With legs stretched and bladders emptied, they trooped back aboard the tilt wing and readied themselves for take-off. A few minutes of calm had given them chance to move a few bits and pieces of cargo around, and make the seating more comfortable for a longer journey – mostly a case of strapping spare clothing and pillows to the frame of the aircraft behind them to allow leaning back without getting a wiring loom or bolt head in the back of the head.
A quick check on the scorpions had proven to be exciting – they appeared to be content to rest quietly and digest their meals if left alone, but anyone near them made them start to thrash around and react violently, so the team were soon giving them as wide a berth as possible. They got agitated on take-off, but as soon as they were up in the air and cruising, they seemed to settle back down and accepted the droning of the engines and vibration as normal.
Marius seemed entirely comfortable now with the craft, and the flight was smooth. He kept the engines at a conservative sixty –five percent power setting, keeping the speed matching that of a fairly typical helicopter, hoping this would stop people wondering what kind of aircraft they were flying around in.
As they settled on course towards Batumi, Tads waved at the crew in the back to alert them, and then keyed up her microphone.
"If we land at Batumi – do we have the right legal paperwork to get fuel? Will they let us land?"
"They should be fine – as long as they get a scan on our transponder. Of course, we've disabled that, haven't we? Hmm." Hunter paused for a moment. "Well, they will want a read on a transponder to do any kind of interaction with the airport – and that means they'll also want a transponder ID when they pick us up on radar. So yeah, that could be an issue when we get to Batumi. We need to get a new transponder from somewhere, and get some profiles generated and IDs for it. Sounds like Marius needs to get back in touch with Milo some time soon."
"Is Batumi the only place we can go to?"
"It's the only place we know of for sure."
"What about other airfields?"
"Well, any commercial airport we're going to run into the same issue. Especially anywhere with standard passenger flights, there's gonna be a whole bunch of red tape and oversight, which will be expensive or time consuming to work around. Or both. We can probably bribe someone at a smaller private airport though. Well, I say we, but I mean Kai, of course. Trouble is, while he's talking with them and arranging the bribe, they'll probably tell him about someone being mean to them or a lost cat, and we'll end up having to do something to help them out."
Kai sniffed in disdain and shook his head, holding one hand over his heart as if wounded by the comment.
"Well, I can probably hide this vehicle much better than the chopper – that was a little big. This is a bit easier to wrap a spell around though, so I can make it look like something else, I just need time to work on the details. Like if someone is fuelling it up, I need to make sure that whatever I make it look like has the fuel port in the same place, otherwise the illusion just won't work right."
"So, does anyone have any ideas on where else we can go?" One by one they shook their heads – nobody had a contact that was particularly relevant, it seemed, not in the area anyway. Tads was just about to relay their response back to Hunter when Kai had an idea.
"Marius had a couple of contacts up at Sochi – that's not that far north. Can he call them and see if they know anywhere?"
"Alright. Let me ask Marius. Gimme a minute."
They settled back in their seats, listening to the drone of the engines and the whistle of air past the airframe, working on getting comfortable in the fold-down seats which seemed to have been designed by a sadist. They gave you somewhere to perch your body, and were strong and secure, but clearly comfort was the last thing on their mind, and after a while things just started to go numb.
"Hey – while Marius can't hear this. Just a question – do we want to keep this plane, or sell it on? I get the impression it's worth a lot of money, and that means the corporation will probably want it back. If we sold it, can we use the money to buy something less noticeable?"
"I don't think so, Tads. For one thing, I think Marius would prefer to get married to this rather than Nadia. He certainly seems more interested in tinkering with this than the even contemplating selling it. While you were checking on the scorpions and going to the loo and stuff, he was telling me about the electronics suite on here, getting very excited." Kai shifted in his seat a little. "And besides, as a general rule of thumb, if you're shifting gear on the black market, depending on what it is, you can expect to get about 20-30% of the actual value of it. If it's nova hot like this, maybe as low as 10%, because most people won't want to touch it. Now 10% of a fuckton of Nuyen is still a lot – but it's not going to get us a replacement aircraft. So I think we're keeping it for now. At least because I'm not sure even if we killed Marius, we could pry it out of his cold dead hands."
A few minutes passed, and then Hunter called back to them over the comms link.
"Ok, Marius called his buddy Alex in Sochi, and he says we can get sorted out. We've got a new destination and I'm going to sort the flight plans out. But it's somewhere I think I saw when I went shooting that afternoon – apparently it's a helipad put in place for the Olympics they had there, for the press to use and VIPs to fly about in. We should be able to get fuel there that would get us all the way back north. Apparently he got asked if he was staying for a drink, but told him no, we had to go straight away because of a deadline. So if anyone asks, we're in a rush."
They flew onwards, adjusting their course a few degrees further north, and heading for the Russian town just north of the border. Their journey across Turkey was uneventful, the radar absorbing materials and stealth design of the tilt wing along with the fancy electronics diverting all official attention from them. With no transponder or radar enhancer broadcasting their position, they were no more than a few nebulous readings occasionally showing up on a radar set that looked like flocks of birds or solar flares. They crossed the coast a little south of Sinop, steering clear of the frigate that was anchored just off the coast guarding the nuclear power station, having seen how twitchy it could be in defending the area with extreme prejudice, and found themselves darting across the Black Sea with their arrival in Sochi marked down at just after 4 – or 5pm local time.
