After Tads had finished her morning rituals and summoned fresh spirits to protect and guard the team, they got ready to climb into the truck for what felt like the first time in forever. Nadia was out with Marius Junior to see them off, and attracted the attention of her husband, leaning in to have a quiet word.
"You're going to Batumi, yes?"
"Yes, that is correct."
"Will you get a picture of the hotel, or the area for me?"
"I can – why?"
"For… the memories." Her face coloured a little as a look of slight embarrassment washed over her.
"I can. I do not understand why though?" Marius looked a little confused, but a moment later Aswon appeared and nodded to Nadia.
"Of course we'll get you a picture, or a set of pictures. Don't you worry." He steered the rigger towards the truck, pushing him towards the steps. "See you in a few days, Nadia!"
Marius, of course, took the centre spot in the front, jacking into the rigger system, with Tads sitting just behind him. Aswon took the front right seat again, with Shimazu on the opposite side, Hunter took the back left seat next to the electronics ports leaving Kai with the back right seat. The vinyl seats and thin padding felt spartan now compared to the high-quality seats of the Broadsword, and it actually sounded a little louder in the cabin than the aircraft would have been. They wiggled and squirmed a little, getting used to ground travel once more after spending so long travelling by air.
"What was that about?" Hunter asked.
"Nadia wants a picture of the hotel, as a momento, I think."
"I do not understand why, though. There was nothing special about the hotel."
"Maybe not specifically the hotel, it's more what went on there." Marius frowned at Aswon, not getting the meaning of what he was saying. "Oh for fraks sake, Marius… come on – use that memory of yours. I haven't forgotten, much as I'd like to. The noise of the bed springs. Asking for more chocolate mousse. Oh Marius, oh Marius…." The rest of the team were smiling now as Marius suddenly focussed his attention forwards, then hurriedly jacked in to avoid any further discussion. He suddenly realised why it might factor in Nadia's memories quite so strongly, and he felt his own cheeks colour slightly. The truck rumbled into life and jolted forwards as Marius threw power to the transmission, and the team wiggled some more trying to get comfy.
It didn't take that long, though, and by the time they had driven around the south end of Hajigabul they were getting used to things once again. The road was a decent one, and Marius had them trundling along at just under a hundred kilometres per hour as they headed north-west up the national highway, driving past the large fields full of circular patches of crops, watered by the huge irrigation rigs that pivoted around a central point. The E60 highway was a nice two lane, dual carriageway, letting car drivers overtake them easily as they paced along with other trucks and goods vehicles also travelling in the same direction. They travelled for several hours, stopping briefly for a stretch of the legs and a drink at Ganja, about half-way towards Tbilisi.
"Ok, first real decision time here. If we keep heading north-west, we go towards Tbilisi, and then follow the roads along the foot of the mountains due west, heading towards the coast. That takes us along a route we've travelled before, but also quite close to that warlord and his valley full of troops." Hunter kept his tone even, not indicating if he thought that was a good or bad idea. "The alternative is to swing south-west from here a little, cutting through the interior regions and into what used to be Armenia, and then heading for the coast. Keeps us well clear of the city and the warlord – but takes us much closer to the eastern edges of old Turkey and the Kurdistan conflict zone – and Mount Arrarat."
"The north route." Marius responded almost instantly, speaking with absolute conviction.
"I think we ought to look at the southern option, though, it could have some benefits."
"Nein. The north route. We should stay away from the worm and his minions."
"Let's look at the two routes, see which is longer, what the pros and cons are…"
"NEIN. I am the driver. Executive decision. We take the north route, and avoid the Dragon."
"I am in charge here, right?" Kai raised an eyebrow and looked around for support, but found that there wasn't any showing from the other team members.
"If you wish to think so. But we drive the north route. And avoid the dragon." Marius sounded intractable, and as if he'd just keep restating his preference until nightfall, if necessary.
"Whatever then, I guess we go north…" Kai sighed a little, putting on an expression of hard-done suffering and woe, but nobody else seemed to care about that, either. After a few minutes of time outside the truck to stretch their legs, they mounted up again, before pushing on towards the capital city of the Trans-Caucus League. The traffic grew heavier as they closed in, but never clogged up entirely, and they followed the highway along the edge of the valley that confined Tbilisi into a long snaking ribbon development that followed the contours of the hills.
They stopped at a service station near the edge of the city at lunchtime, keeping an eye out for courier vehicles just in case their truck was still on a list somewhere – though hopefully the current brown paintjob 'disguise' should prevent that, and again took a little time to stretch and relax, topping up on drinks and refreshing some supplies. The first four hundred and fifty kilometres had gone smoothly enough, and at this rate they would be well into the city of Batumi by tea-time.
After lunch they set off again, the sun high in the clear blue skies and the temperature climbing to the point that they were glad of the air-conditioning built into the truck. Normally it would be heating the cab against the cold winter of northern Russia, but the cooling it provided made the journey pleasant rather than a nightmare. As they headed north out of the city on the E60 and started to follow the route as it bent westwards, they could see the Caucus mountains to the north, rising up from the plains to form range that ran east to west and formed a considerable barrier between them and the Russians to the north.
