Date Wednesday 18/02/2060, Location 40.01134, 48.94391

The team hit the junction just before 21:00, driving up the bumpy concrete ramp to meet the main raised highway, the truck making faint thumping noises as the wheels drove over the poorly maintained expansion gaps between the rough concrete slabs. The moon hung low on the horizon, three quarters full and shining through the wispy clouds slowly blowing down from the north east.

Once they were settled and up to cruising speed, Aswon turned on his phone, and checked for messages, deleting the half dozen automated bits of spam that the network providers always sent you, regardless of your preferences and settings. He fired off a quick message to Germaine letting her know that he'd be back in Baku for a day or two, and asking if she wanted anything or a meetup. With that complete he pocketed the phone and stretched out, enjoying the luxury of space in the front of the truck. With Shimazu, Kai and Hunter in the four by four, Nadia had moved to the other side of Marius and Tads had the entire back seat to herself – which was ironic, as she was curled up in just as tight ball as normal. She was however gazing around the cab, piece of chalk in one hand and a frown upon her face as she worked out what and where she would need to inscribe her symbols on to make her new lodge.

The old pickup followed the truck along the highway, its new coat of paint gleaming in the pale moonlight. Shimazu was in the driving seat – but he wasn't happy about it, and there was an almost inaudible muttering in Japanese escaping from his lips. For some reason he couldn't fathom, the truck was playing up, and one of the gears was missing. Working up from first to third was fine, but fourth seemed to have just….disappeared somewhere. The gearbox seemed to either drop straight down to second with a corresponding scream from the transmission and the rev counter leaping up towards the redline – or worse, try and drop into reverse with a gut wrenching deceleration and screech of tyres. So far he'd been over-revving in third and then jumping straight up to fifth to work around the problem, but he was worried that something fundamental was wrong with the vehicle and was wary of anything else going wrong. If it would only hold together for another day or so…

Kai and Hunter relaxed, not saying anything to Shimazu who looked like any criticism of his driving would not be taken with humour. Hunter gazed at the darkness outside the vehicle, eyes flitting from shape to shape as his enhanced senses examined the countryside. Kai sat still, gazing straight ahead – not really looking, as his mind contemplated a plan to take down Mammadova.

A dull roar sounded to the right of the vehicles, from the east, starting as a faint rumble and turning into a loud blast that could clearly be heard over the sounds of the engine and the tyres on the roads. A black shape manifested out of the darkness to their right, growing with frightening rapidity and then blasted past them – bisecting the tiny convoy in half. The four by four rocked gently with the edges of the jetwash as the craft flew past them at a rate of knots that made them look like they were hardly moving at all. It disappeared as quickly as it had arrived, vanishing into the darkness to the west. It had overflown them barely fifty metres above the ground, and the bright plumes of flame visible as it headed away from them confirmed that it was jet-powered.

The team's comm-net sprung into life as they called out to each other, asking just what in the hell had passed over them at such a rate.

"It was black, no icons I could see. I had the feeling it was covered in RAMs."

"Covered in sheep?" Kai enquired with a confused look upon his face.

"No – RAMs. Radar Absorbent Materiel. Stealth technology, if you like. Can be very expensive stuff and hard to get permits for – so normally only used by the military – and smugglers."

"I caught a glimpse of it on the astral – it looked mostly mundane, but there was something about it. I got the impression there was some strong magic wrapped around it, but it was being concealed and masked. Probably by someone with significant power. I didn't get enough of a sense of it to identify though, and it was gone too quickly."

"Well, the sensors on the truck aren't that great, as we all know, but I didn't get ANY read of it at all – so I would guess they also had some ECM – some electronic countermeasures – to spoof sensors as well."

"Heads up, more traffic coming in from the east!" Hunter called, seeing more shapes appearing out of the darkness. Five large choppers appeared, their noses down and travelling at maximum speed. The fast-moving rotors carved a path through the air, and the very tips left a faint trail of light behind them as they collided with atmospheric dust, heating it up to melting point from the impact. The five craft flew in a line formation, not precise like a display team but still obviously a planned movement.

As they came into sight of the highway, two of the choppers illuminated incredibly bright spotlights, the beams lancing through the air and spearing the two vehicles as they travelled to the north. The lights bounced around, adjusting to try and keep them lit but snaking back and forth over them as the operator struggled to adjust the angle as they moved in differing directions. In the lead cab Marius frowned as he picked up fire control radar locking onto the truck. He waited a moment and was just about to call Kai and advise him when the radar disengaged and returned to air-search mode. His instruments hashed and wobbled, the displays blinking and jumping as the radar sets pumped out hundreds of kilowatts of RF energy into the air.

Tads looked out of the window, craning her head to try and get all of them in line of sight and dropped into astral perception. The mundane world faded into the background, as her Other sense took over and pierced the barrier between the two worlds. The ground was awash with brightness and life, the scrubby land and plant growth bursting with life as the plants and animals auras merged into one seething mass of bio-matter. The air was darker, sparse with a faint sheen as airborne bacteria created a featureless dull light that filled the horizon from left to right. Set against this was the five choppers, large grey and flat shapes of dead space, made things with no living aura. They were sharp, angular, devoid of any emotional content - grey uncaring matter forming a pale echo of the Real. However, each one was accompanied by a being that glowed an intense white. As they swept towards her she directed her view to the creatures, ascertaining what they were and trying to gauge how powerful they might be, before dropping back out of astral space and returning to the darkness of the night sky.

