The team slept well, relaxing in the perceived safety of the ranch. The guests were all run of the mill tourists, and were well looked after by the family – staying around their cabins or hiking up into the hills – though none of them were inclined to use the training facilities, it seemed. Tads had been up at dawn to renew the spirits and commune with her totem, top up the food supplies for the pantry and then had climbed up and out of the hatch on top of the truck to lay on the roof and meditate. Aswon checked up on her a little while later, but decided that the gentle snoring meant that she was obviously well in need of her 'meditation' and left her to it – though he kept half an eye out on her position while he did some laps of the ranch to keep his fitness up.
After he'd jogged for an hour, he'd given Spook a call in Hong Kong, filling her in on the situation that had occurred in Kabul, and had asked her to have a think about who might be involved – though he'd stressed that whoever it was, was clearly serious about starting a fight with the team, and he certainly didn't want her to get caught up in the crossfire. She'd reassured him that she'd be very discreet, but would have a think, and maybe sound out a few people, very quietly, to see if there was anyone that could match that style working the shadows.
Hunter had joined Aswon for some of the run, but had taken off half way through up into the hills at a faster pace – running for speed rather than jogging for endurance. It still amused Aswon to see the massive ork running – he'd long since gotten used to the sight of someone weighing over a hundred and thirty kilos running as fast as Hunter did, and his amusement was now entirely reserved for the looks on other people's faces that decided to think of him as a big, dumb, slow ork – which he most certainly wasn't.
He saw Tads stir from the roof, heading back into the house and joined her, intending to head up for a shower unless she had anything planned.
"Hey Tads. Got much planned for today?"
"Good morning Aswon. I've just been meditating and…" she paused as he grinned at her, but when he didn't say anything, she continued, "and I've got that new spell formula pretty much mapped out in my head. But I'm going to go on a dream-quest to talk to Elk, and see if I can get some insights on making sense of it."
"Ahh. Then I will make sure I am available to watch over you. When do you plan on starting?"
"After lunch I think. I've got some preparations to make first."
"Very good, I've got time for a shower first then!"
They headed into the house, chatting away about magical theory – Aswon was the most magically knowledgeable of the three physical-adepts, despite not having the raw power that Shimazu controlled, and Tads often used him as a sounding board for ideas. Their conversation stopped though as they entered the kitchen and saw Marius staring at his data-pad with a face that looked like he was breakfasting on lemons.
"You alright there, Marius?"
"No Aswon, I am not. It seems that they have scheduled in an examination for me. Today. In less than two hours."
"Oh, is this the people from Ares?"
"It would appear so. I tried to call and rearrange things, but it is not moveable, so I am told. This is very unwelcome." Marius normally spoke a fairly flat and emotionless English, being very precise and correct in his diction – but he sounded incredibly polite and formal now, which was normally a sign that he was very annoyed indeed. This kind of voice was normally reserved for people that did horrible crimes like scratching the paintwork on a car or poor lane discipline, rather than just regular annoyances like theft and murder.
"So… what's the plan?"
"I sit the exam. There will be things I do not know, but I hope that my general level of education will stand me in good stead. I should be able to work out many things from first principles, as long as there is sufficient time."
"Well… good luck?" Aswon shrugged. Growing up with the tribe he'd not experienced formal education – everything had been taught to him by the elders of the tribe or from the school of hard knocks, and his military experience had been much the same. The idea of book-learning was somewhat alien to him, but Marius seemed to be quietly confident.
Marius grabbed the office, setting up his tablet and attaching the interface from the office computer to make it communicate over the wired connection and keep it fully charged – the last thing he wanted was a connection drop or low battery warning mid-exam. Once he had a few supplies laid in, he pushed the door closed, and logged into the exam system, authenticating himself and starting the test.
The rest of the team cracked on with their days, going about their various activities in and around the ranch, with only the occasional glance at the closed door of the office. When the door opened two hours later, Marius walked out in a slight daze, heading to the kitchen to clean his now-empty glass and plate. He ignored the others, seeming not to hear their questions about how it had gone.
Hunter wandered into the office and bent down over the terminal , reading the tiny text in the dialogue box on screen.
'Examination result: 37%'
He sucked in breath through his teeth in surprise… that seemed low. Stabbing at the ok button with a calloused finger, he saw the result disappear, then frowned as a new dialogue box appeared in its place.
'Your test results have placed you in an unacceptable position. Based upon your current performance, further upgrades and enhancements will not be offered, and no further support will be available. It is essential that your grades are raised to an acceptable level to allow us to review this decision. You may re-sit this examination in five days.'
"Frak… Marius! Hey, dude… there's a message for you here!" Marius returned, reading the message and his skin seemed to pale a little as the consequences sank in. "They can't remote shut down your stuff, can they?"
"I have no indication they can. However, it is a possibility…"
"We'd best run some diagnostics and stuff. Just to be sure… let me get my deck." Hunter hurried away, leaving Marius standing in the office staring at the screen in silence, arms folded before him. He grabbed his computer and a few cables, and turned, stopping in surprise as he saw Marius had followed him, heading over to the briefcase and opening the lock with a scan of his fingerprint.
