Tads came back into the house, heading into the kitchen and found the rest of the team there, gathered around the table and looking at a projected map of Europe, the countries looking odd with a distinct wood grain showing as a texture along with the Alps having an odd extension formed by a coffee mug stain.
"Ahh Tads – good." Kai smiled at her. "I was just going to ask someone to come out and get you, but you're here."
"Yes, I was just checking over the formulas."
"Formulas?"
"The spell design I was working on. Well, the one I had designed from my concept." She watched Kai for a moment then sighed a little as he failed to show any signs of enlightenment. "The healing spell that was specially targeted at the non-magical people. It was going to take me a good while to research it, and if I was doing that, I wasn't going to have time to learn some of the other spells we wanted, or to complete my other magical studies or my vision quests. So I outsourced it."
"Oh – to the guy up at the windmill?"
"No. Aslik could have done it, sure – but not to the kind of force I really wanted. He said he could pass it on to someone else, but that would have taken a while, and meant going to someone we didn't know. So I called Popov – the cat shaman from Sochi. They assured me they could do the job, and their rate was very reasonable. So I couriered up what I had worked on so far, and they engineered it into a complete and functional formula, at a nice powerful level."
"How much?" Kai gave a mock flinch, waiting for the figure to land.
"It was just over six thousand – I thought it was very worthwhile, and not that much compared to some of our other purchases."
"Oh, ok – yeah, that's not too bad then. So you've learnt it? Or read it and memorised it?"
"No – not yet. And it's not something you can read. It's… more abstract than that." Tads pulled out her phone, showing him an image on the screen of a complex spider-web of threads, festooned with small coloured beads forming an intricate pattern. "It's going to take me a while to master this – but I should be able to study it in any spare time we have and learn it soon enough.
"Looks just like a pretty pattern to me, so I'll take your word for it."
"Good. Oh, but now it's ready, Hunter – can you release the version I gave you onto the shadow magic thing, for free?"
"Shadowland? Sure. As long as you're certain that's the right thing to do." Hunter saw her nod decisively and tapped a few keys on his phone. "Done."
"That was easy!"
"No – that was prepared. I've had the drop waiting for weeks, I just needed to run a macro to fire off the upload script and route it through a couple of bounces to hide the trail and… " he saw her eyes start to glaze over a little. "Look, I had it ready to go, so it was just a final push needed. But it's out there now. The cork is out of the bottle, and the genie is running riot – or soon will be." He smiled at her look of confusion, and waved his hand in negation, indicating that it wasn't that important.
"Ok. So – why are you all in here anyway? Has something happened?" She asked.
"You could say that – Marius got a message a little while back, from an Ares number. Or something claiming to be an Ares number anyway. It's legit as far as Hunter could see though from the tags and routing information. It says that his implants are ready, and that we need to head to an Ares site near Eindhoven. They need three days notice of our arrival, but then they'll be ready to do the surgery."
"So – are we getting ready to go? I've a bag packed."
"That's what we're just working out." Kai waved for her to take one of the empty seats at the table, then looked over at Marius as he cleared his throat.
"I am happy to take the journey on my own. If I travel from Baku to Constantinople, I can hop onto a flight to Amsterdam, and then transfer to Eindhoven on a local flight. There is no need for the whole team to take the trip."
"I don't like that idea at all." Aswon's head shake was magnified by his dreadlocks, flying left and right as he disagreed strongly. "I don't think there should be any circumstance where one of us goes into a facility like that on our own. I don't trust them – not at all. Someone should be there to supervise. Preferably either Kai or Shimazu, to keep an eye on you medically and make sure their doctors aren't doing anything dodgy to you. And then Tads to make sure you're healed up afterwards as best as can be. And at that point, we might as well come along anyway, to keep an eye on you lot." Aswon gestured towards Hunter with one hand and himself with the other.
"What is it that they're implanting anyway?" Kai asked.
