Tuesday 15/2/2061, Location: 23.58348, 58.44767, Time 22:00

The team checked out of the coffins, leaving the smell of sweat, piss and antiseptic spray behind them. None of them had rested hugely well – the coffins were hot with barely functional air-conditioning, and despite the theoretically waterproof insides being designed to allow them to be hosed down after each 'guest', the antiseptic spray clearly hadn't been used in quantities sufficient to thoroughly cleanse the capsules out – and with enough use (or in this case, abuse) it had become clear that even the hardwearing materials they were constructed from could be tainted by enough bodily fluids.

The temperature had cooled enough with the passing of the day, though, that those who had their form-fitting armour packed in their bags could don the skin-tight armour, adding an extra layer of protection to their bodies. It wasn't as much as they were used to – but it was considerably better than none, and if the evening did end up in a gunfight, might be the difference between life and death.

"So, is there any preparation we need to make here? Anything spell wise from you, Tads?" Kai glanced over at Tads who looked around, glancing with concern at the fairly regular lights that zoomed past on the highway above them, and the intermittent traffic on the ramps leading to and from the arterial road.

"Somewhere a little more quiet than this, I think." She led the way towards the centre of town, looking around until she found a darkened alleyway between two mid-rise blocks of flats. The rest of the team clustered around her, facing outwards with their eyes searching the darkness, looking for anyone that might be able to see them, shielding Tads from curious eyes with their own bodies – and she quickly set to work summoning her spirits. As she normally did, she took her time calling on the local spirits, but found the job much more difficult than usual. The city spirits were surly and uncooperative, unwilling to appear until she exerted far more effort than she normally had to. The agreed to help her, and the team – but only with great reluctance.

The summoning took longer than normal, and Tads was aware of the team glancing over their shoulders or shifting uncomfortably from time to time, checking in on her. The minutes ticked by, until she was done, with a full complement of spirits willing – grudgingly – to do her bidding.

"Sorry. The spirits here are restless, and they do not like us. Not us specifically – but people. Perhaps because the people have turned their back on nature." She shrugged. There was no accounting for people she'd found, and things that seemed self-evident to her were regularly ignored by others…

"Got a route, Hunter?"

"Yep. It's about four klicks, nice easy pace. Tried to keep us off the main road mostly, and down residential streets, but nothing too quiet where we'd be really obvious – though walking around in a group of six might do that anyway…"

"Let me see the route?" Shimazu studied the map for a moment, then pointed over to the right of the junction where they presently stood. "I'll go one block over then, walk a parallel route. The comms should keep me in touch if need be, and I'm close enough to support if anything happens – and I can call if I spot the police or anything."

"Good idea, Shimazu. Shouldn't be too obvious…" Aswon bent over and checked the route himself. "Ok, I can do the same but one block to the left."

"I'll watch the back door then." Hunter said with a grin.

"That'll leave the three of us then in the main group – hopefully not too…. Oh Hunter…" Kai suddenly realised why Hunter was smirking so much. "Fine, you're all up in our back doors. There – happy?" Kai shook his head. "Ok, so Marius and Tads, you're with me, and we'll head along the route marked." He looked up into the cloudless night, squinting to make out the stars through the mix of light pollution from the city and smog from the various refineries and chemical plants scattered along the coastline.

They set off, giving Aswon and Shimazu a minute head start to get to their parallel routes before they started moving themselves. Fortunately it seemed that the city was reasonably quiet on the average Tuesday night, and though there was light traffic and a few people out walking, it wasn't busy enough to cause them any problems. They headed in towards the central business district, cutting through the commercial areas that surrounded the heart of the city and skirting around the cafes, restaurants and few nightclubs they encountered.

It seemed odd to a few of the team – but without the 'drinking culture' prevalent in a lot of other societies and environments they were used to, the city seemed quiet and restrained – most of the people they encountered were socialising over coffee while sitting on verandas or terraces, and mostly were minding their own business. Private vehicles buzzed past them, with only a few taxis – by far and away the most noticeable difference between the city and others.

"Guess there's not many people unable to drive to or from the restaurants because they're planning on having a drink…" Shimazu observed over the radio. "Why pay someone else to drive when you can do it yourself?"

"That might cause us to plan differently on the exfiltration, do you think? Fewer cabs, and they're going recognise their fares more, I think…"

"I shouldn't worry, Kai. There's still plenty around by the looks of things. And if we get in a cab, I can alter the driver's memory as we're getting out to make him forget all about us. And the shamanic mask."

They walked onwards, arriving at the insurance company building a little after eleven. The moon was well up by that point, and along with the street lighting and the various uplighters and vanity lights on the buildings, the area was reasonably well-lit. With the general lack of street furniture and the wide spaces between the buildings, it made them feel uncomfortably exposed – though at least the few areas of shadow tended to be very deep and abrupt, making it ideal concealment, if only for one or perhaps two people at the most.

