Date: Sunday 29/8/2060, Location: 36.02763, 52.01816

"Just before we turn in or anything… I wonder. Hunter – your new bulletin board thingy. Do you think you can do some searches on the Falcon character and find out some information?"

"Sure I can, Aswon. It'll take a while though, as I'll need to keep a low profile to avoid tipping anyone off. Let me get comfy and I'll give it a go." Hunter prepared a comfy seat, crammed a chocolate bar into his mouth and then jacked into his deck, preparing his utilities and optimising his configuration for the search. As he swallowed the last mouthful of his Mega-Chonk, he activated his masking chip and dipped into the electronic world of the matrix, his consciousness projecting into a different realm. His avatar soared through the cramped tunnel of the satellite link, tight walls squeezing in on him as he fought against the limited bandwidth of the connection before bursting out into an endless neon plain of the local telecoms grid. Taking a moment, he oriented himself and then sped off towards a mass of light on the horizon – the regional uplink to the wider world.

"Well, that's him gone for a couple of hours, I expect." Marius looked down at the comatose body, and gently pushed the mouth closed to stop drool escaping. "Is that how I look when I'm rigged in?" He saw the others nod and grimaced, but then shook his head. Not a lot he could do about it – the rigger and deck interfaces were marvels of modern technology, letting the users see and experience things that defied description… but they left the body operating on automatic, and incredibly vulnerable to interference in the "normal" world.

"While he's off chasing electronic information down, I have a question for you. I get the impression that the Condor drone isn't that fast – it's built for hover time. But how fast is your other drone? The doggy one? That's got a jet engine, right?" Aswon quirked an eyebrow at Marius.

"Doggy? Oh – The Dalmation. Yes, it's a jet engine, but no, it's nothing to do with a dog. It's pretty quick, though not really any faster than the chopper itself. So it would let us have a wider search, or search in a different area, but not any better. Principally it's used for force projection – not reconnaissance. The sensors on it are very limited – just enough to get a sensor lock on a target in the combat area so you can give it lead poisoning. It is pretty agile though, so good for manoeuvring around a target."

"I wonder how agile the target is – we might need that. Hrm. Tads – from the reports, there's been sightings of big birds. I'm not entirely sure on either the Condor or Albatross that were mentioned, but I do remember seeing and getting close to Vultures while out hunting. Those things can soar for hours on the thermals above the desert, barely having to flap at all. It's like they just float sometimes, looking down at the ground and waiting for prey. On the ground though they're as ungainly as they are ugly, so I'm not sure on the agility side of things. Big beasts though." He raised his hand up and then clenched his fingers a little, making a claw like gesture.

"Talons on them are seriously impressive – foot as big as your hand. They're quite cowardly creatures though, they'll hover around a creature and just watch it die rather than try to finish it off. But once it's stopped moving, they'll rip it to shreds in minutes. You do NOT want to be unconscious where one of those things can spot you, I tell you that much. That's one, yes!" Tads had done a quick search and pulled up a picture of the African Red-banded Vulture, in all it's disgusting glory as it dismembered a Hyena half-buried in the sand. Tads flipped to another window, and watched the image slowly appear.

"I think Hunter is using all of the satellite capacity, sorry. This is really slow. Here we go… I think. Yep." She sighed as the image disappeared and showed an error message, then refreshed the search and tried the download again. Finally the picture appeared, showing a raptor soaring through a valley, neck extended and head scanning the area below it. The long wings were extended out forming an impressive wingspan, the legs laid back against the tail forming a streamlined shape. The photographer must have been on a higher peak or mountain, as the bird was passing by underneath them, and the image showed all of the feathers in the wings splayed out for maximum lift.

"This is an Andean Condor. As far as I can see, it's not an awakened creature – but it is pretty huge. Wingspan will top three and a half metres, and it will hunt pretty up to the size of sheep, goats, boar and wolves. Not the fastest bird by some margin, but it is quite heavy and very powerful. The heaviest they've measured is seventeen and a half kilos, and it was observed travelling at nearly sixty kilometres per hour. If that hits you, I imagine it's as much force as being shot or something. Same deal with the talons and the beak as your vulture, Aswon – designed for ripping and tearing flesh. Not agile enough to take other birds out in the air, but there's nothing that would prey on it either." She tapped on the controls and waited, going through the same issues again as the data crawled down over the meagre bandwidth leftover from Hunter's decking session.

"And this is the Albatross. It's a bit smaller, and a fish hunter, rather than land game. Again, not agile, but apparently even faster – some of these will cruise at nearly seventy, and keep it up for hours on end."

"Seventy isn't that fast though, we can easily outrun that in the chopper!" Marius exclaimed.

"Ahh – but that's just the bird flying on its own. Remember when we had the spirit helping us to get up to the temple? It used its powers to help us move swiftly and without impediment. But we were on the road, stuck following the terrain and with other people around. If a spirit is helping a bird like that to move around, they're going to be quicker. A lot quicker." Aswon saw the question on Marius' lips, and shrugged a little. "I don't know how much – it depends on the spirit, how powerful it is and just how good a mage they are. But I would guess at perhaps as much as ten times faster. So yeah – somewhere between six and seven hundred kph is possible. And with their normal agility and perceptiveness – they're both hunters, with sharp reflexes, and it's their natural environment."

