Tads was up at dawn as usual to welcome in the new day, and to call upon the spirits of the land to protect her and the team. It was an ingrained thing now, and her movements were fluid, her speech practiced and the spirits seemed almost familiar. She wasn't sure if that was actually true – they were different spirits each time, that much she was certain, but perhaps there was something about HOW she summoned them that did temper their whimsy somewhat.
As soon as the others started to rouse she badgered them until they headed over to the Broadsword and climbed aboard for a few minutes, passing through the ward long enough to deter any attempts that might have been in progress to try and track them down. There was some grumbling, but it was mostly pro-forma. Enough weird magical tracking and spirit shenanigans had happened to them all over the last year and three quarters that they were well aware of the risks and how much safety such an action afforded them.
Once Tads was happy with their magical security, Aswon suggested a quick run around the reservoir, with Hunter and Shimazu offering to join him. They set off westward, keeping to a reasonable pace as they had no idea how long the route was. A kilometre in, they hit the edge of the town, following a well-defined path to the south that was clearly well used by people coming to the edge of the reservoir for relaxation. The very southern edge of town saw the path end abruptly, and they had to follow a narrow and twisting trail through light woodland that had sprung up on the edge of the water, and by the time they had worked all the way to the south side of the route it had turned into a hard slog through fairly dense woodland over very uneven terrain. Not ideal for running in, but it certainly kept their heart rates up and gave them a good workout…
They hit about five kilometres by the time they reached the south-eastern end of the waterway and a small village that clung to the edge of the water, and from here they met up with reasonable paths once more, following a trail along the eastern edge until they hit the hydro-electric plant, running on a footpath across the top of the dam and tracking towards the main road, before turning west to head back to the starting point. The seventh kilometre bought them into sight of the service station on a crumbling path that ran under the elevated highway, and closing in on the smuggler stop they caught sight of a boathouse situated in the bottom of a gulley, facing out into the water. It looked reasonably large, and the access road to it ran up towards the service station, so they slowed to examine it, wondering if it was part of the smuggler facilities.
"No visible ward – at least none on the outside." Aswon commented, examining the building carefully. "Looks pretty old too – but… in very good condition?"
"Yeah. All the windows are intact, no sign of rodents, no rot. Looks aged, rather than old." Hunter added, looking around suspiciously. "What do you reckons in there?"
"Maybe a float plane – like the one the Zephyr crew used? Probably not as big, but might be good for a couple of hundred kilometres. Nice runway out there after all!" Aswon gestured to the lake. "Must be over two kilometres of water to use along the length, even allowing for staying away from the shallows or not coming in low over the town." He gestured to the far end, where their run had led them down the wide path with benches and rest areas. "Might be worth mentioning to the others – maybe Tads can check out the inside astrally." He led the way back to the Broadsword at a gentle jog, using the last two hundred metres as a cool-down.
"It might not be polite to go poking around in there," Marius commented as they filled in the rest of the team on their find. "If it is attached to this facility, they might not want anyone poking around in their smuggling facilities or discovering their get-away transport."
"I'll go have a quick look – but I'm not pressing inside then." Tads slumped in her chair, remaining motionless for a minute as her soul departed her body, examining the exterior of the boathouse, before returning to the aircraft and her body once more. "Pretty much as you said, Aswon. It doesn't feel abandoned or empty, so I think it's certainly used and cared for – but I didn't spot anything of interest on the outside. It might be warded on the inner edge, so I didn't go poking around."
"What time are we heading off from here, Marius?"
"We should aim to be wheels-up at twenty-hundred hours. That gives us time to take a casual flight over, avoid trouble, pick our route carefully and arrive on time."
"Right then… so, um… time to get some training in, I guess? Or some reading or stuff…" He looked around the team, none of whom needed to be told twice, and watched for a few seconds as they started to get down chip readers, weapons, or equipment to keep themselves busy. "I'm going to go see Liu Chen, and see if I can make friends a bit…"
He found the owner of the smuggler stop in the main building, dejectedly moving dirty water around in the communal shower area with a mop that had seen better days. Looking at the quality of the water, Kai wasn't sure if he was topping the dirt up for the day rather than removing it, but held that comment to himself.
"Morning, Mr. Chen. How are you today?"
"I'm well. Did you sleep ok?"
"Very well, your bunk rooms were most satisfactory." Kai resisted the urge to scratch at the tiny spot on his hip where something had nibbled on him overnight, giving lie to that statement – Tads had tried to cleanse the room of creepy crawlies, but some of them had either been in hiding or were remarkably resistant, it had seemed. "I was just wondering though, if I can ask a question?" The owner shrugged, but at least put the mop into the bucket, and looked at him, glad for any excuse to stop the attempt at cleaning. "I'd like to know what it is that comes through here – for you that is. What goods do you need? We happen to specialise in international transport, you see…"
"For me? Nothing, really. I don't do any business here myself – I just provide the facilities. People can arrange to meet here, of course, hire a room, or pay for storage. But mostly it's just the fuel and supplies. This is why I have to do the cleaning myself! No spare money for employees..." His voice sounded dejected, but actually somewhat truthful, and Kai felt himself deflate slightly. Clearly this wasn't going to be a stop where they could bring back any goods to sell to the facility itself, which meant they would need to rely on a job they could scavenge in the area to cover some of their return fuel costs.
"And do you have any materials in stock at the moment? Any goods awaiting sale?"
"No – mostly people make arrangements to hold things here for a day or two if schedules don't line up, or if someone is delayed. But at the moment it is quiet, just people coming for fuel."
"Ahh. Oh well. Here though, here's a card." Liu Chen seemed a little surprised to get a physical card rather than have some contact details beamed over to his commlink, but took the proffered card from Kai's hand, studying it carefully. "If you do need something moving, or have a job that you need help with – you can call us. If we're in the area, we can certainly consider it. Ok?"