Aswon checked over the building as they got close, looking at the outer surface, and his frown deepened as he got a closer look. From a distance it had looked like the ward built into the mosaic tiles had been tightly integrated with the fabric of the building – but now that he was up close, he could see that the ward was slightly proud of the render.

"I can't use my powers here. If I call Gecko to aid me, I'll breach the ward and set off the alarm. I think this one is for you, Hunter. But we can at least give you a good start. Shimazu – can you help, please?"

Aswon moved to the wall and made a stirrup with his hands, with Shimazu moving to stand next to him. Hunter grabbed the rope and made sure it was securely attached and then bounced on his toes once before taking a graceful stride forward and planting a leg into Shimazu's waiting grasp. His other leg cycled forward, meeting Aswon's hands as his forward momentum carried him towards the building. With a grunt of effort the two team-members lifted their hands, propelling him up the side of the building with a massive heave. The razor-sharp climbing claws extended from Hunter's fingertips, and as he angled his hands they cut into the out surface of the building. Forearms bulged as he flexed his fingers, using his prodigious strength to grip on the building's exterior. Boots slammed into the stucco, grasping for purchase and he hovered for a moment about four metres above the pavement.

Then, like a mechanical spider, he started to climb, advancing up the side of the building with a single-minded determination that bordered on the unstoppable. He found purchase in the gaps between the large slabs of dark grey accent stone, swarming up the storeys of the building with three points of contact and one questing hand or foot at a speed that would have given most free-climbers a run for their money. Two minutes later, he reached the parapet and lay on it for a moment, breathing deeply and let his head flop over the inside, scanning the ground for lasers, pressure pads, capacitance wire or any other sensors that might detect him. When he found none, he oozed down onto the roof and headed for the nearest air-conditioning unit, quickly attaching the climbing rope to the structure bolted firmly to the concrete pad that made up the top level of the building.

Returning with the coil of rope in his hands, he leant over the parapet once more and dropped the coil – then frantically grabbed at the rope and started to flail wildly, snatching at it and pulling it back up towards him as quickly as possible while he rasped a warning into the comms.

"Car, behind you. Slowing, stopping. POLICE!" He continued to pull the rope back up, hoping it wasn't visible to the car that had pulled to a halt on the edge of the road. As he did so, a spotlight attached to the side of the car illuminated, casting a harsh white light down the side of the building and highlighting the team as they stood waiting at the base of the tower.

"I have this. Act natural." Marius turned towards the car and gave a cheery wave, then started to walk briskly towards it, pulling out his tablet and quickly disengaging his sat-link and turning off connectivity to the pad. The rest of the group stood mostly still, though gradually moving to shield Tads from view, just in case she needed to cast a spell. Marius reached the car and turned sideways on, then gestured at the map on his display and the flashing circle that indicated his rough location – now a rather imprecise 650m wide area. He dropped into Arabic, though made no attempt to hide his accent. "Good evening. I am a tourist in your fine city, but we are somewhat lost. I was heading for the McRonalds? But I think we have taken the wrong street – can you help?"

He paused for a moment, holding his breath and hoping his deception would work. Just as he was thinking it was likely the story wasn't working, the window wound down, revealing two smartly-dressed police officers sitting in the car.

"You're close – but you are not supposed to cut down the side of the buildings. Let me see your map. Ah, yes – you are here. The restaurant is this way – as you're already half-way down, you might as well carry on. Go to the end of the property, then turn left, walk a hundred metres, then turn right. Go to the end of that road, and you will see it."

"Ach, thank you. So we were close! I told them so, but they would not believe me. Thank you for helping me."

"Maybe offer them a gift – now they've helped you, it's not a bribe?" Aswon vocalised, transmitting to Marius over their commlink. He saw Marius reach into his bag and pull out his wallet and then fan out a few notes, looking at them with apparent confusion. He selected one of the larger notes, probably equivalent to two hundred Nuyen and passed it over as if he was just giving them the price of a milkshake.

"Perhaps you and your fellow officer would like a snack at the restaurant, too. Here, please accept this gift, as thanks for assisting us." The younger of the two officers looked like he was about to say something, but his partner poked him in the shoulder and reached over to take the proffered note with a smile and nod of thanks, before hitting the console button to wind the window back up. Marius took that as his cue to leave, and returned to the rest of the team just as briskly as he'd walked down, then made a big show of miming the directions and gesturing to his map, as if vindicating himself.

"They still there?"

"Yes, not moved off yet, Marius. I'll cover you from the roof – you might want to head to the restaurant, at least for a few minutes."

"Copy that, Hunter." He started to walk, leading the group down the directions the officers had given him, waving for them to follow him. As they started to move off, they heard the engine of the police car start up and the crunching of sand and grit under the tyres as they pulled away. Hunter watched from the roof, standing in a low crouch so that only his hand was over the parapet, his extra cyber-eyes deployed from the tiny compartment installed there. With his 'normal' eyes closed, it wasn't quite as confusing, and he watched the car pull away and head down the road.

