Tuesday 29/3/2061, Location: 7.13385, 11.76792, Time 06:09

"Well, it's nice to meet someone so… accommodating." The dragon grinned at him, though her eyes flicked quickly to Marius and back as she did. "As I'm sure you are aware, my name is Hestaby. My time here is limited, so I will need to be brief – but I suspect that there is a rare opportunity for cooperation here, that could serve us both well…"

"Well, we're all about cooperation and helping people out," Kai responded, "for the right price of course. But we're very reasonable, and happy to negotiate."

"Good. I have found some information, but that information requires a team of individuals, with a rounded skill base. These two are very skilled and proficient, but they are only two, and through no fault of their own, they can't cover all the skills required for this one, I think." Hestaby glanced out of the corner of her enormous eyes at the two guerrillas, watching for their reaction. They in turn did their best to remain stoic, but Kai thought he saw a slight swelling of pride in them at her praise.

"Well, we like to think of ourselves as a team with a can-do attitude. What do you have in mind?"

"Port Harcourt is the major offloading area for much of the goods that enter and leave the country, and is the origin point of the railroad that is delivering supplies to this project. Most of the equipment entered through the port, and is ferried here – and it's also where Novatech have their corporate offices. And that is where Ms. Desiree rules her empire. When it comes to infiltrating the city and then that facility, I think you will be able to blend in much more easily than these two."

"Do we tell her about the family ties?" Aswon subvocalised, and saw Kai glance at him and then nod. "Excuse me – we found some information yesterday, that may be relevant. Is the Miss. Desiree that you speak of 'Angel' Desiree?" Aswon saw the huge head nod slightly. "Well, we ran into an attempted ambush last night – Novatech were assaulting a village, with a set of troops in armoured personnel carriers laid in ambush to attack anyone that tried to stop them. That ambush was set up by a sub-manager for the project, who had the name 'Clarence Desiree' – and we're fairly convinced that this is a member of her extended family, and indicates that they're trying to resolve the issue with increasing levels of violence."

"I see. Well, that does sound logical. And it adds credence to what I'm planning, in a way. You see I want you to infiltrate the Novatech building, and gain access to her office, and interfere with her plans."

"Interfere? In what way. Are we talking about killing her, causing her trouble, kidnapping her? There are some jobs that we don't tend to take on, so it's important to be clear here on what's being asked."

"Shadowrunners – with morals?" Hestaby cocked her head to one side, and a hand rose up to twirl her hair idly as she stared at Kai with fascination. "My, my. What is the world coming to. Well, in this case, interfere with means to ruin her plans and expose her to her companions – not to take direct action against her. We seek to cause trouble, and let that trouble be her enemy, not our direct action."

"Well, that sounds like the kind of trouble that we specialise in. But how will it be her enemy?"

"If things go well, it's the kind of trouble that will see her former friends and accomplices turn upon her like rabid dogs when let off the leash."

"And do we have a leash to let them off?"

"I think we do."

"Excellent. And what kind of timescale do you have in mind?"

"Well, the sooner the better. What you have done here has certainly led to a significant delay in construction, and has inconvenienced Novatech greatly. However, they do have considerable resources, and they can recover from this. I would prefer any action to take place sooner rather than later. As soon as possible in fact – though I need to arrange to have some items shipped over to you. I would estimate that they can be in country by tomorrow evening, if all goes well, and having the job done as soon as is practical after that would be best I think."

"Sounds reasonable to me. Then of course, we need to discuss the matter of pay."

"Of course. Well, I would be very grateful to you of course, and would owe you a favour – I'm sure that such a thing is worth much to you." She smiled, and watched as Kai raised an eyebrow at her but otherwise remained silent.

"And here's the dragon…" Aswon subvocalised to the team, trying to keep his face still as well. He didn't turn to look at Marius, not sure that he'd be able to retain his composure if he saw the pilot's probable expression…

"Well, that's obviously valuable, and would be gratefully received. But unfortunately our aircraft does require fuel – quite a lot of fuel – and that requires a healthy balance of Nuyen of course. We can't fly on gratitude alone, alas."

"You don't have a little nest egg put aside to cover such situations, a float or reserve of cash?" She raised an eyebrow back at him and her smile faded away a little. It wasn't much of a change in her facial expression, but it was remarkable how much warmth faded from her expression for such a subtle change.

"Unfortunately my lady, we're already dipping into our personal reserves to be down here – this is a task that I have to do, and the team are graciously supporting me. But we're not being paid for our actions down here, and that's impacting our cash flow quite hard." Aswon spoke plainly and clearly, and the others noted that while he was being scrupulously honest, he was also being careful in what he said…

"If we carry out this task for you, might I trade in any gratitude due for help or advice on taking on a Horror?" Tads asked.

"A Horror? What do you mean? Some horrific creature?"

"No – a Horror. A being from another plane, an astral intruder and despoiler. A Horror." Tads stressed the H on the front, making sure she spoke deliberately.

"Oh. I see. Well, that's interesting. Perhaps you should tell me more about this situation?"

"I'm sure Tads will be willing to tell you all about it!" Aswon suggested, "But that unfortunately doesn't help with the fuel costs we were discussing."

"If you can't help with the raw cash, could you perhaps put us in touch with some Smugglers or the like who run bases or fuel stops? Someone who could help us get home?" Kai offered.

