Saturday 10/09/61, Location: -6.93684, 110.24745, Time 08:00
The Broadsword headed north-east at just over five hundred kilometres per hour, about four hundred metres above the surface of the Java sea. Shimazu watched on the optics, scanning about as they passed freighters, fishing boats, pleasure craft and cruise liners, keeping an eye out for astral threats, while Hunter and Marius watched the sensors up front, doing the same for more mundane and physical threats, while the rest of the team chilled in the passenger compartment. After thirty minutes, Shimazu passed over the headset to Tads, giving his eyes a break and letting her take the next shift, just as they approached the southern shores of the Dayak Council land.
Rather than dog-legging around the land, Marius was flying direct this time, heading for the co-ordinates for BP-12. Angling up slightly to maintain four hundred metres of true altitude, they watched the coast flash by and disappear behind them, looking down into the wild and untamed wilderness of the South Kalimantan region. Thick, verdant and lush vegetation covered the land almost entirely, just a few rocky escarpments and small cliff faces breaking up the sea of green that stretched away to the horizon.
The trees near the coastal region were spaced out widely, with extensive ground coverage of bushes and vines, but as they flew inland the soil must have grown more fertile, as the trees converged until they formed a thick canopy of interlinking trees. It wasn't the towering triple canopy jungle found in places like the Amazon – the extensive logging that had almost stripped the lowlands bare just before the Awakening had killed off too much of the jungle for that – but in the last fifty years the land had made a spirited comeback, and the vegetation now covered the land fully, no doubt concealing all manner of critters.
They were perhaps halfway over the landmass, running parallel to a massive ridgeline of peaks that rose up above the jungle, when Tads gave a gasp and swore. That was unusual enough that they all stopped what they were doing, and turned to see what had alarmed or upset her – as well as grabbing weapons. They saw her raise both hands to the headset, stabilising it and holding it close to her face as she peered through the optics.
"Hunter, right side, about a kilometre out, huge creature coming over the trees!"
"I got it – frak, that's big!"
"Ok, so it is there physically, too. And yes – it's enormous. It looked like it was still on the ground when the front end of it was going over the top of the canopy!"
The rest of the team turned to face their nearest screen as Hunter started to feed the sensor images back to them, and they caught the video replay – the creature having disappeared by now. A huge undulating worm or snake was propelling itself up into the air, arcing over the top of the trees and the front end was just punching its way back down and through the foliage. As Hunter replayed the short clip again, he zoomed in on the image, setting the processors to track the movement of the critter and focus on it, as well as starting to work out the size of the beast.
The screen soon flashed with details, added on by the sensor software working from the general size of the trees and some stereoscopic imaging, proclaiming that the beast was in the region of six to seven metres in diameter, and nearly a hundred metres in length. It had propelled itself up into the air, clearing the thirty-metre high trees and arced over before crashing back down again. As Hunter zoomed in once more they could see the surface of the beast was covered in scales, large plates that interlocked and made a complex zig-zag pattern on each segment, segments bulging slightly in their centre before narrowing a little to join with the next.
"That's bigger than a dragon – even the big ones like Aden. He's only about fifty metres long… and this one looks twice that!" Aswon exclaimed. "But no wings. Mind you the eastern kind don't have wings either, and they still fly. But that doesn't look like a dragon… no legs either, and the head looks more like a snake or something."
"You ever seen anything like that before?" Hunter asked, playing back the footage one more time. "Can't see any claws, or other weapons."
"No – nothing like that. Nor heard about anything that big either. It might spit, or…" he fell quiet for a moment as he thought, "might have some innate magical powers or magic like abilities. Or if that thing is a constrictor, like a Boa – just imagine what it could crush?"
"Yeah – we shouldn't land near that thing. Even if it just flopped on top of us, that's probably going to snap off a wing!"
"Nobody is snapping off one of my wings."
"Not if you can help it… but sounds like he wasn't messing about when he said there was all kinds of weird paracritters in the Dayak lands!" Hunter looked through the footage a few more times, trying to clean up the image a little, and then exporting the video of the creature sighting, getting it ready to share. "This'll make a nice little post to Shadowland, maybe someone there has seen something like this before…"
They flew on, reviewing the footage for a while until they realised that they weren't learning anything new – other than there were some REALLY big critters down there. Soon enough though they reached the shore again, crossing into the Makassar Strait and covering the last hundred kilometres towards the platform. As they approached, they could see more detail now, approaching in daylight, able to make out the mass of accommodation modules in the levels below the cantina, and the dock facility down at the base of the rig – including what looked like a floating quay with some cranes and equipment hoists. From the looks of things, they'd be able to do some fairly decent repair work on anything small enough to fit in the gap between the massive support pylons. Marius was pleased to hear the professional controllers giving him a tight vector in to the same landing pad, directing them to the number three landing spot on the north-east of the rig.
