Wednesay 16/2/2061, Location: 23.53413, 58.40645, Time 04:30

As they carefully lifted off into the blackness of the desert night, Kai pulled out his phone and pulled up his contact list, scrolling down until he found Pranath. He was just about to call when he realised it was still pretty early in the morning. Instead he flipped to his keyboard and sent a message, asking him to call as soon as he was up.

"I've asked Pranath to give me a shout – he's the shipping officer at the port in the UAE that gave me a bunch of information. I reckon he might have some idea of illegal movements of either people or goods that we could follow up on."

"What about your friend in the intelligence service thing? The Mouse-sad?"

"Mossad, you mean, Tads?" Marius called back over the intercom.

"I don't know – if that's the thing, then yes. But you gave the impression they're very interested in what goes on around this part of the world. Might they know something, or be interested in a bunch of psychotic killings?"

"I think so – I will send a message now." The aircraft gave an almost imperceptible quiver as Marius set the autonav and pulled up his own contacts list, firing off his own message to Michael David in Ankara. "Where are we headed by the way? I need a course…" he called back again after he'd finished sending the message.

"Um… towards the smuggler stop in Qatar, at least for starters. But let's take it slow? And we'll try and work out where we're going. At least we're probably heading somewhere that way, so it shouldn't burn much in the way of fuel…"

"Roger." Marius adjusted the auto-nav, and they banked over smoothly, dropping speed to barely above their stall speed for horizontal flight. At least this slowly, the tilt-wing had no problem with nap-of-the-earth flying, and they ghosted across the rough terrain of the desert at an altitude of fifty metres, concealed from prying eyes by the powerful spirit that Tads had summoned.

"Right, we've got no indications that they were killing on the way in, but they seem to have done a lot on the way out. Hunter, can you do a quick check on the gallery and any other information you can find, see if there's anything related to Blood Magic or evil spirits, or any folk-tales like that?" Kai asked. Hunter grunted and jacked into his deck, then connected up to the sat-link and dived into the matrix. Their slow speed helped a little here, the signal being much stronger and more reliable than when they were travelling flat out, with the sat-link having no problem keeping a firm lock on the overhead constellation of orbiting communications arrays. Within a few moments, he'd pulled down the gallery catalogue and skimmed through the pages of flowing Arabic script, getting the gist of each of the works of art.

"Uh-oh. This ship thingy, or the painting rather – there's a note about the 'Jewel of Muscat' also being known as 'The Blood Ship'. Something about it being used to transfer slaves from one country to another as part of tributes following some war or another. That doesn't sound good…"

"That would go a long way to explaining things. If there was a spirit bound in the painting I mean. Imagine if it was a warded canvas or frame, a prison or trap for some evil spirit. And if they broke it or damaged it during the break-in, a spirit could well have possessed one of them, causing them to become sociopaths or blood-adepts. That would certainly explain this rash of killings…"

"If so, then we need a large warded box – enough maybe to put a person in, if we apprehend them, or at least big enough for the painting." Aswon added, looking over at Tads with a shared look of concern.

"I'm not so sure. They seem to have started when they arrived in Muscat – we have the report of the taxi driver who was attacked, and that was before the break-in." Shimazu commented. " Look, I've worked out a rough timeline, from the crime reports and the documents we each saw. Assuming the translation software worked ok." Shimazu squirted over the file to each of the team, showing the progression in date order of the various crime reports and incidents – confirming that the bloodlettings had begun before the gallery had been set on fire.

"Well, whatever is the cause – we need to try and track them quickly. They have already crossed from one country to another, changing police jurisdiction. Depending on how much the countries exchange information, that may stop them from realising that is a chain of events and instead treat the incidents as isolated crimes, with a lower priority."

"I've pulled up a map, showing the general area." Hunter activated the screens in the rear, and cast out his data to each of their personal devices as well so they could all see the fruits of his labour. "Starting in Muscat on the night of the fire, they travelled overland, avoiding roads from what we can see, towards this first village – Nahdah. That's about a hundred and seventy five klicks, over some rough terrain, including some steep climbs up into the highlands. So, figure that's a reasonable day of travel off road – it kinda matches what we were doing in Iraq when we were in the truck, heading for the 'stans." A large red ring appeared on the map, centred on Muscat and just reaching the small village.