"That's not really the kind of thing that I work with. And this is not my strongest area of influence either." Hestaby took a step forwards, turning to face Tads specifically. "Do be a dear and project out of your body for me, will you? And then relax, it'll make things go a lot easier…" Tads blinked at her, then lay down on the ground and projected out of her body, placing her consciousness onto the astral plane – and matching the projected image of Hestaby. Once she stopped moving, the dragon cast her spell, probing into her mind and sorting through her thoughts. Tads felt her memories flicking back, all the way to their first observations of the temple in the valley near Tashkent, and meeting the Ares-sponsored team, then flicking forwards to the spirit coming to find them and their mad dash back across the plains to return and execute the rescue.

The dragon was at least considerate – or just didn't care – about anything else, glossing over other thoughts and not prying into her personal life. Once she'd rifled through the thoughts about the temple, they skipped forward to the encounter in Sioux lands, replaying the battle in her head with an unwanted level of clarity, reliving the moments when she watched Shimazu leap in front of the deathly blast of mana meant for Kai, her heart-stopping fear that they'd lost him, and her wonder when he apparently returned from the brink of death – and the sacrifice of the tribal shamans it had taken to do so. Finally the Horror's departure was replayed over and over in her mind, running through several times as the dragon examined the event carefully.

"Oh dear…. What did you do?" Her voice was soft and carried an edge of disappointment, but lacked any anger. It was the kind of voice people used to softly chide a puppy that made a mess in the house, displaying a wish for different circumstances but lacking real anger or malice. Tads felt a weird mix of shame that seemed to come from her brain automatically, mixed with a wave of annoyance for being blamed for something that she didn't think was her fault. "But yes. I'm sure I can help you out with your little Horror problem. Something clearly must be done, and that seems most appropriate. On the other hands, I'm sure you do actually have more than enough money to cope with this little diversion, so we'll say no more about that." Her eyes flicked over to Kai, then back to Tads. The rest of the team shared a quick look, not sure who was going to take up the mantle. In theory it should have been Kai – but the others had heard Hestaby's tone of voice, and nobody was going to blame him for not wanting to argue with the dragon. "And I'm sure you'd much rather have me as a friend, than as an enemy…"

"And there's the dragon negotiation point," Aswon sent over the comms, hoping that Hestaby didn't hear him, but annoyed enough to risk it.

"Now that's tidied up, on to the plan. Of course I'm sure you're aware that pretty much nothing happens in Nigeria without a number of bribes, backhanders or corrupt deals being involved – at least nothing of any size or involving what passes for a government operation anyway. It's expected than an official will have taken a 'special payment' or 'consulting fee' for their work, and nobody will bat an eye at that. But there are still rules and etiquette to follow. You can't be too greedy, or selfish, and when you take a deal, in turn you make deals with others using your influence. And that's exactly what Miss. Desiree will have done, making payments for support from key members of the government, or taking payments to make sure that one provider of labour is picked over another, or that a certain company can supply material to the construction project."

"So everyone takes bribes? I don't see how that helps us here?" Kai looked confused, glancing over at Aswon to see if this was something only a Nigerian could understand – but he looked just as confused.

"Yes, everyone takes bribes. But there's almost an unspoken set of laws about how you take bribes – a sort of agreement on how much you charge, and how much you pay, and how you then cascade that down to underlings and minor parties. As long as people stick within this understanding, everyone knows their place and life goes on. But if it were to suddenly emerge that someone had taken a bribe far in excess of what was normally considered reasonable, but had then only paid out half as much in bribes for their own favours to grease the wheels – well that's a major faux pax. That's the kind of things that will make formerly loyal subordinates turn on you and spread rumours, or start to actively sabotage your efforts, to make friends and acquaintances suddenly distance themselves from you, and to make people stop returning your calls.

"Ahh – I think I see where you're going, then. So we'll be planting evidence of massive bribe taking or miserly bribe paying into her office or house or something, setting her up for her compatriots to turn on her?"

"Indeed." Hestaby gave Kai a smile and a nod.

"There is something that may complicate this plan, then. When we interrogated some of the people from the ambush, they indicated that Novatech are bringing in a team of mages and investigators as well as a lot more troops and security forces…" Aswon went on to explain the intelligence they'd gained from Roderic and the fragments of information picked up from the regular guards.

"Excellent news! Of course, that will make your infiltration somewhat harder than first anticipated, and you really should take efforts not to trip any alarms – but having a trained magical investigation team on site WILL ensure that the evidence is found, once they've been tipped off. And from experience, these people tend to be very paranoid and sneaky and fail in one of the most common ways possible."

"And that is?"

"Well Kai – if you have suspicions about someone and look hard enough, then soon you start to see proof in the strangest of places. Random out-of-character words, or slight changes in routine start to look like deliberate scheming and obfuscation. The more they look at someone, even if they're innocent, the more guilty they can look. And if they are coming in from a different office, they'll be less used to the culture and way of doing business down here. Things will seem odder and more unlikely, and their suspicions will just rise and rise. As long as there's no sign of external interference, I think just her own charming nature and way of handling things will give them the nails for her own coffin."

"So – I take it you have some 'evidence', or can provide some?" Kai queried.

"That is correct. It will take some time to arrive – I will have to have it sent physically." She paused and thought for a moment. "Yes, I'll have it sent to the international airport in Port Harcourt. It's not busy, but it is secure, and you should be able to find the left-luggage office and claim a package easily enough. There will be some physical evidence to plant in her office, and a chip with some code that will need to be installed into their system – I presume that one of you is the team's decker?" She cocked an eyebrow, and after a quick glance around, settled her gaze on Marius as the most likely suspect.

