Sunday 13/2/2061, Location: 41.88885, 44.78971, Time 00:30

The tilt-wing approached the ranch, Marius gradually easing upwards a little to come in from the upland side of the helipad and try to avoid too much noise and wind impact on the house itself. At a command from his vehicle deck, the encryption system fired up and sent a coded sequence to the ground system and the infra-red lamps illuminated the pad as clear as day to those with augmented vision or vehicle sensors. He approached slowly, checking the wind speed and direction, confirming that the pad was clear and that no spooked critter was going to run out across his path as he came in to land.

Once he was secure on the ground and all the systems were powered down, he left the chopper behind, following Hunter and Shimazu as they headed to the back door. A swipe of Hunter's meaty paw on the reader and a quick code entry persuaded the security system that they were legitimate visitors and they were able to enter the darkened house, small and discreet globes of light from the night-lights giving just enough illumination for a child to wander the house and make it to the bathroom without injury – but once again making the place as clear as day for the runners. They headed upstairs at a steady pace, peeling off into their respective rooms and leaving Marius to head down the corridor to his own room.

He made a conscious effort to be quiet and subtle as he eased open the door, lifting it slightly by the handle to take weight off the hinges so it didn't squeak, then squeezing through the opening and easing it shut behind him, trying to limit the light spilling into the room. His efforts were wasted though – Nadia awoke as soon as he entered the room, her senses attuned to the movement of the baby and stirring her from her dreams as they registered change in her environment. She was still half asleep as she wandered over towards the crib, checking on Marius Junior before sliding into his arms to give him a warm embrace, her hands reaching up to cup his face and tug him down for a passionate kiss of welcome.

As her hands grasped him, though, she stopped and froze, and he felt her body tense up as she detected the change in texture. Without a word she released him and stepped back, moving to turn on a small lamp by the side of the bed so she could see him. The baby stirred slightly, but then burbled to itself and slumbered on, and Nadia approached him with concern.

"Marius? What happened? Have you been in a fire?" She spoke quietly and kept her voice low, facing away from the crib and examining him as best she could in the dark. Unlike him, her eyes were un-enhanced, and he was not well lit.

"A fire? No. Why?"

"I had a friend when I was back home, her clothes caught fire while she was cooking. She had to wear a plastic mask while the skin was growing back.

"No, this is not a mask. It is my skin."

"I don't understand. It's not your skin – your skin was soft, and nice."

"Well, this is my new skin. It is as a result of the surgery we went to get done."

"I don't like it. Take it off."

"It is not that simple. This is not a coat or item of clothing. There is no zip."

"I don't care. I don't like it, take it off." Her voice rose to a hiss, and the baby stirred once more.

"It is new, and I was not expecting it either. But it is still early after the surgery. I hope the skin will settle down, and become more normal. It is still very soon after implantation. Give it time."

"Well, get it uninstalled, then. It's not right."

"It is not as simple as that. We did not know they were going to do it, but once done it is not simple to remove it."

The conversation went back and forth a few more times, with Marius finding new ways to let her know that it was implanted, attached, and connected to him in a way that meant it was not going to be easily removed, and Nadia becoming more and more stubborn, reiterating her desire for him to stop being stubborn and do as he was told. In frustration, both of their voices rose, until with a plaintive wail, Marius Junior joined the conversation. Nadia immediately scooped him up and started to bounce him gently up and down, making shushing sounds as she stroked his head and tried to calm him back towards sleep.

Marius took a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling, squashing his temper and initial response and then slowly exhaled, before grabbing a pillow and a throw and letting himself out of the room, heading downstairs towards the waiting couch.

He wasn't sure, but he thought he might have heard a snigger from Hunter's room as he passed…

Back at Songbird's ranch, Aswon relaxed in the rocking chair next to Georgi and tried listening to some of the music, and sampling some drink. The music was definitely not to his taste, but the alcohol was smooth and pleasant, and outweighed the odd vocals of the Georgian music. Kai continued his browsing, studying the posters, concert tickets, backstage photos and memorabilia that decorated the room with interest, occasionally tapping in a name to his PDA to see what was publicly listed about them.