"I do not know. Some kind of experimental cyberware package. This is whatever Erhan arranged with Damian Knight. So, I do not know the specifics."
"Even more reason not to trust them!" Aswon added hotly.
"Well, I am happy to travel up there myself, or with someone else via commercial travel. Or we can go up as a team."
"Who has contacts up that way? Anyone?"
"I have friends in Switzerland and Hamburg – though I have not spoken to either in a year now. But they are the closest people I know."
"Julius for me up in Copenhagen. But he works for Ares, so he's either going to be a really good, or a really bad source of info, depending on how much he feels he could get in trouble or if we test his loyalties.
The team worked around the table, establishing that they were remarkably light on contacts in western Europe at the moment, and certainly nobody had anyone within a few hundred kilometres of the Eindhoven area.
"Ok, so we don't have a lot of backup to call upon, that's for sure. Now – I don't know much about the Netherlands really – and what I do know is mostly to do with Rotterdam. One of the biggest ports in Europe, and it's a major trans-shipment area for goods from around the world. Security is generally quite tight, but there's a very active shadow-scene and smuggler network around there, with some major involvement from organised crime. A lot of stuff flows into the UK under the radar from there, as well as spreading across the rest of Europe from further afield. If we can get at someone willing to give us an introduction, that could help." Kai looked down at the table as the map shifted, then smiled at Hunter who had anticipated his next question and shown the area between Rotterdam and Eindhoven, and even thrown up a map scale showing it was less than a hundred kilometres between them.
"Hmm. That has possibilities then. My contact in Hamburg – Alison – is a shadow talent scout. She probably works with a number of fixers, and may be a suitable route into the area. I will try to contact her later." Marius checked the time on his commlink. "Yes, much later. Unlike you Kai, I wish to remain on good terms with the people I know. She is several hours behind us in time zones, and if I recall was much more of a night person than a morning person. Part of working in that particular field."
"You make one phone call in the middle of the night, and nobody ever forgets…." Kai sighed dramatically, but nobody believed he was in any way repentant. So – we need to get to the United Netherlands then, which as countries go is pretty liberal. I mean, lots of corp presence and stuff. But it's not like trying to get into the Tirs or anything. But they're pretty well developed and don't have massive demands for key items that is likely to create a pipeline we can use.
"Corporate backed constitutional monarchy according to what I can see on Shadowland, with about twenty million population, over seventy percent human with the normal kind of mix of different metas. High levels of corporate affiliation for the population, generally well educated and with a reasonable per-capita income – so bribes are likely to be somewhat higher than normal. Borders are not generally that heavily patrolled, so if we're flying in, we can almost certainly find a good route." Hunter scanned a bit more text then frowned. "Meh – lots of rumours and wild allegations about different corps, but nothing that I'd feel confident about. But we can do more digging if we need to, will just take me a couple of hours to do some research."
Kai pulled out his commlink and hit a few keys, then wandered off to the lounge area and flopped in the corner of the settee having a quick discussion with whoever he'd contacted. The rest of the team took the opportunity to grab a quick break, with Marius going to check on Nadia and Marius Junior, Hunter heading to the toilet and the others grabbing fresh drinks for the table.
When Kai returned, he found the team checking over the map as Hunter moved it around, zooming in on various places and displaying additional data off to the side on his roll out screen.
"We were just discussing the possibility of train travel, rather than air. The Orient Express still runs, and would provide a fairly direct and easy travel route from Constantinople up to either Paris or Calais, which is not too far then." Marius tapped on the table, his finger looking bizarre as the projected image wrapped around the flesh. "There is even a branch route that heads up to Amsterdam, though it does not run as often by the looks of things. It may even be something that Nadia and Junior could accompany me on. The train is quite comfortable, it appears."
"You want to take your wife and baby to an Ares secret facility?" Hunter scoffed.
"No – I want to take them sightseeing to the local towns and cities. They can go on tours, while I go to have the surgery. I have no intention of Ares being involved with them at all."