The ILS guided him in just as smoothly as before, and soon they were on the pad with the fuelling technician already heading up the stairs, cred-reader hanging from his belt. Once again, the rig worker seemed un-phased at the invisible aircraft, and just prepared the fuel hose and then stood waiting for someone to appear. It was abundantly clear that this was entirely normal behaviour for some of the visitors, and must have been reasonably common, as he didn't even have the slightest twinge of curiosity or interest in anything beyond getting the job done.
Kai, Shimazu, Hunter and Aswon disembarked, leaving Marius to handle the fuelling and Tads to keep a magical eye on things, and headed over to the rig worker, asking if they could head down to see Sultan. The man grabbed his radio and presumably asked the question – the team didn't know if he was speaking in Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese, or Betawi – not that it mattered as they couldn't speak any of them. But, he listened in and got a response fairly quickly, then nodded to them.
"Yeah, he's down in the cantina. Do you remember the way?"
"I'm sure I'll manage!" Kai gave him a bright smile, which faded away slightly as the man offered up the cred-reader to him for authorisation. Frowning, then sighing at the fuel bill that just topped ten thousand Nuyen, he placed his thumb on the reader, then tapped in his PIN, before pulling the credstick out of the slot and pocketing it. "Come on guys. It's down this way, and in towards the middle mostly…"
He managed to get them to the cantina without a wrong turn, and headed into the strangely furnished room. Hunter scanned the area carefully, having not seen it before, but the other three walked over towards the middle of the bar, spotting Sultan at a table with several of the rig workers, apparently sharing a drink and some snacks with them. Kai waited a few steps away, just in eye-line, until Sultan acknowledged him.
"Be with you in a moment… just go grab a table, and I'll be right over."
"Of course." Kai found a table with enough seats for all of them, then led the way over, while Aswon headed to the bar to get a round of drinks, Hunter tagging along behind him. The big ork looked over the options, craning over the bar to check out the fridges and see what they had.
"I'd like one of each type of beer you have, unopened if possible. Something to take away with me when we leave, and try. Then I know what to look for when we come back!" The barman shrugged, but didn't comment on the slightly unusual request, instead working through the stock of beers, grabbing one of each brand and racking them up on the bar, before getting the actual round of drinks ordered by Aswon. He even found a tatty old bag to put the beer bottles in, letting Hunter carry them back over to the table with ease.
"What's that for?"
"Wanna get Tads to drink them. Get familiar with them. Good for blue collar joes we might meet, rather than wine."
"Ahh… I see. Good idea. Do me a favour, though?"
"What?"
"Make sure I'm there when she starts drinking them?" Aswon grinned a little. "I'm not sure she's a beer drinker, and I think she's going to pull the most disgusting faces when she tastes some of those!"
Their conversation was halted as Sultan approached, grabbing one of the empty chairs and giving Kai a quick smile.
"Back so soon?"
"Yes, we did our delivery. There was some… unpleasantness, that we had to deal with, but the goods were delivered to the buyer successfully in the end. We're actually on our way back north now, but there's a follow-on job available. Unfortunately we don't have the time to do that – though it's well within our capabilities – so we need to see if we can find someone else willing to get in touch with our contact and help him out. For a price, of course. And based on our conversation the other night, I thought it would be worth discussing with you, filling you in on some of the details, and seeing if you wanted to barter or broker a deal?"
"Oh… so the follow-on mission. What does that entail, broadly speaking?"
"Well, the contact has some rather nefarious plans for the stock we delivered to him, to be used against a local target. It's a loud, obvious and very unsubtle job, a hit and fade kind of affair against a corp target. It should be pretty easy for anyone with a bit of muscle in their team, and some ability to get out quickly. We would like to help out the contact if we can, he was particularly inconvenienced by the unpleasantness that went on – but unfortunately as I said we have a prior booking that cannot wait, and we just don't have the contacts in this area to broker it ourselves. Not directly, anyway." Kai took a quick sip of his drink, then continued. "We're not after an introduction fee, or sharing the prize, or anything like that. We're just trying to help out, and get our name known as people willing to do business."
"I see. Well, I think I know some people that might be interested." Sultun pulled out his pad and tapped out a short message, then looked back up at Kai. "Someone should be on their way shortly. But for now, excuse me – I need to finish my discussion, I think." He nodded politely, pushed back his chair and then headed over to his previous position, rejoining his crew and continuing whatever discussion he had been having.
