Wednesday 30/3/2061, Location: 4.84863, 7.03922, Time 12:00

Several hours later, Marius straightened up from the workbench, carefully putting down the soldering iron and sweeping away a tiny piece of flux into the bin.

"There, the mechanisms are complete. I just need to put them into a case now, which will only take a few minutes."

The rest of the team had been lounging around the crypt, sitting on whatever chairs or packing crates they could find, while Musa carried out some tasks and pottered about. It had taken Marius a while to assemble the RFID scanners from the components and kits purchased at the electronics store, but a quick glance at the neat and meticulous work would have led any observer to assume that these were straight off the assembly line.

"What have we got here, then?" Kai asked, looking down at the tiny circuit boards with a variety of strange objects attached. As he went to poke one of them with a finger, Marius slapped it away brusquely.

"No touching – they are very sensitive." Marius responded in a mix of Russian and Azerbaijani, with a meaningful glance at Musa. Kai nodded at him, and Marius continued. "There are two scanners with onboard storage, optimised to cover a three to five metre range band. One should be placed on either side of the stone slab that covers the draining culvert near the pedestrian entrance – and no matter what side of the bridge the target crosses, and which side of the body the tag is located, we will pick them up. I am going to put them in flat, low profile boxes with an adhesive strip that can be placed on the side of the bridge or possibly just underneath, to make them almost impossible to spot – and there is a can of spray repair for concrete to give them a matching texture."

"And the other one? Why is that in two bits?"

"This is the one to attach to the bus. The small piece is the scanner and the tiniest transmitter I could find. This goes near the door itself, maybe in the rubber seal around it, or hidden on the side of the steps. It has only a one metre range, but the entrance to the bus will be very narrow, so that should work. It transmits the data to the second module, which can be fixed inside the wheel arch or somewhere nearby, where the storage mechanism and other components are located. It keeps the size of the scanner down to the absolute minimum, to make it harder to spot."

"Ahh, gotcha. Because everyone is going to be walking right past it as they climb onboard." Marius nodded to Kai in agreement.

"And what's the bigger thing at the back?"

"That is the jammer. When activated, it will broadcast data on all of the common RFID frequencies, overwhelming any local tags and flooding the area with a barrage of nonsensical transmissions designed to cause read errors. If we get into trouble in the tower and have to exit in an emergency, we can plant this by an exterior door and set it to a delayed activation, and it should prevent anyone using a door after us. Or possibly a lift, or other part of the compound – it depends on what we encounter there. But it would stop someone using their own tags to authorise entry or exit to an area, and give us a few minutes of time to escape."

"Excellent stuff. But only a few minutes?"

"Ja. It takes a lot of power to overwhelm the transmissions from the other tags, and you have to broadcast on multiple frequencies to be effective, so that limits the amount of time that the on-board power will last. But even if the power lasts only two minutes, that would be enough time to run from the tower to the perimeter wall and be working on getting through that."

"I guess so… and a couple of minutes of not being shot at sounds good. Alright, great work, Marius."

"Are we still potentially going with the plan to influence some people on the outside, and to get the job done remotely?" Aswon asked.

"I do not think that is ideal. It is a way of doing the job, certainly. But I feel uncomfortable with how much it then depends on other people to do the work for us, and how out of control we are. Much as I dislike being the puppets and tools of dragons, they are powerful creatures and ones we would be wise not to anger. And we were given this job personally – or effectively so. Imagine if Hestaby appears in front of you and asks you how the job went, and you turn to her and say 'we magically influenced some other people to do it, and we think it went ok, but we cannot be sure as we did not see it happen'. Does that make you comfortable?"

"Well, we can mind-probe them afterwards, I guess. But I see your point. Ok – I'm not saying we shouldn't do it, but it's a valid concern. Explaining to something that can bite us in half that we relied on magical compulsion without verification might not be a career enhancing move…" Aswon grimaced and drummed his fingers on his chin. "That does mean we're steering back into getting these RFID trackers and scanners in position then for a physical insertion. Which I guess we were looking at doing anyway, as you've just spent a couple of hours building them…"

"There may be magical defences on the roof still, just because we've not seen anything yet doesn't mean it's not there!" Tads warned them. "I only saw the elemental on patrol on the perimeter briefly – it being an air spirit makes it hard to see at the best of times, but especially when it's moving behind the trees as well – their aura masks it somewhat. But there could be more – I've only seen the sides of the top of the tower over the wall really – when I went to follow the buses, I was keeping low and out of sight. So there could be something else up there…"

"It sounds very much as though they have a distinct security philosophy – with layers of tough security focussed on different areas. The perimeter wall is a serious challenge to physical intrusion, restricting people to the three gates. The elemental on patrol is watching for magical ingress – but only on the perimeter, and not in the compound itself. If you can get past the guards you can get into the tower pretty easily – but then not out of the ground floor. And if you are in the tower, the screamer tags will limit where you can go and what doors you pass through." Marius observed.

