Tads was the last one to board the aircraft, arriving at a jog from the house. She had barely passed through the doorway and into the passenger compartment when the engines cycled up to power and the steps retracted behind her – clearly Marius was not in a patient mood.
"What were you up to?" Kai asked as he watched her strap into one of the large seats, securing the safety harness and adjusting her kit to be comfortable for the flight.
"Just stocking up the food supplies as much as I could before we left. Didn't want to leave them short. I know we're only supposed to be away for a few days, but I figured I might as well, just in case."
"Ahh, fair enough then."
"Have you called Germaine yet about the painting?"
"No – not yet. It's on my list, though. I'm just trying to make sure it's the right time."
"Hey! Listen up, I just found this on the news channels. Thought it might amuse you!" Hunter interrupted over the PA system, and then activated the screens in the passenger area, piping through the news report he'd discovered. The team watched the news anchor describe the impact of a meteorite on the Ares probe, called 'Gigas', that had been the leading craft heading towards intercept with the steadily closing Halley's comet. Over his shoulder, some graphics were being displayed, a somewhat-unrealistic animation of a meteor that appeared to home in on the probe, impact it and knock it off course in a wild corkscrew. The anchor went on to describe how that left only two corporations with probes in the running to intercept the comet – one from Novatech and the other from Yamatetsu.
"Well. If it was a meteor, then Ares must be furious. A deep-space rogue mass might have struck the probe and would have destroyed it utterly."
"Not blown it off course?" Kai gestured at the graphic, paused on the screen as Hunter ended the live feed.
"No, not a chance. Well, maybe a tiny one. If the meteor was the size of one of my bullets, then maybe. But a rifle round will cover a kilometre per second. Most of the stuff in space is doing fifteen to twenty kilometres per second, or even faster. That amount of kinetic energy transferring into something tends to be deadly. It might be that the fragments of the probe are spiralling out into a corkscrew, but not anything recognisable as the craft."
"So, only two left."
"At the moment, Kai. It might be that Novatech and Yamatetsu have better security. But I wouldn't count on it. It might just be a case of 'so far' and there's still some time to go before they intercept.
"Well, I guess we'll have to wait and see then. I think there's bound to have been a bunch of potential activity against them from the other corps. Just wonder how many attacks they found and stopped. Maybe they did get them all. Or like you said, maybe they haven't activated their plans yet."
"Worth keeping some eye on the news over the coming weeks I guess. I mean, this thing about the drugs was tipped off in the news report as well. It might clue us in as to what kind of work might be profitable in the future."
"Yeah, you're probably right. I've been having thoughts about that mind… I'm not arguing with what we're doing now, mind you, taking the extra fuel. But it strikes me that long term we're not doing ourselves any favours. At the moment we have both the room and the lift capacity to carry the weight and size of the extra fuel. But that won't always be the case. If we get a really large but light load, or a very small dense load that takes us close to our load limit – we might not have the capacity for the fuel. And without getting some extra places to refuel on the map and in our contact list, we might end up missing out on jobs."
"But what about the courier?"
"That's why I said I'm not fussed at the minute. But I think it's something we need to bear in mind. We need to hit up our various contacts and other teams we meet, and get some alternative fuel waystations or stops or trading posts or whatever. We've got good coverage of the north American continent with the info we picked up over there, and most of eastern Europe we have well covered. A bit of Africa, but nothing south of Nigeria. Some stuff over the top of Russia and a nice set around the Pacific rim. But nothing in India or south-east Asia until we hit the Philippines. That's something we should address."
"I guess that makes sense." Aswon frowned, then glanced over at the screen, looking at the location pins that Hunter had thrown up, showing the stops they knew about, placing a translucent circle around each one to show their maximum range."
"Hey, why are the circles at the top bigger than at the middle?" Tads stared in confusion at the screen.
"It's because the map is not really accurate to the shape of the world. It's a two dimensional representation of a three dimensional sphere. Well, it's not even really a sphere if we're being accurate…" Kai smiled as Hunter explained the details of the Mercator projection and got into oblate spheroids with a very confused shaman, and decided to send a message to Daruka, telling him they were on the way. He didn't have to wait long until he got a message back giving him the location of their meeting – and just as he was about to send those details through to Hunter, he got a second message from his friend Jahnu in New Delhi, providing a small amount of information on a possible fuel point in Nepal, a stop called 'Trafford' according to his sources.
Kai dashed off a quick message of thanks to Jahnu, and then a follow-up to Daruka, asking if he had refuelling facilities – quickly learning that he didn't. That wasn't too much of a concern, given how much fuel they had in the back of the aircraft. It probably wasn't efficient to use their cargo space like this – he had no idea how heavy the barrels had been, having left the loading to Shimazu and Hunter, but they'd certainly spent a lot of time making sure they were securely lashed to the anchor points in the back of the tilt-jet so there was no risk of them sliding around.
"Hunter, got some new intel for you. First of all, the location of the pickup – that's at 32.0761 by 64.83217. What's there?"
"Checking… drek. Ok, maps of the area are sucky, nothing hi-res, and they're also quite old, so pinch of salt time. But that's the Helmand province – tracks with what the guy said about where he grows his stuff. Checking…. Oh." There was quiet for a moment. "Ok, I found another map, this area is labelled as an old forward operating base for one of the old peace-keeping missions to the area, way back. Area was identified as 'Jackson', located a stone's throw from the Helmand river, and near one of the main crossing points. In a small valley, looks quite fertile in places – presumably irrigation from the river, as it fades out quite quickly. Hard to tell, like I said these maps aren't anything to write home about… but it's a large compound, looks like bermed walls all round. Big enough to land in – way bigger actually, think I got this scale sorted. Yeah, you could land a whole bunch of aircraft in here if you wanted to. Room for a company of troops easily. Yeah – nice place for a druglord to set up shop."
