Friday 17/9/2060, Location: 22.22744, 114.24966, Time 12:00

"I'm going to go check on Chun and let him know what we've got." Kai pushed himself up to a standing position, Shimazu rising silently by his side. Kai glanced at him for a moment, then shrugged, before turning and heading out to go find their host. It took a few minutes to track him down and find him in one of the gyms, holding himself up on a pair of rings suspended from the ceiling, tilted on his side and kicking into mid-air, his body held in a stylised pose. When he had finished his set of kicks, Chun lowered himself slowly to the ground, muscles quivering and tendons standing out under the pressure as he descended slowly under control rather than just dropping to the floor.

"We think we have the details now of where the fight is going to be, and the scale of the operation – it's pretty big. Sort of explains the resources they're throwing at this and gives us an idea of what we're up against. But, we're working on it – we're waiting for another hour or two to go and scout out a location, and we'll be doing a strike later on this evening to get some key information that will lead us to Harley." He sounded confident, and Chun nodded as Kai explained how it was going to be, seemingly accepting his statements as facts. "So, it's in hand. I think you should still train, mind you – though I think we'll get Harley back safe and sound, it may well still come down to a confrontation with the Triads.

"I've come along to see if you would like to train against someone new. Get a fresh opponent, someone who you've not fought against, and don't know their moves." Shimazu offered. "As long as you're willing to work with a live blade, of course. As Aswon mentioned, we don't have training equipment."

"Sure – that would help. And don't worry, even if you catch me – I've seen what you can patch up. It'll be fine!" Chun smiled, and Shimazu gave him an odd look. He couldn't tell if Chun was just being flippant, if he was supremely confident in his own abilities, or if he really did just have faith in their ability to heal and repair the damage. The man certainly seemed to have an odd approach to life. Shimazu shrugged off his armoured top layers and moved to the edge of the room, limbering up and doing a few stretches to make sure he was ready, while Chun did the same at the opposite side of the training mat.

A few minutes later they approached each other, moving to stand two metres apart in the centre of the hall. Kai had moved over to climb on a low pile of crash mats and was sitting watching, giving a sly wink to Shimazu. He'd seen enough of his bodyguard fighting beasts and men to know how lethal he was, and didn't fancy Chun's chances, and was working out in his head how long he figured before Shimazu had him bested.

They bowed to each other. Shimazu had his sword held upright, one hand on the hilt, and the other laid out flat along the blade, held central on his face, the blade bisecting his eyes. Chun had one hand closed in a fist, the other wrapped around it, both hands positioned just below his chin. As they bowed, their eyes stared unblinking at each other, focussing on their opponents and filtering out everything else, cutting the extraneous details from their vision that might distract them.

Shimazu made the first move, coming in with an overhead swing that should be easy to see coming and counter, watching as Chun swayed to the side, an overhead block sweeping down over the rear edge of his sword and pushing it away as he darted in for a kick. Shimazu countered by spinning on his leading foot, swinging around ninety degrees and bringing the sword back for an upwards slash towards the ribs. He was moving at only a moderate pace, and kept the pressure light – not wanting to risk severe injury until he had a measure of his foe.

Chun in turn countered, springing up into the air and letting the blade slide under him, one foot stamping down to deflect the blade towards the ground while his fist powered down through the air towards Shimazu's nose, forcing him to rapidly step back, swinging his sword wide to recover control.

They sparred on, Shimazu gradually turning up the pace and increasing speed and power, watching as Chun countered his every move. Despite the reach his sword gave him, Chun seemed to be like a djinn, impossible to pin down and strike against, always moving from one place to another, diving in and pushing Shimazu back, robbing him of the range advantage. Soon they were both breathing heavily, combat reflexes kicking in and drawing in huge lungfuls of air to power their efforts, snatched between explosive bouts of sharp movement.

Shimazu realised that Chun was starting to push the pace on him now, his blows getting closer and forcing him to react to the unarmed attacks rather than the other way around. 'Fine. Let's see how you cope with this then,' he thought to himself. He concentrated, powering up his abilities and striking fast, the sword tip flicking out and forwards faster than a striking cobra. His eyes widened as Chun seemed to blur, sidestepping and swaying, ducking under the attack and powering forwards, a fist swinging on an erratic path through his guard and brushing past his chin, just hard enough to rasp the skin and make his jaw wobble slightly.

He stepped back and raised the sword in a salute.

"Point."

Chun grinned at him, and nodded, a single bead of sweat rolling down the side of his head. Shimazu played back the encounter in his mind, his suspicions rising. He'd not seen someone react like that before. Normally his explosive drive, his reactive burst let him get the drop on someone – anyone. Never before had he met someone who could counter it like that. He concentrated, slipping into the astral and staring at Chun hard, driving his focus towards the soul that stood before him. For just a moment, he managed to penetrate the protective veil that seemed to wrap around Chun's soul, penetrating the cloak of masking that protected his core being, sensing the bright flickers of power that lay inside. Bright light shone out through the protective wrappings, a pure glimpse of his true nature.

"Ahh. I understand now. I hadn't realised you were an adept, too. I see we have similar magical abilities." Chun's smile slipped, and a genuine look of confusion swept across his face. His stance altered, and Shimazu was convinced it wasn't an act – he truly didn't believe what Shimazu had just said.