"Those choppers, each one has an air elemental accompanying it. I think they're guarding the craft, preventing any misfortune or magical attack, but they could be there as a weapon too. And they're pretty strong – I wouldn't want to face one alone, that's for sure. And certainly not all five."

"Elementals you say, not nature spirits?"

"No Aswon – definitely air elementals. Not spirits of the air." Aswon saw Nadia raise an eyebrow at them in interrogation.

"I don't want to get into a philosophy debate, especially not with Tads – the point is that means either there's a mage on board those choppers or someone doesn't mind dropping fifty grand of summoning materials just to give them an escort."

"You're telling me we can buy spirits with money?" said Hunter.

"…No. Sort of. I…"

The choppers flew overhead, following the dark shape inland, and again the vehicles rocked slightly from the downdraft of the combined rotorcraft.

Not to be outdone, Marius called over the comms into the pause.

"I have identified the emissions signatures of the choppers that were in pursuit. They are clearly Renraku in origin, high strength and being flown so that each set is searching a cone in front of the craft, overlapping with the adjacent craft. However, the t-bird had enough of a lead, that I realistically don't think they have a chance of finding them. So I'm now leaning more towards smuggler than military. "There is no way those choppers can have been trailing the t-bird for long, they don't have speed or range for that kind of pursuit. They're at their intercept vector terminus if I'm any judge. If that T-bird makes it to cover, they're gone."

"Either way, it's nothing to do with us, and we probably don't want to get involved," Hunter added. There were general murmurs of agreement and the comms went quiet for a moment.

"What's a t-bird?" asked Tads. They expected Marius to answer, but surprisingly it was Nadia that got on the radio first.

"Stupid and expensive, that's what they are. About the only thing that is more fuel hungry and complicated is a space rocket! They have small cargo areas, are noisy, expensive, hard to fly, ugly, and are a maintenance nightmare. One of the most pointless things you can imagine."

"Oh Nadia – I'm going to have to show you some sales catalogues if that's what you think." Smirks and snorts erupted from several of the team as Marius responded, emotion tinging his normally professional and clearly enunciated voice, and in the rear vehicle Hunter mouthed the word "porn mag" to Kai, making him chuckle. "Yes, they're expensive. Yes, they're loud. And yes, they drink fuel like you would not believe. But they have the flexibility of a helicopter in terms of landing and takeoff, the speed of a fighter jet or commercial freight transport – and they are the most heavily armoured and armed aircraft ever produced." He sighed, then continued.

"I walked past a Nashorn class LAV on a German base once, and got the flight engineer to show me a few things. Armour that was four to five times thicker than we have on the truck, sensors that could track a sixty drone air combat. Dual turret mounted Gatling guns, racks of high performance air to air missiles and a rotary assault cannon in the nose that will go through an APC longways."

"I think Marius has a hard-on."

"Shut up, Hunter. But a well-designed LAV, or t-bird, is a thing of frightening combat power with protection that is hard to penetrate. If you have a small but very high value cargo, they are the best way to move it quickly and safely. Yes, they have high running costs. But if you are smuggling electronics, data, gems, or anything like that – they are the ultimate tool."

"Can you pick up any of their radio chatter or anything?"

"I'm not even going to try, Tads. For one, I'm certain they're going to be encrypted, and all we'd pick up would sound like static. And for two, while we've been talking they've almost moved out of sensor range and I'm fine with that. Last thing I want now is to ping them and make them swing back around for another look."

"I've been having a look at the map", said Hunter. "Marius mentioned cover so I thought I'd see what I could find. I think it is possible that they have looped out over the sea from somewhere nearby to cover their route, but if they've crossed straight over they could have come from Iran, Afghanistan, or Turkmenistan."

His voice was suddenly serious as he contemplated the tracks he was looking at, trying to establish the possible route they were taking. He frowned. "They could be heading for anywhere in Europe on that general heading."

Kai leaned over and traced his finger along the ridge of the Caucus mountains.

"Along here – I'll bet good money that's where they're heading. They can criss-cross through the gorges and swap from the TCL to the Russian side with ease, and use the shadows of the mountains to hide their signature and throw off pursuit. And I agree – we shouldn't attract the attention of those guys following if we can help it."

The chatter died down as the team returned to looking around them into the darkness – apart from Nadia, who leaned over and surreptitiously checked Marius' groin, probing for signs of an erection. Marius of course just sat there slumped, his consciousness merged with the systems of the truck via his rigger interface. He did watch Nadia though, as she probed at him, and had never been so glad that the RAS override built into his rigger jacks prevented body movement and reactions when he was jacked in. The Nashorn was a very sexy craft after all…

They trundled along the highway at a steady 100kph, the normal top speed of the truck and trailer. Shimazu didn't complain - although the four by four would almost certainly do a considerably higher speed, if something else did go wrong with it then it was likely to be fatal for everyone inside.

No-one spoke for a little while, and then Hunter piped up "I want to know more about this buying spirits business. I didn't know we could do that"

Tads' expression switched to one of distaste. "That's not how it works Hunter! Honestly this is not hard to-"

"I explained badly" Aswon interjected, before things got too heated. "I was short on time – let me try again".

