The pre-dawn drive southwards from Guangfeng was a relatively quiet one. Eraan, who had spent all night going over updates and reports, was sleeping in the seat next to the driver, and Elena was behind the steering wheel again. They stopped for a breath of fresh air in the lake city of Yangsea and then in Salsington on the Midland coast, enjoying the calm before the storm and preparing to cross into Urching.
Eraan examined the road map closely as they neared the Autonomous Region. "We should use this road here," he laid his finger on a dotted blue contour, "the main road should be blocked." Elena glanced at the map for a moment, hummed in agreement, and turned her eyes back to the road ahead. "Good thing we have a land rover," Eraan said.
Elena took the turn westwards out of the main road, towards Orsandia's south-western plateau. After about an hour she turned to the south again into a field path which would bring them near Lihai. Both Osters almost bumped off their seats as the vehicle jerked its way up hill and down hill, jolting violently in and out of deep ruts, appearing to be on the point of overturning at any minute.
Around half past five in the morning, the land rover stopped in the middle of the rocky path. Elena steered it slowly to the side, right next to an entrance to a narrow craggy trail, and pulled the key out to kill the engine. As the roaring faded, they could suddenly hear the nature around them - birds, insects, and leaves rattling in the wind. This would have been a nice place for hiking, Elena thought. Eraan was already out of the vehicle, throwing his pack on his back and checking his gun.
Elena's boots made squelching sounds as she stepped out of the car and into the mud. The breeze felt slightly wet, as if it rained just recently, and the thick smell of soaked soil flooded her senses.
"Fuck," Eraan spat, "I hate this kind of weather."
Elena hummed. "Doesn't matter," she glanced at her watch, "we'll be there soon."
They walked for a few minutes around a hill before they reached a dilapidated two-story wooden farmhouse with a small grassy patch of land behind it. Elena identified several boot-prints turned her partner's attention to them. "Probably SI," she whispered. The two walked up the few stairs to the front door and opened it. Inside a squad of Dormill-Stiuraian operatives stood waiting, nodding to the Osters in welcome.
"Good morning," Elena said dryly. "How was the ride?"
The next day, the safe-house was already looking less like an old house and more like a radio station. With the help of the SI agents, the Osters unloaded the heavy equipment from the land rover and installed it in what would have been a living room, turning the place into a local version of the Tom Raana's warehouse-station in Lindastir. As their base of operations for the following weeks, it had to have the ability to send and receive encoded transmissions and link to the secure network of both agencies.
That morning, a few more Osters arrived from the north in order to maintain and operate the communication equipment. As they worked on the computers, Eraan placed several blocks of explosives around the house. In the case of emergency, those would destroy the entire place and the devices inside.
"Headquarters have more information," Elena announced as Eraan finished arming the last of the explosives. "They looked into the PLF issue and found that both SAFI and the friends took great interest in it. SI think that they're getting equipment from outside, and our folks back home are tracking some odd shipments from the friends."
"That's it?"
"We have initials, YJ," she shrugged. "We'll look for more clues tomorrow."
