The Broadsword lifted off, rising smoothly into the night air, the team unaware that they were the subject of careful conversation in the smuggler stop, with the team settling down into their seats and relaxing, mostly – apart from Marius who was flying manually, swooping up and down around ridgelines and valleys as they headed east, and whichever of the magical team members were wearing the optical sensors, keeping a watch on the astral plane.
As the light faded, their view of Nepal changed, the ground slipping away into darkness. Marius was flying on his instruments now, slowing slightly to give him more time to react as he continued to fly stealthily at low altitude. The ground was rugged, to say the least, free from corporate presence in the main. There was some cultivation and farming going on, some homesteads with animals that clung to the sides of the hills – but there was just as much wild land below them, reclaimed by nature following the Awakening.
They kept to a steady speed, leaving Nepal and slicing through the border into the Bangla Commonwealth, with a light drizzle starting as they flew through the low-hanging clouds. Crossing into Myanmar, the rain intensified, becoming a steady downpour that further reduced visibility.
"This is in for the next few days – best get your wellies out!" Hunter announced. ""I caught the tail end of a news feed as I was checking the weather… and I'm kinda glad we're over here."
"Why?"
"Things are hotting up in the Middle East, it seems, Kai. Bunch of priests are agitating again, and they're kicking off about some new trade tariffs or something, threatening to launch an assault on people enforcing them. Like they're gearing up for round three of the Eurowars."
"Huh. It didn't work out too well for them before – not sure why they'd want to risk it again…"
Hunter fed back some information, showing a number of news articles showing angry speeches and rabble-rousing conventions, complaining about a number of incidents, all of which were cruel insults to Islam in one form or another. The local population showed signs of becoming agitated, with lots of chanting and shouting, despite the logical holes in the arguments raised, with some flag-burning and threatening speeches taking place, all covered by long-range camera shots – it appeared the journalists weren't wanting to be anywhere near the actual crowds.
"I wonder if we should think about defences at the ranch?"
"Building a wall or fence isn't going to stop the New Islamic Unity Movement if they mobilse hundreds of thousands of troops!" Aswon commented. "If anything, it'll just convince them that there's something worth going after."
"I was thinking about something more subtle. With enough time, I could look at shaping the earth to the open sides of the ranch, building up some slopes that look difficult to climb. Something that maybe will funnel people around us."
"Huh." Aswon frowned, annoyed with himself for not thinking of such a solution. "That's a really good idea. Even a low escarpment could be made to look like a fault line or earth shift or something, and would stop any wheeled or tracked vehicles. And a Jihad army isn't going to have much access to better assets. I mean, that's a lot of earth to shift… but yeah, if you've got days to do it, you could berm all the way around the ranch and enclose it, and make it hidden from view unless anyone climbs up and over. Would deter a lot of people, and that's probably going to help a lot!"
They watched for a short while, before the news feed started to loop and repeat itself, or move onto utterly banal topics, and they settled back down to a quiet doze, Marius flying onwards before finally crossing into the Yunnan state and entering a persistent rain that seemed to show no signs of letting up. The last border was the toughest – at least technologically, but with the advanced stealth features built into the Broadsword and the protective spirit, they slid across the border just as easily as the ones before, following the course laid out to lead them to Dragon Ridge.
The weather no doubt added a small factor to their ease of passing, but boded badly for operations. A quick check on the matrix revealed that it was part of a huge weather system that was covering much of the region – no mana storms, hurricanes or other conditions that would cause alarm – just a huge storm cloud that was set to linger for several days, according to the weather prediction software.
As they skimmed over the water of the reservoir, closing in on the smuggler stop, they saw an absence of lights or vehicles ahead. Marius slowed and approached carefully, wondering if this was a bad sign, or perhaps indicative of a raid by the authorities, but nothing seemed amiss as they closed in. They remained on high alert as they landed, throttling the engines down and waiting for a minute to see if anything happened, but the scene remained dark, quiet and wet, just the steady rainfall spreading puddles of cool water across the car-park, gradually linking up the divots and craters in the poor quality concrete surface, and presenting the team with an ever-expanding pool of shallow water.
"I'm going to stay here, keep an eye on the bird." Hunter announced over the commlink, unjacking from the aircraft systems and heading towards one of the crew bunks located just behind the cockpit.
"I am aiming to get a good eight hours of sleep. I certainly do not wish to be disturbed before…" Marius checked his watch, stifling a yawn, "11am, our current time. Allowing for time zones that is… about 15:00 local." He fought back another yawn, realising how tired he was, if it took him a second or two to work out the time zone difference."
"Come on, then – let's try inside. It looks quiet, so we should be able to grab a dorm room again. Hunter can lock the Broadsword down, and keep himself tucked up inside the ward, and we can keep astral eyes on overnight in the dorm, and keep ourselves concentrated."
They grabbed their go-bags and ran across the car-park, getting soaked in the process, even over the short distance, before piling into the smuggler stop. It took a few minutes for Liu Chen to answer the door, but they could at least huddle in the porch to get out of the rain.
The stop was quiet – Liu Chen confirming that they were the only people here at the moment, and that with nobody expected he'd locked up headed to bed. Once he sorted them out with a key to the room, he headed back to his own quarters, telling them he'd see them in the morning. The team bedded down, the time now closer to three in the morning than they would like, and soon there was just the sounds of deep breathing and quiet snoring in the darkened room, while the small flock of spirits maintained a watch on them.
