Erica had been watching the portal for three days.
She'd found a spot on the roof of a warehouse near the First Landing entrance, a place with good sightlines and enough shadows to hide in when the patrols came through. The warehouse had been empty for years, the roof access door rusted shut, the stairs leading up to it creaking with every step. No one came up here. No one even looked up here. It was perfect.
From her perch she could see the portal, the shimmer of light that marked the passage between worlds, the steady stream of hunters and merchants and adventurers moving through it every day. She could see the people who watched it too. The two men she'd spotted on the first day were still there, still patient, still waiting. They'd been relieved twice, new faces taking their places, the same clothes, the same posture, the same way of standing that said military training somewhere in their past.
She'd been sending updates to a number that never answered, just received, just acknowledged, just stored somewhere for someone else to act on. She didn't know who was on the other end, had never asked, had never wanted to know. That was how these things worked. You passed information and you trusted that the people who needed it would get it.
Her phone buzzed now, a single word, the same word she'd been getting every few hours since she'd started watching.
*Status?*
She typed back: *Still waiting. Portal activity normal. No sign of them yet.*
*They'll come through today. Be ready.*
She put the phone away and settled deeper into her position. The sun was rising over First Landing, the light catching the prefab buildings and the dusty streets and the people already moving through their morning routines. Somewhere in the Expanse, David and Lucas and Becca were walking back from a cave that held something people had killed for. Somewhere behind her, on Earth, people were waiting to meet them when they came through.
She didn't know what was in the vault. She hadn't asked. It wasn't her job to ask. It was her job to watch and wait and be ready for whatever came next.
The morning passed slowly. The men by the portal didn't move, didn't change position, didn't do anything except stand there and watch and wait. A group of young hunters went through, laughing about something, their packs full of gear they probably didn't know how to use. A merchant came back through with a cart full of cores, his face tired but satisfied. The portal flickered and pulsed and the day moved on.
Erica was reaching for her water when she saw them.
Three figures on the far side of the portal, moving with the kind of exhaustion that came from days of hard travel. David was in front, his red hair catching the light, his face turned toward the town like he was seeing something he'd thought he might not see again. Lucas was beside him, his size unmistakable even from this distance, his shoulders slumped in a way she'd never seen before. Becca was behind them, her dark clothes blending with the shadows, her eyes scanning the crowd the way she always did.
They were here. They'd made it.
Erica pulled out her phone. *They're coming through now.*
The response came faster than she expected. *We see them.*
She looked at the portal and saw what they'd seen. The two men who'd been watching for three days were moving now, not running, not obvious, just walking toward the portal with the easy confidence of people who knew what they were doing. They weren't alone either. Two more had appeared from somewhere, flanking the entrance, closing off the angles.
Erica was already moving. Her bow was in her hand before she thought about it, an arrow nocked before she was off the roof. She hit the ground running, her feet finding the path between buildings, her eyes never leaving the men moving toward her friends.
David was through the portal now, Lucas beside him, Becca behind. They were tired, she could see it in the way they moved, the way they held themselves. They weren't ready for what was coming.
She cleared the last building and saw the men closing in, saw David notice them, saw him stop, saw his hands come up with fire already gathering. Lucas was shifting beside him, his body growing, his density changing. Becca had disappeared into shadows.
The first man reached David and Erica let her arrow fly.
It caught him in the shoulder, spun him around, dropped him to the ground before he could reach for whatever weapon he was carrying. The second man turned toward her and Lucas hit him like a freight train, his massive fist connecting with the man's chest and sending him flying into the side of a building. The third and fourth were already pulling back, already reassessing, already realizing that the easy capture they'd planned wasn't going to happen.
Erica was beside David now, another arrow nocked, her eyes on the remaining men. "You took your time."
David's fire was still burning in his hands, his face pale, his eyes too bright. "We ran into some trouble."
"I heard."
The two men who were still standing had stopped, their hands raised, their eyes on the people who had just appeared from nowhere to ruin their operation. One of them was speaking into a communicator, his voice too low to hear, his face tight with frustration.
