Chương 109: 7.11 No Return without Receipt or Label

2104: 04: 16: 11: 02: 01 Unobscured by clouds, the yet-climbing sun made the Pacific twinkle like it wanted to embarrass the Milky Way. Not that I'd ever seen the latter clearly; light pollution was a problem in any city, and our trip to Crater Lake hadn't been the right time to see it. But whatever. Point was: I was in Portside, looking out over the ocean in seagull form to scout the ships coming through the sound into Portside. Specifically, I was not looking for a cargo ship, but for a cruise ship.

A cruise ship belonging to a company that, if our intelligence was correct, was not only used for smuggling goods, but also occasionally carried Rajaparang to and from South East Asia. In other words: we might have overseas visitors coming to our shores. Or maybe not.

Despite all the work we'd done to make this operation a success – Amber and I with the laptops we'd found and the Motorgang fence; the five scouting and surveillance missions; the confirmation raid by Rhennish, Aetherna, Changelinger and Naomi last week; the team-up with the Principate and even practicing fighting together; Doombell and Blade Eater's own intelligence gathering in Riverside; all of it – there were still plenty of uncertainties.

The possibility of the presence or lack of visitors was but one of these. Another one was the fact that, with Magistry's special project being successfully shut down, it was likely the spectacle fights meant to obscure either gangs' operations had also been cancelled, with Motorgang's timetables changing accordingly. A third, and arguably the most important unknown variable, was the exact location we'd be fighting at.

If it ultimately was high-value cargo Motorgang was getting from the cruise ship, we'd be fighting either on the road or somewhere in The Hub's trainyard. If it was people Motorgang was here for, we'd have to follow them to one of three likely locations – an old hotel by the water, a business center closed for repairs, an old country club suspiciously closed for today – in The Hub, Northside and Bayside respectively. The fourth could also be argued as the most important, which was who we'd end up fighting.

Barring any Rajaparang masked, the only Motorgang masked we felt reasonably certain would be present was Blazin himself, and that was only thanks to the fact that today was marked 'of high importance' by all the information and pseudo-augur powers Mantellan and Aetherna could conjure up. As to the rest of their roster, we had no idea. Our goals were thankfully clearer.

Taking Motorgang down a peg was the easiest one, and primarily focused on capturing some of their villains, with Blazin himself being our primary target – although I suspected that if he was there, Dieselpriest would be Amber's priority. The most important objective though was the reason how and why we enlisted the Principate: stopping the deal with the Rajaparang from growing into an overseas alliance – or worse, a second Jannacht Wars if Motorgang invited the bigger party here.

As for our side of the masked equation, everyone was here. The four members of the Principate had all shown up, with Prince Enmon even being given operational command due to Naomi having him spill the beans on his powers – 'active tactical decision making', details left vague on purpose – and getting him to use it on us for the course of the operation. Something that hadn't been easy, for as little of the negotiations as she'd shared.

The adults of the Sentinels were all present, as was to be expected, but we juniors were all present as well. I'd had to beg and plead Mom to let me take the day off from school, but it was a success in the end. Amber hadn't even bothered attempting an excuse and was determined to take the truancy on the chin. The only one who had any real trouble was Naomi. Like me, she'd tried to convince her parents she needed a day off of school, but hers hadn't gone over as well as mine.

Hers had led to a fullblown argument; a rare thing according to her. Naomi's voice had been hoarse over the phone, and from her tone and constant sniffles I'd practically felt the hurt radiate out from the other side. In the end though, she'd decided to skip school and come anyway. Which was good since this might end up a sort-of final sendoff for Mantellan.

Even if he would still be a Sentinel and would help Aetherna tutor Changelinger as per agreement, he said he'd stop fighting if the operation turned successful, and the Rajaparang properly kicked out of Charm. So despite Naomi's setback, we were here with a force of thirteen masked. A substantial number for something that amounted to an ambush against, hopefully, less than half that number. Of course there would likely also be henchies, but we had a plan for that (their names are Mauvist and Armamentarium).

At exactly 11: 04, I saw a cruise ship appear over the horizon. A couple of minutes of waiting and a quick fly-by, I read the name of the beast on its side: Pacifica Blue Garnet – Pacifica being the company. I flew back, landed on top of a crane and shifted.

"Ship's coming," I said over the comms, this time attached to the mouth of my mask rather than in my ear. Which would've been fine, if I also didn't need an earpiece to hear.

"Good," Rhennish said.

"Mantellan, Aetherna, Changelinger; prepare to do your thing." Their 'thing' was, respectively, cast a spell, use an item, and perform a ritual to divine what Motorgang was here for. More specifically, Mantellan would sacrifice a couple of items taken from Motorgang to look for a sympathetic connection between the contraband we already had and contraband inside the ship.