As usual, when Tads awoke at dawn to pay her respects to the spirits and to summon new guardians for the day, she found Aswon already awake and looking indecently cheerful, having had only a few hours of sleep. She shuffled outside into the porch, trying to stay out of the rain and carried out her rituals, then headed back to her bed, managing to get back in before the warm patch disappeared, pulling a blanket over her head and trying to get a little more sleep.
Aswon went for a wander, ignoring the rain as he walked a perimeter around the smuggler stop, just to see if anything had changed since they'd last been here. The highway rumbled with the passing of traffic, mostly lorries and vans at this time of the morning, the sound muted through the heavy rain, but the entrance to the services were still blocked by large concrete barriers, preventing unwary passers-by from bumping into people they would ask too many questions about. When he'd finished his wander, he saw Hunter waving to him from the hatch on the Broadsword, so he wandered over that way.
"Rain's gonna be in for the day, if not the next few days, according to the weather sites."
"Good for us, I think. Lower visibility and fewer people out."
"Yeah. Whatcha doing?"
"I was just checking around a bit. But I'm thinking of going for a run. Want to come?"
"Sure. Let me seal things up…" Hunter checked his side arm, tucking it away inside his clothing, and shucking off his sling, putting the assault rifle down by the door – there was no telling if they'd run into someone crazy enough to be out walking their dog or fishing by the water's edge, despite the weather, and it wasn't exactly subtle.
The pair set off at a brisk jog, running side by side along the wide path that ran alongside the reservoir on the north side, closest to the town. Hunter was alert, scanning the perimeter as he ran, but Aswon seemed to be focussed on the track and the edge of the water, searching for something.
"What you looking for?"
"Telesma. The area here isn't totally ruined, so there might be something around. You never know!" Hunter grunted, and kept his eyes scanning around them. They'd tried to show Marius and himself just what to look for, to allow them to help gather magical telesma, but it seemed entirely arbitrary to him, and made very little sense. He was just thinking what a load of nonsense the whole thing was when Aswon made a strangled noise and skidded to a halt, as the universe decided to show them that it did have a sense of humour.
Aswon stopped and very carefully dropped down towards the water's edge, reaching out for a stone that lay just above the rippling reservoir. The stone was quite large, about half the size of his fist, but had a large crack running most of the way around it. As Aswon fished it out of the mud and gave it a swirl in the water, Hunter saw a little gleam as the grey daylight caught on something. The rock reminded him of a pearl held tightly inside a clam, and he watched as Aswon rapped the rock on a sharp edge, splitting it open along the fault line and pulling out a small crystal of quartz.
"That! That's exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about… whoah…" Hunter's hand dropped to his pocket, ready to grab his pistol as Aswon went slightly glassy-eyed. After a moment though he focussed again, and looked at the ork, a big grin forming on his face. "Tads is going to love this – it's pure, and pristine. Dripping with mana. Perfect for enchanting!"
They pressed on, jogging for another thirty minutes until they were heading towards the southern side of the reservoir. Rather than pushing on over the rough terrain, they turned back and headed the way they had came, eventually making their way back to the aircraft, both soaked to the bone. Fortunately the showers had plenty of hot water, and they were both soon clean and in fresh dry clothes, chilling out in the café section which Liu had opened up while the team were there. Marius was still in bed and asleep, but the rest of the team were sitting around nibbling on some soy-cakes and supping on soy-café, browsing the news and seeing what was going on in the world.
Aswon decided to try a different track, heading over towards Liu and striking up a conversation with him. It did mean listening to some tall tales about local Dragons and some history lessons that sounded very dubious about Dragon Ridge – but he did pick up on some gossip about the area. It seemed that a Chinese General to the north had taken it upon himself to gather troops and resources to try, again, to penetrate the mana veil that surrounded Tibet. The magical swirling fog had risen decades before, cutting off the entire Tibetan plateau from outside intervention, and many of the surrounding nations had laid claim to the area – though none had successfully penetrated the random and chaotic energies that swirled about the high mountains and frigid areas.
Entire companies of troops had been sent up against the barrier. Mostly they were found wandering disoriented, weeks later, staggering down mountain passes tens of kilometres away from where they'd entered, missing most of their kit, hungry and cold. Those were the lucky ones – but many just disappeared, never to be seen again. Generally it was regarded now that trying to get into Tibet was impossible – aircraft disappeared just as easily, and even satellite views down appeared foggy and indistinct, a persistent veil drawn over the country.
But now, according to Liu, some army general in Sichuan province was amassing a force, getting ready to launch a new offensive up into the region. Gathering supplies, he was kitting out a spear-head force that was designed to launch an operation to penetrate the veil and forge a way into the lost lands. But in their haste to assemble and gather supplies, they'd apparently exhausted their local logistics chain, and were now hoovering up survival rations or all kinds from the surrounding areas, along with key medical supplies and other critical equipment – creating a massive spike in demand and a shortage across the whole province.
Aswon relayed this to the team, letting them know that this was going to be a very short-term thing – but that if they could manage to get some supplies of the correct kind, they'd be able to deliver them and sell them at a huge mark-up, and even better, unlike selling the heroin, these goods were legal. Though there was, of course, the chance that people would resort to attempted robbery to take them from the team.
There were a few grins as they imagined how that would go for the average gutter-punk criminal, or even members of the local mob, Triad or Yakuza cell.
