The tunnel came into view as they drove around a bend in the road, the steep sides of the craggy rocks blurring past the truck. To their left, the rock face rose in sharp terraces, wire cages full of rocks and boulders securing the steeply-blasted side and preventing landslides down onto the tarmac below, while power lines ran parallel to the road suspended from tall and spindly plasteel towers. To their right, the slope was natural, covered in spiny bushes and other groundcover, hardy perennials that covered the ground and surrounded the bare winter trees. The pale winter sun was filtered through grey clouds leaving the scene painted with a flat and uninteresting light, muting colours and lending the horizon with a hazy finish.
As the truck rolled slightly into the curve, Tads, Aswon and Shimazu stiffened simultaneously. All three of them got a sense of change in the air, a subtle feeling as astral space rippled and warped around them. It might be another magical ritual trying to find them, or a spirit looking for them – they weren't sure what – but there was definitely magical shenanigans afoot. The truck roared past the line of faded and moss-covered cones that diverted traffic from their side of the road back to the other carriageway. They caught a glimpse of the abandoned northern tunnel, closed and dark for some unknown reason, before they plunged into the dark concrete tunnel, the truck roaring as the engine noise reflected off the solid walls and echoing back and forth.
Inside, the tunnel rapidly grew dark, their headlights throwing light only twenty metres or so forward, though they could see the lights of other vehicles approaching them in the distance. The overhead lighting was out, as were the gantries and signs. The tunnel was square for the first thirty metres, solid slabs of smooth plascrete, perfectly straight and true. In the ceiling, a recessed channel held the light fittings, all the panels cold and dark now. But, beyond this, the tunnel changed to be more circular, the walls curving up and around overhead in the darkness. The surface was rougher, the plascrete having been sprayed over the rock walls after the hole was bored, the cheap construction leaving behind an undulating surface that wavered back and forth alongside the road. A narrow pavement, no more than a half metre wide ran down each side of the road, and they spotted mounts and brackets on the tunnel side, that at one time probably mounted rescue equipment.
Marius eased up on the throttle, lowering the speed until he was only doing about thirty kilometres per hour. The road behind them was still clear and empty of traffic, the ambush scene far behind them presumably still stopping up the flow of traffic to the east. Facing them, the first car heading westbound flew past them, the battered car shrieking as the poorly fitted fan-belt scraped along the pulleys and the high-pitched noises reverberated off the walls. He activated the computer routine, and watched the progress as the fairing and air deflector changed shape, and the hood of the truck extended forwards and developed air scoops. All over the cab the silhouette altered, sometimes radically, sometimes more subtly in response to the smart materials flexing. With a ripple the photo-voltaic paint changed the colour of the exterior, taking on a deep navy blue colour instead of the faded forest green.
"How about another of those vehicle disguise spells, Tads?" asked Kai. Tads turned to face him, and started to speak.
"I can – but I'm not sure it's a good idea. We know there's a mage out there – or at least we're pretty certain. Although the spell will probably be pretty good against most people, a mage will spot it and recognise it straight away on the astral plane."
"Ahh, right. Ok. So he'll spot the spell then, maybe not know what it was – but they'd see only one vehicle under a spell, and that's really suspicious…"
"Yes, more or less, that's probably what would happen."
Marius slowed some more, to a crawl, then a stop. After a moment the engine died, and Marius unjacked, pulling the bundle of wires and fibre optics from the socket on the back of his neck.
"I'm going to get rid of that crap on the windscreen." He moved into the back, grabbing a scraper and some water and cleaning supplies, then he and Nadia climbed out onto the front and started to peel off the glue and dead animals from the front of the windscreen. In the cab, a spirited discussion began amongst the rest of the team.
"Right then, Tads – should you get in the trailer, if that's where the strongest magical defences are, to stop whatever that feeling was?" asked Kai.
"I don't think so. Yes, that's where my lodge is – and it's quite strong and well defended. But in there I can't reach any of you, and if something is coming after one of you instead of me, I'm massively limited in what I can do to defend you."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, if I'm physically here, and a threat appears, I can take direct action against it. And pulling mana through my body is fine – though I can get a headache if I pull too much through too quickly. But if I'm only here astrally, then there's a whole range of magic I can't do – anything that affects the physical world. I can channel mana through to the astral realm, but without a physical body here it's much harder, and much more damaging to my astral form." Tads looked at Kai, and saw that he still wasn't clear.
