The dawn was a chilly, wet and miserable-looking one, finding Aswon looking out of his bedroom window somewhat morosely. The weather front still blanketed the island, and the rain was a steady monotonous deluge of cold water that drenched the landscape thoroughly.
He heard the sounds of students and instructors stirring, and started to do the rounds, waking up the rest of the team. Taking a look out of the window, Kai and Marius declared that they were certainly not interested in any morning run, leaving the rest of the team to get ready and head outside to meet the students.
Running down the beach the previous days had been a fun, and interesting experience. Bathed in the radiant dawn light, they could imagine the crashing strides through the breaking waves as some kind of training montage, a catchy tune playing in their heads. Today was different – sullen grey clouds stretched to the horizon, and the cold rain soaked them before they even hit the shoreline. The waves were larger, the water colder and the grey light sucked away at the soul, making it feel like a real slog.
The only thing that remained the same was the boundless energy of Nicole. She led the run, calling out to instructors and students alike, chivvying people along with cries of encouragement or good-natured ribbing, while maintaining her position in the pack without apparent effort. After the run completed, she called cadence on the exercises, matching everyone set for set while still not appearing out of breath. Tads paid close attention to her as she waited for the sparkles to clear around the edge of her vision – she couldn't spot any signs of magical potential or performance enhancing abilities – though at the moment, she was surprised she wasn't seeing double, the pounding of her pulse being so strong she could feel it in her ears.
With the morning run and exercises complete, they headed back in, to shower, get fresh clothes and then headed down to the breakfast room. Tads headed into the kitchen to see if any supplies needed topping up, spending a few minutes producing bowls of fresh fruit and some other simple supplies to supplement the food she found there. By now she was adept enough with the creation of food that she hardly had to think too much about it, and just let the mana flow, and she managed to make a whole selection of food without giving herself a headache.
With breakfast out of the way and the students starting to disperse to their classes, the team retreated to one of their rooms, grabbing space on the beds or floor and making themselves comfortable while they planned out their attack. Tads was the first to comment.
"It strikes me, that whoever is the one actually organising this, he or she is using a lot of resources. Helicopters. Islands. Enough guards to keep Harley under wraps – I mean, I get the impression that he's probably a decent fighter, given that he's here and Chun's son, adopted or not."
"Perhaps Tads, perhaps not. It's amazing what staring down the barrel of a gun will do to someone's bravado if they're not trained to deal with that sort of thing." Aswon scratched his chin with his right hand, while his left pointed at Kai. "And if what Kai suggested is true, about them using a regular scheduled supply run as cover, then it might not be much extra resource at all."
"Well, I guess you could be right. But, with how far Vadim got and what he saw, I was thinking of going to have a look myself. Take a bunch of spirits with me as backup, and go hopping round the islands to see what I can find there, now we have a good idea of where we're looking."
"Won't that take hours?" Kai queried.
"No – not now we know where to go. Following the trail is hard, and Vadim did well to get as far as he did. But on the astral plane, I can cover several thousand kilometres in an hour. It's less than a hundred kilometres to run down the route, from what I can see."
"Could you leave us a couple of spirits, just in case, Tads?"
"I could Aswon, but why? You and Shimazu are here with your weapons, if anyone comes."
"Yes, but neither of us can project from our bodies, which means any spirit that approaches has the advantage of being able to use altitude against us. Against anything physical – sure, no problem. But reach is the issue. If we have a spirit of our own, we can probably even the playing field. Or, we can use it to try and find you and raise the alarm if needed. Even if it's a fairly average power level, and maybe one watcher spirit, it'd add a lot of options for us. Take the rest with you as a force multiplier – that makes sense."
"I'll leave one of each with you then. Come on Vadim, let's summon some spirits and go for a scout." She led him to the pair of beds, directing him to lay on one while she got comfy in the other. "So, I'll go up front, Vadim, and poke around, while you hang back a little and direct the spirits. If you see me get into trouble, swoop in and tilt the odds. But we'll try and keep it subtle…" Her voice faded away as they left the physical realm and entered astral space, continuing to brief Vadim on how they were going to work this mission.