"I will not be beaten by this." His eyes locked onto Hunter's, fixing him with a steely stare. The icy blue of his cyber-eyes staring at the ork unblinking. "I have a number of days. I will sit the examination again. I will pass." His voice was confident, unwavering. This wasn't a hope, or a desire. It had a finality about it that made it sound more like a pronouncement. "I must get to work."
"Want a study-buddy?"
"You may join me if you wish. In fact, this might be useful to our team anyway. I still do not know why I must learn these things – but I am convinced that there is a much larger plan at work here. I think having additional members of the team able to utilise these skills will be beneficial."
"Gotcha. Let me grab a coffee then…"
The two of them settled down, cataloguing the chips once more, and then coming up with a study plan to work through them…
The next few days passed quietly enough, with everyone having things to do. While the family ran the ranch and looked after the holiday guests, each of the team members worked on their own personal goals, often spending most of the day in training or study, before meeting back up again for the evening meal.
Aswon spent days wandering the grounds of the ranch and looking for rare plants and exotic insects and critters, studying his finds and trying to learn more and refine his knowledge of parazoology, and sharpening his skills for talismongering. In the evenings, he started to go through some training materials he'd found online for tactical analysis, reading through the guidance and then working back through several of the fights or operations the team had been involved with, trying to dispassionately review what had happened to see where he could have improved their decision making and planning.
Tads disappeared into her lodge for nearly twenty-four hours, visiting the meta-planes on her quest for knowledge and seeking the advice and aid of her mentor spirit, before then spending a few days meditating in the trailer-lodge as she absorbed the magical formula that she'd picked up in Sochi. At first the magical swirls and energies of the formula eluded her, but then one day it was as if a key had turned in a lock, opening a door to some new room of knowledge. The formula just leapt into focus, magical power sleeting into her head and she grasped the significance of each minute mark on the leather skin, each rough patch where the hide had been gouged, every cut and slice on the exterior.
She grabbed a bike and headed into the town, checking out the clinic and riding around for a while, until she found someone that was injured. It was a minor wound, caused by a slip with a knife, that would probably have healed by itself – but she gathered mana to her and then extruded it through her fingertips, watching as the golden energy coalesced through the end of her digits into the cut. The golden energy was brighter, rivalling the midday sun and made the entire room glow like the finale of a rock concert, banishing shadows and making the local shield his eyes from the intensity of the light. Satisfied that the spell worked – and was powerful enough now to bring someone back from the brink of death to nothing more than a mild limp, she headed back to the ranch, feeling drained but satisfied with her new knowledge.
Shimazu spent a while in town also – training students at the hall in the centre of the settlement. Teaching the youngsters provided a means for him to regain his own centre, and forced him to study his own form and approach, trying to give them a perfect example of his art. The youngsters lapped up his instruction, and the sound of wooden training swords smashing into one another rang out for hours on end as they flung themselves into their training. He also worked with Aswon a little around the evenings, helping the tribesman develop his own skills with the spear by providing a skilled opponent that he had to work hard to score against. Despite the reach advantage that his longer weapon gave him, Aswon struggled to hold his own against the swordsman and his uncanny ability to control his blade.
Kai had made some phone calls at the start of the week, touching base with some of his buddies in one of the Chinese states that seemed to be in the arms trade, and had found someone that could supply modified broad-head arrow tips that contained a small reservoir and an impact-triggered plunger. He'd purchased several dozens of the high-tech arrowheads and arranged for them to be shipped over, then had Nadia source a company that could supply arrow shafts and fletchings that he could mate them up with.
While he was waiting for those to be delivered, he split his time up into some physical training. Each day he spent an hour or two at the archery range, practicing with both of his new bows as well as his old one, learning the subtle differences between how each of them handled and performed, improving his aim and draw speed with shot after shot on the trail range they'd set up. When his arm was aching from the repeated pull of the bow string, he swapped over to the adjacent pistol range, burning through box after box of the nasty and cheap ammo they'd accumulated through their travels, blasting target after target until he'd had to stop to clean his weapon of the gunk deposited in the action by the poor-quality rounds. He'd also spent time early in the mornings joining the classes in town, feeling a little self-conscious at first as the only adult other than Shimazu there. But, the kids hadn't cared, so he decided that neither did he – and he actually found it useful to watch them and their approach to the skills from a position of absolute ignorance, helping him identify a few of his own bad habits and working to eliminate them.
As the team gathered for their evening meal on Thursday, Shimazu cleared his throat.
"Sato called me today. About the issue in Kabul. He's done some very quiet investigations, and has some information that I think is interesting…" He spent the next few minutes describing the fragments of rumour and gossip, potential sightings and stories, detailing a few posts that had been made on Shadowland that seemed to give credence to the information.
"That's interesting, all right… You know I called Spook at the start of the week, right?" Shimazu nodded at Aswon. "Well, she's come back to me with some stuff, too." He checked his notes on his commlink, running through the various rumours and tales he'd heard from his friend in Hong Kong, listing the information she'd managed to scrape together. About a quarter of what he'd been given seemed to tally up directly with some of the information Shimazu had gained from Sato, providing corroboration to the data, while the rest seemed to be different – but more importantly it was complementary. There were a few bits that didn't add up, of course, but that was mostly the weaker stuff, where it was likely to be a case of hyperbole or drunken embellishment from someone. But everything they'd heard that seemed to be reliable, or at least likely, seemed to point towards the perpetrator of the attack being the courier they'd robbed back in Tehran.
