“I’ve been following Foresight since it started,” I said. “Whatever answer you give me today, I’ll be following you guys from here on out, because I think it’s important to know the lay of the land. Which goes back to what I was saying. Being calculated, being smart. I’ve been watching and researching you guys, and I’m sure you have the mentality where, from the time I reached out about an interview, you were looking me up and asking questions. Which means you heard about the incident at the Norfair community center.”

“Yes. We talked to your reference about it. I imagine he talked to you?”

“He didn’t, but he’s busy and this interview happened on short notice,” I said. “Everything that unfolded there and a lot of what I see elsewhere, it suggests that it would be really hard to make it as an independent. Too many want to blame parahumans for what happened, and both independents and fledgling teams are easily targeted. Established teams absorb and diffuse that impact. That aside, being part of a team, cooperating, having the information and sharing that information, it’s too crucial. That’s why I’m not going independent, given the chance. I want to help build something.”

Countenance nodded. He reached over to his friend, who handed over the paperwork he’d been reading. He looked down. “Your reference sang your praises.”

“He’s a great guy. I really respect what he’s trying to do with something as tricky as the Patrol block.”

“Our problem, when it comes to assessing any candidate, is that each person we add to our teams is added strength, added power, but they’re also a possible set of complications. It forces us to strike a balance. We’re smaller than many of our peers because we’re selective. We want to make sure anyone we add will be a good fit, with minimal complications.”

“I reached out to Foresight first, to you, because I like how you do things. It’s what and who I want to be.”

“Then my next question to you would be what you think is going to happen next,” Countenance said.

“What I think is going to happen? I think trouble is incoming. We see hints of it, the out-of-control triggers, we hear about some scary monsters and then the big names go and try to handle it, then we have other circumstances where the big names are running off to go handle things that they don’t tell anyone about. I think those situations might be worse than the monsters. So far, Gimel is untouched by the worst of it. We’ve been on top of things. But sooner or later, something is going to hit us that we aren’t prepared for and can’t neatly handle.”

“What do you think happens then?”

“I think it depends a lot on us having the right information and tools.”