They turned and started to walk carefully up the corridor, gently placing their heels and rolling forward along their feet to quiet their footsteps, sticking close to the roughly-formed concrete wall. The bloody footprints headed down the corridor past the security door and led down to the main access tunnel. As they reached the heavy security door they confirmed what Shimazu had suspected – an eyeball had been gouged out of its socket and held up to the retinal scanner, and the bloody maglock passkey lay on the floor where it had been dropped. Tads looked away, glad that she hadn't seen the ruined face of the guard back in the cell, trying to keep her imagination from running wild.
They closed up onto the junction at the end of the corridor and slowed to a halt, listening carefully. Echoing voices, distant footsteps, the faint hum of the ventilation system all provided constituent parts of the background noise, but they couldn't hear a guard patrol coming, or the sound of anyone running over the bare surface of the tunnel.
"Am I taking this guy back to his bunk, then?" Shimazu hefted a shoulder, making Kot's body flop a little.
"Yes." Tads nodded.
"No! Let's keep him for the moment." Kai smiled a little as Tads and Shimazu both looked at him. "We might need a hostage, and he might have some secrets we can use… like if he's got any gold bars hidden under his bed or something."
"Is this really the time for that kind of thing, Kai?"
"Yes Tads – we still need to get the tilt-wing engines fixed, and we need money for that." She closed her mouth, as she couldn't fault his logic – though it was clear that she wanted to disagree with his methods.
"The footprints head up the corridor to the next turning into one of the sleeping areas." Aswon said quietly, pointing up to the next turning on the north side of the access way. "They're pretty fresh by the looks of things…" He glanced around, getting his bearings, and looking down the corridor to the first tunnel that led into the security area. "He must have been pretty much waiting at this corner as we were heading in – we're only a couple of minutes behind him, I think.
They started to move again, keeping close together with the phantasmal spell wrapped around them, displaying just an empty tiled corridor to anyone watching from either direction. They were just about to head up the corridor to the sleeping area when Marius clicked his fingers together and pointed down at the floor.
"Look. Very faint – much fainter. But bloody footprints coming back this way, too. Whatever he did up there, he turned around and came back. Maybe he went to clean his feet somewhere, or he went to lay a false trail?"
"Good spot, Marius. Yeah, these are much fainter, he must have gotten rid of a lot of the gore." Aswon crouched down and examined the footprint carefully. "Back out into the main corridor and leading west, though much harder to spot. We'll have to be careful when we get to any turns."
"Should I use one of my spells to create some water and try to wash away the blood?"
"No, bad idea, Tads. Blood dilutes a huge amount and stains badly. If you wet it, you'll just spread it. You need something absorbent really, and access to some cleaning products. Try to wash them away and it'll look like a slaughterhouse in here." Hunter sounded very definite, as if speaking from bitter experience, and the rest of the team took his word for it.
"Tads, if we get into hiding and you drop the phantasm, you can project out of your body, yes?" Tads nodded at Kai. "Great, and if you're astral, and you manifest in front of him, then you're like a ghost – he can see you, but he can't hit you or harm you? But you could talk to him and get him to stop running. And killing people. Yes?"
"Yes… and as long as he's not a physical adept, he wouldn't be able to harm me. But if he is, he could kill me with a punch."
"Ahh. But ok, you could appear like ten metres in front of him, and talk to him, and run away faster than he could catch you, right? Do you think that would work?"
"It's possible. I should be able to evade unless he's even faster than Shimazu – and I've never seen anyone that quick. So we can try it…"
"If we can persuade him to stop and hide and catch up with him, we can escort him out. Maybe even give him one of the magical potions and get him to hide under the boat and see if we can just sail out quietly without anyone spotting him." Aswon suggested.
"Ok, let's move up a bit more, and then if you want to try and catch him, Tads, we can give that a go?" Kai led off down the curving corridor, but only got a few metres further before he spotted the edge of a body at the next turn, a hand flopped out onto the floor, palm facing upwards. "Oh crap…"
As they approached they could see it, too, had been badly beaten – a now somewhat familiar pattern of damage. Something had struck at the face with reasonable force, leaving red marks around both eye sockets, and the right hand side of the body had been battered by an incredibly heavy blow that once again had shattered the ribs. Kai knelt by the twisted body for a moment and ran through what he could see without touching the rapidly cooling corpse.
"Heavy damage to both orbital bones, signs of contusions – probably a fist strike to each side of the face delivered in rapid succession. The rib cage has been splintered inwards by a blow arcing in from the side and slightly downwards. From the size of the wound site that looks more like a foot than a hand, and it would fit with him being a martial artist. I think he's spun and kicked with the ball of his foot – it's the only thing that makes sense to me without doing a full investigation. But that kick was hard enough to drive bits of ribs into the lung. Not sure if he died from internal bleeding, or effectively drowning in his own blood. Either way, he probably couldn't call for help – the kick probably disrupted his diaphragm and sent it into spasm."
"Tads – drop your spell please and see if you can find him. We need to stop him, soon." Tads nodded and waved her hand loosely in front of her, then moved over to stand next to Hunter and leant against him, making sure he had her weight before she leapt from her body and went racing through the corridors looking for the escaped prisoner. "Right, while she's looking for him, let's just get off the main corridor for a moment…" He moved around the body into the side passage, waving for the others to step off the gently-curving corridor too. "I'm thinking we should definitely keep hold of our prisoner if we can until Tads has had a chance to do a more careful examination of his mind."