"So – the Blue Lotus Triad. Just how powerful do we think they are – magically I mean. Just how worried should we be?" Kai looked around at the others, but his gaze settled on Aswon, who normally seemed to have a pretty good understanding of things.
"Respectful but not terrified, I think is the safest course of action. Our indications are that they tattoo their members, and put some kind of spell into it – that means an initiated mage of some power, and a clear mandate from the organisation."
"Mandate?"
"Well, the tattoo is a permanent symbol, but it also requires the investment of resources. Just like we had to gather materials for Tads to enchant her staff and Shimazu's sword, the tattooist would need magical ingredients or components to make the ink with, and that's not going to be cheap."
"It does make me wonder how the mage is viewed by the rest of the Triad." Marius added. "I mean, there are some organisations that really do not get along with or use magic very much. As I understand it, the Mafia in the UCAS is a good example. They have almost no magical presence at all, according to rumour. While the Yakuza are reputed to be much more heavily invested."
"I think they're likely to be at the higher end – eastern societies seemed to keep a much better handle on their mystic roots during the mana down cycle, it's just much more part of their culture. Likewise, shamanic culture amongst the native Americans and people like my own tribe. The nations that saw themselves as being technologically adept and forming the 'first world' abandoned much of their culture and mythos as part of their evolution."
"Perhaps. But we made the greatest strides for progression in Science." Marius seemed quick to defend his nation, perhaps even his hemisphere, and Aswon frowned – he wasn't trying to cause a confrontation.
"I agree, Marius. And it's not a thing that really matters, especially not to us. I was just indicating that we're likely to find people much more malleable and agreeable to the idea of magically binding tattoos over here, than we would perhaps in France, or the Italian Confederation or the UCAS."
"I would still not be surprised if they were seen as outsiders, with their own strange rituals and powers. How can the leaders of the Triads trust the mages, if they cannot see or control their powers?"
"Again, that's very possible. I think they're going to be more tightly integrated than that, but it is a possibility, for sure. But we also know that Wa Fan is magically active, and holds a position of some authority – and yes, I know she's not been told the reason for what's going on, Marius. But that proves my point – she feels entitled to know because of her position, and suspects something as a result. That would indicate that in the past she HAS known about other missions like this. And they have to know that she's an adept, and she's still in a position of trust and responsibility."
"Ok, so I think we have to assume that magical resources are integrated into their organisation, and carry at least some considerable weight in terms of planning and control. How much we don't know, but they're not likely to be pariahs," Kai summarised. "In which case, a follow on question is – if we disappear Lo Han, what would be the fallout. I have to say, I do like the simplicity of Marius's plan, but if he just vanishes, there's going to be some questions raised, I'm sure."
"I can comment here." Shimazu raised his hand, and Kai paused, interested to hear what he had to say. "In my opinion, he's unlikely to have a bodyguard with him – even as a manager of the local area, I don't think he would have enough power or reputation to justify it, and along with that I get the distinct impression that he's based at the Country Club and is unlikely to travel much. As such, he's not really going to places where a bodyguard would be that useful or relevant. He's likely got security where he's based, and they would just assign someone if he went out, and felt it was needed."
"On the other hand, if he's a manager, he's going to be missed by his underlings and the people he reports to, quite quickly. And in an organisation like this, where they have rivals that will try to take out cells and part of the power structure, his disappearance or murder is likely to trigger a full investigation. I would be surprised if they did not have powerful political allies from the membership at the club, that they could use to influence this… who here doesn't think the local chief of police plays tennis at the Country Club for instance, or some other activity?"
Kilometres away to the south, the astral form of Tads led the way through the astral realm, oblivious to the wind and rain of the physical realm. She constrained her speed, travelling at only a fraction of the velocity she could manage to avoid leaving Vadim behind. Closing in on the first island that Vadim had located she paused and waited for him to catch up, confirming that this matched his first trace location. Once he had, she descended and poked around the small fishing village carefully, looking for magical phenomena or users, defences or signs of Harley or other prisoners. After a few minutes of examination, she returned to Vadim and shook her head, then oriented herself towards the next island before speeding off. Vadim waited a heartbeat, then went after her, trailing behind as she led the way, the small army of spirits clustered around him and waiting for orders.
