Chapter 45

The following day Róisín and I joined two of the MAGES team, journeywomen Ekaterina and Liliya, along with Mage Brianna and took a driverless taxi to the Troianovan northern maglev station. I kind of knew from my studies the previous night what a maglev was but this was my first view of the actual thing. To my mind it was classic science fiction of the Flash Gordon era in a bullet-like missile tube of approximately 100 metres in length, resting (for want of a better word) on a trestle as people boarded.

“It’s the only way to approach with the power off,” Brianna answered my unspoken question. “Otherwise you’d fry from the radiation.”

“No wonder they don’t use planes,” I chuckled.

“They use those thopter things for flight operations, but there’s too much chance of an over-master shooting down any plane encroaching on their territory as they aren’t well disposed to tourism or the availability of travel for their own people,” Brianna explained.

“So Loegria-Albany is the first ever direct connection between rival states ... so to speak?” I asked.

“Yes, non-stop in just over half an hour as this is the express,” Brianna stated.

“Just under the speed of sound?” I queried.

“Yes, they can go faster, but its environmental impact is immense,” chuckled Brianna. “Up to 1800 mph has been posited but they’d have to build the lines underground in a vacuum, I’m told.”

“Expensive,” Róisín commented.

“Very, although a few of the girls offered to help out and Ketty is looking at it as a final gesture before retiring,” Brianna replied.

“Yes, a Mage could dig a tunnel or rather fuse a tunnel easily in any direction we wanted,” Róisín mused.

“Yes, and Ketty knows this, although she has the job of explaining it,” chuckled Brianna.

“Ah yes, explaining the inexplicable,” I chuckled by way of reply.

“Very much so, John,” Brianna stated.

“Well, we don’t want a friend to find trouble simply because we can do things easily the Loegrii of this country can’t,” I said.

“Definitely, John,” Brianna admonished.

“Still I’m sure Ketty will find a way,” Róisín said with a grin as we made our way to our seats which had admonishments to remain seated until up to speed in Loegrian which one of the other passenger’s thoughts told me.

“She’s already started a company that in theory has some new and ‘untested’ boring equipment,” Brianna added.

“So not long then?” I asked.

“Probably next year,” she added with a wry smile of her own.

At the appointed time, almost to the second we felt the maglev raise itself from its cradle and begin its forward momentum. Within seconds we could feel the acceleration pressing us into the seats which continued for nearly a minute until at last it eased off. Staring out of the window I watched the scenery both familiar and at oft-times quite unfamiliar as the maglev itself mostly went under towns and cities as it raced towards Eidyn, the capital of Albany. Other than a warning to return to our seats a minute before deceleration and the seats surprising us by turning to a rear facing position we simply sat alone with our thoughts as we headed towards what for us was the unknown.

Eidyn was definitely different and Edinburgh it certainly was not. For one thing there was no castle and no rock either, come to that, apparently the over-master clan who used to rule the country hated the thing and used the rock itself to make buildings and the city walls. The rest was similar to Troianova though instead of silvered mirror-like windows, the Albanese had chosen gold. As for the people, well the native dialect came across more Polish sounding to me and there was a lot of bio-adaption and body enhancement amongst the natives, something Albany was apparently famous for along with bio-engineered soldiery. These days though I was told they’d destroyed the creations of war and moved into genetic research and the cloning of body parts for transplants.

We were met by an official delegation of the Albany police, known as the Inspectorate, although they struck me as more of a paramilitary outfit, who had been tasked to deliver us to the local governor and hence (presumably) to someone who could guide us to where this hidden lab was supposed to be located.

It was soon obvious that the guy we were meeting was hostile to our presence, though not to our mission. He had been a servant of the old regime and did not like the current government and its subservient (as he saw it) position to Loegria. Yet still he was a professional through and through and was determined to show that his force could and would be helpful to us in our search for the terrorists plaguing Loegria.

“We realise that we are intruding on your authority,” Brianna explained after the perfunctory greetings. “But we have specialist abilities that will aid us to locate the lab and those who presumably work in it and guard it.”

“So I’m told, this MAGES group I believe?” he acknowledged.

“Yes,” was all Brianna would admit.

“I can’t allow you to go out there alone, you realise this?” he asked.

“We know and we’ll follow their instructions as it’s your jurisdiction,” Brianna replied.

“Yes, they’ll have to be handed over to us,” he stated sternly. “But if a crime has been committed, they’ll be handed over to Loegria and their courts.”

“Agreed,” Brianna replied. “The documents for extradition are being lodged with your justiciars now.”

“So I was told, but we can only release them to you if the crime warrants it by our laws,” he added.

“We know. We don’t want the workers, we want the brains behind the operation,” I said. “The ones who sanctioned the setting off of a nuclear device in Troianova.”

He slowly nodded and we could sense that his mind was far more at ease with the situation, seems he’d been expecting wholesale extraditions of Albany citizens to a foreign power for what was deemed an atrocity. For our part, we really just wanted to close down something being used to hurt Loegria and our friends there.

We hung around for an hour or so whilst ‘arrangements were made’ mentally scanning the people around us and making a few notes of where the bodies were buried, sometimes literally. The Inspector it seemed ran a tight ship; his staff were personally loyal to him, if not the state government and it was quite efficient if somewhat hostile towards the outsiders.