"I'm not a wizard. No strange powers here. I'm just pretty good. Lots of experience." Shimazu stared at him, trying once again to see his true self – but the mental shields were locked back into place now, making him appear to be just a normal, run of the mill, human being. All he had was the memory of what he'd seen – and by the looks of things, Chun was probably almost as powerful as he or Tads were, certainly on a par with Kai and Aswon.

They sparred on for a while, Chun cycling through kickboxing, karate, tae-kwon-do and several other styles as they fought. Shimazu got several touches, managing to twist his wrist to slap at Chun with the flat edge of the blade on the odd moments when he did get through his guard, but equally his body felt the dull sting of a few pokes and touches from knuckles and toes that had penetrated his own defences. Shimazu knew he was good with his sword, and that the reach of the weapon normally was a big factor in how he could use it to dominate his opponents. Chun however was beyond good – he was exceptional. Raw ability was matched with decades of experience, and he seemed to be able to anticipate the direction the fight would go, manipulating it to his advantage. Shimazu thought he had a good idea of some of his adept powers – magical abilities that enhanced his body's natural abilities, but by his estimation of power, there were equally as many that he'd not seen yet…

While Kai and Shimazu were down with Chun, Marius had logged in to the matrix site for the auto-centre, and was viewing the status updates on the workshop. First of all he flicked onto the live feed, showing the two engine carcasses on the cradles, and the benches behind them covered in the thousands of components required for a modern multi-stage jet turbine engine. Conspicuously placed between the two sets of parts was a large clear container full of dust – almost certainly the debris they'd removed from the engines and components.

He swapped to the log and started to browse through the notes on what work had been carried out, checking the status and summary tabs to get an idea of progress. It looked like one engine was close to three quarters done, while the second was about a quarter of the way through the process. From the notes he determined that they'd had to rebuild a lot of the turbine blades due to microfractures and pitting, and he surmised that the production facility for the highly precise blades was probably the key bottleneck in the process.

However, as he looked down through the list of work carried out, along with the tasks outstanding, he felt his stomach fall. Clearly the engine had sustained more significant damage than he'd realised, and he resolved to check the tilt-wing's systems more carefully when he had her next powered up. The only way he could imagine that the damage wouldn't be noticed is if there was some kind of damage control or contingency systems, providing backups for key control systems and actuators, that had covered the extent of the debris damage.

The other aspect, of course, was cost. He actually felt pretty comfortable at the level of progress and steps taken, the facility was top notch, and they were doing a great job on an unfamiliar product. However, that kind of expertise didn't come cheap, and as he glanced at the list of parts deemed too worn or damaged to risk being put back in the rebuilt engines, his stomach knotted. The parts list was extensive, and he estimated the repair bill was probably rising from a four-figure sum to one easily into five. Kai was going to love this…

He left a brief update with Tads, interrupting her training with Vadim briefly to relay what he'd seen, then grabbed the drone disguised as a child's toy and headed out towards the country club, intending to go and do a little research and reconnaissance and see what they might be up against later.

Tads turned back to Vadim, opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again, swinging back around to look at Aswon and Hunter.

"Look, I don't want to act like everyone's mother. But have we actually worked out how we're going to get into Japan without being picked up by the border patrol or the defence systems yet? As I understand it, they're some of the toughest going, and nobody seems to be doing anything about it. I can call a spirit to hide us and change how we look, but that only goes so far. Someone who knows about computers, and sensors and technical things needs to do their part too." She glared at Hunter for a moment, and Aswon smiled and poked him in the ribs.

"I think that's you." Tads swung her head over to face him, giving him the basilisk stare instead.

"And we could also maybe call our contacts in the area and see if we can arrange some visas or fake identity passes or something too…" Aswon let out a quiet 'oof' as Hunter kindly returned the poke in the ribs.

"I guess I can call Spook and see what we can sort out." Tads gave them both a look, then turned back to Vadim, and continued her lesson on how to spot and analyse wards, leaving them to it. "I'm going to go call her then. Back in a bit." Aswon grabbed his phone and headed outside, finding somewhere quiet and out of the wind to sit and stare out at the landscape, ignoring the mild drizzle that continued to fall.

He returned about ten minutes later, and Hunter looked up from his deck where he was keeping half an eye on his search operations.

"Any luck, Aswon?"

"Kinda. Had a good chat with Spook, and she's on the case. Confirmed the details we already had worked out – there's no way we've enough time to get proper tourist visa or travel permits now, and even if there was, there's still a small chance the IDs would get burned under that level of scrutiny, so it's perhaps not the best idea to do. Milo does good work, I think, but any fake will be found if you look hard enough."

"So what's the good news?"

"Well, she's reaching out to see about some alternate travel plans, using a route set up by someone else, to see if we can ride in on their coat tails."

"We can't just find some border guard and bribe them to get us in?"

"Probably not. We actually discussed that, and maybe if Shimazu was the one doing the negotiation, then it might work. Play up the racial purity and ideology card. But he's not the best negotiator, so that's probably not going to work, and if some border agent catches sight of the rest of us, that's going to go down like a lead balloon."

