The team headed south, through the darkness for a while, until they reached the village at Charmkhowran-e-sofla. They pulled off the highway, and drove down the main road until they found one of the side streets large enough for them to enter easily, then slowed to a halt. Out of sight of the highway and main road, they stopped to examine the damage to the vehicle and to check over the cargo. One of the boxes had taken a round in the corner, but the contents seemed fine – more than could be said for the truck. The rear doors had a number of holes in them, stitching up in a line from bottom left to top right, clearly showing the climb of the muzzle as their attacker had fired on fully automatic. Worse though was the damage to the rear axle and chassis – a couple of holes were blown through the chassis and the axle looked to be slightly twisted and warped. Fixing this was going to take a couple of hours and some serious equipment, not just a couple of minutes in a darkened side street.
Marius reported back to the rest of the team inside the vehicle, explaining what damage they had taken and coming up with a rough cost to fix – about forty to fifty thousand, to replace all the parts with new. Whatever they were getting paid for the job had just taken a quick kick in the nuts, that was for sure.
Kai also pulled out the main phone for the team, turning it over in his hands, racking his brain to work out what was going on. He slid it over the table, asking Hunter and Marius to have another look at it. Hunter turned the phone on, and when it had finished booting up, went into the menu and turned off the GPS function. As the team bounced ideas around, trying to work out why the phone was acting up, his eyes were drawn back to the screen as an icon quickly flashed. He stared down at the phone for a moment, then turned off the GPS…. Again. A few moments later it turned itself back on. Again. He turned it off for a third time, pushing buttons carefully and ensuring it was really off. And then watched it turn itself back on again. He interrupted the conversation, and showed them all what the phone was doing.
Two minutes later, Marius and Hunter were hunched over the phone circuit board, bits spread all over the table, with soldering iron and chip pullers in hand, carefully extracting the GPS chipset from the mass of electronics. With careful movements they manged to desolder the chip and pull it carefully from the board, leaving an empty space behind. With deft movements the phone was reassembled and turned on – success! Still working, just without any GPS information. That should fix it! They looked at the other five phones and decided to leave those for the moment, to work on in better conditions.
The team mounted up, turned around and got back on the road.
Route thirty-two continued down the valley, between windswept hills rocky escarpments, snow laying over the landscape like a thin white blanket. The ice on the road crunched under their heavy wheels, but th drive and giant treads cut through it easily, and even with the battle damage sustained, the truck handled smoothly for Marius – a testament to the design of the vehicle.
They continued south, following the road as it wound through the highlands, mostly unlit and with almost no traffic at night. Further down the road they came across the village of Ali Khalaj, unusual in that it lay entirely off the road, clustered to one side of the highway rather than spread along it like a ribbon. Dark and quiet, they only really saw the village from the set of headlights that swept down the main road, approaching the highway. The team kept a casual eye on the vehicle as it pulled onto the road behind them, but relaxed as it crossed over the highway and headed up into the hills behind them.
They continued along the road a while longer, then Marius saw a pair of cars blocking the road ahead, parked at angles across the carriageway. He could probably take the vehicle off the side of the road and around them, but they'd be exposing their flank to a lot of potential fire whilst he did so…. They readied weapons, in case it was another bandit or attacker, and Tadibya got ready to spell cast – then they realised it was a pair of Police patrol vehicles. The lights came on and a spotlight shone their way, with the waves of an officer instructing them to pull over.
A very quick conversation, and the team decided to comply, pulling to the snow-covered shoulder. Hunter and Kai went into the back of the truck, pulling the tarpaulin over themselves and their cache of illegal guns and explosives. Shimazu gathered all of the identification papers together and wound down his window, flinching as the bitter wind scythed into the cab, and passed them down to the waiting officer – who looked equally cold and miserable. The officer spoke to him in rapid-fire Farsi, with a questioning look on his face. Shimazu shrugged, looked confused and turned to Aswon.
"I think he wants to know where we entered the country." Aswon moved forwards and joined Shimazu at the window, speaking in very broken Farsi and trying to explain that they had crossed the border at Astara, then come through Adabil. The officer frowned and checked the papers again, then waved and called over another officer, showing him the papers.
They turned back, holding one set of papers up towards the pair in the window. "This one? Who is this one?" Aswon and Shimazu looked at the picture, then turned and poked Marius. "I think they want you…." Marius disconnected his jacks and climbed down out of the vehicle into the biting wind, shivering slightly as he stood by the roadside.
With Aswon's halting translations, it was explained that he had the "wrong" papers in some way. They needed to be fixed – at the consulate. They would have to go there, to get the paperwork issue resolved. And… the policemen would arrange it. After this they demanded to see in the back of the truck. Walking around the back, gave enough time for Tadibya to weave her illusion over the covering, hiding their gear and meta-humans, before the back door was opened and one of the officers climbed in and had a look around at the medical equipment and supplies. Aswon described their mission, sticking to the pre-arranged cover story. As the officer poked at various supplies and boxes, Tads spoke up, asking him to be careful with a piece of electronic equipment. The officer looked affronted, and turned to Aswon, "You should keep your woman quiet." Aswon looked from him to Tads, then back.
"We find it best to let the doctor speak, to give instructions." The officer looked uncomfortable with the idea of a woman instructing a man, but put down the equipment, and after a last look around, climbed down out of the vehicle and closed the door.
The officer reported back to one of the cars, presumably to the senior officer, then came back towards the truck and the waiting team. "Go. Go to consulate, get correct papers". And with that he waved them off…. Not believing their luck, the team got back into the truck and pulled around the two police cars and onto the highway – once more heading south into the darkness.
Their relief was short-lived however – at the next junction another police cruiser joined the highway, settled in behind their truck and followed. It appeared they were going to get an escort – all the way to the consulate service. Needless to say, that didn't fit with their plans at all, but it was going to be hard to shake off the escort, and they discussed what to do.