"Adjusting course now." The Broadsword banked slightly to starboard, heading almost due south down the Caspian Sea. "I am skirting around the Espirit oilfields a little more. I think they will not detect us, but I see no reason to take unnecessary risks. I am also decreasing speed slightly – we have plenty of time, and this way they will not be able to back-track our point of origin so easily if they try." Marius explained.
"Great stuff. Ok, next location, Hunter – what about 28.76007, 81.29737? What's that like?"
"That's…. Nepal?"
"Yeah, sounds right. My friend Jahnu says there's a stop there that smugglers use."
"Ok, zooming in. Again, not great maps of the area – lots of elevation, that's for sure. Yeah, foothills and wide plateaus, very lush and green… big river here coming out of the Himalayan range to the north, the 'Bheri River' it seems. Ok, shunting the map over now." The team members in the back glanced over at the screen, seeing a fast-flowing river that wound its way around the rough landscape. "Location matches up with a small village on the shores of the river. Looks like it might have a beach or sloping access, so possibly good for barges or other watercraft, and there's a straight road that looks pretty wide – it must be because it's showing up on this piece of junk map… I'd put good money down that it's a rough landing strip, probably aimed at small prop aircraft. Plenty of room for us to drop in, though."
"Excellent. Apparently the name of the place is 'Trafford' – not sure if that's the name of the owner or something else." A moment later, the map updated, displaying a fuel pump icon as Hunter updated his database, a neat label appearing next to the icon. "What does that do for us range-wise?"
"Lemme see. Ok, well, we've got a distance of two thousand eight hundred kilometres from the Ski Lift, so that's doable in one hop, though we've got very little reserve then. It'll be sixteen hundred kilometres from the pickup location, so half a tank to get there. Assuming we're planning on topping up at the pickup point anyway. But that gives us coverage over half of India, Bangladesh, Bengal, Bhutan… assuming it's a decent place, of course."
"Is it far enough away from Tibet to be safe?" Aswon asked.
"Dunno… what do you mean? There's a mark on the map for Tibet, but like… no data at all. The map is just some weird auto-fill texture."
"Years ago a magical barrier sprang up around Tibet… people trying to get through it just disappeared. There's one around Tir Na Nog as well, and a few other places in the world. Best to stay well clear."
"Well, it's about a hundred and twenty kilometres from Tibet? Don't know if that's safe?"
"If I was you, I'd put a good hundred kilometre border on the map all around Tibet and mark it as a no-fly zone, just to be safe. I've heard so many stories about people disappearing into the barrier. One of the Chinese states has been trying to get in for years, reclaiming it as territory to bolster their power base. But every attempt they made, their troops got swallowed up and never seen again. There were a few posts circulating on the merc community boards a while back, warning people not to accept contracts from them, as they were using mercenary units as guinea pigs, trying to find weak spots in the barrier. At least that's what we worked out – people went in, never heard from them again. And of course, then the Chengdu military didn't have to pay out on the hiring contracts, claiming the merc units went AWOL." There was a certain edge of resigned bitterness to Aswon's voice, which was certainly understandable given his former employment.
"Right. More myfic mumbo jumbo to stay away from… noted." A bright red border sprang up on the screens as Hunter highlighted the entire Tibetan plateau and marked it as an exclusion zone in the navigation data.
"I don't know if this would be considered rude or not," Tads started to talk, hesitating slightly as she worked through her own thoughts. "Could we ask each smuggler stop about their neighbours? I don't know if they would see them as rivals, or as people all on the same side against the corporations?"
"It's certainly an idea. I think it could go either way, depending on the stop. Certainly if there's a couple in a smaller area, they're likely to have at least some kind of rivalry or competition – but the further apart they are, the less conflict there should be between them. At least unless they're allied with different organised crime syndicates. Can't see the Mafia wanting us to visit a Triad-controlled stop, for instance!" Kai looked over at Tads, but his comments were addressed to the team in general. It was Aswon that responded next, but the merc clearly had other things on his mind that just fuelling stops and places to top up on energy drinks.
"If we do come across the courier again… what do we do? And that's a question aimed primarily at Shimazu of course, but also to everyone else – we're all involved with this now. Do we parley, find out if it was a case of a debt that's now considered paid. Or do not want to risk that, and take them out if we get a chance?"
"That's an interesting question." Shimazu closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly, almost as if he was meditating. While the others had their own thoughts and opinions, they waited for a moment, wondering what he'd have to say. "On the whole, I think if we did come across them – my natural reaction would be to kill. To eliminate the potential threat."
"Fair enough. I'm less inclined that way – but it wasn't me that was attacked. I do agree though that we should be careful."
"We don't want no blood-crazed myfic thing with a death pact chasing us!" Hunter threw in to the conversation.
"That would be two enemies in one sword blow, from my point of view. Makes life easier…"
"Well, all I'm saying is that they might not be expecting someone to talk, that's all. If we found them in a position where we clearly have the advantage, and you decided to offer them a way out, I'd wonder if there's a way to sort things out amicably, without any need for more death and destruction."
"We'll see." Aswon waited to see if Shimazu was going to say anything else, but he didn't, and the cabin fell silent for a few minutes as each of the team thought about the situation.
"Marius, I guess it takes up a certain amount of fuel to take off and land. More than just flying, I mean?"
"That is correct, Tads."
