Goddess was talking to Amy in the meantime. I didn’t want to listen, but she wasn’t the kind of person who was ignored.

“…asked you what you wanted, you said you wanted to talk to her. You wanted resolution before you left. That was part of the deal.”

“I meant—I didn’t say to force her.”

I winced.

I heard Goddess talking to Amy, telling her, “You didn’t say it, but you wanted it. Needed it, even. Now you have it.”

There was only silence. I imagined a head-shake, but I didn’t want to look.

A damning silence, I thought.

Something about Amy’s voice with an edge of desperation to it hit me to my core. Silence was better.

“We’ll return to that if we have time. Breakthrough,” Goddess said. “Let’s talk strategy.”

There was a moment’s hesitation before Capricorn responded. “Let’s. What do you need?”

That hesitation was a factor—especially if the hounds were coming calling. I knew Capricorn’s own thoughts were no doubt working on getting used to the new paradigm. There were wrong answers and right answers, and nothing was explicitly saying we couldn’t choose the wrong answers, but… why choose the wrong answer?

“The last time I made a play, there was a twenty minute delay before they came. This time, my danger sense suggests something closer to ten or twelve.”

“Good to know,” Precipice said.

“What does it mean?” Capricorn asked. “When the hounds come?”

“They’ll come for me, at first. Lesser tinkers and thinkers with guns, grenades, more tricks than sheer power. I don’t get the feeling he’s willing to go for outright war. Squads are led by people with enhanced coordination and special means of communication. They strike in coordination, multiple squads with perfect timing between them. I can fend them off, but not forever, not without my full complement of powers. If I use my full powers, it draws hostile attention of other sorts. Your Wardens, or what’s left of them. Others. If I run, I have to abandon my missions, they gain ground, and they will divine who I was working on and target them.”

“This is Teacher?” I asked.

“It is.”

We’d heard some of what was going on from Tattletale. To hear about Teacher having this kind of clout was a little daunting, bringing home some of Tattletale’s anxieties.

Forget Goddess having a small influence over us—the notion that I was both facing down Amy and sympathizing with Tattletale threatened to break my brain in half.

No. This wasn’t okay. The wrongness of the situation crept through my bones and belly. If I’d had to talk more or ask follow-up questions, I felt like I’d be stuck for what to say.

“You had a camera person?” Goddess asked. “It came up on the television program.”

“Me,” Lookout said.

“And you’ve networked with other groups?”