"That could be a weakness we employ. I bet they are somewhat over-reliant on the screamer tags for internal security. They watch the tags moving around when they get an alert. Unless the guard force is very well trained and vigilant, they probably don't then cross-reference or verify the identity – they'll take it as read that the tag is correct."

"I hope so – though what we've seen so far, and the story from the guy who used to clean there indicates that they're pretty switched on as regards procedures. Just the fact that we're having to cross multiple barriers or methods of security means we need to take more people from the team in to make this viable, and that brings its own dangers, of course." Aswon sighed. "Corporate security… it's almost like they don't want us in there…" That bought a few smiles and grins to their faces as Aswon affected a look of long suffering hardship. "Still – I'd bet that they've got a few security systems up on the roof as well, cameras and scanners, and we should be careful up there, too. On the other hand, they might also have rigger or decker jacks up there, for the pilots to interface with, or to allow things like the lifts to be controlled. I'm sure they'll be in locked boxes, but that's another possible way into the system."

"Shimazu – if we bump into one of those elementals, I presume that you can dispatch it with your normal efficiency."

"He can," Tads responded quickly. "From what I'd seen of it, it would be a challenge for you or maybe Aswon, but Shimazu will kill it in an instant. And if it IS on a remote service, bound to the grounds like we think it is, then it's not going to be noticed by a mage. Only if it's late on reporting in on whatever schedule it follows. But absolutely, Shimazu will be able to deal with it. Possibly a pair of them – though he might have to take a step or two. The only way they'll be a risk to him is if they stay at range and use their powers to try and affect him. Air elementals can naturally create pockets of stale or toxic air, and use those to incapacitate people – but if I'm there, I can shield him or us from those powers…"

"But don't forget that we strongly suspect that there are magical reinforcements deployed in the building right now, flown in from Europe. Just because we didn't see them, doesn't mean they're not there. They're going to be based on the upper floors somewhere, in the VIP sections, maybe, and with optical binoculars. All those windows to look out of, they can target spells over half the city from up there." Aswon shrugged a little. "If we bump into them, we need to take them down hard and fast, as otherwise we're going to be up to our necks in elementals, and there's a limit to how many foes even Shimazu can fight at once."

"What about banishing?"

"It's not my specialty, Kai – and I can only deal with one at a time. But anything I try to banish will be locked up into combat with me, and unable to do anything else – so you could go to work on it with your weapon foci, for instance, and it won't even be able to defend itself."

"Is the building new? Do we have an answer for that?" Marius looked around, but nobody volunteered an answer. "Perhaps Hunter can look. If it is an old building, then it is likely to have some issues relating to how it was built and then adapted over the years. If it is a newer building, then perhaps the floor plans are on file with the local government – though doubtful as this is a megacorp we are talking about – but maybe with the contractors who actually built the place?"

"But regardless – we need to get these bugs planted. We have to have those RFID codes for any activity in the tower to be possible." Aswon summarised.

"Mr. Musa?" Kai called out, watching as their host looked up and over to them as he swapped back to English. "A word, please? We may need to avail ourselves of your transportation services."

"I can help, for a price. What do you need?"

Kai gave brief details of the RFID scanners Marius had built, and then showed the location on the overhead map for the pedestrian entrance and described the large slab of concrete that crossed the draining culvert, and how the bugs were designed to go on either side to gather information, then showed him the third device, describing the two parts and how they were to be placed.

"You are going to put these out? I have a suggestion. Let me organise this. I have people that can do this job for you. It is a simple thing. Five hundred Nuyen and it will be taken care of, and then you do not show your faces to the police…"

"We should definitely do that, Kai." Aswon nodded vigorously. "That gives us a lot more safety." Kai agreed, and just pulled out his credstick, passing it over the reader that almost seemed to teleport into Musa's hand. "The only thing we need to be careful of is the recovery – particularly the one we put on the bus. If that is out wandering the city, it's going to be hard to find it and get the data back.

"I have some activate on demand tracking devices I can sell you. Very good quality…" Musa gave them a grin and hefted his reader suggestively.

"Let's have a look. It might be worth it…" Aswon sighed, but then stepped to the side and made room for Marius to move past him and follow Musa while he dug through another packing box, pulling out a secure lock-box and keying it open with his thumbprint and a long code. It took Marius a few minutes to examine the devices, but when he straightened up, he nodded to Kai.

"These are very good. They should have a range to cover the city, will frequency hop and send very small and discrete packets of data. Very hard to trace. Of course it depends on the price."

