Kai eased his chair back, the legs scraping across the polished laminate floor with a series of loud squeaks. All eyes followed him as he stalked to the back door, opening it quietly before slipping into the quiet night air and closing it equally quietly behind him. The silence stretched out, with Nadia and the family looking at the team in confusion. Aswon was the first to break the silence.
"Hunter, can you grab the satnav from the truck we took, and see if they have any waypoints set – maybe their home base or something." Hunter nodded and slid his chair back too, getting to his feet. "Rusudan, it might be best for you and your family to leave us alone for a bit. What you don't know, can't be used against you. We're dealing with some bad people here, and I'd hate for you to get involved."
Rusudan looked at his wife and kids, then back at Aswon. His eyes flitted from one member of the team to another and saw general agreement with Aswon. For a moment, his face twisted in conflict, but then he sighed, and waved to Hunter.
"Stay here with your comrades. I will get the device from the truck. Kids – go upstairs with your mother, I will join you soon." He headed for the back door, whilst the others headed upstairs, leaving the team around the dining room table. Nadia looked around the table at each of them, then turned her attention back to Marius.
"What is going on? What is wrong with Kai?"
"He, we… we've all had a rough night Nadia. Let's not go into it more than that, not now."
Nadia nodded, and instead moved her chair closer to him, pressing up against him and taking his hand between both of hers, offering her silent but trusting support. Tads cleared her throat, attracting attention.
"Hunter, can you find me some maps please?" Hunter nodded, but looked confused, and he waved one hand in a 'go on' motion.
"What I want is a map of the area where the wolf tribe was, but I want you to emphasise the natural features, rather than road names and signs." Hunter looked at her like she was slightly mad, and she sighed with exasperation. "I'm going to fly over there astrally, and if I'm in astral, I can't read signs and numbers and things – they're just weird grey shapes of deadness, man-made things. I can pick up emotional content, but not details. But I can spot things like mountains, rivers and natural features, because they're alive and real, they exist just as vibrantly in the astral realm. So I need a map focussed on things I can see in astral, to navigate in astral." Hunter shook his head in confusion.
"I'll try. Lots of mountains, and rivers, no road signs. Can't guarantee anything though. And why?"
"Someone has been trying to track me down. Probably somebody we've upset – but not necessarily. So if I go and find the Wolf Tribe, and the other people we know, and ask them, and they go 'oh yes, it was us, we were trying to find you', then that's good news. But if they all say no, then it's bad news. I think we all know that it's going to be bad news, but I'd rather check."
The others smiled a little at her appraisal of their chances of being astrally sought after by the equivalent of someone just wanting to borrow some sugar against that of someone who sought to do very bad things to them.
The door swung open, and Rusudan entered, placing a battered sat-nav on the corner of the table before heading upstairs to follow his wife. Shimazu grabbed the sat-nav and passed it down to Hunter, who started to work on the controls, checking it over. They waited patiently whilst he worked through the settings, irritating mono-pitched beeps issuing from the cheap speaker every time he hit a button or moved the cursor. He dropped it on the table eventually, and his nose wrinkled in disgust.
"The home setting was for the house we hit, and there's a bunch of tracks that just roam around the town in such a maze that they won't show anything useful. Only a couple of waypoints, in other places and they all look personal – labelled as aunts and uncles. No mention of bosses or weapons caches or anything useful like that.
Marius sat upright for a moment, then nodded his head absently, paused then nodded again. He looked around at the others.
"Kai just called me on the phone. He suggested using the radio gear to scan the police frequencies, and see if we can hear anything from town. He sounded like he was busy with something though, and acting like normal." The German gave a shrug, then pulled out his remote deck, accessing the truck's electronics systems. He energised the powerful radio system from the heavy duty batteries, and started to scan the radio waves on the private bands often used by the police and other emergency services. It didn't take long to find something.
"Ok, I have something. Signal is on a legally restricted band, but unencrypted. No way to triangulate properly without moving the truck or launching the drones and getting a good distance away to get a cross-bearing, but it's definitely the right range and general heading to be coming from the town." He reached for his glass and took a sip of water, his eyes staring into space as he listened to the intercepted signal via his built in cyberware, and then mentally translated and repeated the contents to the rest of the team in English.