"Ok."
"Well… I'll let you get back to your cleaning then I guess…" Kai backed out of the shower area and headed back to the Broadsword, settling down with a datapad and scanning one of the antiques and art groups on the matrix to see what was going on in the world, while around him the team carried out their various activities.
A few minutes before midday, Aswon twitched as his commlink stirred, buzzing away quietly on his wrist. He turned his arm over to read the display, hitting the accept key when he saw Spook's ID flash up.
"Good morning, Spook. Or good afternoon maybe…"
"Heya Aswon. Still looking for a job?"
"Yes, if it suits and pays."
"Ok – I've got one offer, maybe two. Actually – it's more like a job and a half perhaps. Let me explain." Aswon grabbed a towel and wiped his face down, then set his staff down and sat on the floor, making himself comfortable. "So, I've got a contact down in the Philippines, who's after some hardware. Specifically, things that go bang. Basic requirements, nothing fancy. Now as it happens, they've been in contact with someone else who's in my contact list, who has a lot of things that go bang, available for distribution. So, the easy part is go to A, pick up things that go bang, take them to B, give them to the buyer. They're not hugely rich, so it's not massively well paid, but it is pretty simple – at least in concept."
"Uh-huh… so why is this a job and a half?"
"Well, the buyers haven't made a firm order with the seller yet. They have a need, and they want it filled. I don't think they care who supplies them their needs, they just want some gear. So if you have alternative sources, and can get stuff yourself – particularly if it's cheaper – then potentially you can supply it and see if you can up your profit margin."
"Ahh, right – I see. Ok, and the seller they've spoken to isn't going to be upset by that?"
"They might not dance for joy, but they've not made a deal or a contract or anything." He saw the tiny image of Spook shrug on his display, her cheeks dimpling as she gave him a big grin. "And besides, that sounds like a them problem. So – are you interested?"
"Well, I can run it by Kai, but I don't see a problem. Rough locations?"
"Pickup in southern China, drop off to the Philippines, probably about a one thousand and five hundred kilometre run, over the South China Sea. The only fly in the ointment is the Japs have some forces in the area, doing patrols. But I'm sure they can be dodged."
"Alright, let me go grab the others and I'll put it to them. I think it shouldn't be a problem. But there is something I'd like – and that's to swing by to see you. That means getting a discreet landing pad somewhere, no questions asked. Something you can help us out with?" Aswon rolled forward and pushed, his legs powering him upright and he waved to attract Shimazu and Hunter, getting their attention and motioning to the aircraft.
"Sure… ok, give me a call back in a few, let me know." Aswon disconnected and headed up the fold-out stairs. Hunter and Shimazu stopped sparring and headed inside after him, catching the tail-end of the shout for the others, asking them to join Aswon in the passenger cabin. Once they were all together, he quickly briefed them on the offer from Spook. Hunter pulled up a map showing their current job's drop off point, Hong Kong and the area south as far down as the bottom of the Philippines.
"Didn't we leave the Philippines on bad terms?" Aswon asked, racking his brain.
"No, that was Papua New Guinea. The place that asked us to go butcher that family – and we ended up dropping grenades down through their roof."
"Ahh, yes – of course. Shimazu and Kai having a little adventure in the town, and the place with all the freezers or something. So we're ok with the Philippines, then?"
"Yes – do you remember the place we stopped on the beach – they called themselves 'Sarangani Free Port'. The owner was Kui Hai Loo, the gentlemen who carried that massive bush knife with him everywhere."
"Ahh, yeah, I remember now." Aswon gave a little shudder as Marius's description jogged his memory. "I also remember snakes…"
"Yes – there was the archaeological dig in the interior that we went and interacted with. Our last visit was not too bad – but I am concerned if there is a naval interdiction force present. Destroyers, frigates, corvettes – any kind of naval vessel really – are going to have current generation sensor suites, crewed by well-trained and motivated personnel. They will not be as easy to evade or avoid as the static ground facilities that perform standard border watches.
"We did a job delivering some cargo to the people a little way north of the Free Port as well, didn't we. I remember us landing on some kind of floating pontoon."
"Yes, Tads – smuggling in some goods, probably for the Huk. They've been trying to kick the Japanese out of the islands for years, without much success."
"So there's a good chance that this shipment of weapons is likely to be to these Huk people?" Aswon nodded to her. "Well, I think that's ok. It's good to help the people generally. Whether it's the tribesmen in your village, or my tribe, or whoever… they never seem to have the bad motivations and methods of the corporations."
"I just want to throw in here – Spook knows Aswon. Aswon trusts her. Not saying anything about Spook, right?" Hunter stared at Aswon until he nodded in agreement. "But what if that courier is still wanting to get to us. Could they find out that Spook knows Aswon, is a fixer we might work with? What if they've set this up, and Spook doesn't know it's a setup. And we fly straight to the drop off point and find a handful of Imperial Japanese Navy ships waiting in an ambush?"
"That could be entirely accurate, Hunter. However, so could anything. We should be careful – but if we treat any job offers as a potential double-cross, we will end up out of work forever and going broke. We need to work to afford the fuel and supplies to keep going. I am not saying that we should not be careful, but we cannot double-think ourselves into paralysis. That might be what the courier is trying to do here…" Marius warned.
"I take your point as well, Hunter – but I also think that Spook is well enough connected down here that she knows the people arranging the job, and has done at least some basic checks. I'm not saying it's impossible, just that it's unlikely."
"If we do take the job though, and buy guns from the person that Spook knows – it is another contact in the area that we can use in the future." Marius commented.
"Though I'm not sure we need more gun dealers than Woohoo."