"Actually me." Hunter leered at her. "And being honest, I'm good with a computer, but I'm not a decker – not really. Just haven't got a rig worth a frak."

"Well, I'm sure your skills will suffice, if you're on the inside of all their security. It will have to."

"Well, if we're doing this – and it sounds like we are, then I need to ask for something, Phoss and Ury. Don't get the locals involved in what you're doing to strike at the corp – they're already facing a heavier price than I'm happy with."

"Aswon – tell them about the human shield side of things." Hunter prompted. Aswon turned and looked at him, frowning, and then his face suddenly opened up in surprise.

"Crap – I forgot that we'd not told them yet. Ok, the reason for the attack on the village – Novatech were rounding up the villagers, looking to take every man, woman and child and forcibly relocate them to one of their camps, where they were going to make them live in and around key installations and equipment. Using them as human shields."

"Well that is something I can have an effect on. I'll send in a media team to start doing some documentary style coverage of the native people and how they live in harmony with nature and so forth – at least until Novatech came in and ruin things. That'll get the word out and give them pause, when they end up with a WWF camera team streaming live to every continent recording what they're up to. But, alas that is all the time I have spare for this discussion. I'll get the evidence sent over – it should be in country by tomorrow at dusk, latest. I'd advise you to expedite your infiltration though, before Novatech get more forces deployed."

"What name do we use when we go to pick up the package?" Tads asked.

"Hmm. Tell them it's a package for Mrs. Orange. But be careful."

"We'll do our best." Kai said, giving a small but respectful nod of the head. He was still annoyed over the whole lack of payment, but on the other hand being owed a favour by a great dragon could have its advantages. And it was certainly better than being eaten by said great dragon for annoying them!

"Co-ordinate with these two for any other matters." She turned and laid an astral hand on each of their shoulders, giving them a small smile. "Try to get to the city, lay low but offer support where you can. I'll be in touch. Keep up the good work." Both of the agents tried hard to keep a nondescript expression, but their body language leaked pride and joy at the direct compliment and attention. Hestaby moved back a few steps, then reached up with her hands, elongating and meta morphing back into her draconic form, then slowly rose up out of the campsite until she was clear of the canopy. A moment later she disappeared, accelerating to her maximum speed and flying in a generally westward direction. Tads tried to estimate just how fast she was going, and from that try to back-figure just how magically potent she was – but the only answer she could conceptualise was 'an awful lot more than me' and 'way more powerful than I could dream of'.

"We need to get going as well then. Unlike you, we can't fly down to the airport quite as easily!" Phoss said. "I think they'd be quite upset if we did fly in, and it'd certainly be noticeable!" For Marius and Hunter, the image that came to mind was the pair floating in using their levitate spell, in the same fashion as they'd used themselves when Tads needed to help move them around – but for the rest of the team, the image that came to mind was a pair of small dragons floating down out of the sky, causing a riot.

"You're coming down there, then?" Aswon asked, confirming their intentions.

"Oh yes. When the boss makes a suggestion like 'go help out', that's not something you ignore! She points, we go. That's how it works."

They watched as Phoss and Ury also departed, considerably slower than their master had, heading back to their own campsite further around the mountain, and then stood in silence for a few moments, thinking through what had just happened.

"I do not like this. Not one bit."

"That's hardly a surprise, Marius!"

"And you should have argued more about the payment, Kai. We need money for fuel!"

"We'll have to make do. And we're not quite as poor as we made out now, are we?" Kai looked around at the others with a challenge, but nobody argued with him.

"Well, I don't think we should go and visit my tribe now. If we do, and we end up communing with the spirits – we have no way of knowing how long that will take. We could go for what feels like days or even weeks on a quest to aid the land – and it could be done in seconds. Or we could talk to them for what feels like mere moments but come back and find a week has passed. It's too risky if we're on the clock for this job."

"The port is about five hundred and eighty kilometres from here, straight course. Maps are for shit, but the international airport is north north-west of the city, though calling it that is a bit of a lie. Single runway, not that long, and only two jetways. Certainly ain't that busy. There's a separate domestic terminal and that probably gets a lot more use."

"Can we fly into the airport legally?"

"Only if I can fake up some details from another airport – we'll have to arrive in their airspace properly, and that's gonna take some sorting."

"If we can, that will probably help a great deal. I'd imagine that Marius would be able to hire maintenance facilities then to do some work on the aircraft?" Aswon looked over at Marius and got a confirming nod.

"That is correct. I will not be able to do all of the maintenance required – not without taking the engines apart and disassembling other systems that would render the craft inoperable. But we can perform the basics like oil changes, filter cleaning and so forth."

"Appreciate all that – but I'm not sure we should go down the legal route. Doing that means we're officially here, and leaving a trail of electrons behind us. With what's happened up here, I'd much rather not ever be tied to the country at this time…" Hunter responded.

"I see your point, but I think having easy access to fuel and maintenance outweighs the risks at this point in time." Marius shrugged, waving his hands up and down on either side of his body. "It could go either way, but we will not know until afterwards, and that is too late. But we must have maintenance soon to keep flying, for one. And we need to get close to the city and have somewhere secure to land and wait while we carry out the mission. I think this gives us the better option." Thankfully Hunter nodded to him, accepting his point of view. "So I would suggest that we actually fly north from here, almost back to your village Aswon, and the airport nearby. We land and refuel there, and that hopefully gives enough time for Hunter to finish creating the permits and flight plans needed to head to Port Harcourt legitimately.

