Date 31/01/2060, Location 41.11867, 30.49461

As the truck headed west, Shimazu explained his predicament to the team. They queried him on what Turul had said – exactly what he had said. Had he just said to keep an eye out? No, he'd asked to be informed – no tiny loophole to slip through there.

"Maybe we should just say that we've seen her in Constantinople, just as we're leaving?" suggested Shimazu after a moment's consideration.

"NO!" The shout came from several of the team, and was pretty firm.

"I wasn't suggesting taking her back. Just saying we'd seen her. Besides, we can always explain that we don't do people anyway. That's right, isn't it?"

Kai gave him an odd look, and then grudgingly nodded his head.

"That's not quite what I think we all meant when we agreed to that, but yeah… no people-smuggling – at least not unwilling ones. Anyway, for the moment, let's leave this discussion – we don't know enough to make a call, and we're not going to get anywhere with it. We're only a few hours from the city now – let's work out what we're going to do with the delivery."

"Well, why don't we call the contact, and advise them we're only a short distance away, but we're planning on dropping off tomorrow, arrange a time and go hand over the box?" asked Tads. "We can park up nearby and get a cab the rest of the way, so they don't get to even see the truck."

"No – I don't know why, but there's something about this I don't like. How about calling him ten minutes before, and then arranging to meet – that way they have very little time to set up an ambush?" said Kai, and several of the others nodded. "We go in, just a pair of us maybe to make the drop-off, with the rest waiting nearby – just in case."

"In that case, you should go, as our negotiator, with Shimazu as your guard – he's just better at close-in fighting from what I've seen. The rest of us can hang back, and be with you in a matter of moments if Marius puts his foot down, and we've got the range to back you up if something kicks off. I've got my rifle, and Hunter has his – and Tads can affect anything she can see in line of sight. So we can cover you easily." Aswon's contribution.

"If we turn up with a message – and the guy we're handing it to doesn't like it – are they likely to take it out on us?" asked Tads.

"Well, it depends – but it's entirely possible." Hunter spoke up, and started to tell a brief summary of a situation he'd been involved with once. "It was someone delivering a status report to a Triad boss – a message from a competitor about business in the area. The Triad boss didn't take kindly to the message, so he killed the messenger, and sent him back – bit by bit. I mean, seriously – arms and legs hacked off with a cleaver, and put in boxes, and sent back via different rickshaws. That could be the kind of people we're dealing with here." Kai started to shake his head as Hunter described the incident though.

"Maybe in their back yard, but that's pretty extreme – and I bet the messenger was in a rival triad, so that made him fair game. We're thousands of kilometres away from major Triad operations – this is more likely to be Mafia, and they do things differently. As independents, we should be fine."

"How about getting back in touch with the guy in the castle, and get him to check out the drop off?" said Tads, still looking a little green from the idea of people being posted back in pieces.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea – could be seen as a lack of trust or confidence. I think split into two groups, keep it low key, but not take any shit. That's the key – calm and confident."

They talked for a while longer, refining the plan and looking at the area of Constantinople for the drop off, working out escape routes, rendezvous locations and sniper spots, checking the day and time and local conditions to see if anything was likely to cause an issue.

Tads summoned a watcher spirit, concentrating hard on her magics and calling forth a fairly powerful and intelligent phantasm. She slowly and carefully explained what she wanted it to do – go to the cemetery, look around, check the lie of the land. Look at the people, but don't be seen. Check for ambushes. Report back to her, but she wouldn't be here – she'd be further down the road. She broke off quickly and asked where they could stop in an hour or so, and Hunter pointed to a large truck stop on the main highway leading to Constantinople. She pointed to the map and then concentrated hard on her interpretation of it, feeding the information to the watcher spirit. She was quite surprised when it turned and succinctly summarised the mission to her.

"Go to the place full of buried people – check for magic, traps and ambushes. See, but don't be seen. Meet you at the place where the trucks and cars sleep. It's a recon mission – simple." Tads nodded, and sent the spirit on its way, thinking that perhaps she was becoming more skilled and powerful – or had just gotten very lucky with the spirit that had answered her summons.

