Date: Monday 30/8/2060, Location: 35.69972, 51.33722, Time: 23:05

The phone of each of the three teams buzzed as Marius sent them a text message.

Concerned, not seen Falcon arrive. Missed?

Aswon responded quickly, typing in one handed as he walked behind Hunter, using his body as cover.

Maybe crew? Maybe just missed? Invisible? Watch for tent movement, check thermos?

Tads, anything astral?

Tads dropped into Astral and looked around, but other than the few watcher spirits floating around overhead, there wasn't really much activity. She could spot a few physical adepts and mages in the crowd, not masking – but no active spells or effects, no foci – and certainly no spirits actively concealing a person moving around.

Nothing

They watched as team Unsubtle reached the tent, and lifted the flap up to enter. They caught a sliver of the inside, showing drapes or fabric hanging from the inside, forming a cosy space with cushions on the floor and soft yellow lighting – presumably from some kind of gas or battery lantern. Hunter murmured to Aswon as he saw the setup.

"Tricky. Hard enough to get a laser mike to read off of tents – with an air gap and separate fabric – nah, not going to happen. It'll probably muffle the sound a fair bit as well. Think you can filter out the noise from here?"

"I'm going to try, but we'll probably have to go closer. Can you keep an eye out for people watching me, while I listen?" Aswon saw Hunter nod, and then consciously started to filter out the noises, tuning them out one by one as he identified each and then listening to the ever-mounting quiet. He could hear the sound of talking from the tent, but he couldn't make out the words clearly. Slowly he drifted closer, absentmindedly weaving across the rough concrete and trusting Hunter to watch his back.

In the second pair, Tads was watching the area with intense concentration, trying not to move around at all or do anything that would distract her whilst she carefully swept the area looking for the slightest hint of an astral glow that would indicate a spell or spirit at work. She whispered to Shimazu while she kept up her surveillance.

"Can you text Marius, ask him for another sweep of the area. See if he can spot something we missed the first time?" She heard the quiet tapping of keys next to her, and presumed that it was in hand. Indeed it was – and a moment later, Marius started a methodical search from the tent, spiralling outwards in a grid and looking for any anomalous readings such as out of place shadows, bulges in silhouettes or repeated patterns from a camouflage cloak.

While Aswon listened intently, he had a quick look at the guard who was now wandering away from the tent, having seen the Unsubtle team inside. Wearing black trousers and a medium-weight black shirt he was somewhat hard to pick out in the darkness. A red tie was fastened around the neck, with no logo or contrast detail. A quick glance down showed practical and sturdy shoes, and a black harness wrapped around both armpits and crossed at the back, giving a subtle point to hang a small machine pistol from. Not the heaviest gun going, but good for covering an area, or dealing with the average person in lightly armoured clothing. A quick look around the market, and he could spot at least a few others wearing the same outfit – presumably all security from the organiser. He guessed there would be at least one or two above, and probably with heavier weapons, where the height advantage would make them very hard to avoid or deal with.

Hunter watched over the market, looking from stall to stall and watching for anyone that might be keeping an eye on them. The market probably had over a hundred people in it now, and more were still arriving. Most people were looking outwards though, towards the stalls, and it was only those coming in towards the food area that were generally looking their way at all.

Anahita put her arm on Kai's for a moment and then wandered off without a word, heading in towards the centre. He wondered where she was going, but kept his eyes over towards the tents, keeping an eye on the back side of the structure and watching for anyone entering or exiting the tent under the edge, wondering if someone was going to slyly ooze in to join the meeting.

He didn't have the best position here, so he turned and headed down the gap between two of the stalls, threading his way round past the vehicles at the back and wandering along the fence line, trying to work around to a better position. He'd only made it past the first stand when one of the security operatives stepped out of the darkness.

"This area is private. You should stay in the market!" The English was accented but understandable.

"Oh, sorry, I was looking for the toilets. Where are they?"

"Outside market if you need to go."

"Ahh, right, I see. Shall I follow you your way?"

"No, go back the way you came. Go now." Kai turned and retraced his steps, the man watching him all the way. When he stepped out into the market area proper, the guy stood and watched him for a few more moments, then turned back and went around the rear, looking at the stalls, vehicles and floor as he did so. He'd only been back a few moments when he saw Anahita return with a pair of coffee cups and a small tray of soy-meat in hot sauce to nibble on. She approached him and handed over his refreshments.

"Thought this might help us keep watch, explain why we're just standing around." Kai nodded and smiled at her in thanks, took a sip and then returned to his vigil, watching the tent.

Working back through footage, looking for first person into tent. Might be a while only half the team took their eyes off the tent, one from each pair checking the message from Marius while the other stayed 'eyes-on'. Back in the chopper, Marius kept the surveillance running but started to work backwards through the recording, looking for someone to enter the tent before Unsubtle did.

