"Other than your contact – Jahnu, was it?" Aswon waited for Kai to nod in confirmation, then continued, "so other than Jahnu, as far as I'm aware we don't know anyone else local. And by local, I mean inside several thousand kilometres." He looked around the team, but got lots of head shakes or comments indicating that this was the case. "So, our chances of getting a local job are pretty slim. So from my point of view, we can call around our contacts, and try to find out if there's anything happening something nearby – which is a very slim chance – or if they have local work, and we head over to them – or we go home."
"How are we doing for funds? Because I'd still quite like to get a decent deck. Or a better one than what we have, so that we can do some of those higher end jobs. Either that or a battle-tac system." Hunter responded. "Or some new 'ware. That only benefits me though, and it's going to be pricy, so maybe we want to wait until we've got a few more million in the account."
"We've got just over one and a quarter million."
"Well, I can spend that in less than two minutes on a deck, or some 'ware – like I said, we might need to wait until we've got some more cash then."
"How much is a decent deck, then?" Kai looked a little confused. "I thought the one we got last was alright? Is that not the case?"
"The hardware isn't bad – but the software is the thing that's holding us back at the moment. Decent programs to control the information flow and bypass security are expensive – all the dodgy stuff I need for hacking into systems is horribly expensive, because its illegal pretty much everywhere, and there's so few suppliers. And it's dodgy as hell trying to get hold of it to make sure it's not a sting operation or you're not getting a virus infected lump of drek."
"So it's software you need, then – but if we got that, your actual computer would be ok?"
"It's middle of the road. Could be better, but it will do for now. With some top end software it will let us do a lot more – then the hardware would be what's holding us back instead. Sure, getting new hardware and software is the best plan, but then we're talking a couple of million for the whole lot – and we ain't got that!"
"And to steal a top end deck… we need a top end deck, right?" Kai raised an eyebrow and got a nod from Hunter. "Unless we can work with someone to hit a transport or cargo shipment physically, or something like that. Ok – we can put feelers out. Likewise for the battle-wotsit. I'm guessing that's the same?"
"Worse. actually. You need to hit some kind of merc unit with excellent funding, or a military organisation of some kind. They tend to be people who take great exception to people stealing their stuff." Aswon warned.
"For the deck, or rather the software – it might be possible to hit a high end store, or a boutique of some kind – but for that we need to be in an appropriate area. First world countries, corporate enclaves, that kind of thing. Places where they have the disposable income and need for top end systems. Not third world locations like some of the places we have visited. Even here would be no good. There are plenty of tech jobs and a high degree of education, as I understand it – but they are successful because they outsource jobs from other areas, undercutting their costs, which is reflected in the lower pay for the workforce. So they have far less disposable income, and little demand for the gear we want to steal." Marius sighed a little, then continued.
"Of course, the countries with the income for those kinds of things, have shops that can afford better security, have better and more extensive police forces, better forensic support and so on – so they will be harder to steal from. Perhaps we need to think about somewhere that is a middle ground." He thought for a moment, then nodded to himself. "Ashgabat perhaps. Or something like it. A corporate funded enclave, walled off from the surrounds. Highly policed and controlled, but only in a very small area – their absolute power is still very low, and they have little reach beyond the walls of the enclave. But there is enough money in the place to perhaps demand access to better quality equipment."
"I can give Jahnu a call, and see if he has any further work for us – just on the off-chance? Even if he doesn't, it'd probably be better to know that, right?" The team nodded, and Kai placed the call, but found himself diverted to a message system. He left a brief message that was a little vague and cryptic if anyone else listened to it, then disconnected. "No answer, I'll try him again later."
"A further thought. I believe Hunter, that the key component to the cyber-deck is the masking chip?" Hunter nodded at Marius.
"S'right. A deck hardware is otherwise just a very high spec computer, optimised for portability normally, though it doesn't have to be. The programs specialise it further – but it's the masking chip that's the deal-maker. No masking chip and you leave an electronic trail clear enough that even your granny can follow it. And it's the masking chip that's illegal pretty much everywhere in the world."
"Exactly what I was getting at. So even if we do travel to Ashgabat for instance, and steal some high end programs and the hardware to run them on – the lack of this chip would mean it would not work as required. So we still need to work on a location to obtain a chip – which means dealing with the black market somewhere. So – do you all remember the stop we made in Shanghai, when we were working around the Pacific? We met the strange computer nerds in the shipping port, I think you said that they might be Otaku, Hunter?"
"Ah, yeah. Guy had a serial number for a name or something. But said we could call him Shanghai Noodles if that was easier? Something like that?"
"Indeed. Though his name was MQCXC-RQTR3-6F98Y-7KTKF-TW82J, if you needed reminding." Marius grinned at them for a moment, enjoying his little flex as his memory dragged up the details of the conversation. "But perhaps he would be a good contact to reach out to, if we needed to procure a masking chip? Failing that, if we were to prioritise this purchase, then perhaps a trip to Delhi might be best. Though the county is generally still regarded as poor, any wealth we are likely to find is most probably concentrated in the capital city. Certainly their tech sector and corporate HQs are most likely to be found there."