"Oh. Hmm. Ok, I was just wondering – we know where we're going to. Is it worth the extra fuel needed for one extra landing and takeoff, if we were to stop two valleys short of the pickup point, and do the refuelling there? I mean, assuming we can find a good spot. Or somewhere that's a few kilometres away. So we can refuel and know we've not got to do it when we're trying to collect things, and might be more vulnerable?"
"That is an excellent suggestion. Hunter, find me a spot, please. We will refuel to maximum there, then do the collection and push on to this Trafford place. If they try to ambush us or betray us at the deal site, we have enough fuel to evade then."
"Roger."
The Broadsword crossed over the relatively narrow strip of fertile land that marked the shore of Iran, slashing across the thirty kilometres of greenery like a fleeting shadow, before climbing sharply to soar up to the highlands, rising to an altitude of two thousand and five hundred metres in less than twenty-five kilometres of horizontal travel. The sensors showed the ground change colour abruptly, shifting from a lush green to an arid yellow as they rose through the mountains, and into the interior.
Iranian border defences didn't catch them on either the way in or out – a combination of the stealth design of the British aircraft and the magical spirit wrapping around the airframe, and they swiftly crossed into Turkestan, whose border surveillance stood about as much chance of spotting them as it did of catching hopes and dreams.
Two hours after crossing the coast, they felt Marius slow and transition into vertical flight, bringing them down smoothly and quickly to land on a large plain of compacted sand and gravel. Their jet-wash still sent massive plumes of material flying up and around them, even with a few spirits set to guard the aircraft, but Marius was prepared, throttling back the engines to a sliver above the power required to avoid stalling or crashing, setting them down incredibly quickly yet still smoothly. As soon as the wheels made contact, he cut the power entirely, letting the dust settle around them while he checked for material ingress into the engines – one bad experience over a volcano was all that he needed to learn THAT lesson. But the spirits had done their jobs well, aiding the natural filters and keeping the engines clear of debris.
Quickly, they moved out with the barrels, freeing them from their embracing cocoons and rolling them down the back ramp and out to the fuel port. The furnace like air of the desert quickly heated the inside of the cargo bay, and manhandling the two hundred litre barrels was hard work – especially wearing their combat armour. Yet no-one considered taking their armour off, or leaving their weapons out of contact, and they worked as swiftly as they could to refuel the aircraft and recover their equipment, blasting off into the sky once more after only a few minutes on the ground. The next hop was much shorter, barely five minutes of flying time, and they dropped down into the valley that the Helmand river wound through, quickly spotting the compound.
The valley was a mix of strange contrasts – the waters of the river were a sparkling blue under the harsh and intense sunlight, a winding watercourse that had been slowly eroding a path through the land for millennia, providing life-giving water for the fields nearby. They, in turn, were a bright, almost lurid green, the uniform colour of mono-culture farming grown using as many chemical agents and growth enhancers as they could afford to increase the yield of their fields. And beyond those patches of lurid green, the ground immediately and jarringly returned to a dusty arid mix of sand and gravel, almost becoming white under the relentless rays of the sun.
The base was made of this arid colour, the original bastions of the builders having long been sun-bleached to a monotone and half buried in sand blown by the mountain winds – but the integrity of the defences remained intact, at least on the ground. To the air, they were wide open, whatever systems that might have protected them from airborne assault having long since been removed. Kai sent a message as they approached, and by the time Marius had slowed to hover, they could see Daruka and a horde of armed men spewing out of the huts and tents built to one side of the compound.
A group of men ran towards jeeps, jumping into them and starting them up quickly, then spreading out across the compound, two men priming the heavy machine guns mounted in the load beds of the battered vehicles. The rest of the men fanned out, splitting up into groups of five or six while a solid cohort of a dozen clustered around Daruka himself.
"Are they getting ready to attack?" Kai queried, looking at the relayed sensor feed.
"No, look. The trucks have gone to the opposite sides of the compound but the gunners are training their weapons outwards… not in towards the landing area. They're in defensive formation. The others… they're just guarding I think."
"Having a look. Yeah, watchful, but not hostile. Excited because something is happening, but no fear or adrenaline." Shimazu studied the guards through the optical sensors, assensing their auras and trying to get a read on their astral signatures."
"Ok, come in to land, then… just watch that structure… oh." Kai frowned at the lashed together gallows that were positioned close to the gates out of the bastion, and the discoloured sand nearby. "Yeah, keep away from that. Let's keep the concealment up please, just in case."
The Broadsword swooped down, the guards getting excited as the dust started to kick up and the engine noise reached them, their eyes searching the sky, but somehow just sliding off of the powerful concealment of the spirit. When they landed, the team moved to the rear, leaving just Marius in the cockpit manning the sensors – and both autocannons, just in case.
Cracking the back ramp, Kai strode down with Shimazu, appearing through the concealment and popping into vision, causing guns to be lowered by pure reflex. He stood there, hands by his side, Shimazu standing just a little behind him, remaining still until Daruka had seen him and shouted at his men. Only once they had lowered their rifles, at least a little, did he start to walk over to meet the drug dealer. Daruka in turn gestured, and he and his main bodyguards headed their way, along with one man pushing a hand-cart loaded down with a pallet, stacked high with bricks of heroin.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Daruka. I hope we are on time?"
"Yes, good. Nice to do business with professionals. I have all the materials here… you have the money?"
"Of course, all loaded onto a credstick, ready to transfer over."
"That is good. Now, can we negotiate? Can I persuade you to open your purse strings a little wider? As you can see, I have plenty of goods available…" He gestured at the wrapped bundles stacked into layers on the pallet. "The more we can shift, the more you stand to gain, and the better it is for the buyers, and for me."
