Nobody had any intention of waiting until the requested meeting time to visit the Garden of Seekers. Razaq and Sayah went for a scout around, with Razaq identifing a good spot for a sniper hide and making sure he was the one occupying it. Khalil went to visit the artists' tent and chat to the jugglers there, where he discovered a complete lack of juggling ability, albeit with a will to improve.
When the time for the meeting arrived, only Sayah and Tahir waited at the meeting point, while the others looked on from their various vantage points. Brother Ramas arrived a little late, and at the same time a number of suspicious characters appeared. One of them pushed roughly past him on the bridge, and Tahir caught sight of a bright flash of light. A few moments later, Ramas staggered and collapsed to the ground, reaching out to hand Tahir a data tag as he fell.
Tahir had his stun gun in hand in a moment, firing at the attacker while Sayah checked on the condition of Brother Ramas. More new arrivals from the path above the artists' tent fired down at them, almost taking out Arin, who jumped into the lake to take cover under the bridge. Khalil sheltered behind a tree. Razaq fired from his hide, taking out another of the strangers. Sayah joined Arin under the bridge, and once she'd confirmed he wasn't in need of urgent medical attention, borrowed his gun to fire back at his attackers.
It wasn't long before the shooting attracted the Coriolis station guards, at which point the attackers decided to make themselves scarce, the one Razaq had shot taking a moment to pick up his severed arm off the ground and take it with him. Khalil scarpered in the confusion, and Razaq dropped a smoke bomb and vanished.
The other three were rounded up by the guards, where Sayah and Tahir were quick to explain how they were meeting their old friend from the Ghazali - an easy story to sell given Tahir's fame. Tahir also told them about the weird behaviour of the attackers, specifically the bit where they picked up an arm. After an uncomfortably long wait, word finally came through from the Judicator that they were to be released.
Khalil had an idea for how to track the attackers. They'd all escaped - but one of them had escaped with one of his bullets inside them. And he had a talent for finding things that had previously belonged to him. He went into a trance and watched, seeing them regrouping in a building that looked like an abandoned hospital.
Once everyone was reunited, it was time to read the data tag that had cost Brother Ramas his life. They began with the holo recording, where Ramas explained that a Martyr strike team from Zalos was operating on the station and attempting to wipe out new mystics. They were being taken to the 'real sanitorium', somewhere down in the cellar.
Other files on the tag mentioned Noor. She felt she'd been given her powers for some higher purpose, and the last time he'd seen her she was being escorted by the guard after being arrested in the Ozone Plaza. She'd claimed to have a vision from the Emissary at Xene Station. Ramas wasn't sure which Emissary she meant - the one on Coriolis or the heretical self-proclaimed 'Judge' from Xene. She had a strange message for Ramas. "There will come a time when the darkness in invited in, when people speak without mouths, when sister betrays sister. Only they who live in the darkness will see the light." Not long after that she'd been taken down to the 'real sanitorium'.
They had to tell the Judicator everything, of course, and she was keen for them to get moving. Chances are, this 'real sanitorium' in the Cellar was where the Emissary had been taken, and Sayah was equally keen to find Noor. Should they take the route down through the Sanitorium, or use the guard elevator? For speed, they went with the elevator.
Once suitably equipped with some armour loaned from the Judicator, plus some other equipment, they set off. It wasn't long before they heard some people up ahead talking. Razaq scared them off, and investigation showed they'd ripped out a nexus node, presumably to sell. They found a screen, which rather unexpectedly was showing a news report from not long after the wreck of the Ghazali, specifically an interview with Tahir. This couldn't be a coincidence. Sayah djinned into the network, and confirmed it was being broadcast locally, not from the main station network.
Up ahead they could hear an oppressive thrumming noise, which when they got closer turned out to be huge ventilation fans. Sayah spotted something stuck on the underside of one - a Vulcan carbine held aloft by the airflow. Below them, on the hub of a fan, was a body. He looked like a Coriolis guard, but with a shaved head and some increasingly familiar face tattoos.
Khalil was getting a headache, and not just from the fan noise. He heard the crackle of a stun gun and smelled ozone. Just like he had in the Emissary's residence.
Could they retrieve the carbine? Tahir had a hyperrope, and felt quite confident in his ability to get hold of it if the others held onto the other end. Khalil had a better idea though, using his mystic power to attempt to wind the end of the rope through the gun. Instead the rope got caught around the fan and ripped out of his hands. Good thing that wasn't Tahir.
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