He got a hit and checked the time stamp – about 22:50. So they'd arrived about a quarter hour before Unsubtle joined them. He paged back through the recording slower now, watching the figure until they passed by a strong enough light to get more than rough shape data. Unfortunately, because he'd not been watching specifically for this area, he had only the general footage and there was a limit to the detail visible even with digital zoom.

However, now he knew what he was looking for, and had the figure in the light, he could get some additional details, and he started to rapidly type in a description to flash out to the team.

Female, av. height & build. Dark col trousers, green / red top. Small backpack. Medium hair. No marks/tattoos visible. Arrived 22:50. Continuing to trace

With the team alerted, he continued to work backwards, working through the footage and watching the meandering path the woman had taken, noting down the stalls visited, people brushed up against, what she had been doing… it was a slow and painful task, even with computer support.

Should we have a team at each exit Tads sent out to the group. She looked up and around, but could still only see the pair of watcher spirits flitting around on patrol that she'd seen earlier. They were fairly low in power, but typical for what mages would commonly use as astral spies or tripwires.

Gd idea, but no. See what happens Kai responded a moment later.

Their attention was diverted momentarily from the west as a loud cheer rose from the fighting arena as someone finished a fight with a spectacular attack. Aswon frowned as the additional sound overwhelmed what he could make out, and he took a few steps closer while concentrating on filtering out the unwelcome noise. The few steps made a crucial difference, and right at the edge of audibility, he could pick up enough of the words that he could get some detail and context.

"So, I have this job opportunity, but it needs to be a nice, clean job. No fuss, and no carnage to clear up. Nothing that makes the news the next day, clear?" The voice was female, speaking in slightly accented English.

"But how will we know we really succeeded if there's not a massive crater?" a deep and rough sounding voice rumbled. Probably the dwarf, thought Aswon – not enough tuskiness about it to be the troll.

"Right on, Gorgon!" The voice was metallic and synthesised, and almost certainly belonged to the heavily chromed leader of the team. It sounded like there was an enthusiastic high-five following this, then a deep sigh. He listened a little more, as the job was discussed in abstract terms, with the Unsubtle team not apparently caring for a stealthy break-in, and wanting to discuss noisy options instead. Aswon almost felt sorry for the woman as he quickly tapped away on his PDA before concentrating again.

Seems like a Johnson or Job Offer. Not courier?

As he tuned back in, there was laughing from several people, and some irate language, then the sound of the woman giving a curt brush-off.

"Clearly, you're not the team I'm looking for. In fact, clearly I don't think you'll ever be the team I'm looking for."

"Wouldn't wanna work for you anyway, you daft bitch." The metallic voice still managed to put disdain and contempt into the response, and a moment later the tent flap was thrown aside and the woman emerged, stomping away from the meeting with a look of thunder on her face. Her small backpack was held in one hand, knuckles gripping it so tightly her fingers had gone white.

Watch for brushoffs! Kai sent, and the team all watched carefully, wondering if this was all part of an act to decoy away from the data handover. Tads was already looking in astral space, and decided to assense the woman, trying to get a read on her emotional state. It wasn't difficult though – rage boiled off of her, and her furious visage didn't read like an act at all.

The heavily-cybered team leader came out of the tent then, and bent down to pick up a small rock from the ground. Adjusting his stance so his legs were wide apart, he pulled his arm back, while sighting on the back of the woman's head as she marched towards the food area.

Tads was just getting ready with a levitate spell to try and catch the rock, but she was a moment too late – the arm wound up and then flicked forwards, the rock leaving it like a missile. It flew straight and true, and smacked into the back of her head, causing her to stumble forwards and give a small shriek of pain.

The woman turned, one hand rubbing the back of her head furiously whilst the other gripped her pack. When she bought her hand round in front of her, dark viscous fluid dripped from it, and she quickly replaced the hand to her hair, applying pressure. She shouted across the space between them, and Hunter listened as she let rip with a very impressive string of Farsi, that as far as he could tell left any listeners in no doubt at all about the state of his parents, his sexual prowess, his predilection for sexual relations with a variety of animals and just what he could do with a traffic cone. Mixed in with the tirade though was the name of the chromed runner – "Modulo".

More of the Unsubtle team pushed their way out of the tent, and stood laughing at her while Modulo stared her down, jeering at her when she turned and stomped off to the south west. Half the team watched her go, while the others stayed on Unsubtle, watching to see if they still had the big pack and looking for any other changes.

One of the guards strode briskly across the concrete, heading from somewhere near the larger tent, and as he closed in on Unsubtle his hand gripped his machine pistol – still kept downwards, but ready to raise at a moment's notice. Aswon listened carefully to what he had to say.