"I really wish we could, Mr. Daruka, but we're just recovering from some major expenses. This is a major commitment for us as it is. I wish I could do more…"
Daruka bargained, cajoling Kai to buy, while Kai countered, telling him they had to keep some cash in reserve for contingencies. Back and forth they went, until Kai sighed, informing them that they could do six hundred thousand – and not a Nuyen more. Finally Daruka accepted that this was as high as they were willing to go, and barked at his men, telling them to strip off most of the top layers from the pallet and line them up neatly on the ground.
"Assuming that's properly stacked all the way through and not hollow we should have…" Hunter zoomed in and quickly counted along two sides, then let his eyes pan upwards, tracking how many layers there where remaining, "there's a hundred and twenty-three bricks there, all uniform in size, at least from here. So that makes it about four thousand eight hundred per kilo. Seems a reasonable price." He remained at the bottom of the ramp, just inside the protective concealment of the spirit, keeping an eye on proceedings, his rifle aimed at one of the large groups of men, while his targeting system had a grenade laid in to airburst at head height if anything went wrong.
Kai and Daruka shook hands, finalising the deal, and the lone unarmed man bent at the knees then heaved on the trolley, getting it moving again and heading towards the Broadsword, though he looked somewhat anxious to be heading towards 'nothing'. Hunter took one step further out and off the ramp, popping into view on one side, while Aswon did the same on the other, and with one hand still resting on their respective weapons, just in case, they waved him forward, to travel between them. Daruka had been handed a cred-reader, and was scanning the credstick that Kai had offered him, confirming the amount he was able to transfer onto his own stick.
With a bump and a shallow scrape the pallet lifted hit the bottom of the ramp and the man gave a grunt, pushing hard with his feet digging into the ground a little as he tried to push the load up into the cargo bay. After a moment of watching Aswon moved to help, leaving Hunter to keep an eye out, and they pushed the stack of drugs up the ramp and into the main hold, directing it over to one side of the area and then lowering it down onto the deck plates. The local gave a quick look around the hold, clearly somewhat curious about the insides of the mystical invisible aircraft, but didn't speak or make it too obvious – no doubt fearing any possible retribution. He quickly pulled the trolley out of the pallet and started to head back down the ramp, returning to his boss, with Aswon keeping a careful eye on him as he left.
"Here are the details of the delivery. The contact's name, number and meet location are on the chip. He has requested that the delivery take place at midnight."
"Right – that shouldn't be a problem, we'll get cracking, then. Good to do business with you, Mr. Daruka, and we'll do our best to sell your product and you as a supplier." Kai shook his hand again, giving him a tightly-controlled smile. He tried to keep the smile in place and act unconcerned as Daruka went for a 'power handshake' crushing Kai's hand slightly as he stared at him intently, before releasing his grip. Kai just nodded, then turned and headed back to the Broadsword, Shimazu close on his heels.
"Kept an eye on the guy, no sign of dropping any bugs or anything like that. Didn't check the load though." Aswon reported quietly as they climbed the ramp.
"I'll run the scanner over it now." Hunter responded, hitting the large button on the side to close the ramp up. "If you can start work on securing it, we can get out of here. Makes me nervous having that many people with guns watching us."
"Stand by for engine start. I will lift carefully and keep the speed down until the load is fully secured…"
The team moved into action, playing the bug scanner carefully over the stash of heroin, and also doing a quick check on the interior of the pile, confirming it wasn't hollow or packed out with a box or some other cargo, while the others pulled out strapping and lashings, fixing it down firmly to the deck. Tads projected from her body, examining the cargo carefully, then flying 'through' it in astral space, looking for any changes of composition or density that might indicate a hidden bomb, tracking device or anything else – but found nothing. As soon as the load was well secured, they accelerated, turning on a course to take them towards Nepal, just under sixteen hundred kilometres away.
"Ok, Hunter – new co-ordinates for you, and some communication details. Uploading the chip now." Kai inserted the chip into a reader, connecting it to the port next to his chair.
"Let's see, then, shall we…" They heard Hunter muttering as he checked the details. "Heading to 23.18243, 113.74018 – that's China…Guandong Province… east of the city of Guangzhou… a little north of some town called Dongguan. Ok, some reasonable maps for the area… drek, that's a lot of sprawl…. Ok, looks like an industrial area. Cement factory, out off a minor highway. Pretty remote location. Good for an illicit trade deal. Also real good for an ambush."
They studied the overhead imagery that Hunter was displaying, showing a one kilometre long area of buildings and workshops, storage silos and materials bins. Landing there would shield them from the neighbouring areas nicely – but also mask the sounds of a gunfight or probably anything up to some fairly large-scale explosions, given the likely activities taking place in the area."
"Gonna have to be careful on the approach – come in from the north, I think. We need to plan our route carefully, there's a pretty big international airport north of Guangzhou, multiple runways big enough for semi-ballistics. Bound to have pretty heavy sensor coverage."
Hunter zoomed out again, showing them the area in more context, then started plotting various possible approaches through the hills and mountains to the north, working with Marius to define the best approach route.
"Spook? It's Aswon. You ok to talk?" He checked the lash-up from his commlink through the aircraft comms systems, ensuring it was holding steady, then listened for his friend to respond.
"Hey Aswon, yeah – I'm free. Just watching some trid." He heard the background noise reduce slightly as she turned down the program, and put her on speaker so the rest of the team could hear. "What you up to?"
"Well, we're heading your way, apparently. Going to somewhere near Guangzhou to do some work, so just wondered if I could pick your brain on the area a little, find out what to watch out for. Maybe once we're done with biz I can come down to see you? You can meet up with the team?"
"Oh – I finally get to meet that bunch of crazy called Kai?" The voice came out with humour, but Aswon still paused for a moment, the silence stretching out.