The truck and trailer swept on, heading inland now and away from the coastal road, following the main highway towards Korfez. It was not a direct route – but heading due west took them off the main highway and onto back routes for the last hundred kilometres and they had no idea how long it would take. Sticking to the main road they kept up a constant speed of just under one hundred kilometres per hour, on the well-maintained highway. They found themselves in a pack of heavy goods vehicles after a while, forming a convoy and eking out a marginal improvement in fuel economy as they drafted along behind the big rigs, while a mix of family cars and larger executive saloons burned past them in the outside lane.

They travelled on, until Hunter directed Marius to take the next turnoff, pointing at the signs for "Rest Stop 76". They left the highway and drove up the access ramp into a large carpark, which at first glance appeared to be pretty full. To their right and left were a set of long parking spots, filled with articulated lorries and a couple of coaches. Further to the left was the actual car park, also nearly entirely full. In between the car park and the motorway was the large, sprawling service station itself, a concrete pre-fab monstrosity that was a legacy to the last century. Far in the distance, near the slip road back onto the motorway was a double fuel area – one with a standard-height canopy for cars, and one with a much higher roof for the trucks and coaches.

They did a tour of the car park, and looped round again, then snagged a spot that a large truck pulled out of, the heavy diesel engine belching black smoke as it pulled the large container-load of machinery up to speed. Marius slid into the spot, parking dead centre with conscious thought, and then powered down the engine. After a quick discussion, they agreed that Hunter and Marius would stay at the truck and keep an eye on things, whilst the rest of them checked out the service station.

Wandering over to the building, and dodging a few cars that seemed to think they could do the same speed in the car park as they could on the main carriageway, they entered through the double doors into the main building. A teenage flunky in a uniform sat behind a small counter, and asked them for their truck's tag number. Somewhat startled, they stumbled through the registration number on their bar-coded number plates. They attendant sighed at them impatiently, then keyed in the number, and then threw up a low resolution and slightly grainy image onto the display, asking them if this was their truck. Kai nodded, unsure where this was going…

The young man reached under the counter and passed over a few cards, coloured bright red and with a large barcode printed down one side. In bored tones, he waved to an area on one side of the main entrance, telling them that this was the hauliers' area, and they needed their key card to access it, and the areas beyond. They took the cards, and swiped through the turnstile into the slightly raised area, and looked around.

The hauliers' area was quieter than the main area – full of long-distance drivers, mostly male but with a smattering of females that looked like they would take no shit from anyone. There were no kids – though a few drivers had partners with them (or cheap hookers, it was hard to tell), and it was relatively peaceful as most of the drivers seemed to be content to eat their meals and stare into space blankly. They explored a little, and found a variety of food vendors – mostly overpriced and greasy soy in various flavours – but at the back of the area was a service block. In here there were large shower cubicles, washing machines, and a shop that did small repairs to phones, computers and clothing, along with selling accessories and gadgets.

They returned to the truck and gathered a large pile of clothes, and some wash kit, and then hit the showers – revelling in being able to take a shower and actually stretch out a little. The truck shower was a tiny thing, and even the smaller team members found their shoulders brushing against the side when in use – for Shimazu and Hunter, it was only manageable if they stood on the diagonal, and was still horribly cramped and difficult to use. Aswon found he had to crouch and have his knees pressed up against the wall in the truck, though his slender frame had a bit more room to work with width-wise. However, in the service station, the cubicles were large and high, the water hot and large towels were available for a small surcharge. They immediately set to with having decent showers, and getting a load of washing on – grinning as they passed each other and realised how their day had been brightened up by the mundane processes of washing and cleaning clothes.

Back at the truck, Marius and Hunter stretched out in the cab and kept half an eye on the world, whilst they did routine maintenance on the vehicle and guns. Both of them stopped and looked up as a blue courier van slowed to a halt in front of them. It wasn't quite abrupt enough to leave tyre tracks – but it wasn't far off. The truck stopped there for a good thirty seconds, and then suddenly pulled away and headed for the car park.

Hunter turned and looked at Marius quizzically, but didn't get a response – Marius had already slipped the cable back into the socket in the back of his neck. On the top of the truck, the armoured hatch slid open, and the launch rail elevated and extended. Moments later the surveillance drone was launched from the rails, the lifting bag still firming up as gas was pumped into it. The small electric motors drove it up in a tight spiral until it was about a hundred metres up in the air, with the sensors scanning down over the car park. They saw the courier van pull up into a bay and the driver jump out, a phone pressed to his ear. Marius piped the feed from the sensors into the truck displays, and he and Hunter watched the man – he seemed very agitated, and waved in their general direction several times. He was on the phone for perhaps a minute, then climbed back into his cab and closed the door. Marius engaged the drone's station-keeping routines and killed the RAS override – giving him control of his body. He opened his eyes, blinking in the disorientation as his standard vision was overlaid with the truck's systems and the feed from the drone – but he could look at Hunter.