"I don't know – I don't like the idea of the train at all. It's like a plane, but slower and more vulnerable." Aswon traced the route up from Constantinople with his finger. "Look – you have to cross a whole bunch of borders, all the way along here. So your ID is going to get checked multiple times, so there's loads of opportunities for it to throw up a snag. But also, you're on an entirely predictable path, with no way to deviate from it. You're going to have to check in to get on the train, going through airport-style security and scanning, which means you 're going in without gear. And once you're on there, you're stuck like that for days, if not weeks. Travelling down narrow and tightly controlled rail corridors, in a very predictable pattern. I don't like it…"
"So how far is it? Let's start with the basics."
"The journey is approximately three thousand five hundred kilometres. So we would need to refuel somewhere along the way if we took the tilt-wing, and the same on the way back. And assuming an average price level for the fuel, we are looking at around thirty thousand Nuyen in fuel and maintenance costs."
"How about the truck? I know it's slower, but it's a lot cheaper to run, isn't it?" Tads suggested. "It's got more cargo space as well, especially with the trailer on. But that stops you being as predictable as the train, and is a lot cheaper than flying…"
"That has possibilities." Marius punched in some quick numbers into the keypad on his commlink. "About eight thousand in fuel. But it would take significantly longer, as Tads mentioned."
"Though you can also share the load more easily. I mean, you're the only one that can fly, as far as I know. But both Aswon and Shimazu can drive the truck perfectly fine, and have done before. And that means we could have them do the easier bits like the highway driving, while you do any border crossings over the mountains and things like that. Potentially we could drive for a whole day without more than a few quick stops, and cover a lot of distance."
"Good shout, Tads. Ok – so we're looking at a good couple of hundred Nuyen to fly commercial, pretty quick, but no gear and no cargo to transport. Or we can drive the truck for around eight thousand, and take some cargo with us and share driving. Or we can fly, but spend thirty thousand in fuel, but have the most flexibility and the shortest time." Kai looked around, seeing people nod in agreement with his summary.
"And do not forget the train. It does have some drawbacks, but it may be that travelling as a family helps conceal my presence. And if we took the train, there is nothing to stop the rest of your travelling by truck?"
"I've just done a very basic search. No direct flights from Baku, but if you go from Baku to Tblisi, you can change and get to Schipol easy enough, then it's a couple of hours on the train to Eindhoven. Or, we know the route up past Tblisi to the Black Sea and down the coast road through Turkey to Constantinople to pick up the train – and we probably know someone in the city that we can leave the truck with."
"We probably want to be careful in Turkey, given what we saw when we were flying over. But yes, we have at least driven the route before."
"If we do go by truck, we should get Nadia involved. Well, to be honest, I think we should be involving Nadia anyway, if we're discussing Marius being away from her and the baby. But I think her knowledge of the shipping and haulage business would be invaluable to planning the route."
"Good point, Tads. But I also think we should be reaching out to our other contacts, and seeing if we can find some work along the way. If we can find a cargo to transport that is somewhere along our route, that might help cover the cost of the fuel, and get us some more contacts for the future. And if we're careful about how we describe our trip, that might swing how we travel."
"What do you mean, Aswon?"
"Well, Kai – if we just say we're travelling from this area to the United Netherlands, but don't mention how or timescales, and see what job offers we get, we can plan based on that. If we get someone wanting us to smuggle… oh – diamonds say, out of the Netherlands and take them to Constantinople, then they're probably wanting fast transport in something direct, so we'd want to take the bird. But if it was someone wanting to shift eight hundred thousand copies of this year's greatest trideo hits chips, then it might have the same kind of overall value, but it's a much bulkier cargo and might be better in the truck – but they're also probably happy with it taking a week or two for delivery."
"Ahh, ok – I see what you mean. Alright, let's break up for a few mins and make some calls, then meet back here at eleven and see what we have. Ok? Ok." The team slid back in their chairs, grabbing their commlinks and moving away to make calls to their contacts, looking for work along the way.