"Yeah. I don't fancy being sent to that island prison of theirs." Hunter's jaw worked as he thought about the rumours and myths that circulated about the way the Japanese state treated metahumans. Despised for being 'impure', they were deported to a large island with almost no facilities, left to fend for themselves in a brutal and callous dog-eat-dog society where rape, torture, abuse and murder was an everyday risk – and the prisoners' desperate struggle for survival even at the cost of their fellow inmates was used as fuel for the argument to prove they were subhuman and deserved such treatment.

"So, the only way we can get a bribe to work is to offer an amount not only large enough to get them to turn a blind eye, but also to blind themselves to their inherent racial superiority. And I don't think we can afford that. So instead we're left with trying to find someone who already has a route in to the country and seeing if we can ghost over the border with them. It's still going to cost us – but no where near as much. Spook's making some enquiries and is gonna get back to me."

Hunter grunted in acknowledgement, then went back to his deck, adjusting the parameters of his search bots and sending them off scouting around the matrix boards, looking to see if he could find someone with details of how to get across one of the toughest borders in the world. It had become clear to him so far that many people could tell him how rough the cross was – but very few could actually follow through on ways to beat it… it seemed he still had a way to go to unlock access to some of the more restricted or useful areas of the sprawling underground site.

The team spent the afternoon training and practicing, biding their time until evening fell. Marius returned with the drone and worked with Hunter, building up a more detailed map of the country club and the cliff approach, plotting out a 3d model of the jagged surface on the eastern shore.

At around nine thirty, Hunter and Aswon got themselves ready, loading weapons and donning their armour and jackets, hiding their rifles under ponchos as they headed out from the academy and down the beach, sticking to the water line as closely as possible and away from the quiet streets of the town. It didn't take long to reach the far end of the beach where they had to start slinking through woods as they crossed the small headland, trying to reach the northern side of the town. From there they crossed the smaller beach and made for the rocks that rapidly rose into a cliff face that worked northwards, separating the crashing waves from the grounds of the country club above.

With the data gained from the survey carried out by Marius earlier that day, and between Aswon's gecko spell and Hunter's climbing claws they scaled the rock face with ease, appearing at the top of the fifteen metre climb in only a few minutes. Both of them slithered over the edge and crawled under bushes, lying perfectly still as they stared into the darkness ahead, looking for signs of alarm or defensive systems. Three minutes ticked by, second by damp second, but there was no sign of detection, no security patrol investigating the breach in the perimeter. Slowly they crawled forwards, towards the low fence that ran along the edge of the club, confirming that it was just a physical barrier, put there to stop wayward members from stumbling too close to the cliff edge.

They rose, and worked their way through the woodland, moving from tree trunk to tree trunk, bounding past one another while their team-mate kept watch, weapon ready. It was only two hundred and fifty metres to their target, but it still took them nearly twenty minutes of slow movement and careful overwatch to work their way around the main buildings and down towards the maintenance area.

When they arrived they could see the office building and apartment block, adjacent to some large sheds or garages. The buildings were clad in plastic fascia, coloured and textured to resemble wood panelling, with old fashioned style coaching lamps lighting the area and allowing safe movement. A few more powerful floodlights were visible over the sheds, no doubt used when they needed to illuminate the area for operations – but they were switched off at the moment. They moved around and found a small shack that faced the main building, and climbed up onto the roof, laying down and peering over the edge to survey the courtyard ahead of them, then settled in to wait. The rain that had been present all day continued to fall, a steady stream that kept the air cool and dampened sounds around them.

The office building had the polarised windows so typical these days, and the doors were well fitted and secure – they couldn't see any light leakage from either the office or the apartment. Checking on thermo, the apartment was cold, while the office was a uniform warm colour, brighter spots marking the window areas.

Nearly thirty minutes after they had arrived, the door opened suddenly, and a figure appeared, his jacket clasped protectively over himself. Both Aswon and Hunter moved their heads slightly, dropping down to peer at the figure through the scopes of their respective weapons, and examining their target. A younger man, Chinese, with dark hair and eyes and a slightly harried expression. A large box-shaped bulge was under his jacket, deforming it, and he seemed to hunch over it protectively. Glancing quickly from side to side, he stepped out of the lit doorway and let the door slam shut behind him, then broke into a jog as he headed out of the courtyard and along the road, heading for the main country club buildings. Aswon slowly shuffled around to follow his progress, while Hunter remained locked onto the main target. A quick glance into astral space revealed some annoyance from the man, a sense of urgency but no alarm or really strong feelings – certainly nothing to raise the alarm.

Ten minutes passed before he returned, damp and clearly not enjoying that fact, but his jacket now hung normally, free of whatever cargo he'd been carrying when he left. He jogged back towards the door and pulled it open, giving them another glimpse into the entryway and the building beyond, lit by the steady soft off-white lights of the office beyond. From the limited angle they could see, it matched the description of what Tads had seen from her astral scout previously, but gave them only a very limited view of the inside, just a part of the corridor and the outer office. They settled back down to wait a while more.

Only a few minutes passed before the man came back out, heading to the side of the courtyard and unlocking a small electric car. Barely bigger than a motorbike, the cockpit had room for a small amount of luggage or perhaps a child in the back, but little else. It drifted forwards almost silently, just a faint whine from the motor as it trundled onto the driveway, carrying the man home for the evening.