"I'm guessing we could come in to Zaria from a different direction – make it look like we've not come from this area?"

"Not a problem, Aswon, we can shape a course relatively close to the airport to come in on a different vector, without having to fly hundreds of kilometres out of our way. Especially given the nature of the airport there. It is not exactly a bustling hive of activity."

With a plan agreed, the team got to work, stripping down the cammo netting and repacking the aircraft, cleaning up the camp site and ensuring they had left no trace of their presence behind that could be investigated.

Shortly after six-thirty, they took off, Marius carefully lifting them up alongside the canopy, and doing a slow rotation of the craft in place. It chewed up fuel holding them in a hover, but he was glad that he did, and he quickly raised the alarm to the rest of the team.

"Contact. Multiple contacts. Very hard to lock up – I think they are surveillance drones."

"Where, Marius?"

"Feeding the sensor information to Hunter." Marius rotated one more time, focussing his passive sensors on the ghosts he'd picked up on the first sweep, trying to refine the data at source, before shunting it all over to Hunter to integrate onto his map.

"Looks like we have a drone hovering over every one of the construction sites, including the ones we trashed… and a bunch more in the jungle. Ahh, they're on roads… looking at the positions, I'd say we've got a recon drone positioned over all of the local villages as well. They're all on areas with clearings, rivers nearby and with road junctions – but nothing showing on these maps. But I'd bet money that there's one of the villages under every single one. And we've got a couple more that look to be moving, pretty slowly – that are following the railway route."

"What can you tell us about the drones? Any information on what they are?" Kai asked.

"They appear to be broadly similar to our own – a little larger perhaps, so definitely not the same model. But a large lifting bag with a slightly elongated shape, like a cigar, with an underslung gondola that holds the sensor and weapon package, power cell and the motors."

"Weapon package?"

"Yes – normally you can mount something like an assault rifle on them, possibly a grenade launcher, or configure them to drop grenades, mines of explosives straight down. These are too far away to determine if they are armed. My Condor does not have a weapon mounted – I prefer to extend the battery life, but it is easily installed. But they are mostly designed for warding off critters or raising an alarm – not as a combat system. They are too fragile for combat really, and the lifting bag makes them very vulnerable."

"So what we need is for Tads to have a spell to control a flock of birds – woodpeckers – and to swarm them!" Aswon joked.

"Well, for that to happen, we need to stop long enough for me to actually learn some spells and get to practice with them!" She responded hotly, and with slightly more vitriol than she'd intended. Aswon held up his hand placatingly, and she took a deep breath, then continued. "Sorry. But I really could do with some time to learn some new spells and practice with them. Guess it's not just Marius that needs time for maintenance…."

The tilt-wing twisted to the side sharply and banked over, reaching a nearly sixty-degree angle, holding the turn for several seconds and either compressing the passengers into their seats or leaving them dangling in their harnesses, hair streaming down past their face, while a myriad of small items slid around in the back.

"Marius?" Kai called, an edge of concern in his voice.

"We are close to one of the drones, so I am trying to spoof the sensors. By performing a tight turn and orbiting the drone, our velocity relative to the drone drops to zero in one dimension, though we are still generating a side vector. But that robs the sensor package of any doppler ranging, and can cause the software to glitch out sometimes. I also have all of our stealth systems engaged, so we may be detected as a flock of birds, or waving treetops – anything but a craft under power."

"Oh riggggggghhhhhtttttt." Kai's stomach lurched as the craft violently twisted the other way, rolling one hundred and twenty degrees and reversing the turn, as it moved from the coverage of one drone to another. Over the next twenty minutes Marius threaded the needle, moving out of the dense coverage of surveillance drones that had seeded the area.

"I suspect the drones were deployed at dawn, which means that they have all day for their SunCells to charge up the onboard power cells – assuming they have SunCells. But I would be surprised if they do not, given the area of operations. But that will give them a full charge to run their systems and motors over-night, and if they are just station-keeping, unless there is a lot of wind, they will make it to dawn quite happily."

"So they can monitor forever?"

"They need maintenance, and things break – just like any other hardware. But that is not predictable, so in essence, yes – in a sunny environment like this, once the drone is in position, it can stay there indefinitely, short of enemy action. And if there is enemy action, we know they have those interceptor drones in theatre now as well, and they could travel between Mach 1 and 2, depending on configuration." There was a sudden sound of impacts on the bottom of the aircraft, a series of thumps, swooshes and tapping as the branches of a particularly tall tree were brushed aside as they overflew. "We are coming to a clearer patch, so things should calm down soon. However, I have had a chance to examine the sensor readings now – and these drones look to be better equipped than our own. I would estimate their sensors are probably 50% stronger than ours, and have much greater coverage."

"Is that much better across the board, or what?"

"Given the size of the drone is roughly comparable, I would say that it is the sensor panels and receivers that are stronger or better. I do not think they will have advanced processing, or features like ECM or ECCM – not unless they are significantly more expensive and advanced than they appear. So more and better raw data, but no greater analysis power. Of course they can feed that raw data back to a central command station or provide it on tap for a rigger controlling them…"

"I just got a glimpse of one of the drones over the optics," Shimazu called out. "They're warded, and at non-trivial level. Nothing like the protection we have on the aircraft, but significantly more than the anti-nuisance level you commonly see. I'd say it's about as strong as your spirits, Tads, so they'll have a hard time using their powers on the drones. You can blast a spell through there, I'm sure, but it's going to take the sting out of it somewhat."