"I don't know what that was about – but he's not happy about something. What do you think?"

"I agree – no idea what's going on, but I'm going to call the others." He put actions to words, and keyed up his com-link, and advising the others of what they'd seen.

Two minutes later and the others streamed back to the truck – some still with wet hair and smelling of soap. They reviewed the footage and looked at the situation. It didn't look that threatening when viewed on the small screen, but Hunter and Marius seemed to be concerned about it – so they got their gear ready and strapped on some armour. Tads went for a quick flyby, and reported back that the truck had a very low level ward on it – just enough to stop the most casual of intruders or untrained practitioners.

An alert flashed in the corner of Marius' vision, and he sunk back into the link with his deck, and jumped into the surveillance drone – feeling his conscious mind floating high about the car park, his limbs suddenly feeling weak and small, but his senses magnified and sharp. He saw two large articulated lorries pulling up the slip road – both in the same blue paintwork as the smaller van. He alerted the others, who sprang into action. Aswon vaulted from the cab with his rifle in hand and sprinted to the edge of the car park, pounding up the gentle rise and then throwing himself into cover in the lower bushes. A metre below the crest, he was shielded from the housing estates on the other side, but also pretty much invisible to everyone in the car park. Shimazu jumped out the other side, and rolled under the parked vehicles on the left, and climbed into a trailer about three spaces down – hiding in the open section of a curtain-sided trailer unit. Hunter stood on the rear seat, assault rifle in hand and craned down to look out of the windscreen – seeing a pair of mid-sized vans driving the wrong way along the one-way system, towards them – also in the same deep blue of the courier company. He shouted a warning, and got ready to pop the turret hatch and moved to engage.

The others moved to windows to watch. They saw the two lorries split, and moments later one was moving down the access road to the front of them, one to the rear. They had just enough time to start to curse, but it was too late to move – and moments later they were boxed in, as the two lorries slammed on their brakes and slid to a halt, blocking them in with eighty tonnes of metal. There were a number of sharp noises as safeties were knocked off and chambers racked, loading rounds ready to fire. Tads grabbed a breather mask and slipped it over her face and put on a pair of goggles – determined to try and keep the gun smoke away from her eyes and lungs, while Nadia squeezed past Hunter into the back, crawled into the bunk and pulled some spare flak jackets over herself.

Tads concentrated and her fingers fluttered in front of her, helping her to visualise the magical energies. Moments later the Russian army truck disappeared, replaced by the same non-descript white cab and trailer disguise they had used near the nuke plant. She concentrated on the illusion, firming up the details and making it look as solid and realistic as she could.

The two mid-sized vans stopped and disgorged a couple of guys each – all in uniform. They, and the driver of the artic, formed a loose arc in front of the vehicle. The driver of the rear blocking vehicle also got out, and stood staring at the back of their trailer. For a few moments, nothing moved – then one of them turned and questioned the original van driver.

There was pointing, questioning, shouting. Hunter listened and tried to keep up a commentary from what he could hear.

"Ok, the first guy is saying that the truck was here, and we've not left, he swears it was this spot, in between the Hyung container, and the red curtain-sider trailer. The others are saying he must have been on the sauce. He's denying it…. They're saying we're obviously not an army truck, and calling him stupid. He's getting wound up now. Now he's saying it bloody well is the right truck – look at the plates. He's pulled up a scanner or sensor of some kind. Hey Tads? Have we got different tags?"

"No – I can make us look different, but I left the tags as they were.

"Oh for fu…. WHY?" he demanded.

Tads bit back an angry reply, concentrating on keeping the illusion rock steady.

"If I make them look different, they're liable to trigger automated sensors and scanners, because they won't be valid. It'd just be a bunch of random black lines. I don't know enough about how they're supposed to look to fake them up. So I've left them as they should be. If that's a problem, then maybe you should find a technical solution."