"To you, my friends, I can sell you these three… for ten and half thousand." Kai coughed in surprise, but Marius just nodded, accepting the price without blinking. Kai thought for a second, and then pulled out the credstick again.

"Tell you what, make it eleven thousand, and add in the cost for your guys to recover the trackers after twenty-four hours as well, so we don't have to go near them at all." Musa agreed and keyed in the total, and then debited the amount off the certified credstick with a big grin. He handed over the three trackers to Marius and waited while they were attached to the RFID scanners, and then took them upstairs, calling to some of the locals who were lounging around by the side of the street, giving them detailed instructions on how to plant the devices and where they were to be placed. The locals looked like children or, at most, teenagers – but they headed off in a pack with serious expressions on their faces to get the job done, and the team were reminded that life operated somewhat differently outside the bigger corporate cities. While Musa was giving the instructions, Tads called out over the team comms.

"I'm wondering if we should offer to tidy up and support his tunnel a little better. It might be worth something to him – but it does reveal a certain amount about our magical capabilities. Or I can perhaps conjure up some food for him – but that does the same thing."

"Perhaps, Tads. Perhaps. I'm thinking though – what if we get Musa to take us back to the airport, rather than catching the bus. Keep us off the street entirely, and behind some nice one-way windows. It does mean showing him that we have an aircraft, of course – but he knows we got here one way or another, and I think when we saw his dock and didn't talk about using it, that he knows or at least strongly suspects that we don't have a boat or came in by water. We could have driven, but the distances involved make that less likely – so he probably already has that figured out." Kai looked around and waved his hands up and down as if weighing two sets of evidence. "But if we get him to take us back to the airport, we can appear to go into the bird and we can get some supplies 'from the freezer' or our stockpile. And that means Tads can give him some supplies without revealing they're magical in nature."

"And, if he sees the aircraft, it may actually help us." Marius pointed out. "It is a large and expensive piece of equipment. It is not the sort of thing that a group of idiots have access to. It speaks of being well equipped, and potentially powerful – and that might influence him into reconsidering any kind of double-cross, or just wanting to foster a better relationship with us, as a more competent set of smugglers."

A thought sprang into Tad's mind, and she flicked her gaze back and forth between Kai and Marius while she toyed with it – but she remained silent for the moment.

"There's something to that. And we don't have to show him the inside of the bird at all, or any of our equipment. I mean… how much is that thing worth?"

"A tilt-wing is surprisingly affordable. One with the stealth features, range, electronics loadout and other features – budget would start at several million and go up." Now it was Marius' turn to shrug. "You cannot see all of those features, of course. But there are things we could do, like have one of the heavy machine guns deployed out of the side door, that give an indication of our level of equipment, without actually revealing too much."

"Um…" Tads paused as she wrestled with the ethics of what she was about to suggest. "If we do this, while we're driving to the airport, I could maybe try to influence him a little. Not to do anything particular, but to take notice of these things and give them the consideration they deserve. It's not something I think we should do lightly – but I'm not talking about changing his mind or altering his decisions. Just tipping him a little one way in his thought process."

"That's a potentially slippery slope, Tads." Aswon said quietly. "Sorry – but you already know that, don't you. And you've thought it through, and still said it – but you're clearly not thrilled about it. But it's important, so you've said it anyway." Tads nodded at him, grateful that he understood what she was worried about. "For what it's worth, I agree – if you don't force him to do something, but to just think about the impact of his actions – this could be a case where it's worthwhile." Now Aswon looked almost as unhappy as Tads did.

"Of course, we want to make sure he's not actually a mage and that he won't pick this up and turn on us for trying to mess him about…"

"Let me take care of that, Tads. As soon as he's back, I'll give him a proper study, and see if I can assess him completely. If he is magical, he'll potentially know about it – but at least then we're just being nosey." Shimazu offered. Tads was happy to pass the responsibility over to him – while in terms of raw magical power, she and Shimazu were probably on a par, she knew he had the edge in the 'human touch', in reading the auras of people and assessing their nature, and his training at the university in Egypt had developed his talents of reading people and understanding their psychology much more than she could ever hope to do. And it didn't 'out' her as magical if it got spotted, leaving that danger with one of the more capable members of the team.

When Musa came back into the room, Kai approached him and asked about the possibility of a trip to the airport, describing their thought process and their wish to avoid the police. While he distracted the fixer, Shimazu dropped into astral space and very deliberately and consciously made an effort to fully assense Musa, working on the assumption that he was in some way magical and that he, too, understood the techniques of aura masking – and as such that Shimazu needed to use his own power to effectively batter through the concealment to get at his true aura.

