Day two at Stormgate Flats looked the same from a distance—same chalk arcs, same poles, same Guard trucks parked like patient animals. Up close, everything was tighter. Kade's crew had rerouted two cable runs to cut noise. Seraphina had added four tripods. Rachel had a second screen for vitals. Reika had pushed the tape line five metres further out.
The Ashbluff flight had come in at dawn. Kali was waiting at the tape when our trucks rolled up, field clothes, hair tied back, a travel bag still over one shoulder because she hadn't bothered to put it down anywhere.
"Boss," she said, and hugged me with the short, strong pressure that means we've done this before and will do it again. "You look less haunted."
"Working on it."
"Work faster. It's unsettling." She stepped back and looked me over the way she used to look over Ouroboros contracts, hunting for the clause that would bite us later. "Two years on another planet and you come home and start fixing everyone's fences. Very you."
