It was like dominoes falling. Security guard confirmed compromised. Schedule came up, as did address. Then there were the images, from prison video, from online, and from traffic lights that recorded those who passed through intersections. On a map, routes he regularly traveled were highlighted.

From that guy, another guy, tracking destinations and more, the system clearly inferred other moles in the prison staff. As portraits lined up, they became brighter or darker as new information came to light.

“Victoria? Can I talk with you?” Natalie asked.

Right fucking now? The dominoes are falling. We’re getting a sense of what we’re fighting here.

“Can you give me a minute?” I asked.

“I’m kind of freaking out.”

“Okay. As soon as we make sure everyone is contributing. Tress, try to communicate to Precipice and Swansong that they should absolutely not take their medication of the day. We still don’t know what that woman is doing. Lookout, where are you at?”

“I don’t know. I’m trying to figure out this door. I might be able to open it, but it’s going to mean taking this stuff back to my workshop, where I was fiddling with the teleporter project. I can kludge them together and give us a way to move to where the woman with the purple shirt went.”

“How long?” Capricorn asked. Byron was concerned about the time.

“Four, five hours? Closer to four if I have someone helping.”

I looked at Capricorn. We couldn’t afford four or five hours.

“No. We’ll go with another tack. We do this backwards.”

“Backwards?” Sveta asked.

“Cryptid thinks Teacher’s plan is to get them to close off access to that world. If Goddess is baited into going in there and they close the gate behind her, or worse, catch her between realities.”

“Why do you—?” Natalie started. She stopped as Capricorn moved slightly. A nudge or small wave, easily missed.

For all that he’d talked about his brother, he did okay when it came to convincing others.

I went on, “If he closes off that reality, especially with another person at the helm, then he can raid it continually, gathering thralls at his leisure. So let’s get ahead of him, start from his win condition.”

“That sounds like a thing your mom would say,” Natalie murmured. Her earlier insistence on talking to me was forgotten. She had stars in her eyes as emotions that clearly mingled with the worried curiosity, the fixed stares, and the nervousness.

“It very much is,” I said, agreeing. “If they’re running with cash in hand, take that cash. At best, if we can do that, we force a draw. Teacher wants to lock off the area and loot it? We beat him to the punch and close it off first.”

I looked Lookout’s way as I finished saying that.

“Do you want me to rig that?” she asked.