"Ok, I see that's an issue. And I'm guessing we can have a spirit helping us, too – but if it is, it's not guarding us or looking out for magical attacks itself?" Tads nodded to Marius, confirming his thoughts. "Well, that does make things interesting, doesn't it? And especially when we don't want to actually kill them or hurt them if we don't need to."

"I agree. And as a fellow magic user, I also don't want to hurt their magical well-being." She saw Marius look at her blankly. "Look, it's more complicated than this – but magic is a bit delicate. You can damage it by putting things in your body – that's why we mages generally steer clear of cybernetic parts. But if you get injured really badly, you can also damage your magic. So can strong shocks to the system, or big changes like drugs. That's why putting a trauma patch on a mage really should be a last resort – the drugs that save their life can also risk massive damage to their magical well-being." She turned to look at Shimazu whose head had snapped around to stare at her. She laid a hand on his knee, squeezed and smiled at him, then shook her head.

"Don't worry. Like I said, it's a last resort – but when you need to, you need to. And the alternative – death – well, that's kind of hard to work around. Besides, skilled application lessens the chances apparently, so it's not a thing that always happens. But this does potentially complicate matters somewhat."

"Something else that might complicate matters a little – if this is a shapeshifter, rather than a mage with a shapechange spell – well, that's a whole bundle of laughs." Aswon scratched at his head, putting his words in order mentally before continuing to speak. "Shapeshifters as far as I can work out, are a beast first, and a man or woman second. Their gifts are also drawbacks in some way – they're inherently magical, and are easy to spot, but very hard to pin down. Their magical nature makes them inordinately difficult to damage or knock out. A shot from a gun that would floor one of us and take us down to the ground will do the same to them…but while we'll need either Tad's soothing touch or a three month stay in the hospital, they'll just shrug it off in a few seconds. If they're a mage and a shapeshifter at the same time – I'm not sure we're equipped to deal with that!"

Kai sighed, having given up on the idea of an early night as the team exchanged ideas and thoughts, and pulled up the image of the central park area on the big rollout screen. If you can't beat them, you might as well join them….

"So, I'm guessing we'll need to keep Marius in the chopper to run the drone feeds if we have them up, or to co-ordinate sensor sweeps and radio comms, and be ready for extraction. The rest of us would need to move through the marketplace like this…" Kai moved his hands around, describing a couple of different plans for encircling and capturing a target, trying to give examples of various different smuggler marketplaces or situations he'd been in before, along with working out game-plans for different types of combined actions they could take – distractions and strikes mainly, or co-ordinated two-on-one attacks.

"I'm guessing that a lot of people will stay at the market all night, Kai?" Marius shot him a questioning look, and got a nod in return. "As I thought. If these things are only held every couple of months, they'll likely be as much social as business, lots of chances to make new contacts or check up on people. But if Falcon is a courier, and on the job – they'll probably want to leave as soon as the goods are exchanged. So it might be a way to spot them, by keeping a look on the entrance area, and watching for people leaving early?"

"Good call, Marius. If we get the heads up that someone is leaving early and we can get a drone following them, we can follow. Perhaps myself and Tads trailing the suspect, while Hunter, Shimazu and Aswon sprint round the other way to do a pincer movement? That also gives us magical options in both groups, but puts the faster people in the group that are running around to get ahead of the target."

Hunter twitched, and then opened his eyes, reaching for a drink to wet his parched mouth. The rest of the team filled him in on their discussions while he got his thoughts in order to report to them.

"First of all, I might need to stay in the chopper, too. As you're all aware, that video is still doing the rounds, and the last thing I want to do is be walking around a marketplace full of people we don't know, anyone of which might put in a sighting report to ZIC about me. Assuming there's still a bounty for information on offer."

"It's a good point – but I don't think you need to worry," said Kai. "Just wrap your neck and lower face, or put on a head dress of some kind. There'll almost certainly be a number of people with similar concerns. This isn't a shareholders' meeting – it's a shadow market. Lots of people there will have a price on their head. I really don't think it will be an issue. But anyway – what have you got for us?"

"Well, I've hit up a number of groups and forums, and been chatting with some people involved in various places about borders and couriers. I've had a few hits on 'Falcon' as a professional courier, but with some mixed results. The ones that claim to have met them, or know someone that has met them report about a fifty-fifty split between man and woman, so they're pretty good with the disguise it seems. Beyond that, they're all convinced the target is pretty big – like my kind of size I figure from the descriptions. But, people tended to notice something unusual about the uniform or clothing, or perhaps a flower in the lapel or something like that. Never much in the way of detail about the face or any distinguishing features. Or at least most of them – the ones that did seemed to remember something very prominent – like the flashing eyes, or the massive scar. Something that would be enough to throw off the identification."

"Here's a horrible thought – what if this 'Falcon' isn't a particular individual? What if it's an organisation – a number of couriers with the same abilities, or using the same techniques?"

"That wouldn't be good at all Marius. Gods, I hope not. I mean – how even do we plan for something like that?" Aswon asked. They considered for a moment, all falling silent as they tried to work out how they'd find out more details of an organisation like this. It was Tads that broke the silence first.

"Hunter – if we're going into the marketplace, I can always try to mask you with a spell. I should be able to keep it masked and covered so nobody can see it – not without breaking through my masking anyway. After all – if this Falcon is a sorcerer, then I'm not going to be casting spells at them, they're far too likely to just absorb the magic and throw something nasty back."

"I dunno, Tads. I don't like the idea. We know that ZIC have a bounty out on me, and at least a couple of us have become 'known accomplices'. I just think we need to be careful."