They also saw traffic – lots and lots of traffic. Enough to slow the overall flow of movement down noticeably, but without being bad enough to stop them or make them seek alternative routes. The national roads were not great to start off with – no triple lane high-speed highways here, but a much smaller single carriageway, maybe duel carriageway in places. It was at least well-maintained and in good repair, but there had been neither the funds nor need to build the quality of roads many other nations had developed, and as a result the road was easily overwhelmed with high numbers of users.
And it seemed that today there were indeed high numbers of users, all heading westwards. As they took in the traffic, noting that many of the cars seemed to be running low on their suspension or had lots of cargo strapped to the roof, they realised that it was coming up to a weekend and they were on the road leading to the coast – the Black Sea might not have the same kind of tourist appeal as some of the better holiday resorts around the world – but it was reachable in half a day's driving from the interior, had beaches and was probably within the bounds of affordability for most of the citizens of the league. The team remembered how many guest houses and hotels they'd seen boarded up and empty on their previous journey to Constantinople – hardly surprising as they'd been fighting wintery blizzards at the time – and realised that the whole area must be incredibly seasonal.
The closer they got to the coast, though, the heavier the traffic became, with an almost solid stream of holiday makers crammed into their tiny cars, suitcases strapped to the roof and children pressed up against the glass amidst a packed passenger area. Just the fact that some of the cars still had clear glass rather than the one-way polarised glass that was otherwise ubiquitous in the Sixth world reminded them of how poor some parts of the country were.
They continued onwards, driving through more and more traffic and dealing with packed roads as tourists continued to head towards the coastal resorts. Every guest-house they drove past seemed to be fully booked, car-parks overflowing with vehicles and the verges of the roads being used to handle the excess.
"Well, guess I can always sleep on the roof. Weather forecast is nice and clear!" Hunter quipped. "Marius in the front as normal, with one more. Aswon in the Hammock… yeah, we can make this work for a night without too much hassle. Just might not be the comfiest thing. But from what we've seen so far, nobody's going to have any spaces left to rent or hire, especially not for a group our size."
"What about camping? We did bring the tent and the other survival gear. We should be ok?"
"I don't know, Aswon." Tads shook her head. "I didn't remember seeing any camp sites on our last trip down this way. I wonder if there's critters out there that make it unsafe…" The truck rumbled onwards, with the team watching the increasing levels of congestion and habitation as they closed on the town of Batumi.
"Hey look! Guesthouse on the other side of the road… isn't that where…?"
"Yep, that's the one Kai. That's where we formed our group." Aswon confirmed. "Looks a bit different now, doesn't it!" The hostel or hotel was full, holidaymakers and tourists sitting on the low wall of the driveway, drinking beers and smoking, soaking up the sunshine. The veranda the magical members of the team had sat on was full of sun-loungers now, and was clean and hospitable, looking very different to the cold and bleak location they remembered. "How long ago was that?"
"Around eighteen months." Marius called back helpfully. "I recall it being the end of January when we were here last, and you disappeared off for the evening."
That sparked a fresh discussion about how things had changed in the last year and a half, how quickly the time had gone by, and how far they'd come as a team – learning and supporting each other, keeping each other safe – mostly. They kept their eyes open, though, and the closer they got to Batumi, the worse the congestion became, and it was soon clear to them that the chances of finding anywhere to stay was zero. Instead, they turned off the coast road, heading inland a little until they found the entrance to a field that was large enough for them to pull the truck into and decided to call it a night – camping of a sort, but in a position where it was easy enough to just drive away if needed. At Aswon's suggestion, they set up the watch roster and worked out their shifts – just in case someone was after the painting or one of the other art pieces.
The night passed uneventfully, though, with nobody bothering them and nothing to raise the alarm. The dawn on the Friday was spectacular – the sun rising amidst a low lying mist that gathered over the fields, the first rays of sunlight reflecting off the water content turning the entire eastern horizon into a red and orange swirl of colours. It didn't last long, the mist soon being driven off by the rising temperatures, but until it did it looked like the sky itself was on fire, wisps of sunlight dancing and rising from the ground. Tads summoned her spirits, replacing those that had guarded them overnight, hoping that this wasn't a sign or some message of foreboding about their delivery, remembering that the Jewel of Muscat had also been referred to as 'The Blood Ship'.
They breakfasted and tidied up their gear from the night, packing everything away neatly and tightly – still somewhat on edge and worried about a potential attack during the delivery and planning in case they needed to get away from a combat situation.
"Are we going to drop the disguise now?" Tads asked as they were nearly ready to go.
"Why? Why not do it in town?" Kai asked curiously.
"We know he has spies all over town. He found us in our hotel room and sent us a written invitation last time, and we didn't know anything about him. So he must have informants all over the place, feeding him gossip. Now sure, they can't send information on everything… but we came here in the truck to hide that we have an aircraft. But if no green army truck is seen entering the city, but one turns up outside his house – that's going to rouse suspicion I think, and they'll look into it."
