The next morning, Jin'en took Porsette to the Bridge District again.
This time, he didn't park in his usual spot.
The camera on the old building's second floor had been removed, which meant the other side was on alert.
He parked three alleys away from the library's side street, circled through the back entrance, and sat by a window in the second-floor reading area.
Porsette wore the same outfit as before, her hat pulled low and her cloak tucked into her sweater, leaving only half her chin exposed.
"We're not staking out the lockers today," Jin'en said quietly.
"Where, then?"
"The building opposite."
He didn't elaborate.
Lying in bed last night, he'd gone over it all-since Prism had sent someone to watch that second-floor library window, they must have treated this as a fixed route.
With the route cut off, they would either pull out or change locations.
If they'd pulled out, no one would be here today. If they'd changed locations, they would leave traces.
Yet less than ten minutes after he sat down, he spotted someone who shouldn't have been here.
Daffodil.
She wasn't wearing her usual black. She'd changed into a dark gray jacket, her blue-streaked bangs tucked beneath a baseball cap and her right hand in her pocket.
She didn't look at the lockers. She came straight over to Jin'en and sat across from him.
Porsette stiffened, her golden eyes turning beneath her hat brim.
"What brings you here?" Jin'en asked.
"Someone tampered with the route I was watching yesterday." Daffodil's voice was flat. "The spatial leakage on Halfwidth Street has appeared again. The location's changed."
Jin'en didn't respond.
"After you scared that Zhou fellow, he moved the route," Daffodil said. "Prism's people haven't left. They've changed how they collect the goods. They're not touching the lockers anymore."
As she spoke, she took a slip of paper from her pocket and pushed it toward Jin'en.
A rough map of an alley was drawn on it, with a cross at the end.
"I followed the source of the leakage to this alley last night." Daffodil tapped the cross. "There's a warehouse inside. Someone was taking inventory. Go have a look."
Jin'en picked up the paper and glanced at it.
"The source is inside the warehouse?"
"Yes. Very weak, just like before. As if it was being released deliberately."
Jin'en folded the paper.
Porsette had listened to the entire exchange beside them. Her eyes beneath the hat brim hadn't moved, but her fingers clenched inside her cloak pocket.
"I'll go in and look." Jin'en stood.
"I'll go." Daffodil stood too. "You stay on the perimeter with her."
"You-"
"Prism wants her coordinates, not mine." There was no discernible emotion in Daffodil's voice. "They recognize my blade. Take her through the front entrance. I'll take the side route."
Jin'en looked at her.
The two faced off in the corner of the library's second floor for several seconds.
"You're going into the warehouse alone?" he asked.
"Didn't you go into that card room alone?" Daffodil turned toward the stairs. "Same rules. I go in, you wait outside. If I'm not out in ten minutes, you take over."
She walked too fast for Jin'en to stop her.
He remained where he was, listening to her footsteps descend the stairs.
Porsette rose from her chair, her hat pressed down over her eyebrows.
"Big brother."
"Mm."
"Will big sister be okay going alone?"
Jin'en didn't answer immediately.
Since leaving Red Letter, Daffodil had become even less inclined to explain herself or let anyone follow her than she'd been in Red Letter.
Jin'en knew he couldn't stop her, just as she hadn't been able to stop him from chasing after someone to give them money back then.
"Let's follow her," he said.
Neither of them took the front entrance.
Jin'en led Porsette out through the library's side door, made a wide detour in the opposite direction from Daffodil, and slipped into the alley from the other end.
The warehouse was small, occupying the ground floor of an old building on the edge of Halfwidth Street. Its metal roller shutter was halfway down, dim yellow light spilling through the gap.
Jin'en pressed close to a corner and spread his Spatial Perception.
Two living signatures inside the warehouse.
One near the entrance, one at the very back.
No ability fluctuations-both were ordinary people.
Daffodil was already inside.
Through the gap beneath the shutter, he saw her crouched in the shadow of a shelf, her hand already on the knife hilt behind her waist.