"I'm not saying that anything there isn't true, Hunter. But don't forget that this is a corporation looking for information. They'll release only the bare minimum to get the job done and no more – otherwise they're giving ammunition to their corporate rivals. So sure, some of that is a request that's made it onto the shadow scene. But that doesn't mean it's on the smuggler scene. Or the black market scene, or this particular market. And I agree with Kai – there's probably a lot of people that a lot of corps would like to have a chat with. Don't think yourself into indecision." Hunter snorted, but didn't argue with Shimazu's comments. Instead he reached for the cables and reconnected back to his deck.

"I'm going to try and chase up some more information. Probably be another couple of hours." With that he reconnected, and they watched his body slump as he vaulted into the world of the matrix once more.

"I still think we should do a cruise around the market and see if we can get some Hyper or a chemical that's similar. If we can get a slap-patch coated with that, and dose them up good as our first move, it's going to put a big crimp on their ability to function. It's hard to concentrate when your own heartbeat sounds like a set of drums and your clothes touching you feels like you're being slapped. It wasn't fun, but we all got dosed once to see what it was like and to try and be effective whilst under the influence, in case we ever got hit. I tell you, you can be a hardcase merc with years of fighting under your belt – but you still cry like a baby when someone hits you while you're Hypered."

"Alright – good idea then, Aswon. We'll look for some of that when we're there. Next thing then – surveillance. Marius, are we better with stealth or speed?"

"Stealth. The Condor can sit nice and high, off to one side and still get a good picture, without being in their airspace. The Dalmation is fast, but the sensors are not that good, and it's considerably louder than the Condor. Best to go subtle on this one, and hope that we can stay out of their way. Don't get me wrong though, Kai – the Dalmation will be just inside the ramp, pre-flighted and ready to go in case we need backup. But that's a last resort, as that will absolutely piss off the organisers – having a drone do a strafing run and firing fully automatic lines of fire is a guarantee. That's why I think you all need to stick to tasers and other quiet or silent weapons in there. I also wondered if I should give my mate a call, see if he's got any info on this lot?"

"Depends who you mate is, Marius, and how likely he is to turn us in or burn us, and what information he might have."

"Well Kai – first of all, Michael isn't likely to burn us – there's nothing in it for him, and he owes me one. Second, he's probably able to get some information to us on a lot of stuff. He's based in Turkey, down in Ankhara – but he works for Mossad."

"Mossad." It came out flat, with just a slight hint of incredulity.

"Yes, Mossad. What's wrong with that?"

"I'm not sure we want to draw attention to ourselves and call on favours from one of the Premier intelligence services in this part of the world. Regardless of the fact that we have nothing to do with their country or anything really affecting them, I'd rather have no dealings at all, thank you very much."

"I don't know what you're worried about?"

"They have a reputation – one I'd rather not find out if it's true or not first hand, let's leave it at that, shall we?" Kai stared at Marius until the German shrugged and reached for his coffee.

"Another thing that might happen… what if we're watching and we see the handover, but it's not to one person, but another team. If that was Falcon and some more people, or just a completely different team? I can drop a stun-ball on a group, though if there's a mage in there the same things apply as they did as previously. But how do we cope if there's as many of them as there are us?"

"We adapt, and overcome. Or we fail. But we try our best, and just adapt to the changing battlefield conditions, Tads. I've lost count of the number of merc actions that have gone sideways on me. But with a good team and people watching your back, you make do."

"Well, it's nice that you have faith in us, Aswon. Ok – another idea. What happens if we fly over tomorrow morning, and just land near the tower thing in the park, and wait to see what happens?"

"Ballsy. Very ballsy. Likely going to attract attention from the organisers, but on the other hand we might get an 'in' with them. Something to consider. It depends how much Kai is wanting to go slap his cock and balls in someone's face and say 'what about it, mister' I guess." Tads shuddered as the mental image formed, and Kai just gave her a knowing wink, causing her to blush a little.

"I'm not certain we should be taking the tilt-wing into the market itself. If they've got white noise generators and jammers going, it's going to make controlling the drones very difficult. Much better to set up somewhere a little further out and work from range."

"If we do manage to grab this person though, this Falcon – and subdue him, her or it, and get them back to the vehicle. Where do we drop them off? Are we going to take them anywhere specific?" Tads looked around at them to see how they reacted to her question.

"I don't think we can answer that until we actually grab them, or at least get into the market. There's too many variables. But don't worry, Tads, I agree with both you and Marius – I don't want to see them hurt or attacked any more than needed. You never know, we may end up working on a job together in the future." Tads nodded at Aswon, hearing the sincerity in his voice.

"Ok, I'm not sure we can go much further on that side, without more information. Let's look at the other side of this. Can we find this 'Unsubtle' team and take them out first? Anyone got any ideas on that?"

That spawned a whole new rambling conversation while they discussed the pros and cons of an assault on a team reputed to 'go hot' at the first sign of trouble. Assaulting their APC would require careful setup and planning, and they still didn't have many weapons that would be able to penetrate the armour on their vehicle. Marius claimed that he should be able to spot the APC pretty easily if it was in the footprint of the drone – after all, it wasn't very subtle, was it? However locating it then meant hitting it, and even a dawn assault against an experienced team of runners was going to get messy very quickly.

Marius was struck by a thought, though, as they planned a possible break in to their vehicle and wandered off to find Rashid. He returned a few minutes later with a fresh pot of coffee and Rashid in tow.