"I don't like the idea, boss. It ties someone up having to carry him."
"I know, Aswon. But if we can find out something juicy, it could really change things. I was sort of joking earlier – but just imagine if he did actually have a footlocker with a gold bar in. Or a matrix bank account that we can get the details of with a bunch of cash in. Or even if he knows where there's some easily-transportable and easily-sold loot we can scavenge on the way out. It literally could be the difference between getting the engines paid for and not. And we need them fixed if we're going to have any hope of getting this job done…" Aswon sighed and nodded, still unhappy, but like Tads had found herself earlier, unable to offer a reasonable argument to the logic.
Tads whipped through the corridor, casting her gaze back and forth and looking for the missing boy. She flew down the astral echoes of the corridors, stepping through locked doors that were no more solid than smoke to her, looking for his presence – or sign of his passing. There was nothing to see that alerted her in the first two sets of quarters, but she found a pair of dead bodies at the bottom of the spiral staircase that led up to the centre of the island, astral space still ringing with the fresh taint of pain, violence and ruthless savagery. She shot back to the team and merged with her body to report in to them.
"I think I found where he's gone – past where we came in. Two guards dead at the bottom of the spiral staircase, both pretty recent."
"Ok, let's go. More speed, less stealth now. If we encounter anyone, take them out fast and quiet." Kai tapped Aswon on the shoulder and waved a finger down the corridor, sending the long-legged tribesman striding ahead first. "Hunter, watch our rear please, Shimazu bring the hostage, Marius, you and Tads in the middle." They picked up the pace, footsteps ringing out against the concrete surface and echoing down the tunnel as they headed for the side tunnel and the shaft leading up and out.
Arriving at the base of the staircase, they found two more bodies, their injuries consistent with expectations. Neither had managed to fire their weapons, and it looked like Harley had caught them by surprise, taking out one guard from a position of stealth before neatly killing the other.
"I'm going to quickly check these bodies. Tads – can you probe his mind, find out about valuable loot please." He turned and started to quickly check over the bodies, confirming the same type of trauma and damage as the previous body they'd found, while Tads laid a hand on the dangling body and probed at his mind, trying to steer through his twisted and evil subconscious and look for the information Kai had requested. As she found some memories of bank accounts and activities, she started to quietly reel off the details to Marius, knowing that his prodigious memory would lock away the details for later discussion.
Aswon glanced up the staircase, craning his head back and forth to look around and through the stair treads but shook his head after a moment.
"No sign of him, but we must be catching up with him. These bodies are much fresher. If we keep up this pace we should- "A harsh alarm sounded, cutting off the rest of his words as the noise echoed up and down the tunnel, a delayed reverberation reaching them through the nearby air-vent a second later. The noise was fit to wake the dead and could be heard all over the island – presumably someone, somewhere had found a body or the escaped prisoner.
"Shit. Ok – Tads! The alarm is sounding – what are the default orders for the guards?"
"Violence. Excessive violence, heavy weapons fire. Murder anything attacking their domain." Her face screwed up in distaste as she saw images of previous intruders to the island after they'd been dealt with by the guard force. "Can we leave him somewhere to be found, to distract the guards?"
"We can leave him here, that's pretty obvious – though it does tip off which way we left by," Aswon answered.
"Take him up the top, then. Up the stairs, everyone. Let's go!" Kai abandoned the examination of the bodies and pointed up the stairs. "We try and catch him up top and get him back to the boat!" They accelerated up the stairs, Aswon bounding forwards two at a time with his spear and rifle held in one hand while his other ran around the central column of the staircase for stability.
"Hey, if we catch the kid, and he wants to get his revenge on the chief asshole here… do we let him?" Aswon's voice barely showed any effect of him running up the stairs as it relayed over the commlink.
"I'm not sure we can stop him, given what he's done to the guards." Kai's voice in contrast came as a number of breathy gasps as he chased up the stairs after him, while Shimazu started to breathe heavily as he lumbered up the stairs with the unconscious body over his shoulder, his legs rising and falling like pistons, as he strove to keep pace with the rest of the team.
Aswon emerged from the top of the staircase into a low stoop, looking around the top of the rise and checking for guards or sensor posts, but thankfully finding none. From all around him though he could see the refracted light from powerful searchlights that were now panning over the ocean, searching for intruders or hostile craft. The backwash of light gave ghostly white halos to the perimeter of the island as the dew sparkled like gems, giving him more than enough light to see by.
"All clear, come on up!" Aswon led the way, retracing his steps to the south west and the overlook closest to their boat. The rest of the team appeared one by one, though Kai paused for a moment as he scanned around, before pointing to a low bush that grew in the corner of a ruined building.
"Shimazu, stash him in there please, he'll get found in a while, I'm sure. Hopefully Tads has the info we need now, and I think he'll slow us down too much." Shimazu shrugged him off his shoulder and stuffed him under the branches, pushing on the limbs to slide them under the vegetation and mostly out of sight, then broke into a jog to catch up with the others.
"Elementals have started to move fast, but still on patrol. It's going to be hard to sneak past them now with any magic, that's for sure. But they're still doing the same circuits – I guess because nothing has attracted their attention." Tads spent just a moment in astral as she passed another lump of concrete, using it to provide as much cover as she could while she perceived and tried desperately not to get noticed herself.