Tads was more prickly than usual at the moment, everyone had noticed, but he was the only one who seemed to get why – she was unable to shake the feeling that Elk was watching and judging her every move, and she was terrified that she would choose the wrong path back into her Totem's good graces. Aswon, familiar with Shaman, had confidence that whatever she decided would most likely be correct, or Elk would never have chosen her to begin with. But in the meantime she just sounded cross with everyone and Hunter especially wasn't going to respond well to that.

He took a deep breath and chose his words carefully.

"The way this was explained to me is that there are three types of magic." He caught Tads' eye and corrected himself. "Well. Ok it's not really that simple, but it helps to think of it that way. There are Physical Adepts, those with control – magical control - over their bodies. People myself and Shimazu. We make good soldiers – we can do things that normal people can't, by turning our magic inwards and using it to jump really high, run very fast, or strike the first blow in a fight without needing to rely on implants. Kai also – he does not jump really high, but you have heard him speak with such authority that even people who do not serve him jump to obey, yes?"

Kai, who had made a small indignant noise when Aswon failed at first to mention him, nodded, somewhat mollified.

"So. Physical Adepts. Then magicians and Shaman. These are not the same. Everyone knows that much from the trid, but because they appear to do the same things I know it can be hard to care about the difference. But you must care. These are two very different viewpoints that only mostly achieve the same things. Both can generally cast spells that have the same effect – a mage can make you as invisible as a shaman, and a fireball burns you just the same."

Tads flinched.

"Sorry Tads. A lightning bolt then. A lightning bolt will fry your cyberware just the same, no matter who throws it."

"What differs is the source – magicians believe their power comes from scientific principles and rules. To them, the world is full of complex formulas and equations, book learning and principles."

Aswon shrugged. "They are wrong, of course. But it helps them focus, so who am I to tell them otherwise? Shaman on the other hand get their power from living nature itself. They follow principles that tie them to it, ideals that all can see are embodied by the creatures of the world – Dog is intensely loyal, Rat is shifty and can be trusted to see what is not nailed down as theirs, and so on."

Hunter shifted in his seat impatiently. "OK, fine mate, sure. Power of the Puma or power of maths. Whatever. What the hell does that have to do with buying spirits?"

"I was getting to that, but it is important you understand this, because you may not care where the power comes from but this is where you would usually see the biggest difference.

"Shaman summon natural spirits – sylphs of the sky, the land, the waters or the city. They are bound to the locations and terrain in which they live, and cannot leave. In other words: a nature spirit is there in the world already and the Shaman must call out to it and ask for its' aid. If it agrees to help it can do so only until the end of the earth's next cycle. I do not know why this is, only that it is so.

"Tads has explained this before though - always she must summon a new spirit at dawn or dusk. They never last more than a day and you must – you must – understand that she asks them to do things for her. She does not command them."

"Hmph. Close enough," said Tads, grudgingly. Aswon grinned: that was nearly praise! He must be getting this right.

Encouraged, he continued. "Mages though. Mages summon elementals. Beings of order, one of the four different elements of earth, air, wind and fire. They are dragged from the higher planes and forced to do the bidding of the mage. Slaves, more or less. Some slave owners treat their slaves well, asking instead of commanding – but others not so, and some elementals suffer greatly."

Aswon paused, and shook his head. "Can you see that this is a very different outlook? Yes? This difference is everything. "

"A shaman calls to a spirit which is already here, and asks for its help, like you or I might ask an attendant at a gas station to fill the tank. A mage though… a mage must build a pyre, or go near a pool, then call across the dimensions to rip a being from its' home and bind it to this plane. Once it is bound, it is bound - forever - until its agreed services have been delivered. The mage can use it as an extension of his will – for good or ill."

"To achieve this, to summon an Elemental, requires time, and it requires resources. Expensive resources."

"You know, you could've just said "Mages buy spirits and Shaman don't", Aswon"

"I could have. But I would have been wrong. Mages do not buy spirits. Think of it more like bribing a contact. These details are important", said Aswon somewhat sharply, "especially if you wish to not anger and frustrate your Shaman with misconceptions about what they "should" do, and place demands upon them to use only cold logic and stick to rules that do not exist."

He gave Hunter a hard stare for a brief second before visibly breathing out and calming himself. He knew Hunter was not the kind to back down if a confrontation was made out of this.

"I am nearly finished", he said, "so please be patient." He shook his head again. "I am trying to explain something… Well. The spirits, they do not speak to me as they do Tads. The stories we tell to understand… they are not always perfect."

"Both nature spirits and elementals have limitations - those limitations are different, and this can make the difference between life and death, so I hope you are at least listening carefully to this part.

"Spirits may only last till dusk, and they may only be able to stay within a particular terrain – but sometimes that place is very big. A desert spirit has the run of the whole desert. Thousands of miles of influence. The other limitation for most Shaman is this: one spirit from one place at a time. Very powerful, experienced Shaman, I have heard, can do more.

Mages do not have that problem. They can control maybe a handful of Elementals at once. But because Elementals do not really belong here, their limitations are tight. Well defined. Rigid. The main one that matters is that the elementals can't go too far from the summoner, or he loses control of them. The only way around this is for the mage to bind the elemental to an object or place and give it a standing instruction it must obey for a period of time."

