Firewalled against those who mean harm.

After some discussion we decided that I'd go through the portal alone, but the Little Wolf will follow me through if I'm gone for more than 24 hours. (Once I started remembering Arkadia I wondered if that was too long. An operative needs back-up. Normally it's the gig team, but Erynne and me have a very strong mental link. It saved me then and maybe she'd get a feeling and come through if things get too bad on the other side.)

I'll be using an experimental portal modifier. Quain developed it after I reported the misroute on the trip to China. I'm setting it on the Sunnydale end of the portal that Marty and the Diran should have used to come back from LA. If it works the portal should stabilize at both ends, even it's misrouting, until it's closed again from this end.

If the modifier doesn't stop the portal from misrouting again I could have trouble getting back, but this way I won't have to use a incantation if I have to escape return in a hurry. The route'll be held open. That would be a major risk with some portals but this end of the LA one starts from that swamp a little way down the coast. Nobody goes there from choice. Even the lycanthropes don't like it. There's nothing to hunt. I doubt if anything will blunder through.

I was just going to smoke through there until Erynne reminded me that I might be bringing injured minions back. That's never easy and the Mustang wouldn't be good for the job. I've made some contacts here so I picked up a van from one of Clem's friends. For some reason it stinks of camphor. I can't imagine what he was using it for and maybe I wouldn't want to know.

(I may have to abandon it straight away, anyway. It depends on where that portal comes out. If it's somewhere like Pylea or Vrigo - or even Zranth itself, that truck could cause a helluva lot more trouble than it's likely to be worth.) I may have to smoke out of it in a hurry - and as soon as I've opened the windows I'll be off. I want to go through before moonrise.