They landed a few hours later at the Brandenburg port. Satsu was, as always, happy to disembark from the cramped ship and step out into the planetary air.

Tafari climbed out, glaring at his tablet. “I think he’s switched ships again. This last one isn’t moving.”

“Let us hope it doesn’t matter,” Valentin said, on Tafari’s heels. “And that this new plan works.”

Max jumped out of the hatch and gave a deep, long stretch. Then turned to Satsu, mouth open and tongue hanging out in an expectant doggy grin. He was enjoying getting to be outside even more than Satsu.

Rinn was last to emerge, but she stayed in the hatch, rather than climb out of the ship. “You all go in to town. I’ll catch up later.”

Valentin’s suspicion flared. Satsu had to check a sigh.

“What do you plan to do?” xie asked.

Resentment, and more frustration from Rinn. “None of your business.”

Satsu stepped between them, raising her hands. “Let’s remember we’re all on the same side here. No one is being accusatory. But it is helpful to be able to keep track of one another.”

Rinn directed her response to Satsu, but pointed at the other two. “They don’t believe me. They’ll think what I’m doing is a waste of time.”

Now Satsu understood. “You’re looking for the demon.”

“Of course that’s a waste of time!” Valentin responded.

Satsu resolved that, if nothing else, she was going to see to it everyone got a good night of sleep. “You’re not helping.”

“Even if there is a demon,” Tafari began in a patient tone, “which I remind you we’ve seen absolutely no evidence of beyond the cave, and we only have your assertion that the cave was a place a demon could come through. All that aside,” he continued over Rinn’s raised objection, “We’re here ahead of Philippe. If he has a demon with him, it hasn’t arrived here yet.”

“Listen you—”

“All right!” Satsu cut in sharply before Rinn could finish whatever she was going to call Tafari. “Calm down. None of us are at our best at the moment and I’d hate for anyone to say something they’ll regret.” She gave Rinn a meaningful look. “What I will say is that we’ve been operating on a lot of assumptions for the last few days, and we’re still operating on assumptions, and in that situation, it’s best to gather all the information one can find. So Tafari, you and Valentin go on into town. I’ll stay with Rinn and help her out. We can meet up tonight and decide what our next step is from there.”

Rinn and Tafari were glaring at each other. Valentin had taken a careful step back, and was watching a ship land with pointed deliberation. Satsu couldn’t help the petty little thought of this was the problem with working with people who weren’t Serpents…or pack.

“It’s a waste of time,” Tafari said. “But I suppose its your time to waste. We can handle things in town.”

“How gracious of you.” Rinn’s voice was ice.

This was the best they were going to get. Some time separated might be best for everyone. “Thank you,” Satsu said, to both of them. Then, to Tafari, “We’ll see you tonight.”

Rinn continued to glare until Tafari and Valentin were out of sight. At which point, she retreated back into the ship. “Well, come on,” she said impatiently. Not particularly thrilled with Satsu either.

Satsu gave a little whistle and Max jumped back into this ship, although with less enthusiasm than he’d shown jumping out. “Where are we going?”

“Up,” was Rinn’s clipped response.

“Rinn…”

“I’m sorry. Am I supposed to be thrilled that you’re humoring me?”

Satsu climbed in, pulled the hatch closed behind her. “I’m not humoring you.”

Rinn sat with her hands hovering over the controls, not looking back at Satsu. “But you don’t believe me.”

“I don’t disbelieve you either. I don’t know enough to know anything. None of us do. But I agree the best way to figure all this out is to use our resources to the best of our advantage, and if you’re going to be looking for demons, well, that’s what Max and I are best at.”

Rinn relaxed a little at that. “Okay,” she said softly. Then, louder. “Okay.” She kicked in the engines and the ship lifted into the air.

Satsu sat back in her chair, content, for the moment, to follow wherever Rinn led.