"If I'm not in my body, I can only affect things in the astral realm, not the physical. And if I don't fully channel the mana, instead of a headache, I get things like a stroke or a burst eyeball. Real, painful, physical damage that is life-threatening." Kai's eyes opened wider and he nodded in understanding. Aswon spoke before Kai could reply to her statement though.
"Actually, you might want to get into the trailer, just for a minute. We can perform an experiment, and this way can actually tell us some information. Magic is strange and wonderful – but it has rules, just like the rest of the world, if you can work them out. The truck is protected by a magical ward that acts as a barrier to magic trying to cross or penetrate it. Just like body armour will try and stop a bullet, a more complex ward will stop more powerful magic. If you go into the trailer, and the feeling you had stops, or slackens off – that means that whatever was targeting you was stronger than the ward here, but less powerful than the ward there…."
They considered this for a moment, then Tads climbed out of the truck and ran to the trailer, pulling herself up the steps and inside, then slamming the door behind her. A minute passed as she composed herself and checked around her, straining her senses to try and detect the feeling again. Thirty seconds after that she was back in the truck.
"Well, if that theory of yours is right – whoever was trying to affect me, is stronger than the ward on the truck, but not the one on the trailer. I'm not sure where that leaves us, but I guess we know one more thing now! And also, going into the trailer seems to have thrown off whatever it was – I can't sense them anymore. And it does seem to be me they're after."
Shimazu twisted around in his seat to face them.
"So, do we push on through the tunnel and keep going, or do we turn back, and try to find another route?" He was answered almost immediately by Hunter, who had been busy with the map, and pointed to a route he had hashed out on the mapping software.
"I don't think we want to go back – it's going to take us close to two hundred kilometres out of our way, to try and get a route up into the mountains and around – and on top of that we're heading much deeper into the Kurdish zone. We've travelled the coast road, I think we need to stay on that."
The others peered at the route, and the wide detour down to the south, frowning at the notations – the route was a mix of national and local roads, winding through the mountains and highlands. It was possible that they'd run into all kinds of trouble from landslides to bandits.
"Well, we can't achieve much in here. We can't even change lanes, not that it would be worth much. I wonder how long the other tunnel has been closed for? I mean, if that chopper is hovering over the exit of the tunnel, and we're the only traffic really heading east at the moment, even if we don't have a spell on us to give us away, and even looking a little different – it's going to be obvious it's us." Aswon waved down the tunnel as he spoke, then gestured at the large wing mirrors to either side of the cab, still showing no traffic behind them.
They heard the back door open and checked back through the hatchway, seeing Nadia and Marius climbing up and into the truck. As Nadia dealt with the bucket of goop they'd cleaned from the window, Marius climbed through into the cab and started to jack in.
"Vot is our status?"
"I think we need to get turned around, and merge in with the stream of traffic heading back west, at least for the moment."
Marius paused, one of the fibre optic cables in hand blinking a sullen red as he turned to stare at Kai.
"You want me to turn around, in this?" His eyebrow arched as he stared at the team leader, then turned away and stared at the tunnel beyond the vehicle. As if to punctuate his concerns, a farm truck rumbled past them in the other lane, with only a metre of clearance.
"Yes, we're the only thing heading east at the moment – if we exit the tunnel, it's going to look far too suspicious, no matter what colour or shape we are. Besides, you keep telling me you want a helicopter. You can't have a helicopter if you're not even a good enough driver to turn a truck around when it's a bit tight on space…" Kai smiled, making it clear that he wasn't being entirely serious – but there was still a slight, subtle challenge in his voice. Marius glared at him a moment, and then rammed the connection home, pulled his restraint harness on and cinched it tight.
"Might want to hang on…." His voice faded out as he merged with the machine, his brain synchronising with the vehicle systems over the rigger network. The engine roared into life and with a lurch accelerated forwards and then hard left. Still picking up speed it drove headlong at the tunnel, the wheels locked as far to the left as they would go. The occupants of the cab grabbed at seatbelts, headrests and each other as a momentary fear overtook them. The wall of the tunnel approached rapidly and it looked like Marius was about to kill them all. The brakes bit hard – everyone and everything in the truck lurched forwards. Nadia lost her footing in the back and both she and the mix of glue, dead animals and bloody water went lurching across the floor. A couple of plates slid free of the restrains and were dashed against the armoured skin of the truck, shattering into jagged pieces. In the cab several of the team looked out of the windscreen at the tunnel – they appeared to be actually touching the wall as far as they could see, but hadn't actually felt an impact. Marius had cut it so fine, that the truck was resting against the concrete as the suspension settled.