"So, if he does disappear, I think it's going to stir up a full-scale investigation – and they're likely to throw a lot of resources at it." Shimazu summarised.
"So, we take the information we want, then we kill him, then we set fire to the club and kill everyone there, before the investigation starts." Marius added coldly.
"Whoa there. That's a bit of an escalation. Hardly falls under a proportionate response – and that is certainly going to attract attention from the city, bring in the headquarters type and a target like that – certainly they're going to not spare the expense in terms of lab work and magical analysis." Aswon exclaimed, looking at Marius with surprise.
"The we set fire to them, too."
"Are you upset about the chopper being grounded? Or are you missing Nadia? You seem to be a little on edge…"
"I just think we need to take action, and stop being so cautious. He has the information we need, and ordered the kidnapping of a child. Bad man. This is all very clear cut for me, and I do not understand your hesitation…"
"I don't think anyone argues with you there. We're just being careful because he's a senior member of the local Triad, we can't leave because the bird is in for repairs, and stirring up the hornet's nest when you can't run away is a really stupid idea!"
"That is also a very good point." Kai raised a hand to both of them. "Come on, we need to strike a middle ground. Marius, you did a great preliminary scout the other day. Let's have a look back through the footage and see if we can work out where to find Lo Han, and what the security looks like – then we can work out how to get him and the information in his head…"
Tads arrived at the next island, repeating the same process as she had at the first, with the same results. Another small village that seemed to rely on subsistence farming and fishing, with very little to attract anyone from outside, there was no trace of Harley or any magical presence here. They moved on to the third location, and found the same there – the huts faced a different direction and the beach was stonier, but otherwise it could have been the same village to the casual observer.
The fourth was much the same, but hoping down to the fifth location, on Eyan Rocky Island proved to be different. As she closed in on the rocky shore, she spotted the collection of huts that ran along the ridge, balanced precariously on the slender spit of land. Like the others, there were small fields and plots of food growing, and she could see the path carved down to the water's edge and mooring posts for small fishing vessels. Unlike the others though, she could see a mage walking around the area. She dived for cover, finding a large outcropping covered in spiny bushes to hide behind, and then gradually drifted forwards until she could see and assense the mage. The woman was moving between houses, talking with people while they sat spinning some kind of material using hand looms, and from the body language and posture appeared to be in charge of them in some way. Tads concentrated for a moment, assessing the level of power, examining her aura and trying to gauge her threat level. She was uninitiated by the looks of things, unable to mask her aura and not that strong, as far as she could see – though more than strong enough to raise the alarm, she was sure. With no active spells present, and no spirits on hand, it would be possible to take her out fairly quickly, Tads through, though that would definitely tip the enemy off about their presence.
Instead she moved backwards through the bush to break contact, and headed back towards Vadim to tell him what she saw. Vadim in turn pointed down at the cliffs, more or less underneath where Tads had been.
"Down there, that's where I followed the trail to. There's openings in the cliff face." Tads turned and had a look, then gestured for Vadim to wait there for the moment and swooped down to get a closer look. When she was close enough, yet still out of sight of the mage in the village, she manifested and had a physical look at the cliffside. Set into it at regular intervals were barred openings, and she could see along the top of the cliff hand-cut blocks of stone that formed a parapet or wall of some kind. She guessed it was some old coastal defences or sea fort, built back in the day of cannon and muskets perhaps. She faded back into astral space and drifted closer, checking out the openings in the cliff face.
Back at the academy, Marius was replaying the drone footage and pointing out the features of the Country Club. They quickly established that the perimeter was huge and though it had sensors guarding the fence, they were insufficient to guard a barrier of that size, and that there were a number of blind spots and gaps in the coverage. The main entrance didn't have a gate at all, though it was covered by plenty of cameras that probably linked to vehicle and facial recognition systems.