The discussion went back and forth – shoot them? Use a spirit to affect their steering and make them crash? Become invisible? Every plan seemed to have drawbacks – mostly centered around the fact that they had a good description of the truck, most of the team and probably radio communications with the police officers in the car following them. For the moment then, it was time to wait.
The road wound on through the darkness, precious little light being seen in the hills on either side from the scattered housing and farms. The police car stayed with them, about fifty yards back, following them along the snakelike two lane highway. After an hour of travelling, they started to climb, the road starting to follow wide sweeping bends up the shoulders of a mountain. Hunter checked the map, swapping to topographical mode and then winced – looked like they were in for a climb. They ascended, the team making an effort to breathe deeply and regularly to ensure they would not suffer any further as they climbed up the rise. They climbed up into the hills, the road nestled into a valley between two ranges but still higher than the plains they'd been on recently. As they travelled further east, the two rises completely cut out all light pollution from around them, and the height and distance from cities meant the air was remarkably pollution-free. Above them the clear skies that had kept the temperatures low now revealed an expansive starscape, millions of stars speckled across the night sky, with a wide band of colour showing the milky way like a slash across the darkness.
The police car suddenly flashed its lights at them, indicating to the side of the road. With trepidation, the pulled over, weapons ready and prepared to fight if this was some kind of ambush. They watched one of the policemen get out of his car and disappear behind his vehicle…. Then a minute later he reappeared, got in the car and the lights flashed again, with an arm waving them forward and back onto the road.
Eventually the road wound down the other side of the range, descending again to the plains and towards the city of Miyaneh. The police car pulled around them and took the lead, and as they approached the city they saw the border checkpoint – they were about to cross provinces again. This crossing point looked busier than the last though, featuring a wide toll booth arrangement, with an oversized pair of bays to one side for larger vehicles, which the police car led them to. The guard came out from the booth, and approached the driver-side door, reaching up towards Shimazu to take the ID papers again, and examining them under the harsh white light of the floodlit canopy. He grunted, and waved Marius' ID, and motioned for him to come down. Whilst Marius unjacked and climbed down from the truck, the guard went to his booth and came back with a selection of items. First of all he took a head and shoulders photo of Marius with the rugged camera, before placing the device into his belt holster. Next was an old fashioned ink pad, and Marius soon found his fingertips covered in black ink as his digits were rolled across the card leaving clear imprints on the white paper. With some fiddling, a small image printed from the printer integrated with the holster was peeled from its backing paper and applied to the card – which then disappeared into the booth.
The police escort driver came up, and again translating through Aswon asked them where they were staying for the night, obviously hinting that it was late and time to stop. He seemed dismayed with the team told them they had a pair of drivers, and were planning on driving all night, and went back to his car to discuss with his partner. A minute later, he returned, shook his head and told the team to follow him.
They drove through the outskirts of the city, to the north and east, making good time through the quiet streets, until they came across the hospital. Escorting the team inside, the police officers called for the administrator, who appeared a short time later looking unkempt and badly dressed – presumably called in from home this late at night. The police officer announced that as they were medical staff travelling through the country, but had to stay somewhere safe, that this will be appropriate. The administrator argued, but the officer seemed insistent, and it was decided a few minutes later. The team were escorted to the doctors' on-call room, and shown the bunk beds reserved for the staff use. Tadibya returned to the truck, saying she was going to sleep there in separate quarters to keep everyone happy – which also meant she could set an alarm for just before dawn and recast the illusion on the truck, that would disappear as soon as she went to sleep – hopefully if they parked carefully in the car park, out of sight as much as possible and with the cover of darkness, people would just see the shape and not the detail.
They bedded down, and actually managed a good night of sleep in the relatively comfortable beds and warmth of the hospital. Tadibya, Kai and Hunter had plenty of room in the truck and twice as many blankets as usual, and as dawn broke Tadibya recast the illusion on the truck, turning it back into the medical transport. Those inside the hospital had a hearty breakfast of freshly cooked bread and meat, taking some spare out to those in the truck. Shortly after they had eaten, the police officers arrived again, and they continued on their route.
An hour to the south, they crossed what appeared to be an ancient bridge, dating back hundreds of years from the stonework. The area looked interesting, with ruins on the sides of the valley to both the east and west, and indications that the area had significant historical value. Alas, their escort driver didn't seem to be in the mood to stop, and they continued south.
By about 10am they had reached Aras, where the valley and the highway took a sharp turn to the east. As they did, another sight, equal in strangeness to the view of the stars from the night before, came into view to the west, spied in the rear view mirrors of their truck. As the morning sunlight lanced over their heads, the entire mountain range behind them appeared to shimmer and sparkle behind them. Hunter checked his maps, and announced that they were looking at a massive quarry – potentially one of the largest suppliers of marble and decorative stone in the region. The sunlight was hitting the blasted and terraced faces of the mountain, refracting the light in complex and beautiful patterns.
They pushed on eastwards, still with their police escort trailing behind them, and soon saw Highway two – the Zanjan-Tabriz Freeway - to their south, running parallel to their route. By lunchtime they closed in on Zanjan, and the onramp to the freeway. Their escort pulled into to a set of services, and they grabbed lunch, a drink and a pit stop, ready for the next leg of their journey – still discussing in low voices just where and how they were going to ditch their escorts.
Kai called Ngo, his contact in east Asia to discuss the problem with their papers and get her advice. When he came back from his quiet conversation he didn't look happy – and when the team pressed him on it, he said, "She advised me to spill tea on them, in front of someone just about to check them…. That will disguise the colour change then."
Still, it was a better idea than what they'd come up with themselves…