That left Tads and Songbird on the couch, explaining theories to each other, and negotiating for spell knowledge. Tads ended up leading Songbird outside for a moment and then using her illusion magic on the vehicle outside, disguising it as a variety of other vehicles and masking its true origins. Songbird seemed most keen on that little trick, compared to the other spells, and they stayed up until almost dawn while Tads taught her the spell – or at least the theory behind the spell. She'd need to spend a lot more time to master the intricacies of actually casting it, but having seen the form of the spell and how it actually was cast, and having Tads explain to her how it felt – and then imparting that same knowledge with a mind-link, certainly helped her acquire the knowledge she needed to do so.

They headed to bed at around five – the rest of the team and Georgi having long since found a bed to lie in and get some rest. Tads was pretty sure that Aswon would be up in a few minutes, if his normal routine was anything to go by, but she wasn't going to worry too much about him or what he'd get up to, he was after all, more than capable of amusing himself for several hours just by breathing in a controlled fashion…

The morning came with various states of discomfort for different members of the team. Marius woke as the first of the family came downstairs to make coffee and head out to tend to the horses. As he lay there, he heard them trying to creep around and be quiet, with the normal consequence of seemingly manage to scrap, knock, bang or grate anything they could in their normal routines all while shushing each other and trying not to disturb him. He'd not slept well at all, the argument with Nadia having been churning through his head, and his anger with the Ares corporation simmering away for what they'd done to him. Shimazu appeared soon after, and he also didn't look well rested. After grabbing a small thermos of cold juice and some food, he opened the back door, announced that he was heading up into the hills to meditate and left, letting the door bang shut behind him. With Marius clearly having slept on the couch and Shimazu apparently also in a funk, the family were somewhat cautious, and Marius saw them keeping the volume of their conversations low.

Neteri and her two children, Allaya and Sofietta were next to appear, with the kids chattering away at the breakfast table oblivious to the apparent mood of the room. While they were getting ready, Rusudan and his two children – or rather young adults – headed out to go deal with the horses and take care of business around the ranch, leaving his wife Naena to discuss the cleaning schedule with Neteri for the day. Part-way through, they heard Nadia coming downstairs, with Marius Junior held tightly to her. She headed straight over to the breakfast table and got Junior settled into the crook of her arm and started to work on breakfast. As she tried to grab her food one handed, Allaya, the oldest of the two girls offered to take him and hold him for a while.

"No, is fine. Marius – here, you can take him." She lifted up the baby and held him out, one hand supporting his neck and head, the other holding his body, and Marius hustled over to gently scoop the baby into his arms. Feeling the transition, the baby tried to nuzzle in, and then made a face as he encountered the plasticy skin. As Marius lifted him up to hold him more upright, the baby ended up next to his face, and his lips encountered Marius's chin.

A moment or two later, the baby was gumming at him, testing and tasting him, while pudgy fingers flailed wildly for a few moments, poking at his cheek and the side of his head. Apparently neither the taste nor texture was to his liking, and a howl of frustration burst out of him, the sound surprisingly loud given his small stature.

"See, I told you. You should take it off." Nadia had put down her slice of toast and then hurried over to reclaim the child, who buried his head into her shoulder and started to chew on her hair, burbling unhappily to himself until the reassuring scent, taste and texture reassured him that things were back to normal.

"I told you – I cannot do that. It is surgically implanted. I did not ask for this. I do not want this. But this is what I have."

"Give me the doctor's number, I will call him and talk to him. They are in France somewhere, yes? Maybe Muslim, maybe not. But he will listen to me, I will make him." Marius Jr gave a kick and a small wail, wondering why the familiar sound and shape of his mother was suddenly bristling with rage, and add his own small feelings on the matter to the situation.

"It is not that simple. We went to a black clinic – I do not even know where it was. I was taken to the clinic in a vehicle with no windows, sedated and then operated on. I have no idea where it was, or who the doctors were, and I have no way of contacting them. There is NOTHING I can do about this."

"Well, I still don't like it. You should take it off." Marius rolled his eyes upwards and had to take a deep breath as Nadia circled back to her default position once more. He was about to try and calmly state that this wasn't going to happen when he heard the thudding footsteps of Hunter as he came down the stairs.

"Morning all," he yawned, heading for an empty seat and then grabbing a cup of coffee before making an assault on the pile of bread in the centre of the table. "So what have you been up to, Nadia?"