They followed the co-ordinates given by Alex, which did indeed take them into the old Olympic complex, landing them near the administration offices and press complex, long since abandoned and now overgrown. The helipad looked clear and well maintained, though clearly still in use. It didn't have any of the electronic systems normally used to guide craft in working, so Marius had to do it the old-fashioned way, but that proved to be no problem for a pilot with his skill – especially not when he could "feel" what the craft was doing. He took pride with landing exactly in the middle of the landing area, and with a gentle touch that barely made the airframe quiver. A single man waited off the pad, crouched on one knee and with a hand holding his baseball cap onto his head. After checking they were secure, Marius powered down the engines though he kept everything else active and running.
Popping the ramp, the team piled out and stretched, taking a break from being cooped up for three hours with little chance to move around. The man at the side of the pad had stood, and was dragging a hose and nozzle onto the pad, but was keeping his head down and face obscured by the brim of his cap. They watched him and several hands lowered subconsciously to weapons as he shuffled towards them with the heavy hose in his grip, face still masked from their view.
Kai cocked his head to one side and appraised the man, looking for the host of subtle cues given off by most people without them realising and spotted a few things that confused him. The shoulders were down, indicating some kind of subservient approach, but the neck and back were tensed, clearly showing fear or the expectation of conflict. The head bobbed, the man fighting to keep his face hidden for some reason, yet trying to see where he was going and not trip.
Aswon just extended his senses into the astral and looked at the man's aura, seeing the magenta spikes and flashes of fear and terror radiating off him. The guy was clearly afraid of something – not them, but something they represented perhaps? Either way, he turned back to the aircraft to cover his face, and spoke a few brief words to warn the rest of the team about the man's fear.
They left Kai to talk to the guy, moving around the other side of the aircraft to take in the view and work out the kinks from their backs – all except Marius who stood near the ramp and watched the refuelling with an eagle eye. Kai watched as the man twisted the handle on the fuel intake cover with a deft flick of the wrist, and then opened the tank and latched on the fuel hose. He seemed confident with this, and his hands stopped their trembling as they carried out the familiar task. Then he spoke with a somewhat croaky and dry voice, talking over the noise of the pump as it started up, and a red light appeared on the nozzle assembly.
"I have not seen you. I do not know who you are or even what kind of craft this is. I did not speak to you, though I think you are maybe a medical helicopter. Or a courier firm. Or maybe an air taxi with low fuel. Or perhaps a trideo crew, out filming our land. I did not get chance to see you before you took off." Kai realised that the guy had clearly had the squeeze put on him by the local Mafia goons, and been told in no uncertain terms most likely what would happen if he spoke to anyone about this.
"Well, that's good. I think if anyone asks, you overheard that yes, we are a trideo crew, doing some filming of the mountains. You can tell people this, and that's ok. Now, what do we do about paying for the fuel?"
"You can sort it out with the person you spoke to. He said you can pay any time you want by the end of the day." An indicator light on the fuel hose changed from red to amber, and the vibrations of the hose diminished as the pump slowed.
"Ahh, very good then". Kai dug around in his pockets, and found a bunch of random notes and hard currency, probably around 250 Nuyen worth all told. "Here, take this then. This was given to you by the trideo crew for your fast service, and your help. You've done a good job, and we'll mention to our…mutual friend that you did exactly what you were told, and didn't see anything." He watched tension flow out of the man, relief as the prospect of a sound beating receded from his future.
The amber light started to flash, growing faster and faster, then the pumps stopped and there was a strange gurgling noise and then a hiss of air or gas. A moment of silence and then the amber light flickered to green and the man started to undo the clamps and remove the fuelling nozzle and close up the fuel intake.
"The cost of the fuel is…" he peered at some figures on a small display "nine thousand four hundred and fifty Nuyen. Thank you." He bowed a little, then carefully turned and dragging the hose behind him headed away from the craft and back to the side of the pad. Kai shook his head in amusement, but then walked around the back and whistled to the rest of the team to head back inside, counting them in and closing the ramp when done. Minutes later they were airborne again, heading north on a bearing of five degrees, on the next fifteen hundred kilometre segment of their journey.
Once they were at altitude and Marius had confirmed there was no other airborne traffic nearby, he jumped out of direct control of the aircraft and back into his body. He was still flying, but now operating it just like anyone would with a datajack, sending commands to the controls to go up and down, rather than just feeling like he wanted to swoop and dive. It did mean that he could control his own meat body though, and use his cyber-systems properly. He transferred the relevant funds, then called up his contact again.
"Alex? Hi, it's Marius. Just wanted to thank you for the help with the fuel stop."
"Ahh, Marius my friend, it is no problem. Anytime. I hope the man treated you with respect?"
"Yes, yes – he was the perfect host, and did well. In fact, he was very careful, and I think he understands you perfectly as he was very careful with what he did and said." Marius hoped he wasn't going to get the guy in trouble, or lay it on too thick."
"So, have you changed your mind? A drink tonight?"
"I wish I could – but we're already in the air and on the way. Really tight deadline, I wish I could. Maybe the next time we're down we can have a night out?" He flicked the phone signal over, taking the input from the nose mounted cameras on the vehicle rather than the internal pickup.
"That would be good. Well, I see you're already high up. Good trip, my friend!"
The next three hours of their journey were as uneventful as the last, flying over mostly rural land, crossing the occasional road, watching forests, fields, and highlands slide past them as they flew on a constant course and speed. Their flight route took them clear of the zone that had been affected by the toxic gas cloud, so they didn't even have to deviate around that. The tilt wing sliced through the darkening skies, once more effortlessly sliding through the radar coverage. Marius warned Kai when they were about thirty minutes short of Nizhny Novgorod, and he made a call to Ludmilla. When the call was connected, it was a male voice than answered, and the video showed a fairly non-descript man in a shirt and tie, staring out of the screen with a vaguely polite and helpful expression.