When they reconvened, Kai was first off the mark with some news.
"Right, I was thinking about getting in touch with Ludmilla or Germaine, to see what they might have. But as Aswon pointed out, Ludmilla especially, we could have ended up with some job to go and find some horrifically toxic or venomous creature. So I decided to hold off and instead I've been in touch with Ganesh, my dude down in Kathmandu. He was the one I was going to be working with if we did end up heading to south-east Asia, deals with all kinds of work. And he's found us a job – and it doesn't sound too bad. At least not venomous."
"What are we hunting?" Aswon asked, a sinking feeling forming in his stomach.
"An eagle. Or rather an Imperial Eagle. I'm not sure what the difference is, but it's a specific type anyway. Turns out that the Paris Zoo is crying out for one, and some dealers can sort out paperwork for us and buy a healthy specimen for some good money – somewhere around fifteen grand for a top flight example. So I figure that's a good start – covers half a tank of fuel or so anyway!"
"Oh – ok, that's not so bad. Though trapping an eagle might be tough." Aswon racked his brain, trying to think if he'd ever seen or interacted with an Imperial Eagle. "From what little I know, they're pretty big – talking a wingspan that can top four metres or so, and over a metre in length. Probably weighs about the same as a five or six year old kid, to give you an idea on size. And the mountains north of here are pretty good actually – likely to be a good spot to hunt something like that."
"Any special powers or things we need to be wary of?"
"Apart from talons as big as your hand and a beak as tough as a drill bit – um… superb vision, but I mean that's hardly uncommon in birds of prey. And it may well have exceptional agility and speed. I do remember hearing someone say that they have some ability to control the weather, but I've only heard that from one person, so it's not confirmed. But otherwise it's a massive bird of prey. If we can trap it in a box and keep it dark and calm, we'll probably be ok. And Tads – we'll need lots of meat."
"Alright, so that sounds doable then." Kai grinned. "And I figure if we're up in the mountains for a week looking for something like that, we can keep our eyes open for anything else magical up there as well and either take that along to the same dealers, or just find someone else looking to purchase."
"Oh – one other thing, I just remembered. I seem to recall them specifically targeting polluters and environmental terrorists – loads of reports of them taking out groups with attacks and making their journeys hell. That concerns me."
"Why? I mean we're pretty heavily armed and stuff."
"No, Kai – it's what it might signify. If it's able to conceptualise the idea of polluters and work out who is doing it, that's very close to a definition of sentience from my point of view – which puts us in the same place as when we were talking about taking on naga. If it's a creature with an agenda and the ability to think and reason, then I'm not going to hunt it for money."
"Ahh, I see. Fair enough. Well, we'll investigate further then on just how clever these things are. In the meantime, did you have anything?"
"No – I have no contacts in that area, and nobody really suitable for a job. I did wonder about heading up to the Quarry, or in that direction – but as I was mulling it over, I was thinking we probably want to steer clear of Russia for a while and the Brigadier in particular. I think we made some waves when we were last there, and heading further east, and we might still attract attention from the authorities. And overall, I think we should avoid that if possible. So my vote is to steer clear of Russia if we can, and head through Turkey on our routing."
"Ok – noted. What about you?" Kai worked through first Hunter, then Shimazu and Tads, coming up without any real leads on jobs. Fortunately, Marius had a nibble, that sounded promising.
"I have a pair of leads. The first is Georgi, who is from Tiblisi."
"The Golem guy?"
"Indeed. He wanted to know where we were headed in general, and I gave him a rough area of operations. He asked for some critter parts from Poland, from a specific creature. Though I do not think you will like it."
"Whhhhhyyyy?" Aswon once again had a sinking feeling.
"Because the creatures are known as 'Warbears', from the deep forests. Very large, very dangerous and very belligerent by all accounts."
"Oh, well, that's great. Hunting Juggernauts with fur! He'd better be offering some damn good money!"