"Oh, Aswon – I've been thinking. If we're going to be here for another couple of hours, can you call Spook? Let her know I'm going to head over, to examine her kid? I think I really need to see their aura, try to establish what's going on. But I'll need a bit of time to get there, and make sure I know where to find her."
"Thanks, Tads… Let me call her and sort something out." Aswon wandered away to make the call, returning a few minutes later. "Ok, this sounds strange at first – but I think it makes sense. She's said to meet her up on the helipad for the casino. She's heading there now, so hopefully they'll both be there by the time you arrive."
"Why there?"
"They have to go through wards to get there, both in and out of the casino – but it's still private and somewhat secluded – and it should be easy to find. And you've been there before, so you know what it looks like astrally."
"I suppose I do. Ok, I'll give her a few minutes, then head down…"
Tads waited for a few minutes, then made herself comfortable, releasing the bonds from her spirit to her mortal flesh, then rising up from the smuggler stop high into the air before zooming off to the south-east. It didn't take her long to cover the fourteen hundred kilometres, and soon she was circling around the bay, looking for the skyscraper with the large grey blob stuck out of the side. It was a little harder than she had expected – she'd forgotten just how bright and vivid astral space was around Hong Kong, and how weak the borders could be between the two realms, but soon enough she had the location spotted, and zoomed down to find Spook and her boy waiting, just by the side of the building.
She spent a few minutes examining his aura, looking at the weird mark on his skin. He must have felt weird, a young boy standing atop a helipad high above the city, his trousers and pants pulled down while a ghostly image of a woman examined his bum… but he made no sign of complaint, and waited patiently for her to finish.
"Thank you for bringing him here – I've got a much better understanding of this. It's not actively dangerous, not at the moment – but it's something we need to look into. I'm going to head back and discuss with Aswon and the others, and then we'll work out what to do next, ok? We're going to get this sorted out, though."
"Thank you! That makes me feel much better. And please, say thank you to Aswon, and the others. I will wait for his call, and follow his instructions."
"Very good. We'll be in touch." Tads waved goodbye, then vanished in the blink of an eye, zooming back to the west just as fast. Spook had seemed to be remarkably chilled about the whole thing – when Tads had said that she was going to get the situation sorted, she had seen the relief and happiness radiating off of her in waves. She considered for a moment though, and then wondered if that wasn't actually a reasonable reaction – after all, from her point of view, the team had tracked them down when they were abducted, rampaged through the Kowloon Walled City racking up a huge amount of carnage and then fought off a powerful mage and as it turned out some eldritch horror from the deep void… why wouldn't she trust them if they said there was nothing to worry about?
Those thoughts occupied her mind until she got back to the smuggler stop, melding back with her body and feeling the sudden weight of her physical form weighing her down again. For a moment she longed to vault free once more, rising up into the air and spinning in circles, her mind carrying her anywhere she wanted with barely a thought. It was a seductive lure, and she stopped for a moment, tamping down hard on the temptation. Too long out of her body would leave her spirit weak, devoid of the source of its power, and its link to reality. She'd seen enough and learnt enough to know that divorcing the two would only lead to death – no matter how appealing the journey felt.
Sitting up, she saw that Marius had stirred while she was out on her travels, and was sitting with a cup of fresh Soy-caf and some food, slowly waking himself up. He still looked a little bleary eyed, so she waited a while for him to finish his food. It wasn't like this situation was going to be resolved quickly or easily – at least so she felt – so a few minutes extra really wasn't going to affect anything.
When Marius had poured himself a second cup and sat back in his seat, pushing away his empty plate, she headed over, waving for the others to come closer so she could fill them in on her discoveries.
"I went over and found Spook and the boy ok. Gave them both an examination, though I was subtle with Spook – didn't want to upset her. She seems fine, though she's worried sick about the boy – not that I blame her. He seems mostly fine – healthy, no disease or illness that I could spot. But he does have the strange mark on him, and its definitely magical in nature. I can feel the power leaking out of it – lots of power. More than I have."
That made the team sit up straight, especially Aswon, his forehead wrinkling as he frowned, his lips pressing together thinly as he concentrated. For a moment he looked to be about to say something, but then he subsided, waving for Tads to continue.
"The mark isn't a disease or illness, not something I can cure or banish. It's like a taint, a mark on his very soul. It's bound onto his being, and we're seeing the physical expression of that magical mark on him. I've not seen anything like it before, or heard anything about such a thing – but someone, somewhere, should have. I honestly don't know for certain what to do – but we should do something to help out."
"I do not like this one bit. You know my feelings on magic and hocus pocus, but this… this is wrong. An attack on a small child." Marius was jabbing the table with his finger, punctuating each word, his voice slow and precise. "But perhaps we need to consider where we are, and who we have access to in this land. We are fairly certain that we have dealt with multiple dragons now. And if anyone is going to know about such things, it will be those scaly bastards."
They stared at Marius for a moment, somewhat surprised by his approach. His disdain for magic was well known – though he was happy to use it to hide the aircraft, or save himself and the team from harm, it was clear that he didn't trust it. Understandable, really, as for someone as clever and well-educated as he was, to find a new force that just ignored all the rules of the physical world and made strange and bizarre things happen just because they wished them to, turned his world view on its head. His opinion of dragons wasn't much better, and it seemed that he knew only as much as he did to avoid dealing with them wherever possible. So for him to be considering actively seeking out one of the Dragons represented a considerable shift in his approach.