"Good evening, may I help you?"
"Yes, I'd like to speak to Lady Ludmilla, please."
"I'm afraid the Lady is otherwise engaged, and not able to take calls at this time. May I take a message?"
"Um, yes. It's Kai, and we have her supplies. We're about thirty minutes away, and we'd like to come in and drop the goods off, if that's ok with her."
"One moment please sir." The man's eyes flicked off to the side, clearly accessing data on a terminal. "Ahh, here we are. Well, you're cleared to approach on the same vector as previously and land in the same spot. There are instructions clearing you and your crew for delivery."
"We're not in the same craft as we were in last time, just to let you know – so it will look very different."
"Oh, I see. Is it heavier or lighter than your previous craft sir?"
"Do you know, I'm not sure. Give me a moment please." He paused the call and shouted out over the comms to Hunter.
"Do we weight more or less than the chopper? They need to know, probably to make sure the pad is rated for us." Hunter in turn checked with Marius, trying to factor in the smaller size versus the increased armour present.
"We should still weigh less than the chopper did, Marius says. Not by a huge amount, but less." Kai listened carefully, and then took the call off hold.
"We should weigh less. Is there anything else?"
"No sir, thank you for confirming. I have the pad marked out for your use, and a ground crew alerted. Based on the notes here, I've taken the liberty of arranging for a fuelling team to ensure they're standing by."
"Oh, great. Thanks. Ok, we'll see you in thirty minutes or so."
Hanging up the call, Kai told the rest of the team what had been arranged, and then there was nothing to do by wait as they crossed the remaining kilometres and approached the dam.
"Someone should check on the scorpions. See if they need food or water. Last thing we want is to deliver specimens that are malnourished – but I'm still concentrating on these spells. Shimazu, can you give them a look?" Tads watched Shimazu unstrap from his seat and then climb around and over the supplies to reach the cages. He tried to crouch and get a good view in the containers, but every time the creatures sensed him get near, they became agitated and angry, starting to thrash around and attack the front door of the transport crate. After a few random attacks, Aswon called out to him.
"I'd probably leave them be. They have to be used to eating well after a kill, and then going for days without food or water while they wait for something else. At least lots of other desert creatures are like that, and I see no reason these should be anything different, even without knowing the specifics of whatever mutations or strange powers they have." Shimazu sighed, and then nodded, returning to his seat and strapping back in for the remainder of the flight. He was probably right…
Marius was careful to follow the previous approach course and speed, watching out for the horrible nest of power transformers and high voltage lines that lay to the south-east of the dam structure. Even with the red anti-collision lights mounted on a number of the electricity pylons, being around that many hazards still made his skin itch – high voltage lines were the bane of helicopter pilots all over the world.
Aswon poked his head into the front of the cockpit as they headed down so he could have a quick glance around the area in astral space – it looked clear, but he did spot a number of watcher spirits out over the lake. Unsurprising, considering that they knew from previous experience that there were awakened critters living in there.
"Looks clear, no magical threats I can spot." Hunter nodded to Aswon as he headed back to his seat, and then passed on the all clear to Marius over their computer link. In turn, Marius threaded his way in through the prescribed flight corridor, taking pride in the gentle bump as he landed and the clock in the cockpit ticked over to 19:30 – precisely on time from his estimate.
After he bought the bird in for a smooth landing, he shut down the engines, but again kept all the systems up for the moment, just in case. They didn't have a lot of fuel left, but it was enough to get at least away from the dam if required. He didn't have to worry, though – Kai had only made it half-way to the armoured entry door before it opened, and the smartly-dressed man came to greet him with a respectful nod and to wave two technicians forward pushing a large and sturdy trolley made out of sturdy-looking steel with a large plastic box on it, and another two technicians who attached a hose to the recessed floor plate and then ran the other end out towards the fuel intake to top up the tanks.
The two technicians with the trolley pushed it round to the rear of the vehicle and engaged the wheel brakes, then lifted down the plastic box. It was very sturdy looking, and had slots in the bottom for a fork-lift truck to carry it by, looking to be a standardised pallet size and about a metre high. Next they pulled out a large pole with a grabbing claw on the end, and moved up to retrieve the crates, flinching as first one, then the other scorpion started to throw itself around and try to escape captivity. They lifted the crates into the pallet container as quickly as they could, heaving a sigh of relief when they were both in place and they could fit the lid back onto the container. With a heave the container was lifted back onto the trolley and the brakes released, and they started to head back towards the blast door leading into the base. The aide stood to the side and then looked to Kai and moved his hand in a gracious sweep, inviting Kai to precede him.
Kai waved to Shimazu to follow him, and for the rest to stay at the chopper and listen in over the earbuds, then followed the technicians and the trolley, now loaded down with the two crates as they pushed the cargo carefully into the base. Inside, they followed the high level gantry over the generating room, watching the ant-like figures down below move around as they tended to the turbines and generating equipment in the cavernous space.
"Excuse me? I don't suppose you have a hanger, do you? Somewhere we can get our craft under cover?"
"I'm afraid not, sir. We've been asked several times, but alas the shape and layout of the dam aren't really conducive to such a thing." Kai nodded, but didn't think for a moment that it was the real reason. A woman of Ludmilla's resources could have arranged something, he was sure – but she hadn't. Why was that?"
