Beside Lookout, Chris was clasping his hands together, head tilting high with hair falling across his face, like he was praying. He reached out and gave Lookout a pat on the helmet.

“A bit dark but I’m not going to complain with the time constraint,” Capricorn said. “Lookout. Right. Me, you. Sveta?”

Sveta said a single word in Russian. “It wasn’t my first choice, but Weld told me if I didn’t choose, someone would choose for me. I guess our hands are being forced. Tress. Because it sounds pretty, at least. But call me Sveta when it’s not official.”

Capricorn turned to Chris.

The word was already on the dirt, scratched out. Cryptid.

No surprise. It had been the last thing I’d seen on the whiteboard in the hideout, before we’d moved everything out.

They looked at me.

“I’m breaking every single rule,” I said. “Because it’s a name that needs an explanation, and you’re not supposed to do that. There’s no time to spell it out.”

“I don’t care,” Capricorn said. “Out with it.”

“Antares,” I said.

“The heart of the scorpion?” he asked. When I arched an eyebrow, he said, “I pay attention to stars, and I looked up some when you mentioned you were thinking in that direction. That wasn’t on my top twenty.”

I nodded. I had reasons and explanations, but we didn’t have the time, as I’d said.

“I’m not about to complain,” he said. “Team name.”

“We talked about Defense Mechanism,” Lookout said.

“We said it was too tinkery,” Sveta said.

“I’m not complaining,” Lookout said. “But I get it.”

“And we’re not very ‘defense’ oriented,” Capricorn said. “Calling us ‘defense’ when I’m the only defender is like going with mechanism when you’re the only tinker.”

“It’s a little on the nose, by the way,” I said.

“Anything else?” Capricorn asked.

“When we were talking about names in that conversation where Defense Mechanism came up, we mentioned one, and it might be too on the nose, but Swansong liked it,” Lookout said. “She’s not here right now, but it might be nice if she got a say, and it suits Rain, which would be nice.”

“What was it?” I asked.

“Breakthrough.”

There was a silence. Capricorn had his arms folded. The others were quiet.

“At this point, it’s better than no name,” Capricorn said.

“It works with the original focus of cracking the tougher nuts,” I said.

Sveta nodded.

“Let’s do that,” Capricorn said. He drew in a deep breath and sighed, before turning to face Lord of Loss. Capricorn gave a nod to the man.

Lord of Loss extended a hand, palm up. An invitation.

“Team Breakthrough. Capricorn, Tress, Antares, Lookout, and Cryptid. We’re here to talk about the state of things, and to see about sharing information.”