It went quiet again, and it was another ten minutes before they once more saw the front door open. This time it was their target, Lo Han, standing silhouetted in the doorway. He reached over to wall and they saw the lights flicker out bank by bank as he flipped switches. Next he pulled something off a shelf, extending his hand outwards before deftly flicking his wrist, and a small umbrella unfurled, the black plastic snapping into a parabolic dish at the end of the extending handle. Only then did he step out into the rain, pulling the door shut behind him and hitting the lock button on the maglock to the side. He walked along to the edge of the building, dimly lit by the exterior lights revealing only shadowy views of his distorted and mangled features. On reaching the corner he turned and started to climb the bank of steps built onto the end of the office, towards the door leading up into the apartment above. The same maglock passkey was still in his hand as he swiped through the lock and entered what looked like a four digit PIN, before he stepped inside and turned, hitting the button to retract the umbrella again as he shook off the small amount of rainwater.

Within a minute, Aswon could see the faint colour change in the apartment indicating a heater warming up a room, followed another minute later by a smaller but more intense colour shift further over in the apartment – matching the location of the kitchen. Straining his ears, he could detect a very faint sound of music, something with drums and cymbals and other percussion, faintly leaking out of the apartment.

"Sounds like our man is settling in for the night, Hunter. Heater on in the main room, think he has the oven on in the kitchen, sound system or trideo is blasting out something loud."

"Loud enough to cover us breaking in through the door?"

"Possibly. I think we'd be better to wait for the others though, as agreed. 'Bout time for a check in though, I guess." He shifted a hand down to his pocket and hit the transmit button. "Base, this is recon. In position, target located. Settling in for the night, solo, no security spotted. Suggest a go at midnight if no further contact. Out." He listened, and heard two answering clicks from someone back at the academy – message received. He heard Hunter shifting next to him as he slowly squirmed around to do a check on their flanks and rear, before returning to the original position alongside him to survey the apartment.

It was 23:15 when they noticed the temperature in the main room dropping faintly, whilst the next room over warmed slightly. There were no further sounds from the apartment, and it looked like the target had headed to the bedroom. Aswon called in the update, pushing back the entry to 12:30, to give him plenty of time to fall asleep and hopefully be in his first full sleep cycle. They had kept watch on the area and seen nothing else moving in the maintenance area, though cars still entered and left through the main driveway and the Country Club buildings still seemed busy enough – but with a bar and restaurant open, that was not surprising.

At a little after midnight, a ghostly form materialised next to the pair of watchers, making both of them jump reflexively.

"Sorry!" Tads said quietly. "Didn't mean to startle you. Just been for a quick float through the apartment, he looks to be fast asleep. We'll be setting off shortly, but thought it would be good to get a quick confirmation before we set off." Aswon nodded at her, then nudged Hunter.

"Want to head over and sneak up the stairs, have a look at the door lock and see what you make of it?" Hunter didn't respond verbally, but gathered his gear together and slid down from the rooftop noiselessly, padding softly across the courtyard and sticking to the pools of shadow where he could. Aswon watched through the scope, checking for any sudden hot spots of movement that might indicate the target being woken by a noise – or just heading to the toilet.

Hunter moved slowly up the stairs, his feet splayed widely to stand only on the very end of the stair treads as he sought to limit any creaking. Gradually he made his way to the top of the stairs and paused to listen, before slowly pulling out a torch with a red filter on the front, and shining it at the door lock to get an idea of the security in place. He grabbed his phone to take a quick picture, and transmitted it over to Marius via their private channel.

"Marius? At the lock, it looks like it's a Sheng Dong 2000-R. Swipe card reader and a number pad in a recessed pad, fairly small display. We think it's a four digit code."

"Sheng Dong, did you say?"

"Affirm."

"It can't be that simple… can it?" Marius thought hard for a moment, picturing the lock he'd defeated on the apartment block in the city when they'd be trying to follow Harley's signature the previous day. "Ok Hunter – you could probably defeat that with a bit of time and patience. But I just want you to try something. Go live on your camera, then get your thumb and put it on the top left corner of the lock."

Hunter set up the video call, then aimed the camera at the lock system, holding the torch in his teeth to keep it steady, then placed his gnarly and broad thumb on the top of the metal case, the light reflecting off the thin plastic gloves stretched over his flesh.

"Ok, good, Move it right a bit, slowly. Good, keep going, keep going, keep going, STOP! Ok, stay that far over, but move vertically down, down, down. Slowly…stop! Right, that part there. Do not hit it, but just lean on the pad. You might need a lot of bodyweight or power, but just try pushing it, hard."

Very confused, Hunter none the less leant on the surface of the lock, pushing hard with his not inconsiderable mass and tensing his arm muscled. He felt the lock deform slightly under the pressure, the thin metal bending inwards while the sides bulged out, forming little stress marks in the corner. What he couldn't see though was the inner surface of the lock cover slowly creeping closer to the security override button, gently touching the small plastic button and then oh so gently pushing it down until the lock circuit sprang open.

"Ok, door's just popped open. How the hell did that happen?" Hunter was confused, and a little bit impressed – but trying hard not to show it in his voice.

"These locks are rubbish. But, the door should allow you entry now, and hopefully there is no sign of entry. I am launching a drone for support, the others are on the way now. ETA 10 minutes."

