Continue

He stood up and set his backpack by his feet. "The Monitoring Runes are in place. The door hasn't been completely sealed, so if the client's people return, they'll leave traces. The Confederation Technical Group will keep tracking those traces to their source until they find the client's location."

A week later, Rosier sent a new briefing. "The Monitoring Runes detected activity near the eighth site. The target approached the edge of the depression around three in the morning, lingered outside it for a while as if checking the entrance, then left. The runes recorded the direction of departure: southwest."

"Southwest," Hermione said. "Southwest of the Kamchatka Peninsula lies the Sea of Okhotsk coast, and farther south is the Sea of Japan. If the client's people came by sea, their base might not be in Russia."

"They might also have a temporary base near the coast," Harry said. "Can the Confederation Technical Group narrow down where they went?"

Rosier's reply arrived the next day. "The Confederation Technical Group reviewed the data recorded by the Monitoring Runes and confirmed that the target departed west-southwest, toward a bay at the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula. There are no records of permanent buildings in the area, but there is an old landing pad that has been abandoned for years. The most recent repair record dates back ten years, to a small exploration company."

After reading the message, Harry sat with Hermione and Ron on a bench in the Confederation Headquarters reception area.

"The client's people might be using that abandoned landing pad as a transit point. If it's a temporary base, they probably don't store much equipment or supplies there. They just use it to land aircraft."

"If they're using the pad, they should return regularly," Hermione said. "If the Confederation Technical