"I told you so." Tads commented. "And it makes sense from the things you saw when you examined the scene of the attack, Shimazu. From her perspective, you did attack her, exactly as you saw it. Coming out of the mist – that she created, I know – to try and kill her."
"I was pretty sure she was dead. I certainly hit her hard enough!"
"Well… she hit you pretty hard, too, and she might be thinking the same thing if she knew you were walking and talking. Maybe she had a friend at the market that looked after her. Or a healing potion. Or a friendly spirit… lots of ways she could have been healed up from an attack like that. Even attention from a normal doctor, someone like Kai. It would have taken her months to recover from the attack in that case – but she's had time."
"That does raise an interesting question, then." Shimazu drummed his fingers on the table for a moment, staring into space as he mentally recalled information from the psychology tutor he'd studied under in Egypt. "Let's assume for the moment, that it was her. Somehow, it doesn't matter how, she got healed, and then started to track us down."
"Alright… where are you going with this?" Aswon asked curiously.
"The question then is… if she was magically damaged during the combat, is that the reason why she's come after me. If she had her aura damaged by the near-death experience, and became magically weaker as a result… is that enough?" His voice trailed off a little and his brows knitted together as he thought.
"Is that enough what? That doesn't make sense…Enough to attack you? I think that's self-evident!"
"No. Well, yes, I suppose. But no, what I mean is… if she did become magically affected, and lost power, is her attack on me a case for 'eye for an eye', and that's what's driven her.
"Well, yes?"
"I'm not explaining this well. Ok, look at it from a different perspective. Is she going to stop now. She's taken from me exactly what I took from her. She's magically weakened me, robbed me of some power. If she swore vengeance after the attack – is that now enough. Is her 'honour' satisfied, and she's going to leave us alone now. Or is it more than that… has she sworn a blood oath to destroy me, to keep hunting me down to pay back for what we did?"
"Oh – I see what you mean now." Aswon sat back and thought about it. "I mean, I've heard of several people with talent taking horrible injuries, and some of them seemed to have made pacts or bargains with their mentors or spirit guardians. To only use their talent at night, or to sing or chant while doing it. Accepting some kind of geas upon their soul. Interesting… yeah, I can see it going either way now. What do you think?"
"I think I need to know more about her personality and history. I agree, it could be just as likely to be either all done from her perspective, or just the beginning. If we knew more about her though, I could probably do a better analysis and come up with some kind of assessment. But it's a start. If she was going for the former, and now thinks we're even… well, I guess I need to think about how I feel about that."
Aswon went to reply, then stopped, his mouth closing abruptly. Shimazu didn't need to hear his point of view – in fact he probably already knew what he'd been about to say, that he should just drop the issue if that was possible. But then he wasn't the person who'd been robbed of some of their power, had their soul diminished and weakened. And in a moment of clarity he realised that until he faced such a loss himself, he probably couldn't really understand how it would affect him, and to what ends he'd go to seek revenge or restitution.
His mind flipped back to that moment when he'd been about to board the tilt-wing, back after the mission to destroy the rocket launch, when he'd received his vision from Nigeria. He'd known he'd had to go – but there was no reason the team had to follow him. But they had. They'd come with him, crossing most of Africa and punching one of the ten biggest corporations on the planet square in the nose, not just once but several times, leaving them bloody and sore.
They'd summoned a spirit – the most powerful spirit that Tads had ever called, and set it free, hoping that it would be friendly. Only after he'd seen it rampaging through the Novatech construction site, throwing helicopters around like sticks and punching spears of obsidian through the sides of armoured personnel carriers and heavy construction machinery like they were tissue paper, did he truly understand what kind of risk that had represented. And they'd followed him into the dream, wandering the ethereal realm with him in the village. Even Hunter and Marius, with their complete lack of magical talent, had put themselves into a situation so alien that they had no hope of understanding what was going on, or of getting themselves home without help.
So he looked at Shimazu, and gave him a nod, and a look that he hoped indicated that he had his quiet but unwavering support. Even if Aswon wasn't sure it was the right course of action, he – and the team – would be there to back him up. After a moment, he glanced around the table and saw that the others seemed to have reached the same conclusion as well…
The following morning, Marius rose early, joining the others for a run. He'd been almost entirely focussed on the books and chips supplied for the week, studying for the entire day with barely any interruptions. By evening, his brain frazzled and worn from the efforts of the day, he'd had generally had only enough energy and drive to spend some quiet time with Nadia and Marius Junior. This morning though, he clearly felt that he needed to do some physical activity, something to get his system energised before the exam was begun. Aswon and Hunter flanked him, pushing the pace ever so gently and running in step with him, driving him onwards as they pounded out several kilometres around the ranch.