"Next day they went to Makaz'ash – that's right on the border between Oman and Saudi Arabia. The border looks pretty porous though – they're not that hostile and there's so much of frak all out there. That's another hundred and sixty nine kilometres from their first stop – pretty much the same distance, right?" Another red circle appeared on the map, centred on the new datum, with the same radius.

"After that they headed across more of the desert, to Arada. Well, assuming that all these cuttings and stuff are actually the same thing and not random chance, but… it kinda feels connected. Anyway, they made two hundred and thirty four kilometres that day." Another red circle appeared, showing the 175km travel distance of the first two days, and then a purple coloured circle showed the new larger distance. "So, maybe they just picked up speed, maybe it's because the terrain is a bit easier, or they had a specific place in mind to stop, and pushed on for another hour or something. But they crossed from Saudi into the United Arab Emirates, and ended up at another tiny little village, a good way off the beaten track.

"So, that's the last thing we know about – but based on the minimum and maximum distance they've covered, we can perhaps take a guess at where they're heading next – or what options they have…"

"It looks to me that they're moving from one small isolated village to another. I bet there's a well in each of those places, and they're moving from one watering hole to another. That's interesting – and it tells us their mage isn't as support-focussed as Tads is. I assume the spell isn't that difficult to learn or get hold of?"

"No, it's fairly simple. Even at a low power level, where it's only making water for one person, it's easily repeatable. So yes, I'm fairly certain that they could have learned it if it was important to them. And that means they have other criteria in mind for their spell selection and foci. There's a good chance they're more combat-focussed and oriented than I am." Tads shrugged, acceptant that not everyone shared her protective ideals.

"Well, if they are moving from one village to another, and these ranges remain somewhat accurate, that should help us predict their movement. At least unless they suddenly either change tactics, or reach a specific destination." Hunter tapped another key, highlighting the settlements located inside the two circles. Nearly all of the space was empty, with just a few villages to the north-west, and several larger settlements along the coast. "If they suddenly break off to meet a boat or something, then I'm not sure what we do next."

"If they were going for a boat though, I would have thought they'd either go from Muscat, or head straight for Dubai or Abu Dhabi. Lots of big ports and easy to get lost in them." Aswon rubbed his chin as he examined the string of circles and the overall direction of travel. "It looks to me that they're staying clear of the major highways, but running parallel with them, heading up the gulf states – heading towards Israel, Syria, Iraq kind of direction – at least based on what we've seen so far. Though I also wonder if they make it back to their 'home country' whatever that might be, if they'll swap to being on-road then. Maybe it's where they've got legal IDs?"

"Maybe there weren't killings before, because they didn't come in by road? If they were air passengers or came by boat perhaps, then the killings might have happened far far away." Tads shrugged. "If there were any, and it's not the painting affecting them, that is. But I wonder if we can ask the man in the sand castle – Keith? Anyway, ask him if anyone has come through?"

"We can try, Tads" Aswon responded, "but I'm not sure if we'll get very far. We've only just met him and probably don't have much of a reputation with him. He might not want to betray another team to us, if at all." Tads nodded to him in understanding.

"Would they need to stop for fuel. Is that something we can track?" She asked.

"Nein. For one, the country is so backwards in so many places that there is unlikely to be a central matrix node that Hunter could hack, to look for large purchases from a station. They are probably still manual in places. But also they are likely to have a thousand kilometres or more in fuel in the vehicle, assuming that it has been modified. I would certainly not entertain a vehicle without that much range for performing operations in."

"I agree with Marius – if this team have a rigger, he's probably tricked out his vehicle and I can't see him running around without a decent fuel tank or operational range. To dangerous, too limiting. And I'm sure the dossier mentioned that Henry thought Dice was ex-military. That makes it more likely in my opinion that's they're going to have an ex-military vehicle with a good range – even if it's armoured and armed."

"Good point Aswon. Well – we've got a bunch of locations, and they're heading in a general direction – but I think we'd need at least one more location to be reasonably sure of that." Kai studied the map carefully, looking at the handful of locations in the target area based on the previous travel ranges. "Should we divert over to have a look?"