"It's not Woohoo Tads. Mr. Wu and Mr. Hu." Aswon sighed as Tads suddenly grinned at him, realising that she'd played him, and already knew that. "But Mr. Hu is also quite far north, on the northern section of the New Silk Road, actually near the border with Mongolia. And Mr. Wu, I think Kai said, is in Shanghai – and that's nearly as far away to the east." Aswon glanced over and got a confirming nod from Kai. "I agree we don't necessarily need a third gun dealer in the area specifically, but if we are shifting arms down to the Huk, that saves us about a three thousand kilometres round trip, and that means a significant saving on fuel. That might be the difference between profit and loss for a mission."
"Are we generally in agreement though that we'd be interested in the job?" Aswon checked around, and when everyone signalled their agreement, he called Spook back, to get some more details.
"Hi Spook, you're on speaker, with the rest of the team."
"Hi everyone. So – what are we thinking about for the job?"
"Can you let us know the payment details, or the pay offer?" Kai asked.
"Sure. If you go pickup from my contact on Hainan, we're looking at moving about fifteen boxes of AK series rifles – seventy-five rifles in total, all new and in the factory seals. Added on to that is another few boxes loaded down with magazines and ammo. It should be enough to provide seventy-five rifles and five full magazines to go with each – so that should give you an idea on the upper mass and space requirements. If you can do the delivery, the contact has fifty kay to cover costs of the transport. Not super well-paying, but then it's a relatively local run and fairly simple."
"And the other option?" Aswon prompted.
"Well, as I understand it, they've got just shy of a hundred thousand in cash, so that was split between the cost of the goods and the delivery. If you can source the weapons cheaper somewhere else, they'll buy them in. Their total budget is the hundred-kay, and they want to get as many weapons as they can. If you can deliver the seventy-five but do it all in-house and improve your margin – fine. If you can deliver more for the budget, I think they'll be most grateful."
"And is it AKs they're after specifically? I presume we're talking the AK-97 here?"
"Yes to the latter, but no they're not bothered. They want a rifle with auto-fire and a stock, or something similar. Maybe a full size SMG. But something that can fire off a quick burst from an aimed position, or provide covering fire if needed. If you can get them other stuff to mix in, they probably wouldn't say no. But they do have a limited budget. The impression I get is that this has been scraped together and massed from a thousand tiny operations from all over, so proportionally for them it's pretty important."
"Well, we're certainly interested. We've got our drop off tonight for the current job, then we'll be down to see you tomorrow, Spook – and after that we should be able to get this sorted out."
"Excellent stuff. I'll go dig into finding a hanger or warehouse big enough for you to land your bird in then. Let me know the dimensions, and I'll sort that out."
Marius got the gross dimensions sent over to Aswon, who forwarded them on to Spook in turn.
"If we need to do a landing on something like those floating pontoons – that's going to be a problem, I guess? From the engine blast?" Kai asked.
"Yes. Unlike the helicopter, where we have a widespread downwash from the rotors, on the tilt-jet we have very strong and hot thrust directed from relatively small outlet nozzles. It would likely set fire to the pontoon. I think it would be possible the pontoon would hold our weight fine – but it is the durability that is an issue."
"So how can we fix that?"
"Well, if we can hover, I can levitate the supplies out the back. Or we can get old-fashioned and just lower them on a rope?"
"Why not just stop the engines about five metres up – we can drop the rest of the way, right?" Kai grinned, expecting a look of utter disgust from Marius. He was somewhat amazed when Marius just stared off into space for a moment, then nodded to him.
"That could work. The raft was buoyant, and would submerge slightly before trying to lift back up as the impact force was absorbed. The question would be what kind of damage it would cause to the undercarriage with the impact."
"Do you think this was rated for carrier landings, mate?" Hunter asked. "If it was, it's going to be substantially reinforced. I can do the calculations, I think…" He pulled up an engineering utility on his deck and started to plug in values for the weight of the Broadsword and the potential speed of impact, the buoyancy of the raft and some other factors, watching as the forces involved were graphed out – indicating that it might theoretically be possible.
"Of course, when we take off, we will burn the raft to a crisp. The trick is to take off quickly enough before we lose the landing platform. They would need to replace their raft – but that sounds like a them problem…"
"I wasn't being entirely serious, you know…" Kai felt that they'd sucked all of the humour out of the situation, and felt slightly aggrieved.
"I'm just going to do a visual check on the struts…" Hunter and Marius headed out, returning a few minutes later and chatting animatedly. It turned out that the Broadsword probably had been designed for carrier landings, or at the very least for hard or harsh landings, and the suspension was substantially reinforced from what was required for normal operation. Hunter, though, pulled a face as he examined the data from the graphs once more.
"The main issue I see, is that some of these components are designed to fail. Not as in not right for the job, but they've got limits designed into them, and they fail and destroy themselves as sacrificial components to avoid affecting the structure of the craft. That's fine when you've got the logistics tail behind you and a workshop to fix stuff. But we haven't. We probably are gonna struggle to get spares at all, given how we got this. Worth bearing in mind…"
"You guys suck all the fun out of life sometimes…" Kai sulked, then pulled out his phone and tried to call his weapons dealer in Shanghai, Harry Wu. Unfortunately he didn't get an answer, and it went to a vague message box, putting him into an even worse mood.
Shimazu, meanwhile, received a text of his own from Sato, asking if he was free to talk. He immediately called his friend back.
"Morning, Sato – how are you?"
"Good. Thanks for calling back so quickly… I've got… well, I'm not sure what I've got, but potentially it's an interesting one. One I think you and your team can handle, and would get you away from that courier you're worried about, at least for a while."
"Well, we're all ok so far, but that's good to know. What have you got?"
"Well, it's someone new to me. I'm as sure as I can be that it's not the courier involved – though I'm still digging. But they're after someone for a sneak and destroy job. Infiltrate a building in Paris, and destroy one specific thing there, and one thing only. Very targeted. Very specific. They're sending a message it seems – so it's really important that only that one thing is trashed, but that it be trashed good and proper. We're not just sending a message, we're double underlining it and using at least three exclamation marks. The Johnson was incredibly firm about that."