The aide led them into the grey concrete tunnels beyond the generating hall, turning right to lead them into the set of rooms outfitted as science labs. The two technicians peeled off with the cargo, stepping into a goods lift and descending slowly down to the floor below. The aide led Kai and Shimazu into the room overlooking the animal testing laboratory – no monkeys this time, instead it appeared to be some lizard-like creature that was in a small environment loaded down with sensors. Ludmilla was looking down through the armoured and sloped glass, watching the experiment with interest.
"Very well. Monitor it for another few hours at the current level, and prepare a summary. We'll look at increasing the dose if there's still no response." She released the intercom button and then turned to face her guests. "Ahh, and here you are. Welcome back! I see you've been successful, and also managed to acquire yourself some new transport?"
"Yes indeed – I hope the specimens are to your satisfaction. We certainly had an interesting time capturing them. A word of warning – they seem to have a taste for steak now, for which I can only apologise. They also can grow quite large – we saw one specimen that was about four metres from tip to tail, that was far too large and aggressive to transport."
"Marvellous! Maybe we can keep them on separate diets or vary the environment to see which is a deciding factor in growth between them. Hmm. But that's for another day. Did anyone get stung or bitten?"
"No, it all went well, and the capture process went really smoothly considering. Nobody stung, which is good – that stuff looked evil. The big one I was telling you about – the poison gland was huge – as big as a pair of fists. You could see little drops of fluid coming out of the stinger when it was going for us. But we were careful, and nobody got stung – the closest we got was a near miss in the crates from one of the little ones."
"Oh. Pity."
"I'm sorry?"
"Well, it would have been fascinating to see how well the anti-venom worked? Or the effects of the venom on a physical specimen. Still, that's something we can arrange under laboratory conditions, I suppose. So - are you staying long?" Kai took a moment to process what she'd just said before he responded.
"No, I'm afraid it's just a flying visit – ha ha!" Ludmilla gave a theatrical little eye roll. "We need to get back to our base and do some work on our new vehicle. Get some comfy seats, upgrade the toilet – all kinds of little tasks, before we're ready for our next little piece of work. However, what we can do perhaps to help out with your research is if we send you some notes on where we found them, how they attacked and reacted, how strong and quick they were. Would that help?"
"It would, that would be most helpful."
"We're likely going to be taking a little time off to get some personal tasks done. Perhaps I can drop you or your agent a message when we're ready to fly again, and see if you have any additional work that needs to be done?"
"Yes, that sounds delightful. In the meantime though, let's conclude our business." She handed over a credstick and Kai took it carefully from her outstretched hand, giving a small but respectful bow. They chatted for a few minutes about inconsequential matters, before Ludmilla made her excuses, and informed Kai and Shimazu that they would be escorted back to the pad. They took their cues, following the aide back out to the pad, where they found Hunter and Marius just sealing up a panel on the port side of the nose. Lying on the floor was a small circuit board with a few connectors and wires hanging off of it.
"What's that?"
"Transponder boards. Not just electronically disabled, but physically out now. Much safer, no remote activations." Marius tightened the last fastener and then bent down to pick up the circuit board and turned to the aide. "Any chance you could incinerate, crush or shred this please?"
The aide nodded, and then held out a pad towards Kai, where he saw the bill for the refuelling. It wasn't too bad – only another six thousand two hundred Nuyen. Once Kai had slotted his credstick and approved the transfer, the aide smiled, nodded and then took the circuit board between thumb and forefinger before heading back inside.
They took off, climbed out past the power lines and headed south towards the quarry smuggler base. Once they were at altitude and cruising safely, Marius again jacked out so he could talk directly with the rest of the team. They were pretty much going to have to stop at the Quarry to get some fuel – it was over two thousand kilometres back to the ranch and they couldn't make it on one tank. The question was whether they actually stopped at the Quarry to do work on the new craft there, or to just do a 'gas and go' and head back to the ranch. The Quarry had a maintenance team, but also daily overheads and labour costs – and potentially other people like the Bogbuster crew to deal with. However, a hidden network of caves buried under a hundred metres of rock was pretty much going to stop any hidden transmitters or surveillance dead in its tracks.
If they went back to the ranch, it was their own place – the facilities were a lot more primitive, but they could get things in, and didn't have to share or work with anyone they didn't want to. It was also still handy for access to the city, and any money spent there went directly to the areas around them. In the end Kai asked Marius to make the call on this, telling him that as some of the work was going to involve the vehicle, and this was most definitely his area of expertise, he would go with his judgement. Marius thought for a few moments and then decided on the ranch.
They called ahead to Vishtar and got landing clearance, and pulled just far enough into the tunnel to get refuelled from the seven hundred kilometre journey south from Ludmilla's, paying the technician another five grand before they were towed into pod number three. Fuel prices between the various landing points were highly volatile, it seemed, and varied from country to country quite extensively. After the day of action and tension, they were tired enough not to even care who else was at the Quarry, and they planned to just make use of the crude bunks and washing facilities, crashing out for the night. While Tads and Shimazu were using the shower and washing facilities, Kai and Aswon grabbed some of their gear to make the night more pleasant. Hunter and Marius ran over the craft with the bug scanner, from nose to tail, looking for any unexpected signals but finding nothing.
In the morning, they ran another check, just in case there was a tracker that was time-based, but again found nothing. They forwent the communal cave and breakfast, instead getting the tilt wing towed out into the open and prepped for a dawn take-off.
With the tanks topped off again, they had enough fuel to get back to the ranch in one hop now. Marius increased the speed, heading up more towards their top speed now that he'd gotten a feel for just how stealthy it was, and how little attention it attracted. That put their arrival time back at the ranch at around 9:30am, assuming they didn't run into any issues – their course bent well to the east of the toxic spill zone, so hopefully they wouldn't hit any other trouble.