"Turning left, disappearing behind the next building over. Wait one." He moved quickly to the north-east corner of the building, dodging around cables, conduit, pipes and equipment, then raised his hand over the parapet again. "Ok, they've done another left and are heading this way – they're one block north of where they were… slowing… slowing… right, they've stopped under a pair of trees, turned off the headlights… yeah, just sitting there watching. I think you'll come into view when you get to the end of the block."

"Interesting. So they're not too suspicious or they'd have arrested us or investigated further already. But they are professional and thorough… that's not a good combination – at least not for us." Despite that Aswon couldn't help a small note of admiration leaking through into his voice.

"I guess we're going for a meal, then. Sit tight Hunter, we'll be back in a bit, unless you shout." Kai heard the comms click twice as Hunter settled down out of line of sight, and he gestured for Marius to lead on, taking the rest of the team to the restaurant. Rounding the corner they saw the familiar colour scheme of the multi-national franchise, and headed inside to get some decidedly average soy-burgers and a drink, settling down for ten minutes to relax. Once they'd finished, they headed out and walked around the block, putting several more buildings between themselves and the target and going the long-way around to return to their starting point. As they approached, Kai called up to Hunter for a sit-rep, smiling when he got the all-clear in return.

Once back in place, Hunter dropped the rope again, and then assisted first Aswon, then Shimazu and Marius to climb the outside of the building, each one helping to pull the next one in line upwards, the process getting faster and faster with every set of hands to help haul on the rope. As soon as the four of them were up on the roof, they pulled the rope up and coiled it neatly behind the parapet, then gave the all clear sign to Tads and Kai, who promptly headed off – aiming for the pair of trees that the cops had pulled up under as it seemed to give such a good shadow to lurk in.

They wedged themselves in by the bases of the massive square planters, perching on them to take the weight off their feet, and slowly surveyed the area. There were no pedestrians in sight, and very few cars travelling down the roads – though the sound of traffic from the main highway was a constant low pitched hum. Most of the buildings were dark and quiet, though a few showed some faint signs of movement – though it appeared to be cleaning staff moving from room to room, or perhaps a slow moving internal security patrol. Either way, there was nothing to cause alarm, and they settled in to wait, keeping an eye on the buildings and area around them.

On the roof, Marius moved over to the doorway, descending the few steps to get level with the lock and then examining it carefully. It looked to be fairly standard – a twelve-button keypad with a swipe card reader down the side, a little old-fashioned though still competent.

"I have my sequencer – I can scramble the lock and just brute force it open, but it will be very obvious we were here. Or we can try to go for the much more stealthy approach and get inside the lock to bypass it."

"Super-quiet option works best, I think." Aswon answered. "Make it seem like we were never here, and hopefully that they never realise they've been hit."

"Very well." Marius pulled out his tools and went to work, carefully trying to disassemble the case so that he could get to the guts of the electronics. After a few seconds, Shimazu, Aswon and Hunter could hear some low-pitched Germanic curses drifting up into the night air and braced themselves for the worst.

"Something wrong, Marius?" Hunter leant over to see what was going on, while Aswon and Shimazu stayed well clear – not wanting to be midway through the ward if they could help it.

"There is compacted sand in the heads and threads of these screws. Maintenance has been poor."

"Shocking. If we find the guy responsible, I'll hold your coat while you beat the crap out of him…"

Marius declined to answer, concentrating instead on getting the case off carefully and checking for any intruder countermeasures, then set to work on the lock, which was much quicker to bypass. Twenty seconds later, the door clicked open and Marius eased it a centimetre wider, carefully checking at the top for any contact sensors or switches. When he found none, he pushed it open two more centimetres, and then carefully extended a small circular mirror on an extendable stick through the opening, and started to play it around the interior of the stairwell.

"No signs of cameras or sensors. Checking inside." He eased the door open further, moving slowly and cautiously, cycling his eyes through the different modes installed to check for any trip hazards, sensors, alarm systems – but the inside appeared deserted. The walls were a plain whitewashed concrete, slightly rough and unadorned. As he slid through the opening and looked down, he could see the half flight of stairs beyond the door terminated at a landing, with a door out into the corridor on the inside of the building, while the stairs on the other side of the landing deck doubled in width and started to descend in the opposite direction. He moved to the inner edge of the stairs and glanced down, seeing the stairs switchback down towards the ground floor, lit by minimal emergency lighting – it looked to be the main fire-escape route down to ground level.

He felt Hunter creeping in after him, moving to the other side of the landing with ghostly footsteps, moving deceptively quietly for such a big man. He, too, was cycling through the vision modifications on his eyes, moving slowly and scoping out the landing and door with a variety of different modes.