"Ahh, I see what you mean. And then once they do start looking, they'll realise we have the means to magically disguise the truck, at a high level. Hmm…." Kai drummed his fingers on his thigh for a moment as he considered the options. "Let's just drop the spell then. And the concealment, and everything else. Might as well just head in, and be bold about who we are. You're right – they did ID us first last time, let's just show them what they want to see…"
"I have found a route up to the house – it is somewhat difficult, though. A single track road that winds back and forth."
"Well, you can take that, Marius. I want to go up in the cable car again."
"Really?"
"Yep. It was dark last time. I want to see the city."
"Well, you're not going alone." Shimazu added.
"Alright, so we'll both go for a cable car ride."
"I'd actually like to see the view as well." Aswon grinned, then shrugged at the others. "Seeing as we're splitting up anyway. Tads will still be with the vehicle, so we have magical cover here, so we should all be fine."
They headed in on the main road, slowly crawling through the traffic that had clogged the main road to almost a standstill. Reaching the edge of the docks district, they turned off and pulled up outside the bottom station for the cable car, Marius sliding to a halt on the 'No Parking' area just outside the entrance. A guard came out of the terminal, holding his shotgun and immediately waved for the truck to move on.
"No parking!" he shouted in Georgian. "Move! There is no parking here!" The guard had a cybernetic implant that had replaced one eye and a good chunk of his cheek bone and side of the face with an obvious and crude looking prosthetic, metallic implant crudely interfaced with the flesh that remained while the eye glowed a sullen red.
"Hello! We have a delivery for Mr. Kulkachev. My driver here will take the delivery up to the mountain by the back road, but we want to let him know it's coming." Kai slid down from the rear door, smiling at the guard. The front doors opened and Aswon and Shimazu both jumped down, landing lightly on the ground and swinging the heavy doors shut behind them.
"Egar? Is that you? What happened to your face?" Aswon examined the guard carefully, making sure it was the guard he'd chatted to and snuck a sandwich to at their last meeting. The guard turned in surprise, obviously recognising Aswon by sight, but then standing slightly open-mouthed as he struggled to recall the name. "I, am Aswon."
"Aswon, I thought it was you." He raised a hand and lightly touched the implant. "There was an assault. Someone tried to injure Mr Kulkachev, and there was a gunfight. I got shot in the fight, and lost the eye… but Mr. Kulkachev arranged for surgery. Paid for it too, for defending him from the attackers!"
"Wow… that's…generous." Aswon struggled a little, wanting to speak the truth but not wanting to make his true feelings known. He didn't know where Kulkachev had purchased that implant – possibly it had come free with a tank of fuel or out of a pack of breakfast cereal – but it couldn't have cost much. Probably he'd gone for something deliberately crude and intimidating to further enhance his own status – at the cost of one of his men's comfort.
"Ahh Egar, yes, I remember you. Please could you let Mr. Kulkachev know we're here, and that we're delivering his packages?"
"Yes, yes. Come inside. We will get the car started." Egar lowered his shotgun and waved for them to enter the station. Kai raised a hand towards the truck, and a moment later Marius pulled away, heading for the nearest turning to reverse his course and start threading his way up the mountain towards the villa at the top.
Inside, the cable car terminal looked much the same as they remembered – old fashioned, with lots of wrought iron detail work and large support beams, giving the impression of great age and history. Egar chatted away into his radio, relaying the message to the main house, and activated the controls for the cable car, sliding the door open as the massive wheels started to turn, taking up the slack in the cable and starting the car moving.
"Step aboard, and enjoy the ride. They will meet you at the top!" Egar gestured for them to climb into the car which had started to move along the platform, holding the door open as they walked along and filed in one by one. As the last of them entered, he slammed the door shut and gave the handle a shake, and then waved at Aswon as the car started to climb out of the station.
The cab rose out of the building, climbing up at a steady pace above the surrounding buildings, heading for the first support pylon, crossing over the support arm with a gentle bump and then starting to climb again. Already they were above the height of most of the buildings, and Kai moved from one side to the other, examining the view and drinking in the detail. On the east side were the large docks where Marius had struck a deal for the gun mounting kits for the drones, purchasing some old naval equipment that had proved to be remarkably effective. On the west was the main business and tourist centre for the city, stretching away for half a kilometre of steadily taller and more expensive buildings. The sea lay to the north, and they could see that the inshore region was full of boats of all kinds, from some decent looking yachts down to little pedal boats and inflatable tyres, a horde of people swimming about and enjoying the water, while the greyish sandy beach was packed with sunbathers and people relaxing. To the south was mostly housing, perched on the side of the hill that they were steadily climbing, rising above the city metre by metre.
"I checked out the shotguns the guards were holding… they look identical to what they had last time we were here. Still those SPAS22s, all the bells and whistles. But… I don't think they've been looked after." Aswon kept his voice purposefully low, relying on the throat mike to pick up his words and transmit them – on the assumption that the lift car was bugged. "There's rust and dirt all over them, especially around the barrel end and breach. I'd say that they'd not had a proper strip-down since we were here last, they're that filthy. They've clearly been used, probably fired at the range – but not maintained."