"He was offering in excess of forty thousand Nuyen for a good collection of claws, teeth, bones and other organs."
"That… ok, that's not bad. I mean, it's not fantastic – but it's not bad. Certainly worth looking into. They're not a creature I've ever really heard of before though, let alone tangled with, so we should definitely do some research on them."
"Based on our experiences with critters so far, and shape-shifters in particular, I think we should be ok." Shimazu tapped the hilt of his sword. If you can keep my flanks secure, and give me room to work, I think I'm happy to go toe-to-toe with most things, and I can try to go for a clean kill to preserve the value of the creature. I'm pretty sure I've heard of the creatures by another name – very tough armoured hides, huge and powerful – but solitary creatures that lair deep in the forest. So we should be able to approach and attack one on its own. And if they do prove to be very tough, well, there's four of us now with magically attuned weapons. Though I think you do need more practice still, Kai.
"That sounds like a distinct possibility, then. What's next?"
"Before we move on to that, there is a potential problem with the first job – being in Poland. Because next to Poland is Germany, and that is somewhere I do not wish to travel to. I judge the risk to be much too great to casually go anywhere near home."
"Do you know where in Poland we need to be for these bears?" Hunter asked, but Marius just shook his head. "Well, ok. I'll see if I can find a likely spot. But if we're in the north of Poland, we can just break out to the seaward side and fly towards the Nordic countries for a bit, then swing back south, and just loop around Germany – no need to go into the country at all, then."
"That would be much better, I feel. Very well. The second job was a lead from a gunsmith I know in Ankara, Turkey. They are after a retrieval job, but were very tight lipped on the target. Would not give me any more information until I had some indication on if we would be willing to do the job or not. But by the sounds of things, they were after a team to do an infiltration or raid into a location, and then retrieve a specific item."
"Well, that sounds doable. Do we have an indication on where?"
"Halys said it was on the Black Sea coast – so all of northern Turkey, the southern end of Russia, Crimea, Ukraine, Odesa, Romania and Bulgaria are all possibilities."
"Well, we're heading that kind of way, maybe. Want to give them a call and see if we can get more information?"
"Very well." Marius hit the contact up in his address book and then set his commlink to broadcast so everyone could hear them. After a few squawks and chirps the other end started to beep and then was picked up. "Halys, Marius again. I am with the rest of my team, discussing the job opportunity. You are on speaker, so they can all hear you. Can you give us a few more details – we are interested in the job."
"Marius – you I know… these others, I don't. I take it you're not with your old employers anymore? What can you tell me?"
"No, I am not with SK anymore. We have been working independently for a year now, providing goods and specialist supplies across borders to hard-to-reach places." There was a snort from the other end of the line as Halys read between the lines on what exactly that meant. "We have an armed tilt-wing with good range and stealth, and a moderate cargo bay, and a team of six including myself. Negotiator, sniper, recon specialist, bodyguard and shaman. All as good in their own areas as I am with flying."
"Oh – ok. That's a good mix of skills. And the transport makes a good fit. What kind of heat are you packing?"
"The vehicle has multiple heavy machine guns, though we try not to use them if we can help it. Sniper has a 12.7mm specialist weapon, recon has a heavy assault rifle and a light auto-cannon if need be. After that, heavy pistols, tasers and some potent magical spells."
"Well, that definitely sounds the right sort of throw-weight then. Ok, look, I'm after a fairly small item, should fit in a briefcase. Light weight, safe to transport and very valuable."
Aswon suddenly looked up as two pieces of a puzzle snapped together in his head. Then he snorted to himself, a big grin spreading across his face, and he gave a small chortle out loud.
"Huh. For a moment I wondered if it was that bloody 1911 we were after…"
"What do you know about that!" The voice was suddenly tense and sounded slightly hostile.
"We were in the UCAS a little while back, and someone asked us to do a job on an auction house where a very unique piece was up for sale. We declined – we had other work on, and it was too short notice and sounded like a bad deal at the time."