"Roger that." He shifted channel and called to Aswon. "Door open, time to visit." He settled down into a crouch at the top of the stairs and kept watch, making sure nobody spotted Aswon as he replicated the slow crossing of the courtyard and climb of the steps. When he'd arrived, they eased open the front doorstep and oozed inside, rolling their feet as they transferred their weight, making sure the floor didn't squeak or give away their position. Once inside with the door pushed to, Aswon carefully slung his rifle over his shoulder and reached into his pocket, pulling out the large fabric patch in a plastic pocket and holding it by the corner pulled the protective seal open. When he had the patch ready to apply, he gently tapped Hunter on the shoulder twice, then followed him along quietly as they slowly stalked towards the bedroom.

Lo Han laid in bed, turned slightly to the side with his head nestled on the pillows, mouth slightly open and a thin nasal whine sounding as he breathed in and out. One arm lay atop the covers, hand clenched around the top of the sheets just in front of his face. Aswon moved around to the side of the bed and gently laid the patch over the skin, easing down the surface as gently as he could, while Hunter stood back a little, rifle ready to shoot if he showed signs of stirring and pulling a weapon. Lo Han twitched slightly as the patch made contact with the skin, and his hand flexed and gave a tiny little wave as his subconscious tried to shoo away the fly that was crawling on his skin, but then he settled again. The drugs went to work, leeching in through the skin and gradually the breathing slowed as he slipped from REM sleep into true unconsciousness.

"Target is out, clock running." Aswon hit the stopwatch timer on his phone, setting it to count down from forty-five minutes. He was pretty sure they had longer than that, probably the rest of the night provided there wasn't any loud noises or pain stimuli – but there was no way he should be waking up before that time even if someone did slip and poke him.

Back at the Academy, Tads and Shimazu were on the roof, their two belts hooked together with a carabiner. Shimazu also wrapped his arms around Tads, his arms thrust under her armpits and linking together over her breastbone, while she concentrated on the spell. It was a little harder to cast with the increased weight from two of them, but the levitate spell took hold, lifting Shimazu up, and Tads felt herself sinking a little until the arms and belt took up the slack, holding her in place dangling from his front. With a mental impulse, she lifted him – and herself by association – up into the night sky, concealed from view by one of her spirits and flew them out over the water. Swooping up and down in long gentle arcs they made their way to the north, flying through the night-time rain, all but invisible from watching eyes.

While they waited for the others to arrive, Aswon had a look around the bedroom, leaving Hunter to watch the sleeping form. His first examination was the sword at the end of the bed – looking at the scabbard by the dim light from the alarm clock, it looked cheap and tacky, the kind of thing he'd expect to see in a tourist trap or 'authentic martial arts shop' that also sold black belt certificates by mail order. The box however looked to be of fine construction, intricately worked and made of wood – and also protected by a reasonably powerful ward. He stayed well clear of that, and slowly surveyed the room, examining the art on the walls and the furnishings, looking for anything unusual, and also making sure he could spot where everything was so they could make sure it was undisturbed when they left. Lo Han led a fairly tidy and spartan existence it seemed, which should at least make that part easy.

They heard Tads and Shimazu gently set down on the stairs landing and enter the apartment, wiping their feet carefully to avoid leaving boot prints on the carpet. They made their way through to the bedroom, and Shimazu ran his biotech scanner over the prone form of Lo Han, confirming that he was well and truly knocked out. When the machine chirped and confirmed that he wasn't damaged, just unconscious, he nodded to Tads and took a step backwards, clearing the way for her to approach the bed and gently perch on the side, laying on hand over the pillow so just her fingertips touched the back of his head through the hair. She slowed her breathing, and spent a few moments meditating, clearing her mind and preparing for what she was about to do.

Shimazu moved down to the end of the bed and examined the sword closely, his curiosity piqued. It wasn't a sword for fighting – he could see that immediately, based on the construction and dimensions. It was however, a beautiful ceremonial piece, and certainly several centuries old. Though the scabbard was decorated and had several gems inlaid into it, along with a finely woven set of loops that framed the painted scenes of ancient Japanese Samurai, it was an expression of artistry and illustrated the history and honour of a family, rather than being a gaudy display of excess that Aswon had assumed. He stared at the sword illuminated in the red light of the alarm clock display, wondering how distracted the rest of the team would need to be before he could lift it…

Tads concentrated and let the mana flow through her, sinking her mental fangs into the mind of the comatose man before her. Her thoughts intruded on his head, rifling through his memories and examining his thoughts.

She didn't like what she found.

Darkness. Callousness. A willingness to use violence and fear against anyone who slighted him. A moral compass that left her feeling like something had shat in her mouth and made her chew. She felt herself trying to recoil and pull out, but the stubborn part of her mind dug it's heels in, forcing the rest of her to carry on, picturing a young man in a prison cell somewhere, relying on them to extract the information they needed. Slowly, she managed to assemble the picture from the scattered fragments in his mind.

"It's Lo Han's plan. He's the driving force behind this. He remembers Chun, the beating, like it was yesterday. There is a flame of hatred in him that burns white hot, all consuming. He…. He's bitter, beyond anything I have ever felt. He wants to destroy him, humiliate him. Take everything from him and make him suffer. Do anything he can to hurt him, and keep hurting him, for what he's done." Tads swallowed, her voice wobbling slightly as she tried to deal with the flood of memories and emotions that washed over her.