"Show me the map please, Hunter – and can you highlight Delhi and the new smuggler stop location. Ah, right… thanks. So the capital is north east of us, and the smuggler stop is south-west. Back across the border? Hmm. I was thinking of heading there to get a feel for the place first, and get our names known – but I'm not sure if running the border is such a good idea."
"It's going to be the last thing anyone would probably expect?" Aswon grinned. "So it has the advantage of not making much sense – at least from their point of view. And we would be crossing it the 'wrong' way for anyone watching for us. So maybe it's not a crazy idea – and it's also very close, so we're not going to burn much fuel getting there."
"Yeah, it's less than a hundred and fifty kilometres straight line. We'd probably want to come south out of the city before we hit the border, just to get some room to manoeuvre I think, but it's not going to be much more. And from there we can head out to sea, or back in again. It wasn't an issue last time, from what I could see." Hunter sketched out some movement plans on the map, showing them various approach routes.
"So are we thinking to go to this new stop to establish ourselves – and then to head east, back towards Shanghai?" Marius asked. "In which case, we would be thinking of heading to Trafford, then Dragon Ridge, I take it?"
Hunter plotted out the routes, showing the various legs of the journey – a little under fifteen hundred kilometres from the location of the new smuggler stop south of Karachi to the Nepalese foothills where Trafford lay, then another two thousand kilometres east to Dragon Ridge and the stop located next to the reservoir high up in the hills, before another two thousand one hundred kilometres as they ran across the fractured and warring Chinese states until they reached Shanghai.
"It may be that we can pick up some cargo in this new place as well. It may help offset the fuel costs."
"Good plan, Marius – I'm not sure what we'd be looking at. Maybe some minerals – I don't know if they have diamond mines and stuff like that here, but it's not that far to Afghanistan, is it? And there was a bunch of stuff there."
"I'm sure they will advise us on any needs or surplus materials they have – and they may be a source of information about other cargo that we could pick up in the area. It certainly seems reasonable to ask. But if this is the plan, I will start to pre-flight." Marius pulled out his remote deck and started to access the systems, running through the checklist.
"I've had a thought, by the way." Tads piped up, taking part in the conversation for the first time. "It's not about the smuggling, though – but about what we did on the extraction. We kept the elementals out, but I wonder if we should have got them inside the aircraft?" Straight away, she got a very negative reaction from Hunter and Marius – with their thoughts on the concept being obvious from the shaking heads and look of disgust on the face. "No – just hear me out. If they're outside, then I'm the only person on the team that can affect them, and depending on the positions, maybe only one at once. But if we can get them inside the aircraft, and then close the doors – we're not trapped in with them – it's more they're trapped in there with us! I've got my weapon focus that can reach them then, as well as my spells – but so have Kai and Aswon. We've just tripled our means of attack. And that's assuming that Shimazu isn't there. If he is – well, based on what we've seen before, then he can handle any two or three opponents without any fuss, and with us to back him up we can take out a whole pack of opponents in just a few seconds."
"That's… an interesting point. Hmm." Aswon mused for a few seconds. "I mean, in theory – yes. Getting them in reach of all of our weapons means we can hit them, even if they stay in astral space."
"Yes. I don't think we would want to do that with the fire elementals, say, just because of the nature of their attacks. But we can probably deal with the other types a bit better. And against a projecting mage? That's… well, it's something I would fear – being trapped in a fast moving vehicle, dragging my spirit away from my body. Only able to affect astral targets, there's very little I can do, and if we keep them out of their body too long, they just…die. I'd want to negotiate, if I was in that position."
"Something we need to discuss. Maybe we could ward the cockpit separately, so we can trap them in just one part of the Broadsword. That might work better…" Aswon suggested. Hunter and Marius still didn't look keen on the idea at all, but seemed less horrified at the concept of spirits or elementals being trapped somewhere they weren't.
"Flight time down to this new place is eighteen to twenty minutes, depending the course we take, Kai. You might want to call them back, and let them know we're coming!" Hunter changed the conversation, gesturing down at his map.
"Pre-flight is almost complete." Marius headed up the stairs, and they heard the engines starting to rumble as he started the take-off sequence remotely, prompting them to all follow him. By the time the stairs were pulled up after them, the door sealed and the rest of the team were strapped in, the aircraft was lifting off the ground, neatly spinning in place as they climbed before starting to pick up speed as they headed due south out of the city.
Kai called ahead, speaking to the same person as before, letting them know they were going to drop in shortly, and got some advice on the approach, which he then relayed forward to Hunter and Marius once the call was concluded.
"Ok, the guy we're meeting is Ranjit Patel. The landing location is on the north side of a spit of land sticking out into the marshy channels. On the south side is the container port, with a drek-load of containers, cranes and rail tracks apparently, but the north side is used for bulk material. There's loads of coal piled up, iron ore, sand and other stuff like that, ready to go into bulk shippers. All stuff that doesn't need to be protected from the weather. He says we can land in the middle of that stuff, and use it to shield us from view, and we should come in from slightly west of north?"