Freshly rested, Tads called upon a powerful air spirit to conceal them, and wrapped in stealth technology and magical concealment, they headed south, punching through the border between Russia and the Trans-Caucasian League without anyone getting a whiff they were there, and then crossing the TCL like a thief in the night.
Again, around thirty minutes before landing, Kai called ahead to warn Rusudan, Naena and their children they were coming – as much to make sure nobody was out on horseback when they arrived and suffered an accident as to make any preparations. Naena sounded pleased that they would be back soon, and upon learning that they had not had breakfast yet promised to get something ready.
They closed in on the ranch, and as they got within five kilometres spotted something unusual. There was a hill – a white hill around the back of the ranch, where there hadn't been anything before. Marius pulled up the sensors, focussing the visual feed forward and steadied the image – then shunted a copy of the feed up onto the display in the cockpit. Hunter looked down at the mountain of white fabric set up over a geometric frame – some kind of large tent or temporary structure. He looked at the ranch to get a sense of scale and estimated it was over forty metres wide – big enough for them to slide the old MI-6 into. Clearly, Nadia had been busy.
"Good girl." It might have sounded patronising to some, but Hunter's voice carried an edge of admiration and respect. The others wanted to know what was going on, so he shunted the image over to their data-slates so they could see what was going on in the back as Marius circled the area. There was also a large clear area with a crudely painted white 'H' on it, a little way from the hanger. It wasn't perfectly smooth or flat, but there was nothing taller than knee height for over thirty metres in any direction, and it was better than landing in a field or rough land.
As the tilt wing came in to land on the crude helipad, the back door of the ranch opened, and Nadia came out at a brisk walk, heading towards them and a reunion with Marius. She crossed the intervening distance quickly, breaking into a trot, and then a run before launching herself into his arms fast enough to make him stagger, holding him tightly. The rest of the team headed into the ranch, giving them a few minutes of privacy and time to be with each other – though from the look on Hunter's face he was already working on something to say to poke fun of them later.
When tearful reunions had been completed and a hearty breakfast consumed, Kai called everyone over to the L-shaped couch in the main room, and announced his intentions to them.
"Right, everyone. I know that Shimazu has things he wants to do, and that carries a specific and definite time investment. Likewise, we all know that Tads has been needing to get some time spent in one place to do her magical research and development. I've gathered that everyone else has things they want to do as well, and certainly I think we can all do with a few days of either relaxation or just time not being shot at, chased or spied upon. So, it's time to have a break. Shimazu – we're going to sort you out some flights down to Egypt and somewhere to stay so you can go learn under this professor chap. Tads – we'll get you the materials you need and some time to get things set up to do your enchanting or communing with your totem. I know I've got some skills I want to work on that I can do around here, and I'm sure you other guys can also fill your time profitably and constructively. So – as of twenty minutes time, we're going to have a break for the next thirteen weeks!"
Of course, it didn't work out as smoothly as that. Tads informed Kai that she needed Shimazu's sword to work on and actually enchant, and Shimazu had to have his sword if he was learning new magical techniques as he needed to be in contact with it to get his full range of skills – so that thirteen weeks was actually likely to be more like fifteen or sixteen. Some of the things people wanted to do needed the help or assistance of the others, and it ended up taking most of the morning trying to work out what needed to be done in what order, with complex logistic plans cluttering up their data-slates.
Along the way they quizzed Nadia, now contentedly curled up and nestled into the side of Marius, about what had happened at the Ranch in the week they had been gone. She informed them that Rusudan and Naena had made her welcome and assigned her a room quite happily, but appeared to have been not quite prepared for her taking on their business affairs as a personal challenge. She'd ordered in a computer and had turned one of the linen cupboards into a small server room, had replaced their previous matrix presence with a new and improved site, and had ordered a considerable upgrade to the matrix bandwidth and provision to the ranch. She'd also gone through the whole process of room bookings and activities and had decided it was beyond saving, had taken it metaphorically round the back of the stables and put an end to it. Her efforts seemed to have borne fruit though, as bookings were up sixty-six percent already – though with the small number of visitors overall, she wasn't that impressed with herself.
Along the way, she'd realised that they needed some facilities and had begun her search, and after a little digging had found an entertainments company that had just been declared bankrupt after their main synth-band and only noticeable asset had died in a remarkably unfortunate plane crash. Nadia had approached the receivers and had made an offer on the portable stage they used for putting on their concerts as they toured the TCL, securing the structure and a bunch of the extra equipment like generators and crew trailers for a considerable discount.
Local labourers had been secured from the town, and the construction efforts had finished only two days ago, giving them a hanger forty metres wide and large enough to put the MI-6 in. Nadia was clearly curious about where the helicopter was, and why they had a tilt-wing, but declined to ask questions about what had happened. The generators had been set up around the back of the hanger, along with the trailers to give some basic accommodation space that wasn't in the house. She'd also used the labour force to tear through the garages and repair them, along with doing a list of maintenance tasks that had been neglected on the house, yard, stables and driveway.
With what little time she'd had left she'd spent with Eteri or Vardo, wandering the extensive land owned by the ranch, planning on attractions and upgrades – everything from observation points at the highest elevation looking out to the east, romantic get-away cabins at the base of the foothills, a dirt bike and ATV track in some undulating terrain and possibly a falconry centre. Although they would all have to wait until Kai gave her some more money because she'd spent most of her operations budget already.