"The fire is out at the house. No mention of who did it, or a fire service – so it might be local volunteers, or it might have just burnt itself out. The voice says he's in his car just down the block, watching. No names given, no call sign or radio ID. No name of who he is calling either – so they must know each other. Saying that they should call in the fire to Shirvan of course, given whose house it was, and the likely trouble it would cause. Ok, quiet now for the moment."
"So, they know who was in the house, and what they do, and they know there's a link to Shirvan. So the police are definitely compromised, and on the take or controlled by the Mafia." Shimazu sat back in his chair, eyes twitching slightly as he worked through the implications, as if he was staring as some ethereal flowchart in front of him. "We have to assume the entire town police force is compromised then, or at least the most senior echelons, which are all that matter. The question then is are the police in Shirvan also dirty?"
"Ok, something else happening now. Some people have turned up in another car, and are staring at the fire. He recognises them as 'some of the boys'. They're very angry apparently. They're going to one of the nighbouring houses….. wait. Ok, they have kicked in a door, and are going inside, with pistols drawn. The voice on the radio sounds dismayed, but not surprised by this, but is also not apparently moving to intervene."
The team listened as Marius continued his commentary, and imagined the scene back in town as more of the mafia goons arrived, and started to roust neighbours from their houses, lining them up in the street and interrogating them over the activities in the house. Aswon in particular looked glum, his eyes moving around the team, as they listened in on the activities of the thugs, as narrated by whatever kind of police officer was watching the scene. Marius blinked his eyes refocussed, looking around the table.
"We appear to have kicked an anthill, and the ants are very angry. If we leave town now to avoid this mess, a lot of people are going to pay the price, people who have no idea what is going on." Aswon nodded emphatically, apparently in complete agreement with Marius, and not liking it one bit. "I think we should head back into town, and take these guys out, fast and hard – work our way up the chain faster than they can report in, and eliminate these scum before the word gets around."
"If we do, we need to be careful – we're on their home ground, and we don't know how many people report in to them."
"From what I can see, Tads, they're not well liked, or respected – they may not even be locals from the town, and I get the impression people won't cry over their absence. In fact they may even…." The others waited for him to finish speaking, recognising the focussed look on his face as he monitored the signal from his router. "They've just executed one of the locals, in cold blood. The policeman is still not doing anything about it, but is telling the other person that they need to get down here and sort this out."
Tads had already laid her arms out in front of her to cushion her head and projected into the astral, flying over to the house. She hovered overhead, seeing the large black stain on the astral terrain indicating a fresh murder, and could see the ripples of fear and hatred flickering out from the people in rough lines, along with rage and contempt from the goons. She found a roof to hover over and a chimney to mostly hide behind, and manifested, her figure appearing in the real world for a moment as a ghostly apparition. Nobody spotted her, their attention being drawn to the events on the street, but it allowed her to get a look at their actual faces rather than astral reflections, and also to look at the car parked on the edge of the block. It looked more like a civilian model, but had a rotating red light positioned on top, with a thick black curly cable running down through the window. A man stood smoking a cigarette by the window, talking quietly into a hand-held radio, whilst he watched the scene unfold. Tads had another quick look around, then demanifested and flew back to her body, quickly relaying what she had seen.
As she gave her descriptions, Aswon perked his ears up.
"Those last two – those are the ones we saw at the supermarket, I'm sure of it. Marius, can you replay the sensor footage from the truck please, as best you can?" Marius issued a series of mental commands, and the footage started to play on the computer, low resolution and grainy, but clear enough for Tads to examine and confirm their identity.
"I'm going to get the vehicles ready. We should go and deal with this – unless anyone disagrees?" Nobody did, so Marius turned and headed for the back door, with Nadia in tow. The others pulled out their personal weapons and checked ammunition levels and equipment, taking advantage of the good light and solid surface of the table to make sure everything was 'just so'. Hunter meanwhile had been busy with his computer and sat back in his chair with a low whistle.
"I've been looking at the census data, what there is of it. It looks like 'Mammadova' or 'Mammadov' is maybe the equivalent of Smith, or Schmidt. About fifteen percent of the town have the same surname, or a very close spelling of it. So, I reckon there is a clan, or extended family – but not all Mammadovas are necessarily our enemies.