"Well, they're serious about not losing these so easily, it seems."

"More than that, Aswon – I saw a watcher spirit as well, inspecting one of the drones, then flying off towards the next in the pattern. And that was even stronger…"

"Oh, that's not good news!" Tads shook her head, then glanced over towards Kai. "If they've got watcher spirits that strong, that means they have their mage teams ready to go. Watchers are…funny little things. It's quite hard to make a good watcher, because the magic is so much weaker in them than in a 'proper' spirit. They're less draining to call upon in some ways, but they don't last as long either, and they tend to be dumb. Especially if you're not that magically gifted, they're about as clever as a box of rocks – like the ones we saw from Phoss and Ury. But clever ones means a very talented mage to summon them."

"So difficult to deal with magically?"

"Not especially – they are still weak, and I'm sure I could banish one in a few seconds without breaking a sweat. But it means they're harder to fool, and give better information to whoever sent them out. And if they've got enough duration to be sent out to do checks on these drones, then we're up against a better than average summoner, or team of summoners. That sounds like these red flame mages that Rod had heard about. And THEY won't be easy to deal with."

"So how do you deal with them?"

"Simple – I don't. I move out of the way and let Shimazu at them with his sword, or clear the line of sight for Aswon or Hunter…" She grinned at the team leader. "I don't think that, however gifted they are magically, that they can stand up to that kind of incoming nastiness."

Once clear of the sensor network, Marius throttled up and gained a little altitude, opening the distance as quickly as he dared, and headed north towards Zaria airport. In the co-pilot's seat next to him, Hunter was jacked in, diving through the matrix and working hard to set up the transponder details to match a fake flight profile, building up the history of their entirely fictious medical delivery flight that had apparently come down over the Sahara desert with urgent deliveries. For anyone who had entered the cockpit it would have been a disturbing sight, as both seats were occupied with unresponsive lolling bodies, held into their seats by the tight restraint harnesses, each with a delicate fibre-optic cable running from the jacks in their heads down into the plane, as if the aircraft was feeding on their thoughts and desires.

The remainder of the journey was uneventful thankfully, and they approached Zaria airport just after 08:00, heading south-west on a course of zero-five-zero, as if lining up from fictional desert crossing. As before, there was no challenge on approach to the quiet regional airport, and Hunter looked at the matrix contact number associated number for the airport shown on the flight maps. Normal users of the airport had to call the central monitoring station, confirming that nobody else had also registered a take-off or landing at that time and registering their movements. He quietly closed the warning window that had popped up on his display as they crossed the outer marker for the airport, and let Marius know they were coming in without a landing slot. The airport had a paved strip, but was uncontrolled – quiet enough that there was no permanent tower staff co-ordinating flights or activity. As long as nobody else was skipping the rules, they'd probably be fine – certainly the sensors didn't show anyone else in the vicinity. Marius kept a full sensor look out though as he came in for a landing, and vacated the runway as soon as their speed had dropped to a reasonable level to make the turn, heading up the taxi-way to the hangers and maintenance area.

As soon as they had touched down, Tads had dropped the concealment on the aircraft, and they rippled into view – if anyone had been watching the far end of the taxi-way, they would have been surprised as hell as the aircraft shimmered into existence with an effect that would have done a trid-producer wanting a spacecraft decloaking effect proud. Closing in on the hangers again they could see just as many small planes on the apron as their first very brief visit, a mix of small pleasure planes and commercial crop-dusters. The passenger planes were fitted with over-size windows, and Aswon suggested that they were probably used for tours of the open grasslands, with tourists glued to the windows to examine the vast plains and the animals that still roamed there.

A number of engineers or operators were present, working on maintenance on various craft, and most of them stopped what they were doing to watch as the tilt-wing rolled past, some with clear signs of envy or lust on their faces. Marius headed over to a quiet area of the apron, away from the other aircraft and the observers, trying to remain somewhat discreet. Once they'd rolled to a stop and the engines had spooled down, Kai waved to Shimazu and Aswon.

"Come on, let's go find the fuel stop. Last time the guy was out filling up an aircraft and we just grabbed him – but he can't be far away." The three of them exited the aircraft, sliding the door closed behind and heading across the apron towards the maintenance workers.

"Kai, I might be rude to you in a minute, just play it cool, ok?" Kai nodded and Aswon sped up slightly – not hard to do with the length of his legs – and got a few paces ahead by the time they got close enough to hail one of the workers.

"Hey there. Got a corper here, on a tour. But his pilot is low on fuel and he needs a top up. Point me towards the fuel stop, will you?" It felt strange to be speaking his native tongue after so long, and slightly uncomfortable to be saying what he said. Aswon's mind cringed a little at the attempted deception – he wasn't just an honest man, he was a scrupulously honest man, regardless of the downsides that bought him in this line of work. But, what he said wasn't technically a lie. Kai did after all own the medical foundation they had set up, the shell company they funnelled funds through and that gave them a thin skin of legitimacy from time to time. And that made him a corper, of sorts. And his pilot WAS low on fuel, and did need a top up. So it wasn't technically a lie…

"Sure, man. The slitty-eyes after some rhino horn eh? Good look to them, they'll not find many left!" The engineer called back, giving Shimazu and Kai a disparaging look, putting two and two together and getting about nineteen. Aswon felt relieved, and ashamed all at the same time as the casual racism was displayed by his countryman. "But you'll find the fuel stop just round the corner of the hanger over there. He'll probably be asleep, though!" The man gave a hearty laugh, revealing a row of pearly white teeth as he threw his head back.