Jin'en gestured for Porsette to retreat to the alley entrance.
He circled around to the wall at the warehouse's side. There was a small window there, its glass coated in dust, making it impossible to see inside.
He had barely stopped when a noise came from within the warehouse.
A muffled thud, as if something had been knocked over.
Then footsteps, fast, running toward the shutter.
In Jin'en's Spatial Perception, the living signature near the entrance suddenly rushed outside.
Without hesitating, he pulled his right hand from his pocket.
The silver markings lit up.
Space folded before him, and he appeared outside the shutter, blocking the man's path.
The man who ran out wore a gray jacket and looked to be in his thirties. He clutched a cardboard box.
At the sight of Jin'en, his pupils contracted. He skidded to a stop and turned to run the other way.
Jin'en didn't chase him.
He stood where he was, and by the time he pulled his right hand from his pocket, a length of black rod had already formed in his palm.
The man in gray had barely taken two steps when something touched his lower back.
He stumbled forward, the box slipping from his hands and hitting the ground, spilling its contents everywhere.
Jin'en walked over, crouched, and took a look.
Several photographs and sheets of paper had fallen from the box.
The photos showed Porsette in profile on the seaside promenade at Unheard-of Bay, taken from the same angles as Zhou's previous stack. But several were new-the library entrance, the Bridge District's main street.
Jin'en gathered the photos and looked up at the man in gray.
"You with Prism?"
The man knelt on the ground, panting, his right hand pressed to his lower back. His lips moved.
"I... I'm just an errand runner."
"Then why run from a warehouse where you store goods?"
"Someone broke in-wearing a jacket-"
Jin'en stood and walked under the shutter.
Daffodil was already standing in the middle of the warehouse, her knife back behind her waist. Another man lay motionless at her feet.
"Did he run?" Jin'en asked.
"No," Daffodil said. "Knocked him out."
She glanced at the photographs in Jin'en's hand.
"New ones."
"Mm."
"They've been following you while you've been taking her out these past few days."
Jin'en tucked the photos inside his trench coat.
He knew.
Prism's people had been following them since the first time he'd taken Porsette to Unheard-of Bay.
He hadn't cleared them all out, intending to lure them out and take them down in one go. But they'd proved slipperier than he'd expected, watching only from the perimeter and never coming close.
"Zhou wasn't lying," Daffodil said. "Prism specializes in collecting spatial-type coordinates. Porsette's Anywhere Door is valuable in their eyes."
"What do they collect them for?"
"I don't know." Daffodil shook her head. "But anyone who can keep watching this long isn't small-time."
The warehouse fell quiet for several seconds. Outside, at the alley entrance, Porsette was still crouched by the wall, her hat pressed down over her eyebrows. She hadn't come in.
Jin'en walked over, put the stack of new photographs back in the box, and pushed it beneath a shelf with his foot.
"You wrap things up here," he told Daffodil. "I'll take her back."
Daffodil nodded without asking how he intended to deal with Prism.
Jin'en stepped out beneath the shutter and walked to the alley entrance. Porsette was crouched by the wall. She looked up as he approached.
"Is big sister okay?"
"She's fine."
"What about the man who ran out?"
"Dealt with." Jin'en headed toward the car. "We'll talk when we get back."
Porsette remained silent on the drive back.
She sat in the passenger seat with her hat off, her braid pulled out of her collar and draped over her shoulder, her eyes on the window.
As the car passed through the Bridge District's main street and was about to turn onto the highway, she spoke.
"Big brother."
"Mm."
"Prism has been taking pictures of me for days. Everywhere from Unheard-of Bay to the library."
"I know."
"Why haven't they done anything after taking pictures for so long?"
Jin'en's hands stayed still on the wheel.
He thought for a moment.
"They want your coordinates, not your life," he said. "Coordinates are only useful while you're alive. A dead teleportation ability is no different from a piece of scrap metal."
