Chapter 107: THE HANDOFF

The page describing Gumm shifted in the wind. Rhea steadied it with two fingers, careful not to press her bandaged palm against the paper. The descriptions were short, but accurate enough to follow them through a crowd. Sio could see the split in his sleeve, the scrape on his forearm, and the small creature watching from his collar. None of those details had escaped the person holding the lens.

Kell had moved Eda farther beneath the overhang. Bren sat beside her, using his uninjured hand to keep the folded coat beneath her knee from slipping. Water from her clothes had darkened the stone. Each shiver jarred her swollen knee, and she pressed her palms against the stone until it eased.

Sio crouched in front of the captive watcher. Rhea had tied the prisoner’s ankles with the spare cord taken from the tunnel and positioned them facing the rock, away from the route to the terraces. "How do these notes get to whoever hired you?"

The watcher watched a beetle climb through a crack near their boot. "They’re copied."

"One folio here. One with the scout above?" Sio asked. The watcher didn’t answer, but their jaw shifted. "Then the upper one can already report us."

"They don’t send from the ridge," the watcher said at last. "There’s a handoff point past the split stones. Someone collects the sheet. We never see who comes after that." Their eyes moved to the open folio in Rhea’s hand. "I was told to keep a second count if the first group returned for more prisoners. That’s all."

Rhea turned a page and found a blank space below the three descriptions. "A second count of the same people?"

"Of who they bring with them. Who risks coming back."

Sio looked at Bren and Kell. The watchers were turning each rescue into a list of relationships. A description could be copied and carried away; the reason someone chose to return was harder to hide.

"When?" Rhea asked, kneeling beside the folio.

"Before the shade covers the west face. If it isn’t there, the collector leaves." The watcher looked at the sky visible beyond the rock. "You don’t have long."

Angle’s warning had already traveled through the pipe, but Sio didn’t know how quickly Mara could move people without putting them on an exposed path. He looked at Eda. She couldn’t travel far under her own power, and a trail made by carrying her would be easier to follow than their prints through the washout.

"What were you meant to do after the handoff?" he asked.

"Watch the next rescue." The captive drew their knees inward until the ankle cord stopped them. "We were paid to identify the people who came for the prisoners. Nothing about the shelter. No capture order."

"That didn’t stop you tying a man to a pipe," Bren said. Eda caught his sleeve before he could step closer.

The watcher looked away, leaving the accusation unanswered. Bren stayed beside Eda, but the muscles in his neck remained taut. He had just escaped the person who fastened him to that pipe; he was being asked to share shelter with them until the road was safe. Sio shifted closer to the prisoner, making himself the person Bren would have to pass to reach them.

A scrape came from above the outer ledge. Angle appeared through the sheltered bend, keeping his red scarf tucked inside his coat. The walk back had left pale dust on his sleeves.

"Mara received the closure signal," Angle said. "The road’s shut, and nobody’s coming out through the terraces. Caspian is bringing a folding litter to the lower drainage shelf. Mara wants the prisoners moved to a screened holding room before she even considers opening the inner doors."

"The upper scout knows this approach," Sio said. "And they’re due to hand off our descriptions."

Angle took the folio. His thumb stopped on RED SCARF. IRON BAR. "Then we can’t bring everyone back by the ledge. Where’s the pickup point?"

Sio pointed toward the channel where the stream passed behind a solid wall of rock. "Below the washout, beyond the bend. They can reach it without crossing the supply road, provided nobody follows the stream."

Rhea listened toward the ridge. A dull metallic note came from above, too distant to place. "I can keep watch while they move," she said. "But if the collector takes that sheet, the next people they send won’t need a description of this place to recognize us."

"We don’t have to catch the collector," Sio said. "Just keep the sheet from reaching them."

Angle looked toward Eda. "And if the scout makes you choose?"

"Then Eda goes first." Sio folded the folio and handed it back to Rhea. "We came because people were trapped. I’m not leaving them in the mud to chase a piece of paper."

They divided without argument. Angle went ahead to meet Caspian at the lower shelf. Rhea stayed with the prisoners and the captive, keeping the injured group behind the roots. Sio climbed toward the split stones, using the channel wall for cover rather than the maintenance path. Gumm gripped his collar, withdrawing farther whenever grit rattled down the channel wall.

