The prison was an area of focus for this clandestine group, and we had people already there.

Torch 7.10

I stepped out of the bathroom at the Gimel-side G–N station, doing my best to manage two bags. One bag had my armor, and the other had some of Kenzie’s stuff. It took some hunting to find her.

There were plenty of trees around the station, a side effect of the city being put down as fast as trees and rock could be cleared away. To have a very green look, all that needed to be done was to leave a slice of land and root structures intact. Kenzie had situated herself at the base of the tree nearest the entrance. She had her phone out, held in front of her.

She waved as I approached, her phone still held out.

“She’s back,” she said, to the phone. “We’re going to catch our train soon, so I might have to lose the phone or we might drop the connection because the cell networks are bad lately.”

“You said the bad networks might be because of enemy action,” I heard a male voice through the tinny speaker.

“Yeah,” she said. She patted the grass beside her. I set the bags down and sat.

Ashley and Rain were on the other end of the video call. Ashley was offscreen, but her hands were onscreen.

“How are you?” Rain asked me.

“I’ve had better days, but we got info. This call is secure?”

“Oh yeah,” Kenzie said.

“Our resident, full-time tinker said you’d be better to explain the paper you found, Victoria,” Rain said.

“If it’s no trouble,” Kenzie said.

“I had a look at the paper. The prison is a focus. From what Kingdom Come said, they’re paying close attention to places where capes gather in large numbers. The prison where you guys are is one focus. Goddess is another, maybe because she has a lot of capes in her immediate orbit. The other big teams are another one.”

“Not us, because we’re not big or important,” Kenzie said.

“…Yeah,” I said. “I would be interested in seeing how that changed or their angle for approaching us, if things reached a different point.”

“Feeling ambitious? Is Capricorn rubbing off on you?” Rain asked. “Or—”

“Did I?” Ashley’s voice came across the phone, closer to the microphone on their end.

“Don’t say did,” Kenzie said. “Not like it’s over with. You’re not gone, you’re just there. You could even help us.”

“We’ll help however we can,” Rain said. There was a pause, and the camera shifted as someone moved. It might have been Ashley holding the phone on the far end, or it could have been a movement that jostled the table the phone sat on. Rain added a quieter, “Yeah. I think we’d be glad to help. It’s the boredom that’s worst, and this sounds good.”