"Sir, as you are aware, fighting is not allowed in the market unless it is done in the fighting pit."

"So what, what are you going to do about it?" Modulo looked down at the man, his shoulders flexing.

"Nothing sir. I'm just making sure you know the rules. You will not be extended a second chance."

"Fuck off, get out of my face. And take your second chance and use it to wipe up the mess your mother made." The guard cocked his head to one side, paused for perhaps ten seconds, and then turned and wandered back towards the large tent, ignoring the noises made by Unsubtle.

Aswon watching him go, but before the man could reach the tent, the flap opened and a second man appeared. Similar in build, perhaps late twenties, certainly a local from the facial features and the skin tone. He walked past the guard, heading towards Unsubtle – then Aswon noticed a key difference. Dressed in black trousers and shirt, like the others, this man wore no tie, and his shirt was open. He also walked with a certain swagger…. Aswon nudged Hunter.

"Think they upset the boss!"

Shimazu and Tads on the other side of the tent saw the retreating woman, still holding her hand to the back of her head with the other holding on to the small backpack. He started to follow her, tracing her as she moved towards the entrance of the market. He had to push through the crowds as he went, and with his peripheral vision saw someone busy in the ring with a mop and bucket. It seemed that the previous fight had been fairly brutal and messy – that certainly explained the dense crowd.

Back at the tent, the tie-less man arrived, and squared up to the Modulo. He wasn't as tall, and was only half as broad – and looked unenhanced, compared to the metallic head and twitching of the large street samurai. Yet that didn't stop him standing directly in his path, putting his hands on his hips and addressing the Shadowrunner.

"You. Yes, you. Don't throw shit, or else."

"Or else what?" The shoulders rolled back, and the grin widened, revealing a row of sharpened metallic teeth. His attempts to intimidate the man didn't seem to bear fruit though.

"Or else – just don't. You'll regret it." One hand came off the hip, and pointed at the broad chest only thirty centimetres from him. As he did so, two blue dots appeared on the chest, barely wavering. The street sam took a step back, perhaps expecting the man to suddenly flick his face if he looked down – only when he was a metre away did he look down at where the finger pointed at his heard and the two blue dots hovered.

"They're pretty steady, guards up the tower I guess. Maybe not sniper qualified, but still, well trained. A double tap, he's not going to dodge both I'd say," Hunter whispered to Aswon.

The leader of the team looked up, then raised his hands out to the side, palms facing up.

"Hey, I was just joking, just having a laugh. No real damage caused, I was just messing about. No big deal. No trouble here!" The tone was light, but the facial expression said otherwise – but still washed over the smaller man. Another second of pointing, then he lowered his hand, pivoted and headed back to the large tent, not looking back behind him. Both blue dots stayed focussed on the big street Sam until there was plenty of distance between the two, then they winked off, one after another.

Trace complete. Arrived solo motorbike 21:45. Entered, drink, wandered, headed to tent for 22:50. No other contacts

Good work Marius. Stand by, keep monitoring Kai had barely finished sending his response, when he got a text from Tads.

Can we find out prices on the African slaves? If they are from anywhere near Aswon, might prevent an issue? Kai read the message twice, thought for a moment, then sent back a quick acknowledgement, before sending out a longer message to the whole team.

S+T, head outside, Marius guide to M/bike. S – slash tires to prevent escape. Both stay out, on watch. H+A, trail woman, sure she has the data now

Aswon started to bash at the keypad, then got frustrated with what he was trying to type, and instead called Kai.

"Boss, I'm pretty sure that she doesn't have the data – they still do. It just felt far too much like an interview or hiring meeting. His reactions coming out, they're just wrong for someone that would have just handed over a load of data. Do you think he's that good an actor? He might have half killed her with that rock…"

"I don't know about him, but I think she's a good enough actress to pull it off. There's something wrong here, and I don't like it. It just feels like she's manipulating things. Stay on her. I'll get Marius to watch the other team."

"Alright, you're the boss…" He disconnected, and then he and Hunter started to move around the south side of the market, heading for the entrance and looking for their target – at least they had seen her now and knew what colours to look for. They had to slow abruptly as Unsubtle appeared from behind the tower leg, heading towards the stalls on the south side to browse. They angled in slightly, making sure they didn't get too close and wandered past them, trying to pass unnoticed in the crowd.

Tads was on the north side of the market, nearing the entrance and watching as Shimazu passed through and out in the darkness. As she looked around, she stumbled a little as she watched the woman marching up to a stall, and waving at the owner.

Um-lady at Ogluk rocket shop. Looks angry. Big boom?