Once back, dripping with sweat and winded, he headed for the shower, enjoying several minutes under the almost-scalding water as he recovered from his physical exertions, and prepared himself for what was to come. Assuming that it was going to be a repeat of the examination already sat, he knew he had a single session of a hundred and twenty minute duration, with no pauses or breaks. And he also knew that the test was going to be hard – very, very hard.
As he stood in the shower, water pounding into him from the shower head and pummelling his skin, he thought about the exam, and his shock at the score he'd received. When he was younger, he hadn't appreciated how intelligent he was – he just knew that he picked things up quickly and seemed to solve puzzles easily. His parents had always supported him, making sure there was something to do, plenty of activities to stretch his mind. It was only when he went to school with others that he realised how great the difference was. Even in the education institutions 'gifted and talented' class, he'd been comfortably at the top, acing test after test and learning new material at a prodigious rate.
He flew through school, taking his normal graduation exams several years early, then moving on to the more advanced diplomas. These were more involved, though not that much harder – and he continued to do well academically, with most of the effort needing to be made on the social interactivity as he found himself dealing with people many years older than himself.
His high intelligence had led him to transitioning from flight school into intelligence operations, where he'd found his natural abilities had an outlet, something to channel himself into, something where he finally found challenging problems to sink his teeth into. But even then, he'd made good progress and had success.
The examination earlier in the week had come as a rude awakening. Never before had he felt quite so out of his depth and unprepared. He wondered if this is what the 'normal' children had felt like in school, struggling with concepts and ideas, working to learn formulas and having to work through a problem several times to get the right answer. The unexpected examination had caught him flat-footed, and that happened rarely enough that he was at the edge of his comfort zone, and the score had felt like a bucket of ice-water tipped over his head.
But Marius was more than just intelligent. He was determined, too – his parents were both successful in their fields, working hard for Saeder-Krupp, and he had been blessed with a stable and supportive upbringing. Neither of his two younger sisters had the same gift, it seemed, though they both did well-enough, and he'd at least experienced set-backs and stumbles through them, seeing how they coped with difficulty and failure. His education had been broad, too – the school's curriculum designed to turn out the next generation of scientists and workers to push the massive SK empire further towards its goals. After the initial feeling of horror, he'd rallied and buckled down, consuming the knowledge contained in the books and chips with a voracious appetite.
Towelling himself off, he mentally prepared himself, calming and clearing his mind just like he used to before a flight. He'd done all that he could in the week leading up to this point – now it was time to apply himself and see how much better he could do.
Dressed in fresh clothes, he headed for the office, where Hunter had set up the tablet and systems ready. The ork gave no sign of leaving, though, as Marius logged into the exam system.
"Gonna stay and shoulder surf. Wanna see how much I've learnt as well. Maybe I might be able to help with the odd question, too." Marius thought about it, then shrugged. On one hand he wanted to see how much he'd learnt, and not do this as a joint effort – but on the other, he'd come to realise that this was important, and if Hunter was able to help, even a little, then it might be far better to do so for the sake of their future, rather than any mild bruising to his ego.
"Very well. Ready? Question one." He tapped the key, and they saw the first question appear on the screen, the schematic of a high-pressure reactor laid out on the screen before them, along with supposed readings from the monitoring systems that controlled it, indicating that an anomalous event was underway and asking what controls needed to be adjusted to bring the reactor back under normal control.
The rest of the team left them to it, carrying on their tasks and trying to give them some peace and quiet to concentrate – though rather coincidently, they all managed to be back at or around the kitchen table just as the two hour mark passed.
"How did it go?" Kai asked as the pair entered the kitchen area.
"Well, I can tell you that Marius wasn't lying when he said that was hard!" Hunter glanced over at Marius, who was heading towards the coffee pot with a look of determination on his face. "There were questions in there where I didn't even recognise all the maths symbols."
"But it went better than the first time?"
"Oh, yeah. But Marius can tell you."
"It was not ideal. There is still much to learn – but the exam was passed."
"Do you get a prize or anything?"
"Well, a message was sent offering congratulations, and informing me that further course materials and upgrades will be provided."
"That doesn't sound like much…"
"It depends, Kai. If 'upgrades' in this case counts as continued support and fixes for his cyber-ware, that could be pretty important!"
"Ahh, true enough, Aswon. I hadn't thought of it like that…so come on – what did you score?"
"Sixty-eight percent."
The room fell quiet as they considered that. All of them knew how intelligent Marius was – after nearly two years of living and working in such close proximity to each other, it was impossible not to. And if someone that clever was only scoring sixty-eight on a test after a solid week of cramming – that made the test difficult indeed!
With the exam out of the way and the deadline in the past, Marius relaxed considerably, and went out to spend the afternoon tinkering with the vehicles, unwinding after the relentless schedule of the past week. The rest of the team resumed their training and studies, carrying on with their various activities around the ranch.
A little after nine that evening, Kai received a call, making his eyebrow raise in surprise.
"It's Daruka… the drug warlord guy from Kabul." He took a breath and put a smile on his face, then hit the accept key. "Good evening, Mr. Daruka. Just to let you know, I have you on speaker, with the rest of my team."
"That is ok. How are you? And perhaps more important, how was your…delivery?"