"Hrumph. Well, it sounds like you know the piece then. It was purchased a couple of months ago, and is now being held in a private collection, and is likely to never see the light of day again. And I have a client who wants it. I have some information on the current owner, the guard force and defences and the location. And if you can do a quick job to get in, grab the item and get out, there's thirty thousand ready for you."
"Thirty? That sounds a little low…"
"It's a very simple job. As long as you are as competent as Marius says you are."
"Ok Halys, calmly." Marius pulled the commlink closer to him, and let his eyes flick around the table. "It sounds like we are happy to do the job. Is there a time limit on this?"
"Not specifically, but I would suggest in the next month. The longer it is before you hit the target, the more likely it is that the intel will go out of date. I can provide you with information on the rough layout of the location, details on the guard force and some indications on the security systems though, which should make the job a breeze if you have the right skill mix to take advantage of it. Which is why the pay is thirty."
"Ok, that sounds doable. Send us what you have, and we will work out a plan. Where do we need to drop it off to you?"
"Not with me – get it and get out, then get hold of me. I'll send you a one-shot burner number, and we can work out the drop off location and transfer once you have the piece and you're away clean."
"Very well. We do need to know the rough location of the target though, for planning our travel route."
"Sevastopol."
"Ok, we will start work on the planning then. Send over what you have and we will be back in touch." The other side of the call dropped, and Marius shut off his commlink, checking that the call was fully terminated before looking up again. "That could complicate the route we take."
"Maybe… maybe not. Hunter, can you show us a big… ah thanks." Aswon stood up and leant over the table, pointing at the map with a long, slender black finger. "Ok, we start off here at the ranch. How about we head up across Tbilisi way, over into Russia and towards Sochi – we know we can fuel there with Marius's friends at the Olympic centre. Then across the Black Sea and to the Crimea, and to the target. Hit that and do the job – details to be worked out once we have the dossier. Then we fly back towards Tbilisi but break off before we get there, and drop into the mountains. Disappear for a week, and go look for Eagles and other magical stuff. Go completely off-grid. That should get rid of any tails we may have and let the heat die down. Then, we head south-west into Turkey, across to Constantinople and up through Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, across the top of the Italian Federation, skirting through the Alps and around into France – then turn north towards Paris and drop off the bird, assuming we have one."
As he traced the route out, Hunter added some waypoints and route marks to the map, highlighting the proposed journey.
"Then onwards to Eindhoven for the surgery, and a few days there of recovery. Then we continue north, out over the North Sea, cut across Denmark or follow the waterways and loop back down into Poland – bypassing Germany. Find and kill some bears, then head south-east back into Ukraine, across the sea and back home. Sure, we double up a bit at the start – but this lets us hit all of the jobs we have a lead on, in a somewhat logical order. We don't have the bird captive while trying to do a B&E job. We drop the bird off as quickly as we can. We don't stay in any one place too long… what do you think?"
"It's a long route. I make it eleven and a half thousand klicks all told." Hunter totted up the journey, highlighting the length of each leg. "But most of it is over land, so we can refuel wherever we find a good spot. And if we top up at Sochi there and back, that makes the first leg easy. We can try to hit up Patrik's contact in Bulgaria in the marshes near the airport as well. I'm sure we can find a few other stops around too. I like it."
"So, if we can hit all three jobs – that's forty for the bears, thirty for the gun and fifteen for the bird right?" Kai checked his maths and looked around. "So we're talking eighty five thousand for the jobs, plus whatever we get for any extra materials we find out in the wilds. That seems doable – we're certainly not losing as much money as just taking the trip there and back with no work!"
"Let's see what the dossier has to say when it gets here, and if we need to make any special preparations. But I agree – being paid should make this pretty much cost neutral. Provided that we don't get stiffed by anyone, or run into anything crazy."
"Huh, what are the chances of that!"
"Oh Kai. Why did you have to say that…"