As they panned around the site, identifying the areas and labelling up the map that Hunter was drawing, they spotted the site offices and maintenance area, hidden in some woodland near a lake, carefully obscured from the rest of the club grounds. With some careful manipulation they were able to isolate some of the signage and direction markers, and located the offices and administration buildings, and from there located where Lo Han's office should be – a rustic-looking office with an apartment built over the top.
"Looks like he lives on site – perk of the job I suppose. But that means we can't grab him while he's travelling. Definitely going to have to break in." Aswon scrolled the map over and looked at the cliffs, then started to sketch in a route. "Look, if we climb up here, the fence next to the cliff is only a metre high – presumably just enough to stop golfers getting too close to the edge. But, from there, we can stay in woodland all the way to the maintenance area, without getting on either the roads or the courses."
"Or, we can head through the forest outside the club to just past the gates, and cross the road a few hundred metres down from the entrance road, through this gap in the sensor posts by the dip, and come in from the west, just as easy." Kai pointed out. Both routes looked valid, though the western approach was far better for anyone except Aswon and Hunter, who both would have no problem scaling the cliffs."
"I actually wonder how much security will be present. I think the perimeter will be guarded, but once inside coverage will be very light." Marius saw a few questioning looks, and continued. "I am starting to think this is less a country club that has some triad presence, and more a front for laundering money through, and for people to make deals at. As such, they will not want incriminating video or audio evidence available for people like us to steal. So I think once we are past the fence, it is likely to be relatively open."
"That makes sense." Aswon nodded. "And likely that the position of 'Head Groundskeeper' is a cover, or very much light duties then, palmed off on others, so he can actually manage his underlings."
"So, we're agreed then. We'll do an infiltration into to the club, get into the officer or apartment, and see if we can get some details from Lo Han?"
"I think we've been fine with that all along, Kai. I do think it would make sense to give the place a quick astral look over before we go. Something to ask Tads to do, when she gets back. Wonder how their scouting is going…" he glanced over at the comatose forms lying on the bed, empty shells of flesh waiting for the souls to return.
Down at the island, Tads hovered in front of the bars and studied the opening, carefully looking for and spotting the subtle ward over the building. Well, that explained how they'd been alerted to Vadim's presence. He clearly hadn't seen it as he'd barrelled straight over or through it without noticing. She adjusted her aura, synchronising with the flow of mana and then squeezing through the ward, floating into the room and looking about. It certainly felt like the right place – there was a faint echo of pain and despair, anger and brutality that seemed to have sunk into the concrete sprayed over the rock walls.
With a quick look around for any grey blobs on the wall that might indicate surveillance devices, she moved to one corner and then manifested, looking around her physically. It definitely looked the same as the photo, that much was sure. The room was empty now though, no sign of any prisoner or contents, no trace of habitation. She faded away and then pushed through the ward on the door as easily as the one over the window, and moved cautiously out into the corridor, spying four other doors that looked the same down one side, and a curving passage in the other direction. A quick check of the other rooms revealed no Harley, though there were boxes of supplies in two of the four rooms, piled up neatly.
Travelling down the curving corridor, she saw the passageway rising as it climbed through the cliff, looping around to circle up to the top of the cliff, emerging from the face of the rock onto the top of the store-rooms on a stone platform. Deep grooves ran along the floor, relics of a bygone age where cannons were dragged into position to overlook the bay and guard it against rival warships.
It looked like Harley had been here, perhaps only for a short while, before moving on. She circled around the area once more, looking for any clues that she might have missed on her first check, before heading back to Vadim and sharing what she'd found. The trail stopped here – unless they wanted to try and attack the mage, but that didn't seem like a good idea right at that moment. They turned northwards and accelerated, heading back to the academy and returning to their bodies.