"Um, you're on speaker, Spook."
"Hi there! Captain Krazy here!" Kai chimed in, a grin splitting his face in two.
"Oh. Um. Aww… that was unprofessional of me." Aswon had to grin now, wondering if Spook was blushing – she certainly sounded embarrassed.
"Don't worry, it happens. Really good insulation on the new aircraft – much nicer in the passenger bay than the old one."
"There was nothing wrong with the old aircraft!" Marius sounded testy.
"I know, Marius, I know. But you have to admit the seats in this are far more comfortable. So anyway, Spook – we're headed to Guangzhou to meet up with someone and do a drop off. Just wondered if you happened to know what the going rate would be for a kilo of good quality Turkestan heroin would be?"
"You're getting involved in the drugs trade now?"
"Well, superficially, yes. We're moving from a producer to a dealer. Purely transportation. Nothing more."
"Ahh, ok then. Didn't seem like your style. So, what's the deal?"
"Well, we have product we purchased. Need to sell. Have a contact – someone by the name of Tse Chi Lop. If you have any info on them, that'd be a help."
"Oh man, you like jumping in at the deep end, don't you? Well, Lop is a known player – mean, well connected and he's been running biz round here for a while. He's also xenophobic as all hell, so he's gonna love you, my African Prince."
"Great… well, we might be able to do something there. Got one of the team that can be Chinese, no problem." Aswon glanced over at Kai, but didn't explain any further.
"Well, if you have someone ethnically Chinese that can take the lead, that's great. I'd advise the rest of you get some full face masks and hide yourself away. They might know you're an Anglo, but if you're not putting it in their face, they'll probably ignore it. Otherwise, the guy is going to play hardball with you and try to intimidate you – not that I expect that to bother you, my friend – but he knows how the dance works."
"Sounds like we're up for some interesting times. Oh well. Any idea on the pricing?"
"I can look into that for you – not something I work too closely with… ohhh, hang on. There was that bust a few days ago wasn't there? Now it makes more sense. Right – so you're hoping they're going to be paying top-whack as they're on short supply. Gotcha. Alright then, I'll do a little asking around and get you some info. Are you heading back west afterwards? Or somewhere else?"
"I think in general we were looking at heading back home, so back west. But I'm not sure we have any plans specifically, or anything lined up for work after this."
"If I can find something, you want a nudge?" Aswon glanced up at Kai and got a nod.
"Yeah, thanks, Spook. We've got a slightly heavier lift capacity than before, and the cargo bay is a little bigger too. We can probably ship anything up to seven thousand kilos no problem, and we can fit in two average size SUVs in the back at a guess, with about a thee thousand kilometre range. We normally use some of that capacity for fuel to let us extend, but we're actually trying to get some more stops in the area – so if there's anywhere you know, that'd be helpful, too?"
"You're coming from Turkestan now?"
"Yeah, that's right. Heading to Nepal, and a base there, then heading further east off to you. We do have enough fuel to just land in the middle of nowhere and refuel, but saving that would be better."
"Right – I have somewhere that should do you then. Sending you the details now…"
Aswon passed on the details he received to Hunter, then chatted on with Spook for a few minutes before ending the call.
"So, what's the place she sent over?" He'd seen the message arrive, but hadn't looked at the co-ordinates or the details."
"Place in Yunnan province, west of China, near the borders to Myanmar. Looks like a high mountain pass, with a large reservoir or lake, and an elevated highway. There's a truck stop or services on the side of the highway and bordering the lake, and that looks like the place – though I don't like the name. Your mate called it 'Dragon Ridge' and that doesn't fill me with the happiest of feelings!"
"Well, I can't imagine there are any actual dragons there. They tend not to like people knowing where they live, from what I understand."
The Broadsword travelled on, the roaring of the engines muted to a faint rumble by the powerful spirit that concealed them, crossing the apparently endless wastes beneath them. Marius dropped down to just above ground level as they swept across the Pakistan border before climbing again to a reasonable altitude as the ground finally started to become more fertile once more, greens replacing browns and yellows. Ahead of them they could now see the glistening snow covered mountains of the Himalayan range – and a faint shimmer in the air on the horizon, the first signs of the weird mists that now sealed off the Kingdom of Tibet. The border between Pakistan and India was much more robust, with Marius dropping down to treetop level once more and threading his way between ridges and peaks to try and help obscure them, while overhead spy drones sent out radar waves to try and detect and localise them – but the questing beams of energy were eaten or deflected harmlessly by their stealth coating, scattered away before they could generate a meaningful response.
The border between India and Nepal was more porous, still there and covered by sensors, but mostly from ground stations that had difficulty accounting for every small valley or ridgeline in the badly faulted landscape, and Marius easily found a path through them, finding the river heading and heading north-east along it until they arrived at their destination. The village was isolated, poor and impoverished, at least by the state of the buildings. Flakes of plaster were hanging from the walls, and nothing was new or in good repair anywhere. The location they had been given was an old school, seemingly abandoned at some point in the past, though as they closed in they could see a few fuel hoses dotted around on one side of the playground, and what looked like a massive fuel tank that had been installed under a lean-to roof.
The road that did double duty as a landing strip was only seven or eight hundred metres long, confining its use to only specifically designed STOL or short take-off and landing aircraft, confined by the geography of the area to that distance before the ground either fell away sharply or rose to take in the waterfall that sent the river plummeting down twenty metres.
"I don't think we have time now, but it might be worth offering my services in trade in the future, Kai." Tads reminded him, "I could probably widen the roadway and reinforce it to allow heavier planes to land, or for others to land with more safety. Just to bear in mind."
