regal, old money. Very well connected. And then completely separately I discussed some news I saw a while back about the British Royal Family, and how some Viscount had been courting the Princess of Monaco, and that the grand tour this year was all of a flutter about it. I… to be honest, I can't remember what else I said, I was just making it up as I went along – but they were fascinated. It's a strange thing, but America has always been fascinated with the British Royal Family and the aristocracy in general. After that, we managed to make some progress."

"Tell them about the other thing, Kai."

"I still don't know what you mean, Shimazu."

"Tell them!"

"Tell them what?"

"Fine, if you won't, I will. He did something. With his voice. It was like the trick he does that hits the hind-brain, the one that just gets an instant reaction. But this was… refined somehow. It wasn't short either. Every time I've heard him use his special voice before it's only been a couple of words. This was longer… it was a whole statement. He described how happy Germaine would be, and how many people would comment on her new coat, and how in turn people would be jealous, and want one of their own. And I could see it on their faces – just by saying it, he was making it true. He wasn't convincing them – he was telling them a story, but they saw it as the truth."

The others looked at Kai who just shrugged. Aswon and Tads dipped into the astral, checking over his body and saw nothing but the same happy-go-lucky man they normally did, radiating charisma and innocence in equal measures. A dark thought flashed through their minds, at almost the same time, a memory of the mafia goons back in the hills north east of the ranch, and a very different Kai torturing them for information. Innocent and charismatic on the surface, they both knew that deep down there lay something else, something darker at his core. Something worth watching for.

"But the important thing was that they were happy to get a coat made up for us, well for Germaine. So they got to work and we came back. We had a brief bit of excitement on the subway coming out of New York, but Shimazu just went and looked at them when they told me to give up my credstick. Did the thing with the eyes, you know where he just looks like he's staring right through your soul. They tried to grab me, and his hand dropped to the sword, just pulled the blade a little out of the scabbard, and they decided to bug out."

"I should have pursued them. It would have saved trouble later."

"You didn't know, Shimazu – neither did I. We both assumed they were just street thugs, trying it on." He looked around and saw the questioning looks on the faces surrounding him. "So Shimazu scared off the muggers, and we came back here. Got on with stuff for a couple of days, and then we had to go back to do the pickup. So, same as before, and we got in, got the coat picked up along with some stuff for Tads – a whole bunch of special food from the area for her to study and learn how to make. But on the way back, we'd got on the subway again, and were just travelling between stations when we saw a bunch of thugs – very familiar-looking thugs – coming down the car towards us. And despite the security on the train, they'd managed to get a whole bunch of guns onboard as well."

"Fortunately we both had our taser permits on our IDs, so we were armed as well. Though I might have wished that was not the case."

"Hey it was an accident! The train lurched, and people were moving!"

"We took down the first two easily enough. I swapped to a second target and managed to drop them as well – but Kai missed his second ganger, and hit a passenger instead." Shimazu shook his head as he replayed the incident in his mind. "A young lady – took the dart straight in the chest. And there were still three of them armed, and coming towards us."

"So I shouted. Nice and loud – told them to drop their weapons, right there and then."

"And they did. This time he used the Voice, the one we have seen before. Commanded them to drop their guns, and they did. And so did everyone else in the subway car. Briefcases, handbags, skateboards – everything. He actually shouted 'drop it now', so it didn't matter what people had in their hands, they just seemed to let go. Created a hell of a mess. But that gave me enough time to drop another one, and the rest ran then."

"What about the passenger?" Tads asked, voice full of concern.

"We managed to get to her and make her comfortable, checked her over and removed the darts. She'd been incapacitated by the charge, but wasn't hurt – she just needed some time to shake off the effects. But between Shimazu and I, we took care of her. We also managed to restrain the attackers and get their weapons safe, before we hit the next station. Then we had a whole boat load of security storm the car, tripped by someone hammering the panic button."

"Fortunately our identities held when they were scanned by Knight Errant and the Subway security forces, and the fact that we had used only permit controlled non-lethal weapons went in our favour – and the subway police were on the back foot as it was some of their fault that the gang were on the subway with weapons at all. They pulled the CCTV footage from the subway and it showed us responding only after we'd been shot at – and some of the people behind us taking wounds from the attack, so we could argue that we were trying to keep the peace and prevent further loss of life."

"Shimazu was just throwing regulations at them, citing some self-defence laws and cases, and we managed to make it clear that we were just two innocent civilians responding and helping out in a mugging on the subway. It took a couple of hours to get all the paperwork sorted, but we did, and we got back here ok. With Germaine's coat as well, so it's all good!"

"But both your IDs are now tied to a subway assault on a civilian, on the Knight Errant database?" Aswon queried. Kai just waved to him, as if he was shooing flies away. "That's not nothing, Kai – you need to be careful with that kind of stuff. You were lucky to get away without being arrested. Good job Shimazu didn't have that huge cannon of his with him!"