"Ahh, we're well thank you. And our delivery went well – all made without a hitch."
"This is good. So are you carrying out a new job for someone?"
"We're not actually, we're having a bit of a break, just enjoying the sunshine."
"Oh – so not available to work, then?"
"I didn't say that – just that we're currently resting. It depends what you have…"
"You managed to sell you previous purchases then, and move on your product?"
"Yes, our buyer was very pleased. This was an unusual line of business for us – not a market we're normally in."
"Well, I may have a business opportunity for you, then. Something along the same lines – but a rather larger order."
"How much larger?"
"About five hundred kilos, potentially. But there is a time constraint."
"Ahh, tight timescales – now that is something we're familiar with. What are we looking at here?"
"Well, I'm sure you are aware of the recent activities in the South China Sea?"
Aswon gestured at Kai, making a throat slitting motion, so Kai hit the mute button momentarily.
"Remember in the news a few days back – there was a freighter got boarded, several tons of drugs got found?" Kai nodded, then released the mute key.
"Ahh, yes – of course. So I imagine that things are a little disturbed at the moment."
"Yes – that is so. There is an opportunity here. Anyone able to supply the area with new product will no doubt find the price very rewarding."
"I see… so you want us to move some…product?"
"Well, in a way, yes. I have met you, but only once. I do not know you. Perhaps we will know each other better after working together. But I do not know if I can trust you…"
"Very wise, Mr. Daruka. So what is the deal?"
"I have product. I have the details of a buyer. I will sell you some product – and you take it to the buyer, and sell it for a profit. A large profit, no doubt. And once we have done business, then perhaps there will be more trust in the future."
"I see. Well, that sounds intriguing. I think we need to discuss this amongst ourselves for a few minutes, to work out the logistics involved. Can I call you back?"
"Yes, on this number. I will be available for a while." Daruka terminated the call without saying goodbye, and Kai lowered his commlink.
"Are we drug dealers now?" Hunter seemed less than impressed with the idea, and sat back in his seat, giving Kai a fixed stare – at least until Aswon spoke, pulling his gaze to him.
"Yes. What's wrong with that? We're smugglers. We move things from one place to another. Does it matter if its drugs, or guns, or diamonds, or chips? We have rules that we've decided to work with – no unwilling people. Beyond that… does it matter if it's heroin from Turkestan to somewhere else, or medical drugs stolen from a pharmaceutical company to another country? It's what we do…"
"Well, I'm not keen on the idea."
"Me neither – but for a different reason." Hunter turned to look at Shimazu. "I'm wondering if it's a setup. What about if that courier has found out I'm alive and wants to finish the job off. Find a neutral contact, get them to offer us a job and wait for us to turn up at the ambush site to do the delivery…"
"That's possible, I suppose. But Daruka struck me as far too business-like for something like that." Kai countered. "It's worth keeping in the back of the mind, but I also don't think the courier would want to get on the bad side of someone like that. Shimazu – your read on Daruka… would he have any issues with making an example of someone that was interfering with his business?"
"Um… no. And I take your point. But I'd still be concerned. If there has been a major drugs bust recently, they have to know that people will be looking to head into the area to capitalise on the situation – so the authorities are going to be on high alert, and looking for people trying to take up the slack."
"Agreed – and I think that's a valid point. On the other hand, we have an exceptional pilot, aircraft and shaman to protect us and get us across the border, don't we?"
"Well, I got another reason we can't do it, then." Hunter pointed at his screen, where he'd just done a quick series of calculations. "He wants half a ton moving – which we have capacity for. I mean, the Broadsword can carry lots more than that, both in terms of weight and size. I reckon 500kg would probably fill a pallet. But we've got to buy that up front? Pah… if we're paying seven grand a kilo, then we need three and a half million Nuyen to front the deal! And why would we be fronting that kind of money anyway?"
"That's actually somewhat normal, as far as I know." Kai countered. "Until you're well trusted by a dealer or supplier, you're generally buying and selling the goods, not just moving them. If we ran off with Daruka's cargo, who's he going to go crying to after all? Can't call the police, or his government, or a corp…"
"Well, we still can't front that kind of money!"
"I'm sure it would come down in price, buying in bulk." Aswon countered.
"Sure – I'd expect that. But look here!" Hunter stabbed at a different column of figures. "Even if he dropped the price down to 5k per kilo, then we're still talking two and a half million to buy the cargo. And we haven't got that!"
"How much do we have?"
"About eight hundred and fifty thousand, all told, spread across multiple credsticks."
"So why don't we agree a price ceiling, assuming we're not going to refuse the job entirely, and tell him that we can spend a certain amount of money, and buy as many kilos as we can for that amount?"
"What is the etiquette here, Kai?" Tads asked. "I mean – the man is dangerous, or you at least gave that impression. Not that we aren't dangerous too, in our own ways. But this is a man we don't want to upset. So how do we do that?"
"I think we have to play it very straight with him. Let him know exactly what we will and won't do, and how much we're willing to invest – but then stick to that deal. I'd rather disappoint him a little by not being quite as well funded as he wants, rather than upset him by changing the deal at the last minute. Or several times."