"Turns out that some of the ground teams that have come up here to use the mountain passes have been to markets like this – from the sounds of things even this specific market about six months ago." He grabbed a stylus and started to mark up the screen with rough drawn annotations. "Ok, here's the general area. It's an oval, about half a click wide, just under that high. Six lane round around the outside, then oval path around the whole thing halfway in, then those weird hexagonal cells inside that to meet up with the tower. At least, that's what it was like forty odd years ago before Aden had a disagreement with them." He pointed the stylus at Rashid, who took it and started to add information, trying his best to recall the conversations with previous teams who had been through the area.

"The outer area is a bit of a shanty town, full of sin-less folk trying to stick together for protection and avoid the crap out in the city. But they only go halfway in to the inner path. The market apparently keeps the inner area clear, with force if need be, so the squatters have learnt to stay out. The market takes place on the plaza area around the monument or tower, and people park up in the area in-between the shanty town and the market. The inner area is sealed off, and they check people coming into the area. There will be a lot of people, perhaps several hundred there, from all over the city and beyond."

Kai quizzed him for a few minutes, asking him about the city, the park and the markets, trying to pull additional information from him, before thanking him for his help. As Rashid headed back to his wife, Kai turned around and saw Tads sitting down in the chair next to Hunter and also relaxing into unconsciousness.

"Ahh, right. Guess she's going for a quick look." Marius nodded to him. "Ok, well, let's have some coffee while it's hot then, I guess." Kai poured them fresh mugs and they sat in silence, enjoying the brew and waiting for Tads to return with news.

It only took a few minutes, but when Tads returned, she confirmed what Rashid had said – and also that the area of the market wasn't that bad in terms of astral pollution. That would help any magical activity of course, on their side or against them…

"How do you think the data will be swapped over?" Tads asked.

"I'm guessing it will be a data drive or optical chip. It could be a data stream transmitted from one device to another, it depends how big the package is. Another one of those things we won't know until we get there I guess." Kai looked around the team and shrugged. "We really are shooting blind with this one. I hope your friend Spook recognises that. Anyway. Marius – let's assume for the moment, that we find the package, capture it and get out of the immediate area. What's our exit plan?"

"Straight up to the mountains, do a little bit of low flying with some twists and turns to throw off any pursuit, and then up and over the top, down to the coast and out over the Caspian. We know the border isn't too hot there. Once we're out over the water, we double check for tails, and when we're clear, we get back to the ranch."

"And how do we get the data to Aswon's fixer?" Tads asked.

"Probably the same way they did the transfer – optical chip and we get it sent via courier. Maybe we do a secure uplink, and transfer it electronically." Kai shrugged. "At this point, that's probably the least of our concerns."

One by one they finished their drinks and headed off to bed, finding somewhere out of the way to curl up on their camping mats and trying to have the most comfortable sleep they could. Three hours later, Hunter stretched again and opened his eyes, finding himself alone and with a cold cup of coffee.

"Oh, bollocks to you all." He grabbed his sleeping bag and made himself comfy. After all, his searches hadn't produced anything more interesting or concrete on Falcon or the details of the courier work they did, other than they had a good reputation for seeing the job through, even across tough borders with high levels of security.

Monday morning bought scattered clouds and a light drizzle, making a tiny shushing sound as it hit the thermal camouflage material and drained away. The team got up and fell into their normal routine – a good run to loosen up and keep their fitness, then back to the base for a hearty breakfast of oatcakes and whatever else Tads would agree to conjure up for them. While the others were cooking breakfast, Tads wandered around and just filled every container she could find with oats, grains, and other long-lifed staples while nobody was watching here. After all, if Rashid, Narsin, and Javad didn't see where the food came from, they had no reason to be upset or fearful, did they?

When she came back from her provisioning run, she found Hunter and Shimazu both hunched over the display, quietly discussing half a page of text. As she looked over their shoulders, she could see it was a review and feedback on the smuggler base, describing the facilities and usefulness to different crews. Hunter had written it up, and Shimazu was reviewing it, making some subtle changes here and there, or sometimes rewording a point to put a different spin on it, changing the emphasis from naivety of Rashid, Narsin and Javad to more represent that they'd only recently set up and were still establishing facilities. It took them another twenty minutes of fine-tuning to be happy with the language and nuance of the post, and then they called over Kai and Rashid to review it before they posted. Rashid seemed embarrassed by their efforts, and they could tell from the way he was looking around the base that he felt a gift was in order. Kai managed to convince him though that while yes, they liked the three of them and wished them all the best, this was really them being cynical and selfish – they wanted Rashid to prosper because he was in a really handy location for them, and if they got in early, they'd always be preferential customers…

He wasn't trying hard, and wasn't fooling anyone – but it did give Rashid a 'way out' from feeling that he owed Kai and the team a debt. Once breakfast clean-up had been dealt with, they gathered around the rough table they had used the previous night, and caught up with Hunter's search results from the night.

"So, no new leads really. Based on that, and my quick astral scout last night, I'd propose that we move a bit closer today, to let us do some more scouting."