That blindsided Tads for a moment, until she suddenly realised why – why he was willing to take this step, and why he apparently cared so much. It wasn't that he was particularly attached to the boy, or even to Spook – not that he had any issue with her, and was probably grateful for her assistance when they had landed in Hong Kong. But it was the way that her child had been abused. If it could happen to him, it could happen to others. Any others. Including Marius Junior. And as a parent, he had jumped across the empathetic barrier to understanding the pain, fear and distress that Spook was feeling, knowing that something was wrong with her son, and that there was nothing she could do.
He was, probably, feeling it more than anyone else in the team, save perhaps for Aswon who did have a personal stake. His feelings for his own child gave him a viewpoint that nobody else shared, and it seemed to have lit the touch-paper of his anger. It wasn't ablaze yet, not an incandescent flame that burned brightly – but it was definitely smouldering.
"I think we need to get ourselves checked out properly – before we do anything else. Like – right now. All back to the dorm, strip and get checked. The last thing we want to do is discuss anything else or make plans if any of us are marked the same way." Kai stood, pushing his chair back, his customary smile vanished from his face. "Before we say another word." He shooed them towards the dorm room, and then started to pull off his clothes, leading by example.
Quickly they stripped, and then meticulously searched each other, looking for any signs or marks that couldn't be explained. Tads was the hardest to check, her scarred and twisted flesh already warped and rippled, in a way that could easily have disguised a small mark – but the other magical members of the team checked over her carefully looking for the stain on her aura that she had described seeing on Spook's son. Thankfully, none of them had anything odd to be found, and they started to get dressed again. Kai grabbed his medkit though, stopping people once they had their underwear on.
"Just going to run some scans as well, to back things up. I'm glad we did those baseline examinations back at the ranch a while back – will give us something to compare too." He and Shimazu worked around the team, and each other, running a series of tests to check their health and bodies out, gathering data to feed into the medical computer. It digested the information, spitting out a ream of data, but summarising that everything was 'ok' – all of them seemed to be roughly the same as the last time they were examined, with no strange anomalies to be found. "That's a relief. Ok – now we know that we're clear… do we get in touch with the ranch, and let Nadia know. And get everyone there checked out. How do you think Nadia will take that?"
"She will be suspicious. But she will do it. I think we need to explain something. Perhaps tell her that someone we had contact with has contracted a disease. We are checking, to make sure we did not bring it home. Just a precaution, routine. But it is a nasty illness, and we do not wish to take the chance of spreading it. Given the infection that Marius Junior had, I think that she will agree completely, and seek to check things out."
"Good. Ok – can you make that call, Marius – once we're done here? I think she'll understand better from you. Next question is – what the hell do we think this thing is?"
"I have been wondering. I know that Tads has done a ritual, wandering to the metaplanes and hiding a tiny part of her essence, and that of each of us there. I do not fully comprehend exactly HOW it is done – but I do not need to. I understand WHY it was done, and how it helps us. It makes us harder to find. Those seeking to track us magically must also detour to the hidden planes, to an unexpected place, following a trail that makes no sense. But I wonder if this mark is the opposite? A marker that is like a flag, a glowing beacon to the caster? To allow them to keep track of the target, wherever they are?"
"If this is related to that horror thingy that jumped out of the window in Kowloon, we need to get that drek sorted out, quick. We know it ain't the mage, right – 'cos we ganked him hard. But that other thing got away. Down into the rubbish pile. I saw the burrow it went down… don't know if it's still there, or if it's gone elsewhere… but it's out there somewhere. And we at least know where to start looking from." Hunter glanced around at Tads, Shimazu, Kai and Aswon, indicating that as far as he was concerned this was their problem to sort out.
"I agree with Hunter. We know that Spook and her child were taken by the rival Triad, and taken to the Walled City. That place was evil – no arguments there. We do not need your talents to have felt the malaise that affected that place. You have said that this could be like a tracking device, and that makes sense to me. And I accept that you have not seen anything like this before, correct?" Marius stared at Tads until she nodded. "But you have also not seen that creature before, and the only other thing that had similar characteristics was the thing we found in the temple – that is being called a Horror. Also correct?" He got another nod. "I am aware that those two facts may not be linked, my not be cause and effect. However, on a base probability, it would seem likely that they may be, and in fact are strongly likely to have a link between them."
"I suppose so."
"Also a factor, Tads, at least from my perspective, is that you said that this was more powerful than you. And other than the various Dragons we suspect we have interacted with, the only things we have consistently seen like that, are these creatures. Even the spirits we have met, like that furry critter – they are of a similar nature to you. Dangerous, for sure – and to be treated carefully. But not so much more powerful that it is a risk to be even near them. You are powerful – I can accept that, and have seen evidence of that fact. You choose to exercise your power carefully, and cautiously, and for the defence of us all. But that you have this level of power, and do not feel equipped to deal with this mark – that is more worrying for me than anything else."
"He's not wrong, Tads. You may not realise it – but just think about how your old shaman teacher reacted when you went home. You've grown a lot over the last year. We all have, in our own ways. I'm not sure that Hunter thought two years ago that he'd end up in a fist fight with a bear. Or that Marius thought he'd be flying at Mach six and an altitude of ten metres. Or that Shimazu would be jumping out of aircraft to plummet thirty metres to the ground and then just walk away… we've all seen things, done things – and learnt from them. So to come across something like this is sobering, and reminds us how much more there is out there." Aswon spoke earnestly, and it was hard to fault his logic.