Aetherna meanwhile had previously laid out a couple of enchanted items – armbands, to be specific – that, once activated, would serve as beacons for a kind of arcane radar. Linking that with a symbol of Motorgang's members – a red bandana taken from a henchie and a piece of Hexkey drone rope, delivered by yours truly – she'd be able to sense henchies and, hopefully, masked surreptitiously watching the ship. Changelinger's role was very different. Sensitive, and likely the most difficult.

If the Rajaparang were indeed present on the ship, it meant that they were likely there unmasked. Since trying to specifically detect them would reveal their identity and thus break the Treaty, Changelinger, in his 'seelie' form, would perform some kind of prayer-dance to 'detect the presence of villainy' on the whole of the ship rather than specific people.

During the planning phase, false positives of 'villainy' were brought up as a concern, but Changelinger believed that that wouldn't happen – or wouldn't be a problem, anyhow. When compared to his usual uncertainty and shyness, he was surprisingly confident in said belief, and since it was his power we ultimately trusted him to be able to do what he said. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

As the three mages prepared to do their work, "No word on an ongoing battle between our two favorite gangs?" Blade Eater asked.

"Nothing so far," Rhennish said.

"Hm. Disappointing," Doombell said.

"Oh? And here I thought you were of a 'the more the better' persuasion," Blade Eater said.

"Losing your 'edge' as a vigilante, eh?" She scoffed.

"Like you're one to talk. I just don't fancy our chances of us facing all of Motorgang at once." Blade Eater sighed.

"Not even two months and already a proper Senti." I could practically hear him shake his head over the comms.

"What must your parents think?" A growl.

"You know jackshit about my parents," Doombell said. Did he strike a nerve or was her patience running out? He laughed.

"Maybe you should invite me then? It's about time we met." God, had they kept this up the entire time since I became a seagull? And nobody said anything? Was there a selective mute function I'd missed somewhere?

"Mages; please tell us you have results," Prince Enmon cut in, coming to the rescue.

"One more second of this and Motorgang won't have to worry about me anymore."

"Gonna turn coat?" Blade Eater snarked.

"Kill myself, more like," Enmon snarked back. As the cruise ship had finally made its way through the sound and was laying anchor dockside, "Quiet on the comms, please," Rhennish said. While he was a good leader, it was clear the normally soft-spoken man was still getting used to leadership, let alone leading people like these.

"Aetherna?"

"Positive on both counts," she said. Meaning henchies and masked were present.

"Not just at the dock, but further inland as well. Parked beside the road, I think."

"Can you tag the location on SentiNet?" Rhennish asked.

"I can try," Aetherna responded. A few seconds later, "There. That's the best I can do."

"Crowsong, Jester; can one of you check it out?" Rhennish asked. I took out my phone and checked the map. The pin was by an offramp of the highway running from Northside through the Hub all the way over the Thirteen Peoples Bridge to Greenside As I opened my mouth, "I'll do it," Crowsong got there first.

"I'll check it out at range and tracker-tag it by rifle if need be."

"Enmon?" Rhennish asked.

"Nothing, so either a great success or a harmless failure," he said.

"Good," Rhennish said.

"Go ahead, Crowsong." And as the ship had finished docking, "Mantellan, got anything?"

"Just about done… there it is!" Mantellan said.

"Hmm, also multiple positives. While volumes and values are uncertain, there seem to be plenty of contraband – chemicals, likely drugs; odd metals, potentially maker-derived; and gems. Especially gems, though not jewelry oddly enough. Perhaps a payment alternative?" Odd, that, but ultimately it lined up with what Aetherna found. Henchies to get goods off the ship, a truck parked some distance away by the freeway to transport it, and masked to step in when necessary.

Which likely meant that we'd be looking at following the shipment to The Hub and ambush Motorgang there. Armamentarium, Mauvist, Rhennish and Marching Orders were already at the trainyards, while Blade Eater, Doombell, Prince Enmon and Antrustion were stationed at the triangulated center of the possible meeting spots for if there was a Rajaparang delegation. The rest of us, all fast movers comparatively, were in Portside.

"Changelinger?" Rhennish asked. There was a brief pause before panting breaths arrived over the radio. Changelinger's dance was apparently a bit of a workout.

"Got… five hits – two of which I'm a hundred percent sure are villains."

"All on the ship?" Rhennish asked, surprised. And for good reason. Rajaparang coming with five masked was more than we'd bargained for. Even two wasn't anything to sneeze at, depending on who they were.

"Technically," Changelinger said between breaths, "there's five 'on water', but unless Motorgang's comes by boat…"

"Jester, can you do a fly over to check?" Rhenish asked.

"On it," I said, and without further ado shifted into a seagull. As the ship unloaded passengers and cargo, I joined my gull brethren in circling the ship, albeit for a very different kind of… snack? This was a bad metaphor. Unlike my kinfolk though, I had no luck; there were no other water-going vessels around the Blue Garnet. I turned to a warehouse with a shaded overhang, settling there as I shifted back.

