It took the aberrants and the agents nearly a full candle to get to the Novikov's ‘not quite so secret anymore ’hideout. They were now standing in front of the sheer cliff face and looking at the rift. Khaleen pointed at the turban and the barrel just visible behind the rock over the entrance, and Beorg just nodded. There didn't seem to be anyone else waiting for them or guarding the entrance.

-”We are certain that the time has finally come, when you share your, undoubtedly brilliant, plan with us mere mortals.” - said Anh, shading his eyes with a piece of cloth, telekinetically held over his head.

-”I thought you are an aberrant master Anh” - noted Martina in a lighthearted tone.

-”I am." - the tanai looked at the agent and quickly lifted his eyebrows - "Buuut I will at some point perish. It’s just not going to be because of ageing. That makes me a mortal.”

-”Not a ‘mere’ one though.” - merrily replied the woman.

-”That is a very good point!" - the hexergist turned towards the other aberrant - "Beorg! You hire the best people!”

-”Anhs, I need yous to get their attention. Lure them out.” - replied the nord, ignoring the entire exchange - “Khaleen, I have several guns in my saddlebags, take six, load them up and get ready. Take position behind that rock." - he pointed towards a rock formation to the right of the entrance. Then he looked around, searching for another hiding spot, this time for the woman. Then he gestured at a lone rock to the left - "Martina, you hide there. Take the rest of the pistols."

-"There were some guns on the cart." - interrupted the woman - "Should we use these also?"

The aberrant shook his head.

-"If they are Maanica's, then even I would not risk touching them. Besides, if we won’t resolve the situation with fourteen shots, then neither will we with a hundred. More firepower isn’t really needed."

Both agents sprung into action, walking up to the horses and unloading them, while Beorg continued giving instructions.

-"Remember, you are here to provide fire cover only, so do not get into mêlée, unless absolutely necessary. As you well know, our reinforcements are scheduled to be here within a candle. If we fail to extract Olga until their arrival we will take the camp by force.”

They took the guns, assumed their positions, and then loaded their weapons, leaving each prepared one on top of their hiding places, for quick reach.

-”You're not taking chances are you?” - Anh made a quite obvious comment after observing the agents for a short while.

-”No." - replied Beorg, loading his own two guns - "The plan is to lure them out of there, then have a talk."

-"Yes, yes, we see. Lure them how?"

-"This is yours job. Do what yous have to." - then, seeing Anh's face cracking into a wide grin, he added firmly - "Preferably without raining fire from the skies.”

Anh's face sagged a bit, because this was exactly his primary plan. In his own experience there really weren't that many problems which could not be solved with, more or less judicious, application of some pyrohex. But… the master orders, the slave obeys, as Tow always remarked whenever the dominant did something for Beorg. He lustrated the cliff and then took a closer look at the rift entrance.

-*pressure wave*- said Tow in the shared mindspace.

-*what about it*- asked Thernohh, who was the resident pneumahex specialist.

-*i said pressure wave, pay attention for once*- replied irritated Tow -*use pneumahex to compress air in front of the rift then push that inside* this should theoretically create a loud sound on the other side*

Thernohh switched off for a short while, then came back with the numbers and equations, hastily arranged in a table.

-*tow is right* a compression wave sent through the narrow entrance will coalesce into a shock wave* this should generate a desired effect when it reaches the exit*- she projected an ad-hoc scribblings of her conception of the ravine into the mindspace -*the exact cross section isn't known, but from the agent's words i could extrapolate that it indeed expands into a canyon *- the image was replaced by an equation and a corresponding graph -*now the strength of the shockwave would be proportional to the cube of the…*

-*this is fine*- interrupted Anh -*but we really need to hurry my dears* i trust yous knowledge however remember we deal with singletons* what is going to happen exactly?*

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-*a massive boom*- Tow and Thernohh sighed in unison.

-*that will get their attention for sure*- merrily replied Anh -*it's a good plan* i will tell beorg*

All this conferencing and discussion occurred at the speed of a thought, and for the people outside the tanai's brain, it seemed like he became motionless and his eyes glazed over just for a few drips. He then blinked and turned towards the nord, who was just finishing tamping down the wadding of his second gun.

-”I’ll push a massive wave of air through the rift. When it exits on the other side it will result in a, I quote, 'massive boom'”.

-”I fully trust yours judgement. After yous do it, take refuge on the edge there.” - Beorg pointed at a rock above the entry, the same one where the still unmoving Novikov's guard was posted - “Do what is necessary.”

Anh took off towards the rift, but the older aberrant stopped him.

-"Anhs, be ready for anything." - he said in a serious tone - "She is the unknown variable in all this and I have only a vague idea on how she will act. If you blink, she will most likely kill me."