He saw the cyberware in Musa's head, densely packed equipment around the brain, a connection to the router and then to the datajack in his neck, and to his eyes, while a larger conductive sheath ran down into his body to some 'ware installed there. It wasn't combat gear – Shimazu had seen enough of that to recognise the tell-tale signs of wired reflexes or the concealing sheaths for cyber-spurs, and he didn't have subdermal deposits indicating concealed armour. His 'ware appeared to be more utility-based – a concealed compartment like Marius, additional sensors, internal storage and a commlink. Nothing to worry about there. There was also enough of it that it would have seriously inconvenienced a mage and made magic stressful for them – and there was not even the faintest hint of magical potential in the man at all. There was no resistance to his probe, no flickers in his aura, not even the slightest tang of the supernatural.

He dropped out of astral and bent down to adjust the ties on his boots, and as he looked down at the ground, subvocalized to the rest of the group.

"He's not talented, at all. Chunk of headware, some utility cyber in the body. Nothing offensive really."

Kai had finished describing what he wanted Musa to do, and the team grabbed their gear and headed back upstairs, climbing into the minivan once more. Tads made a deliberate dive for the back seat, on the side opposite the driver, and pushed Aswon towards the middle of the back seat. Once they were underway, and they'd been in transit for a few minutes, she motioned for Aswon to lean forward, using his body – and more importantly his huge mane of hair – to mostly fill Musa's peripheral vision. Kai was nattering away in the front, pointing out things he found interesting, while Aswon then added his own thoughts and opinions to the mix. And in the narrow gap between the front seats and Aswon's body, Tads moved over until she could see a sliver of Musa's torso, while staying out of his line of sight, took a deep breath and then began to cast her spell, implanting the idea of professionalism, reliability and future business with the team, with just a hint of retribution if they were wronged or sold out…

A minute later and she was done, and slowly smoothing out the flow of mana, gradually dissipating the traces of the spell and clearing away her signature, removing any signs that anything had happened at all. She sat back in her seat, staring out of the window, hoping that she'd done the right thing, and that the implanted influences wouldn't backfire upon the team in some way.

When they arrived at the airport thirty minutes later, Musa headed to the main terminals as a matter of course, and Kai had to get him turned around and heading down to the private terminals at the southern end of the airport instead. They headed towards the large hanger, gave Hunter a shout to warn him and then directed Musa through the narrowly-opened door and into the muggy hanger beyond. He pulled up and craned forwards, looking out of the windscreen at the waiting tilt-wing.

"Dat is a nice machine." He gave another of his very broad grins. "It looks like it can go FAST. Maybe I can take a ride with you sometime."

"Perhaps, Mr. Musa, once we have our business concluded. We're trying to keep a low profile, remember." Kai checked his watch, seeing that it was a little after two in the afternoon. With any luck Musa's 'employees' would have the bugs planted soon, and they'd start collecting data.

"I'm going for a wander, to check the perimeter." Aswon announced, grabbing his spear and then heading for the personnel door at the side of the hanger, disappearing from sight quickly enough.

"Now, Mr. Musa, we have some trade-goods onboard, in storage. Perhaps you'd be interested in some for payment, or perhaps to sell on in the city? Maybe you can use them for favours or something? Tads, would you mind fetching us some… steak and truffles?"

"Sure, Kai, be a few minutes. Probably have to clear off the top of the storage locker…"

Tads passed Hunter on the way into the bird, watching as the big ork headed out of the aircraft and over to the van to get a look at their guest – and to give him a look at Hunter. Safely tucked away in the hanger, away from prying eyes, he had his Ares rifle hanging on a friction sling, just casually on display to assure Musa that they had some serious firepower.

Once inside, Tads started spellcasting, summoning up some steaks and truffles – that was the easy part. The more complicated and difficult bit was finding a suitable box to put them in that looked safe for food transport and reasonable to present to Musa, and it took her nearly five minutes until she could come back out to the van and present him with the box of food. He admired the steaks, sniffing at them, for what that was worth, then stopped and stared with fascination at the small pile of truffles.

"What is dat?"

"Truffles. They're a delicacy. Very expensive, and highly sought after by top-end restaurants."

"They look like poo."

"Well, I assure you they're not." Kai smiled at him, then gestured for him to check them out. Musa reached in and grabbed the smallest lump he could see, and tentatively rubbed it on his lips.

"It tastes like poo too!"

"Well, there's no accounting for taste. But rich people will pay up to a couple of hundred Nuyen for some well-prepared truffle sauce on the side of a steak. It's a very good seller for us, and we gather only the finest free-range truffles from deep in places like the Bavarian Forest. Very dangerous, lots of paracritters. But that's some of what we smuggle about. Not glamourous perhaps, but you can get a lot of steak and truffle in an aircraft, and as you noticed – she's fast. Got to get it moved around while it's fresh!"

"I see. I think I can meet with some people in town, that supply corporate restaurants. Ummm. eighty/twenty split?"