"A year and a day of enslavement, at most" interrupted Tads, with a disdainful sniff.

"Yes. And the elemental will accept no change in its instruction from that point on. This is an expensive investment for the mage, because they must expend all the same resources and time, but then relinquish control to what they hope is a well worded order which the elemental will follow to the letter. Do you understand?"

Nadia piped up. "So if there had been spirits instead of elementals, we'd have known there were either lots of Shaman, or one very powerful one? But with elementals then it could be there's a mage with them, or it could be that someone with a lot of resources paid for each elemental and bound it to maybe just guard the chopper from attack? So… either way, it is a lot of magical firepower but since it was elementals it's more likely that we're fine as long as we don't get their attention?"

Aswon grinned and put an index finger on his nose and with the other hand pointed at Nadia. The sudden switch from deep and serious magical discussion to a comical charades pose broke the tension.

"Yes. You are very smart. I think you have earned some tea. I will make it." Aswon got up and headed to the back.

As they closed in on the glittering lights of the Zeta-Imp-Chem refinery that straddled the coastline Hunter's phone began to ring, displaying a completely unknown number. He pulled the phone out of his pocket and held it in his hand, looking at it in indecision. It rang another twice, and he glanced round at Kai.

"Suggest you answer it, but on speaker. If needs be, I'll answer it to throw off any voice matching." Hunter nodded, activated his comms pickup so everyone could hear, and then hit the accept button.

"Hey, it's me, Jules. Are you there?"

"Oh, hey Jules – what's up? Why are you calling me on this number?"

"Mate, it's all pocked up. I'm in a spot of trouble and I need some help. You know that briefing pack I squirrelled out for you? Well, it must have tripped some flags or something. I've got people demanding to know where the data was sent to, and why, and questions are being thrown at my boss. He's covering for me at the moment, but I need to produce something to cover his ass, or he's going to stop and I'm in trouble. I've just gone into town and picked up a burner phone, I can't send this on the normal one, as it's probably under suspicion at the moment."

"What do you need?"

"Well, you know the briefing pack mentioned that they were hostile to foreign investment down there? Well most of that stems from the top, and the policy direction of the guys in charge. If you were able to…well, do something about that – take out the main obstacle. Well, the next guy in the seat might be more amenable to corporate co-operation."

"Uh-huh."

"I can sell that to my boss, and his boss as coming across some assets in a 'unique position of opportunity' and then instead of betraying my corp, I'm using my initiative to improve profits. Entirely different thing, see."

Hunter looked up from his phone to Kai, who just shrugged in a very non-specific way. It wasn't encouraging, but neither was it a no.

"Well, we're not on station right at this moment, we're just heading for some supplies. But we can be back soon. And we're not against the concept."

"Fantastic. I can authorise a small payment, from discretionary funds for any incidental expenses. It's not much, but it should cover your costs. The only thing is I need some traction on this pretty quickly. Like, in the next two days. That's about as long as I can stall this thing. Can you do that?" Hunter sat back in his seat and glanced at Kai. Kai smiled and gave a thumbs up.

"Don't worry Jules – we're on it." The connection went dead as Jules terminated the call, and Hunter turned to face Kai again.

"You thrive on this, don't you? Chaos and disruption? You love it?" Kai just smiled in return, but his eyes gleamed. "Do I at least get to tell Marius about the change in plan?"

"Of course Hunter – I'm happy to share the fun. How upset do you think he'll get?"

As it turned out Marius wasn't actually that upset about the change in plans, and both Kai and Hunter lost their mental bets about how much swearing there would be. Instead, as the trucks ate up the miles to Baku, they discussed the mission – or rather both missions – working out what and how they were going to do. It was agreed that if at all possible neither of the wife and kids were to be involved in the hits, and they would try and make it both quick and clean. It was likely that both of the targets knew each other, and the team wondered if it was possible to get both of them to a clandestine meeting to make the hits easier and make it appear to be a disagreement between them that had ended in bloodshed. Even with the briefing pack though, they felt that they didn't have a clear enough grasp on the politics of the local area to arrange that without triggering suspicion.

"What about the other family. I have an idea for them, but I don't know if it will work or not…"

"I'm still not clear why we should do something for these people." Marius was quick to respond to Tads, his voice sharp and clipped.

"Because I have to do this, so I am going to do it. Either as part of a team, or on my own!" she responded hotly, her voice thick with emotion. She stared at the back of his head, and her inability to fix him with a stare made her irate and frustrated.

Aswon interjected swiftly, seeking to defuse the situation once again. Hunter and Marius between them seemed particularly resistant to the idea of just taking Tads at her word. Perhaps it was just the difficulty of seeing things from a non-mundane perspective. But they needed to get their heads around this, or he could see the team was going to self-destruct. Once you lose unit cohesion, he'd had drilled into him time and time again during his time in mercenary theatres, it is over.

"You must understand. Elk took away Tad's power in the middle of combat - just to make the point that this family is important. Totems are as real as they come and they do not speak directly, they only guide, so when Elk takes a direct hand… only a fool would not listen.

"This is not a matter of choice for her. It is barely a matter of choice for us."

