“I mentioned we might be able to trace them. We can, we have a tracker on them, and we know they’re leaving the city, heading into the woods to the west. Do you think you’d be willing to negotiate to know where your rivals’ HQ is?”

“What are you looking to negotiate for?” Snow White asked.

“A ride.”

“As much as I’d like to accept, we have other obligations.”

“The moving trucks?” Etna asked.

“Yeah. They’re only available for a few hours,” Snow White said. She turned to us, to me. “Packing up our base. I’d invite you to come and see if there’s a chance to make a detour, but we’ll be loading up two of our apartments as well.”

“I just helped someone move,” Sveta said. “It’s a pain.”

“Any other time, I’d put off the moving trucks, but they’re booked solid. They’ve taken trucks from the city’s construction companies and they have them hauling houses twenty-four seven, and it’s still not enough.”

That made me regret not packing up more, kind of.

“I can take ’em,” Etna said. “It might be a bit cramped.”

“Yeah?” Snow White asked.

“I don’t have anything to move. It lets me be useful, I can bring some of the info back.”

There was a brief confab within the Huntsmen. I took the opportunity to check with the others, more in the sense of looks and shrugs than anything else.

No objections. If anything, my own reservations about Etna, however small, were probably overblown compared to everyone else’s.

“Good luck,” Snow White said.

“You too,” Tristan said. He shook her hand.

“Hey,” I said, just to get their attention before they left. “If this thing happens, this shattering of the worlds, the damage, whatever Teacher was working for. What are you going to do?”

“How bad are we thinking it’s going to be?” Snow White asked. “Gold Morning bad?”

“Maybe.”

“We survive. Scatter. I think we stick together as a team, we keep doing what we’ve been doing for a while. Put arrows in the worst bad guys and manage the rest.”

“That simple, huh?”

Snow White shrugged. “Simple yes. Easy no.”

I nodded.

She gave us a short wave by way of farewell, then left with the rest of her team, leaving us with Etna.

Etna led us back to the portal, a couple of blocks and an elevator ride away. From there, we crossed a part of the complex to reach another portal that extended further out.