"I can fly over and see, if you want? I don't think I'll get anything from any spells that were cast, but if there's been a murder, I may pick up a trace?" Tads offered. "When were they there, do we think?"

"They were in Arada on the eighth – again assuming it was them – so this location would be the ninth – a week ago." Shimazu checked his notes as he spoke, then looked over at Tads. "Slim chances, unless it was really horrible – but I guess it won't take you long. Also, something we need to remember is how remote these places are. Like Marius said about the fuel, and them not having electronic records maybe, or at least not linked to the matrix. Most of these places won't have a police force or station. There may have been additional murders, that just haven't been reported, or at least not yet – or someone has taken a report but it's not been filed yet."

"Good point, Shimazu. We have a couple of reports though with a vehicle that matches – at least in size, though with different descriptions. So that sounds like they have their mage cast a masking spell, just like Tads does for us – or they have photovoltaic paint installed for changing the colour and decals on it. If Tads goes looking though, we might find the scene of a murder, but we're not going to pick up on any local intelligence – that's worth bearing in mind."

"Marius – are you going to maintain course and speed for a while?"

"Affirmative, Tads."

"I think I should be ok finding my way back then, and hopefully I can get back into my body. If you see me manifest in front of you though, it might be helpful if you can hover for a moment." With that, she tightened her harness and then relaxed her body, hanging limply in the restraints as her spirit leapt free of the physical body and soared up into the night air, before setting off to the north-west at high speed. She aimed for the coast, then looked for the obvious lump of Qatar sticking up to the north, then worked backwards a little slower towards the communities that Hunter had highlighted – Alkwifriah, Al Batha, Al Ghuwaifat and Al Sila. She swiftly checked over Alkwifriah, flying up and down the regimented streets of the desert community but found nothing of interest, so she sped south-east towards Al Batha, flying over the large intersection and truck park where Highway 90 met 95, making a mental note to mention that to the rest of the team when she returned.

Approaching Al Batha from the north, she lucked out – stumbling across a graveyard at the edge of the city and finding what could only be a recent burial site. Remorse, pain and grief twisted astral space around the plot, and when she briefly manifested she could see cut flowers and pictures, along with texts written out on paper and skewered into the ground. She had no idea what they said, but the feelings associated with the loss of the dead burned strongly – someone had almost certainly been here within the last twelve hours, shedding tears and showing their intense sadness and grief. She quickly checked the other two settlements but found nothing of note, and returned once more to Al Batha, checking out the plot again before zooming across the desert to find the tilt-wing. Homing in on the faint link back to her body she managed to catch up with the craft and with careful timing and more than a little practice, she managed to jump back into her body as it flashed past her.

Once she reported her findings to the rest of the team, it was generally agreed that this 'felt' very much like another incident – and short of detouring to do some investigation on the ground, was probably a very good lead. The distance from Arada to Al Batha was two hundred and twenty-four kilometres, putting it firmly in the expected zone, and the general direction seemed to correlate to their thoughts that the other team were heading up the peninsula.

"If we go to the village, I can probably make at least a couple of people invisible if you want to go for an explore around and check the graves out."

"Ok, thanks, Tads. I'm not sure we should detour though – what you felt seems exactly right for someone just murdered with no warning or reason, in a really violent fashion. While these places have no local police, that's probably because nothing ever happens there…" Kai commented. "I think you're right, and this is another hit. So, the next thing is to plot some fresh ranges. And, if you're up for it, Hunter – can you do a matrix search in Qatar? See if there are reports of any murders there. The settlements that way look bigger and more likely to have either police or at least working phones and some way to report a crime. But if we can eliminate that as an option, that might be good, and let us focus on the mainland…"

Hunter dived into the matrix again to try and run a search on the Qatar police system – trying to do a light touch survey, to see if any part of the system was open to the general public. He certainly wasn't sure he could hack such a system easily – though with them being in flight, at least if they tried to trace him they'd have a hell of a job catching up with him. Meanwhile, Kai had another thought and sent a message to his friend Anahita in Tehran, asking if she was aware of any artwork coming up for sale or making waves at the moment.