Her voice was sharp, and sounded stressed, and Hunter chose not to push the issue. Instead he continued the commentary.

"Ok, one of the others have scanned us – right, now he's looking agitated, too. WOAH!"

At a word from the man who'd just scanned their vehicle, they all pulled jackets open and reached in, hands emerging holding short-barrelled shotguns. They looked like twelve gauge shotguns, shortened down to the absolute minimum you could get away with – pistol grips and a reduced magazine in a package about forty-five centimetres long. Their jackets all had long and custom designed holsters sewn in – it looked like a standard issue thing. Presumably they needed to be short so they were actually usable in the confines of the vehicle cab, but would give a heavy punch to anyone trying to rob them. They all raised their guns and aimed them at the truck, and started to shout and hurl abuse at them.

On the slope, Aswon saw the single man at the back also pull out his shotgun and assume a ready stance. He took three rapid and shallow breaths, and then slipped into a zen-like trance, sighting through the powerful scope on the top of his Purdey and locking in the sight picture. Adjusting slightly, he moved the aim point to be the barrel, just forward of the breech. He let out a slow breath, and then lay still, mouth open and air just gently flowing in and out of his lungs as he steadied himself.

To the front of the truck, the men continued to shout, the gestures getting more and more aggressive looking. Kai glanced at their faces, and their body language – seeing the rage and anger boiling off them. Marius, concentrating on the sensor feed, misheard the leader as he shouted out to them, and completely misconstrued what he had said.

"Kai! They're going to attack!" Kai heard Marius' voice blurt from the speakers and made a snap call, barking out a command.

"Tads, drop them!"

Tads took a deep breath and while part of her mind focussed on the illusion still wrapped around their vehicle, the rest called up feelings of anger and rage. Every person who'd slighted her, every corporation that had despoiled her forest, every innocent that she'd seen harmed – they drove her and focussed her feelings, and a blast of force washed out from her and drove into the arc of men facing their truck. Of the eight men standing there, six were driven to their knees by the force, eyes defocussed as the mana drove them towards unconsciousness. Two of them were made of sterner stuff – the man who appeared to be the leader, and the original driver who had made the call. They staggered to the side – affected still, but not as much.

Of the six worst affected though, one of them stumbled and his finger reflexively snatched at the trigger. A rippling blast of energy erupted from his gun and hit the front of the vehicle – where it harmlessly bounced off the heavy grade armour. The others, hearing the blast also opened fire, and the screen and front of the cab were pelted with fire – none of it having the slightest effect whatsoever.

To the rear though, Aswon heard gunshots, and his finger tightened on the trigger within a heartbeat – and the heavyweight slug rumbled out of the barrel and flashed across the distance, smashing into the shotgun held aloft by the rear guard. The ruined and twisted gun was ripped from his hand with some force, cartwheeling through the air before impacting onto the tarmac and then sliding under a truck. The driver threw himself down onto the floor, having no idea what had happened.

There was a roar from above them, as Marius hit the starter on his vector thrust drone, and the heavyweight VTOL rocketed up the launch rail. The sound of the jets reverberated across the car park, following up on the rolling gun-shots that had driven the few people heading to or from their vehicles to the ground. As the drone thrusters propelled it up into the air, Marius was already slewing the mounted assault rifle round into firing position, and searching for targets.

Tads concentrated, and another blast of mana washed over the couriers. This time, all but the leader dropped to the ground, unconscious. The leader had thrown himself to the side, and was hiding out of her line of sight – and was completely unaffected. He crouched by the radiator of the rig, hyperventilating with the shotgun clutched to his chest, as he stared in horror at his colleagues who lay nearby – apparently dead.

Aswon rolled to his feet and ran around the berm, moving quickly to get from his position of overlooking the rear of the truck to one where he could see the front. He spied Shimazu suddenly vaulting from his position of concealment up onto the roof of the truck next to him, and then bounding from roof top to roof top, his magical abilities driving power through his legs and accelerating him to dizzying speeds. He threw himself down from the last roof, landing neatly behind the leader, and a knife moved around his throat and gently applied pressure.

