Alex stepped out into the Goldiron portal building and took a deep breath. There hadn't been another flash of those horrible visions, and she'd made it through the entire Survey without anything going horribly wrong. Alessa and Audrey were safe, and her team had survived another day.

She looked up to see Laser and the others already being briefed by Joanna. When Alex started over, the Adept waved her aside. Grateful, Alex looked over to see Clara speaking with the rest of the Goldiron Surveyors. The Acolyte was chuckling with Audrey over something, while Alessa rolled her eyes and made a comment that set the whole group laughing. Alex shook her head and went looking for Sam.

It took a few moments to find him, but she managed. He'd retreated behind one of the workout machines that Goldiron had set up for training, and was speaking quietly into his phone. She just barely managed to catch the last portion of his conversation as it finished.

"…and you're sure about this information? Good. Thank you very much for your help." He ended the call and looked into the distance for a moment.

Alex cleared her throat, and he glanced over at her. "Hey. Took you a while to get out of the portal. Everything all right?"

She shrugged uneasily. "You could say that. Was that the people at the hospital?"

Sam nodded. He looked… unhappy. "Yeah. Turns out there were some cases of mild magic poisoning, just like I asked them to watch for. Five or six cases, all at once, starting about an hour ago."

"Sounds about right for them switching the device on." Alex clenched her teeth at the thought of it. "So, where did they live?"

He shook his head. "That's the strange part. Seems like they came from all over." She frowned as he continued. "One was from all the way across the country, another one from two states away. None of them were from this town at all."

Alex looked back at the portal. Laser and her team were already going in; she could already see that it wasn't nearly as disturbed as it had been. "That doesn't make any sense. Shouldn't they be locals who got too close to the Anchor Point?"

Sam opened his mouth to respond, only for him to jump as Audrey appeared on top of the machine. The Squire laughed down at them. "Hey! What are you guys doing?"

Alex exchanged a quick look with Sam. "Nothing much. Why do you ask?"

Audrey grinned at her. "Oh, just wondering if I was interrupting something…" She chuckled to herself as Sam glared at her. "Honestly, I just wanted to thank you guys for the assist. I'd take you out for a meal or something, but I guess you won't be in town long."

Sam shook his head. "Yeah, they like to keep us moving. I'd bet we only have a couple of hours before we're headed back to base."

The Squire nodded, her long black hair swaying with the motion. "Yeah, it must be a lot of fun to ride that helicopter thing. Clara said Alex loves it!"

Alex felt her cheeks heat as Sam unsuccessfully tried to hide a smile. "Yeah. It's great."

Audrey grinned and then let out a melodramatic sigh. "Well, the only thing we have on offer is a bit of lunch in the caf. Not that you're missing much in town. There's barely more than a truck stop out this way. Almost makes me miss the parties at Red Blades Securities."

Alex blinked. Pieces started to fall into place as Sam nodded. "We'll just have to get together at some point in the future, then. Thanks for the offer, though."

The Squire cackled. "Anytime! Feel free to keep coming to the rescue." She looked at Alex and then shrugged. "Well, I'm gonna get back to the others. See ya!"

She jumped back off the machine, and Sam sighed at the space she'd occupied. He put away his phone and started to leave, but Alex shot out a hand and grabbed his sleeve. "Wait."

He looked at her, suddenly concerned. "Alex?"

"She said there's a truck stop." She looked at him, her mind suddenly whirling with possibilities. "What if those poisoning victims were truckers?"

Sam's brow furrowed. She saw the same calculations start in his eyes. "The truck stop? You think Greylight built something inside it?"

"No." She shook her head, mildly stunned. "They just parked it there."

He jerked in surprise, and she continued in a low voice that gathered intensity as she built momentum. "They made it mobile, Sam. It's inside a semi-truck somewhere, parked right outside that truck stop with the rest of the tractor trailers. Then, when they're done here, they just drive it off to the next spot."

Sam's dark eyes went wide. "That's how they are hitting so many spots at once. It isn't a facility stuck in one location."

She nodded, and another piece slotted into her mind. "The note. You remember those letters and numbers? Get out your phone."

He pulled it out, and she went on with more certainty. "Can you look up a license plate number? To find out what one belongs to?"

Sam nodded. "Sure. There's a few websites where you can…" He trailed off, and then he grinned. "You're kidding."

"Nope. Look it up." She recited the combination for him to type in, and moments later, they leaned over his phone together to see the results.