"Just to give you guys a heads up – the crew from that LAV are on the move," Marius warned them over the comms. "Whole crew has just come out of their bird, then sealed it up behind them, and they are heading down into the rig now. Sidearms only."
"Interesting. Thanks, Marius. We've just chatted with Sultan and he put in a call or message to someone – wonder if it's them?"
"I just checked out the door as well as they came out – they do have a ward over it, so there's definitely someone with talent on the crew. It's moderate in forke – about half as strong as the one we have on the Broadsword." Tads added.
"Ok, thanks. We'll keep an eye out." Kai adjusted his seat slightly, so he could see the entrance to the room a little more easily and settled down to wait, chatting idly with Aswon, Hunter and Shimazu. They didn't have to wait long, and sure enough the other crew entered the room.
The tall and slender elf led the way, her long platinum hair cascading down her back to reach the top of her legs. She was classically beautiful, easily matching the average catwalk model and walked with the grace and poise that was stereotypically assigned to elves. Even wearing a pair of tight fitting combat trousers and a snug fleecy top under her rugged jacket, she still turned heads. She looked over and made eye contact with Sultan, who just pointed towards Kai and the group. With a nod and a smile, she adjusted direction and started to stride over towards them.
Filtering in behind her was one of the orks, built along the same lines as Hunter, though a little smaller. The ork glided as she walked, the smooth motion betraying her implants immediately to Hunter. She definitely had some kind of wired reflexes, the motions of her limbs precise and calculated as she navigated through the room. She was wearing much more sturdy combat fatigues, clearly armoured and entirely practical, and as she followed the elf, her cyber-eyes flicked over the team, giving them a cold appraisal.
Third in through the door was the human, now more clearly seen wearing a wrap-around set of robes that made him look like he'd just come from some religious retreat or secret mountain temple. From how easily they flexed, they didn't look to be armoured, and he carried no weapons himself, though he walked with quiet surety and self-confidence, in some ways having the same centred poise that Shimazu possessed.
Last in through the entrance was the second ork, the male. He too wore practical and sturdy combat fatigues, but instead of a jacket he wore a lined leather long coat over the top, cut wide to accommodate his massive arms and torso. The right hand side was swept back, tucked behind his thigh holster and heavy pistol, allowing the option of a quick draw, though he kept his hands a reasonable distance from his piece.
As the group wandered over, Shimazu had been carefully appraising them himself, trying to get a read on their body language and intentions. They all seemed calm enough, and without obvious hostile intent – though if they were a decent crew, no doubt they'd be able to at least mask some of their plans or they'd not have survived far enough to be able to afford their vehicle. As he watched though, he saw the elf's eyes travel over their team again, before locking onto Hunter, and a smile started to spread over her face as she took in his lumpen, lopsided and frankly ugly features. And he swore that he then saw a little sigh, and a sag of the shoulders from the other two orks in the newcomers' group. His thoughts didn't have time to go any further, though, before the elf walked up to them and laid her left hand lightly on Hunter's right shoulder, standing so most of her body was clear of him and addressing the table.
"Hey handsome, so what's cooking?" Her voice was sweet and melodious, and she spoke with a cultured tone that indicated some kind of upper class upbringing, or training to effect such an accent. Kai looked at her, then let his gaze drift down to Hunter – who had tensed almost imperceptibly when she had lain her hand on him, and was still frozen in place. He paused for one more second to see if Hunter was going to say or do anything, then put a smile on his own face.
"Hi there. How do you do. We're team 'New Fish', and our mutual friend Sultan over there," he cocked his head in the appropriate direction, "said that you might be interested in a little work opportunity. We've just finished a delivery job, and it turns out there was some further work – but we have other business, and some pressing commitments that we can't ignore. So, we're looking to find someone to fill that space. We're not after making a profit from this, we're just helping out our contact to find someone to help him."
"My, that sounds intriguing. And good day to you… I'm Monday. These are my friends – Maki," she pointed at the female ork who gave them a short choppy nod, "Ray," this time at the human wearing the robes, who pressed his hands together and gave them a small bow, "and Orange," the male ork who gave them a grin, then pulled out a small metallic box from one of his pouches.
"Well, I'm Kai, and this is Shimazu, Aswon and-" Kai paused for a moment, shuddering slightly as Orange opened the metallic box and there was a very slight hiss as a seal was broken. A moment later the strong waft of spices hit his nose, giving him a horrible flashback to the gumbo he'd tried to eat in the quarry. He wasn't sure what the substance was, but it reminded him of the amazingly hot pepper or spice that he'd accidently ordered a deluxe portion of, and his nose and stomach automatically tightened in response to the memory. Taking a quick breath through his mouth to try and steady himself, he continued, "and I see you've already met Hunter."