"Harley. Chun sent us. We're here to help…" Aswon's voice drifted over the island, barely audible over the alarm as he spoke normally. After all, if Chun was a physical adept, there was a reasonable chance Harley could well be, too – and augmented hearing was a fairly common power to master. "Oh, you cheeky bastard!" This came over the radio, subvocalised but carrying a surprising amount of emotion. "There's two more bodies down on the dock, near that shack… and if I'm not mistaken, our boy is busy trying to steal our boat…."
"I don't know about the guards, but if he breaks my boat, I'M going to kill him!" Marius exclaimed. Despite the tension, the others smiled, recognising the proprietary tone of voice. Apparently they'd passed the critical time period where Marius by a process of osmosis had become attached to the vehicle and claimed mental ownership. That came with downsides, of course – if anyone damaged 'his' vehicle, it was going to go badly wrong for them if Marius had anything to do with it… and as he was the driver, that was normally something that involved ramming.
Kai and Shimazu picked up the pace, heading towards the steep slope leading down to the shack. Kai clearly meant to get close enough to engage him in conversation and try to convince him they were here to rescue him, while Shimazu equally clearly wasn't going to let Kai get any closer than he had to, especially against a skilled martial artist that had already racked up an impressive number of kills.
"Hey Shimazu, try not to kill him, will you? Maybe use the side of the sword… we are supposed to be rescuing him."
"It's alright, Aswon. Got plenty of novacaine and filler, we can patch him back up." Shimazu started to slide down the slope, pushing past Kai to take up the lead position, while the others reached the top of the slope and started a much more gentle descent.
Shimazu and Kai were most of the way over to the shack before Aswon had reached the bottom of the slope, but when he got there he crouched down and readied his rifle, scanning the area for hostiles. Tads bounded past him, moving as stealthily as she could and also aiming for the hut. Marius came next, but as he approached the bottom of the hill, he hit the same patch of loose gravel that Tads had discovered on the way up, and his foot shot out from under him, sending him sprawling onto his back and sliding uncontrollably down the last part of the slope. He hit the bottom with a thud, and then cartwheeled out onto the concrete of the apron, instinctively reaching out with his hands to break his fall and landing face first onto the roadway with an audible 'oof' as the wind was driven out of him.
It was unlikely that it was the noise that alerted one of the guards on the missile battery to their west – far more likely that the flash of movement caught his peripheral vision, alerting him to something that shouldn't be. Not that it really mattered – he turned and stared into the darkness for a moment, then raised his weapon and fired a short controlled burst. The lightweight pistol rounds flew through the air and slammed into Marius, stitching their way across his back as he struggled to roll out of the way.
The sound of gunfire had barely reached them when Aswon sent a return round back towards the battery. His keen sight locked onto the man's head, unerringly guiding his aim and the much larger and faster round from his rifle hit the man just to one side of his nose, driving through into his brain and slaying him instantly.
A moment later as the missile mount started to slew round towards them, Hunter raised his rifle to his hip, almost lazily, and fired off a single round. While it might have looked unaimed, the Smart-Link system fed targeting data from his cyber-eye into the gun's systems, and the reticule showing the projected impact point for the round never deviated from the throat of the missile operative. For a brief moment the white halo surrounding the searchlight turned a bright crimson as blood exploded outwards, before the body dropped to the ground and the blood rained down around it.
Shimazu ran past the guard shack, a corner of his mind noting the damage to the guard in an off-hand way. Face smashed up, a pair of blows to the sides of the head, and then a weirdly twisted torso showing a kick of great power having been applied to the side of the ribs. Well, at least Harley was consistent…
Kai skidded to a halt as he reached the door to the shack, calling out to Shimazu over the wailing of the alarm.
"Got an idea, out in a minute. Keep an eye on the kid!" With that he dived in through the door, looking around quickly and hoping there wasn't anyone else in here that was going to give him problems. The shack was devoid of guards though, and he snatched at the phone on the wall, and started randomly dialling extension numbers to see who or what he could get through to.
"Harley, stop fucking with my boat!" Marius snarled, closing on the edge of the quay as he caught up with Shimazu. "If you break it, you're going to ruin our rescue." The figure on the boat span around to stare at them, dropping into a fighting stance and preparing to strike. A moment passed and both Shimazu and Marius saw a look of confusion slide over his face as their words filtered through to his brain. It was enough to stop him attacking at least, and Marius further confused him then by jumping aboard the boat and proceeding to completely ignore him as he grabbed the controls, resetting all the switches that Harley had been flipping in vain, and getting the engine warm up sequence started. "Just stay out of the way and don't do anything stupid."
Shimazu climbed onto the boat much more sedately, keeping an eye on the young man and trying not to spook him, reasonably secure in the knowledge that he could react faster than the kid could. As he looked him up and down he saw that Harley's left foot was once again covered in blood and fluids, splashed up to ankle height in a thick crimson wash. In his hands he held a large pair of white trainers, held somewhat protectively against his body. He remained quiet, contenting himself to just stand and watch while Marius got them ready to depart, unmoving for as long as Harley remained still also.
In the hut, Kai found a combination of digits that worked – a slightly stressed voice answered, and Kai could hear a background chatter that indicated a number of other people were in the location also, voices raised in pitch as well as volume.
"Operations room."