"You take twenty percent for brokering the deal and moving the cargo?" Kai asked, confirming they were talking the right way around, and smiled as Musa nodded at him. "Deal. Ok – those steaks are probably worth about a thousand Nuyen, and the truffles about the same again. But for the first deal, we'll do you fifty-fifty, as you've been so helpful…" Musa gave him a broad grin, and Kai suspected that he'd already had some vendors in mind, and this just sweetened the deal. Still, he wasn't aware that it cost the team essentially nothing, and whatever they got was pure profit – at least as long as Tads was awake and conscious. "We have more of this if you can find a buyer – so we can fill up someone's freezer, as long as they have the cash to pay for it!"

"Ok, I will go into town, and talk to some people. I think I can find a buyer for this."

"Good. So – now can we get your number?"

"Of course!" They swapped contact details, and Musa loaded up the supplies, turned the van around and then headed out of the hanger when they cracked the door open for him, disappearing back off towards Port Harcourt at speed. Shortly afterwards, Aswon returned, slipping back into the hanger through the side door.

"All seems fine – wandered past a couple of cops, just minding my own business. No fuss from them, so I don't think there's a general bulletin out on us. Though I get the distinct impression that the cops here are from a different division or department or something to the ones in town. They're all pretty heavily-armed, and their equipment looks new and quite modern – so I think this is a place people aspire to be posted to, rather than anything else. They probably see themselves as somewhat elites, and that means they're not likely to mingle with the city cops that much."

"We still don't know why we were tagged, do we?" Kai looked around at the others.

"My guess would be that we passed enough surveillance cameras in a group of at least a few of us to be recognised as foreigners. And then got seen at the demonstration, and that made us persons of interest."

"Your drone wasn't tagged, I'm guessing – you've not said anything about it, so unless you got caught flat-footed, I don't think that's the reason. And you're not going to get caught out like that I think. I mean it's possible perhaps, but unlikely."

"It may be a combination of factors. The more I think about it, the more likely it is that just being here on the wrong kind of visa might have put us in a category of people to watch, or to be suspicious of, just based on the nature of the town. If it was Lagos, nobody would care, and we'd fit right in. But this whole town is built up around the industries in the areas and the port. It's corp-central, and coming here with tourist or visitor visas probably makes us stand out like a sore thumb."

"Next time you can sort the bloody visas out, then!" Hunter responded hotly. Aswon sighed, and held up his hands, trying to ward off any more comments.

"Hunter, I'm not complaining – we're grateful for all the paperwork you have to do. I'm just saying it's a learning experience, and something we should bear in mind for the future. And hey, it's just a guess. It might be something really weird like how one particular person is dressed. Or some comment we made to someone on the street that turned out to be a police informant. Unless we go digging, we might never know!"

"Talking about dress – if we're doing an insertion, we probably want to think about how we're going to be kitted out. I kept a good eye out on the fashion as we were coming back, and I think there's enough of a Muslim contingent here that I could get away with a Burka or Niqab if I want to hide. They're not that common, but I've seen a few. Or a Hijab would definitely be fine, though less of a disguise. But a lot of the guys seem to be dressed in some pretty loud stuff…"

"Yeah. It does seem to be a bit of a mixed bag." Kai responded. "Sports team, shirt and trousers, animal print chic, or the local equivalent of a Hawaiian shirt. But none of them are particularly good at disguising us or anything we're carrying."

"Casual business shirt and trousers are probably the blandest you can go with, and the most forgettable," Aswon added, "but also gives you the hardest job disguising anything you're carrying. I mean Hunter's deck in a briefcase, and Marius with a toolkit, sure. But weapons will stick out like a sore thumb."

"Perhaps a mix. Tads, if you are willing to dress in a more Middle-Eastern style, and potentially hang off my arm, then you will appear to be a wife, mistress or concubine, perhaps. Hunter and Shimazu in their plain suits will pass as bodyguards quite easily. That leaves Kai and Aswon of course – but Aswon looks like – well is, I suppose – a native. And Kai can change his skin tone to match. So perhaps splitting into two groups, each dressed in an appropriate style, might let us blend in a little better.

The team relaxed a little, spending some time cleaning and preparing equipment, snoozing or working on the aircraft, until dusk started to gather near. As it closed in on 18:00, Kai and Shimazu headed out of the hanger and up to the main terminal, walking into the airport and hoping that Aswon was correct and that they weren't on an APB. Nobody hassled them, though, and they made it to the left luggage office, which also functioned as the lost and found. A very large, plump Nigerian sat behind the counter, tight-fitting wire spectacles pressing into the soft flesh on the side of his head, while a light sheen of sweat clung to his skull.

"Good evening sir, how are you on this fine day?"

"I'm well, thank you – I hope you are, too?"