It had just gone past ten when Tads and Vadim stretched, yawned and sat up, shaking their limbs and trying to get rid of the feeling of numbness in their feet. After a quick drink, they moved over to the edge of the bed and Tads filled in the rest of the team on what she'd discovered, then listened as Kai gave a quick summary of what they'd discovered and learnt, and what they thought they should do next. Tads sighed, then let her body flop down onto the bed as she vaulted out and up into the astral once more, disappearing out of the room in a blur.
"I didn't mean right now…" Kai addressed the air, then shrugged.
It took her a matter of a second to cover the distance to the country club, and another two seconds to locate the building they'd been discussing once she slowed and could perceive her surroundings. The building was warded, but it was about the most basic and primitive ward that could be constructed – enough to keep out wandering watcher spirits or mischievous children just expressing their power, but little else – though it would set off the alarm if it was breached, of course.
The ward proved no match for her skills, and she sleazed in through the defences to poke around inside. It seemed like a fairly typical estate layout downstairs – a break room, toilets, somewhere to get changed into working gear, a small maintenance shop, then a set of offices. A medium-sized room had four desks in, one of which was occupied by someone tapping away on a terminal, entering data into an application. Beyond this communal office was a second, almost as large but with only two people in it.
As soon as she entered she had a suspicion about who sat behind the larger desk, dominating the end of the room. In astral space his head was a mass of blackness, cold dead metal suffusing the skull. She thought back to the story of Chun kicking someone in the face, looking again at this man and imagining how severe the damage must have been to require a cybernetic skull implant to hold his face together and protect the brain.
Sitting turned at ninety degrees at a much smaller desk was a younger woman, entering data onto her own terminal. The man spoke and the woman turned to face him immediately, waiting for him to finish before responding quietly and quickly. As Tads watched she could sense the wariness seeping out of her, tinged with an edge of fear. She took a turn around the rest of the office space, getting the layout to pass on to Hunter when she returned, then headed up to the corner of the room, to where she should be out of line of sight for both of them to risk a quick physical look. A few moments were all that was needed to confirm that he was Lo Han, and to get some detail on what looked to be his secretary.
Fading back out, she slipped upstairs and explored the living accommodation too, scouting around the apartment and getting a feel for the place. She found lots of paintings and drawings on the walls, landscapes mostly with a strong showing of mountains and rugged terrain, with a few tapestries thrown in as well. The only item of real interest she found was at the foot of what appeared to be the master bed – where an ornate scabbard rested on an ebony wooden stand. Sat just in front of the sword was a box, intricately carved and decorated, it glowed brightly on the astral plane, mana wrapped tightly around it with pearlescent streamers of energy arcing off it from time to time. She estimated it was at least as powerful as Vadim, though not at the same level she was. Still – it would be very difficult to sleaze past without any sign of tampering. It indicated that he certainly might have some magical defences or backup available to him.
She merged her way back through the ward and headed back to her body, then reported her new findings to the rest of the team.
"Good work, Tads. So – do we swap targets perhaps? Go after the secretary and pillage her mind, get the access codes for the computer and see what we can get from that? Or find some of his secrets through her?"
"I don't think so. I can't see them committing their juiciest and most sensitive information to the computer network like that, and giving her access. Him maybe, but not her." Aswon shook his head. "So that just means we're asking Tads to do two sets of mind probes and two sets of memory alteration. I just don't think it's worth the risk. Better to stay with just one target."
"I would agree with Aswon. Limit the risk and the exposure, and go for the target that we know has the information, ja?"
"Alright, fair enough. So, at this point I still think we're probably best going in after dusk then, when things are quieter, end of the working day. There's likely to be some activity at the club in the evening, but more sedate I would have thought – restaurant and bar, people taking their time, drinking… not out in the grounds." Kai looked around to see if there were any arguments, but everyone nodded with his assessment. "The last option we have then I think is if we want to go check out the tenth hole in town, and see if we can get any intelligence information from there?"
"I don't like the idea at all" Aswon was quick to state his case. "There's a really high chance of tipping off Wa Fan, and her reporting to her boss. She's seen most of us now, between the meetings with Chun and the volleyball game – so she's going to recognise us. At the moment I hope we're still unknowns. I'd much rather keep it that way…"
Kai was about to respond when there was a frantic pounding at the door.