"And much as I hate to admit it… there is something about us. There are not many people that have met Lung and Ryumyo, Aden and Hestaby – and walked away from it."
"We don't know it was them – not for certain."
"Granted, Aswon. I think we can only claim Hestaby with one hundred percent certainty. But the others are likely – highly likely. I can think of no others that would fit the bill. And the crazy old man – whatever kind of spirit he is. And do not forget that we have met the CEO of Ares, and that strange elf – the one with the painted face, as well as that other one, Ehran. I do not know why we have become embroiled in their affairs, but the fact remains that we met Damian Knight on a quiet road in the middle of nowhere, and agreements were made. Then shortly afterwards we fought that creature – and when all was lost, we found an army of ghosts flowing over the hill to our aid against the army of possessed creatures. And later on, we found out that an entire regiment of cavalry had approached the Sioux border from the UCAS to pay some kind of tribute or homage to some previous events. And then, coincidentally – Ares were selling or equipping the UCAS army with a whole new wing of T-birds and other cutting edge armaments. I do not know why those things happened, but it seems obvious to me that they are linked in some way."
"I'm not sure what you're getting at, though."
"We seem to be involved. Maybe as pawns or minions – and that idea does not please me. Not at all. But we know of them, and we have seen some of their plans. And that means we are known to them. Considered useful. And so perhaps we can make use of that relationship. I do not see any of those creatures or people being happy about these Horrors. In fact, we have evidence that they are not, and are willing to move considerable resources around to make things happen. So, perhaps there is an opportunity to let them get involved in this – and to help resolve it. Even if they only provide knowledge or information, that is potentially something that will let us resolve the matter ourselves."
"Ahh, I see. Work on the basis that these Horrors are their enemies, and that this is chance to strike against them and their plans – somehow. Well, if we're doing this, then my recommendation would be that we talk to Lung – and not Ryumyo. Lung has a reputation for being older and wiser, more considering and patient – and he's suspected of being associated with the Triads, so there might be some leverage from Grandfather Fan, on Spook's behalf."
"We are jumping to two conclusions here, then. That these horrors are involved, and that it was a pair of great dragons that we met in the park." Tads added.
"Listening to Marius, I'm actually leaning more and more to agreeing with him. I think he's right – it all adds up, too many coincidences otherwise. Or just a massive amount of deception, for no apparent gain."
"Yes, Aswon – I see no reason for it otherwise. Fooling us brings them no real advantage or benefit. And, I am sure it was Spook that came to us with the request for the meeting in the park."
"Yeah – you're right. That's something I'd forgotten. Ok, I'm going to message her, and remind her about the meeting, and that we need to speak with the Chinese guy from it – not the Japanese one though.
Aswon headed off to message Spook, while the rest continued to chat, talking about their experiences and thinking back to the little clues and circumstances of their various meetings, trying to determine if they could be any more certain about the identities of the people they'd met. While the others were racking their brains, Tads made herself comfortable and then leapt out of her body again, this time shooting to the west, back to the ranch. She found Nadia first, manifesting in front of her and then asking to check over her aura – and that of Marius Junior. To her relief, she found no strange anomalies on either of them, and with Nadia's help, she quickly worked through the rest of the people at the ranch, clearing them also of any signs of possession or curses.
When she got back, she found Hunter and Marius discussing warding with Shimazu and Kai, with voices rising as they tried to explain things or make sense of what was being said. She listened for a moment, then held up her hands, trying to get some quiet so she could speak.
"First of all, you'll be happy to know that nobody back at the ranch is showing any signs of a curse or anything like that – they're all perfectly fine." She saw the look of relief that crossed Marius' face and gave him a warm smile. "So that's good news. Now – from what I can understand, you were asking about warding people? Yes? Right – then no. That's not something we can do."
"But why not? Why can you ward a box but not a person?" Hunter demanded.
"It's very complicated, and I can go into detail if you want – but… hmm. Ok, you can ward a thing that has an exact size and shape. Something with firm edges. Something fixed. People…bend. They flex, and change shape too much. So does clothing. So you can ward a coffin, or a shipping container, and put a person in. But you can't ward a person themselves, or a boiler suit, or a hazmat suit. It has to be a solid thing. I can ward the inside of the Broadsword, because it's an object with a fixed shape. Even if some bits of it move – we can decide if the ward covers those gaps, or is broken by their movement. But we can't ward things that flex."
"Still doesn't make much sense, but ok. So we can't ward Spook's kid, to put a barrier around him?"
"No, Hunter. We could do a room that he was in, or even a flat or a house – but not him. Although…." She gave a little shudder as her mind went down a new avenue. "I don't think we could ward Marius and his new skin – I think it's too flexible. But if we found someone with a replacement arm or leg – one built from alloys and other materials, we might be able to ward that. It's fixed in size and shape… that might work. But it still wouldn't cover the rest of the body."
"So how does that thing Aswon do works? That's on his skin, and that works? I've seen him hang upside down off the ceiling!" Hunter sounded disgruntled now, pointing out the hole in her logic – or so he thought.
"Ahh – no, that's not warding. That's a spell, that has been quickened. And in his case, quickened to a tattoo. It's a very different thing. Quickening is used to make a link between a spell, and a thing, to hold the spell in place. And that does work on flexible things. It's…different. It might sound sort of the same, but it's very, very different."
"I don't see why."