"It's a trailer all right. Belongs to a company called Steel Sky Transport." Sam's voice grew grimmer. "Subsidiary of Greylight Industries."

"We really… have to… find a… better way…" Joanna ran out of breath halfway through her complaint, and Alex grimaced. She adjusted the pace a little slower out of pity, and the Adept gave her a half-grateful, half-resentful look.

Sam cleared his throat a little. "Sorry, Joanna. It was my idea this time." She switched her glare to him, and he flinched. "Given what we… figured out, it's better to be… sure nobody's listening."

Alex raised her eyebrow at him. "I thought you said the room was secure?"

"It was that day, probably. Now that we were gone a while?" He shrugged.

Clara gave a little, breathless laugh. "They're going to know… you snore, Alex."

She rolled her eyes. "It wasn't me keeping everyone up, Clara."

"Anyway!" Joanna had apparently recovered her breath again, at least enough to interrupt. "We know… how they're doing it. How… do we stop it?"

Alex shook her head. "We don't know for sure. Not yet." The others looked at her incredulously and she grimaced. "Let's say that note was a fake. We could get… led into a trap. Or a red herring. We have… to be sure."

Joanna looked a little mulish, but Sam nodded. "She's right. If we're wrong…"

He paused while they passed another couple of Surveyors who were walking along the path. Once they were sufficiently behind to prevent eavesdropping, he continued. "We need… another incident. One where we can look around the local… truck stop. Confirm it."

Clara frowned. "What would… we be looking for?"

"Steel Sky moves Survey materials. They have a bunch… of specialized, shielded trucks." Alex found she was pushing the pace again and forced herself to slow down. "If we find one that's… leaking, we have our target."

"And we break them." Joanna sounded shockingly angry for a moment. Alex couldn't tell whether it was the run or the concept of a mobile Anchor Point being used to kill Surveyors and force them to accept a protection racket. Still, she nodded. It was a decent enough plan.

"If that's settled… can we talk about something else?" Clara looked at Alex, and her expression grew serious. "Why were you so… weird during the last Survey? Are you… okay?"

Alex winced. "I didn't think I was that… weird."

[Motion Trance increases to 3!]

As she tried to adjust her pace down again, Clara continued. "You didn't… say anything about your Quests. And you… seemed worried about the… portal."

The Acolyte paused for a few strides and then looked at her again. "That, and… you look weird."

Sam burst out laughing. "Not the nicest… thing to say."

Clara rolled her eyes. "Not physically. Magically." She tapped at her eyes, which glowed green for a moment. "It's like you're… more intense than usual. What's up?"

Alex hesitated. Then she sighed. "You remember the Dreamseer thing?" Sam gave her a confused look, but the others nodded. She went on in a resigned voice. "Turns out three of a kind makes a difference. The Screen… it says I'm no longer a Surveyor."

They ran in silence for a while. Then Joanna burst out with a single word full of indignation and confusion. "What?"

It took a few more laps to explain, and by the end of it, Joanna seemed almost as breathless from incredulity as she was from the run itself. Sam had needed the background on Clara's situation, which had drawn things out, but by the end, he already looked like he was plotting. Alex made a note to keep him from knocking himself out on purpose on the next Survey.

As they came to a halt, with Joanna still panting and huffing. The Adept put her hands on her knees and bent over for a bit. Clara was covered in sweat, but she was studying Alex with eyes that glowed green.

"It doesn't look like it is harming you at all. Just… different. Have you noticed any major differences?"

Alex shook her head. "Aside from the Screen behaving differently and the changes to how a Survey works, no."

Sam snorted. He was definitely scheming something, by the way he was looking at her. "So you just get to customize all of your Quests, and that's on top of whatever else got unlocked for you. That seems worthwhile."

Clara gave him a sidelong look. "You might not agree if you'd seen those… things." Alex shuddered in shared understanding.

He shrugged. "It doesn't matter, I guess. We know two of the triggers, but the third one…" Sam shook his head. "I doubt we want to let another Liliana happen just to unlock whatever it is Alex has going on. For now, we'll just have to let Alex be Alex. Again."

Joanna gave a short, desperate bark of laughter. She shook her head. "As… always…"

Clara smiled and stepped over to her. Her hands began to glow, and Joanna groaned. She straightened up and gave the Acolyte a thankful look. "So for now… we wait for Greylight to move. Then catch them. Anything else?"

