10 – Slipping Through the CracksIn the back of the transport, Hector could feel the rift as they approached. The whole time he’d been in Kessler’s Reach, the feeling had lurked in the background. It had been an incessant tug—easy to ignore, like gravity or sunlight. Now, though, the closer the vehicle drew to the rip in dimensional space, the sharper the pull became. The others, with higher-level aura systems than his, would be feeling it too, and he could see it in their faces.Perry wore his expressions like a neon sign, and at that moment, he looked like he wanted to puke or punch something—maybe a fifty-fifty split. Kristina—Kristy, Hector reminded himself—had her eyes closed, her face serene as she breathed slow, steady breaths. Red acted like everything was fine, fiddling with one of his pistols, flipping the breech opened and closed as he hummed softly to himself.As for the two scientists—Bobby and Paige—they were chatting away, obviously trying to avoid thinking about the upcoming rift entry by talking about anything else.“Quiet down,” Mathews growled, perhaps the most on-edge of anyone. “We’re pulling up any minute, and the rift is supposed to shift within the hour. I want us in before a single minute has passed. Bobby? What’s the word on the subs?”“They’re onsite, Commander.”Mathews grumbled something under her breath, then nodded. “At least something’s going right.”Hector leaned back, smiling inwardly. It was nice not to be the one responsible for everything—nice to just take orders for a while. It reminded him of his time in the Guard. A flicker of blue-tinted light brought his eyes toward the front of the transport where Frederick sat, staring into a pair of gold-framed specs. Hector thought maybe he was watching vids, but the way his eyes were darting around, he decided he was playing a game.The Royal had been remarkably quiet all morning—someone had dropped him off in a (...)