The Lady in Blue looked at him in surprise. As if no one had spoken to her like that for a long time.

“I understand, Finch,” she said slowly, biting off each syllable, “that you are the only one who can get back to the body while they’re watching. It’s a trap for anyone else. A fatal trap. And you and I both understand now that Duncan Shriek is alive. And I’m telling you that if you can get to him, you can bring him all the way back and help him complete his mission.”

“What kind of weapon is Shriek? Is he a bomb?” Only thing Finch could think of. Like the suicide bombers the rebels had used in the past.

“No. He’s the kind of weapon that’s also a beacon. Also a door.” She smiled. A wide and beautiful smile that cut right through Finch. There on the ramparts. Overlooking the desert. In a place that might or might not be part of the world. “There may be a way.”

“Just say it.”

“We mean to force the door, Finch. To hijack it. To come through in numbers. Duncan Shriek is going to find our lost men and bring them through the gate formed by the towers. Before the gray caps can bring their own people through.”

“That’s insane. The risk…”

“If we had a better plan, we would use it.”

“Even if Shriek is alive, how do you know he can do it? Bring the soldiers back?”

“He’s shown us some of what he can do already.”

“How will he find them?” Each question cut him off from one more avenue of retreat.

“They are all marked, or tagged, by the HFZ event. Each man. Each woman. He will find them through the doors, and we will return to Ambergris triumphant.”

A strange light had entered her eyes. Like someone who had been dreaming of something that they’d never thought could happen. And now it was happening.

“What if they kill me? Eat my memories?” Finch asked. “What then?”

The Lady in Blue turned the full force of her gaze on him. “What’s really bothering you, Finch? Is it fear? Or is it something else?” She turned to look out at the desert again. “Those things out there,” she murmured. “They’re gray caps, and they’re people. Combined. How? I don’t know. Maybe they came here during the Silence. Possible. But even though I don’t know, I understand. Because we’re changing, too, Finch. There’s no one under my command who hasn’t been altered in some way. The question is how much you change. Change too much and you’re no different from Shriek, no different from a gray cap. And then even if we win, we lose. But adapt just enough? That’s what I need from you. To adapt just enough.”