Aswon glanced at Hunter, noticing him taking a breath to speak, and held up a hand to indicate he still had more to say.

"Tads is not a fool. Even if she were a fool, which she is not, if this is important to the totem, then it would be important to her. All of her power is wrapped up in her relationship to Elk – their beliefs and her morals, their outlook are one. If she upsets or strays from the path that the Totem follows, the Totem will send a warning – strike one. This has already happened. If she persists… if she persists she risks losing her power. This… this would be on us. It would be our fault. We are the ones asking her to deploy Elk's power for our benefit, the least we can do is show some respect towards it.

"And if you don't like that then think of it this way: no more free fruit, or nuts. No spirits to guard us against accident. No spirits to conceal and hide us. No spells that mask and conceal the vehicle, or change its appearance. No stun spells that can drop an entire group of mafia thugs. No spells that can hide Hunter as a regular local. We lose access to all of that, which massively affects us as a team and our ability to function.

"And we are a team, yes? We must look after each other. Elk is as important to this team as the truck. When we need to do something on the truck, or for a vehicle we have no trouble prioritising it. This is no different."

Aswon sat back in his seat, speaking calmly and slowly, but in one continuous stream so as not to be interrupted. As he finished it went quiet for a moment, and he exchanged a look with Tads, hoping she wasn't upset that he'd spoken for her. The moment lasted, then there was a grunt of agreement from the speakers. Kai looked at Tads and motioned for her to speak.

"Well, I was thinking if we could get the family to the ranch, maybe they could help out there. I mean, do jobs – look after the rooms and things perhaps. But that will only work if we can get the place running again with bookings, otherwise I don't think they can afford to feed the extra mouths. But if we can help out for a bit with the bills, from my share of any pay, it's somewhere close enough they recognise where they are, but gets them out of that house and the situation."

"I don't think that's a bad plan. Looking at the area of the city they were living in, there's only one real chance of employment they're likely going to be able to do, for three females – and I wouldn't want anyone to be forced into that kind of situation. If it's a choice, well, I'm not judging. But if it's forced…." Aswon closed his mouth and left the statement hanging, but it was pretty clear how he felt.

"Can we just give them some money?" asked Shimazu. "Something to get them on their feet and restart their life?"

"I don't think so – not in that area. If we gave them enough money to make a difference, someone would notice and just take it away from them." Kai frowned, but then turned back to Shimazu. "Can Nadia's family get them jobs do you think? Employ them in the transport business? It would be a fresh start in a new city, same sort of culture though, and they should fit in."

"Well, we can try. I'm not sure I want a face to face with Tural though, and have to lie to him to his face. I mean, it's not like I'm the one that stole his daughter!" There was an indignant grumble from Marius and a frown from Nadia, who interrupted the conversation.

"I'm planning on grabbing a niqab, and putting my coloured contact lenses in, and trying to keep a low profile. But I think going near my dad's business would be pushing your luck. Though I would like to see my uncle having to help out, when you pointed out to him that charity is one of the five pillars of faith…" She smiled a little, and you could tell that she was imagining the scene of her uncle's discomfort. Kai steered the conversation back to the topic in hand though

"So, we have some information on Mammadova from the briefing pack and our own intel gathering, but only a very basic set on the politician. We can probably manipulate Mammadova for a little while by spoofing messages from his son and nephews by using the phone ID cards. But we have no leverage of information on the politician, or idea about his defences or plans." Shimazu stopped his muttering about the car long enough to add his opinion to the discussion.

"Generally speaking, bodyguards will fall into two camps – the overpaid bully boys and show forces, and properly trained bodyguards who will protect their principal. Mammadova is likely to have thugs, and probably a bunch of henchmen, but not actual bodyguards – not if he drives his own car anyway. The politician however, I would expect to be driven about, and he surely must have at least one bodyguard. If it's the first type, as soon as we open fire with decent weaponry, they'll shit their pants and run for cover. If it's the second type, they'd try an intercept if necessary, or stage a fighting retreat using themselves as cover for their principal. Taking both groups out at the same time complicates matters – unless you can get them to line up for Aswon that is, but doing them one after the other risks raising the alarm in the town."

"Do we think that the two see each other as enemies, or as friends? Are they likely to have some kind of symbiotic relationship and work together, or do you think they see each other as competition?"

"I don't know Tads, but I suspect the answer is 'all of those, depending on the day of the week'. There's got to have been times when one has pushed the other into doing stuff they don't want to, and they have to have plans for each other in some way."

"If we can get to one over the other then, maybe my influence spell might help build some tension between them?"

"I'd say definitely – and if we mix that with something like using the phones to send messages, saying they've been picked up by the police at the orders of the politicians, that might generate the sort of hostility that could arrange a meeting between them in a quiet, dark, out of the way place." Aswon mimed aiming a shot, "and that's all I need – a clear line of fire and both of them relatively close. And that way we don't have to risk anything with the wife and kids."

"We still don't know that the woman at Mammadova's place was his wife and kid – it could have been his sister and niece," Hunter pointed out. "I'm not arguing that we shouldn't involve them – I'm just saying we don't know who is who, so let's not make assumptions!"