"I am indeed. God has blessed us with another fine Nigerian day! How can I help you?"

"We have a piece of left luggage here. A small package, for a Mrs. Orange. We're told that it's ready for collection."

"Just one moment while I go and check." There was an ominous creak as he moved his two hundred kilo mass off the chair, the gas-lift piston rising with a noise that sounded like a sigh of relief. As he wandered away from the counter, they could see the two-tone stain down the small of his back and under his arms where sweat had plastered the shirt to his body. Despite looking like he was born and bred here, clearly this was a man who didn't like the heat. He checked on a shelf, and quickly pulled out a small bag, and then waddled back towards them. It was a fairly small satchel, really, a simple box construction with a fold-over flap, and one simple leather strap that didn't even have any hardware to adjust the length of it. "Here it is. Those baggage handlers, eh?" He shook his head in wry amusement. "Normally they are very good, but everyone makes mistakes sometime, no? Still, here is it, and I am sure you can return it to your… wife?"

"Yes, that's right. It's got some sentimental items in it. Not very valuable, but quite important to her." Kai gave a big smile back to the man.

"I am afraid there is a handling fee to pay on the item." He weighed it in his hands, as if evaluating what might be inside. "It is a small bag though, so I think we can say fifty Nuyen will cover it…" That was probably the same salary as he made in a day at the airport, and Kai almost scoffed at him.

"Well, you've given such good service, and got it back to us so quickly, why don't we call it a hundred? After all, you're going to make my wife very happy indeed!"

"Oh bless you, sir, Blessings of God to you and your family!" Kai nodded along as the repeated thanks washed over him, and quickly paid the 'processing fee', getting the satchel passed out to him through a large sliding drawer. Once they could safely move away from the man who seemed to want them to stop and chat, they made a beeline for the exit, keeping their eyes peeled for trouble. If this was a sting operation, people would be moving in to intercept them soon, and the airport was a really bad place for a fight…

Nothing happened, though, and they made it out into the cooling evening air, and swiftly walked back to the hanger, heading straight into the aircraft and setting the satchel down on the floor between the seats.

"Do you really want to bring that straight in here?" Hunter asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, I know – might be bugged or tracked, so make with the bingly bongly machine. But might also be magically tracked, so we wanted to get it inside the ward first, and out of sight. And being in here might also mask the signal a bit if there is a tracker. So come on, do your bug-scanning thingy!"

Hunter sighed, but pulled out the scanner, running it very carefully over the whole satchel, from shoulder strap to the bottom of the bag, examining it with a fine tooth comb. When he'd checked the outside, he pulled on a set of disposable gloves, then carefully opened the top flap and withdrew the contents just enough that he could scan the interior. A single chip was in a small carrier, protected from the outside elements by the transparent casing. Underneath it was a sheaf of documents in a loose folder – and the satchel was otherwise empty. When Hunter checked it carefully, zooming in as far as he could it was really empty – no fluff or detritus in the seams, no accumulated cruft or bits of lint, no threads or leftovers. The satchel from the outside looked battered and used, but the inside looked brand new, and had no evidence pointing to where it had come from.

"Looks clear, nothing detected." Hunter picked up the chip carrier in his gloves hands and examined the contents carefully. "This looks like a standard optical chip, configured as data storage. Probably has a reasonable capacity – though no idea how full it is, of course. Could be just data. Could be a virus, or a remote access tool, or any other kind of program."

"Can you check it out? Safely I mean?"

"I think so – just need to reconfigure my deck. Give me a few minutes." Hunter moved away and grabbed his deck and set to work, building a virtual environment with simulated data ports that could be set to contain any nasty side effects the chip might trigger.

Kai, meanwhile, flicked through the physical documents, checking them over. To look at, they were a whole bunch of random files, of differing ages and origins, a multitude of sizes and styles and the only common factor linking most of them was the slick and slightly odd texture of the paper."

"That is flash paper." Marius observed. "It is a special kind of chemical impregnated medium. Designed to support complete combustion, and be totally destroyed with the application of either a minimal heat source or certain chemicals. Often used for secure document transportation where you want to be able to destroy the data rather than let if fall into unfriendly hands." He leant down and examined the papers carefully, then sniffed. "Several different types here, but all the ones with the same types 'appear' to come from similar companies or agencies – or have the same stamps or logos on. And they share similar sizes – so it has been made to appear that these are the communications between four, maybe five different groups of companies, all over a period of time."

"I count…. Twenty seven individual files. And most of them make no sense – they're just random strings of letters in odd groupings. I presume it's some kind of cypher or code…" Kai frowned. "Probably not worth us trying to decode, it is it? I mean, they'll be difficult but not impossible, because they want them to find these and work it out… so it's going to be fake news and lies. But probably tying together with whatever is on the chip as corroboration."

