Covenant Square Station was New Breley’s main hub of train travel, a connection for not just local service, but for the intercity railways. Not only was it constantly crowded with throngs of people, it was also a massive, multi-level building.  

If Gabriel Reyes was inside, he was going to be a very small needle in a gigantic haystack.  

“How the fuck do we even search this place?” Dash groaned, echoing Riley’s thoughts. Riley scanned the main corridor, using his height to their advantage. It was fortunate that Dash wasn’t the missing brother; if the shorter Reyes hadn't been standing right next to Riley he would have already lost him in the crowd.  

Riley knew it was unlikely he'd spot Gabe this way, if he was even still at the train station. If Gabe had come here straight from the diner, then he could have made it to the train station almost two hours earlier in the day, and already boarded a train. But which one, and had he left them another clue? If he’d used magic here, the UAMS system would have flagged him-- the transportation hub had a heavy camera presence, with more than just magical monitoring.  

In fact, the building was under constant surveilance. Riley’s eyes darted upwards, scanning the ceiling. Multiple lenses covered the entryway. More than enough, he realized, to make professional thieves hesitant to pass that way. He pulled up his commuter app, opening the map and studying the lines. Sure enough, the M train passed through Covenant, and had a stop only a block away from the diner at 12th and Cambria.  

A plan was taking shape in Riley’s mind, though it once again crossed the line of should versus could. He glanced down at Dash, who was still hopping up and down to try to see over the crowd. 

“OK, this time you have to follow my lead,” Riley said, sighing at himself internally. “Stay close.”

Riley peeled away from the wall, joining the river of people making their way further into the station. Every few steps he glanced behind him, making sure Dash was following. The black-and-blue head bobbed behind him, running to keep up with Riley’s stride.  

Riley and Dash traversed the long halls, following the signs for Security. After yet another turn, finally they spotted the office; a bored guard leaned in the window, resting her head on her hands. Even at a distance Riley could sense she was an elemental, which was all the better for their purposes. He let his magic fan out a little around him, trying to appear stronger than he was.  

“You in charge, here?” Riley asked her as they approached. He kept his voice low but hard, like he had absolutely no time to waste on underlings. The guard’s head snapped up.  

“I’m, um, I’m in charge of the desk right now, yeah,” she said, trying to get her bearings. Riley reached into his pocket, pulling out his badge.  

“Special Agent Adam Volk with the BEA,” he said, flashing his credentials so the Bureau’s logo was clearly visible: his name, less so. “We’re pursuing a suspect that we believe passed through here this morning. We need to view your tapes.”

“Do you, er, have a badge too?” the guard asked, peering dubiously at Dash. Riley rolled his eyes haughtily.  

“He’s undercover, clearly. A cover about to be blown if we don’t catch our man in time. Are you going to let us in to see the tapes or do I have to get on with my supervisors?”

“I guess that’s OK,” the guard said slowly. She glanced around, as if expecting her own supervisors to appear, then shrugged and leaned over, popping the door open.  

“Um, I don’t have access to do a facial search or anything here,” she said as Riley and Dash piled inside. “We can view, but stuff like that I’d have to call in the Chief of Security, and he's on a fishing trip so--"

“Can you view by specific cameras and time of day?” Riley interrupted, and she nodded. Riley named the train and his estimated time, and she turned away to punch the information into her system. Dash, who had adopted a gruff and impatient demeanor since he’d learned Riley’s play, shot him a marveling glance behind the guard’s back.  

“Here you go,” the guard said, offering them the computer and retreating to her window. Riley and Dash leaned in close.  

“You watch the left side, I’ll watch the right,” Riley muttered as the M train’s morning commuters filed on and off the screen.  

“How do you know he came this way?” Dash murmured.

“I don’t.  But I figured--”

“There!” Dash said, pointing excitedly at the screen. Sure enough, there was Gabriel, exiting the M train. He was holding hands with a broadly-muscled man wearing a ballcap, but Gabe was keeping enough distance between the two of them that it didn’t seem exactly like a romantic stroll.  

“That fucker,” Dash growled at the screen.  

They watched the two men until they disappeared from the frame; Riley had the guard rewind it, so they could watch again. The man in the ballcap never showed his face to the camera, but based on his build Riley was willing to bet it was Jimmy Kadence.  

Kade might have averted his face from the camera, but Gabe was doing anything but. Almost from the moment he stepped off the train his eyes seemed to lock on the lens, staring the security system down for as long as he physically could.  

“So he was here,” Riley breathed. “But we don’t know where he went next. They could have left via the street, or boarded another train…”

“Can you rewind it again, just a few seconds?” Dash asked the obliging guard. He leaned in closer, nearly pressing his nose to the screen.  

“There!” he said triumphantly. “Run that one more time-- watch his eyes!”

Riley watched carefully as the tape resumed. Just before Gabe and Kade disappeared from sight, Gabe’s bright blue eyes darted sharply to his left.  

“If they turned left at the end of the hall, can you pull up the next camera that would pick them up?” Riley asked. The guard pulled out a map.  

“Looks like… here we go,” she said, switching their view. In this new hallway they only had to wait a few seconds before Gabe and his captor came into view. As before, Gabe located the nearest camera and locked onto it, once again signaling their path at the end. Working from his clues, they followed the duo all the way to the end of their path, where Gabe was tugged onto a waiting train car.  

“What line is that?” Riley asked, his chest tightening as the train came to life, pulling slowly away from the station and taking Gabe with it. The guard pulled up a timetable.  

“That is the…. express to Preora,” she said at last.  

“Preora?” Riley said, surprised. “That’s--”

“A 17 hour ride, yeah,” the guard said. “Express doesn’t seem like quite the right name, does it? But it only makes a handful of stops along the way, so it’s pretty much the fastest way to get there without flying.”

"When’s the next express leave?” Riley said, glancing back at her timetable.  

“Hmm, looks like… oh, there’s one leaving in 5 minutes,” the guard said. “Platform B. You could maybe make it, but, I mean, I’m not telling you how to do your job, but can’t you just contact the Bureau in Preo… oh.”

The guard looked around, finding herself alone at her post once more, the wide open door the only evidence that anyone else had been there.