"Ok – a little weird, but not the strangest thing ever. What's the pay?"
"Preliminary offer is for a hundred and fifty thousand."
"It's not the Mona Lisa, then!" Hunter quipped.
"Wash your mouth out! That's not a valid target. Ever." Kai's head snapped around, and it appeared that even joking about destroying the painting wasn't helping his mood recover at all.
"It's a somewhat fair point, though." Aswon added. "International job. If it is a unique target, then one hundred and fifty is a bit of a lowball offer. Especially for a team to go to somewhere like Paris. Major metroplex area, unique target, bound to be in a building with top-flight security. I mean, you could end up spending that much on a gizmo or two you might need to break into some places!"
"Well, we might be able to make it work." Kai said, reverting back to form. It wasn't possible to tell if he'd hit his limit and bounced back, or if he'd just gone full circle and come back to chaos. Whatever it was, on hearing that the job might not be possible, he'd obviously decided that he now had to sign them up for the challenge.
"Can we talk to the Johnson, find out some more about the job so that we can…"
"Absolutely not." Sato interrupted Aswon quickly. "That's one other thing they were incredibly firm on. They would contact me, and only me. No discussion with anyone else, for any reason. I had to find the team, brief them, make arrangements. The Johnson would supply the funds and the target, and otherwise was hands-off. Entirely."
"Well, as long as we're not destroying a painting of a ship." Tads muttered darkly, causing a little chuckle to escape from several of the others. It was unlikely, of course – but that didn't mean the same as impossible.
"Well, if Kai is volunteering us for this, then I think we need to ask you to go back to the Johnson for us, Sato. If it's an item that's pretty normal, but needs this special message sending – then we're talking about two hundred thousand to make it feasible I think, just because of the fuel costs. If we're destroying a national treasure, something really unique – then we're talking about two MILLION… because if we thought the Iranians chasing us was bad, we don't want to think about what the French would do if we did trash something like the Mona Lisa. Pissed would not even begin to describe them."
"Sorry, Sato – I think Aswon is right. In fact I'd say we'd probably have to ask closer to two hundred and fifty thousand to cover the fuel there and back, to make the job feasible. We're going to have costs on a job like that, sneaking into a city that's as foreign to us as Paris. I think there's only one of us that speaks French, and we'd probably stand out a bit. And we'd have issues landing our aircraft – we've had one flight into Paris, and it involved us having to do some fairly hefty bribes to a regional airport, if I remember rightly."
"Can we even break into a high security place?" Tads asked. "I mean, do we have the gear we need?"
"It might be. It might require some very advanced equipment – maglock sequencers, hiring deckers to run overwatch. Local talent. Backdoors. That's why if it is something crazy like a requirement to break into the Louvre, we'd be closer to two million than two hundred thousand."
"I'll go back to the Johnson and let them know I have a team willing to consider, but we need to look at the fee. See what they say. I'll get back to you."
"Great, Sato. Oh – is there a time limit on this one?"
"No – well kinda. That's one of the other strange things. They want it done by Christmas… so plenty of time." Sato shrugged in confusion and Shimazu grinned at him. It probably wasn't the strangest thing he'd ever heard.
"Alright, we'll note that down. But for now - stay safe…" Shimazu disconnected the call, then stretched, realising he'd been hunched over the screen a little too much. "That sounds promising. I think."
"It does indeed… but let's get this one done and out of the way, shall we? Then we can look ahead." Kai focussed everyone back on the job at hand.
"Do you want me to go for a quick astral recon of the drop off site, now that we're close to the right time?" Tads saw Kai and the others nod, then slumped down into her couch, letting the safety harness hold her, flitting across the width of China at a 'brisk' pace. She headed for Hong Kong first, using Chun's martial arts academy as a way point, that being very familiar to her, then headed north, crossing onto mainland China and working around the vast sprawl of the Guangzhou metroplex. From up high she examined the city, risking a quick manifestation from ten kilometres up, where the risk of being seen floating in mid-air was miniscule. The city spread out beneath her, over a hundred and fifty kilometres wide, and she shuddered as she took in the general malaise and sense of despair that shrouded the entire conurbation.
Once she'd orientated herself though, she dived down lower, closing in on the Pearl River and then the cement factory that lay just to the north of one of the massive bends. The Dongxing Cement Company had a large site, nearly one and half kilometres to a side, and it, too, was a depressing area, the mana over the whole area being strained and twisted slightly. As she got closer, she saw patches of much darker and violent energy, and her fertile imagination had no issues coming up with a number of reasons for those – quiet, out of the way locations amidst huge piles of raw materials, or giant crushing machines. She looked up and studied the sky for a few moments, trying to think of happier things as she re-centred herself, before resuming her patrol and scoping the place out, trying to get a much better lay of the land than the overhead map would allow. She spent about ten minutes flitting about and examining the access roads in and out of the area, the places where there was significant cover or wide open ground, the tall chimneys with a rickety staircase that climbed up nearly thirty metres, the bunker-like buildings, low-level power cables – all the things that she could think of to share with the rest of the team.
Once done, and with her usual level of caution she headed back via a circuitous route, checking for any signs of astral pursuit, before rousing her body and relaying everything she'd seen there, casting a quick illusion to show the team exactly what the place looked like, and letting Hunter map in a lot more detail on his map. They agreed upon their approach vector based on the cover and obstacles, noting down potential over-watch positions and escape routes, and spent a few minutes working out who was going to do what during the handover. One of the things she also added was that she'd seen almost no lights in the place – and while hundreds of workers had been swarming over the site making concrete and dealing with the factory processes, she estimated that at night the place would be deserted and dark – probably why the site had been chosen at all.