"Yeah, looking at the map now. I can see where they're talking about. There's open water on the north side, a sheltered dock, with a quay wall protecting it from the main channel, and further out there's some kind of gas or oil dock. But chances are there's nothing much at altitude, unless there was a bulk shipper tied up alongside. We can come in nice and low and limit our visibility, and not get near the cranes and stuff. Right, adjusting the course, shunting over to you now, Marius. Adds an extra forty-two seconds to our journey time – no problems."
The journey over was uneventful, with neither the Indian or Pakistani border systems seeing anything other than a remarkably fast-moving flock of birds on their radar, and even that for only a moment.
They approached the dock, flying over the swamp-like channels and shifting sandbanks, flying low and slow so that they could avoid any obstacles as they closed in on their destination. A few massive tankers were threading their way slowly through the channels, no doubt being bought in by local pilots that knew the waterways intimately, guiding their massive charges through the treacherous terrain. Fortunately there was nothing tied up on the northern side of the quay, and they dropped down between two huge piles of ore into a clear space, the Broadsword being obscured by hundreds of thousands of kilos of material from the rest of the harbour. A man was sitting off to one side, studying his commlink and apparently waiting for them – and much to their surprise, as they approached, he looked up and directly at them, his eyes tracking their final approach and landing. Somehow he'd managed to see straight through the concealing guise of the spirit that normally kept them safe, causing some consternation amongst them.
"Is he a mage or adept? Can he see the spirit?" Aswon asked. Shimazu studied him carefully through the optics, but then shook his head.
"Doesn't appear to be – he looks mundane, a bit of cyberware. No real excitement, but a lot of curiosity and a weird streak of hope. No sense of ambush or hostility, nothing negative that raises the alarm… but I've got no idea how he saw through the concealment."
"Maybe he's just extremely perceptive?" Kai suggested. "Is it something we need to do anything about?"
"I don't think so. Just… be careful." Shimazu counselled.
They landed and the engines started to power down, with the team moving towards the door – it didn't seem like a good idea to keep the contact waiting as he knew exactly where they were. Shimazu popped the door open and lowered the stairs, heading down first to check the area out and then waving for Kai to follow him. They headed over to meet the man, who'd risen from his seat to meet them halfway. As they approached, Kai studied him, feeling some weird sense of déjà vu, or familiarity.
"Good afternoon. I'm Kai, we spoke on the comm."
"Oh - hey. Ranjit. Ranjit Patel."
"You look… familiar? Have we met before?"
"Don't think so."
"Oh, right. Not to worry then. Are we ok landed here? Not going to be in the way?"
"No, you're fine there. None of this cargo is getting shifted for a week or so."
"Very well done spotting us as we came in by the way. Most people wouldn't have seen us."
"Really? Oh… it… the air wasn't moving right, and the dust was all funny. I just looked up and there you were. It's proper quiet though – is it electric?"
"Hardly. We just have a very good pilot. The rest of my team are still aboard, are they ok to come out and stretch their legs?"
"Oh, yeah. No worries. Nobody but us should be about this side."
"Great. Ok team, coast is clear if you want to come on out." Kai glanced over, and saw the rest of the team started to emerge from the aircraft and head over to meet them, then turned back to Ranjit. "So – like I said, we were given your contact details by a new friend, one that we recently made. He suggested we could call by and say hello. It's always good to make new friends, of course, but we're also in the business of doing discreet and careful transport of small but high-value cargo. We specialise in rare, small or high-value cargo, or specialist cargos – things like rare animals. So if you've got anything that needs shifting, we may be able to help." Kai fished out a business card and handed it over, watching as Ranjit studied it carefully, as if not quite sure what to do with it.
He took advantage of the moment to study the man carefully. Black hair looked a little greasy at first – but as he moved around the hair stayed perfectly in place, neatly styled and slicked over, so it was far more likely to be a copious amount of hair product that he was looking at. The man's face was blemish and mark free, mostly clean-shaven apart from a thin attempt at a moustache. The commlink on his left arm was flashy, with gold trim and the light sparkled from some gems that seemed to be inset on the face, but as Kai studied it carefully he noticed that the font spelling out the word 'Rolex' wasn't quite right, and the build quality seemed to be a little off. Letting his eyes wander, the designer-brand jeans also seemed to be knock-off clones, and there were a bunch of other little clues on his shoes and other clothing that all screamed 'fake' when examined carefully.
"So – you know Vikay then?" Ranjit finally said, tucking away the card into his pocket.
"Yes we do – though not very well, we only had a short time to get to know him. But I'd like to think we made a good impression on him, and helped him out. He certainly seemed to want to thank us. But we've left him with some other friends of his, some old friends, we think. Certainly people who seemed very keen to look after him."
"How was he?"
"Well, a bit rough, to be honest with you. Worse for wear – but that's hardly surprising seeing where he'd been. He was happy to be out of there, that much was for certain. Last we saw of him, his friends were loading him into an ambulance to take him away and get him some decent treatment. He certainly seemed happy enough to be with them, and was in good spirits – thanks to our medics, we had a good handle on things, and he certainly wasn't in any danger, and had no life-threatening injuries."
"Oh, that's good." Ranjit seemed to let out a sigh of relief, somewhat stifled.