Porsette was quiet for a while.
"Then will they keep following us?"
"Not anymore," Jin'en said.
"With this warehouse gone today, the route's cut off. They'll either switch routes or switch targets."
"Switch targets?"
"You're not the only spatial type in Red Letter."
Porsette asked no more questions.
The car turned onto the highway, streetlights sweeping across the windshield one after another.
Jin'en glanced at her in the rearview mirror.
She leaned back in her seat, eyes half closed, her hat brim resting on her knees and her fingers pressing its edge.
He looked away and increased his speed a notch.
He would have to deal with this Prism lead himself.
The warehouse was only where they stored goods, not their base.
Zhou had said that Prism's people never showed themselves in person. There were two layers of intermediaries.
He wasn't going to wait any longer.
When they returned to the mansion that evening, Jin'en didn't go to his room. He went straight to the gravel path on the back hill.
Standing behind the large rock sheltered from the wind, he raised his right hand. Dark light flowed from his palm lines, condensing into a black rod.
The rod was a little more solid than yesterday, and heavier in his hand.
Holding it, he touched it against the trunk of the small tree beside him.
The bark bulged, collapsed, and crumbled into powder.
There was twice as much powder as yesterday.
He withdrew the rod and looked at his right hand.
The silver markings were quiet, and so was the dark attribute.
The two powers inside his body kept out of each other's way.
He put his hand back in his pocket and headed back.
Passing the concealed door in the side corridor, he saw Broken Rainbow crouched barefoot on the threshold, twirling the dark red braided cord in her hand.
"You're back?" She didn't look up.
"Mm."
"Little Red Riding Hood said you went out again today."
"Went to the Bridge District and took out Prism's warehouse."
The braided cord in Broken Rainbow's hand paused. She looked up, her green eyes flashing in the dim light.
"Took it out?"
"A storage warehouse. Two people. Dealt with them."
"What about Prism's people?"
"One ran out. An errand runner. The one inside the warehouse was knocked out."
Broken Rainbow stared at him for two seconds, then wound the braided cord back around her wrist.
"What are you going to do? The warehouse is gone, and the trail's gone cold. They'll either pull out or move somewhere else." She stood up. "You can't keep taking Little Red Riding Hood from place to place to hide every day."
"I know," Jin'en said. "That's why I'm going to draw them out."
Broken Rainbow tilted her head.
"How?"
"They want Porsette's coordinates." Jin'en leaned against the doorframe. "Then I'll give them some."
Broken Rainbow looked at him for a few seconds, the corners of her mouth slowly curling up.
"You're going to use Little Red Riding Hood as bait."
"Yeah."
"Does she agree?"
"I haven't told her yet."
Broken Rainbow unwound the braided cord from her wrist, looped it around her fingers, then wound it back on.
"You'd better tell her first," she said.
"With that brain of hers, if you keep it from her, she'll figure it out herself. That'll be even more trouble."
Jin'en said nothing.
When he went to see Porsette early the next morning, she was crouching at a corridor corner in the third-floor west wing, clutching a pencil and drawing in the dust by the wall.
Jin'en walked over and took a look.
She had drawn the alleys in the Bridge District, marking the warehouse with a cross and drawing several arrows around it that looked like escape routes.
"What are you drawing?"
"Something for tomorrow." Porsette put the pencil away, stood up, and dusted off her hands. "You're going to use me as bait to lure out Prism's people, right?"
Jin'en looked at her.
"How did you know?"
"You didn't go straight to bed when you got back last night. You went to the back hill. The only thing there is the place where you practice with your pole." Porsette tilted her head. "When you came back from practicing, you told Big Sister you'd taken out the warehouse. With the warehouse gone, you only have one option left."
Jin'en fell silent for a beat.
"Aren't you scared?" he asked.
"I am," Porsette said. "But if you're going to use me as bait, you must have a way to get me out."
Jin'en looked at her.
The girl saw things more clearly than he'd thought.