"Alert! Kot has been abducted by ninjas! He's being held captive on the top of the hill, along with the prisoner, and it looks like they're waiting for a rescue. Get some guards up there now!" He fired his gun into the air, the pistol round burying itself into the ceiling while the gunshot reverberated off the walls in a deafening cacophony. He took a step back, lowered the pistol and then shot the telephone at point blank range, destroying the handset. With a twitch he activated his comms to the rest of the team. "Hopefully the guards will be heading to the top middle of the island now, away from us for a bit."
Outside the engine rumbled to life as Marius finished warming up and preparing the big diesel, and he looked around to check the situation. Harley was still standing in the back corner of the boat, clutching a pair of huge trainers, looking slightly stunned or confused, while Shimazu was a few paces away, watching him calmly with his hands on his hips, his right close to the hilt of the sword. Tads had squeezed into the wheelhouse with him and was looking through the polarised windows – he guessed she was watching the magical spirits from a concealed position. Kai had come out of the hut and was jogging towards them, closely followed by Hunter and Aswon. He leant out of the door and called over to them, just loudly enough to be heard over the alarm that still warbled through the night air.
"Cast off the ropes, and I'll start getting us out of here!" Kai climbed aboard, while Aswon went to the rope at their stern, leaving Hunter to handle the forward moorings. A few moments later and they started to drift away from the quay, bobbing up and down mostly with just the small amount of momentum imparted by the team jumping aboard. Aswon leant over and used the haft of his spear to gently push against the concrete wall, trying to spin them a little and make it easier for Marius to move them out into the harbour itself.
"Right, we got everyone… 1,2,3,4,5 and one escaped prisoner… good." Kai finished his quick headcount, and then looked out to the sea wall as it disappeared off into the darkness, then flicked his vision back towards the centre of the island. "I think we'll need to take out the second missile battery as well, as we'll get way too close to them for comfort. Aswon and Hunter, get set up for that. Tads… as soon as that's down, can you do your thing and give us the distraction?" She licked her lips and nodded, starting to centre her thoughts and rehearse what she was going to do in her mind. Aswon and Hunter moved around the wheelhouse towards the bow of the boat, and checked their weapons, then started to look to the south and drew a bead on the dark mass of the defence system. Hunter spread his feet wider but remained standing, absorbing the rolling motion of the boat with his thick-hewn legs, while Aswon crouched down against the side of the boat, resting the rifle against the railing and sighting carefully down the scope. As the waves rocked the boat his sight picture rolled up and down, making the sea wall rise and fall dramatically. The two team members started to mutter to each other as they adjusted their aim – one trying to counter the oceans movement, one working with it and relying on timing.
"I'm lined up pretty well, Aswon. Guard on the left, aiming at his spine. Ready to fire."
"I have the one on the right, centre mass. Rolling, ready in three….two….one….execute!"
The two shots rang out, so close together they sounded like a single extended shot. The silencer on the front of Aswon's rifle and the suppressor on Hunter's assault rifle both did their jobs, muting the report of the round as they trapped the hot gas, and vastly diminishing the sound of the shot. The individual rounds were still travelling supersonic though – there was no way to disguise that noise, but it did make the shots much harder to localise. Not that it mattered – both guards were taken out cleanly, and they were the only ones that realistically could have reacted to the sounds of the shots.
A few seconds later, as Tads was just preparing to cast her spell, they were all distracted as a long ripping burst of fire sounded from further down the harbour. Someone had just unloaded a stream of automatic fire into the side of one of the other cargo boats, and the faint sounds of shouted orders drifted across the water towards them. A pair of single shots fired back, lower and deeper in tone from a larger calibre firearm, triggering several more bursts from the lighter machine pistols the guards were carrying.
"What are they shooting at?"
"No idea, Aswon, but probably mistaken identity or a panic reaction. But let's take advantage of it. Tads, can you sow some more trouble please? And let's see… Hunter… do you have range to the island with your grenade launcher?"
"Already ahead of you, Kai." Hunter was busy loading a couple of smoke grenades into the under-barrel launcher on his rifle, elevating his barrel up to a good forty degrees as he sighted on the island. The grenade exploded out of the short stubby barrel with a 'thonk' noise and he quickly reloaded and aimed at the harbour, slewing his aim east and dropping the barrel significantly. Thonk! The second grenade went hurtling out into the darkness on it's shorter journey, landing on the quay and bouncing until it struck the wall next to one of the doors leading underground. The first round landed a second later, exploding and sending a huge cloud of smoke spiralling up from the centre of the island, joined two seconds after that by the grenade on the quay. Additional screams of alarm rang out, and more wild gunfire was sprayed back and forth as the guards assumed they were under attack and fired wildly into the enveloping smoke.
"Who the fuck are you? And what the hell are you doing?" Harley's voice cracked a little, and he twitched uncomfortably as the team on the boat continued to move around pretty much ignoring him.
"We're friends of your dad. We've been tracking you for a few days, and we're here to take you home to him. Now, do us a favour and be quiet – we've still got work to do to get us all out of here in one piece."
"And here, put this on." Shimazu stepped closer to the young man, passing over his Kevlar lined helmet. "And if you can crouch down and not be so obvious, that would be a good idea, too." Harley took the helmet in one hand, still clutching the pair of trainers in the other, looking around at the team. His gaze stopped as he spied Aswon gently laying down his Purdey and opening up the large armoured case lying on the floor before pulling out the heavy sniper rifle contained within. His eyes opened wider as Aswon checked the breach carefully before slapping in the huge box magazine holding the 12.5mm rounds, each one over a hundred millimetres long.