Behind them, the two magically active team members took a deep breath each and then exhaled slowly, turning off their powers and getting ready to press through the ward. For Shimazu it was easy – with his hand clear of his sword, the weapon foci lay dormant – and all he had to do was concentrate on not using any of the enhanced abilities gifted to him by the return of magic to the world. Aswon faced a slightly tougher challenge, though – as the magical gecko tattoo wasn't something he could turn off – it was a permanent part of him. Fortunately, though, his ability to mask his aura was also capable – with significant effort – of masking the magical aura of his tattoo. Concentrating on his own body and his effects on the manasphere around him, he slowly eased through the ward, sliding through its protections while his own efforts kept the barrier from detecting the magical ink lying inside his epidermis.

Marius had moved to the doorway leading into the corridor and was easing that open with the same care as he'd shown opening the roof doorway, checking it out for alarms and sensors. It looked to be unmonitored though, and there was no lock on the door – though that was hardly surprising for a fire door. As he eased his head through the gap he scanned up and down the corridor, giving it a quick glance. The corridor was about two metres wide, carpeted and lit by the faint glow from the emergency lighting, showing the batteries were trickle-charging from the building supply. Doors were set into the walls at regular intervals on both sides of the corridor, and the passage leading to the east looked clear. When he looked west though – to the corner they wanted to be in, he spotted a very faint red glow positioned up near the ceiling.

"I think we have a camera, left side, end of the corridor. Faint red light – suspect this is an IR emitter." He moved out of the way and let Hunter have a look to confirm his analysis.

"Yup… got an IR flood light in a ring around it. Gonna be painting most of the corridor to look clear as day." Hunter slid back and Marius moved back into position again, zooming in to examine the camera in the darkened corner.

"I can see a cable from the back of the camera leading up into the roof tile. Camera is on a ball mount, aiming down the corridor towards us. I cannot see any blind spots or way to approach without being visible though. One of you two – please check for magical defences."

"Ok, mind out." Shimazu moved to replace him, peering through the narrow gap in the barely open door and scanning the corridor as best he could. "Looks quiet – no wards, no magical spells or alarms, no spirits or guards, no awakened activity." He dropped out of astral space and had a look at the corridor in the physical world instead, squinting at the camera. "Did you say that there was a cable going up into the ceiling, Marius?" He eased back and looked up at the stairwell speculatively, and the ceiling tiles resting in the suspended grid, before turning to Aswon and raising an eyebrow. Aswon nodded, and Shimazu once more made a stirrup with his hands, easily boosting Aswon up to the ceiling and holding him in place while he lifted the tiles to examine the space above it.

"Well, good news, bad news. Good news is there's enough room for me to get up here above the tiles and move about – as long as the ceiling holds. Plenty of cable trays screwed into the concrete above though, so we should be ok. Bad news is the corridor is on the other side of a fire-wall. Good news is that there's some cables and stuff running through, so there's a gap – filled with fire retardant foam by the looks of things. But I can probably hack that out and squeeze through – though it'll make a hell of a mess.

"And then what?" Marius enquired.

"Well, if I can get down to the corner through the roof and move a tile, I can drop down on the blind side of the camera, and block its line of vision for a few seconds while you run down to meet me. If a guard happens to be watching, we're still screwed, of course – but if it's just some sleepy schmuck somewhere he might not even realise, and if he doesn't they won't have any footage of us.

"Well, that sounds like the best option we probably have. I cannot see another way to get around it from here."

Shimazu hefted Aswon up into the ceiling, extending his hands with Hunter helping to support his other leg, holding the African in place while he hacked determinedly at the foam, carving huge chunks out and moving them to the side as carefully as he could. Some of it still fell out of the void though, and Marius started to clean it up carefully, gathering it into a pile so they could dispose or hide it, rather than leaving evidence of their presence.

When the gap was big enough, Aswon wormed his way through, grunting with the effort as he contorted his lengthy frame around the wall and reached for the cable trays and support stanchions that held the suspended ceiling in place. His height and lengthy limbs at least gave him an advantage in reaching between the scattered elements and the team listened to the scabbles and grunts as they made their way through the ceiling.

"Ok, in position. Wait one. Checking the other corridor… nah, looks clear. Just this one camera pointing down towards you. Stand by… GO!"

They headed out of the door and down to the corner at a jog, moving towards the corner and moving around it smartly, into the empty corridor that was outside the field of view of the camera, currently obscured by a protruding hand that snaked down from the ceiling. Once they were all clear, Aswon uncovered the camera and shifted about, lowing his legs down into the corridor and waiting for Shimazu and Hunter to grab him and lower him down.

The team took stock of the new position – pressed up against the outer wall of the corridor, they had to remain pretty flat to avoid having a bit of their body drift into the field of view. More doors could be seen in both walls of the corridor that stretched off to the south. Marius looked up at the camera and got a view on the back side, checking out the manufacturer's name plate and the model number.

"This looks to be a live-view camera – it will be streaming the feed to a monitoring station somewhere. I would suspect it will be pushing the data to a security station with multiple cameras, displayed either on a grid or rotating basis. Fortunately it is old enough not to have much if any smart-frame support - so I do not believe it will have motion analysis or other current generation features."

Aswon reached up and carefully supported the camera in one hand, then delicately turned the locking nut slightly to loosen the mount and moved the camera about twenty degrees away from them before tightening it up again.