"Ok, I got something. I've managed to get the chip in a virtual port, and by loading my system down I've throttled it to a crawl, so we can see what's going on. Inserting now…" The team watched as Hunter went quiet for a moment, before he then burst into action and grabbed the chip, pulling it from the slot. "Frak, that's nasty! Ok – we don't want to piss these people off!"

"A virus?" Aswon asked.

"Kinda. It was a worm. Designed to infiltrate the system and carry out a bunch of tasks. This one was pretty big, and looked nasty. Bristling with all kinds of ICE and utilities, and it had a sizeable data payload. Ripped through my virtual machine, disabling a bunch of checks and infiltrating the operating system and low level drivers, infesting the storage controllers…it buried itself deep. And from what I could see it was then distributing that data package all over the storage layer, modifying the dates and making it look like it's been in there between a few weeks and over a year for some of the stuff, then linking access requests and document views all over the place. It'd totally look legit to someone scanning for the data that it had been there all the time. But the worm seemed to realise it was running in a sandbox, and was trying to break out – there's some serious coding skill gone into that!"

"So, to use it…"

"Pretty much put it into a slot in the host they use for their secure storage and then access that port and it will do the rest. So we just need to find it and do a basic file scan on that port. Easy stuff, won't take more than a few seconds, if you know what you're doing."

"Great. That makes life easier. But there's nothing on the chips about where to plant the physical evidence?"

"Nah, nothing like that."

"So we just need to hide it somewhere in the office probably. Or at least make it look hidden, without actually being that well-hidden, so it can be found. But not too easily… I think we'll have to get a look at the room to work that out, and make a call on the spot." His voice trailed off as he thought through the possible situations they might face, until he realised that there were just too many variables at play. "Well, one thing we're pretty certain about is that the demo will be kicking off again tomorrow lunchtime. That might be a good time to get someone up onto the roof from the rear, while attention is focussed out the front?"

"We still haven't identified any sensors or security up there - and that's making me a bit nervous about dropping onto there." Hunter admitted. "I've had a very quick look through the footage that Marius took, but there's nothing obvious I spotted, either. And communications might be an issue - we're thinking that Novatech are likely to be pretty hot on tech security, based on their company strengths - so maybe our comms won't be quite as secure as we'd like."

"Perhaps we can rely on Marius and his sat-phone - at least one way? They're encrypted as well, but generally on well known frequencies and they might have other users in the compound?" Aswon suddenly clicked his fingers. "Oh - and aren't Phos and Ury supposed to show up at some point? Do we know where and when?" Everyone looked blank or shook their heads at him...

"Is it worth us trying to contact the leader of the march? We think they're organising on the behalf of Hestaby, right? Is there a way to co-ordinate our efforts?" Tads asked. "I mean, they're hopefully aware of why they're protesting, and if they can help us do the mission, they'd want to help, right?"

"Perhaps. They might have just been told to come and protest, to make them a legitimate cut-out in the operation. Or to stop them doing something that erodes their cover or the way they're carrying out their operation." Kai checked his commlink quickly, studying the data and continuing to talk. "This guy has written books about the environment and is a well-known international speaker on stuff like this. I think it would make sense to keep him out of the planning on the whole operation, and just involved in the protest - it keeps his intentions and emotions pure, and that'd help with things like media interviews. He can't give away any ultimate plans if he doesn't know about them!"

"And how would we get hold of him - ask Mr Musa to find him?" Aswon shook his head. "Just imagine if he misunderstood what we wanted, and the next time Musa drives up the guy is bound hand and foot in the boot of his car!"

"I'm thinking we need to do the physical evidence plant first, you know." Kai tapped the sheaf of documents in his lap. "Planting them doesn't alert or set anything off, hopefully. I'm concerned about this worm thingy. What if it sets off some defences, or triggers something in the computers? That puts us on the clock, makes us rush - and that's not so good. So for me, we need to get into the office first, and then move on to the computer room second.

"I've been doing a bit of digging into the compound while you lot were out prancing around the city - just got the search bot back with some results. Did you know that compound is only about fourteen months old? The whole lot was built not long after Novatech gained triple-A status, though they must have been planning it for a while before."

"That's interesting. Maybe worth a run against city hall or the department of planning or something, to see if you can get floor plans then?"

"I dunno, Aswon - they're probably still going to be locked down pretty tight, and that deck isn't the best. It's a risk, is all I'm saying. But I've got some information from a few news articles and some architecture site that referenced the construction. The place is almost built like an arcology, apparently. All of the residential buildings have large solar arrays on the rooves, and feed into a central grid in the compound to share power. All of the buildings are linked by data services, and all waste water and potable supplies are also handled centrally. I don't understand some of the stuff in here, but apparently the whole compound is a spider web of pipes and service ducts underground - so I think trying to tunnel in might not be the right approach."