"Well, we have been busy. Looking after the baby of course, but Allaya and Sofietta have been very good and helpful with that, and that has left me able to spend some time outside." She turned to the two girls and gave them a smile and nod of approval. "I have managed to find a garage that was shutting down, and purchased their facility at a very good rate, and got it transported here. One of the sheds has been converted, and now has a full set of hydraulic ramps and a good selection of tools. The local men have dug me a small inspection pit, but that could be improved. And ideally we need to move to a higher facility with more headroom – but this is good enough for cars and small pickup trucks at the moment."

"Sounds good. So not big enough to lift the truck up yet, but you're working on it?"

"Yes. And I have a big plan too for the ranch. I have been researching, and buying some parts." She reached for a pad and keyed it alive, then started tapping away one handed. The elder of the girls came over and scooped up the baby from her arm, moving down two seats and then holding Marius Junior firmly and started to sing some local nursery rhyme to him, freeing up Nadia's other hand.

"Thank you. So – I have big plans. This is the local area." She bought up a very low-resolution map, and Hunter tried not to wince at the blocky details and lack of clarity, instead nodding in agreement. "I have ordered some pipe, and done some surveys. Ideally I need the witch here, to dig me some holes, down to the water table. It is quite deep here, but under good conditions, so the water should be clear."

"Wells? I mean sure, one is good. Two for a backup. But these are a fair way from the house – and you have four of them?"

"Yes, for the pipes!" She tapped some keys and a spider web of lines grew out from the well locations, covering huge amounts of land. "I have ordered about eight kilometres of pipe to go around the locations I have drawn, and some pumps and solar generators. From the material I have read, they should be sufficient to draw water to irrigate the land sufficiently to let us plant trees and crops and other vegetation."

"Uh huh?" Hunter put a crooked finger on the tablet and swung it round so he was viewing it the right way up, then paged forward to look at the technical notes and calculations that Nadia had made, listening with half an ear as she described different types of bushes and shrubs to stabilise the slopes up into the hills, some fast-growing trees to anchor the bottom and provide some cover against the wind, as well as clearly marking the edge of the property, and the bushes, hedges and other plants used to build up cover around the swimming pools, activity areas and to line some of the trails up into the hills, providing shade and some measure of privacy.

"No one's ever going to accuse you of thinking small, are they!"

"This will all work! At least I'm pretty certain it will…"

"No Nadia – it'll work ok. I just mean it's a big project. I don't know how much it's going to cost but…" he paged forward again and found the balance sheet, and then smiled as he saw the cost breakdown for the second hand pipes, the allowance for local labour, an analysis of the cost savings if Tads were to do the earth-moving and pipe-laying compared to conventional digging and a host of other factors. "Ok, so I do know how much it's going to cost. And I want to be here when you give Kai the bill. But you absolutely should do this!"

Marius had moved around behind her and had gently laid a hand on her shoulder, and had been nodding along as she explained her plan, with a supportive look on his face. He looked up at Hunter with a flash of surprise, much as she did.

"Oh, in terms of irrigation, your numbers look fine, and I see why you're using four wells. Splitting up the total coverage puts less pressure on the system, and you can use smaller impellers, and lower footprints on your infrastructure. And of course a pump failure won't take out the whole system." He paged back and forth a few times, then studied the data carefully for another minute, unaware or uncaring that all the other conversation had stopped as they waited for him to finish.

"Your geological survey looks sound, and I agree with you on the stratum of the rocks and the likely depth of the aquifer. The plants look spot on, and should do the job you want, and the use of the shrubs and other low-lying botanical system on the slops will help stabilise them a great deal, and that's going to cut down on dust storms and run-off, and help a lot with erosion. Likewise the trees once they're established will create large areas of shade, and that will really help things along in places, as well as stabilise the soil a great deal AND give us a good perimeter. It's also going to really attract birds and insects, along with other wildlife, and give the local ecology a good leg up." He stopped and gave her a nod of approval, then tapped on the pipework.

"The stuff you have here, 150mm mostly from what I can see, should give you good pressure around the system, and we can run spurs off for sprinklers, taps and water pits, maybe even make a few ponds once the shade is established, and that's going to help the wildlife and plants a huge amount – more than you can maybe imagine. What you've got here is a small terraforming project – and given the prevailing wind and how green it is on the other side of the highway, up on the other side of the valley, we're in an ideal position here. Putting this lot down will trap a lot of moist air that otherwise might rise up and over the hills, heading eastward. Instead some of it – not much, but enough, I think – well that'll get trapped down here, and we should see some good improvements to the land and soil, and a chance to maybe even sow grass and get a paddock or meadow out of it, for the horses."