There was a crunch from the gearbox and the truck lurched backwards, not quite as fast but with the engine roaring as Marius kept the power on and controlled the motion of the vehicle using the clutch and brakes to fine-tune how much power got to the drive train and the wheels. Once again they flinched as the tunnel wall approached them in the distorted view of the mirrors and once again Marius slammed the brakes on at the very last second. Then they were in forward gear again, and lurched towards the other tunnel wall again. This time their motion was accompanied by a long drawn out blast from a weak and pathetic-sounding horn. A small and battered car had slowed to a halt on their right hand side, and the driver now had his head out of the window, shouting at them. They had no idea what he was shouting, the noise from the engines was too loud for that – but from the body language, it wasn't complimentary.
The truck lurched back and forth, swinging around slowly in the tight confines of the tunnel. Another car pulled up behind the first, then a truck. They, too, added their horns to the cacophony, as they were forced to stop by the truck and trailer sprawling across both lanes. Slowly the traffic built up to their side, unable to pass the obstruction. A few people got out of their vehicles, looking angrily at the vehicle as it edged backwards and forwards, but none approached them – content to make their displeasure known from a distance.
They reached a critical point – the truck was turned almost towards the western side of the tunnel, but the trailer still pointed to the east, slewed at an acute angle behind them. Neither could turn more without hitting the tunnel walls, or gouging chunks out of the other half of the vehicle. It looked like they were well and truly stuck. Marius edged forwards and backwards a few more times, the wheels turning full lock one way then the other, trying to get precious centimetres advantage to squeeze around – but it was not to be.
One or two of the waiting drivers now laughed, thinking the truck was stuck – and obviously not thinking through the import of this to their own journey, but their faces suddenly fell as the truck lurched – sideways. Inside the truck, everyone was flung like a rag doll to the right, several of them striking their head on the inner wall of the cab and thanking the foresight of the Russian designers for the thin quilted padding that was fixed over the crew areas. The truck suddenly dipped, the left side lowering dramatically, then with an explosive lurch the whole vehicle moved to the right again.
Horrible shrieking noises echoed down the tunnel as the trailer ground slightly against the truck with each lurch, and the vehicle wobbled alarmingly. The audience dived back into their cars, and got ready to try and swing their own vehicles around and get away from the madman driving the armoured behemoth, but found themselves trapped in place by the vehicles behind who couldn't see what was going on.
Marius sat in his harness, head rolling first one way and then the other as the truck lurched around him, the overrides in the rigger jack preventing him from taking any physical action whilst he was meshed with the truck. Nadia grabbed his head, holding it as still as she could manage to make sure he didn't wrench anything during the unorthodox movement. Inside the machine, the essence of Marius grinned as his plan worked. Manipulating the air suspension, he repeatedly deflated and then explosively reflated the suspension, working the truck over in a series of hops and skips, almost physically dragging the trailer around like a massive tail. It was ruining his fuel efficiency keeping the engine working like this, and was putting hundreds of hours on the air filters, pumps and hydraulic systems – but it was working. Another two minutes, and the truck was turned enough that the front right corner of the truck was clear of the tunnel, and he could engage the gears and slowly drive forward, watching the trailer straighten out behind him. They pulled over onto the left side of the road, allowing the traffic on the right to drive past them.
As they watched the traffic jam clear, angry drivers from cars and trucks alike signalling them clear and rather explicit instructions, they had an idea. Quickly discussing it, they found a likely vehicle – a large farm truck, and moments later it rippled and twitched as Tads cast her vehicle masking illusion around it and it took on the appearance of their own vehicle. Now, if anyone was watching their end of the tunnel, they'd see a vehicle hiding under a spell, and hopefully assume it was the team – except of course it wasn't. Tads poured power into the spell, until it glowed brightly on the astral realm and was rock solid on the physical world… it was going to take a dragon to see through that much power!
"Ok, we're not in anyone's way at the moment, so let's just stay here for a bit. Let that farm truck decoy them off, if they're actually watching this end for a bit. Given the fight we had, my guess would be that they're calling for reinforcements rather than assaulting directly – so the further away that truck goes, the longer they'll distract them. And if they're at the other end of the tunnel, well, the longer we wait, the longer they'll be convinced that they've missed us." The rest of the team listened to Kai's logic, and there were general nods of agreement.
"Ach, and of course, the longer they stay on station – the more fuel they will burn. That chopper will have good range, but even sitting still they'll use plenty of fuel and that limits their dwell time." Marius seems content to wait for a bit, and sat working his head around carefully, wondering why his neck was quite so painful.