"I thought that might be something we want to do, Tads. So I had a look around last night, before I turned in, and I think I've found us a good place." Hunter scrolled the map over from the tower, moving west and a little north, until a blue area appeared on the map – the little label said it was 'Chitgar Lake'. "Look, there's three artificial islands there. Area around it has some parks and shopping centres, so there might not be too many people living there. And I figure Marius can land on those islands fine, and then there's only one route in or out to cover, unless we get assaulted by boat – and we should see that coming. It's just far enough away that we shouldn't be obvious about watching the location, but close enough we're not spending too much time in transit. It's about twelve klicks to the tower, so I reckon Tads can be there in a heartbeat, and Marius can get a drone over in twenty minutes nice and quiet. Works?"

The others nodded in approval, and Kai clapped Hunter on the shoulder.

"Good work. Ok folks – let's load up some of the leftover fuel that Rashid got for us, and head down to the lake. We can take our time hand pumping it into the tanks, but that means we've got a maximum fuel load to work with, and as many options as possible. "

The team grabbed their gear and loaded it back into the tilt-wing, and then filled up some spare fuel tanks to strap into place, ready for the seventy kilometre journey down to the north-western edge of Tehran. Once they were all loaded up, they said their goodbyes to the crew, and then waited as they pulled the camouflage blankets out of the way using Hunter's new and improved pulley mechanism. They had a lot more rope to heave, but it was considerably easier, and instead of lifting from a single point, the multiple attachment points now lifted up the material in a much more broad shape rather than the angular V shape that had been present before – and Marius had metres to spare on either side as they gently lifted off and drifted out into the valley, before swinging to the south and running the canyons to head away from the smuggler stop.

They flew west for a while, and then swung south, emerging from the mountains close to the city and not on a bearing that would lead any observers back to the mountain hideout. The mountains and the land to the south were a dull ochre, parched and barren-looking. They could spot where gardens had been before by the patches of lush verdant green fed by wells or aquifers, or the brown patches with uncommonly straight lines, showing gardens that had dried out and died. Marius kept them reasonably low as they came into the city, though he had to rise up over the occasional string of high voltage lines that criss-crossed the foothills.

As they flew down, the sensor feed showed everyone in the back the same view that Marius and Hunter were seeing from the cockpit. The city was in ruins, tower blocks collapsed, cars abandoned and overturned, plastic and debris lying around in mounds where it had been blown or abandoned, subject to the ravages of time. The cars weren't even that rusty – the dry air having preserved them remarkably well, at least to look at. No doubt every crevice would be clogged with dirt and sand, though.

As they slowly closed on the outskirts of the city they could see the signs of fires that had burnt out of control, vast claw marks that had ripped the corners out of buildings, tearing away their structural supports and causing them to collapse in a chain of destruction that had toppled their neighbours one after another.

As they closed on the lake, their attention was drawn to the east by signs of intense carnage. A huge low rise housing development covered several square kilometres – or at least it had. Starting near them was a rough furrow that had been carved through the buildings and into the very earth, running ruler straight to the east. As it travelled through the city blocks, it got steadily wider and wide, until it terminated in a massive crater, easily a hundred and fifty metres across. Around it, all the buildings were blown outwards, destroyed by the blast wave of whatever had hit, burnt and blackened by intense heat. Tads made a noise without being aware of it, a choking combination of sadness at the implied loss of life, and appreciation for the level of magical power required.

"That…. that was some fireball. I mean… well. Look, I think we all know where that came from. All I'm seeing is that if that hits you, you're dead. End of story. No walking away from that. Regardless of if we're in an armoured vehicle or not."

They did a slow circuit in the air, getting a feel for the area and seeing what they could spot on the sensors. It looked like a ghost town, only a few thermal signatures showing, and it was hard to tell if that was people hiding in the buildings or packs of wild dogs feasting on some prey. Marius swung them around and headed for the lake – which looked smaller than it did on the map, barely five hundred metres across. As they came closer and lower, they saw more destruction around the outside, less massive than the killer fireball or meteor strike to the east, looking more like some giant creature had just rampaged through the air smashing buildings and knocking out entire sections of pre-fabricated walls. The shopping centre was a total write-off, but the three islands were still intact, though larger now than the mapped showed – it looked like the lake had evaporated in the hot conditions by a considerable amount, indicating that much less water was reaching it than before.

Marius selected a landing spot, and bought them in with his customary skill, setting them down lightly amidst a plume of dust, and then lowered power to the rotors, trying to still the sand and debris and restore visibility, without powering down entirely – just in case they needed a quick getaway. It was all calm and quiet though, and after a minute of observations, he powered down completely, letting the throbbing rumble of the engines die away, until just the mournful howling of the wind remained.

Around them lay the northern regions of the city, and on the ground they could appreciate the devastation that had been wrought more fully. A large number of buildings showed fire damage – whether from the breath weapons of dragons and drakes themselves, from the casting of high-power fireball spells or more mundane sources such as broken gas lines that had ignited – but the scars wrought on the city were plain to see. Taller tower blocks showed damage to their sides and corners, where large chunks of material had been ripped from the building and then flung or had been allowed to fall to the ground below, causing craters and carnage in the area surrounding them.

It was clear that not all of the damage had the same signs of attack – Aden must have had allies or assistance of some kind. Some of the rend marks were smaller, and probably the sign of a number of drakes flying along with their master, duplicating his efforts on a smaller scale. Other buildings looked like something had punched out holes from the inside – Tads explained that it was probably city spirits or earth elementals, magical forces that had been summoned and had then materialised inside the buildings and striking outwards, channelling their force to damage building cores and structural columns to force them to collapse.