A new sound ripped through the night, the howling of engines running at high power settings ramping up from nothing to an ear-deafening crescendo that radiated out from the east side of the island. Blue lightning crackled faintly in a circle and a huge helicopter appeared through a whirling vortex in a show fit to make a science fiction author proud. The massive aircraft continued to 'decloak' revealing large doors open on the sides with multiple gunners aiming heavy weapons down at the ground, unleashing a torrent of tracer fire downwards in a bright cone, the sound of ripping fabric lancing through the night air and drowning out the wailing alarm. Clearly emblazoned on the side of the chopper was a huge picture of Mount Fuji, illuminated for a moment by a spotlight as one of the missile crews frantically slewed their mount around and started to try and lock onto the target.
The chopper spun and corkscrewed downwards wildly, and a large burly figure threw itself out of the open rear ramp, arcing through the air in a graceful swan dive towards the ground before swinging in an arc as they reached the end of their rope, flying through the air like a pendulum. As they brushed across the ground the figure twitched and started to swing wildly as it scooped up a waiting body, holding on tightly. The chopper banked, the rope started to retract and the pair of bodies twirled, being caught in a beam of light again and looking very much like a battle-armoured trooper holding onto someone that looked VERY much like Harley…
Missiles streaked up through the air from the mount to the east of the island, an orange pillar of flame driving up through the air with incredible speed. Somehow it seemed to miss the chopper which continued to spin and bob through the air, flares exploding out from it and illuminating the area around it like daylight for a moment. The team recognised the distinctive outline of the Russian MI-6 'Hook' heavy transport as it dodged and weaved through the air, reeling in the dangling trooper and prisoner while the waist-gunners continued to spray indiscriminate fire down below and flares pumped out of the launchers on the side at a steady rate. Another missile shot upwards, slicing past the chopper at close range as it settled down onto an eastbound course and accelerated wildly.
They were far enough across the harbour now that Aswon had line of sight to the eastern launcher, and he carefully drew a bead on the guards that were manning the missile system. The rifle fired, slamming back into his shoulder as the heavy round fired from the fluted barrel. Across the harbour a guard suddenly found himself covered in ichor and bits of vapourised body as the round eradicated his companion's head. He had time enough to scream in alarm before he met the same fate as Aswon's second round took care of him, too.
More missiles rose from the island, from the west and north as the guards there got their launchers turned around, and half a dozen fiery plumes shot after the fleeing chopper, bracketing the huge aircraft and surrounding it, the missiles closing at over three thousand kilometres per hour. Flares pumped out, but a moment later something detonated and the sky was filled with a huge ball of fire, roiling clouds of yellow, orange and red flames licking up into the air as debris rained down towards the ocean, falling to cover a wide swathe of the sea.
Certainly, nobody on the island was watching the harbour while this was going on. Hunter fired an anti-personnel grenade in the general direction of the harbour, figuring that nobody would notice and they'd figure any damage caused was going to be from the door gunners, and Marius found himself sweating in the chill night air as he tried to stick as close as he dared to the sea wall to maintain as much distance as he could from the guards and other boats, while not actually running into the wall itself.
Slowly the fireball faded away, replaced by wispy black clouds of burning lubricant and fuel fading into the dark skies, the shrieking noise of twisted metal disintegrating dying away to be replaced by the background sound of the alarms. It was a masterpiece of showmanship, and it would have seen Tads commanding a princely sum from any Hollywood trid-show producer – the illusion was utterly convincing, no doubt helped by the intimate familiarity she had with the team's former chopper and the assaults she'd been part of over the last few months. But for now, everyone on the island was almost certainly convinced that the rescue had been by air from some Japan based corporation or team, and had been defeated through the application of excessive firepower.
Aswon spotted the patrol boat that had been tied up right at the eastern end of the harbour starting to move away from the dock, some guards having gotten it started up and cast off. It, too, was aiming for the narrow break in the wall that led to the open seas, and it would have no problem spotting them. The powerboat could catch them in moments, and they couldn't afford to have it spot them now. He reached up towards his bicep and unzipped the pocket, pulling out a single round for the rifle.
"Thanks, Topshot. I owe you…" Carefully he slid in the tungsten-coated armour-penetrating high explosive round into the top of the magazine, then worked the action to chamber the round, dropping back into a firing position smoothly. He waited for the powerboat to angle up slightly as it crested a wave, and for their boat to be just in the middle of a roll, then fired again. The retort was louder now, much louder, the silencer being full of hot gas already and not having had time to dissipate and cool the exhaust gasses from his earlier shots. Not that it mattered.
The anti-vehicle round smashed straight through the hull of the boat, ripping a hole through the bottom and cracking one of the major struts that ran from bow to stern. Next it ripped through the driver's leg, shattering the bone and sending a killing wave of hydrostatic shock coursing through his body. Now tumbling and yawing violently, the round finally impacted the engine of the boat, carving a path into the engine and rupturing fuel lines, starting a blaze that quickly spread over the rear of the sleek craft.
"Good work, Tads – but why make it blow up so close to the island?"
"I had to… the elementals were closing on it and starting to rip at the trid-phantasm spell. It wasn't going to last more than another second or two before it unravelled, so I thought it best to blow it up and try to be convincing for the people on the ground, than have it just fade away to nothing."
"Ahh, of course. I'd sort of forgotten about them. What are they doing now?"
"Buzzing around like some very angry wasps, looking for something to attack. But their orders seemed to have been quite specific – I guess to deal with magical threats only."