They carried on with their various tasks until just before eight that evening, getting their gear checked over and in place, and preparing for the drop off. The pallet of drugs was moved to the very rear of the cargo hold, almost touching the ramp, ready to offload as quickly as possible, and weapons were loaded and put on safe, including the heavy artillery. Finally it was time to go, and Marius vaulted them into the sky smoothly and cleanly, turning east for the last leg of the journey.
Leaving the Yunnan province and entering the Sichuan region proved to be considerably more challenging than their entry to Yunnan. The rival state obviously had a much larger GDP and had spent a considerable sum of that money on their military and border defences. Marius actually had to do some serious flying to evade their ground stations, picking and choosing his places to slip through the border security with some very low-level flying through crowded and twisted valleys, before rocketing across the farmlands below. Crossing out of Sichuan and into Guangxi was just as tough – though he was better prepared for it and it was less of a surprise to encounter the wall of EM energy thrown up across the landscape. From Guangxi into Guangdong was less of an issue – though the area looked just as well-developed and industrialised, they must have decided to focus their spending on items other than their sensor net, as it was considerably less pervasive.
They kept clear of the huge airport, easily spottable from range thanks to the blanket of radar that covered it – even if the streak of fire visible from fifty kilometres away as a sub-orbital took off and thundered into the upper atmosphere hadn't also been a dead giveaway. Circling around the northern edge of the city they could see why it had grown to where it had and no further – jagged and steep mountains hemmed in the city, driving any further expansion up rather than out, and clogging the flat and buildable land with dwellings, factories and warehouses as far as they could see. The lights of the city were a blanket over the landscape, a million fireflies illuminating roads, houses and workshops, still labouring hard well into the night.
The cement factory, though, was a dark blob before them, an inky pool of blackness, ringed by intermittent lights on the highways. The huge piles of rock and sand, the massive structures of the factory itself, all served to soak up any light from the perimeter, keeping the interior a stygian abyss – one that Marius unerringly steered into, gliding down with a perfectly smooth approach plan.
Tads was on the optics, scanning around them, spying out the various places she'd seen earlier – and then froze, as she spotted some form of life high up above the rugged landscape.
"Contact, on the right tower… um, the western one. I caught a brief glimpse of something alive. Not actively magical, but tucked away on the stairwell. I lost sight as we moved around the tower, though. I don't know what it was either – it disappeared too quickly."
Tension rose in the aircraft, and up front both Marius and Hunter adjusted the sensors, performing an active sweep over the area that Tads had described… and saw nothing. Marius frowned, then increased the power on the sensor, ramping the flux up considerably. Normally he wouldn't have dared do so in such a built up area, but the same barriers that soaked up the light and sound of the city would also serve to block or attenuate the massive spike of power.
Once more, the sensors came back clean. He keyed his comms open, but only to Hunter, rather than the whole team.
"Any sign?"
"No, nothing."
"I do not like this." The pilot's mental frown deepened, though his actual face remained smooth and motionless – partly because of the dermal sheathing that had replaced his natural skin, partly because of the rigger-jack overrides that kept him still while his conscious mind WAS the aircraft. He disliked magic still, it made very little sense to him, and the spells and spirits that Tads used seemed to defy the laws of physics that bound him and his drones and the other mechanical processes that he had spent his life so far mastering. But, for all that, he understood the power of it now, especially after the events of the last twenty-plus months. And though he still didn't like what she did, he'd learned to trust Tads a great deal. He couldn't imagine that she'd made a mistake, not with what she'd said. But he didn't spot anything on his sensors either – despite his best efforts.
If he'd trusted her less, he would have assumed she'd seen something else, or made a bad call. But now, instead, he was led to a much more unpleasant conclusion. Something WAS in the tower, and whatever it was, it was making a deliberate attempt not to be seen – and was succeeding against every sensor he had.
"Be advised, we have no sensor lock on that target. No sign in the infra-red or ultra-violet spectrum, no radar returns, no thermal signature. Whoever it is, is using advanced tech to mask their position. How do you wish to proceed, Kai?"
"Stay on target – but if you can get the nose of the aircraft pointed that way, and keep the sensors focussed there, that's good. Keeps the ramp out of sight, won't it? And we can watch better, and cover the area?"
"Confirmed. Standby for landing." He reduced power, dropping down closer and closer to the compacted soil of the storage area. "Be advised, we have two new targets appearing from the south, rounding the storage area – one limousine, one large box van, moving in formation towards us."
The rest of the team got ready to disembark, while Marius tried something different – isolating his sensors he tried to look for any radio frequencies that were distorted or squelched, seeing if anything was jamming or absorbing RF energy, rather than radiating it. The tower remained maddeningly quiet though, and he pulled his attention away for a moment as he smoothly touched down – but he kept the engines at their minimum power settings, ready for an immediate launch if needed. As soon as the Broadsword was firmly down on the ground, he checked the sensors again – and made sure the front autocannon was slaved to his attention, the turret rotating and tracking his mental crosshairs as he examined the structure.
"I've just tried calling the contact, but it went straight through to voice mail – I guess he doesn't want his phone ringing during the meet." Kai announced. He sent a quick text message instead announcing 'We're here', and then he moved to the door out of the passenger area, dropping the stairs and climbing down to the ground, Shimazu close on his heels. He paused at the bottom of the steps as his commlink buzzed, receiving a single icon back in response – a Nuyen symbol. He showed Shimazu, and then Aswon, who was coming down the steps behind them.
"Any ideas? Let's trade perhaps? Or make money? Or do you think it's 'hand over the stuff, we're robbing you'?" The others shrugged, and Kai joined them, heading towards the limo that had pulled around to face parallel to their nose, the driver hurriedly climbing out and moving to the rear doors to open them. The large van bounced across the rough and uneven ground, too, before ploughing to a halt. It was hard to hear over the noise of the engines, but they caught the rattle of the rear doors rolling up, and moments later a veritable horde of men boiled out of the rear compartment. The faint moonlight glinted off the submachine guns and shotguns they carried, moving to spread out into two long lines fanning out on either side of the limo.