Around the marketplace several other people also nearly stumbled as they read the message, and wondered just how pissed off the woman might be. An RPG at close range would make a pretty big dent in anyone – no matter what cyberware they were packing!

Might be cover for a dead drop arrived from Marius, bringing them back to reality. That made sense, though was nowhere near as funny to imagine. By now each of the team had formed a certain desire to see Unsubtle get their comeuppance, one way or another.

Tads stopped and turned to watch the crowd at the fighting pit for a moment, trying to see what was going on out of the corner of her eye.

Ogluk using first aid kit. Think they are friends she sent. Certainly there was at least some familiarity between them, and Ogluk waved away a customer to deal with the injury.

Hunter and Aswon watched as Unsubtle headed for the slaver stall, located about half way along the southern edge. The team headed to the side, and looked to be entering negotiations with the stall holder, pointing at the various slaves as if discussing which movie to rent from a store. They muttered to each other with their thoughts about the team, unaware that Marius was echoing their comments to himself in the quiet cockpit as he watched from above. Unsubtle seemed to be having a spirited argument amongst themselves through, as they tried to choose between two of the slaves.

While they argued, Kai and Anahita were moving around the north side of the market towards the entrance, to get a view on the woman and track her. Their journey was somewhat disrupted when an enormous cheer went up around the fighting pit, and a number of extra people congregated on the area, hemming them in and slowing their progress.

"Look up there, Kai." Anahita pointed to a lit wheel, divided up into various sized slices. They ranged from 'first blood' to 'death' with a number of categories in-between – but the wheel currently pointed to the smallest of the slices possible, a single 'click' on the spinning wheel, and on it was painted the word 'FREEDOM!'.

"Pretty rare, and the fights are always to the death – but honour demands that the slave does get set free, and they're untouchable for the night by anyone at the market. After that, they're fair game – if anyone cares. But betting is always pretty hot on the fights, as the stakes are so high." Kai frowned as Anahita explained, but there wasn't much he could do about this. They pushed on, trying to work through the crowd until they could see the woman still at Ogluk's stall, waiting by the side of his stall while he dealt with a customer.

Further around the arc, Aswon and Hunter headed past the slavers and towards Mr Rand's store, hoping to avoid attention with a bit of shopping. He welcomed them back, and Aswon started to discuss first aid supplies and kits with him, while Hunter moved around a little so he could look bored and stare at the market – keeping Unsubtle under observation. Aswon chatted away with Rand, and apparently made a reasonable impression – as Rand pulled out some stock that wasn't on general display.

"This, my friend, is a Saviour Medkit. Pretty new on the market. It's got all the same features as a standard kit you might expect – competent know-bot chip with heuristic diagnostics, sampling chamber and built in pharmacology dispenser. The advantage to this one though is the nano-bots. Specially designed and tailored nanometre sized robots capable of entering the blood stream to carry out tasks such as repair artery walls, stich together damaged spleens, harvest and clean blood of toxins or harmful agents. It's the next big thing, I tell you. Top quality gear."

Aswon winced when Rand named a the price, but agreed to pay the man for the kit and a few resupplies – pre-packed modules of drugs that could be inserted into the kit when it ran low. He considered himself lucky that Rand seemed to have taken at least a liking to him, so he wasn't going to risk offending him by haggling – that was Kai's job.

On the outside of the market, Shimazu headed out towards the parking spot for the woman's bike, in the central area but a way back from the market entrance. A good distance behind him, Tads wandered along, following his path and ready to provide backup. Marius quickly flicked the camera over in their direction, and helped guide Shimazu through the maze of roped off areas, then called out a warning as another shape buzzed across his field of view.

"Watch out – we have another T-bird coming in! I didn't think so many people would be in them. Watch out for the ground effect!" Shimazu watched as the vector thrust craft came in, roaring across the parking area and heading towards an empty landing space. Boxy and ungainly, T-birds were a brute force design. Short, stubby canard wings provided only a fraction of the lift required to actually fly – they mostly relied on raw power from the powerful jet thrusters. Like helicopters, they could land and take off vertically – though the blast from the jets was very disruptive to anything and anyone around them. Unlike choppers though, they had excellent flight ceilings and could travel at beyond the speed of sound – making them the premier vehicle for smugglers engaged in running borders. They also unfortunately were incredibly expensive – not only to buy, but also to run. Rockets and commercial jet liners were the only things more expensive to fly generally – but their speed made moving small high value cargos their forte.

Tbird, looks battered, five crew. Burly with hat, looks like ork from build. Human male, two cyber replacement arms, Human male, possible mage (robes?), Female ork – leotard. Possible physical adept. Odd looking troll. Marius got a quick look at the team as they climbed out of the t-bird, once the dust had settled, then slewed the camera back to follow Unsubtle again, before sending out his description to the rest of his team.