Out in the yard, Marius found Kai had set up the spray booth, and was slowly working his way over the SUV, giving it a new look. He was working merticulously, in smooth even motions that combined close attention to detail with a certain level of artistry. Marius couldn't fault his neatness – or the effect achieved – but he also sensed that there was something cathartic about this for Kai, something that was grounding him after the events of the night. He sent Nadia on ahead to start up the truck and get things ready, and spent a minute filling Kai in on what had happened, and what they were going to do about it. Kai continued spraying as he listened, long graceful arcs of paint slowly recolouring the old SUV, and a minute later he finished the panel he'd been working on. He dumped the spray head in a bucket of cold water, depressing the trigger and sending the surface of the water into a mass of bubbles and thinned paint, until it looked to be clear, then set the spray head on the floor and turned to Marius, pulling out his taser and checking the charge level.
"Ok, let's go."
They mounted up and drove to the rear of the house, pausing to let the rest of the team climb aboard, before Marius gunned the engine and they roared down the driveway towards the main road. They barely slowed, Marius sending them into a six wheel drift onto the carriageway and then flooring it, the truck growling as he dropped the accelerator hard. The team moved around each other in the tight space, strapping on armour and grabbing weapons, filling pockets with smoke grenades and spare clips, and making sure first aid kits were full and ready.
"I've been thinking about the cops in the town – one of the things we really need to know, is if they are being paid off, or if they're actively involved. If they've just been paid off, then I think we can deal with them. Once we take out the mafia, we just have a quiet word and explain that we're not putting up with this anymore – but that's it, and we're not going to hold it against them. If they're businessmen, they'll accept there's been a change, adapt and move on. If on the other hand, they're part of the clan, then we'll have to take them all the way out, and I don't like doing that as it's another complication. But either way, we need to do something. I can't sit by and watch these thugs taking out the townsfolk for something we did. Tads, did you get a sense of what sort of mood they were in? Tads? Hey, Tads!" He poked her body gently, and saw her head lol from one side to another. "Marius, slow down a little please, it'll make it a bit easier for her to get back into her body, when she returns."
The truck slowed a little, and stuck to the main road, and sure enough about two minutes later the comatose body of the shaman stirred as her spirit returned.
"Another policeman turned up as I got there. He spoke with the first one, then moved over to the goons, and talked to them. There was lots of waving of arms at people. It looked to me like the new policeman was trying to get them to calm down, but they wanted to attack some other people. For the moment, it's kind of stable, but I don't think it's going to last too long."
"Kai, we have to do something here. We are responsible for starting this situation, and innocent people have already died because of us."
"Whoah, slow down there, Aswon. We don't know that for sure. At the end of the day, the only one responsible for their actions, is them. How they react to a situation is not up to us."
"Come on Kai, you know that's not how it works. Yes, technically they are responsible for their actions, as free thinking people – but we engineered the situation."
"I'm just saying, we're not here to be the police, or white knights, to go charging in and save people."
"Well, maybe you're not."
"What do you mean by that?"
"What I'm saying is that if we as a team do not go in and sort this situation out, then I will go in alone. I will NOT let these people suffer because of what we did." Aswon folded his arms and stared at Kai. It wasn't defiance, but it was a clear declaration of intent. Kai bit back what he was going to say, and sat back in his seat and folded his own arms and looked at Aswon. Two equally dark sets of eyes stared at each other, unblinking.
"Fine, Aswon, fine. We'll sort it out. But carefully, and with a plan, not rushing in and being all 'in your face, I am mighty Lion warrior', ok?"
"I would not have done that. But yes, we should have a plan." Both of them turned towards Tads to request some more information, but saw her head lolling to one side again, and realised she had returned to the house to keep an astral eye on things. They both sighed, and then despite the tension smiled slightly, realising they were both slightly frustrated by not being able to catch her before she disappeared again. Kai thrust his hands into his pockets, then froze. A moment later he pulled his hand out, holding the subscriber card between his fingers.
"Nadia, Hunter? Grab one of the burner phones will you, and slap this chip in. Then see if you can pull up any messages or traffic from the head guy, and see what we're dealing with." He passed over the plastic housed chip to them, and they got to work. Nadia started to page through the messages, reading them out and noting down word choices and slang used, whilst Hunter started to build up a map of who had spoken to who, on what dates and times, and in what capacity.
It only took a few minutes to get into town, but by then Hunter and Nadia had a skeleton organisation chart for the mafia, and the team decided to pull over a few blocks away from the house and give them more time. Hunter worked to clear up the data and refine things whilst Nadia cross referenced, and then he spun the screen round to show their findings.