"Marius – you can fly through mist absolutely fine, can't you?"
"Affirmative, Tads. Why?"
"If anything kicks off, I intend to drop the biggest patch of mist I can muster centred just off the front of the aircraft. Should cover the ground team and stop them aiming so easily, and hopefully we won't take as much fire."
"Excellent. Mist should not affect my sensors that much – if I get a radar lock on the vehicles or people, we can still take action."
Kai turned to face Shimazu for a moment, concentrating on his facial muscles as he commanded them to obey his will.
"How am I looking?"
"Very Chinese." Shimazu confirmed, reaching to his neck to pull up his face mask and seat it around the top of his nose, leaving only a thin slit for his eyes before the heavy helmet. A glance over to the side showed him that Aswon had done the same, swaddling his face to hide much of his features.
"Just a reminder, Kai," they could hear the little grunts of effort from Hunter as he worked to release the ratchet straps and netting that secured the cargo. "We've got one hundred and twenty-three bricks, and we paid a little under five grand for each one. Given how dry the supply is likely to be, we probably want to pitch high – maybe as much as seventeen or eighteen thousand per kilo, at least to start with." There was a sucking noise audible over the team chat as Aswon winced, but he kept reasonably quiet, trusting Kai to play it by ear.
"Be aware, the man climbing out of the back of the car is protected by shielding magics. It's… well, it's not nothing, but it's not as strong as mine." Tads watched as the man in the sharp suit moved a step or two away from the car, his blood-red tie only just visible in the pale moonlight against the sliver of white shirt showing under his jacket. A second man climbed out of the car, dressed in some kind of fancy robes. She pondered for a moment, but then declined to assense him any further – it was far too likely to be seen as a hostile action.
Kai walked forward slowly and with confidence, Shimazu pacing him one step behind and to his right, carrying the massive ballistic shield as if it was made of foam. The potential sighting in the tower had him on edge, and his senses tingled, hovering on the edge of movement, and he primed himself to step in front of Kai and take the hit if it proved necessary.
Tse Lop – assuming it was him in the sharp suit – stood in the centre of the formation, with his mage standing just behind him. The two lines of goons extended outwards in an arc, standing with their weapons held in what they probably thought of as intimidating poses. Being fair, against a less experienced bunch of 'runners, it might have worked – they certainly looked like they'd just stepped off the set of some trideo production detailing the seedy underworld. But everyone on the team knew that their sub-guns and shotguns were relatively low-range weapons, and though dangerous – weren't the right weapon for the situation. None of them would do more than chip paint on the heavily armoured aircraft, and they were pretty certain that in a gunfight, they'd find themselves outmatched by the team's assault rifles, grenade launchers and turret-mounted auto-cannons.
"Good evening. I am Kai. We have your delivery for you." Kai pitched his voice down a little so that it would carry across the fifteen metres of open ground between them.
"Ahh, good. You arrived just in time." Kai tried not to grin or react to the seemingly shallow attempt to gain dominance in the conversation.
"I bring the warmest of welcomes from Mr. Daruka, the provider of our cargo. He sends this shipment ahead to deal with your immediate needs, and there is a larger shipment on the way here now, by a slightly slower courier." He lifted one hand, rotating it slowly to let the faint moonlight illuminate the business card held between two fingers, and then he slowly and deliberately walked forwards, paced by Shimazu. When he got close to Tse Lop, he stopped and then bowed deeply, presenting the card in a two-handed offering – Japanese style.
Shimazu stifled a groan, wondering what Kai was up to – but then heard a faint muttering from one of the goons off to the side, proclaiming that 'this guys's spent too much time with the nips!'. He wondered if it was a mistake, or if Kai was just trying to hide their knowledge of the situation and appear to be slightly…uncivilised?
"Some of my crew do not speak Chinese. May we continue our conversation in English, to ease any confusion?"
"No. It's their problem if they're uncultured swine." Tse Lop sneered at him, and Kai just gave a faint smile and a nod, as if he was expecting this. "Now – where is my product? What do you have for me?" the man demanded. Kai could see his face a little more clearly now they were close, and didn't care much for the entitled sneer that was plastered over his face. Still, he didn't have to like the man to do business with him.
"Very well. We have one hundred and twenty-three kilograms of nearly 90% pure heroin, individually wrapped in one kilo bricks, available for immediate sale and distribution." He swapped to sub-vocal, and broadcast to the team, "He's not willing to use English, says that's our problem if we don't understand a proper language."
"If your shielding can't soak my spells, that's your lack of magic..." Tads muttered, and Kai had to bite the inside of his cheek to avoid reacting to her acerbic tone.
"If you would like to get one of your men to head to the rear of the aircraft, our load-master will let them select a brick at random for testing of course, assuming you wish to do so."
"They ain't getting on the bird, though!" Hunter called out. "They'll have to just point!"
"My load master is waiting for them at the back, all they need to do is stand at the bottom of the ramp and point at the one they wish to select…"
"You – go select one of the packages." Tse Lop pointed at the first of his men standing to the right, then flicked his hand towards the shimmering shape of the Broadsword. "You and you – go get the wheelbarrows!" Two more men peeled off to head towards the van they had come in at a sprint.
Sure enough, a few moments later, they emerged from the van with two new wheelbarrows, a shaped metal bucket spot welded over two long arms and connected to a large balloon tyre, the bright yellow knobbly inflatable wheel looking out of place at such a clandestine meeting.
"What is this – amateur hour?" Marius' voice dripped with scorn.
