“Trust me. With what we’ll bring back, no one will give a fuck where we went.”

While intros were traded and Poppy and I took each other’s measure, I saw Jenn come out of the den with a slight, fierce-looking Asian woman in tow.

“Hey, Glim. This is Breakers. She’s with us.”

“Us?” I saw Jenn was carrying a wide-brimmed hat. She was always careful about keeping the sun off her skin. “You’re picking again?”

“Rousseau said all hands on deck . . .” She gave a mock salute. “So here I am.”

“Sorry. I mean, you must . . .”

“Just for a while, he said.” She shrugged. “It’ll do me good to get out in the air. ’Least I don’t have to do it alone now.”

But her anxious gaze raked the gaping windows and overhanging roofs, then the bare drowned branch tops at the end of the Lagoon. She’d stay home if she could.

Breakers had a smooth brown face with an old gaze that didn’t mind its manners. I put her near forty. Loops of dark hair spiked out from under her den cap. She wore a loose black tee and a rifle slung over one narrow shoulder. Not a big one—she seemed comfy with it. More than I’d have been, but things were so in flux around Unca Joe, it was hard to tell what change was making me nervous the most.

I eased closer to Jenn. “Seems Gracie has an idea.”

“How to steer clear of BlackAdder?”

“No worry. Those creeps sleep all day,” Breakers said. Her grin was crooked, and died quick, like a light going out.

“We’re all together?” Jenn asked. “Is it a party?”

“Might be,” Grace laughed. “When we get back.”

We refreshed intros all around, just to make sure. No good yelling at someone to duck if you couldn’t come up with their name. Then Gracie made sure we all topped off our water bottles and stowed a snack. “Like to be a long day.”

Breakers eyed her denmate’s sun-colored shirt. “Sure you should wear that?”

Poppy smiled. “In daylight, I’ll be less visible than you.”

“I’ve always wanted to wear yellow,” Jenn put in. “So where’re we headed?”

Gracie raised a brow, gave us a follow-me grin, and soon we six were trouping off on her solemn promise that we wouldn’t be sorry. Weird enough picking in daylight, never mind in a group. So noisy and slow, awkward with strangers, but Rousseau and Maxine figured it gave us the best fighting chance.