“Dealing. Some days I’m fine, some days it catches up with me and I’m the furthest thing from ‘fine’. It’s times like that where I think a lot about—” He lowered his voice. “—how there’s not a lot of case seventies left. Even before Gold Morning, most were dead or they had totally gone off the deep end.”

“From one name in a numbered casefile to another, there are answers,” Sveta said. “It’s the upside of things being as messy and complicated as they are. There’s a lot of weirdness out there, there are a lot of capes, and there’s tinkertech. There has to be a key to things out there.”

I was left to wonder about that. Sveta maintained a kind of optimism I wasn’t sure I held. When I thought about my own issues, which might have been smaller than the problems of the members of this team, I didn’t generally think of fixes.

I held my tongue.

Byron spoke in a way that made it sound like he had to work to bring himself to say it, “It was easier when I could tell myself that we were researching it and reaching out to people who might be able to help or answer. Progress is slow lately, with less people to reach out to, communication being slower and more awkward…”

“I’m working on your thing,” Kenzie said. She didn’t look up from her computer as she talked. “I know it’s not a fix, but it’ll give you options.”

“I appreciate the sentiment, Kenz,” Byron said. “You’ve been working on that for a while, though. If it’s too hard—”

“It’s not too hard! It’s just weird. If I had more scans of some specific cross-dimensional, intersectional sort of things, it would feel less weird. I’ve had other things over the past few weeks, like this bratty time box, and then the cameras we used at the Fallen camp, for Rain, and Ashley’s eye camera, and a bunch of other stuff. But I work on it every day.”

“Alright,” Byron said. “Thanks, Kenz. Don’t agonize on it—if it’s too hard, leave it.”

Kenzie had to raise her voice to be heard from the other end of the concourse, “It’s fine. I could finish it in a day or two if I did nothing else. Do you want me to do that? It would mean postponing other stuff, but I’d do it for… if you’d take me out for a treat. Thank me by taking me to get something nice at a restaurant or pastry shop.”

“It’s a trap,” Chris whispered.

“Shut it, Chris,” Kenzie said, her voice echoing.