The area around them seemed secure, though – no sign of movement or life, hostile or wretched. Marius got the Condor drone out and inflated the giant lifting bag, then activated his rigger interface, feeding in the silhouette and parameters for the Wolverine APC and the large birds that were thought to be associated with Falcon, and then piloted the drone up and to the east, sending the drone higher and higher to avoid interference with anything or anyone that might be in the area.

As he flew over the ruins of the city, he saw evidence of subsidence under many of the roads, presumably flash floods from the intermittent rainstorms, and abandoned or crashed vehicles on many of the roads. The main highways and routes looked to be clearer though, with evidence that someone had pushed or dragged crashed vehicles over to one side of the road, clearing at least some of the lanes to allow passage. Probably local gangs or warlords, who could then charge for passage through their turf, he thought.

As the Condor made its way towards the target, he started to see signs of life and movement. Scavenger crews darting from building to building, moving cautiously and quickly. Heat signatures of small clumps of meta-humans hiding amongst ruins. A pack of perhaps a dozen dogs, racing through the street, chasing some target that he couldn't see. As the drone covered the ground, he started to pick up sensor ghosts – heat-signs that barely registered, movement that was seen by the trail left on the ground, rather than the movement itself – all indicating that various magical or paranormal critters were at work in the city too.

While he was flying over, the others chatted, keeping a wary eye out towards the shoreline and around the lake. They remembered the spitting pike they had encountered up at Ludmilla's dam, and nobody got too close to the water, just in case.

"This place looks like a nightmare to navigate. Collapsed buildings everywhere, unsafe structures, who knows what living in the warrens. I certainly don't want to go running into an environment like that at night."

"I agree, Aswon. What do you think are the odds that they'll seek out a local guide? Someone who knows the area?"

"They might Tads – it depends if they've been here before or have any contacts. I think it's more likely they'll land or base themselves quite close to the edge of the sprawl. Get off the highway or road, and turn, perhaps three twists or turns in, just far enough to ensure you're not being actively pursued – but not far enough to get lost."

Marius activated the speakers after a while, informing them that he was close to the market location, and starting to circle. He described what he'd flown over, detailing the blocks of carnage and wrecked accommodation, mixed in with some areas that had been spared the worst of the destruction first hand, but appeared to have suffered from the decades of neglect. Some areas like the railyard to the north west of the market or the warehouses to the south west seemed to be unaffected – but mostly abandoned. It looked like during the attack, the violence had been carefully and clearly aimed at the residential buildings, striking at the heart of the population and their ability to live in the city.

The strikes had taken out residences, sewer systems, water pumping stations, dropped buildings at key junctions and had created chaos across the city, making it effectively uninhabitable for the millions of people that had lived there, and no doubt causing mayhem as the citizens who hadn't been killed fled en-masse. Once enough people fled in panic, the reaction would probably have been self-sustaining, robbing the city of the people needed to keep it functional. The pattern of the attack indicated not only high intelligence, but also a deeper understanding of how the humans here would likely react, and what their essential needs were.

Armed with that information, and an updated map, Tads projected from her body and followed along behind the drone's path, assensing their route and the feel of the city. Some of the burnt-out or collapsed buildings were not too bad astrally – the four decades since the attack having worn away at the emotional content and gently wiping away the horror. Other buildings were still twisted and corrupt – probably where the modern day scavengers and desperate survivors clung to their pathetic grasp on life, scrabbling from day to day to escape the horrors of the city and get enough food and water to sustain themselves.

Still – those buildings could at least probably be ruled out as locations they needed to watch. If Falcon was a mage, they would no more want to try and cast their spells amidst that background horror than Tads would. She spent a while flitting around the city, examining from afar and making sure she got just a general sense of the area, rather than scouting out the buildings or areas too closely. The last thing she wanted to do was disturb a pack of awakened critters that would decide she was a suitable meal, or trip an alarm from some other team or organisation that was hiding out here.

That marked the pattern for the next hour or two. Tads would go out for a scout, examine a few city blocks and then come back and describe her experience, while Aswon overlaid the map with her astral impressions, marking bad places to avoid and neutral places that might bear further interest. Similarly, Hunter received the data from Marius via their linked systems, and he updated the map with the pass-ability of roads, sites of subsidence, heat clusters or suspected paranormal threats to pass on to Tads for a scout. With every map update, Shimazu and Kai looked at the impact on the area, trying to work out how any populous would survive there, what they were likely to do, or how well defended their positions would be. Gradually the corridor of "explored" area expanded from the initial spoke aimed at the tower, gradually encircling it and providing them with a much better idea of what they were likely to find.

A little after lunchtime, they spotted a few large vans arriving at the eastern end of the park, driving through the shanty town and towards the plaza. Marius steered the drone into position to observe them, and the next time Tads returned from a scouting trip, they advised her of the change and she dashed off to observe astrally.

A couple of men emerged from the vans, opening doors and grabbing supplies out, then spread out around the park to begin work. Carrying large sledge hammers, they began to mark out areas by driving metal spikes into the ground and then stringing up orange rope between them, creating spaces about fifteen meters square. They didn't seem to be working at speed, and would mark out an area, leave a space, mark out a second and then stop for a cigarette or a drink. There wasn't precision to their plan, but they seemed to have a general idea of what to do, laying out the spaces in a vague checkerboard pattern, and working to cover the middle 'ring' of the park, mostly at the western, northern and southern sides, leaving the east empty.

Returning from her first scouting run, Tads posed a question to the others.

"Do you think we should head closer, until we can get line of sight to them? I could try probing their thoughts, find out what they know?"