"Drop it, don't be stupid." Shimazu said in English. He was gratified to see the man start to lower the shotgun immediately, realising that he was in a tactically suicidal position. Hunter scrambled out of the truck and ran down the side of their truck towards the rear, looking for the rear guard – but by the time he got there, he was just in time to see the door slam shut and hear the lock being thrown. He shrugged to himself – at least he wasn't going to be a threat, locked in his cab.

Shimazu grabbed the guy by the scruff of his neck and marched him down the side of their truck, pushing him "through" the illusion and to the rear doors, where Kai was waiting.

Kai summoned power into his voice and spoke loudly and firmly at their captive in English – hoping to hell he was bilingual.

"Stop it. Just stop. Do you want to die? No? Then stop it. We've got no grudge with you, we have no idea who you are, or why you've attacked us. But if you don't stop it, we'll kill every last one of you, do you understand?"

The courier was still white-faced from having been thrust through the apparently solid side of a truck to have a strange Asian man bellow at him. He babbled slightly, his eyes wide and slightly unfocussed as his brain struggled to make sense of what was going on.

"But you attacked us. You killed one of our drivers. Four months ago – you attacked our company. We have sensor records. We know it was you." Kai blinked and though about it, then quickly counted back in his head. It was only two months since they'd been captured and had stolen the truck from the Chechens.

"Oh you silly man. We stole this truck. It was probably the bandits we stole it from that attacked you. You didn't think that maybe the truck would move on?" Kai's hands moved to either cheek and pulled down, as he realised this was all based on a stupid case of mistaken identity. He was about to speak again, when his com-link blurted out a warning from Aswon.

"Boss! Police aerial response incoming. ETA ten seconds, moving fast, from zero eight zero." The message was breathy and hurried, as Aswon sprinted across the car park to get into cover from the rapidly approaching drones.

The two rotor drones approached the scene and transitioned to hover flight. Their sensors were twisted and warped by the illusion – the optical scans and pattern recognition disagreeing with the radar map and thermal readings. The limited brainpower of the pilots responded by broadcasting a "Stop, you're under arrest!" message at over a hundred decibels, whilst the guns aimed down at the heat signatures.

Marius took direct control of his vector thrust drone, and dropped into a swoop, lining up on the police drone aiming down at Kai and their hostage. He sent a mental command racing through the control network, and the twin assault rifles spat out rounds into the back of the rotordrone, ripping through the bodywork and sending it spiralling down in flames. Kai dived into the truck, and the courier screamed and dived the other way, rolling underneath the truck next to them and then crawling towards the perceived safety of a set of wheels where he took cover.

Aswon climbed into the cab of the front truck, and started it up, struggling with the huge tractor-trailer combination but managing to get it into gear after a few seconds effort. As he started to move it forward, clearing the way for their escape, a burst of warning fire from the second drone stitched the car park ahead of him. He glanced around the cab rapidly, but couldn't see a tire iron, wrench or anything else heavy that was in reach. Muttering under his breath, he pulled out his extendable staff, and shoved the compacted tube into position, keeping the accelerator depressed, then slid out of the door and dropped to the ground, rolling and absorbing the impact as the truck sped away from him.

Seeing the truck failing to stop, the police drone drifted forwards, matching speed with the truck, and the high velocity light machine gun opened up, spitting fire into the cab. They ripped open the roof and filled the cab with fire, and then something penetrated the engine. It caught, hiccupped and died – then promptly caught fire. Within seconds, fuel from a severed line sprayed up into the cab, and a fireball erupted metres into the air. Drifting on momentum alone now, the truck steered to the left and moments later impacted onto another rig, the fire quickly starting to spread.

The police drone hovered over the scene, steadying position as the operator back at base commanded it to stop and get a good read on the situation – which was all Hunter needed. An air timed grenade blasted out of the under-barrel launcher and arced through the air, exploding next to the drone and peppering it with fragments, blasting away the outer skin. A precise three round burst hit the engine, and it plummeted down into the cab, adding its fuel to the conflagration below.

Seeing the devastation around them, Tads concentrated and reshaped her phantasm, turning it from a hemisphere centred on the truck into a flat plane. Glancing at the sensor feed from the Condor, she saw what was, and then presented an image of a car park at rest, with nothing wrong – hoping that any more air assets deployed would be thrown off the scent.