The handoff point was not a station, only two upright slabs on a ridge overlooking the public road. Dry grass had collected in the gap. A hawk circled above the road, riding a current of warmer air while its shadow crossed the stones. Sio waited until the wind gusted before moving another step. The grass hissed across his boots, covering the scrape of the iron against a stone.

Beneath one stone sat a narrow metal box, its lid weighted with a pebble. Someone had scratched a single white line across the top so it could be found without searching.

Sio approached from below, keeping his body behind the slabs. Through the gap he saw the square-heeled scout crouched over the box. The scout slid a folded sheet inside, replaced the pebble, and turned toward the opposite slope. They had not noticed him.

A second figure waited farther along the road, wrapped in a faded traveling cloak. No crest, no obvious weapon. The collector kept glancing at the shadow creeping across the western face of the stones.

Sio could snatch the box through a portal. The opening would expose his ability again, but the report already described a portal user. What mattered now was whether someone beyond the collector received more than a description.

He opened a portal just wide enough for the narrow box, placing one mouth beside it and the other near his knee. Reaching through the opening closest to him, he hooked his fingers around the box and pulled it through.

Metal scraped loudly against stone.

The scout turned as the box vanished. Sio shut both openings and tucked the container against his side before the scout could reach the slab.

"Behind the rocks!" the scout shouted.

The collector saw the sudden movement and fled down the public road rather than approaching the cairn.

The square-heeled scout scrambled around the slabs. Sio stepped backward, crossbar raised. The scout stopped outside its reach and looked from Sio’s hand to the missing box.

"You think that stops the count?" the scout said through the scarf.

"It stops this page getting handed over." Sio backed toward the covered descent.

The scout didn’t pursue, though their gaze kept moving toward the road where the collector had fled. Sio couldn’t tell whether the scout was protecting another route or simply waiting for him to leave.

He reached the lower washout as Caspian and Angle were lowering Eda onto a canvas litter. Kell held the support straps while Bren kept her leg steady. Rhea had placed the captive against the rock beside them, the bindings still secure. Caspian had brought two dry blankets and a splinting kit from the outer supplies; he eased a folded support beside Eda’s swollen knee without forcing it straight.

"Did you stop the handoff?" Angle asked.

Sio held up the box. "Got the report. The collector ran when I took it, though. The upper scout saw me but didn’t follow."

Rhea’s ears tilted uphill. "No footsteps from the ridge. That doesn’t mean they’ve left."

Caspian tightened the litter’s straps. "Mara’s waiting beyond the lower bend. She’ll take the patients into the holding room once the watch confirms nobody followed. The prisoner stays outside until she chooses where to keep them."

They moved along the water, keeping beneath the high bank. Sio walked last with the confiscated box and lens while Angle helped carry Eda. At the next bend he stopped long enough to open it.

Inside was a folded report: the same three descriptions, copied in a different hand. Beneath it lay a narrower strip of paper worn white along an older fold. It bore instructions, not descriptions.

PRIORITY: IDENTIFY PORTAL USER.

RECORD KNOWN COMPANIONS.

NO DIRECT RETRIEVAL.

Sio held the strip beside the fresh report. The notes about his collar and Gumm had clearly been made during the rescue, but this instruction had traveled here before the scout filled in those details. It looked as though the watchers had been told to look for a portal user before they recorded his appearance.

Angle read the strip, keeping his hands away from its ink. "They weren’t just counting whoever came."

"No." Sio folded it carefully. "They were waiting to find out whether I came."

A knock traveled down the drainage wall, then stopped. Farther ahead, Mara appeared in the lee of the rock, her sleeve wet where she had braced herself against the wall. She checked the prisoners and the bound scout before looking at Sio.

"The holding room is ready, but the inner doors stay closed until my people have walked your trail from both ends. No exceptions."

Sio nodded. Eda needed a dry bed and treatment, but Mara was right to keep the shelter beyond the outer passage sealed. Angle helped lift the litter again while Caspian took the front handles. Kell followed close enough to touch Eda’s coat whenever the ground became uneven. Bren walked beside Rhea with the bound scout between them.

The group had reached the screened pickup without leading anyone to the inner doors, but Sio could no longer treat the watchers as curious strangers taking notes.

He folded the report and put it beside the first folio. They had saved the prisoners and intercepted the written count, but the collector had escaped and the upper scout was still free.

Somewhere beyond them, someone had been waiting for a portal user. Even without the report, that person might soon learn that the handoff had failed.