"I would agree." Shimazu added. "Though I am still uncomfortable with the idea – I think it's very risky, which what's involved. I see the drug trade as being particularly likely for double-crosses and interference or selling out to people, so we need to be careful. But just the fact that this seizure was down in the South China Sea. So that means we'd be travelling from here, down past Tehran, past Kabul, all the way down towards Hong Kong and possibly the Philippines. And all of that is the territory we've been told the courier works in."
"I agree." Marius set down his coffee cup, speaking for the first time in the discussion. I think there is risk, potentially a significant risk. But that also means there is a reward. If the area has had a major bust recently, then there are no drugs on the streets. Or there will be none soon… and this is a sellers' market. It is not regulated. People will charge whatever the market will cope with. And I agree, Shimazu, that this could all be a ruse or a setup for an ambush. But the first part of dealing with an ambush is to know that it is there. If we did this, we should be on our guard, ready to respond at a moment's notice. But we have a lot of firepower at our disposal, enough to get through some serious opposition. I think it is worth the risk."
"Tell me about the potential routes…" Kai asked, and Hunter pulled out the cable from his deck and jammed it into his datajack, then displaying a map with their home base on the left side of the screen and the Pacific on the right.
"It depends exactly where we're going of course, and we won't know that until we take the job. But assuming that we are replacing the drugs seized in that boat raid, it's somewhere within a few hundred kilometres of a port, most likely. So that means anywhere in the Philippines or along the Chinese coast, Papa New Guinea perhaps, Malaysia…" He highlighted each area as he named them, filling in portions of the map. "But we're talking about six to seven thousand kilometres, each way. If it's close we could do it with one fuel stop, but chances are it's going to take two."
"And what do we have in the way of fuel stops in that direction?"
"Not a lot. If we go north a little we've got that idiot that wants to be paid in water in the middle of the desert, near the dried up sea. If we go south, then there's 'Keith's', the British guy in the old sand fort. In between is the Ski Lift – Rasheed and his crew, though that's possibly a bit close to Aden's mountain for our liking. Much further east and the next best place we have is Tara airport, so we could probably hit that – but then we've gone so far north that we're burning a bunch of fuel to come back – plus the fact that we end up going near Tibet."
"Let us not do that. I have heard far too many rumours about craft disappearing into those clouds." Marius jumped in quickly. "I do not know what the effect is around that country, but it is clearly effective, and I have no desire for us to add to those statistics."
"Right. Ok, so we need to talk to our contacts and find some smuggler stops along the southern side of Tibet – so anywhere India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh… anywhere along there." Kai described a fairly large area of the map with a couple of hand gestures. "There's got to be someone we know who knows someone else… just need to find the right person."
"So – we can't afford to take the full shipment on. And we don't have a price per kilo yet. So how about we tell him that we've got a price ceiling, and buy as many kilos as we can get for that? So… say we tell him we only want to spend a hundred thousand." Hunter redirected the conversation back to the quantity of cash they were willing to spend."
"Um… I'm not the best at maths… but isn't that about thirteen kilos worth? If it costs the same as we paid before?" Tads surreptitiously counted on her fingers to double check herself.
"Yes… that's right." Hunter nodded at her. "I have no idea how much we can sell for though…"
"If the whole area is demanding new product, then the price will skyrocket. And if we can supply in quantity, then we can dictate the price, to a certain extent. I don't know quite how desperate people would be… but let's say we can sell at ten thousand per kilo? To at least work out the profit margins…" Aswon suggested.
"Well in that case, we're frakked. Buying thirteen kilos at seven grand a kilo will cost us ninety-one thousand. And if we sell at ten thousand per kilo, we'll net a hundred and thirty thousand Nuyen."
"Well, that's pretty good, right? That's forty one thousand?"
"Ahh, but it's going to cost us around sixty-five thousand in fuel to get there and back, so we'll actually lose twenty-four thousand overall."
"Oh."
"Yeah. The Broadsword is quick, and actually efficient for its size, but fuel ain't cheap."
Hunter expanded his table of figures out, and they spent a few minutes working out the potential return on various different quantities of drugs, realising that they needed to shift a reasonable quantity to actually make the venture worthwhile. If they invested five hundred thousand of their cash, they could get eighty-one kilograms – assuming there was no bulk discount – and if their expectation held true, they could sell those for 810,000 Nuyen. Even after taking their fuel costs off, that still potentially made them a profit of 245,000 Nuyen – and that seemed like an amount worth running the risks over.
"I think we should do it. But we need to be appropriately cautious. It's our first time in the area, and we should be wary of double crosses – not only because of the courier, but just because of the type of people we're dealing with." Aswon pointed out. "These are not nice people generally. They can't afford to be, not in that line of work. We shouldn't seek out any confrontations, but we should be prepared."
"I'm still very wary of this. It just feels like too much of a setup." Shimazu looked uncomfortable saying it, realising what an ask it was to the rest of the team.
"I understand your concerns Shimazu. But for how long can we afford to turn down work because it might be a setup? Or for what areas of the world? There is an inherent risk to what we do, and if we want to avoid risk entirely, then I think we need to reconsider our line of work." Marius spoke in a calm voice, and Shimazu looked at him for a moment, then sighed and nodded, conceding the point.