"The only thing it's likely to do that might be an issue is alter the weather pattern up on the top of the hill – it's going to disrupt the traditional weather and wind patterns up there a bit, having the line of trees screening it, and we might see more stuff like dust-devils and sandstorms up on the far side of the ridge. But I think it's well worth the risk of that for the benefits down here. And besides – if we do get that kind of change up there, we just get some para-sailing equipment in, or some wind-karts and make it a feature."

"Para Sailing?" Naida asked, and Hunter smiled at her and went to get his deck, looking forward to introducing her to a whole new world of potential sporting activities to run at the ranch – safe in the knowledge that Kai was going to be the one that would have to pay for it…

Over to the north of Tbilisi, the rest of the team had arisen and broken their fast, the robotic servitors bringing out an array of products for them to feast upon. Tads was tired and looked slightly bleary-eyed after spending so much of the previous night teaching Songbird the spell formula. Aswon was also uncharacteristically quiet, though he'd had more than enough sleep to serve the purpose – unfortunately his body control and ability to get by on two to three hours sleep a night did nothing to dispel a hangover any faster than usual, and he and Georgi both sat with their heads lowered, limiting the amount of light they had to deal with. Only Kai seemed reasonably chipper, and he was engrossed in reading, still looking up details of the various bands and groups that Songbird had posters or albums of.

Once they'd eaten and drunk – and Georgi had managed to knock back at least four cups of thick, black, and most importantly strong coffee, they started to tidy up and get ready to leave. Georgi headed out to start the car, giving Songbird a brief hug and a kiss on each cheek, leaving Tads, Kai and Aswon to say goodbye to their new acquaintance.

Tads made her usual offer, asking Songbird if she had any sealable containers, so that she could replace some of the food they'd used. At first their host seemed hesitant, but seemed to back down under the pressure from Tads' earnestness, and fetched a few pots, watching as they were filled with oats, honey, and some fresh fruit. After a smile and a nod, Tads headed out to the car to join Georgi – unaware that both Kai and Aswon were smiling at her back and waving Songbird to be quiet. When she was safely out of earshot, Aswon spoke – quietly.

"Don't worry about it, she does that to everyone she likes. I think it's a tribal thing. You don't have to use it."

"I don't even know if I can?" Songbird double-checked that Tads was really out of earshot, but still lowered her voice. "All of my stuff comes out of packets – I just get it delivered every few weeks and they load the robots up… I'm not even sure what to use this stuff for!"

"Oh." Aswon looked stunned for a moment, then glanced over at Kai, who likewise looked a little stumped.

"I guess I can give it away in the village to someone – better than it going to waste."

"Sounds like a plan. Well, it was nice to meet you – and I'm sure we'll be in touch. But we should get going, and not keep Georgi waiting." They filed out, with a wave as she closed the door, before jumping into the big off-road vehicle and watching as Georgi adjusted his shades and pulled out down the rutted drive, heading for the main road back to the city.

After the initial kilometre of unpaved track they hit a more maintained road and picked up speed, heading south and down out of the hills and down towards Tbilisi. Their speed dropped again as they closed on the outer limits of the built up area and hit traffic, but they'd missed the worst of the rush hour, and soon enough they were at the central station, Georgi waving them farewell as he returned to his office to catch up on work.

This was where they discovered the problem. There was in fact a service from Tbilisi to Baku. There were even two trains a day – at eight thirty in the morning and the same again in the evening. Aswon studied the timetable and blinked his eyes a few times, wondering if he was still really drunk – because what he saw didn't make much sense.

"This can't be right. It says the journey time is…eleven hours? That's… not right? Surely?"

The others checked, confirming that it was right – or at least what was claimed on the timetable. After double checking, they headed off to find a surly-looking employee of the train station in the heavily-armoured information desk and checked with them. She confirmed that it was an eleven-hour journey – provided the weather wasn't too bad of course, and provided them with a list of prices. If they travelled in standard class the journey would cost them nine Nuyen each, in a car with basic benches. If they wanted to go upmarket, then a first-class ticket was twenty-seven Nuyen instead, but got them in a car with upholstery and access to flushing toilets. Or, if they wanted to go all out – then a sleeper ticket would cost them a huge forty Nuyen each.

