"You are up early."The woman at the guild entrance desk says it without looking up from the overnight log she is completing. She is end-of-shift tired, the specific fatigue of someone who has been awake all night doing a job that requires just enough attention to prevent sleep. She has seen me come and go enough times to recognize me without the effort of actually looking.I say: "Errand."She says: "Sign out."I sign out. I go through the door into the early morning city.The memorial district is twenty minutes on foot from Irongate. I have walked past it on support runs and delivery routes without stopping because stopping would have meant acknowledging it was something I needed to do and I was not ready to need to do it.I am not sure I am ready now.I go anyway.The public memorial for hunters killed in active Rift service occupies a full city block in the civic district. It was built in the second year after the Rifts opened, when it became clear that the casualty rate was going

"If Rourke moves before we are ready to move, we need somewhere to go that is not on any list he has access to."Reina says it at the top of the workspace table with her notes open and her coffee untouched and the specific posture of someone who has been thinking about this since before I got back from the hallway. She has a new page open. Nothing written on it yet. She is building the framework in her head before she commits it to the page, which means she has been running it long enough to be close to something she can write down.I sit across from her. I say: "Your underground network."She says: "Partially. Three of my mother's contacts are still active and verifiable. Two of them have safe house access outside standard GRA monitoring zones." She picks up the pen. "The problem is that safe house access through my mother's network is exactly the kind of thing a thorough GRA file on me would include. If Rourke has shared my registration with his contact, the network is compromised a

"Going alone is operationally inefficient."Reina says it at breakfast without looking up from her tablet. She has been saying variations of it since last night when I told her I was going to the coordinate alone. She is not arguing. She is registering her assessment for the record.I say: "I know."She says: "If the coordinate is a GRA setup, alone means no backup and no independent witness to whatever they claim happened."I say: "If it is a GRA setup they already know both of us. Taking you changes nothing about their options and removes you from the network relay work that needs to happen before we potentially have to move."She types something. She says: "That is a reasonable operational argument."I say: "I know."She says: "I still think it is inefficient."I finish my coffee. I say: "I will be back by noon."She says: "I know you will." She turns