When they all shook their heads, she nodded. "Then I am going to go collapse for a bit. See you at breakfast."

She staggered off towards the dorms, and Clara sighed. As the Acolyte jogged to catch up to the Adept, she turned to wave back at Alex and Sam. He watched them for a few more moments, chuckling. Then he looked back at Alex, his expression serious.

"I'll keep digging for what I can find on Steel Sky, but Alex, this Pioneer thing…" He paused, and a rueful smile crossed his lips. "I won't say be careful, because I know you. But still."

Alex grinned. "I'll try not to cause too much trouble." Sam nodded, and then he headed back on his own. She watched him go and then turned back to the path. There was enough time for her to fit in a couple more laps, if she pushed the pace—and something kept whispering to her they would need the edge soon.

The next alert came two days later.

It hadn't been the most restful two days. Sam had managed to find out that another of Warner's goons was headed out to a new spot. The portal was owned by a company by the name of Ochre Star Solutions which sounded vaguely familiar, but their options had been more or less the same as the time before. They didn't really have a chance to pass a warning to the Surveyors involved, since none of them knew any of the people at Ochre Star, but Sam had repeated his trick with the local hospitals, and they'd looked up the location of the nearest truck stop in advance. All they could do was then wait for the alarm to sound, and to finish things quickly enough to save everyone.

As they loaded themselves aboard the Greyhawk yet again, Alex held onto that hope. Once they knew for sure, they'd bring the whole thing to an end, one way or another.

The Ochre Star facility had been built in a rather nice spot on the beach. Another false neighborhood surrounded the portal itself on the land side, with office buildings and something that looked like a barracks a bit further out from that. Another building squatted right next to the portal, which had been left rotating and spinning in the open air above a small stretch of pavement. On the ocean side, Alex thought she caught sight of some kind of sandbar out in the midst of the waves. It made her wonder if the spot had been popular for vacations before the Fracture had made it forbidden territory for everyone but Surveyors.

When they landed, another delegation of executives was waiting for them. Alex tried to bypass them the way she had at Goldiron, but one of them, a grey-haired man in a casual suit, stepped in front of her. He extended his hand for her to shake, which she reluctantly obliged. "You're the Valkyrie."

Alex grimaced. She could already see the portal rotating a bit faster than she liked, and a bit of purple lightning snapped across its face. "Yeah. We're here to help."

He nodded, his expression serious. "We have eight people inside. Can you get them out?"

She looked at him. The question wasn't full of false bluster or desperation. Just someone trying to figure out what to expect. "We'll do our best."

A flicker of obstinacy crossed the man's face, but then he nodded and stepped aside. Alex glanced at the others, and then set off towards the portal at a jog. The horde was going to be waiting for them on the other side, and this time, she doubted the Surveyors would be destroying pieces of it as they went.

They ran through the vortex, and everything became light…

[D Rank Pioneer Alex]

[Ascension Level: 8]

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[Role: Porter (Role Skills: None)]

[Role Level: 3]

[Experience: 3520/4500]

[Attributes: Strength -> 8, Speed -> 10, Life -> 6, Devotion -> 0, Control -> 0]

[Current Skills: Combat Balance(40), Motion Trance(11), Combined Arms–Axe/Shield(40),

Holy–Storm(40)]

[Permanent Skills: Battle Maneuvers*(0)]

[Current Titles: Empress of War (Increases Skill grade of Melee, Combined Arms, Weapon Mastery, and Battle Maneuvers by five.),

Aggression (Increases Skill grade of Melee, Weapon Mastery, Combined Arms, and Combat Balance Skills by five.),

Fated Hero (Increases Skill grade of Dodging, Anticipate, Battle Maneuvers, and Inspect by five),

Eternal Motion (Increases Skill grade of Recovery, Running, Marathoning, and Motion Trance by five.),

Tireless (Increases Skill grade of Recovery Skills by three.),

True Sentinel (Increases Skill grade of Deflect, Dodging, Blocking, Resist, Zeal, and Combat Balance by five.),

Still Flow (Increases Skill grade of Meditation, Focus, Recovery, Arcane, Sense, and Motion Trance by five.),

Elite (Increases Skill grade of Combat Balance, Battle Maneuvers, Battle Mastery, and Battle Dance by five.),

Lethality (Increases Skill grade of Melee, Weapon Mastery, and Combined Arms Skills by five.),

Consecrated (Increases Skill grade of Holy by five.),

War Prowess (Increases Skill grade of Battle Maneuvers, Rush Assault, and Heavy Assault by five.),

War Momentum (Increases Skill grade of Combat Balance, Riposte, and Battle Dance by five.),

Blitz Master (Increases Skill grade of Combined Arms, Lunge, and Charge by five),

Deliberate (Increases Skill grade of Battle Maneuvers, Anticipate, and Combined Arms by five.)],

Quick (Increases Skill grade of Motion Trance, Evasion, and Charge Assault by two.)]