"Yeah – I think we're just after a gas and go here, aren't we, push on to try and get closer to the destination. But certainly we can offer next time."
Marius bought them in for a smooth landing just after five by the team's watches, though they had to factor in at least one if not two hours to match local time as they continued eastwards, and Kai and Shimazu headed out to meet the stop operator. The man that appeared was wizened and aged, his skin browned like mahogany and had a tough, leathery appearance. He was also dressed in a most unconventional appearance, wearing bright red shorts and a red and white tight fitting top. He very much looked like he should have been more at home at a sports venue rather than an out of the way smuggler stop located high up in the mountains.
The team watched as Kai negotiated, pointing at the fuel hoses and then gesticulating with his cred-stick, clearly haggling over the prices. They reached an agreement, and Kai gestured towards the Broadsword, calling out for Hunter to come and see to the fuelling. The man touched Kai's elbow, pointing towards the building and trying to propel him that way, and Kai shook his head, taking only a step or two, enough to loosen and twist out of the man's gentle grip. More words passed between them, and once more the man tried to take Kai to his shop or home, with Kai shaking his head. From the position of the aircraft, looking over the monitors that were zoomed in to monitor the interaction, they could see a subtle shift in Shimazu's shoulders, and noticed that his hand wasn't just resting on the pommel of his sword now, but actively holding the grip.
Once more the man tried, and this time Kai threw he hands up in a 'whatever' gesture, then headed off towards the building, Shimazu in tow, giving off some very irritable and impatient body language. They were gone only a few minutes, appearing a few seconds after Hunter informed them that refuelling was complete. As they emerged from the door to the main structure, Kai smiled at the man then shook his hand before heading back to the aircraft.
While Marius spooled up the engines, Kai filled them in on what they'd discovered.
"Well, that man, according to him, is 'Ryan Giggs'. And what he had on was apparently the 1980 to 1982 Manchester United first team strip. And he, my friends, is mental. The inside of that building looks like a shrine to some kind of sports ball team, and there is just an unbelievable amount of stuff in there. Shirts and shorts that have been signed. Balls in glass cases. Ashtrays, lighters, pencil cases, lunchboxes, cups, plates, pictures, beer mats… it just went on and on and on. He wanted to show us his sticker albums, to let us know that he was still missing some key players. Apparently if we find 'Mike Phelan' from the 1990 sticker collection or 'Mark Hughes' from the 1991, then they're worth good money to him."
"So he's a collector for some sports team?"
"I think what we have here is beyond collector and more towards 'obsessive'. If we went into his bathroom, I'd expect to find themed toilet roll. But he's got a lot of stuff. If we ever do find something rare from this team, we know where to bring it. And I would imagine to someone else that liked this team as much as he does, it'd be very valuable. Seems like a nice enough guy, but he's got a very one-track mind…"
"Check the sensors, south side, approaching up the road from the lowlands. Does that van look familiar?" Marius interrupted them.
"Vaguely…. Oh – oh no! It's the weebs!" Hunter exclaimed in horror.
"Confirmed, I have a match on the vehicle signature. Taking off now." They heard the engines ramp up quickly, Marius almost performing a combat launch from the site to make sure he was clear before they arrived.
"What's going on – are we being attacked? Who is that?" Kai sounded confused, and kept watching the sensors as the van bounced and lurched along the hill before cresting onto the flatter runway section and closing in on the smuggler stop.
"Remember those weird-ass people we met up in Russia, at the stop just off the New Silk Road? The ones who thought they were elven princes or mystic warriors? But you could see where they'd stuck the fake ears on?"
"Oh! Those nutters!" Kai's memory came flooding back. "One in charge claimed he was called Greenbough or something?"
"Yeah – that's them. Bunch of freaks. Good job, Marius – we haven't got time to be playing silly buggers with those kinds of retards." The Broadsword accelerated away smoothly into the night, heading eastwards and tracking the mountain range, heading towards Bangladesh, Myanmar and then the Yunnan province – the location for their next stop.
The two thousand kilometre flight took them around four hours, bringing them close to their stop at around 21:00 by their watches, or closer to one in the morning local time. As they came over a series of peaks, Marius picked up a sensor blip ahead, detecting another aircraft slightly ahead of them, but also flying east. He checked his systems, seeing if they'd detected him in return, but his threat receivers weren't indicating any kind of sensor sweeps or activity – and he was behind them and slightly off to one side, possibly in a blind spot for their pilot.
He studied the feed carefully, steering his optical scanners onto the target and waiting for the fleeting cloud cover to break and let the moonlight illuminate the vehicle so that he could analyse it. The sensors had already told him it was another tilt-wing, somewhat similar to the previous vehicle the team had used, but he knew just how many variations of those kinds of vehicles existed in the world. A few seconds later he got the break he needed as a cloud finally blew clear, and he could check out the aircraft, spotting immediately that this one had been kitted out for amphibious operations. The landing gear was permanently configured to be down, buried into large float skids – no doubt it hurt their fuel economy a little, but the ability to land on any smooth waterway presumably countered this consideration.
They certainly seemed to be intent on landing, and he tracked along with them, watching as they ghosted down on their glide slope, coming in for a very well executed water landing on the calm surface of the reservoir. Marius slowed, peeling off slightly to aim at the car park next to the service station, finding a spot that he hoped would be out of the way where someone was unlikely to drive into their vehicle by mistake. As he transitioned to vertical flight and came in to land, he caught a glimpse of a large jet-ski being lowered out of the back of the other aircraft and down into the water, with two crew firing it up for the short journey to the shore.