They were entering the outskirts of Baku now, driving on the highway still, but with houses and shops laid out to either side of the highway, along with the darker and larger patches of industrial areas. Marius headed up to the truck stop near the highway that their first paying job had started in. It was hard to believe that it was only a few weeks ago – it felt like a lot had happened since then, and certainly the team had a much better understanding of each other now.

Arriving in the large car park, they selected a spot amongst the heavy goods vehicles. The truck and trailer was positioned between two large articulated goods lorries, and the 4X4 nestled behind them. They cycled through the truck stop in pairs, using the facilities and getting hot food, having a chance to stretch their legs and relax. Nadia was true to her word and changed her eye colour and covered up almost completely, blending into the crowd easily.

When Kai and Tads returned from the buildings they found Hunter, Nadia and Marius poring over the map of the area, marking down buildings.

"What are you lot looking at?"

"Targets. For ram raids. These are the shops that will sell bottom end cyberdecks. We don't want low end stuff, but we don't think that we'll get better than that here. So, we're seeing which shops are likely targets and working out how feasible it is to stage a raid on them."

"Ram raid? As in smashing through the front of the shop with the vehicle?" Tads asked with a note of incredulity in her voice.

"Yes, smash through the defences, quickly get out and grab the gear, then back out and escape before the police arrive. Why? What's wrong with that?"

"Well, wouldn't that scratch the truck? Normally you threaten death and dismemberment to anyone who does that. So surely you wouldn't want to do that yourself?"

"It would be like a manly scar." Tads snorted, but didn't push the issue any further. A few minutes later, Hunter and Marius climbed into the back of the truck and checked the inventory of equipment and updated the list with goods that could be used to stage the attack, whilst Nadia refined their targeting data. One by one though the team yawned and turned in, and slowly the truck grew still, filled with the sounds of gentle snoring and flatulence.

Dawn broke, and the team were roused by Aswon who had apparently gotten up again at five am and was looking remarkably – some might say insufferably – chipper. After grabbing breakfast at the café, they returned to the truck and gathered around the map table in the rear, where Nadia presented the information she had gathered.

"There are four places that I believe may have the required hardware we seek. The first is an electronics store called Ishmaels. It's found on one of the main roads heading out of the central business district – so not in the centre of the city, but certainly on a major thoroughfare, so likely to have cameras. As a specialist electronics shop their gear is likely to be of average quality and grade – not great, but ok. They won't have masking chips of course as they're illegal regardless, so we'll still need to hit your contacts to arrange that. But they will have pretty much everything else required on a hardware level to do some really decent work. The store is likely to have a competent alarm system and interior CCTV and electronic protection."

"The second place is the Arif Department store. It's out of the main town centre, on a quieter street – away from the beaten track a little. It does have a car park attached to it, and the place sells lots of stuff in a wide mix. It's not likely to have hardware as good as Ishmaels as its more of a bargain grade place, but it will likely have less security and protection."

"The third is Rurak training and supplies. They are mainly a training college, teaching people how to use programs and devices, but they also operate conference rooms and office suites on short term hire and rental – so they will have devices available for hire or rent. It's possible we can even sign up for an office suite and then arrange for stuff to walk, once we've scoped the place out. They are in the CBD, but set back in a quiet side street so police response will be quick, but security might not be top notch."

"The last is Teraks, a premier electronics shop set on the corner of one of the busiest shopping streets. It's going to have the best gear in town that are available over the counter, but they are slap in the middle of the city centre, and likely to have the highest security too. If we were buying legitimately, that's where I would want to shop – but in this case, perhaps not."

"Great stuff. Let's have a think about what we want to do after we get rid of the car. Once that's out the way, maybe we can scope out each of the places and see what they're like."

"Why not just send Marius in, he'll just look like he owns the place anyway," snorted Hunter, receiving a scowl from Marius in return.

"No, I think for a look around, it might be best for me to go – I can slowly adjust my skin tones to make me look like a local, and providing I don't talk to anyone, it should be ok. What I was thinking was to get someone to follow me in invisible, and find a hiding place, then wait until closing time, grab the stuff and then just waltz out of the fire exit and into the van for a quick get-away. Nice and simple."

"As long as they don't have shutters that seal the fire doors after they close. Lots of places do that." Shimazu said diffidently. Kai looked surprised, and was just about to speak when Tads piped up.

"And you need to make sure they don't have a ward on the perimeter, otherwise it will set off the alarm the moment a spell is forced through it. Either that, or the spell would drop, and that would look very suspicious." Now Kai looked like he'd been sucker-punched.

"Well, it was a good thought Kai, we just need to refine the plan a little bit," said Aswon encouragingly. Kai looked at him suspiciously for a moment, trying to detect if he was being sarcastic – but the tribesman radiated openness and honesty.

"If we can get in past a ward, perhaps we can smuggle a weight in, and do a swap on a box, take the contents and leave something that feels right? Or maybe just open the box and take the contents, and smuggle it out under a burka again?" Tads mused.

"Maybe we could leave a leech in the box instead of a weight…"

"SHIMAZU!" – the cry came from everyone, a mix of horror, exasperation and amusement. Tads waited for the cries to die down.

"You're better at warding than me Shimazu – can you go and scope the place out and see if there's a ward?"

"I could, but I have to be holding my sword to do it. That might look a bit suspicious."

