Hurrying away from the scene of the previous battle, the team became aware that they were being followed. As they made their way down a deserted street, lined with a mixture of dingy shops and derelict buildings, several of them noticed a dark shadow flitting after them. Dliiavrnt stepped casually into a shop doorway on the left and started looking at the display. Lasnus and Stpierb' carried on, covering for Nose, who skulked away to the other side and shinned up some abandoned scaffolding on a half-completed building and hid himself halfway up.
Dliiavrnt reached out with his mind, grasping for their followers' thoughts - and hit a wall. The man was wearing a mechanical psishield! None the less, the "black spot" this generated made it almost as easy to track him, and Dliiavrnt had no difficulty at all keeping contact with him as he left the road and entered a derelict building on the same side as Nose's. Meanwhile the follower had entered the building next to Nose's, which was rather more intact than the others.
While Lasnus cut across beyond Nose's vantage point, Dliiavrnt entered the derelict building behind their - quarry? hunter? - and began to close the distance. As he entered the intact building, he noticed the man suddenly move sideways and stop - exactly as if he had ducked around a corner and was waiting for his follower to catch up. Dliiavrnt paused, puzzled. How was the man tracking him? It couldn't be psionics, not with a shield on. The others closed in; Lasnus through the back and Nose and Stpierb' through the front.
Dliiavrnt called on the man to come out, as he was surrounded. There was a pause, and he appeared, hands on head. Quickly, the team divested him of his equipment - some kind of night-suit, a single-shot rifle, some other stuff in pouches... Questioning, and mental prying by Dliiavrnt, revealed that he was one Colin Avery, a freelance assassin, hired by Red Action to follow the team - not to kill them - and to observe them. He made no resistance, but made the mistake of being "clever" to a group of hyped up veterans, and got a rifle-butt in the face for his troubles. They sent him away after that, and he made a speedy exit.
Nose turned the NAS on, and after some fiddling, was pleased to see half-a-dozen blips indicating his teammates scattered around the ship. Not being an expert or a Scout, he didn't notice the slight difference in colour which showed that two of his teammates were less human than they appeared...
Dliiavrnt dug out the business card Bilstein had given him, and dialled the number. When a sleepy Bilsten answered, he was bellowed at that the team were not going to tolerate any further messing around with hitmen, and that the asking price had just been doubled. He cut the call in the middle of Bilstein's protests that he knew nothing about any hitman.
It was now approaching 3am, but no-one felt like turning in. While the others cleaned up and had a beer, Lasnus turned to the computers and started hacking. He rememberd something, and referred back to the data he'd hacked out of Brett Lehman's hand computer on Wurzburg. Sure enough, the ISS agent had made copious notes on suggested methods of cracking government security in Akian computer systems.
The dead man's notes were good. Soon Lasnus had access to the communications routing systems for Fourth City. He found the logging records for the call Dliiavrnt had just made, and tracked its' progress, noting with interest that it had bypassed most of the official comms network altogether. After some time he managed to track it back to the origin point, and obtained the address; a residential area in Second City.
Launching the gunned gig, the team flitted over to the spaceport at Second City and rented an air/raft. Stashing their heavy gear in the back, they bluffed their way through the security posts on the starport's edge and made for the address. As they neared it, the impression heightened; this was a very nice area. The house was surrounded by an eight-foot wrought-iron fence with heavy electric gates; a state-of-the-art TL9 ground car was neatly parked on the gravel drive.
Parking 90m from the front gate of Bilstein's house, they looked things over. Three pairs of skilled eyes raked the hedges, gardens, park and roads. Then Nose spoke; "Has anyone seen us?" he asked his colleauges.
Deep in a hedge, a pair of hunters' eyes watched them. A body shifted. Then a voice spoke.
"Miaow."
At 04:30, they called again. The NAS sensor showed five people in the house, and as one moved when the call was answered they concluded it was Bilstein. Nose announced that the venue for the meeting had been fixed, and was his own house - and as he said it, the air/raft hopped the hedge and landed in the drive. Immediately, the three repo agents bailed out and approached the door. Bilstein opened it; Nose immediately set him off balance again by telling him where his guards were in the house and demanding them all to be gathered in one room.
Stpierb' nibbled at the edges of Bilstein's mind, searching for details about the assassin - and was quite surprised to find that he hadn't sent him. He'd been telling the truth; but where had the assassin come from.....?
Negotiations started again. Nose held out for double price; Bilstein haggled back. Finally, Nose played his trump card - he offered training as well for Cr7,000 apiece. Nate Bilstein was taken. He placed a quick confirmatory call to - someone - and then produced a steel briefcase full of local currency. Once that happened, Dliiavrnt and Gvn brought a second air/raft over with the goods aboard.
After everyone had checked they had what they expected, Bilstein described arrangements for a pickup and transportation of the trainers to the secret Red Action base, and the team left.