"It's unconventional, but it should work – each will probably hold half the shipment, and means one man can move it. Probably…" Aswon was moving around, scanning the perimeter in general but he kept examining the towers, also somewhat alarmed by Tads' sighting report.
"Mr. Lop. We noticed something on the way in… I just wanted to mention it. We noticed a small life sign up in one of the towers over there – we presume it's one of your men, just keeping an eye on the meeting and making sure we're all secure?"
"What?" Tse Che Lop turned for a moment and stared at the tower, causing several of the team to groan in disappointment. His head twisted back towards Kai. "Is this some kind of trick? Are you trying to fool me?" His voice which had never been particularly friendly, hardened and Kai saw his hands flexing into fists, gripping tightly together.
"Not at all, sir." Kai tried to keep his voice calm and collected, making sure he wasn't going to be the cause of any escalation. "We just want to keep the meeting safe and professional. That's all. It might just be a nesting bird or some creature, something innocent. Or it could be a person. But we have no idea – it's nothing to do with us. We wanted to just make sure you are aware, that is all."
"We need to hurry, then." Tse Lop turned towards some of his men, and waved at them "Go check out the tower! NOW!" A small group of men peeled out of the extended line and started to head over to the towers, peering into the darkness.
The first man dispatched towards the aircraft had reached the bottom of the ramp now, and had stopped at Hunter's firm gesture.
"Tell me when to stop, chummer…" Hunter moved his hand slowly from one side to the other, stopping when indicated, and then started to move up and down until told to stop again. Once the package had been selected, he worked it out of the stack and then threw it down to the waiting man, who struggled to catch it, before running back towards his boss, presenting it to him.
"Where is the analyser? IDIOT!" Tse Lop backhanded the man's face, and he peeled away towards the car, head ducked in shame to grab the piece of equipment. When he came back Tse stuck in the probe from the machine, confirming that the product was legitimate, giving a barely satisfactory nod as the machine beeped and displayed the data.
"It appears the product is of satisfactory quality. What is the price?" Once again the scorn was back in the voice, and he seemed to be trying to establish dominance once more.
"Well, our supplier wants to make a relationship with you, to set up for future business dealings. He's set a base price at the moment, considering the recent activities, of sixteen thousand per kilo." Tse seemed to choke for a moment and then responded with anger – anger that didn't seem to be faked or an act.
"Inconceivable! That is not an offer, that is an insult. I would find your supplier and execute him in front of his family as an example!" Tse seemed to be genuinely upset by the offer, flecks of spittle flying from his mouth as he ranted at Kai for a solid thirty seconds. Shimazu shifted warily, his already heightened senses going into overdrive as Tse seemed to lose any semblance of decorum – but Kai just stood stock-still, letting the rant wash over him. Eventually the tirade finished, and Tse had to stop to take a deep breath, fixing Kai with a hard stare, evaluating him. "Eight thousand."
"Well, thank you for the counter-offer. As we said, we're working on behalf of Mr. Daruka, and he is very keen to set up a long-lasting business partnership with you. Clearly this is the start of that relationship, so some flexibility in our pricing can be made, but we must balance the cost of delivery and overheads for bribes and other costs into our offer. Much more product is coming, and that will be cheaper as it's not had the 'express delivery' option. So we could perhaps drop our price to twelve and a half thousand per kilo? We do have other business to attend to tonight, so we could perhaps take this lower price to allow us to move on swiftly?"
"You are a cock-sucking whore if you think I will pay that. Do you know who I am? Who I represent?" The tirade started again, and Kai watched the man as he pontificated, threatened and tried to menace him. Kai realised that this guy was perhaps a little too used to getting his own way. Maybe he really was 'the man' around the local area, used to intimidating people and determining how things were done. That was dangerous, of course – when put into a situation where he didn't have control, it was far more likely that he'd lash out or do something unpredictable. "I will pay you ten thousand per kilo – that is your price." His voice seemed to set, declaring something that was, rather than something he wanted. Kai tilted his head slightly, ignoring the quiet moaning from Hunter in his ear, and examined the man once more. The set of his jaw, the body language, the trembles in the fists – none of this felt like an act, and it did seem that he was on the verge of some kind of outburst. That would be unfortunate, of course. Kai certainly didn't think he'd survive the application of Shimazu to the situation, but then they'd be left with a huge quantity of drugs to dispose of, and no local contact.
Tse glared at Kai, and seemed to be just about to say something. There was an odd set to his jaw, and his body seemed to have an almost imperceptible tremor to it now. For a fleeting moment Kai thought he was about to try and slap him, as he'd slapped his underling. If he did, then Shimazu was going to explode, and things would get incredibly messy.
"We accept your kind offer. Let's do business." Kai bowed his head, once more ignoring the cries of disgust over the radio from Hunter. "Let us transfer the money while your men unload the supplies. I cannot compete with your business acumen or assessment of the situation – you are clearly a skilled negotiator." Tse Chi Lop nodded, and the smug smirk spread back across his face. Kai filed this away for discussion later – the man was clearly not entirely sane, and really seemed to think he was as cunning and impressive as his own mental picture portrayed, rather than a shallow bully. Normally this kind of thing was exactly the kind of situation that Kai enjoyed poking until someone burst – but there was too much riding on this deal, and much as he'd personally enjoy the chaos sewn, it wouldn't benefit the team at all.
Tse pulled out a credstick and held it aloft, then shouted to his men to start loading the cargo, before letting Kai scan the stick and confirm the funds on his own reader, getting Tse to fingerprint and code-verify the transaction. At the back of the tilt-jet, Hunter started grabbing the kilo bricks and throwing them out, alternating from one of the men to the other just as fast as he could. They fielded the bricks, stacking them as neatly as they could in the wheelbarrows in the second they had to work with before another package came sailing their way – Hunter working relentlessly to offload the drugs as quickly as possible.