Having Battle Maneuvers at zero made for a much more grim outlook, but she still felt confident with the rest of her Skills at maximum. At worst, she'd be facing a similar level of exhaustion as she had during the first horde, but things hopefully wouldn't be that bad beyond the portal. Besides, she'd be able to push the same objectives.

A hint to that question arrived a moment later, as the text changed.

[Current Portal Status: Unstable, Magic Level Increasing Rapidly]

[Current Portal Level: D3 -> D5]

[Combat Oriented Objectives Recommended]

[Local Area Population: 7 D Rank Surveyors]

Alex felt a hollowness in her stomach as she read the words. The level of the portal was apparently not as severe, but one of the Surveyors inside was already dead. She forced herself to push through that feeling to the next screen.

[Current Objective Budget: 400]

[Select Priority Objective]

With a growing determination, she focused on what she wanted.

[Priority Objective: Save seven Surveyors. Possible rewards: 140 Experience. Accept?]

It was easy enough to accept. Her next choices were just as simple, given the situation.

[Select Additional Objectives]

[Additional Objective: Clear the Walk of Grue presence. Possible rewards: 120 Experience. Accept?]

[Additional Objective: Scout at least three locations within the local area. Possible rewards: 60 Experience. Accept?]

[Additional Objective: Eliminate at least eight Grue Camps. Possible rewards: 80 Experience. Accept?]

All three were exactly what she'd expected. She agreed and then charged forward into the other world…

The portal exited out onto a large pier that led to a boardwalk. It was a place of rotting wooden planks, stretching all across a beachfront. Restaurants and attractions were visible ahead of her, with hotels and other buildings a bit further back from the waterline. To her right was a marina of sorts, with all kinds of boats listing and abandoned alongside the piers; to her left was a large stretch of unoccupied beach.

A glance behind her showed the ocean stretching beyond the portal. It was visible as opaque, black water for a small stretch, but any deeper, and it became covered in mist. The thick fog was a white, and it roiled and moved with the gentle waves coming into shore. Her hair stood up on the back of her neck as her eyes ran over it; some part of her suggested that going for a swim was a very bad idea.

The others began exiting the portal, and she turned her attention back to the front. There were Grue everywhere, as she'd expected. It didn't seem to be as many as there had been at Goldiron, or at Emerald Bay, but they still covered the beach and the boardwalk in all directions. None of them were entering the water, curiously, but they had contented themselves by striding along the shore and filling the restaurants.

Unlike the other hordes, the structure of the boardwalk had apparently forced some changes to how the horde presented itself. Instead of being scattered among their brethren, the handful of Mages had gathered close to the portal itself, along with some Brutes and Killers. They were slowly turning to face the portal now, with surprise and shock on their faces.

[Additional Objective Located]

Alex smiled. She charged, with Sam right alongside her. Clara and Joanna trailed behind a bit, their magic already filling the air. They hit the advanced Grue in a single, unified strike, one that turned Mages, Killers, and Brutes alike into ruined corpses in heartbeats. As howls of alarm and rage filled the beach, Alex pushed forward, her axe cutting a path that the others widened. Grue fell to the rotting planks or were sent hurtling off of the sides, and the pier quickly became covered in the results of the carnage.

The Grue reacted, however, before they could get clear of the narrow path. Soldiers streamed up and onto the pier, choking the way with sheer numbers as Archers and the remaining Killers spread out along the shore to take shots at them from the sides. Alex felt a burst of feral rage fill her as her team's forward progress groundto a halt, forced back by walls of spearpoints and shieldwalls formed by lines of Knights. If it turned into an endurance race, she thought her team would still win, but…

Her dread cut short as a war cry rose above the howls of the Grue. She looked up and across the boardwalk in time to see a group of Surveyors slam into the back ranks of the horde, blasting through them with a frantic desperation that reminded Alex of when she'd led a similar attack on the horde at Golden Swallow. For a moment, the horde paused, as if trying to decide whether to face the attack from the portal or the enemy to their rear.