"Yes, it was. He was pretty run down, I think he'd been more than a little depressed where he was. But it's amazing how fast things can turn around. He was quite keen on us making contact – but we definitely weren't going to delay dropping him off with his friends – the people who paid us to transport him were very keen to get him back as soon as was possible."
"Was he important to you?" Shimazu asked, watching his reaction carefully.
"Yeah, you could say that. I'm glad he's safe." Ranjit turned away for a moment, grabbing a tissue from his pocket. "Got a bit of dust in my eye."
As Ranjit turned, they saw his face in profile, and for a moment there was more than a strong flash of familiarity with Vikay – perhaps the kind that came from being part of the same family. A few knowing looks were exchanged amongst the team, wondering if they were dealing with a cousin or some similar relative – it would certainly explain his interest and familiarity.
"Well, Ranjit – we can't reveal any details of the people we dropped him off with, professional obligations and all, I'm sure you understand being such an obviously successful businessman." Kai managed to make the words sound sincere and honest, despite his personal assessment that the persona presented was as fake as his commlink. "But I'm pretty sure he'll be in touch with you soon enough, and you'll get to do a lot of catching up. He had some issues with his cyber-ware that will need looking at, but the man himself was just fine."
"That's good to hear." Another sigh escaped him, and they saw his shoulders slump a little, as some remaining tension seemed to leave him. "So – what do you guys need? Fuel? Goods? Services? I'm sure I can hook you up with stuff."
"We're actually looking for some goods to take, probably north-west- towards Europe. If you have any non-perishables, they might be good?"
"I don't know about that. We got some stuff like gold, some precious stones – diamonds and rubies that come through here. Drugs. Silks… that kind of thing. Not got anything to hand at the moment, but I can get in touch with some sellers?"
"What about things coming in?"
"Well, we can shift designer clothes, always a good market for good threads. Top-end drugs – both street-level and hospital-grade stuff. They move well. But we often get stuff like that coming in by boat, a whole container-load. I guess pills and things we can do smaller, but a lot of the time we're talking about racks and racks of stuff." He gestured to the aircraft. "More than would fit in that, I think."
"What about passengers? And by that I mean willing passengers? We don't generally deal with unwilling cargo. Not our style."
"I guess. We move people through here, from time to time. But they often go out on the boats. Plenty of passenger cabins spare, even on the bulkers, normally. Plenty of places to hide."
"Ok, fine, that makes sense, I guess. After all, we've used a bulk transport like those to move ourselves before! What about warding? That's something we can do as well – in fact we're quite skilled at it!"
"Oh, no – we've got a super-power magic barrier on our HQ. You want to see?" Ranjit beamed at Kai, and Kai nodded at him, following along as he led off further into the port. Walking around the huge mound of iron-ore, they saw a couple of porta-cabins that had been linked together, along with a few portable toilets and a battered SUV parked outside. Ranjit led them up to the cabin and opened the door, and those of the team with astral sight checked out the shimmering ward that crossed the open doorway. "See!" The team looked, sampling the magical barrier and assessing its power. It was hard to quantify exactly, but it was the kind of thing that any one of them could have put up by themselves – while drunk. And with one arm tied behind their back. It was strong enough to keep out pranksters and the most basic of spirits perhaps, or the average watcher spirit – but it was no match for the kind of foes that the team ran into themselves, or would consider adequate. At best it was only about 20% as strong as the one that protected the interior of the Broadsword.
"Oh – nice. I see what you mean." Kai coughed, then tapped his chest, as if clearing his throat. "I can see our services aren't required here, then."
"Hey – are you a ninja?" Ranjit faced towards Shimazu, his face seeming to be a little screwed up and somewhat hesitant, as if he'd had to summon up some courage to ask the question.
"Of a sort."
"Cool. Show me some moves?" He sounded hopeful, and stood watching Shimazu carefully. The bodyguard paused for a moment then nodded briefly. Stepping out to one side, he lowered both of his hands to his side, and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as his eyes glazed over a little, staring straight ahead. The others could see the vaguest ripple of power around him as he concentrated, focusing on his own body, and then with barely a flicker of movement the sword seemed to teleport from the scabbard to his hand.
"Oh." Ranjit seemed a little disappointed. He looked around and spotted a small cardboard box laying in a rubbish heap at the end of the cabin, and retrieved it, then threw it up in the air – watching intently as it rose up on an arc, that should bring it down towards Shimazu, clearly expecting him to slice it in half with some dramatic flourish.
Instead Shimazu focussed his power through the sword and sent a blast of raw energy up through the air, striking the box while it was still three meters away from him, turning the cube of slightly sodden cardboard into several thousand small bits of confetti, raining down on the ground in a wide area.
"FRAKKING AWESOME!" The display seemed to have blown his mind, and Ranjit's mouth hung open as he watched the debris flutter to the ground. "That was… amazing! Definitely a ninja!" He stared at Shimazu for a few more seconds, seeing if he was going to do something else mind-blowing, then turned his attention to Aswon. "And I bet I know what you do…" He grinned, then turned and disappeared into the cabin, and the team could hear the sounds of him rooting around looking for something. Kai dropped onto the subvocal comms, and pinged out a message to the rest of the team.
