“Shut up.”

The man fell silent. She took the laptop off his chest. She had one just like it. Government issued.

The Angel heard the sound of running feet out in the hallway and she stood, muttering her prayer, facing the doorway, sword again in hand as the desk clerk staggered into the room, breathing heavily. His eyes went wide.

“Jesus fucking Christ! What the hell is going on in here?”

The Angel looked at him sternly and pointed her sword at him. “First,” she said severely, “don’t blaspheme.”

The clerk, who’d been frantically glancing about the room until he’d seen the apparent body and desk debris at the Angel’s feet, snapped his eye back to her. He licked his lips and stood very still.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said.

“Second,” the Angel said, “turn off the water.” She caught herself just in time to not say “damned water.”

He nodded accommodatingly. The hit man at her feet let a groan out between his mashed lips. She looked down at him. He closed his eyes and pretended to be unconscious. The Angel sighed. As much as she’d like to have him all to herself for a while, she knew he needed medical attention.

“And third, you’d better call the police.”

The desk clerk nodded hurriedly, turned, and dashed away.

“And bring me some towels,” she shouted at his back.

When they got to the Carter School, the playground was filled with children. A number of them were jokers. All of them were wild carders. Some had been rescued from the People’s Paradise of Africa eugenics program and brought back to America. Adesina had been one of those children.

Michelle saw Rusty and Ghost standing at the foot of the steps leading up to the school. Wally’s iron skin was looking pretty good. There was no rust on him and he had a dull sheen in the sun.

Yerodin was noncorporeal at the moment and floated a few inches above the ground. Ghost and Adesina had been rescued from the PPA together. Wally had adopted Ghost and brought her back to New York as Michelle had done with Adesina. The girls had become friends after starting school together.

Ghost turned solid and pulled her tablet from her bag. The girls began playing the multiplayer version of Ocelot 9 as they walked up the steps to the school doors. The game was ridiculously popular at the moment, and Adesina was fixated on all things Ocelot.

“Hey,” Michelle said, using her best mom voice. “I thought we agreed, no games at school.”

“It’s only summer school, Mom,” Adesina replied. She looked at Yerodin with an expression that said, “Parents.” Ghost returned the look.

“Michelle is right,” Wally said in his thick Minnesota accent. “You need to put those tablets away or we’ll take ’em away.” He was far too nice to make it sound even a little bit like a threat. The girls giggled.