"That's… bad? Good for us?"
"Well, depends how you look at it. If they want to kick off, I think we could count on stoppages and jams from at least some of the weapons. If someone attacks us all through, we can't count on them to provide solid backup or cover."
"So, monkeys with expensive guns?"
"Maybe, Kai. But they don't get that dirty from just being out. I think they've put a bunch of rounds through them, but they've not been cleaned. Fun at the range, practice getting shots on target – but no understanding of maintenance and why it's important. Or it's seen as beneath them, perhaps."
"An interesting insight into their psychology" Shimazu added. "And probably Kulkachev's. Image was important to him, and appearances – but perhaps not substance. I'm sure they take their cues from him."
Kai considered this information, mulling it over as they enjoyed the two and a half kilometre climb up the mountain, continuing to look out of the windows and take a few pictures with his phone, and wondering if he'd spot the truck climbing up towards the villa at the top…
Marius had cleared the city centre, and was following directions from Hunter that led him up increasingly narrower and more twisting roads. He'd glanced at the map and was vaguely aware that there was only a single route leading to the mountain top, and that it looked like the kind of profile for an alpine route – lots of hairpin turns and switchbacks, with the road winding back and forth at a steep grade as it climbed. He concentrated on the badly-pitted and bumpy road rather than directions, leaving that to Hunter to call out.
It was as well that he did.
He'd not long come around a tight bend and was feeding power to the engine when a group of four children came zooming around the next hairpin ahead of them, appearing with abrupt suddenness around the retaining wall that divided the two roads on pushbikes fitted out with small electric engines. Each of them had leaned over hard, their back wheels skidding out as they did a two-wheel drift at high speed, knuckles white as they no doubt dared each other to go faster. They clearly hadn't expected to see the huge truck lumbering up the road, filling the carriageway from one side to the other.
They grabbed their brake levers and pulled, starting to slow as their bikes shrieked and complained, rubber blocks rubbing against the alloy rims, in one case giving off a visible plume of smoke as the oil and residue that coated the wheel burned off from the friction. The kids had probably been pushing forty, maybe forty-five kilometres per hour, and were hurtling towards him. A quick mental calculation told him that they wouldn't stop in time and he was likely to be sporting four new radiator decorations soon.
Part of his mind double-checked the road behind him was as clear now as it had been a few moments before, while another part stabbed at the brakes and slammed the truck into reverse. Fortunately he'd not been going that fast, and the meticulously maintained systems responded quickly, stopping the truck hard and then starting to reverse back down the way he'd come. He accelerated quickly, managing to backup just enough to let the children come to a juddering halt on their bikes, scattered across the road. Three of them looked suitably terrified, aware of just how close they'd come to sustaining serious injury. The fourth, though – he seemed to take Marius's presence as a serious affront to his downhill racing, and started to gesticulate and curse at the unseen driver, showing a considerable level of proficiency with profanity.
"I am not putting up with this attitude." Marius spoke in a tone of irritation, shifting back into forward gear and starting to accelerate, and Hunter transmitted quickly.
"Just be careful. We don't know that the little gobshite isn't Kulkachev's son. He's certainly acting like a spoilt little piece of kak. But bad for business if we turn up with him jammed into one of the wheels…"
"Hmm. You may have a point." Marius continued to advance, but tempered his acceleration, oozing forwards until he made contact with the shouting child, and then slowly pushing him, making him move out of the way. The stream of profanities continued, but it became clear that the truck was not stopping, and a few moments later the child leapt from his bike, tugging it forwards and diving towards the edge of the road, joining his friends as they squeezed down the dirt siding as the truck roared past them.
On top of the hill, Kai led the way out of the cable car, standing with Aswon and Shimazu as the guards there frisked them down, checking the weapons they had bought with them. The guard doing the frisking exchanged a few glances with what they assumed was his superior when he saw the size of Shimazu's pistol, then again when they spied his blade, but after a moment's consideration, they were waved out of the cable car receiving yard. Strangely enough, they didn't seem fussed by Aswon's spear – he didn't know whether to be relieved or insulted by this. Following the curving path they wandered through the narrow archway into the darkened and covered tunnel, heading for the matching archway that led into the courtyard for the house.
The bright sunshine lit the tunnel slightly – considerably better than on their previous night-time visit, and Aswon thought he could see the small indentations in the wall of thermal and IR cameras, and possibly some kind of protrusions in the ceiling. He wondered if they were the equivalent of murder holes in a castle gatehouse, perhaps delivering gas rather than boiling oil.
The tunnel was short enough though that he didn't have more than a second or two to wonder, before they emerged into the brilliant sunshine and took in the large courtyard once more. There were still a number of statues dotted around the exterior, facing in towards the central fountain. The gas burners that had heated the area during the winter were absent, no doubt stored away somewhere to create more room during the summer months. There were a couple of guards standing on the rooftop terrace, watching them idly with their shotguns in hand – but not in a threatening manner.
