“You can stop being a lawyer for today.”

“Really? Have you stopped being a security chief?”

“Let’s just say I’m on my lunch break. Can I come in?”

She let out a heavy sigh. “Sure. It’s a bit cramped.”

“I’ll live.” He clambered into the Sprinter; Dokal checked the marquee was zipped up tight and shut the door behind him.

The threader mechanism almost filled the inside of the van.

“I genuinely wasn’t expecting you,” he admitted.

Her lips squeezed into a small moue. “I think that was the point.”

“Callum’s good. I should have him on my staff.”

“So what now?”

He regarded the intricate mechanics of the threader with interest. “I’ve never been this close to one of these before, and I’ve been with the company a long time. I think I’d like to see one in operation. So we’ll just wait, if that’s okay with you?”

“Why?” she asked.

“Professional pride. Savi is one of my agents. I never leave one of mine behind.”

“What does Poi Li think about that?”

“I expect we’ll find out soon enough. When will they use it?”

“I don’t know. Callum was going to wait until the crew arrived at wherever it is they’re renditioned to.”

“Ah. Well, they were scheduled to go through ten minutes ago. Apparently, it has to be night at the other end.”

They waited in awkward silence for another fifty minutes, then Dokal jumped. “Bloody hell. The core portal is activating. He did it!” She hurriedly opened both of the van’s rear doors. Yuri watched the half-meter portal in the middle of the threader turn a midnight black, then its surface twisted inward, falling away to leave a gap. Air started to gush through. “Threading now,” she told him.

The rectangular solid-state slab in the first section of the threader split neatly along its narrow length, producing a set of entangled portals. Actuators separated the twinned segments and pushed one through the core portal Callum had opened. A different set of actuators flipped its remaining twin vertical. The airflow through it increased noticeably, making the marquee sides flap about excitedly.

“Help me,” Dokal said, and jumped out of the van.

Yuri joined her as the threader’s largest portal, a meter-wide circle, divided. One went through to Zagreus. Yuri helped Dokal as the threader turned its twin vertical. Air charged through the opening so fast Yuri had to brace himself to avoid being pulled in. He caught a glimpse of dull, rocky ground surrounded by a weird curving wall of torches. There was a lot of elated cheering going on.

A surprisingly strong impulse gripped him. If I slip through, I’ll be standing on an exoplanet. It’s centimeters away, that’s all. An alien star! It was difficult to resist. Then the chance vanished.

Callum was crawling through on all fours. He flinched badly when he saw Yuri, and glanced at Dokal, who shrugged.

“Get on with it,” Yuri said impassively.