A discussion began amongst them – trying to get into the heads of their pursuers and work out what they would do to catch them, and what the team could do to counter those plans. Which of course required a further layer of planning from their opponents, and then a counter, counter plan. Aswon seemed to get into the spirit of things, and was four layers deep in a double-speak plan of bluff and counterbluff when he noticed that Tads had gone slightly cross-eyed – hardly surprising when he remembered that she was also sustaining the illusion on the farm vehicle.
They waited for a minute, then another, and saw the tail end of the traffic jam they had caused with their turning manoeuvre starting to filter past. Tads saw another large farm truck, something close in size to their own vehicle, and cast a second spell, also transforming it to appear the same as themselves. The spell was not as competently cast as the first – unsurprising as she was still concentrating on that with part of her attention – but would still fool most people. Now sustaining the two spells, the effect upon her was more noticeable. She reacted a moment slower than everyone else, and was preoccupied. A bead of sweat appeared at her temple, slowly making its way down her face until she idly swiped at it with the back of her hand.
The last of the traffic was gone, and Kai looked around at the area. They spotted a vehicle heading eastbound – the first they had seen since the ambush had been sprung. It appeared that the road had either been cleared, or people were going around the scene, and traffic was resuming its eastward flow.
"Ok, Tads, do you still have that spirit on call?" He paused, but she seemed to ignore him. "Tads?" She stared at him for a moment, and it was obvious she hadn't heard him the first time. "Still got that spirit?"
"The big one? Yes. Still here."
"Great, can you get it to hide the vehicle from casual sight?"
"Yes. Done." Her responses were short and curt, her normal verbosity toned down with the effort of carrying the spells. He looked around, but couldn't see any change in the area around the truck, but Shimazu nodded to him, apparently having spotted something.
"Ok, Marius, let's start up and pull over to the right side of the road, and follow the traffic out. When we get out of the tunnel, everyone have a good look about, and see if you can spot the chopper, or anyone else." The team nodded at Kai, and moved to the windows and the roof hatch, getting ready to check around them. Marius started up the truck and eased them up to speed, leaving the tunnel on the westbound side of the road.
The sky was just as grey and boring as before, the light hazy and washed out. It also didn't hold helicopter gunships full of armed troops, or even surveillance drones though. They craned their necks, peering down the flanks of the truck, eyes quartering the sky in an effort to look for the enemy.
Nothing.
Each of them reported back to Kai – no contact, no sighting, no enemy spotted. Kai nodded, then hit the intercom, and poked Tads, ensuring he had her attention.
"Right, see the layby up there, Marius? I want you to hang a turn there, get us going back to the east, and slot into the traffic as close as you can. The second we've completed the turn, Tads, I want you to drop both of the spells on the farm trucks. Everyone else – knock off your phones, radios, computers – everything electronic. We go from being noisy to dark, and try to disappear into the background. Ok, here we go… standby to turn… ready… now! Drop the spells. Gear off!"
Tads sighed in relief as she let the spells dissipate, her mind clearing and becoming quicker without the effort. Around her the others switched off devices and systems, checking over their inventory and luggage. Marius swung the truck around deftly, sliding into the gap between a battered minibus and a small van, and then matched speed with them, heading once more into the maw of the tunnel. They looked around them, still scanning the skies, wondering if the first herald of a sighting would be a rocket pod or a fireball bearing down on them.
But it was all quiet. They drove into the tunnel, and travelled sedately through it, following the minibus and with the van following them, driving through the level and mostly straight tunnel for four kilometres, before emerging once more into the grey light. Some cars and lorries had passed them, going the other way, but nothing remarkable had happened and they all looked like ordinary folk, going about their business.
Emerging from the other end, they went through the same routine. Heads craned and eyes scanned. The top hatch was cracked and people checked directly above. Nothing. Nothing but the cold winter afternoon, a pale and hazy sun, and a sense of fatigue mixed with worry. The truck pushed on, and Marius picked up the pace a little, overtaking the minibus once they were back onto dual carriageway, and slowly leaving it behind. Faster cars appeared behind them from the tunnel and were carefully watched as they reached them, overtook and continued to head off into the distance.
They drove on, making good time down the highway. The big diesel engine grumbled away and the massive tyres made a smooth but consistent roar along the tarmac, and the kilometres disappeared beneath them. Fifteen minutes later they hit the edge of Ordu, a large town spread out along the coast. Traffic grew heavier, and Tads asked the spirit to stop concealing them – the last thing they needed was to be rammed by someone who didn't realise they were there. Soon they were cruising through the town proper, mid-rise apartments rising up on both sides of the street along with shops, plazas and the odd view of the sea to their left. They crossed the pair of rivers that ran through the town, and as the urban sprawl started to thin on the way out of the settlement they could see the vast sprawling agri-fields, full of thin-branched and bare hazel trees, retreating off to the south in well-planned rows, rising up into the foothills.