The boat heeled over as Marius span the wheel, carefully piloting them through the centre of the channel, and they felt the boat start to bob up and down more in the rougher waters outside of the harbour. Puttering away at eleven knots, they sailed south, away from the island which continued to shine in the night as searchlights tracked back and forth through the sky looking for more assault aircraft and no doubt guards went mad running around over the surface of the fortress, looking for ninjas, special forces troopers and whatever other enemies their imagination had conjured up for themselves.
Tads drew a deep breath, then realised that her head felt remarkably clear. In the darkness, her lips pulled up into a slight smile as she realised that not only had she cast the spell well enough to be convincing to just about anyone that might have seen it, her adrenalin- fuelled body had also managed to dissipate the backlash from channelling the mana through her mind without causing her any damage. She gave a silent prayer to Elk for her teachings and wisdom, then started to carefully dissipate the magical signature which filled the wheelhouse, a beacon of pulsating intent that would take hours to fade away otherwise.
"So Harley… things should be a bit safer now. So, as I said, we're friends of Chun, and he asked us to come get you. Why don't you tell us what happened?" Kai moved over to a small crate that rested against the wall of the wheelhouse and sat himself down on it, then waited for Harley to speak.
"I'd gone to Retro Fever, after I'd been shopping. Was going to meet up with a few guys, have some drinks. Just hang out really. It was still pretty early, and the rest of the guys hadn't turned up yet, so I was just chilling and listening to the music, when a girl came up to me. Said her name was Anya. Really pretty she was… long dark hair, piercings, really pretty eyes. So we got chatting, and we were hitting it off. She even bought me a drink…"
Several of the team exchanged glances at that, as pieces of the puzzle fell into place.
"We chatted for a bit, then went for a dance. I was giving her all my best moves, and she was really into me - I could tell, because she was really close. And I started to feel a bit hot, and like I was going to be sick. Anya was concerned, and took me to the side, led me out of the fire exit to get some fresh air. And em… I think I must have slipped or something. Bashed my head. Because after that I can't remember anything until I woke up in a helicopter. Anya was missing – I hope she got away from those bastards! But I was all trussed up, and one of them had even taken my shoes!"
A strange expression washed over his face, a sudden hardness. Harley clearly hadn't connected this 'Anya' with his likely drugging and abduction, his youth and naivety showing through – yet when he discussed the theft of his trainers, his expression was cold and determined, completely at odds with his behaviour otherwise. Kai glanced over at the trainers and did a double take.
"Harley… are those…. Are those Jordan 1's? Off-white?" Kai leant forward to try and get a better view, whilst Aswon, Shimazu, Tads and Hunter all gave him a funny look.
"Yeah, they are. Sweet, aren't they? I found someone selling them, didn't really know what they had. Managed to pick them up for less than fifteen hundred." Hunter's smile froze as the number registered with him, and Aswon who'd been taking a swig of water almost choked in surprise. Kai smiled, then looked around at the others.
"They're in good shape. I don't think the rest of my team understand, though. Those trainers are old, from before the crash. And they were rare then, a limited edition. Endorsed by a sportsball player of the time. A mint condition pair in their original packaging could easily fetch north of ten thousand, maybe more." He nodded, as they gave him skeptical looks. "Seriously. Not every antique is a clock or sculpture or something. Anyway, go on Harley…"
"Yeah, so we were in an air taxi or something, and flying out – it was still night time. Flew for a good while, then we landed at some place, some small island. And the thieving shit-stain took my trainers and put them on! Started carrying supplies out the side and taking them into some hut."
They listened as Harley described his journey, piecing together the descriptions of the islands with the astral tracking that Tads and Vadim had performed. Tads was looking at the trainers hard now, dipping into the astral realm and really studying them closely.
"Harley – are those trainers very dear to you? Very important?" He nodded, and she turned to Shimazu. "Just have a look at them Shimazu, look for a signature. They're not magical… but I think there's an imprint on them, just like on your sword." Shimazu raised an eyebrow but then turned and looked at the shoes, smiling a little as Harley clutched them protectively to his chest. As he examined them he did see a faint nebulous link between the shoes and their owner, indicating that there was indeed a deep and significant emotional attachment. He wondered why this was important to Tads, and was about to ask when she saved him the effort.
"I think I know why the trail was so peculiar when we were trying to track him. We weren't following Harley and his movements… we were tracking the shoes. If one of the Triad goons had taken them and was wearing them, that would explain why they seemed to wander around at each island, going into the buildings and doing all kinds of things Harley wouldn't do as a captive." Aswon gave a snort now, examining the shoes and nodding his head in understanding as he, too, saw the link between them.
"So anyway, I ended up in some cell overnight, once they'd dropped all their supplies off. They had me locked up with cuffs and things, and decided to use me as a punching bag for a bit. Think they were trying to scare me… but they punched for shit, and it was easy to fake them out. They kept at that for a while, and came in with a camera in the morning, taking some photos. Then a little while later, I got moved again. Put a bag over my head, and then I was on a boat for a while. When we docked, we were at that island, and they put me in the prison cell and kept me there for a few days."
"And did you ever see the boss, or the commander of the base?"