After a little discussion, the team purchased four sleeper tickets, at least guaranteeing them privacy in one of the two four-berth sleeper suites, then sent a message back to Marius informing them of their delayed journey and significantly later time of arrival in Baku.

"So, what are we going to do for the next ten hours? I don't want to stay here!" Kai exclaimed, looking around the barren and bleak train station.

"We could go looking around the city for a talismongers or spell shop? See if we can find any materials or something interesting?"

"Better than nothing I suppose, Tads. You ok with that, Aswon?"

"Yes, fine. I would prefer to be somewhere with less echo." He glowered around the large stone structure, then led the way to the door, blinking in the harsh winter light at the square beyond and the mass of traffic snarling up the roads surrounding the station. After blinking a few times, he led the way to a map displayed on a large board, and started to study the area.

"The main shopping area is that way," he gestured to the north of the station, "and covers both sides of the main road, for about seven hundred and fifty metres, then it looks to go to non-retail commercial for a while. And if we do go further on, then veer east, that way is the zoo. I am somewhat curious about that."

"Well, it's not like we don't have time. Let's go see if we can find a talismonger or anything, then."

The trio headed to the shopping area, wandering past the usual array of department stores, boutiques, chain stores and international brands and small local affairs. They couldn't find what they were looking for on the main or side streets, but by wandering down enough of the small alleyways and very small service roads, eventually they did find something that claimed to be a 'magic shope'. Tads studied the outside window display, resplendent with artificial cobwebs, a cauldron and a row of brightly coloured bottles labelled with 'arcane runes' and didn't feel confident.

She headed inside, but was back out again within two minutes.

"Nope – not for us."

"Why not?" Aswon leant against the outer edge of the building, sipping at a bottle of water and waiting for the painkillers he'd purchased from the next door chemist to kick in and finally see off the last of the hangover.

"Well, most of what they have in there is fake. I'm very sceptical about creams guaranteed to keep immortal elves away, as well as 'dragon-sight resistant window screens', along with a spray bottle of 'ghoul-b-gone'. The only thing I did find that was in any way magical was a few bits of warding materials, but they wanted nearly double normal street price for those. And the shop-keeper was slimy." She shuddered. "I didn't let him touch me – but he actually looked like he was sweating at the prospect of a potential sale. So no, that's not a place for us."

"To the zoo, then?"

The others nodded in agreement and they worked their way back to the main road and headed north east, out of the main business district and towards the large reservoir that covered the entire flank of the town. The zoo lay on the outskirts of town, beyond several rows of dilapidated and cheap housing, and when they saw the corner of the fence, it didn't bode well. Sagging, rusted and with noticeable holes in the large-scale mesh, it didn't look well maintained or provisioned at all. They headed further down the road, towards the 'main entrance', and found the fence didn't noticeably improve in quality until they got much closer to the concrete buildings that flanked the entrance road – both of which had flaking paint and were dirty and dishevelled.

After paying for three tickets and entering the zoo, the situation didn't noticeably improve. Facilities were spartan, battered and old, paths cracked and the zoo itself was very low quality. There were relatively few exhibits – mostly centred around a few huge paddocks holding bears, wolves, camels, deer, goats and some smaller critters. Unlike more glamourous and no doubt better funded zoos elsewhere, there was no insect or reptile houses, no aviaries full of exotic birds, no biome-controlled enclosures with marvels from around the world. It was very much a case of just carving off an area and almost letting it run wild, and throwing half a dozen animals in that fitted the environment.

Many of the pens were dirty and in a poor state of repair, with litter piled up against fences that sagged dangerously in places. The animals did at least look reasonably well-fed, with no signs of malnutrition or injury – though many were torpid or moved as if afflicted with malaise.

"Not exactly an enriching environment, is it?" Aswon muttered, a sharp edge to his voice. As they wandered around, he started to pay as much attention to the keepers and staff as he did to the animals. "People seem to be split into two groups – young, naïve and hopeful, and older, bitter and more jaded." They saw him assensing people as they moved around, trying to get a feel for the place, and he also was spending a fair amount of time checking out the security situation as well – locks on doors, camera positions, drone coverage and guard schedules.

