I held out a hand, telling them to stay put, and then I floated up and over the battlefield. It was still early afternoon, and the light was good. I could see where boots had scuffed the frost-hard dirt, and I could see spots of blood.

“Blood,” I reported.

“Truck stop? I bet guys bleed here all the time,” Rain said.

“More blood,” I pointed out. I indicated points on the ground. “Something hard hit the ground here. Hard enough to break the frozen ground. And… a blast.”

“Blast?”

“Come on, take a look for yourselves. I wanted to keep the ground reasonably pristine for a first-look, in case there was anything. No need now—I’m pretty sure some trucks came through today.”

The group fanned out, searching the perimeter. Once they got far enough, I showed them where the ground had been gouged by something. The gouging clustered in areas.

“I found bullet casings,” Ashley said. She’d veered furthest from the group. Way off to the side, where the dirt gave way to the still-new, pavement of the highway, she’d found the casings. Bending down, long skirt blowing against her bare calves, she used a finger to prod one casing.

“Careful you don’t taint the evidence,” Rain said. “Victoria’s right.”

Ashley stood straight, her chin rising in that imperious way. She approached Rain at a slow walk.

“Hee,” Kenzie made a happy sound.

“I’m missing something,” Rain said.

Ashley nodded, holding up a hand.

“I’m… fuck. I’m the prosthetics tinker, and I forgot about your hands. You have no fingerprints, no skin oil.”

“There we go,” she said, smiling. Her left shoulder brushed his as she walked past him, then brushed against his shoulder blades as she walked around behind him.

“That is the fucking smuggest I’ve seen you, Ashley,” Tristan said. He and Byron had apparently swapped out to share notes as they’d done their own walk of the scene. “That’s cat with the canary smug.”

“Nuh uh! She’s not smug, she’s happy.”

“Same thing,” Ashley said. “I’m happy my hands are this good.”

“Food particles, though?” Rain asked, turning around to face her, a little obstinate now. “We just ate, and we didn’t wash our hands.”

Ashley let her power flicker around her hands, making a sound like a snarl as it washed over the prosthetic limb. “I cleaned it earlier.”

Rain sighed. “You win.”

“As it should be.”

One vehicle with a crate of guns, to later be used to purchase or barter for the services of mercenaries. Depending on timing, the Undersiders would have had two vehicles worth of people here, or they would have had four.

Assuming they were running, the attackers would have come from the northeast. The Undersiders would have been fleeing the southwest. The bullet casing came from the Undersider’s end of the scene.