"Excuse me? Our driver will be arriving soon with the cargo, in our truck. Could you let whoever runs your gate security know please, he should be here any moment?" Kai called out to one of the two watching guards, and saw him nod then reach for his radio to deliver the message. Looking around he spotted two large gates, apparently made of wood, hanging on the far side of the courtyard. Assuming that they led to the exterior, he started to head that way.
Aswon hung back, watching as the guard who had radioed through came down the broad sweeping staircase that he'd used last time they were here to get a height advantage and to examine the courtyard and the guests at the party. He strode over after Kai swiftly, and Aswon watched as Shimazu paced him, keeping close to Kai where he could keep an eye on him. Aswon stayed where he was though, casually looking around the yard, checking the place out. The harsh sunlight made everything look quite stark, and he started to catalogue all of the security systems and components that he could see – just in case they ended up with a job from Germaine to come back here and break in. He hoped Kai wouldn't take the job if it was offered – but Kai seemed to have something of a penchant for chaos at times, and he wouldn't put it past him…
Marius came around a bend, emerging onto the final section of the hilltop, where the road widened slightly, and became noticeably smoother – at least in terms of the surface. The black asphalt was in good repair, laid on decent foundations that shrugged off the weather as it rose up the side of the mountain towards the peak. On either side of the road, though, all the vegetation and cover had been removed, and both he and Hunter could see the posts spaced every ten metres, stretching off in both directions from the roadside. No wire was visible between any of the posts, which meant either they were just there for show – or more likely, there was mono-filament wire strung between them under high tension. The posts were also topped with sensor pods, no doubt spaced out to cover all the approaches to the summit that weren't covered by the cable-car system, protecting access to Mr. Kulkachev.
Approaching the large gates they could see a couple of patches of discoloured tarmac, two large squares positioned about ten metres before the gates themselves.
"What do you think, Marius? Rising barriers?"
"Yes. It would make the most sense. There is not that much room to pick up speed here, not with the tightness of the turns. So they do not need to protect against very high speed impacts – so some concealed rising bollards should do fine."
As they crawled forwards, the gates swung open, revealing a waving Kai in the courtyard, Shimazu by his side. The truck crawled forward, then stopped perhaps half a metre short of the threshold.
"What's up, Marius?"
"The truck is too high. We will hit the archway. One moment." He relaxed, and took a small breath, then 'slumped' his body. The rigger interface translated his mental processes, and relaxed the tension on the suspension, slowly letting the truck settle down, until there was no play left on the shock absorbers, the springs compressed downwards by the weight of the truck and the cargo. Marius crept forward, focussing on his sensors carefully and watched as they slipped under the archway with about three millimetres to spare…
As he pulled up and shut down the engine, Mr. Kulkachev emerged from the double doors leading into the house, flanked by four guards, all wearing their combat armour and holding their shotguns carefully at what they probably thought was a 'tactical ready' position. He paused for a moment at the top of the steps, then grinned and resumed his approach, as if he'd expected the press to be there to take a trid-photo of him. Kai took a deep breath, cleared his mind and then put a large grin on his face.
"Mr. Kulkachev! So good to see you again. It's so nice to be back in your wonderful home!" He took in Kulkachev's appearance, looking to see if anything had changed. His hair was still slicked back with what looked like half a pot of styling gel, and he still sported his designer stubble. Last time he'd been in formal wear, a neat and stylish suit – but this time he was 'smart casual', with a clean and sturdy looking pair of jeans and some synth-leather boots on the bottom and a sweatshirt on top.
"You made very good time from Kabul, I see." He reached the bottom of the steps and extended a hand to Kai, once more going for a dominating power-handshake, squeezing hard and rotating Kai's hand so it was underneath his. Kai let him – not that he suspected he would win in a physical contest anyway, but accepting the play and taking the submissive position.
"Ahh, we did. We had a very smooth journey in general, but we've also been working hard to hone our skills since we last met you. How have you been, sir? And my – isn't the town busy at the moment?"
"I do well, and yes the town is good. Holiday season – it's very good for business, and that means it's very good for me!" He let loose a forced laugh, and Kai nodded and smiled along with him. "You have my things for me?"
"Yes, of course. All transported safely and securely. Where would you like them offloading?"
"Here is good. My men will take them inside."
"Very good." Kai turned to face the black windows of the truck and mimed driving and pointed to his feet. "I'll get my driver to pull up here," he said for the benefit of the throat mike, transmitting his intentions to Marius in case his pantomime wasn't actually clear.
Marius drifted the truck forward, stopping just past the bottom of the short flight of steps, and then killed the engine again, unjacking from the truck's systems and moving through into the rear compartment. Hunter joined him and they swung the heavily armoured rear door open, blinking a little as the sunlight streamed into the darkened interior. Off to the side Aswon also took a deep breath, triggering his reflexes and concentrating on his breathing, getting ready for combat. If there was to be an ambush, it would start at any moment…
"The statue is particularly heavy," Marius called out, and Mr. Kulkachev waved his hand imperiously in the air.
"We will manage, I am sure." He pointed his finger at the box that Marius and Hunter were slowly wiggling towards the back door and clicked his fingers. The four guards immediately released their grips on the shotguns, pushing them down onto the slings and behind their backs, leaving their hands free to assist with the offloading. Hunter and Aswon blinked at that in surprise, then briefly made eye-contact with each other, sharing a look of contempt before bringing their emotions under control.