"Yes, but we did get out of there with no charges. And – from what I understand of the process, now that the IDs are registered in another database, with pointers and incidents linked to them, they actually become stronger now."

"Yes, to a certain extent." Hunter screwed up his face, a truly horrifying sight, as he wondered how much detail to go into. "For anyone connected to Ares, in any way, it'll make the ID stronger, as they'll be able to find the references to it. For anyone outside Ares, it won't make a difference at all, as they won't have access."

A short description of international and intercorporate data sharing limitations later, the team settled down for dinner, and their last night on UCAS soil. They had a lazy start to the next day – the Maersk ship wasn't due out of port until 15:00, and they had arranged to meet them outside of UCAS waters to cut down on any issues if they were seen landing on the vast cargo vessel. With plenty of time to kill, they had a lazy and long breakfast after their morning workout, taking advantage of the space in the hanger to stretch out before they boarded the plane again. They hoped they would have the freedom of the ship once they were onboard, but had to be prepared for being confined to their own vessel if the captain turned out to be a pain – and they certainly wouldn't enjoy two weeks cooped up together like that.

Finally, they were ready – the aircraft fully fuelled, all their gear strapped down and squared away, and everyone had their harness on ready for take-off. They rolled out of the hanger and down the taxi-way, drawing just as many envious looks as when they'd arrived, before lining up on the runway for a smooth and gentle take-off, before slowly banking and heading out to sea. The Eugen Maersk was a good forty kilometres from land now – well outside the state territorial line though still well inside the UCAS economic zone, and Marius bought them in at around five hundred metres altitude – Long Island was a faint brown streak on the horizon to one side of them.

The ship was ploughing through the ocean at fifteen knots, her bulbous bow pushing the water aside and generating a huge bow wake that spread off to either side. Heavily laden with cargo, only a faint sliver of red from the lower hull was showing above the water line, the rest of the hull painted the light blue favoured by Maersk. Containers were stacked up six or seven high above the deck both fore and aft, and midships the huge bridge and accommodation section towered up, stretching the width of the ship and rising up good fifteen metres above the top of the cargo area, painted a brilliant white. As they closed they could see forward section of the ship was a jumble of containers, stacked in different heights and layouts, with no consistent level – but to the rear there was a large area that looked even and flat.

The ship was wide enough for twenty-two containers to be laid out in parallel, two sets of six to the outer edges, and two sets of five in the centre. Each of the centre sections appeared to have been filled to the same height, ten containers wide giving over twenty-five metres of clearance, while front to back the space stretched over three container lengths, giving more than thirty-five metres of clearance.

Marius keyed up the radio, sending over the identification code that had been supplied by the dockmaster in New York. A few moments later the radio responded, with an accented voice.

"This is the MV Eugen Maersk to hailing craft. Please respond."

"Maersk, this is…New Fish." Marius grimaced slightly at his call sign – he had to try and get something better sorted out with the others. "We are approaching from your starboard quarter, request landing clearance."

"New Fish? We do not see you."

"One moment, Maersk." He keyed the transponder alive and then called back to Tads, asking her to stop the spirit from concealing them as they closed in. He heard the gasp on the radio as they suddenly appeared on the radar scopes of the container ship, less than two thousand metres away.

"New Fish, your docking location is to the rear of the superstructure. A landing area is prepared. We have a steel sheet laid down to match your gear configuration, bridging the gap between forward containers. Stand by, turning into the wind now."

Marius watched as the ship slowly turned, gradually changing direction to face into the wind. The huge accommodation block would provide a nice wind break at least, shielding him from direct buffeting – though no doubt there'd be some turbulence created to the sides. After a little discussion with the ship's officer of the day, he slid around behind and slowly approached, transitioning to vertical flight and easing over the stern, carefully coming in to land in the prepared area. It wasn't his smoothest landing by far – the ship was rolling slightly from side to side, and he was having to adjust his flight in carefully to avoid clipping the surrounding containers – but he managed to put her down on the plates.

He saw a couple of crew appear from between the cargo containers, dragging out chains and ratchets. Staying well clear of the rotors, they dived under the nose of the aircraft and secured the nose wheel first, then moved around to secure the other bogeys to hold them in place. Only then did Marius throttle down, now he wasn't able to slide across the deck and smash into the single high wall of containers that surrounded them.

The team got ready, bringing only their personal weapons and concealed armour with them, emerging from the side door to follow a waving crew member as he led them forward. As they got close to the edge of the container the crew member held up a hand to stop them, then waited a moment – and as the ship slowly started to roll he timed his step over the gap between the containers for the transition, making sure he wasn't crossing when the ships motion changed. Crossing the gap and looking down they could see why – the gap wasn't wide, probably not enough to fall down – but it seemed to go down forever. In reality it was only about forty metres, but the perspective made it far worse – like looking down the gap in the centre of a staircase.