Monday nodded at each of the team as Kai introduced them, but when he got to Hunter the nod turned into a huge smile once more, that was warm, enticing and felt more than a little inappropriate for new acquaintances. Hunter, however, still didn't respond physically, and was just staring straight ahead of himself, his face in its usual neutral 'swallowed a wasp' state.
"I can outline the mission for you if you want?" Kai asked. Monday's smile vanished a little as she looked towards him, but she nodded. Kai paused for another moment as he saw that both of the orks on her team were now unmistakeably smirking, glancing down at Hunter and seemingly enjoying some private joke. "Well, we dropped off a shipment of weapons with our contact – or rather his collection team. Unfortunately, they seem to have had some corporate surveillance issues, and as we came in to land, we spotted an ambush team of corp heavies waiting for them. We engaged when we came in, but unfortunately several of the contact's collection team were taken out before we could neutralise the ambush. We gathered the collection team up and relocated to a backup location, met the contact and handed over his wounded, dead and the delivery."
"Ok, with you so far. Sounds like a fairly harrowing drop off, with some fraught combat. How exciting!" Monday lifted her hand off Hunter's shoulders, moving it up to rest on the back of his neck, her long slender fingers resting lightly on his mottled and rough skin. Hunter blinked several times, but otherwise remained motionless, but Shimazu could see the smirks on the other orks widen. A moment later they grabbed seats, settling down as if to enjoy the show, while Ray headed off to the bar to get some drinks.
"So, it turns out his collection team were also his strike team, and now he needs someone to use the materials we dropped off to do the job. A very noisy, public and spectacular strike on a corp, using the materials which will disguise you as a rival corp. The impression we get is that the damage caused is secondary to being seen and giving the perception of inter-corp rivalry.
"I see. Well that sounds straightforward." Her fingers started to lightly stroke Hunter on the back of his neck, her nails just flicking through the short hairs on the nape. She seemed to be doing this idly, while she 'considered' Kai's words. Glancing over at the two orks from her own team, she didn't seem to get any response, so turned back to Kai. "I think we could take care of this for you. We'd need a few more details – like who the hit is on, and who are we posing as?"
"It's a Zeta Imp-Chem facility…" Monday chuckled slightly and nodded, "using SK equipment."
"Saeder-Krupp eh? Hmm, well, that's fine. Works for us. Yes, we can do that." Her hand shifted slightly, her fingers now moving up the neck slightly, fingers questing into his hairline, softly stroking as if she was engaged in foreplay with her lover…
"Right… well, we can let our contact know that we've found someone willing to look at the job for him. Let him know someone will be down. Who should I say will be in touch?"
"Wolfpac. What's the pay like?"
"He's not got much – it's a very simple and straightforward concept, and he's supplying all the materials, but it's only running to ten-kay. But he apparently is working for some local community, and promises an introduction to them, as part of the payment. Someone called the Kuku-Macan."
Hunter felt her fingers stiffen and freeze as she heard the name, and for the first time he moved, acknowledging her presence.
"Is that going to be a problem?"
"Oh no, sweetie… NOT at all." She resumed her light touches, smiling down at him and her gaze seemed to be locked onto him, excluding anything else in the room. Her smile broadened, and as she gazed at him she gave a tiny laugh, tilting her head to one side. "Of course, it'd always be interesting to hear more about your exploits. In a less formal environment, perhaps?"
"Oh, while we're on the subject of strange things. You ever seen anything like this?" He keyed his datapad and pulled up the sensor feed of the enormous worm they'd seen, starting it playing. He spotted the two orks leaning forward in the reflection of the screen, craning their necks to look at the video too from their seats. Monday however crouched down and leant forwards, her head almost resting on his shoulder, cheeks lightly touching as she too studied the video. He became acutely aware that her breasts were pressing into his back, and she'd moved both hands onto his shoulders now to 'steady' herself. He smelt her subtle apricot-based perfume, and decided to take advantage of her proximity, turning on his chemical analyser and sensor gear, then taking in a slow sniff, gathering her scent and get a good signature lock on her pheromones and natural odour. As the clip finished, she turned slightly, her lips brushing against his cheeks, and he felt her warm breath wash over him.
"My, what a big one. I'm not sure I've seen one so big as that."
"What time are we leaving, Kai?" he said, being careful not to accidentally kiss her as she hovered close to him.
[You've got time for a quicky] Kai subvocalized, trying to retain his composure, casting his eyes to the ceiling as if he was working out a schedule in his head.