"He found out that Chun had adopted Harley, regarded him as his son, and arranged things. Took the plan to his boss to make the arrangements, and got the crew in the city to kidnap him and take him away. Lee Kee… that's his boss' name. Numbers. Four. Eight. Three. Some kind of rank or position of honour. And Wa Fan… he doesn't like her. Thinks she's going to challenge him. He convinced Lee Kee that she was a risk, unreliable. Unworthy to work on the plan. Set her up as the cutout, the one to talk to Chun. If Chun lost his temper, it would be her that was killed, not him."

She shivered and shook for a moment, making a strange retching sound.

"His imagination…he's thinking about Wa Fan being beaten, by Chun. Kicked and punched, smashed to pieces. Bloody and broken on the floor. There's a weird kind of twisted pleasure in using her to hurt him, to make him overstep the boundary, to get justification for torturing Harley, to start chopping him up and sending him back. Fingers first…" She gagged again, momentarily overwhelmed by the thoughts washing through her mind.

"The person he's working with… with, not for. His friend in the city. His name is Ngun Hai and he's old, somewhere in his fifties. A man, average height, with medium length black hair in a flick style. His eyes are dark brown, and he has a scar on his chin, a mark from a deep cut. Vague memories of being out drinking, a fight. Someone pulling a knife on them, giving Ngun the cut. Then a fight…" She shivered again as unwanted thoughts of violence washed over and through her. "He's a big drinker… very big. Or at least Lo Han thinks he is."

"He is the one that organised the kidnap on Harley, and took him from the nightclub – or at least his men did. Took him back to their base, the apartment building. The one that Marius and Shimazu described. Took him into a chopper to fly out to the islands. Ngun runs some business there, and is holding him, until the fight. Lo Han doesn't know where though – but he's certain that Ngun does."

Aswon, Shimazu and Hunter exchange glances, unseen by Tads who had her eyes tightly shut. Well, at least they knew where they were going next!

"Tads – do you know where in the apartment block? There were hundreds of families living there?" Shimazu paused, his hand hovering over the sword and Aswon scowled at him and shook a finger.

"There's a memory. It's hazy, wobbly. I think he was drunk… feeling bad. Two seven zero…six? No, nine. The number was wonky. Yes, apartment 2709. He lives there with his family, but its where he runs his part of the Triad from. I see knives and guns and drugs in there, mixed in with baby clothes and things…" Her voice trailed off and she fell silent for a moment, unwilling to share the memories of the drunken night and the events that had taken place in the apartment.

"What about the sword, Tads? And the box here? What can you tell us about those?" Shimazu asked, watching her with concern. It didn't take much knowledge of psychology to see that Tads wasn't enjoying sifting through his memories, and it looked like she needed a distraction, or a change of subject.

"The sword belonged to his grandfather, another triad boss. A strong, ruthless man, that he looked up to. Not like his father, who he didn't respect it seems. His grandfather had this as a ceremonial weapon, making his men swear blood oaths of loyalty on it. A sign of his power, his command…Lo Han feels it is one of his two most treasured possessions. The other being the box. Inside… ahh, that makes sense. Two urns, the ashes of his grandparents. Kept here safe, to keep the spirits of his family near him. Warded, to stop evil spirits from polluting them in the afterlife. Typical. He loved his grandmother, but keeps her ashes because she was the wife of his grandfather, making her worthy because of the man she was married to." Disgust echoed in her voice at the bias in his thoughts, solidifying her contempt for him.

"So let me see if I have this right, Tads?" Aswon closed his eyes for a moment as he tried to organise the jumble of memories and thoughts pulled from Lo Han's mind into a coherent stream of events. "Lo Han knew Chun when he used to fight, and bet on him, made lots of money. Chun stopped, Lo Han got mad and pressured him, and Chun damm near killed him, smashed up his face and since then Lo Han has hated his guts."

"But, he recently found out about Harley, and figured it was the leverage he needed, and spoke with his buddy in the city to get Harley kidnapped. His friend Ngun is the same rank as him, but works in the city, and his troops snatched Harley and took him off around the islands, and is keeping him safe until the fight."

"Back here, he's convinced his boss about the plan, this Lee Kee guy, in the next village up. He's spread poison about Wa Fan, and is using her to deliver the message and to wind Chun up, so she gets a beating if Chun loses his shit. But either way, they get Chun to the fight and trade on his reputation, making huge amounts of money at the bookies when he loses the fight."

"Yes, that's pretty much it, Aswon. Oh, there's… oh it's a daydream. A fantasy. A memory of them at least. In his head, he has the scenes all planned out. If the plan works, Lee Kee gets a promotion, and Lo Han takes his place, based on his performance. If the plan fails, he's been quietly complaining about Wa Fan already, speaking to Lee about her performance. Trying to blame her for not carrying out the plan properly, failing because she's weak, just a woman."

"He hates him. Hates Chun with a rage you can't imagine. But he fears him, too. He remembers the pain, the suffering at his hands. Feeling like he was going to die. The humiliation of being not just defeated, but almost destroyed. And he hates that more, that feeling of helplessness. He hates himself because of it, and it drives him to be ruthless, to hurt people. To carry out plans that make people suffer." Her face screwed up and another shudder rippled over her as she experienced a memory that made her want to vomit. Her voice shifted, becoming flatter and considerably colder.