Tads found the place a little depressing, but an idea occurred to her – she waited until they were isolated from the small number of other visitors at the zoo, who were wandering around just as listlessly as some of the animals.

"I've had a thought. Do you think we could put some funding into this place? Maybe get some control over it?"

"Possibly? I mean – I'm sure we could. I don't think it's going to cost much to get onto the board of directors or list of benefactors in a place like this!" Kai looked around at the signs of under-investment that were obvious no matter where you stood in the zoo. "Why… oh, I see. I suppose a zoo does make a good place to launder money through. Lots of small transactions, lots of miscellaneous expenses, concession stands, gift shop – huge number of visitors. Well, large number of visitors. Ok – some visitors, with the number hopefully going up if you stop the place being rubbish…" Kai trailed off as he waved around them.

"No – that's not what I meant! Though I suppose that's true enough. I was thinking if we were involved in the zoo someway, and had access to records and things, then moving paracritters around or getting vet certificates to authenticate animals might be a lot easier!"

"Oh? Yeah, I suppose it would – good idea."

"They do need someone on the board that would care about the place a bit – it's clear the current ones don't!" Aswon joined the conversation. "Maybe we should get Nadia on the board – she'd soon have the place organised, and it might chew up enough time that she wouldn't be bored any more. Hell, if she managed to make this place decent, it'd be somewhere to bring her kid to learn!"

They spent another few hours in the zoo, wandering around with a more critical eye and making copious voice notes in their PDAs or on their phones, taking lots of photos too, to examine later and build up a profile on the place. Or at least, to give to Hunter so he could do that…

When they'd wandered around the zoo and gained as much as they could, they headed back into town, finding a hunting and survival shop along the way. Aswon detoured inside, coming out with a set of weighted gloves for each member of the team in an appropriate size.

"I can't think of a time when I'd want to use those – I don't like having to use my staff in combat, let along punching anything!" Tads exclaimed.

"Ahh, sure. And in a perfect world, that's fine. But in a perfect world, we don't end up with stealth bears dropping on our heads, or fighting in blizzards or anyone of a number of things. Better to have them and not need them, than the other way around. Besides, even if we don't use them for the added weight and impact on the knuckles, they're still sturdy gloves and can be adjusted for fit, so they're good for being out and about in the wilderness as well…"

"Was there anything else in there of note? I'm presuming not, as you've not dragged us in there, or come out with more stuff?"

"Nope, Kai – not unless you want to go fishing, or camping. At least nothing I want to lug around all day and on the train. But it did confirm something for me – general gun ownership here is going to be low, you need all kinds of permits and approvals for stuff. I think farmers are likely to be allowed shotguns and low powered rifles, but for the general population it's much harder work. Affects the kind of situations we're likely to find ourselves in around here, but also how difficult it's going to be to get hold of black-market stuff as well. We might want to cultivate some suppliers for hardware…"

They made it back into town, and as they were looking for somewhere nice to grab dinner, a taxi driver hailed them, wanting to know if they wanted a ride. Purely as a joke, Kai mentioned that they wanted to get to Baku later, and the train was going to take hours – but the taxi driver either didn't realise it was a joke, or was seriously after a fare, as he reached into his cab and pulled out a small pad, entering figures and looking at the route before quoting them a price of four hundred and eighty five Nuyen, with a journey time of between four and five hours. Kai thanked him, but declined the offer – though it would have gotten them home a good half a day earlier, it was about three times more expensive than the train, and he didn't think they'd really benefit from the time-saving.

Instead, they plumped for a fancy meal in a swish restaurant, enjoying a bottle of wine and a three course meal, in some relatively upmarket surroundings. The staff seemed to take their unconventional appearance in their stride, and once they'd determined that the team had good credit and weren't in fact escapees from a fancy-dress convention or travelling hobos, the service was top-notch. Neither Kai nor Aswon were surprised when Tads speared one of everything from their plates to sample, chewing carefully on an empty mouth to get the texture, taste and composition down of distinct items so she could try to reproduce them later.

Sitting in the restaurant by the large window also let them watch the town and population outside for a while, seeing the ebb and flow of people, traffic and systems. They noticed that there were a reasonable number of police in the city, all wearing the uniforms of a local company who presumably held the contract – but that while their uniforms were all clean, tidy and well maintained, a lot of the wearers were young and their equipment was not always the best. Along with that, there was very little in the way of visible drone surveillance, though the town was liberally supplied with fixed CCTV locations. There was almost no magical presence at all – in fact the whole city was very magic-light, with only the very occasional watcher spirit streaking by with a message or task.