"We know these guys." Hunter announced over the intercom. He'd clearly seen Marius taking an interest in them, and had grabbed the sensor feed to display and enhance on his own controls. "It's the group that had the apartment under us in Constantinople. Zephyr."
"Oh, right. The ones who were watching the police shootout on the trid that night. And who certainly didn't hear any fighting just outside the apartment?" Kai gave a little snort, remembering how utterly one-sided that conflict had been. As he watched the jet-ski headed over the water at a steady rate, getting to the water's edge and tying up to a small platform or jetty that Kai hadn't noticed. Grabbing their bags, they clambered up a set of rough steps and headed in towards the service station. "Guess they want to top up on food and drinks too, or get some fuel. Maybe not the fuel, if they're leaving the aircraft that far out.
"There are a number of design changes to their aircraft that I can deduce from the sensor readings. They appear to have sacrificed some of their cargo capacity for the facilities to handle the jet ski or skis. They may have more than one. And from how they are sitting in the water, there is still some considerable weight to the aircraft. I suspect they have installed significant extra fuel tanks on a permanent basis. I would estimate they still have a great deal of fuel on board, so stopping for supplies and rest is far more likely." Marius continued to study the readings and feeds from his passive sensors, gathering information about the aircraft.
Hunter and Marius said they were going to stay with the aircraft, so the other four headed into the stop, glad to get out and stretch their legs a little and get some fresh air. The passenger compartment was nice, large even, and they were able to walk about if needed, but it was still very definitely the inside of an aircraft, and their long flight that day had left them feeling a little cooped up.
The service station had seen better days, though it wasn't as bad as the stop in Russia where they'd met the fake elves. There was a store set up to sell consumables and food stuffs, all prepackaged and with long shelf lives – nothing that needed special handling or cooking. Part of the building had been converted into bunk rooms which were available to rent for the night, and the large toilet bays and shower facilities were working, though the cleanliness left something to be desired. Still, for anyone that had been cramped up in an aircraft or truck for several days, it would have been a welcome opportunity.
They arranged for fuel, with a crew heading out to meet with Hunter and Marius and transfer another twelve and a half thousand Nuyen's worth of AvGas into their tanks to top them off, and purchased a few local items to try – Tads seemed somewhat disappointed that there wasn't any natural fruits or vegetables available for them to purchase.
The owner of the stop introduced himself as 'Liu Chen', a man of average height carrying a few extra kilos of weight it seemed, all confined to a well-developed pot belly. When he walked over to greet them he seemed to have a slight limp, a rolling gait that made his leg swing slightly wide from the hip – though it didn't seem to slow him down at all. Putting him in his mid-forties somewhere, he looked like he was still reasonably fit and active, other than his limp, and his skin indicated that he'd certainly done a lot of manual labour and outside work in his youth.
"So – the name of this place, Dragon Ridge. Are there actual dragons here?" Aswon asked, as much out of curiosity to see what would be said.
"Oh, most certainly. This is a very magical area. These mountains are well known in myth and legend, and there are stories going back thousands of years. It is said that the Dragons come here to mate, flying through the sky and breathing fire in beautiful displays as they court one another, before descending into their lairs to… you know… to…" He mimed crudely with his hands, indicating some kind of intercourse.
"Oh, many dragons, huh? Does Lung live up here?" Aswon tried to keep the incredulity out of his voice, and not antagonise the man. It sounded like a bunch of nonsense to him, and very much like it was part of the tourist spiel for the area, or a way for the man to feel that his home was somewhat special. He listened as Chen started with a long and involved story about a dragon, almost certainly Lung, had been seen in the area, flying around as if searching for something. And not hours later, a smartly dressed elderly man had come through, asking for help. Chen had been very wise of course, and had offered aid to him, and for weeks afterwards he had great luck and fortune, proving that it had been a dragon, probably Lung, in disguise…
While they were chatting, they spotted the pair from the Zephyr shopping and picking up supplies, glancing over at them several times. They clearly had recognised them in some ways, but couldn't place them – and they kept attracting glances as the pair finished their shopping. Kai decided to help them out a bit, and wandered over with a broad smile on his face.
"Good evening to you both. Long time and a long way from Constantinople! I hope you've not had any further issues after that little incident that night…Mustafa, wasn't it?" That seemed to be enough to jog their memories, and Mustafa, the captain or leader, let out a subtle sigh of relief.
"It is indeed. Yes, we've not seen you about – though it's a big old world of course. Is this your local area?"
"Oh no, we're just doing a delivery, maybe picking up some new jobs. You know how it is, you have to go where the work is don't you! Of course, I think while we're in the same business, we're not in the same market – I don't think you have anything to worry about!" Kai gave a little chuckle, entirely forced, as if he'd just told some kind of joke. "I mean, your aircraft is clearly built for speed and discretion – I love your little landing skids, that must give you so much flexibility in where you land. But I guess you move fairly small, but very high-value cargos. We're much more on the bulk side of things, and of course we need a much larger area to land in." He hoped he'd made it clear, in a roundabout sort of way that he wasn't intending or interested in stealing their customers or competing with them…
"Ahh yes, we have a small cargo now in fact, heading east. But we needed to stop for some supplies to keep us going. Is that what you're doing too?"
"Yes, we have a one-off cargo, a few pallets of heavy goods," Kai exaggerated – the Zephyr crew didn't need to know the details at all, and he'd rather try to sell his story a little more. "After that, we'll have to see what we can find."
"Good, good. My friend, Hakim" he gestured to the second man with him, "is very impressed with your spirit covering your aircraft. He says it is very powerful."
"Well, our shaman does try. Always better to be well-concealed, is it not?"
"Indeed. Well, it was good to talk to you, but we must be going – we have a meeting to attend, and some distance still to go. Until next time?"
