“Because it’s already been cleared,” Finn said, looking resigned. “Maplehurst did Gregory’s work for him. The old-growth trees that used to protect that section of the ley line are gone, logged and shipped off to lumber mills before the injunction came through. The energy signature there is now vulnerable.” He paused, his dark eyes distant. “And it’s close to the original portal site. Close to where the Dragon is rising.”
Sidney’s full mouth compressed. “So they’re doing a lot more than surveying. They’re actually drilling into the ley line.”
“That’s what Eric thinks.” Rebecca zoomed in on the satellite image, highlighting a structure near the center of the camp. “This is some kind of extraction apparatus. We don’t know exactly what it does, but the energy readings coming off that site have been surging for the past week. Whatever they’re doing, it’s accelerating.”
Everyone went quiet after hearing that unwelcome piece of information. Outside, green lightning crawled across the sky, and Ben felt the familiar prickle of his dimensional scars responding to the charged atmosphere. The burns on his chest and arms had faded over the past two months, thanks to the unicorn’s weekly healing sessions, but they still reacted to strong electromagnetic fields. Right now, they felt like a low-grade sunburn, warm and tight against his skin.
“We need to see it for ourselves,” he said. “Get close enough to figure out what they’re actually doing.”
Rebecca nodded. “I was thinking the same thing. Eric can monitor remotely, but we need eyes on the ground.” She looked around the table, her gaze settling on each of them in turn. “I’m going. The question is who’s coming with me.”
“I am,” Finn said immediately.
Sidney shook her head. “You’ve been surveilling from a distance for seventeen years. This is different. If they catch you — ”
“They won’t catch me.” Finn’s voice was calm, but Ben heard the steel underneath it. “Out of all of us, I know that forest better than anyone except you, Sidney. And you can’t go. You’re too valuable, and your electromagnetic signature would light up every sensor they have.”
He wasn’t wrong. Since the merge with the phoenix, Sidney’s bioelectric field had become impossible to hide. Ben had watched her accidentally short out a cash register at the grocery store just by standing too close to it. The week before, she’d killed his laptop by walking past it while upset about something she’d read in her grandmother’s journals. Living with her meant keeping a supply of backup electronics and learning not to get too attached to any particular device.
“I’ll go,” Ben said. “My signature isn’t as strong as Sidney’s, and I know Welling Glen. I was there when Maplehurst’s crew was logging.”
Sidney turned to him, her crystalline eyes filled with something he couldn’t quite read. Fear, he guessed, or possibly simple frustration at being sidelined.
“Ben — ”
“I’ll be careful.” He reached out and took her hand, felt the familiar warmth of their bioelectric fields synchronizing. A faint glow pulsed between their interlaced fingers, a soft blue-white light that had become as familiar as breathing over the past two months. He saw her expression soften slightly. “Rebecca and your father will be with me. We’re just going to look.”
She held his gaze for a few heartbeats, and he knew she was thinking about all the times that “just looking” had turned into something much more dangerous. The night in Welling Glen when Maplehurst had pulled a gun, or the confrontation with the shadow stalkers.
But after an uncomfortable pause, she nodded.
“Fine. But you need to check in every hour. And if anything feels wrong — ”
“We’ll pull out immediately,” Rebecca finished for her. “That’s just standard reconnaissance protocol. No heroics.”
Sidney didn’t appear entirely reassured, but she let go of Ben’s hand and stepped back. “When do you leave?”
“Now,” Finn said, rising from his chair. “The cloud cover will give us some concealment, and Gregory’s crew will be focused on their equipment during the day shift. It’s the best window we’re going to get.”
No one bothered to argue.
Twenty minutes later, Ben found himself crammed into the back seat of Rebecca’s rental car, a nondescript gray sedan that blended in with the overcast sky. Finn rode shotgun, directing her down a series of back roads that Ben had never known existed, despite having spent months exploring the forests around Silver Hollow. Gravel gave way to dirt, and dirt gave way to something that was barely a road at all, was just two ruts carved through the undergrowth by vehicles that hadn’t passed this way in months.
“There’s an old logging road about a quarter mile from the Aetheris perimeter,” Finn said, keeping his voice low, even though there was no one around to hear them. “It’s been abandoned for years. We can leave the car there and approach on foot.”
Rebecca nodded, her eyes on the road — or at least, what passed for a road. “What kind of security are we looking at?”
“Cameras on the main access points, motion sensors along the tree line. There will probably be a few guards, but Gregory seems to prefer technology over manpower.” Finn paused there, clearly weighing all the possibilities. “The real danger is the electromagnetic detection grid. If they’ve calibrated it to pick up anomalous signatures, then we’ll need to stay at least fifty yards away from the perimeter.”
“Fifty yards isn’t close enough to see anything useful,” Ben pointed out.
“It is if you have these.” Finn reached into his jacket and pulled out a pair of compact binoculars. “They’re military grade, with thermal imaging. I can also access the camera feeds if we can get close enough to tap into their network.”
Ben raised an eyebrow. “You just happen to have military-grade surveillance equipment in your jacket?”
“I’ve had seventeen years to prepare for this,” Finn replied, sounding matter-of-fact. “Did you really think I spent all that time just watching from a distance?”
It was a fair point. Ben was starting to realize that Sidney’s father was considerably more capable — and more dangerous — than he’d initially assumed.