After eating they headed out to find some of the smaller, more local shops, just browsing around as a way to pass time and to soak up some of the culture and geography of the town. Aswon noticed that his basic grasp of Georgian was hardly a barrier to communication, with shop staff being remarkably patient as he butchered the pronunciation on several things, and getting impromptu lessons in some of the smaller and quieter stores – the locals seemed to value his attempt to master their language significantly more than he would have expected.

Heading back from the shopping district, they headed up the steep hills, exploring the other areas of the city. Rather than traditional blocks or areas of lower and higher-class housing, the city seemed to have developed into strata – with long thin 'bands' of housing developing belonging to a particular socio-economic class. At the bottom of the hill in the centre of town were the shops, commercial and government functions, with a band of almost slum-like tenements running behind them, holding the poorest and lowest educated workers. Climbing the hills, the houses improved in size, style and quality until they reached a point where the smell from the river had faded away, and they were surrounded by leafy trees and small plots of greenery surrounding large mansions carved from stone, showing Byzantine, Neoclassical and Beaux-Arts influences. The police still patrolled the area, some small teams of two on foot, others in the basic patrol cars, keeping an eye on the area, and the team made sure not to loiter too long and attract their attention.

Heading further up, the housing started to scale back again, growing smaller and more cramped, with some residences clinging to steep hillsides and rocky outcroppings in piles five or six stories high, until once more they were in 'peasant' country, with tin-shacks and sloppily built breezeblock structures painted in gaudy colours that were a long and steep walk from the city centre. It made for an unusual layout of the city, with a lot of lateral flow around the city centre for people in the same 'class' to get to neighbouring districts.

They also spotted several funicular railways and a few cable cars mounting the steeper hillsides, providing arterial links down to the valley floor, along with a few aerial tramways running up to some of the tourist destinations – Aswon identified one place as Narikala Fortress, which sat on the summit of a hill much further around from their location. The stone curtain wall was a dozen metres high in places, supported by towers dotted around the hill, with a large church in the centre.

Eventually they made their way back down towards the city centre, descending several kilometres further around the perimeter to take in a different view of the city as they returned to the bustling centre to board their train. They were in plenty of time – nobody wanting to risk even the possibility of missing the service and having to wait another twelve hours for the next train. When it arrived, they wondered if they'd made the right decision in turning down the taxi driver's offer – the train was very old, but in a way that indicated only poor quality rather than charming and picturesque or having significant historical value. The struggling diesel power car pushed the rickety carriages into the platform, and they and a handful of other people climbed aboard, using twisted metal steps, rotting doors and musty carpet-lined walkways to reach their sleeper cabin.

One look inside was all Tads needed, and she quickly waved the others to step back out of the way, and to get out of her line of sight. She gathered mana to her, building up slowly until she had a surfeit of power and then blasted the room with a stun-ball that would leave every nit, lice, fly, bed-bug and other inhabitant of the dilapidated carriage unconscious for a day or more, following up with the most powerful sterilise blast that she could muster. Even then, the carriage felt tacky underfoot, with many of the fixtures having an odd patina of sweat, skin and decayed food coating them that made them feel dirty just by touching them.

The journey might have been interesting in the daylight, but the winding railway that had them labouring up and down hills as it traversed the Caucus mountains to the east and Baku took them through some fairly uninhabited lands, and the darkness outside was palpable. Not even their enhanced vision could make out details clearly – though they had plenty of time to do so, as the train barely made it above forty kilometres per hour on average. There were some parts of the journey that felt awful on the astral, as they travelled through mountainsides that had been clear-cut of their lumber and natural resources, leaving behind huge open wounds, while other areas felt more normal – indicating that the corporations hadn't reached there, at least not yet.

Aswon slept first, as normal, then woke to take watch after a few hours while the others slept as best they could as the train wobbled, rattled and struggled up and down inclines that would not have been permitted in other countries, until they finally eased down onto the coastal plain as the sun rose, closing in on Baku and arriving in the station just before eight in the morning, looking for their pickup to take them back to the ranch.