"This thing we're after, if it is something related to blood magic… I'm not comfortable letting it get sold on. We shouldn't let that happen."

"Tads – remember, our mission from Germaine is to take down this other team and show that it's not worth betraying or double-crossing her."

"Aswon – if this is blood magic, we're not going to just let it go." Her tone hardened and her arms folded in front of her, and she stared at him unflinchingly.

"I don't disagree with you – but that's not our mission…. What?" Aswon turned to look at Shimazu who was just shaking his head.

"Aswon – you should recognise that tone of voice by now." Shimazu smiled at Tads. "I don't think we're going to let the painting go, Tads. Don't worry."

"It may be too late for that. I do not know how these things work – but if there was something in the painting and it has escaped – can it be put back? Can it be imprisoned again, or is the painting just going to be an empty thing?" Marius's voice came through clearly in their earpieces – clearly enough that they could tell that he had suspicions on which way they were likely to find things.

"Let's cross that bridge when we find out if it exists." Kai held up his hands, as if he was trying to split them up, drawing both of their attention to him. "Tads – can you scout down the roads for a vehicle of the right size for us?"

"No, not effectively. Oh, I can go down the roads – but I'm either going as fast as I could run, so I can perceive everything around me – or I'm going FAST. And then everything is a blur. Nothing in between, that's not how it works."

"Right. Ok then… Oh – crap. I suppose I should call Keith and let him know we're coming. Best give him a call." He hit the dial button before anyone could say anything – and Aswon was only halfway through pointing out what time it was when the call connected. "Ahh, good morning, Keith!"

"What the FRAK time do you call this? FRAK OFF you BELLEND! You absolute COCKWOMBLE!" The call disconnected abruptly, and Kai stared at the handset, then checked the time.

"Oh. Bugger."

"Let me guess – when we get to the smuggler stop, we are going to have to wait for fuel. And probably landing clearance?" Marius enquired.

"Yeah, probably best set down a little way away from his home. I think he's a bit pissed off with me. I'll sweet talk him later though, I'm sure I can smooth it all over."

They flew on, and just before six, Kai's phone rang, displaying 'Pranath' on his caller ID. Kai quickly gave him a high-level idea of what was going on, asking if there was any rumours of a high-value cargo moving through the port that he was aware of. Unfortunately Pranath had no information on any shipments from anyone he knew – but he offered to put the word out and see what he could find out.

"Ok, Thanks Pranath – let me get some details over to you soon." Kai disconnected, then called out to Hunter. "Can you make me a little dossier up – include five random paintings from the gallery and our actual target, mix em up and then we can send that over in a bit. Might as well not make it entirely obvious what we're tracking.

Shortly afterwards they arrived at the smuggler stop, coming in for a graceful landing about a half kilometre from the ancient stone fortress. Marius powered down, and once the engines had stopped, they could all hear the ocean breeze sending a gentle rain of driven sand skittering over the hull of the aircraft. There were no signs of activity in the fortress, and they settled down to wait until at least dawn had been and gone – or perhaps until there were signs of movement.

"Hunter – can you map me out some more of those circle things on a map, centred on Al Batha? And then get me a map of the villages you can find?"

"Sure thing, give me a minute." Hunter worked away on his deck, plotting the new data loci and updating the map, then highlighting the isolated outposts of meta-humanity that stubbornly defied the encroaching desert. Tads studied them carefully, committing as many natural features and landmarks as she could to her memory before once more leaping out of her body to go and scout.

"Blood mages? Are they all driven to kill? Is that a thing they have to do?"

"No idea, Kai – I think we've been lucky enough to only encounter one, and he seemed more interested in toying with us – or at least it seemed so. It might be – I mean they feed on blood and suffering, but I don't know if they're absolutely driven to it. There's not a lot of information around on them – at least not well known. I suspect it very much depends on the individual and their own thoughts, desires and drives – just like toxic shaman and evil spirits." Aswon shrugged. "Sorry, I just don't know. It may not be a blood spirit either – it could be a haunting or a possession, if there was SOMETHING in the painting. Or a Nomad, a trickster spirit, or something else. There's just no way to know…"

"Right, ok – fair enough. Well, maybe we can do this another way – what about if we try and get ahead of them?"