Finally though we were led outside into a courtyard and a couple of what the Loegrii (meaning the people of the planet, not just the Loegrians of the country) called thopters which were sort of like helicopters but with a single high powered turbofan on top which could tilt in the way that the rotor blades of a helicopter could. They were however much faster and could carry, it seemed, a massive workload as the things literally bristled with weaponry and sensors.

We shot into the air and I could feel the competence of the crew as they checked with local traffic control as they plotted a route over what to me was the Midlothian Valley but was simply filled to capacity with what amounted to a megacity stretching as far as the eye could see westwards.

“So where do you get your food from?” I asked eventually.

“We used to make it from bioyeast, only the rich could afford real food,” the inspector replied. “Now we buy from Loegria, who grow and export lots of fresh produce.”

“And you trade with Loegria?” I went on.

“Bio products, chemicals, medical supplies,” he said after a moment’s thought. “Their terms were generous and we’ve started to manage our own exports to the over-master territories at a much cheaper price than they are willing to sell to each other.”

“That’s how Loegria started and expanded,” Brianna added.

“I know, and we’re grateful to an extent, but we have a proud independent history of our own and don’t want to be tied to their coat-tails,” he replied.

“Shame you invaded them and held them down for nearly a decade,” journeywoman Ekaterina admonished.

“Yes, they have no reason to particularly like us either,” the inspector sighed. “It’s led to difficulties...”

“Yes, though we are doing our best to smooth them over,” Ekaterina replied.

“As are we,” he rebutted as her eyebrow raised. “We are, it’s just our people are far more insular and like to take our customs with us ... whilst disapproving of others customs it has to be admitted,” he sighed.

“It will get better, you’re far more as allies than the sum of two separate nations,” Brianna said soothingly.

“So we keep getting told,” he replied.

“Would you rather go back to over-master control?” I asked.

“Hell no!” he retorted angrily. “It’s just that it might be best for people to decide for themselves rather than have all this propaganda thrust at them.”

“Ketty thinks the same, but others disagree,” Brianna explained.

“Archon Ketty?” the inspector asked.

“Yes,”

“Now there’s a Loegrian I can admire. Shame she’s retiring,” he said.

“Ketty will be around for a couple of years yet,” Brianna confirmed. “I suspect she’ll get her own way eventually, she usually does.”

“I hope so, it’s her that is keeping this fragile alliance together as people are still terrified of the future and a far stronger neighbour to the south of us,” the Inspector said.

“Joras, her replacement, is cut from the same cloth, though their personalities are quite different. Yet he sees the problem of telling everyone that things are fine to be self-defeating,” Brianna replied.

“We’ll see, though in a couple of years it might be quite different,” he mused.

“I should imagine it will, your people will be able to see what their prosperity is bringing them, rather than it accumulating in someone else’s pockets,” Brianna continued.

“To many it has,” he replied. “Ah, we’re getting close.”

We had moved north to another valley abutting what to me had to be Loch Lomond, but was somewhat reduced in size. Below was what appeared to be a small village and we were descending downwards towards it. It was then that some form of laser or plasma bolt was fired at us. Fortunately we had the Thopter shielded and all that happened was the bolt’s energy being dispersed and a box carried on Ekaterina’s knee lit up as if it were actually doing something.

“Shields holding, they’ll need something a hell of a lot more powerful to breach it,” she intoned to the stunned crew and members of the Inspectorate.

“You have a portable shield?” the Inspector finally asked as we headed fast towards the ground.

“The MAGES do, yes. Don’t ask, we won’t tell and any attempt to steal it will have dire results for the thief,” Ekaterina replied.

“Is that how you thwarted so many assassination attempts?” he finally asked after apparently mulling Ekaterina’s statement over.

“Partly, we have very good intelligence analysis too, hence our trip up here,” I replied.

“Whoever was manning that battery appears to have moved it under cover,” one of the pilots announced.

“Silly of them, now we know to investigate further,” the Inspector replied.

“Well, they probably knew nothing about the shield,” Róisín said.

“True, but shooting down an Inspectorate thopter would have drawn a response come what may,” he replied.

“Yes, clearly someone was not being cautious, or perhaps they knew they were exposed anyway,” Brianna mused.

“You needn’t say more, the leak likely came from my office,” he sighed.

“Not from any we observed today,” Liliya replied.

“You can read minds?” he asked puzzled.

“No, we are trained to observe human behaviour as well as a whole host of visual tells and cues,” she replied. “Your staff is loyal to you, and you are suspicious of us, though not to the extent of blocking this investigation.”

“No traitors?” he asked cautiously.

“Amongst the ones we saw today no, not even the guards on the gate,” Liliya replied.

“That would narrow the search down a little if we needed to investigate,” he mused.

“We would help if asked,” Brianna added. “Only you would know the results.”

“I’ll think about it,” he finally replied.

We had all now disembarked from the thopters and were looking around. I, like the rest of the Mages, was still mentally tracking whoever had tried to attack us, but realised that they were deliberately heading away from the compound where the suspected lab was in order to try and draw us off.

“This way,” the Inspector commanded and his staff fanned out heading towards an innocuous series of buildings approximately half a mile away.

We five Mages also spread out, each of us looking at a metal box attached to our forearms on which we were projecting mentally human life sources as well as a stream of data indicating energy sources too.

“Hold!” Róisín announced and pointed towards a series of scrub brushes. “Ten hostiles, armed with energy weapons, possibly projectile weapons too.”