"Are we talking tunnels you can walk through?"

"Afraid not, Aswon - not even crawl through. We're talking pipes around a hundred and fifty millimetres carrying services, at multiple heights in multiple directions. There's also a waste handling facility on site that deals with a lot of the organic waste, along with a chemical plant - they crack their own methane and store it to use for their vehicles. Whatever's left goes out to landfill every few months in a convoy. Water treatment is done the same way, and apparently that big-ass swimming pool off to the side of the tower is integrated into the system, functions as a giant reserve tank it seems. So if all the buildings are linked together to that degree, we might want to be careful with plans to break into someone's house - the security there might be just as good as the main office, depending on what rank they are in the company!"

"Ok – so if we need to be careful with the houses, then perhaps we do need to focus on the tower. I've been having a think, trying to put myself into the corporate mindset and remember some of the hoops we had to jump through when I was contracting. Now, the data centre is going to be as secure as they can make it, that's for certain. But they can't be doing the programming of the screamer tags there, and all the other admin. If that's going to be done anywhere, that's going to be in either the HR or tech support areas – both of which are down on floor two. And I'm sure getting from reception to floor two isn't going to be easy, but I figure it has to be easier than trying to get up to floor seven or eight from the lobby." The others nodded in agreement as he outlined his logic to them.

"We need to be aware of wards inside the building – we've not seen any outside, but that doesn't mean anything really. With the glass covering it's entirely possible they've warded the inside of the glass, not the outside as they were putting it on the building. If they built a polarised ward, that would be just as much of a one-way barrier on the astral plane as the glass is on the physical. And I'm sure they'll have wards on things like the lift shafts, stairwells and around key areas inside. So we need to be very much aware of that, when we're moving around internally."

"Yeah. If we can get to floor two and that IS where the access control systems are, and we can sic Hunter on the computers to authorise us – that makes moving around a lot easier. And if that means we can drop any spells or concealment and just move like regular people, we can bypass those wards pretty easily. And we might be able to use those for our advantage too. If we spot a section of the tower that's suddenly got a massive ward around it, it's going to be protecting some key research and design section, or something like the data-centre. Speaking of which, I think it's entirely likely that the host and offline storage we need to get access to is likely to be found up on the R and D floor, just based on floor sizes and other requirements. Again, it's not certain, but I think it's likely..."

The team started to throw ideas around, working out possible strategies for their assault on the tower. On one hand, splitting the team in two invited defeat in detail, with the distinct possibility that the team member they needed would be in the 'wrong' place at a key moment in time – on the other hand, it let them try to perform the two separate parts of the mission at the same time and reduce their window of exposure dramatically. Marius pointed out that while cold, if one sub-team did set off an alarm, it might also distract any guards and let the other part of the team actually make some progress and get their part of the job done while the security response chased down the rest of the team…

"At the moment then, I'm still thinking the roof access is the best way in – we're just so much closer to both her office, and the probable location of the data centre or server room." Aswon stated. "I think it will be easier to work down from the top rather than up from the bottom. We will have to work through security – but I'm guessing you can do that Marius?"

"It depends. I can certainly deal with individual locks and cameras, once I have access. However, I doubt I can attack the system as a whole. From the information that Hunter discovered earlier, it is now almost certain that they are running this arcology using a CCSS system – with a rigger or more likely a team of riggers running all parts of the infrastructure and compound as extensions of one giant core system. I can infiltrate this, and deal with individual nodes perhaps – but as soon as the system discovers any tampering and the alarm is raised, I will find myself in combat with the enemy riggers in short order – and they have the advantage of proper access to the systems and familiarity with the overall design. If however, the system is based on a matrix host, then it would be reliant on Hunter to carry out the attacks. I cannot connect my rigger deck up to the matrix host without some significant hardware upgrades."

"Something we can get from Mr Musa?" Kai asked. "If it's worthwhile Marius, we can look into it."

"Possibly. A protocol emulation unit and the various parts required will be very expensive though, and difficult to source. We should count on it being a six figure sum at the very least. Eventually we will need this of course, along with upgrades to Hunters deck and various other parts and gear. But we need to prioritise some of these expenditures due to the significant costs involved."

"And I need a big chunk of cash to get my cyberware upgraded!" Hunter was quick to add. "I'm gonna need to get a good couple of hundred thousand to replace some of this stuff and get some more gadgets!"

"So you said Hunter." Kai sighed deeply. "Guess we need to get this job done for old Mrs Orange, and then get on with finding some jobs that pay REALLY really well!"

"Better stop offering to work for free then Kai!" Aswon fired back, and Kai pulled a face while the rest of the team grinned at the accurate snipe.

"Hush you. Let's work out how to get up onto that roof then…"