After pulling the truck into the shelter of the trees, the team worked out who was covering which watch shift. Marius got his head down first, having been driving for many hours. Hunter spent some time with the maps, working out routes, examining terrain and checking the roads, looking for checkpoints and province crossings. Aswon set up in the cab with his rifle, watching out in the dawn light, whilst the rest of the team found a bunk or a hammock, and settled down. Soon the truck was filled with gentle snores and snuffles, as they caught up on their sleep and the minutes and hours ticked by towards the 16:30 alarm that would get them all up and back on the road.
In the afternoon, about 15:30, Shimazu was sitting in the cab, watching out of the windows and checking around the vehicle, looking for anyone watching the truck, when he became aware of scratching and tapping noises from the roof. He sat still and held his breath for a minute, listening to the sounds, as they ranged back and forth over the roof of the cab. He craned his head to the bottom of the windows, looking up as best he could, but he couldn't catch sight of whatever was moving around on the top of the truck. Carefully he pulled down the insulation, and then cracked open the hatch, pushing it up slowly and carefully, trying to be as quiet as possible. As he did so, a pair of red-rimmed beady eyes popped into view, staring at him – unblinking. Shimazu stared back, trying to make sense of the upside-down shape. His trance-like state was broken when in a lightning-fast movement the eyes lowered another few inches, and an elongated bill at least fifty centimetres long darted forwards and stabbed him in the forehead. Almost before he could comprehend what was going on, his enhanced reflexes were in action, his legs folding and dropping him away from the hatch and the ferocious bill.
His cry of alarm and the clatter of weapons landing on the floor of the truck started to rouse the others, and the sounds of disgust and muttering soon had the rest of the team piling out of their bunks and grabbing weapons. Marius plugged his datajack into the vehicle sensors, immediately noting that the back left spotlight was not responding – something had ripped through the wiring and all power and data was out. Checking the other systems though, he found no damage, but there was a swarm of a dozen large birds, nesting on the roof. He jacked out momentarily and focussed on the front of the vehicle, spotting the huge streaks of guano that now decorated the hood and windscreen, and scowled, before jacking back in and resuming his sweep. The birds were huge, looking like albatross or pelicans, with long and vicious-looking bills. The team discussed going outside to scare them off, until one of the birds extended its wings to steady itself as it hopped from the cab to the rear section, and they realised the wingspan was easily in excess of ten metres. Even if they were fairly placid, they could still cause damage from their sheer size. Tadibya projected up and stuck her nose out of the top of the vehicle, checking them over for active magical effects – they seemed not to be magically active, though they were obviously para-critters at that size.
After some discussion of what to do, they decided to just leave the birds alone – other than gunking up the windscreen a little and the minor damage to the spotlight, they didn't seem harmful. The birds sat on the roof, soaking up the heat from the day's sunlight warming the top of the truck.
As they reached their kick-off time, Marius started the truck up, and at least half the birds flapped off with shrill cries of warning. The rest steadied themselves, wings partially extended, as they balanced against the vibrations of the vehicle. Marius pulled away slowly, and as he picked up speed, more and more of the remaining flock dived off the side, heading into the lake and landing in the calm water with large splashes.
Squirting water from the windscreen wipers on the dried guano proved ineffective, so they let it be and headed east, towards the dam at the end of the lake, in the rapidly fading daylight. Stopping after a kilometre, they got out to scrape the windscreen clean and check over the truck, and realised that several of them had mild headaches again – checking the map they realised they were once again over the 2000m line, and their bodies were adapting to the thinner mountain air. The huge peak of Mount Damāvand filled the left-hand side of the forward view, rising up several thousand meters, snow capped with the peak sparkling in the dying rays of sunlight. To the right the horizon was dark, as rippled rows of foothills marched off into the distance.
As the sun dipped below the hills and mountains to the west, and the light levels plunged, a small camp was spotted ahead, perhaps a few hundred metres away on the end of the dam. About two dozen tents were pitched, right by the side of the road, where they needed to drive. To the north was a sharply rising set of escarpments, the foothills for the mountains. To the right was the top of the dam, and a series of sixty to seventy degree terraced steps. Marius looked at his readings and evaluated his chances of getting the truck down there in one piece as maybe fifty-fifty… not exactly betting odds.