Lucas was breathing hard beside them, his body still shifted, his fists still ready. "Are there more?"
Erica scanned the crowd, saw people pulling back, saw doors closing, saw the kind of panic that came when violence erupted in a place where violence wasn't supposed to happen. "Not that I can see. But there's always more."
Becca appeared beside David, her shadows retreating, her daggers back in their sheaths. "We need to move. Now."
David looked at the men on the ground, at the ones who were still standing, at the portal behind them that led back to the Expanse. "Where?"
"Anywhere. Just not here."
They moved. Erica stayed behind them, her bow up, her eyes scanning for threats. Lucas was in front, his size clearing a path through the crowd that had gathered to watch. Becca was beside David, her hand on his arm, pulling him forward when he wanted to stop and look back.
They made it three blocks before Erica was sure no one was following them. They ducked into a supply depot, the same one David and Lucas had used before they left, the same woman behind the counter looking up with the same flat expression.
"You three again." Her eyes moved to the weapons, the exhaustion, the tension. "Trouble?"
"Something like that," David said.
The woman looked at them for a moment, then jerked her head toward the back. "Storage room. Empty. Give you a few minutes to figure out what you're doing."
They moved through the depot, past shelves of supplies, past hunters loading gear, into a small room at the back that smelled of dust and old metal. Lucas closed the door behind them and the silence was immediate.
David sat down on a crate, his head in his hands, his breathing too fast. Becca stood by the door, her hand on her daggers, her eyes still scanning for threats that weren't there. Lucas leaned against the wall, his body shrinking back to normal, his face pale.
Erica looked at all of them, at the exhaustion and the fear and the weight of whatever they'd found in the Expanse. "What happened out there?"
David looked up, and for a moment she saw something in his face she'd never seen before. Not fear, not rage, something else. Something that looked like grief. "We found what my father left behind. And then people tried to kill us for it."
"And the thing? The thing he left?"
"Safe." David's voice was steady. "Hidden. Somewhere no one will find it."
Erica nodded, didn't ask where, didn't ask how. That wasn't her job either. "The people at the portal, the ones who attacked you, they've been watching for three days. Waiting for you to come back."
David's hands clenched. "Who sent them?"
"I don't know yet. But I'm going to find out." She looked at Becca. "You need to get back to your estate. Tell your grandmother what happened. She needs to know that the people who attacked Kaito just tried to do the same thing to you."
Becca nodded slowly. "And you? What will you do?"
Erica thought about the men at the portal, about the way they'd moved, about the communicator one of them had used to call for backup. She thought about the number she'd been messaging for three days, the number that had known exactly when David would come through, the number that had been waiting for this moment as long as everyone else.
"I'm going to find out who they're working for," she said. "And then I'm going to make sure they never get another chance to hurt any of you."
David stood, his face set, his hands steady. "Erica."
"Don't thank me. Not yet." She opened the door, looked back at them one more time. "Get some rest. You're going to need it."
She walked out of the depot and into the First Landing afternoon, the sun bright overhead, the streets almost normal again. The men at the portal were gone, taken away or run off, it didn't matter. What mattered was that David was back and the thing in the vault was safe and the people who had been hunting for it had failed again.
But they'd be back. They'd been waiting eighteen years. They'd wait another eighteen if they had to. The only way to make them stop was to find out who they were and what they wanted and make sure they never got it.
Erica pulled out her phone and typed a message to the number that had been waiting for three days.
*They're back. The vault is empty. The thing they wanted is gone.*
The response came faster than she expected.
*We know. We were watching.*
She stopped in the middle of the street, her phone in her hand, her heart suddenly beating too fast.
*Then why didn't you help?*
A long pause. Then:
*Because we needed to see what they would do. What he would do. And now we know.*
Erica stared at the screen, at the words that made no sense, at the people who had let her friends walk into danger just to see what would happen. Her hands were shaking.
*Who are you?*
The last message came, and then the number went silent.
*Someone who's been waiting for David Ashborn for a very long time. The same as everyone else.*