[Priority Objective Located]

Alex didn't give them a chance to decide. She unleashed a massive burst of lightning, blasting through the closest shieldwall. She darted into the opening, cutting down Grue who hadn't had the chance to form ranks again. Their ranks began to collapse, and when Sam joined her a moment later, widening the breach, their confusion turned into a rout within moments. Panicking Grue tried to retreat down the pier before they were cut off and surrounded, allowing Alex and her friends the chance to chase them down and massacre them. Those who tried to force their way past the Surveyors on the boardwalk were cut down before they could form an effective counterattack.

The entire battle had become a trap for the Grue, catching them between Alex's hammer and the other Surveyors' anvil. By the time the shattered remnants of the horde scattered along the beach, running for their lives, Alex and the Surveyors had left the entire area littered with corpses. Bodies covered the wooden planks and bobbed gently in the dark water, at least until they all burst into violent spurts of purple fire.

[Battle Maneuvers increases to 10!]

[Motion Trance increases to 12!]

[Additional Objective Completed.]

One of the Surveyors, a young man with a sword and shield, approached her. He nodded in weary respect. "Who are you?"

"We're the calvary." Alex looked around at the other six. They were leaning heavily against each other; some were still bleeding from wounds. "Is this all of you?"

He nodded. "We lost Burt on our first attempt to break through. Did my father call you?"

Alex paused. "I don't know. We're from Royal Purple Contracting."

"My father is Obadiah Hamilton, the CEO." The Surveyor stuck out a hand in a way that was very familiar. "My name is Jason. Thanks for the support."

Alex shook his hand, studying his face. She could see the resemblance to the man outside the portal. Obviously, the people in the truck had timed their leverage very, very well. Had it been part of the plan to begin with?

Jason continued in a low voice. "We would stay to help, but after that last fight…"

She shook her head. "Get your people home. We'll clear a few Camps and assess the situation, and then our second team will take care of the rest."

He gestured for the other Surveyors to move towards the portal. Then he stopped, looking back at her. "I'm sorry, I didn't ask. What was your name again?"

Alex looked back at him. "Alex. You can call me Alex."

"Alex… as in Alexandretta Morrison?" His brown eyes sharpened for a moment, and a grin broke out across his face. "Never thought I'd meet the famous Valkyrie so soon."

She shrugged uncomfortably. "It's good to meet you, Jason. You fought well."

He nodded, and she turned back to her team. Clara had been healing some of the worst-off Surveyors, but Joanna was giving her a knowing look. Sam was just studying the distant marina, a little stone-faced. She tried to ignore it. "Where are we headed?"

Sam answered, his voice carefully neutral. "I've got something for the Yacht, so I'm betting there's a few things in that direction. Another something for the Sun Motel, too, so probably deeper inland."

Joanna nodded. "I've got the Hotel as well. I think Clara said something about a Resort Garage?"

Alex nodded. She glanced back to see the Surveyors vanish through the portal, with Jason following the last of them through. A moment later, her Screen reported in.

[Priority Objective Completed.]

"Then let's go." She started jogging towards the marina. They had a lot to do, and not much time to do it in.

With the horde broken, the remainder of the Survey was simpler, even without an entire mob of additional Surveyors helping them.

They found two Camps at the marina, both aboard partially grounded boats that were chock full of Grue. After that, they swung inland, running across another Camp at a merry-go-round, and another two locations that turned out to be some form of Outposts nestled inside of restaurants. By the time they hit the Garage—a massive structure with a full four more Camps clustered inside—their enthusiasm for the battles was starting to flag.

From the Garage, they could see plenty of other spots. There was an Anchor Point forming at what looked like a Charging Station, and another one hovering on some kind of distant Ferris wheel. They made note of it and decided to head back rather than run into more problems.

As they made their way back towards the shoreline, Clara led them to one last spot where a solitary Camp was located. Around forty Grue of various types guarded it. They barely lasted more than a minute as her team tore through them.

With all of their goals completed, they made their way back to the portal. Alex braced herself before she entered. It wasn't that she was afraid of what she would find. Mostly, it was the fact that their mission for the day was only halfway done at best.