"Let's go and sell the vehicle first, then look at the store and go from there." Kai spoke firmly, ending the discussion, and the team got into their vehicles and headed for a disreputable-looking second-hand car dealer they had passed the night before.

Arriving at the dirty lot, they found a selection of grubby and rusty cars lined up haphazardly, stretching across the potted and rutted ground that seemed to make up the business forecourt. As they pulled up, an equally dirty man emerged from a battered portakabin, wiping his hands on a filthy towel that was then flicked up over one shoulder. He crossed the lot towards them, while the team climbed out of the truck to meet him, Marius in the fore.

"Hello my friends! I like your truck. How much do you want for it?"

"The truck is not for sale. The four by four is though…"

As Marius engaged him in conversation, Tads summoned power to her and tried to subtly influence his mind into giving them a good deal. She frowned as she felt resistance to her efforts from his mind, and slowly let the power dissipate, trying not to raise the alarm. Hopefully it would be enough.

Marius guided the car dealer to the truck, talking up the battered four by four, and pointing out all the best features. In return the man kicked each of the wheels, making a little grunt as he did so, before grabbing the cab and rocking it back and forth on the shocks, testing them out. Climbing into the cab he fired up the engine and revved it a little, before switching off.

"Is ok, decent truck, nice model. I can give you five thousand for it."

"Done." Marius offered his hand and shook on it quickly, before anyone could shout at him for not haggling. He offered his credstick and accepted the transfer quickly, then headed for the truck, cleaning his hands as soon as he was out of sight, and quickly starting the truck up, while the rest of the team climbed aboard. As soon as the door was closed, he pulled away smartly, heading back the way they had come to the first target – the department store.

They drove past the department store and down the side street, following the sign for the car park and discovered a squat multi-story affair made from old and chipped concrete, with a yellow and black barrier approximately two metres high at the entrance. It was quite clearly sized only for the average car, and there was no way the truck would fit, so Marius had to reverse down the street and back onto the main road, then look for somewhere to park up, finding a patch of abandoned forecourt about three hundred metres away.

As soon as they had stopped, Tads went for a quick look astrally, and found after careful probing that there was a very low level ward over the building, following the internal walls up on all floors. It was set back from the front doors, so there was no breach when they opened, and it appeared to be a solid cube all the way around the store. Checking the roof she found a small block sticking up from the flat roof, and sleazed her way inside – only to find that the lift shaft was also blocked by the ward where it met the bottom of the roof. She left, and flew over the back of the store, and was just about to head for the truck when she noticed the massive air conditioning units at the upper floor of the store. Just on the off chance, she pushed through the machinery, finding a series of tubes nearly 60cm across behind them that led into the building – none of which were warded.

She floated down the air pipes quickly and into the store, and then quickly scouted it out. The HVAC system led into a service area and stock room, which appeared to fill one half of the top floor, whilst a café and toilets took up the other half. On the middle floor and ground floor the shop was fitted out like a department store, split into sections for male and female fashions, homewares, sports and entertainment. Once she had an idea of what was where, she flew back up and out of the ducting, and returned to the truck, reporting in on what she had seen.

After Tads reported in, there was a period of manic discussion, with all kinds of crazy plans being discussed, put forward, shot down, patched up then shot down again. The plans grew more convoluted and confusing until they realised they were overthinking it – considerably. They then took a step back, and came up with something a little simpler.

Tads and Hunter headed to the store first, entering through the double doors at the front and crossing the shallow lobby. Tads squinted and could just make out the faint haze of the ward, almost invisible except to the most paranoid of observers. Hunter meanwhile looked with more mundane vision, and looked over the store laid out ahead of him. There was a short flight of stairs leading down into the store, allowing people at the entrance to gaze out over the whole floor, seeing men's fashion to the left, and women's to the right, with the stairs and lifts straight ahead. Of course, the fashion was a good five or six years out of date and a lot of the stock was faded and looked tired – but it was laid out to see. As was the quite old, slightly overweight security guard who was now approaching him, clucking in Azerbaijani and demanding to see his ID.

Hunter pulled out his fake medical legend, and allowed the guard to snatch it from his fingers and run it through his scanner, where is flashed green. Reluctantly the guard handed it back, manifestly giving him a dirty look that focussed on his orcish features. Hunter made a point of ignoring it completely, and thanked him fluently and effusively, really rubbing it in, and then they headed to the lift, travelling up to the first floor and checking out the electronics section – finding the hardware they were after locked away in a display case. They headed up another floor, and headed to the toilets, waiting for the coast to be clear. As soon as nobody was watching, Tads summoned her power and rendered Hunter invisible, then headed into the café and purchased a mug of soy-choc and some kind of cake and sat down in the corner, concentrating on keeping the spell up and herself out of the way.

Hunter padded down the hallway quietly, heading for the double doors into the stock area. The doors were controlled by a badge swipe system, so he lurked to one side, waiting for someone to come or go with some stock, planning on sneaking through the doors behind them.

It took nearly ten minutes, but eventually a young and bored-looking employee pushed through the doors from the stockroom, pushing a wheeled cage full of stock. Hunter waited for him to pass him, then moved forwards, trying to be as careful as possible and slide through the doors before the closed. The employee froze, then turned around and looked straight at him – through him – with a puzzled look upon his face. Hunter kept moving, concentrating on keeping his footsteps quiet and flattened himself against the wall, freezing into position.