"Absolutely not!" The team turned towards Aswon, surprised by his quick reaction. "I think it's way too risky. We're running a risk with the drone and astral flights, a low one but still a risk that someone will notice us. But it's a reasonable risk for the reward. But I think you need to consider the difference between flying over that distance as an astral form in a few seconds, and taking half an hour to drive over there on a motorbike, through those streets. I promise you, there's a world of difference between flying over something like that and moving through an urban area at ground level, with all those building crowding you in. Without the benefit of free movement, your escape options become far more limited, and your vulnerability rises dramatically. There's a reason you see troops being ferried about in helicopters so much."

"I hadn't thought of it like that Aswon, so ok. Maybe it's not such a good idea anyway."

"Besides which, though it would get us information, I'm not sure how useful it would be. These guys aren't rushing, or being too careful. They're probably just low level minions or gophers, and might not know anything valuable." Kai added, "let's watch for a bit more, and then re-evaluate if we need to."

The workers continued to mark out the areas, and when they'd completed about fifty spots, grabbed their gear and got back in the vans, heading closer to the plaza. They were joined by another vehicle soon, carrying more supplies. This one had modular security fencing inside, along with the struts and feet needed to erect it. Again, the workers seemed to have a general plan, and unhurriedly laid out a perimeter fence around the plaza or inner ring, separating it from the middle ring where the fifty marked spaces were. They did notice that the shanty town in the outer ring didn't seem to care or react to the work, indicating that they didn't see it as either a threat or an opportunity. That in turn suggested that it had happened this way at least several times before, and was to some extent 'routine'.

Around half past three, another vehicle turned up, joining the three already there, and the workers gathered around it and began to offload some more supplies. The security fencing at both the east and west end of the plaza had been left open, forming two gateways into the central area, though the one at the western end was at least twice as big as the eastern end. The workers put up another selection of security fencing, forming an octagonal shape at the west – seeming to take a bit more care and attention to the shape on this one. At the eastern end they pulled out some of the new supplies, putting up large tents or small marquees, spread out in a horseshoe shape around the eastern end of the plaza.

"Hey – have you noticed. None of this stuff is powered, and there's no EM transmissions. This place is electronically dark, no power, no telecoms, no matrix. All the stuff they've done is passive." Marius trailed off as he thought for a moment, then resumed from the speakers. "I've just pulled the drone up a bit, and deliberately lowered the sensor resolution to have a look. If someone has either a general satellite tasked to the city, or a high altitude drone doing general surveillance, then this is pretty much impossible to spot. Probably will be until the market kicks off, and that doesn't leave much time to report to someone, get it analysed, for someone to make a decision and get a strike team together.

While they were putting up the tents, sweating on the manual lines and large canvases with manual tools in the baking summer sun, Marius took the drone around the area, looking to see if he could spot any more of the plain white vans that they seemed to be using, wondering if he could spot a staging area.

He didn't, but he did spot something else. He had to compare to the earlier surveillance to spot some of them, but there were at least four new vehicles, spread around the tower at a couple of kilometres range. He moved the drone about, slewing the sensors to get a side view on the location and confirm details, spotting various non-descript trucks, vans and cars, or vans and bikes clustered around, with some heavily armed people kicking back in the shade.

He informed the team, and then started to feed live video through to the screen for the others to watch. There were no uniforms present, and very little cohesion between them. Disparate weapons system, various styles of dress, some with almost no armour, some emulating walking tanks and regretting their life choices in the thirty degree heat even in the shade. The realised they were looking at other teams – spotting the kind of general loose patterns amongst them as they'd seen at the Quarry or the fuel stop near the highway. There was a street samurai, heavily armed or armoured. Someone in the loose fitting and free movement clothing that indicated a physical adept or martial arts specialist. Someone with an armoured briefcase or working on some technical systems – either deckers or riggers. People just sitting back and relaxing, reading books – maybe the negotiators or mages of the teams.

"I think I know why they're here. Or I've got a good guess, at least." Kai pointed out their locations, and then drew paths down major roads or passable highways to each location. "They're coming for the market, but are either the cautious ones that want to scope out the place same as us, or the ones that have travelled a fair way and just not run into any trouble, or had a smooth crossing. They'd allowed time in their schedule for anything that might go wrong, but this time nothing did. So they've got here early and have found a handy place to stop, mostly out of the way. I bet they're going to sit there until about eight tonight, then move out and head for the market."

"Seems like a reasonable explanation. Let's not disturb them then. I figure if we spotted people watching us here, we'd probably get a little antsy and decide to do something about it." Aswon tapped a finger on his rifle, instantly conveying his meaning to the rest of the team."

"I agree," came out of the speakers. "I'm pulling the drone back, and just going for a general look on the area now. However, seeing the kind of people coming here, does make me think we're less likely to have trouble from being spotted. Just by virtue of the equipment they have and the cyberware probably implanted in some of those people, they're illegal as all hell, and no doubt all have bounties on them for the things they've done. So as long as Aswon doesn't take his spear in and get recognised as having some priceless artefact, I think we're good."

"Pffft! My spear? I think we're be better being concerned about Shimazu's sword to be honest. Mine was probably sitting in that temple for hundreds if not thousands of years. His sword was sitting in a museum thirty kilometres up the road and implicated in a break-in that saw unique religious texts stolen! I think that's far more likely to draw attention than my spear. Even then, I don't think we should worry. There's probably not going to be a moment when Shimazu doesn't have his hand on his hilt just in case, so nobody should see it."