"We are unfortunately on a somewhat time-limited job." Aswon said, glancing between the two. "Neither our contact, nor my friend would want to wait." There was an audible sigh from Monday, and she pushed herself up and away from Hunter, her hands trailing down his arms once she was upright.
"A shame. Perhaps we'll meet again sometime."
"Perhaps we will." Kai finished tapping out a message, sending a warning to Sujuno that Wolfpac would be in touch. He smiled and nodded as Monday made a slight face, her bottom lip sticking out for just a moment, before she turned and started to head towards the door, her mane of blond hair swirling behind her.
Hunter heard the chair next to him scrape as Maki stood, moving towards him, getting uncomfortably close. He stood quickly, wondering if she was going to attack – perhaps he'd crossed a line somehow? She moved her hands outwards, away from her body and made it clear that she didn't have any weapons, or wasn't intending to strike. When Hunter relaxed a little, she leant in closer, moving more cautiously, then lowered her voice so that it barely carried past him.
"Playing hard to get? Noice…" She gave him a grin, and Hunter responded with his own lopsided and toothy smile.
"Wanna swap deets?" Hunter offered out his comm, and saw Maki raise hers in response, and they quickly beamed their numbers over to each other. With that done, Maki turned away from him and headed out after Monday, followed by Ray and then Orange. "Here… Kai – catch! I'm gonna grab some beers to take with us. You might wanna share this with Sultan." He skimmed the pad over to Kai, with the worm video still playing on it, then headed over to the bar.
While Hunter was ordering one of each type of beer that came in a bottle, Kai caught Sultan's attention again, and waited for him to become free.
"You managed to get the job sorted?"
"Yes, thank you Sultan. They seem willing to do the job, and they appear competent enough, though I was assuming that as you'd recommended them."
"I'm glad your business was concluded ok."
"Their leader seems…interesting. But they have said they will get in touch with our contact, and investigate the job. I'm glad they are – we'd rather not leave him without resources, and its good if a local team can get this done. Like I said, we're not here to make money out of this, but if we can help people out, that's a good thing. People tend to remember that…"
"Indeed they do."
"On that note, I have something to show you as well – a little bit of information to give you. We were overflying the edge of the landmass to the west on our way here from Java, and we saw this critter – briefly. But it appeared very large and unusual, so we grabbed some sensor footage. Thought you might be interested." He turned the pad around to show Sultan who watched the clip, his eyebrows rising as he took in the events.
"Oh – that is unusual. Beautiful – as long as you're not in range. And such a big one!" There was snickering from the table next to him as the rig workers seized on his choice of words. "Behave, you lot!" he said with humour in his voice. Sultan watched the clip a few more times, focussing in on different elements of the scene each time. "Yes, that's very interesting. I'd love a copy. And I'm working on a contact to source you some of the ammunition that your man mentioned. Next time you're heading down this way, give me a shout, and let me know."
"Will do."
"Kai – the team have returned to their thunderbird, and it looks like they are getting ready to depart. Detecting power up. Anything to worry about?"
[No, that's all fine, Marius, think they're doing our job.] Kai turned back to Sultan. "Well, thank you for your help and hospitality. We do unfortunately need to be away – as I said we have a very pressing matter to take care of."
"Until the next time, then." Sultan gave him a smile, then headed to the bar, passing Hunter who was on the way back with a dozen different bottles of beer wedged into his pockets, pouches or clustered together into his hands.
The team headed back to the Broadsword, and while Marius pre-flighted his systems, Hunter uploaded the video of the worm to Shadowland, finding a para-critters special interest group to post to. With that out of the way, he started to do a data-search on Monday and the Wolfpac crew, as well as looking for anything on the team itself.
With his search running, Hunter dug out the bug-scanner and insisted that Marius check him over for any micro-bugs that might have been planted on him, particularly around his shoulders or neck – while also calling Kai and Shimazu forward to get them to run a medical scan and to check his aura. All seemed well though, with no signs of tampering found other than a slightly elevated blood pressure and heartrate – though that only seemed to increase his paranoia!
A few minutes later, they took off, heading north from the rig and plotting a route back to Elune's Bay, so they could top off their tanks ready for the big over-water run back towards Hong Kong. Their two and three quarter-hour journey and brief stop at the Bay was uneventful, other than Allora thanking Tads again for the food, which it seemed she was very much enjoying. With their tanks full a few minutes later, they launched into the air once more, travelling for the same time again over the South China Sea. Aswon called ahead to Spook to warn her and give her chance to get her travel plans sorted, and she told him to pick her and her son at the same building site they had landed at previously. He also requested that she try to obtain a bolt or at least some measure of the vampire silk, figuring that it might make a suitable gift or offering for their audience.