It was likely that if a fight had kicked off, that Shimazu could have taken out two of the guards within a split second and before they had even seen him move. After that it would have been a shootout – the guards opening up with shotguns while the team responded with their pistols, trying to shoot the guards in unarmoured locations. Aswon was still pretty confident they'd have won – but it might have gotten bloody.
But now? Kulkachev was demonstrating his power over his minions, but either didn't care or didn't realise he'd just horribly exposed himself to potential risk. It was now eminently possible that if the team had wanted to launch a sneak attack that they could have dropped the two guards on watch that had retained their shotguns before they got a chance to react, and Shimazu could have dropped another pair. That left only two for Hunter, Marius and Aswon to deal with – assuming of course that Tads hadn't already stunned them into oblivion.
The guards struggled with the heavy box, but between them they managed to get the statue down to the ground and walked over to the steps, where Kulkachev could open the packaging and confirm that everything was ok. While one of them levered open the packing crate, the other three came back for the paintings, ferrying them over as well.
Kai moved over to stand next to Kulkachev who was busy examining one of the pictures, the one with the bright yellow flowers in a blue glass vase.
"Is everything as expected?"
"Hmm?" Kulkachev rubbed his chin and then nodded slowly, no doubt thinking this made him look wise and contemplative. "Yes, yes. The delivery seems fine. I was just examining the artistic integrity of the piece. It's always different when you get to see it face to face, rather than just a picture. The brush strokes in this one especially highlight the juxtaposition of colours and texture, forming an asymmetry that indicates the mental processes of the artist and his feelings on society…"
Kai blinked and glanced at the Mafia don from the side of his eyes. He looked like he was being serious. Certainly Kai had heard people describe works of art using similar terms before on some pieces. But he couldn't help but feel that Kulkachev had heard these terms or references somewhere before and was now parroting them, trying to appear knowledgeable and engaged, while actually talking out of his ass. A second thought crowded into Kai's mind, vying for attention before he said anything… what if Kulkachev knew he was talking drek, and this was a test. Trying to find out if Kai knew he was bluffing, or if he'd be taken in by it. Or cowed into submission by his power and control over the local area… he decided to humour his host, and play it safe.
"You certainly seem to know your artwork. Clearly you know more about this than me – I just thought the flowers were very bright and pretty. But as long as nothing is broken, that's the main thing."
"Yes, all looks fine. Come – these pieces must go inside now!" He snapped his fingers again and the guards started to carefully lift and drag the statue up the steps and towards the doors that opened into the large reception room. The team grabbed the paintings, following the grunting guards inside into the cool and dimly-lit chamber, carefully leaning the paintings up against a column as the statue was finally positioned in a clear area.
Kai drifted over towards one painting, a depiction of Salisbury Cathedral. He was pretty sure that this was an original, painted by Constable back in the 1800s, and very valuable – and no doubt wasted on Kulkachev. He heard the man walk up beside him, and he gestured with his finger.
"This one looks superb. The mix of colours on the sky, the clouds rolling from white to almost black, the depiction of the horse and cart, the pastoral scene. It's very evocative."
"Yes, I like this one too. It is of a place in England. Very good." He gestured over to the piece next to it though, a mix of contrasting red, blue and yellow squares and rectangles divided up by black lines. "I like this one, too, particularly the red. It's a Mondoodlian." He nodded as he spoke, as if affirming his statement, while Kai bit the inside of his cheek as he struggled to contain his thoughts.
"Yes, the red is very striking, isn't it. And the statue – that looks very large, and it was quite heavy."
"Ahh, yes. It's a very old statue, of particular religious significance. It's a 'David', one of two. Very expensive." Kai examined the statue again, and compared it to the rumours and myths surrounding the 'David' statues. Rumour has it there were two, something to do with some story from the Bible, but they had been lost in the crash of '29, when huge swathes of the world's infrastructure had crumbled and been destroyed, and a lot of information had been lost. But he was pretty sure it was the wrong shape, size and style for it being one of them…
"Well statues are not really my area. I much prefer paintings, particularly oil paintings. Like that one." He gestured towards the 'Jewel of Muscat'. "That one looks very interesting. There must be a story attached to that one?"
"I don't know much about that one, at least not yet. It was actually recommended to me by an acquaintance who saw that it had come up for sale. Said it had a very interesting history and that I should consider it for my collection, as much for an investment as anything else. It was not that expensive, you see, barely over a hundred thousand…" He dropped in the figure 'casually' and Kai made sure to school his face into a mix of awe and respect at the money Kulkachev had to spend.
"Is that the same person who got you the statue?"
"Oh no, this was someone else. I am very well connected, you understand." Kai nodded again, trying to keep up his look of awed subjugation. It grew harder and harder as Kulkachev waffled on, pointing out some of the features on his artwork as he wandered around his gallery. Kai was pretty much certain now that he was talking nonsense, repeating things he'd read without any insight or sense of application, just trying to sound like he knew what he was talking about. After a few minutes though, Kulkachev looked at his watch and then sighed. "I must conclude things here – I have a business meeting. So, I expect you have a certified stick to transfer the funds to?"