"I do not think that is feasible, Kai." Marius called back from the cockpit where he was monitoring the bird's systems, making sure they didn't get clogged up with sand. "If you plot a location, and then extend a line out about two hundred and fifty kilometres, accounting for a day of travel – but allow for them to deviate by up to thirty degrees to either side of the centre line, then the resulting cone has an area of approximately a quarter million square kilometres. We are at least a week behind them. If we chain together even four of these possible loci, allowing for deviation – we end up with millions of square kilometres of possible terrain to look through."

"Oh. That much?"

"Yes, that much. Being even a degree off course over a long enough distance can lead to huge navigational errors. When they could be dog-legging around terrain or just randomly changing course, the effects are massively magnified."

"Well, how about we go to Al Batha, then – Tads mentioned that there was a massive road junction, with lots of truck stops and stuff. Maybe we can get into the traffic cams there?"

"I don't think that would be viable, Kai." Shimazu pointed at his map, tracing the course of the other team. "They've avoided the road so far, and anywhere even vaguely civilised. I can't see them changing tactics now, unless there's some reason for it that we're not aware of. But having come this far, and taken this long to cover the distance off-road, I don't think they'd throw it all away now by joining the highway. It doesn't make sense."

"I agree with Shimazu. If they had taken the road, they could have travelled from Muscat to Al-Batha in less than a day. Instead they took most of a week. There must be a reason for that. I too cannot see them abandoning that effort."

"Oh – I've just had a nasty thought." Aswon looked up at them all, glancing over to Tad's relaxed form and pausing for a moment before he continued his train of thought. "We're following the killings, right – that's our best lead at the moment. What happens if they hand over the painting to their buyer – or whoever they're delivering to. And the thing – whatever it is – is in the painting. They stop killing, and whoever has the painting starts… we'd be following the painting, not the team. And though Germaine might want the painting as a bonus, I think she wants to see the other team punished more."

"Oh, true. That's not good."

"It's worse than that, Kai. Imagine if we follow the killings, and we catch up and find the painting, and take it back. And then whatever it is affects one of us. Would you want to try dealing with Shimazu if he was possessed? Or Hunter with his rifle? Or Tads… well, pretty much any of us really. That's some bad ju-ju."

"That's a horrible concept. I'd be hoping that Tads could protect us from that! Do you think she can?"

"Her shields are good – very good. But I don't know. What if it's something different or new, that she can't shield us from? Is that a risk we're willing to take?"

"Is what a risk we're willing to take?" Tads murmured as she opened her eyes.

"Never mind – hopefully it won't matter. Did you find something?"

"I think so, yes. Another grave, another psychic loci focussed upon it. Grief, anger, fear and sorrow – just like before. In the village of Hawiyah."

"Give me a mo, plotting a circle now…" A fresh set of red and purple circles appeared on the small village in the middle of the desert as Hunter updated the map. "Two hundred and thirty-five klicks, so that's right on the money. Looks like they've dog-legged inland a bit. Let me work up a target list."

A shout from Marius distracted the rest of the team as a very grumpy looking Keith appeared at the gates of his base, waving at them. Kai headed over to arrange for refuelling, taking Shimazu and Aswon to pull the fuel bowser down from the storage shed to their bird to refuel. Keith's displeasure with Kai and his interruption of his beauty sleep was apparent in the rates he charged them for fuel this time – raising the price per litre for avgas by nearly 15% on what they'd paid previously. Six grand lighter on the credstick, Kai returned to the tilt-wing, trying to put a brave face on things.

"So – what have we got?"

"One target to the south west – very unlikely in my opinion, as it's a radical course change and doesn't lead anywhere but the deep desert. But if we go north, heading to the top of the peninsula, then there's about half a dozen small villages all spread out in a cluster – any one of which is in the range parameters we've seen so far."

"Nice work Hunter. Ok, well, let's grab a quick bite to eat and then look at this target list and see what we have…"

The team settled down with the map and examined the tiny desert villages, nothing more than a few pixels on the low-res maps that were the best available for the remote part of the country, and munched on some fruit as they tried to work out where the other team would have gone…