Advancing down the road with their eyes peeled, they drove past another airport – checking the skies carefully for any choppers taking off. They saw nothing, though, and in less than an hour had arrived at Giresun – a settlement that was much smaller than Ordu, but just as long. The thin ribbon town clung to the coast road, a narrow strip of development before entering the foothills covered with more well-managed trees and plants. To their left they could see a long stretch of beachline, well protected with breakers. It would probably be nice during the summer months, but under the winter light the sea was cold and forbidding, the coarse sand grey and sad. Marius kept up the best speed he could, contending with the local traffic.
They pushed on, and with every passing kilometre with no contact, they slowly relaxed. It appeared that they had thrown off their pursuit – whether through magical concealment, by hiding in the tunnel, or even just random luck such as their enemy running low on fuel – however it had happened, they were grateful.
Another hour passed, and they arrive at Gorele, another town that had sprung up on the coast at the mouth of a river. They crossed the large concrete bridge, following the road as it flowed along the coast, past a sheltered port that seemed to be set up for cargo ships – no sign of the sheltered beaches to tempt tourists and holidaymakers here. As they drove they grabbed food and drink from their supplies, not wanting to stop at a restaurant or café alongside the road. Instead they made do with a cold lunch, and put up with the tiny cramped toilet in the truck, making the best of what they had.
"Hey, I've been thinking. You know how when I disguise the truck, I can change the appearance of it, slowly, over time. Is there any way to get the colour changing stuff you had painted on to do that? Rather than just changing from red to green say?" Aswon and Hunter looked at Tads with surprise for a moment, then nodded. In hindsight, it seemed like an obvious thing, and much less likely to attract attention than suddenly flipping colour.
Moments later, they'd fired the computer back up, making sure the power on the transmitters was still off, keeping them at a minimum electronic footprint. They started muttering to each other about programming in loops with rising values of RGB indexes and tonal shifts, so the rest of the team left them to their geekery – they seemed quite happy.
They drove onwards, the highway now right at the coast edge, with the water looking like it actually undercut the other carriageway in places. The grey water was choppy, a million peaks of cold and uninviting swell topped with white caps that marched in rows to the horizon, to meet the grey and low hanging cloud. To the south a series of steep terraces rose up the hillsides, with houses and plantations perched on the switchback roads, seemingly all quiet in the winter afternoon.
Something caught the attention of Nadia, and she peered ahead of the truck. The movement attracted the attention of the others, and they too looked ahead, spotting a small tailback a couple of kilometres down the road. Tads raised her binoculars and spent a moment adjusting the view, trying to get a good look at what was going on.
"Hey, guys? Looks like a roadblock ahead. Got a big green truck, sort of like ours. At least a dozen guys with guns standing around in small groups. Tailback of a few cars. Oh, another truck, I think, parked further over, making people drive through an S-bend to get round them." Kai nudged Tads and made a beckoning motion, and she let him have a look through the binoculars to confirm what she'd just described.
"Right then, Marius, slow us down a bit please, just casual though – give us a few more seconds to get sorted here." Kai looked around the truck, and pointed at a few of the guns and more illegal bits of electronics that were lying around. "Let's get tided up here, and everyone break out your medical IDs. We'll go with the doctor cover again I think, and see if a little cash helps things along. Everyone ok?" The team nodded and moved about, putting away and hiding guns and equipment. Nadia poked Kai though, her bony finger catching him in the ribs.
"Medical ID? I don't have one of those, just this?" She held aloft the ID covering her as a student. Kai thought about it for a moment, then nodded.
"That should be fine. You're doing a year's practical experience working with us, for Doctors without Borders. You're not a medical student, but its good experience, and you hope it will show character to your university. Ok?" Nadia nodded, then moved around with the others, tidying gear away. Kai pondered for a moment, then looked for Hunter.
"Hey, where's the next place along the road that's likely to have a hospital? Or somewhere big enough to be heading?"
"Trabzon probably…. Yeah, that's big enough for a hospital. Or at least a large clinic. Should be two hours or so down the road. If we can slow down another minute, I can check – but we'll have to transmit."
