He was indicating the phone with the pictures, which Marquis was holding up for him to look down on.

Capricorn took a step forward. “Which? May I approach?”

He got a wave of the hand, giving the permission, and approached, finding a position to see between Marquis and Lord of Loss. For our benefit, he said, “The woman with black hair. She was a leader for this particular cell.”

“She rented one of the retreats,” Lord of Loss said. “We take note when capes and people with money enter or leave the station. She was one.”

“That would be my focus,” Spruce said. “If you have questions, I can answer them.”

“You set up and manage the security cameras?” Lookout asked.

“Among other things.”

“I see. Hmm, um,” Lookout said. “It’s good you’re trying. I’ve got your footage, and my computers back home are looking it over. It looks like she left yesterday at the usual time, but her bag looks bigger. She might have packed up.”

“She might not have packed up everything,” Sveta said.

I imagined my imminent move to Ashley’s apartment. “Yeah. It’s hard to get everything. The other possibility is that she’s up to something.”

“More use of Earth N as a staging ground,” Capricorn said.

It was an unnecessary dig, but one I could sympathize with. In exchange for a small profit, the warlord of Earth N had given some horrendous people even more horrendous elbow room to do their work.

I frowned. “Lord of Loss, do you have any idea what her powers are?”

“Powers? No. We paid attention to her because she had money.”

“She might have a minor mutation,” Sveta said. “She always wears sunglasses. It’s a good clue someone has powers, if they’re covering something up.”

“It also applies to the power-affected,” Marquis said.

Was that a dig? I had no idea, and I hated that I was even asking myself, instead of ignoring it. Fuck me.

“The problem is, whoever or whatever she is, powers we don’t know are dangerous,” Sveta said. “We risk tipping them off. There’s a chance she could come back.”

“If we ignore it, she might find out we visited through rumors,” Capricorn said. “That could be enough for her to run for it. I say we go now. It gives us a chance to be on her heels.”

“I agree with Capricorn. But only if Lord of Loss is willing to let us step in,” I said.

“Good answer,” Lord of Loss said. His tone had changed slightly. More serious.

“It impacts your business, having us there and poking around,” I said. “I understand that, but they attacked all of us, when they did what they did.”

“Back at the community center. When the gun went off and Miss Fume Hood was shot, I struck a deal with you,” Lord of Loss said.

“We let each other go, so I could help her,” I said. “You asked me to tell people you weren’t responsible.”