"So, you did well, and I am pleased with your performance." She waved a hand languidly in the air, and the uniformed butler moved up to the side of Kai, holding a silver tray in his white-gloved hand, holding a single jet black unmarked cred-stick in the centre. Kai didn't notice the cred-stick for a moment, so engrossed was he with the tray.
About 450mm across, the tray was a mass of delicately carved engraving, fluted edges, and embossed crowns. Polished to a high sheen, he could see the hand rolled edges and the slight variations that told him it was handmade rather than machine punched. After silently evaluating the age and potential value, his eyes flicked around the room – concentrating more on the other decorations rather than their hostess.
A Monet. A 17th century set of armour. A tapestry of muted colours and repeating motifs that indicated Persian origins. All around the room were objects and items of significant age and value – assuming they were real. He carefully took the cred-stick from the tray with a small nod of thanks to the butler, and was just reaching for the cred-stick reader to check it when he saw the others stiffen and look at him. They were quite right of course – he'd let himself be distracted by the antiquities. Bad form to check the money in front of a client like this. Instead he just tucked the stick into his top pocket.
"I couldn't help notice the egg over there. I wonder if I might see it?" He gestured to a heavily decorated silver egg in a display case. She considered him for a moment, then smiled at him.
"Why, of course. Some gloves for Kai here, please." The butler went to the corner of the room and opened a drawer, returning with a pair of white gloves on the same silver tray. Crossing the room, he waited for a moment by the display case. The door popped open, and he reached inside for the egg, carefully transferring it onto the tray and then crossing the floor once more to Kai.
Moving very carefully, Kai took the egg, cradling it in his hands and let the light play across the surface. A repeating diamond pattern was prominent around the circumference of the egg, with a crest worked into the centre. Curved legs wrapped around the base of the egg to hold it upright, and fine parallel lines of delicate metal filled and shaded the empty space. It was a fairly plain item to look at, but exceptionally fine workmanship.
"Most impressive. I believe this is the 1909 Alexander the third Commemorative? Most people seem to think this is still one of the lost pieces." He turned it back and forth for a moment, gauging the weight, before he let out a little sigh, and carefully lifted the piece back onto the tray, watching the butler return it. "Exquisite." He spoke quietly, and without hyperbole, and that seemed to make the statement carry more weight. Ludmilla smiled at him and this time two dimples showed at the side of her mouth. It changed the shape of her face a surprising amount, and she somehow seemed warmer.
"I'm glad you like it. Now, I have another little task that I am considering. As you seem to have done so well with the previous task, I think you might find this one to your liking as well."
"Kai – 50% up front this time!" Hunter transmitted over his internal comms, and Kai gave a little start as the noise blared in his earbud. He covered the movement with a scratch to the side of his chin and a sage nod, then shot a quick baleful glance at Hunter. He was just about to reply when Aswon cleared his throat and beat him to it.
"Forgive the intrusion, my lady." He turned slightly, making it clear he was addressing Kai, and not intruding on the conversation between Kai and Ludmilla. "I just wanted to remind you that we had indicated that we would at least speak with the other party in this area, for our friend to the south, and discuss the work." Aswon stared at Kai for a moment, then sat back in the chair once more and left Kai to run the negotiation.
"Ahh yes, of course, thank you for reminding me. Well, as my friend here said, we do have another job that we indicated that we might be available for, and we don't want to let them down – much as we wouldn't want to let you down. So we'll gladly listen to the offer, but depending on the timescales involved, we may need to do some other little task first, or plan our journey around that."
"Well, this job is not that pressing, though there are some time factors involved. I have heard, you see, of some creatures that are most intriguing to me, and potentially very useful. Down in the deserts of Libya, there are a rumoured species – some call them glow scorpions, others green-back scorpions. I'm not even sure if they have a proper taxonomy." She pondered for a moment. "My, that would be an interesting thought. Well, regardless of what they are called, they are a species that exist only in the deep desert by all accounts. Quite dangerous to other creatures, but with some very interesting developmental characteristics. I would like a pair recovering, a breeding pair. And I'm willing to pay quite handsomely."
"We want money. She has money. She wants something for her petting zoo, and will pay for it. I see no issues." Marius kept his face impassive while he sent the message over the comm-link using his internal cyberware. It was clear he was in favour of the mission.