As Aswon hurriedly grabbed unconscious bodies and dragged them out of the way, Shimazu struggled to get the 'trode net on, and slipped the data line into the jackpoint on the dashboard, starting the truck up. Marius concentrated on bringing in the VTOL drone for a quick landing, lining up the landing mechanism with the recovery rail and dropping the drone onto the launcher with a deft touch. He checked over the scene from the blimp, looking at the fires spreading and wreckage strewn around the car park.

Shimazu pulled out of the spot, slowly at first as Aswon ran alongside the truck and made a jump for the ladder to get back onboard. Hunter braced himself and stood in the turret ring, keeping a watch out – so he quickly spotted the cop car just coming up the access road from the highway, and shouted a warning to Shimazu. Shimazu glanced in the mirror, and then drove sedately through the car park, not risking the vehicle in the tight and winding environment. The cop car slowed, and then slowed some more – apparently content to follow them at a safe distance. Of course, looking at the rear end of a heavily armoured military truck and being armed with nothing more than a pistol – it was probably the wisest thing they could do.

Marius flicked mental switches, and seconds later the jammer was being fed with power from the amplifier. He set it to broad spectrum, not having time to isolate the specific radio frequency, and just settled for hot-mike jamming. It was crude, but effective, as he pumped out two hundred megawatts of static across the radio spectrum. A number of car alarms went off as they were blocked from service, and the cop car gave a wobble as the auto-nav threw a fit from the EM blast before the driver could resume control.

The drone finished the power down sequence and the locking bolts firmly attached it to the recovery plate, and Marius triggered the hanger sequence, feeling the mechanism bringing the drone back inside the vehicle. With that he could turn his attention to the truck, and saw Shimazu still in control, heading around the fuel stop and down the slip road back to the main highway.

A blur of colour made both Marius and Shimazu jump, as a car shot out of the petrol station, the drive completely misjudging the situation and very nearly driving under their wheels. Shimazu slewed right, whilst the other driver panicked and steered left, driving up on to the landscaped area and coming to a halt in more of the scrubby bushes planted around the area. The cop car wove from side to side for a moment, then continued to follow – maintaining visual contact with them but at a safe distance.

Marius was about to take control of the truck, when another alert flashed up from his blimp – another air target. He steered the sensors around and got a lock on it – wondering if it was a gunship or a troop bird following them – then swore. It was worse.

"News chopper, closing on our position fast."

Tads made a gesture with her hands, as if pushing away something invisible, and overhead the trid-phantasm spell faded away, revealing them to all and sundry for a moment. Seconds later through, as she concentrated hard, first the truck, then the trailer disappeared from view, wrapped in sheathes of invisibility. She gave a little grunt of effort, and in the cab Aswon saw her Shamanic mask appear for a moment as she cast – the elongated nose, large eyes and ethereal antlers appearing over her normal features. They faded after a moment, then through gritted teeth of concentration, she spoke.

"We're invisible – both parts. Try not to hit the dirt, and get away from their sensors. And watch out for the other traffic – none of these folk will see through this, and they may just hit us thinking the road is free."

Marius slid over virtually, and eased the controls away from Shimazu, then accelerated hard, the truck leaping ahead and weaving through traffic quickly and surely. Shimazu sat back and rubbed his palms together, wiping the sweat from them and flexing his fingers from where they had been clenched around his virtual steering wheel. Hunter had bought up the map and was searching through the area, and called for them to take the next off ramp – only a half-kilometre up the road.

They swept up the ramp, weaving through the traffic with Marius' fine control pushed to the limits. Behind them, the chopper and the police car swept on down the highway, searching for them visually but not getting enough of a lock on their passing to detect them. The truck hammered up the access road and leant hard as Marius pulled them around a tight sweeping bend. They roared into the residential area, and dropped speed – there being no way to travel through the densely packed streets at a hundred kilometres per hour. Even at seventy-five, the houses flashed by and they had several near misses as people moved around on the streets and cars pulled out of side turnings. Behind them they left a wake of confusion, as the globe of jamming trashed TV signals and killed phone conversations, reset alarms and emitted piercing wails of disruption from baby monitors.

Marius turned, right, then left, then second right, threading through the streets and concealing the truck from aerial view behind the multi-story houses. It looked clear, but he didn't want to risk it just yet, so he continued to evade.

Aswon spied a large building up ahead and hit the button on his com-link, making sure Marius could hear him clearly.