They watched for a minute, the truck still and unlit and the best next thing to invisible in the darkening conditions. There were at least thirty people down there, moving around, in and out, behind and through tents and hard to get a precise count on. There were at least some mules or donkeys, or similar pack beasts tethered to one sight. As they peered through their scopes and optics, and let their eyes adjust they could make out the armaments they carried – a mix of the cheap KH series assault rifles, shotguns and some pistols for the most part. However, there were at least a few of the people carrying what looked like RPGs, and they spotted at least one team with a light or medium machine gun slung between two people. The truck would bounce the small arms fire except for a lucky hit, but the RPG and MMG were more than capable of making a mess of their plans.
Aswon was in favour of making contact with them, assuming them to be tribesfolk that could be bargained with, perhaps traded with for safe passage. He was of the firm opinion that trying to fight that many opponents was a losing proposition, with too much chance of them being flanked and overwhelmed. If they were not going to fight, they had to fall back to their alternate route, to the north of the mountain.
Marius raised the possibility of the driving down the face of the dam. He was honest with them about how he rated their chances, and the team didn't seem enthused with the idea.
After ten minutes or so of discussion, with the team looking at how difficult the northern route was, comparing that to their odds to the dam traversal, the time to go the length of the lake to try a southern approach and how long that would cost them – they agree to let Aswon try diplomacy.
The team got ready to cover him, they powered up their comms gear and Tadibya watched carefully with a spirit on standby to provide concealment to Aswon. He walked forwards, his rifle carried high and obvious, carefully pointed up and away from them, making no effort to conceal himself. At about a hundred metres, he was spotted, and a cry went up in the camp. Ten of the men grabbed their weapons, and fanned out into a line abreast, approaching Aswon with weapons held directly at him. Aswon continued to close, offering no threatening moves and called out to them, trying to establish a dialogue. The men shouted at him to drop his weapon, and Aswon carefully laid down his hunting rifle, standing still with arms spread. The approaching force shouted at him to surrender, repeating their demands louder and louder, and anger rising in their voices as Aswon tried to talk to them, being met only with belligerence and hostility. As some of the approaching troops shouldered their weapons at his continued refusal to surrender, Aswon ducked out of sight, the spirit flitting over to conceal him in the blink of an eye as Tadibya issued a command. Long bursts of automatic fire ripped out through the night air, stitching the ground where Aswon had been, but fortunately not finding him in cover.
Marius threw the truck into reverse, backing off rapidly, as Aswon crawled away from the approaching men. They continued to fire randomly where they thought he was, and a stray round punched through the sleeve of his top before burying itself into his armour. Tadibya cast her invisibility spell upon him, and after she confirmed that he was hidden, he burst into a sprint, zig zagging across the rough terrain and quickly leaving the men behind as they continued to search for him.
Disappearing into the night, Aswon rendezvoused with the truck back away from the camp, climbing aboard to meet the rest of the team. They could still see the occasional rippling burst of fire as the enemy scoured the hillside for Aswon, probably spotting rabbits and other small creatures in the darkness. With a sigh, Marius turned the truck around and retraced their path to the fork in the trail, and then turned north, heading around the other side of the mountain. The path climbed up into the foothills, snaking back and forth around the harsh rocky terrain. Soon they were on a narrow road, barely wider than the truck, a steep but short cliff to their right, and an abrupt drop to their left – no passing places were to be seen, and they hoped they didn't come across anything coming the other way.
As it happened, something coming the other way was the least of their worries. After perhaps thirty minutes of travel, the sensors picked up a lone metahuman, walking up the middle of the road. Marius slowed the truck to match his pace, examining the sides of the road for any changes. Twenty seconds passed, then forty, then a minute – the man made no attempt to get out of the way, or even look over his shoulder at the obvious engine noise from the truck as it crawled its way up the trail. Aswon pushed open the door and stood on the edge of the sill, leaning his entire body out of the cab so he could raise his head above the armoured doorway. Armoured windows were all very nice, but not being able to wind them down had its disadvantages. When he was stood comfortably and securely, he shouted ahead, asking the man if he wanted a lift.