"Right, the boss, the one who turned up in the truck and we…. Dealt with…. Was called Ulvi Mammadova. It looks like he had three captains or lieutenants, whatever you want to refer to them as. They are Malik, Royal and Azer. Each of them has about ten to twelve goons under their command. There's another Malik, but this one is in Shirvan, and appears to be Ulvi's boss – and as far as we can work out, his dad. So it looks like Malik in Shirvan sent his son, and three captains with a load of goons to extend the business into a new territory. The three captains appear to be related, we think cousins to Ulvi. Whatever the relationship is, they're clearly subordinate, and Ulvi was a cock of giant proportions."
Hunter glanced at some updates that Nadia pushed across to his screen, then looked at his data and continued to speak.
"Half the messages are 'just get it done you asshole' kind of stuff, typical bad boss things – lots of micromanagement or demanding status updates to show that he's the one in charge, and the other half is this weird kind of fake forced 'we're all family, here let me reward you my loyal underlings'. I reckon they had to have been plotting to take him out for being a giant twat, unless that's part of the culture here?" Nadia shook her head violently. "Nah, didn't think so. It really appears that the guy just did have a massive ego, and no sense of his own mortality. Couldn't have happened to a nicer man."
Shimazu shifted in his seat and leant forward, pointing with his finger at the crude hierarchy sketched out on the computer screen.
"We have his ID. We have samples of him giving orders. Why not send the captain at the house a message. We tell him to bring his men to a location, somewhere we are ready. Tell them that they've been chasing the people who burnt down their house, and they need more men to spring the assault. From what Nadia and Hunter have said, they wouldn't argue – and it lets us bring in this group in a nice controlled manner."
The others considered this, glancing at Nadia and Hunter, then Kai. Nobody spotted an obvious flaw in the plan, and it sounded like a good idea.
"Right, let's work out where we need to take them, somewhere out of the way, where nobody else is going to get hurt. And we need to work out which captain is which, of course. Next time Tads is back, someone grab her and get her to eavesdrop on the conversation and see if we can work out who is who." The team busied itself, looking at maps and the satellite data for the town, or keeping an eye on the still form of the shaman. A few minutes later they'd realised that the train station was the best, closest place to use – the sound of freight moving would cover any suppressed gunfire, and possibly any open combat depending on what was going on – and it was going to be near deserted at this time of night, with just freight trains lying in wait for the next morning. Tads was poked and briefed, and after a quick scout reported that only two men seemed to be present at the rail yard, both in a signals box right down the far western side of the station. After that, she returned to the house, listening out for the names of the captains she had been given.
They headed to the station and Marius found a tall goods shed to park the truck behind, getting it out of sight as much as possible. Kai turned round, and a thought struck him.
"Ok, first time we've done this since we upgraded. Aswon – what's your preferred range now?"
"Somewhere between five hundred and a thousand metres at the top side." Kai nodded, then looked at Hunter.
"A lot closer for me, probably less than two hundred metres. But I can lay down a lot more fire in a short amount of time."
Tads appeared back in her body then, opening her eyes and smiling.
"I have a name for you. Azer – he is the leader of the group back at the house." Kai pointed at Nadia.
"Ok, send it – get him over here fast. Remember, you're an asshole!" He winked at Nadia as she paused typing to scowl at him, looking unrepentant. She stabbed at the keyboard angrily, sending the pre-agreed message over and telling Azer to gather his men and get to the station.
Marius prepped the Condor and the Dalmatian, lofting both birds from the launch rail and observing the area carefully. He kept the Dalmatian over the other side of the train station, where its superior speed would allow it to respond very quickly, but the noise from its vector thrust engines would be lost in the background. As he suspended control to report back to the team on their successful positioning, he heard a spirited discussion going on amongst the rest of the team about how best to ambush Azer and his men.
It was generally agreed that they wanted a spell up over the truck to disguise it as something else, and another phantasm nearby to act as the "bait". The argument seemed to vary about how they were going to present the bait, and how they would launch the attack. The discussion went round and round a few times, until Marius detected the target vehicle entering the area, closing on the station quickly. Abruptly all discussion ceased, and Hunter and Aswon scrambled into position, climbing up onto rooves and vanishing into the darkness.
"Banana – that's the code word to engage," said Kai loudly, grabbing his tactical radio and jamming the earpiece into position with a wince. He watched the two climb quickly and surely, then heard two clicks over the radio indicating they were in position. With a sigh, Tads concentrated, and a grain truck appeared next to the station, parked incongruously close to the building.