She stepped into the vortex, and light consumed her…

[Mission Report]

[Completed an Objective. +20 Experience]

[Priority Objective Completed. +140 Experience]

[Additional Objectives Completed +260 Experience]

[All Objectives Complete +80 Experience]

She felt a flicker of satisfaction as she dismissed the words and moved on to the next block. After all, it would give her a clue about whether the Earth Anchor Point was still active.

[Current Portal Status: Stabilized, Magic Level Steady]

[Current Portal Level: D4]

[Local Area Population: None]

The portal was stable, apparently, which was good in some ways, bad in others. It was good for Ochre Star, because the C rank team would probably knock it all the way back down to its previous level easily. Unfortunately, it also meant the Anchor Point device might have been turned off and ready to move.

[Battle Maneuvers increased from 0 to 27!]

[Motion Trance increased from 16 to 18!]

Well, she'd certainly gotten plenty of combat in, at least. Even if she could feel the ache of it in her bones at this point.

[Combat Balance has reached level 40! Skill is at Max Level and can no longer increase.]

[Combat Balance has reached capacity for Titles. No more are available.]

[Reset Combat Balance to add maximum levels?]

Alex nearly refused automatically. After all, if they faced another horde, and they didn't get help this time…

Then she reconsidered. It was nearly the end of the week, and the next alarm would be for Rabbit's team, not hers. If Warner wanted another new client stuck in, he'd be forced to squeeze it into the remaining two days of the week, and Sam hadn't seen any plans set up for the lackeys to do so.

She accepted the resets for Combat Balance, Combined Arms, and Holy—Storm. If something happened, she would just have to rely on Battle Maneuvers to get her through it. It was a risk, but one she was willing to take.

Feeling somewhat underpowered after the rush of energy through her, she allowed the light to pull her back…

Alex left the portal and found that the others had already arrived before her again. Joanna was once again talking with Laser and the C ranks. Clara had gone over to where the Ochre Star Surveyors were crouched. Her hands glowed as she worked on some of their wounds.

Sam, for his part, had already grabbed his phone. He looked at her and nodded, then headed for the Greyhawk. She started after him, knowing that they would only have a short time.

Unfortunately, Obadiah Hamilton intercepted her before she could make it very far. The CEO extended his hand again, and she shook it distractedly. "Thank you again for your help, Ms. Morrison."

Alex glanced at Sam and made a gesture for him to get a head start. He nodded and started to jog; she'd catch up with him soon enough. "I'm just happy to help."

"Yes, it was very fortuitous, actually." Obadiah tilted his head slightly, his grey eyes locked on hers. "If I hadn't met with your company's representative yesterday, I might not have known who to call for help. My son would have been placed in considerable danger."

She paused, studying him. It seemed very much like he was trying to ask a question without actually asking a question. "That does seem like a lucky coincidence, yes."

Obadiah nodded slowly. "Lucky enough to strain belief, yes." Then he smiled. "Of course, I'm talking to the Valkyrie. You've been involved in several interesting coincidences already. Something like this might just seem downright regular for you."

Alex had been about to try to dismiss his question when the emphasis on the word stopped her. It was an idle memory, something that came back to her from her mother's time as a Surveyor. Back then, people had occasionally used the word 'regular' as a kind of catchphrase between agents of Regulation. Was he trying to figure out if she was one?

She realized that she'd hesitated just a bit too long. There was a shift in his eyes, as if he'd been surprised, but Alex tried to rush her answer a little to make up for the pause. "No, I wouldn't say so. This incident is unusual, but you can rest assured that we will take care of it for you."

He nodded slowly again, his eyes locked onto her. "I see." Then he glanced past her, as Laser and her team went into the portal. When he looked back at her, his eyes narrowed. "That is… comforting, Ms. Morrison."

"Please, call me Alex." Sam was already gone. She needed to go now if they were going to have time. "If you'll excuse me, I promised one of my teammates a snack after that fight. I'll be right back."

Obadiah blinked and stepped back. "Of course, Alex." He glanced around. "I can call you a car if you—"

Alex waved him off. "No, don't worry. My feet can take me where I need to go." She smiled and started jogging, leaving the CEO watching her. Jason waved at her as she went by, and Alex waved back.

Then she settled into her run, accelerating through the empty streets of the false neighborhood. Sam had told her that there were only a couple of miles or so to reach the truck stop, and she wanted to be there and back before Laser's team showed up. The fewer questions they could ask, the better.

