Whorl was waiting for me as I made my exit from the thicker part of the crowd. The mech tinker was standing on the head of his suit, now, and the suit was standing too, which gave him a decent vantage point overlooking everything.

“It’s going to take an hour before they settle down,” Whorl said. “What was that about?”

“Fallen recruiters,” I said.

“I know that much.”

“I wanted to make sure the people they were talking to knew,” I said. “Told them who the family was, how they operated, who the leader was.”

“You think they listened?” Moon girl asked.

“They might have,” I said. “I didn’t get the impression I was going to start a riot, so I thought I’d be okay trying.”

“Nah,” Whorl said. “Your impression was fine. No riot. They know to keep their hands to themselves, and just to be loud. They stick to the rules so they can keep coming back. We were told to let them, which sucks, but we have to work with the authorities.”

“I told her that,” Moon girl said. “That we were supposed to leave it be.”

“Before or after she stirred them up?”

“Before,” I answered for her. “I knew, I went ahead anyway.”

Whorl frowned.

“I knew it would probably cost me my spot on the team,” I said.

Whorl nodded slowly.

“But if it stops one person from going over to that town of theirs… I guess it’s worth it.”

“It might have worked,” Whorl said. “But they’ve got the reinforcements, they’ll double down. They’ll try harder, make up for it.”

“You guys are all about learning from the mistakes of the past,” I said. “Paying respect to the casualties. You have to know they can’t be allowed to get a foothold. They’re too monstrous, and the people they’re going after are too vulnerable.”

“They have a foothold already,” he said. “We’re the guys who failed to stop the end of the world, and they’re the ones who were right about it. To some people that’s all that matters. It doesn’t matter that they’re scumbags or that they’re dangerous. Not everyone, but even one out of every thirty is a lot.”

“We should go calm things down,” Moon girl said.

“Yeah,” Whorl said. “Distract the people from the tattooed hooligans.”

“Good luck with that,” I said.

“Take care, Victoria. Keep fighting the good fight, whatever you end up doing.”

I gave him a casual salute, two fingers of one hand touching my brow.

I braced myself, both in balance and emotionally, then took to the air, moving slowly. I raised myself up to the same level as the guy at the end of the pole, staying within his field of vision so I wouldn’t surprise him.