"No, I think that should be safe enough. Doctors, on the way to Trabzon hospital. Ok, game faces, everyone." The truck pulled up to a halt behind the short queue of traffic, waiting behind the three cars and a battered old farm truck. Now they were close, they could make out the details of the road block. It appeared that both the trucks were very old and had clearly seen better days, being covered in rust and with obvious welds over the chassis in places. The "soldiers" were not much better. Wielding a motley collection of AK74s and similar design guns, they mostly wore jeans and t-shirts, or tracksuits, with a rag tag collection of webbing and bags over the top. There was nothing uniform about them, and they didn't look particularly well-trained – but balanced against that was the knowledge that they were part of a resistance movement that had claimed nearly twenty percent of the country from the Turkish Army, and successfully held onto it. While the Turkish Army might not be a top tier armed force, they did have tanks, a navy and reasonable technology – as the team could attest to.
The farm truck was waved on the way, and the next car in line pulled forwards. While most of the guerrillas hung back, spread out around the area, a few approached the car with what appeared to be the leader. They moved to the driver's side window, chatted for a moment with the occupant, and then there was a flash of movement – a SIN was handed out and slotted into a hand-held reader for a moment. Then the hand came back out to reclaim the SIN, and in a fleeting movement, it looked like a piece of paper was exchanged as well.
The next car was much the same, and now a little closer, they saw that it was definitely a note of some kind, probably a small bribe to the "checkpoint" to cover their admin fees. As the third and final car was checked, they confirmed this – it looked like the equivalent of about twenty Nuyen passing hands. When they were waved through, it was the team's turn, and they rolled up to the same point on the road. Rather than waiting to let them rap on the door – and discover just how armoured it was, Kai opened the door and slid down to the road. He turned towards them with his best smile.
"English?" They shook their heads at him. "Ruski?" Again they shook their heads, then babbled at him. It sounded something like some of the languages they'd heard – maybe the same roots. He bashed on the door and waved for Hunter to come down, and for Aswon to listen in, then motioned for the sergeant (or whatever rank he styled himself as) to speak again. He spoke again, the language smooth and melodious, without the guttural sounds of the Arabian languages, but spoken with much the same pacing. Hunter shrugged his shoulders at Kai, and Aswon shook his head too – they had no idea what the guy was saying.
Kai took over, and with exaggerated body language showed them their SINS, and a selection of medical tools, liberally throwing in the word "Trabzon" as well. The sergeant didn't seem too impressed, one way or another, and just waved for his minion to bring the reader over, and started to work through the IDs. Kai waited for an opportune moment and pointed at one of the ID sticks, saying something inconsequential – but letting the two hundred Nuyen's worth of notes folded in his hands show slightly. The sergeant made a grunt, and deftly pocketed them, and quickly worked through the rest of the IDs, apparently satisfied. At least, right up until the last one.
He peered at the screen, then at Hunter, then back to the screen. Then he snorted, and shouted something to his troops. The minion with the device sniggered, as did several of the troops nearby, and the minion held aloft the device and repeated whatever the sergeant had said. The tittering spread, and several of the soldiers started to openly laugh.
Hunter, Kai and Aswon looked confused, but after a moment, Aswon opened the door to the truck a little more and coughed. Kai and Hunter climbed aboard, and Marius started the truck up, sliding deftly around the laughing guerrillas and making tracks whilst they were in a good mood. Accelerating back up to speed, they left the checkpoint behind them, along with the confusing issue of Hunter's apparently amusing ID.
They hit Trabzon around 15:00, another large town or small city, spread out along the coast road and with terraces and suburbs spreading up the hills into the interior. As they drove along the dual carriageway running alongside the Dead Sea, they spotted a spur of rock thrusting out over the roadway, with a short tunnel bored through it – but on top of the spur of rock was an ancient ruined keep or fort of some kind. It looked interesting, but they were on the clock with no time for sightseeing. Just past the spur the road swung sharply south, around the port area with several medium-bulk haulers tied up by the jetty taking on cargo. The road bent eastwards again, and past another of the small regional airports, its single runway running parallel to the road – once again they checked carefully for air traffic around them, but it all seemed quiet, and they continued eastwards.
It took them another hour of driving to hit the checkpoint for the easternmost part of Turkey, and once more Kai smoothed the way with another two hundred Nuyen bribe. Nadia had to reslot her ID after it flashed up with an error the first time, but she played it cool, and after wiping the contacts on her trouser leg, replaced the ID in the reader and it flashed up with the green light. Strangely enough, when Hunter slotted his ID, again the man smiled and giggled at him, but said nothing – instead waving him through the checkpoint and on their way.