The team were impressed with her accomplishments, and Kai told her what a good job she'd done – which she seemed aware of. Clearly, she had been wasted working around the edges of the logistics company and living under her uncle's strict rules – but now the caterpillar had been transformed into a butterfly, it was unlikely to ever go back.
Tads laid out her requirements, requesting that Shimazu actually spend two or three days at the ranch before heading to Egypt. His expertise with warding would be very beneficial in protecting the huge hanger, and the tilt wing – but even more so, if he was part of the team that put the ward up, he'd also 'feel' when and if anything ever intruded upon it. As soon as she expressed it in terms like that, they all saw the value in that, and pushed his departure date back until Monday.
With the plans roughly agreed, the team split up, heading off to start their various tasks. Kai, Tads and Shimazu gathered some equipment and headed for the truck, Shimazu fitting the 'trode net carefully onto his head so he could drive up towards the windmill and Aslik's magical supplies. There, with Kai's help, they bargained for a slew of magical supplies, ordering in some items that Aslik didn't carry as stock or have himself. Key amongst those deals was swapping the large nugget of pure gold for a box of gold slivers, each already refined and manipulated into 'radicals' – material primed and manipulated in such a manner that they were receptive to magical bonding.
They also purchased his entire stock of warding materials, filling up several containers with chalks, dusts, hand-rendered varnishes and a variety of other concoctions, ready for the massive spate of warding they had planned. By the time they were done Aslik's shop looked like a whirlwind had struck, with materials strewn everywhere. The team returned to the ranch, grabbed Aswon and then made a start on the hanger. Soon afterwards a powerful ward encompassed the structure, guarding it against magical intruders, spies and ritual magic, giving them a safe space to work in.
While they worked, Hunter, Nadia and Marius were busy rigging up the generators and doing maintenance upon them, cleaning them down and getting them ready for service, before wiring up the accommodation trailers and then starting to unpack the toolkits and workshops from their storage bags. That evening, Aswon appointed himself assistant chef, and appeared in the kitchen to assist Naena, preparing food for everyone.
The following day, Tads grabbed everyone and pulled out all the raw materials they had gathered on the previous few months travels, and showed Marius, Nadia and Hunter how to process through the materials, using the reagents to refine and reduce the raw forms. Aswon, Shimazu and Kai already knew the basics and could get on with the task unsupervised, but Tads had to keep an eye on the three mundane members of the team and provide demonstrations and example of what they were trying to do – but given their intelligence and eye for detail, it wasn't long until they all had made some progress and were reliably refining the materials down. Between the entire group and a long day of effort, they managed to work through the entire stock of materials, reducing the pile of reagents down to a pile roughly half the size – but containing only the viable materials.
On the Sunday, the magical portion of the team started work on the tilt wing, trying to put up another very powerful ward. They worked around the non-magical members of the team who were opening up the tilt-wing and going through it with a fine toothcomb, looking for any more trackers or devices that might cause them issue, and building up a list of parts and systems for future use. It wasn't a full strip down of the bird, but they did have every single access panel removed, and the rest of the team took advantage of this to get access to the areas they couldn't normally reach, weaving the warding materials around the structure. It was another long day, and one that saw them all exhausted by the end of it.
On Monday they ferried Shimazu, Nadia and Marius to the airport and put them on a flight to Egypt – Marius having decided that Nadia deserved a holiday where nobody was chasing her or shooting at her, for at least a few days. Having seen them off at the departure gate, they returned via the windmill, handing over the refined materials they had produced and using them and the value they represented to exchange for some materials already prepared for the tricky business of enchanting.
When they got back, Tads settled into her enchanting workshop and got ready to work, while the rest of the team split up, heading to go and study, learn, practice or refine their own skills.
Date: Saturday 20/8/2060, Location: 37.33915, 26.60526The team reassembled in the hanger, relaxing on the comfy sofa set in the cool dawn air. A gentle through breeze from the rear of the hanger played across their skin, and they looked towards Kai as he cleared his throat.
"Ok everyone… we're all back, and we're all just about ready to go earn some more money, I think? Certainly the bank account thinks it needs some love. Before we head on out though, I thought it might be good to do a quick recap on what we've been up to. Seeing as I'm already talking, I might as well go first…" Nobody interrupted, so he continued.
"I've been practicing with my pistol on the range – thanks to Nadia – and have I think made noticeable improvements. I'm still not scoring the maximum on the shooting competitions, but then again I'm not cheating like Hunter is." Hunter gave a snort of derision – using his smartlink gun aiming system was *not* cheating! "I've also improved with the bow, so hopefully that's another method of quiet takedowns we can add to the arsenal for the future. Beyond that, I've spent a good while practicing with the machine gun up in the gulch, and while I'm not great, I think the barn is in serious danger now – the broadside at least. Obviously not the narrow end, as that's impossible to hit." Several of the time grinned, remembering his first attempt to fire the heavier machine guns and how much the muzzle had climbed as the recoil and noise had shocked him, sending bullets flying everywhere except where he wanted them. "Aswon?"
"Well, I've also been practicing with the machine guns and such like which were never really my role when I was a merc – but I'd say I'm probably in a roughly similar place to you, Kai. I've also significantly improved my skills with first aid and superficial burns. Specifically…" he turned and gave Kai a baleful look, "… the kind of burns you get when hot brass is ejected all over you and down the neck of your clothing because someone next to you can't keep their weapon under control." Kai found a remarkably interesting stain in his t-shirt to examine, while the rest of the team laughed. "Despite someone trying to set me on fire, I'd like to think that you're all happy with my meal planning and preparation, and enjoyed the food?"