"We can do this. I'm sure we can. The question is, will it be enough for Daruka? It's nowhere near the five hundred kilos he wanted shifting."
"I am uncomfortable spending more than the agreed five hundred thousand." Marius responded. "That means even after the fuel costs we still have some operating funds for emergencies or opportunities. We can purchase more, and potentially make more profit – but we run the risk of not being able to cope with any unforeseen circumstances. And I feel those things happen more often than not, at least in our experience!"
"True, true enough."
"But we should approach every fuel stop, every meeting as if it is an ambush. We plan carefully. We keep eyes open. We deploy overwatch. We make sure we have an escape route prepared. We analyse the tactical situation and make sure we all know what to do if a fight kicks off."
"Agreed. Shimazu?" Kai looked over at his bodyguard, studying him carefully. After a moment the man nodded, agreeing to the plan. "Good. Aswon, Tads, Hunter… ok then." Each of the team members nodded in turn as Kai pointed at them.
"I have something I want to say."
"I thought you just agreed to go, Tads?"
"I did, Kai. This is about how we do that." She waited for him to nod then continued. "Bear in mind that unlike the last vehicle, we can't change the colour as we're flying around. We're either see-though using the polymer thingies, or we're not. If you want me to disguise us, that means I have to hold up a spell on the aircraft all the time. That makes doing a lot of other things much more difficult, and some things impossible. I can't go out of my body to scout, for instance. You need to bear that in mind if we're wanting the hide the Broadsword as something else."
"Shimazu was attacked with a powerful magical attack. In light of that, I think I would rather have you defending us all with your magic, not hiding us. We can still rely on one of your spirits to obscure us, yes?" Tads nodded to Marius. "Excellent. Then I think we should rely on the natural stealth designed into the aircraft, plus my skills and the utility of the spirit – and reserve your magic for where it is needed."
"Don't forget, we wanted to disguise the Broadsword at the market because it was in a field with a bunch of other aircraft and lots of people. If we're just doing a delivery, or a refuelling stop somewhere, we can leave it invisible. Or transparent. Hard to see, whichever way you to look at it. If we're just refuelling somewhere, they aren't going to care, as long as they can find the fuel pipe!"
"Oh! I can… "Hunter paused for a moment, and they saw his eyes tracking back and forth rapidly as he thought through his idea. "Yeah – I can sort that. All of the polymers are fed with cameras from the other face, projecting the image from the other side, right. Well, they're all addressable, each camera and polymer has a unique ID, to allow the computer to map from one side to the other. So I can just find the bunch that are around the fuel inlet and disable those with a command. It'll look a bit weird, to find it just floating in the air, but I can make a ten centimetre box around the inlet appear normal, while the rest of the craft is stealthed. I just need to set up the code for it."
"Good call, Hunter. I mean, the stealth also doesn't work anywhere near as well up close anyway. If someone is on the ground right next to us, they can see that there's something there, just because the view gets distorted and messed with due to viewing angles. So they can avoid the wings and landing gear well enough from the weird ripple effects. But that will make it dead easy for them to refuel us."
"I'll get started on that, then." Hunter pulled his deck closer and fired up his development environment, starting to work out how he was going to achieve this in practice.
"I think we should also look at the tactics we use whenever and wherever we stop – at least for this job. We should vary our procedures as much as possible. Change tactics, try not to repeat things. Act in a somewhat unpredictable fashion. Treat it as if someone is watching us and being a paid informant, to throw off the plans made at the next stop if they report what we did."
"We can also plan the journey to give us some natural advantages. It will be about ten hours flying time – so we can try to make sure that we hit whatever fuel stops we need to at night, and use the cover of darkness to help obscure us when we have to interact with people. That means take off and our landing will be in daylight, but we can try to cut down the risk in the middle."
"Right – sounds like we have a plan. So – to recap… we have reservations, but generally we're ok with this plan." Kai glanced at Shimazu, but kept talking, watching for the tiny nod of acceptance. "We're willing to go to five hundred thousand, and will move as much product as we can get for that. We'll look to plan the routing and stops carefully to avoid daylight fuelling or interactions en-route, and we'll rely on the stealth built into the bird and spirit concealment, but keep Tads' power in reserve or to shield us from magical trouble, but other than that, we're ready to go?" He looked around the team, getting nods from all. He pulled the commlink back up and contacted Daruka.
"Sorry for the delay, Mr. Daruka, we were trying to sort out some financial issues and availability."
"Ahh, so you have resolved those?"
"Partially. On the latter – yes we're available for the job, and can leave almost immediately if required. On the former – we've checked our finances and we just can't cover the whole shipment. After our recent purchases at the market and some other things we have upgrading, we don't have that kind of funding available."
"That is unfortunate. So how many kilos do you want?"
"Well, not so much kilos, as we've not discussed a price. But we have five hundred thousand Nuyen available for this – so do you want to tell us how many kilos that gets us?"
The line went quiet for a moment, and Kai took a chance.