"Yes, safe travels…" Kai gave them a cheery smile and a wave as they headed out, his face relaxing as soon as they were out of line of sight.
"Confirmed, it was the Zephyr crew. Their mage has clocked your spirit, Tads, seemed to be impressed by it. But they're probably going to be taking off in a few minutes and heading east. I think based on the time we should bed down here for the night, take a lazy day tomorrow and have an easy flight to our destination to get there for midnight.
"I will remain with the aircraft then." Marius announced, with Hunter joining him a moment later. The others opted to stay in one of the bunk rooms, and Kai arranged payment for a smaller room that had a door that would close and provide some privacy and security.
As everyone got settled down for the night, Kai checked his commlink, mentally subtracting hours to get back to Baku time. Hopefully he wasn't too late. Carefully entering the comm-code, he sat back against the wall, the screen held up close in front of him. The buzzer sounded, over and over again, twenty, then thirty times. Just as he was convinced it was about to go to a message service or just drop the call, it instead connected. A wave of noise battered his eardrums, and he quickly lowered the volume – he wasn't sure where Germaine was, but it was noisy there. It sounded like a bar or possibly a club, the overlapping voices in the background making a chaotic soundscape that mostly drowned out whatever music was playing.
"Helllloooooooooo!" Germaine's face appeared in the commlink at a jaunty angle, wobbling around violently and panning from the ground to the roof and back again, before it stabilised enough to show him at least some of her face. "Kai, darling! I'm a little bit squiffy!" That announcement was made with a certain amount of child-like glee, and Kai couldn't help but grin.
"Good evening, Germaine, I do hope I'm not disturbing you too much. I just wanted to drop you a courtesy call, really."
"No no no no no t'is fine. Yes, I'll have another – an orange skunk this time. Sorry Kai, what were you saying?"
"It's about a certain painting you might know something about. A painting you have a very particular interest in. We, er… came across it recently. Very closely."
"What's that darling? You painted something recently? It's very noisy here." The screen lurched again, presumably as Germaine elbowed and pushed her way through the crowd, and stepped through a door into a corridor. As the door closed, the background noise dropped away, becoming muffled and indistinct – unfortunately Germaine's voice did not. "Say that again."
"The painting. The one you asked us to get, from the other team. We came across it again, recently."
Ooowooooshhh. Kai frowned, looking at the screen carefully and wondering what the noise was. It sounded vaguely like some kind of spray can or airline, as if someone nearby was doing some painting, and reminded him of the noise made when they were using the spray system to repaint the truck. But a moment later Germaine appeared squarely in view of the camera, and her normal sharp-eyed look was back. When she spoke, the volume remained the same, but the intensity had dialled back up to the normal level, and all trace of the drunken school-girl had disappeared.
"Say that for me one more time, Kai."
"The painting you asked us to retrieve. We know where it is. We had a job to deliver some items – we were just told it was 'artwork'. It was only when we got to the pickup point that we discovered that one of them was The Painting. But we thought you ought to know. Now, of course, we aim to be professional. And we accepted a job, from an employer, and we don't want to betray that unspoken agreement of confidentiality. Just as we wouldn't reveal what jobs we'd done for you, to a third party."
"Interesting. And quite right, too." There was a pause, and then in a much lighter tone, almost 'breezy', Germaine continued. "Well, that's all very interesting. But tell me Kai, how ARE you? WHAT have you been up to recently. Been anywhere nice?"
"Well, funny you should ask, but we had a bit of a fly around a while back – visited the former country of Afghanistan, though it's not called that now, of course. But we went to a lovely little highland spot west of Kabul. Ran into a spot of trouble, poor Shimazu got attacked – so that made us a bit upset. But it worked out ok, because after we delivered our items, we got to go to the seaside! A lovely little place called Batumi – do you know it?"
"Oh, I know Batumi, yes."
"Well, we got to stay in a hotel there, and go out to do some shopping, soak up some sunshine on the beach. Then had a nice little drive home." Kai waited. The line went quiet, the silence stretching out. He checked that the call hadn't actually dropped, but he could just about make out Germaine's chest rising and falling as she thought about… something?"
"Did you by any chance go boating while you were at the seaside?"
"I'm sorry – boating?"
"Did you go out onto a boat. Go sailing. Out onto the water, at all?"
"Oh no. Nothing like that. We did go on a lovely cable car ride, though! Got a magnificent view."
"Ahh, a cable car. Interesting. But you definitely didn't go out on a boat."
"No. I think Hunter may have paddled into the sea, but that's as close as any of us got to the water."
"Well, it's been lovely to hear from you Kai, simply magnificent. When can I expect to hear from you again?"
"We're over in the east at the moment, just doing some other work… we might be over here a few weeks? Really not sure."
"Well, when you're back, call me." The light tone faded on the last two words, becoming much more serious and intent. "I'm sure I'd love to see your holiday pictures and hear about your time in Batumi."
"Of course, Germaine – it's always lovely to chat to you. But I fear I've drawn you away from your party for far too long, so I'll let you get back to it now…" They each said goodbye, and Germaine disconnected the call, leaving Kai staring at his phone.
"She sounded almost distracted at the end there. Maybe a touch worried. I think she knows exactly who we saw in Batumi though, without us having to say it." Shimazu called out across the room, his eyes still closed as he laid on the cot, staring up at the bunk above him.
"Yes. But what struck me was this business with a boat. I'm thinking there's another player in Batumi, someone bigger. More organised. And someone we never caught a whiff off before. Interesting…" He thought for a few more moments, then killed the light, settling down to sleep – or at least try to. Mostly his mind wondered who else was based in the town, and what might be involved.