"Gives us a bit more room to work with – and if the security guard is just seeing the camera footage on a cycle, they'll be hard pressed to notice the change in angle. At least I hope so…" He stood under the camera and moved his arm, showing the new field of view for the camera as best he could, and the team uncompressed from the wall. As he had said, it did give them a bit more room to move around in without being seen, and Marius turned around and pulled out his electronics kit again, laying it on the floor as he examined the door.

"The door is heavy grade, probably reinforced core – designed to defeat attempts to break it down with force. Internal hinges, I would estimate at least three or four hanging points. No light showing around the edges…ahh, there is an intumescent strip. I think we could probably push through that, but it is air sealed."

"Is that likely to be an air-pressure sensor security system?" Shimazu asked quietly.

"I hope not – I think it more likely to be tied to the use of the air-conditioning and fire suppressant system. Ahh, yes, it can be forced through – and the room beyond is lit. No sign of over or under pressure though."

"Just before you hack the lock. Aswon… does the-" Aswon was already shaking his head at Shimazu as he started to ask his question, knowing full well what it was going to be.

"I'm afraid not – the walls on the server room go up through the void, all the way to the roof of the building. Solid, apart from a few pipe and cable entries, and they're much smaller and better done than the one out in the building stairwell. No way through above the roof.

"Through the door then, it seems." Marius sighed, and pulled out a tiny pen-light to shine over the lock. Ultrasound and thermo-vision both had their uses, but sometimes you just needed to really see an object to get a feel for it. What he saw made his chest clench in anxiety though. "The lock is much better than the one on the roof. Much better. The good news is that I have seen this device before – it is a Thysen Series 4000. The bad news is that they are complex devices with significant defences built into them – including spring-loaded sensors on the face plate to detect external attempts to gain entry. This may take some time, and I need to concentrate."

"Well, while you're doing that… come on, Shimazu. Let's go check some of the offices out and give Marius some elbow room." The pair headed off down the corridor to the south, avoiding the camera covering the approach from the stairwell. The offices on each side appeared to follow a hierarchical pattern – those on the inner edge of the building, overlooking the central lightwell appeared to be for more junior staff, with three or four desks in each of the offices, laid out fairly evenly. Those in the outer offices were for more senior members or partners in the firm, with one desk just inside the office space, presumably for a P.A. or administrator, and then a larger office beyond an additional glass wall with a single large desk visible through the slightly frosted glass.

Marius, meanwhile, had spent two minutes taking the case off, catching and isolating each of the spring-loaded sensors designed to detect this kind of tampering, and carefully extending the power cable to allow him to take off the faceplate without triggering an alarm. A bead of sweat hung from the end of his nose, but he'd not had a spare hand to deal with it, and pinpricks of moisture ran down his hairline as he delicately manoeuvred his tools like a surgeon. Once he had the case off, he took a moment to confirm that the design matched his memory of the device, then started to run through the sequence to bypass the alarm. Moving slowly and with the utmost caution, he started to run miniscule jumper cables from the legs of the integrated circuits, working through the locking sequence and convincing each part of the lock that the correct key or biometric sample had been given, sending the unlock codes to the next part of the device.

Hunter moved slightly, uneasy with the time taken to resolve the situation, and Marius twitched slightly as his peripheral vision registered the motion. His hand strayed a millimetre to the left of his intended location, accidently touching the wrong component. Immediately a small LED started to flash, the interval between flashes decreasing quickly as the circuit timer ran through its sequence of commands, awaiting either the correct key to be supplied or to begin the alarm sequence. Marius swore and started to quickly snap on the remaining clips, racing against the clock to send the 'open' command before the timer ran out. The LED was an almost solid red as he clipped on the last cable, and he paused, heart in his mouth as he watched while the device considered the inputs it was now receiving, wondering if he'd gotten the sequence input in time. A second later the red LED went dark, and a green one lit whilst a deep clunking noise from the door told him that the security bolts had been withdrawn. He eased open the door, revealing the cool and brilliantly-lit server room beyond, and a wave of cool air washed over his face, providing relief that went beyond just dealing with the sweat now beading on his forehead.

"Inside – quickly."

"I thought you said there weren't air pressure sensors and stuff?" Hunter looked confused, but shuffled into the server room obediently.

"There is not, from what I have seen. But I would be surprised if there is not a temperature monitor, and if we let the cold air out and warm air in, that may trigger an environmental alarm!" Marius checked the side of the door and was relieved to see a simple 'push to exit' button, conveniently located at hip height that would allow someone to nudge it if they had their hands full of computer parts. As soon as they were all inside, he pulled the door closed and turned to check out the room.

