//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9 
// Story: Traveler 
// by totallynotabrony 
//------------------------------//

	It was not a particularly long voyage to the Griffon Kingdom, just a few days.  Despite my intentions of not telling Penny anything, I did admit that I worked for a shipbuilding company on Earth.  That was a mistake.  She knew a surprising amount about that for anyone, much less a teenaged mare.  I quickly backpedaled and decided to keep conversation with her to a minimum.
At least her sailing skills made up for awkward social interactions.  The borrowed Traveler made record time, the sails trimmed perfectly for the wind.  It was almost a shame to pull into port.
Nika and I, backed by Shep and Jeff set out to meet a contact.  Penny hadn’t quite earned our trust yet, so Andy, Hawker, and Jones agreed to keep an eye on her back at the boat.
The griffons were slightly less used to people, as most of the doorways were in Equestria, but we didn’t get many stares.  There was one named Buck we were going to see.  Equestrian special operations was apparently paying him to keep tabs on some of his fellow citizens.  He owned a little shop that sold books.  As the four of us entered, a little bell above the door rang.
“Be right there,” called a voice.  A griffon colored mostly grey came in from a back room.  There was a small pair of glasses perched on his beak.  “What can I do for you?”
“Name’s Sean Carter,” I said.  “I’m looking for information about the northern part of the Kingdom.”
“Oh really?” he said, eyeing me.  “It can get rather cold up there in the winter.”
“It’s not a problem.  We’re just taking a pleasure cruise,” I said.
Code phrases exchanged, he motioned me into the back room.  Nika came with me.  Buck twisted the dial on a safe, opening the door and pulling out a disk.  I was slightly surprised that it wasn’t printed on paper.  I supposed this made it so that it intercepting the information wasn’t as simple as just reading it.  It was also easier to transport.
“I kept everything updated,” said Buck, almost sounding proud of himself.  “Everything you need is current.”
I had no idea what the information might be, but thanked him.
“Now about compensation,” he said.
I glanced at Nika.  Neither of us had heard anything about us paying him.  I said, “Bill your usual contacts.”
“I’m just making a living,” he said modestly.  “I’d like to do more, but I can’t if I’m scratching for income.”
I doubted he was poor.  Still, I’ve always thought that bribes work best when both parties are fully aware what they’re for.  I glanced at a nearby shelf, somewhat surprised to see a paperback copy of Moby Dick.  I grabbed it.  “How much does this cost?”
“Oh, that’s very rare.”  He grinned.  “I can let it go for one thousand American dollars.”
I pulled out my credit card.

Back at the boat, Andy checked the disk for malware and then slid it into his laptop.  It was interesting how he’d roughly managed to duplicate his electronics setup in a mobile environment.
“It’s good stuff,” he said upon opening the data.  “We’ve got a list of participants, possible routes and equipment, and coordinates for a target.”
“The target?” I asked.
“I’d say that depends.  It’s not tagged ‘mysterious thingy here’ but that could just be a result of our friend Beak not being told what we were after.”
“All right, get us going in that direction.”
Andy pulled out a map of the Griffon Kingdom coastline and began plotting a course.  I did a mental facepalm.  GPS doesn’t work here.  They had a few electronic navigation systems, but they weren’t compatible with equipment from Earth.  Still, it was almost nice to brush up on the old-school skills.
We had Penny aloft in the rigging taking bearings for us to pick our way along the coast.  Basic navigation is pretty much just a series of trigonometry problems.  Draw some straight lines, determine their lengths and relative angles.  Simple.
The target site was not ideal.  Rocky cliffs faced a small complex of buildings.  There wasn’t much terrain surrounding the area to use for cover.
I wondered about the possibility of climbing the cliffs.  I kind of regretted letting Celestia turn me into a human now.  I was a little surprised when Penny was the one to shoot that idea down.
“Are you kidding?  They’re probably expecting an attack from the cliffs even more than from the land.  It’s on griffon turf.  They’re expecting an attack from opponents who can fly, but either way they're still watching those rocks.”
As much as I hated to admit it, I probably spent too much time on Earth.  Even as a pegasus myself, I hadn’t thought of that.
“So what won’t they be expecting?” I questioned.
“How expensive do you want to make this?” asked Penny.
“The contract covers operating expenses,” I said.
She grinned.  “What do you know about shipwrecks?”
I thought back to my last boat.  “More than I really want to.  What are you planning?”
“They would never suspect that we would intentionally crash on the rocks.”
“You’re right, because it’s stupid,” put in Jeff.
“What if we arranged extraction ahead of time?” asked Nika, surprisingly taking Penny's side.
“Would Celestia do that for us?” asked Andy.  “She wanted to keep this low profile.”
I turned to Jones.  “Can you call anyone?”
“I can try,” she said.  “You know the CIA will want to know why we’re doing this.”
“True.”  I thought for a moment.  “Actually, I have a good idea.”  I got up to go find the satellite phone.
“Who are you going to call?” asked Penny.
I thought about telling her “Ghostbusters” but doubted she would get the joke.  I made a mental note to get Andy to download a copy the next time he found some internet.
Oh, that was another thing about this side of the doorways.  Not enough bandwidth to support high-speed data transfer over satellite.  This place was really beginning to get on my nerves.