This was highly unusual for the eternally calm and collected nord, and the general consensus of the kinfolk was that they should take these words seriously. Thus Anh, instead of a dismissive 'fine, yes, whatever', just nodded solemnly and then floated into a better position in front of the rift. Then he carefully studied its jagged edges and crevices. The rock was orangeish, bordering on red, interspersed with layers of white, cream or mauve. The rift itself was most likely caused by wind erosion, or perhaps an earthquake? There was no consensus among the kin, which was fine in the end - the origin of this topographic feature made no difference to the plan. Its shape, though, certainly did: it went almost to the top of the cliff, a good twenty mers up, creating a two - three mer gap between, otherwise solid, rock walls. The floor also consisted of solid rock, but looked surprisingly level. In addition, two long cracks formed at the base of the rift, going deep into the stone, and it looked like the rift might close at some point, most probably due to erosion loosening a chunk of neighbouring wall into the rift opening. There was also a path leading into the rift, which was almost definitely man-made, or rather pack-animal-made, sharply defined by the fine, sandy scree, brought out on their hooves.

Once the observations were concluded to the required standard, Anh began his preparations for the task at hand.

-*now, listen my dears* since i am the one most experienced in forcing air into places*- said Thernohh to her kinfolk, preempting Anh's own introduction -*stop snickering tow, this is serious* anyhow, i would like to ask our dominant to give me the reins * the rest of you * follow my instruction*

-*...sure*- responded Anh after a minuscule pause.

-*at your service*- said Tow -*let us hope it's not just a load of hot air*

-*awaiting orders*- said, always the level-headed, Birdekk whilst Greoo just made a mental impression of a confirmatory grunt, thus completing the consensus among the personalities.

It was time for Anh to give up control of the physical body. He did it slowly and methodically - it wasn't anything entirely unusual for the tanai, but Anhs executed this particular stunt rather rarely, generally preferring instead to augment the dominant's actions with any of the willing subservients' craft or mental support. He ceded the motoric functions one by one, making sure after each one that Thernohh has full control, before proceeding to the next. Soon enough anyone observing his movements would notice that they became clumsier, and that his levitation was much less confident and steady. Not more than a triskol after Anh closed his eyes and entered the trance, the transition was complete, leaving the subservient in almost complete control.

Thernohh positioned herself a good dozen mers away from the entrance to the rift and raised her hands, as if she was praying. For a short time it seemed like nothing was happening, but soon a breeze picked up, blowing dust towards her from all sides simultaneously. It looked a bit like a slow-motion inverted explosion.

As happenstance, Anh chose the perfect robe for the job. It began to rustle, weave and flap on the wind, and coupled with the dust cloud underneath the tanai, it created a stunning effect, making it seem like the hexergist was some avatar of Jeevox, the earth and flame united. The majesty of the show however was ever so slightly dulled, due to the fact that of three hoomin witnessing it, one was notoriously hard to impress, on account of having seen and forgotten more of such displays than a practising battle hexergist does in their entire life, while the remaining two had other jobs to do and things to look out for, and were too disciplined to just drop everything and admire the craft.

The breeze quickly intensified, and soon the area around Thernohh resembled a huge dust devil, fed by a vacuum in the epicentre and sucking in air from all around. Such was her mastery of the craft, that the sand dust, scree and small loose stones, pulled in by the force of the wind, never even touched her robes, forming instead a circular pile directly beneath her feet.

Beorg observed this impassionately, noticing, somewhat incidentally, that the wind became cooler with every passing moment. It didn’t take long for the nord to wish for some warmer clothing, even though he knew, through weathering many similar displays, that once his companion finished whatever he was doing, the midday Bivos scorch would once again bathe everything in a warm haze.

Suddenly Thernohh clumsily moved her hands forward, as if she tried to push something away. There was a very noticeable “floph” sound as all that air got squeezed into the rift. The dust devil ceased its existence immediately, but the tanai just floated there, frozen in a stiff pose, with hands in front of her. Then, after perhaps a triskol, she clenched her palms into fists and just a few moments later, a loud boom echoed from the rift, causing everyone in the vicinity to suffer a painful sting in the ears and then a ringing sensation lasting a few drips. A strong backdraft stormed out of the rift, accompanied by a cloud of dust, sand and scree. At the same time Thernohh’s eyes glazed over, and her movements became visibly less clumsy. Anh turned towards Beorg and bowed theatrically.

-”There you go. The best door knock in history.” - he said and then took flight towards the edge of the cliff - “I’ll just sit on my ledge there, and monitor things. I hope your forked tongue will get us the results we seek.” - the words got quieter the higher he was, and the last bit was almost inaudible.

Beorg in the meantime took refuge behind a sizable boulder, almost directly in front of the rift, but quite a distance away from the entrance, making sure that he could keep an eye on everything from a safe position, without the danger of being immediately shot. He then cocked both his pistols, gave them the last once-over, with a tiny hint of disapproval on his face, and waited.