All three technicians in the control room stared at her in surprise. The conveyor belt started to move, carrying the four cylinders along.

“Escort guards, stand down,” she ordered. “Remove your helmets. Now. You, by the portal, step away.”

The guard who’d been staring into the emptiness beyond the portal door stood perfectly still in front of it.

“Take your helmet off,” Poi Li ordered.

His hand went up slowly, gripped the helmet rim, and lifted it off. Callum smiled at Poi Li, then flipped backward through the portal.

“No!” Poi Li yelled.

The gray mist on the other side of the portal door swallowed him immediately, leaving no trace.

—

The call came in to Brixton seventy minutes after Moshi Lyane started his shift. “We need an on-the-ground assessment at the Berat plant,” Fitz said. “The fire’s starting to spread.”

“Where the hell is Callum?” Dokal asked. “He should have been here an hour ago.”

The crew exchanged glances across the office. They didn’t say anything.

“We can handle this,” Moshi said. “It’s just an assessment.”

Dokal glanced through the glass into the Monitoring and Coordination Center. Fitz was standing up at his console, hands on hips, giving her an impatient stare.

“Corporate has authorized our presence,” she said. “All right. Moshi, take it.”

He grinned reassuringly. “We’re on it.”

“Somebody tell me where Berat is,” Colin complained.

Raina slapped him on the shoulder as they headed for the door. “Albania.”

“Want to know where that is?” Henry asked.

He was shown two vigorous fingers.

They quickly dressed in their hazmat suits and strode through Connexion’s portal door network. Plans of the old chemical plant were thrown up across Moshi’s screen lenses. They showed him the fire approaching a cluster of storage tanks. Lists of the compounds they used to hold appeared.

“They’ll be trouble to vent,” Alana said. “It’s just residuals, sticking to the casing.”

“Let’s find out,” Moshi said, and stepped through the last portal. “Going in now, Fitz.”

He found himself in a long courtyard formed by high, dilapidated buildings that had been abandoned years before. The portal door was surrounded by ten paramilitaries wearing full body armor. Each of them was leveling a carbine on the crew as they stepped out. Moshi’s mInet reported a loss of connection with the Brixton Monitoring and Coordination Center. “Oh, crap.”

Colin, Alana, Henry, and Raina pressed together around him.

Behind the ring of paramilitaries, a big gray four-by-four was parked in the shade. Yuri Alster stood beside it. “You can all take your helmets off,” he said. “There is no fire.”

Moshi pushed his visor up. “What’s going on?”

Yuri walked right up to him. “Please don’t be insulting. You know why you’re here.”

“Fuck you,” Raina snarled.

“Ms. Jacek,” Yuri said. “Fashionable rebel to the end.”

She spat on the ground.

“You were all in Kintore six hours ago,” Yuri continued levelly. “You’ll be glad to know your plan worked. Callum is with his fiancée.”

“Wife,” Moshi said.