"Scorpions. Dangerous foes, very dangerous. Most of them have a very potent sting I believe." Tads closed her eyes for a moment, thinking about stories she had heard. "Sorry, beyond that I don't really know. Not many scorpions where I've lived."
Shimazu and Hunter seemed either not too bothered, or to be playing their cards very carefully and not committing their opinions yet. Aswon was the next to speak.
"Would a clutch of eggs meet your criteria? They might be easier to obtain and certainly easier to transport than two live specimens."
"Commendable initiative there. I think they would do just fine, as long as they were viable." Ludmilla thought for a moment. "Yes, that would be more than acceptable to me."
"Then that makes the chance of success much higher, I think. The other question I have is to the politics and risks in the area, given what goes on there. I mean, the last thing we need is to get caught up in Desert Wars."
"Well, this early in the season it's mostly the friendlies and warmup competition, and that's mostly much further west in the area around Tunisia, of course."
"Desert Wars?" Tads looked around at the team, confused. "Who is the war between?"
There was a moment of silence amongst the others, as they wondered how to answer that. It really underscored the difference in backgrounds between them – Tads had grown up in a forest village without any of the exposure to the sixth world that most of the rest took for granted. Aswon had the same background – albeit much warmer and drier – but also had many years experience as a well-travelled mercenary as well. He took the first stab at answering her question.
"So, let's not go over why it started or quite how – as there's two main camps of thought, and they are wildly different. But in the Saharan desert, every year, all of the mega-corporations and several of the larger nationals send team of combat troops into the desert in the latest hardware, and take part in war games. The early rounds are done with laser taggers, computer identification of hits, dummy rounds and non-lethal options – but as you go further through the games, they become more and more lethal. It's also recorded and transmitted worldwide to a crowd numbering millions and millions, and is one of the most popular shows going." Tads looked at him with horror at the concept of televised corp-sponsored killings sank in.
"But you should be quite safe, I think darlings, as I said – this early in the season they should be much further to the west than the area I'm looking at. But as the season goes on, they'll spread through the area and it would become much more difficult, I think."
"That sounds like it's a strong incentive to move quickly. Of course, we'd like to have a look at the logistics of this I think. Is there perhaps somewhere we can go to discuss this and avoid taking up any of your precious time?"
"Of course, Kai. I've had some rooms made available for you, so you can stay the night and consider the offer. I hope you'll be comfortable." The butler moved to the door and opened it wide, clearly indicating that the decision had already been taken. The team filed out into the corridor and then followed him as he moved through the VIP section of the building, leading them to a luxury suite.
A number of opulent bedrooms were laid out around a common area, with en-suite bathrooms between each pair of rooms. None of them had an outside window, and they were all solidly built, and there was only one door out of the suite into the corridor – whether that was to contain people inside, or allow the people inside to defend themselves was impossible to tell. Perhaps both.
Aswon turned towards the butler as he started to close the door.
"Excuse me, a question?"
"Yes sir?"
"I was wondering if it was possible to request a particular type of food. Our shaman here has expressed a curiosity about truffles. I wonder if that's something the Lady carries in her kitchen?"
"I will make arrangements sir." A moment's pause, a slightly defocussed moment just like the one they saw on the landing pad. "Some will be available tomorrow, sir. Will there be anything else?"
"No, thank you. That's fine."
"If you do need anything sir, please just press the call button." He pulled out a small remote from his pocked and passed it over to Aswon, then backed out of the door, closing it quietly.
They checked out the suite, poking around and working out who was having which room, appraising the décor and looking at the artwork. It looked on the surface like a luxury hotel – but a bit of checking revealed the reinforced plasteel walls and structure behind the thin veneer. Mid way through, they heard a loud trumpet fanfare emerging from one of the rooms followed by the deep rumbling of a full set of kettle drums being played with gusto. Cautiously checking the noise out, they found a stream of cast off clothes scattered over the edge of a deep bath inset into the raised floor. Lying on the bottom of the bath, already covered by the rising water lay Hunter, naked as the day he was born.