"Do we tell him anything more about Vikay? Should we share the footage of the rescue, so he can see what went on?"
"Absolutely not!" Aswon responded hotly. "Really poor operational security – and provides proof it was us that did it. I really don't think we should, we don't know anything about this guy and what he'll do with footage like that."
"We also don't have Vikay's permission to share his details. Sure, he provided details of this guy to us, and he might be family. But he still didn't say it was ok to share anything more – he might not want them to know about any trauma he's suffering from."
"Fair enough, I suppose." A loud clatter from inside the hut made Kai pause for a moment, as the sounds of a whole bunch of equipment collapsed or slid off of some furniture, accompanied with some swearing from Ranjit. "Vikay was going to need a cyber-surgeon, wasn't he?"
"Yes, he definitely does. His 'ware looked to be trashed."
"Not just trashed, Aswon, a chunk of that is going to need replacing, not repairing." Hunter frowned, and his expression turned grim – perhaps because in this case he had more of a link to what had been done than the four magical members of the team. "They burnt out the interfaces on some of his stuff, and spiked the rest. He's going to need a lot of stuff replacing, and that's potentially some major surgery. Routing, and safe – but not cheap, and it's still going to require therapy and adjustment afterwards."
"This guy has some 'ware? Is this something we should ask him about?" Kai looked from Hunter to Aswon and back again.
"Could do – he's got some jacks, some headware stuff. From what I can see he's got no combat augments, it's all stuff that could legit be useful in his job on the docks." Hunter shrugged, then nodded towards the door as Ranjit appeared, holding a football in his hands, clutched tightly in front of his chest. Without any warning, he launched the ball at Aswon's face with a grunt. The ball sailed over the short distance between them, with Aswon's hand flying up to intercept the ball before it hit him. Long dextrous fingers grasped around the surface of the ball as it hit his palm with a meaty thud, trapping it in place, while his other hand tightened reflexively around the spear and adrenaline dumped into his system as his combat reflexes kicked in to the perceived assault.
"See – I KNEW it! Basketball player!" Ranjit turned and pointed towards a hoop that was nailed up at the far end of the hut, and a grin formed on his face. "Go on then! Bet you can't!" Aswon frowned at him, fixing him with a hard stare. The man seemed oblivious though, so Aswon glanced over to the hoop, and estimated the distance quickly, before sending the ball in a shallow arc that caught on the edge of the hoop, circling around twice before dropping down to the ground through the distorted circle of metal. "FRAKKING KNEW IT!" Once again, Ranjit seemed to be besides himself with glee, as if he'd just seen a major sporting personality perform a stage-show just for him. He turned now to look at Hunter and Marius, looking between them. Both of them stared back at him, slightly contemptuously. Hunter folded his arms, the armour that encircled his massive biceps creaking slightly under the strain. Ranjit made finger guns and motioned shooting at both of them.
"So – what do you guys need? Girls?" He paused for a moment. "Boys?" A sidelong glance at Tads, and his voice seemed to take on a slightly sly and slimy tone. "Several girls? I can hook you up? Just say the word…" He sniggered to himself, and it looked like his imagination was running riot.
"I think we should be fine, thank you. I noticed that you've got some cyber-ware implanted. Datajacks, and such like. Did you get them yourself?" Kai motioned with hand towards Tads, who seemed to have been a little repulsed by the suggestion just made and looked about to respond to their host somewhat angrily. "Just curious – we might know someone who needs some implants, see."
"Oh, right. The port authority paid for these. We get them after we've worked for a while, but we have to pay them off from our wages."
"I see. So you can't just get what you want?"
"Nah – have to get things for work. But I can hook you up with someone. Top end gear, legit stuff." He tugged at his t-shirt and motioned to his commlink, and Kai suddenly had an insight into the quality of gear they were likely to end up with if they tried to deal with Ranjit. Perhaps some of the gear would be good, but a lot stood the chance of being badly made counterfeits or low end knock-off versions. "My stuff is employees-only, but I know some people…"
"Then no – I think we're fine. It was something else I had in mind, but not to worry. Right, then. We mostly wanted to just come and say hello, and introduce ourselves, and check up on things. But we're not actually looking to get any 'ware or anything like that, at least not right now. So I guess we can be off!"
"You don't need fuel?"
"No, actually we're good. We just topped off up in Hyderabad. So we've got almost full tanks. But it was good to meet you. Actually – you have a cred reader?" Ranjit reached back into the office, pulling out a slightly battered and chipped reader, and offered it to Kai with a confused look on his face. Kai punched in for a thousand Nuyen charge, and transferred the money over. "Consider that a deposit on our next visit, or an advance on some fuel. Just to prove to you we're serious. But for now, I think we're just going to head back to our aircraft and head on out."
"Oh – right. Ok, sure." Ranjit seemed to be lost for words, and after floundering for a few seconds, he closed his mouth with a click and then just led the way back towards the landing spot, the team trailing after him.
"If we had goods to bring in, to Pakistan, would this be a suitable place to bring them? Can you arrange to have them shipped on and sold?" Aswon asked as they were walking back.