"We should kill him. Here, and now. Just end his existence."

A chill washed around the room, and all three of the team stopped moving and looked at her with concern. Back at the academy, Marius and Kai heard the chilling voice over the radio and both froze too. Off the shore of the country club the vector thrust drone bobbed in the air for a moment as Marius was momentarily distracted, and both guns flicked from safe to live by reflex. Tads was normally the most peaceful of the team, the one likely to argue against violence, to seek a path of non-confrontation. But here and now, she was the one advocating for the cold-blooded murder of a man lying asleep in his bed.

"Just to be clear, Tads, I understand why you might be saying that. But if we do, it's an action that cannot be undone, an action from which there's no turning back. We may set in motion a chain of events that will be worse for us, or for Harley. Maybe we should consider this. Carefully." Aswon shifted slightly on his feet, but kept his tone of voice neutral. He had great respect for the spirit talker, and he was somewhat taken aback by the shift in her attitude.

"And if we do kill him, we potentially lose a source of leverage in the Triad, an ally to use against Wa Fan, whether he knows about it or not. And if we do kill him, the Triad will appoint another manager for this area, who may just do the same things for different reasons." Shimazu looked down at the two items at the end of the bed. "Besides, killing him is quick. Taking his sword and his grandfather's ashes, and letting him know we have them punishes him in a way that will last."

"Do not forget – we have information on the mission now that we did not have earlier. We have the next link in the chain, the apartment number of this man in Hong Kong. But our enemies do not know we have this yet. We can always come back for him later…" The synthesised voice from the radio came from Marius, a translation of his thoughts transmitted through his rigger interface for the team to hear.

"Oh, or here's a thought." Kai's voice had an edge to it, and they could imagine the smile on his lips as he spoke. "We steal his stuff to distract him, but then we go tell Wa Fan the plan, how he's set her up. We do a deal with her to take him out – in exchange for her keeping Chun off limits. Get the Triad to do the work for us, because it gives them the greatest reward. That'll hurt him far worse, knowing his own people are the ones that chopped his legs off at the knees."

"That sounds complicated, but I like the essence." The emotionless synthesised voice added, "We should make this a business transaction. Take the personal side out of it, and make it about the Triad making money. If Lo Han fails, he will be passed over for promotion. Wa Fan will rise to become his manager, gaining from the deal. It is in her interest to honour the arrangement then."

"Let's be honest here. If we can make Lo Han fail, there's a very good chance the Triad will just kill him for his failure," Shumazu added, "meaning we don't have to do anything at all. And the less involved we are, the safer we are."

"So, I hate to ask this, Tads, I'm sure you don't want to poke around in there any more. But can you look in his mind for anything about Wa Fan. Dirty little secrets he has on her, or suspicions, things he has seen or heard about. Things we can use to prove to her that we know Lo Han was after her?"

"You're right. But ok. Hunter – can I link to you so you can transcribe the memories as I send them over?" Hunter gave his agreement, and Tads cast another spell, linking her mind to his, then started to search through his memories looking for the information Aswon had asked about. She soon found a selection of choice tidbits – conversations with minions, sly remarks, subtle acts of sabotage or whispered conversations with other members of the Triads, all of which would be hard to come by from any source other than Lo Han. Hunter quickly transcribed them, the incoming mental images translated through his router and datajack into text on his deck.

"A quick thought," Kai's voice came over the commlink, "does he have a partner? I mean, there's nobody there now, but is there a girlfriend? Wife? Children?"

"No. There's nobody in his life like that." Tads moaned again, shaking slightly, her free hand tensing into a claw. "Just…prostitutes. He feels he can't attract a woman because of his face, and he blames Chun for that. He takes it out on them. Uses them. It's… not nice." She had forgotten about the mind-link still up to Hunter, and with her eyes closed she missed the sudden tenseness that rippled across his body. Shimazu didn't, though, seeing his jaw tense and the muscles work on the side of his neck, his large forearms rippling as the muscles worked and the tiny creaking sound from the grip on his assault rifle as he squeezed his hand onto the grip.

"Tads, just a quick thought. Does he have surveillance in here? Something we might have missed?" Shimazu once more sought to distract her, take her to somewhere in his mind that would not have truly awful thoughts present.

"No, nothing in here. He doesn't bring people back here often, it's more like a sanctuary. But when he does, it's for delicate business, and he doesn't want anything incriminating. The place is clean. At least from his point of view."

"Well, good job everyone. Unless anyone can think of anything else, I feel we've got enough to move on and go see this Ngun chap in Hong Kong, and find out where he's holding Harley, then go get him back. Let's get you all out of there, and back here."

"Roger that, Kai. We'll get Tads and Shimazu out first," Aswon responded, "then Hunter and I can make sure there's no traces here, and come back the same way we arrived. Marius, if you're ok to keep an eye out with your drone until we're clear."

"Ja."

Tads let the spells drop, first the mind-link to Hunter, then the probe in Lo Han's mind. As she let the magic fade, she could still taste his memories in her mind, the things he'd done and said, the pain he'd caused. She felt dirty, soiled, impure… sickened by the lack of humanity and the selfishness of the man who lay before her, peaceful only in sleep. She gathered energy to her once more and touched the top of his ear with one finger, concentrating as she sent power through her digit into his soul.