Two minutes later, the drugs were clear, and Hunter watched as the two men tried to neaten up their piles and make ready to wander off with them. Kai still stood with Tse, awaiting confirmation that all was good, Shimazu standing just behind him, and the mage standing just behind Tse. The group of men were most of the way to the towers now, still looking around myopically in the dark.
Aswon saw a glimpse of movement up in the tower. His eyes zoomed in on the twitch of movement, identifying the vaguest of outlines scrunched up under a blanket or covering of some kind, a long slender shape protruding from the front and aiming down towards them. A trickle of adrenaline shot through his system and he clamped down hard – actually exerting iron control over his body and halting his heart for the space of two beats. When it resumed, it was measured, his brain processing facts rather than emotions, and he realised that if he'd been up on the tower, pointing his rifle down at the meeting, sniper rifle in hand and covered with a thermal masking ghillie suit, then he would have given off EXACTLY the same profile. He casually turned his body, taking a few steps forward, his head turned still further as if he was checking towards the rear of the aircraft – but turning his mouth directly away from what he'd seen.
"Sniper, one landing down from the top of the tower. Confirming Tads' report – definite target up there. Stand by to go loud." He adjusted the grip on his weapon slightly, and then kept moving, weaving a semi-random path as he meandered about. It wasn't fast enough to throw off a good marksman, but it was better than nothing.
"Mr. Lop… do you speak any other languages?" Kai glanced down towards the ground, also partially occluding his mouth.
"No – I do not see the need to speak with the heathens and uncultured."
"Of course. What about your mage?"
"He speaks the language of the ancients, those shrouded in mystery."
"I see. Then I will have to continue like this – and hope that the sniper up in the tower that my friend just saw isn't very good at reading lips. There is definitely someone up there though. Do you want us to deal with it?"
Tse Chi Lop turned and pointed at the tower again, clearly marking himself out and making Kai groan with frustration. His mage turned and looked too, taking on the slightly glassy-eyed façade that Kai recognised as a mage surveying astral space. He, too, must have seen something, as a moment later he raised both hands and with his fingers shaped like claws, unleashed a torrent of lightning towards the top of the tower. Brilliant blue and white energy coruscated upwards towards the concrete tower, striking the staircase and sending tendrils of electricity arcing up and down. Kai had no idea if the mage had hit anything – mostly he was blind at the moment, and despite frantically blinking he could see only the vaguest of dark shapes around him and a brilliant after-image of the bolt, seared into his eyeballs. Marius, Aswon, Shimazu and Tads likewise could see the fading line of destruction that had illuminated the night sky. Those with advanced flare compensation modules built into their cyber-eyes, and those with enhanced vision felt the visual distortions fading away quickly as technology or magic did its work, while those without blinked frantically, trying to regain their night vision. A fusillade of unaimed fire spattered against the concrete and steel structure as the men that had been sent to investigate opened fire blindly, putting copious amounts of lead into the general target area and hoping to get lucky – or perhaps just to pin the target in place.
"Hunter, cold sights. We need your firepower!" Aswon called, sidestepping closer to the aircraft and using the body of the Broadsword for cover, as he continued to blink rapidly, trying to recapture his ability to see into the darkness.
Hunter grabbed his Panther cannon, feeling the reassuring connectivity as the induction pad on his palm mated with the probes in the handgrip of the weapon, reporting a full magazine and a round in the chamber. He jumped down off the side of the ramp, ignoring the gasps from the two minions who had panicked slightly when the gunfire opened up on the tower, but had become downright terrified when the orc had hefted his huge anti-material weapon in their direction. Hunter ignored them though, and dropped down to the starboard side of the aircraft, aiming the cannon upwards from the hip. He didn't need to raise it to his shoulder to aim, the SmartLink took care of that – the reticule showing the potential impact point floating in the sky.
His eyes were unaffected by the passage of three hundred million volts of electricity through the night sky. So he had no problems seeing the dark shape detach from the back of the tower, gliding down and away from the spalling concrete on the front side as the goons continued to shoot wildly at it. His eyes narrowed, and as the targeting system locked onto the wingsuit, his mind sent the mental command to fire – sending an armour-penetrating round directly through the centre of mass.
Unsurprisingly, the target erupted into pieces, sending a rain of bodyparts showering down to the ground below, along with a fine mist of blood.
"Target neutralised." There was a grim sense of satisfaction to Hunter's voice. Turning, he cocked his head at the men holding the wheelbarrows, staring at him in frightened awe. "Don't you think you should get your drugs and fuck off?" He grinned, his lopsided face displaying a mass of uneven teeth and tusks, and the sudden change of expression seemed to trigger them into action.
"Kai – while the mage was distracted, I gave him a quick check out. I've got his signature firmly checked out. He's got a bunch of active foci on his body, and an ally spirit protecting him. He's not as powerful as any of us – though the ally spirit might even that up a bit. But if we spot any of his work again, we'll recognise it.
"Well, Mr. Lop. It appears that your mage was successful. Well done. If there's no further business though, I think we should leave, and stop taking up your time. Good night." Kai spoke quietly but confidently, for the first time not giving any sense of yielding or negotiation in his voice. He'd got the money and done the deal – there was no need to be rude, but also no need to pander to this man now. He nodded courteously at the mage, turned on his heel and headed towards the Broadsword at a brisk walk, Shimazu falling into step behind him while Aswon covered them from by the steps. At the back of the aircraft, Hunter made sure the ramp was clear and hit the control to close it, then stowed his cannon and headed up front to join Marius.
As soon as the pilot detected the front steps closing behind Aswon, he fed power to the engines, vaulting the aircraft into the sky and heading north-east, out of the city on the most direct route, ready to take a slow circle around the conurbation as they headed south towards Hong Kong – where hopefully Spook had arranged somewhere for them to land…