"Thanks, man." Aswon dropped back into English, pretty sure that the other man would probably understand at least a few words, even if he wasn't fluent. "Sir, the fuel vendor is around the corner over there. Please follow me." He led Kai and Shimazu off that way, and found a small shack being the corner of the hanger, a glorified garden shed with the door thrown wide open revealing a mess of gear and trash in the darkened interior. Just outside the doorway a middle aged man with a large pot-belly lay in a deck-chair, apparently asleep. Off to one side was a large fuel bowser, the bright yellow paintwork faded by the intense sunlight and speckled with a patina of rust over the sides.

Once they'd woken the man, who didn't seem to be too upset about the interruption of his sleep, they arranged for him to hook up his little electric cart to the bowser and drive around to their aircraft to fuel them up. He set to work on attaching the bowser, and the three of them headed back on foot – the cart catching them up just as they got back to the aircraft. The man parked up and got out of his cart, approaching the craft and running a hand over the fuselage and giving a low whistle.

"This some nice wings. Smooth. Good range on her, I bet. She looks hot."

"Surprisingly good range, actually," Marius jumped down out of the doorway and approached the man, and Kai wondered if he was going to be upset at the man laying hands on his aircraft. It appeared, however, that Marius was fine with his aircraft being appreciated by someone with some actual knowledge, though he kept a close eye on him. "Let me show you the fuel spigot." With a mental command, he popped open the hatch, and pulled the cover to one side to show the fuel tank nozzle. They chatted about the aircraft in general terms while the man attached the bowser and queried the tank, then determined how much fuel they needed, before pulling out his cred-reader. Kai slotted their stick, authorising the payment of nine thousand Nuyen, and a few seconds later the jet fuel started to gurgle through the pipes, filling up the capacious tanks back to capacity. Marius remained outside in the brilliant sunshine, chatting to the man about general aviation, while the rest of the team returned to the craft, disappearing out of sight of anyone watching. Ten minutes later they were fuelled and ready to go – and this time Hunter did call in to request a take off slot, hoping that his faked paperwork would hold up, and they would find a record of him landing at the airport previously and was now ready to begin the final leg of their journey to Port Harcourt. The voice on the other end of the call sounded bored and slightly grumpy, but cleared them for takeoff, and Marius started to roll out, joining the northern end of the runway and then smoothly lifting off and turning due south, setting his way point for the outer beacon of the international airport, 680 kilometres away.

"We are looking at about ninety minutes flight time to the airport, by the time we have joined the pattern and actually landed." Marius informed them. "As it is an international airport, they should have at least basic maintenance facilities available for landing flights, so I should be able to do some of the tasks that are outstanding."

"The airport is about twenty-three clicks north of the city by the way. I've put in a reservation for pad time for two days with an option to extend, claiming we're a medical transfer flight and there's some uncertainty about when our patient will be fit to fly."

"Nice one, Hunter – so we can land, Marius can do some work – I presume you're not doing anything large scale?" Aswon asked.

"Nein. Nothing that would prevent us being in the air inside twenty minutes, and less if we are actively performing an operation. If we are infiltrating the facility there as part of a plan, I will ensure we are good to fly."

"Great. Last thing we need is a delay if we have to bug out – I'm thinking that Novatech probably has a whole drek-load of assets there. But hopefully we've got time for your maintenance while we wait for the dossier or evidence or whatever to turn up. That's tomorrow dusk, right?" He got nods from others in the team and then continued. "So we've got at least a day to do stuff until we can conceivably go. I'm not saying you wouldn't be useful doing recon with us, but it sounds like you can be getting the most pressing tasks done while we start to do research."

"I've got a basic map of the city that I've found – not super high resolution, but it shows the districts, roads and stuff like that. And I've got some ground level stuff from tourist sites and so forth, so we can do some planning while we're on the way down. Let me punch it up on the monitors…" Hunter cross-fed his deck output to the screens in the troop bay, and the rest of the team shuffled slightly so they could twist to look at the monitors. Hunter identified the airport and the main highways and districts in the city, pointing out where the harbour was and the large number of bulk product quays, loading yards and the train terminus.

"Any idea on drone traffic, Hunter?"

"Hard to say, Marius. I can see shops, depots. Warehouses, all the usual kind of stuff for a big city. Even districts with restaurants and so on. Some of the taller buildings have helipads, but there's not many – there's enough room to sprawl out still in the city rather than build up. But I would have thought from the city pattern and level of development that there will be drone traffic doing deliveries – there's got to be enough non-Nigerians in a port city like this that they'll have some expectations of service from their home countries, and that kind of thing will fuel and drive better delivery timings and availability…"

"Good. Then we can try to get a recon drone up and do some orbits of the city, gain some intelligence there. Even side scans of the area of interest are better than going in cold."

"What's that odd coloured green blob in the east of the city? That looks nice…" Tads asked. Hunter adjusted the view slightly, panning over to the east side of the city and then highlighting a large area.

"This bit?"