"Hello? Are you in there? We could really use a hand, pretty urgent!" Aswon rolled to his feet and crossed to the door with two long-legged strides, pulling it open to reveal Nicole standing in the hallway, a worried expression on her face. "Thanks, look – there's been an accident, and Rudi's hurt – pretty bad. Can you help?"
"Of course we can. Let's grab the med-kit and go. Shimazu, Tads, please?"
"No problem, Kai. Rest of you, can you do a trip down and through the tilt-wing wards, please? It's been a few hours." Tads called out to them as she scooped up her staff and made her way down after Kai, whilst Shimazu grabbed the large first-aid kit from his pile of gear, chasing down after them. Nicole ran down the stairs, forcing Kai to break into a run of his own to keep up. She led them down into one of the training rooms where they found Chun cradling the head of one of the instructors, immobilising it and with a blood-soaked pad held tightly to the side of the skull.
Kai and Shimazu slid into position and start to examine the situation, hands checking down the side of the head, neck and shoulders as best they could around Chun's hands, being careful not to move either of them.
"Can you tell us what happened?"
"We were sparring, full contact. Working on some speed moves. He went left, I was going right, both at the same time – my foot slipped through his guard just as he was committing to an attack, and it caught him on the side of the skull, just above the ear. I was trying to pull back, but he was still moving into the attack when I hit him. Is he going to be ok?" Chun's voice was thick with concern and his eyes flicked between the two of them.
"Well, you caught him a good whack by the looks of things, he's got a fractured skull and a concussion by the looks of things. Good work on keeping him still and pressure on the wound, though. Ok, we'll get him braced, then treat. Thanks, Shimazu." Kai moved his hands away while Shimazu slipped a small brace in and around the neck, pinning it in place. "On three, take the pressure away from the pad, and slide back, and we'll take over. One, two, three… ok, thanks. Good."
Kai and Shimazu worked together quickly, checking the wound and carefully manipulating the skull to make sure there were no splinters or shards of bones, just a simple fracture and haematoma, to deal with. The med kit beeped and whistled next to them as it monitored the vital signs, administering drugs via the IV that Shimazu had slid into the back of Rudi's hand, the white tube contrasting against the African's dark skin.
Two minutes of work later, the beeps lowered in pitch, the whistles from the alarm stopping and the monitor showed much more regular rhythms as pulse, respiration and blood pressure all became more regular as the drugs kicked in, while the dressings they used stopped any further blood flow as the coagulant coating of the bandages helped the wound clot and knit together.
When they had done, Tads slid in, and gathered her strength to her, concentrating and channelling the healing spell through her fingertips, the golden glow shining brightly. Chun and Nicole had seen it before but still watched intently, whilst the three students that had been waiting quietly at the back of the room gasped in amazement.
The positive flow of mana raced through her, powering her spell far more quickly and easily than she was used to, and she felt a rush of adrenalin coursing through her system. Hairs stood up on her back and arms, goosebumps spreading over her body as the vast rush of energy swept over her. Rudi had no cyberware, so he was agreeably easy to fix magically, but even so she was surprised when after no more than three or four seconds, the glow started to fade away, leaving her with a faint sense of contentment and warmth.
"He's good now – the skull is fine and the swelling is reduced. He's going to be unconscious for a good few hours still, but then he'll just wake up and wonder what happened. It'd be good for someone to be there when he does wake, just in case he's dizzy or off balance, though." Tads smiled at the three students who stood open-jawed, staring at her. She glanced over her shoulder as the door opened, and Aswon, Marius and Hunter entered, having just come back from the tilt-wing.
"So Chun… full contact sparring? A little risky, I would have thought…"
"Well yes, but the closest you get to conditions in the ring. And I need to make this convincing, if we want to get Harley back unharmed…" He didn't have to say anything about the team's efforts out loud – Kai heard the challenge and understood.