"Of course – I can find buyers for most things. Lots of contacts." Kai listened carefully, noting a slight edge of bravado to his voice, and added that to his mental image. Ranjit seemed to be someone very preoccupied with the appearance and presentation of himself, but lacked much depth or substance. He wasn't sure how well-developed his actual network of contacts were, but Kai thought it far more likely that he'd know some small-time dealers and bottom-of-the-chain fixers and fences, and that he enjoyed playing the 'big man' far more than actually being the international mover and dealer he tried to portray.
Based on that gut-feeling, Kai hustled everyone on board the Broadsword, and they got ready for departure, rising up into the afternoon skies and then turning to head back north, running out over the bay for a while before heading inland, and turning north-east towards the border once more.
Getting back across the border proved to be just as trouble-free as their entry, and they were soon racing across the arid plains of Rajasthan heading towards Delhi. Tiny villages flashed by underneath them, herds of goats looking up and around as something strange made them uneasy, shepherds looking up as they got a strange sensation of being watched for a moment – while the magically concealed stealth aircraft passed them by without visible sign. They circled around Delhi, keeping a good distance clear of the capital city – not only due to the presence of the airport, but also because of the huge number of drones present in the air, taller buildings and corporate enclaves, all of which had considerably better sensors that stood a far better chance of interfering with their progress.
As the sun lowered in the western sky they slipped across the border into Nepal, climbing higher and higher into the foothills of the Himalayan mountains, heading for the Trafford smuggler stop. It was around 19:30 when they felt Marius slow, sliding sideways as he closed in on the narrow landing strip and old school that clung to the slope above the Bheri River.
"Numerous vehicles ahead – all landed. I count five choppers, all on the smaller side, neatly parked on the approach to the building." Marius fed the sensor image back to the rest of the team, and they looked at the vehicles. No two were identical, though they all had a certain 'look' to them – fairly smooth and sleek, but with wide doors into the cargo area.
"What are we looking at here?" Kai asked. "I mean, obviously choppers… but what kinds?"
"We have an Aerospatiale AS355N parked closest to the building, then an Airbus – I think a H135 model. A Hughes WK2 Stallion – no, excuse me. Correction, a Hughes WK1, maybe the revised version – the predecessor to the Stallion. Then there is a Sikorsky-Bell JetRanger Gold, and the last one is an Agusta Westland AW-139."
"Ok, lots of words and numbers – but what does that mean?" Kai asked.
"They are all civilian models. Not military, not even security versions. They are all… all commonly used for news reporters, or traffic reporters. Checking…" They watched as the sensors zoomed in, swinging around wildly as Marius tried to lock in on the various icons and decals while keeping their own craft sliding sideways through the air. "Confirmed – they are in the livery of several major news outlets, from a variety of countries."
"Journalists? Are they following up on a big story? And if so, why here?" Aswon asked.
"They can't be legit. If they were, they'd be at a commercial airport. Why pay higher fees and come to somewhere out of the way like this, unless you're flying under the radar? Doesn't make no sense!" Hunter exclaimed.
"Tads, can you conceal the nature of the Broadsword? With a spell? Rather than just conceal us entirely, that is."
"I can, but it's somewhat difficult and there's only one spell I can use, because of the size of the vehicle. I can only mask it to look like something else equally big, really."
Kai pulled out his commlink and tried Jahnu again, wondering what he was up to and why he hadn't gotten back to him – and also wanting to know if he knew anything about this gathering of reporters. His commlink still went directly through to his voice-mail though, so Kai left another brief message asking him to call back.
"Are we landing?" Marius called back.
"What's the fuel status?"
"We're at 50% - just under actually," Hunter responded, checking his display. "We'll not make it directly to the next stop, we're about five hundred litres short. But we can just put down somewhere in the wilds and top off from the reserve tanks."
"So we either land here and refuel normally, or in the sticks somewhere, and use the reserve, and have to fill that and the main tank at Dragon Ridge? Is that right?"
"Yep – that's it."
"We also need to land somewhere at dusk, for me to resummons some spirits. I need to be on the ground to do that." Tads added.
"I think you're right, Hunter – if they were legit, they'd be at a commercial airport. Let's come in to land, see what's going on, and refuel as normal. And hang around until dusk, so Tads can do her finger-wiggling and stuff."
"Very well, coming in to land. Engaging Ruthenium Polymers and stealth systems." Marius clearly wasn't keen on being observed by a bunch of news choppers at all. "All of these choppers have camera systems. Beyond the built-in sensors – I am talking about high-magnification long-range zoom lenses mounted in nose turrets or side sponsons."
"Are they pointing at us?"
"Negative, they are all deactivated, it seems. But you need to be aware of their capabilities."
"Alright, Marius – noted. We'll be careful. Right – when we land, I'll go in and arrange fuel. I'm guessing you're with me, Shimazu. Rest of you, staying out of sight? We'll get fuelled up, see what's going on, get new spirits, and then get out of here?"
There was a chorus of agreement from the team, and Kai turned his attention back to the screens, studying the choppers carefully as they approached the ground. He had no idea which of them was which, but he tried to at least remember the names that Marius had reeled off, in case they were needed shortly. He was interrupted when Aswon suggested an idea as they touched down.