"Of course, Mr. Kulkachev." Kai waved for Hunter to bring over the cred-reader and one of their sticks, and they inserted both of the small devices into the reader, transferring over seventy-five thousand Nuyen between them. "Thank you. Well, it's been a pleasure, Mr. Kulkachev, nice doing business with such a powerful and well-informed client as yourself. As I mentioned before, we do occasionally get involved in the art scene ourselves. If we should happen to come upon some pieces in our travels, should we let you know?"
"Well, I have very discerning tastes, as you can see." His sweeping hand gesture took in the mish-mash of art from differing schools and periods of art covering a huge variety of styles and techniques, showing no common theme whatsoever. "But I do like the Mondoodlians. If you find any more of those I would certainly be interested!" He gave Kai a smile. "Are you staying here? The city is very busy right now…"
"We were planning of staying the night, yes."
"Then I will make arrangements for you, as you have done so well." Once more he clicked his fingers, attracting the attention of one of his guards. "Call the hotel, make sure the same suite is available to them."
"That's very kind, Mr. Kulkachev, but there's no need, I'm sure we can…"
"It is done. But now I must go for my meeting. The guards will see you out." He swept away without a further word, disappearing further into the house through an unmarked door, leaving Kai and the team to be ushered out into the courtyard by one of the guards.
They got back in the truck, and Marius slowly circled the fountain, swinging the trucks wheels around as much as he could to turn in the confines of the space, then approached the stone archway, glad that the guards had swung the doors fully open again. As he closed in, the truck slowed, rolling forwards painfully slowly, before rocking to a halt.
"What's up Marius?"
"We will not fit through there."
"We did on the way in?"
"Ja. But not now."
It went quiet for a moment, Kai waiting for some kind of explanation, but the speakers remained inactive.
"Ok, I'll bite. Why?"
"I do not know. But we are now over by several millimetres. If I try to drive through there I will tear up the corners of the vehicle – or damage the archway and make it collapse."
"Oh – I know why. Drek!" Hunter slapped his forehead, then turned to look at the others. "Obvious when you think about it. We don't have half a ton of statue in the back and big travel boxes for the paintings. We're still low on the suspension, but that weight was still compressing the springs and stuff. It's not now."
"So how do we get out?"
"Dunno, Kai. Can Tads float us out with her levitate spell?"
"No – not even close. I… think the truck is too heavy to even contemplate that."
"Can we let the air out of the tyres a bit, and blow them back up on the other side?"
"Nein. The tyres are run-flats. They do not work like that."
"Oh. Bugger."
"I do have an idea. If I get all of the spirits to come into the back with me and materialise, maybe they could add weight. Or pull the truck down?"
"Will that work?"
"I don't know, Kai. I hope so, because I don't have any ideas otherwise…"
Tads moved into the back of the truck and called all of the spirits to her, asking them not just to manifest but to fully materialise, appearing in the physical realm and taking mortal form. They didn't generally like to do so as it made them far more vulnerable to material weapons, but in this case they didn't seem to mind too much – probably because they were inside the warded vehicle.
The back of the truck suddenly became incredibly crowded, with arms and legs everywhere as nine spirits appeared, each taking up as much room as Hunter or Shimazu. The space wasn't the largest at the best of times, but with five in the front and ten in the back, it became positively cramped. However, the truck started to roll forward again as Marius detected the extra weight and the effect it had on the suspension, and he cautiously edged his way through the stone archway. There were two moments where there was a small shrieking sound as metal dug into the stonework, taking off a minute shaving. The noise set their spines on edge, like fingernails being run down a blackboard, but moments later they were outside, and free to manoeuvre. Marius picked up speed, accelerating down the hill – but not so fast that he wouldn't be able to stop if he found idiotic children racing around on their bikes in his path.
Descending the hill, they dropped back into the madness that was Batumi during the high season. Thronged with visitors, the roads were crawling with pedestrians, street vendors and vehicles, all trying to get through the city centre as best they could. Slowly they crawled through the traffic until they reached the Plaza Hotel, only two streets back from the beach. Driving down the access road, they saw the valet come out and stare at the truck, wondering if this was a delivery at the wrong address, or security for some VIP coming to stay at the hotel. As Marius pulled to a halt, they heard him call up, his voice barely penetrating through the bulletproof glass and thick armour.
"Good day! Do you have a reservation?"
"Hello there!" Kai called out, opening his door and turning to climb down from the cab. "Yes, we do have a reservation. Mr. Kulkachev has arranged our stay here for tonight…" He saw the effect that the name had on the valet, who mumbled a brief excuse and then went running off into the hotel. Barely thirty seconds later, he came back, with an older man in tow, half-running, half-striding along behind him.
"Good day sir. I understand that Mr. Kulkachev has arranged for your stay tonight?"
"Yes, that's right. We've been before, about a year and a half ago, and we very much enjoyed our stay in your fine hotel. But we're only here for one night. Mr. Kulkachev said he would sort things out – I do hope that's not a problem."