As an office, it would have been quite small – but the room had been professionally converted, it seemed. Three large black racks of computer equipment sat on the slate-grey raised floor tiles, while four small air-conditioning vents were arranged at the corners of the room, creating a flow of air from the front to the rear of the server racks. The floor was clean and tidy, and there were no boxes or junk in the corners of the room – nor any supplies or spares, random tools or discarded equipment. It might not have been clean enough to do surgery in, but it wasn't far off, and when he checked around the back of the racks, the cabling was as neat as he'd been expecting – tightly bundled cables ran through guides, with the colour coded cables carefully labelled at both ends.

"Hunter, be careful moving anything around. I think the system administrator is likely to notice any changes or disruption."

"No shit. But I'm not planning on moving anything, I just need to find a high speed jack for my deck… ahh, here we are. Ok, going in…" Hunter slid in the fibre optic cable to the waiting jackport, connected the other end to his deck and then sank down to the floor, sitting cross-legged and resting his back on the wall, before connecting his deck to the jackport on the side of his head and letting his conscious mind flow into the deck and start poking around in the system.

Marius started a stop-watch on his commlink, then checked on the door, making sure it was closed correctly and wasn't giving any signs of alarm.

Out in the corridor, Aswon and Shimazu were working their way down the row of doors. Most of the outward facing offices were locked, while the inward facing ones were open. As they checked through, they found some paper files and documents that they could leaf through, trying to find reference to the ongoing investigation. A few minutes of checking gave them at least one clue – the name of the lead investigator was apparently 'Al Sharif'.

"Want to bet he's one of the more senior people on the outer ring? Maybe we can find his office and spot something in there manually that might help?" He also sent a text message to Hunter to relay the information, knowing it would pop up on his deck to inform him.

"Sure thing, Aswon." Shimazu pulled out his lockpick tools and kept them ready to hand as he walked out of the current office behind Aswon, starting to check on the doors for any reference to the name they had.

They found the office they were after – right down in the south-west corner, indicating to them that 'Al Sharif' was one of the more senior members of the firm, if not one of the lead partners or division leaders. The door was locked, so Shimazu moved forward to crouch on one knee by the glass door, resting his lockpick set on his broad thigh while he selected his first pick and went to work on the lock.

Inside the server room, Hunter's body was still and unmoving, his chest barely rising and falling as his autonomic systems kept his heart pumping and his breathing steady. His mind danced through the electronic systems of the server cluster, exploiting buffer overflows and UI bugs, compromised certificates and open ports leading to uncontrolled directories. He managed to get a combination of flaws working together to generate a full administrator token, granting him enterprise administration rights over all the systems. It wouldn't last that long before the token expired and the security system noticed him and took steps to deal with him – in fact one piece of ICE had been hot on his tail until he managed to authenticate, and now the icon spun rapidly in place, the 'sand devil' watching his movements carefully but taking no further actions as his credentials authorised every act he took.

Moving swiftly to the data stores, he plundered the repository, pulling out the entire set of files attached to the only case that 'Al Sharif' was currently working on, and downloading them all to his deck. The files were extensive – megapulse after megapulse of data scanned in past the air-break that protected their computers from matrix access, and for a moment Hunter was concerned over whether he had enough space on his system. He quickly knocked together a small routine to start compressing the data, and he gave a mental sigh of relief as he saw the requirements shrink to something that would easily fit.

"Frak." Shimazu's quiet curse came out a moment after the sound of snapping metal echoed up and down the corridors on either side. He gently pulled out the lockpick, looking at the ragged edge with a deep frown. "That's bad news… the last centimetre is still in there."

"Let me have a look, I think I have a tool that might get it…" Aswon pulled out his cleaning kit, and dug out a pair of very slender tweezers, and started to carefully root around in the lock, trying to remove the stray piece of tool. With some careful wiggling he managed to locate the broken end, and holding his breath he carefully moved it back through the tight confines of the lock until he could drop it into Shimazu's waiting hand. "Ok, we've run into a problem with the office. Not sure we can get through the door."

"Don't need to – I got the lot." Hunter sat back and blinked as he adjusted to being in his meat-body again. "I just logged out, the system is resetting now, but there's no logs or trace for what I did. But I can't get into the security system from here – that's completely separate. So we need to get out the same way we got in. But I'm ready to go now."

"Roger, coming back to you now then." Aswon and Shimazu hurried back up the corridor, and Shimazu boosted Aswon up into the roof as the computer room door opened, watching as Aswon squirmed around in the ceiling void ready to block the camera again. Marius unclipped his bypass on the lock and worked swiftly to replace the case, and then when they were ready Aswon covered the lens while they sprinted for the door, uncovering it the moment they were clear, before carefully replacing the ceiling tile and working his way back, squeezing once more through the fire break. A few more moments to clean up the freshly spilled materials, and he dropped down into the stairwell and they made sure the ceiling was back in position here as well, before heading back onto the roof and resetting the lock on that door too. A quick survey of the area and a check in with Tads and Kai waiting outside, and they descended down the rope as quickly as they could. When Hunter was the only one left, he looked at the rope and tried to work out the best way of getting down himself – eventually pulling it up completely and then just looping it into two pieces, with no knot at all. The rope didn't reach the ground doubled over – but it was close, probably no more than a single story up. He lowered himself down until he was about three metres from the ground, then let go of one of the ends, dropping down into a deep crouch and covering his head as the loose end whipped up into the air, around the leg of the HVAC unit and then came tumbling down to land upon him. Moments later, he had the rope bundled up in his arms and the team were walking towards the end of the block, heading back towards the restaurant while Tads and Kai left their own shadows to meet up with them.