"Other than spending a bit of time out studying the local magical critters, I've mostly focussed on the spear. There's still a lot I don't understand about it, but I've been meditating with it daily and doing reading and research in the evening, and I think I've discovered some interesting facts about it. It is a weapon from the 4th age, and significantly more powerful potentially than anything I've seen reference to that we can make now. Not so much in terms of raw power – but in terms of the effects it generates. As you know, since I bonded my soul to it, it now functions nicely as a magical weapon, piercing the defences of spirits and critters alike, and shielding me from the spells that get cast at us." He took a sip of water, then carefully lifted the spear up from the holder by the side of the settee, and laid it across his lap, along with Tads' and Kai's in the next seats.
"These inscriptions here still defy translations, but I feel they may be an older or more refined form of Sperethial, the language of the elves. I'm having to be very careful with the research as I do not wish to attract attention from the wrong kind of people, but it's slow going. As you know, I felt there was something wrong with the spear before – it seemed to hunger for a link to me again, and it was almost like it was after blood. After some time though I realised that I think it wants to form a *deeper* bond with me. And from what I have found about the construction, I think that there will be more magical features that are revealed to me if I do deepen the link between us."
"Without risking a lot more people knowing that I have this – I think the only way we can find out what they are is for me to do just that. I have no idea what will happen though, or what the spear will do, so I think that's a decision we should all be taking. And that's just about it for me… Hunter?"
"Well, mainly I've been Aswon's research bitch and sorting through more mumbo-jumbo than I ever wanted to know about!" Aswon bared his fangs at Hunter, but there was a grin wrapped around it too. "But along the way, I've picked up a pretty wide range of operations skills on the matrix, and I've been tuning the deck along the way. I've gotten pretty good at working through the data records out there, and I've made a bunch of contacts too. Most importantly is we have access to Shadowland now. I've managed to get a bit of a decent rep, it seems from providing some information and advice, and a couple of people vouched for me, and I got a visit from someone talking to me about some stuff – only realised afterwards it was more of an interview than a chat."
"But – net result is, we've got access to a lot of people and information floating around out there. Now, some of it's bollocks – utter bollocks. But there's some really good stuff too. The trick of course is finding out which. But potentially that might help us find information and resources in the future. Other than that, I've been getting Marius to show me how to fly, which is loads of fun. Shimazu?"
"Thanks, Hunter. Well, compared to you guys…. What I've been doing is about eight hours a day of studying and book learning for ten weeks, until my brain felt like it was jelly. That professor though – he knows his stuff! We also spent a few weeks working one to one, and he took me somewhere I think a couple of you would be really interested in." He looked over at Tads and then Aswon. "Out of the university one night, and we went off somewhere to a private house – except inside it wasn't a house, it was a set of stairs going down, into some set of catacombs under the city. And in there, was a library – stuffed full of scrolls and books and even stone tablets that felt like they should be in a museum. But we spent a week working down there with some really old stuff, and he taught me lots of stuff about how to interpret the feeling and aura given off by people."
"Once we'd got that sort of down pat – he pulled out some stuff that was even older and started to work on a technique. It's weird, and I don't know how to describe it properly. It's probably easier to try and tell you how it feels when I do it?" The others nodded at him, somewhat curious. "Well, lets see… oh, I know – you remember that guy on the roof top in Batumi, the one spying on us when we were at the airport? Well, lets say we'd snuck onto the rooftop when he wasn't there, and I'd examined the blanket he was hiding under. It's like those few minutes of sleep just before you wake up – you know it's not real, but you're still getting weird dreams. I might see things up close, like looking through his binoculars, then see faces, the people he was selling the information to. I'd get a feeling of danger, because he knew what he was doing was going to bring harm to us. Nothing concrete – but you can get a really good impression of what was going on, on an emotional level. I'm still practicing, so don't be expecting any crystal ball readings, but it is something I'm trying to improve."
The team were quiet for a few moments while they digested that, then Kai pointed at Marius.
"Well, after a very nice holiday and some time spent looking at the Pyramids, we came back and did an overhaul on the electronics on both the tilt wing and the truck. The tilt wing is even better than I thought – there's a bunch of stuff in there that is definitely *not* available on the open market, that's for sure! But I'm pretty confident that we can run the border in any third world country no problem, and with care, anywhere second line too. It's not going to make it across a top tier border without some very fancy flying, and if there are forces active in an area, that's just as bad. But it should open up a whole new set of borders for us. Next on my list was to patch in the radio comms properly, so you can all talk to me while we're flying, and I can respond back, and we've also fitted some screens in the passenger compartment as well to let whoever is in the front throw back the sensor feeds to the people there. I know it's disorienting sometimes back there, so as default the screens in the back will show the outside view to the side, creating virtual windows so you can see the horizon and such like – should stop you feeling air-sick if we're moving around a lot. I've also been putting in some time on the range and I've taught myself Spanish to the point where I think I can pass for a native speaker. Thought that might be important given what happened down in Libya."
"I do not like that we still don't know why this man was after you." Nadia glanced up at Marius, then round at the rest of the team. "It cannot be anything good, and it should be something to consider. However, we are talking about the past, not the future. As you know, after the hanger was set up, I started work on the other ideas, and thanks to Kai's generosity we have made great strides….stop that, Kai!" The team broke out into gales of laughter as Kai pulled his t-shirt up over his head and offered it to Nadia with one hand, while scrabbling around for loose change in between the cushions on the sofa with the other. "Be serious! I have made good deals! Marius, tell them!" As she whipped around to face him, the smile on his face vanished in an instant and he frowned at Kai.
