“Shit, yeah,” Capricorn said. “I heard about that one. It was on the news a decade ago. She was on the sponsored team ‘Goldenrod’.”

“She’s Monokeros now,” I said. “Yeah. Stay away.”

“They send teams of two to escort her when they need her to do something, like visit the doctor,” Ashley said.

“Not much help then,” Rain said. “I’ve talked with my housemates, a bit. They don’t love me, but two sound like they’d be willing to sell me info, if they see anything hinky.”

“If it’s verifiable info, I can put money in their commissaries,” Capricorn said.

“Great,” Rain said. “We’re looking at staff, mostly.”

“You’ve already started then,” Cryptid said. He looked over his shoulder.

“Yeah,” Rain said. “Definitely. Helps with the monotony.”

There were so many people watching from windows. Our investigation couldn’t help but be conspicuous… and if it was staff that was interfering, then they had the benefit of access to surveillance, records, and any number of other means of tracking these patients.

Now that it struck me, we’d have to figure out if a staff member could theoretically detonate the ankle bombs as a weapon, to control or remove problematic individuals.

I’d ask when Rain and Ashley couldn’t hear. It wouldn’t do to stress them out.

“I found one person who stands out,” Ashley said. “It might be worth looking at them or having a chat. Or it might be a problem. You know them, Victoria.”

Oh, no. Those were spooky words.

“It’s not bad,” she said, seeing my reaction. “From the community center. Crystalclear is on the boys’ side. That’s your starting point, I think. If anyone knows something, it’s him.”

Beacon 8.4

“Crystalclear,” Capricorn said. “As employee, or—”

“No,” Ashley said. “Inmate. Rain was paying more attention to the employees. I was focused on…”

She paused.

“The competition?” Capricorn tried.

“The pecking order,” was her reply. “They limit contact, make us keep a certain distance from one another, but we cross paths and we see each other.”

“Not solitary, not segregated confinement,” Cryptid said. He was standing by the picnic-style table with its broad top, rather than sitting. He spoke differently when he was in costume.

“Kind of segregated,” Rain said.

“It used to be fully segregated,” Ashley said. “There are too many of us now. They can’t send each of us individually to go exercise and still give us enough exercise.”

Rain put his elbows on the table, hands together, cracking his knuckles, before cocking his head to look at Ashley. “I haven’t seen Crystalclear, and you didn’t mention him.”