He waved at the onlookers, then gave them an 'ok' sign, apparently not bothered by his body being on display. They had a moment of concern as he stayed under the water, until they remembered that with the air tank built in, he didn't need to breathe for some considerable time. Strings broke in as the rest of the orchestra reached their queues, and classical music blasted out of the hi-performance speakers, making the surface of the water ripple like a huge speaker cone. They left him to it, and came out to find Tads poking Kai in the chest with a bony finger.
"Did you not remember what I said, Kai? No? No memory of it?" Kai looked bemused, and was slowly backing away from the prodding finger, trying not to look like he was backing off. "I told you not to let him into the chopper. I TOLD you SPECIFICALLY not to let them inside to look around. Do YOU know how hard it was for ME to alter that illusion? Do you?"
Realisation flooded into Kai's face as he realised what she was talking about, then the look of mild alarm returned as he bumped into the wall and ran out of room to escape from the finger that was prodding at him. Tads continued to lambast him for another thirty seconds, making sure that he understood that she wasn't impressed with his decisions taken with the Russians.
They spent a few minutes more examining the suite, finding out where the controls for the lights and audio were, and finally closing the door to Hunter's room to give him some privacy – or at least give them some privacy. As they closed the door, the sound of music stopped completely, and they realised that the suite was extensively soundproofed. They put on some music in the background, just to provide some noise rather than the slightly unreal silence.
"Right – I think at least one of us needs to head back to the chopper, probably one of us who can see that spirit. And possibly we shouldn't go alone." They looked around at each other, then Tads waved to Aswon, indicating that she'd come with him. They got up, and headed towards the door, but on opening it found an armed guard outside. He was smartly dressed, but carried an obvious gun. As he turned towards them, his hand was on the grip of the heavy pistol, but his face remained neutral.
"Sir, ma'am? May I help you?"
"Oh, ahh… we need to get back to our vehicle. We have a situation that we need to deal with." The guard frowned a little.
"I can get someone to check on your craft if you wish, but I assure you it's being taken care of and well looked after."
"No, no – it's not like that. It's something we need to take care of that's inside."
"I see. Could it be something we do via a remote link? I can arrange for an engineer to set up a direct feed from your craft's internal sensors through to the suite."
"Sorry, but that won't work at all, a video link just can't… well it just won't work." Tads and Aswon shared a look – the big weakness of video cameras in the sixth world of course was that they didn't show up any form of astral activity at all.
"I see," he said, quite clearly not seeing, but not arguing. "Please return to the suite, and I will make some arrangements." Tads and Aswon complied with his request, gently closing the door behind them and then crossing to the sinfully soft furniture laid out around the centre of the room and filled in the others on what had taken place.
Marius just shrugged at them, clearly filing the spirit under 'magical problems' and thus out of his area of expertise and responsibility. He and Nadia turned back to the map they had pulled up on the low table between the seats. At first they had thought it was a slab of black quartz, but it turned out to be a media centre and the main computer for the suite – presumably so visitors could work on presentations or communicate with their peers. But for now, it showed a large map stretching from Russia down through the Mediterranean and to the north coast of Africa. Overlaid on it were a series of large circles, shaded from green to amber.
"What's that?" asked Aswon.
"Fuel radius. Trying to work out how many hops it would take us to get down to the target site and back. I'm working on the assumption we can file legitimate flight plans for a lot of this, and thus refuel at commercial airports where possible. But we still have to plan the hops carefully and choose which countries we fly through." He highlighted the rings in turn, narrating as he did so.
"So I think from here to the Quarry, as a known safe base, where we can get some work done. Repair the rip in the side, get some cages made up for the critters. Then from there, about a thousand clicks down towards Sevestapol and grab some fuel there. It's a shame – it's about 1500 to Constantinople, so we're just beyond our max range. But Sevastapol to the Constantinople is easy, then another 700 down to Crete. Fill up again, then another 700 or so to Libya. If we're heading to the north part of the desert, we can get there and back on one tank, though there's little margin. If we have to go further south, we need to tank somewhere there, or take a bunch of barrels of Avgas in the back and refuel by hand.
Marius rolled his eyes, then shot a look at Kai who was just opening his mouth.
