The next morning he was at the entry station before the first shift change.
Dorath's team had a zone eleven contract filed and the mission was standard—two target hunts and a collection run. Kai took right flank the way he always took right flank and moved through the first contact with the settled efficiency of someone who had stopped thinking about the zone as a new environment and started thinking about it as a workspace.
He was in and out in ninety minutes.
Voss was at the station exit when he came through the corridor.
Not hidden. Not pretending to be there for any other reason. He stood off to the side of the exit path with his hands folded at his front and his Council-cut coat unmistakeable among the field-worn gear of the working hunters around him. He watched Kai come out and looked at the collection pouch and the mission stamp and did not say anything.
Kai walked past him.
That was it. That was the observation.