They got a bunch of fresh drinks from the restaurant, then started to head out of town, walking at a brisk pace through the cool night air. It was agreeably quiet, and they made good time, heading up the long hill back to the quiet suburb before heading off cross-country and back to the tilt-wing, arriving there a little after three-thirty in the morning. Once they were back inside, they all heaved a sigh of relief – the job having gone off without a hitch as far as they could determine. Hunter pulled out his deck and looked at the mass of data, and then started to run it through some translation software and breaking the output down into chunks, spreading them out to everyone's commlink and systems. Once they'd had a bite to eat and a drink, they all settled down to study their data and try to establish the facts of the case and work out what had happened.

Some of the translations proved to be a little rough, but Marius and Hunter could do a manual translation to cross-check those, and they slowly built up a summary timeline of events and absorbed information from the dossier, until they could present that information back to the group. When they were ready, Hunter set up his deck again, connected the roll-out screen and started to go through the information.

"Right, starting with what we know and what kicked things off – this is the night of the fifth of February, the night of the fire. The gallery security company guard was found in a dumpster, with his arms and legs sliced open in a series of long, shallow cuts. Cause of death was a silenced pistol to the back of the head, but this was done after the cuts were inflicted. Entry to the gallery was made via the roof access door - the mag-lock was sequenced and the alarm was bypassed with jumper cables. So the use of a sequencer indicated that they didn't care about leaving traces themselves."

"The internal sensors and alarms were disabled physically after the door into the security office was forced - remains of the door lock were found splintered, and from the burn damage, it was clearly done before the fire took hold." As he narrated the summary, his deck obligingly displayed some of the megapulses of video or pictures taken at the scene, conveying further information or backing up the dry text."

"The building fire suppression system was deliberately sabotaged, and then fire-blocks were removed on the gallery floor and in the HVAC area, to deliberately let the fire spread, and in fact promote the fire effects. So our first thoughts were right – they did torch the place to cover what went on, and they didn't care about how much damage they did. Or rather they did – they cared that it was a lot, and made that happen."

"Now, the next day, the sixth, after the fire was dealt with, nearby residents complained about an odd smell in an apartment at the top of the building adjacent to the museum. Concerned over possible fire damage or ongoing effects, the local fire service investigated, then called in the police. The apartment in question was found littered with fast food debris, and a number of bottles of foreign alcohol – all found empty. A body was found, beheaded by a blade exceeding thirty centimetres, based on forensic evidence." Hunter keyed up the next report, showing some computer-generated images showing the relative positions of the evidence found, and modelling a cutting stroke and angle of attacking showing a high up or tall opponent striking down at a kneeling victim. "Needless to say I got Shimazu to look at this stuff, and he agrees entirely, and also added that the blow was done with considerable force to get a clean cut as it did. The body was identified as Saday Al'Nasrah, 48, mother of four, a widow. Notes here say her husband was a naval officer and died during a regular anti-piracy patrol and she does cleaning to supplement her Navy pension. She lived nearby, and is now the ward of her former husband's brother who lives in Al'Ain."

"What does that mean?" Tads asked "And is it important?"

"Remember it's a culture that puts some limits on what women can do. In this case, he's responsible for her, and she needs his permission to do stuff like get a bank loan or sell her apartment. And no, it's not important, I don't think. It's just stuff that was in the police report." Tads wrinkled her nose and frowned and Hunter raised his hands in a sign of surrender. "Hey, don't look at me like that. Not my fault the people are backwards. Anyway, he has had to come to the city to look after the children and her affairs, he knows about the death and what's going on, but the kids don't." Hunter keyed into the next page, showing a body lying in the bathroom, with blood sprayed up the walls to over head height.

"The corpse was found amidst a mass of bleach sprayed all over the room, destroying most evidence, and the rest of the apartment had been doused too. Signs that there were at least five people there, along with notes about the Haram food supplies, pornography, alcohol and drugs use evident – and we're talking all kinds of recreational stuff here, not prescription meds for treating a condition. There's obviously a huge amount of detail in the reports, and the use of bleach all over the place has turned this into a forensic nightmare apparently."

"Yes, my bit of the report included several communications from the lab who has been tasked with processing the samples, complaining about the number they were being asked to look at." Aswon checked his notes to confirm what he was saying. "Yes, they've processed as many samples in the last two weeks as they normally do in a year, according to this, and they don't like the pressure they're under."