"Don't say it. I don't like it, it's a bad idea. I don't want to do it. But look – there's just desert. No infrastructure. Nothing. So if we have to, we have to. But either way, we get there, land, drive around in the off-roader, you guys grab this scorpion thing, we load them up and then just reverse the route. But, it's a long journey mind you, and it won't be cheap."
"What's the bad news?" Kai looked at the map and tensed in anticipation. It didn't look that far when you could see three continents on the map at once.
"Worst case, we're talking 4000 kilometres each way. And that's going to run up a fuel bill of nearly two hundred thousand. Kai made a whistling noise and sat back in his seat, staring up at the ceiling. "And that's before we get into any mission gear like cages."
"Cages are the least of our problems. We'll possibly need radiation suits, Geiger counters, a whole different type of survival gear. The desert is a very unforgiving place. Trust me. I know." Aswon spoke calmly, but was already searching for some example items on his comm-link, trying to find some examples of the gear he thought they would need.
"Radiation? Why is there radiation there? I don't see any power plants?"
"From missiles, Tads. The country of Libya pretty much ceased to be when they launched an attack at Israel. Apparently they had different totems and were sworn to destroy each other, and Libya thought it would be supported by its allies in the area. They started the fight by attacking Israel with chemical weapons, directing a terror assault on the population. But Israel launched a full attack on them when they declared hostility, and went for a massive escalation of power. No tanks, no boats, not even really any planes. Certainly no troops on the ground. They just launched some long range missiles tipped with nuclear warheads, and turned a large part of the country to glass. Then issued a statement saying they had a bunch more, and the next person to get feisty would be living in a radioactive hellhole."
Tads blanched, shaking her head as she contemplated the death toll that would have resulted from what she was hearing.
"Both sides lost a lot of people – but Israel had been living under threat for years, and they had bomb shelters and gas masks which blunted the attack to some degree. The United Nations was still a thing back then – it was like a big merc police force or something, had a blue uniform. But anyway, they sent in troops to maintain peace and render humanitarian aid, but by then it was just a case of getting people out of the country before it collapsed into anarchy. Now it's just desert and ruins."
"That's awful. The deaths of so many people – you do know that astral space will be twisted and torn down there, don't you? It'll be worse than that chemical plant we drove past…"
"It won't be nice, I'm sure – but it's also been over fifty years since this took place. We learnt about it on a training course, discussing asymmetrical warfare. Not important though, but a lot of the horror will have drained away by now, unless you're right on top of a blast site. I agree though, we want to be careful – but it might not be too bad."
"How long would it take if we went by truck, and what would be the fuel cost there?" Kai was rubbing the bridge of his nose now, trying to work out the costs involved in the mission.
"Ground route would be a minimum of five, maybe six thousand kilometres each way. Cost of fuel would be around twenty five grand though, so a bit over 10% of the flight cost. But, if you look here, we have to cross a number of hard borders – in and out of Israel is tough – really tough, and we have to go through a lot of unfavourable terrain. It will also take us more than three times as long, and we're a lot more likely to run into problems on the ground than in the air."
The conversation flowed back and forth for a while as they worked out alternate routes, trying to work out the optimum balance between speed, cost and risk. It was a problem with a huge number of imponderables, and after twenty minutes of discussion they were still not much closer to a definite answer.
"I have concerns over carrying these scorpions, assuming we find them. I don't like the idea of having some of the most poisonous creatures on the planet locked up in a vehicle with us – whether that be in the air or on the ground. So I think flying is better just because it cuts the time in half."
"Actually, not quite that much. We won't be able to fly the route non-stop, while we could probably drive it – assuming you're willing to let someone else drive your truck again." Nadia poked Marius in the ribs gently as she spoke, but her smile took away any rancour and made it clear she was teasing him.
"Why can't we? I'm sure I can stay awake that long and fly well, and I can nap while we are refuelled!"
"Don't be silly. You might feel like your reactions are sharp, but they won't be, not after the first shift in the cockpit. And besides, that's not the point. If you file a commercial flight plan, then international aviation rules will apply to your routing. You have mandatory rest stops added in, and a limit to daily flying hours as a registered cargo pilot. They just won't give you clearance otherwise."