They'd been on the go for nearly twenty hours now, so Shimazu slid into the driver's seat and placed the 'trode net over his head, whilst Marius squeezed into the first bunk he reached in the back and relaxed. The others smiled again as Shimazu's hands rose up to hold his virtual steering wheel, and watched as his legs jiggled up and down as he pushed the pedals with his mind and his muscles played catch up. Regardless of how stupid it looked, though, the electronics picked up his mental commands just fine, and he drove them smoothly along the highway, the sun slowly setting behind them. Traffic started to build up a little as they hit the end of the work day, and he slowed somewhat, content to just go with the flow of traffic. It didn't really affect them much, as they were heading in against the flow of most of the commuters, and they arrived into Batumi around 18:00. It was fully dark now, and looking up ahead of them they could see the villa on top of the spire of rock, with the lights of the cable car coming down into town.
Instead of heading north, and retracing their steps the way they had first come, Shimazu instead took a south-easterly road out of town, heading inland and well away from the Warlord's territory. The road was narrower, only a single lane in each direction, and the going was slower in a couple of places – but mostly it was their vehicle slowing other roads users down, and that didn't bother them at all. They pushed on eastwards, the truck climbing and winding back and forth as they rose up the valley, keeping the Choroki river to their right until they hit a small settlement called Erge. Shortly after this they saw a large hydro-electric dam and the river turned abruptly south not far afterwards, whilst they continued east, rising further and further into the highlands.
Shimazu seemed to have the measure of the vehicle now, and kept up a good speed. The huge engine coped with the grade fine, and even with the addition of all the armour, they had torque to spare and they pushed on, maintaining a steady speed as they climbed. This far up, the road had deteriorated somewhat, the surface becoming cracked and potholed, and the verges running into mud and soft soil rather than a narrow hard shoulder. Shimazu just started driving down the centre of the road though, only moving to the sides when another vehicle forced him to – and even then the cars coming the other way had to go much further over than he did. He also picked up pace around the corners as he got more and more familiar with the truck and how it handled, and the team found themselves pulling some g-forces around some of the big horseshoe bends at the tops of valleys, exchanging looks with each other. It was pitch black outside, with no spillover light from houses or settlements, and the cloud cover prevented moonlight or starlight giving any illumination.
The large and powerful headlights swept over a turn, briefly illuminating a waiting Police car. They continued into the turn, but Shimazu was already slowing, in anticipation of being stopped. Sure enough, a few seconds later the blue lights lit up and the car pulled onto the road following them. Shimazu let the truck coast to a halt on the winding mountain road – looking around he couldn't see anywhere sensible to stop, so he didn't even bother trying – just stopped in the middle of the road. Kai slid out of the doorway into the cold and crisp night air, and wandered down the side of the truck to see the approaching policeman. His patent thousand watt smile was somewhat wasted, as it was too dark to see, but it at least inflected his voice into friendly tones when he greeted the officer with a hearty English hello.
The policeman responded, clearly not speaking English, and Kai winced as the policemen turned on his torch, playing the powerful beam straight into his face. He held up a hand and made a waiting motion, then backed up to the truck, coming back with Hunter. The cop's hand dropped to his holster at the sight of the large orc and the torch beam illuminated them both. Hunter ignored the implied threat though, and put on a big smile.
"Good evening. My boss doesn't speak Georgian, but I will translate. How can we help you?"
The Georgian flowed smoothly and fluently, and he sounded like a native, which seemed to mollify the cop somewhat. He licked his pudgy lips and then waved the torch as the wheels on the truck for a moment, before shining them back at Kai and Hunter.
"Your vehicle. It does not have…. A winter licence? Special preparations to be safe in the cold."
Hunter bit the inside of his lip to avoid conveying his disgust as the flimsiness of the excuse. It was quite probably the worst he'd heard in his life, and he'd actually have slightly more respect for the cop if he'd just straight out asked for a bribe… none the less, he translated to Kai, watching as his eyebrows shot up in amazement, adding, "I know, I promise you, that's what he said." Kai rubbed his finger and thumb together, in a motion that needed no translation.
"Winter licence. It costs… four…. Hundred….. and fifty. Yes." The cop spoke slowly, watching their body language and judging just what he could milk out of these foreigners. Hunter whispered under his breath, and Kai nodded, then asked the cop to wait. He strode back to the cab and climbed up, pulling the door wide open, much to the disgust of those in the warmth now subjected to a freezing blast of mountain air.