She neither played dumb nor put on a brave face. She simply laid out the stakes-she was scared, but trusted him to handle it.
"Tomorrow afternoon, outside the Bridge District Library," Jin'en said. "You'll stand there alone for ten minutes. I'll stake out the perimeter. If Prism's people are still watching your coordinates, they'll come."
"What about after ten minutes?"
"I'll handle what comes after."
Porsette nodded.
"Okay."
She asked nothing more, tucked the pencil into her pocket, and turned toward her room.
After two steps, she stopped again.
"Big Brother."
"Yeah?"
"What if ten minutes pass and nobody comes?"
"Then it means they've pulled their surveillance," Jin'en said. "If they have, so be it. I'll go with you whenever you go out from now on."
Porsette didn't turn around. She went into her room, and the door closed.
The next afternoon, outside the Bridge District Library.
Porsette stood alone at the foot of the steps, her hood down, her braid hanging over her chest, and her cloak tucked into her sweater.
She looked no different than usual. She wasn't standing against a wall or blocking the way. She was simply a person standing there.
Jin'en crouched on the fire escape of an old building across the street, watching her from the other side.
He knew his bait was crudely set.
Prism's people weren't stupid. An eight-year-old with a teleportation ability standing alone outside a library was suspicious however you looked at it.
But it was precisely because they weren't stupid that they would come.
Coordinates worth a fortune had offered themselves up. No matter how much it looked like a trap, they would have to take a look to confirm.
Jin'en watched the other side of the street. Porsette stood with her hands in her pockets, motionless.
Ten minutes passed.
Nobody came.
Just as Jin'en was about to move, another signal suddenly appeared in his Spatial Perception-not from the street, but from something poking out of that second-floor library window.
A binocular lens caught the light.
Jin'en pulled his right hand out of his pocket, and silver markings flashed beneath his cuff.
He didn't use folding. He slid down the fire escape, crossed the street, entered through the library's side door, and went upstairs to the second floor.
There was nobody by the window.
A black glove lay on the windowsill, as though someone had left it behind in a hurry.
Jin'en picked up the black glove. Along the stitching of its lining was a tiny line of lettering, finely embroidered, as though sewn by hand.
A set of initials.
Jin'en stared at the lettering for two seconds, tucked the black glove inside his trench coat, then turned and went downstairs.
Across the street, Porsette was still standing in the same place. She looked up when she saw him coming.
"Someone came?"
"They came, then left," Jin'en said.
"They left something behind."
He took out the black glove and showed it to Porsette. She stared at the initials on the lining for a few seconds without speaking.
"Recognize them?" Jin'en asked.
"No." Porsette shook her head. "But whoever embroidered this had very steady hands. It wasn't done casually."
Jin'en put the black glove away.
"Let's head back first."
The two walked toward where they had parked.
Porsette walked half a step behind Jin'en on his right. Halfway down the block, she suddenly spoke.
"Big Brother."
"Yeah?"
"What are you going to do with that glove?"
"Trace its source."
"How?"
Jin'en didn't answer immediately.
He thought about the glove's stitching, then about what the man surnamed Zhou had said-Prism's people worked through two layers of intermediaries and never showed themselves in person.
"There are initials on the glove," he said. "People who embroider lettering like that are either tailors or do it out of personal habit. If we check the bespoke shops in the Bridge District, there won't be many matches."
Porsette tilted her head.
"Then I'll investigate with you tomorrow."
"You're staying at the house tomorrow."
"Why?"
"Prism just checked your location. You showed up today. If you show up again tomorrow, they'll know whether the bait is real or fake," Jin'en said. "You can only set the bait once."
Porsette didn't insist. She followed him into the car.
As the car turned onto the main road, she leaned back in her seat, her hood resting on her knees. Watching the street scenery retreat outside the window, she added very softly, "Then remember to tell me when you find something."
Jin'en glanced at her in the rearview mirror.
"Yeah."