Along the way, Hunter started to get some feedback on his searches, both about Wolfpac as a whole, and Monday in particular. The crew seemed to have a reasonable rep, noted as being able to think as well as they shot, and able to respond to situations quickly. Noted more for physical action, they seemed to have no problem dealing with wet-work and other 'hands on' jobs, as long as the money was right, but didn't seem to be over-zealous with their use of forke where it wasn't required. Monday though… as Hunter found a few snippits of information, hear-say and conversation threads, it soon became apparent that she had a thing for orks. Perhaps it was a case of wanting a 'bit of rough'; from her point of view, there were enough claims and descriptions of her flirting and outright attempts to bed people she barely knew, especially if they were on the burly side that Hunter felt that he knew exactly why she'd been touching him back at BP-12…
He also saw some traffic in the para-critters SIG, though mostly it seemed his post was met with scepticism and disbelief, with a number of posters decrying his poor skills with computer generated imagery, claiming that they could see certain artefacts in the recording, and even claiming they knew which movie or trideo game he'd stolen assets from to render the file. A few people wanted to know details, or claimed to have seen something like it, but much smaller – but the overwhelming opinion seemed to be that it was a fake. That in itself was useful information, telling him that what they'd seen was actually remarkably rare and that in turn meant it was valuable in some ways – though how he could broker that information to actual usable funds was a different matter.
The journey to Hong Kong proved to also be without incident, and Marius once more flew around to the east, coming in over the mountains towards Hong Kong, using the highlands as cover against the coastal sensors. Marius noticed as they cleared the final ridgeline and started their descent that the work crew were close to topping out the closest tower block, and there was more activity around the pad they were about to land it – it certainly appeared that they'd need a new spot the next time they travelled here, as they were likely to start building the next tower soon.
Their sensors picked up Spook and her boy waiting by the side of the site – along with a fuel truck, standing by with the worker chatting idly with Spook. Aswon's face split open into a grin as he realised that she'd anticipated their needs and arranged for the fuel to be here, so they wouldn't have to spend time pumping from their reserves into the main tank. Coming in to land smoothly enough, he headed over to Spook to great her and check in on her and her son, Li. Whilst there, he convinced the fueller to start up his pumps and then just hand the hose over to Hunter, then proceeded to distract him – focussing his attention away from the strange situation where the ork seemed to be just standing with the fuel nozzle held in thin air, pumping fuel into the unseen aircraft…
They refuelled as quickly as possible, then sent the truck on the way, before guiding Spook and Li aboard the aircraft carefully. Li in particular seemed entranced at approaching the invisible aircraft and then suddenly discovering he was climbing stairs and going aboard something that just popped into existence, as they slid inside the concealment of the powerful spirit. They took off from the construction site at just before four in the afternoon, turning to head north and away from Hong Kong. They were only heading about five hundred kilometres north into the Canton Confederation, a little over an hour's journey for them, though Marius approached the Canton border carefully. The Confederation was as large as several of the other successor states that had formed after the Republic of China had disintegrated, but it was more powerful than most in terms of industrial power, shipping and technology, and their border defences were not to be sneezed at.
Marius though, with his usual skill managed to slide through their radar net, using the terrain to mask their presence and flying low enough to the ground that it was difficult for anyone to track them short of direct observation by satellites. He followed the route carefully plotted, swinging wide around the more heavily industrialised cities and away from any known corporate enclaves, not wanting to risk going into the more populated and denser environments that would be teaming with sensor systems and potentially response forkes.
"I am heading for the top of the mountain then when we arrive?"
"No, Marius – not unless you want to risk the aircraft! We heard those rumours, remember, about people who tried to shortcut the climb and had horrible accidents befall them!"
"And you place stock in these rumours?"
"Yes, I do. I suspect that it would be the work of a powerful spirit, or spirits. Something tied to the mountain, but a guardian of some kind. Think of it like the Pebble back on the mountain in Nigeria."
"I thought the aircraft was protected against spirits like that?"
"There's protected, and then there's protected."
"Meaning what? Are you telling me I let you all scribble on my aircraft for no good reason?"
"No, it's for a very good reason. Look, against some kid who has somehow manifested some small ability of power, they have no chance of getting through our ward. None at all. Against the average corporate mage, I'd say they still have pretty much no chance. Against a really impressive mage, someone with an international rep – it's a fair fight, trying to get through. But we're not dealing with any of those, we're probably dealing with Dragons. And you've met them. You've seen what kind of power they wield. Chances are, they'll push through the ward with very little effort. And so would any spirits that might serve them!"
"But are we not invited guests? You do not go around doing that to invited guests!"
