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coming.”
    “From
where?”
    “South,”
I answered. But I’d been wrong. There wasn’t just one new presence in the Rift.
At least ten people came around the corner. They were an ethnically diverse
crowd of mostly middle-aged men with one woman and a guy who looked even
younger than me. They were well-dressed, and they were laughing, and they were
all nightcrafters. I cut myself off from the Rift completely and pretended not
to notice them as they passed.
    “All
those people?” Newton asked.
    “Yup.
All of them.”
    “Do
nightcrafters often meet up like this?”
    “I
don’t think so. But I wouldn’t know for sure. The only direct contact I had
with another nightcrafter was my teacher, but that might have been standard
procedure for a student. Maybe the graduates hang out all the time.”
    “Do
you think they have like a . . . guild . . . or something?”
    “Maybe,”
I said. The group met up with Mr. Bartender, who was all smiles and nods and
handshakes. Then he joined the pack as they headed up the street, towards a
less populated area of town.
    “We
should follow them,” Newton said.
    “No. I should follow them. You
should stay back.”
    “Dominique
told me I shouldn’t leave you alone.”
    “Things
would get dramatically more difficult if I have to watch out for you while
tailing them. Besides, I’m the team leader, right?”
    “You
are, but. . .”
    “No
time for arguments,” I said. “They’re moving. Stay behind and monitor the
situation remotely.”
    “Dominique
isn’t going to like this.”
    “If
things go well, she doesn’t have to know.”
    “And
if things go poorly?” Newton asked.
    “If
things go poorly we’ll have a lot more to worry about than Dominique being mad
at us.”
    Newton
didn’t have anything to say to that. I watched the group of nightcrafters make
their way along the street until they turned a corner, then I started my
pursuit. I kept myself cut off from the Rift completely so that my targets wouldn’t
be able to detect me. I walked at a brisk pace, but not so fast that I’d draw
suspicion.
    I
turned west, a direction which took me onto a narrow street lined with crates
and Vespa scooters. I spotted Mr. Bartender and his friends at the end of the street.
They had picked up two more female companions. Smiles and hugs were exchanged.
These people were old friends.
    “What’s
going on?” Newton said in my ear.
    “They
picked up two more,” I said, trying to keep my voice down.
    “ Two more? Are they having a damn
convention or something?”
    “Looks
like it,” I said. “I’m going to try to follow them, but if they keep adding
people the chances of them noticing me go up a lot.”
    “Stay
with them,” Newton said, “but keep far back. I’m going to try to get clearance
to tap into the city’s surveillance camera feeds.”
    “You
can do that?”
    “Maybe,”
Newton said. “But it will take a while.”
    I
followed the troupe of giddy nightcrafters as best as I could, using the
tiniest possible connection to the Rift to find them whenever my eyes couldn’t.
Gradually, the group grew larger as more nightcrafters joined. A dark-haired
woman on one street. A short Indian man on another. A silver-haired couple
holding hands in front of a coffee house. They all cheerily greeted the group,
then merged into it as they traveled to their next destination. As their
numbers increased, I grew more nervous and hung back further behind them.
    “Are
you getting this?” I muttered.
    “Yup,”
Newton said. “I haven’t been able to get access to the surveillance cameras
yet, but I did get the data back on the bartender’s phone number. His name is
Werner Brehm. He’s thirty-five years old. No spouse, no kids. Lives in Austria.
Self-employed.”
    “Pretty
standard profile for a nightcrafter his age,” I said.
    “His
passport records show a lot of activity in the past few months,” Newton
continued. “He’s been all over