"-is on the move," I heard Crowsong say as I became human again, "and heading towards the dock entrance."

"Passenger side or cargo?" Rhennish asked.

"Cargo."

"There're no boats around the Blue Garnet," I said in the brief pause between. Rhennish clucked his tongue.

"You tagged it, right? And it's functional?" he asked Crowsong.

"Yep. There's… probably a way to patch it through SentiNet?" she said.

"It's already sending the signal. I think the app of the thing I use has inbuild API or something? I don't really know how it works."

"Let it be for now. Just keep an eye on it."

"What do we do now, bossman?" Blade Eater asked. Rhennish hummed in thought, and for good reason. What was more important here: follow the goods, or attack whatever talk Motorgang and Rajaparang might be having?

"Let's focus our effort on the possible meeting," Rhennish decided.

"That seems the most likely reason for why they're here, and the best way to sabotage their alliance. Besides, we can change course if it turns out we can't locate them, or its too risky due to-" He halted in his speech for a moment.

"Scratch that last part. There's news of an ongoing fight between Motorgang and Magistry." As I took out my phone, he continued.

"Hexkey, Helltearer and Mangine have been spotted there." Meaning the maximum possible masked we could fight today would be eleven, and that's including the Rajaparang. The advantage of surprise would even stack the odds further in our favor, and given the fact that it was highly unlikely that all the other Motorgang masked (barring the three fighting Magistry) were currently 'on duty', it seemed like we were on the road to success. Now all we needed to do was find out where it was.

X As Crowsong and I went in the general direction of our target by maker-bike shapeshift, and as Mantellan, Aetherna and Changelinger went there over water by miniature whale-like animal of Changelinger's, the rest all went and searched for where the location the meeting would (hopefully) take place. By the time we'd left Portside, there had yet to be any sign that any of the three possible locations were under guard by henchies. Even when we arrived in a central spot between the three (on a rooftop; where else?) there still hadn't been any movement. It got to the point that, half an hour later, we'd begun discussing the possibility that maybe it would ultimately be better to chase after the smuggled cargo. The tracker for that had stopped moving about ten minutes ago – the location was logged as a maintenance house in the trainyard – and if we waited too long, we might miss that opportunity as well.

Fortunately, there finally came a sign that a meeting was in fact taking place at the location Doombell and Blade Eater had under surveillance.

The parking lot of a closed-down-for-repairs (for half a decade already) business center in an industrial zone turned office park in Bayside were suddenly home to first a dozen of Motor Spirit's bulky variant of maker-tech bikes, and later a long fancy-looking black car – the kind of car you'd imagine politicians or too-important-for-thee businessmen might use as transportation. Within ten minutes, we all converged on that location.

"As Changelinger said: two Rajaparang masked were seen exiting the car," Doombell said. She held up a picture of them on her phone. Of similar height, both were dressed like ancient warriors in leathers and a robe skirt, one completely white and another completely black. Their helmets had wide goat horns curling back, and the faceplate in front of it carried the same theme by looking like a goat's skull, if somewhat flattened.

One carried ranged weapons – a bow and arrows, and two handguns – and the second carried a whole armory: spear, axe, sword, knives and a hammer. Rhennish said specifically to the Principate members, "Recognize them?"

"Lugal the Black and Meslam the White; the 'divine twins'." Enmon rolled his entire head just to show how little he thought of them.

"As you can guess, they're masters. Lugal is long-ranged, Meslam's close quarters. The real kicker is they share senses and have the ability to instantly switch places." Troublesome.

"Troublesome," Rhennish echoed, "but nothing unmanageable, I don't think." He turned to me.

"Jester, Changelinger; you ready?" We both nodded and went ahead with what shifters often did: scout out the place. I scanned outside of the building by circling it from above, and found no one standing watch outside. Inside, I went in first as a rat through the ventilation system and then, after finding a good vantage point in the rafter, an owl for better vision.

As expected, the business center was all but empty, with some items dragged in specifically for this meeting: tables, chairs, a fridge and portable kitchen, and two separate lounging areas, fully furnished. They either weren't negotiating yet or had just finished an initial round of talks since the parties were split among said areas, one for Motorgang and one for the two Rajaparang masked.

The entrances, including the skylights in the roof, were watched by Motorgang's most professional-looking henchies so far, all six of them armed with automatic rifles and handguns. There were also four Hexkey drones flying about, lethal heat-ray shooting ones by the color of their lenses. As for the masked? Aside from Lugal and Meslam, Motorgang had Blazin, Chroming Hand, Dieselpriest, and Deathride present, along with the juniors Husk Carl and Kinetic Drive.

I shifted into a rat again and went back to the rest of the group, relaying what I found. Changelinger provided a near-exact copy of what I saw. Which was good, since it meant likely little in the way of surprises.

"So, Prince Tactics; what's the plan?" Blade Eater asked. Enmon stroked the chin of his fox mask.

"Why, winning of course." Ugh.