"Yes – are those… those are trees aren't they? Everywhere else seemed very brown and drab, but that bit looks nice."

"Well, that bit is exactly where we're going. That is the Novatech enclave 'Greenbough Estate'. It's about two kilometres long, and about one across, a massive walled enclave with a bunch of houses, recreation facilities, services and one big tower block that holds Novatech Nigeria HQ as far as I can tell."

"Walled enclave? What kind of wall?"

"Frakking big one Aswon. Look at this overhead, at the patch of housing to the right." Hunter zoomed in on the map to the point where it pixellated and started to break down, then started to overlay a ruler and some drawing tools on the top. "This dark band here is shadow. I don't know exactly what time of day this was shot, but it looks to be late afternoon from the general traffic patterns. Lots of variables based on the time of year, angle of elevation of the sun and so on – so this is just a general estimate. But that band of shadow is covering almost an entire row of houses, and based on some trig, I've worked back from the size of that band to determine the height of the wall, and gotten figures ranging from six and a half metres all the way up to nine metres high."

"That's not messing around… how thick is it?"

"Looks to be the best part of a metre and a half at the base – again hard to say depending on the image – some of those pixels are interpolated, so they might be wall or they might not. Lot of wiggle room. But if we go nine metres high, then two metres at the base of the wall would be pretty consistent – and that also means its heavily resistant to rams from even heavy vehicles, which is probably going to factor into their security."

"That probably means deep foundations, too, then I guess. Makes tunnelling in a bit more difficult – we might have to think carefully about if that's feasible or not. That wall is going to weigh a lot, too, I guess – we wouldn't want a tunnel collapsing or sagging, showing where we were digging…"

"Crap. Good point, Tads – though maybe it could be a good way out. What about other security?" Aswon squinted at the image on the screen as if doing so could force it to give up new information.

"No way to tell from this image, or anything else I've found so far – but I'd put good money on sensors and cameras on the top, protecting it from some yahoos just leaning a ladder up against it. What I can tell you is that there are three entrances. The one to the south, onto the major highway is by far and away the largest. The road is only two lanes, but those lanes are actually wide enough to hold two rows of traffic. There's a covered area, a canopy, set back a little from the main road, and I'd bet there's a security hut or guard post under there, so they can stop traffic and examine it under cover – I don't know if it rains much down here or if you get monsoon stuff – or they just want to do it out of sight of any overhead surveillance. But there could be rising bollards, or defensive planters under there, maybe even concealed gun turrets. But again from the shadows, that canopy is high enough you can get heavy goods vehicles through there no problem – so it looks like that's where the main deliveries come in and out."

"Next up is the north-east side, where there's a smaller vehicle entrance. Much narrower lanes, no canopy and I think I've identified a blob that's probably the guard shack. You can get cars, maybe a mini-van through there, but nothing larger. Definitely not heavy vehicles – the turning circles are very tight getting through from the outer road to the inner, and I think you'd beach yourself." Hunter panned the screen over to the top left corner of the enclave, then continued.

"The north-west corner is a pedestrian-only gate. No road access at all, and what looks like a small walk-through gate house. I'd expect to see something like turnstiles there, with card readers or biometrics to allow foot traffic through."

"Foot traffic? That seems odd… what's in the area just outside? Why would Novatech want to let their staff in and out like that?"

"Not sure, Aswon. There are a couple of schools and churches in the adjacent district, but I'd expect them to have both of those internally as well. There's a commercial district though, with lots of shops, restaurants and supermarkets – so perhaps for that. Also things like the main hospital, police station and so on – so there's probably a reasonable draw. But that might be a good way to gain access, depending on how heavily trafficked it is."

"What do we know about Novatech? I mean, obviously they're a megacorp, and have departments or companies that do pretty much everything – but what's their major focus?"

"They're pretty new as corps go – not long come into existence as an entity. There was some kind of massive shuffle of shares and a buyout following the collapse of Fuchi, and the next thing you know is there's a new kid on the block, holding onto a lot of the old Fuchi assets, going by the name of Novatech. There's got to be a lot of dirt there to dig up, and bodies buried everywhere – it's still privately owned, as I said before, and controlled by the Villiers family – Richard Villiers used to be the CEO of Fuchi Americas, and the whole deal stinks to high heaven. Their core industries tend to be quite white collar and high tech – computer research, systems, designs, programs and other technology, a chunk of arms companies, aerospace and orbital systems, that kind of thing. But like you said, they're a triple-A corp now, so there's not much they don't do." Kai scratched his chin in thought for a moment, working through a couple of permutations in his head.

"It's likely that they'll be a bit more grounded here – dealing with whatever bulk goods Nigeria imports and exports, and some more local stuff. Maybe a focus on the engineering and construction side of things – but their core businesses are still going to be quite high tech, I would imagine."

"From what you've said then, they're not massively into their blue-collar operations." Aswon thought for a moment, trying to work out the implications. "Not like a corp like Shiawase then… I wonder if they handle their own service jobs. Like – who empties the bins, deals with the sewage, sweeps the streets, mows the lawns. That area looks pretty green, and someone has to be looking after that. From what you've said, Kai, that doesn't sound like their core focus – maybe they subcontract that out. And that might give us an in… We know they've recruited heavily for the workers on the railroad – maybe they use a company to supply labour, and that might be a softer target?"