"Look – a car and a plane are both vehicles, right? And Marius can drive them both, with his rigger thing in his head, right?" Hunter nodded. "But can he fly a car? No. It's not the same. They're both vehicles, and these are both magic things. But they're different kinds of magic, and they work in different ways."
Aswon had returned, and listened to the tail end of Tads' explanation, wondering what was going on. Hunter grunted in acceptance though, and the conversation had stopped, so he dived in.
"Spoken with Spook, and she confirmed that she got approached by some underworld contacts to set up the meeting. I've asked her to reach out on the Chinese side of things, and not the Japanese, and to try and get hold of the source. And also to get some warding materials sorted out – from Fan, if needed. She's going to get on with that and let us know what she hears back. It may take a couple of days, depending on how many contacts or cut-outs she has to work through. She'll let us know."
"So – do we stay here for a day or two, or move on to Shanghai? I have rested enough to fly."
"Hang on a minute. Before we get onto that… so this tattoo thing. You can put a spell on that, right?" Hunter looked at Aswon. "Your tattoo, it's got your gecko spirit spell on it, that's what lets you climb up walls and drek, right?"
"It binds the spirit of the Gecko to me, yes. It is not a massively powerful spell though, so there are limits to what I can carry, or how strongly I can cling to things. The more powerful the spell, the bigger the tattoo needs to be."
"Oh. Right. So if we wanted to put a spell on Spook's boy, to make a wall that spirits couldn't cross – could we do that? Instead of a ward?"
"I suppose. But it wouldn't be that powerful – his body is too small. If you wanted a spell that was powerful, he'd need to be fully grown, and even then there are limits."
"How powerful?"
"Um…" Aswon thought for a moment. "Ok, not exactly, but probably close enough. If you wanted to put a spell on Marius to hide the Broadsword, the one that Tads normally uses to disguise us – you'd have to tattoo his entire body, maybe including his face, to do that."
"Aww… that won't work then." Hunter considered a moment, then took on a thoughtful look. "Unless… you cheat a bit."
"What do you mean?"
"well, he probably wouldn't like it – but if you sliced his belly open, and pulled his guts out, there's loads and loads in there. Like… enough to stretch out and cover a tennis court or something. So I read once. That's loads of room to put a tattoo on!"
"Hunter! That's awful! You can't do that."
"Why not – you can magic them better afterwards. And it's sort of like skin. It's just the inside of the tube, not the outside."
"It's not… well, it sort of is, but that's horrible! No!"
Hunter was grinning at her, completely unrepentant, and probably joking. Mostly. The others dived in, splitting the team somewhat down the middle as they debated the pros and cons of trying to expand upon the amount of skin that might be available depending on just what and where you were willing to get at… it broke the mood a little, though it did also beg the question of just what might be possible on a technical basis. Sometimes ideas were only stupid until you made them work, after all…
"Alright – serious question time. If we go to Shanghai, can we park there? I seemed to remember that they didn't have a huge amount of space on the dock."
"It was not a very large facility by dock standards, no." Marius confirmed. "But these things are relative, Kai. It was still a container port, and there is more than enough room for us to set down and wait for a while."
"If we're going to move on from there to find a Dragon, do we need to have the kid with us?" Hunter asked.
"I do not believe so. We may only get information, if we get anything at all. And we have photos of the mark, and now also Tads has seen it from the astral as well, yes?" She nodded. "So she can create an illusion, or just share her thoughts, if she wished. It would only be if we needed to do something, and if we need to collect him, we can journey to Hong Kong if needed."
"I'm actually thinking we should take him – if it's practical. I know dragons aren't people – but if we're going to appeal to him, actually having an innocent child there in front of him is going to have more of an emotional impact than just picture or a story. But we also don't want to put him at risk." Kai made a weighing gesture between his two hands. "I think we need to wait to see what Spook comes back with, and then go from there. And the other thing – we've been quite lucky recently with jobs and things, and we're doing ok for cash." He grinned as several of the team frowned at him. "Well, we have – but just wait. I think we shouldn't be adverse to throwing a bit of money at this on Shadownet, if we have to. Consultation fees, or introduction fees or whatever – to people who might be able to help. If it helps save the kid, what's a couple of hundred or even a couple of thousand Nuyen?"
"Alright – that's not actually a bad shout. And it is a worthy cause." Aswon nodded his head at Kai. "We need to be careful with what we say, though. No doubt there is someone, somewhere out there that might know something. It's whether we can find them."
"Oh, we'll find them if they're out there – along with a million crazy flakes, I warn you! Yeah, I'd need to compose that post carefully, and we're still going to get all kinds of conspiracy nuts responding." He sighed, then pulled his deck over to him and jacked in, preparing a post and starting to very carefully choose his words.
"Shimazu – when you told us about what happened in Sioux lands, when that things attacked you. You mentioned it was like a vast chasm between two lands, and they were trying to build a bridge?"
"That was the sense I got, yes. I think it was more of a metaphor, something my brain could understand and comprehend – yet also it felt very real."
"What if this mark is an anchor point?" Marius suggested. "Something to attach one end of a bridge too? Is that why they've picked a child, someone with their whole life ahead of them. Someone young enough to be an anchor for decades to come?"
"That's a nasty thought – but you could be right. Or it might be that it's something they can use to affect his development? Maybe this is a long term thing?"