"Kill the jamming, right now!" Marius did, trusting that he had a good reason and that the risk was worthwhile, confirming it was done a moment later. Aswon pointed at the building, drawing the attention of the rest of the team, and letting Marius know verbally, "Look, right side of the street – community hospital. If we'd gone past that, we'd probably have killed someone when their life support reset. It would definitely have come to official attention.

Hunter pulled up the map again, and plotted them a route out of town, sticking to the back roads and out of the way of major buildings. Tads asked for them to slow and try and slide through a back alley of some description – as they did so, she dropped the two invisibility spells and then cast a fresh illusion, and a battered and dirty turntable fire truck emerged out of the other end of the alleyway instead. They followed Hunter's directions and soon found themselves on a tiny country road that wound up into the hills overlooking the town, snaking back and forth as it climbed higher and higher through the terraces of olive groves. The houses became cheaper and smaller, then faded away entirely, until they were clear of the city and high above it.

Aswon grabbed his phone as a thought crossed his mind, and dialled Sing Wan, quickly checking the time and working out how late it was in the evening in Hong Kong. Sing answered after a few rings though, and greeted him warmly.

"Sing, got a problem, and I need some help. Have you got any deckers either on your payroll, or available for hire, urgently?

"Sure Aswon, I got someone – though it depends on the target, and the level of ICE. Can't go throwing some kids at a corporate glacier and expect them to get through those countermeasures."

"No, it's a real simple job actually. In Turkey, on the E80 highway at a place called Korfez, there's a truck stop – Rest Stop 76 it's called. We were there, and shit went down – and our faces are all over the CCTV. We need someone to go in there and trash the records for the last hour."

Several of the team looked at him in surprise, then realised how much forensic evidence they'd left there – though at least all of their clothes in the washing machines should be clean…

"Ahh, no problem my friend, sounds like an easy job – but urgent. Five hundred should cover it."

"I'm wiring you a grand, please tell them to be thorough. And I owe you a present next time we meet. What do you want?"

"You're in Turkey I guess… pick me up a bottle of wine, something regional."

Aswon agreed, and hung up, then relaxed a little, staring out of the window with his phone clasped lightly in his hand. A minute later it buzzed, and he glanced at the text message displayed on the screen "Run commencing". Thirty seconds later, the phone buzzed again, displaying a new message "Host wiped, all footage for the day deleted – was easiest option. Away clean." He snorted and told the rest of the team that at least there was no CCTV of them in the car park or the restaurant now.

Hunter meanwhile had signed up to a site for a popular trid-game, and had paid for a year's subscription to their modding community. He showed Tads who looked at him blankly.

"I've never really played computer games – not my thing."

"No, it's not for you to play. Look, this is a model viewer… these are all things people build and put in the game, or that are already included. If we put the key-word 'vehicle' in, then we can filter the database… now, see. These are all vehicles. And because there's loads of Nerds play this, they're all modelled on the real thing, and incredibly accurate. And if we push this button here, look, see – a 3d version, that you can spin around, and look at from all sides."

Realisation dawned in her eyes, as she watched the model move on the small display, jerking through a revolution as the limited bandwidth struggled to handle the dataflow.

"Ahh, so whenever we need a new illusion, I can look in here to see a vehicle, and know what it should look like. Got it." Tads took the pad from Hunter's hand, and explored the interface, looking at the options available.

They bounced and crawled their way up the hill, the road having turned into a track more suitable for donkeys and carts now than heavy vehicles – but the off-road suspension ate up the bounces and potholes, and kept traction on the dust and gravel just fine. Reaching the top of the hill, they could see for kilometres around them, and saw the vast rows of terraces not only on their hill, but the neighbours on either side, marching away as far as they eye could see. The bimbled along the crest of the hill, and saw a spinney ahead, the trees barren and devoid of leaves at this time of year, but also the only cover for miles around. They headed down a side track and into the spinney, discovering it to be a nest of rocks and defiles that explained why it, too, wasn't being used for olive growing. The ground was marginal, even for the truck – but they got inside the tree cover ok, and finally came to a halt. Ten minutes of hard graft from the team, and the camo nets were pulled over the vehicles, and from a distance they looked like two mossy mounds amongst the trees.

As the sun finally dropped below the horizon, they got a brew on and relaxed, pondering their next move and the route into Constantinople they would take tomorrow.