"Right then, my friend. So, five large for the medkit, and a seven-fifty charge for each of the top ups. That'll be six and a half large in total." Aswon pulled out his credstick and let Rand insert it into his reader, then watched as a chunk of virtual currency swapped hands, with digital certificates and complex hash codes recording the movement. Rand pulled out his phone and aimed it at Aswon, then took a photo of his head and shoulders.

"What – you're not going to remember this face?"

"Heh – I probably would. But what happens if it's the wife who's running the stall at the next meet – she needs to know who has a mark." Aswon wasn't sure what 'a mark' was exactly, but it didn't sound bad. He wondered if it was a 'mark of a good customer' – but whatever it was, he decided not to show his ignorance and ask.

Aswon took the items, and passed the medkit over to Hunter, spreading their shopping out a little and making them both look like market visitors and hopefully allaying any doubts that Unsubtle might have had. With their new purchases, they moved to the side and made a show of studying their new gear, keeping the enemy team under careful surveillance.

Shimazu looked around in the darkness, checking for wandering guards outside. He moved away from the newest team of runners that Marius had spotted, giving them a wide berth, but didn't meet anyone else outside. He started to place his feet very carefully, moving without a trace across the cracked concrete and wild grass, heading in to the parking area and the bike leaning on its kick-stand located at the centre. With a deft and sharp move he pulled out his knife, slashed the front tire and was heading out again in one smooth motion. The loud hiss behind him made him wince, but nobody seemed to notice his actions, so he headed further out of the area, towards the edge of the shanty town. If he got there, he could follow the edge along, looping back round towards their chopper, and check in with Marius

Kai, tire slashed. Anything else? Shimazu

No. Stay outside, keep safe

Negotiations at the slave stall had ended, and Aswon and Hunter watched as the group led a docile and smiling Japanese woman by the arm, heading again towards the east end of the market. They looked jubilant and excited, and didn't notice the pair of tails as they pushed through the market and headed back to the tent they'd had their meeting in. As they approached, one of the guards appeared around the corner.

"Can I help you?"

"Yeah, open the tent. We still got 15 minutes paid for. Should be plenty of time. Some of this lot might even go twice!" There was snickers and pokes amongst the team, aimed at the Dwarf magician, who replied with a string of foul remarks back to the rest of the Unsubtle team. The guard pulled the tent flap open though, and they headed inside, their sex slave still smiling all the way.

Kai and Anahita appeared on the other side of the tent, making contact with Aswon and Hunter. Kai nodded back towards the woman, then subtly signed that he and Anahita would stay here and observe, swapping over the faces to try and prevent Unsubtle from spotting them. Aswon and Hunter nodded, and headed back towards Ogluk's, and spotted their target on the move. She headed down the row, towards the native American information broker. He too seemed to recognise her, and gave her a hearty handshake before beckoning her to sit down next to him, and engaged her in conversation.

There was another huge cheer at the fighting pit, and Aswon and Hunter spared a glance each as the winner of the fight was announced – and the loser was dragged out of the arena as a lifeless hunk of meat. Bookies started to pay out on bets, and they both noticed something strange – as the bets were paid off, the winnings were split up into two – about 90% went to the customer, while the rest was held up in the air. One of the security goons was working the area, grabbing the money and collecting it all together. When all the money was collated, they headed over to the victor of the competition, who was standing looking somewhat dazed and confused. The tithe of the winnings was handed over to them, their scrawny hands grasping the crumpled mass of bills, while they stood open-mouthed.

Kai and Anahita backed off from the tent when the noises made it clear what was going on inside – feeling slightly sick as they did so. The grabbed another drink and sat at a table, chatting and trying not to think about what was going on only a few metres away. The minutes ticked by, and the market moved on around the team, business being transacted in the seedy underbelly of the corporate world. Tads and Shimazu skirted through the outer area, keeping to the dark shadows and avoiding any observation, Aswon and Hunter kept an eye on the woman in green and red, and Kai and Anahita sipped at their strong black coffee, while they and the drone overhead kept an eye on the tent containing Unsubtle – and one poor, chip controlled slave.

A quarter hour later, the tent flap opened again and Unsubtle came out, towing their slave with them and started to head across the market towards the slavers. Marius zoomed in to check – the troll was still carrying the large cargo container, which looked to be unchanged externally, and by the way he was hefting it, didn't appear to be any lighter or heavier than before. He watched them head back towards the slaver's stall, watching as Kai and Anahita emerged from under the tower and started to follow them. A quick tap on the keyboard, and he sent a warning message to Aswon and Hunter, that targets were closing on their position.

