Kill or kidnap, that was the real question. I would not be the first to reach him. If whoever beat me to him just wanted to make the world safe, then a quick snap of the neck might have ended things already. But, while all the Powers on Earth were racing to seize Cato, the first to reach him would be nurses, doctors, orderlies, and guards. The power is theirs. Imagine them as the news breaks, night shifters laughing in the snack room, guiding restocking robots, checking beds, when the news crosses their lenses and death’s hush falls. Breath catches, eyes avoid each other, muscles tense. Suddenly it matters which staff members wear boots and which a wrap, who cheered at Prospero’s acquittal and who cursed, and on whose breast the bull’s-eye sits. They know the first of them to act will… what? Will win? Will save the world? Will live? Each guesses what the others might try: Kill Cato? Guard him? Offer him to one side? Which side? Those far from Cato’s cell might think of the hospital’s other inmates first, protect (against) them by jamming doors and locking down what can be locked down. Others will go for the prize. Barricades will rise, to trap enemy colleagues in a break room, in the staff wing, in their beds. A trail of brawls will trace a path to him, unconscious doctors, others grappling, screaming, forcing doors. I do not know which cell holds Cato, but they know inside, every one of them, and, when I see them, tension and guilty glances will tell me which door they fear. Their fear will be my map.

We landed at the southwest edge of the complex, where a group of twenty had built a fort of upturned benches and safety foam. Our volley of stun fire sent most of them to Hypnos’s kind kingdom before I recognized the uniforms of forest rangers. This was Greenpeace Mitsubishi land, and its defenders were well prepared for a wolf’s rush or a cougar’s stealth, but not for us. Achilles took most of our force north to make himself master of the crowds outside, while Martin with eight Masonic guards and Delian Huxley followed me up tree trunks, then a quick rope’s swing to the nearest layer of roof. I did not look back. Those who could keep up would guard my back. Those who could not would fade.