"Exactly, Aswon. Perhaps this is a way to shape or change his path, to influence him in some way. To grow into a man that could be exploited or abused, or would have certain leanings. If these things are as alien as we think they are, who is to say that they do not have plans that are measured in decades? Or even hundreds of years?"
"That then means that they want to preserve him rather than harm him." Tads said quietly. Her brain thought about what she'd just said, and what the logical end of that train of thought was. She tried to avoid the conclusion, but couldn't – no matter how distasteful it was. Sometimes you had to cull part of the herd to save the rest from disease. It wasn't nice, but if you could save many from the sacrifice of a few – or one – could that justify the deed? She kept her thoughts to herself, not wanting to start that discussion until she'd thought about it some more herself.
"One thing we do need to make clear to Lung, or anyone else that we deal with, is that killing the boy isn't on the table. It's not an option." It appeared that Aswon had had at least something of a similar thought to her, and his voice was level and firm, making it very clear what he considered was a line in the sand that should not be crossed. She resolved not to say anything at all on the matter – she and Aswon normally saw things from a very similar viewpoint, and she didn't want to cause any rifts between them, despite their potential differences in this matter.
"Holy drek!" Hunter's eyes flicked open, and he waved at the rest of the team. "Shut up a minute – and pass me the screen!" He grabbed the rollout screen when Kai passed it over and hurriedly connected it to his deck, then concentrated for a moment, syncing it to his deck and then displaying a video stream. A message appeared on the otherwise black screen, advising viewer discretion and extremely graphical contact that was likely to disturb children and that parents should take due steps. Remarkably, it stayed on the screen for a full thirty seconds, making them wonder just what was coming.
The message faded away, then the screen brightened, showing a man standing at a small podium, dressed in flowing robes. His skin tone and attire seemed to mark him as middle-eastern, though it was unclear which sub-region or former country he might have hailed from. As he spoke, captions appeared on the bottom of the screen, from right to left in flowing Arabic, while the English translation flowed from left to right. He seemed to be addressing the crowd, calling upon them to examine their faith and their teachings, a message of unity and conciliation, a reminder that Allah was all wise, and that their understanding of him was imperfect, incomplete – but that it was their duty to seek to better understand him, so that they may serve him better.
He was halfway through a sentence when the first bullet struck, his head blooming and expanding as the round hit. A second round impacted a split-second later, then it seemed a few more – it was hard to tell as his body disintegrated from the force of the explosions that seemed to occur as the rounds impacted.
"Sweet mother of…" Aswon leant in close, looking at the screen carefully. "Multiple shooters? Or someone fast. Very, very fast. That grouping is spot-on as well…"
The camera zoomed out, showing the crowd starting to react, screaming in panic for the most part, while bodyguards drew pistols and scanned around vainly, looking for targets. Many people flung themselves to the floor, while others seemed to be overwhelmed with the situation, and stood, mouths agape. A voice started to narrate, presumably the news anchor for whichever channel Hunter was streaming from.
"This is the scene of the assassination of Bard al Din Ibn Eisa, only minutes ago. Ibn Eisa was speaking to a diverse audience, representing multiple branches of Islam, calling for unification and closer co-operation between them, hoping to bring in a new era of peace and harmony, when what is suspected to be a number of gunmen launched a lethal assault." The talking head continued, detailing recent events and some details about the local politics, and what was now happening.
Hunter swapped to another channel, showing the same series of events, shot from a different angle. This time as the rounds hit, he paused the feed, advancing through the playback frame by frame, trying to compensate for the compression artefacts and limited resolution of the hastily presented footage.
"Do they not have mages to prevent things like that? Barriers and such like?" Marius asked.
"Yes – if the target is important enough, or there is a significant threat." Shimazu confirmed. "But they are expensive, and often it is judged that physical security alone is sufficient. It depends on the country or corporation, and the protectee. And they are not infallible."
"Obviously." Marius responded dryly. "I remember as a child seeing another assassination attempt on an elf, a powerful political figure. They shot at him, and the bullets were intercepted by some glowing blue barrier that sprang into existence. They hit it, and just stopped, about ten centimetres short of the target. Nothing hit him, nothing at all. Clearly not what happened here."
"Perhaps they were magically enchanted bullets – if they are, then some mage is about to get hunted to the ends of the earth. If his signature is on those rounds, they're going to track him down like you would not believe."
"Indeed. He is one of the most respected preachers in the Muslim world. A driving force for the unification of Arabia, as I understand it. He was awarded the position of the high-most advisor to the first Caliph of Arabia as a result of his tireless efforts on the unification. But for all that, he was seen as a moderate, a tempering force. He called for respect for other faiths, not just those 'of the book', but all other faiths and cultures.
"If that's the case, he does sound important. Could that be a body-double of him? Not the real one? That might explain why he's not magically protected. Though that's awful if it's someone that looks like him that they've sacrificed…"
"I don't think so, Tads." Hunter bought up a summary page, showing Matrix activity on the various media outlets and activity related to public searches. The increase in activity was like a mountain, rising sharply as the news spread and people started to key in their own searches, and all of the news outlets seemed to be confirming that it was the real person that had died.
"Perhaps if he was the real preacher then this is an inside job. His mages have betrayed him – or maybe even his entire protective detail? Can you play it back again, Hunter, nice and slow?"
"Sure, Aswon. The quality is going to be for shit though – they're all just throwing out the live stream at the moment with awful compression and stuff. Trying to get the story out quick, I guess."