"But, we've also got a number of additional reports from the police which have now been linked with the case," Hunter continued, "which might tell us a bit more about what's going on. The first one we have in the timeline, though it's not the first one reported is an attack on a homeless guy in the western end of the city. It was slow coming in as he was a vagrant, and they're un-people, it seems. But this guy, late fifties, was found beheaded in the western end of the city – on analysis it's been linked now as the nature of the beheading matches that of Saday Al'Nasrah. Examination of local CCTV showed a grey delivery truck that can't be positively ID'd in the area, though there's no footage of the actual incident. But the truck clearly had false plates on, as they've not tracked back to anything legit."

"On the second, one day after, we have reports of a taxi driver found with both hands cut off, bleeding out round the back of a taxi-rank. This is closer to the city centre, and the apartment and museum. The driver claims to have been attacked by a demon clad in red fire - but he appears slightly unhinged by the attack and is suffering some kind of shock trauma, so the police report is somewhat sceptical. The driver, Bakir El'Salem, is thirty years old, and lives locally with his mother. He was mugged and held against a wall with hands raised over his head, when he was struck from above and behind, and both hands severed in a single blow." Hunter triggered the video of the crime scene, and the computer-generated imagery that showed an attacker striking him from behind and above with great savagery. "I'm sure that looks a bit familiar by now…"

"And yesterday, we have three new reports that have come in, that have just been indexed and reported on. The first is a report of events that happened on the evening of the sixth in a tiny village called Nahdah - a farmer was found sliced open from shoulder to hip. The guy died from blood loss, and police had no leads to start off with – but again he was hit pretty hard, from above – in front this time not behind, but with great force. A couple of people in the area reported a brown UPS truck in the village, which was pretty unusual." Hunter pulled up a sketch of the brown truck, and positioned it next to the grey vehicle from the CCTV footage of the vagrant's murder, showing two very similar sized vehicles.

"Next up is on the night of the seventh, in another small village called Makaz'ash – here the village shopkeeper was struck from…"

"Behind?" Aswon guessed.

"Give the man a prize. Yep, struck hard from behind and above and his back was sliced open. He's also dead, from blood loss. Turns out these small places are the back of beyond, with no medical services nearby. But, one source in the village did report an unusual vehicle, a bright yellow 'Water Aid' truck parked in the village overnight. I'll also just add that this village is pretty much on the border with the UAE, though saying this is a soft border is an insult to playdoh. But that generated a notice to the UAE police force, detailing a problem – and they got a hit back with some preliminary information."

"I would hazard a guess that on the night of the next day, someone got attacked with an edged weapon?" Aswon asked sharply. "And based on what we have seen so far, probably died."

"Yup – well into the UAE, in the village of Arada. A little girl, aged about eight, found beheaded and left in a wadi just outside the village. And, a couple of people in the village reported seeing a rusty White 'Al-Halal Chicken' transporter parked up there, which they've never seen before." He pulled up the sketch image of the truck, placing it next to the disturbingly familiar silhouettes of the previously spotted vehicles.

"That's what we have so far – but I've pulled up a map showing the locations of these reports." He replaced the images and all the text with a large scale map showing Oman and the neighbouring UAE, and some bright red lines linking each of the crime reports. They followed a gentle arc that paralleled the main highway between the two nations, but that stayed out in the desert, out of line of sight. Marius stared at the picture for a moment, then sat back with a contemplative look upon his face.

"Hunter. Show me the route between Muscat and the first village please, and the distance covered?" Hunter manipulated the map, doing a fly-over of the terrain and pulling up the ground distance covered. "And now the next leg." They repeated the process, with Marius making a few notes as they went.

"Something in your mind,, Marius?"

"Yes Kai. If we were in the truck, and leaving the scene of a job, and wanting not to go on the highway for some reason – so went off-road, then this is pretty much the route I would take. It is a reasonable distance to cover in a day of driving, ending up in a village small enough not to have a police presence, in fact unlikely to have any security systems at all. But it would have a well, and probably food to resupply with. And it would keep us away from main roads and highways, and any patrol cars or security forces."

"You think this is the team doing a slow getaway, then?" Kai seemed to be somewhat incredulous, but he turned back to the image and he couldn't argue with the facts as presented.

"I do not know why they would be doing it this way. They must have a reason, but it seems to fit what we know."

"Gimme a sec." Hunter fiddled with his image, then overlaid a new circle, centred on the village of the last reported incident. "This is a rough circle showing the distance from the village with the dead kid. The inner line is the minimum distance they've covered in a day – the outer line is the maximum." The team examined the circle, looking at the half dozen tiny villages that lay in between the two lines, covering a broad arc that lead up towards Europe.

"Want to bet if we fly up that way, we'll find someone else that's had a bad time?" Aswon said quietly. His jaw flexed and his expression was grim – as were most of the teams'. They couldn't understand the apparently random and unnecessary violence visited on the people they'd read about so far – it seemed entirely gratuitous.

"Let's get ready for takeoff, and head over to find out. I think someone needs to put these mad dogs down…" There was no trace of levity in Kai's voice or expression, and even Hunter's mood was grim as he packed his stuff away and got ready for departure.