The truck drove up to the front of the station quickly, then braked sharply and slid to a halt. It was another SUV, but a different brand to the first. Painted a dull tan, it too was rusty and badly cared for, and looked to be decades old. As it skidded to a halt on the tarmac forecourt for the station, the doors were thrown open and four men quickly slid out of their doors, leaving the engine running and the headlights on. Three more rose from their seated position in the load bed, also looking around to spot the rest of their friends.
The lighting was bad, the headlights facing towards the team and it would have been a somewhat difficult shot for either Hunter or Kai, facing into the glare as they were. However, it proved to be unnecessary, as Tad leant forward in her seat, and with a mental flick dispelled the illusion. The watching men gaped as the truck vanished, but she just focused her will and sent forth a massive blast of power. All seven of the goons dropped to the floor, sprawling in the cold night air. The blast of power made her wince though, and when she sat back, blood trickled from her nose freely, as if she'd just been punched, whilst her eyes squinted at the glare of the headlights and she contended with a throbbing headache.
"Banana," muttered Kai under his breath, to be met with snorts of amusement from Nadia and Shimazu. Marius was too busy concentrating on his drones, but a couple of moments later he gave the all clear and started to bring them back in to land. As he did so he noticed the Dalmatian had made a significant dent in the fuel supply, and made a mental note to discuss it with Kai.
Shimazu vaulted from the truck and headed towards the tan SUV, stepping carefully to avoid the unconscious bodies scattered around it. With sword and pistol drawn he stepped around the doors, confirming that nobody else was hiding in the vehicle or waiting to step out and surprise them. Satisfied that there wasn't, he quickly went through their kit, grabbing guns, ID and phones whilst the others moved to join him. In his peripheral vision, he saw Aswon and Hunter climb down from their positions, and tagging along behind.
The bodies were loaded up into the load bed, and it was agreed to head out to the same location as they had previously used – though Aswon warned that if they filled up the gulch with the bodies of the local mafia, it would be found, and it would be investigated. Not having anywhere better to go though, Shimazu started up the tan SUV and with a crunching of gears set off to the north. Tads struggled to cast her sterilise spell, clearing up behind them, but then the rest of the team mounted up and helped her climb back into the cab and they set off to the north as well.
The road was just as punishing as last time, but at least this time they knew where they were going and where the tricky bits of the trail were, and Shimazu managed to navigate up the broken gully without ripping something off the bottom. The larger military grade truck had no issues at all with the terrain, and smoothly motored up behind them, the engine barely ticking over as they crawled after the SUV. When they reached the flat area, their headlights revealed the back end of a couple of carrion feeders disappearing into the rocks, attracted by the smell of the earlier killings, and reinforcing Aswon's warning. They unloaded the bodies, and Shimazu worked along with his combat knife, cleanly and quickly killing each of the goons with his survival knife in a smooth and economical motion. Aswon glanced over in astral, looking at the discolouration of the emotion tainted mana-sphere – but it wasn't as bad as he had feared. It took a moment to realise why – but it appeared that Shimazu was carrying out the task without any emotional input at all. Though their deaths caused a small spike in the background, the lack of hate or desire to inflict pain or suffering countered the worst of the act. Though it was a good thing in this particular instance, Aswon couldn't help but let a shiver run down his spine at how dispassionate the act of murder could become….
As he finished, Shimazu rolled over one of the bodies, and started to saw away with his knife, slicing off the buttocks of one of the victims. The others stared at him like he was mad, standing with blank incomprehension as he mutilated the corpse. He turned around with several pounds of meat in his hand, blood dripping from the stained blade onto the dry desert earth.
"What? It's cheaper than steak." It took a moment, but then they realised what he meant, and watched him take the dripping meat towards the trailer and the jars of leeches safely strapped into one corner. He was right – it was much cheaper than buying animal product for them, and based on their experience so far, wasn't going to leave much in the way of forensic evidence either. Tads followed him to the back doors, and before he managed to get the top off the first jar, got his attention.
"Shimazu, can you get out the leeches out for a bit, please? I need to rest in my lodge, and once I've got rid of this headache, I'm going to work on that new spell formula. And sorry, I'm not doing that while your pets are eating some poor guy right next to me." Shimazu snorted, but grabbed the box containing the remaining jars and headed out of the back, putting them to one side of the trailer whilst Tads climbed in and closed the door behind her, settling herself down into the comforting environment of her magical lodge.