They watched again, Hunter stepping through the feed slowly once more. This time Aswon narrated the attack, describing it as if he was the shooter – how he would have proceeded with an attack on a 'high value single target with political and religious impact'. His tone was dry and analytical, as he detailed how he'd have set up a sniper nest a kilometre or more away, sighting in on the podium from a slightly elevated position. Checking the wind direction, temperature and humidity, feeding the variables into a ballistic computer to determine the offset required to account for air density, wind, terrain, even the curvature of the earth.
"But this – this is the clincher. This is a professional hit. The first round hits, and it's only a few factions of a second before the second strikes – before the body has even started to fall. That's a double-tap, with a heavy calibre rifle, from a significant distance. Nobody has even started to react to the attack yet, so it's either so heavily suppressed that nobody has heard it – or the bullets are arriving before the sound of the gunshot. But then rounds three… and four hit. They're following up, but slightly lower… to account for the body starting to drop. All four rounds hit in less than a second by my reckoning. All in a tight group, right in the head. That, my friends, is some impressive shooting. I don't think I could get a grouping that tight. Not at that speed. We're talking top flight shooters, some of the best in the world. This is a pro-job, if ever we saw one."
They watched through a few more times, Hunter feeding them different channels to get alternate viewpoints and positions, and they were able to start building up a good image of the situation, where everyone was standing, what their reactions were.
"Look, from this one – you can see the reporter on the other side. That's a KSAF logo."
"What does that mean Marius?" Tads looked confused, not understanding the relevance.
"KSAF is a tiny news outlet, really small. They should not be important at all. But somehow, over the last twenty odd years, they have managed to be in a position to capture events of massive global importance. Some claim that they have magical backers, able to divine the future. Or powerful patrons inside intelligence agencies. But if there is something world-shaking going on, then it is a good bet that KSAF will be there to cover it."
"Could this be something to do with those news reporters we saw in Trafford?" Tads asked.
"Um… maybe?" Hunter crunched the numbers quickly. "Technically yes, they could have gotten down there in time. I don't see why though. There's plenty of other reporters there, covering this. In fact, they're all mostly local, or local agents anyway. Not sure why… ahh, it's in Mecca. There's restrictions – no non-Muslims allowed in the city. So they must subcontract out, or have someone on payroll that's a Muslim."
"This could throw a massive issue out." Shimazu gestured at the screen. "These people here, they're clerics of different sub-sects of Islam. The smaller ones, somewhat marginalised in general terms, but still representing hundreds of thousands of people. Ibn Eisa was preaching tolerance and trying to bring them together – get them working together. If they're now suspected of sabotaging the peace talks, or suspect each other, then that's going to drive an enormous wedge between them."
Kai and Shimazu started to focus on the crowd and the other preachers, looking at their reactions, examining them on multiple replays and from different angles – but all of the shock and horror seemed to be genuine, and heartfelt. None of the bodyguards or officials seemed to be expecting this, and nobody reacted 'wrongly' giving off the impression of knowing what was to happen, or acting out of character.
"Hey – that guy, though! I remember him!" Marius stabbed at the screen, highlighting one of the senior-looking advisors. The rest of the team examined him, but didn't recognise his face, and he didn't seem to be identified by any of the news reports so far. "That is the man we rescued from the crater. The radioactive crater. April of last year. When we were hunting scorpions in Libya. We found him passed out in the bottom of the crater, and revived him."
"Oh yeah! Now you mention it. Is that coincidence?" Kai squinted, trying to bring up a mental picture of the cleric they'd found, but mostly remember that it had been hotter than he'd ever wanted to be, and that the sand had gotten everywhere.
"No good deed goes unpunished, it seems." Marius snorted.
"Maybe he's a moderating influence – that's why he's with Ibn Eisa? He seemed like a decent enough guy, from what I recall. And he obviously made it back from his vision quest." Aswon smiled a little, remembering his exhilarating run over the desert to deliver supplies to the man.
They continued to watch the footage, now with the audio muted. There was no new information, and all the news channels were now just regurgitating the same few facts they had, trying to dress them up as alternatives or breaking news, doing whatever they could to retain viewers.
Hunter reminded Aswon that he'd been the one to discover the three-round-burst capability on his heavy anti-material rifle, and theorised that it could be an even more specialist version of such a weapon, that had a four-round mode. Aswon though theorised that it was more likely to be a pair of snipers, concealed side by side, and perhaps linked with a mind-link, like the one Tads used for the team, to allow them to synchronise their shots perfectly.
After thirty minutes, there still wasn't much new, and they figured they'd absorbed as much information from the scene as it was possible to gain – at least until better footage or more details were released. Aswon decided to send Topshot a message, asking if she'd seen the news – figuring that she would also understand the craft and level of skill involved in the attack, regardless of how she felt about the targets. A few minutes later, he got a response from her.
[I had not. But it is impressive, was it not?]
"Well, hopefully that means it wasn't Rocket and his team that did that. If it was, I think they'd still be too busy running to play it that cool!"
"I agree. If they had not gone entirely dark. I would certainly not want to risk transmissions at all if we had just performed an attack like that." Marius stretched, then checked the time. "And speaking of moving – should we be getting ready to head towards Shanghai?"
"Yes – we should. Ok, let's saddle up, folks. I'm sure there'll be more news later." Kai led the way to the Broadsword, the engines already starting to rumble as Marius started them up remotely, and the team climbed aboard, getting ready for the next leg of their journey.