"He's probably not wrong." Shimazu shrugged. "I need to keep hold of it anyway to look around astrally, so I'm not planning on letting it go."

The afternoon marched on, and they continued to watch as the advance team set up the market. As they got to about half past five and started to prepare to leave for their journey to pick up Anahita, they saw the crews relaxing at little, standing around talking and passing a bottle around the group of them.

The fifty or so spots around the middle ring of the park were all laid out, with as much space between them generally as there was inside them. Some new ones had been marked out to the east while Marius was examining the other teams – these seemed to be in a ring, centred around one spot and looked more like a defensive perimeter, which was interesting.

The security fencing around the plaza was only about two metres high, and didn't appear to have barbed wire or spike atop it. There were pieces of equipment every two panels, mounted on poles – at a guess these were either lights or low level cameras. But either way, it was a very basic defence. It looked very similar in some ways to a lot of exterior fences on corporate compounds. It wasn't supposed to stop a serious attempt to cross the line – it was more to make it very clear that a line existed. And if you crossed the line, you accepted that some effort had been made, it couldn't be accidently wandered over. Therefore, whoever caught you could feel justified in opening fire or releasing the hounds on you… or capturing you and selling your for your organs, depending on which corporation or what organisation you were bothering.

They packed their gear away, secured it in the cargo area and then strapped in, while Marius finished the pre-flight checks. When they were ready, he carefully bought up the power, then rose vertically out of the dust storm created from the down-draft, before transitioning to forward flight and heading east, swinging wide around the tower and avoiding getting any closer than he had to, as they headed towards the city park to meet Kai's friend.

Kai pulled out his phone, and had just got as far as typing 'Anahita, we're on our way' when his phone rumbled in his hand, displaying an incoming call from her. He stabbed at the answer key, making sure the phone was linked with the earbud and throat mike set so he could hear and be heard over the noise of the engines.

"Kai, I'm under attack! Please! HURRY!"

"Keep moving, we're almost there." He changed channel, broadcasting to the team. "Heads up, Anahita is under attack. More speed please, Marius, everyone else stand by to deploy."

The tilt wing surged ahead, nosing down a few degrees as Marius threw power to the engines and their speed shot up rapidly. Even over the noise of the turboshafts picking up speed, the metallic clicks and clunks of magazines being checked and slapped into receivers and charging handles being racked and released echoed around the troop compartment. Tads steadied the viewing system on her head, and clicked the prism around until she could see down and to the front of the craft, watching the ruined city stream past her as she looked for threats.

"Targets! 11, 12, 1 o'clock, moving through the woods. One heat source, thirty metres ahead, running and evading." The usual jovial nature was gone, and Hunter's voice was cold and analytical as he fed information from the sensors through to them, and a moment later they saw targeting information overlaid. The single heat source moving through the trees appeared to stumble and fall, then get to their feet and continue zigging and zagging, pursued by other weak heat signatures. Once again the lead source fell, slamming into a tree.

"Oh crap. I've got multiple spirits pursuing the lead target, I think they're using their accident power on them, making them trip and stumble. They're not that big, but they look icky – might be toxic spirits!"

"Oh fantastic. So there's probably a twisted shaman down there as well." Aswon seemed torn between having his rifle in hand, or his spear as his primary weapon.

The lead shape burst out of the trees and bushes, staggering onto a path and running along it as fast as they could. Only a few metres behind came the first of the pursuers. By now Marius had the sensors on a tight lock, the visual pickups zoomed in and displaying the events like they were only a few metres away.

The creature that burst out of the woods was gaunt and thin, with mottled pale skin and long gangly limbs. A few remnants of clothes flapped around them, and they appeared to be barefoot. They stopped for a moment, raising their head to sniff the air, and for just a moment, the picture was steady enough to reveal their milky white eyes and the sharp talons that adorned the ends of their hands. It was hard to tell who said it first – but both Aswon and Tads called out in alarm.

"GHOULS!"

"I think it might be time to see if these door guns work. Stations!" Kai called out. He unclipped from the seat and moved to the port side door, attaching his belt to the lanyard screwed into the door frame, then popped open the box that ran up the side of the sliding door. The medium machine gun popped out as the panel swung clear, held aloft by the gyro-adjusting arm. As he worked the action and fed in a 7.62mm round into the breach, he heard Aswon deploying the gun on the starboard side, and felt Hunter rushing past behind him towards the rear ramp and the third gun mounted to the side of the ramp. Tads stayed in her seat, calling out positions and information on the ghouls and spirits as they chased after what could only be Anahita, while Shimazu planted himself squarely between Kai and Aswon, standing just behind them so he could also just about see Marius. If any spirit was foolish enough to enter the craft, it was going to have an interesting experience.

As the side doors slid open and the tail ramp dropped, inside became a swirling maelstrom of wind currents. Talking became difficult, loose paperwork and wrappers were flung around the inside like a miniature twister before being sucked out of the rear door, and communication because even more difficult than it normally was.

Marius angled them down, still accelerating to bring them to the park as quickly as possible, trying to intercept the pursuing ghouls before they reached the target. And then, over the comms, they head a droning noise, a little tuneless but one of those popular soundbites that seemed to be universal for some reason.

"Dum de di dum dum, dum de di dum dum, dum de di DUM DUM, DUM DIDI DEEE!"

Well, at least Hunter was having a good time…