Marius frowned as he realised she was right – he was too used to working for the biggest corp on the planet, for whom international law was seen more as a guideline or request. When Saeder-Krupp told you to fly a helicopter for eighteen hours, you flew the god-dammed helicopter and did your job!
"Also Tads," Aswon interjected, "if we gave you the time and resources, I'm sure there are spells you could learn that would either sedate, stun or control the animals, vastly reducing the risk. And as long as you can either stay awake to keep the spell up, or if we can find another foci for you to use to support you – time isn't an issue so much. Nadia nodded vigorously to that suggestion, clearly in favour of anything that reduced the risk of carrying live cargo.
"If we are taking this job, then there's something else we can look at possibly?" They looked over at Nadia, waiting for her to make her point. "If we get an external hook fitted to the helicopter, which will be generally useful, I'm sure – we can airlift the truck back to the ranch, and leave it there to be looked after by the family. And then you don't have to pay rent at the quarry."
They mulled over the idea, and soon Marius and Nadia were planning the logistics of the move. If they demounted the module from the trailer, it would – just – fit in the back of the chopper. Then they could with some finangling attach the chassis for the trailer on top of the chassis for the truck, and sling both of them underneath. It would be ungainly, but workable, as long as they didn't run into any trouble at least.
"Hey, here's an idea. This lady seems to be after magical plants and critters for some reason. I would guess research from the things she has said and the laboratories we passed. But…" Tads paused for a moment, then looked at Shimazu. "We do have four very strange leech critters. Maybe we should let her know about those and see if she's interested?"
"Hey! What the hell does this have to do with my leeches?" Shimazu responded indignantly, "You leave them alone!"
"Well, ok, if we need to leave the leeches alone, maybe we can get Kai to sell those shares finally, or we really should follow up on Germaine's contact. We don't want a repeat of last time do we, Aswon?" He shook his head, his dreadlocks shaking vigorously from side to side.
Kai ignored them. At first they thought he was just not responding to the jibe about the shares, but when they leant over they saw he was working through the various countries they would fly over or to, and looking at the visa requirements for each, trying to get a feel for the costs and administration involved in each.
While he was busy with that, Aswon decided to do a little research on Desert Wars. A surface level search revealed that Desert Wars, the event, was run by Desert Wars, the company. Or rather it was run by Desert Wars (Africa), a separate entity to Desert Wars (Asia) and Desert Wars (America). All three had ties to Combat Sports LLC, which looked like a holding or umbrella corporation. Aswon found some articles explaining how rights were assigned from the different outfits to each other to ensure maximum tax relief, but it got far too technical for him very quickly – but it seemed plain it was a serious corporation with deep pockets.
However, while the corporation was a large and serious entity, no doubt the people working at the bottom had a chance of being somewhat flexible – he wondered if they could perhaps weasel, bribe or steal a legitimate pass to be in the area as part of the organising crew. Having the right to be flying around the desert would certainly de-risk the entire expedition, providing they could find the right person to lean on.
The subject of radiation hot spots came up again, and a little investigation was done on that. Mostly it seemed they could rely on the structure and thickness of the armour on the craft they were in to keep most of the effects at bay, provided they weren't anywhere too hot. A quick search for some images of radiation suits made it clear that wearing one of those while trying to move around in a fifty degree desert day would be a quick route to dehydration and death unless they were very careful!
A knock at the door stopped further discussion. When they opened the heavy door to the suite, the guard stood outside with another similarly dressed man.
"So sorry to disturb you. We're ready to accompany you to your craft now if you wish, and our engineers have routed a fibre line from the landing pad to this suite, so you can stay in touch. If you'll come with me, please?"
Tads and Aswon grabbed their jackets and left the suite, following the first guard while the second took up a position outside the suite in his stead.
"Is Hunter still in the bath?"
Shimazu went and checked, the classical strains of Bach flooding from the bathroom as soon as the door was opened. He glanced in quickly, then closed the door and returned.
"Yes Kai, still in the bath. I'm not sure he's actually come up from the bottom yet. But he's got a big smile on his face and he winked at me, so I'm pretty sure he's ok."
They settled back on their seats, availing themselves to the bowl of fresh fruit and enjoying the taste of real grapes, waiting for Aswon and Tads to give them a call from the chopper.