"Invited guests don't disrespect you by not coming in the front door like everyone else, and trying to park on the roof."
"Marius – look. They wouldn't have spent time carving ten thousand steps, unless people were supposed to climb them. It's destiny or something." Kai interjected.
"Have I mentioned how much I hate this mumbo-jumbo?"
"I think you've mentioned it a few times. But I think we need to find somewhere to land in the town, or the area around it, at the bottom of the hills. We have to do the climb, I think to show respect for who we're dealing with." Aswon continued.
There were some grumbles over the intercom for a minute, but Hunter was already hard at work looking for decent maps of the area, trying to download the data without also grabbing a virus or Trojan of some kind, and turning down every offer from the corporate data libraries to sign up for their matrixmail lists and alerts.
As they flew north, Aswon spent time talking with Spook, explaining what they knew about what was going to happen – which was actually very little – but what they were prepared to try and do. It also transpired while talking to his friend that she hadn't made Li aware of what was potentially wrong with him. The mark was behind him, out of his sight – and as she didn't know what it actually did, or what the risks where, she'd decided that it was better not to worry him. Aswon wasn't sure he agreed – but it wasn't his child, and he also felt it wasn't his call to make. After the initial excitement of the take-off and the border crossing, the flight was somewhat monotonous, and it appeared that Li grew somewhat restless. This was soon fixed when Marius heard him moaning about how it was 'boring now', and decided to throw a few wild banks, dives and climbs into the mix, making the journey resemble something more akin to a roller-coaster ride than a general flight. The whoops from Li were almost enough to make the air-sickness worthwhile, Kai pointed out quietly…
Just before five in the evening though, they closed in on their destination, the town of Nanyue. The town sprawled in the oddly shaped flatland between several hills or mountains, bending around a sharp angle with roads curving in parallel as they rose up the terraces that had been cut into the hillsides, joined with steep cross-roads. Flat land was at a premium, and there was relatively little to be had – Hunter had identified a sports stadium to the west of town as their most likely landing spot, where it looked like a shoulder of the mountain had been levelled off with the peak used to build up the lower lying land, giving some sheer surfaces, but enough flat area to actually get a regulation athletics stadium build. Even better, off to one side there were several large terraces of car parking, riding out along the slope, giving a number of discreet possible landing spots.
As they closed in on the far western end of the car park, the area furthest away from the stadium and probably the quietest, Marius called back to the rest of the team, piping the sensor images back to the screens as well.
"There are some people in the car park, and there is an area that is marked off with cones. We have what looks like two police officers, and a monk."
"A trap? An ambush? Doesn't seem to make sense…" Kai mused.
"I think we were expected. The invitation was sent out, sure… but if there's any magical creature that's going to have mastered the art of divination, then it's going to be a dragon, isn't it? He probably knew when we were coming… At least it means HE'S taking this seriously, if he's bothered trying to examine the future!"
"Well, this looks like an invitation to me. Unless anyone has an objection, I am going to land. I do not want to keep circling and wasting fuel."
"Go for it, Marius – everyone, just be on your toes." Kai warned. A moment later the aircraft banked over sharply as Marius reefed around in a tight turn and came in for a rapid landing. Despite the spirit's best efforts to conceal their approach, some of the blast from the jet engines made it outside the magical aura, sending cones flying out across the car park, alerting the trio waiting for them. But seconds later, they were on the ground, and Marius throttled down, bringing the engines to idle for a few seconds and then doing a controlled shutdown.
"That priest or monk doesn't look at all bothered." Hunter noted as he swung the sensors over towards the waiting people. "But those coppers look like they're about to shit themselves. Look at them, hands on guns already. I bet they haven't even seen anything."
"No, but they know something is there, and that they can't see it. And that has to be unnerving." Tads pointed out.
While Marius powered things down, the rest of the team and their passengers opened the door and clambered down the steps, emerging into view and forming up into a small blob on the tarmac surface. Glancing back behind them, they could see four patches of the carpark were bubbling, ripples of distorted tarmac having been melted and blown outwards by the jet-thrust as they came in to land.
"Ooops. Well, that's an easy fix. Just need to hot it up and get a steamroller out over it." Hunter grinned. Looking around an idea came into his head, and with a jaunty wave he headed off to go and get the traffic cones that had been blown all over the car park, collecting them up and starting to lay them out around where the Broadsword lay. "Don't mind me – this'll take a few minutes. Why don't you go speak to the welcoming party!"
Kai wandered over, trailed by the rest of the group. Aswon carried his staff, as did Tads, while Shimazu had the hilt of his sword vaguely visible – but there were no obvious guns on display. The two policemen now both had their hands firmly resting on the grips of their pistols through, and looked as if they were on the verge of pulling them and beginning to shout at people. They were stopped though, but the priest who asked a simple question.