"Just a thought, Kai – fuel was expensive here, last time we came. I mean, I can understand why – it's in the middle of nowhere, and getting the fuel here must be an arse. But if we refilled from the barrels, we'd have about one and half thousand litres spare. We'd have enough to get to Dragon Ridge, but we could try and sell the rest of our reserve here, and restock at the next place – that's on a highway, and a lot easier to get to, and the fuel was loads cheaper. We might actually be able to make a bit of cash?"
"Interesting idea, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea to land here and do that. I mean, they're obviously selling their fuel at a profit to stay in business, so we're not going to get anywhere near as much as what they're charging… but it might put their noses out of joint as well. Maybe if we had official Manchester United fuel he'd buy it – but otherwise, I'm not sure if it would cause more problems than it fixes." Aswon listened, but didn't seem convinced by Kai's argument, but he shrugged and let it go, not willing to cause an argument of something that wasn't really a problem.
They touched down gently, with Kai and Shimazu heading straight for the doorway – and Aswon just behind them.
"Not staying onboard?" Kai asked.
"Overall – yes. But I want to check underneath the aircraft. It occurred to me on the way over that when the monowire broke, it lashed out and cut through a bunch of stuff – it might have damaged the polymers on the underbelly. As they're turned on now, it's the best time to check…"
"Ahh, right – makes sense." Kai led the way, with Shimazu tagging along just behind him, heading for the entrance into the abandoned school building, while Aswon ducked down underneath the aircraft, doing a careful survey of the stealth systems.
Entering through the rickety door, Kai blinked a few times, adjusting his vision. It was getting towards dusk outside, but it was still darker inside the building – and still just as chaotic as he remembered, with memorabilia festooned around the makeshift bar.
His attention was quickly drawn though to the people sitting at a table, all of whom had turned to check out Kai as he entered the building. There were five of them, all sitting with drinks around the cramped table, and clearly together. A female dwarf was directly opposite him, looking at him as she supped from a can of Vitmo, the rigger jacks obvious on the side of her neck. Next to her was another female, but this time human – and Kai realised that she too had the edge of a rigger jack sticking out from under her ponytail. Looking back over his shoulder was a large male orc, built a bit smaller than Hunter, but looking like he was in good shape. Next around the table was a male human, wearing a few necklaces and rings that made Kai think of several shaman he'd met. The last spot at the table was more than amply filled by a large female troll, her large bulk balanced on a sturdy looking box that had been pulled up to the table instead of a normal chair. Some kind of large weapon was slung over her back, and she gave him a baleful stare.
"Good evening! I do hope I'm not disturbing you."
"Bonsoir." The female dwarf answered him, and her voice reminded Kai of Topshot. It sounded like a natural French accent, rather than an affection – not that he was an expert.
"It's a lovely day. I guess those are your choppers outside?"
"Oui."
"Oh? They look like news choppers. Is there something going on nearby?"
"Non. We are…chasing stories." She grinned at him, then took another sip of her drink, smacking her lips noisily. The ork opposite her shuddered, and gestured at her with a finger.
"I don't know how you drink that stuff. I mean… Vitmo? The thirst quenching taste of beef? Eugh."
"Well, I appreciate the work you people do, bringing us the news." Kai said as a follow on. They all seemed to grin at him when he said that, and there were a few chuckles, before they toasted him with their drinks.
Back in the Broadsword, Aswon had just settled back into his seat after reporting to Marius that the aircraft looked fine when his commlink buzzed. He saw the message from Spook and opened it up, revealing a picture of her kid – or rather the lower back and the top of their bottom. On it was an ugly red mark, as if they'd been slapped very hard.
[Aswon? This mark appeared a few days ago. Have been to doctors, and apothecary – no idea what it is. Been to see Wujen working for Grandfather – they think it is magical in some way. Doesn't seem to hurt, but very worried. Any thoughts?]
He showed the message to Tads, and they zoomed in on the picture as best they could, having a quick discussion about what it could be, before Aswon fired a message back.
[May be some kind of magical curse or mark, or something like a tracker. Don't know for sure. Advise you to stay inside somewhere warded, as much as you can with them. We are heading towards China right now anyway, will contact you in the morning, see if we can arrange a meeting]
[Thanks. S]
Back inside, the troll pushed herself up from her box, rising up to a full three metres high. Ducking slightly to avoid the scarves and pictures hanging from the roof, she headed to the window and looked out of the front of the building.
"Hey – where's your vehicle?"
"Ahh – it's right there. But we've got some special paint on it. Got to be discreet when making deliveries!"
"Come look out here. They've got good stuff! Can't see even a ripple of it." The troll sounded impressed, and the rest of the group got up from the table to crowd around the window and look out. While they were distracted, Kai headed to the bar and arranged for some fuel to be delivered, before sauntering over to them.
"They have a spirit to conceal them as well. A big one." The man with the rings and necklaces said. He, too, had a French accent, though not quite the same as the dwarf female.
"Oh, if you're cheating – well, that's hardly surprising!" the troll grumbled, then headed to the bar to get a fresh drink.