When Unsubtle got back to the stall, there appeared to be an argument. The slavers examined their product, pointing angrily at bruises and marks, and from the looks of things demanding extra Nuyen for the damages – which Unsubtle certainly didn't seem to be in the mood for paying. The discussion went on for a good few minutes, until grudgingly some extra money was paid – less than was asked for it seemed, as neither side seemed happy.

Aswon and Hunter headed for Ogluk's stall, and Hunter purchased the box of grenades they'd chatted about earlier, while Aswon kept an eye on the woman, and Unsubtle two stalls down. Hunter paid up, and tucked the box under his arm along with the medkit, and after another moment looking at the RPGs and launchers, moved away from the stall and 'examined' his purchases, while they both kept a wary eye on their targets.

As the leader of the team slid his remaining money away, he looked around and spotted the woman sitting with Indian Joe two stalls down. A quick nudge and a flick of the head, and the rest of the team spotted her as well. Modulo looked around on the floor for a moment, then leant down and pried up a small lump of rock or concrete. When he stood again, he stared at the woman, and tossed the rock up in the air a little, catching it in his right hand, then tossing it up again. He smirked at her while he did so, and the threat was clearly communicated.

Can we kill these people? I feel nothing but contempt for them… Nobody responded to Marius's text, but that didn't mean they disagreed with him.

The woman glared at Modulo, and leant in close to talk to Indian Joe. He looked over at the Unsubtle team and Modulo, who was still playing with his rock, then turned back, whispering something into her ear. They chatted for another minute, then she got up and turned her back on Modulo, walking away towards the entrance. Her path took her within a few metres of Hunter and Aswon who tried their hardest not to look at her or make eye contact, or to turn and follow her. Modulo watched her go, laughing and pointing, along with the rest of his team – presumably feeling that 'he'd won'…

She headed past Ogluk's and they thought she was heading to the entrance at first – but she veered to the north and started to work her way along the stalls there, checking them out.

Hunter, Aswon – stay on Unsubtle. We'll move to follow her. Shimazu, Tads – head back inside Kai waited for everyone to acknowledge his text message, then cut through the food area to the north side again, keeping an eye on the woman.

Midnight stuck, marked by another fight starting in the arena with more betting and cheering. Looking around, it was busier than ever, and more than two hundred people were in the market now, moving around in chaotic patterns. Both teams had to close in a little to keep eyes on their targets, increasing the chance of being spotted, but also giving them more cover. The Unsubtle team mooched around, checking out some stalls, other times just standing around and chatting. The woman seemed to dwell on the north side at both of the information brokers and ID manufacturers for more time than anywhere else – but she didn't appear to do any dead-drops or data exchanges.

The woman checked her phone, then suddenly turned and headed for the centre of the market, entering the food court from the north side. As she walked in, she almost bumped into Hunter who was keeping an eye on Unsubtle about thirty metres to the east. Apologising, she looked up and they made eye contact – she stared at him, then her eyes narrowed a little for a moment, and his heart started to race. Had she recognised him? The moment passed, and she made some generic apology and moved past him, approaching a group of people at a table.

"Good evening. Sorry to disturb you, but I have reason to believe that you people have a certain skill set that is of interest to me, and I wonder if we can have a chat?"

Aswon listened carefully to the conversation, his enhanced hearing filtering out the other noises so he could hear them clearly. The table she was standing at had five metahumans sat around – a female dwarf in a flight suit, female human in what looked like mechanics overalls, a male ork in cargo trousers and a set of webbing over his shirt, a male human with dark and sombre clothing with icons of voodoo printed on them and finally a female troll. From what he could work out, they were the team that had turned up in the five news choppers – assuming Marius had given them an accurate description. No reason to think that he hadn't…

The female dwarf responded, speaking with a hint of a French accent that reminded him of Topshot, and he had to concentrate not to think about her and her lovely hardware.

"My name is Shimmer, and I work in the local area to arrange jobs. I have a job that needs doing, and the team I was originally looking at have proved to be totally inappropriate for the job. Perhaps, you'd be happy to take twenty minutes with me, and we can chat in more private surroundings?" She gestured over towards the two smaller tents just past the food area. The female dwarf agreed, asking for a few minutes for them to finish their food. She pulled over a chair from the next table and invited Shimmer to sit with them until they were done.

Everyone, woman in green and red goes by name of Shimmer. Not Falcon.

They all took a moment to consider. If she wasn't Falcon – had they missed the pickup already? Was it still to come? Was this just disinformation? It was an infuriating puzzle, that much was certain.

Kai – could Modulo have left something in the tent earlier. And she's going back now with another team to collect it? Tads typed, sending the message to the whole team to keep them informed.