"That's right. Leave her alone, she's done very good work."
"Thank you, dear." The smile returned to his face as she turned away from him, and he gave them a tiny wink. "Well, the archery range has proven useful to Kai obviously, but has also been a great hit with the visitors. The pistol and rifle range took a bit more construction, but a few nights' help from Tads was very useful of course, witch was nice." This bought a fresh peal of laughter from them and left Tads glowering at her, but knowing that if she made an issue of the pronunciation, Nadia would claim she had misheard or misinterpreted.
"The observation point and hot tubs in the gulches have also proved very popular, and the horseback rides are booked up for the next six weeks still. Overall, we've managed to sell over eighty percent of the rooms on a week by week basis, and a number of the people that have visited seemed to know of or have worked with Germaine, or be one step removed. She and I are still talking, and she proves to be an amazing source of knowledge. There are a number of other activities I'm looking into but they will involve more than the shirt off your back, Kai, I can tell you. The only thing that has not gone well is that woman you bought up from the town, Naeteri. The children are fine, but she is lazy, and constantly needs to be monitored to make sure she is working."
Kai frowned and then glanced around the team.
"Well, I think we can discuss that with the family, and work out what to do, but it's not something we need to worry about now. So, that leaves you,Tads. Just the highlights though please…"
"Well, ok then. After Shimazu, Nadia and Marius left, I set up a new lodge and then went on a dream quest, travelling back to my native lands and spent some time talking and communing with Elk, learning the ways of the forest and deepening my understanding of magic. Using Shimazu's examples, I think I've learnt much the same level of mastery over magical barriers and wards, and might now be able to use that knowledge to push through wards more easily when scouting for us all."
"Once that had done, I set about doing my first batch of work in the alchemy lab. I used the materials we bartered with Aslik, and made a whole batch of Orichalcum from it. That took me four weeks, and I think you all know better now than to come into the lab without warning. I apologise for some of my words – but after twenty days with no more than a thirty minute sleep repeated several times, apparently you get crotchety. Still – the circulation proved successful and I made nearly ten grams of Orichalcum. If we'd wanted to purchase that directly, it would have cost nearly a million Nuyen, so probably a reasonable use of my time, I feel."
"With that complete, I used a small amount of the circulation and my design and crafted this!" She held aloft her wooden staff, proudly showing it off to everyone present. Those with the "sight" could see it glowing faintly in astral space, giving off the same sense of power as Aswon's spear. It was a sturdy piece of wood, with subtle carvings intertwining in spirals all the way along the length – looking like the footprints or claw marks of various forest creatures. Some of the paw prints had tiny details recessed into them, a gem here, a tuft of wool there, a leaf somewhere else – all sealed in with a varnish made from animal products.
"Once I'd completed that, I embarked upon a series of vision quests, searching for inspiration and understanding about the spell formulas we had obtained, then spent time studying each one to gain mastery of it. As Nadia said, once I'd learned how to shape the earth I assisted her with levelling the land and setting up the berms and containment for the pistol and rifle ranges, and also preparing the ground for the proper helipad. It also made building the overlook point a lot easier, too. After that I learnt the spell to let me peer into the minds of others, then erase their thoughts, and finally how to pick up and manipulate objects remotely and move them about. " She waved her hands in the air for a moment and the T-shirt was plucked out of Kai's hands and flew across the intervening space to land on Nadia's face, making her splutter in surprise. "Which means you need to be careful what you say…" Once more the team broke into laughter as Tads proved she wasn't the only one who could make a play on words.
"And of course, I've made sure that everyone has a good supply of fresh food each day and we've had plenty of steak to eat, and for Aswon to practice his cremations. Though I will admit, that almost never happens now, and I for one am entirely happy with your culinary efforts." Aswon smiled at her
"Well, someone is getting extra peppercorn sauce tonight!"
"Nom! But joking aside, the last thing I need to tell you about is Shimazu's sword. That took a lot of effort and nearly all the remaining Orichalcum from the circulation, and considerable effort and resources – from both of us, to complete. But, it went well, and the enchantment was a complete success. His sword is probably as powerful in its own right as either of those blood spirits that attacked us when we stole the tilt wing, and when he's using it he should make short work of spirits like the first one.
Shimazu pulled out the blade from his scabbard and laid it down on the low table between them so they could all see it. The main structure of the blade was unchanged – most of the work had been done on the handle and pommel it seemed. A few teeth were set in a circular pattern around the pommel, encasing what looked like a few tiny diamonds and larger semi-precious stones in a clear gel. Linking each of the gems was a fine web of silver and copper wire, twisted in a braid and then flowing out of the gel or resin and moving up the handgrip, bound tightly into the leather to leave a diamond pattern. The braid finished at the cross-guard, each wire separating out and ending with a delicate weld into the metal of the cross pieces. In astral space there was the very faintest perception of mana flow, drawn in from the surrounding space though the gems and directed through the braid and into the blade – but the motion was so slight as to leave them wondering if it was real or imagined.
"Once he was back from the university, this took us almost two weeks to do, testing the braid and making sure the balance of the sword wasn't affected, ensuring the enchantment held – but we did it, and now it's ready. And that's pretty much me covered."
"Ok, thanks Tads, and everyone else. Hopefully everyone feels the time spent was worthwhile – but Nadia is correct, our funds have taken a beating setting this lot up and getting the ranch sorted, so it's time to go back to work." He caught his t-shirt as Nadia threw it back to him, unballed it and pulled it on over his head. As he did, the smile faded from his lips.
"Ready to go to work?"