The team followed their guide over the next two gaps until they reached one of the dividing walls where a proper staircase was located, and from there they picked up the pace, following the crewman as he led them up through the superstructure and to the bridge.

The bridge was large, spread out with lots of space to move around the control stations, and with the two wings leading out to flank either side of the ship making for a space that was sixty metres wide. Unlike the boiler suit the crewman who had escorted them wore, the three crew here were in trousers and shirt. The captain was chatting with another officer, presumably the deck officer Marius had co-ordinated with, but turned to examine them as they entered.

He was a slim man, probably in his late forties or early fifties, with greying hair that was neatly trimmed and a clean-shaven face. He strode over to them, and extended a hand forwards to shake, seeing who would step forward to accept it.

"I am Captain Thomas Lutzein. Welcome aboard the Eugen Maersk."

"Thank you Captain. I'm Kai, and this is Marius our pilot, Hunter our navigator, and our crew Aswon, Shimazu and Tads." He gestured to each in turn, giving them a chance to shake the captain's hand. "I hope our presence isn't too inconvenient for you, and that we'll be no bother to you on our crossing."

"It led to some interesting decisions with our cargo, but nothing too difficult. Now, my first question for you – I take it that you are armed?"

"We are, though we're happy to keep our weaponry on the aircraft."

"I would appreciate it being kept to small arms where possible. Mainly I am concerned about weapons that can damage or compromise our hull or systems. I would prefer for such items not to be moved around the ship, unless required – if we encounter pirates, for instance."

"And if we do encounter pirates? As far as we are concerned, while aboard we are more than happy to aid you and your crew – it's in all of our interests to keep your ship safe."

"Pirates have placed themselves outside, above and beyond the law. It is not for me to say what people outside of my command do to them, no matter how violent or illegal." The Captain stared at them for a moment, stony-faced while his unspoken message sunk in. He probably couldn't ask or condone the use of mercenaries using illegal weapons if he was asked officially – but if they all died a horrible grisly death, then what was there to investigate? "And now for the second question – which, if any of you, are medically trained."

"Ahh, well hopefully that's a good thing – both myself and Shimazu are doctors. We have some medical supplies with us, but they are limited in breadth. But if there are any injuries or ailments we're happy to assist. And Tads is able to perform significant magical healing, if required." The Captain turned towards her and raised an eyebrow slightly, re-evaluating her somewhat.

"Most excellent. And the last main question I have before we assign you quarters – have any of you been formally trained in fire-fighting?" He glanced around and saw the series of head shakes and listened to the mumbled no's. "In that case, I will have the Chief Petty Officer run you though a basic fire drill. It is one of the most serious threats we face at sea, and you should all understand what to do in the case of an emergency."

"No problem there." Kai had noticed the subtle shift in the way the Captain had phrased things, quietly asserting his authority and stating that this would happen, while on the issue of carrying guns he'd made a request. He looked over the man once more, shifting his evaluation up a little. Clearly the man was no fool – though he couldn't imagine a company like Maersk letting a fool be in command of a ship carrying this much cargo. He was probably responsible for millions of Nuyen in terms of ship and the valuables contained upon it, and you didn't get that by being an idiot. But, he'd accepted that there were some things he could probably control, and some things he couldn't. Probably informed that they were mercenaries or shadowrunners, he knew that telling the team to not carry weapons was probably not going to win him any friends and could well see people ignoring his authority – and that would only undermine him in front of his crew. But the safety of the ship – that really WAS important to him, so he was firm on the fire-fighting. Kai smiled a little, letting genuine warmth into his face and voice.

"Captain Lutzein – we will of course attend the course and any training you deem necessary whilst we are aboard your ship, and we'll do everything we can to help you and make this a smooth sailing. And if there is anything we can do to help – or anything we need to stop doing because it's interfering with ship's operations, please let us know and we'll do our best to assist you."

"Thank you, Kai."

"Now, may I know – how may crew do you have?"

"We have eighteen aboard. Why?"

"Well, it just so happens we have a stock of some quite exotic food stuffs that we'd be happy to share. I would guess as you're just pulling out of port that you have plenty of fresh food at the moment, but we have some tropical fruits and other items that might be of interest – including some nice steaks, that we're happy to share. We can get together with your chef or cook, or whoever?"

"That's very generous of you. I will send word to the cook to meet you after the fire-fighting induction. Ahh – here is the Chief now."

Another crewman appeared at the bridge hatch, giving the captain a respectful nod, then waved for the team to follow him down into the accommodation block and to one of the larger rooms used for activities. Furniture was pushed to the side, and laid out on the floor was a selection of hoses, pumps, emergency clothing, oxygen masks and other fire-fighting gear. Over the next hour they were given a crash-course in fire safety aboard the ship, and a brief introduction on how to contain or manage fires if they were discovered until more expert help could arrive.

The Eugen Maersk turned towards Europe, her massive engines driving the ten metre wide propellers through the water, pushing her through the water at a steady fifteen point eight knots, into the early evening gloom.