She caught Sam at about the mile mark. He was running hard, but Marathoning just didn't have anything on Motion Trance. When she pulled up alongside him, he gave her a quick glance and then accelerated a little. Alex matched his pace, and they ran together along the road into town. Occasionally, a car passed them, with a few honking at them in irritation.

It only took them a handful of minutes for them to reach the truck stop. The place was not exactly a major landmark. The locals had built a handful of restaurants and a pair of hotels in the place, and provided a generous parking lot for the trucks to fill. At the moment, only twelve of the larger vehicles were loitering in the place, but Alex immediately spotted the one that was their target.

The Steel Sky truck was shaped differently compared to the others. It had a trailer that was bulkier and heavier than the ones attached to the other semis. Additional reinforcement ran along the edges of it, as if to make sure that whatever it held inside wouldn't be allowed to leak out in any way.

She exchanged a look with Sam, and then they both swerved towards the lot. Moments later, they were breathing hard and walking across the pavement towards their target.

Sam spoke up as they drew close. "So. Trap, or Anchor Point?"

Alex shook her head. "Hard to say." She paused as one of the other trailers obscured the one they were headed for. "Do you want to check it out by yourself?"

He gave her a grin. "Feeling a bit cautious today, Valkyrie?"

"You're the one with the Stealth Skill, Sneak." Alex gave him a glare. "Go see if the plates match. If they attack you, I'll be able to hit them before they realize it."

Sam nodded, and he slunk around the side of the truck and disappeared from view. Alex waited, her fingers tensing as if already holding her axe and shield. If the truckers were just Surveyors it wouldn't be a problem—she doubted Greylight would use anyone over C rank as a truck driver—but if they were guards, with machine guns or something…

A few heartbeats later, Sam was back. He motioned for her to join him. "There's nobody there. Looks like the drivers might be inside the shops."

She nodded and followed him. The truck and the trailer behind it were indeed abandoned. As she got closer, she started to smell the magic. A hint of triumph went through her. They'd found it!

Yet Sam wasn't celebrating, and a moment later, she found out why. He pointed at the license plate on the trailer. "It doesn't match."

Alex paused, comparing the letters and numbers to the ones she had memorized. He was right. "Maybe it's the truck? They have different plates, right?"

He shrugged, and they walked around to the front of the truck. The plate number there didn't match what she'd been given either.

Alex shook her head. "It has to have the device inside. I can smell the thing."

Sam folded his arms and frowned down at the plate. "Should we check? Just to make sure?"

"They probably have it locked. At least, if it isn't a trap." She looked towards the rear of the trailer and started off in that direction. Sam followed her, studying the side of the trailer and the truck as they went. When she reached the back of the trailer, she could see at a glance that it was secured by some kind of lock.

She looked at Sam and gave him a crooked grin. "I guess you should have gone with the lockpick Skill again."

He gave her a raised eyebrow in response. "I'm not sure how useful that would have been." Then he dropped down near the keyhole, studying the thing. "Not that I'd be able to get through this thing anyway, honestly. It's like the difference between breaking into a house and getting into Fort Knox."

Alex nodded, looking up at the trailer. "Well, at least that means it isn't a fake. If it was, I think it would have either exploded or opened to reveal a hit squad or something by now."

"I was a little skeptical that Greylight would rely on something like that for a trap, anyway." Sam straightened up and dusted his hands off on his pants. "They prefer things with no traces, remember?"

She grimaced. "Good point." Alex stepped forward, assessing the door to the trailer. It seemed to be about as thick and durable as a Knight's shield. A good pair of axe strikes would probably destroy it. "Well, since we came all this way…"

As she reared back to strike, though, Sam caught her by the arm. "Wait." She looked at him and he shook his head. "What if the plates don't match because they have more than one?"

Alex looked from him to the back of the trailer. She felt dread settle into her stomach. "Then destroying this one would just tip our hand too early. They could still cause a lot of damage with the others, and we'd be exposed before we could stop the whole thing."

He nodded, and she lowered her arm. "So, how do we find the others?"

Sam gave her an exasperated look. "Probably not by smashing this one open. Not yet."

She snorted. "I get it, okay?" Then she turned back to the truck. "Do we just let it go, then?"

"Yeah. Until I find a way to track it all down." Sam nodded to himself and then looked up. "We should probably get back soon."

Alex grinned. "After the snack, of course. Up for a burger?"

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