“I wasn’t happy about it being New Dollars,” Durbin volunteered. “She was nice about giving me more when the value dropped.”

Anelace nodded, looking at me. Unconventional currency for the unconventional settlement of Wailings. The Trading Dollar was the dominant currency across the Megalopolis. Other currencies were tied to natural resources, to other Earth currencies, but they had their issues. The New Dollar had its issues, but it was still used in places, on the fringes.

The hypothesis is getting less thin, now.

There was a knock on the window. We’d asked for a turn at questioning, in exchange for giving them this info. It seemed our time was up.

We filed out, and the room that had been a dozen people facing down Durbin became just a room with only a miserable, tired Durbin sitting in his metal chair, elbows on the metal table.

The door shut, and the cop locked it.

Others were already out in the hallway. Effervescent stepped out of the room with the one-way window.

“Effy?” Anelace asked.

“He’s telling the truth. He has a drug habit he hasn’t mentioned, but it’s minor. He was scared of her. No indication powers screwed with his head or mind.”

“If she is a master, it’s not necessarily that?” I asked. “Could it be subtle? You had a hard time getting a read on me.”

‘Effy’ looked annoyed at that. “I don’t think it’s subtle. I don’t think there are any blocks or scrambles, either.”

“It was a very mundane infiltration, then,” Anelace said.

“It would be interesting to know if he was being watched,” I said. “If I were them, I wouldn’t let something I saw as critical be reliant on one stranger’s conscience.”

“I can check stuff,” Looksee said.

“Don’t overwork,” I said.

“I won’t. This is easy and fun.”

I glanced at Natalie, who was silent, and then at the oldest cop in the room.

“This is good to know,” he said.

“I know we’ve been reeling,” I said. “Stuff’s… all over the place, with the Wardens gone and key people gone, missing, or being moved around. We could have gone this alone, but we decided it’s key to share information. The greatest strength the good guys have is that we work together.”

“What do you want?” the cop asked.

“The people who were arrested when we stopped some from getting the portals. Interrogation logs, information, anything that could point us in the right direction. Whatever we get, we’ll share with you. Whatever you have… give us access.”

“I’ll talk to people, see about cutting away the red tape.”

“Same with us?” Anelace asked.

“And the other teams,” Capricorn said.

“There’s really only one other,” Anelace said. “Advance Guard’s having trouble bouncing back. They got hurt badly by the injuries and loss of infrastructure.”

“Maybe a mission will help,” Capricorn said.

“Maybe,” Anelace conceded.