"Nah. Don't think so. I did see that guard though, the one with my shoes. Kept showing me a picture of em, next to his bunk. Said he was going to keep em, that they'd be his lucky dancing shoes. Fucker. Well, he ain't going to dance no more." The hard look returned again, and his voice was flat. Tads had been wondering if he was going to need some counselling after being involved in brutal combat that led to the murder of people by his own hands – but from the conviction in his voice, he didn't seem to feel any remorse or have doubts about his actions. "He kept telling me stuff, about what he was going to do, and then boasting to his mates that he was getting to me. I don't think they realised I could speak the local variant of Chinese, so I just played dumb and listened. Listened and waited, for the right time…"
"Well Harley – you did a pretty good job of breaking out, though I'm not sure how lucky you were going to be with getting off the island." Kai watched as Harley smiled and his chest inflated a little at the praise, before a mulish look replaced the pride. "I know, you were doing pretty well… but that doesn't matter now. What does matter is that you need to work with us, and lay low. Your family is in danger. They'd kidnapped you to force Chun to do something, something we're going to stop. But they were willing to kidnap and hurt you to force him to act. And if they realise you're gone and they've lost their leverage, then your mum, or baby sister might be next." Harley looked like he'd been about to argue, but at the mention of danger to the family he fell quiet, his jaw working slightly from side to side.
"Think about it though – after the show we put on, they think you're dead. And while they remain thinking you're dead, they're not looking for you, and probably not aiming at your family. And that means we can get close to them. Close enough to surprise them. And if we CAN get close enough to surprise them and confront them… well, do you think you might have words you want to say to them. Or things you want to do with them?" Kai glanced down pointedly at the blood stained foot, then back up, meeting Harley's eyes and seeing the cold agreement in them. "Ok, so we're in agreement. Yes? Good. Now, when was the last time you ate?"
"Decent food? Days ago, when I was in Hong Kong. They've just been feeding me shit since they had me!" Kai glanced over at Tads who nodded, then started to summon some food into existence, much to the amazement of Harley who was entranced by her ability to create food from thin air. After creating half a dozen bananas for him, his favourite food as it turned out, she found herself creating some other more exotic foods for him as they puttered through the seas heading north east back towards home.
Marius had steered them south initially, directly away from the fortress at the best speed he could manage. It took them nearly an hour to get out of sight of the island, then he steered them east for a while, then north east as they headed back to Shek-O. Gradually the sky lightened, though the clouds remained and dawn was a very washed-out and muted affair.
Tads settled down after feeding Harley and drifted off to sleep, lulled into unconsciousness by the sounds of his enthusiastic lecturing to Shimazu about his vintage trainers, and admiring in return the ancient sword that Shimazu carried. Aswon likely got his head down, making himself as comfortable as possible on the cramped boat, while the rest of the team stood watch. They were all tired now, having been on the go for more than twenty four hours without a break and having carried out several combat insertions during that time – but nobody complained. By now they knew full well that Tads and her spells could be an absolute game-changer in the face of opponents, and could potentially defuse or render an attack impotent if she got the drop on her opponents, while if they gave Aswon about three hours of sleep, he'd be fully rested and recovered – and then he could stand watch while the rest of them caught up on their sleep.
Fortunately the journey back to Hong Kong island was uneventful, the boat puttering away and Marius seeming to get to grip with how it handled as they piled up the kilometres. Only once did the engine give the weird stuttering noise that indicated it was having issues, and Marius gave it an almighty crack with the hammer, not in the mood for any silly games.
They made it back around to the Shek-O harbour just after ten in the morning, and Marius slowed the boat and carefully bought them alongside the jetty. He was considerably more skilled with the boat now, having piloted it nearly two hundred and fifty kilometres in the last day – but he didn't take any chances, knowing how tired he was. The last thing they needed was to crash the boat now and all end up taking a swim in the harbour!
"So, we'll be docked in a few minutes. Next steps?" Kai looked around. "I think we put Harley into hiding, and go see Chun, report in and then see about heading off to this fight to go and sort things out there."
"No. We should take Harley home to his parents. We can't let them think he's dead, or missing. Morally that's wrong. We have to tell them that he's ok." Tads had a stubborn edge to her voice again, and Kai started to draw breath, but Aswon beat him to the response.
"I agree. It would be wrong to make them suffer emotionally, even if it serves our purpose. I support Tads in this matter." Kai glanced around, to see if anyone else was going to speak up, but they were all content to keep their thoughts or opinions to themselves. Still, the two who had spoken had made their feelings very clear, and though he'd much prefer to keep Harley tucked away, his 'ace in the hole', he wasn't about to start an argument with two of his team over it.
"Fine – ok. So where do we go from here?"
"I think Chun has to go through with the fight – he has to act as if Harley is still missing. Otherwise the Triads will know that the action on the fortress was a rescue attempt from local resources. And we have all been seen by now, in one form or another. Chun should ask for proof of life, before the fight – because we know they will not be able to deliver. But if he asks, they will not be sure that HE knows where Harley is, and that will cause uncertainty on their part. And of course, they will not be able to answer that request, leaving Chun to fight properly." Marius sounded quite definite in his thoughts, punctuating each of his logical points with a sharp hand gesture.
"Ok – so we need to let Chun and the family know. But we shouldn't phone him… even if we think our phones are secure, there's no telling if Chun's is, or who might be listening."