Now he responded, stopping and turning around, and called out that no, he was fine. He turned again, and carried on walking. Turning the truck lights on, they could see the man clearly – middling height and thin, wrapped in cheap and tatty robes, and carrying a wooden yoke over his shoulders, with two large wooden buckets hung from ropes, one on each end. Battered sandals flopped with every step onto the rocky trail, and he walked with a slight stoop. Tadibya leaned forwards and tried to get a read on him, looking with her astral vision to determine his state of mind and to try to get some insight into what he was doing. After a few moments of concentration, she sighed, and then sat back, starting at him with a little frown on her lips. "He's just a man… nothing magical, nothing special, and I can't pick up any cyberware or implants in him. I also can't get a read on him of any sorts – no emotion at all. That either means I've done a really rubbish job, or he's way more powerful than I am and shielding his aura." The team slowly digested this, and hands that had unconsciously reached for weapons or equipment slowly relaxed. Aswon tried again.
"Excuse me, we'd really like to get past, if you don't mind?"
The man called back over his shoulder. "No." Aswon traded looks with the others… no, he didn't mind? No, they couldn't pass? What? The man stopped and turned, and Marius pulled the truck to a stop as well. Several of the team got out, and approached him, and again Aswon tried to start a conversation.
"So, where are you going, sir?"
"Up the mountain."
"And where on the mountain are you heading for?"
"The top."
"Why are you going to the top?"
"Because that's where I need to be." As the team spoke to the man, his answers were vague and maddeningly cryptic and unhelpful. "I have to take my supplies there."
A quick glance showed the buckets to be empty, just roughly made wooden strips held together by a crude iron band and mismatched nails.
"The buckets don't appear to have anything in them?"
"Oh no, they're quite full. Just because you can't see something, doesn't mean it's not there. Can you see the air that you breathe?" Aswon conceded the point, then asked his next question.
"So are they heavy?"
"As heavy as the world."
"Would you like to climb into our truck with them, and we'll carry you up the road?"
"Ahh, but then I won't have carried the weight, and the task won't be as worthwhile." Aswon heard a little sound of frustration from Marius behind him, but tried to ignore it as he continued to deal with the old man.
"Would you like me to carry the buckets for you, for a while?" The man suddenly focussed on him, his eyes piercing and direct for the first time in the conversation.
"Why would you do that", he asked, "why would you help me, a stranger?"
"Well, as long as it won't cause us any harm, then I'm happy to help. It's not really going to cost me anything, and we have no problem helping other people. It's generally a nice thing to do."
The man hemmed and hawed a little, and then spoke up.
"Would you be willing to help me in the future then, to assist me in some way, as long as it didn't cause you harm, or cost you anything?"
"I don't see why not?"
Then the man reached into his robes, and pulled out a small wooden cup, and dipped it into the empty bucket to his right. He carefully passed the cup to Aswon. "Here, have a nice drink then, friend."
Looking a little confused, Aswon raised the empty cup to his lips and poured, reacting with shock as icy cold, pure, fresh glacier water tumbled into his mouth and down his gullet, causing a little shiver down his spine. The water was refreshing and invigorating and Aswon lowered the cup and stared hard at the stranger, who gave no sign that anything unusual was going on at all. The stranger reached out and took the cup from Aswon's unresisting fingers, dipped it into the bucket again, and then offered it around the team. One after another they sampled the contents, all receiving a similar reaction – all except Kai. He refused the drink, politely, and instead offered the stranger some of their water from the truck. The stranger refused, equally politely, when he was offered the small bottle of water.
"I don't suppose you have one of those marvellous bottles do you, that's empty?" Kai grabbed a bottle, and returned it to the man, who poured the contents of the cup into the bottle, capped it and returned it to Kai.
"Here, just in case you change your mind later. You never know."
Kai took the bottle, thanking the man.
The strange man looked at the team, the team looked at the strange man, and the moment stretched out in silence….