"We're working on it. Trust us, we've got good leads and we're making positive steps to getting him back. You just need to give it time."
"I'll trust you as far as I can. But I need to practice, get my edge back, quickly. And the best way to do that is to fight, with the instructors. Each of them is good, but I need to be able to beat them all again, at their own styles."
"Beat them?"
"It was an accident. Always a risk when you fight at this kind of level. But I have to sell this. I have to make this look legitimate. If I don't, and there's an investigation – then it's not going to work. And if you don't have Harley back by then…" He didn't have to explain what would happen – all of them knew that the Triad would not hesitate to kill him if their plan was ruined – or worse.
"We might be able to help with that a little. Not so much in the hand to hand skills – but I'm somewhat proficient with a staff. And both Aswon and Shimazu are much better than me. With our weapons, we can certainly give you a workout, and let you practice your dodging and movement skills. And hopefully, nobody else will get hurt!"
"As long as you're willing to accept that there's a chance of some horrific accident, especially against myself and Shimazu." Aswon gave a semi-apologetic shrug at Tads. "We have live weapons, but no practice blades – and as we've seen here, there's always a chance for accidents.
"I'm not sure how that will work, but we can give it a try. I might just go and spar with Mikey – he's big enough to take a hit or two, and that might be safest for everyone." Nicole snorted, flicking her head at Chun and her eyes twinkled.
"Sure, as long as you're still as good as you think you are. If he hits, you, it's gonna hurt. Believe me!"
The team headed back to their room, letting Nicole and the three students precede them up the stairs carrying Rudi on a stretcher. As they followed the students up the narrow staircase, Tads called back over her shoulder.
"Do we know who he's fighting yet?"
"No, still no idea if the fight is legit or underground yet, or who it's against." Hunter responded.
"But we know he's going to Macau right. That's what Wa Fan said, he had to be ready to travel to Macau. So it's probably going to be there – or it is at least worth looking and checking out?"
"That's….actually a very good idea. Why didn't anyone else think of that?" As soon as they were back in the room he fired up his deck and connected via Marius and his sat-link, scouring the matrix feeds for information on fights. When he jacked out, he had a smile on his face. "What do you know – guess which town has a massive martial arts competition in the next few days, starting at midday and going on to gone midnight, with about thirty major fights booked in multiple disciplines? Kickboxing, Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Ki, Freestyling, K1, Carromaleg… you name it, there's fights there. Multiple titles up for grabs."
"And where is this being held?" Kai asked. Hunter grabbed the screen and plugged it in, zooming in on Macau. The runway for the international airport hung off the eastern coast, a massive spit of reclaimed land with two taxiways that led to the edge of the isthmus, and Hunter slowly scrolled down until a huge sports stadium appeared on the screen, about one and a half kilometres to the south.
"Domo dos Jogos da Asia Oriental stadium. Can hold about fifty thousand apparently, huge place."
"We may have to extract Harley from there then. I bet that place has an absolute warren of tunnels, rooms, corridors and spaces underneath it."
"And if ever there was a place that would not only allow massive bets, but encourage it – it will be there. With that many big fights on at once, they are likely not even going to notice the number of bets the Triad will put on. Not if they are careful, anyway." Marius added.
"Security is likely to be extensive there – but it can't be too tight. No way they're getting fifty thousand fans and gamblers packed in if they're doing full body scans and background checks on them. But I bet security is going to be there in force and will respond in seconds to a disturbance."
"Ja. And security systems and camera coverage are going to be high – probably higher than anything we have dealt with before."
"So, it looks like we have a good idea of where Harley will be, and where Chun is going to go – and we've seen how worried Chun is getting, based on how hard he's training. I just hope…"
"What?" prompted Hunter.
"I just hope they are going to give him back. I mean what happens if Chun throws the fight, gets pounded and afterwards they turn round to him and say 'we just want one more thing before we give him back'. I mean, they know he's pliable at that point – and what's Chun going to do?"
An unsettling silence fell over the team as they thought about that, staring down at the massive stadium in the middle of the computer screen.