"Seriously – is there a convention going on? Anything you need delivering to it? We're specialists in cargo movements, small discreet packages. That kind of thing. Always happy to help out fellow travellers." Kai tried to distract them and give them something else to think about, and once again there was another set of grins and giggles from several of the journalists, and then the ork piped up again.
"I'd love to know where you got your polymers from. Got some seriously good drek, I tell you. Sweet, sweet tech.
"It cost a king's ransom." Shimazu added quickly, his voice deadpan. Kai started to laugh out loud, then covered it with a cough as he wondered if it was a good idea to make journalists curious about them.
"We might be able to put you in touch with someone, perhaps. Of course, some people think they're a very suspicious thing to have, and they can get you into trouble with some folk."
"Legality is a flexible thing. Depends on where you are as well. And well… we have to follow the news stories, and that means visiting some interesting places." Again, there were a series of grins between them, a shared secret about something.
"Well, seriously – we're in the import and export business. So if you need anything moving, we'd potentially be able to help you out."
"I think we have it covered, but thank you." The dwarf nodded at him, her grin wide.
They looked out of the window, watching as a fuel line was run out to meet Marius, and apparently connected up to…nothing at all. Several of them moved from side to side, trying to change the angle they were looking at, seeing if they could spot a glimpse of the Broadsword, though without success.
Refuelling took a little while as they topped off the tanks through the narrow hose, but soon enough it was complete. The other group had returned to their table and were relaxing and listening to the news, played back on a tablet plonked down onto the table in-between them.
"Kai – dusk is about to hit and the spirit will go. Can you distract whoever it is while I try to replace it?" Kai sent back a double-click to acknowledge her message, then approached the table, coughing discreetly.
"Sorry to bother you again, but I just wanted to drop a card off with you. I know you're not after anything at the moment," He grinned at them, and out of the corner of his eye saw the sudden magical flicker as the spirit departed, leaving the aircraft unconcealed apart from the technological systems.
Inside the Broadsword Tads reached out and called a spirit of the land to her, seeking to grow it to a more powerful and independent form, capable of travelling with them after they took off. The spirit responded, but seemed resistant to her efforts, fighting off her request and leaving her with a slightly bloody nose for her troubles. Slightly stunned, Tads flopped down in her seat, grabbing a drink and some painkillers.
"Going to need to try that again in a few minutes. Not sure if it's the area, or something weird going on – but that spirit struggled hard against me."
"Take your time, Tads. I don't think it matters now. I'm pretty sure I've just seen a spirit, not one of yours – up on the top of the roof. It's disappeared down inside the building now, so I'm pretty sure they have a mage, and they're well aware of what's going on.
Back at the table, the female dwarf took the card, examining it carefully for a moment, then twirling it between her fingers. She glanced around the table, and Kai spotted a couple of tiny nods and shrugs, all very subtle movements as she seemed to check with the rest of her friends. She pocketed the card, and then pulled out one of her own, passing it over. Alongside the matrix commcode, there was a small icon of a camera, and a neatly printed slogan proclaiming 'we cover the news'.
"Je m'appelle Ace."
"Kai. Nice to meet you. And always nice to meet someone in a different industry to our own." He stared at her, wondering what kind of reaction she'd give him. She smirked, the corner of her mouth twisting up a little before she took another swig of her beef-flavoured carbonated drink.
"Sure."
"Just checking though – wonder if you've ever done any business with the Jahnu import and export company?"
"Non. I have not 'eard of them." Kai nodded, studying her face and body language, but not picking up any signs of obvious deception.
"Well, I wish you well with your news stories. Perhaps we'll meet again some time – but for now I'll leave you to your news program." He gave a small smile, and a bow of the head, then headed out again, leaving the group behind, Shimazu close on his heels. They walked around to the far side of the aircraft and climbed up the steps on the facing away from the building, concealing the entrance from idle view.
"What happened to you?" He asked as they saw Tads still dabbing at her nosebleed.
"Spirits are being stubborn. Going to try again in a few minutes when this stops…"
It turned out that Tads was perhaps being optimistic, and it was nearly half an hour later before she felt up to trying again, but at least on the second attempt the spirit that answered her call seemed far more inclined to help her, agreeing to conceal the aircraft from outside view until dawn.
"Ready to go when you are, Marius." Tads called, sitting back down and popping another painkiller, chased down with a swig of water. Perhaps it was the altitude – but even though this spirit had been much more cooperative than the last, it had still left her feeling drained. Still, as she heard the whine of the engines starting up, she comforted herself with the knowledge that she probably had a good few hours to relax before they hit the next smuggler stop and she might be called upon for her magical services once more.
Inside the building, the dwarf had pulled out the card once more and was carefully examining it, before looking over at the human male. As she watched, a spirit materialised on his shoulder, appearing suddenly. It wore a sombre jacket and a tiny top-hat, and the face was painted, as if to look like a skeleton. It turned to its master.
"Strong juju. Powerful. But controlled. Defensive."
"Interesting." This time when she spoke, her French accent was much diminished, and she sounded a lot more focussed. "Very interesting…"