"That sounds about right, Aswon. I'd say they're likely to have long term contracts with a favoured supplier, someone to keep the lights on and the place clean, and that they're responsible for their low-end staff, leaving Novatech to focus on the stuff that needs more training." Kai looked at the image on the screen again. "I don't see any power stations or transmission lines there, or any support buildings. Hmm…"

"Probably underground – especially the service buildings. With how much they've spent on the landscaping and making it look nice, I can't imagine they want their workers to see something like that. It also increases their security somewhat by keeping them tucked away. "Shimazu observed. "I mean, look at the situation we're in – we want to know where the stuff is so we can use it, but we can't find it. That's good operational security procedures."

"Potentially we can get Kai and myself in without too much trouble. If we find someone using the pedestrian entrance and wandering the city, we can ambush them and take their credentials. Both of us can alter our skin tones and appearances, and probably impersonate someone. I'm not sure about the rest of you."

"Provided you can ambush someone three metres tall Aswon. You're a bit noticeable, you know."

"I am not three metres tall, Hunter!"

"Sure, two and a half then. The rest is hair…"

"What about deliveries from the local area?" Tads interjected, before the argument could devolve any further. "You said there were restaurants and supermarkets just the other side of the wall? Maybe they do allow deliveries, and that might allow drone traffic to cross into the estate?"

"Possibly. If we can observe drone traffic, we can try to intercept credentials or authorisation codes, and see if we can slip our own drone in along with the other traffic. Though I would need to be close by to sniff the traffic, not working on the aircraft. So that might be something to do if we need a longer term plan."

"Ahh – sometimes I'm a frakking genius. Look at this!" There was a genuine sound of glee in Hunter's voice. "I just found this tucked away on Shadowland – bit of paydata and corporate nonsense someone posted from a run on a Novatech facility a while back." The map disappeared off the screen, and was replaced with a three-d render of a beautiful looking park, full of happy smiling people with a shiny office building in the background. A logo appeared, identifying the production as the 'Greenbough Induction Guide', subtitled 'Everything you need to know about your new home'. The team watched as the corporate media rolled, delivering a slightly sickly view of life as a new corporate resident of the facility, guiding them through the estate and showing off the facilities and location. In every scene good corporate employees could be seen diligently working away and solving problems, smiling and co-operating, supporting each other in a supportive and nurturing environment where everyone mattered and nothing ever went wrong. It detailed the moving process, reminding the employee just how much Novatech cared for their welfare and happiness, and reminding the employees of just how much they owed the corporation as a result. The video laid on the propaganda fairly thickly, relentlessly espousing the Novatech way of life and corporate loyalty, laying out the rewards for hard work over and over again.

However, there was some useful information in the video, including a listing of the various companies or divisions that were based on site, and what floor of the office tower they were based on, as well as showing a variety of the houses including a walk-through of one that detailed the high-tech drones and automation systems designed to ease the burden on the people living there. The video wrapped up with more repeated overtures to toe the line, be a good corporate little citizen and to report failures of others to your management, before returning back to the recreation ground image, with everyone enjoying their picnics in a blissful environment."

"I feel like I need a sick bag." Hunter observed. "But I made some notes about the tower. Two sub-basement levels listed, with sewage, water treatment and maintenance in the bottom level, and a set of vehicle bays and maintenance facilities in the top basement. Ground floor is reception and meeting rooms, and I noticed that they said that some of the meeting rooms were publicly accessible for visiting companies and stuff like that."

"Floor one was general admin and organisation, two was legal, human resources and tech support, three was natural resources, four was software and hardware, five was media, marketing and agricorps, six was arms and cyberspace systems, seven was aerodesign and security, eight they sort of glossed over a bit – but it sounded like secure meeting rooms and facilities, nine was the management level, and ten was the directors. Roof access for the helipad had multiple access ways, with one going only to the ground floor non-stop, while another came down to the internal floors."

"So we can bet that her office is gonna be on the tenth floor. Probably a corner office. Maybe we can do something like we did in Muscat?" Aswon suggested. "Get in through the aircon or something else on the roof, and just drop down one level. Try to bypass most of the security, get in, do the job and get out."

"Perhaps. My take from that production was that we'd actually be able to access the ground floor with relative ease. I've worked with security layouts that sound very similar back in Japan. They let people almost wander in from the street – just basic checks on identity to make sure you do have a reason to be there. But the ground floor of the building is almost like a separate facility. All the rooms are shielded, and the aircon system is used only for that floor, and isolated from the rest of the building. Every door out of the ground level, either up or down, is protected by good security with multiple systems. It looks friendly to the visitors, welcoming even – but it's very hard to get out of the reception area without having a guide or authorisation."

"Possibly we can look at a sewer entrance then. If that leads in to the sub-basement levels, we could try and use the building infrastructure to bypass the ground floor and work our way up through the building from the bottom – if the top isn't viable." Aswon grimaced. "Though I have no desire to go wading through the drek. So perhaps we should look at that as a backup plan…"

"Fasten your seat belts and return your tray tables to their upright positions," Hunter said in a falsetto voice. "Marius just flashed up a warning. We're on final approach to the airport…"

The tilt-wing angled down, following the Port Harcourt tower instructions and touching down smoothly on the three thousand metre long runway. With their small size, they were easily able to decelerate and turn off onto the first taxi-way, and Marius followed the ground directions to the far end of the airport, coming to a halt near the domestic terminal and the maintenance facilities located there.

"Let's go find someone to check in with then." Kai took a deep breath and then summoned a winning smile to his face…