"Right, can I have about three hundred and fifty in loose notes, put in a jar all crumpled up, like that's all we have, and one of the bottles of Vodka, medium brand please. And I'll close the door as soon as I've got them." Many hands made light work of the task, and moments later Kai slammed the door shut and climbed back down. He made a show of counting out the notes, slowly and carefully, and looking a little sad that there was so little – and then pulled out the bottle from his coat pocket to add to the deal.
The cop took the bottle, and with a small penknife sliced off the metal foil around the cap and took a sniff of the liquid inside, and then a tiny sip. He smacked his lips together, and took another tiny little sip, letting the fluid roll around the inside of his mouth.
"Is good. You go now." The three of them parted ways, Hunter and Kai back to the truck, and the cop back to his battered police cruiser. Shimazu didn't waste any time, and fired the truck back up, revving high and lurching up the hill as he let out the brakes to get the truck moving up the incline. He pushed on up the winding road, reaching Khulo at around 19:30. The town was small, but at least it was lit up, with several bars being open and even a small hotel on one side of the town square. Next to it was a small police station, probably where their recent brush with the law was based. As they drove past, jokes were made about making complaints about the quality of the bribery required, but nobody thought seriously about stopping.
On and on they drove, climbing higher and higher into the mountains. Eventually they came to a major junction, and turned right onto the larger road – re-joining the main Tbilisi highway and picking up their previous route. After a little while, Hunter piped up, informing them all they were about two hours from the capital. Marius called ahead to his contact, and Georgi told them to head for the eastern side of town and the Tbilisi reservoir, and to go around the eastern perimeter road and he would meet them about half-way along. Agreeing, Marius hung up, and then moved back into the cab and jacked in, easing control over from Shimazu and letting him remove the trode net. It wasn't a full night's rest, but the four to five hours snooze and a cup of scalding hot coffee had perked him up immensely. Back on the main road and under rigger control, they picked up speed again and thundered down the blacktop towards the city. Tads looked out of the window at the passing mountains, and called a spirit to her, being careful in case it turned out to be far past her expectations again – but no, it was just a regular mountain spirit, as she had planned. She asked it to guard the truck and the occupants, and then sat back in her seat to watch the world go by.
Hunter fired up the computer and connected up the sat-link, figuring it was safe hundreds of kilometres to the east of the ambush, and dialled in the view of the area.
"Town is stretched out in an L shape, following the valley floor, with the city centre to the middle of the upright bit. Mostly follows the road from east to west, then south to north… ok, ah right, here we go – that's where we had the meeting. So east of town, scroll, scroll…. Scroll…. There's the reservoir. Jesus!" He felt their eyes upon him, and threw up the imagery onto a second screen, letting Kai smooth out the roll up display over the seats so they could all see. "The lake's nearly nine klicks long, and about one and a half wide most of the way along – that's a serious bit of water. No marking here on how deep, but we should count on that being impassable. Great sight lines, but no escape routes. Off to the east though, terraced land between one and two hundred metres from the lake edge, rising quite sharply and then hitting cultivated fields."
Hunter leant back from his display, looking at the rest of the team.
"Not sure I like that so much – lots of opportunity for an ambush, for raiders to be pitched just back from the top, and to get into elevated sniping positions with almost no hassle. On the other hand, pretty good road to escape on north and south, and I reckon that Marius could get us up those terraces – and probably up the paths we can see in a few places pretty easily. And once you're up and onto the farmland, it's muddy, but clear and we can handle that all day."
He started to sketch in escape routes and plans, and look at the topography of the area with Aswon, working out sniper perches and areas to be wary of. After thirty minutes, they were done – or as done as they could be, from the overheads, and lapsed back into silence as they closed on the town. The journey flew by, with several of them lapsing into a light doze as the long journey caught up on them, but as they hit the traffic of Tbilisi they jerked back to wakefulness. The transit through the city was reasonably smooth, following the route that Hunter had picked out for them, and they emerged onto the shores of the lake. The water was smooth and flat, looking like a piece of black glass, and the shore was gentle and clear of obstructions. There were lots of small car parks dotted to the sides of the road, and it was clearly a popular spot for visitors.
They drove down the eastern shore, until they saw a mid-size van parked in one of the car-parks, which flashed its lights on and off twice as it saw them. Georgi climbed out of the passenger seat and jammed a cigar into his mouth, lighting it up with a bright flare of flame from a powerful lighter. Marius pulled in gently, aiming to stop nearby, and the team started to climb out of the truck, looking out and around them, peering into the darkness.
Aswon paused, a strange sensation in his gut.
"Kai, I got a bad feeling!" No sooner had he spoken, than the first gunshot rang out, piercing the darkness and shattering the quiet night air…