Kai considered for a moment, then nodded as he worked through the logic – it would certainly make it more difficult to spot… but that meant the data might be lying there just waiting. He took off at a brisk walk, heading for the tent that she had used before, with a startled Anahita in tow. As he got to the tent and looked around, one of the security goons appeared.

"Can I help you, sir?"

"Ahh yes, I was in the tent earlier for a meeting – I think I left something behind. A small amulet. I'd just like to go and check please?"

"If you wish to use the meeting area, then the charge is five hundred Nuyen for a half hour, or one thousand for the hour."

"But I just need to check to see if I dropped my thing!"

"As I said sir, the tent is available to book in thirty minute increments. Non-negotiable."

Anahita coughed and poked Kai in the side. He turned towards her and saw Shimmer and the Swarm team threading their way through the tables and approaching them.

"Never mind, it wasn't worth that much." They peeled away and caught the edge of the conversation as Shimmer booked the tent out for the next thirty minutes, then entered with her new team in tow.

Back in the chopper Marius caught another fast-moving target entering his surveillance zone, and swung the camera around to get a closer view. It was another T-bird, but this one was more slender and lightweight – one of the scout class birds, he thought. He wasn't sure who the manufacturer was, but this must have had even less cargo space than the previous T-bird. On the other hand, they were way more manoeuvrable and probably even faster. They landed, kicking up a massive amount of debris from the vector thrust jets and leaving a few smouldering patches of ground around them, and four crew emerged. Two orks, one male and one female, a human male and a female elf. They locked up their craft and headed to the entrance, and Marius sent another quick transmission through with a picture of the craft and crew to warn everyone.

Hunter and Aswon were still watching Unsubtle, who had now headed over to the fighting pit and were being just as obnoxious there as they had been everywhere else. They had bullied and shoved their way to the front of the crowd, intimidating anyone who complained into silence, and were commenting on the fighters and fights loudly and dismissively, not caring about the looks they were getting.

Time marched on – after twenty five minutes in the tent, Shimmer and Swarm emerged, heading their separate ways. Shimmer was smiling, and her body language was much more relaxed than earlier. Kai studied her carefully, and then set off to follow her, just in case this was all still part of the plan.

Marius gave his displays another check as a patch of ground went dark for no apparent reason, then took manual control of the camera from the onboard pilot, and checked the area over visually. He saw a dark blob on the screen, but when he checked the sensors there was nothing showing up. He adjusted position a little, and played with the focus on the visual sensors, until the shape resolved into another heavily armed and armoured T-bird. As he studied it, something clicked in his brain – he'd seen this silhouette before. It appeared to be the same craft that had buzzed over them when they were driving from the ranch up to Baku, one that had been pursued by five attack choppers.

He called out over the comms, rather than trying to send this as a text message, and described what he had seen, telling the team how much of an issue he was having locking the craft up on sensors. Tads looked up using her astral sight and spotted the powerful spell cloaking the craft, and reported back while she carefully studied the form of the spell, trying to retain its signature.

"They've got a pretty powerful spell up, looks to be the same type of magic I used to conceal or mask the truck. I'd say it's more powerful than mine was though, which should give you an indication of their magical power."

Things settled down for a little while, with Unsubtle staying at the arena and watching the fights, and Shimmer returning to the food area, grabbing some food and a drink and taking a couple of painkillers. Kai took advantage of the lull, and moved round to the north side near the entrance, visiting the four stalls that he hadn't made it to.

The first was a Japanese gentlemen, trading under the name of Norikito. He seemed to be selling some pretty decent guns, from pistols through sub-machine guns and shotguns up to assault rifles. There were also scopes and other accessories – bipods, laser sights, barrel shrouds, and suppressors – but they, like the guns, all appeared to be from the same manufacturer.

The next store was another confusing mix of small parts and repair gear. Small parts, spools of wire, boxes of chips and sensors, housings and relays. It looked like most of the gear was aimed at security systems and cameras. The two stall owners, Imran and Falooq chatted with him for a moment, and Kai asked them if they produced full security systems. When they mentioned that they didn't really, but that they could, they supposed, Kai jumped on them and pulled out his credstick. Dropping a thousand Nuyen on them, he gave them Rashid's contact details and told them to get in touch with him, and that he'd pay another thousand a day for 'consultancy' for setting up security at the smuggler stop. With their confused agreement, he grabbed their details and sent them on to Rashid, to keep him in the loop as well.

The third stall sold vehicle armour – heavy plates of composite materials designed to defeat small arms and improvised explosives. They also had Kevlar panels and add-in sheets designed to fit inside car doors for a more subtle level of defence, along with reinforced windows and what appeared to be custom designed plates to attach to the bottom of a vehicle to avoid mine damage and spikes. Kai looked over the wares, but moved on as the owner appeared to have two people waiting to talk to him after his current customer.