Nadia and Hunter continued to work on the phones and their web of contacts, gradually building up a better picture of the network. Each of the captains appeared to have ten or so soldiers, and the soldiers' phones only seemed to communicate in their own 'unit', reporting to their captain. The captains talked to each other a lot more, and all of them reported to Ulvi, with occasional contacts with family members in Shirvan. From the nature of the text messages, they gradually built up a web of activities taking place in the town – some drug trafficking, a little prostitution, some gambling – but mostly it seemed to be protection rackets and extortion. The supermarket checking finally made sense – they seemed to have the census data for the town too, and if you hadn't paid a "licence", then you weren't allowed in the shop. With only the three main supermarkets in town, and all of those under the control of the mafia, then those refusing to pay the fee were faced with a ten kilometre walk into Shirvan to get their shopping.
Marius thrust his rigger deck away from him with a look of disgust, causing Kai to raise an eyebrow at him.
"I was trying to find a way to triangulate and track the mobile phones they are using, to help us monitor and observe them. I can get a bearing to a rough degree from the equipment on the truck – but to accurately track them and to intercept multiple signals, we need a decker – someone with good active skills in hacking and the right hardware and software. This equipment just isn't up to general purpose snooping like that. Even with a couple more Condor drones, I'm limited in bandwidth for actual signal interception compared to gaining access to the hardware or software in a cell tower.
To their rear, the map of individuals on the organisational chart was firming up, with over 80% of the boxes now having names to go with their numbers, and over half of them having some kind of detail identified from the text messages, along with usual positions in the town. As they worked through the captured subscriber chips, more and more information was painted onto the map or confirmed from numerous sources.
Along with the mafia cell in the town, they had references to "mum" and "dad" from Azer's phone, and if their assumption that he was one of three brothers was accurate, they had an alternate route into the Shirvan parent cell – probably.
Aswon pulled up the map of the town, looking at the layout of houses, shops, commercial properties and the limited freight and industrial presence.
"You can see how it happened. First they came to make sure that their cargo got through, without being interrupted or inspected. So they bribe a few officials at the train station, get the guys on the signal tower on their side. That probably introduces them to the police, and maybe they start off with a few drinks, and a quiet conversation, a little bribe to look the other way, or not interfere. Once they've got that, they send in a few more bodies, and start pushing the drugs, maybe bring in a girl from the big city, and set up a gambling den. The bribe to the police goes up a little, and now he's just ignoring a little bit more." As he described the scenario, his hands traced over the map, showing the influence spreading.
"Then the protection racket starts, on the luxury stuff first, the stuff only the rich have or get. Or whatever passes for rich around here. They get nothing from the police, and nothing from the rest of the town, who don't care about the rich people getting a taste of the shitty end of the stick. Then they slowly tighten the screws, taking over more and more of the town. By now the police are in too deep, and can't back out, they're as guilty as the mafia and have nailed their trousers to the mast. And short of national level organised crime investigations or a military coup, that's the town all sewn up and gone to hell." He sat back, sounding weary and disappointed, and a little disgusted.
"Right up until some Shadowrunners come along and upset the status quo anyway," Kai responded, "and prove that they may be big, and have numbers on their side, but they're not the only mean kids in town. Question is of course, what's our next move? Do we try to magically influence our friend Azer here? Do we finish him off, and try to get the next captain in the same way and take them out one cell at a time?"
The discussion lasted a few minutes, but by the end of it they had agreed to try and send more text messages from Ulvi, claiming that there was a security issue, and they needed the captain and his troops to come to a quiet part of town, but not to tell his brother or anyone else. Kai got Nadia to text each one, demanding to know where they were, and found that both Malik and Royal were with a couple of their goons and each near one of the supermarkets that was their turf.
Shimazu jumped out of the truck and went to deal with Azer, quickly and without fuss, before he regained consciousness, returning to the truck a minute later with the same blank, detatched expression on his face.
Hunter gathered all of the information they had gained so far and forwarded it on to his contact at Ares, Julius Jones. It wouldn't directly hurt them, and it might help him in some way – either by contributing to their general database, or specifically to barter for more information.
"Right everyone. So, back to town, and we capture the next lot, try and get a captain and some grunts. Rinse and repeat with the other lot, and we should have just about cleared the town out – and made it safer for everyone. All good?" Kai looked around, and received a number of nods.
"Ok, someone go wake Tads up, then lets hit the road. Game time."