"Hello there. You have a party of eight I believe."
"Err,six… no – of course. Eight. Yes, you're quite right." Kai corrected himself as he remembered to factor in Spook and Li. "Is there a… parking fee?" He raised an eyebrow, wondering what meaning they'd attach to that question.
"No. There is no fee. I have arranged for this area to be marked off. Nobody will approach your vehicle whilst you climb the mountain." The words were spoken in a very matter of fact tone. There are mountains. Water is wet. Your vehicle will be fine. I have spoken. Despite the priest or monk, whoever they were looking to be completely unarmed, they radiated gravitas and surety.
"Thank you." Aswon said, stepping forwards slowly, then resting on his staff, as if it were more of a walking aid than a weapon. "Can I ask… we have the young one here, as you can see. What can they expect?"
"It is a strenuous climb, to be sure. But if they have a good and pure heart, they will conquer the climb, and succeed. You are ALL expected at the top. But… given the lateness of the hour, perhaps tomorrow would be a better time to climb. There is accommodation nearby." The priest waved towards a five story building adjacent to the sports field, built out of fairly ugly slabs of concrete. "You will find sufficient rooms there for your comfort. You should start your journey in the morning."
"No! This not allowed. Who are people? Where are visas?" The policeman's English was broken and strongly accented, but his meaning was clear, and there was an angry tone to his voice.
"This is a command from Yat Gwan. You will comply." Again the voice was calm, and the tone of voice restrained, yet spoke with the implacability of granite. The first policemen looked fit to burst, but the second leant over and placed a hand on his arm.
"Yat Gwan commanded this personally?"
"Indeed."
"We will go." He pulled on the first officer's arm, who looked like he really hated to have his authority challenged, but seemed uncertain in the face of his fellow officer backing down. The two of them wandered away, having a hushed but very intent conversation.
"Thank you for that. I'm sure we will have a better time without their interference. Now, as to our journey tomorrow – is there a time we should leave? Is it significant for any reason… like should we start at dawn, or when the sun reaches a certain point?" Kai asked.
"After breakfast will be fine."
"And we have gifts to bring up the mountain with us. Should we carry them, or is there some way to get them to the top? We are not sure of the protocol here, and don't wish to cause offence…" Aswon chipped in.
"It would be most appropriate to carry them up with you. But for now, go. Rest. Sleep. Climb in the morning. After breakfast. Your vehicle will be safe."
"Alright then. Well, you heard the man. Marius – lock the aircraft up please, and grab your gear – looks like we're heading to the hotel."
The 'hotel' turned out to be more of a hostel, but it did have a café built into the ground floor. The lodgings were cheap and the quality low – the kind of thing a visiting sports team might easily afford rather than a classy place that dealt with businessmen. However, it would be sufficient for them, and when they reached the reception they found that there were four double rooms reserved on the third floor, all adjacent to each other at the end of the building.
"Told you. Divining. Pretty sure of it." Aswon nodded his head firmly.
They got into their rooms and checked them out, finding them at least not riddled with bugs – of either the organic or electronic kind, and at least serviceable. The hot water came out lukewarm at best, and the sheets were itchy and scratchy, the doors ill-fitting and the insulation thin – but they had at least a modicum of privacy and security, and whoever the priest was, he seemed to carry some authority in the area. Certainly neither of the police officers returned, and nobody new arrived to hassle them.
They grabbed food from the ground floor café, and ate together, then retreated to their rooms to relax and try to sleep, aware that they potentially had a long climb ahead of them tomorrow. Li, understandably, was restless, and despite Spook's protestations was hard to settle, staying up way past his normal bedtime as he bombarded his mother with apparently endless questions.
As Hunter lay on the firm and lumpy mattress, he scanned the matrix, hooked up through the sat-phone that had been positioned to aim out of the window, watching as more and more news articles filtered in. The mutations had continued to accelerate, and there were now hundreds of thousands of cases reported worldwide, with all manner of strange affects appearing. There was a growing tide of violence both from and towards the mutants, with a great deal of fear rising, many thinking it was some form of airborne disease, or some kind of magical ailment, and there was already talk in some countries about setting up camps to concentrate the affected into – with all the expected backlash and recriminations from one side of the political spectrum about what that actually meant, and then counter-backlash from the people who just wanted everyone to think of the children…
Hunter stayed up until the early hours of the morning as the news reports built and built, frowning as the first news of riots filtered in.
"Great. Mutants all over the place, and we're climbing a mountain to talk to a dragon. What could be worse…"