The employee pushed back through the doors, looking around him for a moment, then another. Hunter held his breath, keeping as still as possible as the young man's glance swept over him once, then twice – hoping that Tads was keeping her talent focussed. Then he saw the man sniff, taking in a big sample of the air, and watched his brow furrow. He moved around, sniffing again and again, and Hunter suddenly realised that living in the truck had probably given them all a unique aroma. The employee moved to a phone on the wall, and dialled 0, then started speaking, reporting a 'strange smell from the air-conditioning, a musty and slightly rancid kind of smell'. He listened, then described where he was, and confirmed he'd only just smelt it, then listened, shrugged and hung up. With one final sniff and look around, he badged out of the doors and disappeared, leaving Hunter to exhale and relax.

He looked around and confirmed he really was alone, then moved into the stockroom quickly and started to hunt around. It was quiet and still, pale sunlight filtering through the high windows and casting beams of light down the aisles between the stock, dust motes dancing through the air as they transitioned from light to dark. He started to hunt for the hardware they were after, but was soon reduced to a long muttering rant against ineptitude. Whatever the organisational system was in here, it made no sense to him at all.

Kai meanwhile walked into the store and made his way through to the homewares section, and after a minute of wandering around found two large pillows in amongst the bedding. He purchased them, and received them in a large bag, paid and then headed around the store on a slow amble, looking at other products and just killing time.

Hunter froze again as he heard the door open, and then watched as the same employee and a colleague entered. They both stood and sniffed, and he saw the new person nod in agreement. Studying him carefully, Hunter came to the conclusion that it was either the shift manager or store manager – he was better dressed and just had that kind of look around him. Slowly the pair moved around the stock room, sniffing the air under the various air returns and outlets, searching for the source of the smell. Hunter was suddenly glad he'd checked out the whole stock room, as the scent he had left behind was obviously quite diffuse and they were unable to pinpoint him as the source. After a couple of minutes of searching they gave up, and headed out again. Hunter continued his search, and eventually found the right section of stock, finding two of the decks in plastic boxes covered in dust, clearly not having been moved for some time.

He carefully slid on his gloves and lifted the boxes, being carefully not to disturb the dust any more than necessary, then pulled out his knife and sliced open the boxes from the bottom, letting the contents fall out into his hands. Once he had the two slabs of computer hardware safely removed, he added a strip of tape to the bottoms to keep them in place and replaced them with painstaking care, matching them up exactly with the clean patch on the box below. Sliding the two computers into his waistband he meandered around the room for a minute, then returned to the door to wait, sending a brief update over the comms.

Again it took a few minutes of waiting until an employee wandered through, a young female this time. She too sniffed as she came through the door, wrinkling her nose as she smelt 'something'. Hunter held his breath again, waiting for her to move a little, and then dived through the door before it closed. She span on her heel, feeling the disruption in the air as he passed her, but she peered straight though him, and he quickly crossed the corridor and found a place to lurk. She pushed her head through the gap, glancing up and down the apparently empty junction, then shook her head and disappeared into the stock room and left him alone.

Hunter headed for the toilets and called in, and Kai and Tads converged to meet him. In the gents' loos, he slid out the computers and pushed them between the pillows in Kai's bag.

"Done, drop spell please, Tads". Tads withdrew her support for the spell, and Hunter appeared suddenly, and watched as Kai left the bathroom. He gave him a minute to get clear and followed him out. Hunter and Tads headed for the lift down, while Kai strolled down the stairs. From different directions they headed to the front doors, where again the security guard stopped Hunter and demanded another ID check. As Hunter stood still and submitted to the attentions of the guard who obviously had issues with metahumans, Tads passed on one side and Kai on the other.

"Disgusting," muttered Kai as he passed, sneering and hoping his sympathy with the guard wasn't overplayed. A minute later after the ID check had been cleared – again – Hunter pushed out of the double doors into the street, turned and headed up towards the truck, following the distant figures of Tads and Kai.

They got back to the truck and climbed in, and Marius made sure the jammer was engaged until they had chance to do a scan of the purloined hardware and make sure it didn't have any tracker or screamer tags on it. Kai checked the time, seeing it had just crept past midday.

"Well, that's not a bad morning's work I think. Nicely done, everyone. Right – on to the next part of the plan. I'm thinking that Tads and Hunter should go and buy a car, with some magical influence to make sure he can get a good deal on something. Nadia, you can have a look at the computers and start getting them set up and familiar. The rest of us can go see Tural and see if we can get a safe house set up for the family from Shirvan." Behind him Nadia shook her head slowly, but didn't say anything yet – but she looked unhappy.

"Do you think Tural can find them jobs, help them get set up in a new life up here?" Aswon asked.

"If he and his brother really are Muslim, then we can push hard on the charity angle, and help with a donation. That should be enough." Marius looked at Kai, and still looked unhappy with being involved with the whole thing – but kept his peace for now.

"Of course, the more pressing thing is that we need to look at our plans for getting rid of Mammadova, and the politician now. So, let's go find somewhere to eat, and have a think, then we can crack on this afternoon with getting stuff ready."

The truck pulled out, heading for the nearest restaurant or café they could find, while the team thought about possible assassination plans.