"If we can get a message to him, tell him to go to the tilt-wing, we can call using my sat-link direct to the cockpit. Then both ends of the connection are as secure as we can make them." Marius pointed out diffidently. "If they can break the encryption that easily, then we are outclassed anyway, so it matters very little." He shrugged, indicating his opinion of the chances of that happening were very slim…
"Ok, that makes sense. So Tads – if we asked you to get back to the academy, you can be there in a second or two, right?" She nodded to Kai in agreement. "Great, and you can appear to Vadim, and tell him to get Chun to the tilt-wing so we can call him. And… you could get Vadim to grab one of the protected boxes, right? Get him to come over and pick us up with it. I want to get those trainers of Harley's and the sword we took inside a warded box as soon as we can, just in case they try to track them."
"Sure I can. Though if you want to protect against tracking rituals, your best bet is to get them inside the tilt-wing. The ward there is far more powerful. Do you want me to go now?" Kai nodded, and Tads made herself comfortable and shot away, covering the kilometre to the academy in less than a second. She found Vadim in the fuselage of the tilt-wing, studying his spell formula, and coughed to get his attention so she could relay her message.
"Everyone! We have a new problem…" Tads opened her eyes less than a minute later, stopping the discussion on the boat abruptly. "Chun isn't at the academy. He's gone off with the Triads, to Macao already. A bunch of the instructors have gone as well, to support him and work his corner at the fight. His wife said that the woman from the bar in town turned up, told him to pack a bag and took him away, wanted to make sure nothing happened to him to stop him being able to fight. I have told her we have Harley though, and we'll be back soon. Vadim's grabbing the van and is on his way here now."
Kai sighed heavily, and looked towards the heavens, being rewards with a fat raindrop to the right eye for his troubles.
"Well, that buggers things up. I guess we'll need to get over there ourselves. We'll have to catch a plane over there, or sail I guess."
"Air travel will be more expensive – and will be more difficult, getting what is essentially an international flight, even though it's very local." Aswon warned. "Our IDs should be up to the job, but it's a risk. It might be better to take the boat and brave the waters, even with pirates about. We have enough firepower to deter them I think."
"I had better arrange to get us refuelled then." Marius climbed out of the boat and went to find someone who could arrange that, looking for either the fisherman owner, or the manager of the harbour, not really caring which he found first.
"Ok – Tads, from what I caught of the detail you found in the fortress boss bloke's mind, he's been skimming stuff off the top, yes?"
"If you mean Kot Siu-Wong – then yes. He has a numbered account and has diverted funds into it. We should have sufficient detail to compromise him, though I don't think we can seize the account."
"Why not?"
"Because we'd need to duplicate his retinal pattern and fingerprint, as well as provide the account number and password, to gain access."
"Oh, right. Well, ok – but we can still burn him. That's got to be valuable. So maybe we can talk to the accountant woman here…"
"Wa-Fan?" Aswon clarified.
"Yes, that one. We can send a message to her, saying that we have information we can barter, in exchange for her getting us to the fight. She can use that to improve her own position in the Triad, by revealing what she knows about him. Or rather what we know about him."
"I don't like it. Even if she appeared to accept our offer, I suspect we'd be walking into a trap. Her loyalty to the Triad as a whole is still probably stronger than her own desire to advance. Besides, from the map it's about a hundred kilometres to Macau. We know we can sail that far in about six or seven hours, even in this thing." Aswon kicked at the side of the boat, expressing his displeasure at the quality of their transport – taking advantage of Marius's absence and not having to defend his opinion. "That should give us more than enough time to get refuelled, get over there and get to the fight, and deal with the situation ourselves without having to start trying to strike deals with the enemy."
"If we go, then we have to take Harley with us, I think." Shimazu chimed in. Harley looked round at him with a smile and a nod. "Chun will want proof that Harley is ok, and I think he'd be suspicious about anything except a face to face meeting."
"Ok, so if we're going to get ourselves over there, I still think we could talk to Wa-Fan and give her some info – even if it's only to put bets on Chun herself. Give her some reason not to come after us afterwards."
"I strongly disagree, Kai. We don't want to do anything to tie ourselves to Chun in the eyes of the Triad if we can help it. We're already involved, up to our necks, if you know where to look. There's no need to advertise it. We should keep it simple, get Harley over there in disguise, and get him to Chun. Let Chun know he's safe, and that he can fight hard. And we should bet our own money on Chun, if we think he's going to win, with the Triad bookies – but just as normal customers."
"Believe me, if Chun's going to fight, he's going to win." Harley exclaimed hotly, with utter certitude. "He chooses not to fight these days, but he's still fit, and he still knows it all!"
They looked over as they heard voices approaching, spotting Marius returning with the dock manager, pointing at the boat and describing their need for fuel. Over his shoulder they could see the crappy panel van arriving at the entrance to the docks, Vadim slowly making his way through the gate and turning towards them. Tads quickly cast a spell on Harley, physically masking his appearance and making him appear as a slightly paunchy Chinese fisherman, mottled skin and lank greasy hair showing over rough clothing.
"Right, let's get the fuel arranged, then we all get back in the van, and get back to the academy. Get Harley back together with his mom, and get a few hours rest. Then we get back here, and get launched, sail over to Macau and see if we can end this thing."
The team grabbed their gear, packing it into bags and returning guns to cases or back into concealment for transfer to the van, looking forward to a few hours of rest – all apart from Aswon, of course. Overhead the clouds thickened, increasingly fat drops of rain plopping down from the murky sky and starting to stain the ground a darker shade, as they shuffled Harley into the back of the van, trying to keep him out of sight from anyone else in the harbour.
Vadim started the engine back up, and the van laboured out of the parking lot and headed back to the academy, and a tearful reunion between family.