The fourth stall was labelled as 'Grok's refurbishment parts'. There was a jumble of cyberware on display, from arms and feet, down to several dirty boxes with sets of eyes and ears in them, staring up blankly from the counter. Everything looked to be second hand and none too clean, and Kai couldn't imagine anyone in the team having any interest there. The next stall up was Frank Whittle, and Kai veered off, not wanting to approach him again. Satisfied that he'd seen everywhere in the market now, he resumed surveillance again, finding that Shimmer was still eating her food and sipping at her drink while she scanned through messages on her phone.

Just before 01:00, Marius spotted another flicker in the darkness. As he zoomed out and manually scanned the sensor, he saw a massive bird shape flying in an orbit as it looked down at the market place. It was flying in a clockwise direction, coasting for a few seconds and then flapping the enormous wings to gain some more thrust. With a tingle of excitement, Marius keyed up the comms.

"Team, stand by. I have a large bird orbiting the market, clockwise, height sixty seven metres. Bird has a wing span of approximately three point five metres. Bird appears to be looking down, studying the marketplace. We're into our second orbit now, moving from east to south, banking gently."

The team perked up at his message – surely this had to be Falcon! They listened as Marius continued to give a description of the large bird checking the place out. When it broke off, heading away on a bearing of about forty degrees, they checked their PDAs or comms, and looked at the overhead maps that they'd been given from the daytime surveillance. The bird was flying straight towards the ring road around the tower area – and then a dense set of slums just beyond. Exactly the sort of place that Aswon had theorised would be a good landing point and place to change.

In the chopper Marius watched his radio system carefully. He thought he'd heard a strange distortion on the last message. As he studied the display carefully, he saw a small kick on one of the meters as it registered an attempt to communicate with his base station. Then another, and another – it looked like someone was trying to latch on to their frequency and break through the encryption.

He sprang into action, killing the radio and computer with a hard reboot – yanking the fuses out and dropping the power completely, before frantically typing into his phone.

Comms may be compromised. Rebooting. May have unwelcome attention.

He started to power the equipment back up, immediately changing to a new random frequency and starting to check on the logs to see if he could determine what had happened, while also keeping half an eye on the Condor drone which was watching the area where the huge bird had landed. From the log files though, it looked like someone had been trying to break his encryption protocols, but hadn't managed to do so.

Shimazu headed out to the chopper, checked on Marius and then retrieved his sword before heading back to the area just outside the market entrance. With his hand on his sword, he could look into the astral, and hopefully get a look at Falcon if they showed, trying to break through any masking they might have over their aura and determine some details about who and what they were.

Tads took up a position not far into the market where she could study the entrance from the inside, to back him up. Hunter and Aswon were still on Unsubtle, and noticed that Modulo had started to check his watch more often. Around 01:15, they pushed their way out of the crowd around the fighting pit and started to wander east, back towards the meeting tents. They drifted along behind them, keeping to the dense crowds and mostly spotting the troll and the top part of the cargo box slung over his shoulder.

Kai had moved to the east side of the food area, and had snagged a table. He had food and drink in front of them, but didn't touch either - he was mostly watching the tents. A few people had used the small tents, normally heading in for meetings that lasted from ten to twenty minutes, before heading out again. The larger tent though, seemed to be where some people got invited. More than that, multiple people entered in dribs and drabs, so there must be a small crowd in there. Several of the teams they'd witnessed arriving had entered the tent, along with a score of other people – Kai was of the opinion that not only was the man who organised the market in there, he was also a local fixer or had allied with some fixers, and some biz was going down. That meant that if Falcon was coming in, they had to be really pro at taking her down. There was untold serious firepower in that tent, along with a bunch of people who were probably just as lethal in close quarters.

At 01:25, Marius sent another quick text.

Target approaching, north side, main entrance

Shimazu took a few deep breaths and then watched as a figure clad in long flowing robes appeared from around the security fence, approaching the lit area and the waiting bouncers. As they submitted to the pat down and little speech, he grasped the sword handle and extended his vision into the astral realm. The figure was a bright glow of life, appearing as a normal and mundane person, with motes of mana drifting around the bright whiteness of their soul. He concentrated, trying to penetrate the veil of light that hung around them, working to disrupt their masking power long enough to get an idea of their true nature.

The figure nodded to the bouncers and stepped inside the market, and then out of his line of sight.

Assenesed, appeared normal. Think they are masking, but couldn't break it.

Tads saw the figure step through, look around quickly and then start to head towards the food courts, working their way around the north side. Aswon and Hunter also spotted Modulo check his watch once more, then start to stride towards the centre of the market.

Both targets entered the area at 01:29. Game time.