"We're reliable, quiet, quick and discreet. Just not especially rich at the moment. We understand that you want to establish a route down to these buyers, and are probably after a long-term deal with them – so we're exactly the kind of people you want taking your cargo down. But we just want to be honest with you about our capabilities, so there's no misunderstandings. We've got half a million to invest, but that's our limit. Beyond that, we want to make as much profit as we can…"
"Ha – don't we all, my friend! Don't we all…"
"In terms of selling price, if you have a contact down there and want to establish a price for the product, we'll bow to your superior experience. My team assure me that your product was the highest quality for sale at the market, so I'm happy that the product can attract a premium price too. But the question is – can we transfer enough product down there for your client, with our price cap?"
"It is not ideal. Not at all. They need a significant quantity to meet their needs. Can you stretch to seven hundred and fifty thousand?" Kai heard the indrawn breath around him and looked up from the commlink to see everyone shaking their heads.
"Hi, this is Hunter, what sort of weight are we looking at for five hundred kay?"
"In that quantity, perhaps a hundred kilos." Hunter blinked, then gave an enthusiastic thumbs up. Kai looked around the table, and then took a quiet breath in, wondering if he'd get away with what he was planning.
"Mr Daruka, we might, just about be able to stretch to six hundred thousand. If we raid all of our accounts. But that is an absolute hard limit." He could feel the stares of several of the team at him, but plunged onwards. "What kind of weight would we get there?"
"That is the most you can do?"
"Yes. I'm getting dirty looks from the rest of my team because we're eating into our budget for the fuel home here. If something goes wrong with the deal, we'd be stranded. I don't want to do that – but you clearly want as much as possible moving down there. So, I'm trying to compromise…" His carefully modulated voice dripped with sincerity and honesty, and even though he'd changed the deal without consulting them, the rest of the team could feel how reasonable it sounded, and reminded themselves just how persuasive Kai could be when he put his mind to it.
"Very well. I will sell you one hundred and twenty-five kilos for that money – but there is a condition!" Aswon and Hunter sat back in their seats and their expression seemed to say 'told you so!' as they waited to hear what it was. "You must tell the buyers that I have an additional shipment coming, via a slower route. They will bring more cargo, of the same quality, but greater quantity. You must explain to them that this is the advance shipment, enough to keep them going until the rest arrives."
"Of course – we have no problem doing that. I will explain things to them, and make sure they are aware that you wanted to get some product in their hand as quickly as possible, to keep them supplied while the rest turns up. That's no problem at all."
"Then we have a deal."
"Excellent, Mr. Daruka. How do you want to handle things now?"
"I will send over the details in a moment for the delivery, so you can plan your route. But you are meeting with Tse Chi Lop, in the Guandong province, quite close to Hong Kong."
"Great stuff. When we're ready for takeoff, shall I call you for co-ordinates to meet at?"
"Yes. I will be waiting."
"We'll see you soon then." Kai tried to hit the disconnect button first this time, but Daruka beat him to it once more.
"Right – let's get our thinking caps on. I've got a contact down in New Dehli that works Border Security. I'm going to give them a call and see what they know about – I figure if there's anything down that way that's rumoured to have smugglers buzzing about, he'll know."
"What about Ludmilla?" Aswon reminded him. "She said she might have a job. Do we talk to her as well?"
"No." Kai made a face, then continued. "That was only a possible, and this definitely has a tight time constraint. Let's get this out of the way, and talk to Ludmilla on the way back. Ten hour flight each way, couple of hours for layover, and a good night's sleep when we get back... we could be ready to go again in three days, and that's probably good enough for her."
"If we have only a small amount of cargo, does that mean we can put more fuel in the cargo area?" Tads asked. "I guess it's not the most efficient thing, as we're using fuel to carry fuel… but does that mean we can just work around the stops we have, and find somewhere quiet to land and refuel to extend our range?"
"That is a good call, Tads. I will speak with Nadia, and see if we have any spare barrels we can load."
"If we're doing that, Marius, there's one other thing we want – a decent pump! Something electric, not hand-cranked, and high-speed. I don't want to be transferring that kind of fuel load by hand."
"Ja. I will ask Nadia to source one. I have no doubt that we can get something like that in Shirvan, giving the manufacturing industries there."
Kai headed outside for a few minutes, making a call to Jahnu Sidana, over in New Dehli. After a few minutes he returned to the table and got Hunter to pull up a map, then highlighted an area just inside the borders of Nepal.
"Jahnu says there's a smuggler base somewhere around there. He's making some calls to see if he can get us the details and some contact information. But that helps, right?"
"That's tight… three thousand kilometres from Keith's, two thousand eight hundred from the Ski Lift. Not much contingency… but it wouldn't take much of a stop and manual refuel to make it work. Then three thousand three hundred kilometres from there on towards Hong Kong – so again we'd definitely need to land somewhere in-between – but there's plenty of out of the way places, I'm sure."
"Right – let's start loading up the Broadsword and getting ready. As soon as we have the pump and fuel barrels, and Marius has worked out the optimum time to go for a night-time arrival at any fuel stops, we can be on our way!"
The team pushed back from the table and headed to go and get their gear ready, loading the Broadsword down with a heavy load of firearms, explosives and armour. If the courier was going to come after them again, she had better be ready for a fight…