"Yes. I mean no. No, it's not a problem. But there's ahhh, a delay. Yes, a brief delay. Sorry, I'm the shift manager. Um, we just need to get the suite cleared for you. It's a…. booking issue. Yes, so sorry. A case of double booking. We're just having to clear the other guests out of their room. Your room. The room. Yes – sorry." The manager continued to blabber away, clearly trying to work out what he was going to do to resolve the situation. The rest of the team could hear through the open door, and actually felt a little sorry for him having this mess land on his lap – and also for whichever poor saps were about to be turfed out of their suite on the Mafia don's say so.
"We could just head out of town, and not cause a fuss?" Tads suggested.
"We could. And normally I would agree. But Kulkachev said he would sort it, and might construe it as us disrespecting him or his abilities if we don't stay here. I mean, I'm less bothered about that now that I would have been in the past. We've dealt with his kind, and worse before. But is that trouble we want to cause?"
"No, it's not. And I don't mind sleeping on the roof if we have to, but a nice soft bed and a Jacuzzi and room service does sound kind of tempting!" Hunter added.
Marius recalled how little clearance there had been in getting the truck down into the underground carpark during their last visit – they'd been scraping the roof as they did so even when loaded down with all of the teams gear and he had no desire to do a repeat of the situation of the stone archway up at the villa so soon.
"Do you have room in the car park under the hotel? Or are there alternative parking places?"
"For this?" The manager gestured up at the truck, then realised how that might sound. "Oh, of course. For this, your fine vehicle. Um. Oh, I know – we can arrange for you to be in the VIP space." He gestured towards the front of the hotel, and the large drop off spot there. "Yes, we can put you in the VIP parking area." The valet looked at him oddly for a moment and the manager stared at him, his eyebrows trying to convey his meaning. "So if you follow the valet, he will get you into the VIP spot, and put some barricades around your vehicle, and help you unload your things. Outside the front door. In. The. VIP. SPOT."
"Oh, of course. Excuse me, yes, please, follow me, sirs." The valet moved on ahead and pulled aside the brass poles and thick red ropes that cordoned off an area, then gestured for them to pull into the space, ignoring the multitude of 'no parking' signs that were plastered liberally around.
By the time they were parked and had grabbed their gear, and had entered the hotel lobby, the suite was "available", and as they rode up the large lift to the twelfth floor, they caught the tail end of a very angry conversation from a large family complaining about their sudden ejection from their room and how disgraceful this was…
Inside the suite there were half a dozen staff rapidly changing sheets, refilling the mini-bar, cleaning the bathroom and turning the room around as quickly as possible, scurrying back and forth under the manager's gaze as they tried to unobtrusively get the suite perfect for the new guests. Ten minutes later though, they were in and settled, the staff gone and working out which rooms they were each staying in.
"So… we've got most of the day to spend. What we thinking?" Kai asked.
"I'm going to fly up to Sochi, and get the spell formula. Seeing as we've delivered so early, I can get up there by late evening I think, do the delivery, and be back by early in the morning." Tads was already rolling up a pair of flats to fit into the poster tube, along with a small credstick holding some petty cash. "I should be able to take off from the balcony out there. Just leave the door unlocked for me, will you?" Kai nodded at her, and she continued to get ready, laying out the sealed poster tube on the balcony and then heading into the toilet to get undressed and cast the spell on herself.
The rest settled down and checked out the map of the area. Marius wanted to go do some tourist shopping – take some photos of the hotel for Nadia, but also look for some gifts for her to cheer her up on her return. Hunter indicated that he quite fancied heading to the beach with a book and settling down to some sunbathing and just kicking back for an hour. Kai and Shimazu also wanted to have a wander around the town, and Aswon indicated that he'd join them, as they 'switched off' for the day, and just relaxed a little, pretending to be just regular people…
A huge eagle waddled out of the bathroom, cawing at them and bobbing it's head up and down. The team waved at Tads, watching as she strutted out on to the balcony and hopped up onto the railing, wobbling a moment as she fought for grip on the brass rod.
"I'll hold the tube, you get airborne." Aswon offered. A moment later the eagle vaulted into the sky, wings beating and gaining altitude as she cleared the building. Aswon leant over, holding the tube out at arm's length, trying to get as much space as he could between it and the side of the building. The eagle banked sharply, then swooped back down, talons grasping the tube and pulling it from his grip. "See you in a few hours!" As the eagle flapped off to the north, Aswon dipped into astral space, checking on the status – and sure enough there were a couple of large spirits in attendance, guarding her and keeping an eye out in case anyone tried to intervene.
"Right, Tads is on her way. Looking at the distances involved, I think she's going to be at least five hours each way, maybe a touch more. And she'll probably want a rest and some time to shop when she's there… So as long as someone is back by about midnight to open the door, we should be good."
"Right. Let's split up then and enjoy Batumi for the day. See you all back here later on tonight for dinner." Kai grinned at them and led the way out of the suite, heading for the lift down to the lobby and the bright lights of the city that awaited them.