"Be nice…" the sound was quiet, so quiet that nobody heard what she said – only Aswon picking up on a noise and turning too late to see what was going on. Her influence spell wormed its way down into his psyche, carrying with it a strong imperative to avoid violence or pain. It wouldn't last forever – not with a person like this challenging it with his constant deeds and the company he kept. But for now at least, he'd find it difficult to take any actions contrary to her instructions.

She sat back and examined the area, then started to slowly cleanse astral space, plucking away at the echoes and traces of her spells that lingered in the area, dissipating the remnants of power. When she was done, she rose from the bed and smoothed away the bedclothes, removing sign of her presence and headed to the door, walking stiffly and staying in the middle of the corridors and doorways. She didn't want to touch anything here, anything that might further taint her with Lo Han's aura. When she was back at the entrance way she stood unmoving while Shimazu moved to clip them together, before she once more cast her levitate spell and sent them soaring into the night air, rising up into the rain clouds.

Shimazu felt her leaning back, raising her head up into the night sky and letting the rain wash down over her face, welcoming the cold water running down inside her neckline, plastering her hair to her face. He leant back as much as he could, and in his mind he flashed back to the module he'd covered at the university which discussed rape trauma, and the overwhelming desire for victims to clean themselves, as if their feelings were something that could be physically scrubbed away.

Back in the apartment, Hunter and Aswon moved around carefully, checking the space for any traces of their presence, anything that would alert or alarm Lo Han in the morning when he woke. With delicate movements, Aswon pulled the trank-patch off the exposed flesh, easing it back until the adhesive gave way with a 'shlurp', and he could tuck the mostly expended drug patch back into the original wrapper, being careful to avoid getting anywhere near the sticky side. Though he was wearing gloves, the chemicals were mixed with enhanced DMSO – dimethyl sulfoxide, an organic solvent that acted to penetrate a huge variety of substances and carry the drugs through to the target beyond. He'd heard too many horror stories of mercs being careless with stim or trank patches, that ended up dosing themselves with hilarious – or fatal – results.

When they had all of their gear, and had backed out of the apartment, carefully brushing at the rugs and carpet to erase their footprints, they slowly backed out onto the landing at the top of the stairs, and eased the door shut, ensuring that the maglock engaged and left the building secure once more, before they started their slow and careful exfiltration, back through the grounds and out to the cliff edge, then made a careful descent back down to the rocks and water below.

High above, the drone circled through the clouds, guns hanging ready as Marius tracked the team back towards the academy, plotting the position of their encrypted communicators. When they had all reached a safe distance, he too turned for home, bringing the drone back to the academy and keeping a watchful eye on the area, just in case there were any tails.

It was just before one in the morning when they all made it back to the academy, heading for the tilt wing to get inside the powerful ward and a secure environment. Tads was subdued, still processing the emotions of the night and was surprised when she felt Hunter grab her gently and pull her down into the seat next to him. A hefty arm wrapped around her and pulled her in tightly to his body, not with any desire or hostility, just an implacable firmness. He was chatting away to Marius as he did so, not breaking off his conversation about drones and computer interfaces, ignoring the look of surprise on her face.

She relaxed, taking comfort in the simple show of support and solidarity, feeling his hand rub twice on her shoulder in an almost absent-minded fashion before stopping and just holding her there while he chatted away, giving her a physical, tangible connection to someone else on the team. Aswon looked down at his spot, wondering why Tads was sitting there instead of her usual seat on the opposite side, but then shrugged and moved over to take her place instead. It wasn't like he'd have room to stretch his legs out regardless.

When they were all in and seated, the door slid closed and the sound of the rain reduced to the muffled drumbeat on the roof, Kai clapped his hands together to get their attention.

"Right then. Seems to me we need to work on the plan to go visit apartment twenty-seven-oh-nine, and have a word with this Ngun Hai, and find out what he knows. Chances are he's going to have better defences than Lo Han if he lives in the city, so we're going to go in loaded for trouble. And that is likely to be more of an issue because there's going to be about a million more people around, even in the early morning, cameras everywhere and fun things like weapon scanners at transit terminals to worry about."

"I've checked the map – the journey is about fifteen klicks, so it's walkable, if we have to. But transport would be better, and make it much easier to hide our gear." Hunter rolled out the map and showed the location of the apartment block and the potential route around the edge of the island. "We don't want to go direct – it's through a national park so there's likely to be paracritters and other nasty things in there, as well as being a dirty great big mountain with shit terrain."

"I don't want to walk that far with our gear, do a break in, and then have to walk back. Or run back. If something goes wrong, or we've got wounded. We should get transport from somewhere." Shimazu looked around at the others. "I mean, I've got less gear than some of you, and if I don't want to walk that far, I'm sure you don't either."

"Ok, true enough, Shimazu. So, we need to get a van or a big car or something – we can't go on public transport, that's for sure. And we need to go visit Mr. Ngun and let him know we have questions and he has answers. Time to get thinking caps on, people, how we're going to do this…"

The team bent down to look at the computer screen laid out on the deck of the tilt-wing, and started to discuss ideas on how to get there, and what to do when they did…